Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) was shown to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-infection, and anti-fibrotic effects. Our previous study showed EGCG could attenuate Schistosoma japonicum hepatic fibrosis, however, its underlying molecular mechanisms are still elusive. In this work, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatics analyses were used to detect the gene expression alterations in S. japonicum hepatic fibrosis mouse model following EGCG treatment. Our results showed 106 common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were upregulated in EGCG_LF_vs_Mod_LF (EGCG treatment group relative to S. japonicum infected model group) and downregulated in Mod_LF_vs_Nor_LF (model group relative to normal group), and they are enriched in cytochrome and metabolic genes involving in the metabolism pathways, implying EGCG could improve the S. japonicum egg induced hepatic injury and recover the metabolic functions of the liver. The 410 common DEGs, downregulated in EGCG_LF_vs_Mod_LF and upregulated in Mod_LF_vs_Nor_LF, are associated primarily with inflammation and immunology. Among them, proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines to activate the hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), profibrotic genes, and extracellular matrix (ECM) production and accumulation genes, together with part components of TLR2 and NF-κB signaling pathways, were upregulated in Mod_LF_vs_Nor_LF and downregulated in EGCG_LF_vs_Mod_LF. These results indicate that EGCG treatment could ameliorate S. japonicum egg induced hepatic fibrosis progression via inhibiting the HSCs activation and reducing ECM production and accumulation, which may in part result from suppressing the TLR2 and NF-κB signaling pathways. Our results reveal the molecular mechanisms of EGCG to be used as a potential drug to regress S. japonicum egg induced hepatic fibrosis. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers


Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is a common oral condition which is characterized by formation of recurrent, multiple, small, round or oval ulcers over the oral mucosa. The etiopathogenesis of RAS is still unclear. The diagnosis of this condition is very easy but many times, these ulcers are a part of an underlying disease or syndrome. The main aim of this article is to make the clinicians aware of the underlying syndromes associated with RAS so that appropriate patient care and further management with proper referrals can be arranged. A brief review of the syndromes associated with RAS is described.


A review of the year's literature on musculoskeletal disorders in infants and children includes many advances in imaging principles, especially MR imaging pulse sequences. We have not attempted to review these advances because the principles are essentially the same in children as in adults. We have confined this review to several topics including the importance of differentiating the findings in osteogenesis imperfecta from those in the abused child, limb-lengthening procedures in infants and children, the treatment of slipped upper femoral capital epiphysis, spinal anomalies, and skeletal abnormalities associated with cloacal exstrophy. A brief comment on cervical spine films in pediatric trauma patients is also included.


Keratins are structural proteins expressed by epithelial cells. Approximately 30 different keratin proteins have been identified, each with a specific expression pattern in different epithelial cells. The tissue-specific promoter of several keratin genes have been used to direct the expression of transgenes in animals. Keratin K12 and K3 are expressed in differentiated and stratified corneal epithelium, although the relative expression of each appears to vary between species. We targeted the mouse K12 keratin gene in order to develop a tissue-specific promoter that could be utilized to study the functions of genes of interest expressed in the corneal epithelium. Three 5' truncated fragments of the keratin K12 promoter (1.03, 0.71 and 0.25 Kb) showed higher functional and tissue-specific promoter activity in a human corneal epithelial cell line than other cell lines. The 0.25 Kb K12 promoter fragment was also active in cultured rabbit corneal epithelial cells. Thus, increased expression in corneal epithelial cells directed by fragments of the mouse K12 promoter extended across species lines. The paired box homeotic gene 6 (PAX-6), which is involved in controlling eye development, stimulated the activity of keratin K12 promoter.


Tennis is almost a newly born sport (1859) that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each, namely doubles. Materially, tennis balls were made of cloth strips stitched together from thread. They have also been made of hollow rubber with a felt coating appearing in different colors from traditionally white to yellow in the recent years to permit their visibility. Although the most common injuries associated with tennis have been reported to be related to rotator cuff, elbow, wrist, anterior knee pain, and ankle, the injury that a tennis ball can cause, for example, for eye is still not clear. However, as the tennis ball can reach to a speed of 260 km/h, it seems vital to understand its mechanical properties to have a deep insight into the injury that can happen during playing. Therefore, this study aimed to perform an experimental study to evaluate the linear elastic and nonlinear hyperelastic mechanical properties of the tennis ball under compressive loading. To do this, 40 numbers of approved tennis balls by international tennis federation (ITF) were prepared and subjected to a series of compressive loadings. The strain of the balls was measured via a pair of CCD cameras using digital image correlation (DIC) technique. The results revealed the mean elastic modulus, maximum stress, and strain of 336.69 kPa, 410.15 kPa, and 66%, for the tennis balls, respectively. The nonlinear mechanical behavior of the tennis balls were also computationally investigated through a hyperelastic material model, namely Ogden. Finally, a finite element (FE) model was executed to verify the hyperelastic data with that of experimental and, interestingly, the numerical data were in good agreement with experimental ones. The findings of this study may have implications not only for understanding the compressive mechanical properties of the tennis ball, but also for investigating the injury that can occur in the human body by tennis ball, especially the eye.


The products called functional foods, which besides being merely nutritional have different beneficial effects on the organism, are situated in the context of diet and health promotion. Amongst these functional foods we can distinguish, amongst others, between probiotic and prebiotic compounds. The micro-organisms most widely used in probiotic foods belong to the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium types. In this article we have studied the effect of diets supplemented with Lactobacillus casei or Bifidobacterium bifidum on animal development and especially on the intestinal function, centred on their immune, digestive and absorptive activity in growing animals. The bacteria strains used modify the activity of the small intestine of healthy mice, significantly affecting their enzymatic activity (sucrase, maltase and aminopeptidase) and the collection of nutrients (galactose and glycilsarcosine), as well as the intestinal immune activity (higher number of Peyer's patches). However, these effects do not appear to disturb the development of the growing animals since no significant differences are appreciated in their body weight or in their blood parameters. These results make clear the possible beneficial effects on intestinal physiology and contribute to the understanding of the possible mechanisms of action of the probiotics, which could be employed in the preventive treatment of different pathologies related to the digestive apparatus.


We document a large increase in displays of national flags in Spain following the referendum on Catalan independence. While most research on political behavior would attribute this behavioral change to a change in preferences, we argue that it is instead due to a change in social norms. The Spanish flag was associated with the country's authoritarian past, and hence stigmatized. The process of Catalan independence gave flags an alternative meaning, making norms against their display more ambiguous. Using a newly collected dataset of flags on the facade of buildings and an original survey, we show numerous tests supporting argument. In turn, we find no evidence that the increase in flags is explained by a change in preferences among Spanish individuals. Our findings highlight the role of social norms in affecting political behavior, and provide insights into the erosion of norms against behavior associated with authoritarianism.


Background: Clinical outcomes following nerve injury repair can be inadequate. Pulsed-current electrical stimulation (ES) is a therapeutic method that facilitates functional recovery by accelerating axon regeneration. However, current clinical ES protocols involve the application of ES for 60 minutes during surgery, which can increase operative complexity and time. Shorter ES protocols could be a strategy to facilitate broader clinical adoption. The purpose of the present study was to determine if a 10-minute ES protocol could improve outcomes. Methods: C57BL/6J mice were randomized to 3 groups: no ES, 10 minutes of ES, and 60 minutes of ES. In all groups, the sciatic nerve was transected and repaired, and, in the latter 2 groups, ES was applied after repair. Postoperatively, changes to gene expression from dorsal root ganglia were measured after 24 hours. The number of motoneurons regenerating axons was determined by retrograde labeling at 7 days. Histomorphological analyses of the nerve were performed at 14 days. Function was evaluated serially with use of behavioral tests up to 56 days postoperatively, and relative muscle weight was evaluated. Results: Compared with the no-ES group, both ES groups demonstrated increased regeneration-associated gene expression within dorsal root ganglia. The 10-minute and 60-minute ES groups demonstrated accelerated axon regeneration compared with the no-ES group based on increased numbers of labeled motoneurons regenerating axons (mean difference, 202.0 [95% confidence interval (CI), 17.5 to 386.5] and 219.4 [95% CI, 34.9 to 403.9], respectively) and myelinated axon counts (mean difference, 559.3 [95% CI, 241.1 to 877.5] and 339.4 [95% CI, 21.2 to 657.6], respectively). The 10-minute and 60-minute ES groups had improved behavioral recovery, including on grid-walking analysis, compared with the no-ES group (mean difference, 11.9% [95% CI, 3.8% to 20.0%] and 10.9% [95% CI, 2.9% to 19.0%], respectively). There was no difference between the ES groups in measured outcomes. Conclusions: A 10-minute ES protocol accelerated axon regeneration and facilitated functional recovery. Clinical Relevance: The brief (10-minute) ES protocol provided similar benefits to the 60-minute protocol in an acute sciatic nerve transection/repair mice model and merits further studies.


In this paper we examine the significance of position-based routing with border-node based forwarding for Vehicular Ad hoc Network to optimize path length and minimize end-to-end delay between vehicles. This proposed protocol is called Border-node based Most Forward within Radius (B-MFR) since it uses border nodes with MFR. We have simulated this protocol using NS-2 simulator and evaluated the performance in terms of end-to-end delay. The results of B-MFR obtained through simulation are compared with the results of MFR. The results clearly show that the end-to-end delay for B-MFR is significantly lower than MFR. Further, the result also reveals that the end-to-end delay for B-MFR decrease faster than MFR as the node density increases.


