Prolactinomas are the more prevalent functioning pituitary tumors, and dopamine agonist drugs (DA) are the main therapeutic option for patients harboring such tumors. Bromocriptine (BRC) resistance, defined as failure to normalize prolactin (PRL) and/or to shrink the tumor is reported in 5 to 18% of the patients treated with this drug, the first DA widely used. Cabergoline (CBG) can bring PRL to normalization and reduce tumor size in up to 86% and 92% of the patients, respectively. Even with this newer DA, a subset of patients does not respond to therapy and are truly resistant. The mechanisms for resistance are not yet fully clarified, so the treatment for the resistant prolactinoma is still a challenge. Transsphenoidal surgery associated or not to radiotherapy is an important tool, but PRL may not normalize, mainly in macroprolactinomas. Treatment with sex steroids or ovulation induction can solve the hypogonadism or infertility, when the tumor growth is under control. New drugs as anti-estrogens, new DA, specific analogs for somatostatin receptor subtypes, chimeric molecules associating dopamine and somatostatin effect, and PRL antagonists are under investigation and can be future alternatives for DA resistance.


Digital information based on the laws of quantum mechanics promisses powerful new ways of computation and communication. However, quantum information is very fragile; inevitable errors continuously build up and eventually all information is lost. Therefore, realistic large-scale quantum information processing requires the protection of quantum bits (qubits) against errors. In this thesis we present the experimental implementation of quantum error correction protocols based on spins in diamond. In such protocols, a quantum state is protected against errors by encoding in multiple qubits. Errors can be detected and corrected by measurement of correlations, so-called stabilizer-measurements, on these qubits.The experimental work presented in this thesis employs multiple spins in diamond as qubits to explore and implement error correction protocols. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond is a lattice defect consisting of a nitrogen atom (N) and a vacancy (V) on two adjacent diamond lattice sites. This defect effectively results in an electronic spin that can be addressed as a qubit. The spin state can be manipulated by microwave fields and optically read out. At liquid helium temperatures (cryogenic temperature, ~4 K = -269 C), the NV electron spin provides high-fidelity single-shot readout and long coherence times.The NV centre is surrounded by naturally available (1.1% abundance) nuclear C13 spins. As the number of spins that are close enough to the NV centre to be strongly coupled is limited, we employ the weakly coupled nuclear spins in the spin bath of the NV centre. Using dynamical decoupling techniques these nuclear spins can be detected via the NV electron spin through the hyperfine interaction. The nuclear spins are long-lived and robust against optical excitation of the NV electron spin, which can make these spins a robust quantum register for quantum error correction.In Ch. 4 we demonstrate universal control over multiple of such weakly coupled nuclear C13 spins in the environment of the NV centre at ambient temperatures. We demonstrate initialization, control and read-out of individual nuclear spins. Finally, we implement a quantum error correction protocol by encoding a quantum state in the NV electron spin and two nuclear spins. Errors are detected by un-encoding the quantum state back to the electron spin and correction via a double controlled operation.For universal fault-tolerant quantum computations it is essential that the quantum information remains encoded at all times. In Ch. 5 we present multiple rounds of quantum error correction and active feedback on a continuously encoded qubit at cryogenic temperatures. A quantum state is protected by encoding in three weakly coupled spins. Errors are detected via high-fidelity non-demolition readout of the NV electron spin and actively corrected using fast classical electronics. We demonstrate that an actively error-corrected qubit is robust against phase flip errors and show that a superposition state can live longer than the best physical qubit in the encoding.The presented methods and results can be extended to a range of future experiments. In Ch. 6 we propose the implementation of five-qubit quantum error correction, the smallest code to correct for general single-qubit errors on the physical qubits in the encoding, by extending the experimental methods as developed in Chs. 4a5. Besides the exploration and development of larger error correction protocols and fault-tolerant quantum computing, the presented quantum register based in spins in diamond can be employed as a quantum node and combined with recent advances in the realization of quantum entanglement over large distances to form quantum networks. These networks can be used to study both fundamental questions as well as future applications in quantum information technology.


This article raises a number of interrelated issues. It first considers the need for a disability-aware education for everyone, including post-school leavers. This has both structural and curricular implications. At the structural level, it is argued that if we are to move towards a more ethical educational system, institutional discrimination must be dismantled. At the curricular level, the notion of a "culture of resistance", with distinctive moral characteristics, is explored. The article next considers the moral education of disabled people, covering such issues as recognition of alternative perspectives, building on life-experience and the development of self-confidence and self-esteem. In conclusion, it is suggested that a moral education in an ethical system would integrate universalising understandings of the principle of justice, and its application, with the development of contextual thought which can take account of the value and uniqueness of individuals and the particularity of their educational needs.


Much of Vietnam War literary scholarship focuses on white male narratives of the conflict. By alternatively drawing on feminist rhetorical theories of silence, listening, and praxis, my dissertation interrogates traditional psychoanalytic thought by investigating how American, Vietnamese, and Vietnamese-American women who experienced the war provide a different model for narrating the war and coping with trauma. These women must contend with misogynist and, for some, racist practices embedded within patriarchal regimes of power in media, education, psychoanalytic frameworks, government, the academy, and the family, in addition to their experiences of the war. These constraints create conditions that mandate working outside of these patriarchal institutions so that these women can cope with their trauma on their own terms. To do so, women protagonists resort to using silence to allow themselves time and space away from the dominant psychoanalytic framework that emphasizes rendering one's experiences into words as a necessary coping practice. Through the use of silence and selective telling, these women develop their own mode for coping with trauma to imbue themselves with their own sense of agency and self-empowerment. My project relies on a wide variety of texts that range from popular accounts like Lynda Van Devanter's Home Before Morning and Frances Fitzgerald's Fire in the Lake to lesser-known works such as le thi diem thuy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Nha Ca's Mourning Headband for Hue. By inviting Vietnamese-American and Vietnamese women's narratives into the conversation about the Vietnam War with white American women's texts, I underscore the importance of listening to these works as women's texts, rather than those that are categorized as racially separate and different from white American discourse. Bringing these voices in connection with each other demonstrates how sexist regimes of power exert debilitating influence upon these people as women, conditions that also can be exacerbated by racially-infused logics of oppression. Placed into disenfranchised positions, these women call attention to the failures of current psychoanalytic diagnostic practices, and they expose how patriarchal institutions have created these constraining conditions for women in the first place.


Acoustic Emission is a very powerful tool for health monitoring of structures and mechanical components, especially due to its sensitivity, which is very useful at the early stages of damage evolution. Evaluation of its potential on rotating structures such as gearboxes, is studied in the present paper. A new concept of transducer mounting is realized in a single stage in-house built gearbox. The acoustic emission signature of the healthy gears is acquired. Then artificial defects are seeded and the acquisition is repeated. The signals are afterwards analyzed and the assessment of the applicability of the method becomes possible. Given the present experimental setup, health monitoring of gearboxes using acoustic emission is considered to be of rising potential.


Humans and other animals constantly evaluate their decisions in order to learn and behave adaptively. Experimentally, such evaluation processes are accessed using metacognitive reports. When made after decisions, metacognitive reports might reflect not only different levels of decision certainty, but also two certainty directions (certainty of being correct and certainty of being incorrect). It is important to test if such bi-directional processing can be measured because, for adaptive decision-making, information about being incorrect is as important as information about being correct. We were able to capture bi-directional certainty readouts by asking subjects to bet money on their perceptual decision accuracy using a six-grade wager scale (post-decision wagering, PDW). To isolate trial-specific aspects of metacognitive judgments, we used pre-decision wagering trials (wagering before the perceptual decision) to subtract, from PDW trials, wagering influences resulting from non-trial-specific assessment of expected difficulty and psychological biases. This novel measure of metacognitive ability allowed independent quantification of certainty of being correct and certainty of being incorrect readouts. Bi-directional certainty readouts were associated with increased sensitivity during wagering in comparison to perceptual decisions (i.e. high metacognitive efficiency), suggesting a link between post-decisional evidence accumulation and metacognitive efficiency. We also show that both readouts increased on easier trials, demonstrating that certainty of being incorrect is not confounded with low certainty. The quantification of bi-directional certainty by the same implicit graded response scale suggests that both readouts represent similar, or even the same, metacognitive process.


The GSM network has experienced a fast growth after its introduction in 1992. A large number of users in several countries in the word now have access to a standardised digital cellular network. This fact has lead to that the network is being used for several other things than voice communications. One such application is the transfer of pictures. This requires a unit that can digitise pictures and adapt the digital image information to the characteristics of the GSM network. This report describes the specification and development of an image acquisition and processing system with IR communications capabilities. It also outlines some of the possible applications for such a system.


It is 9 months after reconfiguration, and it is safe to say that the operation is a success. The quality of distributive service provided by the department has improved. Pharmacists and technicians report a higher degree of job satisfaction, and the dimension and quality of the clinical programs now cannot be compared with before. Future plans are to evaluate technician order entry as a means of further increasing pharmacists' time for clinical activities. This must be accomplished in a manner that ensures appropriate concurrent monitoring and screening of orders with compromising patient therapy. The department also is planning follow-up surveys that address the staff's attitudes regarding the reconfiguration. Recognizing change as a dynamic process, we plan to continue involving the entire pharmacy staff in the planning and implementation of future change. While we as managers were able to recognize the need for global change, it is our staff who helped us identify specific changes that led us to the needed skill mix adjustment. It is also essential that the staff understand that resources are limited and that is why compromise is sometimes necessary.


