The use of amine mixtures employing methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), monoethanolamine (MEA), and diethanolamine (DEA) have been investigated for a variety of cases using a process simulation program called HYSYS. The results show that, at high pressures, amine mixtures have little or no advantage in the cases studied. As the pressure is lowered, it becomes more difficult for MDEA to meet residual gas requirements and mixtures can usually improve plant performance. Since the CO2 reaction rate with the primary and secondary amines is much faster than with MDEA, the addition of small amounts of primary or secondary amines to an MDEA based solution should greatly improve the overall reaction rate of CO2 with the amine solution. The addition of MEA caused the CO2 to be absorbed more strongly in the upper portion of the column than for MDEA along. On the other hand, raising the concentration for MEA to 11%wt, CO2 is almost completely absorbed in the lower portion of the column. The addition of MEA would be most advantageous. Thus, in areas where MDEA cannot meet the residual gas requirements, the use of amine mixtures can usually improve the plant performance. Keywords—CO2,, H2S, Methyldiethanolamine, Monoethanolamine


Fishers and related fishing workers deal with a set of working conditions unique among all other occupations. This occupation is characterized by strenuous work, long hours, seasonal employment, and some of the most hazardous conditions in the workforce. These workers are often at sea for weeks or months at a time, sometimes having to stand on deck, fishing for long periods with little or no sleep. They are constantly being tossed around by wind and rough seas, with water in their face and under their feet, which adds an element of balance to the skills needed to do their job safely. Weather does not stop production, and given that these workers do not work in a factory or office building, it increases the unpredictability of their working conditions. Access to on-site medical care for these workers is limited to the knowledge of those on the boat with them or the response of the Coast Guard. Thanks to television shows such as Deadliest Catch, Lobstermen, Swords, Rajin Cajuns, Hook Line and Sisters, Wicked Tuna, Big Shrimpin', and Toughest Tribes, viewers can see the hazards these workers face first hand. But what do the numbers show? Fishers and related fishing workers have had the highest fatal injury rate of any occupation since 2005. Their rate of fatal injury in 2009 was 203.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, more than 50 times the all-worker rate of 3.5. From 2003 to 2009, an average of 48 fishers and related fishing workers died each year as a result of an injury incurred on the job. There were approximately 31,000 people employed as fishers and related fishing workers in 2009. This issue of BEYOND THE NUMBERS looks at data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program on fishers and related fishing workers for the period from 2003 to 2009. Although this report focuses primarily on fatal injuries among workers in this occupation, for context, it begins with some information on the nonfatal injuries and illnesses experienced by these workers. This is followed by a detailed description of what the data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) show about fatal injuries to fishers and related fishing workers during the 2003–2009 period. The final section gives an overview of the fatal injuries that occurred among a subset of the fishers and related fishing workers in the private shellfish fishing industry, including crab fishing, lobster fishing, and shrimp fishing, in order to provide more insight into the special hazards these workers endure.


The Constitution of Tanzania grants every child the right to education, yet a girl's access to education is denied when she becomes pregnant or gives birth. This study explored the experiences of pregnant and mothering students in secondary schools and the community awareness, attitudes and perceptions toward pregnancy policy in Tanzania. It sought insights into parenting students' challenges, coping strategies, and their suggestions on how to help teen mothers who are returning to school. One hundred respondents were selected using snowball sampling technique due the sensitivity of the matter. Data were collected and analyzed mainly through qualitative techniques. Seventy five percent of the participants were aware of the pregnancy policy and lamented on its staggering implementation. Ninety five participants (95%) acknowledged the presence of quietly struggling pregnant and mothering secondary school students due to the lack of clear policy to protect them. Coping abilities of teen mothers and pregnant learners were revealed. The education stakeholders were urged to authorize the policy soon. Further research to illustrate negative consequences of conflicting views and inconsistencies in implementing the policy were recommended Keywords: early pregnancy, mothering students, re-admission policy, gender inequality in education.


Background There are very limited number of literatures on cross-border communities and HIV/AIDS. The objective of this study is to assess the situation of HIV/AIDS among populations in the main transport corridors along Djibouti to Addis Ababa. Methodology The study was conducted in three hot spots along Djibouti to Addis Ababa rout, namely. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches employed in order to explore HIV/STI situations. Result A total of 120 truck drivers and their assistance were interviewed at 3 hot spots. 81.7% were truck drivers and 18.3% were truck drivers' assistants. A wide variety of health problems were reported; of all Malaria (98.3%), STI (81.1%), URTI (65.1%) and diarrhoea (63.3%). From all participants, 31.7% could not identify any STI symptoms, while the rest, 28.3%, 14.2% and 5.8% of them were known one, three and five symptoms, respectively. 48.3% of the participants have sought treatment, of whom 81% of them were treated at private clinics. The majority of FSWs are mobile with truck drivers (38.3), and 31.7 of them were not travel with truck drivers. The FSWs clients found to be truckers, port workers, uniformed services, government employee. Common health problems reported by FSWs were STI (95.2%), HIV/AIDS (74.8%), and malaria (22.1%). As symptoms, genital sores identified by 40%, vaginal discharge by 60%, burning sensation by 70%. Conclusion The highways were carrying relatively high volumes of traffic. Mobility of truckers and FSWs was high. Transactional sex is already at high level and condom use is low. There were high prevalent of self reported cases of STIs by truckers and FSWs. There is a need for targeted HIV programmes for FSWs and Truckers.


The paper analyses how perceptions of government quality – in terms of impartiality and efficiency – impact on attitudes to taxes and social spending. It builds on data from the European Social Survey 2008 from 29 European countries. The paper shows a large degree of congruence between expert-based judgments and the general public's perceptions of the quality of government. It also shows that the quality of government has a clear, independent effect on attitudes to taxes and spending, so that people who perceive institutions as efficient and fair want higher taxes and spending. But government quality also conditions the impact of egalitarianism on attitudes to taxes and spending: in high-quality-of-government egalitarianism has a clearly stronger impact on these attitudes. It is concluded that government quality is an important and so far neglected factor in explaining attitudes to welfare policies.


Electrodeposition of Zn–Zr oxide composite from an unagitated sulfate solution containing Zn2+ and Zr ions was investigated at pH 1–2 and at 313 K under galvanostatic conditions. The Zr content was higher in deposits formed from the solution at pH 2 than in those formed from the solution at pH 1 and initially decreased with increasing current density; however, when the current density was increased further, the Zr content in the deposits increased. This increase in Zr content was attributed to the acceleration of the hydrolysis of Zr ions by an increase in hydrogen evolution in the solution in the vicinity of cathode. In solutions containing Zr ions, Zn deposition was substantially polarized because of the electric resistance of lm of the Zr oxide formed by the hydrolysis of Zr ions. The pH in the vicinity of the cathode, as measured using an Sb microelectrode, was approximately 2.2, which is similar to the critical pH for the formation of ZrO2. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy point analysis of the deposits revealed that granular Zr oxide was deposited at the surfaces of the Zn platelet crystals and in the voids between the crystals. Polarization curves in 3 mass% NaCl solution revealed that the corrosion potential of the deposited Zn–1.1 mass% Zr oxide lms was more noble than that of Zn lms and that the corrosion current density of the Zn–1.1 mass% Zr oxide lms was lower than that of Zn lms. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2016084]


The presence of a close, low-mass companion is thought to play a substantial and perhaps necessary role in shaping post-Asymptotic Giant Branch and Planetary Nebula outflows. During post-main-sequence evolution, radial expansion of the primary star, accompanied by intense winds, can significantly alter the binary orbit via tidal dissipation and mass loss. To investigate this, we couple stellar evolution models (from the zero-age main-sequence through the end of the post-main sequence) to a tidal evolution code. The binary's fate is determined by the initial masses of the primary and the companion, the initial orbit (taken to be circular), and the Reimer's mass-loss parameter. For a range of these parameters, we determine whether the orbit expands due to mass loss or decays due to tidal torques. Where a common envelope phase (CEP) ensues, we estimate the final orbital separation based on the energy required to unbind the envelope. These calculations predict a period gap for planetary companions to white dwarfs. The upper end of the gap is the shortest period at which a CEP is avoided. The lower end is the longest period at which companions survive their CEP. We predict a paucity of planetary companions with periods between $\sim130$ days ($\sim0.35$ AU) and $\sim250$ days ($\sim0.6$ AU) around white dwarfs. This is consistent with the tentative detection of an $\sim2$ $M_{\rm J}$ planet in an $\gtrsim 2.7$ AU orbit around GD66.


There are many factors affecting the dark fermentative hydrogen production. The interaction of these factors, that is, their combined effects, should be investigated for better design of the systems with stable and higher hydrogen yields. This study aimed to investigate the combined effects of initial substrate, pH, and biomass (or initial substrate to biomass) values on hydrogen production from sucrose and sugar‐beet molasses. Therefore, optimum initial chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, and volatile suspended solids (VSS) or initial substrate to biomass (VSS) ratio (S/Xo) values leading to the highest dark fermentative hydrogen production were investigated in batch reactors. An experimental design approach (response surface methodology) was used. Results revealed that when sucrose was the substrate, maximum hydrogen production yield (HY) of 2.3 mol H2/mol sucroseadded was obtained at initial pH of 7 and COD of 10 g/L. Initial S/Xo values studied (4–20 g COD/g VSS) had no effect on HY, while the initial pH was found as the parameter mostly affecting both HY and hydrogen production rate (HPR). When substrate was molasses, initial COD concentration was the only variable affecting HY and HPR. Maximum of both was achieved at 10 g/L initial COD. Initial VSS values studied (2.5–7.5 g/L) had no effect on HPR and HY. This study also indicated that molasses leads to homoacetogenesis for potentially containing intrinsic microorganism and/or natural constituents; thus, sucrose is more advantageous for hydrogen production via fermentation. Homoacetogenesis should be prevented for effective optimization via response surface methodology, if substrate is a natural carbon source potential to have intrinsic microorganisms. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has established a reference 400-kV capacitive voltage divider for the purpose of calibrating industrial high-voltage measuring systems on site. In order to confirm the performance characteristics of the divider, a comparison of the calibration systems between KRISS and National Research Council Canada with the divider used as the transfer standard was conducted. This paper presents the comparison results and its analysis in obtaining the voltage-dependent performance characteristics of the reference 400-kV voltage divider over its entire range.


