Irrigation for establishing landscape plants is restricted to the first 60 days after planting by most water management districts in Florida, yet woody plants may require between 6 and 12 months to become established. Survival and growth of shrubs planted into landscapes depend on adequate irrigation until shrubs develop a root system capable of compensating for evapotranspiration losses. This study examined the effect of irrigation frequency on survival, quality, and growth of Ilex cornuta Lindi. & Paxt. 'Burfordii Nana' and Pittosporum tobira [dryand] 'Variegata' planted in north (Citra, FL; USDA hardiness zone 8b) and central (Balm, FL; USDA hardiness zone 9b) Florida. Shrubs were planted into the landscape from 11.4-L (#3) containers at 3-month intervals for a total of eight planting dates over 2 years and irrigated every 2,4, or 8 days with 3 L of water at each irrigation event. Scheduled irrigation was discontinued once roots grew to the canopy edge [12 to 22 weeks after planting (WAP)] and survival, quality, and growth were evaluated from that point through 104 WAP. Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii Nana' irrigated every 2 days had greater canopy growth index (52 through 88 WAP), canopy dry mass (52 and 104 WAP), and maximum root spread (20 through 64 and 88 WAP) when compared with shrubs irrigated every 8d in hardiness zone 8b. Pittosporum tobira 'Variegata' irrigated every 2 days had greater canopy growth index (12 through 104 WAP), maximum root spread (20 through 28 and 64 through 88 WAP), and canopy dry mass (52 and 104 WAP) when compared with shrubs irrigated every 8 days in hardiness zone 8b. However, there were no differences in shoot or root growth resulting from irrigation frequency for these shrubs planted in hardiness zone 9a. Irrigation frequency did not affect shrub survival or aesthetic quality at either location. Although more frequent irrigation (every 2 days) resulted in greater plant growth in zone 8b, the two shrub species tested survived and grew after planting in hardiness zones 8b and 9a on natural rainfall alone provided they were irrigated during establishment with 3 L every 4 to 8 days until roots reached the canopy edge. Subsequent supplemental irrigation was only needed in the following 18 months when plants showed visible signs of drought stress, which occurred when there was no measurable rainfall for 30 consecutive days.


With the increased popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), there is a growing interest in the topic among physicians, residents, and medical students, who feel an increased need to have proper instruction about CAM therapies. Medical schools and residency programs are starting to respond to this demand, having realized that to provide better care and foster an improved patient—doctor relationship, physicians should become informed consultants, and be able to provide educated advice about CAM to their patients and help them integrate any CAM therapies shown to be safe and effective into their health care. The authors acknowledge that opinions differ about the adequacy of research findings to certify the safety and efficacy of specific therapies, and stress that physicians' decisions about CAM use should be subject to the same exacting criteria employed by researchers to evaluate any new therapies. The authors report on CAM curriculum developments in Germany, Canada, and the United States that illustrate various approaches to the question, "What should be taught in a CAM course?" In most cases, the approach is to teach about CAM therapies, although in others, therapies that the curriculum planners considered useful and safe are being integrated into the medical curriculum.


Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of hospitalisation and death among older adults in high-income countries. HF is often accompanied by comorbid conditions, and patients hospitalised for HF commonly die or are readmitted in the weeks follow- ing hospital discharge. The objectives of this paper are to discuss the burden of HF hospitalisations in healthcare systems and to review strategies that reduce hospitalisations and death in this condition.


In this work, we perform an in-depth analysis of the visualisation methods implemented in two popular self-explaining models for visual classification based on prototypes - ProtoPNet and ProtoTree. Using two fine-grained datasets (CUB-200-2011 and Stanford Cars), we first show that such methods do not correctly identify the regions of interest inside of the images, and therefore do not reflect the model behaviour. Secondly, using a deletion metric, we demonstrate quantitatively that saliency methods such as Smoothgrads or PRP provide more faithful image patches. We also propose a new relevance metric based on the segmentation of the object provided in some datasets (e.g. CUB-200-2011) and show that the imprecise patch visualisations generated by ProtoPNet and ProtoTree can create a false sense of bias that can be mitigated by the use of more faithful methods. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for other prototype-based models sharing the same visualisation method.


Diurnal hysteresis between soil temperature (Ts) and both CO2 concentration ([CO2]) and soil respiration rate (Rs) were reported across different field experiments. However, the causes of these hysteresis patterns remain a subject of debate, with biotic and abiotic factors both invoked as explanations. To address these issues, a CO2 gas transport model is developed by combining a layer‐wise mass conservation equation for subsurface gas phase CO2, Fickian diffusion for gas transfer, and a CO2 source term that depends on soil temperature, moisture, and photosynthetic rate. Using this model, a hierarchy of numerical experiments were employed to disentangle the causes of the hysteretic [CO2]‐Ts and CO2 flux Ts (i.e., F‐Ts) relations. Model results show that gas transport alone can introduce both [CO2]‐Ts and F‐Ts hystereses and also confirm prior findings that heat flow in soils lead to [CO2] and F being out of phase with Ts, thereby providing another reason for the occurrence of both hystereses. The area (Ahys) of the [CO2]‐Ts hysteresis near the surface increases, while the Ahys of the Rs‐Ts hysteresis decreases as soils become wetter. Moreover, a time‐lagged carbon input from photosynthesis deformed the [CO2]‐Ts and Rs‐Ts patterns, causing a change in the loop direction from counterclockwise to clockwise with decreasing time lag. An asymmetric 8‐shaped pattern emerged as the transition state between the two loop directions. Tracing the pattern and direction of the hysteretic [CO2]‐Ts and Rs‐Ts relations can provide new ways to fingerprint the effects of photosynthesis stimulation on soil microbial activity and detect time lags between rhizospheric respiration and photosynthesis.


This paper examines how the meaning of place and identification with place can be produced through photographic images of the city. As an aesthetic, social and cultural practice, photography provides a way of imagining place and a means of knowing and classifying the urban spaces. Photographic images of the city can be understood as a form of aesthetic knowledge production, which represents and enacts the experiences of the urban environment. The urban spaces imaged by artists Ed Ruscha and Andreas Gursky, in the 1960s and 1990s respectively, actively represent and perform the symbolic and material properties of urban spaces. By exploring the ways that these artists read and map city spaces and how they articulate an experience of the city that engages with the identification of place, an argument is presented about how this process and imaging can be situated in relation to anthropological and geographic concepts of place. More specifically, what this paper explores is how their work demonstrates a sense of place that is complex and mobile, which can oscillate between notions of site specificity, identification and non-place as defined by Marc Auge.


We present a momentum transfer mechanism mediated by electromagnetic fields that originates in a system of two nearby molecules: one excited (donor D*) and the other in ground state (acceptor A). An intermolecular force related to fluorescence resonant energy or Förster transfer (FRET) arises in the unstable D*A molecular system, which differs from the equilibrium van der Waals interaction. Due to the its finite lifetime, a mechanical impulse is imparted to the relative motion in the system. We analyze the FRET impulse when the molecules are embedded in free space and find that its magnitude can be much greater than the single recoil photon momentum, getting comparable with the thermal momentum (Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution) at room temperature. In addition, we propose that this FRET impulse can be exploited in the generation of acoustic waves inside a film containing layers of donor and acceptor molecules, when a picosecond laser pulse excites the donors. This acoustic transient is distinguishable from that produced by thermal stress due to laser absorption, and may therefore play a role in photoacoustic spectroscopy. The effect can be seen as exciting a vibrating system like a string or organ pipe with light; it may be used as an opto-mechanical transducer.


AIM To study the association between vitamin D level and hospitalization rate in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. METHODS We designed a retrospective cohort study using adult patients (> 19 years) with CD followed for at least one year at our inflammatory bowel disease center. Vitamin D levels were divided into: low mean vitamin D level (< 30 ng/mL) vs appropriate mean vitamin D level (30-100 ng/mL). Generalized Poisson Regression Models (GPR) for Rate Data were used to estimate partially adjusted and fully adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) of hospitalization among CD patients. We also examined IRRs for vitamin D level as a continuous variable. RESULTS Of the 880 CD patients, 196 patients with vitamin D level during the observation period were included. Partially adjusted model demonstrated that CD patients with a low mean vitamin D level were almost twice more likely to be admitted (IRR = 1.76, 95%CI: 1.38-2.24) compared to those with an appropriate vitamin D level. The fully adjusted model confirmed this association (IRR = 1.44, 95%CI: 1.11-1.87). Partially adjusted model with vitamin D level as a continuous variable demonstrated, higher mean vitamin D level was associated with a 3% lower likelihood of admission with every unit (ng/mL) rise in mean vitamin D level (IRR = 0.97, 95%CI: 0.96-0.98). The fully adjusted model confirmed this association (IRR = 0.98, 95%CI: 0.97-0.99). CONCLUSION Normal or adequate vitamin D stores may be protective in the clinical course of CD. However, this role needs to be further characterized and understood.


