The aim of this work was to evaluate the interaction of soil fauna and its habitat, with a multiscale approach, critically underlining their complex interaction. Due to considerable difficulties related to the taxonomic determination, it was necessary to utilize a reliable and easy-to-use index to be able to identify environmental stress states. In fact, simplistic systematic approach shows limitation when used as biological monitoring systems, in which it sustains the taxonomic side instead the ecological aspect. In this work, the adaptation of soil fauna into soil life was evaluated. This was verified by the use of Qbs-index "Biological Soil Quality" (Parisi, 2001). The adaptation makes different convergence phenomena to the morphological level. Soil fauna who lives in soil, shows shared morphological characters (e.g reduced size, depigmentation or reduction of jumping organ, i.e. caudal furca). The soil organisms are particularly sensitive to soil degradation and to the disturbances linked to the soil. Moreover here we attempted to investigate the relationship of soil fauna and different land uses. Through the use of the Qbs-ar index, it was observed an high level of soil quality for all the studied sites. Although it was possible to notice many differences between all the considered samples within the same land use, the soil quality classes used for their classification showed a very high value in each sample. This result underlines that all study sites exhibited a good level of biodiversity. Therefore, the soil fauna depend by soil quality and they depend each other. Overall, the data obtained from qualitative and quantitative analysis showed a good level of correlation, confirming a good soil quality for all study sites both by showing differences within a single sampling site with a specific land use and by correlating all sites with different land uses.
In the successive research phase, we wondered in which way and in which amount the soil fauna can influence the soil structure, sampling some sites already analyzed in the previous experimental phase, in which the Qbs-index was applied. the soil samples were analyzed, and the different taxa of soil fauna where discerned. Moreover we applied imaging analysis of the collected soil samples, with aim to correlate the soil fauna with soil structure. More specifically, undisturbed soil samples, were impregnated with epoxy resin and investigated through the use of x-ray medical CAT. The x-ray medical CAT allows to discriminate the soil phase from the pore phase. The image processing was performed in order to obtain 3D reconstructions of the internal structure of the soil blocks. Pore size distribution was determined using the own-developed software Conmorph, through the iterative application of the "opening" algorithm, which classifies the porous phase according to the spacing from the walls. According to the results from investigations on the soil fauna, the samples having a high taxa was richness presented a good and different level of soil pore distribution. In the samples in which taxa differentiation was poor, soil pore size distribution resulted to be rather homogeneous. Although good results were obtained, it was difficult to characterize the porosity related only to the fauna activity in an undisturbed soil samples, since there are many factors influencing their porosity, like the own soil size distribution, the activity of plant roots and of soil fauna (e.g. burrow and casts).
In order to better investigate the cause-effect relationships among different species of soil fauna and the soil pore system, a new experimental approach was developed considering the current knowledge. It consisted on the inoculation of different species in repackage soil mesocosms and it aimed to identify the different biological signatures of the soil fauna. Repacked soil mesocosms, after the burrows species activity, were impregnated with epoxy resin and undergo to x-ray medical CAT. Through the obtained images, it has been possible to obtain the pore size distribution for each studied samples, in order to discriminate the contribution of each species to soil pore structure. Additionally, eleven morphological parameters, such as total volume, tortuosity or individual burrowing ratio, were calculated for each burrow system, in order to better characterize the morphology of the bio-pore networks.
The last experimental phase was conducted means by a laboratory test consisting in the inoculation of different soil fauna species under controlled conditions. Particular attention was given to the study of the CO2 and N2O fluxes and how the soil fauna may affect these fluxes. This was studied means by an Infrared gas analyzer after the accumulation of CO2 and N2O gas into repacked soil microcosms inoculated with different soil fauna types, individually or mixed each other. At the end of fluxes measurement, each microcosm was used for fauna extractions and for soil analysis (e.g. DOC, pH). The experiment showed the huge difficulty to control all the variables involved in complex processes due to living organisms, like the soil respiration and the soil emission of N2O and simultaneously allowed to state that an increase in the soil respiration and in the fluxes of N2O was essentially provided by the presence of the earthworms.


Opportunity to participate in an out-of-school time program may be a meaningful support mechanism towards school success and healthy development for immigrant and refugee children. This study extends existing research on best practices by examining the on-the-ground experiences of supporting immigrant and refugee youth in out-of-school time programs. Findings from semi-structured interviews with program directors in 17 Massachusetts and New Hampshire programs suggest a number of program strategies that were responsive to the needs of immigrant and refugee students, including support for the use of native language as well as English, knowing about and celebrating the heritage of the students' homeland, including on staff or in leadership individuals with shared immigrant background, and giving consideration to the academic priorities of parents. The development of such intentional approaches to working with immigrant and refugee youth during the out-of-school time hours will encourage enrollment of, and enhance effectiveness with, this vulnerable population.


This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of the high speed machining (HSM) process with multiple performance characteristics based on the orthogonal array with the grey relational analysis has been studied. Optimal machining parameters can then be determined by the grey relational grade as the performance index. In this study, the machining parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate and axial depth of cut are optimized under the multiple performance characteristics including, tool life, surface roughness, and material removal rate(MMR). As shown experimental results, machining performance in the HSM process can be improved effectively through this approach.


With the rapid development of the multimedia technologies such as compression and digital image sensor technologies, it is more and more necessary to build up a large database. Therefore robust and efficient methodologies for image retrieval techniques have gained the attention of researchers. In the last few years the booming interest in the web images has paved a way to make people on content based Image retrieval techniques and also supporting systems for the retrieval process. In this paper, a general review of Content based image retrieval process by comparing with existing retrieval techniques along with experimental results and applications are presented. Some of the major challenges in the adaption of content based image retrieval algorithms are also discussed.


The study presented in this PhD thesis is concerned with the exploration of symbolic, perceptual and ideological aspects of the global spread of English as an international lingua franca. In particular, it investigates the ways in which university students from a variety of Spanish-speaking contexts conceptualise and position English as a global language, and the ways in which they label and evaluate the variability emerging from its lingua franca use (ELF). English has come to be known as the worlds' international language par excellence as a result of complex social, historical, political and globalisation processes. Learning more about the global use of English has led scholars to problematize long-standing theorisations of language and their suitability to explain the observed phenomena. Since language globalisation processes are not only affecting the ways in which we use English, but also the broader ways in which we think about it, it is necessary to explore the theorisations and representations of language with which (non-linguist) English users operate nowadays, how these may relate to their linguistic experiences and expectations, and how they may affect their future trajectories. In this thesis, I provide qualitative insights into the views of Spanish-speaking undergraduates from Chile, Mexico and Spain. I examine how students construct their experiences, conceptualisations, attitudes and beliefs, by analysing elicited talk about English. Attention is placed on the functions and meanings that are associated with the language between global and local spheres of use, and on conceptualisations and evaluations of ELF interactions in relation to issues of intelligibility, linguistic variability, and identity expression. The findings introduce the multiple and conflicted interpretative repertoires with which participants construct their evaluations and the complex uses made of key language and communication-related notions. The analysis also showcases the multifarious ways in which students recreate, challenge and/or negotiate broader ideologies of language in metalinguistic practice. Overall, the study highlights the need to address the sharp contrasts existing between the ontological complexity and multidimensionality with which students view this language, and the one-sided, standard and native-speaker-oriented representations that typically dominate principles and policies of English Language Teaching (ELT). To conclude, the thesis considers the pedagogical opportunities that talk about language has to offer in itself for ELT.


This paper presents a novel pedestrian detection system for intelligent vehicles. We propose the use of dense stereo for both the generation of regions of interest and pedestrian classification. Dense stereo allows the dynamic estimation of camera parameters and the road profile, which, in turn, provides strong scene constraints on possible pedestrian locations. For classification, we extract spatial features (gradient orientation histograms) directly from dense depth and intensity images. Both modalities are represented in terms of individual feature spaces, in which discriminative classifiers (linear support vector machines) are learned. We refrain from the construction of a joint feature space but instead employ a fusion of depth and intensity on the classifier level. Our experiments involve challenging image data captured in complex urban environments (i.e., undulating roads and speed bumps). Our results show a performance improvement by up to a factor of 7.5 at the classification level and up to a factor of 5 at the tracking level (reduction in false alarms at constant detection rates) over a system with static scene constraints and intensity-only classification.


