This study explains the hydrodynamics of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) system, the Battelle Multi-Solids Fluidized Bed System (MSFB). It consists of a circulating fluidized bed of fine particles superimposed on a bubbling bed of coarse solids. One way to characterize such a system is to describe the mechanism of gas-solid flow through the bed. The gas flow in systems like these is through bubbles or slugs (regions of voids containing little or no solids). Bubbles are typically characterized by their size (length or diameter), their rise velocity, and their frequency. Another task of the initial phase of this study is to characterize an L-valve, a solids-recirculating device commonly used in an MSFB. Next, the mechanism of fine particle movement through a bubbling region of coarse fluidized solids is studied in considerable detail. Bubble characteristics are studied in a variety of systems of coarse particles with fines passing through at high velocity. Amongst numerous optical, electrical and other techniques available for the study of the passage of bubbles, the pressure fluctuation technique is the most robust. In this investigation, pressure probes are connected to pressure transducers which are in turn linked to an on-line data acquisition system supported on a microcomputer. A commercially available software package (Notebook) is used to sample pressure at specified points in the fluidized bed at extremely fast rates, of up to 200 Hz. This resulted in pressure-time traces which are analysed to give bubble length, bubble rise velocity, and bubble frequency. Another important objective of this study is to estimate the fine particle residence time in the dense bed section. A defluidization technique is utilized in experimentally measuring the solids holdup in the dense bed. A mathematical model is developed from first principles, based on a momentum balance on the fine particles. An empirical correlation is also developed, so that the residence time of fine particles may be predicted for any fine particle-coarse particle system, based on system dependent parameters. The model is in fair agreement with experimental data. The 'gross' or macroscopic aspects of an MSFB are also investigated. These include pressure drop in the dense bed of coarse particles, dense bed height and dense bed voidage variation, with the passage of fines. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).


A Passion for Mountains presents a compilation of stories written by members of the British Mountain Guides. Documenting both personal climbing and mountaineering adventures as well as those shared with clients, the stories in this book represent the diversity of the mountain activities these professionals thrive on: from first ascents on British winter cliffs to thought-provoking ascents of north faces in the European Alps, and from the big walls of Yosemite and Patagonia to endurance when facing the challenges of the high Himalaya. This fascinating account of mountaineering gives an insight into the climbing adventures that contribute to every Guide's experience, and explores the difficulties that even some of the world's most experienced mountaineers encounter when making decisions in the mountains. It gives us a unique perspective into what motivates and drives climbers; where they find fulfilment and reward and at the same time how they deal with failure.


This paper discusses the role and operations of consumer Credit Bureaus in the European Union in the context of the economic theories, policies and law within which they work. Across Europe there is no common practice of sharing the credit data of consumers which can be used for several purposes. Mostly, they are used by the lending industry as a practice of creditworthiness assessment or as a risk-management tool to underwrite borrowing decisions or price risk. However, the type, breath, and depth of information differ greatly from country to country. In some Member States, consumer data are part of a broader information centralisation system for the prudential supervision of banks and the financial system as a whole. Despite EU rules on credit to consumers for the creation of the internal market, the underlying consumer data infrastructure remains fragmented at national level, failing to achieve univocal, common, or defined policy objectives under a harmonised legal framework. Likewise, the establishment of the Banking Union and the prudential supervision of the Euro area demand standardisation and convergence of the data used to measure debt levels, arrears, and delinquencies. The many functions and usages of credit data suggest that the policy goals to be achieved should inform the legal and institutional framework of Credit Bureaus, as well as the design and use of the databases. This is also because fundamental rights and consumer protection concerns arise from the sharing of credit data and their expanding use.


The disposal of waste rubber produced each year is a critical issue for any country, because this material doesn't resolve easily and leads to more environmental pollution. Utilizing waste rubber in industry is an alternative for the disposal of this matter. In the present study 5%, 10% and 15% of coarse aggregate is replaced with crumb rubber by volume along with 5%, 10% and 15% silica fume as cement replacement by weight in self compacting concrete. There were several rheological tests carried out on fresh concrete such as slump flow test, T50, J-ring, L-box and V-funnel test. Mechanical properties of specimens were also examined; compressive strength at 7 and 28 days of curing and modulus of elasticity and density of hardened cylindrical specimens at 28 days of curing.


Background From an affective neuroscience perspective, our understanding of psychiatric illness may be advanced by neuropsychological test paradigms probing emotional processes. Reversal learning is one such process, whereby subjects must first acquire stimulus/reward and stimulus/punishment associations through trial and error and then reverse them. We sought to determine the specificity of previously demonstrated reversal learning impairments in youths with bipolar disorder (BD) by now comparing BD youths to those with severe mood dysregulation (SMD), major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety (ANX), and healthy controls. Method We administered the probabilistic response reversal (PRR) task to 165 pediatric participants aged 7–17 years with BD (n=35), SMD (n=35), ANX (n=42), MDD (n=18) and normal controls (NC; n=35). Our primary analysis compared PRR performance across all five groups matched for age, sex and IQ. Results Compared to typically developing controls, probabilistic reversal learning was impaired in BD youths, with a trend in those with MDD (p=0.07). Conclusions Our results suggest that reversal learning deficits are present in youths with BD and possibly those with MDD. Further work is necessary to elucidate the specificity of neural mechanisms underlying such behavioral deficits.


Nowadays, many engineering processes make intensive use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Aeronautics has been a pioneer sector because numerical simulations not only limit security issues, as compared to "real" simulations, but it allows to drastically decrease both cost and time-to-market. CFD equations, typically Navier-Stokes ones, can only be solved using discrete approximation schemes. Hence the main task that needs to be achieved in order to set up the simulation consists in defining appropriate partitioning of the simulation domain using one or more 3D grids. This set of grids must perfectly fill the 3D area in which the flow is moving, which means that the boundary of the set of grids must be coincident with the boundary of the CAD model. For complex CAD geometries, finding the right set of of grids may be very time-consuming and even sometimes not possible. The chimera technique consists in allowing the grids to overlap in space, both with other grids and with the CAD geometry. The simulation itself is tuned for this particular configuration but produces results as the set of grids with their respective values. This raises new problems when the results have to be post-processed or for their visualization because the tools that are used for this purpose are not adapted to overlapping grids. In this paper we present a post-processing technique for chimera simulation results, which aims at generating a multi-block grid featuring no overlap. Our method starts by hollowing out one of the overlapping grids and then uses constrained Delaunay tetrahedralization for filling the gap between grids, so that no hole remains in the resulting multi-block solution.


The authors study the historical relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings and corporate bond spread and performance, finding that corporate bonds with high composite ESG ratings have slightly lower spreads, all else being equal. They also find that bonds with high ESG ratings have modestly outperformed their lowerrated peers when controlling for various risk exposures. They provide details on the effects of individual E, S, and G scores on performance. The outperformance of low-ESG issuers by their high-ESG peers through the past eight years has not been accompanied by increasing relative valuation. This suggests that the ESG performance gain is not a consequence of buying pressure and therefore might be retained.


The gear plunge shaving process is a widely used process for soft finishing of gears in the gear manufacturing industry. But it is difficult and expensive to profile plunge shaving cutter, because the cutter must be ground by a cone grinding wheel on a special grinder. A new method, profiling gear shaving cutter on the shaving machine, i.e. a CBN dressing gear which has the same parameters with the machined gear is clamped in place of the workpiece on the shaving machine and profiling the cutter in shaving process, is put forward. Meshing and Tooth contact analysis of shaving cutter profiling has been considered. Meshing equation of profiling process and equation of shaving cutter gear blank after profiling are obtained. Experiment testified that it is an applied method and has many advantages.


SUMMARY Sera from rabbits, rats and mice multiply-vaccinated with attenuated cercariae of Schistosoma japonicum conferred high levels of resistance against challenge to naive recipient mice (up to 97, 64 and 60% respectively). Vaccinated rabbit and rat sera were given before challenge and vaccinated mouse serum 5 days after challenge. To show that the protective factors in these sera were antibodies, vaccinated rabbit and mouse sera were fractionated by protein A-Sepharose and the fractions precipitated by 50% ammonium sulphate. The protein A-Sepharose binding or non-binding fractions in vaccinated rabbit serum transferred approximately equal levels of significant resistance to mice, suggesting that both the IgG and non-IgG components of vaccinated rabbit serum are protective. The major part of the protective activity in vaccinated mouse serum was transferred to recipients by the protein A-Sepharose binding fraction, i.e. the IgG antibodies. Heat inactivation of sera at 56 °C for 3 h affected the protective capacity of vaccinated rat sera, but not that of vaccinated rabbit or mouse sera.


ABSTRACT Magneto-structural correlations in oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII) have been elucidated on the basis of theoretical and computational results in combination with available electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experimental results, and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) results. To this end, the computational methods based on broken-symmetry (BS) UB3LYP solutions have been developed to elucidate magnetic interactions in the active manganese catalyst for water oxidation by sunlight. The effective exchange interactions J for the CaMn(III)Mn(IV)3O5(H2O)3Y(Y = H2O or OH−) cluster (1) model of OEC of PSII have been calculated by the generalised approximate spin projection (GAP) method that eliminates the spin contamination errors of the BS UB3LYP solution. Full geometry optimisations followed by the zero-point energy (ZPE) correction have been performed for all the spin configurations of 1 to improve the J values that are compared with accumulated EPR in the S2 state of Kok cycle and magnetic susceptibility results of Christou model complex Ca2Mn(IV)3O4 (2). Using the calculated J values, exact diagonalisation of the spin Hamiltonian matrix has been carried out to obtain excitation energies and spin densities of the ground and lower excited states of 1. The calculated excitation energies are consistent with the available experimental results. The calculated spin densities (projection factors) are also compatible with those of the EPR results. The calculated spin densities have been used to calculate the isotropic hyperfine (Aiso) constants of 55Mn ions revealed by the EPR experiments. Implications of the computational results are discussed in relation to the structural symmetry breaking (SSB) in the S1, S2 and S3 states, spin crossover phenomenon induced by the near-infrared excitation and the right- and left-handed scenarios for the O–O bond formation for water oxidation.


