• Summary: This article explores the question of how human beings change, how change is constrained, and how change emerges out of and subsequently creates new forms of stability with adults. The emergence of Dynamic Systems Theories (DST) from developmental biology and neuroscience provide the tools to engage in such an understanding by attending to the issues of time, balance, influencing parameters (within person and sociocultural and material environments), and multiple adaptive and maladaptive pathways. DST provides the framework to understand the dynamic processes of bio-psychosocial factors that provide human beings with the stability and the flexibility to navigate the challenges and stressors of living. Complexity, the ability to experience inner continuity as one is changing, is a fluid balance that supports effective functioning.• Findings: Key principles and concepts of DST describe multiple pathways of stability and change. A case example illustrates how DST helps social workers understand cl...


Continuous small-scale production is currently of utmost interest for fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. For this purpose, equipment and process concepts in consideration of the hurdles for solids handling are required to transfer conventional batch processing to continuous operation. Based on empirical equations, pressure loss constraints, and an expandable modular system, a coiled flow inverter (CFI) crystallizer with an inner diameter of 1.6 mm was designed. It was characterized concerning its residence time behavior, tested for operation with seed crystals or an ultrasonic seed crystal unit, and evaluated for different purging mechanisms for stable operation. The residence time behavior in the CFI corresponds to ideal plug flow behavior. Crystal growth using seed crystals was demonstrated in the CFI for two amino acids. For fewer seed crystals, higher crystal growth rates were determined, while at the same time, secondary nucleation was observed. Feasibility for the interconnection of a sonicated seeding crystal unit could be shown. However, the hurdles are also identified and discussed. Prophylactic flushing combined with a photosensor for distinguishing between solvent and suspension phase can lead to stable and resource-efficient operation. The small-scale CFI technology was investigated in detail, and the limits and opportunities of the technology are presented here.


In this paper we first describe the load balanced shortest path routing (LB-SPR) protocol. Then, we present the linear program for the optimal capacity allocation, to minimize the resource consumption when LB-SPR is applied in the network. We show that when the load balancing is applied, the capacity allocation problem can be expressed only in terms of the total traffic generated by the network nodes, without the need to know the actual traffic distribution. Then, we compare the resource consumption for the proposed LB-SPR protocol and for the regular shortest path routing (SPR) protocols assuming only the traffic loads that users generate and receive at the network nodes. It will be shown that the proposed LB-SPR protocol needs less network resources. In other words, the LB-SPR protocol can route the same traffic at the lower price than the commonly used SPR protocols.


Aco is a well –known metahuristic in which a colony of artificial ants cooperates in explain Good solution to a combinational optimization problem. Wireless sensor consisting of nodes with limited power is deployed to gather useful information from the field. In wireless sensor network it is critical to collect the information in an energy efficient Manner.ant colony optimization, a swarm intelligence based optimization technique, is widely used In network routing. A novel routing approach using an ant colony optimization algorithm is proposed for wireless sensor Network consisting of stable nodes illustrative example details description and cooperative performance test result the proposed approach are included. The approach is also implementing to a small sized hardware component as a router chip simulation result show that proposed algorithm Provides promising solution allowing node designers to efficiency operate routing tasks.


Amid sawmill busy lives, air pollution is one of the greatest casualties of our time and has increased worldwide since 1990. Today, the history of air pollution in sawmills accounts for 93.32% of the total number of wood processing industries in Nigeria, it seems daunting, overwhelming and have positioned the country at a perilous crossroad. For emerging nations such as Nigeria with a population projected to hit 410.6 million humans by 2050 with up to 40-60 million people with mental disorders at the moment, consequently more than 40,000 deaths a year will be due to air pollution. 7 million deaths worldwide is attributed to air pollution with the number set to increase significantly in coming decades mostly through non-communicable diseases like lung cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but also through acute respiratory infections like pneumonia. Similarly, around 90% of all people breathe air contaminated with pollutants. In 2015, tobacco caused 7 million deaths, 1.2 million AIDS, 1.1 million cases of tuberculosis and 0.7 million of malaria, 19% of all cardiovascular deaths, 24% of all deaths due to ischaemic heart disease. 21% of stroke deaths, and 23% of deaths from lung cancer. Non-communicable diseases are responsible for 70% of deaths from air pollution and are a major cause of unexplained infections. In addition, air pollution seems to be significant but it is still not a determinant factor of the risk of neurodegenerative disorders in children and neurodegenerative diseases in adults. This study assessed ambient air quality in major sawmill sites in Ilorin Metropolis, Kwara State, Nigeria. Air pollution measurements were made using direct reading through automatic in situ gas monitors; Hand held mobile multi-gas monitor with model AS8900 (Combustible (LEL), and Oxygen (O2)), BLATN with model BR—Smart Series air quality monitor (PM10, Formaldehyde) and air quality multimeter with model B SIDE EET100 (Dust (PM2.5), VOC, Temperature and Relative Humidity). The results show that the mean concentrations of CO, O2 and other measured parameters such as Formaldehyde (HcHo) etc., are commonly lower and within acceptable range of National and International regulatory standards for air quality indices. There are however some exceptions such as mean concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), PM2.5, PM10 and Combustible (LEL) respectively high when compared to National and International standards. This high value is attributed to the amount of pollutant present in the sawmills due to the input of influents it receives from activities of the sawmill. This is why there has been air pollution in Ilorin metropolis and were however, found to be polluted. Given the high cost of additional measures to lessen air pollution and the new perspectives suggesting that health effects can be observed at low concentrations, the health effects of air pollution should be of scientific and regulatory interest in coming years. In the absence of aggressive control, ambient air pollution is expected to cause between 6 and 9 million deaths a year by 2060.


End-tidal P(CO2), (P(ETCO2)) during the night was measured. The P(ETCO2) signal was obtained by introducing a cannula through the nose into the nasopharygeal cavity. The usefulness of this method to identify nocturnal hypoventilation was studied in 29 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with and without O2 supplementation. The results showed that 27 patients with COPD developed 67 nocturnal O2 desaturations which were all accompanied by raised P(ETCO2). During O2 therapy in all COPD patients nocturnal episodes with increased P(ETCO2) occurred. Furthermore, the detection of nocturnal apnoeas and hypopnoeas was assessed in 19 subjects who were referred to the sleep laboratory for snoring and daytime sleepiness. In this group episodes of disordered breathing could easily be assessed. The P(ETCO2) signal was especially useful to identify hypopnoeas that were accompanied by only small dips in S(aO2) (< 3%). It is concluded that P(ETCO2) measurement is useful in the detection of hypoventilation during sleep in COPD patients, especially when they receive supplemental O2. P(ETCO2) recording detects obstructive apnoeas and hypopnoeas and is especially helpful to identify hypopnoeas which are accompanied by only small dips in O2 saturation.


In a switched dynamic system the continuous phase flow is accompanied by a stream of switching events. If the system exhibits chaotic behavior this event stream can be used for generating a rectangular wave with chaotic switching times. In this paper the probability distribution of the intervals between the switching times is derived. Two systems different in their continuous state model are treated: a switched linear oscillator and a system with piecewise linear trajectories. It turns out that for both systems the embedded discrete return map is the same but the switching intervals have interesting properties. From this return map the invariant density is calculated. Finally, the probability distributions of the switching intervals for both systems are derived and compared.


The overall focus of this study was to investigate the applicability of the neurodevelopmental framework to enhance learning for all students. The present study sought to provide educators with a sufficient foundation for how movement influences neurodevelopmental maturation for learning, with possible implications for reading, by creating a handbook to assist educators to become comfortable incorporating developmental movement patterns into lessons. One goal was to bring attention to primary reflex persistence interfering with typical movement development, leg length inequality (LLI) connected to primary reflex persistence, and the possible use of LLI assessment to be used as a screening tool for students at-risk for reading. The handbook was submitted for review to two groups with considerable knowledge of the research topic; a national group (n – 6) for content validity and an educator group (n – 6) for social-use validity. The three research questions centered on their responses to the five survey questions regarding content and social validity, and generalizations on developmental movement instruction. Survey data were compared examining interests in and among groups. There was substantial agreement with national experts from various fields such as adapted physical education, physical therapy, movement science, and medicine regarding the relevance, usefulness, and validity of handbook content. However, the national expert in reading strongly disagreed with the premise of the handbook. The educator group reported high agreement for acknowledging handbook relevance and strengths, but lower for usefulness. On a scale from 1-5, with 5 as the most, a mean score of 3 for the educator group indicated that the handbook would be helpful for teaching PE. The national experts suggested audiences that would benefit from the handbook, including APE specialists, general PE teachers, OTs and PTs, and early intervention/resource specialists. Both groups suggested revisions to clarify the introduction; to separate content for the neurology and practical applications components; and to describe a step-by-step intervention program. Insufficient feedback was received for LLI assessment, so this topic might be further investigated.


In this paper, we analytically derive the bit error rate (BER) for bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) under the assumption of a temporally correlated flat Rayleigh fading channel. We assume the channel state information (CSI) to be unknown at receiver side and consider a linear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE) channel estimator that relies on periodically inserted pilot symbols. We give asymptotic results for both non-iterative BICM and BICM with iterative decoding (BICM-ID). Furthermore, we show that the interpretation of the channel estimation error as an SNR degradation holds true in these cases.