Lipoxygenases constitute a family of enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of lipids, resulting in products that may have undesirable effects. These enzymes can affect pasta color and cause off-flavors. The purpose of this study was to map the loci associated with lipoxygenase activity in seeds of a durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum ) population to determine if lipoxygenase activity is associated with flour color. Seed of the parents, Jennah Khetifa and Cham 1, and the recombinant inbred population consisting of 113 progeny lines were used to assay lipoxygenase activity and flour color. A saturated molecular-marker linkage map for this population was previously constructed. Allele specific primers targeting the wheat homolog to barley LoxA were designed, and a fragment length polymorphism resulting from a miniature inverted-repeat transposable element (MITE) insertion in an intron of the durum wheat LoxA homolog allowed mapping of the locus to chromosome 4BS. To measure lipoxygenase activity, spectrophotometric changes were recorded. Cham 1 had a change in absorbance of 0.284 units of absorbance over 1 min compared with 0.752 units for Jennah Khetifa. Quantitative trait locus analysis of these data indicated that most of the lipoxygenase activity was associated with the wheat lipoxygenase gene (Lpx) on chromosome 4BS. A quantitative trait locus for vitreous appearance of seeds also was associated with this locus. Flour color was not correlated with lipoxygenase activity in this population. With this knowledge, marker-assisted selection can be used to select genotypes with lower lipoxygenase activity in durum wheat populations.


A goal of the NASA Human Health and Performance Directorate is to enable successful space exploration by minimizing the risks of spaceflight hazards.


Bioinformatic, biochemical, and reverse genetics analyses suggest that only one of the nine annotated Arabidopsis cytidine deaminase genes encodes a fully functional enzyme involved in pyrimidine catabolism. CYTIDINE DEAMINASE (CDA) catalyzes the deamination of cytidine to uridine and ammonia in the catabolic route of C nucleotides. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) CDA gene family comprises nine members, one of which (AtCDA) was shown previously in vitro to encode an active CDA. A possible role in C-to-U RNA editing or in antiviral defense has been discussed for other members. A comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of plant CDA sequences, combined with biochemical functionality tests, strongly suggests that all Arabidopsis CDA family members except AtCDA are pseudogenes and that most plants only require a single CDA gene. Soybean (Glycine max) possesses three CDA genes, but only two encode functional enzymes and just one has very high catalytic efficiency. AtCDA and soybean CDAs are located in the cytosol. The functionality of AtCDA in vivo was demonstrated with loss-of-function mutants accumulating high amounts of cytidine but also CMP, cytosine, and some uridine in seeds. Cytidine hydrolysis in cda mutants is likely caused by NUCLEOSIDE HYDROLASE1 (NSH1) because cytosine accumulation is strongly reduced in a cda nsh1 double mutant. Altered responses of the cda mutants to fluorocytidine and fluorouridine indicate that a dual specific nucleoside kinase is involved in cytidine as well as uridine salvage. CDA mutants display a reduction in rosette size and have fewer leaves compared with the wild type, which is probably not caused by defective pyrimidine catabolism but by the accumulation of pyrimidine catabolism intermediates reaching toxic concentrations.


Chile's 1981 reform revolutionized pension design and created a system that was lauded and emulated widely. The main feature of the system was the creation of state-mandated, privately managed individual pension capitalization accounts based on contributions of employees. After nearly three decades of experience, there is a reassessment of the extent to which the pension system has achieved its objectives, particularly with respect to coverage and adequacy. In March 2006, the newly elected President Bachelet set up a Presidential Advisory Council on Pension Reform under the chairmanship of Mario Marcel to evaluate the existing pension system. This paper examines the rationale and the nature of the recommendations made by the Council. The analysis focuses on the structure of the proposed new pension system and risk-sharing implications of different pillars of the system, the accessibility of the existing pension system in terms of coverage, particularly for women and self-employed persons, the impact of reform on transaction costs; investment policies and management and their implications for rates of return and financial market development. The implications of the new system on pension design and policy debate in Asian countries are addressed. The paper suggests that must imbibe lessons from countries such as Chile and urgently undertake the task of constructing sustainable, robust and adequate pension systems and social safety nets.


The Phantom, conceived as a newspaper comic strip in 1936, is the forerunner of the comic-book superhero genre which today underpins vast, multi-billion dollar franchises that span publishing, audio-visual entertainment and licensed merchandise. Yet despite the character's American provenance, The Phantom has enjoyed consistently greater popularity amongst international audiences, most notably in Australia, India and Sweden. The paradox of The Phantom, whereby its relative commercial failure in the US was offset by its phenomenal success in these culturally distinct foreign markets, forms the basis for a fascinating case-study that can provide fresh insights into the production, dissemination and consumption of popular media. Charting the publication of The Phantom comic book across international markets since the mid-1930s creates an opportunity for delving into the largely unexplored pre-history of modern media licensing industries. Examining the complex, intersecting political, economic and temporal factors that have influenced The Phantom's popularity in Australia, India and Sweden provides a nuanced study of the complex cultural flow of a specific media property, and raises questions about the dominance of textual methodologies in non-denunciatory examinations of popular media. Surveying attitudes towards The Phantom amongst Australian, Indian and Swedish audiences brings a greater international dimension to the study of comic fandom that enriches the existing body of audience reception literature, which, to date, has been confined to a largely Anglo-American focus. By intertwining critical political economy with media history, coupled with the use of audience studies and textual analysis, the cultural history of The Phantom comic book in Australia, India and Sweden adopts theoretical frameworks and methodologies rarely brought to bear in the study of comic books, to bring a richer, multi-perspectival approach to the burgeoning field of comics studies.


The pH-rate profiles were determined for the acidic hydrolysis of some 6-substituted 9-(beta-D-ribofuranosyl) purines. The product analyses indicated that the reactions generally proceed with formation of purine bases as initial products. However, at low oxonium ion concentrations the hydrolysis of the unsubstituted compound yields 4-amino-5-formamidopyrimidine, instead of purine formed in highly acidic solutions. The rate constants for the spontaneous and oxonium ion catalyzed heterolysis of the protonated substrates were calculated from the acidity constants and the observed rate constants. The dependence of the partial rate constants on the polar nature of the 6-substituents are consistent with rate-limiting formation of free purine bases and glycosyl oxocarbenium ions. No anomerization of the substrates was observed during the course of the hydrolysis.


Virtual organizations are dynamic associations of business partners that join forces to achieve a common goal. Because partners live in very competitive environments and they do not fully trust each other, they establish contractual agreements to help reduce the risk of participating in the virtual organization. This naturally puts severe demands on the security of the process leading to the establishment of a contract, including negotiation of terms and conditions. The open context in which virtual organizations are created raises further security concerns. This papers discusses the security requirements over contract negotiation that arise in this context, examines current negotiation protocols and proposes enhancements to one of them.


Effective management of forest resources requires reliable and timely information on their status. In this regard, remote sensing techniques have played an important role, as they allow collection of data on extensive, remote and inaccessible areas. Historically, aerial photographs were the primary remote sensing data source in forest inventory and mapping, and they are still extensively for visual photo-interpretation. In this thesis, we show that their use can be improved thanks to automatic processing and an application using digitised orthophotos is provided. Satellite-based remote sensing has been regarded as an alternative, low-cost and rapid, data source to aerial photography and ground survey. Indeed, it has proved to be effective at the continental and global scales, but applications for local forest management purposes are still rare. The main reason for this is that the spatial resolution of satellite remote sensing data that was available until recently (mainly from Landsat TM/ETM and SPOT HRV) was too coarse for stand level information. Satellite images with enhanced spatial resolution (such as IKONOS) should overcome this limitation. This thesis investigates their actual capabilities for forest stand mapping and characterisation. We show that they are well suited for forest stand type classification and for retrieval of several dendrometric variables in coniferous stands with an accuracy similar to that of field sampling. For the sake of solutions to provide more precise and detailed information on forest stand, we assessed also the contribution of hyperspectral and multiple-view angle data acquired by CHRIS/PROBA. Although the winter season scene did not fully permit utilisation of the hyperspectral dimension of this dataset, the study provides insights into directional effects. This work makes, hopefully, a step towards automated processing and effective integration of satellite-based remote sensing data into the forest management information system and, by upscaling, into the national forest inventories.


Antibodies against glycine receptors (GlyRAbs) have been found in patients with acquired neuro-logical syndromes, which include oculomotor and autonomic disturbance, rigidity and other evidence of disturbance of spinal inhibitory circuits. However, as with other neuropil autoantibodies, the relationship between the identified antibody and neurological disease remains unclear. Using whole-cell patch-clamp we have recorded spontaneous miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) from motoneurons in rat dissociated spinal cord cultures. GABA and glycine are co-released at interneuron-motoneuron synapses, both contributing to mIPSCs. We separate the two components (on the basis of time-course) to quantify the contribution of glycinergic neurotransmission to the average mIPSC for motoneurons incubated in patient IgG and control IgG. We will use this system to investigate the cellular mechanisms of disrupted glycinergic neurotransmission. We will also explore whether this functional assay can be used to detect antibodies in sera from patients suspected to have antibody-mediated deficiency in glycinergic neurotransmission, without an identified antigenic target (seronegative 'stiff person plus' and opsoclonus-myoclonus). Alongside the in vitro investigations we will use clinical neurophysiology to identify affected circuits in GlyRAb patients, and monitor changes with disease progression and recovery. Findings will be compared to patients with genetic defects in glycinergic pathways (hereditary hyperekplexia).