The problem of reconstructing the one-dimensional refractive index profiles from electromagnetic reflection data is considered for lossless, dispersionless dielectrics. The Balanis integral equation is solved by the method of successive kernel approximation. Both continuous and discontinuous profile examples demonstrate the accuracy of this method by comparing and contrasting the results with those of a leapfrogging numerical solution and associated analytical results. The convergence criterion for this method is specified.


Abstract: In 2001 the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) declared that "the development and implementation of institutional policies that enable the healthy integration of work responsibilities with family life in academe requires renewed attention." In the current study, we explore the perceptions and experiences of faculty at a university system that does not have formal work/family policies. Our findings demonstrate that with no formal policy, academic and professional faculty are left confused (and often misguided) about what options are available for parental leave. Women now make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, a dramatic shift from a generation ago when only one-third of all workers were women (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families in the U.S. (Boushey, 2009; Galinsky, Aumann & Bond, 2008) and 70% of families with children include a working mother (Galinsky, Aumann & Bond, 2008). These statistics have prompted many to reflect on that status of women in the workplace, asking questions such as "how far have we come?" and "has equality been achieved?" With more than half of children in the U.S. born into homes with two working parents, work/family balance is no longer just a "woman's issue" but has become a family issue. Upon close evaluation, we continue to find that many of our work/family policies remain based on the "traditional" family with a male breadwinner and a stay-at-home mom - a clearly outdated model. For example, only 10% of all employees have access to employer-supported childcare (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Quality of Life Benefits"; March 2009). Most notably, the United States is the only industrialized nation without a national government-sponsored paid family leave policy. Without a national policy, only 9% of U.S. civilian workers have access to paid family leave (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employee Benefits in the United States", March 2009). In 1993 The Family and Medical Leave Act was signed into law. The FMLA, entitles workers (men and women) to up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for the birth or adoption of a child. While the passage of the FMLA was a step in the right direction, approximately half of all workers are not covered by FMLA because they haven't worked for their employer for a year, work for a company with fewer than 50 employees, or haven't worked enough hours to qualify for coverage (Waldfogel, 2001). Additionally, only 58% of qualified employees know of the FMLA (Commission on Family and Medical Leave, 1996). Moreover, many workers cannot afford to take an unpaid leave. Women still make roughly 79 cents for every dollar men make, even in female dominated jobs (Institute for Women's Policy Research, Fact Sheet, April 2009). For the nearly two-thirds of families in the U.S. where women are the primary or co-breadwinners, taking unpaid leave is often not a feasible option (Boushey, 2009; Galinsky, Aumann & Bond, 2008). Despite the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) declaration in 2001 that "the development and implementation of institutional policies that enable the healthy integration of work responsibilities with family life in academe requires renewed attention," faculty and staff at numerous college campuses across the United States have continued to struggle to secure compassionate work/family policies. In a survey of 255 college campuses, Hollenshead et al. (2005) found on average only 25% of the schools provided women with paid maternity leave following the birth of a child that did not require women to use up their sick leave, disability leave, or vacation leave. Only 16% reported having a formal institution-wide policy for paid dependent care leave (most often for both men and women). One thing that is consistent throughout the research is the need for universal, clear parental leave policies. Parental leave has not only been associated with greater infant health (breast-feeding, wellvisits, immunizations; Berger, Hill, & Waldfogel, 2005) and children's later cognitive development (Ruhm, 2004), but also with parental well-being (Hyde, 1995). …


Today's marketing organizations face unprecedented turbulence and complexity. To anticipate and adapt to fast changing customer preferences and environments, executives seek to make their internal organizations nimble and agile by constantly developing, integrating, and reconfiguring new capabilities. Yet a holistic understanding of how a firm should design its organizational structures to execute such a capability-changing process is lacking. Drawing on a dynamic capabilities perspective and organizational theory, the authors develop a theoretical framework that identifies three customer-centric structural design factors that support dynamic capabilities and thus can produce a marketing organization that is able not only to anticipate and learn from the environment but also to transform resource bases. The authors also identify boundary conditions that allow these transformations to pay off more. Overall, this conceptual framework provides managerial guidance for how to build a fluid marketing organization.


The luminescence and gamma-ray detection properties of cerium-doped scintillators, namely, Lu0.3Y0.7AlO3:Ce (Lu0.3Y0.7AP:Ce), Lu0.7Y0.3AlO3:Ce (Lu0.7Y0.3AP:Ce ), and YAlO3:Ce (YAP:Ce) were investigated. UV excitation and emission spectra of studied crystals were compared. The light yield and energy resolution were measured using photomultiplier tube (PMT) readout. The light yield non-proportionality and energy resolution versus gamma-ray energy were measured and the intrinsic resolution of the crystals was determined after correcting the measured energy resolution for PMT statistics. For 662 keV gamma rays (137Cs source), YAP: Ce showed the highest light yield of 28,500 ph/MeV and the best energy resolution of 4.4 % , while its photofraction is worst.


HIF-1 (Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1) is an oxygen-regulated transcription factor that mediates the intracellular response to hypoxia in human cells, targeting specific genes that promote cell survival by inducing processes such as angiogenesis and glycolysis. The HIF-1 signalling pathway has been of considerable interest due to its role in mammalian development and in particular several pathologies such as ischemia and cancer. Low cellular oxygen levels are found in cancer due to the rapid proliferation of tumour cells distant to blood vessels (forming a hypoxic core) and the typically irregular vasculature is unable to properly perfuse the tumour.

In the Centre for Cell Imaging at the University of Liverpool, time lapsed imaging in an oxygen-controlled environment has captured the transient dynamics of the oxygen regulated subunit of HIF-1, HIF-1α, and revealed heterogeneity between individual cells. The essential characteristics of this data are modelled with a system of differential equations describing the feedback inhibition between HIF-1α and the pathway's effective oxygen sensors. This novel model was formulated by employing a minimalist approach initially, allowing us to use the rich variety of single-cell data to determine the structure of the feedback loop between two key pathway components. Once the central regulatory motif was identified, the model was expanded to include more complexity, including experimental measurements for model parameter values and additional system components.

Oxygen plays an especially important role in the early stages of tumour formation. Measurements of oxygen within cells have been recorded in cultured spheres of neuroblastoma cells at different atmospheric conditions. This data is representative of the early development stages of an avascular tumour and a spatial oxygen-diffusion model was coupled with the single-cell HIF-1α model to describe the dynamics of HIF-1α across a developing tumour. This coupled model is used to study HIF-1α dynamics in the context of various oxygen-dependent cellular functions such as cell-cycle progression and apoptosis by integrating with modifications of published mathematical models.


The increasing complexity and demand of transport services strains transportation systems especially in urban areas with limited possibilities for building new infrastructure. The solution to this challenge requires changes of travel behavior. One of the proposed means to induce such change is multimodal travel apps. However, understanding the motivators underlying individuals' travel intentions is essential to design and evaluate their effectiveness. This paper pinpoints and analyses the drivers and barriers that influence individual travel decisions when using such apps. The analytical framework relies on Alderfer's ERG model of human needs that relate the individual's intentions to three domains, namely (1) Existence, (2) Relatedness and (3) Growth needs. Furthermore, environmental attitude, information privacy concerns and perceived difficulties when using the system are incorporated as to better explain user-sided heterogeneity. The case-study focuses on a new travel information system in Copenhagen (Denmark), which is not yet operational, through a technology-use preference survey among 828 travelers. Structural equation models revealed that the motivation for choices are specific to individual users and depend on wide-ranging factors that go beyond traditional economic and socio-demographic methods. The study revealed (1) different intentions among individuals according to the perceived value of the new information system, (2) a relation between different environmental attitude constructs and users' needs, (3) a stronger appeal to use the system for individuals with higher needs of developing social self-concept and eco-travel self-efficacy as well as with lower perceived privacy risk and perceived difficulties, (4) that both functional and psychological factors affect adoption intention.


In this paper, the degree to which Persian orthography deviates from transparency is quantified and evaluated. We investigate the relations between graphemes and phonemes in Persian, in which the writing system is not fully representative of the spoken language, mostly due to the omission of the short-vowel graphemes. We measure the degree of the Persian orthographic system transparency using a heuristic mathematical model. We apply the same measures to orthographic systems of other languages and compare the results to those obtained for Persian. The results show a relatively high degree of transparency in Persian when it comes to writing, but a low degree of transparency when it comes to reading. We also consider models that avoid the problems related to the short vowels in Persian and these models demonstrate a considerable decrease of the uncertainty in the Persian orthographic system.


Abstract Island archipelagos and insect‐plant associations have both independently provided many useful systems for evolutionary study. The arytainine psyllid (Sternorrhyncha: Hemiptera) radiation on broom (Fabaceae: Genisteae) in the Canary Island archipelago provides a discrete system for examining the speciation of highly host‐specific phytophagous insects in an island context. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on three datasets (adult and nymph morphological characters, and two mitochondrial DNA regions: part of the small subunit rRNA, and part of cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome oxidase II and the intervening tRNA leucine) are generally consistent. The combined molecular tree provides a well‐supported estimate of psyllid relationships and shows that there have been several colonizations of the Macaronesian islands but that only one has resulted in a significant radiation. Psyllid diversification has apparently been constrained by the presence of suitable host groups within the genistoid legumes, and the diversity, distribution, and abundance of those groups. The phylogeny, by indicating pairs of sister species, allows putative mechanisms of speciation to be assessed. The most common conditions associated with psyllid speciation are geographical allopatry with a host switch to closely related hosts (six examples), or geographical allopatry on the same host (four examples). Where allopatric speciation involves a host switch, these have all been to related hosts. There is some evidence that switches between unrelated host plants may be more likely in sympatry. Only one sister pair (Arytainilla cytisi and A. telonicola) and the putative host races of Arytinnis modica are sympatric but on unrelated hosts, which may be a necessary condition for sympatric speciation in these insects. Where several psyllids share the same host, resources appear to be partitioned by ecological specialization and differing psyllid phenology.


