Patient: Male, 73-year-old Final Diagnosis: Severe COVID-19 pneumonia complicated by right atrium thrombus Symptoms: Fever • dyspnea • cough Medication:— Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Critical Care Medicine Objective: Educational purpose Background: Recent studies demonstrated evidence of coagulation dysfunction in hospitalized patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to excessive inflammation, hypoxia, platelet activation, endothelial dysfunction, and stasis. Effective anticoagulation therapy may play a dominant role in the management of severe COVID-19 cases. Case Report: A 73-year-old man with a 6-day history of fever up to 38.5°C, dyspnea, cough, and fatigue was diagnosed with COVID-19. He had a past medical history significant for hypertension and coronary artery bypass grafting. Two days after hospital admission, the patient developed acute respiratory failure, requiring intubation, mechanical ventilation, and transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU). He received treatment including antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, vasopressors, prone positioning, and anticoagulation with enoxaparin at a prophylactic dose. After a 15-day ICU stay, the patient was hemodynamically stable but still hypoxemic; a transthoracic echocardiogram at that time, followed by a transesophageal echocardiogram for better evaluation, revealed the presence of a right atrium thrombus without signs of acute right ventricular dilatation and impaired systolic function. Since the patient was hemodynamically stable, we decided to treat him with conventional anticoagulation under close monitoring for signs of hemodynamic deterioration; thus, the prophylactic dose of enoxaparin was replaced by therapeutic dosing, which was a key component of the patient's successful outcome. Over the next few days he showed significant clinical improvement. The follow-up transesophageal echo-cardiogram 3 weeks after effective therapeutic anticoagulation revealed no signs of right heart thrombus. Conclusions: The presented COVID-19 case, one of the first reported cases with evidence of right heart thrombus by transesophageal echocardiography, highlights the central role of diagnostic imaging strategies and the importance of adequate anticoagulation therapy in the management of severe COVID-19 cases in the ICU.


Based on the cascaded nonlinear interactions (/spl chi//sup (2)/:/spl chi//sup (2)/) of sum- and difference-frequency generation (SFG+DFG), a novel all-optical wavelength conversion scheme is proposed for the first time in periodically poled LiNbO/sub 3/ (PPLN) waveguide, in which a double-pass configuration is introduced. The performance of this scheme is thus different from the previous single-pass SFG+DFG scheme. The concept of the "balance condition" is presented to optimize the power and frequencies of the two pump sources. Under this condition, the energy is transferred irreversibly from the pump waves to the SF wave during the forward propagation. The equations describing the SFG can be solved analytically under this condition. Subsequently, the DFG equations are solved under the assumption that the SF wave would be constant during the backward propagation. Theoretical expressions are derived and are found to be consistent with numerical calculations. Compared with the conventional converter based on the cascaded /spl chi//sup (2)/:/spl chi//sup (2)/ interactions of second-harmonic generation and difference frequency generation SHG+DFG, the same conversion efficiency can be achieved in our scheme by employing two pump sources with lower power, or conversely higher conversion efficiency can be reached using two pump sources similar to that used in SFG+DFG scheme. The profile of the conversion efficiency can be further improved by adjusting the wavelengths of the two pump sources. In addition, compared with the single-pass SFG+DFG scheme, the main advantage of this new scheme rests on the fact that the conversion efficiency can be enhanced significantly. The advantages of the double-pass SHG+DFG scheme and the single-pass SFG+DFG scheme are combined in this new design to a great extent.


As an abstract to this thesis, we review some literatures in EOR and discussed the processes, strength and weakness of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques. A two phase flow model comprising water and oil via the concept of mean pressure has been formulated using mass conservation equations, Darcy's law and constitutive relations. This resulted in a set of coupled nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation with primary variables being the mean pressure and water saturation. We discretized these equations in one dimension using a control volume discretization scheme in space and implicit Euler in time. We employed the IMPES approach which decoupled the primary variables. A model validation test was made by comparison with an analytical solution and with the Couplex-Gas benchmark. The model was used to investigate two major mechanisms by which the activities of bacterial helps in enhancing the recovery of the residual oil.


DHAN is an NGO with a difference. It was not a charity, or a philanthropy or service organization but a development NGO, which focusses on grassroot development aided by professional management. At the same time, it has a clear vision that it is only an enabling institution rather than a directing agency. Dedicated to the mission of poverty eradication through grassroots development action, DHAN had made a significant impact on the Indian scene. It had already touched the lives of 1.5 million households during the course of its nearly 20-year journey and is poised to reach out to a further one million households over the next five years. In order to fulfill this ambitious mission, DHAN needed a steady stream of professionals with diverse skills to be trained and deployed pan India, spanning a wide spectrum of cultures, languages and sensitivities, truely a big challenge to contend with. Above all, for Vasimalai, the Executive Director who founded DHAN in 1997, and who is an ardent follower of Gandhian thought, the paramount challenge is to transmit his unique vision and development perspectives to the next generation of leaders, and build these perspectives into the very DNA of DHAN, so that the passion fopr development workwould continue unabated through the years. Vasi was a leader with a difference. After graduating from India's top business school, he forayed into the non-glamorous development sector marked by harsh work context and low material rewards. However, he received a greater reward - of responding to a higher calling or Dharma and making a difference to the lives of those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. DHAN being the vehicle he chose to fulfill that larger Dharma. Vasi's value-driven leadership style and DHAN's noble goal-orientation set them apart from the crowd. Uncannily though, they both seem to echo some of the most contemporary managment thinking, advocating alternate leadership styles and alternative organization paradigms.


It is common to find graphs with millions of nodes and billions of edges in, e.g., social networks. Queries on such graphs are often prohibitively expensive. These motivate us to propose query preserving graph compression, to compress graphs relative to a class Λ of queries of users' choice. We compute a small Gr from a graph G such that (a) for any query Q Ε Λ Q, Q(G) = Q'(Gr), where Q' Ε Λ can be efficiently computed from Q; and (b) any algorithm for computing Q(G) can be directly applied to evaluating Q' on Gr as is. That is, while we cannot lower the complexity of evaluating graph queries, we reduce data graphs while preserving the answers to all the queries in Λ. To verify the effectiveness of this approach, (1) we develop compression strategies for two classes of queries: reachability and graph pattern queries via (bounded) simulation. We show that graphs can be efficiently compressed via a reachability equivalence relation and graph bisimulation, respectively, while reserving query answers. (2) We provide techniques for aintaining compressed graph Gr in response to changes ΔG to the original graph G. We show that the incremental maintenance problems are unbounded for the two lasses of queries, i.e., their costs are not a function of the size of ΔG and changes in Gr. Nevertheless, we develop incremental algorithms that depend only on ΔG and Gr, independent of G, i.e., we do not have to decompress Gr to propagate the changes. (3) Using real-life data, we experimentally verify that our compression techniques could reduce graphs in average by 95% for reachability and 57% for graph pattern matching, and that our incremental maintenance algorithms are efficient.


This is the third volume in a series of monographs devoted to the theory and practice of psychotherapy. The author, Dietrich Langen, senior physician at the Clinic for Nervous Diseases of the University of Tubingen, examines the Asiatic methods of meditation and liberation and critically analyzes their relevance for occidental psychotherapy. The fluently written volume is illustrated by several halftones and contains an extensive review of the pertinent literature. In succession, the author summarizes the practices of shamans, dervishes, yogis, Buddhists, and Taoists, and he concludes with a description of Zen Buddhism. Control, concentration, abandonment, and meditation as well as training of the autonomic functions are discussed, not so much from the point of view of the philosopher or theologian as from the standpoint of the physician who is interested in mental and physical methods of rehabilitation. This concise treatise gives the Western therapist who possesses a reading knowledge


With the improvement of the urbanization level, the mixed city water has surged and the traditional denitrogenating cost in the course of wastewater reuse has been unbearable. This experiment used the technology of the constructed rapid infiltration (CRI) and applied the soil column simulation method in the laboratory. The results show that nitrogen removal rates of two soil columns are 73.73% 75.54%, 66.70% 77.81% and 79.33% 73.08% under three wet/ dry (3 h/9 h, 6h/18 h, 8 h/40 h) ratios conditions, individually. The same soil column with the same wet/ dry ratio has a higher ammonia nitrogen removal rate within a shorter operation time. The comparison result of experiments show that the artificial soil mixture ratio in column 2 is better than that of column 1, arriving at the optimum operation conditions of the system.


Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has shown promise as an effective treatment modality for cancers and other localized diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and actinic keratosis. PDT relies on light, photosensitizer and oxygen as elements in its mechanism of action. BODIPY photosensitizers that have been under extensive study over the past decade have been demonstrated as a new class of photosensitizers. In this review, we attempt to summarize the decade-long study of BODIPY-based photosensitizers. We provide an overview of the superior photophysical properties possessed by BODIPY-based agents and the various synthetic strategies employed that have led to improved and selective and/or targeted photosensitizers.


Croatian Science Foundation MARRES project (MARine lake (Rogoznica) as a model for EcoSystem functioning in a changing environment) aims to investigate the unique environment (slow exchange of seawater with the sea; atmospheric input is the only source of freshwater) of the marine lake which is an example of highly stratified (permanent anoxia bellow 9 m depth), and by climate changes affected marine system in the middle of the eastern Adriatic coast (43.53° N, 15.95° E). The area of the lake is characterized by the extensive tourism and mariculture, and the low impact of local industrial activities. It is also affected by the combined influence of long-range transport of air masses and local emissions (open-fire events).

