Oxidative stress induced by redox-active metal cations such as Cu(2+) is a key event in the development of Alzheimer's disease. A detailed knowledge of the structure of Cu(2+)-Aβ complex is thus important to get a better understanding of this critical process. In the present study, we use a computational approach that combines homology modeling with quantum-mechanics-based methods to determine plausible 3D structures of Cu(2+)-Aβ(1-16) complexes that enclose the different metal coordination spheres proposed experimentally at different pH values. With these models in hand, we determine their standard reduction potential (SRP) with the aim of getting new insights into the relation between the structure of these complexes and their redox behavior. Results show that in all cases copper reduction induces CObackbone decoordination, which, for distorted square planar structures in the oxidized state (Ia_δδ, IIa_εδε, IIa_εεε, and IIc_ε), leads to tricoordinated species. For the pentacoordinated structural candidate Ib_δε with Glu11 at the apical position, the reduction leads to a distorted tetrahedral structure. The present results highlight the importance of the nature of the ligands on the SRP. The computed values (with respect to the standard hydrogen electrode) for complexes enclosing negatively charged ligands in the coordination sphere (from -0.81 to -0.12 V) are significantly lower than those computed for models involving neutral ligands (from 0.19 to 0.28 V). Major geometry changes induced by reduction, on both the metal site and the peptide configuration, are discussed as well as their possible influence in the formation of reactive oxygen species.


The research study examines a number of recent developments in the electrical/electronics industry in terms of new skill requirements of the workforce and in-service training provision for both employees in industry and teaching staff in the providing colleges of further education in the North East Region. Many of the major changes which are taking place in the Region's industries are due mainly to the introduction or planned introduction of new microelectronic/computerised technology. Therefore, it is imperative that the relevant manpower planning which takes place in industry is supported by recent and relevant further education and training of its employees so that an adequate supply of sufficiently-skilled personnel is made available in order that companies can take advantage of high technology in their manufacturing processes. Data was collected, using structured interview questionnaires, from samples of managers employed in local industry and teachers in further education departments of electrical/electronic engineering. The results were later analysed using computer standard non-parametric statistics. Much of the data obtained from the survey shows that, although further training and retraining of staff was often necessary with the introduction of new computerised equipment into a company, very little reliance was actually placed on further education. Many of the in- service training needs were provided by equipment manufacturers, external agencies, and in-company programmes. Staff development in a number of the sampled colleges did no always place sufficient emphasis on regular retraining/updating of the teachers' subject area. Therefore, as a consequence, many FE teachers had not attended any recent subject-specific in-service training courses and often had to rely on text-books and other sources for information on new subject and curricular developments. Although most of the sampled managers were aware of the lack of close liaison between their industry and colleges of further education, many recognised the need to further their own involvement in local education and contribute to the content and organisation of college course curricula. In education, a disproportionately large percentage of those teachers interviewed had little or no contact with local firms, even at a superficial level of involvement e.g. an industrial visit, and many had never consulted with industry nor discussed any issues involving the courses offered by their department. The absence of any structured links between the two samples has inevitably helped to exacerbate many existing problems, and in a number of cases has, unfortunately, resulted in a complete lack of co-operation and co-ordination in terms of course planning and design.


Acquiring realistic texture details for 3D models is important in 3D reconstruction. However, the existence of geometric errors, caused by noisy RGB-D sensor data, always makes the color images cannot be accurately aligned onto reconstructed 3D models. In this paper, we propose a global-to-local correction strategy to obtain more desired texture mapping results. Our algorithm first adaptively selects an optimal image for each face of the 3D model, which can effectively remove blurring and ghost artifacts produced by multiple image blending. We then adopt a non-rigid global-to-local correction step to reduce the seaming effect between textures. This can effectively compensate for the texture and the geometric misalignment caused by camera pose drift and geometric errors. We evaluate the proposed algorithm in a range of complex scenes and demonstrate its effective performance in generating seamless high fidelity textures for 3D models.


Study Design. Basic pain study using osteoporotic rodent models. Objective. To examine alterations in distribution of pain-related neuropeptides after compressive force on osteoporotic vertebrae and their chronic pain-related properties. Summary of Background Data. We previously reported significantly increased production of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a marker of inflammatory pain, in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of vertebrae in osteoporosis-model ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Here, we hypothesized that longitudinal compressive force on vertebrae can affect osteoporotic pain properties, which has not been examined yet. Methods. OVX rats were used as the osteoporosis model. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were prepared and Fluoro-Gold (FG) neurotracer was applied to the periosteal surface of the Co5 vertebra. After FG labeling, the animals were divided into 4 groups: Control, Control + compression, OVX, and OVX + compression. The Control groups were not ovariectomized. In the compression groups, K-wires were stabbed transversely through Co4 and Co6 with Co5 compressed longitudinally by rubber bands bridged between the 2. One, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after surgery, bilateral S1 to S3 DRGs were excised for immunofluorescence assays. Expression of CGRP and activating transcription factor 3, a marker of neuronal injury, were compared among the 4 groups. Results. Sustained upregulation of CGRP in DRG neurons was observed after compression of the Co5 vertebra, and Co5 compression caused significant increase in CGRP production in DRG neurons, whereas a greater level of activating transcription factor 3 upregulation was observed in DRGs in OVX rats after dynamic vertebral compression 8 weeks after surgery, implying potential neuropathic pain. Conclusion. There was sustained upregulation of CGRP and activating transcription factor 3 in DRGs in osteoporotic model rats compared with controls, and levels were further enhanced by dynamic vertebral compression. These findings imply that dynamic compression stress on vertebrae can exacerbate osteoporotic pain by inducing both inflammatory and neuropathic pain mediators. Level of Evidence: N/A


Recent research investigated the role of the emotion dysregulation in the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms. The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediating role of emotion dysregulation strategies on the relationship between negative emotion intensity and safety motivation system with anxiety symptoms. A total of 621 students (392 females, 229 males) from the universities in Tehran participated in the study. Participants completed the Farsi version of Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire-short form (MASQ-SF), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ), Attentional Control Scale (ACS), Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ), Experiences Questionnaire (EQ), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The results demonstrated that negative emotion intensity had a positive significant association with safety motivation. Moreover, among the emotion regulation strategies, attentional control component from attending and allowing emotion regulation strategies had a negative significant association with anxious arousal. Body awareness component from attending and reappraisal did not play a significant mediating role on the relationship between negative emotion intensity, safety motivation and anxiety symptoms. However, other emotion regulation strategies played a significant mediating role. Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that development of anxiety symptoms are influenced by attending, allowing, and distancing strategies. Therefore, considering these emotion regulation strategies can result in better understanding of anxiety symptoms and more effective treatments.


This article elaborates the role of interpersonal communication in media effects. Based on an extensive literature review, two lines of arguments are illustrated: the antagonistic and the synergetic position. The literature provides theoretical and empirical support for both positions especially in the field of persuasive media input. To complete the view, two experiments with nonpersuasive media input are presented. The first experiment addresses the role of conversations in cognitive news effects. The synergetic position is supported: conversation leads to elaboration and more profound recall of media content. The second experiment deals mainly with emotional media effects in entertainment. No general impact of conversation on media effects was demonstrated. Nonetheless, the authors find evidence that conversations about the media engender a more critical and reserved stance toward the media content and protagonists. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for further research into the field.


This work is the second of two parts that considered the following issue: do flame retardants affect heat release of polymers? The reason for investigating the issue is because it is important to assess whether the addition of flame retardants positively decreases fire hazard. This part of the work considered the two following issues. (1) Analysis of the individual polymeric materials that need to be studied. (2) Analysis of the data found on heat release (particularly peak heat release rate), ignitability (if available), and other thermal properties (as available) of polymers in small‐scale test data in recent years. The effects are being presented in terms of the percentage of improvement. The work demonstrated that, almost without exception, when adequately compounded systems were developed, the peak heat release rate of the flame retarded system was lower than that of the non‐flame retarded system. The overall conclusion of the two‐part study was that flame retardants does indeed improve fire safety (when used appropriately) and that a key reason for the beneficial effect of flame retardants is that they decrease heat release. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Existing research dealt with thermal comfort and daylighting independently, but these subjects are affected by building design strategies, cohesively. Hence, the application of passive design strategies which is achieved by designing building elements to be climate-responsive, is seen as a rational action. A passive house should attain optimum thermal comfort and daylighting that alleviate the need of mechanical cooling/ventilation and artificial lighting, respectively. This in turn, reduces operational energy demand. Having said that, there was a lack of research on the economic benefit of passive design strategies. Therefore, this study intends to demonstrate thermal comfort and daylighting, collectively, in a Passive Terraced House and assess the related economic benefits, especially when applied with Energy Efficient (EE) appliances and Renewable Energy (RE) system as multi-intervention. This research was carried out in comparison with a Conventional Terraced House so that the outcome could be assessed with the status quo. The methodology began with establishing a Conventional Terraced House and a Passive Terraced House. The former was deduced from the residential market, and later applied passive design strategies as listed in the Malaysian Standard (MS) 1525 to evolve into a proposed Passive Terraced House. Both types of house had the same conventional floor plans and rectangular building form but the party walls in the proposed Passive Terraced House were on the shorter sides, thus the longer sides became the wide frontage of the house creating shallow floor plan that facilitated daylighting and cross ventilation. Both houses were simulated using internationally accredited Indoor Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES ) programme, specifically 'Apache' and 'Radiance' software to ascertain the indoor air temperature and daylighting illuminance, respectively. When bench-marked against the standards, it was found that the proposed Passive Terraced House provided three months thermal comfort but the Conventional Terraced House was in thermal discomfort throughout the year. Similarly, the proposed Passive Terraced House offered plenty of daylighting in all rooms during the day time hours; but the Conventional Terraced House offered limited daylighting in bedrooms only. The economic assessment by means of 30-year Total Multiintervention Cost (TMC) that includes house price, operational energy and capital costs of appliances, showed that the proposed Passive Terraced House was a cheaper option in the long term compared with the Conventional Terraced House. Each house was also simulated as a mass housing development on a one-hectare site (± 10%). Despite the low number of the proposed Passive Terraced Houses, the return on Gross Development Cost (GDC) was competitively positive (about 30%) when 10% sales premium is assigned due to the wide frontage. The findings of the research demonstrated that the proposed Passive Terraced House was a credible housing alternative, especially in the context of pressing energy issue.