Road accidents are a human tragedy. They involve high human suffering and monetary costs in terms of untimely death, injuries and social problems. India had earned the dubious distinction of having more number of fatalities due to road accidents in the world. Road safety is emerging as a major social concern around the world especially in India because of infrastructure project works. A case study was taken on NH – 07 which connects to various major cities and industries. The study shows that major cases of fatalities are due to bus, trucks and high speed vehicles. The main causes of accidents are due to high density, non-restriction of speed, use of mobile phones, lack of board signs on road parking, visibility restriction, improper geometric design, road use characteristics, environmental aspects, social aspects etc. Data analysis and preventive measures are enlightened in this paper. Keywords—Accidents, environmental aspects, fatalities, geometric design, road user characteristics.


There is evidence in mice and honeybees that signals initiated by odorants at the olfactory epithelium arrive downstream in the olfactory bulb between 10 and 200ms later and that these latencies are ligand dependent. It has recently been proposed that these latencies could be used by mice to identify or classify. Here we demonstrate that humans are sensitive to the timing of individual of odorant presentation. Using a two-alternate forced choice (2AFC) paradigm—subjects chose which odorant they recognized first after they experienced two 70ms puffs separated in time by some interval in the range of -450ms to +450ms. All subject recognition probabilities yielded the same linear function of latency (p<0.05) even though they differed in their recognition thresholds for the components and their recognition probability to detect them in binary mixtures. These results indicate that temporal structure of odor delivery affects human odor perception and sniff olfactometry (SO) has the temporal resolution necessary to measure these effects.


A standard narrative in the literary history of English Canada is that literary culture was able to "develop" in the wake of the 1951 Massey Report, finally "arriving" in the years between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s. This essay offers another view of this period, analyzing not the smooth developmental momentum but rather the contradiction and disavowal that attended one of the federal government's first direct forms of support for the book, which came in the form of postwar book diplomacy efforts. Using Anna Johnston and Allan Lawson's theorization of settler colonialism, the essay analyzes how these book diplomacy undertakings exemplify the "double inscription of authority and authenticity" of settler contradiction. As the Imperium shifted across the Atlantic in the decade that followed the close of the Second World War, the settler nation struggled to locate itself anew in relation to its doubled, desired, and disavowed origins.


Trusted platforms have been proposed as a promising approach for providing security for wireless sensor nodes platform, particularly, from physical type of attacks. However, implementation of a separate Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip on the platform is not acceptable in the design of wireless sensor nodes because it increases the size and total power consumption of the node. Alternative to that is to use embedded microprocessors with built-in security module, which implements functions similar to the TPM, on the embedded processor. However, since the sensor node is a resource constrained platform with limited processing capabilities, it is important to ensure that the computation and energy consumption for running security functions in the microprocessor are at an acceptable rate. In this study, a trusted boot process for sensor node is developed to provide a trusted platform for wireless sensor node. It comprises of first and second level boot process. The purpose of this research is to implement the "trusted boot process" on the embedded microprocessor to provide security on the hardware layer of sensor node. The proposed system involves integration of hardware and software subsystems. The hardware subsystem, utilize ARM1176JZF-S Development Board with ICE-JTAG. For the software subsystem, the proposed system will have two levels of boot process; which are first level bootloader, acting as the root of trust of the system and, second level bootloader with security module to check the integrity of the kernel or applications that will run on the platform. The results show that the proposed system is able to provide basic security implementations to support image verification of a sensor node through trusted boot process. A brief energy consumption study is also presented to support the work


ABSTRACT The estrogen receptor (ER) regulates the expression of target genes in a ligand-dependent manner. The ligand-dependent activation function AF-2 of the ER is located in the ligand binding domain (LBD), while the N-terminal A/B domain (AF-1) functions in a ligand-independent manner when isolated from the LBD. AF-1 and AF-2 exhibit cell type and promoter context specificity. Furthermore, the AF-1 activity of the human ERα (hERα) is enhanced through phosphorylation of the Ser118 residue by mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). From MCF-7 cells, we purified and cloned a 68-kDa protein (p68) which interacted with the A/B domain but not with the LBD of hERα. Phosphorylation of hERα Ser118 potentiated the interaction with p68. We demonstrate that p68 enhanced the activity of AF-1 but not AF-2 and the estrogen-induced as well as the anti-estrogen-induced transcriptional activity of the full-length ERα in a cell-type-specific manner. However, it did not potentiate AF-1 or AF-2 of ERβ, androgen receptor, retinoic acid receptor alpha, or mineralocorticoid receptor. We also show that the RNA helicase activity previously ascribed to p68 is dispensable for the ERα AF-1 coactivator activity and that p68 binds to CBP in vitro. Furthermore, the interaction region for p68 in the ERα A/B domain was essential for the full activity of hERα AF-1. Taken together, these findings show that p68 acts as a coactivator specific for the ERα AF-1 and strongly suggest that the interaction between p68 and the hERα A/B domain is regulated by MAPK-induced phosphorylation of Ser118.


Objectives: NaF18 PET/CT is considered to be more sensitive than Tc99m-MDP bone scan in detecting osseous metastasis. Some studies have suggested that for newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients with PSA<10ng/ml, a Tc99m-MDP bone scan is unnecessary. The main goal of this study is to assess if PSA= 10ng/ml is a good cutoff value to predict metastatic bone disease in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients imaged with NaF18 PET/CT. Methods: From the NaF18 PET/CT ordered to evaluate for prostate cancer metastasis between January 2010 and April 2011 (n=91), newly diagnosed biopsy proven prostate cancer cases before treatment were chosen (n=28). The sample was divided into two groups: group I (bone metastasis) and group II (no bone metastasis). PSA values were also reviewed. Results: Group I (n=4) had mean PSA 121.29ng/ml, range 8.9-297.55ng/ml, mean age 74.5 years) and group II (n=24) had (mean PSA 27.43ng/ml, range 0.05- 348.68ng/ml, mean age 69.6 years). In our sample, 1 patient (25%) from group I with PSA<10ng/ml had bone metastasis. PSA cutoff value of 10ng/ml has a negative predictive value of 92.86% (odds ratio=3.55, 95% confidence interval 0.32 to 39.14, P =0.596). Conclusions: For our study with veterans, there appears to be no significant relationship between PSA of < 10ng/ml and negative bone metastasis in newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases. 1 in 4 patients with PSA<10ng/ml from group I had bone metastasis. With the new introduction of NaF18 PET/CT as a more sensitive technique than MDP-99m whole body bone scans, we question the strict use of PSA=10ng/ml as a cutoff value. Age, race and region specific guidelines for bone scan use need to be developed. Both retrospective and prospective studies involving multiple institutions and larger sample sizes are needed to further confirm the association between PSA value alone and positive NaF18 PET/CT bone scans.


The transcriptional events that control T cell tolerance to peripheral self Ags are still unknown. In this study, we analyzed the regulation of AP-1- and NF-κB-mediated transcription during in vivo induction of tolerance to a self Ag expressed exclusively on hepatocytes. Naive CD8+Désiré (Des)+ T cells isolated from the Des TCR-transgenic mice that are specific for the H-2Kb class I Ag were transferred into Alb-Kb-transgenic mice that express the H-2Kb Ag on hepatocytes only. Tolerance develops in these mice. We found that the self-reactive CD8+Des+ T cells were transiently activated, then became unresponsive and were further deleted. In contrast to CD8+Des+ T cells activated in vivo with APCs, which express high AP-1 and high NF-κB transcriptional activity, the unresponsive CD8+Des+ T cells expressed no AP-1 and only weak NF-κB transcriptional activity. The differences in NF-κB transcriptional activity correlated with the generation of distinct NF-κB complexes. Indeed, in vivo primed T cells predominantly express p50/p50 and p65/p50 dimers, whereas these p50-containing complexes are barely detectable in tolerant T cells that express p65- and c-Rel-containing complexes. These observations suggest that fine regulation of NF-κB complex formation may determine T cell fate.


Erin Manning, a participant in goat island archive—we have discovered the performance by making it, suggests the concept of "anarchive" as a new approach to understanding the archive. She argues that the anarchival "follow[s] the logic not of originality or wholeness, but of emergent process," focusing on the archive's futuristic value rather than its quality as a collection of past documents. In this allusive, poetic meditation on an ethos of "repair" as it relates to performance, archival processes, and the work of performance collective Goat Island, Manning illuminates how drawing, sculpting, and architecting can be methodologies of anarchiving, which performatively re-creates the emergent process of the original work.


