The West-Central Coastal Province of the Sub-Saharan Africa Region consists of the coastal and offshore areas of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Angola (including the disputed Cabinda Province), and Namibia. The area stretches from the east edge of the Niger Delta south to the Walvis Ridge. The West-Central Coastal Province includes the Douala, Kribi-Campo, Rio Muni, Gabon, Congo, Kwanza, Benguela, and Namibe Basins, which together form the Aptian salt basin of equatorial west Africa. The area has had significant exploration for petroleum; more than 295 oil fields have been discovered since 1954. Since 1995, several giant oil fields have been discovered, especially in the deepwater area of the Congo Basin. Although many total petroleum systems may exist in the West-Central Coastal Province, only four major total petroleum systems have been defined. The area of the province north of the Congo Basin contains two total petroleum systems: the Melania-Gamba Total Petroleum System, consisting of Lower Cretaceous source and reservoir rocks, and the Azile-Senonian Total Petroleum System, consisting of Albian to Turonian source rocks and Cretaceous reservoir rocks. Two assessment units are defined in the West-Central Coastal Province north of the Congo Basin: the Gabon Subsalt and the Gabon Suprasalt Assessment Units. The Congo Basin contains the Congo Delta Composite Total Petroleum System, consisting of Lower Cretaceous to Tertiary source and reservoir rocks. The Central Congo Delta and Carbonate Platform and the Central Congo Turbidites Assessment Units are defined in the Congo Delta Composite Total Petroleum System. The area south of the Congo Basin contains the Cuanza Composite Total Petroleum System, consisting of Lower Cretaceous to Tertiary source and reservoir rocks. The Cuanza-Namibe Assessment Unit is defined in the Cuanza Composite Total Petroleum System. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed the potential for undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in this province as part of its World Petroleum Assessment 2000. The USGS estimated a mean of 29.7 billion barrels of undiscovered conventional oil, 88.0 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 4.2 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. Most of the hydrocarbon potential remains in the offshore waters of the province in the Central Congo Turbidites Assessment Unit. Large areas of the offshore parts of the Kwanza, Douala, Kribi-Campo, and Rio Muni Basins are underexplored, considering their size, and current exploration activity suggests that the basins have hydrocarbon potential. Since about 1995, the offshore part of the Congo Basin has become a major area for new field discoveries and for hydrocarbon exploration, and many deeper water areas in the basin have excellent hydrocarbon potential. Gas resources may be significant and accessible in areas where the zone of oil generation is relatively shallow.


The ionic liquids, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate were found to be effective for the selective removal of sulfur-containing compounds from transportation fuels such as gasoline at room temperature. S-containing compounds with a C5 aromatic ring are favorably absorbed over C6 aromatics, while S-containing non-aromatic compounds are poorly absorbed. The ionic liquids are regenerated from absorbed S-containing compounds by distillation or by dissolution in water. These ionic liquids are air- and moisture-stable at low temperature and non-corrosive. Therefore, the ionic liquids can be used in multiple cycles for the removal of S-containing compounds from fuels. The absorption capacity of the ionic liquids for S-containing compounds is sensitive to the structure of both the anion and cation of the ionic liquids, which is manifested by the significant
inhibiting effect of methyl group substitution on the aromatic ring.


Single roll drive equal channel angular process (SRD-ECAP) is derived from classical equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). It overcomes the drawbacks of ECAP, which is a discontinuous process and can only process short billets with invariable square or round section. SRD-ECAP, however, can process long billets continuously. In addition, it can also process sheet or strip. Another merit is that diameter or thickness of billets processed is adjustable. The structure of SRD-ECAP is quite simple and easy to be realized. In this paper, stress analysis has also been carried out. It is believed that SRD-ECAP can be a potential severe plastic deformation (SPD) process for Industrial Application.


This paper describes the technique for rapid determination of endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) content in a fullerene mixture (FM). The methods of mass spectroscopy and atom emission element analysis underlay at the technique. By the method of mass spectroscopy, the type of EMF with atom-guest is registered and by the method of emission spectroscopy, the quantity of that element which is contained in the FM is determined. The technique may be used for rapid determination of EMF weight percents in the FM in the specific case if only one type of EMF is present, and of EMF average content if there are different types of EMF are present. The technique is demonstrated through the example of analysis of FM with Y, which was extracted from the carbon condensate (CC) by different solvents (C5H5N and CS2).


Past research into the determinants of appliance ownership has identified associations with socioeconomic characteristics of households. Few studies have examined the intensity with which different sorts of households use the appliances they have. This paper uses microdata to examine the factors influencing ownership and usage of electrical appliances in Irish households. We also consider the factors influencing the ownership of different cooker types, space and water heating systems and energy saving features. We find that appliance ownership and usage is
related to the socio‐economic characteristics of the household's chief income earner as well as household characteristics such as the type and age of accommodation, tenure and the number of bedrooms. The number of people living in the household has a positive association with both ownership and usage of electrical appliances. However, it does not increase ownership of energy saving features, with the exception of CFLs. The highest earning households are more likely to own electrical appliances but they do not necessarily use them more often, nor are they more
likely to purchase energy saving features.


Cancer survival rates for youth have improved by 20%-30% in the past two decades, resulting in a greater need for therapeutic interventions that address the resulting psychosocial needs of patients post traditional medical treatment (Greenlee, Murray, Bolden, & Windgo, 2000). The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of attendance at a pediatric oncology camp designed to support the psychosocial needs of youth 8-18 years of age. Campers attending the oncology camp from Sunday through Friday were given a 12-item evaluation at the beginning of the week (pretest) and again at the end of the week (posttest) to gather quantitative data on independence, social skills, and self-esteem. A threemonth follow-up telephone interview was conducted to generate qualitative emerging themes. Findings suggest that campers had statistically significant improvements in self-esteem while emergent themes included a supportive community, normalizing experience, positive recollection of their camp experience and memories of specific activities. Social comparison theory is the foundation of the study and provides a framework for interpreting the results.


Here, we report the preparation and photo-physical characterization of hexa-coordinated vertebrate globins, human neuroglobin (hNgb) and cytoglobin (hCygb), with the native iron protoporphyrin IX (FePPIX) cofactor replaced by a fluorescent isostructural analogue, zinc protoporphyrin IX (ZnPPIX). To facilitate insertion of ZnPPIX into hexa-coordinated globins, apoproteins prepared via butanone extraction were unfolded by the addition of GuHCl and subsequently slowly refolded in the presence of ZnPPIX. The absorption/emission spectra of ZnPPIX reconstituted hCygb are similar to those observed for ZnPPIX reconstituted myoglobin whereas the absorption and emission spectra of ZnPPIX reconstituted hNgb are blue shifted by ∼2 nm. Different steady state absorption and emission properties of ZnPPIX incorporated in hCygb and hNgb are consistent with distinct hydrogen bonding interactions between ZnPPIX and the globin matrix. The fluorescence lifetime of ZnPPIX in hexa-coordinated globins is bimodal pointing towards increased heterogeneity of the heme binding cavity in hCygb and hNgb. ZnPPIX reconstituted Ngb binds to cytochrome c with the same affinity as reported for the native protein, suggesting that fluorescent analogues of Cygb and Ngb can be readily employed to monitor interactions between vertebrate hexa-coordinated globins and other proteins.


Two finite-state vector designs are introduced, namely, side-match vector quantizers (SMVQ) and overlap-match vector quantizers (OMVQ). The underlying ideas of SMVQ and OMVQ are simple and intuitive, and so are their design procedures. They try to avoid large grey-level transitions across pixel block (vector) boundaries which cause the annoying 'blockyness' effect in memoryless VQ. Experimental results show that when they are applied to 512*512 grey-level images, SMVQ and OMVQ can achieve communication-quality reproduction 33.5 dB peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) at the average rate of 1/2 bit per pixel per image frame and acceptable quality reproduction (30 dB PSNR) at 1/4 bit per pixel. These performances are superior to those of ordinary VQ by more than 3 dB in PSNR. Further, because block boundaries are less visible, the perceived improvement in quality over ordinary VQ is even greater.<<ETX>>


The study examined the effect of brain-based strategy on senior secondary school students' performance in Mathematics in Ekiti State. The study adopted the quasi-experimental of pre-test, post-test design. The population for the study consisted of all the Senior Secondary School three (S.S.S. II) students in all public Secondary Schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The sample consisted of 181 S.S.S. II found in intact classes of the four schools that were selected for the study through multistage sampling procedure. Mathematical Based Performance Test (MBPT) was used to collect the needed data for this study. The instrument consisted of 50 items to examine the performance of students in Mathematics. The experimental procedure for the study was in three stages: the pre-treatment stage (one week), the treatment stage (ten weeks) and the post-treatment stage (one week). The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was revealed that brain-based strategy was more effective and reliable than the conventional method. It was recommended among others that brain-based strategy should be adopted as a means of instruction during Mathematics class. This will enable Mathematics teachers to pay more attention to individual students in teaching-learning process.


PURPOSE
To compare performance in successive 1-repetition maximum (1RM) tests with the load known or unknown.

METHODS
Thirty-two resistance-trained men were randomly divided into 2 groups: load blinding (BLI; n = 16; age 28.1 [6.9] y, body mass 83.1 [11.5] kg, height 175.3 [5.8] cm) and load nonblinding (nBLI; n = 16; age 27.7 [4.1] y, body mass 83.2 [12.8] kg, height 178.7 [7.3] cm). The groups performed a 1RM test during 4 days (with an interval of 24-48 h) in the horizontal bench press with free weight.