This Article discusses the implications of predictive analytics for consumer privacy in e-commerce and surveys potential regulatory responses. Part I introduces predictive analytics and illustrates its potential uses in e-commerce. Predictive analytics helps merchants operate efficiently and maximize profits, but also risks denying consumers important commercial benefits. Part II examines how predictive analytics harms consumer privacy. The prevailing theoretical accounts define privacy as the ability to control what others know about you and recognize privacy's role in promoting personal autonomy and dignity. Predictive analytics harms privacy as control because individuals cannot know what the data they share will ultimately predict. In addition, predictive analytics harms consumer autonomy and dignity because it deprives them of significant commercial benefits based on secret formulas, and risks automating societal discrimination. Finally, Part III examines potential regulatory responses to the harms of predictive surveillance. Any regulatory response must be measured to avoid diminishing real commercial benefits and stifling innovation. In addition, regulation must be tailored to the type and degree of privacy harm posed by the varying uses of predictive analytics.


We propose an inductive method to synthesize parallel divide-and-conquer programs from sequential recursive functions. Traditionally, such parallelization methods are based on schematic rules which attempt to match each given sequential program to a prescribed set of program schemes that have parallel counterparts. Instead of relying on specialized program schemes, we propose a new approach to parallelization based on elementary transformation rules. Our approach requires an induction to recover parallellism from sequential programs. To achieve this, we apply a second-order generalisation step to selected instances of sequential equations , before an inductive derivation procedure. The new approach is systematic enough to be semi-automated, and shall be shown to be widely applicable using a range of examples.


The spectrum of 'small round blue cell' neoplasms is broad, but within the sinonasal tract (SNT), tumours of the dispersed neuroendocrine cell system narrow to olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB), pituitary adenoma, melanoma, and neuroendocrine carcinoma. A single totipotential cells shows multidirectional differentiation along epithelial and neuroendocrine lines. ONB arise from the neuroepithelial olfactory cells involving the cribriform plate of the ethmoid. With a bimodal age distribution (2nd and 6th decades), symptoms are non-specific, frequently delaying diagnosis. Histologically, a lobular architecture is maintained irrespective of the tumour grade. Circumscribed lobules are outlined by S100 protein positive supporting cells, while the neoplastic cells are arranged in a syncytial architecture with a background of neuronal processes. Pseudorosettes (Homer Wright) are more common than true rosettes (Flexner-Wintersteiner). The cells are small to medium sized, set in a richly vascularised fibrovascular stroma. The nuclei are round with delicate, 'salt-and-pepper' chromatin distribution with small nucleoli. Pleomorphism, mitoses, and necrosis increase with tumour grade. The cells show neuroendocrine immunoreactivity (chromogranin, synaptophysin, NSE, CD56), with rare keratin positive cells. Grade and stage affect prognosis. There is no EWS/FLI-1 gene fusion. Many tumours in the SNT mimic ONB and must be excluded due to differences in treatment and prognosis.


This study provides a comprehensive look at the tonal system of a Kwa language, including an examination of lexical underlying tone patterns as well as intonational boundary tone and tone which signals grammatical meaning without the aid of segmental information. While a number of Kwa languages have been analyzed as having two underlying tones, the author shows that Saxwe has a three-tone system—likely a result of the historical contact between a two-tone Gbe language which had depressor consonant-related lowering effects and a three-tone Yoruboid language.Included in the analysis is a series of phonetic studies of the details of tone implementation in Saxwe. The author examines the phenomena known as automatic downstep and non-automatic downstep and notes the variation that is observed among speakers as they implement downstep. This research will be of interest to Africanists, as well as to those interested in tone and intonation studies.


This paper has been focused on presentation of application of computer methods in design and identification of PM materials in cold forming operations. The solutions for direct and inverse problems of powder forging have been described. In order to solve an identification problem for powder metallurgy materials we assume desired material model characterizing by specific material law with desired material parameters. The material parameters are the design variables of the optimization problem which have to be solved.


Background Menstruation has been shown to be problematic for many women with intellectual disabilities. There has been a greater focus on menstrual suppression or elimination than on help and training to manage menstrual care successfully. Method A cross‐sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in England to investigate the help and training currently given to women with intellectual disabilities. Results Twenty‐nine percent of the women had never been given the opportunity to learn how to manage their own menstrual care. Where someone had tried to teach the woman, this was most often her mother. Carers were giving considerable amounts of assistance with menstrual care, although some of the women with more profound disabilities were able to manage menstrual care independently. Conclusions The authors argue that all women with intellectual disabilities should have the chance to manage or assist with their own menstrual care, backed by a strategic approach to menstrual education and support.


Climate change affects transportation infrastructures in different ways. Sea level rise and extreme weather may reduce the availability or the quality of parts of the network. Impacts may be felt by all modes of transport (e.g. roads, railroads, waterways, pipelines), by all transport motives (people, freight, utilities) and by different components of the system (the physical construction or user behaviour). Ultimately, failure of infrastructures can also occur at the system level, across modes, motives and components: infrastructures are connected and their performance is interdependent. On top of this wide variety of possible impacts of climate change, large uncertainties about the timing, intensity and location of effects also introduce the question of how to deal with uncertainty itself, in planning and design. This special issue deals with the identification of 1) of the expected impacts of climate change and 2) promising approaches to reduce its impacts.


The metal distribution in the emissions of a laboratory waste incinerator (LWI) was investigated. The input materials and output materials (fly ash, bottom ash, and flue gas) were analyzed to examine the transportation and transmission behavior of heavy metals. Toxic (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, and Pb), anthropogenic (Ag, Ba, Cu, Mn, Se, and Zn) and crust (Na) elements were adopted to characterize the distribution properties of the LWI under investigation. The results indicated that Ba, Cr and Hg (80.0, 13.0 and 12.9 mg/L, respectively) were the major metals in the organic liquid waste input, and Na, and Zn (7497 and 349 mg/kg, respectively) were the major ones for medical solid waste. The Na content in the fly ash could be as high as 911574 mg/kg, and this was found to be the major Na emission source according to the emission factors. The mass of Na may be supplied using a NaOH solution injection to neutralize the acidic combustion gas, and it was found that high contents of Na in the flue gas were from the sprinkled NaOH solution. For the output materials, NaCl was found to be the major crystalline form of Na in the ash, based on the results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The crust (Na) element was the major element in the bottom and fly ash. The toxic (As, Cr, Ni, and Pb) and anthropogenic (Se) elements were mainly distributed in the second cooling tower ash and baghouse ash in a range of 64.5%–91.9%. The average concentrations of Pb, Cd, and Hg concentrations in the flue gas were all under Taiwan's EPA regulation standards. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) data showed that the leachability of As, Cr, Cu, Hg, and Se exceeded the EPA's regulations. It is thus suggested that the ash should be treated by further elutriation or vitrification processes to reduce the TCLP levels in the final products.


This dissertation formalizes the intuitive notion of the basic algorithmic paradigms. We present three formal models which aim to capture the intrinsic power of greedy, backtracking and dynamic programming algorithms. We develop lower bound techniques for proving negative results for all algorithms in all models, which allow us to make strong statements about the limitations of each paradigm.
Borodin et al. (2003) designed the Priority algorithms, a formal model of greedy algorithms for scheduling problems. We generalized the priority model to arbitrary problem domain and in particular graph problems and develop a lower bound technique for proving negative results for the class of all priority algorithms. We use the lower bound technique to show that finding shortest path in graphs with negative weights cannot be solved by a priority algorithm. We also prove that Dijkstra's algorithm is inherently adaptive and cannot be made non-adaptive. We show inapproximability results within the model for minimum weighted vertex cover, minimum metric Steiner tree, and maximum independent set problems. We develop a new 1.8-approximation scheme for the Steiner(1,2) problem.
Alekhnovich et al. (2005) presented a model of backtracking and dynamic programming algorithms called prioritized Branching Trees (pBT). We generalize their model to allow free branching and call this new model prioritized Free Branching Tree (pFBT) algorithms and developed a lower bound technique for proving negative results for randomized priority algorithms, pBT and pFBT algorithms. We use the technique to prove that pBT algorithms require exponential width to solve the 7-SAT problem and that pFBT algorithms require width 2Wpnp to solve the 7-SAT problem.
Bellman-Ford is a classical dynamic programming algorithm and we show that pBT algorithms require width of 2Wpn1/9p to solve the shortest path problem in graphs with negative weights exactly.
Next we develop a stronger model of dynamic programming algorithms called prioritized Branching Programs (pBP). pBP algorithms can simulate pBT algorithms at no additional cost but also capture the notion of memoization which we believe is an essential part of the dynamic programming paradigm. We show that this class of algorithms can solve the shortest paths in graphs with negative weights but no negative cycles efficiently. We also show that two pBP sub-models can be simulated by pBT algorithms.


Background: We tested the hypothesis that surrogate markers of brain degeneration such as atrophy are more prevalent in persons with atrial fibrillation who are at risk for cognitive deficits.

