The distribution of the fossil fuel component in atmospheric CO2 cannot be measured directly at a cheap cost. Could anthropogenic tracers with source patterns similar to fossil fuel CO2 then be used for that purpose? Here we present and evaluate a methodology using surrogate tracers, CO, SF6, and C2Cl4, to deduce fossil fuel CO2. A three-dimensional atmospheric chemistry transport model is used to simulate the relationship between each tracer and fossil fuel CO2. In summertime the regression slopes between fossil fuel CO2 and surrogate tracers show large spatial variations for chemically active tracers ( CO and C2Cl4), although C2Cl4 presents less scatter than CO. At two tall tower sites in the United States ( WLEF, Wisconsin, and WITN, North Carolina), we found that in summertime the C2Cl4 ( CO) versus fossil CO2 slope is on average up to 15% ( 25%) higher than in winter. We show that for C2Cl4 this seasonal variation is due to OH oxidation. For CO the seasonal variation is due to both chemistry and mixing with nonanthropogenic CO sources. In wintertime the three surrogate tracers SF6, C2Cl4, and CO are about equally as good indicators of the presence of fossil CO2. However, our model strongly underestimates the variability of SF6 at both towers, probably because of unaccounted for emissions. Hence poor knowledge of emission distribution hampers the use of SF6 as a surrogate tracer. From a practical point of view we recommend the use of C2Cl4 as a proxy of fossil CO2. We also recommend the use of tracers to separate fossil CO2. Despite the fact that the uncertainty on the regression slope is on the order of 30%, the tracer approach is likely to have less bias than when letting one model with one inventory emission map calculate the fossil CO2 distribution.


#MeToo reports have revealed a significant number of forced kisses typically by men in positions of authority. Previous scholarship in the US has viewed such instances as to rare or too minor to be worthy of criminal sanctions. Indeed, there are no such reported criminal cases involving adults. However, in Italy, the Supreme Court of Cassazione has upheld sexual violence convictions for such forced kisses. This article analyzes these cases and investigates the types of considerations the Italian Supreme Court includes in its evaluation of these situations. This article also suggests specific aspects of US laws that could benefit from a comparative analysis. While forced kisses are not the same as rape, the #MeToo movement has shown that these are more common than previously thought and cause harm to the survivors.


In p-xylene at 150°, 3-phenyloxirane-2,2-dicarbonitrile (4b) and 2-phenyl-3-thia-1-azaspiro[4.4]non-1-ene-4-thione (1a) gave the three 1:1 adducts trans-3a, cis-3a, and 13a in 61, 21, and 3% yield, respectively (Scheme3). The stereoisomers trans-3a and cis-3a are the products of a regioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of carbonyl-ylide 2b, generated thermally by an electrocyclic ring opening of 4b (Scheme 6), and the C=S group of 1a. Surprisingly, 13a proved not to be a regioisomeric cycloadduct of 1 a and 2b, but an isomer formed via cleavage of the O-C(3) bond of the oxirane 4b. A reaction mechanism rationalizing the formation of 13a is proposed in Scheme 6. Analogous results were obtained from the reaction of 4b and 4,4-dimethyl-2-phenyI-1,3-thiazole-5(4H)-thione (1b, Scheme 3). The thermolysis of 4b in p-xylene at 130" in the presence of adamantanethione (10) led to two isomeric 1:1 adducts 15 and 16 in a ratio of ca. 2: 1, however, in low yield (Scheme 4). Most likely the products are again formed via the two competing reaction mechanisms depicted in Scheme 6. The analogous reactions of 4b with 2,2,4,4-tetramethyIcyclobutane-1,3-thione (11) and 9H-xanthene-9-thione (12) yielded a single 1 :1 adduct in each case (Scheme 5). In the former case, spirocyclic 1,3-oxathiolane 17, the product of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with 2a corresponding to 3a, was isolated in only 11% yield. It is remarkable that no 2:l adduct was formed even in the presence of an excess of 4b. In contrast, 4b and 12 reacted smoothly to give 18 in 81 % yield; no cycloadduct of the carbonyl-ylide 2a could be detected. The structures of cis-3a, 13a, 15, and 18, as well as the structure of 14, which is a derivative of trans-3a, have been established by X-ray crystallography (Figs. 1-3, Table).


This paper makes three main points. Fiscal policy, first, may be needed in the long run to maintain full employment and avoid secular stagnation. If fiscal policy is used in this way, second, the long-run debt ratio depends (i) inversely on the rate of growth, (ii) inversely on government consumption, and (iii) directly on the degree of inequality. The analysis, third, suggests that policies and policy debates have been misguided. The recent rediscovery of 'secular stagnation' by Summers and others should be welcomed, but the suggested theoretical redirection is unclear and does not go far enough.


The quest for competitive elections in Africa, with the modest gains made since the 1990s towards deepening democratisation, continues to underpin the continent's efforts to create stable and growing democracies. Since the post-Cold War transition from single-party to multiparty systems, most African countries have embraced elections as their preferred option for power transfer. Drawing especially on AU election observation mission reports, this policy briefing examines trends emerging from elections held in 2015 and 2016, and calls for extensive structural, legal and policy reforms. It argues that adherence to and implementation of the AU treaty and non-treaty standards for democratic elections are key to further strengthening electoral processes in Africa.


In this paper, we propose CI-VI an efficient and scalable solver for semi-implicit variational inference (SIVI). Our method, first, maps SIVI's evidence lower bound (ELBO) to a form involving a nonlinear functional nesting of expected values and then develops a rigorous optimiser capable of correctly handling bias inherent to nonlinear nested expectations using an extrapolation-smoothing mechanism coupled with gradient sketching. Our theoretical results demonstrate convergence to a stationary point of the ELBO in general non-convex settings typically arising when using deep network models and an order of $O(t^{-\frac{4}{5}})$ gradient-bias-vanishing rate. We believe these results generalise beyond the specific nesting arising from SIVI to other forms. Finally, in a set of experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm in approximating complex posteriors on various data-sets including those from natural language processing.


Background: Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy (AHEI) is a cutaneous small vessel leukocytoclastic vasculitis characterized by purpuric plaques and edema of limbs, in a healthy infant. Clinical presentation consists in a recent history of upper respiratory tract infection and/or use of antibiotics or immunizations that triggers an immunologic response mediated by immune complexes. The main differential diagnosis is Schonlein-Henoch Purpura and it is a benign self-limited disease. Objective: To inform about this disease and therefore increase its diagnosis. Case Report: An 8 months-old healthy infant with edema and purpura in the face and limbs, associated with respiratory disease. Laboratory exams were normal and skin biopsy was compatible with AHEI. He didn't receive any specific treatment and the disease improved spontaneously without recurrence. This child presents a typical case of acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy. Although it is unfrequent, skin manifestations are alarming and can mistake the diagnosis.


Islamic symbols have flourished in the public spaces of Indonesian provincial towns after Suharto. This phenomenon has occurred in parallel with the  significant shifts in the social, economic and political fields, which is tied to the mounting impact of Islamization, social mobility, economic growth, and democratization occurring among town people. It is as if we see a parallel move between Islamization, modernization, globalization and democratization. Key concepts associated with these trends are appropriated with those rooted in tradition and local culture to inform the whole dynamics of Indonesian provincial towns today. The key player in this process is the new middle class, who look to Islam for inspiration both to claim distinction and social status and to legitimize their consumptive lifestyle. They are newly pious who act as active negotiators between the global and the local as well as the cosmopolitan centre and the hinterland. They also play a pivotal role as an agency that liberalizes religion from its traditionally subservient, passive and docile posture by turning it into a source of moral legitimacy and distinction to represent a modern form of life. Given its intimate relationship with locality, tradition, modernity as well as globalization, Islam has increasingly assumed a greater importance for local politics. Political elites have used Islamic symbols for the instrumental purpose of extending their political legitimacy and mobilizing constituency support, in a political environment of open competition and increased public participation in decision making. In this process religious symbols have irrefutably been distanced from their religious moorings and narrow, Islamist understandings, in favor of pragmatic political purposes.


This paper empirically investigates the effect of industrial agglomeration through labor market pooling. Theoretical literature has shown that labor market pooling in industrial agglomeration can enhance expected profitability of firms by ironing out the firm-level idiosyncratic shocks, and recently Overman and Puga (2009) tested this theoretical hypothesis empirically, using data from the UK. Following Overman and Puga, we measured the magnitude of plant-level idiosyncratic shocks by industry, using the micro-data from the Manufacturing Census of Japan, and examined how it relates to the extent of plant agglomeration. It was confirmed that the magnitude of idiosyncratic shocks is positively associated with the extent of agglomeration of industries, and that this relationship is robust even if we control for other agglomeration factors, i.e., input-sharing and first nature. These results suggest that industrial agglomeration indeed enhances profitability through labor pooling in contemporary Japan.


A novel method of synthesis of curcumin-I has been successfully developed using Claisen- Dieckmann condensation where dehydrozingerone is condensed with methyl ferulate in presence of sodium ethoxide In dimethyl sulphoxide. Various curcuminoids are prepared by changing the esters and I±, I²-unsaturated ketones. This reaction is utilized to prepare dehydrozingerone- ibuprofen condensation product (DZIBU), a potent antiinflammatory agent. The homogenecity of compounds synthesized was established and structures were confirmed by spectral data. DZIBU exhibited powerful antiinflammatory activity on carrageenan-induced paw edema model and formaldehyde-induced arthritis model in rats. Though the analgesic activity was less when compared to that of ibuprofen, the new compound did not induce gastrointestinal side effect In animal studies.


