Regional development is determined by possessing specific competitive advantages and their constant improvement. The problem how to increase competitiveness of the areas remains one of the most important for the agrarian sector. Russian economic policy aims at the stable development of the agro industrial complex (and agriculture as its central part). Therefore it is necessary to analyze competitiveness not only on the country level, but also on the regional and sub-regional scale. In this paper we have analyzed the major factors influencing the competitiveness of agricultural areas in the Stavropol region.


The wives of men who have sex with men, known as "Tongqi" in China, have increasingly attracted public attention due to their potential risks of suicide and sexually transmitted infections and HIV. However, few studies have explored the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and suicide risk or the mediating effect of coping style on these associations among Tongqi in China. To describe these relationships, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted in China from February 2016 to February 2017. A questionnaire, which consisted of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales, the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation, and reports of suicide attempts, was completed by 178 Chinese Tongqi. Bootstrap tests were performed to determine the mediating role of coping styles on the association between IPV and suicide risks. The median IPV score was 14 (range: 0-50), with the domain of negotiation ranking highest. The average coping style score was .37±.73; 61.2% of Tongqi have had suicidal ideation, and 11.8% had attempted suicide. IPV was significantly correlated with suicidal ideation (rs = .19, p < .01) and suicide attempts (rs = .29, p < .001). Participants with a negative coping style had higher suicidal ideation (rs = –.39, p < .01) and suicide attempts (rs = –.22, p < .01). Coping style had a full mediating effect on the association between IPV and suicidal ideation and a partial mediating effect on suicide attempts. Chinese Tongqi experienced high level of IPV and suicide risks. IPV contributed to the suicide risks of Chinese Tongqi, but these associations were mediated by coping style. Therefore, interventions to improve mental health and prevent suicide risks of Chinese Tongqi should focus on helping them develop a positive coping style to achieve the goal of Healthy China in 2030.


The aim of the present study is to evaluate the biological control aptitude of the cyanobacteria, Anabaena subcylindrica, Nostoc muscorum and Oscillatoria angusta filtrates on the growth of the isolated pathogenic fungi from the different organs of Faba bean. Three caynobacterial (Anabaena subcylindrica, Nostoc muscorum and Oscillatoria angusta) filtrates were prepared in different concentrations and their effects on the isolated pathogenic fungi from leaves, stems and roots of Faba bean were studied. The study revealed high efficiency of the three algal filtrates on the control of the isolated pathogenic fungi from the three organs of Faba bean plants. The reduction in fungal mat growth diameter was greater than in that of the fungal dry weight showing inhibited fungal spread by greater rate. The reduction in the fungal dry weight was mostly linear and significantly correlated with the algal filtrate concentrations. The Efficient Algal Filtrate Concentration (EAFC) ranged between 104 and 461% for the three algal filtrates on the studied fungi dry weight. Complete control of the isolated fungi could be achieved by of a mixture of two algal filtrates in their EAFC and that of Nostoc muscorum + Oscillatoria angusta filtrates with an EAFC 368 and 194% were the best and economic mixture.


As America struggles to understand Islam and Muslims on the world stage, one concept in particular dominates public discourse: Islamism. References to Islamism and Islamists abound in the media, in think tanks, and in the general study of Islam, but opinions vary on the differences of degree and kind among those labeled Islamists. This book debates what exactly is said when we use this contentious term in discussing Muslim religion, tradition, and social conflict. Two lead essays offer differing viewpoints: Donald K. Emmerson argues that Islamism is a useful term for a range of Muslim reform movements-very few of which advocate violence-while Daniel M. Varisco counters that the public specter of violence and terrorism by Islamists too often infects the public perceptions of Islam more generally. Twelve commentaries, written by Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals, enrich the debate with differing insights and perspectives.


A heart that once beat erratically has regained its natural rhythm. A woman paralyzed by an automobile accident is now able to resume her favorite hobby. Physicians using a robotic surgeon named da Vinci perform lifesaving operations. These are some of the feats of biomedical engineering, one of the fastest-moving areas in medicine. In this exhilarating book, award-winning writer Fen Montaigne journeys through this little-known world, sharing the stories of ordinary people who have been transformed by technology. From the almost commonplace pacemaker to the latest generation of artificial hearts, Montaigne tells the stories of pioneering patients, engineers, and surgeons. Taking the reader behind the scenes of a dozen of America's leading centers of biomedical engineering, Montaigne recounts the field's history while describing cutting-edge work in medical imaging, orthopedics, cardiovascular care, neurological therapies, and genetics. Through the stories of patients whose lives have been saved and improved by biomedical devices, Montaigne reveals the marriage of medicine and engineering to be one of society's greatest advances.


Clonal expansion of CD4+ T cells is a characteristic finding in patients with RA and is only infrequently found in patients with psoriatic arthritis and healthy controls. Expanded CD4+ clonotypes are present in the blood, infiltrate into the joint, and persist over years. We have not addressed the question of whether the expanded clonotypes have unique functional and phenotypic properties which may explain the preferential in vivo expansion in RA. In contrast to most CD4+ T cells, expanded clonotypes lacked the expression of the CD28 and CD7 cell surface molecules. Accordingly, the subsets of CD4+ CD28- (9.7 vs 1.7, P = 0.00002) and CD4+ CD7- T cells (21.5 vs 12.26, P = 0.018) were increased in RA patients compared with age-matched normal individuals. Despite the lack of CD28 expression, clonally expanded CD4+ T cells were not anergic but proliferated in response to immobilized anti-CD3 and could be maintained in tissue culture. In vivo expanded CD4+ T cells were autoreactive to ubiquitously distributed autoantigens. They responded in an autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction, and T cell clones isolated from selected patients proliferated to autologous peripheral blood adherent cells. These data suggest that in RA patients selected CD4+ T cells which share the CD7- CD28- phenotype escape from peripheral tolerance.


Genetic clustering is a popular method for characterizing variation in transmission rates for rapidly-evolving viruses, and could potentially be used to detect outbreaks in 'near real time'. However, the statistical properties of clustering are poorly understood in this context, and there are no objective guidelines for setting clustering criteria. Here we develop a new statistical framework to optimize a genetic clustering method based on the ability to forecast new cases. We analyzed the pairwise Tamura-Nei (TN93) genetic distances for anonymized HIV-1 subtype B pol sequences from Seattle (n = 1, 653) and Middle Tennessee, USA (n = 2, 779), and northern Alberta, Canada (n = 809). Under varying TN93 thresholds, we fit two models to the distributions of new cases relative to clusters of known cases: (1) a null model that assumes cluster growth is strictly proportional to cluster size, i.e., no variation in transmission rates among individuals; and (2) a weighted model that incorporates individual-level covariates, such as recency of diagnosis. The optimal threshold maximizes the difference in information loss between models, where covariates are used most effectively. Optimal TN93 thresholds varied substantially between data sets, e.g., 0.0104 in Alberta and 0.016 in Seattle and Tennessee, such that the optimum for one population will potentially mis-direct prevention efforts in another. The range of thresholds where the weighted model conferred greater predictive accuracy tended to be narrow (±0.005 units), but the optimal threshold for a given population also tended to be stable over time. We also extended our method to demonstrate that variation in recency of HIV diagnosis among clusters was significantly more predictive of new cases than sample collection dates (ΔAIC> 50). These results demonstrate that one cannot rely on historical precedence or convention to configure genetic clustering methods for public health applications. Our framework not only provides an objective procedure to optimize a clustering method, but can also be used for variable selection in forecasting new cases.


Neural Crest Cells: Evolution, Development and Disease summarizes discoveries of historical significance and provides in-depth, current analyses of the evolution of neural crest cells, their contribution to embryo development, and their roles in disease. In addition, prospects for tissue engineering, repair and regeneration are covered, offering a timely synthesis of the current knowledge in neural crest cell research. A comprehensive resource on neural crest cells for researchers studying cell biology, developmental biology, stem cells and neurobiology, Neural Crest Cells: Evolution, Development and Disease provides foundational information needed for students , practicing physicians and dentists treating patients with craniofacial defects. * BMA Medical Book Awards 2014 - Highly Commended,Basic and Clinical Sciences,2014, British Medical Association* Provides timely, comprehensive synthesis of the current knowledge of neural crest cells* Covers the evolution and development of neural crest cells* Includes content on applications for tissue engineering, repair and regeneration


Prosopagnosia has been considered for a long period of time as the most important and almost exclusive disorder in the recognition of familiar people. In recent years, however, this conviction has been undermined by the description of patients showing a concomitant defect in the recognition of familiar faces and voices as a consequence of lesions encroaching upon the right anterior temporal lobe (ATL). These new data have obliged researchers to reconsider on one hand the construct of 'associative prosopagnosia' and on the other hand current models of people recognition. A systematic review of the patterns of familiar people recognition disorders observed in patients with right and left ATL lesions has shown that in patients with right ATL lesions face familiarity feelings and the retrieval of person-specific semantic information from faces are selectively affected, whereas in patients with left ATL lesions the defect selectively concerns famous people naming. Furthermore, some patients with right ATL lesions and intact face familiarity feelings show a defect in the retrieval of person-specific semantic knowledge greater from face than from name. These data are at variance with current models assuming: (a) that familiarity feelings are generated at the level of person identity nodes (PINs) where information processed by various sensory modalities converge, and (b) that PINs provide a modality-free gateway to a single semantic system, where information about people is stored in an amodal format. They suggest, on the contrary: (a) that familiarity feelings are generated at the level of modality-specific recognition units; (b) that face and voice recognition units are represented more in the right than in the left ATLs; (c) that in the right ATL are mainly stored person-specific information based on a convergence of perceptual information, whereas in the left ATLs are represented verbally-mediated person-specific information.


