An orthographic learning protocol was used to test whether the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995) applies to adults. The self-teaching hypothesis posits that readers can independently use phonological recoding to achieve skilled recognition of unfamiliar printed words. Eighteen Native English-speaking adults read short stories that contained unfamiliar target pseudowords either aloud or silently. The pseudowords were either monosyllabic or multisyllabic. The amount of orthographic learning was tested one week later with two posttests. It was predicted that adults would perform similarly as children, since the self-teaching hypothesis asserts that decoding remains a fundamental mechanism for orthographic learning across all stages of reading development. As expected, the results revealed that decoding ability is positively correlated with orthographic learning. However, we found stronger orthographic learning as measured by an Orthographic Choice task when adults read aloud, as compared to silently. We also found stronger learning as measured by a Spelling task when adults learn monosyllabic items. We conclude that adults make greater use of lexicalized decoding, which draws upon visual similarities between new and already learned words, than the letter-sound decoding used by beginning readers. Further, we hypothesize that silent reading promotes the use of lexicalized decoding whereas reading aloud stimulates both beginner decoding and lexicalized decoding. Unobserved in children, these findings suggest that orthographic learning occurs in adults but it involves a different mix of decoding strategies than seen in children.


The recent proposition for a long-lived (635–580 Ma) magmatic arc in the central portion of the Borborema Province is critically evaluated. Evidence favoring subduction include: low-T, high-P metamorphism; local occurrence of retroeclogites; and the probable participation of juvenile material in the genesis of 630–620 Ma-old plutons. However, several factors argue against the existence of a large ocean separating the Northern and Central subprovinces. First, early Tonian detrital zircons (1.0–0.9 Ga) in the Northern Subprovince indicate derivation from the Central Subprovince, and thus a connection between them until the time of deposition (ca. 660 Ma). Second, the age of peak metamorphism in the Northern Subprovince implies concomitant deformation in the upper and lower plates at 630–610 Ma. Third, 630–620 Ma-old granites have characteristics (e.g., high δO 18 values, low magnetic susceptibility) unlike plutons emplaced in continental active margins. Fourth, 590–580 Ma-old granites are clearly syn- transcurrent, i.e., post-collisional. Finally, the Patos shear zone, proposed to be a boundary transform between the two plates, is younger than 570 Ma, and thus cannot represent a suture zone. Therefore, if a magmatic arc existed, it had short duration and was developed at the end of the Cryogenian.


Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) breast MRI plays an important role in the detection and staging of breast cancer. It has a high sensitivity of approximately 0.90 for the detection breast cancer, although the specificity of 0.72 is relatively low. Therefore, research has focused on improving specificity. One of the areas of interest is the use of a higher magnetic field strength. In the past decade 7T MRI has become available for whole-body imaging. 7T MRI offers possibilities that may improve the diagnostic accuracy of breast MRI. In the first part of the thesis we investigated the feasibility of 7T breast MRI. In a patient case it was shown that 7T breast MRI is technically feasible, and may allow for analysis conform the BI-RADS-MRI lexicon. Following this first experience, a dedicated patient study was conducted to investigate clinical feasibility. 7T examinations of twenty patients with suspicious breast lesions were assessed by two radiologists. The radiologists identified all histopathological proven malignant lesions, and classified them BI-RADS-MRI 4 or 5. A benefit of ultra-high resolution imaging was illustrated as it increased reader confidence in the majority of cases. Third, an intra-individual comparison study was performed were patients were imaged at both 3T and 7T MRI. Two radiologists equally identified malignant lesions at both field strengths and determined an overall good imaging quality for the dynamic scans acquired at 7T. In the second part we focused on improved or new breast imaging techniques that benefit from the ultra-high field strength. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) is one of the techniques that benefits from moving to 7T. To answer the question whether 31P (phosphorus) MRSI results are influenced by the menstrual cycle, seven females with a regular menstrual cycle were measured each four equidistant times. It was shown that 31P MRSI examinations can be performed at any point during the menstrual cycle, without a significant effect on the phosphorus metabolic ratios. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) presents itself as microcalcifications on mammography in up to 79% of cases. However, microcalcifications are also often associated with benign or high-risk lesions instead of with malignancy. Therefore, careful evaluation is needed. First, the added value of 3T breast MRI in patients presenting with suspicious microcalcifications on mammography was investigated. It was shown that 3T MRI in addition to conventional imaging has an added value, as the AUC showed a significant increase in multivariate analysis. However, 3T MRI does not exclude DCIS lesions of all grades sufficiently. The diagnostic accuracy of MRI may be improved when detection and morphologic characterization of microcalcifications becomes feasible. Therefore, a new technique sensitive for the susceptibility property of calcifications was investigated for its potential to visualize calcifications with 7T MRI. Ex-vivo whole-breast specimens were subjected to gradient echo sequences of which the phase derivative was examined. A specific pattern in the phase derivative allowed microcalcifications to be discriminated from other field perturbers, which showed the feasibility of the technique. Furthermore, the first steps towards automated detection were presented by using a template matched algorithm.


Challenge of Tackling Counter-Productive Trends Medha Nanivadekar IF one is to go by the statements of the ministers in the BJP-led coalition government, the 81 st constitutional amendment bill seems to be on its way out of the cold storage where it was dumped by the Gujral government. Now the bill is likely to be reintroduced after the parliament meets in July 1998. It is intriguing to note that the bill still faces an uncertain future in spite of the fact that all major national political parties have committed themselves to 33 per cent reservation for women in state assemblies as well as the Lok Sabha in their election manifestos for 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections. "The women's movement has till date, opposed all attempts to use its demand for one third reservation as a bargaining counter, because any dilution now will be ultimately targeted at the panchayat raj provision to which the movement has given the first priority" [ Vina Mazumdar, Seminar, September 1997, p 19].


Early identification of areas that are at-risk in a design under development can help design and verification teams take early preventive and corrective measures. We propose a novel system that predicts which files are at risk of being buggy. Our simple, machine learning-based, regression system receives data from various sources, including the version control and defect tracking tools. After automatically labeling historic data and training sets, the system predicts the risk level of each file. Experimental results show that the proposed system has fairly high positive precision and recall and that its predictions are better than trivial predictions, such as files that recently changed or had bugs.


Graphene has excellent potential as a sulfur host in a lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery owing to its outstanding electrical conductivity and robust mechanical properties. However, graphene itself cannot effectively confine sulfur and suppress polysulfide diffusion, leading to severely fast capacity decay. Herein, nitrogen-doped tubular/porous carbon channels were implanted on graphene sheets (NTPC–G) via a double-template method, with graphene sheets as the shape-directed agents and NiCo–carbonate hydroxide nanowires as the guides of tubular channels. The resultant one-dimensional hollow tubular carbon and two-dimensional graphene nanosheets were wrapped by nitrogen-doped porous carbon layers to construct the unique three-dimensional sandwich-type architectures. The adopted graphene sheets functioned as conductive networks and robust frameworks; moreover, the nitrogen-doped tubular/porous carbon channels comprising hollow tubular carbon and porous carbon coating layers implanted on graphene frameworks served as the sulfur-confined space and polysulfide reservoirs. On integrating these fascinating benefits into one electrode material, sulfur and NTPC–G composites (S@NTPC–G) delivered high rate capability (563 mA h g−1 at 6 C) and good cycle stability up to 600 cycles. This rational construction of tubular/porous carbon channels on nanosheet materials with comprehensive advantages could be promising and applicable in rechargeable Li–S batteries and other advanced energy storage devices.


Deep neural networks have proven to be an effective method in classification of images. The ability to recognize objects has opened the door for many new systems which use image classification to solve challenging problems where conventional image classification would be inadequate. We trained a large, deep convolutional neural network to identify lionfish from other species that might be found in the same habitats. Google's Inception framework served as a powerful platform for our fish recognition system. By using transfer learning, we were able to obtain exceptional results for the classification of different species of fish. The convolutional neural network was then moved to a Raspberry Pi system enclosed in a water proof case that allowed for the convolutional neural network to be run on underwater images taken by the system.


Introduction India produces 200–250 billion clay bricks annually, the second largest producer of clay fired bricks, accounting for more than 10% of global production, in 1 50 000 to 2 00 000 brick kilns. Each brick kiln employs between 250–300 workers, bringing the total number of workers to approximately 20 million, which is roughly 4 per cent of a total of 459 million workers in India, of which almost 40% are women. The Brick Industry in India is characterised by traditional methods of production technology and seasonal work. Methods The study was done in Tripura, a state in North East India to assess the impact of traditional brick manufacturing technology on the health of the workers. A convenient available sample of 94 workers from 4 brick kilns who have worked for 5 years or more were taken from the total population of 280 (including children) of these kilns. The workers were interviewed to obtain information on the demography and personal habit followed by general physical medical examination, blood test for complete haemogram, random blood sugar levels and pulmonary function test. The data was analysed using MS Office Excel 2007 & Epi. Info 18.104.22.168 version. Results The average age of workers is 34 years, 27% were female and 73% male workers. 55% worker are loaders, 29% moulders and 7% fire-workers, 75% being migrant workers, 49% being underweight, 51% anaemic, 78% have eosinophilia (younger workers more affected, p value 0.04), 66% have low back pain. Conclusion Brick kiln workers are suffering from high morbidity in North east India because of their work. This demands urgent attention for the health and safety program that should include regular in-service training emphasising health risk of brick kiln work, preventive measures, technological interventions etc. Health surveillance of workers would be highly beneficial in achieving better health status.


