Developing countries that host mega-events such as the Olympic Games and World Cup invest enormous sums in stadiums and collateral infrastructure projects. The rapid investment in long-lasting physical stocks raises questions of equity and efficiency for national taxpayers and event attendees. This paper reviews several cases of historical and recent mega-events to assess the infrastructure costs, returns on infrastructure investments, and impacts of the events on urban development patterns. It will highlight cases where mega-event investments contributed to long-term economic growth.


Transducers are medical products that are categorized as uncritical, semicritical and critical, depending on their applications and perceived risks. Uncritical medical products are transducers that solely come in contact with the intact skin, such as transducers used for sonography of the abdomen or breast. Semicritical medical products are transducers that come in contact with mucosal membranes or diseased skin, comprising transducers used for transesophageal, transvesical, transvaginal, transrectal and perineal sonography. Critical medical products are transducers that come in contact with blood, internal tissues or organs, such as transducers used for intraoperative sonography. Under the most unfavorable circumstances, sonographic transducers can become contaminated with pathogenic agents (e. g., MRSA, HBV, HCV, HIV, Herpes viruses) and turn into a not to be underrated source of infection. For this reason, correct handling as well as cleaning and disinfection of the transducers are indispensable. Depending on the application, the recommended handling of the transducers differs. Transducers counted to the uncritical medical products are adequately cleaned by removal of the applied ultrasound gel with subsequent wipe disinfection (e. g., foam spray). Transducers counted to the semicritical medical products, such as transvaginal or perineal transducers , should be exclusively used after a suitable cover has been applied. A Latex(R) allergy must be excluded before the examination. The cover is to be disposed after completion of the examination and the transducer itself cleaned and disinfected. The disinfecting agent must be antiviral but also compatible with the material (caution: damage to the transducer membrane when using an unsuited alcoholic disinfecting agent). In case of rupture of the protecting cover during the examination, the transducer is considered contaminated with secretion or even blood and must be thoroughly cleaned with subsequent disinfection, whereby ample contact time must be allowed for the disinfecting agent. Coarse contamination of the transducer should be removed with disposable tissue. Above all, dried blood spots should be avoided. Intraoperatively used transducers (= critical medical products), which, for instance, come in contact with abdominal organs, are subject to applicable rules and regulation for cleaning and disinfection. Before each use, an adequately long sterile cover must be placed over the transducer and connecting cable. When the examination is completed, the cover is removed and discarded, and the transducer cleaned and disinfected. The applicability of a reusable medical product implies that each manufacturer is obligated to provide care instruction, including formulated instructions for cleaning and disinfection. This entails that each manufacturer of sonographic equipment must make available a detailed summary of the appropriate disinfectants suitable for the respective transducers. Customarily, recommendations for care and cleaning of the transducers can be found in the manual that comes with the sonographic unit. In the absence of such a manual, a written request should be sent to the manufacturer of the sonographic equipment. Sonographic equipment manufacturers and disinfectant producers prefer disinfecting agents for instruments that are based on glutaraldehyde, aldehydes and quaternary agents, mostly for reason of material compatibility rather than their anti-infective effectiveness. Most recommended disinfectants are not tested for antiviral properties, but this is obligatory when applied to transducers that enter a body cavity potentially harboring a virus load - regardless whether the work is done with protective cover . Further information about the topic "medical products" can be found in the guidelines for hospital hygiene and infection prevention published by the Robert Koch Institute (Section: Required Hygienic Standards for Medical Products ), the website of the Robert Koch Institute for hospital hygiene control and the Rules and Regulation for Medical Products Distributors .


It has been more than five years Sumbawa becomes the center of wild honey development by Ministry of Environment and Forestry. However, scientific information of its condition is still lacking. This article aims to fill that gap and to discuss the efforts needed in order to make Sumbawan honey more contributes for local people in Sumbawa District. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's supporting programs for wild honey development in The Sumbawa District using two indicators: livelihood capital development and problems on the ground accomplished. The results indicate the programs have not yet optimally developed local peoples' livelihood capitals and many problems remain occurred on Sumbawan honey business development. This study suggests that works in these areas should be undertaken simultaneously, and encompasses strengthening contract agreement, both horizontally and vertically, and modifying the direction of current programs.


The forecast of climate change effects on the groundwater system in coastal areas is of key importance for policy makers. The Dutch water system has been deeply studied because of its complex system of low-lying areas, dunes, land won to the sea and dikes, but nowadays large efforts are still being done to find out the best techniques to describe complex fresh-brackish-saline groundwater dynamic systems. In this paper, we describe a methodology consisting of high-resolution airborne electromagnetic (EM) measurements used in a 3-D variable-density transient groundwater model for a coastal area in the Netherlands. We used the airborne EM measurements in combination with borehole-logging data, electrical conductivity cone penetration tests and groundwater samples to create a 3-D fresh-brackish-saline groundwater distribution of the study area. The EM measurements proved to be an improvement compared to older techniques and provided quality input for the model. With the help of the built 3-D variable-density groundwater model, we removed the remaining inaccuracies of the 3-D chloride field and predicted the effects of three climate scenarios on the groundwater and surface water system. Results showed significant changes in the groundwater system, and gave direction for future water policy. Future research should provide more insight in the improvement of data collection for fresh-brackish-saline groundwater systems as it is of high importance to further improve the quality of the model. © 2012 Author(s).


The last decades witnessed the emergence of transitional justice as a global norm which obliges post-conflict transitioning states to address systematic past human rights violations through purposeful judicial and non-judicial mechanisms. While its typical architecture focused on formal transitions, the dynamics of non-regime transitions and compliance is often neglected in transitional justice literature, and the measures also signify manifold challenges. This article attempted to assess the beleaguered transitional justice measures implemented in Ethiopia's current troubled non-regime transition which came after the authoritarian and Marxist TPLF/EPRDF regime collapsed in 2018 after violent anti-government protest. Consequently, under the new hybrid elites' leadership, host of justice measures were implemented but they unfolded in the absence of both typical transition and guiding transition roadmap. Through the lens of compliance and resistance in transitional justice, the article finds that rather than addressing legacies of atrocious past, the flawed and instrumentalist implementation of contested justice processes and the mismanagement of the narrow window of opportunity led to unprecedented societal violence and new political complexities. The Ethiopian case, therefore, reveals that seeking the retributive transitional justice measure in the absence of typical regime change and inter-elites bargain, and in an ethnically polarized political transition exacerbate inter-elite discord, bolster ethnic-supported resistance from predecessor elites, and harbor the risk of resurgence of new violence. Hence, it falls short of achieving the compliance with the transitional justice norm such as ensuring accountability (fighting impunity), adequately addressing past wrongs through judicial and non-judicial means and also ensuring non-recurrence of the same in the future.


ABSTRACT A phase I safety and immunogenicity study investigated South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) HIV-1 subtype C (HIV-1C) DNA vaccine encoding Gag-RT-Tat-Nef and gp150, boosted with modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) expressing matched antigens. Following the finding of partial protective efficacy in the RV144 HIV vaccine efficacy trial, a protein boost with HIV-1 subtype C V2-deleted gp140 with MF59 was added to the regimen. A total of 48 participants (12 U.S. participants and 36 Republic of South Africa [RSA] participants) were randomized to receive 3 intramuscular (i.m.) doses of SAAVI DNA-C2 of 4 mg (months 0, 1, and 2) and 2 i.m. doses of SAAVI MVA-C of 1.45 × 109 PFU (months 4 and 5) (n = 40) or of a placebo (n = 8). Approximately 2 years after vaccination, 27 participants were rerandomized to receive gp140/MF59 at 100 μg or placebo, as 2 i.m. injections, 3 months apart. The vaccine regimen was safe and well tolerated. After the DNA-MVA regimen, CD4+ T-cell and CD8+ T-cell responses occurred in 74% and 32% of the participants, respectively. The protein boost increased CD4+ T-cell responses to 87% of the subjects. All participants developed tier 1 HIV-1C neutralizing antibody responses as well as durable Env binding antibodies that recognized linear V3 and C5 peptides. The HIV-1 subtype C DNA-MVA vaccine regimen showed promising cellular immunogenicity. Boosting with gp140/MF59 enhanced levels of binding and neutralizing antibodies as well as CD4+ T-cell responses to HIV-1 envelope. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT00574600 and NCT01423825.)


The United States (U.S.) government recently finished its five year ritual of farm legislation. In general, the 1990 Farm Bill, or the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990, extends most of the program features of its predecessor, the Food Security Act of 1985 (FSA). The recent bill continues a 57 year old tradition represented by loan rates, target prices, deficiency payments, base acres and yields, quotas, production controls, marketing loans, and other devices which support prices and income in return for retiring acres. However, the bill introduces several features that move it incrementally in the direction of "decoupling", and continues the trend set in 1985 of adding new environmental restrictions on farm practices. The recently passed Farm Bill was shaped by four forces; these forces will continue to shape U.S. farm policy throughout the 1990s. First, the rising budget deficit compelled Congressional agriculture committee members to decrease the cost of their programs. Second, a call for more open agricultural markets by the Bush Administration coupled with the budget constraint made smaller and more flexible crop acreage bases the most attractive way to achieve incremental decoupling. Third, recent scares of pesticides and agricultural chemicals on or in food and groundwater have led to rising concerns over the impact of agriculture on the environment. Fourth, the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations was an important consideration in drafting the first farm bill of the 1990s.


