An object of the present invention is to provide a bonded substrate manufacturing apparatus, and the bonded substrate stack manufacturing method capable of reducing a manufacturing defect of a bonded substrate. Substrate (W2) is held in is conveyed into the chamber 20 of the press device, the pressure plate (24a) by a transport robot 31 for holding suction to the inner peripheral portion while ejecting a gas toward the interior surface of the substrate (W2) It is supported. Substrate, a transport robot, the pressure plate, the chamber, the vacuum pump


From the Publisher:
More and more technology-based organizations are moving towards having an in-house employee write their user documentation. This book provides readers with a step-by-step strategy to writing and describing technical procedures. Designed to support professionals working on a project, this book includes complete programs for readers to work on and a full set of project tracking forms as well as a broad range of examples, including Windows-style pages and screens and award-winning examples from Technical Communication competitions. This is an ideal reference and learning tool for professionals who are required to write user documentation. Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication, edited by Sam Dragga (Texas Tech University).


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the overall incidence of prostate cancer in patients with symptoms of prostatism, no suspicious DRE and PSA > 10 ng/ml.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
397 eligible patients based on the above criteria, mean age 69.3 +/- 7.7 years and mean PSA level of 21.3 +/- 29.3 ng/ml, underwent ultrasound-guided transrectal biopsy of the peripheral and central areas. Patients with no cancer in the biopsy and surgery indication underwent prostate surgery. Incidence of cancer in the transitional area was evaluated in these patients.

RESULTS
Biopsy was found to be positive for cancer in 15.4% patients. Patients with prostate cancer had PSA concentrations (p = 0.06) and PSAD (p < 0.0001) lower than cancer-free patients. Thirteen (21%) of these patients underwent radical prostatectomy; an extracapsular tumour was found in 46% of the surgical specimens. Of the 336 patients with benign histology in the biopsy, 94 (28%) underwent prostate surgery. Cancer in the transitional zone was found in 15% cases (5 T1a and 8 T1b), with significant differences between PSA (0.03) and PSAD (0.04) concentrations between patients with BPH or T1b tumour in the surgical specimen but not among patients with BPH and T1a cancer.

CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 30% of these patients had prostate cancer, half of them found in the transitional area. PSA and PSAD did not show enough diagnostic strength to identify these patients. Most patients with cancer had clinically significant tumours. Therefore, we believe that prior to deciding the course of therapy these patients should undergo another series of biopsies including the transitional area, mainly in those with long-term life expectancy.


The evolution of therapeutic resistance is a major cause of death for patients with solid tumors. The development of therapy resistance is shaped by the ecological dynamics within the tumor microenvironment and the selective pressure induced by the host immune system. These ecological and selective forces often lead to evolutionary convergence on one or more pathways or hallmarks that drive progression. These hallmarks are, in turn, intimately linked to each other through gene expression networks. Thus, a deeper understanding of the evolutionary convergences that occur at the gene expression level could reveal vulnerabilities that could be targeted to treat therapy-resistant cancer. To this end, we used a combination of phylogenetic clustering, systems biology analyses, and wet-bench molecular experimentation to identify convergences in gene expression data onto common signaling pathways. We applied these methods to derive new insights about the networks at play during TGF-β-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition in a lung cancer model system. Phylogenetics analyses of gene expression data from TGF-β treated cells revealed evolutionary convergence of cells toward amine-metabolic pathways and autophagy during TGF-β treatment. Using high-throughput drug screens, we found that knockdown of the autophagy regulatory, ATG16L1, re-sensitized lung cancer cells to cancer therapies following TGF-β-induced resistance, implicating autophagy as a TGF-β-mediated chemoresistance mechanism. Analysis of publicly-available clinical data sets validated the adverse prognostic importance of ATG16L expression in multiple cancer types including kidney, lung, and colon cancer patients. These analyses reveal the usefulness of combining evolutionary and systems biology methods with experimental validation to illuminate new therapeutic vulnerabilities.


The current middleware stacks provide varying support for the Message Passing Interface (MPI) programming paradigm. Users face a complex and heterogeneous environment where too many low level details have to be specified to execute even the simplest parallel jobs. MPI-Start is a tool that provides an interoperable MPI execution framework across the different middleware implementations to abstract the user interfaces from the underlying middleware and to allow users to execute parallel applications in a uniform way, thus bridging the gap between HPC and HTC. In this work we present the latest developments in MPI-Start and how it can be integrated in the different middleware stacks available as part of EMI, providing a unified user experience for MPI jobs.


This paper presents how credibility theory and chance constrained optimization method can be efficiently applied for modelling and solving transportation problem in fuzzy environment. Since the proposed transportation model includes fuzzy variable coefficients defined through possibility distributions with infinite supports, it is infinite-dimensional optimization problem. Therefore, we can not solve directly it by conventional optimization algorithms. To overcome this difficulty, we will discuss the approximation of the fuzzy transportation chance constrained problem in this paper, and design a heuristic algorithm, which combines approximation method (AM), neural network (NN) and genetic algorithm (GA) algorithm to solve this transportation chance constrained model. Finally, we present one numerical example to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.


Flow shop scheduling problems have a wide range of real-world applications in intelligent manufacturing. Since they are known to be NP-hard for more than two machines, we propose a hybrid genetic simulated annealing (HGSA) algorithm for flow shop scheduling problems. In the HGSA algorithm, in order to obtain high-quality initial solutions, an MME algorithm, combined with the MinMax (MM) and Nawaz–Enscore–Ham (NEH) algorithms, was used to generate the initial population. Meanwhile, a hormone regulation mechanism for a simulated annealing (SA) schedule was introduced as a cooling scheme. Using MME initialization, random crossover and mutation, and the cooling scheme, we improved the algorithm's quality and performance. Extensive experiments have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the combination approach of MME initialization, random crossover and mutation, and the cooling scheme for SA. The result on the Taillard benchmark showed that our HGSA algorithm achieved better performance relative to the best-known upper bounds on the makespan compared with five state-of-the-art algorithms in the literature. Ultimately, 109 out of 120 problem instances were further improved on makespan criterion.


The focus of this research are ideation tools and their ability to catalyse ideas to address complex design problems. Complex design problems change over time and the interactions among the components of the problem and the interaction between the problem and its environment are of such that the system as a whole cannot be fully understood simply by analyzing its components (Cilliers 1998, pp. I). Ideation for this research is defined as a process of generating, developing and communicating ideas that are critical to the design process (Broadbent, in Fowles 1979, pp. 15). Based on Karni and Arciszewski, who stated that ideation tools should act more like an observer or suggester rather than controller or an expert, I defne design ideation tools as tools or methods that enhance, increase and improve the user's ability to generate ideas with the client (Karni and Arciszewski 1997; Reineg and Briggs 2007).

Based on a survey of over 70 ideation tools, protocol analysis of design activities, a web survey and semistructured interviews, I conclude that designers and clients may not have sufficient knowledge of ideation or ideation tools in either testing or practice as a catalyst for generating possibilities and that measuring ideation tools based on how many ideas they generate is misleading because it relates creativity and idea generation but does not adequately reflect the participants' experience. This research suggests that participants' cultural perceptions of design ideation and the design process actively inhibit idea generation and that a shift from design outcome led ideation tool design to designing ideation tools that engage design contexts are necessary to effectively address complex design problems. This research identifed a gap in ideation tools for designers to collaborate with their clients during the ideation phase to catalyse possibilities to complex design problems as the contribution to new knowledge.


This report is a summary of five years of grape costs and returns data collected from Lake Erie Region grape growers for the 2001-2005 seasons. "Concord" and "Niagara" grapes utilized for juice and generic wine accounted for over 90 percent of the survey acreage. About two-thirds of the acreage surveyed was in New York and one-third from Pennsylvania. In recent years, 42 to 49 growers participated, with total vineyard acreage ranging from about 4,400 to 5,200 acres. Average costs per acre over the entire five year period were $1,663, including an imputed value for the operator's labor. Major cost categories were paid labor ($380 per acre), depreciation ($213), interest ($114), operator labor ($116) and chemicals ($117). Average yield per farm was 6.4 tons per acre with a range of 2.8 to 8.6 tons per acre. Growers suffered through some difficult circumstances (poor weather, declining prices) over the past five years. Juice grape cash market prices tended to drift down over the course of the five years. National Grape members' returns moved upward through 2004 and then suffered a severe drop in 2005. Some growers had custom harvesting or other farm income not tied to grape prices. Some growers collected income from crop insurance, disaster payments, and/or Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) that helped to buoy income in the face of disappointing yields and unharvested grapes in 2003. However, almost half of the farms who were in the survey for all five years had yields of 7 tons or better. These growers are able to compete with other growing regions such as Washington State. Lake Erie Grape Belt farm managers are responding to lower prices in a variety of ways, including becoming more labor efficient, dropping some poor vineyards (especially leased ones), increasing wine grape production, and increasing farm size.


We address the problem of affordance reasoning in diverse scenes that appear in the real world. Affordances relate the agent's actions to their effects when taken on the surrounding objects. In our work, we take the egocentric view of the scene, and aim to reason about action-object affordances that respect both the physical world as well as the social norms imposed by the society. We also aim to teach artificial agents why some actions should not be taken in certain situations, and what would likely happen if these actions would be taken. We collect a new dataset that builds upon ADE20k [32], referred to as ADE-Affordance, which contains annotations enabling such rich visual reasoning. We propose a model that exploits Graph Neural Networks to propagate contextual information from the scene in order to perform detailed affordance reasoning about each object. Our model is showcased through various ablation studies, pointing to successes and challenges in this complex task.