An important part of the project is focused on the exchange and interaction between atmosphere, water column and sediment by measuring the atmospheric input (wet and dry deposition) of sulphur compounds, organic carbon, trace metals and radionuclides (Be-7, Pb-210).

This work for the first time will present the current state of the measurements of radioactivity in the Rogoznica lake area, including samples of aerosol particulate matter, PM2.5 < 2.5 um, rainwater and lake water column. Namely, the concentrations of Be-7 and Pb-210 in PM2.5 are measured to determine and correlate the dynamics of particle transport, meteorological information, especially origin of air masses and seasonal variation of PM2.5. While presence of Be-7 indicates the recent wet or dry deposition from the upper parts of the atmosphere, Pb-210 may be used as a tracer for continental air masses. Therefore, it can also indicate the influence of the pollution induced by human activity. Regarding that, special attention will be paid to compare results before and during the Covid-19 lockdown periods.

So far, preliminary results do not show significant difference in PM2.5 masses and measured radionuclide activity concentrations for the lockdown period. Be-7 and Pb-210 were regularly detected in aerosols collected on a glass fiber filters during a one-week sampling periods with the air flow rate of 2.3 m3/h. Their activity concentrations are determined by gamma spectrometry using High Purity Germanium detectors. The results are found to be correlated with PM2.5 masses, ranging from 2.9 to 12.2 Bq/m3 for Be-7 and from 0.5 to 2.5 Bq/m3 for Pb-210. First analyses show that the highest values can be related to the long-range transport of air masses and to the recorded near open-fire event. As expected, Be-7 is also detected in almost every rainwater sample (event), with the activity concentration up to 5.6 Bq/L, while low activities of Pb-210 are detected only sporadically. Related to that, Be-7 is detected in lake water column as well, but only in the surface layer and in samples collected during, or immediately after the rain events.

Dynamics and seasonal variation of radionuclide activity concentrations in here studied samples will be discussed, and the relationships with some meteorological parameters (temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, precipitation level) as well as local and long-range transport and physico-chemical conditions in the lake water column will be established.


Despite their widespread applications, deep neural networks often tend to overfit the training data. Here, we propose a measure called VECA (Variance of Eigenvalues of Covariance matrix of Activation matrix) and demonstrate that VECA is a good predictor of networks' generalization performance during the training process. Experiments performed on fully-connected networks and convolutional neural networks trained on benchmark image datasets show a strong correlation between test loss and VECA, which suggest that we can calculate the VECA to estimate generalization performance without sacrificing training data to be used as a validation set.


Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is highly prevalent in China. To identify the genotypes of HBV in the southern Yunnan Province of China, full-length HBV genomes were extracted from 1 Dai and 4 Hani HBV carriers and linked with the pMD T-18 vector. For each patient, 3–10 clones were sequenced directly and a consensus sequence was created. Genotypic and serotypic analysis revealed 4 HBV/B (2 B2 with adw2 and 2 new subgenotypes with ayw1) and 1 HBV/C (C1 with adrq+) genotypes. The divergences of the entire genome sequences of the new subgenotype were 0–0.9% and 2.99–6.48% between other known HBV/B. Divergences in other coding regions revealed that it was more similar to B3 and B4 in the precore/core gene (2.02 and 2.09%, respectively), and similar to B3 and B5 in the preS1/S2/S gene (2.24 and 2.78%, respectively). Phylogenetic trees using the precore/core and X genes both revealed a new clad separating from the major trunk of genotype B with a 99% bootstrap value. These results show that the 2 consensus isolates are a mosaic of B3–B5, which we designated to subgenotype B6. Considering the geographical distances, the relationship between B6 and other HBV/B subgenotypes (B3–B5) and HBV evolution needs to be further studied.


Molecular genetics has provided science with innovative tools for increasing food production. One of the legacies that Hans Rosling has left behind is understanding of cassava cyanogenesis and how molecular plant genetics could better contribute to the reversal of the "poverty, population and environment spiral" (PPE-spiral). This requires incorporating appropriate methods and tools for routine use in breeding programmes; with breeders in collaboration with interdisciplinary teams, farmers and more specifically female farmers. In other words, molecular anthropology, the combining of anthropological methods from the social sciences with biochemical methods in surveys. The combination of biological sciences with social sciences, in the understanding of cassava cyanogenesis could rapidly advance and be a cost effective way for understanding farmer varietal preferences and their needs for food security. While funding has improved somewhat, evidence shows that despite the central role that women play in provisioning household food security there remains a severe lack of integration of a critical gendered approach.


The rapid growth in government expenditure in Kenya has caused concern among policy makers on the implication of such growth. Over the three decades, government expenditure in the country grew at a faster rate than the growth rate of GDP. Given this fiscal scenario, an explanation of this requires studying the impact of government expenditure on economic growth. The specific objectives of the study were to: investigate the relationship between the components of government expenditure and economic growth; examine the effects of components of government expenditure on GDP growth rate; analyze the effects of government expenditure reforms on economic growth; and to draw policy implications from the findings. The data used were government expenditure components that included expenditure on government investment, physical infrastructure, education, health care, public debt servicing, economic affairs, general administration and services, defense, public order and national security, and government consumption. Sources of data were Kenya government documents and international financial statistics publications. The study applied Vector Auto Regression estimation technique using the annual time series data for the period 1963 to 2008 to evaluate the impact of government expenditure on economic growth. The Johansen cointegration tests revealed a long-run relationship between GDP growth rate and the selected components of government expenditure. Further, the Granger- Causality test indicated bi-directional causality between GDP growth rate and components of government expenditure. The results of impulse response functions and variance decomposition revealed that government expenditure on investment, physical infrastructure, education, health care, public debt servicing, economic affairs, general administration and services, defense, public order and national security and government consumption have effect on economic growth. Furthermore, the study established that expenditure reforms of budget rationalization, expenditure downsizing, privatization and governance affect economic growth. The study concludes that the composition of government expenditure and public expenditure reforms matter for economic growth.


Industrialization has caused most of the world's environmental problems like climate change, water security issues, biodiversity issues among others. Water-related issues like water scarcity, lack of water quality, water sanitation issues, lack of proper water resources management are some of them. Urbanization, population increase, pollution has led to an increase in water demand. Water being the elixir of life, is essential for the day-to-day living of an individual. The Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning have the capability of bringing solutions to these issues. The current study focuses on the water woes of Bengaluru, a fast-growing urban city, due to its migrating population. The woes are also due to the irresponsible behaviour of builders converting lakes into real estate infrastructure leading to clogged drains, excess sewage creation and flooding. A huge mismatch between demand and supply of water is created due to these issues. Before the city hits the Day Zero – no water day, it is significant to set up water infrastructure along with technology implementation which will help resolve this burning issue at the earliest.


Translation initiation of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) RNA is directed by an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) within the 5' untranslated region. However, the details of ribosome-template recognition and subsequent translation initiation are still poorly understood. In this study, we have provided evidence to support the hypothesis that 40S ribosomal subunits bind to CVB3 RNA via basepairing with 18S rRNA in a manner analogous to that of the Shine-Dalgarno (S-D) sequence in prokaryotic systems. We also identified a new site within both the 18S rRNA and the polpyrimidine-tract sequence of the IRES that allows them to form stronger sequence complementation. All these data were obtained from in vitro translation experiments using mutant RNAs containing either an antisense IRES core sequence at the original position or site-directed mutations or deletions in the polypyrimidine tract of the IRES. The mutations significantly reduced translation efficiency but did not abolish protein synthesis, suggesting that the S-D-like sequence is essential, but not sufficient for ribosome binding. To determine how ribosomes reach the initiation codon after internal entry, we created additional mutants: when the authentic initiation codon at nucleotide (nt) 742 was mutated, a 180-nt downstream in-frame AUG codon at nt 922 is able to produce a truncated smaller protein. When this mutation was introduced into the full-length cDNA of CVB3, the derived viruses were still infectious. However, their infectivity was much weaker than that of the wild-type CVB3. In addition, when a stable stem-loop was inserted upstream of the initiation codon in the bicistronic RNA, translation was strongly inhibited. These data suggest that ribosomes reach the initiation codon from the IRES likely by scanning along the viral RNA.


Creative writing takes on many genres, or forms: fiction, poetry, nonfiction and dramatic writing. Whilst all have their own principles and 'rules', all modes of writing overlap and borrow from each other, and so what you learn in one form can influence, inform and inspire your practice in others. Intersecting Genre holds this idea at its heart, embracing the dissolution of disciplinary and genre boundaries to discuss the ways each genre supports the others. Whilst traditional approaches typically discuss one genre independent of others, this book explores genre relationships with each chapter focusing on the intersection between 2 modes and what you can learn and the skills you can transfer by combining the wisdom gained from the study of, for example, fiction and poetry together.
 With most introductory creative writing courses aiming to apprise you of such mechanics of writing as narrative, pace, vocabulary, dialogue, imagery and viewpoint, Intersecting Genre is the ideal companion, offering a unique methodology that analyses these ideas as they feature across the different genres, thus giving you the ultimate, well-rounded introduction before you settle into the modes of writing that best suit you as your progress with your writing. Covering fiction, poetry, nonfiction, writing plays and screenwriting, and also taking stock of the forms that do not fit neatly into any genre silo, this book uses models, critical questions, writing warm-ups and writing practice exercises to give you a solid understanding of the points discussed and encouraging you to put them to practice in your own work. With the field of creative writing evolving constantly, and with approaches to teaching and learning the subject vast and continually expanding, this book offers a dynamic, and uniquely holistic method for developing your writing skills, asking you to deeply consider the issues, and possibilities, present in genre.


