Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an improved genetic algorithm to solve 0/1 multidimensional knapsack problem (0/1 MKP), by proposing new selection and crossover operators that cooperate to explore the search space.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors first present a new sexual selection strategy that significantly improves the one proposed by (Varnamkhasti and Lee, 2012), while working in phenotype space. Then they propose two variants of the two-stage recombination operator of (Aghezzaf and Naimi, 2009), while they adapt the latter in the context of 0/1 MKP. The authors evaluate the efficiency of both proposed operators on a large set of 0/1 MKP benchmark instances. The obtained results are compared against that of conventional selection and crossover operators, in terms of solution quality and computing time.

Findings
The paper shows that the proposed selection respects the two major factors of any metaheuristic: exploration and exploitation aspects. Furthermore, the first variant of the two-stage recombination operator pushes the search space towards exploitation, while the second variant increases the genetic diversity. The paper then demonstrates that the improved genetic algorithm combining the two proposed operators is a competitive method for solving the 0/1 MKP.

Practical implications
Although only 0/1 MKP standard instances were tested in the empirical experiments in this paper, the improved genetic algorithm can be used as a powerful tool to solve many real-world applications of 0/1 MKP, as the latter models several industrial and investment issues. Moreover, the proposed selection and crossover operators can be incorporated into other bio-inspired algorithms to improve their performance. Furthermore, the two proposed operators can be adapted to solve other binary combinatorial optimization problems.

Originality/value
This research study provides an effective solution for a well-known non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP)-hard combinatorial optimization problem; that is 0/1 MKP, by tackling it with an improved genetic algorithm. The proposed evolutionary mechanism is based on two new genetic operators. The first proposed operator is a new and deeply different variant of the so-called sexual selection that has been rarely addressed in the literature. The second proposed operator is an adaptation of the two-stage recombination operator in the 0/1 MKP context. This adaptation results in two variants of the two-stage recombination operator that aim to improve the quality of encountered solutions, while taking advantage of the sexual selection criteria to prevent the classical issue of genetic algorithm that is premature convergence.


Sixty-day duration studies were conducted under greenhouse conditions to evaluate the influence of three soil textures on reproduction and pathogenicity of three isolates of Rotylenchulus reniformis on Phytogen 375WF, Stoneville 5288B2F, and Stoneville LA887 cotton. Soil with clay content of 25.9% had a significant negative effect on reproduction of the nematode on all three cultivars. Soil texture had a significant main effect on heights of Stoneville 5288B2F and Phytogen 375WF plants. Across the cotton cultivars, there were significant differences in reproduction among the three isolates of reniform nematode. Overall, the Avoyelles isolate reached the highest population density. There was significant soil texture by reniform isolate interaction that affected population density of the nematode only for Phytogen 375WF.


In response to the problem for non-washable and poor taking comfortable characterizations of smart electronic fabrics at present, two different organizational structures of fabric sensors with plain weave and double weave are designed. The basic principle of design of fabric sensor is: the core-spun yarn made of metal wire is used as core wire, the structural unit with capacitor function is built by interweaving warp with weft, and the induction of fabric to external pressure is reflected by testing changes in capacitance of fabric. The models of equivalent electronic circuits of two fabric sensors with plain weave and double weave are analyzed, and the relationships between area and capacitance characteristics of fabric sensor are discussed. The results show that: the larger the fabric area, the greater the capacitance, and the capacitance of 36cm2 fabric is maximum with 100Hz test frequency; under the condition of the same area and test frequency, the capacitance of plain weave fabric is greater than that of double-layer fabric under no pressure, but the increasing rate of capacitance of double-layer fabric is larger than that of plain weave fabric under the same pressure.


After a decade of Internet trading, retailers in the UK have experienced mixed fortunes with their Internet-based ventures. Online shopping success stories include; Tesco's, which has positioned itself as a world leader in online grocery retailing by providing an Internet-based home delivery of over 40,000 products and making the service available to almost 95 per cent of UK residents. Similarly, Sainsbury's offers 71% per cent of UK residents the opportunity to shop online however the company does not have the same international recognition. Waitrose too has expanded its Internet-based shopping services, aided by its acquisitions in OCADO. By contrast, Somerfield, and more recently Iceland have stopped their Internet shopping operations due to poor trading results and economic difficulties, despite the fact that Iceland was the first grocery retailer to offer online shopping to the majority of the UK mainland. The key aims of this paper are to explore how major grocery retailers coming to the one line market; to consider why some are more successful than others and to develop an understanding of the role of strategic thinking in online retailing. More specifically, the paper will initially, investigate the strategic options open to retailers developing activities online and finally, discuss the extent to which e-strategies represent a long-term approach to planning. The paper presents a literature review, which provides the conceptual foundations for investigation of the significance of e-strategy development within retailing. This model is then compared with evidence from secondary data sources and business results from leading UK grocery retailers in order to debate and analyse the likely importance of e-strategies in the success of online grocery retailing in the UK.


sion ? If treated with an up to date drug regimen what success is achieved in blood pressure reduction ? We hope to publish results within the next year, and should the MRC trial show benefits from the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension, we will be able to comment on case finding and general practitioner follow up as a practical alternative to an expensive screening technique. This will have important consequences for general practice, for the National Health Service, and, most importantly, for the patient. J H BARBER


We prove the existence of a Pareto optimal state of a society with non-binary personal preferences. To our knowledge, this is the weakest set of conditions under which the existence of a Pareto optimal state has been proven. In our theory everybody in society engages in maximization as a personal act of volitional choice based on non-binary preferences, as in Sen (1997). The resultant equilibrium belongs to a unanimity-based nonempty social maximal set. Our generalization exposes the fact that such equilibria support discrimination, which is a surprising, though serious, indictment of relying exclusively on the Pareto principle in social evaluation.


Post-traumatic pseudocysts of lung are rarely seen complications of blunt chest traumas. Usually spontaneous resolution is seen in 2- 4 months after trauma, but a few of them are get into abscess or tension cyst formation after Progressive expansion and in these circumstances surgical resection is indicated. Radiologically they are frequently seen as thin-wall cysts consisting air-liquid levels. Unless they had a drainage bronchus in the beginning they are usually seen as pulmonary hematomas due to hemorrhage. 14/e herein report 15, 17, 47 and 49 year old four cases who were hospitalized for blunt chest traumas in our clinic. Three of them were male and one was female. Ali the pseudocysts localized in the right lung, and in two of the case the cysts resolved in a period of 2.5 and 4 months with medical treatment. But in two cases surgical treatment needed for their Progressive expansions.


Manufacturing enterprises need to manage many inventory items. To effectively manage the inventory, a usual practice is to classify the inventory items into several groups and use different management strategies for the items in different groups. ABC classification has been widely used, and has evolved into various multi-criteria classification schemes. Recently, a few multi-criteria ABC classification approaches using variable weights appeared in the literature. This paper analyzes their properties and proposes an improved approach. A numerical example is included to illustrate the appropriateness of the proposed approach.


The predominant filler used in the commercial extrusion of natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites in North America is wood flour. Fibers such as wheat straw (Triticum aestivum L.) represent a promising filler alternative. In this investigation, untreated and fungal-treated wheat straw was employed as filler for extruded high-density polyethylene (HDPE) based composites. Fungal treatment of straw was accomplished with the white-rot fungus Pleurotus oetreatus (Jacq. ex Fr. Kummer) to improve adhesion between straw and HDPE and thus mechanical properties of straw-plastic composites (SPC). The straw used in this research was not sterilized prior to fungal treatment for 6 and 12 weeks to achieve maximum cost-efficiency of large-scale SPC production. Our results indicate that the mechanical properties of SPC produced with untreated straw are comparable to those of a wood-plastic composite based on pine flour. In the temperature range with the most relevance to the extrusion process (100° to 300°C), fungal-degraded straw appeared thermally less stable than untreated straw, but this did not negatively affect composite manufacture. Complete dominance of P. ostreatus on the straw was not achieved under the non-sterile conditions applied in this study. Furthermore, treatment did not have a statistically significant (α-value of 0.05) influence on either modulus of rupture or modulus of elasticity of SPC. Hence, under the conditions applied in this study, degraded straw offered no advantages compared to untreated straw. At the same time, it was demonstrated that untreated wheat straw offers potential as a substitute for wood fillers in the extrusion of thermoplastic composites.


Background: The HIV epidemic has significantly altered the context within which women make decisions about how they will feed their infants. This study examined the antenatal infant feeding choices and actual infant feeding practices of HIV-positive mothers in order to assess adherence to the 2010 WHO national infant feeding guidelines in Nnewi, Nigeria.
Methods: The study was conducted between January 2012 and February 2013 at Nnamdi-Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) in Nnewi-Anambra State, Nigeria. It was a prospective cohort study of HIV positive women attending the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) clinic in NAUTH. Women received HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) from trained HIV positive women working in the hospital and from members of HIV support groups. The women made an informed decision on their infant feeding choice and received antiretroviral (ARV) treatment or prophylaxis (WHO option B) following WHO 2010 guidelines. Each mother-baby pair was followed up until the HIV sero-status of the baby was determined by DNA PCR (6-8weeks after cessation of breastfeeding).
Results: The overall HIV MTCT rate was 19 of 583 (3.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.0 - 5.0). Only 94 (16.1%; 95% CI: 13.2 - 19.4) mothers complied with the WHO 2010 recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and ARV treatment or prophylaxis. Overall, 431 (73.9%) mother-baby pairs received prophylactic ARV intervention; in 88 (15.1%) pairs, the baby or the mother received ARV; while in 64 (11.0%) pairs, neither mother nor baby received ARV. When the mother-baby pair received ARV, MTCT was 0.8%, 1.7% and 5.9% for Exclusive Formular Feeding (EFF), EBF and Mixed Feeding (MF), respectively. When either mother or baby received intervention, MTCT rates increased to 3.3%, 4.8% and 7.7% for EFF, EBF and MF, respectively. The rate of MTCT was further increased to 5.1%, 6.7% and 23.5% when neither mother nor baby received intervention for EFF, EBF and MF respectively.
Conclusion: EFF is still the infant feeding option preferred and practiced by majority of our HIV positive mothers despite the promotion of the safety of EBF with ARV interventions according to WHO 2010 guideline. It will take some time to change existing belief in EFF for us to achieve the required shift to EBF in our practice area. We also demonstrated that ARV treatment/chemoprophylaxis for both mother and baby is an important measure for achieving the reduction of MTCT of HIV in breastfeeding setting mixed feeding practice is associated with an increased rate of MTCT and should be strongly discouraged. Increasing the uptake of ARV treatment/ chemoprophylaxis and ensuring appropriate counseling about infant feeding practices have the potential to markedly decrease the rate of MTCT of HIV in developing countries.