The paper discusses the pros and cons of the standardizing of designs for overhead lines up to 33 kV, and concludes that this can be done in a rational manner which will avoid any likelihood of stultification of new ideas. The preparation of suitable standard designs of overhead lines could be undertaken by a standing B.S.I. Committee in the usual way.Some of the Electricity Commissioners' Regulations are reviewed, with particular reference to their latest modifications for light lines.Details are given of the design for light h.v. lines up to 22 kV which has been evolved by the E.R.A. and which is now being considered by the B.S.I. Its adoption as a standard is recommended. With slight modifications, this design is shown to be adaptable for 33-kV working and also for heavier conductors.An alternative design, employing wood "H" poles and suspension insulators, is suggested for special cases.A low-voltage design is also detailed and recommended.Finally, closer co-operation with the Post Office and the railway companies is urged.


Using an experimental narrative approach, this study examines the effect of victim-offender gender on reactions to homicide offenders in domestic and bar situations. Quantitative findings suggest that respondents viewed a woman who killed a man in a bar as less guilty than offenders in some other gender-combination conditions. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the guilt assessment assigned to a woman who killed a man or to a man who killed a woman in a bar. Yet, in open-ended comments, respondents consistently described the men, whether defendants or victims, involved in fights with women in the bar in a highly negative manner. The other experiment revealed no significant differences in reactions to women and men who killed spouses at home. Our findings offer some support for both equality and leniency perspectives depending on the exact nature and gender combination of the homicide situation.


Achievement of fit between the residual limb and prosthetic socket during socket manufacture is a priority for clinicians and is essential for safety. Clinicians have recognised the potential benefits of having a sensor system that can provide objective socket-limb interface pressure measurements during socket fitting, but the cost of existing systems makes current technology prohibitive. This study will report on the characterisation, validation and preliminary clinical implementation of a low cost, portable, wireless sensor system designed for use during socket manufacture. Characterisation and benchtop testing demonstrated acceptable accuracy, behaviour at variable temperature, and dynamic response for use in prosthetic socket applications. Our sensor system was validated with simultaneous measurement by a commercial sensor system in the sockets of three transtibial prosthesis users during a fitting session in the clinic. There were no statistically significant differences between the sensor system and the commercial sensor for a variety of functional activities. The sensor system was found to be valid in this clinical context. Future work should explore how pressure data relates to ratings of fit and comfort, and how objective pressure data might be used to assist in clinical decision making.


The analysis of hyperspectral imagery promises to provide technical solutions to problems in many areas of research; this is particularly true of target acquisition. Exploiting high spectral resolution data contributes greatly to the discrimination power of standard image processing techniques. This additional dimension of information is based on the physical characteristics of the target material under consideration. The present research addresses the problem of the detection of a point target, moving with sub-pixel velocity, from a time sequence of hyperspectral data cubes. The emphasis in this paper will be on the degree of improvement in target detection algorithms that can be expected as a function of the degree of difference between the target and background signatures. Differences obtained between the use of real spectral signatures, compared to synthetic ones, for the noise, background and target end-members, and their implication on the detection results will be discussed. The standard matched filter for target detection is broadened and improved by advanced non-data dependent techniques. In order to estimate algorithm performance, five different tests (detection methods of varying sophistication) were applied to the real hyper-spectral data. The results were compared to the synthetic data outcome; conclusions regarding the threshold needed for spectral differences for the target detection to be notably improved are reached. The major focus of the research is a comparative understanding of the target detection results in different scenarios: strongly, partially and lightly cluttered sequences.


In this article, we present a method for valuing the multidimensional aspects of urban commons. This method draws from and contributes to a broader conception of social or community returns on investment, using the case and data of a vibrant project, strategy, and model of ecological resilience, R‐Urban, on the outskirts of Paris. R‐Urban is based on networks of urban commons and collective hubs supporting civic resilience practices. We use data from 2015, the year before one of the hubs was evicted from its site by a municipal administration that could not see the value of an "urban farm" compared to a parking lot. We combine estimates of the direct revenues generated for a host of activities that took place in R‐Urban, including an urban farm, community recycling centre, a greenhouse, community kitchen, compost school, cafe, a teaching space, and a mini‐market. We then estimate the market value of volunteer labour put into running the sites, in addition to the value of training and education conducted through formal and informal channels, and the new jobs and earnings that were generated due to R‐Urban activity. Finally, we estimate the monetary value of the savings made by an environmentally conscious design that focused on water recycling, soil and biodiversity improvement, and social and health benefits, breaking them down by savings to the organization, participants and households involved in R‐Urban itself, as well as savings to the state and the planet. Although our article is built on specific quantities from a concrete project, the method has wide applicability to urban commons of many types seeking to demonstrate the worth and value of all their many facets and activities.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of air plasma spraying process parameters on the tribological behavior and surface characteristics of quasicrystal coatings. For this purpose, the response surface method (RSM), one of the designs of experiment (DOE) was utilized to systematically investigate the combined effects of each process parameters. The RSM analysis revealed that the superior tribological performance of quasicrystal coatings was obtained by the optimized condition of specific micro-hardness and porosity level. It was specially quoted that the relatively low hardness of quasicrystal coatings caused the improvement of abrasive wear resistance during the current investigation.


In this paper, a mathematical model has been developed for the cutting tool stresses in machining of nickel-based super alloy Inconel 718 used in aircraft and spacecraft industries, nuclear power systems and steam generators etc. necessitating oxidation and corrosion resistance, high temperature and strength. The cutting forces were measured by a series of experimental measurements and stress distributions on the cutting tool were analyzed by means of the finite element method using Ansys software. The mathematical modeling process of the compressive stresses in x, y and z directions was carried out with multiple regression analysis regarding to Ansys stress results depending on the cutting forces and the chip–tool contact area. It is found that model results had good agreement with the Ansys stress results.


Needs of users, gaining a competitive advantage and direct financial reasons are argued to drive servitization. This would prepare manufacturers for increased competition and helps to escape commoditization through increasing the focus on service. While scholars contributed to a relatively homogeneous body of research suggesting an ever increasing process of servitization, managers seem to be more careful and sometimes refusing to agree on this path.Taking research about doubting practitioners and first contributions about counter reactions to servitization as its point of departure, this thesis aims on exploring factors leading to limit or even reverse servitization. It is argued that for this purpose, current takes on defining servitization are not suitable for their unidirectional understanding of the concept. Therefore, the thesis relies on a definition that is set up to be adjustable towards limited and reversed servitization as well, in order to come to a shared understanding of the concepts for which determining factors are then explored. The empirical study itself is designed as multiple-case study and carried out in one company in machinery and plan engineering, the other operating in the pharma sector.The findings emphasise a split between company specific factors and more universal ones, demonstrating the importance of the relation between service strategy and the business environment a manufacturer operates in. In contrast to previous research, few factors causing reversed servitization have been explored due to the decision to not purposefully select the cases. In contrast, most factors explored were found to be determining limited servitization being in line with the careful servitization of the case companies in general. Surprisingly, limited servitization is also working in restricting reversed servitization. This is argued to be reasoned in the function of must-have service offers as business enablers, even for manufacturers which meet servitization sceptically.


Lean entered management lexicon over two decades ago as a term to describe the highly successful Toyota Production System. Since then the term has evolved and is now generally used to describe a business process improvement methodology. Over time, Lean has inspired a movement. It provides the rationale for considerable work and activity that is taking place within many diverse organisations today. The purpose of this study was to explore that movement and spread of Lean over time. A review of the literature showed that research on Lean relies heavily on case studies where the unit of analysis is the organisation and that little research focused on the spread or diffusion of Lean into a population of organisations. The review also identified two bodies of work particularly well-placed to provide theoretical underpinning for the study: the work on the diffusion of innovations and, the work on the management of fashions and fads. The research was designed to contribute to knowledge in all three areas of literature. The research design and methodology included two main methods of data collection: a database of publications on Lean was developed in order to enable patterns of Lean discourse to be traced over time in-depth interviews were conducted in order to gather expert judgement on the nature of UK Lean diffusion. The findings indicate that Lean diffusion has taken place in the UK in the period under inquiry. Lean originated in manufacturing, it later diffused in the service sector and more recently into the public sector. The findings establish that explanations of Lean diffusion in the extant Lean literature, which are generally based on a rational choice perspective, represent an overly simplistic view of diffusion. Lean diffusion has occurred as a result of the interaction of multiple factors. Some factors are generic to other managerial innovations, others are specific to Lean. Some factors were more important to early Lean diffusion and are less so to later Lean diffusion (and vice-versa). In this exploratory study, the main influencing factors are brought together in a conceptual framework for Lean diffusion. As Lean penetrates into environments such as public services, the framework offers potential for further empirical testing.


