[Abridged] We present maps of the main cooling lines of the neutral atomic gas ([OI] at 63 and 145 micron and [CII] at 158 micron) and in the [OIII] 88 micron line of the starburst galaxy M82, carried out with the PACS spectrometer on board the Herschel satellite. By applying PDR modeling we derive maps of the main ISM physical parameters, including the [CII] optical depth, at unprecedented spatial resolution (~300 pc). We can clearly kinematically separate the disk from the outflow in all lines. The [CII] and [OI] distributions are consistent with PDR emission both in the disk and in the outflow. Surprisingly, in the outflow, the atomic and the ionized gas traced by the [OIII] line both have a deprojected velocity of ~75 km/s, very similar to the average velocity of the outflowing cold molecular gas (~ 100 km/s) and several times smaller than the outflowing material detected in Halpha (~ 600 km/s). This suggests that the cold molecular and neutral atomic gas and the ionized gas traced by the [OIII] 88 micron line are dynamically coupled to each other but decoupled from the Halpha emitting gas. We propose a scenario where cold clouds from the disk are entrained into the outflow by the winds where they likely evaporate, surviving as small, fairly dense cloudlets (n_H\sim 500-1000 cm^-3, G_0\sim 500- 1000, T_gas\sim300 K). We show that the UV photons provided by the starburst are sufficient to excite the PDR shells around the molecular cores. The mass of the neutral atomic gas in the outflow is \gtrsim 5-12x 10^7 M_sun to be compared with that of the molecular gas (3.3 x 10^8 M_sun) and of the Halpha emitting gas (5.8 x 10^6 M_sun). The mass loading factor, (dM/dt)/SFR, of the molecular plus neutral atomic gas in the outflow is ~ 2. Energy and momentum driven outflow models can explain the data equally well, if all the outflowing gas components are taken into account.


Consumer cloud computing paradigm has emerged as the natural evolution and integration of advances in several areas including distributed computing, service oriented architecture and consumer electronics. In this complex ecosystem, security and identity management challenges have cropped up, given their dynamism and heterogeneity. As a direct consequence, dynamic federated identity management with privacy improvements has arisen as an indispensable mechanism to enable the global scalability and usability that are required for the successful implantation of Cloud technologies. With these requirements in mind, we present an IdM architecture based on privacy and reputation extensions compliance with the SAMLv2/ID-FF standards1.


Rotary blade design is an important research area due to its criticality in applications in turbo machinery like steam turbine, aero or land based gas engines. A small mistuning gives rise to stress development through mode localization under high speed rotating conditions. Various elements like shrouds, lacing wire and tie-bolts are used as blade interconnecting elements. In the present work lacing wire is used as blade interconnecting element and the research deals with comparative case studies of frequency evaluation for without lacing and with lacing blade configurations of a HP Gas Turbine rotor. The lacing wire adds required stiffness to obtain greater structural performance as it is more aerodynamic and feasible when compared to without lacing wires free standing blades. The HP blade length of turbine is optimized based on the stress and the frequency checks. The positioning of lacing wire at 3/4 th along the blade height of HP turbine blades and wire cross section considered is circular are considered for this research work. A Design of Experiments (DOE) is carried out to optimize the dimensional parameter of the lacing wire. Assuming root of turbine blade is 100% under fixity condition, the study involves critical parametric evaluations involved in achieving mechanical integrity in airfoil design and blade platform design. Mechanical Integrity involves frequency margin checks, stress checks, analysis of Campbell diagram, checks for gross yield stress and so on, for design and off-design conditions for a given stage efficiency of 83% in an ideal HP turbine of a gas turbine engine.


We present an extensive structural analysis of hybrid
architectures prepared by the soft incorporation of gold
nanoparticles (AuNPs) within an organic semiconductor matrix of
diindenoperylene (DIP). Such soft or noninvasive deposition of
nanoparticles within organic semiconducting host matrices not
only minimizes the influence of the deposition process on the
order and properties of the organic host molecules, but also
offers additional control in the process of incorporation. The
hybrid structures were characterized by X-ray scattering
techniques including grazing incidence small angle X-ray
scattering (GISAXS), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction
(GIXD), X-ray reflectivity (XRR), and complemented by atomic
force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy,
and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. We
show that different strategies of incorporating the
nanoparticles in the host matrix lead to drastically different
structure and morphologies. Particularly remarkable is the
morphological change observed in the matrix of DIP as well as
the AuNPs due to the influence of organic solvents, as
evidenced by TEM tomography measurements, which revealed the
exact location of the AuNPs within the organic host. It is also
demonstrated that AuNPs can be successfully used as tunable
templates for the growth of the organic semiconductors with
desired island sizes and distances.


The prevalence of risky behaviors, especially amongst adolescents and youth, has been of the serious health threats in recent years which, due to rapid social change, have been taken into consideration on behalf of health agencies, law enforcement and social policymakers as one of the most important problems in the society. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of risky behaviors and its relationship to religious orientations among students (boy and girls) in Shaahed and public schools. To this end and using a multi-stage cluster sampling and proportional to population size, 450 students were chosen for this study. To measure the variables, Iranian Adolescents Risk-taking Survey (IARS) and Stark Gluck Religiosity Test were used, respectively. For data analysis, correlation tests, T-test, chi square, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe's test were used. The results showed that the prevalence of risky behaviors in all students was 5.4 percent (boys 6.3 percent, girls 4.51 percent). Also, there was a significant difference in mean scores of risky behaviors among students in public schools and Shaahed students enrolled in public schools. Besides, there appeared a significant negative relation between religious orientations (p<0.01) and risky behaviors among students in public and Shaahed schools. Having analyzed the subsidiary hypotheses, it was
revealed that there was a significant positive relationship among age (p<0.05) and field of study (p<0.01) with risky behaviors in students of public schools. The result of this research revealed the need for greater attention, with greater emphasis on the practical aspect of it, to the importance of religious orientations in prevention of infection with risky behaviors among students.


Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) has gained much popularity over the years. ANPR are used for automatic toll collection and management for parking areas. However, there is no international common standard for car plates which makes the task of automatic car plate's recognition very challenging. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Road Transport Department (JPJ) is the government body in charge of issuing car plate licenses. Malaysian license plates consists of English alphabets and numbers and so designing ANPR for Malaysia license plates is straightforward and easy. However, there are a number of memorial plates, or plates with distinctive prefixes that are made available by the JPJ. These types of license plates are sold at a higher cost. These special plates are used to denote the manufacturer of the car such as Proton Malaysia introduced "Proton Waja� cars, a special event car plate BAMbee was issued in 2000 for Thomas and Uber Cup which was held in Kuala Lumpur in that particular year. Hence, designing an accurate ANPR system for such license plates is challenging. This research project involves autonomously localizes and recognizes non-standardized Malaysian's car plates using conventional Backpropagation algorithm in combination with Feed-Forward Neural Network (BPNN). The experimental result is compared with the results obtained using simple Radial Basis Function Network (RBF). This research aims to solve four main issues; (1) localization of car plates that has the same colour with the vehicle colour, (2) detection and recognition of car plates with varying sizes, (3) detection and recognition of car plates with different font types, and (4) detection and recognition of non-standardized car plates. The proposed method involves two tasks, pre-processing and recognition. The captured car images are first binarized in order to remove unwanted small objects. Then, filtering is applied in order to remove larger objects. Next, a deblurring technique is proposed to create an area for bounding box. The bounding technique could segment the characters correctly. Lastly, BPNN as well RBF are used to train the segmented and extracted characters. The experimental results show that the combination of BPNN and RBF can be effectively used to solve these four issues. In BPNN, letters 'J' and 'M' and digit '7' and '8' achieved 90.91%, 85.71%, 97.22% and 97.14%, respectively. In RBF, letters 'B', 'S' and digit '0' accuracy rates are 97.22%, 96.97% and 86.67%, respectively. Hence, it shows RBF performed better than BPNN.


Lazhar Khriji, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 33, Muscat 123, Oman. Email: email@example.com Abstract Early heart disease class detection is of great interest to reduce the mortality rate. In this context, computational techniques have been proposed to solve this issue. Thus, here, a deep learning architecture is proposed to automatically classify the patient's Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal into a specific class according to the ANSI–AAMI standards. The proposed methodology is a multi‐stage technique. The first stage combines an R–R peak extraction with a low‐pass filter applied on the ECG data for noise removal. The second stage shows the proposed convolutional neural network‐based fully connected layers architecture, using different network optimizers. Different ECG databases, including challenging tasks, have been used for validation purpose. The whole system is implemented on both CPU and GPU for complexity analysis. For the predicted improved PTB data set, the classification accuracy results achieve 99.37%, 99.15% and 99.31% for training, validation and testing, respectively. Besides, for the MIT‐BIH‐database, the training, validation and testing accuracies are 99.5%, 99.06% and 99.34%, respectively. A top F1‐score of 0.99 is obtained. Experimental results show a high achievement compared to the state‐of‐the‐art models where the implementation of GPU confirms the low computational complexity of the system.


Abstract The authors analyze the data of studies on the hemagglutinating and adhesive capacity of 290 cultures, including 118 K. pneumoniae strains and 64 E. cloacae strains isolated from sick children, as well as 59 K. pneumoniae strains and 49 E. cloacae strains isolated from healthy children. The hemagglutinating properties of the strains were determined in the hemagglutination test with fresh, formalin- and tannin-treated red blood cells, the adhesive properties were studied by light microscopy. Among K. pneumoniae and E. cloacae strains isolated in acute intestinal infections, mannose-sensitive hemagglutination and pronounced adhesive activity were prevalent in most cases. Poorly adhesive and nonadhesive strains were characteristic of K. pneumoniae and E. cloacae cultures isolated from healthy children. The strains isolated from sick and healthy children differed only by the prevalence of adhesive cultures.