Lysosomal associated membrane protein 3 (LAMP3) is a newly identified tumor-specific protein. It is a downstream target gene of tumor suppressor TP53 and its expression has been associated with hypoxia-induced metastasis and poor overall survival in cervical and breast cancers. However, little is known of LAMP3 protein expression in gastrointestinal cancer and its prognostic value. We determined protein expression of LAMP3 and TP53 in both gastric (n=750) and colorectal (n=479) tissues by immunohistochemistry analysis on tissue microarray (TMA), their expression was correlated with patients' clinical parameters. LAMP3 and TP53 protein expression was significantly higher in cancerous tissues compared to normal and benign tissues. In both gastric and colorectal cancers, high LAMP3 protein expression (LAMP3+) was significantly associated with tumor stage (P=0.014 and P<0.001). No correlation between LAMP3 and TP53 expression was observed. Patients with high LAMP3 expression but not high TP53 expression had a poor overall survival (for gastric cancer P<0.001, CI: 1.762-4.567; for colorectal cancer P=0.036, CI: 1.062-5.980). Our data suggest that epithelial LAMP3 expression is an independent prognostic marker for gastrointestinal cancer.


Self-organized neuronal oscillations rely on precisely orchestrated ensemble activity in reverberating neuronal networks. Chronic, non-malignant disorders of the brain are often coupled to pathological neuronal activity patterns. In addition to the characteristic behavioral symptoms, these disturbances are giving rise to both transient and persistent changes of various brain rhythms. Increasing evidence support the causal role of these "oscillopathies" in the phenotypic emergence of the disease symptoms, identifying neuronal network oscillations as potential therapeutic targets. While the kinetics of pharmacological therapy is not suitable to compensate the disease related fine-scale disturbances of network oscillations, external biophysical modalities (e.g., electrical stimulation) can alter spike timing in a temporally precise manner. These perturbations can warp rhythmic oscillatory patterns via resonance or entrainment. Properly timed phasic stimuli can even switch between the stable states of networks acting as multistable oscillators, substantially changing the emergent oscillatory patterns. Novel transcranial electric stimulation (TES) approaches offer more reliable neuronal control by allowing higher intensities with tolerable side-effect profiles. This precise temporal steerability combined with the non- or minimally invasive nature of these novel TES interventions make them promising therapeutic candidates for functional disorders of the brain. Here we review the key experimental findings and theoretical background concerning various pathological aspects of neuronal network activity leading to the generation of epileptic seizures. The conceptual and practical state of the art of temporally targeted brain stimulation is discussed focusing on the prevention and early termination of epileptic seizures.


This paper analyzes an original dataset of 276 rules to analyze a curiously neglected question: how do administrative agencies set their rulemaking agenda? Agenda setting is an important stage in the rulemaking process, as agencies typically have significant legal discretion over their agendas but lack the resources to pursue more than a fraction of possible rules. The results show that business groups and Congress exerted significant influence over agency rulemaking agendas. By contrast, the president and the courts were each responsible for only 3 percent of the rules on agency agendas, indicating that their influence over rulemaking is primarily reactive. These results suggest that recent literature assessing and advocating presidential control of administrative agencies has overestimated the president's ability to coordinate the agency activity. More broadly, debates regarding presidential and congressional control of the administrative state should better incorporate the agenda setting process.


Background: To achieve optimal colonoscopic examination, the bowel must be sufficiently cleansed. However, none of the currently available colonoscopy preparation regimens is safe, efficient, and comfortable. The aim of this study was to determine whether adding stewed apricot juice to senna increased patient comfort and improved bowel cleansing during colonoscopy preparation. Methods: Outpatients of both genders who were over 18 years old and were referred for elective colonoscopy were randomly allocated to drink stewed apricot juice with senna or senna by itself. The quality of the colon cleansing was evaluated using the Ottawa scale. Patient tolerance and adverse events were evaluated through the completion of a questionnaire. Results: The study included a total of 128 patients in the randomization procedure. A significantly greater cleansing effect was observed using stewed apricot juice plus senna in the right and transverse colon (p = 0.038, p = 0.037 respectively). It was also determined that in the stewed apricot juice plus senna group, overall cleansing was superior (p < 0.001), total colonoscopy (17.6 min vs. 22.8 min, p = 0.048) and cecal intubation (7.4 min vs. 11.2 min, p = 0.042) times were shorter, and the colonoscopy procedure was easier (79.4% vs. 49.2%, p < 0.001). No differences were observed between the groups with respect to patient acceptance, compliance, and adverse Functional Foods in Health and Disease 2017; 7(1): 54-67 Page 55 of 67 events. In the stewed apricot juice plus senna group, 91.2% of patients stated their willingness to receive the same regimen in the future compared to 80% of the patients in the senna alone group (p = 0.037). Conclusion: The addition of natural, stewed apricot juice to senna significantly improves cleansing outcomes without additional adverse effects. Clinical trial registration number is NCT02665624, and the validity date is 24.01.2016.


In this paper, the main research question is How can the Dynamic Protection approach be used for the renewal of the historic residential block and make the old living areas become full of vitality? The historic residential block is a part of historic district, and it mainly refers to the block in which the buildings have mainly the residential function in the past, and even today they still retain the living function as its main function. The community, historical significance, size and built density, distinguishable features and identity, continuity, strong vitality, and diversity are the main characteristics of the historic residential block. the use value is the basic value of historic residential block, and together with the historic value and cultural value, make up very important features of the historic residential block, that should be carefully considered during the renovation process. I argue here that by the dynamic protection approach, the attractiveness and vitality lacking in many of these neighborhoods could be brought into the historic residential block again. The dynamic protection approach emphasizes the sustainable, organic and small-scaled renovation of historic residential block and it focuses on the protection of the intangible cultural heritages as well as the tangible heritages in the block. The goal of dynamic protection approach is to stimulate the development potential of the block itself and restore the vitality to the block, make the block not only well protected, but also re-adapted to the development of the modern city. Therefore, I consider that the dynamic protection approach is suitable for the renovation of historic residential block. In order to explore the application of the dynamic protection in practice, I use a case study approach as my research method. In order to explore the application of dynamic protection approach in a Chinese historic residential block, I conducted a design proposal of the historic residential block in Xijindu historic district, Zhenjiang, my case study, as an application case. I concluded through my case study and the design proposal that the dynamic protection has strong operational value in practice.


This chapter brings attention to the quite divergent consequences of dealing with the issue of detention by non-State armed groups in non-international armed conflicts under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The conventional approach to detention in international humanitarian law is that armed groups only have a de facto power, bound by humanitarian obligations. Under the laws of war, the question is partly tied to whether States themselves have the prerogative to detain under Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocol II, a question that is far from settled. Non-State armed groups raise the added problem that they may not be recognized, or be recognized only for the purposes of endorsing humanitarian obligations. If international humanitarian law does not apply to the authority to detain, then the question falls to be resolved by international human rights law. Under the latter, there must be a solid foundation to any deprivation of freedom, and the question cannot simply be one of treating captives humanely. This chapter will suggest that in both cases a theory of non-State actors' 'right authority' is missing when it comes to detaining State troops. Historically, this issue has been obscured by the fact that the right authority has been equated with statehood, but the moment may have come to rediscover how one can identify non-State actors that could be considered privileged in the international legal system.


Gender role representations in advertising are influential in society because they transmit stereotypes and can present behavioural norms for male and females. Due to the significance of presumed societal and sales impact, studies have looked at gender roles in many western countries but few have investigated the Asia Pacific. This paper investigates gender expectations through the operation of cultural and religious themes in HPV television advertising in a non-caucasian country. Familiar feminine gender-role dimensions in Philippine culture such as modesty, morality, and sexual purity are examined in an effort to determine whether these expectations of women have moved on with the emergence of a more permissive society. A review of the recent literature is undertaken to identify the role of advertising in shaping and influencing cultural norms. Findings show the role of housewife and mother stemming from the religiosity that permeates Filipino society dominate the advertising message, leading to possible confusion for the recipients seeking protection from HPV. The paper suggests that there is currently a lag in the adoption of shifting cultural mores within advertising and highlights the need to recognise these plural gender-roles in advertising management in the Philippines.


Albania continues to be a significant supplier of wild Medicinal and Aromatic Plants to the world markets of which Sage remains the major export item accounting for about 70% of the total sage imports to the US in 2013. Sage plants were randomly picked from different cultivation sites in Albania (North/Koplik; Southeast/Skrapar and South/Libohove) in order to screen genetic diversity amongst them employing Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA markers using twenty decameric oligonucleotide primers. A total of 2132 DNA bands were generated of which notably clear and scorable were 1555 (from 150 to 1999bp). Primers produced between 63 and 156 bands per Sage plant with an average of 107 bands per primer. Cultivated Sage plant generated between 112 to166 DNA bands with an average of 143 bands per plant. DNA banding patterns, obtained from the Shimadzu Multina PCR-RAPD analysis, were quite polymorphic and were used to carry out hierarchical cluster analysis using the average linkage between groups method of SPSS version 22. The dendrogram showed splitting of the North cultivated Sage from the Southern (southeast and south) group due to (dis)similarity in climate and soil structure/texture. Southeast cultivated Sage plants exhibited some genetic diversity within the group (intrinsic factors driven). This study indicates that RAPDs were fast and easy to use and proved to be efficient discriminatory tools detecting a high level of polymorphism within the same species (intraspecific level) which is explained with ecological variation and the genetic make-up of each individual.