Simultaneous air-flow photographs and pressure-distribution measurements have been made of the NACA 4412 airfoil at high speeds in order to determine the physical nature of the compressibility bubble. The flow photographs were obtained by the Schlieren method and the pressures were simultaneously measured for 54 stations on the 5-inch-chord wing by means of a multiple-tube photographic manometer. Pressure-measurement results and typical Schlieren photographs are presented. The general nature of the phenomenon called the "compressibility bubble" is shown by these experiments. The source of the increased drag is the compression shock that occurs, the excess drag being due to the conversion of a considerable amount of the air-stream kinetic energy into heat at the compression shock.


Pyrrolobenzodiazepines (PBDs) and their dimers have emerged as some of the most potent chemotherapeutic compounds, and are currently under development as novel payloads in antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs). However, when used as stand-alone therapeutics or as payloads for small-molecule drug conjugates (SMDCs), the highly reactive imine functionality has the potential to cause off-target toxicities. As an elegant solution to this inherent problem, we have designed diazepine-ring-opened conjugated prodrugs lacking the imine moiety. Once the prodrug (pro-PBD) conjugate enters a targeted cell, cleavage of the linker system triggers the generation of reactive intermediates possessing an aromatic amine and electrophilic center, in the form of either an aldehyde or oxime ether. An intramolecular ring-closing reaction subsequently takes place as the aromatic amine adds to the aldehyde or the oxime ether to give the imine, and as a result, the diazepine ring. To prove the range of applications for these new classes of latent DNA-alkylators, we designed and synthesized several novel latent payloads: pro-PBD dimers and hybrids of pro-PBD with other sequence-selective DNA minor groove binders. Preliminary preclinical pharmacology studies have shown excellent biological activity and specificity.


This study presents the outcomes of the first phase of a three phase research initiative which begins by identifying through the voices of Aboriginal¹ students and community members the teaching practices that influence Aboriginal student engagement and learning. The study occurs within the Diocese of Townsville Catholic Education schools in North Queensland, primarily in the Mount Isa area. Through open-ended interviews, Aboriginal students and community members express their views of the characteristics of effective teachers and effective teaching. Considering that the national education discourse in Australia is monopolised by discussion on teaching and teacher quality, we problematize this discourse based upon what members of the local Aboriginal community assert as characteristics of effective teachers and their practice. Further phases of this research initiative which investigate the effect of adjusted practice based upon what community members' assertions are also presented.


This article measures the new ABA Standards for Criminal Justice: Law Enforcement Access to Third Party Records (LEATPR Standards) success by assessing the guidance they provide legislators interested in updating pertinent law regarding one specific type of data. Scholars should not expect the Standards to yield the same conclusions they would have furnished had they been able to draft a set of standards by themselves. The Standards emerged after years of painstaking consensus building and compromise no individual committee member got entirely what he wanted. Nonetheless, not every product of a committee turns out to have been worth the effort, which is why this article assesses the Standards' value.The article concludes that the Standards provide important insights to legislators who want to fill the gap that is the current law on law enforcement access to location records. They encourage law makers to extend their gaze well beyond the extremely limited consideration of whether location records would reveal information about the inside of the home to take account of a much wider range of significant questions about the nature of location records. They correct several flaws in the Fifth Circuit's approach to assumption of risk, including the notion that mere use of a provider coupled with likely constructive knowledge of the possibility of law enforcement access to records are sufficient to deprive a user of privacy protection in even a limited amount of location data. Finally, they remind Congress that, while it matters what showing law enforcement agents must make to a judge before obtaining an order for location records, other procedural protections, such as notice, meaningfully contribute to transparency and accountability and help rein in abusive practices.


The majority of studies concerning Saudisation policy as a solution to decrease the unemployment of nationals and reduce the reliance on expatriate. However, this study looks at Saudisation as a tool to empower Saudi women working in the health care sector. Saudi working women have been lacking opportunities of empowerment, due to challenges they face in their daily life that hinder the development and equality of those women.  The thesis has been guided by the literature and qualitative evidence that suggests obstacles to women's empowerment and development involve socially constructed norms, traditions, religion and culture that primarily favour men. The study, also, adopts feminist geography and gender perspective and focuses on the individual voices of women working in the health care sector. This research uses different empowerment frameworks of Kabeer, Rowland, Stromquist and Freire, which are relevant to women employment and empowerment. This research utilises feminist methodology in obtaining deep understanding of the reality and experience of women employed in the health care sector.  Findings of this research reveal conditions that maintain disempowerment of women working in health care sector, as well as identifying the tools that might guarantee their empowerment. Findings also show those women necessities in the case of gender needs that revolve around their domestic and working responsibilities.  This thesis provides some recommendations to government, policy makers, educational institutions and employers about how to contribute in empowering women and overcoming challenges that hinder their development and wellbeing. Ultimately, this study aimed to, first, contribute to the literature of women's empowerment by exploring their employment in a Saudi context and second, to put the spotlight on Saudi women's issues through development lens and enrich that field of study.


When discrete multiple flaws are in the same plane, and they are close to each other, it can be determined whether they are combined or standalone in accordance with combination rules provided by fitness-for-service (FFS) codes, such as ASME, JSME, BS7910, FKM, WES2805, etc. However, specific criteria of the rules are different amongst these FFS codes.
 On the other hand, plastic collapse bending stresses for stainless steel pipes with circumferential twin flaws were obtained by experiments and the prediction procedure for collapse stresses for pipes with twin flaws were developed analytically. Using the experimental data and the analytical procedure, plastic collapse stresses for pipes with twin flaws are compared with the stresses in compliance with the combination criteria. It is shown that the calculated plastic collapse stresses based on the combination criteria are significantly different from the experimental and analytical stresses.


The growing competition between Japan and China over regional primacy is changing the face of Asian regional governance — but not necessarily in predictable ways.

While observers have focused on Asia's baffling array of regional institutions to discern which regional power is dominant, the real story in Asia is one of emerging regulatory networks.

These regional regulatory networks (unlike Asia's largely ineffectual multilateral institutions) are issue-specific, problem-solving mechanisms that involve national, subnational and regional agencies, even private firms.

This process of regionalisation has its roots in the region's increasing economic integration, both internally and globally. Asian firms, including state-owned companies, are now organised on a regional scale like never before, giving Asian governments a stake in how other states are governed domestically.


We enhance the treatment of crystallization for models of white dwarfs (WDs) in the stellar evolution software Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) by implementing carbon–oxygen (C/O) phase separation. The phase separation process during crystallization leads to transport of oxygen toward the centers of WDs, resulting in a more compact structure that liberates gravitational energy as additional heating that modestly slows WD cooling timescales. We quantify this cooling delay in MESA C/O WD models over the mass range 0.5–1.0 M ⊙, finding delays of 0.5–0.8 Gyr for typical C/O interior profiles. MESA WD cooling timescales including this effect are generally comparable to other WD evolution models that make similar assumptions about input physics. When considering phase separation alongside 22Ne sedimentation, however, we find that both MESA and BaSTI WD cooling models predict a more modest sedimentation delay than the latest LPCODE models, and this may therefore require a reevaluation of previously proposed solutions to some WD cooling anomalies that were based on LPCODE models of 22Ne sedimentation. Our implementation of C/O phase separation in the open-source stellar evolution software MESA provides an important tool for building realistic grids of WD cooling models, as well as a framework for expanding on our implementation to explore additional physical processes related to phase transitions and associated fluid motions in WD interiors.


Homology of 18 amino acid sequences of lens gamma-crystallins of several vertebrates: frog, mouse, rat, calf and human being--has been considered. Pair sequence homology varies in the range from 57 to 100%, the mean value is equal to 74%. The spatial structures have been determined only for two calf gamma-crystallins. The protein molecule consists of four-fold repeated "motifs" (patterns) which are joint in two domains. After comparison of 18 gamma-crystallin sequences it was found that "motifs" domains and whole protein molecules have about 10, 30 and 58% conservative residues, respectively, that seem to be related to the evolution of these structural units. Structure analysis shows that almost all the conservative residues have an important structural meaning and play a basic role in the domain and molecular structure organization. This result allows us to make a conclusion about the homology of spatial structures of all considered gamma-crystallins of vertebrates.


Summary: Neohelice granulata is an omnivorous, semi-terrestrial burrowing crab endemic to southwestern Atlantic saltmarshes that behaves as a herbivore when it inhabits vegetated saltmarsh areas or a deposit feeder on bare mudflats. In order to gain insights into how non-specialized crabs manage to rely on low quality diets, we studied in laboratory i) how they use feeding appendages to manipulate the food items commonly eaten (halophytic plant leaves and sediment), and ii) their ability to sort particles when they act as deposit feeders by analysing the food particle content of sediment and stomach. According to the source of food consumed, different behaviours and mouthparts involved in food processing were observed. Sex differences were found in handling halophytic plant leaves in the herbivore feeding mode. In deposit feeding, a concentration of potentially N-rich items of animal origin was detected in stomach contents. Indirect evidence of food item concentration from sediment was revealed by analysis of the C and N content of sediment and feces. N. granulata seems to be an effective deposit feeder even though it lacks the characteristic mouthparts commonly associated with this type of food source.


Background: The provision of appropriate physical postmortem nursing care, or last offices, is important for all deceased people, particularly if further preparation is required by the funeral director for the purpose of open-casket viewing. However, the effectiveness of nursing practices in this regard has been the subject of minimal empirical research.