The Polar marginal ice zones are characterized by the complex interaction of ocean, ice, and atmosphere. The associated physical processes take place on different spatial and temporal scales that shape the ecosystem at and underneath the ice. However, the influence of small scale physical processes on biological production is still poorly understood.
To investigate the ecologic relations at a marginal ice zone, an autonomous underwater vehicle was deployed. The vehicle was specifically equipped with instruments collecting physical, chemical, and biological data. Dives were conducted between 0 and 50 m water depth, thus covering the entire euphotic zone. Measurements of the vehicle were complemented by means of ship, satellite, and model based data. The vehicle was deployed between Greenland and the Svalbard archipelago; close to the Molloy Deep in the marginal ice zone of the Fram Strait. The results of a dive at a meltwater front that was located several kilometers from the ice edge, indicated wind-driven, vertical transport processes in the water column. These processes featured meso- and submesoscale dimensions. The water column was divided into four different zones characterized by different biogeochemical parameters. The spatial distribution of these parameters (concentration of nitrate and chlorophyll a, oxygen saturation) was patchy; however a specific qualitative ratio was always maintained between the parameters. High chlorophyll a concentrations were associated with high oxygen saturation and low nitrate values (and vice versa).
The mesoscale transport process was caused by the wind-driven movement of an ice tongue 70 km in length. The drift of the tongue entailed elevated nitrate levels at the surface (with respect to a similar dive from the previous year). However, no indications for an ecologic response such as increased production rates could be detected thus suggesting that upwelling has occurred shortly before the dive. Enhanced chlorophyll a concentrations in a 2 – 3 km wide "belt" along the front were caused by accumulation processes rather than by primary production.
Submesoscale transport processes were caused by wind interacting with the meltwater front and subsequently intensifying the front (frontogenesis). Frontogenetic processes led to water column instabilities and stimulated the formation of an ageostrophic secondary circulation (ASC). The ASC could be identified by upward and downward bulged isopycnals respectively. Additionally, submerging surface water masses could be identified by their chemical and biological signatures. The depth over which the ASC-related circulation penetrated was within the euphotic zone. Thus, the possible ecologic relevance of frontogenetic processes remained unclear.
In order to conduct these studies, biogeochemical instruments and supporting systems were integrated into the vehicle. In total, the vehicle is able to measure nine independent parameters (conductivity, temperature, pressure, concentration of nitrate, oxygen and CO2, fluorescence of chlorophyll a and colored dissolved organic matter, and photosynthetically active radiation) and to collect up to 22 water samples. To record the data and to centrally provide the payload with electric power, a payload control computer was integrated into the vehicle. For data processing and correcting the vehicle´s navigation data, newly developed algorithms were applied. Thus, biogeochemical measurements were georeferenced as precise as possible.
Methodically, the float maneuver, with the vehicle repeatedly deactivating its thruster and slowly drifting towards the surface, was developed to investigate the stratification of the upper water column. Methods to handle the vehicle´s small-volume water samples were also investigated and suitable procedures were defined. The first studies of this thesis describe the technical foundation of AUV operations focusing on ecological research in MIZs. Following this, the scientific results are presented. Reviewing the achievements of this thesis, open scientific questions and possible technological upgrades are presented in the Outlook section.


Purpose To estimate the diagnostic efficacy of saline-air hysterosalpingo–contrast sonography (SA-HyCoSy) compared with the modified hysterosalpingogram (mHSG) for confirmation of both coil location and tubal occlusion following hysteroscopic sterilization. Methods This study included 19 women who underwent both SA-HyCoSy and mHSG where 1 test was followed by the other. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for tubal occlusion against the mHSG were calculated for each fallopian tube by 2 independent interpreters. Interrater reliability was assessed using Cohen κ statistic. Procedure time and pain level by 11-point numeric rating scale of SA-HyCoSy and mHSG were also compared. Results Thirty-eight fallopian tubes were evaluated. Tubal occlusion was noted in 97.3% of tubes for both interpreters with the mHSG compared with 92.1% and 94.7% with SA-HyCoSy. The positive and negative predictive values for tubal occlusion were 100%/100% and 50%/33%, respectively, with an overall agreement of 97.4% and 95.7%, κ = 0.48, P < 0.01. Saline-air HyCoSy changed interpretation of coil insert location in 50% and 44.7% for each interpreter, being downgraded from optimal to satisfactory in 42.9% (9/21) and 36% (9/25) and upgraded to optimal in 58.8% (10/17) and 61.5% (8/13), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in procedural time (7.5 vs 9.4 minutes, P > 0.05) or maximum pain scores (2.3 vs 3.1, P > 0.05) for the mHSG compared with SA-HyCoSy. Conclusions Our findings revealed a high degree of diagnostic accuracy with SA-HyCoSy for tubal occlusion, although coil location changed in nearly half of cases. Avoidance of radiation and patient convenience/compliance with SA-HyCoSy may outweigh the drawbacks.


Purpose: To explore factors that may influence exercise adherence in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) theoretical model. Participants: Thirty participants with TBI who had been randomized to a home-based exercise programme in a recently conducted randomized controlled trial. Methods: Impairments in body functions, environmental factors and personal factors were explored as predictors for exercise adherence. Significant variables were entered into binary logistic regression analyses to determine their combined power to predict exercise adherence. Results: Greater injury severity, older age and a pre-injury exercise history of walking or jogging positively influenced exercise adherence. As a combined set the three predictor variables accurately classified 82% of participants as adherent or non-adherent and were able to explain 49% of the variance (sensitivity = 67%; specificity = 89%). Conclusion: These results demonstrate people with severe injuries are able to exercise independently and suggest that in order to maximize adherence to an exercise programme, clinicians need to consider exercise history when prescribing the type of exercise. The results also provide factors within the ICF theoretical model to investigate in a large-scale study of exercise adherence after TBI.


This paper discusses a range of attested examples of NPs in which proper names are preceded by articles, determiners, and adjectives, arguing that such instances do not constitute a change into a common noun category. On the basis of such examples, it is claimed that the meaning of proper names relies not on unique reference, but on frame metonymy. Frames evoked by proper names interact with NP constructions, yielding a range of uses driven by the discourse context. Further, it is shown how the use of modified proper names in copular constructions is best explained through the framework of blending and the concept of constructional compositionality (as defined in Dancygier and Sweetser 2005).


: Platelet inhibition represents the cornerstone of cardiovascular therapy, owing to the central role of platelets in the genesis of acute ischaemic events. The aim of this article is to review current evidence and trends in coronary dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), such as preloading in patients with an acute coronary syndrome, optimal duration of DAPT after stent implantation and indications for long-term treatment, to provide an overview on the role of DAPT following percutaneous valve and structural interventions, and an update on the most recent information concerning the concomitant use of DAPT and oral anticoagulation. A short glance into future perspectives and trends in DAPT will be given. Platelet inhibition represents the cornerstone of cardiovascular therapy, owing to the central role of platelets in the genesis of acute ischaemic events. The aim of this article is to review current evidence and trends in coronary dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), such as preloading in patients with an acute coronary syndrome, optimal duration of DAPT after stent implantation and indications for long-term treatment, to provide an overview on the role of DAPT following percutaneous valve and structural interventions, and an update on the most recent information concerning the concomitant use of DAPT and oral anticoagulation. A short glance into future perspectives and trends in DAPT will be given.


The Vif protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 is required for productive replication in peripheral blood lymphocytes and a limited number of immortalized T-lymphoid lines (nonpermissive cells). In contrast, Vif is fully dispensable for virus replication in other T-cell lines (permissive cells). Because the infection phenotype of released virions is determined by producer cells and by the presence of Vif in those cells, we have analyzed the protein contents of purified viral particles in an attempt to define compositional differences that could explain the infection phenotype. Surprisingly, we were unable to discern any Vif- or cell-type-dependent quantitative or qualitative difference in the Gag, Pol, and Env proteins of virions or virus-producing cells that correlates with virus infectivity. We were, however, able to demonstrate that Vif itself is present in virions and, using semiquantitative Western blotting (immunoblotting), that there is an average of 30 to 80 molecules of Vif incorporated into each virion. Importantly, parallel analyses of total lysates of the producer cells revealed that the cell-associated expression levels of Vif are close to those of the Gag proteins. Given the dramatically higher abundance of Vif in cells than in virions, we speculate that Vif exerts its principal activity during the processes of virus assembly and budding and that this function could be of a structural-conformational nature.


A research study was formed in the Spring of 1991 to survey the perceptions of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) employees in Saudi Arabia concerning their needs and their attitudes regarding library services. The problem of this study was the lack of knowledge about user satisfaction with the library services which are provided at the library of the MFA in Saudi Arabia. The purposes of the study were two‐fold: (1) to measure, evaluate, and analyze user satisfaction with the library services provided at the MFA Library for the employees; and (2) to develop a model for evaluation of all governmental libraries in Saudi Arabia. The data gathering instrument of this study was distributed to 425 employees from the MFA in Saudi Arabia. Usable questionnaires were returned by 280 or 65.88 percent of the participants and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results of the survey showed that the more education an employee had, the more dissatisfied the employee was with the library's services. Significant differences were also found depending on the rank of the employee, the employee's age, the nationality of the employee, and the number of years the employee had worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The most serious problem was the lack of space and adequate funding.


This study investigates the effects of board characteristics on R&D investment by utilizing a data set of electronics firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporations. The empirical results indicate that R&D investment is negatively associated with board size and positively associated with directors' education level. The impact of board meeting frequency on R&D investment is positive, but not significant. The findings provide one important managerial implication that firms competing on innovation through R&D spending may consider having a smaller board or giving considerable weight to the nomination of highly educated directors to the board.