Methods: We analyzed the data from the 2,962 women and 2,239 men and added minority cohort of 256 men and 431 women (all aged ≥65 years) enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Examination components have included medical history questionnaires, measurement of ankle-brachial index, abdominal and carotid ultrasound studies, ambulatory electrocardiograms, and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over the past decade. Atrophy was graded using a nine point scale (1 through 9) based on severity of atrophy. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between atrial fibrillation and prominent atrophy after adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: Atrial fibrillation was present in 125 (3.4%) of the 2775 participants who received an MRI at baseline evaluation. The mean mini mental status score (±SD) was similar among participants with atrial fibrillation compared to those without atrial fibrillation (27.8 ±2.3 versus 27.6 ±2.7, p=0.4). The proportion of participants with prominent sulcal atrophy (score of 4 or greater) was non significantly higher among patients with atrial fibrillation (61 of 125 and 1097 of 2650, p=0.1). The proportion of participants with prominent ventricular atrophy (score of 4 or greater) was non significantly higher among patients with atrial fibrillation (69 of 126 and 1287 of 2651, p=0.2). The proportion of participants with previous cortical infarction (46 of 125 and 765 of 2650, p=0.06) and marked perivascular space expansion (5 of 125 and 27 of 2650, p=0.006) on MRI was significantly higher among patients with atrial fibrillation and sulcal atrophy. After adjusting for age, gender, and previous infarction, participants with atrial fibrillation did not have a higher risk of prominent atrophy (odds ratio 0.7, 95% confidence interval 0.5 -0.9, p=0.005).

Conclusions: We observed that brain atrophy was more prevalent among persons with atrial fibrillation but due to the age differences and the higher occurrence of previous infarctions.


The world economy currently seems to be failing and the effects are being felt around the globe. There are many upcoming news about rising unemploy- ment, major corporations cutting jobs and workers who can't seem to find work. The current economic climate makes many people wary of spending money, which can be bad news for those who make a living through the buying of others. Many things, however, are not simply going to go away because the economy is rough. Some buyers and employers may feel reticent when it comes to hiring and this could create trouble for those who survive by self employment. But in every economic crisis, some markets remain successful - and those who live through self employment are generally pretty good about applying their skills where needed. Increasing self-employment is an objective frequently seen on government agenda as small businesses are often seen as a remedy for unemployment and pivotal for economies to grow8. This paper contributes by specifying and testing the impact of internal factors that determine an individual's decision on whether to become self employed. Understanding the internal drivers of individuals' intentions will help to further trace the impact of external initiatives on individual behavior. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been applied on the most well established models explaining social behavior, to test the impact of attitude, social pressures and perceived control among Swedish men and women. Data are collected from over 400 Swedish university students with various backgrounds. The results provide that the strongest determinant of individuals' intention to become self-employed is their attitude towards being self employed. Along with the attitude, men are mainly influenced by their perceptions of control, whereas women are affected by their perceived pressures in their social surrounding.


This paper presents a design-oriented characterization of ring-oscillator (RO) circuits based on complementary-inverters (INVs) implemented with graphene-FET (GFET) devices. A large-signal GFET compact model based on drift-diffusion transport is benchmarked at the circuit level against a second GFET compact model based on virtual source. Transient-based simulations of a 3-cell RO yield performance metrics in terms of operating frequency and voltage dynamic range. Against these metrics, a comprehensive design space exploration covering as input design variables parameters as GFET gate-oxide thickness tOX and channel-length L is presented. Methodologically, the work presents a general-purpose design framework, illustrated for ROs, which establishes a vertical circuit-device co-design environment. Its double-fold outcome is to provide guidelines both to bottom-up dimension and size the circuit, as well as top-down refine GFET device models and in turn GFET technology.


The crystallographic structure and magnetic properties of CoCrPt(30 nm)/Cr(50 nm) films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition have been studied at various substrate temperatures and ion bombardment energies. Cr(002) texture is developed at 350–500° C where increased coercivity is observed from the Co-alloy layers, while Cr(110) texture is formed at 300° C. The average grain size of the Cr layers gradually increases with substrate temperature from ~10 nm to ~20 nm, which is comparable to that of sputtered films. A Cr(002) X-ray peak is not observed from films grown at 400° C with Ar ion bombardment (> 50 eV). The coercivity and squareness of the magnetic hysteresis loops decrease as the beam energy increases, which may be attributed to the absence of Cr(002) texture.


Nitrogen-fixing symbiosis in root nodules is known in only 10 families, which are distributed among a clade of four orders and delimited as the nitrogen-fixing clade. As the seventh in a series that examines pollen morphological distribution and evolution in the angiosperms, this paper focuses on pollen morphological character states of the nitrogen-fixing clade. To illustrate the palynological diversity of the clade, we first examined pollen grains from 26 species with light electron, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy. Second, we used a reduced data matrix from Li et al. (2015) to reconstruct a maximum likelihood tree and then optimized 18 pollen character states onto the tree using Fitch parsimony, maximum likelihood, and hierarchical Bayesian inference. Finally, 12 plesiomorphic states for the nitrogen-fixing clade were inferred unambiguously under all methods, and more than 40 clades (or lineages) at or above familial level were characterized by unambiguous pollen character state changes in at least one of the optimizations. We found a number of evolutionary trends for changes in pollen character states. These include increasing grain size, increasing aperture number accompanied by concomitant changes in aperture position (from equatorial to global) and aperture shape (from colpate to colporate), and increasing complexity of tectum ornamentation. There was a strong correlation between some pollen characters (prolate shape class, lobe outline in polar view, colpate ectoaperture, lalongate and lolongate endoaperture, absent supratectal element, reticulate tectum) and insect pollination, while other pollen characters—simple aperture structure, porate ectoaperture, circular endoaperture, present and gemmate or echinate supratectal element, and imperforate tectum—were strongly correlated with wind pollination. In addition, rugulate tectum was significantly correlated with shrub habit while larger pollen size was significantly correlated with vine habit; the helophytic habitat was significantly correlated with having two apertures. Our study provides rich evidence for the phylogenetic significance of pollen morphological diversity in the nitrogen-fixing clade.


. To investigate the effects of thermomechanical treatments (TMT) on the microstructure and properties of Al-Mg-Si alloy, the cold deformation on the ageing precipitation of a solution-treated Al-Mg-Si alloy was studied. The results shows that the time of reaching the peak hardness is shortened with the increasing deformation and an obvious increasing in the peak hardness and tensile strength are occured with higher amount of deformations. The microstructures of peak hardness reveals that the average size of the precipitates becomes smaller in size and greater in number in the alloy with 50% deformations. The study is also carried out to investigate the changes in resistivity of alloys during the ageing time in the alloy with and without 50% deformation. It was found that there are rapidly increasing in resistivity followed by decreasing with the onset of ageing time in both cases. However, the extent of increasing and decreasing in resistivity is much stronger in the alloy with 50% deformation. These results were discussed according to the effects of cold deformation on the dislocations and precipitates in the Al-Mg-Si alloy.


With the increased world population, fossil fuel consumption and Co2 emissions, solutions are being sought to provide for the increase in energy demands and to reduce emission levels. One promising approach is the use of renewable energy and waste heat sources to drive thermo-mechanical conversion systems, such as Stirling engines. Recently, interest in developing efficient and cost effective Stirling engine technology has increased, particularly in many academic and industrial organizations. In this context, this thesis has first focused on the development of thermodynamic and numerical simulations for the V-type alpha Stirling engine. Secondly, the development of efficient regenerator that can improve the engine performance, it is a new non-annulus segmented micro-channels regenerator of parallel geometry. Using non-ideal adiabatic analysis approach, a successful thermodynamic model was developed for a V-type alpha Stirling engine, and it was validated using published experimental data available for the engine prototype. Also, the development of a detailed 3D CFD model for V-type alpha Stirling engine was carried out and its results were validated using the developed thermodynamic model. The results have shown good agreement in the estimation of the engine indicated power. The combination of the thermodynamic analysis with the 3D CFD modelling to predict the engine performance was an advantage of this work.
The effects of different design parameters and operating conditions have been investigated on the performance of a V-alpha type Stirling engine by using the developed CFD model. Those parameters including the dead volume, cold/hot ends temperatures, charge pressure, porosity and matrix wire diameter of regenerator. The PV diagram for the engine was used to predict the power output contributed by each parameter. The maximum power output in this parametric study was achieved 162 W by using a wire matrix diameter of 0.02 mm, porosity of 80%, cold side temperature of 20 0C, and hot side temperature of 600 0C. Also, results predicted that, further increase of the heater and the cooler heights (up to 140 mm) pushed the power output to reach 170 W.
A detailed 3D CFD model for segmented micro-channel regenerator was developed and its results were validated against experimental measurements showing maximum deviation of 10.6% and 6.03% for both unidirectional and oscillatory flows respectively in terms of measuring the outlet temperature. The validated CFD model was used to carry out an investigation on the effect of increasing the number of segmentations on the regenerator effectiveness and engine performance. The effects of changing the micro-channel diameter on the regenerator performance in terms of heat transfer and pressure loss was also investigated. The micro- channels regenerator with diameter of 0.5 mm and 32 segments performed better than all other configurations investigated in this study including the Random Fibre matrix.
In order to reduce the time and cost for Stirling engine development, this work investigated the route to upgrade commercially available V-type compressor to develop V-type alpha Stirling engine through detailed 3D CFD modelling. The correlations of Nusselt number and friction factor for the developed segmented regenerator were used as porous media parameters in the CFD model for the developed Stirling engine. Also, a new concept for the engine cooler design was modelled and integrated in the overall engine model, showing improved performance for the engine due to lowering of the coolant temperature. The maximum indicated power observed from the developed engine using the 32-segmented regenerator with 0.5 mm micro-channel diameter was 132.89 W. This is higher by 18.33% and 44.4% than those of the two commercial matrix regenerators, namely the Random fibre and the Screen woven respectively.


