The emerging areas of microand nano-technologies exhibit important strength differences that result from continuous modification of the material microstructural characteristics with changing size, with smaller being stronger. There are many experimental observations which indicate that, under certain specific conditions, the size of micro/nano-systems significantly affect their strength such that a length scale is required for predicting such size effects when using the classical theories of continuum mechanics. For example, experimental works have shown increase in strength by decreasing: (a) the particle size in nano-composites; (b) the diameter of nano-wires in torsion and uniaxial compression; (c) the thickness of thin films in micro-bending and uniaxial tension; (d) the grain size of nano-crystalline materials; (e) void size in nano-porous media; (f) the indentation depth in micro/nano indentation tests, etc (see Abu Al-Rub and Voyiadjis [1, 2] for a complete list of references). Therefore, it is well-known by now through intensive experimental studies that have been performed at the micron and nano length scales that the material mechanical properties strongly depend on the size of specimen and the microstructural features. The classical continuum mechanics fails to address this problem since no material length scale exists in its constitutive description. On the other hand, nonlocal continuum theories of integral-type or gradient-type have been to a good extent successful in predicting this type of size effect. However, they fail to predict size effects when strain gradients are minimal such as in the Hall-Petch effect. This problem is the main focus of this work. The effect of the material microstructural interfaces increase as the surface-to-volume ratio increases. It is shown in this work that interfacial effects have a profound impact on the scale-dependent plasticity encountered in micro/nano-systems. This is achieved by developing a higher-order gradient-dependent plasticity theory that enforces microscopic boundary conditions at interfaces and free surfaces. These nonstandard boundary conditions relate the microtraction stress at the interface to the interfacial energy. Application of the proposed framework to size effects in shear loading of a thin-film on an elastic substrate is presented. Three film-interface conditions are modeled: soft, intermediate, and hard interfaces.


As smart beta investments in institutional portfolios have grown—along with the additional complexity introduced by multifactor approaches—there is an emerging need for guidance on how to allocate across the ever-increasing array of smart beta products. Smart beta and multifactor investments are exposed to a common subset of elementary smart betas, combined with more idiosyncratic residual exposures. Accounting for the incidental exposures to common factors as well as the idiosyncratic exposures is necessary in designing a well-diversified and efficient portfolio. Accordingly, this article develops a standard framework for investors to blend single-factor and multifactor smart beta within a total portfolio context. A case study demonstrates how the methodology can be applied to attain better portfolios.


Preparation and properties of GaN-based heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) for high-frequency and high-power applications are studied in this work. Performance of unpassivated and SiO2 passivated AlGaN/GaN HFETs, as well as passivated SiO2/AlGaN/GaN MOSHFETs (metal-oxide-semicondutor HFETs) is compared. It is found that MOSHFETs exhibit better DC and RF properties than simple HFET counterparts. Deposited SiO2 yielded an increase of the sheet carrier density from 7.6x10^12 cm^-2 to 9.2x10^12 cm^-2 and subsequent increase of the static drain saturation current from 0.75 A/mm to 1.09 A/mm. Small-signal RF characterisation of MOSHFETs showed an extrinsic current gain cut-off frequency fT of 24 GHz and a maximum frequency of oscillation fmax of 40 GHz. These are fully comparable values with state-of-the-art AlGaN/GaN HFETs. Finnaůůy, microwave power measurements confirmed excellent performance of MOSHFETs:the output power measured at 7 GHz is about two-times larger than that of simple unpassived HFET. Thus, a great potential in application of GaN-based MOSHFETs is documented.


To analyze the stress distribution and the crack initiation due to the location of the defects, artificial defects were made on the different locations of the high strength monolithic Al and GLAss fiber REinforced laminate (GLARE). Experimental study shows that the defect location in the vicinity of the circular hole was changed from ° = 90 4 θ to ° = 0 1 θ , the stress concentration was increased. The stress concentration of GLARE was about 15% higher than that of the monolithic Al. When the defect was at ° = 30 2 θ , Multi Site Damage (MSD) crack was found in the monolithic Al but not in GLARE. Instead of MSD crack, a delamination was made in GLARE and that it resulted in the prevention against the second crack initiation.


Ceiling fan plays an important role in human daily activities. Ceiling fan helps to circulate the stagnant air in a room. However, the ceiling fan needs to be cleaned often. This is due to layers of dust accumulated on the fan's blades which eventually affects the efficiency of the ceiling fan's performance. This project mainly concentrates on lifting the ceiling fan in an upward and downward direction from the ceiling in order to ease the cleaning process besides providing better safety aspect compared to the conventional method. In conclusion, with aid of the system designed in this project, the cleaning process of the ceiling fan could be done often in a safer environment.


The trailing edge flow in a centrifugal impeller is of great importance as it determines the exit flow velocity triangle and therefore the work transferred to the fluid. The present study deals with the impact of trailing edge under-filing on the impeller exit flow and the resulting slip factor. Different under-filed trailing edge shapes are investigated by means of numerical simulations. 2D-RANS simulations are performed for a wide range of blade angles. For the default cut-off trailing edge configuration an attached and a separated flow regime around the blade trailing edge can be distinguished, mainly depending on the blade exit angle. The occurrence of the separated flow regime is associated with a significant change in performance, mainly due to the reduced flow deflection at the impeller exit. Under-filing of the trailing edge leads to less apparent slip for blade angles up to 40 degrees. This can be attributed to the fact that under-filing prevents the attached flow regime occurring in case of the default trailing edge. Additional DES simulations provide deeper insight into the detailed flow structures involved in this phenomena and reveal the turbulent flow structures in the trailing edge and wake flow. The obtained results provide a deep insight into trailing edge flows in centrifugal pump impellers and help to get a better understanding of the phenomena involved. Moreover, the results can provide an explanation to the often observed deviation of the apparent impeller slip from the theoretical slip predicted by slip factor models.


In concert with the recent spectroscopic studies of the light-color modulation mechanism of firefly (Hirano et al., J Am Chem Soc 2009, 131, 2385), quantum chemical calculations using complete active space SCF (CASSCF), multistate complete active space second order perturbation (MS-CASPT2) theory as well as a time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) approach with the Coulomb attenuated hybrid exchange-correlation functional (CAM-B3LYP) were performed on the excited state (S1) of the keto-form oxyluciferin (keto-OxyLH2). Benzene, DMSO, CH3CN, and H2O were chosen as polar solvents. The polarization effect of less polar solvent was considered by a simple model, complex of keto-OxyLH2, and NH3 with different covalent character. The calculated results supported the experimental conclusion: (1) the light emitter of bioluminescence is the S1 state of keto-OxyLH2 anion [(keto-1)*], and (2) light emission from (keto-1)* is modulated by the polarity of surrounding environment and the degree of covalent character of hydrogen bond between (keto-1)* and a protonated basic moiety. The mechanism of the multicolor bioluminescence was discussed from the theoretical viewpoint. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 111:3371–3377, 2010


Kosova is one of the most impoverished areas in Europe. The approach, however, for calculating poverty rates adopted, in all good faith, by the international community, has resulted in unrealistically high overall poverty rates and questionable relative rates between ethnic groups, urban and rural areas, and among Kosova's regions. Two reasons are proposed for this: questionnaire designs which encourage refusals or response bias and inappropriate measures of adult equivalencies. Employing data from a 1,000 observation household survey, the implications of alternative approaches for estimating poverty rates are explored. The results suggest that current poverty rate estimates are two to three times the actual rates. Moreover, these estimates overstate differences between segments of Kosova's society. Of particular concern, current estimates exaggerate differences in poverty rates between ethnic Serbians and ethnic Albanians, thereby exacerbating tensions.


The objective of this study was to determine the effect of supplementing diets fed to ewes (in late pregnancy and during lactation or only during lactation) with Saccharomyces cerevisiae dried brewer's yeast on the yield and chemical composition of milk and on selected parameters of humoral and cellular immunity. The investigated indicators were analyzed on days 28 and 70 of lactation. The addition of dried yeast contributed to a significant increase in milk yield, and the obtained milk was characterized by a lower somatic cell count, suggesting improved mammary gland health. Diet supplementation had a beneficial influence on the health status of ewes, leading to increased nonspecific humoral and cellular immune responses in ewes, including gamma globulin concentrations, lysozyme and ceruloplasmin activity levels, respiratory burst activity and potential killing activity of phagocytes, and the proliferative response of mitogen-stimulated T cells and B cells.


Root surface colonization by Azospirillum brasilense Cd of tomato, pepper and cotton plants under normal growth conditions and soybean plants under normal and water-stress conditions was monitored by scanning electron microscopy and bacterial counts. A. brasilense Cd was capable of efficiently colonizing the elongation and roothair zones of all four plant species tested. In these zones, the bacteria mainly colonized the root surface (tomato, soybean), root-hairs (pepper), or both (cotton), by single cells (tomato, soybean), micro-aggregates (pepper), or a combination of the two (cotton). All inoculated plants demonstrated (i) larger amounts of mucigel-like substance on the root surface than non-inoculated plants and (ii) fibrillar material which anchored the bacterial cells to the root surface and established connections between cells within bacterial aggregates. On non-water-stressed soybean plants, most A. brasilense Cd cells in the rhizosphere occurred as vibroid forms whereas those on water-stressed plants (wilting) were cyst-like. A lower rhizosphere bacterial population was observed on water-stressed plants. When water-stress conditions were eliminated, the bacterial cells reverted to the vibroid form and a concomitant increase in the bacterial population was observed. It is suggested that cyst-like formation is a natural response for A. brasilense Cd in the rhizosphere of water-stressed plants.