Introduction In the context of integrated care, the involved organisations are expected to improve their co-operation and co-ordination. Although this postulation is not new, we still encounter problems with integrated care, which can be ascribed to a lack of information and co-operation of the involved organisations. This prevents sustainability in integrated care. Aims and Objectives To better understand the causes for these problems, analysis approaches have to be embedded in a systemic context. This presentation aims at describing the organisational routines and structures, which help to unleash the view for organisations' self-logic of their behaviour and decision finding. Methods I will focus on the theoretical aspects of sustainability and interface management, using a systems theoretical and network analysis approach. Empirical data are not available yet. Results and Conclusions Organisations follow their own logic, which may appear 'irrational' to outside observers. Since this applies to all involved organisations, a sustainable interface management can hardly be achieved by establishing the same binding rules for organisations with different structures and routines. Taking this into consideration, alternative approaches of sustainability conceptualisation in the context of integrated care are discussed and the importance of analysing organisational structures and routines are highlighted.


The author of this paper analyses two video games created by American J. McGee and which are an interesting example of borrowing adaptation accomplished within digital interactive medium. Article also considers the issues of intersemiotic translation in an unstable narrative text, authorship strategy realized by original interpretation of the source material and using themes, characters, events, and places from the original in navigational virtual space. Author points out the multiplicity of possible readings of these titles content while paying attention to the maturity of the medium of video games and their adaptive potential.


Cosmetic industry is a lucrative business that progressively attracts more attention from marketing research. The highly competitive environment in the cosmetic industry makes it a valuable area to study brand loyalty in cosmetic products. Brand loyalty is one of the important aspects which is significant for the management to sustain competitive advantages in the market. In this research, the relationship between brand loyalty and determinants of brand loyalty was unveiled, with special focus on brand trust, satisfaction, brand price and perceived value. The general objective was to examine the determinants of brand loyalty in cosmetic industry in Nyeri Town. The specific objectives were to determine the effects of brand price on brand loyalty, to assess the effects of brand trust on brand loyalty, to establish the effects of brand satisfaction on brand loyalty, to establish the effect of perceived value on brand loyalty. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey research design where questionnaires were used for data collection. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and has been presented using tables. The target population was 60 salon operators who are consumers of Cosmetic Products in Nyeri Town. A census study was conducted in the salons within Nyeri Town. The overall impression of the respondents is that brand trust, brand satisfaction, brand price and perceived value influence their cosmetic products buying decisions. From the research conducted, the salon owners considered brand perceived value as the most influential factor in determining brand loyalty at 100% level of agreement. Brand satisfaction as a factor determining brand loyalty to the cosmetic brand was rated the second highest at 95.3% agreement level. Brand trust was considered a distant third in determining brand loyalty at 67.4%, while brand price was rated the lowest factor at 53.5%.With all the factors scoring more than 50% level of agreement it is an indicator that all the factors have an influence on the brand loyalty of cosmetic products with the degree of influence varying amongst the different factors. This study supports the view that brand trust, brand perceived value, brand satisfaction and price should remain prime focus for the organization to maintain market share in today"s competitive business environment. The business whose customers are not loyal with them cannot enjoy a respectable position in the market. From the data analysis we can conclude that today"s customer have much awareness of whether a product is giving some sort of value to them or not. To retain the customer for longer period businesses should focus on how to increase the loyalty of their customers. A customer who is satisfied with the offerings and services would be the most loyal customer of the product. Companies should create an atmosphere where if customer shifts to the products of other company he/she should not feel satisfaction as before; thus returns back to the product which he/she used initially. Trustworthiness of the firm also plays important role in building loyalty towards products / services provided. A business which gives importance to relationships with customers always enjoys long term customer retention. Image of a particular firm"s products in the market also plays significant role in promoting customer brand loyalty.


Eristalis tenax and E. pertinax are two closely related Scottish hoverflies that share various ecological features, such as feeding sources, but differ in others (e.g. only adult E. tenax overwinter). The physiological performances and behaviour of these flies were studied in relation to the hygrothermal constraints faced, as were the physiological adaptations in the two (summer and winter) generations of E. tenax. Their water loss rates are rather high, lying in the upper part of the range for mesic insects. Rates are higher in E. tenax than in E. pertinax, and higher in male than in female E. pertinax. Water loss rates can be modified, notably in overwintering, water stressed females. Because of the rather high levels of evaporative cooling, these flies equilibrate at a temperature lower than ambient temperature. This work supports Bakken's (1976) recommendation of using equilibrium temperature as the "external" temperature for the estimation of warming and cooling constants, and further analyses the effects of evaporative cooling on these constants. Both species have endothermic abilities. Only E. tenax thermoregulate to a moderate degree in forward flight, but hovering male E. pertinax are excellent thermoregulators. Haemolymph shunting appears to be in operation in E. tenax, but is unlikely to be a controlled process. Large flies exchange heat with the environment more slowly, have faster warm-up rates, and take off at (and fly with) higher thoracic temperatures than small ones. Both linear dimensions and mass have to be considered, as the various aspects of insects' biology are not affected by the same size factor and because only then can "real" sex differences be distinguished from ones resulting from a difference in shape in males and females. In Scotland, male E. pertinax hover whereas male E. tenax do not. Hovering duration is strongly influenced by temperature. The foraging activity of these flies appears to be controlled in part by a circadian rhythm with additional effects of temperature in male E. tenax, and of light in E. pertinax. Overwintering female E. tenax select crevices in caves and ruins that offer a relatively constant, warm and highly humid microclimate. The start and end of overwintering appear to be triggered by changes in ambient temperature. Further opportunities for comparative studies of eristalines across their broad geographical range and between summer and winter generations are considered.


description and defence of what, on this side of the Atlantic at least, has often been derided as an unnecessarily self-indulgent form of actor training, suitable only for cinematic naturalism. In discussing the relationship between the Method and other philosophies of acting, Strasberg claims kinship with the non-naturalistic Vahktangov and the mute approval of Brecht, who nodded his agreement with Strasberg during a Group Theatre rehearsal of one of the LehrstCick in 1936, and dismisses Artaud and Grotowski as 'interesting' but unoriginal — their mysticism tending to produce 'generalized emotion' as opposed to the 'real emotion' of the Method actor.


This paper has two main objectives: (a) to put the vast body of research on Swedish as a second language (SSL) into one coherent framework; and (b) to test the predictions deriving from processability theory (Pienemann, 1998a, 1998b) for Swedish against this empirical database. We will survey the 14 most prominent research projects on SSL covering wide areas of syntax and morphology in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. This survey is the first to be carried out for Swedish, and it will bring the body of two decades of research into one unified framework. We proceed in the following steps: First, a brief summary of processability theory is given. Then the theory is used to generate a unifying framework for the development of the specific L2 grammatical system (Swedish). Finally, the new framework is tested in the above-mentioned empirical studies.


The work presented in this paper aims at restricting the input parameter values of the semi-analytical model used in Galics and MoMaF, so as to derive which parameters influence the most the results, e.g., star formation, feedback and halo recycling efficiencies, etc. Our approach is to proceed empirically: we run lots of simulations and derive the correct ranges of values. The computation time needed is so large, that we need to run on a grid of computers. Hence, we model Galics and MoMaF execution time and output files size, and run the simulation using a grid middleware: Diet. All the complexity of accessing resources, scheduling simulations and managing data is harnessed by Diet and hidden behind a web portal accessible to the users.


In recent years, researchers from fields as diverse as psychology, applied statistics, computer sciences, and communication sciences have increasingly turned to the Internet as a source of data about emotions. "Online emotions" are typically observed only indirectly in some form of textual communication recorded on the Internet, rather than more immediately in the emotional or physiological responses of the human participants of a conversation. While this may be less of a concern from a pure communications perspective, the relationship between the textual content of online communication and the emotional states of people turns into a key issue for the study of psychological processes associated with such emotions. The paper will present some innovative applications related to business applications of an integrated approach composed by IoT Big Data, Textual Data and specific surveys. These surveys are designed according to measurement approaches of individual values such as Semiometrics or limbic psychometry. In the paper some important problem related to self selection bias in IoT behavioural data will be solved using counterfactual approach.


TsrE, a 32kDa sulfur-transferase with two rhodanese domains, was identified as a result of its over-expression during anaerobic tetrachloroethene respiration by the obligate gram-positive anaerobe Desulfitobacterium hafniense. The tsrE gene is part of an operon containing the classical ABCD gene arrangement belonging to the DMSO reductase family, and showing homology with the thiosulfate reductase operon (tsr). Detailed analysis of TsrE sequence features revealed the presence of a N-terminal lipo-box suggesting the insertion of the sulfur-transferase in the cytoplasmic membrane as a lipoprotein. Evidence was obtained for the attachment of TsrE to the membrane where it faces the outside of the cell. Each rhodanese domain of TsrE contains an active-site cysteine with motifs CKSGGR and CAVGAR. Heterologous expression and purification allowed the characterization of TsrE and variants, revealing that despite few differences, both rhodanese motifs are active in sulfur transfer. The influence on TsrE level of various sulfur compounds present in the medium was investigated, indicating a positive effect of thiosulfate, sulfide, sulfite and cysteine, but not sulfate. TsrE was expressed at the highest level, when D. hafniense was growing on thiosulfate as electron acceptor, suggesting that all tsr genes are co-expressed. A speculative function for TsrE is the mobilization of sulfur, although a clear role for TsrE in anaerobic tetrachloroethene respiration remains to be elucidated.


