In this study, an efficient fabrication process of metallic nanostructures was proposed and the feasibility of the process was verified. This process comprises of direct imprinting and sputter coating techniques. Firstly in this process, a silicon wafer mother mold of nanopattern is prepared by photolithography and dry etching technique. The nanopatterns of mother mold are transferred to an acrylic film by hot embossing method. Secondly, a quartz glass substrate is cleaned in the acetone bath and then by sputter etching for cleaning the contamination on the surface. Then, a substrate is coated with a gold thin film by the Argon gas sputter coating process. Then, an acrylic film mold, whose surface has been patterned with the nanopatterns, is used to transfer directly of pillar pattern onto the gold thin film. As a result, the gold thin films are inflated as nanopillar arrays on the substrate. This is because of the imprinting load from an acrylic film mold is effective to transfer the nanopillar arrays onto a gold thin film. The experimental results show that an acrylic film mold is effective to form the nanopillar arrays on the Au film although the acrylic film mold is softer than Au thin film. Furthermore, the plasmonic properties of the nanopillar arrays are investigated. It is also found that the plasmonic nanopillar arrays show good performance as a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-active substrate. Feasibility of the proposed process is confirmed by experimental study, and efficiency of the process is discussed.


This paper reports a facile and one-step thermal decomposition method for the fabrication of carbon-doped ZnO (C-ZnO) at different temperatures using commercially available melamine and zinc nitrate hexahydrate as the starting materials. The resulting photocatalyst, i.e., bare ZnO (B-ZnO) and C-ZnO, was characterized using a range of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The photocatalytic performance of the as-prepared photocatalyst was assessed by the degradation of a model pollutant, rhodamine B, under visible light irradiation. C-ZnO exhibited a significantly higher degradation response than B-ZnO, which could be attributed to the narrow band gap and improved electron/hole separation efficiency, as confirmed by UV-vis diffuse absorption/reflectance, photoluminescence and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Linear scan voltammetry in the dark and under visible light exposure showed that C-ZnO possessed a higher photocurrent than B-ZnO under similar experimental conditions. The proposed method has great potential for the developing nanocatalysts by a simple thermal decomposition method that can be commercialized.


The shockwaves that hit financial markets amid the dawn of the global financial crisis in late 2007 did not only send several equity markets into free-fall, but simultaneously led to an increased level of volatility in global currency markets. One of the main drivers of this volatility is believed to have been the product of the socalled
flight to safety, meaning that a large amount of capital was being shifted into safe haven currencies. Given that the Swiss Franc belongs to the very inner circle of
these safe haven currencies, its value against several major international currencies strengthened considerably. In fact, currencies such as the British Pound and the Euro
lost between 30-40% of their value against the Swiss Franc between 2007 and 2009. As a natural consequence, Switzerland – although stable as an economy in itself –
was suddenly being exposed to severe economic pressures due to the mounting strength of its currency versus several other currencies.

Given the structure, seasonality and dynamics of Switzerland's hotel industry, the risks of a strengthening currency and its potential negative implications for the
national hotel industry were soon conceived as a latent threat to its wellbeing. In fact, it was not long until economic evidence came to suggest that a strong national
currency would not only lead to a reduction in demand for discretionary spending among visiting guests, but naturally, also diminishing hotel revenue. Therefore, from
a hotel investor's point of view, it became obvious that extraordinary measures would be required in order to decrease, or at best, eliminate the vulnerability of hotel
investment(s) to negative economic exposure. Considering the vast heterogeneity of Switzerland's hotel industry, this study has found particular interest in identifying
whether the characteristics of an individual property or a set of properties reduce or offset exposure to movements in certain currencies. More specifically, the study
focused on measuring to which extent Hotel Real Estate Private Equity (HREPE) investors are able to reduce risk to Foreign Exchange (FX) exposure while at the same time enhancing the Financial Performance (FP) of their investments.

The analysis and discussion that has taken place in this study has been subject to an examination of financial and operational data from 76 resort properties located in 5
major tourism regions. Due to certain limitations with regards to data availability, solely the performance of 3 and 4 star properties has been taken into consideration.
The timeframe in which the study takes place has been specified to be between 2007-2011 and the currency samples have been selected based on national tourism demand: US Dollar, British Pound, Chinese Yuan, Russian Ruble, Indian Rupee, Japanese Yen, Euro. Overall, one of the main aims of the study has been to measure the relationship and impact movements in each of the above currencies have had on
the Financial Performance of the selected sample of properties between 2007-2011. It has done so by applying a quantitative research approach.

The data analysis that took place throughout the study has brought forward conclusive information regarding the Foreign Exchange exposure particular properties are subject to. It has been found that the level of Foreign Exchange
exposure is dependent on property category, geographic location as well as the operational and financial structure of each property. The output of the study provides
reason to assume that the exposure to risk prone currency volatility can be reduced or even offset once active Financial Performance Management tools as well as Yield
and Revenue Management (YRM) systems have been put in place. It has also been found that the exposure to certain currencies may be reduced according to the supply
structure of a property and the reduction in certain costs. Moreover, the study suggests that Hotel Real Estate Private Equity investors have the ability to reduce Foreign Exchange exposure by allocating their capital into distinct individual properties or a portfolio of properties. Additionally, the study suggests that investors
have the ability to hedge their currency exposure and at the same time profit from the upside potential a particular currency or set of currencies have to offer.

Succinctly, this study has been developed to provide insight into the existing dynamics between currency exposure and the profitability of hotel investments. It
shall hence serve as a guide that allows investment professionals and academics alike to gain deeper insight into the field of hotel investing. Furthermore, the study has been designed to highlight the potential that lays within Hotel Real Estate Private Equity investing in Switzerland and in which way currency risks may be reduced
while increasing the overall performance of a single property or portfolio investment. Furthermore, the aim of the study has been to provide the basis for future research
within the field to take place. It may not be seen as a final and definite product, but rather as a foundation on which future research may be built upon. Last but not least,
this study shall verify the potential that the Swiss hotel sector holds for new and innovative financing methods and that its characteristics provide highly advantageous currency hedging strategies for national as well as international investors.


On-going revolution in ever-improving wireless communication enforces the necessity of a self configuring, rapidly deployable and infrastructure lessnetwork. MANET is such an autonomous wireless network that meets the requirements. At the sam e time MANET's random behavior and absence of any central intelligence to gather unambiguous knowledge about ucontexts complexes QoS main tenance and hampers proper utilization of network resources resulting into unnecessary handovers . In past, few policy driven handover approaches have been proposed for MANET but none of them explores a comprehensive policy design. Therefore in this paper we propose an adaptive and optimized policy based handover mechanism which is based on explicitlydesigned policies like load balancing, service discovery and next hop selection .Efficient procedures for these policies are also explored .This work predicts the high time of handover need on the basis of application specific needs of individual freely ro aming mobile nodes, avoiding unnecessary handovers and provides efficient handover procedure with optimized resource consumption, reduced latency and interruption time.


The foot-and-mouth-disease virus (FMDV) utilizes non-canonical translation initiation for viral protein synthesis, by forming a specific RNA structure called internal ribosome entry site (IRES). Domain 3 in FMDV IRES is phylogenetically conserved and highly structured; it contains four-way junctions where intramolecular RNA–RNA interactions serve as a scaffold for the RNA to fold for efficient IRES activity. Although the 3D structure of domain 3 is crucial to exploring and deciphering the initiation mechanism of translation, little is known. Here, we employ a combination of various modeling approaches to propose candidate tertiary structures for the apical region of domain 3, thought to be crucial for IRES function. We begin by modeling junction topology candidates and build atomic 3D models consistent with available experimental data. We then investigate each of the four candidate 3D structures by molecular dynamics simulations to determine the most energetically favorable configurations and to analyze specific tertiary interactions. Only one model emerges as viable containing not only the specific binding site for the GNRA tetraloop but also helical arrangements which enhance the stability of domain 3. These collective findings, together with available experimental data, suggest a plausible theoretical tertiary structure of the apical region in FMDV IRES domain 3.


A 10-bit low power track-and-hold (T/H) circuit aimed at the front-end of a pipelined analog-to-digital (A/D) converter has been designed. The T/H is sampling at 80 MS/s, has a 30 MHz analog bandwidth and is designed in a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process with a supply voltage of 1.8 V. A switched capacitor topology incorporating correlated double sampling is used for the T/H circuit and the amplifier is a folded cascode operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with gain boosting. In this paper, the design of the complete T/H is described, including the derivation of the specifications as well as a straightforward approach for designing the transmission gate switches.


This paper presents a new approach to nontechnical loss (NTL) analysis for utilities using the modern computational technique extreme learning machine (ELM). Nontechnical losses represent a significant proportion of electricity losses in both developing and developed countries. The ELM-based approach presented here uses customer load-profile information to expose abnormal behavior that is known to be highly correlated with NTL activities. This approach provides a method of data mining for this purpose, and it involves extracting patterns of customer behavior from historical kWh consumption data. The results yield classification classes that are used to reveal whether any significant behavior that emerges is due to irregularities in consumption. In this paper, ELM and online sequential-ELM (OS-ELM) algorithms are both used to achieve an improved classification performance and to increase accuracy of results. A comparison of this approach with other classification techniques, such as the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, is also undertaken and the ELM performance and accuracy in NTL analysis is shown to be superior.