The windowed Fourier transform of a time signal is considered, as well as a way to reconstruct the signal from a sufficiently densely sampled version of its windowed Fourier transform using a Gabor (1946) representation; following Gabor, sampling occurs on a two-dimensional time-frequency lattice with equidistant time intervals and equidistant frequency intervals. In the limit of infinitely dense sampling, the optimum synthesis window (which appears in Gabor's reconstruction formula) becomes similar to the analysis window (which is used in the windowed Fourier transform). It is shown that this similarity can already be reached for a rather small degree of oversampling, if the sampling distances in the time and frequency directions are properly chosen. A procedure is presented with which the optimum ratio of the sampling intervals can be determined. The theory is elucidated by finding the optimum ratio in the cases of a Gaussian and an exponential analysis window.


Estimation of density derivatives is a versatile tool in statistical data analysis. A naive approach is to first estimate the density and then compute its derivative. However, such a two-step approach does not work well because a good density estimator does not necessarily mean a good density-derivative estimator. In this paper, we give a direct method to approximate the density derivative without estimating the density itself. Our proposed estimator allows analytic and computationally efficient approximation of multi-dimensional high-order density derivatives, with the ability that all hyper-parameters can be chosen objectively by cross-validation. We further show that the proposed density-derivative estimator is useful in improving the accuracy of non-parametric KL-divergence estimation via metric learning. The practical superiority of the proposed method is experimentally demonstrated in change detection and feature selection.


L imited studies have investigated symptomatic patients with bilateral carotid plaques. In this specific population , 18F fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography– computed tomography examination has demonstrated higher inflammation in symptomatic plaques compared with the contralateral. 1,2 Thus, inflammation seems to play a major role in progression and destabilization of the culprit plaque in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis. Recent studies with a new method, microwave radiom-etry (MWR), revealed that in vivo noninvasive temperature measurements of carotid plaques can be obtained, reflecting plaque inflammatory activation. 3 Because higher plaque inflammation is associated with plaque vulnerability in carotid arteries, 2,4 we hypothesized that in patients with acute ischemic stroke, culprit carotid arteries will exhibit higher temperature compared with the contralateral carotid arteries. The aim of the present study was to investigate in patients with acute ischemic stroke and bilateral carotid plaques (1) whether the culprit carotid artery has higher inflammation as detected by MWR compared with the contralateral artery and (2) the predictive accuracy of MWR in culprit carotid artery identification. Consecutive patients with large vessel atherosclerosis as cause of acute anterior circulation ischemic stroke were included in the study. Patients with history of paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation were excluded. All eligible patients after initial assessment (elec-trocardiography, brain computed tomography imaging, and carotid ultrasound) underwent MWR measurements of both carotid arteries within the first 24 hours. Patients underwent second brain imaging with MRI during their hospital stay to exclude lacunar infarcts and transient ischemic attacks. All cases with other certain or probable cause of stroke according to the Trial of Org 10 172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) criteria, after an extensive diagnostic work up reviewed by C. deligianni and K. Spengos, were excluded from further analysis. 5 The ipsilateral to cerebral ischemia carotid artery was assigned as culprit. All patients provided informed consent for their participation. The study has been approved by our institution's ethical committee. Carotid artery ultrasound imaging was performed as previously described. 3,6–8 Both extracranial carotid and vertebral arteries were examined with a high resolution B-mode ultrasound unit (Philips iEE33 ultrasound machine, Philips, Bothell, Washington), using a 7.5-MHz transducer. Carotid plaques were defined according to previously used definitions. 9 Background and Purpose—Microwave Radiometry (MWR) allows in vivo noninvasive assessment of internal temperature of tissues. The aim of the present study was to evaluate in patients with ischemic stroke and bilateral carotid plaques (1) whether ipsilateral carotid arteries …


Pallangyo, E. 2017. "If really we are committed things can change starting from us providers" Improving postpartum care. A facilitation intervention at government-owned health institutions in a low-resource suburb in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1351. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0027-6. Globally, postpartum care is a neglected area in the continuum of maternal and newborn services. Facilitation interventions focusing on addressing local problems report positive results in improving the health of mothers and newborns in low-resource settings. The aim of this thesis was to investigate a facilitation intervention to improve postpartum care at government-owned health institutions in a low-resource suburb of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A before-and-after study design was used to describe and evaluate the intervention in this thesis. Data were collected using mixed methods in the intervention group and the control group, before and after the intervention and were used for making comparisons. The baseline studies showed that postpartum care practices were next to non-existent at the institutions, that most healthcare providers had high levels of knowledge, positive attitudes towards postpartum care and declared themselves ready to engage in its improvement. Mothers coming with their newborns for immunisation were satisfied with the services. The intervention to improve postpartum care involved healthcare providers in six geographical clusters, each including 3–6 institutions, with one facilitator for each cluster. Using a participatory approach, they facilitated colleagues in identifying and addressing the provision of postpartum care at institutions. Data were collected among healthcare providers, facilitators and mothers using: focus group discussions; questionnaires; observations; and interviews, and by making field notes, written at each institution. In the intervention, facilitators and healthcare providers used four strategies to improve postpartum care:increasing awareness and knowledge on postpartum care of healthcare providers and mothers; mobilising professional and material resources; improving care routines, communication and documentation; and promoting an empowering and collaborative work style. The endline evaluation showed that postpartum care was conducted in the intervention group with some care items performed for 80% of observed mothers. The quality grading, which involved nine experts and was based on national guidelines, showed that none of the healthcare providers reached the level of good quality of care. In the comparison group, postpartum care continued to be next to non-existent. The healthcare providers' knowledge increased in both groups but to a higher extent in the intervention group. The t-test indicated a significant difference in knowledge between the intervention and comparison groups and between before and after the intervention in both groups. The difference in differences for knowledge was 1.3. The attitudes showed no major difference between baseline and endline in the intervention and comparison groups. This facilitation intervention was an acceptable and applicable approach and indicates promising results in improving the quality of postpartum care and in increasing mothers' attendance. Eunice Pallangyo, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Akademiska sjukhuset, Uppsala University, SE-75185 Uppsala, Sweden. © Eunice Pallangyo 2017 ISSN 1651-6206 ISBN 978-91-513-0027-6 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-327432 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-327432)


: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of vaccination against gonadotropin-releasing factor (GnRF) on testicular development, testosterone secretion, and physical activity in pubertal bulls. The experiment was performed using 44 bulls aged between 6 and 7 mo. Twenty-three animals were vaccinated twice 4 wk apart with 1 mL of Bopriva (Pfizer, Animal Health, Parkville, Australia) and 21 bulls served as matched controls. Serum GnRF antibody titer and testosterone concentration as well as body weight and scrotal circumference were determined in all bulls for 24 wk from the first vaccination. In addition, physical activity was analyzed in 11 vaccinated and in 10 control animals using the ALPRO DeLaval activity meter system (DeLaval AG, Sursee, Switzerland). The results show that vaccination significantly (P < 0.05) influenced all parameters evaluated except body weight. Antibody titers to GnRF began to rise 2 wk after the first vaccination and reached peak values 2 wk after the second injection. Significant group differences in anti-GnRF titer were present for 22 wk following the first vaccination. Testosterone concentrations were significantly lower between weeks 6 to 24 after first vaccination in bulls with Bopriva compared with control animals. In vaccinated bulls testicular development was impaired after the second injection and scrotal circumference was significantly smaller between weeks 8 to 24 after first vaccination. Physical activity of vaccinated bulls was reduced after the booster injection with significant group differences for a continuous period of 106 days. In conclusion, vaccination against GnRF with Bopriva in pubertal bulls decreased testosterone levels in peripheral blood, testicular development, and physical activity but did not affect weight gain. Vaccination against gonadotropin-releasing factor (GnRF) with Bopriva significantly decreases Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of vaccination against gonadotropin-releasing factor (GnRF) on testicular development, testosterone secretion and physical activity in pubertal bulls. The experiment was performed using 44 bulls aged between 6 and 7 months. Twenty-three animals were vaccinated twice 4 weeks apart with 1 mL of Bopriva ® (Pfizer Animal Health, Australia) and 21 bulls served as matched controls. Serum GnRF antibody titer and testosterone concentration as well as body weight and scrotal circumference were determined in all bulls for 24 weeks from the first vaccination. In addition, physical activity was analyzed in 11 vaccinated and in 10 control animals using the ALPRO  DeLaval activity meter system (DeLaval AG, Sursee, Switzerland). The results show that vaccination significantly ( P < 0.05) influenced all parameters evaluated except body weight. titers to GnRF began to rise 2 weeks after the first vaccination and reached peak values 2 weeks after the second injection. Significant group differences in anti-GnRF titer were present for 22 weeks following the first vaccination. Testosterone concentrations were significantly lower between weeks 6 to 24 after first vaccination in bulls with Bopriva ® compared to control animals. In vaccinated bulls testicular development was impaired after the second injection and scrotal circumference was significantly smaller between weeks 8 to 24 after first vaccination. Physical activity of vaccinated bulls was reduced after the booster injection with significant group differences for a continuous period of 106 days. In conclusion, vaccination against GnRF with Bopriva ® in pubertal bulls decreased testosterone levels in peripheral blood, testicular development and physical activity but did not affect weight gain.