This paper presents a scaling analysis of the statistical distribution of the threshold voltage shift (ΔVT) obtained by electron storage in nitride memories, considering both its average and standard deviation. For fixed density of trapped charge, the average ΔVT decreases as a consequence of fringing fields, not predictable by any 1-D simulation approach. Moreover, the distribution statistical dispersion increases with technology scaling due to a more sensitive percolative substrate conduction in the presence of atomistic doping and 3-D electrostatics. The impact of these effects on device performance is then highlighted, showing that the accuracy of the staircase programming algorithm can be reduced further from the limitation given by the electron injection statistics during programming. The impact of electron storage in the nitride on random telegraph noise instabilities is also investigated, showing that, despite single cell behavior may be modified, negligible effects result at the statistical level.


Abstract

In the process of learning a foreign language, vocabulary is one of the important language elements that must be mastered by the learners. The ability to understand the language depends on one's knowledge of vocabulary besides the other elements of language itself. In reality, most of the students in first semester at IKIP Siliwangi face some problems related to vocabulary mastery. To improve the students' vocabulary, the lecturer need to know what technique is the most suitable for the students. This research used Classroom Action Research (CAR). The objectives of the study are: 1) Finding out whether or not Magic Sentences technique can improves the students' vocabulary 2) Finding out classroom situation when Magic Sentences technique implemented in vocabulary mastery. The finding was supported by the result of students' vocabulary scores. The average score of pre test was 61.14. After the implementation of Magic Sentences in every cycle, the students' vocabulary score were getting better. It can be seen from the result of students' average score Cycle 1 was 67.30 and Cycle 2 was 80.24. It can be concluded that Magic Sentences can improve students' reading interest and improve reading classroom into a better situation.

Keywords: Magic sentences; vocabulary mastery; CAR


Akka is a Scala-based toolkit that simplifies developing concurrent distributed applications. Perfect for high-volume applications that need to scale rapidly, Akka is an efficient foundation for event-driven systems that want to scale elastically up and out on demand, both on multi-core processors and across server nodes. Akka in Action is a comprehensive tutorial on building message-oriented systems using Akka. The book takes a hands-on approach, where each new concept is followed by an example that shows how it works, how to implement the code, and how to test it. Readers will explore a message-oriented event-driven application in Akka and also tackle key issues like how to model immutable messages and domain models, and apply patterns like Event Sourcing, and CQRS. The book concludes with practical advice on how to tune and customize a system built with Akka. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.


The prevalence [correction of incidence] rate and types of mental and nervous diseases were studied in a clinico-epidemiological survey which entered 3400 able minors from the Kuznetsk coal mines. A lot of miners were found suffering from borderline exogenic-organic diseases which may be related to high occurrence of traumas in the mine. The rates of the diseases established by the survey surpassed greatly the registered rates. This says in favor of more profound and careful medical examinations in occupational selection. The data on the nervous and mental disease prevalence [correction of incidence] in various age, occupational and service groups provide information for establishing risk groups which need preventive and treatment measures to prolong the time of underground work capacity of miners.


The specific role of PITX2 in the pathogenesis of anterior segment dysgenesis has yet to be clearly defined. We provide here new insight into PITX2 pathogenesis through mutational and functional analyses. Three PITX2 mutations were found in a screen of 38 unrelated individuals affected with anterior segment anomalies (8%). All three mutations were found among the 21 individuals affected with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS). We have identified two novel mutations, a valine-->leucine (V45L) missense mutation at position 45 within the PITX2 homeodomain, and a seven amino acid duplication (7aaDup) of residues 6-12 of the homeodomain. DNA-binding studies of the two mutant PITX2 proteins demonstrated a <10-fold reduction in the DNA-binding activity of the V45L mutant, and a >100-fold reduction in activity of the 7aaDup mutant. Luciferase reporter assays showed a >200% increase in PITX2 transactivation activity of the V45L mutant, while the 7aaDup mutant was unable to transactivate at detectable levels. Our analyses of the V45L PITX2 mutant reveal that the DNA-binding domain of PITX2 can influence transactivation activity independently of DNA binding. Furthermore, our findings expand the hypothesis that the amount of residual PITX2 activity underlies the variable severity of ocular phenotypes that result from PITX2 mutation. For the first time, we present evidence that increased PITX2 activity may underlie the severe ARS ocular phenotype. We conclude that increased activity of one PITX2 allele may be as physiologically disruptive as a mutation that nullifies a PITX2 allele, with either condition resulting in ARS.


Introduction Denture-induced stomatitis is one form of candidiasis. It is characterised as inflammation and erythema of the oral mucosa underneath the denture-bearing areas and clinically classified into three types according to severity. Denture hygiene, appropriate mouth rinses and the use of antifungal therapy are commonly used to treat the condition, but new technologies are emerging that may assist in its treatment. Aim The aim of this systematic review is to determine if silver nanoparticles inhibit the growth of Candida Albicans when included in acrylic dentures and in different denture liners. Methodology A protocol was developed and published on PROSPERO (Registration No: CRD42019145542) and with the institutional ethics committee (Registration No: BM20/4/1). The protocol includes all aspects of a systematic review namely: selection criteria, search strategy, selection methods using predetermined eligibility criteria, data collection, data extraction, critical appraisal of included studies, and the intended statistical analyses such as calculating risk ratios (RR) for dichotomous outcomes and presented at 95% confidence intervals, a meta-analysis, if possible or a narrative report as needed. Expected results With rigorous inclusion criteria set and databases identified for searching, appropriate clinical and laboratory studies may be obtained but the results and its interpretation and translation into clinical practice may be a challenge as these depend on the quality of the research.


Using reference-free X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) in different geometries carried out in the laboratory of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt at the electron storage ring BESSY II in Berlin various nanolayered systems have been investigated. As an example the investigation of Hf containing thin oxide layers is shown. For comparison reasons these samples have been also measured by X-ray reflectometry (XRR) in the PTB laboratory and by other partners within the ANNA project, which confirmed the thickness of the Hf containing top layers determined by XRF within their respective uncertainties. The XRF spectra were deconvolved employing the detector response functions to deduce the intensity of the corresponding Hf L3 fluorescence lines. The investigation of nanolayered systems especially in the lower energy range shows advantages, like different absorption conditions which allow for better dynamics and the suppression of the silicon fluorescence signal from the substrate, but needs more effort in determining the respective fundamental parameters.


is a very well known technique in data mining. One of the most widely used clustering techniques is the k-means algorithm. Solutions obtained from this technique are dependent on the initialization of cluster centers. In this article we propose a new algorithm to initialize the clusters. The proposed algorithm is based on finding a set of medians extracted from a dimension with maximum variance. The algorithm has been applied to different data sets and good results are obtained.


The degree of impregnation of an agglomerate by the suspending matrix is an important parameter because it influences the agglomerate cohesion and thus has a direct effect on dispersion mechanisms. Penetration kinetics reported in the literature were only measured in Newtonian or not very elastic matrices, although one of the main applications is the dispersion of porous filler in elastomers. The aim of this article is to study the infiltration of porous silica agglomerates by uncured elastomers using optical microscopy. The application of the model of Bohin (infiltration of a Newtonian fluid into a porous sphere) is discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 3292–3300, 2004


Leading by example is one of the most powerful methods to encourage individuals to work toward a common objective. Despite the importance of leadership, little is known about how the effectiveness of leading by example depends on institutional features, such as the transparency and design of leaders' compensation contracts. We conduct two experiments to study this interplay between leadership and contracting in organizations with social missions (i.e., socially driven organizations). We find that under non-transparent contracts, leader contributions to the social objective positively influence follower contributions, reflecting effective leading by example. More importantly, under transparent contracts, the positive effect of leader contributions on follower contributions is diminished by an increase in the intensity of variable compensation and/or the amount of fixed compensation in the leader's contract. Our study informs the debate on pay transparency and demonstrates that organizations need to carefully consider the effects of contract design on leadership effectiveness.


We introduce a new approach to modeling uncertainty based on plausibility measures. This approach is easily seen to generalize other approaches to modeling uncertainty, such as probability measures, belief functions, and possibility measures. We then consider one application of plausibility measures: default reasoning. In recent years, a number of different semantics for defaults have been proposed, such as preferential structures, /spl epsiv/-semantics, possibilistic structures, and /spl kappa/-rankings, that have been shown to be characterized by the same set of axioms, known as the KLM properties. While this was viewed as a surprise, we show here that it is almost inevitable. In the framework of plausibility measures, we can give a necessary condition for the KLM axioms to be sound, and an additional condition necessary and sufficient to ensure that the KLM axioms are complete. This additional condition is so weak that it is almost always met whenever the axioms are sound. In particular, it is easily seen to hold for all the proposals made in the literature. Finally, we show that plausibility measures provide an appropriate basis for examining first-order default logics.


Chinese scholars are debating whether, and how, to innovate a Chinese theory of International Relations (IR). This article examines the driving forces behind this theoretical debate. It challenges the commonsensical link between external events in the subject matter (i.r.) and theorizing (IR), which suggests that the innovation of a Chinese IR theory is a natural product of China's geopolitical rise, its growing political ambitions, and discontent with Western hegemony. We propose instead a sociological approach to intellectual innovation which opens the black box of knowledge production, and argue that theoretical innovation, in China and elsewhere, is best understood as an interplay between internal and external layers. The internal academic context comprises intellectuals pursuing prominence, with each intellectual trying to carve out a maximally distinct position in order to receive attention from their peers—theorizing a Chinese IR theory being one important way of doing this. The external layer—which ranges from power politics to sociopolitical developments—affects this process indirectly by providing more research funds and autonomy to the more immediate institutional environment where control over rewards such as research funds, promotion, and publications affects what kind of work is done, with theorizing being increasingly rewarded.