214 Abstract A criss-cross heart is a rare congenital heart disease that is commonly associated with complex cardiac defect. Criss-cross heart is characterized by crossing of the inflow streams of the two ventricles, due to twisting of the heart during development. As a result the axis of the openings of the atrioventricular (AV) valves remain non parallel. We report a case of 2.5 months old baby with criss-cross spatial relationship of the atrioventricular valve with double outlet right ventricle with Pulmonary Artesia and atrial and ventricular septal defect. The diagnosis was confirmed by 2D and color Doppler Echocardiography in subxiphoid long-axis and coronal plane sweeps. Due to the complex structural changes and rarity of the anomaly, the diagnosis is often missed. In this case report we emphasized on diagnosis feature of presentation and surgical techniques required to correct or palliate the defects.


Regeneration medicine is divided mainly into differentiation-induced and cell replenishment therapy. Bone marrow includes stem cell populations such as hematopoietic, mesenchymal and so on. These stem cells are shown experimentally and clinically to be pluripotent. It remains unclear, however, whether bone-marrow-derived cells differentiate into olfactory neurons and are engrafted as olfactory stem cells into olfactory tissue. We transplanted bone marrow cells of green fluorescence protein (GFP) mice into lethally irradiated recipients. Double immunostaining for GFP and olfactory marker protein or cytokeratin showed the possibility that bone-marrow-derived cell population could do as hoped. Because the engraftment rates of this study were low far from a practical level, methimazole inducing selectively apoptosis into olfactory tissue and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor known to mobilize stem cells from bone marrow into circulation were added to a series of experiments, which increased engraftment rates. Whether bone-marrow-derived cells or mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into olfactory cells remains controversial, necessitating the evaluation of regeneration medicine using such cells in further olfactory disorder studies.


In this study, the effects of dwell time on Ga + focused ion beam machining at 30 keV for different milling currents were investigated. The surface topographies were analysed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the substrate structures were investigated by means of Raman spectroscopy. It has been observed that by increasing dwell time the total sputtering yield was increased even though the total dose was remained the same. Also the silicon damage by ion bombardment is reduced as the dwell time is increased. This is mainly due to catalyst behaviour of Ga inside Si which over a period of hours causes recrystallization of Si at room temperature by lowering the activation energy for crystallization.


The increasing use of biological control agents (BCAs) against Botrytis cinerea in strawberry raises the question of whether there are any undesirable impacts of foliar applications of BCAs on nontarget microorganisms in the phyllosphere. Therefore, our objective was to investigate this issue within a field study. Strawberry plants were repeatedly sprayed with three BCAs-namely, RhizoVital 42 fl. (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42), Trianum-P (Trichoderma harzianum T22), and Naturalis (Beauveria bassiana ATCC 74040)-to suppress Botrytis cinerea infections. Microbial communities of differentially treated leaves were analyzed using plate counts and pyrosequencing and compared with the microbial community of nontreated leaves. Plate count results indicate that the applied Bacillus and Trichoderma spp. survived in the strawberry phyllosphere throughout the strawberry season. However, no significant impacts on the leaf microbiota could be detected by this culture-dependent technique. Pyrosequencing of internal transcribed spacer ribosomal RNA and 16S RNA sequences revealed a change in fungal composition and diversity at class level after the introduction of T. harzianum T22 to the phyllosphere, whereas the bacterial composition and diversity was not affected by either this Trichoderma preparation or the other two BCAs. Our results suggest that pyrosequencing represents a useful method for studying microbial interactions in the phyllosphere.


This is a review of Avatar (2009). This film review is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss1/11 Filmmaker James Cameron knows how to get us off the couch and into the theater. Avatar was a genuine IMAX-worthy event. It required spectacles to get the truly special effect. It now plays so much smaller at home, even on a Blu-Ray equipped, large-screen TV. Yet, such substantive profits make it a canary in a cinematic coalmine. Avatar has been followed by underwhelming 3D versions of Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, and Shrek. Will more desperate and unimaginative studio pandering follow? Is Avatar an empty headed spectacle that will fade in critical estimation over time or the harbinger of more potent stories to come? In its most exhilarating sequences, Avatar connects to the best of the silent film era. James Cameron extends the legacy of pioneering showmen like D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. No dialogue was necessary to communicate the sweeping ideas of Intolerance (1916) or The Ten Commandments (1923). Like Avatar, they were easily translated across cultures and oceans. Pioneering cinema achieved an early Esperanto. Unfortunately, spectacles don't always age well. It is tough to recreate the shock of the new. The best picture Oscar won by Cecil B. DeMille for The Greatest Show on Earth looks regrettable fifty years on. The digital stick figures walking across the deck of the Titanic already look embarrassing. Avatar also borrows from DeMille's trick of selling the salacious and the sanctimonious in the same film. Audiences can ogle (virtual) native nudity while the Na'vi prepare to worship. It is the oldest saw in the cinematic playbook, combining the sacred and the sexual. We're jolted back to Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils that wooed King Herod and knocked off John the Baptist's head. Or even the ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar and her strip tease through the gates of the underworld. Are we similarly deceived? Falling for a totalizing capitalist trap under the guise of 1 Detweiler: James Cameron's Cathedral Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2010 an attack on American military might? As Guy Debord noted in Society of the Spectacle (1967), spectacles can be political weapons meant to distract. In this scenario, we think we're watching a film about protecting native cultures and the environment. But we're really watching a cynical film intended to simply sell tickets. Avatar could be labeled the biggest, loudest, highest grossing conclusion of an era of excess. Might it be the ultimate hypocrisy – a $300 million dollar public service announcement against commercial development? I will extend more faith to the filmmaker and the moviegoers who flocked to Avatar in such significant numbers. Coming a decade after Titanic, Avatar may serve as an apt conclusion to our uncertain moment. Prior to the events of 9/11, we had no idea how prescient Titanic's elegant destruction would appear. To see the sacred tree fall in Avatar snaps us back to the collapse of the World Trade Center. We've all been brought low by unsustainable economies and reckless overdevelopment. Avatar could be read as a bracing cautionary tale. But do cautionary tales generate repeat business and positive word of mouth? I would suggest that Avatar's unparalleled success resides more in religious spectacle, the positive side of being bowled over by a beatific vision. Avatar insists that worship can and should be transformative. As an audience wowed by the spectacular effects, we are getting literally carried away, transported to Pandora. Given the huge gap between the inspiration and the completion of this project, it seems right to consider Avatar as James Cameron's Cathedral. How many artisans were required to create his most ambitious film? It took half a lifetime for technology to even catch up with his plans. Like 2 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 14 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 11 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss1/11 the cathedrals of Europe, it depended upon new technical breakthroughs to be completed. And like a cathedral, it is intended to build a sense of awe, to cause us to cherish creation (and maybe the Creator). The Wow Factor is seen as an irresistible experience clerics may need to recover. Of course, Avatar can be seen alongside a variety of religious spectacles. The word 'avatar' comes from Hinduism, especially Vishnu's divine descent. Did James Cameron sneak a peek at Vishnu's big blue body before landing on the Na'vi oceanic skin? The sacred tribal gatherings resemble Tibetan tapestries. Those circular mandalas weave a complex portrait of the cosmos, demonstrating our interconnections. I've just returned from making a documentary in Indonesia, where I visited Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple. It rises amidst seven hills, telling the Buddha's story up ten stories of solid rock. Avatar aspires to a similar scope and grandeur (though I doubt it will last 12 or 13 centuries!). Many have (rightly) criticized the perfunctory aspects of the script. Yes, we have seen this story many times before. Forget 1990's Dances with Wolves. How about 1970's A Man Called Horse? Yet, critics of the script miss what kept viewers entranced. Avatar traffics in Rudolph Otto's notion of the numinous, the wholly other that operates beyond reason. It appeals to our small brain, bypassing reason as unnecessary to plot. We're not supposed to get hung up on the overly familiar story of 'going native.' Instead, it shouts, "Hey Ma, look at what we made!" As spectacle, Avatar remains virtually critic proof, a trip to Otto's mysterium tremendum et fascinans. Not since the first time I saw Star Wars have I felt so giddy, so transported by sheer visual splendor and delight. Viewers describe flight scenes with boundless enthusiasm. Few were satisfied seeing it just once. Kids will recreate scenes in their backyards for years. James Cameron and his team created an eye-popping spectacle that took filmgoers on a ride. Avatar is the real 3 Detweiler: James Cameron's Cathedral Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2010 (digital) deal. Within minutes, I forgot I was watching digital characters. The performance capture technology blew away lingering doubts created by the creepy humans in The Polar Express or Beowulf. Avatar delivered on the promises of a technological breakthrough. But it never called attention to the effects. It sweeps us up in an epic journey. I did not want the experience (or even individual scenes) to end. Movie magic abounds. To Cameron's considerable credit, Avatar doesn't depend upon 3D tricks to wow the audience. Things rarely pop off the screen into the viewers' space. A space shuttle approaches a distant moon, Pandora; but not with the original "wow" factor of Star Wars' opening shot. Why duplicate or imitate that which has gone before? Cameron seems confident that Avatar had plenty of thrills to come. Never has so much technology been poured into getting back to nature. Cameron employs ground-breaking techniques to turn the ten-foot, translucent blue Na'vi people into the most compelling natives possible. Their distant moon, Pandora, teems with jungle life. The mountains float, the forests glow in the dark. What a verdant, vibrant vision of a world apart! Moviegoers may be too dazzled by the imaginative vistas to worry about the geo-politics embedded in Avatar. It promotes responsible science and celebrates diplomacy. But as a native Canadian, Cameron offers a strong critique of America's imperialist impulses. Some critics may deride Avatar as a violent plea for peace. But a surprising sincerity animates Cameron's cinematic wizardry. When was the last action movie that inspired genuine awe? That emboldened our imaginations? Avatar pauses to honor Mother Earth. It dares to bow down in goddess worship. It makes us question who owns the land we inhabit. Who is truly the alien? And where does divine favor reside? 4 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 14 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 11 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss1/11 Avatar is a riveting example of our contradictory impulses circa 2010. We celebrate simplicity while cradling our smart phones. We long for quiet, as our entertainments grow louder. We seek community via virtual worlds. Avatar embodies all the inherent paradoxes we face as digital natives. Cutting edge technology challenges us to cherish our planet. We shout, "Drill, Baby, Drill" until the Gulf Coast is sullied with crude oil. James Cameron offers filmgoers and filmmakers and Jake Sully, a second life. Will we act on the invitation? As Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today, has noted, "The problem with spectacle, especially religious spectacle, is that the steady, repeated, raucous noise will eventually make us hard of hearing. And that will make it impossible to hear God's normal tone of voice. He is not usually found in earthquake, wind, or fire, but in the small whisper, heard only by those who enter with Elijah into the dark cave." Not much whispering amidst Avatar's surround-sound. So what are the quiet truths embedded within Avatar? It taps into our ongoing desire to get back to the Garden. It offers the possibility of a new, glorified body, escaping this mortal coil, or at least the confines of a wheelchair. Aussie actor Sam Worthington brings a brooding presence to the role of paraplegic Marine, Jake Sully. He seems weary, wise, and eager to experience a virtual escape. In the lab, Sam comes face to face with his avatar, a blend of his DNA with the native Na'vi. It is an enchanting first encounter with timely connections to Francis Collins' real life announcement of thirteen new stem cell lines. Scientists like Dr. Grace Augustine introduce Jake to the procedure. The researchers' computer monitors float across the screen in glorious 3-D. (It almost pre-sold the iPad!) Avatar really starts to take off when Jake wakes up in his new Na