This essay examines "professions of friendship": efforts by populations who are targeted as enemies of the state to proclaim their historical fidelity to the state's foundation and preservation. Such declarations often reinscribe a rigid and often violently statist narrative of politics. The essay argues that the retrenchment of this narrative, when reissued in the name of friendship, does not simply close down political options. It seeks to embolden sentiments of moral obligation across instituted lines of enmity. These solicitations of friendship are burdened by a particular historical task: to envision a past and a future of social cohabitation in a present where its possibilities have been violently undermined and morally devalued. The essay centers on two instances that bookend the past century: the first was delivered in Istanbul by an organization speaking on behalf of Armenians living in territories claimed by the Turkish nationalist movement in 1922; the second was issued by a Kurdish Peace Mother in Diyarbakır, as a plea for an end to state violence in late 2015.


In the present paper the experimental results, recently obtained by the authors, regarding the monotonic and the cyclic flexural response of normal and high‐strength concrete beams reinforced with steel bars and discontinuous fibers, are shown. From the experimental results, all referred to low values of shear‐to‐depth ratios, it emerges clearly that the shear failure is brittle especially under cyclic actions highlighting the role of the fibers in the flexural behavior of the beams. The cyclic action produces a significant decay in the stiffness and in the strength capacity of the beams, and the addition of fibers reduces these negative effects. Form theoretical point of view good agreement can be found utilizing the recent analytical model proposed by the authors.


Non-destructive magnetic Barkhausen noise (BN) measurements are most widely used for studying the grinding burns from hardened and ground samples. The formation of the grinding burns occurs due to excess of heat generation and produces thus changes in the residual stresses and microstructure. The BN method can be used for quality control purposes because it is sensitive to changes both in stresses and microstructure. The important part of the BN inspection procedure is the verification that the sensor and the equipment are working properly. One option is to use calibration pieces to evaluate the operation of the sensor before the actual measurements. The best way is to use similar components and same measurement procedure as to be studied. The components should have artificially produced burn marks to mimic the damaged areas of grinding burns. To validate the BN measurement results properly, the BN sensor needs to be verified with both thermally damaged and thermally undamaged sample surfaces. In this work, two different procedures to manufacture artificial burn marks were studied. A temperature controlled, robotic-assisted, laser system was used to perform temperature controlled tempering marks on carburised gear wheel teeth surfaces. Also, hydrogenoxygen flame with robotic control was used to produce artificial burn marks on the surfaces of carburised gear wheel teeth. The aim was to analyse the suitability of thermal damages created by these two methods by comparing the BN readings of them to each other. The new, temperature controlled, laser system was found to produce uniform quality thermal damages. While the hydrogenoxygen process was found to be more unpredictable and it needs to be controlled extremely carefully i.e. with robotic manipulation of the flame. The speed of the hydrogen-oxygen flame affected the RMS values stronger than the other tested parameters.


This guide will take you through all you need to make the most out of the resources available to you through the library.


The CBIR tends to index and retrieve images based on their visual content. CBIR avoid many evils connected with conservative ways of retrieve images by keywords. Thus, a rising interest in the area of CBIR has been known in current years. The arrangement of a CBIR system mainly depends on the particular image illustration and similarity matching function working. The CBIR tends to index and retrieve images based on their visual content. CBIR avoids many problems associated with traditional ways of retrieving images by keywords. Thus, a growing interest in the area of CBIR has been established in recent years. The performance of a CBIR system mainly depends on the particular image representation and similarity matching function employed. So a new CBIR system is proposed which will provide accurate results as compare to previous developed systems. Soft system will be used in this system. Based Image recovery system which evaluates the similarity of each image in its data accumulate to a query image in terms of various visual features and return the image with desired range of similarity. To develop and put into practice an efficient feature extraction NN and SVM to extract features according to data set using Auto calculate the feature weight by neural network. The precision and recall graph in gui according to the retrieved contents of the images from the datasets. To Apply back propagation or feed forward algorithm for neural network classification. To calculate cross relationship and apply weakening model for feature matching.


Due to the multi-dimensional characteristics of professionalism, no single assessment modality has shown to reliably assess professionalism. This review aims to describe some of the popular assessment tools that are being used to assess professionalism with a view to formulate a framework of assessment of professionalism in medicine. In December 2015, the online research databases of MEDLINE, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Elton Bryson Stephens Company (EBSCO), SCOPUS, OVID and PsychINFO were searched for full-text English language articles published during 2000 to 2015. MeSH terms "professionalism" AND "duty" AND "assessment" OR "professionalism behavioural" AND "professionalism-cognitive" were used. The research articles that assessed professionalism across medical fields along with other areas of competencies were included. A final list of 35 articles were selected for this review. Several assessment tools are available for assessing professionalism that includes, but not limited to, mini clinical evaluation exercise, standardised direct observation of procedural skills, professionalism mini-evaluation exercise, multi-source feedback and 360 degree evaluation, and case based discussions. Because professionalism is a complex construct, it is less likely that a single assessment strategy will adequately measure it. Since every single assessment tool has its own weaknesses, triangulation involving multiple tools can compensate the shortcomings associated with any single approach. Assessment of professionalism necessitates a combination of modalities at individual, interpersonal, societal, and institutional levels and should be accompanied by feedback and motivational reflection that will, in turn, lead to behaviour and identity formation. The assessment of professionalism in medicine should meet the criteria of validity, reliability, feasibility and acceptability. Educators are urged to enhance the depth and quality of assessment instruments in the existing medical curricula for ensuring validity and reliability of assessment tools for professionalism.


In this paper we report on optical pump-probe measurements on BDN-doped polycarbonate irradiated with laser pulses ranging from 25fs to 1.2ps in duration and up to fluences of 0.1 J/cm(2) at 800nm wavelength. Transient change of the transmission has been measured as a function of pump-probe delay and pump fluence. Pulse duration dependent channels of saturation have been identified and the ground state repopulation (GSR) time has been determined.


The need to integrate massively increasing amounts of data on the mammalian brain has driven several ambitious neuroscientific database projects that were started during the last decade. Databasing the brain's anatomical connectivity as delivered by tracing studies is of particular importance as these data characterize fundamental structural constraints of the complex and poorly understood functional interactions between the components of real neural systems. Previous connectivity databases have been crucial for analysing anatomical brain circuitry in various species and have opened exciting new ways to interpret functional data, both from electrophysiological and from functional imaging studies. The eventual impact and success of connectivity databases, however, will require the resolution of several methodological problems that currently limit their use. These problems comprise four main points: (i) objective representation of coordinate-free, parcellation-based data, (ii) assessment of the reliability and precision of individual data, especially in the presence of contradictory reports, (iii) data mining and integration of large sets of partially redundant and contradictory data, and (iv) automatic and reproducible transformation of data between incongruent brain maps. Here, we present the specific implementation of the 'collation of connectivity data on the macaque brain' (CoCoMac) database (http://www.cocomac.org). The design of this database addresses the methodological challenges listed above, and focuses on experimental and computational neuroscientists' needs to flexibly analyse and process the large amount of published experimental data from tracing studies. In this article, we explain step-by-step the conceptual rationale and methodology of CoCoMac and demonstrate its practical use by an analysis of connectivity in the prefrontal cortex.


Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the role of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) parameters in predicting the expression status of HER2 in gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) patients before radical gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: A total of 460 GAC patients who underwent non-contrast CT (NC-CT) and CE-CT examinations before radical resection were enrolled in this retrospective study. The radiologists reviewed their CT scans and recorded parameters, including CT attenuate value (CAV) and corrected CAV (cCAV). The pathologist identi fi ed the postoperative HER2 expression status, and HER2 expression status was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining (IHC). The association between CE-CT parameters and HER2 expression status was analyzed. Results: Among the 460 patients, 84 patients had HER2 over-expression status, at a prevalence of 18.3%. The CAVs were signi fi cantly different between the 2 different HER2 expression groups in the non-contrast and arterial phases (non-contrast phase: p = 0.005; arterial phase: p < 0.001). Besides, there was a signi fi cant difference in the cCAVs between the 2 groups in the arterial phase (arterial phase: p = 0.003). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses identi fi ed that the maximum diameter of tumor, differentiation degree, CAV in non-contrast, arterial, and portal phases, and cCAV in the arterial phase were predictive factors of HER2 expression status. Conclusion: Our analyses showed that the CE-CT parameters were signi fi cantly different between different HER2 expression groups. CE-CT parameters could serve as simple, objective predictive factors of HER2 expression status of GAC patients.


[1] Values of δ13C were investigated of CH4 trapped in the soil pore water and floodwater of and emitted from a rice field under continuous flooding throughout the fallow and following rice seasons, and CH4 produced via different pathways and fraction of CH4 oxidized was calculated by using the isotopic data. Pore water CH4 was relatively 13C depleted, with δ13C values about −65‰ over the season except between July and August (around −55‰). Also, hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was very important (around 50%) for most of the season, while acetoclastic methanogenesis dominated (about 70%) only between July and August. Floodwater CH4 was heavier in δ13C value (from −50‰ to −34‰) than pore water CH4 (from −68‰ to −54‰) over the season, demonstrating that it is highly influenced by methanotrophy. The δ13C value of emitted CH4was negatively correlated with flux in temporal variation (P <0.05), and it was more positive in the fallow season (between −56‰ and −44‰) than in the rice season (between −68‰ and −48‰). This indicates that plant-mediated CH4 transport is probably a more important pathway and causes less CH4 oxidation during the rice season than during the fallow season, which is further confirmed by the fraction of CH4 oxidized being generally greater in the fallow season (60%–90%) than in the rice season (10%–80%). These findings suggest a low contribution of acetoclastic methanogenesis and a high fraction of CH4 being oxidized in the field, especially in the fallow season.