This paper performs a qualitative critical discourse analysis of 52 local news articles from four Florida (United States) newspapers to identify and expand the notion of journalistic boosterism. In the paper, I argue that boosterism—everyday news that promotes mediatized notions of a community's dominant traditions, dominant identities, and potential for future prosperities—functions as a form of social control by performing, as banishment, an act that secludes particular social groups from participating in community spaces, social roles, and storytelling. This paper conceptualizes journalistic boosterism as operating via a duality of community building and social banishment, a practice that continues to spread across the globe.


Three types of Cu–Ti interfacial structures have been fabricated by using different preparation methods. The mechanism regarding the interfacial effect on oxidation of CO and resistance to SO2 has been elaborated. It is proposed that an O vacancy-steered catalytic oxidation of CO prevails over an in situ Cu-doped TiO2 (DT) catalyst while a lattice O-initiated one proceeds on the other two catalysts that are obtained via solvent free and mechanical mixing methods. The former catalyst exhibits a strong Cu–Ti interface due to the high dispersion of copper species on TiO2 and partial incorporation of Cu2+ into the TiO2 matrix. This not only creates rich O vacancies, enhances O mobility and thus leads to superior redox ability of DT, hence promoting CO oxidation, but also restricts the interaction of SO2 with strongly-anchored Cu2+ species and thus increases the SO2 tolerance of DT. Meanwhile, the latter two catalysts have aggregated CuO either above or inside TiO2, which leads to rapid sulfation of CuO and deactivation of the catalysts.


A s clinicians we see the ''macro-results'' but must understand the ''micro-events'' that support and lead to the desired conclusions. The net result is that the implant must be stable and to achieve that goal, bone must be in close apposition to the implant (aka osseointegration). Some may debate the definition of osseointegration, but that is not the purpose of the editorial. It is known that immediately upon placement and over the subsequent months, a series of cellular and molecular events occurs that enables the host tissues to biologically integrate the implanted alloplastic material into the native or grafted bone. Cortical bone has the ability to immediately withstand torsional loading and provide initial stability, whereas medullary bone does not provide the same degree of initial stability. Medullary bone is rich in vascular canals and thus provides a delivery mechanism for mesenchymal stem cells. The implant surface becomes populated with bone cells that are responsible for forming de novo bone in close approximation to the dental implant. For the new bone to form, the local environment undertakes the breakdown of the existing native bone. Multiple proximal and systemic factors can affect this process. Implant material biocompatibility, implant placement/ position, loading protocol, material degradation/titanium particle release, patient age, local or systemic pathology, and medication can initiate positive or negative effects on the osseointegration process. Implant dentistry has achieved a partial understanding of these factors. This knowledge has lead to the evolution of hydrophilic and bioactive implant surfaces that aid in early osseointegration. We also understand that limiting (or controlling) the inflammatory process can diminish local tissue trauma and thereby lead to prolonged integration with continual constructive bone remodeling. The remodeling process is as equally complex as the initial integration. Osteocytes are the regulators of bone metabolism and bone remodeling. Osteocytes control these processes by regulating multiple molecular and cellular activities that in turn control osteoclast and osteoblast function. Bone metabolism is affected by numerous factors including: cholesterol, fatty acids, vitamin D, hyperglycemia, and medication. The relationship between body fat and bone marrow fat is not fully understood. It is known that increased levels of adipogenesis in the bone marrow causes decreased osteoblast formation and viability. Adipocytes release pro-inflammatory cytokines that initiate bone loss. Vitamin D stimulates osteoblasts to produce bone mineral matrix in addition to coupling bone resorption with formation. The result of this coupling is optimized bone remodeling. There is an increase in patients who present to our offices with insufficient serum levels of vitamin D. Insufficiency of vitamin D may be a confounding factor for implants. Animal studies discovered that vitamin D supplementation significantly increased peri-implant bone density, bone-implant contact and peri-implant trabecular microarchitecture. Further research is necessary to confirm that vitamin D supplementation will significantly improve implant healing. Diabetes mellitus is known to decrease osteoblast activity resulting in suppressed bone formation. It is confirmed that uncontrolled diabetics have an increased risk of implant failures. Undiagnosed diabetes may help explain some unanticipated implant failures. Hyperglycemia has been related to decreased levels of bone formation markers, such as osteocalcin, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase and C-terminal telopeptide of collagen-type I. Morashini et al. concluded that the implant failure rate was no higher for well-controlled diabetic patients than non-diabetic patients. However, all diabetic patients experience more crestal bone loss than nondiabetic patients. Additional studies are needed to confirm the affects of both controlled and uncontrolled diabetes on dental implant long-term success. Some systemic medications are known to have a direct affect on bone cells and therefore, impact bone formation and/ or remodeling. If remodeling is affected in a negative manner this may result in bone loss surrounding dental implants. Examples being serotonin reuptake inhibitors and proton pump inhibitors. Both drug classes have been implicated in bone loss and increased implant failure rates. Implant surface corrosion, as the result of dioxide layer titanium degradation is known to cause the release of titanium particles that induce an inflammatory reaction in the periimplant tissues. It has been observed that chronic wear found with long-term hip replacements can result in the release of titanium particles. These titanium particles are known to cause a foreign body inflammatory reaction. There are multiple reasons for implant failure or success. This editorial highlights some of the reasons, but they are not limited to those mentioned here. The Insua et al. review determined: ''Implant osseointegration is a long-term equilibrium between host immune cells and bone biomaterials.'' Patients desire and expect successful implant treatments. They rely upon us to help ensure that success. We have a responsibility to examine all aspects of the dental implant case; leaving no stone unturned when diagnosing and treatment planning a case. Implant dentistry is the most complex discipline in dentistry. Yet there are some who are either unaware of the complexities or choose to ignore the complexities and deny that it should be a specialty in its own right. DOI: 10.1563/aaid-joi-D-18-Editorial.4402


A measuring system for high-speed hydrogen ice pellet was introduced in this paper and the photographing of flying pellet taken therein. With the system, a pellet (minimum size of φ 0.3 mm) velocity (ranging from 50 m/s to 2500 m/s) can be measured in the HL-1Mtokamak fueling experiments. By analyzing photographs and the conditions of frozen pellets (including gas supply, gas replenishment, temperature controlling etc), the pellet-freezing technology is summarized in the paper.


Field of irrigated rice paddy was the most suitable habitat as breeding site of snail Lymnaea rubiginosa , the intermadiate host of Fasciola gigantica and other trematodes. Fluctuations in the population of fresh water snail, L. rubiginosa in irrigated rice fields and their infection with L. rubiginosa and other trematodes were studied in five villages in the subdistrict of Surade, provivine of West Java. Snail were sampled based on time collection (half man hour) each site of collection. The samples of the snails were further counted and examined for the presence of larval trematodes. The result indicated that snails died during the dry season except those in persistent aquatic refuges such as streams and springs. Surviving snails recolonised rice fields near villages by passive transfer with water from refuges early in the wet season. Some recolonosation may also have resulted from haching of snail eggs deposited in habitats which had not been dried for more than a few weeks. Recolonisation with snails of further rice fields from a village occurred during the later period of the wet season. No snail infected with F. gigantica was found in the distance of more than 200 m from a village. Snail with the highest prevalence of infection occurred in rice fields which received effluent from a cattle pen were fertilised with bovine faeces. Each snail was only infected with one species of tramatodes. Infection with echinostone larvae was most common. Kay words: L. rubiginosa , trematode infection, population dynamic


Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a key technology in many services and applications. This typically requires user devices to send their speech data to the cloud for ASR decoding. As the speech signal carries a lot of information about the speaker, this raises serious privacy concerns. As a solution, an encoder may reside on each user device which performs local computations to anonymize the representation. In this paper, we focus on the protection of speaker identity and study the extent to which users can be recognized based on the encoded representation of their speech as obtained by a deep encoder-decoder architecture trained for ASR. Through speaker identification and verification experiments on the Librispeech corpus with open and closed sets of speakers, we show that the representations obtained from a standard architecture still carry a lot of information about speaker identity. We then propose to use adversarial training to learn representations that perform well in ASR while hiding speaker identity. Our results demonstrate that adversarial training dramatically reduces the closed-set classification accuracy, but this does not translate into increased open-set verification error hence into increased protection of the speaker identity in practice. We suggest several possible reasons behind this negative result.


Judy Chicago's monumental art installation The Dinner Party was an immediate sensation when it debuted in 1979, and today it is considered the most popular work of art to emerge from the second-wave feminist movement. Jane F. Gerhard examines the piece's popularity to understand how ideas about feminism migrated from activist and intellectual circles into the American mainstream in the last three decades of the twentieth century. More than most social movements, feminism was transmitted and understood through culture--art installations, Ms. Magazine, All in the Family, and thousands of other cultural artefacts. But the phenomenon of cultural feminism came under extraordinary criticism in the late 1970s and 1980s Gerhard analyses these divisions over whether cultural feminism was sufficiently activist in light of the shifting line separating liberalism from radicalism in post-1970s America. She concludes with a chapter on the 1990s, when The Dinner Party emerged as a target in political struggles over public funding for the arts, even as academic feminists denounced the piece for its alleged essentialism. The path that The Dinner Party travelled--from inception (1973) to completion (1979) to tour (1979-1989) to the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum (2007)--sheds light on the history of American feminism since 1970 and on the ways popular feminism in particular can illuminate important trends and transformations in the broader culture.