Measurements were made of mobile radio-telephone transmission at 450 Mc in New York City using frequency modulation. Comparison was made with transmission at 150 Mc using identical speech modulation. Effective radiated powers were about equal. Direct comparison tests were made with the receivers installed in a moving automobile. The transmitter and the receiver used at 450 Mc were developed especially for the job. The receivers used at the two frequencies had substantially the same noise figures. The tests permitted estimates of the relative magnitudes of the shadow losses at the two frequencies and included measurements of rf noise. Subjective tests of circuit merit comparing the two frequencies were made by a number of observers.


Spectrum aggregation (SA) is one of the potential LTE advanced technologies. The analysis and simulation for SA in LTE-Advanced system are addressed in this paper. We first analyze the system model of SA, and propose some evaluation methodologies for SA. Then the schedulers for SA with joint queue and disjoint queue are proposed. Finally, different traffic models are considered in the system level simulation to evaluate the performance gain of spectrum aggregation over deploying independent carriers on the eNode-B. The simulation results show that the SA technology can enhance the throughput, fairness and latency performance in LTE-Advanced system comparing with independent carrier scenario for different traffic models.


Mass Radiography and.Incidence of Pulmonary Tuberculosis SIR,-The cogent and timely observation of a practical radiologist of the standing of Dr. J. F. Brailsford on "the grossness of lesion necessary . . . to give radiographic evidence of departure from the normal" (May 22, p. 646) will be warmly welcomed by experienced clinicians who have made an unbiased study of tuberculosis diagnosis in this country during the last thirty years. Equally true is his inference that any radiographic scheme which does not include early cases without radiographic lesion fails to help the tuberculosis service. To radiograph the whole population and report on 500 films a week, Dr. Brailsford calculates the need for 1,000 units with full staff and 6,000 medical officers. For weekly transport 330,000 buses will be required on an estimate of Dr. N. P. Henderson. This radiologist (Jan. 16, p. 81) wrote that it would take 80 years to examine Greater London at a speed of 100,000 cases a year with one of the present static machines. Dr. Brailsford's demonstration of the immensity of the problem of administration is well appreciated by those of us who are medical members of local authorities. Lay members may be carried away by their own enthusiasm and by the propaganda and the promised Ministry of Health grant, estimated at about £250,000 for 250 machines, and, in select cases, with dependants' allowance. Therein lies the danger of aiding " wishful thinking" by propagating. the idea in the minds of the people that at long last tuberculosis will be eradicated. Fl. Lieut. Evans, in his survey of mass radiography of 75,000 Air Force personnel (May 8, p. 565), detects an incidence of 234 active cases of tuberculosis-i.e., 0.3 %-and 387-i.e., 0.5%-inactive cases. In a communication on "Tuberculosis in Recruits" (Journal, Aug. 16, 1941) I estimated that of 2,500 examined by me in a year 2% may be considered tuberculous by the average dispensary x-ray diagnosis. It is evident, therefore, that the finding of 0.3% active, or 0.8% if the inactive are included, among those passed fit by the medical boards is no criterion of the efficacy of mass radiography, but may be due to the lack of expert clinical machinery at examining medical boards. Evans had the further advantage of continued clinical investigation under compulsory conditions. Regarding his inactive 0.5% calcified or fibrosed cases, these will be a greater problem for the clinicians to classify and control, especially when it will be remembered that among Australian recruits Cooper found by mass radiography 23 % inactive tubercle as against 2.07% by Galbraith. It is difficult to reconcile Evans's figure of 0.8% incidence among fit personnel with the figure of only 112 out of 1,869 recruits-i.e., 6%referred to the Welsh Memorial Board by the medical boards in Wales (June 21, 1941). In a Yorkshire centre covering a period of three years this percentage was even less, being 4.9% -i.e., 31 out of 457 referred recruits. Full-size x-ray films will presumably have been used. One regrets that the only figure mentioned in the M.R.C. report on " Tuberculosis in Wartime " in the mass radiography section was the I % tuberculous persons found at a Mitcham radio works, and no attempt was made to marshal all published figures. I have previously called attention to the fact that although radiography has been increasingly used the diagnosis of tuberculosis has lowered from 51.2% in 1926 to 35.6% in 1938. One readsfrom the M.R.C. report that 65% of those discharged in the latter year were admitted to tuberculosis institutions as intermediate or advanced cases in England and Wales. The experience of doctors, who are referring increasing numbers of symptomatic cases to tuberculosis clinics, is that a large percentage are either considered negative or inactive since x-ray examination has become a routine measure with a decrease in early cases of the type Dr. Brailsford has noted. His last point-that we have more cases than either accommodation or staff-is equally unchallengeable. Surely if the Ministry of Health by intensive propaganda secures an added 1% or 2% by mass radiography at a comparatively high cost there must be a parallel policy of encouraging local authorities to increase their accommodation and attract staff who will not forsake clinical experience for administrative salaries; otherwise it would seem a case of putting the cart before the horse. There is much criticism of the efficiency of the doctor in a machine age. With a tendency for the profession to rely more on auxiliary diagnostic methods, clinical instinct and acumen acquired by experience and inspired by the old teaching methods are, unhappily, fast disappearing.-I am, etc.,


Sonic Overload presents a musically centered cultural history of the late Soviet Union. It focuses on polystylism in music as a response to the information overload swamping listeners in the Soviet Union during its final decades. The central themes are collage, popular music, kitsch, and eschatology. The book traces the ways in which leading composers Alfred Schnittke and Valentin Silvestrov initially embraced and assimilated popular sources before ultimately rejecting them. Polystylism first responded to the utopian impulses of Soviet doctrine with utopian impulses to encompass all musical styles, from "high" to "low." But these initial all-embracing aspirations were soon followed by retreats to alternate utopias founded on carefully selecting satisfactory borrowings, as familiar hierarchies of culture, taste, and class reasserted themselves. Looking at polystylism in the late USSR tells us about past and present, near and far, as it probes the musical roots of the overloaded, distracted present. Sonic Overload is intended for musicologists and Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian specialists in history, the arts, film, and literature, but it also targets a wider scholarly audience, including readers interested in twentieth- and twenty-first century music; modernism and postmodernism; quotation and collage; the intersections of "high" and "low" cultures; and politics and the arts. Based on archival research, oral historical interviews, and other overlooked primary materials, as well as close listening and thorough examination of scores and recordings, Sonic Overload presents a multilayered and comprehensive portrait of late-Soviet polystylism and cultural life, and of the music of Silvestrov and Schnittke.


An approach using magnetic stimulation to modulate the electromagnetic potential rhythm of the cerebral cortex to induce sleep is proposed in this paper. Animal experiments were designed and carried out to examine this approach. The results showed that, in comparison with a control group, magnetic stimulation can influence and modulate the activities of brain potentials, and consequently promote the efficiency of the sleep process (p<0.01).


Pipeline for the Analysis of ChIP-seq Data and New Motif Ranking Procedure Haitham Ashoor This thesis presents a computational methodology for ab-initio identification of transcription factor binding sites based on ChIP-seq data. This method consists of three main steps, namely ChIP-seq data processing, motif discovery and models selection. A novel method for ranking the models of motifs identified in this process is proposed. This method combines multiple factors in order to rank the provided candidate motifs. It combines the model coverage of the ChIP-seq fragments that contain motifs from which that model is built, the suitable background data made up of shuffled ChIP-seq fragments, and the p-value that resulted from evaluating the model on actual and background data. Two ChIP-seq datasets retrieved from ENCODE project are used to evaluate and demonstrate the ability of the method to predict correct TFBSs with high precision. The first dataset relates to neuron-restrictive silencer factor, NRSF, while the second one corresponds to growth-associated binding protein, GABP. The pipeline system shows high precision prediction for both datasets, as in both cases the top ranked motif closely resembles the known motifs for the respective transcription factors.


This study employs both biographical and autobiographical approaches in order to develop an understanding of the complex and developmental nature of adult learning as a way of being and becoming a teacher in further education. Learning as a way of 'being' provides a substantive and lasting learning which is essential in today's constantly changing and challenging world (Vaill, 1996). The process of 'becoming' is narrated in the autobiographical stories of the three trainees and highlighted as part of their transformative learning process. These stories written by each trainee provide insight into the interactional moments and perspective transformative changes experienced by the trainees. Data analysis comprised of a hermeneutical interpretation of the trainee's autobiographies, using Denzin's biographical method, and a mapping of Mezirow's Ten Phases of Transformative Learning. In addition the personal voices of each trainee as generated through in depth interviews were analysed using Mezirow's Five Stages of Perspective Transformation and Brookfield's Affective Domains of Adult Learning. This detailed analysis revealed the complexities of the transformative learning processes experienced by the three trainees. Thereby enabling conclusions to be drawn as to the extent to which they each followed Mezirow's stages of perspective transformation and Brookfield's affective domains.


This paper discusses the reasons for the dismal labor market performance of Germany over the last three decades along with potential remedies. It argues that labor market rigidities along with a generous welfare state in conjunction with certain changes in the economic environment are important in explaining this development but cannot solely account for it. Barriers to entrepreneurship, to setting up new firms and to innovations which are prevalent on goods and capital markets also play an important role in explaining the lackluster German economic performance of which rising unemployment is only one part. Comprehensive institutional reforms are therefore called for. JEL Code: E24, E44, J00.