Thrifty scheduling is an algorithm that improves the responsiveness of a stripe-scheduled multimedia server. It increases the determination of the data-distribution service, reduces the likelihood of high startup delays, and enables an increase in the rated load of the system. A stripe-scheduled media server is a distributed video-on- demand system that load-balances by striping video data across multiple computer nodes and cyclically scheduling the distribution of the data. The server displays highly variable startup delays in response to requests for data streams. These delays are due to clusters of allocated slots in the distribution schedule, which form naturally as the system load increases. Thrifty scheduling is a scalable algorithm that improves responsiveness by allocating streams to schedule slots in a way that reduces the clustering in the schedule. This algorithm has been incorporated into the Tiger video fileserver.


The purpose of this work is to analyse and study an efficient parametrization technique for a 3D shape optimization problem. After a brief review of the techniques and approaches already available in literature, we choose to use the Free Form Deformation parametrization, a recent technique which proved to be efficient and at the same time versatile, allowing to manage complex shapes even with few parameters. We tested and studied the technique by developing a link among different specialized softwares, in order to establish a path, from the geometry definition, to the method implementation, and finally to the simulation and to the optimization of the problem. In particular, we have studied a bulb and a rudder of a race sailing boat as model problems.


This article demonstrates how the politics of non-alignment and multilateralism intersected with the making of scientific knowledge about the past after the Second World War. The article shows how post-war political (re-) arrangements helped to realign not only the geographies of that knowledge, but also the people who could claim expertise in making it. The article concentrates on events during UNESCO's International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, which took place during the 1960s and 1970s in Egypt and Sudan in response to the flooding caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Discussing the Egyptian excavations carried out during the work by the Archaeological Survey of India, the article shows how the campaign offered the chance to realign – if not entirely non-align – the ways in which knowledge of the past was made, circulated, and justified. Carrying out archaeological work in another non-aligned nation-state not only represented a favourable international intervention for India, but also allowed the country to rearrange colonial logics of archaeological knowledge production to its advantage and to claim expertise in their use. The Archaeological Survey of India then attempted to perform this expertise elsewhere and thereby bolster the post-partition narrative of a 'greater India'.


In the current literature cells that have finished their proliferative life span in vitro and have reached a terminal post-mitotic state are called senescent cells. This definition originated from the belief that the irreversible non-dividing state has a relationship with aging of the organism. Attempts have been made to find markers of the so-called senescent cell in order to detect their presence in vivo in donors of different ages. One marker which was supposed to demonstrate an increase of post-mitotic cells with aging is a marker of a long resting phase whether reversible or irreversible. Other markers suggest that the postmitotic cell does not increase with aging of the organism, that it is irrelevant for aging, that it is found in an increased number in pathology, and that the term senescent cell is a misnomer that should be used only in an operational manner.


The standard in rod finite element formulations is the Bubnov–Galerkin projection method, where the test functions arise from a consistent variation of the ansatz functions. This approach becomes increasingly complex when highly nonlinear ansatz functions are chosen to approximate the rod's centerline and cross‐section orientations. Using a Petrov–Galerkin projection method, we propose a whole family of rod finite element formulations where the nodal generalized virtual displacements and generalized velocities are interpolated instead of using the consistent variations and time derivatives of the ansatz functions. This approach leads to a significant simplification of the expressions in the discrete virtual work functionals. In addition, independent strategies can be chosen for interpolating the nodal centerline points and cross‐section orientations. We discuss three objective interpolation strategies and give an in‐depth analysis concerning locking and convergence behavior for the whole family of rod finite element formulations.


You only see what you want to see We often focus on a particular item out of a thousand objects in a visual scene. This ability is called selective attention. Selective attention enhances the responses of sensory nerve cells to whatever is being observed and dampens responses to any distractions. Zhang et al. identified a region of the mouse forebrain that modulates responses in the visual cortex. This modulation improved the mouse's performance in a visual task. Science, this issue p. 660 Projections from the frontal cortex control stimulus processing in the visual system in mice. Top-down modulation of sensory processing allows the animal to select inputs most relevant to current tasks. We found that the cingulate (Cg) region of the mouse frontal cortex powerfully influences sensory processing in the primary visual cortex (V1) through long-range projections that activate local γ-aminobutyric acid–ergic (GABAergic) circuits. Optogenetic activation of Cg neurons enhanced V1 neuron responses and improved visual discrimination. Focal activation of Cg axons in V1 caused a response increase at the activation site but a decrease at nearby locations (center-surround modulation). Whereas somatostatin-positive GABAergic interneurons contributed preferentially to surround suppression, vasoactive intestinal peptide-positive interneurons were crucial for center facilitation. Long-range corticocortical projections thus act through local microcircuits to exert spatially specific top-down modulation of sensory processing.


Harvesting corn (Zea mays L.) residue in continuous corn (CC) may require changes in crop management for increased efficiency. Experiments were conducted in Illinois to determine how residue removal and tillage affect surface residue after planting and the response ofCC to N fertilization. Partial removal of residue left 21 to 26% surface residue coverage with a chisel plow system, compared with 53 to 65% with no-till. Across 2 yr with 92 to 128 mm rainfall during June and July, grain yield only responded to N fertilization with no-till. When compared with full removal of residue in no-till, no removal increased the economically optimum N fertilizer rate (EONR) by 58% and yield at the EONR from 8.6 to 10.3 Mg ha -1 . Across five environments with 201 to 264 mm rainfall during June and July, yields with full removal of residue were 13.1 Mg ha -1 with no-till and 13.4 Mg ha -1 with tillage. With partial and no residue removal, yields were 5 and 12% greater with the chisel plow than with the no-tillage system, respectively. Across tillage systems in these environments, retaining all residue increased the EONR by 13% and decreased yield at the EONR by 4% when compared to full or partial removal of residue. On productive soils with adequate rainfall, removal of residue has the potential to raise yields and to lower N fertilizer requirements in the short term. This advantage, however, needs to be balanced against the need to retain adequate soil cover to maintain soil productivity.


The effect of pyridine compounds on the capture of thrips was examined in an Auckland, New Zealand, capsicum greenhouse in 2004. Yellow sticky traps were positioned just above the crop canopy in a rectangular array with 6 traps per compound and 6 control traps, 20−24 m apart, and left for 24 h. Most thrips found on traps were Frankliniella occidentalis (>99%). Fourteen times more female F. occidentalis were captured on traps with methyl isonicotinate or ethyl isonicotinate than on controls. Sticky traps treated with methyl 4-pyridyl ketone also caught more female F. occidentalis than controls (4.5×). Sticky traps with methyl isonicotinate caught more male F. occidentalis (up to 5.2×) than controls. Ethyl-2-chloropyridine-4-carboxylate and ethyl nicotinate did not increase trap catches of either sex. The results demonstrated that selected pyridine compounds have the potential to improve trap capture of F. occidentalis in a covered crop.


Business Development Strategies Used by General Contracting Construction Companies in Texas for Market Diversification. (May 2004) Seenu Anna Kurien, B.Arch., University of Kerala Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Charles W. Graham The construction industry in recent times is seen to be highly competitive and dynamic. To remain progressive in such an environment construction companies need to be aggressive in terms of getting business. This is where the importance of marketing and business development comes into play. This thesis addresses the different business development strategies used by general contracting construction companies in Texas for market diversification. Initially, a framework is established for this study through the presentation of brief history and marketing theories. Then, through literature review, four common business development strategies are identified, which are in turn later used to compare the data collected from the industry. Data are collected via surveys of general contractors in Texas. Results show that companies which satisfied majority of the four charecteristics identified previously showed better growth. Further conclusions are discussed and future recommendations are also presented.