Study Design. Prospective radiographic and clinical analysis of patients with idiopathic scoliosis who had complete implant removal following posterior spinal fusion (PSF) at least 2 years previously. Objective. To evaluate the clinical and radiographic effect of implant removal after PSF for idiopathic scoliosis. Summary of Background Data. Occasionally, implants must be removed following instrumented PSF. Indications for removal include infection and late operative site pain. Previously, it has been thought that there was little morbidity associated with implant removal in the presence of a solid fusion. However, recent studies have reported loss of coronal correction after implant removal in patients who had a PSF for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Few long-term studies have assessed the clinical or radiographic results of complete implant removal after PSF. Methods. We identified 56 patients who had undergone PSF for idiopathic scoliosis and subsequently had complete removal of all instrumentation. None of these patients had a pseudarthrosis at the time of implant removal. After IRB approval, 43 of 56 (77%) patients returned for new standing posteroanterior and lateral spine radiographs and completion of an SRS-22 questionnaire. Results. For the 43 patients who had new radiographs and completed an SRS-22, the time from the original PSF to complete implant removal averaged 2.9 years (range, 7 months to 7.25 years). Twenty-two patients had implants removed because of infection, and 21 patients had implants removed secondary to pain. The average time from implant removal to completion of the most recent radiographs and SRS-22 questionnaire was 9.5 years (range, 3.2–17.9 years). Patients were considered to have had progression of deformity after implant removal if their Cobb angle measurements increased by more than 10°. Two patients had 11° to 20° of coronal plane progression of their main thoracic curve. No patient had more than 10° of coronal plane progression of a lumbar curve. Sagittal curve progression was identified more frequently. Nineteen patients had between an 11° and 20° increase in thoracic kyphosis, and 5 patients had >20° of thoracic kyphosis progression. Patients with >20° of thoracic kyphosis progression after implant removal had greater thoracic kyphosis before surgery and larger main thoracic and lumbar coronal curves at the time of implant removal. Progressive kyphosis did not correlate with: reason for implant removal, length of follow-up, or time from fusion to implant removal. Although total SRS-22 scores correlated inversely with increased thoracic kyphosis, this trend did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion. Implant removal after PSF for idiopathic scoliosis may be complicated by progression of deformity. Patients requiring implant removal should be appropriately counseled and monitored.


BACKGROUND
The association between obesity and prognosis in HER2-positive early breast cancer remains unclear, with limited data available. This study aimed to determine the impact of body mass index (BMI) at baseline and weight change after 2 years on outcomes of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

METHODS
ALTTO was a randomized phase III trial in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer. BMI was collected at randomization and 2 years after. WHO BMI categories were used: underweight, <18.5 kg/m2; normal weight, 18.5 to <25 kg/m2; overweight, ≥25 to <30 kg/m2; and obese ≥30 kg/m2. A weight change from baseline of ≥5.0% and ≤5.0% was categorized as weight gain and weight loss. The impact of BMI at randomization and of weight change on disease-free survival (DFS), distant disease-free survival (DDFS), and overall survival (OS) were investigated with multivariate analyses, adjusting for baseline patients and tumor characteristics.

RESULTS
A total of 8,381 patients were included: 187 (2.2%), 3,797 (45.3%), 2,690 (32.1%), and 1,707 (20.4%) were underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese at baseline, respectively. Compared with normal weight, being obese at randomization was associated with a significantly worse DDFS (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.25; 95% CI, 1.04-1.50) and OS (aHR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01-1.60), but no significant difference in DFS (aHR, 1.14; 95% CI, 0.97-1.32). Weight loss ≥5.0% at 2 years after randomization was associated with significantly poorer DFS (aHR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.05-1.71), DDFS (aHR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.07-1.98), and OS (aHR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.18-2.84). Hormone receptor and menopausal status but not anti-HER2 treatment type influenced outcomes. Toxicities were more frequent in obese patients.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, obesity at baseline is a poor prognostic factor. Weight loss during treatment and follow-up negatively impacts clinical outcomes. Dietary counseling should be part of survivorship care programs.


Semantic processing of conceptual models is a focus of research since several years, bridging the disciplines of knowledge-based systems, conceptual modeling, and model-driven software engineering. With the uptake of Knowledge Graphs, the research in this area gained further momentum. In this paper, we introduce a generic and extensible platform that enables the automated transformation of conceptual models into Knowledge Graphs. The platform can transform any model created by a state-of-the-art metamodeling platform (EMF and ADOxx) into standardized Knowledge Graph representations like GraphML, RDF, and OWL. In the paper at hand, we introduce our platform and evaluate it with a corpus of 5.000 UML models that we transform into Knowledge Graphs and subsequently exemplify the rich functionalities enabled by the graph structure by an automated detection of UML model smells.


The aim of this work is the development and implementation of a control structure for the double rotary inverted pendulum, suitable to be used in a Networked Control System environment. Delays are quite common in this kind of systems and, when controlling multivariable plants, it is possible that different delays are applied to the multiple inputs and outputs of them. A control structure that allows compensating individually each one of the multiple loop delays would be useful when one of these delays changes. Inverted pendulums are quite sensitive to delays and for this reason are appropriated plants to be used in these conditions. The control structure is developed modifying the control in no-delay conditions with a generalized predictor able to deal with unstable and non-minimum plants as the chosen one is. The proposed structure has been simulated and implemented to control a real double rotary inverted pendulum.


Analyses of the bleeding tendency by means of the bleeding score (BS) have been proposed until now to confirm diagnosis but not to predict clinical outcomes in patients with inherited von Willebrand disease (VWD). We prospectively followed up, for 1 year, 796 Italian patients with different types of VWD to determine whether the previous BS of European VWD1 is useful to predict the occurrence of spontaneous bleeds severe enough to require replacement therapy with desmopressin (DDAVP) and/or von Willebrand factor (VWF)/factor VIII concentrates. Among the 796 patients included, 75 (9.4%) needed treatment of 232 spontaneous bleeding events. BS >10 and VWF:ristocetin cofactor activity <10 U/dL were associated with the risk of bleeding, but only a BS >10 remained highly associated in a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model (adjusted hazard ratio: 7.27 [95% confidence interval, 3.83-13.83]). Although the bleeding event-free survival was different in VWD types, only a BS >10 could predict for each type which patient had bleeding events severe enough to require treatment with DDAVP and/or concentrates. Therefore, BS can be considered a simple predictor of clinical outcomes of VWD and may identify patients needing intensive therapeutic regimens.


PURPOSE
Intra-operative ultrasound is used to verify the positioning of episcleral eye plaques used to treat ocular melanoma. Ultrasound can be ambiguous because of image artifacts, and plaques may shift position after surgery. Ultrasound verification is particularly challenging for anterior tumors. Post-operative imaging could be used to trigger interventions that would prevent local treatment failure. We investigated if, and under what conditions, the Tomotherapy megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) system could be used to perform post-implantation verification of eye plaque positioning.

METHODS
Plaques were placed on a preserved cow's eye, and imaged with the megavoltage CT of a Tomotherapy linear accelerator (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA). The images were visually and quantitatively assessed to determine if they were of sufficient quality to verify tumor coverage and plaque tilt with respect to the sclera. We used the visibility of the lens as a proxy for visibility of a tumor. To test the utility of hypothetical higher beam current Tomotherapy images, we averaged sequential images of the same setup.

RESULTS
The plaque, the lens of the eye, and the globe are visible in the images. The CNR of the lens with respect to the vitreous was 5.6 for a single image. For 10 images averaged, the CNR was 9.2. Estimated dose from a single image was 1.3 cGy (body CTDIvol); even 10 times this dose would be an acceptable image-guidance dose for radiotherapy patients. One limitation of the imaging procedure is the long scan time (up to 240 seconds), during which time any significant patient motion would lead to image artifacts. Human trials on eye plaque patients are planned.

CONCLUSIONS
Tomotherapy MVCT imaging could be used to verify tumor coverage and plaque tilt after episcleral plaque implantation. Tumors should be visible in standard Tomotherapy images but higher beam current images would be preferred if available.


Objectives: To evaluate the rate of preterm delivery (PTD) following late amniocentesis (>24 weeks of gestation). Methods: A retrospective cohort of all women with singleton pregnancy who underwent late amniocentesis in one tertiary center between 2005–2009, due to various indications, excluding cases of suspected amnionitis or premature rupture of membranes. Results: The initial cohort included 182 women. Pregnancy outcome was validated in 158 women who underwent amniocentesis at 24–36 weeks of gestation (mean, 31.4 ± 1.9). 13 women were excluded due to premature labor induction or cesarean section for suspected IUGR. Indications for late amniocentesis included abnormal ultrasonographic findings (n = 98), suspected intrauterine CMV or toxoplasmosis infection (n = 19), maternal age (n = 13), abnormal first or second trimester biochemical markers (n = 8) and others (n = 7). The rate of spontaneous PTD (<37 weeks) was 8.9% (13/145), mean gestational age at delivery 34.7 ± 1.3 (32–36 weeks). In only 5 (3.4%) delivery occurred ≤34 weeks of gestation. In one case (0.68%) of amniocentesis performed at 32 weeks of gestation, delivery occurred within 48 hours. In 4 cases (2.75%) delivery occurred within 10 day. The rate of PTD and mean gestational age at delivery stratified by grouped gestational age at amniocentesis is presented at Table 1. If cases of amniocentesis performed for ultrasonographic findings to rule out chromosomal abnormalities (n = 117/182), abnormal karyotype was found in 3 cases (2.56%). Conclusions: The risk of significant prematurity following late amniocentesis is low.