We modify optical and wetting properties of solids using a femtosecond laser surface nanostructuring technique. We demonstrate that this technique allows creating black and color metals. Absorptance of black titanium created in our study is measured to be about 90-97% over a broad wavelength range from the ultraviolet to infrared. Moreover, our technique can be also used for modifying wetting properties of solids. Here, we create a novel surface structure that transforms regular silicon to superwicking. This surface structure makes water run vertically uphill in a gravity defying way. Our study of the liquid motion shows that the extraordinarily strong self-propelling motion of water is due to a capillary effect from the surface structures we created.


Gastric emptying of Sprattus sprattus and Arenicola spp. (gastric lavage) and formulated pellets
(X-Ray studies) was investigated in a range of sizes of whiting, Merlangius merlangus fed
different meal sizes at different temperatures. Emptying of indigestible solids, barium sulphate
spheroids and ballotini were also studied. Additionally stomach contents of whiting sampled
from Red Wharf Bay, Eastern Anglesey, UK. were analysed to determine diet composition, diel
feeding periodicity and feeding strategy of whiting. Daily and total annual intake of main prey
taxa, sprat, sandeel and crab, were estimated. Finally feeding behaviour of whiting in captivity
was monitored.
With respect to the studies conducted under laboratory conditions, it was found that gastric
emptying is best described by a linear function. The results indicated significant changes in
gastric emptying rates with both prey type and size. The seasonal change in temperature did not
yield a significant change in gastric emptying rate. Increase in diet surface area also did not alter
the gastric emptying rate significantly. The results have also shown that in continuously- feeding
whiting gastric emptying is affected by the second meal such that the arrival of the second meal
is accompanied by rapid emptying of a small fraction of the first meal. Despite difficulties
encountered with individual variation among whiting of similar size held under similar
conditions, gastric emptying times (GET) for both natural food and formulated pellets can be
adequately predicted by the equations:
GET = 126.47 W -0.111 g 0.26 e -0.068T for the natural food,
GET = 6.6 e -0.09T + 2.48 W0.566 e -0.044T for the formulated pellets; where W is the fish
weight (g), S is the meal size (g) and T is the temperature (°C) suggesting that a similar meal
size of formulated pellet is emptied faster than natural food, Sprattus sprattus. This was
interpreted as evidence that natural diets may reflect a combination of 2 factors (a) the relative
size of stimulation to the stomach (% distension) and (b) the existence of protective, fibrous skin
which resists digestion.
Barium sulphate spheroids of diameter 1 mm (ca 20 per g food) and ballotini of diameter 0.029-
0.049 mm (60-100 per 1.58g) were selectively retained by the whiting stomach, suggesting that
these indigestible materials can not be used in gastric emptying studies in whiting.
Under laboratory conditions with continuous food availability, medium size whiting
(155.25±27.98 g) consumed 5.29 g sprat corresponding to 3.41 %bw (approximately 3 sprat,
1.88g each) at 14 °C. The return of appetite after a single meal was found to follow the gastric
emptying curve closely. However if food is not offered directly, but made available through
demand feeding, the whiting feed rhythmically (every 21 hours), under these conditions it was
estimated that feeding activity returns when the stomach is 40 % full.
It wa§ found that, in the wild, whiting prefer fish (Sprattus sprattus and Ammodytes spp. ) and
crustaceans and only turn to the polychaetes as a third option, even when they are readily
available, when preferred food is scarce. The availability of prey was found to be the main
criterion in whiting feeding strategy. In March fish were dominant for most whiting, in August
and September/October however, Liocarcinus spp. and Corystes cassivelaunus were the main
prey items found in whiting stomach reflecting the availability of these prey species. A highly
correlated relationship was found between predator (whiting) and prey (sandeel) length,
however this was not noticed for sprat; whiting prey on sprat regardless of its length.
An increase in feeding intensity was observed in the morning (August), in the evening
(September/October), or at both times, crepuscular feeding pattern, (March). However, when
feeding behaviour was investigated under laboratory conditions it was found that whiting is
mainly a day time feeder with a slight increase in the morning and in the evening, but some
feeding also occurs at night. Additionally a strong tendency was found for crustaceans to be
found in fish captured during the daylight hours and fish at night in August and
September/October.
A linear model to estimate food consumption from the field samples was developed.
F= (S2-S1) + 1.5 K T, where S2 and SI are average stomach contents at time tI and t2, K is
the gastric emptying rate (gh-1) and T is temperature (°C).
The average recruited whiting stock in the area of approximately 150 km2 in Red Wharf Bay
was estimated to be 129,000 with a total biomass of 22 tonnes. It was estimated that young
whiting (groups 0+ to 3+ years) in Red Wharf Bay eat between 1.29 and 6.57 g day-1 in
February. By August, when temperature has maximised, these values increase by approximately
70-80 %. Daily intake of sprat, sandeel and crab was estimated to be 0.41,0.14 and 0.14 g for
the 0+ group. This was increased to 0.70,0.80 and 0.94 g by the age of 4. On a daily basis the
long-term average of the amount of sprat, sandeel and crab consumed were estimated to be 820,
370 and 520 g/km2/day respectively. Total food consumption per year by the recruited whiting
stock in the area studied however was 44.8 tonnes of sprat (approximately 11.5 million sprats),
20 tonnes of sandeel and 28.5 tonnes of crab. These figures were compared with the available
data from the North Sea as well as from other parts of the Irish Sea and it was concluded that
whiting in the Irish Sea eat more than they do in the North Sea.


International organizations are unusual creations: generated by and for their member-states, at the same time they often have to compete with those very states that created them. This complicated relationship frequently leads to some uncertainty in the law relating to international organizations: the legal argument of an organizationwill often be counterpointed by an equally valid argument from a member-state. Professor Jan Klabbers is mindful of this complex relationship in his comprehensive analysis of international institutional law. As well as describing the law as it applies to legal institutions in chapters that cover dispute settlement, financing and treaty-making, Klabbers looks forward to a re-appraisal of the status of international organizations. This is a key textbook for advancedlevel students of law and of international relations.


The TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) protocol manifests strong equality towards competing TCP or TCPfriendly flows. Although the RFC 3448 suggests that TFRC is suitable for multimedia, this equality is a great disadvantage in the case of transmitting multimedia over the TFRC. The TFRC emulates TCP-like congestion control using the TCP throughput equation. In the paper, we substitute the TCP throughput equation recommended for the TFRC with a linear throughput equation. Simulation results show that the proposed solution is more suitable for multimedia than the equation proposed in RFC 3448. Experiments were carried out using an event-driven ns-2 simulator, developed in U. C. Berkeley.


Based on changing the braid angle and geometrical sizes, the compressive experiment of 3D braided four-directional Carbon/Epoxy braided composites is researched. It is found that failure of the braided composites exhibits compressive and shear failure mode. The failure crack propagates mainly in one or two 45º shear direction. Epoxy matrix among braid yarns of the braided composites is squeezed out to form epoxy band. The stress-strain relations of the braided composites with 45º and 30º braid angles all appear nonlinear apparently. Meanwhile the correlation of failure modes and constitutive relation with geometrical sizes of the braided composites is obtained. The compressive stress-strain relations of the braided composites are not great affected by the geometrical sizes. The compressive strengths with great discrete behaviors do not have obvious rules with height of the braided composites.


An age of 3.33�0.05x109 years was obtained for Apollo 15 sample 15555 by argon40-argon-39 dating. The age of rock 15555, a basalt from the rim of Hadley Rille, establishes an upper limit to the age of the rille. The basalt flows filling the Hadley Rille section of the Imbrium basin postdate the formation of the basin—as measured by the Apollo 14 samples of the Fra Mauro formation—by at least 500x106 years. Therefore, the mare basalts cannot be simple impact melts but rather must result from some igneous activity on the moon.


Does exposure to ethnic minorities change the majority's attitudes towards them? We investigate this question using novel panel data on attitudes from a general-population sample in the Netherlands matched to geographical data on refugees. We find that people who live in neighborhoods of refugees for a sufficiently long time acquire a more positive attitude. Instead, people living in municipalities hosting refugees, but not in their close neighborhood, develop a more negative attitude. The positive neighborhood effect is particularly strong for groups that are likely to have personal contact with refugees suggesting that contact with minorities can effectively reduce prejudice.


This paper aims to provide a broad introduction to the material presented to the conference by surveying the principles of atomistic defect calculations as introduced in the original paper of Mott and Littleton (Trans. Faraday Soc., 1938, 34, 485) and as developed subsequently. Developments in computational techniques, as by the HADES program, have allowed essentially exact representations of particular models to be obtained within the framework of the Mott–Littleton principles. Characteristic defect energies obtained by these methods over the years have provided guidance on the interpretation of observed properties of ionic solids. More recently, the enlargement of the Mott–Littleton principles within the framework of the quasi-harmonic approximation and by reference to the thermodynamics of characteristic defect quantities has allowed the accurate calculation of defect enthalpies, entropies and free volumes as functions of temperature and, if need be, of pressure. It seems likely that such calculations will continue to be valuable in the future as yet more refined and varied models of ionic solids are considered.


The problem of topology control is to assign per-node transmission power such that the resulting topology is energy efficient and satisfies certain global properties such as connectivity. The conventional approach to achieve these objectives is based on the fundamental assumption that nodes are socially responsible. We examine the following question: if nodes behave in a selfish manner, how does it impact the overall connectivity and energy consumption in the resulting topologies? We pose the above problem as a noncooperative game and use game-theoretic analysis to address it. We study Nash equilibrium properties of the topology control game and evaluate the efficiency of the induced topology when nodes employ a greedy best response algorithm. We show that even when the nodes have complete information about the network, the steady-state topologies are suboptimal. We propose a modified algorithm based on a better response dynamic and show that this algorithm is guaranteed to converge to energy-efficient and connected topologies. Moreover, the node transmit power levels are more evenly distributed, and the network performance is comparable to that obtained from centralized algorithms.