This paper offers a detailed description and analisys of the adornments found on the territory of a necropolis located around church № 2 in the inner city of Kaliakra. Along with other findings in the graves, reburiels and around them (probably from a disturbed graves) 26 applications, 65 earrings, 8 earflaps, 11 rings and 1 pendant were found. The applications for tiaras are 2 types. The earrings are 9 types. The largest type are simple hoops, which could be explained with their cost, fashion tendencies or semantic value. The earflaps are divided into 3 types, one of which has 2 variants. The pendant is just one. The rings are 4 types with variants. The systematization also shows that the preferred material was silver, followed by bronze and copper. This observation along with different types of jewelry and the quality of workmanship provide information about the development of the jewellery industry. The wide diversity is an indication that the necropolis was used by people of different social status. Also the jewelry discovered in the necropolis of church № 2 are widespread not only in Bulgaria, but in many places on the Balkans and in the Eastern Europe. The chronology of findings originating from graves is within the XII-XIV c. From the rings found outside the graves there is one typical for the period from the end of IX to XI c., and three from the XV c. This implies continuous habitation of this location.


OBJECTIVES
We sought to establish whether associations between childhood cognition and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adulthood are explained by common causes, or adult social position or health behavior.

METHODS
We analyzed associations between cognition at age 11 and cardiovascular disease risk factors at age 45 in the 1958 British birth cohort (n=9377), with and without adjustment for covariates.

RESULTS
General ability was inversely associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin, triglycerides (in women), body mass index, and waist circumference. Systolic blood pressure decreased by 0.47 mm Hg (95% confidence interval [CI]=-0.90, -0.05) for a 1-standard-deviation increase in ability. Separate adjustment for social class at birth, education level by adulthood, adult social class, and health behaviors reduced the associations respectively by 14% to 34%, 36% to 50%, 14% to 36%, and 24% to 73%. Full adjustment reduced associations between ability and risk factors at age 45 years by 43% to 92%, abolishing all associations.

CONCLUSIONS
Increments across the distribution of childhood cognition are associated with improvements in cardiovascular risk profile in midlife, with associations primarily mediated through adult health behavior and social destinations.


Background: Prodrome has recently been proposed as target for early intervention but their phenomenology remains obscure and often certain temperamental characteristics are confused with prodromal symptoms leading to the possibility of over-reporting. Methods: Fifty-one consecutively admitted patients, between the age group of 18-60 years, fulfilling the ICD-10 criteria for mania with psychotic symptoms were included. They were rated on Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and were started on appropriate medications. After they attained remission (YMRS<12), they were interviewed on the Bipolar Prodrome Symptom ScaleRetrospective version (BPSS-R) and the General Behaviour Inventory (GBI). Twenty-five normal controls were assessed using the same tools. Results: Prodromal symptoms were reported by 58.8% of the patients, as compared to eight per cent of controls. Irritability (28.33%) was the most commonly reported prodromal symptom followed by anxiety (13.33%) and sleep disturbance (ten per cent). All the three frequently reported prodromal symptoms were of moderate severity and recurrent in frequency in three-fourth of the patients. The mean number of prodromal symptoms among the patients was 1.14 (SD 1.44), which was significantly higher than the normal controls (p<0.001). Hypomanic/depressive temperaments were significantly higher in the patients with prodrome as compared to normal controls (p<0.01) as well as patients without prodrome (p<0.01). Discussion: Significantly higher number of prodromal symptoms was present in the patients and these symptoms were mostly moderate in severity and recurrent in nature. Also, the number of patients who reported prodromal symptoms was much higher than the number of controls. However, when a comparison was made between the reported prodromal symptoms in the patient and control group, a significant difference was noted only in 'irritability'. Further, the proportion of prodromal symptoms reported in our study was lower when compared to previous studies. This could be because most of these studies had looked for these symptoms over the lifetime leading to likelihood of overreporting. Individually, these symptoms may not have predictive significance but the occurrence of these clinical characteristics in patients who have hypomanic or depressive temperament could be a sign of impending first episode mania.


Based on his work with Alex Osterwalder on business models, Yves Pigneur will suggest that research in business innovation could be improved and enlightened by design science research in Information Systems. He will highlight three areas in which research in IS could inform the development of new business tools. The first area concerns the identification, formalization, and visualization of core constructs and models of interest related to business innovation and co-design of the "Enterprise of the future". The second area corresponds to the exploration of how design thinking techniques might contribute to improving the design and test of alternatives in business creation. The third area addresses the research in computer-aided design assisting the process of designing business objects.


Ab initio density functional calculations are reported for Rh adlayers on MgO(001) at coverages of 1, 1/2 and 1/8 monolayers. It is shown that charge is transferred from oxide surface to the Rh adatoms. The transfer ranges from 0.06 e to 0.27 e, depending upon adsorption site and coverage. In comparison, transfers of 0.08 e from adatom to surface and 0.32 e surface to adatom are found for monolayer coverages of Mg and O, respectively. With the Rh adatoms, significant charge polarization of both Rh and the surface are also seen, but it is never-the-less found that the adhesion energy is linearly related to the charge transfer, with the most stable adsorption site at any particular coverage being the one at which the charge transfer is a maximum.


Julian Baggini presents 100 thought experiments - short scenarios which pose a problem in a vivid and concrete way - and invites the reader to think about possible answers for him/herself. Experiments cover identity, religion, art, ethics, language, knowledge and many more. From Zeno's paradox to Groundhog Day (how do you make sense of a life of eternal recurrence?), via the pig that wants to be eaten (so should you eat him?), Plato's cave, Minority Report (is it right to punish people for what they are going to do, but haven't yet done?), and an American Werewolf in London (how can we tell whether we are awake or dreaming?), this book makes philosophy not only mind-stretching but also entertaining.


A rare constancy in color of the fur in some species, a nearly endless variety in other species and a very peculiar geographical distribution render the study of this beautiful group of Marsupials very difficult but at the same time highly interesting and attractive. A thourough study based upon large and well selected series from the most different and distant localities is the only way to surmount the very difficulties. No wonder therefore that so many naturalists have failed in their efforts to recognize and circumscribe the species composing this group. The Cuscus-species have half or more than half the prehensile tail destitute of hair and the second and third toes of the hind feet united in a common integument very nearly to the extremity. These two characters combined distinguish them from all the other Mammals.


There are many scenarios in practice where animals present with acute, chronic, and acute on chronic bouts of pancreatitis. By investigating the risk of pancreatitis in association with high fat diets in a clinical setting, dietary manipulation could be instigated to reduce the risk of pancreatitis or the risk of recurrence. Many animals are placed on low fat diets when diagnosed with pancreatitis, but there are no evidence-based fat levels suggested for these animals. Nutritional recommendations for adult dogs are a minimum of 5.5 g per 100 g dry matter of the food consumed, based on an energy requirement of 95 kcal/kg bwt0.75; there is no recommendation on the type of fats, but that the essential fatty acids are provided. A review of evidence concerning fat levels indicates that hyperlipidaemia will predispose to pancreatitis, but no defined levels have been published.


Background Early detection of an impending flood and the availability of countermeasures to deal with it can significantly reduce its health impacts. In developing countries like India, public primary health care facilities are frontline organizations that deal with disasters particularly in rural settings. For developing robust counter reacting systems evaluating preparedness capacities within existing systems becomes necessary. Objective The objective of the study is to assess the functional capacity of the primary health care system in Jagatsinghpur district of rural Orissa in India to respond to the devastating flood of September 2008. Methods An onsite survey was conducted in all 29 primary and secondary facilities in five rural blocks (administrative units) of Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa state. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered face to face in the facilities. The data was entered, processed and analyzed using STATA® 10. Results Data from our primary survey clearly shows that the healthcare facilities are ill prepared to handle the flood despite being faced by them annually. Basic utilities like electricity backup and essential medical supplies are lacking during floods. Lack of human resources along with missing standard operating procedures; pre-identified communication and incident command systems; effective leadership; and weak financial structures are the main hindering factors in mounting an adequate response to the floods. Conclusion The 2008 flood challenged the primary curative and preventive health care services in Jagatsinghpur. Simple steps like developing facility specific preparedness plans which detail out standard operating procedures during floods and identify clear lines of command will go a long way in strengthening the response to future floods. Performance critiques provided by the grass roots workers, like this one, should be used for institutional learning and effective preparedness planning. Additionally each facility should maintain contingency funds for emergency response along with local vendor agreements to ensure stock supplies during floods. The facilities should ensure that baseline public health standards for health care delivery identified by the Government are met in non-flood periods in order to improve the response during floods. Building strong public primary health care systems is a development challenge. The recovery phases of disasters should be seen as an opportunity to expand and improve services and facilities.