One of the major causes of soil degradation throughout the world is water erosion. Anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) application to soils is an effective soil conservation practice for reducing runoff and soil losses caused by erosion. It also increases the infiltration rate of soils. The objective of this study was conducted to determine effects of different application rates of PAM (0 (control), 1.667, 3.333 and 5.000 kg.ha -1 ) on infiltration rate, runoff and soil losses. Polyacrylamide was sprayed on the surface of the experimental soils with different textures. The PAM treated soils were introduced to simulated rainfall at 61 mm/h intensity for an hour. The results indicated that, PAM applications significantly reduced surface runoff and soil losses, but increased infiltration rates. The effectiveness of PAM was higher in clay and clay loam soils than that of sandy clay loam soil. The most effective applications rates of PAM on reducing surface runoff and soil losses and increasing infiltration rates were found to be 3.333 and 5.000 kg.ha -1 . By considering the price and application cost of PAM, It was suggested that 3.333 kg.ha -1 PAM is the most suitable application rate. As compared with the control, it was obtained that PAM application with a rate of 3.333 kg.ha -1 reduced surface runoff and soil losses by 23.1 and 18.5%, respectively and increased infiltration rate by 24%. Key words : Polyacrylamide (PAM), soil erosion, soil loss, runoff, infiltration rate, simulated rainfall.


Data centers are large energy consumers today and their consumption is expected to increase further, driven by the growth in cloud services. The large costs and the environmental impact of this consumption have motivated data center operators to optimize data center operations. We argue that one of the underlying reasons for the low energy utilization is the lack of visibility into a data center's highly dynamic operating conditions. Wireless sensor networks promise to remove this veil of uncertainty by delivering large volumes of data collected at high spatial and temporal fidelities. The paper summarizes data center operations in order to describe the parameters that a data center sensing network would need to collect and motivate the challenges that such a network would face. We present technical approaches for the problems of data collection and management and close with an overview of Data Center Genome, an end-to-end data center sensing system.


In this paper, The next Generation High Speed Railway Inverter system using RCF-PWM(Random Carrier Frequency Pulse Width Modulation) was developed to reduce electromagnetic noise. RCF-PWM method is randomized the switching frequency in the range between Semiconductor switching devices` maximum switching frequency and minimum switching frequency, Simulation program has been built using MATLAB/Simulink to verify the validity of study. Finally, the simulation results of Next Generation High Speed Railway inverter system using the RCF method was compared with the conventional SVPWM method.


Physical Education in universities is designed to teach during the school can accept multi-faceted physical education, to develop exercise habits to achieve the goal of lifetime sports. The effectiveness of the current University of Physical Education Teachers by personal factors: features and functions, including physical education teachers, expertise and interests, experience and age, and value orientation of teachers, curriculum, teacher attitudes, beliefs, habits and behavior styles, personality traits; and the enthusiasm of students, attitude, intention; there are school factors, school characteristics, facilities and other factors. These factors plaguing college sports curriculum construction and development, this study intended through the analysis of these factors to find enough of measures to promote Physical Education College further deepening of reform.


Allelic expression of the rice yield-related gene, leucine-rich receptor-like kinase 6 (LRK6), in the hybrid of 93-11 (Oryza sativa L. subsp. Indica var. 93-11) and Nipponbare (O. sativa L. subsp. Japonica var. Nipponbare) is determined by allelic promoter cis-elements. Using deletion analysis of the LRK6 promoter, we identified two distinct regions that might contribute to LRK6 expression. Sequence alignment revealed differences in these LRK6 promoter regions in 93-11 and Nipponbare. One of the segments, named differential sequence of LRK6 promoter 2 (DSLP2), contains potential transcription factor binding sites. Using a yeast one-hybrid assay, we isolated an ethylene-responsive factor (ERF) protein that binds to DSLP2. Sequence analysis and a GCC-box assay showed that the ERF gene, O. sativa ERF 3 (OsERF3), which belongs to ERF subfamily class II, has a conserved ERF domain and an ERF-associated amphiphilic repression repressor motif. We used an in vivo mutation assay to identify a new motif (5'-TAA(A)GT-3') located in DSLP2, which interacts with OsERF3. These results suggest that OsERF3, an AP2 (APETALA 2 Gene)/ERF transcription factor, binds the LRK6 promoter at this new motif, which might cause differential expression of LRK6 in the 93-11/Nipponbare hybrid.


Introduction: Current methods of evaluating adequacy of endovascular procedures are imperfect and do not always predict which patients will do well. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of real-time quantitative measurements of perfusion among patients with critical limb ischemia. Materials and Methods: Thirty-four patients with critical limb ischemia undergoing endovascular treatment were recruited. Perfusion Images of the foot were obtained pre and post successful angioplasty using an SPY Elite System (Novadaq Technologies, Ontario, Canada). Patients were followed for 6 months. Subsequently a logistic regression was performed to determine whether intraprocedural perfusion parameters predicted the odds of wound healing. Results: Twenty-nine patients had successful angioplasty. Median age was 69.5% ± 8.3; 75% were men and 64% were diabetic. Rutherford stages were (4%-39%, 5%-57%, 6%-4%), and the average target limb ankle–brachial index (ABI) was 0.58 (SD 2.24). There was no significant correlation between the ABI and perfusion parameters. Inflow perfusion rate correlated significantly with Rutherford stage (Spearman rho 0.398, P = .036). After successful angioplasty 39% had a decrease in inflow rate and 57% had a decreased total inflow. In all, 25 patients completed 6 months of follow-up. Resolution of rest pain and/or healing of the ischemic wound occurred in 10 (40%) patients at 1 month, 4 (16%) at 3 months, and 2 (8%) at 6 months. One patient underwent a major amputation at 2 months. Eight (32%) patients never healed or had persistent rest pain. None of the real-time perfusion variables were significant predictors of wound healing. Conclusion: Many patients experience a paradoxical decrease in perfusion following successful angioplasty suggesting perfusion may not correlate with angiographic outcome, possibly due to microemboli, microvascular disease, or vasospasm. Real-time perfusion imaging following intra-arterial infusion of indocyanine green does not predict the odds of wound healing.


Experiments on dogs were made to simulate aphthous process on the oral mucosa by occlusion of the common bile duct. The content of adrenaline, noradrenaline, serotonin, histamine and ascorbic acid was measured during the development of pathological process in the areas of oral mucosa tissue characterized by most frequent appearance of aphthas and in the tissue of the duodenal, small and large intestine mucosa. The magnitude of the characteristics indicated was determined 2, 6 and 12 h and 1, 3, 7 and 10 days after operation. Aphthas appeared on the 3d day. Within the first hours of the experiment there was a considerable increase in the content of noradrenaline, adrenaline and serotonin in the oral mucosa accompanied by a reduction in the histamine and ascorbic acid content. In the intestinal mucosa, shifts in the correlations between the hormones and transmitters were less pronounced. During aphthas appearance, the histamine content rose whereas other parameters decreased. The period of the reverse development was characterized by the recovery of the correlations of the hormones under study and transmitters.


P92 steel is a potential candidate for ultra-supercritical (USC) plant component. Thus, its suitability and performance for future service are still under investigation. Understanding the creep behaviour is essential to design the components that can sustain in service over a certain period. With the intention to investigate the creep deformation and rupture behaviour of P92 steel weldment, four cross-weld creep specimens were prepared and tested at 600°C at different stress levels. All specimens ruptured between 400 and 4,000 hours. Following the creep test, fractography examination was performed. P92 steel weldment exhibits clear primary, secondary and tertiary creep deformation stages. At long-term, the time portion for primary deformation as compared to rupture time reduces, however, secondary stage is observed to dominate. Deformation and rupture data obeys the power law relation which indicates the material deforms at a higher rate and rupture earlier as the stress increases. Ductility of P92 steel weldment reduces as the stress decreases. A strong correlation between minimum creep strain rate and time to rupture is observed when the data is fitted using original Monkman-Grant (MG) and Modified Monkman-Grant (MMG) relations. Examination of fracture surface reveals that at high stress, transgranular-type of fracture is dominant. As creep time increases, a mixture between the intergranular and transgranular fracture is evidence.


Abstract:This article presents a transnational account of women's education in modern Morocco. While previous accounts of this history have relied on the colonial archive, this study also considers an assembled collection of Arabic sources reflecting Moroccan perspectives. These sources show that Moroccans advocated for specific changes to women's education, drawing on reforms taking place in Egypt and the Levant. Analyzing nationalist discourse about gender and education reveals a key distinction between colonial and nationalist approaches to women's education: a new understanding of happiness that was central to nationalist discourse and absent from colonial policy. This account centers Moroccans as historical actors and highlights the circulation of ideas and people across North Africa and within the Arabic-speaking world. In doing so, it emphasizes the need to look beyond the circuits that connected metropole and colony. This opens the possibility for a new periodization of modern gender norms in Morocco and offers a basis for a feminist critique of women's education in modern Morocco, transcending both colonial and national historiographical frameworks.


A novel, non-radiative mechanism is reported by which Frenkel pairs of vacancies and interstitials are generated in molar concentrations far above thermal equilibrium. This mechanism is demonstrated in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of an aluminum single crystal with a free surface. They suggest that three conditions must be fulfilled: (i) lattice vibrations near the Brillouin zone edge are being excited, (ii) these vibrations proliferate at a sufficiently high rate, and (iii) the sample temperature is above the Debye temperature (but significantly below the melting point). The simulations employed an EAM potential for Al. We attempt to draw a confluence between our MD simulations and recent experiments on flash sintering of aluminum. The simulation results are also consistent with flash experiments on polycrystals and single crystals of zirconium and titanium oxides where the Debye temperature was discovered to be the lower limit for the onset of the flash.