Founded as a for-profit microfinance company, Equitas had acquired nearly a million clients in the short two years since it was founded. The founder, Vasu, and his management team wished to accelerate the already impressive spurt to 3 million clients in the next two years. The case describes the company's business model, which attempts to integrate microfinance with social development, and provides students with the opportunity to discuss the scaling options and challenges facing the founder.


Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by involuntary and repetitive co-contractions of agonist and antagonist muscles. Dystonia 6 (DYT6) is an autosomal dominant dystonia caused by loss-of-function mutations in the zinc finger transcription factor THAP1. We have generated Thap1 knock-out mice with a view to understanding its transcriptional role. While germ-line deletion of Thap1 is embryonic lethal, mice lacking one Thap1 allele-which in principle should recapitulate the haploinsufficiency of the human syndrome-do not show a discernable phenotype. This is because mice show autoregulation of Thap1 mRNA levels with upregulation at the non-affected locus. We then deleted Thap1 in glial and neuronal precursors using a nestin-conditional approach. Although these mice do not exhibit dystonia, they show pronounced locomotor deficits reflecting derangements in the cerebellar and basal ganglia circuitry. These behavioral features are associated with alterations in the expression of genes involved in nervous system development, synaptic transmission, cytoskeleton, gliosis and dopamine signaling that link DYT6 to other primary and secondary dystonic syndromes.


This letter presents the graphic processor unit (GPU) implementation of the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method for the solution of the two-dimensional electromagnetic fields inside dispersive media. The FDTD is truncated by the convolutional perfectly matched layer (CPML) and the piecewise-linear recursive-convolution (PLRC) formulation is used for modeling dispersive media. By using the newly introduced Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) technology, we illustrate the efficacy of GPUs in accelerating the FDTD computations by achieving significant speedup factors with great ease and at no extra hardware/software cost. We validate our approach by comparison to exact and other simulated results, which show favorable agreements. The effect of the GPU–CPU memory transfers on the speedup factor will be also studied.


Realizing the environmental benefits of solar photovoltaics (PV) will require reducing costs associated with perception, informational gaps and technological uncertainties. To identify opportunities to decrease costs associated with residential PV adoption, in this letter we use multivariate regression models to analyze a unique, household-level dataset of PV adopters in Texas (USA) to systematically quantify the effect of different information channels on aspiring PV adopters' decision-making. We find that the length of the decision period depends on the business model, such as whether the system was bought or leased, and on special opportunities to learn, such as the influence of other PV owners in the neighborhood. This influence accrues passively through merely witnessing PV systems in the neighborhood, increasing confidence and motivation, as well as actively through peer-to-peer communications. Using these insights we propose a new framework to provide public information on PV that could drastically reduce barriers to PV adoption, thereby accelerating its market penetration and environmental benefits. This framework could also serve as a model for other distributed generation technologies.


The question this article addresses is how the encratic, virtuous body in 2 Clement 'speaks itself' as a missional performance. It is in essence concerned with the discourses of corporeal virtuosity in 2 Clement. Firstly, the agon motif (2 Clem 7:1−6; 20:1−4) is discussed since it forms the basis metaphor for the understanding of ancient virtue-formation. Secondly, 2 Clement's encratic technologies of soul and flesh as an extension and overamplification, respectively, of the body are examined (2 Clem 9:1−11). In the third instance, the proliferation of visible technologies of the body in 2 Clement are brought into perspective with special emphasis on these technologies as strategies of andromorphism, a crucial element in the understanding of virtue in antiquity (2 Clem 12:1−6). Fourthly, 2 Clement also links concepts of holiness and the pneumatic dimension of spirituality in its argumentation (2 Clem 14:1−5). This needs to be understood in the light of corporeal virtuosity. Finally, the concepts of suffering (2 Clem 19:3−4), martyrdom (2 Clem 5:1−7) and the apocalyptic anti-spectacle (2 Clem 17:1−7) are central in 2 Clement's formulations of the missional performance and are therefore clarified. The intersection of these discourses is where the virtuous body in 2 Clement speaks itself as a missional performance. The study concludes by looking at the implications of the findings for understanding early Christian missionality.


The synthesis of metal nanoparticles through biological approach is an important aspect of biotechnology. The biological method provides a feasible alternative as compared to chemical and physical methods. The synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plant derived materials is an effective method for the production of metal nanoparticles.This work reports the rapid biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles from plant extract Cucurbita pepo. The plant extract was prepared using two different solvents i.e. double distilled water and 70% ethanol by hot percolation method. The sample was subjected to different reaction conditions i.e. pH (3, 7, 9) and temperature (0 °C, r.t., 37 °C, 60 °C, 100°C). The preliminary characterization of nanoparticles was done by using UV-VIS spectrophotometer at different wavelengths on the basis of color of the sample obtained from different solvents. Confirmatory analysis of the synthesized silver nanoparticles were done by energy dispersion X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These biosynthesized silver nanoparticles were used in the evaluation of antimicrobial activity that was done by Minimum Inhibitory concentration method against different pathogenic strains. The detection, analysis of presence of metal ions in the synthesized silver nanoparticles by using UV-VIS spectrophotometer at 630 nm.


The nucleolar protein PinX1 has been proposed to be a putative tumor suppressor due to its binding to and inhibition of the catalytic activity of telomerase, an enzyme that is highly expressed in most human cancers in which it counteracts telomere shortening-induced senescence to confer cancer cell immortalization. However, the role of PinX1 in telomere regulation, as well as in cancer, is still poorly understood. In this study, we showed that the PinX1 protein is constitutively expressed in various human cells regardless of their telomerase activity and malignant status. Most interestingly, we found that silencing PinX1 expression by a potent short hairpin RNA construct led to a robust telomere length shortening and growth inhibition in telomerase-positive but not in telomerase-negative human cancer cells. We further showed that silencing PinX1 significantly reduced the endogenous association of telomerase with the Pot1-containing telomeric protein complex, and therefore, could account for the phenotypic telomere shortening in the affected telomerase-positive cancer cells. Our results thus reveal a novel positive role for PinX1 in telomerase/telomere regulations and suggest that the constitutive expression of PinX1 attributes to telomere maintenance by telomerase and tumorigenicity in cancer cells.


The purpose of this study was to compare the debonding force of orthodontic brackets bonded with two conventional resin adhesives (Resilience L3 and Light Bond) and a resin-reinforced glass ionomer cement (Fuji Ortho LC). For the in vitro part of the study, 80 extracted premolars were randomly divided into four groups. In groups A and B, brackets were bonded to unetched enamel using Fuji Ortho LC cement in wet and dry conditions, respectively. In groups C and D, brackets were bonded to etched enamel using Resilience L3 and Light Bond, respectively. Debonding force was determined using a servohydraulic testing machine at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. Data was analyzed using the ANOVA and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison test at p<0.05. A significant difference was found in debonding force between unetched Fuji Ortho LC and the two conventional resins. There was no significant difference between the two conventional resins or between unetched resin-reinforced glass ionomer in the wet and dry conditions. For the in vivo part of the study, 30 patients were randomly assigned to one of the three bonding material groups. Bracket survival rates and distributions were obtained by following these patients for 1.2 years. Data was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier product-limit estimates of survivorship function. Bond failure interface was determined using a modified adhesive remnant index (ARI). These results showed no significant difference between survival rates and distributions among the three bonding materials with respect to the type of malocclusion, type of orthodontic treatment, or location of bracket. There were significant differences between survival distributions of males and females in the unetched Fuji Ortho LC group and among type of teeth in the conventional resin groups. The predominant mode of bracket failure for the unetched Fuji Ortho LC cement was at the enamel-adhesive interface, and for conventional resins, the enamel-adhesive interface and the bracket-adhesive interface. These results suggest that resin-reinforced glass ionomer cement can withstand occlusal and orthodontic forces despite having a bond strength lower than that of conventional resin adhesives.


It has been carried out the test and research to the stainless steel plate laser welding welded seam, by two-dimensional, three-dimensional appearance observation and tensile methods. Its result is: The YAG laser welding, is welding speed, frequency, pulse width and so on technological parameter influences to be big. In the power limit, raising the power or reducing welding speed; or increasing the frequency, or increasing the pulse width in critical value range, it be possible to increasing joints strength, however, when the pulse width surpasses critical value range its joints strength instead fall. In this study, the parameter that the appearance and the quality are all good of welded seam for welds speed 60mm/min, frequency 10Hz, pulse width 3ms, defocusing amount -1mm, the tensile strength of joints may reach 390MPa. The joints that the performance is good, its keyhole's microscopic appearance is also more complete good, but the joints that the macroscopic appearance is good, it has fine mechanical properties certain by no means. The three-dimensional observation of keyhole appearance is relatively feasible to be appraisal laser welding welded seam newest method,it is worthy discussing and carrying out.


Grice characterized communication in terms of the cooperative principle, which enjoins speakers to make only contributions that serve the evolving conversational goals. We show that the cooperative principle and the associated maxims of relevance, quality, and quantity emerge from multi-agent decision theory. We utilize the Decentralized Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (Dec-POMDP) model of multi-agent decision making which relies only on basic definitions of rationality and the ability of agents to reason about each other's beliefs in maximizing joint utility. Our model uses cognitively-inspired heuristics to simplify the otherwise intractable task of reasoning jointly about actions, the environment, and the nested beliefs of other actors. Our experiments on a cooperative language task show that reasoning about others' belief states, and the resulting emergent Gricean communicative behavior, leads to significantly improved task performance.