Background: Older adults comprise approximately 60% of all adult, nonobstetric hospital admissions. Nurses Improving Care for Health System Elders (NICHE) is a national program aimed at system improvement to achieve patient-centered care for older adults. The NICHE hospitals use the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile (GIAP) to assess their institutional readiness to provide quality care to older adults and to document improvement in geriatric care delivery. Objective: To explore the factorial structure of the 28-item Geriatric Care Environment Scale (GCES) of the GIAP, test its validity with a sample of staff registered nurses (RNs), and evaluate its invariance across 4 groups of RNs who worked at 4 different types of hospitals. Methods: Staff RNs (N = 9,400) at 71 acute hospitals, who responded to the GIAP from 1999 to 2004, were split randomly into 2 groups for cross-validation. A 3-step data analysis was completed. The a priori factor structure was developed using exploratory factor analysis. The obtained factor model was validated, and its invariance by types of hospitals was examined by confirmatory factor analyses. Results: The GCES is internally consistent (Cronbach's α = .93) and accounts for approximately 55% of the total variance. The 4 factors extracted from the exploratory factor analysis are Aging-Sensitive Care Delivery, Resource Availability, Institutional Values Regarding Older Adults and Staff, and Capacity for Collaboration. The 4-factor structured model is validated in a half-randomly selected sample (normed fit index [NFI] = .931, nonnormed fit index [NNFI] = .933, comparative fit index [CFI] = .939, root-mean-square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .058) and does not vary significantly across the 4 groups of RNs who worked at the 4 different types of hospitals (NFI = .969, NNFI = .975, CFI = .976, RMSEA = .027). Conclusions: The GCES is a reliable measure of RN perception of how care provided to older adults reflects age-sensitive principles and the organizational practice environment that supports or hinders care delivery.


Perichaena taimyriensis Novozh. & Schnittler is a new, undescribed coprophilous myxomycete species characterised by the absence of a capillitium and its pilate spore ornamentation. Collections from the Taimyr Peninsula and the Chukchi Peninsula, Russia, were recorded from dung of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) in forest-tundra and tundra communities. A description of P taimyriensis and scanning electron photographs are presented. Characters distinguishing this species from Perichaena corticalis (Batsch) Rostaf. var. liceoides (Rostaf.) G. Lister are given. The taxonomic limits of this species are discussed. Apparently, P taimyriensis represents an intermediate taxon between Perichaena and Licea but can be tentatively placed within the genus Perichaena.


Ultrasound has become a well-established method for the clinical evaluation of carotid artery atherosclerosis. In the past few years, high-resolution ultrasound methods have been used more frequently in the study of the natural history of atherosclerosis. Most recently, B-mode ultrasound has enabled investigators to detect and monitor early stages of carotid artery atherosclerosis, when lumen stenosis is between 15 and 45%. Epidemiological studies using high-resolution ultrasonography will allow re-searchers to correlate traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis with changes over time in lesion incidence, prevalence, and severity. Investigators can also study the effects of drug treatment on the early stages of disease by monitoring rates of lesion progression or regression in carotid arteries. Several large epidemiological and clinical intervention trials are currently underway that use high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography to measure intima-media or total wall thicknesses in extracranial carotid arteries. In these studies, the reproducibility of arterial wall measurements is the most critical factor in establishing rates of lesion progression or regression. This paper describes the ultrasound methods currently being used to determine the effect of the calcium antagonist, isradipine, on patients with asymptomatic carotid artery atherosclerosis.


Background: High-performance sport has been described as a formative environment through which athletes learn sporting skills but also develop athletic selves. Within this process, career movements related to selection for and de-selection from representative teams constitute critical moments. Further, retirement from sport can be problematic as the athletic self becomes 'obsolete'. This dilemma is acute in sports that demand an early entry, extreme time investments and a high risk of retirement before adulthood. Women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) is such a sport. Purpose and scope: This article considers an artistic gymnast's (Marie) experiences of movement into and out of this sport. Marie's construction and reconstruction of her athletic self when she entered gymnastics at the age of six, relocated to a different city in order to train with the national team at the age of 15, and retired from the sport one year later receives particular attention. Method and theoretical perspective: An in-depth biographical interview was conducted with Marie. Further, the first author's personal knowledge of this gymnast's career experiences was used for contextualisation. The analysis of data involved the identification of learning outcomes during her time in high-performance WAG and post-retirement. Storied accounts surrounding the key learning experiences were compiled. In order to understand Marie's learning, cultural perspective of learning developed by education scholars and the respective metaphors of 'learning as becoming' and 'horizons for action' and 'horizons of learning' are employed. Findings: Marie's choice of relocating to train with the national team involved her assuming a temporary orientation towards the requirements of the high-performance WAG context she entered. To achieve this, Marie suppressed the dispositions she had brought to this setting and adjusted her training philosophy, relationship with her coach, diet and socialising. Further, despite Marie intending to only momentarily adjust to the practices of the high-performance context, her learning was deep. Upon retiring from gymnastics, she could not leave the high-performance gymnastics self behind. The subsequent process to adjust to life without gymnastics was difficult and testing, and could only be realised with professional treatment. Conclusion: Learning in sport is not limited to athletic skills. Athletes' selves are formed in interaction with sporting contexts and actors. This embodiment can become durable and cause significant conflict when moving out of sport. To handle life without sport, adjustment may be challenging and lengthy. Recommendations: Sporting cultures should allow for more interactive learning and athlete diversity. Coaching practices that allow athletes to voice difficulties should be provided. Athletes should be encouraged to reflect upon their sporting experiences and upon leaving high-performance sport, should be (professionally) supported.


A representation is put forward for wave functions of quantum particles in periodic lattice potentials subjected to homogeneous time-periodic forcing, based on an expansion with respect to Bloch-like states which embody both the spatial and the temporal periodicity. It is shown that there exists a generalization of Bloch's famous acceleration theorem which grows out of this representation and captures the effect of a weak probe force applied in addition to a strong dressing force. Taken together, these elements point at a ''dressing and probing'' strategy for coherent wave-packet manipulation, which could be implemented in present experiments with optical lattices.


Abstract In aiming to support school-based outdoor learning opportunities, this paper critiques the extent to which Deweyan and neo-Aristotelian theorising is helpful in highlighting how personal growth and practical wisdom gains can be realised. Such critique is necessary, as there are signs of an implementation gap between practice and policy, which is made worse by a lack of conceptual clarity about how educational aspirations can be dependably achieved. Dewey's habit-forming social constructivist emphasis on learning and problem-solving is reviewed and the prospects of a neo-Aristotelian conception of human flourishing, which recognises that virtues are nurtured as moral sensitivities, are then considered. Concerns that Dewey's writings are often vague on how ideas can be operationalised and criticisms that Aristotle's educational thoughts rather over-privilege cognition relative to emotions are also addressed. The article concludes by teasing out suggestions on how Deweyan and neo-Aristotelian ideas on learning might coherently inform curriculum planning and pedagogical practices.