RESULTS
In the BLI, there were no significant changes throughout the tests, with a difference of 1.6% between the first and fourth 1RM tests. In the nBLI, there was a significant interaction with time, and the values of the second (P = .03), third (P = .02), and fourth (P = .01) tests were higher than the first test; in addition, the fourth test was significantly higher than the second test (P = .02). The percentage difference between the last and first 1RM tests was 7.1%. The comparison between the groups demonstrated differences in the third (P = .04) and fourth (P = .02) tests with higher values in the nBLI. The intraclass correlation coefficient between the first and fourth 1RM tests was .93 for the BLI and .91 for the nBLI.

CONCLUSION
BLI does not influence 1RM testing in the bench press exercise.


Following the theme of a conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2016, this article explores the notion of "enabling students to live a beautiful life" as a possible end of education. A distinction is made between short-term, contextual aims in education and overarching, encompassing end(s) of education. Following Dewey, educational aims are considered to be manifold and to change over time within a sociocultural context, whereas a proper end of education, if such a thing exists, could be seen as "the best possible realization of humanity as humanity." Drawing further on the work of R. S. Peters, who contests the existence of any final end of education other than education itself, it can be seen that proposing such an end can be a challenging undertaking. Nevertheless, this article argues for a possible humanistic end of education, building on Schmid's philosophical concept of the art of living in conjunction with the German notion of Bildung and Aristotle's concept of phronesis, consolidating Peter's and Dewey's positions. An argument is made that a, if not the end of education would be to support every person as much as reasonably possible to develop their own art of living and live a good and beautiful life. Resulting implications for schooling, curricula and education systems are explored to show how education understood in such way transcends theory into practice.


Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition characterised by recurrent epileptic seizures. Various antiepileptic drugs are used for the management of canine idiopathic epilepsy. Phenobarbital is the drug of choice for long-term treatment in dogs. Although it is well tolerated, phenobarbital can cause liver injury if administered alone or in combination with other drugs. Therefore, the main of this study was to identify dogs with presumptive diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy and information about the antiepileptic drugs, the dose and frequency of administration, period of treatment, frequency of the seizure before and after start the treatment, complementary exams and adverse effects. Materials, Methods & Results: In this study were included 21 dogs with idiopathic epilepsy. All dogs were examined and having blood taken for blood count, biochemical tests (ALT, AST, AP, total protein, albumin, creatinine, urea, amylase, lipase, cholesterol and triglycerides), measurement of serum phenobarbital and/or potassium bromide and, some dogs, free T4 by dialysis and canine TSH. In this study, it was observed monotherapy (phenobarbital) in 76.19% (16/21), double therapy (phenobarbital and potassium bromide) in 19.05% (4/21) and triple therapy (phenobarbital, potassium bromide and gabapentin) in 4.76% (1/21) of dogs. The phenobarbital was used as monotherapy with dose between 1.4 and 12 mg kg-1 and the median of serum concentration was 26.41 μg kg-1. There was significant reduction in the frequency of the seizure after start the treatment. There was refractory to antiepileptic drugs in two dogs (9.5%). In blood analysis, there was increase serum activities of AP (23.81%) and ALT (14.20%), decrease total protein (42.29%), hypoalbuminemia (9.5%) and it was not increased AST activities. The main adverse effects were nodularliver damage and hypothyroidism. Discussion: In most cases of dogs with idiopathic epilepsy, monotherapy is preferred, because it tends to avoid complications that may arise from drug interactions and may also improve compliance by providing a simple treatment regimen. In this study, the phenobarbital controlled the seizures when used as monotherapy. It is considered success of an antiseizure drug when there is a reduction of seizure frequency by at least 50%, with minimal drug side effects. Approximately 20-30% of dogs with epilepsy do not have satisfactory seizure control or experience intolerable adverse effects with appropriate conventional medical treatment. In this study, there was refractory to antiepileptic drugs in 9.5%, one dog treated with phenobarbital and other with phenobarbital and potassium bromide. The long-term use of phenobarbital causes increase in liver enzymes, ALT and, mainly, ALP, these are attributed to enzymatic induction and to low degree of liver damage. ALT and AP increased the values and this does not necessarily indicate clinically significant liver damage or the need to stop therapy. The risk of liver toxicity appears to be greater with concentrations higher than 35 μg mL-1 or when multiple potentially hepatotoxic drugs are used. Other factors associated to the long-term use of anticonvulsant, such phenobarbital, potassium bromide or both, for the treatment of idiopathic epilepsy in dogs is acute pancreatitis and hypothyroidism. In this study, it was not observed acute pancreatitis, but there were two dogs with hypothyroidism. The long-term use of phenobarbital did not cause significant side effects, even with changes in the biochemical tests.


Purpose It is theorized that the prevalence of obesity has not decreased owing to poor adherence to implemented programs addressing metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes in Japan. Therefore, we intended to evaluate the influence of a moderately low-carbohydrate diet on improving markers of metabolic syndrome among workers in Japan. Patients and Methods Participants with metabolic syndrome or obesity were recruited based on the eligibility criteria for the Specific Health Guidance program and educated on a moderately low-carbohydrate diet between spring 2016 and fall 2018. The participants were then made to report their food intake and body weight once a week for the next 12 weeks and were counselled on maintaining a moderately low-carbohydrate diet. HbA1c levels, lipid profile, body weight, and sleep quality were evaluated. The normality of the data was evaluated using the Skewness/Kurtosis test. Each variable was compared before and after the intervention using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Further, a subgroup analysis of the data from the participants whose variables were abnormal at baseline was performed. Results Among the 101 enrolled participants, a decrease in the median weight (from 82.5 to 79.7 kg, p<0.001, n=46), body mass index (from 27.3 to 26.9 kg/m2, p<0.001, n=46), and apnea-hypopnea index (from 24.1 to 17.1, p<0.01, n=39) was observed. Subgroup analysis of participants with abnormal baseline values revealed changes in HbA1c (from 6.7% to 5.8%, p<0.001, n=34), total cholesterol (from 220 to 209 mg/dL, p<0.01, n=54), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (from 133 to 120 mg/dL, p<0.001, n=31), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (from 35 to 40 mg/dL, p<0.01, n=31), triglycerides (from 242 to 190 mg/dL, p<0.01, n=57), and deep sleep percentage (from 10.4% to 18.2%, p<0.05, n=7). Conclusion A moderately low-carbohydrate diet may be considered a potential intervention for improving the markers of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes.


Concurrence can measure the entanglement property of a system. If the channel is a pure state, positive concurrence state can afford the good performance in the teleportation process. If the channel ia a mixed state, positive concurrence state cannot assure the good performance in the teleportation. The conditions of the positive concurrence and the quantum teleportation in the Heisenberg spin ring is derived.


This thesis aims to contribute to an explanation of how the development of political institutions is influenced by the costs of information and exchange across society in a pre-modern context. The Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century presents an apparent paradox of an expanding economy alongside a weakening central state. Application of a dynamic transaction-cost framework can illustrate how political and economic decentralisation can rationally occur as non-state actors begin to gain a comparative transaction-cost advantage over the state. Geopolitical and economic developments of the late-eleventh and twelfth century empowered non-state provincial interests in the Byzantine Empire to the detriment of the central state apparatus, including the imperial bureaucracy. Economic growth, an increasingly fluid provincial political environment, and the decline of the imperial navy simultaneously raised the transaction costs of the state and lowered the transaction costs of local interests. This shift prompted the decentralisation of power that ultimately contributed to the destruction of the Byzantine state in 1204. The state faced increasing relative costs of information acquisition, security provision, and tax collection as provincial transaction costs declined and state networks were allowed to degrade. Decentralisation of political and economic power became first possible, then practical, and finally unavoidable in a process that fatally undermined the cohesion of the empire. This thesis uses a transaction cost framework to provide an economically informed explanation of political decline that complements the traditional politically focused narrative and begins to address the contradiction apparent in a state ruling over increasingly prosperous territory, yet proving so fragile by the closing years of the twelfth century.


Nano-crystalline boehmite (AlOOH) proposed as a precursor for g-Al2O3 production was prepared using precipitation process. The mixture of two starting solutions of AlN3O9.9H2O and Na2Al2O4 was formed and NaOH was used as pH adjustment. Various preparation conditions, starting pH and temperatures were applied. The results suggested that high purity AlOOH powder could be obtained at solution temperature above 60oC and starting pH was in range 7-11. Their crystalline size increased from 2.4 to 3.9 nm with increasing pH. According to the results, AlOOH from pH 8 and temperature 80oC was selected for producing the g-Al2O3 by calcination in the temperature range of 350oC-1100oC. Transformation from AlO(OH) to g-Al2O3 could be readily observed from the whole temperature range and g-Al2O3 crystalline size was increased with increasing calcination temperature. After the temperature reached 1100oC, transformation to a- and q- phases were also found. Morphology of g-Al2O3 powder shows a strong aggomeration.


The electrodeposition of cobalt nanoparticles from mixture of 1-butyl-3- methylimidazolium chloride (BMIC) ionic liquid and urea was investigated. The results from the cyclic voltammetry (CV) show that the reduction of Co(II) to cobalt is an irreversible process and controlled by the diffusion of Co(II) on Pt working electrode. The cobalt nanoparticles prepared by direct current (DC) electrodeposition method at 70 °C were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Test results indicate that the Co nanoparticles are grain-like arrays and link together because of their magnetic property. The average length of these particles is about 100 nm.