The current studies focus on the association between COVID‐19 and certain comorbidities. To the best of our knowledge, the association between severe COVID‐19 and dermatologic comorbidities has not been reported yet. In this study, we aimed to describe the dermatologic comorbidities of patients with severe COVID‐19 and compare it with the control group. Patients who have died at Uşak Training and Research Hospital due to COVID‐19 and other diseases in the COVID‐19 Intensive Care Units and Internal Medicine Intensive Care Units were recruited into the study. Two groups were compared with each other regarding the most common dermatologic comorbidities. A total of 198 patients including 111 patients with COVID‐19 and 87 age and sex‐matched patients with other diseases were enrolled in the study. The most common dermatologic comorbidities were pruritus (8.1%), eczema (6.3%), skin infections (3.6%), leukocytoclastic vasculitis (1.8%), and urticaria (0.9%) in the COVID‐19 group while they were skin infections (9.2%), eczema (3.4%), pruritus (2.3%), and urticaria (1.1%) in the control group. None of patients in the control group had leukocytoclastic vasculitis. There were no significant differences between COVID‐19 and control groups in terms of pruritus, eczema, skin infections, and urticaria (P values were .117, .517, .181, .505, and 1.000, respectively). In conclusion, although it is not statistically significant, it appears that pruritus and leukocytoclastic vasculitis are more common in severe COVID‐19 patients. These cytokines‐related diseases in the immuno‐cutaneous systems may give some clues on the COVID‐19 severity. Further studies are required to elucidate the relationship between the immuno‐cutaneous system and COVID‐19 severity.


In this article, I consider the harms inflicted upon transgender persons through "misgendering," that is, such deployments of gender terms that diminish transgender persons' self‐respect, limit the discursive resources at their disposal to define their own gender, and cause them microaggressive psychological harms. Such deployments are morally contestable, that is, they can be challenged on ethical or political grounds. Two characterizations of "woman" proposed in the feminist literature are critiqued from this perspective. When we consider what would happen to transgender women upon the broad implementation of these characterizations within transgender women's social context, we discover that they suffer from two defects: they either exclude at least some transgender women, or else they implicitly foster hierarchies among women, marginalizing transgender women in particular. In conclusion, I claim that the moral contestability of gender‐term deployments acts as a stimulus to regularly consider the provisionality and revisability of our deployments of the term "woman."


Traumatic damage to the rotator cuff was diagnosed in 13 patients by clinical, electromyographic and arthrographic studies. The main features were failure to rotate, elevate or abduct the affected shoulder joint. Eight patients also had peripheral nerve lesions: axillary nerve lesion was present in five, partial brachial plexus lesion in three.


Palm oil based biodiesel offers an alternative energy source that can reduce current dependence on conventional fossil fuels and may reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions depending on the type of feedstock and processes used. In the Malaysian context, the palm oil industry not only provides high-yield, renewable feedstock to the world, it brings socio-economic development to the Malaysian rural community and contributes to the national income. However, the sustainability of palm oil remains controversial, due to deforestation, pollution and social conflicts associated with its production. Sustainability assessment is vital for the palm oil industry to identify weaknesses, improve its sustainability performance and improve consumer confidence. This paper proposes a holistic sustainability assessment framework for palm oil production with the aim to address the weaknesses of existing palm oil sustainability assessment methods. It identifies environmental, social and economic Headline Performance Indicators, Key Performance Indicators and their Performance Measures in crude palm oil production in a structured framework. Each quantitative/semi-quantitative performance measure is translated into Likert Scale of 1–5, where 3 is the threshold value, 5 is the ideal condition, and 1 is the worst case scenario. Calculation methods were established for the framework to provide quantitative assessment results. The framework was tested using a hypothetical example with data from existing studies. The results suggest that crude palm oil production in Malaysia is below the sustainability threshold. Evaluations of this sustainability assessment framework also demonstrate that it is a comprehensive assessment method for assessing sustainability of feedstock for biofuel production.


To the Editor.— Simons et al should be congratulated for their painstaking study of cognitive changes in psychiatric treatment. 1 Their finding confirms the results of other studies that demonstrated cognitive changes in patients treated with cognitive therapy and also with chemotherapy. 2,3 A study by Rush et al 2 showed cognitive change in both cognitive therapy—treated and drug-treated groups, but the cognitive therapy group showed more cognitive change and more clinical improvement. Thus, cognitive change irrespective of the form of treatment was correlated with clinical improvement (as in the study by Simons et al 1 ). Starting from the simple assumption that cognitive therapy, but not pharmacotherapy, would effect cognitive change, Simons et al confirmed a more sophisticated notion, namely, that all of the systems (ie, cognitive, neurochemical, etc) are interrelated; thus, changes in one system affect the other systems. 1 Another way of looking at their findings is that


The current conversation surrounding peer writing tutor professional development frequently includes discussions of authority, autonomy, and oversight. At the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center, our conversations have followed similar trends with the added complication of an unusual setup when it comes to one-to-one writing consultations. Because Sweetland is staffed entirely by what the field calls "professional consultants" (university writing faculty with MFA or Ph.D. degrees), "professional development" has meant simply carrying out the work of the Academy, that is, attending conferences, publishing books and articles, conducting research, and revising curriculum. Yet in the Peer Tutoring Center – a space populated by upper-level undergraduates who have completed two semesters of intensive training taught by Sweetland faculty in the theory and practice of tutoring their peers – "professional development" has raised many issues of power and authority, at least for the faculty and staff supervising them. When the "professional consultants" seek to "professionalize" the student peer tutors, the emphasis shifts from self-improvement and self-interest (in the economic sense) to quality control and consciousness-raising. The question becomes one of how to help undergraduates transition from self-interest (in the psychological sense) to community- or organizational-interest, that is, how to help them identify with the body that oversees them


Provides closed-form equations parameterizing the C/sup 2/ smooth path that globally minimizes the Euclidean norm of a robot's peak base reaction force while avoiding obstacles during 3D maneuvers in a gravity-free environment. Also, describes a computationally efficient technique that leads to a path typically having a peak force within 5% of the optimal path. The equations used to define the robot's motion are formulated after mapping the initial configuration, final (or goal) Cartesian location, and obstacles into a new space, the center of mass (CM) space. This is a Cartesian-like space that allows direct application of many existing control techniques, such as resolved rate control. In the CM space, a series of path segments guide the robot around the obstacles. Solving a system of equations based on these segments for boundary condition dependent constants determines the path. Currently, closed-form equations are unavailable for the boundary dependent constants, preventing exact determination of the globally optimal path. This paper introduces a procedure for locating the optimal path. Its final step uses sequential quadratic programming to locate boundary dependent constants. The equation formulations assume that the initial configuration of the robot is known and that the robot mass and obstacle positions are constant during the maneuver. The method developed has direct applicability to redundant and nonredundant robots. A detailed example, based on a nonredundant robot avoiding a single obstacle, illustrates the concepts presented.


Degree-based graph construction is a ubiquitous problem in network modelling (Newman et al 2006 The Structure and Dynamics of Networks (Princeton Studies in Complexity) (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), Boccaletti et al 2006 Phys. Rep. 424 175), ranging from social sciences to chemical compounds and biochemical reaction networks in the cell. This problem includes existence, enumeration, exhaustive construction and sampling questions with aspects that are still open today. Here we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a sequence of nonnegative integers to be realized as a simple graph's degree sequence, such that a given (but otherwise arbitrary) set of connections from an arbitrarily given node is avoided. We then use this result to present a swap-free algorithm that builds all simple graphs realizing a given degree sequence. In a wider context, we show that our result provides a greedy construction method to build all the f-factor subgraphs (Tutte 1952 Can. J. Math. 4 314) embedded within Kn ∖ Sk, where Kn is the complete graph and Sk is a star graph centred on one of the nodes.


The reliable early estimates of production had always been the prime concerns of growers on one hand and planners as well as policy makers for import/export on the other hand. This study represents a linear regression model making use of meteorological parameters at critical stages of crop's life cycle to predict the wheat yield about two months earlier than the harvesting. A statistical based software "Statistical Package for Social Sciences" (SPSS) and MS-excel were employed as working tools. Decadal (ten days) agrometeorological data for Rabi season (for the period 1993-2011) being observed at Regional Agromet Centre, Rawalpindi have been utilized. The parameters studied for correlation were mainly rainfall (amount and days), air temperature (minimum, maximum, mean), heat units (on phenological basis), relative humidity, wind speed, sunshine duration, reference crop evapotran-spiration etc. Finally, minimum temperature, sunshine duration and rainfall amount in January (tillering and stem extension phase) proved to be the reliable predictors for the final yield. The correlation coefficients for these parameters on individual basis resulted within the acceptable range where as in aggregate it remained 0.87, an optimistic value.


A geotechnical study needs to be carried out to determine the engineering parameters of the rock mass at the project site in executing construction projects such as tunnels, dams, highways and buildings. Design and safety factor of the construction are highly dependent on soil and rock engineering parameters which are usually determined by in-situ test such as Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and seismic tests. The SPT test which normally involves drilling and laboratory works always incur high operating cost, while seismic tests on the other hand are fast, cheap, non-destructive and an easy to operate method for rock mass characterization. The spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) method is an in situ and non-destructive measurement that is rapid and cost effective. The aims of this study were to determine Rock Quality Designation (RQD) value, excavation classification analysis as well as site characterization by using the SASW method. WinSASW 3.1.3 was used for inversion processing of the SASW data to produce shear wave velocity (Vs) versus depth profiles. The profiles were then analyzed and correlated with rock mass engineering geological parameters such as RQD and site characterization as well as excavation classification of rock mass. Twenty (20) SASW tests were conducted on the granitic rock mass and four (4) SASW tests were conducted on a cut hill slope of metasedimentary rocks. RQD values were computed based on shear wave velocities and ultrasonic velocities of intact (fresh) rock. The differences between RQD obtained from SASW method and those from discontinuity survey were found to be less than 10%. Excavation classification for granitic rock mass at JKR Quarry was empirically determined using both SASW and ultrasonic velocities as well as RQD value of the rock mass. Site characterization for metasedimentary rocks mass at Bukit Tampoi was determined based on shear wave velocities from SASW method.