Purpose and objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore postmortem/last offices nursing care effectiveness from the perspective of the licensed funeral director. The objectives were to describe the phenomenon of postmortem/last offices nursing care effectiveness, explore perceptions concerning how care procedures may aid or hinder the process of producing a desired cosmetic result with further preparation and gain insight into recommendations concerning care.

Methods: A survey adopting qualitative methodology with open-ended questions was used for this study. A convenience sample of 20 licensed funeral directors from a single mid-western state in the US completed a web-based questionnaire. Data analysis involved reading each of the responses several times, initial coding, reviewing for similarities, clustering themes based on similarity, review, and final theme labelling.

Results: The funeral directors provided observations, opinions and recommendations concerning effectiveness in relation to: body positioning; the use of ligatures and ties to secure extremities: removal or leaving in place of intravenous catheters and lines and surgical tubes and drains; removal or retention in the mouth of dentures and partial plates; cleansing of the body; and identification and shrouding of the body.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that postmortem/last offices nursing care practices need to be considered carefully and be based on individual assessment. The participants' general consensus regarding physical aspects of postmortem/last offices nursing care were largely in agreement with the nursing care practices that they typically observe. However, there were discrepancies that require further investigation.

Conflicts of interest: none

Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge the Indiana Funeral Directors Association for its invaluable assistance with contacting study participants


While many Latin American countries have succeeded in providing access to basic education for the great majority of children, educational quality in the region remains very low. In an increasingly global world where workers' skills and knowledge play an ever-important role, countries with predominantly low-skilled workers are doomed to stay behind, their citizens earning low wages, and continuing to miss opportunities to escape poverty and enjoy a better life. From the viewpoint of using scarce resources efficiently, it is troubling that most countries in the region spend much on education, yet the skills that school graduates in Latin America have are not sufficient for them to earn enough for a quality standard of living. Democratizing education, by improving both its coverage and quality, is critical to overcoming the social and economic inequality that plagues Latin America; and, ensuring that all children have the opportunity to learn critical skills at the primary and secondary level is paramount to overcoming skill barriers that perpetuate underdevelopment and poverty. The report presents a simplified schema of the factors that influence student learning, including general resources, education inputs, and processes. For the purposes of this study, the authors divide the education budget into two parts: the teacher compensation budget, and the part of the education budget that is unrelated to teacher pay, the non-teacher education budget. Education policy makers have three main options for improving teaching quality: 1) teacher training and professional development; 2) teacher incentives that impact teachers and how long they remain in the field; and, 3) incentives that affect the work teachers do in the classroom. This study focuses entirely on the second and third options. Though previous studies have addressed questions related to teacher quality and incentives in Latin America, this study is the first to focus on the impact of various policy reforms affecting teachers on teacher quality, and student achievement in multiple Latin American countries.


Background Reports of severe COVID-19 being associated with thrombosis, antiphospholipid antibodies (APLA), and antiphospholipid syndrome have yielded disparate conclusions. Studies comparing patients with COVID-19 with contemporaneous controls of similar severity are lacking. Methods 22 COVID-19+ and 20 COVID-19– patients with respiratory failure admitted to intensive care were studied longitudinally. Demographic and clinical data were obtained from the day of admission. APLA testing included anticardiolipin (aCL), anti-β2glycoprotien 1 (β2GP1), antidomain 1 β2GP1 and antiphosphatidyl serine/prothrombin complex. Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) were detected by immunofluorescence and antibodies to cytokines by a commercially available multiplexed array. Analysis of variance was used for continuous variables and Fisher's exact test was used for categorical variables with α=0.05 and the false discovery rate at q=0.05. Results APLAs were predominantly IgG aCL (48%), followed by IgM (21%) in all patients, with a tendency towards higher frequency among the COVID-19+. aCL was not associated with surrogate markers of thrombosis but IgG aCL was strongly associated with worse disease severity and higher ANA titres regardless of COVID-19 status. An association between aCL and anticytokine autoantibodies tended to be higher among the COVID-19+. Conclusions Positive APLA serology was associated with more severe disease regardless of COVID-19 status. Trial registration number NCT04747782


SiOF like films have been elaborated in microwave excited DECR plasma reactor (Distributed Electron Cyclotron Resonance) from a mixture of oxygen-hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO/O2) and CF4. The fluorine contents in the precursor mixture were adjusted by varying the CF4 gas flow ratio in the range of 10% - 70%. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) have been used for the plasma diagnostic and the deposited films structure analysis, respectively. Actinometric technique was used to find trends in the concentrations of species present in the plasma. A large number of species have been detected, such as F, Si, O, C and H. Depending on the gas mixture composition, FTIR spectra revealed the presence of several chemical bonds such as Si-F and Si-O.


Making predictions on non-stationary streaming data remains a challenge in many application areas. Changes in data may cause a decrease in predictive accuracy, which in a streaming setting require a prompt response. In recent years many adaptive predictive models have been proposed for dealing with these issues. Most of these methods use more than one adaptive mechanism, deploying all of them at the same time at regular intervals or in some other fixed manner. However, this manner is often determined in an ad-hoc way, as the effects of adaptive mechanisms are largely unexplored. This thesis therefore investigates different aspects of adaptation with multiple adaptive mechanisms with the aim to increase knowledge in the area, and propose heuristic approaches for more accurate adaptive predictive models. This is done by systematising and formalising the "adaptive mechanism" notion, proposing a categorisation of adaptive mechanisms and a metric to measure their usefulness, comparing the results after deployment of different orders of adaptive mechanisms during the run of the predictive method, and suggesting techniques on how to select the most appropriate adaptive mechanisms. The literature review suggests that during the prediction process, adaptive mechanisms are selected to be deployed in a certain order which is usually fixed beforehand at the design time of the algorithm. For this reason, it was investigated whether changing the selection method for the adaptive mechanisms significantly affects predictive accuracy and whether there are certain deployment orders which provide better results than others. Commonly used adaptive mechanism selection methods are then examined and new methods are proposed. A novel regression ensemble method which uses several common adaptive mechanisms has been developed to be used as a vehicle for the experimentation. The predictive accuracy and behaviour of adaptive mechanisms while predicting on different real world datasets from the process industry were analysed. Empirical results suggest that different selection of adaptive mechanisms result in significantly different performance. It has been found that while some adaptive mechanisms adapt the predictive model better than others, there is none which is the best at all times. Finally, flexible orders of adaptive mechanisms generated using the proposed selection techniques often result in significantly more accurate models than fixed orders commonly used in literature.


The Earth Observation data are recognized as valuable source of information about fire events. In this paper we present the potential of using the satellite-based `hotspots' in management of fires as well as challenges of validating the remotely detected fire events in Poland. We compare the spatio-temporal distribution of fires derived from satellites against ground-based fires reported in the National Forest Fire Information System. The preliminary results showed that about 35% of the remotely detected fires were recorded in the ground-based fire database over the period 2002-2013. The satellites has missed the vast majority of vegetation fires. The limitation of both databases was also discussed. The analysis of fire intensity, for the fires detected both remotely and on the ground, demonstrated that forest fires were the greatest and the most intensive fires. However, the analysis of the mean Fire Radiative Power values calculated for all recorded MODIS hotspots confirmed that wetland fires are the most intensive considering that the number of burning events was relatively low.


There are times when dentistry and family don't mix. When treating those who are closest to you, you should, at a minimum, observe the same rules you do when treating other, unrelated patients. The wiser course, however, may be to let someone else take care of your loved ones.


Vulnerability is estimated in terms of the effects that IEMI may induce to the services provided by the facility under study. We estimate the vulnerability by considering three variables: the likelihood, the risk, and the hardness. The different parameters that may be considered to estimate each of the variables are discussed.


Subpectoral breast augmentation surgery under regional anesthesia requires the selective neural blockade of the medial and lateral pectoral nerves to diminish postoperative pain syndromes. The purpose of this cadaver study is to demonstrate a reliable ultrasound guided approach to selectively target the pectoral nerves and their branches while sparing the brachial plexus cords. After evaluating the position and appearance of the pectoral nerves in 25 cadavers (50 sides), a portable ultrasound machine was used to guide the injection of 10 ml of 0.2% aqueous methylene blue solution in the pectoral region on both sides of three Thiel's embalmed cadavers using a single entry point—triple injection technique. This technique uses a medial to lateral approach with the entry point just medial to the pectoral minor muscle and three subsequent infiltrations: (1) deep lateral part of the pectoralis minor muscle, (2) between the pectoralis minor and major muscles, and (3) between the pectoralis major muscle and its posterior fascia under ultrasound visualization. Dissection demonstrates that the medial and lateral pectoral nerves were well stained while leaving the brachial plexus cords unstained. We show that 10 ml of an injected solution is sufficient to stain all the medial and lateral pectoral nerve branches without a proximal extension to the cords of the brachial plexus. Clin. Anat. 26:49–55, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Changes in gene expression are associated with switching to an autoprotected phenotype in response to environmental and physiological stress. Ubiquitous molecular chaperones from the heat shock protein (HSP) superfamily confer neuronal protection that can be blocked by antibodies. Recent research has focused on the interactions between the molecular sensors that affect the increased expression of neuroprotective HSPs above constitutive levels. An examination of the conditions under which the expression of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) was up regulated in a hypoxia and anoxia tolerant tropical species, the epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum), revealed that up-regulation was dependent on exceeding a stimulus threshold for an oxidative stressor. While hypoxic-preconditioning confers neuroprotective changes, there was no increase in the level of Hsp70 indicating that its increased expression was not associated with achieving a neuroprotected state in response to hypoxia in the epaulette shark. Conversely, there was a significant increase in Hsp70 in response to anoxic-preconditioning, highlighting the presence of a stimulus threshold barrier and raising the possibility that, in this species, Hsp70 contributes to the neuroprotective response to extreme crises, such as oxidative stress. Interestingly, there was a synergistic effect of coincident stressors on Hsp70 expression, which was revealed when metabolic stress was superimposed upon oxidative stress. Brain energy charge was significantly lower when adenosine receptor blockade, provided by treatment with aminophylline, was present prior to the final anoxic episode, under these circumstances, the level of Hsp70 induced was significantly higher than in the pair-matched saline treated controls. An understanding of the molecular and metabolic basis for neuroprotective switches, which result in an up-regulation of neuroprotective Hsp70 expression in the brain, is needed so that intervention strategies can be devised to manage CNS pathologies and minimise damage caused by ischemia and trauma. In addition, the current findings indicate that measurements of HSP expression per se may provide a useful correlate of the level of neuroprotection achieved in the switch to an autoprotected phenotype.