As modern applications and systems are growing fast and continuously changing, back-end services in general and database services in particular are being challenged with dynamic loads and differential query behaviour. The traditional best practice of designing database – creating fixed relational schemas prior to deployment becomes irrelevant. While newer database technologies such as document based and columnar are more flexible, they perform better only under certain conditions that are hard to predict. Frequent manual modifications of database structures and technologies under production require expert skills, increase management costs and often ends up with sub-optimal performance. In this paper we propose AdaptaBase a solution for performance optimization of database technologies in accordance with application query demands by using machine learning to model application query behavioural patterns and learning the optimal database technology per each behavioural pattern. Experiments present a reduction in query execution time of over 25% for the relational-columnar model selection, and over 30% for the relation-document based model selection.


Gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo are susceptible to various types of instrumental and environmental disturbances known as glitches which can mask and mimic gravitational waves. While there are 22 classes of non-Gaussian noise gradients currently identified, the number of classes is likely to increase as these detectors go through commissioning between observation runs. Since identification and labelling new noise gradients can be arduous and time-consuming, we propose $\beta$-Annelead VAEs to learn representations from spectograms in an unsupervised way. Using the same formulation as \cite{alemi2017fixing}, we view Bottleneck-VAEs~cite{burgess2018understanding} through the lens of information theory and connect them to $\beta$-VAEs~cite{higgins2017beta}. Motivated by this connection, we propose an annealing schedule for the hyperparameter $\beta$ in $\beta$-VAEs which has advantages of: 1) One fewer hyperparameter to tune, 2) Better reconstruction quality, while producing similar levels of disentanglement.


In this article, we examine the way that audiences respond to particular representations of poverty. Using clips from the Channel 4 television programme Benefits Street we conducted focus groups in four locations across the United Kingdom, working with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds who had different experiences with the benefits system. Benefits Street (2014) is an example of reality television where members of the public are followed by film crews as they perform everyday tasks and routines. Our choice to focus on this particular programme was prompted by the huge media response that it received when it was broadcast; Benefits Street generated 950 complaints to regulatory watchdog Ofcom and was referred to as 'poverty porn'. We focus on the way that viewers of this programme produce assessments of those on benefits, analysing the discursive strategies used by our participants when evaluating representations of those on benefits. Specifically, we consider how the participants in our study construct their own stance and attribute stance to others through naming and agency practices, the negotiation of opinion and stake inoculation. We invited our participants to judge the people they saw on screen, but they went beyond this. They used clips of the programme as stimuli to collaboratively construct an overarchingly negative stereotype of those on benefits. We conclude that Benefits Street is not just an entertainment programme, but is rather a site for ideological construction and the perpetuation of existing stereotypes about benefit claimants. The programme (and others like it) invites negative evaluations of those on benefits and is thus a worthy site for critical linguistic analysis.


Population-based cancer registries from Algeria, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, India, the Philippines, and Thailand are collaborating with the International Agency for Research on Cancer in a study of cancer survival in developing countries. Comparisons with the SEER program results of the National Cancer Institute in the United States, and the EUROCARE study of survival in European countries revealed considerable differences in the survival of patients with certain tumors associated with intensive chemotherapeutic treatment regimes (Hodgkin's disease and testicular tumors), more modest differences in the survival of patients with tumors for which early diagnosis and treatment confer an improved prognosis (carcinomas of the large bowel, breast, and cervix), and only slight differences for tumors associated with poor prognosis (carcinomas of the stomach, pancreas, and lung). With limited resources to meet the challenge of the increasing incidence of cancer expected in the next few decades, health authorities in developing countries should be aware of the importance of investing in a range of cancer control activities, including primary prevention and early detection programs as well as treatment.


Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection triggers a chronic influx of polymorphonuclear leukocyte neutrophils (PMNs) into the gastric mucosa. Although Hp reside in a neutrophil-rich environment, how these organisms evade phagocytic killing is largely unexplored. We now show that live Hp (strains 11637, 60190, DT61A, and 11916) are readily ingested by PMNs and induce a rapid and strong respiratory burst that is comparable to PMA. Relative to other particulate stimuli, Hp are more potent activators of PMNs than opsonized zymosan, Staphylococcus aureus, or Salmonella. Strikingly, biochemical and microscopic analyses demonstrate that Hp disrupt NADPH oxidase targeting such that superoxide anions are released into the extracellular milieu and do not accumulate inside Hp phagosomes. Specifically, nascent Hp phagosomes acquire flavocytochrome b558 but do not efficiently recruit or retain p47phox or p67phox. Superoxide release peaks at 16 min coincident with the appearance of assembled oxidase complexes in patches at the cell surface. Oxidant release is regulated by formalin-resistant and heat-sensitive bacterial surface factors distinct from urease and Hp(2–20). Following opsonization with fresh serum, Hp triggers a modest respiratory burst that is confined to the phagosome, and ingested bacteria are eliminated. We conclude that disruption of NADPH oxidase targeting allows unopsonized Hp to escape phagocytic killing, and our findings support the hypothesis that bacteria and PMNs act in concert to damage the gastric mucosa.


SUMMARY. A single set of oligonucleotide primers was designed from known 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), M. synoviae (MS), and M. iowae (MI). This set of primers selectively amplifies a 780-base-pair DNA fragment within the 16S rRNA gene of MG, MS, and MI but does not amplify other avian mycoplasmas or other bacteria. The detection limit of the multi-species polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was approximately 100 mycoplasma (MG, MS, MI) colony-forming units per PCR reaction. The PCR product was differentiated by restriction fragment length polymorphism with the restriction enzymes HpaI, HpaII, and MboI. Preliminary results from field samples suggest that this technique could be a useful and rapid diagnostic test for the detection of these three pathogenic poultry mycoplasmas.


Part of the new geological mapping of Eastern Senegal (PASMI project, EU funding) deals with the Segou / Madina-Kouta Supergroup that locally begins by a polygenic, highly heterometric distinctive conglomeratic level. This particular facies, ascribed to the Kafori Formation (Stenian to Tonian), constitutes an unique geodynamic marker in West Africa, as it testifies for Late Paleoproterozoic (post-Birimian) volcanic events unrecorded in any outcrop at regional scale. The Kafori Fm presents strong thickness variations at regional scale, from some decimeters to more than 40 meters. In sections where the Formation is the thickest, spectacular cliff outcrops show several superimposed metric bodies with alternations of conglomeratic facies of clast-supported and matrix-supported types. Matrix is usually unsorted, composed of millimetric, subangulous and translucent quartz grains and an important proportion of angulous millimetric to centimetric, feldspar grains and pegmatite clasts. The matrix is interpreted as derived from weathering and erosion of local Birimian granitoids. Clasts are particularly interesting by their heterometry (from pebbles to boulders, up to 70cm) and their highly various lithology. Pebble to boulder typology underlines a great variety of clast origin: - Abundant rhyolithic boulders (with 2 distinct facies, one of fresh appearance, grey in colour, another of reddish colour strongly weathered); - Subangular pebbles and cobbles of pelites, micaschists, foliated quartzites and granitoids from the local Birimian basement; - Very frequent, subrounded, milky white quartz pebbles, sometimes preserved as tourmaline quartz vein fragments of multidecimetric size; - Scattered pebbles and cobbles of less common lithologies but known of Birimian origin at regional scale: tourmaline-rich pegmatite, gabbro, volcanic breccia, undifferentiated volcanic rocks, magmatic facies with graphical texture. Sedimentological features collected in the Kafori Formation (heterometry, pebble and boulder typology, angularity, imbrication sedimentary structures) are indicative of a short transport distance under mainly fluvial dynamic, from voluminous local outcrops of volcanic rocks. Among all the different clasts, rhyolithic pebbles and boulders are unique because of their abundance and the lack of known outcrops of these facies at regional scale. They were sampled to perform geochronological analyses, and dated at 1764 ± 15 Ma by U-Pb analysis on 12 zircons. The Kafori Formation contains a major indicator of post-birimian acid effusive volcanic events for which any outcrop is yet unknown at regional scale whereas sedimentological features are indicative of local origin. Track for these coarse-grained sedimentary deposits - such as recent development of geochronology on inherited zircons - offer new perspectives for reconstruction of post-birimian West-African geodynamic evolution.


Reactions of trans-MCl2(P((CH2)6(CH=CH2)3)2 (M = a, Pd; b, Pt) and Grubbs' catalyst, followed by hydrogenation (ClRh(PPh3)3), give the title compounds trans-MCl2(P((CH2)14)3P) (2a, 37%; 2b, 43%). These react with LiBr, NaI, and KCN to give the corresponding MBr2, MI2, and M(CN)2 species (58-99%). 13C NMR data show that the MX2 moieties rapidly rotate within the diphosphine cage on the NMR time scale, even at -120 degrees C. The reaction of 2b and KSCN gives separable Pt(SCN)2 and Pt(SCN)(NCS) species (5b, 27%; 6b, 30%), and that with Ph2Zn gives a PtPh2 species (7b, 55%). NMR data for 5b-7b show that MX2 rotation is no longer rapid. Reactions of 2b with excess NaCCH or KCN afford the free dibridgehead diphosphine P((CH2)14)3P (66-83%), presumably as an "in/in" isomer, as addition of PtCl2 regenerates 2b. The crystal structures of 2a and 7b are analyzed with respect to MX2 rotation.