A device was required that could harvest the electromagnetic energy present in ambient radio frequency (RF) signals. A part of this device must convert the AC RF signal received by the antenna into a DC signal that can be used in an embedded application. Since the RF signal amplitude is small, it must first be amplified and rectified to become a usable signal. The Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier is a subsystem of the design which ideally converts a 100 mV AC signal coming from the antenna to a 350 mV DC signal. The output of the voltage multiplier is used to power another subsystem. At 10 MHz, the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier was able to output a DC voltage of 350 mV given an AC input signal of 140 mV. The results of the testing show verifiable proof-of-concept that the Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier has the potential to be used for low power RF energy harvesting applications.


A new method, which accurately predicts cutting force in ball end milling considering cutting edge around center web, has been proposed. The new method accurately calculates the uncut chip thickness, which is required to estimate the cutting force by the instantaneous rigid force model. In the instantaneous rigid force model, the uncut chip thickness is generally calculated on the cutting edge in each minute disk element piled up along the tool axis.
 However, the orientation of tool cutting edge of ball end mill is different from that of square end mill. Therefore, for the ball end mill, the uncut chip thickness cannot be calculated accurately in the minute disk element, especially around the center web. Then, this study proposes a method to calculate the uncut chip thickness along the vector connecting the center of the ball and the cutting edge. The proposed method can reduce the estimation error of the uncut chip thickness especially around the center web compared with the previous method. Our study also realizes to calculate the uncut chip thickness discretely by using voxel model and detecting the removal voxels in each minute tool rotation angle, in which the relative relationship between a cutting edge and a workpiece, which changes dynamically during tool rotation.
 A cutting experiment with the ball end mill was conducted in order to validate the proposed method. The results showed that the error between the measured and predicted cutting forces can be reduced by the proposed method compared with the previous method.


AIM: To investigate the bactericidal and anti-adhesive properties of 25 plants against Helicobacter pylori (H pylori). METHODS: Twenty-five plants were boiled in water to produce aqueous extracts that simulate the effect of cooking. The bactericidal activity of the extracts was assessed by a standard kill-curve with seven strains of H pylori. The anti-adhesive property was assessed by the inhibition of binding of four strains of FITC-labeled H pylori to stomach sections. RESULTS: Of all the plants tested, eight plants, including Bengal quince, nightshade, garlic, dill, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek and black tea, were found to have no bactericidal effect on any of the isolates. Columbo weed, long pepper, parsley, tarragon, nutmeg, yellow-berried nightshade, threadstem carpetweed, sage and cinnamon had bactericidal activities against H pylori, but total inhibition of growth was not achieved in this study. Among the plants that killed H pylori, turmeric was the most efficient, followed by cumin, ginger, chilli, borage, black caraway, oregano and liquorice. Moreover, extracts of turmeric, borage and parsley were able to inhibit the adhesion of H pylori strains to the stomach sections. CONCLUSION: Several plants that were tested in our study had bactericidal and/or anti-adhesive effects on H pylori. Ingestion of the plants with anti-adhesive properties could therefore provide a potent alternative therapy for H pylori infection, which overcomes the problem of resistance associated with current antibiotic treatment.


Abstract:On 2 July 1822, Denmark Vesey was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, for allegedly plotting a massive insurrection against slaveholders. In October 1822, Lionel Henry Kennedy and Thomas Parker, who served as magistrates for Vesey's trial, published court documents as An Official Report of the Trials of Sundry Negroes, Charged with an Attempt to Raise an Insurrection in the State of South-Carolina. Since the mid-nineteenth century, interpreters of the Vesey affair have focused on Kennedy and Parker's Official Report as a primary source from which to reconstruct Vesey's alleged use of selected biblical texts to promote and justify the intended insurrection. Yet writings by Mary Beach and Benjamin Elliott prior to the publication of the Official Report provide important evidence for a broader understanding of Vesey's interpretations of the Bible. These materials show that the comparisons to condemned cities in the Bible mentioned in the Official Report are part of a larger interpretive strategy that associates the white residents of Charleston with the inhabitants of Canaan and surrounding areas, who are divinely condemned during the Israelites' conquest of these lands. They may also provide a better understanding of the proslavery response that Vesey's intended insurrection evoked from local clergy such as Frederick Dalcho.


After intranasal instillation of mice with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), olfactory receptor neurons are infected. By 12 to 24 hr postinfection, VSV antigens are observed in adjoining supporting and basal cells and in other structures of the olfactory epithelium and lamina propria. Peripheral deafferentation of the olfactory epithelium with Triton X-100 or bilateral surgical bulbectomy does not prevent spread of VSV to the central nervous system (CNS); the route of spread differs considerably from the route taken when the olfactory nerve is intact. In contrast to rabies virus and HSV-1, VSV does not use the trigeminal nerve for entry into the brain, as the trigeminal ganglion remains virus-free following intranasal infection. These results indicate that VSV has a strong tropism for olfactory receptor cells, using them for entry into the CNS. Both retrograde and anterograde transneuronal and nonneuronal (ependymal cells and cerebrospinal fluid) pathways are utilized by VSV within the CNS.


Larval Tenebrio molitor L. (Insecta) were reared in three different levels of oxygen: 21 % (normal), 15 % and 10.5 %, all at 101.3 kPa (=1 atm) total pressure (remainder nitrogen). Some larvae were transferred from one oxygen level to another during development. The main tracheae (branching off from the spiracular tracheae) were of greater cross-sectional area in lower ambient oxygen. Compared to larvae of the same body mass reared in 21 % oxygen, larvae reared in 15 % oxygen had main tracheae 40% larger in cross-sectional area on average, and larvae in 10.5% oxygen had main tracheae 120% larger. This hypertrophy is not consistent with the widely accepted hypothesis that tracheae contribute an insignificant resistance to the net movement of oxygen in insect tracheal systems. The magnitude of the hypertrophy is consistent with predictions from Fick9s law of diffusion and with the hypothesis that diffusion is the primary mechanism for oxygen movement in the larval tracheal system of holometabolous insects.


Background All patients prescribed long acting opioids should also be prescribed short acting opioid analgesia for breakthrough pain. This audit was piloted in a single site. Prescribing practice was poor so an implementation plan agreed trust wide. One year later audit data showed a significant improvement. Another year later improvement was maintained but not increased. One barrier was rotation of staff between trusts once educated. The authors were awarded funding from HQIP to develop a multi site audit as part of a quality improvement programme. Standards National guidelines state that the short acting opioid dose should be one sixth of the total daily dose and no dose ranges prescribed. Opioids for breakthrough analgesia should be available as required, with a time limit between doses specified. This was agreed as hourly or two hourly. Targets: 90% of prescription doses to follow national guidelines 100% of prescription frequencies to follow guidelines 100% of prescriptions for a single dose, not a range. Methodology Service improvement methodology is being used for the whole audit process. Quantitative data on prescribing practice has been collected on 717 prescriptions from across 8 acute trusts. All healthcare professionals in each trust were sent a survey to help determine the underlying causes of poor prescribing practice. An audit lead in each trust recruited an improvement team to attend a 1 day service improvement workshop focused on data analysis, determining root causes, applying a priorities framework to these and establishing detailed action plans to address one priority issue in each trust. Action learning sets will be offered to site leads for 1 year followed by reaudit. Results Data will be presented demonstrating poor prescribing practice, varying significantly between trusts. Survey data will also be presented. Conclusion Common errors in opioid prescribing practice will be shared with underlying causes and implementation plans.


Portfolio optimization is an important field of research within financial engineering. The aim of the optimization is to fins what is the best strategy for an investor when choosing how to allocate their money between a bank account and a constant number of risky assets. In our problem, the investor must pay transaction costs, meaning that every time he transfers money, he loses a certain percentage of the money transferred. Thus, we have made the assumption of proportional transaction costs.In a frictionless market, Merton has proven that the optimal policy consists of a constant proportion of wealth in the risky asset. This means that one must constantly rehedge the portfolio to keep this ratio constant regardless of the evolution of the risky asset´s value. When transaction costs are imposed, repeated rehedging becomes too expensive and the optimal policy of investment is different. The so-called transaction cost region will appear; the investor should buy, sell or stay idle depending on whether his position at current time is above, below or within this region.One can show that we can transform the portfolio optimization problem into a double obstacle problems. Using this latter form of the problem, we have created and algorithm unveiling the different transaction cost regions. The algorithm and results of this algorithm will be presented.


The verification of system-on-chip is challenging due to its high level of integration. Multiple components in a system can behave concurrently and compete for resources. Hence, for simulation-based verification, we need a methodology that allows one to automatically generate test cases for testing concurrent and resource-competing behaviors. We introduce the use of a transfer-resource graph (TRG) as the model for test generation. From a high abstraction level, TRG is able to model the parallelism between heterogeneous interaction forms in a system. We show how TRG is used in generating test cases of resource competitions and how these test cases are structured in event-driven test programs. For coverage, TRG can be converted to a Petri net, allowing one to measure the completeness of concurrency in simulation.