Abstract. High-time resolution data from the two Iceland SuperDARN HF radars show very strong nightside convection activity during a prolonged period of low geomagnetic activity and northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Flows bursts with velocities ranging from 0.8 to 1.7 km/s are observed to propagate in the sunward direction with phase velocities up to 1.5 km/s. These bursts occur over several hours of MLT in the 20:00–01:00 MLT sector, in the evening-side sunward convection. Data from a simultaneous DMSP pass and POLAR UVI images show a very contracted polar cap and extended regions of auroral particle precipitation from the magnetospheric boundaries. A DMSP pass over the Iceland-West field-of-view while one of these sporadic bursts of enhanced flow is observed, indicates that the flow bursts appear within the plasma sheet and at its outward edge, which excludes Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities at the magnetopause boundary as the generation mechanism. In the nightside region, the precipitation is more spot-like and the convection organizes itself as clockwise U-shaped structures. We interpret these flow bursts as the convective transport following plasma injection events from the tail into the night-side ionosphere. We show that during this period, where the IMF clock angle is around 70°, the dayside magnetosphere is not completely closed. Key words. Ionosphere (Auroral ionosphere; Ionospheremagnetosphere interactions; Particle precipitation)


Leadership is at the heart every living organisation, be it human or animal community. Leadership spans the existence of living creatures and or human beings. In trying to understand the phenomenon of leadership various concepts and philosophies have been put forward. Leadership has been described in terms of traits, transformational effects, group norms, etc. The main issue in leadership remains the ability to influence. The leadership of an organisation gives character to that organisation and subsequently projects the image of that organisation. Leadership branding has connotations that impinge on the internal and external dynamics. Internally leadership shapes the organisation values which determine the overall performance. Externally, leadership branding transforms into images that project the organisation to the broader community of stakeholders. Ultimately, the dynamics of leadership need a good understanding of the role played by leaders across a plethora of organisations as they shape the destiny of respective organisations and their outputs. This is a conceptual paper which weighs in on the philosophy behind leadership branding and its implications to organisational performance.


NiMo (nickel-molybdenum) and NiMo with embedded CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs; 100 nm) were tested as antimicrobial coatings (~15 μm thickness) on titanium (Ti) surfaces using an electrochemical process for heat exchanger applications onboard marine vessels. Preliminary static biofouling and biocorrosion (also known as microbiologically influenced corrosion) assessments were carried out in glass bottles using pure-culture Desulfovibrio vulgaris, a sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB), in deoxygenated ATCC 1249 medium at 37°C, and using an alga (Chlorella vulgaris) mixed with general heterotrophic bacteria (GHB) in enriched artificial seawater at 28°C. It was found that the coating containing NiMo/CeO2 NPs were much more effective than NiMo in preventing SRB biofilm formation with an efficacy of 99% reduction in D. vulgaris sessile cells after 21 day incubation. The coating also exhibited a 50% lower corrosion current density compared to the uncoated Ti against SRB corrosion. Both NiMo and NiMo/CeO2 NP coatings achieved 99% reduction in sessile algal cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) biofilm images indicated a large reduction of sessile GHB cells. The CLSM images also confirmed the biocidal kill effects of the two coatings. Unlike polymer coatings, the "metallic" coatings are heat conductive. Thus, the corrosion resistant antifouling coatings are suitable for heat exchanger applications.


Letter from John Patterson Osterhout to his brother, Orlando Osterhout, discussing recent events in his life. He attended a Baptist convention in Independence, Texas and planned to return there to attend an examination of students at Baylor University. He wrote about the woman he was courting and told his brother that he hoped he would not remain a bachelor. John intended to return home and considered the different routes he could take while also requesting that his brother give him access to transportation in the winter so he could visit a friend. Soule University planned to lay a cornerstone soon in a Masonic ceremony and John wanted to be attendance. The letter ended with John making fun of the LaGrange Volunteer Rifle Rangers.


Background: nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) is not reportable disease and its prevalence is difficult to assess. Aims and objectives: to assess the use of microbiological and stricter microbiological criteria in the estimation of the NTM-PD in Croatia. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the data from the Croatian national NTM registry. We included all patients with pulmonary NTM (without exclusion of any NTM species) isolated in the period from 2006 through 2013 that also had complete medical records data. Microbiological criteria of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and stricter microbiological criteria (>3 positive sputum cultures or 1 bronchoscopic or lung biopsy culture + 1 positive sputum culture) were used to establish diagnosis of NTM-PD or NTM colonization, and then correlated to the whole ATS criteria. Results: We identified 368 patients with enough data for firm establishment of diagnosis with both criteria. By comparison of the rate of established NTM-PD diagnosis, we found good correlation between the ATS microbiological criteria and the whole ATS criteria (phi coefficient 0.66 ; 95% CI 0.61 to 0.72, p<0.0001). The strength of correlation increased when we compared stricter microbiological with full ATS criteria (phi coefficient 0.73 ; 95% CI 0.68 to 0.77, p<0.0001). Furthermore, use of ATS microbiological criteria had a positive predictive value (PPV) of NTM-PD of only 59.8%, while stricter microbiological criteria yielded a PPV of 93.3%. Conclusion: In our setting, stricter microbiological criteria may be used as surrogate criteria for laboratory based estimation of national prevalence of NTM-PD.


The clinical management and therapy of many solid tumor malignancies is dependent on detection of medically actionable or diagnostically relevant genetic variation. However, a principal challenge for genetic assays from tumors is the fragmented and chemically damaged state of DNA in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. From highly fragmented DNA and RNA there is no current technology for generating long-range DNA sequence data as is required to detect genomic structural variation or long-range genotype phasing. We have developed a high-throughput chromosome conformation capture approach for FFPE samples that we call "Fix-C", which is similar in concept to Hi-C. Fix-C enables structural variation detection from fresh and archival FFPE samples. We applied this method to 15 clinical adenocarcinoma and sarcoma specimens spanning a broad range of tumor purities. In this panel, Fix-C analysis achieves a 90% concordance rate with FISH assays – the current clinical gold standard. Additionally, we are able to identify novel structural variation undetected by other methods and recover long-range chromatin configuration information from these FFPE samples harboring highly degraded DNA. This powerful approach will enable detailed resolution of global genome rearrangement events during cancer progression from FFPE material, and inform the development of targeted molecular diagnostic assays for patient care.


Applying language models to natural language processing tasks typically relies on the representations in the final model layer, as intermediate hidden layer representations are presumed to be less informative. In this work, we argue that due to the gradual improvement across model layers, additional information can be gleaned from the contrast between higher and lower layers during inference. Specifically, in choosing between the probable next token predictions of a generative model, the predictions of lower layers can be used to highlight which candidates are best avoided. We propose a novel approach that utilizes the contrast between layers to improve text generation outputs, and show that it mitigates degenerative behaviors of the model in open-ended generation, significantly improving the quality of generated texts. Furthermore, our results indicate that contrasting between model layers at inference time can yield substantial benefits to certain aspects of general language model capabilities, more effectively extracting knowledge during inference from a given set of model parameters.


In this work two series of new azoaldonitrones have been synthesized. At first, azoaldehydes (A1-A10) were prepared via coupling reactions between the diazonium salts of the primary aromatic amines (2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole, 3-aminopyridine,4-methoxyaniline, 2,4-dichloroaniline, 4-chloroaniline, 2-chloroaniline, 3-bromoaniline, 3-nitroaniline, 4- nitroaniline and benzidine, respectively) and alkaline solution of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde as coupling reagent. Next, the resulting azoaldehydes (A1-A10) were introduced in acid-catalyzed condensation reactions with N-phenylhydroxylamine in absolute ethanol to obtain ten new azoaldonitrones (N1-N10) respectively. Later, treatment of azoaldehydes (A1-A5) with N- benzylhydroxylamine under the same conditions afforded five new azoaldonitrones (A11-A15) respectively. The structures of the synthesized azoaldonitrones were confirmed by (C.H.N.S.) elementary analysis and the spectroscopic methods including FT-IR and 1 H NMR. The synthesized azoaldonitrones (N1-N15) were tested for their antibacterial activity against two pathogenic strains of bacteria Staphylococcus aureous (Gram-positive) and Escherichia coli (Gram-negative). The results revealed that azoaldonitrones (N1) and (N11) which are containing thiadiazole moiety showed higher activity against both strains of bacteria, while compound (N6) appeared higher activity only against Gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, most of the prepared azoaldonitrone compounds showed medium activity against Gram-positive bacteria and weak activity against Gram-negative bacteria.


: Results of the long-term faunistic study of Monogenea from fishes of the Chu River basin are reported. Fauna of Monogenea in the studied area was found to include 51 species of 11 genera and 5 families. Thirteen parasite species occurred in the mountain part of the basin, and 40 species inhabit the valley zone, including 10 species of the Amur faunistic complex probably introduced to Kyrgyzstan together with acclimatized fishes.


The integration between the satellite network and the terrestrial network will play a key role in the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) of mobile cellular networks thanks to the wide coverage and bandwidth offered by satellite networks. To leverage this integration, we propose a proactive traffic offloading scheme in an integrated multi-satellite terrestrial network (IMSTN) that considers the future networks' heterogeneity and predicts their variability. Our proposed offloading scheme hinges on traffic prediction to answer the stringent requirements of data-rate, latency and reliability imposed by heterogeneous and coexisting services and traffic namely enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). However, the fulfilment of these requirements during offloading in dynamic IMSTN comes at the expense of significant energy consumption and introduces inherently supplementary latency. Therefore, our offloading scheme aims to balance the fundamental trade-offs first between energy consumption and the achievable data-rate and second between energy consumption and latency while meeting the respective needs of the present traffic. Our findings prove the importance of the cooperation between the multi-satellite network and the terrestrial network conditioned by traffic prediction to enhance the performance of IMTSN in terms of latency and energy consumption.