A rare case of pseudosarcomatous fasciitis of the breast is presented. Both the clinical examination and the mammographic findings led us to expect a malignant lesion. Fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology, however, was negative, with the cells observed indicating a benign lesion. The benignity was proven by histologic examination of the extirpated nodule. The usefulness of aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of this entity and the need for a combined methodology in the diagnosis of breast tumors are emphasized.


In Japan it is one of the major issues that young adults with social withdrawal called Hikikomori would neither relate others personally nor work and spend almost whole time at home after their graduation. The purpose of this study is to research current situations of Hikikomori in a provincial capital Morioka and investigate factors of their recovery. The result showed that hikikomori is expanded from teens to fifties and it is expected that the period of hikikomori might be longer in elders. Also family members were reluctant to consult specified agencies or psychiatrists. As the result showed the important role of the psychiatric support for their recovery, it is needed the recommendation of consulting with support institutions.


The increasing popularity of cell phones has made them the most personal and ubiquitous communication devices nowadays. Typically, the ringing notifications of mobile phones are used to inform the users about the incoming calls. However, the notifications of inappropriate incoming calls sometimes cause interruptions not only for the users but also the surrounding people. In this paper, we present a data-driven approach to infer the opportune moments for such phone call interruptions based on user's unavailability, i.e., when a user is unable to answer the incoming phone calls, by analyzing individual's past phone log data, and to discover the corresponding phone silent mode configuring rules for the purpose of minimizing call interruptions in an automated intelligent system. Experiments on the real mobile phone datasets show that our approach is able to identify the opportune moments for call interruptions and generates corresponding silent mode configuring rules by capturing the dominant behavior of individual users' at various times-of-the-day and days-of-the week.


During vertebrate gastrulation, convergence and extension movements elongate embryonic tissues anteroposteriorly and narrow them mediolaterally. Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling is essential for mediolateral cell elongation underlying these movements, but how this polarity arises is poorly understood. We analyzed cell elongation, orientation, and migration behaviors of lateral mesodermal cells undergoing convergence and extension movements in wild-type embryos and mutants for the Wnt/PCP core component Trilobite/Vangl2. We demonstrate that Vangl2 function is required at the time when cells transition to a highly elongated and mediolaterally aligned body. We show that tri/vangl2 mutant cells fail to undergo this transition and to migrate along a straight path and high net speed towards the dorsal midline. Instead, tri/vangl2 mutant cells exhibit an anterior/animal pole bias in their cell body alignment and movement direction, suggesting that PCP signaling promotes effective dorsal migration in part by suppressing anterior/animalward cell polarity and movement. Endogenous Vangl2 protein accumulates at the plasma membrane of mesenchymal converging cells at the time its function is required for mediolaterally polarized cell behavior. Heterochronic cell transplantations demonstrated that Vangl2 cell membrane accumulation is stage dependent, and regulated by both intrinsic factors and an extracellular signal, which is distinct from PCP signaling or other gastrulation regulators, including BMP and Nodals. Moreover, mosaic expression of fusion proteins revealed enrichment of Vangl2 at the anterior cell edges of highly mediolaterally elongated cells, consistent with the PCP pathway core components' asymmetric distribution in Drosophila and vertebrate epithelia.


Curled polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) microfibers were prepared successfully with a modified electrospinning setup in which the commonly used collector, a piece of aluminum foil was replaced by a steel nail (a tip collector). PVP (45 wt %) ethanol solution was used.with the increase of voltage, the proportion of the curled fibers increased and the uniformity of the curled fibers improved, also the repeat distance (wavelength) of the curled structures became smaller. In addition, some curled fibers developed into helical structures under relatively high voltages. Further analyses suggest that the mechanism for the curled PVP fibers could be ascribed to electric driven bending instability and/or mechanical jet buckling when hitting the hard collector surface.


Schema mappings represent a basic concept of data integration and data exchange, expressing the relationship between database schemas. They can be seen as declarative programs, transforming the data from one schema to another, or rewriting a query against one schema as a query against another schema. A typical situation is when syntactically different mappings have the same effect with respect to a given task in information integration. However, syntactical differences may have dramatic effects on the consumption of computational resources, which are required for solving the task. Considering mappings leading to the same end result for the task at hand as equivalent, one can formulate the semantic optimization problem as follows: among multiple equivalent mappings find those that yield the least resource consumption. The first step towards the goal of schema mapping optimization has been made by Fagin et al. in 2008 by introducing three basic notions of schema mapping equivalence and studying their properties. This dissertation extends the theory of schema mapping optimization in several directions. The first part of this dissertation deals with the question of optimization and normalization of schema mappings with respect to the standard notion of logical equivalence. We formulate the concrete optimality criteria for schema mappings given by embedded dependencies, and define a system of rewrite rules, transforming a mapping given by a set of source-to-target dependencies into an optimal one. We also prove that the result of applying our rewrite rule system is unique up to renaming of variables. Moreover, we extend this result by defining a unique normal form in the presence of target equality generating dependencies and show the trade-off between uniqueness and optimality in this setting. In the second part of the dissertation, we move on to the relaxed notions of equivalence, proposed by Fagin et al.: namely, to data exchange equivalence and to conjunctive query equivalence. If no integrity constraints are defined over the target schema, these notions are known to coincide with logical equivalence. We show that this result holds even if the target schema includes integrity constraints, under the assumption that the schema and the constraints are fixed. If the target constraints are taken as part of the mapping and are allowed to vary, the relaxed notions of equivalence are known to become undecidable. For conjunctive query equivalence, this holds even if the target constraints are restricted to primary keys. We separate the two relaxed notions of equivalence by identifying a practically relevant class of target integrity constraints


Background: The immune status of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is not fully investigated and predictive biomarkers for immunotherapies are needed. Blockade of PD-1/PD L1 pathways in T cell subsets can exert anti-leukemia responses. We here investigated, at the single T cell level, functionality of bone marrow (BM) T cells in AML at diagnosis and relapse, and in patients responding/not responding to PD1 inhibition. Methods: Pre-therapy BM aspirates were collected from newly diagnosed and relapsed AML patients and from relapsed patients treated with azacitidine/nivolumab (NCT02397720). CD4 and CD8 T cells were stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 and loaded into IsoCode chip containing ~12,000 micro-chambers with a 32-plex antibody array. Protein secretion from ~1000 single cells was analyzed by fluorescence ELISA-based assay; polyfunctional profile was analyzed by IsoSpeak (IsoPlexis). Results: We demonstrate that BM T cells from new AML (n=13) exhibit polyfunctionality and polyfunctional strength index (PSI) indistinguishable from that of normal control lymphocytes. However, newly diagnosed, untreated patients with AML carryingTP53 mutations show a pronounced decrease in PSI (wt p53: 73.5 ± 27.6, vs. mt p53: 6.6 ± 2.8, p=0.013) and polyfunctionality (p = 0.0476). The difference was observed in both CD4 and CD8 T cell subsets, respectively (CD4: 90.5 ± 44.5 vs. 9.0 ± 5.3; CD8: 56.7 ± 35.5 vs. 4.2 ± 2.0). Relapsed AML (n = 13) also showed significantly impaired polyfunctionality (p 10, Overall survival of patients with 10 was significant at p= 0.0018. The markedly enhanced PSI of BM CD4 T cells in the responders was primarily composed of increased granzyme B, IFN-γ, IL-5, TNF-α, IL-8, and IL-10 proteins compared to non-responders. Conclusions: Single-cell multiplexed proteomics precision profiling identifies a polyfunctional downregulation in BM T cells in patients with relapsed AML compared to newly-diagnosed patients, and an equally pronounced functional defect in newly diagnosed patients with TP53 mutations, while newly diagnosed AML patients with wtTP53 display normal polyfunctionality. The pre-therapy PSI was a strong predictor of response and OS in relapsed patients treated with Nivolumab/azacitidine and could be used to select patients in prospective clinical trials. Citation Format: Naval Daver, Hagop Kantarjian, Sean Mackay, Brianna Flynn, Sreyashi Basu, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Mansour Alfayez, Marina Konopleva, Jairo Matthews, Steven Kornblau, Ellias Jabbour, Jing Zhou, Michael Andreeff. Polyfunctionality determined by single-cell proteomics of bone marrow-derived CD4 T cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia identifies patients responding to anti-PD-1-based therapy and discovers profound T cell defect in mutant TP53 disease [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-222.


Zwitterionic copolymers were synthesised from N,N-dimethyl-N-(2-acryloylethyl)-N-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine (SPDA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) produce a series of polyzwitterion hydrogels. For the synthesis of the charge-balanced copolymer hydrogels, two cationic monomers were selected: 2-(diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 3-(dimethylamino) propyl methacrylamide (DMAPMA), and an anionic monomer; 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid (AMPS). Two series of charge-balanced copolymers were synthesized from stoichiometrically equivalent ratios of DMAEMA or DMAPMA and AMPS with HEMA as a termonomer. All synthesized copolymers produced clear and cohesive hydrogels. The zwitterionic and charge-balanced copolymers displayed similar equilibrium water contents together with similar mechanical and surface energy properties. The swelling of the zwitterionic and the charge-balanced copolymers shows some features of antipolyelectrolyte behavior.