Abstract Fifteen Trichoderma isolates were tested for their antagonistic ability against Lasiodiplodia theobromae. Trichoderma harzianum exhibited the greatest inhibition in dual culture. Microscopic investigation demonstrated direct parasitism and coiling of T. harzianum and T. viride around hyphae of L. theobromae, causing swollen, deformed, shortened, or rounded cells of the pathogen. Granulation of cytoplasm and disintegration of the hyphal walls of L. theobromae also were noted in dual culture. Trichoderma viride reduced rotting by 29.07 to 65.06% in artificially inoculated banana fruits. Treatment of banana fruits with T. viride 4 h prior to inoculation with L. theobromae provided better protection than simultaneous application or treatment 4 h after inoculation.


Biomolecular self-assembly of hierarchical materials is a precise and adaptable bottom-up approach to synthesizing across scales with considerable energy, health, environment, sustainability, and information technology applications. To achieve desired functions in biomaterials, it is essential to directly observe assembly dynamics and structural evolutions that reflect the underlying energy landscape and the assembly mechanism. This review will summarize the current understanding of biomolecular assembly mechanisms based on in situ characterization and discuss the broader significance and achievements of newly gained insights. In addition, we will also introduce how emerging deep learning/machine learning-based approaches, multiparametric characterization, and high-throughput methods can boost the development of biomolecular self-assembly. The objective of this review is to accelerate the development of in situ characterization approaches for biomolecular self-assembly and to inspire the next generation of biomimetic materials.


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and rupture of high‐risk or vulnerable plaques underlies most acute adverse cardiovascular events, that is, myocardial infarction and stroke. Methods to noninvasively detect and quantify the presence of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques at the molecular/cellular level are highly desirable for timely therapeutic intervention. Currently, intraplaque neovascularization has been considered as a hallmark of unstable, vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. Here, a high‐affinity positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer is developed targeting vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFR) based on a clinically used tyrosine kinase inhibitor vandetanib (ZD6474) and its potential for noninvasive detection of vulnerable plaques is tested. The in vivo PET imaging of ApoE−/− mice shows high specificity and sensitivity of the VEGFR‐PET radiotracer to vulnerable plaques. A further corroborating test of the imaging potential for clinical application is also conducted on human arterial atherosclerotic lesions. Specific VEGFR‐PET radiotracer uptake is observed by vulnerable plaques in the human arterial specimen with confirmed advanced coronary artery disease. This study suggests VEGFR as a valid biomarker for vulnerable plaque detection, and specific VEGFR‐PET is effective for noninvasive imaging of plaque vulnerability in at‐risk patients.


Sediments deposited over the past 220,000 years in Bear Lake, Utah and Idaho, are predominantly calcareous silty clay, with calcite as the dominant carbonate mineral. The abundance of siliciclastic sediment indicates that the Bear River usually was connected to Bear Lake. However, three marl intervals containing more than 50% CaCO 3 were deposited during the Holocene and the last two interglacial intervals, equivalent to marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) 5 and 7, indicating times when the Bear River was not connected to the lake. Aragonite is the dominant mineral in two of these three high-carbonate intervals. The high-carbonate, aragonitic intervals coincide with warm interglacial continental climates and warm Pacifi c sea-surface temperatures. Aragonite also is the dominant mineral in a carbonate-cemented microbialite mound that formed in the southwestern part of the lake over the last several thousand years. The history of carbonate sedimentation in Bear Lake is documented through the study of isotopic ratios of oxygen, carbon, and strontium, organic carbon content, CaCO 3 content, X-ray diffraction mineralogy, and HCl-leach chemistry on samples from sediment traps, gravity cores, piston cores, drill cores, and microbialites. Sediment-trap studies show that the carbonate mineral that precipitates in the surface waters of the lake today is high-Mg calcite. The lake began to precipitate highMg calcite sometime in the mid‐twentieth century after the artifi cial diversion of Bear River into Bear Lake that began in 1911. This diversion drastically reduced the salinity and Mg 2+ :Ca 2+ of the lake water and changed the primary carbonate precipitate from aragonite to high-Mg calcite. However, sediment-trap and core studies show that aragonite is the dominant mineral accumulating on the lake fl oor today, even though it is not precipitating in surface waters. The isotopic studies show that this aragonite is derived from reworking and redistribution of shallow-water sediment that is at least 50 yr old, and probably older. Apparently, the microbialite mound also stopped forming aragonite cement sometime after Bear River diversion. Because of reworking of old aragonite, the bulk mineralogy of carbonate in bottom sediments has not changed very much since the diversion. However, the diversion is marked by very distinct changes in the chemical and isotopic composition of the bulk carbonate. After the last glacial interval (LGI), a large amount of endogenic carbonate began to precipitate in Bear Lake when the Pacifi c moisture that fi lled the large pluvial lakes of the Great Basin during the LGI diminished, and Bear River apparently abandoned


The endemic genus Prostanthera occurs throughout much of Australia, with the most northerly species occurring in the Cook district of northern Queensland. Prostanthera athertoniana, P. mulliganensis and P. tozerana are described as new species from the Cook botanical district of northern Queensland, Australia. Each of these species has a restricted distribution, the first species is known from Kahlpahlim Rock (Atherton Tableland), the second from Mount Mulligan (north of Dimbulah), and the third is only known from Mount Tozer (Iron Range National Park). Prostanthera albohirta and P. clotteniana also occur in this region. Since all species are inadequately known, an identification key to these species and descriptions are provided, as well as illustrations of the three new species.


Previous experience in South Africa during upgrading programmesshowed that conventional architectural sketches and models wereoften misinterpreted by the people within an informal settlement.Consequently, the National Building Research Institute is seekingto develop appropriate illustrative techniques and suitable toolsto investigate individual housing needs, preferences and priorities.A pilot study was undertaken to determine how residents illustratetheir homes. The first phase involved two classes of school-children;each child drew his or her home so that "a stranger would recogniseit". A group of adults performed a similar exercise. This paper willdiscuss the way in which the drawings were analysed, the findings.and the potential value of the technique.


Functional mapping based on parametric and nonparametric modeling of functional data can estimate the developmental pattern of genetic effects on a complex dynamic or longitudinal process triggered by quantitative trait loci (QTLs). But existing functional mapping models have a limitation for mapping dynamic QTLs with irregular functional data characterized by many local features, such as peaks. We derive a statistical model for QTL mapping of longitudinal curves of any form based on wavelet shrinkage techniques. The fundamental idea of this model is a repeated splitting of an initial sequence into detail coefficients that quantify local fluctuations at a particular scale and smooth coefficients that quantify remaining low-frequency variation in the signal after the high-frequency detail is removed and, subsequently, QTL mapping with the smooth coefficients extracted from noisy longitudinal data. Compared with conventional full-dimensional functional mapping, wavelet-based nonparametric functional mapping provides consistent results, and better results in some circumstances, and is much more computationally efficient. This wavelet-based model is validated by the analysis of a real example for stem diameter growth trajectories in a forest tree, and its statistical properties are examined through extensive simulation studies. Wavelet-based functional mapping broadens the use of functional mapping to studying an arbitrary form of longitudinal curves and will have many implications for investigating the interplay between gene actions/interactions and developmental pathways in various complex biological processes and networks.


With the usage of neural networks in a wide range of application fields, the necessity to execute these efficiently on high performance hardware is one of the key problems for artificial intelligence (AI) framework providers. More and more new specialized hardware types and corresponding libraries appear from various manufacturers. The biggest problem arising is that these libraries usually are only supported by a very limited set of AI frameworks and interoperability can become an issue. In this extended abstract we present Sol, a transparent middleware for neural network acceleration. Sol comes with an optimizing compiler engine, allowing to use device specific libraries and to implement own optimizations, that can be leveraged on all target devices. In contrast to other projects Sol explicitly aims at optimizing prediction and training of neural networks.


The use of forensic entomology is well established in the northern hemisphere, but is still emerging in the southern hemisphere, where most of the current research is not explicitly undertaken in the context of forensics. In this review, we provide an update on the current status of forensic entomology research and its application in relation to estimation of post-mortem interval in various criminal investigations ranging from murder cases, cases of human neglect and the poaching of wildlife in southern Africa, among other issues. A literature search was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and EBSCOhost databases. The studies reviewed were focused on arthropod diversity during different stages of carcass decomposition, effect of seasons on the abundance and diversity of carrion feeding arthropod species during carcass decomposition, and diurnal and nocturnal oviposition of forensically important insect species during carcass decomposition. It was further observed that arthropod species that established on a decomposing carcass are potentially useful in the estimation of post-mortem interval and determining clues in cases of criminal investigations. The review confirmed the paucity of research in forensic entomology, and its application in southern Africa. Future studies on the research and application of forensic entomology in various criminal investigation scenarios – such as murder cases, human neglect, and wildlife poaching in southern Africa – are therefore needed. Significance: • Forensic entomology research and its application is lagging in southern Africa. • There is seasonal variation in the arthropod species used for estimation of post-mortem intervals in southern Africa. • Identification of arthropod species diversity in the region has potential for application in forensic investigations.