This thesis is a methodological experiment, which employs academic writing and artistic practice to explore notions of the 'self through the study of voice and sound. It is presented in two formats (an audio-book and a text with two audio cds and a dvd) and is divided into two chapters. Chapter One invents an author-character who describes a journey through a mythical forest and Chapter Two continues with the same character's physical journey through the city. The text of both chapters is narrated by the voice of the author-character. The first chapter studies different versions of the classical myth of Narcissus and Echo. In the journey through an enchanted forest presented in the ancient tale, the thesis discovers a representation of an inner quest for 'self-knowledge' and discusses the series of disruptive encounters that take place between the 'self and its vocal and visual reflections. The chapter concentrates on the processes of disintegration in the optical and the acoustic realm described in the story. Further, the work focuses on the mythical anthropomorphisation of voice and examines its foundational role for the emergence of the self. Throughout Chapter One, additional voices create an acoustic setting they are inserted at various moments to function as 'musical' studies, introductions, interludes or conclusions to textual sections. These voices discover points of vocal rupture and place voice under forces that expose its physical limits they explore the materiality of voice and reveal its power to transform and evoke the presence of a complex, fragmented 'self. Through the exposition of different voices and the study of the myth of Narcissus and Echo, Chapter One interrogates anew the complexity of the emergence of the 'self, discusses the inextricable connection between sound, voice and subjectivity, and examines the problems that arise in self-reflection and the figural representation of the 'self through sound and image. It demonstrates that these fracture and dislocate the 'self in the very movements that give it shape. Chapter Two narrates a physical and a sonic journey through the city, which unfolds through a series of acoustic events: the creaking of the door, a bang in the street, the crackle of the telephone and an incomprehensible word shouted by a passer-by. These initiate a discussion on the relationship between sound, the 'self, its surrounding and modern technology. The project defines this as oto-biographic writing - a word whose sound refers to 'the writing of the self (autobiography) but whose written form refers to a kind of writing that is inspired and guided by the oto, the ear. The thesis understands sound as an intellectual compass and meditates on our ontological connection with it. Further, the text explores the interconnection between image and sound, discussed in Chapter One, through the use of vivid visual language to describe sonic phenomena and make conceptual observations. The second chapter elaborates on the sonic understanding of being, and concludes with the realisation that sound can trigger an inner journey through which the 'self transforms. Chapter Two discovers the humming voice as a kind of 'self- reflection' wherein the 'self metamorphoses, vanishes and emerges at the same time.


Tuberculosis was a stigmatized disease, with a strong social meaning developed by medicine itself. In this paper, we make an analysis of the medical conceptions about the disease, and their repercussions on patients in a special place such as tuberculosis sanatoriums. In the first place, we enumerate the sanatoriums in the province of Cordoba, after that, we study the medical views about the sanatoriums and the infection, as a central element for hospitalized patients with tuberculosis. Later, we analyze the myths generated around the disease, and finally, we try to understand how these myths made possible to create a particular social group within those sanatoriums.


This paper presents implementation of some CDMA system compatible antenna array algorithms such as least mean square (LMS), constant modulus (CM) and space code correlator (SCC) on FPGA (such as Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA). Implementation issues such as architecture complexity and weight vector computation times are presented. For the signal modeling, cdma2000 reverse link signal model is considered using uniform linear array (ULA) topology. Results show that FPGA based implementation provides relatively short weight vector computation times compared to previously obtained DSP based implementations


The US Bureau of Mines and the State of Indiana cooperated with AMAX Coal Co. and its consultants to determine the effects of coal mine overburden blasting on nearby pipelines. Five pressurized 76-m pipeline sections were installed on the Minnehaha Mine highwall near Sullivan, IN, for testing to failure. Four 17- to 51-cm-diameter welded steel pipes and one 22-cm PVC pipe were monitored for vibration, strain, and pressure for a period of 6 months while production blasting advanced up to the test pipeline field. In contrast to previous studies of small-scale, close-in blasting for construction, these tests involved overburden blasts of up to 950 kg per delay in 31-cm blastholes. Analyses found low pipe responses, strains, and calculated stresses from even large blasts. Ground vibrations of 120 to 250 mm/s produced worst case strains that were about 25 pcts of the strains resulting from normal pipeline operations and calculated stresses of only about 10 to 18 pct of the ultimate tensile strength. No pressurization failures or permanent strains occurred even at vibration amplitudes of 600 mm/s.


Circuit Class Therapy (CCT) is a rehabilitation intervention which utilises group format and consists of various workstations, aiming to improve mobility and other post-stroke functions. Due to the increasing popularity of CCT usage in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors, there is a need to review the evidences surrounding the therapy. This review assesses the evidences and characteristics of CCT in improving post-stroke mobility, balance, community reintegration and quality of life of stroke survivors. PUBMED, PEDro, Science Direct databases and The Cochrane library was accessed to search for articles published between January 1999 and September 2015. The search terms used were "Circuit Class Therapy or Circuit Therapy and Stroke or Cerebrovascular accident". Searches were limited to systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, and papers published in English language. Hand search was also performed to trace articles from references of retrieved papers. A total of 35 studies were found. However, only two systematic reviews, nine randomised controlled trials and one non-randomised controlled trial that met the inclusion criteria were selected. This review showed that CCT is effective in improving mobility among stroke survivors. An improvement of up to 76.6m for walking endurance and 0.12m/s for walking speed was reported following CCT. Studies on spatiotemporal gait parameters are limited. Contradictory results were found for post-stroke balance. CCT was demonstrated to have positive effect on community reintegration and quality of life measures; however, more studies are needed to establish these findings. To obtain improvement in functional tasks, CCT must include high frequency, specific training for the intended task. CCT, focusing on high frequency task-oriented training is effective in improving mobility following a stroke. More studies are warranted to assess the effect of CCT on balance, community reintegration and health related quality of life.


Alpha hemolytic Streptococcus viridans (AHSV) was found to be the predominant pathogen in neonatal septicemia from 1979 to 1981 at a 1,000-bed voluntary hospital with 5,000 deliveries per year. All but three of the 30 neonates with blood cultures positive for AHSV presented within the first week of life. Most were born at term and had good Apgar scores. The majority of the infants were symptomatic, with respiratory distress being the most common presenting sign. Other common signs included unexplained hyperbilirubinemia and gastrointestinal problems. The one mortality in the group was the smallest and most premature neonate. In the remainder there was good correlation between institution of antibiotic treatment and clinical improvement. Alpha hemolytic Streptococcus viridans should no longer be considered a contaminant if isolated from the blood of a neonate suspected of having sepsis or from cervical or placental cultures in obstetrical patients with complications.


Objective: To conduct a pilot study for a larger randomized trial investigating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a pharmacist consultation (PC) program for elderly patients in family practice. Design: Randomized, observer-blinded, controlled trial with two patient groups: PC and control. The study pharmacist interviewed each PC program participant in their physician's office, prepared a letter, and reviewed the drug regimen recommendations in the letter with the physician. The number and types of recommendations made, the proportion of the pharmacist's recommendations implemented by physicians, and daily medication use and costs at the end of six months are reported. Setting: One hundred thirty-two patients aged 65 years and older from four family practices in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, who regularly were taking four or more medications. Results: Patient participation rates demonstrated feasibility: 191 patients were eligible, with 132 (69.1%) of these consenting to be enrolled. A mean ± SD of 3.0 ± 1.7 recommendations per patient were made for 62 (93.9%) of 66 patients in the PC group, and 77.8% (119/153) of these recommendations were implemented or partially implemented by the physicians. After six months, the mean numbers of medication units were 14.7 ± 10.8 and 13.9 ± 8.2, p = 0.66. The mean daily medication costs were $2.73 ± 1.78 and $2.47 ± 1.78, p = 0.43 in the control and PC groups, respectively. Conclusions: This pilot study demonstrated the need, the feasibility, and the potential effects of the PC program. The results were used to design a larger trial in which physicians rather than patients were randomized to further evaluate the program.


Surgical intervention for such congenital anomalies as patent ductus arteriosus, double aortic arch, tricuspid atresia, coarctation of the aorta and tetralogy of Fallot is most apt to be successful when a skilled team exists consisting of cardiologist, surgeons, anesthesiologist, operating room nurses and personnel rendering postoperative nursing care. Many problems arise from the anesthetic standpoint in the management of patients with these conditions, and it is my intention to report experiences gained from handling 36 patients on whom forty operations Were performed. All offer a challenge but none as great as that offered by the patient undergoing an operation for the relief of a tetralogy of Fallot or of tricuspid atresia. PREOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT Every effort is made to bring patients to the operating room in the best possible condition. In most instances it is feasible to delay operation until optimum conditions exist, but this is not invariably the case. Some


The present work investigates equilibrium conditions and dissociation enthalpies of semiclathrate hydrates formed from CO2 + tetra-n-butylammonium chloride (TBACl) + water, CO2 + tetra-n-butylammonium nitrate (TBANO3) + water, and CO2 + tetra-n-butylphosphonium bromide (TBPB) + water mixtures. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used for the determination of hydrate-liquid-vapor (H-L-V) equilibrium conditions in the presence of TBACl, TBANO3, and TBPB solutions at ammonium salt mass fractions of 0.3618, 0.3941, and 0.3707, respectively, and at CO2 pressure in the range of (0.5 to 2.0) MPa. Results reveal that semiclathrate hydrates of TBACl, TBANO3, and TBPB are able to incorporate carbon dioxide in their structure and that the resulting mixed hydrates have significantly lower formation pressures than those of pure CO2 hydrate. The dissociation enthalpies of semiclathrate hydrates of TBACl, TBANO3, and TBPB with CO2 were determined by both DSC and the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The DSC experiments demonstrate that mixed hydrates of TBANO3, TBACl, and TBPB with CO2 have higher melting enthalpies than single hydrates. From our measurements, it appears that mixed TBPB + CO2 hydrate has appropriate stability conditions (p, T) and latent heat content for secondary refrigeration applications. DSC measurements combined with the Clausius-Clapeyron equation show that mixed TBPB + CO2 hydrate can store large amounts of CO2 and thus could be attractive for gas capture and storage applications. © ?2010 American Chemical Society.


