Psychological home is a relatively new topic within the field of psychology, defined as a person's need to self-identify with a physical environment. Clutter, defined as the over-accumulation of material items, is even less studied. Previous research has shown that clutter in the home may negatively influence a person's well-being, but this tendency has not been investigated in workplace settings (Crum & Ferrari, 2019a; Crum & Ferrari, 2019b; Roster, Ferrari & Jurkat, 2016). Within workplace research, there is a construct called work-related well-being (Narainsamy & Van Der Westhuizen, 2013; Rothman, 2008), consisting of job satisfaction, employee engagement, burnout, and occupational stress. Previous research has shown that job-related tension may negatively impact job satisfaction (Bateman & Strasser, 1983). The present study will address whether clutter in the office negatively impacts work-place well-being, using a crowd-sourced sample of adults (n = 290) who work full-time within the United States in office and home settings. It was hypothesized that office clutter would negatively impact job satisfaction and employee engagement, positively impact emotional exhaustion and occupational stress, and job-related tension was expected to moderate the relationship between office clutter and job satisfaction. Multiple linear regressions and a moderated regression were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. This present study benefited both scientists and practitioners by helping them understand the possible benefits of companies initiating "clean desk policies" and how personal materials and spending habits may reflect workplace behaviors or impact work outcomes.


Fungal biotransformation is an attractive synthetic strategy to produce highly specific compounds with chemical functionality in regions of the carbon skeleton that are not easily activated by conventional organic chemistry methods. In this work, Cladosporium antarcticum isolated from sediments of Glacier Collins in Antarctica was used to obtain novel drimane sesquiterpenoids alcohols with activity against Candida yeast from drimendiol and epidrimendiol. These compounds were produced by the high-yield reduction of polygodial and isotadeonal with NaBH4 in methanol. Cladosporium antarcticum produced two major products from drimendiol, identified as 9α-hydroxydrimendiol (1, 41.4 mg, 19.4% yield) and 3β-hydroxydrimendiol (2, 74.8 mg, 35% yield), whereas the biotransformation of epidrimendiol yielded only one product, 9β-hydroxyepidrimendiol (3, 86.6 mg, 41.6% yield). The products were purified by column chromatography and their structure elucidated by NMR and MS. The antifungal activity of compounds 1–3 was analyzed against Candida albicans, C. krusei and C. parapsilosis, showing that compound 2 has a MIC lower than 15 µg/mL against the three-pathogenic yeast. In silico studies suggest that a possible mechanism of action for the novel compounds is the inhibition of the enzyme lanosterol 14α-demethylase, affecting the ergosterol synthesis.


ABSTRACT This article reports on an empirical study investigating cultural differences in the visuospatial perception and cognition of qualitative point symbols shown on reference maps. We developed two informationally equivalent symbol sets depicted on identical reference maps that were shown to Czech and Chinese map readers. The symbols varied in visual contrast with respect to the base map. Our empirical results suggest the existence of cultural influences on map reading, but not in the predicted direction based on the previous cross-cultural studies. Our findings stress the importance of considering the cultural background of map readers, especially when designing reference maps aimed for global online use.


BACKGROUND
We evaluated the clinical effectiveness of emergency pelvic external stabilization (EPES) as a first step of resuscitation and pelvic stabilization in trauma patients with hemodynamic and/or fracture instabilities.

METHODS
Twenty-three patients (12 males, 11 females; mean age 32 years; range 9 to 67 years) with high risk pelvic fractures underwent EPES. The presence of a systolic blood pressure equal to or below 90 mmHg, vertical and/or rotational instabilities, or fractures at risk were defined as high risk fractures. Pelvic fractures were assessed according to the Tile's classification.

RESULTS
Hemodynamic instability was detected in 10 patients. The mean durations to the elective pelvic stabilization were three days (range 2 to 8 days) and 17.7 days (range 7 to 28 days) in patients with or without hemodynamic instability, respectively. The mean duration for EPES application was below 30 minutes (range 20 to 40 minutes). No deaths occurred due to blood loss caused by pelvic fractures. One patient died due to sepsis 14 days after hemodynamic stabilization. Superficial pin-track infections of grade 1 were detected in five patients, four of whom were treated with local dressings. In one patient, two pins had to be replaced because of loosening.

CONCLUSION
Emergency pelvic external stabilization for resuscitation and high risk fractures is an effective intervention in the acute phase of polytraumatized patients presenting with high risk pelvic fractures.


Galectin-3 is a ubiquitous lectin exerting multiple cellular functions such as RNA splicing, protein trafficking and apoptosis. Its expression is positively correlated with the poor prognosis in lung cancer patients. Galectin-3 can promote cancer progression through its effects on cell proliferation, cell survival or cancer metastasis. However, the role of galectin-3 in the regulation of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) is still unclear. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that galectin-3 might regulate lung CSCs via the EGF receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway. In our study, galectin-3 facilitated EGFR activation and enhanced the sphere formation activity of lung cancer cells. Furthermore, galectin-3 promoted Sox2 expression in an EGFR activation-dependent manner; importantly, forced expression of Sox2 blunted the effect of galectin-3 knockdown on lung cancer sphere formation ability. These results suggest that galectin-3 promotes EGFR activation leading to the upregulation of Sox2 expression and lung CSCs properties. Moreover, we showed that the carbohydrate-binding activity of galectin-3 was important for the regulation of EGFR activation, Sox2 expression and sphere formation. We have recently reported that c-Myc is a transcriptional activator of Sox2. We further found that galectin-3 enhanced c-Myc protein stability leading to increased c-Myc binding to the Sox2 gene promoter. We also examined the effect of the stemness factors, Oct4, Nanog and Sox2 on the expression of galectin-3. We found that Oct4 enhanced galectin-3 expression. Our results together suggest that galectin-3 enhances lung cancer stemness through the EGFR/c-Myc/Sox2 axis; Oct4, in turn, promotes galectin-3 expression, forming a positive regulatory loop in lung CSCs.


Tool wear reduction is very important in cutting of ultra hard and brittle materials. In this paper, a tool-swinging cutting method was applied to reduce the wear of round-nosed diamond tools in cutting of tungsten carbide (WC). In this method, the geometrical center of the cutting edge was adjusted to be in coincidence with the rotation center of the B-axis table, and thus the cutting point could be changed along the cutting edge by swinging the tool about the B-axis center. Experimental results showed that the width of the flank wear land was greatly reduced compared to that in the conventional cutting. This work can shed light on ultraprecision machining WC parts without or with less need for subsequent polishing process.


SELF is an object-oriented language for exploratory programming based on a small number of simple and concrete ideas: prototypes, slots, and behavior. Prototypes combine inheritance and instantiation to provide a framework that is simpler and more flexible than most object-oriented languages. Slots unite variables and procedures into a single construct. This permits the inheritance hierarchy to take over the function of lexical scoping in conventional languages. Finally, because SELF does not distinguish state from behavior, it narrows the gaps between ordinary objects, procedures, and closures. SELF's simplicity and expressiveness offer new insights into object-oriented computation.To thine own self be true. — William Shakespeare laggy


Dielectric elastomer transducers promise to combine high energy density at low cost and lightweight when used as actuators or for energy harvesting generators. A cornucopia of possible applications have been demonstrated over the last years including soft matter based actuators for robotics, tunable optics, medical devices, space robotics and energy harvesters. Prestretch effects and the electromechanical instability have been shown to highly influence the performance of dielectric elastomer transducers. Nevertheless only sparse research has been done on instability and prestretch effects of dielectric elastomer membranes under inhomogeneous deformation. Dielectric elastomer transducers consist of an elastomer membrane sandwiched between a pair of compliant electrodes and can be considered as deformable capacitors with variable capacitance. Here we focus on a specific experimental setup well suited to study the performance of dielectric elastomer materials for energy harvesting. In this setup an elastomer membrane is equibiaxially prestretched and fixed on top of an air chamber which is connected to a compressed air reservoir, the source of mechanical energy for thegenerator. From the electrical point of view the compliant electrodes on the elastomer membrane can be connected to both a high and low voltage charge reservoir. Thus the change in capacitance during deformation can be used to boost charges from the low voltage reservoir to the high voltage reservoir. Experimentally, different constant voltages are applied to the elastomer membrane during inflation and the air chamber pressure is recorded together with the shape and the volume of the balloon for different initial prestretches. The usual instability in the pressure-volume curves of ballon inflation experiments are shown to be influenced by applied voltage and prestretch. Theoretically, the setup is modeled as a thermodynamic system, with static electric and mechanical load where quasi-static equilibrium states can be achieved. To describe the inhomogeneous deformation and to correctly account for the hyperelastic behavior of the material over the whole deformation range an asymmetric model is built based on the Arruda-Boyce material model. The results of the numerical simulation are fitted to the experimental data to obtain significant material parameters in order to predict the optimal operation regime of the dielectric elastomer generator. The experimental results accompanied by the theoretical analysis may be used as a benchmark for the applicability of dielectric elastomer generators and pave ways for understanding the dielectric elastomer behavior under inhomogeneous deformation.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Retargetable compilers can generate assembly code for a variety of different target processor architectures. Owing to their use in the design of application-specific embedded processors, they bridge the gap between the traditionally separate disciplines of compiler construction and electronic design automation. In particular, they assist in architecture exploration for tailoring processors towards a certain application domain. The paper reviews the state-of-the-art in retargetable compilers for embedded processors. Based on some essential compiler background, several representative retargetable compiler systems are discussed, while also outlining their use in iterative, profiling-based architecture exploration. The LISATek C compiler is presented as a detailed case study, and promising areas of future work are proposed.