Introduction It is crucial that residents learn in environments that are psychologically safe and free of morale-harming rumors. This workshop introduced the Ladder of Inference as a means for programs to foster psychological safety, mitigate against rumors, and increase trust. Methods Residents and faculty of two residency programs (cohorts A and B) were introduced to the Ladder of Inference. After an interactive discussion, small groups applied the concept to engaging, highly relevant hypothetical situations. Debriefing and reflection followed the group work. Finally, attendees completed an assessment of the workshop's effectiveness (10 7-point questions) and their satisfaction (one 7-point question). Results Seventeen residents from cohort A completed the workshop, and 15 completed the assessment (response rate: 88%). Participants found it favorable (M = 65.9 out of 70) and satisfactory (6.3 out of 7). Twenty-eight residents and faculty from cohort B completed the workshop, and 15 completed the assessment (response rate: 54%). Cohort B participants also found the workshop favorable (M = 64.8) and satisfactory (6.8). Both cohorts felt the workshop was effective in helping them understand the concept of the Ladder of Inference (6.5 for both cohorts) and would provide value in their residency program in the future (6.1 for cohort A, 6.7 for cohort B) and at other organizations (6.3 for cohort A, 6.7 for cohort B). Discussion This workshop is an effective method whereby participants can develop and apply an understanding of the Ladder of Inference. This shared understanding can promote trust and enhance the resilience of a program.


Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to increase the early initiation of comprehensive antenatal care in socially disadvantaged and vulnerable women. Design Systematic review. Data Sources Major bibliographic databases (Medline, Cinahl, Embase, PsycINFO, HMIC, CENTRAL) and other online libraries and resources were searched to identify relevant English language journal articles published 1990–2009. We included comparative studies (experimental or observational) evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention on the proportion of women initiating antenatal care by any defined cut-off point ≤20 weeks in a disadvantaged or vulnerable population. In order to focus on interventions relevant in the context of the UK National Health Service, we excluded studies from low-income countries and those relating to financial interventions such as extension of health insurance coverage or similar. Review Methods Two reviewers independently extracted data for eligible studies; assessed internal validity using the GATE checklist and considered whether the studies provided evidence of a beneficial effect. Results Over 3000 citations were screened. Sixteen eligible studies were identified; 14 conducted in the USA, one in Australia and one in the UK. All were observational evaluations. Twelve studies evaluated interventions targeted at specific disadvantaged or vulnerable subgroups of the population (predominantly ethnic minority women or teenagers); the remaining studies evaluated interventions in more generally socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Eleven studies evaluated interventions that involved outreach or other community-based services, and five evaluated interventions that involved alternative models of clinic-based antenatal care. Overall, the quality of evidence was poor. Only one study, which evaluated a US home visiting intervention delivered by paraprofessional women to pregnant adolescents, was considered to have adequate internal validity. The reviewers considered the evidence relating to this intervention to be inconclusive but consistent with a possible beneficial effect of the intervention on timing of initiation of antenatal care. Conclusion We found insufficient evidence of adequate quality to reliably conclude that any of the interventions considered were effective at increasing the early initiation of antenatal care in socially disadvantaged and vulnerable women. There was weak evidence of effectiveness relating to one intervention based on home visiting for pregnant adolescents. Findings were inconclusive for all other included interventions, although we identified several strategies that might warrant further consideration and possibly more robust evaluation. The results of this review highlight the paucity of evidence and the need for further high quality research to ensure that future service innovations are evidence based.


BACKGROUND
Copper-associated hepatitis (CAH) has been well described in Labrador Retrievers. However, the association of CAH with proximal renal tubular dysfunction in this breed has not been characterized.

OBJECTIVES
To report clinical features, hepatic and renal histopathologic findings, tissue copper concentrations, and outcome of Labradors with CAH and proximal renal tubular disease.

ANIMALS
Nine Labrador Retrievers with renal glucosuria and biopsy-confirmed CAH.

METHODS
Clinical, clinicopathologic, and light microscopic findings were retrospectively reviewed. Rhodanine staining or atomic emission spectroscopy was performed on all hepatic samples and available renal tissue (4 dogs) to assess copper concentrations.

RESULTS
Eight dogs had a history of polyuria and polydipsia, and all dogs had increased serum bilirubin concentrations. Five dogs had hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis. Three dogs with acidemia had paradoxical alkalinuria. All renal specimens had increased copper concentrations. Renal tubular vacuolization, degeneration, and regeneration were observed on light microscopy. Four dogs died within 10 days of diagnosis. One dog survived 2 months; 4 dogs survived more than 1 year. In long-term survivors, including 2 that did not undergo immediate copper chelation, resolution of renal tubular dysfunction occurred within weeks to months.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Labrador Retrievers with CAH can develop clinical and laboratory evidence of renal tubular dysfunction in association with increased renal copper concentrations. Given the rarity of renal tubular disorders, detection of renal glucosuria and increased ALT activity in a Labrador Retriever is suggestive of CAH. Although renal tubular dysfunction may indicate advanced disease, successful long-term outcome is possible with a variety of therapies.


Purpose. To compare measured visual field extent for a 6° stimulus (typical size used in studies of infants) with a 1.5° stimulus (similar to the largest size used in Goldmann perimetry) in young infants. Methods. A total of 120 infants (60 each at 3.5 months and 7 months of age) and 24 adults were tested monocularly with a kinetic perimetry procedure using a black double-arc perimeter. Each subject was tested with either a 6° or 1.5° white sphere, which was mounted on a black wand and moved smoothly toward the intersection of the perimeter arms at 3.4°/s. Visual field extent along each perimeter arm was defined as the median of 2 to 3 measurements of the position of the leading edge of the stimulus when the subject made an eye movement toward the stimulus. Results. The 6° stimulus produced larger measured visual field extent than the 1.5° stimulus in 3.5-month olds (temporal field only) and in 7-month olds (nasal and temporal field), but not in adults. Conclusions. Using the testing conditions of the present study, increasing stimulus size beyond the largest used in a Goldmann perimeter (∼2°) increases measured visual field extent in young infants, but not in adults. This may relate to differences in peripheral summation areas or to differences in attentional factors between infants and adults.


This is the second of Structure and Dynamics' thought-provoking series on potential impacts of iconic representations in communicating and helping to implement sustainable human practices. This discussion focuses on ways to expand broad cultural dialogs on solutions to sustainability. The definition of sustainability that is employed here insists that cultural behaviors as they work out in the landscape behave in manners similar to those of natural systems. The complexities and instabilities of ecosystems in relation to anthropic climate change are represented through use of eco-systems theory as subject matter in art-making. They describe and instantiate this in a series of museum installations and dialogs intended to catch the attention and engage scientific researchers, planners, policymakers, and the public in rethinking sustainability. Part I, "Peninsula Europe: The High Ground", begins by the rethinking of clean-water sourcing, maintenance of ecosystem diversity, reconceptualizing the role of mountain high grounds and river systems as regional Trans-European identities. This then is the basis of interdependencies expressed between cities, agriculture, and industry. Part II, "The Rising of Waters, the Warming of Lands," brings these issues and dialogs into proactive alignment, sketching the imperative to fund and form grounded thinking-acting groups that would take up the broadest range of issues and proposals, and offer possible solutions as human responses to the cultural and ecological shockwaves that will be coming upon us as outcomes from global warming. Part III discusses the public-dialog ecological art projects leading to Peninsula Europe and assesses the impact of these museum installations on the regions and the cultural practices that are envisioned in the work. Each of these expressions show, from the perspective of publicly-engaged ecological artists, how icons and other text/image strategies can act as compact representations of complex interactive systems and how they can be used to address the unsustainability that has resulted in global warming. First, both the iconic images and the text image ensembles that are too particular to be iconic but emerge out of dialogues focus upon regional cultural and ecological issues and on fundamental concepts and processes for reorganizing human beliefs and practices. These dialogic formations open up both figurative and literal grounds for thinking about alternatives that are broader and more proactive than those that rely primarily on market forces, technological "fixes", and top-down or bureaucratic planning. Second, the imagery evolves and matures through an image/text oscillation, alternating the adjustment of the icons with the investigation of the messages conveyed to various segments of the communities. This evolution of an icon, text, and image as a strategy is particularly important. When they are adjusted to challenge entrenched beliefs and practices within industrial markets and governments that maintain the current path toward ecological disaster. Third, mature, functioning icons, i.e., the shape of a drain basin where in an instant all can see and know it as their place and their responsibility (see text: The Santa Fe Watershed: Lessons from the Genius of Place). Icons, text, and image have functioned in this way in the context of the disappearing forests of the northwest U.S. Moreover, they suggest iconic forms that might function in Europe although the look and text and proposed outcomes might differ considerably. What are less obvious here, perhaps, are the roles that anthropology and complexity studies must play in this great effort. Both fields are vital to the description and evaluation of the impact of this iconic approach and narrative. The identification of cultural values and beliefs is clearly the province of anthropology and the identification of the complicated networks of intra- and intergroup and interspecies relationships is clearly the work of complexity studies. There is, consequently, a call to action here for both of these areas of study to contribute to reaching the goal of universal ecological sustainability. Structure and Dynamics hopes to act as a medium of that call to action and encourages contributions that bridge ecological and cultural issues.


The multirate digital filter is useful in realizing narrowband characteristics because multiplication can be reduced by using different sampling frequencies, at the same time reducing the order of the filter to be realized. This paper introduces the complex coefficient into the traditional design of the low-pass multirate filter. The construction method is proposed for the multirate bandpass digital filter with complex coefficients. By applying the complex coefficient filters to the decimeter and interpolator composing the multirate filter, bandpass characteristics can easily be obtained. By employing the multistage cascade structure, the number of multiplications and the memory capacity for coefficients can be reduced greatly. Then a new design method for the complex-coefficient filter is proposed based on the properties of the analytic signal. The discussion in this paper applies to both FIR and IIR filters.