Background:Violence toward MSM and female sex workers (FSW) is associated with HIV risk, and its prevention is prioritized in international HIV/AIDS policy. Methods:Sociodemographic and behavioural data derived from HIV risk and follow-up cohorts including MSM and FSW in coastal Kenya between 2005 and 2014 was used to estimate the risk of rape, physical assault and verbal abuse, and to assess associations between first occurrence of assault with individual and recent behavioural factors. Results:Incidence of first reported rape was similar for MSM [3.9, confidence interval (CI) 3.1–5.0 per 100 person-years (pyrs)] and FSW (4.8 CI 3.5–6.4 per 100 pyrs), P = 0.22. Incidence of first reported physical and verbal assault was higher for FSW than MSM (21.1 versus 12.9 per 100 pyrs, P = 0.14 and 51.3 versus 30.9 per 100 pyrs, P = 0.03 respectively). Recent alcohol use was associated with reporting of all forms of assault by MSM [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.8, CI 0.9–3.5] and FSW (AOR 4.4, CI 1.41–14.0), as was recent sale of sex for MSM (AOR 2.0, CI 1.1–3.8). Exclusive sex with men, active sex work, and group sex were also specifically associated with reporting rape for MSM. Perpetrators of sexual and verbal assault were usually unknown, whilst perpetrators of physical violence toward FSW were usually regular sexual partners. Conclusion:MSM and FSW experienced a similarly high incidence of sexual assault in coastal Kenya, in addition to physical and verbal assault. Current national policies focus heavily on gender-based violence against women and young girls, but need to be inclusive of MSM and FSW.


The epidermis of five materials from four species in Lespedeza Michx were examined and analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Three important indexes containing epidermal hair density, stomata type and stratum corneum were compared among five materials. The results show that: epidermis hairs are abundant on both upper and lower epidermis of the two species of L. cuneata and L. davurica, but only present on lower epidermis of other two species of L. cyrtobotrya and L. davidii. The shapes of five materials' leaves epidermis hairs are almost the same, there are large ecphymas with tumor appearance on all leaves epidermis hairs. The stomata of all materials besides L. cyrtobotrya sag into leaf epidermis cells, and all materials have developed stratum corneums on both sides. Drought tolerance of lespedeza closely relate to leaf epidermal hair density, sunken stomata and stratum corneum both are important reasons causing lespedeza has drought resistance ability.


We investigate the dependence of the program effect on varying entry times for a low cost job-search assistance program in Austria. The Austrian targeting policy is to admit every unemployed to a job-search program before the fourth month. The program effect is measured by a shift in the transition rate into employment upon program entry, using the timing-of-events method. Our findings are that the program effect is positive and does not vary significantly for program entries during the first year of unemployment, but it drops drastically thereafter.


Source localization techniques are important and effective for various applications. Without reverberation and noise, some conventional source localization techniques have achieved high accuracies. However, reverberation degrades their performance due to reflected sounds because they compare observed time differences of arrival (TDOAs) with theoretical TDOAs, which are derived from anechoic conditions and do not agree with actual ones under reverberant conditions. We propose a template-based method that compensates the discrepancy between theoretical TDOAs and actual TDOAs in order to reduce the influence of reflections. In this study, two types of experiments are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The first one is a simple case that investigates the estimation accuracy in detail and the second one investigates a more practical case in a more complicated situation. For both cases, our proposed method can calibrate these errors effectively without increasing the computational time and improve the performance of conventional methods.


HIV-1 can be subdivided into distinct subtypes; the consequences of such a genomic variability remain largely speculative. The long terminal repeats (LTR) control HIV transcription and reflect the major differences of distinct viral subtypes. Three regions in the HIV-1 subtype B LTR are close matches to the Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) consensus sequence. Here, we show heterogeneity in these putative STAT binding sites among HIV-1 LTR subtypes A through G. Transfection of constitutively activated STAT5 lead to transcriptional activation of HIV-1 expression in 293T cells transfected with a reporter assay driven by HIV-1 LTR subtype B. Constitutively activated STAT5 transactivated the LTR of various subtypes in U937 cells with different potency. These findings support and expand the potential relevance of STAT5 activation in HIV infection and may bear relevance for a differential regulation of latency and expression of different subtypes of HIV-1.


The nonclassical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) Qa-1b accommodates monomorphic leader peptides and functions as a ligand for germ line receptors CD94/NKG2, which are expressed by natural killer cells and CD8+ T cells. We here describe that the conserved peptides are replaced by a novel peptide repertoire of surprising diversity as a result of impairments in the antigen-processing pathway. This novel peptide repertoire represents immunogenic neoantigens for CD8+ T cells, as we found that these Qa-1b–restricted T cells dominantly participated in the response to tumors with processing deficiencies. A surprisingly wide spectrum of target cells, irrespective of transformation status, MHC background, or type of processing deficiency, was recognized by this T cell subset, complying with the conserved nature of Qa-1b. Target cell recognition depended on T cell receptor and Qa-1b interaction, and immunization with identified peptide epitopes demonstrated in vivo priming of CD8+ T cells. Our data reveal that Qa-1b, and most likely its human homologue human leukocyte antigen-E, is important for the defense against processing-deficient cells by displacing the monomorphic leader peptides, which relieves the inhibition through CD94/NKG2A on lymphocytes, and by presenting a novel repertoire of immunogenic peptides, which recruits a subset of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells.


There has been a "legislative explosion" in China in the past thirty years and a corresponding institutional development as a result of the growth of a cluster of reform-oriented legal institutions. Law reformers are developing a law-centric, court-centric, and lawyer-centric legal system. This agenda is limited and faces multiple challenges, including political challenges and challenges brought about by China's social and economic transition. It is in this context that this paper discusses access to justice in China. Facing these challenges, the government is forced to re-consider the path of China's legal reform and the importance and relevance of both "Western" experiences and the home-made alternatives. Indigenous values and systems are more resilient than given credit for in pushing back globalization. The paper, using access to lawyers and judges as examples, analyzes the tensions, dialogues, and compromises of different currents in China's on-going legal reform.


Background Elevated CRP is associated with many conditions other than infection. Positive predictive value for infection of random CRP determinations soon after birth in healthy term infants (HTI) is poor. However, a decision to continue antibiotics (ATB), perform LP, and/or delay discharge is sometimes based on elevated CRP, regardless of clinical course and blood culture results. Objective To evaluate the use and duration of ATB in "HTI" when using or not using random CRP values as indicators of possible sepsis. Methods HTI born at GMH receive a "rule out sepsis" workup based on prenatal risk assessment (maternal fever, rupture of membranes, chorioamnionitis, etc). Ampicillin and gentamicin are started pending results. We collected data prospectively in two periods to evaluate duration of ATB treatment, CRP values, number of LPs and hospital days in all HTI who received gentamicin. In period 1 (1/03- 8/03), ATB were to be continued > 48 hours if a CRP value was > 1.6 mg/dL at 2-24 hours, even with normal clinical course and negative cultures. If a repeat CRP at 36-48 hours was still elevated, ATB were continued in-hospital for ≥ 7 days and some infants underwent workup for meningitis at ≥ 48 hours. After extensive discussion of the literature, CRP measurements were discontinued from routine "rule out sepsis" workup. Period 2 is two months after implementing new guidelines, when ATB were discontinued based on culture results and clinical course. We compared utilization of resources (ATB use and duration, LPs, hospital stay, IVs), positive blood cultures, readmissions and mortality between the 2 periods. Results In period 1, gentamicin was used in 192 HTI (7.3% of live births). Of these, 23 (12%) received ATB ≤ 2 days and 83 (43%) for ≤ 3 days (total ≤ 3 days: 105; 55%); 87 (45%) received ATB > 3 days based on CRP results; 3 were infected. After discontinuing CRP (period 2), 54 HTI (7.5% of all LB) received gentamicin; 50% of them received ATB ≤ 48 hours and 39% ≤ 3 days (total ≤ 3 days: 48; 89%; p < .05). Only 11% had ATB > 3 days (positive culture/clinical course); 1 was infected. Resource utilization was markedly less in period 2. No infant was readmitted or died of sepsis/meningitis in either group during periods 1 and 2. Conclusion Elevated CRP values taken randomly early after birth are of no value for managing HTI with "rule out sepsis" and are associated with unnecessary longer course of ATB, add confusion to clinical management, and do not correlate with early neonatal sepsis. We speculate that the decrease in unnecessary resource utilization associated with not using a randomly obtained CRP in HTI evaluated for "rule out sepsis" may be associated with less risk for morbidity and with less cost.


We examined 4 groups of patients younger than 70 years with atherosclerosis of coronary and/or cerebral arteries. In 98 patients the disease began as acute myocardial infarction, 65 patient from the very beginning suffered from angina of effort, 33 had ischemic cerebral stroke, and in 26 dyscirculatory encephalopathy was diagnosed. Among patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular damages (CVD) 87 and 89%, respectively, had dyslipidemia (DLP). Disorders of lipid composition of the blood with pronounced hypercholesterolemia prevailed in patients with IHD and elevated level of triglycerides or selective decrease of antiatherogenic fraction of lipoproteides - in patients with CVD (especially in patients with stroke). When treatment is prescribed to patients with IHD and CVD at the background of DLP it is necessary to take into consideration DLP variants in order to obtain most effective action of statins and fibrates.