This paper comprehensively examines price transmission from world, neighbour country, and internal commercial hub markets to Nigerian urban markets, as well as from urban to rural markets within the country, for seven key food security crops (maize, millet, sorghum, rice, cassava, yams and cowpeas). There are three key findings: (i) tradability matters for price transmission, but tradability varies across crops and regions. The strongest international linkages are with neighbouring countries. Rice price transmission is high across all markets, while coarse grain price correspondence is low with world prices but high with neighbour country market prices; (ii) our results imply that local conditions matter for price transmission, and are relatively more important than trade for some crops (e.g. yams, cassava) than others (e.g. imported rice, maize); (iii) larger than expected long-run price transmission parameters in world and neighbour countries for rice and coarse grains suggest that, in these select markets, there are either large transactions costs or quality premiums that vary systematically with border prices, and/or mark-ups captured by traders with market power.


Recent advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) and pervasive and ubiquitous computing provide a glimpse into the future of our planet and reveal exciting visions of many smart things: smart cities, smart homes, smart cars, and other smart spaces such as malls, workplaces, hotels, schools, and much more. Driven by a technological revolution offering "low-power many things and wireless almost everything," we could, in only a decade, envision and prototype impressive smart space systems that improve quality of life, enhance awareness of resources and the environment, and enrich users' experience. However, prototyping is one thing and actual large-scale deployments are another. The massive scale of sensors and devices that will be deployed in smart cities of the future will be challenging. Without an ecosystem and a scalable architecture in place, it will be extremely difficult to manage or program such an expanding and massive IoT. In this paper, we introduce the Cloud-Edge-Beneath (CEB) architecture and present its salient scalability features. We also present a validation study based on an event-driven programming model demonstrating CEB's scaling behavior in face of IoT expansion and under dynamically increasing loads.


The emergence of the Supreme Court as a subject for cartoon humor in the years following Brown v. Board of Education is evidence of a significant development in the public's attitude toward the Court: a growing awareness of its expanding role in American life, together with a willingness to appreciate - and laugh at - the impact of the Court's jurisprudence on domestic life. This first study to examine cartoons as a measure of public perceptions of the Court draws on the recent publication of the complete cartoons of The New Yorker magazine, spanning the period from 1925 to the present. These cartoons, most of which rely on personal conversations between spouses, friends, and colleagues for their humor, suggest that over the past eighty years New Yorker readers came to appreciate both the Court's role in the sweeping social changes that followed Brown and the impact of specific Court opinions on their own lives.


Two commercial snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars (Hystyle and Labrador) that differ in pod Ca concentration were grown aeroponically to assess physiological factors associated with these differences. Xylem flow rate, Ca absorbed, and Ca concentration in sieve sap and pods (all and commercial size no. 4) were measured. Flow rate, Ca absorption and pod Ca concentration, but not sap Ca concentration, differed between cultivars, and this suggests that genetic variability in pod Ca concentration is caused mainly by differences in flow rate, rather than differences in sap Ca concentration. 'Hystyle' showed 1.6 times greater flow rate, 1.5 times greater pod Ca concentration, and 1.7 times greater Ca absorbed than 'Labrador'. Flow rate correlated positively with Ca absorbed ( R = 0.90), Ca concentration in pods of size no. 4 (R = 0.55), and total pods (R = 0.65). Plant maturity influenced sap Ca concentration and Ca translocated increased as plant matured. These results provide evidence that flow rate differences may cause variability for pod Ca concentration in snap beans.


The possibility studied of considering simultaneously the role of neuro-physiopathological and psychopathological factors in the genesis of stammering. After recalling the psychoanalytic theory behind this problem and giving a clinical example, the different modes of evolution that stammering can have on the psychic apparatus were examined and the secondary economic function of this symptom, especially in relation to repression is emphasized.


Instead of purchasing and maintaining their own computing infrastructure, scientists can now run data-intensive scientific applications in cloud computing environment by facilitating its vast storage and computation capabilities. During the scheduling of such scientific applications for execution, various computation data flows will happen between the controller and computing server instances. Amongst various quality-of-service (QoS) metrics, data security is one of the greatest concerns to scientists because their data may be intercepted or stolen by malicious parties during those data flows. An existing typical method for addressing this issue is to apply Internet Key Exchange (IKE) scheme to generate and exchange session keys, and then to apply these keys for performing symmetric-key encryption which will encrypt those data flows. However, the IKE scheme suffers from low efficiency due to its low performance of asymmetric-key crypto logical operations over a large amount of data and high-density operations which are exactly the characteristics of scientific applications. In this paper, we propose Cloud Computing Background Key Exchange (CCBKE), a novel authenticated key exchange scheme that aims at efficient security-aware scheduling of scientific applications. Our scheme is designed based on randomness-reuse strategy and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) scheme. Theoretical analyses and simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the IKE scheme, our CCBKE scheme can significantly improve the efficiency by dramatically reducing time consumption and computation load without sacrificing the level of security.


intERUPTion: Re-Viewing Motion, Image & the Dancing Body is the written exploration of intERUPTion, my Bachelor of Fine Arts dance piece that was performed in Catapult: A BFA Dance Concert on February 15-17, 2013 in the Charlotte York Irey Theatre on the University of Colorado at Boulder's campus. In the year-long process of creating intERUPTion, I choreographed, directed, and harvested material in collaboration with my cast of dancers through writing, conversation, mining gestural movement, improvisation, and embodiment of choreography. I was interested in women's personal and cultural experiences with body image, and investigating these themes through movement and through a feminist lens. In my research I discovered a relationship between motion and interruption. Through this paper, I explore how interruption's dual roles of judging the body along with interjecting and redirecting personal and cultural narratives of female body image manifested in movement material. The power that motion holds to subvert the objectified female form is also located within this conversation on interruption. Overall, I intend the work to expand and more deeply secure the understanding of the dancing body's personal nature as political, as well as the dancing body's important place in academic scholarship. Behm 2


Acetic acid is an important organic acid used in many industries such as rubber processing and food processing. Thermotolerant microorganisms including acetic acid bacteria have been increasingly considered and developed in recent years, since they are able to be potentially and popularly utilized in many different issues of fermentation technology at high temperature, leading efficient production and reducing cooling cost. The objective of this study was to select the thermotolerant acetic acid bacteria for their application in acetic acid fermentation at high temperature. In this study, 9 isolates (A1, A3, A8, A18, A23, A47, A49, A50 and A52) were selected from 20 isolates with the acetic acid production ranged from 1.72% to 2.04% (w/v) at 37°C. The amplified 16SrDNA sequences were employed for the identification of 9 selected strains of acetic acid bacteria. These strains were dominated by representatives from the Acetobacter genus with 4 species such as A. pasteurianus, A. tropicalis, A. orientalis and A. sicerae. Acetobacter sicerae A18 was identified as the most effective fermentative acetic acid bacterial strain at 39°C with acetic acid production was 2.56% (w/v) and productivity was 62.19%. Furthermore, the favorable conditions for acetic acid fermentation by the selected target strain A. sicerae A18 were found as follow: pH at 4.0, ethanol concentration at 5.0% (v/v) and the starter density at 10 5 cells/mL; acid concentration and productivity were 2.82% (w/v) and 66.02%, respectively.


Participants made expectancy of success (P s ) statements in a dart throwing task under 2 success criterion conditions. In an absolute criterion condition, participants estimated the probability of their gaining a fixed number of points on trials at increasing distances from the target. Participants in a relative success criterion condition estimated where they would rank in a group of 100 participants on each trial. A significant difference in linear trends (p <0.001) between the criterion groups was obtained, with P s remaining relatively constant across difficulty levels in the relative criterion condition while declining rapidly as a function of task difficulty in the absolute criterion condition. Implications regarding the generality of the expectancy variable in the Akinson-Feather motivational model are discussed.


The acid tolerance response (ATR) is an adaptive system triggered at external pH (pHo) values of 5.5 to 6.0 that will protect cells from more severe acid stress (J. Foster and H. Hall, J. Bacteriol. 172:771-778, 1990). Correlations between the internal pH (pHi) of adapted versus unadapted cells at pHo of 3.3 indicate that the ATR system produces an inducible pH-homeostatic function. This function serves to maintain the pHi above 5 to 5.5. Below this range, cells rapidly lose viability. Development of this pH homeostasis mechanism was sensitive to protein synthesis inhibitors and operated only to augment the pHi at pHo values below 4. In contrast, classical constitutive pH homeostasis was insensitive to protein synthesis inhibitors and was efficient only at pHo values above 4. Physiological studies indicated an important role for the Mg(2+)-dependent proton-translocating ATPase in affording ATR-associated survival during exposure to severe acid challenges. Along with being acid intolerant, cells deficient in this ATPase did not exhibit inducible pH homeostasis. We speculate that adaptive acid tolerance is important to Salmonella species in surviving acid encounters in both the environment and the infected host.


Corn (Zea Mays L.) seedlings were in four cadmium (Cd) levels of 0-1mg/L in a hydroponic system to analyze the antioxidant enzyme system, Cd content in the shoots and roots and growth responces in the leaves of corn. There was a significant increase in malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration from Cd 0mg/L to 1mg/L, and peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activities in the leaves of corn subjected to 0-1mg/L Cd. However there was a significant decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities subjected to 0-1mg/L Cd. This indicated that Cd stress induced an oxidative stress response in corn seedlings, characterized by an accumulation of MDA, decrease in activities of SOD and increase in activities of POD and CAT. Root and leaf Cd contents of corn increased with their exposure Cd level, and the highest Cd concentration occurred in roots, followed by leaves.