A novel method of polymer monolith microextraction (PMME) using poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith combined with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-QTOF MS) was developed for the rapid and sensitive determination of beta-agonists in pork samples. The conditions of PMME were optimized for the improvement of extraction efficiency and reduction of the matrix interferences from pork. Under the optimal condition, the eluate solution allowed direct analysis by mass spectrometry. In the positive ion mode and in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, the limits of detection (LODs) for beta-agonists were found to be 0.08 ng/g (clenbuterol, CLB), 0.18 ng/g (salbutamol, SBTM) and 0.26 ng/g (terbutaline, TBTL) in pork, respectively, with good inter- and intra-day precisions (2-10% for CLB, 11-23% for SBTM and 4-16% for TBTL). The proposed PMME/ESI-QTOF MS method was successfully applied to the determination of beta-agonist residues in thirteen real samples, and the positive samples were confirmed according to the identification points (IPs) system defined by Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. To investigate the matrix effect, the proposed method was compared with PMME-HPLC/ESI-QTOF MS and the slight decrease in sensitivity of PMME/ESI-QTOF MS was ascribed to the inter-analyte ion suppression.


This study introduces a water‐driven crop model aiming to quantitatively link olive yield to climate and soil moisture dynamics using an ecohydrological approach. A mathematical model describing soil moisture, evapotranspiration and assimilation dynamics of olive orchards is developed here. The model is able to explicitly reproduce two different hydroclimatic phases in Mediterranean areas: the well‐watered conditions in which evapotranspiration and assimilation assume their maximum values and the real conditions where the limitations induced by soil moisture availability are taken into account. Annual olive yield is obtained by integrating the carbon assimilation during the growing season, including the effects of vegetation water stress on biomass allocation. This numerical model has been tested on an olive orchard located in Sicily (Italy) obtaining a satisfactory reproduction of historical olive yield data. This model is useful for simulating the influence of soil moisture dynamic on biomass growth, fruit productivity, also in a context of climatic change. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Evaluation of competitiveness became an important instrument for balancing the development process of the economy. For Slovenia it is important tool for policy creation. Benchmarking with more developed countries shows us the right directions of development process. Competitiveness can be analysed from different sides. Existed studies have focused on several different analytical levels: product, firm, industry cluster, region and nation. The most successful economies are raising the skill content of their labour force. By reducing transportation and communication costs, it links economies and societies into closer, tighter webs. It facilitates the integration of production under common ownership (transnational companies), allowing access to capital flows, world markets, skills, and technology. Competitiveness evaluation of Slovenian economy shows us that the problems remain the same during the enlargement process of the European Union. Competitiveness is defined as the quality of the economic and institutional environment for the sustainable development of private productive activities and the increise in productivity. Today we focuse more on policies and strategies on institutional and also on business level that mainatain the long-term competitiveness. Competitiveness can be seen as the collection of factors, policies and institutions which determine the level of productivity of a country and that, therefore, determine the level of prosperity that can be attained by an economy. In the paper I will evaluate the Slovenian competitiveness by SWOT analysis. After European enlargement we can see that some CEE countries have benefited more than other countries. Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia have increased the locational attractiveness for business sector and also improved the institutional competitiveness. Harmonization with EU legislation and adoption of " Acquis Communautaire " have improved the institutions and the legal sys-240 tem. On the other side, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria have problems connected with the enlargement process. Because these latter countries stayed outside the first enlargement process, they have, in addition to their originally less competitive, position lower competitiveness possibilities. The integration process increased the possibilities for benchmarking. Today is more common to benchmark different countries and compare the main determinants of competitiveness. Evaluation of competitiveness is an important tool for economic policy. Slovenia as a small country can be analysed from the view of regional competitiveness. Improving competitiveness is not about driving down living standards. It is about creating a high skills, high productivity and therefore high wage economy where enterprise can flourish and where we can find opportunities rather than threats in …


Manganese oxide was prepared by decomposing MnCO3 obtained from the reaction between Na2CO3 and MnCl2·4H2O, and a MnO/C composite was fabricated by processing the mixture of manganese oxide and pitch in a nitrogen atmosphere at 600 °C. Compared to the MnO/C composite obtained under the similar conditions using glucose as the carbon source, the composite containing the pitch-derived soft carbon demonstrates an improved initial Coulombic efficiency (from 57.2% to 68.8%), a stable capacity of 601.8 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g−1 after the 50th cycle, an outstanding capacity of 265 mA h g−1 even when cycling at 500 mA g−1 for 350 times, and superior rate capabilities. From the detailed characterization by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis, it is found that the enhanced electrochemical performance associated with the improved electronic conductivity and high stability resulted from the higher graphitization degree of the pitch-derived soft carbon than the glucose-derived hard carbon.


Alterations to the tissue microenvironment appear to play a critical role in the initial stages of melanocyte to melanoma transition, the development of invasive potential, and the resistance to therapy (Postovit et al., Cancer Res, 66:7833, 2006). Given the importance of the E-cadherin/N-cadherin homeostatic tissue control of melanocyte growth and differentiation and the E-cadherin to N-cadherin switch that is found in the conversion from normal to metastatic melanoma, the interplay of the two endpoints may be relevant for identifying possible melanoma prevention activity. We have developed a melanoma chemoprevention assay based on this cadherin switch using human radial growth melanoma cells. The four endpoints examined were: induction of annexin V (apoptosis), induction of HLA-ABC, cell surface expression of E-cadherin, and N-cadherin. Only limited responses were observed with the annexin V and HLA-ABC endpoints; however, the cadherin endpoints appear to be informative. We screened eleven potential melanoma preventive agents that represent a broad range of mechanistic classes using this assay. E-Cadherin expression was enhanced for nine of eleven agents. The induced E-cadherin expression levels exceeded those found in the no UV/no drug control cells for four of the nine positive agents. Atorvastatin showed the greatest efficacy for this endpoint. An inhibition of N-Cadherin was produced by four of eleven agents: atorvastatin, Lovastatin, rosiglitazone maleate, and Verapamil. With the exception of Verapamil, these agents inhibited cell surface N-cadherin expression at six or more concentrations. The potential melanoma prevention efficacies for the more potent agents were ranked as follows: rosiglitazone maleate > atorvastatin > Lovastatin > Rapamycin, gemfibrozil. Each of these agents was active at concentrations that are clinically achievable. Supported by NCI contract #N01-CN-43300.


Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act - Repeals, as of the later of October 1, 2007, or the date of enactment of this Act, certain provisions which require the offset of amounts paid in dependency and indemnity compensation from Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities for the surviving spouses of former military personnel who are entitled to military pay or who would be entitled to retired pay except for being under 60 years of age. Provides for the recoupment of certain amounts previously paid to SBP recipients in the form of a retired pay refund. Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to waive the recoupment requirement in certain cases. Repeals the optional authority of (and instead requires) the Secretary of the military department concerned to pay an annuity to a member's dependent children when there is no eligible surviving spouse. Directs the Secretary to restore annuity eligibility to a surviving spouse who earlier agreed to transfer such eligibility to a surviving child or children of a member.


Abstract. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) accounts for a large fraction of submicron
particles in the atmosphere. SOA can occur in amorphous solid or semi-solid
phase states depending on chemical composition, relative humidity (RH), and
temperature. The phase transition between amorphous solid and semi-solid
states occurs at the glass transition temperature ( Tg) . We have
recently developed a method to estimate Tg  of pure compounds
containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms (CHO compounds) with molar mass
less than 450 g mol −1 based on their molar mass and atomic O : C
ratio. In this study, we refine and extend this method for CH and CHO
compounds with molar mass up to ∼  1100 g mol −1 using the number
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. We predict viscosity from the
 Tg -scaled Arrhenius plot of fragility (viscosity vs.
 Tg∕T) as a function of the fragility parameter D . We compiled
 D values of organic compounds from the literature and found that D
approaches a lower limit of ∼  10 ( ± 1.7) as the molar mass
increases. We estimated the viscosity of α -pinene and isoprene SOA as
a function of RH by accounting for the hygroscopic growth of SOA and applying
the Gordon–Taylor mixing rule, reproducing previously published experimental
measurements very well. Sensitivity studies were conducted to evaluate
impacts of Tg , D , the hygroscopicity parameter ( κ) , and
the Gordon–Taylor constant on viscosity predictions. The viscosity of
toluene SOA was predicted using the elemental composition obtained by
high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), resulting in a good agreement with
the measured viscosity. We also estimated the viscosity of biomass burning
particles using the chemical composition measured by HRMS with two different
ionization techniques: electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure
photoionization (APPI). Due to differences in detected organic compounds and
signal intensity, predicted viscosities at low RH based on ESI and APPI
measurements differ by 2–5 orders of magnitude. Complementary measurements
of viscosity and chemical composition are desired to further constrain
RH-dependent viscosity in future studies.


