Background: Variations in the number of ribs and vertebrae have been noted in other wise normal looking people with some having supernumerary while others subnumerary. Sternal variations and anomalies though have not been as widely documented. These are two cases with one having a combination of sternal anomalies, supernumerary thoracic vertebrae and ribs and subnumerary lumbar vertebrae while the other had subnumerary thoracic vertebrae and ribs. Findings: Case 1: A 38year old female who had eleven thoracic vertebrae and corresponding pairs of ribs, nine pairs attached and two floating. The other skeletal components were normal. Case 2: Adult male had 13 thoracic vertebrae and thirteen corresponding pairs of ribs. Ten pairs of ribs attached to the cage and three floating. There were four lumber vertebrae. The manubrium of the sternum was much longer, ended at the third coastal cartilage attachment and there was an oval defect in the body of the sternum at the level of 5 th costal cartilage. The rest of the skeleton was normal. Conclusions: Osteological variations in the rib cage and vertebrae are clinically important because they can mislead an unsuspecting clinician during diagnostic and therapeutic lumbar punctures, counting of ribs during heart examinations, drainage of the thorax and the 12 th rib is important in citing of the incision for nephrectomy and other medical procedures. Radiological diagnosis, Forensic and medical legal pathological identifications need to put into consideration such variations.


. One of the most important parameters to quantify an aerosol is the particle number concentration. Condensation Particle Counters (CPCs) are commonly used to measure the aerosol number concentration in the nanometer range. To compare the data from different measurement stations and campaigns it is important to harmonize the instrument specifications, which 10 is why the Technical Specification CEN/TS 16976:2016 was introduced for CPCs. There, the parameters of the CEN-CPC are specified for standard pressure and temperature. However, CEN-CPCs are used in various surroundings, on high mountains or on airplanes, where they are exposed to low-pressure conditions. Here, we present the pressure-dependent performance (including the concentration linearity and counting efficiency) of two different models of CEN-CPCs, the Grimm 5410 CEN and the TSI 3772-CEN. We found that their performance at 1000 hPa and 750 hPa was in accordance with the CEN-technical- 15 specifications. Below 500 hPa, the performance decreased for both CPC-models, but the decrease was different for the two models. To gain insight into the performance of the two CPC-models, we performed a simulation study. This study included simulations of the saturation profiles and calculations of internal particle losses within the CPCs. The simulations reproduced the overall performance decrease with decreasing pressure and reveal that the internal structure of the CPC has a significant influence on the performance. We anticipate our publication to provide a deeper understanding of the counting efficiency of 20 CPCs and their pressure dependence. Our findings might be a starting point for new standards that include the pressure-dependent performance or they could help for designing new CPCs.


The identification process of the classical Preisach-type hysteresis model reduces to the determination of the weight function of elementary hysteresis operators upon which the model is built. It is well known that the classical Preisach model can exactly represent hysteretic nonlinearities which exhibit wiping-out and congruency properties. In that case, the model identification can be analytically and systematically accomplished by using first-order reversal curves. If the congruency property is not exactly valid, the Preisach model can only be used as an approximation. It is possible to improve the model accuracy in this situation by incorporating more appropriate experimental data during the identification stage. However, performing this process using the traditional systematic techniques becomes almost impossible. In this paper, the machinery of neural networks is proposed as a tool to accomplish this identification task. The suggested identification approach has been numerically implemented and carried out for a magnetic tape sample that does not possess the congruency property. A comparison between measured data and model predictions suggests that the proposed identification approach yields more accurate results.


Validation of a serological test for Helicobacter pylori infection in Costa Rica. Introduction: Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium capable to survive and multiply in the gastric mucosa. It is the most prominent factor in the development of chronic atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer, adenocarcinoma and MALT lymphoma. It is estimated that half the world population is infected. The economic cost and impact on the quality of life caused by H. pylori are important. There are several methods to detect the bacteria, but some are invasive, expensive, or both. Objective: We compare an inexpensive serological test based on ELISA for the detection of IgG, using the urea breath test (PYtest) as the reference method. Methods: The area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated. A subset of 45 samples was used for validation of the ELISA test, while the assay was evaluated with 185 additional samples. Results: The cut-off point to discriminate between positive and negative infection status by H. pylori was 0.75, using the optical density ratio of each serum and a positive control. With a higher value of the ratio, the probability of being infected increased. Using this criterion, the test showed a sensitivity of 91.4 % and specificity of 93.7 %. All diagnostic values improved when a gray zone was considered. Conclusion: The serological test developed here is equivalent to the urea breath test. However, the serological test is more accessible to the general population because of its lower cost. This serological test could be used in large-scale clinical research.


Spondias species (whose common names among English speakers include ambarella, Ataheite apple, mombins, and hog plums) are flowering trees native to tropical and subtropical regions. They are known for their sweet fruit and grow well in the warmest parts of Florida. This revised 8-page fact sheet discusses biology, distribution and uses, as well as guidelines for propagation and maintenance. Written by Jonathan H. Crane and Jeffrey Wasielewski, and published by the UF Department of Horticultural Sciences, April 2015. (Photo by Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0)
HS63/MG059: Spondias Growing in the Florida Home Landscape (ufl.edu)


The introduction specifies the criteria which are used to select the packages for inclusion in the book, and there are few surprises. The quality of software criteria are based on success in the market place, i.e. a larger user base and some special merit. All the old favourites in WP and spreadsheets are included. Its usefulness lies in the clarity of presentation, the provision ofprices and addresses ofdistributors and minimum specification data. I t remains to be seen whether Absolute Research have done a good job of selecting their entrants; at least they have produced a small reference book that is portable and likely to be useful.


Understanding the electronic transport properties of junctions consisting of a scattering region such as a nanoscale object or molecule connected to electrodes is the central basis for future nano and molecular scale applications. In this thesis, I shall discuss the theoretical methods needed to describe such junctions and the present three studies of the electronic properties of molecular junction. High electrical conductance molecular nanowires are highly desirable components for future molecular-scale circuitry, but typically molecular wires act as tunnel barriers and their conductance decays exponentially with length. In chapter 4, I demonstrate that the conductance of fused-oligo-porphyrin nanowires can be either length independent or increase with length at room temperature. I show that this negative attenuation is an intrinsic property of fused-oligo-porphyrin nanowires, but its manifestation depends on the electrode material or anchor groups. This highly-desirable, non-classical behaviour signals the quantum nature of transport through such wires. It arises, because with increasing length, the tendency for electrical conductance to decay is compensated by a decrease in their HOMO-LUMO gap. This study reveals the potential of these molecular wires as interconnects in future molecular-scale circuitry. Identification of structure-property relationships that govern single-molecule conductance is key to the continued development of molecular electronics. To realise new quantum-interference-based molecular junction, there is a need to establish simple and intuitive rules for synthesizing molecules with flexible and controllable chemical structures. In chapter 5, I demonstrate methoxyl groups (-OMe) induce destructive quantum interference (DQI) tuning in meta-phenylene ethylene-type oligomers (mOPE). My calculation reveals that the conductance of single molecules with -OMe pendant groups is sensitive to the position of the –OMe. This result is in agreement with recently developed magic ratio and orbital product rules and demonstrates that destructive QI can be tuned by changing the –OMe position. This novel method of DQI tuning provides a new design strategy for creating single-molecule junctions with desirable functions. The design and development of metal/single-molecule/metal junctions with a conductance response to external stimuli has been a strong driving force in molecular electronics community. Reproducible conductance increase (or decrease) of a junction in response to external stimuli have been exploited. Mechanoresistive metal-moleculemetal junctions, whose electrical conductance depends on the mechanical separation of the two electrodes, allow further control, which could be exploited to fabricate junctions responsive to multiple stimuli (e.g. electrochemical potential and electrode separation). Furthermore, knowledge of the structure-property relationships of mechanosensitive junctions provides a wealth of information about the nature, strength and configuration of metal-molecule interactions at the contact interface, which can be applied to fundamental studies of surface science and can be exploited to improve the design of molecular junction. In chapter 6, I demonstrate the metal/singlemolecule/metal junctions give a mechanoresistive behaviour with enhanced sensitivity, based on (methylthio)thiophene contacting groups. The effect arises from localised interactions between the thienyl sulfurs and the electrodes, which allows the junction to transition from a monodentate to a bidentate contact configuration as the junction is compressed, resulting in a up to two order of magnitude in the (methylthio)thiopheneterminated molecule higher conductance compared with the (methylthio)benzene counterpart.


This article presents the results of a research aimed at mapping the mental care services provided in a Primary Care Unit in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The study is based on the premise that today Primary Care can contribute to a change in the mental care model in Brazil. The practices used by the professionals of the units for dealing with problems classified as mental problems are analyzed from the perspective of concepts such as patient-centered care, listening and integrality. The study is based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews with professionals working in a Health Unit and in a Family Health Program besides information collected from medical records using a tool especially conceived for this purpose. The results of this study show that in the mental care actions offered in primary care, the biomedical model, psychiatrization of mental care and bureaucratization of the work process restricting the actions to the Unit are still prevailing.


INTRODUCTION
Communication skills are an integral component of dental undergraduate education. Due to the complex nature of these skills, didactic teaching methods used in other educational contexts can be limited. Interactive and participative methods rooted in modern adult learning theories, such as Forum Theatre, may be more effective in the teaching of communication skills.