Alternative media are becoming more widely accepted as forms of literature.  Comic books and graphic novels are now mainstream, with characters and storylines appearing in movies, cartoons, video games, television shows, and more.  Comics and graphic novels are a billion dollar industry that can often go overlooked in the minds of readers.  The resources in this pathfinder will open readers' eyes to the universe of stories and characters that are contained in comic books.  It will also give readers an idea of the rich history of the industry and the powerful impact that comic books and graphic novels have had on popular culture.  In addition, it will also provide teachers with a multitude of literary resources that they may otherwise overlook.


For the first time, results of an integrated geochemical and micropalaeontological study of upper Miocene sapropels in a land-based section in the Mediterranean are presented. Three sapropels and adjacent homogeneous intervals in the Cretan Faneromeni section have been investigated in detail. The chemical and foraminiferal characteristics were found to be markedly similar to those of Plio-Pleistocene sapropels. As the physiography and climate of the late Miocene Mediterranean were not fundamentally different from those of today, our preferred model for late Miocene sapropel formation is similar to the one recently developed for Plio-Pleistocene sapropels. Increased seasonality and freshwater input during Northern Hemisphere summer insolation maxima triggered high export production and oxygen consumption rates, which, in combination with a concomitant decrease in deep water formation rate, resulted in the observed high organic matter content of the sapropels.


This study explores technology clusters through patent analysis. The aim of exploring technology clusters is to grasp competitors' levels of sustainable research and development (R&D) and establish a sustainable strategy for entering an industry. To achieve this, we first grouped the patent documents with similar technologies by applying affinity propagation (AP) clustering, which is effective while grouping large amounts of data. Next, in order to define the technology clusters, we adopted the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) weight, which lists the terms in order of importance. We collected the patent data of Korean electric car companies from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to verify our proposed methodology. As a result, our proposed methodology presents more detailed information on the Korean electric car industry than previous studies.


Based on the theoretical view of Terror Management Theory, the current research examines whether higher levels of death anxiety symptoms, in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, increase the extent to which participants are exposed to information regarding the spread of the pandemic, as well as the fear of contagion and symptoms of hypochondriasis, which all in turn increase symptoms of adjustment disorder. A total number of 302 participants filled out self-report questionnaires regarding death anxiety, adjustment disorder, the extent of exposure to information regarding COVID-19, fear of contagion, hypochondriasis, and demographic information. Structural Equation Modeling analysis indicated a very good fit of the theoretical model with the data, confirming the mediation effect of exposure to information, fear of contagion, and symptoms of hypochondriasis on the association between death anxiety and adjustment disorder symptoms. Implications for practice are discussed.


When structural damage occurs, nonlinearity usually exists in damaged structures. So far, some progresses in the identification of nonlinearity in structures have been made. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) has been applied for the identification of nonlinear structural parameters. However, since the extended state vector contains both the state vector and the structural parameters, EKF approach can identify limited numbers of nonlinear structural parameters due to computational convergence difficulty. To overcome such problem, a two-stage Kalman estimator approach, which is not available in the previous literature, is proposed for the identification of nonlinear structural parameters. In the first stage, state vector of a nonlinear structure is considered as an implicit function of the nonlinear structural parameters, and the parametric vector is estimated directly based on the Kalman estimator. In the second stage, state vector of the nonlinear structure is updated by applying the Kalman estimator with the structural parameters being estimated in the first stage. Therefore, analytical recursive solutions for the structural nonlinear parameters and state vector are respectively derived and presented, by using the Kalman estimator method respectively. The proposed approach is straightforward. To demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed approach, numerical example of identifying the parameters of a 4-story nonlinear elastic Duffing-type shear-beam building is conducted. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is able to identify nonlinear structural systems.


IZA DP No. 14857 NOVEMBER 2021 Are Student-Athletes Exploited? The Supreme Court decision NCAA vs Alston (June 2021) heightened interest in the benefits and costs of participating in sports for student-athletes. Anecdotal evidence about the exploitation of student-athletes was cited in the opinion and the media. Using panel data, we follow two different cohorts of students from high school through college and beyond. We examine the accuracy of the anecdotes as descriptions of the actual experiences of student-athletes. We show that, on average, student-athletes either out-perform or perform the same as observationally identical non-athletes in terms of graduation and postcollegiate salaries. Participation in athletics promotes social mobility. JEL Classification: Z2, Z22, I31


The Ag coating-induced blue shift and enhancement of longitudinal plasmon of Au nanorods result in abundant and tunable optical absorptions in the visible region, which leads to the Au@Ag nanorod becoming a good candidate for colorimetric sensing. In this paper, we have reported an effective and simple approach for visualization detection of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) based on Au@Ag core–shell nanorods. The AFP concentration-dependent colloid color of Au@Ag core–shell nanorods could change from green to gray, olivine to brown, and even blue to violet to pink, which are more varied color changes compared with the traditional red to blue color change. Besides, as the Ag shell thickness is increased, a dip was observed, which is located between two strong absorption peaks. The change of the dip is proposed as a new biosensor parameter for biomolecule detection based on absorption spectra. AFP concentration detection could be realized according to the change of the position and intensity of the dip, which has not been reported in the biomolecule detection field so far. Au@Ag core–shell nanorods with a small aspect ratio of inner Au nanorods are more suitable for direct read-out visualization, with a color change from blue to violet to pink. From the point of view of spectra analysis, Au@Ag core–shell nanorods with a greater aspect ratio of inner Au nanorods show higher spectral sensitivity. Furthermore, it is found that non-centrifuged Au@Ag core–shell nanorods are preferentially assembled in a side-by-side fashion with the addition of AFP, which will provide new approaches for other kinds of nanorods in controllable assembly fashions.


Labadou was prepared according to the traditional technology of Southern China and its aqueous extract (AEL) was obtained. The oxygen radical scavenging capacity of AEL was assessed. The hypolipidemic effects in hyperlipidemic rats of AEL were investigated through designed sequential trials and by measuring serum lipid parameters. Results showed that AELexhibited significant ( p < 0.01) scavenging potencies on superoxide and hydroxyl at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. It was also found that AEL could significantly reduce serum total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations and at same time markedly increased the high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels after 3 weeks treatment in tested rats. These results showed that Labadou had an excellent hypolipidemic activity and the peptides of low molecular mass from Labadou were one of the possible principles of bioactivity.


Developing Strategic Business Models and Competitive Advantage in the Digital Sector focuses on the application of preemptive planning in the media and entertainment industries to combat an increasingly uncertain future of innovation and competition. With research-based examples and analysis, this book is an essential reference source for academicians, researchers, and professionals interested in learning more about the impact of technology on industry success, including the changes and challenges created by the Internet and electronic media.


It is hypothesized that interleukin-1 (IL-1) is involved in physiological sleep. If this hypothesis is correct, inhibition of IL-1 should attenuate sleep responses after sleep deprivation. We tested the effect of intracerebroventricular or intravenous injection of an IL-1 inhibitor, an IL-1 receptor fragment (IL-1RF), on sleep rebound after sleep deprivation in rabbits. Six hours of total sleep deprivation significantly increased non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS) and enhanced electroencephalogram slow-wave activity during NREMS. Intracerebroventricular treatment with the IL-1RF (50 micrograms) significantly attenuated the sleep responses after sleep deprivation. Furthermore, 1.0 mg/kg i.v. injection of the IL-1RF significantly suppressed spontaneous NREMS in rabbits that were not sleep deprived. However, intravenous administration of the IL-1RF (1.0 mg/kg) failed to attenuate the sleep responses following the 6-h sleep deprivation period. These results support the hypothesis that central pools of IL-1 are important for physiological sleep regulation.


Task-oriented parsing (TOP) aims to convert natural language into machine-readable representations of specific tasks, such as setting an alarm. A popular approach to TOP is to apply seq2seq models to generate linearized parse trees. A more recent line of work argues that pretrained seq2seq2 models are better at generating outputs that are themselves natural language, so they replace linearized parse trees with canonical natural-language paraphrases that can then be easily translated into parse trees, resulting in so-called naturalized parsers. In this work we continue to explore naturalized semantic parsing by presenting a general reduction of TOP to abstractive question answering that overcomes some limitations of canonical paraphrasing. Experimental results show that our QA-based technique outperforms state-of-the-art methods in full-data settings while achieving dramatic improvements in few-shot settings.


A 2 V 60 mW 900 MHz CMOS phase-locked loop is fabricated using a 0.6 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. The negative-G/sub m/ LC-tuned oscillator employs a variable impedance converter for frequency tuning, and shows a frequency range from 808 MHz to 920 MHz. When phase-locked to an 112.5 MHz reference, the measured phase noise of the 900 MHz output is -96.5 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. Chip size is 2270/spl times/2600 /spl mu/m/sup 2/.


Proposed is a light-weight unsupervised decision tree based classification method to detect the user's postural actions, such as sitting, standing, walking and running as user states by analysing the data from a smartphone accelerometer sensor. The proposed method differs from other approaches by applying a sufficient number of signal processing features to exploit the sensory data without knowing any a priori information. Experiments show that the proposed method still makes a solid differentiation in user states (e.g. an above 90% overall accuracy) even when the sensor is operated under slower sampling frequencies.