This thesis describes the application of H∞ design techniques to the control of high performance aero-engines. The design study presented is practical and realistic, the work being motivated by problems that arise naturally in real engineering situations. The aero-engine is multivariable and highly nonlinear: the dynamics vary considerably with the thrust being produced, and with the altitude and forward speed of the aircraft. Moreover, there are operational constraints that must never be violated for reasons of safety: certain engine variables should always be limited to safe vales. Furthermore, not all the engine parameters to be controlled are directly measurable; instead a number of related measurements are available. A methodology is presented to choose from the available measurements, those that are preferable for feedback control. Different techniques of model reduction using balanced realizations are considered. Two illustrative examples are presented, and the methods compared in detail. Explicit state-space formulae for an H∞-based two degrees-of-freedom robust controller are derived in discrete time. The controller provides robust stability with respect to coprime factor perturbations, and a degree of robust performance in the sense of making the closed-loop system match an ideal reference model. Special attention is paid to the structure of the controller. It is shown that the controller consists of a plant observer, the reference model, and a generalized state feedback law associated with the plant and model states. Multi-mode control logic is developed to ensure that safety limits are never violated. Actual engine test results are presented for sea-level static conditions. All the different modes of operation are tested. Full flight envelope evaluation of the controller is carried out using a nonlinear engine simulation. The robust performance of the controller is demonstrated and comparisons made with existing engine control systems.


The biodegradable and biodegradable natural polysaccharide has always been used as a drug delivery system, and has the following advantages: It can prolong the biological half life of the drug and reduce the side effects of the drug. This experiment aimed to prepare a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) nanoparticle (P-5-FU) drug-loading system based on pectin, and explored a large number of pectin-based nano drug-loading systems. The galactose residue is a natural target that targets human hepatoma cell HepG2. MTT assay was used to determine the proliferation inhibition effect of drug-loaded pectin-based nanoparticles on HepG2 and A549 cells. MTT assay showed that P-5-FU inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner, and the effect was stronger than 5-FU. P-5-FU also inhibited the proliferation of A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner, but there was no significant difference compared with 5-FU. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on two kinds of cells loaded with drug-loaded nanoparticles the uptake and targeting were measured. The results of cell uptake showed that the uptake of P-5-FU by HepG2 cells was significantly higher than that of 5-FU, but there was no significant difference in the uptake of P-5-FU and 5-FU by A549 cells. There was no significant difference in the uptake of P-5-FU and 5-FU between the two cells after the galactose-saturated ASGPR binding site. The results indicate that pectin-based nano drug-loaded particles can specifically target highly expressed cells.


It is now well accepted that charge transport through Li2O2 is a serious limitation in Li–O2 batteries. We report formation energies for the different charge states of Li, O and O2 vacancies in Li2O2 that could have important implications for charge transport through Li2O2. Charge transition levels are given as a function of the location of the Fermi level in Li2O2 relative to the valence band maximum (VBM). We argue that in Li–O2 discharge/charge electrochemistry, the Fermi level is pinned by LiO2 interface states at ∼0.35 eV above the VBM and this causes the vacancies to be in positively charged states (weakly violating local charge neutrality). We show by non-equilibrium Greens function calculations of charge transport through a Au|Li2O2 + VLiq |Au metal–insulator–metal structure (with VLiq a Li vacancy of charge state q), that the +1 and 0 charge state induces considerable scattering for tunneling holes. This tunneling is the previously proposed dominant mechanism of charge transport in Li–O2 batteries at practical current densities at room temperature, although we also proposed a contribution from hole polaron migration at very low currents and higher temperatures. We suggest that scattering of the tunneling holes by the positively charged vacancies (and possibly hole polarons) is the origin of the resistive loss observed in Li–O2 discharges in bulk electrolysis cells (where other forms of resistance are negligible). Thus, we argue that charged vacancies hinder charge transport through Li2O2 in Li–O2 electrochemical discharges.


In this paper, we proposed a punctuated target identification method for underground homogeneous medium based on dielectric constant inversion algorithm. Its main idea is that, initially, Hough transform is used to locate the target characterized by hyperbola in a radar profile map, then a layer-by-layer waveform inversion algorithm is used to invert the dielectric constant on the location where the target lies. To guarantee the correctness of inversion, the transmission beam method is adopted to obtain initial parameters and calibration factors required by inversion. Through numerical analysis of the dielectric constant of the target, the classification of multiple targets in an underground medium can be confirmed. This method not only overcomes the failure of the traditional phase-comparison method to distinguish different kinds of targets in the same region, but also overcomes the limitation of the image processing method, in which it only classifies the target in a coarse-grained manner. Experimental results show that this method has many advantages, such as fine-grained classification, high precision, and capability of multiple targets identification for the identification of subsurface targets


In this paper, we propose an experimental method for quantitative description of the error expected from a stereophotogrammetric measurement system. The dimensioning error clearly appears as a function of the difference between the positions of the object and of the calibration grid, which is an intuitively appealing result. This result is useful for the future derivation of a closed-form formula for the dimensioning error; it is also useful for the development of automatic measurement systems that can load the most appropriate calibration parameters after a rough estimate of the distance from the cameras to an object of interest.


The important parameters in the planning, design and control of a signalized intersection are saturation flows, lost times and passenger car units (PCU). These factors have been traditionally measured, in most western countries, based on the research carried on test tracks and on public roads where traffic is typically car-dominated with vehicles moving in clearly defined lanes. However, the traffic movement in Bangladesh and in other developing countries is rendered in more complex due to the heterogeneous characteristics of the traffic stream using the same right of way. Another striking feature of the road traffic operating condition in developing countries is that, despite having lane markings, most of the times lane discipline is not followed no matter whether non motorized vehicle is present or not. At intersection, there is notable lateral movement and vehicles tend to use lateral gaps to reach the head of the queue. Due to fundamental differences in traffic characteristics, the standard western relationships for predicting the values of saturation flows, lost time, and PCU factors are not appropriate for developing countries. This paper first review principle methods of measurement of saturation flow and selection of proper method to measure this parameter for the traffic condition prevailing in developing countries. The research establishes that unified PCU concept is not true for non-lane based traffic condition. It also proposes PCU and a flow model for estimating capacity of signalized intersection having no lane discipline.


[1] The structure and evolution of the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex is assessed during opposing phases of, primarily, the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), but the 11 year solar cycle and winters following large volcanic eruptions are also examined. The analysis is performed by taking 2-D moments of vortex potential vorticity (PV) fields which allow the area and centroid of the vortex to be calculated throughout the ERA-40 reanalysis data set (1958–2002). Composites of these diagnostics for the different phases of the natural forcings are then considered. Statistically significant results are found regarding the structure and evolution of the vortex during, in particular, the ENSO and QBO phases. When compared with the more traditional zonal mean zonal wind diagnostic at 60°N, the moment-based diagnostics are far more robust and contain more information regarding the state of the vortex. The study details, for the first time, a comprehensive sequence of events which map the evolution of the vortex during each of the forcings throughout an extended winter period.


While changing the handling characteristics of a conventional vehicle normally requires physical modification, a vehicle equipped with steer-by-wire can accomplish the same effect through active steering intervention. This paper presents an intuitive method for altering a vehicle's handling characteristics by augmenting the driver's steering command with full vehicle state feedback. The vehicle can be made more or less responsive depending on the driver's preference and particular operating conditions. Achieving a smooth, continuous change in handling quality requires both accurate state estimation and well-controlled steering inputs from the steer-by-wire system. Accurate estimates of vehicle states are available from a combination of global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) sensor measurements. By canceling the effects of steering system dynamics and tire disturbance forces, the steer-by-wire system is able to track commanded steer angle with minimal error. Experimental results verify that with precise steering control and accurate state information, the handling modification is exactly equivalent to changing the front tire cornering stiffness.


Most governments are now concerned with improving women employment. Generally
the Kenya Government is determined to increase it by the year 2015. (United Nations,
2000) In order to achieve this objective, research was necessary to determine the factors
behind gender disparity in areas such as the judicial)' in Kenya, with a view to suggesting .
some steps that could be taken to ameliorate the situation. This study was specifically set
out to achieve several objectives; the main one being to assess the factors that contribute
to higher ratio of men to women in the judiciary. To achieve this? data was collected
using the following instruments; questionnaires and interview schedules from sampled
members of judiciary staff. Observation schedules and secondary data were used in
getting required information from the judicial staff. Although subtle means of
discrimination cannot be ruled out, no overt gender discrimination was detected by the
study. Instead the study revealed that promotion policies, education, culture, mass media,
seemed to contribute to a greater extent to the under-representation of women in the
judiciary in senior professional ranks and in administration. Other important factors
contributing to female under-representation were lack of professional commitment and
ambitiousness on the part of the female judicial staff, the attraction to the corporate sector
and private firms and political considerations in appointments. The findings also showed
that promotion and appointment criteria is well documented but was not properly
followed and was frequently changed. Other factors that very much influenced the
promotions or appointments of judiciary stair included ethnicity, nepotism, political
affiliation and personal relationships. These factors however are not gender sensitive.
Several measures were advanced by the respondents to help improve female
representation. In the light of these findings the researcher records that there is a need to
have gender parity in the judiciary so as to optimally utilize women resources.