A new formulation for an adhesive force between a substrate and an indenter is presented. The boundary condition taking into account surface stresses is used for the present analysis. The surface stress is originated from surface energy. A paraboloidal indenter is pressed to the substrate, and then adhesion occurs between both surfaces. Surface energy and surface stress will vary at the adhesion surface, and then the surfaces deform in a concave way. An attractive force occurs to keep the contact of two adhesion surfaces. In the present paper, an effect of surface stress on the adhesive force will be clarified.


Positioning systems based on ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) technology have been considered recently especially for indoor environments due to the property of UWB signals to resolve multipath and penetrate obstacles. However, line-of-sight (LoS) blockage and excess propagation delay affect ranging measurements thus drastically reducing the positioning accuracy. In this paper, we first characterize and derive models for the range estimation error and the excess delay based on measured data from real-ranging devices. These models are used in various multilateration algorithms to determine the position of the target. From measurements in a real indoor scenario, we investigate how the localization accuracy is affected by the number of beacons and by the availability of priori information about the environment and network geometry. We also examine the case where multiple targets cooperate by measuring ranges not only from the beacons but also from each other. An iterative multilateration algorithm that incorporates information gathered through cooperation is then proposed with the purpose of improving the position estimation accuracy. Using numerical results, we demonstrate the impact of cooperation on the positioning accuracy.


A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) yoking proof allows an off-line verifier to make sure whether two tags are simultaneously present. Due to offline property, a reader cannot differentiate valid from invalid proof records when it probes tags, and would generate lots of useless data. This paper proposes a treebased matched RFID yoking scheme which enhances the cost of identification from O(log N) to O(1), where N is the number of tags, and allows the reader to collect only those matched tags such that it significantly reduces useless data for the verifier to validate off-line.


This paper evaluates the Morningstar mutual fund ranking system. We find that indeed higher Morningstar ratings are associated with higher returns on the portfolios including respectively five-, four-, three-, two- and one-star funds only (STAR5 to STAR1). We then perform an unconditional and conditional portfolio performance evaluation. In both cases the evidence suggests that the better performance of the STAR3, STAR4 and STAR5 categories reflects superior stock selection rather than market timing abilities. Overall, the implication for the Morningstar ranking system is that this is most effective in identifying the worst-performing funds (STAR1 or STAR2) rather than the best-performing ones.


We study the stability and breakup of liquid bridges with a free contact line on surfaces with contact-angle hysteresis (CAH) under zero-gravity conditions. Non-ideal surfaces exhibit CAH because of surface imperfections, by which the constraints on three-phase contact lines are influenced. Given that interfacial instabilities are constraint-sensitive, understanding how CAH affects the stability and breakup of liquid bridges is crucial for predicting the drop size in contact-drop dispensing. Unlike ideal surfaces on which contact lines are always free irrespective of surface wettability, contact lines may undergo transitions from pinned to free and vice versa during drop deposition on non-ideal surfaces. Here, we experimentally and theoretically examine how stability and breakup are affected by CAH, highlighting cases where stability is lost during a transition from a pinned-pinned (more constrained) to pinned-free (less constrained) interface-rather than a critical state. This provides a practical means of expediting or delaying stability loss. We also demonstrate how the dynamic contact angle can control the contact-line radius following stability loss.


Rapamycin which is an inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), has effects as antineoplastic, retarding aging, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective. Aim of this study is to investigate the effects of rapamycin on maternal aggression in rats. In this study 63 Wistar female rats were used. The animals were divided into 3 groups: the solvent (DMSO) group, the 5 mg/kg rapamycin group, and the 10 mg/ kg rapamycin group. For behavioral testing the resident-intruder paradigm was used. The groups were compared in terms of the latency to the first aggressive behavior, the number of attacks, the total duration of aggressive behaviors and the intensity of attacks. When the groups were compared in terms of the latency to the first aggressive behavior, it was found that 5 and 10 mg/kg rapamycin groups were significantly prolonged latencies compared to the control group. When were evaluated the number of aggressive behaviors, total duration of aggressive behaviors and average severity of attacks it was found that 5 mg/kg rapamycin group's values were significantly lower than the control groups. These results show that acute administration of rapamycin, especially in 5 mg/kg dose of rapamycin prolongs the latency of maternal aggression, and decreased the number of attacks, the intensity of attacks and the total duration of aggressive behaviors in rats. Therefore rapamycin may have potential for use as a sedative drug, however it is necessary to conduct further studies.


Tile drains are one of several best management practices whose purpose is to reduce the export of
contaminants to receiving waters. It is conventionally assumed that contaminants are effectively retained in the soil prior
to subsurface water entering the drain. Two conditions may result in significantly elevated contaminant loading in tile
effluent: preferential flow through macropores, and steep slopes which increase drainage in shallow, permeable soils on a
hardpan. This article presents field monitoring data on phosphorus and fecal coliforms measured in New York State
watersheds under both conditions described, and examines the mechanisms for increased tile drain contaminant delivery
from manure-applied fields to streams. Soluble phosphorus concentrations peaked at 1.17 mg/L, and as much as 37% of
soluble phosphorus was exported from the field site via subsurface drains. Fecal coliform concentrations peaked at
71,000 organisms/100 mL. The total number of fecal coliforms discharged from the drain during the flow event would
have required about 75 fold dilution to bring the fecal coliform concentration to a municipal wastewater treatment plant
discharge effluent standard of 400 organisms/100 mL. Under some conditions, the contaminant discharge from subsurface
drains may also have significant water quality impacts to receiving waters.


A point process on a space is a random bag of elements of that space. In this paper we explore programming with point processes in a monadic style. To this end we identify point processes on a space X with probability measures of bags of elements in X. We describe this view of point processes using the composition of the Giry and bag monads on the category of measurable spaces and functions and prove that this composition also forms a monad using a distributive law for monads. Finally, we define a morphism from a point process to its intensity measure, and show that this is a monad morphism. A special case of this monad morphism gives us Wald's Lemma, an identity used to calculate the expected value of the sum of a random number of random variables. Using our monad we define a range of point processes and point process operations and compositionally compute their corresponding intensity measures using the monad morphism.


Objective Evaluate the association between time to diagnosis and treatment of advanced ovarian cancer with overall and ovarian cancer specific mortality using a retrospective cross sectional study of a population based cancer registry database. Methods The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare database was searched from 1992 to 2015 for women aged ≥66 years with epithelial ovarian cancer and abdominal/pelvic pain, bloating, difficulty eating, or urinary symptoms within 1 year of cancer diagnosis. Time from presentation to diagnosis and treatment were evaluated as outcomes and covariables. Cox regression models and adjusted Kaplan–Meier curves evaluated 5 year overall and cancer-specific survival. Results Among 13 872 women, better survival was associated with longer time from presentation to diagnosis (overall survival hazard ratio (HR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94 to 0.95; cancer specific survival HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.94 to 0.96) and diagnosis to treatment (overall survival HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.92 to 0.96; cancer specific survival HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.96). There was longer time from presentation to diagnosis in Hispanic women (relative risk (RR) 1.21, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.32) and from diagnosis to treatment in non-Hispanic black women (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.54), with lower likelihood of survival at 5 years after adjustment for time to diagnosis and treatment among non-Hispanic black women (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.26) compared with non-Hispanic white women. Gynecologic oncology visit was associated with improved overall (p<0.001) and cancer specific (p<0.001) survival despite a longer time from presentation to treatment (p<0.001). Conclusion Longer time to diagnosis and treatment were associated with improved survival, suggesting that tumor specific features are more important prognostic factors than the time interval of workup and treatment. Significant sociodemographic disparities indicate social determinants of health influencing workup and care. Gynecologic oncologist visits were associated with improved survival, highlighting the importance of appropriate referral for suspected ovarian cancer.


The 1200-km-long Quetico subprovince consists of monotonous metagraywacke, with derived migmatite and granite, in thrust and/or transcurrent fault contact with the adjacent Wabigoon and Wawa metavolcanic subprovinces. Imbrication of sedimentary wedges derived from volcanic arcs to the north and south produced a 10-100-km-wide, stratigraphically north-facing pile. Thermal relaxation in the 20 m.y. following accretion of the southern arc resulted in melting of the accretionary pile to produce peraluminous granite and associated low-pressure metamorphism.


PURPOSE
A pressing need exists for agents active against anthracycline- or taxane-refractory metastatic breast cancer (MBC), or both. Previous clinical trials suggested that irinotecan might have such activity. We conducted this multicenter phase II study to assess efficacy and tolerability of two irinotecan schedules.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
MBC patients who experienced disease progression after one to three chemotherapy regimens, including at least one anthracycline- or taxane-based regimen, were randomly assigned to irinotecan in 6-week cycles comprising 100 mg/m(2) weekly for 4 weeks, then a 2-week rest (weekly) or 240 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks.