This study sought to examine the drivers for adoption of e- business by insurance companies in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used to undertake the study. The population from which the study was undertaken was all the companies licensed to undertake insurance business in Kenya, whose number stood at 43 as at June 2013. A representative sample of 26 insurance companies, representing 60% the whole population was selected at random, which is within the limits of the generally accepted statistical conditions. Primary data was collected with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Content analysis was employed for data pertaining to the background of the respondents and Company while data pertaining to the objectives of the study was analyzed by employing descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean and standard deviations. Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study. Results: Findings of the study show that the factors influencing implementation of e-business in the insurance sector in Kenya are categorized into two technological and managerial.


Background Necroptosis is a highly regulated and genetically controlled process, and therefore, attention has been paid to the exact effects of this disorder on a variety of diseases, including cancer. An in-depth understanding of the key regulatory factors and molecular events that trigger necroptosis can not only identify patients at risk of cancer development but can also help to develop new treatment strategies. Aims This study aimed to increase understanding of the complex role of necroptosis in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and provide a new perspective and reference for accurate prediction of clinical outcomes and gene-targeted therapy in patients with GBM. The objective of this study was to analyze the gene expression profile of necroptosis regulatory factors in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and establish a necroptosis regulatory factor-based GBM classification and prognostic gene signature to recognize the multifaceted impact of necroptosis on GBM. Method The necroptosis score of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) sample in TCGA was calculated by ssGSEA, and the correlation between each gene and the necroptosis score was calculated. Based on necroptosis score-related genes, unsupervised consensus clustering was employed to classify patients. The prognosis, tumor microenvironment (TME), genomic changes, biological signal pathways and gene expression differences among clusters were analyzed. The gene signature of GBM was constructed by Cox and LASSO regression analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Result Based on 34 necroptosis score-related genes, GBM was divided into two clusters with different overall survival (OS) and TME. A necroptosis-related gene signature (NRGS) containing 8 genes was developed, which could stratify the risk of GBM in both the training set and verification set and had good prognostic value. NRGS and age were both independent prognostic indicators of GBM, and a nomogram developed by the integration of both of them showed a better predictive effect than traditional clinical features. Conclusion In this study, patients from public data sets were divided into two clusters and the unique TME and molecular characteristics of each cluster were described. Furthermore, an NRGS was constructed to effectively and independently predict the survival outcome of GBM, which provides some insights for the implementation of personalized precision medicine in clinical practice.


Growing societal interest to permit animals into retail food outlets presents both risks and benefits to the dining public and consumers. This article summarizes a literature review that evaluated the associated potential public health issues related to this subject. Using the EBSCOhost research protocol and Google search engines between March 2010 and June 2011, the authors have compiled and synthesized scientific research articles, empirical scientific literature, and publicly available news media. While pets are known carriers of bacteria and parasites, among others, the relative risk associated with specific pet-human interactions in the dining public has yet to be established in a clear and consistent manner. Much of the available health-risk-factor evidence reflects pets in domestic conditions and interaction with farm animals. Special consideration is recommended for vulnerable populations such as children, asthmatics, the elderly, pregnant women, and the immunocompromised.


A new frequency conversion device topology based on matrix rectifier and AC chopper called MCAC) is proposed, which is referred as AC chopper matrix converters. First, the basic configuration of these new topologies and the fundamental principle are introduced. Then, the validity and feasibility of the new topologies are tested by digital simulation and prototype experiments. The results indicate that the output voltage transfer ratio can be larger than 1.0, the output voltage waveform is very close to standard sine wave and the harmonic contents increase slightly, overcoming the drawbacks of conventional MCs that maximum voltage transfer ratio is 0.866. This study may provide inspiration for further engineering applications.


Background: Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) is part of the mediator complex that can either positively or negatively influence transcription. CDK8 is known to phosphorylate signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) at the position Ser727. STAT1 activity is regulated by JAK-mediated phosphorylation of tyrosine701 which leads to dimerization, nuclear translocation and IFN-γ induced phosphorylation mediated by CDK8. Introduction of an alanine mutation at the phosphorylation site STAT1-S727 results in enhanced NK cell cytotoxicity accompanied by increased levels of perforin and granzyme B (Putz et al. 2013). Method: Here we present the discovery and development of potent and selective CDK8 inhibitors guided by crystallography. The inhibitory effect of optimized compounds BI 9811 and BI 1347 on STAT1 phosphorylation and perforin release was investigated in the human NK cell line NK-92MI. Direct effects on cancer cells were furthermore analyzed in a broad panel of cell lines. The compound BI 1347 was profiled in vivo in the orthotopic B16-F10 melanoma mouse model. Results: Highly potent and selective CDK8 inhibitors were identified with an IC50 of below 10 nM in a biochemical kinase assay, which translated in a potent down regulation of the STAT1- Ser727 signal and in increased perforin and granzyme B secretion. BI 9811 and BI 1347 were highly selective for CDK8, as tested in a broad kinase panel and showed no cytotoxic activity on NK cells and most cancer cell lines, which distinguishes this compound class from published CDK8 inhibitors. A representative molecule out of this compound class demonstrated in vivo biomarker modulation and survival increase in the murine B16-F10 melanoma mouse model. Conclusion: We developed potent CDK8 inhibitors that show activation of NK cells that translates into biomarker modulation (pSTAT1Ser727) and in vivo efficacy. Citation Format: Marco H. Hofmann, Harald Engelhardt, Sebastian Carotta, Heribert Arnhof, Dirk Scharn, Marc Kerenyi, Moritz Mayer, Gerhard Gmaschitz, Georg Egger, Christian Engelhardt, Michael Sanderson, Maria A. Impagnatiello, Renate Schnitzer, Mark Pearson, Darryl McConnell, Norbert Kraut, Jurgen Moll. Development of selective and potent CDK8 inhibitors that increase NK cell activity, which translates in tumor surveillance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4630. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4630


Air leakage (infiltration) represents an important part of the heating and cooling load of residential, commercial and industrial buildings. It is also an important parameter in indoor-outdoor air pollution relationships.Air leakage is difficult to quantify because it is not only a function of building tightness and configuration, but also of inside-outside temperature differences, wind speed, and of workmanship in construction. Standard formulas for calculating air leakage do exist, but they are at best rough approximations. The tracer dilution method has been used for a number of years to infer air leakage rates. This technique entails introducing small amounts of tracer gas into a structure and measuring the rate of change in tracer concentration. The air change rate can then be determined from the exponential decay rate in tracer concentration with respect to time. There exists no perfect or ideal tracer. Thus, the choice of tracer gas is dependent upon the characteristics inherent in the measurement, the structure being measured, and in the relative familiarity of the experimenter with a variety of experimental techniques. The various gases that have been used for performing tracer dilution measurements in the past are presented along with their methods of measurement. In addition, the basic experimental methodology for performing a tracer dilution measurement utilizing any tracer is discussed. The limitations and advantages of the method are described and recommendations for its use are made. The need for standard test methodology is explored with an emphasis on the ability to produce and provide data that can be intercompared at some later time. An uncertainty analysis of the method is provided.


In the second half of the twentieth century, gene sequences have been used to study their evolution as well as the history of species. A decade ago, progress in sequencing techniques provided the opportunity to use whole genome sequences for reconstructing species phylogeny. Several phylogenomic methods have been used to exploit these large amounts of data, and those that are based on homologous or orthologous characters have been favoured. Among these, the supertree and supermatrix approaches have been very successful at resolving parts of the tree of life. However, these methods discard a great proportion of the evolutionary information present in genomes. New integrative models of genome evolution could make a better use of whole genome sequences and thus improve the resolution of the tree of life.

Key concepts

Genomes contain a very large amount of information relevant for reconstructing their history and the history of species.

Among phylogenomic methods, only those based on homologous/orthologous characters can reconstruct a species tree.

Rare genomic changes, supertree and supermatrice methods have been the most extensively used.

Genome-sized datasets have permitted confirming key phylogenies, and have also provided new insights into important parts of the tree of life.

New methods that combine different types of genomic information could further improve the resolution of the tree of life.

Keywords:

phylogenomics;
evolution;
gene duplication;
lateral gene transfer;
trans-specific polymorphisms


Over the past two and a half decades there has been considerable progress made in the modeling of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections. These models have also been combined with models of the noise and variability present in an inspection to estimate probability of detection (POD) versus flaw size curves. An overview will be given of the past and present accomplishments made in ultrasonic NDE modeling, POD modeling, and the relationship of those advances to reliability modeling that incorporates explicitly the results of inspections. A brief look into the future of this modeling technology will also be given.