Magnetic behavior of ferromagnetic materials has been using to detect defects of materials. To evaluate the stress states of the components by the magnetic memory signal, Q235 defect asymmetrical samples were made. The characteristics of magnetic memory of Q235 have been studied in the three different testing environments which are online-loading, online-unloading and offline-unloading under cycle tensile stress. The results show that magnetic memory signals have different characteristics in different testing environment. It is feasible to evaluate preliminarily the stress state by the magnetic memory signals.


The designers of corporate brand marks—otherwise known as logos—exploit symmetry for its ability to express notions of equality, cohesion and stability. However there has been little systematic investigation into how symmetry, within this context, is perceived. This paper presents the preliminary findings from a pilot survey that investigated the association between brand values and the perception of symmetry in financial services brand marks, and discusses the implications for further study.


Background Obesity is a worldwide public health issue. Many factors contribute to this: a holistic approach is required to tackle it. Due to the rapid increase in obesity in many parts of the world, the food environment and its effect on obesity has been an increasing topic of study. Mexico has one of the highest prevalence rates of obesity in the world: 70% of the Mexican population is overweight or obese. Furthermore, the country has gone through a dietary and food retail transition. The aim of this ongoing study is to explore the association between the density of different food outlets and obesity in Mexican adults. Methods Geographical and food outlet data were obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico. For health data I used anthropometric measurements and socio-economic characteristics of adult participants (18+) from the National Health and Nutrition Survey in Mexico 2012. Densities of supermarkets, restaurants chain and non-chain convenience stores and fruit and vegetables stores were calculated per census tract area (CTA). Count of each food outlet type and the population in each CTA were used to calculate densities in ArcGIS. Regressions were undertaken to explore the association of BMI and the density of each food outlet type using complex survey design in STATA14. I classified CTAs as obesogenic or leptogenic according to the density and type of food outlets that predominated. All analyses were adjusted for sex, age, physical activity, socioeconomic status, education and deprivation. Results No significant associations were found between the density of supermarkets, fruit and vegetable stores, chain and non-chain convenience stores and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). However, the density of restaurants, including fast-food outlets, was significantly and negatively associated with obesity among women (β = −0.54 [95% CI −0.99, 0.08] P = 0.019). In regard to the food environment classification, CTAs that had a higher density of food outlets were also significantly and negatively associated with obesity (β = −1.43 [−2.18 to −0.68] P<0.01). Conclusion Food environments with a greater healthy food availability and diversity could be associated with lower BMIs. On the other hand, high density of food outlets which offer calorie-dense food, rich in saturated fats and high glycaemic foods and drinks, along with large portions could be a contributing factor to the problem of obesity in Mexico. Further geospatial analyses are ongoing.


The aim of the thesis is to investigate classes of model-based approaches to statistical image analysis. We explored the properties of models and examined the problem of parameter estimation from the original image data and, in particular, from noisy versions of the the scene. We concentrated on Markov random field (MRF) models, Markov mesh random field (MMRF) models and Multi-dimensional Markov chain (MDMC) models. In Chapter 2, for the one-dimensional version of Markov random fields, we developed a recursive technique which enables us to achieve maximum likelihood estimation for the underlying parameter and to carry out the EM algorithm for parameter estimation when only noisy data are available. This technique also enables us, in just a single pass, to generate a sample from a one-dimensional Markov random field. Although, unfortunately, this technique cannot be extended to two- or multi-dimensional models, it was applied to many cases in this thesis. Since, for two-dimensional Markov random fields, the density of each row (column), conditionally on all other rows (columns) is of the form of a one-dimensional Markov random field, and since the distribution of the original image, conditionally on the noisy version of data, is still a Markov random field, the technique can be used on different forms of conditional density of one row (column). In Chapter 3, therefore, we developed the line-relaxation method for simulating MRFs and maximum line pseudo-likelihood estimation of parameter(s), and in Chapter 5, we developed a simultaneous procedure of parameter estimation and restoration, in which line pseudo-likelihood and a modified EM algorithm were used. The first part of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 concentrate on inference for two-dimensional MRFs. We obtained a matrix expression for partition functins for general models, and a more explicit form for a multi-colour Ising model, and thus located the positions of critical points of this multi-colour model. We examined the asymptotic properties of an asymmetric, two-colour Ising model. For general models, in Chapter 4, we explored asymptotic properties under an "independence" or a "near independence" condition, and then developed the approach of maximum approximate-likelihood estimation. For three-dimensional MMRF models, in chapter 6, a generalization of Devijver's F-G-H algorithm is developed for restoration. In Chapter 7, the recursive technique was again used to introduce MDMC models, which form a natural extension of a Markov chain. By suitable choice of model parameters, textures can be generated that are similar to those simulated from MRFs, but the simulation procedure is computationally much more economical. The recursive technique also enables us to maximize the likelihood function of the model. For all three sorts of prior random field models considered in this thesis, we developed a simultaneous procedure for parameter estimation and image restoration, when only noisy data are available. The currently restored image was used, together with noisy data, in modified versions of the EM algorithm. In simulation studies, quite good results were obtained, in terms of estimation of parameters in both the original model and, particularly, in the noise model, and in terms of restoration.


International research has consistently reported that children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have poor outcomes in young adulthood. Yet, little is known about their outcomes in midlife. Using prospective data from a cohort of more than 14,000 Swedes born in 1953, of which nearly 9% have been placed in OHC, this study examines whether there is developmental continuity or discontinuity of disadvantage reaching into middle age in OHC children, compared to same-aged peers. Outcome profiles, here conceptualized as combinations of adverse outcomes related to education, economic hardship, unemployment, and mental health problems, were assessed in 1992–2008 (ages 39–55). Results indicate that having had experience of OHC was associated with 2-fold elevated odds of ending up in the most disadvantaged outcome profile, controlling for observed confounding factors. These findings suggest that experience of OHC is a strong marker for disadvantaged outcomes also in midlife.


Objectives Screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer in an average-risk population is widely recommended in national and international guidelines although their implementation varies. Using a conceptual framework that draws on implementation and health systems research, we provide an overview of systematic literature reviews that address health system and service barriers or facilitators to effective cancer screening. Methods Using a systematic approach, we searched Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, PsychInfo and other internet sources. We included systematic reviews of screening interventions (i.e. targeting people at average risk) for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer. The analysis included 90 systematic reviews. Results This review identified a multitude of barriers and facilitators affecting the health system, the capabilities of individuals in the system and their intentions. A large proportion of the available evidence focused on uptake. The reviews demonstrated that health system factors influenced participation, as well as quality and effectiveness of the service provided. The barriers with the biggest impact were knowledge/education, mainly of clients but also providers (capability barriers) and beliefs and values (intention barriers) of the eligible population. These findings complement the usual focus on psychological and social barriers to informed participation by individuals that dominate the screening literature. The facilitators with the most supporting evidence were educational interventions (overcoming capability and intention barriers), invitation letters, reminders and appointments. These were mainly directed at eligible individuals and, to a lesser extent, to providers and healthcare professionals. Only a small number of reviews, mainly from Europe, specified organized, rather than opportunistic, screening programmes. In those, low participation was the most frequently cited barrier and invitation letters (including physician endorsement, phone calls and reminders to non-responders and healthcare professionals) were the most prevalent facilitators. Conclusion Despite evidence of barriers and facilitators to screening participation and opportunistic screening, further health systems research covering the entire screening system for organized programmes is required.


New monoclonal antibodies directed against the lipid A moiety of the endotoxin present in gram-negative bacteria have been developed to improve the clinical outcome in patients with sepsis. Two studies of monoclonal antibodies HA-1A and E5 retrospectively identified specific patient subgroups showing benefit with therapy. I analyze and summarize the new sepsis nomenclature, the structure of endotoxin, the data implicating endotoxin as a causative agent in septic patients' morbidity and mortality, and specific data from the 2 clinical studies of monoclonal antibody therapy.