RESULTS
The weekly arm had 52 assessable patients; the every-3-weeks arm had 51 assessable patients. In the weekly arm, the objective response (complete regression [CR] + partial regression [PR]) rate was 23% (one CR, 11 PR; 95% CI, 13% to 37%). Median response duration was 4.9 months (range, 1.9 to 15.9 months), and median overall survival was 9.7 months (95% CI, 8.0 to 14.2 months). In the every-3-weeks arm, the objective response rate was 14% (nine PR; 95% CI, 6% to 26%), median response duration was 4.2 months (range, 3.1 to 13.9 months), and median overall survival was 8.6 months (95% CI, 7.0 to 12.3 months). Treatment generally was well tolerated, especially in the weekly arm. Grade 3 to 4 adverse events with > or = 10% incidence included neutropenia (29%) and diarrhea (17%) in the weekly arm and neutropenia (36%), vomiting (20%), dyspnea (18%), nausea (16%), and diarrhea (12%) in the every-3-weeks arm.

CONCLUSION
Irinotecan is active with good tolerability in refractory MBC. Irinotecan (especially weekly) warrants additional study as monotherapy and in combination regimens in this setting.


The likelihood of owning homes, investment accounts, and retirement accounts by Black and White families was analyzed using data from the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances. Education, income, and contact with more financial institutions were almost always influential in the likelihood of owning assets and the value of assets. White families were less likely to be homeowners if they had been denied credit, whereas Black families had less equity in their homes if they had been denied credit. These and other results reinforce the need for financial counselors and planners and consumer educators to help consumers develop a good credit rating, become more risk tolerant, and develop longer horizons for saving and investing.


E. H. BURROWS, Pioneers and early years. A history ofBritish radiology, Alderney, Colophon, 1986, 4to, pp. viii, 264, illus., £32.50. E. H. Burrows sets out to describe the history of diagnostic radiology from its birth in the late-nineteenth century to 1930. He begins by documenting the discovery of X-rays and its British reception. Outlining the early history of British experimentation on X-rays, Burrows goes on to chronicle the establishment of hospital X-ray departments and the professional structure of radiology-journals, diplomas, and so on. He concludes with descriptions of the use of X-rays in war, and a history of radiation injury and protection. The text is pitted with short biographies of major radiologists and others associated with X-rays, which unhappily interrupt the narrative. (It would have been easier to read if they had been marshalled together as an appendix.) However, Burrows has uncovered a wealth of useful information on the early history of British radiology. Unfortunately, Burrows' discussion is flawed by the lack of an explanatory framework. He is unfamiliar with the literature on the medical division of labour. His story flows onward, seemingly interrupted only by technical difficulties easily or quickly resolved. But even his own narrative later hints that the difficulties might have been more than technical. For instance, he quotes the Liverpool radiologist, Thurstan Holland, who stated that deplorably few teaching hospitals accepted radiologists as full members of staff. However, the preceding discussion on the formation of radiological departments in teaching hospitals provides no indication of this. Again, Burrows quotes Holland to show that radiologists wanted to exclude other doctors and radiographers from the interpretation of X-ray images. However, the earlier narrative gives no hint of any local discussion on the matter. Burrows never makes his criteria clear for deciding what contributes to the birth and growth of clinical radiology. What forces moulded the discipline? Central to his discussion is the emergence of a self-styled specialist elite of medical radiologists, but Burrows largely accepts their own account. Sadly, a number of other voices are lost. Burrows generally echoes the radiologists' own claims that they provided the best interpretation of X-ray images. This was a common claim, but is largely unsubstantiated. There is ample evidence to show that other medical practitioners were happy enough to interpret their own plates, films, or screens, or even rely on the lay radiographer's interpretation. Were these practitioners wrong? How do we decide where the legitimate claims of radiologists ended and their professional aspirations began? How do we determine who should have been excluded from interpretation of radiographic images when what counted as expertise in this field was defined by radiologists as an incommunicable "art"? These are not questions of determining the sincerity of radiologists, but are ones of historical methodology. What significance should be attached to texts? Of course radiologists claimed to be better than their competitors, but how are we to assess this claim? Disappointingly, Burrows does not escape the mire of contemporary rhetoric, and the mud sticks.


This article argues that the Atlanticism of Central and Eastern Europe originates in a specific set of historical experiences these countries have had with the United States over the past century. These include the Central and East European encounter with both Nazi and communist totalitarian regimes; a recognition of the leading role the US played in toppling communism and in facilitating the integration of these countries into Euro-Atlantic institutions; and the strategic calculation of many countries in the region that their national interests in Europe are better preserved via active American engagement that balances the influence of other major European powers.


At the heart of any process of observation there are certain basic things which must happen. These might be analysed in abstract terms, or then again in terms of the quantum physical irreducibles. The paper links between these concerns. It starts by exploring the macroscopic processes which are essential to observation and from there it develops the outline of a path heading towards a continuum based model of quantum mechanics, and in particular, electrodynamics. It exposes attributes which are fundamental to the existence of an observer process, and then explores how the seat of those attributes may be found in the way we set‐up our notion of the basic properties of physical reality. Such a model is offered as a contribution to what is called "second‐order cybernetics", namely the study of how we go about observing the observer process.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a radiolabeled analog of somatostatin (iodine-123 octreotide) in the detection and localization of known carcinoid and islet cell tumors and to correlate tumor uptake with the presence or absence of somatostatin receptors. I-123 octreotide studies were performed in 28 patients. Whole-body and tomographic studies were performed over a 2-day period after injection. Twenty-two of the 28 patients underwent tumor biopsy, and samples were analyzed for the presence of somatostatin receptors. Tumors were best seen on scans obtained 1-4 hours after injection. Of the 28 patients, 22 had positive scans with uptake in tumors, three showed photon-deficient uptake in regions of known tumor, and three had negative scans. Seventeen patients in whom results of tumor biopsy were positive for somatostatin receptors had positive scans, and one patient in whom results of biopsy were negative for somatostatin receptors had a negative scan. Previously unsuspected lesions were detected on the I-123 octreotide scans in four of the 28 patients. I-123 octreotide appears to be a useful tracer for the localization of neuroendocrine tumors and, most likely, other soft-tissue tumors as well.


This paper is an attempt to understand the appropriation of spaces of Dalits by Sindhi Progressive activists and short story writers in Pakistan as they construct or rather undermine caste at the anvil of religion and gender to project their own religio-political agenda premised on political Sufism or Sufi nationalism. I specifically discuss the narratives emergent of the three popular short stories that are projected as having exceptional emancipatory potential for the Dalits and (Dalit) women. Assessing the emancipatory limits of Sindhi Progressive narrative, I argue while that the short stories purport to give fuller expression to religious, gender-based and class dimension of the problematic, it elides the problem of casteism and the subsequent existential demand of Dalit emancipation. Given the hegemonic influence of local Ashrafia class, the internal caste frictions are glossed over through political Sufism or Sindhi nationalism.


Content analysis involves replicable and valid methods for making inferences from observed communications to their context. As such, content analys1s is at least 75 years old. It emerged during journalistic debates over the quality of the mass media but has now become part of the repertoire of social science research methods. In the course of its evolution one notes not only an increasing level of technical sophistication and scientific rigor,and an increasing spread to different disciplines using any kind of data for analysis, but also a growing social impact of its findings. Let me consider a few examples.


Aim
The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate students' experiences of an 8 week pilot module that provided education on person centre care in Dementia using a collective case studies and phenomenological approach.
Background
With an estimated 84,000 individuals living with Dementia in Scotland Caring for this increasing population will impact already fragile resources (Alzheimer Scotland 2012). In education, access to Dementia training is limited at undergraduate level (Pulsford, 2007, DOH, 2010, Alushi et al, 2015). It is imperative healthcare students' are competent at engaging with those with dementia at the point of graduation, and that these skills are embedded in their education (Alushi et al 2015, Gordon et al, 2014).
Design and Methodology
An 8 week on-line module with piloted with 32 undergraduate students who expressed an interest in dementia education. Data was collected using a qualitative methodology and semi structured interviews were utilised in both a focus group, and a single interview to form collective case studies. Data was then transcribed and evaluated using Ritchie and Lewis' framework (2003) for thematic and concept analysis.
Results
Participants identified there was a gap in the curriculum regarding dementia, however three themes emerged from the analysis. The module relevance in practice, the modules' design and delivery, and skill development.
Conclusion
The module was considered well designed, relevant to current practice and addressed the theory practice gap (Maben et al, 2006). It can potentially influence students critical thinking and their future clinical practice in a variety of ways. A subtle shift in thinking was evident from the biomedical approach to a more holistic and person centred view of dementia care (Furaker and Nilsson (2009). It is an important step in continuing to justify the need for dementia education in healthcare across all sectors, which will ultimately impact the care we deliver


The paper describes the design and control of a new version of a spherical permanent magnet actuator, which is capable of three degrees of freedom and a high specific torque. Based on an analytical magnetic field distribution, the torque vector and back-emf are derived in closed forms. An optimal design procedure is proposed to achieve maximum output torque or maximum acceleration for a given payload. The control of the actuator, whose dynamics are similar to those of robotic manipulators, is facilitated by the establishment of a complete actuation system model and the application of the computed torque control law. The validity of the analysis and design techniques, and the effectiveness of the control strategy, are confirmed by measurements.