MINERVA is a novel approach towards P2P Web search that connects an a-priori unlimited number of peers, each of which maintains a personal local database and a local search facility. Each peer posts a small amount of metadata to a physically distributed directory layered on top of a DHT-based overlay network that is used to efficiently select promising peers from across the peer population that can best locally execute a query. This paper proposes a live demonstration of MINERVA, showcasing the full information lifecycle: crawling web pages, disseminating metadata to a distributed directory, and executing queries online. We additionally invite all visitors to instantly join the network by executing a small piece of software.


This paper introduces a method for learning to generate line drawings from 3D models. Our architecture incorporates a differentiable module operating on geometric features of the 3D model, and an image-based module operating on view-based shape representations. At test time, geometric and view-based reasoning are combined with the help of a neural module to create a line drawing. The model is trained on a large number of crowdsourced comparisons of line drawings. Experiments demonstrate that our method achieves significant improvements in line drawing over the state-of-the-art when evaluated on standard benchmarks, resulting in drawings that are comparable to those produced by experienced human artists.


This paper presents the action and intellectual agenda for transdisciplinary research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The research aims at integrating technological and social science knowledge in a participative effort in enterprise development. It is argued that there are clear similarities between the epistemological foundation of engineering and action research oriented social science. Emphasis is also placed on how the cooperation within the research team and the participative approach to enterprise developments shapes the type of knowledge that is produced.


Data created from research is a valuable resource and usually requires much time and money to be produced. Research data is the data that is collected, observed, or created for purposes of analysis to produce original research results. Research data has significant value in responsible research, which refers to the ability to justify conclusions on the basis of the data acquired and generated through research and that is furnished to other researchers for scrutiny and/or verification. This data can be used and reused for future scientific and educational purposes. Research data management is becoming increasingly important and it is beneficial for the institutions as well as for the researchers. It helps institutions to increase impact and visibility of their research and simultaneously helps researchers to keep their data secure, improve the opportunities for collaboration for further research, more research publications and increased citations. This paper discusses some of the key issues related to research data management, roles and responsibilities of the institutions as well as the research scholar, cost and infrastructure, data sharing policies, legal and ethical issues, copyright issues, etc. An attempt has been made to depict and present suitable policies with a policy framework. Work flow chart with adoption of best practices in RDM is given, that will boost the research process in an organisation. The main objective of this paper is to provide suggestions and recommendations for successful research data management based on some of the best practices and principles of RDM adopted by the institutions worldwide.


Purpose: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of primary stenting of the common (CIA) or external iliac artery (EIA) using the Visi-Pro Balloon-Expandable Peripheral Stent System for treatment of stenotic, restenotic, or occluded lesions. Methods: Between 2011 and 2012, 75 patients (mean age 64.2±8.9 years; 46 men) with Rutherford category 2–4 ischemia and atherosclerotic lesions ≤10 cm in length underwent iliac artery stenting at 17 centers in the United States and Europe. The primary outcome of the study was the major adverse event (MAE) rate at 9 months postprocedure [composite of periprocedural death, in-hospital myocardial infarction, clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR), and amputation of the treated limb]. Secondary outcomes included 30-day MAE rate, 9-month primary patency, changes in ankle-brachial index (ABI) and the Walking Impairment Questionnaire at 30 days and 9 months postprocedure, device success, and clinically driven target vessel revascularization (CD-TVR) at 30 days and 9 months. Outcomes in specific patient cohorts (ie, gender, stent location, calcification severity, and lesion grade) were analyzed. Results: Eighty-one stents were implanted in 61 CIA and 15 EIA lesions (41 with moderate/severe calcification). The mean lesion treated length was 29.3±13.9 mm. All devices were successfully deployed. MAE occurred in 3 (4.0%) of 75 subjects at 9 months. Primary patency and freedom from CD-TVR at 9 months were both 95.8%. ABI improved from 0.67±0.14 at baseline to 0.94±0.14 and 0.96±0.16 at 30 days and 9-month follow-up, respectively (p<0.001 for both). There were no differences with respect to any of the analyzed patient characteristics, including gender. Conclusion: Nine-month results of the VISIBILITY Iliac stent study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01402700) demonstrated safety and effectiveness for the treatment of atherosclerotic CIA and EIA lesions with the Visi-Pro stent across all treated cohorts.


Nonstandard hulls of a vector lattice were introduced and studied in many papers. Recently, these notions were extended to ordered vector spaces. In the present paper, following the construction of associated Banach--Kantorovich space due to Emelyanov, we describe and investigate the nonstandard hull of a lattice-normed space, which is the foregoing generalization of Luxemburg's nonstandard hull of a normed space.


Vitamin A Palmitate-loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers were prepared by High Pressure Homogenization (HPH) technique. The influences of storage conditions such as time and temperature on the physical and chemical storage stability of VAP-NLCs were studied in details. Preparation and physicochemical properties of VAP lipid nanoparticles were investigated using various analytical equipments such as TEM, photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), laser diffractometry (LD) and ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The respective optimal HPH pressure and cycles were 70MPa and 5 cycles, so VAP-NLC dispersions under the optimized condition gave rise to the entrapment efficiency (EE) of 99.8%, PI of 0.234, mean diameter of 144±1.7 nm (2% VAP loading capacity). In addition, VAP lipid nanoparticle has a distinct spherical shape, its particle sizes were around 60–330 nm according to VAP contents and zeta potential values -18~-23 mV. Furthermore, the pH of VAP-NLC dispersion was near to 7.0. This study showed that VAP-NLC could hopefully be applied for food products.


Objective— Obesity is associated with increased circulating interleukin-6, which may contribute to hepatic insulin resistance by impairing insulin receptor signaling. This study was designed to assess the impact of the systemic absence of IL-6 on the development of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance in an obese mouse model. Materials/Methods— Systemic insulin, glucose, and pyruvate tolerance tests were performed in IL-6 knockout (IL6KO) mice that had been crossed with a genetically obese (Lep db ) mouse model. Real-time RT-PCR and Western blot analysis assessed cellular and molecular markers of insulin signaling, inflammation, and metabolism. Results— Absence of IL-6 did not improve systemic glucose or insulin tolerance, but Lep db × IL6KO mice displayed a smaller blood glucose increase following a pyruvate challenge. These results suggest that loss of IL-6 in the context of obesity may locally reduce hepatic glucose production from a gluconeogenic precursor. Hepatic insulin-dependent insulin receptor autophosphorylation, Akt activation, and FoxO1 phosphorylation were similar between Lep db × IL6KO mice and Lep db controls. Basal gene expression of the gluconeogenic enzyme, PEPCK, was reduced in male Lep db × IL6KO mice relative to Lep db controls, but gene expression of another regulatory enzyme, G6Pase, remained unaltered. Absence of IL-6 reduced gene expression of serum amyloid A and RelA in female Lep db mice, but did not alter hepatic triglyceride accumulation or lipogenic gene expression. Conclusion— Overall, our results suggest that IL-6 may be detrimental in obesity by contributing to elevated hepatic glucose output.


In commentary driving, drivers verbalise their observations, assessments and intentions. By speaking out their thoughts, both learning and expert drivers are able to create a better understanding and awareness of their surroundings. In the intelligent vehicle context, automated driving commentary can provide intelligible explanations about driving actions, thereby assisting a driver or an end-user during driving operations in challenging and safety-critical scenarios. In this paper, we conducted a field study in which we deployed a research vehicle in an urban environment to obtain data. While collecting sensor data of the vehicle's surroundings, we obtained driving commentary from a driving instructor using the think-aloud protocol. We analysed the driving commentary and uncovered an explanation style; the driver first announces his observations, announces his plans, and then makes general remarks. He also makes counterfactual comments. We successfully demonstrated how factual and counterfactual natural language explanations that follow this style could be automatically generated using a transparent tree-based approach. Generated explanations for longitudinal actions (e.g., stop and move) were deemed more intelligible and plausible by human judges compared to lateral actions, such as lane changes. We discussed how our approach can be built on in the future to realise more robust and effective explainability for driver assistance as well as partial and conditional automation of driving functions.


Establishing dietary recommendations for micronutrients in young children is difficult. Techniques used to evaluate nutrient intake and bioavailability are hard to apply in this age group. Additionally, large variations in growth rates, dietary patterns, and nutrient losses in early childhood make determinations of dietary requirements difficult. Most recent studies have utilized stable isotopes to determine mineral absorption for iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium. Vitamin D requirements have been established based on the dietary intake required to maintain a presumed adequate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration. Comparisons of nutrient requirements established using factorial methods involving absorption determinations and usual population intake are important to identify nutrients of concern related to deficient or excess intakes. Generally, in the USA, the intakes of calcium and magnesium are adequate to meet requirements in most toddler diets which include a milk source or a mineral-fortified milk alternative. Zinc and iron intakes can be below requirements in a substantial proportion of toddlers throughout the world, especially those with minimal meat consumption. Dietary vitamin D is generally below dietary recommendations, but clearly deficient serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations are less common, and the global role for routine vitamin D supplementation or fortification of the diet remains uncertain.