Unilateral cerebrovascular lesions occurring during adulthood have been reported to be accompanied by high-amplitude somatosensory evoked potentials over the nonaffected hemisphere; however, the mechanisms by which somatosensory evoked potential amplitude increases over the nonaffected hemisphere are still unclear. To investigate the eventual presence of similar amplitude abnormalities in children, we recorded somatosensory evoked potentials in three groups of patients: one with unilateral cerebrovascular lesions that occurred during the perinatal period and another two with unilateral cerebrovascular lesions occurring during late adulthood or old age. Group 1 was comprised of 12 children and young adults (age range 23/12-31 years, 6 males and 6 females) who suffered from unilateral cerebrovascular lesion with perinatal onset. Four control groups were arranged with age matched to that of the patients. Adult patients were subdivided into two subgroups (group 2: n = 10, all males; group 3: n = 18, 12 males and 6 females) on the basis of the presence or absence of sensory impairment over the hemiplegic side. In group 1, the four youngest subjects, aged less than 6 years, were found to show somatosensory evoked potentials of abnormally high amplitude over the nonaffected hemisphere, with a "giant" main negative wave at around 45 ms (range 38.7-49.2), strictly localized over the central areas contralateral to the lesion; in normal controls, there was no such wave. All patients in group 2 were found to be affected by large infarctions in the territory of the middle cerebral artery, whereas patients in group 3 presented with subcortical lesions of the internal capsule isolated or in association with an involvement of the frontal and/or temporal cortex. Regarding somatosensory evoked potential parameters measured over the nonaffected hemisphere in adult/elderly subjects, a significant difference was observed for N20 and P22 latency, which was longer in both groups of patients than in controls. There is a significant difference in the neurophysiologic consequences of unilateral cerebrovascular lesion, as well as over the nonaffected hemisphere, if it occurs during early infancy or during adulthood. Our findings show a new type of "giant" somatosensory evoked potentials in some children affected by unilateral cerebrovascular lesion with perinatal onset. (J Child Neurol 2001;16:541-547).


Thermal scanning probe lithography (t-SPL) is a direct-write patterning method that creates high-resolution features with a heated scanning probe tip in an organic resist material. It is able to produce dense high-resolution patterns with sub-20 nm half-pitch at ambient conditions which can be transferred into silicon substrates using a hard-mask patterning stack and reactive ion etching (RIE). Feature sizes of transferred lines can be as small as 7 nm. Linear write speeds of up to 20 mm/s can be achieved. Different from e-beam lithography (EBL), in t-SPL proximity effects are absent and substrate damage of sensitive materials caused by high energy electrons is avoided. A direct inspection of the patterned area is provided during the writing process. Overlay patterning without additional alignment marks onto pre-existing structures is another feature of the t-SPL method. Existing device structures can be located precisely under a resist stack with the local probe tip and the additional target structures can then be generated with $\lt 5$ nm-precise overlay alignment. One further strength of tSPL is the capability of producing 3D patterns. The process can be controlled to produce 3D structures with $\approx 1$ nm $(1 \sigma)$ depth accuracy. Examples of unique devices fabricated by tSPL will be discussed.


Hermeneutic phenomenology informed two qualitative methodologies used in my doctoral research: narrative case studies and auto-ethnography. Through these methodologies I investigated the phenomenon of place and identity in visual artistic practice. Four narrative case studies of four artists were developed using experience-focused narrative inquiry and thematic analysis. Auto-ethnography was used to investigate the phenomenon of place and identity within my own practice as visual artist. This involved analysis of my artworks that encompassed place and identity and writing from different contexts of my past. Rather than relying on memory recall. This became textural writing in the phenomenon rather than describing what I already knew. This enabled me to challenge conventional ways of telling my story (big stories) and produced "small stories" from which new insights could be interpreted. The insights gained from my auto-ethnography in turn assisted me to encourage story telling to find the small stories of my artist participants.


Markov chains in time, such as simple random walks, are at the heart of probability. In space, due to the absence of an obvious definition of past and future, a range of definitions of Markovianity have been proposed. In this paper, after a brief review, we introduce a new concept of Markovianity that aims to combine spatial and temporal conditional independence


Contemporary discourse around digital well-being tends to focus on self-control when it comes to "addicting" social media apps and digital devices. By acting on behalf of users, designers and engineers promote various self-regulating products and services in order for users to "fix" the distractible brains of typical users. This paper explores the role of the history of psychology on user-experience thinking and engineering and provides a critical genealogy of digital well-being discourse and persuasive technology. In particular, I expand on the role of dual-process models in human–computer interaction and health behavior change from the 1980s to today. By exploring the social construction of the distracted, impulsive, "primitive" animal brain (system 1), I find that it is this part of the mind that the engineer wishes to "treat," via app design. In order to tame this "primitive" brain, researchers and engineers have turned to behavioral science, hoping to better structure user options and encourage users to manage their own time and normalize screen habits. I argue that normality discourses like this are founded upon ideas of time management and delay of gratification, whereas abnormality is tied to ideas of immediate gratification and time wasting. This dichotomy is not simply to enforce social norms around time wasting, but reinforces social and econoimc inequities. Therefore, unlike some other approaches to digital well-being, I urge future scholarship on the subject to examine the taken-for-granted social-cultural context, which will lead not only to a more politically nuanced understanding of the subject but may also lead to further discussions over how digital well-being could be conceived otherwise.


The basic evolutionary structural optimisation concept (ESO) has been developed for several years. Recently, the first ESO algorithm based on the boundary element method (BEM) has been presented. In this thesis, this algorithm is used for the 2D shape optimisation. The aim is to develop a greater understanding of the role of certain governing parameters that drive the optimisation using this algorithm, and to make recommendations as to appropriate values of these parameters that give rise to good optimal solutions most efficiently. Two problems, a short cantilever beam and a fillet, are selected as test cases in this work. By using a wide range of numerical tests, the performance of the optimisation has been evaluated using a variety of methods including mean performance analysis and multi-objective optimisation approaches using Pareto curves and weighted sums. Recommendations are made as to appropriate values of these parameters that give rise to good optimal solutions most efficiently. Sensitivity analysis is another important method in engineering design. In this work a new algorithm to undertake a sensitivity analysis has been developed and used in a small number of investigations for boundary element structural optimisation process. ESO is selected when computational efficiency is thought the most important consideration, since it can reach the optimum in fewer iterations and lower run-time compared with sensitivity analysis in structural optimisation.


Dendritic cells (DCs), matured by CD40-ligand (CD40L), undergo marked changes in their ability to process and present antigen, resulting in augmented lymphocyte stimulatory activity. We demonstrate that the form of the tumor antigen (peptide or genetic material) used to load the DCs dictates the required sequence of antigen loading and maturation for antitumor immunotherapy. Optimal stimulation of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-specific CTLs by peptide-loaded DCs occurs when DCs from cancer patients are matured with CD40L before exposure to CEA peptide, whereas optimal stimulation by RNA-transfected DCs occurs when the DCs are loaded with CEA RNA before maturation with CD40L.


In view of the rising proportion of elderly in the population, diffusion of medical technologies to the elderly is a particularly interesting phenomenon, with respect to both quality of life and health care costs. Using data on all carotid endarterectomies (CEAs) performed in Sweden, we explore the pattern of age diffusion 1982-1999. The overall rates of CEA are considerably lower in Sweden than in the US and Canada, possibly reflecting the different reimbursement systems. At the same time, the responses from the health-care sectors in the three countries to the scientific literature seem to have been qualitatively very similar. Prominent age diffusion - a relative shift of procedure rates towards elderly patients - is demonstrated for the whole period, both when overall treatment rates are increasing, when they are declining, and when they remain relatively constant. Furthermore, in Sweden (contrary to what was the case North America) there was not just a relative shift, but treatment rates actually increased among the 75+ when overall rates were declining, perhaps indicating a previous resource constraint on extending treatment to this age group. There are differences in levels of treatment rates between men and women but the pattern of age diffusion appears strikingly gender-neutral.


The infectious diseases are spreading due to human interactions enabled by various social networks. Therefore, when a new pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 causes an outbreak, the non-pharmaceutical isolation strategies (e.g., social distancing) are the only possible response to disrupt its spreading. To this end, we introduce the new epidemic model (SICARS) and compare the centralized (C), decentralized (D), and combined (C+D) social distancing strategies, and analyze their efficiency to control the dynamics of COVID-19 on heterogeneous complex networks. Our analysis shows that the centralized social distancing is necessary to minimize the pandemic spreading. The decentralized strategy is insufficient when used alone, but offers the best results when combined with the centralized one. Indeed, the (C+D) is the most efficient isolation strategy at mitigating the network superspreaders and reducing the highest node degrees to less than 10% of their initial values. Our results also indicate that stronger social distancing, e.g., cutting 75% of social ties, can reduce the outbreak by 75% for the C isolation, by 33% for the D isolation, and by 87% for the (C+D) isolation strategy. Finally, we study the impact of proactive versus reactive isolation strategies, as well as their delayed enforcement. We find that the reactive response to the pandemic is less efficient, and delaying the adoption of isolation measures by over one month (since the outbreak onset in a region) can have alarming effects; thus, our study contributes to an understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic both in space and time. We believe our investigations have a high social relevance as they provide insights into understanding how different degrees of social distancing can reduce the peak infection ratio substantially; this can make the COVID-19 pandemic easier to understand and control over an extended period of time.