In this paper, some technological problems (e.g. low drawability, high susceptibility to galling, spring-back) occurring in the sheet-titanium forming process are discussed. A numerical simulation of the stamping process was carried out with the Adina System v.8.3 based on the finite element method. The effects of friction, the holding-down force and tool geometry on the course of the stamping process were analysed. The mechanical and technological material data needed for the calculations were determined experimentally. The friction coefficients for the frictional pair: "titanium – tool steel" for different lubricants and antiadhesive layers determined in the "strip drawing" test were found. The role played by lubrication and antiadhesive layers in preventing titanium "build-ups" on the tools is presented. The calculated results were then confirmed experimentally.


It is increasingly recognized that macrophages are a key cell in the development of atherosclerosis. Glucosamine, the product of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway in diabetes mellitus, can disturb lipid metabolism, induce apoptosis and accelerate atherosclerosis via endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in various types of cells. Previous studies have indicated that quercetin possesses antidiabetic, anti‑oxidative, anti‑inflammatory and anti‑apoptotic activities as a flavonoid. Studies have also demonstrated its novel pharmacological properties for inhibiting ER stress. The present study focussed on the effects of quercetin on cell injury and ER stress in glucosamine‑induced macrophages. RAW264.7 macrophages were cultured with 15 mM glucosamine, following which the levels of apoptosis, intracellular total and free cholesterol, and apoptosis‑ and ER stress‑associated proteins were measured in the macrophages treated with or without quercetin. Additionally, the ratio of cholestryl ester/total cholesterol was calculated to observe the formation of foam cells. The results demonstrated that apoptosis and abnormal lipid accumulation in the RAW264.7 cells, which was induced by glucosamine, were significantly reversed by quercetin. In addition, quercetin treatment suppressed the increase of C/EBP homologous protein, and inhibited the activation of JNK and caspase‑12, which was induced by glucosamine. Quercetin also increased the expression level of full length activating transcriptional factor 6 and decreased the expression of glucose regulated protein 78. Of note, the beneficial effects of quercetin on the glucosamine‑induced RAW264.7 cells were reversed by treatment with tunicamycin. These findings suggest that quercetin may have properties to prevent glucosamine‑induced apoptosis and lipid accumulation via the ER stress pathway in RAW264.7 macrophages.


Bacterial DNA and synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing unmethylated CpG motifs in particular sequence contexts (CpG ODN) are recognized as a danger signal by the innate immune system of vertebrates. For this reason, CpG ODNs have a potential application as both an adjuvant and nonspecific immune modulator and are currently being evaluated in a number of human and veterinary clinical trials. Given their potent immunostimulatory activity, CpG ODNs could possibly induce adverse reactions. As all adjuvants and immune modulators must be nontoxic to meet safety requirements, it was essential to address the safety aspects of CpG ODNs. The current review summarizes experiments carried out to date to establish the safety of CpG ODNs in animals.


A Turmit is a Turing machine that works over a two-dimensional grid, that is, an agent that moves, reads and writes symbols over the cells of the grid. Its state is an arrow and, depending on the symbol that it reads, it turns to the left or to the right, switching the symbol at the same time. Several symbols are admitted, and the rule is specified by the turning sense that the machine has over each symbol. Turmites are a generalization of Langtons ant, and they present very complex and diverse behaviors. We prove that any Turmite, except for those whose rule does not depend on the symbol, can simulate any Turing Machine. We also prove the P-completeness of prediction their future behavior by explicitly giving a log-space reduction from the Topological Circuit Value Problem. A similar result was already established for Langtons ant; here we use a similar technique but prove a stronger notion of simulation, and for a more general family.


Laser ion sources offer the possibility to have ion beams that can be useful as injector for particle accelerators. In this work, we studied the geometric quality of ion beams produced by the PLATONE accelerator. It is a LIS source and an electrostatic accelerator. It consists of ns pulsed KrF laser which works at the intensity of 108-1010 W/cm2 and a vacuum chamber where the ions are extracted from the plasma plume and accelerate by a double gap accelerating system. The accelerating voltage applied in DC mode was 60 kV. The beam characterization was performed by the Pepper Pot method with the use of radio-chromic films as sensible target. The measurements were performed by varying the geometric configuration of the anode (the extracting electrode) for the accelerating system. The lowest value found for the normalized emittance was 0.20 mm mrad.


A context-aware media recommendation platform uses an NtimesM-dimensional model and a hybrid processing approach to support media recommendation, adaptation, and delivery for smart phones. To provide media recommendations for smart phones based on all three context categories, we present a generic and flexible NtimesM-dimensional (N2M) recommendation model. The model considers context information ranging from user preference and situation to device and network capability as input for both content and presentation recommendations. We propose a hybrid recommendation approach to synergize content-based, Bayesian-classifier, and rule-based methods. Based on the recommendation model and hybrid-processing approach, we built a context-aware media recommendation platform called CoMeR to support media recommendation, adaptation, and delivery for smart phones


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare the propofol-remifentanil combination and propofol-ketamine combination for Dilatation and Curettage (DC) procedure.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
This prospective, double blind, and randomized study comprised 81 female patients undergoing diagnostic DC. Patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups; propofol-remifentanil (Group PR, n= 44) or propofol-ketamine (Group PK, n= 37). The level of sedation was assessed with the Ramsay Sedation Score (RSS). The patients' RSS scores were maintained at 4-5 with an additional 0.5 mg/kg bolus dose of propofol. Heart rate (HR), mean blood pressure (MBP), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), and RSS were recorded. The Modify Aldrete Score (MAS) was used for postoperative recovery evaluation, and the time to reach MAS score of 10 was recorded. Total dose of propofol, procedure time, side effects, and satisfaction scores of patient and surgeon were also recorded.

RESULTS
The mean HR and MBP values of Group PR were lower than those of Group PK, at all recording times. Sedation levels were significantly higher in Group PK. The total dose of propofol consumed was significantly higher in Group PR. The recovery time of Group PK was significantly longer than that of Group PF (p<0.05). Nausea-vomiting and bradycardia were more frequent in the Group PR. There was no difference in patient and surgeon satisfaction between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Ketamine-propofol combination provides better hemodynamic stability and better quality of sedation than propofol-remifentanil combination. Ketamine still seems as an advantageous and safe drug for such procedure.


This paper proposes a discussion about the construction of aesthetic values by children. The discussion focuses on the relationship between preschool children and popular music. It considers their preferences, their opinion about the music that they hear and dance to, and their conceptions of childhood that is built on the interface with mass media's implicit concepts. At a first sight—or first "hearing"—one may have the impression that some of these songs do not belong to the universe of childhood. If one looked for them in music shops or on websites that offer lyrics, chord notations or MP3 downloads, they certainly will not be found on shelves or links dedicated to "children's music." Even in the productions labeled "childish," we find recordings of children's groups miniaturizing famous adult groups, singing the same songs or remixes with childish patterns, assuming the same costumes and the same choreography. Many of those child groups were created for game shows and competitions inspired by the headhunters logic. Although these songs are not categorized as childish, children are in fact the target audience, and account for the largest number of viewers, a fact which suggests that we reflect seriously on the roles that children are taking on in the world of consumption. The central inquiry of this text is into the meanings that children attribute to this kind of musical production. This issue leads us to reflect on two other aspects of equal importance: the meaning that this type of production has in the field of art and, consequently, the meaning that art takes in the life of children. In the context of the culture industry (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1986) and of an age of mechanical reproduction (Benjamin, 1987), exposure becomes not only a fundamental criterion of appraisal of art, but in fact comes to define its condition.


The authors present the case of a very rare pseudomyxoma peri-tonei as a late complication of appendectomy. The definite diagnosis was established 11 years after appendectomy for appendiceal mucocele. In the paper the authors emphasize the need for correct retrospective evaluation of all data in patients with unusual diagnoses


This paper proposes a critical stance on research into the rarity of women at the highest levels of accountancy. We aim to unravel the discourses produced on this topic in the accounting literature and question our own experience and perception as scholars building on Bourdieu's work on reflexivity (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Bourdieu, 2001, 2003). As a first step, we provide a review of literature, identifying four stories that account for the creation of this rarity. The first story focuses on the historical lag that women supposedly face; the second insists on personality traits that purportedly make men and women different; the third shows the organisational barriers faced by women; and the fourth considers gendered stereotyped roles infused at a social level. We argue that persistent combinations of organisational and social obstacles have structuring effects on the identity of the accountant, regardless of gender. The controversial nature of the stories developed by researchers and the numerous debates that oppose them, call for an examination of how argumentations are structured. We therefore provide an analysis of the research designs used in the corpus and discuss their levels of reflexivity. This focus on reflexivity is two-fold. First, we elaborate on the epistemological reflexivity, including issues regarding the formulation of research question and its effects on results, how methodology structures the results and how the scope of the research limits the findings. Second, building on the concept of participant objectivation (Bourdieu, 2003), we provide a reflexive analysis of our own experience dealing with doing research in this field.


Through the example of a specific blog, this article locates a category of online discourse termed the "vernacular web." Because the definitive trait of the vernacular is its distinction from the institutional, the vernacular web emerges in specific network locations as a communal invocation of alternate authority. Imagining those invocations as located communication processes, the concept of a vernacular web provides the theoretical language necessary for speaking about the complex hybridity that new communication technologies make possible.