The inner centromere protein (INCENP) has a modular organization, with domains required for chromosomal and cytoskeletal functions concentrated near the amino and carboxyl termini, respectively. In this study we have identified an autonomous centromere- and midbody-targeting module in the amino-terminal 68 amino acids of INCENP. Within this module, we have identified two evolutionarily conserved amino acid sequence motifs: a 13–amino acid motif that is required for targeting to centromeres and transfer to the spindle, and an 11–amino acid motif that is required for transfer to the spindle by molecules that have targeted previously to the centromere. To begin to understand the mechanisms of INCENP function in mitosis, we have performed a yeast two-hybrid screen for interacting proteins. These and subsequent in vitro binding experiments identify a physical interaction between INCENP and heterochromatin protein HP1Hsα. Surprisingly, this interaction does not appear to be involved in targeting INCENP to the centromeric heterochromatin, but may instead have a role in its transfer from the chromosomes to the anaphase spindle.


Abstract Background In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), hypertension is prevalent and cardiovascular events are the main cause of death. Thiazide diuretics are often prescribed as second-line antihypertensives, on top of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade. There is a concern, however, that diuretics may increase vasopressin concentration and RAAS activity, thereby worsening disease progression in ADPKD. We aimed to investigate the validity of these suggestions. Methods We analysed an observational cohort of 533 ADPKD patients. Plasma copeptin (surrogate for vasopressin), aldosterone and renin were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and radioimmunoassay, respectively. Linear mixed models were used to assess the association of thiazide use with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline and Cox proportional hazards models for the association with the composite kidney endpoint of incident end-stage kidney disease, 40% eGFR decline or death. Results A total of 23% of participants (n = 125) used thiazide diuretics at baseline. Compared with non-users, thiazide users were older, a larger proportion was male, they had lower eGFRs and similar blood pressure under more antihypertensives. Plasma copeptin was higher, but this difference disappeared after adjustment for age and sex. Both renin and aldosterone were higher in thiazide users. There was no difference between thiazide users and non-users in the rate of eGFR decline {difference −0.35 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year [95% confidence interval (CI) −0.83 to –0.14], P = 0.2} during 3.9 years of follow-up (interquartile range 2.5–4.9). This did not change after adjustment for potential confounders [difference final model: 0.08 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year [95% CI −0.46 to –0.62], P = 0.8). In the crude model, thiazide use was associated with a higher incidence of the composite kidney endpoint [hazard ratio (HR) 1.53 (95% CI 1.05–2.23), P = 0.03]. However, this association lost significance after adjustment for age and sex and remained unassociated after adjustment for additional confounders [final model: HR 0.80 (95% CI 0.50–1.29), P = 0.4]. Conclusions These data do not show that thiazide diuretics have a detrimental effect on the rate of disease progression in ADPKD and suggest that these drugs can be prescribed as second-line antihypertensives.


This paper is related to fluid-structure interaction analysis of sodium cooled fast reactors core (Na-FBR). Sudden liquid evacuation between assemblies could lead to overall core movements (flowering and compaction) causing variations of core reactivity. The comprehension of the structure behavior during the evacuation could improve the knowledge about some SCRAMs for negative reactivity occurred in PHENIX reactor and could contribute on the study of the dynamic behavior of a FBR core. An experimental facility (PISE-2c) is designed composed by a Poly-methyl methacrylate hexagonal rods (2D-plan similitude with PHENIX assembly) with a very thin gap between assemblies. Another experimental device (PISE-1a) is designed and composed by a single hexagonal rod for testing the dynamic characteristics. Different experiments are envisaged: free vibrations and oscillations during water injection.A phenomenological analysis is reported showing the flow behavior in the gap and the structure response. Also computational simulations are presented in this paper. An efficient numerical method is used to solve Navier-Stokes equations coupled with structure dynamic equation. The numerical method is verified by the comparison of analytic models and experiments.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


This paper is an analysis of the determinants of self-reported health status of immigrants, with a particular focus on type of visa used to gain admission. The concept of "health capital" and an immigrant selection and adjustment model are employed. The empirical analysis uses the three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (panel I). Immigrant health is greater for immigrants who are younger, more educated, male, more proficient in English, and living outside of an immigrant ethnic enclave. Immigrant health is poorest for refugees and best for independent (economic) migrants, and declines with duration in the destination. There is, therefore, evidence for favorable selectivity on the basis of health status among family and especially independent migrants, as well as a tendency toward "regression to the mean" with duration in the destination.


Most processes in biology and medicine occur over different but inter-connected spatial and temporal scales – from genes to cells to tissues to organs to populations. Known as one of the "hallmarks of cancer", cancer invasion is a complex "multi-scale" phenomenon involving many inter-related genetic, biochemical and cellular processes at many different spatial and temporal scale that play a crucial role in the overall cancer development. The process of invasion consists of cancer cells secreting various matrix-degrading enzymes, which degrade the surrounding tissue or extracellular matrix. Combining abnormal proliferation with altered cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion conditions favourable for migration, the cancer cells actively spread locally into the surrounding tissue. As these multiscale phenomena lead naturally to a question concerning the establishment of a fundamental framework that would enable a rigorous analysis and modelling of cancer invasion, in this talk we will first present a novel multiscale modelling framework involving two scales - cell and tissue. This will be accompanied by a novel multiscale analysis framework, which is based on our new concept of "three-scale convergence". We will then present computational simulation results of our multiscale moving boundary model and finally discuss a number of important fundamental properties that follow.


Changes in the myosin phenotype of differentiated muscle are a prominent feature of the adaptation of the tissue to a variety of physiological stimuli. In the present study the molecular basis of changes in the proportion of myosin isoenzymes in rat skeletal muscle which occur during compensatory hypertrophy caused by the combined removal of synergist muscles and spontaneous running exercise was investigated. The relative amounts of sarcomeric myosin heavy (MHC)- and light (MLC)-chain mRNAs in the plantaris (fast) and soleus (slow) muscles from rats was assessed with cDNA probes specific for different MHC and MLC genes. Changes in the proportion of specific MHC mRNA levels were in the same direction as, and of similar magnitude to, changes in the proportion of myosin isoenzymes encoded for by the mRNAs. No significant changes in the proportion of MLC proteins or mRNA were detected. However, high levels of MLC3 mRNA were measured in both normal and hypertrophied soleus muscles which contained only trace amounts of MLC3 protein. Small amounts of embryonic and neonatal MHC mRNAs were induced in both muscles during hypertrophy. We conclude that the change in the pattern of myosin isoenzymes during skeletal-muscle adaptation to work overload is a consequence of changes in specific MHC mRNA levels.


This thesis concerns the environment of Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil with the purpose of determining the biggest hurdles and incentives for establishing a business in the country. The study is analysed in the context of the Diamond model of national wealth, first introduced by Porter (1990) and is based on secondary source research and data. The main motives are outlined as resource-seeking, market-seeking and non-marketable asset seeking and assessed by using a number of determinants that is commonly used when investing whether a country is competitive in role of attracting investments from abroad. Found was that Brazil has a competitive advantage in terms of market size and a population growing purchasing powers that stems from recent economic growth. The main obstacle for Brazil is now to regain economic stability since the country currently is undergoing recession and invest in infrastructure which is currently one of the largest barrier for foreign (and domestic) businesses.


To maximise the effect of an antibiotic it is necessary to pay careful attention to dosing. The maintenance dose is determined by antibiotic clearance which is usually determined in young healthy adults with normal physiology. Antibiotic clearance in critically ill patients may increase or decrease due to altered physiology and the treatments that are administered. Clearance may also vary significantly over time in patients with critical illness. Advancing age and comorbidities, in particular chronic kidney disease, can also decrease antibiotic clearance. Therefore, it is complicated and arguably impossible to suggest generic guidelines for the dosing of antibiotics in critically ill patients. Factors that influence clearance must be identified and accounted for in each patient for a rational approach to dose adjustment of antibiotics in patients with critical illness. The necessary changes can be predicted by understanding pharmacokinetic concepts. It is necessary to quantify organ function in patients at multiple time points because this can be used to estimate antibiotic clearance and guide dose selection. For example, creatinine clearance should be calculated but methods used in ambulatory patients may not apply to patients with critical illness. If possible, therapeutic drug monitoring should be conducted to ensure that antibiotic concentration targets are achieved and also to guide titration of subsequent doses. If blood sampling is carefully planned it may be possible to directly measure antibiotic clearance for dose adjustment. The purpose of this article is to review the concept of clearance and to highlight circumstances where antibiotic clearance may be altered in patients with critical illness. Strategies for dose modification of antibiotics in critically ill patients will be discussed.


We hypothesize that due to the greedy nature of learning in multi-modal deep neural networks, these models tend to rely on just one modality while under-fitting the other modalities. Such behavior is counter-intuitive and hurts the models' generalization, as we observe empirically. To estimate the model's dependence on each modality, we compute the gain on the accuracy when the model has access to it in addition to another modality. We refer to this gain as the conditional utilization rate. In the experiments, we consistently observe an imbalance in conditional utilization rates between modalities, across multiple tasks and architectures. Since conditional utilization rate cannot be computed efficiently during training, we introduce a proxy for it based on the pace at which the model learns from each modality, which we refer to as the conditional learning speed. We propose an algorithm to balance the conditional learning speeds between modalities during training and demonstrate that it indeed addresses the issue of greedy learning. The proposed algorithm improves the model's generalization on three datasets: Colored MNIST, ModelNet40, and NVIDIA Dynamic Hand Gesture.