Heterogeneous environment of renewable, but also timing variable resources like the computational grid, requests special attention by mapping. Regardless of the static and the dynamic phase of mapping, unexpected events in the environment can significantly influence application execution. The predictive-reactive remapping procedure enables significant improvements. It is run after the missed remapping threshold by using a suitable period, horizon and shift. The aperiodic server mechanism enables successful execution of periodic and aperiodic parts of applications. The remapping procedure based on multiple server tasks enables the usage of one's own resources, but also a fast connection to machines of appropriate performances that will soften the influence of disturbances. Preliminary results indicate possible applications in a broader environment and increasing autonomy.


In this essay, I attempt to shed light on Michael Schudson's theoretical and political position vis-à-vis commercialism as a shaping force of journalism. I document and analyze Schudson's criticisms of market pressures on journalism, his criticisms of other critics of commercialism whom he sees as going too far, and then, the limits of the position he stakes out for himself—which is effectively, given his position as the authoritative synthesizer of the sociology of news, a position for journalism studies as a whole. In homage to Schudson's classic alliterative model of "How Culture Works," through five magic "R" words (rhetorical force, resolution, retrievability, retention, and resonance), I argue that the letter "C" unites the five reasons why Schudson is reluctant to overemphasize commercialism's negative effects on journalism. It's Complicated. There are Countervailing forces outside of the market and even when there are not, the market itself is self-Contradictory. Don't underestimate the power of Contingency. And if all else fails, blame it on Culture.


This article is based on two facts: creative industries, as a theme, are not particularly developed in France and, second, since the 1980s France is spreading public policies in the field of culture industries, while cultural and educational activities are traditional areas of intervention by State and local communities. The definition of creativity records a wide range of meanings: from «keystone» of a new division of labour in certain economic activities - with the viability of defining aims and procedures of certain public policies as a result - to «widespread process» drawing in individuals and communities (cities and terroirs), physical and virtual (2.0 territories), in different and rather numerous fields - with difficulties and problems in terms of ways and subjects of feasible initiatives. The relations between creative and culture industries, the role of international bodies and of university institutions at a local level and the embryonic condition of the creative industries' relations with the educational industries and processes, are also taken into consideration. A highly problematic situation is outlined, in theoretical terms as well as in terms of criteria, managerial techniques, strategies and social and institutional subjects which are determinant in every of these macro-areas.


Purpose of review Recent attempts at mapping Typhoid epidemiology have revealed an enormous burden of disease in developing countries. Countries hitherto believed to have a low incidence, such as the African subcontinent, on accurate mapping were found to have a significant burden of disease. Drug resistance, because of rampant overuse of antibiotics, has driven selection pressure to extensively drug-resistant typhoid becoming a reality in the Indian subcontinent. With widespread travel, importation of this variety of typhoid to nonendemic countries is likely to lead to outbreaks in a nonimmune population. Recent findings A strain of extensively drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi isolated in Pakistan in 2016 has been responsible for multiple outbreaks in Pakistan and multiple travel-related cases all over the world in United States, UK, and Australia. This novel strain belongs to H58 lineage harbouring a plasmid encoding additional resistance elements like blaCTX-M-15 and a qnrS fluoroquinolone resistance gene. This resistance pattern has rendered many therapeutic options like Ceftriaxone and Fluoroquinolones clinically inactive impacting care in endemic and traveller populations alike. Summary Changing epidemiology and drug resistance in typhoid indicates that it may be prudent to vaccinate nonimmune travellers travelling to typhoid endemic areas, especially the Indian subcontinent.


The saga of harmful levodopa (LD) in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) resulted from outcomes of animal—and cell culture studies and the clinical observation of motor complication related to the short half life of LD. Further aspects of LD long term application, the LD associated homocysteine increase and its emerging consequences on progression, and onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms and of vascular disease are only partially considered. Therapeutic approaches for this LD-mediated neurotoxic homocysteine increase are vitamin supplementation or LD application with an inhibitor of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). However, forcing central dopamine metabolism further down the methylation path by central blocking of COMT and MAO-B may reduce oxidative stress and homocysteine levels. But it may also increase N-methylation of tetrahydroisoquinolines to neurotoxic N-methylated tetrahydroisoquinolines. These compounds were observed in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma of long term LD-treated PD patients. Therefore LD application with peripheral COMT inhibition may be safer.


The aim of this experimental research is to investigate the conformity of the four-bolt unstiffened moment end-plate connections consisting of European steel sections which do not meet the limitations specified for beam flange width and overall beam depth in ANSI/AISC 358-10 to the requirements of seismic application. However, the connections are satisfactory with the limitations required by Turkish Earthquake Code. For this purpose, four test specimens were designed and cyclic load was applied to three specimens while one was tested under monotonic loading to provide data for the calibration of the analytical models. The moment-rotation hysteresis loops and the failure modes for all test specimens are presented. A full three-dimensional finite element model is also developed for each test specimen for use to predict their behavior and to provide a tool for generating subsequent extensive parametric studies. The test results show that all specimens performed well in terms of rotation capacity and strength. Finite element models are found to be capable of approximating the cyclic behavior of the extended end-plate connection specimens.


This article is based on a project undertaken in 2008 to catalogue the incunabula (fifteenth-century printed books) at Senate House Library, University of London (previously known as the University of London Library). The project was unusual because it dealt with books which resembled manuscripts, and which have a long history of printed description which sometimes jars with modern online conventions for resource discovery. The article summarizes the desires which Anglo-American scholars have expressed for the content of descriptions of incunabula in the contexts of printed and union catalogues, and assesses the extent to which these are relevant to the online catalogues of specific libraries. It describes the challenges, including the tensions between scholarly printed incunabula literature and library conventions, and the approach taken at Senate House Library to resolve them. It further evaluates the timing for the project and assesses the project's results, which ranged from institutional to international in scope.


An innovative approach was adopted for fabricating zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA)-MoS2 self-lubricating ceramic composites with the inclusion of hydrothermally synthesized nano MoS2 through the micropores of perforated ZTA ceramics. This method avoided the exposure of MoS2 in high-temperature environment due to its in-sensitiveness during traditional sintering techniques. Different weight percentages (wt%: 0, 5, 10, and 15) of graphite were incorporated to produce porous ZTA ceramics with the help of cold press sintering followed by insertion of nano MoS2 into the matrices. Best tribological characteristics were obtained with 10 wt% graphite-ZTA-MoS2 specimen which offered an improvement of ∼66% in coefficient of friction (COF) and ∼96% in specific wear rate when dry sliding tests were carried out against silicon nitride (Si3N4) in high vacuum (5.0 × 10−4 mbar). Nano MoS2 was sheared off at the contacting interface during sliding under load which showed a good tribological characteristics of the composite. Delamination was found as the dominating wear mechanism in ZTA-MoS2 composites during wear tests.


The radiologic protocol as presented above has evolved over a period of several years. It is currently is use, and with only rare exceptions, has been found to be completely adequate for the massively traumatized patient. Its most important aspect is that practically no time is expended in the radiologic assessment of the patient.


The design of functional membrane proteins from first principles represents a grand challenge in chemistry and structural biology. Here, we report the design of a membrane-spanning, four-helical bundle that transports first-row transition metal ions Zn2+ and Co2+, but not Ca2+, across membranes. The conduction path was designed to contain two di-metal binding sites that bind with negative cooperativity. X-ray crystallography and solid-state and solution nuclear magnetic resonance indicate that the overall helical bundle is formed from two tightly interacting pairs of helices, which form individual domains that interact weakly along a more dynamic interface. Vesicle flux experiments show that as Zn2+ ions diffuse down their concentration gradients, protons are antiported. These experiments illustrate the feasibility of designing membrane proteins with predefined structural and dynamic properties. Computational design yields a transmembrane protein that selectively transports zinc cations. [Also see Perspective by Lupas] Building transmembrane zinc transporters The ability to design proteins gives insight into the relation between a protein's fold and its function and also provides a path to custom proteins for bioengineering applications. Impressive strides have been made in the design of soluble proteins, but designing membrane proteins remains a challenge. Joh et al. achieve a milestone by designing a transmembrane Zn2+ transporter (see the Perspective by Lupas). The protein comprises four helices: Two tightly interacting pairs form a weaker interface that facilitates the transport of Zn2+ with concomitant reverse transport of protons. Science, this issue p. 1520; see also p. 1455


It was shown on laboratory and industrial scale that ultrasonic melt treatment (UST) significantly refines structure of aluminium alloys and improves the quality of castings. However, despite considerable efforts which have been made over decades in the field of ultrasonic processing of aluminium melts, quite a few problems remain unclear. One of them is addressed in this project. The aim of the project is to understand which mechanism is responsible for cavitation-aided grain refinement. It is expected that the knowledge gained as a result of this work can be used in directchill, shape and die casting. The paper describes an experimental setup and first results on the correlation between parameters of UST, solidification conditions and degree of structure refinement. In separate experiments, a model Al-Cu alloy with different amount of solidification sites is solidified with and without UST. The final microstructure is analyzed.