A fundamental challenge in artificial intelligence is to build an agent that generalizes and adapts to unseen environments. A common strategy is to build a decoder that takes the context of the unseen new environment as input and generates a policy accordingly. The current paper studies how to build a decoder for the fundamental continuous control task, linear quadratic regulator (LQR), which can model a wide range of real-world physical environments. We present a simple algorithm for this problem, which uses upper confidence bound (UCB) to refine the estimate of the decoder and balance the exploration-exploitation trade-off. Theoretically, our algorithm enjoys a $\widetilde{O}\left(\sqrt{T}\right)$ regret bound in the online setting where $T$ is the number of environments the agent played. This also implies after playing $\widetilde{O}\left(1/\epsilon^2\right)$ environments, the agent is able to transfer the learned knowledge to obtain an $\epsilon$-suboptimal policy for an unseen environment. To our knowledge, this is first provably efficient algorithm to build a decoder in the continuous control setting. While our main focus is theoretical, we also present experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.


In vivo maturation (IVM) of human oocytes is a technique used to increase the number of usable oocytes for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and represents a necessity for women with different ovarian pathologies. During IVM the oocytes progress from the germinal vesicle stage (GV) through the metaphase II and during this journey both nuclear and cytoplasmic rearrangements must be obtained to increase the probability to get viable and healthy zygotes/embryos after IVF. As the successful clinical outcomes of this technique are a reality, we wanted to investigate the causes behind oocytes maturation arrest. For obvious ethical reasons, we were able to analyze only few human immature oocytes discarded and donated to research by transmission electron microscopy showing that, as in the mouse, they have different chromatin and cytoplasmic organizations both essential for further embryo development.


Resting and stimulated plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline concentration were compared in 45 females and 45 males of similar age who did not smoke, drink alcohol or caffeine-containing beverages. At rest plasma noradrenaline levels were consistently higher in females and adrenaline levels higher in males. These sex-related differences were maintained after isometric exercise, mental arithmetic and cold pressor testing. Resting noradrenaline concentration was negatively correlated with Quetelet index in males and positively correlated with age in females. These findings, based on precise catecholamine measurements under standardized conditions in subjects of similar age, reveal important sex-related differences which need to be taken into account in assessing sympatho-adrenal activity, particularly in relation to mechanisms in essential hypertension.


Passage of proteins across membranes during export from their site of synthesis to their final destination is mediated by leader peptides that paradoxically exhibit a unity of function in spite of a diversity of sequence. These leader peptides act in at least two stages of the export process: at entry into the pathway and subsequently during translocation across the membrane. How selectivity is imposed on the system in the absence of a consensus among the sequences of leader peptides is the main issue discussed here.


Situational, psychosocial, physical health-related Abstract A biopsychosocial perspective was employed to assess associations among situational and psychosocial variables related to health, health care, and HIV/AIDS risk behaviors among 479 homeless men (age 18–64). Poor health was not significantly associated with sexual risk behaviors and was only modestly associated with injection drug use (IDU). Health care was not significantly associated with sexual risk behavior or IDU. HIV/AIDS risk behaviors were highly associated with homelessness severity and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). IDU was significantly associated with greater emotional distress and was more likely among younger men and among white men. Sexual risk behavior was more frequent among those who had particularly poor quality housing such as living on the street or in abandoned buildings. Because interactions with the medical community are limited and not associated with HIV/AIDS risk, outreach in areas in which homeless men congregate, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and permanent supportive housing may help reduce HIV risk among homeless men more effectively.


In recent years, the uniportal approach has become one of the most exciting and innovative developments in minimally invasive thoracic surgery. While the debate over its supposed advantages, learning curve and complexity continues, this manuscript explores the technical aspects of performing the hilar dissection for a lobectomy via the uniportal approach. Using a step-by-step narration, surgical details and key tips and tricks are laid out for the beginner hoping to clarify basic steps of the technique.


1. A new antimetabolite, 6-mercaptopurine, has been shown to produce good clinical and hematologic remissions in fifteen out of forty-five children with acute leukemia. Another ten showed partial remissions and clinical improvement.

2. Remissions in adults with acute leukemia have occasionally been brought about by 6-mercaptopurine, and in a few cases it has produced temporary remissions in both the early and the late stages of chronic myelocytic leukemia.

3. The compound has been effective in some children whose disease was resistant to the folic acid antagonists, as shown by the fact that out of twenty-four children with acute leukemia whose disease had been proved to be resistant to amethopterin, five had good clinical and hematologic remissions and five had partial remissions with some marrow and clinical improvement. Some benefit was seen in eight out of eighteen patients whose disease was resistant to ACTH and cortisone.

4. In children the daily oral administration of 2.5 mg./Kg. rarely caused toxic manifestations, but continued therapy at this dose in adults or at higher levels in children occasionally produced bone marrow depression or gastrointestinal symptoms.

5. There is evidence that the therapeutic resistance of the acute leukemias to 6MP develops somewhat more rapidly than it does to the folic acid antagonists but there is, as yet, no laboratory or clinical evidence of cross resistance between these two types of antimetabolites.

6. In a total of thirty-five patients with lymphomas and miscellaneous carcinomas and sarcomas, 6MP did not produce any definite clinical improvement at doses which produced hematologic toxicity.

7. Although 6-mercaptopurine acts as a purine antagonist in certain forms of bacteria, the exact mechanism of its action in leukemia is at present unknown. Since its mode of action appears to differ from that of other agents previously employed clinically in the treatment of leukemia, this compound would appear to be of fundamental as well as practical interest.


To find the cure of world's one of the leading morbid and mortal disorders; diabetes mellitus and its most prevalent complication, 'diabetic-dyslipidemia', is one of the leading health challenges of 21st century. The use of phytomedicine is a glimmer of hope in this scenario. Studies of current decade have shown that methanolic extracts of Zingiber officinale and Curcuma longa have highly effective therapeutic potentials against the aforesaid disorders, however, which of the extracts has more potential is still unclear. Furthermore, synergistic effect of the extracts has never been studied. Forty-eight Albino adult rats of either sex were randomly divided into eight groups. A-D groups were containing healthy rats while E-H groups were of induced diabetic-dyslipidemic rats. For forty-two days, rats of each group were given either distilled water or Zingiber officinale methanolic extract (ZOME) or Curcuma longa methanolic extract (CLME) or ZOME+CLME therapies at dose rate of 300mg/100 mL dist. H2O/kg body wt/day. FPG and lipid profiles were estimated before and after the trial, and were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA along with Post-hoc Tukey's multiple comparison tests. Although, ZOME and CLME significantly (P<0.05) lowered fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels and controlled lipid profiles in diabetic-dyslipidemic rats; yet, synergistic therapy of both extracts (ZOME+CLME) most significantly (P<0.05) controlled all parameters of diabetic-dyslipidemia (78.00±1.06mg/dL FPG, 62.00±0.58mg/dL TG, 66.50±0.76mg/dL cholesterol, 32.00±0.36mg/dL HDL, 22.43±0.64 mg/dL LDL, and 12.40±0.12mg/dL VLDL). Our findings may be useful to formulate new medicines having multiple potentials to control diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and diabetic-dyslipidemia.


Risky consumption of alcohol is a global burden. Patients who overuse alcohol are overrepresented in emergency departments and surgical wards. These patients have an increased risk of postoperative complications together with prolonged hospital stays and admissions to intensive care units after surgery. In elective surgery, preoperative alcohol cessation interventions can reduce postoperative complications. To date, no studies have investigated the effect of intensive alcohol cessation intervention at the time of acute surgical emergency procedures on postoperative complications. The purpose of this thesis is to establish new evidence on the prevention of complications in acute surgical patients with risky alcohol intake.  The thesis was based on two studies described in four papers. The first study was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) – the Scand-Ankle study – that aimed to evaluate the effects of a gold standard programme for alcohol cessation intervention (GSP-A) in the perioperative period on postoperative complications and alcohol intake, which are described in a protocol (paper I) and at 6-week follow-up (paper II) and 1 year follow-up (paper III). The second study was a systematic review with the objective assessing the effect of perioperative alcohol cessation interventions on the rate of postoperative complications and postoperative consumption of alcohol. In paper II, the GSP-A showed a significant effect on successful cessation of alcohol in the 6-week perioperative period (51% vs. 14%; p=0.001), but it did not significantly change the complication rate (42% vs. 34%; p=0.49) or costs (€8,279 vs. €9,320; p=0.63) after trauma surgery. In paper III, at the 1-year follow-up, the participants had relapsed to their previous drinking habits, and both the intervention and control groups reported a high complication rate of 46% in the GSP-A group versus 55% in control group (p=0.47). The systematic review (paper IV) included three RCTs. These RCTs evaluated intensive alcohol cessation interventions of four to twelve week duration given to participants undergoing different types of surgical procedures with the aim of complete alcohol cessation prior to surgery. All three studies showed a significant effect on the number of participants with alcohol cessation in the intervention groups. There was a moderate quality of evidence for the effect of the intensive alcohol cessation interventions on postoperative complications. Generalisation of the results of the Scand-Ankle study and systematic review should be considered carefully because they included relatively few participants, and the intervention studies were performed in a Danish population, which may differ from other populations in other countries. It is important that the surgical staff identify patients who are vulnerable during surgery to inform them of their increased risk of developing postoperative complications. We need to rethink the strategy for acute surgery in patients with risky alcohol intake to reduce their high risk of postoperative morbidity.