This is a paper presentation, included in the edited volume of 'Afetiries II' published by Domes International Review of Architecture. It follows the 'Afetitires II symposium, organised on 27 May 2017 in Benaki Museum Athens, Greece. How are the works of great architects recounted by the new generation of Greek architects? 45 Greek architects under the age of 45 present works from around the world, from antiquity to the present, which have been a source of inspiration and a starting point for their own creation.

The project presented is "Generator" (1976-1980), an unbuilt project by London-based architect Cedric Price. The research was conducted partly at the project archives in the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal, Canada and partly at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, USA. Cedric Price suggested a cluster that would house company actions, cultural events and cultural hospitality; the site would provide "a list of options for individual or collective use -general spaces, environmental control, protection and enjoyment. A place for work, creation, thought and reflection". Generator would enhance a sense of creative isolation within nature. Apart from being obsessed with time and high technology, the Cedric Price archive also shows his deep sensitivity to its landscape, place and history, and other elements which today characterise the ecological approach to design.
Access to Cedric Price's archives gave a new texture to works I thought already familiar. I had the opportunity to discover unpublished drawings, sketches and ideas. I approached the archives not through the eyes of the architect-historian but with that of the architect-designer, that is to say, in making associative links and logical games without being particularly concerned with facts and historical details. I'd like to urge the architects to visit the archives as a starting point
personal reading of the work of the elders. When we meet other architects' work in books, by convention, their interpretation has been mediated by the subjective glance of the architect - historian.


This book is an account of Sandy Gall's last trip to Afghanistan in 1986 to report the war. It tells of his journey, with all its hardships and dangers, as well as explaining the background to the war including some dramatic pictures of the fighting. Sandy Gall chose to revisit the man he regards as the outstanding commander in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Masud, who is trying to organize resistance to the Russians on a regional and eventually national scale. The author views the war as Russia's Vietnam and believes it merits much wider attention. He believes it has been largely neglected because of the difficulties of the terrain and the length of time it takes to get to the remoter areas. For his work in Afghanistan, Sandy Gall - a Reuter correspondent for ten years and ITN "trouble shooter" since 1963 - was awarded the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1987.


Abstract The Olympus PK™ CMV system (OHA) for the detection of antibodies to cytomegalovirus (CMV) was evaluated for use on the Olympus PK7100 automated pretransfusion blood testing instrument. Indeterminate reactions were obtained with 18 (1.2%) of the 1,495 samples originally tested, of which 9, 6, and 3 were OHA positive, indeterminate, and negative, respectively, on retest. The OHA was found to have a concordance of 99.7 percent when tested in parallel with the CMV Scan latex agglutination test (LAT). There were four discrepant results in the 1,495 donor plasmas tested by the two methods. Two of the three samples that were positive by the LAT and negative by the OHA test were also negative with the IMx enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and complement fixation test (CFT). The OHA failed to detect antibodies to CMV in a sample that was positive by the IMx ELISA, CFT, and LAT. The IMx ELISA, which was regarded as the arbiter of true positivity, yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 99.9 percent and 100 percent respectively, for the Olympus PK™ CMV system. Forty percent of 1,807 random blood donors in this region had antibodies to CMV. CMV testing can be performed simultaneously with blood grouping and red cell antibody screening on the Olympus PK7100. Immunohematology 1992;8:41–43.


According to our studies, human term placenta contains about 112 nmol/g of ACh. In the present studies, isolated placental villi were suspended in Kreb's bicarbonate buffer (pH 7.4) at 37 degrees and acetylcholine (ACh) released into the medium was analyzed by gas chromatography. The spontaneous release of ACh into the medium was linear with time and was 35 pmol/g/min. Cocaine in doses of 280 and 56o micrometer decreased the spontaneous release of ACh to 23, and 17 pmol/g/min, respectively. Raising the Ca2+ concentration in the Kreb's bicarbonate buffer from 2.34 to 4.64 mM, or the addition of nicotine (58 micrometer) to the bath increased the rate of release of ACh to 53 and 47 pmol/g/min, respectively. Cocaine decreased the rate of release of ACh even in the presence of Ca2+ or nicotine. ACh was not released when Ca2+ was absent in the medium. Nicotine did not stimulate the release of ACh in the Ca2+ free medium. High concentrations of K+ increased ACh release in the presence of Ca2+ and it did not have any effect on ACh release in the absence of Ca2+. These observations indicate that external Ca2+ is required for the release of ACh and cocaine acts possibly by preventing the entry of external Ca2+ into the syncytiotrophoblast, and thereby decreases ACh release from the placental villus.


The potential growth in data mining has an important aspect on security due to the consideration of the data as an asset. The provisioning of protection in a public infrastructure fails to ensure privacy disclosure of an individual's information. Differential Privacy (DP) is a promising solution for assuring privacy protection by injecting noise using the Laplace mechanism or Exponential mechanism. The access of data by analysts is performed via edge devices. A common problem identified from previous research work is the leakage of privacy at the edge layer and data accessed by unauthorized people. To address the problem, this paper proposes DP-FCNN, that implements Differential Privacy using a Fuzzy Convolution Neural Network (FCNN) with Laplace Mechanism for injecting noise. The processes handled here are data processing and query processing. The dataset is uploaded by the data owner to the data provider, who is responsible for injecting noise and then encrypting with Piccolo encryption before uploading it into the cloud. Based on the uploaded dataset, the data owner constructs a hash index from the extracted key attributes by using the BLAKE2s algorithm for performing hashing. The hash index is fed into the edge server to form a Merkle hash tree due to the data leakage at the edge is eliminated. On the other hand, requests/queries by the data analyst are authenticated by the data provider. The hash tree in the edge server then searches for the corresponding data, extracting it from the cloud and delivers it to the data analyst in an encrypted format. Every authenticated data analyst is provided with a decryption key for retrieving the query result. This is implemented using Java and the results show better efficiency in terms of scalability, processing time and accuracy.


Introduction Economics has been defined and re‐defined several times in the past, and even within the dominant scientific orientation of the discipline, there are currently a number of alternative definitions. One of the definitions, which has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years is "economics as the science of choices." This definition focuses on the fundamental objective of the discipline as currently formulated, namely, the optimum allocation of resources through appropriate choices, or in other words, the development of economic engineering based on science. We will use the concept of choices as the convenient point of entry into the exploration of the nature of economic reality, or its ontology.


An older male patient with a history of tachycardia treated with atenolol presented to an outside hospital on 22 February 2017 with acute right flank pain. He had a CT scan which revealed a large right renal mass with acute haemorrhage. He was initially managed with interventional radiology guided embolism on 25 February 2017 due to the ongoing bleeding and haemodynamic instability. He was then transferred to our institution. He underwent right radical nephrectomy on 13 March 2017. His pathology revealed a 12.5×6×4.5 cm mass consistent with angiosarcoma of the right kidney with negative margins. Final pathology was pT2b with extension of the mass into the renal vein and perirenal adipose tissue. He was discharged soon after surgery. He was recommended to undergo adjuvant chemotherapy.


Food supply chains of developed countries industrialised in the second half of the twentieth century, with significant implications for developing countries over policy priorities, the ensuing external costs and the accompanying concentration of market power. Very powerful corporations dominate many sectors. Primary producers are locked into tight specifications and contracts. Consumers may benefit from cheaper food but there are quality implications and health externalities. As consumer confidence has been shaken, new quality agencies have been created. Tensions have emerged about the state's role as facilitator of industrial efficiencies. Food policy is thus torn between the pursuit of productivity and reduced prices and the demand for higher quality, with implications for both producers and consumers in the developing world.


Government intervention in livestock markets has become a controversial issue in Taiwan. Opponents charge that the policy of restricting pork export whenever the government deems the action necessary has led to a drop in pork prices on Taiwan over time, benefitting pork consumers but cutting deeply into the profitability of hog production. Consequently, there is growing pressure to liberalize pork exports. Similarly, opponents contend that the large imports of frozen beef, subsidized by the Australian government, that have been dumped in Taiwan since 1975, have led to a sharp decline in the domestic price of beef and in cattle inventories. Taiwanese cattle producers have requested that the government impose restrictions on beef imports such as a quota or an import surcharge;The main objective of this study is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Taiwanese livestock and feedgrain markets and an evaluation of the likely effects of current and alternative policies on the Taiwanese livestock and feedgrain markets. A description of the structure and characteristics of the Taiwanese livestock industry and related government policies is first presented. Then a general model of the industry which integrates the cattle and beef, hog and pork, chicken and chicken meat, corn, and soybean sectors is developed and estimated using the Wallis-like two step estimator;Dynamic policy simulation analysis provides strong evidence of a significant impact of pork export restrictions on the Taiwanese livestock and feedgrain markets over the long run. The study suggests that a pork export embargo would force a drop in the domestic retail price of pork and, consequently, a decline in domestic pork production. The simulation results also indicate that an increase in the import prices of corn or soybeans as a result of a drought in the U.S., for example, would widely affect the Taiwanese livestock and feedgrain markets. The higher prices of corn or soybeans would push up feeding costs in the livestock industries in Taiwan and, consequently, decrease the production of meat. Alternative policies intended to support the domestic beef industry such as a restrictive beef import quota and the import tariff currently provided to U.S. beef have limited effects on the Taiwanese livestock and feedgrain markets.