This paper deals with the historical developments of the formation and growth of Batchelor College, from its very humble beginnings in early 1 972, up until the start of 1990. I have worked at Batchelor College since its early days, and have attempted in my analysis of this topic to be objective, but where at times I have drawn from my experience and knowledge, this has been indicated. My background has been in Aboriginal education, since undertaking teacher training in the middle 1960's specifically to work in the Northern Territory.1 The background of Aboriginal affairs at that time was based on the assimilation policy, which influenced the content of subjects specifically orientated towards teaching in the NT, such as anthropology, 'native education', tropical health and linguistics which were, when looked at in retrospect, a product of the times. These subjects also provided an early insight for me, into the richness and complexity of Aboriginal culture in the Northern Territory. I was along with other trainees a product of the time and some years later, when I began teaching at Batchelor College (ATEC), the whole thinking and ethos of the staff was still based on the assimilation and integration practices for which we had been trained. This was purely a matter of historical consequence. My teaching experiences in the remote areas of the Northern Territory have encompassed working on large government (and former government) communities, small rural schools on cattle properties and medium sized schools on church missions and former missions. Although adult education for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory had been provided in a piecemeal and ad-hoc fashion for some years in the Darwin region and in some bush communities, prior to 1972. I will be focussing particularly on events and developments in the township of Batchelor.


Background. Single ventricle disease is treated by Glenn surgery. It is generally accompanied by stenosis on a pulmonary artery or its branches, which has great effect on hemodynamics. This study investigated the hemodynamic influence of different pulmonary stenosis degree in Glenn procedure. Materials. Four three-dimensional Glenn models with different left pulmonary artery stenosis rates as, respectively, 0% (model 1), 25% (model 2), 50% (model 3), and 75% (model 4) by the diameter were generated. Method. Geometric multiscale analysis method was used in the numerical simulations by coupling the lumped parameter model (LPM) and three-dimensional model. Results. During one cardiac cycle, the flow ratio between left pulmonary artery and superior vena cava was about 0.49 for models 1, 2, and 3, while the ratio decreased to 0.34 for model 4. On the other hand, hemodynamics parameters like power loss and oscillation shear index show complications of the stenosis to the postoperative development. Conclusion. When the stenosis rate is above 75%, it is suggested to treat stenosis before Glenn procedure, while when the stenosis rate is below 50%, there is no necessity to pay attention to it due to the little effect it makes.


Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abstract The increase in life expectancy leads to the possibility of development chronic diseases, from special physiological conditions as occurs in the menopause, which is defined as the permanent cessation of ovulation, marked by the end of menstruation. It has been related to decreased ovarian function that occurs around an age of 45 years. This event involves the reduction in estrogen production and may contribute to the development of chronic-degenerative diseases. Many diseases developed during menopause have been associated with oxidative stress, such as osteoporosis, hot flushes, cognitive impairment, insulin resistance, dry skin, obesity, and cardiovascular events. The knowledge about the participation of Nrf2 in diseases that occur during menopause is very limited. Here, only diseases such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases and dry skin, which are present during menopause and its later stages have been described. The Nrf2 pathway involves the participation of PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and eNOS, which act as mediators for cytoprotection and antioxidation. Compounds such as equol, fitoestro‐ gens, alkyl cathecols, or curcumin could be offered as options to antioxidant treatment, added the fact that they are present in fruits and vegetables which are rich in vitamins, minerals and calcium, thus including all the required nutrients for an adequate nutrition.


Background: Some infants with congenital heart disease are at risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest. To better foresee cardiac arrest in infants with congenital heart disease, it might be useful to continuously assess end-organ perfusion. Near-infrared spectroscopy is a non-invasive method to continuously assess multisite regional tissue oxygen saturation. Case presentation: We report on two infants with duct-dependent congenital heart disease who demonstrated a gradual change in cerebral and/or renal tissue oxygen saturation before cardiopulmonary resuscitation was required. In both cases, other clinical parameters such as heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation and blood pressure did not indicate that deterioration was imminent. Conclusions: These two cases demonstrate that near-infrared spectroscopy might contribute to detecting a deteriorating clinical condition and might therefore be helpful in averting cardiopulmonary collapse and need for resuscitation in infants with congenital heart disease.


Our presentation will take an ongoing philosophical work of aesthetic communication as a starting point (Ferm & Thorgersen, 2007). The last couple of years we have been combining the philosophies of life-world-phenomenology and pragmatist aesthetics to develop a theory on the dynamic processes of aesthetic communication in learning environments. The main philosophers in this work have been, Dewey, Shusterman, and Merleau-Ponty. In both pragmatism and phenomenology there is room for analysing social dynamics as well as subject's meaning-making, but where the phenomenologist often prefer to take the subject's bodily position as a point of departure, the pragmatist often take social change in relation to individual growth as a starting point. We have had a special focus on awareness as a tool for illuminating the complex phenomenon. The dimensions that have been revealed are: Awareness of oneself, awareness of  others, awareness of means of expression and awareness of role and responsibility in communication. Wehave also tried to develop the relation between philosophy and practice (Thorgersen, 2007, Ferm, 2007, Ferm, 2008). The developing thoughts that we want to present and discuss in our presentation concerns the shared nature of experience in the processes of aesthetic communication. Experience seen as shared, opens up for ways of regarding aesthetic communication in education where expression of oneself, roles in communication, means of expression and others are significant factors. We want to examine how dimensions of impetus and imagination work in the developing processes from recollected experience to future experience, in other words situations where aesthetic experiences are shared and developed. We will go further into the earlier mentioned philosophers' writings about these specific aspects of aesthetic communication and develop the philosophy connected to aesthetic communication in educational settings.


Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder that is caused by a deficit in the production of (type 1) or response to (type 2) insulin. Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a state of chronic hyperglycemia and such symptoms as weight loss, thirst, polyuria, and blurred vision. These disturbances represent one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality nowadays, despite available treatments, such as insulin, insulin secretagogues, insulin sensitizers, and oral hypoglycemic agents. However, many efforts have been made to discover new drugs for diabetes treatment, including medicinal plant extracts. Silymarin is a powder extract of the seeds from Silybum marianum, a plant from the Asteraceae family. The major active ingredients include four isomers: silybin, isosilybin, silychristin, and silydianin. Silymarin is indicated for the treatment of hepatic disorders, such as cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, and gallstones. Moreover, several studies of other pathologies, including diabetes, sepsis, osteoporosis, arthritis, hypercholesterolemia, cancer, viral infections, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, have tested the effects of silymarin and reported promising results. This article reviews data from clinical, in vivo, and in vitro studies on the use of silymarin, with a focus on the complications of diabetes, including nephropathy, neuropathy, healing delays, oxidative stress, hepatotoxicity, and cardiomyopathy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Black gram (Vigna mungo L.Hepper) is an important legume crop in India, Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand and of minor, bur increasing importance in Sri Lanka and Australia. Although molybdenum (Mo) deficiency in black gram has been observed in the field, plant tests for the diagnosis of Mo deficiency have not been established. Accordingly, a series of five experiments was undertaken in a glasshouse to investigate the following aspects of the Mo nutrition of black gram on an acid sandy loam soil pH 4.3 (5 m M CaCl2) :

a). The critical Mo concentrations for diagnosis and prognosis of Mo deficiency,
b). The distribution and redistribution of Mo within the plant in relation to Mo supply, and
c). The effect of Mo deficiency on nodule development.

Critical Mo concentrations for the diagnosis of Mo deficiency were much higher in the nodules than leaves, and among young leaf blades, they increased with decreasing leaf age. For diagnosis of Mo deficiency, the blades of the leaf immediately older than the youngest fully expanded leaf (YFEL+ lb) and nodules were recommended plant parts. For YFEL+ lb, the critical concentrations were 18-22 ng Mo/g dry matter at early flowering, initial pod set and pod filling. For nodules, the critical concentrations were 9600 at early flowering and 3200 ng Mo/g dry matter at early pod filling. Since the critical Mo concentrations in the nodules declined with plant age, the recommended critical values should only be used for plants at defined growth stages. Molybdenum concentrations in the YFEL+ lb and the nodules at initial pod set in one experiment were related to seed production at maturity. Recommended critical Mo concentrations in the YFEL+ 1 band nodules, at initial pod set, for the prognosis of Mo deficiency for seed dry matter were 18 and 3000 ng Mo/g dry matter, respectively.

The mobility of Mo in the phloem appeared to vary with leaf age and the external Mo supply. For example, in marginally Mo-deficient plants, there was no net redistribution of Mo from the unifoliolate leaves but there was net redistribution of Mo from the youngest fully expanded leaf blades. With minus Mo supply, there was no net redistribution of Mo from the youngest fully expanded leaf blades in the severely Modeficient plants but in Mo-adequate plants Mo was readily lost from the youngest fully expanded leaves.

In nodulated Mo-deficient plants, roots were the major source of Mo for reproductive plant parts between full nowering and late pod fill. After late pod filling, nodules became the major source of Mo for seed fill. The other plant parts which were significant sources of Mo for seed were young stems and pod walls. By contrast, in nodulated Mo-adequate plants, the major sources of Mo were young leaves and young stems; whereas nodules, roots and old leaves were less important sources.

In nodulated Mo-deficient plants supplied with NH4N0:3, the young leaves and young stems were the major sources of Mo for reproductive plant parts between early pod setting and late pod filling. After late pod filling, the roots, young stems and young leaves were the major sources of Mo for seed fill.

Supplying NH4N0:3 from full nowering had little effect on Mo distribution or redistribution in black gram plants grown with external Mo supply. However, in plants grown without Mo supply, supplying NH4N0:3 from full nowering accelerated the loss of Mo from mid stems and mid leaves compared to symbiotically dependent plants, and there was earlier remobilization of Mo from stems and leaves than in plants only reliant on symbiotic N2 fixation. Supplying NH4N0:3 at full flowering also induced loss of Mo from mid stem leaves of plants grown without Mo supply whereas no such loss occurred in plants reliant on symbiotic N2 fixation. Supplying NH4N0:3 to black gram plants at either sowing or at full flowering appeared to stimulate the remobiliz.aLion of Mo.

The role of Mo in root nodule development is not clear since Mo deficiency has been reported to produce either an increase or a decrease in nodule number. Low levels of Mo in seed had no effect on the number of nodule initials and nodules emerged at 11 days after sowing. However, the onset of acetylene reduction activity on plants grown from low Mo seed was delayed by two days. It is hypothesized that the delay in N2 fixation was due to slower incorporation of Mo of soil origin into nitrogenase. It is further suggested that the supply of essential metabolites to the nodules on plants from low Mo seed was restricted and this resulted in the slower maturation of early initiated nodules and the repression of formation of new nodules.