The interpretation of genetic variants identified during clinical sequencing has come to rely heavily on reference population databases such as the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC). Genuinely pathogenic variants, particularly in genes associated with severe autosomal dominant conditions, are assumed to be absent or extremely rare in these databases. Clinical exome sequencing of a six-year-old female patient with seizures, global developmental delay, dysmorphic features and failure to thrive identified an ASXL1 variant that was previously reported as causative of Bohring-Opitz syndrome (BOS). Surprisingly, the variant was observed seven times in the ExAC database, presumably in individuals without BOS. Although the BOS phenotype matched the presentation of the patient, the presence of the variant in reference population databases introduced ambiguity in result interpretation. Interrogation of the literature revealed that acquired somatic mosaicism of ASXL1 variants (including known pathogenic variants) during hematopoietic clonal expansion may be concomitant with aging in healthy individuals. We examined all high quality ASXL1 predicted truncating variant calls in the ExAC database and determined the majority could be attributed to this phenomenon. Failure to consider somatic mosaicism may lead to the inaccurate assumption that conditions like Bohring-Opitz syndrome have reduced penetrance, or the misclassification of potentially pathogenic variants.


We present a new experimental technique that affords direct quantification of the fraction of charge carriers lost in poly(3-hexylthiophene): fullerene solar cells by bimolecular recombination. Depending on annealing conditions up to 17% of carriers recombine bimolecularly under solar illumination. We explain our findings with a closed analytical expression for the photocurrent generated by an organic solar cell.


The aim of this study is to assess teachers' perception of the Personal and Social Responsibility Model (TPSR) in their students' responsibility behaviors. The participants were 16 physical education teachers (12 men and 4 women), whose ages varied from 27 to 51 years old. They applied the TPSR in 714 students (395 boys and 319 girls), whose ages ranged from 11 to 16 years old (Mage=14.02; SD=1.73), through physical education lessons (twice a week) during twelve weeks. The Spanish version of the Personal and Social Responsibility Questionnaire (PSRQ) was the evaluation of the physical education lessons. The results referring to teachers' perception showed that the students in the experimental groups improved in personal and social responsibility variables after the application of the TPSR model. The implications of this study are discussed.


Abstract The structure of the Philippine archipelago results from the juxtaposition, between the Late Miocene and the present, of a volcanic belt against fragments of the Eurasian margin and associated marginal basins. The southern Philippines offers the opportunity of studying the mechanics of the deformation from active contraction to a more complex post-docking setting. The docking period is characterized by a compression which began during the early Late Miocene in the central Philippines and has been recently studied in the island of Mindanao. There, deformation initiated in the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene on a NW-trending wrench zone, and continued until the Late Pliocene with thrusting on west-verging flats and ramps within the arc and east-verging thrusts within the Sangihe forearc. This deformation is still active to the south in the Molucca Sea. The post-docking period began in the Early Pleistocene in northern Mindanao and is represented by a new geodynamic framework with a paired subduction zone and strike-slip fault. However, convergence is still active in the Manila and the Negros trenches, although the Philippine fault is not offset. Large wrench faults, which reactivate the ramp faults of the collision stage, transfer strain from the Philippine fault to the Manila and Negros trenches. These observations imply active intra-arc extension and fragmentation within the Philippine mobile belt.


A low-injury, high success rate, and no side effects treatment for curing heart physical defects is urgently needed in the medical field. Although with electrocardiographically (ECG) gated technology, the timeline information of heartbeat can be collected by Multi-detector Computed Tomography (MDCT), the traditional CPU-based volume rendering methods can not meet the dynamic cardiac real-time reconstruction. This paper presents a GPU texture mapping based dynamic cardiac 4D real time rendering method. It uses ECG-gated MDCT acquiring cardiac real-time volume data sets, each of which called one time-phased data and mapped to a GPU texture unit. The material and lighting properties, color and opacity data, computed by GPU, are also mapped to other two texture units. Then through the fragment programs, these textures are looked up, and the result pixel color is received. Volume textures switch are controlled by the time interval from ECG-gated 4D real-time cardiac data acquisition. Experimental results show that the method we presented can achieve a dynamic cardiac real-time rendering; quality is better, and speed faster enough to meet clinical needs.


V-doped TiO2 (V-TiO2) was synthesised using solvothermal technique and immobilised onto fibreglass cloth (FGC). The XRD pattern of doped sample showed slight positive shift to higher angle indicating that the V ions were well substituted into the Ti lattices. The band-gap energy of V-TiO2 was lower than that of P25, pure TiO2, (3.28 eV for P25 and 2.90 eV for V-TiO2) demonstrating it could be excited by visible light. The XANES spectra of the Ti K-edge transition indicated most Ti ions were in the tetravalent state with octahedral coordination. The A2 species on the surfaces of V-TiO2 were found to be the main active sites during photocatalytic degradation of BTEX under visible light irradiation.


Soft materials have a wide range of applications, which include the production of masks for nano–lithography, the separation of membranes with nano–pores, and the preparation of nano–size structures for electronic devices. Self–organization in soft matter is a primary mechanism for the formation of structure. Block copolymers are long chain molecules composed of several different polymer blocks covalently bonded into a single macromolecule, which belong to an important class of soft materials which can self–assemble into different nano–structures due to their natural ability to microphase separate. Experimental and theoretical studies of block copolymers are quite challenging and, without computer simulations, it is difficult and problematic to analyse modern experiments. The Cell Dynamics Simulation (CDS) technique is a fast and accurate computational technique, which has been used to investigate block copolymers.
The stability has been analysed by making use of different discrete Laplacian operators using well–chosen time steps in CDS. This analysis offers stability conditions for phase–field, based on the Cahn–Hilliard Cook (CHC) equations of which CDS is the finite difference approximation. To overcome grid related artefacts (discretization errors) in the computational grid, the study has been done for employing an isotropic Laplacian operator in the CDS framework. Several 2D and 3D discrete Laplacians have been quantitatively compared for their isotropy. The novel 2D 9–point BV(D2Q9) isotropic stencil operators have been derived from the B.A.C. van Vlimmeren method and their isotropy measure has been determined optimally better than other exiting 2D 9–point discrete Laplacian operators. Overall, the stencils in 9–point family Laplacians in 2D and the 19–point stencil operators in 3D have been found to be optimal in terms of isotropy and time step stability.
Considerable implementation of Laplacians with good isotropy has played an important role in achieving a proper structure factor in modelling methods of block copolymers.
The novel models have been developed by implementing CDS via more stable implicit methods, including backward Euler, Crank–Nicolson (CN) and Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) methods. The CN scheme were implemented for both one order and two order parameter systems in CDS and successful results were obtained compared to forward Euler method. Due to the implementation of implicit methods, the CDS has achieved second–order accuracy both in time and space and it has become stronger, robust and more stable technique for simulation of the phase–separation phenomena in soft materials.


Purpose This research aimed to explore the role of miR-221-5p on the sensitivity of gastric cancer cells to cisplatin, and the proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer cells by regulating DDR1. Patients and Methods Altogether 69 patients who treated with radical gastrectomy from January 2014 to January 2016 were collected. With the agree of the patients, 69 gastric carcinoma and 69 adjacent tissues were taken, respectively, during the operation, and gastric carcinoma and human gastric mucosa cells were purchased. RT-PCR was used for detection of the expression level of miR-221-5p and DDR1. Wound healing assay and CCK-8 assay were used for exploration of the cell migration and viability. Western blot and double luciferase reporter gene were performed to determine the target gene of miR-221-5p. Results It was showed that miR-221-5p expression was decreased in GC tissues and cell lines. The high expression of miR-221-5p reduced the resistance of GC cells to cisplatin and inhibited the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells. The high expression of miR-221-5p promoted the proliferation, invasion and migration of GC cells. In addition, we found that DDR1 was a direct target gene of miR-221-5p in GC cells. We found that DDR1 expression increased in gastric carcinoma. Moreover, there was a negative correlation of DDR1 with the expression level of miR-221-5p. The increase of miR-221-5p increased the chemosensitivity of GC cells to cisplatin, and inhibited the proliferation, invasion, migration and EMT of GC cells by targeting DDR1. Conclusion The above research indicated that miR-221-5p may be a target for enhancing cisplatin chemotherapy sensitivity in gastric cancer patients.


This paper examines the development of a variety of evidential lexical items in Modern Greek from a longitudinal perspective involving 4;6 – 11;7 year olds. The main question to be addressed concerns parallel or asynchronous order of acquisition: Does the ability to use evidentials emerge for all items under investigation synchronically or does such an ability emerge earlier on for certain items while later for others? If the latter holds, how can this developmental lag be explained? An answer to these questions will draw on the pragmatic-cognitive abilities engaged by different types of evidential markers, and in particular, on the complexity of metarepresentations (Sperber 1994; Wilson 2000, 2005) different evidential markers rely on in order to be used by young children.