The three-dimensional solution structure of calcium-loaded calbindin D9k has been determined using experimental constraints obtained from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. A total of 1176 constraints (16 per residue overall, 32 per residue for the core residues) was used for the final refinement, including 1002 distance and 174 dihedral angle constraints. In addition, 23 hydrogen bond constraints were used for the generation of initial structures. Stereospecific assignments were made for 37 of 61 (61%) prochiral methylene protons and the methyl groups of all three valine residues and five out of 12 leucine residues. These constraints were used as input for a series of calculations of three-dimensional structures using a combination of distance geometry and restrained molecular dynamics. The 33 best structures selected for further analysis have no distance constraint violations greater than 0.3 A and good local geometries as reflected by low total energies (< or = -1014 kcal/mol in the AMBER 4.0 force field). The core of the protein consists of four well-defined helices with root-mean-square deviations from the average of 0.45 A for the N, C alpha and C' backbone atoms. These helices are packed in an antiparallel fashion to form two helix-loop-helix calcium-binding motifs, termed EF-hands. The two EF-hands are joined at one end by a ten-residue linker segment, and at the other by a short beta-type interaction between the two calcium-binding loops. Overall, the average solution structure of calbindin D9k is very similar to the crystal structure, with a pairwise root-mean-square deviation of 0.85 A for the N, C alpha and C' backbone atoms of the four helices. The differences that are observed between the solution and the crystal structures are attributed to specific crystal contacts, increased side-chain flexibility in solution, or artifacts arising from molecular dynamics refinement of the solution structures in vacuo.


Summary.  Problems of the analysis of data with incomplete observations are all too familiar in statistics. They are doubly difficult if we are also uncertain about the choice of model. We propose a general formulation for the discussion of such problems and develop approximations to the resulting bias of maximum likelihood estimates on the assumption that model departures are small. Loss of efficiency in parameter estimation due to incompleteness in the data has a dual interpretation: the increase in variance when an assumed model is correct; the bias in estimation when the model is incorrect. Examples include non‐ignorable missing data, hidden confounders in observational studies and publication bias in meta‐analysis. Doubling variances before calculating confidence intervals or test statistics is suggested as a crude way of addressing the possibility of undetectably small departures from the model. The problem of assessing the risk of lung cancer from passive smoking is used as a motivating example.


Multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) is a powerful evolutionary algorithm that requires no human pre-fixed model sets to handle regression and classification problems in the machine learning area. We aim to improve the model generalisation of MOGP in both regression and classification tasks. The work in this thesis has three main contributions.
First, we propose replacing the division operator used in genetic programming with an analytic quotient (AQ) operator in regression to systematically achieve lower mean squared error due principally to removing the discontinuities or singularities caused by conventional protected or unprotected division. Further, this AQ operator is differentiable.
Second, we propose using Tikhonov regularisation, in conjunction with node count (using an extension of Pareto comparison from vectors to tuples) as a general complexity measure in MOGP. We demonstrate that employing this general complexity yields mean squared test error measures over a range of regression problems which are typically superior to those from conventional node count. We further analysed the reason why our new method outperforms the conventional complexity measure and conclude that it forms a decision mechanism which balances both syntactic and semantic information.
Third, we propose using a loss measure complementary to Vapnik's statistical learning theory, which can effectively stabilise classifiers trained by MOGP. We demonstrate that this loss measure has a number of attractive properties and has a better correlation with generalisation error compared to 0/1 loss, so that better generalisation performance is achievable.


Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that have pleiotropic effects in a wide variety of cancer cell lines. Many of these biological effects involve key components of signal transduction pathways within cancer cells, including prostate cancer cells. Epidemiological studies have raised the hypothesis that isoflavones may play an important role in the prevention and modulation of prostate cancer growth. Since randomized phase III trials of isoflavones in prostate cancer prevention are currently lacking, the best evidence for this concept is presently provided by case control studies. However, in vitro data are much more convincing in regard to the activity of a number of isoflavones, and have led to the development of genistein and phenoxodiol in the clinic as potential treatments for cancer. In addition, the potential activity of isoflavones in combination with cytotoxics or radiotherapy warrants further investigation. This review focuses on the clinical pharmacology of isoflavones and its relevance to their development for use in the prevention of prostate cancer, and it evaluates some of the conflicting data in the literature.


Complacency, or sub-optimal monitoring of automation performance, has been cited as a contributing factor in numerous major transportation and medical incidents. Researchers are working to identify individual differences that correlate with complacency as one strategy for preventing complacency-related accidents. Automation-induced complacency potential is an individual difference reflecting a general tendency to be complacent across a wide variety of situations which is similar to, but distinct from trust. Accurately assessing complacency potential may improve our ability to predict and prevent complacency in safety-critical occupations. Much past research has employed an existing measure of complacency potential. However, in the 25 years since that scale was published, our conceptual understanding of complacency itself has evolved, and we propose that an updated scale of complacency potential is needed. The goal of the present study was to develop, and provide initial validation evidence for, a new measure of automation-induced complacency potential that parallels the current conceptualization of complacency. In a sample of 475 online respondents, we tested 10 new items and found that they clustered into two separate scales: Alleviating Workload (which focuses on attitudes about the use of automation to ease workloads) and Monitoring (which focuses on attitudes toward monitoring of automation). Alleviating workload correlated moderately with the existing complacency potential rating scale, while monitoring did not. Further, both the alleviating workload and monitoring scales showed discriminant validity from the previous complacency potential scale and from similar constructs, such as propensity to trust. In an initial examination of criterion-related validity, only the monitoring-focused scale had a significant relationship with hypothetical complacency (r = -0.42, p < 0.01), and it had significant incremental validity over and above all other individual difference measures in the study. These results suggest that our new monitoring-related items have potential for use as a measure of automation-induced complacency potential and, compared with similar scales, this new measure may have unique value.


Parallelism has always been a hidden main source of processor power. As a result of the limited amount of implicitly exploitable small-scale parallelism (for example on the instruction-level) and ever-growing needs for more computational power, parallel techniques break their way from a minor matter to a major feature in both hardware and software. Due to their complexity, such parallel systems are getting increasingly difficult to control with conventional programming languages. Therefore, more abstract high-level approaches move into focus. Eden is a representative of these approaches which integrates constructs for remote evaluation into the standard functional language Haskell. It strikes a balance between full and no parallelism control and delivers good speedups while providing a high-level style of programming. In this thesis we equip Eden with three language features to raise the abstraction level even more: • Meta-programming, which means that programs manipulate other programs, will be used to define static preprocessing steps coded in Haskell for enhancing Eden programs. This supports portability of the Eden compiler, as some transformations can be pulled out of the foreign Haskell implementation. • Generic programming raises parametric to structural polymorphism and allows to write functions which are valid for all data structures. We will present a reduced, structure-oriented approach to generic programming tailored for Eden's needs. Using this approach, very general parallel schemes are defined. • Demand control is a basic requirement if a lazy functional language is faced with parallelism. The contradictory aims of postponing evaluations and simultaneity of evaluations enforces demand control in favour of parallelism. We present a set of means to do that. In functional programs, evaluation progress is determined by a mix of control structures and data dependencies. Accordingly, parallel functional programs can roughly be classified into data-oriented and control-oriented ones. Firstly, we will present generic methods for partitioning data structures as well as generic versions of the parallel map function. Secondly, we will show methods to manage the omnipresent streams as well as parallel schemes for dealing with irregular task sizes and long communication distances. To conclude, we will summarise all methods shown in a program developing guide for Eden.


Since 1833, Justice Joseph Story's interpretation of the General Welfare clause of Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution has ruled as the "standard model." Story's interpretation, set out in his Commentaries on the Constitution and its derivative volumes, held that the General Welfare clause was a limit on Congress's power to levy taxes but was also a grant of power to spend tax revenues for "general welfare" purposes. Story's interpretation was adopted by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936); Chas. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 (1937); Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619 (1937); and South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987). "What Spending Clause," examines the Hamilton's, Madison's, and Story's interpretations of the General Welfare clause. Employing a textual analysis, the author concludes that neither Hamilton, Madison, nor Story articulated a defensible interpretation. The author concludes that Story's interpretation, that the General Welfare clause grants Congress the power to spend in furtherance of the general welfare, expands the powers that follow beyond their self-contained limitations. Because this does violence to the text, he holds that the General Welfare clause cannot be seen as a grant of a congressional spending power. The author also points out that a spending power is lodged in the Executive branch and that the Executive's spending power is not limited by the General Welfare clause. The Article also examines pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history and its relationship to the General Welfare clause. The author argues that the Crown's abuses of the taxing power and the Colonies' understanding of the regulatory role of duties, imposts, and excises better explains the meaning of the General Welfare clause. The Article concludes that the General Welfare clause may be understood to serve two purposes. First, the General Welfare clause is a redundant check on the power to tax. The uniformity and proportionality clauses offer guarantees against discriminatory taxation. They address specific and known abuses. The broader General Welfare clause guards against ingenious and unforeseen means of discriminatory taxation. Second, the General Welfare clause is a restatement of the power to regulate by means of duties, imposts, and excises. Had the General Welfare clause been omitted from the Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, a strong argument could have been made that Congress had been denied the power to regulate by means of duties, imposts, and excises. The Article contends that, between Story's interpretation, which has the effect of expanding enumerated powers beyond their self-imposed limitations, and an interpretation that comports with the Convention's pattern of intentionally including redundant clauses and that comports with the Colonies' historical understandings of taxing abuses and the regulatory role of indirect taxation, the latter interpretation should prevail.