Background & Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance training and L-carnitine consumption on TNF-a and IL-1β gene expression of heart tissue in Wistar male rats following anabolic steroid consumption (Boldenone). Materials & Methods: In this experimental study, 30 male Wistar rats aged 12 weeks (weight 195±7.94g) were randomly divided into five groups including control, no-treatment, boldenone (5mg/kg), L-carnitine and aerobic trainingL-carnitine. The endurance moderate intensity training program (55-50% of maximal oxygen consumption) was performed for 6 weeks and 5 times a week. Injection was conducted once a week, on an appointed day, and in the quadriceps and hamstring it was conducted in depth. After anesthesia, autopsy was performed and the heart was isolated. The TNF-α and IL-1β gene expression in the samples was measured by Real Time PCR. Data were analyzed using t-test, One-way ANOVA and post hoc Scheffe at the significant level of P<0.05. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean TNF-α and IL1β gene expression of heart tissue in male Wistar rats in different groups (P=0.001). The changes in TNF-α and IL-1β gene expression of heart tissue in L-carnitine and Training-L-carnitine groups were significantly lower than those of the no-treatment and boldenon groups (P=0.001). Conclusion: It seems that supplementation of L-carnitine with regular aerobic training reduces heart tissue damage induced by anabolic androgenic steroids.


One of the challenges in the field of content-based image retrieval is to bridge the semantic gap that exists between the information extracted from visual data using classifiers, and the interpretation of this data made by the end users. The semantic gap is a cascade of 1) the transformation of image pixels into labelled objects and 2) the semantic distance between the label used to name the classifier and that what it refers to for the end-user. In this paper, we focus on the second part and specifically on (semantically) scalable solutions that are independent from domain-specific vocabularies. To this end, we propose a generic semantic reasoning approach that applies semiotics in its query interpretation. Semiotics is about how humans interpret signs, and we use its text analysis structures to guide the query expansion that we apply. We evaluated our approach using a general-purpose image search engine. In our experiments, we compared several semiotic structures to determine to what extent semiotic structures contribute to the semantic interpretation of user queries. From the results of the experiments we conclude that semiotic structures can contribute to a significantly higher semantic interpretation of user queries and significantly higher image retrieval performance, measured in quality and effectiveness and compared to a baseline with only synonym expansions.


O ffshore floating wind turbines are one of the newest technologies in the renewable markets today. The world's first floating wind farm, the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park, was commissioned in October 2017 and has been competitive with fixed bottom offshore wind turbines. There is a global push to make more renewable energy available, but less desire to have wind turbines cluttering the coastline. Floating wind turbines enable the developer to take advantage of unused offshore space, at depths where traditional fixed bottom structures are impractical and at locations that do not spoil the vista of the coastline. This thesis project aims to develop a working mooring system at depth of 600 m in the Norwegian North Sea, and then investigates the possibility of shared anchors in a wind park with this mooring system. The DTU 10MW reference wind turbine atop a classic spar substructure is used. First, the mooring system at 320 m is tested under decay and environmental loads. Then a chain-polyester-chain mooring line with a bridle was developed for 600 m so that the surge offset is limited to < 60 m for 3 load cases. A simplified model of the wind turbine was then developed for these three load cases. The simplified model was then used to create a wind farm arrangement with 5-6 turbines each. Each wind farm varied in layout and in the number of shared anchors. It was found that while the mooring system designed passes the surge offset and natural frequency requirements, and the normal ULS safety class, it failed the high safety class in some cases. For shared anchors with multidirectional loads, the resultant force on the anchor is significantly less as long as the lines are distributed equally around the anchor point. The resultant force does not increase with two lines 120◦ apart. The footprint of a single turbine with the designed mooring is larger than the footprint of the entire Hywind Scotland Farm, so suggestions are made for improvement and further work.


This report describes how employees adapt to a new organizational method by negotiating their professional identity. Usually employees need to adapt to a new organizational method during times of internal- and external organizational change. During the change process employees are likely to experience a high level of uncertainty which organizations aim to reduce via organizational socialization and organizational training in particular. During their socialization period, employees often also experience a certain level of tension due to a discrepancy between individual- and organizational expectations regarding the adaptation to the changing organizational system. Employees try to reduce uncertainty and achieve balance through the process of professional identity negotiation, where the outcome will be the employees' adjusted behavior to the organizational approach. Due to the great impact of professional identity negotiation on socialization outcomes, more elaborated understanding is necessary on how professional identity negotiation occurs during the socialization period. Therefore, this study examines the processes which take place during professional identity negotiation and the negotiation strategies that employees apply based on the results of the prior information-seeking process and the contextual requirements they have to deal with during their daily work. It will be reported on an existing dataset of 30 semi-structured interviews and ten logbook files from ten health care respondents which were combined with own observations. The data reflects the experiences of health care professionals working with Solution Focused Therapy during organizational training. The results were analyzed by applying elements of a grounded theory approach through which different ways of information seeking and five different negotiation strategies could be identified. The strategies are the result of the negotiation process and reflect the way the healthcare employees are dealing with the organizational approach, involve their clients and adapt to a given practical situation. The negotiation strategies are reflected by five different approaches which are labelled as follows: compliance approach, cooperative approach, directive approach, doing what works approach and commanding approach. The different strategies offer a new way of understanding how professional identity is negotiated while dealing with contextual requirements. Knowing that, organizations should focus more on contextual conditions and barriers during the socialization period in order to prepare their employees and achieve higher organizational identification- and adjustment.


Introduction: The promise of bioprinting tissue constructs that could potentially serve the same function in the human body as native tissues has taken the world of regenerative medicine by storm. The current review describes system-wide clinical applications of three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting and aims to address ethical and social considerations, while also discussing the scope of this technology in the near future.
Discussion: 3D bioprinting is believed to present new approaches to conventional treatment, offering the advantage of customization and on-time availability. It facilitates simultaneous deposition of appropriate bioinks and biomaterials onto scaffolds which can then be employed to develop tissue fabricates that can potentially mimic native tissues in both structure and functionality. It has been extensively employed to regenerate viable tissue constructs of skin, bone, cartilage, vasculature, myocardial tissue and heart valves, nervous tissue, lung and tracheal tissue, liver, pancreatic, and corneal tissue.
Conclusion: To obviate the current restrictions associated with this technology, it is imperative to understand where we currently stand in terms of current clinical applications of 3D bioprinting. This technology is anticipated to contribute significantly to the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM), where it can be employed to fabricate functional tissues that can simulate their counterparts in the human body.
Relevance: The increasing disparity between organ demand and supply as well as the shortcomings associated with antiquated approaches to treatment call for utilizing 3D bioprinting to develop viable tissue constructs.


Objectives Hepatic ultrasound (US) is readily available and physicians usually trust the results of an US report suggesting fatty liver, but there are conflicting reports on its accuracy, especially in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Therefore, we retrospectively examined liver biopsies in patients with CLD and compared the histologic results to the hepatic US findings. Methods Liver biopsies were graded for fat (grades 0 to 3), inflammation (grades 0 to 4), and fibrosis (stages 0 to 4) in 131 patients with CLD (89% had chronic hepatitis C). Hepatic US interpretations were grouped into 3 categories—"normal," "fatty liver," and "nonspecific." A secondary analysis was performed using 3 sonographic categories based on the echogenicity: normal, "increased echogenicity," and "heterogenous." The US results were then compared with the liver biopsy results. Results A normal US report was associated with many false negatives, as 25% of these patients had fat (grades 1 to 3) on biopsy; furthermore, 46% had "significant fibrosis" (stages 2 to 4) or "significant inflammation" (grades 2 to 4). A "fatty liver" interpretation correctly identified fat on biopsy in 36.4% and "significant fat" (grades 2 to 3) in 11.4%, but 66% had significant fibrosis or significant inflammation. An US with increased echogenicity correctly identified fat in 43.5% and significant fat in 19.4%, but 69.4% had significant fibrosis or significant inflammation. The sensitivity of an US ranged from 11.4% to 88.2% and the specificity ranged from 40.4% to 86.2%, depending on the degree of steatosis on biopsy and the sonographic interpretation being considered. Conclusions US is inaccurate for diagnosing hepatic steatosis in patients with CLD. Echogenic abnormalities are more likely to be the result of fibrosis or inflammation in this setting.


A graduate-level, advanced-topics-in-music-history seminar at Mason in Spring 2017 focused on several works, themes, trends, and genres related to British and American musical theater from the 1860s to the 1930s. A special feature of the course was the construction of a shared-knowledge base comprising several student-written and –reported summaries of scholarly literature produced by others as well as detailed abstracts of their own course-related final research projects. The instructor devised a way of storing, connecting, and displaying the various components of the knowledge base through a controlled vocabulary of descriptors ("tags") using the Scalar 2 digital publishing platform.  The resulting interactive product not only enabled the retrieval of literature summaries for inspection and study but also the visualization of (and the tracing of connections between) theatrical and literary works, topical themes, works-creators (i.e. authors, composers, librettists, producers), significant dates, and perhaps most importantly, the positioning of each student's own research work in musical theater history within this web of relationships.  More broadly, the project demonstrates the applicability of Scalar 2 (which requires no special knowledge of programming or scripting) to a variety of teaching and learning scenarios wherein content (text and media), tagged with multiple descriptors, can be traversed via multiple paths in a visually interactive online medium. While this use of Scalar as a prototype was configured and populated by the instructor, co-design, input. and comment by authorized multiple contributors is also a powerful option.


