SUMMARY: Two strains of bacteria which produced flagella when grown at 36° but not at 44° were examined; one was a strain of Salmonella typhimurium and the other of Proteus vulgaris. These organisms were grown on membranes for electron microscopy, being incubated at 36° so that the parent bacteria of each microcolony possessed a normal quota of fiagella, and then transferred to 44° so that no more flagella were produced. In the microcolonies, after several divisions, it appeared that all these flagella were retained by the original parents, in accordance with the theory that bacteria of this type divide by budding from a growing-point at one pole.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify dimensions and indicators of "Catur Paramitha" that improve the performance of SMEs in Sarbagita area.

Design/methodology/approach
The study used a quantitative and qualitative approach. Glaser and Strauss's (1967) grounded theory, and Strauss and Corbin (1990) were the bases for the qualitative approach. It also employed a quantitative approach to analyze the difference between the SMEs. The setting comprised of three municipalities in Bali and Denpasar; altogether, these areas are known as "Sarbagita." Bali is divided into 8 districts, 1 city, and 57 regions. Due to the large number of SMEs in Bali, there is no institution that has been able to identify the exact number of SMEs in "Sarbagita."

Findings
There is a significant and positive relationship between "Catur Paramitha" and the performance of SMEs in both East Java and Bali. The finding also describes the performance of the SMEs that apply the principles of "Catur Paramitha" and those that do not. "Catur Paramitha" that consists of "metria," "karuna," "upeksa" and "mudita" is a pivotal concept to apply for SME owners/management in order to prevent money from being the only basis for capitalist competition. Local wisdom can control cannibalism, turning it into humanism and friendship-based partnership or cooperation.

Originality/value
The originality of this research is its methodology, and the fact that the local culture becomes the basis for a successful business venture and organizational performance as the key for a successful business venture. Improved organizational performance is the result of more developed internal resources and competitive advantage. Local culture is a very important element to develop a competitive advantage (Barney and Clark, 2007). Local culture is local wisdom. Studies focusing on the local wisdom theory (Clayton and Birren, 1980; Robinson, 1990; Sternberg, 2000) use qualitative methods. Quantitative method is the approach used to explain the relationship between humanistic values and the performance of the SMEs (competitive advantage) based on statistical analysis. Therefore, the originality of this study is a mixed approach between quantitative and qualitative with interpretive-based approaches.


Three-dimensional spatial packaging of interconnected systems with physical interactions (SPI2) design plays a vital role in the functionality, operation, energy usage, and lifecycle of practically all engineered systems, from chips to ships. SPI2 design problems are highly-nonlinear, involving tightly constrained component placement, governed by coupled physical phenomena (thermal, hydraulic, electromagnetic, etc.), and involve energy and material transfer through intricate geometric interconnects. While many aspects of engineering system design have advanced rapidly in the last few decades through breakthroughs in computational support, SPI2 design has largely resisted automation, and in practice requires at least some human-executed design steps. SPI2 system reasoning and design decisions can quickly exceed human cognitive abilities at even moderate complexity levels, thwarting efforts to accelerate design cycles and tackle increasingly complex systems. Existing design methods treat pieces of the SPI2 problem separately without a fundamental systems approach, are sometimes inefficient to evaluate various possible designs and present barriers to effective adoption in practice. This article explores a vision of a holistic SPI2 design approach needed to develop next generation automated design methods capable of rapidly producing viable SPI2 design candidates. We review several technical domains related to holistic SPI2 design, discuss existing knowledge gaps and practical challenges, examine exciting opportunities at the intersection of multiple domains that can enable comprehensive exploration of SPI2 design spaces, and present one viable two-stage SPI2 design automation framework. Holistic SPI2 design opens up a new direction of high industrial and societal relevance for the design research community.


We present an approach combining the AR-based presentation of product attributes in a physical retail store with recommendations for items only available online. The system supports users' decision-making process by offering functions for comparing product features between items, both physical and online, and by providing recommendations based on selecting in-store products. The physical products may thus serve as anchors for forming the user's preferences, also offering a richer and more engaging experience when exploring the products hands-on. Both objective product attributes as well as the visual appearance of a physical product are employed for generating recommendations from the online space. In this way, the advantages of online and in-store shopping can be combined, creating novel multi-channel opportunities for businesses. An empirical evaluation showed that the comparison and recommendation functions were appreciated by users, and hinted some possible benefits of a hybrid physical-online shopping support system. Despite the limitations of the study, there is sufficient evidence to consider this a viable approach worth to be further explored.


An overview of the literature and theories concerning revenge is presented in this study. The aim is to clarify the boundaries between a healthy and pathological way of dealing with revenge to improve diagnostics, with regard to both theory and clinical practice. Revenge is an intrapersonal phenomenon and the extent to which people need revenge has a certain degree of stability. A healthy way of dealing with revenge may restore the psychological balance that has previously been disturbed. However, the desire for revenge can be long-lasting and dysfunctional due to, among other things, early problems in development and specific personality traits. Consequently, a pathological way of dealing with revenge can be part of a disorder and can lead to destructive acts such as homicide and even mass murder. Some clinical examples are presented and points of attention regarding diagnostics and treatment are discussed.


The mathematical model of Two-Phase flow of water and gas in aquifer is established based on the Darcy linear percolation law and law of conservation of mass of fluid mechanics. According to the fully implicit difference method, time and spatial discretization of the model lead to a set of nonlinear equations, which can be transferred into a group of linear equations. The linear equations can be solved using the Jacobi-iteration pretreatment because of its high stability and fast convergence speed of the solution positively. The distribution of the saturation and formation pressure with time in the process of gas injection is analyzed by using the mathematical model. The results show that the gas saturation increases with the gas injection rate, the permeability and reservoir thickness increasing whereas the formation pressure increases slowly under same cumulative gas injection rate. The formation pressure increases at first and then decreases to reach a steady value.


Being Between Binary is the working title of a graphic essay reflecting on the binaries of here/there in relation to sexual and gender politics. This submission experiments with a performative practice – textual and visual distillation - as a means of exploring experiences of binaries and geographies; of othering, inequality and opposition. As with My Brilliant Career? An Investigation? (Carruthers Thomas 2018) a graphic essay exploring how academic careers are shaped by gendered geographies of power, this piece is informed by Massey's concept of power-geometry (1991) in which different social groups, and different individuals, are placed in very distinct ways in relation to flows and interconnections. The graphic essay is part of my emerging practice in graphic social science (Carrigan 2017, Vigurs 2016) as a means to 'transform attitudes, awareness and behaviour around social issues' (Priego, 2016). It reflects an approach to 'comics creation as a 'way of thinking' (Sousanis 2015). As an academic engaged in interdisciplinary research on gender, space and power, I collect and analyse, distil and present data. As an academic graphic artist, I follow a similar process of distillation through marks and text as a means of communicating research and meanings on the page, screen or wall. Being Between Binary is offered as an exhibit during the conference, with opportunities to talk to the author/artist/academic about process and performance


Explains the steps to find an article online (full text) or in print when you are in a database, or have a citation.


This research guide pulls together a variety of resources you may want to use if you are conducting research on American Women's History.


"Eric Williams: The Myth and the Man" seeks to illuminate the political career of one of the Caribbean's most elusive figures, Eric Williams, the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Selwyn Ryan uses a wide array of primary sources, letters, interviews, material from the Public Records Office in the United Kingdom, the State Department Records in the United State of America and the Eric Williams Memorial Collection in Trinidad and Tobago, and demonstrates a strong mastery of secondary sources to provide a sophisticated political analysis of Williams' role in Trinidadian and Caribbean politics. The manuscript focuses on Williams' entry into politics and his tenure as prime minister from 1956 until his death in 1981. Ryan also provides an interesting analysis of Williams' seminal work Capitalism and Slavery and his role as a scholar.The book is a distillation of research and writings that have spanned two decades. The author brings a unique perspective to the work as both a scholar and one who has studied, criticized and been active in Trinidad politics as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, Trinidad and Tobago.


This paper discusses several alternate designs to replace the full height sidewalls of a type 2 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation stilling basin. The alternate designs that were investigated were 1) trapezoidal shape stilling basins, and 2) rectangular basins with partial height sidewalls that allow over-topping of the walls by side flow from the downstream tailwater. The effects of the alternate designs on the hydraulic jump, wave-action, minimum required tailwater, energy dissipation, and erosion are discussed. The source of information for this paper is from two model studies conducted on the Stacy Dam Service Spillway that is currently under construction near San Angelo, Texas.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of friction-reducing devices used for lateral patient transfers. A mannequin used to represent a dependent patient was transferred laterally from bed to stretcher. One male investigator repeated this task using 11 comparable lateral transfer aids or techniques. Applied force was measured using a dynamometer; postural analysis was prepared from still photography. Mean applied force, spinal forces, and population strength capabilities were calculated. The most efficacious mechanism for lateral patient transfers had extendable pull straps, low-friction material, and optimally located handles. Findings of this study will aid occupational health and safety clinicians and hospital-based caregivers in the selection of appropriate technologies to be used during lateral patient transfers. These devices improve patient safety and reduce the risk of back injury to caregivers.


Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), otherwise known as host defence peptides (HDPs), are naturally occurring biomolecules expressed by a large array of species across the phylogenetic kingdoms. They have great potential to combat microbial infections by directly killing or inhibiting bacterial activity and/or by modulating the immune response of the host. Due to their multimodal properties, broad spectrum activity, and minimal resistance generation, these peptides have emerged as a promising response to the rapidly concerning problem of multidrug resistance (MDR). However, their therapeutic efficacy is limited by a number of factors, including rapid degradation, systemic toxicity, and low bioavailability. As such, many strategies have been developed to mitigate these limitations, such as peptide modification and delivery vehicle conjugation/encapsulation. Oftentimes, however, particularly in the case of the latter, this can hinder the activity of the parent AMP. Here, we review current delivery strategies used for AMP formulation, focusing on methodologies utilized for targeted infection site release of AMPs. This specificity unites the improved biocompatibility of the delivery vehicle with the unhindered activity of the free AMP, providing a promising means to effectively translate AMP therapy into clinical practice.


This paper presents the development and ideas behind a comprehensive system prototype of wearable Radiofrequency transceivers, which, by sending small radio packets between devices, are acting as a proxy for dynamically capturing spontaneous human-human and human-object interactions in complex team scenarios. A boundary condition for the design is to minimize intrusion to a level that is comparable to a standard keycard. The system consists of scalable elements that work as low-power stand-alone pieces without any extra infrastructure. The data can be transferred automatically and wirelessly to a computer for post processing. The quantified data is measured by distance and presence of equipment and people to each other. We give examples based on the data we gathered from a pilot study by tracking a team in a laboratory; provide suggestions on how to post process and visualize the data, how to extract useful knowledge therefrom, and how it could be incorporated afterwards in an organization. The overall intention is to combine the data with inputs of managers' knowledge and inputs from dynamic product data management systems in order to capture and analyze how differences in interactions have a measurable effect on product development process.


Compressive sensing is a new paradigm in image acquisition and compression. The CS theory promises recovery of images even if the sampling rate is far below the nyquist rate. This enables better acquisition and easy compression of images, which is more advantageous when the resources at the sender side are scarce. This paper shows the CS based compression and two recovery two methods i.e., l1 optimization and TSW CS recovery. Experimental results show that CS provides better compression, and TSWCS provides better recovery with less relative error recovery than l1 optimization. It is also observed that use of increased measurements leads to reduced error.


This paper examines how phased retirement plans in higher education create value for both the institution and individual faculty, based upon evidence from the Survey of Changes in Faculty Retirement Policies and an in-depth case study of the University of North Carolina system. Faculty benefit by receiving improved opportunities for part-time work and by having the ability to make a smoother transition to retirement. The policy is clearly of great value to the 25 to 35 percent of UNC faculty who opt for phased over full retirement. The biggest payoff to the university is an increase in the odds that low-performing faculty will start the retirement process earlier. Universities also anticipate increased flexibility in managing faculty employment and compensation; phased retirement is most likely to be observed on campuses where a high percentage of faculty has tenure.


Hadoop is an open-source framework used for processing and handling big data in a distributed environment. MapReduce is a programming model using which we can create applications to process massive amount of data laterally, on large clusters of commodity hardware in a reliable manner. One of the major concerns in Hadoop is to minimize the makespan of a collection of MapReduce jobs. The static slot configuration technique in Hadoop may lead to long makespan and low resource utilization. To improve the performance of system dynamic slot configuration and appropriate scheduling policy must be adapted. This paper is a survey on different dynamic slot configuration techniques.


Prediction of individual wave overtopping events is important in assessing danger to life and property, but data are sparse and hydrodynamic understanding is lacking. Laboratory-scale waves of three distinct types were generated at the Coastal Research Facility to model extreme waves overtopping a trapezoidal embankment. These comprised wave groups of compact form, wave groups embedded in a background wave field, and a solitary wave. The inshore wave propagation was measured and the time variation of overtopping rate estimated. The total volume overtopped was measured directly. The experiments provide well-defined data without uncertainty due to the effect of reflection on the incident wave train. The dependence of overtopping on a range of wave shapes is thus determined and the influence of wave–wave interactions on overtopping assessed. It was found that extreme overtopping may arise from focused waves with deep troughs rather than large crests. Furthermore, overtopping waves can be generated from small wave packets without affecting the applicability of results to cases in which there are surrounding waves. Finally, overtopping from a solitary wave is comparable with overtopping from focused wave groups of the same amplitude.


Purpose:

Telemedicine networks are being established in several countries for mass screening of retinal pathologies, like diabetic retinopathy or age-related macular degeneration. Images are acquired by trained technicians, using different fundus cameras models. The quality of the resulting images could be insufficient for interpretation by ophthalmologists or automated systems. With the use of hand- held retinographs, this problem will only worsen.

An efficient method is presented to estimate the quality of eye fundus images using a relatively simple convolutional neural network. One of the objectives of the method is to give feed-back to the user during acquisition, so that an image can be re-acquired if the quality is too low for image interpretation. The method is based on the estimation of the visibility of the fovea and surrounding vessels.

Methods:

6098 images have been extracted from the e-ophtha database, provided by the OPHDIAT telemedecine network. When the fovea and surrounding vessels were considered visible, the center of the fovea was marked on those images. Pre-processing includes image subsamplingof the green channel to 128x128, as our tests have shown that this resolution is good enough for the task.

The method uses a purely convolutional neural network, simple enough in order to speed-up prediction and reduce energy consumption. The network learns to predict a 20 pixel diameter disk centered on the fovea, when visible, or nothing, when not visible. A post-processing step based on mathematical morphology gives the final segmentation result. If a single connected component is predicted by the network, its centroid is considered as the center of the fovea.

Results:

The accuracy of the method is 96.4%, and it correctly identifies ungradable images in 98,7% cases. The precision of the fovea position, when detected, is measured on our database, as well as on the Aria database. The mean test errors are respectively equal to 0.95 and 1.4 pixels, and the maximal errors equal to 4.85 and 6 pixels.

Conclusion:

The presented method paves the way towards the deployment of embedded quality estimation of eye fundus color images and decreases the number of ungradable images.

This work was funded by the French "Fonds Unique Interministeriel" through the Retinoptic project and supported by the Medicen and Systematic competitive clusters.


This paper compares two short-term prediction models of the expected number of faults in broadband telecommunication networks (BB network). These faults occur due to various causes. In order to improve the functionality, various routine or special maintenance (upgrades, replacement of equipment, add new functions, …) are often carried out in the BB networks on various network elements that may cause unintended and unexpected degradation of services. On the other side of the access and customer part of the network are susceptible to errors induced by various causes, which in the same manner increases the number of faults in the system. This degradation in some cases is not recognized immediately from the systemic alarms, but later they appeared in the form of random disturbances reported by the users of these services. This study examines the prediction of faults by using two different models, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and the Kalman filter. The model is made on the basis of one-year monitoring of broadband faults analyzed by the services and the exact time of appearance. Assessment of the accuracy of both models is made by comparing the results obtained by modeling and the actual data.


Complex polyketides are a large group of structurally diverse and pharmaceutically important natural products known for their multiple chiral centers harboring hydroxyl and alkyl substituents. Numerous studies to decipher how stereochemistry is controlled during their biosyntheses have determined that ketoreductases usually set most of their chiral centers. While the reliable engineering of ketoreductases within modular polyketide synthases to set new stereocenters in complex polyketides has yet to be realized, this review summarizes the contributions of biochemical studies, engineering efforts, and structural biology to understanding these stereocenter-molding enzymes.


The purpose of the study was to determine whether students' timbre preferences in the sixth grade remain stable through the tenth grade. The investigation also examined whether gender, band instruction, or musical home environment makes any difference in influencing the stability of students' timbre preferences from grade six through ten. Students' timbre preferences at the beginning of the study were compared to their preferences four years later. The students' timbre preferences were obtained by employing Gordon's Instrument Timbre Preference Test (ITPT). A questionnaire was also utilized at the conclusion of the study to determine which students had musical home environments and which did not. All sixth grade students enrolled in a single school district took the ITPT. Each student's scores were tallied and ranked in order to determine their timbre preferences; four years later they were retested and their scores were ranked again.


Intracranial infections following neurosurgery are most commonly caused by bacteria. Postoperative herpes simplex encephalitis has been described but rarely. A 71-year-old woman was admitted electively for resection of a recurrent benign posterior fossa tumour. The operation went without immediate complications and the patient seemed to be doing well in the initial postoperative phase. At day nine postoperatively, she developed a fever associated with acute confusion and altered behaviour. On examination she was febrile with a GCS of 10/15. There was no focal neurological deficit and general examination was normal. CSF examination showed a glucose of 1 mmol/l (plasma glucose 7) with a CSF protein of 8 g, 330 lymphocytes and no RBCs. No bacteria were seen and cultures were negative, but HSV1 PCR was positive. CT Brain showed ventricular enlargement; MRI showed a small medullary infarct and postoperative change. The patient was treated with acyclovir and an EVD was inserted. Serial CSF examination showed persistently positive HSV1 PCR. 3 weeks later, Foscarnet was added for 2 weeks. The EVD was subsequently removed and the antivirals stopped. The patient's clinical condition remained stable with significant neurological disability. There are only 10 case reports of postoperative HSV1 encephalitis. These reports suggest that this rare postoperative complication is associated with a poor prognosis, with high mortality and morbidity. Neurosurgical interventions involving peripheral nerve root or ganglia have been reported to cause re-activation of cutaneous herpes simplex infection. Factors compromising the immune system may also increase susceptibility to herpes simplex infection.


