This paper addresses the evaluation of an energy efficiency program for low-income households. The so-called 'eco-social' program was launched by the local utility of Geneva-Switzerland at the end of 2009. By the end of 2013 it had reached more than 5000 households through eight campaigns and attained its initial objective of 2 GWh/year of electricity savings before the end of the program. The aim of eco-social is to favor the implementation of energy efficient technologies in low-income households. All of the inefficient lighting are replaced by energy efficient lighting devices, outlet power strips with external switch are installed, electric kettle boilers are offered and rebate vouchers are given to replace existing refrigerators by energy efficient ones. Different types of data collection and methods are used to estimate the savings generated by the program: simple engineering ex-ante estimates (based on the information collected on the replaced and installed devices; enhanced ex-post engineering estimates (based on measurement of the energy consumption before and after the implementation). The ex-post methods were intended to calibrate the ex-ante methods that are used at present time to evaluate the savings during a given campaign. The methodologies and main results obtained are detailed in this paper. In addition, three topics are discussed: problems with the reference group for one of the saving estimation methods, the evolution of the stock of inefficient light bulbs in households, and the development of a software tool to estimate the savings. One of the methods used to estimate the savings is based on the comparison of participant and non-participant households. Since the first campaign, the program had a great success concerning the willingness of targeted households to participate. This complicated the task of evaluators who intended to use non-participants as a reference group and had to slightly change the way saving estimations were made. Data collected during the campaigns allow to follow the evolution of the stock of inefficient light bulbs in households. While a shift from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) was expected after the ban of incandescent light bulbs, it is rather observed a shift towards halogen bulbs. Statistics of the evolution of the average power of inefficient light bulbs, which are replaced during the campaigns, are also given in the paper. Using the calibrated ex-ante methodology presented in this paper, the program operator is able to estimate the savings generated by each campaign with relatively good accuracy. This has been introduced in the software tool that is used by program implementers to manage the campaigns and allows to have a picture of the energy savings generated almost in real time. The experience gained by the program and implementers allowed to redesign a new program for 2014-2015 with a more ambitious objective than the previous one. A similar objective (2 GWh/year) is targeted within a shorter time frame.


The deployment of a common platform of group services is considered the base for structuring fault tolerant distributed applications. Although a number of solutions are available in literature, the identification of the protocol that better fits the given application requirements is still hard because of the lack of a unique problem statement and of a clear definition of the achievable quality of service. This paper provides a common framework of analysis, identifies the critical design issues that can affect the quality of service, and uses simulations to evaluate the role they play in coping with different failure conditions.


The answer to the question posed in the title is arguably, yes. U.S. firms appear to be well positioned to profitably expand exports of highly differentiated dairy products and selected dairy ingredients, especially dried whey products. However, U.S. bulk cheese, butter and nonfat dry milk (NFDM) are, for the most part, priced out of foreign markets by U.S. border protection and the dairy price support program. If, as claimed by a former Nestle CEO, the U.S. dairy-food market is "flat and fiercely competitive," U.S. companies may find it profitable to expand direct investments in foreign dairy-food businesses both in the near term and over the longer-run. Failure of U.S. companies to take advantage of opportunities in foreign dairy markets poses risks and will continue to cede early-mover advantages for serving the growth markets of Asia and Latin America to the New Zealanders, Australians, Western Europeans, and others. U.S. firms are doing some things right to prepare for a world where foreign dairy sales will be more important.


Effective supply chain management gains much attention from industry and academia because it helps firms across a supply chain to reduce cost and improve customer service level efficiently. Focusing on one of the key challenges of the supply chains, namely, demand uncertainty, this dissertation extends the work of Zhao, Xie, and Leung so as to examine the effects of forecasting method selection coupled with information sharing on supply chain performance in a dynamic business environment. The results of this study showed that under various scenarios, advanced forecasting methods such as neural network and GARCH models play a more significant role when capacity tightness increases and is more important to the retailers than to the supplier under certain circumstances in terms of supply chain costs. Thus, advanced forecasting models should be promoted in supply chain management. However, this study also demonstrated that forecasting methods not capable of modeling features of certain demand patterns significantly impact a supply chain's performance. That is, a forecasting method misspecified for characteristics of the demand pattern usually results in higher supply chain costs. Thus, in practice, supply chain managers should be cognizant of the cost impact of selecting commonly used traditional forecasting methods, such as moving average and exponential smoothing, in conjunction with various operational and environmental factors, to keep supply chain cost under control. This study demonstrated that when capacity tightness is high for the supplier, information sharing plays a more important role in effective supply chain management. In addition, this study also showed that retailers benefit directly from information sharing when advanced forecasting methods are employed under certain conditions.


Leunca (Solanum nigrum L. ) is one of the indigenous vegetables in Indonesia. The fruit of this vegetable is green and has bitter taste because of its tannin content. The objectives of this study were to get lethal dose 50 (LD50), diversity and to obtain candidates of mutant plants with high and low tannin content in young fruit and ripe fruit in leunca. The research was conducted at Pasir Kuda experimental station, Bogor; National Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN), Jakarta; and postharvest laboratory of the Center for Tropical Horticulture Studies (PKHT IPB), Bogor, from December 2016 to July 2017. Leunca accession of SN 20 and SN 29 were irradiated using doses of 0, 100, 150, 200, and 250 Gy of gamma ray. The LD50 values for SN 20 and SN 29 were 171.944 Gy and 190.949 Gy, respectively. The analysis of tannin content was performed based on permanganate method by titration using potassium permanganate. The results showed that the highest tannin content of green stage fruit was found in SN20D3.5 with 200 Gy dose and the lowest was found in SN29D1.5 with 100 Gy dose. The highest tannin content of ripe fruit was found in SN20D4.6 with dose of 250 Gy and the lowest was found in SN20D3.1 with dose of 200 Gy. Recommended tannin content for leunca is the low tannin content.Keywords: diversity, gamma ray, indigenous vegetable, irradiation, LD50


Micromechanical communication circuits fabricated via IC-compatible MEMS technologies and capable of low-loss filtering, mixing, switching, and frequency generation, are described with the intent to miniaturize wireless transceivers. A possible transceiver frontend architecture is then presented that uses these micromechanical circuits in large quantities to substantially reduce power consumption. Technologies that integrate MEMS and transistor circuits into single-chip systems are then reviewed with an eye towards the possibility of single-chip communication transceivers.


Background Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is a multifactorial condition marked by mechanical insufficiencies, sensorimotor deficits, and functional limitations. Clinician- and patient-oriented measures have been developed to capture these factors, but their responsiveness has not been examined concurrently. Objective To establish the concurrent responsiveness of 4 clinician- and patient-oriented outcome measures in patients with CAI. Design Reliability study. Setting Research laboratory. Participants Seventy-nine patients with self-reported CAI had their self-reported better limb assessed across a 2-week interval. CAI was defined as at least two episodes of "giving way" within the past 3 months; scoring ≤90% on the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM), and scoring ≤80% on the FAAM-Sport. Interventions Each participant underwent two separate functional assessments of the weight bearing lunge test (WBLT), the single limb balance test (SLBT), and completed the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM), separated by two weeks. The FAAM included the activities of daily living (FAAM-ADL) and sport activities (FAAM-Sport) subscales. Main outcome measures The means of 3 trials of the WBLT (cm) and the SLBT (number of errors during 20 s) were used for the analysis of clinician-oriented outcomes. The FAAM-ADL and FAAM-Sport scores were calculated as a percentage of the total score for each scale as patient-oriented outcomes. Reliability estimates were calculated for clinician-oriented outcomes (ICC(2,3)) and patient-oriented outcomes (Cronbach's α). From the reliability estimates, the minimum detectable change (MDC) was calculated for each measure. Results The clinician-oriented measures demonstrated high reliability with relatively low measurement error (WBLT ICC(2,3) = 0.98, MDC = 0.75 cm; SLBT ICC(2,3) = 0.86, MDC = 1 error) as did the patient-oriented measures (FAAM-ADL α = 0.91, MDC = 4.8%; FAAM-Sport α = 0.90, MDC = 7.6%). Conclusion The concurrent responsiveness of these clinician- and patient-oriented outcomes can now be interpreted in the context of measurement error associated with changes over time related to improvements from rehabilitation or deteriorations due to recurrent injury.


The present study deals with a compression-absorption machine. The proposed hybrid cooling system uses water-ammonia as a working fluid and operates at three pressure levels. The absorber is at an intermediate pressure (Pint) taken between the evaporator pressure (PEV) and the condenser pressure (PCD), unlike the single stage machine which works between two pressure levels. The proposed new system is studied and compared to the conventional machine. In order to evaluate the performance of the invoked machine, a procedure based on the MAPLE software is set up to compute accurately the thermodynamic properties of the working fluid. The analyses of the numerical results highlight that the performance of the novel proposed configuration is better than that relative to the conventional system. The study reveals the great impact of the intermediate pressure on the performance improvement and on reducing the generator temperature allowing the system to work at low enthalpy. In fact, for an evaporator temperature and a condenser temperature fixed respectively at -10°C and 40°C, the proposed hybrid refrigeration cycle operates at a generator temperature TGE = 75°C and the installation's COP is about 0.56. While for the same conditions, the single stage machine COP cannot exceed 0.51 with a generator temperature of about 135°C. Consequently, our enhanced novel configuration presents the opportunity to operate at low enthalpy sources.