This study evaluated biological resistance of composites produced from polypropylene and either wood or bamboo by using two different levels of particle content and three different particle sizes. Composite specimens containing higher particle content and smaller particle size resulted in increased mass losses in decay resistance tests against Tyromyces palustris, a standardized test fungus, Schizophyllum commune, and Pycnoporus coccineus. As particle content increased, mass losses in laboratory termite resistance tests increased; however, decreased particle size caused slightly decreased mass losses. Higher mass losses in bamboo-composites were obtained compared to mass losses in wood-composites in biological resistance tests. There is no significant effect of particle size on water absorption and thickness swell. The IR spectrums of composite specimens showed that significant changes were seen in the wood components following the application of heat during the manufacturing process. While the IR spectrum of WPC specimens with 70% wood was similar to the wood, the composite specimen with 50% wood displayed similarities to polypropylene.


Multi-body dynamics can calculate the physical quantities required for component design, such as calculating the dynamic response of mechanical components and the time history of dynamic loads. Advances in analysis software, including DADS, ADAMS, RecurDyn, and DAFUL, have made it possible to easily calculate dynamic responses by defining relationships between components and operating environments from 3D modeling on user-created components. However, when the understating of dynamic analysis is lacking, it is difficult to apply multi-body dynamics analysis in the design process, and it is difficult to analyze the acquired response data. In this study, we developed an automatic code to de-rive equations of motion in the matrix format and calculate dynamic responses of multi-body systems using GNU Octave, a free high-level language. In particular, the process of defining matrices and vectors such as inertia matrix, stiffness matrix, and external force vector concerning the degrees of freedom of components by using Euler-Lagrange equations is shown to understand the structure and process of dynamic analysis. The code application by explaining how to use the code in a different mechanical system is also shown to help understand the usage method for who wants to study Multi-body dynamics.


Third harmonic generation in a circular liquid core step-index fiber filled with a highly transparent inorganic solvent is demonstrated experimentally using ultrafast pump pulses of different durations in the telecom domain for the first time. Specifically we achieve intermodal phase matching to the HE13 higher order mode at the harmonic wavelength and found clear indications of a non-instantaneous molecular contribution to the total nonlinearity in the spectral broadening of the pump. Spectral power evolution and efficiency of the conversion process is studied for all pulse parameters, while we found the greatest photon yield for the longest pulses as well as an unexpected blue-shift of the third harmonic wavelength with increasing pump power. Our results provide the basis for future studies aiming at using this tunable fiber platform with a sophisticated nonlinear response in the context of harmonic generation.


We present Bezel-Tap Gestures, a novel family of interaction techniques for immediate interaction on handheld tablets regardless of whether the device is alive or in sleep mode. The technique rests on the close succession of two input events: first a bezel tap, whose detection by accelerometers will awake an idle tablet almost instantly, then a screen contact. Field studies confirmed that the probability of this input sequence occurring by chance is very low, excluding the accidental activation concern. One experiment examined the optimal size of the vocabulary of commands for all four regions of the bezel (top, bottom, left, right). Another experiment evaluated two variants of the technique which both allow two-level selection in a hierarchy of commands, the initial bezel tap being followed by either two screen taps or a screen slide. The data suggests that Bezel-Tap Gestures may serve to design large vocabularies of micro-interactions with a sleeping tablet.


Of 42 rhizobial isolates from Medicago sativa and Melilotus spp. growing in arid saline fields in Xinjiang, China, 40 were identified as Sinorhizobium meliloti by a polyphasic approach. However, diverse groups were obtained from these isolates in numerical taxonomy and SDS-PAGE of proteins. They could grow at pH 10.5 and were tolerant to 2.5-4.0% (w/v) NaCl.


The capability to determine nitrogen availability of composts is necessary to ensure that such materials will provide sufficient fertilization to the growing crop and cause minimal environmental degradation. A greenhouse study using tall fescue as a bioindicator was used to evaluate nitrogen availability of two biosolids composts, two mixed yard waste-poultry manure composts, and one commercially-processed poultry litter. Five inorganic nitrogen (as NH4NO3-N) treatments applied at 0, 22.5, 45, 67.7, and 90 mg N/kg soil were employed to establish an N calibration curve. Yield, fescue biomass total nitrogen (as total Kjeldahl N (TKN)), and soil TKN and KCl extractable NO3−-N and NH4+-N concentrations of the organically amended treatments were compared to the inorganically fertilized treatments to determine amendment N mineralization rates and N fertilizer equivalent values (NFEV). Nitrogen mineralization rates were greatest in the poultry litter (21%) and Panorama yard waste compost (5%) amended pots. The NFEV of these amendments were 49% and 10%, respectively. Wolf Creek biosolids compost and Huck's Hen Blend yard waste compost immobilized N (−5% and 0.18%, respectively), and had percent NFEV of −0.66% and 0.19%, respectively. Rivanna biosolids compost immobilized N (−15%), but the NFEV was 30% due to the relatively high inorganic N content in the amendment. Nitrogen mineralization and NFEV were generally greater in amendments with greater total N concentrations and lower C:N values. The total N concentration and C:N values were less reliable variables in predicting N mineralization and percent NFEV when a significant portion of the total N was in the inorganic form. Nitrogen equivalency value and N mineralization for each amendment increased with time of sampling, indicating the potential for early season N insufficiency to plants fertilized with compost due to lack of synchrony between N mineralization and plant N needs.


OVER THE LAST four years, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice, has recovered over $13.9 billion in healthcare fraud settlements, many involving pharmaceutical companies charged with the "off-label promotion" (1) of drugs to healthcare providers. (2) As an effort to change corporate culture, each of these settlements has included a corporate integrity agreement (CIA) with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for HHS. Yet the deterrent effect of CIA's and deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) is uncertain, (3) and even OIG has acknowledged that billion dollar settlements are not sufficient to change corporate culture in pharmaceutical companies. (4) Some companies may even view paying these fines as merely the "cost of doing business," and several companies (5) that have previously settled with the government for significant amounts "have come under repeated scrutiny for unlawful promotion violations." (6) One reason for the lack of deterrence is that companies may believe they are "too big" to be excluded (7) by OIG because of the risk it would pose to the welfare of government healthcare beneficiaries. While some alternatives have been offered, (8) OIG has responded by indicating its intent to exclude executives in the life sciences industry from federal healthcare programs "under a broader range of circumstances," (9) including the responsible corporate officer (RCO) doctrine. (10) In fact, OIG has recently excluded several life science executives (11) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have collectively expressed their intent to pursue future cases against executives as well as mid-level managers and officers. (12) The mounting number of government inquiries into corporate practices, coupled with the increased focus agencies are placing on charging corporate executives and managers, has caused growing uncertainty for in-house and outside counsel with respect to ethical issues relating to internal investigations, representation of the corporation (including counsel's relationship with the corporation's constituents), conflicts of interest, and the attorney-client privilege. Among these, internal investigations for life science companies present unique challenges. The nature and complexity of interactions life science companies have with private and government entities and individuals, and the tremendous frequency with which these interactions occur, create countless opportunities for fraudulent conduct to occur that may implicate the company and its executives. Such interactions may take place in numerous countries, which may implicate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or other foreign bribery or kickback laws. Internal investigations may reveal legal obligations and liabilities outside of traditional healthcare fraud concerns, such as shareholder, product liability and consumer protection litigation, and parallel but separate actions by State prosecutors and agencies. This article analyzes the special factors and circumstances FDA and healthcare attorneys must consider when conducting an internal investigation. This article first provides an overview of internal investigations, including Upjohn warnings, in the life sciences industry. This article then provides a detailed overview of the principles the Department of Justice considers when charging corporations and the various factors and circumstances the agency may consider when resolving investigations. This article also offers practical advice for counsel to consider in carrying out internal investigations and concludes with observations and predictions for future trends in the life sciences industry. I. Internal Investigations An internal investigation is an inquiry performed by a company or its agent after the company is made aware of a serious and reasonably plausible allegation of corporate misconduct. …


Background : Understanding the potential and limits of recombination in adaptive evolution is of great interest to evolutionary biology. New (ultra-) high-throughput technologies in metabolomics and genomics hold great promise for addressing these questions, but their use in interspecific hybrids remains largely unexplored. Aims : Our goal was to test if recombination between the highly divergent genomes of Populus alba and P. tremula has the potential to contribute to the standing variation for functionally important chemical traits. Methods : We studied the metabolomes of interspecific hybrids by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with quadrupole–time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry (MS) and initiated the characterisation of hybrid genomes by restriction site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing. Results : UHPLC-QTOF-MS indicated a complex 'mosaic' of chemical traits in recombinant hybrids and pointed to a heritable component for many of these. RAD sequencing confirmed the recombinant nature of natural hybrids previously characterised by microsatellites and suggested a complex history of recombination. Conclusions : It is likely that hybridisation has affected these species' genomes over several glacial cycles. Recombination holds great potential to create functionally relevant chemical variation in these trees. Nevertheless, correlations between chemical traits are not entirely broken up in recombinant hybrids, suggesting limits to adaptive evolution by genetic exchange.