The depletion of global petroleum reserves and growth in awareness regarding the environmental pollution of diesel engines urge the reinforcement for the development of alternative fuels. This research experimentally investigated the effect of diesel-organic germanium (Ge-132, 2-Carboxyl Sesquioxide) fuels blend on combustion characteristics, engine performances and exhaust emissions on a direct injection diesel engine at the speed of 1800 rpm at various brake effective pressures. On this occasion, the Ge-132 compound used in this experiment was widely utilized in the medical industry as a dietary supplement that contains therapeutic qualities such as oxygen enrichment, free radical scavenging, and immunity enhancement. Three fuel blends employed in this experiment were Ge5, Ge8, and Ge10 that are used to compare their performances with diesel fuel. In brief, the result stated that the fuel blend of Ge10 showed the highest value of cetane number, which was 8.23% higher compared to the diesel fuel followed by Ge8 and Ge5, which were 7.84 and 7.45% higher than the diesel fuel respectively. Besides, from the experiment, Ge5 decreased the value of BSFC by 26.6% compared to diesel fuel and improved the value of BTE that was 25.6% higher than the diesel fuel.


Inventory policies for joint remanufacturing and manufacturing have recently received much attention. Most efforts, though, were related to (optimal) policy structures and numerical optimization, rather than closed form expressions for calculating near optimal policy parameters. The focus of this paper is on the latter. We analyze an inventory system with unit product returns and demands where remanufacturing is the cheaper alternative for manufacturing. Manufacturing is also needed, however, since there are less returns than demands. The cost structure consists of setup costs, holding costs, and backorder costs. Manufacturing and remanufacturing orders have non-zero lead times. To control the system we use certain extensions of the familiar (s,Q) policy, called push and pull remanufacturing policies. For all policies we present simple, closed form formulae for approximating the optimal policy parameters under a cost minimization objective. In an extensive numerical study we show that the proposed formulae lead to near-optimal policy parameters. Abstract Inventory policies for joint remanufacturing and manufacturing have recently received much attention. Most efforts, though, were related to (optimal) policy structures and numerical optimization, rather than closed form expressions for calculating near optimal policy parameters. The focus of this paper is on the latter. We analyze an inventory system with unit product returns and demands where remanufacturing is the cheaper alternative for manufacturing. Manufacturing is also needed, however, since there are less returns than demands. The cost structure consists of setup costs, holding costs, and backorder costs. Manufacturing and remanufacturing orders have non-zero lead times. To control the system we use certain extensions of the familiar (s, Q) policy, called push and pull remanufacturing policies. For all policies we present simple, closed form formulae for approximating the optimal policy parameters under a cost minimization objective. In an extensive numerical study we show that the proposed formulae lead to near-optimal policy parameters.


Recent developments of inter-vehicular wireless communication technologies have motivated many innovative applications aiming at significantly increasing traffic throughput and improving highway safety. Powerful traffic simulation is an indispensable tool for developing these applications and studying their effects before large-scale deployment. One of the necessary advances to such a tool is to incorporate vehicle dynamics in traffic simulation so that the effects of improved driving strategies and cooperation between drivers can be examined at a great level of detail. Existing dynamic vehicle models, owing to their complexity for high modelling fidelity, are not suited for efficient traffic simulation involving many vehicles. To fill the gap, we propose a simple Dynamic Interactive Vehicle (DIV) model that requires little calibration effort and fewer computational resources. The DIV model takes as input a driver's desired acceleration, deceleration and steering, and outputs vehicle dynamic responses, including longitudinal and lateral accelerations and yaw velocity.


This Working Paper presents findings from a research project that sought to better understand decision-making processes on the return of illegally obtained assets using the examples of past cases of returning assets that had been stolen from Kazakhstan, Peru and the Philippines. While previous papers on the subject of returning stolen assets and end-use of returned assets were based on third-party and desk research, the research feeding into this working paper is based on first-hand accounts collected through semi-structured interviews with key decision makers involved in these cases in the concerned states.
The key objective of the research was to better understand the motivations, considerations and processes that led to the decisions on how and for what purpose to use returned assets. In this context, the report in particular looks at a question often debated in asset recovery circles, namely whether there may be a power imbalance between requesting and requested states in these processes despite the fact that requesting states are legally empowered through the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
The potential existence of such a power imbalance has in the past often given rise to concern, as it is perceived to potentially compromise the fundamental principles of asset return of UNCAC and the sovereignty of the concerned states.


A novel ZnO-FTO heterostructure nanotube array was produced by combining a chemical solution process with oxygen-plasma etching. In this approach, presynthesized ZnO nanorod arrays act as templates, and FTO nanoparticles are deposited onto the ZnO nanorods by a simple spray pyrolysis method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that the oxygen-plasma treatment decreased the O(2-)/OH(-) concentration ratio, resulting in dissociation of the Zn-O bonds and the outward diffusion of Zn cations to form an interior hollow, which is related to the formation of the hydroxyl functional group, Sn-OH, at the FTO surface. An etching evolution mechanism of the ZnO-FTO nanotubes via oxygen plasma was tentatively proposed in this study. Time-dependent photocurrent (I-T) measurements under ON-OFF cycles of UV illumination confirm that the 20-min etched sample exhibits a rectified photoresponse characteristic and a dark current increased by about 3 orders of magnitude over that of the unetched sample, which is attributed to the increased carrier concentration created at the surface conductive layer. This investigation offers an alternative selective etching method to lay the framework for nanoscale three-dimensional electrodes for solar-cell applications.


It is suggested that Gray codes be used to improve the performance of methods for partial match and range queries. Specifically, the author illustrates the improved clustering of similar records that Gray codes can achieve with multiattribute hashing. Gray codes are used instead of binary codes to map record signatures to buckets. In Gray codes, successive codewords differ in the value of exactly one bit position; thus, successive buckets hold records with similar record signatures. The proposed method achieves better clustering of similar records, thus reducing the I/O time. A mathematical model is developed to derive formulas giving the average performance of both methods, and it is shown that the proposed method achieves 0-50% relative savings over the binary codes. The author also discusses how Gray codes could be applied to some retrieval methods designed for range queries, such as the grid file and the approach based on the so-called z-ordering. Gray codes are also used to design good distance-preserving functions, which map a k-dimensional (k-D) space into a one-dimensional one, in such a way that points are close in the k-D space are likely to be close in the 1-D space. >


Low physical activity levels are a public health concern. Few studies have assessed the concordance of physical activity change among spouses. We studied this concordance during a 6-year period (baseline: 1987-1989; follow-up: 1993-1995) in 3,261 spousal pairs from the US-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Linear regression was used to examine the association between change in individuals' sport/exercise and leisure physical activity indices (ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high)) and change in his or her spouse's indices. The association between individual and spousal changes in meeting physical activity recommendations was assessed with logistic regression. Individual changes in the sport/exercise and leisure indices were positively associated with spousal changes. For every standard deviation increase in their wives' sport/exercise index, men's exercise index increased by 0.09 (95% confidence interval: 0.05, 0.12) standard deviation; for every standard deviation increase in their wives' leisure index, men's leisure index increased by 0.08 standard deviation. Results were similar for women. Individuals had higher odds of meeting physical activity recommendations if their spouse met recommendations at both visits or just follow-up. In conclusion, changes in an individual's physical activity are positively associated with changes in his or her spouse's physical activity. Physical activity promotion efforts should consider targeting couples.


The brain of the bottlenose dolphin exhibits patterns of isocortical parcellation and cytoarchitecture distinct from those seen in primates, yet cell clusters in anterior insula are comparable in scale to module-like cell arrangements found throughout isocortex in other placental mammalian species with long divergent evolutionary histories. This similarity may be due to common ancestry, or to convergence as a result of selective constraints on organization of connections within such modules. Differences reflect alternate arrangements of minicolumns, an elemental cytoarchitectonic motif of isocortex defined by radially oriented pyramidal cell arrays. In contrast with larger modular structures incorporating them, minicolumns have been highly conserved in mammalian evolution. In this study a previously validated imaging method was employed to assess verticality, D, a parameter indicating radial bias of isocortex. Photomicrographs of coronal Nissl-stained sections of dolphin anterior insular cortex were compared with sections from human brains of putatively homologous areas as well as other isocortical areas differing in modular organization. Dolphin insula exhibited a high degree of verticality consistent with conserved minicolumnar organization. Our findings indicate that a basic structural motif of isocortex is synapomorphic in a species of marine mammal exhibiting unique phylogenetically derived isocortical characteristics.