The major findings of the present study were: (a) the mobility of Mo in the phloem varied with leaf age and the external Mo supply, (b) the blade of the leaf immediately older than the youngest fully expanded leaf and the nodules were suitable plant parts for diagnosis and prognosis of Mo deficiency, (c) in Mo-deficient plants, the roots and the nodules were significant sources of Mo for seed fill; whereas, in Moadequate plants, uptake from the soil and remobilization from mid leaves were the main sources of Mo for seed fill, and (d) early nodule development was not affected by the Mo supply from the seed.


There is no clear distinction between service-oriented systems (SOS) and component-based systems (CBS). However, there are several characteristics that could let one consider SOS as a step further from CBS. In this paper, we discuss the general features of CBS and SOS, while accounting for behavioral modeling in the language called REMES. First, we present REMES in the context of CBS modeling, and then we show how it can become suitable for SOS. We also discuss the relation between our model and the current state of the art.


The recently developed DLPNO-CCSD(T) method and seven popular DFT functionals (B3LYP, M06, M06L, PBE, PBE0, TPSS, and TPSSh) with and without an empirical dispersion term have been tested to reproduce 111 gas phase reaction enthalpies involving 11 different transition metals. Our calculations, corrected for both relativistic effects and basis set incompleteness, indicate that most of the methods applied with default settings perform with acceptable accuracy on average. Nevertheless, our calculations also evidenced unexpected and nonsystematic large deviations for specific cases. For group 12 metals (Zn, Cd, Hg), most of the methods provided mean unsigned errors (MUE) less than 5.0 kcal/mol, with DLPNO-CCSD(T) and PBE methods performing excellently (MUE lower 2.0 kcal/mol). Problems started with group 4 metals (Ti and Zr). The best performer for Zr complexes with MUE of 1.8 kcal/mol, PBE0-D3, provides MUE larger than 8 kcal/mol for Ti. DLPNO-CCSD(T) provides a reasonable MUE of 3.3 kcal/mol for Ti reactions but gives MUE a larger than 14.4 kcal/mol for Zr complexes, with all the larger deviations for reactions involving ZrF4. Large and nonsystematic errors have been obtained for group 6 metals (Mo and W), for eight reactions containing Fe, Cu, Nb, and Re complexes. Finally, for the whole set of 111 reactions, the DLPNO-CCSD(T), B3LYP-D3, and PBE0-D3 methods turned out to be the best performers, all providing MUE below 5.0 kcal/mol. Since DFT results cannot be systematically improved and large nonsystematic deviations of 20-30 kcal/mol were obtained even for best performers, our results indicate that current DFT methods are still unable to provide robust predictions in transition metal thermochemistry, at least for the functionals explored in this work. The same conclusion holds for both DLPNO-CCSD(T) and canonical CCSD(T) methods when used entirely as out-of-the-box. However, if careful investigation of core correlation is performed, relativistic effects are properly included and the quality of the reference wave function is properly checked, CCSD(T) methods can still provide good quality results that might even be used to validate DFT methods due to paucity of accurate thermodynamic data for realistic-sized transition metal complexes.


ObjectiveClinical trials of therapies for sepsis have been mostly unsuccessful in impacting mortality. This may be partly due to the use of insensitive mortality end points. We explored whether modeling survival was more sensitive than traditional end points in detecting mortality differences in cohorts of patients with sepsis. DesignPatients were stratified into seven a priori defined paired subgroups that reflected high and low mortality risk according to known clinical risk factors. We fitted an exponential survival model to the high- and low-risk cohort of each subgroup, providing estimates of the rate of dying, long-term survival, and excess day 1 mortality. Mortality in the high- and low-risk cohorts in each subgroup was compared using model parameters, fixed-point mortality, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. SettingEight intensive care units within a university teaching institution. PatientsOne hundred thirty patients with severe sepsis or suspected Gram-negative bacteremia. InterventionsNone. Measurements and Main ResultsOverall mortality of the cohort was 58.5% at 28 days. The survival of the entire cohort was well described by an exponential model (r2 = .99). Modeling identified differences in high- and low-risk cohorts in five of the seven paired subgroups, while conventional end-points only detected differences in 2. ConclusionsModeling survival was more sensitive than conventional end-points in identifying survival differences between high- and low-risk subgroups. We encourage further evaluation of modeling in the search for more sensitive mortality end points.


Abstract. Clathrodictyids are the most abundant stromatoporoids in the Upper Ordovician Xiazhen Formation (middle to upper Katian) of South China. A total of nine species belonging to four clathrodictyid genera are identified in the formation, including Clathrodictyon idense Webby and Banks, 1976, Clathrodictyon cf. Cl. microundulatum Nestor, 1964, Clathrodictyon cf. Cl. mammillatum (Schmidt, 1858), Clathrodictyon megalamellatum Jeon n. sp., Clathrodictyon plicatum Webby and Banks, 1976, Ecclimadictyon nestori Webby, 1969, Ecclimadictyon undatum Webby and Banks, 1976, Camptodictyon amzassensis (Khalfina, 1960), and Labyrinthodictyon cascum (Webby and Morris, 1976). The clathrodictyid fauna in the Xiazhen Formation is very similar to those from both New South Wales and Tasmania, although the latter two Australian regions do not share any common clathrodictyid species during the Late Ordovician. The paleobiogeographic pattern indicates that the northward drift of South China resulted in a favorable environment for the migration of clathrodictyids from other peri-Gondwanan terranes to South China. In addition, these peri-Gondwanan clathrodictyid species hosted various endobionts, representing a variety of paleoecological interactions. The high abundance and species-level diversity of clathrodictyid species presumably increased the substrate availability of suitable host taxa, judging from the diverse intergrowth associations between clathrodictyids and other benthic organisms. These paleoecological interactions between stromatoporoid and other organisms are known from the Late Ordovician and became more abundant and widespread in the Siluro–Devonian. Overall, the Late Ordovician clathrodictyid assemblage in South China demonstrates one of the highest species-level diversities among all peri-Gondwanan terranes and represents a precursor of the complex, clathrodictyid-dominated communities of later metazoan reefs during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.


PR610 is a hypoxia-selective irreversible Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (HER) family inhibitor currently in phase I clinical trials in New Zealand and the USA (clinical trial ID NCT01631279). The prodrug PR610 releases the TKI (Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor) PR610E, a picomolar irreversible inhibitor of EGFR (HER1), under oxygen-limiting conditions typically found in solid tumors. Human neoplastic cell lines exposed to PR610 show an anoxia-selective anti-proliferative response that is associated with G1 arrest and induction of apoptosis arising from inhibition of EGFR auto-phosphorylation and downstream silencing of associated signal transduction pathways. PR610 is optimized for long tumor residency (T½ >2 days); in a preclinical model of erlotinib-resistant NSCLC, a single injection of PR610 produces profound, global shutdown of signal transduction via EGFRT790M/L858R. Tumor PR610E concentrations were above cellular anti-proliferative IC50 concentrations for over 5 days, being more than sufficient to induce apoptosis via "oncogenic shock". Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies of PR610 show significant differences in species toxicokinetics. Both the rat and dog preclinical toxicology models display considerable systemic conversion of PR610 to PR610E (6% - 30% and 24% - 29% of prodrug AUC, respectively) with attendant symptoms of EGFR inhibition including acneiform skin rash and diarrhea. In contrast NIH-III nude mice display minimal circulating TKI (PR610E) relative to PR610 (1.5% - 1.7% of AUC) consistent with a substantially improved tolerance as judged by PR610 plasma AUCinf at the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). Human subjects from the phase I clinical trial consistently experience the lowest systemic levels of PR610E (Mean 1.06% ± 0.69%; range 0.34% - 2.7%; n=20) across dose levels ranging from 10 - 150 mg/m2. Notably, a dose of 150 mg/m2 in human subjects produces a PR610 plasma AUCinf equivalent to that measured for 30 mg/kg PR610 in NIH-III mice, a dose that is active in several HER-dependent subcutaneous tumor xenograft models. Collectively, these data indicate that PR610 has the desirable characteristics of a deactivated prodrug in human subjects and preclinical models predict that an active dose range has been reached in the phase I trial. PR610 is a first-in-class hypoxia-selective EGFR/HER2 inhibitor with exciting clinical potential. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):B278. Citation Format: Adam V. Patterson, Jagdish Jaiswal, Kendall Carlin, Maria R. Abbattista, Christopher P. Guise, Shevan Silva, Ho Lee, Guo-Liang Lu, Robert F. Anderson, Teresa J. Melink, John C. Gutheil, Jeff B. Smaill. PR610: A novel hypoxia-selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor in phase I clinical trial. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B278.


A simple method was developed for assessing the intramolecular coupling of active sites in the lipoate acetyltransferase (E2) component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complexes from Escherichia coli, Bacillus stearothermophilus and ox heart and pig heart mitochondria. Samples of enzyme complex were prepared in which the pyruvate decarboxylase (E1) component was selectively and partly inhibited by treatment with increasing amounts of a transition-state analogue, thiamin thio-thiazolone pyrophosphate. The fraction of the E2 component acetylated by incubation with [2-14C] pyruvate, in the absence of CoA, was determined for each sample of partly inhibited enzyme and was found in all cases to exceed the fraction of overall complex activity remaining. This indicated the potential for transacetylation reactions among the lipoic acid residues within the E2 core. A graphic presentation of the data allowed comparison of the active-site coupling in the various enzymes, which may differ in their lipoic acid content (one or two residues per E2 chain). It is clear that active-site coupling is a general property of pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes of octahedral and icosahedral symmetries, the large numbers of subunits in each E2 core enhancing the effect.