The Semantic Web relies heavily on formal ontologies to structure data for comprehensive and transportable machine understanding. Thus, the proliferation of ontologies factors largely in the Semantic Web's success. The authors present an ontology learning framework that extends typical ontology engineering environments by using semiautomatic ontology construction tools. The framework encompasses ontology import, extraction, pruning, refinement and evaluation.


Air core compensated pulsed alternators are being developed as compact power supplies for tactical electromagnetic gun systems. The field coil of the compensated pulsed alternator is a critical component that establishes the excitation magnetic field. Since the machine is air cored, the number of ampere-turns required from the field coil are significant. The rotating nature of the field coil requires that it be light so it can be supported under centrifugal loads. This implies that the current density in the field coil conductors is quite large. Charging the field coil too fast also results in transient losses due to proximity and skin effects. These must be accounted for in the design and simulation of these machines. During the discharge into the load, transient currents flow in the armature winding. These currents produce magnetic fields that interact with the field coils and produce additional losses. This calculation is complicated by the fact that there is relative motion between the conductors. This paper describes a two-dimensional numerical analysis that has been conducted to evaluate the losses in the field coil under these two dynamic conditions.


Introduction. What is rehabilitative stoma care? Intestinal physiology and its implications for patients with bowel stomas. Types of bowel stoma and why they are created. Practical management of bowel stomas. Specific aspects of care for patients with ileostomies and colostomies. Care of patients with urinary stomas. Communicating effectively. Towards leaving hospital. Towards rehabilitation. Care of patients with internal bowel pouches. Care of patients with an electrically stimulated gracilis neo sphincter. Care of patients with internal urinary pouches. Paediatric stoma care. Care of patients with fistulae and drain sites. Irrigation. Dietary considerations following stoma surgery. Medication and stoma care. Care of patients receiving anti-tumour chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The patient's background. Responding to loss and change. Problems in stoma management. Problems in rehabilitation. Developing stoma care. Useful contact information.


The nature of invention, the reason(s) for protecting invention and the requirements for the patentability of invention under the Nigerian Patents and Designs Act are the main thrust of this paper. It is now trite that the global standard or criterion for granting a patent is that the invention must be patentable. The paper therefore examines the criteria for patenting inventions, that is, such invention must be novel; it must results from inventive activity and must not be obvious to a person knowledgeable in the art or field of study. In respect of plant or animal varieties, or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals (other than microbiological processes and their products) patent is denied. The paper analyses this position and concludes that there is the need to ensure that invention and innovation is not stultified by refusing to patent an invention just because it is biological. The Nigerian Patent Registry refuses patent applications for Software or Computer-implemented inventions this paper argues that this provision of law should be changed in line with the rapid development in the field of computer technology. The paper concludes by making recommendations to improve the current legal situation in Nigeria. Keywords: Intellectual property, patent, inventions, patentability


After deriving the propagation formula of stress wave through incident bar, the measured signals both in horizontal impact test and drop impact tests are investigated with novel fiber Bragg grating sensors(FBGs). Especially those strain signals from FBGs which mounted on the surface of an incident bar are studied. The signals in impactor and the FBGs embedded in the composite material under similar test condition are compared. The dropping and impacting models have been setup. The experiment data measured in a lab are analyzed both in time-domain and in frequency domain. Those ultra-high frequency components in the above strain signals can not be obtained by current FBG measurement system due to frequency limit of the demodulation system. Further study to improve the frequency of demodulation system will be done in next step.


Abstract We propose a nonparametric test of independence, termed optHSIC, between a covariate and a right-censored lifetime. Because the presence of censoring creates a challenge in applying the standard permutation-based testing approaches, we use optimal transport to transform the censored dataset into an uncensored one, while preserving the relevant dependencies. We then apply a permutation test using the kernel-based dependence measure as a statistic to the transformed dataset. The type 1 error is proven to be correct in the case where censoring is independent of the covariate. Experiments indicate that optHSIC has power against a much wider class of alternatives than Cox proportional hazards regression and that it has the correct type 1 control even in the challenging cases where censoring strongly depends on the covariate.


The environmental and polluting materials emission standards in Europe are going to be always stricter, so in order to keep up with them, one of the largest European automotive manufacturer performs a laser treatment on the cylinder bores of their internal combustion engines. Due to the laser treatment, the near surface area of the cylinder bore becomes harder and more wear resistant, furthermore, due to the inhomogenity of the pearlitic matrix and graphite lamellae, oil reserving holes are formed. In our present work we investigated the laser treated layer of cast iron cylinder bores with lamellar graphite. Samples prepared with two different lasertypes and different energies were investigated on behalf of metallographic and functional aspects.


A step closer to understanding fatty liver due to HCV

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection afflicts about 200 million people worldwide and is presently the most common cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in Western countries. Over the last decade, an association between HCV infection, hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance (IR) and type II diabetes has been highlighted, although the cause–effect relationship underlying the co-existence of these phenomena has yet to be completely clarified.1 These observations are important because the presence of steatosis and/or IR in chronic HCV infection appears to modulate the progression of fibrosis and the response to antiviral therapy in chronic HCV infection.2–4

Mechanisms underling steatosis development in chronic HCV infection have been demonstrated to be genotype specific, with an apparent direct steatogenic effect of genotype 3, and an IR-associated steatosis effect exerted by genotype 1.5,6 The direct steatogenic effect of HCV genotype 3 is confirmed by findings such as those showing a correlation between HCV genotype 3 RNA level and steatosis in chronically infected patients and the resolution of steatosis in genotype 3-infected patients after response to antiviral treatment.5–7

Several mechanisms whereby HCV infection can directly cause steatosis have been described. HCV can affect de novo fatty acid biosynthesis, triglyceride (TG) assembly and secretion, and lipid peroxidation. HCV core protein has also been shown to localise in the periphery of TG-rich lipid droplets and on the cytosolic surface of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane, and it might physically interfere with lipids and other proteins involved in very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) assembly.8 Lipid secretion can be altered by the effect of HCV on microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP) and apolipoproteins. MTP is an enzyme that regulates VLDL assembly and its activity is impaired by HCV core protein in core-transgenic …


Context: TNF increases plasma leptin in humans in vivo , but pre- vious studies showed it decreases leptin in vitro . Objective and Participants: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of TNF on leptin release from human adipose tissue (AT) from healthy subjects undergoing elective surgery or nee- dle aspirations of AT at a university hospital. Design: Human omental and abdominal sc AT fragments from non- obese and obese subjects were placed in organ culture without or with TNF added in the presence or absence of insulin and/or dexametha- sone (dex; a synthetic glucocorticoid) for up to 2 d. Results: In the absence of hormones, culture with TNF decreased leptin release. In contrast, when added in the presence of dex, TNF increased secreted leptin and leptin mRNA abundance in AT from nonobese and obese subjects. The TNF (cid:1) dex-stimulated increase in leptin was associated with an increase in p38 MAPK activity and was totally blocked by p38 MAPK inhibitors. In contrast, inhibition of p38 MAPK only partially blocked the effect of TNF on IL-6 production. Culture of obese AT with either p38 or p44/42 MAPK inhibitors also blunted the spontaneous increase in media leptin that occurred from d 1–2 of culture in omental AT of obese subjects. Conclusion: Synergistic effects of increased local or systemic TNF in combination with glucocorticoids may contribute to increased leptin expression in response to stress, including infection and obesity. ( J Clin Endocrinol Metab 91: 1484–1490, 2006)


Continuous approaches for software engineering such as continuous planning, development, and operations are becoming increasingly popular in agile software companies. It means that also user-centered design practitioners and practices need to adapt to both possibilities and challenges the increasingly rapid and more tightly integrated software engineering environment induces. Such issues include planning continuously throughout the life cycle instead of upfront planning, delivering user value whenever something is ready instead of delivering working software at the end of time-boxed iterations, and experimenting with real users instead of conducting traditional user studies and tests. In this position paper we discuss how user experience work can be organized with continuous software development.


