Author(s): Poindexter, Kevin Michael | Advisor(s): Firestone, Gary L. | Abstract: AbstractRegulation of Anti-Proliferation in Melanoma and Breast Cancer Cells by Small Molecule Phytochemicals and Their Derivatives ByKevin Michael PoindexterDoctor of Philosophy in Endocrinology University of California, BerkeleyProfessor Gary L. Firestone, ChairMelanoma and breast cancer represent a significant portion of overall cancer burden, and many strategies have been developed to control their growth. Many of these current options have serious adverse effects and sometimes lead to therapy resistance which can complicate future treatment. Because of this, it is critical to investigate new classes and combinations of therapeutics that can overcome these drawbacks and retain effectiveness in multiple phenotypes. This thesis details the mechanism in which the combination of Indol-3-Carbinol (I3C) and Acetylsalicylic Acid (aspirin) act synergistically to slow the growth of human melanoma cells. In addition, this thesis demonstrates that the phytochemical Artemisinin and its derivative, Artesunate are able to inhibit the growth of luminal A estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells. Finally, we utilize I3C derivatives to analyze the growth effects of different chemical functional groups in both melanoma and breast cancer cells. The combination of I3C and aspirin was able to synergistically control melanoma cell proliferation through an induction of G1 cell cycle arrest. Cell cycle arrest was due likely to a similar downregulation of Cyclin Dependent Kinase 2 (CDK2) levels which in turn is under the transcriptional control of the Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor M (MITF-M). The combination of I3C and aspirin was able to significantly downregulate MITF-M protein and transcript expression. Luciferase analysis of the proximal region of the MITF-M promoter revealed that both compounds regulated promoter activation synergistically. The reduction in activation was mediated by two distinct pathways that met on the MITF-M promoter, I3C inhibited the activation of BRAF which caused a decrease in binding to the promoter of the transcriptional activator BRN-2 while aspirin downregulated β-catenin/LEF1 binding to the promoter, again decreasing activity. Site directed mutagenesis of these sites proved that they were sufficient for the compounds' regulation of MITF-M transcriptional activity. These results uncover one mechanism in which aspirin controls melanoma growth, something that has not been explored, and the combination of aspirin and I3C could be utilized as a potential anti-cancer treatment in human melanoma. We also demonstrate that Artemisinin, a phytochemical derived from Artemisia annua and its derivative Artesunate are able to regulate the growth of human breast cancer cells through regulation of Cyclin A2, and cyclin dependent kinases 1 and 2 (CDK) critical regulators of the G1/M phase transition as well as G2 phase progression. Artesunate was able to achieve significant downregulation and induce growth effects at much smaller doses than its parent molecule indicating increased potency. Chromatin-immunoprecipitation indicated that Artemisinin was able to alter Sp1 binding to the Cyclin A promoter, potentially explaining its ability to regulate transcript levels. In the last chapter, we explore the effects on melanoma and breast cancer cell growth caused by 1-Benzyl-I3C derivatives. We find that small changes in structure alter growth inhibition by the compounds likely through changes in their ability to interact and alter function of target enzymes Human Neutrophil Elastase, and NEDD4-1. No compound was stronger than the parent molecule, 1-Benzyl-I3C, but all were able to induce significant changes in growth at concentrations lower than I3C. While this study is preliminary it provides information as to what potential derivatives might slow transformed cell growth in the future.


Individuals with naturally occurring loss-of-function PCSK9, APOC3, and ANGPTL3 mutations experience reduced blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels, reduced blood triglyceride levels, and/or protection against cardiovascular disease. We recently established that genome editing using a Streptococcus pyogenes clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9) system, delivered by adenovirus, can efficiently introduce loss-of-function mutations into the endogenous mouse Pcsk9 gene in vivo, resulting in near-complete knockout of Pcsk9 and a 35%-40% reduction in the blood cholesterol level. Thus, the in vivo genome-editing approach may have therapeutic potential for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in humans. To better evaluate the feasibility of the approach in humans, we are performing preclinical studies using a liver-humanized mouse model in which the endogenous mouse hepatocytes have been replaced with human-derived hepatocytes and in which the plasma lipoprotein profile better reflects human physiology, particularly with respect to LDL-C. One disadvantage of the S. pyogenes CRISPR-Cas9 system is that its Cas9 gene is too large to fit in adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, which offer significant therapeutic advantages over adenoviruses. We have adapted the smaller Staphylococcus aureus CRISPR-Cas9 system and demonstrated efficient genome editing of the human PCSK9, APOC3, and ANGPTL3 genes in vitro. Additionally, using a minimal liver-specific promoter and a novel human-hepatocyte-optimized AAV capsid protein, we are employing AAV vectors to knock out each of the three genes in both primary human hepatocytes and liver-humanized mice. This is allowing us to interrogate both the efficacy (lowering of LDL-C and/or triglycerides) and safety (degree of off-target mutagenesis) of genome editing in human hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo. These translational studies are providing critical information on the viability of an approach that could ultimately yield a one-shot, long-term therapy that permanently reduces a person's blood LDL-C and triglyceride levels, thus serving as a "vaccination" against cardiovascular disease.


Literary authors have authority. This is certainly true of the early twenty-first century, as writers are asked in interviews, talk programs and on the Internet to give their views on social issues, but the same holds for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For hundreds of years writers have functioned as figures with an oddly paradoxical authority, for they base their claim on their outsider status and apparent lack of influence. Captivated by Prometheus makes use of a detailed posture model to investigate the self-representations of five Dutch authors active between 1820 and approximately 1970: Jean Baptiste Didier Wibmer, Multatuli, Lodewijk van Deyssel, Carry van Bruggen and Willem Frederik Hermans. It shows how Dutch literary authors in this period underpin their authority with the claim that they are autonomous. More specifically, the analysis reveals that the elements of authority and autonomy occupy a different place in the posturing of each of these five authors, but that broadly speaking these authors nevertheless have something in common. They refuse to be associated with the power of politicians or 'intellectuals'. They make this clear by representing themselves not only as autonomous and individual but also as lacking all authority and power. This serves the paradoxical goal of gaining more authority: precisely a person who makes no attempt to uphold an actual position of power, who is essentially 'nothing' because he functions autonomously of any identifiable moral or political institution, can—the reasoning goes—assume an authoritative position as an author. Such authority is definitely vulnerable because it is in fact founded on an 'empty' category (autonomy, non-belonging). The writers show, however, that this vulnerability is characteristic of all forms of authority. In the last analysis political authority also rests on nothing. Authors assume an authoritative position of political commentator precisely because they claim to be the only ones who are honest about the artificiality of their authority. The point of departure of this book is that neither autonomy nor authority is a historical 'given'. Although literary culture undergoes unmistakable changes in the period 1820-1970—authors have greater political and juridical freedom at the end of this period than at the beginning—there is no linear progression toward greater autonomy which guarantees the freedom of a writer in a certain period. On the contrary, autonomy always has to be claimed by an author, and on the basis of that claim an author can again assume an authoritative position.


The use of flat panel detectors in computed tomography (CT) systems can improve resolution, reduce system cost, and add operational flexibility by combining fluoroscopy and radiography applications within CT systems. However, some prior studies have suggested that flat panel detectors would not perform well in CT applications due to their lack of high dynamic range, lag artifacts, and inadequate frame rate. The purpose of this study was to perform a physical evaluation of a prototype flat panel detector capable of high frame rates and extended dynamic range. The flat panel detector used had a pixel size of 194 microns and a matrix size of 2048x1536. The detector could be configured for several combinations of frame rate and matrix size up to 750 frames per second for a 512x16 matrix size with 4x4 binning. The evaluation was performed in terms of the MTF and DQE as a function of frame rate and exposure at the IEC RQA5 (~75 kVp, 21 mm Al) beam quality. The image lag was evaluated in terms of temporal-frequency dependent transfer function. Offset shift were also evaluated. Preliminary results indicate 0.1 MTF at 0.92 cycles/mm and DQE(0) of approximately 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, and 0.22 at 0.144, 0.065, 0.035, and 0.008 mR per frame exposures. The temporal MTF exhibited a low-frequency drop and a value of 0.5 at the Nyquist frequency. Offset shift was negligible. Considering high frame rate capabilities of the new detector, the results suggest that the detector has potential for use in real-time CT applications including CT angiography.


Low work function materials are essential for efficient thermionic energy converters (TECs), electronics, and electron emission devices. Much effort has been put into finding thermally stable material combinations that exhibit low work functions. Submonolayer coatings of alkali metals have proven to significantly reduce the work function; however, a work function less than 1 eV has not been reached. We report a record-low work function of 0.70 eV by inducing a surface photovoltage (SPV) in an n-type semiconductor with an alkali metal coating. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy indicates a work function of 1.06 eV for cesium/oxygen-activated GaAs consistent with density functional theory model predictions. By illuminating with a 532 nm laser we induce an additional shift down to 0.70 eV due to the SPV. Further, we apply the SPV to the collector of an experimental TEC and demonstrate an I–V curve shift consistent with the collector work function reduction. This method opens an avenue toward efficient TECs and next-generation electron emission devices.