The article takes hydro-development schemes in the Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia as an example to discuss the suitability and shortcomings of nexus approaches for the analysis of complex socio-ecological transformations. Based on critical theoretical debates and extensive field research in Ethiopia, the paper broadens the nexus perspective by integrating the three analytical dimensions of time, space, and power. The empirical material comes from a case study of the Fincha-Amerti-Neshe scheme that was implemented in three consecutive stages over almost half a century, combining dams, hydro-power plants, large-scale sugar cane plantations, and a factory for sugar production. The empirical findings follow the historical stages of the scheme and their physical outcomes, which affected much more than just water, energy, and food. The paper explores socio-ecological transformations along the analytical dimensions of time, scale, and power. First, it views time and temporality as essential aspects of change and calls for a more systematic recognition of the historical context out of which development trajectories and current nexus situations have emerged. Second, it takes a cross-scalar perspective to explain how local land use is influenced by regional and global drivers. And third, it emphasizes the importance of asymmetric power structures to explain the dynamics of hydro-developments and their social consequences. In conclusion, the paper calls for a "nexus-plus" perspective that is more sensitive to the historical and cross-scalar embeddedness of hydro-development, and which enables more inclusive and fair governance of scarce resources.


Background: In the treatment with the electron beams to get the appropriate dose distribution in the tumor region, the distance between virtual electron source position and patient's body should be correctly identified. This study is an attempt to find the effective SSD (Source-surface distance)by using the Monte Carlo N-particle (MCNP v1. 51) code to substitute the measurements in the clinic. Materials and Methods: The MC (Monte Carlo) simulation of Oncor Linac (Siemens Co. Germany) was done based on manufacturer data in 9 MeV electron beam energy. In order to obtain the values of effective SSD using the inverse slope (IS) technique, point doses are calculated at dmax (the depth of maximum dose on the central axis), inside of the water phantom model, with the phantom simulated first at the standard SSD (5 cm air gap) and then with an increasing air gap of 3, 6, 9 and 12 cm between the distal end of applicator and the phantom surface. Results: The measured and MC-calculated effective SSDs using IS method are presented and compared with those reported from other works. The effective SSDs were found to be 95.68 cm and 96.66 cm from the MC tallies of *F8 and *F4, respectively. In addition, the effective SSDs were found to be 95.59 cm from ion chamber measurement. Conclusion: Considering the results from three methods of calculation, and comparing the results with experimental methods, it was shown that Monte Carlo simulation is a useful method in determination of electron virtual source position.


Computing grids require the underlying network infrastructure to be properly configured in order to have appropriate communications among the grids' nodes. The management of networks and the management of grids are currently executed by different tools operated by different administrative personnel. Eventually, the grid communication requirements will need corresponding support from the network management tools, but such requirements are fulfilled only when grid administrators manually asks network administrators for corresponding configurations. In this paper we propose a policy translation mechanism that creates network policies given grid requirements expressed in grid policies. We also present a system prototype that allows (a) grid administrators to define grid policies, and (b) network administrators to define translating rules. These rules are used by the proposed translation mechanism to generate the necessary underlying network configuration policies.


By tracking longitudinally a sample of American children (n = 1,097), this study examined the extent to which enrollment in private schools between kindergarten and ninth grade was related to students' academic, social, psychological, and attainment outcomes at age 15. Results from this investigation revealed that in unadjusted models, children with a history of enrollment in private schools performed better on nearly all outcomes assessed in adolescence. However, by simply controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics that selected children and families into these schools, all of the advantages of private school education were eliminated. There was also no evidence to suggest that low-income children or children enrolled in urban schools benefited more from private school enrollment.


Brain transplants and the dicephalus (an organism just like us except that it has two cerebrums) are thought to support the position that we are essentially thinking creatures, not living organisms. I try to offset the first of these intuitions by responding to thought experiments Peter Unger devised to show that identity is what matters. I then try to motivate an interpretation of the alleged conjoined twins as really just one person cut off from himself by relying upon what I take will be the reader's disagreement with Locke's conjecture that a dreaming Socrates and an awake Socrates are two distinct people.


Engineering was defined by the Royal Academy of
engineering as the creative use of scientific principles to invent,
design, build, maintain and improve structures, machines,
devices, systems materials and processes. From the creation of
simple tools to the complex engineering machineries which
abounds now, the journey has been chronicled into series of
epoch Industrial revolutions are periods in modern human
history where innovative technologies are used in ensuring rapid
change in the socio-economic condition of people globally. The
fourth industrial revolution is an era of massive technological
breakthrough. The era is driven by technologies such as
automation and robotics, additive manufacturing and the
industrial internet. This study conceptualized the language of
engineering education in the era of the fourth industrial
revolution as the means through which the knowledge of
engineering education is communicated. Findings from the study
revealed that the industrial revolution is responsible for some
changes in engineering education and it has with it immense
opportunities for the conduct of the discipline. Some of the
opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution on engineering
education is the overhauling of production processes, the
possibility of remote monitoring of engineering projects will also
be made possible as a result of the technologies brought about by
the fourth industrial revolution The study therefore recommends
that that efforts be intensified on developing the languages in
which engineering education is communicated in the fourth
industrial revolution.


To date, the stated program objectives have been met. There is a heightened awareness of ADRs, and the program has had a positive impact on patient care. More work is needed in the prevention of ADRs as opposed to their tabulation. Future educational efforts will focus on how reporting suspected ADRs can positively impact patient care.


Sparse approximation of structured signals is a common problem in signal processing and system theory. In particular, approximation by exponential sums often arises in natural sciences for the analysis of decay processes. In many applications it can be assumed that the signal is either exactly or approximately a finite linear combination of non-increasing exponentials with complex exponents. Thus, the nonlinear inverse problem of recovering the parameters of the exponential sum from a suitable number of samples becomes relevant. Due to Kronecker's Theorem the length of the exponential sum corresponds to the rank of the infinite Hankel matrix generated by samples of the sum. Therefore the parameter estimation problem for the exponential sums is closely related to the structured low rank approximation problem of Hankel matrices. Unfortunately, the singular value decomposition cannot be applied in this case, since it does not preserve the Hankel structure of the matrix.
In most applications one is interested in obtaining the shortest possible exponential sum which satisfies a presumed approximation error in order to reduce further computational costs. This leads to the following problem, which we study in this thesis. Given samples of an exponential sum of length N we want to find a new sum of a shorter length n, such that the samples of the new sum satisfy a certain error estimation with respect to the samples of the original sum.
For solving the above problem we employ the theory of Adamjan, Arov and Krein (AAK theory) in this work. The main theorem of the AAK theory can be seen as a structured low rank approximation approach for infinite matrices and is widely used by engineers for model reduction. We develop a new algorithm for solving the n-term approximation problem for sequences of samples of exponential sums. The obtained error estimates are related to singular values of the corresponding Hankel matrix. Our algorithm also includes a technique for the computation of all singular values of the infinite Hankel matrix generated by samples of exponential sums.
Further, we provide a new proof of the AAK Theorem for Hankel matrices with finite rank in the
discrete context. To our knowledge this is the first proof, which employs only tools from linear algebra and Fourier analysis and completely avoids the fundamental theorems from operator theory. For this purpose we characterize all mathematical objects used in our proof in the framework of linear algebra and establish the connection to the continuous setting using the Fourier transform. Also the connection between the AAK theory and Prony's method becomes clear in this work. Thus, this thesis can be seen as a solid groundwork for further investigations approaching this theory from the field of linear algebra.


Abstract We characterized the composition and structure of the vaginal microbiota in a cohort of 149 women with genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection at baseline who were followed quarterly for 9 months after antibiotic treatment. At time of diagnosis, the vaginal microbiota was dominated by Lactobacillus iners or a diverse array of bacterial vaginosis–associated bacteria including Gardnerella vaginalis. Interestingly, L. iners–dominated communities were most common after azithromycin treatment (1 g monodose), consistent with the observed relative resistance of L. iners to azithromycin. Lactobacillus iners–dominated communities have been associated with increased risk of C. trachomatis infection, suggesting that the impact of antibiotic treatment on the vaginal microbiota could favor reinfections. These results provide support for the dual need to account for the potential perturbing effect(s) of antibiotic treatment on the vaginal microbiota, and to develop strategies to protect and restore optimal vaginal microbiota.


Thirty-nine different species of waste biomass materials that include woody or herbaceous resources as well as nut shells and juice pulps were used to develop empirical equations to predict the calorific value based on the proximate analysis results. Ten different linear/nonlinear equations that contain proximate analysis ingredients including or excluding the moisture content were tested by means of least-squares method to predict the HHV (higher heating value). Prediction performance of each equation was evaluated considering the experimental and the predicted values of HHV and the criteria of MAE (mean absolute error), AAE (average absolute error), and ABE (average bias error). It was concluded that the presence of moisture as a parameter improves the prediction performance of these equations. Also, the samples were classified into two subsets according to their fixed carbon (FC)/ash values and then the correlations were repeated for each subset. Both the full set of samples and the subsets showed a similar trend that the presence of moisture in equations enhances the prediction performance. Also, the FC content may be disregarded from the equation of the calorific value prediction when the FC/ash ratio is lower than a given value.