This guide lists books, databases, websites and videos covering a wide range of psychology topics from careers to APA citation.


The Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA), describes a high bandwidth, high connectivity, chassis based architecture designed principally to appeal to the telecommunications industry. The object of the exercise was to closely connect compute engines within the chassis to multiple user services brought in at the front panel. This maps closely to the needs of real time systems and the main points of the architecture are reviewed and discussed in that light. The performance of an ATCA backplane has been tested and measured using a backplane tester developed within a 10 Gb/s Ethernet switch project that was an early adopter of the ATCA standard. Some results from these tests are presented


PURPOSE
To combine dynamic contrast material-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with x-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) of mammary gland tissue samples from mice to identify the spatial distribution of gadolinium after intravenous injection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
C3(1) Sv-40 large T antigen transgenic mice (n = 23) were studied with institutional animal care and use committee approval. Twelve mice underwent DCE MR imaging after injection of gadodiamide, and gadolinium concentration-time curves were fit to a two-compartment pharmacokinetic model with the following parameters: transfer constant (K(trans)) and volume of extravascular extracellular space per unit volume of tissue (v(e)). Eleven mice received gadodiamide before XFM. These mice were sacrificed 2 minutes after injection, and frozen slices containing ducts distended with murine ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) were prepared for XFM. One mouse received saline and served as the control animal. Elemental gadolinium concentrations were measured in and around the ducts with DCIS. Hematoxylin-eosin-stained slices of mammary tissues were obtained after DCE MR imaging and XFM.

RESULTS
Ducts containing DCIS were unambiguously identified on MR images. DCE MR imaging revealed gadolinium uptake along the length of ducts with DCIS, with an average K(trans) of 0.21 min(-1) +/- 0.14 (standard deviation) and an average v(e) of 0.40 +/- 0.16. XFM revealed gadolinium uptake inside ducts with DCIS, with an average concentration of 0.475 mmol/L +/- 0.380; the corresponding value for DCE MR imaging was 0.30 mmol/L +/- 0.13.

CONCLUSION
These results provide insight into the physiologic basis of contrast enhancement of DCIS lesions on DCE MR images: Gadolinium penetrates and collects inside neoplastic ducts.


Temporary work agencies, and private placement agencies in Sweden have been regulated in some form since the 1730s with the institution Adress-contoiret with royal privileges, where servants could register for work in Stockholm. In 1935, in coherence with the ILO convention from that time, privately run job centres charging fees from job applicants were banned, as well as work agencies acting as employers offering staffing services to their clients. A few exceptions concerning agencies for musicians and specialist consultants were allowed, but the main political values within the workers' parties were that workers should not be considered as commodities. This regulation was active until 1993, when the government deregulated this practice.This paper will examine the process of legislation in the Swedish Riksdag concerning work mediation, placement agencies and temporary work agencies. Focus will be on the period from 1900 up to the two legislations of 1935 and 1942. During these formative years, the workers' movement and their parties, the social democratic party and the communist party, were opposed to all forms of private agencies making profit from this practice. In parliament, motions against this practice were written by MPs from both workers' parties. The paper is based on studies of parliamentary publications, reports from trade union archives and news paper articles.There were different kinds of temporary work agencies active during these times, both non-profit and profit. Several trade unions and social movements ran their own non-profit practices, e. g. the bakery workers' trade union or the Fredrika-Bremer-association concerned with women's emancipation issues. These practices were not the target of the motions in parliament. Instead they concerned agencies making profit from job mediation. Some agencies charged the job applicants a small fee for enlisting, some added a finder's fee when the contract was written with the new employer, and some acted as employers and let out their employees as staff to their different clients.The issue at hand is that during the first part of the 20th century, the distinction between the parties concerned was between worker, mediator of work, and employer. MPs of the workers' parties did not seem to make any legal distinction as to whether the workers were employed by the client they were offered to, or if the agency acted as the employer. They rather made a moral distinction and were more concerned with the level of exploitation of the worker than who had the legal responsibility as the employer – the temporary work agency or the agency's client? This shows a different focus than what is prevalent today.


During pregnancy, dysbiosis in the vaginal microbiota directly affects the metabolic profiles, which might impact preterm birth (PTB). In this study, we performed cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) metabolic profiling using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and identified the metabolic markers for predicting PTB. In this nested case-control study, 43 South Korean pregnant women with PTB (n = 22), and term birth (TB; n = 21) were enrolled with their demographic profiles, and CVF samples were collected by vaginal swabs. The PTB group had two subgroups based on post-CVF sampling birth: PTB less than (PTB < 7 d) and more than 7 days (PTB ≥ 7 d). We observed significant differences in the gestational age at birth (GAB), cervical length (CL), and neonatal birth weight among the groups. The principal component analysis (PCA), and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) scatter plot showed the separation between the PTB < 7 d group, and the TB group. Out of 28 identified metabolites, acetone, ethanol, ethylene glycol, formate, glycolate, isopropanol, methanol, and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) were significantly increased in the PTB group compared with the TB group. The ROC curve analysis revealed that the acetone, ethylene glycol, formate, glycolate, isopropanol, methanol, and TMAO had the best predictive values for PTB. Additionally, the correlation analysis of these metabolites showed a strong negative correlation with GAB and CL. These metabolites could be beneficial markers for the clinical application of PTB prediction.


Abstract Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas with implication for climate change. Agriculture accounts for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, but 75% of the country's N2O emissions. In the absence of PRE herbicides, weeds compete with soybean for available soil moisture and inorganic N, and may reduce N2O emissions relative to a weed-free environment. However, after weeds are killed with a POST herbicide, the dead weed residues may stimulate N2O emissions by increasing soil moisture and supplying carbon and nitrogen to microbial denitrifiers. Wider soybean rows often have more weed biomass, and as a result, row width may further impact how weeds influence N2O emissions. To determine this relationship, field studies were conducted in 2013 and 2014 in Arlington, WI. A two-by-two factorial treatment structure of weed management (PRE + POST vs. POST-only) and row width (38 or 76 cm) was arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. N2O fluxes were measured from static gas sampling chambers at least weekly starting 2 wk after planting until mid-September, and were compared for the periods before and after weed termination using a repeated measures analysis. N2O fluxes were not influenced by the weed by width interaction or width before termination, after termination, or for the full duration of the study at P ≤ 0.05. Interestingly, we observed that POST-only treatments had lower fluxes on the sampling day immediately prior to POST application (P  =  0.0002), but this was the only incidence where weed influenced N2O fluxes, and overall, average fluxes from PRE + POST and POST-only treatments were not different for any period of the study. Soybean yield was not influenced by width (P  =  0.6018) or weed by width (P  =  0.5825), but yield was 650 kg ha−1 higher in the PRE + POST than POST-only treatments (P  =  0.0007). These results indicate that herbicide management strategy does not influence N2O emissions from soybean, and the use of a PRE herbicide prevents soybean yield loss. Nomenclature: Soybean; Glycine max (L.) Merr.


It is believed that the organizational inefficiency of the 'BPDB' and 'Power Division' of Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) of Bangladesh is the main cause for current electricity crisis. Although there are changes in public sector management in the electricity sector of Bangladesh due to the NPM, the organization continue to value the bureaucratic and hierarchical organizational culture. Bangladesh government has taken several programs and has adopted policies for privatization and public-private-partnership. Still the Bangladesh government has not succeeded to mitigate the crisis. This industry faces long time negligence, corruption and inefficiency. Currently the crisis situation has become acute due to inadequate fund, weak governance and above all inefficiency. But the political interferences in organizational management, in bureaucratic activities, in personnel management and even in private investment process, are creating a huge problem for the development of this sector. This paper defines the Organizational management, efficiency, and weak governance of Bangladesh's electricity industry. This paper examines the extent to which the electricity crisis of Bangladesh is the result of organizational inefficiency of the 'BPDB' and 'Power Division' of Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) of Bangladesh. This organizational inefficiency is actually shared between inefficiency of public organization and political interferences. It is discussed in this paper not only the organizational inefficiency causes the electricity crisis but also political interference, wrong policies , inadequate fund also responsible. This paper will show how the organizational culture, structure and strategies of the ministry and BPDB have resulted in the crisis. Moreover country's corrupted and chaotic political system, the roles of parliament and civil servants are also discussed in this essay. Current electricity crisis can be considerably overcome by increasing the efficiency of the 'Power Division' as well as by stopping the political interference in decision making and in bureaucracy.


