Consumers associate with the quality of food its freshness (97%) and taste (93%) (e.g. GFK 2000). As the extrinsic cue country of origin serves as an indicator for the intrinsic cue taste it works as quality indicator (PETZOLDT ET AL. 2007; KROEBER-RIEL 2003). Indeed several studies reveal that country of origin labeling (COOL) plays an important role in consumers' quality evaluation of food products (e.g. VAN ITTERSUM ET AL. 2001; HONG AND WYER 1989; ELLIOTT AND CAMERON 1994). Most studies investigating consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for COOL focus on meat (e.g. VERBEKE AND WARD 2006; LOUREIRO AND MCCLUSKY 2000), olive oil (e.g. SANDALIDOU ET AL. 2002) or wine (e.g. SKURAS AND VAKROU 2002). Spices such as pepper have not been researched yet. Nevertheless, pepper for instance seems very interesting to analyze as we can note a shift from pepper being a low-involvement commodity to becoming a lifestyle product. This holds especially for consumers of organic products and for gourmets (KAUSCH 2008; NATUR AND KOSMOS 2007). For example freshly grounded pepper experiences an increasing culinary demand (DEAK 2004). Pepper experts state that pepper should be differentiated with respect to country and region of origin, as it is already common for wine, tea and coffee, because origin has a strong effect on peppers aroma (NATUR AND KOSMOS 2007; MCFADDEN 2008). Research reveals knowledge is a crucial factor for the use of country of origin labels as purchase criterion (e.g. SCHAFER 1997; VAN ITTERSUM ET AL. 2001). We can suspect that conscious consumers know about a products' diversity, e.g. taste variety as a result of its country of origin. Therefore it can be assumed that consumers' knowledge and taste perception is of relevance for the success of country of origin labeling. Against this background, we carried out a standardized survey (n=100) in a organic grocery store in Bonn, Germany in August 2009 to investigate whether consumers expect taste differences with respect to pepper, olive oil, wine, rice and tea and if so, whether they assume these differences to be a result of country of origin. The word association test is used to gain insights into what comes to consumers mind when being asked about pepper. Based on these results we assess the relevance of country of origin (COO) in the case of pepper. In addition, we analyze consumers' awareness and expertise with respect to the diversity of pepper as a result of country of origin and region. Finally, a blind tasting of black pepper of different origins and production methods (organic versus conventional) is conducted to assess whether consumers are able to identify aroma differences between the different varieties. The results show that consumers' awareness of taste differences regarding product varieties differentiated by countries/locations depends on the familiarity with the considered product. For all products analysed, the correlation between COO and taste is positive (above 0.5) and highly significant at the 0.01 level. In the case of wine 82 % of the respondents expect taste differences due to the COO with 61 % indicating a preference for a specific country in their purchase decision. The preferred wine countries are Germany (34 %) and France (18 %). Also with respect to olive oil the majority of respondents (79 %) assume taste differences due to the COO and 66 % reveal a preference for a specific country (e.g. 52 % for Italy; 33 % for Greek). In the case of pepper only 44 % of the survey participants expect taste differences in view of country of origin. 16 % indicate a preference for a specific origin of which India is most often mentioned (56 %), followed by China, however with a considerable smaller relevance (13 %). The low relevance of the COO in the case of pepper might be a result of the fact that only organic brands label the producing country. Additionally advertisement for spices focusing on country of origin is in general rare. Therefore it is not surprising that the connection between COO and taste is less made for pepper compared to wine and olive oil which are, in contrast to pepper, considered as high involvement products and are often discussed in the context of country of origin. For these products advertisement focuses on and highlights this attribute (Becker 2000). Therefore we can assume that consumers' knowledge and awareness of the producing country is more skilled and present for wine and olive oil. Based on these results, we conclude that COO serves as an indicator for taste for the products under investigation. On the basis of a word association test, the relevance of the attribute 'country of origin' is analysed in comparison to other product characteristics for pepper. The test reveals that country of origin (17 times mentioned) is only one of many relevant product attributes consumers associate with pepper. Most frequently mentioned are varietal diversity (64 times) and spiciness (54 times). Thus, the results of the word association test indicate that differences the majority of the respondents make between pepper varieties are rather based on the degree of maturity (e.g. black pepper versus green pepper) than on country of origin. The blind tasting test aims to analyse whether consumers are indeed able to perceive taste differences between pepper of different origins and production methods. Therefore in the blind testing pepper of two different regions (India versus Sri Lanka) and two different production methods (organically versus conventionally produced) was considered. Three of the four organic peppers were exclusively distributed in organic stores. One organic and one conventional pepper are distributed in the conventional retail sector. All peppers distributed in the organic stores are COO labelled, the ones in the conventional retail stores are not. The results reveal that consumers are able to identify taste differences - pungency, finish and aroma are the aspect respondents were asked to evaluate - between peppers of different countries of origin and production methods. We found out that aroma was the most important attribute for the appraisal of a pepper and consumers' willingness to buy one. On a scale from 1(hardly any aroma) to 4 (very aromatic) the two organic peppers exclusively listed in organic stores were from India and were ranked first and third by consumers. The organic pepper without COOL distributed in the conventional retail sector was placed second with regard to aroma. The organic pepper brand from Sri Lanka (also exclusively listed in organic stores) ranked fourth and the conventional one last. Overall our results indicate that German consumers prefer a specific country of origin only if they assume that this is linked to differences in taste. Lacking awareness and knowledge hinders most of the participants of our survey to combine taste and country of origin in the case of pepper. This holds despite the fact that the survey was conducted in an organic grocery store and thus was directed at consumers of organic food who are in general considered to be more involved in purchase decision and are more knowledgeable with respect to production issues (see e.g. OLTERSDORF 1996; SENAUER 2001). In times of increasingly importance and renaissance of food culture, product differentiation by means of COOL can be appropriate to meet consumers' preferences for geographical indication. With respect to pepper our study indicates that this is still a low involvement product even for consumers in organic grocery stores. A precondition for the success of COOL in the case of pepper would be to increase consumers' knowledge of the relevance of country of origin for peppers taste.


The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. Copyright © 2004. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK All rights reserved. The material in this work is copyrighted. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or inclusion in any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the World Bank. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission promptly. P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed


Rawlyk argues that in the early part of this century the Maritime Baptist mainstream was far more accommodating and open-minded than Baptists in central Canada and the West. He shows that during the fundamentalist-modernist controversies of the 1920s and 1930s the vast majority of Maritime Baptists rejected the closed-minded Central- Canadian Fundamentalism of T.T. Shields. Instead they stressed what Barry Moody has referred to as the prevailing "Breadth of Vision" and "Breadth of Mind" of the nineteenth-century Maritime Baptist tradition. The Maritime Baptist mainstream emerges in Champions of the Truth not only as surprisingly progressive but as a force which, Rawlyk believes, helped significantly to shape certain key features of Maritime life between the wars. Rawlyk provides an answer to the question of why the Maritime Baptists in the 1920s and 1930s did not experience the same kind of bitter schism as central Canadian and western Baptists. As well, he attempts to explain the weaknesses of Maritime fundamentalism - especially that preached by the two sectarian Baptists, J.J. Sidey and J.B. Dagget. In the foreword to this volume, Larry McCann, Davidson Professor of Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University, describes Champions of the Truth as "a remarkable volume" and Rawlyk as "a gifted historian." He says that Rawlyk's essays, firmly rooted in a theoretical base and centring on dialectical analysis, constantly provoke.


Archaeological terraces are a prominent feature of the agricultural sphere in hilly landscape throughout the Mediterranean, and dating of these simply built features is of utmost importance. Excavations and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the soil fill of terraces were previously carried out on Mt. Eitan, the Judean Highlands, Israel. Archaeological surveys showed that Mt. Eitan was almost continuously settled from the Middle Bronze Age until modern times. However, OSL dating showed that all extant terraces were constructed 500–200 years ago, during the Ottoman Period, while older ages (Hellenistic to Mamluk periods) are limited to the base of several terraces. Many samples dated to the Ottoman period contain older quartz grains, indicating partial bleaching at the time of terrace construction; these grains might preserve older episodes of terrace building. To test this, we calculated ages for all measured aliquots and used the finite mixture model on the dataset to identify age components not apparent in the OSL age spectrum. Results show that aliquot ages cluster into only a few periods, of which four distinct components fall within the 14th–19th centuries (Christ era). The Hellenistic–Roman and Early Islamic periods are also represented, even in areas where terraces with such ages were not found, while the Persian Iron and Bronze Age periods are not represented at all. The unbleached grains thus preserve episodes of terrace building no longer represented in the landscape. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective To describe the respiratory trajectories and their correlation with motor function in an international pediatric cohort of patients with type 2 and nonambulant type 3 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Methods This was an 8-year retrospective observational study of patients in the International SMA Consortium (iSMAc) natural history study. We retrieved anthropometrics, forced vital capacity (FVC) absolute, FVC percent predicted (FVC%P), and noninvasive ventilation (NIV) requirement. Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale (HFMS) and revised Performance of Upper Limb (RULM) scores were correlated with respiratory function. We excluded patients in interventional clinical trials and on nusinersen commercial therapy. Results There were 437 patients with SMA: 348 with type 2 and 89 with nonambulant type 3. Mean age at first visit was 6.9 (±4.4) and 11.1 (±4) years. In SMA type 2, FVC%P declined by 4.2%/y from 5 to 13 years, followed by a slower decline (1.0%/y). In type 3, FVC%P declined by 6.3%/y between 8 and 13 years, followed by a slower decline (0.9%/y). Thirty-nine percent with SMA type 2% and 9% with type 3 required NIV at a median age 5.0 (1.8–16.6) and 15.1 (13.8–16.3) years. Eighty-four percent with SMA type 2% and 80% with type 3 had scoliosis; 54% and 46% required surgery, which did not significantly affect respiratory decline. FVC%P positively correlated with HFMS and RULM scores in both subtypes. Conclusions In SMA type 2 and nonambulant type 3, lung function declines differently, with a common leveling after age 13 years. Lung and motor function correlated in both subtypes. Our data further define the milder SMA phenotypes and provide information to benchmark the long-term efficacy of new treatments for SMA.