A prominent animal rights activist in New Delhi, explaining her relentlessness on behalf of animals, said to me the following: "I only wish there were a slaughterhouse next door. To witness that violence, to hear those screams . . . I would never be able to rest." She was not alone among animal welfare activists in India in linking the witnessing of violence against an animal to the creation of a profound bond that demanded from her a life of responsibility. I argue in this article that this moment of witnessing constitutes an intimate event in tethering human to nonhuman, expanding ordinary understandings of the self and its possible social relations, potentially blowing the conceit of humanity apart. But I also consider another reading, which is how this act of intimacy exacerbates the species divide as the witness hyper-embodies herself as human, "giving voice" for the animal other which cannot speak. Throughout the article, I consider how posthumanist perspectives might trouble both these interpretations and ask what it would it mean to take seriously the animal activist's "becoming animal."


Image aberrations can cause severe degradation in image quality for consumer-level cameras, especially under the current tendency to reduce the complexity of lens designs in order to shrink the overall size of modules. In simplified optical designs, chromatic aberration can be one of the most significant causes for degraded image quality, and it can be quite difficult to remove in post-processing, since it results in strong blurs in at least some of the color channels. In this work, we revisit the pixel-wise similarity between different color channels of the image and accordingly propose a novel algorithm for correcting chromatic aberration based on this cross-channel correlation. In contrast to recent weak prior-based models, ours uses strong pixel-wise fitting and transfer, which lead to significant quality improvements for large chromatic aberrations. Experimental results on both synthetic and real world images captured by different optical systems demonstrate that the chromatic aberration can be significantly reduced using our approach.


Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is of economic and environmental importance. Components of NUE were evaluated in 32 irrigated corn (Zea mays L.) trials conducted across Nebraska with different N rates and where the previous crop was either corn (CC), drybean
(Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (CD), or soybean (Glycine max L.) (CS). The mean grain yield with adequate nutrient availability was 14.7 Mg ha–1 . When no N was applied, measured soil properties and irrigation water N accounted for <20% of the variation in plant N
uptake (UN). Mean fertilizer N recovery in above-ground biomass was 74% at the lowest N rate compared with 40% at the highest N rate, a mean of 64% at the economically optimal N rate (EONR), and least with CD. Agronomic efficiency of fertilizer N averaged
29 kg grain kg-1 N at EONR and was also least with CD. Partial factor productivity of N averaged 100 kg grain kg-1 N at EONR, and was greater with CS compared with CC and CD. After harvest, residual soil nitrate-N (RSN) in the 0 to 1.2 m depth ranged from 21 to 121 kg ha-1 and increased with N rate. Mean RSN was 88, 59, and 59 kg ha-1 for CD, CC, and CS, respectively. High corn yields can be achieved with high NUE and low RSN by management to maximize profitability in consideration of yield potential, and by applying N at the right amount and time.


The increasing use of FRP composites to strengthen and repair the structural bearing components, also low weight, high flexibility, ease of transportation, high speed, ease of cutting in desired sizes, ease of performance and possibility of external strengthening are the major reasons for using the FRP laminates in repairing concrete structures compared to other methods. One usage of FRP laminates is strengthening the reinforced concrete slabs. Present article studied the impact of type and number of composite layers in flexural strengthening of the reinforced concrete voided slabs with FRP laminates. The voided slabs are used to reduce concreting volume, costs and also decreasing weight of the structure. Some of these buildings and bridges have been severely damaged due to natural disasters including earthquake, wind or fatigue of materials and alkaline and acidic corrosive agents. Therefore, repair and strengthening the bearing surfaces of above structures is vital and economical. Present research has investigated the parametric study of the impact of type and thickness of FRP fibers on flexural behaviour of strengthened voided slabs using different FRP systems (CFRP-GFRP). For this purpose, the voided concrete ceiling is modelled in ANSYS software, then it is compared to the available laboratory model for verification of the problem. After the verification, by changing the parameters of type and thickness of RFP fibers in the modelled voided slab, ultimate strength of the slab has been studied. These studies have showed that the slabs retrofitted with GFRP fibers have a better ductility compared to the slabs retrofitted with CFRP fibers, but ultimate strength of the slabs retrofitted with CFRP is significantly more than the slabs strengthened with GFRP fibers. It was also found that by increase in the number of laminated composite layers in retrofitted voided slabs, ultimate capacity of the voided slabs is increased.


This paper represents the evaluation and integration of Open Source Software (OSS) technologies to enhance the learning of engineers and scientists within the university. The utilization of OSS is essential as costs around the world continue to rise for education, institutions must become innovative in the ways they teach and grow Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) majors. To do this effectively professors and administrative staff should push toward the utilization of OSS and other available tools to enhance or supplement currently available tools with minimal integration costs. The OSS applications would allow students the ability to learn critical technological skills for success at small fraction of the cost. OSS also provides faculty members the ability to have students dissect source code, analyze network traffic, create virtual instances of real Operating Systems (OSs), and prepare students for low level software development. It is critical that all institutions look at alternatives in providing training and delivering educational material regardless of limitations going forward as the world continues to be more global due to the increased use of technologies everywhere. Through reviewing the available technology, possible implementations of these technologies, and the application of these items in industry could provide a starting point in integrating these tools into academia. When administrators or faculty debate the possibilities of OSS, gaming, and simulation tools this applied research provides a guide for changing the ability to develop future scientists and engineers that will be competitive on a global level in STEM fields


In this paper, the frequency dependencies of phase angle, capacity in a parallel replacement system, conductivity and loss coefficient of ferromagnetic alloy – ferroelectric ceramics nanocomposite (FeCoZr)x(PbZrTiO3)(100-x) with x = 55.9 at.% were studied. Tested material was deposited by ion beam sputtering with use of mixed argon-oxygen atmosphere in a vacuum chamber and subdued by a 15-min annealing in air in the temperature of Ta =498 K. The type of electrical conduction in the material for frequencies f < 2×105Hz was defined as capacitive. At frequencies above fR = 2×105 Hz there are positive phase angle values, which corresponds to the inductive type of conduction. This means that the voltage resonance occurs in the nanocomposite, which indicates the voltage compensation on the reactive (inductive and capacitive) components of the impedance in the sample. It leads to the appearance of minima and maxima on the Cp(f) and tgδ(f) characteristics respectively. The σ(f) characteristic demonstrates strong conductivity dependence from frequency, which can be explained by hopping mechanism of charge exchange in the material. The simulation of AC electrical parameters based on parallel connection of two branches with serial RLC elements were performed for the frequency range 50 Hz < f < 106Hz. It demonstrates high compatibility of measured and calculated results which suggests the possibility of replacing the actual conventional RLC circuits of electronic components and finding other applications of (FeCoZr)x(PbZrTiO3)(100-x) nanocomposites in electronics and engineering.


Impacts of mining activity can be particularly difficult to remediate in wetland ecosystems subject to inundation pulses due to the reduced length of the plant growing season. We used a factorial experiment to test whether litter and seed addition could be used to increase the efficiency of ecological restoration on a flood‐prone forest (known as igapó) impacted by deposition of bauxite tailings. Our results clearly showed that the addition of litter collected from pristine igapó areas increased plant growth, seedling density, and seedling species richness. The increase in individual plant growth was echoed at the community level with higher leaf area index values on litter addition plots compared to controls. Litter addition can enhance reaccumulation of nutrient pools during successional development, which has been proposed as an important feature to ensure self‐sustainability of areas under restoration. The success of the seed addition treatment depended on the species used. Of the seven sown species, only Acosmium nitens (a leguminous nitrogen‐fixing species) showed high establishment. The introduction of nitrogen‐fixing species is also expected to build up the nitrogen pool in the system as has been reported for restoration programs in non‐inundated forests. These practices have the advantage, compared to direct fertilizing, of not causing eutrophication of water bodies when applied to flood‐prone vegetation.


Jordan's initiatives to reduce its energy dependency could have substantial macroeconomic implications, but will crucially depend on the level of international oil prices in the next decade. Significant uncertainties remain regarding the feasibility of the initiatives and their potential fiscal costs, including from contingent liabilities, could be very large. Given the lead time required for such major investments, work should start now on: (i) conducting comprehensive cost-benefits analysis of these projects; (ii) addressing the challenges arising from the taxation of natural resources; and (iii) designing a fiscal framework to anchor fiscal policies if revenue from these energy projects materializes.


Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) belongs to the family Cucurbiteceae. It is widely consumed as a vegetable and especially as a folk medicine in Asia. This review outlines the work done on the tissue culture of Momordica charantia L.. Commonly known as karela or bitter melon and contains bright red seeds due to high lycopene, a pigment that can be used as an artificial food colorant. Bitter gourd protein has been reported to have HIV inhibitor properties. The fruits of bitter gourd contain nutritionally useful essential minerals and amino acids. It has hypoglycemic activity which reduces the blood glucose, antitumor activity and antispermatogenic and androgenic activities. It is a common food item of the tropics and is used for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, AIDS and many ailments. It has also include alkaloids, insulin like peptides, and a mixture of steroidal sapogenins known as charantin. Bitter gourd is tolerant to a range of limiting factors of the environments and can be grown in tropical and subtropical climates. Improvement of this crop and development of new varieties are obviously necessary which could be done through the applications of modern techniques of biotechnology. Plant tissue culture is one of the biotechnological technique to culture plant cells or tissues under controlled aseptic conditions on artificial medium and is used to some degree in the improvement of almost every major agronomic, vegetable and fibre crop species. It has value in basic research like cell biology, genetic transformation studies and biochemistry for the production of medicinally valuable secondary metabolites. Some limited efforts have been made for the improvement of this crop using biotechnological techniques like: type of explants (auxin, cytokinin), media composition, growth conditions, genotypes.