Abstract This thesis contributes insights on how condensed tannins might mediate the interactions between woody plants and large herbivores in the African savannas. Current understanding in this regard is still based on data from short-term laboratory experiments, mostly with confined animals and a few correlative field studies that only explore relationships between tannin concentrations of plants with their intake. Although these experiments are a necessary first step in isolating and characterising the effects of condensed tannins, they oversimplify the complex interactions that occur between wild herbivores or livestock and plants. The challenge for research is to translate the roles of tannins in plant-herbivore interactions from controlled experiments to field conditions. The aims of this research were: to (1) investigate how condensed tannins influence foraging behaviour and growth performance of free-ranging ruminant herbivores, and (2) determine the effects of supplements on use of woody plants and intake rates of condensed tannins by free-ranging herbivores in a semi-arid savanna. Field experiments were conducted and data collected on free-ranging goats as models for all mixed feeders that share similar characteristics with goats. Condensed tannin exposure levels to goats were experimentally increased in the field by orally dosing 15 goats with 20g condensed tannin powder extracted from a bark of tannin-rich species. To reduce tannin exposure, 15 goats were dosed with 20 g of PEG in an attempt to neutralize tannin effects, and another group of 15 goats was dosed only with water and served as a control group. Feeding behaviour of goats supplemented with a protein-rich source, an energy-rich source were compared with that of goats that were not supplemented. The results indicated that mixed feeders exposed to high levels of condensed tannins spend more time grazing and less time browsing compared to animals with low tannin exposure. However, the findings did not support expectation for tannins to reduce overall foraging time. Therefore, it was concluded that condensed tannins do not necessarily suppress foraging, but only influence the amount of time animals spend foraging on either herbaceous or woody forage. These findings also supported hypothesis that herbivores forage in ways that minimize their intake rate of condensed tannins. Animals altered their foraging behaviour depending on the treatment groups they were allocated to, and compiled diets that indicated tannin minimization as a goal. Moreover, there was support for the notion that condensed tannins are digestibility reducers. It was clear that free-ranging animals are able to employ their behavioural adaptations to chemical defences in ways that mitigate the negative physiological effects on their presumed ultimate fitness. This thesis presents possible effects of nutrient-tannin/toxin interactions on herbivores in African savannas. In the supplementation experiment, proteins and energy equally increased browse consumption by herbivores, with a concomitant increase in tannin intake rates. These results were explained in light of the ongoing bush encroachment in the African savannas. The expected increase in the availability of browse will probably impose a selection pressure for herbivores that can better utilise the encroaching woody plants known to be endowed with tannins and other carbon-based secondary metabolites. These results are used to generalise about the herbivore health, herbivore nutritional, and environmental benefits that are possible from managing our rangelands and herbivores in ways that increase utilization of chemically defended plants. For example, increased consumption of tannin-rich forage will not only improve nutrition, but it will also reduce internal parasite burden, and reduce bloating by ruminant herbivores while simultaneously reducing the methane emissions that lead to global warming.


Abstract We conducted a range‐wide investigation of the dynamics of site‐level reproductive rate of northern spotted owls using survey data from 11 study areas across the subspecies geographic range collected during 1993–2018. Our analytical approach accounted for imperfect detection of owl pairs and misclassification of successful reproduction (i.e., at least one young fledged) and contributed further insights into northern spotted owl population ecology and dynamics. Both nondetection and state misclassification were important, especially because factors affecting these sources of error also affected focal ecological parameters. Annual probabilities of site occupancy were greatest at sites with successful reproduction in the previous year and lowest for sites not occupied by a pair in the previous year. Site‐specific occupancy transition probabilities declined over time and were negatively affected by barred owl presence. Overall, the site‐specific probability of successful reproduction showed substantial year‐to‐year fluctuations and was similar for occupied sites that did or did not experience successful reproduction the previous year. Site‐specific probabilities for successful reproduction were very small for sites that were unoccupied the previous year. Barred owl presence negatively affected the probability of successful reproduction by northern spotted owls in Washington and California, as predicted, but the effect in Oregon was mixed. The proportions of sites occupied by northern spotted owl pairs showed steep, near‐monotonic declines over the study period, with all study areas showing the lowest observed levels of occupancy to date. If trends continue it is likely that northern spotted owls will become extirpated throughout large portions of their range in the coming decades.


The technique was emanated in early 1960s; nowadays, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a huge practice in treatment of various movement disorders along with some psychiatric disorders. The advancement of DBS in different neurodegenerative diseases and managing patients with refractory brain disorders are closely related to the developments in technology. This development in regard with the device advancement along with the safe coupling of DBS to high-resolution imaging can help us to shape our knowledge in brain-wide networks and circuits linked with clinical aspects. DBS is found to be useful in learning and memory. On the contrary, traditional epilepsy surgeries are more complicated and technologically DBS is easier and more feasible. There are mild adverse effects of this DBS treatment, but a number of studies have shown positive treatment outcome with movement disorders and many kinds of psychiatric disorders too.


A placebo-controlled study was conducted to test the effect of Calpis (Calpis Food Industry Co. Ltd. Tokyo, Japan) sour milk, ie, a milk fermented with a starter containing Lactobacillus helveticus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, on the blood pressure of 30 elderly hypertensive patients, most of whom were taking antihypertensive medication. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. One group ingested daily 95 mL of the sour milk for 8 wk, and the other group ingested the same amount of artificially acidified milk as a placebo for 8 wk. In the sour-milk group, systolic blood pressure decreased significantly 4 and 8 wk after ingestion, by 9.4 ± 3.6 mm Hg ( ± SE, P < 0.05) and 14. 1 ± 3.1 mm Hg (P < 0.01), respectively. The diastolic blood pressure also decreased significantly, by 6.9 ± 2.2 mm Hg (P < 0.01), by 8 wk after ingestion of the sour milk began. No significant changes in blood pressure were observed in the placebo group. The decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the sour-milk group tended to be greater than in the placebo group. No marked changes were observed in other indexes, including pulse rate, body weight, and blood serum variables in both groups. Am J C/in Nutr 1996;64:767-71.


Contrary to statements by Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African government is not ignoring a decision adopted at the African National Congress' (ANC's) 2007 national congress in Polokwane to ban "labour brokers" (s 198 Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) refers to "labour brokers" as "temporary employment services" (TES); Anon "Labour Brokers" Leadership 19 March 2012 available at http://bit.ly/13Wyg1v (accessed 2013-5-25)). This is confirmed by the ANC's 2009 election manifesto which called for laws that would "ensure decent work... introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out-sourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices" ("2009 ANC Election Manifesto" available at http://bit.ly/gP5gKl (accessed 2013-5-25); Benjamin "To regulate or to ban? Controversies over temporary employment services in South Africa and Namibia" in Labour Law Into the Future: Essays in Honour of D'Arcy du Toit (eds Malherbe & Sloth-Nielsen) (2012) 189 202).


For modern Diesel aftertreatment systems the ratio of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) to nitrogen oxides emissions (NOx) is of great importance for the conversion of total NOx especially at low loads and low engine out exhaust temperatures. As known from previous studies the relative air-fuel ratio and so the increase of oxygen has a major impact on the in-cylinder formation of NO2. As the focus lies mainly on increasing the relative air-fuel ratio by increasing the boost pressure the influence of bounded oxygen in oxygenated fuels is not yet fully understood and is therefore in the focus of this papers. Bounded oxygen offers the potential to release oxygen radicals, which can increase NO2 formation from nitrogen monoxide (NO) at higher pressures according to the principle of Le Chatelier. At low pressures, however, released oxygen radicals can also lead to a reduction of NO2. Additionally, concerning the in-cylinder formation of NO2, the formation of formaldehyde (HCHO) is focused in this investigation, too. Especially for the oxygenated fuel like OME3–5 which can be interpreted as a compound of formaldehyde molecules the HCHO emission might increase. Although HCHO has not yet been regulated for vehicles, its carcinogenic properties require its reduction as far as possible.
 In this paper, investigations are presented which were carried out on a single-cylinder Diesel engine with different oxygenated fuels such as oxymethylene ether compounds (OME3–5) and 2-ethoxyethyl ether (2-EEE) and blends of these components with conventional Diesel fuel. The relevant exhaust gas components were measured using different analysis method for high accuracy and mutual validation. To analyze the effects of the fuel composition on nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde formation the fuels are compared with pure Diesel fuel operation. Several operating points were investigated together while varying engine parameters such as relative air-fuel ratio, EGR rate, injection timing and injection pressure in a one-factor-time parameter study. Additionally, at a low load operating point a Design of Experiments (DoE) study was done to see the statistical impact and the main influencing parameters of the formation of NO2 and HCHO. Furthermore, other typical Diesel emissions like particulates, carbon monoxide and the total nitrogen oxides are investigated and compared.
 The investigations show an inconsistent behavior at different operating points for NO2. In most operating points a decrease of NO2 is visible, which was attributed to a decrease of the total NOx emission. Especially at higher relative air-fuel ratios and so high charge pressures the potential of oxygenated fuels to increase the NO2 to NOx ratio becomes apparent. Due to the very low particulates emissions which can be achieved with OME3–5 fuel, no restriction on low relative air/fuel ratios and higher EGR rates regarding the particulate emissions (smoke limit) exists. The HCHO emissions show different behavior in these restriction zones. At partial load, high EGR rates and low relative air-fuel ratios, HCHO emissions increase. In contrast, when the load is increased and the stoichiometric conditions are reached, the HCHO emissions decrease.