The aim of this study was to explore whether, during automatic milking, milking interval or its variation is related to somatic cell count (SCC), even when corrected for effects of production, lactation stage, and parity. Data on milking interval and production level were available from the automatic milking systems of 151 farms. Data on SCC, parity, and lactation stage were derived from dairy herd improvement records of the same farms. Mainly due to incomplete records, data of 100 farms were used in the final analysis. For every cow, only 1 test day was used in the final analysis. Milking interval, the coefficient of variation of milking interval, production rate, the difference in production rate between short- and long-term, parity, days in milk, and some biologically relevant interactions were used in a linear mixed model with farm as random variable to assess their association with log10-transformed SCC. None of the interactions was significantly related to SCC, whereas all main effects were, and thus, stayed in the final model. The effect of milking interval was, although significant, not very strong, which shows that the effect of milking interval on SCC is marginal when corrected for the other variables. The variation in milking intervals was positively related with SCC, showing that the variation in milking interval is even more important than the milking interval itself. In the end, this study showed only a limited association between milking interval and SCC when milking with an automatic milking system.


This study examined the application of color measurement to determining the chemical composition of Cu alloys such as Cu-Zn, Cu-Sn, and Cu-Al using a color recognition system. Measured data showed that the hue intensity changed exponentially when Zn, Sn, or Al in the Cu binary systems and fitted well with an exponential equation within the experimental error. This indicates that the obtained equations can be used for predicting the compositions of Cu-Zn, Cu-Sn, and Cu-Al systems by measuring the hue intensity.


Submerged microbial cultures were screened for their potential to oxifunctionalize α-farnesene. The major oxidation product in all transforming cultures, 3,7,11-trimethyldodeca-1,3(E),5(E)10-tetraen-7-ol, showed a pleasant citrus-like odor and peak concentrations of 170 mg L-1. An Aspergillus niger isolate from mango generated another two terpene alcohols identified as diastereomeric menth-1-en-3-[2-methyl-1,3-butadienyl]-8-ol, a new natural compound with an apricot-like odor. The regiospecifity of the oxygen attack with concurrent lack of stereoselectivity suggested that the initial step of the bioconversion resembled the chemical autoxidation starting with the generation of an intermediate resonance-stabilized carbon-centered radical or carbocation. Keywords: Fungal bioconversion; α-farnesene; mycelium concentrate; p-menth-1-en-3-[2-methyl-1,3-butadienyl]-8-ol; flavor


ABSTRACT This study provides the first detailed mineralogical data on platinum-group element (PGE) mineralization of the Waterberg Project, in a previously unknown segment of the Bushveld Complex located in the Southern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt. The lower ultramafic F zone is dominated by sperrylite (up to 82 area%) with minor Pt–Pd bismuthotellurides, Pd–Ni arsenides, Au–Ag alloy, Rh–Pt sulfoarsenides and rare Pt–Fe alloys. The upper more felsic-rich gabbroic T zone is dominated by Pt–Pd bismuthotellurides (up to 90 area%), Pd tellurides and Au–Ag alloy with rare sperrylite, braggite, Pd stannides and antimonides. The platinum-group minerals (PGM) of the F zone are associated mainly with magmatic base-metal sulfides (pyrrhotite, troilite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite), that have undergone alteration during significant serpentinization, accompanied by the formation of the secondary sulfide assemblage. The T zone in a leucogabbroic sequence contains relics of magmatic sulfides and is characterized by the development of the indicative chalcopyrite-millerite-pyrite assemblage, which is associated with widespread hydrothermal quartz and hydrous silicates (amphiboles, phlogopite, epidote and chlorite). The fluid-induced style of PGM remobilization, the high Au/PGE and the high proportion of native gold in the high-grade T zone ores in the magnetite-bearing leucogabbroic rocks are unique to the Bushveld Complex. The genesis of the T ores is interpreted as a result of primary PGE enrichment in the zone of interaction between the first influxes of the Upper Zone fertile melt and a resident gabbroic melt at the top of the Troctolite-Gabbronorite-Anorthosite (TGA) fractionated sequence with subsequent fluid remobilization. Whether the hydrothermal overprint facilitated the PGE sequestration in a favourable setting or dispersed the pre-existing magmatic concentrations along fluid pathways remains essentially unresolved at the current stage.


Deploying convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on embedded devices is difficult due to the limited memory and computation resources. The redundancy in feature maps is an important characteristic of those successful CNNs, but has rarely been investigated in neural architecture design. This paper proposes a novel Ghost module to generate more feature maps from cheap operations. Based on a set of intrinsic feature maps, we apply a series of linear transformations with cheap cost to generate many ghost feature maps that could fully reveal information underlying intrinsic features. The proposed Ghost module can be taken as a plug-and-play component to upgrade existing convolutional neural networks. Ghost bottlenecks are designed to stack Ghost modules, and then the lightweight GhostNet can be easily established. Experiments conducted on benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed Ghost module is an impressive alternative of convolution layers in baseline models, and our GhostNet can achieve higher recognition performance (e.g. 75.7% top-1 accuracy) than MobileNetV3 with similar computational cost on the ImageNet ILSVRC-2012 classification dataset. Code is available at https://github.com/huawei-noah/ghostnet.


Although different authors mean different thing by the term "digital libraries," one common thread is that they include or are built around collections of digital objects. Digital libraries also provide services to large communities, one of which is almost always search. Digital library collections, however, have several characteristic features that make search difficult. They are typically very large. They typically involve many different kinds of objects, including but not limited to books, e-published documents, images, and hypertexts, and often including items as esoteric as subtitled videos, simulations, and entire scientific databases. Even within a category, these objects may have widely different formats and internal structure. Furthermore, they are typically in complex relationships with each other and with such non-library objects as persons, institutions, and events.
Relationships are a common feature of traditional libraries in the form of "See/See also" pointers, hierarchical relationships among categories, and relations between bibliographic and non-bibliographic objects such as having an author or being on a subject. Binary relations (typically in the form of directed links) are a common representational tool in computer science for structures from trees and graphs to semantic networks. And in recent years the World-Wide Web has made the construct of linked information objects commonplace for millions. Despite this, relationships have rarely been given "first-class" treatment in digital library collections or software.
MARIAN is a digital library system designed and built to store, search over, and retrieve large numbers of diverse objects in a network of relationships. It is designed to run efficiently over large collections of digital library objects. It addresses the problem of object diversity through a system of classes unified by common abilities including searching and presentation. Divergent internal structure is exposed and interpreted using a simple and powerful graphical representation, and varied format through a unified system of presentation. Most importantly, MARIAN collections are designed to specifically include relations in the form of an extensible collection of different sorts of links.
This thesis presents MARIAN and argues that it is both effective and efficient. MARIAN is effective in that it provides new and useful functionality to digital library end-users, and in that it makes constructing, modifying, and combining collections easy for library builders and maintainers. MARIAN is efficient since it works from an abstract presentation of search over networked collections to define on the one hand common operations required to implement a broad class of search engines, and on the other performance standards for those operations. Although some operations involve a high minimum cost under the most general assumptions, lower costs can be achieved when additional constraints are present. In particular, it is argued that the statistics of digital library collections can be exploited to obtain significant savings. MARIAN is designed to do exactly that, and in evidence from early versions appears to succeed.
In conclusion, MARIAN presents a powerful and flexible platform for retrieval on large, diverse collections of networked information, significantly extending the representation and search capabilities of digital libraries.


Introduction Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a potentially life-threatening condition characterised by elevated pulmonary artery pressure. Early stage PH patients are often asymptomatic. Disease progression is associated with impairment of right ventricular function and progressive dyspnoea. Current guidelines recommend exercise training (grade IIa, level B). However, many questions remain regarding the mechanisms of improvement, intensity of supervision and optimal frequency, duration and intensity of exercise. This study will assess the effect of an outpatient rehabilitation programme on haemodynamics and cardiac right ventricular function in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a subgroup of PH. Methods and analysis This randomised controlled trial involves both a major urban tertiary and smaller regional hospital in New South Wales, Australia. The intervention will compare an outpatient rehabilitation programme with a control group (home exercise programme). Participants will be stable on oral PAH-specific therapy. The primary outcome measure will be right ventricular ejection fraction measured by cardiac MRI. Secondary outcomes will include haemodynamics measured by right heart catheterisation, endurance, functional capacity, health-related quality of life questionnaires and biomarkers of cardiac function and inflammation. Ethics approval and dissemination Ethical approval has been granted by St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (HREC/14/SVH/341). Results of this study will be disseminated through presentation at scientific conferences and in scientific journals. Trial registration number ACTRN12615001041549; pre-results.