AIM
To explore the usefulness of Forum Theatre in teaching clinical undergraduate dental students how to break bad news to their patients.

METHODS
A purposive sample of 4th-year undergraduate dental students was invited to participate. An evaluation questionnaire was given to the students and collected after the Forum Theatre interactive session. Participants were asked to provide self-reported accounts on the most and least useful parts of the session, as well as the most important learning outcome. Usefulness of the session in clinical work, increasing confidence and ability in breaking bad news, were evaluated via a 5-point Likert-scale type question. Qualitative data were analysed using Framework Analysis to explore the themes found in the open-text component. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the Likert-scale items.

RESULTS
One hundred and fifteen completed questionnaires were collected from the 2015 and 2016 classes. Most students gave the Forum Theatre session a rating of 3 or above on a 5-point Likert scale; indicating that they found it useful. Qualitative results also showed that most participants liked the teaching session thanks to its interactive nature, the use of actors and the input of the facilitators. The majority of students showed preference towards smaller groups which give everyone equal opportunity to participate without unnecessary repetition.

CONCLUSION
The results seem to confirm previous findings. Students rated their learning experience involving Forum Theatre favourably. Smaller groups and trained facilitators are required for the success of this teaching method. Further research is needed to assess the long-term educational benefits of Forum Theatre.


We propose a unifying view to analyze the representation quality of self-supervised learning (SSL) models without access to supervised labels, while being agnostic to the architecture, learning algorithm or data manipulation used during training. We argue that representations can be evaluated through the lens of expressiveness and learnability. We propose to use the Intrinsic Dimension (ID) to assess expressiveness and introduce Cluster Learnability (CL) to assess learnability. CL is measured as the learning speed of a KNN classifier trained to predict labels obtained by clustering the representations with K-means. We thus combine CL and ID into a single predictor: CLID. Through a large-scale empirical study with a diverse family of SSL algorithms, we find that CLID better correlates with in-distribution model performance than other competing recent evaluation schemes. We also benchmark CLID on out-of-domain generalization, where CLID serves as a predictor of the transfer performance of SSL models on several classification tasks, yielding improvements with respect to the competing baselines.


Mutants at the snail locus are zygotically acting embryonic lethals that affect dorsoventral patterning. A comparison of seven mutant alleles shows considerable variation in expressivity and a graded effect along the dorsoventral axis: more extreme alleles result in the abnormal development of the dorsally derived ectoderm as well as the ventrally derived mesoderm, whereas weaker alleles affect only development of the mesoderm. Animals transheterozygous for different mutant alleles occasionally survive to adulthood; they frequently have missing halteres and more rarely are hemithorax. The mutant phenotype of snail is shown here to be enhanced zygotically by haploidy of two nearby regions on the second chromosome: the elbow to no-ocelli region and the interval defined by l(2)br36 and l(2)br37. It is concluded that the products of all of these genes function together in the process of specification of pattern in the embryo.


PermaRisk is a young investigator's research group that simulates erosion processes in permafrost landscapes under warming climate and conducts risk assessments for ecosystems and infrastructure within the Arctic. Diverse ecological, social, and financial risks are associated with potential damages to ecosystem functions and infrastructure caused by permafrost thaw. Communication with local stakeholders in the Arctic such as the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska or town communities in Canada are integral to the research of PermaRisk. Local indigenous knowledge will help researchers to better understand past and current landscape changes and their impact on local life and infrastructure.

PermaRisk promotes a transparent and open communication between research and society. Here, we present the tool of digital storytelling and how it is used to portray both the stories of the research project and the scientists as well as the stories of the people affected by climate change in the Arctic. Digital storytelling allows the combination of photos, videos, sound bites, interviews, graphics, maps, and data into compelling, entertaining, and interactive stories. Research data and materials brought back from fieldwork are used to look into questions like: What drives these scientists to do what they do? How do they do it? Why does it matter? To whom does it matter? How are local communities affected by Arctic climate change? How do they perceive the change and the research?

In the final product, the project's main research findings are translated into accessible storylines about erosion and permafrost and placed within the socio-ecological context of climate change in the Arctic and globally. Finished Stories will be used for community outreach and public relations to advocate science. Furthermore, they will be integrated into teaching at German universities and schools to invite interactive learning and situate the research in concrete, real-life situations and communities.


The performance analysis of non-binary linear block codes is studied under ML decoding where it is assumed that the transmission takes place over memoryless symmetric channels. Gallager-type bounds are derived, and the proposed bounds are exemplified for expurgated regular ensembles of non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. These bounds are also compared with classical and recent improved sphere-packing bounds, indicating that these bounding techniques are informative for the performance evaluation of coded communication systems which incorporate non-binary coding techniques.


The purpose of this research is to find out the interaction between histological alterations and mechanical properties of engineered tendon implanted in situ. Defects of 0.5cm-1.0cm were made at deep flexor tendons by surgical procedure. Engineered tendons using degradable scaffolds polyglytic acid (PGA) mesh and tendon cells were implanted to repair the defects. Chickens were killed respectively at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks after surgery. The implants were taken out for histological examination, biomechanical test, and collagen synthesis assay. The results showed that after surgery the PGA scaffolds degraded fast and took precedence of collagen synthesis. There were not enough amount and maturation of the collagen fibers of the new tendon at 2-8 weeks after surgery. The biomechanical properties of new tendons were less than those of the normal tendon. Therefore, it is necessary to construct engineered tendons with better degradation rate of scaffolds and suitable biomechanical stimulation so that more collagen synthesis and better biomechanical properties of new tendons can be developed early after implantation.


While the sublime has garnered a great deal of critical attention over the past twenty years, its counterpart, bathos, has yet to receive any extended treatment. Generally understood as an inadvertent descent to the low, vulgar, and ludicrous in writing or art, the term "bathos" was popularised by Pope, who used it to satirise his contemporaries. Ironically likening bathos to the depths of profundity, Pope lauded his peers for their influential writings whilst openly deriding their absurd misuses of figure and rhetorical device. Pope's method proved prophetic: today, artists regularly celebrate and incorporate bathetic practice.

This essay collection considers how bathos has become so central to literature, fine art, and music. The innovative and diverse contributions assess the consequences of this endemic inversion of aesthetic standards, and consider where artistic production might go after hitting, and so comfortably inhabiting, rock bottom. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/on-bathos-9781441105073/#sthash.T9OSH2N7.dpuf


The aim of the study was to examine the perception of diabetes and the knowledge about this disease. Participants were divided into two groups: the first one consisted of family members of diabetic patients (56 individuals; M age = 54) whereas the second one comprised those who had no family experiences with diabetes (104 individuals; M age = 55). In order to examine the perception of diabetes modified version of IPQ-R (The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire), enabling examination of healthy individuals was applied. Additionally, participants were to decide whether certain given information on diabetes was true or false. Participants in both groups considered diabetes as a serious chronic disease which can be successfully treated and the course of which is largely dependent on a patient's behaviour. In both groups there were false assumptions regarding the causes of the disease and opinions discordant with medical knowledge. It would be advisable to organize educational campaigns and screening programmes for the family members. As a result, family members would be able to provide better support for the patient and could also recognize dysfunctions of their own organism early enough.


ost urban renewal programmes in Africa are conceived as mere urban beautification projects. From Lagos to Dakar, move one or two kilometers away from the city centers and one is faced with filth and squalor that are summed up in two words –urban slums, in which a great majority of city populations reside. In Nigeria, population living in slums as percentage of urban population is put at 50.2 % in 2014, up from 41.0% in 2007. This highlights the rapid growth of urban slums in Africa with rapid urbanization largely fueled by rural-urban migration. Incidentally, lessons from COVID-19 indicate that if the trend in the growth of unplanned slum settlements are not checked, they will become the hotspots for pandemic transmission in Africa, as the slum populations are part and parcel of the entire urban population who indeed are key drivers of city activities in terms of labour supply, as well as their engagements in small scale informal business activities in the cities. In the light of existing knowledge on the potential threat of dense slum settlements to the spread of pandemic, this paper reviews the appropriateness of traditional approach to urban renewal programmes in Africa and makes recommendations for paradigm shift as historical evidences reveal that COVID-19 is neither the first nor the last pandemic.


This paper proposes a novel approach of integrating different neuroimaging techniques to characterize an autistic brain. Different techniques like EEG, fMRI and DTI have traditionally been used to find biomarkers for autism, but there have been very few attempts for a combined or multimodal approach of EEG, fMRI and DTI to understand the neurobiological basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we explore how the structural brain network correlate with the functional brain network, such that the information encompassed by these two could be uncovered only by using the latter. In this paper, source localization from EEG using independent component analysis (ICA) and dipole fitting has been applied first, followed by selecting those dipoles that are closest to the active regions identified with fMRI. This allows translating the high temporal resolution of EEG to estimate time varying connectivity at the spatial source level. Our analysis shows that the estimated functional connectivity between two active regions can be correlated with the physical properties of the structure obtained from DTI analysis. This constitutes a first step towards opening the possibility of using pervasive EEG to monitor the long-term impact of ASD treatment without the need for frequent expensive fMRI or DTI investigations.


Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted NonCommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CRNFSJ.5.3.01 article History


This study aims to develop a discussion framework regarding the applicability of online games in higher education institutions for enhancing the understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A typology of online games is discussed, and games are categorised into three types: knowledge education, survival simulation experience and urban design simulation. A quantitative method was applied in this study, with data being collected from game participants who played games of the three types. Ten game attributes were used as potential independent variables to estimate the dependent variable of the participants' understanding of the SDGs, using structural equation modelling. The developed and verified models indicate that each type of game had a unique impact on the participants' perceptions of the SDGs based on various factors. This information could be useful as a guide for pedagogists aiming to enhance students' awareness and understanding of the content and contexts of specific SDGs.


Abstract This research comes to empirical investigate whether the country"s levels of corruption may be explained by some behavioral factors such as culture, tax morale, trust, religion or happiness. For this purpose, a cross-countries survey of 148 countries is used. The findings document that power distance, trust in legal system, happiness and religion are the most important behavioral determinants of the corruption, explaining about 50 % from the level of corruption around the world. A higher power distance, a lower level of trust in legal system, a lower level of happiness (measured by subjective well-being) and a higher level of religiosity conduct to a higher level of corruption. The findings are important for the policy-makers in order to include the non-economic factors in the analysis of corruption behavior of the people belong to a country, and thus to adopt the most appropriate decisions to fight against this phenomenon.


Sialic acid utilisation plays an important role in the growth and persistence of the obligate human mucosal pathogen Haemophilus influenzae, which causes respiratory tract infections, septicaemia and meningitis. Like many other bacteria, H. influenzae can use host-derived sialic acids as carbon, nitrogen and energy sources, but also as a terminal modification on the LPS to better evade the human immune system. H. influenzae takes up exogenous sialic acid via a tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporter, SiaPQM. This possesses an extracytoplasmic substrate binding protein (SBP), SiaP, which binds the substrate in the periplasm and delivers it to the specific membrane permease, SiaQM. SiaP contains two globular domains, which close around the substrate upon binding. Here, the mechanism of sialic acid binding by SiaP is investigated using site-directed mutagenesis of residues in the ligand binding site and analogues of sialic acid. These, and several mutations on the surface of SiaP, were investigated for their effect on transport by SiaPQM in vitro, using SiaQM reconstituted into proteoliposomes, and in vivo, using expression of siaPQM in an E. coli strain lacking its native sialic acid transporter, NanT.
It is demonstrated that stabilisation of the carboxylate group of sialic acid by the totally conserved Arginine-147 is important for high-affinity ligand binding, but is not essential for transport. Mutation of Aparagine-150 to Aspartate abolishes the function of the transporter without affecting ligand binding, suggesting the existence of a critical interaction between the components of the transporter. The catabolism of the sialic acid analogues was also examined in E. coli expressing different sialic acid transporters. This indicates that a wide variety of sialic acid analogues are potential carbon sources in many pathogenic bacteria.


Graph transformations have been used to model services and systems where rules describe pre and post conditions of operations changing a complex state. However, despite their intuitive nature, creating such models is a time-consuming and error-prone process. In this paper we investigate the possibility of extracting rules from observations of transformations, i.e., pairs of input and output graphs resulting from successful transformations and individual input graphs were they have failed. From such positive and negative examples, minimal rules are extracted, to be extended by context that is present in all positive examples and missing in at least one negative example. The result is are a maximal and a required rule, jointly with the minimal rule defining the range of possible rules that could have created the observed transformations. We report on an implementation of the approach, evaluate its accuracy, scalability and limitations, and discuss applications to reverse engineering visual constructs from observations of object states of components under test.


Abstract. Radiocarbon is a critical constraint on our estimates of
the timescales of soil carbon cycling that can aid in identifying mechanisms
of carbon stabilization and destabilization and improve the forecast of soil
carbon response to management or environmental change. Despite the wealth of
soil radiocarbon data that have been reported over the past 75 years, the
ability to apply these data to global-scale questions is limited by our
capacity to synthesize and compare measurements generated using a variety of
methods. Here, we present the International Soil Radiocarbon Database
(ISRaD; http://soilradiocarbon.org , last access: 16 December 2019), an open-source archive of soil data that
include reported measurements from bulk soils, distinct soil carbon pools
isolated in the laboratory by a variety of soil fractionation methods,
samples of soil gas or water collected interstitially from within an intact
soil profile, CO2 gas isolated from laboratory soil incubations, and
fluxes collected in situ from a soil profile. The core of ISRaD is a relational
database structured around individual datasets (entries) and organized
hierarchically to report soil radiocarbon data, measured at different
physical and temporal scales as well as other soil or environmental
properties that may also be measured and may assist with interpretation and
context. Anyone may contribute their own data to the database by entering it
into the ISRaD template and subjecting it to quality assurance protocols.
ISRaD can be accessed through (1) a web-based interface, (2) an R package
(ISRaD), or (3) direct access to code and data through the GitHub
repository, which hosts both code and data. The design of ISRaD allows for
participants to become directly involved in the management, design, and
application of ISRaD data. The synthesized dataset is available in two
forms: the original data as reported by the authors of the datasets and an
enhanced dataset that includes ancillary geospatial data calculated within
the ISRaD framework. ISRaD also provides data management tools in the
ISRaD-R package that provide a starting point for data analysis; as an
open-source project, the broader soil community is invited and encouraged
to add data, tools, and ideas for improvement. As a whole, ISRaD provides
resources to aid our evaluation of soil dynamics across a range of spatial
and temporal scales. The ISRaD v1.0 dataset is
archived and freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2613911 (Lawrence et al., 2019).


Motivation: According to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS, 2020), Southeast-European countries are either modest or moderate innovators because they consistently innovate below the EU average. Given that innovation is a key driver of economic growth (Hasan & Tucci, 2010), this implies that Southeast Europe has been economically falling back while simultaneously politically integrating with the EU. However, the EIS categorizes countries according to the inconclusive arithmetic mean of indicators for firm-level innovation (bottom-up) and indicators for inputs and enablers of innovation at the national level (top-down). Besides, it does not separately assess innovation performance of high-technology industries although these are crucial for international competitiveness (Schwab, 2019). Consequently, this paper answers the following research question: What is innovation performance of high and medium-high technology industries in Southeast Europe in comparison to the EU average? Idea: In contrast to the EIS which merges top-down with bottom-up innovation indicators, the core idea of this paper has been to analyse only bottom-up data on comparative innovation performance of high and medium-high technology industries in Southeast Europe. Method and data: The paper methodologically draws on guidelines for collecting, reporting, and using data on innovation by Oslo Manual (OECD & Eurostat, 2018), and uses secondary data from 2010-2016 Community Innovation Surveys of enterprises to compile an own set of 140 data points. Innovation activity within an industry is defined as the ratio of innovative enterprises to the total population of enterprises while innovation performance is the ratio of innovation activity in the respective country to innovation activity of this industry in the whole EU. Tools: All data points have been arranged country-wise as unbalanced contingency panels and plotted to draw conclusions on innovation performance of high and medium-high technology industries in Southeast Europe. Findings: Although all top-down innovation inputs and enablers at the national level are far below the EU average throughout Southeast Europe, several industries in the region reach or surpass the average EU innovation performance: the pharmaceutical industry in Croatia, all medium-high technology industries in Turkey, manufacture of machinery in North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as manufacture of motor vehicles in all countries except for Romania. Contributions and limitations: This is the first known paper to benchmark innovation performance of high and medium-high technology industries throughout Southeast Europe. In addition, the paper reveals the shortcomings of the whole-country method employed by the EIS since it clearly points out that innovation performance of national industries should be assessed instead. Limitations of the paper are the exclusive focus on innovation as a process and partly restricted data availability.


In this study, the influence of sewage sludge ash (SSA) waste particle contents on the mechanical properties and interlaminar fracture toughness for mode II delamination of S-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites were investigated. Composite laminate specimens for tensile, flexural and end-notched flexure (ENF) tests were prepared and tested according to ASTM standards with 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% SSA filled S-glass/epoxy composites. Properties improvement reasons was explained based on optical and scanning electron microscopy. The highest improvement in tensile and flexural strength was obtained with 10 wt% content of SSA. The highest mode II interlaminar fracture toughness's was obtained with 15 wt% content of SSA. The mode II interlaminar fracture toughness's improved by 63.6%, respectively, compared to the composite without SSA.


Grouper iridovirus of Taiwan (TGIV) is one of the most devastating infectious pathogens of grouper fry in Taiwan. As environmental temperature often plays an important role in the outbreak of diseases, we assayed the impact of different temperatures (18, 25 and 32℃) on TGIV infection both in vitro and in vivo. Cytopathic effect (CPE) characterized as cell rounding and lysis were observed in TGIV-infected grouper SB (swim bladder) cells at 25℃ and 32℃, but was absent at 18℃. With temperature rising to 32℃, the presence of pycnotic nuclei and chromatin margination became prominent in the infected cells, indicating an apoptotic death. The morphological feature of apoptotic cell was further supported by the observation under electron microscope. In addition, the apoptosis of TGIV-infected cells promoted by hyperthermia (32℃) was confirmed by the assays of DNA laddering, DNA content and annexin V staining. To measure the temperature impact on the defense in TGIV-infected host, grouper fry was experimentally infected with the virus at 25℃ and 32℃, respectively. Cumulative mortalities reached 100% in the fish held at 25℃ on day 10 post-infection, whereas only 37.5% at 32℃ at 2-week post-infection. In addition, the mortality in the infected fish of the 32-to-25℃ group skyrocketed to 97.5% by day 8. All together, the data suggest different impacts of temperatures on the pathogenicity of TGIV in grouper: while the lower temperature (18℃) adversely affects the propagation of TGIV, the hyperthermic temperature (32℃) promotes apoptosis to prevent the spreading of virus, resulting in higher resistance of the host against the virus.