Ayla Kutlu became an important author in Turkish literature after 1980 with her novels and stories. Kutlu, fictionalizes her works in a multi-layered structure by intertwining social and individual elements in her novels. Kutlu's novels focus on inner world of individuals taking part in the social events related to religion, beliefs, gender roles, economic life, customs and conventions of the community they live in. In her novels, the presented social events reflect the political and social atmosphere of Turkey, where protagonists are portrayed in their worldly pursuits. In that sense, the author, who is not indifferent to social issues and conditions of the period, makes her own interpretation of events in almost all her works, which makes them suitable for sociological and psychological analysis. In her novels, suicidal tendency of the characters, who are not able to adapt to the conditions they are depicted in, become excluded and marginalized. Emile Durkheim, who is mainly interested in the suicide phenomenon, regards society as a sociological laboratory mainly responsible for the psychological development of the individual. According to Durkheimian, suicide can be defined as an act in which social phenomena mark individual psychology. Emile Durkheim's theory of suicide is based on experienced cases, which he categorizes according to social causes as: "Egoistic suicide", "Altruistic suicide", and "Anomic suicide". Among the suicide types that Durkheim has classified and distinguished according to their sociological dimensions, "Selfish suicide" cases observed in Ayla Kutlu's novels will be in the center of our study. In our analysis, the actions of the characters who commit/attempt suicide in Ayla Kutlu's "Cadı Ağacı", "Ateş Üstünde Yürümek" "Kadın Destanı" and "Asi… Asi" novels will be examined within the framework of Emile Durkheim's suicide theory.


Estimates of solar irradiance at the earth's surface from satellite observations are useful for planning both the deployment of distributed photovoltaic systems and their integration into electricity grids. In order to use surface solar irradiance from satellites for these purposes, validation of its accuracy against ground observations is needed. In this study, satellite estimates of surface solar irradiance from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) are compared with ground observations at two sites, namely the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the Alamo Solar Farm of San Antonio (ASF). The comparisons are done mostly on an hourly timescale, under different cloud conditions classified by cloud types and cloud layers, and at different solar zenith angle intervals. It is found that satellite estimates and ground observations of surface solar irradiance are significantly correlated (p 0.60 under different cloud types and layers for both sites. The correlations under cloudy-sky conditions are mostly stronger than those under clear-sky conditions at different solar zenith angles. The correlation coefficients are mostly the smallest with solar zenith angle in the range of 75–90° under all sky, clear-sky and cloudy-sky conditions. At the ASF site, the overall bias of GOES surface solar irradiance is small (+1.77 Wm−2) under all sky while relatively larger under clear-sky (−22.29 Wm−2) and cloudy-sky (+40.31 Wm−2) conditions. The overall good agreement of the satellite estimates with the ground observations underscores the usefulness of the GOES surface solar irradiance estimates for solar energy studies in the San Antonio area.


Prognostic markers, such as NPM1, Flt3-ITD, and cytogenetic abnormalities have made it possible to formulate aggressive treatment plans for unfavorable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the long-term survival of AML with unfavorable factors remains unsatisfactory. The latest data indicate that the standard dose of daunorubicin (DNR) at 45 mg/m2 is inferior to high dose 90 mg/m2 for induction therapy. The rates of complete remission and overall survival are significantly better in the high dose induction regimen. New regimens exploring the new liposomal encapsulation of Ara-C and DNR as well as addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin monoclonal antibody have been studied. New agents, including the nucleoside analogues (clofarabine, sapacitabine, elacytarabine), FLT3 inhibitor (sorafenib), farnesyl-transferase inhibitor (tipifarnib), histone deacetylase inhibitor (vorinostat), lenalidomide, as well as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (decitabine, azacitidine), were recently reported for AML treatment in the 2009 ASH annual meeting. This review also summarizes the updates of the clinical trials on novel agents including voreloxin, AS1413, behenoylara-C, ARRY520, ribavirin, AZD1152, AZD6244, and terameprocol (EM-1421) from the 2009 ASH


Chapter 3 of S. Lloyd's 1988 Ph.D. thesis, `Black Holes, Demons, and the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information and what they do with it,' supervisor Heinz Pagels. Reformulates statistical mechanics in terms of pure states and shows that (a) quantum statistics of typical pure states are very close to the mechanics of statistical mechanical ensembles; (b) if a system is in a typical state with energy E, then the reduced density matrix of a subsystem is very close to a thermal state. (A similar result was derived using Levy's lemma some years later by S. Popescu, A.J. Short, A.Winter, Nature Physics 2, 754-758 (2006).) Pure state quantum statistical mechanics is applied to black holesto show that for typical states of matter insideand outside a black hole, the external state is likely to be thermal. Proposes novel interpretation of probabilities in quantum statistical mechanics. Full thesis available at this http URL This chapter was submitted for publication to Physical Review in 1988 but rejected by one sentence referee report: `There is no physics in this paper.' You be the judge.


Pore-volume reduction of sediments by plastic deformation during compaction and by cementation of grains has been evaluated for different proportions of ductile and hard grains. We represent the compaction behavior of grains with a purely geometric model, which uses the cooperative rearrangement algorithm to produce dense, random packings of partly interpenetrating spheres. We varied the fraction of grains assumed to be ductile and the radius of the rigid core of the ductile grains. The predicted relationship between the fraction of ductile grains in the sediment and the porosity after compaction agrees well with previously published experimental data in the literature. The radius of the rigid core of the ductile grains is an effective way to represent different kinds of ductile material, ranging from brittle (rigid radius 0.9) to extremely ductile (rigid radius 0.7). We simulated quartz cementation in our compacted rock by adding isopachous cement. Cement thickness was reduced on the smaller grains and increased on the larger grains to account for presumed export of pressure-dissolved material from finer grained regions and the import of material into coarser grained regions. These simulations yield descriptions of pore-scale geometry resulting from processes common in sandstones. Modeled pore geometry provides insight into transport properties of such rocks. For example, the models predict, to within a factor of five, the permeability of samples of tight-gas sandstones having little intragranular porosity.


The rise of the brass band in 19th-century Britain is a historical, social and cultural phenomenon which represents the foundation of the modern international brass band movement. Authors such as Trevor Herbert, Arnold Myers and Roy Newsome mention and acknowledge the relevance of the Distin Family brass ensemble; however, extensive research has produced new information. This book examines the various Distin projects as the main reason why brass bands of today are established in their current form.


The ability to predict how multiple traits interact in determining performance is key to understanding the evolution of complex functional systems. Similar to Simpson's adaptive landscape, which describes the fitness consequences of varying morphological traits, performance landscapes depict the performance consequences of varying morphological traits. Mapping the population's location with respect to the topographic features of the landscape could inform us on the selective forces operating on the traits that underlie performance. Here, we used a mechanistic model derived from first principles of hydrodynamics to construct a hypothetical performance landscape for zooplankton prey capture using suction feeding. We then used the landscape to test whether a population of Chromis viridis, a coral reef zooplanktivore, is located on a performance peak or ridge based on measurements of kinematic variables recorded in-situ during undisturbed foraging. Observed trait combinations in the wild population closely matched regions of high feeding performance in the landscape, however the population was not located on a local performance peak. This sub-optimal performance was not due to constraints stemming from the observed trait correlations. The predominant directions of variation of the phenotypic traits was tangent to the 'path of steepest ascent' that points towards the local peak, indicating that the population does not reside on a "performance ridge". Rather, our analysis suggests that feeding performance is constrained by stabilizing selection, possibly reflecting a balance between selection on feeding performance and mechanical or genetic constraints.


Near-Earth binary asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3 is the current backup target of the ESA MarcoPolo-R mission, selected for the study phase of ESA M3 missions. It is a primitive (C-type) asteroid that shows significant variation in its visible and near-infrared spectra. Here we present new spectra of 1996 FG3 and we compare our new data with other published spectra, analysing the variation in the spectral slope. The asteroid will not be observable again over the next three years at least. We obtained the spectra using DOLORES and NICS instruments at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), a 3.6m telescope located at El Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain. To compare with other published spectra of the asteroid, we computed the spectral slope S', and studied any plausible correlation of this quantity with the phase angle (alpha). In the case of visible spectra, we find a variation in spectral slope of Delta S' = 0.15 +- 0.10 %/10^3 A/degree for 3 < alpha < 18 degrees, in good agreement with the values found in the literature for the phase reddening effect. In the case of the near-infrared, we find a variation in the slope of Delta S' = 0.04 +- 0.08 %/10^3 A/degree for 6 < alpha < 51 degrees. Our computed variation in S' agrees with the only two values found in the literature for the phase reddening in the near-infrared. The variation in the spectral slope of asteroid 1996 FG3 shows a trend with the phase angle at the time of the observations, both in the visible and the near-infrared. It is worth noting that, to fully explain this spectral variability we should take into account other factors, like the position of the secondary component of the binary asteroid 1999 FG3 with respect to the primary, or the spin axis orientation at the time of the observations. More data are necessary for an analysis of this kind.


5 sculptures shown; Here, 1999; Transcendence, 1999 - 2000; K's Song, 1999 - 2001; As One, 2001 - 2002 ( AHRC funded); Through Life 2001 - 2002. The cage like sculpture created by Gibbons are self-contained volumes that are only penetrable with one's eyes. They are simultaneous representation of interior and exterior space - at once private yet public. These stainless steel works represent for the artist "places" of transition, passage and engagement. We all behave quite differently in our places of comfort (home and interior spaces) compared to our exterior spaces (places of work and social gatherings), where our profile is created as much as it is scrutinized. It is living in these types of private and public places, where the body and spirit (human activity) change and react to different states of observation. Gibbons' work is a visual metaphor of this tension between these states of interior and exterior'.