Posyandu (Integrated Service Post) is a center of community activities where the community can simultaneously obtain family planning and health services including nutrition, immunization, Maternal and Child Health (MCH), and diarrhea prevention. Posyandu services are greatly supported by the role of cadres. Therefore, the role of cadres is needed to accelerate the reduction in maternal and infant mortality rates. The purpose of conducting this research is to find the role of posyandu cadres in health posyandu services. This study was qualitative research. Research respondents are informants were divided into two, namely the main informant consisting of 6 informants (as posyandu cadres) and 1 supporting informant (as health worker). Data collection techniques used by Focus Group Discussion. Posyandu cadres have implemented the principle of 5 tables when posyandu activities are taking place. In addition, the cadres also routinely attend training on the roles and duties of cadres in carrying out posyandu, so the cadres are able to provide basic health services, in order to accelerate the reduction in maternal and infant mortality rates. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the implementation of the 6 aspects of the role of posyandu cadres has been well implemented in the Posyandu of Jembayan Village.


Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) disorder causes severe pain in the skin when patients are overexposed to light, particularly blue light. These patients can only stay exposed to sunlight for a short amount of time, and since there are few ways to protect against visible light, their life quality is considerably reduced. Estimation of accumulated dose is traditionally done by comparing exposed time to an individual maximum time; only found by accident after overexposure. No dosimeter is currently in use, and no correlation between weather quantities, like UV index, have previously been investigated. Phillips makes a wrist wearable device ActiWatch Spectrum Plus for measuring activity and exposure to light using photodiodes in the visual spectrum. The SunSprite company makes SunSprite; a clip-on device meant to improve sleep and mood by measuring time spent in light stronger than 10000 lx. It communicates to an app, where more data is displayed. The SunSense company are currently developing the SunSense RGB; also clip-on device with photodiodes in the visual spectrum, and with dosage calculator in an app that communicates with the devices. In this thesis we classify these three devices, and investigates if they can be used by EPP patients to measure light doses. Further on, we investigate if a dose-rate index for EPP patients have any correlation with UV index, or other radiation quantities that are easily available as forecast. We find that the SunSprite does not provide any way of displaying useful information for EPP patients. ActiWatch Spectrum Plus is proven to be unreliable as an irradiance sensor, due to the sensor being in a hole with no diffuser on top. The prototype from SunSense has a sensor that could be used by EPP patients, and is fairly stable with regards to responsivity. It is found that the device could benefit from a better cosine response; either through raising the sensor closer to the diffuser, or via another diffuser. We also define two EPP light indices that can be helpful for EPP patients, PLi and optimized PLi. The correlation between these two indices and the UV index is found to be poor, but the correlation with the illuminance is good, perhaps making it possible to use one channel lux-meters to monitor EPP light doses. The daily accumulated dose does not correlate with the maximum UV index, but correlation with the average UV index between 13:00 and 15:00 was found, suggesting that some weather forecasts can be used to plan the day.


Transverse modal analysis of timber panels is a proven effective alternative method for approximating a material's elastic constants. Specific testing configurations, such as boundary conditions (BC) and location of sensor and impact, play a critical role in the accuracy of the results obtained from the experimental assessment. This article investigates signal-specific details, such as the signal quality factor, that directly relate to the damping properties and internal friction as well as frequency shifting obtained from six different BCs. A freely supported (FFFF), opposing minor sides (shorter length) simply supported, and major sides (longest length) free (SFSF), as well as the reverse of the SFSF configuration with minor sides free and major lengths simply supported (FSFS) and all sides simply supported (SSSS) setup, are investigated. Variations into the proposed methods used to achieve an FFFF supported system are also considered. A combination of experimental testing in parallel with finite element analysis was conducted to re-create the setup that would be used within a manufacturing facility for nondestructive assessment of full-size cross-laminated timber panels. The differences between all BC configurations for their resonance frequency quality and location indicate that a freely supported system provides higher-resolution results, good comparison of less than 10 percent error with the finite element analysis and experimental results, and advantages in a simple experimental setup for the intended application.


Lysozyme is an interesting molecule for laser ablation of organic materials, because the ablation has been comprehensively studied, it is a medium heavy molecule with a mass of 14305 Da, which can be detected by standard techniques, and because it is used as a bactericidal protein in the food industry. Lysozyme molecules do not absorb energy for wavelengths above 310 nm, but nevertheless there is a strong mass loss by ablation for laser irradiation in the visible regime. The total ablation yield of lysozyme at 355 nm and at 2 J/cm 2 is about 155 µg/pulse, possibly one of the highest ablation yields ever measured. The mass loss is mainly caused by fragmentation of the lysozyme into simple gases, such as H 2 S, H 2 O and CO 2 , which are rapidly pumped away in the vacuum chamber. We have investigated the mass loss by ablation of lysozyme in all regimes to see whether a similar mechanism governs the ablation process for different wavelengths and time duration. Measurements for 6-7-ns laser ablation were carried out at DTU on Risø Campus, while measurements with pulses of 300 fs were carried out at the University of Naples in a similar setup. For all wavelengths except at nanosecond laser pulses at 355 nm, the efficiency of ablation is similar, about 0.02 g/J. Material deposited as films was investigated by MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption) in order to check whether or not intact lysozyme molecules were transferred from target to the substrate. The experiments have confirmed that fragmentation of lysozyme into gases via photothermal processes drives the ablation at most wavelengths.


The waters of North Maluku Province are known as a hotspot for sharks in Indonesia. However, despite the richness and importance of shark population in this area, information about shark fisheries and trade remains limited. The aim of this research was to fill this knowledge gap by identifying the characteristics of shark fisheries and trade in this region. We conducted interviews and field observations during August 2017 in two case study regencies: South Halmahera and Morotai. The result show that targeted shark fishing is practiced in Mano village, Gomumu Island, South Halmahera and Posi-posi and Leo-leo Villages of Rao Island, Morotai Island. Mano village's fishery consists of 48 vessels, with the main fishing grounds in Halmahera and Papua waters. Posi-Posi and Leo-Leo Villages operate a fleet of 12 vessels, within the main fishing ground in northern Morotai waters. We identified two traders of shark products in Morotai Island Regency, and seven traders in South Halmahera Regency. The primary traded commodities are shark fins and meat, predominantly. Fins are transported by boat to traders in Manado, Surabaya, Bau-Bau and Makassar, while meat is sold on to traders in Jakarta. We expect that the results of this research can be used to direct attention and resources towards managing shark fisheries and trade in North Maluku Province in the future.


Ayurvedic formulations [such as solid dosage (vati, churna), semisolid (avaleha, ghritas), liquid (asava, arishta)] have numerous uses in Ayurveda. They effect or help to rectify the three doshas in the body, and restore homeostatic balance that builds up in the body's digestive system and spreads to the tissues. Standardization and analysis of the chemical marker of the Ayurvedic and other poly herbal formulation has always been a concern. For Researchers, Standardization is the need of hour for the present era to set standards for maintaining the quality and efficacy of the herbal products. HPTLC offers major advantages over other conventional chromatographic techniques such as unsurpassed flexibility (esp. stationary and mobile phase), choice of detection wavelength, user friendly, rapid and cost effective/economical. The present study compiles the progress made on the development of optimized and validated HPTLC/HPLC method for the simultaneous estimation of markers in different ayurvedic churnas/ preparations. HPTLC/HPLC profile is quite helpful in setting up of standards. The present study is an attempt to compile the major studies carried out on Ayurvedic preparations like: Churnas, avaleha, asava, arishta, vati, rasa, taila, ghritas and herbal capsules etc. which may be of use to develop/compile the fingerprint profile for evaluating the purity & quality of ayurvedic formulations, thus helpful as a reference in developing pharmacopoeial standards (Table 3).


A range of LaCoxFe1−xO3 perovskites with different Co-doping at the B-site were successfully synthesized via a sol–gel combustion route. Phase pure samples were obtained by calcination at 700 °C for 2 h. The morphology, crystal structure, surface area, band structures, oxygen vacancies and catalytic properties of each analog were characterized in detail. The band structures and oxygen vacancies of the catalysts were changed by adjusting the dopant concentration. The catalytic performance of the LaCoxFe1−xO3 materials was characterized using water as a hydrogen source in the production of CH4 and CH3OH from CO2. Under photothermal conditions, 350 °C with a visible light source equipped with 420 nm cut filter, it was found that x value will influence the total yield and the solar to CH4 and CH3OH energy conversion efficiency significantly. For x = 0.6 compound, the production of CH4 and CH3OH evolution can reach 437.28 and 13.75 μmol g−1 in 6 h, which were 3.2 and 4.0 times that of LaFeO3 under the same condition. The overall solar-to-methane efficiency and solar-to-methanol efficiency for LaCo0.6Fe0.4O3 were 0.603%, 0.019% and for LaFeO3 were 0.191%, 0.005% in the photothermal mode, respectively. The results show that the band gap energy is correlated with the photothermal activity and the LaCo0.6Fe0.4O3 has the position of the CB and VB more suitable for CO2 reduction. The CB and VB value of LaCo0.6Fe0.4O3 were −0.258 and +1.422 V and CO2 (−0.24 V for CB) can be reduced to methane under the conditions.


External fixation of pediatric femoral shaft fractures has the advantages of minimal dissection and early weight bearing. However, it is associated with slow healing and potential for refracture. Some surgeons have proposed that axial dynamization may improve the speed and strength of callus formation. to test this hypothesis, we performed a randomized controlled trial using 53 femur fractures in 52 patients between 1995 and 1999. Patients were randomized to receive dynamic or static fixation. Average time until early callus formation was 23.2 days for dynamic fixation and 24.9 days for static fixation (P = 0.627). Average time until complete radiographic healing was 70.1 days for dynamic fixation and 63.1 days for static fixation (P = 0.370). Similarly, the differences in time to fixator removal and to full weight bearing did not reach statistical significance. The conclusion was that axial dynamization of external fixation for pediatric femur fractures has no significant effect on time to healing or frequency of complications.