In this paper we consider commitment schemes that are secure against concurrent poly-time man-in-the-middle (cMiM) attacks. Under such attacks, two possible notions of security for commitment schemes have been proposed in the literature: concurrent nonmalleability with respect to commitment and concurrent non-malleability with respect to decommitment (i.e., opening). After the original notion of non-malleability introduced by [Dolev, Dwork and Naor STOC 91] that is based on the independence of the committed and decommitted message, a new and stronger notion of non-malleability has been given in [Pass and Rosen STOC 05] by requiring that for any man-in-the-middle adversary there is a stand-alone adversary that succeeds with the same probability. Under this stronger security notion, a constant-round commitment scheme that is concurrent non-malleable only with respect to commitment has been given in [Pass and Rosen FOCS 05] for the plain model, thus leaving as an open problem the construction of a constant-round concurrent non-malleable commitments with respect to decommitment. In other words, in [Pass and Rosen FOCS 05] security against adversaries that mount concurrent man-in-the-middle attacks is guaranteed only during the commitment phase (under their stronger notion of non-malleability). The main result of this paper is a commitment scheme that is concurrent non-malleable with respect to both commitment and decommitment, under the stronger notion of [Pass and Rosen STOC 05]. This property protects against cMiM attacks mounted during both commitments and decommitments which is a crucial security requirement in several applications, as in some digital auctions, in which players have to perform both commitments and decommitments. Our scheme uses a constant number of rounds of interaction in the plain model and is the first scheme that enjoys all these properties under the definitions of [Pass and Rosen FOCS 05]. We stress that, exactly as in [Pass and Rosen FOCS 05], we assume that commitments and decommitments are performed in two distinct phases that do not overlap in time.


The good state of preservation and the excellent archaeological accessibility directly below the modern surface make the 60 hectare large Dinka Settlement Complex (DSC, including Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka) in the Bora Plain a key site for the investigation of the Iron Age in the Zagros mountains of northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran. In 2018, the Peshdar Plain Project's excavations and its continuing geophysical survey and palaeo-environmental investigations have further improved our understanding of the extended Iron Age settlement, and also brought to light new information on other periods of the Bora Plain's long history, both much older (Late Chalcolithic 1-2) and much younger (Middle Islamic Period) than the Iron Age occupation on which our research continues to focus. The present work offers a comprehensive report of the 2018 fieldwork activities, which included excavations, a programme of environmental studies (geology, geomorphology, soil analysis) and the continuation of the geophysical survey.
Excavations took place in three parts of the settlement: in the Upper Town on the western slope of Qalat-i Dinka, in a new area of the Lower Town ("Dinka Lower Town operation 3" = DLT3), and in Gird-i Bazar where anthropologist Kathleen Downey exposed and interpreted more of the accumulation of human skeletons in the well of Room 49 in Building I (Grave 71).
The excavations on Qalat-i Dinka revealed on the one hand the monumental Building P, occupied by elite inhabitants as suggested by the high quality and value of the finds encountered there (including ivory fittings, beads of carnelian and Egyptian Blue and other jewellery as well as nine identical iron arrowheads), and on the other hand an elaborate fortification that once consisted of a high wooden palisade (of which the base survives) and a glacis that protected its more sensitive stretches. Radiocarbon dates and the pottery finds make it clear that this part of the settlement was occupied during the same broad Iron Age horizon as the areas excavated in the Lower Town of the settlement.
DLT3 was chosen for excavation because radiocarbon analysis of a charcoal sample recovered in 2015 from the section of the geoarchaeological trench GA42 had produced a probable date range of 830-789 calBC (95.4 % probability). Our work there aimed at investigating continuities and discontinuities that might have resulted from the annexation of the Bora Plain and the DSC into the Assyrian Empire and the establishment of the Border March of the Palace Herald in the second half of the 9th century BC. In addition to evidence for two distinct building phases during DSC's Iron Age main occupation period, this area yielded good contexts dating to the Late Chalcolithic period, including a pottery kiln.
The volume presents the pottery and the small finds from the 2018 excavation areas. Among the Iron Age materials from Qalat-i Dinka, Egyptian faience covered in the synthetic pigment Naples Yellow was identified by archaeometric analysis while a broken brick from DLT3 can be assigned to the Neo-Assyrian period because of a title preserved in its fragmentary cuneiform inscription, most likely to Shalmaneser III (r. 859-824 BC), the founder of the Border March of the Palace Herald. The volume also includes analyses of some materials previously excavated at Gird-i Bazar. Tina Greenfield presents results of the identification and quantitative analyses of the animal bones recovered in 2015 and 2016 while Patrick Arneitz and Roman Leonhardt offer an archaeomagnetic study of the pottery kiln first identified in 2015.
The book includes contributions by Mark Altaweel, Silvia Amicone, Patrick Arneitz, Abdullah Bakr Othman, Christoph Berthold, Kathleen Downey, Eileen Eckmeier, Jorg Fassbinder, Jorg Fischer, Cajetan Geiger, Tina Greenfield, Zahra Hashemi, Jean-Jacques Herr, F. Janoscha Kreppner, Roman Leonhardt, Alessio Palmisano, Karen Radner, Jens Rohde, Hero Salih Ahmed, Marion Scheiblecker, Andrea Squitieri and Felix Wolter.


Background V(D)J recombination is essential for adaptive immunity in jawed vertebrates and is initiated by the RAG1-RAG2 endonuclease. The RAG1 and RAG2 genes are thought to have evolved from a RAGL (RAG-like) transposon containing convergently-oriented RAG1-like (RAG1L) and RAG2-like (RAG2L) genes. Elements resembling this presumptive evolutionary precursor have thus far only been detected convincingly in deuterostomes, leading to the model that the RAGL transposon first appeared in an early deuterostome. Results We have identified numerous RAGL transposons in the genomes of protostomes, including oysters and mussels (phylum Mollusca) and a ribbon worm (phylum Nemertea), and in the genomes of several cnidarians. Phylogenetic analyses are consistent with vertical evolution of the RAGL transposon family within the Bilateria clade and with its presence in the bilaterian ancestor. Many of the RAGL transposons identified in protostomes are intact elements containing convergently oriented RAG1L and RAG2L genes flanked by terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and target site duplications with striking similarities with the corresponding elements in deuterostomes. In addition, protostome genomes contain numerous intact RAG1L-RAG2L adjacent gene pairs that lack detectable flanking TIRs. Domains and critical active site and structural amino acids needed for endonuclease and transposase activity are present and conserved in many of the predicted RAG1L and RAG2L proteins encoded in protostome genomes. Conclusions Active RAGL transposons were present in multiple protostome lineages and were likely transmitted vertically during protostome evolution. It appears that the RAGL transposon family was broadly active during bilaterian evolution, undergoing multiple duplication and loss/fossilization events, with the RAGL genes that persist in present day protostomes perhaps constituting both active RAGL transposons and domesticated RAGL genes. Our findings raise the possibility that the RAGL transposon arose earlier in evolution than previously thought, either in an early bilaterian or prior to the divergence of bilaterians and non-bilaterians, and alter our understanding of the evolutionary history of this important transposon family.


The 2019–2020 megafires in eastern Australia have devastated large parts of the known distributional range of the minute land snail Paralaoma annabelli, prompting conservation concerns for this species. However, this species is poorly defined thus hampering its accurate identification and the delineation of its distribution. Most crucially, it has been questionable if and how P. annabelli could be distinguished from another Australian congener, Paralaoma morti. This systematic ambiguity posed a problem in assessing the impact of the 2019–2020 wildfires in Australia on this species. Herein, we demonstrate, based on comparative morphometrics as well as analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, that P. annabelli is indeed distinct from a second widespread species of Paralaoma, which is identified as P. morti by some workers. Yet, sequences of P. morti cluster closely with non-Australian sequences of the globally distributed species P. servilis. Therefore, the taxonomic status of P. morti in relation to P. servilis remains to be investigated. Our comparative morphological analyses revealed that P. annabelli is significantly smaller than P. morti, has a significantly flatter shell, more elongated aperture, lower spire, and tighter coiling whorls. With the revised diagnosis of P. annabelli, we have delineated its distribution in New South Wales based on the examination of all available museum samples. We show that P. annabelli is primarily found at higher elevations in the Great Dividing Range while P. morti is widespread in eastern Australia. In addition, molecular phylogenetic analyses reveal that the genera Pseudiotula, Iotula, Trocholaoma and Miselaoma, all described based only on shell characteristics, form a single clade with the abovementioned species of Paralaoma. This reveals the inadequacies of a purely shell-based taxonomy in punctids and highlights the need for a more integrative approach to punctid systematics.


We present a surprisingly simple yet accurate approach to reasoning in knowledge graphs (KGs) that requires no training, and is reminiscent of case-based reasoning in classical artificial intelligence (AI). Consider the task of finding a target entity given a source entity and a binary relation. Our approach finds multiple graph path patterns that connect similar source entities through the given relation, and looks for pattern matches starting from the query source. Using our method, we obtain new state-of-the-art accuracy, outperforming all previous models, on NELL-995 and FB-122. We also demonstrate that our model is robust in low data settings, outperforming recently proposed meta-learning approaches.