This paper explores the development of active sound transmission control systems for windows that can achieve a significant reduction in window noise transmission. Two major challenges need to be addressed in order to make the development of such noise blocking windows feasible. These are the need for a distributed actuation system that is optically transparent and the unavailability of a real-time reference signal that can be used by the active control system to provide advance information on the noise affecting the window. To address the first challenge, a transparent thin-film actuator (speaker) is first developed for the control system, which consists of a piezoelectric poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) thin film coated with compliant carbon nanotube-based transparent conductors on both sides. The developed thin-film speaker shows excellent acoustic response over a broadband frequency range, and has the advantages of being flexible, transparent, thin, and lightweight. To address the second challenge of providing a time-advanced reference signal from a moving noise source, a small microphone array distributed on the outside wall of the home is used. New noise source identification algorithms are employed, by which an appropriate microphone from the array can be chosen to provide a reference signal. Experimental results show that over 12 dB reduction in sound transmission is achieved globally in the case of broadband sound, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the control system in blocking sound transmission.


Objectives: Craniovertebral junction (CVJ) abnormalities constitute a group of treatable neurological disorders, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Thus, it is essential that clinicians should be able to make a precise diagnosis of abnormalities and rule out important mimickers on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) as this information ultimately helps determine the management, prognosis, and quality of life of patients. CVJ is the most complex part of the cervical region. Congenital malformations of this region can cause serious neurological deficit and require a surgical intervention. The present study was undertaken to know the embryological basis of the CVJ and to identify commonly observed congenital CVJ abnormalities, their frequency, and mode of presentation. Materials and Methods: Diagnosed cases of CVJ anomalies on dynamic MDCT head were reviewed at a tertiary care center between January 2014 to December 2019. Type of anomaly, clinical presentation, and associated malformations were recorded. Different types of variations were expressed in terms of percentage. Results: Congenital anomalies were seen in 42 cases. Fifteen types of anomalies were detected. Anomalies were either singly or in combination. The CVJ anomalies were more common in young adults (28%), almost equal in both sexes. The most common anomaly was basilar invagination (52.3%), followed by atlanto-occipital assimilation (33.3%), and Arnold–Chiari malformation is the most common soft tissue anomaly. In fourteen cases, additional anomalies of other vertebrae were present. The most common symptoms were weakness of extremities, neck pain, paresthesia, torticollis, and gait disturbances. About 28 patients got improved, 8 patients had residual deficit as that of preoperative status, and 4 patients got deteriorated after surgery, at 1-month follow-up. About 34 patients had improved, 5 remained static, and 3 patients got worsened at the end of 3-month follow-up. About 37 patients had improved, 4 patients remained static, and 2 patients got deteriorated at 6 months of follow-up. The patients with increased atlantodens interval 3–5 mm showed 77% improvement after surgery. Conclusion: Congenital CVJ anomalies, though rare, are fatal. CVJ abnormalities constitute an important group of treatable neurological disorders with diagnostic dilemma. The atlantodental interval is the most important preoperative prognostic marker. Dynamic CT imaging can provide additional useful information to the diagnosis of CVJ instability. To prevent long-term neurological problems, early diagnosis and treatment of congenital bony CVJ anomalies is important.


The epidermal growth factor (EGF)-receptor (EGFR) family includes four homologous transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinases, EGFR, ErbB-2, ErbB-3, and ErbB-4. This receptor family plays a pivotal role in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, and transformation. Ligand-induced activation of these receptors results in formation of homo- and heterodimers, which undergo transphosphorylation and transactivation. The aim of this study was to characterize the role of EGFR family members in signaling EGF-induced human airway smooth muscle (HASM) cell proliferation. Here, we show that EGF stimulates activation of EGFR and transactivation of ErbB-2 in quiescent HASM cells. Phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase, a critical signaling enzyme that modulates HASM cell growth, is preferentially associated with ErbB-2, and EGF-stimulated transactivation of ErbB-2 induces PI 3-kinase activation. ErbB-3 and ErbB-4 are present in HASM cells; however, EGF has no effect on their activation. Betacellulin, a ligand for EGFR, ErbB-3, and ErbB-4, induced DNA synthesis of HASM cells and stimulated signaling through the activation of EGFR and ErbB-2 but not of ErbB-3 and ErbB-4. Heregulin, a specific ligand for ErbB-3 and ErbB-4, did not effect DNA synthesis and did not activate its specific receptors. These data suggest that EGF imparts signals that involve activation of ErbB-2 and are associated with ErbB-2 PI 3-kinase activation. Despite the mRNA and protein expression of all members of the EGFR family, ligand-stimulated signaling induced activation of EGFR and ErbB-2 but not of ErbB-3 and ErbB-4.


The variability of the interference pattern of a narrow-band sound signal in a shallow water waveguide in the horizontal plane in the presence of horizontal stratification, in particular due to linear internal waves, is studied. It is shown that lines of constant phase (a phase front) and lines of constant amplitude/envelope (an amplitude front) for each waveguide mode may have different directions in the spatial vicinity of the point of reception. The angle between them depends on the waveguide's parameters, the mode number, and the sound frequency. Theoretical estimates and data processing methodology for obtaining these angles from experimental data recorded by a horizontal line array are proposed. The behavior of the angles, which are obtained for two episodes from the Shallow Water 2006 (SW06) experiment, show agreement with the theory presented.


The performance of imitation learning is typically upper-bounded by the performance of the demonstrator. Recent empirical results show that imitation learning via ranked demonstrations allows for better-than-demonstrator performance; however, ranked demonstrations may be difficult to obtain, and little is known theoretically about when such methods can be expected to outperform the demonstrator. To address these issues, we first contribute a sufficient condition for when better-than-demonstrator performance is possible and discuss why ranked demonstrations can contribute to better-than-demonstrator performance. Building on this theory, we then introduce Disturbance-based Reward Extrapolation (D-REX), a ranking-based imitation learning method that injects noise into a policy learned through behavioral cloning to automatically generate ranked demonstrations. By generating rankings automatically, ranking-based imitation learning can be applied in traditional imitation learning settings where only unlabeled demonstrations are available. We empirically validate our approach on standard MuJoCo and Atari benchmarks and show that D-REX can utilize automatic rankings to significantly surpass the performance of the demonstrator and outperform standard imitation learning approaches. D-REX is the first imitation learning approach to achieve significant extrapolation beyond the demonstrator's performance without additional side-information or supervision, such as rewards or human preferences.


Jonathan M. Reynolds Allegories of Time and Space: Japanese Identity in Photography and Architecture Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2015, 360 pp., 23 color and 60 b/w illus. $45, ISBN 9780824839246

Debate over the nature of Japanese cultural identity has been a central focus of intellectual and artistic inquiry in the modern age. Questions about the role and value of Japanese tradition and its relationship to the Westernization and urbanization ubiquitous to modern Japan have shaped the work of many artists. In his recent book Allegories of Time and Space: Japanese Identity in Photography and Architecture , Jonathan M. Reynolds considers a broad array of visual material to explore how artists, architects, and critics engaged with these issues in the second half of the twentieth century as they negotiated the effects of World War II and the American-led Allied occupation of Japan. While photography and architecture are highlighted in the subtitle, a broad range of material is discussed, including pottery, advertising posters, book design, and art criticism. Central to each of the five case studies considered is a longing to locate the authentic roots of Japanese cultural identity at a spatial and/or temporal remove from the nation's contemporary urban realities. Reynolds argues that these distances served allegorically to help artists negotiate the complexities of their rapidly changing society while often also endowing their work with a cultural authenticity that they felt distinguished it from Western forms of modernism.

Reynolds begins by framing his study in relation to literary criticism of the 1930s, a period in which multiple Japanese authors attempted to articulate a sense of alienation and a crisis of identity in response to cultural changes encouraged by Westernization and urbanization. Writing in 1933, Hideo Kobayashi (1902–83) implied that stories set in distant locations or earlier time periods were easier to comprehend than life in contemporary Tokyo (xv), while Sukutarō Hagiwara (1886–1942) suggested in 1938 that protecting the country from decline necessitated a "return to Japan" ( Nihon e no kaiki ) through …


Let A be a Banach algebra, X a closed subspace of A∗, Y a dual Banach space with predual Y∗, and π a continuous representation of A on Y. We call π subordinate to X if each coordinate function πy,λ ∈ X, for all y ∈ Y, λ ∈ Y∗. If X is topologically left (right) introverted and Y is reflexive, we show the existence of a natural bijection between continuous representations of A on Y subordinate to X, and normal representations of X∗ on Y. We show that if A has a bounded approximate identity, then every weakly almost periodic functional on A is a coordinate function of a continuous representation of A subordinate to WAP(A). We show that a function f on a locally compact group G is left uniformly continuous if and only if it is the coordinate function of the conjugate representation of L1(G), associated to some unitary representation of G. We generalize the latter result to an arbitrary Banach algebra with bounded right approximate identity. We prove the functionals in LUC(A) are all coordinate functions of some norm continuous representation of A on a dual Banach space.


Few virtual reality programs have been designed to retrain performance of activities of daily living for people undergoing neurological rehabilitation. This is despite the advantages of using this type of approach, including task-specific practice of meaningful and relevant activities. This paper summarizes the development of a grocery shopping simulator which uses a novel approach to interaction between the user and the program. The shopping simulation program underwent usability testing with patients participating in neurological rehabilitation. The results indicated that patients found the program easy and enjoyable to use and felt it would be a useful part of a rehabilitation program.