Abstract Potent knockdown of pathogenic RNA in vivo is an urgent health need unmet by both small-molecule and biologic drugs. 'Smart' supramolecular assembly of catalysts offers precise recognition and potent destruction of targeted RNA, hitherto not found in nature. Peptidyl-oligonucleotide ribonucleases are here chemically engineered to create and attack bulge-loop regions upon hybridization to target RNA. Catalytic peptide was incorporated either via a centrally modified nucleotide (Type 1) or through an abasic sugar residue (Type 2) within the RNA-recognition motif to reveal striking differences in biological performance and strict structural demands of ribonuclease activity. None of the Type 1 conjugates were catalytically active, whereas all Type 2 conjugates cleaved RNA target in a sequence-specific manner, with up to 90% cleavage from 5-nt bulge-loops (BC5-α and BC5L-β anomers) through multiple cuts, including in folds nearby. Molecular dynamics simulations provided structural explanation of accessibility of the RNA cleavage sites to the peptide with adoption of an 'in-line' attack conformation for catalysis. Hybridization assays and enzymatic probing with RNases illuminated how RNA binding specificity and dissociation after cleavage can be balanced to permit turnover of the catalytic reaction. This is an essential requirement for inactivation of multiple copies of disease-associated RNA and therapeutic efficacy.


The manufacture of silicone materials, particularly silicone elastomers, is described. Chemistry, typical formulations, ingredients, and manufacturing procedures and problems are discussed. Sources and testing for contamination and extractables are reviewed.


Kota Tinggi located in the southern state of Malaysia, i.e. Johor Baru, experienced severe floods in December 2006 and January 2007, which was due to prolonged and intense rainfall. Johor River was inadequate to accommodate the water and at the same time the flow unable to escape the swolen river, hence water inundated the town. One of the river characteristics that may contribute in flooding is the meandering shape. Therefore it was proposed to do a hydraulic model that simulated some alternate channels that straightened some parts of the river. The model used one dimensional steady state approach using HEC-RAS software. The simulation result of the existing condition estimated that January 2007 flood event had a return period of 100 years. From the hydraulic model, it can be concluded that the choice of location and the length of the alternate channel had an effect on how much water level reduced.


Abstract The validity of historic or ancient title to territory has been tested in numerous international judicial proceedings, both in the International Court of Justice and in international arbitration. Historic title usually originates in ancient normative systems, including tributary, feudal, sultanate, and Islamic systems that predate the Western international legal system. Nevertheless, the rules against which historic title has been tested in international judicial proceedings generally require that the original titleholder be a state or a central authority that exercised territorial sovereignty over a defined space to the exclusion of other sovereign powers. The rules that apply specifically to these ancient normative systems, where allegiance to authority was personal or religious rather than territorial, have been seen as irrelevant compared to the more contemporary determinations of historic title. The only exceptions have been the French medieval customary norm frankalmoign, which the international arbitral tribunal in the Minquiers and Ecrehos case cited as evidence that the English king exercised territorial sovereignty over the disputed islands, and the personal allegiance of the Orang Laut to the Sultan of Johore, coupled with the recognition accorded to the latter by the great maritime powers, which the International Court of Justice in Malaysia v. Singapore found sufficient to prove the historic title of Malaysia over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh and Middle Rocks. The principles by which historic title were adjudicated in these cases appear to be the same principles by which the Western powers dealt with the claims of the People's Republic of China and Vietnam to the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands, not only during the colonial period but also after the Second World War. This analysis suggests how the International Court of Justice or an international arbitral tribunal might, if given the opportunity, resolve these South China Sea disputes. Readers might also find this analysis to be particularly relevant to other disputes involving historic title, including the East China Sea disputes, although the focus of this article is on the South China Sea disputes. States and other commentators are left to rely on their own preferences and allegiances in reaching their own normative conclusions using the novel analysis provided by this article.


Abstract The relationship between the degree of competitive market pressure and the rate of productivity growth is empirically investigated with a case study of the Florida fresh winter vegetable industry. The results indicate that crops which faced considerable competitive pressure exhibited significant productivity growth while the crops that faced minimal competitive pressure generally exhibited little growth in productivity. Thus, the hypothesis that competitive pressure is positively related to productivity growth is supported.


This paper reports on the explorative use of video recordings in studies of distributed collaboration. The primary goal is for the analyst to acquire a better understanding of the interaction. A concurrent aim is to take the Scandinavian System Development tradition one step further and explore, together with users, what goes on in their minds. For this purpose, a method called Mindtape has been developed, the essence of which is to review a priori selected video sequences in a dialogue with the users. Mindtape enhances the analyst's understanding and helps to clarify or reject interpretations. At the same time, it shows promising possibilities as a tool for mutual learning processes. The users become aware of obstacles, new behaviors and meeting cultures evolving. By allowing users and analysts to get a better understanding of the process of interaction, Mindtape may also be used to inform design.


Much of the software engineering literature examines techniques and practices that help us to build systems that we have been building for many years already. While there is merit in seeking ways to raise the oor of software engineering practice, we also have an obligation to research software design issues that push the envelope of existing computing technology. One of the features of future interactive computing environments is that they will provide context-aware services that leverage o of knowledge of a person's physical state and surrounding environment. With the proliferation of network-based computing services that are a characteristic of an emerging ubiquitous computing society, there is a real issue with providing a software infrastructure that will support context-aware services. In this paper, we examine software engineering work on component integration and introduce a prototype infrastructure that provides a dynamic and scalable context-aware computing environment. We will describe how we have applied this component infrastructure to build a futuristic personal information management system involving automatic cooperation between desktop, network and mobile services.


The sporoderm ultrastructure in Anthoceros agrestis Paton is unique. The wall of mature spores consists of granules varying in size and shape, and does not have any homogenеous or lamellar layers. The electron-lucent sporopollenin, which forms granules of the exosporium, is comparable to that in other spore-bearing plants (mosses, liverworts and Pteridophyta) in its electron density, while it is different in structure. Electron-dense substances in the gaps between the exosporium granules are resistant to acetolysis and are probably sporopolleninous.


Recently, specific binding sites for luteinizing hormone releasing hor mone (LHRH) and its analogues have been demonstrated in biopsy samples of human epithelial ovarian cancer. Their biological significance remained obscure. In this study we ascertained whether such LHRHbinding sites are also present in the human epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines EFO-21 and EFO-27 and if they could mediate antiproliferative effects of LHRH analogues. Using [I25I, D-Trp6]LHRH, a high affinity/low capacity binding site was detected in both lines: EFO-21 (A'd, = 1.5 x 10 '' M; binding capacity (Bmax,) = 4.9 fmol/10" cells) and EFO-27 (Kd, = 1.7 x 10 '' M; |{iii¡i\, = 3 I'inol III''cells). In addition, a second class of low affinity/high capacity binding sites (EFO-21: Kd2 = 7.5 x IO"6M;Bmax2 = 24 pmol/10" cells; EFO-27: Kd2 = 4J x 10-" M; Bmax2 = 14.5 pmol/106 cells) was demonstrated. Specific binding of ['"I, D-Trp"]LHRH was displaced with nearly equal efficiency by unlabeled [D-Trp'lLHRH, the LHRH-antagonists SB-75 and Hoe-013, and by native LHRH but not by unrelated peptides such as oxytocin and somatostatin. In the presence of IO-5 M agonist [D-Trp6]LHRH, the proliferation of both cell lines was significantly reduced to 77% of controls after 24 h and to approx. 60% after 6 days. Lower concentrations 110 '' M) of the agonist, significantly decreased the proliferation to 87.5% for EFO-21 and 86% for EFO-27 after 6 days. These antiproliferative effects were enhanced by increasing doses of [D-Trp*]LHRH and were maximal at IO'5 M(EFO-21: 65.5% of control, EFO-27: 68% of control). Similar dose-dependent antiprolifera tive effects were obtained in EFO-21 line with the LHRH-antagonists SB-75 and Hoe-013, while these analogues had no effects on the prolifera tion of EFO-27 cells. SB-75 partly antagonized the antiproliferative effect of [D-Trp"]LHRH in a dose dependent way in the EFO-27 line. These data suggest that LHRH analogues can directly inhibit the in vitro proliferation of human ovarian cancer cells. This effect might be mediated through the high affinity LHRH binding sites.


Microalgae, also called microphytes, are a vast group of microscopic photosynthetic organisms living in aquatic ecosystems. Microalgae have attracted the attention of biotechnology industry as a platform for extracting natural products with high commercial value. During last decades, microalgae have been also used as cost-effective and easily scalable platform for the production of recombinant proteins with medical and industrial applications. Most progress in this field has been made with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism mainly because of its simple life cycle, well-established genetics and ease of cultivation. However, due to the scarcity of existing infrastructure for commercial production and processing together with relatively low product yields, no recombinant products from C. reinhardtii have gained approval for commercial production and most of them are still in research and development. In this review, we focus on the chloroplast of C. reinhardtii as an algal recombinant expression platform and compare its advantages and disadvantages to other currently used expression systems. We then discuss the strategies for engineering the chloroplast of C. reinhardtii to produce recombinant cells and present a comprehensive overview of works that have used this platform for the expression of high-value products.