The principal purpose of a boxing match is for one opponent to render the other injured, defenseless, incapacitated, unconscious. No caring person could have observed the events in professional prizefighting in the past few months and not have been revolted. No prudent physician could have watched the most recent debacle/mismatch on Nov 26, 1982, between Larry Holmes and Randall "Tex" Cobb and believe that the current boxing control system is functioning. The fact that this massacre came on the immediate heels of even more tragic fights serves to accentuate the uncontrolled situation. The American Medical Association recognized this problem some time ago, and its Council on Scientific Affairs commissioned a panel to study the problem and to make recommendations. The report, presented on page 254 in this issue, is the official AMA position. It is solid, balanced, and reasonable. It operates with the assumption that boxing cannot be stopped, so


The phenomenon of buckling is attributed to the non-uniform stress imposed on strip. This paper investigates the occurrence of this non-uniform by calculating the stress distribution in circumferential and axial direction. The results indicate that stress distribution is even in circumferential direction, and the non-uniform happens in the axial direction. Furthermore, this non-uniform is quiet related to the proportion of strip width and the roll flat part length. Meanwhile, the roll flat part length should as long as it could be in the context of insuring the enough centripetal force to prevent the snaking.


This work deals with the study of zinc self-diffusion in ZnO polycrystal of high density and of high purity. The diffusion experiments were performed using the 65Zn radioactive isotope as zinc tracer. A thin film of the tracer was deposited on the polished surface of the samples, and then the diffusion annealings were performed from 1006 to 1377oC, in oxygen atmosphere. After the diffusion treatment, the 65Zn diffusion profiles were established by means of the Residual Activity Method. From the zinc diffusion profiles were deduced the volume diffusion coefficient and the product dDgb for the grain-boundary diffusion, where d is the grain-boundary width and Dgb is the grain-boundary diffusion coefficient. The results obtained for the volume diffusion coefficient show good agreement with the most recent results obtained in ZnO single crystals using stable tracer and depth profiling by secondary ion mass spectrometry, while for the grain-boundary diffusion there is no data published by other authors for comparison with our results. The zinc grain-boundary diffusion coefficients are ca. 4 orders of magnitude greater than the volume diffusion coefficients, in the same experimental conditions, which means that grain-boundary is a fast path for zinc diffusion in polycrystalline ZnO.


A gene encoding a highly thermostable alpha-amylase from the hyperthermophilic archaebacterium Pyrococcus furiosus was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The nucleotide sequence of the gene predicts a 649-amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 76.3 kDa, which corresponds well with the value obtained from purified enzyme using denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The NH2 terminus of the deduced amino acid sequence corresponds precisely to that obtained from the purified enzyme, excluding the NH2-terminal methionine. The amylase expressed in E. coli exhibits temperature-dependent activation characteristic of of the original enzyme from P. furiosus, but has a higher apparent molecular weight which is attributed to the improper formation of the native quaternary structure. No homology was found with previously characterized promotor or termination sequences. The deduced amino acid sequence displayed strong homology to the alpha-amylase A of Dictyoglomus thermophilum, an obligately anaerobic, extremely thermophilic bacterium. Evolutionary implications of this homology are discussed.


For bloom casting, typical quality defects such as midway crack usually occur upon improper cooling control during non-steady casting conditions specially for the production specialty steels,. A key measure to eliminate the defects formation has been presented by the adoption of more sophisticated secondary cooling strategies to balance the surface reheating due to casting speed fluctuation. With the consideration of the complex casting conditions and the characteristics of bloom casters, a dynamic control model for the secondary cooling has been developed in the paper to obtain a reasonable temperature profile and solidification progress for the bloom casting process, which is based on a slice residence time method combined with a multi-level control strategy. The feedback system, based on the difference between the calculated surface temperatures and the predetermined or measured surface temperatures, has been integrated into two-dimensional thermal model. The interlocking protection system between level-1 and level-2 is included in the model together with the data diagnosis and processing. Furthermore, the control model also offers technological interface for the introduction of new steel grades in production and the related modification to the secondary cooling parameters. It is shown from online application that the dynamic control system of secondary cooling for bloom casting is robust during operation and adaptable to any change of real casting conditions. Sound quality bloom castings according to acid etched tests have been obtained from the caster accordingly.


Contaminants may persist for long time periods within low permeability portions of the vadose zone where they cannot be effectively treated and are a potential continuing source of contamination to ground water. Setting appropriate vadose zone remediation goals typically requires evaluating these persistent sources in terms of their impact on meeting ground water remediation goals. Estimating the impact on ground water can be challenging at sites with low aqueous recharge rates where vapor-phase movement is the dominant transport process in the vadose zone. Existing one-dimensional approaches for simulating transport of volatile contaminants in the vadose zone are considered and compared to a new flux-continuity-based assessment of vapor-phase contaminant movement from the vadose zone to the ground water. The flux-continuity-based as sessment demonstrates that the ability of the ground water to move contaminant away from the water table controls the vapor phase mass flux from the vadose zone across the water table. Limitations of these approaches are then discussed with respect to the required assumptions and the need to incorporate three-dimensional processes when evaluating vapor-phase transport from the vadose zone to the ground water. The carbon tetrachloride plume at the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site is used as the example site where persistent vadose zone contamination needs to be considered in the context of ground water


Amidst rapid urban development, sustainable transportation solutions are required to meet the increasing demands for mobility whilst mitigating the potentially negative social, economic, and environmental impacts. This study analyses autonomous vehicles (AVs) as a potential transportation solution for smart and sustainable development. We identified privacy and cybersecurity risks of AVs as crucial to the development of smart and sustainable cities and examined the steps taken by governments around the world to address these risks. We highlight the literature that supports why AVs are essential for smart and sustainable development. We then identify the aspects of privacy and cybersecurity in AVs that are important for smart and sustainable development. Lastly, we review the efforts taken by federal governments in the US, the UK, China, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, France, and the EU, and by US state governments to address AV-related privacy and cybersecurity risks in-depth. Overall, the actions taken by governments to address privacy risks are mainly in the form of regulations or voluntary guidelines. To address cybersecurity risks, governments have mostly resorted to regulations that are not specific to AVs and are conducting research and fostering research collaborations with the private sector.


PURPOSE
To determine whether high-resolution helical CT can show the architectural features of breast carcinomas of non-limited extent (non-BCLE) and to establish the CT characteristic morphology of non-BCLE.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We prospectively studied high-resolution helical CT of 136 invasive breast carcinomas before breast-conserving surgery. Non-BCLE were defined as ductal carcinomas in situ and invasive carcinomas beyond 1 cm from the edge of the dominant mass. Non-BCLE were defined as positive if enhanced beyond 1 cm from the edge of the focal enhancement on CT. After surgical resection, specimens were sliced in serial sections at 5-mm intervals, and the gross morphology and histology were correlated with the appearance of the preoperative CT lesion images.

RESULTS
Non-BCLE were present in 47 invasive carcinomas. The sensitivity and specificity of non-BCLE evaluation by high-resolution helical CT were 70% and 89%, respectively. The morphology of non-BCLE on CT agreed with histologic findings. The morphological pattern on CT significantly correlated with intraductal tumor density adjacent to invasive tumor.

CONCLUSION
Comparison of high-resolution helical CT with histologic data suggests that demonstration of a non-BCLE morphology can make the CT breast carcinoma local staging more accurate.


Background: Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumours (MPNST) either grow sporadically, after radiation or chemotherapy respectively. In many cases they are associated with Neurofibromatosis I. Because of the multiform histologic picture they are often difficult to differentiate from other soft tissue tumours. Patient: We present the case of a sporadic MPNST which developed from the vagus nerve of a 39-year-old patient following radiation of the neck 7 years before. After complete excision there has been no recurrence up to now. Results and Conclusions: Sporadic MPNST of the head and neck are comparatively rare. With regard to the strong association with Neurofibromatosis I and the difficult differential diagnosis to other soft tissue tumours the emphasis should be put on excluding further manifestations of Neurofibromatosis I and of secondary tumours.


Using adjoint-based elastic reverse time migration, it is difficult to produce high-quality reflectivity images due to the limited acquisition apertures, band-limited source time function, and irregular subsurface illumination. Through iteratively computing the Hessian inverse, least-squares migration enables us to reduce the point-spread-function effects and improve the image resolution and amplitude fidelity. By incorporating anisotropy in the 2D elastic wave equation, we have developed an elastic least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) method for multicomponent data from the vertically transversely isotropic (VTI) media. Using the perturbed stiffness parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] as PP and PS reflectivities, we linearize the elastic VTI wave equation and obtain a Born modeling (demigration) operator. Then, we use the Lagrange multiplier method to derive the corresponding adjoint wave equation and reflectivity kernels. With linearized forward modeling and adjoint migration operators, we solve a linear inverse problem to estimate the subsurface reflectivity models for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. To reduce the artifacts caused by data over-fitting, we introduce total-variation regularization into the reflectivity inversion, which promotes a sparse solution in terms of the model derivatives. To accelerate the convergence of LSRTM, we use source illumination to approximate the diagonal Hessian and use it as a preconditioner for the misfit gradient. Numerical examples help us determine that our elastic VTI LSRTM method can improve the spatial resolution and amplitude fidelity in comparison to adjoint migration.


Abstract Many aquatic species in the arid southwestern United States are imperiled, persisting primarily in isolated, low-order streams that are increasingly vulnerable to stochastic disturbances. During 2003 and 2004, we surveyed 39 mountain canyons in southeastern Arizona, USA, for lowland leopard frogs (Rana yavapaiensis), a species that has declined in abundance and distribution across its range in the United States. We quantified habitat features at 2 spatial scales, canyon and pool, to identify features that distinguished sites inhabited by frogs from those uninhabited by frogs. Canyons inhabited by frogs had watersheds that averaged 8.1 km2 larger (SE  =  2.52), pools that averaged 37.8 m3 greater (9.30) in volume, gradients that averaged 4.1% (1.40%) less steep, and locations that averaged 3.2 km closer (1.06) to the nearest valley stream than did uninhabited canyons. Plunge pools inhabited by frogs averaged 13.5% (5.66%) more perimeter vegetation, 11.2% (5.34%) more canopy cover, and 1.9 (0.60) more refuges than uninhabited pools. In general, canyons that provided more perennial water during dry summer months and plunge pools that provided more bank heterogeneity were more likely to be inhabited by frogs. Conservation of lowland leopard frogs and other aquatic species that inhabit xeric systems in the southwestern United States depends principally on maintaining riparian ecosystems that provide habitat for these species and the adjacent uplands that influence the structure and function of these systems. Therefore, both riparian areas and their adjacent uplands must be managed to maintain habitat for organisms that inhabit these rare and diverse ecosystems.