For modern hot tandem mill, various shape control means are equipped, so its shape control ability is strong. How to reasonably distribute every stand's shape control ability is a difficult problem. If the distribution scheme is unreasonable, every stand's shape control ability maybe waste or offset each other, eventually product's shape quality is inevitable unsatisfactory. To achieve high precision shape control, a reasonably shape control strategy is necessary, whose job is to make use of every stand's utmost shape control ability, with a constraint that every stand's flatness must not be buckling, finally ensuring product's flatness and crown meet industrial demand simultaneously. A quantitative shape control strategy is put forward by this essay, which is verified on a 1750mm hot tandem mill, the result show its practicability to improve product's shape quality.


David Greig's transgressive dramaturgies articulate, I suggest, a refusal to privilege a single discourse; in unfixing the audience's traditional positionality, he opens up something beyond, a space where new apprehensions of those frequently considered Other, may be possible. In working to unfix and blur boundaries of spatiality, temporality and individuality, Greig's dramaturgies refuse to authorise appropriation; refuse to claim imagined others as fixable, 'known' or 'knowable'. Simultaneously, resonances extend across his transient spatialities and temporalities, opening up a transpersonal space, even he undermines any tendency to speak 'of' or 'for' Others. I relate this to Luce Irigaray's claim that a potential meeting with the Other may only lie in "a Threshold between two worlds" (2006, p.43); in highlighting the existence of unknown and possibly unknowable Others, while insisting on transpersonal resonances extending time and space, I suggest Greig articulates the potential for such a threshold or meeting-point.
Here I interrogate specific formal strategies in terms of how they are likely to affect the ways in which an audience can engage with Greig's work. Greig's dramaturgies, I suggest, undermine individualist engagements (referring to Murray Smith's useful theory of audience engagement to film). In transgressing traditional dramaturgical parameters, the work may be seen to encourage plural and shifting engagements with multiple and merging characters, thereby dissolving boundaries of ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender and class, and opening up space for transnational encounters, beyond specificity.
With examples from work as diverse as Mainstream, Casanova (both with Suspect Culture), The Cosmonaut's Last Message..., The Architect, Europe, and San Diego, among others, I discuss recurring transgressive strategies which thread through Greig's work. Such dramaturgies open up transnational encounters within the theatre-texts, but in destabilising audience positionality, also open up space for new, transnational empathic encounters with imagined others. I discuss the physical doublings and other imagistic, linguistic, behavioural and dynamic echoes that thread through Greig's plays, as well as his fragmentation of traditional character 'wholeness' through opening up disjunctions between character subjectivity and behaviour. A certain fleetness within and between scenes, characters, temporalities and spatialities further enables Greig's plural discourse (related to Barthes' 'plural' text, 1975).
In the patterning of his temporal roamings, fragmenting identities, physical and spatial pairings and linguistic echoes then, Greig may be seen to open up a transnational threshold. The gaps, echoes and links embedded in his dramaturgies connect disparate locations, time zones and seemingly 'different' (Other) characters, and open a chink in the discourse of traditional dramaturgy. In doing so Greig's work suggests a new way of constructing our relationship with others, both those imagined others within dramaturgies, and 'real-world' others. Here imagined Others are not denied, nor are they appropriated: we are, Greig seems to suggest, undeniably related as well as disjunct from the global community.
(author's abstract)


The civilian population in Israel has known several waves of terror, the most recent one beginning in September 2000. The current wave of suicide bombing in Israel is different from previous waves (Hanoch et al., 1996) in that the bombs are carried by suicide bombers and are packed with nails, iron pellets and screws (Mintz et al., 2002) in an attempt to maximize injury and to cause complex trauma thus elevating the number of casualties. Between September 2000 and November 2004, a total of 694 civilians have been killed and 4771 civilians have been injured in this wave of terrorism (IDF, 2004). Standing protocols for coping with casualties of such events have been developed (Almogy et al., 2004; Kluger et al., 2004; Peleg et al., 2004; Riba & Reches, 2000; Shamir et al., 2004), and the general population seems to be coping adequately (Bleich et al., 2003). But the turn of events imposes that beyond coping with "conventional terrorism", hospitals must be ready to cope with a much more complex possible threat, that of chemical or biological terror. Chemical or biological terror may cause mass casualties, but a major damage of such a threat is related mainly to psychological terror, both among the potential casualties and the hospital staff treating them. While the issue of contingency programs and preparedness training of the clinicaland nonclinical-responders of hospitals has been addressed extensively both in Israel and elsewhere (Drory et al., 1999; Shemer et al., 1991; Sweeney et al., 2004; Thorne et al., 2004), it focused mainly on technical, medical and logistic aspects. Relatively very little attention has been paid to how responders and the public will react to biological or chemical terrorism and how emotional and behavioral responses might complicate an otherwise (technicallogistical) adequate response. Toward the upcoming war in Iraq, and the potential threat of non-conventional attacks, the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (TASMC) incorporated human-behavior concepts into its preparedness training program. An inner communication network stressed problem solving and collaboration rather than hierarchy. Issues of responders and family safety were addressed, team leadership training included leadership skills, stress management and coping skills in order to enhance resilience. This process intensified the trust between hospital staff and management, and staff involvement in the process, it also improved the quality and content of information processed. Only very recently theses themes have been touched upon (Schreiber et al., 2004; Stein et al., 2004), stressing the need to incorporate multiand interdisciplinary disaster management research (including the psychological and behavioral aspects and consequences of the way the massmedia convey the events) and prioritize a systematic research in that direction.


High-pressure torsion (HPT) was conducted with ring samples of pure Al (99.99%) having different thicknesses. They were cut from an Al plate with 10 mm thickness to dimensions having inner and outer diameters of 23 and 30 mm with thicknesses of 2 mm or 4 mm. HPT was conducted at room temperature under a pressure of 1 GPa at a rotation speed of 1 rpm. It is shown that the strain was introduced more intensely in the mid part on the cross section. This strained region extended with increasing number of revolution and covered throughout the cross section in the 2 mm thickness ring after 30 revolutions. The intense-strained region extended to ~3 mm in the 4 mm thickness ring after 30 revolutions but remains almost the same even after 100 revolutions. The thickness of ~3 mm may be an upper limit to achieve homogeneous introduction of the strained region throughout the cross section.


Research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has garnered a great deal of attention and is increasingly used to demonstrate the negative impact of stressful and traumatic childhood experiences on psychological and physical health. ACEs have become a focus of local and state organizations and coalitions concerned about the well-being of children and their families, resulting in a growing number of Extension professionals becoming involved in these initiatives. In this article we provide an overview and analysis of seminal and more recent ACEs research and offer suggestions about where an understanding of and response to ACEs might fit into the work of Extension educators.


This paper investigates the role of gaze and gesture when subjects are collaboratively solving physics problems with a computer. The results from the study indicate that females interacting together as pairs do use gaze significantly more than male pairs or those of mixed gender. There is evidence that gaze occurs during the planning stages of the problem solving activities and occurs more frequently by the speaker rather than the hearer during this phase. Mutual gazing occurs at this time too. The main finding is that differences in non-verbal communication strategies with respect to gender grouping effect not only the strategies that progress the collaborative process but more importantly also those that influence the understanding of the problem space. These results suggest the quality of video linkage will play an important role in collaborative problem solving for distance learners.


The paper provides a formulation and solution for the problem of optimizing power flows in polyphase power systems with significant source (line) impedance with the presence of linear and nonlinear loads. An optimal solution considering significant line impedance has been already obtained in recent works. Unfortunately, it relies on network and load parameters that are not easy to determine during operation. We developed an adaptive compensation scheme that relies only on measurements of the load voltage and current so as to allow precise control of the compensated load as well as the real power flowing out of the compensator, while reducing line losses to within a few percent of its theoretical minimum. Properties of the solution are illustrated for a three phase induction motor supplied with unbalanced voltages.


A new method for detecting shot boundaries in video sequences using metrics based on information theory is proposed. The method relies on the mutual information and the joint entropy between frames and can detect cuts, fade-ins and fade-outs. The detection technique was tested on TV video sequences having different types of shots and significant object and camera motion inside the shots. It was favorably compared to other recently proposed shot cut detection techniques. The method is proven to detect both fades and abrupt cuts very effectively.


INTRODUCTION
In knowledge translation, implementation strategies are more effective in fostering practice change. When using these strategies, however, many determinants, such as individual or organisational factors, influence implementation. Currently, there is a lack of synthesis concerning how these determinants influence knowledge implementation (KI). The aim of this systematic review was to document how determinants influence KI outcomes with occupational therapists.

METHOD
Following the PRISMA statement, we systematically reviewed the literature on KI in occupational therapy across 12 databases: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, AMED, PsychINFO, Cochrane Library, FirstSearch, Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, ERIC, Education Source and Sociological Abstracts. Eligible studies reported KI strategies specifically with occupational therapists. Selected studies were appraised for quality with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), we categorised reported mentions of CFIR (sub-)constructs to identify the determinants studied most often, how they were documented and what influence they had on outcomes.

RESULTS
Twenty-two studies were analysed for this review. CFIR (sub-)constructs were mentioned 81 times, and seven (sub-)constructs received at least 5% of these mentions (4/81). These were as follows: (i) Adaptability of the practice; (ii) Learning climate; (iii) Leadership engagement; (iv) Available resources; (v) Knowledge and Beliefs about the Intervention; (vi) Individual Stage of Change; and vii) Executing the KI strategy. The Inner setting domain was the most documented and the domain with the most (sub-)constructs with at least four mentions (3/7). Most studies used questionnaires as assessment tools, but these were mainly non-standardised scales. The data were too heterogenous to perform a meta-analysis.