Field work analysis of the relation between information change and organisation transformation. It is a fact that the networks take an active part in the changes within the companies. And the information change is closely linked to the organisational evolution. But, can we infer that the Intranet brings about a participatory model of organisation even though it has become a media of internal communications ? The current article assesses, through a case study, the participatory dimensions that the Intranet can provoke in the companies.


The aim of this review is to critically assess the benefits and limitations associated with the use of in vitro plant cell and organ cultures as research tools in phytoremediation studies. Plant tissue cultures such as callus, cell suspensions, and hairy roots are applied frequently in phytoremediation research as model plant systems. In vitro cultures offer a range of experimental advantages in studies aimed at examining the intrinsic metabolic capabilities of plant cells and their capacity for toxicity tolerance. The ability to identify the contributions of plant cells to pollutant uptake and detoxification without interference from microorganisms is of particular significance in the search for fundamental knowledge about plants. However, if the ultimate goal of plant tissue culture experiments is the development of practical phytoremediation technology, the limitations inherent in the use of in vitro cultures as a representative of whole plants in the field must be recognized. The bioavailability of contaminants and the processes of pollutant uptake and metabolite distribution are likely to be substantially different in the two systems; this can lead to qualitative as well as quantitative differences in metabolic profiles and tolerance characteristics. Yet, many studies have demonstrated that plant tissue cultures are an extremely valuable tool in phytoremediation research. The results derived from tissue cultures can be used to predict the responses of plants to environmental contaminants, and to improve the design and thus reduce the cost of subsequent conventional whole plant experiments. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 60–76.


Motivation Quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics data are characterized by high rates of missing values, which may be of two kinds: missing completely-at-random (MCAR) and missing not-at-random (MNAR). Despite numerous imputation methods available in the literature, none account for this duality, for it would require to diagnose the missingness mechanism behind each missing value. Results A multiple imputation strategy is proposed by combining MCAR-devoted and MNAR-devoted imputation algorithms. First, we propose an estimator for the proportion of MCAR values and show it is asymptotically unbiased under assumptions adapted to label-free proteomics data. This allows us to estimate the number of MCAR values in each sample and to take into account the nature of missing values through an original multiple imputation method. We evaluate this approach on simulated data and shows it outperforms traditionally used imputation algorithms. Availability The proposed methods are implemented in the R package imp4p (available on the CRAN Giai Gianetto (2020)), which is itself accessible through Prostar software. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com


The project of European integration has undergone a succession of shocks, beginning with the Eurozone crisis, followed by reactions to the sudden growth of irregular migration, and, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic. These shocks have politicised questions related to the governance of borders and markets that for decades had been beyond the realm of contestation. For some time, these questions have been spilling over into domestic and European electoral politics, with the rise of "populist" and Eurosceptic parties. Increasingly, however, the crises have begun to reshape the liberal narratives that have been central to the European project. This book charts the rise of contestation over the meaning of "Europe", particularly in light of the coronavirus crisis and Brexit. Drawing together cutting edge, interdisciplinary scholarship from across the continent, it questions not merely the traditional conflict between European and nationalist politics, but the impact of contestation on the assumed "cosmopolitan" values of Europe.


Introduction The circle of willis (cow) is the foremost anastomosis and blood distribution center of the brain. Its effectiveness in collateral circulation, redirection of blood flow, and perfusion pressure maintenance is dependent on its completion and the size and patency of its vessels. Gender- and age-related anatomical variations in the cow may play an important role in the pathogenesis of gender- and age-related differences in the rates and distribution patterns of cerebrovascular diseases. In this study, we analyzed ct angiograms to assess for gender-, age-, and indication- related differences in cow completion. Methods CT angiograms performed at our hospital between years 2014–2016 (907 ctas) were assessed for completion of cow by the senior and first authors. CTAS were excluded, if vessels could not be visualized, slices were >1 mm thickness, or patient was pediatric. The remaining 833 cases were used to compare the incidence of complete cow and variation frequency based on gender, age, and indication. All tests were chi-squared. Results The incidence of complete cow was 37.6% overall. Cow completion exhibited a statistically significant decrease with increasing age for all age groups in both men (47.1%, 29.4%, 18.8%) and women (60.4%, 44.7%, 32.1). Completion was greater in women (44.8%) than men (31.3%) overall and for all age groups. These gender differences were all statistically significant except for in the 18–39 age group. The most frequent of the 29 cow variations were absent bil-pcom (16.8%), r-pcom (15.4%), and l-pcom (11.0%). With respect to indications, ischemic stroke and the 18–39 age group of hemorrhagic stroke showed a statistically significant reduction in completion relative to trauma. Conclusion The incidence of complete cow is greater in women for all age groups and decreases with age in both genders. the most frequently absent vessel is pcom, either unilaterally or bilaterally. completion was significantly reduced in ischemic stroke and a subset of hemorrhagic stroke patients, suggesting that an incomplete cow is a risk factor for these indications. Disclosures O. Zaninovich: None. W. Ramey: None. C. Walter: None. T. Dumont: None.


Despite its small area and intensively cropped landscape, East Java accounts for 30% of Indonesia's beef cattle population. About two million households draw on family labour to raise cattle in backyard sheds and small enclosures, largely for cash income. The paper reports on a study in two contrasting sites – irrigated lowlands and rainfed uplands – to explore the constraints facing cattle producers in these environments and possible means to enhance their production systems and incomes. In particular, the paper focuses on the issue of feed supply and the local market that has emerged for agricultural by-products (rice straw, maize stover, and legume residues) and planted forage grasses. The research shows that intensive cattle production can provide a viable pathway out of poverty, even for resource-poor households.


Copper (Cu) is an essential micronutrient. Its ability to exist in 2 oxidation states (Cu(1+) and Cu(2+)) allows it to function as an enzymatic cofactor in hydrolytic, electron transfer, and oxygen utilization reactions. Cu transporters CTR1, ATP7A, and ATP7B play key roles in ensuring that adequate Cu is available for Cu-requiring processes and the prevention of excess Cu accumulation within cells. Two diseases of Cu metabolism, Menkes disease and Wilson disease, which are caused by mutations in ATP7A and ATP7B, respectively, exemplify the critical importance of regulating Cu balance in humans. Herein, we review recent studies of the biochemical and cell biological characteristics of CTR1, ATP7A, and ATP7B, as well as emerging roles for Cu in new areas of physiology.


Objectives: The purpose of this research is to estimate peer effects on third grade students' BMI and to investigate the social and physiological explanations for such effects. Methods: The BMI of students participating in a childhood obesity intervention program is used to assess peer effects on students' BMI within the framework of identification of endogenous social effects. Two-stage instrumental variable models are applied using the data before and after the intervention program, and further peer effects are compared by gender and two BMI categorization groups: improvement versus non-improvement. Results: Strong peer effects are found for the overall sample, and for females and males in general. However, when classifying students into improvement versus non-improvement groups, the peer effect is only found among females who are categorized in the improvement group and males in the non-improvement group. Males are more likely to be influenced by their interactions with peer friends towards the direction of unhealthy behavior; females, on the contrary, are more likely to be influenced by interaction with peer friends towards the direction of healthy behavior. Conclusions: Peer effects are found for students aged 8-11, with gender differences in the psychological and social behavioral motivations.


The central problem of this study is that despite the government reform efforts in the Security sector, performance has continued to deteriorate with criminal activities increasing by the day. Challenges leading to this dismal performance have not been adequately investigated and well understood, hence hindering performance by the security officers who play a critical role in security issues. The consideration of the relationship between motivation as the independent variable in this study and performance as the dependent variable was sought. To this end, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of motivation on performance in the public security sector in Nairobi County, Kenya. The unit of analysis was the regular police. The study used a mixed research design of exploratory, descriptive and quantitative designs with the list of regular police officers serving as the sampling frame. The questionnaire was used to gather relevant information from the respondents. Data collected was analyzed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that there is a strong influence on performance of the regular police officers attributable to units of change in motivation . The study recommended that government and other concerned stakeholders should adequately motivate the police for improved performance / service delivery.


Published in May 2006, the Independent European Sport Review was the result of an initiative launched by the then British Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, during the UK presidency of the European Union in 2005. The Review provides a range of recommendations for improving the governance and organization of professional sport, particularly football, in Europe. Although many of the proposed reforms have yet to be introduced, the central object of this essay is to offer some preliminary sociological comments on the policy issues associated with the assumptions informing the Review, as well as the likely outcomes that may come to limit the effectiveness of the proposed reforms if they are implemented in the future. In doing so, it is claimed that many of the claims underlying the Review tend to be driven largely by ideological concerns; many of its numerous objectives are unclear and non-specific; and the failure to identify how the proposed reforms may be monitored and evaluated means that the efficacy of future policy designed to tackle the proposed reforms will be difficult to determine. The essay concludes by examining how the failure to appreciate adequately the centrality of differential power relations and relational impediments to effective policy-making means that the Review may prove to be particularly limited in achieving the desired objectives.