OBJECTIVES: Mechanically ventilated emergency department (ED) patients experience high morbidity and mortality. In a prior trial at our center, ED-based lung-protective ventilation was associated with improved care delivery and outcomes. Whether this strategy has persisted in the years after the trial remains unclear. The objective was to assess practice change and clinical outcomes associated with ED lung-protective ventilation. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of individual patient-level data from prior clinical trials and cohort studies. SETTING: ED and ICUs of a single academic center. PATIENTS: Mechanically ventilated adults. INTERVENTIONS: A lung-protective ventilator protocol used as the default approach in the ED. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary ventilator-related outcome was tidal volume, and the primary clinical outcome was hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included ventilator-, hospital-, and ICU-free days. Multivariable logistic regression, propensity score (PS)-adjustment, and multiple a priori subgroup analyses were used to evaluate outcome as a function of the intervention. A total of 1,796 patients in the preintervention period and 1,403 patients in the intervention period were included. In the intervention period, tidal volume was reduced from 8.2 mL/kg predicted body weight (PBW) (7.3–9.1) to 6.5 mL/kg PBW (6.1–7.1), and low tidal volume ventilation increased from 46.8% to 96.2% (p < 0.01). The intervention period was associated with lower mortality (35.9% vs 19.1%), remaining significant after multivariable logistic regression analysis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.43; 95% CI, 0.35–0.53; p < 0.01). Similar results were seen after PS adjustment and in subgroups. The intervention group had more ventilator- (18.8 [10.1] vs 14.1 [11.9]; p < 0.01), hospital- (12.2 [9.6] vs 9.4 [9.5]; p < 0.01), and ICU-free days (16.6 [10.1] vs 13.1 [11.1]; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: ED lung-protective ventilation has persisted in the years since implementation and was associated with improved outcomes. These data suggest the use of ED-based lung-protective ventilation as a means to improve outcome.


DNA methylation is a hallmark of transcriptional silencing, yet transcription has been reported at the centromere. To address this apparent paradox, we employed a fully sequence-defined ectopic human centromere (or neocentromere) to investigate the relationship between DNA methylation and transcription. We used sodium bisulfite PCR and sequencing to determine the methylation status of 2,041 CpG dinucleotides distributed across a 6.76-Mbp chromosomal region containing a neocentromere. These CpG dinucleotides were associated with conventional and nonconventional CpG islands. We found an overall hypermethylation of the neocentric DNA at nonconventional CpG islands that we designated as CpG islets and CpG orphans. The observed hypermethylation was consistent with the presence of a presumed transcriptionally silent chromatin state at the neocentromere. Within this neocentric chromatin, specific sites of active transcription and the centromeric chromatin boundary are defined by DNA hypomethylation. Our data demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a correlation between DNA methylation and centromere formation in mammals, and that transcription and "chromatin-boundary activity" are permissible at the centromere through the selective hypomethylation of pockets of sequences without compromising the overall silent chromatin state and function of the centromere.


Sequence-Tagged Site(STS) marker is a kind of important marker for identifying heterogeneous chromosome on account of its simplicity, speediness and specificity. There are many STS markers in use, which changed from the RFLP and RAPD markers. But some of those from RFLP markers cannot directly be used for identifying the specific chromosomes, such as MWG913. Amplified wheat genome by MWG913, a STS marker of barley's 1H chromosome, then cloned the products. These clones were classified by restricted enzyme Taq I and then sequenced. On the basis of the results of these sequences compared with barley's (obtained from the GenBank)., two restricted enzyme specifying on 1H chromosome, EcoR I and Pvu I, were chosen to digest the PCR products of T. aestivum, Secale cereale, Hordeum vulgare, Agropyron intermedium, Haynaldia villosa, Thinopyrum elongatum and identified their specilization to Hordeum vulgare genome. Furthermore, according to the difference of Pvu I recognition site, the second PCR primers were designed and identified its specificity to Hordeum vulgare genome by PCR. Thus 1H chromosomespecific CAPs and ASA markers of barley were obtained.


The 15 years of successful implementation of wide-area measurement systems (WAMS) in the WECC power grid have shown significant value of WAMS data in system dynamic modeling and validation, FACTS control validation and pilot implementations of wide area protection schemes. The August 14 2003 blackout in the eastern interconnection of the North America revealed the urgent need for wide-area information acquisition for better power grid operations. The Eastern interconnection phasor project (EIPP) was launched in 2003 to deploy a WAMS system in the eastern interconnection. Development of IEEE C37.118, a standard for phasor data acquisition and transmission, will aid in deployment of phasor measurement systems for WAMS applications. Technologies of phasor measurement units (PMUs) with high precision time synchronization and phasor data concentrators (PDCs) for phasor data aggregation and event recording are key to the success of WAMS implementation. This paper reviews the WAMS development in the North America and presents current and potential WAMS applications including dynamic modeling and validation and wide-area control. Past experience shows a promising future of WAMS in improving power system planning, operation and control. However, there remain challenges to make phasor measurement consistent and to meet both slow and fast data application needs


Polyetherimide (PEI), an engineering plastic with very high glass transition temperature and excellent chemical and thermal stability, has been processed into a controlled porosity filter media of varying pore size, performance, and surface characteristics. A special grade of the PEI was processed by melt blowing to produce microfiber nonwovens suitable as filter media. The resulting microfiber webs were characterized to evaluate their structure and properties. The fiber webs were further modified by hot pressing, a post processing technique, which reduces the pore size in order to improve the barrier properties of the resulting membranes. This ongoing research has shown that PEI can be a good candidate for filter media requiring high temperature and chemical resistance with good mechanical properties. Also, by selecting the appropriate processing conditions, it is possible to achieve desired filtration performance from this engineering plastic. Keywords—Nonwovens, melt blowing, polyehterimide, filter media, microfibers.


Historically, few constitutional protections conjured more mutated conceptions in society than double jeopardy. The United States Supreme Court holds that the Double Jeopardy Clause embodies the freedom from successive prosecution and multiple punishments for the same offense. This case note focuses on the freedom from multiple punishments, specifically post-conviction merger of sentences.In Najera v. State, the jury convicted Najera of twelve counts of improper sexual contact with his two adopted minor daughters. Six counts were for sexual assault; the remaining six counts were for felony incest. The trial court sentenced Najera to consecutive sentences for sexual assault and incest. Najera appealed, contending that the convictions for sexual assault and incest should merge for sentencing purposes. The Wyoming Supreme Court agreed and reversed the trial court, holding that the convictions merged and that Najera should serve his sentences concurrently.This case note advances three arguments to illustrate that the Wyoming Supreme Court must revisit the merger analysis applied in Najera. First, the court's application of the merger test parallels a test that the United States Supreme Court overruled. Second, the Wyoming Supreme Court based the policy justification and structure of its merger analysis on Pennsylvania law that as subsequently abandoned. Finally, the correct merger analysis represents a tool of statutory construction used to determine whether the legislature intended to create distinct offenses. The merger analysis applied in Najera must be revisited.


IT IS GENERALLY accepted that testing with pseudoisochromatic plates should take into consideration the following requirements: (1) neutral illumination; (2) sufficient illumination; (3) a determined angle of the incident light; (4) a 90-degree viewing angle; (5) a fixed distance of the plates; (6) a limited exposure time for each single plate; (7) showing of all plates in their entirety; (8) variation from time to time in order of presentation of the plates. When the testing arrangements now in use are analyzed briefly with regard to these requirements, the following statements may be made: In the instructions for testing with pseudoisochromatic plates, illumination by natural daylight from the north sky or artificial daylight is required, since it is known that light obtained from ordinary electric bulbs allows more persons with color-defective vision to pass the plates than a "neutral illumination" (Kissin and Eidelmann1; Farnsworth and Reed2; Hardy, Rand, and


Background Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disease that usually develops in mid-adulthood and is characterised by cognitive decline, motor disorder and emotional changes. Anxiety and depression are common in HD and often precede the movement disorder. Aims To examine anxiety and depression in pre-motor symptomatic HD expansion carriers, and motor-symptomatic patients across disease stages, using the HADS. Methods/techniques A cross-sectional study of HADS data from the REGISTRY 3 study was examined (n = 496). Clinical caseness (scores of ≥ 8 on anxiety or depression subscales) was examined, as well as total HADS and subscale scores. Pre-motor symptomatic participants were compared with those who were motor symptomatic. Anxiety and depression were examined according to disease stage. The relationship between HADS scores and other disease variables was explored. Results/outcome The motor-symptomatic group (n = 410) scored significantly higher on total HADS and both subscales than the pre-motor symptomatic group (n = 86). While clinical levels of depression were also higher among the motor symptomatic group (41%) compared to the pre-motor symptomatic group (10.5%), clinical levels of anxiety were not significantly different between the motor-symptomatic group (28.5%) and pre-motor symptomatic group (25.3%). Total HADS scores and subscales revealed a linear increase across disease stages. A significant relationship was found between HADS scores and cognitive and motor scores, but not with disease duration. Conclusions These results indicate that further understanding of the relationship between anxiety and depression in HD may increase our knowledge of the psychiatric aspect of the disease. Furthermore, the HADS data appears more closely aligned to disease progression than previous studies of anxiety and depression have found. Further study of this instrument in HD is warranted.