Critical thinking development is an essential part of undergraduate education, but are we certain that preservice teachers can define the concept of CT in order to pursue it later in the classroom? Based on the conviction that CT can be learned, developed and improved, this paper refers to an empirical research aiming to determine the way in which 88 third semester student teachers of the University of Western Macedonia, Greece, conceive the notion of CT. The participants" defining statements of the term are mainly concerned with metacognition, approach and utilization of knowledge as well as cognitive processes based on logic, thus forming categories in approximate analogy to those of Sternberg"s model of human intelligence; however, the implementation of implicative statistical analysis reveals a differentiation from this model. The results of the study have implications for the pedagogy of CT and the pre-service teachers" epistemological development.


Due to the increase in the number of cancer patients, because of environmental parameters, high stress, low immunity, etc., there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective sensors for early targeted detection of cancerous cells with adequate selectivity and efficiency. Early disease diagnosis is important, as it is necessary to start treatments before disease progression. On the other hand, we need new, more efficient cancer treatment approaches with minimized side effects, more biocompatibility, and easy disposal. Nanobiotechnology is a field that can assist in developing new diagnostic and treatment approaches, specifically in fatal cancers. Herein, a study on the different applications of nanofibers in cancer detection as well as its treatment has been done. Here, a very brief survey on the main structure of biosensors and their different categories has been conducted and will precede the discussion of the study to serve as a reference and guide the reader's understanding.


It has been proposed that T helper (Th) 2 cells play a key role in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis (AD) because of clinical and experimental findings including hyper IgE, eosinophilia and Th2 type cytokine overexpression, etc. In contrast, several observations such as Th1 type cytokine detection in chronic lesions and histological features resembling allergic contact dermatitis suggest that Th1 rather than Th2 cells are important for the pathogenesis of skin lesions. In order to clarify this paradox, we investigated the function of T cell clones established from AD patients. Most T cell clones induced by house dust mite antigen and interleukin (IL)-2 from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of two AD patients exhibited CD4+/ CD8-, CD45RO+/ CD45RA-, and produced high levels of IL-4 and low levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) after phytohemagglutinin (PHA) (1 microg/ml) stimulation, suggesting a Th2 subtype. When stimulated with a high dose of concanavalin A (conA) (10 microg/ml), however, these clones produced high amounts of IFN-gamma. IL-4 production reached a peak 24 hours after conA (10 ,g/ml) stimulation, whereas IFN-gamma production was increased up to 48 hours after stimulation. The findings of T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation with immobilized anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) showed that the suitable strength of TCR stimulation for IFN-y production was higher than for IL-4. Also, in the TCR stimulated condition, the peak of IFN-gamma production was later than that of IL-4. These results indicate that T cell clones which exhibited a Th2 profile under weak stimulation can produce IFN-y in the late phase of stimulation when strong stimuli are used. The results are consistent with the previous observation that IFN-gamma production prominently appears in the chronic and late phase lesions of AD.


The immunocytochemical localization of neurons containing the 41 amino acid peptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in the rat brain is described. The detection of CRF-like immunoreactivity in neurons was facilitated by colchicine pretreatment of the rats and by silver intensification of the diaminobenzidine end-product. The presence of immunoreactive CRF in perikarya, neuronal processes, and terminals in all major subdivisions of the rat brain is demonstrated. Aggregates of CRF-immunoreactive perikarya are found in the paraventricular, supraoptic, medial and periventricular preoptic, and premammillary nuclei of the hypothalamus, the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis and of the anterior commissure, the medial septal nucleus, the nucleus accumbens, the central amygdaloid nucleus, the olfactory bulb, the locus ceruleus, the parabrachial nucleus, the superior and inferior colliculus, and the medial vestibular nucleus. A few scattered perikarya with CRF-like immunoreactivity are present along the paraventriculo-infundibular pathway, in the anterior hypothalamus, the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and the periaqueductal gray of the mesencephalon and pons. Processes with CRF-like immunoreactivity are present in all of the above areas as well as in the cerebellum. The densest accumulation of CRF-immunoreactive terminals is seen in the external zone of the median eminence, with some immunoreactive CRF also present in the internal zone. The widespread but selective distribution of neurons containing CRF-like immunoreactivity supports the neuroendocrine role of this peptide and suggests that CRF, similarly to other neuropeptides, may also function as a neuromodulator throughout the brain.


Inter-hospital emergency obstetric transfers should be carried out effectively and efficiently to avoid any complications to either mother or pregnancy. To date, no relevant data are available in Brunei Darussalam. This study prospectively assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the inter- hospital transfer process to the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital.
Materials and Methods: Obstetric patients (n = 92) who were transferred from other hospitals to RIPAS Hospital over a six month period (1st September 2009 to 28th February 2010) were studied.
Results: The prevalence of emergency obstetric transfers was 3.65% of total obstetric admissions to the labour ward and this consisted of 60 antenatal, 30 intrapartum, and two postpartum cases. The most common reason for transfer was gestational hypertension followed by labour pain. Multiple reasons led to 25% of referrals. Sixteen patients (17%) arrived without any accompanying medical personnel and 10
patients (11%) used their own transport. Duration from referral to arrival ranged from 25 minutes to 72 hours. Twenty-one patients (23%) and 18 (19%) arrived without any investigation or medications and without referral letters respectively. The mean hospital stay was 3.4 days. Two cases with singleton pregnancy were referred for intrauterine foetal deaths. Another 59 were born alive. There were no early neonatal deaths.
Conclusions: Our study revealed deficiencies in the transfer procedures that can be improved. Fortunately, there were no adverse outcomes during the study period. Further improvements need to be implemented to ensure effective and efficient transfers of emergency cases.


The scattering of carriers by charged dislocations in semiconductors is studied within the framework of the linearized Boltzmann transport theory with an emphasis on examining consequences of the extreme anisotropy of the cylindrically symmetric scattering potential. A new closed-form approximate expression for the carrier mobility valid for all temperatures is proposed. The ratios of quantum and transport scattering times are evaluated after averaging over the anisotropy in the relaxation time. The value of the Hall scattering factor computed for charged dislocation scattering indicates that there may be a factor of two error in the experimental mobility estimates using the Hall data. An expression for the resistivity tensor when the dislocations are tilted with respect to the plane of transport is derived. Finally, an expression for the isotropic relaxation time is derived when the dislocations are located within the sample with a uniform angular distribution.


We propose a scheme to search for the electrical dipole moments (EDMs) and chromodipole moments (CDMs) of a charm quark in the decay J/ψ→γφφ based on J/ψ data samples accumulated on the Beijing Electron Positron Collider (BEPC). The EDM and CDM interactions are introduced in this decay and then we relate them to some CP asymmetrical observables, which are predicted in the valence quark model. We propose a method to hunt for these values by measuring associated CP asymmetrical observables, and we also discuss the prospect of such measurement on the BEPC.


Introduction: Patients and their carers find it difficult to access information following a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). To improve the provision of this information, the Royal College of Physicians' National Clinical Guideline for Stroke (4th edition, 2012) was accompanied by a booklet designed for patients and their carers. Dissemination of the information was enhanced with the development of smartphone applications that are freely available on both iOS and Android devices. Here we present a report into the use of these applications.

Methods: The applications were designed to reflect the content of the booklet with the information primarily accessed via a scrollable index, with separate sections to provide information on support services available in the UK. Data on usage were anonymously collected during the first eight months following global release. The hypothesis that users would preferentially access information on particular topics was tested.

Results: The smartphone applications were downloaded a total of 2,046 times (1,503 iOS and 543 Android), of which 61.3% was by individuals in the UK. Topics covering rehabilitation were most commonly accessed, accounting for 33.2% of all application usage. Within this category, 'Care after a stroke or TIA (principles)' represented 14.5% of use and 'Sex after stroke' represented 13.1%. The next most commonly accessed category was 'Specialist early care' with 25.0% of total application usage, of which the topic 'Brain scan' accounted for 24.5%. Overall, the most commonly accessed index item was titled 'Stroke, what is it?', and this represented 8.27% of total application usage. Within the category of support services, 45.6% of usage was directed towards accessing information on 'Local health services and stroke clubs'.

Conclusions: Smartphone applications are useful adjuncts for the dissemination of information to patients and their carers following a stroke or TIA. Users exhibit a preference for information on rehabilitation and specialist early care. Future publications should target these topics for more in-depth discussion.


In recent years, several cobalt-based catalysts have been developed for water splitting because of their promising activity, stability and structural motifs. Here, we report that cobalt phosphonate represents a novel class of bifunctional single-source precursors for highly efficient alkaline electrochemical O2 evolution (OER) and H2 evolution reaction (HER). Inspired by its favorable catalytic OER and HER activity, an overall water-splitting device has been constructed from this precursor, showing very low cell voltage (1.62 V @ 10 mA cm−2) and excellent long-term stability. Depending on the applied oxidation and reduction potential on cobalt phosphonate, two distinct modified structures at the anode and cathode have been uncovered employing the quasi in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and ex situ methods. During OER, the phosphonate precursor reorganized itself to layered CoOx(OH)y structure with defects and disorders, while the contribution of the metallic Co along with Co3O4 spinel and Co(OH)2 is evident to drive the HER. The presented work demonstrates the advantage of using the 'all-in-one' precursor approach to realize bifunctional water-splitting electrocatalysts through the evolution of different species with self-supporting interfacial structural features at the anode and cathode during electrochemical water splitting.


BackgroundIndoor daylight levels can directly affect people's physical and psychological state. However, the effect of indoor daylight levels on patient's clinical recovery process remains controversial.AimTo evaluate the effect of indoor daylight levels on hospital costs and average length of stay (LOS) of a large patient population in general surgery wards.MethodsData were collected retrospectively and analysed of patients in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine between January 2015 and August 2020. We measured light levels in the patient rooms of general surgery and assessed their association with patients' total hospital costs and LOS.ResultsA total of 2,998 patients were included in this study with 1,478 each assigned to two light level groups after matching. Overall comparison of hospital total costs and LOS among patients according to light levels did not show a significant difference. Subgroup analysis showed when exposed to higher intensity of indoor daylight, illiterate patients had lower total hospital costs and shorter LOS as compared to those exposed to lower intensity.ConclusionsIndoor daylight levels were not associated with the hospital costs and LOS of patients in the wards of general surgery, except for those who were illiterate. It might be essential to design guidelines for healthcare facilities to enhance indoor environmental benefits of daylight for some specific population.