Abstract. Observations and climate model simulations consistently show a higher climate sensitivity of land surfaces compared to ocean surfaces. Here we show that this difference in temperature sensitivity can be explained by the different means by which the diurnal variation in solar radiation is buffered. While ocean surfaces buffer the diurnal variations by heat storage changes below the surface, land surfaces buffer it mostly by heat storage changes above the surface in the lower atmosphere that are reflected in the diurnal growth of a convective boundary layer. Storage changes below the surface allow the ocean surface–atmosphere system to maintain turbulent fluxes over day and night, while the land surface–atmosphere system maintains turbulent fluxes only during the daytime hours, when the surface is heated by absorption of solar radiation. This shorter duration of turbulent fluxes on land results in a greater sensitivity of the land surface–atmosphere system to changes in the greenhouse forcing because nighttime temperatures are shaped by radiative exchange only, which are more sensitive to changes in greenhouse forcing. We use a simple, analytic energy balance model of the surface–atmosphere system in which turbulent fluxes are constrained by the maximum power limit to estimate the effects of these different means to buffer the diurnal cycle on the resulting temperature sensitivities. The model predicts that land surfaces have a 50 % greater climate sensitivity than ocean surfaces, and that the nighttime temperatures on land increase about twice as much as daytime temperatures because of the absence of turbulent fluxes at night. Both predictions compare very well with observations and CMIP5 climate model simulations. Hence, the greater climate sensitivity of land surfaces can be explained by its buffering of diurnal variations in solar radiation in the lower atmosphere.


The use of electronic impedance measuring instruments to determine the acoustic impedance of the ear drum is very helpful in the diagnosis of middle ear diseases. Fluid filled middle ear spaces, otosclerosis and tympanosclerosis can be differentiated easily. In addition tube and facial nerve testing is possible. All tests can be done in less than 10 minutes for both ears.


This study used molecular dynamics simulations with an embedded-atom method (EAM) potential to investigate the effect of surface roughness on the surface activated bonding (SAB) of aluminium thin films. The simulations started with the bonding process and followed by the tensile test for estimating bonding strength. By averaging the atomic stresses over the entire system, the stress-time curves for the bonded films under a tensile condition were predicted. Moreover, the evolution of the crystal structure in the local atomic order was examined by the common neighbour analysis. The simulated results show that the decrease in the surface roughness of thin film improves the bonding strength. The observed recrystallization processes inside the bonded thin films also reveal that the plastic deformation of the aluminium surface due to atomic attracting force compensates surface roughness.


The behavior of headed reinforcement in concrete was studied using full-scale tests of compression-compression-tension (CCT) nodes. The mechanics of the anchorage behavior were observed and recorded to evaluate the manner in which the capacity of a headed bar is developed. The measured data were used to evaluate existing models of headed reinforcement anchorage as well as the ultimate limit state for anchored bars in CCT nodes. Observations from the CCT node tests provided information on the stages of truss development in a simple strut-and-tie model as well as the stress state of the concrete in the node and adjacent struts. Observations of headed bar anchorage have shown that the final anchorage capacity consists of peak head bearing and reduced bond. A model for anchorage capacity was produced based on this concept.


The recrystallization behavior of high strength automobile steel sheets (ZJ590L) developed by CSP technology is studied in this paper. The effect of the deformation temperature, reduction on the austenite grain size and the recrystallized fraction of ZJ590L steel during hot deformation has been investigated. Technique of test and analysis includes preparing stepped test piece and quantitative metallograph. The mechanism of austenite microstructure refinement has been discussed, which provides valuable references to set parameters of controlled rolling and controlled cooling process. The analysis shows that the austenite grain size fines with the increase of deformation temperature and reduction, and the recrystallized fraction increases. When the deformation temperature is above 1000°C and reduction exceeds 40%, complete recrystallization can be obtained.


ABSTRACT In immunocompromised patients with disseminated infection, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is widespread in the microvascular endothelium of multiple organs. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were used in parallel to human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HELF) to recover HCMV from blood samples of immunocompromised patients. Using the shell vial technique, comparable median numbers of p72-positive HUVEC and HELF cells were found with the 26 HCMV-positive buffy coat samples out of 150 examined. Analysis of other clinical samples inoculated as controls revealed, in the presence of highly infected HELF monolayers, either the presence of very few infected HUVEC with urine specimens (n = 10 samples) or the lack of infected HUVEC with throat washes (n = 3) or amniotic fluid samples (n = 2). Thus, peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) appear essential for primary isolation of HCMV in HUVEC. In this respect, HCMV strains, recovered from clinical samples other than buffy coats in HELF only, could be readily adapted to growth in HUVEC by coculturing PBL from healthy blood donors with infected HELF and then inoculating infected PBL onto HUVEC. Recently elucidated mechanisms of interaction of leukocytes and HUVEC with bidirectional transfer of virus seem to provide the basis for the restriction of HCMV primary isolation in HUVEC to blood samples. However, virus strains recovered from only HELF could be adapted to growth in HUVEC when inoculated with HELF-derived (either cell-associated or cell-free) HCMV strains upon primary isolation. In conclusion, due to the in vitro selection of virus variants provided with both PBL tropism and HUVEC tropism, HCMV recovery in HUVEC is PBL mediated and substantially restricted to blood samples. Lack of HCMV recovery in HUVEC from clinical samples other than blood leads to the assumption that epithelial cells, such as urinary, amniotic, or pharyngeal cells, do not possess adequate adhesion molecules to establish close contacts with HUVEC.


Eosinophilic bronchitis is a recently described condition in patients with chronic cough, sputum eosinophilia, normal spirometry and no evidence of bronchial hyperreactivity. The aim of the study was to assess the causes of chronic cough and to identify the prevalence of eosinophilic bronchitis as a cause of chronic cough. Thirty-six patients [mean age 45.4 +/- 14.3 years (range 16-69 years), M/F: 4/32] with an isolated chronic cough lasting for more than 4 weeks were recruited from the outpatient clinic. In all patients, after a full history and physical examination, blood eosinophil count, eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP), serum total and specific IgE levels were measured. Spirometry, methacholine provocation test, skin prick tests, ear, nose and throat examination, induction of sputum and esophageal pH testing were performed. The mean duration of cough was 31.3 +/- 52.3 months. Sputum eosinophilia greater than 3% was present in 12 (33.3%) patients and they were diagnosed as eosinophilic bronchitis. Their induced sputum had a mean eosinophil count of 8.3% and a mean ECP level of 98.5 mg x l(-1), which were higher than the others (P=0.003, both). The diagnosis of the remaining patients were postnasal drip syndrome in eight, gastroesophageal reflux disease in eight, post-infectious cough in two and cough-variant asthma in one patient. In conclusion, eosinophilic bronchitis is an important cause of chronic cough and should be considered in the assessment of patients before regarding them as having idiopathic chronic cough.


Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) trained on a large number of images with strong pixel-level annotations have recently significantly pushed the state-of-art in semantic image segmentation. We study the more challenging problem of learning DCNNs for semantic image segmentation from either (1) weakly annotated training data such as bounding boxes or image-level labels or (2) a combination of few strongly labeled and many weakly labeled images, sourced from one or multiple datasets. We develop Expectation-Maximization (EM) methods for semantic image segmentation model training under these weakly supervised and semi-supervised settings. Extensive experimental evaluation shows that the proposed techniques can learn models delivering competitive results on the challenging PASCAL VOC 2012 image segmentation benchmark, while requiring significantly less annotation effort. We share source code implementing the proposed system at this https URL


We consider a frequency-division-multiplexed satellite system where nonlinear distortions may originate from the presence of high power nonlinear devices and can cause significant performance degradations. The spectral efficiency is used as a performance measure to compare, from an information-theoretic point of view, different transmission strategies and modulation formats. More precisely, we will consider transmission schemes employing continuous phase modulations, which are robust to nonlinearities, and schemes based on linear modulations and employing a detector taking into account the nonlinear effects or more traditional techniques, such those based on predistortion of the nonlinear device.


Currently, operating systems are not chosen for underlying system features, but rather for the performance of the underlying hardware, available application programs, and system stability. Consequently, operating system vendors are reluctant to incorporate new operating system functionality since they risk both increased development time and decreased system stability. Previous efforts to make it easier for operating systems to incorporate new features have enjoyed only limited success because of performance bottlenecks or limited support for existing applications. This paper outlines a portable, efficient, and robust method for extending operating system functionality. Specifically, we propose building operating systems entirely as a library linked with every application using software-based fault isolation for protection. In order to demonstrate the validity of this technique, we are building an operating system which will provide global resource allocation in a network of workstations.


