Purpose The Q-tip test is used to measure urethral hypermobility and can predict surgical outcomes. However, certain factors may affect the reliability of this test. Our aim was to identify independent clinical and urodynamic predictors of the results of the Q-tip test. Methods Between January 2014 and June 2019, 176 consecutive women with lower urinary tract symptoms who underwent the Q-tip test and urodynamic studies were included in this retrospective study. Results Multivariable regression analysis revealed that age (regression coefficient, -0.55), point Ba (regression coefficient, 4.1), urodynamic stress incontinence (regression coefficient, 9.9), maximum flow rate (Qmax) (regression coefficient, 0.13), pressure transmission ratio (PTR) at maximum urethral pressure (MUP) (regression coefficient, -0.14), and the score on the fifth question of the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQQ5; "Has urine leakage affected your participation in social activities outside your home?"; regression coefficient, -4.1) were independent predictors of the Q-tip angle, with a constant of 87.0. The following Spearman rank correlation coefficients were found between the Q-tip angle and the following variables: age, -0.38; point Ba, 0.34; urodynamic stress incontinence, 0.32; Qmax, 0.28; PTR at MUP, -0.28; and IIQQ5, -0.23. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis for the prediction of urodynamic stress incontinence found that the optimum cutoff for PTR at MUP was <81%, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.70. Conclusions Age, point Ba, urodynamic stress incontinence, Qmax, PTR at MUP, and IIQQ5 were independent predictors of the Q-tip angle. However, none of these could be used as effective surrogates for the Q-tip test due to their lack of a sufficient correlation.


Primary objective: Although estimates of the incidence of post-traumatic olfactory dysfunction range from 10–66.8%, there has been little research into its functional implications. The objective of this study was to describe the impact of olfactory impairment on daily activities and social participation from the perspective of adults who are living with the impairment. Research design: A qualitative research design based on a constructivist grounded theory approach. Methods and procedures: Purposive sampling of five participants with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) who reported post-injury changes in their olfactory function was utilized. No participant had a pre-injury history of olfactory disturbance. The presence of olfactory disturbance was confirmed using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). A semi-structured interview was employed to ascertain the participants' experiences. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analyses applied. Conclusions: The themes that emerged demonstrated olfactory dysfunction has significant impact on a range of activities and social roles.


Success of any training system is based on satisfaction of the user and factors affecting this satisfaction. This article studies satisfaction of a hybrid training system (which is a combination of e-learning and traditional training systems) for Probability and Statistics for Engineers at Shahid Behashti University in Iran. Using the related literature, this article derives a model for factors which impact on learner satisfaction in the hybrid training system. Validation of the model is verified using the Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling. The findings state that Perceived usefulness and Course flexibility are factors which provide more positive effect on the course satisfaction. While Attitude toward e-learning, Computer anxiety, and Perceived interactions with others are factors which provide negative effect on the course satisfaction. Several suggestions based upon the results have been given.


Deep neural networks achieve good performance in many computer vision problems such as face alignment. However, when the testing image is challenging due to low resolution, occlusion or adversarial attacks, the accuracy of a deep neural network suffers greatly. Therefore, it is important to quantify the uncertainty in its predictions. A probabilistic neural network with Gaussian distribution over the target is typically used to quantify uncertainty for regression problems. However, in real-world problems especially computer vision tasks, the Gaussian assumption is too strong. To model more general distributions, such as multi-modal or asymmetric distributions, we propose to develop a kernel density deep neural network. Specifically, for face alignment, we adapt state-of-the-art hourglass neural network into a probabilistic neural network framework with landmark probability map as its output. The model is trained by maximizing the conditional log likelihood. To exploit the output probability map, we extend the model to multi-stage so that the logits map from the previous stage can feed into the next stage to progressively improve the landmark detection accuracy. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets against state-of-the-art unconstrained deep learning method demonstrate that the proposed kernel density network achieves comparable or superior performance in terms of prediction accuracy. It further provides aleatoric uncertainty estimation in predictions.


The purpose of this study was to devise and test a methodology to investigate cortical activity during speech perception and production that eliminates some of the confounding variables that have existed in previous research, such as the variability of stimuli employed across conditions and the role of muscle artifacts; and to clarify the role of auditory feedback in speech. Evoked potentials to the speech stimulus /ba/ were obtained while the subject was hearing and speaking /ba/ with and without immediate air conducted feedback, as well as while hearing /ba/ 0.6 sec. after each of these three conditions. Twelve adults were determined to have dominant left hemispheres through a series of seven hemispheric dominance tests. None had a history of a hearing deficiency or indicated a hearing loss during the practice session. Monopolar recordings were made from the left and right frontal areas corresponding to Broca's area on the left and the left and right temporoparietal areas posterior to the termination of the Sylvian fissure, with a linked earlobe reference.


Purpose of review Failure of the embryo to implant remains the major limiting step in assisted reproductive techniques success rates. The existing evidence supports a possible role of glucocorticoids in improving the intrauterine environment and therefore embryo implantation. The present study aims to summarize the available evidence and make recommendations about the use of glucocorticoids. Recent findings A recent meta-analysis on glucocorticoids to improve embryo implantation showed no beneficial effect in the routine IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection population, although a subgroup analysis of women undergoing IVF did show a borderline improvement in pregnancy rates. Studies on women with autoantibodies or treatment cycles in which assisted hatching is performed have also indicated a benefit from glucocorticoid cotreatment. No significant improvement in pregnancy rates, however, has been demonstrated in women with recurrent implantation failure in whom assisted hatching is performed in combination with glucocorticoids. Conflicting results have been reported on the use of glucocorticoids to improve the ovarian response. Summary Although evidence to support the empirical use of glucocorticoids to improve implantation is insufficient, these may be beneficial in specific patient groups. More studies are required to confirm the efficacy and safety of adjuvant glucocorticoid therapy, and they should only be empirically used in the context of randomized controlled trials.


Two 47-d experiments were conducted with 21-d-old weaned pigs (PIC 1050, initially 6.1 kg) to determine the effects of feeding low or high doses of chlortetracycline (CTC) and antibiotic alternatives (Cu, Zn, and essential oil [EO]), alone or in combination, on growth performance. On d 5 postweaning, pens of 5 pigs were allotted to diet treatments with 8 (exp. 1) or 7 (exp. 2) replicate pens per treatment. In exp. 1, treatments were fed from d 5 to 26 postweaning and arranged in a 2 × 3 factorial with main effects of added ZnO (0 vs. 2,500 ppm of Zn) and CTC (0, 55, or 441 ppm). In exp. 2, treatments were fed from d 5 to 33 and structured in a (2 × 2 × 2) + 2 factorial with main effects of added CuSO4 (0 vs. 125 ppm Cu), added ZnO (0 vs. 3,000 ppm Zn from d 5 to 12 and 2,000 ppm Zn from d 12 to 33), and Regano EX (0 vs. 0.1% Regano EX containing 5% Origanum oil). The 2 additional treatments were subtherapeutic (55 ppm) and therapeutic (441 ppm) levels of CTC. Following the treatment period, a common diet without antimicrobial was fed until d 47. All diets contained 16.5 ppm Cu and 110 ppm Zn from the trace mineral premix. In exp. 1, no ZnO × CTC interactions were observed. Feeding ZnO increased (P < 0.05) ADG, ADFI, and BW during the treatment period and increased (P < 0.05) ADG and ADFI overall (d 5 to 47). Pigs fed CTC had increased (linear, P < 0.05) ADG, ADFI, and BW during the treatment period and had marginally significant increases (linear, P < 0.10) in overall ADG and ADFI, but overall G:F tended (quadratic, P = 0.070) to increase then decrease as CTC increased. During the treatment period in exp. 2, EO did not affect ADG or ADFI, whereas pharmacological levels of Cu, Zn, and CTC increased (P < 0.05) ADG with coinciding increases (P = 0.055, 0.006, and linear 0.079, respectively) in ADFI. Copper, Zn, and CTC did not affect G:F. EO decreased (P = 0.009) G:F. Diet treatments had minimal carryover effects on subsequent nursery pig growth performance. Overall from d 5 to 47, Cu increased (P = 0.018) ADG, Zn increased (P < 0.05) ADG and ADFI, and EO tended to decrease (P = 0.086) G:F. In conclusion, increased dietary Cu, Zn, or CTC improved weanling pig performance while EO elicited no growth benefits. The benefits of added Zn from ZnO and CTC were additive and could be included together in diets to maximize growth performance of weaned pigs.


Southern Ohio Health Services Network was founded in 1976 as a non-profit corporation to address the lack of accessibility to primary care physicians in four rural southern Ohio counties. The majority of recruited physicians are obligated to fulfill service obligations as a result of NHSC scholarships. Author Stephen Wilhide, M.S.W., M.P.H., describes how the organization improved its physician retention rate through a carefully devised compensation program.


This book examines stem change in verb paradigms, as in English go 'go.PRESENT' vs. went 'go.PAST', a phenomenon referred to as suppletion in current linguistic theory. The work is based on a broad sample of 193 languages, and examines this long neglected phenomenon from a typological perspective. In addition to identifying types of suppletion which occur cross-linguistically, the study brings to light areal patterns of the occurrence of suppletive forms in verb paradigms. Several hypotheses as regards the diachronic development of suppletive forms are presented as well. The author also seeks to explore the methodological issues of evaluating the frequency of linguistic features in large language samples by introducing a method of weighting languages according to their genetic relatedness. All figures obtained in this way are compared to the proportions yielded by more familiar counting methods, and the results and implications of the different procedures are compared and discussed throughout.