This paper presents novel kernel-based stochastic learning algorithms for controlling the kinetics of single-ion channels in a patch clamp experiment. The algorithms yield efficient estimates of the equilibrium (Nernst) potential of an ion channel. The equilibrium potential of an ion channel is the applied external potential difference required to maintain electrochemical equilibrium across the ion channel. The algorithm adaptively controls the exploration of the learning algorithm to achieve an optimal balance between exploration and exploitation. An important feature of the resulting algorithm is that it is guaranteed to minimize the experimental effort. We illustrate the efficiency of the algorithms for the experimentally determined current voltage curve of a bi-ionic single potassium ion channel.


: The examination of 250 children with neurosensory hypoacusis (NSH) demonstrated a 78% efficacy of endaural phonophoresis with dalargin (DPP) and transcranial electrostimulation (TCE) for improvement of acoustic function in the presence of positive ultrasound prognosis. Rheoencephalography and biochemical tests show that neuropeptides improve cerebral hemodynamics and normalize metabolism. Both DPP and TCE promote normalization of protein spectrum of the serum. In addition, TCE normalizes serum magnesium levels and its renal elimination, while DPP normalizes serum content of cholesterol.


This short communication synthesizes the available catch information for British Columbia marine fisheries from 1873 to present and presents an electronic database consistent with the Atlas of Fisheries Impacts in preparation by the Sea Around Project at the University of British Columbia.  Included in the estimates are targeted landings (both reported and unreported), bycatch, discards, and illegal catch for industrial, recreational and subsistence fisheries.  Governmental and non-governmental data sources are utilized, as well as previous catch reconstructions and estimates of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fisheries.  Catch estimates are compared to data in FAO Fishery and Aquaculture statistics.  Unreported catch rates increased slowly and consistently throughout the early history of BC's fisheries, peaking in 1963 at about 700,000 tonnes per year.  The rate dropped in the 1970s and 1980s to about half that amount, then rose again to a second similar peak in the late 1990s.  The rate subsequently declined to about 200,000 tonnes per year.  Contemporary FAO catch statistics document about 80% of total landings.


Middleware facilitates the development of distributed systems by accommodating heterogeneity, hiding distribution details and providing a set of common and domain specific services. It plays a central and essential role for developing distributed systems. However, middleware is considered a mean rather than core elements of development process in the existing distributed systems software process. This paper explains the concept of middleware by categorizes middleware and analysis the problems of current middleware architectures. It also extracts three essential non-functional requirements of middleware and proposes a middleware-based distributed systems software process. The proposed software process consists in five phases: requirements analysis, design, validation, development and testing. The characteristics of middleware are considered in the entire software process.


AC algorithm of blind sources has been applied to the identification of engine noise sources. However, the testing platform based on the blind separation theory is difficult to actualize some experiments and obtain data in the real environment, or to obtain these requires high cost. Therefore, this paper proposes a new approach to construct an experimental testing platform-Sinmulink Model so as to identify engine surface noise sources. This model is applied to the test of the experimental data. These experiments demonstrate that Simulink model is efficient to identify engine noise source and the testing data accord with that made by the former platform. It is obvious that Simulink model, to some degree, can be used to replace engine surface noise sources testing platform.


This dissertation addresses the determination of optimal decisions for bridge maintenance and repair both for one facility and for a system of heterogeneous facilities. Deterioration models are used to predict the future condition of facilities, which is required in the optimization. More specifically, deterioration models decrease or capture the uncertainty regarding future condition. This dissertation concentrates on the use of deterioration models that take into account aspects of the history of deterioration and maintenance. The first part of the dissertation presents the optimization of bridge inspection, maintenance, and repair decisions for a system of heterogeneous facilities, using a deterioration model from the literature; this model is non-Markovian, and its formulation makes the optimization problem computationally complex. The determination of exact optimal solutions is unlikely to be achieved in polynomial time, and we derive bounds on the optimal cost. We show in a case study that these bounds are close to the optimal cost, which indicates that the corresponding policies are near optimal. The second part of the dissertation presents the optimization of maintenance and repair decision for a system of heterogeneous bridge decks, using a Markovian deterioration model. The dependence of this model on history is achieved by including aspects of the history of deterioration and maintenance as part of the state space of the model. We present an approach to estimate the transition probabilities of the model, using Monte Carlo simulation. This model is then used to formulate the problem of optimizing maintenance and repair decisions for one bridge deck as a finite-state, finite-horizon Markov decision process. Numerical simulations show that the benefits provided by this augmented-state model, compared to a simpler Markovian model, are substantial. Based on the facility-level results, optimal maintenance and repair decisions are determined for a system of heterogeneous facilities. Recommendations are provided for each facility, and we provide formal proofs of optimality in the continuous case. A numerical study shows that the results obtained in the discrete-case implementation seem to be valid approximations of the continuous-case results. The computational efficiency of the system-level solution makes this approach applicable to systems of realistic sizes.


In this paper, we present the results of a hierarchical SLAM/GPS/INS/WLFP sensor fusion to be used in navigation system devices. Due to low quality of the inertial sensors, even a short-term GPS failure can lower the integrated navigation performance significantly. In addition, in GPS denied environments, most navigation systems need a separate assisting resource, in order to increase the availability and reliability of the device. When the GPS service/information is available, the integrated SLAM system arranges for a landmark-based map using a GPS/INS feature. But in case of inaccessibility of GPS information, the latest formerly produced map plays an important role in decreasing the INS errors. In addition, a Wireless Fingerprinting (WLFP) mechanism helps us limit the errors in the system. The results of the proposed method decreases the average estimation precision on the order of 2.6m, without any performance degradation and in different experiments, which is the maximum sustainable error (below 2.66m) for flyer landing on the base. The mentioned method could be used in computer networks to schedule the services too.


Background: Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Postpartum hemorrhage is one of the common causes of maternal deaths in developing countries. Methods: We analysed the medical records of mothers who developed postpartum hemorrhage following delivery at the Rokupa Government Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone during the period of 1st January 2017 to the 31st December 2018. We reviewed the sociodemographic characteristics and medical features associated with postpartum hemorrhage and the management of PPH. Results: There were 2,236 deliveries during the period under review of which 0.89% (20/2236) resulted into the postpartum hemorrhage. The mean age of PPH patients was 25.4 years (Standard deviation =6.4 years). Misoprostol (n=5, 50%, X2=15.143, df=18, p-value=0.6521) and oxytocin (n=5, 50%, X2=15.143, df=18, p-value =0.6521) administered via intravenously were the most common methods used to manage postpartum hemorrhage caused by uterine atony. Conclusion: Our findings are different from similar studies in which most cases were either referred from homes, clinics, primary or tertiary care hospitals. We are calling for the adoption of the administration of intravenous oxytocin or misoprostol as part of a national algorithm for the management of postpartum hemorrhage in Sierra Leone.


Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia is a histological reactive pattern of surface epithelium in response to various stimuli from the underlying connective tissue which frequently mimics squamous cell carcinoma. So, differentiation of this entity is of utmost important in the view of treatment planning and approach. This review focuses on those lesions which are encountered in the head and neck region and also the recent concepts related to it.


Spain's newspapers are characterised by strong partisan identities. We demonstrate that the two leading newspapers nonetheless show powerful similarities in the topics of their coverage over time. The media system is strongly related to the policy process and it shows similar levels of skew (attention focuses on just a few topics) and friction (attention lurches rapidly from topic to topic) as others have shown for policy processes more generally. Further, media attention is significantly related to parliamentary activities. Oral questions in parliament track closely with media attention over time. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories (over 95,000 stories) in El Pao´s and El Mundo, Spain's largest daily newspapers, and all 7,446 oral questions from 1996 to 2009. The paper shows that explanations of friction and skew in governmental activities should incorporate media dynamics as well. Political leaders are clearly sensitive to media salience.


Cary Boucock, In the Grip of Freedom: Law and Modernity in Max Weber. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000, 230 pp., $60 cloth; $24.95 paper. Max Weber's analysis of modern law is among the least familiar aspects of his sociological oeuvre. This is not surprising. Unlike Weber himself, who was a qualified lawyer accredited to practice in Berlin, most sociologists lack both legal training and, it would appear, legal curiosity. Combine that with the forbidding character of Weber's dense and convoluted propositions, and you have a kind of collective incomprehension that does not apply to, for instance, the writings on the sociology of religion. For a long time, we have needed a book that both clarifies the intricacies of Weber's legal theory and connects them to his wider comparative sociology. Gary Boucock's in the Grip of Freedom does just that--and more, by offering a bracing reconstruction of one of Weber's more disturbing findings. The first two thirds of the book comprise a lucid account of a paradox that Weber discerned at the heart of modern life. Modern, capitalist society enables an unprecedented degree of freedom. The formal-positive legal rationality, that both preceded capitalism and that is now symbiotically bound up with it, helps produce a self that is typically unencumbered by fixed, ascribed role expectations. Under such a regime, individuals are deemed autonomous to the extent that they are socially atomistic, mobile, and purposively oriented by mean-ends calculation. Rational legality is formal in the sense that it is depersonalised and abstract, indifferent to the substantive normative obligations of kin and community, and aimed at maximizing the predictability, calculability and transparency of social arrangements. Correspondingly, rational legality is positive in the sense that it derives legitimacy from the belief that legal norms are derived from "correct enactment and individual consent" (p. 10). Taken together, formal-positive legal rationality enjoins us to obey the rule of law not the rule of man, to comply with paragraphs not sentiments, and to treat judicial idiosyncrasy as a blot on the social landscape. This legal development and its associated model of personhood have enabled modern people to escape the injuries and rigidities of tradition-bound societies. In such ways, we are free to exercise choices that, previously, did not exist. The problem is that the quest to liberate the ostensibly sovereign self from unwelcome encumbrances, to enhance control over our relationships and our environments, entraps us within legal and other rules that create new forms of coercion and dehumanisation. Just as bureaucratization has spread over most forms of modern organizations, so, with it, legal impersonality has become the template of our relationship with others. Modern individuals, caught "in the grip of freedom," are liberated from traditional ascriptions and personal domination. Yet divested of commun al attachments and existential certainties, they are obliged to inhabit a world that is inhospitable, governed by techno-managerial forms of reason, and ever more subject to rules and regulations of baffling and proliferating complexity. The rights-oriented polity, far from loosening the grip of freedom, actually serves to tighten it. In an epoch where sacred norms have been disenchanted and secularised, the quest for rights is a post-traditional means of grounding "objective" validity claims. Yet in seeking to acquire such rights so as to expand or entrench autonomy, individuals give increasing power to the regulatory state apparatus and to the judiciary. The regulatory state is, of course, required to sanction the law; the judiciary has a vital role to play in establishing justice. But a major concern of Weber's is the developmental tendency of modern states to remove issues properly disputed in a political arena, among citizens and their legislative representatives, and to make them instead the province of judicial decision-making. …