Flexible interconnects are needed that meet assembly requirements for future applications in flexible consumer electronics products. This work investigates the electrical contact mechanism of ultrathin chip-on-flex (UTCOF) package using anisotropic conductive adhesive (ACA), which is highly flexible. In this paper, a 3-D nonlinear finite element (FE) model, which integrates analytical models of ACA joints and the thermal-mechanical behaviors of the UTCOF, is presented. The model is then applied to simulate the electrical contact mechanism for various ACA joints after thermocompression. Moreover, a "death-birth" meshing scheme is utilized to determine the effect of ACA resin temperature on contact resistance of the ACA joints. Multiple particle models are also generated using the ANSYS program. To validate the suitability of the proposed FE analytical model, contact resistance is measured to determine the bonding quality for 80-μm -pitch UTCOF test samples. The interfaces between the silicon chip and substrate for samples bonded under different bonding pressures are observed using cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy. The contact resistances obtained from the 3-D FE models were in good agreement with experimental results and can be used to predict the effects of thermocompression loading, pressure unloading, and cooling to room temperature on electrical contact mechanism in ACA joints after thermocompression. Generally, the gold bump and the compliant bump joined with multiple conductive particles reached stable contact resistance by capturing five to nine conductive particles. Contact resistance of an ACA-bonded UTCOF can be estimated using a proposed empirical model equation, particularly under loading conditions of L = 40%-60%. Overall, this work improves the design of flip chips for flexible electronics and the understanding of the electrical contact mechanism for ACA joints.


Background Elite male rugby union players have a decreased active cervical spine rage of motion (ACROM), the severity correlates to both number of years playing and position (Lark & McCarthy 2007, Scher 1990), but a measurable decrease occurs over a season (Lark & McCarthy 2010). Objective The aim was to ascertain whether a neck prehabiliation protocol, using body weighted suspension bands (FKPro), could affect the expected attrition in cervical spine function. Design ACROM of all participants was measured with a CROM device (Capuano-Pucci et al 1991), using a Latin square randomisation to eliminate order effects. Likert scale questionnaires were also provided to all participants (pain and associated symptomatology). Setting A clinical setting within semi professional Welsh Rugby Union Club. Participants 19 participants were recruited from Beddau RFC first XV. All players were included in the study, unless the player was ruled out from training or playing for clinical reasons. Height 181.5 (±5.9) cm, weight 98.7 (±17.2 kg, age 23.9 (±4.2) yrs. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Participants underwent a progressive 8 week intervention, using the FKPRO with neck harness. Postural and isometric holds were performed of 30 seconds duration in four directions under clinical supervision twice weekly (training days). Main Outcome Measurements Change in ACROM. Results Table 1 Total flexion/ extension Total rotation Total lateral flexion PRE intervention 122.8 (±14.2) 123.0 (±19.5) 89.3 (±14.3) POST intervention 126.4 (±16.7) 128.6 (±15.4) 87.1 (±13.8) Conclusions The apparent lack of decrease in ACROM (i.e. no statistical difference) could indicate that the prehabilitation protocol helps compensate for the effects of participation in the contact sport on the cervical spine of athletes. A full study (duration of the playing season) is currently underway.


The paper focuses on the characteristics of Canada as a multicultural society, as well as on the peculiarities of tourists arriving to Holguin from this country. The analysis of the list of Canadian visitors arriving to this destination, supported by a survey, proved that multiculturalism is a common fact among tourists coming from this nation. This evidence suggests that ethnic groups bearing different social and cultural characteristics demand as well, the establishment of exclusive service and sales strategies which may match particular needs and expectations of each group. The acceptance of this assessment also presupposes the changing of theoretical foundations for the training of future tourism professionals.


Over a period of 11 months, 435 milk samples were collected from 92 lactating female camels on a ranch in Northern Kenya that was traditionally managed. The samples were examined bacteriologically to determine the causative agents of camel mastitis in Kenya. 145 samples (33.3%) yielded no growth. The most prevalent pathogen was group D (non-enterococci) streptococci, which was 30.0% of the total isolates. The other dominant organisms were coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CNS)(20.1%), as follows: Staphylococcus aureus (16.0%), Streptococcus agalactiae (1.5%) and Streptococcus dysgalactiae (3.6%). Although Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus dysgalactiae appear low in prevalence, they were associated with subclinical mastitis. However, Streptococcus agalactiae and S. aureus were ranked as infectious pathogens while the group D streptococci, Streptococcus dysgalactiae , CNS, coliforms and Micrococci were ranked as environmental pathogens. J. Trop. Microbiol Vol.2 2003: 11-16


In 2008 NHS Yorkshire and the Humber instigated a project to develop an educational commissioning framework for the workforce in mental health and learning disabilities. Part of this work is focussed on providing evidence and developing frameworks for the implementation of new ways of working. The development of associate practitioner roles is an integral part of this process and crucial to future workforce planning. Associate practitioners are workers who have skills and knowledge beyond those of current support workers; they offer the opportunity to implement roles that meet some of the challenges for service delivery by bridging gaps in delivery. They enhance the experiences of service users and work across professional and service boundaries. Evidence from the project suggests that policy drivers when considered in the context of both workforce demographics and service commissioning patterns means that the introduction of associate practitioner is an important element of future workforce planning. The development of a regional approach has brought its own challenges and the evidence found so far has been used to develop recommendations and a second stage plan for implementation of the associate practitioner strategy.


The thesis is aimed at investigating the implications of globalization for the conduct of monetary policy. By globalization we mean increased interdependence of national economies as reflected in greater and freer flow of goods, services, capital, and labour across national borders. In particular, our research addresses a number of important issues in the recent monetary policy and globalization debate. First, are global factors becoming important drivers of domestic inflation? Second, are global factors playing more powerful role on inflation dynamics in the sectors of an economy that are more open to trade? Third, has globalization made the job of Central Bankers more difficult? And finally, do the Central Bankers in the United States and the United Kingdom consider international factors too along with domestic factors while determining the short term interest rates?

Inflation rates have been observed to be low across industrial countries since the early 1990s. The co-movements of inflation rates across countries are strikingly high. We model the co-movements of inflation rates by a global factor, regional factors and idiosyncratic component. In particular, we estimate a Dynamic Factor Model with Stochastic Volatility and find that the contribution of the global factor has increased over time in explaining the variance of inflation in OECD countries. The regional factor also gains importance in countries with strong intra-regional economic linkages potentially due to proliferation of regional trade agreements and common currency areas. In the European countries, the role of global and regional factor together dominates the country specific factor since the late 1990s. The volatility of inflation has substantially decreased over time and our modelling framework incorporates time varying volatility of inflation. We find strong positive and significant relationship between the international common factor and economic globalization.
Consistent with inflation becoming a global phenomenon, co-movements of aggregate inflation between countries are observed to be high. We examine whether this is also the case for sectoral inflation, we model the co-movements in sectoral inflation as being associated with a global factor, a sector specific factor and an idiosyncratic error term. We find that the co-movements of inflation of tradable sectors are substantially greater than the co-movements in non-tradable sectors which implies that the greater co-movements of inflation can be attributed to increased trade global integration of product markets. To test this, we attempt to find empirical relationship between the estimated common factor in sectors and openness to trade measured as import penetration. A positive relationship is found between the estimated sector specific common factors and import penetration.

Given our earlier chapters identify important global dimension to aggregate and sectoral inflation, does this matter for monetary policy? The implication of globalization for monetary policy in the United States and the United Kingdom are examined by estimating monetary policy reaction function for these advanced economies over the sample period 1985-2010. We also consider time variations in these reaction function by estimating over a sub-sample of 1992-2010 for the United Kingdom and the Greenspan-Bernanke Era for the United States. We estimate the policy reaction function with domestic and global inflation and output gaps and with the component of domestic inflation and output gap that is not related to global variations. The policy reaction function augmented with foreign variables such as real effective exchange rate and foreign interest rate is also estimated. We use measures of inflation based on GDP deflator, CPI and inflation expectations. We find that the Federal Reserve responds to global inflation only in the full sample and to global as well as the country specific inflation in the second sub-sample (Greenspan-Bernanke Era). This may imply strong commitment of the Federal Reserve to the goal of ``price stability'' during Greenspan-Bernanke Era. The Bank of England responds to global inflation along with the country specific inflation. The international factors such as the real effective exchange rate changes (depreciation) and foreign interest rates have significant and positive effect on policy rates.


SIR: The exploding explosion of information is a formidable challenge, but not a cause for despair. Better methods of indexing, more practical digests and reviews and the use of audiotapes and videotapes already promise that Information wlll be coped with better than ever before. One technique that has been neglected for too long is that of microfilming. It has advantages of saved space and movement, time and effort, and cost of reproduction. An accountant can put a dollars and cents value on most of these.


This study attempts to explore and investigate empirically how an e-government
system can be implemented at a national level; the key issues that might restrict its
implementation; and how these issues could be treated in practice. Following a
comprehensive review of the relevant literature, an initial conceptual framework for
e-government implementation is formulated The framework is then applied in a real
world case study to support further data collection and to establish an exhaustive
view of the e-government implementation process at a national level. The case study examines the development of an e-government implementation in Qatar
and involved 26 semi-structured interviews, 10 observations, 10 electronic reports,
analysis of around 50 documents, and numerous newspaper articles and press
releases. The interviewees included senior officials from the e-government steering
committee, the e-government project team and various government ministries. The
documentations included all the key documents relating the e-government project.
Based on the data collected the initial framework is then revised by using the
interpretive case study approach, which depends on an iterative research cycle where
triangulated data are extracted The study then combined the evidence from the
literature with the case study data to narrow the gap between e-government
implementation theory and practice.
As a result, a comprehensive framework including detailed measurements to
differentiate four development stages is created. This framework classifies the key
issues that might restrict e-government implementation into two main categories,
organisational and technological issues, and uses other issues as the development
measurements. The framework can be used as a tool to determine the road ahead for
implementing an e-government system at a national level and to identify the main
practices, processes, possible goals, progress indicators and key conditions to move
from one stage to another. It can be claimed that this study has made a novel contribution to the area of e-government and has expanded the boundaries of
knowledge, especially for governments that are seeking to implement an egovernment
system at a national level.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) will play a significant role at the "edge" of the future "Internet of Things." In particular, WSNs with transmit-only nodes are attracting more attention due to their advantages in supporting applications requiring dense and long-lasting deployment at a very low cost and energy consumption. However, the lack of receivers in transmit-only nodes renders most existing MAC protocols invalid. Based on our previous study on WSNs with pure transmit-only nodes, this work proposes a simple, yet cost effective and powerful single-hop hybrid WSN cluster architecture that contains not only transmit-only nodes but also standard nodes (with transceivers). Along with the hybrid architecture, this work also proposes a new MAC layer protocol framework called Robust Asynchronous Resource Estimation (RARE) that efficiently and reliably manages the densely deployed single-hop hybrid cluster in a self-organized fashion. Through analysis and extensive simulations, the proposed framework is shown to meet or exceed the needs of most applications in terms of the data delivery probability, QoS differentiation, system capacity, energy consumption, and reliability. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first that brings reliable scheduling to WSNs containing both nonsynchronized transmit-only nodes and standard nodes.