Abstract We examined the effects of the dihydropyridine agonist Bay K 8644 on l -type calcium channels in newborn rat ventricular cardiomyocytes during their development in primary culture. Experiments were performed at day 2 and 7 of the culture which constituted the early postnatal and maximally developed stages, respectively, of isolated cells in our experimental conditions. In the presence of racemic Bay K 8644 (10 −6 m ), l -type calcium current (I Ca-L ) density recorded by perforated patch-clamp technique was increased by 127±4% ( n =8) in 2-day-old cells. The increase was only 103±5% ( n =10) in 7-day-old cells, resulting in a current density similar to that observed in freshly-dissociated adult cells (90±7%; n =10). At every stage of the culture Bay K 8644 increased I Ca-L with a 10-mV shift of the peak current towards hyperpolarized levels but without change in activation threshold and reversal potential. This shift can be explained by the corresponding change in steady-state activation and inactivation relationships towards negative potentials. The potentiating effect of Bay K 8644 was further studied as a function of phosphorylation levels of calcium channels. When calcium channels were phosphorylated by dibutyryl cyclic AMP (2×10 −4 m ), increase of I Ca-L density by Bay K 8644 was comparable at every stage of cell culture. However, direct activation of β-receptors by isoproterenol did not increase I Ca-L density in 2-day-old cultured cells as it did in 7-day-old cells, while direct activation of adenylate cyclase by forskolin similarly increased I Ca-L at both stages of culture. From these results, it can be suggested that the higher increase of I Ca-L density by Bay K 8644 in 2-day- than in 7-day-old cultured cells could be interpreted as the result of a difference in the phosphorylation level of calcium channels for each stage of development. The possible increase in the basal phosphorylation level of calcium channels during culture of neonatal cardiac cells is discussed with respect to changes in functional properties of calcium channels during postnatal maturation of these cardiac cells.


Results are reported from the commissioning of a large rigid-walled permeameter that was designed to examine hydromechanical conditions prevailing at the onset of seepage-induced failure in soils with a potential for internal instability. A technique of slurry mixing and discrete deposition is used to reconstitute a homogeneous, saturated test specimen. The test specimen is consolidated and then subject to seepage flow, under head-control, in either a downward or upward direction. Two arrays of pressure transducers, located on opposite sides of the specimen, establish the variation of hydraulic gradient along the specimen. The device is configured with a top and bottom load cell, and frictionless loading ram, in order to assess the influence of side-wall friction and thereby establish the distribution of vertical effective stress along the length of the specimen. Observations of hydraulic gradient and effective stress enable a characterization of the onset of instability, which is localized within the specimen. Results of multi-stage tests on glass beads are reported that illustrate novel features of the permeameter and instrumentation, the utility of the specimen reconstitution technique and a novel approach for quantifying the onset of internal instability.


Rates of growth and sexual maturation of microtine rodents vary in response to photoperiod. Previous work with Microtus montanus has shown that the photoperiod present prior to weaning influences how voles will respond to photoperiods seen following weaning. The data presented demonstrate that information about the photoperiod seen by the mother during pregnancy influences the postweaning development of male M. montanus. Adult M. montanus were paired in photoperiods consisting of 8, 14 or 16 h light/day. Their litters were conceived and born in these photoperiods. On the day of birth the litters were recorded and retained in the gestation photoperiod (Groups C8, C14 and C16) or transferred to the 14-h photoperiod (Groups E8 and E16). The growth of males was followed from weaning until 74 days of age, at which time the voles were sacrificed and their reproductive organs weighed. There were no differences in body weight or length between groups at 18 days of age. At 74 days of age the development of the voles could be ranked in the following sequence: C8 less than E16 less than C14 less than E8 less than C16.


Development of renewable energy resources in the near future is an urgent issue. One attractive strategy is the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs); they are extremely promising, because they are made of low-cost materials and do not need elaborate apparatus to manufacture. Titania is the most promising material for the electrode of DSSCs, and then morphological control and carrier transport optimization are the key properties needed in titanium oxide materials for DSSCs. We review the formation procedures and characteristics of titanium oxide nanocrystalline products, which exhibit various morphological shapes in nanometer scale, i. e., nanotubes, nanorods, nanowires and nanosheets, and their arrays. We also present new findings in our laboratory on the formation of titania nanorods and network structures of single-crystal-like titania nanowires as well as their application for DSSCs. In order to evaluate the electrical properties of DSSCs with electrodes composed of various nanoscale titania materials, measurement procedures for electron transport processes in DSSCs are also reviewed, together with our results in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to determine various parameters concerning about electron transport.


Jayapura, Papua Abstract The bioplastic can be made from sago flour and known as sagoplast. It was widely known that for making bioplastic, the addition of acetic acid and glycerol are needed. Products that are air-dried are easy to grow fungi within a few weeks. This makes the basis for researchers to undestand more about the character and identity of the sagoplast degrading fungi. Characterization and identification were carried out by observed morphology and analyzing the 18SrDNA gene sequence of fungal isolates that had grown on the sagoplast. Fungal isolates morphology showed yellowish-orange color with white thread-like mycelia and a blackish brown mace with white thread-shaped mycelia. These characters of fungal morphology that similar with Aspergillus. The gene sequences of the fungal isolates were aligned with reference gene sequences of the fungi obtained from the Gen Bank of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Sequence data analysis was performed by using the Clustal X program to determine the kinship and taxonomy of the fungal isolates that able to degrade sagoplast. The result showed that two fungal isolates, DFSP.J1 and DFSP.J4, were found and demonstrated their ability for degrading sagoplast. Isolate DFSP.J1 is related to Aspergillus flavus strain PSU2 LC127086.1, while isolate DFSP.J4 is related to Aspergillus niger


The aim of this paper is to present some of research results of our current collaborative program to increase steam turbine efficiency with the development of high-performance blade and exhaust hood design methodology using large-scale aerodynamic and structural interaction analysis. Aerodynamic optimum designs of stator blades are already introduced in many designs of actual operating commercial steam turbine units. However, aerodynamic optimum designs of rotating blades are still difficult due to high centrifugal force and vibration stress on rotating blades. This paper focuses on rotating blades and exhaust diffusers that affect the flow field just downstream of last stage long blades. The large-scale high-accuracy CFD analysis of unsteady wet steam flows has been successfully introduced for simulations of low pressure exhaust diffuser using the Earth Simulator of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. This result shows that the diffuser domain analysis can provide static pressure recovery coefficients and its circumferential deviations with enough accuracy for design use except correct location predictions of separations. The unsteady flow analyses of the typical designed last stage with the measured and calculated downstream static pressure distribution as the outlet boundary condition were conducted. The unsteady flow analyses of the typical designed low pressure exhaust diffuser with the measured and calculated upstream flow conditions as the inlet boundary condition were also conducted. Some of the calculated results were compared with measured data. The large-scale parallel computing Finite Element Analysis of turbine blades with inter-connection parts has been also successfully introduced on the Earth Simulator. The calculation result shows that the eigen frequencies of the present group of loosely-connected rotating blades correspond well to the existing measured data. For the next step, the unsteady structural analysis is being conducted with the calculated unsteady forces on the rotating blades as the FEA boundary conditions. Some of the FEA results are also presented in this paper.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Simple analytical formulas are introduced for the grid impedance of electrically dense arrays of square patches and for the surface impedance of high-impedance surfaces based on the dense arrays of metal strips or square patches over ground planes. Emphasis is on the oblique-incidence excitation. The approach is based on the known analytical models for strip grids combined with the approximate Babinet principle for planar grids located at a dielectric interface. Analytical expressions for the surface impedance and reflection coefficient resulting from our analysis are thoroughly verified by full-wave simulations and compared with available data in open literature for particular cases. The results can be used in the design of various antennas and microwave or millimeter wave devices which use artificial impedance surfaces and artificial magnetic conductors (reflect-array antennas, tunable phase shifters, etc.), as well as for the derivation of accurate higher-order impedance boundary conditions for artificial (high-) impedance surfaces. As an example, the propagation properties of surface waves along the high-impedance surfaces are studied.


: The paper is devoted to a cooperative study of comparative assessment of the efficacy of 3 dose fractionation regimens in intracavitary gamma-therapy used in combined radiation therapy of cervical cancer (5 Gy, 10 fractions, 2-3 times a week; 7 Gy, 7 fractions, once in 5 days; 10 Gy, 4 fractions, once a week). Over the period of 1979-1983 1193 patients were treated by uniform methods of intracavitary and distant irradiation. The groups were identical with relation to the number of patients, stage of disease, histological characterization and growth type. By the end of therapy the cure rate among 1183 patients was 90.3%. In 2-3 months the cure rate in the same group was 97.5%. Delayed regression was most noticeable in stages II and III. The 5-year survival rates in 3 groups were: for stage I-95.3 +/- 2.6%; for stage II-83.1 +/- 2.5%; for stage III-73.3 +/- 4.7%. In stage I and II tumors the 5-year survival rates in different regimens were similar whereas in stage III better results were obtained with a fractional dose of 5 Gy. The frequency and degree of severity of late radiation complications of the rectum, bladder, vaginal mucous membrane grew with an increase in a fractional dose.


We report on the spectrum of a superconducting transmon device coupled to a planar superconducting resonator in the strong dispersive limit where discrete peaks, each corresponding to a different number of photons, are resolved. A thermal population of 5.474 GHz photons at an effective resonator temperature of T = 120 mK results in a weak n = 1 photon peak along with the n = 0 photon peak in the qubit spectrum in the absence of a coherent drive on the resonator. Two-tone spectroscopy using independent coupler and probe tones reveals an Autler–Townes splitting in the thermal n = 1 photon peak. The observed effect is explained accurately using the four lowest levels of the dispersively dressed qubit–resonator system and compared to results from numerical simulations of the steady-state master equation for the coupled system.