Objective: To explore potential factors that could be associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) in female endurance runners. Methods: Fifty two female endurance runners (1500 m to marathon), aged 18–44 years, took part. Body fat percentage, lumbar spine BMD, and femoral neck BMD were measured using the Hologic QDR 4500w bone densitometer. Data on training, menstrual cycle status, osteoporosis, and health related factors were obtained by questionnaire. Dietary variables were assessed from a prospective seven day dietary record of macronutrients and micronutrients. Results: The mean (SD) lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD were 1.11 (0.11) and 0.89 (0.12) g/cm2 respectively. A backward elimination regression analysis showed that age, body mass, body fat, distance run, magnesium, and zinc intake were the variables significantly associated with BMD. Lumbar spine BMD (g/cm2) = −1.90 + (0.0486 × age (years)) + (0.342 × log mass (kg)) − (0.000861 × age2 (years)) − (0.00128 × distance (km/week)), with an R2 = 30.1% (SEE = 0.089 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.05 to 0.23); p<0.001). Femoral neck BMD (g/cm2) = −2.51 − (0.00989 × age (years)) + (0.720 × log mass (kg)) + (0.000951 × magnesium (mg/day)) −(0.0289 × zinc (mg/day)) − (0.00821 × body fat (%)) − (0.00226 × distance (km/week)), with an R2 = 50.2% (SEE = 0.100 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.22); p<0.001). The negative association between skeletal BMD and distance run suggested that participants who ran longer distances had a lower BMD of the lumbar spine and femoral neck. Further, the results indicated a positive association between body mass and BMD, and a negative association between body fat and BMD. Conclusions: The results suggest a negative association between endurance running distance and lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD, with a positive association between body mass and femoral neck and lumbar spine BMD. However, longitudinal studies are required to assess directly the effect of endurance running and body mass on BMD, and to see if the addition of alternative exercise that would increase lean body mass would have a positive effect on BMD and therefore help to prevent osteoporosis.


Having an ID being unique within the application domain for each sensor node is the basic assumption in many WSN applications. In traditional assignments, fixed-length ID schemes, which are severely limited by scalability, flexibility and energy efficiency, are adopted. To solve these problems, we propose a novel variable-length ID scheme that allows different nodes to have different ID lengths. To realize this idea, we propose a fully localized ID assignment algorithm called emphself-organized ID assignment (SIDA). SIDA presents great potential on scalability, flexibility and energy efficiency by enabling online ID assignment and various optimizations according to different communication paradigms. Analytical and simulation results show that SIDA has a comparable static ID length while the accumulated communication overhead for multi-hop transmissions can be saved by 20%; the control overhead of the new deployment assignment can be reduced to about 30% compared with fixed-length schemes.


Pollen records from lake sediments have a great potential for providing information on the quantitative composition of past vegetation and land cover in the surrounding landscape. This can contribute to a better understanding of the development of the cultural landscape and interactions between human impact on the landscape and natural conditions like soil and climate. A good understanding of the history of cultural landscapes is necessary for choosing appropriate management strategies for areas dependent on cultural impact, such as heaths, meadows and dry pastures. It is also important for archaeological research concerning utilisation of the landscape in earlier periods. Furthermore, quantitative reconstructions are relevant for climate research. Here they can be used to test climate models, since model predictions of past climate can be translated into past vegetation, which can then be compared to pollen-based reconstructions. Past vegetation cover is also a necessary input to climate models, as it influences albedo, evapotranspiration and carbon storage and cycling. Quantifying vegetation from fossil pollen samples requires a detailed understanding of the way vegetation is reflected in pollen assemblages, including the approximate size of the area of vegetation represented. The relationship between pollen and vegetation is complicated by the fact that different plant species produce different amounts of pollen, and that pollen types are dispersed differently in the atmosphere, depending on their size, shape and weight. These pressing challenges in pollen analysis have attracted much attention in recent years. Models have been developed to describe and simulate species specific pollen dispersal, to quantitatively relate pollen proportions to plant abundance, as well as estimate pollen productivity and to quantify the pollen source area of different types of basins (Parsons & Prentice 1981; Prentice & Parsons 1983; Prentice 1985; Sugita 1993, 1994; Sugita et al. 1997, 1999; Broström 2002; Bunting et al. 2004). The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) has in recent years contributed to the development and validation of such models through the project AGRAR 2000 (Odgaard 1999; Nielsen 2003), where quantitative estimates of past land cover in different regions of Denmark were one of the main objectives, and through participation in the international research network POLLANDCAL (POLlen LANdscape CALibration), funded by NORDFORSK (Nordic Research Board), which focuses on further model development, validation and application.


One of the goals of this dissertation is to understand how two fundamen- tal biological processes, genome duplication and alternative splicing, factor into the regulation of gene expression. Genome duplication and alternative splicing have profound implications on gene regulation, as the controlled expression of duplicated genes affects the evolution of genomes, whereas alternative splicing of regulatory genes has enormous ramifications on the functionality of nearly all expressed genes. Whole genome duplication (WGD) has catalyzed the formation of new species, genes with novel functions, altered expression patterns, complexified signaling pathways and has provided organisms a level of genetic robustness. We studied the longterm evolution and interrelationships of 5' upstream regulatory sequences (URSs), protein coding sequences (CDSs) and expression correlations (EC) of duplicated gene pairs in the model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. Three distinct methods revealed significant evolutionary conservation between paralogous URSs and were highly correlated with microarray-based expression correlation of the respective gene pairs. Positional information on exact matches between sequences unveiled the contribution of micro-chromosomal rearrangements on expression divergence. A three-way rank analysis of URS similarity, CDS divergence and EC uncovered specific gene functional biases. Transcription factor activity was associated with gene pairs exhibiting conserved URSs and divergent CDSs, whereas a broad array of metabolic enzymes was found to be associated with gene pairs showing diverged URSs but conserved CDSs. Strikingly, the majority of duplicate genes are differentially expressed in magnitude throughout various developmental stages in Arabidopsis, suggesting that often one of the two gene copies is preferred and may hint at a mechanism of sub-functionalization acting at the gene regulatory level. Along with WGD, alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNA is a fundamental molecular process that generates diversity in the transcriptome and proteome of eukaryotic organisms. Multiple factors influence the splicing reaction, such as the length and sequence of exons, introns, the presence and levels of transfactors and the rate of transcription. SR proteins, a family of splicing regulators with one or two RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) at the N-terminus and an arg/ser-rich at the C-terminus, function in both constitutive and alternative splicing. We performed database searches for SR proteins in 27 eukaryotic species, which included taxa from plants, animals, fungi and basal eukaryotes that lie outside of these lineages. Using RRMs as a phylogenetic marker, we observed at least 12 SR protein sub-families, four of which are vastly expanded in plants. Furthermore, RRMs are in highly conserved positions within SR proteins within sub-families, yet their predicted RNA binding residues are degenerate. In line with this finding is our observation that the majority of plant SR genes are under purifying selection. Moreover, the majority of paralogous SR genes in Arabidopsis and rice are divergently expressed in different developmental stages, suggesting that these gene pairs have sub- functionalized at the expression level, reminiscent of the patterns we observed in our duplicated genes study. We assessed the extent of SR gene AS by generating splice graphs based on multiple alignments of ESTs/cDNAs to SR genomic sequences. AS of SR genes is a widespread phenomenon throughout multiple lineages and is a common trait among eukaryotes. Fur- thermore, the types of AS vary by organism and by SR sub-family. Lastly, we suggest that there is a link between DNA methylation within coding regions of SR genes and their AS patterns.


Background: Knee replacement surgery is often successful; however, a number of patients are not satisfied with the results of the operation. Objectives: This study was designed to determine whether clinical presentation and quality of life (QoL) before knee replacement surgery could predict patient satisfaction with surgery. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among 250 elderly patients with the age of 60 years or over who were candidate for a unilateral knee replacement surgery in hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. To gather data, the QoL Questionnaire, knee evaluation form, demographic, and satisfaction questionnaire were used. The questionnaires were filled-in before and after surgery and in follow-up time (2 months later). Results: Most of the respondents were women (66.4%) with the mean age of 68. 9 (standard deviation = 6. 84). The results showed a significant positive correlation between patients' post-operative satisfaction and pre-operative clinical presentation (r = 0.195 P = 0.003) and QoL (r =156, P = 0.023). However, there was no significant association between post-operative satisfaction and pre-operative clinical presentation and QoL at follow-up time (P > 0.05). Linear regression analysis showed that pre-operation clinical presentations and QoL, respectively, explained 3.8% and 2.4% of the variance in post-operative satisfaction. Conclusions: The results showed that satisfaction after surgery in the elderly is partly influenced by the pre-operative QoL and clinical presentation. Therefore, for improvement of the patients' post-operative outcomes, it is necessary to pay more attention to these variables in future planning.