The mobilization of domestic resources is one of the key determinants of sustained economic growth. Improving demestic resource mobilization involves raising the level of national savings to enable a higher level of investment, hence a faster rate of economic growth. Pakistan's saving performance and its overall economic performance appear to be incongruous. Over the past several years, Pakistan has maintained an economic growth of more than 6 percent which is laudable, but her performance with regard to savings has been' poor. In fact, saving as a fraction of the Gross National Product (Gp,IP) is one of the lowest among the developing countries. The current saving rate of about 14 percent of GNP fares badly with 23 percent for other low-income developing countries.1 What are the reasons for such a poor performance of savings in Pakistan? This paper attempts to provide some explanations for the causes of low savings in Pakistan.


Extracting aurora oval boundary from spacecraft UV imagery is not a trivial problem. The distinction between aurora and background varies depending on the factors such as the date, time of the day, and satellite position. Thresholding technique is a well-known technique for detecting aurora boundary from satellite imagery. In this study, three distinct thresholding algorithms, mixture modeling, fuzzy sets and entropy thresholding were applied to a selected set of UV images measured on board Polar satellite to examine their effectiveness in aurora boundary detection. Two thresholding approaches were taken: global thresholding and adaptive thresholding. As expected, adaptive thresholding approach showed better results. In addition to these algorithms, another new algorithm (edge-based) was examined using adaptive approach. This thresholding algorithm detects aurora oval by identifying the boundary transition between aurora and background. The results from these different algorithms are presented.


Plants of 'Northblue' blueberry, propagated in tissue culture (TC) or from softwood, single-node cuttings (ST), were evaluated in field plantings established in 1984 at Becker and Grand Rapids, in central and northern Minnesota, respectively. Plantings were observed from 1987 through 1994 to determine the persistence of such effects as increased vigor, more spreading growth habit, and higher yield observed for TC plants during the initial 3 years after planting. TC plants had significantly higher yields at Grand Rapids in 1989 and 1994. At Grand Rapids, the consistently greater plant spread (bearing area) of TC plants resulted in higher yields of TC plants over all years combined. At Becker, TC and ST plants did not differ for plant height or spread after 10 years and, in 2 of 5 years, ST plants had heavier average berry weights. At Grand Rapids, TC plants did not differ consistently in height, or subjective ratings of the amount of bloom or crop. The effects of propagation method on yield and growth habit of 'Northblue' are limited to early years in warmer locations, but can be of longer-term significance in colder areas with shorter growing seasons and lower winter temperatures, where plant spread is a more important factor than plant height in determining yield.


Aims: To document the types of major fetal malformations present in pre-gestational diabetic women in pregnancy and the rate of antenatal diagnosis by second trimester ultrasound. Methods: Pre-gestational diabetes was defined as either type 1 or type 2 diabetes which had been diagnosed at least 1 year before the mothers estimated date of delivery (EDD). Data was collected any time from booking to delivery between 1 March 2002 and 28 February 2003, and followed through to include the outcome of the baby at 28 days postnatally. Major anomalies were coded according to the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD10). Results: The major congenital malformation rate is 82.1/1000 births. There were 29 major congenital anomalies in pregnancies beyond 16 weeks' gestation and all of these had a second trimester fetal ultrasound scan. In 17 cases the anomalies were diagnosed antenatally (16 by ultrasound and 1 by amniocentesis) and in 12 cases the scan was reported as normal. Therefore the antenatal major congenital malformation detection rate is 59% in pregnancies beyond 16 weeks' gestation. Congenital cardiac defects remain the most commonly occuring anomalies in diabetic pregnancies (11/29 malformations). Major central nervous system defects, as in the national dataset, are also over-represented. The nature of the anomalies undiagnosed was varied, ranging from hypoplastic left heart to hypospadias. However all of these cases with the exception of a case of facial dysmorphia, hypospadias and two cases of trisomy 21 might have been expected to have been detected by detailed fetal anomaly and cardiac scanning at 20–22 weeks' gestation. Even allowing for these cases 40% of major malformations were undiagnosed antenatally. Conclusions: All women with pre-gestational diabetes should receive a detailed scan performed by a practitioner with at least UK RCR/RCOG Higher Level Obstetric scanning accreditation.


Abstract The aim of this paper is to compare the Baldrige and Business Excellence models by evaluating their respective effects on TQM dynamics. A number of comparative studies in relation to the Baldrige and Business Excellence Model are recorded in the literature. These studies are mainly criteria based where the criteria of each model are compared with an idealized set of criteria. Moreover, the criteria usually take the form of auditing or summative based constructs. These approaches are based on the auditing and assessment assumptions within the models. However, there is a paucity of studies, which compare the models by evaluating their contributions to TQM dynamics and their formative role in developing TQM in organizations. The study involves analysing a multiple case analysis involving 20 Baldrige Model and 20 Business Excellence Model organizations. A multi-model TQM dynamics framework is used to compare the models. It is found that the two National Quality models did not adequately model TQM dynamics, with the Baldrige model, in particular, failing to model the strategic dynamics of TQM. Thus, there is a need to develop dynamic representations and models of TQM to avoid oversimplification in theory and praxis.


In the electronic industry thermoset polymers are used as moulding compounds, underfill materials coatings and adhesives. A good knowledge of the cure shrinkage and material properties is needed to do reliable predictions of the stresses induced during packaging. In this paper, a novel technique using a new PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) apparatus is applied for measuring these quantities. The PVT apparatus can measure specific volume changes of the order of plusmn10-3 cm3 /g with a programmable temperature range of 20-400degC and pressure range of 0-200MPa. A hybrid approach is then used together with differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements for the kinetic modeling of these thermoset systems. The results show that the actual shrinkage during curing can reach values as high as 3.5% by volume for an unfilled epoxy Novolac system. It is furthermore shown that the common shrinkage definition which compares the specific volumes at room temperature before and after curing underestimates the actual shrinkage at the curing temperature by a factor of about 6. In addition a bulk modulus versus temperature curve was established. The bulk modulus was seen to drop by a factor of 1.5 during the glass transition


This chapter explores the emerging role of academic librarians in the learning and teaching process through their involvement with teaching staff in the development of student information literacy skills. Information literacy – that is, the ability to find, evaluate and use information effectively – is a key component of university students' learning experience. It also equips students with skills for the workplace and lifelong learning: It could be argued that the skill of the twenty first century graduate will be to articulate the right questions and to understand where and how they can search for knowledge, not remember the answers (Donnelly and Fitzmaurice, 2005, p. 96).
 The chapter provides a brief overview of the institutional and learning background against which contemporary information literacy development takes place. This background is characterised by a changing context for the operation of academic libraries; a changing higher education environment; a changing information environment; and a changing user. The chapter goes on to provide some formal definitions of information literacy, developed by library-related bodies. These are followed by some working understandings of the term, derived from responses given by several academic developers and lecturers to the question, "What does information literacy mean to you? " Finally, the chapter discusses the role of information literacy in higher education and the key role librarians play in information literacy development.


Abstract : This report summarizes work done on the reliability analysis and design of VLSI circuits. Many reliability issues, such as electromigration in metal lines and hot-carrier effects (HCE) induced degradation in devices, are related to the statistics of the average current flow in the circuit and devices. New techniques for current estimation in synchronous sequential circuits have been developed and implemented. Given primary input statistics, mixed statistical Monte Carlo and probabilistic methods are applied in a mixed-mode simulation approach to estimate average currents drawn by each gate or subcircuit in the design. The results are then used for reliability estimation. In the area of design for reliability, a computer-aided design system for VLSI circuit hot-carrier reliability estimation an design was developed. The system first stimulates a circuit to determine the critical transistors that are most susceptible to hot-carrier effects based on their switching frequency and current flow through them. The system then estimates the impact of HCE on circuit delay and employs a combination of design modification and optimization strategies, including signal line reordering and gate sizing along critical paths, to eliminate or reduce HCE-induced degradation on circuit performance.


In 1949 Bavaria was not only the largest and best known, but also the poorest, most agricultural, and most industrially backward region of Germany. It was further its most politically conservative region. The largest political party in Bavaria was the Christian Social Union (CSU), an extremely conservative, even reactionary, regional party. In the ensuing twenty years, the leaders of the CSU's small liberal wing (in particular Franz Josef Strauss, long-time party chair and the most colorful and polarizing politician in postwar Germany) broke with the anti-industrial traditions of Bavarian Catholic politics and made themselves useful to industry. With tactical brilliance the politicians pursued their individual political ambitions, rather than a coherent modernization strategy, which, nevertheless, by 1969 had turned Bavaria into a prosperous Land, the center of Germany's new aerospace, defense, and energy industries, with a disproportionate share of its research institutes.


Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has the largest genome of the human herpesviruses, and its gene content is imperfectly understood. The gene content of HCMV strain AD 169 was recently re-evaluated, discounting 51 previously proposed protein-coding open reading frames (ORFs) because they have no counterparts in chimpanzee cytomegalovirus (CCMV) and lack any other convincing evidence for expression. Some of the discounted ORFs were located in blocks, and their omission left three large 'empty' regions in the ADI 69 genome. One of these regions, located between genes RL1 and RL10, has been investigated previously leading to the discovery of a new gene. The other two regions are investigated in this study. The first, termed region X, is located between genes UL105 and UL1 12, which are firmly accepted as encoding proteins. The second, termed region O, is located between genes UL57 and UL69. Initial analysis of the AD 169 genome predicted six (UL106- UL111) and eleven (UL58-UL68) small ORFs in regions X and O, respectively, and subsequent analyses have predicted three further ORFs in each region (C-ORF16-C- 0RF18 and ORF3-ORF5, respectively). Sequence data were generated from seven HCMV strains by PCR amplification and cloning of region X (approximately 6 kbp) and region O (approximately 8 kbp). Sequence comparisons were used to identify which ORFs in these regions are conserved and which are disrupted by insertions, deletions or substitutions leading to in-frame termination codons. All of the ORFs are frameshifted in certain strains, with the exception of ULl 08, C-0RF16 and C-0RF18 in region X, and UL66 in region O. The disrupted ORFs are unlikely to represent protein-coding genes. Moreover, the few ORFs unaffected by frameshifts remain unlikely to encode proteins as they are predicted to encode very small proteins and lack counterparts in CCMV. Furthermore, in region X no transcripts corresponding to the cognate ORFs were detected by northern blotting, and in region O UL66 is completely overlapped by the previously identified pp67 transcript. This transcript, which is routinely detected by PCR assays, is disrupted in all the strains analysed and is therefore also unlikely to encode a protein. Transcript mapping in region X detected a spliced 1.1 kb polyadenylated RNA and a 4.6 kb intron, which covers most of the region. 5'- and 3'-ends of the 1.1 kb RNA were identified, the former located 25 bp from a TATA box and the latter to two sites located 20 and 34 bp from a polyadenylation signal. These results consolidate the findings of two previous studies that had partially characterised the 5 kb and 1.1 kb RNAs, respectively. The splice sites, 3'-polyadenylation signal, and 5'-TATA box of the 1.1 kb RNA are conserved in the corresponding region of CCMV, suggesting that a similar RNA with a large intron should be expressed in CCMV. However, this RNA is unlikely to encode a protein as no amino acid sequences are conserved between the two genomes. A third region of the HCMV genome where coding potential was not clear was also investigated. Region G, at the end of the unique short (Us) sequence, is located between genes US32 and TRS1, which are firmly accepted as encoding proteins. On the basis of conservation in CCMV, three originally defined ORFs (US33, US35 and US36) had been discounted and a novel ORF (US34A) identified. Again, sequence data were generated from seven HCMV strains by PCR amplification and cloning. Comparisons showed that the sequence between US34A and TRS1 is highly variable, and that US35 and US36 are frameshifted in multiple strains. US33 is conserved between strains, but no relevant transcript was detected. However, a transcript from a small, novel ORF (US33A) was detected on the opposing strand. 5'- and 3'-ends were identified for this RNA, the 5'-end located 31 bp downstream from a TATA box. The US33A ORF and the TATA box are also conserved in CCMV, suggesting that US33A may constitute a novel HCMV gene. The US33A transcript was shown to be 3'-co-terminal with that of US34. Transcripts from US31 and US32, which are conserved ORFs immediately to the left of region G, were also mapped. No convincing evidence was found for transcription of US34A. This work extends the understanding of the genetic content of HCMV and has identified novel transcripts in HCMV, providing a basis on which to develop future experiments aimed at determining their function.


CONTEXT
The thyroglobulin measurement in the needle washout after fine-needle aspiration (FNA) has been reported to increase the sensitivity of FNA in identifying lymph node (LN) metastases from differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of this technique.

DATA SOURCES
To identify eligible studies, we searched electronic databases for original articles in English from 1975 through 2013.

STUDY SELECTION
Studies that enrolled participants with suspicious neck LNs during thyroid nodule workup or thyroid cancer follow-up were included.

DATA EXTRACTION
Working independently, authors used a standard form to extract data. For quality assessment, QUADAS2 guidelines were applied.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Including all the selected studies (24 studies, 2865 LNs) in the pooled analysis, overall sensitivity was 95.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 93.7-96.0%), specificity was 94.5% (95% CI, 93.2-95.7%), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 338.91 (95% CI, 164.82-696.88) with significant heterogeneity (inconsistency [I(2)] = 65.7%; heterogeneity, P < .001). Stratifying different populations and including only patients with thyroid gland (410 LNs), pooled sensitivity was 86.2% (95% CI, 80.9-90.5%), specificity was 90.2% (85.1-94.0%), and DOR was 56.621 (22.535-142.26; I(2) = 37.3%; heterogeneity, P = .121). Including only patients after thyroidectomy (1007 LNs), pooled sensitivity was 96.9% (95% CI, 94.9-98.2%), specificity was 94.1% (91.7-96.0%), and DOR was 407.65 (198.67-836.46; I(2) = 0.0%; heterogeneity, P = .673).

CONCLUSIONS
Thyroglobulin measurement in washout from LN FNA has high accuracy in early detection of nodal metastases from DTC. The technique is simple, but a better standardization of criteria for patient selection, analytical methods, and cutoff levels is required.


Background: Reconstruction of a flatfoot commonly involves a calcaneal Medial Displacement Osteotomy (MDO) to correct hindfoot valgus in combination with soft tissue procedures. We compared fixation of an MDO using either a single, large cannulated screw versus a locking step-plate in load to failure in a cadaveric model. Methods: Eight matched pairs of cadaveric limbs were loaded using a mechanical testing rig. Two pairs served as non-operated controls. The remaining paired limbs underwent a 10-mm MDO stabilized either with a single 7-mm screw or a step-plate with four locking screws. One pair was used as a pilot study and the remaining five pairs were loaded up to 4500 N to failure. Results: In the five pairs loaded to failure, the median (with 95% CI) maximum force were 1779 N (1099-2312) and 826 N (288-1607) for the plate and screw, respectively (p = 0.043). With single screw fixation, the tuberosity fragment consistently failed by rotation and angulation into varus. With plate fixation, failure occurred as the screws cut through the internal surfaces of the tuberosity and body with no failure at the screw-plate interface. Conclusion: In this cadaveric model, a locked step-plate supported a significantly higher maximum force than a single large cannulated screw. Clinical Relevance: The magnitude of the load supported by the locking step-plate suggests that allowing early weightbearing post-operation may be safe in clinical practice before union of the osteotomy.


To the Editor. —The report of a "unique" case of "Recovery after prolonged oliguria due to ethylene glycol intoxication" by Collins et al 1 is quite similar to our recent experience and prompts us to briefly record this second case. We agree that given close attention to detail, such a patient may survive in spite of prolonged oliguria and persistent severe renal failure. The patient, a 56-year-old man, drank ethylene glycol mistaking it for wine on April 10, 1969. He was hospitalized two weeks later because of oliguria, weakness, hematuria, and back pain. His blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level was 97 mg/100 ml and his potassium level was 6.9 mEq/liter. He was transferred to Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, after a urological procedure ruled out obstructive uropathy. He underwent repeated peritoneal dialysis from April 23, 1970, to June 15, 1970, a total of 53 days. His initial urine was grossly


Numerical simulation for dynamic response of EPS geofoam seismic buffers placed behind the rigid retaining walls was carried out with the Fast Lagrangian Analysis for Continuum method (FLAC) .The considerations of setting boundary condition of the numerical model, inputting and correcting the dynamic time series of seismic acceleration, and selecting the proper damping were discussed. The coincidence relations of compression-time for EPS geofoam buffers and the horizontal soil pressure -time for retaining wall were numerically calculated by using the proposed model. The calculating results were compared with the physical testing results. The comparisons showed that there were good agreements between the numerical data and the measured data. The numerical results indicate that EPS panels placed between the rigid retaining wall and the backfill soil have a good effect on reducing horizontal earth force during shaking acceleration and can act as seismic buffers against earthquake. The FLAC model provides a feasible way to analyze the dynamic response of EPS geofoam seismic buffers for further researches.


This paper presents a practical workflow on static aeroelastic problems with extreme deflections. The aim of this study is to achieve a fast, yet robust method to calculate the change of the aerodynamic parameters as well as to ensure structural integrity of a wing deforming under aerodynamic loads. To predict static aeroelastic behavior of a high aspect ratio wing, calculations are performed on very fine grids at a relatively large number of flight conditions. Fluid calculations are performed with FLUENT on viscous meshes containing highly skewed cells, while structural analysis is performed by MSC.NASTRAN on 10-noded tetrahedral meshes. Aerodynamic loads on a wing surface are transferred to structural analysis and deformations are transferred to aerodynamic analysis to repeat the aerodynamic calculations. This iterative process between the aerodynamic analysis and structural analysis is continued until a convergence criterion is met. Deformation of the wing surface is transferred to the fluid mesh using spring analogy. In order to achieve high quality fluid meshes after deformation and to reduce calculation time different methods are used. As the basis of the spring analogy, segment springs and ball vertex methods are utilized. Then, to reduce computer time, a SOR type solver and a layered solver are employed. Last improvement involves an initial guess of the deformations inside fluid mesh. As a result, we manage to perform static aeroelastic calculations on the wing geometry in a reasonably shorter time.