This paper is a contribution to the literature on rational design of trade agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an incomplete contract among sovereign states. Incomplete contracts contain gaps. Ex post, contractual gaps may leave gains from trade unrealized; they may create "regret" in signatories once unanticipated contingencies or sudden protectionist backlashes have occurred. Trade policy flexibility mechanisms, such as the "safeguards clause" under Art. XIX GATT, are geared towards seizing ex post regret by allowing parties affected by a protectionist shock to partially and temporarily withdraw from previously made trade liberalization concessions – given that they compensate the victim(s) of such backtracking behavior. This paper examines the somewhat understudied issue of optimal trade policy flexibility design in the WTO: In particular, we analyze whether ex post escape should be organized by means of a unilateral opt-out clause (a "liability rule" of escape), or a bilateral renegotiation provision (a "property rule" of escape). Modeling the WTO as a fully non-contingent tariff liberalization contract with contingencies (or "states of nature") asymmetrically revealed, we find that a liability rule backed by expectation remedies payable to the affected victim Pareto-dominates both a renegotiation clause, as well as any other remedy arrangement connected to a liability rule. Only the remedial design of liability-cum-expectation damages yields the desirable incentives to liberalize ex ante, and to default ex post and therewith is able to replicate the outcomes of the hypothetical contracting ideal of the complete contingent contract.


Combining surface imprinting with nanomaterials is an effective solution to overcome template removal and achieve large binding capacity. In this work, highly monodisperse and uniform-sized silica nanoparticles (NPs) with average diameter of ∼400 nm were synthesized by using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as a single precursor, and then vinyl groups were introduced onto the surface of silica NPs by chemical modification of γ-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (γ-MAPS). Subsequently, the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) coating was copolymerized and anchored onto the surface of vinyl modified silica NPs dispersed in aqueous media with lysozyme (Lyz) as a template. The morphology and structure property of the resultant MIP-coated silica NPs were characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The polymerization and adsorption conditions were investigated in detail in order to obtain the highest selectivity and binding capacity. Under the optimized conditions, the imprinted nanoparticles showed higher binding affinity toward the template than non-imprinted (NIP) nanoparticles, and the corresponding imprinted factor (a) reached 1.68. The specificity for Lyz recognition was evaluated with competitive experiments, indicating the imprinted nanoparticles have a higher selectivity for the template. The resultant Lyz-MIP silica NPs could not only selectively extract a target protein from mixed proteins, but also specifically enrich Lyz from human serum. In addition, the stability and regeneration were also investigated, which indicated the imprinted silica NPs had excellent reusability.


: Detailed observational data on urolithiasis incidence at the territory of the Amur Region are presented. 4 foci with a high level of disease incidence have been detected. The content of calcium, magnesium, and strontium has been determined in drinking water and correlation of urolithic disease rates with rations Ca/Sr and Mg/Sr were established. Certain dependence of the disease rates on the above ratios shows that their elevation corresponds to the reduction of urolithiasis rates, and vice versa. Application of the given technique in the urolithiasis endemic areas with the established level of disease incidence provides analogous results. It is assumed that in a number of cases unfavourable distribution of some chemical elements in drinking water, i. e., Ca/Sr and Mg/Sr, has affected the high level of urolithiasis incidence.


Exposure of human leukemic lymphoblasts in suspension cultures to low concentrations of vinblastine and vincristine results in alterations in cell shape and leads to the formation and release of a large number of membrane-lined vesicles from the cytoplasm. Separation of these vesicles from peripheral cytoplasm is effected through alignment and fusion of small vacuoles. Similar vesicle formation is seen neither in fibroblasts exposed to vinblastine nor in lympho blasts exposed to bleomycin or adriamycin. Possible rela tion of this phenomenon to vinblastineand vincristine induced cytotoxicity, spherocytosis, and thrombocytosis is discussed.


Neural remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI) may cause malignant ventricular arrhythmia, which is the main cause of sudden cardiac death following MI. Herein, we aimed to examine whether induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSc) transplantation can ameliorate neural remodeling and reduce ventricular arrhythmias (VA) in a post‐infarcted swine model. Left anterior descending coronary arteries were balloon‐occluded to generate MI. Animals were then divided into Sham, PBS control, and iPS groups. Dynamic electrocardiography programmed electric stimulation were performed to evaluate VA. The spatial distribution of vascularization, Cx43 and autonomic nerve regeneration were evaluated by immunofluorescence staining. Associated protein expression was detected by Western blotting. Likewise, we measured the enzymatic activities of superoxide dismutase and content of malondialdehyde. Six weeks later, the number of blood vessels increased significantly in the iPSc group. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and connexin 43 in the iPS group was significantly higher than the PBS group; however, the levels of nerve growth factor and tyrosine hydroxylase were lower. The oxidative stress was ameliorated by iPSc transplantation. Moreover, the number of sympathetic nerves in the iPSc group was reduced, while the parasympathetic nerve fibers had no obvious change. The transplantation of iPSc also significantly decreased the low‐/high‐frequency ratio and arrhythmia score of programmed electric stimulation‐induced VA. In conclusion, iPSc intramyocardial transplantation reduces vulnerability to VAs, and the mechanism was related to the remodeling amelioration of autonomic nerves and gap junctions. Moreover, possible mechanisms of iPSc transplantation in improving neural remodeling may be related to attenuated oxidative stress and inflammatory response. J. Cell. Biochem. 115: 531–539, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We introduce a novel concept for motion robust optical 3D sensing. The concept is based on multiline triangulation. The aim is to evaluate a large number of projected lines (high data density), in a large measurement volume, with high precision. Implementing all those attributes at the same time principally allows for the "perfect" single-shot 3D movie camera (our long-term goal). The key problem toward this goal is ambiguous line indexing: we will demonstrate that the necessary information for unique line indexing can be acquired by two synchronized cameras and a back projection scheme. The introduced concept preserves high lateral resolution, since the lines are as narrow as the sampling theorem allows. No spatial bandwidth is consumed by encoding of the lines. In principle, the distance uncertainty is only limited by shot noise and coherent noise. The concept can be also advantageously implemented as a hand-guided sensor with real-time registration, for a complete and dense 3D acquisition of complicated scenes.


This special section about India is of special relevance because providing affordable energy is a key requirement for economic development in our nation. Rapid urbanization and industrialization after India's independence led to a multifold increase in petroleum consumption and the demand for petroleum products continues to grow with no sign of abatement. Presently, India produces about 820 000 barrels of crude oil per day but consumes about 2 560 000 barrels per day. This means that India can produce only 30% of the petroleum products that it consumes. Similarly, gas production is about 29.4 billion m3 per day and we consume about 32.1 billion m3 per day, a total which is expected to increase many times. This indicates that there is a huge gap between the indigenous production and demand which is likely to increase in the years to come.


This paper reviews the approaches applications and Prospects for herd-level modeling of steady-state livestock productivity. It includes an assessment of currently used logarithms, an outline of the scope for applications and addresses the prospects for refinement and model extensions. The algorithms for use in development of steady state derivations include transition of matrices in a Markov Chain approach, continuous differential equations and actuarial approach built on life and fecundity tables. The applications include consideration of livestock productivity dynamic and static modeling. These approaches can allow models to handle a range of animal species breed types and production systems. The Kenya Veterinarian Vol. 27 2004: pp. 31-35


Motion control is now recognized as a key technology in mechatronics. The robustness of motion control will be represented as a function of stiffness and a basis for practical realization. Target of motion is parameterized by control stiffness which could be variable according to the task reference. However, the system robustness of motion always requires very high stiffness in the controller. The paper shows that control of acceleration realizes specified motion simultaneously with keeping the robustness very high. The acceleration is a bridge to connect such robustness and variable stiffness. For practical applications, a technique to estimate disturbance is introduced to make motion controller to be an acceleration controller. Motion control of flexible structure and identification of mechanical parameters are also described.


In this policy paper we discuss policy instruments which can help to decarbonise passenger cars in the European Union. We elaborate to what extent these policy instruments are effective, technology-neutral, predictable, cost-effective and enforceable. Based on these criteria, we develop recommendations for the European Union and its Member States on (1) how to shape their policy frameworks in order to achieve existing climate change mitigation targets; (2) how to support car manufacturers in selling innovative and competitive products; and (3) how to encourage consumers in Europe to purchase appropriate vehicles.
We conclude that favourable policy instruments are used, but there is a strong need for adjustment and further development. The effectiveness of the current EU emission standard should be further increased by turning away from granting "super-credits" and introducing a size-based (instead of weight-based) credit system. Moreover, its overall ambition is questionable and the existing compliance mechanisms should be sharpened.
Fuel taxes are an effective means to push consumers to buy energy-efficient cars. However, a sharp increase may not have the desired effects. Instead, the Member States should harmonise their excise duties at the level of those Member States, which currently impose the highest taxes (Netherlands, Italy). This includes the abolition of any diesel tax bonus. An introduction and harmonisation of vehicle taxes (purchase and circulation) should be based on a vehicle's energy consumption. Additionally, reformation efforts should aim to change the taxation of company cars in a way that vehicle sizes are reduced over time.
Ambitious Member States may also want to introduce a sales quota for electric vehicles. Sales quotas are a very cost-effective policy instrument provided that the mandated technology will achieve a certain market share. This may be assumed for battery-electric vehicles. Further supportive instruments that should be considered are eco-labelling, public procurement and purchase incentives. However, the latter instrument's effectiveness is debatable and its implementation should therefore not be a Member State's priority.