The research presented in this thesis substantiates, defines and evaluates two new linguistically motivated statistical association measures in a language- and domain independent manner, limited syntagmatic modifiability (LSM) for collocation extraction, and limited paradigmatic modifiability (LPM) for term extraction. The task they are designed for – computing lexical association scores to determine the degree of collocativity and termhood of collocation and term candidates – is the crucial backbone of any approach to collocation and term extraction and, thus, resembles a wide variety of standard frequency-based, statistical and information-theoretic association measures put forth in the computational linguistics research literature. What distinguishes LSM and LPM is that their defining parameters are based on actual linguistic properties of the targeted linguistic constructions, viz. collocations and terms. The central linguistic property which is isolated in the linguistic research literature and which is shared by collocations and terms is denoted by the notion of limited modifiability. This property is parameterized in such a way as to account for the obvious linguistic differences between collocations and terms in that collocations are typically manifested in general language and surface in a variety of syntactic constructions, while terms are typically confined to noun phrases manifested in domain-specific sub-language. Limited modifiability is embedded within an appropriate linguistic frame of reference – the lexical-collocational layer of Firth (1957)'s contextualist model of language description. With the help of this model, the linguistic differences are realized as limited syntagmatic modifiability, in the case of collocations, and as limited paradigmatic modifiability, in the case of terms. The respective linguistically enhanced lexical association measures exploit these properties as observable and quantifiable parameters to their statistical computations in that LSM incorporates the tendency of collocations to limit the number of potential syntagmatic attachments whereas LPM incorporates the tendency of terms to limit the number of potential paradigmatic substitutions. Frequency of co-occurrence is another prominent linguistic property incorporated into both linguistic association measures and is the only linguistic property also exploited by other standard frequency-based, statistical and information-theoretic association measures for collocation and term extraction. In order to compare the linguistically enhanced lexical association measures LSM and LPM against their standard competitors, a comprehensive performance evaluation setting is established – for collocation extraction on German-language preposition-noun-word collocation candidates and for term extraction on English-language noun phrase term candidates from a biomedical subdomain. In this setting, a wide array of standard quantitative performance metrics is applied as well as, in addition, a new qualitative performance evaluation metric which compares the output rankings of an association measure to the challenging baseline of frequency of co-occurrence. All experimental results show that LSM and LPM outperform the other frequency-based, statistical and information-theoretic lexical association measures by large margins in every aspect of performance evaluation considered. Thus, lexical association measures which base their statistical computations on linguistic parameters instead of standard statistical ones not only exhibit conceptual but also empirical superiority.


I applaud and congratulate the University of Michigan for launching the Journal of Law and Mobility. The timing is perfect. The information superhighway is no longer just a clever metaphor. We are living in an era where internet connectivity is a critical part of making transportation safer and more convenient. Internet connectivity has powered the U.S. and global economies for years now. In the early stages, dial-up connections enabled users to access a vast store of digital information. As the internet and its usage grew, so did the demand for faster broadband speeds. Finally, wireless networks untethered the power of broadband Internet so consumers could have fast access when and where they want it. We are now seeing technology advances in the automotive sector begin to better align with what has occurred in the communications space. The possibilities for what this means for human mobility are truly exciting. Challenges abound, however, with questions around the security and safety of self-driving vehicles and how to create the infrastructure and policies needed for vehicle connectivity. While many of these will be sorted out by the market, policy levers will also play a role.


The fundamental importance of strategic management is that the world keeps changing. Strategy implementation is a series of actions aimed at putting a selected strategy at work by planning how the chosen strategy can be put into effect and managing the changes required. Organizations have come up with credible strategies which have failed to see the light of the day due to poor implementation. For successful implementation, an organization's various resources, systems, structures and other variables must be expended. The purpose of this study will be to investigate challenges facing implementation of strategic changein KeRRA is it strives to achieve it mandate. The study will adopt a descriptive survey design. The locale of survey is the central Kenya province which has five regions. The target population will be 180 individuals comprising of KeRRA staff and the CDF representatives, and a sample of 50 will be selected. Random and stratified sampling methods will be used for the purpose of enhancing the representativeness of the sample. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected by dropping and picking structured questionnaires from respondents. Data will be statistically analysed and presented by means of tables, graphs and bar charts. Chapter one presents the background of the study, the problem statement, study objectives and research questions, significance and limitations of the survey. The second chapter is on literature review capturing findings, views and opinions of both classical and contemporary scholars on challenges facing management of strategic change. Various theories models of change are reviewed in detail, KeRRA is examined with a view to determine the scope of challenge that it is faced with in its operation


We have developed a material specific theoretical framework for modeling scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) of high-temperature superconducting materials in the normal as well as the superconducting state. Results for Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (Bi2212) show clearly that the tunneling process strongly modifies the STS spectrum from the local density of states of the dx2-y2 orbital of Cu. The dominant tunneling channel to the surface Bi involves the dx2-y2 orbitals of the four neighboring Cu atoms. In accord with experimental observations, the computed spectrum displays a remarkable asymmetry between the processes of electron injection and extraction, which arises from contributions of Cu dz2 and other orbitals to the tunneling current.


Locating vulnerabilities is an important task for security auditing, exploit writing, and code hardening. However, it is challenging to locate vulnerabilities in binary code, because most program semantics (e.g., boundaries of an array) is missing after compilation. Without program semantics, it is difficult to determine whether a memory access exceeds its valid boundaries in binary code. In this work, we propose an approach to locate vulnerabilities based on memory layout recovery. First, we collect a set of passed executions and one failed execution. Then, for passed and failed executions, we restore their program semantics by recovering fine-grained memory layouts based on the memory addressing model. With the memory layouts recovered in passed executions as reference, we can locate vulnerabilities in failed execution by memory layout identification and comparison. Our experiments show that the proposed approach is effective to locate vulnerabilities on 24 out of 25 DARPA's CGC programs (96%), and can effectively classifies 453 program crashes (in 5 Linux programs) into 19 groups based on their root causes.


TRPC5 channels are Ca 2 (cid:1) -permeable nonselective cation channels activated by G-protein-coupled receptors, although the mechanisms responsible for channel activation and regulation are poorly understood. Carbachol-activated TRPC5 currents were re- corded by the whole-cell patch clamp technique from human embryonic kidney 293 cells transiently transfected with TRPC5 and the M1 muscarinic receptor. Some published studies of TRPC5 currents have included ATP and/or GTP in the patch pipette, whereas others used an ATP- and GTP-free pipette solution. We initially included these two nucleotides in the patch pipette but found that TRPC5 currents were absent or were very small. Recordings made with an ATP- and GTP-free pipette solu- tion produced large and robust TRPC5 currents. Under these conditions, treatment of cells with Pasteurella multocida toxin, a selective inhibitor of G (cid:1) q , almost abolished TRPC5 currents indicating that G (cid:1) q is necessary for activation of TRPC5 by the M1 receptor. To study the effect of intracellular ATP on TRPC5 channels, an intracellular perfusion system was used. Perfusion of ADP or control pipette solution had no effect, whereas perfusion of ATP or AMP-PNP, a nonhydrolyzable analog of ATP, significantly in- hibited TRPC5 currents. Thus, the effects of ATP have structural specificity and probably involve a direct effect on the channel rather than a phosphorylation-mediated effect. The activity of TRPC5 channels may be linked to cellular metabolism via changes in ATP levels and could be involved in Ca 2 (cid:1) overload occurring after ischemia when ATP is depleted.


Modem optimizing compilers are complex programs that require from tens to hundreds of people-years to be developed. Thus professors must use third-party compiler infra-structures to introduce students to compiler optimizations. Until recently only infra-structures developed at universities, research institutes, or by GNU were widely available for teaching. However, in May 2000, SGI made public the source code for Pro64, a highly optimized suite of compilers for the Intel Architecture 64 (IA-64) that is an evolution of the established MIPSPro suite of compilers. The use of a production-level compiler infra-structure for teaching is thus new. In this paper we report our experience using the Pro64 in a graduate compiler optimization class. We paired the study of the Pro64 with the use of IMPACT within Trimaran, and with performance studies conducted with the MIPSPro compilers. The students feedback indicate that they valued working with a state-of-the-art compiler infrastructure and studying open research topics for their class projects.


Researchers from the same lab often spend a considerable amount of time searching for published articles relevant to their current project. Despite having similar interests, they conduct independent, time consuming searches. While they may share the results afterwards, they are unable to leverage previous search results during the search process. We propose a research paper recommender system that avoids such time consuming searches by augmenting existing search engines with recommendations based on previous searches performed by others in the lab. Most existing recommender systems were developed for commercial domains with millions of users. The research paper domain has relatively few users compared to the large number of online research papers. The two major challenges with this type of data are the large number of dimensions and the sparseness of the data. The novel contribution of the paper is a scalable subspace clustering algorithm (SCuBA) that tackles these problems. Both synthetic and benchmark datasets are used to evaluate the clustering algorithm and to demonstrate that it performs better than the traditional collaborative filtering approaches when recommending research papers.


This thesis is organized in to two chapters which constitute two independent working papers. The first chapter uses Chinese firm level data from 2001 to 2007 and applies a propensity score matching method combined with a difference-in-differences approach to examine the direct causal link between Inward Foreign Direct Investment and various aspects of Chinese firms' performance. I divide China into four economic regions and then subdivide the origin of foreign investment into HMT-investment (within the Greater China Area) and other foreign investment (outside the Greater China Area). The results indicate that the progress of the IFDI market in China is not evenly balanced with in the four economic regions, while the different origins of foreign investment produce different effects. The only exception is the export sector, in which IFDI from all economies improves the export performance of a Chinese firm after it becomes a foreign-invested firm. The second chapter combines data from Chinese listed firms' annual reports, the Chinese stock market financial statements database and the Zephyr database from 2001 to 2015 to examine how acquirers' operating performance change s after cross-border M&A activities, and uses entrepreneurial orientation as a moderating factor to test whether or not firms' performance during cross-border M&A is affected by different degrees of entrepreneurial orientation. The results obtained for the whole sample show that the performance of Chinese listed firms is fluctuant after cross-border M&A within the sample years. It increases one year after the acquisition but drops two years later and then follows an increasing trend again. The moderating factor of entrepreneurial orientation is not significant for the sample as a whole. However, after dividing the sample into separate industry groups, it becomes clear that different industries have their own characteristics. For example, entrepreneurial orientation helps Chinese listed firms to adapt to the post-acquisition situation and even to improve their performance to some extent in the metal mining industry and the business services industry.