The early evolution of massive cluster progenitors is poorly understood. We investigate the fragmentation properties from 0.3 pc to 0.06 pc scales of a homogenous sample of infrared-quiet massive clumps within 4.5 kpc selected from the ATLASGAL survey. Using the ALMA 7m array we detect compact dust continuum emission towards all targets, and find that fragmentation, at these scales, is limited. The mass distribution of the fragments uncovers a large fraction of cores above 40 $M_\odot$, corresponding to massive dense cores (MDCs) with masses up to ~400 $M_\odot$. 77 % of the clumps contain at most 3 MDCs per clump, and we also reveal single clumps/MDCs. The most massive cores are formed within the more massive clumps, and a high concentration of mass on small scales reveals a high core formation efficiency. The mass of MDCs highly exceeds the local thermal Jeans-mass, and observational evidence is lacking for a sufficiently high level of turbulence or strong enough magnetic fields to keep the most massive MDCs in equilibrium. If already collapsing, the observed fragmentation properties with a high core formation efficiency are consistent with the collapse setting in at parsec scales.


Similarity-based layouts generated by multidimensional projections or other dimension reduction techniques are commonly used to visualize high-dimensional data. Many projection techniques have been recently proposed addressing different objectives and application domains. Nonetheless, very little is known about the effectiveness of the generated layouts from a user's perspective, how distinct layouts from the same data compare regarding the typical visualization tasks they support, or how domain-specific issues affect the outcome of the techniques. Learning more about projection usage is an important step towards both consolidating their role in high-dimensional data analysis and taking informed decisions when choosing techniques. This work provides a contribution towards this goal. We describe the results of an investigation on the performance of layouts generated by projection techniques as perceived by their users. We conducted a controlled user study to test against the following hypotheses: (1) projection performance is task-dependent; (2) certain projections perform better on certain types of tasks; (3) projection performance depends on the nature of the data; and (4) subjects prefer projections with good segregation capability. We generated layouts of high-dimensional data with five techniques representative of different projection approaches. As application domains we investigated image and document data. We identified eight typical tasks, three of them related to segregation capability of the projection, three related to projection precision, and two related to incurred visual cluttering. Answers to questions were compared for correctness against `ground truth' computed directly from the data. We also looked at subject confidence and task completion times. Statistical analysis of the collected data resulted in Hypotheses 1 and 3 being confirmed, Hypothesis 2 being confirmed partially and Hypotheses 4 could not be confirmed. We discuss our findings in comparison with some numerical measures of projection layout quality. Our results offer interesting insight on the use of projection layouts in data visualization tasks and provide a departing point for further systematic investigations.


Using Underwater Imagery as a Complementary Tool for Benthos Sampling in an Area with High- Energy Hydrodynamic Conditions
Underwater imagery is increasingly being used in the description of communities and habitats, as a tool to aid in the designation and management of marine protected areas. Here, we developed an underwater imagery system to monitor the seafloor and benthic communities in the Raz Blanchard (Aldernez Race), an area in the English Channel characterized by high-energy hydrodynamics. Despite the difficult conditions of acquisition, the underwater images highlighted the heterogeneous nature of the seabed in the Raz Blanchard. In this way, underwater imagery is a useful tool in providing additional information to standard benthic observations, particularly for the description of sessile epifauna and benthic landscapes. This system is flexible, robust and simple enough to be used in coastal and offshore areas, and is suitable as a complementary tool in benthic surveys to monitor the status and changing trends of seabed fauna and could be applied in future surveys.


The activity of urea cycle enzymes was assayed in duodenal biopsy specimens obtained from a female infant who presented with neonatal hyperammonaemia. All enzyme levels were normal except N-acetyl glutamate-dependent carbamyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) which was half the mean activity in normal control specimens. A similar deficiency of CPS1 was also shown in duodenal specimens from the patient's mother who became slightly symptomatic after relatively high protein meals and during pregnancy, and had spontaneously modified her diet to one with protein restriction. The patient is growing normally on a dietary regimen similar to that spontaneously adopted by her mother. Urea cycle enzyme activity in the duodenal biopsy material from the controls was similar to that found in the normal human liver and appears to have distinct advantages as a means of assaying for urea cycle defects in patients with hyperammonaemia and their relatives.


In this thesis, fractured rock masses are treated asequivalent continua for large-scale analyses of rockengineering projects. Systematic developments are made for thedetermination of equivalent mechanical and hydraulic propertiesof fractured rock masses using a hybrid discrete fracturenetwork - distinct element method (DFN-DEM) approach. Thedetermined equivalent properties are then used for a far-fieldfinite element analysis of the thermo-mechanical impacts on thestress, deformation and permeability of fractured rockssurrounding a hypothetical geological repository of nuclearwaste. The geological data were extracted from the results ofan extensive site investigation programme at Sellafield, UK,conducted by Nirex UK Ltd. The scale dependencies of the hydraulic and mechanicalproperties were investigated by using multiple realizations ofthe fracture system geometry with increasing model sizes untilproperly defined hydraulic and mechanical representativeelementary volumes (REVs) were reached. The validity of thesecond order permeability tensor and the fourth-ordermechanical compliance tensor were tested for continuum analysesat larger scales. The REV was determined to be around 5 m formechanical and hydraulic data in this study. Analysis of the stress-dependent mechanical and hydraulicproperties shows that the effect of rock stresses is crucial.The elastic moduli increase significantly with the increase ofstress and an empirical equation of stress-dependent elasticmodulus is suggested based on results of numerical experiments.Calculations of the Poisson's ratios suggest greater valuesthan are normally assumed in practice. Depending on the stateof stress, permeability decreases or increases with increasingcompressive stress. Stress-induced flow channeling effect iscaptured by numerical modeling for the first time and detailedmechanisms of shear dilation of fractures are provided. Basedon the numerical experiments, a set of empirical equations wassuggested for the stress-dependent permeability, consideringboth normal deformation and shear dilation of fractures. Thermo-mechanical impact on the performance of ahypothetical repository at a far-field scale (5 km by 1 km) wasinvestigated with the stress-dependent equivalent propertiesdetermined at the REV scale. This analysis shows thatmechanical responses vary significantly depending on how themechanical properties were determined. The change ofpermeability due to the thermal loading is, however, notsignificant in this particular case. The thesis provides a framework for systematic analysis oflarge-scale engineering applications in fractured rock masses,such as geological repositories of nuclear wastes. Keyword:Fractured rock masses, Equivalent Continuum,Discrete Fracture Network (DFN), Distinct Element Method (DEM),Finite Element Method (FEM), Nuclear Waste Disposal, CoupledThermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes


The present study has two main purposes: First, investigating the role of sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS), describing inter-individual differences with regard to people's sensitivity to positive and negative environmental stimuli through a deeper level of information processing (E. N. Aron & Aron, 1997), in the teaching work place. Second, it aims at revealing further insight into the association between SPS and different mental disorders as well as variables of therapeutic success.

The teaching profession is widely accepted as being complex and highly demanding with many expectations and requirements, so the high level of stress found across teachers is thus not surprising. Nonetheless, teachers can only efficiently fulfill their important tasks and have a positive influence on students if they are mentally healthy. Given empirical findings supporting an increased stress level across teachers, numerous studies have investigated the conditions and processes behind the onset of mental ill-health and developed various prevention programs to support teachers in dealing with their perceived stress. Looking through the research area, a clear focus on behavior and personality-related characteristics of teachers is present, including, for example, various dysfunctional cognitions, coping behavior or the Big Five personality traits (McCrae, 2009). Although other studies consider environmental aspects of the work place as well, such as noise or schedules, the integration of these two entities is still a research gap. This is true despite recent developments emphasizing the perspective of person-environment interactions, particularly in the field of stress. The present study takes up this gap by introducing the temperament trait of SPS into the field of teacher professionalism and health research, representing a holistic way of analyzing person-environment interactions as it focuses on individuals' reactivity to certain environmental conditions and stimuli.

Embedded into the project "Risiko-Check fur das Lehramt" ("Checking risks of the teaching profession"), two teacher samples participated in the study: a non-clinical sample of teachers (n = 194), who were actively teaching in the school context and a clinical sample of teachers (n = 130), who received inpatient treatment and were diagnosed with mental disorders during the data collection process. Both groups filled out the same questionnaire, which included different scales measuring aspects of the teaching environment (e.g., workplace characteristics and expectations, or a scale measuring collaboration) and personality-related variables of teachers (e.g., dysfunctional cognitions, self-efficacy, coping strategies, and SPS). For a small sub-group of the teachers in the clinical sample, additional clinically-relevant data, such as measures of therapeutic success or additional measures of mental disorders, was also available.

In line with the first goal of the study, results reveal further evidence for the validity of the construct: SPS was successfully differentiated from other variables measuring psychological well-being, including Depression, Anxiety, and Stress.

The second aim represents the investigation of the role of the temperamental trait of SPS in the teaching context. Of particular interest are the perception of certain workplace-demand characteristics unique to this profession (Rothland, 2013) and the extent to which certain characteristics related to SPS are activated in teachers in their everyday lives. Findings suggest that highly sensitive teachers feel more attuned to the students, who need help, but, at the same time, have more difficulties with regard to the characteristics that are very open and include a certain degree of flexibility. Those are for example, maintaining an efficient work-life balance, dealing with their tasks and deciding when certain demands are fulfilled, lack of feedback, and the various expectations teachers are confronted with. In spite of these difficulties, they perceive themselves as similarly successful as non-highly sensitive teachers. Additionally, SPS mediates the relationship between different demands and teachers' perceived stress. Three ways this is possible are an increased frequency of applying dysfunctional cognitions, coping strategies, and lower self-efficacy.