The need to protect aquatic organisms from the toxic potential of environmental contaminants with minimal use of animal testing has been highlighted by the introduction of a number of regulatory directives. This thesis proposes the potential of 3D cell culture models to 'bridge the gap' between the use of existing subcellular and in vivo systems for the testing of compounds for potential persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity, improving the predictive power of in vitro screening procedures. In this project, a trout hepatocyte spheroid model was optimised and using metabolic, fluorescence, transport and gene expression assays, the utility of this system in such studies as a superior alternative to currently used in vitro models was demonstrated. Hepatocytes cultured as spheroids remained viable for up to 40 days, exhibiting significantly greater functional xenobiotic metabolism and transport, as well as expression of genes, compared to other in vitro systems. These features of spheroids present a profile more closely representative of that of the whole liver. Together with the potential advantages of screening highly persistent compounds that require long term incubation and possible use in the assessment of the toxicity of compounds exhibiting chronic effects, this system successfully enriches current in vitro testing strategies.


We present a percolation inverse problem for diode networks: Given information about which pairs of nodes allow current to percolate from one to the other, can one construct a diode network consistent with the observed currents? We implement a divide-and-concur iterative projection method for solving the problem and demonstrate the supremacy of our method over an exhaustive approach for nontrivial instances of the problem. We find that the problem is most difficult when some but not all of the percolation data are hidden, and that the most difficult networks to reconstruct generally are those for which the currents are most sensitive to the addition or removal of a single diode.


The induction of autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Lewis rats results in a period of exacerbation followed by complete recovery. Therefore, this model is widely used for studying the evolution of multiple sclerosis. In the present investigation, differentially expressed proteins in the spinal cord of Lewis rats during the evolution of EAE were assessed using the combination of 2DE and MALDI‐TOF MS. The majority of the differentially expressed proteins were identified during the acute phase of EAE, in relation to naïve control animals. On the other hand, recovered rats presented a similar protein expression pattern in comparison with the naïve ones. This observation can be explained, at least in part, by the intense catabolism existent in acute phase due to nervous tissue damage. In recovered rats, we have described the upregulation of proteins that are apparently involved in the recovery of damaged tissue, such as light and medium neurofilaments, glial fibrillary acidic protein, tubulins subunits, and quaking protein. These proteins are involved mainly in cell growth, myelination, and remyelination as well as in astrocyte and oligodendrocyte maturation. The present study has demonstrated that the inflammatory response, characterized by an increase of the proliferative response and infiltration of autoreactive T lymphocytes in the central nervous system, occurs simultaneously with neurodegeneration.


The increasing need for accurate race assessment from postcranial skeletal remains has emphasized the lack of simple, replicable methods by which to accomplish the task. Several techniques have been proposed, but without adequate results. Anterior femoral curvature was first suggested and researched by T. Dale Stewart in 1962 (6). The technique used in that study was subjective at best. He provided no substantial discrimination between whites or blacks. Two later studies only reused Stewart's technique and/or data. This study was assumed to address these issues and provide an improved technique. Skeletal collections at the Smithsonian, as well as the forensic collections at the University of Florida and the University of Tennessee, provided the specimens for this study. The historical collection of the First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia, PA, and the modern forensic collection at Louisiana State University provided the test samples. Only black and white individuals were used, and those were selected based on previous soft tissue or positive identification. Thirteen measurements were taken, including six newly developed measures. Age, race, and sex were also documented. Discriminant analysis was used to develop functions for race assessment. After analyzing the data through SPSSx using Discriminant, the variables selected provided an accuracy of 88.15% using the right femur and 86.10% with the left femur. Age was divided into two groups: under 30 and over 30. Most skeletons can be easily aged into these categories.


Remaining useful life (RUL) prediction has been increasingly considered in many industrial fields for the reliability and safety of their systems. As a data analysis tool of deep learning, deep convolutional neural network (CNN) shows great potential for RUL prediction. This paper proposes an intelligent RUL prediction method based on a double-CNN model architecture. Given the powerful feature extraction capability of CNN, the proposed method is fed with original vibration signals with no need to resort to any feature extractor, which can also retain the useful information in maximum. The prediction includes two stages: first, incipient fault point is identified by the first CNN model and a proposed "3/5" principle; then, the second CNN model is constructed for RUL prediction. In practice, RULs of identical components are different from each other, which poses a major challenge in RUL prediction. To overcome this problem, an intermediate reliability variable is first calculated in this paper, instead of directly predicting the RUL value. Then, a mapping algorithm is proposed to map reliability to RUL. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, data of four tests of bearing degradation are utilized for RUL prediction. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method shows higher prediction accuracy and robustness. The prediction results and evaluation indexes demonstrated the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.


In this paper, a pair of broadband, low-LO-power, low-dc-power, and high-speed up/down-conversion ring mixers are presented for multistandard millimeter-wave (MMW) radio applications. By employing a weak inversion biasing technique, the ring mixer can operate at a low LO drive level and low dc power while maintaining reasonable conversion gain performance. In addition, an IF transimpedance amplifier (TIA) buffer and wideband RF design are introduced to increase the operation speed of the mixer for MMW wireless Gigabit transmission. Using a 90-nm CMOS low-power process, the up-/down-conversion ring mixers are designed and fabricated based on the presented topology. The down-conversion ring mixer and up-conversion ring mixer exhibit flat measured conversion gain of -1 ± 2 dB and 0 ± 2 dB and dB from 40 to 110 GHz and 40 to 108 GHz, respectively. After biasing the transistors of the ring mixer core at weak inversion region, the presented down-conversion and up-conversion ring mixers can operate at low LO drive power, -2 and 0 dBm, respectively, even up to 100 GHz. For MMW wireless gigabit communication, gigabit binary phase-shift keying modulation signal test is successfully performed through a direct-conversion system in this work. The presented ring mixers are suitable for 60-GHz wireless personal area network, -E-band (71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz, and 92-95 GHz) wireless fiber, and 77-GHz anti-collision radar applications.


Aiming at the slender hole of the screw motor stator which has a large lead and whose cross-section contour composed by convex and concave curve, the article proposed a processing method using finger milling cutter within a continuous inner helicoid and studied the formed theory about the movement of the tool relative to the workpiece. A new method was proposed to calculate the contour of the tool using limited point data of the contour of workpiece and the related software programs was designed. By designing and implementing of computer simulation, the correctness and feasibility of the processing technology are verified.


A typical flood frequency analysis is based on gauged annual maximum discharges. One assumption behind the analysis is that the measured discharge signal is stationary. The validity of this assumption can be difficult to establish, particularly where urbaniza- tion has occurred within the gauged watershed, altering the response of the affected watershed to precipitation. This alteration can produce a nonstationary streamflow signal that can be significant, depending on the percentage of the watershed altered. As urbanization increases, peak discharges are shown to increase, producing a positive trend in the annual maximum series. Urbanization occurring during and/or after the gauging period is quantified using spatially and temporally distributed land use data. Three statistical tests ~a parametric t-test on the slope of the linear relationship between the flood series and time and two nonparametric tests: the Kendall's Tau and the Spearman Rank Correlation! are performed on both the annual maximum discharge and annual maximum discharge-precipitation ratios series to test for trends or nonstationary signals corresponding to periods of urbanization. A case study suggests that the ratios are more effective than the discharges alone for identifying nonstationarity resulting from urbanization. In addition, relationships between measures of urbaniza- tion and the presence or absence of significant trends in the discharge series are presented.


AIM
This study evaluated the bond strength and failure mode of enamel/resin-based composite veneers bonded with three different dual cured resin adhesive systems.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
Standard preparations for laminate veneer restorations were made on 30 human central incisors using depth cutting burs (0.5 mm depth at the incisal area and 0.3 mm at the gingival area). Thirty indirect laminates were prepared using a highly filled polymeric material (GC Gradia) according to the manufacturer's instructions. After sandblasting the fitting surfaces, the specimens were randomly divided into three groups (ten per group) based on the type of resin cement luting systems; Excite/Variolink II, Single Bond/Rely X Veneer Cement, and Clearfil New Bond/Panavia F. The specimens were stored in water at 37 degrees C for 48 hours. Fracture testing was performed using a universal testing machine where the load was applied from the incisal direction at 135 degrees to the long axis of the tooth (0.5 mm/min). The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-Square tests were used for statistical analysis at a significance level of p > 0.05.

RESULTS
The ANOVA showed no significant difference was found among the groups (P > 0.05). Indirect veneers showed mean enamel bond strength of 114.4 +/- 48 N, 159.7 +/- 83.4 N, and 126.1 +/- 51.7 N with Variolink II, Rely X veneer cement, and Panavia F, respectively. The Chi-Square tests showed no significant difference regarding the failure mode frequencies in different types of failure in the three groups (p>0.05). The failure mode analysis showed mainly adhesive failure in the resin cement/laminate interface in all groups.

CONCLUSION
There was no significant difference in bond strength of veneers with the three different resin cements tested. In addition, there was no significant difference in the frequency of the failure mode in each type of failure among the three test groups. The failure analysis revealed mainly an adhesive failure at the resin cement/veneer interface.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The results of this study suggest the use of Excite/Variolink, Single Bond/RelyX, or Clearfil New Bond/Panavia F are all appropriate choices for luting of indirect micro ceramic resin-based composite veneers in terms of bond strength and failure mode.