A Transformational Journey for Men through the Sermon on the Mount at Community Covenant Church Mark Meredith Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2012 The purpose of this paper and the attached training manual is to provide a transformational men's ministry experience at Community Covenant Church in Eagle River, Alaska. A two-year journey through the Sermon on the Mount is used as the vehicle for this transformation. The thesis is that the cultural confusion regarding what it means to be male needs to be addressed in the discipleship of men. It is further argued that a lack of clear emphasis on discipleship in churches can be overcome by employing the Sermon on the Mount as a curriculum for making male disciples. This discussion is presented in three sections. Part One explores the historical context of male discipleship in churches in North America and pays particular attention to the confusion of male identity and roles in both church and home. The cultural context of men at Community Covenant Church then is examined in light of this and how they are similar to men in North America in general. Five struggles for these men are identified which are similar to the struggles of most men in North American culture. The discussion then transitions into theology. It is argued that "essential masculinity" is beyond social construction and is modeled in the person of Jesus Christ. Four callings of manhood are identified, and a three-part model for transformation is presented. Finally, the Sermon on the Mount is examined as a vehicle for male discipleship and transformation. Part Two is concerned with transformational goals, learning environments for men, an effective learning template, pedagogy, and assessment. This is followed by a sample of the Mountain Men material in the appendix. It is hoped that this guide will be transferrable to the broader North American Church. Content Reader: John Hull, DMin Words: 285 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS


One of the main challenges with embodying a conversational agent is annotating how and when motions can be played and composed together in real-time, without any visual artifact. The inherent problem is to do so---for a large amount of motions---without introducing mistakes in the annotation. To our knowledge, there is no automatic method that can process animations and automatically label actions and compatibility between them. In practice, a state machine, where clips are the actions, is created manually by setting connections between the states with the timing parameters for these connections. Authoring this state machine for a large amount of motions leads to a visual overflow, and increases the amount of possible mistakes. In consequence, conversational agent embodiments are left with little variations and quickly become repetitive. In this paper, we address this problem with a compact taxonomy of chit chat behaviors, that we can utilize to simplify and partially automate the graph authoring process. We measured the time required to label actions of an embodiment using our simple interface, compared to the standard state machine interface in Unreal Engine, and found that our approach is 7 times faster. We believe that our labeling approach could be a path to automated labeling: once a sub-set of motions are labeled (using our interface), we could learn a prediction that could attribute a label to new clips---allowing to really scale up virtual agent embodiments.


The recent commercialization SiC technology, has made it desirable to use SiC in electrical motor drives for marine applications, due to the superior material qualities of SiC compared to conventional Si based technology. This Master thesis will present an analysis of the switching performance of a SiC MOSFET module from ROHM Semiconductor, and an accompanying investigation of how a high performance SiC based motor drive can be realized. As part of the thesis work, the many critical components of an electrical motor drive system was investigated, and this will be described in this thesis. Two printed circuit boards were produced to enable the SiC modules to be operated using a motor controller. In addition, a low inductive three phase DC-bus was designed, produced and tested. The three phase DC-bus design will be described through theoretical considerations, before an experimental analysis of the stray inductance of the DC-bus is presented. It will be shown that a low inductive design can be realized through the use of planar copper conductors, and the DC-bus design has good inductive capabilities compared with a single half-bridge DC-bus which was used in the experimental SiC characterization. The SiC module performance characterization was conducted by performing double-pulse testing, both in simulations and in laboratory experiment. It was shown that the presence of stray inductive elements in the circuit causes voltage overshoots up to 110 V over the nominal voltage of 600 V and long lasting ringing. The switching characteristics calculated from these tests will be presented, and the circuit dynamics giving rise to these effects discussed. A comparison between the simulation results and experimental results was made, and it will be shown that while the simulation model captures some switching characteristics well, it fails to model the large voltage overshoots observed in laboratory experiments. Further more, it was investigated if switching performance could be improved through the introduction of snubber circuits, in particular RC turn-off snubbers and DC-snubbers. Both the simulation results and the experimental results showed that the RC turn-off snubbers failed to remove the overvoltages completely, but was able to reduce it to 35 V with a snubber damping constant of 0.4. This comes at the cost of increased switching losses however, and it is clear that a trade off must be made.


In the real life, the range of the image capturing device is smaller than the scene which is sensed by eye. If we are trying to capture image in single click it may result in blurred image or it is also possible that image will be with very low resolution and we loss some part of information. In such a condition the situation can be that obtain the spilt images of same object and then stitch it that is mosaiced it. But most of the time if the photography is not proper then this output mosaiced image may result with some missed part, which omits aim of mosaicing to merge image seamlessly. So the possible approach is to fill this missing part with the help of image completion concept which is also known as region filling or image inpainting. The proposed methodology gives a novel approach to generate the image in such a way that the person who is not familiar with that place or object will find it as original image. The aim of proposed methodology is to remove artefacts of the image mosaicing and make an image seamless and more realistic.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Tumor volume and cartilage invasion have been suggested as prognostic factors of glottic carcinomas following definitive radiation therapy. Radiologic examinations provide additional information regarding the deep extension of tumor. We determined whether dynamic helical CT can predict local control of early (T1 and T2 stage) glottic carcinomas treated with definitive radiation therapy.

METHODS
Sixty-eight patients with early glottic carcinoma evaluated on pretreatment dynamic helical CT were treated with definitive radiation therapy. Tumor detectability, maximum dimension, tumor volume, and involvement of anatomic subsites (anterior commissure, ventricle, subglottic region, and thyroid and arytenoid cartilages) were determined by consensus by three radiologists without previous knowledge of the clinical information. The CT findings were correlated with local control.

RESULTS
The two-year local control rate was 76%; 91% for T1 and 60% for T2 lesions. Univariate analysis revealed clinical T stage, tumor detectability, maximum dimension, tumor volume, anterior commissure involvement, ventricle involvement, and thyroid cartilage involvement as significant prognostic factors. Thyroid cartilage involvement was an independent predictor by multivariate analysis. The lesions separate from the thyroid cartilage had a 95% probability of local control, whereas the lesions adjacent to the cartilage had only a 42% control rate.

CONCLUSION
Dynamic helical CT provides prognostic information for the results of definitive radiation therapy. Patients with a tumor adjacent to the thyroid cartilage had an increased risk of local failure.


The ability to study "gain of function" mutations has important implications for identifying and mitigating risks to public health and national security associated with viral infections. Numerous respiratory viruses of concern have RNA genomes (e.g., SARS and flu). These RNA genomes fold into complex structures that perform several critical functions for viruses. However, our ability to predict the functional consequence of mutations in RNA structures continues to limit our ability to predict gain of function mutations caused by altered or novel RNA structures. Biological research in this area is also limited by the considerable risk of direct experimental work with viruses. Here we used small functional RNA molecules (ribozymes) as a model system of RNA structure and function. We used combinatorial DNA synthesis to generate all of the possible individual and pairs of mutations and used high-throughput sequencing to evaluate the functional consequence of each single- and double-mutant sequence. We used this data to train a machine learning model (Long Short-Term Memory). This model was also used to predict the function of sequences found in the genomes of mammals with three mutations, which were not in our training set.
We found a strong prediction correlation in all of our experiments.


In September 2013, Phanompai Hospital developed and implemented a system to prevent patients with hypokalemia from receiving drugs which would reduce potassium level. This study aims to determine effects of the system in detecting and solving the problems in hypokalemia patients during 1 February – 31 July 2014 and to measure satisfaction and recommendations to improve the system from health professionals. Of 322 patients, 52 (16.5%) patients were detected and reported for hypokalemia. Forty two patients were prescribed with anti-diuretic drugs (doctors automatically stopped medications in 4 patients and pharmacists consulted with doctors in 38 patients). Of 38 patients, most had kidney disease, infection and alcohol withdrawal syndrome. After consultation, 33 patients were stopped using problematic medications and 5 patients continued the medications with monitoring for a week. Potassium levels were statistically increased after stopped using the medications (p<0.001). Thirteen doctors, pharmacists and nurses were satisfied with the system in particular prompt alert to prevent the problems and facilitate communication between professionals. The system should be further developed to cover other drug-related problems.


Life began only once some three billion years ago as a replicating molecule. There were two basic challenges - repair and adaptation. The strategy of replication successfully addressed both challenges; however, it also created competition. Without some mechanism for cooperation molecules could not successfully replicate over time and would die out.The emergence of a successful strategic mechanism that managed conflict and competition either produced or allowed an evolutionary transition to a more complex form. Thus, the major evolutionary transitions - from individual genes to gene networks to bacteria-like cells to eukaryotic cells with organelles to multicellular organisms to societies - share three common themes: (1) cooperation among lower-level units making the higher-level unit functional, (2) the management of conflict among lower-level units, and (3) encapsulation that excludes others. So, conflict and the need for conflict resolution mechanisms are present at the beginning of life and explain major transitions in evolution that lead to increasing complexity in nature. In addition, the creation of "boundaries" sets the stage for continued conflict (in-group v. out-group), the resolution of which requires another evolutionary transition.The CR mechanisms responsible for these transitions are, respectively, the hypercycle, localization of genes, chromosomes, meiosis, uniparental inheritance of cytoplasm, kin selection, reciprocation, and group selection. In this context, the human social behaviors associated with conflict and its resolution, such as those in our "reconciliatory cycle schema," are essential for the reciprocal mechanism inducing cooperation and altruistic behavior among non-related individuals within the same group. The efficacy of this mechanism, when relying solely on individual behavior, is limited to small groups in a regularly-connected, degree-homogeneous network. Larger groups with differently structured networks become possible through the emergence of culture (replicating ideas or "memes") and social institutions that extend the functionality of reciprocation, of which legal institutions are a current example and, in our view, are biological phenomena. This biological perspective provides a different lens through which to analyze human conflict resolution behavior and institutions.