BACKGROUND
Earlier reports of the mortality experience of this cohort of automotive workers followed from 1938 to 1967 who were exposed to cutting oil mist noted an excess of gastrointestinal cancer. The present report describes the mortality experience of these workers followed for mortality through 1980.

METHODS
Cause-specific standardized mortality ratios were calculated by comparing the observed number of deaths to the expected numbers based on rates for the U.S. male population.

RESULTS
The SMRs for liver and biliary tract, and testicular cancers were significantly elevated. Among the subset of workers with heavy oil mist exposure, SMRs were significantly elevated for cancers of the lung and testis, and for Hodgkin's disease. The risk of death due to lung cancer was greatest among workers with heavy exposure to oil mist employed for 15 or more years. Mortality due to stomach cancer was in excess among workers with heavy exposure to oil mist who were employed for 5 or more years. There were significant excesses of deaths due to asthma and emphysema.

CONCLUSIONS
Further studies with information on the presence of contaminants and additives in oil mists will help elucidate the relationship between oil mist exposure and cancer.


Introduction Most studies have shown that populations with lower socioeconomic status tend to experience higher levels of exposure to environmental air pollutants. We investigated the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic status and traffic related air pollution in São Paulo. Methods We calculated total traffic density and traffic density for vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel, from traffic counts data, for 4964 geographical units with a population of 20 or more inhabitants, formed by a grid of 500 by 500 metres. The Human Development Index (HDI) was used as a socio-economic indicator and obtained for each of these geographic units. We analysed the association through logistic regression models for traffic density categories. Results The neighbourhood socio-economic status was positively associated with all measures of traffic density with clear dose-response gradient. The category with the highest HDI presented Rate ratios of 10.2 (95% CI 7 to 14.9), 9.6 (95% CI 6.6 to 13.9) and 17.5 (95% CI 10.8 to 28.4), respectively, for total, gasoline and diesel vehicles traffic density. Conclusion Our analysis suggests that richer areas are more exposed to traffic related air pollution. The greatest socioeconomic difference in exposure was found for diesel exhaust. In search of a more equitable solution of this environmental problem, investigations are warranted in megacities of developing countries about how the development of the road network and vehicle traffic relates to sites historically occupied by different social classes.


In analysing the performance of any communication system, degradation is usually caused by unwanted signals. Filters are hence placed at desired locations to filter out these unwanted frequencies. However, the presence of significant harmonic signals that can be generated by devices such as mixers can easily contribute to the unwanted frequencies. Special attention has to be given in suppressing the second harmonic present in the filter output. This paper presents the design of a parallelcoupled bandpass filter having grooved structures. The chosen frequency of operation is 2.5 GHz, suitable for wireless communication system. The proposed design improvements were investigated for Chebyshev response filters. The filters consist of several filter orders, each having different number of grooves. Experimental investigations revealed that as the number of grooves increases, the second harmonic signal decreases. However, it is interesting to note that the behaviour changed with the presence of seven grooves.


In this paper we study the degeneracy phenomenon in optimal control problems with state constraints. It is shown that this phenomenon occurs because of the incompleteness of the standard variants of Pontryagin's maximum principle for problems with state constraints. A new maximum principle containing additional information about the behavior of the Hamiltonian at the endtimes is developed. We also obtain some sufficient and necessary conditions for nondegeneracy and pointwise nontriviality of the maximum principle. The results obtained pertain to optimal control problems with systems described by differential inclusions and ordinary differential equations.


OBJECTIVES: Malperfusion syndrome accompanying aortic dissection is an independent predictor of death with in-hospital mortality rates >60%. Asymmetrically decreased renal enhancement on computed tomography angiography is often considered evidence of renal malperfusion. We investigated the associations between renal enhancement, baseline laboratory values and the diagnosis of renal malperfusion, as defined by invasive manometry, among patients with aortic dissection. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we included all patients who were referred to our institution with acute dissection and suspected visceral malperfusion between 2010 and 2020. We determined asymmetric renal enhancement by visual assessment and quantitative density measurements of the renal cortex. We collected invasive renal artery pressures during invasive angiography at the aortic root and in the renal arteries. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate independent predictors of renal malperfusion. RESULTS: Among the 161 patients analysed, the majority of patients were male (78%) and had type A dissection (52%). Invasive angiography confirmed suspected renal malperfusion in 83% of patients. Global asymmetric renal enhancement was seen in 42% of patients who did not have renal malperfusion during invasive angiography. Asymmetrically decreased renal enhancement was 65% sensitive and 58% specific for renal malperfusion. Both global [odds ratio (OR) 4.43; 1.20–16.41, P =0.03] and focal (OR 11.23; 1.12–112.90, P =0.04) enhancement defects were independent predictors for renal malperfusion. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with aortic dissection, we found that differential enhancement of the kidney as seen on the computed tomography angiography is predictive, but not prescriptive for renal malperfusion. While detection of renal malperfusion is aided by computed tomography angiography, its diagnosis requires close monitoring and often invasive assessment.


Developing binder-free, low-cost, and efficient electrocatalysts for water splitting is very important to meet the ever-increasing global energy demands. We have judiciously designed a polyaniline (PANI)-mediated protocol for the synthesis of nickel–cobalt nitride (NCN) heterostructures on carbon cloth (CC) to be applied as catalysts for full electrochemical splitting of water. Controlled pyrolyzation of the nickel–cobalt precursor on PANI-coated CC generates assembled grass-like nanostructures of cobalt nitride (CoN) and nickel nitride (Ni3N) along with beneficial, conductive nitrogen-doped carbon layers on CC for improved electrochemical activity. The generation of numerous catalytically active centers with expeditious charge and mass transportation due to the incorporated nickel and high mechanical stability owing to the self-supporting nature of the designed material result in excellent and stable electrocatalytic performance. The designed NCN/CC electrode requires low overpotentials (η10) of 247 and 68 mV to attain a current density of 10 mA cm−2 during oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions, respectively, with appreciable stability (>90% retention of the initial current density) over a 24 h long electrochemical test in 1.0 M KOH. Finally, the NCN/CC electrocatalyst is utilized to demonstrate full alkaline water splitting at a cell voltage of 1.56 V to deliver the current density of 10 mA cm−2 with tremendous stability over 240 h. Moreover, NCN/CC could afford a stable current density of 10 mA cm−2 towards full water splitting at 1.59 V cell voltage in acidic electrolyte with 100 h long-term stability. These results suggest its prospects as a substitute for expensive noble-metal-based water splitting electrocatalysts in practical applications.


A novel hybrid clamped dual-PWM three-level converter topology is proposed for induction motor drives in this paper. The switching states of hybrid clamp three-level converters increase to sixty-four from twenty-seven switching states of diode clamp threelevel converters. In order to realize optimization of its redundant voltage space vectors by detecting voltage of clamp capacitor and difference of capacitor voltage in DC side, Generating an optimized switching pattern, The hybrid clamped three-level converter increases the voltage levels number, reducing the harmonics associated to the commutation frequency and limiting the dv/dt by all the switches . It can quickly balance the DC voltage, Realized system of 4-Quardant Running. the control circuit and main circuit was designed with DSP and CPLD, experimentation results proved it is very effective and practicability.


Image segmentation plays a crucial role in numerous biomedical imaging applications, assisting clinicians or health care professionals with diagnosis of various diseases using scientific data. However, its high computational complexities require substantial amount of time and have limited their applicability. Research has thus focused on parallel processing models that support biomedical image segmentation. In this paper, we present analytical results of the design space exploration of many-core processors for efficient fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering, which is widely used in many medical image segmentations. We quantitatively evaluate the impact of varying a number of processing elements (PEs) and an amount of local memory for a fixed image size on system performance and efficiency using architectural and workload simulations. Experimental results indicate that PEs=4,096 provides the most efficient operation for the FCM algorithm with four clusters, while PEs=1,024 and PEs=4,096 yield the highest area efficiency and energy efficiency, respectively, for three clusters.


: The experiments were carried out on 15 dogs and 15 cats of both sexes. All animals received ketamine intramuscularly in doses of 10 mg/kg of body weight (dogs) and 25 mg/kg (cats). After the ketamine injection operations were performed following laparotomy and then the animals were killed by exsanguination 90 min after the injection of ketamine. For histoenzymatic examinations fragments of organs were taken (liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs and heart) and histochemical examinations were done for acid phosphatase (AP), alkaline phosphatase (AIP) and non-specific esterase (NE). It was found that ketamine anaesthesia in dogs and cats causes a slight reversible damage to the liver and kidneys and increases the activity or reticuloendothelial cells in the organism.


Urbanization, land subsidence and sea level rise will increase vulnerability to droughts in the urbanized low-lying areas in the western part of the Netherlands. In this paper a possibility is explored to decrease vulnerability of urban areas by implementing an alternative water supply option. A four component vulnerability framework is presented that includes threshold capacity, coping capacity, recovery capacity and adaptive capacity. By using the vulnerability framework it is elaborated that current water supply strategies in the Netherlands mainly focus on increasing threshold capacity by constructing improved water storage and delivery infrastructure. A complete vulnerability decreasing strategy requires measures that include all four components. Adaptive capacity can be developed by starting experiments with new modes of water supply. A concept which is symbolically called 'the closed city' uses local urban rainfall as the only source of water supply. The 'closed city' can decrease the water dependence of urban areas on (1) the surrounding rural areas that are diminishing in size and that are increasingly under strain and (2) river water resources that will probably be less constant and reliable as a result of climate change.