CONCLUSION
Seven (sub-)constructs mentioned most often would benefit from being assessed for salience by researchers intending to develop a KI strategy for occupational therapists. Future research aimed at improving our understanding of KI should also consider using standardised tools to measure the influence of determinants.


Differentiable physics is a powerful tool in computer vision and robotics for scene understanding and reasoning about interactions. Existing approaches have frequently been limited to objects with simple shape or shapes that are known in advance. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to differentiable physics with frictional contacts which represents object shapes implicitly using signed distance fields (SDFs). Our simulation supports contact point calculation even when the involved shapes are nonconvex. Moreover, we propose ways for differentiating the dynamics for the object shape to facilitate shape optimization using gradient-based methods. In our experiments, we demonstrate that our approach allows for model-based inference of physical parameters such as friction coefficients, mass, forces or shape parameters from trajectory and depth image observations in several challenging synthetic scenarios and a real image sequence.


V, R, and I CCD images obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope are used to investigate the bright stellar content of the barred spiral galaxies NGC 925 and NGC 1637. Not counting objects located in H II regions, we detect 295 supergiants in NGC 925 and 266 in NGC 1637. Comparisons with theoretical isochrones indicate that massive star formation in NGC 925 has been ongoing for at least a few tens of millions of years. Most of the supergiants in NGC 925 are younger than 20 Myr and have masses between 10 and 60 M⊙. The majority of supergiants in NGC 1637 appear to be younger than 40 Myr and have initial masses between 8 and 60 M⊙. The luminosity functions of supergiants in both galaxies follow power laws with exponents d log n/d log V = 0.50 ± 0.05 for NGC 925 and 0.62 ± 0.04 for NGC 1637. These values are shallower than what is seen in most spiral galaxies, although there are some exceptions. Archival Hubble Space Telescope images of NGC 925 are used to assess the effects of blending on our photometric measurements. We conclude that crowding could cause a flattening of the luminosity function and bias the brightnesses of the most luminous stars. The brightest red supergiants are used to estimate the distance moduli of these galaxies. After applying corrections for blending, we find that μ0 = 29.67 for NGC 925 and μ0 = 29.47 for NGC 1637, corresponding to linear distances of 8.6 and 7.8 Mpc, respectively. The distance computed for NGC 925 is in good agreement with that recently derived from Cepheids.


Despite the common assertion that some indigenous peoples were conservationists, a number of authors have claimed that persuasive evidence for this is lacking. They have, apparently, overlooked such evidence. It is well documented, for example, that centuries ago Pacific Islanders invented and employed all the basic marine conservation measures that Europeans began to use only in the early 1900s. For islanders to have devised and employed deliberate conservation measures, they first had to learn that their natural resources were limited. They could only have done so by depleting them. Evidence that a culture overharvested or otherwise damaged its natural resources at some period in its history is no proof that it was, for all times, non-conservationist. Some Pacific Island cultures learned that their marine resources were limited and introduced marine conservation measures accordingly. Others never learned this lesson because their marine resources always exceeded harvesting pressure. I suggest that a worldwide survey of relevant literature would show that societies that developed conscious conservation practices were usually small and relied on natural resources that were circumscribed and thus easily depleted. Today, in an era of shrinking natural resource frontiers, establishing whether a conservation ethic exists in an indigenous culture is a vital first step in determining how to help its people live within their natural resource limits.


Dynamic stall is a nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon resulting in stall delay during the time dependent movement of an airfoil at angles of attack higher than its static stall angle. This is observed during helicopter forward flights, rapid pitching of fighter aircraft, or in turbine rotor blades, and so on. The most important features of the flowfield are the leading and trailing edge vortex structures. Their growth, evolution, subsequent shedding into the outer field, and their mutual interactions influence aerodynamic loads significantly during the dynamic stall process. Various past and recent studies have been dedicated to visualizing the vorticity flowfield as system parameters are varied, experimentally and numerically. One of the earlier studies on dynamic stall was reported by McCroskey et al. [1]. The influence of various airfoil profiles and leading edge geometries was investigated. Experimental investigations on rapidly pitching airfoils was reported by Walker et al. [2]. Numerical simulations for a rapidly pitching airfoil with a compressible flow model were presented by Visbal and Shang [3] and Visbal [4]. Numerical simulations for a sinusoidally pitching airfoil were taken up by Tuncer et al. [5]. The effect of reduced frequency, albeit in a low range of variation, was highlighted. Ohmi et al. [6] presented experimental as well as numerical simulation results for a sinusoidally oscillating airfoil. Among other parameters like the Reynolds number, mean angle of attack, and elastic axis, reduced frequency was found to be the most significant one. Akbari and Price [7] have also investigated a similar parametric variation in a sinusoidally oscillating airfoil, though at lower range of reduced frequencies.


Using density functional theory calculations we have investigated the geometries and electronic structures of a series of neutral alkaline earth auride clusters with chemical formula Au4M, with M 1⁄4 Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba. These clusters are formally made of an Au4 unit and a doubly-charged M2þ cation. Of the three geometries investigated herein, namely planar, square-pyramidal, and lantern-type geometry, the planar structure is the most energetically favored. Because all structures are characterized by positive vibrational frequencies, these clusters represent local minima on the corresponding potential energy hypersurface. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MB200803]


Expression of the two Arabidopsis thaliana genes encoding tryptophan synthase [beta] (TSB1 and TSB2) was investigated by gene-specific RNA blot hybridization and reporter gene analysis. TSB1 mRNA abundance varies in an organ-specific manner, whereas TSB2 mRNA does not. Quantitative analysis of transgenic plants expressing TSB1 and TSB2 translational fusions to the [beta]-glucuronidase (GUS) gene (gusA) indicates that TSB1-GUS activity is 15-fold higher than TSB2-GUS. Histochemical analysis of these transgenic A. thaliana plants indicates that GUS expression occurs in a developmentally regulated manner. GUS activity driven from the TSB1 promoter is predominantly associated with the stem, root tips, foliar vasculature, mesophyll cells, base of developing seed pods, and tips of anther filaments in plants 15 d and older. Sections through the vegetative stem reveal GUS staining in all cell types including the shoot apical meristem. Although TSB2-GUS expression is consistently detected in root tips and at the base of developing seed pods, it is observed later in plant development than is TSB1-GUS expression.


Background: Some food ingredients (prebiotics) have been shown to promote a healthy gut by selectively stimulating growth/activity of beneficial gastrointestinal microbes and metabolites such as short chain fatty acids (SCFA) while inhibiting pathogens. Orange fleshed sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas Lam; OFSP) root tuber is a starchy tropical crop and highly nutritious in terms of pro-vitamin A (beta carotene), dietary fibre, and natural sugars, with negligible amount of fats and cholesterol. Purpose of study: The aim of the study was to investigate using simulated human gut system whether OFSP may have prebiotic activity derived from their fibre, resistant starch, and/or the sugars. Methodology : In vitro pH controlled stirred batch culture fermentation system was used to compare the effect on human gut microbiota of four substrates: two varieties of OFSP (SPK 004 and Tainung), FOS and sucrose known for positive prebiotic and non-selective change respectively. The system was inoculated with faecal slurry from six different human healthy donors from different ethical backgrounds, age, and the effectual change recorded over 24 hours by monitoring bacterial counts (total bacteria, Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium ) using qPCR molecular technique and SCFA profiles by gas chromatography. Results : The total bacteria count increased by (0.92-1.7 log10) and Bacteroides genus (1.03-1.8 log10) throughout the experimental period but with no significant differences (p<0.05) between the four substrates. However, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the beneficial Bifidobacterium (1.66-2.66 log10) between the 2 varieties of OFSP and the two controls (FOS and sucrose). The levels of SCFA increased, with acetate as the predominant acid and lactic acid being the least. The OFSP purees elicited high butyric acid levels, which were comparable to those of positive control FOS. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that OFSP purees may have prebiotic potential that can positively modulate gut microbiota by promoting growth of beneficial bacteria, bifidobacterium genus, and stimulating production of SCFA especially butyric acid which is the favourable in human gut health. However, further research using more probiotic and pathogenic microbes in addition to in vivo clinical studies and compositional analysis of OFSP is needed to confirm prebiotic activity. Key words: Orange fleshed sweet potato, prebiotic, human gut microbiota


Drawing on an extensive data set and a large number of interviews with senior officials, diplomats and other practitioners, this report investigates the 32 months leading up to and following the enlargement of the EU in May 2004, i.e. from September 2001 through December 2006. The material collected for the analysis covers each piece of legislation adopted in the Council over a period of more than 5 years. The aim is to provide a body of quantitative data that illustrate some of the key changes that have occurred, and to describe and analyse these findings while also taking into account insights gleaned from interviews with the EU practitioners. Although some consequences of the enlargement may only become apparent once more time has passed, the data covering the elapsed time already allow for an in-depth analysis of many important aspects of Council decision-making. At the same time, they can provide useful indications of future developments.


In this paper, a penetrometer-based methodology for characterizing in-situ stresses in clays is proposed. For this purpose, a correlation model between the effective stress and the penetration resistance is established. Piezocone and T-bar penetrometers, both of which are commonly used in practice, are introduced into the proposed method. The proposed correlation model is given as a function of the penetration resistance, penetration resistance factor and strength increase ratio, considering that the penetration resistance and undrained shear strength are both governed by the effective stress. To check the validity of the proposed method, case examples are selected and used to compare measured and predicted in-situ effective stress profiles. It is observed that the predicted stress profiles agree well with the measured profiles for both piezocone penetration test (PCPT) and T-bar test cases. The effect of soil constitution on the effective stress for the proposed method is also examined.