A tandem dye-sensitized solar cell consisting of two electrodes in one cell is reported. The tandem cell (Cell TAN GF) has a floating electrode (bottom cell) and a TiO2 electrode prepared on a F doped SnO2 glass (top cell). The floating electrode is a flexible and self-standing composite film consisting of a porous titania/dye layer supported by a glass mesh. The Incident Photon to Current Conversion Efficiency (IPCE) curve for the Cell TAN GF had two peaks corresponding to visible absorptions of the two dyes. The open circuit voltage (Voc) of the Cell TAN GF (0.82 V) was higher than that of the corresponding single cell (0.6-0.64 V). These results demonstrated that the Cell TAN GF has a potential for tandem cells. The Voc of Cell TAN GF was almost the same as that of Cell TAN (0.88 V) in which the glass mesh was replaced by a conductive stainless steel mesh having a protective layer, leading to the conclusion that a conductive layer is not necessarily needed.


Distributed Generation (DG) in the form of Renewable Power Generation systems is currently preferred for clean power generation. However due to their intermittent and unpredictable nature, energy storage needs to be used to ensure that the load is met at all times. Renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) will play a large role in the future energy infrastructure because of advantages like lower carbon imprints, lower fuel costs, and reduced power flows on transmission lines. Energy storage systems (ESSs) are enabling technologies for well-established and new applications such as power peak shaving, electric vehicles, integration of renewable energies, etc. The main objective of this project is to introduce a superconducting fault current limiter to keep the energy storage system from disconnecting from the grid when ground faults occur. The possible advantages of Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) as a means to limit the adverse effect of DG on distribution system protection and their effectiveness will be demonstrated. The SFCL has been noticed as the best solution to limit fault current effectively, which has continuously increased due to the expansion of the power facilities for the increased power demand. However, the application of the SFCL in the power system affects the protective coordination of the existing protective devices and can deviate their operation time from the original one. Therefore, the studies on the protective coordination considering the introduction of the SFCL are necessary prior to its installation. The simulation results are obtained using MATLAB/SIMULINK software.


The intensity of market competition, the ever increasing demand for shortening time to market and the pressure of first mover advantage are forcing businesses to develop non-imitable sources of value creation. Information technology (IT) plays a key role as a necessary, but not sufficient, source of value. For IT to generate business value, IT has to adapt itself to a firm's continuously changing competitive environment. The strategic value of IT can be defined as an enabler of organizational flexibility. Hence, IT-enabled organizational flexibility is of strategic importance to organizations and has been found to affect competitive advantage. This study uses an enhanced concept of IT-enabled flexibility to investigate IT-enabled organizational flexibility among Australian organizations. The findings show that, even though Australian companies exhibit IT enabled organizational flexibility, company and IT department size are influencing the flexibility of IT. The paper provides an indication of the extent to which Australian organizations are poised to exploit the value generating potential of IT. Practitioners can use the result to benchmark where they stand in regards to the flexibility of their IT.


The authors examined selectively 849 women with complicated obstetrical anamnesis in the past and at random 636 women with the aid of the glucose tolerance test (GTT). The incidence of pathological GTT among women with various types of pathology of pregnancy (24%) was greater than in the control group (16.9%). Diabetes mellitus was revealed in 7.8 and 5.1% of cases, respectively. Some types of pathology of pregnancy were of particular significance in the development of the prediabetic state. A high incidence of GTT of diabetic type was noted in women with perinatal death of the fetus (13.1%) and the neonate (11.8%), in women with a large fetus in combination with other types of pathology of pregnancy (12.6%), and also among women who had delivered three and more large fetuses in the past (19.5%). The incidence of diabetic GTT increased in older and obese women; in marked excess of body weight the percentage of GTT of diabetic type was about the same in all the women under study. Among the women with pathology of pregnancy adiposity developed more frequently and in younger persons, and the excess of body weight was much greater in comparison with the control group. The authors consider that GTT should be conducted in all the women with the mentioned pathology of pregnancy in the anamnesis for the purpose of early detection of diabetes mellitus and also for perinatal fetal protection.


This chapter discusses space-charge storage in HVDC extruded insulation, the relevant manifold effects, and the techniques developed by researchers in order to measure the amount and distribution of space charge stored in the insulation, and the electric field profile associated with such distribution. It reviews the theoretical background of charge injection and transport in insulating polymers. The chapter illustrates the processes that result in space-charge accumulation namely charge generation - via electronic charge injection, field-assisted thermal ionization of impurities, spatially inhomogeneous electric polarization, and steady DC current coupled with a spatially varying ratio ofpermittivity to conductivity. It also reviews the space-charge measurement methods for HVDC extruded insulation. The chapter focuses on the up-to-date developments of the best-suited techniques for measuring space charges in extruded insulation for HVDC cables. It provides a comparison between the best space-charge measurement methods for power cables: pulsed electro acoustic (PEA) versus thermal step method (TSM).


Abstract The Lomonosov microcontinent is an elongated continental fragment that transects the Arctic Ocean between North America and Siberia via the North Pole. Although it lies beneath polar pack ice, the geological framework of the microcontinent is inferred from sparse seismic reflection data, a few cores, potential field data and the geology of its conjugate margin in the Barents–Kara Shelf. Petroleum systems inferred to be potentially active are comparable to those sourced by condensed Triassic and Jurassic marine shale of the Barents Platform and by condensed Jurassic and (or) Cretaceous shale probably present in the adjacent Amerasia Basin. Cenozoic deposits are known to contain rich petroleum source rocks but are too thermally immature to have generated petroleum. For the 2008 USGS Circum Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA), the microcontinent was divided into shelf and slope assessment units (AUs) at the tectonic hinge line along the Amerasia Basin margin. A low to moderate probability of accumulation in the slope AU yielded fully risked mean estimates of 123 MMBO oil and 740 BCF gas. For the shelf AU, no quantitative assessment was made because the probability of petroleum accumulations of the 50 MMBOE minimum size was estimated to be less than 10% owing to rift-related uplift, erosion and faulting.


We report new laboratory experiments of a flow accelerating from an initially turbulent state following the opening of a valve, together with large eddy simulations of the experiments and extended Stokes first problem solutions for the early stages of the flow. The results show that the transient flow closely resembles an accelerating laminar flow superimposed on the original steady turbulent flow. The primary consequence of the acceleration is the temporal growth of a boundary layer from the wall, gradually leading to a strong instability causing transition. This extends the findings of previous direct numerical simulations of transient flow following a near-step increase in flow rate. In this interpretation, the initial turbulence is not the primary characteristic of the resulting transient flow, but can be regarded as noise, the evolution of which is strongly influenced by the development of the boundary layer. We observe the spontaneous appearance of turbulent spots and discontinuities in the velocity signals in time and space, revealing rich detail of the transition process, including a striking contrast between streamwise and wall-normal fluctuating velocities.


This paper analyzes the implementation of Fiscal Rules (FR) in Argentina. Several clear attempts to establish a FR at the national level are identified. The analysis suggests that the environment matters. The only FR that was binding in the period was approved in 2004 during an economic boom, with the country under a program with the IMF and with high political support. During the world financial crisis the expenditure ceilings were relaxed, however, and current primary expenditures soared. Simulations show that a countercyclical fund could have been implemented even after reducing highly distorting taxes at the federal and provincial levels, and at the same time securing a high level of capital expenditure as a share of GDP, had Argentina complied with the 2004 FR. Moreover, an econometric exploration of the link between flexible FRs and public investment finds that a flexible FR helps to mitigate the negative effects of fiscal consolidations on provincial public investment. Based on the previous analysis, guidelines for a proposal for a FR in Argentina are provided.