The department of pediatric uro-nephrology was created in 1977 in Brugmann hospital. Since then, various sectors have been developed including: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, kidney transplantation, urological and genital surgery, antenatal screening and rapid management of uronephropathies, treatment of voiding dysfunction and neurogenic bladder, management of tubular and glomerular diseases. The progress in genetics, medical imaging, obstetrics, neonatology and surgery has allowed us to take care of our young patients within a multidisciplinary framework. The most original contributions of the department are related to the performance of combined liver-kidney transplantation in primary hyperoxaluria, to the determination of the natural history of several congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract, to the assessment of the role of genetical mutations on tubular and glomerular diseases, to the usefulness of radioisotopic tracers in the measurement of renal function in infants, and to the study of experimental tolerization of


When Reschers Process Metaphysics (1996) was published, it was widely acclaimed as a major step towards the academic recognition of a mode of thought that has otherwise been confined within sharp scholarly boundaries. Of course it is not an easy book: despite its stylistic clarity, it remains the complex outcome of a lifes work in most areas of philosophy. The goal of the present volume is to systematically unfold the vices and virtues of Process Metaphysics, and thereby to specify the contemporary state of affairs in process thought. To do so, the editor has gathered one focused contribution per chapter, each paper addressing specifically and explicitly its assigned chapter and seeking to promote a dialogue with Rescher. In addition, the volume features Reschers replies to the papers.


We give a complete axiomatization of trace distribution precongruence for probabilistic nondeterministic processes based on a process algebra that includes internal behavior and recursion. The axiomatization is given for two different semantics of the process algebra that are consistent with the alternating model of Hansson and the nonalternating model of Segala, respectively. It is shown that the two semantics coincide up to trace distribution precongruence.


: The increasing imbalance between allergic diseases morbidity, severity of this pathology and deficiency of allergic care is established Hence the organization of this type of medical support becomes an important issue in the region. The solution is possible through the establishment of allergic care on the municipal level.


An analysis focused on capturing the phenomenon of quasibrittle fracture is presented. Selected parameters relevant for quasi-brittle fracture are evaluated and an assessment of their dependence on the size and shape of the test specimen is studied. Determination of these fracture characteristics is based on the records of the fracture tests on notched specimens, particularly from recorded loading diagrams. A method of separation of the energy amounts released for the propagation of the (effective) crack and that dissipated within the volume of a large nonlinear zone at the crack tip – the fracture process zone – is introduced and tested on selected data from experimental campaigns published in the literature. The work is accompanied with own conducted numerical simulations using commercial finite element code with implemented cohesive crack model. Results from three-point bending tests on specimens of different sizes and relative notch lengths are taken into account in this study. The proposed model has only two parameters whose values are constant for all specimen sizes and notch lengths.


The aim of this study was to examine the entrepreneurship characteristics and innovation skills of the students studying in the departments of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies and students in other departments in the faculties of education. In this context, the students' perceptions of innovation skills and entrepreneurship were examined with a comparative approach by using a comparative relational screening research model in the study. The sample of the study consisted of 319 students studying at Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education in Necmettin Erbakan University. Entrepreneurship and innovation skills scales were used to collect research data. According to the data analysis, there was a significant difference between students' perceptions of entrepreneurship in terms of department and gender. In addition, there are significant differences in terms of innovation skills according to grade levels. Significant correlations were found between students' innovation skills and perceptions of entrepreneurship


The crystal structure of the Alba protein (PhoAlba) from a hyperthermophilic archaeon, Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3, was determined at a resolution of 2.8 Å. PhoAlba structurally belongs to the α⁄β proteins and is similar not only to archaeal homologues but also to RNA-binding proteins, including the C-terminal half of initiation factor 3 (IF3-C) from Bacillus stearothermophilus, an Esherichia coli protein implicated in cell division (Yhhp), and an Arabidopsis protein of unknown function. We found by gel shift assay that PhoAlba interacts with both ribonuclease P (RNase P) RNA (PhopRNA) and precursor-tRNATyr (pre-tRNATyr) in P. horikoshii. However, the addition of PhoAlba to reconstituted particles composed of PhopRNA and four or five protein subunits had little influence on either the pre-tRNA processing activity or the optimum temperature for the processing activity. These results suggest that PhoAlba contributes little to the catalytic activity of P. horikoshii RNase P.


In this paper a novel power gated digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is presented. The DCO is suitable for integration in various systems such as clock generation circuits, clock and data recovery, and clocking schemes for high speed links. Simulations of the proposed DCO on 65nm TSMC technology show frequency range of 2.5 GHz to 6.8 GHz across all corners. The proposed DCO consumes only 1.7 mW at 3 GHz and 3.2 mW at 6.8 GHz with estimated layout area of 70∗70 μm2. The phase noise of the free running DCO is −92 dBc/Hz measured at 1 MHz offset from a 3.4 GHz center frequency.


OF THE THESIS Is There a Significant Association between Depression and Coronary Heart Disease in Women Over 35 in Different Regions of the United States? by Rachel Michelle Perry Master of Public Health with a Concentration in Epidemiology San Diego State University, 2013 Heart disease has been the leading public health concern for many years. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease and is the leading cause of death in both women and men in the United States. In 2007, CHD prevalence affected around 37% of men and 35% of women in the United States. While there is a generally strong understanding of the health behaviors leading to the development of CHD, such as hypertension, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, and obesity, among others, there is still some conflict among public health professionals regarding the role psychological factors play in the process. Depression in particular has been shown to have an effect on the development of CHD. Depression can be defined as feeling blue, unhappy, or miserable. These feelings can become so strong that they interfere with one's ability to carry out regular functions in daily life. Individuals who are depressed tend to have more negative overall health outcomes. Depression has also been associated with many of the risk factors for CHD. Women tend to have a higher chance for developing depression than men. Also, CHD is sometimes misunderstood as a disease that mainly affects men, but this is entirely untrue, as the prevalence rates are very similar in both men and women. This study looks at the association between depression and CHD, while looking at other health factors that can contribute to this association. The data comes from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), using women over 35 years old as the study population (n=266,654). The outcome variable of CHD was defined as those women who had ever been told by a health professional that they had CHD. The main predictor of depression was defined as those women who had ever been told by a health professional that they had a depressive disorder, including major depression, dysthymia, or minor depression. The BRFSS weighting system was used to give and generalizable representation of each variable. The results of this study strengthen the research that shows a positive correlation between depression and CHD. Women over 35 years old who had depression were 1.34 (95% CI 1.33, 1.34) times more likely to have CHD than women who had never been depressed, when controlling for the other covariates in the final model. The study also showed that a woman's risk for developing CHD increased with age. As for region, women in the south were more likely to have CHD than women in the other regions of the United States. One recommendation for future research would be to gather data on menopausal status for women over 35 years old, as much of the literature agrees that this could have a profound effect on when women develop CHD.


Eric Martell co-founded EatStreet as a 19-year-old to create a "digital food court" and online ordering for momand-pop restaurants serving hungry college students. His startup has now grown to 110 cities, with 50 full time employees and more than 10,000 restaurant clients. In some college towns, half of the student body use EatStreet regularly. Martell talked with EIX editor Jon Eckhardt about how a food delivery man sparked the idea for EatStreet, his company's approach to problemsolving, and his make-or-break moments -including turning down high-paying jobs for the uncertain life of an entrepreneur.


51Cr-bleomycin was administered to 18 patients suspected of having an ocular melanoma with varying degree of development. The diagnosis was verified prior to surgical removal of the eye-ball by fluorescent angiography and computerized axial tomography. In operated patients histological diagnosis was also available. Scintigraphy after 51Cr-bleomycin administration appeared to be an effective diagnostic measure: sensitivity and specificity reached 90 and 87%, respectively. It is concluded that the method is useful in the preoperative diagnosis of ocular melanoma.


The development of temperature sensing Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) systems by phosphor thermometry has significant potential to achieve accurate non-destructive temperature measurement in the coating. The doping of coatings using rare earth elements is a viable option to enable the temperature measurement by the virtue of their luminescence. While facilitating the temperature sensing, however, the thermo-mechanical and thermo-chemical stability of the coating must be maintained under extreme operating conditions. In this work, TBC configurations including a doped layer placed at the top or the bottom of the top coat have been fabricated via Air Plasma Spray (APS) using Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) that contains Europium (Eu) dopant. The TBC configurations have been characterized using high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) at both room temperature and high temperature. The TBC samples have been subjected to a single cycle thermal load during XRD data collection. The residual strain in the top coats of the TBCs have been quantified using XRD data. Residual strain in the top coat of the regular TBC configuration has been measured to be in the range of −0.8 × 10−4 to −1.0 × 10−4 for out-of-plane strain (e11) and 0.5 × 10−4 to 2.0 × 10−4 for in-plane strain (e22). The doped layer above the top coat was found to most significantly affect the spatial strain distribution across depth in the YSZ layer by increasing the strain magnitudes closer to the bond coat. However, the difference in strain distribution due to doped layers was found to be less than 1.0 × 10−4, which is close to the experimental limit. Thus, the doped layer did not significantly alter the overall residual strain states of the coating.


ABSTRACT This article presents a new perspective on measuring gender differences in the large-scale assessment study Trends in International Science Study (TIMSS). The suggested empirical model is directly based on the theoretical competence model of the domain mathematics and thus includes the interaction between content and cognitive sub-competencies. The more detailed results may contribute to a better understanding of the sources for gender differences in mathematics and may consequently lead to more targeted remedial actions. The study supports the new model in showing that for 40 of the 50 countries participating in TIMSS 2011 the (usually not reported) interaction effect between the content and the cognitive sub-competencies is significant.


Image quality affects the visual experience of observers. How to accurately evaluate image quality has been widely studied by researchers. Unsupervised blind image quality assessment (BIQA) requires less prior knowledge than supervised ones. Besides, there is a trade-off between accuracy and complexity in most existing BIQA methods. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised BIQA framework that aims for both high accuracy and low complexity. To represent the image structure information, we employ Phase Congruency (PC) and gradient. After that, we calculate the mean subtracted and contrast normalized (MSCN) coefficient and the Karhunen-Loéve transform (KLT) coefficient to represent the naturalness of the images. Finally, features extracted from both the pristine and the distorted images are adopted to calculate the image quality with Multivariate Gaussian (MVG) model. Experiments conducted on six IQA databases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better performance than the state-of-the-art BIQA methods.