As part of an ongoing study of near infrared (NIR) absorbing dyes applicable to optoelectronics, thieno[1,3,2]oxazaborinine-containing aza-BODIPYs were synthesized for the first time. 3,5-Di(thiophene)-substituted N2O2-type 1 showed a NIR absorption band centered at 780 nm, with a molar extinction coefficient (emax) of 5.51 × 104 M−1 cm−1 in CH2Cl2; however, it was easily hydrolyzed in solution. In comparison, 3-thiophene-containing N2O-type analogues 2 and 3 had greater stability, and NIR absorption bands at 768 nm (emax = 8.62 × 104 M−1 cm−1) and 779 nm (emax = 6.32 × 104 M−1 cm−1), respectively, in CH2Cl2. Notably, these dyes had longer absorption bands than those of all of the structurally constraining aza-BODIPYs reported thus far. CV measurements and theoretical calculations indicated that this shift was the result of a higher-lying HOMO energy level generated by incorporation of thiophene into the aza-BODIPY core. As a potential device application, the 3-loaded film was prepared on indium tin oxide (ITO). The film showed a NIR absorption band at 827 nm, with a wide spectral range, and a λonset value of 897 nm; thus, its applicability as a NIR photodetector was evaluated through fabrication of a single-component device. The ITO/3 (85 nm)/Al (100 nm) device produced a photocurrent of 9.57 × 10−7 A cm−2 at a bias potential of 1 V upon illumination at 850 nm and a fluence of 130 μW cm−2. This demonstrated the potential of thieno[1,3,2]oxazaborinine-containing aza-BODIPY materials in optoelectronic applications such as NIR photodetectors.


We propose autocomplete for the design and development of virtual breadboard circuits using software prototyping tools. With our system, a user inserts a component into the virtual breadboard, and it automatically provides a user with a list of suggested components. These suggestions complete or ex- tend the electronic functionality of the inserted component to save the user's time and reduce circuit error. To demon- strate the effectiveness of autocomplete, we implemented our system on Fritzing, a popular open source breadboard circuit prototyping software, used by novice makers. Our autocomplete suggestions were implemented based upon schematics from datasheets for standard components, as well as how components are used together from over 4000 circuit projects from the Fritzing community. We report the results of a controlled study with 16 participants, evaluating the effectiveness of autocomplete in the creation of virtual breadboard circuits, and conclude by sharing insights and directions for future research.


This chapter explores the use of storytelling as part of a curriculum and method for teaching youth work within a Higher Education environment, focusing on the In Defence of Youth Work (IDYW) storytelling process and resources. IDYW, a collective of youth work practitioners and lecturers based in the UK, has developed and undertaken a series of storytelling workshops both nationally and internationally; the process is described in their book 'This is Youth Work: Stories from Practice' (IDYW, 2011), and resources and further reflections are shared on the web resource 'Story-telling in youth work' (IDYW, 2014).

Storytelling is well regarded in certain academic fields of practice; for instance, in history, there is a long tradition of using narrative and oral history methodology to illuminate specific events; and in research informed by Critical Race Theory, narratives and testimonies are valued as an insightful method that builds on the oral traditions of cultural groups. Within the youth and community work context, storytelling is part of everyday practice in the form of (for example) case studies written up in annual reports. The IDYW approach attempts to bring rigour, criticality and collective reflection to this everyday use of stories. It builds on community philosophy adaptations of Socratic Dialogue as expressed by Sarah Banks (2013), in which complex questions are explored by a facilitated group using concrete examples.

As youth and community work lecturers, we seek to enable students to explore their practice from personal, political, philosophical and social perspectives. By using the IDYW storytelling approach in our youth and community work teaching and learning, we have created a space where participants' examples are subjected to scrutiny through peer questioning, followed by the identification, analysis and recording of fundamental principles.

In this instance, storytelling and story writing are valid methods of enquiry, methods of research, where "writing no longer merely 'captures' reality, it helps 'construct' it" (Bolton 2010: 84). This point is crucial to the overt political nature of the IDYW stories methodology. It is the very act of countering the dominant discourse, of challenging the prevailing attitudes, what Gramsci called 'hegemony'; that the telling and sharing of stories becomes a radical transformative act, and youth workers become Gramsci's 'organic intellectuals'.

In this chapter, we begin by setting out the political context in which youth work teaching and learning is situated, which prioritises measurable outcomes over narrative and qualitative evaluation. We then explain in more detail why IDYW was set up, and how and why the storytelling approach was developed. We then go on to explain how we and others have adapted the storytelling method in our higher education classrooms, and share a case study of how this works in practice. This is followed by a discussion on what storytelling contributes to youth and community workers' practice and academic development, as well as an acknowledgment of some key limitations and challenges. The conclusion pulls out some of the key aspects that need to be considered in using storytelling in youth and community work training and education.


We show that the heat deposition profile in a laser-excited metal can be determined by time-resolved X-ray diffraction. In this study, we investigated the electron diffusion in a 150 nm thick nickel film deposited on an indium antimonide substrate. A strain wave that mimics the heat deposition profile is generated in the metal and propagates into the InSb, where it influences the temporal profile of X-rays diffracted from InSb. We found that the strain pulse significantly deviated from a simple exponential profile, and that the two-temperature model was needed to reproduce the measured heat deposition profile. Experimental results were compared to simulations based on the two-temperature model carried out using commercial finite-element software packages and on-line dynamical diffraction tools. To reproduce the experimental data, the electron–phonon coupling factor was lowered compared to previously measured values. The experiment was carried out at a third-generation synchrotron radiation source using a ...


We report a novel mutation in the alpha2-globin gene, codon 35 (T-->C), detected in two unrelated Portuguese families. This mutation gives rise to a previously undescribed hemoglobin (Hb) variant, which we named Hb Evora. This variant seems to be responsible for the alpha-thalassemia phenotype present in its carriers. It cannot be detected by conventional laboratory techniques, probably because of its highly unstable nature.


AbstractA single-objective optimization model has been developed for water distribution system (WDS) pumping operations, considering five different types of pump operating regimes. These regimes use tank trigger levels, scheduling, and a combination of both to control pumps. A new toolkit development to alter rule-based controls in hydraulic simulation software has allowed more complex pump operating regimes than have previously been considered to be optimized. The performance of each of the regimes is compared with respect to two different objectives: cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which were optimized separately to allow the comparison of regimes to be made more clearly. Two case study networks, including one that represents a segment of the South Australian WDS, illustrate the effectiveness of the model. Time-based scheduling operating strategies were found to perform better than the other types of pump operating regimes. Significant cost savings were achieved for the South Australian case st...


The effect of standardized chest physiotherapy and hyperinflation on the blood gases of neonates being treated for tetanus by intermittent positive pressure respiration was investigated. It was found that physiotherapy and suction to remove secretions did not improve oxygen pressures but produced a small drop in both Paco2 and Pao2. This was associated with a widening of the alveolar to arterial gradient for oxygen. During the hour that followed, blood oxygen pressure slowly returned to pre-physiotherapy levels. This could be hastened by hyperinflation (increasing the pressure delivered to the baby) after physiotherapy. Although hyperinflation restored blood oxygen pressures, it did so by a mechanism which left alveolar to arterial oxygen gradients unchanged. Moderate hyperinflation without physiotherapy produced small increases in blood oxygen tension, but also failed to restore completely arterial oxygen pressures of neonates on I.P.P.R. The results are discussed.


Online abusive behavior affects millions and the NLP community has attempted to mitigate this problem by developing technologies to detect abuse. However, current methods have largely focused on a narrow definition of abuse to detriment of victims who seek both validation and solutions. In this position paper, we argue that the community needs to make three substantive changes: (1) expanding our scope of problems to tackle both more subtle and more serious forms of abuse, (2) developing proactive technologies that counter or inhibit abuse before it harms, and (3) reframing our effort within a framework of justice to promote healthy communities.


We outline an approach yielding proper motions with higher precision than exists in present catalogs for a sample of stars in the Kepler field. To increase proper-motion precision, we combine first-moment centroids of Kepler pixel data from a single season with existing catalog positions and proper motions. We use this astrometry to produce improved reduced-proper-motion diagrams, analogous to a Hertzsprung–Russell (H-R) diagram, for stars identified as Kepler objects of interest. The more precise the relative proper motions, the better the discrimination between stellar luminosity classes. Using UCAC4 and PPMXL epoch 2000 positions (and proper motions from those catalogs as quasi-Bayesian priors), astrometry for a single test Channel (21) and Season (0) spanning 2 yr yields proper motions with an average per-coordinate proper-motion error of 1.0 mas yr−1, which is over a factor of three better than existing catalogs. We apply a mapping between a reduced-proper-motion diagram and an H-R diagram, both constructed using Hubble Space Telescope parallaxes and proper motions, to estimate Kepler object of interest K-band absolute magnitudes. The techniques discussed apply to any future small-field astrometry as well as to the rest of the Kepler field.


Abstract. Maps of magnetic and gravity field anomalies provide information about physical properties of the Earth's crust and upper mantle, helpful in understanding geological conditions and tectonic structures. Depending on data availability, whether from the ground, airborne, or from satellites, potential field anomaly maps contain information on different ranges of spatial wavelengths, roughly corresponding to sources at different depths. Focussing on magnetic data, we compare amplitudes and characteristics of anomalies from maps based on various available data and as measured at geomagnetic repeat stations. Two cases are investigated: southern Africa, characterized by geologically old cratons and strong magnetic anomalies, and the smaller region of Germany with much younger crust and weaker anomalies. Estimating lithospheric magnetic anomaly values from the ground stations' time series (repeat station crustal biases) reveals magnetospheric field contributions causing time-varying offsets of several nT in the results. Similar influences might be one source of discrepancy when merging anomaly maps from different epochs. Moreover, we take advantage of recently developed satellite potential field models and compare magnetic and gravity gradient anomalies of  ∼  200 km resolution. Density and magnetization represent independent rock properties and thus provide complementary information on compositional and structural changes. Comparing short- and long-wavelength anomalies and the correlation of rather large-scale magnetic and gravity anomalies, and relating them to known lithospheric structures, we generally find a better agreement in the southern African region than the German region. This probably indicates stronger concordance between near-surface (down to at most a few km) and deeper (several kilometres down to Curie depth) structures in the former area, which can be seen to agree with a thicker lithosphere and a lower heat flux reported in the literature for the southern African region.