China has made considerable progress in economic, social, cultural and political fields since reform and opening-up started in 1978. In the last forty years the country lifted over 700 million people out of poverty by implementing large-scale, long-lasting, government-led, and very effective rural poverty alleviation and development plan. In health care financing, the country also achieved universal health insurance coverage for 1.3 billion people in a short time, and that is astonishing. This study tried to draw a lesson for developing countries by analyzing China's rural poverty alleviation programs through health care financing. To this end, a study was conducted in Taijiang County in Guizhou province of the People's Republic of China, in six impoverished villages. Data were collected for this study in a three month period (December 2018 to February 2019) through a questionnaire, focus group discussions and interviews. This study seek to answer the following two questions: What lessons do the Chinese experiments of poverty alleviation through health care financing offer to other developing countries? Are the Chinese experiences replicable elsewhere in the third world? To answer these questions, a deductive approach was adopted in this study methodology. First, China's rural poverty alleviation programs was explored in general and based on this the rural development efforts in Taijiang County, in particular was examined. This study showed that clear government vision and determination, and popular participation have great contribution in China's rural poverty alleviation through health care financing. The government used very effective poverty alleviation approaches that include "comprehensive control and development area by area," "poverty alleviation village by village," "participatory poverty alleviation," and "one plan, implementation year by year". Such approaches have not only made significant contributions to China's rural poverty alleviation, but also become recognized as best practices for poverty alleviation in developing countries. It is believe that the basic strategies, models, and experiences of poverty alleviation of China are significant references for developing countries.


115In solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy is applied to characterise a variety of low oxidation-state indium(I) compounds. 115In static wideline SSNMR spectra of several In(I) complexes were acquired with moderate and ultra-high field NMR spectrometers (9.4 and 21.1 T, respectively). 115In MAS NMR spectra were obtained with moderate and ultra-fast (>60 kHz) spinning speeds at 21.1 T. In certain cases, variable-temperature (VT) 115In SSNMR experiments were performed to study dynamic behaviour and phase transitions. The indium electric field gradient (EFG) and chemical shift (CS) tensor parameters were determined from the experimental spectra. With the aid of first principles calculations, the tensor parameters and orientations are correlated to the structure and symmetry of the local indium environments. In addition, calculations aid in proposing structural models for samples where single crystal X-ray structures could not be obtained. The rapidity with which high quality 115In SSNMR spectra can be acquired at 21.1 T and the sensitivity of the 115In NMR parameters to the indium environment suggest that 115In SSNMR is a powerful probe of the local chemical environments of indium sites. This work demonstrates that 115In NMR can be applied to a wide range of important materials for the purpose of increasing our understanding of structures and dynamics at the molecular/atomic level, especially for the characterisation of disordered, microcrystalline and/or multi-valence solids for which crystal structures are unavailable.


a demonstrable connexion of any sort with Greeks, and finally as complete a list as he can of all persons of Greek or Graeco-Italian culture (as shown by their names ; he wisely renounces any attempt to distinguish the native Greeks from the rest) who are recorded in any document as taking part in the relevant worships. The order of events, as he sees it, is as follows. First comes the attempt by Ptolemy I to establish a Graeco-Egyptian cult, that of Sarapis. Next, from 285 to 223, i.e., during the period in which Ptolemaic sea-power had not yet been shattered by the defeat at Andros, this artificial worship spreads over the area of Egyptian influence, bringing with it the cult of a somewhat hellenized lsis and others of her entourage. Then, especially after Rhaphia (217), comes the Egyptian nationalistic movement, which would have but little to do with manufactured gods and turned emphatically to the genuine native cults. From about 145 on, however, there comes something like a reconciliation ; Greek and Egyptian, living side by side, so far intermingle that many Greeks worship the native gods, apparently not without fervour, while on the whole retaining their own cults as well. Meanwhile the Egyptian worships had been spreading, both in the older, hellenized form and in the later and more nearly Egyptian shape, throughout the Greek-speaking world, until, as Professor Brady says with a certain amount of exaggeration, the cult of Sarapis and lsis became 'dominant' throughout that area (p. 43). It would be more nearly correct to say that the Egyptians had won a place as respectable citizens of Olympos, much as Hephaistos had done many centuries before.


Changes occurring in the Extension environment include that of climate. Reduced and sporadic rainfall is among the effects of climate change and variability with consequent negative effects on food production. Smallholder agriculture in most developing countries world-wide, including South Africa, is largely rain-fed. Extension agents, therefore, need to constantly improve their capabilities to remain useful to farming communities. The purpose of the paper is to determine Extension agents' climate variability coping competencies required to effectively support smallholder crop farmers' production. The study adopted a multi-stage random sampling approach to site and respondents' selection. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data in 2014 from smallholder crop farmers in four municipalities of Limpopo province. Information was also collected from Extension managers and field-level extension agents of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture by means of questionnaires. The most popular climate variability coping strategy promoted by most extension agents was conservation agriculture. Small yield differences between Extension service-recipients and non-recipients indicate that Extension support has minimal effect on farmers' production. Agents need new competencies regarding correct application conservation agriculture. The study recommends the involvement of extension agents, scientists and farmers in adaptive trials for effective implementation of conservation agricultural practices to improve crop yields. Keywords: Extension agents, climate change and variability, Limpopo province, small-scale farmers, conservation agriculture, adaptive trials


Breast cancer arising in female BRCA1 mutation carriers is characterized by an aggressive phenotype and early age of onset. We performed tandem mass spectrometry-based proteomics of secretomes and exosome-like extracellular vesicles from BRCA1-deficient and BRCA1-proficient murine breast tumor models to identify extracellular protein biomarkers, which can be used as an adjunct to current diagnostic modalities in patients with BRCA1-deficient breast cancer. We identified 2,107 proteins, of which 215 were highly enriched in the BRCA1-deficient secretome. We demonstrated that BRCA1-deficient secretome proteins could cluster most human BRCA1- and BRCA2-related breast carcinomas at the transcriptome level. Topoisomerase I (TOP1) and P-cadherin (CDH3) expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays of a large panel of 253 human breast carcinomas with and without BRCA1/2 mutations. We showed that expression of TOP1 and CDH3 was significantly increased in human BRCA1-related breast carcinomas relative to sporadic cases (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). Multiple logistic regression showed that TOP1 (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.75; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.85 - 7.71, p < 0.001) as well as CDH3 positivity (adjusted OR 2.45; 95% CI, 1.08 - 5.49, p = 0.032) were associated with BRCA1/2-related breast carcinomas after adjustment for triple-negative phenotype and age. In conclusion, proteome profiling of secretome using murine breast tumor models is a powerful strategy to identify non-invasive candidate biomarkers of BRCA1-deficient breast cancer. We demonstrate that TOP1 and CDH3 are closely associated to BRCA1-deficient breast cancer. These data merit further investigation for early detection of tumors arising in BRCA1 mutation carriers.


We recently developed the single giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) method for investigating the functions and dynamics of biomembranes. The single GUV method can provide detailed information on the elementary processes of physiological phenomena in biomembranes, such as their rate constants. Here we describe the process of pore formation induced by the antimicrobial peptide (AMP), magainin 2, and the pore-forming toxin (PFT), lysenin, as revealed by the single GUV method. We obtained the rate constants of several elementary steps, such as peptide/protein-induced pore formation in lipid membranes and the membrane permeation of fluorescent probes through the pores. Information on the entry of the cell-penetrating peptide (CPP), transportan 10 (TP10), into a single GUV and its induced pore formation in lipid membranes was also obtained. We compare the single GUV method with other methods for investigating the interaction of peptides/proteins with lipid membranes (i.e., the large unilamellar vesicle (LUV) suspension method, the GUV suspension method, and single channel recording), and discuss the pros and cons of the single GUV method. On the basis of these data, we discuss the advantages of the single GUV method.


Exploring active and stable electrocatalysts for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is necessary to broaden the practical applications of proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. Unfortunately, the active sites of electrocatalysts for the acidic OER, which are the most powerful tool for designing and optimizing OER electrocatalysts, still remain ambiguous. Herein, we synthesize Ag doped Co3O4 with different atomic ratios of Co2+/Co3+ and investigate the effect of preferential exposure of Co2+ in Co3O4 on the acidic OER through systematic experiments for the first time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to probe the atomic ratio of Co2+/Co3+ on the surface of Co3O4. The results demonstrate that Co3O4 richer in Co2+ shows the best acidic OER performance, and affords a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 470 mV along with having a satisfactory stability in H2SO4 solution. Moreover, low-temperature calcination treatment is found to be an effective method to aid preferential growth of Co2+ on the surface of Co3O4, further making our synthesis process more practical and universal. Therefore, this work provides some insight into designing non-precious electrocatalysts for the acidic OER, by identifying active sites and offering a versatile modulation strategy on the preferential growth of real active sites.


Diffusion probabilistic models (DPMs) are a class of powerful deep generative models (DGMs). Despite their success, the iterative generation process over the full timesteps is much less efficient than other DGMs such as GANs. Thus, the generation performance on a subset of timesteps is crucial, which is greatly influenced by the covariance design in DPMs. In this work, we consider diagonal and full covariances to improve the expressive power of DPMs. We derive the optimal result for such covariances, and then correct it when the mean of DPMs is imperfect. Both the optimal and the corrected ones can be decomposed into terms of conditional expectations over functions of noise. Building upon it, we propose to estimate the optimal covariance and its correction given imperfect mean by learning these conditional expectations. Our method can be applied to DPMs with both discrete and continuous timesteps. We consider the diagonal covariance in our implementation for computational efficiency. For an efficient practical implementation, we adopt a parameter sharing scheme and a two-stage training process. Empirically, our method outperforms a wide variety of covariance design on likelihood results, and improves the sample quality especially on a small number of timesteps.