This paper presents a novel technique to perturb the vortex shedding from a bluff body and subsequently suppress the flow-induced structural vibration. The essence of the technique is to create a local perturbation on the surface of a bluff body using piezoelectric actuators. Experiments were carried out in a wind tunnel. A square cylinder of a height h, flexibly supported on springs at both ends, was allowed to vibrate only in the lift direction. Three actuators were embedded underneath one side, parallel to the flow, of the cylinder. They were simultaneously activated by a sinusoidal wave, thus causing the cylinder surface to oscillate. The structural displacement Y and flow velocity u were simultaneously measured using a laser vibrometer and a single hot-wire, respectively. When the vortex shedding frequency ƒs synchronized with the natural frequency of the dynamic system, Y was estimated to be about 0.08h. This displacement collapsed to 25% once the actuators were excited at a normalized frequency ƒh/U∞ = 0.1 (U∞ is the free-stream velocity) and amplitude of 0.028h. The laser-illuminated flow visualization captured drastically weakened vortices shed from the cylinder. Spectral analysis of the Y and u signals points to the fact that the imposed perturbation has altered the spectral phase at ƒs between fluid excitation and structural vibration from 0 to π, and meanwhile decreased the spectral coherence at ƒs from 0.65 to 0.15. It is expected that the perturbation technique presently investigated will have an important role to play in the flow-induced vibration control, especially with the active control element assimilated into the system.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


The light cone gauge with light cone variables is often used in pQCD calculations in relativistic heavy-ion collision physics. The Hard Thermal Loops (HTL) resummation is an indispensable technique for hot QCD calculation. It was developed in covariant gauges with conventional Minkowski varaiables; we shall extend this method to the light cone gauge. In the real time formalism, using the Mandelstam-Leibbrant prescription of (n·K)−1, we calculate the transverse and longitudinal components of the gluon HTL self energy, and prove that there are no infrared divergences. With this HTL self energy, we derive the HTL resummed gluon propagator in the light cone gauge. We also calculate the quark HTL self energy and the resummed quark propagator in the light cone gauge and find it is gauge independent. As application examples, we analytically calculate the damping rates of hard quarks and gluons with the HTL resummed gluon propagator in the light cone gauge and showed that they are gauge independent. The final physical results are identical to those computed in covariant gauge, as they should be.


GeSe has emerged as an appealing photovoltaic material due to the desirable electronic and optical properties as well as being an earth-abundant constituent element. We systematically explore for the first time the contact properties of bilayer GeSe with commonly used back electrode metals in detail, such as the geometric features, electronic properties, Schottky barrier, tunneling barrier, and band alignment. Our results reveal that the metals investigated, especially Au, Pt, and Ni, show great potential in forming favorable contacts with GeSe due to a low Schottky barrier and tunneling barrier. More importantly, we find that when a SnS monolayer is superimposed with GeSe layers, the combined system can be used as an effective solar cell material with type-II heterostructure alignment. The power conversion efficiency is predicted to be as high as ∼18%, which is comparable or even higher than that of previously reported solar cells. Our results not only provide microscopic insights into the characteristics between layered GeSe and metals, but also pave the way for further experimental improvements of GeSe thin-film solar cells.


The paradigm of exploratory data analysis advocates the use of multiple perspectives to formulate hypotheses on the data. This thesis presents a framework to support it through the use of interactive hierarchical visualisations for the exploration of temporal data. The research that leads to the framework involves investigating what are the conventional interactive techniques for temporal data, how they can be combined with hierarchical methods and which are the conceptual transformations that enable navigating between multiple perspectives. The aim of the research is to facilitate the design of interactive visualisations based on the use of granularities or units of time, which hide or reveal processes at various scales and is a key aspect of temporal data. Characteristics of granularities are suitable for hierarchical visualisations as evidenced in the literature. However, current conceptual models and frameworks lack means to incorporate characteristics of granularities as an integral part of visualisation design. The research addresses this by combining features of hierarchical and time-oriented visualisations and enabling systematic re-configuration of visualisations. Current techniques for visualising temporal data are analysed and specified at previously unsupported levels by breaking down visual encodings into decomposed layers, which can be arranged and recombined through hierarchical composition methods. Afterwards, the transformations of the properties of temporal data are defined by drawing from the interactions found in the literature and formalising them as a set of conceptual operators. The complete framework is introduced by combining the different components that form it and enable specifying visual encodings, hierarchical compositions and the temporal transformations. A case study then demonstrates how the framework can be used and its benefits for evaluating analysis strategies in visual exploration.


The policy of closing mental hospitals and relocating mental patients in the community has generated great controversy. This book reports on the complexities and ironies involved here, directly from the front line. It explores how a group of people with a history of schizophrenic illness feel about themselves and their circumstances.


We have reviewed equity research reports issued in 2013 for eight leading companies in copyright-intensive industries: two software firms (Microsoft and Adobe); two publishers (Pearson and Reed Elsevier); the owners of two major motion picture studios (Disney and Viacom, owner of Paramount); and the owners of two major record labels (Sony, owner of Sony Music Entertainment, and Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group). We found that the overwhelming majority of the equity research reports did not mention copyright infringement as a possible risk factor. None of the 14 reports for Reed Elsevier and 18 reports for Pearson identified copyright infringement as a risk factor. Only 13% of the 15 reports for Sony and 22% of the 23 reports for Vivendi mentioned copyright infringement as a potential risk. Just 8% of the 26 reports for Viacom and 27% of the 26 reports for Disney referred to copyright infringement as a risk factor. 26% of the 19 reports concerning Adobe and 41% of the 27 reports concerning Microsoft identified copyright infringement as a risk factor. Cumulatively, only 19% (32) of the 168 reports referred to copyright infringement as a possible risk; 81% did not. The vast majority of the reports written by sophisticated analysts simply do not consider copyright infringement a significant enough threat to the subject companies' financial health to merit mention to potential investors. If the analysts with expertise in these industries are not concerned about the possible impact of copyright infringement, perhaps policymakers should not be either.


The current trend of the 1990s appears to be one of increased work at home, home-manufactured products, and home-delivered services. Corporations, both large and small, are struggling to address the changing needs of working-age women and men as they attempt to strike a balance between career and family. The home care community, already deeply dedicated to family-focused care and keeping families together, is in an excellent position to expand services to meet the growing demand.


Erophilus' contribution to medical epistemology chiefly lies in his refusal to pursue the philosophy of nature, a refusal intended to ensure the autonomy of medicine. Medical theory must be limited to the field of observable phenomena, especially via anatomical dissection, and must avoid any discussion on the primary elements of matter. This approach was ultimately to pave the way to empiricism, which rejected anatomy itself, and was developed within the Erophilean school despite the rationalism of its founder. Erasistratus carried the rationalistic program further, starting with the drawing of a distinction between two levels of medicine, namely the scientific (aetiology and physiology) and the stochastic (diagnosis and therapy). Erasistratus' main effort consisted in the systematic fine-tuning of the theory of physiology: it required the introduction of structures ( triplokia , anastomosis ) empirically unobservable but whose assumption was imposed by theory, making them "rationally observable" ( logo i theoreta ). In this way, Erasistratus was also able to make diagnosis and therapy somehow deducible from aetiology and physiology, thus completing the rationalist project. The models according to which Erasistratus conceived of structures and somatic processes were largely derived from contemporary Hellenistic technology, both mechanical, and hydraulic and pneumatic.


Polyethylcyanoacrylate (PECA) nanoparticles were prepared by interfacial polymerization of a water-in-oil microemulsion. Nanoparticles were isolated from the polymerization template by sequential ethanol washing and centrifugation. A nanocapsule preparation yielding the original particle size and distribution following redispersion in an aqueous solution was achieved by freeze-drying the isolated nanoparticles in a solution of 5% w/v sugar. The cytotoxicity and uptake of nanocapsules by dendritic cells was investigated using a murine-derived cell line (D1). PECA nanoparticles were found to adversely effect cell viability at concentrations greater than 10 microg/ml of polymer in the culture medium. In comparison to antigen in solution, cell uptake of antigen encapsulated within nanoparticles was significantly higher at both 4 and 37 degrees C. Following a 24 h incubation period, the percentage of cells taking-up antigen was also increased when antigen was encapsulated in nanoparticles as compared to antigen in solution. The uptake of nanoparticles and the effect of antigen formulation on morphological cell changes indicative of cell maturation were also investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM clearly demonstrated the adherence of nanoparticles to the cell surface. Incubation of D1 dendritic cells with nanoparticles containing antigen also resulted in morphological changes indicative of cell maturation similar to that observed when the cells were incubated with lipopolysaccharide. In contrast, cells incubated with antigen solution did not demonstrate such morphological changes and appeared similar to immature cells that had not been exposed to antigen.