The fluorescent DNA stain 4, 6, diamidino-2 phenylindole (DAPI) was applied to the cut axons of the rabbit optic tract, from which it was retrogradely transported to the retinal ganglion cell bodies. The labelled retinas were isolated from the eye and maintained in vitro in the presence of [3H]choline. They were then quick-frozen, freeze-dried, vacuum-embedded, and radioautographed on dry emulsion for identification of the acetylcholine-synthesizing cells. Inspection of the radioautographs by fluorescence microscopy showed the two labels not to co-exist: the cells that contained the transported fluorescence did not contain radioactive acetylcholine. In other animals the optic nerve was sectioned, causing retrograde degeneration of a large fraction of the ganglion cells. A population of small, round neurons in the ganglion cell layer was spared. These retinas synthesized [3H]acetylcholine at the same rate as control tissues; and radioautography showed an identical distribution of the acetylcholine-synthesizing cells. We conclude that the acetylcholine-synthesizing neurons of the ganglion cell layer are displaced amacrine cells. When DAPI was injected intraocularly instead of being applied to the optic tract, a regular mosaic of neurons in the ganglion cell layer was selectively stained, and two bands of fluorescence were observed in the inner plexiform layer, at the level where two bands of radioactive acetylcholine were observed in radioautographs. Quantitative analysis showed that the DAPI-stained cells were the same size as those that survive optic nerve section. Like the acetylcholine-synthesizing cells, they appear to be displaced amacrines; when wheatgerm agglutinin labelled by Evans blue was applied to the optic tract and DAPI was injected intraocularly, the red fluorescence of Evans blue and the blue fluorescence of DAPI accumulated in different cells. When DAPI was injected intraocularly and radioautography for acetylcholine was carried out, the cells brightly labelled by DAPI were found to have synthesized acetylcholine. We conclude that topically applied DAPI selectively labels the acetylcholine-synthesizing neurons of the ganglion cell layer. The distribution of the acetylcholine-synthesizing cells was established by counting the DAPI-labelled cells in whole-mounts. Their peak density was 790 cells per square millimetre in the visual streak; it declined to a near-plateau of about 175 cells per square millimetre in the dorsal and ventral periphery. The morphology and distribution of the cells indicate that they are the same population previously stained by neurofibrillar methods in the peripheral rabbit retina.


(pp. 31-32) In this article a Middle Paleolithic site at Mander (province of Overijssel) is described. The site lies almost at the bottom of the western slope of the ice-pushed ridge of Ootmarsum (see figs. 1 -3). Here we are concerned with surface-material, from the ploughed topsoil of a fairly large field (fig. 4), in which also many erratics of northern origin are present. In addition to several hundred younger artefacts (presumably dating from the Late Neolithic and/or Early Bronze Age) so far a total of 26 Middle Paleolithic artefacts have been collected: 1 biface subtriangulaire (made out of a flake), 1 disque, 1 Levallois core for flakes, 1 Levallois core for blades, 1 half-finished Levallois core for flakes that went wrong, 1 core fragment, 1 borer-like tool, 2 couteaux a dos naturels (one atypical), 4 fragments of possible Levallois flakes, 2 Levallois-like flakes. 11 flakes (hard percussion). Notably the typology of the hand-axe indicates that the site belongs to the Mousterien de tradition acheuleenne (MTA) of Bordes, probably to the MTA type A. The finds are relatively intensely weathered and patinated (see table 1). Almost always present are phenomena such as wind-gloss and features that are the result of periglacial soil movements like cryoturbation. Moreover many specimens have been fragmented due to secondary frost-splitting. The areal extent of the site (see fig. 4) makes it clear that the finds have shifted downhill, probably over a distance in the order ofmagnitude of 0.5 km), as a result of solifluction processes during some tens of thousands of years. From a geological viewpoint it is virtually impossible that any material primarily in situ could still be present at the original site. An excavation wouldt herefore be senseless. Moreover it is not possible to date the finds exactly. Comparison with finds in other countries makes it probable that the site dates from the Early Glacial of the last ice age. At the end of the article (under 6.) a secondhand-axe find from the same region is discussed (found at the Molen van Bels). On the basis of the fact that this specimen is hardly weathered, compared with the material from Mander, it is concluded that this handaxe must date from the Holocene (presumably the Neolithic). Apart from the material from Mander also a few other (isolated) finds from both the Northern and Southern Netherlands can be placed typologically in the MTA, so the presence of this tradition in the Netherlands now appears to be very probable.


The rapid development of supply chain will bring new opportunities for the convergence of corporate resources and upgrade of competitive power. Supply chain enterprises are encountering challenge of enhancing the stability. This article analyzes the factors to strengthen the supply chain management in term of node enterprises' internal factors, the cooperation between node enterprises as well as social environment where the supply chain resides. To make enterprises to concern the information integration and e-commerce infrastructure construction, this article also proposes enacting the corresponding laws and agreements to reinforce the stability of supply chain.


This study investigated the social and psychological impact on girls of playing competitive football and explored whether football is associated with their mental wellbeing. Football was identified as an appropriate focus for exploring the link between sport and wellbeing because of its status as the UK's national sport and its role in gender socialisation processes. The study also explored the barriers to girls' participation in football and discusses these findings in relation to gender/structural inequalities. The study contributes new knowledge about girls' agency, desires, resilience and strategies for overcoming adversity and ways in which girls challenge the universality of assumptions about feminine body image.
METHOD
Girls aged 10-16 from a Centre of Excellence and a local community football club (n=68) and their parents (n=66) completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The questionnaires were analysed using SPSS. Smaller groups of girls were selected for focus group interviews, which were analysed using template analysis. Focus group questions were derived from three sources: consultations with parents, coaches and the representatives of the Football Association, the literature review and the SDQ results.
FINDINGS
This study was set within an interpretative paradigm with three theoretical strands being used to interpret results: gender, sport and agency; social context and structural inequalities; resilience, overcoming adversity and positive psychology. The study found a number of social barriers to girls playing football and demonstrated that they play football because they have agency and are self-motivated to do so. Although it is difficult to determine a causal relationship, girls who play football were found to have good self-efficacy and positive indicators for good mental health. The study sample seemed able to resist external social pressures to conform to gendered body image stereotypes that limit girls' involvement in sport and which can contribute to low self-esteem.
The primary incentive for girls who maintain their involvement in football centres on making and keeping friends. Girls who play football have in general positive explanatory styles and an optimistic nature.
CONCLUSION
There are benefits for girls who play football. Girls are motivated to play football but need the opportunities to participate. Access to physical activity such as football should therefore be promoted for girls. There is a pressing need to address the under-representation of women's sport in the media and to challenge the status quo in school sport. A commitment to equal resources, equal time and space in the playground, and equal treatment by teachers and coaches is overdue. Furthermore, the study raises questions for social workers. An appreciation of the importance of resilience is embedded in Social Work professional competence requirements and the study suggests that supporting the development of resilience in girls, through access to physical activities that challenge gendered prescriptions and promote agency, can improve protection from adversity.


According to Bryant, "I had a great desire to print historical facts about the Methodist Church. Too few of our members know about our history. This booklet represents an attempt on the part of the author to acquaint members of Trinity East with a portion of their history."


We study the statistics of edges and vertices in the vicinity of a reference vertex (origin) within random planar quadrangulations and Eulerian triangulations. Exact generating functions are obtained for theses graphs with fixed numbers of edges and vertices at given geodesic distances from the origin. Our analysis relies on bijections with labeled trees, in which the labels encode the information on the geodesic distance from the origin. In the case of infinitely large graphs, we give in particular explicit formulas for the probabilities that the origin have given numbers of neighboring edges and/or vertices, as well as explicit values for the corresponding moments.


Multicellular structures are held together by cell adhesions. Forces that act upon these adhesions play an integral role in dynamically re-shaping multicellular structures during development and disease. Here, we describe different modes by which mechanical forces are transduced in a multicellular context: (i) indirect mechanosensing through compliant substratum, (ii) cytoskeletal 'tug-of-war' between cell–matrix and cell–cell adhesions, (iii) cortical contractility contributing to line tension, (iv) stresses associated with cell proliferation, and (v) forces mediating collective migration. These modes of mechanotransduction are recurring motifs as they play a key role in shaping multicellular structures in a wide range of biological contexts. Tissue morphodynamics may ultimately be understood as different spatio-temporal combinations of a select few multicellular transformations, which in turn are driven by these mechanotransduction motifs that operate at the bicellular to multicellular length scale.


From Nuremberg to Hollywood explores the evolving relationship between the act of bearing witness to the Holocaust in the courtroom, and how this is perceived and imagined by American film. The book provides a cultural history of the intersection of the courtroom and the Holocaust in American film from 1944-2008, using case studies to question the ever-changing relationship between testimony, history, memory, truth, and film. It deconstructs the accepted notion of the Holocaust as being an event at the limits of the imagination. The book is divided into two sections that are delimited by the two real-life courtroom proceedings which have had the greatest influence on American film's representation of the Holocaust: the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46 and the Eichmann trial in 1961. The methodology is to evaluate the filmic trials by comparison with the real-life trials on which they are based, and then to place these films and trials within their broader social context. From Nuremberg to Hollywood asks questions of the spectator, both on and off screen: How does one witness such events and then how does one bear witness in the form of a credible narrative? How is this presented on screen? In doing so, the book seeks to understand how one of the most horrific and chaotic of events of the 20th century is contained and controlled by the strict demands of the courtroom and the courtroom film genre.


ABSTRACT: This study aimed to establish the mass cultivation of Wolffia brasiliensis under laboratory conditions, determine the sensitivity of reference substances (potassium dichromate, sodium chloride, and potassium chloride), and estimate the acute toxicity (LC50;7d) for the herbicide glyphosate, diquat, paraquat, imazapyr, 2,4-D, saflufenacil, imazamox, penoxsulam, metsulfuron-methyl, and atrazine. Three media were tested for culture establishment: Hoagland's medium, 5.0 g L-1 NPK fertilizer (20-5-20), a mixture of Oxisol + organic substrate of decaying aquatic plant (2:1; v v-1). Sensitivity tests with reference substances and acute toxicity for herbicides were carried out after establishing the cultivation. The species W. brasiliensis presented an excellent sensitivity response to reference substances, with means of LC50;7d of 15.61±2.13 g L-1, 17.02±0.50 g L-1, and 52.54±4.27 mg L-1 for sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and potassium dichromate, respectively. The acute toxicity response indicated that W. brasiliensis was extremely sensitive to diquat (LC50;7d = 0.07 mg L-1) and paraquat (LC50;7d < 0.05 mg L-1), sensitive to imazapyr (LC50;7d = 21.10 mg L-1), and little sensitive to the other herbicides. The response capacity for the different groups of herbicides, the standardized response to reference substances, and ease of cultivation in the laboratory indicate the potential for using this aquatic plant in the assessment of herbicide risk in aquatic environments.