ABSTRACT The relationship of the neutralizing activity (NA) profile of sera from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals to the HIV viral load and the absolute CD4 count was examined. The NA of 24 serum samples against autologous isolates (AI) and HIV type 1 strain MN was examined. Three NA patterns were recognized. Nine sera neutralized both AI and MN (+/+), six sera neutralized MN but not AI (−/+), and nine sera failed to neutralize both AI and MN (−/−). The identification of the three neutralization patterns (+/+, −/+, and −/−) indicated that resistance to neutralization was progressive. A reciprocal relationship between the viral burden of the patients and the NA profiles was observed. The nine subjects with a −/− NA profile had a plasma viral load of ≥5 × 104 copies/ml and a cellular viral burden of ≥1,122 infectious units per million viable cells, which were significantly different from those of the other groups (P < 0.02). These patterns were independent of the phenotypic characteristics of the virus. Longitudinally, subjects with a −/− profile at baseline gained their HIV-specific NA by 24 weeks of antiretroviral therapy when this was associated with a ≥1-log10 decline in the plasma HIV viral load. The sera from week 24 from some patients were able to neutralize both the 24-week and the baseline dominant virus isolates. A change in CD4 cell count of 50 or more in either direction predicted a −/− or +/+ profile. The verification of the autologous NA profile might be important in selecting patients who may benefit from immune-based therapies involving neutralizing monoclonal antibodies.


Widely used measures of growth in mean or median housing prices will reflect changes in the composition of dwellings sold as well as changes in demand and supply conditions. Using a suburb-level dataset from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand we use stratification techniques to adjust for compositional change and derive a timely and robust measure of housing prices for New Zealand. Results suggest this stratified measure produces estimates of housing price inflation that accord closely with the accurate but less timely figures obtained from the QV Quarterly House Price Index.


The traditional Indian medicine - Ayurveda, describes various herbs, fats, oils and minerals with anti-aging as well as wound healing properties. Wounds are the result of injuries to the skin that disrupt the soft tissue. Wound healing can be defined as a complex dynamic process results in the restoration of anatomic continuity and function. Various plant products have been used in treatment of wounds over the years. Wound healing herbal extracts promote blood clotting, fight infection, and accelerate the healing of wounds. Hence in the current review a list of the plants used in traditional medicine for the treatment of wounds were screened. It is a beneficial work for researchers to provide many details about the wound healing herbs and development of safe and effective and globally accepted herbal drugs for cuts and wounds.


Our understanding of the morphologic and genetic features of renal epithelial neoplasia has brought about profound changes in the classification of these tumors. It is clear that they represent a heterogeneous group of tumors with distinct histopathologic, genetic, and clinical features ranging from benign to high-grade malignant. "Granular" and "sarcomatoid" carcinomas are not distinct entities, since tumors with granular or spindle cell features may be seen in many tumor-types. Using conventional pathologic tools such as hematoxylin and eosin staining, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy, we are able to properly classify the majority of these tumors. Nevertheless, approximately 6% to 7% of cases are impossible to classify in this fashion, thus requiring molecular genetic studies for proper characterization.


Monitoring progress towards the 2030 Development Agenda requires the combination of traditional and new data sources in innovative workflows to maximize the generation of relevant information. We present the results of a participatory and data-driven land degradation assessment process at a national scale, which includes use of earth observation (EO) data, cloud computing, and expert knowledge for Argentina. Six different primary productivity trend maps were produced from a time series of the Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset (2000–2018), including the most widely used trajectory approach and five alternative methods, which include information on the timing and magnitude of the changes. To identify the land productivity trend map which best represented ground conditions, an online application was developed, allowing 190 experts to choose the most representative result for their region of expertise nationwide. Additionally, the ability to detect decreases in land productivity of each method was assessed in 43,614 plots where deforestation had been recorded. The widely used trajectory indicator was the one selected by most experts as better reflecting changes in land condition. When comparing indicators' performance to identify deforestation-driven reductions in productivity, the Step-Wise Approach Trend Index (SWATI), which integrates shortand long-term trends, was the one which performed the best. On average, decreases of land productivity indicate that 20% of the Argentine territory has experienced degradation processes between 2000 and 2018. The participatory data generation and verification workflow developed and tested here represents an innovative low cost, simple, and fast way to validate maps of vegetation trends and other EO-derived indicators, supporting the monitoring of progress towards land degradation neutrality by 2030.


Gas hydrate is a new energy in the 21st century with the characteristics of high energy density, huge amount of resources and cleaning. It has important significances for resources development, environmental protection and global climate changing. Due to the limitations of the occurrence mode and the technical level of marine gas hydrates, at present, the development and utilization of the resources are still tentative. This article analyzed and evaluated several key technologies to develop marine gas hydrates, that is depressurization, thermal methods, chemical injection method, CO2 replacement method, and fluorine gas+microwave method. However, these methods are difficult to control in the mining process. The research based on the properties of the occurrence of marine gas hydrate, used the principle of gas hydrate decomposition caused by vibration, by adjusting the excitation intensity, frequency, and amplitude. Different local oscillator strength applied on the Occurrence of gas hydrate layer. Gas hydrate stable state changed in mining region, prompting the gas hydrate conversing from solid to gas. Numerical simulations show: Low-frequency vibration should be used in the layers with higher hydrate saturation. The vibration frequency should be improved in the layers with lower hydrate saturation. The method has a good controllability for the region and the process of mining, avoiding geological disasters and environmental issues in the seabed caused by the mining process losing control.


Advances in the capabilities of the display-related technologies with potential uses in simulation training devices continue to occur at a rapid pace. Simultaneously, ongoing reductions in defense spending stimulate the services to push a higher proportion of training into ground-based simulators to reduce their operational costs. These two trends result in increased customer expectations and desires for more capable training devices, while the money available for these devices is decreasing. Thus, there exists an increasing need to improve the efficiency of the acquisition process and to increase the probability that users get the training devices they need at the lowest practical cost. In support of this need the IDEAS program was initiated in 2010 with the goal of improving display system requirements associated with unmet user needs and expectations and disrupted acquisitions. This paper describes a process of identifying, rating, and selecting the design parameters that should receive research attention. Analyses of existing requirements documents reveal that between 40 and 50 specific design parameters (i.e., resolution, contrast, luminance, field of view, frame rate, etc.) are typically called out for the acquisition of a simulation training display system. Obviously no research effort can address the effects of this many parameters. Thus, we developed a defensible strategy for focusing limited R&D resources on a fraction of these parameters. This strategy encompasses six criteria to identify the parameters most worthy of research attention. Examples based on display design parameters recommended by stakeholders are provided.


Understanding material thermal conductivity is fundamental in high performance building design. This property is often advertised using a single value implied to be constant, though research shows that insulating materials have an effective conductivity that changes over a range of environmental parameters, including temperature and moisture levels. Various polyurethane and polyisocyanurate materials are analyzed in order to determine how the effective conductivity is altered by accelerated aging, obtained through exposure to high temperature, moisture, and freeze-thaw cycling. The measured results are used in hygrothermal simulations to determine the assumed and actual performance of insulating materials in the context of high performance wall and roof assemblies in cold climates. Results show that effects of aging and environmental temperature have higher impacts on the performance of polyisocyanurate materials than polyurethanes. Additionally, high moisture levels contribute to lower performance in all foam materials, with open cell materials experiencing the greatest performance reduction.


We address the problem of planning patrol routes to maximize coverage of important locations (hot spots) at minimum cost (length of patrol route). We model a road network using an edge-weighted graph in which edges represent streets, vertices represent intersections, and weights represent importance of the corresponding streets. We describe efficient methods that use this input to determine the most important patrol routes. In addition to the importance of streets (edge weights), important routes are affected by the topology of the road network. Our methods permit automation of a labor-intensive stage of the patrol-planning process and aid dynamic adjustment of patrol routes in response to changes in the input graph (as a result of a developing situation, for instance).


The stratosphere and troposphere exhibit strong coupling during the active seasons of the stratosphere (winter/spring in the Northern/Southern Hemispheres), which are characterized by bursts of planetary-scale Rossby waves and by large stratospheric wind and temperature anomalies (major or minor warmings), which may be accompanied by tropospheric flow anomalies. We here explore further the role of planetary wave bursts in creating these anomalies and in stratosphere – troposphere coupling.

This kind of variability is now well known to occur spontaneously in models of a wide range of complexity. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of such variability within a quasi-linear framework. This is done by employing a linear model to diagnose Rossby wave behavior in a general circulation model of intermediate complexity (a spectral core model) in cases in which the model exhibits such variability. Resonance theory is suggested to provide a means to understand stratosphere – troposphere coupling immediately prior to the onset of wave bursts and the accompanying stratospheric warmings and tropospheric anomalies.


Research regarding physical and cognitive aspects of product development usually relies on inquiry methods that focus on the collection of data from the practice studied (e.g. anthropometric) and the creation of design solutions (e.g. better grips).
This paper suggests that design inquiry into social practices can benefit from moving beyond the data collection / data application focus, into a two-way flow of accountability between the "practice space" and the "design space". To bring focus to the social and organizational issues in designing for the inclusion of marginalized people or practices, we introduce the notion of "contributive performance" as a short-term goal within the overall design process. Contributive performances are efforts to contribute to the ongoing practice of another in a way that can be assessed by the intended audience, even contributions that may appear trivial or peripheral to the main design agenda. The paper draws on a design case working with Somali and Arabic mother tongue teachers and their students in Sweden to develop interactive technologies to support their teaching and learning.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the immunoexpression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in biopsies and surgical specimens of patients with breast cancer before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and to correlate their changes with the pattern of response to chemotherapy and diagnosis of menopause. METHODS: We selected 47 patients with histological diagnosis of locally advanced primary breast carcinoma. For each patient there were two blocks: the biopsy specimen and surgical resection one. From these blocks hormone receptor expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry using the technique of streptoavidin-biotin-immunoperoxidase and anti-ER and anti-PR primary antibodies. The statistical analysis used the Student's t test and the nonparametric Fisher's exact test, with significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Of the 47 patients, 30 showed positive immunostaining for hormone receptors. There was significant reduction in the levels of both estrogen and progesterone receptors and in their immunoreactivity. In 53.3% we observed changes in levels of estrogen receptor expression, 56.6% in the progesterone receptor, 26.6% in the immunoexpression of estrogen receptor immunoreactivity and 33.3% in the immunoreactivity of the progesterone receptor. There was no statistical correlation between the influence of the response to chemotherapy and the diagnosis of menopause in women with variation in the expression of hormone receptors. CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has significantly altered hormone receptor immunoreactivity in patients in the sample, reducing its positivity in tumor cells.