Intensive sampling of the lower portion of the Thaynes Group within the Palomino Ridge area (northeastern Nevada) yielded abundant and well-preserved Smithian (Early Triassic) ammonoid faunas. Ammonoid taxonomy and a detailed biostratigraphy for this locality are reported herein. One new genus (Palominoceras) and one new species (?Pseudosageceras bullatum) are described. Additionally, based on new data from Palomino Ridge and previous data from neighboring localities in Utah, we porvide here the first quantitative Smithian ammonoid biochronological scheme for the western US basin. This new zonation is based on the Unitary Associations (UA) method. The biochronical sequence comprises five unitary association zones that can be correlated with other localities from the Northern Indian Margin (Salt Range, Pakistan, Spiti, northern India and Tulong, South Tibet). Three unitary association zone (UAZ1, UAZ2 and UAZ3) are defined for the early Smithian, one (UAZ4) spans the entire middle Smithian and one (UAZ5) signifies the first part of the late Smithian. Finally, a hypothetical UAZ6 would represent the second part of the late Smithian.


Flakka is a synthetic drug (class: cathinones) that been responsible for numerous emergency department visits and over 30 deaths in Florida over the last year. In August 2015, Florida Department of Health (FDOH) partner agencies requested flakka-related health data in an effort to better understand the epidemiology and context of this problem. ESSENCE-FL emergency department data and poison control calls were analyzed to describe the epidemiology of this emergent drug. Having near real-time surveillance systems capable of providing timely, relevant data is critical in quickly characterizing emerging public health issues and helping to prioritize available resources.


A whole farm economic analysis was conducted to provide a detailed assessment into the economic, risk, and production implications due to the adoption of auto-steer navigation. It was determined that auto-steer navigation was profitable for a grain farmer in Kentucky with net returns increasing up to 0.90% ($3.35/acre). Additionally, the technology could be used in reducing production risk. Adoption of the technology also alters production practices for optimal use.


Abstract: Philippi, G. 2010. Epiphytic bryophyte vegetation on stems of Acer campestre in SW Germany and the eastern part of France. — Herzogia 23: 269–278. The frequency of epiphytic bryophytes on the stems of Acer campestre in SW Germany and the eastern part of France (Alsace, northern part of Burgundy and southern part of Lorraine) was investigated. More than 130 stems were examined, all growing in forest communities. Isolated trees or trees growing along forest margins were not included. The diameter of the stems was mostly 0.2 to 0.3m. The average number of the observed species is 6 to 8 per stem. The bryophyte vegetation is often very luxuriant and grows on the stems not rarely up to 4 to 5m above the ground. The epiphytic bryophyte flora on Acer campestre is characterized by the dominance of neutrophytic and basiphytic species. Hypnum cupressiforme as an acidophil species was only rarely observed. The absence of Anomodon attenuatus in parts of Burgundy and Lorraine is remarkable. Distinctly differe...


This research looks at the role of the Government of Pontianak City in raising public awareness in rubbish recycling.  The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of how the Government of Pontianak City in this case the Cleansing and Landscaping Department of Pontianak raises and develops an individual's awareness of recycling in the area of Pontianak. The role of the Cleansing and Landscaping Department of Pontianak in waste management is already quite good. It can be seen from some work-related activities undertaken as education about waste management, collection, reducing and recycling waste, and also transporting the waste into polling stations to the final landfill of Batulayang.  The methodology used here is mainly interviewing, observation and data analysis through all material about recycling that is distributed by the Government of Pontianak City. Methods of promotion recycling in the Pontianak city include; promotion via website, schools, media, and community consultation. All of the promotion methods of recycling awareness are very simple, easy to understand, and directly target the whole community in this area. Eventually, the Government of Pontianak City still has to be more active in order to manage the waste problem, particularly the recycling issue


Background: The impact of environmental chemicals on children's neurodevelopment is sometimes dismissed as unimportant because the magnitude of the impairments are considered to be clinically insignificant. Such a judgment reflects a failure to distinguish between individual and population risk. The population impact of a risk factor depends on both its effect size and its distribution (or incidence/prevalence). Objective: The objective was to develop a strategy for taking into account the distribution (or incidence/prevalence) of a risk factor, as well as its effect size, in order to estimate its population impact on neurodevelopment of children. Methods: The total numbers of Full-Scale IQ points lost among U.S. children 0–5 years of age were estimated for chemicals (methylmercury, organophosphate pesticides, lead) and a variety of medical conditions and events (e.g., preterm birth, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, congenital heart disease). Discussion: Although the data required for the analysis were available for only three environmental chemicals (methylmercury, organophosphate pesticides, lead), the results suggest that their contributions to neurodevelopmental morbidity are substantial, exceeding those of many nonchemical risk factors. Conclusion: A method for comparing the relative contributions of different risk factors provides a rational basis for establishing priorities for reducing neurodevelopmental morbidity in children.


A method for volumetric estimation of subsurface fluid substitution is presented that relies on the analysis of 4D seismic time-shifts. Since time-shifts cannot resolve for fluid saturation and layer thickness simultaneously without additional constraints, mass estimates are derived from the complete set of possible fluid saturations and layer thicknesses. The method considers velocity-saturation relationships that range from uniform saturation to patchy saturation. Based on a generalized velocity-saturation relationship that is parameterized by the degree of patchiness, explicit upper and lower fluid mass bounds are provided. We show that the inherent ambiguity between fluid saturation and layer thickness has a severe impact on the convergence of these mass bounds. That is, roughly linear velocity-saturation relationships with patchy saturation tend to provide significantly better accuracy in a mass interpretation than the strongly non-linear velocity-saturation relationships associated with homogeneous saturation. The method is validated at the Sleipner storage site, where injected fluid masses are known. Moreover, a linear relationship between 4D time-shifts and injected mass is observed, suggesting that the evolving patterns of fluid saturation and fluid mixing in the CO2 plume at Sleipner have remained roughly constant with time.


We previously proposed the Auto-Regressive Hidden Markov Model (AR-HMM) for speech signal analysis, where the HMM was introduced as a non-stationary glottal source model. In this paper, we propose a novel method that can automatically generate the topology of the Glottal Source Hidden Markov Model (GS-HMM), as well as estimate the AR-HMM parameter obtained by combining the AR-HMM parameter estimation method and the Minimum Description Length-based Successive State Splitting (MDL-SSS) algorithm. In the experiments, we apply the proposed method to analyze the laryngeal and esophageal voices. The topology generated from the laryngeal voices tended to form a ring state, compared with the topology of the esophageal voices; this result indicates that the glottal sources of the laryngeal voices exhibit clearer periodicity than the sound sources of the esophageal voices. We also compared the vocal tract characteristics estimated by the proposed method and a conventional LP method. From these results, we were able to confirm the feasibility and the validity of the proposed method.


I explore how a principal dynamically chooses among multiple agents to utilize for production. The principal chooses at most one agent to utilize in every period affecting the states of the agents. A utilized agent changes its state because it is utilized, but the nonutilized agents do not remain at rest: they also change their state. The analysis requires a novel methodological approach: the agency problem that the principal faces with each agent is shown to be an appropriately designed restless bandit, creating a multiarmed restless bandit. The optimal contract is characterized by an index rule for the restless bandit.


Abstract Nutrition is an important factor in the treatment of patients in critical care. Potential hyper-rmetabolism means underfeeding may cause malnourishment, while overfeeding increases risk of hyperglycemia and the associated physiological impact. Hyperglycemia can be treated through accurate glycemic control (AGC), and this paper examines the link between nutrition and achievement of AGC. Clinically validated virtual trials were carried out on the 371 patients in the SPRINT cohort using STAR, an adaptive AGC protocol targeting 80-145mg/dL. Nutrition results were compared to the rates given clinically to investigate the effect modulating nutrition has on the final level of nutrition administered. The effect of clinical nutrition stoppages on this level of nutrition was also isolated. The link between nutrition and the ability to achieve AGC was investigated by targeting STAR to both 80-145mg/dL and 140-180mg/dL, allowing STAR to modulate nutrition as well as delivering constant rates of 60%, 80%, 100%, 120% and 140% ACCP goal. Performance was assessed as %BG within the target range, hyperglycemia as %BG above the range and clinical workload as the number of BG measurements. Relative tightness was estimated using BG IQR. As expected, modulating nutrition led to a range of total nutrition delivered to patients. Importantly, low nutrition administration corresponded to low insulin sensitivity, and clinical nutrition stoppages were shown to drop median nutrition rates by 10% over the first 4 days in ICU, suggesting a significant effect if a nutrition target is desired. Variable nutrition in STAR was shown to lead to reduced BG variability and clinical workload, and different nutrition rates showed significant differences in BG outcomes despite the adaptive STAR framework. Combined, these results show that AGC could be better achieved with less effort if variable nutrition was permitted. In part, this effect is due to constant nutrition restricting the ability of a protocol to respond to low insulin sensitivity. Constant nutrition will also have a strong effect on the ability to target a specific range.


Atherosclerotic arteries have enhanced reactivity to vasoconstrictors, which suggests that features of the atherosclerotic process itself may result in this abnormal responsiveness. Since vascular smooth muscle proliferation is a prominent feature of atherosclerosis, we postulated that vasoactive agonists and smooth muscle mitogens may share certain common cellular mechanisms of action which potentially contribute to this hyperreactivity. To test this hypothesis, we studied the effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF), a well-characterized mitogen, on rat aortic vascular smooth muscle, both in intact aortic strips and in culture. EGF caused contraction (EC50 = 19 nM) of rat aortic strips which maximally was equivalent to 40% of that induced by angiotensin II, a potent vasoconstrictor. EGF increased 45Ca efflux (EC50 = 3 nM) from cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells, which was an effect shared by angiotensin II and thought to reflect increased cytosolic-free calcium concentration. EGF (7.5 nM) also stimulated growth of these cultured cells to the same extent as 10% calf serum. These results demonstrate that EGF is both a vasoconstrictor and mitogen for rat aortic smooth muscle cells. The similarities in the effects of EGF and angiotensin II suggest that certain common intracellular mechanisms of action may exist for vasoactive agonists and growth factors which may contribute to the altered vasoreactivity of atherosclerotic vessels.