In this paper, the geometrical properties of the subgrid-scale (SGS) stress tensor are investigated through its eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The concepts of Euler rotation angle and axis are utilized to investigate the relative rotation of the eigenframe of the SGS stress tensor with respect to that of the resolved strain rate tensor. Both Euler rotation angle and axis are natural invariants of the rotation matrix, which uniquely describe the topological relation between the eigenframes of these two tensors. Different from the reference frame fixed to a rigid body, the eigenframe of a tensor consists of three orthonormal eigenvectors, which by their nature are subjected to directional aliasing. In order to describe the geometric relationship between the SGS stress and resolved strain rate tensors, an effective method is proposed to uniquely determine the topology of the eigenframes. The proposed method has been used for testing three SGS stress models in the context of homogeneous isotropic turbulence at three Reynolds numbers, using both a priori and a posteriori approaches.


ZnO nanowires are promising for photonic devices, biosensor and cancer cell imaging. We have performed a first-principles study to evaluate the electronic and optical properties of ZnO nanowires. We have employed the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof form of generalized gradient approximation in the frame work of density functional theory. Calculations have been carried out at different configurations. With decreasing diameter, the band gap of ZnO nanowires is increased due to the increase of quantum confinement effects. The results of imaginary part of the dielectric function indicate that the optical transition between valence band and conduction band has shifted to the high energy range as the diameter decreases. The ZnO nanowires show size-tunable optical properties.


Mad Men (AMC 2007—), a critically acclaimed television series set in the midst of the prosperous New York advertising industry during the early to mid-1960s, often explores the psychological, romantic, and work-related implications of conflicting identities. This project focuses on how Mad Men constructs the workplace and sexual identities of two of its secondary characters, Sal Salvatore, the Italian-American and closeted homosexual Art Director of Mad Men 's fictional advertising agency, and Joan Harris, a white, heterosexual woman who heads the agency's secretarial pool for most of the series. Both Sal and Joan experience workplace sexual propositioning from important clients during the series, but the outcomes of their individual situations are vastly different. This article compares Sal and Joan's situations in order to explore how Mad Men considers and values male homosexuality and active female sexuality in the context of both 1960s and contemporary social mores.


Quercetin has been reported to act as a senolytic by selectively removing senescent endothelial cells, and thus it would seem quercetin could revolutionize the field of gerontology. However, given quercetin's narrow therapeutic index reported in work done with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), we hypothesized that quercetin is not innocuous for non-senescent adult human vascular endothelial cells at concentrations that have been reported to be safe for proliferating HUVECs. Furthermore, we investigated quercetin 3-D-galactoside (Q3G; hyperoside), an inactive quercetin derivative that needs to be cleaved by beta-galactosidase overexpressed in senescent cells to release quercetin, as a potential safer senolytic. We compared the effectiveness of quercetin and Q3G in primary human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC), which are adult microvascular cells. We found that quercetin caused cell death in non-senescent endothelial cells at a concentration that has been reported to selectively remove senescent cells, and that Q3G was not cytotoxic to either young or senescent cells. Thus, in primary adult human endothelial cells, quercetin and Q3G are not senolytics. Earlier work reporting positive results was done with HUVECs, and given their origin and the disparate findings from the current study, these may not be the best cells for evaluating potential senolytics in clinically relevant endothelial cells. New and noteworthy Previously, quercetin has been reported to be a senolytic, a drug that selectively removes senescent cells, in HUVECs. However, we found neither quercetin nor Q3G was effective as a senolytic for adult human endothelial cells.


This text was intended to provide an understanding of the fun damental principles of absorption of laser energy and to illustrate the therapeutic applications in several surgical disciplines. The editor has eiJisted a panel of specialists in the areas of otolaryngology> gynecology, and cutaneous, urologic, and neurologic sur gery. Separate chapters are devoted to the use of lasers in gastroin testinal disease and podiatry.


Previous studies found large biases between individual observational and model estimates of historical ocean anthropogenic carbon uptake. We show that the largest bias between the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) ensemble mean and between two observational estimates of ocean anthropogenic carbon is due to a difference in start date. After adjusting the CMIP5 and observational estimates to the 1791–1995 period, all three carbon uptake estimates agree to within 3 Pg of C, about 4% of the total. The CMIP5 ensemble mean spatial bias compared to the observations is generally smaller than the observational error, apart from a negative bias in the Southern Ocean and a positive bias in the Southern Indian and Pacific Oceans compensating each other in the global mean. This dipole pattern is likely due to an equatorward and weak bias in the position of Southern Hemisphere westerlies and lack of mode and intermediate water ventilation.


While conscientious objection in healthcare is becoming increasingly studied, the legislative implementation of the principle is often without definition, leading to the question 'what is conscientious objection?' As this article will demonstrate, it is useful to reconceptualise conscientious objection as 'resistance' to dominant discourses and understandings in society, which have been internalised and co-opted as a way of acting as a 'safety-valve' for individualised dissent, as well as reinforcing perceptions of freedom, choice and tolerance in liberal democratic society. This non-normative assessment of conscientious objection therefore seeks to provide a framework for understanding why certain forms of resistance may be considered conscientious and some may not, before then applying this understanding to issues such as abortion and female genital mutilation.


The detections of both X-ray and radio emission from the cluster G1 in M31 have provided strong support for existing dynamical evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) of mass (1.8 ± 0.5) × 104 M☉ at the cluster center. However, given the relatively low significance and astrometric accuracy of the radio detection, and the non-simultaneity of the X-ray and radio measurements, this identification required further confirmation. Here we present deep, high angular resolution, strictly simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of G1. While the X-ray emission (LX = 1.74+0.53−0.44 × 1036 (d/750 kpc)2 erg s−1 in the 0.5–10 keV band) remained fully consistent with previous observations, we detected no radio emission from the cluster center down to a 3σ upper limit of 4.7 μJy beam−1. Our favored explanation for the previous radio detection is flaring activity from a black hole low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB). We performed a new regression of the "Fundamental Plane" of black hole activity, valid for determining black hole mass from radio and X-ray observations of sub-Eddington black holes, finding log MBH = (1.638 ± 0.070)log LR − (1.136 ± 0.077)log LX − (6.863 ± 0.790), with an empirically determined uncertainty of 0.44 dex. This constrains the mass of the X-ray source in G1, if a black hole, to be <9.7 × 103 M☉ at 95% confidence, suggesting that it is a persistent LMXB. This annuls what was previously the most convincing evidence from radiation for an IMBH in the Local Group, though the evidence for an IMBH in G1 from velocity dispersion measurements remains unaffected by these results.


Wire connection sub-assemblies in automobiles can cause installers to awkwardly position themselves to complete the connection during the manufacturing of the vehicle. This decreases the likelihood of a successful connection which in turn causes malfunction in the vehicle after the vehicle has left the plant. A potential solution to this problem is a wearable device that detects the amount of force being used while connecting wire sub-assemblies. Our approach to this wearable device is a hand glove that can detect the amount of normal and shear force applied to the hand when a load is applied. The challenge with this is differentiating between shear and normal forces. In this paper we aim to tackle this challenge by exploring capacitance and resistive approaches to measuring forces using flexible materials and parallel plate capacitors as well as contact resistive approaches. The flexible material will favor deformation in a specific direction which will allow us to differentiate between when a shear load has been applied, and when a normal load has been applied. Using this flexible sensor will allow us to characterize the amount of normal and shear loading required for a successful connection and improve the rate at which successful connections are made.


Gastroscopy with gastric biopsy was performed in 109 individuals aged 25-71 years. Activities of three antioxidant enzymes were assayed in biopsy specimens: Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Patients were classified according to the endoscopic and histological findings in the following groups: normal findings (N), superficial gastritis (SG), mild (MAG) and severe (SAG) atrophic gastritis, gastritis after partial gastrectomy (PGG), hyperplastic polyp (HP), and gastric adenoma (A). Compared with the N group, increased activity of SOD was found in groups SG (+37%), PGG (+67%) and A (+35%), increased CAT activity in PGG (+40%), and increased GSH-Px activity in groups SG (+57%), SAG (+46%), PGG (+185%), HP (+50%) and A (+50%). Increased activity of antioxidant enzymes could be induced by higher concentrations of superoxide anion radicals, hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxides, produced by phagocytic leucocytes or by polyunsaturated fatty acid in cellular membranes of gastric mucosa. The relation of reactive oxygen species to the induction of precancerous conditions and to carcinogenesis of the stomach requires further study.


Objective: To compare the postoperative infective complications like wound infections and anastomotic leakage, of mechanical bowel preparation with non-mechanical bowel preparation in patients undergoing elective colorectal surgeries.
Study Design: Comparative - cross sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: We conducted our study in surgical department of Surgery, Pak Emirates Military Hospital and Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, from Feb 2015 to Aug 2015.
Methodology: One hundreds and sixty patients were included in this study, which were further divided into groups A and B of 80 patients in each group. Group A was subjected to mechanical bowel preparation before surgery and group B was subjected to non-mechanical bowel preparation.
Results: Our study showed that anastomotic leakage was seen in 11 patients (13.8%) of group A and 14 patients (17.5%) in-group B. While surgical site infection was developed in 8 patients (10.0%) in-group A and 12 patients (15.0%) of group B. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups.
Conclusion: We concluded in our study that infective complications like sepsis, due to anastomosis leakage after elective colorectal surgery were not severe in patients without bowel preparation done before operation, when compared to patients with bowel cleaning.


An incidental finding of bilateral nontraumatic anterior acromioclavicular joint dislocation was made in a 14-year-old boy with spastic hemiparesis. Acromial processes were dislocated anterior to the distal clavicles, with characteristic radiographic findings. The dislocation is termed "anterior" because the clavicle is anatomically more proximal than the acromion. Anterior acromioclavicular joint dislocation usually is associated with significant trauma. There was no history of trauma in this case. Localized laxity of the acromioclavicular and coracoclavicular ligaments was the presumed cause of this condition, because there was no visible osseous abnormality. Since the patient was asymptomatic, no treatment was indicated.


IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) is a standard feature on smart phones and an alternative to cellular networks for connectivity. Users can surf the Web, make VoIP calls and more from home Wi-Fi networks or public hotspots. At present this type of connectivity is intermittently available with limited mobility support. It is unclear if today's Wi-Fi scales for large number of users. We consider the challenges in providing Wi-Fi connectivity to mobile devices on a cellular network-like scale. The provision of quality services which rely on network connectivity, within entertainment parks is considered. Limitations of some existing communications technologies are examined and a number of important problems are quantified. Dual-radio and other solutions to the scalability problem are presented.


In this paper, we consider the H∞ control problem for a class of two-dimensional (2-D) Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy described by the second Fornasini-Machesini local state-space model with time-delays and missing measurements. The state delays are allowed to be time-varying within a known interval. The measurement output is subject to randomly intermittent packet dropouts governed by a random sequence satisfying the Bernoulli distribution. The purpose of the addressed problem is to design an output-feedback controller such that the closedloop system is globally asymptotically stable in the mean square and the prescribed H∞ performance index is satisfied. By employing a combination of the intensive stochastic analysis and the free weighting matrix method, several delay-range-dependent sufficient conditions are presented that guarantee the existence of the desired controllers for all possible time-delays and missing measurements. The explicit expressions of such controllers are derived by means of the solution to a class of convex optimization problems that can be solved via standard software packages. Finally, a numerical simulation example is given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control scheme.


Carbon nanotubes continue to be model systems for studies of confinement and interactions. This is particularly true in the case of so-called "ultraclean" carbon nanotube devices offering the study of quantum dots with extremely low disorder. The quality of such systems, however, has increasingly revealed glaring discrepancies between experiment and theory. Here, we address the outstanding anomaly of exceptionally large orbital magnetic moments in carbon nanotube quantum dots. We perform low temperature magnetotransport measurements of the orbital magnetic moment and find it is up to 7 times larger than expected from the conventional semiclassical model. Moreover, the magnitude of the magnetic moment monotonically drops with the addition of each electron to the quantum dot directly contradicting the widely accepted shell filling picture of single-particle levels. We carry out quasiparticle calculations, both from first principles and within the effective-mass approximation, and find the giant magnetic moments can only be captured by considering a self-energy correction to the electronic band structure due to electron-electron interactions.


We propose a novel closed-form time-domain (TD) Volterra series nonlinear equalizer (VSNE) for the mitigation of Kerr-related distortions in polarization-multiplexed (PM) coherent optical transmission systems. The proposed TD-VSNE is obtained from the inverse Fourier analysis of a frequency-domain VSNE based on a frequency-flat approximation. Employing novel TD approximations, we demonstrate the equivalency between the VSNE algorithms formulated in time and frequency domains. In order to enhance the computational efficiency, we insert a power weighting time window in the TD-VSNE, yielding the weighted VSNE (W-VSNE) algorithm. We demonstrate that the convergence of the W-VSNE to its maximum performance is much faster than that of the TD-VSNE, thus requiring fewer parallel filters. Through numerical simulation of a 224-Gb/s PM-16QAM optical channel, we compare the performance/complexity tradeoff of the W-VSNE with the well-known split-step Fourier method (SSFM) and with the computationally optimized weighted SSFM (W-SSFM). Enabled by the use of fewer iterations and only two parallel W-VSNE filters, we demonstrate a reduction of up to ~45% on computational effort and ~70% on latency, in comparison with the W-SSFM.


Ozlem Koksal's book focuses on the representation of minorities in Turkish cinema from a transnational perspective. The book examines recent filmic explorations of the three large minorities that disappeared from Turkey after World War I and with the establishment of Turkish Republic in the 1920s: the Greek, Jewish and Armenian minorities. The book also looks at films that depict a Muslim ethnic minority community, the Kurds, who were suppressed until the 1990s and found their cinematic representation in post-1990 cinema in Turkey. Koksal calls for the definition of a new 'aesthetics of displacement' through the selection of post-1990 transnational films on Turkish minorities that focus on remembering the moves from the home of the past to the home of the present.


The corrosion morphology in grade 2205 duplex stainless steel wire has been studied to understand the nature of pitting and the causes of the ferrite phase's selective corrosion in acidic NaCl solution. It is shown that the corrosion mechanism is always pitting, which either manifests lacy cover perforation or densely-arrayed selective cavities developing on the ferrite phase. Pits with a lacy metal cover form in concentrated chloride solutions, whereas the ferrite phase's selective corrosion develops in diluted electrolytes, showing dependency on the chloride-ion concentration. The pit perforation is probabilistic and occurs on both austenite and ferrite grains. The lacy metal covers collapse in concentrated solutions but remain intact in diluted electrolytes. The collapse of the lacy metal cover happens due to hydrogen embrittlement. Pit evolution is deterministic and occurs selectively in the ferrite phase in light chloride solutions.


BACKGROUND: Amyloidosis is a very rare disorder of protein misfolding characterised by the deposition of certain proteins in an abnormal fibrillary form within the extracellular space, which disrupts the normal structure and function of organs throughout the body. Amyloid deposition may be systemic or localised, though there have been few systematic clinical studies of the latter. Treatment depends on the respective amyloid fibril type, and comprises chemotherapy regimens derived from myeloma for the most prevalent systemic monoclonal immunoglobulin light chain (AL) type. The clinical features of systemic AL amyloidosis are protean, commonly including a variety of poorly understood coagulation abnormalities and fatigue symptoms of uncertain cause. Measurement of serum free light chains (FLC) has been a very important advance in guiding treatment of systemic AL amyloidosis. Novel treatment approaches include the serum amyloid P component (SAP) depleting drug ((R)-1-[6-[(R)-2-carboxy-pyrrolidin-1-yl]-6-oxo-hexanoyl] pyrrolidine-2 carboxylic acid which has shown promise in a pilot study in patients with hereditary fibrinogen amyloidosis. AIMS: To compare the performance of two commercially available serum free light chain assays and study the prognostic utility of each in systemic AL amyloidosis. To investigate the underlying bleeding and coagulation abnormalities, associated prognostic implications, endothelial dysfunction and implications for the possibility of light chain toxicity. To explore the sleep disordered breathing morbidity in amyloidosis. To investigate the incidence, patient characteristics and survival outcomes in patients with localised AL amyloidosis. To explore a subgroup of localised amyloidosis: tracheobronchial and laryngeal amyloidosis from a clinical and proteomic perspective. To examine two types of treatment in systemic amyloidosis: the use of lenalidomide based chemotherapy with prior use of Thalidomide/Bortezomib treatment in systemic AL amyloidosis and CPHPC treatment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Both FreeliteTM and N Latex assays have high sensitivity for detecting abnormal FLC in patients with systemic light chain amyloidosis, showing an excellent correlation between the assays for identifying the abnormal light chain subtype but with discordance in the absolute values. Coagulation abnormalities in systemic AL amyloidosis were frequent and included the following abnormalities: elevated concentration of fibrinogen in 42 (56.8%), elevated FVIII 67 (90.5%) and vWF Ag 67 (90.5%). Kaplan Meier estimates showed that vWF Ag (p=0.039) and FVIII (p=0.01) thresholds greater than 280IU associated with a significant survival disadvantage. A fall in the vWF Ag levels following chemotherapy in those achieving a clonal response suggests potential light chain toxicity implications. Albumin concentration lower than 25g/L correlated with coagulation factors which are prothrombotic, implying that anticoagulation may be an important consideration in newly diagnosed systemic AL. Thus these findings suggest the potential prognostic utility of vWF Ag levels and thrombotic risks associated with newly diagnosed systemic AL patients. Recurrent overnight oxygen desaturations proved to be frequent in patients with cardiac and/or soft tissue amyloidosis, although the occurrence of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) needs confirmation with formal polysomnography. Patients with poor right heart ventricular systolic function score high with SDB questionnaires, which was associated with adverse outcome in newly diagnosed cardiac AL amyloidosis. Localised AL amyloidosis is a very different disease from systemic AL amyloidosis, with a far superior prognosis. Local surgical resection is adequate in most patients with localised amyloidosis in whom treatment is needed, and radiotherapy can have a useful role in some patients whose disease cannot be controlled by local measures. Progression to systemic AL amyloidosis is extremely rare except among patients with lymph node involvement. Patients with lymph node involvement and those with isotypic specific circulating free light chains warrant closer follow up for development of systemic amyloidosis. Most patients with localised AL have excellent long term outcomes. Laryngeal and tracheobronchial amyloidosis is a subtype of localised amyloidosis, in which hoarseness and dyspnoea are the predominant symptoms, the 2 year OS 93% and 90% respectively. Proteomic analysis of amyloid dissected from biopsies showed the presence of the amyloid signature proteins, apolipoprotein A1 (in greater amounts protein) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein complex in all samples compared with patients with systemic AL or transthyretin amyloidosis. Of interest, apolipoprotein A1 has been described within the respiratory tract and insulin growth factor has been postulated to play a role in inflammation, which may be relevant with respect to the pathogenesis and effects of airways amyloidosis. Lenalidomide and dexamethasone combination treatment following prior proteasome inhibitor based therapy produced an overall haematologic response rate of 61%, including 20% complete responses. Renal responses among patients who received prolonged treatment were surprisingly frequent; twenty one out of 38 (55%) evaluable patients achieved a renal response (40% on an ITT basis) – 7 (18%) at 6 months, 7 (18%) at 12 months and an additional 7 (18%) patients at 18 months by long term follow up. This raises the possibility that immunomodulatory effects of lenalidomide therapy might enhance the otherwise slow natural regression of amyloid deposits. CPHPC depletes circulating Serum amyloid P (SAP) component as a treatment for systemic amyloidosis.1 Our study of 10 patients suggested a significant reduction in the natural progression of renal decline and renal survival along with an excellent safety profile; this was supported by our QoL assessments using SFv36 questionnaires. The work in this thesis has thus contributed to improved characterisation and clinical management of various types of amyloidosis, and has identified several avenues of therapy that merit further investigation in larger populations and randomised clinical trials.