A quasi-geostrophic three-level T63 model of the wintertime atmospheric circulation of the Northern Hemisphere has been applied to investigate the impact of Arctic amplification (increase in surface air temperatures and loss of Arctic sea ice during the last 15 years) on the mid-latitude large-scale atmospheric circulation. The model demonstrates a mid-latitude response to an Arctic diabatic heating anomaly. A clear shift towards a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO−) during low sea-ice-cover conditions occurs, connected with weakening of mid-latitude westerlies over the Atlantic and colder winters over Northern Eurasia. Compared to reanalysis data, there is no clear model response with respect to the Pacific Ocean and North America.


We present a multidisciplinary study that constrains the development history of the southern part of the Central Andean Plateau, a prototypical noncollisional orogenic system. In the Antofagasta de la Sierra region of NW Argentina, data from sedimentary geology, sandstone modal composition, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, and apatite fission-track and (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronology indicate that sediments accumulated in the late Eocene to early Oligocene, with a maximum depositional age of ca. 39–38 Ma provided by the youngest detrital zircon U-Pb dates. Provenance data, including paleocurrent indicators, sandstone modal composition, and detrital zircon U-Pb ages, point to prevailing western sources, including the Sierra de Quebrada Honda (a proximal source), the Ordovician to Late Cambrian Famatinian magmatic arc in western Argentina and Chile (a distal source), and the Permian–Triassic plutonic and volcanic rocks in coastal Chile (a distal source). Along the western basin margin, these strata were deformed by a basement-involved thrust fault that was active at ca. 25–20 Ma, as constrained by apatite fission-track and (U-Th-Sm)/He data. Analysis of new and existing U-Pb geochronologic data from both detrital and basement samples across the Puna suggests that the Sierra Laguna Blanca, a major mountain range in the southern Puna, remained buried during the late Eocene to early Oligocene. Our multidisciplinary data indicate that the southern Central Andean Plateau may have hosted a regional basin primarily formed by lithospheric flexure during the late Eocene to early Oligocene. Furthermore, this study refines the history of basin compartmentalization and exhumation of the major mountain ranges in the southern Puna, revealing propagation of deformation from the west to east, starting as early as the late Eocene and continuing to the mid-late Miocene.


Packaging is inseparable retainer of almost all food products. However, most of produced packaging ends as packaging waste after consumption of the product. Increasing amounts of packaging waste that should be managed represents serious challenge of every modern society. There are many different approaches to address this subject, amongst which biodegradable, natural biopolymer-based or even edible packaging holds considerable potential. In this paper, a by-product of edible oil industry, left after completed extraction by cold pressing of oil from hulls of pumpkin seeds, was used to produce biopolymer packaging films. Pumpkin oil cake was used to produce composite bio-based films. Different filtration of film forming suspension was applied in order to test composite film production using different filtration fractions, leading to higher process yield and minimizing waste. In addition, films were casted on surface, about ten times larger comparing to the cast surface typically reported for these types of films in the literature, in order to test the possibility for commercial production and scale up process. Also, casted mass of film forming suspension was varied in order to define minimal casting mass per unit area. Presented results showed that biopolymer films based on the pumpkin oil cake can be successfully produced in sheets (50x35 cm), compared to films earlier produced in the form of discs with diameter 12 cm. Different filtration fractions from initial film forming suspension can be used for film formation, leading to increased production yield. Different filtration fractions lead to different film properties that should be adjusted according to selected application. Casted mass of film forming suspension was successfully decreased (comparing to earlier literature data) without compromising film functional properties and minimal casting mass was defined as 26 g/m.


Congenital-Infantile Fibrosarcoma (CIF) is a malignant mesenchymal tumor representing 10-20% of soft-tissue tumors. Complete surgical resection is generally the treatment of choice. The most recurrent cytogenetic abnormality was identified as the traslocation t(12;15)(p13:q25), which bears the fusion of Tel gene EVT6 with TrkC gene. This study describes a case of infantile fibrosarcoma of the ileum in a female newborn examined for intestinal occlusion and its laparoscopic treatment.


In this paper a new algorithm to compute all the closed-form inverse kinematics solutions of a spatial serial robot. Based on the method, A 16th degree univariate polynomial of the spatial serial robot is obtained without factoring out or deriving the greatest common divisor. We also obtain all the closed-form solutions for the inverse kinematics of the robot. Finally a numerical example is given to demonstrate the algorithm process.


This dissertation investigates the development and contradictions of the discourse of mestizaje in its key Mexican ideologues and its revision by Mexican American or Chicana/o intellectuals. Great attention is given to tracing Mexico's dominant conceptions of racial mixing, from Spanish colonization to Mexico's post-Revolutionary period. Although mestizaje continues to be a constant point of reference in U.S. Latino/a discourse, not enough attention has been given to how this ideology has been complicit with white supremacy and the exclusion of indigenous people. Mestizofilia, the dominant mestizaje ideology formulated by white and mestizo elites after Mexico's independence, proposed that racial mixing could be used as a way to whiten and homogenize the Mexican population, two characteristics deemed necessary for the creation of a strong national identity conducive to national progress. Mexican intellectuals like Vicente Riva Palacio, Andres Molina Enriquez, Jose Vasconcelos and Manuel Gamio proposed the remaking of the Mexican population through state sponsored European immigration, racial mixing for indigenous people, and the implementation of public education as a way to assimilate the population into European culture. I argue that although Mexican Americans inherited this Eurocentric formulation of mestizaje, by the mid-1960s their specific social position as a negatively racialized and economically exploited population in the United States allowed self-identified Chicana/o activists and intellectuals to depart significantly from, and in some cases, clearly critique inherited Eurocentric conceptions of racial mixing and racist views of indigenous people. Chicano/a discourse of mestizaje and indigeneity is not an uncritical reproduction of dominant Mexican mestizofilia and indigenismo, it is a collective, and sometimes deeply personal, exploration of mixed race ancestry that sought to recuperate, and in some cases, center the indigenous. Chicano/as' historical and practical context made some of their claims to indigeneity, including those dealing with spirituality, not only oppositional, but also decolonizing. Through an interdisciplinary approach grounded in Chicano/a studies, this study critically examines a broad array of texts by Mexican and Chicana/o intellectuals, including political speeches, historical texts, and literature.


A new method for calibrating stereo vision measurement system is presented. By moving a rigid optical reference bar in a pattern in and around the measurement volume, the relative orientation and position of the two cameras can be determined by using the epipolar constraint, the linear normalization eight-point algorithm and the M-estimator method. The scale factor of the translation between the two cameras can be calculated by the distances between the marks on the reference bar. With automatically controlled infrared LED marks, the imaging feature points have a uniform intensity profile and a high contrast with background. The calibration accuracy can be improved. The simulation and experiments have shown that the calibration accuracy can be comparable with the complex off-line calibration.


Sleep problems (i.e., insomnia) affect midlife women as they approach and pass through menopause at rates higher than at most other stages of life. The purpose of this article is to critically review what is known about insomnia (perceived poor sleep) and physiologically assessed sleep, as well as sleep-related disordered breathing (SDB), in women according to menopausal status and the role of hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) hormones. Self-report evidence that sleep difficulties are related to the hormonal changes of menopause is mixed. Data from studies in which sleep was physiologically measured reveal that sleep problems appear corequisite with hot flashes and sweats. Results are difficult to compare across studies because of varying methodologies in how sleep quality and patterns were assessed and how age cohorts and menopausal status were defined. The risk of SDB increases with age, although women are less susceptible at any age than men. As with men, snoring, obesity, and high blood pressure are clear risk factors. Some women may be underdiagnosed for SDB, as they have somewhat different symptom manifestations than men. Usually, frank apnea is not as evident. Primary care clinicians should be mindful of the potential for SDB in women who are obese, have high blood pressure, are cognizant of snoring, and report morning headaches and excessive daytime sleepiness. Improved care will result from consistently incorporating sleep insomnia assessments into practice as a basis for referring to sleep centers as necessary or prescribing sleep-enhancing behavioral and pharmacological treatments.


Water absorption signatures were measured from water samples placed in a 50 cm pathlength cylindrical cuvette. Quantitative analysis of chlorophyll-a and dissolved organic matter (DOM- humic acid, fulvic acid, or tannic acid) was conducted using second derivative spectra followed by computation of double inflection ratio (DIR) spectra for all possible combinations of bands (from 362 - 1115 nm with 252 channels). A specially designed instrument system is described which allows measurements of absorption of particulate and dissolved organic matter (chlorophyll-a and DOM) in a water sample. The ability of the system to allow measurement of absorption signatures and relating the data to observed or in-situ water reflectance signatures measured from a moving or in-situ platform is described. The methods demonstrate the value of high spectral resolution signatures to estimate concentrations of the water quality parameters and an analytical technique using optimal ambient correlation spectroscopy for selecting bands or channels for estimating concentrations directly from spectral absorption signatures.


Lateral heterostructures fabricated by using two-dimensional (2D) building blocks have attracted a great deal of attention in materials science and device physics. Here we report a novel type of lateral heterostructures within 2D CdS and ZnSe by means of first-principles calculations. Interestingly, the armchair configuration possesses a direct bandgap with type-II band alignment. Simultaneously, the interfacial charge transfer from ZnSe to CdS results in a built-in field which can efficiently separate the electrons and holes. Moreover, the high carrier mobilities are also identified in both armchair and zigzag configurations, even one order of magnitude higher than those of 2D transition metal chalcogenides. More remarkably, both the bandgap and band edges of the lateral heterostructures can meet the requirement of the reduction and oxidation levels in water splitting. These results make these in-plane heterostructures promising candidates for applications in next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices.


We report fabrication of lateral, n-channel, depletion-mode, junction-field-effect-transistor (JFET) monolithic analog integrated circuits (ICs) in 6H-SiC. Ti/TaSi2/Pt forms the contact metalization, Ti/Pt the interconnect metal, and the SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2 interlayer dielectric. The threshold voltage and pinch off current indicate that the actual channel doping and thickness is close to the nominal values specified. The wafer yield for good circuits of a single-stage differential amplifier is 54% out of 46 copies.