Abstract : A complete discussion is presented of the chemically reacting laminar boundary layer. Included in the study are separate homogeneous and hetergeneous reactions; additionally there is considered the problem of simultaneous gas phase and wall reaction. The basic solution, under conditions of unit transport properties, i.e., mass densityviscosity product constant, Prandtl number and Schmidt unity, were derived using previous devised operator techniques. For gas phase reaction the solution for the species distribution is seen to reduce to an integral equation; the temperature arising by quadrature. It is shown that simple first order results for chemistry of the usual complexity occuring in hypersonic boundary layer flows can be obtained without resort to large scale computation. The flow over a catalytic wall are derived from unit solutions to the basic problem. Using the present techniques any distribution of wall catalycity is permissable including discontinuities. Results of this analysis are shown to agree well with previous solutions. In all cases extension to non-unity transport properties are presented. Except in limited studies these extensions are not carried out because analyticity of all solutions was desired. Since no previous solution to the combined problem are available, new first order results were obtained corresponding to the leading edge solution. (Author)


This article talks about the verses muhkama>t and verses mutasyabbiha>t of presfektif language. Where in part according to scholars' language of the Qur'an wake of revelations muh{kama>t and verses mutasyabbiha>t. Others see that the language of the Qur'an consists of verses and passages intrinsic majazi (metaphorically). Discussion of books of commentary so far in understanding the language of the Qur'an are still struggling on two concepts. And if it is seen further that the language of the Qur'an is not only limited to the two concepts. But also pay attention to the human world are invited to speak at the next idea or thought that will be delivered or borrow the term skin al-Ghazali (Langage) and content (ideas presented). Epistemologically verses muhkama>t is the verses are clear meaning, while the verses mutasyabbiha>t is the verses are not clear meaning. So understanding is referring to verses muh {kama> t. While the sentences are true sentences that are interpreted according to its primary meaning, while the verses mutasybbiha>t be interpreted by shifting its primary meaning to another meaning in accordance with the reasoning and syar'i (majazi). Keywords: muh {kama>t, mutasyabbiha>t, intrinsic, majazi.


As the number, complexity and diversity of cyber threats continue to increase in network infrastructures, anomaly detection techniques constitute a crucial alternative towards enhancing network security. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a widely used network anomaly detection statistical methodology. Despite its ability in detecting traffic anomalies, relevant research has highlighted certain drawbacks of this technique. In our work we develop the Iterative PCA (IPCA) method to address those shortcomings. We aim at providing a useful tool that will enable a network administrator to identify network anomalies. The results of our experimentation are encouraging. They indicate that IPCA possesses promising capabilities in efficiently detecting anomalies while mitigating the limitations of the classical PCA approach.


Abstract Molecular imprinting has been recognized as a useful technique to produce synthetic mimics of functional proteins, such as antibodies and enzymes. However, only a few studies have examined peptides as starting materials for synthesizing molecularly imprinted polymers in spite of the expectation that peptides would be suitable materials for realizing water-compatibility and proteinlike functions. In this study, molecular imprinting was performed using a vinyl-end-capped on-beads-peptide as functional monomer to produce an on-beads-peptide hydrogel composite selective for ATP; the on-beadspeptide peptide, of which sequence was designed to possess both an adenine-recognition site and phosphate recognition site, was co-polymerized with NIPAM and BIS in the presence of ATP as a template species. The resultant ATP-imprinted composite showed 14-times higher affinity and an enhanced selectivity towards ATP, suggesting that the peptide conformation, i.e. a mutual orientation of the two binding sites, was pre-organized and immobilized in a manner where the ATP binding is more favored.


Experiments in white mice vaccinated intradermally with live smallpox vaccine demonstrated penetration and long-term persistence of vaccinia virus in the spleen, lymph nodes, lungs and brain. In the same organs interferon was detected. After a certain period of time interferon was found in higher titers and for longer periods than in the blood of the animals which indicates its production directly in these organs.


Surveillance of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) was implemented in 2016 in response to the large outbreak reported in the Americas in 2015 associated with an increased number of infants born with microcephaly. Between June 2015 and January 2017, 21 EU/EEA countries reported 2,133 confirmed cases of ZIKV infection, of whom 106 were pregnant women. Cases infected in the Caribbean constituted 71% of reported cases. Almost all cases (99%) were most probably infected by mosquito bite during travel outside continental Europe, while only 1% were transmitted sexually. Considering that 584 imported cases were reported between May and October 2016 among residents of areas with established presence of Aedes albopictus, the absence of autochthonous vector-borne cases suggests that Ae. albopictus is not an efficient vector for ZIKV infection.


Researchers have investigated the simultaneous prompting (SP) procedure across three decades; however, no meta-analysis has been conducted. In the present systematic review, we conducted both a descriptive and meta-analysis of SP studies from a seminal publication of an SP study through 2017. Our search resulted in 20 studies published in English in internationally disseminated peer-reviewed journals that used single-case methodology and also met criteria for methodological rigor. To analyze effect sizes, we used percentage of non-overlapping points and Tau-U, with both revealing highly consistent results. We concluded that there is a substantial body of evidence to support the SP procedure to teach a variety of skills to individuals with disabilities when consistent parameters of the procedure are employed; however, future research is needed to specifically validate the procedure as effective in regard to specific types of disability (e.g., autism spectrum disorder) and specific types of tasks.


in this case. Transcatheter embolization is considered unnecessary and inappropriate for this repair process especially in the presence of infection. Neovascularization could also explain the often-transient course and the reported association of uterine vascular abnormalities in certain conditions, including term pregnancy, molar pregnancy, post-abortion or curettage. To achieve a good clinical outcome, it is important to recognize the underlying cause of the vascular changes and to manage accordingly at an early stage.


Almost 2,300 people, representing all ages and backgrounds, over 60 nationalities and every county in Ireland, replied to the survey between October and December.

Some of the "Your Dublin, Your Voice' findings include; Dublin is a great place to live and work in, a fun place to be with lots to see and do. Its friendly people, compact size, thriving arts scene and cultural diversity are among its top assets. However, Dubliners want cleaner streets, improved public transport and to feel safer at night. They also want more action on street begging, drink and drug abuse and anti social behaviour. Not surprisingly, finding a job is perceived as difficult in today's economic climate.

This is the first local government-led opinion panel in Ireland. The survey sought the views of people who live, work, study or visit the Dublin Region.

Selected Topline Results:
Remarkably in spite of all the economic turmoil of recent times Dubliners are upbeat about living, working and studying in Dublin.

Almost 90% (over 2,000) of respondents were positive about the fact their job or place of study was in Dublin

A similar percentage would recommend Dublin to family and friends as a great place to visit. The majority felt so strongly about Dublin that over 70% would prefer to live in the capital than anywhere else in Ireland In the opinion of one respondent Dublin's strength was that its "a vibrant international city with a small town feel"

Respondents identified Dublin's key strengths as it's people (31%) in particular their humour, friendliness and warmth, it's culture and arts (17%), It's compact size (15%) and its diverse cosmopolitan feel (13%).

Some 88% of respondents welcomed diversity in the city and felt that this was one of Dublin's key strengths. One respondent commented that "It's the people that count. They have never lost their generous warmth" Another respondent observed that Dublin is a place "where you can see a city, a fishing harbour, and the mountains in one day."

Not surprisingly only 16% of respondents felt that Dublin is an easy place in which to find a job today. Some of the worst things about Dublin highlighted included the perception of significant levels of anti-social behaviour, street begging, drink and drug abuse. These aspects were identified as a negative by 36% of respondents. Many of the panel members feel that drugs use has had a serious impact on the image of the city centre and is something that needs urgent attention from all stakeholders that operate in the city

Other areas of concern were Litter/Cleanliness/Appearance (17%) and Public Transport (11%) were other areas of concern

98% of respondents rated LUAS positively. 95% and 89% of respondents respectively rated dublinbikes and Dublin Port Tunnel positively 85% of respondents are positive about Metro North and 74% approve of taking water from the Shannon for the Dublin Region.


Stellar streams are excellent probes of the underlying gravitational potential in which they evolve. In this work, we fit dynamical models to five streams in the Southern Galactic hemisphere, combining observations from the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S 5), Gaia EDR3, and the Dark Energy Survey, to measure the mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). With an ensemble of streams, we find a mass of the LMC ranging from ∼14–19 × 1010 M ⊙, probed over a range of closest approach times and distances. With the most constraining stream (Orphan–Chenab), we measure an LMC mass of 18.8−4.0+3.5×1010M⊙ , probed at a closest approach time of 310 Myr and a closest approach distance of 25.4 kpc. This mass is compatible with previous measurements, showing that a consistent picture is emerging of the LMC's influence on structures in the Milky Way. Using this sample of streams, we find that the LMC's effect depends on the relative orientation of the stream and LMC at their point of closest approach. To better understand this, we present a simple model based on the impulse approximation and we show that the LMC's effect depends both on the magnitude of the velocity kick imparted to the stream and the direction of this kick.