Research questions in line with the third general goal of the present study include a more detailed investigation of the association with clinically relevant variables; the difference between mentally ill teachers and those teaching actively; and evidence for the presence of the Vantage Theory framework (Pluess, 2017) in clinical contexts, describing increased effect of positive and supporting environments, such as those found in therapeutic interventions. In general, participants in the clinical sample reach higher mean scores on the scale measuring SPS than participants in the non-clinical sample. Additionally, investigating the symptoms of teachers in the clinical sample, highly sensitive teachers show more severe symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders. Finally, in line with one of the hypotheses stated in this context, results support the presence of vantage sensitivity in this study. While almost all patients show improvements in their general functioning and clinical global impression at release (i.e., comparing it to their levels at admission), patients with high levels of SPS are found to benefit even more from the treatment, on average, than patients with lower levels of SPS. This is true for the majority of symptoms that are associated with SPS, which include phobic anxiety, anxiety, and depressive disorders.

Finally, the fourth objective of the present study aims at broadening the findings by investigating the hypothesis of the existence of different sensitivity types. Then, all theoretical and empirical models as well as existing findings and those generated in the present study are taken together in order to develop an overarching model for the development of stress in teaching, including SPS as one facet. Results of a cluster analysis including the highly sensitive teachers of both samples disclose the existence of three sensitivity types that differ significantly with regard to their core areas of certain characteristics of SPS. While one group reaches comparably high scores across facets, the remaining two sensitivity types show a particular focus, either the facet Aesthetical sensitivity or the two factors Low sensory threshold and Ease of excitation. The majority of the clinical sample is found to be more aesthetically sensitive, whereas most teachers in the nonc-clinical sample are assigned to the group with comparably higher scores across facets. Furthermore, these sensitivity types differ with regard to their work-life balance and dysfunctional cognitions as well as coping strategies in a such way that the Aesthetically sensitive type reach mean scores that can be interpreted as most functional when compared to the remaining types. Finally, with regard to a general model of stress development for teaching, despite the final model not reaching statistical indices indicating a fit to the data of the present study, comparisons of regression weights reveal support for the significant role of SPS in comparison to already-established variables.

In summary, the findings of the present study close various research gaps and have multiple implications. First, they reveal evidence for the fact that SPS could add valuable information when implemented into research on teacher professionalism and teacher stress, which has diverse implications for the political, administrational and individual level. Secondly, they broaden the research field of SPS by revealing more insight into the associations between SPS and mental ill-health as well as evidence in support of vantage sensitivity, suggesting that patients with higher levels of SPS benefit more from therapeutic interventions than patients with lower levels. Limitations of the present study are discussed critically and suggested approaches for further research studies are described.


Hybrids formed between HeLa cells and fibroblasts from xeroderma pigmentosum group D show either HeLa sensitivity or XPD-like hypersensitivity to u.v. radiation and corresponding high or low excision repair capability. Hybrids with low repair are presumed to have lost, via chromosome segregation, the HeLa wild type D alleles. In this paper we analyse the u.v. sensitivity and excision repair capability of another hybrid, HD1A, derived spontaneously from the normally sensitive hybrid HD1. While HD1A closely resembles the XPD phenotype in terms of u.v. sensitivity and excision repair it differs from XPD because of its ability to reactivate u.v.-irradiated adenovirus 2 to an extent similar to that of its HeLa parent. This capacity functionally dissociates excision repair of chromatin-based damage from damage in a viral environment. Moreover, on the basis of complementation studies the excision repair of genomic damage by HD1A is subtly different from that of a true XPD-like hybrid, HD2. The data are discussed in terms of a second change in the defective D allele of the HD1A cell.


It is argued that healthcare governance should play an important role in the overall functioning and effective performance of hospitals. However, the literature is devoid of how healthcare governance influences the performance of hospitals in Africa and other developing countries. This study examines the effects of hospital boards and ownership structure on the performance of hospitals in Ghana. The study specifically examines the characteristics of hospital boards, ascertains whether the presence of a hospital board and ownership structure affect hospital performance, evaluates the effects of hospital board characteristics and ownership structure on hospital performance, and also investigates the interaction effects of hospital board characteristics and ownership on performance. Based on a sample of 132 hospitals, the study produces a number of results. First, the study indicates that 69% of the hospitals have a board in place. The results also show that all the mission hospitals have a board in place. Half of the public hospitals and 80% of the private hospitals also have a board. The hospitals with a board exhibit varying board characteristics. Using regression models, the results show that hospitals with a board demonstrate lower occupancy, higher discharge and deliver better quality healthcare. In terms of the effect of board characteristics on performance, smaller boards are associated with better health service quality and lower occupancy. Hospitals with greater proportion of outside board members assist management to be cost efficient and improve on their operations leading to higher discharge. The results also show that hospitals with greater representation of medical staff on the board perform better in terms of occupancy but are less cost efficient. Hospitals with CEO duality perform better in terms of efficiency. However, hospitals with separate positions for the CEO and chair perform better in terms of discharge and service quality. Additionally, the evidence suggests that boards with higher female representation deliver better quality of healthcare, resulting in higher discharge rate. Also, frequency of board meetings is associated with lower occupancy, higher discharge and improved health service quality. The results also show that mission-based and private hospitals perform better than public hospitals. Further, the results of the interaction effects suggest that mission-based and private hospitals with effective board governance exhibit better performance than public hospitals. This study makes a number of new and meaningful contributions to the extant literature and the findings support managerialism, stakeholder and resource dependency theories. The findings also have important implications for effective and efficient governance and management of hospitals.


A TRNSYS model was developed to conduct a comprehensive study of combining a building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPV/T) collector with an air source heat pump (ASHP) in an Archetype Sustainable House. The heat pump uses the warm air generated in the BIPV/T as the source for heat production. The coupling of BIPV/T and ASHP enables a highly efficient heating system in winter conditions. A numerical model was developed for an air-based PV/T collector. The model was used to predict the thermal and electrical performance of the collector and to conduct a comprehensive analysis for different configurations (number of PV/T panels in rows NR and in series NS) and different design parameters. TRNSYS simulation results showed that low air mass flow rate and low duct depth enhance the heat pump coefficient of performance (COP). The arrangement with a large number of PV/T systems connected in series has higher COP. The maximum obtained seasonal heating COP was 3.45, corresponding to duct depth of 1.5 in, NS=5 and low row mass flow rate of 0.03 kg/s. The heat pump cumulative electricity consumption for a typical heating season could be reduced by 20.2%. When the analysis was based only on sunny hours, the electricity consumption of the combined ASHP + PV/T system was reduced by 52% and the predicted seasonal COP of the heat pump was 5.98. A new full-scale test facility was presented to be implemented at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to examine the performance of combining passive system and dynamic building envelope technologies (BIPV/T+ASHP+TES) under real weather conditions. It is important to match the maximum airflow for the BIPV/T system with the maximum airflow for the outdoor coil of the heat pump. The pressure drop inside the PV/T collector along with the connecting air duct from the BIPV/T to ASHP for a wide range of airflow rates and different duct depths was calculated. It was found that for air a flow rate around 2000 CFM, which is the maximum CFM for the custom-made ASHP for the test facility, the predicted fan energy was 195 kWh/year corresponding to 1.5 in. duct depth.


ObjectivesTo compare outpatient attendance rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ('Aboriginal') and non-Aboriginal patients at a large metropolitan health service in Melbourne, Australia, and to describe the barriers and enablers experienced by urban-dwelling Aboriginal patients in attending hospital outpatient appointments.MethodsThis study used a mixed-method approach. Proportions of referred patients who booked and attended outpatient appointments were extracted from a health service database. Aboriginal versus non-Aboriginal cohorts were compared using chi-squared tests. Eleven patients, one parent of a patient and two community nurses were interviewed by telephone to investigate perceived barriers and enablers to attending outpatient appointments among Aboriginal patients.ResultsOutpatient referrals were greater among Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people; however, referrals were significantly less likely to result in an outpatient clinic booking and attendance for Aboriginal compared to non-Aboriginal people. Interview participants reported several barriers to attending appointments, related to logistical, quality of care and cultural factors. Suggested facilitators to make appointment attendance easier included: provision of transport support, improving clinic scheduling, utilising a variety of appointment reminder formats, providing food in waiting rooms, flexible appointment timing options, outreach services, access to Aboriginal support workers, improving communication and relationships with Aboriginal people, cultural awareness training for staff and the provision of culturally appropriate spaces.ConclusionSome barriers faced by Aboriginal patients in attending hospital outpatient appointments in urban areas can be addressed through implementation of enablers suggested by participants. Data have informed the development of a tailored, inclusive, culturally and consumer-focused appropriate hospital outpatient service model of care.


Abstract Serum Total Thiol (TT), Native Thiol (NT), and Disulfide (SS) levels were found significantly lower in benign proliferative pathologies and cancer disease compared to healthy subjects. We conducted this prospective study to investigate the possible predictive and prognostic significance of these markers in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which is one of the most associated cancers with oxidative stress. This was a non-randomized, prospective, and case-control study of 120 subjects, including 60 patients with metastatic or inoperable NSCLC at the time of diagnosis and 60 demographically-matched controls. Morning fasting venous blood serum samples from both NSCLC and control group were stored at −80 °C for equal periods and then TT, NT, and SS levels were measured spectrophotometrically. Serum TT, NT, and SS levels were compared between groups and their relationships with demographic features and survival of NSCLC patients were analyzed. In results, Serum TT, NT, and SS levels were significantly lower in NSCLC patients than those in control group, with a low SS level being an independent indicator of poor survival.