Confusion about type status of the collections Stolz 640 and Stolz 2508 , both described by Schlechter, have arisen because the epithet stolzii was used by Schlechter himself on labels of the type collection of Angraceum parcum Schltr. I here clarify which are the type collections of A. parcum Schltr. and A. stolzii Schltr. and designate lectotypes for these species.


There is fairly widespread belief that suppuration superimposed upon acute cholecystitis is a rather uncommon condition. Scanty information on this subject is found in the published literature. No doubt, the scarcity of data further reinforces this clinical impression. Yet, from the few studies available, a surprisingly high incidence (7-11%) is documented. We reviewed 518 patients who underwent emergency cholecystectomy and found 139 cases to have frank pus present within the gallbladder. The clinical presentation is often difficult to distinguish from that of acute cholecystitis but diagnosis is crucial to identify this potentially fatal surgical emergency. There are encouraging reports of specific ultrasonic features which can demonstrate the increased viscosity produced by the purulent and fibrinous content within the gallbladder.


Ceramic clays are among the most complicated of ceramic systems because of the very intricate relationship between the behavior of minerals during ceramic processing and their modifications during heating. A major challenge is to predict the phase changes in clay ceramics. The aims of this study were to establish reference data of ceramic products that can be formed based on the mineralogical compositions of the local raw materials. These data, in turn, can be compared with archeological ceramics in order to study their origins.The mineralogical compositions and modifications during firing (550–1100°C under oxidizing conditions) of seven clayey materials sampled from the main clay deposits of northern Morocco were evaluated by X-ray powder diffraction. Two groups of clays were distinguished according to the type of neoformed high-temperature minerals: non-calcareous clays and calcareous clays. For the non-calcareous raw materials, spinel was produced at 950°C. Cristobalite and mullite were formed at temperatures in excess of 1000°C from clays that contain illite, kaolinite, and chlorite. In clays containing vermiculite and large amounts of chlorite, hematite was formed at temperatures in excess of 950°C. Firing of calcareous clays at temperatures >950°C yielded Ca-silicates (diopside, gehlenite and wollastonite), spinel, cristobalite, hematite, and feldspars. Mullite may also form in the calcareous clay products when the carbonate content exceeds 10%.


São Marcos Bay is an estuarine complex with semidiurnal tides that can reach more than 7 m during equinoctial spring tides. It is situated in the second largest Brazilian coastline and is subjected to continuous human activities holding an important port complex of Latin America. In order to contribute to the knowledge about the structure of the phytoplankton in a macrotidal systems, this study aims to evaluate the phytoplankton community and its relationship with environmental conditions in the São Marcos Bay. Five surveys in 2010 and 2011 were carried out on four sampling points during the rainy and dry seasons. Samples were taken during the flood and ebb phases at neap tides. Hydrological parameters were correlated with biological data (phytoplankton composition, abundance and biomass) using statistical analysis. The phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) characterized the bay as quite productive (10.43±7.62 mg m-3) with the nanophytoplankton as the dominant fraction. Seasonal variation was observed in phytoplankton abundance with higher values (34,262±18,422 cells L-1) in the rainy season. Diatoms were the most important phytoplankton group, pointing out Nitzschia sp., Diploneis weissflogii and Synedra sp. as the dominant species. This study revealed that the composition of phytoplankton community was mainly influenced by the local dynamics, governed by macrotides, and precipitation regime that mostly contributed to the seasonal fluctuations of the environmental conditions, such as salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients. AbstrAct Lisana Furtado Cavalcanti1, Andrea Christina Gomes Azevedo-Cutrim2, Amanda Lorena Lima Oliveira1, Jordana Adorno Furtado1, Bethânia de Oliveira Araújo1, Ana Karoline Duarte-dosSantos Sá1, Francinara Santos Ferreira1, Nágela Gardênia Rodrigues Santos1, Francisco José Silva Dias1, Marco Valério Jansen Cutrim1*


We propose a semi-automatic thalamus and thalamus nuclei segmentation algorithm from diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) based on the mean-shift algorithm. Comparing with existing thalamus segmentation algorithms which are mainly based on K-means algorithm, our mean-shift-based algorithm is more flexible and adaptive. It does not assume a Gaussian distribution or a fixed number of clusters. Furthermore, the single parameter in the mean-shift-based algorithm supports hierarchical clustering naturally.


A wealth of algorithms centered around (integer) linear programming have been proposed to compute equilibrium strategies in security games with discrete states and actions. However, in practice many domains possess continuous state and action spaces. In this paper, we consider a continuous space security game model with infinite-size action sets for players and present a novel deep learning based approach to extend the existing toolkit for solving security games. Specifically, we present (i) OptGradFP, a novel and general algorithm that searches for the optimal defender strategy in a parameterized continuous search space, and can also be used to learn policies over multiple game states simultaneously; (ii) OptGradFP-NN, a convolutional neural network based implementation of OptGradFP for continuous space security games. We demonstrate the potential to predict good defender strategies via experiments and analysis of OptGradFP and OptGradFP-NN on discrete and continuous game settings.


This presentation details the California ISOs experiences with a CIM-based toolkit in the preparation and maintenance of an extremely large-scale (in excess of 13,000 busses) network model. This process includes initialization of the model from a WECC seasonal operating model and integration and reconciliation of legacy substation models provided by the participating California IOUs, and subsequent update of the finished model from periodic new releases of the WECC model.


Wave breaking is probably the dominant source of ambient noise in the ocean. In deep water, breaking is intermittent in both space and time, but, in the surf zone, every wave of any appreciable size breaks, or shoals, before it reaches the shore. This makes the surf zone and its neighboring region offshore acoustically different from deeper water. In shoaling, surface waves dissipate their energy, generate currents and turbulence that mix the water column, suspend sediments and entrain bubbles, and generate sound. It is the potential relationships between the sound generation and propagation and the other physical processes associated with surface waves, and the shoaling bottom topography, that is the subject of this talk. This is an open field in acoustical oceanography and underwater acoustics, with few measurements available but a great deal of potential. In this lecture the processes associated with the shoaling of surface waves will be reviewed and the resulting implications for sound generation and ...


Molecules and assemblies of molecules with well-defined secondary structures have been designed and characterized by controlling noncovalent interactions. By specifying intermolecular interactions, a class of information-storing molecular duplexes have been successfully developed. These H-bonded molecular duplexes demonstrate programmable, sequence-specificity and predictable, tunable stabilities. Based on these highly specific molecular zippers (or glues), a systematic approach to designing self-assembled structures is now feasible. Duplex-directed formation of beta-sheets, block copolymers and templated organic reactions have been realized. By specifying intramolecular noncovalent interactions, a backbone-rigidification strategy has been established, leading to unnatural molecular strands that adopt well-defined, crescent or helical conformations. The generality of this backbone-rigidification strategy has been demonstrated in three different classes of unnatural oligomers: oligoaramides, oligoureas and oligo(phenylene ethynylenes). Large nanosized cavities have been created based on the folding of these helical foldamers. Tuning the size of the nanocavities has been achieved without changing the underlying helical topology. These helical foldamers can serve as novel platforms for the systematic design of nanostructures.


We describe a general and fast method of maximization of a "recognition ability" of a linear combination of an arbitrary number of various methods used to recognize protein structures and produce the sequence-to-structure alignments. It is shown that, at a low level of sequence similarity, the optimal combined method has a significantly higher "recognition ability" than each of participating separate method, the leading role in this combination being played by (1) pseudo-potentials of long-range interactions; (2) matrices of secondary structure similarity; and, finally, (3) amino acid substitution matrices. As to a high level of sequence similarity, here the leading and virtually the sole role in the optimal combination is played by substitution matrices, although admixture of pseudo-potentials of long-range interactions and matrices of secondary structure similarity somewhat increases the "recognition ability" of the combined method.


We present a framework for learning useful subgoals that support efficient long-term planning to achieve novel goals. At the core of our framework is a collection of rational subgoals (RSGs), which are essentially binary classifiers over the environmental states. RSGs can be learned from weakly-annotated data, in the form of unsegmented demonstration trajectories, paired with abstract task descriptions, which are composed of terms initially unknown to the agent (e.g., collect-wood then craft-boat then go-across-river). Our framework also discovers dependencies between RSGs, e.g., the task collect-wood is a helpful subgoal for the task craft-boat. Given a goal description, the learned subgoals and the derived dependencies facilitate off-the-shelf planning algorithms, such as A* and RRT, by setting helpful subgoals as waypoints to the planner, which significantly improves performance-time efficiency. Project page: https://rsg.csail.mit.edu


Modern path-aware networking (PAN) architectures based on packet-carried forwarding state (PCFS) promise to support practical multipath communication with increased availability and redundancy, even for single-homed hosts. How exactly hosts can chose paths in a meaningful way while maintaining good network utilization as well as user satisfaction is the subject of this research. We demonstrate how overall network utilization is affected by the introduction of multipath communication and propose the term "Cost of Multipath" to reason about this observation. We also identify a collection of concrete practical techniques from networking research and engineering that can be adapted to allow hosts to make more informed path decisions. These tie into the practical implementation of an experimental path-selection engine with a high-level API that we aim to utilize to quantitatively investigate host-based approaches for traffic optimization in the existing path-aware SCION network architecture


To understand the fundamental trade-offs between training stability, temporal dynamics and architectural complexity of recurrent neural networks~(RNNs), we directly analyze RNN architectures using numerical methods of ordinary differential equations~(ODEs). We define a general family of RNNs--the ODERNNs--by relating the composition rules of RNNs to integration methods of ODEs at discrete time steps. We show that the degree of RNN's functional nonlinearity $n$ and the range of its temporal memory $t$ can be mapped to the corresponding stage of Runge-Kutta recursion and the order of time-derivative of the ODEs. We prove that popular RNN architectures, such as LSTM and URNN, fit into different orders of $n$-$t$-ODERNNs. This exact correspondence between RNN and ODE helps us to establish the sufficient conditions for RNN training stability and facilitates more flexible top-down designs of new RNN architectures using large varieties of toolboxes from numerical integration of ODEs. We provide such an example: Quantum-inspired Universal computing Neural Network~(QUNN), which reduces the required number of training parameters from polynomial in both data length and temporal memory length to only linear in temporal memory length.