This study aims to determine the possible economic success or failure of Croatia in the European Union based on three economic indicators: foreign direct investment (FDI), unemployment, and infrastructure. It also seeks to compare other economic indicators such as GDP growth and inflation of Croatia to the other 27 member-states of the European Union. The goal of this paper is not to predict the future of Croatia, but to discover areas of potential reform and to support existing research on determinants of economic success in the EU. The three chapters that focus on FDI, unemployment, and infrastructure explore the respective sector in transition economies and specific issues regarding that sector in Croatia. The following chapters compare Croatia to other EU member states and provide managerial implications for global business. In general, FDI, unemployment, and infrastructure prove to be factors in Croatia's future in the EU, while FDI and unemployment are found to be obstacles that need to be overcome before Croatia can make great strides in the EU market, while infrastructure results in more positive findings. In addition, Croatia is found to be the most similar to countries with the lowest GDP in the EU. This study concludes that an immediate entrance into the EU will not automatically improve the economy of Croatia.


AIM
To perform a comparative analysis of anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) in late middle-aged and elderly patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) by ferrokinetic parameters, inflammation indexes, and their associations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
65 patients with ischemic heart disease were evaluated, including 35 patients with CHF and ACD, 10 patients with CHF and IDA, and 20 patients without CHF, ACD, and IDA (control group, CG).

RESULTS
Patients with CHF and IDA had true iron deficiency whereas 54% of patients with CHF and ACD had functional iron deficiency, and 46% of patients had no iron deficiency. Levels of acute phase proteins, ferritin and hepcidin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were highly significantly different in patients with CHF and ACD and patients with CHF and IDA; positive and significant correlations were found for levels of IL-6 and ferritin, IL-6 and CRP, and CRP and hepcidin. In patients with CHF and IDA, levels of acute phase proteins, ferritin and hepcidin, CRP, and IL-6 were low and correlations of IL-6 with ferritin, IL-6 with CRP, and CRP with hepcidin were non-significant. Concentrations of erythropoietin were significantly higher in patients with CHF and ACD and patients with CHF and IDA compared to the control group; however, significant differences between them were absent.


Flyspeck, caused by Schizothyrium pomi (anamorph Zygophiala jamaciensis), is a serious cosmetic skin disorder of Actinidia arguta kiwifruit in New Zealand. In a study of the disease in 2009-10, the bark of all 1-year-old canes was carrying large numbers of characteristic dark fruiting bodies (thyriothecia) (flyspecks). Germinating spores and hyphae of S. pomi were first observed on current season's canes in December 2009. Flyspecks were first found on fruit in mid-January 2010 and their incidence and severity increased until harvest in February 2010. Sprays of trifloxystrobin or carbendazim applied pre-blossom and during flowering reduced the incidence of fruit with flyspeck at harvest by an average of 70% compared with the untreated control. A single application at either of those times was similarly effective with one exception; trifloxystrobin applied as a pre-blossom spray failed to control flyspeck. Carbendazim residues (0.02 mg/kg) were recorded in the fruit at harvest following an application during flowering.


This paper examines the role of migration networks in determining self-selection patterns of Mexico-U.S. migration. A simple theoretical framework shows the impact of networks on migration incentives at different education levels and how this affects the composition of migrant skills. Empirically, we find positive or education-neutral selection in communities with weak migrant networks but negative self-selection in communities with stronger networks. This is consistent with high migration costs driving positive or intermediate self-selection, as advocated by Chiquiar and Hanson (2005), and with negative self-selection being driven by lower returns to education in the United States than in Mexico, as advocated by Borjas (1987).


Hybrid and alternating identity styles are dynamic strategies that members of immigrant and ethnic minority groups use to maintain multiple cultural identities. Although research shows that the two strategies predict different outcomes for cultural identity development and psychological well-being, less is known about their antecedents. The present study investigated the temporal relationship between intercultural abilities (i.e. intercultural effectiveness) and the activation of hybrid and alternating identity styles in a community sample of Filipino and Indian New Zealanders. Cross-lagged analysis indicated that intercultural abilities positively predicted the hybrid identity style and negatively predicted the alternating identity style. Cultural identity styles were not predictive of intercultural abilities over time. Multigroup analysis indicated equivalence of regression paths across ethnic groups. Findings suggest that intercultural abilities function as an antecedent of cultural identity styles.


We demonstrate that grafted human fetal mesencephalic neurons can survive and extend axons for 22 years in the brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease (PD). In this patient, the overall survival and fiber outgrowth of the grafts were, however, relatively poor, which is consistent with the lack of significant clinical graft-induced benefit. We have compared the morphology of neurons in the 22-year old grafts with those in two younger grafts (16- and 12-year old), which were sequentially implanted in another PD patient. In the case with the 22-year-old transplant, a high proportion (up to 38%) of the grafted dopaminergic (pigment-granule containing) neurons do not express tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine transporter and their perikarya appear atrophic. The proportion of pigmented neurons not expressing these markers is lower in the 12-16 year old grafts. Furthermore, in the 22-year-old graft, 49% of the pigmented neurons display α-synuclein immunoreactivity in the cell body and 1.2% of them contain Lewy bodies. In conclusion, our results show that grafted dopaminergic neurons can survive for more than two decades. However, over time an increasing proportion of grafted neurons exhibit signs of degeneration.


The article discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional long wall top coal caving (LTCC) first, then proposed a new technique of top coal caving with vibration. The theoretical basis of the technique was elaborated.The top coal vibration system and its control system have been designed as such when the system works, the emulsion pump station provides power for whole system, the current pulse generator provides current pulse. This technique has been applied to the 5209 top coal caving working face in Wang Zhuang coal mine (Shanxi Province). Based on the experiment, the vibration can easily destroy the arch structure which is formed during the top coal caving process. The top coal caving with vibration technique has a higher coal recovery ratio. This technique improves the top coal broken effect and lowers the waste content rate. The significant economic and social benefits proved it to be a promising technique.


Weak hip abductors may be related with increased hip adduction and knee abduction angular movement, which may be risk factors of lower extremity injuries. As the role of eccentric hip abduction strength (EHAS) on hip adduction angular movement and knee abduction angular movement (KABD) remains unclear, the purpose of this study was to explore the association between EHAS and hip and knee angular movement. In 100 healthy male recreational runners, EHAS was quantified using an isokinetic dynamometer, while hip and knee angular movements were collected using pressure‐sensitive treadmill and Codamotion active marker system. Using multiple linear regression models (n=186 legs), no relationships between EHAS and hip and knee kinematics were found. A possible reason for the lack of relationship between EHAS and hip and knee kinematics may be owing to differences in the running kinematics. Some runners with weak EHAS may compensate the weakness by leaning toward the stance limb and thereby reduces the demand on the hip abductors with the consequence of increased knee abduction moment, which may lead to an increased knee abduction angular excursion. Possible, others mechanism as the quadriceps strength and activity in the hip and thigh muscles may also be able to explain the lack of relationship that may or may not exist. Despite the inconclusive results of this study, the findings may suggest that weak hip abductor muscles may be a relevant factor to focus on in future studies.


Heme is a highly abundant prosthetic group of proteins, which are involved in oxygen transport and redox biochemistry. The strong redox reactivity of heme can cause considerable toxicity if intracellular heme levels exceed the homeostatic range. A complex network of scavenger proteins, clearance mechanisms and metabolic detoxification pathways controls heme exposure and ensures save recycling of heme-derived iron. However, in certain disease states such as during hemolysis or rhabdomyolysis extracellular heme levels can reach excessive levels that overwhelm the normal homeostatic control mechanisms. In the presented research we have explored the range of adaptive and maladaptive cellular responses to excessive heme exposure. As a general concept we could link more adaptive responses to the professional heme clearance mechanisms of macrophages such as endocytosis of hemoglobin:haptoglobin complexes. These adaptive changes include enhanced oxidative detoxification and iron handling capacity as well as an altered macrophage immune phenotype with low human leukocyte antigen-D expression. The adaptive response of macrophages is a potential target of positive and negative pharmacologic regulation. As an example we demonstrate that glucocorticoid treatment in vitro and in vivo skews macrophage polarization towards enhanced Hb-heme detoxification and iron recycling, while the anti-malaria drug chloroquine negatively interferes with the protective adaption to Hb exposure. At the other end of the heme response spectrum we characterized the cellular changes during overt heme toxicity and defined their molecular mechanisms. In these studies we defined that excess cellular heme disrupts homeostasis by oxidative reactions and porphyrin mediated impairment of the reparative proteasome pathway, respectively. These heme activities synergistically disrupt cellular protein metabolism and cause cell death.