Numerous coal and gas outburst disasters in China were caused by magma intrusion. Several outburst accidents show that the affected region of magma intrusion is the key area with abnormal gas occurrence and gas outburst disasters. The intrusive igneous rock's occurrence, lithology and distribution form have an important impact on outburst indexes. Laboratory tests and field experimental research, analysed coal reservoirs adsorption characteristics under the function of high temperature pyrolysis and metamorphism caused by layered magma intrusion, and revealed internal relations between coal seam adsorption characteristics and outburst indexes, which were verified in the field. The results showed that under the additive effects of pyrolysis and metamorphism, the metamorphic degree of the coal seam got higher the closer the distance to the igneous rock, the adsorption characteristics of the metamorphic coal were positively correlated with gas outburst indexes. When the magma layer eroded the coal seam, along with the distance from the igneous rock, gas outburst indexes increased first, then decreased. When the layered magma intruded into the coal seam roof, coal seam gas was trapped by igneous rock, and gas outburst indexes were commonly higher, which decreased with the distance away from the igneous rock. When the layered magma intruded into the coal seam floor, the effect of high temperature pyrolysis was the strongest, and the gas outburst indexes were determined by the lithological characters of the roof.


Stable isotope analyses provide the means to examine the trophic role of animals in complex food webs. Here, we used stable isotope analyses to characterize the feeding ecology of reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) at a remote coral reef in the Western Indian Ocean. Muscle samples of M. alfredi were collected from D'Arros Island and St. Joseph Atoll, Republic of Seychelles, in November 2016 and 2017. Prior to analysis, lipid and urea extraction procedures were tested on freeze-dried muscle tissue in order to standardize sample treatment protocols for M. alfredi. The lipid extraction procedure was effective at removing both lipids and urea from samples and should be used in future studies of the trophic ecology of this species. The isotopic signatures of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) for M. alfredi differed by year, but did not vary by sex or life stage, suggesting that all individuals occupy the same trophic niche at this coral reef. Furthermore, the isotopic signatures for M. alfredi differed to those for co-occurring planktivorous fish species also sampled at D'Arros Island and St. Joseph Atoll, suggesting that the ecological niche of M. alfredi is unique. Pelagic zooplankton were the main contributor (45%) to the diet of M. alfredi, combined with emergent zooplankton (38%) and mesopelagic prey items (17%). Given the extent of movement that would be required to undertake this foraging strategy, individual M. alfredi are implicated as important vectors of nutrient supply around and to the coral reefs surrounding D'Arros Island and St. Joseph Atoll, particularly where substantial site fidelity is displayed by these large elasmobranchs.


We investigated massive artificial deposits of soils, sands and debris, which accommodate a speciesrich
urban flora in the municipal area of Bremen. They originate from extensive rearrangements of old
port areas, large soil coverings of rubbish deposits or highway construction. The extended open areas
are optimal colonization sites of typical annual, bi-annual and perennial species: local rurals as well as
new adventitious invaders.
Before the sites were finally sealed by roads and houses, many of the up to now rare species in the
Bremen area are able to complete their reproduction cycle (e. g. Chenopodium hybridum, C. foliosum,
Amaranthus blitum, Rumex salicifolius). Potentilla supina, Pastinaca sativa ssp. urens, Dittrichia
graveolens and Carduus acanthoides were recorded in Bremen for the first time. Our results show that
episodical but highly dynamic sites enrich the urban diversity considerably. Further periodical disturbance,
turn-overs and displacements could preserve the high species diversity of early successional
stands, which have become rare in our highly controlled urban landscape.


In this study, we analyzed Web users concerns about potential risks and harms from Web use to themselves and to society at large. In addition, we assessed how strongly users felt something should be done to address their concerns. Seventy-two individuals, 24 each from a rural community in Maine, a suburban professional community in New Jersey, and a high-technology community in California, participated in an extensive (2-hour) semistructured interview about Web security. Results show that Web users were primarily concerned about risks to Information, and secondarily about risks to People and Technology. Different sets of concerns were identified among the rural, suburban, and high-technology communities. Our discussion focuses on implications for interface design and information policy.


The search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by direct detection faces an encroaching background due to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. As the sensitivity of these experiments improves, the question of how to best distinguish a dark matter signal from neutrinos will become increasingly important. A proposed method of overcoming this so-called 'neutrino floor' is to utilize the directional signature that both neutrino and dark matter induced recoils possess. We show that directional experiments can indeed probe WIMP-nucleon cross-sections below the neutrino floor with little loss in sensitivity due to the neutrino background. In particular we find at low WIMP masses (around 6 GeV) the discovery limits for directional detectors penetrate below the non-directional limit by several orders of magnitude. For high WIMP masses (around 100 GeV), the non-directional limit is overcome by a factor of a few. Furthermore we show that even for directional detectors which can only measure 1- or 2-dimensional projections of the 3-dimensional recoil track, the discovery potential is only reduced by a factor of 3 at most. We also demonstrate that while the experimental limitations of directional detectors, such as sense recognition and finite angular resolution, have a detrimental effect on the discovery limits, it is still possible to overcome the ultimate neutrino background faced by non-directional detectors.


The classic object referring task aims at localizing the referred object in the image and requires a reference image and a natural language description as inputs. Given the facts that gaze signal can be easily obtained by a modern human-computer interaction system with a camera and that human tends to look at the object when referring to it, we propose a novel gaze-assisted object referring framework. The formulation not only simplifies the state-of-the-art gaze-assisted object referring system requiring many input signals besides gaze, but also incorporates the one-stage object detection idea to improve the inference efficiency. More importantly, it implicitly considers all object candidates and thus resolves the main pain point of existing two-stage object referring solutions for proposing an appropriate number of candidates – it cannot be too large, otherwise the computational cost can be prohibitive; it cannot be too small, otherwise the chance of missing a referred object can be significant. To utilize the gaze information, we propose to build a gaze heatmap by using the anchor position encoding map and the gaze prediction result. The gaze heatmap and the language feature are then merged into the feature pyramid in the object detection as the final one-stage referring system. In the CityScapes-OR dataset, the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art by 7.8% for Acc@1.


Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the effects of length of procedure on endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) outcomes and adverse events. Methods: All ERCP procedures, performed by experienced advanced endoscopists, in patients without prior papillary intervention from 2006 to 2008 were reviewed. Procedures were arbitrarily divided into two groups: shorter procedures (SP), with a duration shorter than the overall mean procedure length, and longer procedures (LP), with a duration longer than overall mean procedure length. Length of procedure was defined as the time from endoscope insertion to endoscope removal. Results: Two hundred and ninety-five procedures were included in the analysis. Mean procedure length was 45.6 30.1 min. One hundred and seventy-seven procedures (60%) were SP and 118 (40%) were LP. There were no differences between the groups with regard to patients' ages, genders, race, or trainee participation. SP cases were more likely to be biliary vs pancreatic or bi-ductal evaluations (P = 0.03). LP had significantly higher complexity scores (34% with > 3v s 13%; P = 0.046) and were more likely to require pre-cut papillotomy (39% vs 15%; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups in overall completion rates (91.5% LP vs 96% SP; P = 0.10) or adverse events (10.2% LP vs 6.2% SP; P = 0.21). However, LP cases were associated with higher rates of post-ERCP bleeding (4.2% vs 0.6%; P = 0.029). Conclusion: There was no significant difference in outcomes or overall adverse events between shorter and longer ERCP procedures. However, longer procedures were associated with higher procedure complexity, higher utilization of pre-cut technique, and increased risk of bleeding.


The structural origin of hard-soft behavior in atomic acids and bases has been explored using a simple orbital model. The Pearson principle of hard and soft acids and bases has been taken to be the defining statement about hard-soft behavior and as a definition of chemical hardness. There are a number of conditions that are imposed on any candidate structure and associated property by the Pearson principle, which have been exploited. The Pearson principle itself has been used to generate a thermodynamically based scale of relative hardness and softness for acids and bases (operational chemical hardness), and a modified Slater model has been used to discern the electronic origin of hard-soft behavior. Whereas chemical hardness is a chemical property of an acid or base and the operational chemical hardness is an experimental measure of it, the absolute hardness is a physical property of an atom or molecule. A critical examination of chemical hardness, which has been based on a more rigorous application of the Pearson principle and the availability of quantitative measures of chemical hardness, suggests that the origin of hard-soft behavior for both acids and bases resides in the relaxation of the electrons not undergoing transfer during the acid-base interaction. Furthermore, the results suggest that the absolute hardness should not be taken as synonymous with chemical hardness but that the relationship is somewhat more complex. Finally, this work provides additional groundwork for a better understanding of chemical hardness that will inform the understanding of hardness in molecules.