In an attempt to improve liver function and promote [ill]atic regeneration in a patient with severe liver injury, [ill]lin alone or insulin and glucagon were administered by [ill]stant peripheral venous infusion during a 61-day period. [ill] response, as assessed by a broad spectrum of hepato[ill]lular function tests, including synthetic, detoxification, bile [ill]abolism, and microsomal enzyme function, and also histo[ill]cal evidence, indicated a beneficial effect. Continuous [ill]ulin and glucagon infusion merits further evaluation in the [ill]tment of some forms of hepatic failure. [ill] Arch Intern Med 1984;144:2075-2078)


Background: Acacetin (5,7-dihydroxy-4′-methoxyflavone) is a member of the flavonoid compound familys, some of which have anti-cancerous effects. Angiogenesis is a key process during carcinogenesis and tumor growth; however, but the effect and the mechanisms of acacetin on angiogenesis and tumor growth remain to be elucidated. Methods: In order to determine the effect of acacetin on the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and HIF-1α expression, we tested VEGF expression by reporter assay and HIF-1α expression by Western blotting and RT-PCR assay. To test whether overexpression of active form of AKT increases HIF-1 expression, transient transfection was performed. Tumor angiogenesis and tumor formation in vivo were examined by chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). Results: Acacetin decreased the steady level of VEGF mRNA under the normoxia and hypoxia conditions while inhibiting, and inhibited VEGF transcriptional activation. To further determine the potential mechanism of acacetin in inhibiting VEGF expression, we showed demonstrated that acacetin inhibited HIF-1α expression and AKT activation. Overexpression of HIF-1α or AKT abolished acacetin-decreasing VEGF transcriptional activation, indicating that AKT and HIF-1 are the essential downstream targets of acacetin for inhibiting VEGF expression in the cells. Moreover, acacetin significantly inhibited ovarian cancer cells-induced angiogenesis and tumor growth in vivo through inhibiting HIF-1α and VEGF expression. Acacetin inhibited HIF-1α protein expression through increasing its degradation and decreasing its stability, but did not alter HIF-1α mRNA levels. Conclusion: These results indicate that acacetin inhibits tumor agnigenensis and growth by blocking the AKT/HIF-1/VEGF pathway. It may be a useful natural compound for cancer prevention and treatment. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(12 Suppl):A51.


ABSTRACT The GATA family of transcription factors participates in gastrointestinal (GI) development. Increases in GATA-4 and -5 expression occur in differentiation and GATA-6 expression in proliferation in embryonic and adult settings. We now show that in colorectal cancer (CRC) and gastric cancer promoter hypermethylation and transcriptional silencing are frequent for GATA-4 and -5 but are never seen for GATA-6. Potential antitumor target genes upregulated by GATA-4 and -5, the trefoil factors, inhibinα, and disabled-2 (Dab2) are also silenced, in GI cancers, with associated methylation of the promoters. Drug or genetically induced demethylation simultaneously leads to expression, in CRC cells, of all of the GATA-4, -5, and downstream genes. Expression of exogenous GATA-5 overrides methylation at the downstream promoters to activate the target genes. Selection for silencing of both upstream transcription factors and their target genes in GI cancers could indicate that epigenetic silencing of the involved genes provides a summated contribution to tumor progression.


Image encryption plays a major role in information security. It is mainly used to convert the original image into another form. In this work, we propose a bit plane slicing of digital image to provide the more security. The main aim of BPS is used to divide the digital image into 8 bit planes. The bit plane is further rotated in order to provide better encrypted image and to make hacking more difficult. It focuses on two techniques such as bit plane slicing and image rotation for efficient image encryption. The classification of bit plane is used for analyzing the importance played by each bit of an image. It is used to estimate the each pixel of an image. The proposed technique involves rotation of bit planes is employed to make highly secure image encryption. By this method scrambling of an image is based on efficient technique even it is intercepted, the information cannot be understood. It is mainly useful for image compression because it exhibits high coding efficiency. This method which makes the decryption of an image more difficult compared to other techniques.


In this work, the modified Laplace Adomian decomposition method (LADM) is applied to solve the Burgers' equation. In addition, example that illustrate the pertinent features of this method is presented, and the results of the study is discussed. We prove the convergence of LADM applied to the Burgers' equation. Also, Burgers' equation has some discontinuous solutions because of effects of viscosity term. These discontinuities raise phenomenon of shock waves. Some explicit and implicit numerical methods have been experimented on Burgers' equation but these schemes have not been seen proper in this case because of their conditional stability and existence of viscosity term. We consider two types of box schemes and implement on Burgers' equation to get better results with no artificial wiggles.


Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) constitute a family of proteins controlling cell growth and proliferation and whose activities are tightly controlled in normal cells. LRIG1 is a negative regulator of RTK signaling and is a proposed tumor suppressor. The aim of this thesis was to identify and study possible paralogs of LRIG1. By using the basic local alignment search tool and cDNA cloning, a human mRNA sequence with similarity to LRIG1 was identified and named LRIG2. By fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, LRIG2 was found to reside on chromosome 1p13. The LRIG2 amino acid sequence was 47% identical to LRIG1, and the predicted protein domain organization was the same as that of LRIG1. Antibodies against LRIG2 were developed and the apparent molecular weight of the protein was determined to be 132 kDa by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis. The sub-cellular localization was studied by cell surface biotinylation experiments and confocal fluorescence laser microscopy, which revealed that LRIG2 resided at the cell surface and in the cytoplasm. The expression patterns of LRIG2 mRNA, during development and in adult tissues, were evaluated using whole-mount in situ hybridization and quantitative real-time RT-PCR, respectively. In E10.5, E11.5 and E12.5 mouse embryos, the Lrig2 expression domains were both overlapping and unique as compared to the expression domains of Lrig1 and the third family member, Lrig3. In adult human tissues, the most prominent LRIG2 mRNA expression was found in skin, uterus and ovary. To study the developmental and physiological role of LRIG2, Lrig2 knock-out mice were generated. The knock-out mice were born at Mendelian frequencies without any apparent morphological abnormalities. However, Lrig2 knock-out mice showed reduced body weight between 5 days and 12-15 weeks of age, increased mortality, and impaired reproductive capacity. To study the role of LRIG2 as a prognostic factor in oligodendroglioma, LRIG2 expression was analyzed in 65 human oligodendrogliomas by immunohistochemistry. Cytoplasmic LRIG2 expression was an independent prognostic factor associated with poor oligodendroglioma patient survival. The possible functional role of LRIG2 in oligodendroglioma biology was further investigated using the RCAS/tv-a mouse model. Tumors resembling human oligodendroglioma were induced by intracranial injection of PDGFB carrying RCAS retroviruses into newborn Ntv-a mice. Lrig2 wild-type animals developed tumors at a higher frequency and of higher malignancy than the Lrig2 knock-out mice. This result supports the notion that LRIG2 promotes PDGF-induced oligodendroglioma genesis. A possible molecular mechanism was revealed as LRIG2 overexpression increased PDGFRa levels in transfected cells. In summary, we identified a new gene named LRIG2, showed that it is expressed in a variety of tissues during development and in adulthood, knocked it out and found that it was required for proper animal growth, health, and reproduction. We also found that Lrig2 expression promoted PDGF-induced oligodendroglioma genesis and was associated with poor oligodendroglioma patient survival, possibly via a PDGFRa stabilizing function.


Root rot (caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi) and chestnut blight (caused by Cryphonectria parasitica) are the two most destructive diseases affecting American chestnut, Castanea dentate. Therefore, breeding for resistance to both pathogens simultaneously is essential before the American chestnut can be restored to its full native range. Using combined genetic and genomic approaches, resistance to C. parasitica (Cp) has been mapped to three quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in chestnut. In addition, a marker set covering the chestnut genome has been generated for implementation in breeding for Cp resistance. Although P. cinnamomi was introduced to the USA far earlier than C. parasitica, an effort to breed for resistance to this pathogen has been initiated only recently. Selection of parental genotypes with a high inter-generational transmission rate of resistance to P. cinnamomi (Pc) allowed initiation of genetic studies. In pilot experiments with a limited number of progeny derived from AdairKY1 × GL158, a QTL for resistance (source Chinese chestnut, C. mollissima 'Nanking') to Pc was mapped to linkage group E (LG_E). Subsequently, three backcross families (HB1, HB2, and MK5) were selected from another source of resistance (C. mollissima 'Mahogany') for map construction and association analysis with 22 markers from LG_E. Our preliminary analyses confirmed the presence of a Pc resistance QTL on LG_E. In 2012, extended mapping populations (up to 200 individuals) representing the Mahogany and Nanking lineages of resistance were planted for phenotyping of Pc resistance and QTL mapping. Together, these materials and analyses should help resolve the location of the QTLs for resistance to Pc and test their co-location between two important sources of resistance in chestnut.


Temperature non-uniformities in traditional data centers can be eliminated or at least reduced by utilizing containment systems. As all servers receive the same inlet air temperature in a contained configuration, the cooling system can be operated more efficiently at a higher temperature, which also increases the potential for free cooling through various economizer modes. However, enclosed aisle configurations require computer room air handler (CRAH) fans to operate at a higher speed and provide entire rack air flow through the perforated tiles, unlike open aisle data centers that can make up a fraction of server air from the data center air space. Hence, the traditional enclosed aisle configuration is likely to consume more fan power. This study confirms that enclosing the aisle does not guarantee optimum cooling infrastructure power in air cooled data centers. Proposed CRAH bypass configuration for enclosed aisle data centers provides a fraction of the tile airflow rate through a set of bypass fans while CRAH fans operate at lower speeds. These low-lift fans operate across a pressure difference between the room and plenum, which is significantly less than the flow resistance of CRAH units. Meanwhile, CRAH fans operate at lower speeds and consume less energy. Accordingly, a certain bypass air fraction with respect to total rack air flow rate leads to a minimum cooling infrastructure power for a particular configuration. This study investigates energy savings potential of the enclosed aisle data centers with CRAH bypass configuration utilizing a calibrated flow network model for estimating the energy consumption of air movers as well as a thermodynamic modeling tool to evaluate the off-design performance of major components of data center cooling infrastructure. Hour-by-hour annual energy simulations complement the energy assessment for 7 U.S. cities considering indirect air side economizer operation.