Background Smartphone apps are increasingly being used to aid in hypertension self-management, and a large and ever-growing number of self-management apps have been commercially released. However, very few of these are potentially effective and secure, and researchers have yet to establish the suitability of specific hypertension apps to particular contexts. Objective The aim of this study is to identify the most suitable hypertension app in the context of Saudi Arabia and its health system. Methods This study used a 2-stage approach to selecting the most suitable app for hypertension self-management. First, a systematic selection approach was followed to identify a shortlist of the most suitable apps according to the criteria of potential effectiveness, theoretical underpinning, and privacy and security. Second, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to select the most suitable from the shortlist: 12 doctors were interviewed, and 22 patients participated in 4 focus groups. These explored participants' attitudes towards self-management apps in general, and their views towards the apps identified via the systematic selection process. The qualitative data were analyzed using framework analysis. Results In the first stage, only 5 apps were found to be potentially effective while also having a theoretical underpinning and protecting users' data. In the second stage, both doctors and patients were generally interested in using hypertension apps, but most had no experience with these apps due to a lack of awareness of their availability and suitability. Patients and doctors liked apps that combine intuitive interfaces with a pleasant and clear visual design, in-depth features (eg, color-coded feedback accompanied with textual explanations), activity-specific reminders, and educational content regarding hypertension and potential complications. When the pros and cons of the 5 apps were discussed, 3 apps were identified as being more suitable, with Cora Health rated the highest by the participants. Conclusions Only 5 apps were deemed potentially effective and secure. Patients' and doctors' discussions of the pros and cons of these 5 apps revealed that 3 out of the 5 are clearly more suitable, with the Cora Health app being judged most suitable overall.


justifiably concerned that her baby was convulsing in utero. It was subsequently noticed that her baby was frequently affected by hiccups following a feed. The hiccups occurred at a rate of one per second and lasted for several minutes at a time; this phenomenon persisted to the age of three months. It is known that the fetus drinks liquor in utero, and hiccups have been demonstrated by real-time ultrasound scanning.' Hiccuping in utero might explain the observations of these mothers and such an explanation by her doctor would help to allay genuine anxieties. Real-time scanning would be valuable to confirm this diagnosis when the technique is available. I SWANN


A new radiation-type waveguide-to-waveguide coupler is proposed. The coupling is realized through gratings embedded on the dielectric waveguides involved. Compared to the conventional hybrid-mode coupler, this type of coupler has advantages in that the two waveguides can be quite dissimilar as well as being separated by large distances. It is demonstrated that the coupling performance of this radiation-type coupler can be enhanced significantly by using photonic bandgap (PBG) structures.


The increase in forced evictions of Roma communities in the European Union is cause for alarm. In Romania, the member state with the largest Roma population, they are part of a consistent practice of racial segregation and social exclusion. The discriminatory intent of forced evictions and the lack of domestic procedural safeguards constitute a violation of the country's international and regional treaty obligations. However, despite a recent influx of cases that reveal the influence of prejudice over the relevant state action, the European Court of Human Rights has failed to resolve the matter. Even where it found breaches of the right to respect for one's private and family life, it failed to recognize the discriminatory purpose of official policies. This Note proposes a new legal framework for the Court to adopt in its adjudication of cases concerning forced evictions of vulnerable minorities. It argues that due to the profound impact forced evictions have on the Roma community, the Court should view them as a violation of the prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. By doing so, it would increase pressure on national governments and effectively compel them to comply with international standards governing forced evictions.


Three-dimensional FEM simulations of fluid-thermal analysis of the fluid fields including the front-box and the 3C-style nozzle of aluminum roll-casting was performed by using FLOTRAN module of ANSYS. The advanced result analysis based on post-processing of ANSYS was conducted by MATLAB. According to the allowable inhomogeneity and its application of velocity and temperature at outlet, the most possible broken regions of aluminum sheets at outlet could be predicted in the case of speed increasing of the drawing-sheet and thickness reducing of the aluminium sheet during roll casting.


Formulating queries on networked information systems is laden with problems: data diversity, data complexity, network growth, varied user base, and slow network access. This paper proposes a new approach to a network query user interface which consists of two phases: query preview and query refinement. This new approach is based on dynamic queries and tight coupling, guiding users to rapidly and dynamically eliminate undesired items, reduce the data volume to a manageable size, and refine queries locally before submission over a network. A two-phase dynamic query system for NASA's Earth Observing Systems--Data Information Systems (EOSDIS) is presented. The prototype was well received by the team of scientists who evaluated the interface.


Cloud computing is emerging as a viable platform for scientific exploration. Elastic and on-demand access to resources (and other services), the abstraction of "unlimited" resources, and attractive pricing models provide incentives for scientists to move their workflows into clouds. Generalizing these concepts beyond a single virtualized datacenter, it is possible to create federated marketplaces where different types of resources (e.g., clouds, HPC grids, supercomputers) that may be geographically distributed, are collectively exposed as a single elastic infrastructure. This presents opportunities for optimizing the execution of application workflows with heterogeneous and dynamic requirements, and tackling larger scale problems. In this paper, we introduce a framework to manage the end-to-end execution of data-intensive application workflows in dynamic software-defined resource federation. This framework enables the autonomic execution of workflows by elastically provisioning an appropriate set of resources that meet application requirements, and by adapting this set of resources at runtime as the requirements change. It also allows users to customize scheduling policies that drive the way resources federated and used. To demonstrate the benefits of our approach, we study the execution of two different data-intensive scientific workflows in a multi-cloud federation using different policies and objective functions.


Two Asian-Americans, separated by a decade, figured prominently in the United States and global media for perpetrating acts of violence against mainly white American victims. Despite the national, social, sexual, and temporal differences between them, the two individuals were handled in strikingly similar ways by Western media: they were insistently identified as possessing characteristics of their originating national cultures, and their actions were subjected to a type of close scrutiny not applied to other cases of multiple-victim killers. Using textual analysis, this paper will look at the media coverage expended on the cases of Andrew Cunanan and Seung-Hui Cho, using critiques of Orientalism initiated by Edward Said and developed by a number of non-Western theorists. The typical Western narrative used to explain actuations of Cunanan and Cho will be subjected to the question of whether this attitude toward Oriental Others insists on differentiating them rather than accepting their actions in the manner of their Western counterparts.


Unions, Training, and Firm Performance The present paper uses a combination of workplace and linked employee-workplace data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey and the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey to examine the impact of unions on training incidence, training intensity/coverage, and training duration. It also examines the impact of unions and training on earnings and a measure of establishment labour productivity. In addition, the implications of training for the firm's bottom line are evaluated. Union effects on training emerge as fairly subtle, and are more positive when using individual rather than plant-wide training data. A positive impact of training on earnings is detected in both the individual and plant-wide wage data, albeit only for the earlier survey. Consistent with other recent findings, the effects of union recognition on earnings are today rather muted, while union-training interaction effects vary greatly. Instrumenting training provides positive results for the labour productivity outcome and, in the case of the earlier survey, for the financial performance indicator as well. However, some negative effects of unions are now also detected. JEL Classification: J24, J33, J51


Returning Home: Student nurses connecting theory to practice during a Primary Health Care placement in the Pacific.
This presentation will examine a unique teaching and learning experience, relating to primary health care, during an international placement with a difference. The KANI (Kiribati Australian Nursing Initiative) project is a joint initiative between Griffith University and AusAID which provides scholarships to students from the Kiribati Island group in the Pacific to complete undergraduate nursing studies in Australia. As Kiribati is one of the poorest island nations in the world, with limited natural resources already depleted by climate change factors, no significant industry and almost 70% unemployment, successful completion of the program will provide graduates with a career path in their own country or via immigration to Australia. KANI students in their final year returned to Kiribati to complete a two week clinical placement with a focus on delivering primary health care services through established community clinics and outreach services. The key learning objective for the students was to gain an understanding of primary health care principles by participating in a range of health promotion activities and illness prevention strategies within their own community.
Eleven students, accompanied by a nursing academic, worked collaboratively with local health workers, including diploma qualified nurses, medical assistants, nursing students and visiting Cuban medical staff. The students refined clinical skills by participating in immunization programs, maternal and child health assessments, diabetes clinics and home visiting. Health education sessions were delivered at local schools, relating to significant local issues such as HIV/AIDS education and gastro-enteritis management. Anecdotal evidence and focus group data revealed that students readily identified and addressed client education deficits relating to medication administration, diabetes and lifestyle management and wound care. Despite being indigenous to the country, students described significant learning experiences and increased ability to relate primary health care theory to practice, specifically in relation to social justice and equity issues.
20 minute Presentation at RCNA CPHC Conference, Hobart, 2011


Purpose: To determine how adults and registered dietitians (RDs) perceived foods according to a frequency continuum, and to assess the differences between them. Methods: A sample of 1002 adults and 566 RDs were recruited. Participants had to associate 51 foods with a frequency continuum ("daily", "occasional" or "sometimes"). Food groups were created: 1) Canada's Food Guide's groups (CFG) (n = 22), 2) High in Fat or High in Sugar foods (HFHS) (n = 16), and 3) Meals (n = 13). Results: CFG were perceived as "daily" foods (adults = 56.8%, RDs = 94.5%), HFHS as "sometimes" foods (adults = 67.2%, RDs = 59.6%) and Meals as "occasional" foods (adults = 75.8%, RDs = 58.2%). Adults (all age groups) perceived that CFG and Meals should be eaten less frequently than RDs (18 to 64 years old). Younger adults perceived these two groups as to be eaten more frequently than older respondents. Adults perceived HFHS as to be consumed less frequently than RDs (no age effect). Conclusions: While adults tend to have more severe perceptions than RDs, results show that their food perceptions are in line with an overall awareness of Canadian nutrition guidelines, suggesting the presence of a relevant popular knowledge about the value of food.


The audiological use of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) to obtain diagnostic audiological information can be challenging in the "difficult-to-test" populations where sedation is required. This challenge becomes more pronounced in non-medical settings where medical personnel who can provide drug administration as well as monitor the patient while under sedation are not readily available. The non-medical setting comprises a big portion of audiology practices and clinics; hence the importance of exploring sedation protocols that can be used in this setting. The current study explored the use of melatonin as a "sedative" during ABR testing. Within a prospective pretest posttest design, 27 adults with normal hearing comprised the study sample. All participants underwent basic audiologic testing comprising of otoscopy, tympanometry, and pure tone audiometry followed by an ABR which was conducted pre and post melatonin administration. The initial recording was conducted prior to the administration of melatonin with the second recording performed 40 minutes following the participants' intake of 3 milligrams of melatonin. Data was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative statistical measures. Findings indicated that melatonin can be successfully utilised as a "sedative" during ABR testing as it allowed for statistically significant reduction in muscle artifacts, did not present negative impact on morphology, repeatability, amplitude and latency of the recordings; and also did not induce any obvious and/or reported negative effects for the participants. These findings have important clinical and training implications, particularly in resource-constrained contexts and in contexts where audiologists function within non-medical facilities.