The performance of opportunistic forwarding in the multi-hop cognitive radio networks (CRN) is dependent on the efficient detection of spectrum opportunities and the diversity of relay links. To find appropriate spectrum opportunities, effective spectrum sensing is essential in a CRN, especially under highly dynamic channel conditions. In this paper, a novel channel metric is proposed to determine the sensing sequence at the node based on its history channel observations. This metric is then applied in the design of node residence strategy for relay nodes over the channels. Each node distributively calculates the metric and determines the sensing and residence channel to exploit better spectrum opportunities for packet forwarding. By allowing relay nodes to aggregate in the channel with better transmission opportunity, a larger multi-user diversity gain can be exploited and a lower access delay can be achieved. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach well adapts to the channel dynamics and outperforms other solutions, especially in a CRN with low node density.


This paper presents numerical simulation of mixed-mode crack propagation in functionally graded materials by means of a remeshing algorithm in conjunction with the finite element method. Each step of crack growth simulation consists of the calculation of the mixedmode stress intensity factors by means of a non-equilibrium formulation of the interaction integral method, determination of the crack growth direction based on a specific fracture criterion, and local automatic remeshing along the crack path. A specific fracture criterion is tailored for FGMs based on the assumption of local homogenization of asymptotic crack-tip fields in FGMs. The present approach uses a user-defined crack increment at the beginning of the simulation. Crack trajectories obtained by the present numerical simulation are compared with available experimental results.


Multiple lines of evidence indicate that oxidative stress is an integral component of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD). The precipitating cause of such oxidative stress may be misregulated iron homeostasis because there are profound alterations in heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), redox-active iron, and iron regulatory proteins. In this regard, HasA, a recently characterized bacterial protein involved in heme acquisition and iron metabolism, may also be important in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) given its ability to bind heme and render iron available for free radical generation through the Fenton reaction. To study further the role of heme binding and iron metabolism in AD, we show an abnormal localization of anti-HasA to the neurofibrillary pathology of AD, but not in normal-appearing neurons in the brains of cases of AD or in age-matched controls. These results suggest the increased presence in AD of a HasA homologue or protein sharing a common epitope with HasA, which we term HasAh. We conclude that heme binding of HasAh is a potential source of free soluble iron and therefore toxic free radicals in AD and in aging. This furthers the evidence that redox-active iron and subsequent Fenton reaction generating reactive oxygen are critical factors in the pathogenesis of AD.


This essay contributes to a materialist understanding of institutional dynamics in commercial television in the United States. It considers the mutual constitution of business administration and social developments in technology. It is argued herein that ongoing organizational shifts in television are motivated by the imperative to exploit the full productive capacity of commercial television. A case study of Canoe Ventures demonstrates that television increasingly employs the evaluative criteria of direct marketing to rationalize the process of producing audiences-as-commodities. The business of commercial television is being organized to verify return on investment and to locate causality between advertising and sales.


The processes that transfer nutrients laterally over large distances are limited within terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we present the hypothesis that outbreaking insects can sometimes transport consequential amounts of embodied nutrients over long distances, thereby connecting ecological dynamics across space and leading to potential emergent effects at the landscape scale that have not been specifically addressed heretofore. Based on previously published data on insect population density, individual body mass, and nutrient content, we present initial quantitative estimates of nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes for various outbreaking insect species in different ecosystems. The results suggest that during the phases of major population change within an outbreak cycle, this process may transfer, over a given area, amounts of nutrients that exceed annual input from contemporaneous levels of atmospheric deposition, particularly for phosphorus. In addition, the relative strength of the process was likely even higher in the preindustrial era, especially for nitrogen, due to a weaker anthropogenic influence on atmospheric deposition at that time. The values we have found are comparable to the results from previous studies on 2-D nutrient fluxes by other animals and that have been considered consequential for ecosystem processes. We further illustrate the implications of the process for the spatial distribution of nutrients and resulting ecological complexity and argue that the process is inherently scale dependent, contrary to vertical fluxes like atmospheric deposition. Moreover, we provide suggestions for future studies, both empirical and theoretical, that would better quantify the strength of the process and assess its implications. Given that the productivity of most natural terrestrial ecosystems depends primarily on locally recycled nutrients and that spatial source–sink nutrient dynamics has been shown to have important ecological consequences, the long-distance lateral transfer of nutrients by outbreaking insects appears like a relevant landscape-level process worthwhile of more specific attention.


Background: The thalamus, affected early in multiple sclerosis (MS), is a heterogeneous composition of functionally distinct nuclei and is associated with fatigue, cognition, and other outcomes. However, most previous functional imaging studies considered the thalamus only as a whole. Objective: To investigate MS-related abnormalities in nuclei-specific thalamic functional connectivity (FC) and their associations with fatigue and cognitive outcomes. Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was analyzed in 64 MS patients and 26 healthy controls (HC). Whole-brain FC maps for four thalamic subregions seeds were computed for each subject. FC maps were compared between groups, and group by FC interaction effects were assessed for fatigue and cognitive measures. Results: MS patients had decreased FC between the left medial thalamic nuclei and left angular gyrus and reduced FC between the left posterior thalamic nuclei and left supramarginal gyrus, as well as decreased right medial thalamic nuclei connectivity with bilateral caudate/thalamus and left cerebellar areas (p < 0.05 corrected). MS patients had increased FC between the left anterior thalamic nuclei and anterior cingulate cortex bilaterally. There were significant relationships between connectivity alterations and fatigue and cognitive measures between groups (p < 0.05 corrected). Conclusion: FC alteration is nuclei-specific and is differentially associated with fatigue and cognition.


Problem of finding of optimal turning parameters for neurocontrol of nonlinear non-stationary object in a presence of random disturbances is formulated. Combined method of neurocontrol of nonlinear non-stationary objects with usage of multi-layer perceptron is proposed. The method consists of two stages. In the first stage, a problem of robust neurocontrol is solved by finding the turning parameters for adaptation algorithm on suggested set of object variants. Found turning parameters for adaptation algorithm are used in the second stage – model-free neurocontrol. In this stage it is a finding of optimal turning parameters for algorithm of model free neurocontrol. Regularization method is used to ensure stability of proposed method. Effectiveness and stability of suggested method was verified by the model example. In the presence of random disturbances, neurocontrol was stable and a degree of damping was more than 50%.


Abstract The structure of tuperssuatsiaite from the Aris phonolite in central Namibia was refined to an R index of 0.075 for 905 observed reflections [I > 2σ(I)] obtained with a four-circle X-ray diffractometer. Tuperssuatsiaite is monoclinic, C2/m, with a = 14.034(7), b = 17.841(7), c = 5.265(2) Å, and β = 103.67(4)°. Microprobe analysis gave an average composition of Na1.87Fe2.14Mn0.48 Ti0.14Al0.03Mg0.02[Si8O20](OH)2·n(H2O), with five octahedral sites. The structure is closely related to that of palygorskite Mg5[Si8O20](OH)2·H2O. Tuperssuatsiaite consists of ribbons of SiO4 tetrahedra linked by bands of octahedra running parallel to c. Channels occur that could be occupied by H2O as in palygorskite. The octahedral band contains three edge-sharing, six-coordinated sites labeled M1, M2, and M3. This band consists of alternating M3-M1-M3 and M2-M2 octahedra along [001]. The M1 and M2 sites both contain Fe and Mn, and M3 is occupied by Na. Bondvalence calculations indicate a formal charge of 2.48 for M1 and 2.67 for M2, i.e., a charge distribution of 2R3+:1R2+. Octahedral angle variance and volume are similar for both sites, indicating disorder in the distribution of Fe and Mn atoms between the sites. Charge balance requirements agree with the presence of Fe3+ and Mn2+.


Reviews the current burden of malaria in school-age children, its clinical consequences, and approaches to controlling the disease in this vulnerable group, focusing largely on Sub-Saharan Africa. The two approaches using antimalarial drugs for malaria prevention include chemoprophylaxis (regular administration of antimalarial drugs to those at risk over a sustained period) and intermittent preventive treatment (IPT; periodic administration of a full therapeutic dose of an antimalarial or antimalarial combination to increased risk groups). Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) involves administration of treatment to coincide with the annual peak in malaria transmission. Intermittent screening and treatment (IST) screens individuals periodically for infection, and those infected (whether symptomatic or not) receive a full course of an antimalarial agent. Development of an effective malaria vaccine has proven a major challenge, despite the exploration of many innovative approaches, but in the longer term, vaccination may have an important role in the prevention of malaria in school-age children. Improved information on the extent of the burden of malaria and its socioeconomic consequences in this age group would enhance awareness at all levels.