Low rates of internal migration in many European countries contribute to the persistence of significant regional labor market differences. To further our understanding of the underlying reasons I study internal migration in Germany, using the Mikrozensus, a very large sample of households living in Germany. The first contribution of this paper is to quantify the low mobility of the German population by estimating the unobserved cost of migration. I then focus on the differences between immigrants and natives, and start by presenting reduced-form econometric evidence for the hypothesis that immigrants, once they are in the country of destination, are more mobile than natives. Observable, individual-level characteristics can only explain part of this finding. To estimate differences in the responsiveness to labor market characteristics that are due to unobserved characteristics, I then estimate conditional logit models of the migration decision across the German federal states. I find significantly higher responsiveness to labor market differentials in the immigrant population than in the native population. Unobserved moving costs for immigrants are estimated to be only about 37% of this same cost for natives. The findings bear on the assessment of the economic impact of immigration, and the paper contributes to the current immigration-related policy debates that feature prominently in many European countries, and that likely will continue to be important in light of the ongoing EU expansion and the expected resulting east-west migration.


Abstract Insistent calls to 'decolonise' African studies beg the question of what this quest actually involves. If it refers to an attempt to understand the continent's diverse and complex societies that builds on their indigenous structures and values, this was a task initiated during the decolonisation era of the 1950s and early 1960s. Led by historians and drawing heavily on insights from anthropology, it led to a revolution in the understanding of Africa, which nonetheless failed to maintain its impetus as a result of the political authoritarianism and economic decay of the post-independence period, which had a particularly damaging impact on Africa's universities. Of late, however, the phrase has come to refer to developments notably in North America and Europe, which in subordinating the study of Africa to agendas in the global North may appropriately be described not as decolonisation but as recolonisation. A genuine decolonisation of knowledge production for Africa must rest on a return to its roots within the continent itself.


Superior fuel economy, higher torque and durability have led to the diesel engine being widely used in a variety of fields of application, such as road transport, agricultural vehicles, earth moving machines and marine propulsion, as well as fixed installations for electrical power generation. However, diesel engines are plagued by high emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) and carbon dioxide when conventional fuel is used. One possible solution is to use low-carbon gaseous fuel alongside diesel fuel by operating in a dual-fuel (DF) configuration, as this system provides a low implementation cost alternative for the improvement of combustion efficiency in the conventional diesel engine. An initial step in this direction involved the replacement of diesel fuel with natural gas. However, the consequent high levels of unburned hydrocarbons produced due to non-optimized engines led to a shift to carbon-free fuels, such as hydrogen. Hydrogen can be injected into the intake manifold, where it premixes with air, then the addition of a small amount of diesel fuel, auto-igniting easily, provides multiple ignition sources for the gas. To evaluate the efficiency and pollutant emissions in dual-fuel diesel-hydrogen combustion, a numerical CFD analysis was conducted and validated with the aid of experimental measurements on a research engine acquired at the test bench. The process of ignition of diesel fuel and flame propagation through a premixed air-hydrogen charge was represented the Autoignition-Induced Flame Propagation model included ANSYS-Forte software. Because of the inefficient operating conditions associated with the combustion, the methodology was significantly improved by evaluating the laminar flame speed as a function of pressure, temperature and equivalence ratio using Chemkin-Pro software. A numerical comparison was carried out among full hydrogen, full methane and different hydrogen-methane mixtures with the same energy input in each case. The use of full hydrogen was characterized by enhanced combustion, higher thermal efficiency and lower carbon emissions. However, the higher temperatures that occurred for hydrogen combustion led to higher NOx emissions.


A GSM cellular network contains many cells which are connected to a main control unit called main switching centre (MSC). Each cell is responsible to provide a wireless duplex channel to mobile users of its area. The circuitry used at cells for the above purpose is called base transreceiver station (BTS). The channels in wireless networks are a scare resource thus the allotment of channels to the cells has a greater impact on the traffic performance of the network. It is shown that in terms of traffic capacity the dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithms outperform other algorithms (A. Boukerche et al., 2004). But they require heavy signaling and increases delay in channel allocation to the users. On the other hand fixed channel allocation (FCA) is simplest and fastest but have poor traffic capacity due to non uniform nature of the traffic in cellular networks. In some practical scenario neither of these techniques works satisfactory e.g. if one or more low traffic cells are located with heavy traffic surrounding cells; the reasons may be geographical (e.g. a lake exists in centre of city), social (e.g. a low profile area) or any other. In this work we have proposed a new FCA scheme for channel allocation in such scenario. The analysis is done for a sectorized GSM network. We are not addressing the problem of temporary hot spots but we are analyzing the long term traffic imbalance. It is observed that there exits a tradeoff between enhancement in grade of service (GOS) so achieved and the degradation in the voice quality received by cochannel users. This tradeoff is addressed in this work


Wearable, camera based, head-tracking systems use spatial image registration algorithms to align images taken as the wearer gazes around their environment. This allows for computer-generated information to appear to the user as though it was anchored in the real world. Often, these algorithms require creation of a multiscale Gaussian pyramid or repetitive re-projection of the images. Such operations, however can be computationally expensive, and such head-tracking algorithms are desired to run in real-time on a body borne computer In this paper we present a method of using the 3D computer graphics hardware that is available in a typical wearable computer to accelerate the repetitive image projections required in many computer vision algorithms. We apply this "graphics for vision" technique to a wearable camera based head-tracking algorithm, implemented on a wearable computer with 3D graphics hardware. We perform an analysis of the acceleration achieved by applying graphics hardware to computer vision to create a Mediated Reality.


When I began teaching mathematics at Waldorf schools (newly recruited from being an orchestra musician), I relied heavily on the books of one of their past master teachers, Hermann von Baravalle, in one of which he suggests having students draw a sequence of parabolas from a common point by connecting dots up 3 units, up 1 unit, then down 1, 3, 5, 7, etc., and going left or right 1 unit each time for one pair of curves, 2 units for a second pair, and so on, calling the result a fountain. I tried this, and was immediately nailed by the typical back-row pupil to whom I have since come to be so grateful: "Fountains aren't flat on top!" A private session with the physics teacher and some resulting expressions for conservation of kinetic and potential energy later, we found that if individual water jets (emanating from a spherical nozzle under equal pressure, viewed in profile) are parabolic in Galileian ideal, then the locus of their vertices is a 2 x 1 sideways ellipse (passing through nozzle and peak) and their envelope of all jets is the parabola tangent to that ellipse at peak nice!


Lakes are amongst the most productive ecosystems of the Earth. Despite its potential in supporting people's livelihood in Babati, Lake Babati is being converted into other land uses due to ever increasing population in town. This work evaluates the impacts of population increase around Lake Babati in Babati Town Council. Primary data were gathered by administering the questionnaire to a sample of 100 households. Participatory rural appraisal techniques, participant observation and checklist were employed in data collection. The land use types and land use changes was examined through analysis of satellite imageries. This was attained by making use of ArcGIS10. The results from the present study showed that there was a strong relationship (p≤0.05) between education level, occupation and awareness status of respondent on environmental issues. Also there was a strong association between the anthropogenic activities in particular agriculture/brick making and lake degradation. Lack of awareness under the role of environmental sustainability on lake resources was found to hinder the involvement of local people to Lake Babati conservation. Thus, this study recommends that, natural resources management (including lakes) should be incorporated in the program of study of all education levels to foster awareness raising campaign on role of lake benefits to local people's livelihoods. Also proper land use practices should be promoted so as to reduce the impacts that has been caused on the lake Babati due to poor land use practices in the study area.


Corrosion field tests have been carried out in the superheater region of a commercial waste-fired 75MW CFBC boiler using air cooled probes. Exposure time was 24 and 1000 hours. The effect of adding sulphur to the fuel on the corrosion of two high alloyed steels and a low alloyed steel was studied. The fuel consisted of 50% household waste and 50% industrial waste. The exposed samples were analyzed by ESEM/EDX and XRD. Metal loss was determined after 1000 hours. Both materials suffered significant corrosion in the absence of sulphur addition and the addition of sulphur to the fuel reduced corrosion significantly. The rapid corrosion of the high alloyed steel in the absence of sulphur addition is caused by the destruction of the chromiumcontaining protective oxide by formation of calcium chromate. Adding sulphur to the fuel inhibited chromate formation and increased the sulphate/chloride ratio in the deposit. Iron(II) chloride formed on the low alloyed steel regardless of whether sulphur was added or not.