Poor impregnation of sapwood from Cryptomeria japonica kiln-dried logs is a problem for preservative treatment in Japan. The permeability of copper azole (CuAz) into sapwood was reported to decrease with an increase in the drying temperature of logs, due in part to the presence of bordered pits. However, damaged and aspirated bordered pits appeared abundantly at 100 °C and 120 °C, although the difference in permeability was very little. To investigate this phenomenon, two types of smaller split log pieces, one containing both heartwood and sapwood, and the other containing sapwood without heartwood, were dried at 20 °C to 120 °C to test higher drying conditions. Results were similar to those of the dried logs. However, the impregnation and penetration at 80 °C were the lowest, and those at 100 °C and 120 °C were greater than the dried logs. Additionally, the number of damaged bordered pits on dried, split samples was generally higher than that of dried logs, as observed with scanning electron microscopy.


We developed a technique for studying seasonal and interannual variation in pyrogenic carbon emissions from Africa using a modelling approach that scales burned area estimates from L3JRC, a map recently generated from remote sensing of burn scars instead of active fires. Carbon fluxes were calculated by the novel fire model SPITFIRE embedded within the dynamic vegetation model framework LPJGUESS, using daily climate input. For the time period from 2001 to 2005 an average area of 195.5±24×104 km2 was burned annually, releasing an average of 723±70 Tg C to the atmosphere; these estimates for the biomass burned are within the range of previously published estimates. Despite the fact that the majority of wildfires are ignited by humans, strong relationships between climatic conditions (particularly precipitation), net primary productivity and overall biomass burnt emerged. Our investigation of the relationships between burnt area and carbon emissions and their potential drivers available litter and precipitation revealed uni-modal responses to annual precipitation, with a maximum around 1000 mm for burned area and emissions, or 1200 mm for litter availability. Similar response patterns identified in savannahs worldwide point to precipitation as a chief determinant for short-term variation in fire regime. A considerable variability that cannot be explained by fire-precipitation relationships alone indicates the existence of additional factors that must be taken into account. Correspondence to: V. Lehsten (firstname.lastname@example.com)


This paper investigates the strategic use of cross-promotion for content producers in social media. In particular, we study how a producer chooses other producers to cross-promote so as to maximize the expected benefits of them cross-promoting him/her in return. Theories on homophily effect and social influence suggest that cross-promoted producers are more likely to cross-promote the initiator in return when they are in the similar categories or share more common friends and when the initiator has higher status. However, the cross-promotion from producers of different categories and social groups (i.e., share fewer common friends) tend to benefit the initiator more. The benefits also increase as the status of the initiator increases. We collected a panel of data consisting of 27,356 producers' profile and status information, content categories, and their cross-promotion activities over a period of two months from YouTube. To test our hypotheses, we first employ a cox proportional hazard model to estimate the probability of cross-promotion in return. Then, we use a difference-in-differences method with panel fixed effects to evaluate the effect of cross-promotion in return on the initiator. Our results strongly support our hypotheses and provide valuable insights for both content producers and social media platforms.


The fire retarding performance of The retretardancy effect of (NH4)2HPO4 (DAP) and (NH4)2SO4 (AS) in various concentration levels (5%, 10%, 15% w/w) was tested by measuring the relative particle fire hazard properties of various forest species samples treated with these chemicals. The forest species selected: Cupressus sempervirens (Italian cypress), Olea europaea (Olive tree), Pinus brutia (Calabrian pine), Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine), Pistacia lentiscus (Mastic tree), Quercus coccifera (Holly oak), are very common in the Mediterranean region which is frequently devastated by forest fires. The tests were performed using a new method, based on a specifically designed apparatus for monitoring the forest species temperature, under precisely controlled temperature and static air atmosphere conditions. The relative ignition and smoldering combustion properties determined were: the relative self ignition temperature, the combustion duration, and the heat content of forest samples. The key elements for the effectiveness of fire retardants were the delay of ignition and the reduction of heat and combustion rate. Both retardants were found to be efficient on different flammability properties during the smoldering combustion of the forest species examined.


Spread footings are often supported in the upper zone of the soil profile, which is frequently unsaturated. It is common in geotechnical practice to use in situ testing to assess soil properties throughout the zone of influence for footings. These tests regularly include the Standard Penetration Test (SPT), and sometimes the Cone Penetration Test (CPT), and Pre-bored Pressuremeter Test (PMT). Yet degree of saturation is often not considered in the analysis of the test results. To investigate the importance of partial saturation, SPTs, CPTs, and PMTs were conducted at two test sites over two years covering dry and wet periods. Water content and suction profiles were established for each test date to assess their impact on the in situ tests. Results from this study revealed that changes in moisture content and suction had an important influence on the results of in situ tests and the soil parameters derived from these tests. Specifically, undrained shear strengths estimated from SPT penetration resistance and CPT tip resistance using empirical and semi-empirical equations, respectively, were significantly lower during wet periods compared to dry periods. Consequently, estimated bearing capacities for a shallow foundation varied considerably from dry to wet periods. Similarly, PMT limit pressures were significantly impacted by increases in moisture content. Associated reductions in limit pressures resulted in large reductions in predicted allowable bearing capacity. While PMT modulus did appear to decrease with increasing moisture, its impact on settlement was offset by the decrease in allowable bearing pressure under wet conditions.


HIV-1 infection is associated with substantial damage to the gastrointestinal tract resulting in structural impairment of the epithelial barrier and a disruption of intestinal homeostasis. The accompanying translocation of microbial products and potentially microbes themselves from the lumen into systemic circulation has been linked to immune activation, inflammation, and HIV-1 disease progression. The importance of microbial translocation in the setting of HIV-1 infection has led to a recent focus on understanding how the communities of microbes that make up the intestinal microbiome are altered during HIV-1 infection and how they interact with mucosal immune cells to contribute to inflammation. This review details the dysbiotic intestinal communities associated with HIV-1 infection and their potential link to HIV-1 pathogenesis. We detail studies that begin to address the mechanisms driving microbiota-associated immune activation and inflammation and the various treatment strategies aimed at correcting dysbiosis and improving the overall health of HIV-1-infected individuals. Finally, we discuss how this relatively new field of research can advance to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the contribution of the gut microbiome to HIV-1 pathogenesis.


An energy-efficient smart protocol design is a key challenging problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Some of the few existing energy-efficient routing protocols schemes always forward the packets through the minimum energy based optimal route to the sink to minimize energy consumption. It causes an unbalanced distribution of residual energy between sensor nodes, which leads to network partition. The prime goal of this approach is to forward packets to sink through the energy denser area to protect the nodes with less residual energy, which is maximizing the Sensor Networks Lifetime. The existing technique Energy Balanced Routing Protocol (EBRP) fails to achieve Throughput, End-to-End Delay, in order to improve the Network Performance. So the efficient routing protocol is needed with the capabilities of both the Energy Efficiency and Energy Balancing. To address these issues, we have proposed Delay Aware Energy Balanced Dynamic Routing Protocol (DA-EBDRP). The proposed routing technique achieves in terms of End-to-End Delay, Throughput, Portion of Living Node (PLN) and Network Lifetime. By simulation results the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than the existing methods.


We investigated the biogeographic history of antelope squirrels, genus Ammospermophilus, which are widely distributed across the deserts and other arid lands of western North America. We combined range-wide sampling of all currently recognized species of Ammospermophilus with a multilocus data set to infer phylogenetic relationships. We then estimated divergence times within identified clades of Ammospermophilus using fossil-calibrated and rate-calibrated molecular clocks. Lastly, we explored generalized distributional changes of Ammospermophilus since the last glacial maximum using species distribution models, and assessed responses to Quaternary climate change by generating demographic parameter estimates for the three wide-ranging clades of A. leucurus. From our phylogenetic estimates we inferred strong phylogeographic structure within Ammospermophilus and the presence of three well-supported major clades. Initial patterns of historical divergence were coincident with dynamic alterations in the landscape of western North America, and the formation of regional deserts during the Late Miocene and Pliocene. Species distribution models and demographic parameter estimates revealed patterns of recent population expansion in response to glacial retreat. When combined with evidence from co-distributed taxa, the historical biogeography of Ammospermophilus provides additional insight into the mechanisms that impacted diversification of arid-adapted taxa across the arid lands of western North America. We propose species recognition of populations of the southern Baja California peninsula to best represent our current understanding of evolutionary relationships among genetic units of Ammospermophilus. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109, 949–967.


Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is one of the most difficult to diagnose and manage of the cardiomyopathies. Physical exercise can be a contributing factor and may accelerate the progression of the disease.
 We present the case of a 49-year-old, a former professional football player, with a history of cardiac arrest in 2011 by ventricular tachycardia (VT) (normal coronary arteries). Between 2011 and 2019 the patient didn"t present for reevaluation and resumed endurance sports activity in spite of doctor recommendation. In 2019 he was directed to our clinic for a syncope followed by constrictive anterior chest pain and palpitations, the clinical expression of a VT with LBBB morphology and inferior axis, most likely originated in the RVOT, for which cardioversion was required. Upon admission, the patient was hemodynamically and respiratory stable, at sinus rhythm 60/min with left anterior hemiblock and negative T waves in V1-V2. Biologically, myocardial and hepatic cytolysis enzymes were within normal limits, with mild hypokalemia. Echocardiography showed significant dilatation of RV and RVOT with RV dysfunction (TAPSE 16 mm, FAC 20%, s" 8.6 cm/s). LV was nondilated, with normal systolic function and kinetic, but with trabeculation of the apex. To confirm the diagnosis of ARVD, cardiac MRI was performed and confirmed fat infiltration in the RV free wall with biventricular involvement. Given the high arrhythmic risk (two resuscitated VT episodes, syncope), a two-chamber ICD was implanted, without immediate post-procedural complications.
 In the second postprocedural day, the patient suddenly installed important epigastric pain with thoracic irradiation. The ECG showed sensing and pacing malfunction and radioscopy showed evidence of ventricular probe displacement. The echocardiography confirmed the myocardial perforation. Emergency surgery by median thoracotomy was performed, with successful extraction of the electrode and myocardial suture. Postoperative progression was favorable under treatment with beta-blocker and amiodarone. A subcutaneous ICD will be implanted as soon as available.
 In conclusion, this case is a very particular one. First of all, we've documented two distinct phases in the evolution of the ARVD (electrical phase – 2011 and structural phase - 2019). Moreover, by resuming endurance sports activity and in concordance with the literature data, we can only assume that the progression of the disease was accelerated and the arrhythmic risk was greater. Complications related to probe stability are common in this population, but myocardial perforation is a very rare and dangerous one. The therapeutic management of patients with ARVD has evolved over the years and continues to be an important challenge. To further improve risk stratification and treatment of patients, more information is needed on the natural history, long-term prognosis, and risk assessment.
 Abstract P186 Figure. Echocardiografic and MRI aspect


In this article, the authors investigate whether the fit between consumers' image and the image of an innovation, commonly referred to as image congruence, has an impact on customers' attitudes toward innovative services as well as the intention to use these new services. Moreover, situational influences (i.e., private vs. public, and friends vs. colleagues) are examined. The results of the two experiments show that not only does image congruence have a significant impact on consumer attitudes and the adoption decision, but there is also an interaction between image congruence and the consumption situation. Contrary to the authors' expectations, consumers with low image congruence are influenced more by their surroundings than consumers with high image congruence. It seems that as long as the fit between the consumer's self-image and the service image is high, signals from the consumer's environment are overruled.


This dissertation contributed to the knowledge on the translation of approaches from businesses and services to improve the resource capacity planning on tactical and operational level in (oncologic) hospital care. The following studies were presented:

 * Chapter 2 surveyed the business approaches and tools that Dutch hospitals applied to improve resource capacity planning, and analyzed the results the hospitals claimed to have achieved.
 * Chapter 3 explored the application of the focused factory concept in four multiple case studies, by examining the degree of focus, the organizational context, and the operational performance.
 * Chapter 4 dealt with the feasibility, the process and the success factors of international (comprehensive) benchmarking in specialty hospitals and specialized cancer centres.
 * Chapter 5 examined how a combination of benchmarking and lean management can enable considerable patient growth in a chemotherapy day unit without adding proportionally staff, while sustaining current quality and patient satisfaction levels.
 * Chapter 6 examined the relation between simulation and the implementation of recommendations with a literature review and a survey to the authors included in the literature review.
 * Chapter 7 examined the use of computer simulation to reduce the time between the CT request and the consult in which the CT report is discussed while maintaining an acceptable idle time and overtime of the CT. Effects of the intervention were evaluated using a before-and-after design.
All examined business approaches may contribute to the improvement of resource capacity planning. The recommendations were mainly context specific while applied and developed seem to be generally applicable. Critical factors to implement the approaches successfully were identified.


this paper introduces the design and implementation of JPEG image compression based on the high speed DSP TMS320VC5416 available from Texas Instruments. Especially, the realization and optimization of DCT transform is discussed and the image Lena is compressed with different way. Experiments show that the reconstructed images have PSNR above 34dB . JPEG algorithm is a digital image compression algorithm with high compression ratio, little distortion characteristics, and has been identified as international standards. This standard has been widely used in digital cameras, surveillance systems, mobile phones, video phones, and many other aspects. It is important to research and realize a real-time image compress system Using JPEG. DSP is used in real-time processing and portable applications with special hardware structure. DSP with high processing speed and excellent operation performance is particularly adapted to image processing. This article introduces DSP-based implementation of JPEG[1].


Issue: Automatic enrollment is receiving increased policy attention as a means of achieving universal coverage. Auto-enrollment also could have eliminated insurance gaps that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it could face resistance from some Americans who would newly be expected to pay premiums. The approach also raises difficult design and implementation issues. Goal: Explore how two auto-enrollment strategies, one affecting all legal residents and another affecting a narrower low-income population, might work. Methods: Based on lessons learned from the Affordable Care Act and understanding of subsidized insurance programs, we explore design and implementation issues, such as how to deem enrollment, how to collect premiums, and which exemptions to permit. We also use the Urban Institute's Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) to estimate coverage and cost implications of each approach. Key Findings and Conclusions: Both the comprehensive and limited approach to auto-enrollment would require the development of new administrative systems and enhanced marketplace subsidies to improve coverage affordability. Each approach would operate more simply if accompanied by a public insurance option. We conclude that the administrative and financing challenges related to auto-enrollment can be addressed and that a balance between public costs and sufficient political support could be identified.


The research presented in this thesis describes the application of phenylalanine ammonia lyase from the bacteria Anabaena variabilis (AvPAL), as a biocatalyst for the asymmetric hydroamination of cinnamic acid derivatives. PALs from eukaryotic sources such as the plant Petroselinum crispum (PcPAL) and yeast Rhodotorula glutinis (RgPAL) have been widely used as biocatalysts for the synthesis of non-natural amino acids. For example the PAL catalyzed hydroamination of 2?-chlorocinnamic acid has been implemented by DSM Pharma Chemicals on a tonne scale. However, there are very few examples of prokaryotic PALs and to our knowledge their activity towards unnatural substrates has not been investigated. Herein we explore the activity of AvPAL towards a panel of cinnamic acid analogues. For comparison, the activity of the commonly studied eukaryotic PcPAL and RgPAL towards the same substrate panel was also investigated. Although the difference in substrate conversions between the three PALs was fairly unremarkable, a significant reduction in product e.e was observed following prolonged reaction times with all three PALs towards substrates bearing electron deficient aromatic rings. A time dependence on e.e. has not been previously reported for ammonia lyases and all previously described biotransformations have been reported to proceed with excellent e.e. in favour of the L-enantiomer. The mechanism leading to the formation of D-phenylalanine derivatives was explored through mutagenesis of key active site residues and isotopic labeling studies. The results obtained demonstrate that D-amino acid formation occurs via a previously unobserved competing MIO-independent pathway which proceeds in a non-stereoselective manner. In addition, the observations are consistent with amino acid deamination occurring via a stepwise E1cB elimination mechanism. In order to develop a more general biocatalytic method for asymmetric hydroamination reactions, the activity of PAL towards substrates lacking the carboxylic acid functionality was investigated. The synthesis of a panel of substrates and subsequent screening with AvPAL and RgPAL is described. Unfortunately, the wild-type enzymes demonstrated no activity towards any of the substrates screened. These enzymes were also screened for their promiscuity towards the nucleophilic amine partner and although deamination activity towards N-methyl-L-phenylalanine was observed, no hydroamination activity was detected using primary amines as nucleophiles. In order to broaden the substrate specificity of PAL enzymes, a number of screening methods have been developed. Herein we present both liquid phase and colony based colorimetric screens for the detection of PAL catalyzed hydroamination activity. Furthermore these screens have been used to screen libraries of variants for increased D-selectivity and hydroamination activity towards ?-methylstyrene and cinnamyl alcohol derivatives.


OBJECT
Cortical stimulation mapping has traditionally relied on disruption of object naming to define essential language areas. In this study, the authors reviewed the use of a different language task, verb generation, in mapping language. This task has greater use in brain imaging studies and may be used to test aspects of language different from those of object naming.

METHODS
In 14 patients, cortical stimulation mapping performed using a verb generation task provided a map of language areas in the frontal and temporoparietal cortices. These verb generation maps often overlapped object naming ones and, in many patients, different areas of cortex were found to be involved in the two functions. In three patients, stimulation mapping was performed during the initial performance of the verb generation task and also during learned performance of the task. Parallel to findings of published neuroimaging studies, a larger area of stimulated cortex led to disruption of verb generation in response to stimulation during novel task performance than during learned performance.

CONCLUSIONS
Results of cortical stimulation mapping closely resemble those of functional neuroimaging when both implement the verb generation task. The precise map of the temporoparietal language cortex depends on the task used for mapping.