Optical filters for blocking ultraviolet (UV) light were fabricated by doping various polymer hosts with a UV absorbing chromophore. The polymers were polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone elastomer frequently used in microfluidics, SU-8, a photopatternable epoxy, and Humiseal 1B66, an acrylic coating used for moisture protection of integrated circuits. The chromophore was 2-(2′-hydroxy-5′-methylphenyl) benzotriazole (BTA), which has a high extinction coefficient between 300 nm and 400 nm. We demonstrate filters 5 µm thick that exhibit high ultraviolet rejection (nearly −40 dB at 342 nm) yet pass visible light (near 0 dB above 400 nm), making them ideal for ultraviolet-excited fluorescence sensing within microsystems. The absorbance of the BTA depended on the host polymer. These filters are promising for integrated fluorescence spectroscopy in bioanalytical platforms because they can be patterned by dry etching, molding or exposure to ultraviolet light.


Using data from OECD's PISA, Eurostat and World Bank's WDI, we explore how child cognitive outcomes at the aggregate country level are related to macroeconomic conditions, specifically government education expenditures and early education experience. We find that both government expenditures in education and attendance to early child care are associated with better later school performance. We also consider different childcare characteristics such as duration and quality, which appear to have significant effects Our results may imply that policies encouraging childcare expansion should also take into account quality issues.


Abstract Clinical findings in a group of infertile patients with endometriosis were reviewed to determine if minimal (focal) disease exerted an effect on reproductive outcome. Focal disease, defined as isolated implants less than or equal to 5 mm without pelvic adhesions or anatomic distortion, was found in 69 patients, with 35% manifesting menstrual dysfunction/anovulation. Patients with focal disease were divided into two groups: those treated with danazol (400-800 mg) daily for six months and those not treated. Conception occurred in 71% of the danazol-treated patients and 30% of the untreated ones. These results suggest that focal endometriosis does influence reproductive performance and that infertile patients with focal disease should be treated more aggressively with the available medical regimens, particularly when the infertility is of significant duration or when routine therapy has failed.


Shamanism can be described as a group of techniques by which its practitioners enter the 'spirit world', purportedly obtaining information that is used to help and to heal members of their social group. The shamans' epistemology, or ways of knowing, depended on deliberately altering their conscious state and/or heightening their perception to contact spiritual entities in 'upper worlds', 'lower worlds' and 'middle earth' (i.e., ordinary reality). For the shaman, the totality of inner and outer reality was fundamentally an immense signal system, and shamanic states of consciousness were the first steps toward deciphering this signal system. Homo sapiens sapiens was probably unique among early humans in the ability to symbolize, mythologize and, eventually, to shamanize. This species' eventual domination may have been due to its ability to take sensorimotor activity and use it as a bridge to produce narratives that facilitated human survival. Shamanic technologies, essential for the production and performance of myths and other narratives, interacted with shamanic epistemology, reinforcing its basic assumptions about reality.


Aim: This study explored the nature of supported self-care for women who had lymphoedema associated with breast cancer treatment, and the work of lymphoedema practitioners.
Background: Health policy indicated a need to examine the potentially evolving roles of individuals with long term conditions who undertake self-care, and health professionals who provide support. Lymphoedema affects around one in five women who undergo treatment for breast cancer. A woman with lymphoedema can experience long term swelling, most commonly of her arm, affecting her life in various ways.
Methods: Three small group discussions were undertaken with women who had lived with lymphoedema for more than two years (n=7). Field observation (n=16) of clinic appointments with women who had lymphoedema, were undertaken alongside interviews (n=15) with eight lymphoedema practitioners. Women who had newly developed lymphoedema (n=10) were interviewed three times over a period of six months. The study was underpinned by social constructionist perspectives, and informed by feminism and relational autonomy theory.
Findings: Various structures of power influenced the capacity for supported self-care in women and practitioners. Lymphoedema influenced women's self-identity, and women experienced substantial distress and frustration relating to the initial development of lymphoedema, the chronic nature of the condition, and in adapting to self-care. Lymphoedema practitioners provided support for women from within a mainly bio-medical framework of care, often based within acute clinical settings. Accessing local, trusted information and advice relating to lymphoedema self-care was challenging for some women.
Conclusion: An anticipatory approach to supported self-care was identified. The development of reflexivity and self-discovery was considered equally relevant to women with lymphoedema and lymphoedema practitioners. Professional approaches to support should recognise this anticipatory perspective and enable timely access for women to individualised and appropriate support at key points in their lymphoedema trajectory.


Background: This project describes one healthcare system's journey to expand the outreach of the Primary Stroke Center. Premier Health (PH) is a hospital system based in Dayton Ohio that provides services for over 2,200 stroke patients annually. Premier Health consists of 5 community hospitals 3 of which are Joint Commission certified Primary Stroke Centers. The requirement for Stroke Specialized Physicians on-call 24 hours a day had become more difficult with expansion of services to respond to community needs. With a limited number of Stroke Physicians within system, it was not feasible for available Physician's to cover the 50 mile radius. A Tele-Stroke Network was developed to provide lifesaving services as well as 24/7 coverage for stroke call. Program results include synergistic unity of best practices and improved patient outcomes with the majority of patients remaining in their community.

Purpose: Implement a Tele-Stroke System to provide specialty coverage and favorable patient outcomes for a Primary Stroke Center that provides coverage for a large region in the Midwest.

Methods: In 2013 a stroke telehealtlh Clinical Nurse Specialist role was added and became pivotal in facilitating the following outcomes:

1) Restructuring of the Stroke Alert Call Schedules across the system.

2) Streamlining Stroke Alert Process across the system and redesign of work flows

3) Development of standard system order sets to streamline care delivery.

4) Providing IT training to end users and physicians at five hospitals.

Results:

• 304 Tele-Stroke consults conducted since implementation.

• 33% increase in the volume of patient's receiving T-PA

• Average of 20 minutes reduction in Door to Needle for 2 of the 5 hospitals

• Post telemedicine implementation there was a reduction in transfers from spoke hospitals to hub. On average, 83 % of the PH Tele-Stroke patients were able to stay in their respective communities while receiving Primary Stroke Center Care via telemedicine.

Conclusion: Telemedicine implementation with standardization of stroke alert processes and order sets, restructuring of physician scheduling and IT training for the Primary Stroke Team resulted in improved t-PA use, lower door to needle time and reduction in unnecessary transfers of patients.


Molecular mechanisms associated with pathophysiological changes in ventricular remodelling due to myocardial infarction (MI) remain poorly understood. We analyzed changes in gene expression by microarray technology in porcine myocardial tissue at 1, 4, and 6 weeks post-MI. MI was induced by coronary artery ligation in 9 female pigs (30–40 kg). Animals were randomly sacrificed at 1, 4, or 6 weeks post-MI (n = 3 per group) and 3 healthy animals were also included as control group. Total RNA from myocardial samples was hybridized to GeneChip® Porcine Genome Arrays. Functional analysis was obtained with the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) online tool. Validation of microarray data was performed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). More than 8,000 different probe sets showed altered expression in the remodelling myocardium at 1, 4, or 6 weeks post-MI. Ninety-seven percent of altered transcripts were detected in the infarct core and 255 probe sets were differentially expressed in the remote myocardium. Functional analysis revealed 28 genes de-regulated in the remote myocardial region in at least one of the three temporal analyzed stages, including genes associated with heart failure (HF), systemic sclerosis and coronary artery disease. In the infarct core tissue, eight major time-dependent gene expression patterns were recognized among 4,221 probe sets commonly altered over time. Altered gene expression of ACVR2B, BID, BMP2, BMPR1A, LMNA, NFKBIA, SMAD1, TGFB3, TNFRSF1A, and TP53 were further validated. The clustering of similar expression patterns for gene products with related function revealed molecular footprints, some of them described for the first time, which elucidate changes in biological processes at different stages after MI.


ABSTRACT Nowadays, new alternatives have begun to offer the possibility of positioning as a combination of NRTK&PPP techniques. As one of them, Trimble CenterPoint RTX Correction Service provides cm-level accurate GNSS positioning based on the generation and delivery of corrections on the global scale through the satellite or Internet. In this study, usability of RTX correction service in kinematic applications and its attainable accuracy were investigated. In order to do this, two kinematic tests were carried out in Obruk Lake Dam, Çorum, Turkey. The results show that the RTX correction service provides cm-accurate point positioning by using a single GNSS receiver.


The S-transform is becoming popular for time-frequency analysis and data-adaptive filtering thanks to its simplicity. While this transform works well in the continuous domain, its discrete version may fail to achieve accurate results. This paper compares and contrasts this transform with the better known continuous wavelet transform, and defines a relation between both. This connection allows a better understanding of the S-transform, and makes it possible to employ the wavelet reconstruction formula as a new inverse S-transform and to propose several methods to solve some of the main limitations of the discrete S-transform, such as its restriction to linear frequency sampling.