International criminal courts pursue several objectives including retribution, deterrence, creating a historical record and giving a voice to the victims while the rights of the accused are protected. A problem is that these objectives pull in different directions creating tensions and fragmentation in the procedural system. Numerous legal issues, referred to as 'hard cases', entail a choice where the Judge has to make a choice between two or several objectives. In the interest of legal certainty solutions should ultimately be controlled by the law and not by the discretion of the Judge. This article examines whether it is possible to identify a universally acceptable hierarchy of objectives. It is argued that the relevant objectives which determine the outcome of a hard case vary depending on the procedural stage and in each procedural stage there is a structural bias towards one or several objectives. Considering that law exists as a response to several social needs, it appears as unattainable to identify a universal and fixed hierarchy of objectives.


The aim of this study was to further characterize the mechanism
how wedelolactone affects topoisomerase IIa and cancer cells.
Using electrophoretic mobility shift assay we found that
wedelolactone inhibited binding of topoisomerase IIa to
supercoiled plasmid DNA. The inhibitory effect of wedelolactone
on the topoisomerase IIa was reversed by excess of enzyme but
not DNA suggesting that wedelolactone exerted its inhibitory
effect by interaction with the topoisomerase II protein. The in
vitro inhibitory effect of wedelolactone on the topoisomerase
IIa activity was redox-dependent as it diminished in the
presence of reducing agents, such as DTT, glutathione,
N-acetylcysteine and L-ascorbic acid. Similarly, cytotoxicity
of wedelolactone in breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells was
inhibited by N-acetylcysteine but enhanced by buthionine
sulfoximine, an inhibitor of glutathione synthesis. Finally, we
found that wedelolactone can be oxidized in the presence of
copper ions to semiquinone/quinone radicals.


Summary The internal texture of undisturbed samples of granular road base has been studied by microscope examination of pet-rological thin sections prepared from samples impregnated with epoxy resin. The study of compacted crushed basalt road base materials subjected to repeated loading from traffic and in laboratory tests, showed that the -75 μm particles become rearranged to give local accumulations of finer particles. A 'Texture Factor' (TF), assessed by a point counting method, was developed to quantitatively describe and follow such changes in the internal texture. The TF increases progressively with repeated loading and the increase is more rapid at higher moisture contents. The TF in road pavements is highest near the surface and a possible relationship between TF and existing pavement condition is described. Possible applications of TF measurements on existing roads to problems of material durability and pavement performance are discussed.


AbstractSafe drinking water is far from sterile and can contain 10^3-10^5 bacteria/mL. This water microbiome can be altered through various treatment processes in the drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), particularity when it comes in contact with biofilms. Biofilms cover surfaces in the drinking water systems and contain diverse bacterial communities that interact with the water. In this thesis, the bacterial communities in biofilms living on surfaces in a full-scale drinking water distribution system (DWDS), and within different slow sand filters (SSFs), were investigated to understand how they shape and interact with the water microbiome. The installation of ultrafiltration (UF) in a DWTP resulted in extensive removal of bacteria from the distributed water. This permitted the addition of bacteria to the water from the DWDS biofilm to be quantitated in a full-scale system, and was estimated using flow cytometry to account for 58 % of the total bacterial content in the water. Using this estimate and bacterial counts from before UF was installed, when many more bacteria originated from the DWTP, the biofilm then contributed only 0.5 % of bacteria to the water microbiome. DESeq2 analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences identified specific bacterial taxa released from the biofilm including genera Nitrospira, Sphingomonas and Hyphomicrobium. This study showed that the origin of the water microbiome is complex as it can include dynamic contributions from both the DWTP and the DWDS biofilm.In a DWTP, biofilters alter the water microbiome in ways that can persist throughout the DWDS. To identify factors in these filters that govern this transformation of the water microbiome, different SSFs were compared using flow cytometry with cytometric histogram image comparison (CHIC), and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. In contrast to that seen for new SSFs, removal of the top layer of sand, including the Schmutzdecke, did not affect the removal of E. coli and coliforms, or the transformation of the water microbiome by an established SSF. Using washed sand as an inoculum for new SSF gave a more rapid development of the surface sand community towards that was observed in the established filter. A specific transformation of the water microbiome, including an increase in intact bacteria, and bacteria with low nucleic acid (LNA) content, higher community evenness, and higher abundance of certain bacterial taxa, including Planctomycetes and Pseudomonas, are proposed as a microbial signature for desirable SSF function. This thesis has demonstrated how several technological alterations in DWTPs altered the water microbiome, and contributed to the understanding of how processes can govern the microbiome of drinking water, which is essential for control and management of this important resource. (Less)


While the governance of Western megaprojects is indirectly influenced by governments through legislation and regulations, the Chinese state actively oversees and controls projects of societal importance. To provide clarity on the role of the state in Chinese megaprojects, we carried out a case study focusing on EXPO 2010 Shanghai. Our analysis revealed that through a project-specific organization Construction Headquarter (CHQ), the Chinese state executes administrative strength, forces authorities to temporarily integrate their processes for the benefit of the project, influences contractor and resource selection decisions, induces leadership accountability, and promotes shared project values.


Abstract Backgrounds: Approximately, half of the population in the world including tropical and sub-tropical climates region is at risk of dengue. Being an endemic country, Bangladesh has experienced the largest dengue epidemic in 2019. The present study aimed at evaluating the clinical and laboratory profile of dengue patients in northern Bangladesh during the epidemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 319 serologically confirmed dengue patients admitted in Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra district. It is one of the main tertiary care hospitals in northern Bangladesh. Data were collected from July to September 2019. Patients clinical and laboratory data were extracted from clinical records. Patients were classified into two classes according to the WHO 2009 dengue classification such as (i) non-severe dengue and (ii) severe dengue. Chi-square test and independent t-test were used in this study. Results: Of the 319 patients, 94.1% had non-severe dengue and the remaining 5.9% had severe dengue (severe plasma leakage 68.4%, severe organ involvement 68.4%, and severe clinical bleeding 10.5%). Most of the patients were suffering from primary dengue infection. The most common clinical presentation was fever followed by headache and myalgia. Vomiting and abdominal pain were the most prevalent warning signs. The common hematological findings on admission were leukopenia (63.3%), thrombocytopenia (30.4%) and increased hematocrit (26.6%). Raised serum ALT or AST was observed in 14.1% cases whereas raised serum creatinine was observed in 6.6% cases. Signs of plasma leakage (pleural effusion, respiratory distress, and ascites, rise of hematocrit >20% during hospital stay) and hepatic or renal involvement (serum ALT >42UI/L or serum creatinine >1.2 mg/dL) on admission were mostly associated with severe dengue. Conclusion: The study provides clinical evidence on presentation as well as hematological and biochemical profile of dengue patients in northern Bangladesh that should be implicated in effective patient management.


Application programs are performed on clients and issue requests to object servers. The object servers then send responses to the clients. On the other hand, programs named agents move to object servers where the agents manipulate objects in a mobile agent approach. If agents complete manipulating objects in the servers, the agents move to other servers. If an agent conflicts with other agents on an object server, the agents negotiate with each other to resolve the conflict. If the servers are faulty, agents find another server. In addition, agents are replicated if they are faulty. In this paper, we discuss how to perform agents with different constraints on multiple object servers in the presence of server and agent faults.


Over the last decade quality function deployment or QFD, thanks to the efforts of Akao and others, has gained widespread popularity in its applicability to business and industry. Many organizations have adopted it as a tool of continuous improvement in their quest for quality through total quality management (TQM). QFD in simple terms, has been looked on as a mechanism of translating the customers' expectations of a particular product or service into product planning, parts development, process planning, and production planning. Explores the robustness of QFD for translating the available knowledge within a product design group into appropriate design choices, ones that consider the customer's view of quality throughout the product's entire life cycle. Conventional QFD analysis allows equity of participation through "consensus", but often trades outcomes influenced by expertise for those attained with "fairness". This process may lead to less than optimal results. Discusses the role of group support systems (GSS) to improve the qualitative discussion of the whats and the hows in the QFD process. Also introduces influence allocation processes, methods that allow differential weighting of participants and an incremental usage of knowledge within groups. Discusses their potential impact for QFD analysis.


Wearable computing, where users can wear computers anywhere and at any time, is slowly becoming a reality because of recent technological advancements. When users access various services in wearable computing environments, they want to define new services by themselves. Therefore, we propose a new framework for constructing context-aware applications in wearable computing environments. Our framework, called Wearable Toolkit, consists of an event-driven rule processing engine and tools to develop applications. By using our framework, we can define and customise services anywhere and at any time. We found our system helps to create context-aware wearable services from the results we obtained by evaluating it.


The strategy is now essential for a company, especially in the dynamic era as it is today. A good strategy is needed to overcome the business issues, but it must also prioritize environmental factors. The strategy used in this study was adopted from generic porter strategy. As we know this strategy has been widely used by many companies in the world for 3.5decades.On the other hand, any strategy must also always consider the environment to be a green product that is friendly to the environment. The aims of this study is to, first, how the influence of porter generic strategy on firm performance, second, how the green products strategy reinforces the influence of porter generic strategy (differentiation and cost leadership) on the company's performance. The method used in this study to answer the first objective was with Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA). Meanwhile, to answer the second objective, we used Moderated Multiple Regression (MMR). This study was conducted on companies that have been certified EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) in the province of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta and Central Java with 264 of the 723 respondent companies (respond rate of 34.025%). The results showed that there's influence between porter generic strategies with the company's performance. These studies also showed that the Green Products Strategy may strengthen the influence of positive differentiation strategy on company performance, while the Green products strategy did not strengthen and positively influence the cost leadership strategy on Corporate Performance.