Two types of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steels have been produced by mechanical alloying (MA) either in argon or in hydrogen atmosphere, and vacuum hot pressing (VHP). A drastic reduction in the oxygen and nitrogen contents after VHP was strongly affected by hydrogen gas used as the MA atmosphere. MA in hydrogen was found to be effective for refining the steel matrix and enhancing the tensile ductility of the ODS ferritic steels.


Respiratory characteristics of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cvs Gabo and WW15), mung bean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek cv. Celera) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv. Sunfola) were studied in plants grown under a normal CO2 concentration and in air containing an additional 340 (or 250) μl l−1 CO2. Such an increase in global atmospheric CO2 concentration has been forecast for about the middle of the next century. The aim was to measure the effect of high CO2 on respiration and its components. Polarographic and, with wheat, CO2 exchange techniques were used. The capacity of the alternative pathway of respiration in roots was determined polarographically in the presence of 0.1 mM KCN. The actual rate of alternative pathway respiration was assessed by reduction in oxygen consumption caused by 10 mM salicylhydroxamic acid.

Each species responded differently. In wheat, growth in high atmospheric CO2 was associated with up to 45% reduction in respiration by both roots and whole plants. Use of respiratory inhibitors in polarographic measurements on wheat roots implicated reduction in the degree of engagement of the alternative pathway as a major contributor to this reduced respiratory activity of high-CO2 plants. No change was found in the total sugar content per unit wheat root dry weight as a result of high CO2. In none of the species was there an increase in the absolute, or relative, contribution by the alternative pathway to total respiration of the root systems. Thus the improved photosynthetic assimilate supply of plants grown in high CO2 did not lead to increased diversion of carbon through the non-phosphorylating alternative pathway of respiration in the root. On the contrary, in wheat grown in high CO2 the reduced loss of carbon through that route must have contributed to their larger dry weight.


Abstract Context In primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) bone mineral density (BMD) is typically decreased in cortical bone and relatively preserved in trabecular bone. An increased fracture rate is observed however not only at peripheral sites but also at the spine, and fractures occur at higher BMD values than expected. We hypothesized that components of bone quality other than BMD are affected in PHPT as well. Objective To evaluate bone material properties using impact microindentation (IMI) in PHPT patients. Methods In this cross-sectional study, the Bone Material Strength index (BMSi) was measured by IMI at the midshaft of the tibia in 37 patients with PHPT (28 women), 11 of whom had prevalent fragility fractures, and 37 euparathyroid controls (28 women) matched for age, gender, and fragility fracture status. Results Mean age of PHPT patients and controls was 61.8 ± 13.3 and 61.0 ± 11.8 years, respectively, P = .77. Calcium and PTH levels were significantly higher in PHPT patients but BMD at the lumbar spine (0.92 ± 0.15 vs 0.89 ± 0.11, P = .37) and the femoral neck (0.70 ± 0.11 vs 0.67 ± 0.07, P = .15) were comparable between groups. BMSi however was significantly lower in PHPT patients than in controls (78.2 ± 5.7 vs 82.8 ± 4.5, P < .001). In addition, BMSi was significantly lower in 11 PHPT patients with fragility fractures than in the 26 PHPT patients without fragility fractures (74.7 ± 6.0 vs 79.6 ± 5.0, P = .015). Conclusion Our data indicate that bone material properties are altered in PHPT patients and most affected in those with prevalent fractures. IMI might be a valuable additional tool in the evaluation of bone fragility in patients with PHPT.


Climate change is a key concern to the local and global community. Because of its transformative nature, education both formal and informal has been identified as the vehicle for mitigating climate change. Many education systems however have been found lacking content necessary to produce learners that will lead efforts in mitigating climate change. Content is a very important element of the education process. It forms the basis for teaching and learning. Geography as an interdisciplinary subject is most suitable to teach learners about climate change. This study investigates the contribution of secondary school geography content in mitigating climate change in Uganda. Through questionnaires and interviews from geography teachers, this study reveal that content about climate change in the secondary school geography curriculum in Uganda is not explicit. The climate change content lies at the background of other topics and requires expertise of the teachers to retrieve it. Therefore teaching about climate change depends on interest and capacity of individual teachers.


Background Short stature and leg length are associated with risk of diabetes and obesity. However, it remains unclear whether this association is observed in Asians. We evaluated the association between short stature and increased risk for diabetes using the Korean National Health Screening (KNHS) dataset. Methods We assessed diabetes development in 2015 in 21,122,422 non-diabetic Koreans (mean age 43 years) enrolled in KNHS from 2009 to 2012 using International Classification of Diseases 10th (ICD-10) code and anti-diabetic medication prescription. Risk was measured in age- and sex-dependent quintile groups of baseline height (20 to 39, 40 to 59, ≥60 years). Results During median 5.6-year follow-up, 532,918 cases (2.5%) of diabetes occurred. The hazard ratio (HR) for diabetes development gradually increased from the 5th (reference) to 1st quintile group of baseline height after adjustment for confounding factors (1.000, 1.076 [1.067 to 1.085], 1.097 [1.088 to 1.107], 1.141 [1.132 to 1.151], 1.234 [1.224 to 1.244]), with similar results in analysis by sex. The HR per 5 cm height increase was lower than 1.00 only in those with fasting blood glucose (FBG) below 100 mg/dL (0.979 [0.975 to 0.983]), and in lean individuals (body mass index [BMI] 18.5 to 23 kg/m2: 0.993 [0.988 to 0.998]; BMI <18.5 kg/m2: 0.918 [0.9 to 0.935]). Conclusion Height was inversely associated with diabetes risk in this nationwide study of Korean adults. This association did not differ by sex, and was significant in lean individuals and those with normal FBG levels.


With the advance of computer and photonics technology, imaging photoplethysmography [(PPG), iPPG] can provide comfortable and comprehensive assessment over a wide range of anatomical locations. However, motion artifact is a major drawback in current iPPG systems, particularly in the context of clinical assessment. To overcome this issue, a new artifact-reduction method consisting of planar motion compensation and blind source separation is introduced in this study. The performance of the iPPG system was evaluated through the measurement of cardiac pulse in the hand from 12 subjects before and after 5 min of cycling exercise. Also, a 12-min continuous recording protocol consisting of repeated exercises was taken from a single volunteer. The physiological parameters (i.e., heart rate, respiration rate), derived from the images captured by the iPPG system, exhibit functional characteristics comparable to conventional contact PPG sensors. Continuous recordings from the iPPG system reveal that heart and respiration rates can be successfully tracked with the artifact reduction method even in high-intensity physical exercise situations. The outcome from this study thereby leads to a new avenue for noncontact sensing of vital signs and remote physiological assessment, with clear applications in triage and sports training.


Chemical tactics by ant social parasites, including myrmecophiles, often relate to ant nestmate recognition and alarm communication. The strict nestmate recognition system in ants can be disrupted by chemical imitation of the nestmate recognition pheromone, which consists of cuticular hydrocarbon components. Social parasites often acquire these components through direct body contact, but occasionally synthesize them even before ant adoption. Such an imitation of the host cuticular chemicals causes species-specific adoption of the parasites, which are then often taken care of by ants for long terms. In contrast, transient invaders often use a propaganda allomone that induces panic alarm responses in ants. The allomone occasionally even causes fighting among nestmate ants, and seems to disrupt the ant nestmate recognition. These two chemical strategies are to modify the ant responses after ant detection. A third chemical strategy taken by some insect species is to avoid the detection itself, and is evidenced in the chemical phytomimesis by geometriid twiglike caterpillars. Since this counts upon the ants not to respond to the "invasion", it usually does not cause visible responses when it works effectively. Appropriate evaluation methods are necessary to evaluate the ant responses induced by the parasites to reveal the underlying mimetic strategy.


Case Presentation: A 56-year-old man with a history of ischemic cardiomyopathy and New York Heart Association functional class IV heart failure (HF) requiring intravenous inotropic therapy underwent uncomplicated implantation of a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as bridge to heart transplantation (HT). The patient was weaned off inotropic support during the first week after surgery and had progressive improvement in functional status. He was discharged home on maintenance antithrombotic therapy with aspirin 325 mg once daily and warfarin targeted to an international normalized ratio of 2.0 to 3.0. Eight weeks after LVAD implantation, he developed progressive dyspnea on exertion, recurrent pedal edema, and a 7-pound weight gain. Physical examination revealed conjunctival pallor, a palpable carotid pulse, jugular venous pressure of 14 cm H2O, and 2+ pitting edema bilaterally. A rapid and targeted assessment of recurrent HF is essential in this LVAD patient because of multiple, potentially life-threatening causes that necessitate divergent treatments.

The US Food and Drug Administration first approved implantable LVADs as a bridge to transplantation in 1994.1 Although HT remains the gold standard therapy for selected patients with end-stage HF, the stable donor base of <2500 hearts per year in North America limits its widespread applicability.2 The landmark Randomized Evaluation of Mechanical Assistance for the Treatment of Congestive Heart Failure (REMATCH) trial established the first-generation, pulsatile-flow HeartMate (HM) XVE LVAD as a viable, life-prolonging treatment in patients who were not candidates for HT, a strategy known as destination therapy (DT). However, survival 2 years after implantation was still only 23%, in part because of the high rates of mechanical pump failure.

The advent of continuous-flow LVADs has provided a more durable long-term treatment that improves quality of life and survival.3 The continuous-flow HM II LVAD has a markedly lower rate of device …


Data-centric approaches play an increasing role in many scientific domains, but in turn rely increasingly heavily on advanced research support environments for coordinating research activities, providing access to research data, and choreographing complex experiments. Critical time constraints can be seen in several application scenarios e.g., event detection for disaster early warning, runtime execution steering, and failure recovery. Providing support for executing such time critical research applications is still a challenging issue in many current research support environments however. In this paper, we analyse time critical requirements in three key kinds of research support environment—Virtual Research Environments, Research Infrastructures, and e-Infrastructures—and review the
current state of the art. An approach for dynamic infrastructure planning is discussed that may help to address some of these requirements. The work is based on requirements collection recently performed in three EU H2020 projects: SWITCH, ENVRIPLUS and VRE4EIC.