BACKGROUND
Previous studies show that oxidative stress is important in heart failure (HF) pathogenesis. The composite dietary antioxidant index (CDAI), which reflects the antioxidant profile of nutrient supplements, is associated with cardiovascular mortality risk. However, the association between CDAI and the risk of HF remains unknown.

HYPOTHESIS
In this study, we investigated the relationship between CDAI and HF risk using National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) data.

METHODS
The data of participants aged >40 years old from the NHNANES between 2001 and 2018 were obtained and used to assess the relationship between CDAI and the risk of HF. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) of CDAI for the risk of HF.

RESULTS
A total of 29 101 participants were divided into the HF (n = 1419; 4.88%) and non-HF groups (n = 27 682; 95.12%), HF group participants had lower CDAI than the non-HF group (-0.32 ± 0.14 vs. 0.67 ± 0.05, p < .0001). Compared with the lowest CDAI quartile (Q1), the OR for HF risk was 0.88 (0.68-1.13) for Q2 (p = .30), 0.77 (0.61-0.99) for Q3 (p = .04), and 0.68 (0.52-0.89) for Q4 (p = .01).

CONCLUSIONS
CDAI was negatively associated with the risk of HF. Our findings show that the intake of an antioxidant-rich dietary is a potential method to reduce the risk of HF.


It is well known that patients with multiple sclerosis note fluctuations in their symptoms under certain circumstances. For instance, it is generally known among patients that they feel more uncomfortable in heat than in cold. Heat aggravates partly their general condition and partly their neurological symptoms. In addition to an exacerbation of the existing symptoms, heat may even induce new ones, such as the transient visual impairment after a hot bath. This phenomenon has also been observed during muscular exertion and after eating. Some time ago there was in the Department of Neurology of the Copenhagen City Hospital a patient whose syndrome was dominated by such visual complaints. For this reason, we started looking for similar symptoms in other patients with the same disease. Before proceeding to general considerations regarding these visual complaints and their relation to stress, we shall briefly report this patient's history. The patient was a student,


The experiment was carried out in Balochistan Agricultural Research and Development Centre Brewery Road, Quetta during Kharif 2016 to check the effect of four different row spacings i.e., 25, 30, 35 and 40 cm on influence of row spacing on yield and yield attributes of black gram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper) variety Chakwal in Balochistan under semi-arid climate. Results revealed that except of total dry matter all the parameters including yield and yield components were significant at (P>0.05) influenced by different row spacing. Maximum (709) grain yield kg ha was received from the treatment-3 (35cm row spacing) followed by treatment-4 (40 cm row spacing) which produced (663) grain yield kg ha while the minimum (429) grain yield kg ha was gave by the treatment-1 (25 cm row spacing) respectively. Results more revealed that treatment-3 (35 cm row spacing) and treatment-4 (40cm row spacing) produced (16) and (12) total pods was recorded per plant vastly significantly and nice preformed simultaneous with grain yield. Therefore, researchers obtained differential response in relation to row spacing and selecting high yielding cultivars of mash bean.


Background Volleyball is a fun sport for children that is easy to learn and can be played in a gym, at the beach, or on grass. Playing volleyball help improve child heart work, flexibility, balance and coordination. Some schools have volleyball teams for boys and girls. Heart rates can improve sports exercise and volleyball can make children stronger and healthier. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine accountability paediatrics systems operating in youth volleyball training sessions and to understand how those systems vary according to the instructional tasks and the nature of the information provided by paediatricians. Design, setting and participants The ECG recording was performed for 5 min at rest in seated, supine or supine with elevated legs body position on different days in girl and boy school volleyball players. Measurements were undertaken in a quiet room, air temperature ranging from 21 to 22°C, after and before volleyball games. The data was analyzed for 40 female and 40 male volleyball players ranging in age from 12 to 16 years, and other equal players and athletes in other sports of the same age and gender. Methods Systematic medical observation strategies were used to describe and analyse paediatric tasks for heart rates presentation and task volleyball players in schools during paediatrics examinations. Statistical analyses were performed using the Sigmastat Programme 3.0 for windows package during period 2005–2009 in school players teams in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Main outcome measurement Young female volleyball players are more vulnerable to sport injuries but similiar heart rates stabilizing works after volleyball games comparing than their boys counterparts. Results Heart rates after volleyball games and exercise were lower and better than other sports groups in both volleyball groups for girls and boys, too, without difference. Conclusions Further research needs to address issues of paediatricians' knowledge and conceptions related to volleyball instruction for heart works improvement. No differences were noted between heart rates after exercise in boys and girls volleyball school players, but better heart rates were observed in older age volleyball players when compared to other athletes such as tennis players and soccer or basketball players.


In a careful re-evaluation of the works of Levy-Bruhl, Wiebe establishes the coherence of Levy-Bruhl's classic distinction between primitive, or mythopoeic, and scientific thought, maintaining that religious thinking is mythopoeic in nature while theology -- which thinks about religion -- is related to modern Western scientific thinking. The pre-Socratic philosophers, Wiebe shows, developed a form of rational thought radically different from the religious-mythopoeic thought that preceded it. Although Plato was concerned with recovery of the pre-philosophic wisdom of ancient Greece, he attempted this within a rational, philosophic structure. Wiebe argues that Christian thought, originally mythopoeic, changed rapidly under the influence of Hellenistic culture, and that the Platonization of Christianity introduced an element of philosophic thinking which would eventually undermine its mythopoeic essence. In clarifying the nature of religious thought and its relation to religion, Wiebe provides a sound basis for the development of a general theory of religion. While of particular interest to philosophers, theologians, and students and scholars of the study of religion, Wiebe's study draws upon sources as diverse as philosophy, history, anthropology, and sociology and will therefore interest anyone involved in these disciplines as well."


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
In 2014, family medicine residency programs began to integrate point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into training, although very few had an established POCUS curriculum. This study aimed to evaluate the resources, barriers, and scope of POCUS training in family medicine residencies 5 years after its inception.

METHODS
Questions regarding current training and use of POCUS were included in the 2019 Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of family medicine residency program directors, and results compared to similar questions on the 2014 CERA survey.

RESULTS
POCUS is becoming a core component of family medicine training programs, with 53% of program directors reporting establishing or an established core curriculum. Only 11% of program directors have no current plans to add POCUS training to their program, compared to 41% in 2014. Despite this increase in training, the reported clinical use of POCUS remains uncommon. Only 27% of programs use six of the eight surveyed POCUS modalities more than once per year. The top three barriers to including POCUS in residency training in 2019 have not changed since 2014, and are (1) a lack of trained faculty, (2) limited access to equipment, and (3) discomfort with interpreting images without radiologist review.

CONCLUSIONS
Training in POCUS has increased in family medicine residencies over the last 5 years, although practical use of this technology in the clinical setting may be lagging behind. Further research should explore how POCUS can improve outcomes and reduce costs in the primary care setting to better inform training for this technology.


The present study attempts to investigate intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of Kurdish EFL instructors in Sulaimani Province Universities.
The study hypothesizes that a) Kurdish EFL Sulaimani Province Universities' instructors' knowledge of their own and English cultures affect their level of ICC, b) existing intercultural skills affect Kurdish EFL Sulaimani Province Universities' instructor's level of ICC, c) possession of positive attitudes toward English culture affects how interculturally competent the participants are, d) Kurdish EFL Sulaimani Province Universities' instructors are aware of the differences and similarities between Kurdish and English cultures.
To verify the hypotheses, a questionnaire of thirty items has been arranged and has tested 69 instructors in all Sulaimani Province Universities.
The statistical analysis of the subjects' responses has led to the following conclusions: most Kurdish EFL instructors in Sulaimani Province Universities a) have knowledge of their own and English cultures, b) are aware of the similarities and differences of both cultures, c) can use a combination of attitudes, knowledge, and skills to communicate with culturally-diverse people d) are interested in learning about culturally diverse people's life experiences, e) show tolerance toward English culture, views and behaviors of culturally-different people, f) do not have adequate knowledge of non-verbal interactional behavior and taboos.


EDUCATION
In math education, the definition of "cooperative learning" is greater than the sum of these two words. Reinholz describes peer-assisted reflection (PAR) in an introductory calculus class, where students work together to attempt to solve a problem, reflect on their work, conference with a peer, and revise and submit a final solution. PAR emphasizes problem-solving processes, including explanation and justification, similar to an inquiry-based science class. The PAR model stresses peer interaction, with students analyzing their peers' work in order to develop analytic skills that they can then apply to their own learning. Student success through PAR was significant and comparable to similar active learning interventions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses. Most importantly, PAR resulted in students being less likely to drop introductory calculus.

Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed. 10.1007/s40753-015-0005-y (2015).