Cholesterol oxidation by cholesterol oxidase in homogeneous water-organic mixtures without the use of surface-active agents and the effects of reaction medium parameters on this process have been studied. It has been shown that the nature of the organic solvent, buffer salts, pH and the "age" of the cholesterol solutions determine the formation of the "substrate" properties of sterol molecules in the aggregates which is manifested as changes in the kinetic parameters of the oxidation reaction and in the spectrophotometric characteristics of the enzymatic oxidation product, 4-cholesten-3-one. Such changes are the most vividly pronounced during oxidation of "aged" cholesterol solutions prepared 24 hrs before the reaction and are concomitant with significant reductions in the maximal reaction rate, Km values of cholesterol oxidase for cholesterol and the effective molar extinction coefficient for 4-cholesten-3-one. Sonication of "aged" cholesterol solutions partly restores these indices. The observed phenomena seem to be due to the different extent of aggregation of cholesterol molecules in solutions. Other factors influencing the value of the molar extinction coefficient for 4-cholesten-3-one, such as hypochromicity and stray light, are also discussed. The enzyme has a broad pH optimum at pH 7.0. The Michaelis constant for cholesterol does not appreciably change in the pH range studied (6.0-8.0) and constitutes approximately 15 microM for freshly prepared cholesterol solutions containing 10% propanol-1. The catalytic constant measured under the same conditions is about 22 s-1 at 20 degrees C and pH 7.0. The stability of cholesterol solutions is strongly influenced by the pH of the reaction medium, nature of the organic solvent and buffer salts. Weakly alkaline solutions prove to be the most stable ones. Regardless of the nature of the buffer salt its concentration in the range of 0.02-0.2 M does not affect the reaction.


In 2015, the Dubai Government Excellence Programme (DGEP) launched the 'Dubai We Learn' initiative as a platform to assist government entities to develop an organisational learning culture which would support innovation and a citizen-focussed approach to delivering government services. This initiative would act as a springboard for the government entities to learn new skills and acquire new tools and techniques that would serve them well into the future. The Centre for Organisational Excellence Research, New Zealand was DGEP's strategic and technical partner for delivering the initiative. The expertise of the centre and the range of tools developed such as the TRADE Benchmarking Methodology and the Best Practice Resource (www.dgep.bpir.com) would be central to supporting this initiative.

This book presents a summary of the Excellence Makers Program which was one of the Dubai We Learn programs. The Excellence Makers Program runs on a one year cycle offering the chance for project teams to be guided on how to find and implement best practices in areas of strategic priority. For 2015 to 2016, 13 government entities participated with teams addressing a variety of improvement challenges ranging from the organisationally simple to the technically complex. During the project year, the project teams all had opportunities to visit and learn from leading international organisations in locations as diverse as Australia, Bahrain, China, Ireland, Singapore, South Korea, USA, UK and the UAE. They also had opportunities to share their progress with other teams and at international conferences.

The success of the projects and the new abilities of the teams provide a strong basis for future improvement projects in the 13 government entities as well as across the whole of Dubai government. In conclusion, the government entities that participated in the project have shown the commitment and ability to be anchors for the future development of public services in Dubai.


Objective: Identify structural couplings of Retirement Institutions for the Aged (RIA) with the economic system, in order to maintain those institutions that shelter the poor aged in the Brazilian context. Method: Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study. The data collection was carried out through interviews with seven leading people and eight aged people, analysis of communication of 52 non-profit Brazilian RIAs, both public and private. The content analysis was performed based on the Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory. Results: It was verified that in face of the aged scarce resources, a considerable share of the maintenance costs are supported by the institutions themselves, whose search for resources is done by leaders, team, the aged and communities. Conclusions: The excessive involvement of these institutions in the elaboration of programs for searching funds can harm the performance of their essential function which is to care for the poor aged.


In energy constrained wireless sensor networks, energy conservation techniques are to be applied in order to maximize the system lifetime. We tackle the problem of increasing network lifetime through the topology control assignment. In a two-dimensional random sensor deployment, the nodes can estimate the distances to their neighbors and can vary their transmission ranges accordingly. Supporting self-organization of the sensor nodes, each node locally selects its appropriate neighbors according to a neighbor eligibility metric. Here, we introduce the notion of weighted relaying regions defined over the plane of a searching node. This is aimed at dropping out inefficient links in the network in order to reduce the overall energy consumption. Contrary to most topology control protocols that rely on nearest neighbor approaches, we use a distance measure that is radio characteristic and channel condition dependent. This in turn, proves more adequate for energy conservation in dense network deployments. Considering network dynamics that might arise due to node mobility or node failures, our topology control protocol is to be run periodically. Fairness between the nodes can be increased in updating the topology considering the changing energy reserves of the nodes. We verify the performance of the protocol through simulation results on network graph properties and energy consumption.


Due to the soft and hard threshold function exist shortcomings. This will reduce the performance in wavelet de-noising. in order to solve this problem,This article proposes Modulus square approach. the new approach avoids the discontinuity of the hard threshold function and also decreases the fixed bias between the estimated wavelet coefficients and the wavelet coefficients of the soft-threshold method.Simulation results show that SNR and MSE are better than simply using soft and hard threshold,having good de-noising effect in Deformation Monitoring.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of academic performance of accounting students in Ghanaian secondary and tertiary education institutions. Specifically, the study examines whether motivational (expectation and volition) and engagement and commitment (academic interest and learning attitude) factors are related to academic performance.
Design/methodology/approach: Data analysis is based on a sample of 500 accounting students enrolled at secondary and tertiary education institutions in Ghana who responded to a 21-item questionnaire. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis was used to determine the relationships between motivational, engagement and commitment factors and academic performance.
Findings: The OLS regression results indicate that both secondary and tertiary education institutions accounting students' academic performances are affected by motivational (expectation and volition) and engagement and commitment (academic interest and learning attitude) factors. However, when the data is analysed separately by level of study, the results indicate that expectation only affects the academic performance of secondary school students while volition only affects the academic performance of tertiary institutions students. The results in respect of engagement and commitment remain the same.
Research limitation/implication: The results relate to a particular region of Ghana so cannot be generalised to the rest of the country. The implication of the differences in the effect of expectation and volition on academic performance at secondary and tertiary level suggest that accounting educational stakeholders should institute separate measures at each level relating to these factors to strengthen their effect on academic performance.
Originality/value: This study contributes by providing empirical evidence that the influence of motivational factors on academic performance differs by level of study in the context of Ghana and to the best of knowledge no such evidence exists.


Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown adsorption behavior that is not observed in other microporous materials such as zeolites or activated carbons. This study used grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate a particular form of behavior, which corresponds to the presence of unusual type V adsorption isotherms. Study of a series of MOFs in the IRMOF family, containing chemically similar linkers of different length, showed that the presence of type V adsorption depends on a fine balance between the strength of the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interactions, which in turn is a strong function of the length of the linker and therefore the pore size. A transition from type V behavior to the more common type I behavior is observed as the temperature increases. The temperature at which this transition occurs increases, and the transition becomes more diffuse, as the length of the linker increases. This type V behavior leads to an interesting possibility in the design of MOF adsorbents for use in gas separation and gas storage applications.


For pt.XIII see ibid., vol.8, no.4 (July/August 1992). The finer points of acoustic partial discharge (PD) detection systems and their common applications are treated. The PD source, propagation path of the waves, the acoustic sensor, and system noise are described. The design of acoustic PD instrumentation, the location of discharges, and the detection and evaluation of signals are discussed. Applications to outdoor insulation, medium-voltage air-insulated switchgear, capacitors, transformers, and cables are covered.<<ETX>>


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hype topic for nearly a decade now. Broadly growing, millions of devices get direct access to the Internet provides plenty of applications such as smart homes or mobile health management. This trend can also be found in the industry where IoT components hardened for these environments are introduced, called Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices which can be either sensors or actors, as well as mobile equipment such as smartphones, tablets, and smart glasses. Consequently, mobile communication becomes universal in smart factories. IIoT devices provide massive data on temperature, pressure, machine states, etc. But still, most of the SME level industries in the Asian region are new to these technological advancements. They still operate their facilities ith conventional setups without absorbing the new opportunities which are presented by IoT.
In the plastic injection molding industry, process parameters perform a significant role in the quality of the output product. During the manufacturing process, these process parameters have to deal with various factors such as quality and type of materials, requirement tolerance levels of the output product, Environmental conditions like temperature and humidity, etc. Injection molding has been a challenging process for many SME level manufacturers to produce products while meeting the quality requirements at the lowest cost. Most of them are unable to reach the global market in the injection molding industry due to the non-availability of the proper methods to determine the process parameters for injection molding. During production, quality characteristics may differ due to drifting or shifting of processing conditions caused by machine wear, environmental change, or operator fatigue. By determining the optimal process parameter settings productivity and quality will increase while reducing the cost of production.
In this paper, we suggest an Industrial IoT framework that can develop for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) level industries to optimize their production facility. With the presented framework SME level industries can start to inherit IoT devices into their production floor to manage and monitor production parameters in real-time while improving the quality of the production.


The U.S. Department of Defense 1033 program transfers decommissioned military goods to local police departments. This is one of the largest grant-in-kind initiatives in the country's history, accounting for over $5.2 billion in transferred goods and vehicles since 1997. Two features of this program are unique among intergovernmental grants, each working against the tendency to let grants supplant local resources: goods from the 1033 program are less directly fungible than monetary grants, and their acquisition entails little to no oversight by officials outside of law enforcement. While previous research shows that intergovernmental grants crowd out a large or equivalent degree of local spending, we find no evidence of crowd-out in the wake of 1033 acquisitions. The features of this program may therefore be useful when designing grants to increase local spending in a targeted category, but welfare is likely tempered by the absence of local oversight. JEL classification: TBD


DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.16.1.57 The bid rent theory (BRT), originally conceived for a monocentric city suggests a trade-off between land value and transport costs. Thus, in most of the practical applications, the simply distance/time/cost to the CBD is used as a proxy of accessibility. Nonetheless, in contemporary metropolises, employment and services do not cluster in one CBD but in many centers, furthermore the centrality quality does not follow a smooth gradient as distance to centers increases. Consequently, taking the distance/time/cost to centers in the context or hedonic models is problematic for collinearity issues and too simplistic since it directly assumes a smoothed gradient function.  In this paper we test in Barcelona Metropolitan Area, a very well recognized polycentric city, whether some continuous indicators of centrality are key determinants of housing prices. Using listing prices, a hedonic model is built, and the asking price is regressed over two continuous indicators of centrality, one of them calculated departing of the spatial-temporal behavior of people, which itself is a novelty in this kind of studies.  The results suggest that continuous centrality indicators do exert a moderate influence on housing prices after controlling for other structural and locative attributes.  Nevertheless, the main determinants of prices are related to the socioeconomic stratification not accessibility as suggested by BRT. Energy class appears also as a factor influencing dwellings' price.