In this paper, the potential distribution information and ecological suitability regionalization for Gastrodia elata in Zhaotong were studied based on the climate, terrain, soil and vegetation factors analysis by Maxent and ArcGIS. The results showed that the highly potential distribution (suitability index>0.6) mainly located in Zhaotong, Yunnan province(Zhenxiong,Yiliang and Daguan county, with an area of 2 872 km²), and Bijie, Guizhou province (Hezhang,Bijie,Weining county, 1 251 km²). The AUC of ROC curve was above 0.99, indicating that the predictive results with the Maxent model were highly precise. The main ecological factors determining the potential distribution were the altitude, average rainfall in November, average rainfall in October, vegetation types, average rainfall in March, average rainfall in April,soil types,isothermal characteristic and average rainfall in June. The environmental variables in the highly potential areas were determined as altitude around 1 450-2 200 m,annual average temperature around 18.0-20.4 ℃,annual average precipitation around 900 mm,yellow soil or yellow brown soil,and acid sandy loam or slightly acidic sandy loam.The results will provide valuable references for plantation regionalization and the siting for imitation wild planting of G. elata in Zhaotong.


A new starch-based binder as a natural polymer has been developed for metal injection molding (MIM). In this study tapioca starch which is cheap and readily available in Malaysia has been used as a binder which composed of starch, glycerol, linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), citric acid and stearic acid. This developed binder system was mixed with 316 L stainless steel powder to prepare the feedstock at three different of powder loadings of 56, 57 and 58% vol. The rheological behavior of the binder and feedstock were evaluated at different temperatures using a capillary rheometer. The rheological behavior of binder shows less than 10 Pa s and the flow behavior index of the feedstocks were determined to less than 1, which indicates the flow characteristic is pseudo-plastic which is suitable for MIM process. Finally, among these three feedstocks, the feedstock of 57% vol. powder loading was selected and its viscosity values within expected shear rate range are less than 1000 Pa s.


Violence may be defined generally as the mechanism by which unequal power relations are maintained through the infliction of physical or emotional pain on one person by another. However, gender violence takes on a more specific nature that is mainly sexual and which hinges on patriarchal cultures whereby men seek to control, not just the social institutions but also, women's bodies as objects of male sexual gratification. Schools as agents of socialisations may perpetuate such cultures. Using research findings from selected settings of the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR), the author demonstrates how gender violence among young people (female and male) in African formal educational contexts interacts with schooling to produce disempowering experiences for girls compared with their male schoolmates. The thrust of the argument is that, by acting out their gendered and sexual identities in explicitly sensitive, reflexive and gender friendly ways, female and male teachers have the potential to create for their students, violence-free environments in which girls enjoy schooling on equal terms with their male peers. Because the culture of non-violence is more difficult and hence, requires more attention and more care than that of violence, it takes a great deal longer for the delicious and lifeenhancing fruits of non-violence to grow and ripen than it does for the bitter deadly fruits of violence. -- Muller, Non-Violence in Education


Cytokine gene-modified tumor cells have increased immunogenicity and retain the antigenic repertoire of a particular neoplasia. However, practical concerns have led to an increased interest in allogeneic gene-transduced bystander cells as a broader source of cytokines for autologous tumor cell-based vaccines. Here, we show that allogeneic B78H1 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-negative and -positive (H-2K(b)- and D(b)-transfected) cells induced cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and protection in BALB/c mice at comparable levels in response to a challenge with C26 (H-2(d)) colon carcinoma cells sharing the tumor-associated antigen envelope glycoprotein 70 (env-gp70) with both cell lines. Class I-negative B78H1 cells transduced to express interleukin-12 (IL-12) and mixed with autologous A20 tumor cells led to eradication of preestablished A20 lymphoma in 50% or 100% of treated mice after 3 or 4 vaccinations, respectively, whereas A20 cells alone or mixed with nontransduced B78H1 cured none or 50% of mice after 3 or 4 vaccinations, respectively. Immunization with the IL-12-producing bystander cell line increased tumor-specific proliferation and type 1 cytokine production by CD4(+) T cells. By contrast, CD4 T-cell function appeared impaired after immunization with A20 cells alone or mixed with B78H1 cells. Indeed, only CD4(+) T cells from IL-12-treated mice could be restimulated with anti-OX40 monoclonal antibody (mAb) in place of a fourth cellular boost. Moreover, the IL-12-based tumor vaccine induced expansion of tumor-specific interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-producing CD8(+) T cells. These results are clinically relevant for the development of feasible IL-12 cancer vaccines based on engineered class I-negative bystander cells.


Abstract The choice of lead or lead alloys (Pb-Bi) as the coolant of a fast reactor offers the potential for enhanced safety and reliability due to their benign physical and chemical characteristics. In an effort to assess this class of coolants in advanced nuclear systems of the next generation, an innovative fast reactor concept that eliminates the need for steam generators and main coolant pumps and thus offers capital and operating cost reduction was explored. The working steam is generated by direct-contact vaporization of water by liquid metal in the chimney above the core and is then sent directly to the turbine. The presence of a lighter fluid in the chimney substantially enhances the natural circulation of the Pb-Bi within the reactor pool. A key technical issue of this reactor concept is the consequences of Pb-Bi aerosol generation within the vessel, its transport within the power cycle components and impact on the design and operation of the turbine. Generation, transport, and deposition of Pb-Bi aerosols were modeled. It was found that the utilization of a suitable chevron steam separator design reduces the heavy-liquid metal transported to the steam lines by about three orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, the residual Pb-Bi (~0.003 kg/s) is predicted to be sufficient to cause embrittlement of the turbine blades if conventional materials are used and the plant is to operate for 40 yr. Four solutions to this problem were assessed and found potentially viable from a technical standpoint: blade coating, employment of alternative materials, electrostatic precipitation, and oxidation of the Pb-Bi droplets.


We investigate the role of some game solutions, such the Shapley and the Banzhaf values, as probability transformations of lower probabilities. The first one coincides with the pignistic transformation proposed in the Transferable Belief Model; the second one is not efficient in general, leading us to propose a normalized version. We consider a number of particular cases of lower probabilities: minitive measures, coherent lower probabilities, as well as the lower probabilities induced by comparative or distorsion models. For them, we provide some alternative expressions of the transformations and study when they belong to the core of the lower probability.


: The flowers of the hemiparasitic family Loranthaceae are always subtended by a rimmed structure known as the calyculus. The origin and identity of the calyculus have been disputed for more than a century. Various hypotheses have been proposed, for example, an outgrowth of the axis, a reduced calyx, and a bracteolar (prophyllar) origin, but controversies remain. To obtain a plausible explanation of the origin of the calyculus, we investigated the flowers of Loranthus tanakae using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy to observe the entire developmental process of the floral parts. Our results show that bracts are not present in L. tanakae . The calyculus, which lacks serving vascular bundles, initiates as a semicircular primordium and then develops into a circular structure by an adnation at both sides. The flower primordium usually cleaves into six petals from its centre along a whorled pattern in two series with three petals each, before or after the calyculus closed. Isomerous stamen primordia probably follow the same initiation pattern as petals do. Several carpels of different sizes initiate simultaneously as a united primordium. We support the hypotheses that the calyculus is of bract or bracteole origin due to its independent initiation from the inflorescence rachis, its similar morphology and positioning as the bract or bracteole, and that having no developmental relationship with the petals. We suggest keeping the usage of the term "calyculus". Loranthus flowers should be considered monochlamydeous with three whorls of floral parts, namely petal, androecium, and gynoecium.


Non-stationary trend in R-R interval series is suggested to be removed to obtain reliable results for it could highly influence the frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability. In this study, three detrending methods, the smoothness prior approach, the wavelet and the empirical mode decomposition, were compared on artificial R-R interval series with four types of simulated trends. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram was used for frequency domain analysis. Results indicated that the wavelet method showed a better overall performance than the other two methods, and more time-saving, too. Thus the wavelet method is recommended as an optimal choice for use.


It is shown that Li diffusion of GaAs can give rise to semi-insulating samples with electrical resistivity as high as 10(7) OMEGAcm in undoped, n-type, and p-type starting materials. The optical properties of the compensated samples are correlated with the depletion of free carriers caused by the Li diffusion. The radiative recombination of the Li-compensated samples is dominated by emissions with excitation-dependent peak positions that shift to lower energies with increasing compensation. The photoluminescence properties are characteristic of fluctuations of the electrostatic potential in strongly doped, compensated crystals.


Molybdenum (Mo) plays an essential role in the active site of all eukaryotic Mo-containing enzymes. In plants, Mo enzymes are important for nitrate assimilation, phytohormone synthesis, and purine catabolism. Mo is bound to a unique metal binding pterin (molybdopterin [MPT]), thereby forming the active Mo cofactor (Moco), which is highly conserved in eukaryotes, eubacteria, and archaebacteria. Here, we describe the function of the two-domain protein Cnx1 from Arabidopsis in the final step of Moco biosynthesis. Cnx1 is constitutively expressed in all organs and in plants grown on different nitrogen sources. Mo-repairable cnxA mutants from Nicotiana plumbaginifolia accumulate MPT and show altered Cnx1 expression. Transformation of cnxA mutants and the corresponding Arabidopsis chl-6 mutant with cnx1 cDNA resulted in functional reconstitution of their Moco deficiency. We also identified a point mutation in the Cnx1 E domain of Arabidopsis chl-6 that causes the molybdate-repairable phenotype. Recombinant Cnx1 protein is capable of synthesizing Moco. The G domain binds and activates MPT, whereas the E domain is essential for activating Mo. In addition, Cnx1 binds to the cytoskeleton in the same way that its mammalian homolog gephyrin does in neuronal cells, which suggests a hypothetical model for anchoring the Moco-synthetic machinery by Cnx1 in plant cells.