By coupling statewide vacancy/application records with administrative data, we find that activity on the teacher labor market is substantially greater than previously documented, with 53% of novice teachers searching for new positions after their first year and 27% changing schools or leaving the public system. The empirical evidence favors preference alignment theory, showing that first-year teachers are more likely to reenter the labor market after their first year when their preferences and their current employment context diverge. This finding is particularly true for the individuals with a preference for a suburban locale and for school and student characteristics, such as the proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Once an individual has initiated a job search, preference alignment appears to be unrelated to subsequent mobility. The findings suggest that processes that can facilitate a stronger initial match of novice teachers to their desired employment situations may help mitigate turnover in


In this paper, we present an integrated model to find the optimum size of blast block that uses (i) a multi-criteria decision-making method to specify the applicable size of the mineable block; (ii) a linear programming method for the selection of the blasted areas to be excavated and in deciding the quantity of ores and wastes to be mined from each one of the selected blocks. These two methods use improved estimates of the orebody characteristics utilizing the blast hole data in addition to the usual borehole statistics to improve the prediction accuracy of the block level ore body characteristics. This work aims to make a mathematical model to figure out the ideal width and length of the blast block in order to curtail drilling and blasting expenses in open-pit mines. As a consequence, the effective blast block size is heeded so as to decrease the expenses of drilling and blasting. Furthermore, a complete set of actual principles is presented to specify the applicable size of the mineable block by means of the multi-criteria decision-making method of fuzzy logic. The aforementioned model is practiced to forecast the block size necessary for the purpose of production planning. Next, a mixed integer programming model is developed to blast planning in order to select the optimal size of the blast block by considering the mineable block. The proposed model is applied in the Chadormalu iron ore mine and the rationality of the model is demonstrated by the outcomes of dissimilar circumstances.


Objective: Herbal medicinal products have a well-established role in therapy of upper airway inflammations. Current evidence supports the use of intranasal corticosteroids for improvement in clinical symptoms of uncomplicated acute rhinosinusitis (ARS). We aimed to evaluate efficacy and safety of combined therapy by mometasone furoate nasal spray (MFNS) and oral herbal medicinal product Sinupret in comparison to MFNS monotherapy when treating mild to moderate ARS. Methods: Forty-six ARS patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 (n=23) received herbal drug Sinupret, 160 mg per os, three times daily and MFNS 200 μg twice daily for 7 days. Group 2 (n=23) received only MFNS 200 μg twice daily for 7 days. We assessed total symptom score (TSS), individual symptom scores for each symptom (nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, postnasal drip, facial pain/pressure, impaired sense of smell) and endoscopic findings (mucosal edema, mucopurulent secretion), before and after treatment. Results: Significant improvement of all clinical parameters was found after both treatment modalities (p<0.000). We observed lower post-treatment TSS (p=0.002), nasal obstruction (p=0.001), rhinorrhea (p=0.001), facial pain (p=0.001), impaired sense of smell (p=0.002), mucosal edema (p=0.003) and mucopurulent secretion (p=0.001) in MFNS/Sinupret group than in MFNS group. We found no adverse events in MFNS/Sinupret group, while only 1 patient reported mild epistaxis and 1 patient reported dryness in the nose in MFNS Group. Conclusion: Our results suggest better efficacy of combined MFNS/Sinupret therapy of ARS on nasal symptoms and endoscopic findings, with the absence of adverse events in comparison to MFNS monotherapy.


Accurate segmentation and motion estimation of myocardium have always been important in clinic field, which essentially contribute to the downstream diagnosis. However, existing methods cannot always guarantee the shape integrity for myocardium segmentation. In addition, motion estimation requires point correspondence on the myocardium region across different frames. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end deep statistic shape model to focus on myocardium segmentation with both shape integrity and boundary correspondence preserving. Specifically, myocardium shapes are represented by a fixed number of points, whose variations are extracted by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Deep neural network is used to predict the transformation parameters (both affine and deformation), which are then used to warp the mean point cloud to the image domain. Furthermore, a differentiable rendering layer is introduced to incorporate mask supervision into the framework to learn more accurate point clouds. In this way, the proposed method is able to consistently produce anatomically reasonable segmentation mask without post processing. Additionally, the predicted point cloud guarantees boundary correspondence for sequential images, which contributes to the downstream tasks, such as the motion estimation of myocardium. We conduct several experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on several benchmark datasets.


This paper presents observations of low-altitude mid-latitude E-region irregularities obtained with the 52-MHz Chung-Li VHF radar. These are carried out in the interferometer mode to investigate the behavior of these irregularities over time and space. The observations presented here show the characteristics of type-II echoes noted by a negative slope, i.e. they are approaching the radar as a function of time. The range-time-intensity (RTI) plots obtained through power spectrum analysis reveal the quasi-periodic striations, which are known as LQP (Low-altitude QP) echoes. Our interferometer analysis allows one to investigate the motion (i.e. "tracking") of the LQP echo patches in three dimensions. This method is superior to just evaluating the variations of the echo power as a function of range and time in the standard RTI-plots. By applying this method, we show that the echo patches in different striations remain at almost the same altitude when we trace the isolated echoing regions until they disappear from the radar view. We further compare the rate of change of the range (range rate dR/dt) by two techniques: one by simply measuring the varying slope of the LQP echoes from RTI plot, the other by tracking the three-dimensional locations of the LQP scatterers by using the interferometer technique. We finally prove that the changes in range as a function of time, deduced from the interferometer technique, are significantly correlated with those of the standard range rate analysis. However, the standard range rate analysis does not provide information about the correct location and the variation of the LQP irregularities. The three-dimensional analysis, which we introduced for tracking individual striations, shows that LQP echo patches are confined to between 98 and 100km altitude. This suggests that the irregularities which cause the LQP echoes drifted through the radar beam at approximately constant altitude, which we tend to attribute to a region of large-scale vertical shear of the horizontal wind.


The availability of a talented workforce is increasingly being cited as a barrier to growth by businesses across Canada. This worker shortage is particularly challenging for organizations looking to expand in medium and small resource-based cities. This is due to an increase in outmigration to large cities by people seeking knowledge economy based employment and negative perceptions of resource-based cities. These factors hinder employer's ability to attract people to their smaller resource-reliant communities from other cities. Economic developers in these smaller cities can adjust to these changing realities by highlighting their community's strengths in relation to larger cities to attract and retain the skilled talent needed to support the growth of their existing businesses and to attract new business. Economic developers in the Kootenays, Prince George and Quesnel have all recognized this opportunity and the work being done in these communities to increase the population base can be used as a model by other communities grappling with similar workforce attraction and retention issues. Keywords: economic development, workforce, population, attraction and retention, natural resources, urbanization, outmigration


The goal of the current study was to determine the efficacy of oral docetaxel in combination with cyclosporine in the treatment of canine epithelial cancer. Requirements for eligibility were histological confirmation of epithelial neoplasia, measurable disease, no chemotherapy treatment within 2 weeks, and a life expectancy of ≥ 3 months. Fifty-one dogs were enrolled. All dogs received 1.625 mg kg(-1) of docetaxel with 5 mg kg(-1) of cyclosporine (DT/CSA) by gavage. Ten dogs had progressive disease at 2 weeks, one dog died, and one dog was withdrawn from the study. Thirty-nine dogs were given a second dose of DT/CSA, three each receiving a third or fourth dose. Eight dogs had a dose reduction (1.5 mg kg(-1)) and six dogs had treatment delays primarily for gastrointestinal toxicity. The overall response rate was 16.7% (8/48 had a partial response there were no complete responses). The highest response rate was seen in dogs with oral squamous cell carcinoma (50%; 6/12).


User-based research into the lived experiences associated with smartphone camera practices – in particular, the taking, storing, curating and sharing of personal imagery in the digital media sphere – remains scarce, especially in contrast to its increasing ubiquity. Accordingly, this article's detailed analysis of open-ended questionnaires from 'millennial' smartphone users elucidates the varied experiential, compositional and technological aspects associated with smartphone imagery in everyday life. It argues that the associated changes do more than just update previous technologies but rather open space up for emergent forms of visual communication. Specifically, our close interpretive reading indicates four key factors underlying the moments privileged when using smartphone cameras, namely: they deviate from the mundane, are related to 'positive' emotions, evince strong social bonds and encompass a future-oriented perspective. Relatedly, in terms of photographic composition, visual content tends to circulate around: the social presence of others, boundedness of event, perceived aesthetic value and intended shareability. Our findings question certain formulations about the gradual disappearance of media from personal consciousness in a digital age. If ceaselessness is a defining characteristic of the current era, our analysis reveals that the use of smartphone cameras is indicative of people affectively and self-consciously deploying the technology to try to arrest the ephemerality of daily life, however fleetingly. This article thus pinpoints the theoretical and methodological value of research approaches moving beyond a narrow focus on the usage patterns to uncover the spatio-temporal specificities shaping (and being shaped by) smartphone imagery and its communicative resonances.


Secondary circulation appears after fluid with a non-uniform velocity distribution passes round a bend. It alters the character of the flow and is a source of loss. A general expression is developed for its change along a streamline in a perfect, incompressible fluid. The flow in bent circular pipes is analyzed and the theory is compared with experiments on bent pipes and rectangular ducts. In bends the secondary flow is not spiral but oscillatory, the direction of the circulation changing periodically. The theory shows that secondary circulation remains unchanged if streamlines are geodesics on surfaces of constant total pressure.