We examined possible dissimilarities in the English, Basque and Spanish prototypical terms for despair. The GRID instrument was used with samples from four geographical regions and five cultural groups: Spanish speakers from Chile, Spanish speakers from Southern Spain, Spanish speakers from Northern Spain, Basque speakers from Northern Spain, and English speakers from the USA. Agreement of the different versions was examined using multidimensional scaling procedures with the overall scores and with the profiles of several components (Appraisal, Feelings, Bodily reactions, Action tendencies, and Expressions). Non-equivalence of despair terms across languages and cultural groups was observed both at a general and component level. The three words used in different geographical and/or linguistic contexts do not seem to refer to a unitary concept, but rather to two different concepts, where the Spanish 'desesperación' would convey a specific arousal-active pattern. ALONSO-ARBIOL, Itziar, SORIANO SALINAS, Cristina, VAN DE VIJVER, Fons J.R. The conceptualisation of despair in Basque, Spanish, and English. In: J.J.R. Fontaine, K.R. Scherer & C. Soriano. Components of emotional meaning: A sourcebook. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013. DOI : 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592746.003.0021


Emission-line abundances have been uncertain for more than a decade due to unexplained discrepancies in the relative intensities of the forbidden lines and weak permitted recombination lines in PNe and H II regions. The observed intensities of forbidden and recombination lines originating from the same parent ion differ from their theoretical values by factors of more than an order of magnitude in some of these nebulae. In this study we observe UV resonance line absorption in the central stars of PNe produced by the nebular gas and from the same ions that emit optical forbidden lines. We then compare the derived absorption column densities with the emission measures determined from ground-based observations of the nebular forbidden lines. We find for our sample of PNe that the collisionally excited forbidden lines yield column densities that are in basic agreement with the column densities derived for the same ions from the UV absorption lines. A similar comparison involving recombination line column densities produces poorer agreement, although near the limits of the formal uncertainties of the analyses. An additional sample of objects with larger abundance discrepancy factors will need to be studied before a stronger statement can be made that recombination line abundances are not correct.


INTRODUCTION
Antibiotic resistance is the main factor that affects the efficacy of current therapeutic regimens against Helicobacter pylori. This study aimed to determine the rates of resistance to efficacy clarithromycin, amoxicillin, tetracycline, levofloxacin and metronidazole among H. pylori strains isolated from Turkish patients with dyspepsia.

METHODS
H. pylori was cultured from corpus and antrum biopsies that were collected from patients with dyspeptic symptoms, and the antimicrobial susceptibility of H. pylori was determined using the E-test (clarithromycin, amoxicillin, tetracycline, metronidazole and levofloxacin) according to the EUCAST breakpoints. Point mutations in the 23S rRNA gene of clarithromycin-resistant strains were investigated using real-time PCR.

RESULTS
A total of 98 H. pylori strains were isolated, all of which were susceptible to amoxicillin and tetracycline. Of these strains, 36.7% (36/98) were resistant to clarithromycin, 35.5% (34/98) were resistant to metronidazole, and 29.5% (29/98) were resistant to levofloxacin. Multiple resistance was detected in 19.3% of the isolates. The A2143G and A2144G point mutations in the 23S rRNA-encoding gene were found in all 36 (100%) of the clarithromycin-resistant strains. Additionally, the levofloxacin MIC values increased to 32 mg/L in our H. pylori strains. Finally, among the clarithromycin-resistant strains, 27.2% were resistant to levofloxacin, and 45.4% were resistant to metronidazole.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that treatment failure after clarithromycin- or levofloxacin-based triple therapy is not surprising and that metronidazole is not a reliable agent for the eradication of H. pylori infection in Turkey.


Current assessments of the role of atmospheric deposition in the declining health of aquatic ecosystems indicate that the atmosphere could account for as much as 30% to 40% of total external nitrogen loading to some coastal waters. All such assessments are uncertain and need to be refined. To focus attention on the problem as it affect eastern North American coastal waters, a series of interdisciplinary workshops has been conducted, bringing together scientists and regulators. The series started with a meeting at Mt. Washington, Maryland in 1994, with subsequent meetings at Warrenton, Virginia in 1995, and Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997. Although the workshops considered all nitrogen species, toxic chemicals, trace metals, precipitation chemistry, airborne aerosols, and supporting meteorological investigation, most of the discussion centered around the issue of nitrogen-species deposition. It was concluded that work is urgently needed to establish integrated monitoring stations to provide high quality deposition and watershed retention data within the catchment area to take spatial and temporal variability into account in atmospheric deposition models, to improve biogeochemical watershed models, especially from the perspective of biological utilization and cycling of deposited materials, to refine emissions inventories and projections on which scenario investigations are based, to enhance all ongoing data collection efforts, especially those related to specific process studies, and to improve spatial resolution by increasing the number of deposition measurement sites. An overall conclusion was that there must be a strong effort to include considerations of air pollution and atmospheric deposition in the water quality regulatory process. It was repeatedly emphasized that any new efforts should build on existing programs rather than risk new starts that compete with ongoing and already productive work.


Faced with the health and financial toll from escalating rates of chronic disease, consumers are demanding healthier food products and increased transparency regarding the ingredients in their food. Food labels provide the primary means for businesses to communicate with customers about their food products. In response to consumer demand, food companies are stocking grocery store shelves with products claiming to be wholesome, "natural" and healthy. Yet, many of these products are not as healthy or natural as purported. Although both consumers and food manufacturers place importance on the term "natural," the Food and Drug Administration has refused to define the term. In the absence of a legally enforceable definition, there has been a rise in class action litigation against allegedly mislabeled "all natural" food products. This Note evaluates the impact of the courts, rather than the FDA, on the interpretation of food-labeling laws. The Note discusses the confusion among courts over whether primary jurisdiction should apply and litigation should be stayed due to possible agency action. This Note goes on to analyze the results of the FDA's public comment process initiated in May 2016 to determine whether the agency should define the term "natural." Finally, this Note explores how and why the FDA, not the courts or legislature, should define the term


Abstract The so-called True Skill Statistic (TSS) and the Heidke Skill Score (S), as used in the context of the contingency, table approach to forecast verification, are compared. It is shown that the TSS approaches the Probability of Detection (POD) whenever the forecasting is dominated by correct forecasts of non-occurrence, i.e., forecasting rare events like severe local storms. This means that the TSS is vulnerable to "hedging" in rare event forecasting. The S-statistic is shown to be superior to the TSS in this situation, accounting for correct forecasts of null events in a controlled fashion. It turns out that the TSS and S values are related in a subtle way, becoming identical when the expected values (due to chance in a k × k contingency table) remain unchanged when comparing the actual forecast table to that of a hypothetical perfect set of forecasts. Examples of the behavior of the TSS and S values in different situations are provided which support the recommendation that S be used in preference...


ABSTRACT Banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) caused by Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) has emerged as a major constraint of banana and plantain production in south-East Bénin. Roguing method is used in this area to destroy the BBTV-infected plants and to contain its spread. This study was conducted to assess the level of adoption of the method in relation to farmers' perception. The research was conducted in eight communities and data collected from 186 randomly selected banana growers. Farmers' perception on the roguing method as compared to traditional practices was analyzed using an aggregated perception index. The counterfactual method based on Average Treatment Effect was used to estimate adoption rates and determine the factors influencing adoption. Results showed that roguing is perceived to provide more advantages than traditional practices, but it is often time consuming and very labor demanding. The actual adoption rate is 36%. It would have been 56% if all the growers sampled were sensitized. As a matter of fact, the majority (73%) of sensitized growers adopted the method. More efforts and resources should be put into sensitizing and mobilizing farmers on the adoption of this technology while improving its efficiency and taking account the shortcomings reported by farmers. This, coupled with an increase in easy access to healthy planting materials and use of good production practices could improve the adoption of roguing and consequently ensure the effective containment of BBTD.


Pathological cutaneous scars such as keloids and hypertrophic scars (HSs) are characterized by a diffuse redness that is caused by the overgrowth of capillary vessels due to chronic inflammation. Our group has been using long-pulsed, 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser in noncontact mode with low fluence and a submillisecond pulse duration to treat keloids and hypertrophic scars since 2006 with satisfactory results. The present study examined the efficacy of this approach in 22 Japanese patients with keloids (n = 16) or hypertrophic scars (n = 6) who were treated every 3 to 4 weeks. Treatment settings were as follows: 5 mm spot size diameter; 14 J/cm2 energy density; 300 μs exposure time per pulse; and 10 Hz repetition rate. The responses of the pathological scars to the treatment were assessed by measuring their erythema, hypertrophy, hardness, itching, and pain or tenderness. Moreover, skin samples from 3 volunteer patients were subjected to histological evaluation and 5 patients underwent thermography during therapy. The average total scar assessment score dropped from 9.86 to 6.34. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and Elastica Masson-Goldner staining showed that laser treatment structurally changed the tissue collagen. This influence reached a depth of 0.5 to 1 mm. Electron microscopy revealed plasma protein leakage, proteoglycan particles, and a change in the collagen fiber fascicles. Further analyses revealed that noncontact mode Nd:YAG laser treatment is highly effective for keloids and hypertrophic scars regardless of patient age, the origin and multiplicity of scarring, the location of the scar(s), or the tension on the scar.