This dissertation seeks to address the issue of women, poverty and livelihoods in Ndola and how the Zambia Baptist Association, (the Z.B.A.) could implement development strategies in response to this problem. Through my field research, where I interviewed a number of poor women in Ndola, Church leaders at both local and national level within the Z.B.A, library research and internet search, I have come to realize that the problem of poverty among women needs addressing. I found out during my research that many poor women in Africa live in chronic poverty as a result of economic and social injustices they face in many societies. By virtue of their social status as females, many women are denied access to and control of assets that would enable them realize their development aspirations. I found out that many poor women in Ndola have come up with six key livelihood strategies for survival. These livelihood strategies being; selling food and groceries in shacks, subsistence farming, begging and sending children to beg, charcoal burning, formal employment and brewing illicit beer. Through this research, I was also made aware of the potential that the Z.B.A. has to help alleviate poverty among women in Ndola, despite some area of concern with regard to their patriarchal leadership structures at both local and national Church level and the patriarchal theology that restrict women's activities within the Church. This dissertation offers a number of development proposals based on the sustainable livelihoods framework which is a coherent and clear tool that is used to understand people's livelihoods. I propose in this dissertation that the Z.B.A. needs to respond to women's poverty in Ndola through three approaches, namely; transforming religion and culture, building poor women's asset portfolio and enhancing those strategies that could potentially become sustainable. When this is done, it would help to alleviate poverty among poor women in Ndola.


The generation of correlated vectors for non-Gaussian clutter is considered for log normal, Weibull, and K-probability distributions. Previous results for log normal and Weibull distributions are summarized. Expressions for the probability distributions and moments of K-distributed clutter of any correlation are derived. Procedures for forming samples of each type of clutter are shown to be equivalent to passing white Gaussian noise through a linear filter followed by a nonlinear operation. Curves of correlation coefficients necessary for the simulation of these vectors are presented for each distribution. >


The study was carried out to determine the adaptation potential of sweet potato crops to different regions of Turkey. The study included 9 introduced genotypes of diverse origin and 2 local genotypes that were tested in 4 locations (Diyarbakir and Şanliurfa representing the southeastern Anatolia region, and Adana and Hatay representing the Mediterranean region) in 2000 and 2001. Haulm and storage root growth of the cultivars were monitored at monthly intervals. Total and graded storage root yield, and some quality parameters were determined at the final harvest. Although haulm and storage growth varied according to location and year, all cultivars showed rapid growth from the 90th to 120th day after planting (DAP), at all locations. Storage root formation started between the 30th and 60th DAP at all locations. Total storage root yield, according to cultivar, location, and year, varied from 6.72 to 112.60 t ha-1, and the introduced genotypes produced higher yields than the local genotypes. Cultivars showed significant diversity in quality traits, such as dry matter content, alcohol insoluble solids content, protein content, and total carotenoid content. This study revealed that sweet potato could be adapted to both the Mediterranean and southeastern Anatolia regions of Turkey, and that high yield values could be achieved in these areas.


Critical thinking and logical argument are as crucial to a democratic nation today as they were to the Founding Fathers in 1700s. An analysis of the construction of arguments can be found in any university logic class and appears in various forms in the social sciences based on the work of Stuart Chase. Chase's writing and the publications of the Institute of Propaganda Analysis were an early attempt in the last century to prepare citizens to detect fallacious arguments in public policy issues. (1) While much attention has been paid by educators to critical thinking skills, little attention in social studies education has been given to logical and fallacious arguments that are an essential part of critical thinking. Social studies classrooms offer opportunities for students to gather and evaluate evidence, analyze and critique other people's assertions, and speak or write in support of or in opposition to an opinion. The social studies teacher may act as an instructor, moderator, questioner, and devil's advocate. Students bring to the classroom opinions and information that they glean from the popular culture. Content material for a discussion about current issues is readily accessible to students in the form of newspapers, weekly magazines, and television documentaries and newscasts. Students may feel like experts already, or they may feel overwhelmed by the available information on a topic. Either way, the teacher can help students select sources and then evaluate information through discussions with others who are also seeking accurate information and reliable sources. Barry Beyer offers one of the dearest conceptualizations of critical thinking. Beyer's operations were derived from the literature of science, language arts, and social studies instruction and are presented here in order (roughly) from simple to complex: (2) * distinguishing between verifiable facts and value statements; * distinguishing relevant from irrelevant observations or reasons; * determining the factual accuracy of a statement; * determining the credibility of a source; * identifying ambiguous statements; * identifying unstated assumptions; * detecting bias; * identifying logical fallacies; * recognizing logical inconsistencies in a line of reasoning; * determining the overall strength of an argument or conclusion. Critical thinking operations are perhaps best exemplified in the area of argumentation. (3) When students are engaged in making assertions, supporting and defending those claims through a well-developed line of reasoning, and judging the efficiency of counter arguments during discussions of social issues, they will be making use of the operations identified above. Failure to use these operations during discourse results in fallacious reasoning and flawed construction of ideas and opinions. Common Fallacies While fallacies contained in arguments have always been of concern to philosophers, social studies educators might do more to recognize and analyze the fallacious arguments of their students, making such errors an occasion for discussion. A few of the more-frequently encountered fallacies follow. Ad hominem Attacking a person's character rather that the accuracy of his or her statements constitutes an ad hominem argument (argument to the man). Specifically, one commits this fallacy by either: (a) criticizing some personal aspect of the speaker unrelated to the topic, for example, how they look or where they grew up; or (b) pointing out some special circumstance or relationship that might exist between the speaker and the topic at hand, but which is not relevant to the validity of their statements. Examples: (a) "David's objection to the new standardized tests should be dismissed entirely, since he never knows what he is talking about. …


Abstract This paper enters the dispute over the proper interpretation of the expectation measure of damages in contract law. Should damages be measured by the plaintiff's financial loss or by the cost of acquiring a substitute performance ("cost of cure")? I begin by presenting a moral (as opposed to an economic or a pragmatic) justification for the traditional contract principle that a plaintiff has a right to compensation for the financial loss flowing from breach but no right to performance. I do so by showing that implicit in the principle that the plaintiff has a right to compensation for financial loss alone is a conception of moral agency as a capacity for detachment from things. Through an exploration of Henry James' novel The Ambassadors, I try to show what is valuable in that conception, although I argue that it is, in the end, incomplete. Then I consider the self-authorship conception of moral agency implicit in the moralist's proposal to replace the financial loss remedy with a right to performance or to compensation for the cost of securing a substitute performance. Again, through a reading of James' novel, I try to show what is valuable in this conception although I argue that it too is incomplete. I suggest that the conceptions of moral agency respectively implicit in the financial loss and cost of cure remedies are constituent parts of a complete conception. Once we see this, we arrive at a moral justification for a contract law which treats compensation for financial loss as the normal rule but exceptionally allows for a remedy that aims at securing performance.


This paper uses scoring matching techniques and event study analysis to elucidate the impact of terrorism across different economic sectors. Using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a case study, we differentiate between Israeli companies that belong to the defence, security or anti-terrorism related industries and other companies. The findings show that whereas terrorism has a significant negative impact on non defence-related companies, the overall effect of terrorism on defence and security-related companies is significantly positive. Similarly, using panel data on countries' defence expenditures and imports from Israel, we find that terror fatalities in Israel have a positive effect on Israeli exports of defence products. These results suggest that the expectation of future high levels of terrorism has important implications for resource allocation across industries.


Subtyping, a fundamental notion for software reusability, establishes a classification of data according to a compatibility relationship. This relationship is usually associated with records. However, compatibility can be defined in other situations, involving for example enumerated types or concrete data types. We argue that the basic requirement for supporting compatibility is an interaction protocol between software components using names instead of positions. Based on this principle, an extension of the lambda calculus is proposed, which combines de Bruijn indices with names. In the extended calculus various subtyping situations mentioned above can be modelled; in particular, records are encoded in a straightforward way. Compatibility is formally defined in terms of an operational lattice based on observation of error generation. Unlike many usual orderings, errors are not identified with divergence; as a matter of fact, both are even opposite since they respectively correspond to the bottom and top elements of the lattice. Finally, we briefly explore a second extension of the calculus, providing meet and join operators through a simple operational definition, and opening interesting perspectives for type checking and concurrency.