In the Quebec Appalachians, the Laurentian continental margin (Humber Zone) and adjacent oceanic domain (Dunnage Zone) were amalgamated during the Ordovician Taconian orogeny. The Dunnage Zone includes ophiolites and overlying synorogenic deposits of both the Saint-Daniel Mélange and Magog Group. The latter consists of a ∼3 km-thick pile of sandstone, felsic volcaniclastic rocks and graphitic slate at the base (Frontière, Etchemin and Beauceville formations) overlain by a ∼7 km-thick turbiditic flysch sequence, constituting the Saint-Victor Formation. The maximum upper age limit of the Magog Group was considered to be Darriwilian based on graptolite fauna. This was proven consistent with a 462+5/−4 Ma (U-Pb ID-TIMS) from a felsic tuff of the Beauceville Formation, but contradicts a detrital zircon U-Pb age of 424 ± 6 Ma recently measured in the Saint-Victor Formation. A new detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology study (HR-LA-ICP-MS and ID-TIMS), focused on the Saint-Victor Formation, yields young detrital populations that suggest that the Saint-Victor Formation is not exclusively Ordovician and extends into the Silurian, as indicated by a maximum age of sedimentation around 430 Ma. Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology associated with fossil age constraints and stratigraphic correlations in adjacent areas attest that the Saint-Victor Formation should be considered as an upper Magog Group sequence that is separated from lower units (the Frontière-Etchemin-Beauceville formations) by an unconformity corresponding to a sedimentary hiatus of ≤ 10 m.y. Regional tectonic considerations imply that the Magog Group evolved from a syn-Taconian forearc basin in Middle-Late Ordovician time to a syn-Salinic peri-continental basin in early Silurian time. Several NW and SE erosional sources are invoked for the sedimentation of the Magog Group, evolving from the erosion of both the southern Quebec ophiolites and adjacent sedimentary rocks of the Laurentia margin to the NW, and volcanic arc rocks of the Ascot Complex, Shelbourne Falls and Bronson Hill massifs to the SE. Potential sources for ca. 430 Ma zircons found towards the top of the Saint-Victor sequence are the Silurian Frontenac Formation and the East Inlet granitic pluton, both located in the vicinity of the Quebec-Maine border.


Classical economists were interested in macroeconomic issues, i.e. how the economy worked as a whole and how it grew over time. This is opposed to neo-classical economists, which focus on decision-making processes of individuals and individual firms. This thesis sets out to examine how that change occurred and what it means for the way that economics studies the environment. In order to provide a partial answer to this question, this paper describes the different outlooks between classical and neo-classical economists regarding value. It also examines and contrasts the economic approaches of Marx and Mill, whose way of thinking about social phenomena is still very relevant today. It also highlights the changes in scientific thought that occurred at the turn of the 20 th century and how they affected economics. When these disparate aspects of economic thought and their development are considered together it becomes clearer why and how the environment is treated when economic analyses is applied to it. This is the case both in terms of explaining phenomena and in terms of the policy tools that economic theory and its application offer. It also becomes more clear how analysis of the environment developed over the last couple of centuries and that each development was based on previous modes of thought.


The effects of the γ-irradiatted PLLA on the osteoblasts and apatite formation were investigated in vitro. The PLLA sheet was γ-ray irradiated at the dose of 10, 25 or 50 kGy. The mouse osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells and normal human osteoblast NHOst cells were micromass cultured on the PLLA sheet for 2 weeks, and then the proliferation and differentiation of the cells were determined. The proliferations of MC3T3-E1 and NHOst cells hardly changed with increasing irradiation dose. However, the differentiations of MC3T3-E1 and NHOst cells increased with irradiation dose. On the other hand, the surface of the PLLA sheet after soaking in the medium without the cells was characterized by SEM, EDX, FT-IR and XPS. The hydroxyapatite was formed on the surface of the PLLA sheet after soaking, and the amount of hydroxyapatite increased with irradiation dose. In summary, the γ-irradiated PLLA increased the differentiation of osteoblasts and also increased apatite-forming ability even without the osteoblasts. The osteoblast differentiation was enhanced well in the apatite formation on the surface of PLLA after the γ-irradiation.


Objective:The tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-&agr; promoter −308 A/G polymorphism has been reported to be associated with sepsis with inconsistent results. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether the TNF-&agr; −308 A/G polymorphism TNF2 (G/A or A/A) confers susceptibility to sepsis or is associated with increased risk of death from sepsis. Data Sources:We performed an electronic search of OVID MEDLINE from 1950 to June 2008 and EMBASE from 1980 to June 2008. Study Selection:From 1935 reviewed study articles, 25 were included based on predefined inclusion criteria. Data Extraction:Two reviewers independently extracted data onto standardized forms. Data Synthesis:An association between development of sepsis and the TNF2 genotype was found in the overall population (odds ratio, 2.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.45–3.19; p < .01). Stratification by ethnicity indicated that the contribution to this observation may be stronger among the Asian population (odds ratio, 3.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.92 to 5.20; p < .01) compared with other ethnicities. There was no association between the TNF2 genotype and mortality from sepsis (odds ratio, 1.48; 95% confidence interval, 0.81 to 2.70; p = .20). However, when stratified for ethnicity, there may be an increased risk for fatal outcomes among Asians (odds ratio, 10.75; 95% confidence interval, 2.98 to 38.78; p < .01). Conclusions:Our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that the TNF2 polymorphism is associated with sepsis. However, TNF2 is not associated with sepsis mortality.


This paper proposes a novel, reconfigurable parallel kinematics machine with three degrees of freedom that can be used for various three-axis manipulation tasks, including machining. By locking some joints, the proposed parallel kinematics machine (PKM) can be transformed into four topologies with eight configurations to attain certain kinematic properties while keeping the number of its degrees of freedom unchanged. Either the proximal or intermediate prismatic joints of the reconfigurable PKM can be actuated. Some of the configurations are orthogonal configurations having a large rectangular cuboid workspace, and some other configurations are non-orthogonal configurations which provide the capability to perform a machining task to a large workpiece in various positions with respect to the machine. Accordingly, the proposed machine can be transformed from an orthogonal machine to a non-orthogonal machine with the advantages of each. The mobility of the various topologies of the reconfigurable PKM is rigorously analyzed using the screw theory. The workspace is analyzed using a graphical approach and verified by a computational approach. The pose kinematics shows that the various topologies have unified kinematics. The differential kinematics shows that the singularities in the various configurations occur at the workspace boundary. Similarly, the stiffness analysis shows that the low-stiffness postures occur around the workspace boundary. Accordingly, a used workspace far from the workspace boundary easily avoids the singularities and the low stiffness.


A high-resolution 3-D hydrodynamic model capable of simulating far wakes of ships has been implemented using computational fluid dynamics software. We feed the surface velocity field produced by the hydrodynamic model into a numerical radar imaging model to simulate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signatures of the wake. Potential capabilities of this modeling method are demonstrated for an example of wind stress effects on the centerline (turbulent) ship wake. The numerical simulations show that an interaction of the wind-induced surface current with circulations in the ship wake results in a convergence zone on the upwind side of the centerline wake and a divergence zone on the downwind side. In the simulated radar image, the convergence zone appears to be bright because of enhanced surface roughness and radar backscattering. The divergence zone looks dark due to an attenuation of short gravity capillary waves and a corresponding reduction of the backscattered power. This combined hydrodynamic and radar imaging model predicts an asymmetry of the centerline wake with respect to the wind direction, which is consistent with observed ship wake signatures in high-resolution satellite SAR images. The approach developed in this work could be also useful for simulations of other natural and artificial fine-scale features on the sea surface (sharp frontal interfaces, freshwater plumes, etc.) and their interpretation in high-resolution SAR imagery.


Objectives Cardiovascular pathology, including aortic root dilation at the level of sinus of Valsalva (SV), is one of the major causes of morbidity in paediatric patients with Marfan syndrome (MFS). β-Blocker (BB) is well established to slow aortic dilation in MFS. Less is known about the effectiveness of angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) on aortic dilation in paediatric patients with MFS. Methods 215 patients with MFS (9.01±5.7 years) were subject to a standardised diagnostic programme. Aortic root dilation was evaluated and followed up by echocardiography. In 48 cases, BB and ARB effects on aortic root dilation were evaluated. Effect of treatment was measured by comparison of z scores of SV before and after treatment initiation. Results Treatment by ARB and BB leads to significant reduction of SV dilation (p<0.05). The deviation of SV enlargement from normal as expressed by the rate of change in z scores was significantly reduced by a mean difference of −0.56±0.71 z scores (p<0.001) under ARB therapy and by a mean difference of −0.35±0.68 z scores (p<0.05) under BB therapy. The prophylactic effect of ARB and BB on aortic root dilation is similar in both groups (p>0.05). Conclusions Both concepts lead to a significant reduction of SV dilation. The effect of ARB and BB is similar. This is the first study concerning the comparison of ARB and BB in previously untreated paediatric patients with MFS. The results of the study show that both treatment strategies are beneficial in paediatric and adolescent patients.


Abstract—The aim of this paper is to present a parametric study to determine the major factors that influence the calculations of current rating for both air and underground cables. The current carrying capability of the power cables rely largely on the installation conditions and material properties. In this work, the influences on ampacity of conductor size, soil thermal resistivity and ambient soil temperature for underground installations are shown. The influences on the current-carrying capacity of solar heating (time of day effects and intensity of solar radiation), ambient air temperature and cable size for cables air are also presented. IEC and IEEE standards are taken as reference.


The capacity of immobilized cells of propionic bacteria to synthesize organic acids was examined. Propionibacterium shermanii cells incorporated into polyacrylamide gel were capable to synthesize propionic, acetic and pyruvic acids in the flow system. As a carbon source glucose, lactate-Na or whey lactose was used. The greatest amount of the acids was synthesized with the use of lactate-Na. The life-time of the biocatalyst (immobilized cells) can be increased by its reactivation with a nutrient medium required for optimal cell proliferation.