A method using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and gas chromatography (GC) mass spectrometry (MS) was established to analyze hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a brominated flame retardant, in soil. The HBCD spiked in simulated soil was extracted by SFE with optimized operating parameters and GC-MS/LC-MS was employed to detect the target analyte. The experimental results indicated that the optimum extraction conditions were 50 °C, 25 MPa, and 6 min static and 18 min dynamic extraction with 20% (v/v) modified ethanol–2% Triton X-114. The highest extraction efficiency of HBCD with optimal parameters could reach 98.9%. The differences among Soxhlet extraction, ultrasonic-assisted extraction and SFE were investigated. In comparison with other extraction methods, SFE could not only improve the extraction efficiency and shorten the extraction time but could also easily remove the extracted impurities. Furthermore, the established analytical method was applied to detect HBCD in field soils and the average concentration in real soil samples was 0.96 mg kg−1. This work provides an efficient, rapid and easy way to conduct the extraction and detection of HBCD in soil.


On October 26, 2017, protestors calling themselves the Monument Removal Brigade ("MRB") splashed red paint on the base of a statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History ("AMNH," "Museum," or "Natural History Museum") in New York City as a form of public protest art. This 1939 sculpture by American artist James Earle Fraser (the "Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt" or "Equestrian Statue") portrays the twenty-sixth president of the United States sitting upon a horse, flanked on either side by a standing African man and Native American man intended to represent their respective continents. On its anonymous blog, MRB called for the statue's removal and claimed, "[t]he true damage lies with patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism embodied by the statue." The Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers (the "Commission") conducted a study of controversial monuments on public land in New York City and was unable to agree on an appropriate fate for the AMNH statue; for this reason, it has remained in place for the time being. In July of 2019, the AMNH opened a special exhibition entitled Addressing the Statue.

This AMNH protest occurred within a larger national conversation about the place of public monuments, especially those commemorating leaders of the Confederacy. But the current debate often lacks scholarly rigor, with little consideration of the history, intention, or artistic merit of the monuments in question, or the federal, state, local, and administrative laws governing their removal or modification. This Article draws upon the disciplines of art history, museum studies, and the law to contextualize the AMNH Equestrian Statue and expand upon the Commission's and AMNH's analyses to develop a suggested framework for considering controversial monuments in the future.


On-body electronics and sensors offer the opportunity to seamlessly augment the human with computing power. Accordingly, numerous previous work investigated methods that exploit conductive materials and flexible substrates to fabricate circuits in the form of wearable devices, stretchable patches, and stickers that can be attached to the skin. For all these methods, the fabrication process involves several manual steps, such as designing the circuit in software, constructing conductive patches, and manually placing these physical patches on the body. In contrast, in this work, we propose to fabricate electronics directly on the skin. We present BodyPrinter, a wearable conductive-ink deposition machine, that prints flexible electronics directly on the body using skin-safe conductive ink. The paper describes our system in detail and, through a series of examples and a technical evaluation, we show how direct on-body fabrication of electronic circuits and sensors can further enhance the human body.


Humans differ in their tendency to experience disgust and avoid contact with potential sources of pathogens. Pathogen disgust sensitivity has been used to explain a wide range of social phenomena, such as prejudice, conformity, and trust. Yet, its exact role in the motivational system that regulates avoidance of pathogens, the so-called behavioral immune system, remains unclear. Here, we test how individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity relates to the information processing structure underlying pathogen avoidance. Participants (n = 998) rated the perceived health of individuals with or without facial blemishes and indicated how comfortable they would feel about having physical contact with them. Participants with high disgust sensitivity viewed facial blemishes as more indicative of poor health. Moreover, for participants with high disgust sensitivity, perceived health was a stronger determinant of comfort with physical contact. These findings suggest that increased pathogen disgust sensitivity captures tendencies to more readily interpret stimuli as a pathogen threat and be more strongly guided by estimated infection risk when deciding who should be approached or avoided.


Libraries play an important role in disseminating knowledge. This paper presents an overview of the work of one library group, focused on collection of quality free and open access journals, and illustrates how libraries can be more effective in disseminating knowledge and connecting patrons with needed material by working collaboratively on open access and free collections. Also discussed are the few simple steps that publishers can take to facilitate dissemination of journal content through libraries – following standards such as OpenURL and/or DOI to provide for article-level linking, and providing title lists for download with the key metadata libraries need to include content in library collections, such as title, ISSN, fulltext start date, and journal URL. The CUFTS Free! Open Access Collections Group works collaboratively to connect library patrons with quality open access and free resources, ranging from the international Directory of Open Access Journals to locally developed lists such as Open Access Journals, Open Access Magazines, and Canadian Historic Newspapers. CUFTS is the knowledgebase (journal title lists) of reSearcher, a locally developed open source suite of resources. Through CUFTS, the open access and free journals collections are made available through a link resolving service (GODOT), A to Z journal lists, library catalogues and union databases. A file of MARC records for all of the titles is freely available to download, and downloadable spreadsheets are freely available for local collections as well, from http://www.eln.bc.ca/view.php?id=1129.


In this chapter we are addressing the numerous cases of government failures in countries with transit economies and weak democratic traditions when the state is called upon to provide "pure public goods" (defense, security, and justice). In other words, the subject matter of this chapter involves those institutions which create the very possibility of the existence of real, rather than merely nominal, private property. The modern understanding of genuine private property includes the assumption of the inviolability of the person of the property owner. Without this, the difference between private property and medieval "conditional tenure" becomes negligible. The inviolability of the person of the property owner is assured by the state's supplying three classic "pure public goods": defense (protection of the property owner from aggression from abroad); security, and justice (protection of the property owner against arbitrary action and coercion within the country). The creation and maintenance of a combat ready military, uncorrupted law enforcement government agencies, and an independent court system subject only to the law, are duties of primary importance when reforms are under way. These "pure public goods" are extremely important for long term economic growth. An independent court presumes the independence of judges, their irremovability, and high costs of their dismissal. Court independence is provided and ensured by laws and traditions, and finds its expression in the fact that the state, as represented by high ranking officials and agencies of the government, can lose in court to a private individual in the course of a litigation of some significance to society as a whole. The availability or absence of independent courts is treated as a logical variable. In Russia, the quality of the court system and the law enforcing agencies of the government continues to remain low, despite an entire series of attempts at reform and disparate achievements here and there. In the early 1990s, reformers' attention was principally focused on economic transformations: their objective was achieving financial stability and privatization. The absence of financial stability posed the imminent threat of social explosion and economic collapse. Privatization was already outfitted with ready-to-use options for implementation, which had been tested by other post-socialist countries. An understanding of the importance of reforming the court system and law enforcing and judicial government agencies came in the late 1990s. Significant and lasting achievements in the area of creating an atmosphere favorable to the growth of business and the economy turned out to be impossible without such reforms..


PURPOSE
To investigate whether in small box-type Class II preparations the use of glass ionomer cement, a dentin primer or a different type of conditioner had an effect on the microleakage compared to a more simple total-etch system using a phosphonated bonding agent.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In extracted premolars, 84 box-type Class II composite resin restorations with margins in enamel were made following a standardized protocol. A transparent matrix system was used and the composite resin was applied in two layers. The teeth were restored using a phosphonated total-etch bonding system as a control (Photo Bond). In the experimental groups a glass ionomer lining-cement (Vitrebond), a total-etch adhesive including a primer (Scotchbond Multi-Purpose) and a total-etch adhesive using a self-etching primer (Liner Bond 2) were used. The teeth were thermocycled, immersed in a dye solution and sectioned. The cervical and occlusal dye penetration was assessed.

RESULTS
Preventing microleakage was not more effective in the experimental groups than in the control group (P < 0.05). Scotchbond MP groups using maleic acid showed statistically significant more microleakage than the control group (Photo Bond) at the cervical side. Liner Bond 2 and Scotchbond MP groups using maleic acid showed statistically significant more microleakage than the control group at the occlusal side. The use of a lining cement did not improve the quality of the restoration. From this study it was concluded that in this type of restoration, total-etch systems using a primer are not always an improvement.


Using information-theoretic methods we develop simple results quantifying a lower bound for minimax estimation, a kind of infinite-dimensional Cramer-Rao lower bound, for signal estimation in possibly nonlinear, ill-conditioned, inverse problems. Our results reduce calculation to a geometric computation based on a modulus of continuity and make explicit connections with results in the literature on deterministic ill-conditioned inverse problems. Several applications are discussed.