. This study brings to discussion the recording and analysis of execution times (from the moment when weights leave the platform until the upper limbs are stretched with barbell above). The study is part of an extensive research that aims, in a first phase, at all categories of athletes participating in weightlifting competitions. Recording and measurement were performed using the AviSynth software program consisting of: video camera - JVS digital camcorder, electronic computer, tripod, laptop, video monitor and video tapes. In this regard, our research presents the recording and analysis of execution times in the clean and jerk event, for some top weightlifters at the European level, participants in the European Weightlifting Championships of 2009, held in Bucharest, Romania. Hypothesis.Identification of execution times for the clean and jerk event provides the opportunity to compare the athletes and consequently to make correlations and observations on the achieved performances. Objectives.1. To check the possibilities of using computerized imaging technique in the barbell lifting technique for the clean and jerk event. 2. To identify the execution times in weightlifters for the clean and jerk event, by recordings and measurements performed with the AviSynth software program. Subjects. The research included ten male weightlifters (aged between 21 and 33 years) from different countries, namely two athletes from Romania and athletes from Poland, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Russia and Albania, with one athlete each. Conclusions. Analysis of the research results has emphasized some aspects related to the execution technique of clean and jerk style, among which we mention: average execution speed for the three statutory attempts; average execution speed for each attempt; the ratio between barbell weight and execution speed.


Conservation buffers have struck a chord among the conservation community, to the point that the USDA's National Conservation Buffer Initiative Team grew quickly to 9 federal agencies, a National Conservation Buffer Council of agribusiness, and over 75 nonprofit agricultural and environmental organizations. This paper provides a discussion of the tools available through the USDA and its . conservation partnerships for the promotion and installation of conservation buffers in Georgia. We have much work to do, but between available programs, a strong conservation delivery team spearheaded by the Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the NRCS, and an especially healthy partnership of wildlife, conservation, and agricultural agencies and organizations, the time is right and the outlook good.


Explanations for historical chain shifts tend towards the teleological using abstract ideas like balance and equilibrium as the organizing principles of a language's sounds. This paper investigates whether there are more basic phonetic principles governing the behavior of sound categories with respect to one another. Using a computational simulation of agents communicating with each other, I show that vowel chain shifts fall out naturally from an exemplar-based model of sounds. This suggests that no overarching teleological mechanisms are required to account for chain shifts and that the self-organizing behavior of exemplar-based categories provides an adequate explanation.


We report on a simple and fast method to estimate the fiber dispersion and laser chirp parameters on a dispersive Intensity Modulation and Direct Detection (IM/DD) optical channel. Based on the general IM/DD small-signal frequency response, we use the Downhill-Simplex algorithm to fit the channel measurement retrieved with a network analyzer to a general mathematical model. The method is proven to be quite efficient for light sources of different natures and with different adiabatic and transient chirp characteristics, including a Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser, an Electroabsorption modulator (EAM) and even a Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier with fiber-Bragg grating (RSOA-FBG).


BACKGROUND
Obesity in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) may be related to abnormalities in the adipocyte-leptin-hypothalamic pathway and may be exacerbated by reductions in the resting metabolic rate (RMR).

OBJECTIVE
We compared body composition, body-composition- adjusted RMR, and adiposity-adjusted plasma leptin between women with PWS and control women. We also examined leptin receptor expression in the PWS group.

DESIGN
We studied body composition using whole-body magnetic resonance imaging and measured plasma leptin by radioimmunoassay in 45 control women aged 18-56 y and in 13 women with PWS aged 20-38 y. RMR was measured by indirect calorimetry in 41 control women and in 8 women with PWS. Age, body composition, and regional adipose tissue (AT) depots were corrected for by multiple regression analysis. Messenger RNA expression of the leptin receptor was examined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in lymphocytes.

RESULTS
In the PWS group, fat mass was greater after correction for fat-free mass, and RMR was normal after correction for both fat-free mass and fat mass. Leptin was influenced primarily by subcutaneous AT volume in both subject groups. Leptin concentrations were not significantly different between the 2 groups after adjustment for age and AT content or distribution. Full-length leptin receptor messenger RNA was expressed in the lymphocytes of the PWS group.

CONCLUSIONS
Differences in RMR in women with PWS are explained by abnormal body composition, suggesting that energy expenditure is normal at the tissue level in PWS. There is no evidence that defective leptin production causes obesity in PWS, and leptin receptor deficiency is not a primary consequence of the gene defects leading to leptin resistance.


We present a public code to generate a mock galaxy catalog in redshift space assuming a log-normal probability density function (PDF) of galaxy and matter density fields. We draw galaxies by Poisson-sampling the log-normal field, and calculate the velocity field from the linearised continuity equation of matter fields, assuming zero vorticity. This procedure yields a PDF of the pairwise velocity fields that is qualitatively similar to that of N-body simulations. We check fidelity of the catalog, showing that the measured two-point correlation function and power spectrum in real space agree with the input precisely. We find that a linear bias relation in the power spectrum does not guarantee a linear bias relation in the density contrasts, leading to a cross-correlation coefficient of matter and galaxies deviating from unity on small scales. We also find that linearising the Jacobian of the real-to-redshift space mapping provides a poor model for the two-point statistics in redshift space. That is, non-linear redshift-space distortion is dominated by non-linearity in the Jacobian. The power spectrum in redshift space shows a damping on small scales that is qualitatively similar to that of the well-known Fingers-of-God (FoG) effect due to random velocities, except that the log-normal mock does not include random velocities. This damping is a consequence of non-linearity in the Jacobian, and thus attributing the damping of the power spectrum solely to FoG, as commonly done in the literature, is misleading.


Interactive touchscreens such as tablet PCs (TPC) and interactive whiteboards (IWB) are becoming more and more common in classrooms around the world. To date, very little research has been conducted on the impact of the new technology on physics education. This systematic literature review aims to investigate research on what impact tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards might have on the education in upper Secondary School. The review was performed in response to the following questions: 1. What is the influence of IWBs and TPCs on students' active participation in physics education? 2. How can an IWB or TPC improve students' learning about physics concepts? 3. How can educational research on touchscreen technology help inform effective teaching strategies in physics education? To respond to the questions of the study, relevant research about interactive whiteboards and/or tablet PCs was consulted and analysed. Twelve articles were located, mainly through the ERIC and Scopus databases, but also through Google Scholar. The included articles reported empirical research about physics education with interactive whiteboards or tablet PCs. The results from the articles indicate that interactive touchscreens might help improve learners' active participation in physics education. Interactive whiteboards can, for example, be used to display interactive simulations during group work, something students are found to appreciate and easily engage in. A tablet PC can be used in the same way, but also allows students to receive anonymous support and feedback from the teacher during class which seems to be beneficial for learning. Results show that it is possible to improve students' understanding of physics concepts by using interactive whiteboards or tablet PCs. However, further research is required to compare results from students using touch technology and students taught in traditional manner to be able to draw any general conclusions about observed learning effects.


One of the world's largest energy user is the building sector, where much of the energy goes to cooling of buildings. There is need for novel technology to reduce this energy usage, and one way is to install electrochromic windows. They have the ability to vary the transmittance of visible and infrared light by the application of a small electrical voltage, and hence to save large amounts of energy and money and to increase indoor comfort by avoiding strong glares from sunlight.This study concentrates on thin-film electrochromic devices that are based on flexible polyester foils. The conventional design is to make rectangular devices with contacts placed on transparent conductor layers opposite of each other. An electric potential is applied between the contacts, generating an electric field which causes ions to move between films of electrochromic active materials. Since there is an interest on the market for electrochromic windows of other geometries, such as triangular, there is a need to know how to place the contacts in order to obtain a rapid and uniform colouring and bleaching of the device. In order to investigate this, a mathematical model describing the current distribution over the device is a great tool.The model used in this study takes secondary current distribution into account, which includes ohmic effects and electrode kinetics, but neglects diffusive effects due to the assumption that the electrolyte is homogeneous. It describes the two dimensional ohmic flow through the transparent conductor films, the local current due to electrochemical effects in the electrochromic active materials, and a correlation between the optical properties and the injected charge over time. The model is simulated using FlexPDE, which solves the system of differential equations using a Finite Elements Method (FEM). To adjust model parameters, model simulation results are compared to experimental data from rectangular electrochromic devices. Initially, experiments are done on small are devices on which current distribution effects are small. The model is then further developed and validated using large area rectangular devices with 67 cm between the contacts.The model is shown to meet the aims of this study, which is to obtain a simulation tool which can predict the trend in the transmittance distribution. The strength of having this model at hands is that it becomes possible to simulate the transmittance behaviour over time for full size electrochromic windows of different geometries, without having to manufacture expensive devices for experiments. It provides a great design tool for optimizing a rapid and uniform colouring and bleaching, and to investigate how to reduce material costs without affecting performance too much. In this study an example which shows the strength of the model is given. The placement of contacts and its effect on the transmittance distribution in triangular electrochromic windows is examined. It shows that the current distribution model enables time-efficient and cheap design of electrochromic windows.


Surgery has changed a great deal in the past decade. The change is denoted by the term "minimally invasive surgery". The essence of minimally invasive surgery is the use of technology to enable the surgeon to perform his therapeutic tasks in ways which are less physically and physiologically harmful to the patient. At present, the technologies principally in use are imaging technologies (chiefly video and x-ray) coupled with some very basic mechanical devices which allow the surgeon to manipulate organs in various body cavities without opening the body cavity. There is still a long way to go in achieving the full potential of minimally invasive surgery. MEMS technologies can definitely play a role here. I envision the main use for MEMS technology to be in allowing us to design surgical instruments which incorporate various kinds of sensors. Placing micro sensors on the instruments will restore for the surgeon the tactile immediacy of operating with his hands directly on the tissue, instead of through the intermediary of an insensitive and awkward mechanical device. The sensor types which will probably be useful for surgical instruments fall into two overall categories: the first category is sensors which give the surgeon some force feedback as he goes about the job of placing various types of tissue fasteners (staples or sutures). Many surgical complications arise because there is insufficient or inaccurate force feedback to regulate the closing pressure of staples or sutures. Excessive closing pressures can result in tissue necrosis while insufficient pressures may result in leakage through the staple/suture line. The other category of sensors would be various chemo sensors, which can detect the pH, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in tissue, as well as other chemical entities of clinical importance such as lactic acid.