Background The soft-bodied cladobranch sea slugs represent roughly half of the biodiversity of marine nudibranch molluscs on the planet. Despite their global distribution from shallow waters to the deep sea, from tropical into polar seas, and their important role in marine ecosystems and for humans (as targets for drug discovery), the evolutionary history of cladobranch sea slugs is not yet fully understood. Results To enlarge the current knowledge on the phylogenetic relationships, we generated new transcriptome data for 19 species of cladobranch sea slugs and two additional outgroup taxa ( Berthella plumula and Polycera quadrilineata ). We complemented our taxon sampling with previously published transcriptome data, resulting in a final data set covering 56 species from all but one accepted cladobranch superfamilies. We assembled all transcriptomes using six different assemblers, selecting those assemblies that provided the largest amount of potentially phylogenetically informative sites. Quality-driven compilation of data sets resulted in four different supermatrices: two with full coverage of genes per species (446 and 335 single-copy protein-coding genes, respectively) and two with a less stringent coverage (667 genes with 98.9% partition coverage and 1767 genes with 86% partition coverage, respectively). We used these supermatrices to infer statistically robust maximum-likelihood trees. All analyses, irrespective of the data set, indicate maximal statistical support for all major splits and phylogenetic relationships at the family level. Besides the questionable position of Noumeaella rubrofasciata , rendering the Facelinidae as polyphyletic, the only notable discordance between the inferred trees is the position of Embletonia pulchra . Extensive testing using Four-cluster Likelihood Mapping, Approximately Unbiased tests, and Quartet Scores revealed that its position is not due to any informative phylogenetic signal, but caused by confounding signal. Conclusions Our data matrices and the inferred trees can serve as a solid foundation for future work on the taxonomy and evolutionary history of Cladobranchia. The placement of E. pulchra , however, proves challenging, even with large data sets and various optimization strategies. Moreover, quartet mapping results show that confounding signal present in the data is sufficient to explain the inferred position of E. pulchra , again leaving its phylogenetic position as an enigma.


This study examines three aspects of current challenges of the European defence. Firstly, Joanna Kidd argues that the end of the Cold War has placed new demands on the navies. She points out the European navies' strengths and weaknesses, and question whether matters in EU navies will improve. In the second article Phillip Mitchell asks if it is necessary, or even possible, to have a genuine and independent European defence and security capability, and discusses the capability gap between Europe and the United states. Lastly, Kidd examines the current trends of decline in the Russian navies. She asks if this decline has reached a plateau with Vladimir Putin, and examines the new strategic naval doctrine under his presidency.


Dystonia in the pediatric age group can be confused with hysteria, particularly when it occurs in an emotionally disturbed child with a negative family history of dystonia. A 20-year-old girl with a 12 year history of DMD is described. From age 12 to 17 she was housed in a mental institution after a misdiagnosis of hysteria was made. The progressive nature of DMD and the important emotional components are stressed. The multidisciplinary management model is discussed as a valuable method in the treatment of this chronic neurological disorder.


Renal sympathetic denervation is safe and effective in patients with resistant hypertension. In all of the studies of renal artery denervation, patients with accessory renal arteries are excluded. So there is not any data regarding renal sympathetic denervation applied to the accessory renal arteries. We present a young female patient with resistant hypertension despite use of five different antihypertensive drugs. The patient had a well developed (diameter >4 mm) left renal accessory. We believe that if we omitted the well developed accessory renal artery, we would not have maintained adequate blood pressure control. Thus, we applied radiofrequency ablation to both renal arteries and left accessory artery. Immediately after the procedure, the patient′s blood pressure was reduced to 110/60 mmHg and this effect was continued during the first month of follow-up.


This is the written thesis which accompanies the practical element of my research which was presented in June 2015. Taken together, the two modes are designed to share my processes and findings.
I have been conducting research into psychophysical training methodologies for ensemble performance, interrogating the methods of the practitioners Annie Loui, John Britton, Jerzy Grotowski, Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida, and Frantic Assembly. I wanted to discover which tasks were the most effective in cultivating a specific set of skills in an ensemble and why? these skills were: dissolving "blocks" and responding to impulses; awareness of our own bodies; focus; stage presence; playfulness and group awareness. The research also explores how one could create a transferrable training - one that the participants could take advantage of and reapply to other performance/theatre training contexts.
Using a group of 6 undergraduate students (who at the time were in their second year of their drama degree), I used a task-based approach to the work, conducting exercises with the group which came from both firsthand experience with John Britton, and from books by the practitioners mentioned above. The training was intended to practically critique these exercises by trying them out in the studio. The use of a video camera to record workshops meant that I could watch the work back after the sessions. The studio work and the camera combined, gave me an interesting perspective on the research, because as the leader of the group and also a part of the ensemble, I was both inside the research and an outside eye. When the process was over, the participants completed exit questionnaires, and were interviewed in order for me to gain a more comprehensive view of their experience of the process.
Each of the participants improved to different degrees in each of the areas in which they were trained and I was successful in creating a transferrable training, as each of the participants affirmed that they would use the practices in their future performances and theatrical careers. I also found that for some of them, the training had impacted on their everyday lives, some commenting that as a direct result of the process, they had become more mature around other people and/or less self conscious and anxious.


Since the discovery of the first topological material 15 years ago, the search for material realizations of novel topological phases has become the driving force of the field. While oftentimes we search for new materials, we forget that well established materials can also display very interesting topological properties. In this work, we revisit CoS 2 , a metallic ferromagnetic pyrite that has been extensively studied in the literature due to its magnetic properties. We study the topological features of its electronic band structure and identify Weyl nodes and nodal lines, as well as a symmetry-protected fourfold fermion close to the Fermi level. Looking at different surface cleavage planes, we observe both spin polarized Fermi arcs in the majority channel and drumhead states. These findings suggest that CoS2 is a promising platform to study topological phenomena, as well as a good candidate for spintronic applications.


Floods of January and February 1993 in Arizona resulted in the most dramatic channel widening on the middle Gila River since 1905. An earlier flood in October 1983 had a larger instantaneous discharge but resulted in little channel change. The 1993 flood was of greater volume and duration, factors important in destabilizing flood-plain vegetation and eroding bank material. The 1983 flood was produced by a dissipating eastern Pacific tropical storm, whereas the 1993 flood was produced by a series of cold fronts from the northern Pacific Ocean supplied with subtropical moisture from a split jet stream. Meridional global circulation patterns enhance the frequency of winter storms that produce sustained flooding in Arizona and are more likely to result in channel widening and flood-plain instability on main trunk streams like the Gila River.


The pressure distribution in the tip clearance region of a 2D turbine cascade was examined with reference to unknown factors which cause high heat transfer rates and burnout along the edge of the pressure surface of unshrouded cooled axial turbines.Using a special micro-tapping technique, the pressure along a very narrow strip of the blade edge was found to be 2.8 times lower than the cascade outlet pressure. This low pressure, coupled with a thin boundary layer due to the intense acceleration at gap entry, are believed to cause blade burnout. The flow phenomena causing the low pressure are of very small scale and do not appear to have been previously reported.The ultra low pressure is primarily caused by the sharp flow curvature demanded of the leakage flow at gap entry. The curvature is made more severe by the apparent attachement of the flow around the corner instead of immediately separating to increase the radius demanded of the flow. The low pressures are intensified by a depression in the suction corner and by the formation of a separation bubble in the clearance gap. The bubble creates a venturi action. The suction corner depression is due to the mainstream flow moving round the leakage and secondary vortices.Copyright © 1987 by ASME


Objective A deep learning algorithm was developed for automatic detection and localization of intracranial aneurysms in DSA, and its clinical characteristics were analyzed, and targeted nursing measures were formulated. Methods Using a retrospective multicenter study method based on radiology reports, DSA images of aneurysms were randomly divided into 75 cases in the training set, 20 cases in the internal test set, and 35 cases in the external test set. Using a computer-aided detection method based on the three-dimensional U-Net (3D U-Net), after preprocessing DSA images, automatic segmentation of intracranial blood vessels is performed to obtain regions of interest, and based on the segmentation results, physicians' annotations are introduced. The 3D U-Net network model is trained and adjusted, and the obtained model is used to automatically detect the cerebral aneurysm area. Results Fivefold cross-validation was used for the training set and the internal test set, and a sensitivity of (94.4 ± 1.1)% was obtained. Automatic detection of aneurysms was performed on the external test set, and the average false positive rate was 0.86 FPs/case (false positives/case). The resulting sensitivity was 82.9%. The classification comparison of external test sets showed that the sensitivity of the method for detecting aneurysms with sizes of 5.00~<10.00 mm and ≥10.00 mm (88.2% and 100.0%) was higher than that for aneurysms with sizes of <3.00 mm and 3.00~<5.00 mm (50.0% and 72.7%). The sensitivity of patients aged 50-60 years and >60 years (90.0% and 87.5%) was higher than that of patients aged <50 years (66.7%), and there was little difference between different genders (84.6% in males and 81.8% in females). Conclusion The deep learning algorithm has high diagnostic performance in detecting intracranial aneurysms, which is verified by external datasets.


Abstract We have been studying the growth regulation of nontumorigenic versus tumorigenic cells in vitro and in vivo . In these studies, we have found that a variety of mammalian cell cultures which are nontumorigenic in athymic nude mice or in syngeneic hosts grow exponentially if implanted in vivo within sealed Millipore diffusion chambers. The growth rates of the cells in vivo within the diffusion chambers were comparable to those observed in vitro . Moreover, the cells grown in vivo within the chambers exhibited density-dependent growth inhibition which was similar, at least superficially, to the in vitro phenomenon. The ability of the nontumorigenic cells to grow when implanted in vivo within diffusion chambers was correlated with and was thought due, in part, to the formation of serous clots within the implanted chambers. Studies of the clots by light, scanning electron, and electron microscopy showed cells throughout the clot and adherent to the clot fibers. We tested the growth of each of the cell lines for dependence on serum growth factors by observing the ability of the cells to grow in medium supplemented with serum versus defibrinogenated, platelet-poor plasma (PPP). BALB/c-3T3 cells and other nontumorigenic, fibroblast-like cell lines failed to proliferate in vitro when defibrinogenated, PPP was substituted for serum, demonstrating a requirement by the cells for growth factors unique to serum. Virally transformed, tumorigenic fibroblasts grew in media supplemented with either PPP or serum. Thus, for these fibroblast-like cell lines, the ability of the cells to grow in PPP is correlated with tumorigenicity in athymic nude mice. Since the interstitial fluid surrounding cells in vivo resembles PPP more than serum and since many of the nontumorigenic fibroblast-like cell lines demonstrated a requirement for serum growth factor, the growth of these cell lines within the implanted diffusion chambers suggests that serum growth factors might be required for growth of such cells in vivo and that serum growth factors can accumulate within the diffusion chambers. Analysis of the serous clot material provided evidence to coroborate this hypothesis. The fluid from implanted chambers can stimulate growth of BALB/c-3T3 cells. The growth factor activity of the serous chamber fluid is more comparable to that of mouse serum than to that of mouse PPP. Our studies suggest that two of the possible factors provided by implanted Millipore chambers in vivo and required for growth of nontumorigenic fibroblast-like cells are: ( a ) a substrate for cell anchorage provided in this case by the fibrous clots and by the nitrocellulose surface of the Millipore filters; and ( b ) growth factors which accumulate within the microenvironment of the diffusion chamber implants.