A successful method to address disease-specific module discovery is the integration of the gene expression data with the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Although many algorithms have been developed for this purpose, they focus only on the network genes (mostly on the well-connected ones); totally neglecting the genes whose interactions are partially or totally not known. In addition, they only make use of the gene expression data which does not give the complete picture about the actual protein expression levels. The cell uses different mechanisms, such as microRNAs, to post-transcriptionally regulate the proteins without affecting the corresponding genes' expressions. Due to this complexity, using a single data type is definitely not the correct way to find the correct module(s). Today, the unprecedented amount of publicly available disease-related heterogeneous data encourages the development of new methodologies to better understand complex diseases. In this work, we propose a novel workflow Mica, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first study integrating miRNA, mRNA, and PPI information to identify disease-specific gene modules. The novelty of the Mica lies in many directions, such as the early modification of mRNA expression with microRNA to better highlight the indirect dependencies between the genes. We applied Mica on microRNA-Seq and mRNA-Seq data sets of 699 invasive ductal carcinoma samples and 150 invasive lobular carcinoma samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA). The Mica modules are shown to unravel new and interesting dependencies between the genes. Additionally, the modules accurately differentiate between the case and control samples while being highly enriched with disease-specific pathways and genes.


In the fall semester of 2005, I became one of the first consultants from the Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Texas at Austin to be hired for a pilot program of the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Initiative: the Writing Mentors Program. Rhetoric professor Joan Mullin directs the program with assistance from Susan "George" Schorn, UT's WAC coordinator. The program seeks to improve students' writing as well as studentinstructor communication through the role of the writing mentor. The writing mentor is highly trained in writing; typically, writing mentors are recruited from the UWC and have experience tutoring students in a one-on-one setting. The mentor is assigned to a writing-intensive class; he or she attends all class sessions, tutors the students in writing, and meets with the professor to discuss goals and challenges relative to the students' writing


Manhattan Loft Gardens is a new
residential tower in London that opened
in the spring of 2019. The tower presents
an arresting silhouette on the skyline
as a result of three, triple-height, skygarden notches cutting through its
volume and interrupting half of the
building's perimeter columns. The sky
gardens result in huge cantilevers and
signifi cant discontinuities in the tower's
vertical load path that required a number
of innovative structural systems and
strategies, including deep post-tensioned
outriggers, steel belt trusses and an
unusual construction sequence. The
structural engineering design of this
ambitious structure combined a high level
of advanced analysis with a special focus
on simplicity and constructability.


The production of hydrocarbons or oxygenates via the hydrogenation–polymerisation of either CO (Fischer–Tropsch) or CO2 as carbon sources has significant similarities from a catalytic perspective. However, strategically, the two processes differ. Fischer–Tropsch technologies, which have been commercially implemented for almost a century, rely mostly on fossil resources such as coal or natural gas after previous gasification to obtain syngas. Conversely, the direct transformation of waste CO2 using renewable hydrogen is in demand to partially compensate for its enormous emissions and to alleviate their impact on the global climate. The development of catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch processes is mature and has resulted in valuable knowledge; it also represents a valid starting point for the use of CO2 as a feedstock. In general terms, catalysts require active phases to promote (i) CO–CO2 interconversion via the water–gas shift (WGS) and its reverse (rWGS) reaction; (ii) CO activation via dissociation; (iii) hydrogenation; (iv) polymerisation leading to hydrocarbon chain growth; and (v) non-dissociative CO insertion for the formation of oxygenated moieties. Characterisation techniques have traditionally pointed to iron oxides as active phases for rWGS, to metallic cobalt or iron carbides as active phases for hydrogenation–polymerisation into hydrocarbons, and to copper, mixed cobalt–copper and rhodium as selective phases for oxygenate formation. However, the nature of these active phases and sites is still debated. Novel, improved in situ and operando investigations are challenging some previously accepted concepts by allowing the observation of metastable phases, most likely in the form of few-layer surface domains, which may play key roles. For example, the direct implication of cobalt carbides either as precursors of highly active Co(hcp) or as genuinely active phases has been proposed. Thus, the simplistic view of unique catalytically active sites is progressively being replaced with a more dynamic scenario wherein surface interconversion appears to be a common phenomenon. Herein, a perspective on the most enlightening of the recent discoveries regarding the nature of active COx hydrogenation phases and sites, providing valuable knowledge for future catalyst design, is presented.


Thioredoxins (Thrxs) - small globular proteins that reduce other proteins - are ubiquitous in all forms of life, from archaea to mammals. Although ancestral Thioredoxins share sequential and structural similarity with the modern day (extant) homologs, they exhibit significantly different functional activity and stability. We investigate this puzzle by comparative studies of their (ancient and modern day Thrxs') native state ensemble, as quantified by the Dynamic Flexibility Index (DFI), a metric for the relative resilience of an amino acid to perturbations in the rest of the protein. Clustering proteins using DFI profiles strongly resembles an alternate classification scheme based on their activity and stability. The DFI profiles of the extant proteins are substantially different around the α3, α4 helices and catalytic regions. Likewise, allosteric coupling of the active site with the rest of the protein is different between ancient and extant Thrxs, possibly explaining the decreased catalytic activity at low pH with evolution. At a global level, we note that the population of low flexibility (called hinges) and high flexibility sites increases with evolution. The heterogeneity (quantified by the variance) in DFI distribution increases with the decrease in the melting temperature typically associated with the evolution of ancient proteins to their modern-day counterparts.


An investigation is reported on the breakage of the diamond wire saw during stone processing. A Lot of breaken wire samples were collected from factories and observed macroscopically and microscopically. The results indicate that the breakages were mainly fatigue failure. And statistic of results show that all the breakage sites centralize on two sections. Reasons for the two break sections are also discussed in detail. Furthermore, sawing experiment was conducted to study the effect of the process parameters and the results reveal that the breakage of the wire saw is sensitive to the processing parameters. Finally, some proposals for manufacture and application were presented.


We observed large enhancement of reflected second harmonic generation (SHG) using the one-dimensional photonic effect in regularly arranged InGaN/GaN single-quantum-well nanowalls. Using the effect when both fundamental and SH resonate with the photonic mode, we obtained enhancement of about 40 times compared with conditions far from resonance.


Fitness assessments are commonly used as a motivational tool in exercise classes and fitness training. However, there is little research on their actual effect. This study explored how the feedback from a fitness assessment may affect intrinsic motivation for physical activity in college students. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design where 430 college students were assigned to either an intervention or one of two control groups. The fitness assessment was only distributed to the subjects in the intervention group. Students were surveyed at four-time points to examine subjects' competence, autonomy and intrinsic motivation. A repeated measures general linear model measured differences between those who did and did not receive the fitness assessment. Intrinsic motivation (F(6,848)=2.33 p=.031) and competence (F(6, 848)=3.81, p=.001) diminished significantly in the group receiving fitness assessment feedback as compared to either control group. Additionally, for those in the intervention group that perceived their feedback as negative there was a significant decrease in competence (F(1,155)=15.59, p<.001), intrinsic motivation (F(1, 155)=6.41, p=.012), and physical activity (F(1,155)=7.46, p=.007). Fitness assessment feedback may hinder intrinsic motivation toward physical activity at least among those dissatisfied with the feedback.


A novel superabsorbent hydrogel was obtained by graft coplolymerization of cottonseed protein (CP), acrylic acid (AA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). This composite was synthesized by free radical copolymerization in aqueous solution in the presence of redox initiators, potassium persulphate and sodium sulfite, and N, N-Methylene bisacrylamide (NMBA) as cross-linking agent. The effects of the certain variables of the copolymerization on the swelling capacity of the hydrogel were measured and its swelling properties in different solutions were investigated. This approach shows a promising method in utilizing cottonseed protein to synthesis superabsorbent polymer with excellent water absorbency and potential in various applications.


OF DISSERTATION MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DOPAMINE NEURON STIMULATING PEPTIDES Parkinson's disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra. Currently, the treatments available for PD are symptomatic treatments that do not stop the progression of the disease. Trophic molecules, such as glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), have been evaluated as potential therapeutic molecules that could stop the loss of neurons and potentially restore some of the neurons that have already been lost. However, these trophic molecules are large making them difficult to produce and delivery. Here we characterize three peptides (DNSP-5, DNSP-11, and DNSP-17) to determine it they are stable and offer protective effects similar to GNDF allowing them to be potential therapeutic molecules. The data presented here involves the evaluation of the molecular and cellular mechanism of DNSP-5, DNSP-11, and DNSP-17, which are derived from prosequence of GDNF. Initial studies were carried out to evaluate the physical characteristics of these three peptides to determine their viability as potential therapeutic molecules. The structure and stability of these peptides were evaluated. Based on the data it was determined that the three peptides do not interact in vitro, allowing for further individual evaluations of the peptides. It was also determined that the peptides were stable when stored at both -80°C and 37°C for one month, allowing them to both potentially be stored during treatment. Cell culture assays and proteomic profiling were utilized to determine binding partners and potential mechanisms through which DNSP-11 may be able to mediate apoptosis. It was determined that DNSP-11 was able to interact with a variety of binding partners that are involved in metabolism. These studies have aided in the understanding of neurotrophic factor prosequence function, but will also serve as a starting point for the development of novel trophic factors for PD treatment. Finally, the interaction between DNSP-11 and GAPDH was evaluated as a potential anti-apoptotic mechanism. GAPDH has previously shown to play a role in mediating apoptotic pathways. It was hypothesized that the observed interaction between DNSP-11 and GAPDH could mediate that role of GAPDH in apoptosis and afford DNSP-11 its observed anti-apoptotic effects. It was observed that while DNSP-11's interaction with GAPDH may play a role in its anti-apoptotic effects, it does not appear to be the only mechanism involved. Based on this data, it is likely that the other metabolic binding partners play a role in DNSP-11's anti-apoptotic mechanisms and therefore, these interactions should be further evaluated.