Objectives: Gabapentin was initially developed as an antiepileptic drug but was later discovered to be an effective treatment of neuropathic pain. Gabapentin has been successfully used for the treatment of multiple neuropathic pain syndromes such as diabetic neuropathy and postherpetic neuralgia. However, limited data exist about its efficacy for other pain syndromes. The objective of the current review is to describe, from the literature, the role of gabapentin for the treatment of cancer-related pain syndromes.

Methods: Studies were identified by searching the PubMed electronic databases. Additional review articles and article reference lists were used to identify other studies.

Results: Recent studies showed effectiveness of gabapentin in improving the pain control in patients with neuropathic cancer pain, already treated with opiates. Moreover, gabapentin appeared promising in reducing the need for high total doses of opioids and avoiding unplanned treatment interruptions for patients with head and neck malignancies treated with radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Furthermore, the combination of gabapentin and morphine has been shown to effect better pain relief at lower doses of each drug when compared with gabapentin or morphine alone in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy or postherpetic neuralgia. The combination of both drugs was associated with a beneficial effect on pain-related interference with daily activity, mood, sleep and quality of life.

Conclusions: Given the significant benefits of gabapentin and the combination of gabapentin with opioids for the treatment of neuropathic pain, randomized clinical trials are needed to establish the role of these analgesic regimens for the treatment of neuropathic cancer pain.


E.F., aged thirty-one years, a commercial traveller, presented on May 21, 1952, complaining of severe pain of twenty-four hours' duration in the left side of the abdomen. The pain was constant and severe enough to make him double up. The onset was gradual, and the pain, which had become worse during the previous night, was associated with nausea and loss of appetite, but there was no vomiting. He was constipated, but had a desire to pass flatus. The patient said that he felt cold and shivery and could not get warm despite a very good layer of warm clothes. There was no history of previous attacks of abdominal pain, nor had he any cough or disturbance of urinary function.


ABSTRACT We report a study that examined the effect and safety of salacinol from Salacia reticulata extract (SRE) for the intestinal microbiota of horses. We administered SRE to healthy horses and evaluated their intestinal microbiota before and after the test period for changes in composition. Horses that received the SRE showed notable differences in intestinal microbiota composition between before and after administration, with a substantial increase in bacteria of the order Lactobacillales at the end of the test period. Moreover, the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio was elevated. Salacinol was administered as a supplement for 28 days. Physiological and blood tests were conducted in the presence of a veterinarian, and a safety assessment was performed. These evaluations revealed no detrimental findings.


In this paper, the authors examine the problem of designing nominal manipulator Jacobians that are optimally fault tolerant to one or more joint failures. Optimality is defined here in terms of the worst-case relative manipulability index. While this approach is applicable to both serial and parallel mechanisms, it is especially applicable to parallel mechanisms with a limited workspace. It is shown that a previously derived inequality for the worst-case relative manipulability index is generally not achieved for fully spatial manipulators and that the concept of optimal fault tolerance to multiple failures is more subtle than previously indicated. Lastly, the authors identify the class of 8-DOF Gough--Stewart platforms that are optimally fault tolerant for up to two joint failures. Examples of optimally fault-tolerant 7- and 8-DOF mechanisms are presented.


The majority of sexual minority adolescents are well-adjusted and healthy, however, on average, 28% report suicidal ideation and between 15% and 40% make a suicide attempt each year. These rates are two to seven times higher than those found among heterosexual youths. Research has shown the protective function of parental support and acceptance, as well as the deleterious effects of parental criticism, invalidation, and rejection on the mental health of sexual minority adolescents. Given these risk and protective factors, these adolescents might benefit from an intervention that targets family relationships. Toward this goal, Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) specifically aims to improve the quality of adolescent–parent relationships. In prior treatment developmental work, ABFT was adapted and pilot tested for depressed and suicidal lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents. By adopting an evidence-based case study format, this paper provides a case summary to illustrate how the therapy was conducted. The case study consists of a vignette, followed by therapy task descriptions and illustrative transcripts. Examples of key therapeutic moments in ABFT, for depressed and suicidal LGB adolescents, are discussed in the context of the case.


Conflict is a natural part of life and a part of school life, too. Teachers might be involved in conflicts with students, their parents and colleagues. The point is not to avoid conflicts or to resolve them with administrative tools, but to handle them productively. Conflict management strategies are important in maintaining human relationships, positive classroom environment and school climate. To manage conflicts efficiently, teachers need knowledge and understanding of nature of conflict, special skills and methods of conflict resolution in practice, as well as readiness to conflict management. To analyse teachers' beliefs on conflict nature and conflict transformation the empirical study using mixed methods approach was organized. Participants were secondary school teachers and university teachers from Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk (n=133). Methods used were interview of experts and questionnaire for teachers with close-ended questions and scaled questions constructed in the format of a typical five-level Likert items. The teachers realize the basic nature of conflict and humans' behaviour in it, but their beliefs are rather ambivalent. There are some differences in the beliefs of school teachers and university teachers; both groups of teachers chose the compromise as prevailing conflict strategy but recognize the lack of knowledge and skills in the field of practical conflict resolution. The study hasn't found out significant differences in teachers' beliefs associated with gender, age and teaching speciality.


Prices are the major driver of why the United States spends so much more on health care than other countries do. The pricing power that hospitals have garnered recently has resulted from consolidated delivery systems and concentrated markets, leading to enhanced negotiating leverage. But consolidation may be the wrong frame for viewing the problem of high and highly variable prices; many "must-have" hospitals achieve their pricing power from sources other than consolidation, for example, reputation. Further, the frame of consolidation leads to unrealistic expectations for what antitrust's role in addressing pricing power should be, especially because in the wake of two periods of merger "manias" and "frenzies" many markets already lack effective competition. It is particularly challenging for antitrust to address extant monopolies lawfully attained. New payment and delivery models being pioneered in Medicare, especially those built around accountable care organizations (ACOs), offer an opportunity to reduce pricing power, but only if they are implemented with a clear eye on the impact on prices in commercial insurance markets. This article proposes approaches that public and private payers should consider to complement the role of antitrust to assure that ACOs will actually help control costs in commercial markets as well as in Medicare and Medicaid.


Histamine H1 receptor antagonists, or antihistamines, are very effective for treatment of various allergic disorders such as seasonal rhinitis and urticaria. Sometimes antihistamines induce sedative CNS side effects that might result in dangerous traffic accidents. That is why a lack of sedation is important for development of new antihistamines. It is clear that all antihistamines have a potential to produce subjective (sleepiness, fatigue etc.) and objective sedation (impaired performance), dependent on the histaminergic mechanisms involved in the control of arousal. We have proposed the usefulness of H1 receptor occupancy measurement with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) using 11C-doxepin as a tracer. The PET measurement is currently included as one of the three major factors defined by the international Consensus Group on New Generation Antihistamines (CONGA) for evaluation of antihistamines: 1) incidence of subjective sleepiness, 2) objective and psychomotor functions, and 3) PET measurement of H1 receptor occupancy. Merit of PET measurement is that we can directly calculate the receptor occupancy for each separate drug while the former two should be discussed based on the difference between placebo and active placebo. PET will be used more actively in the development of various new drugs in future.


Ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) have been used to chill water to facilitate cooling of 'Natsuakari' strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) grown within containers during the summer. Two types of soil containers and cooling systems have been considered. In one system, cold-water tubes were placed under as well as over the top of the soil, whereas the other cooling system used cold water passing through tubes placed under the soil and within the irrigation channel to facilitate bottom irrigation. The cooling efficiency of each system was evaluated by observing temperature relationships between greenhouse air and soil. The relationship was represented by means of an elliptic curve, the geometric center and tilt angle of which indicated representative daily soil temperatures and degree of temperature stability, respectively. Both values were observed to be lower for the bottom irrigation system during the two plant growth periods considered in this study, thereby indicating that colder and relatively constant soil temperatures can be maintained via greater heat convection. This greater cooling method was facilitated by rapid transfer of cold water through the bottom irrigation channel into the root zone, resulting from reduction in soil moisture content induced by plant transpiration in addition to heat conduction from the soil to the cooling tube. Measured soil temperatures for the buried-tube system were observed to be coldest when the tube was chilled considerably (9.4 °C). Although the setup of the considered bottom watering system was rather sensitive in that the system required maintenance of a constant water level throughout the container, both systems effectively produced cooler soil temperatures compared with the case in which no GSHP was used.