Perianal fistula can originate idiopathically (cryptoglandular fistula) or can be a representation of underlying Crohn's disease (CD). In case of idiopathic fistula, the cryptoglandular theory suggests their development from the anal glands. In contrast, the pathophysiology of CD-related fistula is very poorly understood. Hence, we molecularly characterised and compared the fistula tract in both conditions.

 We collected surgical biopsies from the fistula tract in 70 CD patients with active draining perianal fistula and in 12 patients with cryptoglandular non-CD related, active draining fistula, all requiring surgical examination under anaesthesia. RNA was sequenced using Illumina HiSeq4000, and these data were analysed through differential gene expression analysis (DESeq2). A false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.05 and a |log 2-fold change (log2FC)| >1 was considered significant. Pathway analysis was performed using IPA (Qiagen). In addition, cellular deconvolution methods (xCell) were applied to study the cellular composition.

 Gene expression analysis identified 1087 genes being differentially expressed between CD-related and cryptoglandular fistula (716 up, 371 down). Top differentially expressed genes encode proteins implicated in IBD pathogenesis including CARD18 (log2FC= 23.2, p=3.9E-21), BATF2 (log2FC=2.8, p=1.8E-8), ETV7 (log2FC=2.1, p=2.0E-7), DSG1 (log2FC=7.8, p=2.7E-6) and IL22RA1 (log2FC=5.3, p=4.6E-6). Additional pathway analysis highlighted various proinflammatory processes in CD fistula (as compared to cryptoglandular fistula), including upregulation of antigen presentation and Th1/Th2 activation (p<1.0E-9). Intriguingly, CD fistula showed a significant downregulation of wound healing signaling pathways (p=6.5E-6), emphasising the refractory character of this debilitating condition. Upstream analyses showed an increased activation of top regulators IFNγ, TNF, LPS and STAT1 (p<1.0E-24). Cellular deconvolution identified significant differences between both fistula types, with a predominance of inflammatory cells in CD including Th1 cells, dendritic cells, naïve CD4 T cells, memory B cells and central memory CD8 and CD4 T cells (p<5.0E-2). In contrast, cryptoglandular fistula were characterised by a significant enrichment of myocytes, smooth muscle cells and neurons (p<3.0E-3). Presence of neutrophils, wound healing and pro-inflammatory macrophages did not differ between both fistula types.

 CD fistulas have a strong proinflammatory fingerprint, but seem to have lower wound healing capacity as compared to cryptoglandular fistula. An aggressive medical and surgical treatment is therefore required, including the search for novel, powerful anti-inflammatory and wound healing compounds.


Nitrous oxide (N2 O) is emitted during microbiological nitrogen (N) conversion processes, when N2 O production exceeds N2 O consumption. The magnitude of N2 O production vs. consumption varies with pH and controlling net N2 O production might be feasible by choice of system pH. This article reviews how pH affects enzymes, pathways and microorganisms that are involved in N-conversions in water engineering applications. At a molecular level, pH affects activity of cofactors and structural elements of relevant enzymes by protonation or deprotonation of amino acid residues or solvent ligands, thus causing steric changes in catalytic sites or proton/electron transfer routes that alter the enzymes' overall activity. Augmenting molecular information with, e.g., nitritation or denitrification rates yields explanations of changes in net N2 O production with pH. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria are of highest relevance for N2 O production, while heterotrophic denitrifiers are relevant for N2 O consumption at pH > 7.5. Net N2 O production in N-cycling water engineering systems is predicted to display a 'bell-shaped' curve in the range of pH 6.0-9.0 with a maximum at pH 7.0-7.5. Net N2 O production at acidic pH is dominated by N2 O production, whereas N2 O consumption can outweigh production at alkaline pH. Thus, pH 8.0 may be a favourable pH set-point for water treatment applications regarding net N2 O production.


Purpose: Pre‐treatment patient repositioning in highly conformal radiotherapy modalities is a prerequisite for reducing setup uncertainties. A MVCT image set has to be acquired to account for daily changes in the patient's internal anatomy and setup position. This study aims to investigate the expected effect of patient setup correction with the Hi‐Art tomotherapy system by using radiobiological measures. Method and Materials: Using the Planned Adaptive module (tomotherapy, Inc, Madison, WI), eventual dose discrepancies can be evaluated and corrected. In this study, patients treated for lung, pancreas and prostate carcinomas by Helical Tomotherapy plans are evaluated. In each cancer case, two dose distributions with and without patient setup correction were calculated using the MVCT image sets and they were evaluated using the complication‐free tumor control probability (P +) and biologically effective uniform dose (BEUD) concepts. Results: For the lungcancer case, at the optimum dose levels of the two dose distributions, the P + value is 57.6% and 56.8% for a BEUDITV of 64.8 Gy, respectively. The respective total control probabilities, P B are 78.1% and 78.1%, whereas the corresponding total complication probabilities, P I are 20.5% and 21.3%. For the pancrease cancer case, the P + value is 95.0% for a BEUDITV of 67.9 Gy and 97.5% for a BEUDITV of 69.9 Gy, respectively. The respective P B values are 97.8% and 98.7%, whereas the P I values are 2.9% and 1.2%. For the prostate cancer case, the P + value is 57.7% for a BEUDITV of 90.2 Gy and 55.9% for a BEUDITV of 90.6 Gy, respectively. The respective P B values are 83.7% and 84.7%, whereas the P I values are 26.1% and 28.8%. Conclusion: According to our results, patient setup corrections during registration are adequate to produce the necessary target localization. Clinical cases, which look dosimetrically similar, can be quite different in radiobiological terms.


Objectives: An explosion at the Buncefield fuel depot outside London occurred on 11 December 2005. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of airborne exposures and health status for workers deployed. Methods: Deployed individuals were identified through their occupational health departments. We sent a self-completion questionnaire asking about health symptoms during the burn and post-burn phases. The prevalence of health symptoms in workers was compared to symptoms in local residents not under the smoke plume. Results: Of 1949 eligible individuals, 815 returned questionnaires (response rate 44). Respiratory protection was used by 39. Symptoms were reported by 41 of individuals during the burn phase compared with 26 in the post-burn phase. In a final multivariable model, reporting of any symptoms was associated with deployment inside the inner fire cordon during the burn phase (OR 2.07, 95 CI 1.24 to 3.47) and wearing a face mask (OR 2.33, 95 CI 1.67 to 3.26). Compared with the general public, eye irritation (prevalence ratio (PR) 2.1, 95 CI 1.5 to 3.0), coughing (PR 1.3, 95 CI 1.0 to 1.8) and headaches (PR 1.7, 95 CI 1.2 to 2.5) were more common in workers deployed during the burn phase but not the post-burn phase. Conclusions: Increased reporting of symptoms close to the fire during the burn phase was consistent with increased exposure to products of combustion, although no major acute illness was reported. That only a minority of individuals used face masks, which were not protective for symptoms, raises questions about the availability of adequate respiratory protection for such incidents.


ABSTRACT
 The synchronous firefly Photinus carolinus (Green) of the moist cove hardwood forests of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park attracts much public attention during its spectacular month-long mating display known as The Light Show. In previous studies flash synchrony among P. carolinus males has been investigated, but little is known about its natural history and mating behavior. This study provides additional information on the habits, flash signal variation, mating strategies, predation and historical records of P. carolinus. The polyandrous females remate throughout their approximately 3-week adult lifespan, laying successive clutches of eggs. While stationary females generally respond to male courtship signals with a receptive doublet flash signal, they also produce a rhythmic flash while walking, and can revert back to the receptive state. In this protandrous species, the average number of flashes per flash train in male courtship signals increases after females have emerged. I describe pseudo-female male flashes and group chaos flashing associated with mating clusters as well as conditions causing distress flashing in both sexes. With a backdrop of changing habitat and increasing human pressure, observations taken from the past 18 years and over 1000 h spent in the field additionally describe male guarding of a female pupa, mate guarding via prolonged copulation, common predator and phorid infestation challenges for this firefly.


Increasing regulation of spray drift has led to the development of real-time drift monitoring systems that present drift potential to applicators so that drift reduction spraying techniques can be implemented on an as-needed basis. The central component in each of these state-of-the-art systems is a drift prediction model. A real-time drift monitoring system was developed using look-up tables produced from simulations of a random-walk model (FLUENT via DRIFTSIM). The predictive accuracy of this system, evaluated as the difference between predicted drift and in-field measured drift, was compared to alternative prediction models to determine the suitability of random-walk models for real-time drift prediction. DRIFTSIM was found to produce a significantly more accurate representation of real-time predicted drift when compared to four of the six alternative models tested. No significant difference in predictive accuracy was found when comparing DRIFTSIM to the two other models. When compared to alternative models at incremented distances downwind from the point of spraying, DRIFTSIM's predictions were found to be overall more accurate up to 10 m from the boom edge; however, three alternative models provided more accurate predictions for long-distance drift (20 to 50 m from the boom). These results suggest the potential of using DRIFTSIM in future real-time drift monitoring for increased accuracy and performance. However, additional development is needed to improve far-field (>10 m downwind of an application) drift prediction accuracy.