Emotional tears are uniquely human and play an essential role in the communication of distress in adults. Several studies have shown that individuals are more willing to offer emotional support and help a person in tears. Preliminary evidence suggests that this greater willingness to provide support is mediated via perceived warmth and helplessness. Moreover, tearful individuals are regarded as more reliable and honest. In the current study, we examined whether people can reliably distinguish genuine and fake crying, and what the consequences for the further evaluation of the crier are. A total of 202 participants (73 men, 129 women) were exposed to brief movie clips of genuine and fake crying adults and were asked to assess the criers. Results show that women were slightly better at identifying fake and genuine crying. How the crying was perceived subsequently seemed to have a strong influence on the further evaluation of the "crier." Criers qualified as pretenders were perceived as significantly more manipulative, less reliable, less warm, and less competent. Further, the respondents felt less connected with the perceived pretenders, who also were less welcomed as friends, colleagues, neighbors, and babysitter. They were additionally qualified as significantly less fit for "reliable" professions (judge, teacher, police officer, scientist, and physician). In contrast, the ratings of their fitness for "unreliable" professions (banker, CEO, journalist, real estate salesman, and politician) yielded a significant difference in only one video clip (and contrary to expectations). Our findings thus indicate that the subjective labeling of crying as fake is associated with a significantly less positive perception of the "crying" person, regardless of whether the crying is actually fake or genuine. The qualification of tears as crocodile tears thus seems to affect the crier's image strongly negatively.


Background: Tigecycline has demonstrated good rates of microbiological eradication and clinical cure among indicated infections [Complicated intra- Abdominal infections (cIAIs), complicated Skin and Skin Structure Infections (cSSSI), Community-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia (CAP), in the USA]. This investigation evaluates the FDA approved breakpoints for tigecycline using microbiological and clinical data derived from cSSSI, cIAI and CAP clinical trials.
Methods and findings: Clinical and microbiological success rates from phase III and phase IIIb/IV clinical trials were analyzed by MIC. Additionally, a surveillance program was utilized to assess changes in the antimicrobial potency of tigecycline between 2004 and 2012. Microbiological eradiation and clinical cure rates for patients with infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae at a tigecycline MIC of ≤2 mg/L or S. aureus with a tigecycline MIC of ≤0.5 mg/L were ≥81%. Against tigecycline non-susceptible pathogens microbiological and clinical successes were reported for 13/22 (59.1%) and 12/22 (54.5%), respectively. Using the Fisher's exact test a comparison of microbiological success rates for patients (ME population) with Enterobacteriaceae with tigecycline MICs of ≤2 mg/L (n=922) and ≥4 mg/L (n=16) yielded a statistically significant two-tailed P value of 0.046. In the case of S. aureus, a comparison of MICs of ≤0.5 mg/L (n=287) and ≥1 mg/L (n=1) gave no statistically significant difference (P=1.000). Using the Cochran Armitage trend test statistically significant increases in tigecycline in vitro susceptibility were observed for Enterobacter spp. (p<0.01) and Enterobacteriaceae (p<0.01) and a statistically significant decrease in susceptibility among Enterococcus faecium (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: The current clinical FDA breakpoints for tigecycline are appropriate. Only E. faecium has shown a statistically significant decrease in susceptibility to tigecycline since tigecycline was first introduced into clinical practice in the USA in 2005.


The authors of this article purport that for current understanding of Healthy Cities it is useful to appreciate other global networks of local governments and communities. In a context where the local level is increasingly acknowledged as decisive in designing and implementing policies capable of tackling global threats such as climate change and their health-related aspects, understanding how thousands of cities across the world have decided to respond to those challenges appears essential. Starting with the concept of "healthy cities" in the 1980s, the trend toward promoting better living conditions in urban settings has rapidly grown to encompass today countless "theme cities" networks. Each network tends to focus on more or less specific issues related to well-being and quality of life. These various networks are thus not limited to more or less competing labels (Healthy Cities, Smart Cities, or Inclusive Cities, for instance), but entail significant differences in their approaches to the promotion of health in the urban context. The aim of this article is to systematically typify these "theme cities." A typology of "theme cities" networks has several objectives. First, it describes the health aspects that are considered by the networks. Are they adopting a systemic perspective on all health determinants, such as Healthy Cities, or are they focusing on "hardware" determinants like Smart Cities? Second, it highlights the key characteristics of the networks. For instance, are they pushing for technological solutions to health problems, like Smart Cities, or are they aiming at strengthening communities in order to mitigate their detrimental effects, like Creative Cities? Third, the typology has the potential to be used as an analytical tool, for example, in the comparison of the results obtained by different types of networks in urban health issues. Finally, the typology offers a tool to enhance both transparency and participation in the policymaking process taking place when selecting and engaging in a network. Indeed, by clarifying the terms of the debate, decisions can be made more explicit and achieve a greater level of congruence with the overall objectives of the city. Indeed, Healthy Cities today need to make alliances with other theme networks, and this typology gives the keys to find which networks are the "natural best allies," avoiding mutually harmful antagonisms. In that sense, the typology developed should be of interest to any actor involved in health promotion at the city level, whether in an existing "theme cities" policy process or as willing to participate in such a program, and to scholars interested in better understanding the main drivers of "theme cities" networks, a rapidly growing field of study.


Object-oriented constraint-based programming (OOCP) combines two orthogonal, but complementary programming paradigms, namely: object-oriented programming (OOP) and constraint logic programming (CLP). In spite of the idea to synthesize these paradigms looks very attractive and there were known attempts to implement it, there is still not clear which constructive form it can achieve during further elaboration and development. The key issues are expressiveness of the applied constraint problem description and its algorithmic solvability. In this paper a new system approach to implementation OOCP based on usage of declarative data modeling languages is proposed and discussed.


Abstract This paper investigates Japanese-speaking children's (in)sensitivity to information strength when interpreting sentences containing the focus particle datte even. It examines whether or not their sensitivity is affected by the Question Under Discussion (QUD) and the Felicity Judgment (FJ) task based on the Processing Limitation Hypothesis (PLH; cf. Chierchia et al., The acquisition of disjunction: Evidence for a grammatical view of scalar implicatures: 157168, Cascadilla Press, 2001, Semantic and pragmatic competence in children's and adults' comprehension of or, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Because datte even is not a scalar term, it does not give rise to scalar implicatures (SIs) by constituting a part of scales. Even evokes conventional implicatures. However, an even sentence in context in addition to the conventional implicatures evokes a special case of SI calculated from context-dependent scales, which is pragmatic inferences induced by evens conventional implicatures (i.e., the word's semantic/pragmatic import). The relevant scale (generally) concerns the NP element focused by even and a set of alternatives. Because sentences without even do not evoke any SI, I assume that the relevant implicatures are conventional in nature. Three experiments were done to examine whether Japanese-speaking children are really (in)capable of calculating conventional implicatures derived from datte sentences. It was found that (i) Children are insensitive to pragmatic anomalies of single infelicitous sentences (Experiments 1 and 2). This inability to detect pragmatic infelicity is consistent with findings about their ability to compute SIs. On the other hand, the adults showed sensitivity to conventional implicatures in all three experiments, which may be taken as evidence that the computation of implicatures derived from datte sentences differs from that of SIs. (ii) Unlike the results reported for SI in Zondervan (Effects of question under discussion and focus on scalar implicatures: 3952, 2007, Experiments on QUD and focus as a contextual constraint on scalar implicature calculation, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), the wh-focus/QUD way of asking questions does not facilitate the children's performance with datte sentences (Experiment 2). (iii) The FJ task improved children's performance (Experiment 3), thus supporting the PLH, which was applied to SI computation (Chierchia et al., Semantic and pragmatic competence in children's and adults' comprehension of or, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; cf. Reinhart, The processing cost of reference-set computation: Guess patterns in acquisition, Utrecht University, 1999, Interface strategies, MIT Press, 2006), and to the computation of implicatures involved in datte sentences. (iv) Children are unable to compute implicatures based on context-specific pragmatic scales derived from datte sentences, when a single underinformative statement is given. This partly contradicts previous findings on SI based on contextdependentpragmatic scales (Papafragou and Tantalou, Language Acquisition 12: 7182, 2004). The results indicate that children's insensitivity to the pragmatic infelicity of datte sentences stems from the processing load induced by building and maintaining alternative representations, as reported for SI computation.


AIMS
The British National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend to use drug-eluting stents (DES) instead of bare-metal stents (BMS) only in lesions >15 mm in length or in vessels <3 mm in diameter. We analyzed the impact of stent length and stent diameter on in-stent restenosis (ISR) in the BASKET-PROVE study population and evaluated the cost-effectiveness of DES compared to BMS.

METHODS/RESULTS
The BASKET-PROVE trial compared DES vs BMS in large coronary arteries (≥3 mm). We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves with regard to quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and target lesion revascularizations (TLRs) avoided. A total of 2278 patients were included in the analysis. A total of 74 ISR in 63 patients were observed. In-stent restenosis was significantly more frequent in segments treated with a BMS compared to segments treated with a DES (5.4% vs 0.76%; P<.001). The benefit of a DES compared to a BMS regarding ISR was consistent among the subgroups of stent length >15 mm and ≤15 mm, respectively. With the use of DES in short lesions, there was only a minimal gain of 0.005 in QALYs. At a threshold of 10 000 CHF per TLR avoided, DES had a high probability of being cost-effective.

CONCLUSION
In the BASKET-PROVE study population, the strongest predictor of ISR is the use of a BMS, even in patients in need of stents ≥3.0 mm and ≤15 mm lesion length and DES were cost-effective. This should prompt the NICE to reevaluate its recommendation to use DES instead of BMS only in vessels <3.0 mm and lesions >15 mm length.


The general homogeneous first order linear differential system is considered. The principal result concerns a repre-sentation of the solution space as a direct sum of subspaces such that on each summand upper and lower bounds for the norms of the solutions can be given. The main tool in obtain-ing this decomposition is the method of fixed points of integral operators.