This paper focuses on two anatomical models (known as anatomical machines) commissioned by the Neapolitan nobleman Raimondo di Sangro, the Prince of Sansevero (1710–1771), to be part of his collection of curious objects. They were made by the anatomist Giuseppe Salerno in the 1760s and believed to be the result of anatomical preparations based on a technique known as anatomical injection (injection of embalming substances). Techniques of anatomical injection were perfected in the late 17th century by a few Dutch anatomists. By the mid-18th century, this kind of anatomical preparation was regarded as capable of providing special insights into the anatomy of the human body and considered an invaluable source of medical knowledge based on the visualization of inner bodily parts. Models were regarded as curiosities as well as teaching objects. They also offered a means to overcome disadvantages traditionally associated with anatomical dissection such as the physical deterioration of cadavers and the risk of contamination. It is not known exactly when or why it started but Sansevero's anatomical machines have gradually become the protagonists of a macabre legend. According to this legend, they are the outcome of an operation of human vivisection in which a woman and a man were killed through the injection of embalming substances in their blood vessels. The legend, a mixture of popular depictions of the 'mad scientist' and modern concerns and attitudes towards anatomy and dismemberment, still circulates today. It is so vivid that it has inspired horror stories and appeared in comics and websites. Due to lack of written documentation on their early history, controversy continues about how Sansevero's anatomical machines were actually made. This project responded to this controversy by combining the scientific investigation of their raw materials and manufacturing techniques with historic research. We now have data that indicates that the models are not what they have been believed to be for at least 200 years. Our findings not only challenge the "authenticity" of these objects as products of anatomical injection but also allow for a re-telling of the story of the anatomical machines and an insight on the world where the legends surrounding Sansevero and the models were originated.


Urban transport systems play a crucial role in maintaining
sustainability. Recently, sustainable urban transportation has
become a major research area. Most of these studies propose
evaluation methods that use simulation tools to assess the
sustainability of different transportation policies. Though there
are some recent studies, the mathematical programming approaches to
determine the optimal policies is still an open research area. The
conventional mathematical programming techniques have been used in
several transportation problems such as toll pricing and traffic
assignment problems. We propose a bilevel structure for several
optimization models that incorporate the measurement of gas
emissions throughout a traffic network. The upper level of the
problem represents the decisions of transportation managers that aim
at making the transport systems sustainable, whereas the lower level
problem represents the decisions of the network users that are
assumed to choose their routes to minimize their total travel
cost. By using emission factor tables provided by California Air
Resources Board, we determine the emission functions in terms of
traffic flow to reflect the accumulated emission amounts in case of
congestion. The proposed emission functions are plugged into bilevel
mathematical programming models that incorporate several policies,
namely, toll pricing, zone charging and capacity enhancement. We
conduct a computational study with the proposed models on a testing
network by a state-of-the-art solver


All managers face a business environment in which international and macroeconomic phenomena matter. Understanding these phenomena - the determinants of capital flows, the effects of foreign capital on host countries, the impact of exchange-rate movements, and the genesis of financial and currency crises - is a crucial aspect to making informed managerial decisions. Adverse macroeconomic phenomena can have a catastrophic impact on a firm's performance as demonstrated by the many strong companies destroyed by successive crises in Latin America and Asia and the even recent U.S. mortgage crisis. Yet at the same time, such episodes also create business opportunities - and not just for the hedge funds and speculators that profit from them. Managers who possess a coherent framework for analyzing these phenomena will enjoy a competitive advantage.This book presents a series of case studies taught in the Harvard Business School course, Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy (IMaGE). The cases focus on key recent events that have shaped the way economists think about these subjects. The cases also cover events that occurred during the last three decades as they hold important lessons for the business environment that managers face today. They have also been designed to provide readers with an appreciation of the critical role of institutions in affecting patterns of international capital flows and the abilities of government to manage them effectively.


The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate feline primary conjunctival vascular tumors of endothelial origin. Eight cases (six hemangiomas, two hemangiosarcomas) from a collection of 3460 feline submissions between 1993 and 2004 were evaluated using routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Signalment, location, size, duration, epithelial pigmentation, margins, adjuvant therapy, outdoor activity, and geographic location, comparing ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels by state, were recorded. Follow-up information was available for five cases. In this study, the average age was 10.6 years, with neutered males over-represented. The Domestic Short-haired cat was most commonly affected. The most common anatomic site was the nictitating membrane, with the left eye preferentially affected. The average size and duration, prior to presentation, was 7.5 mm and 4.4 months, respectively. Seven of eight cases were devoid of epithelial pigmentation in nonaffected areas and the majority of cases were from states with high annual UV-light exposure. Only cases of hemangiosarcoma underwent surgical re-excisions following incomplete excision; however, no further recurrences were reported. No cases evaluated had evidence of metastatic disease at the time of excision. Surgical excision alone may be curative. However, recurrence is possible. These tumors demonstrate similar predilection sites and involvement of nonpigmented epithelium, as is true in canine cases, which may relate to risk factors as well.


When Kenneth Baillieu Myer's father fell dead on the footpath in 1934, Ken's life changed in an instant. As the eldest son of the Jewish immigrant retailing genius, Sidney Baevski Myer, who went from pedlar to philanthropist millionaire in fifteen years, 13-year-old Ken was immediately acknowledged as head of the family. Despite a conventional education at Geelong Grammar and a year at Princeton University, Ken was an unconventional man. He had hit headlines when he was born and continued to make news throughout his life-as the powerful Executive Chairman of Myer; in his refusal to be Governor-General of Australia; with his separation and divorce from his wife Prue and remarriage to a Japanese woman half his age, Yasuko Hiraoka; as Chairman of the Victorian Arts Centre and the National Library of Australia; and during his disastrous years as Chairman of the ABC-a reward for signing the 'Myer It's time' letter, acknowledged by Whitlam as influential in bringing the Labor Party to power in 1972. Ken Myer introduced Australia to the first regional shopping centres, with Chadstone changing the face of the Australian landscape. Parking meters, state of the art information systems at the National Library of Australia, ground-breaking medical research at The Howard Florey Institute and genetic engineering at CSIRO were all facilitated by him. Visionary and romantic, he was depressive and driven, charming one moment, icy the next. Unpretentious and a passionate conservationist, he was generous both publicly and anonymously, giving away his fortune and in doing so founding modern philanthropy in Australia. Happiest when finally free of the Store, he died with his wife Yasuko in a light plane crash in Alaska in 1992. With unprecedented access to family documents, Sue Ebury paints a vivid portrait of the many aspects of Ken Myer's life, and the man himself.


Abstract:Global rates of terrorism have skyrocketed since 9/11, yet the aggregate increase tells us very little about the distribution of attacks across different regime types. Contrary to the traditional scholarly view and popular perceptions in the West, reasonably high-quality democracies enjoy a robust and growing "triple democracy advantage" in facing the scourge of post-9/11 terrorism. Not only are liberal democracies and polyarchies less prone to terrorist attacks than all other regime types, but the rate of increase in the number of attacks among these democracies is substantially lower in comparison to other regime types, and they are significantly better at minimizing casualties.


This paper presents part of the results of a large-scale, long-term experimental research conducted at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture Osijek. Among other research goals, this research aims at further development and improvement of a relatively new method used for the measurement of thermal transmittance of walls (U-value) in literature, often called temperature-based method (TBM). This research also partially overlaps with other researches carried out at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, where the main research goals were development of machine learning and neural network models for predicting energy consumption in buildings, which will reduce the energy performance gap between design and actual energy needs. Building thermal performance as a whole can be quantified by the heat loss coefficient (HLC) or the total heat loss (THL). Experimental research presented in this paper was conducted by using a built test chamber in a laboratory, and the research lasted for 40 days. This is an innovative element of this research, since the test chamber is built inside a laboratory where external weather conditions are simulated by omitting the negative influence of wind, precipitation, and solar radiation on the experimental results. The actual heating energy consumption by the test chamber was recorded daily for 40 days during the winter season, together with internal and external temperatures, relative humidity (RH), U-values of walls, and wind speed. Chamber airtightness was measured at the beginning of the experiment. These measurements made it possible to perform the Co-heating test. This test is used to calculate the total heat loss of a building, both fabric and ventilation loss. Parallel with the Co-heating test, the design heating energy need of the test chamber was determined by calculating the heat loss coefficient and the total heat loss. Actual and design values of heat loss coefficient and total heat loss were used to characterize the energy performance gap. Energy performance gap in this study was found to be between −40% and 13%. Research results indicate the variables affecting the actual and design values of heat losses significantly. Presented results provide guidance for more accurate determination of actual energy consumption in buildings, and therefore help in the reduction of the energy performance gap.