The purpose of this study was to explore and interpret the meaning of relatives' experiences of encounters with nurses when visiting residents in nursing homes. Thirteen relatives of residents in three nursing homes in Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The method used was hermeneutical text analysis. Four themes emerged in the analysis and interpretation of the whole text: 'being paid attention to', 'being ignored', 'being involved' and 'being safe and secure'. A further interpretation of the findings shows a deeper understanding of the meaning of relatives. This meaning was revealed as being invited into an encounter with nurses and gave a sense of community but the opposite was being ignored and left outside. This study gives a deeper understanding of the meaning of encounters between relatives and nurses in nursing homes; it also illuminates how these encounters also can affect the care of the residents. This new understanding can hopefully offer support for nurses during their encounters with relatives and optimise the ability to provide a positive outcome for residents in nursing homes.


To improve the maxillofacial surgery outcome, modern manufacturing methods such as rapid prototyping (RP), reverse engineering (RE) and medical imaging data have been utilised to manufacture custom-made prostheses after previous failed reconstructive surgery. After acquisition of data, an individual computer-based 3D model of the bony defect was generated and transferred into RE software to create the prosthesis CAD model. Then the physical model of the prosthesis was fabricated by RP technique. The precise fit of the prosthesis was evaluated using the prosthesis and skull models. The prosthesis was then directly used in investment casting such as "Quick Cast" pattern to produce the titanium model. In the clinical reports presented here, reconstructions of one patient with large mandible bone defects were performed using this method. The custom prostheses perfectly fit the defects during the operations, and surgery time was reduced. These cases showed that the prefabrication of a prosthesis using modern manufacturing technology is an effective method for maxillofacial defect reconstruction.


We consider the potential blockchains have for building a framework for all manner of contracts that can characterize an economy using the unifying idea of control over their duration. Such a contractual cryptoeconomy (**CCE**) would accommodate a broader variety of contracts than smart contracts, which are suitable for a relatively small portion of the set of all feasible contracts. We proceed by examining the idea of a contract's natural life as a common feature shared across all contracts, be they incomplete or complete. This simplifying idea suggests why providing flexibility over a contract's duration on a blockchain – through innovations such as HTLCs — is necessary to increasing the variety of contracts that can be feasibly represented. We also assess participation in a CCE that features blockchains with differing degrees of security. We do so by focusing on how the value of a contract is related directly to its natural life for both its immediate participants and, through externalities across the CCE, to a wider set of users. A key idea provides the overall impetus: When contracts rely on third-party intermediation, at least some contractual surplus is dissipated in arbiter rent, making the quality of third-party arbitration as important as its scale. By contrast, blockchains create contractual mechanisms that act as Coasian exchanges that can internalize this arbiter rent. However, crucially, the degree to which their use requires forgoing contractual complexity and absorbing the cost of externalities can determine the relative benefits provided by a CCE.


Facial micro-expressions (MEs) refer to brief spontaneous facial movements that can reveal a person's genuine emotion. They are valuable in lie detection, criminal analysis, and other areas. While deep learning-based ME recognition (MER) methods achieved impressive success, these methods typically require pre-processing using conventional optical flow-based methods to extract facial motions as inputs. To overcome this limitation, we proposed a novel MER framework using self-supervised learning to extract facial motion for ME (SelfME). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work using an automatically self-learned motion technique for MER. However, the self-supervised motion learning method might suffer from ignoring symmetrical facial actions on the left and right sides of faces when extracting fine features. To address this issue, we developed a symmetric contrastive vision transformer (SCViT) to constrain the learning of similar facial action features for the left and right parts of faces. Experiments were conducted on two benchmark datasets showing that our method achieved state-of-the-art performance, and ablation studies demonstrated the effectiveness of our method.


Interfacial characteristics of polymer nanocomposites represent a crucial aspect to understand their global properties and to evaluate the interaction between nanofillers and matrix. In this work we used a molecular dynamics (MD) approach to characterize the interfacial region at the atomistic scale of graphene-based polymer nanocomposites. Three different polymer matrixes were considered, polylactic acid (PLA), polypropylene (PP) and epoxy resin (EPO), which were reinforced with three types of graphene fillers: pristine graphene (G), graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). In particular, the compatibility of the nanofillers in polymer matrixes were evaluated in terms of the interaction energy, while the interfacial thermal resistance (Kapitza resistance) between matrices and fillers was calculated with a nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) method. Results showed that the oxidation degree plays an important role on the studied properties of the interfacial region. In particular, it was observed that the Kapitza resistance is decreased in the oxidized graphene (GO and rGO), while interaction energy depended on the polarity of the polymer matrix molecules and the contribution of the Coulombic component.


BACKGROUND
Postoperative pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is intense and remains an unsolved problem. Some studies show that perioperative, multimodal analgesia, including intravenous dexamethasone, can provide a better analgesic effect; however, the validity of studies has raised concerns and questions remain around the efficacy, dosing, and safety of dexamethasone in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty.

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the impact of intravenous dexamethasone on postoperative pain among patients undergoing TKA.

STUDY DESIGN
Systematic review and meta-analysis.

SETTING
Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched to identify relevant randomized controlled trials. The last search was in August 2021.

METHODS
The risk of bias of the included trials was assessed by the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. The primary outcome was postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores and secondary outcomes included cumulative equivalent intravenous morphine consumption, number of patients requiring rescue analgesic, length of hospital stay, and adverse events. We assessed the certainty of evidence according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

RESULTS
Eleven studies with 1,671 patients were included. The pooled results indicated that patients receiving dexamethasone had lower VAS pain scores at rest (24 h, MD = -0.68, [95% CI: -0.87 to -0.49]; 48 h, MD = -0.33, [95% CI: -0.46 to -0.21]) and at movement (24 h, MD = -0.74, [95% CI: -1.10 to -0.37]; 48 h, MD = -0.46, [95% CI: -0.66 to -0.26]), required less morphine (24 h, MD = -2.84 mg, [95% CI: -5.13 to -0.54]; 48 h, MD= -4.16 mg, [95% CI: -5.55 to -2.78]) and rescue analgesics, and had shorter hospitalization. There was no increase in infection, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, wound healing problems, or blood glucose levels with dexamethasone. Subgroup analysis did not observe difference between single dose and repeat dose groups.

LIMITATIONS
The perioperative multimodal analgesia measures were varied throughout the studies. The sample size was small for some outcomes and high heterogeneity was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results supported the addition of perioperative intravenous dexamethasone to multimodal analgesia in total knee arthroplasty to reduce postoperative pain, opioids consumption, and length of hospital stay. Current evidence did not support the superiority of repeated-dose dexamethasone over single-dose dexamethasone; thus, we recommended perioperative 8-10 mg intravenous dexamethasone to be used based on adequate basic analgesia; however, the results may have been affected by small sample sizes and heterogeneity.


The article deals with the data concerning structural peculiarities of plasminogen/plasmin molecule, which define the specificity of intermolecular interactions and provide the variety of its biological functions. The main principles of the modern classification of plasminogen receptors and factors, which modulate their expression, have been presented. We have considered the mechanisms regulating both plasmin formation and activity on the surface of cells, fibrin and proteins of extracellular matrix. The data of previous investigators and our own results, concerning the influence of plasminogen/plasmin on platelet aggregation induced by different agonists, have been summarized. The participation of plasminogen/plasmin in atherogenesis and angiogenesis mediated by endotheliocyte receptors has been discussed. Special attention was given to plasminogen/plasmin proinflammatory function, which is realized by regulatory processes of activation, secretion, migration and apoptosis of monocytes and macrophages.


The dynamic environment of hybrid mobile and fixed wireless networks used in military operations poses significant challenges in the efficient provisioning of software functionality to application clients. With their transient topology, the software services hosted on mobile nodes may become temporarily unavailable or the cost of transferring data across the network may become too high. To address this problem we have designed a placement technique that allows the dynamic repositioning of services within the network as it evolves. The technique repositions services in reaction to changes in network topology as well as in various system properties, such as service dependencies or the workload generated by application clients. In our approach we use a multi-layer model to represent a service-based software system embedded in a network topology. We apply constraint programming and its linear programming relaxation to solve the model to find where best to place or reposition the services. We evaluate the technique in terms of its effectiveness and cost under various simulated operational conditions.


Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Depending on its pathophysiological mechanism, it may be classified into nociceptive, neuropathic, and mixed pain. If pain is moderate to severe, a strong opioid should be administered and, when this is the case, morphine is the drug of choice. If morphine is ineffective or causes intolerable adverse effects, opioid rotation is recommended. Our objective was to describe the drug management for mixed pain used in patients assisted by the Palliative Care team of Hospital General de Niños Pedro de Elizalde between August 2011 and September 2015. A total of 72 patients were included. Their mean age was 10.1 years, and the most common underlying disease was cancer. The initial opioid was morphine in 57 cases; 48 patients received adjuvant drugs. Opioid rotation was indicated in half of cases, and the most common switch was from morphine to methadone.


'A Distance of Stones' is a text published as part of a collective exhibition and publication curated by Elizabeth XI Bauer.