Multimedia databases are growing rapidly in size in the digital age. To increase the value of these data and to enhance the user experience, there is a need to make these videos searchable through automatic indexing. Because people appearing and talking in the videos are often of high interest for end users, indices that represent the location and identity of people in the archive are indispensable for video search and browsing tools. On the other hand, multimedia videos contain resourceful data of people in both visual and auditory domains. This offers a potential for multimodal learning in the task of human identification. Hence, the main theme of this thesis is on algorithms to create indexes and exploit the audio-visual correspondence in large multimedia corpuses based on person identities. First, this thesis deals with algorithms to create indexes through person discovery in videos. It involves several components: face and speaker diarization, face-voice association, and person naming. To obtain face clusters, we propose a novel face tracking approach that leverages face detectors with a tracking-by-detection framework relying on long term time-interval sensitive association costs. We use also shot context to further accelerate and improve face clustering. Face clusters are then associated to speaker clusters using dubbing and talking detection, in which a multimodal framework is introduced to represent the temporal relationship between the auditory and visual streams. We also improve speaker embeddings for recognition and clustering by using a regularizer called intra-class loss. In the second half, the thesis focuses on multimodal learning with face-voice data. Here, we aim to answer two research questions. First, can one improve a voice embedding using knowledge transferred from a face representation? We investigate several transfer learning approaches to constrain the target voice embedding space to share latent attributes with the source face embedding space. The crossmodal constrains act as regularizers helping voice models, especially in the low-data setting. The second question is can face clusters be used as training labels to learn a speaker embedding? To answer this, we explore the tolerance of embedding losses under label uncertainty. From the risk minimization perspective, we obtain the analytical results that provide the heuristics in strategies to improve the tolerance against label noise. We apply the findings into our task of learning speaker embeddings using face clusters as labels. While the experimental results agree with the analytical heuristics, there is still a large gap in performance between the supervised and the weakly supervised models, which requires further investigation in the future.


Within the criminal justice system, sentencing disparity has been a common issue. As disparity affects the way in which we view earned and deserved restorative justice, this could allow for unintended negative consequences. Often, the presence of extralegal factors influences the sentencing disparity seen among similarly situated offenders. This thesis examines the effects of age, race, level of education, and marital status on the jail time served and sentence received for those convicted of internet crimes against children, mostly in regard to possession, distribution, and manufacture of child pornography, through the use of secondary data compiled from Northeastern Ohio jurisdictions and presented in the Cleveland State Law Review in 2015.


Development of power plants in Thailand has become very difficult for several years especially a coal-fired power plant as it draws a very strong resistance from local communities and NGOs. The most concern of these people is air pollution with perceived serious impact on the health of local people and the environment. On the other hand, demand for electricity in the country has been soaring in line with the economic development. Hence, this study attempted to find a new approach to respond to both people's concern and the demand of the country. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a tool to assist decision-makers in considering benefits and impacts of proposed development policies, strategies or plans in a more comprehensive manner, in other words, to ensure the sustainable consequences of such development. A Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) which is a type of SEA focusing on analyzing the potential of a certain area against different kinds of development was selected for this study. The study started by interviewing relevant administrators and policy makers. In addition, public meetings with local people living around a power plant and also a proposed coal-fired power plant development site were organized. The 4-dimension REA then was developed in which initial indicators were proposed. This REA framework was presented for discussions in a stakeholder focus group meeting and in the second public meetings. Subsequently, a set of issues, indicators and criterion were established for analyzing the potential of any area against the development of power plant.


The dose response of Sendai virus-induced cell fusion was studied in 10 mammalian cell lines, comprising 5 continuous and 5 diploid cell lines originating from 5 species. The extent of fusion was calculated using a parameter directly proportional to the number of fusion events (t-parameter). At lower levels of fusion the dose response was found to be based on the same simple kinetic rules in all cell lines and was defined by the formula: t = FS . FAU/(I + FS . FAU), where FS (fusion sensitivity) is a cell-specific constant of the fusion rate and FAU (fusion activity units) is the virus dose. The FS potential of a cell line was determined as the linear regression coefficient of the fusion index (t/(I - t)) on the virus dose. At higher levels of fusion, when the fusion extent reached cell-line-specific maximal levels, the dose response was not as uniform. In general, and particularly in the cases of the diploid cell lines, these maximal levels were directly proportional to the FS potentials. Thus, it was concluded that the FS potential is the basic quantitative feature, which expresses the cellular fusion efficiency. The fact that FS varied extensively between cell lines, but at the same time apparently followed certain patterns (being higher in continuous compared to diploid cell lines and being related to the species of origin of the cells), emphasizes it biological significance as well as its possible usefulness in studies of the efficiency of various molecular interactions in the cell membrane/cytoskeleton system.


This paper explores gift giving of toys to children at Christmas and Birthdays and their perception of the gift giver. Three areas are discussed; gift giving, the methodological approach and the results and conclusions. Gift giving is an historical concept relating to exchanges of gifts representing many symbols and meanings. Toys are often given to children at birthdays and Christmas and the perception of the gift giver may be affected by many things. The long-term impact may alter the relationship between the child and parent. Miscommunication is often cited as being an influence on the level of disappointment that may occur. Four drawing sessions were conducted with preschool children from two nurseries. The aim of these sessions was to identify what the children's favourite toy gift was at Christmas and birthday time, who had given it to them and what they thought of the giver. The pictorial results were coded and results concluded that almost all the children could identify their favourite toy gifts. A majority were satisfied with their gifts and most surprisingly identified Santa as the gift giver for Birthday toys as well as Christmas. Most children could not represent their feeling of the gift giver pictorially and interestingly enough mum was not mentioned once as a giver of gifts!


Palygorskite/copper nanocomposites were prepared in order to study the friction behaviour and self-repairing effect of HT200 tribopair. The friction and wear behaviors of the lubricant oil containing 4wt% nanocomposites were evaluated on an MMU-10G abrasive-wear tester. Results indicated that the average size of nanoparticles is 200nm and nanoparticle disperses homogeneously. The nanocomposites significantly improve the anti-wear performance.Wear mass loss decreases 41.7%and 63.2% compared with nano-palygoeskite and no additive.SEM and EDX examination of worn surfaces show that the incorporation of nano-copper and nano-palygorskite promote the formation of enriched films which play beneficial role for improving the wear properties.


The concept of microgrid involves coordination between distributed load and generation by enhancing the system controllability, flexibility, energy management and storage capability. The problem of optimal management of the resources in a microgrid is under investigation and recent studies propose new strategies to use centralize and distributed control schemes by utilizing real-time monitoring and control system. This paper presents the development of a real-time Optimal Power Flow (OPF) management system which is implemented in the Smart Grid Test-bed lab at Florida International University. The paper will discuss briefly the developed Hybrid AC/DC microgrid and its components. Implementation of real-time monitoring and control system creates the feasibility of performing online OPF and applying load-generation settings and strategies in real-time format.


A new robust Kalman filter is proposed that detects and bounds the influence of outliers in a discrete linear system, including those generated by thick-tailed noise distributions such as impulsive noise. Besides outliers induced in the process and observation noises, we consider in this paper a new type called structural outliers. For a filter to be able to counter the effect of these outliers, observation redundancy in the system is necessary. We have therefore developed a robust filter in a batch-mode regression form to process the observations and predictions together, making it very effective in suppressing multiple outliers. A key step in this filter is a new prewhitening method that incorporates a robust multivariate estimator of location and covariance. The other main step is the use of a generalized maximum likelihood-type (GM) estimator based on Schweppe's proposal and the Huber function, which has a high statistical efficiency at the Gaussian distribution and a positive breakdown point in regression. The latter is defined as the largest fraction of contamination for which the estimator yields a finite maximum bias under contamination. This GM-estimator enables our filter to bound the influence of residual and position, where the former measures the effects of observation and innovation outliers and the latter assesses that of structural outliers. The estimator is solved via the iteratively reweighted least squares (IRLS) algorithm, in which the residuals are standardized utilizing robust weights and scale estimates. Finally, the state estimation error covariance matrix of the proposed GM-Kalman filter is derived from its influence function. Simulation results revealed that our filter compares favorably with the H¿-filter in the presence of outliers.