Several metabolites, enzymes and electrolytes in serum samples of horses, cattle and dogs were analyzed in order to verify the applicability of the dry-reagent analytical system VetTest 8008. Electrolyte, substrate and enzyme determinations were performed. The precision within run and the precision within day of the VetTest 8008 were high. The coefficients of variation ranged from 1.2 to 5.1%, with the exception of bilirubin (5.7%), ALAT (25.4%) and GGT (6.7%). The reason for these three high variation coefficients is the low concentration or activity of the used horse serum. The comparative analysis of patient samples with routine methods and multilayer reagent carriers showed good agreement. The linear coefficients of correlation were 0.909 for albumin in bovine sera, 0.828 for calcium in canine sera and ranged from 0.925 to 0.999 for the 14 other components. The VetTest 8008 is easy to use and has been proved to be reliable and accurate. The system is well suited for use in veterinary practice.


: Since March 1978, conservative laryngopharyngeal surgery has been used in the treatment of carcinoma of the pyriform sinus at this hospital. For pharyngeal reconstruction, cervical skin flap, deltopectoral flap, free microvascular bowel transfer, and pectoralis major myocutaneous flap and gastric pull-up transfer were used. The remaining part of the larynx was repaired with cervical skin flap, sternohyoid myofascia, epiglottis or remnant of epiglottis for complete rehabilitation (phonation, deglutition protection and respiration) or partial rehabilitation (phonation and deglutition protection) of laryngeal functions. 47 patients with carcinoma of the pyriform sinus were treated, and fairly good results were obtained. The 5-year survival rate was 41.7%, and the 3-year survival rate 50%. The laryngeal function restored completely in 31 patients and partially in 16. It is suggested that preservation of the unaffected part of the larynx is feasible both for eradication of tumor and preservation of laryngeal function.


Account of a sanatio (miraculous healing) carved on a fragmentary marble slab coming from the sanctuary of Asclepius in Leben, Crete. The inscription, conceived as a dedication to the god, was made by the Roman Publius Granius Rufus, who appears to have been an influent personality in the nearby town of Gortyn. He applied to the sanctuary in order to cure a form of pulmonary tuberculosis that had been affecting him for almost two years, and that maybe the ʻnew' Hippocratic medicine had not been able to handle. The therapy, probably inspired by the mystic sleep of the incubatio, was quite elaborate, implying the consumption of herbs, spicy wine, a bread bun, sacred ash, an egg, resins, a vegetable decoction and figs. The existence itself of the epigraph makes sure that this treatment was successful, and allowed Publius Granius to honour the deity and to ʻpublicise' its ability. Basing on the other known records of the gens Grania, the stone may be approximately dated between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD.


Vascular access (VA) is the lifeline for the hemodialysis patient and the native arterio‐venous fistula (AVF) is the first‐choice access. Among the different tests used in the VA domain, color Doppler ultrasound (CD‐US) plays a key role in the clinical work‐up. At the present time, three are the main fields of CD‐US application: (i) evaluation of forearm arteries and veins in surgical planning; (ii) testing of AVF maturation; (iii) VA complications. Specifically, during the AVF maturation, CD‐US allows to measure the diameter and flow volume in the brachial artery and calculate the peak systolic velocity (PSV) of the arterial axis, anastomosis and efferent vein, to detect critical stenosis. The borderline stenosis, revealed by the discrepancies between access flow rate and PSV, should be followed up with subsequent tests to detect progression of stenosis; the cases with significant changes in brachial flow should be referred to angiography. In conclusion, clinical monitoring remains the backbone of any VA program. CD‐US is of utmost importance in a patient‐centered VA evaluation, because it allows the appropriate management of all aspects of VA care. These are the main reasons why we strongly advocate the adoption of a VA surveillance program based on CD‐US.


A laser shock technique has been used as a laboratory tool to produce different levels of damage inside T800/M21 CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) samples. The resulting defects for a given sample have been controlled by varying laser source parameters. A VISAR (Velocity Interferometer for System and Any Reflector) has been used to measure the sample back face velocity, which enables a time-resolved detection of inside damage thanks to the laser shock wave theory. Moreover, a preliminary numerical modeling of the composite sample under laser shock has been developed using LS-DYNA software in order to improve the knowledge of composite behaviour under high impact energy level. These numerical tools have been compared to the experimental VISAR signals in order to validate the constitutive law computed. The damage resulting from this local tensile loading has also been simulated and compared to observations performed on composite samples with different post-mortem analysis.


We propose a method to recommend music for an input video while allowing a user to guide music selection with free-form natural language. A key challenge of this problem setting is that existing music video datasets provide the needed (video, music) training pairs, but lack text descriptions of the music. This work addresses this challenge with the following three contributions. First, we propose a text-synthesis approach that relies on an analogy-based prompting procedure to generate natural language music descriptions from a large-scale language model (BLOOM-176B) given pre-trained music tagger outputs and a small number of human text descriptions. Second, we use these synthesized music descriptions to train a new trimodal model, which fuses text and video input representations to query music samples. For training, we introduce a text dropout regularization mechanism which we show is critical to model performance. Our model design allows for the re-trieved music audio to agree with the two input modalities by matching visual style depicted in the video and musical genre, mood, or instrumentation described in the natural language query. Third, to evaluate our approach, we collect a testing dataset for our problem by annotating a subset of 4k clips from the YT8M-Music Video dataset with natural language music descriptions which we make publicly available. We show that our approach can match or exceed the performance of prior methods on video-to-music retrieval while significantly improving retrieval accuracy when using text guidance.


Many studies have commented that culture has an influence on gender inequality. However, few studies have provided data that could be used to investigate how culture actually influences female inequality. One of the aims of this study is to investigate whether Hofstede's cultural dimensions have an impact on female inequality in education in terms of female enrollment rates (at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) in 53 different regions. Moreover, this study examines whether the enrollment rates can affect the career and income of women in the regions studied. Finally, this study also examines the relationships between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the career opportunities and income of women. Data from the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report 2005 was used in this study, and the results show that individualism, power distance, and masculinity could significantly and strongly predict the educational enrollment rates, career, and income of women across the 53 regions.


SUMMARY We determined the incidence of cryptosporidiosis in children aged <5 years presenting with diarrhoea in an urban and rural hospital-based setting in Malawi. Stools were collected over a 22-month period during both rainy and dry seasons. A range of microscopic methods were used to determine the presence of Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts. Species determination was by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) of oocyst-extracted DNA using 18S rRNA and COWP gene loci. Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts were seen in 5·9% (50/848) of samples, of which 43 amplified by PCR–RFLP indicated the following species: C. hominis, C. parvum, C. hominis/C. parvum, C. meleagridis and C. andersoni. Seven samples could not be amplified by PCR. Wider species diversity was found in the rural setting, and may be a result of increased malnutrition and zoonotic exposure in this area. Improvements in water, sanitation, household hygiene and animal control are required to reduce the incidence of infection in this population.


Philosophical difficulties of stakeholder theory—which plays an important role in CSR and business ethics—are mainly connected to the questions of its status and justification. What sense does stakeholder theory have: descriptive, instrumental or normative? And if normative, why then should executives worry about multiple stakeholder demands? It is well known that Freeman, one of the most important authors of stakeholder theory, deliberately disregarded these problems. In philosophical questions, he invoked Rorty's pragmatism that in his opinion effectively undermined the "positivistic" dichotomy between facts and values, science and ethics, and enabled stakeholder theory to be understood as both descriptive and normative. The article presents some difficulties connected with this view, focusing on its dubious assumptions and unfavourable consequences. These assumptions contain a false dilemma, taken from Rorty, which states that knowledge follows either a rule of representation or a rule of solidarity. One of the unfavourable consequences is the conclusion that stakeholder theory may be true only if its followers are able to force the stakeholders to accept its truthfulness. The main thesis of the article says that, because of pragmatic justification, stakeholder theory became a sort of arbitrary narration, which is unable to deal with its (empirical) misuses. However, a more traditional view on facts and values enables us to appreciate the descriptive advantages of the theory and to identify difficulties connected with its normative layer. From this point of view, the attempt at a pragmatic interpretation of stakeholder theory was a misunderstanding that should be withdrawn from circulation.


This paper discusses a method for optimizing production facilities design for onshore/offshore wells during new field development. Optimizing the development of new oil and gas fields necessitates the use of accurate predication techniques to minimize uncertainties associated with day-to-day operational challenges related to wells, pipelines and surface facilities. It involves the use of a transient multiphase flow simulator (TMFS) for designing new oil and gas production systems to determine the feasibility of its economic development.
 A synthetic offshore oil field that covers a wide range of subsurface and surface facility data is considered in this paper. 32 wells and two reservoirs are considered to evaluate the effect of varying sizes of tubing, wellhead choke, flowline, riser, and transport line. A detailed investigation of the scenario of emergency shutdowns to study its effect on the system is performed using TMFS. Other scenarios are also evaluated such as startup, depressurization, pigging, wax deposition, and hydrate formation.
 This paper provides a method to minimize the cost by selecting the optimum pipelines sizes and diameters, and investigating the requirements of insulation, risk of pipeline corrosions and other related flow assurance parameters. Different facility design scenarios are considered using TMFS tool to achieve operational flexibility and eliminate associated risks. Pressure and temperature conditions are evaluated under several parametric scenarios to determine the best dimensions of the production system. This paper will also provide insight into factors affecting the flow assurance of oil and gas reservoirs.