The challenge of Multiuser Detection (MUD) is that of demodulating mutually interfering signals given that at any time instant the number of active users is typically small. The promise of compressed sensing is the demodulation of sparse superpositions of signature waveforms from very few measurements. This paper considers signature waveforms that are are drawn from a Gabor frame. It describes a MUD architecture that uses subsampling to convert analog input to a digital signal, and then uses iterative matching pursuit to recover the active users. Compressive demodulation requires K log N samples to recover K active users whereas standard MUD requires N samples. The paper provides theoretical performance guarantees and consistent numerical simulations.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the influence of curing distance on the degree of conversion (DC) of a resin-based composite (RBC) when similar radiant exposure was achieved using six different light-curing units (LCUs) and to explore the correlation among irradiance, radiant exposure, and DC.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
A managing accurate resin curing-resin calibrator system was used to collect irradiance data for both top and bottom specimen surfaces with a curing distance of 2 mm and 8 mm while targeting a consistent top surface radiant exposure. Square nanohybrid-dual-photoinitiator RBC specimens (5 × 5 × 2 mm) were cured at each distance (n=6/LCU/distance). Irradiance and DC (micro-Raman spectroscopy) were determined for the top and bottom surfaces. The effect of distance and LCU on irradiance, radiant exposure, and DC as well as their linear associations were analyzed using analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficients, respectively (α=0.05).

RESULTS
While maintaining a similar radiant exposure, each LCU exhibited distinctive patterns in decreased irradiance and increased curing time. No significant differences in DC values (63.21%-70.28%) were observed between the 2- and 8-mm distances, except for a multiple-emission peak LCU. Significant differences in DC were detected among the LCUs. As expected, irradiance and radiant exposure were significantly lower on the bottom surfaces. However, a strong correlation between irradiance and radiant exposure did not necessarily result in a strong correlation with DC.

CONCLUSIONS
The RBC exhibited DC values >63% when the top surface radiant exposure was maintained, although the same values were not reached for all lights. A moderate-strong correlation existed among irradiance, radiant exposure, and DC.


Abstract Flexible and digital manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing (AM) have evolved as the future of modern manufacturing with the capability of obtaining multi-dimensional components and material functionality improvement. In the past decade, the additive manufacturing of steel has advanced into an effective approach for controlling local microstructure and fabricating hybrid build with tailored performance. As an emerging technology, there are still some challenges in the additive manufacturing of steel that need to be circumvented in order to attain the full potentials of this novel technology. This review paper examines the current state of additively manufactured steel as well as the associated microstructure, mechanical properties, and corrosion of as-built steel. An insight into further and future research directions is provided.


ABSTRACT Treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have evolved significantly in the past 35 years. From what was historically viewed as a pervasive, intractable condition have emerged multiple evidence-based intervention options. These treatments, predominantly cognitive behavioral in orientation, provide significant symptom improvement in 50–60% of recipients. The treatment of PTSD with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy using a supportive, non-directive approach has yielded promising results. It is unknown, however, how different therapeutic modalities could impact or improve outcomes. Therefore, to capitalize on the strengths of both approaches, Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy for PTSD (CBCT) was combined with MDMA in a small pilot trial. The current article provides a case study of one couple involved in the trial, chosen to provide a demographically representative example of the study participants and a case with a severe trauma history, to offer a detailed account of the methodology and choices made to integrate CBCT and MDMA, as well as an account of their experience through the treatment and their treatment gains. This article offers a description of the combination of CBCT for PTSD and MDMA, and demonstrates that it can produce reductions in PTSD symptoms and improvements in relationship satisfaction.


Existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its modifiable risk factors are associated with increased mortality from coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Clinical attention has focused on acute interventions for COVID-19, but reducing upstream risks associated with poor outcomes must occur in parallel. This is particularly urgent because risk factors for COVID-19 death are prevalent, and the pandemic has negatively impacted lifestyle and socioeconomic factors that augment these risks. Evidence-based lifestyle interventions have a generally short time-to-benefit, and lower risk of CVD and improve markers of immune function. Wider promotion of healthy lifestyle practices will improve the CVD health of the population and could favorably impact COVID-19 outcomes. Research examining how lifestyle modification affects COVID-19 susceptibility and severity is urgently needed.


The urban road tunnel longitudinal ventilation is a complex non-linear process with the feature of strong time-varying, always affected by a good many uncertain factors, it is difficult to establish a precise mathematical model by using the traditional linear control theory. The paper describes an intelligent model consists of two levels of neural network, the first level is a traffic flow neural network model to predict the traffic flow changes in road tunnel, the result of predicting will be used as an input of the second level neural network which is used to describe an intelligent model of urban road ventilation system, through the different states of predicted traffic flow, to establish an Intelligent Model of Urban Road Tunnel Ventilation System Based on Multi-Level Neural Network. This model was used for ventilation intelligent control under the environment of Wu-chang Yue-ma-chang tunnel. Results of field test indicate that the method can highly improve ventilation conditions.


Satellite measurements of tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) enable a wide array of applications including studies of air quality and pollution transport. The MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) instrument on the Earth Observing System Terra platform has been measuring CO concentrations globally since March 2000. As indicated by the Degrees of Freedom for Signal (DFS), the standard metric for trace‐gas retrieval information content, MOPITT retrieval performance varies over a wide range. We show that both instrumental and geophysical effects yield significant geographical and temporal variability in MOPITT DFS values. Instrumental radiance uncertainties, which describe random errors (or "noise") in the calibrated radiances, vary over long time scales (e.g., months to years) and vary between the four detector elements of MOPITT's linear detector array. MOPITT retrieval performance depends on several factors including thermal contrast, fine‐scale variability of surface properties, and CO loading. The relative importance of these various effects is highly variable, as demonstrated by analyses of monthly mean DFS values for the United States and the Amazon Basin. An understanding of the geographical and temporal variability of MOPITT retrieval performance is potentially valuable to data users seeking to limit the influence of the a priori through data filtering. To illustrate, it is demonstrated that calculated regional‐average CO mixing ratios may be improved by excluding observations from a subset of pixels in MOPITT's linear detector array.


Axiomatic design gives a design map to designers in order to establish a scientific basic for design and to improve design activities. In the Axiomatic Approach, the relationship between functional requirements and design parameters has been defined by 0 or 1. This definition, sometimes, restrict designers under the situation that there are incomplete information or uncertainty. In this study, the use of the axiomatic design principles is discussed under fuzzy environment. New formulas are presented to calculate independence of the design. Moreover, the usability of the methodology is given by a numerical example in this study. Proposed methodology provides the designers to explain the relationship between FRs and DPs in linguistic form.


We present a new semiempirical model for the dust continuum number counts of galaxies at 1.1 mm and 850 μm. Our approach couples an observationally motivated model for the stellar mass and star formation rate distribution of galaxies with empirical scaling relations to predict the dust continuum flux density of these galaxies. Without a need to tweak the IMF, the model reproduces the currently available observations of the 1.1 mm and 850 μm number counts, including the observed flattening in the 1.1 mm number counts below 0.3 mJy and the number counts in discrete bins of different galaxy properties. Predictions of our work include the following: (1) the galaxies that dominate the number counts at flux densities below 1 mJy (3 mJy) at 1.1 mm (850 μm) have redshifts between z = 1 and z = 2, stellar masses of ∼5 × 1010 M⊙, and dust masses of ∼108 M⊙; (2) the flattening in the observed 1.1 mm number counts corresponds to the knee of the 1.1 mm luminosity function. A similar flattening is predicted for the number counts at 850 μm; (3) the model reproduces the redshift distribution of current 1.1 mm detections; and (4) to efficiently detect large numbers of galaxies through their dust continuum, future surveys should scan large areas once reaching a 1.1 mm flux density of 0.1 mJy rather than integrating to fainter fluxes. Our modeling framework also suggests that the amount of information on galaxy physics that can be extracted from the 1.1 mm and 850 μm number counts is almost exhausted.


Human immunodeficiency virus infection frequently involves the peripheral or central nervous system. Seven cases of isolated peripheral facial palsy that occurred at various stages of the disease are reported. The palsy was the first manifestation of the disease in 5 patients, and revealed it in 3 of them. The palsy involved the right side in 6 cases (complete N = 2; incomplete N = 4); it was bilateral in one (complete on both sides). Abnormalities of the cerebrospinal fluid were present in all patients but differed depending on the stage of the retroviral infection. Electroneuromyography defined the type of the palsy, principally due to axonotmesis in 4 patients (including the bilateral one) and principally to neurapraxia in 3 patients. The outcome was good in most cases. The physiopathology remains undetermined.


Assisted reproduction in a global world produces not only new babies and new parents but also new citizens and raises new bioethical concerns (e.g., Campbell 2007; Franklin 2001; Thompson 2005). This essay outlines an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective in understanding how fertility travel and transnational reproduction unfold from the perspectives of the different actors involved. Three theoretical pairs—care and engineering, reproscapes and reproflows, and gifts and commodities—are suggested as theoretical frameworks for understanding transnationalized reproduction. The authors conclude that reproductive movements and fragmentary bodies confront legal and administrative systems in interesting and often highly complex ways.