Rationale The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of a fixed-dose combination of mometasone furoate/formoterol fumarate (MF/F) administered via a metered-dose inhaler in subjects with moderate-to-very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial had a 26-week treatment period and a 26-week safety extension. Subjects (n = 1196), at least 40 years old, were current or ex-smokers randomized to twice-daily inhaled MF/F 400/10 μg, MF/F 200/10 μg, MF 400 μg, F 10 μg, or placebo. The trial's co-primary endpoints were mean changes from baseline, as area under the curve (AUC), in forced expiratory volume (FEV1) over 0–12 hours (AUC0–12 h FEV1) with MF/F versus MF, and in morning (AM) pre-dose (trough) FEV1 with MF/F versus F after 13 weeks of treatment. Key secondary endpoints were the effects of MF/F on respiratory health status using the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), symptom-free nights, partly stable COPD at 26 weeks, and time to first COPD exacerbation. Results The largest improvements in AUC0–12 h FEV1 were observed with MF/F 400/10 μg and MF/F 200/10 μg. Serial spirometry results demonstrated that bronchodilator effects with MF/F occurred rapidly (within 5 minutes), persisted for 12 hours after dosing, and were sustained over the 26-week treatment period. Similar findings were observed for AM pre-dose FEV1, for which effects were further investigated, excluding subjects whose AM FEV1 data were incorrectly collected after 2 days from the last dose of study treatment. Improvements in SGRQ scores surpassed the minimum clinically important difference of more than four units with both MF/F treatments. At 26 weeks, no notable between-treatment differences in the occurrence and nature of adverse events (AEs) were reported. No unexpected AEs were observed. Overall, 90 subjects reported AEs considered to be treatment-related, the most common of which were lenticular opacities, dysphonia, and oral candidiasis. Discussion In conclusion, MF/F treatments improved lung function and respiratory health status, reduced exacerbations, and were well tolerated in subjects with moderate-to-very severe COPD.


Haematopoietic activity in the murine fetal liver was observed to increase from the 12th day of gestation to reach a peak on the 15th day of gestation. Hepatic haematopoiesis is predominantly erythroid. As maturation proceeds the numbers of myelopoietic cells increase. Haematopoietic activity declines after the 15th day of gestation, though haematopoietic cells were still obvious in the liver of the 10 day neonate. Cellular interactions were studied in vivo with the electron microscope and in vitro using long term cultures. Haematopoietic cell clusters were abundant in fetal liver both in vivo and in vitro. Macrophages and hepatocytes act as the central supporting cells of these clusters. There was evidence of communication between the central supporting cells and the blood cells precursors, which may be essential for the maintenance of haematopoiesis both in vivo and in vitro. A high proportion of early HPP-CFC derived from fetal liver are synthesising DNA, while HPP-CFC derived from adult bone marrow are relatively quiescent. The kinetic properties of the HPP-CFC population are very similar to those of the CFU-S population both in fetal liver and in adult bone marrow. A high proportion of GM-CFC which are a more mature class of progenitor cells were cycling in both fetal liver and adult bone marrow. Fetal liver extract was shown to have an overall inhibitory effect on haematopoiesis in normal bone marrow and irradiated bone marrow and on colony formation by leukemic cells. Detrimental effects on normal bone marrow cells were observed only with high concentrations of fetal liver extract. Fetal liver blood cell precursors were found to adhere preferentially to bone marrow stromal layers, which could not be attributed to the kinetic properties of these cells. This preferential adhesion may promote the in vivo accumulation of haematopoietic stem cells derived from fetal liver in the medullary cavities.


: Complete randomization allows for consistent estimation of the average treatment effect based on the difference in means of the outcomes without strong modeling assumptions on the outcome-generating process. Appropriate use of the pretreatment covariates can further improve the estimation efficiency. However, missingness in covariates is common in experiments and raises an im-portant question: should we adjust for covariates subject to missingness, and if so, how? The unadjusted difference in means is always unbiased. The complete-covariate analysis adjusts for all completely observed covariates and improves the efficiency of the difference in means if at least one completely observed covariate is predictive of the outcome. Then what is the additional gain of adjusting for covariates subject to missingness? A key insight is that the missingness indica-tors act as fully observed pretreatment covariates as long as missingness is not affected by the treatment, and can thus be used in covariate adjustment to bring additional estimation efficiency. This motivates adding the missingness indica-tors to the regression adjustment, yielding the missingness-indicator method as a well-known but not so popular strategy in the literature of missing data. We recommend it due to its many advantages. We also propose modifications to the missingness-indicator method based on asymptotic and finite-sample con-siderations. To reconcile the conflicting recommendations in the missing data literature, we analyze and compare various strategies for analyzing randomized experiments with missing covariates under the design-based framework. This framework treats randomization as the basis for inference and does not impose any modeling assumptions on the outcome-generating process and missing-data mechanism.


A previous study showed that cyclohexanone monooxygenase from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus (AcCHMO) catalyzes the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of 2-butanone, yielding ethyl acetate and methyl propanoate as products. Methyl propanoate is of industrial interest as a precursor of acrylic plastic. Here, various residues near the substrate and NADP+ binding sites in AcCHMO were subjected to saturation mutagenesis to enhance both the activity on 2-butanone and the regioselectivity toward methyl propanoate. The resulting libraries were screened using whole cell biotransformations, and headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to identify improved AcCHMO variants. This revealed that the I491A AcCHMO mutant exhibits a significant improvement over the wild type enzyme in the desired regioselectivity using 2-butanone as a substrate (40% vs 26% methyl propanoate, respectively). Another interesting mutant is the T56S AcCHMO mutant, which exhibits a higher conversion yield (92%) and kcat (0.5 s-1) than wild type AcCHMO (52% and 0.3 s-1, respectively). Interestingly, the uncoupling rate for the T56S AcCHMO mutant is also significantly lower than that for the wild type enzyme. The T56S/I491A double mutant combined the beneficial effects of both mutations leading to higher conversion and improved regioselectivity. This study shows that even for a relatively small aliphatic substrate (2-butanone), catalytic efficiency and regioselectivity can be tuned by structure-inspired enzyme engineering.


Among a panel of monoclonal antibodies that recognize chicken haematopoietic-differentiation antigens, one, JS 8, was found to immunoprecipitate a 95000-Mr cell-surface protein from chicken erythroblasts transformed with avian-erythroblastosis virus. This protein was shown, by affinity chromatography on immobilized chicken transferrin (conalbumin), to be the chicken transferrin receptor. Although immunologically unrelated to the human transferrin receptor, biochemical comparison of the chicken transferrin receptor to the human receptor showed similarities with respect to the pattern of biosynthesis, degree of glycosylation, dimerization in the absence of reducing agents and subcellular localization. The present report contrasts with recent ones describing the chicken transferrin receptor isolated from embryonic tissues as a 58000-Mr protein.


Our previous study of the structure change of poly(amidoamine) starburst dendrimers (PAMAM) dendrimer of generation 5 (G 5 ) have demonstrated that although the overall molecular size is practically unaffected by increasing DCl concentration, a configurational transformation, from a diffusive density profile to a more uniform density distribution, is clearly observed. In the current paper, the focus is placed on understanding the effect of counterion identity on the intermolecular structure and the conformational properties by studying the effect due to DBr using small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and integral equation theory. While the overall molecular size is found to be essentially unaffected by the change in the pD of solutions, it is surprising that the intra-molecular configurational transformation is not observed when DBr is used. The overall effective charge of a dendrimer is nearly the same for α 1, the effect of counterion identity becomes significant, the effective charge carried by a charged G 5 PAPAM protonated by DBr becomes smaller than that of solutions with DCl. As a consequence, a counterion identity dependence of counterion association is revealed: Under the same level of molecular protonation, the specific counterion association, which is defined as the ratio of bound chloride anions to positively charged amines per molecule, is larger for the G 5 PAMAM dendrimer charged by DBr than the one by DCl.


This presentation describes a project for the implementation of Lean manufacturing. The specific case under examination was a meat processing plant. The need was to increase plant utilisation and reduce work-in-process (WIP). Implementing lean is always a challenging project, because of the need to customise the implementation. There is also the issue of organisational culture and change management resistance. A unique aspect of this project was the embedment of the project engineer in the plant. This developed trust and facilitated subsequent implementation. Changes were then introduced to the plant following the 5S methodology, followed by Value Stream Mapping. The project resulted in a 7% cost saving on labour. Further benefits from the project were that disruption to the daily production activities were kept to a minimum, a reduction of consumables, and elimination of unnecessary burdening of employees. The presentation describes the project approach taken and the results.


It is now clear that most economists underestimated the widening economic impact of the credit crunch that has shaken U.S. financial markets since at least mid-July. A credit crunch is an economic condition in which loans and investment capital are difficult to obtain. In such a period, banks and other lenders become wary of issuing loans, so the price of borrowing rises, often to the point where deals simply do not get done. Financial economist Hyman P. Minsky (1919–1996) was the foremost expert on such crunches, and his ideas remain relevant to understanding the current situation. This brief by Charles J. Whalen demonstrates that the U.S. credit crunch of 2007 can aptly be described as a "Minsky moment." It begins by taking a look at aspects of this crunch, then examines the notion of a Minsky moment, along with the main ideas informing Minsky's perspective on economic instability. At the heart of that viewpoint is what Minsky called the "financial instability hypothesis," which derives from an interpretation of John Maynard Keynes's work and underscores the value of an evolutionary and institutionally grounded alternative to conventional economics. The brief then returns to the 2007 credit crunch and identifies some of the key elements relevant to fleshing out a Minsky-oriented account of that event.


A finance manager at a large pharmaceutical company is on loan to a new new subsidiary, leading to an ambiguous reporting structure. When an executive three levels above him wants information his temporary supervisor has deemed confidential, his career appears to hang on what he does next. Developed for use in an MBA organizational behavior course, this case would work well in an executive education class on organizational design, career development, or leadership. While the events and people are real, the names of participants and the company are fictional.


Introduction: Knowledge about the anatomy and morphology of the root canal system plays an
important role in the prognosis of endodontic treatment and its success. Maxillary third molars with
two distobuccal canals have been rarely reported. Herein, we report a maxillary third molar with 2
canals in the distobuccal root and describe its successful endodontic treatment.