While exploration and exploitation represent two fundamentally different approaches to organizational learning, recent literature has increasingly indicated the need for firms to achieve a balance between the two. This balanced view is embedded in the concept of ambidextrous organizations. However, there is little direct evidence of the positive effect of ambidexterity on firm performance. This paper seeks to test the ambidexterity hypothesis by examining how exploration and exploitation can jointly influence firm performance in the context of firms' approach to technological innovation. Based on a sample of 206 manufacturing firms, we find evidence consistent with the ambidexterity hypothesis by showing that (1) the interaction between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is positively related to sales growth rate, and (2) the relative imbalance between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is negatively related to sales growth rate.


Abstract As a new ferroelastic state, strain glass has attracted a lot of recent attentions and, most importantly, strain glass transitions (SGTs) could underpin many phenomena that have puzzled the physics community for decades, including the quasi-linear superelasticity and Invar and Elinvar anomalies. However, there has been a lack of fundamental understanding at the atomistic level beyond the phenomenological Landau theory. In this paper, we propose a way to obtain quantitatively the continuous strain/stress fields distribution caused by point defects through molecular statics calculations by incorporating a Gaussian probability distribution function. By using the quantitative strain/stress fields distribution to inform phase field simulations, we reproduce quantitatively the experimentally observed critical defect concentrations separating the normal martensitic phase transition from SGTs at different temperatures and critical temperatures for spontaneous strain glass to martensitic transition at different defect concentrations. Based on percolation theory, we demonstrate how the strain network created by point defects with a critical concentration regulates the nucleation and growth of martensitic domains, suppresses autocatalysis by strain frustration, and changes the sharp first-order martensitic transformation into a continuous SGT. A general temperature- and defect-concentration-dependent percolation criterion is formulated for accurate prediction of SGT, which could enable high throughput computations for systematic search of new strain glass systems using simply molecular static calculations.


Objectives: This paper aims to investigate the strategies for entrepreneurship and market innovation by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) in developing economies as an inclusive agenda for opportunity creation.
Theoretical Background: KIBS are specialized services that involve economic activities which are intended to result in the creation, accumulation or dissemination of knowledge. KIBS emergence has turned into a powerful sector with rising importance in many economies since the 1980s. It currently represents over 60% of the Gross National Income (GNI) in most developed countries, though lesser percentage in developing economies but a dynamic factor in manufacturing and human resources industries performance in many countries. This study is based on Schumpeter's entrepreneurship theory of innovation which considers the entrepreneurial innovation as new combinations. Although, Schumpeter referred to opening of new market as a type of innovation and its importance but limited attention and emphasis was given to it in comparison to product and process innovations. A great percentage of innovation in developing countries is attributable to imitation of innovation from developed economies which make market pioneering the main strategy employed for market innovation in most developing economies. This study is necessary to provide empirical findings and literature to support activities going on and as inclusive agenda for opportunity creation in the developing economies
Approach/Methods: A framework is built in which KIBS small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) employed different strategies like radical innovation or new market pioneering. Knowledge for market innovation can be strategically obtained from two discrete knowledge institutional sources. These sources are the formal institutions such as Universities, research institute, Research and Development, collaborations with firms and so on and the informal institutional sources like the suppliers, clients, network of friends, families and others. The quantitative approach was employed for data collection from 510 SMEs in KIBS sector of Lagos, Nigeria at firm level.
Results/Insights: The results suggest that the informal sources seem more strategic in supporting the needs of KIBS SMEs for market innovation. They serve as the major source of acquiring knowledge for opening of new market. Thus, the informal system should be given recognition as a significant part of the institutional system that has impact on innovation in developing economies.
Implications: The findings of this study could assist in formulating policy agendas for promoting market innovation, based on the use of knowledge acquired from the formal and informal sources by KIBS SMEs in developing economies. Moreover, practitioners should explore the valuable insight to identify and exploit the strategies of the formal and informal knowledge institutions for new market innovation inside and outside the developing economies. The scope of the study is specifically designed for KIBS sectors; therefore the results may not be completely viable for all service sectors. Further research may examine if the results can be generalised to other service sectors. This paper contributes to the growing body of literature generally in entrepreneurship (new market innovation perspective) and entrepreneurship in developing economies (institutional perspective), by providing a better understanding on the strategies of the formal and informal institutional sources of knowledge that are related with opening of new markets by KIBS SMEs in developing economies.


Abstract The aim of our study is to investigate the features of the clinical course and the immunological characteristics of anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) in patients with incomplete systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Material and methods 58 patients (aged from 19 to 39 years, mean age 28.57±5.37 years) with incomplete SLE according to the 1997 update of the 1982 American College of Rheumatology Revised Criteria for classification of SLE were included in the study. 53 of them were women and 5 men (sex ratio 10.6:1) and the disease duration was between 1 and 8 years (mean disease duration 3.29±1.27 years). Clinical, immunological and instrumental investigations were performed in all patients. The disease activity (DA) was determined by SLE DA index (SLEDAI) with 24 descriptors. Results APS was found in 12 (6.96%) of the studied patients. The main clinical features of APS in the studied patients with incomplete SLE were: pulmonary infarctions – in 2 (16.67%), peripheral thrombosis (a/v) – in 5 (41.67%), miscarriages/stillbirths – in 10 (83.33%). The mean immunological abnormalities were: positive aCL – in 12 (100%), positive a-β2GP1 – in 2 (16.67%), and positive LAC – in 5 (41.67%). Thrombocytopenia was found in 10 of the patients (17.24%). Conclusion 1. In patients with incomplete SLE there was a variety of systemic abnormalities; 2. According to the criteria of SLE the incomplete SLE may have a high disease activity; 3. Adding the anti-phospholipid antibodies to the diagnostic criteria of SLE is a reason some of the patients with incomplete SLE to be diagnosed as having complete SLE.


AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Surgical resection of rectal cancer is associated with a high pelvic recurrence rate. Preoperative large-fraction radiotherapy (RT) with a short interval after local excision has been associated with a significant improvement in locoregional recurrence rates and overall survival, but with high rates of toxicity. We here present the results of our combined-modality treatment protocol for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

METHODS
Between September 1999 and June 2005, 98 patients were prospectively entered into the protocol. Eligibility criteria included any of the following: cT3-4 disease, clinically positive lymph nodes, or tumor located less than 6 cm from the anal verge. RT was delivered with a three-field technique to a dose of 45 Gy, plus an optional 5.4-9 Gy boost. Chemotherapy, administered concomitantly with RT, consisted of bolus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) 500 mg days 1-5 followed by 5-FU 600 mg/m2 and leucovorin 50 mg on days 16, 23, 30 and 37. Surgery was performed 6-8 weeks after RT completion and was followed by 8 courses of 5-FU 900 mg/m2 and leucovorin 100 mg/m2 every 14 days.

RESULTS
Low anterior resection was performed in 64.5% of the patients and in 38.8% of those with tumors located less than 6 cm from the anal verge. All patients except one had clear pathological margins, 68.8% had negative nodes, and pathological complete response was seen in 13.5%. With a median follow-up of 31.5 months, 3 patients (3.0%) had locoregional recurrence, 19 (19.3%) developed distant metastasis, and 10 patients (10.1%) died. The estimated median disease-free survival was 70.6 months. Grade 3 or 4 gastrointestinal toxicity was seen in 24.5% of the patients and 3.0% had neutropenic fever. One fatal toxicity occurred during treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that our combined-modality treatment protocol is well tolerated and achieves high locoregional control in this unselected population. The overall survival results are also encouraging. Further studies are required to confirm the toxicity profile and survival results of this regimen.


The effect of an inclined homogeneous magnetic field on thermal convection between rigid plates heated from below under the influence of gravity is numerically simulated in a computational domain with periodic horizontal extent. The numerical technique is based on solenoidal (divergence‐free) basis functions satisfying the boundary conditions for both the velocity and the induced magnetic field. Thus, the divergence‐free conditions for both velocity and magnetic field are satisfied exactly. The expansion bases for the thermal field are also constructed to satisfy the boundary conditions. The governing partial differential equations are reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations under Galerkin projection and subsequently integrated in time numerically. The projection is performed by using a dual solenoidal bases set such that the pressure term is eliminated in the process. The quasi‐steady relationship between the velocity and the induced magnetic field corresponding to the liquid metals or melts is used to generate the solenoidal bases for the magnetic field from those for the velocity field. The technique is validated in the linear case for both oblique and vertical case by reproducing the marginal stability curves for varying Chandrasekhar number. Some numerical simulations are performed for either case in the nonlinear regime for Prandtl numbers Pr = 0.05 and Pr = 0.1. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Purpose: Patient nonadherence to oral antineoplastic therapy is a well-recognized barrier to effective treatment. In order to identify patients who may need additional support to become adherent, it is important to have a useful tool that takes into account all the parameters of adherence to prescription. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate adherence of oral antineoplastic agents and to investigate two calculation methods of adherence score. Patients and Methods: Twenty-nine cancer patients were enrolled in this study. Fourteen were treated by capecitabine and 15 patients by aromatase inhibitors. Adherence was measured using a medication event monitoring system and adherence score was calculated by a usual method and a composite adherence score that takes into account missed doses and also intake interval errors (between 2 doses and between meals). Results: Across the 6-month evaluation period, average adherence was 95% with the standard calculation (capecitabine group: 89%; aromatase inhibitor group: 99%) versus 83% with the composite index (capecitabine group: 62%; aromatase inhibitor group: 99%) (p = 0.030). The composite calculation permits to highlight more nonadherent patients (29.6 vs. 7.4%), particularly in the capecitabine group (73 vs. 18%, p = 0.001). We report 2 cases identified as nonadherent with composite adherence rate. Conclusion: The composite adherence score permits to better evaluate adherence to prescription and to identify barriers to adherence and persistence.