Increasing changes in environmental conditions are reshaping marine ecosystems and their communities on a global scale. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable as environmental stressors have a stronger impact due to the shallow waters and a restricted water circulation. At the interface between land and sea, the direct impact of anthropogenic pressures is highest in the immediate coastal zones. The effects of eutrophication and the steadily increasing impact of climate change constitute the major threats to coastal ecosystems, leading to altered ecosystem functioning via e.g. habitat degradation, oxygen depletion and reorganisation of communities and their associated ecosystem services. Zoobenthos has a crucial role in a healthy functioning ecosystem, as it reworks sediments, remineralizes organic matter and serves as food resource for higher trophic levels, such as benthivorous fish. The trophic link between benthic fauna and fish is strong in coastal areas, since the majority of fish are at least partly benthic feeding. Hence, understanding long-term structural changes in zoobenthos and fish communities in response to environmental drivers is an important task, especially in the light of increasing environmental pressures. With only little knowledge of the consequential functional aspects underlying changing communities over multidecadal time scales, frameworks are needed to evaluate how changing structures influence community functionality. In this thesis, I study the long-term progression of fish and zoobenthos communities in relation to environmental drivers in a coastal system, the Åland Islands in the northern Baltic Sea, and apply trait-based approaches capable of revealing how changing community compositions can alter functional properties. Based on four papers, my thesis focuses on investigating the impact of eutrophication and climate change on coastal fish and zoobenthos (paper I), the long-term development of zoobenthos communities and the specific environmental drivers shaping them (paper II), how diverging community patterns affect functional aspects of the benthic fauna (paper III), and whether changes in the functional structures of zoobenthos communities affect the food quality and linkage structure for benthic feeding fish communities (paper IV). My thesis reveals that the strength of environmental drivers has shifted from being previously eutrophication driven to being dominated by climate change-related drivers, affecting fish and zoobenthos in different ways. Zoobenthos communities follow contrasting progression patterns depending on area-specific developments in environmental drivers of sheltered and exposed habitats. Applying regional climate projections, following IPCC scenarios, I demonstrate that those drivers that have shaped the communities in the past, are likely to increase in strength in the future, promoting an intensification of shown trends. I further showcase that the altered community composition of zoobenthos has affected its functional structure over time, i.e. leading to different functional characteristics of zoobenthos. Despite the contrasting functional structures, the functional diversity remained similar and increased after the establishment of the invasive polychaete Marenzelleria spp. Presenting a novel trait-based predation selectivity measure, my thesis shows that the changes in functional structure of zoobenthos have led to a positive development in food resource quality for benthic feeding fish and highlights a positive relationship between functional diversity and food quality. This thesis utilizes multi-decadal time-series to highlight long-term progression patterns of coastal communities in relation to a dynamically changing environment. It further demonstrates the advantages of combining traditional taxonomic-based community ecology with advances in functional ecology to shed light on how changing communities influence the ecosystem from a functional perspective. Presenting new combinations of frameworks and novel approaches, this thesis enhances the understanding of future developments in communities and their functioning.


With the increase use of algorithms to develop images, as well as, three-dimensional sculptural and architectural forms, additional focus should be placed on methods to teach students how to approach such a design technique. This paper reviews one such method. Architectural students are looking for inspiration for new forms to better realize their own designs and computer methods are offering them another tool to expand their investigations. This paper outlines one method used as part of a programming course developed for architectural students. The method highlights a very sequential approach to form investigation in using a common starting geometry. This approach stresses the development of rules and evaluating their results as a method to determine the next step to investigate. Equal importance is placed on the anticipated, as well as, the unexpected.


In order to analyze the changes of joint opening displacement(JOD) for cement concrete pavement under different road structures and material parameters, the joint model is derived and presented. The model takes into account conservation of various factors, the results have shown that JOD is significantly effected by temperature gradient, base modulus, slab length and slab thickness, and then the formula of joint changes have been set up with the consideration of four main factors. According to theoretical results, three different base types about lean concrete, cement stabilized macadam and graded broken stone have on-site observation of JOD for one year in Guangxi, and the above formula is verified, which provides the potential for the joint design and selecting the joint filler.


Abstract It may be said that the law of inheritance is one of the most neglected domains in the Indonesian government's campaign for legal nationalization. This neglect is in keeping with the state's attitude towards non-state normative orderings, which is itself a product not only of the national legal ideology enshrined in the constitution that favors unification and uniformity, but also of the fact that the state is at a loss as to how to deal with the variety of inheritance traditions existing in the society. The question is thus not simply which law should be used as the main building block of the national inheritance law (whether Islamic, adat or even the Western civil law tradition) but more how to unify the practices currently followed. Gender-neutral inheritance is one of the most complicated problems faced by the state in the issue of varied inheritance practices. This is because not all existing legal traditions in the country have the same viewpoint with respect to gender equality among the recipients of inheritance. In this respect, the concept of gendered justice, regarded as characteristic of the national legal system, has been challenged by certain traditions of inheritance that view difference in gender as a criterion for receiving the estate. Islamic inheritance law is the case that concerns us most here, especially as the tradition embodied in this religious law makes distinctions on the basis of sex. In the division of an estate the genders of the heirs become one of the most important factors in deciding whether and to what extent someone will receive a portion of an estate. This is of course in stark opposition to the traditions of civil law or adat law which generally disregards this factor in allocating shares. The paper focuses on this puzzle. The discussion is devoted mainly to analysis of the state's behavior towards the idea of gender justice reflected in Islamic inheritance law in Indonesia. Two decisions of the Supreme Court in 1995 in cases of Islamic inheritance touching on the issue of gender-neutrality are used as the main data to analyze the current picture of the phenomenon in the country.


The use of one-sixth molar lactate, as suggested by Gaind and Saran,' paradoxically does not seem to be associated with an increased excretion of lithium, as administration of such therapy causes a cessation of toxic "fits" before the lithium excretion rate increases. It may be that the administration of lactate increases the epileptic threshold or that it accelerates the movement of lithium into the extracellular compartment. B LIPKIN


Theories of Haitian underdevelopment, and of the causes and solutions to that underdevelopment are many, complex and often competing. At a very basic level though, Haitian development involves the mastery of ever changing conditions and requires continual innovation, adaption and the ability to create and exploit resources both internal and external to the farm, to the community and to the nation. The capacity to innovate and adapt is thus essential and is a foundation of sustained economic and social development. The purpose of this paper is to consider the phenomenon of innovation in rural Haiti by examining two case studies of technical and social innovations for soil conservation The studies are prefaced with a historical review of indigenous and donor responses to soil erosion, and a synopsis of theories concerning how innovations emerge and the factors influencing that emergence. Special attention is paid to the role of history and culture, political economy, and social organization in innovation. The studies suggest that the soil conservation innovations examined can be understood as thrifty and incremental cultural evolution; that small groups were loci for innovation; and that knowledge shared between scientists and peasants in a conversational approach positively affects the generation of innovations.


The author presents a technique, using time-domain analysis, to determine the performance of a multiplex-bus system when the bus is shared by a number of identical devices. An algorithm is also developed to implement the technique into a software package. The author has verified the correctness of his time-domain analysis using frequency-domain analysis. His technique is simple and easy to implement compared to the conventional frequency-domain technique. >


Since 2002 long-term PPA auctions have been the main mechanisms for energy selling and purchase in the Brazilian power system. With this framework, two issues are of special concern to Government agencies and market agents: (i) testing design of the auction and its impacts on the power sector and (ii) the definition of bidding strategies by Gencos in those auctions, so that maximize their profit adjusted by risk. This work presents new market models and techniques that can be used to monitoring market behavior and assessing potential for market power in those PPA auctions. A realistic application to a 17,000 MW PPA auction (involving 25 billion of US$), occurred in Brazil in early December 2004, will be presented.


In a large-scale agricultural model a sizeable amount of low level data undergoes several stages of processing. In designing a model, uncertainty and complexity will restrict the generality of computer-implemented stages and much of the processing will be manual. The resulting model is likely to be inflexible to changes or else require as long again to modify and rerun as to design another model in order to evaluate another policy. By recognizing the necessary constraints imposed by mass data handling, the proportion of time spent on data problems could be reduced. Emphasis should be placed on defining beforehand as explicity as possible an acceptable methodology and what the specific uses of the model will be.


The prevailing practice in new areal real estate development is for public and private actors to perform their duties by turns. Yet, the planning process could benefit from simultaneous contributions from society and developers and their designers. That, again, requires that the municipality selects the private partner consortia prior to completion of the local detailed plan through a competition in order to find the most potential actors and the best ideas for implementation of an urban structure of high quality. Candidates will be attracted by offering them the right to implement a residential/business block as a developer. The several blocks involved in an areal development project, and the laboriousness of producing competitive solutions, require a well planned selection process. A novel multi-target competition process was developed which is presented in this paper with special emphasis on the allocation algorithms that allow selecting the most qualified competitors for parallel follow-up competitions from among a large group of registered candidates. The approach was tested in an actual real estate development project in the municipal district of Vuores which was the original reason for launching the study.


A broad array of evidence indicates that T lymphocytes make significant contributions to vascular inflammation in the setting of atherosclerotic disease, hypertension, autoimmune vasculitis, and other disorders. Experimental data show that costimulatory and coinhibitory pathways involving molecules of the B7-CD28 and TNF–TNFR families regulate T cell responses that promote vascular disease. Antigen presenting cells (APCs) display both peptide–major histocompatibility complex antigen and costimulators or coinhibitors to T cells. Two major types of APCs, dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, are present in significant numbers in the walls of arteries affected by atherosclerosis and arteritis, and some DCs are present in normal arteries. Costimulatory and coinhibitory molecules expressed by these vascular APCs can contribute to the activation or inhibition of effector T cells within the arterial wall. Vascular DCs may also be involved in transport of antigens to secondary lymphoid organs, where they activate or tolerize naïve T cells, depending on the balance of costimulators and coinhibitors they express. Costimulatory blockade is already an approved therapeutic approach to treat autoimmune disease and prevent transplant rejection. Preclinical models suggest that costimulatory blockade may also be effective in treating vascular disease. Experiential data in mice show that DCs pulsed with the appropriate antigens and treated in a way that reduces costimulatory capacity can reduce atherosclerotic disease, presumably by inducing T cell tolerance. Progress in treating vascular disease by immune modulation will require a more complete understanding of the functions of different costimulatory and coinhibitory pathways and the different subsets of vascular APCs involved.