Case Presentation: Our patient was a 67-year-old man referred to a private endodontic clinic
complaining of pain in his maxillary right third molar tooth. With the diagnosis of irreversible pulpitis,
the tooth underwent root canal therapy, during which, after thorough negotiation of orifices, a second
distobuccal canal was found. Cleaning and shaping were carried out and root canals were filled. A
follow-up was scheduled to ensure a successful endodontic treatment.

Conclusions: In this case, we did not use any adjunct diagnostic modality. We only found an additional
canal by extending the access cavity and paying attention to landmarks by probing the fissures and
grooves between the main orifices. However, it seems that use of new methods can enhance a successful
treatment especially in the elderly patients.


In this work, an algorithm is proposed for the automatic detection of defects such as blotches in old color films. First, non-local means method, which does not require motion estimation, is used for noise removal in image sequence. After that, motion vectors that are incorrectly estimated within defect regions are reestimated by taking into account the temporal continuity of motion trajectory. Finally, defects in films are detected by spike detection index (SDI) method, which are easily adapted to color image sequences. Performance of the method is tested on artificially corrupted and real films, and obtained results are demonstrated.


I develop a framework to examine the effect of measurement on productive activity in the face of moral hazard. I allow an agent intricate control over the stochastic value of a firm's assets, and he is compensated based on a report produced by an accounting system that admits a large class of biasand timing-oriented accounting measurement rules. When measurement error is unavoidable but is treated to address the moral hazard problem, (i) the fundamental earnings distribution develops asymmetric tails and discontinuities at predictable thresholds, (ii) measurement rules develop all-or-nothing recognition properties and are rarely unconditionally biased, and (iii) the contract develops caps, floors, and hurdle bonuses at predictable thresholds. In contrast, when measurement error can be reduced by delaying measurement until uncertainty has been resolved, historical cost accounting is unambiguously optimal in curtailing moral hazard. However, I show that an accounting regulator with alternative objectives can influence economic activity by mandating timely measurement. Specifically, I show that timely loss recognition induces firms that are more (less) averse to downside risk to contract for riskier (less risky) actions. Finally, I show that first best actions are implementable in my setting via a two-wage penalty contract only if the measurement rule is extremely noisy and unconditionally conservative. Furthermore, the agent charges a negligible risk premium if he is sufficiently optimistic about the odds of avoiding a penalty-triggering earnings report. In other words, unconditionally conservative measurement can disable moral hazard when the agent is optimistic.


There are two divergent fructokinase isozymes, Frk1 and Frk2 in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants. To investigate the physiological functions of each isozyme, the expression of each fructokinase mRNA was independently suppressed in transgenic tomato plants, and the respective phenotypes were evaluated. Suppression of Frk1 expression resulted in delayed flowering at the first inflorescence. Suppression ofFrk2 did not effect flowering time but resulted in growth inhibition of stems and roots, reduction of flower and fruit number, and reduction of seed number per fruit. Localization ofFrk1 and Frk2 mRNA accumulation by in situ hybridization in wild-type tomato fruit tissue indicated thatFrk2 is expressed specifically in early tomato seed development. Fruit hexose and starch content were not effected by the suppression of either Frk gene alone. The results collectively indicate that flowering time is specifically promoted by Frk1 and that Frk2 plays specific roles in contributing to stem and root growth and to seed development. Because Frk1 andFrk2 gene expression was suppressed individually in transgenic plants, other significant metabolic roles of fructokinases may not have been observed if Frk1 and Frk2 play, at least partially, redundant metabolic roles.


There is a growing trend towards decentralized electricity and heat production throughout the world. Reciprocating engines and gas turbines have an essential role in the global decentralized energy markets and any improvement in their electrical efficiency has a significant impact from the environmental and economic viewpoints. This paper introduces an inter-cooled and recuperated two-shaft microturbine at 500 kW electric output range. The microturbine is optimized for a realistic combination of the turbine inlet temperature, the recuperation rate and the pressure ratio. The new microturbine design aims to achieve significantly increased performance within the range of microturbines and even competing with the efficiencies achieved in large industrial gas turbines. The simulated electrical efficiency is 45%. Improving the efficiency of combined heat and power (CHP) systems will significantly decrease the emissions and operating costs of decentralized heat and electricity production. Cost-effective, compact and environmentally friendly micro-and small-scale CHP turbine systems with high electrical efficiency will have an opportunity to successfully compete against reciprocating engines, which today are used in heat and power generation all over the world and manufactured in large production series. This paper presents a small-scale gas turbine process, capable of competing with reciprocating engine in terms of electrical efficiency.


The communication method using sign language is very efficient considering that the speed of information delivery is closer to verbal communication (speaking) compared to writing or typing. Because of this, sign language is often used by people who are deaf, speech impaired, and normal people to communicate. To make sign language translation easier, a system is needed to translate symbols formed from hand movements (in the form of images) into text or sound. This study aims to compare performance such as accuracy and computation time of Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) with Pyramidal Histogram of Gradient (PHOG) for feature extraction, to know which one is better at recognizing sign language. Yield, both combined methods PHOG-SVM and PHOG-KNN can recognize images from hand movements that form certain symbols. The system built using the SVM classification produces the highest accuracy of 82% at PHOG level 3, while the system built with the KNN classification produces the highest accuracy of 78% at PHOG level 2. The total computation time of the fastest training and testing by the SVM model is 236.53 seconds at PHOG level 3, while the KNN model is 78.27 seconds at PHOG level 3. In terms of accuracy, PHOG-SVM is better, but in terms of computation time, PHOG-KNN takes the place.


Using achievement goal theory and the expectancy-value model of achievement choice as theoretical frameworks, this study examined relationships between parents' beliefs and their children's motivation in an elementary physical education running program. Participants included 102 parents and their children (49 boys; 53 girls) in the third and fourth grades. The parents completed questionnaires assessing their achievement goals, competence beliefs, task values, and gender stereotypic beliefs about running. Children's persistence/effort was assessed by the number of laps run/walked over the year-long running program. Performance was measured by the timed mile run. Results indicated that only parents' competence/value beliefs were predictive of their children's persistence/effort and mile run performance. Gender stereotypic beliefs influenced achievement goals the parents adopted for their children. Findings provided empirical support for the importance of parental beliefs for children's motivation in physica...


A theoretical study on shallow donor-impurity states in distinct triple GaAs–(Ga, Al)As quantum-well heterostructures is presented under external magnetic and electric fields applied perpendicular to the interfaces of the semiconducting elements. The emphasis is put on the determination of intra-donor absorption spectra and its dependence on the impurity profile distributions and different photon polarizations are considered. Impurity states are calculated by adopting the effective mass approximation and using a variational scheme in which ground and excited states are obtained simultaneously. Magnetospectroscopy measurements may be used to observe such transitions.


INTRODUCTION
Management of displaced fracture neck femur in the elderly population is frequently done by Hemiarthroplasty or Total Hip Replacement (THR). It avoids high rates of nonunion and avascular necrosis which usually occur after internal fixation of neck femur fractures in this age group.

AIM
The present study aimed to evaluate patient function and complications following hemiarthroplasty and total hip replacement in elderly population with displaced femoral neck fractures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients above 60 years of age with displaced fracture neck femur were studied over the period of four years. All the clinical parameters and co-morbid conditions were noted at the time of presentation. The patients associated with co-morbid conditions and underlying pathology were excluded from study. Garden's classification was used for classification of neck femur fractures. After due informed consent patients of displaced fracture neck femur were randomized by simple randomization and allocated for hemiarthroplasty or THR. Antibiotics were given preoperatively at the time of induction and postoperatively for 5-7 days. Surgery was carried out by Modified Gibson approach. Any complications during pre and postoperative period were noted. Follow-up of patients was done 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year interval with the help of Harris hip score.

RESULTS
Total 80 patients were enrolled in the study group, with 40 patients in each group. The mean age of patients was 73 years in hemiarthroplasty group and 78 years in THR group. Female to male ratio was 55:45. Mean operative time was 35 minutes in hemiarthroplasty group and 45 minutes in THR. Average intraoperative blood loss was 200cc and 300cc in hemiarthroplasty and THR respectively. The mean hospital stay was 14 days in both the groups. Superficial wound infection was noted in hemiarthroplasty group while in THR group deep wound infection (n=1) and prolonged ICU stay (n=1) were noted. The mean Harris hip score was better in THR group as compared to Hemiarthroplasty group at one year follow-up.

CONCLUSION
In elderly patients with fracture neck femur hemiarthroplasty takes less operative time, less blood loss per operatively and few complications postoperatively as compared to THR. The functional outcome at one year is better with THR as compared to hemiarthroplasty.


A 50 years old male patient with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and permanent atrial fibrillation, referred to our centre for a cardiac rehabilitation program. He had a very limited exercise tolerance and presented a very compromised atrial function at 2D spleckle tracking echocardiography. Both exercise tolerance and left atrial function improved greatly after a comprehensive intervention including sacubitrilvalsartan administration and exercise training. These benefits, partially, persisted 8 weeks after training cessation. This is the first demonstration of an improvement in left atrial function in a patient, with heart failure and atrial fibrillation, produced by a therapeutic intervention.