Embryonic diapause, the temporary suspension of development of the embryo, is a fascinating reproductive strategy that has been frequently exploited across the animal kingdom. It is characterized by an arrest in development that occurs at the blastocyst stage in over 130 species of mammals. Its presumed function is to uncouple mating from parturition, to ensure that both occur at the most propitious moment for survival of the species. Diapause can be facultative, i.e. induced by physiological conditions, or obligate, i.e. present in every gestation of a species. In the latter case, the proximal signals for regulation are related to photoperiod. Three diverse models, the mouse, the mustelid carnivores and the wallaby have been studied in detail. From these studies it can be discerned that, although the endocrine cues responsible for induction of diapause and re-initiation of development vary widely between species, there are a number of commonalities. Evidence to date indicates that the uterus exercises the proximal regulatory influence over whether an embryo enters into and when it exits from diapause. Some factors have been identified that appear crucial to this regulation, in particular, the polyamines. Recent studies indicate that diapause can be induced in species where it does not exist in nature. This suggests that the potential for diapause in mammals to be due to a single evolutionary event, to which control mechanisms adapted when the trait was beneficial to reproductive success. Further work at the molecular, cellular and organismic levels will be required before the physiological basis of diapause is resolved.


The Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial entities are dependent on chemical plating and coating-processes to replace worn or eroded material on damaged parts. Air Force Logistics Centers have been forced to consider replacement methods for repair operations due to the tightening of government regulations on the use of toxic and hazardous materials. The electromagnetic coating process is an available alternative to existing build-up methods, and is based on proven "railgun" technology. Railguns have been under development for 15 years by the DoD and are high energy capacity electrical systems designed for rapid acceleration of an object. Railguns are effective in accelerating projectiles to very high, armor-piercing velocities exceeding 2 km/s. Current thermal spray technology limits coating velocities to the 1 km/s range. In the electromagnetic coating process, equipment similar to a railgun accelerates the coating material. The impressive acceleration capability of electromagnetic systems is expected to produce coatings with superior density and bond strength properties. In addition to potentially improving coating properties, the electromagnetic coating process may serve as a replacement for operations that generate hazardous chemical wastes, such as hard chrome plating. The purpose of the program is to identify, develop, and design a production system for high-quality coatings in industrial manufacturing and repair operations. This paper presents the design of a multi-shot power supply for EPD proof of principle testing.


Abstract We consider the nature of high-level state corruption in Uganda under the NRM. We discuss why elite corruption has occurred, what forms it has taken as well as why attempts to control it have proven so limited. We argue that high-level corruption has enabled the government to cement the loyalty of individual state leaders as well as to mobilise political support for maintaining the regime in power. Because corruption has underpinned support for the government, NRM leaders have done little to combat it. International donors have focused on economic rather than political or governance issues in their assistance to Uganda. They have plied a corrupt and semi-authoritarian regime with large amounts of resources. Donor ability to confront corruption remains minimal because of their reluctance to use aid in the cause of good governance.


The Mobile Landscape is a performance lecture that takes the audience on a tour of the highways of England. In search of a site for a public art project, the artist visits rural stretches of the motorway to inspect a series of roadside advertising hoardings in South East England. They are the type mounted on obsolete transport infrastructure and which are strategically positioned on agricultural land. As the hoardings are surveyed for their potential, there emerges a political history of the view from the road: of a countryside sculpted by the comings and goings of capital; of rural aspirations and anxieties; of clandestine livelihoods sustained by proximity to the road.


SUMMARY Pulmonary CO diffusion capacity (DL CO ), lung volume (VL), oxygen uptake (Vo ) and pulmonary blood flow (QL) were measured simultaneously in the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus) (8—11 kg) using a gas rebreathing technique (syringe pump ventilation). Calculated DL CO and Vo values in the loggerhead turtle are approximately twice those of non-varanid reptiles and about 25 % of values for resting mammals. Evidence based on an estimated lung-capillary 02 gradient, APo2, shows that only a small driving gradient is required for O2 conductance across the loggerhead turtle lung. Pulmonary blood flow values are high compared to those for other reptiles; on the basis of the Fick principle, this implies a substantial blood convection requirement. Differences in oxygen transport mechanisms between the loggerhead sea turtle and other highly aerobic but terrestrial reptiles may result from divergent lung structures and breathing patterns. In sea turtles, the coupling of respiration with locomotory behaviour is one factor that may limit aerobic performance. Since sea turtles have only intermittent access to air, they are required to load both arterial and venous blood with O2 before submerging.


Wasps, bees, ants and termites all make effective use of their environment and resources by displaying collective swarm intelligence. Termite colonies - for instance - build nests with a complexity far beyond the comprehension of the individual termite, while ant colonies dynamically allocate labor to various vital tasks such as foraging or defense without any central decision-making ability. Recent research suggests that microbial life can be even richer: highly social, intricately networked, and teeming with interactions, as found in bacteria. What strikes from these observations is that both ant colonies and bacteria have similar natural mechanisms based on Stigmergy and Self-Organization in order to emerge coherent and sophisticated patterns of global behaviour. Keeping in mind the above characteristics we will present a simple model to tackle the collective adaptation of a social swarm based on real ant colony behaviors (SSA algorithm) for tracking extrema in dynamic environments and highly multimodal complex functions described in the well-know De Jong test suite. Then, for the purpose of comparison, a recent model of artificial bacterial foraging (BFOA algorithm) based on similar stigmergic features is described and analyzed. Final results indicate that the SSA collective intelligence is able to cope and quickly adapt to unforeseen situations even when over the same cooperative foraging period, the community is requested to deal with two different and contradictory purposes, while outperforming BFOA in adaptive speed.


ABSTRACT This study investigates the chain effect of customer value co-creation behaviour on the customerization capability and service capability of service firms and, ultimately, customer perceived value. The study evaluates the moderating roles of the level of technologization and relationship marketing orientation in the relationship between customer value co-creation behaviour and the capabilities of firms. The data were collected from dyadic interaction between customers and the service staff of service firms in Vietnam through surveys. The results show that customer citizenship behaviour and participation behaviour are differentially linked to the customerization capability, and service capability of service firms, which in turn affect customer perceived values. Relationship marketing orientation serves as a significant moderator for customerization capability, yet it is not a significant moderator for service capability. Surprisingly, the level of technologization does not significantly moderate for both customerization capability and service capability. The study advances the literature of value co-creation and offers useful managerial implications.


: Hexokinase, aldolase, L-alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, and lactate dehydrogenase activities were determined in the kidney of the aging cat. Kidneys from 24 domestic cats 2 months to 7.5 years old in 6 age groups were examined by light microscopic and histochemical methods. Enzyme activities in anatomic components of the kidney were assessed on a quantitative basis for evaluation of mean activity between the age groups. In the cats with advancing age, renal components generally had stable activity. A significant (P less than 0.05) increase in hexokinase activity occurred with advancing age in the ascending part of the renal loop (Henle's loop) and in the distal convoluted tubule. Significant (P less than 0.05) increases in aldolase activity with aging were in cortical connective tissue, internal part of the glomerular capsule (podocytes), distal convoluted tubule, and convoluted segment (Pi) of the proximal portion of the nephron tubule. L-alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase activity increased significantly with aging in the convoluted (Pi) segment of the proximal portion of the nephron tubule.


Acute pulmonary embolism is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary hemorrhage and infarction are common complications of pulmonary embolism, occurring in about one-third of patients. Pulmonary hemorrhage and infarction classically present with pleuritic chest pain and hemoptysis. Recognition of pulmonary infarction on imaging is clinically important, as it may be the initial indication of unsuspected pulmonary embolism, leading to the correct diagnosis and therapy with anticoagulation. The imaging findings of pulmonary infarction are driven by the dual blood supply to the lung and have a typical appearance. In this article, we review the imaging appearances of pulmonary infarction as seen with multiple imaging modalities. The classic chest radiographic finding of pulmonary infarction is a peripheral opacity, the Hampton hump. The computed tomography findings of pulmonary infarction are because of the typical pattern of parenchymal injury in the setting of the dual blood supply to the lung. The infarct is usually a wedge-shaped opacity with its base toward a pleural surface, bulging borders, and truncated apex toward the hilum. The findings that have been shown to be useful in the differentiation of infarction from other causes of pulmonary parenchymal opacity include the following: diminished contrast enhancement of the infarcted lung parenchyma, internal air lucencies, and an enlarged vessel leading to the infarct.


Nicotinic receptors are cation-ion selective ligand-gated ion channels that are expressed throughout the nervous system. Most have significant calcium permeabilities, enabling them to regulate calcium-dependent events. One of the most abundant is a species composed of the α7 gene product and having a relative calcium permeability equivalent to that of NMDA receptors. The α7-containing receptors can be found presynaptically where they modulate transmitter release, and postsynaptically where they generate excitatory responses. They can also be found in perisynaptic locations where they modulate other inputs to the neuron and can activate a variety of downstream signaling pathways. The effects the receptors produce depend critically on the sites at which they are clustered. Instructive preparations for examining α7-containing receptors are the rat hippocampus, where they are thought to play a modulatory role, and the chick ciliary ganglion, where they participate in throughput transmission as well as regulatory signaling. Relatively high levels of α7-containing receptors are found in the two preparations, and the receptors display a variety of synaptic options and functions in the two cases. Progress is starting to be made in understanding the mechanisms responsible for localizing the receptors at specific sites and in identifying components tethered in the vicinity of the receptors that may facilitate signal transduction and downstream signaling. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol 53: 512–523, 2002


The aim of the study was to design and fabricate a LED based solar simulator to match the full solar spectrum of natural light. The finding of this research can be applied in the field of solar energy as it can be utilised in testing photovoltaic technology (PV). To achieve this objective, the researcher focused on selecting appropriate LEDs to match the solar spectrum and intensity, whilst also designing the LED solar fabricator and testing the temporal drift of the simulator's spectrum and power distribution. The key hardware requirements were LEDs and LEDs drivers which were chosen based on their sizes and dimensions in addition to the degree to which they could match the solar spectrum. In selecting the driver, avoidance of Arduino was a key consideration. The software EasyEDA was utilised in creating printed circuit boards (PCB) while wavelength was measured by employing the Ocean view spectrometer. The results of the LED solar simulator were tested against the solar simulator class A of the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM). The overall objective of the research to design and fabricate a LED solar simulator was achieved as the solar simulator successfully simulated the full range of visible light in the solar spectrum.