Monsoon rainfall has significant impact on socio-economic welfare of Myanmar. This calls for need to understand rainfall variability in order to minimize socio-economic losses associated with extreme weather events. This study investigates the inter-annual variability of summer monsoon rainfall over Myanmar in relation to Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).The dominant modes of variability of rainfall were identified by performing Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis, using rainfall data from Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) spanning from 1971 to 2010.The rainfall over Myanmar is negatively correlated with the positive phase of the IOD and positively correlated to the positive phase of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI),implying that El Nino events result into drought events in the region, while La Nina events result into floods. The year 2001 was identified to be the wettest while 1972 is the driest period of study. The influence of SOI on rainfall over Myanmar is more than that of IOD. The moisture convergence characterizes circulation in wet years, while divergence is dominant during dry years. The findings of this study are important in improving the accuracy of seasonal forecast over Myanmar.


In the context of the studies on GEN. IV/ADS nuclear systems, the correct evaluations of the temperature distribution in the fuel pin bundle is of central interest. In particular, the use of lead or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) as coolant for the new generation fast reactors is one of the most promising choices. Due to the high density and high conductivity of lead or LBE, a detailed analysis of the thermo-fluid dynamic behavior of the heavy liquid metal (HLM) inside the sub-channels of a fuel rod bundle is necessary in order to support the front-end engineering design (FEED) of GEN. IV/ADS prototypes and demonstrators. At ENEA-Brasimone R.C., large experimental facilities exist to study HLM free, forced and mixed convection in loops and pools: e.g. NACIE-UP is a large scale LBE loop for mixed convection experiments with a secondary side in pressurized water. In the context of the SEARCH FP7 project, an experiment was performed in the NACIE-UP facility to assess the coolability of a 19-pin wire-wrapped electrical bundle (Fuel Pin Simulator, FPS), with heat flux up to 1 MW/m. The bundle is representative of the one adopted in the MYRRHA concept, and it is instrumented with 67 thermocouples to monitor bulk and wall temperatures in the different ranks of subchannels at different heights. The mass flow rate in the loop is measured by an induction flow meter and by thermal balance in stationary conditions. A large experimental test matrix has to be carried out in order to characterize the coolability of MYRRHA Fuel Sub-Assembly. Results in terms of wall and bulk temperatures, heat transfer coefficients and pin azimuthal temperature distribution are available at different mass flow rates in the range 0-7 kg/s, i.e. up to 1 m/s in the subchannel, half of the MYRRHA FA nominal velocity. The first experimental tests with FPS are provided in the paper. Those are the first data on HLM-cooled wire-wrapped Fuel Assembly reproducing the MYRRHA FA. Post-test analysis and error propagation study on derived quantities is also provided.


Background There are no prehospital ambulance Patient Reported Experience Measures (A-PREMs) routinely used to support service comparisons and improvement. We developed an A-PREM, generating items through secondary analysis of ambulance patient interview data, and refining the instrument using expert assessment and cognitive interviews of service users. We aimed to pilot the A-PREM (48 experience and 12 attribute items) investigating user acceptability, reliability and construct validity. Methods Ambulance users attended by a UK regional ambulance service within the previous six months, excluding those suffering cardiac arrest, were sent a self-administered A-PREM. Returned questionnaires were entered into Microsoft Excel and imported into SPSS v22 for analysis. Experience items were recoded to range from 0 (don't know/can't remember) to 3 (best recorded experience). Descriptive analysis for item frequencies and missing values, reliability analyses for potential scales and tests of correlation and association were conducted. Results In all, 111 A-PREMs (22.2%) were returned. Missing data were highest for call-taking items. There was a significant association with a shorter wait for first response for four items measuring overall experience of call-taking (χ, p=0.05), ambulance staff (p<0.001), ambulance overall (p=0.001) and A and E (p=0.023). Four separate experience scales encompassing call taking (AmbCallScore, α=0.91), care at scene (AmbCareScore, α=0.90), care on leaving the patient (AmbLeaveScore, α=0.69), and care on transport (AmbTranScore α=0.71), showed satisfactory to high internal consistencies and distributions indicating generally positive experiences. AmbCallScore, AmbCareScore and AmbLeaveScore showed significantly higher scores (ANOVA) with shorter wait to first response. There were no significant differences for overall measures or scales by sex or age of participant, whether they were transported to hospital or not and whether it was their first experience of the ambulance service. Conclusion Our findings show that the A-PREM should be tested more widely for evidence of reliability, validity and sensitivity to different care and settings.


Stokes inversion codes are crucial in returning properties of the solar atmosphere, such as temperature and magnetic field strength. However, the success of such algorithms to return reliable values can be hindered by the presence of oscillatory phenomena within magnetic wave guides. Returning accurate parameters is crucial to both magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) studies and solar physics in general. Here, we employ a simulation featuring propagating MHD waves within a flux tube with a known driver and atmospheric parameters. We invert the Stokes profiles for the 6301 Å and 6302 Å line pair emergent from the simulations using the well-known Stokes Inversions from Response functions code to see if the atmospheric parameters can be returned for typical spatial resolutions at ground-based observatories. The inversions return synthetic spectra comparable to the original input spectra, even with asymmetries introduced in the spectra from wave propagation in the atmosphere. The output models from the inversions match closely to the simulations in temperature, line-of-sight magnetic field and line-of-sight velocity within typical formation heights of the inverted lines. Deviations from the simulations are seen away from these height regions. The inversions results are less accurate during passage of the waves within the line formation region. The original wave period could be recovered from the atmosphere output by the inversions, with empirical mode decomposition performing better than the wavelet approach in this task. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere'.


The morphology of films of PPV derivatives is studied with molecular (single chain) resolution by phase-imaging scanning force microscopy. It is found that the symmetry of substitution is directly related to surface morphology and aggregation behavior. The molecular resolution in the phase contrast is shown to result from van der Waals interaction between the conjugated backbone of the polymer chains and the metallic tip, and can quantitatively be described by a simple harmonic oscillator model.


With the wide application of SMT, mass chip components have been applied including tantalum capacitor. A fuse buried in a capacitor can protect the whole system of merit. In the paper a titanium nickel alloy with vanadium addition has been developed as a fuse material. Several alloy wires with different diameters have been used in the fusing experiment. The influencing factor have been discussed that a few factors including diameter, chucking and so on affect the fusing current. Analyses on the fuse wires have been investigated with SEM, XRF and XRD to measure the composition of alloy wires.


The effects of low temperature and irradiance on growth, N allocation, and the diurnal turnover of carbo-hydrates in rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) were examined. The plants were grown hydroponically using two growth treatments, i.e. a day/night temperature of 20/18°C under an irradiance of 350 µmol quanta m−2 s−1 and a day/night temperature of 25/20°C under an irradiance of 1000 µmol quanta m−2 s−1. The biomass production decreased remark-ably under conditions of low temperature and low irradiance. This decreased biomass was caused by an extreme decrease in the net assimilation rate. Several adaptive phenomena were observed, similar to those observed in response to low light environments such as the enlargement of leaf area relative to plant mass and preferential N-investment in the leaf blades. In addition, although the diurnal turnover of carbohydrates in the shoots per unit plant mass during the night were greater in the low-temperature/irradiance-grown plants than in the control plants, the amount of daily assimilated photosynthate which is respired by the plant was almost the same during the night. These results indicate that the efficiency with which photosynthates had been used for growth during the night was also enhanced under such conditions. However, they were insufficient to compensate for the decrease in photosynthesis caused by the low temperature and irradiance. The results indicated that a decrease in photosynthesis due to the com-bination of low temperature and low irradiance directly suppresses the growth of the whole plant.