Moderate elevation of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) is a strong and independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). It can result from genetic or nutrient-related disturbances in the transsulfuration or remethylation pathways for Hcy metabolism. A point mutation (C677T; Ala-to-Val) in the gene encoding the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) has been recently reported to render the enzyme thermolabile and less active. Studies on the role of this mutation as a risk factor for CAD have given conflicting results. We studied a total of 415 subjects, 278 with angiographically documented multivessel CAD and 137 with angiographically documented normal coronary arteries. The overall frequency of the MTHFR V/V homozygous genotype was 15.7% (with 52.5% heterozygous and 31.8% normal). Subgroup analysis showed no significant differences between CAD and CAD-free subjects. A genotype/phenotype correlation study showed a marked effect of folate on the association between MTHFR genotypes and tHcy. Among individuals with folate levels below the median (11.5 nmol/L), fasting tHcy was significantly increased not only in V/V homozygotes (by 59%) but also, at intermediate values, in A/V heterozygotes (by 21% on average). Conversely, the mutation resulted neutral with respect to tHcy levels in subjects with adequate folate levels. We conclude that, in our population, the MTHFR C677T mutation is rather common, but it does not appear to be associated per se to CAD. A genetic-environmental interaction may contribute to the vascular risk by elevating tHcy when folate status is low.


In this paper, we investigated numerically gravity induced skeletal settling during liquid phase sintering. The microstructural evolution will be simulated by simultaneous computation of displacement of the center of mass and mass transport due to dissolution and precipitation at the interfaces between solid-phase and liquid matrix. Common to this study based on domain methodology for definition of regular multi-domain model will be the need to relate some diffusional phenomena to essential geometric and topological attributes of the W-Ni porous microstructure influenced by skeletal settling combined with extrication of some solid-phase domains during liquid phase sintering.


Activated carbons are materials extensively used to remove a variety of pollutants in different media. The porous structure, the surface chemistry and the type of adsorptive determine the potential of activated carbons as an adsorbent material. However, in a more global perspective it is necessary to consider other factors such as the economical viability of production and reuse. This last factor depends on the capacity of regeneration of the activated carbons after each application. Following this guideline, the objective of this work was to evaluate the capacity of regeneration of some specific activated carbons prepared from cork oak wastes, used in the adsorption of phenolic compounds in the liquid phase. Simultaneously, the performance of our carbons are compared with the behaviour of a commercial carbon (Norit SX plus). The experimental procedure consists in the adsorption of one phenolic compound, followed by the regeneration of the adsorbent, succeeding a series of adsorption/regeneration processes. The methods of regeneration used were simple washing with distilled water under magnetic stirring, washing with ultrasound and thermal regeneration under inert atmosphere. The performance of the activated carbons was strongly dependent on their nature and the regeneration method applied.


Human generates responses relying on semantic and functional dependencies, including coreference relation, among dialogue elements and their context. In this paper, we investigate matching a response with its multi-turn context using dependency information based entirely on attention. Our solution is inspired by the recently proposed Transformer in machine translation (Vaswani et al., 2017) and we extend the attention mechanism in two ways. First, we construct representations of text segments at different granularities solely with stacked self-attention. Second, we try to extract the truly matched segment pairs with attention across the context and response. We jointly introduce those two kinds of attention in one uniform neural network. Experiments on two large-scale multi-turn response selection tasks show that our proposed model significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art models.


Using a combination of polymerase chain reaction and genomic library screening we have cloned a human gene for a subtype of the somatostatin (SST) receptor (SSTR) termed human SSTR5 (hSSTR5), which is located on chromosome 16. The predicted amino acid sequence of hSSTR5 displays 75% sequence identity with a recently identified rat SSTR [Mol. Pharmacol. 42:939-946 (1992)], suggesting that it is the human homologue of this receptor. hSSTR5 consists of a 363-residue polypeptide exhibiting a putative seven-transmembrane domain topology typical of G protein-coupled receptors. The receptor displays considerable sequence identity to hSSTR1 (42%), hSSTR2 (48%), hSSTR3 (47%), and hSSTR4 (46%). Membranes prepared from COS-7 cells transiently expressing the hSSTR5 gene bound 125I-Leu8,D-Trp22,Tyr25-SST-28 (125I-LTT-SST-28) with high affinity and in a saturable manner. SST-14, SST-28, and various synthetic SST peptide agonists produced dose-dependent inhibition of radioligand binding with the following rank order of potency: LTT-SST-28 > SST-28 > D-Trp8-SST-14 > SST-14 approximately RC-160 approximately BIM 23014 > MK-678 > SMS 201-995. hSSTR5 bound SST-28 with a 12.6-fold greater affinity (Ki = 0.19 nM), compared with SST-14 (Ki = 2.24 nM), indicating that the receptor is SST-28 selective. Addition of GTP, guanosine-5'-O-(3-thio)triphosphate, Na+ ions, or pertusis toxin greatly reduced 125I-LTT-SST-28 binding, thereby indicating that hSSTR5 is coupled to pertussis toxin-sensitive G proteins. Both SST-14 and SST-28 displayed dose-dependent inhibition of forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation, consistent with functional coupling of the receptor to adenylyl cyclase inhibition. Northern blot analysis of SSTR5 mRNA revealed a 2.4-kilobase transcript in normal rat pituitary and GH3 rat pituitary tumor cells and a 4.0-kilobase transcript in normal human pituitary. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction revealed expression of the hSSTR gene in fetal human pituitary and hypothalamus but not in human cerebral cortex. In situ hybridization of the rat pituitary showed that SSTR5 mRNA is selectively localized in the anterior lobe. SSTR5 mRNA was not expressed in four human pituitary tumors (somatotroph adenoma, prolactinoma, and chromophobe adenomas) or in a human insulinoma. Although hSSTR5 displays approximately 75% sequence identity with rat SSTR5, the two receptors display significantly different pharmacological profiles, especially with respect to their binding affinities for the SST analogue SMS 201-995.


The performance limit of Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) and the fact that we cannot stack more of them to increase the performance, which we usually do for other deep learning paradigms, are pervasively thought to be caused by the limitations of the GCN layers, including insufficient expressive power, etc. However, if so, for a fixed architecture, it would be unlikely to lower the training difficulty and to improve performance by changing only the training procedure, which we show in this paper not only possible but possible in several ways. This paper first identify the training difficulty of GCNs from the perspective of graph signal energy loss. More specifically, we find that the loss of energy in the backward pass during training nullifies the learning of the layers closer to the input. Then, we propose several methodologies to mitigate the training problem by slightly modifying the GCN operator, from the energy perspective. After empirical validation, we confirm that these changes of operator lead to significant decrease in the training difficulties and notable performance boost, without changing the composition of parameters. With these, we conclude that the root cause of the problem is more likely the training difficulty than the others.


Whether set in Maxim D. Shrayer's native Russia or in North America and Western Europe, the eight stories in this collection explore emotionally intricate relationships that cross traditional boundaries of ethnicity, religion, and culture. Tracing the lives, obsessions, and aspirations of Jewish-Russian immigrants, these poignant, humorous, and tender stories create an expansive portrait of individuals struggling to come to terms with ghosts of their European pasts while simultaneously seeking to build new lives in their American present. The title story follows Jake Glaz, a young Jewish man apprehensive about marrying a Catholic woman. After realizing Erin will not convert, Jake leaves the United States to spend Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, "a beautiful place for a Jew to atone." In "Sonetchka" a literary scholar and his former girlfriend from Moscow reunite in her suburban Connecticut apartment. As they reminisce about their Soviet youth and quietly admire each other's professional successes, both wrestle with the curious mix of prosperity, loneliness, and insecurity that defines their lives in the United States. Yom Kippur in Amsterdam takes the immigrant narrative into the twenty-first century. Emerging from the traditions of Isaac Babel, Vladimir Nabokov, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Shrayer's vibrant literary voice significantly contributes to the evolution of Jewish writing in America.


Human experimental research with hallucinogenic drugs is potentially able to identify linking variables between the psycho(patho)logical conditions and neurobiological alterations involved in both pharmacologically induced and naturally occurring acute psychotic states. A number of methodological aspects should be considered when planning modern experimental studies with hallucinogenic drugs. The issues of subject selection, repeated measures, and adequate control groups are discussed in this paper. Examples of recent experimental studies are presented which take these aspects into account. The first study examined psychopathological changes, facial expression and semantic priming effects during a psilocybin-induced state. In the second study. semantic priming effects after intake of psilocybin, 3.4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDE), and d-methamphetamine were investigated. Results confirmed time-dependent effects of psilocybin and the restriction of increased priming effects in the psilocybin group.


The ventrally expressed secreted polypeptide endothelin1 (Edn1) patterns the skeleton derived from the first two pharyngeal arches into dorsal, intermediate and ventral domains. Edn1 activates expression of many genes, including hand2 and Dlx genes. We wanted to know how hand2/Dlx genes might generate distinct domain identities. Here, we show that differential expression of hand2 and Dlx genes delineates domain boundaries before and during cartilage morphogenesis. Knockdown of the broadly expressed genes dlx1a and dlx2a results in both dorsal and intermediate defects, whereas knockdown of three intermediate-domain restricted genes dlx3b, dlx4b and dlx5a results in intermediate-domain-specific defects. The ventrally expressed gene hand2 patterns ventral identity, in part by repressing dlx3b/4b/5a. The jaw joint is an intermediate-domain structure that expresses nkx3.2 and a more general joint marker, trps1. The jaw joint expression of trps1 and nkx3.2 requires dlx3b/4b/5a function, and expands in hand2 mutants. Both hand2 and dlx3b/4b/5a repress dorsal patterning markers. Collectively, our work indicates that the expression and function of hand2 and Dlx genes specify major patterning domains along the dorsoventral axis of zebrafish pharyngeal arches.