We introduce a new variation of the hawk-dove game suggested by an experiment that studies the behavior of a group of domestic fowls when a subgroup has been marked. Speci cally we consider a population formed by two types of individual that fail to recog- nize their own type but do recognize the other type. In this game we find two evolutionarily stable strategies. In each of them, individuals from one type are always attacked more, whatever proportion of the population they represent. Our theoretical results are consistent with the conclusions drawn from experimental work, where marked fowls received more pecks than their unmarked counterparts.


In applications, choices of orthonormal bases in Hilbert space H may come about from the simultaneous diagonalization of some specific abelian algebra of operators. This is the approach of quantum theory as suggested by John von Neumann; but as it turns out, much more recent constructions of bases in wavelet theory, and in dynamical systems, also fit into this scheme. However, in these modern applications, the basis typically comes first, and the abelian algebra might not even be made explicit. It was noticed recently that there is a certain finite set of non-commuting operators Fi, first introduced by engineers in signal processing, which helps to clarify this connection, and at the same time throws light on decomposition possibilities for wavelet packets used in pyramid algorithms. There are three interrelated components to this: an orthonormal basis, an abelian algebra, and a projection-valued measure. While the operators Fi were originally intended for quadrature mirror filters of signals, recent papers have shown that they are ubiquitous in a variety of modern wavelet constructions, and in particular in the selection of wavelet packets from libraries of bases. These are constructions which make a selection of a basis with the best frequency concentration in signal or data-compression problems. While the algebra A generated by the Fi-system is non-abelian, and goes under the name "Cuntz algebra" in C∗-algebra theory, each of its representations contains a canonical maximal abelian subalgebra, i.e., the subalgebra is some C(X) for a Gelfand space X. A given representation of A, restricted to C(X), naturally induces a projection-valued measure on X, and each vector in H induces a scalarvalued measure on X. We develop this construction in the general context with a view to wavelet applications, and we show that the measures that had been studied earlier for a very restrictive class of Fi-systems (i.e., the Lemarié-Meyer quadrature mirror filters) in the theory of wavelet packets are special cases of this. Moreover, we prove a structure theorem for certain classes of induced scalar measures. In the applications, X may be the unit interval, or a Cantor set; or it may be an affine Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science 1 March 2008 fractal, or even one of the more general iteration limits involving iterated function systems consisting of conformal maps.


One of the longstanding questions that bedevils scholars in several disciplines is how judicial power gains traction. What, in particular, explains judicial supremacy? Theories abound, but each is lacking in some way. By looking at the answer to this question in the context of the Supreme Court of the United States, we demonstrate the vital role a federal system can play in both the rise and maintenance of judicial supremacy. In a unitary (nonfederal) system, a judiciary possessing the power of judicial review may well find itself frequently at odds with - and rarely helpful to - the governing regime. In contrast, in a federal system, the judiciary can provide vital support to the central government in suppressing outlier conduct. This "vertical" supremacy - the supremacy of the Supreme Court over state and local governments - ultimately transforms itself into "horizontal" supremacy - the binding effect of judicial pronouncements over the coordinate branches of the national government. This project is theoretical and historical both: it identifies the mechanisms for the transformation from vertical to horizontal supremacy, and recounts how this occurred in the United States.


Between July 1 1972-June 30 1979 149 patients with ectopic pregnancy were treated at Truman Medical Center. The history and physical findings diagnostic procedures etiologic factors and patient management were reviewed. Abdominal pain (98.6%) amenorrhea (74.1%) and irregular vaginal bleeding (56.4%) were the most common presenting symptoms. Abdominal tenderness (97.3%) and adnexal tenderness (98%) were the most common physical findings. Culdocentesis was performed in 118 cases and was positive for nonclotting blood in 94.1%. In 115 cases (78.2%) the ectopic pregnancy was ruptured prior to the time of admission. The incidence of diagnostic error was 35.9%. There were no maternal deaths; however the incidence of morbidity was 16.5%. Our data emphasizes the need for a high degree of suspicion and early utilization of definitive diagnostic procedures if the morbidity and mortality of ectopic pregnancy are to be reduced. (authors)


In recent years great advances have been made in neuro-ophthalmology, and knowledge of the intricate central connections of the ocular apparatus has been much advanced. An up-to-date treatise is therefore most timely, and this has been accomplished by Dr. Walsh with this monumental work of 1,532 pages, which is an exhaustive and systematic exposition of neuroophthalmology, with particular emphasis on the clinical side. One of the great difficulties in a work of this kind is a proper classification. Dr. Walsh has been much influenced by the outline used by Dr. F. R. Ford in his "Diseases of the Nervous System in Children" and has chosen a classification which is based on etiology, with due emphasis on clinical features. In the first chapter, on the "Visual Pathways and the Diagnosis of Lesions Situated at Different Levels," the subject is divided into the following parts: (1) anatomy; (2) arrangement of visual fibers


Resources localization is one of the unique concerns of Appropriate Technology (AT) development. It has become a thought-provoking driver to related studies, meaning that there are wide-ranging opportunities to conduct researches, including ones on materials-related issues. Also, following the global concerns on environmental issues, assessment on environmental impacts imposed in AT life-cycle is interesting to be studied. Particularly, this study attempts to investigate potential impacts imposed by materials usage in AT. It is conducted by comparing and contrasting common approach in doing cleaner production to the implication of AT in providing cleaner application. This study aims to provide an integrated assessment framework for calculating environmental impacts from materials usage by incorporating the characteristics of AT life-cycle into account. The first finding points out the interdependency of cleaner production and cleaner application, meaning that there is a need of cleaner production in the manufacturing and construction process of any material/component/assembling in an AT; besides, the AT has to be designed to perform cleaner application, yet without reducing its performance and intention in localizing materials. Furthermore, the second finding pushes the first finding forward through an integrated environmental assessment diagram that covers materials production and application until the end of AT life-cycle, including disposal phase and predicted degradability of materials. By looking at common approaches that focused on the assessment of only cleaner production, this study is moving toward an integrated environmental assessment on an AT by covering both cleaner production and application to form a complete AT life-cycle assessment.


We describe a randomized algorithm for computing the trapezoidal decomposition of a simple polygon. Its expected running time is linear in the size of the polygon. By a well-known and simple linear time reduction, this implies a linear time algorithm for triangulating a simple polygon. Our algorithm is considerably simpler than Chazelle's (1991) celebrated optimal deterministic algorithm and, hence, positively answers his question of whether a simpler randomized algorithm for the problem exists. The new algorithm can be viewed as a combination of Chazelle's algorithm and of non-optimal randomized algorithms due to Clarkson et al. (1991) and to Seidel (1991), with the essential innovation that sampling is performed on subchains of the initial polygonal chain, rather than on its edges. It is also essential, as in Chazelle's algorithm, to include a bottom-up preprocessing phase previous to the top-down construction phase.


A network of strict forest reserves is currently being installed in Flanders (Belgium). Their main objectives are nature conservation and scientific research. Belgium is densely populated and has a long history of intensive forest management, so no natural forests are left. Even the forest reserves are composed of man-made, semi-natural forest stands. In the strict reserves, an intensive monitoring programme is performed in order to study the spontaneous development of the woody and herbal layer when managed forests are left for free development. The methodology involves measurements in a grid of nested circular sample plots, combined with an intensive full inventory in a core zone. The results for typical dendrometric and structural variables (total woody biomass, necromass, gap size and distribution) from the forest reserve of Kersselaerspleyn (230 year old, man-made beech forest, 20 years of non-intervention) are compared to other beech forest reserves in Europe, both natural and man-made. It is remarkable to see how quickly the stands from Kersselaerspleyn have developed towards a dynamic equilibrium in total living and dead biomass, comparable to that in natural beech stands. The analysis shows that the spontaneous development of a man-made forest to a more natural state can be relatively fast, provided that the original stand is old enough to reach an age where natural decay normally starts to occur. For beech stands, this can be the case for stands of 200 years and older. The consequences of this development on species richness and the composition of mosses, vascular plants, saproxylic invertebrates and fungi were also studied: 48 plant species, 55 mosses, 244 species of fungi and over 100 species of saproxylic invertebrates have up to now been registered on the dead wood, including many rare indicator species of valuable old-growth sites.


The logic programming language framework Kernel Andorra Prolog is defined by a formal computation model. In Kernel Andorra Prolog, general combinations of concurrent reactive languages and nondeterministic transformational languages may be specified. The framework is based on constraints. The languages Prolog, GHC, Parlog, and Atomic Herbrand, are all executable in the Kernel Andorra Prolog computation model. There are instances of the framework in which all of these languages are embeddable.