In the years since Citizens' United v. Federal Election Commission, the contours of the debates over the First Amendment, free speech, and democracy are by now familiar. On the one hand, there is the anxiety that economic wealth — whether from corporations or wealthy individuals — could effectively purchase political influence through the mechanism of unregulated campaign contributions and expenditures or independent expenditures on electoral advocacy. On the other hand, there are concerns about attempts to regulate such campaign contributions and expenditures as governmental interference with the freedom of speech. I share in both these concerns — that economic wealth generates disparities in political power and influence, and that we need a variety of legal protections and structures to secure the political freedoms that make democracy possible. But in this short essay, I suggest that we need to broaden how we conceptualize the elements of democratic vibrancy and responsiveness, while recognizing that this change will have important implications for the legal and policy debates around democracy reform. In short, I argue that a vibrant democracy is not just one that protects free speech and electoral accountability; it is also one that empowers a wide range and diversity of constituencies to not only consume speech, but also to produce it, to be fully empowered political actors with the opportunity to shape and participate in the political process as more than just voters. I suggest that we approach the theory of democratic vibrancy and failure from a different angle: the degree to which individuals and communities are empowered to act not as voters "consuming" political speech, but rather as producers of political speech and democratic action — as fully-fledged political agents capable of mobilizing, organizing, advocating, and running for office. This shift in focus to the potential inequities and disparities in the production of political speech and action points to a second important reorientation in this debate, away from the narrow focus on First Amendment doctrine and campaign finance reform — as important as these issues are — to the much broader set of laws, institutions, practices, and norms that comprise our foundational infrastructure for democratic vibrancy. Our toolkit for assuring a robust democratic polity involves a much wider range of possible reforms and interventions extending beyond electoral financing to encompass the very design and operation of the institutions of ordinary policymaking — and we will need all of these tools, not just doctrinal or campaign financing ones, to address the failures of twenty-first century American democracy. The paper proceeds in three parts. Part I offers a brief critique of the doctrinal and theoretical focus in many campaign finance debates on the autonomy of the voter-as-consumer, overlooking the importance of disparities in who speaks, acts, or runs in politics. Part II then outlines the ways in which our current system of democracy produces problematic disparities in the production of political action — whether by limiting who runs for office, or narrowing the scope for meaningful political influence and advocacy by interest groups. Part III concludes and suggests a number of avenues for legal, doctrinal, and policy reform that extend beyond the traditional confines of the First Amendment/money-in-politics debate.


This paper presents an input power-dependent high-efficiency LDMOS power amplifier by employing a dual-mode operation design approach. The proposed amplifier scheme provides two different operating modes depending on the power level: low or high input power modes. By controlling the number of operating amplifiers in each mode, the efficiency of the amplifier at low power level is substantially improved. Four single stage LDMOS power amplifiers with Motorola MRF 21030 were incorporated with a dual-mode input power divider and output power combiner. In the proposed operation, either one or four amplifiers were activated. The measurement results show a 50 dBm saturated output power and 40% PAE in high input power mode, when four amplifiers are active. By switching the operation to the low input mode, when the input power was relatively low, a 5% increase in PAE was obtained.


The recent demonstration of high concentrations of 5alpha-androstane-3,17-dione in the follicular fluid of polycystic ovaries suggests a potential role for 5alpha-reduced androgens in the etiology of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether there is increased 5alpha-reductase activity or messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression in polycystic ovaries. 5alpha-Reductase 1 and 5alpha-reductase 2 mRNAs were measured in thecal (TC) and granulosa (GC) cells from individual follicles of 18 women with PCOS and 26 regularly cycling control women. Both 5alpha-reductase 1 and 2 mRNA expression was higher in GC than in TC, and 5alpha-reductase 2 mRNA levels were approximately 3-fold higher than 5alpha-reductase 1 mRNA. 5alpha-Reductase 1 and 2 mRNA expression were similar in GC from PCOS and control women, but 5alpha-reductase mRNA was decreased in TC from PCOS follicles. In control women, 5alpha-reductase 2 mRNA was highest in GC from 3- to 5-mm follicles and decreased to undetectable levels in GC from 7-mm follicles. A similar pattern of expression was present in GC from PCOS follicles, but detectable levels of 5alpha-reductase 2 mRNA were present in GC from 7-mm follicles. 5alpha-Reductase activity was measured in whole follicles by measuring the conversion of radiolabeled testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. Kinetic analysis of total 5alpha-reductase activity at physiological pH revealed a Km of 1.46 micromol/L and a maximal velocity of 0.31 nmol/min x mg protein, indicating predominantly type 1 activity. The total 5alpha-reductase activity was approximately 4-fold higher in PCOS follicles than in control follicles. These data demonstrate elevated 5alpha-reductase activity in polycystic ovaries and support the hypothesis that 5alpha-reduced androgens may play a role in the pathogenesis of PCOS.


The recent quantum Hall experiments in graphene have confirmed the theoretically well-understood picture of the quantum Hall (QH) conductance in fermion systems with continuum Dirac spectrum. In this paper we take into account the lattice and perform an exact diagonalization of the Landau problem on the hexagonal lattice. At very large magnetic fields the Dirac argument fails completely and the Hall conductance, given by the number of edge states present in the gaps of the spectrum, is dominated by lattice effects. As the field is lowered, the experimentally observed situation is recovered through a phenomenon which we call band collapse. As a corollary, for low magnetic fields, graphene will exhibit two qualitatively different QHE's: at low filling, the QHE will be dominated by the "relativistic" Dirac spectrum and the Hall conductance will be odd-integer; above a certain filling, the QHE will be dominated by a non-relativistic spectrum, and the Hall conductance will span all integers, even and odd.


Clarification of the metabolic mechanisms underlying salt stress responses in plants will allow further optimization of crop breeding and cultivation to obtain high yields in saline-alkali land. Here, we characterized 68 differential metabolites of cultivated soybean (Glycine max) and wild soybean (Glycine soja) under neutral-salt and alkali-salt stresses using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics, to reveal the physiological and molecular differences in salt tolerance. According to comparisons of growth parameters under the two kinds of salt stresses, the level of inhibition in wild soybean was lower than in cultivated soybean, especially under alkali-salt stress. Moreover, wild soybean contained significantly higher amounts of phenylalanine, asparagine, citraconic acid, citramalic acid, citric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid under neutral-salt stress, and higher amounts of palmitic acid, lignoceric acid, glucose, citric acid and α-ketoglutaric acid under alkali-salt stress, than cultivated soybean. Further investigations demonstrated that the ability of wild soybean to salt tolerance was mainly based on the synthesis of organic and amino acids, and the more active tricarboxylic acid cycle under neutral-salt stress. In addition, the metabolite profiling analysis suggested that the energy generation from β-oxidation, glycolysis and the citric acid cycle plays important roles under alkali-salt stress. Our results extend the understanding of mechanisms involved in wild soybean salt tolerance and provide an important reference for increasing yields and developing salt-tolerant soybean cultivars.


Thymectomized rats have been studied with the aim to determine the activity of gluconeogenesis key enzymes (phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase, fructose-1.6-diphosphatase, glucose-6-phosphatase), the glycogen content in the liver, the corticosterone level in blood and electrolytes concentration in erythrocytes and blood plasma. The activity of glucose-6-phosphatase and the glycogen content in the liver as well as the corticosterone level in the rat blood are shown to diminish after thymectomy. Changes are found in the electrolytic composition of blood as well as in the activity of key enzyme of the pentose cycle in erythrocytes. The data obtained indicate that thymectomy in rats is followed by the pronounced biochemical shifts induced by the thymus hormone deficiency and disturbance of interrelations in the system of neuroendocrine regulation.


The spatial patterns of the conventional food supply chain have played a significant role in increasing the amount of miles food travels before being consumed. As a result, this has increased the amount of energy that is required to transport food from the farm to the table. The food supply chain links production to consumption. However, as food-miles increase, this link becomes obscure. The food supply chain can be described as having two very distinct parts: the conventional food supply chain and the alternative food supply chain. Business consolidation, and large-scale production, processing, distribution and retail characterize the conventional food supply chain. As a result of such economies of scale, the conventional chain is also characterized by standardization of knowledge. The alternative chain, on the other hand, is characterized by direct sales, small-scale production, processing and distribution and by a more transparent market. Certified organic foods began as an alternative to conventional foods. However, certified organic foods have increasingly been criticized for adopting similar business practices as the conventional system and thus travel the same lengths, if not further, than conventional foods. This study is a place-based approach that compares the food-miles and subsequent energy use of the two food supply chains—conventional and alternative—that provide food to retail grocery stores in Missoula, Montana. Energy use is estimated in gallons of diesel and the subsequent byproduct, or emissions, of transportation is estimated in pounds of carbon dioxide. Four of the highest selling retail grocery products; apples, bread, ground beef and milk, are classified into three different categories: "conventional", "non-local organic" and "other-alternative". The food-miles, subsequent fuel usage and emissions are also estimated for each of the four products. The study shows a remarkable lack of transparency in the conventional food supply chain and relatively low food-miles, fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions for the other-alternative products.


It is important that hotel managers and operators must obtain and sustain good hotel attributes in order to enhance guest satisfaction which can lead to profitability. Few studies have been conducted on Middle East tourists' purchase behaviours and preferences though the highest growth rate of tourist arrivals in Malaysia in 2009 was reported to have come from the Middle East region. The purpose of this study is to identify Middle East tourists' hotel selection attributes in Kuala Lumpur. Hotel selection dimensions identified from previous research were used to help develop the framework of this descriptive study. The four most important dimensions identified are location, facilities, services and cleanliness. A pilot test was conducted before the questionnaires were distributed to the Middle East tourists staying at the five star hotels within the Kuala Lumpur Golden Triangle area. Data obtained was then analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) and descriptive analysis was used to determine the most significant Middle East tourists' hotel selection attributes in Kuala Lumpur. Findings of this study will help hotel operators to understand Middle East tourists and cater to their needs better. The better served Middle East sector will help increase hotel revenue as well as boost tourist receipts for the country.