New results for model order reduction , for weakly nonlinear system s in the frequency domain, are derived based on a parametric modelling approach.


As the result of the study of the peripheral blood monocyte function in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, the ingestive capacity of monocytes has been found to be suppressed, which indicates the pathological state of oxygen-dependent mechanisms governing the bactericidal activity of cells, the most pronounced disturbances of monocyte functions being observed in patients with fibrous-cavernous and disseminated tuberculosis.


Despite improvements in clinician education, symptom awareness, and respiratory precautions, influenza vaccination rates for health care workers have remained unacceptably low for more than three decades, adversely affecting patient safety. When public health is jeopardized, and a safe, low-cost, and effective method to achieve patient safety exists, health care organizations and public health authorities have a responsibility to take action and change the status quo. Mandatory influenza vaccination for health care workers is supported not only by scientific data but also by ethical principles and legal precedent. The recent influenza pandemic provides an opportunity for policymakers to reconsider the benefits of mandating influenza vaccination for health care workers, including building public trust, enhancing patient safety, and strengthening the health care workforce.


Hibernomas are uncommon benign tumors of brown fat that occur in humans and various animal species. They have not been observed in the orbit of dogs, humans, or other animals. Here we report clinical, light and electron microscopic, and immunohistochemical features of a series of 7 hibernomas arising in the orbital region of dogs. These neoplasms occurred in adult dogs with no breed predilection. The mean age of the affected dogs was 10.4 years (range, 8–13 years). All neoplasms presented as soft lobular masses composed of predominantly round or polygonal neoplastic cells with granular eosinophilic and vacuolated cytoplasm resembling adipocytes. The cytoplasm contained large numbers of pleomorphic mitochondria with dense matrices and indistinct cristae. Immunohistochemical evaluation confirmed positive labeling of neoplastic cells from all cases with uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) consistent with brown fat differentiation. Interestingly, rare neoplastic cells also expressed myogenin and myoD, possibly suggesting a common progenitor cell for neoplastic brown adipose and skeletal muscle cells.


Coronavirus caused an epidemic in China in December 2019 at an animal market where live and dead animals were sold in Wuhan, China, in Hubei Province. In a short time, this epidemic spread to different continents. This virus has been called the 2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by the World Health Organization. Unlike both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, Covid-19 is the seventh member of the coronavirus family that infects humans. It is characteristic for Covid-19 pneumonia that there are subpleural localized ground glass opacities and numerous irregular areas of consolidation in both lungs and especially in the lower lobes. In this study, we aimed to present a Covid-19 positive patient with cough, high fever, beginning breathlessness and chest pain on the left, accompanied by pneumothorax in the left hemithorax. A 24-year-old male patient was admitted to the emergency department with fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and pain in the left hemithorax. After physical examination and radiological imaging of the patient with good general condition, Covid-19 was hospitalized due to suspicion and pneumothorax in the left hemithorax. Radiographic imaging of the patient revealed pneumothorax on the left and ground-glass opacities in the bilateral lower lobes. The patient underwent tube thoracostomy from the left hemithorax lateral. As a result of the tests, Covid-19 was diagnosed. Treatment of the patient continues. Patients diagnosed with Covid-19 pneumonia and suspicious cases should be followed closely. Physical examination, blood tests and radiological imaging should be done completely. It should be kept in mind that in patients with Covid-19 pneumonia, it may develop in pneumotoacies secondary to lung parenchymal damage. Mortality rates can be reduced in patients with early diagnosis and treatment.


ABSTRACT Gastronomic (food) tourism is crucial for visitation and destination choices. Thailand tourism and its reputable cuisine can utilise the potential of online platforms as a channel to connect tourists to local communities. Despite massive online textual data in tourism, employing such insightful knowledge in theory and practice is still insufficient. This research explores gastronomic tourists' experiences and their impacts on local communities in Thailand by conducting a qualitative approach to analyse local food experiences of gastronomic tourists' reviews from five different online platforms. The results from 461 online reviews reveal positive tourists' gastronomic experiences in Thailand. The gastronomic tourism offers and their contributions to local community destinations vary across online platforms. Additionally, all five online platforms facilitate the connection of gastronomic tourists and local people differently. In addition, the local online platforms offer a greater variety and uniqueness of gastronomic tourism experiences, including authentic food experiences, local interaction and community benefits, tailor-made cultural learning with locals, and social aspect of food that benefit local communities. This research benefits both tourism scholars and practitioners in filling the knowledge gap of employing available online tourism platforms to better understand, plan and design gastronomic tourism experiences in local communities.


This study, addresses the question "Is price process in rubber futures market efficient?" Time series data from rubber futures was used as leading indicator for the spot price of Thailand. The results indicate that, the daily futures prices served as unbiased estimators of future spot prices and there was independence on daily price changes. The tests, consistently supported the unbiased hypothesis which implies that, Thailand's rubber futures market is efficient and aids the process of price. This study, would fill the information gap in the prediction of future spot prices with a guide to understanding how the futures market behaves. Part of forecasting, the study employs univariate, market timing and Diebold-Mariano as the criterions for the selection of the best prediction model. It includes an analysis of factors affecting the rubber futures prices in Thailand's futures market. The results, show that, TOCOM, world synthetic rubber consumption, net imports natural rubber (China) and crude oil price significantly affect futures prices in the same direction. Particularly, crude oil price is the leading indicator for the trend in rubber futures prices in Thailand. The analytical model is shown to be applicable and would facilitate related studies in forecasting the futures prices of other commodities.


Children in Hospital SIR,-YOUr leading article (Journal, February 14, p. 425) rightly welcomed the excellent report of the Platt Committee on the welfare of children in hospital. But exception can be taken to its criticism of the committee's balanced views on the separation of the child from its mother. It states: " But many would prefer . . . clearer recognition that separation from his mother alone may prove of serious consequence to the young child." This appears to be a view widely helde.g., "How seriously and lastingly young children may suffer if separated for even a day or two from their mothers . . . has been abundantly proved" (Observer, February 15, p. 14). This view ignores the fact that there is no single valid investigation to support the statement that separation alone is responsible for emotional disturbances in children. Bowlby's valuable monograph,' quoted as evidence in your leading article, is concerned with reviewing the extensive literature which amply demonstrates that deprivation of mothering is harmful to the emotional life of the child. But the greater number of children who are deprived of mothering are in fact living with the mother and are not separated from her. Physical separation of the child from its mother may, or may not, lead to deprivation of mothering. For the mothering the child receives will depend entirely upon the person, or persons, who have the temporary care of it. One investigation2 has shown that common separations involving the child's stay with friends and relatives is, on the whole, not damaging to the child. Less common separations involving hospital admission were found to be very disturbing. This would appear to show that it is not the separation per se, but the circumstances surrounding it which do the damage. We should welcome the Committee's admirable suggestions for minimizing trauma in children admitted to hospital but not condemn separation as an evil in itself. To emphasize that separation is not harmful in itself is of more than academic importance. By exaggerating the dangers of separation guilt reactions are produced in mothers who have to be separated from their children, and other mothers are discouraged from making use of the prophylactic value of those short periods of separation which naturally are a part of child upbringing. Furthermore, to focus on the fact of separation may divert attention away from the crucial matter, which is that, when separation must occur, care must be taken to supply adequate substitute mothering. In the paediatric ward this involves, above everything, the right selection and deployment of nursing staff. Some clinical conditions in children notoriously improve on admission to hospital with the consequent separation from their parents. A child grossly deprived of adequate mothering by his mother may benefit greatly, and sometimes urgently requires separation from the mother by admission to a paediatric ward with a "home from home" atmosphere. This is a matter within the experience of those who have to deal with acute feeding difficulties in young children, anorexia nervosa, status asthmaticus, ulcerative colitis, etc., as well as with the emotional disturbances of childhood. An adequate study of how some children benefit from admission to hospital may yield valuable information for developing even more adequate mothering in children's wards. Finally, many large-scale, beneficial preventive measures are based upon the separation of the child from the parent and the provision of adequate mothering for the child-e.g., adoption, fostering, day fostercare, etc.-I am, etc., J. G. HOWELLS. Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Ipswich. REFERENCES Bowiby, J., Maternal Care and Mental Health, 1951. W.H.O., Geneva. Howells, J. G., and Layng, J., Lancet, 1955, 2, 285.


Context: Elderly patients constitute a significant proportion of the population. All of them need skilled dental care. However, a significant proportion of patients is afraid of dental appointment. Premedication before a dental treatment is shown for all patients with a high level of anxiety. However, during studying the medical records of each patient, the significant number of comorbidities is identified which limit us in the use of medications for the prevention of stress and pain at the dental appointment. Aims: The aim of this study is to improve the quality of surgical dental care for elderly patients living in a gerontological center with different levels of dentophobia. This study evaluated the perception of pain of elderly patients with middle and high level of a dentophobia on surgical dental appointment. Materials and Methods: All patients, who participated in the study, live in geriatric center. All patients before surgery tooth extraction took the advice of a psychiatrist and neurologist. Patients with a high level of a dentophobia were held premedication over-the-counter medication and local anesthesia with a solution of 4% articaine with vasoconstrictor in a dilution of 1:200000. Premedication was not conducted for patients with middle level of dentophobia, and local anesthesia for them was done using 3% mepivacaine solution without vasoconstrictor. Evaluation of pain perception was carried out by the following methods: Electroodonto diagnosis, electromyography of facial muscles, sound eyes motor scale, and the visual analog scale. All the results obtained were processed in the program Statistical 6.0. Results: The results obtained using these methods have shown a reliable correlation between each other. Conclusions: The efficiency of premedication was proven as reducing the perception of pain of patients with high level of dentophobia.