Portions of pancreases from fetal rats (normal or alloxan diabetic mothers) of 19.5 days were grown in organ culture for four days on either a low glucose medium (162 to 170 mg. glucose per 100 ml.) or a high glucose medium (1,031 to 1,073 mg. glucose per 100 ml.). Certain cultures were fixed for microscopic study. Other cultures were transplanted to the mothers at two sites: into the anterior chamber of the eye and under the capsule of the kidney. Four or ten days later, the grafts were removed, fixed and prepared for microscopic study. Pancreases of fetuses from normal mothers had granulated beta cells at the time of explantation. When explants were grown on the high glucose medium, the beta cells became degranulated—the insulin stored at the time of explant was released from the beta cells. Subsequent transplantation of such cultures into the normal mothers restored the beta cell granulation, i.e., new insulin was synthesized and stored within the beta cells. Pancreases of fetuses from alloxanized diabetic mothers had de granulated beta cells at the time of explantation. When these explants were grown on the low glucose medium, the beta cells developed extensive granulation representing a synthesis and storage of insulin. Following subsequent transplantation of such cultures into the diabetic mothers, the beta cells became degranulated, i.e., release of stored insulin from the beta cells. These observations indicate that the beta cells maintain their functional integrity (ability to store or release insulin in response to glucose) both in organ culture and when subsequently grown as grafts in maternal hosts.


ABSTRACT
The opioid receptors are important regulators of pain, reward, and addiction. Limited evidence suggests the mu and delta opioid receptors form a heterodimer (MDOR), which may act as a negative feedback brake on opioid-induced analgesia. However, evidence for the MDOR in vivo is indirect and limited, and there are few selective tools available. We recently published the first MDOR-selective antagonist, D24M, allowing us to test the role of the MDOR in mice. We thus co-treated CD-1 mice with D24M and opioids in tail flick, paw incision, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy pain models. D24M treatment enhanced oxymorphone anti-nociception in all models by 54.7%-628%. This enhancement could not be replicated with the mu and delta selective antagonists CTAP, naltrindole, and naloxonazine, and D24M had a mild transient effect in the Rotarod test, suggesting this increase is selective to the MDOR. However, D24M had no effect on morphine or buprenorphine, suggesting that only specific opioids interact with the MDOR. To find a mechanism we performed phosphoproteomic analysis on brainstems of mice. We found that the kinases Src and CaMKII were repressed by oxymorphone, which was restored by D24M. We were able to confirm the role of Src and CaMKII in D24M-enhanced anti-nociception using small molecule inhibitors (KN93, Src-I1). Together these results provide direct in vivo evidence that the MDOR acts as an opioid negative feedback brake, which occurs via the repression of Src and CaMKII signal transduction. These results further suggest that MDOR antagonism could be a means to improve clinical opioid therapy.


CONTEXT
Cancer stem cells from several human malignancies, including poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma and thyroid cancer cell lines, have been cultured in vitro as sphere-forming cells. These thyroid cancer stem cells were proven to be able to reproduce the original tumor in a xenograft orthotopic model.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of the study was to characterize papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) spheres from well-differentiated thyroid cancer and normal thyroid (NT) spheres obtained from the contralateral thyroid tissue of the same patient.

DESIGN
Thyrospheres from PTCs and NTs were isolated.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Gene expression analysis by real-time PCR, immunofluorescence studies, and fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis in thyrospheres from PTCs and NTs have been evaluated.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with NT spheres, PTC spheres are larger, more irregular, and more clonogenic and have a higher rate of symmetric division. Moreover, PTC spheres express higher levels of stem cell markers and lower levels of thyroid-specific genes compared with NT spheres. Under appropriate conditions, NT spheres differentiated into thyrocytes, whereas PTC spheres did not, displaying a defect in the differentiation potential. Immunofluorescence experiments indicated that, in NT spheres, progenitor cells are mainly present in the sphere core, and the sphere periphery contains thyroid precursor cells already committed to differentiation. PTC spheres are not polarized like NT spheres. Unlike cells differentiated from NT spheres, TSH did not significantly stimulate cAMP production in cells differentiated from PTC spheres. A microarray analysis performed in paired samples (NT and PTC spheres from the same patient) indicated that NT and PTC spheres display a gene expression pattern typical of stem/progenitor cells; however, compared with NT spheres, PTC spheres display a unique gene expression pattern that might be involved in PTC progression.


This article analyzes comments responding to @XianziAndHerFriends (@ 弦子与她的朋友 们 ) in the censorship-rich environment of Weibo via BERTopic and examines how emojis may evade surveillance from censors—and algorithmic analysis. A total of 89,597 comments were computed to 38 overlapping topics of conversation that were further interpreted through thematic coding to 6 clusters of discourse and 3 themes. Data reveal how this Weibo account, microblogging a sexual assault case, grew to be a popular civic space for feminist discussion in China on varied topics despite censorship. Emoji analysis offers nuances to how this was enacted. The article expands on the methods available to understand dissent in the shadow of censorship and discusses how the patchwork censorship of Weibo has refracted nationalist and patriarchal tendencies of autocracy in China rubbing against platform prerogatives and feminist expression. It argues the "ambivalent governance" of the space is not defined through vernacular or institution, free speech, or autocracy, but instead all of the above in complex relationships in the platformization of censorship and (anti)nationalist patriarchy.


Drawing on a relational approach and based on an ethnographic study of street cleaners and refuse collectors, we redress a tendency towards an overemphasis on the discursive by exploring the co-constitution of the material and symbolic dynamics of dirt. We show how esteem-enhancing strategies that draw on the symbolic can be both supported and undermined by the physicality of dirt, and how relations of power are rooted in subordinating material conditions. Through employing Hardy and Thomas's taxonomy of objects, practice, bodies and space, we develop a fuller understanding of how the symbolic and material are fundamentally entwined within dirty work, and suggest that a neglect of the latter might foster a false optimism regarding worker experiences.


This paper empirically analyzes factors behind successful derivatives products in the emerging markets of the Asian region. Successful derivatives products are defined as contracts with high trade volume. The influencing factors are the size of the underlying spot market, the spot market volatility, the spot market liquidity, whether the derivatives product was the first contract introduced in the derivatives exchange, and whether the product was options or futures. We find that the size of the underlying spot market, the spot market volatility and the spot market liquidity have statistically significantly positive effect on the trading volume of the derivatives products. Moreover, if the derivatives product was the first derivatives product introduced in the exchange, it is more likely to be successful. Option contracts are relatively more successful than their respective futures contracts in terms of trading volume, which could be due to the costs associated with margin requirements.


: Macrophage migration inhibition and stimulation factors were revealed in the serum of alloimmune mice by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. CBA mice were primed intravenously with 90 X 10(6) and challenged subsequently intravenously with 20 X 10(6) spleen cells of BALB/c mice. Macrophage migration inhibition and stimulation factors were revealed in pre- and post-albumin fractions, respectively, already on days 1 and 6 after alloimmunization. It is suggested that at an early phase of immune response the immunomediators with alternative functions whose local activity gradients predetermined the macrophage behaviour, are released into the serum of alloimmune animals.


Social network worms, such as email worms and facebook worms, pose a critical security threat to the Internet. Modeling their propagation dynamics is essential to predict their potential damages and develop countermeasures. Although several analytical models have been proposed for modeling propagation dynamics of social network worms, there are two critical problems unsolved: temporal dynamics and spatial dependence. First, previous models have not taken into account the different time periods of Internet users checking emails or social messages, namely, temporal dynamics. Second, the problem of spatial dependence results from the improper assumption that the states of neighboring nodes are independent. These two problems seriously affect the accuracy of the previous analytical models. To address these two problems, we propose a novel analytical model. This model implements a spatial-temporal synchronization process, which is able to capture the temporal dynamics. Additionally, we find the essence of spatial dependence is the spreading cycles. By eliminating the effect of these cycles, our model overcomes the computational challenge of spatial dependence and provides a stronger approximation to the propagation dynamics. To evaluate our susceptible-infectious-immunized (SII) model, we conduct both theoretical analysis and extensive simulations. Compared with previous epidemic models and the spatial-temporal model, the experimental results show our SII model achieves a greater accuracy. We also compare our model with the susceptible-infectious-susceptible and susceptible-infectious-recovered models. The results show that our model is more suitable for modeling the propagation of social network worms.


An assortment of organisms exists all through the human body and have central job in human wellbeing. Studies have uncovered that human microbes of each sound individual contrasts amazingly in the matter of various assortments of organisms. In the body, these microorganisms are available in various parts, for example, skin, nasal depression, oral cavity, gut and vagina and thusly remain in various territories. A few microorganisms that colonize people are commensally, though others have a mutuality relationship with the host. These connections are significant for human to develop furthermore, remain sound. This smaller than expected audit depicts about the organisms present in various human territories and their jobs in keeping the individual sound. Current populace examines uncover that youth cleanliness is a critical hazard factor for improvement of incendiary inside malady, in this way fortifying the cleanliness speculation and the expected significance of microbial colonization during early life.


ISSUE ADDRESSED
National smoking prevalence is decreasing among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In remote areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking prevalence remains higher than in non-remote areas, and is not improving.

METHODS
We analysed data from 539 daily and weekly smokers from remote areas who completed baseline surveys at either Wave 1 (April 2012-October 2013) or Wave 2 (August 2013 to August 2014), including 157 from Wave 1 who also completed Wave 2, from the Talking About The Smokes project. We assessed associations between baseline predictor measures and having made any quit attempt in the past year and, among those who did, having sustained the last quit attempt for one month or more.