Humans and animals are unable to synthesize essential amino acids such as branch chain amino acids methionine (Met), lysine (Lys) and tryptophan (Trp). Therefore, these amino acids need to be supplied through the diets. Several essential amino acids are deficient or completely lacking among crops used for human food and animal feed. For example, soybean is deficient in Met; Lys and Trp are lacking in maize. In this mini review, we will first summarize the roles of essential amino acids in animal nutrition. Next, we will address the question: "What are the amino acids deficient in various plants and their biosynthesis pathways?" And: "What approaches are being used to improve the availability of essential amino acids in plants?" The potential targets for metabolic engineering will also be discussed, including what has already been done and what remains to be tested.


This paper provides empirical evidence on the linkage between foreign exchange market volatility and daily 90-day covered interest rate parity conditions of the three major exchange rates against the US$. Markov regime shifting models were utilized to generate time series of volatility regime probabilities and these were used to explain the first and second moments of the daily deviations from and the transaction cost bands around the covered parity conditions. We find a significant positive relationship between the deviations and the regime probabilities, indicating an increasing probability of higher volatility state being associated with rising deviations (both first and second moments) from the parity condition. Similar positive relationship is found for the transaction bands. Rising (Falling) probabilities of high (low) volatility regimes increased the first and second moments of the bands. Furthermore, we find a higher volatility state combined with a US$ depreciation is associated with significantly higher volatility in the daily deviations than an appreciation. Also, US$ depreciation is associated with widening transaction bands. This suggests that the level of market uncertainty was higher when the US$ was depreciating. Keywords: Deviations from CIP, Markov regime shifting probabilities


Abstract
Aim: The noninvasive B-mode transocular ultrasound (TOU) measurement of the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) is becoming popular to monitor intracranial pressure (ICP). Different studies report varied values for normal ONSD. Our primary aim was to find the TOU-measured normal ONSD in healthy adult Pakistanis living in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

Methodology: One hundred healthy adult volunteers participated in this cross-sectional study, conducted at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (P.A.E.C.) General Hospital, Islamabad. Each eye was scanned for the optic nerve (ON) via TOU using a B-mode 7-15 MHz linear probe. The investigators measured ONSD in a transverse plane three millimeters behind the retina. They recorded an average of three readings as a mean ONSD value for both eyes.

Results: The overall normal mean ONSD was 4.80±0.26 mm with a minimum of 4.25 mm and a maximum of 5.20 mm. The mean ONSD for the age group of 20-35 years was 4.79±0.27 mm and for 36-50 years, it was 4.81±0.24 mm (p = 0.7952), for the male eye it was 4.83±0.26 mm and for the female eye was 4.75±0.25 mm (p = 0.1238), and for the right eye was 4.79±0.27 mm and for the left eye was 4.80±0.26 mm with (p = 0.2434) and (r = 0.9455). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean ONSD of the four ethnic groups (p = 0.7141).

Conclusion: The normal mean optic nerve sheath diameter in the studied healthy adult Pakistanis, as measured through noninvasive B-mode transorbital ultrasound is 4.80±0.26 mm.


─Abstract ─ In 1997, a Canadian corporation obtained the concession license for exploitation of gold and silver ores of an old Roman gold mine, at Rosia Montană, Romania, with the intention of developing it into one of the most ambitious business projects, of Eastern Europe. The intended technology for the project was "gold cyanidation" (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) a technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water soluble coordination complex. The essential agreement was a Canadian, 80% – Romanian 20% cooperation project, according to which, the Canadian corporation was to take the extracted gold out of the country leaving behind the cyanide-poisoned environment. Such a deal could have succeeded only as a result of a vast public relations campaign, which had to rest on the best possible application of business psychology factors. This paper examines the Rosia Montana project by using Herbert A. Simon's views of the decision making processes in a given organization.


This essay examines how marriage relationships came to be constituted as therapeutic objects after WWII and the impact that this had on British postwar understandings of the meaning of marriage. In contrast to prevailing concerns during the interwar decades about sexual dissatisfaction as the chief impediment to marital stability, post-WWII marriage counselors and therapists framed marital harmony as dependent upon spouses' psychological maturity. An inability to sustain a stable marriage was interpreted as a sign of arrested development, most often stemming from a dysfunctional relationship with one or both parents in childhood. This essay reveals that the equal-but-different gender roles that were the cornerstone of the modern "companionate" marriage were crucial to marital counselors and therapists' psychological understanding of marriage as an interpersonal relationship during the decades following WWII. Practitioners gauged therapeutic success not only in accordance with whether or not couples stayed married, but also in terms of the extent to which spouses enthusiastically accepted the adult masculine and feminine spousal roles that the male-breadwinning nuclear family required. Moreover, therapists' valuing of the emotional dimensions of marriage made "natural" feminine attributes-such as a presumed ease in establishing loving relationships-a centrally valued aspect of therapeutic work and intimate life more broadly. Far from having a potentially disruptive impact on the presumed naturalness of gender difference (which had been a focus of criticism of psychoanalysis during the interwar decades), the psychoanalytic techniques that were developed to treat marriage problems after WWII were profoundly normalizing.


Boiling flow in steam generators, water cooled reactors and other multiphase processes can be subject to instabilities. One of the main types of instabilities is DWO, a low amplitude and high frequency phenomenon. DWO can lead to system control problems, affect heat transfer characteristics and induce mechanical vibration of components. The need to predict the occurrence of such instabilities and know how affecting system parameters may be adjusted to control the oscillation is of high importance. In this report DWO is investigated by adding heat to a single horizontal channel. The changes in amplitude and period caused by heat-, pressure-, inlet subcooling and mass flux variations are studied numerically and compared with experimental results. The wave characteristics are also studied through a literature study. The literature review reveals that most studies for DWO are performed for vertical channels, even though horizontal channels are encountered more often in industrial applications. A hypothesis for changes in amplitude and period based on former studies mainly executed in horizontal channels is made, even though some contradicting results are found in literature regarding wave characteristics. A method of extracting the amplitude and period of the oscillations for both the numerically modeled results and the recreated experimental results are proposed, and a method to reduce the amount of simulations needed to find the marginally stable operating conditions by using the model is established. Stability maps based on dimensionless parameters that relate the inlet subcooling and applied heat to the unstable and stable operating conditions are found in literature. The model shows converging behavior of the oscillations when operating in the stable area and diverging behavior when operating in the unstable area. Compared to experimental results from literature, the numerically obtained stability boundary is predicted to be to the left of experimentally obtained stability boundary, making the modeled diverging DWOs to appear at lower equilibrium phase change numbers. The experimental results show marginally stable oscillations when operating in the unstable area. The effect of increasing applied heat is found to increase the amplitude and reduce the period of the oscillations by both the numerical and the experimental results. The modeled results predict the increased inlet subcooling to increase the amplitude and the period. However, the experimental results displays a small decrease in amplitude for increased inlet subcooling for the set operating conditions, while the period shows the same effect as the modeled results. The increased pressure is by the model shown to decrease the amplitude, but the opposite is shown by the experimental results for different operating conditions. The effects of mass flux can be caused by both heat variations and change of the mass flux so no conclusion can be made from the model. Similarly, the change of the period when increasing the pressure can also by caused by both the pressure change and the change of applied heat. The studied experiments shows increased amplitude with increased pressure and decreased mass flux, while the period remains unaffected by pressure and mass flux variations. Possible reasons for the differences between the model and the experiments are discussed throughout the report.


"Young measure" is an abstract notion from mathematical measure theory.  Originally, the notion appeared in the context of some variational problems related to the analysis of sequences of "fast" oscillating of functions.  From the formal point of view the Young measure  may be treated as a continuous linear functional defined on the space of Carathéodory integrands satisfying certain regularity conditions. Calculating an explicit form of specific Young measure is a very important task.  However, from a strictly mathematical standpoint  it is a very difficult problem not solved as yet in general. Even more difficult would be the problem of calculating Lebasque's integrals with respect to such measures. Based on known formal results it can be done only in the most simple cases.  On the other hand in many real-world applications it would be enough to learn only some of the most important probabilistic  characteristics  of the Young distribution or learn only approximate values of the appropriate integrals. In such a case a possible solution is to adopt Monte Carlo techniques. In the presentation we propose three different algorithms designed for simulating random variables distributed according to the Young measures  associated with piecewise functions.  Next with the help of computer simulations we compare their statistical performance via some benchmarking problems. In this study we focus on the accurateness of the distribution of the generated sample.


Penelope-like elements are a class of retroelement that have now been identified in >50 species belonging to at least 10 animal phyla. The Penelope element isolated from Drosophila virilis is the only transpositionally active representative of this class isolated so far. The single ORF of Penelope and its relatives contains regions homologous to a reverse transcriptase of atypical structure and to the GIY-YIG, or Uri, an endonuclease (EN) domain not previously found in retroelements. We have expressed the single ORF of Penelope in a baculovirus expression system and have shown that it encodes a polyprotein with reverse transcriptase activity that requires divalent cations (Mn2+ and Mg2+). We have also expressed and purified the EN domain in Escherichia coli and have demonstrated that it has EN activity in vitro. Mutations in the conserved residues of the EN catalytic module abolish its nicking activity, whereas the DNA-binding properties of the mutant proteins remain unaffected. Only one strand of the target sequence is cleaved, and there is a certain degree of cleavage specificity. We propose that the Penelope EN cleaves the target DNA during transposition, generating a primer for reverse transcription. Our results show that an active Uri EN has been adopted by a retrotransposon.