Polymerization of C60 is realized under high temperature and high pressure. X-ray diffraction reveals a rhombohedral lattice structure in the product, and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy confirms the formation of sp3 bonds between C60 molecules. Specific heat is then measured over the temperature range of 300–2 K. It is found that its specific heat values are significantly less than those in fullerite within the region of 80–2K, and this huge reduction is attributed to the suppression of intermolecular librational modes in polymerized C60. An excellent fit to the experimental data over the entire temperature range is provided by a model, which needs to include only three-dimensional and two-dimensional translational modes in various contributions at different temperatures.


Hand-drawn diagrams present a complex recognition problem. Fragments of the drawing are often individually ambiguous, and require context to be interpreted. We present a recognizer based on conditional random fields (CRFs) that jointly analyze all drawing fragments in order to incorporate contextual cues. The classification of each fragment influences the classification of its neighbors. CRFs allow flexible and correlated features, and take temporal information into account. Training is done via conditional MAP estimation that is guaranteed to reach the global optimum. During recognition we propagate information globally to find the joint MAP or maximum marginal solution for each fragment. We demonstrate the framework on a container versus connector recognition task.


A questionnaire was administered to 250 undergraduates to study their conceptions about the efficacy of mental images in thinking. Analysis showed that subjects rated differently the usefulness of visual imagery according to the kind of content rather than the mental process involved.


SUMMARY 1. As a part of the Tecumseh Health Study, blood pressure was recorded during three physical examination cycles covering a span of 8 years. Change in blood pressure was evaluated with reference to a variety of epidemiological variables. 2. A strong tendency was shown to regress toward the mean; high pressures tended to fall, and low pressures to rise. 3. In those with increasing systolic pressure, when categorized by percentagechange rather than change in absolute manometer readings, steepness of rise was not different in those initially high as compared with those initially low in systolic pressure. 4. Change in pressure was not related to initial degree of obesity, but was definitely related to change in absolute weight. Those whose pressure increased tended to increase in weight, and conversely. 5. Reported medical treatment had little demonstrable effect upon the proportion of persons initially hypertensive who had a decline in blood pressure 8 years later. 6. No relationship was seen between spouses in blood pressure change. Children's pattern of change did not relate to parents' pattern although the general increase in these young ages probably obscured the comparison. 7. A variety of socioeconomic, occupational as well as physiological variables were compared with patterns of change with no definite relationships found.


This paper considers when a patentee's violation of a FRAND commitment also violates the antitrust laws. It warns against two extremes. First is thinking that any violation of a FRAND obligation is an antitrust violation as well. FRAND obligations are contractual, and most breaches of contract do not violate antitrust law. The other extreme is thinking that, because a FRAND violation is a breach of contract, it cannot also be an antitrust violation.

As the Supreme Court has made clear many times, every antitrust case must consider the market environment in which conduct is evaluated. SSOs operated by multiple firms are joint ventures. Antitrust's role is to evaluate how challenged restraints operate within the venture and condemn unreasonably anticompetitive practices. The district court and Ninth Circuit's approaches in the Qualcomm litigation illustrate one court that did that and one that did not.

The Ninth Circuit also held that conduct should be tested by its harm to rivals, not to consumers. That conclusion conflicts with decades of antitrust jurisprudence. Section 1 of the Sherman Act requires an agreement that threatens to reduce market output, thereby raising prices. For exclusionary practices the immediate target of anticompetitive conduct is rivals, but the ultimate harm is suffered by consumers.

The antitrust issue of unilateral refusals to deal is too often confused with the essential facility doctrine. The essential facility doctrine is based on the idea that some assets are so essential to commerce that the owner has a duty to share them. By contrast, the refusal to deal rule is rooted in a specific prior contractual obligation, reliance and path dependence, and subsequent repudiation. Many joint ventures involve a significant sunk investment in assets that are dedicated to the venture. If one firm can later extract itself and commandeer the relevant technology, it can leave the remaining firms at a significant competitive disadvantage, with the effect of transferring market share, reducing output, raising prices, and ultimately undermining the competitive promise of such ventures. While the essential facility doctrine is conducive to competitor passivity, the Aspen refusal to deal rule facilitates competitor investment.

The debate over "holdup" or "holdout" in standard setting organizations has occasional antitrust relevance. Holdout occurs when implementers conspire to exclude patentees or suppress royalties. But the structure and membership of the SSOs that employ FRAND make that explanation highly unlikely. Standard essential patents are largely self-declared and significantly over declared, so the holdout story posits victims flocking to a cartel rather than seeking to avoid it. In addition, "holdout" hypothesizes agreements to force patentees to accept infra-market royalties, but FRAND royalties are determined post-commitment by independent tribunals, and there is no evidence of systematic undercompensation.

Finally, entitlement to an injunction on a FRAND-encumbered patent depends on two factors. First, the plaintiff must show its own "clean hands," which is undermined by its violation of FRAND agreements or the antitrust laws. Second, entitlement to an injunction is limited by the patentee's own contractual commitment to license out a patent to one who is willing to pay a FRAND royalty.


Web search result clustering aims to facilitate information search on the Web. Rather than the results of a query being presented as a flat list, they are grouped on the basis of their similarity and subsequently shown to the user as a list of clusters. Each cluster is intended to represent a different meaning of the input query, thus taking into account the lexical ambiguity (i.e., polysemy) issue. Existing Web clustering methods typically rely on some shallow notion of textual similarity between search result snippets, however. As a result, text snippets with no word in common tend to be clustered separately even if they share the same meaning, whereas snippets with words in common may be grouped together even if they refer to different meanings of the input query.In this article we present a novel approach to Web search result clustering based on the automatic discovery of word senses from raw text, a task referred to as Word Sense Induction. Key to our approach is to first acquire the various senses (i.e., meanings) of an ambiguous query and then cluster the search results based on their semantic similarity to the word senses induced. Our experiments, conducted on data sets of ambiguous queries, show that our approach outperforms both Web clustering and search engines.


The biotransformation of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) to trichloroethylene (TCE) and then to cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cis-DCE) under an anaerobic condition was studied using static soil microcosms. The kinetics of the biotransformation could be well approximated by the consecutive first-order reaction model, PCE →k 1 TCE →k 2 cis-DCE This model implied that the total amount of the above three compounds was always constant and was equal to the initial amount of PCE, even if the amount of each compound changed with time. Based on this stoichiometric relationship, two indices to characterize groundwater contamination with PCE were derived. The first was the total contamination level which was defined by the total molarity of the three compounds. The second was the degradation level which was defined by the total molar percentage of the products (TCE+DCE). These indices enabled us to evaluate the initial molarity of the pollutant PCE and the degree of the degradation. The kinetic theory also provided a useful rule such that the same time-concentration profile was obtained for the same ratio of the kinetic constants k 2 /k 1 , even if the scale of time changed. This rule enabled us to estimate the ratio of the kinetic constants, which suggested environmental fate of groundwater, from observed molarities of the three compounds.


Up to now no study has investigated the temporal pattern of children's respiratory morbidity due to ozone. In the present study, we investigate the temporal pattern and the general effect of ozone exposure on children and adolescents' respiratory morbidity using data from a particularly well suited area in southern Europe to assess the health effects of ozone. The effects of ozone are estimated using the recently developed distributed lag non-linear models allowing for a relatively long timescale, while controlling for weather effects, a range of other air pollutants, and long and short term patterns. The public health significance of the estimated effects is higher than has been previously reported in the literature, providing evidence contrary to the conjecture that the ozone-morbidity association is mainly due to short-term harvesting. In fact, our data analysis reveals that the effects of ozone at medium and long timescales (harvesting-resistant) are substantially larger than the effects at shorter timescales (harvesting-prone), a finding that is consistent.


Natural catastrophic events such as heavy rainfall and windstorms may induce drastic decreases in breeding success of animal populations. We report the impacts of summer rainfalls on the reproductive success of ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) in north-east Greenland. On two occasions, at Amdrup Land in July 2009 and at Station Nord in July 2011, we observed massive ivory gull breeding failures following violent rainfall and windstorms that hit the colonies. In each colony, all of the breeding birds abandoned their eggs or chicks during the storm. Juvenile mortality was close to 100% at Amdrup Land in 2009 and 100% at Station Nord in 2011. Our results show that strong winds associated with heavy rain directly affected the reproductive success of some Arctic bird species. Such extreme weather events may become more common with climate change and represent a new potential factor affecting ivory gull breeding success in the High Arctic.