Background: Uganda introduced Xpert MTB/RIF assay into its TB diagnostic algorithm in January 2012. In July 2018, this assay was replaced with Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay. We set out to compare the tests done and tuberculosis cases detected by Xpert MTB/RIF and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay in Uganda. Methods: This was a before and after study, with the tests done and TB cases detected between Jan-June 2019 when using Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay compared to those done between Jan-June 2018 while using Xpert MTB/RIF assay. This data was analyzed using Stata version 13, it was summarized into measures of central tendency and the comparison between Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and Xpert MTB/RIF was explored using a two-sided T-test which was considered significant if p <0.05. Results: One hundred and twelve (112) GeneXpert sites out of a possible 239 were included in the study. 128,476 (M: 1147.11, SD: 842.88) tests were performed with Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay, with 9693 drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB) cases detected (M: 86.54, SD: 62.12) and 144 (M: 1.28, SD: 3.42) Rifampicin Resistant TB cases (RR-TB). Whilst 107, 890 (M: 963.30, SD: 842.88) tests were performed with Xpert MTB/RIF assay between, 8807 (M: 78.63, SD: 53.29) DS-TB cases were detected, and 147 (M: 1.31, SD: 2.39) RR-TB cases. The Number Need to Test (NNT) to get one TB case was 12 for Xpert MTB/RIF and 13 for Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra. On comparing the two assays in terms of test performance (p=0.75) and case detection both susceptible TB (p=0.31) and RR-TB (p=0.95) were not found statistically significant. Conclusions: This study found no significant difference in test performance and overall detection of DS-TB and RR-TB when using Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and Xpert MTB/RIF assays. The health systems approach should be used to elucidate all the probable potential of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra.


Modern power systems are gradually adopting the philosophy of autonomous and distributed means of dynamic event detection processes, by facilitating system operation using intelligent algorithms. Dynamic data has different forms, such as voltage, current, active-reactive power, frequency, rotor speed and angle, status of a breaker, electricity demand, electricity price, operation schedules and many more. Collecting and storing these dynamic data from a system has recently become much more feasible for engineers. Along side that, computational resources have also been increased in multitude. Implementing these resources can bring practical benefits for post-event operation under uncertain conditions. The market drive towards decentralization and deregulation is constantly introducing problems which are stochastic. Thus, techniques like machine learning are observing a fair share of its applications in the field of power engineering. Though in recent years, application of machine learning algorithms in the power industry has become a prominent domain, understanding a dynamic data set requires additional features. Developing such features is yet an interesting research genre where significant contributions can be made. The concept of feature analysis using power system dynamic data is relatively novel. This research, in multiple steps, applies different machine learning methods to understand the dynamic nature of power system data. The idea is to search for effective methods to analyse this power system data. The dynamic nature of any power system demands efficient training and testing facilities in a pattern recognition system. Thus, recognizing the impacts of different dynamic techniques on a continuous flow of power system data would be a priority in this work and it requires a prelude to realizing the capacity of data analytics to understand power system dynamics. However, investigating the dynamic capabilities of the machine learning techniques is only the beginning. The power system is a complex network that has lots of segments and interconnections, with predefined priorities assigned. Multiple pattern recognition techniques may, therefore, be required to effectively understand the interactions between events that govern system operation and control. Rather than analysing the impact of a method on all types of scenarios, preparing different effective methods for different events would be a logical approach. The question arises whether a centralized scheme can be of any use while understanding events that are occurring in different autonomous zones. For example, the dynamic behavior of a system near a wind farm, reacting to different wind power penetrations, could effectively be understood with a decentralized system that is already installed in a nearby substation. Under such a scenario, collecting all the system data and storing it to the central station for further analysis should be computationally expensive, considering that some events are taking place at that very moment. It is another motivating factor for this work to investigate whether distributed data analysis with dynamic data handling capacity can lead towards better prediction, and consequently, the operation of a system. However, power system dynamics and machine learning algorithm-based data analysis are two independently broad domains. Analysing the impacts of data analytics on power system dynamics, would therefore be another broad discussion, ranging from a generic towards a specific study. In this thesis, machine learning platforms have been considered as the intelligent means of data analysis and the self-healing framework of a microgrid has been used for classification of the dynamic power system events. The key contribution of this research is developing a feature-extraction-based algorithm that has the capacity of detecting power system events and facilitating decision making.


Following validation in two large independent cohorts from the US and Germany (1,2), the concept of spread through air spaces (STAS) was introduced for pulmonary adenocarcinomas (ADC) in the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) Classification for lung cancer and subsequently validated and extended (3). Now, Uruga et al . provided evidence that a semi-quantitative assessment of STAS might provide additional prognostic information (4).


1. Diapause induction in monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus was studied using adults captured from the wild in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and individuals reared under outdoor and controlled conditions. 2. Oocyte presence in females and ejaculatory duct mass in males were used to indicate reproductive status. 3. Some wild individuals were in diapause in mid-August, and all males and females were in diapause by late August and early September respectively. 4. Individuals reared under decreasing day lengths and fluctuating temperatures were more likely to be in diapause than were individuals reared under long or short day lengths or constant temperatures. 5. Individuals fed potted old Asclepias curassavica plants were more likely to be in diapause than were those fed potted young host plants; when cuttings of Asclepias syriaca plants from the field or greenhouse pots were used, there was no effect of host plant age. 6. Extremely high temperatures increased the number of day-degrees required for development from egg to adult, while decreasing day lengths and older host plants tended to decrease the number of day-degrees required for development. 7. There appears to be a continuum of reproductive development in monarchs, with gradual declines in mean ejaculatory duct mass and oocyte production during the late summer. 8. None of the experimental treatments led to 100% diapause, and diapause was more likely to occur in monarchs subjected to more than one diapause-inducing cue.


The paper deals the procedures and processes in the modeling of topographic data. There are some fazes and procedures of modeling of topographic data in digital form. It deals in capturing, modeling, distributing and archiving of data. Sometimes many procedures are need for convertion and transformation from one format to other, from one system to other. The procedure of modeling data is a very important way and with computer-aided along with a certain degree of automatizaton that is useful for using and updating of topographic contents. .


There is no pharmacological treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in clinical practice. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme activity on sleep apnea severity and blood pressure (BP) regulation in OSA. We explored the association between arterial standard bicarbonate (StHCO3 ), a proxy for CA activity, and apnea severity as well as hypertension status in a retrospective cohort of OSA patients (n=830, paper I). In a cross-sectional sleep clinic cohort (n=70), we explored the association between whole blood CA enzyme activity and OSA severity (paper II). Furthermore, we designed a randomized, placebo-controlled study to investigate the effect of pharmacological CA inhibition after zonisamide (ZNS) on sleep disordered breathing in overweight/obese OSA patients (n=42, paper III). Finally, the effect of CA inhibitor acetazolamide (AZT), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or the combination thereof on sleep apnea and BP was investigated in a three-way cross-over study in 13 male hypertensive OSA patients (paper IV). Sleep disordered breathing was quantified by polysomnographic/polygraphic recording. Office systolic/diastolic BP (SBP/DBP) and vascular stiffness were assessed. Arterial/venous StHCO3 was collected. In paper I, we found that arterial StHCO3 was independently associated with apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) as the measure of OSA severity (p<0.001). In addition, arterial StHCO3 was positively associated with both a hypertension diagnosis and DBP (p=0.007 and 0.048, respectively). In paper II, CA activity was associated with AHI, nocturnal hypoxemia as well as DBP (p=0.007, 0.011 and 0.046, respectively). In paper III and IV, therapeutic intervention using ZNS and AZT, significantly reduced AHI by 33(39) % (placebo-adjusted) and 42(27) % (p=0.02 and 0.001, respectively). AZT reduced office BP in parallel with improvement of vascular stiffness compared to CPAP. In conclusion, our studies suggest an independent association between CA activity and OSA. High CA activity may represent a novel mechanism for development of hypertension in OSA. Drugs with CA inhibitory properties may provide a promising target for disease modifying treatment in OSA and its related comorbidities.


Since 1956 normal diplomatic relations have been re-established between Japon and Soviet Union, but without any peace treaty. That situation is linked to the problem of the Southern Kuriles occupied by USSR since 1945 but claimed by Japon which took possession of these islands at the end of the I8th century - a state of affairs recognized by Russia in 1855. The Yalta conference attributed « the Kuriles » to USSR and the Son Francisco Treaty (which Moscow did not sign) stipulated their relinquishment by Japon. The latter has always considered that tins text could not apply to the Southern Kuriles. The Hatoyamo government however was ready in 1955 to renounce the two main islands, but the same year the formation of the liberal-democrat party was accompanied by a sudden change in the Japanese position. The 1956 modus vivendi avoided the territorial question and mode possible the development of economic relations between the two countries but the Southern Kuriles problem was revived by Tokyo in the wake of the 1969 agreement on Okinawa. One finds it since at all the turning points of the nippo-soviet relations in spite of the fact that the re-establisment of diplomatic sino-japanese relations in 1972 and the acceptation of the anti-hegemony clause by Tokyo in 1978 make more unlikely than ever a solution in favour of Japan. This one, however, maintains its claim for reasons where the national psychology plays a great part while political and, above all, strategic motives render practically unthinkable that USSR will ever comply. The problem will remain as a thorn in the relations between Tokyo and Moscow.