Level of Service of Safety is a new concept in the field of traffic safety in China and developed countries, it is a quality indicator which is used to describe the road traffic safety situation and roads providing service of traffic safety for traffic participants. Introducing the study status of the Level of Service of Safety in China and developed countries, the definition of the concept, applications and content. In order to objectively evaluate traffic safety performance at low-grade roads, the concept of the level of service of safety for low-grade roads is brought forward, the factors influencing the sections of level of service of safety are analyzed , then linear, the risk of the roadside, traffic volume, the proportion of trucks and 85% speed difference between cars and large vehicles are selected as the evaluations, level of service of safety for the basic sections of low-grade highway is divided into four levels, the grey class whitening function is established to determine the appropriate threshold, Grey Clustering Method is used to evaluate the level of service of safety for low-grade highway sections, and reasonability of the method is validated. The Grey Clustering Method is applied to evaluate traffic safety of actual low-grade highway section, the result shows that the proposed method is reasonable and feasible.


The article explores the main features of the middle-income trap in Malaysia within the evolving context of the Southeast Asian development pattern. In particular, it investigates the determinants of the Malaysian manufacturing declining performances after the Asian crisis (1997-1998), as well as the reasons underlying the simultaneous interruption of the catchingup process. In this respect, an analysis of Malaysian structural weaknesses has been carried out with a specific focus on the deficits in local absorptive capacities and the lack of innovative capabilities of the Malaysian manufacturing sector, which undermined the industrial upgrading prospects. Such limits of the production structure derive from the dependent position of the country in the regional division of labor and the ineffectiveness of the fdi-led industrial and technological policies implemented by the Malaysian government. The conclusions are confirmed by a descriptive analysis which adopts Revealed Comparative Advantage index and Economy Complexity Index as two indicators of industrial competitiveness.


Based upon the vibratory equation and sound radiation impedance of a cylindrical shell, the sound field distribution of a finite cylindrical shell simply-supported at two infinite rigid cylindrical shells were resolved with considering the structural loss. An interface containing some buttons connected with all the programs was designed by using Matlab, and their data were all stored in a file. It has been shown that the sound radiation power of the cylindrical shell decreases and the radiation efficiency increases with increasing of structural damping loss factors; when the frequency of the driving force is low, the sound field shapes "∞" directivity pattern; When the frequency of the driving force grows higher the sound directivity pattern becomes complex due to superposition of axial modes and circumferential modes; Only when the radiation of the end plates is much weaker than the cylindrical shell the analytical results of the shell simply-supported at two infinite rigid cylindrical shells can be utilized to illustrate the sound radiation by a finite cylindrical shell with two end plates.


3D Scanners are used in industrial applications such as reverse engineering and inspection. Customization of existing CAD systems is one of rapid ways to supplying a 3D Scanning software. In this paper, using AutoLisp and Visual Basic programming languages, AutoCAD has been customized. Also facilities of automatic scanning of physical parts, in the domain of free form surfaces, have been provided. Furthermore, possibilities such as, control of scanner automotive system, representation of registered point clouds, generation of polygon and /or NURBS model from primary or modified point clouds, have been prepared. Triangulation and image processing techniques along with a new fuzzy logic algorithm have been used to extract the depth information more accurate. These, accompanying with AutoCAD capabilities have provided acceptable facilities for 3D scanning.


Learning by collaboratively writing scientific hyperbooks requires specific software tools. We present a model for creating, managing, and viewing hyperbooks. This model is comprised of a re-usable document repository (fragments repository), connected to a domain ontology. The model takes into account the notion of point of view, allowing a user to read the hyperbook according to a specific reading objective or to his or her profile. The model also includes an interface specification language for the creating different hypertext views of the hyperbook contents. The hyperbook model we propose is an example of virtual document model because the hyperdocuments the reader/writer actually sees are not stored but generated by assembling stored fragments according to an interface specification A purely declarative language allows the definition of the views that make up the interface of the hyperbook. We also present the architecture of a hyperbook management system which is based on a database management system and a hypertext view generation system for databases.


We model the thermal effect of young stars on their surrounding environment in order to understand clustered star formation. We take radiative heating of dust, dust–gas collisional heating, cosmic-ray heating, and molecular cooling into account. Using DUSTY, a spherical continuum radiative transfer code, we model the dust temperature distribution around young stellar objects with various luminosities and surrounding gas and dust density distributions. We have created a grid of dust temperature models, based on our modeling with DUSTY, which we can use to calculate the dust temperature in a field of stars with various parameters. We then determine the gas temperature assuming energy balance. Our models can be used to make large-scale simulations of clustered star formation more realistic.


Technology with situational awareness needs a lot of information of the environment to execute the correct task at the correct moment. Location of the user is typical information to achieve the goal. This work proposes a mobile application that enables the indoor location of smartphones using the potential infrastructure given by Wireless Local Area Networks. This infrastructure goes beyond GPS (Global Position System) where signal is weak or is not available for indoors. This application uses an alternative and unconventional method to indoor location using Wi-Fi RSSI fingerprinting as well as an estimation based on Type-2 fuzzy inference systems provided by the developed framework JT2FIS. Wi-Fi Fingerprinting creates a radio map of a given area based on the RSSI data from several access points (APs) and generates a set of RSSI data for a given zone location. Consequently Data Mining is required for clustering the obtained set of data and generating the structure of a Type-2 Mamdani or Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System; thus new RSSI values are introduced to the Type-2 Fuzzy Inference System to obtain an estimation of the user zone location.


Celiac disease is a common multisystemic disorder that may be diagnosed at any age. Owing to the increasing prevalence, prevention strategies, including encouragement of breastfeeding and introduction of small amounts of gluten whereas still on breastfeeding at fourth to sixth month of age, become more important than before. For avoiding complications of celiac disease, a strict gluten-free diet is essential. A lifelong gluten-free diet may bring about difficulties as avoiding gluten completely is problematic owing to the contamination with gluten of presumably gluten free foods. New therapeutic approaches include enzyme supplementation, correction of the intestinal barrier defect against gluten entry, blocking of gliadin presentation by human leukocyte antigen blockers and tissue transglutaminase inhibitors.


Introduction The Internet offers information on specific diseases on WWW-server distributed over the entire world. Selecting the appropriate information resource is a non-trivial task. Several approaches (like MeSH, MedPix) exist to describe the contents of Web pages. However, the majority of the Web sites do not make use of these schemas. Automatic (or semi-automatic) linking of medical records to information resources on the internet is not sufficiently supported. ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is the standard for coding the diagnosis in medical records. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of ICD - based search tools. Methods A general ICD Meta-Search Engine (ICD-Search) was established to perform ICD-based Internet searches. From the records of the Großhadern University Hospital, the 20 most frequent diagnosis were selected. The diseases are coded with ICD-9 by the medical personnel of the hospital. The English version of the ICD-9 was chosen for performing the internet study. General search engines (Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista) were used to retrieve medical information corresponding to the selected ICD codes. The first 50 hits were included in the study. The Web pages were scored according to accessibility (information could be retrieved) of the Web pages and the contents (reflects ICD code). The quality of information (current state of knowledge, complete information, comprehensive presentation) was not take into account. Also the results of the different search engines were compared. This study was repeated with specialized medical search engines (MedHunt) . Scoring of the results was performed accordingly. Results Both Lycos and AltaVista searched resulted in a large number of hits. The range for AltaVista was between 114.440 (Coronary atherosclerosis) and 405.770 (Alcohol dependence syndrome). The Lycos search resulted in no categories and four sites (Coronary atherosclerosis) and one site for Alcohol dependence syndrome. MedHunt found 131 corresponding sites for Coronary atherosclerosis and 112 for Alcohol dependence syndrome. The median scores for Lycos and Altavista were in the same order with some extreme low scores for AltaVista on selected diseases. Lycos, in general, scored better than Lycos and AltaVista but show a low number of hits for several diseases. MedHunt produced both good scores and a sufficient number of hits. The results from Lycos and AltaVista were compared. It showed, that only 15% of the web pages were found by both search engines. Conclusion All search engines found Internet sites that corresponded to the selected ICD-codes. The standard vocabulary provided by ICD proved to be a good basis for linking medical diagnosis with Internet Web sites. Specialized medical search engines perform better than general ones. Search engines, that also give information on the quality of information, offer additional value.


The title compound, C15H12N4O2, contains two substituted benzohydrazide and indole rings linked via a C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the benzene ring and the indole ring system is 11.38 (10)°. The molecular structure is stabilized by an intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond, forming a six-membered ring. The crystal structure is consolidated by intermolecular N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O interactions, which result in sheets.


Annular centrifugal contactors were developed as single, compact units utilized to transfer desired species between immiscible fluid phases. Critical to understanding the mass-transfer characteristics in the annular mixing region is a clear picture of the distribution of droplet sizes of the fluids involved. To date, very little experimental data appears in the literature. We fill that void by using laser fluorescence and optical methods to directly observe and measure drop-size distributions for a silicone oil/water system in a centrifugal contactor. The shape and characteristics of the log-normal distributions, including the Sauter mean diameter and distribution means, are elucidated in terms of rotor speed and organic phase fraction. The size distribution of entrained air bubbles is also examined. The results presented here will be invaluable in validating and expanding the predictive capacity of the many models that have been developed to describe the flow within these devices. Published 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 2219–2226, 2013