Towards the end of his life the writer and artist Roger Caillois became fascinated by what he termed 'picture stones'; agates and jaspers that appeared to house figurative images. In response he wrote "The Writing of Stones", that looked at how we might receive recognisable representations formed not by human hand and from a distant era. In 'A Distance of Stones' Coutts revisits many of Caillois' concerns. The Vampire Squid, its distance and proximities to humans in Villem Flusser's writing and the role of attraction in the sermons of Medieval Theologian and Mystic Meister Eckhart are used to unravel knowledge forms that are not yet the property of the intellect.


The development of an elaborate system offish-tail groynes at Morecambe, north-west England is discussed in relation to its impact on sediment deposition and beach formation. The comparison of beach surveys from 1992 and 1996 has shown that in all cases, sediment build-up has occurred around each groyne, although with a distinct spatial pattern, concluded to be caused by the influence of a large jetty built as part of the scheme and designed to regulate the position of the primary ebb tide channel. In addition, qualitative observations indicate that the pattern of sediment accretion has shown a shift from coarser to finer grade sediments concluded to be a result of the energy reduction and resulting inability of the tidal and wave currents to transport coarser sediments into the beach environment. As a result, the beach area has become largely silt and mud dominated, resulting in the need of beach feeding to provide suitable amenity beaches for the tourist industry.


Protostellar outflows and jets play a vital role in star formation as they carry away excess angular momentum from the inner disk surface, allowing the material to be transferred toward the central protostar. Theoretically, low-velocity and poorly collimated outflows appear from the beginning of the collapse at the first hydrostatic core (FHSC) stage. With growing protostellar core mass, high-density jets are launched, entraining an outflow from the infalling envelope. Until now, molecular jets have been observed at high velocity (≳100 km s−1) in early Class 0 protostars. We, for the first time, detect a dense molecular jet in SiO emission with low velocity (∼4.2 km s−1, deprojected ∼24 km s−1) from source G208.89–20.04Walma (hereafter G208Walma) using ALMA Band 6 observations. This object has some characteristics of FHSCs, such as a small outflow/jet velocity, extended 1.3 mm continuum emission, and N 2D+ line emission. Additional characteristics, however, are typical of early protostars: collimated outflow and SiO jet. The full extent of the outflow corresponds to a dynamical timescale of ∼ 930−100+200 yr. The spectral energy distribution also suggests a very young source having an upper limit of T bol ∼ 31 K and L bol ∼ 0.8 L ⊙. We conclude that G208Walma is likely in the transition phase from FHSC to protostar, and the molecular jet has been launched within a few hundred years of initial collapse. Therefore, G208Walma may be the earliest object discovered in the protostellar phase with a molecular jet.


Metaphors and visualizations are important for science communication, though they may have limitations. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a novel interactive visualization, the "Dynamic Evolutionary Map" (DEM), which communicates biological evolution using a non-standard metaphor. The DEM uses a map metaphor and interactivity to address conceptual limitations of traditional tree-based evolutionary representations. In a pilot evaluation biology novices used the DEM to answer questions about evolution. The results suggest that this visualization communicates some conceptual affordances differently than trees. Therefore, the described approach of building alternative visual metaphors for challenging concepts appears useful for science communication.


The cycle of fourteen carols and pastorals by Stanisław Hadyna is one of the au thor's lesser known works. It was created as a result of cooperation between the composer and two great artists – Kazimierz Szemioth and Władysław Ochman. Analysis of the pieces has been conducted with use of specialized literature on musicology, folklore and literary studies supported by practice as a singer and choir director. The goal was to study author's possible inspirations, to underline the relationship between music and lyrics, to present selected vocal difficulties and to look at the cycle as a whole. Research has been performed with the use of the monographic method. Practical activities consisted of ana lyzing the score, source text, publications and recordings. Following sources were used: Narodziła nam się dobroć [Goodness was born] by Stanisław Ha dyna (lyrics – Kazi mierz Szemioth, Officina Silesia, 2009) and recordings of Wiesław Ochman and Capella Arcis Varsoviensis (dir. Marek Sewen, 1985). As a result, it has been proven that analyzed pieces have their origin in tradi tional Polish songs. Conclusions from the analysis demonstrate importance of lyrics which form a part equally important to music. In summary, awareness of means of expression used by composer is key to performance of the work.


Unlike adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, bracing was used in adults less and was used more as a way of reducing pain. There is little publication of adult scoliosis series in the literature. The use of very high-rigidity and high-precision CAD/CAM technologies currently makes it possible to create corrective braces for the adult. The digital CAD/CAM cast in three blocks allows for precise correction at the pelvic, lumbar, and thoracic levels. This chapter presents the results of a series of 62 consecutive adult scoliotic patients treated with a corrective asymmetric detorsion brace of very high rigidity made in 2014–2016. Tolerance and angular correction results will be compared to those of 158 patients treated with the former bivalve polyethylene overlapping immobilization brace mainly used for lumbar scoliosis. The new Lyon adult ARTbrace is a detorsion brace adapted to all the curvatures which controls the sagittal plane. Despite a resistance four times greater than that of polyethylene of the same thickness, the tolerance of the Europlex'O is excellent as it is a "shock absorber," and the anterior opening facilitates the use for very old people. Consequently, the aim of this chapter is to consider if it is possible to envisage for some patients an alternative to surgery, thanks to the new technologies of bracing.


Recently, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) was introduced as a pathomechanical concept that could explain idiopathic cartilage and labral degeneration. FAI can be subdivided into three mechanisms: 'Cam'- and 'pincer'-type impingement and the 'contracoupe' mechanism. The suggested concept aims to create a link between retrospective findings of cartilaginous tissue degeneration and mild abnormal structural deformations of the hip joint. The theoretical concept focuses on abnormal articulation rather than increased axial-overloading. Although clinical evidence seems to be given, prospective biomechanical verification would be desirable to provide further justification for early joint reconstruction surgery. A comprehensive research program has been carried out to highlight elevated stresses, contact pressures, affected fluid-load support, abnormal articulation and increased femoral head motion evoked by mild to severe abnormal conditions of the hip joint.

Contact pressure, stress distributions and femoral head motion, indicating joint stability, were studied using three dimensional finite element models of normal and abnormal hip joint conditions; the considered abnormal conditions included a varying degree of acetabular and femoral version and manifestation of femoral protrusions (hump) at the femoral head-neck junction. The cartilogenous tissues were considered as linear elastic isotropic materials. The highlighted abnormal articulation confirmed the suggested concept of FAI; the predicted abnormal stress and contact pressure distribution corresponded to clinical findings.

The fluid-load support, solid-on-solid stress, stress components, within the solid extracellular matrix of the cartilaginous tissues, and total contact pressure were studied during normal and isolated 'cam'-type impinged articulation. The cartilogenous tissues were considered as linear biphasic orthotropic materials. While the maximum total contact pressure, predicted during distinct 'cam'-type impingement, did not exceed the maxima obtained for normal articulation, the fluid-load support was severely affected at the zone of impingement. Vigorous elevated solid-on-solid stresses found at the zone of impingement, suggest a local increase in the coefficient of friction, which might lead to cartilage wear and progresses to severe osteoarthritis.


Movements of different areas of polypeptide chains within F-actin monomers induced by S1 or pPDM-S1 binding were studied by polarized fluorimetry. Thin filaments of ghost muscle were reconstructed by adding G-actin labeled with fluorescent probes attached alternatively to different sites of actin molecule. These sites were: Cys-374 labeled with 1,5-IAEDANS, TMRIA or 5-IAF; Lys-373 labeled with NBD-Cl; Lys-113 labeled with Alexa-488; Lys-61 labeled with FITC; Gln-41 labeled with DED and Cys-10 labeled with 1,5-IAEDANS, 5-IAF or fluorescein-maleimid. In addition, we used TRITC-, FITC-falloidin and e-ADP that were located, respectively, in filament groove and interdomain cleft. The data were analysed by model-dependent and model-independent methods (see appendixes). The orientation and mobility of fluorescent probes were significantly changed when actin and myosin interacted, depending on fluorophore location and binding site of actomyosin. Strong binding of S with actin leads to 1) a decrease in the orientation of oscillators of derivatives of falloidin (TRITC-falloidin, FITC-falloidin) and actin-bound nucleotide (e-ADP); 2) an increase in the orientation of dye oscillators located in the "front' surface of the small domain (where actin is viewed in the standard orientation with subdomains 1/2 and 3/4 oriented to the right and to the left, respectively); 3) a decrease in the angles of dye oscillators located on the "back" surface of subdomain-1. In contrast, a weak binding of S1 to actin induces the opposite effects in orientation of these probes. These data suggest that during the ATP hydrolysis cycle myosin heads induce a change in actin monomer (a tilt and twisting of its small domain). Presumably, these alterations in F-actin conformation play an important role in muscle contraction.


This brief presents a controller for an active filter to compensate reactive power and current harmonic distortion in a single phase system, i.e., to guarantee a power factor close to unity. The proposed controller considers the deleterious effects caused by the interaction between load and line impedances, which may lead to instabilities when the controller is enabled. The rationale behind the solution consists in the introduction of a lead compensator with a gain that is adjusted by adaptation, which replaces the conventional proportional term. This modification improves the stability conditions when the load and source impedances are non-negligible. In particular, the scheme provides a solution in the critical scenario, when the load is composed by a capacitor connected in parallel to a distorted current source. Special attention is given to the current control loop because it is precisely in this loop where the instability problems are generated. Realistic numerical results are provided to illustrate the benefits of the proposed solution.