The reported work was motivated by the energy needs in the Mauritania region and the utility of the search features of a software system, named HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources), for feasibility analysis of a hybrid power generation system (HS) for the Mauritanian northern coast. This study analyzed a sample of the available wind resources to meet the energy needs of these localities, using the HOMER software with the aim to search for the best possible configuration. A configuration was sought through this work which is considered with less intermittence in the system. In addition, given the relationship noted in the study between the influence of the average wind speed and the price of diesel in liters, it was also suggested to highlight configurations that exclude storage or that may decrease the size of the fuel. This, as a supplementary feature, also allowed, for example, to justify the additional cost generated by the insertion of the diesel group. In this context, five (5) values are given for the study of the price sensitivity of the liter of diesel; these values are proposed as follows: 1.05 $/L (current), 1.08, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.5 $/L (Maximum price). In another way, to carry out the sensitivity analysis through simulations that take into account the average wind speed, the values retained (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 m/s (maximum speed)) to deepen the study of the behavior of configurations by HOMER software. Finally, we must remember the number of kilowatt-hours produced that may seem insignificant to the country's energy production capacity, but these few tens or hundreds of kilowatt-hours can revive all the hope of the localities of the Mauritanian northern coast. In short, we report here some interesting findings as a result of the search carried out of resources using the HOMER system.

 Key words: HOMER software, hybrid system, wind, kilowatt-hours (kWh) price, sensitivity analysis.


We present stellar evolution models of the final AGB phase, in which the star undergoes heavy and optically thick mass-loss ("superwind" phase). Our computations are based on consistent, pulsating wind models for carbon-rich stars and include a detailed treatment of dust formation, radiative transfer and wind acceleration (Fleischer et al. 1992). For a specific mass range, around 1.2 M stellar mass at the foot-AGB and only about 0.2 M wide, we find particularly pronounced episodic mass-loss which is consistent with all properties of the detached CO shells found by Olofsson et al. (1990, 1993, 1996) around bright carbon stars: kinematic ages of 1 to 2 10 4 yrs, masses of several 0.01 M, and a mass-loss duration of less than several thousand years. The physics, micro-physics, and chemistry of our dust- induced superwind is essential for understanding such details of the final stellar mass-loss history. Unlike other superwind models, our mass-loss rate depends very sensitively on the stel- lar temperature - about / T 8 e - and our models require a minimum luminosity to be surmounted. Together, that yields a much pronounced mass-loss variation with the late thermal pulses. In particular, our models suggest the formation of CO shells in the final 2 to 6 10 4 yrs on the tip-AGB - if the stellar luminosity is close to the critical (Eddington-like) luminosity log Lc (around 3.5 to 3.7, depending on Te ), while the star has only < 0:2M left to lose towards the exposure of its hot core.


Fiscal rules are necessary to protect monetary policy from the consequences of unsustainable or active fiscal policy on inflation. Monetary unions, like the EMU, require even stronger fiscal rules to avoid free riding by regional fiscal authorities on the common monetary policy. By contrast, in a fiscal federation, a federal government internalises the effect of active regional policies on the overall price level. Federal fiscal policy contributes to price stability either by enforcing fiscal rules or adjusting its own stance. Following Canzoneri et al. (2001), we test if federal and regional government in Germany behave in an active or passive way. We find evidence of a spillover effect of unsustainable policies on other regions. The German federal government offsets the effect on the price level by running passive policies. The Bundesbank prime objective of price stability is therefore endorsed by fiscal policy. The results have implications for the regulation of fiscal policies in the EMU.

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This review deals with information on the relationship of the immunity system and the lipid transport system. The data of literature and the results obtained by the authors indicated that an elevated level of cholesterol in the blood serum is associated with the increased activity of the immunity system. On the one hand, lipids and their metabolites produce an immunomodulating effect and, on the other hand, biologically active molecules, synthesized by immunocompetent cells in the process of their activation and proliferation, regulate lipid metabolism.


The wireless link can be unreliable in realistic wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Energy efficient and reliable data forwarding is important because each node has limited resources. Therefore, we must suggest an optimal solution that considers using the information of the node's characteristics. Previous routing protocols were unsuited to realistic asymmetric WSNs. In this paper, we propose a Protocol that considers Both sides of Link-quality and Energy (PBLE), an optimal routing protocol that balances modified link-quality, distance and energy. Additionally, we propose a node scheduling method. PBLE achieves a longer lifetime than previous routing protocols and is more energy-efficient. PBLE uses energy, local information and both sides of PRR in a 1-hop distance. We explain how to send data packets to the destination node using the node's information. Simulation shows PBLE improves delivery rate and network lifetime compared to previous schemes. Moreover, we show the improvement in various WSN environments. Keywords—energy-efficient, lifetime, PBLE, unreliable


Pulmonary arterial stiffness is an independent risk factor for mortality in pulmonary hypertension (PH) and plays a critical role in PH pathophysiology. Our laboratory has recently demonstrated arterial stiffening early in experimental PH, along with evidence for a mechanobiological feedback loop by which arterial stiffening promotes further cellular remodeling behaviors (Liu F, Haeger CM, Dieffenbach PB, Sicard D, Chrobak I, Coronata AM, Suárez Velandia MM, Vitali S, Colas RA, Norris PC, Marinković A, Liu X, Ma J, Rose CD, Lee SJ, Comhair SA, Erzurum SC, McDonald JD, Serhan CN, Walsh SR, Tschumperlin DJ, Fredenburgh LE. JCI Insight 1: e86987, 2016). Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and prostaglandin signaling have been implicated in stiffness-mediated regulation, with prostaglandin activity inversely correlated to matrix stiffness and remodeling behaviors in vitro, as well as to disease progression in rodent PH models. The mechanism by which mechanical signaling translates to reduced COX-2 activity in pulmonary vascular cells is unknown. The present work investigated the transcriptional regulators Yes-associated protein (YAP) and WW domain-containing transcription regulator 1 (WWTR1, a.k.a., TAZ), which are known drivers of downstream mechanical signaling, in mediating stiffness-induced changes in COX-2 and prostaglandin activity in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). We found that YAP/TAZ activity is increased in PAH PASMCs and experimental PH and is necessary for the development of stiffness-dependent remodeling phenotypes. Knockdown of YAP and TAZ markedly induces COX-2 expression and downstream prostaglandin production by approximately threefold, whereas overexpression of YAP or TAZ reduces COX-2 expression and prostaglandin production to near undetectable levels. Together, our findings demonstrate a stiffness-dependent YAP/TAZ-mediated positive feedback loop that drives remodeling phenotypes in PASMCs via reduced COX-2 and prostaglandin activity. The ability to interrupt this critical mechanobiological feedback loop and enhance local prostaglandin activity via manipulation of YAP/TAZ signaling presents a highly attractive novel strategy for the treatment of PH.


An outbreak of a bacterial contagion is a critical threat for human health worldwide. Recently, light-activated heterostructured nanomaterials (LAHNs) have shown potential as antibacterial agents, owing to their unique structural and optical properties. Many investigations have revealed that heterostructured nanomaterials are potential antibacterial agents under light irradiation. In this review, we summarize recent developments of light-activated antibacterial agents using heterostructured nanomaterials and specifically categorized those agents based on their various light harvesters. The detailed antibacterial mechanisms are also addressed. With the achievements of LAHNs as antibacterial agents, we further discuss the challenges and opportunities for their future clinical applications.


Author(s): Ichpekova, Diana Vladimirova | Advisor(s): Sears, David O. | Abstract: The collapse of communism two decades ago — and the subsequent political and economic transformation of Central and Eastern Europe — has raised new questions about the ability of citizens to adapt to changing institutional orders. This dissertation project starts with a large and fundamental puzzle: over the past twenty years, post-communist nations have shown improved convergence toward Western standards of economic and political performance, yet public opinion has grown increasingly disapproving of the changes that have taken place. Why? While rational-choice theories expect individuals to engage in simple cost-benefit analyses of altering realities, psychological accounts suggest impediments to such practicable adjustments; theories of socialization and attitude "persistence," in particular, emphasize the perseverance and continuing influence of values acquired earlier in life. This dissertation seeks to integrate these various insights and provide a more comprehensive understanding of transition at the individual- level. Utilizing a unique mix of (a) cross-sectional, repeated survey data (European Values Study/World Values Study, 1990-2005), (b) longitudinal survey data (German Socioeconomic Panel, 1999-2010), and (c) macro indicators of economic and political outputs, it investigates the relative importance of early ("primacy") experiences, (re-)learning procedures, and contemporary societal factors for the development of post-communist beliefs. Incorporating a range of statistical techniques, it also probes related mechanisms of change, including within-person attitude stability, alterations in cohort composition over time, migration, and the intergenerational transmission of values, so as to better address the prospects for convergence. The findings reveal numerous challenges to the task of attitudinal adaptation. Although post-communists are found to partially respond to changing circumstances — and to move some way toward the norms espoused by their Western counterparts — these shifts are shown to be neither linear over time, nor symmetrical for all involved. Rather, even decades after regime change, significant (leftist) biases remain, particularly for members of older cohorts. Supplementary analyses unearth additional evidence of resistance, illustrating how these stable, socialist distinctions might linger further into the long-term, defying physical relocation and potentially even population replacement. Such an inquiry is hoped to illuminate transitions beyond Europe (e.g., China, Middle East), where citizen adaptation to post-authoritarian climates will be critical for democratic consolidation.