The miniaturisation and reduction in cost of acceleration sensors led to the increase of use of said sensors in a large number of devices. Such include: Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), air-bag deployment mechanism and consumer electronic devices. This paper presents three alternative designs of capacitive sensing MEMS 2-axis accelerometers. All designs have a common fabrication process but each design features different characteristics in terms of spring design and layout. A novel design methodology was devised such that the three designs have approximately the same characteristics such that cross-comparisons can be done. The resonant frequency was designed to be about 1.5 kHz and the accelerometers have a sensitivity of 400 aF/ms−2. Behavioural Model Simulations using Saber® Simulator and Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis were performed on these three designs. A comparison between the two different types of simulators was performed. This resulted in the conclusion that both simulators have comparable results and the variation between theoretical and simulation results can be attributed to the assumptions and inaccuracies of the mathematical model used in the theoretical computation.


The aim of this study was to understand the processes explaining the effects of private performance feedback (success vs. failure) on state self-esteem from the stance of sociometer theory and self-determination theory. We investigated whether or not the effect of private performance feedback on state self-esteem was mediated by perceived inclusion as a function of participants' level of task-related identified regulation (i.e., importance of the activity for oneself). Ninety participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: failure, success, or control. Our regression analyses based on both original and bootstrap samples indicate that perceived inclusion does not mediate the effect of feedback on state self-esteem for individuals high in task-related identified regulation. Such an effect only operates for individuals low in task-related identified regulation. In sum, our results show that the perceived inclusion process proposed by sociometer theory applies more when individuals find that the activity is less important for them (i.e., identified regulation).


It is argued that the reason for the ills of irrigation management is the alienation of farmers from the process of planning and implementation. Often 'lack of political will' is identified as the main reason for the tardy progress in irrigation reforms at the state level. Andhra Pradesh has demonstrated the political will by initiating widespread irrigation reforms through legislation. This paper, based on the situation after six years of WUAs in existence, makes an attempt to provide a comprehensive view on the status and functioning of the Water Users' Associations in the State. It is argued that while substantial amounts of money were spent on the reform process, the money was used mainly for improving the ailing irrigation systems rather than strengthening the formal institutional structures. Though some benefits in terms of increased area under irrigation in canal systems and improved quality of irrigation is evident, the sustainability of these benefits is rather uncertain in the absence of efficient institutional structures. Despite the fact that WUAs are promoted as non-political institutions, 'elite capture' and political involvement dominate their functioning. And the present trend appears to be towards further politicization of these institutions. More importantly, even after six years of their existence devolution of powers to WUAs has not taken place, as most of the important functions like assessment, collection of water charges, sanctioning of works, etc., are still in the hands of the irrigation department. In the absence of devolution of powers the WUAs are aiming for political gains rather than improving the systems. It is argued that political will is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for making the WUAs autonomous and self-sufficient. Restructuring and reforming of the State irrigation departments and the bureaucracy is critical for effective and sustainable irrigation institutions.


The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of fluorosis on the size of deciduous and permanent teeth, and to compare the data with those of teeth without fluorosis. Plaster molds were obtained from 180 patients between the ages of 8 and 16 (mean 11.9±1.4 years) who were eligible for the study. The molds were divided into deciduous and permanent teeth according to the ages of the patients, and teeth were divided into five groups according to the level of fluorosis. No significant differences were found in the dimensions of deciduous teeth between all groups (p>0.05), even in patients with late mixed dentition. However, for the permanent teeth, the dimensions were generally lower in the fluorosed teeth than in the nonfluorosed healthy teeth. These differences were found between mesio-distal dimensions of permanent maxillary, right, and left central incisors, respectively (p = 0.010 and p = 0.012), and between left second premolars (p = 0.035) and left first molars (p = 0.043). For the mesio-distal dimensions of mandibulary teeth, a significant difference in dimensions of first molars (p = 0.018) and in left central incisors (p = 0.002) was found.


There is some justification for the impression that agricultural economics has entered an era of relatively greater budget stress than that of the recent past. However, optimal strategies for sustaining or enhancing departmental productivity in research, teaching and extension are invariant to the budget level. These "strategies" are discussed in the form of "ten commandments" to department heads.


The second Gaia data release (Gaia DR2) contains, beyond the astrometry, three-band photometry for 1.38 billion sources. One band is the G band, the other two were obtained by integrating the Gaia prism spectra (BP and RP). We have used these three broad photometric bands to infer stellar effective temperatures, Teff, for all sources brighter than G = 17 mag with Teff in the range 3000–10 000 K (some 161 million sources). Using in addition the parallaxes, we infer the line-of-sight extinction, AG, and the reddening, E(BP − RP), for 88 million sources. Together with a bolometric correction we derive luminosity and radius for 77 million sources. These quantities as well as their estimated uncertainties are part of Gaia DR2. Here we describe the procedures by which these quantities were obtained, including the underlying assumptions, comparison with literature estimates, and the limitations of our results. Typical accuracies are of order 324 K (Teff), 0.46 mag (AG), 0.23 mag (E(BP − RP)), 15% (luminosity), and 10% (radius). Being based on only a small number of observable quantities and limited training data, our results are necessarily subject to some extreme assumptions that can lead to strong systematics in some cases (not included in the aforementioned accuracy estimates). One aspect is the non-negativity contraint of our estimates, in particular extinction, which we discuss. Yet in several regions of parameter space our results show very good performance, for example for red clump stars and solar analogues. Large uncertainties render the extinctions less useful at the individual star level, but they show good performance for ensemble estimates. We identify regimes in which our parameters should and should not be used and we define a "clean" sample. Despite the limitations, this is the largest catalogue of uniformly-inferred stellar parameters to date. More precise and detailed astrophysical parameters based on the full BP/RP spectrophotometry are planned as part of the third Gaia data release.


After deregulation in 1980, competitive pressures forced the large U.S. freight railroads to restructure. Much attention has focused on defensive (cost-cutting) restructuring: until 2004 employment was reduced by 60%, and railroads abandoned many of their lines. Less attention has been given to strategic restructuring: many firms changed the skill structure of employment and their output mix. We investigate the effects of defensive and strategic restructuring on financial performance between 1984 and 2004. In a simple regression, line abandonments (reduction of network size) have positive effects on performance but employment reductions do not. Controlling for the interaction between defensive and strategic restructuring, however, changes the picture significantly. Employment reductions then do have positive performance effects. There are also significant complementarities between defensive restructuring and strategic changes in skill and output mix. We provide the first in-depth analysis of the anatomy of restructuring in this important industry. Our analysis re-enforces the view that downsizing works best when accompanied by strategic restructuring.


Regulation of mRNA degradation is a powerful way for the cell to regulate gene expression. A critical step in eukaryotic mRNA degradation is the removal of the poly(A) tail at the 3'-end of the mRNA. Poly(A)-specific ribonuclease (PARN) is an oligomeric, processive and cap-interacting 3'-5' exoribonuclease that efficiently degrades eukaryotic mRNA poly(A) tails. In addition to the exonuclease domain, PARN harbors two RNA-binding domains, a classical RNA recognition motif (RRM) and an R3H-domain. In this project we have studied mechanisms by which PARN specifically recognizes and degrades poly(A). We investigated the RNA binding properties of PARN by using electrophoretic mobility shift assays and filter-binding analysis and we could show that PARN binds poly(A) with high affinity and specificity. Furthermore, we showed that the RRM and R3H domains of PARN separately could bind to poly(A). To investigate specificity for and recognition of poly(A) in the active site of PARN, we performed a kinetic analysis on a repertoire of trinucleotide substrates in vitro. We showed that PARN harbors affinity for adenosines in the active site and that both the penultimate and the 3' end located nucleotide play an important role for providing adenosine-specificity in the active site of PARN. Moreover, we solved a crystal structure of PARN in complex with m7GpppG cap analogue and showed that the cap binding and active sites overlap both structurally and functionally. By mutational analysis we identified residues in the active site that specifically recognize adenosines. Furthermore, biochemical data showed that the adenosine specificity in the active site is lost when Mn2+ is used instead of Mg2+ as divalent metal ion. Taken together, these results demonstrate that both RNA-binding properties of the RRM and R3H-domains in addition to base recognition in the active site contributes to PARN poly(A)-specificity.


This new collection of stories is William Boyd's second, appearing some fourteen years after his first, On the Yankee Station. Once again the stories range widely across the time and space of the twentieth century. 'The Destiny of Nathalie "X" 'is a modern fable about Hollywood; 'Cork' tells of a bizarre love affair between an Englishwoman and a Portuguese poet in 19305 Lisbon; Transfigured Night' is set in Vienna during the First World War and is concerned with the problematic relationship between a wealthy patron (who bears a curious resemblance to Ludwig Wittgenstein) and his indifferent benefactor. Fantasy and farce, rueful longing and the bitter acknowledgement of life's relentless ironies all feature in these nine stories by one of our most celebrated and imaginative writers.


Monitoring specific features of the enterprises, for example, the adoption of e-commerce, is an important and basic task for several economic activities. This type of information is usually obtained by means of surveys, which are costly due to the amount of personnel involved in the task. An automatic detection of this information would allow consistent savings. This can actually be performed by relying on computer engineering, since in general this information is publicly available on-line through the corporate websites. This work describes how to convert the detection of e-commerce into a supervised classification problem, where each record is obtained from the automatic analysis of one corporate website, and the class is the presence or the absence of e-commerce facilities. The automatic generation of similar data records requires the use of several Text Mining phases; in particular we compare six strategies based on the selection of best words and best n-grams. After this, we classify the obtained dataset by means of four classification algorithms: Support Vector Machines; Random Forest; Statistical and Logical Analysis of Data; Logistic Classifier. This turns out to be a difficult case of classification problem. However, after a careful design and set-up of the whole procedure, the results on a practical case of Italian enterprises are encouraging.