OBJECTIVE Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and positive parental history of type 2 diabetes are predictors of the future development of type 2 diabetes in several populations. However, the relative importance of parental history of diabetes and/or history of GDM as risk factors for the pathogenesis of diabetes in African-Americans remains unknown. Thus, the objectives of the present study were 1) to characterize the glucose homeostatic regulations and 2) to examine the contribution of parental history of type 2 diabetes to the potential metabolic alterations found in nondiabetic African-American women with a history of GDM (HGDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We evaluated β-cell secretion, insulin sensitivity (SI), and glucose-dependent glucose disposal (SG) in 15 glucose-tolerant African-American women with a parental history of type 2 diabetes and prior GDM (HGDM) and 35 women with a parental history of type 2 diabetes but without prior GDM (NHGDM). Fifteen healthy nonobese nondiabetic subjects without a family history of diabetes served as control subjects. Body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance analyzer, and body fat distribution pattern was determined by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Insulin-modified frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance (FSIGT) test was performed in each subject. SI and SG were determined by the minimal model method. RESULTS The mean age, BMI, percent body fat content, and lean body mass were not different between the subgroups of relatives with and without a history of GDM, but were greater than those of the healthy control subjects. Mean fasting and postchallenge serum glucose levels were slightly but significantly greater in the HGDM versus NHGDM subjects and the healthy control subjects. However, the 2-h glucose levels were greater in the relatives with and without GDM when compared with the healthy control subjects. In contrast, mean postprandial serum insulin responses were significantly lower between t = 30 and 120 min in the HGDM versus NHGDM groups and the healthy control subjects. The mean serum insulin levels were not different in the NHGDM subjects and healthy control subjects. During the FSIGT test, acute first-phase insulin release (t = 0–5 min) was significantly lower in the HGDM versus NHGDM groups and healthy control subjects. Mean SI was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the HGDM versus NHGDM subjects and healthy control subjects (1.87 ± 0.47 vs. 2.87 ± 0.35 and 3.09 ± 0.27 × 10−4 · min−1.[μU/ml]−1, respectively). SG was significantly lower in HGDM than NHGDM subjects and healthy control subjects (2.11 ± 0.15 vs. 3.25 ± 0.50 and 2.77 ± 0.22 × 10−2) · min−1, respectively). Mean glucose effectiveness at zero insulin concentrations (GEZI) was significantly lower in the HGDM subjects when compared with the NHGDM and healthy control subjects. CONCLUSIONS The present study demonstrates that in African-American women with a parental history of type 2 diabetes and GDM, defects in early-phase β-cell secretion, as well as a decreased SI, SG, and GEZI, persist when compared with those without GDM. We suggest that African-American women with a positive history of GDM have additional genetic defects that perhaps differ from that conferred by a parental history of diabetes alone. Alternatively, the metabolic and hormonal milieu during GDM may be associated with permanent alterations in β-cell function, SI, and glucose effectiveness in African-American women. These defects could play a significant role in the development of GDM, and perhaps in the subsequent development of type 2 diabetes, in African-American women.


This paper proposes a three-layer model to find the optimal routing of an underground electrical distribution system, employing the PRIM algorithm as a graph search heuristic. In the algorithm, the first layer handles transformer allocation and medium voltage network routing, the second layer deploys the low voltage network routing and transformer sizing, while the third presents a method to allocate distributed energy resources in an electric distribution system. The proposed algorithm routes an electrical distribution network in a georeferenced area, taking into account the characteristics of the terrain, such as streets or intersections, and scenarios without squared streets. Moreover, the algorithm copes with scalability characteristics, allowing the addition of loads with time. The model analysis discovers that the algorithm reaches a node connectivity of 100%, satisfies the planned distance constraints, and accomplishes the optimal solution of underground routing in a distribution electrical network applied in a georeferenced area. Simulating the electrical distribution network tests that the voltage drop is less than 2% in the farthest node.


A growing number of recent publications on clusters reflect a tremendous interest in these particles. These studies reveal new fundamental physical and chemical aspects of matter. Clusters are called the fifth state of matter: liquid, solid, cluster, gas and plasma. In this work, a carbon cluster was generated by a spark cluster source and detected by single focusing mass spectrometer in situ. We examined the effects of cluster source parameters on the generation of carbon cluster and report our initial results. This method should be useful for studying the mechanism of fullerene formation. In the case when carbon clusters generated in plasma arc are carried by the Ar or H2 gas flow downstream through a vacuum chamber to the ion source of mass spectrometer, we obtained a small binary carbon cluster C28H4 (hydrogenated fullerene). The empty fullerene is tetravalent and strongly binds four hydrogen atoms, which significantly weakens two different sets of bonds and leads to an open-shell electronic structure. Conclusion is that endohedral C28H4 are hypervalent. We have demonstrated how in situ mass spectrometry has led to the rapid development of an important branch of synthetic fullerene chemistry that has yielded many new small fullerenes and related derivatives with novel structures and properties. The impact of mass spectrometry on the synthesis of fullerene derivatives is the subject of this paper. Significantly, a large fraction of products could be condensed on a specially designed collection plate, which allows further spectroscopic characterization of new derivatives.


The 109th Congress is considering proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA; P.L. 93-205, 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1543). Major issues in recent years have included changing the role of science in decision-making, modifying critical habitat (CH) procedures, incorporating further protection and incentives for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others. In addition, many have advocated enacting as law some ESA regulations promulgated during the Clinton Administration. This report identifies other bills that have been introduced in the 109th Congress to address specific concerns related to how the ESA is implemented and how endangered species are managed.


Tyrosinase gene or C locus has long been implicated in the coat colour determination. This gene a copper-containing enzyme located on chromosome 11q14.3 is expressed in melanocytes and controls the major steps in pigment production. In camel, C locus a restriction site provoked by the T variant of the mutation was used in a special restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP) for genotyping of camels from six different Pakistani camel breeds (Marecha, Dhatti, Larri, Kohi, Campbelpuri and Sakrai). Significant differences in the genotype frequency between the breeds were estimated. The Sakrai breed showed in comparison to other studied breeds a distinctly higher frequency of the homozygous with restriction genotype. The objective of the present study was to screen the camel breeds using modern genetic technique that have been so far classified on the basis of performance and tribal ownership. Keywords: Camel, genotype, restriction endonuclease


Cancer cells have an unusual regulation of hydrogen ion dynamics that are driven by poor vascularity perfusion, regional hypoxia, and increased glycolysis. All these forces synergize/orchestrate together to create extracellular acidity and intracellular alkalinity. Precisely, they lead to extracellular pH (pHe) values as low as 6.2 and intracellular pH values as high as 8. This unique pH gradient (∆pHi to ∆pHe) across the cell membrane increases as the tumor progresses, and is markedly displaced from the electrochemical equilibrium of protons. These unusual pH dynamics influence cancer cell biology, including proliferation, metastasis, and metabolic adaptation. Warburg metabolism with increased glycolysis, even in the presence of Oxygen with the subsequent reduction in Krebs' cycle, is a common feature of most cancers. This metabolic reprogramming confers evolutionary advantages to cancer cells by enhancing their resistance to hypoxia, to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, allowing rapid production of biological building blocks that support cellular proliferation, and shielding against damaging mitochondrial free radicals. In this article, we highlight the interconnected roles of dysregulated pH dynamics in cancer initiation, progression, adaptation, and in determining the programming and re-programming of tumor cell metabolism.


Personality disorders (PDs) are still classified through categorical taxonomies that are at odds with current research findings. Dimensional models provide a suitable alternative for measuring individual differences. However, as they have traditionally lacked a clear definition of the "disorder" construct, the clinical utility of these models has been limited. This study tests whether Cloninger's dimensional model is able to capture two domains: the features that differentiate PD subtypes from each other and the common core features underlying all PDs. Seventy-four drug dependent patients were independently assessed using the SCID-II and Cloninger's TCI. There was a slight relationship between TCI temperament dimensions and the DSM personality disorder subtypes, but the association was not specific enough to allow differential diagnosis. The character dimension Self-Directedness was strongly associated with the presence and severity of all PDs, irrespective of subtype, correctly classifying 77% of subjects. Character dimensions are a reliable, valid and low-cost tool for detecting PDs in drug abusers and may help to provide an operational definition of the common core features underlying all PDs.