INTRODUCTION The animals of major relevance to milk producers are not necessarily the ones that produce more milk, or fat or protein, nor the ones that are more efficient reproductively. The animals of major value to producers are the ones that make more money for the enterprise. Considering cow profitability as an objective of selection could increase the genetic gain for economic returns. However, not much has been done on this task. In order to include measures of profitability in animal breeding programs it is important to know their genetic and phenotypic parameters estimates and also to identify the relationship between these measures and biological traits recorded early in the life of animals. The aims of this study were to estimate genetic parameters of the economic measures of dairy cows, Lifetime net income (LNI), Net income at the end of first lactation (NI1), Income over feed costs at the end of first lactation (IOFC1), and total Milk yield in first lactation (MY1) and also to estimate the correlated response in LNI when using NI1, IOFC1 or MY1 as selection criteria.


Quantitative evaluation of repairing effect of bone grafting material is one of the essential studying subjects. However, traditional evaluation methods are subjective and qualitative. In this paper, the region of new bone from a bone repairing biomaterial planted image is extracted based on color image segmentation and then statistically analyzed to evaluate the property of bone grafting material quantitatively. HSI color model, which corresponds with people's vision system for color is used to achieve ideal segmental results and effective utilization of color information. The S and I variable are used as thresholding condition for image segmentation, thereby obtaining the area of new bone. The effect of BMP contained in BMP/α-TCP is estimated furthermore. Experimental results show that the composite BMP/α-TCP induce more bone than pure α-TCP in virtue of BMP. This study provides theoretical and experimental suggestions for clinical applications of BMP/α-TCP.


This bachelor thesis examines design implementation and differences between game entity systems, with a focus on a component-based structure. How each will affect the other will be discussed from both a technical and design point of view, including possible drawbacks or advantages regarding game design iteration and performance.Since the focus is on component-based entity systems, a clarification on traditional entity systems are required, thus this thesis focuses on entity systems that are traditional, property-based, container-based, and aggravated component-based.The design and implementation of each system was founded from different generations of programming paradigms which resulted in specific compositional structure based on each specific era of hardware configuration. This thesis analyses the progress of hardware alongside game entity system design to further understand its progression and evolution into today's standards and implementation. Details on each system is provided from a design perspective for the traditional entity system and with an in-depth view for the component-based entity systems.


Abstract. An enhancement of the tropospheric ozone column (TOC) over Arabian Sea (AS) during the pre-monsoon season is reported in this study. The potential sources of the AS spring ozone pool are investigated by use of multiple data sets (e.g., SCIAMACHY Limb-Nadir-Matching TOC, OMI/MLS TOC, TES TOC, MACC reanalysis data, MOZART-4 model and HYSPLIT model). Three-quarters of the enhanced ozone concentrations are attributed to the 0–8 km height range. The main source of the ozone enhancement is considered to be caused by long-range transport of ozone pollutants from India (∼  50 % contributions to the lowest 4 km,  ∼  20 % contributions to the 4–8 km height range), the Middle East, Africa and Europe (∼  30 % in total). In addition, the vertical pollution accumulation in the lower troposphere, especially at 4–8 km, was found to be important for the AS spring ozone pool formation. Local photochemistry, on the other hand, plays a negligible role in producing ozone at the 4–8 km height range. In the 0–4 km height range, ozone is quickly removed by wet deposition. The AS spring TOC maxima are influenced by the dynamical variations caused by the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly during the El Nino period in 2005 and 2010 with a  ∼  5 DU decrease.


The influence of nitrous oxide on the recovery of bowel function was studied in 36 patients anaesthetised for elective abdominal hysterectomy with or without salpingo-oophorectomy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either isoflurane in nitrous oxide and 30% oxygen (N2O group) or isoflurane in air and 30% oxygen (Air group). Anaesthetic management included thiopentone, fentanyl, suxamethonium and atracurium. The lungs were not ventilated prior to intubation. Before closing the abdomen, the surgeon assessed the degree of distension of the intestines and the closing conditions. Postoperative nausea and vomiting was assessed 2, 6, 12 and 24 h after recovery from anaesthesia. The lapse of time before mobilisation and passing of flatus and faeces was recorded. The patients in the Air group were significantly older than the patients in the N2O group (48.9 years versus 44.0 years, P = 0.04); otherwise, there were no differences in the demographic data of the patients. We found no significant differences between the groups with respect to nausea and vomiting, distension of the intestines before closure of the abdomen, closing conditions, time elapsing before mobilisation, constipation before recovery of bowel function or time elapsing before passing of flatus. We found a statistically significant delay of 10.3 h in time elapsing before passing of faeces in the N2O group compared to the Air group (P = 0.04), suggesting a potentially adverse effect of nitrous oxide.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract Background: It is well established that in both food- and drug-addicted individuals there is "dopamine resistance" associated with the DRD2 gene A1 allele. Based on earlier studies, evidence is emerging wherein the potential of utilizing a natural, nonaddicting, safe, putative D2 agonist may play a significant role in the recovery of individuals with reward deficiency syndrome, including those addicted to psychoactive chemicals. Findings: Positive outcomes demonstrated by quantitative electroencephalographic (qEEG) imaging in a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study involving oral Synaptose Complex KB220Z™ showed an increase of alpha waves and low beta wave activity in the parietal brain region. Using t statistics, significant differences observed between placebo and Synaptose Complex KB220Z™ consistently occurred in the frontal regions after week 1 and then again after week 2 of analyses (P = 0.03). This is the first report to demonstrate involvement of the prefrontal cortex in the qEEG response to a natural putative D2 agonist (Synaptose Complex KB220Z™), especially evident in dopamine D2 A1 allele subjects. Independently, we have further supported this finding with an additional study of 3 serious polydrug abusers undergoing protracted abstinence who carried the DRD2 A1 allele. Significant qEEG differences were found between those who received 1 dose of placebo compared with those who were administered Synaptose Complex KB220Z™. Synaptose Complex KB220Z™ induced positive regulation of the dysregulated electrical activity of the brain in these addicts. The results are indicative of a phase change from low amplitude or low power in the brain to a more regulated state by increasing an average of 6.169 mV2 across the prefrontal cortical region. In the first experiment we found that while 50% of the subjects carried the DRD2 A1 allele, 100% carried ≥ 1 risk allele. Specifically, based on the proposed addiction risk score for these 14 subjects, 72% had moderate-to-severe addiction risk. Similar findings were obtained by repeating the experiment in 3 additional currently abstinent polydrug abusers carrying the DRD2 A1 allele. Conclusion: This seminal work will provide important information that may ultimately lead to significant improvement in the recovery of individuals with psychostimulant and polydrug abuse problems, specifically those with genetically induced dopamine deficiency. Based on this small sample size, we are proposing that with necessary large populations supporting these initial results, and possibly even additional candidate genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms, we may eventually have the clinical ability to classify severity according to genotype and possession of risk alleles, along with offering a safe, nonaddicting, natural dopaminergic receptor agonist that potentially upregulates instead of downregulates dopaminergic receptors, preferably the D2 subtype.


A floating, 2-body concept consisting of a deep water mini TLP and a tender barge, is investigated experimentally. The system is designed for mild environments and with a soft connection between the two structures. The emphasis is put on measurements and analysis of the coupled, horizontal motion response of the system, with particular focus on statistical aspects and extreme value predictions. The paper also highlights the general performance and robustness of the coupling between the two floaters, providing strict limits for the relativ excursions.


To elucidate the true nature of flaccid paralysis of infant polyradiculoneuritis with Guillain-Barres syndrme (G.N.S.), which occurred intermittently in the coast regions of the Inland Sea from 1950 to 1955, the author made comparative studies on the electromyograms of this disease with those of paralytic poliomyelitis (H.M.), and obtained the following results: 1. In 23 cases with G.B.S. and 41 cases of H.M. electromyographical examinations were carried out 76 and 102 times up to 10 weeks after the onset of disease, and their tested total number of muscles came up to 884 and 716 respectively. Among them 686 muscles of G.B.S. and 510 of H.M. showed abnormal electromyographic findings. These abrormal electromyograms were classified into 6 types, namely, those at the maximum voluntary contraction: electrical silence, low amplitude NAIU voltage (L.A.NAUV.), synchronization voltage (S.V.), complex NMU voltage, and decreased spike number of normal NMU voltage; and those at rest, fibrillation voltage. The two diseses showed some differences in the percentage of each abnormal elect romyograms in these various muscles. Namely, of them the most marked difference was the L.A. NMU V. at the maximum contraction; and it was observed in 25.3 per cent of G.B.S. and in 1.1 per cent of H.M., while electrical silence was observed in 8.9 per cent of the former and in 28.6 per cent of the latter. On the other hand, synchronization voltage was noticed in 17 per cent of G.B.S. while in 12.6 per cent of H.M., showing slightly more in the former. The normal NMU voltage was cassified into three grades; the let to the third degree according to the discharge frequency, that is to say, the number of discharges 1-15(Ⅲ). 16-30(Ⅱ), and 31-50/sec(Ⅰ). Summing them up, these discharges were found in 48.4 per cent of G.B.S. while in 57.2 per cent in H.M., As for the complex NMU voltage it was found in 0.43 per cent of the former, while in 0.4 per cent of the latter; and fibrillation voltage at rest was in 1.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively, showing no significant difference in either case. 2. Follow-up examinations were studied on the 20 cases with G.B.S. presenting limb paralysis at the extreme stages one to six years after the onset of disease and on the eight cases with H.M., presenting bilateral paralysis within ten weeks, at the three years after the onset. Only 28 out of 250 muscles in G.B.S. (10 Cases out of 20) showed abnormal electromyographic findings, namely, 11.2 per cent were found to be ahnormal. While 37 muscles out of 46 of H.M. examimed within 10 weeks after the onset namely, 80.4 per cent showed the abnormality. All electromyographic findings of 28 muscles from G.B.S. were of incomplete synchronization voltage, presenting a desynchronization tendency, while in H.M. 7 muscles out of 46 (15.2% ) were of electrical silence. But these 46 muscles revealed it in 50 per cent of them within 10 weeks after the onset of disease. As for the decreased number of normal NMU voltage concerned, 17 muscles (36.9% ) were positive, while within 10 weeks after the onset 40 per cent recognized. On the other hand, S.V. of H.M. was recognized in 13 muscles out of 46 (28.2% ), though within 10 weeks after the onset it was in 19. 6 per cent of 46 muscles, moreover 10 muscles out of 13 revealed complete S.V., 3. 119 muscles out of 884 from G.B.S. and 81 muscles out of 716 from H.M. tested eletromyographicaly were negative tendon reflex. But the electrical activity at the maximum voluntary contraction was recognized in 86 muscles (72.3% ) out of the total of 119 muscles in the former and 17 muscles (20.9% ) out of 81 muscles in the latter. After 8 weeks the elctrical activity in G.B.S. came out in all muscles, while on the contrary none in H.M.. The relationship between the degree range of tendon reflex and the S.V. as well as L.A. NMU voltage was examined, and S.V. was found most often in those muscles with sluggish tendon reflex in both diseases. In G.B.S. those muscles either with normal tendon reflex or without it showed more S.V. than in H.M.. L.A. NMU voltage was found much more in the muscles without tendon reflex rather than in those with normal tendon reflex. 4. In the electrical evainiuation studied up to seven weeks after the onset in 15 cases of G.B.S. in 8 cases of H.M., hardly typical reaction of degeneration could be recognized in G.B.S. but only traces of atypical reaction of degeneration, showing reduction of excitability in the majority, while in H.M. typical and atypical reaction of degeneration could still be recognized in 50 per cent of the cases after seven weeks from the onset. 5. Above mentioned results, i.e. the electromyographical change, its relation between tendon reflex and electrical excitability, show that G.B.S. consists mainly of pathologic changes in peripheral nerves and muscles and their spinal changes are slight and transient, whereas in H.M. the main pathologic changes are held in the anterior horn of the spine.