A reverse protocol for measurements of molecular binding and reactivity by excited-state quenching has been developed in which the quencher, held at a fixed concentration, is titrated by a photoexcitable probe molecule whose decay is monitored. The binding stoichiometries, affinities, and reactivities of the electron-transfer complexes between cytochrome c (Cc) and cytochrome c peroxidase (CcP) were determined over a wide range of ionic strengths (4.5 to 118 millimolar) by the study of photoinduced electron-transfer quenching of the triplet excited state of zinc-substituted Cc (ZnCc) by Fe3+CcP. The 2:1 stoichiometry seen for the binding of Cc to CcP at low ionic strength persists at the physiologically relevant ionic strengths and likely has functional significance. Analysis of the stoichiometric binding and rate constants confirms that one surface domain of CcP binds Cc with a high affinity but with poor electron-transfer quenching of triplet-state ZnCc, whereas a second binds weakly but with a high rate of electron-transfer quenching.


To what extent does the quality of the intra-uterine period of a man's life affect his mental health, shape up his consciousness and form his personality? The present study, refers to the clinical research and theoretical interpretations in the field of prenatal and perinatal life by the psychiatrists Stanislav Grof, Frank Lake (1914-1982) and Athanassios Kafkalides (1919-1987). The above researchers in almost the same period of time (second half of the 20 th century) though in different countries, using psychedelic drugs as an adjuvant psychotherapeutic means, arrived at approximately the same theoretical conclusions based on the experiences and realizations of a great number of cases who relived their intrauterine life and expulsion/birth.


A fully automated and robust method was developed to quantify b-III-tubulin-stained retinal ganglion cells, combining computational recognition of individual cells by CellProfiler and a machine-learning tool to teach phenotypic classification of the retinal ganglion cells by CellProfiler Analyst. In animal models of glaucoma, quantification of immunolabeled retinal ganglion cells is currently performed manually and remains time-consuming. Using this automated method, quantifications of retinal ganglion cell images were accelerated tenfold: 1800 images were counted in 3 h using our automated method, while manual counting of the same images took 72 h. This new method was validated in an established murine model of microbead-induced optic neuropathy. The use of the publicly available software and the method's user-friendly design allows this technique to be easily implemented in any laboratory. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


This paper investigates the capacity limit of an uplink waveform channel assuming imperfect channel state information at the receiver (CSIR). Various realistic assumptions are incorporated into the problem, which make the study valuable for performance assessment of real cellular networks to identify potentials for performance improvements in practical receiver designs. We assume that the continuous-time received signal is first discretized by mismatched filtering based on the imperfect CSIR. The resulting discrete-time signals are then decoded considering two different decoding strategies, i.e., an optimal decoding strategy based on specific statistics of channel estimation errors and a sub-optimal decoding strategy treating the estimation error signal as additive Gaussian noise. Motivated by the proposed decoding strategies, we study the performance of the decision feedback equalizer for finite constellation inputs, in which inter-stream interferences are treated either using their true statistics or as Gaussian noise. Numerical results are provided to exemplify the benefit of exploiting the knowledge on the statistics of the channel estimation errors and inter-stream interferences. Simulations also assess the effect of the CSI imperfectness on the achievable rate, which reveal that finite constellation inputs are less sensitive to the estimation accuracy than Gaussian input, especially in the high SNR regime.


This thesis is an applied study for understanding the key factors of trading volume, providing an in-depth investigation of liquidity demand and market impact. This research was conducted in collaboration with Deutsche Bank and presents a series of empirical studies, which examine several underlying factors affecting trading volume when executing orders algorithmically in the European equity markets, which ultimately translates into trading performance and liquidity modelling. This addresses several aspects: the size of the liquidity demand relative to the predicted or actual volumes traded in the market; the choice of execution strategy given the liquidity properties of the stock; and the timing of the trade, given the market circumstances and released or anticipated company news. All of these reflect the investment skill of the portfolio manager and the execution skill of the trader, and to some extent the quality of the execution algorithm being used. The motivation is to investigate various factors that adversely affect the trading performance of algorithms, causing them to have excessive market impact or to under-participate when the market experiences periods of higher volatility. Although measuring the market fairness and efficiency is a crucial component for understanding the execution style and improving trading performance, the research into how to model and decompose trading performance requires further investigation. Trading volumes are a benchmark for determining an appropriate order size so as not to have excessive liquidity demand and therefore it is important to model well and accurately predict the volumes. The problem of sizing an order affects portfolio allocation and trade planning for multi-day trades, as well as intraday slices. To this end, four studies were conducted for time series analysis using machine learning methods based primarily on feature selection and regression. To achieve this, the thesis starts with a broad exploration of the trading volume drivers, followed by in-depth analyses of the effects of notable events, and concludes by proposing a volume prediction modelling framework. The thesis consists of the following four studies: 1. Examining Drivers of Trading Volume. The first study is an in-sample volume analysis, which explores the market dynamics and identifies a series of drivers of trading volume based on the price-volume relation, lagged time series market data, the day-of-the-week effect, and a novel approach on the price-volume asymmetric relation. 2. European Trading Volumes on Cross-Market Holidays. The second study further extends the exploration of the drivers of trading volume and investigates the anecdotal evidence of lower trading volumes when other markets are not trading (i.e. 'the cross-market holiday effect'). The analysis considers the phenomenon in conjunction with the weekend effect, while indicating that the cross-market holidays are the real driver of the lower volumes on Mondays, and examines other aspects like lagged volumes, market capitalisation or multi-step ahead modelling. 3. Effect Expiry Day Effects on European Trading Volumes. This study examines the impact of sparse periodic events, such as stock index futures expiries and MSCI quarterly rebalances, on trading volume. The analysis explores anticipatory and subsequent effects of the index expiry and review dates. It investigates the main drivers of volume surges by discriminating between the Friday effect and the stock index futures expiries, and between the end-of-month effect and the MSCI quarterly reviews. 4. Developing a Volume Forecasting Model. The final study of this thesis incorporates the findings of the previous in-sample studies and provides an out-of-sample trading volume analysis, exploring the behaviour of time series variables in the context of volume prediction modelling, with seven statistical methods that are fit using the sliding and growing window approaches. The primary objective of the prediction model we propose in this final study is to achieve optimal accuracy in predicting the size of a trade given the market context, by proposing a dynamic model that switches between different models based on the temporal context. Finally, a stock-specific out-of-sample metamodel is constructed based on the recent performance of the initial stock-specific models that are independently fit. The thesis presents the following contributions to science: 1. Detailed exploration of trading volume drivers. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the causal factors of trading volume. Salient drivers of trading volume include the lagged time series, the price-volume relation and its asymmetry, and temporal factors, e.g. the day-of-the-week effect, holidays and other notable dates. 2. Focus on the volume dimension. The empirical studies in this thesis focus on the trading volumes, unlike the majority of the reviewed literature, which investigates the relation between calendar effects (e.g. day-of-the-week, cross-market holiday etc.) and stock returns; few studies consider the relation between these effects and trading volumes. 3. Comprehensive pan-European stock universe. To the best of our knowledge, this research is conducted on the largest European data set in the relevant literature, covering the daily market data for 2,353 stocks from 21 European countries since 1st January 2000. Most of the relevant literature either employs small data sets or focuses mostly on the US equities market. 4. Accurate trading calendar data. Due to the unavailability of a high-precision trading calendar, we constructed a consolidated and normalised calendar with a comprehensive breadth and depth of events influencing equities across a wide range of European countries. This robust calendar covers the most liquid European exchanges' trading calendar in 21 countries and the US trading calendar (since the US is the largest financial market and its trading holidays might influence the European liquidity), the stock index futures expiries for seven liquid European indices, and the MSCI quarterly review effective dates, along with the historical evidence of leavers and joiners for each analysed index, since 2000. 5. Established statistical methods applied to a new application domain. Advanced variable selection and machine learning methods have not been typically employed in the analysis of calendar effects and trading volumes; we choose a rather different approach and apply statistics and machine learning to this application domain. 6. Further insights into calendar effects. The field of behavioural finance and its literature on calendar effects contains mixed results that are often inconclusive. This thesis sheds light on a few calendar effects, e.g. the day-of-the-week, end-of-month, holiday and expiry day effects, and examines the extent of their impact on the trading volume. Research validation. The advice and expert validation of a leading investment bank confirm the industry demand and necessity of this research. Deutsche Bank drove the analyses conducted in this thesis, addressing real-world problems, such as the liquidity extraction model, the multi-day trade planning using multi-step ahead forecasting, or the effect quantification of special events on trading volume.