This glorious book is filled to the brim with a wide ranging history of textiles and 350 superb illustrations drawn from many countries and sources vestments and costume, samplers and pictures, great beds and furniture. The story of embroidery and needlework is discussed within the fascinating context of the history of fabrics, of decorative costume, of interior decoration, of church and state ceremonial, of girl's education, of furniture and pastimes. Silk, cotton, linen, and the significance of colours and dyes are also considered. Two interesting chapters reveal the world-wide fascination in an influence of Chinese embroidery and Indian textiles. With a broad account of the artistic achievements of every facet of decorative needlework the book is rich with the art-historical background encompassing the most magnificent of all embroidery, the mediaeval English vestments so coveted by Popes and Bishops across Europe, to the domestic treasures created in more recent centuries. Baroque, Rococo, neo-classical and other period characteristics are each discussed with reference to works created by children, young girls, and ladies who made furniture coverings destined for posterity. The nineteenth century saw extremes of art and fashion ranging from Berlin woolwork to Art Needlework and the eclectic inspiration represented by William Morris, all leading to simpler modernist styles which evolved over the twentieth century. The author sets in political and social context the whole panoply of textiles distinguishing between the magnificent products of professional workshops and the uniquely individual and especially charming amateur embroideries that survive today amongst the most beautiful treasures of the decorative arts. Mr Synge's text is authoritative but examines with infectious enthusiasm this field which has never been sufficiently understood but now interests more people than ever before. It will appeal to all who admire beautiful things, fine workmanship, good design and lovely fabrics.


In this paper, we conceptualise and propose integrating UAVs with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) based on using the Cooperative-ITS (C-ITS) framework. We start by discussing the state of the art and pinpointing some of the reasons for integration and the applications that the envisaged integration would enable. Next, we recall the critical aspects of the state of the art C-ITS connectivity and discuss how seamless integration of UAVs into C-ITS can be achieved. Notably, we show that encapsulation of UAVs in C-ITS does not imply significant changes for the currently existing mechanisms and data formats. Finally, we discuss some of the open research challenges related to the integration and operation of the integrated systems and pinpoint some mechanisms which can help to address these.


In order to evaluate the quality of hardware products comprehensively and objectively, an evaluation model of extension multilevel optimization about hardware products has been established. The model was based on analyzing the quality management of hardware enterprises and took the hardware valve as an example. The solving process firstly used scale index and the first evaluation in restricting and reducing the scope of evaluation so as to improve solving efficiency. Then the values of correlation function, correlation degree, standard correlation degree and the optimization were calculated. Finally the comprehensive evaluation results could be got objectively through comparative analyzing these values. The results indicated that higher degree of satisfaction program would be obtained by applying the multilevel optimization evaluation method of product. And the products quality largely depended on its production stage. Thereby it aided the production managers to do the right choice.


Most Hong Kong secondary schools have two teams of guidance and discipline teachers to manage students' misbehaviour. The guidance team is mainly responsible for providing a personal counselling service and for carrying out guidance programmes, such as sex education. The discipline team works with students who have been identified as having behavioural problems. They are also responsible for enforcing discipline policy, such as the wearing of school uniform. Most teachers and school managers are concerned with the difficulty of integrating guidance and discipline into schooling. Many studies have shown that guidance teachers are described as 'soft' whereas discipline teachers as described as 'strict' and 'tough'. Each team of teachers has a contrasting rationale as to how best to help students resolve their difficulties. However, no research has yet been completed into how guidance and discipline are implemented in the classroom. This article focuses on this area and reports a study of what classroom knowledge teachers and students construct, with respect to the relationship between guidance and discipline. The qualitative methods for data collection are described and two case studies are presented. The analysis shows that such a relationship differs from school to school, and that teachers' construct of classroom knowledge of guidance and discipline is closely linked to the features of school organisation of the schools to which these teachers belong. Finally, the paper looks at the implication of this study in drawing school managers' and policy makers' attention to the impact of school organisation on guidance and discipline in the classroom.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID), chronic progressive causing inflammation in the joints and resulting in painful deformity and immobility, especially in the fingers, wrists, feet, and ankles. Periodontitis is defined as an inflammatory disease of supporting tissues of teeth caused by specific microorganisms or their groups, resulting in progressive destruction of the periodontal ligament and alveolar bone with periodontal pocket formation, clinical attachment loss, or both. Individuals manifesting both periodontitis and RA may suffer from a unifying underlying systemic dysregulation of the inflammatory response. In the past few years, increasing attention has been given to aspects of oral health in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, especially related to associations with periodontal disease. In this chapter we will be reviewing about the pathophysiology of RA and role of inflammation, periodontal disease: a gateway to RA, oral manifestations of RA, immunogenetics of RA and periodontitis, treatment implications for RA and periodontitis based on common pathophysiology.


Without any moving part, optical gyroscopes exhibit superior reliability and accuracy in comparison to mechanical sensors. Microring-resonator-based optical gyroscopes emerged as alternatives for bulky conventional Sagnac interferometer sensors, especially attractive for applications with limited footprints. Previously, it has been reported that planar incorporation of multiple resonators does not bring about improvement in sensitivity for a given area because the increase in Sagnac phase accumulation does not outrun the increase of area. Therefore, it was naturally suggested to consider vertical stacking of ring resonators because then, the resonators can share the same footprint. In this work, sensitivity performances of such configurations with vertically stacked microring resonators are analyzed and compared to that of a basic (single-resonator) configuration. Through comprehensive study, it is learned that the sensitivity performance of the devices with vertically-stacked resonators (either with a single bus waveguide or with two bus waveguides) does not exceed that of the basic sensor device (single resonator with one bus waveguide), i.e. the basic structure is yet to be remained as the most efficient configuration.


Drs. Poznanski, Stern, and Gall's constructive comments on the paper by Dr. Lintermans and myself illustrate once again how frail we are when science comes to interpreting facts. Although the absence of carpal ossification centers probably has no diagnostic meaning, we still think that it is an interesting finding which has not been noted before. Without dwelling upon the controversy of determining skeletal age by means of a center-to-center approach (Garn et al) vs pictoral standards (Greulich-Pyle), we could have avoided confusion by stating that we preferred the latter. Furthermore, lines 34-ff of page 782 would make more sense if some words were restored. It should read: "....; the same holds true for a 5-month-old baby boy without ossification centers at the wrist and an 8-year-old girl lacking ossification centers of the triquetral, lunate, trapezius, trapizoid and scaphoid bones, and of the distal ulnar spiphysis, giving her an estimated bone age


Constant increase in use of wireless infrastructure networks for business purposes created a need for strong safety mechanisms. This paper describes WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) protocol for the protection of wireless networks, its security deficiencies, as well as the various kinds of attacks that can jeopardize security goals of WEP protocol: authentication, confidentiality and integrity. The paper, also, gives a summary of security improvements of WEP protocol that can lead to the higher level of wireless network infrastructure protection. Comparative analysis shows the advantages of the new 802.11i standard in comparison to the previous security solutions.


In response to rapid globalization, African countries have dedicated considerable efforts to transform rural producers into businesses and integrate them with global markets. Pastoralists are mostly isolated from the other livestock value chain members. This makes it difficult for them to acquire knowledge regarding how the market functions and what the value chain members' want. This study explores how much pastoralists know and what knowledge they need to seize market opportunities. Using qualitative evidence from Ethiopian pastoralists, this study finds that pastoralists understand routine and physically existing facts such as selling livestock in a fixed market place during regular market days. However, the pastoralists lack the higher order knowledge that includes a broader understanding of the market phenomena and the abilities to scrutinize and interpolate those phenomena into their livestock raising experiential realm to make informed production decisions. This will hinder their functioning as "businesses" in modern value chains. This study therefore suggests for the development of market knowledge among pastoralists. Policy makers and development workers can consider marketing training to build the market knowledge of pastoralists. Further research could study how to effectively train the pastoralists to acquaint them with market knowledge to focus on market-based livestock production.

 Key words: Market integration, market knowledge, remoteness, pastoral, Ethiopia.


The influential role of Wnt5a in tumor progression underscores the requirement for developing molecules that can target Wnt5a-mediated cellular responses. In the aggressive skin cancer, melanoma, elevated Wnt5a expression promotes cell motility and drives metastasis. Two approaches can be used to counteract these effects: inhibition of Wnt5a expression or direct blockade of Wnt5a signaling. We have investigated both options in the melanoma cell lines, A2058 and HTB63. Both express Frizzled-5, which has been implicated as the receptor for Wnt5a in melanoma cells. However, only the HTB63 cell line expresses and secretes Wnt5a. In these cells, the cytokine, TGFβ1, controlled the expression of Wnt5a, but due to the unpredictable effects of TGFβ1 signaling on melanoma cell motility, targeting Wnt5a signaling via TGFβ1 was an unsuitable strategy to pursue. We therefore attempted to target Wnt5a signaling directly. Exogenous Wnt5a stimulation of A2058 cells increased adhesion, migration and invasion, all crucial components of tumor metastasis, and the Wnt5a-derived N-butyloxycarbonyl hexapeptide (Met-Asp-Gly-Cys-Glu-Leu; 0.766 kDa) termed Box5, abolished these responses. Box5 also inhibited the basal migration and invasion of Wnt5a-expressing HTB63 melanoma cells. Box5 antagonized the effects of Wnt5a on melanoma cell migration and invasion by directly inhibiting Wnt5a-induced protein kinase C and Ca2+ signaling, the latter of which we directly demonstrate to be essential for cell invasion. The Box5 peptide directly inhibits Wnt5a signaling, representing an approach to anti-metastatic therapy for otherwise rapidly progressive melanoma, and for other Wnt5a-stimulated invasive cancers.