The objective of this study was to establish the factors that affect guidance and counseling in primary schools. Guidance and counseling seems not to be adequately helping pupils with physical and psychological problems in Nairobi province of Kenya. Many primary schools are faced with indiscipline and poor performance yet there is a guidance and counseling programme running in these schools. The sample of study was 234 respondents selected from a population of 10,000 primary school teachers in Nairobi city through the stratified and simple random methods. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The results showed that majority of the respondents do not regard guidance and counseling as a critical issue in the development of the pupils. Too, it was found that teachers' attitudes, training in counselling, availability of time and facilities have a negative impact on the guidance and counselling programme. The Government and the schools' management do not provide the needed infrastructure for guidance and counseling. It was recommended that training of teachers in guidance and counseling be given priority by the schools and the government. KEY WORDS: Guidance, counselling, primary school and factors


From the Publisher:
The only book to visually guide you through setting up a Linux internet server. Visually describes how to use Linux as an Internet server to support a globally linked TCP/IP computer network. Written by the author team of Setting Up a Linux Intranet Server Visual Black Book (Coriolis, ISBN 1-57610-568-7) Uses a step-by-step approach and a two-color layout to emphasize important aspects of each task. This book takes the reader through the entire process of setting up and supporting a functional Linux Internet Server from beginning to end.


Online predictions of bus arrival times have the potential to reduce the uncertainty associated with bus operations. By better anticipating future conditions, online predictions can reduce perceived and actual passenger travel times as well as facilitate more proactive decision making by service providers. Even though considerable research efforts were devoted to the development of computationally expensive bus arrival prediction schemes, real-world real-time information (RTI) systems are typically based on very simple prediction rules. This paper narrows down the gap between the state-of-the-art and the state-of-the-practice in generating RTI for public transport systems by evaluating the added-value of schemes that integrate instantaneous data and dwell time predictions. The evaluation considers static information and a commonly deployed scheme as a benchmark. The RTI generation algorithms were applied and analyzed for a trunk bus network in Stockholm, Sweden. The schemes are assessed and compared based on their accuracy, reliability, robustness and potential waiting time savings. The impact of RTI on passengers waiting times are compared with those attained by service frequency and regularity improvements. A method which incorporates information on downstream travel conditions outperforms the commonly deployed scheme, leading to a 25% reduction in the mean absolute error. Furthermore, the incorporation of instantaneous travel times improves the prediction accuracy and reliability, and contributes to more robust predictions. The potential waiting time gains associated with the prediction scheme are equivalent to the gains expected when introducing a 60% increase in service frequency, and are not attainable by service regularity improvements.


Polarization vision is widespread in nature, mainly among invertebrates, and is used for a range of tasks including navigation, habitat localization and communication. In marine environments, some species such as those from the Crustacea and Cephalopoda that are principally monochromatic, have evolved to use this adaptation to discriminate objects across the whole visual field, an ability similar to our own use of colour vision. The performance of these polarization vision systems varies, and the few cephalopod species tested so far have notably acute thresholds of discrimination. However, most studies to date have used artificial sources of polarized light that produce levels of polarization much higher than found in nature. In this study, the ability of octopuses to detect polarization contrasts varying in angle of polarization (AoP) was investigated over a range of different degrees of linear polarization (DoLP) to better judge their visual ability in more ecologically relevant conditions. The 'just-noticeable-differences' (JND) of AoP contrasts varied consistently with DoLP. These JND thresholds could be largely explained by their 'polarization distance', a neurophysical model that effectively calculates the level of activity in opposing horizontally and vertically oriented polarization channels in the cephalopod visual system. Imaging polarimetry from the animals' natural environment was then used to illustrate the functional advantage that these polarization thresholds may confer in behaviourally relevant contexts.


. The regional distribution and relative frequency of endocrine cells was studied immunohistochemically (PAP method) in the alimentary tract of the red-bellied frog, Bombina orientalis , using antisera against serotonin, somatostatin, chromogranin (CG), cholecystokinin (CCK)-8, bombesin, secretin, glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide (PP). Eight kinds of endocrine cells were identified in this study. These immunoreactive cells were located in the gastric glands of the stomach regions and in the intestinal or esophageal epithelium with variable frequencies. They were spherical or spindle-shaped. Serotonin- and somatostatin-immunoreactive cells were demonstrated in the whole alimentary tract including esophagus. CG-immunoreactive cells were restricted to the stomach. CCK-8-immunoreactive cells were observed from the antrum to the ileum. Bombesin-immunoreactive cells were restricted to the stomach. Secretin-immunoreactive cells were demonstrated in the pylorus, duodenum and ileum. Glucagon-immunoreactive cells were found in the antrum and duodenum. PP-immunoreactive cells were detected from the antrum to the rectum. In conclusion, throughout the alimentary tract of the red-bellied frog, the different regional distribution and relative frequency of endocrine cells were demonstrated. The regional distributions and relative frequencies of the endocrine cells in the alimentary tract of the red-bellied frog were resembled to those of the other anuran species except for esophagus.—


In this paper, we present a versatile framework to enable autonomous flights of a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) which has only slow, noisy, delayed and possibly arbitrarily scaled measurements available. Using such measurements directly for position control would be practically impossible as MAVs exhibit great agility in motion. In addition, these measurements often come from a selection of different onboard sensors, hence accurate calibration is crucial to the robustness of the estimation processes. Here, we address these problems using an EKF formulation which fuses these measurements with inertial sensors. We do not only estimate pose and velocity of the MAV, but also estimate sensor biases, scale of the position measurement and self (inter-sensor) calibration in real-time. Furthermore, we show that it is possible to obtain a yaw estimate from position measurements only. We demonstrate that the proposed framework is capable of running entirely onboard a MAV performing state prediction at the rate of 1 kHz. Our results illustrate that this approach is able to handle measurement delays (up to 500ms), noise (std. deviation up to 20 cm) and slow update rates (as low as 1 Hz) while dynamic maneuvers are still possible. We present a detailed quantitative performance evaluation of the real system under the influence of different disturbance parameters and different sensor setups to highlight the versatility of our approach.


Joining technologies for multi-material design become more important. A new technology to combine the advantages of adhesive bonding and mechanical joining is the Thermal Direct Joining of plastic and metal. In this process the metal joining partner is heated up to temperatures above the melting temperature of the thermoplastic. If the joining temperature is reached, the thermoplastic is pressed under defined force to the heated metal. The thermoplastic melts close to its surface and wets the metal. Afterwards the joint is cooled under pressure. The advantages of Thermal Direct Joining are short cycle times, high bonding strengths and high reproducibility and process stability. Heating by a permanent heated stamp is investigated. The joining equipment was further developed to shorten cycle times, to raise reproducibility and to investigate on optimal process parameters. The results show that high tensile-shear strengths up to 25 MPa can be observed in short term overlap shear tests for the combinations of aluminium or steel with polyamide 6, polyamide 6 with 30 wt.-% short glass fibre reinforcement or thermoplastic fibre reinforced plastic with polyamide 6 matrix.


STETTNER, EDWARD A., ed. Perspectives on Europe. Cambridge: Schenkman, 1970, 191 pp. The essays in this volume concentrate on the unifying aspects of current European life, both political and economic. Contributors include: Walter Laqueur, Geoffrey Barraclough, Guido Calogero, Arnulf Baring, Alexander Gerschenkron, and Pierre Hassner. Proceedings of a symposium held at Wellesley College under the auspices of the Barnette Miller Foundation.


Information and communications technologies (ICT) have undergone extraordinary advances in the past 5 years. Two aspects of these developments are described along with their implications for gerontechnology. First, international high speed Internet networks serving the academic community are reviewed, acknowledging that today's academic networks are poised to inform the public's computer networks of tomorrow. Second, computational systems that increasingly penetrate every facet of the built environment, for instance, clothing, furnishings, personal items, transportation and home environmental control and security are described. Over time such embedded systems are integrated into large wired and wireless networks of devices which may extend over international boundaries. High bandwidth networked applications in development include multipoint videoconferencing using multicast IPv6 protocols, telepresence, virtual reality simulations and remote sensing for gathering data in built environments. Examples of how these developments create new applications for all four of the goals of gerontechnology - prevention, compensation, care and enhancement of quality of life - are provided. Enhanced technological services for the elderly will develop, including nutritional monitoring, safety and security, mental health and healthcare, environmental control, and communications. International networks promise more uniform care standards for the elderly, increase the opportunity for collaboration among researchers and educators tackling the difficult problems associated with aging, including dementia, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Networks have the promise of enhancing outcomes by maximizing economies of scale by collecting research observations from multiple international venues. New educational approaches addressing the challenges of aging include virtual reality applications which simulate the impact of aging for young individuals. Monitoring individuals in their homes using ICT and computer networks can impose significant ethical responsibilities upon governing agencies.