This article analyzes issues related to the U.S. farm workers' utilization to health care services and their specific choices among health care provider and health bill payment method options. Our findings validate the significant influence of health insurance coverage on health care access, and emphasize the reality of constrained access due to federal regulations, among other factors, prevalent among immigrant farm worker groups, who have relatively lower probability of using health care than citizen farm workers. Moreover, as most farm workers patronize private clinics and community health centers, they usually are also left only with the option to settle health care bills with out-of-pocket funds.


A state-specific coupled cluster (CC) theory with the CAS (complete active space) reference (CASCC) and based on an approach that employs single reference determinant (so-called "formal reference" determinant) in the expression for the wave function has been developed to study electronic excited states with different spatial and spin symmetries. The formal reference determinant is used to generate the reference wave function in the form of a linear combination of the CAS determinants contracted to configurations with the spin and spatial symmetries of the target state. Such properly symmetrized multideterminantal reference provides the zero-order description of the state under consideration. To that reference an exponential CC operator is applied to describe the dynamic electron correlation effects in the CASCC wave function of the considered state. All necessary equations for the CASCC energy and configurational amplitudes are generated using an automated computer-based method which constructs all necessary coupled cluster diagrams for any arbitrary level of the electronic excitation.


Abstract Research aircraft observations in recent hurricanes support the model of Shapiro and Willoughby (1982) for the tropical cyclone's response to circularly symmetric, convective heat sources (convective rings). In both nature and the numerical model the tangential wind commonly increases rapidly just inside the radius of maximum wind and decreases inside the eye near the central axis of the vortex. Thus both secondary outer wind maxima and eyewall wind maxima often contract as they intensify. This response is independent of the horizontal spatial scale of the maximum. An outer maximum is frequently observed to constrict about a pre-existing eye and replace it. This chain of events often coincides with a weakening, or at least a pause in intensification, of the vortex as a whole. The concentric eye phenomenon is a common, but by no means universal, feature of tropical cyclones. It is most frequently observed in intense, highly symmetric systems.


Purpose: To report a rare case of a patient with hypoparathyroidism presenting with bilateral disc swelling and near mature cataract as her first clinical manifestation Case report: A 23-year-old woman presented with complaint of worsening vision since one year ago and a history of refractory seizures and headache for several years, being under treatment with Lamotrigine 50 mg/daily. Slit-lamp examination revealed significant cataracts on both sides. Red reflex was dull in the right eye and absent in the left side. The intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement was normal in both eyes (16 mmHg). Her fundus examination revealed disc swelling in her right eye and hazy media that obscured fundus examination due to dense cataract in the left eye. The combination of bilateral disc swelling and dense cataracts raised suspicion to hypoparathyroidism. Subsequently, neuroimaging and intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring was requested along with neuro-ophthalmalogy consultation. The diagnosis was Psedotumor Cerebri. Due to increased ICP, she underwent multiple lumber punctures. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed abnormal signal density in basal ganglia suggestive for presence of calcium depositions, making the diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism more probable. Ensuing laboratory result made the definite diagnosis of hypoparathyroidism. Meanwhile the cataract progressed and the visual acuity (VA) decreased to HM in her both eyes. She underwent cataract extraction and PCIOL implantation. Papilledema resolved and the vision restored to /20. Conclusion: Ocular complaints happens very rare in the course of hypoparathyroidism but still it seems rational that this occasionally fatal condition be ruled out by hormonal evaluation for cases of unexplained cataracts, particularly if it is accompanied by disc swelling.


OBJECTIVE
To determine seroprevalence of dirofilariasis in dogs and seroprevalences of dirofilariasis, FeLV infection, and FIV infection in cats exported from the Gulf Coast region following the 2005 hurricanes.

DESIGN
Seroprevalence survey.

ANIMALS
1,958 dogs and 1,289 cats exported from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas between August 20 and December 31, 2005.

PROCEDURES
141 animal welfare groups in 37 states and Alberta, Canada, reported results of serologic testing. Risk factors for infection, including age, sex, neuter status, breed, and state of rescue, were examined by means of univariate and multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS
Seroprevalence of dirofilariasis in dogs was 48.8%. Sexually intact dogs were 1.6 times as likely to have dirofilariasis as were neutered dogs, dogs in the ancient breed group were 2.2 times as likely and dogs in the guarding breed group were 1.7 times as likely to have dirofilariasis as were dogs in the herding breed group, and dogs from Mississippi were significantly less likely to have dirofilariasis than were dogs from Texas. Seroprevalences of dirofilariasis, FeLV infection, and FIV infection in cats were 4.0%, 2.6%, and 3.6%, respectively. Seroprevalence of FIV infection was significantly higher in adult cats than in juveniles and in males than in females.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggest that dogs and cats exported from the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricane disaster area had disease rates similar to those for animals in the region prior to the hurricanes.


The slip resistance of commercial safety boot and experimental footwear solings has been studied over a period of 15 years. Shoes, with experimental solings, were worn in a factory, and the coefficient of friction (CoF) measured at intervals, using a walking traction test. These measurements have shown that a microcellular polyurethane, AP66033 (formerly T66/103) gives the greatest slip resistance of any soling material on wet or oily factory floors and laboratory test surfaces. This performance is attributed to the statistically significant relationship between CoF and mean peak to trough roughness (Rtm). The surface structure of soling materials was examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy, and images compared with Rtm measurements. There is now sufficient experimental evidence to confirm that surface roughness is one of the determinants of CoF on lubricated floors. The wear characteristics of the floor/sole combination must be considered: some soling materials may become polished on certain floors. However, AP66033 cannot be polished.


Recently, organic white light emitting devices (OWLEDs) have attracted great interest in flexible displays and solid state lighting devices. Here we report a kind of novel POSS-based white-light-emitting single molecular nanohybrid (POSS-WLED), which was precisely and controllably prepared via click chemistry by simply controlling the feed ratio of blue (B) and yellow (Y) emitting units. It was found that the self-absorption of the emitting component and the intramolecular energy transfer were well adjusted based on theoretical simulations and molecular design. The incorporation of nanosized inorganic POSS effectively restrained intramolecular rotation (RIR) and shows a significant decoupling effect of the emitter and an AIE (aggregation induced enhancement) effect, which provided an important contribution to the high emission efficiency of hybrid molecules. The resultant nanometer organic–inorganic hybrid (W62) exhibited a significantly enhanced emission in the solid film (Φfilm = 95%) because of the significant AIE effect which is attributed to the incorporation of nano-sized POSS moieties. Herein, this work will provide a novel strategy for the design and preparation of highly efficient white-light-emitting molecules with a high emission efficiency, thermal stability, and good film forming ability.


The university course-timetabling problem is a NP-C problem. The traditional method of arranging course is inefficient, causes a high conflict rate of teacher resource or classroom resource, and is poor satisfaction in students. So it does not meet the requirements of modern university educational administration management. However, parallel genetic algorithm (PGA) not only have the advantages of the traditional genetic algorithm(GA), but also take full advantage of the computing power of parallel computing. It can improve the quality and speed of solving effectively, and have a broad application prospect in solving the problem of university course-timetabling problem. In this paper, based on the cloud computing platform of Hadoop, an improved method of fusing coarse-grained parallel genetic algorithm (CGPGA) and Map/Reduce programming model is deeply researched, and which is used to solve the problem of university intelligent courses arrangement. The simulation experiment results show that, compared with the traditional genetic algorithm, the coarse-grained parallel genetic algorithm not only improves the efficiency of the course arrangement and the success rate of the course, but also reduces the conflict rate of the course. At the same time, this research makes full use of the high parallelism of Map/Reduce to improve the efficiency of the algorithm, and also solves the problem of university scheduling problem more effectively.


There is a need to develop open sensors and middleware components that allow transparent integration and plug-and-play interoperability of Medical Devices (MDs) and Computer Engines (CEs). The use of standards seems to be the internationally adopted way to solve these problems and allow implementing ubiquitous solutions, including wearable devices, focused on the new paradigm of Personal Health (p-Health). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no experience where the full chain from personal healthcare environment to Health Centre had been implemented using interoperability standards. Even though there have been some initiatives to combine different standards, the vision of an entire end-to-end standard-based system is not yet a fact end-to-end solution. This paper presents the implementation guidelines of a ubiquitous platform for p-Health. It is end-to-end standards-based, using ISO/IEEE11073 in the patient environment and EN13606 to communicate the information to an Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) server. The platform has been designed to comply with the last ISO/IEEE11073 and EN13606 available versions and tested in a laboratory environment to demonstrate the feasibility of an end-to-end standard-based solution.