However, due to the limitations of the spectrometer, ultraviolet and infrared light was not able to be simulated. Another principal discovery of the research conducted was that a closer match to the solar spectrum was attained where there were sufficient LEDs to maintain a small as possible gap between the light wavelengths. A further finding was that the light concentrator designed and constructed by the researcher was crucial to achieve the required mixture of light. In conclusion, the study highlights the fact that higher efficiency of LED solar simulators can be achieved through tuning the intensity, classification, size and uniformity of the wavelengths to match the solar spectrums.


Continuous geodetic measurements in landslide prone regions are necessary to avoid disasters and better understand the spatiotemporal and kinematic evolution of landslides. The detection and characterization of landslides in high alpine environments remains a challenge associated with difficult accessibility, extensive coverage, limitations of available techniques, and the complex nature of landslide process. Recent studies using space-based observations and especially Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) techniques with the integration of in-situ monitoring instrumentation are providing vital information for an actual landslide monitoring. In the present study, the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers InSAR package (StaMPS) is employed to process the series of Sentinel 1-A and 1-B Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired between 2015 and 2019 along ascending and descending orbits for the selected area in the French Alps. We applied the proposed approach, based on extraction of Active Deformation Areas (ADA), to automatically detect and assess the state of activity and the intensity of the suspected slow-moving landslides in the study area. We illustrated the potential of Sentinel-1 data with the aim of detecting regions of relatively low motion rates that be can attributed to activate landslide and updated pre-existing national landslide inventory maps on a regional scale in terms of slow moving landslides. Our results are compared to pre-existing landslide inventories. More than 100 unknown slow-moving landslides, their spatial pattern, deformation rate, state of activity, as well as orientation are successfully identified over an area of 4000 km2 located in the French Alps. We also address the current limitations due the nature of PSI and geometric characteristic of InSAR data for measuring slope movements in mountainous environments like Alps.


We rigorously quantify the improvement in the sample complexity of variational divergence estimations for group-invariant distributions. In the cases of the Wasserstein-1 metric and the Lipschitz-regularized $\alpha$-divergences, the reduction of sample complexity is proportional to an ambient-dimension-dependent power of the group size. For the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), the improvement of sample complexity is more nuanced, as it depends on not only the group size but also the choice of kernel. Numerical simulations verify our theories.


This paper describes an accurate feature representation for continuous clean speech recognition. The main components of the technique involve performing a moderate order Linear Predic-tive (LP) analysis and computing the Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) spectrum from these LP coefficients. This feature representation, PMCCs, was earlier shown to yield superior performance over MFCCs for different noise conditions with emphasis on car noise [1]. The performance improvement was then attributed to better spectrum and envelope modeling properties of the MVDR methodology. This study shows that the representation is also quite efficient for clean speech recognition. In fact, PMCCs are shown to be a more accurate envelope representation and reduce speaker variability. This, in turn, yields a 12.8% relative word error rate (WER) reduction on the coombination of Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Nov'92 dev/eval sets with respect to the MFCCs. Accurate envelope modeling and reduction in the speaker variability also lead to faster decoding, based on efficient pruning in the search stage. The total gain in the decoding speed is 22.4%, relative to the standard MFCC features. It is also shown that PMCCs are not very demanding in terms of computation when compared to MFCCs. Therefore, we conclude that PMCC feature extraction scheme is a better representation of clean speech as well as noisy speech than MFCC scheme.


Tumor resistance to chemotherapy is the major obstacle to employ cisplatin, one of the broadly used chemotherapeutic drugs, for effective treatment of various tumors in the clinic. Most acknowledged mechanisms of cancer resistance to cisplatin focus on increased nuclear DNA repair or detoxicity of cisplatin. We previously demonstrated that there was a unique metabolic profile in cisplatin-resistant (CP-r) human epidermoid adenocarcinoma KB-CP 20 and hepatoma BEL 7404-CP 20 cancer cells. In this study, we further defined hyperpolarized mitochondrial membrane potentials (Δψ(m)) in CP-r KB-CP 20 and BEL 7404-CP 20 cells compared to the cisplatin-sensitive (CP-s) KB-3-1 and BEL 7404 cells. Based on the mitochondrial dysfunction, mitaplatin was designed with two mitochondrial-targeting moieties [dichloroacetate (DCA) units] to the axial positions of a six-coordinate Pt(IV) center to sensitize cisplatin resistance. It was found that mitaplatin induced more apoptosis in CP-r KB-CP 20 and BEL 7404-CP 20 cells than that of cisplatin, DCA and cisplatin/DCA compared on an equal molar basis. There was more platinum accumulation in mitaplatin-treated CP-r cells due to enhanced transmembrane permeability of lipophilicity, and mitaplatin also showed special targeting to mitochondria. Moreover, in the case of treatment with mitaplatin, the dramatic collapse of Δψ(m) was shown in a dose-dependent manner, which was confirmed by FACS and confocal microscopic measurements. Reduced glucose utilization of CP-r cells was detected with specifically inhibited phosphorylation of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) at Ser-232, Ser-293, and Ser-300 of the E1α subunit when treated with mitaplatin, which was indicated to modulate the abnormal glycolysis of resistant cells. The present study suggested novel mitochondrial mechanism of mitaplatin circumventing cisplatin resistance toward CP-r cells as a carrier across membrane to produce CP-like cytotoxicity and DCA-like mitochondria-dependent apoptosis. Therefore, mitochondria targeting compounds would be more vulnerable and selective to overcome cisplatin resistance due to the unique metabolic properties of CP-r cancer cells.


SUMMARY Angles in common-image angle domain gathers refer to the scattering angle at the reflector and provide a natural access to analyzing migration velocities and amplitudes. In the case of anisotropic media, the importance of angle gathers is enhanced by the need to properly estimate multiple anisotropic parameters for a proper representation of the medium. We extract angle gathers for each downward-continuation step from converting offset-space-frequency planes into angle-space planes simultaneously with applying the imaging condition in a transversely isotropic (VTI) medium. The analytic equations, though cumbersome, are exact within the framework of the acoustic approximation. They are also easily programmable and show that angle gather mapping in the case anisotropic media differs from its isotropic counterpart, difference depending mainly on the strength of anisotropy.


The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between: Peak oxygen uptake (VO2max) and running economy (RE) with physical measures associated with elite youth soccer performance obtained during soccer match-play. Seventeen highly trained youth soccer players (age: 13.3±0.4y) volunteered to participate. Initially player's ventilatory threshold (VT) and VO2max was established using a treadmill protocol. On the subsequent visit, players ran for 4 min, at three different speeds (8km/h, 80%VT and 95%VT). Physical soccer-based performance was assessed using a maximal Yo-Yo IR1 and via Global positioning systems (GPS) derived variables obtained during three, 2x20min, 11 v 11 soccer matches. Partial correlations revealed significant relationships between relative VO2max and measures of physical soccer performance (r = 0.54–0.88). Moreover, measures of ventilatory equivalent (VEVO2), a determinant of RE, at all sub-maximal exercise intensities were inversely related to the volume (m) and percentage (%) of very high intensity activities. Current findings emphasise the need for high levels of cardio-respiratory fitness in high level youth soccer players, with superior levels of fitness being associated with a greater amount of high and very high intensity activity during soccer match-play.


The MHz-frequency ultrasound treatment is shown to offer a recovery tool in the current-voltage (I-V ) characteristics of the γ-irradiated metal-silicon structures. Experimental observations of the ultrasound treatment effect on the carrier transport and photocurrent transient parameters are highlighted. It is shown that up to 30% of the Schottky diode currents and free carrier lifetimes worsen by the irradiation could be recovered in the stress field of ultrasound. The likely scenario behind the treatment effect is outlined, implying the involvement of the vacancies released from the E-centers and subsequently trapped at the Si- SiO2 interface. It is shown that the technique enables near-room temperature modification of electronic properties of metal-semiconductor Schottky diodes and metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. The density of the electrically active bulk and interface traps can be controllably tuned using this technique. Potential relevance of the processing approach in the context of applications in electronics and detector technologies is pointed out.


Thermoelectrets of poly(acrylonitrile) have been prepared for various electric field polarization strengths. The thermally stimulated discharge current technique has been used to study the remanent charge (dipolar and/or trapped charge) stability. The measurements were carried out in a vacuum. Two overlapping peaks and a significant increase of the current at high temperature have been observed. The first peak is centered around 372 K and the second one is centered around the polarization temperature. When the polarizing field increases from 0.47 to 1.2 MV m-1 the apparent activation energy varies from 1.08 to 1.40 eV, revealing a weak polarization field strength dependence, while the relaxation time at infinite temperature τ0 decreases from 2.05 x10 –15 to 1.05 x 10-18 s. The relaxation time at 300 K increases from 3.48 x 106 to 1.7 x 109 s indicating that the trapped electric charge may be stable at room temperature for the given polarization conditions.