Introduction: There is no universally accepted measurement scale to assess breathlessness in adult palliative care patients. This significantly hampers clinical practice and research into effective interventions. The aim is to systematically identify and appraise breathlessness measurement scales, which are validated for use in palliative care or which show potential for use. Methods: We undertook systematic searches of electronic databases (Cochrane databases 2005, MEDLINE 1966-2005, OLDMEDLINE 1950-1965, EMBASE 1980-2005, PsycINFO 1872-2005, AMED 1985-2005, CINAHL 1982-2005, SIGLE 1980-2005) with follow-up searches (reference lists of included papers, hand-searches of relevant journals). The basic search strategy was 'breathlessness (etc.) AND measurement (scales, validation etc.) AND palliative care/cardiac failure/respiratory disease/ neoplasm etc.', modified for each database, without language restriction. Patient-based scales with evaluations of at least two psychometric characteristics were included. Exercise-based tests were excluded. Scales were appraised with particular emphasis on construct validity and responsiveness. Results: We identified 29 scales: six to measure breathlessness severity, four to assess breathlessness descriptions, and 19 to measure functional impact of breathlessness. Severity: The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and modified Borg Scale have been evaluated in COPD (the NRS has also been evaluated in cancer). Both require further assessment of responsiveness and test-retest reliability over time intervals relevant to palliative care. Visual Analogue Scales have also been evaluated, but require larger sample sizes than NRS for evidence of intervention effectiveness. Descriptions: The Japanese Cancer Dyspnoea Scale (CDS) has been evaluated in patients with cancer, but requires further assessment of construct validity and responsiveness. Functional impact: The Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire dyspnoea subscale (CRQ-D) has been evaluated in chronic lung diseases and heart failure; the MND Respiratory Scale is similar. CRQ-D has face and construct validity, test-retest reliability and responsiveness, and shows promise for palliative care. Conclusion: The NRS, modified Borg, CRQ-D and CDS appear most suitable for use in palliative care, but further evaluation is required before adopting any scale as standard. This review has been registered with the Cochrane collaboration and will be published and updated as a Cochrane review. Palliative Medicine 2007; 21: 177-191


Appropriate nutritional support is the standard of care for hospitalized patients. Total parenteral nutrition has evolved as a distinct therapeutic reality within the past decade for patients with appropriate indications including but not limited to non/dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract. Starvation/malnutrition historically associated with prolonged hospital stay and protracted illness course can be somewhat addressed successfully. Though it is a well-established fact that current TPN techniques can be both safe and effective if used with due caution, the prevention and awareness of potential complications must be considered. Changes in technique are to be anticipated as advancement of knowledge and improvement and innovation in materials ensues. The current effectiveness and safety of TPN, particularly in comparison to enteral feeding and the clinical situations most appropriate for nutrition support have been
the topic of ongoing discussion. Innovative strategies such as supplementation of TPN with medium-chain triglycerides, glutamine or branched-chain amino acids have been compared with standard treatments. Increasing efforts are being made to mitigate the adverse effects associated with TPN such as hyperglycemia, central venous catheter infection, and hepatic dysfunction. This review focuses on these issues as addressed by the recent literature.


Flour was prepared from African breadfruit seeds and was stored in tin can and polyethylene bag at ambient temperature (30 °C) for 5 months. The browning index, viscosity and moisture sorption characteristics of the fresh and stored flour samples were evaluated. The equilibrium moisture content (EMC) slightly increased at low water activities but increased sharply at high water activities. The adsorption sorption isotherms of the fresh and stored samples were sigmoidal in shape (type 11 isotherm). The critical moisture content and surface area of ABKF were 5.4g H2O/100g and 1.8mg-1, respectively. At a constant shear rate, the viscosity was dependent on the ABKF concentration. Heated and Unheated flour dispersions exhibited shear thinning. The browning index of the floor increased while the viscosity decreased on storage. The moisture sorption characteristic of the flour in both packaging materials were not significantly (p>0.05) affected in storage. The tin can provided better keeping quality for the flour than polythene bag.


Annually, welfare shelters admit many dogs, including those whose caregivers surrender them or dogs who are strays. This article analyzes admission data from 3 metropolitan Australian shelters. The study collected data for a 1-year period and analyzed them to identify the characteristics of the typical shelter dog; patterns of relinquishment, sales, reclamation and euthanasia; and duration of stay and reasons underlying euthanasia, relinquishment, and postadoptive return. The study tracked more than 20,000 admissions during this period. To facilitate reclamation, the local Code of Practice requires a mandatory holding period for stray dogs; assessment for suitability for rehoming then occurs. Dogs failing the assessment are euthanized. Surrendered dogs can be assessed immediately. The Code of Practice also recommends that unsold dogs be euthanized 28 days postassessment. Typically, shelter dogs in Melbourne are strays, sexually entire, adult, small, and-usually-male. The majority of admissions are reclaimed or sold. Most reclamations occur within 4 days, and postadoptive return rates are low. That current desexing messages do not appear to have reached the owners of stray dogs to the same extent as they have other dog owners is a major finding, suggesting that a targeted education campaign may be required.


With A-V recordings. ten normal hearing people took recognition tests at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The AV recognition results are predicted by the fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP) and the post-labelling integration model (POSTL). We also applied hidden Markov models (HMMs) and multi-stream HMMs (MSHMMs) for the recognition. As expected, all the models agree qualitatively with the results that the benefit gained from the visual signal is larger at lower acoustic SNRs. However, the FLMP severely overestimates the AV integration result, while the POSTL model underestimates it. Our automatic speech recognizers integrated the audio and visual stream efficiently. The visual automatic speech recognizer could be adjusted to correspond to human visual performance. The MSHMMs combine the audio and visual streams efficiently, but the audio automatic speech recognizer must be further improved to allow precise quantitative comparisons with human audio-visual performance.


In this study, we demonstrate a novel platform for optical stimulation of neural circuits combined with a microfluidic culture method and microelectrode array measurements. Neuron-on-a-chip was designed and fabricated to isolate axons without a soma or dendrite. Thus, it is readily able to manipulate the neuronal alignment and to investigate the neuronal activity at the locations we want to observe. We adapted the optical stimulation technique to the arranged neurons to generate the neuronal signals in a non-invasive fashion. A blue light-emitting diode and a femtosecond laser with 780 nm center wavelength were used for neuronal activation and the corresponding neuronal signals were measured by MEAs at the same time. We found that one-photon light via caged glutamate provoked periodic spiking. In contrast, the femtosecond pulse irradiation generated repetitive firing at constant rates. Response times of one-photon and two-photon stimulation were around 200 ms and 50 ms, respectively. We also quantified neural responses, by varying optical parameters such as exposure time and irradiation power.


Roadrunner is a 1.38 Pflop/s-peak (double precision) hybrid-architecture supercomputer developed by LANL and IBM. It contains 12,240 IBM PowerXCell 8i processors and 12,240 AMD Opteron cores in 3,060 compute nodes. Roadrunner is the first supercomputer to run Linpack at a sustained speed in excess of 1 Pflop/s. In this paper we present a detailed architectural description of Roadrunner and a detailed performance analysis of the system. A case study of optimizing the MPI-based application Sweep3D to exploit Roadrunner's hybrid architecture is also included. The performance of Sweep3D is compared to that of the code on a previous implementation of the Cell Broadband Engine architecture-the Cell BE-and on multi-core processors. Using validated performance models combined with Roadrunner-specific microbenchmarks we identify performance issues in the early pre-delivery system and infer how well the final Roadrunner configuration will perform once the system software stack has matured.


Abstract. We present a new method to reconstruct solar wind conditions from spacecraft data taken during magnetosheath passages, which can be used to support, e.g., magnetospheric models. The unknown parameters of the solar wind are used as boundary conditions of an MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) magnetosheath model. The boundary conditions are varied until the spacecraft data matches the model predictions. The matching process is performed using a gradient-based minimization of the misfit between data and model. To achieve this time-consuming procedure, we introduce the adjoint of the magnetosheath model, which allows efficient calculation of the gradients. An automatic differentiation tool is used to generate the adjoint source code of the model. The reconstruction method is applied to THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) data to calculate the solar wind conditions during spacecraft magnetosheath transitions. The results are compared to actual solar wind data. This allows validation of our reconstruction method and indicates the limitations of the MHD magnetosheath model used.


Abstract An answer set is a plain set of literals which has no further structure that would explain why certain literals are part of it and why others are not. We show how argumentation theory can help to explain why a literal is or is not contained in a given answer set by defining two justification methods, both of which make use of the correspondence between answer sets of a logic program and stable extensions of the assumption-based argumentation (ABA) framework constructed from the same logic program. Attack Trees justify a literal in argumentation-theoretic terms, i.e. using arguments and attacks between them, whereas ABA-Based Answer Set Justifications express the same justification structure in logic programming terms, that is using literals and their relationships. Interestingly, an ABA-Based Answer Set Justification corresponds to an admissible fragment of the answer set in question, and an Attack Tree corresponds to an admissible fragment of the stable extension corresponding to this answer set.


This chapter tackles two pressing gaps in the journalism studies literature on the business of news in Canada: analysis of digital born journalism organizations and early implications of not-for-profit journalism. We use a case study approach to assess the launch and growth of The Conversation Canada, a national journalism organization that launched in 2017, and is one of eight affiliates of the global not-for-profit Conversation network of journalism sites. This case study is timely as Canada is seeing a growth in digital born journalism organizations, which are often seen as innovators and saviours compared to legacy media. At the same time, not-for-profit and publicly funded journalism organizations are increasingly considered an antidote to commercial journalism decline. We find The Conversation Canada contributing to journalism and innovating in its reach to traditional and non-elite audiences, its experimentation with not-for-profit democratic organizational models, and its access to non-traditional revenue sources in the form of university membership fees and competitive research funding.