Vacuum annealing was carried out for the SMAT treated CP-Ti sample at different temperatures. The structure and the properties of the SMAT sample before and after the annealing were analyzed by means of the optical microscope, hardness and polarization curve testing. The results show that, when the annealing temperature of surface nanocrystallized CP-Ti treated CP-Ti (SMAT) was below 350°C, the microstructure and hardness of nanostructured surface was stability, and its corrosion resistance was improved compared to non-annealing one. In particular, the corrosion resistance at 150°C was better than that of the original CP-Ti.


A reversed phase HPLC method has been investigated in order to resolve three main pentacyclic triterpene acids (oleanolic-, betulinic- and ursolic acid) found in a lot of plants. Some of them (oleanolic and ursolic acids) are position isomers and their resolution is highly improved by the addition of derivatized cyclodextrins in mobile phase. The formation of 1:1 inclusion complexes was assumed. Apparent formation constants of triterpene acids with DM-beta-CD and HP-gamma-CD were determined by HPLC method. Experimental results confirmed the complexation model and explained the modification of elution order according to the type of cyclodextrin added to the mobile phase. The influence of mobile phase organic modifier on apparent formation constants was also investigated. Results proved the competition between cyclodextrins hydrophobic cavity and organic solvent towards triterpene acids affinity.


Chitosan, a modification of shrimp-shell waste, has been utilized as microcapsule. However, it's fragile gel property needs to be strengthened by adding glutaraldehyde (glu) and natural hydrocolloid guar gum (gg). This research's purposes were to determine rheological properties of chitosan-guar gum gel, to study diffusion and dissolution behaviour of ketoprofen and infar through optimum chitosan-guar gum gel membrane and microcapsule, respectively, and to test the coating stability of both medicines by the gel microcapsules, which are new drug's preparation, to determine their shelf lives and to predict the degradation mechanisms. This research was designed in six (6) steps: (1) chitin isolation and chitosan synthesis; (2) synthesis and optimization of chitosan-guar gum gel membrane; (3) in vitro study of ketoprofen and infar diffusion behaviour through the optimum membrane; (4) synthesis and optimization of chitosan-guar gum gel microcapsule to coat ketoprofen and infar; (5) in vitro study of ketoprofen and infar dissolution behaviour from the optimum microcapsule; and (6) physical and chemical microcapsule stability test using relative humidity (RH) and temperature controlled climatic chamber method. Studies on ketoprofen diffusion through chitosan-guar gum membrane showed that the formation of membrane small pores were appeared to be caused by membrane swelling, which was supported by the forcing force resulted from the difference of ketoprofen concentrations in the diffusion cells and from the temperature increase. This unique pore opening process is excellent for drug delivery process as a microcapsule. Spray drying process had successfully coated ketoprofen and infar in chitosan-guar gum microcapsule. Optimization by using Minitab Release 14 software showed that among the microcapsule compositions studied, [gg] and [glu] of 0.35% (w/v) and 3.75% (v/v), respectively were optimum to coat ketoprofen, whereas [gg] and [glu] of 0.05% (w/v) and 4.00% (v/v), respectively were optimum to coat infar, at constant chitosan concentration (1.75% [w/v]). In vitro dissolution profile showed that chitosan-guar gum gel microcapsule was more resistant in intestinal pH condition (rather basic) compared with that in gastric pH (very acidic). From stability test, formulation of ketoprofen preparation composed of 1.75% (w/v) chitosan, 0.35% (w/v) gg, and 3.50% (v/v) glu, was relatively the best, ·with ketoprofen percentage left in microcapsule after 3 months, degradation rate constant, and shelf life of of 80.33%, 0.0351 % week -1 and 18.92 months, respectively. The degradation of ketoprofen was seem to follow autocatalytic reaction mechanism controlled by the formation and growth of reaction core. In the other hand, the formulation with composition of 1.75% (w/v) chitosan, 0.19% (w/v) gg, and 5.00% (v/v) glu, was relatively the best microcapsule, with infar percentage left in microcapsule after 3 months, degradation rate constant, and shelf life of 77.67%, 0.0008 %-2 week -1 , and 4.28 week or about 30 days, respectively. The degradation of infar was presumably caused by hydrolysis. Keywords: Chitosan-guar gum, diffusion, dissolution, stability


We used photoemission spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation to investigate the electronic structure of eight different thallium cuprates: pure Tl2.2Ba2CuO(y), Ce-doped Tl2.2Ba(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(y) (x = 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) and Tl2Ba2CeCu3O(y), and Zr-doped Tl2Ba(2-x)Zr(x)CuO(y) (x = 0.005, 0.05). The material are high-temperature superconductors, except one of the Tl2.2Ba2CuO(y) samples. The study included an investigation of the valence-electron density of states, and a detailed analysis of the Fermi edge at room temperature. No departures from the Fermi-liquid picture were observed.


To address the severe problem of information fragmentation in the construction industry, significant effort has gone into developing information interoperability techniques based on shared project data models. As a result, a wide range of software applications are able to exchange project information, resulting in significant efficiency and coordination improvements. Here, we extend this trend further, exploring the role of an information integrator system that allows users to work directly with the combined set of project information. An information integrator would work in conjunction with traditional applications, allowing users to create user-defined, multi-dimensional data views from the combined project data model, tailored to suit the needs of specific work tasks. In this way, users can maximize the benefit of the combined data model and enhance their ability to deal with the data interdependencies. This paper presents a technical framework for an information integrator for construction project management. It describes the requirements and technical solutions to achieve the necessary integration and flexibility at three layers of system architecture: the data layer, the application logic layer, and the presentation layer. Finally, it describes a prototype information integrator system called the Unified Construction Project Management Arena.


This article was devoted to one of the most common oral diseases chronic recurrent aphthous stomatitis (CRAS). Predicting the next relapse of lesions is very difficult, it is impossible to predict and aggravate the process, that is, the transformation of Mikulich's aft to a more severe degree – scarringrashes Seth's aphthaeus, herpetiform ulceration of Cook. The problem is further complicated by the fact that so far no measures of communal prevention of diseases of the SARR have been developed. From 2016 to 2018, at the Department of Dentistry at the Bukhara Medical Institute. We examined more than 200 patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis — 112 patients (group 1) and 88 patients with chronic recurrent aphthous stomatitis (CRAS) (group 2).


Diabetes has been recognized since ancient times, and its main symptoms were known by the increased thirst, frequent urination, and tiredness. Obesity is one of the major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, especially type 2 diabetes (T2D), leading to increase in healthcare costs and decrease in life expectancy. Free fatty acids (FFA) represent a crucial link between obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance and, as such, reduction in elevated plasma FFA should be an important therapeutic target in obesity and T2D. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 35% of adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008, and 11% were obese. Moreover, T2D prevalence has increased from less than 10% in 1980 to more than 30% nowadays [1].

There are several types of glucose-lowering drugs [2], including insulin sensitizers (biguanides, metformin, and thiazolidinediones), insulin secretagogues (sulfonylureas, meglitinides), and α-glucosidase inhibitors (miglitol, acarbose). Most glucose-lowering drugs, however, may have side effects, such as severe hypoglycemia, idiosyncratic liver cell injury, lactic acidosis, permanent neurological deficit, digestive discomfort, headache, and dizziness [3, 4]. As a result, researchers are interested in finding more efficient medicines, with less side effects. Medicinal plant drug discovery provides important leads against various pharmacological targets including T2D and obesity.

With the dramatically increasing prevalence of obesity and T2D worldwide, there is an urgent need for new strategies to combat the growing epidemic of these metabolic diseases. Diet is an essential factor affecting the development of obesity and T2D and it can either prevent or accelerate metabolic diseases. In searching for preventative and therapeutic strategies, it is therefore advantageous to consider the potential of certain medicinal plants as well as herbal-based foods and their bioactive compounds to prevent/treat the pathogenic processes associated with these diseases. To date, the concept of antidiabetic and antiobesity medicinal plants is highlighted in textbooks and pharmaceutical pamphlets and has been reported in thousands of scientific publications. Yet, most of these publications report the activity of a crude extract without testing its chemical composition or identifying the active compound(s) or even its mechanism of action. We believe that natural novel drugs are now more achievable due to modern techniques for separation, structure elucidation, screening, and bio- and chemoinformatics. But whatever approach is used, the medicinal plant efficacy will be based on in vitro or in vivo bioassays.

This special issue on medicinal plants for the treatment of diabetes and obesity is a bird's eye view on up-to-date knowledge of promising traditional medicines and their active ingredients efficacy and mechanisms of action in treating obesity and T2D. Nine selected papers for publication in the present issue summarize the most recent knowledge and techniques to evaluate the medicinal plants and active compounds for their antidiabetic, antiobesity, and antioxidant activity in vitro and in vivo. Manuscripts in this special issue cover several aspects of recent developments in the fields of (a) medicinal plants, buckwheat honey, and natural compounds preventing metabolic disorders (including T2D) in vivo and in vitro; (b) antioxidant and anti-inflammatory natural products; (c) phenolic compounds that show adipogenesis activity in vitro; (d) herbal pharmacotherapy and phytochemical studies in vitro and in situ; (e) examining the reliability of potential antioxidant substance based on the selected assays; (f) studies involving toxicology and pharmacological mechanisms of action of medicinal plants used in vivo and in vitro.