The topic of this paper is a striking intonation contour which is found in English on Croker Island, NT, Australia, which is labelled Linear Lengthening Intonation. This contour is formally characterized by a prolonged stretch of high pitch, either in a plateau or rise, concluded by a high boundary tone, typically with lengthening of the final syllable nucleus. The meaning attached to this tune is essentially quantificational, and appears to apply mostly to the run traces of events. While this contour is not found in other varieties of English in this form, it is common in many northern Australian Aboriginal languages, among them languages spoken on Croker Island which have been in contact with English for several generations. In this paper we compare the form and meaning of this tune in Iwaidja, one of the main languages in contact with English on Croker Island, and in local English. Due to substantial parallels and due to the contact situation that is characterized by prolonged bilingualism in a long–term shift scenario, we propose that Linear Lengthening Intonation in English on Croker Island is probably due to language contact with Australian Aboriginal languages that have this tune, most notably Iwaidja.


Dr Tisi states his aims in the preface: this book was "written primarily for the practicing physician"; also, the reader "need not have a prior foundation in pulmonary physiology." The introductory chapters on pulmonary physiology and acid-base balance and the question-and-answer sections in the appendices are pitched more at the medical student level. Surgeons will find chapter 7, on the preoperative evaluation of pulmonary function, to be clearly written and well referenced; it is undoubtedly the best chapter in the book. Surgeons might take issue with the discussion of oxygen therapy and ventilation. There is insufficient emphasis on the deleterious effects of administering 100% oxygen, including the loss of the cushioning effect of residual nitrogen on alveolar collapse, the accelerated denaturation of surfactant at a high Po 2 , and progressive damage to endothelial cells with consequent fluid leakage and interstitial edema. Some discussion of the use of prophylactic thoracostomy tubes


In this paper I will propose an organization of the lexicon in which all verb stems are arranged according to their meaning and the number of NP arguments they subcategorize. I will take data from Japanese to show that this organization, which I will refer to as paradigmatic structures, makes predictions about meanings associated with morphological derivatives. I will in particular look at the causative morpheme sas to illustrate this. I will further show that the paradigmatic structures are part of a larger system that provides a general constraint on all word formation processes.


The high frequency properties of the one-dimensional transmission line consisting of a parallel array of resistively shunted Josephson tunnel junctions have been studied in the limit of relatively low damping where this nonlinear system exhibits new and interesting phenomena. Here we report on experimental investigations of a resonant step observed at a voltage corresponding to 600 GHz in the dc current-voltage characteristic of a parallel array of 20 identical small NbAlO/sub x/Nb Josephson junctions interconnected by short sections of superconducting microstrip line. The junctions are mutually phase locked due to collective interaction with the line sections excited close to the half wavelength resonance. The phase locking range can be adjusted by means of an external dc magnetic field and the step size varies periodically with the magnetic field.<<ETX>>


Service organizations usually don't become successful, and stay successful, by accident. More likely, its leaders have recognized what works and have assimilated those factors into its mission, vision and values. Success is not based simply upon knowing what you're doing and getting it done — It's really about making the client happy. So, even when we are accomplishing exactly what we promised, if the client isn't convinced that we are delivering something of value, then what we believe doesn't matter. We must demonstrate the value that we are consistently creating at all points along the way in a project if we want our clients to feel as good about our work as we do. That is delivering value.


We explore the transport mechanisms of heat in two- and three-dimensional turbulent convection flows by means of the long-term evolution of Lagrangian coherent sets. They are obtained from the spectral clustering of trajectories of massless fluid tracers that are advected in the flow. Coherent sets result from trajectories that stay closely together under the dynamics of the turbulent flow. For longer times, they are always destroyed by the intrinsic turbulent dispersion of material transport. Here, this constraint is overcome by the application of evolutionary clustering algorithms that add a time memory to the coherent set detection and allows individual trajectories to leak in or out of evolving clusters. Evolutionary clustering thus also opens the possibility to monitor the splits and mergers of coherent sets. These rare dynamic events leave clear footprints in the evolving eigenvalue spectrum of the Laplacian matrix of the trajectory network in both convection flows. The Lagrangian trajectories reveal the individual pathways of convective heat transfer across the fluid layer. We identify the long-term coherent sets as those fluid flow regions that contribute least to heat transfer. Thus, our evolutionary framework defines a complementary perspective on the slow dynamics of turbulent superstructure patterns in convection flows that were recently discussed in the Eulerian frame of reference. The presented framework might be well suited for studies in natural flows, which are typically based on sparse information from drifters and probes.


Using data on the adoption of e-government, reinventing government, and strategic practices, and the Nelson and Svara (2010) typology of municipal government form, the authors investigate the characteristics of municipal governments that are related to the implementation of innovative practices. The authors find that higher innovation rates are associated with council-manager governments—both with and without an elected mayor, higher population, greater growth, lower unemployment, sunbelt location, and higher population density. Controlling for all other variables, form of government (and variations within form) account for the greatest explanation of the adoption of innovative practices in municipalities. The authors conclude that form of government remains an important variable to consider when investigating local government management and performance.


OBJECTIVE
To retrospectively review the clinical case records of patients with idiopathic vocal cord palsies (VCPs) for the presence of preexisting or subsequent development of neurological disease, including multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, myasthenia gravis, cerebrovascular disease, and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

DESIGN
Retrospective case review of all patients with VCP presenting sequentially within a 45-month time span.

SETTING
Tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS
One hundred ninety-three patients with VCP.

RESULTS
Thirty-five cases of VCP (18.1%) were idiopathic. Eight (22.8%) resolved after a mean time of 5 months. A preexisting central nervous system condition was noted in 9 (25.7%) of 35 patients with idiopathic VCP. A subsequent central nervous system condition developed in 7 patients (20.0%). These included 2 cases of cerebrovascular accidents, 1 case of postpolio syndrome with respiratory failure, and 1 case of polyneuropathy secondary to paraneoplastic syndrome.

CONCLUSIONS
A high frequency of neurological conditions was observed in adult patients initially presenting with idiopathic VCP. Patients with VCP but without overt neurological disease may also subsequently develop a serious neurological condition. Careful neurological evaluation of all patients with idiopathic VCP is recommended.


Mind wandering is an important part of the stream of consciousness, which allows the stream of consciousness to continue when the individual does not process external stimuli or does tasks. The neural mechanism of mind wandering is the current research hotspot. This study involves the brain's default network and two theories of different positions, one is the theory of executive control, and the other is the theory of executive control failure. The study discusses adaptive functioning of mind wandering, especially in terms of creative problem solving. Finally, there is a discussion of how to reduce the negative effects of mind wandering—mindfulness training.


Mycotoxin levels in Fusarium head blight (FHB) infections can be difficult to quantify. The relationship between mycotoxin and disease is not consistent and it is not clear if wheatpathogen interaction is of significance in regions where more than one Fusarium species with distinct trichothecene production ability co-exists. This study aimed to investigate whether a set of eight Brazilian wheat genotypes, varying in resistance according to classification by the breeder, exhibit a common or differential resistance to Fusarium graminearum (Fgra) (deoxynivalenolproducing) and Fusarium meridionale (nivalenol-producing) (Fmer) using full-spike and central spikelet inoculation (type II resistance). Fgra was generally more aggressive than Fmer based on the percentage of diseased spikes (99 and 84 %, respectively) and number of diseased spikelets (mean 2.8 and 2.0, respectively) below the central spikelet. The genotype-pathogen species interaction was not significant, but there were differences between the genotypes, with BRS 194 and BRS 327 being the least and most resistant, respectively, based on severity ratings. The incidence of Fusarium-damaged kernel (FDK, %) was not affected by species, but two genotypes (BRS Parrudo and BRS 327) showed a lower incidence of FDK. There were substantial variations in the accumulation of deoxynivalenol and nivalenol among the genotypes, reaching maxima of 691.2 µg g−1 and 355.2 µg g−1, respectively, suggesting that Fgra is a more potent producer of trichothecene. Our data confirm prior resistance classifications by the breeders and suggest that the use of a single highly aggressive Fgra isolate may be sufficient for effective screening for FHB resistance. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the accumulation of resistance to trichothecene.


A trial was conducted as a randomized block design t o assess the effects of condensed corn distillers solubles (CCDS) on performance and carcass merit of yearling steers (n = 21 6) fed 9 0 % concentrate finishing diets. CCDS was included at 0 (MSBM), 5 (5CCDS1, 1 0 (IOCCDS), or 2 0 % (20CCDS) of diet DM, replacing soybean meal, molasses, and corn. Average daily gain increased (PC .051 for steers fed CCDS but, along wi th a numerical trend (P= .14) of increasing DMI, resulted in no improvement in FIG (P>.20). Steers were harvested on day 108. Carcass weight and dressing percent for steers fed CCDS were greater than control steers (P< .01). Other carcass characteristics did not differ by treatment (P > .20). Ruminal fluid was collected by stomach tube from steers (n = 72) at -.5, + 1, +4, and + 7 hours from feeding. Values reported are means across sampling times. Ruminal fluid pH was higher for CCDS fed cattle than MSBM (P<.05). Butyrate increased wi th increasing CCDS level (PC .05). Differences in acetate, propionate, and NH3N were not significant (P> .20). The CCDS was an effective protein and energy source in 9 0 % concentrate corn-based finishing diets. Based on performance, maximum inclusion rate is at least 20% of diet DM.