Axial bolted joint between EN-31 steel flat plates and E-Glass Epoxy thick, flat laminate consisting of helical winding layers with ±30° helical angle of winding and fabric prepreg layers, was realised with 3 number of M10, 12.9 property class steel fasteners on each side and assembly was tested under uni-axial tensile repeated loading and unloading up to 8.1 ton proof load and to 0 respectively, for 15 cycle. Aim of the experiment was to study the damage induced if any and further increased, in E-Glass epoxy laminate near joint regions, under tensile repeated loading and unloading for 15 cycle. Total length, width and thickness of metal composite axial bolted joint test assembly were 700 mm, 150 mm, and 22 mm, respectively. Longitudinal and transverse strain was monitored at 31 strain gauge locations in composite laminate near joint regions, in all the 15 cycle. For first cycle, longitudinal strain was plotted during loading up to proof load of 8.1 ton and unloading to 0, to check the linearity of strain variation with increase and decrease in load, respectively. It was observed that strain at all strain gauge locations was varying linearly. Maximum strain measured was 4035 micro strain in 1st cycle. Residual strain at all strain gauge locations was observed very less. No defects were induced in composite laminate after 15 cycle.


Pt-based nanocrystals with a dendritic structure are highly attractive materials for various electrocatalytic applications owing to their high surface area. Herein, a facile one-pot method is presented for the controlled synthesis of PtIr tripods with a dendritic surface (PtIr DTPs), which is achieved by the reduction of Pt and Ir metallic precursors in oleylamine and NH4F with H2. The unique PtIr DTPs exhibited superior catalytic activity and durability towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The newly developed one-pot approach is feasible for the synthesis of dendritic tripod Pt-based NCs with a designed composition for various catalytic applications.


Bayesian network structure learning is the well-known computationally hard problem of nding a directed acyclic graph structure that optimally describes given data. A learned structure can then be used for probabilistic inference. While exact inference in Bayesian networks is in general NP-hard, it is tractable in networks with low treewidth. This provides good motivations for developing algorithms for the NPhard problem of learning optimal bounded treewidth Bayesian networks (BTW-BNSL). In this work, we develop a novel score-based approach to BTW-BNSL, based on casting BTW-BNSL as weighted partial Maximum satisability. We demonstrate empirically that the approach scales notably better than a recent exact dynamic programming algorithm for BTW-BNSL.


The paper provides a method for estimating the risk of failure of an apparatus as a result of direct lightning strikes on transmission lines. To meet the requirements of quick and low-variability estimation of the risk of failure, an adaptive strategy based on successive approximations of the equipment response surface in the vicinity of the most probable failure point has been developed. The proposed procedure has been applied to a test case concerning substation equipment.


While possession of unexplained property (illicit enrichment) is expressly criminalized under Article 419 of the 2004 Criminal Code of Ethiopia, there are practical problems in its prosecution, inter alia, regarding burden and standards of proof. Cases such as Workineh Kenbato & Amelework Dalie demonstrate the confusion regarding who bears what burden, for which facts the burden would apply and the required standard of proof thereof. Despite efforts to use the prosecution of illicit enrichment as a weapon in the combat against corruption, there are concerns triggered by such prosecutions. There is public interest to punish and deter corruption and seize and confiscate the proceeds of corruption; meanwhile there is the need for precaution against endangering the right to fair trial of the accused (especially the right to presumption of innocence, right to remain silent, right against self-incrimination) and property rights of innocent persons. This Article examines issues of the allocation of burdens and standards of proof in the prosecution of illicit enrichment cases. It assesses the relevant legal framework in Ethiopia and examines some court practices. The author argues that the binding interpretation adopted in Workineh Kenbato & Amelework Dalie case is erroneous and calls for its rectification in future cases that involve similar issues. Key words : Possession of Unexplained Property, illicit enrichment, burden of proof, standard of proof, easing of burden of proof, Criminal Code of Ethiopia


The corrosion of float glass is a big problem in the glass industry. It manifests itself during exposure of glass to humid conditions or when in contact with water. The corroded surface impairs the adhesion of coatings and causes optical defects at the glass surface. Glass corrosion is a complex phenomenon involving diffusion and ion exchange accompanied by silica network dissolution and the formation of corrosion products. Treatment of the glass surface with zinc ions has been proposed to inhibit the corrosion process, however little rigorous study on the inhibition of glass corrosion using zinc has been published. In this current work the corrosion of float glass in contact with humid air has been studied by a gravimetric technique. This has also been investigated by surface analysis techniques (SIMS, ion-beam analysis, XPS and AFM). A numerical simulation of water uptake due to glass corrosion has also been developed, based on a Cellular Automaton approach. The gravimetric analysis was performed on crushed float glass, enabling direct quantification of corrosion in real time by running experiments that last for several days. The primary assumption for the measurement of corrosion is that the mass uptake by the sample is purely a result of water adsorption to the surface, where the water adsorbed is replacing the water that has diffused into the bulk glass. Results of the gravimetric studies showed increased corrosion for higher temperatures and higher relative humidity values. Corrosion flux values were obtained by evaluating the specific surface area of the samples from BET analysis of water sorption isotherms. A striking effect of zinc treatment was observed. The corrosion flux value for an untreated sample was 11.8 times higher that of a zinc treated sample exposed to 15C, 9.25 times higher at 20C and 2.85 times higher at 30C. The effectiveness of zinc treatment therefore appears to decrease with increasing temperature. From the three temperatures studied, it appears that the corrosion flux follows an Arrhenius relationship with temperature, consistent with the published behaviour of water diffusion through glass. Values of the activation energy (Ea) were obtained. For untreated glass the value of Ea recorded in this present work was 50.9 kJ.mol-1, comparing favourably with previously published values for float glass. The value of Ea obtained for zinc-treated glass was 122.3 kJ.mol-1. This increase in activation energy gives further quantification of the effectiveness of zinc treatment. The beneficial effects of zinc treatment were also apparent from the significant reduction in water mass uptake for zinc-treated samples when measuring water adsorption isotherms. Furthermore, SIMS surface analysis of an untreated glass surface showed much more sodium depletion after exposure to saturated air, compared to zinc-treated glass. Previous work has attributed the effectiveness of zinc treatment to zinc ions blocking the silica interstices, thus inhibiting the ion-diffusion process. However the current work reveals that zinc treatment effectively reduces the amount of water adsorbed. It is therefore proposed that zinc ions combine with the surface hydroxyl groups thus rendering the surface less hydrophilic. Gravimetric analysis suggests that zinc treated glass surfaces lose their corrosion protection with time. This ageing effect is supported by data from surface analysis studies, indicating that zinc ions diffuse into the glass over long periods of time. Further work is recommended to characterise this effect. During routine water adsorption isotherm measurement for zinc-treated glass, an anomalous decrease in mass was observed at a relative humidity of between 30 and 40%. No explanation can currently be offered to explain this phenomenon and further work is therefore required. A Cellular Automaton numerical simulation technique has been applied to model float glass corrosion. This technique was found to give simulation results that compared favourably to experimental data for mass uptake of water. The CA technique can readily be adapted to include other mechanisms and therefore it is recommended for further use in the field of glass corrosion. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the CA model was mostly influenced by parameters relating to the gas phase and surface reaction. The model was insensitive to parameters relating to the bulk glass phase, including diffusivity. Further development of the model is recommended.


Enter the computing arboretum and you will find a variety of well-studied trees: AVL trees (Adel'son-Vel'skiĭ & Landis 1962), symmetric binary B-trees (Bayer 1972), Hopcroft's 2-3 trees (Aho et al. 1974), the bushy finger trees (Guibas et al. 1977) and the colourful red-black trees (Guibas & Sedgewick 1978). In this pearl, we look at a more exotic species of balanced search trees, 1-2 brother trees (Ottmann et al. 1979), which deserves to be better known. Brother trees lend themselves well to a functional implementation with deletion (Section 5) as straightforward as insertion (Section 3), both running in logarithmic time. Furthermore, brother trees can be constructed from ordered lists in linear time (Section 4). With some simple optimisations in place, this implementation of search trees is one of the fastest around. So, fasten your seat belts.


said that they were apparently all agreed that the most effective operative treatment to overcome spastic deformities was by direct operation on the muscles or their motor nerves. About the same time as Stoffel was doing his original work he had operated on a series of cases of spasmodic flat foot by crushing the motor nerve branches of the peroneal muscles. The results were excellent in that the patient walked early without splintage, and during temporary paralysis of the peroneal muscles the invertors of the foot had an opportunity of developing and restoring the arch. In spastic paralysis, however, the problem was complicated, as Dr. Riddoch had pointed out, by the fact that the extensors of the limb were, in the severer cases, also in a state of hypertonus, and their range of voluntary control was limited. He could hardly believe that Mr. Bankart would dispense with splintage and re-education in these cases. The main point he wished to emphasize was that the prognosis in spastic paralysis depended on the degree of voluntary control of the limb rather than on the particular operation performed to overcome the spasm of the muscles responsible for the deformity. The other point to which he wished to draw attention was the fact that occasionally flexion of the knee and equinus deformity of the foot might be secondary to simple adductor spasm. This could be demonstrated by seating the child on a table and observing that voluntary extension of the knee and dorsiflexion of the foot were present. In these cases the knee flexion and the equinus were assumed by the child in order to make locomotion possible in the presence of adductor spasm, so that only operation to overcome the latter was necessary. Mr. Bankart had given a careful and interesting review of the treatment of a very difficult type of case.