Abstract During the attempt to transfer to tobacco a method commonly used to determine metobromuron in foodstuffs, it became apparent that only very small amounts of metobromuron and less than 0.1 ppm 4-bromoanilin were found. Nor did the modification of this method produce better results, because metobromuron, apparently linked to tobacco components, cannot be extracted with aqueous acetonitrile. The tobacco was then distilled under hydrolysing conditions and the 4-bromoanilin released was bound as hydrochloride. After gas-chromatographic separation 4-bromoanilin is determined specifically with the microcoulometer (bromine) and with the Coulson detector (nitrogen). The amount of metobromuron is calculated from the 4-bromoanilin. With this method no difference can be made between intact metobromuron and 4-bromoanilin already metabolised from metobromuron. Recovery is 90 % for 4-bromoanilin and 92 % for metobromuron, the coefficient of variation is 3.0 %. In cigarettes whose tobacco had grown in soil which had been treated with 4 kg of Patoran per hectare before transplanting, a mean of 5.8 ppm metobromuron was found by this procedure.


To the Editor. —Studies with tonometered plasma and blood indicate that the pK' level varies with pH. 1-3 These studies have remained as standards for several years although the values were derived from a relatively small sample population. Recent studies 4-7 indicate that the pK' value is unaffected by protein abnormalities, water content, viscosity, fibrinogen, or the severity of the particular disease process. Recently we examined the effect of pK' on 65 blood samples with pH values ranging from 7.10 to 7.70. The patients involved in this study were for the most part acutely ill or in a preoperative or postoperative phase. They suffered from a variety of disease states which were of renal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, hepatic, gastrointestinal, or metabolic origin. Ten determinations were made on normal blood. Standard procedures for tonometry were used and the carbon dioxide pressure was calculated from the per cent value of the gas used.


Imperfect labels are ubiquitous in real-world datasets. Several recent successful methods for training deep neural networks (DNNs) robust to label noise have used two primary techniques: filtering samples based on loss during a warm-up phase to curate an initial set of cleanly labeled samples, and using the output of a network as a pseudo-label for subsequent loss calculations. In this paper, we evaluate different augmentation strategies for algorithms tackling the "learning with noisy labels" problem. We propose and examine multiple augmentation strategies and evaluate them using synthetic datasets based on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100, as well as on the real-world dataset Clothing1M. Due to several commonalities in these algorithms, we find that using one set of augmentations for loss modeling tasks and another set for learning is the most effective, improving results on the state-of-the-art and other previous methods. Furthermore, we find that applying augmentation during the warm-up period can negatively impact the loss convergence behavior of correctly versus incorrectly labeled samples. We introduce this augmentation strategy to the state-of-the-art technique and demonstrate that we can improve performance across all evaluated noise levels. In particular, we improve accuracy on the CIFAR-10 benchmark at 90% symmetric noise by more than 15% in absolute accuracy, and we also improve performance on the Clothing1M dataset.


This paper presents a lane-mark detection method which can extract lane-mark positions accurately in a crowded road environment. Many existing lane detection methods rely on the fitting of lane model among a great deal of outlier feature-points, while the proposed method aims at removing those outliers as much as possible at feature extraction stage. To achieve this goal, a multi-channel Haar-like filter is firstly used to get possible lane-mark patterns on a top-view image of the road, and then a directional feature-point tracing algorithm is proposed to get feature-point components, which are further classified as lane-mark or non lane-mark components via geometric properties. Based on the extracted lane-mark components, a tangent circle model is fitted by means of circle template matching. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in identifying lane-mark patterns among heavy clutters in crowded road environment.


Fibronectin (FN) exists in two forms—plasma FN (pFN) and cellular FN (cFN). Although the role of FN in embryonic blood vessel development is well established, its function and the contribution of individual isoforms in early postnatal vascular development are poorly understood. Here, we employed a tamoxifen-dependent cFN inducible knockout (cFN iKO) mouse model to study the consequences of postnatal cFN deletion in smooth muscle cells (SMCs), the major cell type in the vascular wall. Deletion of cFN influences collagen deposition but does not affect life span. Unexpectedly, pFN translocated to the aortic wall in the cFN iKO and in control mice, possibly rescuing the loss of cFN. Postnatal pFN deletion did not show a histological aortic phenotype. Double knockout (dKO) mice lacking both, cFN in SMCs and pFN, resulted in postnatal lethality. These data demonstrate a safeguard role of pFN in vascular stability and the dispensability of the individual FN isoforms in postnatal vascular development. Complete absence of FNs in the dKOs resulted in a disorganized tunica media of the aortic wall. Matrix analysis revealed common and differential roles of the FN isoforms in guiding the assembly/deposition of elastogenic extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the aortic wall. In addition, we determined with two cell culture models that that the two FN isoforms acted similarly in supporting matrix formation with a greater contribution from cFN. Together, these data show that pFN exerts a critical role in safeguarding vascular organization and health, and that the two FN isoforms function in an overlapping as well as distinct manner to maintain postnatal vascular matrix integrity.


Approximate Double Circular Arc Interpolated Method which was put forward by author, is different from other circular arc interpolated methods in demanding only the corner between normal directions of each circular arcs at intersection point are less than designated allowed value but not demanding contiguous circular arcs are tangent, and makes the calculating be predigested. In order to estimate error of the method, emulated calculating is carried out, namely the course of curve being obtained by reverse engineering is simulated in this paper. The results show: if space between measure points is about 0.1mm in curve being obtained by reverse engineering, then, the most departure of smoothing results from original curve is 0.552μm for the stated example. Influence of the error on NC machining is quite small, so it can meet the needs of NC machining.


The nutrient-poor grasslands of Western Europe are of major conservation concern because land use changes threaten their high biodiversity. Studies assessing their characteristics show that their past and on-going dynamics are strongly related to human activities. Yet, the initial development patterns of this specific ecosystem remain unclear. Here, we examine findings from previous paleoecological investigations performed at local level on European grassland areas ranging from several hundred square meters to several square kilometers. Comparing data from these locally relevant studies at a regional scale, we investigate these grasslands' spatiotemporal patterns of origin and long-term dynamics. The study is based on taxonomic identification and radiocarbon AMS dating of charcoal pieces from soil/soil sediment archives of nutrient-poor grasslands in Mediterranean and temperate Western Europe (La Crau plain, Mont Lozère, Grands Causses, Vosges Mountains, Franconian Alb, and Upper-Normandy region). We address the following questions: (1) What are the key determinants of the establishment of these nutrient-poor grasslands? (2) What temporal synchronicities might there be? and (3) What is the spatial scale of these grasslands' past dynamics? The nutrient-poor grasslands in temperate Western Europe are found to result from the first anthropogenic woodland clearings during the late Neolithic, revealed by fire events in mesophilious mature forests. In contrast, the sites with Mediterranean affinities appear to have developed at earlier plant successional stages (pine forest, matorral), established before the first human impacts in the same period. However, no general pattern of establishment and dynamics of the nutrient-poor grasslands could be identified. Local mechanisms appear to be the key determinants of the dynamics of these ecosystems. Nevertheless, this paleoecological synthesis provides insights into past climate or human impacts on present-day vegetation.


Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that operators of hand-held power tools are prone to develop peripheral, vascular, neurological and musculoskeletal disorders collectively known as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAYS). The reported biodynamic responses of the human hand-arm to hand-transmitted vibration exhibit considerable differences, which could be partly attributed to the complexity of the hand-arm system. Furthermore, the vast majority of the hand-arm models offer limited applicability to the tools since these lack consideration of the anthropometric, anatomical and biological properties of the hand-arm system. Experimental and analytical methods are used in this dissertation research to: (i) identify sources of discrepancies in the reported hand-arm biodynamic responses to vibration; (ii) simultaneously characterize localized vibration transmission to different segments of the human hand-arm and the driving-point mechanical impedance (DPMI) response under different hand-arm postures, hand forces, and excitation levels; (iii) develop biomechanical models corresponding to bent- and extended-arm postures on the basis of both the DPMI and vibration transmissibility responses; and (iv) characterize vibration power absorption (VPA) distribution of different components of the hand-arm for potential injury risks assessments. The results show that the discrepancies in the reported biodynamic responses above 500 Hz were due to acceleration measurement location, handle dynamics (handle resonant frequency and deformation) and ineffectiveness of handle inertia correction. The peaks and valleys in the DPMI magnitude correspond to resonant frequencies of the tissues/muscles and the bones/structure, respectively. On the other hand, the peaks in transmissibility magnitudes represent the resonant frequencies of both the tissues/muscles and bones/structure. Furthermore, the DPMI seems to characterize the dynamic response of the entire hand-arm system with emphasis around the driving-point, while the transmissibility responses emphasize the dynamic response of the tissues/muscles of the human hand-arm system. The VPA distributions in the forearm and upper-arm were observed to be considerably higher than those of the hand components below 100 Hz, while the VPA distribution in the fingers was greater above 100 Hz. The overall results suggest the need for two frequency-weightings for assessing the potential risks due to tools with low and high frequency vibrations.