This paper proposes a discrete-time repetitive optimal control of electrically driven robotic manipulators using an uncertainty estimator. The proposed control method can be used for performing repetitive motion, which covers many industrial applications of robotic manipulators. This kind of control law is in the class of torque-based control in which the joint torques are generated by permanent magnet dc motors in the current mode. The motor current is regulated using a proportional-integral controller. The novelty of this paper is a modification in using the discrete-time linear quadratic control for the robot manipulator, which is a nonlinear uncertain system. For this purpose, a novel discrete linear time-variant model is introduced for the robotic system. Then, a time-delay uncertainty estimator is added to the discrete-time linear quadratic control to compensate the nonlinearity and uncertainty associated with the model. The proposed control approach is verified by stability analysis. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed discrete-time repetitive optimal control over the discrete-time linear quadratic control.


The physiological role of circulating insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) in adult humans is poorly understood. We recently generated an IGF-II transgenic murine model of persistent IGF-II production (plasma IGF-II 30-fold increased above normal) through overexpression of the transgene driven by the major urinary protein promoter (Rinderknecht, E., and Humbel, R. E.(1978) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 13779-13784). To determine whether in vivo insulin action is improved in these transgenic mice, we performed euglycemic insulin (18 milliunits/kg•min) clamp studies in conscious IGF-II transgenic and in age- and weight-matched control mice. Plasma glucose and insulin concentrations were significantly lower in the IGF-II transgenic compared with both control groups. Despite decreased plasma glucose concentration, basal hepatic glucose production (HGP) and glucose clearance were increased. During the insulin clamp studies in IGF-II transgenic mice compared with control mice (a) the rates of glucose infusion and glucose uptake were increased by 65 and 55%, respectively; (b) glycolysis was increased by 12% while glycogen synthesis was 2-fold higher; (c) while the suppression of plasma free fatty acid was similar, the increment in plasma lactate concentration was significantly higher; (d) although HGP was similarly inhibited by insulin, phosphoenolpyruvate gluconeogenesis was enhanced and accounted for a larger portion of HGP (64% versus 40% in control mice). Our data suggest that the persistence of circulating IGF-II in adult mice to levels commonly observed in adult humans (50-70 nM) causes a marked improvement in peripheral (skeletal muscle) insulin action, which is not due to changes in body composition. These results suggest that circulating IGF-II may exert a regulatory role on insulin sensitivity and body composition in humans.


An unusual bacterial disease was observed in pepper plants during research carried out in greenhouses in central-north Sardinia. The characteristics were: the presence of lesions and exudates on stems, soft rot of the pith, and a brownish-black colour in the petioles and leaf-veins. Only two isolates of 21 were pathogens. One was obtained from exudate present on the stem and the other from pith. Experimental infections revealed that the bacterial isolates were particularly aggressive in the stems and fruit of pepper and tomato. Biochemical, physiological and serological tests in conjunction with fatty acid profile analysis confirmed that they were Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora (Jones) Bergey et al. The product of 434 bp polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enabled a preliminary identification of isolates to be made. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of amplification products showed that the isolates DPP 23 ef and DPP 24 m , strain type CFBP 2046 and DPP 281, isolated from pepper fruit, belonged to the RFLP group 12, whereas DPP 29, also isolated from pepper fruit, was included in RFLP group 1. Measures to prevent and control this recently introduced disease are suggested in the conclusion of this paper.


Presented at the First International Forum on the Content Industry: Legal and Policy Framework for the Digital Content Industry collaboratively held by the East China University of Political Science and Law (http://www.ecupl.edu.cn) and the Queensland University of Technology (http://www.qut.edu.au) in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, May 2007. This publication is an output of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (http://www.cci.edu.au) Queensland University of Technology.


In addition to acting as a growth site, sutures in the facial skeleton are important for distributing mechanical forces during mastication. In the present study, the extent of fusion of a facial suture is assessed in two samples of adult bushbabies (Galago moholi and Otolemur garnettii). Microanatomical techniques were used to determine the loci of osseous bridges across the nasomaxillary suture (NMS). Histological sections containing sutures with osseous bridging were rated as "fused." One of the specimens was studied using micro‐computed tomography before paraffin embedding and serial sectioning. At all ages, O. garnettii shows more advanced fusion of the NMS than G. moholi. The youngest O. garnettii shows multiple foci of fusion of the NMS; however, 13% of the posterior most suture is patent. Throughout the NMS of this animal, sutural fusion is isolated to one or two small osseous bridges, typically of woven bone. These bridges are most often on the external (superficial) surface of the suture, but in numerous sections the site of fusion occurs deep to an external notch. In G. moholi, the youngest adults studied showed little or no fusion across the NMS. However, the nasal and maxillary bones were indirectly tethered at some levels by other bones that were fused to both nasal and maxillary bones. These results indicate that microanatomical evidence is required to fully assess the extent of fusion of facial sutures. These findings also support previous observations of differing magnitude of suture fusion between the two species. Anat Rec, 293:651–657, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This PhD thesis comprises an exploratory study in digital mammography physics that portrays two essential components. The first component (1) presents the first national survey of the technical performance of mammography equipment in Malta using the European Protocol [1-3]. This demonstrated considerable differences in the technical performance of the mammography units across the country with a wide range in performance, patient dose and image quality. A common problem was that many clinics had implemented computed radiography (CR) systems to replace existing film-screen (FS) systems without due consideration to optimization. All direct digital (DR) mammography units met current international technical performance standards and the effectiveness of DR mammography in reducing patient dose and maintaining high image quality compared to CR has been confirmed. The second component (2) was to explore the use of a figure-of-merit (FOM) for optimization and characterisation in digital mammography. The use of image quality parameters in digital mammography such as contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) or signal-difference-to-noise ratio (SDNR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) have been traditionally used for the quantitative evaluation of the system performance against international standards or guidelines. The use of FOMs is relatively new and may be considered as a new quality assurance tool in digital mammography permitting the quantitative and simultaneous assessment of image quality and patient dose. The main objective in having a FOM is to have a numerical expression representing the efficiency and efficacy of a given system gauging how good or poor a system is performing. This may be useful in optimization and in predicting a predetermined or expected image quality with a given amount of radiation dose for a given system. The most interesting aspect of the FOMs in this work will be to investigate and explore the possibility for inter-system comparison.


Pipeline systems deteriorate progressively over time. Corrosion accelerates progressively and long term deterioration increases the probability of failure (fatigue cracking). Limiting regular inspecting activities to the "scrapable" part of the pipelines only, results ultimately into a pipeline system with questionable integrity. The confidence level in integrity will drop below acceptance levels. Inspection of presently un-inspectable sections of the pipeline system becomes a must. This paper provides information on ROSEN's progress on the "robotic inspection technology" project. The ROSEN robotic inspection concept is based on a modular toolbox principle. A variety of modules are available to be applied as needed. The tool box principle is proven to be more reliable and efficient for resolving specific inspection tasks then an universal "all purpose" robot. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) analysis has enhanced the choice for an efficiency technology for the robotic solution. The word "robotic" means autonomous control and interaction of the features: Recognition - Strategy - Motion Decision Ability - Memorize and Control. Application of the latest micro-electronics enables interactive application of the different individual systems with established communication systems, e.g. utilizing Bluetooth technology. ROSEN paid particular attention to the robustness of such autonomously operating units to fulfill the demanding reliability requirement. The QFD analysis concentrated both on appropriate strategies for navigation and inspection. The initial goal is to offer a tool box type service that can be configured for any specific inspection requirement and just may be ultimately carry out maintenance tasks.


It is known experimentally that an imperfectly expanded rectangular jet from a thin-lip convergent nozzle emits only a single dominant screech tone. The frequency of the screech tone decreases contin-uously with increase in jet Mach number. However, for a supersonic jet issued from a bevelled nozzle or a convergent-divergent nozzle with straight side walls, the shock cell structure and the screech frequency pattern are fairly complicated and have not been predicted before. In this paper, it is shown that the shock cell structures of these jets can be decomposed into waveguide modes of the jet flow. The screech frequencies are related to the higher-order waveguide modes following the weakest-link screech tone theory. The measured screech frequencies are found to compare well with the predicted screech frequency curves.


AIMS AND BACKGROUND
Glioma is difficult to treat and despite advances, outcomes remain poor and new treatment modalities are required. We studied the inhibitive effects of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) on glioma growth.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
UCB-MSCs were identified in mice by flow cytometric analysis, and neurogenic differentiation by immunohistochemistry. C6 cells were injected subcutaneously into the posterior right flank of each mouse. Dil-labeled UCB-MSCs were administrated by intravenous (IV) or intratumoral (IT) injection. Tumor blood vessel density was detected by counting the number of CD34-positive cells with endothelial morphology. Cyclin D1 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis.

RESULTS
A 26% reduction in overall tumor volume was observed after IV UCB-MSCs treatment, 36% in animals who received IT UCB-MSCs. UCB-MSC administration was associated with reduced neovascularization. We identified a 48% and 27% reduction in the number of cyclin D1-positive cells in mouse glioma tissues treated with UCB-MSCs IV and IT, respectively.

CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that UCB-MSCs potently inhibit glioma growth, reduce neovascularization, and decrease cyclin D1 protein expression in vivo. IV or IT UCB-MSC administration significantly inhibits glioma growth, and may represent a promising new therapy.