Agricultural protection in industrialized countries and price distortions in developing countries are accused to hamper economic and agricultural development and are partly responsible for poverty and hunger in the Third World. A multi-commodity multi-country comparative static trade model is used to simulate the impact of different policy scenarios in this typical second best world for the case of South Africa. Special emphasis is given to the disincentive effect of production and to endogenous policy responses in South Africa. In conclusion South Africa could benefit a lot by liberalizing trade and agricultural policies world wide, although it is an importer for most of the considered commodities.


In this paper, a wavelet-based multiscale linear minimum mean square-error estimation (LMMSE) scheme for image denoising is proposed, and the determination of the optimal wavelet basis with respect to the proposed scheme is also discussed. The overcomplete wavelet expansion (OWE), which is more effective than the orthogonal wavelet transform (OWT) in noise reduction, is used. To explore the strong interscale dependencies of OWE, we combine the pixels at the same spatial location across scales as a vector and apply LMMSE to the vector. Compared with the LMMSE within each scale, the interscale model exploits the dependency information distributed at adjacent scales. The performance of the proposed scheme is dependent on the selection of the wavelet bases. Two criteria, the signal information extraction criterion and the distribution error criterion, are proposed to measure the denoising performance. The optimal wavelet that achieves the best tradeoff between the two criteria can be determined from a library of wavelet bases. To estimate the wavelet coefficient statistics precisely and adaptively, we classify the wavelet coefficients into different clusters by context modeling, which exploits the wavelet intrascale dependency and yields a local discrimination of images. Experiments show that the proposed scheme outperforms some existing denoising methods.


The advent of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century increased the volume and variety of manufactured goods and enriched the quality of life for society as a whole. However, industrialization was also accompanied by new manufacturing and complex processes that brought about the use of hazardous chemicals and difficult-to-control operating conditions. Moreover, human-process-equipment interaction plus on-the-job learning resulted in further undesirable outcomes and associated consequences. These problems gave rise to many catastrophic process safety incidents that resulted in thousands of fatalities and injuries, losses of property, and environmental damages. These events led eventually to the necessity for a gradual development of a new multidisciplinary field, referred to as process safety. From its inception in the early 1970s to the current state of the art, process safety has come to represent a wide array of issues, including safety culture, process safety management systems, process safety engineering, loss prevention, risk assessment, risk management, and inherently safer technology. Governments and academic/research organizations have kept pace with regulatory programs and research initiatives, respectively. Understanding how major incidents impact regulations and contribute to industrial and academic technology development provides a firm foundation to address new challenges, and to continue applying science and engineering to develop and implement programs to keep hazardous materials within containment. Here the most significant incidents in terms of their impact on regulations and the overall development of the field of process safety are described.


Environmental factors interact with the genome to influence gene expression, tissue function and also disease risk. External stimuli may affect the phenotype through epigenetic mechanisms that provide an interface with the genome. Indeed, epigenetic modifications represent a mechanism through which both genetic and environmental cues, including dietary factors, are integrated at specific genomic loci and affect individual phenotypes, contributing to susceptibility to obesity and type 2 diabetes. Recently, alterations of Ankyrin repeat domain 26 (Ankrd26) gene expression and function have been associated with the onset of these metabolic disorders. However, whether external cues can affect its expression remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate whether the administration of a high fat diet (HFD) in mice could affect Ankrd26 expression and function, and whether chromatin remodeling and epigenetic modifications take part in this regulation. Particularly, I examined the correlation between obesity and inflammation with defective regulation of Ankrd26 gene in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) depots, aiming at identifying epigenetic mechanism that might underpin the development of VAT dysfunctions induced by overnutrition. Using the HFD-induced obesity mouse model, I reported evidence of detailed epigenetic changes of Ankrd26 promoter. Indeed, I demonstrated that the HFD-induced Ankrd26 down-regulation in VAT was directly caused by specific hyper-methylation of -436 and -431 cytosine residues at its promoter region, that was followed by chromatin reorganization. Indeed, DNA methylation of these specific CpG sites impaired binding of the histone acetyltransferase/transcriptional coactivator p300 to this region, both in vitro and in vivo, causing hypo-acetylation of histone H4 at the Ankrd26 promoter and loss of binding of RNA Pol II at the Ankrd26 Transcription Start Site in obese mice. Furthermore, the HFD treatment increased binding of DNA methyl-transferases 3a and 3b and methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 to the Ankrd26 promoter. To evaluate the functional consequences of these changes, the HFD-induced Ankrd26 down-regulation was mimicked by silencing Ankrd26 gene expression in vitro in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. This silencing caused enhanced secretion of the pro-inflammatory chemokines KC/IL-8, Eotaxin, MCP1 and Rantes. The relevance of these observations to humans is supported by other findings in obese individuals, revealing that the reduction of ANKRD26 expression in VAT negatively correlates with serum concentrations of inflammatory markers. Taken together, my data provide evidence for environmentally induced DNA changes at Ankrd26 promoter and, for the first time, highlight a role for Ankrd26 epigenetic silencing in raising and/or sustaining VAT inflammation following unhealthy dieting and in development of obesity-related insulin resistance. Since direct evidence linking specific environmental cues and metabolic disorders are still limited, addressing this issue will provide new insight into the molecular basis of obesity as well as create novel translational perspective.


This thesis seeks to investigate the integration of Sport Education and the Athletics Challenges approach to support the teaching of athletics in one Kuwaiti middle school. In Kuwait physical education faces many challenges and shortcomings, including unsatisfactory outcomes for pupils and little professional development for teachers who work within an old and narrow curriculum (Hayat, 2012). Some within the very limited Kuwaiti PE literature have shared such concerns over the quality and future of PE in Kuwait schools and limited instruction (e.g. Hayat, 2012). Sport Education is an internationally recognised model of curriculum and instruction used to support the teaching of Physical Education (PE) in school and which has shown positive outcomes in a range of cultural settings. The model aims to help young people become competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspeople (Siedentop, 1994). Similarly the Athletics Challenges approach is more inclusive, with a focus on group learning, on self assessment, with the use of modified tasks that stimulate authentic athletic events, and which promote higher engagement time (Morgan, 2003). Athletic Challenges also aims to provide pupils the opportunity to plan, evaluate, and perform skills and seeks to motivate pupils for participation and helps them to gain valuable experience of a number of athletic activities (Morgan, 2003). The potential links between these approaches led to the development of an extended season taught by one Kuwaiti PE teacher to two classes of boys (N=45). Both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted in this thesis. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with the teacher, pupil focus groups, observation of lessons, and an end of season pupil survey. CPD support was also offered to the teacher by the researcher. Qualitative data were analysed inductively using a grounded constant comparison approach. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. A number of themes emerged during the analysis of qualitative data. Data showed that the pupils became competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspeople. Pupils enjoyed the season in particular team affiliation and they took the opportunity to plan and evaluate their athletic performances while taking on leadership roles and responsibilities. Pupils felt both 'professional' and a 'specialist' in what they saw as an authentic athletic environment. The teacher experienced some early difficulties and challenges in teaching the season and resistance from management to this novel curriculum, which he was able to overcome in collaboration with the researcher. The teacher felt more 'valuable and the season expanded his knowledge of how to teach physical education. Discussion centred on the emergence of some initial Sport Education 'shock'. The close relationship between the structures and features of both Sport Education and Athletics Challenges was a key feature of this thesis. The impact of Kuwait culture on the season is discussed around appropriate behaviour and morals, role status, and the planning and implementation of the festival. The season in this thesis offers a valuable resource for teachers to adopt in their curriculum. Some implications for schools, teacher training institutions and policy makers for the development of Sport Education and Athletics Challenges in Kuwait are outlined.


This article focuses on the early stage of commercialization communication when a third party inventor owns an invention protected by a patent that a manufacturer-commercializer may profit from producing — long before any allegation of infringement or litigation. These submission-review communications by unaffiliated third parties are covered by corporate policies known as "patent submission policies." They are the figurative "front doors" to a company for any third party inventor, crucial to the commercialization of inventions generally. Unfortunately, patent submission policies have thus far remained unstudied in legal academic scholarship. This article collects and analyzes the current variations of patent submission policies adopted by the largest companies within four technical industries: automotive; computer hardware; computer services; and pharmaceutical. This review reveals clear inconsistencies regarding policies: some technology firms have policies that result in clear paths for third party inventors to submit patents; others have policies to effectively block submissions of inventions, block third party communications, and slam the corporate doors in the face of outside inventors. Further, the lack of submission standards are somewhat unique as compared to other types of IP submissions — notably movie screenplays and book manuscripts — and often unique and inconsistent within specific technology industries themselves. This lack of standardization across similar firms adds to the notion that patent submission policies have thus far been insufficiently analyzed and have perhaps evolved inefficiently. With this research, many questions arise regarding a potential need for large technology firms to reevaluate their patent submission policies and open their front doors to third party inventors.