A brain-computer interface (BCI) infers our actions (e.g. a movement), intentions (e.g. preparation for a movement) and psychological states (e.g. emotion, attention) by interpreting our brain signals. It uses the inferences it makes to manipulate a computer. Although BCIs have long been used exclusively to support disabled people (e.g. through brain-controlled wheelchairs, spellers), with the emerging low-cost and portable hardware, they have started to be considered for a variety of human-computer interaction (HCI) applications for non-disabled people as well. Among these, games have been receiving the interest of researchers and practitioners from both the BCI and HCI communities.
In BCI research, games have long been used solely to demonstrate the performance of signal processing and analysis methods. Therefore, they have been evaluated only for their performance (e.g. recognition accuracy, information transfer rate). However, games are not meant to satisfy our practical needs. They satisfy our hedonic needs. They challenge us, let us make our fantasies true, evoke our memories, and so on. We look for these experiences while playing games. Thus, rather than the performance of the controller used, the user experience (UX) of the game is essential.
UX of a game is a consequence of the player's internal state, the game characteristics and the context. Evaluating such a complex phenomenon is non-trivial. Often, UX is measured in terms of other, measurable concepts such as flow, immersion, presence, social behaviour and so on. Methods to evaluate UX also vary and include questionary, inter- viewing, and observation analysis. Evaluating UX of BCI games is even harder because UX evaluations may be biased due to the low recognition performance of the BCI. But this should not keep us from investigating UX of BCI games and identifying the good and bad practices, indepen- dent of performance. Because, ignoring UX while trying to improve performance might lead to games that are perfectly functional, but not enjoyed or played by anyone.
In this work, we investigated how the BCI control can influence the UX of a computer game. We considered a futuristic scenario in which BCI functioned as perfectly as other modalities. To simulate this scenario, we proposed and followed an approach called equalised comparative evaluation (ECE). For this, we equalised the perceived performance of BCI and several other modalities. We did not simply introduce artificial errors on the modalities as this could reduce player effectance and, thus, enjoyment. Instead, we manipulated the challenge of the tasks the players performed. Then, we evaluated and compared the UX while playing with BCI and with the other modalities.
Our work consisted of three studies in each of which we evaluated different UX related concepts and used different data collection methods. In all the studies, participants played an experimental multimodal game that we had developed, called Mind the Sheep! (MTS!). They controlled 3 dogs using different modalities in order to herd 10 sheep across a meadow. The goal was to pen all the sheep as quickly as possible.
In Study 1, we showed the effectiveness of our ECE approach. Pairs of participants played a collaborative, multi-player version of MTS! once using a BCI that relied on the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP), once by simple mouse pointing and clicking (non-ECE ap- proach) and once using a visuomotor control mechanism that was as challenging to control as BCI (ECE approach). We relied on observation analysis, interviewing and questionnaires to evaluate UX in terms of social interaction. We found that challenging control dampened collabo- rative social interaction but it improved emotional social interaction.
In Study 2, participants played single-player MTS! once using BCI and once using the visuomotor control mechanism we used in Study 1. They indicated their UX in terms of affect and immersion using questionnaires. We found that the BCI selection method was more immersive and that the participants were more indulgent towards BCI control. One question that arose from our findings was whether the positive UX of BCI control was due to a novelty effect. This was what we investigated in Study 3.
In Study 3, we compared UX of BCI control to that of automatic speech recogniser (ASR) control, under the assumption that both ASR and BCI were novel game input modalities. Participants played single- player MTS! once with BCI, once with ASR and once with the option of switching between the two. Using questionnaires, they rated their expectations, engagement and workload levels as well as perceived game/controller quality. We also conducted interviews and analysed game logs. The participants rated BCI control higher in hedonic quality but lower in pragmatic quality than ASR control. The challenge and novelty of BCI influenced their modality switching behaviour.
The contributions of our work are manifold. The ECE approach we proposed allows evaluating UX of BCI games (or applications in general) independent of their performance and investigating the unique capabilities of BCI. The UX evaluation results demonstrate the ways the challenge, cognitive involvement and novelty offered by BCI can influence the UX of a game. Our discussion on the preferable (and non-preferable) measures and methods for evaluating the UX of BCI games provides guidelines to other researchers. Furthermore, the BCI and physiological computing (PC) frameworks we proposed allows developers to situate their applications among other BCI or PC systems.


We review the use of continuum quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods for the calculation of energy gaps from first principles, and present a broad set of excited-state calculations carried out with the variational and fixed-node diffusion QMC methods on atoms, molecules, and solids. We propose a finite-size-error correction scheme for bulk energy gaps calculated in finite cells subject to periodic boundary conditions. We show that finite-size effects are qualitatively different in two-dimensional materials, demonstrating the effect in a QMC calculation of the band gap and exciton binding energy of monolayer phosphorene. We investigate the fixed-node errors in diffusion Monte Carlo gaps evaluated with Slater-Jastrow trial wave functions by examining the effects of backflow transformations, and also by considering the formation of restricted multideterminant expansions for excited-state wave functions. For several molecules, we examine the importance of structural relaxation in the excited state in determining excited-state energies. We study the feasibility of using variational Monte Carlo with backflow correlations to obtain accurate excited-state energies at reduced computational cost, finding that this approach can be valid. We find that diffusion Monte Carlo gap calculations can be performed with much larger time steps than are typically required to converge the total energy, at significantly diminished computational expense, but that in order to alleviate fixed-node errors in calculations on solids the inclusion of backflow correlations is sometimes necessary.


From the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century the Christian Empire of Ethiopia was in decline; the power and prestige of the Emperor were at a low ebb and the provincial governors vied with one another for a dominant position in Empire. This decline was the combined effect upon the Empire of past wars with her Muslim neighbours, religious civil war and the Galla invasions. At the provincial level the period was marked by territorial expansion, centralization and consolidation of provincial autonomy. This development achieved varying degrees of success in the different provinces. Probably the highest degree of success was achieved in the Galla-dominated province of Shoa, where a line of Amhara rulers the district of Manz succeeded in establishing a stable dynasty. Through military prowess and administrative ability the dynasty gradually conquered the surrounding Galla, and by the 1840s had created a powerful kingdom independent of the Emperor. The success of Shoa's development was due partly to the ability of its rulers, partly to the absence of interference from other princes in the Empire, and party to the political and military weakness of the Galla tribes. In 1855-6 Emperor Theodros, having revived the imperial authority, conquered Shoa but nine years later Shoa regained her independence. From 1865 to 1889 the relations between Shoa and the revitalized Imperial power became a crucial domestic issue in the Empire. The period also saw Shoa conquer more Galla provinces. As a result of her expansion there evolved in Shoa a strong centralized administration, and a commercial and military activity, the relative efficiency of which enabled the kingdom to withstand efforts by the Imperial power to conquer it. In 1889 the King of Shoa became Emperor and thereby re-united the Empire under the Shoan. dynasty.


Background: Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a severe form of secondary glaucoma caused by the growth of new vessels over the trabecular meshwork. The principal causes are associated with retinal ischemia. Ablative treatment of the retina can prevent, halt, and even reverse the growth of new vessels on the iris and angle. It is an essential part of the management in most cases. Aims: To determine the causes of NVG among Saudi patients, presented at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital. Methods: A retrospective review of 337 Saudi patients with NVG was obtained. All cases were reviewed for the evidence and causes of the disease, and their basic demographic information. A subset of 100 diabetic patients with PDR was further studied in greater detail for clinical findings and treatment history. Results: The most common primary etiologic associations for NVG included diabetic retinopathy (DR) (56.06%), retinal venous obstruction (26.40%), and chronic retinal detachment (03.56%). A history of diabetes mellitus was reported in 65.04%, systemic arterial hypertension was noted in 61.00%, and evidence of renal impairment was documented in 22.00%. Vision was markedly reduced in most eyes with NVG (median: hand motion). The median best visual acuity in the fellow eye was 20/160. Among the 100 cases, with DR as a cause of NVG, 43 patients had bilateral neovascularization of the iris (NVI) and 72 had bilateral PDR. Sixty-one patients had no previous laser treatment before the diagnosis of NVG. Among these, who received treatment, the median number of total laser spots was 1,003. Conclusions: Diabetes is a major cause of NVG presented to this tertiary eye care center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia followed by retinal venous obstruction. Close monitoring and full pan-retinal photocoagulation (PRP) were absent in most of the diabetic cases. It is important to recognize that the "unaffected" fellow eye, particularly in diabetic patients, may require fairly urgent treatment as well.


Theoretical and numerical aspects of the open-source potential flow boundary element solver, NEMOH, for the first order hydrodynamic coefficients computations in the frequency domain are described in [Babarit, A. and Delhommeau, G., 2015]. [Philippe, M. et al., 2015] described the implementation and verifications of the second order difference-frequency quadratic transfer functions (QTFs) in the NEMOH code. In the latter paper, the QTFs are verified for standard cases, a bottom-mounted cylinder and a hemisphere. The present study reports the implementation and verification of the complete QTFs, for difference- and sum-frequency loads. The QTFs are composed of quadratic and potential parts. The quadratic part depending on the first order hydrodynamic quantities, is implemented using the near-field approach. The potential part, which depends on the second order potential, is solved using the indirect method. Verification is achieved by comparing the NEMOH result with a commercial software HYDROSTAR for a hemisphere and the OC5-DeepCwind semisubmersible.


The laundry wastewater of one of the hospitals in Qatar was selected and studied. It was found that hospital laundry is releasing considerable amount of wastewater i.e. 1800 – 2500 liters/cycle while washing 40 – 50 kg of laundry items. The wastewater characterization showed that the laundry effluent was polluted enough to cause environmental pollution if not treated properly. Single step membrane technology i.e. ultrafiltration membrane with lower molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 5kDa was used for the treatment of laundry wastewater. It was found that the one step treatment is enough to remove most of the pollutants in terms of COD, Surfactants and suspended solids could be rejected while maintaining acceptable permeates flux. The treated water was found to be complying with different standards of wastewater reuse considered in this study. Effect of different operating parameters like pressure, temperature and flow rate on membrane rejection and permeate flux was also investigated. The in-depth studies of variation in wastewater characteristics and also reuse tests (using treated water to wash clothes) were recommended for further verification of potential of proposed technology.The laundry wastewater of one of the hospitals in Qatar was selected and studied. It was found that hospital laundry is releasing considerable amount of wastewater i.e. 1800 – 2500 liters/cycle while washing 40 – 50 kg of laundry items. The wastewater characterization showed that the laundry effluent was polluted enough to cause environmental pollution if not treated properly. Single step membrane technology i.e. ultrafiltration membrane with lower molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 5kDa was used for the treatment of laundry wastewater. It was found that the one step treatment is enough to remove most of the pollutants in terms of COD, Surfactants and suspended solids could be rejected while maintaining acceptable permeates flux. The treated water was found to be complying with different standards of wastewater reuse considered in this study. Effect of different operating parameters like pressure, temperature and flow rate on membrane rejection and permeate flux was also investigated. The in-depth studies...