The ionic self-assemblies (ISAs) formed by a cationic chiral organogelator (l-glutamide amphiphile, abbreviated as PULG) and anionic dyes exhibited helical nanostructures. And the formed helical structures can be tuned by water amount in the ethanol/water solvent. In pure ethanol, the chirality of the gelator was successfully transferred to the achiral components, which was confirmed by the appearance of an induced CD signal in the achiral components. Meanwhile, the electrostatic interaction between the gelator and achiral dyes contributed to the chirality amplification, causing the nanofibrous structures of the gelator to be transformed to uniform left-handed helices. Upon adding water to ethanol, the induced CD signal exhibited inversion from positive to negative. Interestingly, the left-handed helices formed by ISA of PULG/anionic dyes in ethanol were inverted to right-handed helices with the addition of water. Based on detailed investigations of the XRD patterns, CD and UV/Vis spectra, the mechanism of helicity inversion was proposed: left-handed helices were dominated by hydrogen bonding and right-handed helices were dominated by π-π stacking. This work exemplifies a feasible method to invert the helicity of chiral nanostructures in co-assembly and gives an insight into the conformation change of biomacromolecules in a biological system.


It is very interesting to know about complete combustion in automobile engineering. Because in actual practice, perfect combustion is not at all possible due to various losses in the combustion chamber as well as design of the internal combustion engine. Moreover the process of burning of the fuel is also not instantaneous. However an alternate solution to it is by making the combustion of fuel as fast as possible. This can be done by using two spark plugs which spark alternatively at a certain time interval so as increase the diameter of the flame & burn the fuel instantaneously. This system is called DTSI (Digital Spark Ignition system). In this system, due to twin sparks, combustion will be complete. This paper represents the working of digital twin spark ignition system, how twin sparks are produced at 20,000 Volts, their timings, efficiency, advantages & disadvantages, diameter of the flame, how complete combustion is possible & how to decrease smoke & exhausts from the exhaust pipe of the bike using Twin Spark System.


The physical and mechanical properties of three almond nut varieties (Ferragnes, Ferradual and Guara) were determined. Significant differences were found among the varieties in terms of principal dimensions (length, width and thickness), geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, volume and mass for nut and kernel. The effect of moisture content and compression axis on rupture force, deformation, energy absorbed and power requirement for Ferragnes variety was investigated. The tests were carried out at four moisture contents [6.16, 11.67, 19.21 and 26.79% (d.b.)] and at three compression axes (vertical, horizontal and thickness) to measure the nut shell resistance. Generally, rupture force, deformation, energy absorbed and power requirement decreased with an increase in the moisture content for all compression axes. This decrease continued until moisture content of 26.79% (d.b.) along the thickness axis for deformation and power requirement. According to the results of variety differences at a single moisture content of 6.16% (d.b.), Ferragnes had the highest kernel rupture force, energy absorbed and power requirement at a deformation rate of 0.133 mm s-1 along the horizontal axis. Further, Guara variety had the highest values for all mechanical properties of nut shell. Key Words: almond, kernel, mechanical properties, regression, rupture force Abbreviations: d.b. - dry basis, cv. – cultivar, r2 – coefficient of determination


We define an algebraic language for networks of synchronously communicating
processes. A node in the Network may have several ports; a port is either
external to the whole network or connected through a link to another
port. The language contains two types of operations: parallel composition
of two networks, and interlinking of two external ports within a network.
We interpret this language in two ways: first we give a structural
semantics, where terms are mapped to graphs representing the structure of
networks, and second we give a behavioural semantics, where terms are
mapped to behaviour schemes. A schema corresponds to a behaviour
parameterised on the behaviours of the network nodes. These semantics give
rise to structural and behavioural equivalences.
We compare the equivalences and give sound and complete axiomatisations.


The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act criminalized the purchase of sexual services, making prostitution illegal for the first time in Canada. This legislative approach to prostitution aims to end demand for prostitution with a goal of ending the practice itself, based on an understanding of the activity of prostitution as sexual exploitation, a cause and consequence of gender inequality, and a form of violence disproportionately impacting women and girls. Opposition to this legislative approach to prostitution is largely founded on an understanding of sex work as legitimate work, reflecting the exercise of choice and agency, and a site to expand the boundaries of sexuality and gender. Critics argue that consensual exchanges of sexual acts for compensation between adults should not be subject to criminal sanction. In 2017, the first constitutional challenge to three of the new criminal offences applicable to adult prostitution was commenced, founded on the contention that the impugned provisions violate constitutional rights of "escorts and other sex workers." In this article, I break with the ideological contours of the debate to examine the word "prostitution" as it is legally defined in Canada, and the term "sex work" as it has evolved and is employed in recent jurisprudence, empirical research, and contemporary texts promoting sex workers' rights. I argue that the word prostitution and the term sex work are not synonymous and that legal decision makers must attend to how the word and term are used in legal texts and contexts. Where prostitution has been legally defined in Canada to refer to the act of exchanging sexual services for payment or consideration, the term sex work has not been defined in jurisprudence or statute. The term sex worker is usually used to refer to a subset of prostitution participants bearing certain characteristics, most notably that they be adults who are not trafficked and who consent to the exchange of their own sexual services for consideration. The term sex work is also sometimes used to describe activities that fall outside of the legal definition of prostitution, such as pornography and exotic dancing. Understanding how the word prostitution and the term sex work are defined and used has the potential to more clearly illuminate whose interests and experiences are and are not reflected in existing theoretical and empirical literature and to ground more nuanced evaluation of constitutional challenges founded on sex workers' rights claims.


This paper examines the potential to create an energy-independent smart network for an island community utilizing ocean and wind energy. The analysis involves the simulation of an extensive electrification of the heat and transport sectors on the island and the use of renewable energy to maximize the fuel and emission savings. This study involves a full renewable resource assessment for both wind and ocean devices. It also includes the design of a smart-network control algorithm to optimize the timing of electric vehicle charging and heat pump usage to exploit available renewable energy and minimize cost. Results indicate a dramatic reduction in total energy consumption through the electrification of the heat and transport sectors. For the case study system, it is recommended that efficiency measures be adopted prior to the deployment of more advanced demand technologies and that air-source heat pumps be prioritized over electric vehicle deployment due to the nature of energy demand on the island and the capital costs involved.


Some unsaturated fatty acids were found to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Their effectiveness was related both to the degree of unsaturation and to the configuration of the molecule about the double bonds. Both linoleic acid and linolenic acid increased the proportion of plasmid-negative bacteria in a growing culture of bacteria containing a penicillinase plasmid. This was not due to a 'curing' effect of the fatty acids but was the result of greater sensitivity of the growth of bacteria containing penicillinase plasmid to inhibition by the unsaturated fatty acids. The presence of a plasmid conferring resistance to tetracycline, however, did not make the bacterium more sensitive to inhibition by linoleic or linolenic acids.


Herbicide resistant grass weeds are a growing problem throughout the UK with Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. (black-grass) considered a major problem in winter cereals. Blackgrass control is hindered by the presence of populations resistant to herbicides. Research indicates that resistance in black-grass is due in part to enhanced metabolism involving glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) and that increased activities of these enzymes may confer resistance in this species. The work described in this thesis has characterised resistance in black-grass and examined the role GSTs play in herbicide resistance with respect to herbicide application and timing. Characterisation of herbicide resistance in three black-grass populations tested against isoproturon, fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, clodinafop-propargyl, sethoxydim, flupyrsulfuron-methyl and AC210 in the glasshouse revealed that the commercially available population, Herbiseed, may be used as a standard susceptible reference population when testing unknown populations. Novel resistance ratings were applied to Herbiseed for future reference. A 2 year study was performed to investigate glutathione S-transferase activity in five UK black-grass populations from field sites situated in the East Midlands. Findings indicate there is a natural elevation of endogenous GST activity in response to black-grass growth and development and natural environmental changes from winter to spring. Clear correlations between GST activity, temperature, solar radiation and sunshine hours have been observed. It is proposed that increasing GST activity is required as part of an antioxidant defence system until tillering (GS30) has ceased. It is speculated that this endogenous change in enzyme activity with plant development in the field contributes to reduced efficacy of some graminicides applied in the spring. Further investigation in a controlled environment focused on the effect of temperature on plant growth and antioxidant status of resistant and susceptible black-grass. Results indicated that temperature has a developmental and metabolic effect on the growth of resistant black-grass plants, which may be critical in the response of plants to herbicide treatment. Increased temperature was accompanied by a natural elevation in endogenous GST activity in resistant plants and changing temperature increased the concentration of antioxidants. It is speculated that these endogenous responses are part of a natural mechanism of acclimation to environmental change in resistant plants of this species and provide protection against subsequent stress such as herbicide treatment. In conclusion, it is postulated that the antioxidant system of black-grass plants is vital for survival under normal plant growth and development and climatic conditions. It is speculated that these endogenous responses are part of a natural mechanism of acclimation to environmental change whilst supporting normal plant development, suggesting that GSTs have direct cytoprotective activity. These observations lend further weight to the suggestion that the development of resistance in black-grass is in part due to evolution and elevation of GST activity. It is speculated that in striving to achieve maximum herbicide efficacy in resistant black-grass populations, the period of environmental change from autumn to winter as temperature decreases, in combination with smaller growth stages of plants would be the best time for graminicide application for black-grass control.