Abstract This paper explores the concept of 'open' knowledge – and the growing importance of digital literacies in supporting a transformation of universities into open knowledge institutions. In order to operate as successful open knowledge institutions, universities must do more than support the transmission of research outcomes from experts located within the university to external communities. They must engage in knowledge-making with communities. This involves questions of equity, diversity and inclusion – who gets to make knowledge; as well the role of productive interactions across boundaries (disciplines/university/wider community) in its growth and spread. There is a genuine desire among many universities, research funders, and researchers themselves, to address the challenges of diversity, equity and impact implicit in the open knowledge agenda. However, open knowledge aspirations are being stymied by comparative rankings that are built on data that excludes the work of entire disciplines, continents and languages; and are not capable of capturing important aspects of the value universities create. Many of the stakeholders using these rankings to inform decision-making are unaware of the prejudices and blind spots that current measurement tools create and perpetuate. They are also unaware that it is possible to interact critically with the tools used to measure and narrate performance; to demand that new questions are asked of the digital traces that universities and research communities create; and build better tools for understanding the role of universities in processes of knowledge-making and sharing. As this paper discusses, the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative, a major research project funded by Curtin University, is a deliberate effort to support the new forms of digital literacy needed to enable this shift.


Intracellular proteins are targeted for degradation by the covalent attachment of chains of the small protein ubiquitin; a process known as ubiquitylation. Many proteins are phosphorylated prior to ubiquitylation, and therefore ubiquitylation and degradation of these proteins is regulated by kinase activity and signalling cascades. Many ubiquitylated proteins are degraded by the 26 S proteasome complex, which is found in the cytosol and nucleus. The 26 S proteasome consists of a 20 S core with proteolytic activity and 18 S regulatory complexes containing ATPases and ubiquitin-chain-binding proteins. Proteins degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway include cyclins and other regulators of the cell cycle, and transcription factors. Abnormal polypeptides are also degraded by the ubiquitin pathway, including abnormal polypeptides in the endoplasmic reticulum, which are translocated back out of the endoplasmic reticulum prior to ubiquitylation and degradation by the proteasome. The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is implicated in numerous diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.


This study investigated the impact of oral pushed output on the learning and retention of English perfect tenses. During the study, a pre-test was administered to 22 freshmen majoring in English translation. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Then, for six sessions both groups received explicit instructions on English perfect tenses. Every session, the experimental group recorded their oral performances on some picture description and translation tasks whose completion entailed the use of the instructed language form, while the control group merely did some conventional multiple choice tests covering the instructed structures. Following the treatment sessions, a post-test was run. Four weeks later, a delayed post-test was also administrated. Analysis of the data through repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) supported the facilitative effects of oral pushed output on the learning and retention of English perfect tenses. The finding of the study can have some implications for English Language Teaching (ELT) materials developers and practitioners.


Objectives: The major focus of this research paper is to propose an Intelligent Authentication based Vehicle Initiated Broadcast-Dynamic Path (IAVIB-DP) data collection scheme with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of existing Vehicle Initiated Broadcast-Complete Path (VIB-CP) data collection scheme which is considered to be the best and most commonly used way that is opted for data collection in VANET and is evaluated in terms of packet delivery ratio, average latency and communication overhead. Methods/Analysis: Simulation is conducted by using OMNet++ to compare the performance of IAVIB-DP with one of the best data collection scheme working on single RSU, VIB-CP. Performance Index (PI) is measured by evaluating the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), average latency and Communication Overhead (CO) for proposed and existing scheme of collecting data. Best scheme will be decided on the basis of calculated PI. Other parameters for simulation such as the minimum speed, space dimensions and the maximum speed of moving vehicles remain fixed. Findings: VIB-CP and IAVIB-DP Data Collection Schemes (DCSs) are compared and analysis is done on the calculated value of Performance Index. PI decides whether a data collection scheme is effective or not. PI is calculated on different factors like PDR, Latency and CO. The simulation results show that PI of proposed IAVIB-DP data collection scheme is more as compared to PI of VIBCP, as it has high PDR, low latency and less CO. Application/Improvements: VIB-CP and IAVIB-DP are compared on same factors and are used for PI calculation. On the basis of the simulation results it is evaluated that IAVIB-DP performs better.


In this paper we present several analyses on ChaCha, a software stream cipher. First, we consider a divide-and-conquer approach on the secret key bits by partitioning them. The partitions are based on multiple input-output differentials to obtain a significantly improved attack on 6-round ChaCha256 with a complexity of 299.48. It is 240 times faster than the currently best known attack. This is the first time an attack on a round reduced ChaCha with a complexity smaller than 2k/2, where the secret key is of k bits, has been successful.Further, all the attack complexities related to ChaCha are theoretically estimated in general and there are several questions in this regard as pointed out by Dey, Garai, Sarkar and Sharma in Eurocrypt 2022. In this regard, we propose a toy version of ChaCha, with a 32-bit secret key, on which the attacks can be implemented completely to verify whether the theoretical estimates are justified. This idea is implemented for our proposed attack on 6 rounds. Finally, we show that it is possible to estimate the success probabilities of these kinds of PNB-based differential attacks more accurately. Our methodology explains how different cryptanalytic results can be evaluated with better accuracy rather than claiming that the success probability is significantly better than 50%.


ALK1, a TGF-β type I receptor serine/threonine kinase, is critical for proper vascular development. Heterozygous loss of ALK1 results in the vascular disorder, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia type 2 (HHT2), which is characterized by the development of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and affects 1 in 5,000 people worldwide. HHT is thought to be caused by a haploinsufficiency and therefore delineating how ALK1 is regulated could provide avenues for targeted and effective clinical interventions. In the zebrafish model organism, alk1 is expressed in arterial endothelial cells of vessels leading away from the heart. We have learned that alk1 expression closely correlates with the presence of blood flow, but which component of blood flow is responsible for regulation is unknown. I propose that flow is required for activation of a positive feedback mechanism by which Bmp10 – a circulating ligand of Alk1 receptors that is produced by the heart and secreted into the bloodstream – through Alk1 activation maintains arterial alk1 expression at the level of transcription. In this work, I define the spatiotemporal relationship between cessation and restoration of blood flow and alk1 expression and show that flow-mediated alk1 expression is regulated at the transcriptional level. Finally, I provide evidence that intact Bmp10/Alk1 signaling is required to maintain alk1 mRNA expression. I hypothesize that this effect is driven by a gradient of Bmp10 ligand established by blood flow that triggers a positive feedback mechanism initiated by Bmp10/Alk1 signaling. The goal of my work is to understand the mechanism of ALK1 regulation in order to progress toward the goal of targets and effective clinical management for HHT patients. HHT is a relatively common genetic disease that often goes underdiagnosed due to its variable presentation even among members of the same family, hence studying this complex disease is significant for practice of public health.


Adaptive parental behaviors produced from dealing with prolonged illness may sabotage medical care of the chronically ill pediatric patient. Such parental behaviors may be the result of unsuccessful intrapsychic or interpersonal salvage operations in the response to the strains resulting from illness in their child. They may resemble psychopathology, but actually can be reversible. Five cases are presented to illustrate differential diagnosis of parent difficulties ranging from adaptive strain in normal parents to Munchausen's syndrome by proxy in parents of children with chronic illness. A typology of parent-child pathology in health and chronic illness is presented. The literature is reviewed, diagnostic features are elaborated, and management strategies are suggested.


A method is presented for accurately solving the Schrodinger equation for the reactive collision of an atom with a diatomic molecule on a space-fixed plane. The procedure consists primarily of two steps. First, the Schrodinger equation in each of the three arrangement channel regions is transformed into a set of coupled differential equations and numerically integrated in each of these regions to generate primitive solutions. The rotational part of the vibration–rotation basis functions involved is not changed from its asymptotic form during this propagation, but the vibrational eigenfunctions as well as the integration variable are changed periodically so as to follow the vibrational motions in a nearly adiabatic manner. In the second step, the primitive solutions generated in each of the three arrangement channels are smoothly matched to each other on a set of appropriately chosen matching surfaces. The resulting solutions are then linearly combined to satisfy the proper asymptotic boundary conditions, and the scattering matrix, scattering amplitudes, and cross sections are determined. Application of this procedure to the special case of the H+H2 reaction is discussed in detail including simplifications arising from the additional symmetries involved, and the inclusion of effects resulting from indistinguishability of identical particles.


Education and schooling have been the subject of various critical perspectives in recent years. Many countries around the world are looking at how education can be improved to meet current and future demands. Various digital technologies appear to have penetrated schools, but have not yet produced the desired results. This is also because new technology is being used in schools, but we are working with classical educational methods that are inadequate to the current possibilities and needs. The possibility of how to improve education was described by Fullan, who came up with the so-called deep learning and teaching. This teaching is fundamentally different from previous views of learning and teaching and also requires new approaches of teachers to pupils. It speaks to the need for a new pedagogy. In this paper we describe what deep learning and new pedagogy consists of.


In an attempt to gather experimental evidence for the influence of carbon allotropes on supramolecular chirality, we found that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) facilitate amplification of the molecular chirality of a π-gelator (MC-OPV) to supramolecular helicity at a concentration much lower than that required for intermolecular interaction. For example, at a concentration 1.8×10(-4)  m, MC-OPV did not exhibit a CD signal; however, the addition of 0-0.6 mg of SWNTs resulted in amplified chirality as evident from the CD spectrum. Surprisingly, AFM analysis revealed the formation of thick helical fibers with a width of more than 100 nm. High-resolution TEM analysis and solid-state UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopy revealed that the thick helical fibers were cylindrical cables composed of individually wrapped and coaxially aligned SWNTs. Such an impressive effect of CNTs on supramolecular chirality and cylindrical-cable formation has not been reported previously.