RESULTS
More smokers had made a quit attempt if they were younger or reported being unable to buy essentials due to money spent on smokes, being more stressed, having several pro-quitting motivations and attitudes, having an effective smoke-free home, or being encouraged to quit by a health professional or by family/ friends. Of these, more had sustained their last quit attempt for one month or more if they reported being more socially advantaged, being less dependent or an having effective smoke-free home.

CONCLUSIONS
Health staff should consider the quite different factors associated with starting and then sustaining a quit attempt. SO WHAT?: Our findings support continued attention in remote areas on smoke-free homes and health staff providing regular encouragement to all smokers to quit, and more use of smokers' friends and family for support.


Part of the "Fact Finders" of the non-fiction component of the "Oxford Reading Tree", this text is entitled "All Kinds of Clothes". It focuses on developing the information retrieval and handling skills children need to use non-fiction effectively. The "More Units" A, B and C topics are clothes, people and schools. They are accompanied by a teacher's resource pack providing photocopiable support for these books and for the original units A, B, and C.


BACKGROUND
Despite the growth in the absolute number of Israel's elderly population, no previous estimate has been published on the number of geriatricians required, either at present or for the next 20 years.

OBJECTIVE
To offer a conservative estimate of the number of geriatricians required today, with projections to the year 2020.

METHODS
We utilized two separate models. The first estimated need via an extrapolation from an American model. The second utilized a "made in Israel" formula relating to the need for geriatric assessment, based on an estimate of the number of frail elderly in Israel.

RESULTS
Today there are approximately 170 practicing geriatricians in Israel. Our models conservatively estimated already in the year 2000 the need for a minimum of 114 up to 522 geriatricians; by 2010 the numbers will reach a minimum of 118 to 604; and by the year 2020, from 138 to 854. These determinations are all lower than previous estimates made by the Ministry of Health.

CONCLUSIONS
At present, the Israeli health system is not prepared to look after the elderly in the best possible way. There is already a shortage of geriatricians and, without immediate attention to this problem, this gap will grow significantly in the next twenty years.


This thesis takes examples from villager's experiences of change, how they perceive it and how they imagine their futures. The poor are often portrayed as passive recipients of change rather than agents of it and this thesis is a challenge to that. In-depth ethnography and life course analysis help us understand the meanings attached to people's own experiences of change and illustrate that villagers are not merely 'forgetting their feet' (veuaa leum dteen- cows forget their feet, Thai proverb) in a teleological manner but are negotiating adverse structures to provide security and family wellbeing. An actor oriented approach is used as it highlights experiences of change and reactions to it whilst also taking into account the adverse political economy and imperfect institutional landscape. Changes that have been happening in one village in North-eastern Thailand are described and the failure of collective forms of resistance to provide adequate security is analysed. The rest of the thesis then goes on to look at change through individual and household strategies. Cohort analysis is used to explore differences in generations. An individual life course approach is then used to show how people strategise for their present and future wellbeing. Intergenerational analysis is also used to understand the bargaining between generations. Findings show the intergenerational contract is not only flexible but is also being re-worked to better fit the changes in society, not necessarily breaking down. Families are evolving and are finding new ways to keep bargains whilst also taking advantage of new identities and lifestyles. Findings show the active negotiation of the rural poor as agents of change; this change is dependent on place and the life course and sometimes entails large tradeoffs but seen in the wider context is supporting the reproduction and survival of families and rural values. I argue that perceived ideological similarities between families and the state that families should provide their own welfare without dependency is lessening pressure on the state to increase state welfare. However, there are differences between state 'sufficiency economy' versions of welfare and what poor families need. Pressure is building for better welfare, but it needs to be done in a way that facilitates and strengthens family provision.


Android Application Framework is an integral and foundational part of the Android system. Each of the two billion (as of 2017) Android devices relies on the system services of Android Framework to manage applications and system resources. Given its critical role, a vulnerability in the framework can be exploited to launch large-scale cyber attacks and cause severe harms to user security and privacy. Recently, many vulnerabilities in Android Framework were exposed, showing that it is indeed vulnerable and exploitable. While there is a large body of studies on Android application analysis, research on Android Framework analysis is very limited. In particular, to our knowledge, there is no prior work that investigates how to enable symbolic execution of the framework, an approach that has proven to be very powerful for vulnerability discovery and exploit generation. We design and build the first system, Centaur, that enables symbolic execution of Android Framework. Due to the middleware nature and technical peculiarities of the framework that impinge on the analysis, many unique challenges arise and are addressed in Centaur. The system has been applied to discovering new vulnerability instances, which can be exploited by recently uncovered attacks against the framework, and to generating PoC exploits.


On the basis of research data of many scholars, we analyzed implication of new countryside and the construction of new socialist countryside. The new socialist countryside construction is a systematic project, involving rural political, economic, cultural, scientific and technological, sanitation, social security, ecological environment, and people's livelihood. We discussed successful experience of new socialist countryside construction, and presented relevant construction models, namely different models of eastern developed regions and central and western less developed regions. Finally, we put forward countermeasures for new socialist countryside construction, including ensuring implementation of planning for new socialist countryside construction and improving livelihood of rural people and supply of public goods.


In this paper, the baseline performance level of Al Ain Public Bus Service is evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on some selected input (travel time per round trip, total number of stops, total number of operators, total number of buses) and output (daily ridership and vehicle-kilometer) variables. Two types of scenarios were developed and tested. The first set of scenarios aimed at investigating the possibility of reducing the operating cost while maintaining the same performance levels (efficiency and effectiveness) for the routes. The second set of scenarios was used to demonstrate how the baseline performance levels can be improved by slightly altering the route alignment (and subsequently input and output variables). Sensitivity analysis was then conducted to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of each route. Conclusions on how the transit authority can reduce daily operating hours while maintaining the existing performance level are made. Also, suggestions are presented on how to improve the overall performance level of the bus service by changing some route characteristics.


Despite the depth of Mesozoic reservoirs, the extreme temperatures and pressures encountered and the high drilling costs, the High Pressure/High Temperature (HPHT) play in the deepest part of the Central Graben remains one of the most attractive in the North Sea.

Seismic imaging

In the deep Central Graben HPHT play there is a requirement for reliable data on seismic sections at 5 to 6 seconds or greater. It is shown, using a hypothetical single layer model, that at these depths theoretical migration distances can approach 10–15 km where structural dips of 50–60° are present. It is also shown that migration distances predicted by this single layer model closely approximate to those predicted using a realistic Central Graben multilayer model. The single layer model is, therefore, a useful predictive tool for the plannng of seismic surveys providing that salt piercement tectonics are not involved.

Errors in the positioning of seismic events introduced by inaccuracy in the applied migration velocities are potentially large. They can lead to large errors in depth conversion. In addition these errors can be of sufficient magnitude that wells targeted at deep prospects may miss their objective completely.

The structural complexity of the HPHT play means that simple concepts of dip and strike shooting directions are not valid. Large migration misties on 2D data can render the subsequent interpretation meaningless. 3D exploration surveys are the solution, but they can be very expensive and time consuming to acquire and process.

Incorrect interpretation of the Lower Cretaceous may arise because . . .


Successful aquaculture species are often chosen for their fast growth rates and fecundity, which are also characteristics of invasive species. The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, which constitutes 80% of global oyster trade, has been confirmed as invasive in 17 of the 66 countries where it is cultured. The single study of its status in South Africa reported populations in six South Coast estuaries in 2001, dropping to three sites in 2003. We resurveyed these estuaries, visited others in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, and sampled oyster tissue for molecular analyses of population structure. Pacific oysters have disappeared from Knysna and, following our collections, possibly also from the GouKou Estuary. Between 2003 and 2012, the Breede Estuary population decreased by 87%, from an estimated 184 206 to 23 760 individuals. Within this estuary, oysters 12 km upriver had denser shells and higher body condition indices than did those within 1.4 km of the river mouth, presumably reflecting higher availability of suspended organic matter. However, low salinity over most of the species' range in the estuary probably inhibits recruitment. New populations of Pacific oysters in the Swartkops and Kaaimans estuaries urgently require monitoring and eradication. Haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π) diversities across all oyster populations sampled (h = 0.2300 [SD 0.0595], π = 0.0006 [SD 0.0007]) were lower than those of co-occurring indigenous Cape rock oysters Striostrea margaritacea from the GouKou and Breede estuaries (h = 0.9076 [SD 0.0386], π = 0.00589 [SD 0.00347]). Pacific oysters either have been introduced to South African estuaries infrequently, or have experienced genetic bottlenecks following river floods or human exploitation, or both. Populations growing outside culture infrastructure are restricted to estuaries in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, with no evidence of occurrence in fully marine shelf environments. Given the species' considerable socio-economic importance, estuarine and coastal surveillance coupled with aquaculture zoning are required to integrate biodiversity and food security considerations.


The R2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase from herpes simplex virus type 2 was overproduced with prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems. The recombinant R2 purified by a two-step procedure exhibited a 3-fold higher activity when produced in eukaryotic cells. Precise quantification of the R2 concentration at each step of the purification indicated that the activity was not altered during the purification procedure. Moreover, we have observed that the level of R2 expression, in eukaryotic cells as well as in prokaryotic cells, did not influence R2 activity. Extensive characterization of the recombinant R2 purified from eukaryotic and prokaryotic expression systems has shown that both types of pure R2 preparations were similar in their 76 kDa dimer contents (more than 95%) and in their ability to bind the R1 subunit. However, we have found that the higher activity of R2 produced in eukaryotic cells is more probably related to a higher capability of binding the iron cofactor as well as a 3-fold greater ability to generate the tyrosyl free radical.