Copyright © 2019 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article : K.S. Rao. Impact of Environmental Chemicals (Plasticizers) on Reproduction. BEMS Reports. 2019;5(1):14-16. Background Exposure to synthetic environmental chemicals (e.g., DDT and its metabolites, especially p,p`-DDE, alkylphenol ethoxylates, PCBs and dioxins) produces reproductive problems in a variety of vertebrate species via endocrine mechanisms. Naturally occurring environmental chemicals (e.g., phytoestrogens and estrogenic mycotoxins) induce infertility in domestic animal species and can alter human reproductive function. Concerns over these findings have been compounded by a series of publications suggesting that in utero exposure to environmental chemicals may have contributed to the reported decline in human sperm counts, the increased incidences of urogenital malformations (e.g., hypospadias, testicular cancer and undescended testes) and altered sex ratio over the last 40–50 years. It is postulated that in utero exposure to environmental estrogens could be responsible for the increased incidences of these alterations. This hypothesis is biologically plausible because hormones play critical roles as regulators of development in vertebrates and exposure to hormonally active toxicants during sexual differentiation is known to produce abnormal reproductive phenotypes in humans and other animals.


Managing quality is a vital aspect in software development world, especially in the current business competition for the fast delivery of feature rich products with high quality. For an organization to meet its intended level of excellence in order to ensure its success, a culture of quality should be built where every individual is responsible of quality and not just the software testing team. However, delivering software products with very few bugs is a challenging constraint that is usually sacrificed in order for a company to meet other management constraints such as cost, scope and scheduling. The paper aims to discuss these issues.,In this paper, the authors present a Six Sigma DMAIC-based framework for improving software quality. Different phases of DMAIC methodology are applied for quality improvement in one of the largest software applications for "RK" company (name anonymized) in Canada where critical to quality aspects are identified, production bugs classified and measured, the causes of the large number of production bugs were specified leading to different improvement suggestions. Several metrics were proposed to help "RK" company control its software development process to ensure the success of the project under study.,This paper shows how companies can use a systematic approach such as DMAIC to eliminate errors and improve efficiency. It helps them to identify and implement improvements that leads to an increased confidence in the quality of the product produced at all levels.,By applying DMAIC at "RK" company the authors were able to demonstrate how DMAIC can help organizations improve the quality of their software products. As a result, reduce cost and cycle times, achieve customer satisfaction and improve profit margin.


This paper reports on the total deformation and loading force after plasticizing beech wood by microwave heating. There have been few studies devoted to the examination of microwave heating for plasticizing of beech wood. Therefore, a procedure was developed to verify the use of microwave heating for the purpose of plasticizing. Total deformation and loading force were investigated on beech samples immediately after plasticizing by microwave heating. The samples were loaded with pressure applied parallel to the grain. Measured results served the purpose of quantifying total deformation. The investigated factors (wood moisture and plasticizing time) had significant influences on the loading force and total deformation of beech wood plasticized by microwave heating. Increasing initial wood moisture increased total deformation. Increasing plasticizing time decreased the total deformation of wood because of a larger loss of wood moisture. Loading force had contrary behavior: increasing wood moisture decreased the loading force, and increasing plasticizing time increased the loading force.


High irradiances may lead to photooxidative stress in plants, and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) contributes to protection against excess excitation. One of the NPQ mechanisms, qE, involves thermal dissipation of the light energy captured. Importantly, plants need to tune down qE under light-limiting conditions for efficient utilization of the available quanta. Considering the possible redox control of responses to excess light implying enzymes, such as thioredoxins, we have studied the role of the NADPH thioredoxin reductase C (NTRC). Whereas Arabidopsis thaliana plants lacking NTRC tolerate high light intensities, these plants display drastically elevated qE, have larger trans-thylakoid ΔpH and have 10-fold higher zeaxanthin levels under low and medium light intensities, leading to extremely low linear electron transport rates. To test the impact of the high qE on plant growth, we generated an ntrc-psbs double-knockout mutant, which is devoid of qE. This double mutant grows faster than the ntrc mutant and has a higher chlorophyll content. The photosystem II activity is partially restored in the ntrc-psbs mutant, and linear electron transport rates under low and medium light intensities are twice as high as compared with plants lacking ntrc alone. These data uncover a new role for NTRC in the control of photosynthetic yield.


OBJECTIVE: Due to severe organ shortage, living kidney donors are important choices for transplantation. In Muslim countries, such as Turkey, living kidney donors are the main source of donor pool. In the literature, reasons for living donor exclusion are reported from several countries. However, there is no published study that focused on exclusion reasons of donor candidates in Turkey where living kidney transplantation rate is 73.4%. The goal of this retrospective study was to examine the exclusion reasons for donation among living kidney donor candidates at a single center in Turkey.


pH-responsive systems have gained importance for the development of smart materials and for biomedical applications because they can switch between different states by simple acid/base triggers. However, such equilibrium systems lack the autonomous behaviour that is so ubiquitous in living systems that self-regulate out of equilibrium. As a contribution to the emerging field of autonomous chemical systems, we have developed pH-feedback systems (pH-FS) based on the coupling of acid- and base-producing steps in chemical reaction networks. The resulting autonomous nonlinear pH curves can be coupled with a variety of pH-sensitive building blocks to program the lifecycles of the associated transient state at the level of self-assemblies and material systems. In this article, we discuss the different generations of such pH-feedback systems, the principles of their coupling to self-assemblies with lifecycles and highlight emerging concepts for the design of autonomous functional materials. The specificity, robustness, and flexible operation of such pH-FS can also be used to realize chemo-structural and chemo-mechanical feedbacks that extend the behaviour of such materials systems toward complex and functional life-like systems.


Five poliovirus recombinants containing sequences corresponding to foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) antigenic sites were constructed. Viable virus was recovered from four of these plasmids, in which the VP1 beta B-beta C loop (antigenic site 1) of poliovirus type 1 Sabin had been replaced with sequences derived from the VP1 beta G-beta H loop (antigenic site 1) of FMDV O1 Kaufbeuren (O1K), chimera O1.1 (residues 141 to 154), chimera O1.2 (residues 147 to 156), and chimera O1.3 (residues 140 to 160) or from the beta B-beta C loop of VP1 (antigenic site 3) in chimera O3.1 (residues 40 to 49). One chimera (O1.3) was neutralized by FMDV-specific polyclonal serum and monoclonal antibodies directed against antigenic site 1 of FMDV. Chimeras O1.3 and O3.1 induced site-specific FMDV-neutralizing antibodies in guinea pigs. Chimera O1.3 was capable of inducing a protective response against FMDV challenge in some guinea pigs.


This paper focuses on how Brazilian politicians helped to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, discussing legitimation strategies and actors that played a significant role on Twitter and Facebook. Based on data gathered through CrowdTangle and Twitter API, we selected the 250 most shared/retweeted posts for each dataset (n=500) and examined if they contained disinformation, who posted it, and what strategy was used to legitimize this discourse. Our findings indicate that politicians and hyperpartisan accounts have a key influence in validating the Brazilian president's populist discourse through rationalization (pseudo-science) and denunciation (against the vaccine). The political frame also plays an important role in disinformation messages.


This review summarizes the recent literature on the biology, cultivation techniques and uses of the red seaweed Palmaria palmata ((Linnaeus) Weber & Mohr 1805). The paper covers its distribution, appearance and life cycle, the state of the art cultivation techniques for spore release and seeding, and the culture of meristematic fragments of fronds harvested from natural populations. Furthermore, culture conditions for P. palmata sporelings and gametophytes and set-ups of tank and open sea culture are presented. For tank culture, relatively high irradiance and frequent seawater exchange to supply carbon dioxide and nutrients are the most important parameters. In open sea culture, site selection and system design play an important role. Land-based culture has the advantage that optimum culture conditions can be applied and quality-controlled, whereas nearshore cultivation is less costly and labour intensive. In addition, the bioremediation potential and the use of P. palmata in integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) are discussed. More research is needed to investigate bioremediation potential of different P. palmata strains. Recent developments in uses of P. palmata as food supplement, source of bioactive compounds, animal feed and compound for biofuels are presented. Finally, the possibilities of cultivation of P. palmata enhance the prospects for the expansion of the cultivation of this seaweed. However, future research is needed regarding balance of culture conditions, costs and biomass in land-based tank culture and in terms of site selection, system design, maintenance and harvest techniques in sea cultivation to establish a commercialization of the aquaculture of this species in Europe.


The literature from 1985 up to 1994 has been studied for folic acid in biological substrates and for the group of compounds similar to folic acid in respect of chemical structure and biological activities ("folates"). Emphasis in the evaluation was on nomenclature, occurrence, physiology, dietary recommendations and in particular on the determination of folates in food. Data on the determination of these compounds in food are collected in Table 1, in Table 2 for body fluids and in Table 3 for other matrices. It was found that determination of folates in food is still predominantly done by microbiology in combination with the test organism Lactobacillus casei. However, from collaborative studies it is evident that there is an urgent need to much further standardize this procedure than achieved sofar, to improve the comparability of laboratory results. In addition, the advice is to discontinue the use of the term "free" folate since this is deceptive and ambiguous. HPLC methods fit best to the present and future needs of the folate determination. However these procedures also require further optimalization towards a method in which, after actraction with optional hog kidney deconjugase, the extracts are cleaned (anion exchange) and enriched (affinity chromatography) and subsequently assayed for folates by HPLC in combination with fluorescence- and UV-detection in series.


Today's turbulent business environment, characterised by rapid technological changes and increased globalisation, has swept away industry and market condi-tions that previously defined competitive conditions. Such an environment requires flexible strategic solutions that respond quickly to these rapid changes. This chapter will therefore look at the need for dynamic strategy in today's business basing on the systematic review of relevant literature. It will also focus on the need for dynamic capabilities and competencies that are necessary for coping with the ever changing business environment. The chapter highlights that capability differentials among firms are a result of choices made by management. This explains why some firms are more adaptive than others and more flexible firms have been seen to perform better under uncertain environments.