Although social support (SS) is associated with risk for major depression (MD), we are uncertain of the extent to which a) low SS increases risk for MD, b) MD lowers SS, or c) both variables reflect a common genetic liability. Using two waves of interview data on female twin pairs from a population-based registry, we examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal association of eight dimensions of perceived SS and MD. Risk for MD in the last year was inversely associated with supportive spouse and relative relationships, and directly associated with problems in these relationships (e.g., too many demands, criticism, tension, and disagreements). Significant cross-time associations were seen only for spousal variables. The history of MD in one twin significantly predicted low relative and spouse support, and relative and friend problems, in her co-twin (MZ > DZ pairs). The relationship between SS and MD in women is complex and due to at least the three separate mechanisms outlined above that operate to varying degrees in different dimensions of SS.


Antioxidant compounds present in many plants can protect cells against damage caused by ROS. The present study is focused on the assessment of antioxidant potential of Indigofera longeracemosa by evaluating both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. The activities of enzymatic antioxidants (Superoxide dismutase, Catalase, Glutathione-s-transferase, Glutathione peroxidase, Peroxidase, Ascorbate oxidase and Polyphenoloxidase) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (Total reduced glutathione, Vitamin E, Vitamin A and Vitamin C) were determined. From the present study, it can be concluded that the plant has the capability to scavenge the free radicals and protect against oxidative stress related disorders. In future, Indigofera longeracemosa may serve as a good pharmacotherapeutic agent.


Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in Western
women and represents 28% of female cancer deaths.
During the last decades, research has revealed cancer
as a complex heterogeneous disease triggered by
dynamic changes in the genome.
The work in this dissertation summarizes the
investigation of polymorphisms in the GH1/IGF-1 axis
in relation to breast cancer risk by means of the
planning and conducting of case-control studies. Many
findings were novel and they reflected the complexity
of the gene regulation along the GH1/IGF-1 pathway.
In summary, the studied polymorphisms were mainly
associated with a decreased breast cancer risk. This
lead to the suggestion that genetic variants in the
GH1/ IGF-1 axis do not increase the mitogenic and
antiproliferative features of the pathway, but rather
protect the cells from proliferation. The study
contributes to the world-wide effort of
identification of low-penetrance genetic variants,
which may be useful tools for prevention, prognosis
and planning of individual therapy.


The present investigation deals with the detoxification of arsenic contaminated water using phytoremediation technique. Three macrophytes Azolla pinnata , Lemna minor, and Hydrilla verticillata were exposed to 1.0 ppm of an arsenic salt (sodium arsenite) separately as well as in combination ( ALH ) for 10 days. The concentration of arsenic in control (wild) macrophytes was below detectable limit. Following exposure, the con - centration of arsenic increased steadily in all the plants, and after 10 days, the efficacy of arsenic depletion in phytoremediated media was in the order: A. pinnata (88.06%) > L. minor (82.56%) > H. verticillata (77.53%) and 85.50% when applied in combination ( ALH ). It was found that A. pinnata can detoxify the arsenic contaminated water most efficiently.


Abstract It is shown that basic measurements made from well-defined source detector configurations can be readily converted into benchmark quality results by which Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) input stacks can be validated. Specifically, a recent measurement made in support of national security at the Nevada Test Site is described with sufficient detail to be submitted to the American Nuclear Society's Joint Benchmark Committee for consideration as a radiation measurement benchmark. From this very basic measurement, MCNP input stacks are generated and validated both in predicted signal amplitude and spectral shape. Not modeled at this time are those perturbations from the more recent pulse-height-light tally feature, although what spectral deviations are seen can be partially attributed to not including this small correction. The value of this work is as a proof-of-concept demonstration that well-documented historical testing can be converted into formal radiation measurement benchmarks. This provides evidentiary support that validated virtual testing could eventually be carried out for various detection system technologies including algorithms, new detector designs, constructions, and arbitrary source and shielding assemblies.


Although globalisation is by no means a recent phenomenon,1 its new wave has raised a number of questions—both about its supposed benefits and its alleged adverse consequences. Rather than exploring the wider ramifications of globalisation, this paper will confine its purview to the question of technology development and dissemination in the context of globalisation as it has affected the development of Asian economies in the last few decades. In particular, the paper will focus on the somewhat dazzling performance of the East Asian economies in the last three decades and their equally sharp and unforeseen downturn in the past two years, which has raised serious doubts first about the replicability and later about the robustness of the East Asian development experience. Although the palpable cause of the current East Asian crisis has generally been situated in the increasing complexity and fragility of the global financial system, many prescient international economists had attributed it to the weakness of the technological underpinnings of East Asian growth [Krugman (1994)]. The East Asian crisis has also raised a lively controversy concerning the impact and desirability of selective micro-economic interventions by national governments, which have often been oversimplified under the rubric of 'crony capitalism'. While the debate on which causes contributed most to the sudden down-turn in the growth of the East Asian economies remains inconclusive, there seems considerable validity in the conjecture that their future growth prospects will depend on their ability not only to master current technologies, but also to significantly further their technological prowess through R and D and scientific achievement. Although the immediate trigger of the present crisis in East Asia may have been the turmoil in their financial markets, the underlying problems in the real economy, which have so far received insufficient attention, stem largely from their incommensurate technological development.


Abstract Although there is a generally accepted framework for the Permian marine biogeography of Australia, significant uncertainties remain concerning the temporal biogeographical changes closely related to the timing of Permian glacial–interglacial events. Several recent studies along these research lines demonstrate the importance of a reliable high-resolution biostratigraphical timescale for paleobiogeographical and paleoclimatic reconstructions. This paper provides, for the first time, a full taxonomic and biostratigraphical study of the brachiopod fauna from the Wasp Head Formation, southern Sydney Basin, southeastern Australia. The fauna is associated with deposits of the first Permian glacial interval suggested for eastern Australia. Three brachiopod assemblages are recognized. The lower and middle assemblages contain scarce brachiopods although associated bivalves are comparatively more common. Despite very low diversity and low abundance, these two brachiopod assemblages contain characteristic species of the Strophalosia concentrica and Strophalosia subcircularis brachiopod zones, both considered of late Asselian age. The third assemblage, occurring in the uppermost part of the formation, contains more brachiopods than bivalves and is referred to early Sakmarian in age. The species diversity and stratigraphic occurrences of the brachiopod assemblages in relation to sedimentary facies suggest that the lower two assemblages may represent an intra-glacial interval while the younger third assemblage, characterized by abundant occurrences of Trigonotreta and Tomiopsis species, accompanied by the bivalve Eurydesma, is more indicative of a post-glacial benthic marine fauna comparable to coeval brachiopod faunas found elsewhere in Gondwana.


The report deals with energy conservation, mainly in the field of portable energy, which is asubject that today raises questions around the world. This report describes the design and theimplementation of a Battery Management System on the platform NI ELVIS II+ managed bythe software Labview. The first aim has been on finding information about the design of theBattery Management System that corresponds to the choice of the battery itself. The systemwas designed completely independent with different charging methods, simulations ofdischarge, and its own cell balancing, as a 3 cells battery pack was used. The battery chosenwas the lithium-ion technology that has the most promising battery chemistry and is the fastestgrowing. Several experimentations and simulations have been done, with and without cellbalancing that permited to highlight that the cell balancing is mandatory in a Batterymanagement System. Furthermore, a simulation of use of the battery in an Electrical Vehiclewas made, which can lead to conclude that the Lithium-Ion battery must be manageddifferently to be used in the application of an Electrical Vehicle.


Abstract. A moist idealized test case (MITC) for atmospheric model dynamical cores is presented. The MITC is based on the Held–Suarez (HS) test that was developed for dry simulations on "a flat Earth" and replaces the full physical parameterization package with a Newtonian temperature relaxation and Rayleigh damping of the low-level winds. This new variant of the HS test includes moisture and thereby sheds light on the nonlinear dynamics–physics moisture feedbacks without the complexity of full-physics parameterization packages. In particular, it adds simplified moist processes to the HS forcing to model large-scale condensation, boundary-layer mixing, and the exchange of latent and sensible heat between the atmospheric surface and an ocean-covered planet. Using a variety of dynamical cores of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)'s Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), this paper demonstrates that the inclusion of the moist idealized physics package leads to climatic states that closely resemble aquaplanet simulations with complex physical parameterizations. This establishes that the MITC approach generates reasonable atmospheric circulations and can be used for a broad range of scientific investigations. This paper provides examples of two application areas. First, the test case reveals the characteristics of the physics–dynamics coupling technique and reproduces coupling issues seen in full-physics simulations. In particular, it is shown that sudden adjustments of the prognostic fields due to moist physics tendencies can trigger undesirable large-scale gravity waves, which can be remedied by a more gradual application of the physical forcing. Second, the moist idealized test case can be used to intercompare dynamical cores. These examples demonstrate the versatility of the MITC approach and suggestions are made for further application areas. The new moist variant of the HS test can be considered a test case of intermediate complexity.