Typhoid fever is an infectious disease of global importance and is caused by the etiologic agent, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). This disease causes an estimated of 21.7 million infections and 217,000 deaths annually. S. Typhi is a human-restricted pathogen, and human-carriers are the main reservoirs. Although the completed S. Typhi genomes are available in the public domain, the true extent of genetic variations remains obscure. Thus, this study could potentially shed light on the genetic basis of S. Typhi. In the first part of this study, extensive comparative genomics analyses of S. Typhi strains isolated from different backgrounds were carried out. A comparative genomics analysis combined with phylogenomic analyses revealed that an outbreak strain (BL196) was closely related to a human carrier strain (CR0044) and possibly derived from a common ancestor. Further comparison with other completely sequenced S. Typhi genomes showed that the strains BL196 and CR0044 exhibited unusual genomic variations despite S. Typhi being generally regarded as highly clonal. The two genomes shared distinct chromosomal architectures and uncommon genome features. Mutations in the two highly related virulence-determinant genes, rpoS and tviE were detected in strains BL196 and CR0044. These proteins were further studied using protein modelling and molecular dynamics simulations, which revealed that the mutation in rpoS is stabilising, while that of tviE is destabilising, potentially leading to altered protein functions. These microvariations between the two highly related strains with distinct epidemiological characteristics provide novel insight into the genes optimisation of the pathogen for its successful adaptation and persistence in the host. On the contrary, the sporadic strain, ST0208 was found to be far more conserved in comparison with other strains. In the second part of the study, the global MLST distribution of S. Typhi was described by utilizing the genome sequences from the first part of the study together with the recently released, publicly available 1,826 S. Typhi draft genome sequences. The global MLST analysis confirms the predominance of two sequence types (ST1 and ST2) co-existing in the endemic regions. Interestingly, S. Typhi strains with ST8 are currently confined to the African continent. Comparative genomic analyses of ST8 revealed unique mutations in important virulence genes such as flhB, sipC, and tviD that may explain the genetic variations that differentiate between seemingly successful (widespread) and unsuccessful (poor dissemination) S. Typhi populations. Large scale whole-genome phylogeny demonstrated evidence of phylogeographical structuring and showed that ST8 may have diverged from the earlier ancestral populations of ST1 and ST2, in which later lost some of its fitness advantages, leading to poor worldwide dissemination. This study demonstrated for the first time the utility of large-scale genome-based MLST as a quick and effective approach to narrow the scope of in-depth comparative genomic analysis and consequently provided new insights into the fine scale of pathogen evolution and population structure. In summary, this study has contributed to the understanding of genetic blueprints of S. Typhi associated with different clinical outcomes, particularly the less studied, yet important human carrier strain. Besides, this study has discovered a number of important key genes, novel genes, and mutations related to virulence and pathogenesis of S. Typhi, which could have profound implications in disease control of S. Typhi and other species.


Today's geo-information systems are historically grown products which are hardly extensible to meet the requirements imposed by 3D/4D-modeling. The next generation GISs should benefit from modern software engineering technologies. A component-based design encourages a fast "assembly" of applications from high-level software building blocks. Following this approach a complex general-purpose geo-information system can be substituted by a family of specialized subsystems which due to the common design basis are open for mutual data exchange. We introduce GeoToolKit component software intended for the development of 3D/4D geo-scientific applications. We also present our experience in building different types of geo-scientific applications on top of GeoToolKit. We show that common data types inherited by diverse applications from the GeoToolKit spatial class hierarchy create an excellent basis for the database-level integration of heterogeneous geo-scientific data.


The education of engineers largely relies on traditional classroom teaching in which a teacher instructs a subject using a variety of techniques ranging from the traditional blackboard (nowadays also whiteboard), over overhead to computer-based presentations. In order to deepen knowledge and get hands-on experience, students are often given practical exercises or case studies to perform, be it individually or in group in the form of a seminar. It is experienced that black- (or white) board based lectures are having an advantage over overheads / slide shows as knowledge is built up instantaneously at a natural pace rather than confronting students with pages of prepared material. The present paper presents a new technique herein referred to as "podcasted whiteboard lectures" in which lectures are given in a traditional lecture hall setup but with having the teacher lecturing by means of an electronic whiteboard. A key advantage of this technique is that it can be recorded and made available to students afterwards, which is here done using podcasting. It is experienced that the technique is very efficient for maximizing the students' learning experience as one is given the possibility to follow a subject ubiquitous and at preferred pace. Another advantage is that animations and simulations can be integrated right into the lecture and into the same medium used for lecturing. The technique is thereby equally applicable to campus as well as distance-based teaching.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


We present FengWu, an advanced data-driven global medium-range weather forecast system based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Different from existing data-driven weather forecast methods, FengWu solves the medium-range forecast problem from a multi-modal and multi-task perspective. Specifically, a deep learning architecture equipped with model-specific encoder-decoders and cross-modal fusion Transformer is elaborately designed, which is learned under the supervision of an uncertainty loss to balance the optimization of different predictors in a region-adaptive manner. Besides this, a replay buffer mechanism is introduced to improve medium-range forecast performance. With 39-year data training based on the ERA5 reanalysis, FengWu is able to accurately reproduce the atmospheric dynamics and predict the future land and atmosphere states at 37 vertical levels on a 0.25{\deg} latitude-longitude resolution. Hindcasts of 6-hourly weather in 2018 based on ERA5 demonstrate that FengWu performs better than GraphCast in predicting 80\% of the 880 reported predictands, e.g., reducing the root mean square error (RMSE) of 10-day lead global z500 prediction from 733 to 651 $m^{2}/s^2$. In addition, the inference cost of each iteration is merely 600ms on NVIDIA Tesla A100 hardware. The results suggest that FengWu can significantly improve the forecast skill and extend the skillful global medium-range weather forecast out to 10.75 days lead (with ACC of z500>0.6) for the first time.


The lengthwise prospective investigation included 189 patients with diffuse purulent peritonitis for studying the influence of operative trauma on the indices of blood circulation, endocrine system, liver function, intensity of systemic inflammation syndrome as well as effects of high intraperitoneal pressure on the circulation system and on the outcome of the disease as a whole. The investigation has revealed a correlation between the survival rate and the number of reoperations. It was shown that the greater the number of reoperations the higher the risk of the development of the systemic inflammation syndrome, organic dysfunctions and number of complications.


Results are presented for a series of solar collector experiments in which the incident solar flux was concentrated by a single-axis tracking parabolic trough mirror. The concentrated solar flux was directed onto an absorber tube whose axis coincided with the focal axis of the concentrator. The performance of the collector was evaluated using three different absorbers; a black painted tube designed to operate near ambient temperature, a heat pipe which had a selective solar absorber coating applied to its surface, and a heat pipe which had its surface coated with a nonselective black paint. The peak efficiency for the collector in the absence of heat losses is approximately 62 percent when the incoming solar energy is normal to the collector aperature. The heat losses which occurred at elevated temperatures (300degreeC) decreased the peak efficiencies to 50 and 30 percent, respectively, for the selectively coated and black painted tubes. The experimental results establish the technical feasibility of using parabolic trough collectors for applications requiring thermal energy at temperatures up to 300degreeC.


The root:shoot ratio of grassland plants may be lower in high fertility sites than in low fertility sites as plants modify their root, rhizome and shoot morphologies (and masses) to suit prevail- ing nutrient availability. We conducted geographically diverse and regionally specific field sampling and measured above- and belowground plant biomasses in western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico salt marshes to determine whether there is a similar morphological response in Spartina alterniflora, the dominant salt marsh plant. Coastal nutrient addition/enrichment, which is widespread and ongoing, may lower root and rhizome biomass, belowground production and organic accumulation in this spe- cies. Higher soil respiration and a lower Eh (redox potential) are expected additional soil property changes. The addition of P, more than of N, seems to reduce root and rhizome biomass accumulation. The cumulative effects of increased nutrient loadings on salt marshes may be to decrease soil eleva- tion and accelerate the conversion of emergent plant habitat to open water, particularly on the lower marsh. The recommendations for management practices intended to conserve coastal marshes include reducing nutrient loading to coastal zones, solving water quality problems with a multiple nutrient approach, and choosing monitoring metrics that are based on both above- and belowground plant biomass.


The recent discovery in the Archimedes Palimpsest of fragments of two lost speeches of Hyperides ( Against Timandros and Against Diondas ) poses new questions about the transmission of his works. This short paper looks for clues from the surviving leaves, and tries to assess their significance in relation to the early MSS of the other Attic orators. The evidence that at least parts of Hyperides' works were preserved as late as the tenth century forces us to reconsider the story of his survival.