Water is one of the most precious natural resources for all living flora and fauna. 97.5% of water on the Earth is sea water, the remaining 2.5 % is fresh water of which slightly over two thirds is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The unfrozen fresh water is mainly found as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. Since one of the main source of water is rainfall. Therefore, proper information on rainfall and its variability in space and time is required for better watershed planning and management and other applications. In Himalayan basin, the rain gauge network is relatively sparse with uneven distribution. Hence, there is lack of proper information on rainfall patterns of this region. The main advantage of satellite derived rainfall estimation over rain gauge derived rain data is that these provide homogenous spatio-temporal rainfall information over a large area e.g. Upper Ganga river basin region. Therefore, a better understanding of the rainfall patterns of this region is required for better disaster mitigation. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the reliability of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43 V7 derived high resolution satellite product to study the rainfall distribution over the Upper Ganga river basin. TRMM 3B43 V7 derived monthly rainfall data is analyzed and the monthly rainfall product is validated and correlated with IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) gauge station's rainfall data. The monthly rainfall data of 15 years i.e. from 1998 to 2012 is used in the study. Statistical indices can be used to evaluate, compare and validate satellite rainfall data with respect to gauge rainfall data. Statistical indices used in this study are Correlation Coefficient (r), Mean Square Error (MSE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and Average Percentage Error (Avg. % Error). Most of the rainfall in the study area occurs in the months of June, July, August, September and October. The isohyets were prepared using gauge rainfall data and are matched with the spatially distributed rainfall surface prepared from TRMM satellite data for all the months of the rainy season of the study area. Kriging spatial interpolation method was used to generate the spatially distributed rainfall surface. From the results it was observe d that they matched fairly well with each other showing high spatial correlation. The monthly rainfall result showed that TRMM data is underestimated with low accuracy, though TRMM data and rain gauge data have positive correlation.


Automatic speaker verification (ASV) systems in practice are greatly vulnerable to spoofing attacks. The latest voice conversion technologies are able to produce perceptually natural sounding speech that mimics any target speakers. However, the perceptual closeness to a speaker's identity may not be enough to deceive an ASV system. In this work, we propose a framework that uses the output scores of an ASV system as the feedback to a voice conversion system. The attacker framework is a black-box adversary that steals one's voice identity, because it does not require any knowledge about the ASV system but the system outputs. Experimental results conducted on ASVspoof 2019 database confirm that the proposed feedback-controlled voice conversion framework produces adversarial samples that are more deceptive than the straightforward voice conversion, thereby boosting the impostor ASV scores. Further, the perceptual evaluation studies reveal that converted speech does not adversely affect the voice quality from the baseline system.


The health issues that attract our attention when analyzing the truck driver population are the high prevalence of sedentary habits, inadequate diet, obesity, and proportion of hypertensive. All these are either considered risk factors for or a consequence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). The objective of this study was to investigate the risk for OSA among 10,101 truck drivers and to correlate it with potentially related factors, such as serum glucose and cholesterol levels, smoking habits, alcohol and drug consumption, and self-reported physical activity. The drivers were invited to participate in the campaign "Saúde na Boléia" (Health Behind the Wheel) promoted by a Brazilian company responsible for the maintenance of approximately 360 km of roads in the country. Drivers who spontaneously stopped at the campaign booths placed along the roads were invited to answer a questionnaire covering sociodemographic data such as age, alcohol, and drug consumption. All participants completed a Berlin Questionnaire and were classified as low- or high-risk subjects for OSA based on questions about snoring, tiredness during the day, and the presence of hypertension or obesity. Blood collection was accomplished at the same site by nurses and/or nursing students collaborating with the campaign for subsequent laboratory studies. Approximately 26% of the truck drivers were found to be at high-risk group for OSA. An adjusted multiple logistic model found the independent risk factors of smoking (OR = 1.16; p = 0.014) and drug use (OR = 1.32; p < 0.0001) were associated with high risk for OSA. The presence of self-reported occasional (OR = 0.62; p < 0.0001) and regular (OR = 0.53; p < 0.0001) physical activity was found to be an independent factor protective of OSA. Educational programs, including ones aimed at improving one's health habits, such as engagement in physical exercise, should be considered in the development of initiatives to reduce the risk for OSA among the truck driver population.


Humanoids are increasingly used in the service sectors around the world to work with, or assist humans. However current humanoid designs place limitations on direct engagement with the human in terms of safety and usability. In this paper, we present an approach for the control of hybrid, high-speed and safe human-robot interaction systems with highly non-linear dynamic behavior. The proposed approach comprises the three soft computing techniques, namely back propagation neural network, fuzzy and genetic algorithms. This open-loop controller was applied to a Bridgestone Hybrid Robot Arm (BHRA). BHRA has three electric motors and four artificial muscles, arranged in an agonist/antagonist, and opposing pair configuration, that drive the five-degrees of freedom of the robot arm. The behaviors of the artificial muscles are observed under the effects of the links driven by the electric motors and it is shown that the proposed biologically-plausible controller could produce more accurate trajectories at higher speeds when compared to conventional PID and stand alone or combined versions of Neural Network and Fuzzy controllers.


In this paper we review experimental and theoretical findings related to the recently discovered mechanism of moisture-induced environmental embrittlement in FeAl-based alloys. We show that when low aluminum content FeAl alloys (35 and 36.5% Al) are tested in air, the aluminum in the alloys reacts with moisture in the air, producing atomic hydrogen. This atomic hydrogen enters the metal in the vicinity of the crack tips and embrittles the FeAl aluminides. As a result, when the alloys are tensile tested in air, it is commonly found that they fracture with limited ductility by transgranular cleavage. When this embrittlement mechanism is suppressed (e.g., by testing in dry oxygen), ductility is found to increase dramatically (to as much as 17-18%), and the fracture mode changes to intergranular. The intrinsic resistance to fracture is therefore quite high in these alloys. First-principles calculations confirm that the intrinsic cleavage strength and energy of FeAl are indeed quite high (comparable to or slightly higher than that of a ductile alloy like Ni3Al). The calculations also show that absorbed hydrogen can significantly reduce the cleavage strength and energy of FeAl (by as much as 20-70%, depending on the hydrogen concentration), consistent with the proposed embrittlement mechanism. In higher Al content FeAl alloys (40 and 43% Al), there is an additional cause of brittle fracture, namely intrinsically weak grain boundaries. In these alloys, the grain boundaries have to be first strengthened (by the addition of boron) before the moisture-induced environmental embrittlement mechanism becomes evident. Thus, the ductility of Fe-40Al alloys is approximately the same in air and dry oxygen, whereas the ductility of B-doped Fe-40Al alloys is significantly improved when tested in dry oxygen instead of air (from 4.3 to 16.8%). With increasing Al concentration, the grain boundaries in FeAl become increasingly more brittle and, in Fe-50Al, boron is unable to suppress intergranular fracture.


We report on the study of a new family of neutral heteroleptic Ir(F2ppy)2L (F2ppy = 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine) complexes bearing different triazole derivatives (L = 2-(1,2,3-triazol-5-yl)pyridine) as the third ligand. Two of these ligands were used for the first time as ancillary ligands in iridium(III) complexes. A full photophysical and electrochemical study of these complexes is reported here, together with theoretical investigations at the density functional theory (DFT) level. The complexes were also obtained as single crystals and their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography. The newly reported complexes exhibit blue emission with high quantum yields in solution. Photophysical results are also compared to those reported for their 1,2,4-triazole isomer analogues. The emitting state is a mixture between the triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (3MLCT) and triplet inter-ligand charge transfer (3ILCT) states, and it is more localized on the F2ppy ligand as supported by DFT calculations. In addition, this paper reports some preliminary tests of polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) doped with these iridium complexes. The results indicate that such molecules are good candidates as blue- and green-emitting dopants in LED devices.


Evaluation of interface strength is important in composite material design such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Molecular simulation, which considers aspects such as chemical structure, can be used to evaluate the composite interface strength. Therefore, in this study, the interface energies between graphene, considering the electric charge state, and resin (TriA-X polyimide, DGEBA, triethylenetetramine, vinyl ester, and PA6) were evaluated via molecular dynamics simulation. First, the interface energy and experimentally obtained interface strength were compared. Subsequently, the coefficient of determination R2 was calculated using linear approximations from the interface energy and interface strength. In addition, the correlation coefficient was calculated and showed a high correlation. Based on this data, it was conjectured that a relationship exists between the interface strength and interface energy. Furthermore, the validity of the relationship magnitude between the experimentally obtained interface strength and the interface energy obtained via simulation was evaluated. Moreover, considering graphene oxidation, the interface energies between the resin and three forms of graphene (functionalized with OH, COOH, and O groups) were obtained, and the effect of various oxidation surface treatments of graphene on their corresponding interface strengths was investigated.


This paper examines the role of prisoner voice in criminal justice reform in the US. Previous research has attributed reform of criminal justice institutions to either political elites or the public. This research has not considered the role of prisoner voice in influencing reform. This paper fills that gap. I argue that prisoner voice—through the avenues of prison journalism and prisoner litigation—serves as an information channel in state criminal justice bureaucracies, holding bureaucrats accountable to their superiors. I conclude that prison journalism is the only avenue for prisoner voice that influences reform in ways that aligns with voters' interests. Prisoner litigation and prison riots result in reform that drives the growth of state prison systems and loss of prisoner privileges.


Abstract Summary We introduce LongDat, an R package that analyzes longitudinal multivariable (cohort) data while simultaneously accounting for a potentially large number of covariates. The primary use case is to differentiate direct from indirect effects of an intervention (or treatment) and to identify covariates (potential mechanistic intermediates) in longitudinal data. LongDat focuses on analyzing longitudinal microbiome data, but its usage can be expanded to other data types, such as binary, categorical and continuous data. We tested and compared LongDat with other tools (i.e. MaAsLin2, ANCOM, lgpr and ZIBR) on both simulated and real data. We showed that LongDat outperformed these tools in accuracy, runtime and memory cost, especially when there were multiple covariates. The results indicate that the LongDat R package is a computationally efficient and low-memory-cost tool for longitudinal data with multiple covariates and facilitates robust biomarker searches in high-dimensional datasets. Availability and implementation The R package LongDat is available on CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/LongDat/) and GitHub (https://github.com/CCY-dev/LongDat). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.