Introduction: Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are responsible for high maternal-fetal mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, and to assess their early and late perinatal consequences. Material and Methods: This was a retrospective study in the paediatric ward of the CHRZ over a 12-month period. We included records of hospitalized newborns of mothers with severe pre-eclampsia or eclampsia. Sociodemographic, epidemiological and maternal-fetal parameters were analysed. Results: 125 newborns were included (11.7% of admissions). They were born to mothers with severe pre-eclampsia (78.4%) and eclampsia (21.6%). The average age of the mothers was 26.5 years, with 31.7% between 20 and 25 years. They came from a rural area (49.6%), were not professionally active (67%) and were not educated (33.3%). The average gestation and parity was 2.7 with 45.6% primigravida and 47.2% primipara. Monitoring was done by a midwife (83.2%) and 69.6% had undergone less than 4 antenal consultations. Delivery was by caesarean section (54.8%), the newborn was premature (49.6%), and antenatal corticosteroid therapy was administered in 17.6% of cases. Acute fetal distress was noted in 48.8% of whom 11.2% had not cried. The average weight was 2318 g. The neonatal complications were prematurity (49.6%), IUGR (28%) and perinatal asphyxia (25.6%). We noted 12% of deaths before the 7th day ème of which 80% were premature. Four other deaths were noted between 3 ème and 9 ème months. Conclusion: The neonatal repercussions are not negligible in our context, hence the need for better collaboration between the practitioners of the mother-child couple.


This essay contributes to the field of critical men's studies in religion. It investigates how men negotiate intimacies in confessional writings, and how the religious imaginary is called upon to do so. In written confessions, male confessants open their innermost selves to the public gaze. As public testimony, these confessional writings seduce the reader to believe in the truth of what is revealed. But are these writing as revealing as they claim? I will sketch three exemplary issues more broadly relevant to a gender analysis of male (religious) texts. These three issues emerge from a close reading of Augustine's Confessions and of the lesser-known deathbed confession of a Jewish ghetto policeman, who perished during the Holocaust; they concern the following questions: first, do men in particular avail themselves of the opportunities that written confessions offer? Second, do male confessants affirm their subjectivity while simultaneously eluding moral agency? Third, do male narrators displace the intimate (female) 'other' in their confessional texts?


The majority of snakebite envenomation events in North America are attributed to rattlesnakes with pit-vipers responsible for nearly all envenomation events. Significant morbidity is associated with rattlesnake envenomation including local tissue destruction and coagulopathy. Severe oropharyngeal edema requiring emergent securing of airway has been reported in victims with no prior exposure to pit-vipers but is exceptionally rare. We present a case report of a venom-naive male in his early twenties who received a pit-viper bite to the right thumb, resulting in an anaphylactoid reaction complicated by severe oropharyngeal edema, coagulopathy, and persistent respiratory failure requiring prolonged ventilator support. This case highlights how anaphylactic and anaphylactoid reactions are nearly identical in presentation and may be associated with significant morbidity. Regardless of whether the underlying etiology is anaphylaxis or anaphylactoid, the management should focus on providing CroFab ® early in the clinical course. J Curr Surg. 2021;11(1):15-20 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcs426


Abstract The origin of carbonate muds (grain sizes < 63 µm) in shallow, nontropical marine environments is poorly documented. Coarse-grained carbonates often characterize coastal temperate seafloors, but many such deposits also have abundant carbonate muds. Spencer Gulf, a large, shallow embayment along the southern Australian margin (< 60 m water depth), contains mixtures of carbonate gravels, sands, and muds, with muds constituting up to 84% volumetrically. Benthic environments include dense seagrass meadows, sand barrens, and rhodolith pavements where bivalves, benthic foraminifera, coralline algae, and bryozoans dominate heterozoan carbonate assemblages. Mud grain morphologies were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, leading to the conclusion that muds are predominantly composed of skeletal fragments (bivalves, benthic foraminifera, ascidians, echinoderms, and coralline algae), interpreted to have formed due to breakdown of rigid material via maceration. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms that these muds contain combinations of intermediate-Mg calcite, low-Mg calcite, and aragonite; with concentrations varying among locations according to skeletal grain types. Spencer Gulf muds differ in mineralogy and composition from those of classic models of tropical and deep-water carbonate mud deposition. Unlike shallow-water, tropical carbonate muds, these temperate muds are not dominated by aragonite and there is no evidence of carbonate precipitation from seawater. Pelagic organisms contribute only trivial amounts to these deposits, in contrast to deep-water muds.


Extended Kalman filters (EKF) have been proposed to estimate ego-motion and to recursively update scene structure in the form of 3-D positions of selected prominent features from motion and stereo sequences. Previous methods typically accommodate no more than a few dozen features for real-time processing. To maintain motion estimation accuracy, this calls for high contrast images to compute image feature locations with precision. Within manmade environments, various prominent corner points exist that can be extracted and tracked with required accuracy. However, prominent features are more difficult to localize precisely in natural scenes. Statistically, more feature points become necessary to maintain the same level of motion estimation accuracy and robustness. However, this imposes a computational burden beyond the capability of EKF-based techniques for real-time processing. A sequential dual EKF estimator utilizing stereo data is proposed for improved computation efficiency. Two important issues, unbiased estimation and stochastic stability are addressed. Furthermore, the dynamic feature set is handled in a more effective, efficient and robust way. Experimental results to demonstrate the merits of the new theoretical and algorithmic developments are presented.


The molecular weight of the cytochromeb 6  f complex purified fromChlamydomonas reinhardtii thylakoid membranes has been determined by combining velocity sedimentation measurements, molecular sieving analyses, and determination of its lipid and detergent content. The complex in its enzymatically active form is a dimer. Upon incubation in detergent solution, it converts irreversibly into an inactive, monomeric form that has lost the Rieske iron-sulfur protein, the b 6  f-associated chlorophyll, and, under certain conditions, the small 32-residue subunit PetL. The results are consistent with the view that the dimer is the predominant form of the b 6 f in situ while the monomer observed in detergent solution is a breakdown product. Indirect observations suggest that subunit PetL plays a role in stabilizing the dimeric state. Delipidation is shown to be a critical factor in detergent-induced monomerization.


The surface of K24 superalloy was processed with laser cladding & LSP (laser shock processing). Residual stress in the laser cladding zone by LSP was measured with X-ray stress tester X-350A, and the variational rule of residual stress in the cladding zone by tempering treatment of 8 hours and 16 hours was measured, respectively. The experimental results show that compressive residual stress of K24 superalloy surface by laser cladding & laser shock processing is above -600MPa, which exceeds residual stress by mechanical peening treatment; and there is no clear effect on residual stress by tempering treatment at 600°C for 8 hours and 16 hours, respectively, which can improve fatigue life of K24 superalloy.


— This paper considers design of a web-portal for the validation of behavior of GNSS applications in different environments. The tool provides the positioning performance analysis and a comparison to benchmark devices. Web-portal incorporates a 3D synthetic data generator to compute the propagation and the reception of radio-navigation signals in a 3D virtual environment. This radio propagation simulator uses ray-tracing to calculate interactions between the GNSS signal and the local environment. For faster execution on a GPU platform, the simulator uses BVH optimization. The work is verified in field trials and by using reference software.


In recent years a number of floodplain aquaculture projects have sprung up in the Daudkandi area of Comilla District. Key to this development are a number of unique organisational and financing arrangements which facilitate the development of necessary infrastructure through issuing shares to farmers who have land in the targeted floodplain area. In February 2007, a short review was carried out to better understand how floodplain aquaculture was affecting a range of local social, economic and environmental issues.