Many pits and small caves with similar but unusual characteristics exist in four eastern Missouri counties. These caves and pits exhibit pronounced joint control and have been termed fissure caves. The caves all lie in a narrow, northwest-trending belt about five miles wide and 40 miles long, which is approximately coincident with the Rockwoods anticlinal fold belt. Most of the caves occur in the Plattin limestone of Ordovician age. The caves are solutional in orgin and are thought to have developed under artesian conditions. In order to determine the depth of solution, the altitude of river terraces and pre-Pleistocene erosion surfaces were studied, permitting a partial reconstruction of pre-Pleistocene topography. The primary impetus in speleogenesis came from slight regional tilting in the area of the fissure caves, related to uplift of the Ozark dome. Subsurface water drained off the dome through a dipping sandstone aquifer which eventually carried it deep underground. The water was again brought near to the surface in the eroded Rockwoo'ds anticlinal fold belt, and emerged along its flanks in a series of resurgences. The artesian water ascended from the sandstone through the overlying limestone along joints, and solution of the walls of these joints produced the fissure caves. With subsequent planation of the surface, circulation virtually ceased, and the caves filled with red clay. During the Pleistocene Epoch the caves were drained and cleared of most of their fill. Entrances formed when upper sections of the chambers were intersected by recent erosion of the surface.


The article describes the development of a hetro-core optical fiber sensor structure based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for the detection of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) solution. This was accomplished by fabricating a single-mode fiber - multimode fiber - single-mode fiber (SMS) structure. Then, fiber structure is immobilized with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) to improve its sensing capabilities. An UV-Vis spectrophotometer and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) are used to determine the morphology of synthesized nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to examine the state of immobilized NPs on the surface of sensing region. The developed sensor probe has a linear range of 0 to 1000 ng/mL cTnI, a sensitivity of 3 pm/(ng/mL), and a limit of detection (LoD) of 108.15 ng/mL. In real time, the proposed sensor will be used in a practice to detect acute myocardial infarction (AMI).


Similar to most anthraquinone compounds, the pharmacological properties of emodin are limited because of its low water solubility. In this study, the formulation of chitosan and emodin (EMD/CS) was prepared by a bottom-up method with precipitation and sonication steps in order to enhance the solubility of emodin. Thanks to the interactions of oxygen-and nitrogen-containing groups in chitosan with emodin molecules, the solubility of emodin in the formulation was remarkably increased to 0.5 mg/mL. The EMD/CS particles were well dispersed and distributed in a range of sub-micrometer with an average particle size of 342 nm. The EMD/CS formulation exhibited synergic antibacterial activity of emodin and chitosan, against drug-resistant bacterial strains, namely Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7). When the compositions of emodin and chitosan increased, the antibacterial effectiveness of the EMD/CS formulation increased. The EMD/CS formulation with compositions of 0.5 mg/mL of emodin and 9.0 mg/mL of chitosan could significantly inhibit the proliferation of E. coli O157:H7. Meanwhile, the EMD/CS formulation with a lower concentration of emodin (0.4 mg/mL) and chitosan (7.2 mg/mL) could cause an extermination effect on MRSA. The enhanced solubility of EMD/CS formulation suggests that this formulation can be a potential candidate for the treatment of infectious diseases caused by drug-resistant bacterial pathogens.


Natural products and natural product derived compounds are popular sources of new drugs and thus also play a pivotal role in the discovery and development of new antibiotics. The antibiotic fidaxomicin possesses promising antibacterial activity against several Gram-positive bacteria, though the poor bioavailability due to low water solubility, highly limits its clinical application. This thesis deals with our efforts to semisynthetically modify the macrocyclic antibiotic fidaxomicin (1) and presents our approaches starting from the isolation of this complex natural product from its natural source, the actinobacteria Actinoplanes deccanensis.


The notion of 'Continuation' in medieval literature is a familiar one – but it is one which does not know any precise definition. Despite the existence of important texts which take the form of what we nominally call 'Continuation', such as Le Roman de la Rose, Le Chevalier de la Charrette and of course the Perceval Continuations, to date no work exists which specifically examines the mechanics and processes involved in actually producing a 'Continuation'. The existence and importance of 'Continuation' as a genre of medieval literature are undeniable, and yet we cannot begin to claim that we fully understand it. This thesis therefore seeks to make the first tentative movements in creating a working model for understanding what some call the Poetics of Continuation, and it does so by means of close and meticulous analysis of the manuscript tradition and content of the Perceval Continuations.

The Perceval Continuations (composed c.1200-1230) constitute a vast body of material which incorporates four separately authored Continuations, each of which seeks to further, in some way, the unfinished Perceval of Chretien de Troyes – though they are not merely responses to his work. Chronologically, they were composed one after the other, and the next in line picks up where the previous left off, thus they respond intertextually to each other as well as to Chretien, and only one actually furnishes the story as a whole with an ending. As such the Continuations offer an interesting and varied patchwork from whence to begin a study of this kind. By means of a framework of careful methodological design, incorporating theories on what constitutes an 'end' and what is 'unfinished', alongside scrutiny of other, selected, medieval 'ends' and 'Continuations', this thesis examines, first, what the manuscript tradition can tell us about the medieval view of 'Continuation' in terms of whether the Perceval Continuations seem to have been considered as one homogenous whole, or as several separate œuvres, and second, in terms of content and construction, what kind of 'Continuation' each individual text proposes, and how, mechanically, it does so. This analysis culminates in the creation of an efficient working model that aims to facilitate the further study and investigation of other medieval 'continuatory' texts.


Mathematical modeling is a powerful tool to design, control and optimize heat-treating processes. However, the complex interactions occurring between the thermal, microstructural, and stress fields inside the part during those processes (which must be taken into account in detailed modeling work) precludes its use in many instances—especially in a production environment. Thus, it is desirable to find methodologies that can speed up the simulations while maintaining the mathematical model close to reality. In this work, the evolution of the microstructural field was estimated from fraction-transformed-temperature correlations derived directly from a published continuous-cooling-transformation (CCT) diagram, which uses the cooling rate at 750°C as the x-axis. This approach "softens" the coupling between the thermal and fraction-transformed fields resulting in an efficient algorithm. The thermal field evolution was computed using standard procedures embedded in the commercially available code Abaqus, whereas empirical equations describing the fraction transformed-temperature relationships were programmed through user subroutines. The mathematical model was validated by comparing measured and model-predicted thermal response and final microstructure. In the experiments, austenitized AISI 4140 steel cylindrical probes (0.5-in. diameter × 2-in. length) were cooled in: (1) still air, and (2) a fluidized bed reactor, both at room temperature. The thermal response was measured during the cooling process by inserting two thermocouples: one at the geometrical center of the probe and the other near the probe surface, at mid-length. The latter was input to a code developed in-house to estimate the surface heat flux history, which constitutes the active boundary condition for the direct heat conduction problem and was, in turn, fed to the computational model. Once heat treated, the probes were prepared for metallographic observation using standard techniques. The results indicate that the proposed methodology can be used for predicting the thermo-microstructural evolution during a heat-treating process.


It has been assumed that the social deficits inherent in autism imply that individuals with the condition will be unable fully to appreciate the emotional content of music. My aim was to test this assumption, and to explore more widely the similarities and differences between the experience of music in the normal population and those with autism. My first study used musically-induced mood changes and a behavioural measure to show that music does indeed have a more than superficial effect on cognitive processes in a control group. The second study focused on high-functioning adults on the autism spectrum, using semi-structured interviews to investigate the part that music played in their everyday lives, concluding that autism is no bar to full appreciation of the emotional uses of music, though suggesting a degree of impoverishment in the language they used to describe the emotions. The final set of experiments compared control and autism group directly, using physiological (GSR) measures of arousal together with self-report of the emotions evoked by a set of musical items. Standardised questionnaires were used to measure alexithymia (difficulty in identifying and describing feelings) in individuals. Although the autism group experienced comparable levels of physiological arousal to music, they used fewer words than the control group to describe their emotional responses, a difference which correlated strongly with their level of alexithymia. My results are consistent with the hypothesis that in autism, the basic physiological and emotional component of their reactivity to music is functioning normally, but that their ability to translate these reactions into conventional emotional language is reduced, precisely in line with the extent of their alexithymia. These results suggest that the preserved ability of music to generate emotional arousal in autism may lead to clinical applications for the treatment of alexithymia in autism and other conditions.


In order to measure the isotopic ratio of actinides, the upgrade of the accelerator mass spectrometry system at the Center for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental heritage at the Second University of Naples, Italy, was performed. The beam emittance of 238U and the isotopic abundance sensitivity of 236U were measured on the present beam line. Utilizing a 16-strip silicon detector, the sensitivity of 236U/238U≈1×10−11 was obtained.


Current pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia remains unsatisfactory with little hope for complete functional restoration in patients once the disease has developed. A preventive approach based on intervention in the prodromal stage of the disease aiming to preserve functional integrity by halting the progress of the disease is therefore extremely attractive. Here, we investigated the effects of preventive antipsychotic or antidepressant drug treatment in a well-established neurodevelopmental mouse model of multiple schizophrenia-related abnormalities. Pregnant mice on gestation day 9 were exposed to the viral mimic polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidylic acid (2 mg/kg, intravenously) or corresponding vehicle treatment, and the resulting offspring from both prenatal treatment conditions were subjected to chronic antipsychotic (haloperidol or clozapine), antidepressant (fluoxetine), or placebo treatment during the periadolescent stage of development. The effects of the preventive pharmacotherapy on behavioral and pharmacological functions were then investigated in adulthood using paradigms relevant to schizophrenia, namely prepulse inhibition, latent inhibition, and sensitivity to psychostimulant drugs. We show that periadolescent treatment with the reference antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs can successfully block the emergence of multiple psychosis-related behavioral and pharmacological abnormalities in subjects predisposed to adult brain pathology by exposure to prenatal immune challenge. At the same time, however, our study reveals numerous negative influences of the early pharmacological intervention on normal behavioral development in control subjects. Hence, even though preventive pharmacotherapy may be beneficial in individuals with predisposition to psychosis-related brain dysfunctions, chronic antipsychotic or antidepressant drug treatment in false-positive subjects is associated with substantial risk for long-term behavioral disturbances in adulthood.