This article documents that precolonial state development was an impediment to the development of democracy outside Europe, because indigenous state institutions constrained the European colonial endeavor and limited the diffusion of European institutions and ideas. Some countries were strong enough to resist colonization; others had enough state infrastructure that the colonizers would rule through existing institutions. Neither group therefore experienced institutional transplantation or European settlement. Less developed states, in contrast, were easier to colonize and were often colonized with institutional transplantation and an influx of settlers carrying ideals of parliamentarism. Using OLS and IV estimation, I present statistical evidence of an autocratic legacy of early statehood and document the proposed causal channel for a large sample of non-European countries. The conclusion is robust to different samples, different democracy indices, an array of exogenous controls, and several alternative theories of the causes and correlates of democracy.


Projectile points are found in most cultures and often have distinctive shapes and / or are made of special materials. It is suggested that these differences in form and material will affect the performance of projectile points when used against specific targets, and different points will have different optimal applications. Points were manufactured from several common materials including different kinds of wood and stone, and in some of the most common forms found in the archaeological record. These were then tested in controlled experiments to ascertain differences in finctional effectiveness when shot into targets such as straw bales, the carcass of a small pig, and the chest of a reconstructed moose. The results of these experiments were then tested statistically, and show far less significant variation than would be expected. This suggests that, within limits, functional effectiveness is not the ruling criteria in the choice of projectile point forms. Alternative possibilities are suggested.


The study was carried out to know the status of library automation and problems in their implementation in special libraries of Indore city, Madhya Pradesh. It discusses automation, its need, and application in special libraries. The study explained the various problems faced by authorities and the staff during the process of automation. The tool adopted to conduct the study is a well structured questionnaire. The staff hesitancy and lack of attitude towards automation and unsatisfactory library software problems are the major hindrances to speedy automation. It finally highlights the key suggestions for better implementation of library automation and to overcome the hurdles faced during pre and post automation.

 Key words: Automation, library automation, special libraries, problems and prospects in library automation.


Proteomics research relies heavily on electrophoresis gels, which are complex images containing many protein 'spots'. The identification and quantification of these spots is a bottleneck in the proteomics workflow. We describe a statistical model of protein spot appearance that is both general enough to represent unusual spots, and specific enough to introduce constraints on the interpretation of complex images. We propose a robust method of automatic model construction that is used to circumvent manual model construction which is subjective and time-consuming. We show that the statistical model of spot appearance is able to fit to image data more closely than the commonly used spot parameterisations which are based solely on Gaussian and diffusion formulations.


This thesis gives a criterion for detecting the entanglement of a quantum state, and uses it to study the relationship between topological and quantum entanglement. It is fundamental to view topological entanglements such as braids entanglement operators and to associate to them unitary operators that are capable of creating quantum entanglement. The entanglement criterion is used to explore this connection [L.H. Kauffman and S.J. Lomonaco, quant-ph/0304091, 2003].


To define the consequences of a known reduction of B cell mass in rats, 90% partial pancreatectomies were performed. For the 6 wk following surgery moderate hyperglycemia was maintained in the fed state but there were no differences in body weight nor plasma insulin concentrations compared with sham-pancreatectomized controls. 8-10 wk following surgery regeneration of the remnant was evident with remnant weight being 26%, B cell mass being 42%, and non-B cell mass being 47% of values found for control whole pancreas. There were comparable increases in the remnant content of insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin. Following meal challenges, intraperitoneal and intravenous glucose tolerance tests and intravenous arginine challenge given 6-7 wk after surgery, the insulin responses to glucose were blunted or absent but the responses following the meals or arginine were intact. Similarly, when the pancreatic remnant was perfused in vitro, insulin release after challenge with 300 mg/dl glucose was markedly reduced whereas intact responsiveness to 10 mM arginine was retained. These data suggest that the chronic stimulation of a reduced B cell mass can lead to a selective loss of glucose-induced insulin secretion.


A mathematical model was developed to correlate the amplitude of the pillowing deformation of lap joints to the degree of corrosion inside the joint. Based on mathematical model, finite element techniques were used to determine the effect of pillowing in the stress in fuselage lap joints. The stress caused by the internal pressure and riveting process was taken into account, and the fuselage curvature was ignored. The results show that pillowing can significantly increase the stress in a lap joint for material loss below the detection limit of current nondestructive inspection techniques, thus increasing the risk of premature cracking. In addition, the analyses show that pillowing resulted in a stress gradient through the skin thickness, which suggest that semi-elliptical cracks with a high aspect ratio can form. In the last, the stress correction curves at the critical rivet hole were used in the AFGROW crack growth rate program to predict the residual life of corroded lap joint and the analytical results were close to available test date.


The preparation of polypropylene (PP)-organoclay based nanocomposites by melt mixing in twin-screw extrusion is investigated. The purpose is to optimize the dispersion of the organoclay in the PP matrix in order to obtain a final product with enhanced mechanical properties (stiffness, impact…). A compatibilizer, polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA), was used in order to improve the chemical affinity between PP and the organoclay. The nanocomposite formulation was: 85 wt% PP / 10 wt% PP-g-MA / 5wt% organoclay. The influence of screw speed, barrel temperature and matrix viscosity was studied. Dead-stop experiments have been performed, allowing to collect samples all along the screws. The samples were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and rheology in small amplitude oscillatory shear. These different techniques allow us to characterize the dispersion state of the organoclay at different scales. The results show that screw speed has a strong impact on the clay exfoliation but is limited by matrix degradation. This degradation is hardly reduced when decreasing barrel temperature and is enhanced with a more viscous matrix. It also appears that intercalation and exfoliation develop early along the screw profile. Depending on the processing conditions, the final dispersion state can be obtained within the first mixing zones and is no more improved afterwards.


Three heterometallic complexes including uranyl and either Co$^{III}$ or Mn$^{II}$ cations were crystallized under hydrothermal conditions. Complexes [Co(bipy)$_3$]$_2$[UO$_2$(NO$_3$)$_4$]$_2$[(UO$_2$)$_2$(NO$_3$)$_4$(OH)$_2$] (1) and [UO$_2$(NO$_3$)$_2$Co(bipy)$_2$(OH)$_2$]·NO$_3$·H$_2$O (2) (bipy = 2,2ʹ‐bipyridine) were obtained from the same solution. UO$_2{^{2+}}$ and Co$^{3+}$ are part of separate anions and cations, respectively, in complex 1, the uranyl ion being present in both a mononuclear dianion with two chelating and two monodentate nitrates in cis positions, and in a dinuclear, bis‐hydroxo‐bridged dianion. In contrast, both metal cations are part of a monocationic heterometallic bis‐hydroxo‐bridged complex in 2, UO$_2{^{2+}}$ retaining two nitrate and Co$^{III}$ two bipy ligands. This is the third example only of a hydroxo‐bridged heterometallic uranyl complex, and the first to involve Co$^{III}$.
The complex [(UO$_2$)$_6$Mn(O)$_4$(OH)$_6$(H$_2$O)$_4$]·5H$_2$O (3), synthesized in the absence of any added ligand, crystallizes as a three‐dimensional framework in which anionic uranyl oxyhydroxide layers with the alpha‐U$_3$O$_8$‐type polyhedral arrangement are connected to one another by Mn(H$_2$O)$_4{^{2+}}$ cations axially bound to two uranyl oxo atoms. These very simple systems thus display a large range of possible intermetallic associations, that involving bis‐oxo‐bonding to uranyl enabling formation of a framework through pillaring of sheets


Wind power has great potential because of its clean and renewable production compared to the traditional power. Most of the present researches for floating wind turbine rely on the hydro-aero-elastic-servo simulation codes and have not been exhaustively validated yet. Thus, model tests are needed and make sense for its high credibility to master the kinetic characters of floating offshore structures.The characters of kinetic responses of the spar-type wind turbine are investigated through model test research technique. This paper describes the methodology for wind/wave model test that carried out at Deepwater Offshore Basin in Shanghai Jiao Tong University at a scale of 1:50. A Spar-type floater was selected to support the wind turbine in this test and the model blade was geometrically scaled down from the original NREL 5 MW reference wind turbine blade. The detail of the scaled model of wind turbine and the floating supporter, the test set-up configuration, the mooring system, the high-quality wind generator that can create required homogeneous and low turbulence wind, and the instrumentations to capture loads, accelerations and 6 DOF motions are described in detail, respectively. The isolated wind/wave effects and the integrated wind-wave effects on the floating wind turbine are analyzed, according to the test results.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


ABSTRACT Heavy metal contamination and its detrimental effects on human health and environment have been a worldwide concern. Over the years, various technologies have been adapted to tackle this problem. Adsorption is still considered to be one of the most feasible and cost-effective methods for treating wastewater contaminated with heavy metals. Adsorbents such as activated carbon, clay, zeolites and silica have been studied extensively in the past. Modification of these conventional adsorbents and the synthesis of nonconventional adsorbents such as nanocomposites and metal organic frameworks (MOF's) have been the main focus of study in recent times. This review article attempts to present a detailed account of various adsorbents and their removal efficiencies for the treatment of wastewater contaminated with lead(II), zinc(II) and cobalt(II) in the current decade. Influence of various parameters, adsorption isotherms and kinetics best described for their removal have also been reviewed in detail. It is observed that most of the adsorbents followed pseudo second order kinetics suggestive of a chemisorption process. After conducting a thorough review of more than 120 recently published papers, it can be inferred that nanomaterials and nanocomposites have shown excellent adsorption capacity for removal of these heavy metals.