In‐work credits grew in popularity worldwide during the late 1990s and 2000s as a means of reforming welfare systems in ways that could both encourage work and reduce poverty. This paper reviews the role of in‐work tax credits in the UK and the US, what is known and remains to be known about their impacts and distributional consequences, and the possibilities for reform. Evidence is clear that in‐work credits reduce poverty and can encourage lone parents to work, but have minimal impacts, in aggregate, on second earners. Spending on in‐work credits has grown in the UK, but there have been two major overhauls of the way these are structured so that, on current plans, the UK will not have an identifiable in‐work credit by 2023. In the US, in‐work assistance has grown in generosity and reach since the 1980s, thanks to broad political support for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the (less‐targeted) Child Tax Credit. Future debates in the UK should focus on the rise of in‐work poverty, particularly amongst couples, with some needed focus on the design of in‐work benefits, a debate where economic analysis and evidence should have a major role to play. In the US, the policy discussion should be about whether to increase substantially the EITC for those without children, and how best to maintain or expand the credit's generosity for those with children.


This is the first chapter in a volume on "Boards and Shareholders in European Listed Companies: Facts, Context and Post-Crisis Reforms" (M. Belcredi and G. Ferrarini eds., Cambridge University Press forthcoming 2013). We offer an overview of the volume, placing the same in the context of recent EU reforms and of corporate governance theory, and summarizing the main outcomes of the various chapters. In addition, we offer some policy perspectives based on the theoretical and empirical outcomes of the research project of which this volume is the product. We analyse four main topics in the corporate governance of European listed firms: board structure/composition and its interaction with ownership structure, board remuneration, shareholder activism and corporate governance disclosure based on the "comply-or-explain" approach. For each of them, this volume provides new evidence and derives specific implications, relevant for the policy debate. Basically, proposals aimed at increasing disclosure and accountability at the European level look generally well-grounded: this is true, in particular, for disclosure about managerial compensation and compliance with national governance codes based on the "comply-or-explain" principle. On the opposite, we suggest caution when evaluating proposals targeting specific governance arrangements, which may actually lead to unintended consequences. Even though the Commission has – so far – refrained from adopting an excessively intrusive stance, further analysis may be needed before intervening in the fields of board composition and shareholder activism.


In Sweden, there is an emerging research on public e-Services and research is conducted at several universities and research institutes. Swedish research on e-Services focuses on citizens, communication, the development of e-Services, the design of e-Services, the maintenance of e-Services, e-Participation, the quality of services, evaluation, organisational changes, interactions between different e-Services, usability, co-operation, inter-organisational co-operation, accessibility, e-Health, the development of methods, and process orientation. Current research projects in Sweden have a predominance of national governments and governmental focus, but there are nevertheless several research projects that focus on local governments and on citizens. In analysing current research, it can be seen that Swedish research on e-Services in several cases corresponds to international research, and visions and trends for the future development of e-Services. However, the challenge facing future research on e-Services is to include more of theory generating and theory testing.


The modification of the stability and the behaviour of core MHD with local electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) is presented. Starting from the innermost resonant surface, the q = 1 surface, the stability and hence the sawtooth period and the size of sawteeth is controlled with local on/off-axis co-/counter-ECCD. The sawteeth themselves can serve as a trigger for neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) and therefore the excitation of NTMs can be influenced. Once these NTMs get excited they can be fully stabilized at high βN with co-ECCD at the resonant surface. Detailed experiments on the dependence of the stabilization on the ECCD deposition width and the total driven current have shown ways to improve the stabilization efficiency both for the (3/2) and the (2/1)-NTM significantly. In the presence of (3/2)-NTMs the impact on the confinement can be reduced by triggering the so-called frequently interrupted regime (FIR-NTM) with the current drive in the vicinity of the (4/3) surface leading also to a clearer understanding of the FIR-NTM.


The main message carried by this article is that counterpoint can be taken as a model approach for the introduction of contrasting elements, not only in musical composition but also in the generation of ideas in any domain of knowledge. We start by an interdisciplinary review about the power of opposite concepts as constituting elements in nature. This is followed by the description of the DIMAI model for creative thinking, which is founded upon the dual forces of convergent and divergent thinking modalities. The main body of our work is an extraction of divergent modifiers from the Contrapunctus composed by Bach and collected in the Art of Fugue, with simple examples of application to the diversified fields of education and computer science.


This investigation explored graduates' perceptions and experiences of a Higher Education (HE) coach education programme. It aimed to identify if this formal learning source had impacted upon attendees' development and employability, while uncovering information to potentially inform future provision. 10 graduate coaches who had completed coaching modules at a United Kingdom (UK) HE institution participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Graduate coaches highlighted a positive educational experience that developed critical analytical skills, assisted in their perceived accelerated development, and enhanced employability. Using Carl Rogers' work as a framework to analyse the data, it is demonstrated that the findings collectively offer implicit support for the adoption of a person-centred educational philosophy. Further research and debate is identified as necessary to ascertain whether the person-centred approach offers a legitimate and effective alternative form of coach education.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The diagnostic yield of vertebrobasilar transcranial color-coded duplex ultrasonography (US) is often hampered by insufficient acoustic penetration, anatomic variations, and vessel tortousity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of echo enhancement on vertebrobasilar transcranial color-coded duplex US. METHODS : In 23 consecutive patients (mean age, 61.0 (cid:1) 11.1 years) with vertebrobasilar stroke, the vertebrobasilar system (P1 segment of the posterior cerebral artery [PCA], basilar head, V4 segment of the vertebral artery, and basilar artery) was examined with transcranial color-coded duplex US before and after injection of an echo-enhancer. The acoustic window was graded according to visibility of parenchymal structures, and vessel imaging was graded according to the appearance of the color mode signal. Maximum depth of the basilar color signal was recorded. All patients with an abnormal or inconclusive US finding underwent either digital subtraction angiography or MR angiography. RESULTS : In the P1 PCA, V4 vertebral artery, basilar artery, and basilar head, image quality was insufficient in 65%, 82%, 83%, and 38%, respectively, before echo enhancement, and in 15%, 30%, 35%, and 9%, respectively, after echo enhancement. In all graded vessels, the improved image quality with echo enhancement was statistically significant. Compared with the reference examinations in the 15 cases of occlusion or stenosis, definite diagnosis was possible in 60% (nine cases) with nonenhanced transcranial color-coded duplex US and in 93% of (14 cases) after echo enhancement. CONCLUSION : Echo enhancement resulted in improved image quality of the vertebrobasilar system and markedly increased diagnostic confidence.


We propose a bandstop filter with a wider upper passband using micros trip open-loop resonators for modem communication systems. A microstrip open-loop resonator (MOLR) is discussed for maximum miniaturization in microwave applications and to obtain a wider upper stopband (or passband) including the first spurious resonance frequency for planar filters. The bandstop filter is designed and fabricated using a full-wave simulator. The measured filter performance shows a good agreement with the simulated response.


In this article, an algorithm combining two different variance constrained control strategies (i.e. output variance constrained: OVC controller and input variance constrained: IVC controller) is developed. Performance of the resulting novel control technique called as combined output and input variance constrained controller is evaluated on helicopters. Their linearized state-space models are used to see feasibility and efficiency of this new strategy (i.e., output and input variance constrained). Closed loop responses of some outputs and inputs of interest and also some outputs out of interest are investigated while using output and input variance constrained for air vehicle flight control system. Then, closed loop performance of output and input variance constrained is compared with respect to the two other classical control techniques (i.e. outputs variance constrained and input variance constrained). Finally, robustness of output and input variance constrained with respect to the modeling uncertainities is examined.


Strawberry cultivation is important for human health and nutrition. Due to the high profit margin, it is one of the important agricultural production branches in the world and in our country, whose cultivation is rapidly increasing and has no marketing problems. When compared with the major strawberry producing countries, it is seen that the average yield of our country is quite low. increasing strawberry productivity is important for agricultural production and national economy. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of different plant bioactivators in order to contribute to increase yield and quality in strawberry cultivation. The experiment was carried out in the research and application area of Akdeniz University Faculty of Agriculture between 2018-2019 in a glass greenhouse without climate control, with two seasons (Fall and Spring) and three replications. In the study, Messenger, Crop-set and ISR-2000, which are obtained from commercial companies, were used as bioactivator and neutral day cultivar 'Albion' strawberry was used as plant material. In order to evaluate the effects of applications on vegetative development criteria, stem diameter, plant height, number of leaves and the relationship of these variables with each other were determined. In order to determine the effects of applications on fruit quality; fruit firmness (kg), fruit weight (g), fruit diameter (mm), fruit length (mm), TSS (%), pH was determined. When the results obtained were evaluated, statistical differences were determined between the bioactivator applications and control applications in terms of different criteria. At the end of the study, the highest fruit weight (17.22 g) and length (40.65 mm) average value obtained from Crop-set application, the highest fruit diameter (31.73 mm) and fruit firmness (0.56 kg) from Messenger application while the highest TSS value (7.70%) was obtained from ISR-2000 application. Keywords: Biostimulator, Plant activator, Fruit quality, Berry DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/5-11-11