We utilize seventeen years of comprehensive daily portfolio and trading data identified at the individual investor level, to analyze the relative trading performance of the entire universe of households, all domestic financial institutions and all foreign institutions in the Finnish market. We introduce a new methodology we dub the "holding-period-invariant" (HPI) portfolio approach. The conventional calendar-time portfolio approach imposes a heroic assumption that all investors mechanically realize (i.e., trade) their portfolio at specified intervals corresponding to an assumed horizon. By contrast, our methodology is free of such bias and allows for the endogenous nature of investment timing decisions made by numerous informed households (and, for that matter, domestic institutions). Adopting a random informationless trading benchmark, we find that the households who choose to trade for themselves are economically and statistically superior traders, achieving an impressive internal rate of return of 42.84% p.a., or 0.0288% of traded value, when foreign institutions are their exclusive counterparty. (Domestic institutions trading with foreigners do even better at 51.8% p.a.). Our findings are contrary to some of the existing empirical literature on household investors derived from calendar-time portfolios. When we split households into informationally advantaged (i.e., located near Nokia) and disadvantaged, we find that while the former are the superior traders, both household groups continue to outperform foreign investors and Helsinki households outperform their domestic institutional rivals.


Explicit expressions are developed which yield the Mach number and pressure distributions on the surfaces of pointed nonlifting bodies of revolution operating at high supersonic airspeeds and at values of the hypersonic similarity parameter (ratio of free-stream Mach number to slenderness ratio) greater than 1. Very simple explicit expressions are obtained for these distributions in the special case of slender bodies. In the case of cones, the analytic solutions accurately define the entire flow field over a wide range of free-stream Mach numbers and apex angles.


Autism has typically been seen from a deficit perspective, describing things that autistic people are seemingly unable to do when compared to neurotypical people. As such, much of the support for autism is based on training programmes designed to eliminate undesirable (autistic) behaviour without an understanding of its function or purpose, and without considering that autism might in fact be a different way of "being" in the world, rather than a deficit. Recently, autistic adults and autistic scholars have been speaking out against such approaches. In this paper, I describe a proposed new approach to the development of social skills which is person-centred and strength-based. Rather than seeing autistic people as lacking in social skills, and needing to be "trained", this paper describes an approach which builds on the skills and desires of autistic individuals, helping them to determine their own social goals, and explore the skills they would like to acquire in a self-directed manner, and within a context which interests them.


Transuranic actinides dominate the long-term radiotoxity in spent LWR fuel. In an open fuel cycle, they impose a long-term burden on geologic repositories. Transmuting these materials in reactor systems is one way to ease the long-term burden on the repository. Examining the maximum possible burning of trans-uranic elements in Combined Non-Fertile and U0 2 (CONFU) PWR assemblies is evaluated. These assemblies are composed of a mix of standard U0 2 fuel pins and pins made of recycled trans-uranics (TRU) in an inert matrix, and are designed to fit in current or future PWRs. Applying appropriate limits on the neutronic and thermal safety parameters, a CONFU-Burndown (CONFU-B) assembly design is shown to attain net TRU destruction in each fuel batch through at least 9 recycles. This represents a time span of nearly 100 years of in-core residence and out-of-core storage time. In this way, when the TRU is multi-recycled, only fission products and separation/reprocessing losses are sent to the repository, and the initial inventory of TRU is reduced over time. Thus, LWRs are able to eventually operate in a fuel cycle system with an inventory of transuranic actinides much lower than that accumulated to date. Three recycling strategies are considered, all using a 4.5-year in core irradiation, followed by cooling and reprocessing. The three strategies involve a short-term cooling (6-year) after discharge, a longer-term cooling (16.5-year) after discharge, or a strategy called Remix. The Remix strategy involves partitioning the Pu/Np after 6-year cooling for immediate recycle, and partitioning the Am/Cm for an additional 10.5-year cooling before remixing it into the next CONFU-B batch. At equilibrium, the CONFU-B can burn approximately 1.5 kg to 10.0 kg of TRU per TWhe depending on the recycle strategy used. This represents a net burning rate of 2-8% of the TRU loaded per assembly, in addition to burning an amount equivalent to the TRU produced in the U0 2 pins. However, the highly heterogeneous nature of these assemblies can result in fairly high intraassembly pin power peaking. By design, an IMF pin in the assembly carries the highest power to maximize the TRU destruction. For the initial TRU loading, the highest power peaking in an IMF pin is 1.183. This is compensated by having cooler pins in the immediate vicinity. Even so, the pin peaking distribution in the assembly can result in reduced thermal margins. The assembly mentioned above has an MDNBR of 1.43, instead of 1.62 for the allU0 2 assembly, based on a core-wide radial peak-to-average assembly power peaking of 1.50. Use of neutron poisons and tailored enrichment schemes reduces the neutronic reactivity of fresh assemblies, while improving MDNBR to 1.51. In addition, RELAP was used to evaluate the fuel behavior under large break LOCA conditions. CONFU-B performance under these conditions was comparable to the standard all-UO2 assembly. Several options for spent fuel recycling in LWRs are compared economically, and all are found to be more costly than making fresh U0 2 fuel from mined ore. However, the CONFUB strategy is less costly on a mills/kWhe basis than other thermal recycling strategies that recycle the full TRU vector. Given OECD estimates for the unit costs of each fuel type, and assuming 10% carrying charge factor, this cost is 12.3 mills/kWhe for the CONFU-B recycle, compared to 25.7 mills/kWhe for MOX-UE and 4.9 mills/kWhe for all UO 2.Note that these FCCs assume the disposal fee collected during power generation of a previous cycle can be invested while the fuel is cooling and provide a credit to the cycle that uses the fuel after reprocessing. The fuel handling challenges of multirecycling TRU in CONFU-B assemblies are compared to other multi-recycling strategies. If we assume that the spent fuel from, the seventh recycle in each strategy is no longer recyclable and must be sent to the repository in its entirety. the CONFU-B strategy still places much less total burden on the repository than the once-through cycle, and even less burden than the current MOX cycle. Finally, a methodology for calculating the time integrated proliferation risk of a fuel cycle is introduced. An innovation of this methodology is the discounting of future risks to calculate an overall present value risk of a given cycle. Under this methodology, the CONFU-B presents lower risks than other multi-recycling strategies in the first 100 years. For a 1(0% rate of discount of risk, the CONFU-B risks are comparable to the once-through cycle. The longer term risk favors recycling due to the limited accumnulation of repository risk. Thesis Supervisor: Mujid Kazimi Title: TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Engineering Director, Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES) Thesis Reader: Pavel Hejzlar Title: Principal Research Scientist; Program Director, Advanced Reactor Technology Program, Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES)


The prevalence of orofacial clefts (OFCs) is nearly 10.2 per 10,000 births in the United States and 9.9 per 10,000 births worldwide. OFCs occur as a result of a break (nonfusion) of orofacial structures during development. This can occur due to a variety of reasons;prenatal exposure to many drugs and environmental factors as well as genetic factors which are implicated in the development of OFCs. While approximately 15 types of clefts have been identified, there are at least four distinct classifications of OFCs. These include complete cleft palate with cleft lip; cleft of the anterior palate, which may/may not involve cleft lip; cleft of the posterior palate; and submucosal cleft. A number of candidate genes have been identified, including transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) and homeobox genes (e.g., MSX1), among many others. What follows is a review of mouse models currently used in research and the classification of their overall contribution to known OFCs.


Phenol gives a toxic response in the natural water and leads to show harsh effects on human being, plants, and animals. At low concentration, the phenol gives a pungent taste as well as odour to the consumption of water. It is because of such reason that phenol is contained in the environmental legislation, and it needs to be analysed for providing better results. Therefore it should be eliminated before discharging or reusing the waste flow to the environment. The current review is mainly focused on the growth related to the detection of phenol in the water. In the review the state, advantages, disadvantages of different techniques are discussed in brief. The methods mainly involve the electrodes which hold the interest for using new material in the form of binders and also to advance the other types of electrodes. It is observed that for the electrochemist, the electrochemistry of electrodes is considered as the most commanding approach. The significant merits of using electrodes are an enhancement of the selectivity for the electroanalytical approach. The preparation methods for the electrodes are simple, secure, versatile, and most commonly, it has many controllable variables which enables it best material used in the starting of various applications. There are different aspects of applications such as industrial technology transfers purposes; it affects the electroanalytical chemistry and diverse other fields as well, namely energy conversion, catalysis, storage, etc. Copyright © VBRI Press.


Even though the concept of the virtual lab is nearly two decades old now, it has started to gain popularity over the last few years. Teachers and students have been using virtual labs to complement experiments done in physical labs or have even used them exclusively based on the circumstances. Demand for these online simulations reached a new height during the worldwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools were closed and thus also physical labs, virtual labs became the only mode of conducting experiments for many students. In this study, we addressed the suitability of virtual labs for school chemistry experiments and compared their effectiveness first qualitatively by focusing on both physical and human resources, convenience, cost, safety, and time involved. Then we assessed the effectiveness of virtual labs quantitatively for the topic 'matter' and compared that with the traditional physical lab experiments. We also acknowledged the unique features of virtual labs to understand concepts that are difficult or impossible to visualize in regular physical labs, including molecular arrangement, movement of individual molecules, and different atomic models. Our quantitative assessment based on pre-test and post-test revealed that students' fundamental understanding improved after intervention through virtual labs, as evident from the t-test.


This paper describes the problem of voltage sags and swells and its severe impact on non linear loads or sensitive loads. The dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) has become popular as a cost effective solution for the protection of sensitive loads from voltage sags and swells. The control of the compensation voltages in DVR based on dqo algorithm is discussed. It first analyzes the power circuit of a DVR system in order to come up with appropriate control limitations and control targets for the compensation voltage control. The proposed control scheme is simple to design. Simulation results carried out by Matlab/Simulink verify the performance of the proposed method.