In 'Reading Between the Lines', I investigate the literary representations that, building on the influential writings of Mountstuart Elphinstone and WaIter Scott, created an 'Afghanistan of the mind' over a century of British engagement. Using the quantitative methodologies of book history, my thesis sheds light on the public responses to three successive Anglo-Afghan wars, and the reception of the writings to which these gave rise. By this means, I trace the rise and fall of readers' interest in Afghanistan through six studies of individual authors. The first chapter examines the media storm around the writings of Florentia Sale, eyewitness to the disasters of the First Anglo-Afghan War, whose bestselling Journal was published by John Munay. Chapter two considers John William Kaye, and his journalistic and fictional reshaping of the war, culminating in his authoritative History. The third chapter considers George Alfred Henty's use of Afghanistan and the Second Anglo-Afghan War in his historically-based adventure stories for boys, which is contrasted with the more subtle imaginative representations in Rudyard Kipling's 'The Man Who Would Be King' and Kim, explored in chapter four. Investigating literary responses in the 1920s and 30s, I study two relatively unknown authors, to demonstrate the pervasive urge for eyewitnesses to the Third Anglo-Afghan War and its aftermath to tell their story. In chapters five and six, Martin Louis Alan Gompel1z (pseud. Ganpat) and Alice Pennell (nee Sorabji), are scrutinized through a detailed biographical, bibliographical and textual study, using material from Blackwood's and John MU11'ay archives, giving the most complete account of their writings to date. Using these six authors, and the success or failure of their writings, I critically examine the various influences of the press, publishers, and book trade on the rise and fall of public appetites for narratives of Afghanistan.


Development of simple, fast and accurate methods for quantification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil samples is important for providing greater efficiency of analytical laboratories in Kazakhstan and other developing countries. Naphthalene is a model polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), belonging to a group of compounds of significant concern due to environmental impact. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is an optimal method for solvent-free automated sample preparation for determination of VOCs in environmental samples. In this work, the method for quantification of naphthalene in soil based on headspace SPME, gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection, and standard addition calibration was developed. The parameters of SPME and sample equilibration after spiking with standards were optimized for better control of the soil matrix effect. The SPME temperature 80 °C provided the greatest accuracy of naphthalene responses for soils with different matrix and humidity. Equilibration of soil samples after spiking with standards for 6 h at 80 °C provided stabilization of responses in soils with different matrix and water content. The greatest accuracy and precision were achieved after equilibration of the samples for 8 h. The method provides recoveries of 105-119% in the concentration range 0.01-0.1 ng g-1 with detection limit 0.001 ng g-1. The developed method was applied for quantification of naphthalene in real soil samples collected in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The measured concentration of naphthalene in real soil samples varied in the range of 1.4 to 47 ng g-1. In five out of ten collected soil samples concentration exceeded a maximum permissible concentration of 15 ng g-1.


Introduction: Appendicitis is a common surgical condition that frequently requires patients to undergo diagnostic imaging. Abdominal computed tomography is the gold standard imaging technique for the diagnosis of appendicitis, but exposes patients to radiation. Ultrasound offers an alternate radiation-free imaging modality for appendicitis. However, the availability of ultrasound during off-hours is limited in many Emergency departments (EDs). Clinician performed point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used by emergency physicians as a bedside tool to evaluate suspected appendicitis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the test characteristics of emergency physician performed POCUS to diagnose appendicitis in a Canadian ED. Methods: A pragmatic, retrospective chart review was performed on all patients for whom a POCUS was performed to diagnose appendicitis at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in Ontario from December 1, 2010 to December 4, 2015. All POCUS scans were performed by physicians with Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS) credentials or resident physicians undergoing POCUS fellowship training. All scans were over-read by RDMS credentialed faculty and subject to a rigorous quality assurance (QA) process. POCUS findings and patient outcomes were reported. Results: A total of 90 patients were included in the study. 24 patients were diagnosed with appendicitis on POCUS. Ultimately, 18 were diagnosed with appendicitis through formal imaging, laparoscopy, and pathology. The sensitivity and specificity for POCUS to diagnose appendicitis was found to be 69.2% (95% CI, 48.1%-84.9%) and 90.6% (95% CI, 80.0%-96.1%) respectively. Conclusion: Bedside ultrasound is a reliable imaging modality for ruling in acute appendicitis. In cases where POCUS is negative or indeterminate for appendicitis, further imaging should be obtained as clinical suspicion warrants. The use of POCUS has the potential to reduce patient exposure to ionizing radiation and decrease the costs of obtaining CT scans, while hastening the process of achieving definitive management through earlier surgical consultation.


A purified preparation of low molecular weight kininogen (LMWK) (Mr = 70 000+ +2 000) has been obtained from human blood plasma. The kinin content per 1 mg of the obtained preparation is 14--16 micrograms of bradykinin. A rabbit antiserum to LMWK which is free of antibodies against IgG and albumin present as admixtures in the kininogen preparation has been obtained. The titer of the antiserum as measured by dilution of antibodies, with normal human blood plasma as an antigen source, is 1 : 16. 1 ml of the antiserum binds 125 micrograms of purified LMWK in the equivalence zone. Immunoelectrophoretic studies of the antiserum to LMWK revealed three precipitation arcs with human plasma. It was assumed that these immunocomplexes are formed with a low and high molecular weight forms of kininogen and, possibly, with a high molecular weight kininogen complex with prekallikrein.


The article provides the reflection of Kazakh culture and mentality in the context of Positive psychotherapy. The author is a Kazakh woman who was born and grew up in a traditional Kazakh family, is also a Basic consultant in Positive psychotherapy, lived and studied offline in Turkey, Finland, South Korea and Russia. Positive psychotherapy is the method that is based on a transcultural view. It covers both eastern and western cultures. The mentality of Kazakh people, values, culture, and tradition are reflected in the article by using the Conflict model, the Balance model, primary and secondary capabilities, and a family treatment model of Positive psychotherapy. The key conflict for most Kazakh people is in being polite and not telling about their true feelings and thoughts. The concept that "talking a lot is bad" is widespread among Kazakhs. An example of a general conflict model of Kazakh people is presented in the article.


Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with various sizes and morphologies have been extensively investigated for effective photothermal therapy (PTT) against multiple cancer types. However, a highly dynamic and complex tumor microenvironment (TME) considerably reduces the efficacy of PTT by limiting deep tumor penetration of AuNPs. Herein, we propose a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-mediated deep tumor delivery of gold nanorod (AuNR) for a potent PTT. First, MSCs are treated with tetraacylated N-azidomannosamine (Ac4ManNAz) to introduce modifiable azide (N3) groups on the cell surface via metabolic glycoengineering. Then, AuNRs modified with bio-orthogonal click molecules of bicyclo[6.1.0]nonyne (AuNR@BCN) are chemically conjugated to the N3 groups on the MSC surface by copper-free click chemistry reaction, resulting in AuNR@MSCs. In cultured MSCs, the appropriate condition to incorporate the AuNR into the MSCs is optimized; in addition, the photothermal efficiency of AuNR-MSCs under light irradiation are assessed, showing efficient heat generation in vitro. In colon tumor-bearing mice, intravenously injected AuNR@MSCs efficiently accumulate within the tumor tissues by allowing deep tissue penetration owing to the tumor homing effect by natural tumor tropism of AuNR@MSCs. Upon localized light irradiation, the AuNR@MSCs significantly inhibit colon tumor growth by the enhanced photothermal effect compared to conventional AuNRs. Collectively, this study shows a promising approach of MSCs-mediated deep tumor delivery of AuNR for effective PTT.


Aging behavior of Al-2.1Li-2.9Cu-0.12Zr(wt%) alloy has been studied as functions of aging time and temperature by using a differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) and transmission electron microscopy(TEM). The aged specimens at 130, 160, 190°Cwere compared with the as-quenched specimen in view of the aging behavior by observing the reaction enthalpy during the heating period of DSC experiments. DSC peak associated with the formation of GP zone is not observed at 130 and 160°C, but it does at 190°C, so it is found that the thermal stability of GP zone is changed at between 160 and 190°C. At the aging temperature of 130°C, the heat absorption corresponds to the formation of δ´ increases, while the heat evolution related with the formation of T1 reveals an opposite trend. In aging temperature of 160 and 190°C, aging time representing the drastic decrease of heat absorption of δ´ is coincident with the transition time showing the decreasing of heat evolution of T1. The micro-Vickers hardness of the specimens aged at 160°C and 190°C shows maximum values about 182 and 165 at aging times of about 72 hr and 25hr, respectively. From comparing reaction enthalpies for the dissolution of δ´ and the formation of T1 phases with the aging time showing the maximum hardness, it is found that δ´ phase rather than T1 phase markedly contributes to the hardening at an aging temperature of 160°C. In contrast, T1 phase plays an important role in hardening at an aging temperature of 190°C.


101 mouthwatering recipes to spread on your bread. From the humble cheese and tomato sandwich to an enormous meatball sub, the sandwich is the most versatile type of food imaginable. Whether you want a simple snack to stick in your lunchbox or something more substantial to see away a Sunday morning hangover, 101 Sandwiches has delicious recipes from around the world involving the key ingredient, bread, to make paninis, burgers, hogies, boccadillos, tartines, and more. So if you want to learn how to make a delicious caramel pork banh mi baguette from Vietnam, a Shrimp po' boy from Louisiana, a Japanese fried noodle sandwich, or a French croque monsieur, buy this book now. Also included are recreations of historical sandwiches such as the Queen Alexandra, variations to pimp up your average BLT, and random sandwich-based facts that are guaranteed to improve your life.