We present CNFS, an algorithm for efficient and robust query processing for mobile wireless sensor networks. CNFS is a walk-based algorithm that is biased to visit nodes close to the source first. This bias is accomplished by collecting topology information about the network as the search progresses. This information is also used to compute the shortest return path for the query result and to tolerate changes in the network topology caused by node mobility that could otherwise cause the query to fail. As a result, CNFS requires fewer messages to process a query than flooding-based algorithms, while tolerating node mobility better than random walk-based algorithms. Our experiments show that in medium-density networks (average node degree 8.3) CNFS requires about 38% fewer messages than the other algorithms studied, while experiencing significantly fewer query failures than random walk-based algorithms in both sparse and dense networks. CNFS's success rate is comparable to flooding-based algorithms in dense networks and slightly worse in sparse networks.


Blast furnace work involves the flow of enormous volumes of raw materials. Modifications of the blast furmace operation parameters can bring about savings connected with materials consumption and also a reduction of production costs. The continuous technical-economic analysis of this process enables changes in the process to be observed by means of simple indexes. In this article, a technical-economic analysis of the blast furnace process is presented. It is based on the results of a Polish blast furnace with an overall capacity of 3200m3.


Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is a serious heart disease that often leads to a sudden cardiac death of young athletes. It is believed that the alteration of the kinetics of interaction between actin and myosin causes FHC by making the heart to pump blood inefficiently. We set out to check this hypothesis ex vivo. During contraction of heart muscle, a myosin cross-bridge imparts periodic force impulses to actin. The impulses are analyzed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) of fluorescently labeled actin. To minimize observation volume and background fluorescence, we carry out FCS measurements in surface plasmon coupled emission mode in a reverse Kretschmann configuration. Fluorescence is a result of near-field coupling of fluorophores excited in the vicinity of the metal-coated surface of a coverslip with the surface plasmons propagating in the metal. Surface plasmons decouple on opposite sides of the metal film and emit in a directional manner as far-field p-polarized radiation. We show that the rate of changes of orientation is significantly faster in contracting cardiac myofibrils of transgenic mice than wild type. These results are consistent with the fact that mutated heart muscle myosin translates actin faster in in vitro motility assays.


There is extensive literature on pedagogy of science laboratories; highlighting good science laboratory engages learner at many levels (Lim 2016); to the meaningful assessment of student learning from science laboratories (Galloway and Bretz, 2015); student learning in the laboratory can be improved through doing and discussing the science in the laboratory, (Schussler, 2013); the recent HEA publication by Shallcross et al (2015) demonstrates digital laboratory manual with pre-laboratory activities significantly improves the academic performance of students and what they personally gain from the laboratory in practice . However, the definitive literature for engineering typically cites Dewey (1910) on how learners construct knowledge from laboratories. In the UK the Engineering Council define in the Accreditation of Higher Education Programme (AHEP), (The Engineering Council, 2014), and UK engineering accreditation institution also require all engineering degrees to have a significant amount of laboratory based learning. The aim of laboratory learning being to support student learning through practice, for example;
"Appropriate laboratory work should be evident throughout the entire degree programme…provide the vehicle for exploring the relationship between conceptual models and real engineering systems…provide hands-on experience of the behaviour of materials and processes…" IMechE (2013)
Feisel and Rosa (2005) identified that instructional laboratories should be designed to develop students' engineering knowledge, understanding and application abilities; they also identified the importance of the chronological relationship between laboratory and lecture for student knowledge synthesis.
This paper will present the common observations and results of a project that has evaluated student learning in laboratory in the engineering laboratories of engineering and maths preparatory year of study. Also, provide evidence of any effective laboratory pedagogy practice that supports engineering student learning, and data that can be utilised by academics provide as guidance for designing and developing, and delivering engineering laboratories for all the engineering courses. The research method used during the project was quantitative and qualitative research methods. Students' learning in the engineering laboratory session has been evaluated to check their understanding of a theoretical topic from the corresponding lecture programme, associated practical learning and whether the laboratory provided the opportunity to place the theory into practice. The research methodologies employed quantitative techniques using MCQs to measure student learning post laboratory and qualitative using survey, QA the laboratory write up. The initial results indicate the length of time of the lecture and whether lecture is pre or post lecture is critical to maximising student learning opportunity in the engineering laboratory. The paper will highlight the impact laboratories have on student learning and aims to inform the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) community on the best practice engineering laboratory design and timetabling to assist in maximising the learning opportunity for students.
Dewey, John (1910) How we think. Heath and Company Publishers, D.C.
The Engineering Council (2014) The Accreditation of Higher Education Programme UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence, Third Edition (AHEP), The Engineering Council, [on-line at] http://www.engc.org.uk/engcdocuments/internet/Website/Accreditation%20of%20Higher%20Education%20Programmes%20third%20edition%20(1).pdf
Feisel, L. D., & Rosa, A. J. (2005) The role of the laboratory in undergraduate engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 121-130.
Galloway, K. R., & Bretz, S. L. (2015). Development of an assessment tool to measure students' meaningful learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Journal of Chemical Education, 92(7), 1149-1158.
IMechE (2013). The Institution of Mechanical Engineers Academic Accreditation Guidelines, [on-line at] http://www.imeche.org/docs/default-source/tapd/acd001-annex-1-academic-accreditation-guidelines.doc?sfvrsn=4
Kolb, D. (1985) Learning styles inventory. The Power of the 2 2 Matrix, 267.
Lim, K. F. (2016) Education: Improving laboratory learning. Chemistry in Australia, (Feb 2016), 36.
Schussler, E. E., Bautista, N. U., Link-Perez, M. A., Solomon, N. G., & Steinly, B. A. (2013) Instruction matters for nature of science understanding in college biology laboratories. BioScience, 63(5), 380-389.
Shallcross, D. E., Slaughter, J. L., Harrison, T. G., & Norman, N. C.(2015) Innovative pedagogies series: A dynamic laboratory manual, Higher Education Academy


It is becoming clear that a bowel which undergoes frequent polypoid changes, either adenomatous or villous, is more prone to develop a malignant neoplasm. Likewise, a bowel which has produced one carcinomatous lesion has a much greater probability of developing a second such lesion. From a large cancer detection center, Rider et al 1 reported the incidence of carcinoma of the large bowel as 2.1% in patients undergoing routine gastrointestinal examinations. The incidence of cancer in a bowel containing polyps increases sharply. Patients with a single polyp were found to have a 7% to 11% chance of developing a colonic carcinoma, whereas in patients with multiple colonic polyps the incidence of cancer increased to 18% to 21%. 1-3 A recent review of 1,084 cases of carcinoma of the colon and rectum at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania allowed a further evaluation of the relationship between polyps and cancer, as


The aim of this paper is compare corporate governance and firm strategy before and after privatization. The design of control and performance evaluation systems in the pre and post-privatization periods is compared so that it can be understood in relation to the changes observed at a high corporate level (corporate governance and firm strategy). We carry out various case studies on five privatized Spanish companies. The results support several conclusions. First, the variables that are traditionally related to greater board independence in monitoring do not undergo variation after privatization. Second, the interests of the firms' new ownership have an impact on firm strategy after privatization. Finally, control and performance evaluation system designs clearly align with firm strategy after privatization.


Soft soil such as clay was sensitive soil. Public contructions built in this kind of soil would face some problemssuch as long period consolidation time, unstable embankment slope, not easily compacted and high level settlement. Some solution that could be suggested were the usage of vertical drain, or the usage of geosynthetics material such as geogrid combined with floating  piles.Analysis was carried out by using plaxis version 7.2. soil for embankment and embankment foundation was modelled in plane strain. Also geogrid andfloating piles were modelled in palne strain too. Surcharge load on top of embanknet were variated, they were 20, 35 and 50 kPa. The simulation was carried out in staged contruction mode.Final vertical displacement in geogrid due to 50  kPa vehicle load as surcharge load and long term load period (in this case excess pore water pressure was small) was -0,9062 m for  rigid embankment and -1,4206 for interface embankment. The difference occured due to slip at the interface of geogrid and soil. It  leaded to adding soil mass supportd by geogrid, furthermore the deflection of geogrid became bigger.


This paper addresses the influence of economic activity on suicide mortality in Europe. To this end, it employs a new panel data set of 275 regions in 29 countries over the period 1999-2010. The results suggest that unemployment does have a significantly positive influence on suicides. In line with economic theory, this influence varies among gender and age groups. Men of working age are particularly sensitive, while old-age suicide mortality (older than 65 years old) hardly responds to unemployment. Moreover, real economic growth negatively affects the suicide rates of working-age men. The results withstand several robustness checks, such as sample variations, and after controlling for serial and spatial autocorrelation.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline and discuss a multifaceted approach to embedding change in academic practice, resulting in the integration of technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) within the wider institutional strategic approach to learning and teaching.Design/methodology/approach – This approach is evidenced through a discussion of three examples of practitioner engagement and ownership across the institution – "bottom‐up", "middle‐out" and "top‐down" activities – demonstrating the attendant potential for transferability to other institutional settings.Findings – The triangulation of all three levels of activity in this way ensures that strategy is informed, developed, discussed, deployed and owned across the institution.Originality/value – The paper addresses the challenges of integrating TEL approaches within an overall teaching and learning strategic framework through the medium of practitioner‐developed and supported initiatives developed at the University of Dundee but with potential...