This paper studies the optimal least squares and minimax design and realization of digital synthesis filters for hybrid-filter-bank analog-to-digital converters (HFB ADCs) to meet a given spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). The problem for designing finite-impulse-response synthesis filters is formulated as a second-order cone-programming problem, which is convex and allows linear and quadratic constraints such as peak aliasing error to be incorporated. The fixed coefficients of the designed synthesis filters are efficiently implemented using sum-of-power-of-two (SOPOT) coefficients, while the internal word length used for each intermediate data is minimized using geometric programming. The main sources of error are analyzed, and a new formula of SFDR in terms of these errors is derived. The effects of component variations of analog analysis filters on the HFB ADC are also addressed by means of two new robust HFB ADC design algorithms based on stochastic uncertainty and worst case uncertainty models. Design results show that the proposed approach offers more flexibility and better performance than conventional methods in achieving a given SFDR and that the robust design algorithms are more robust to parameter uncertainties than the nominal design in which the uncertainties are not taken into account.


This research tackles an important economic and social policy issue that developed, and many developing economies, face and will be facing in the next decades, and which is how to manage and reform disability programs such that they can provide the necessary insurance to those who are not able to fully participate in the labor force, but without reducing the incentives to maintain the maximum attachment to the labor force of those who choose to. All of this while trying to manage the large costs of these kinds of programs in societies that demand a new focus on the abilities of individuals, not their disabilities. The discussion will focus on the case of the United States, but the conclusions and lessons we are going to extract could be applicable to any country that offers disability benefits and hopes to give disabled individuals the largest possible role among the labor force participants in the society.


Objectives: To determine the feasibility of fetoscopic vesicoamniotic shunt insertion (F-VASI) in an inanimate model and to compare F-VASI to ultrasound (US)-guided VASI (US-VASI) with respect to accuracy of shunt placement and overall success rate. Methods: An inanimate second-trimester fetus with a replaceable bladder balloon was suspended in a pressurized water tank and localized with US. Fetal position was randomized, the operator was blinded and a 5-Fr Harrison Shunt® decompressed the bladder in both groups. Thirty shunt insertions were performed per group. Results: Procedure time was longer for F-VASI (15.0 vs. 2.8 min, p < 0.05), although it decreased with practice. F-VASI and US-VASI were similar for adequate depth of insertion (27/30 vs. 27/30, p = 1.0), placement within 1 cm of midline (27/30 vs. 25/30, p = 0.42), bladder puncture (28/30 vs. 28/30, p = 1.0), and overall success rate (27/30 vs. 23/30, p = 0.3). Conclusions: F-VASI is feasible in an inanimate model. Overall success rate was similar between the groups, although procedure time was longer for F-VASI. Further study is required to determine whether shunt migration is decreased with F-VASI.


This research explores the seditious potential of hybrid Jewish figures in cinema, based on certain thinkers of post WWII French philosophy, feminist and postcolonial theories, and traditional Jewish texts, which in different ways point to a reevaluation of the "chameleon Jew" in positive terms. While the films discussed in this project come from various places and periods (from the 1920s to recent years), they all represent Jewish chameleon characters that are transformed into other identities. Each film discussed here relates to another face of the Jewish chameleon and to different theoretical questions that are raised by this figure. The first chapter, "The Jewish Chameleon", is dedicated to Zelig as the quintessential chameleon Jew, an incredibly multi-shaped Jewish figure which prefigures many of the Jewish characters that are discussed in the following chapters. The second chapter, "The Jewish Chameleon in Nazi Cinema", deals with the appearance of the chameleon Jew in the Nazi propaganda films. The third chapter, "The Jewish Nazi", explores the theme of Jewish figures who become (or pretend to become) Nazis. The fourth and fifth chapters, "Muscle Jews in Diaspora Denial" and "Hassidism in the Wild West", explore the image of the traditional Jewish man of the diaspora as a subject of cultural hybridity, gender ambiguity and Jewish interbreeding with genre cinema. The final two chapters (six and seven), titled "Jewish Face, Black Mask" and "Jigga Jews", are dedicated to Jewish chameleon figures that turned "black".


Background Ovarian germ cell tumours constitute a heterogeneous group of neoplasm with malignant potential being seen in 5% of cases. There is limited data on treatment outcomes of patients with malignant ovarian germ cell tumours (MOGCT). Here, we present our hospital audit of patients with MOGCT. Material and methods This is a retrospective data review of patients with MOGCT treated between May 2011 and December 2019. Patients were treated with staging laparotomy and adjuvant chemotherapy, wherever applicable. Surveillance was allowed for those at low risk for recurrence. Clinicopathologic features and treatment details were recorded, and survival analysis was performed. Results Sixty-five patients with a median age of 25 years (range: 11–52 years) were treated during the study period. The most common histology was immature teratoma in 35.3% of cases. International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IC was the most common stage of presentation (47%). Surveillance was advised for 12.3% of cases. Systemic therapy was given in 51 (78%) patients. At a median follow-up of 46 months (range: 1–109 months), the median progression-free survival (PFS) was not reached. Five-year PFS was 79.3% (95% CI: 65.8–88). The most common toxicity was febrile neutropenia (22%) among those who received systemic therapy. Conclusion Immature teratoma was the most common histology in our series. The majority presented in the early stage. MOGCT is a highly curable disease with surgery and systemic therapy.


This paper analyzes the policy model of the Brazilian Ministry of Health from 1990 to 2002. The methodology included interviews with key actors in the national health policy, document review, and analysis of the Federal budget and official databases. The Brazilian Ministry of Health underwent major changes under the influence of the health reform agenda and the liberal State reform agenda prevailing in the 1990s, shaped by two movements: institutional unification of national policy control and political/administrative decentralization. The Federal role was diminished in terms of direct services provision, and there were changes in financing and regulation. The model in the late 1990s featured strong Federal induction of States and municipalities and the adoption of market regulation strategies. There is no record of a long-term planning effort, which favors distortions in the Federal intervention model and hinders solutions to structural problems in the Brazilian health system.


The Beagle Channel (BC) is a long and narrow interoceanic passage (∼270 km long and 1–12 km wide) with west-east orientation and complex bathymetry connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at latitude 55°S. This study is the first integrated assessment of the main oceanographic features of the BC, using recent oceanographic observations from cruises, moored instruments and historical observations. The waters transported into the BC are supplied mainly by the Cape Horn Current, which carries Subantarctic Water (SAAW) at depth (100 m below surface) along the Pacific Patagonian continental shelf break. SAAW enters the continental shelf via a submarine canyon at the western entrance of the BC. The SAAW is diluted by fresh, nutrient depleted (nitrate, phosphate and silicic acid) Estuarine Water (EW) from Cordillera Darwin Ice Field (CDIF) forming modified SAAW (mSAAW). Freshwater inputs from the CDIF generate a two-layer system with a sharp pycnocline which delimits the vertical distribution of phytoplankton fluorescence (PF). Two shallow sills (<70 m) along the BC contribute to EW and mSAAW mixing and the homogenization of the entire water column east of the sills, coherent with Bernoulli aspiration. The central section of the BC, extending ∼100 km toward the east, is filled by a salty (31–32) variety of EW. In winter, this central section is nearly vertically homogeneous with low nutrient concentrations (0.9–1.1 μM PO4 and 7.5–10 μM NO3) and PF. The temporal variability of seawater temperature from 50 to 195 m in the central section of the BC was found to be mostly dominated by the annual and semiannual cycles and influenced by tidal forcing. The middle section of the BC was less influenced by oceanic inputs and its basin-like structure most likely favors retention, which was observed from the weakly stratified water column at the mooring site. Toward the east, the central section bathymetry is disrupted at Mackinlay Strait where another shallow sill separates the middle channel from the shallow eastern entrance that connects to the Atlantic Ocean. In this section, a weakly stratified two-layer system is formed when the eastward surface outflow (salty-EW) flows over a deeper, denser tongue of oceanic mSAAW.


The initial probabilities of activated, dissociative chemisorption of methane and
ethane on Pt(110)-(1 x 2) have been measured. The surface temperature was varied
from 450 to 900 K with the reactant gas temperature constant at 300 K. Under these
conditions, we probe the kinetics of dissociation via trapping-mediated (as opposed
to 'direct') mechanism. It was found that the probabilities of dissociation of both
methane and ethane were strong functions of the surface temperature with an apparent
activation energies of 14.4 kcal/mol for methane and 2.8 kcal/mol for ethane,
which implys that the methane and ethane molecules have fully accommodated to
the surface temperature. Kinetic isotope effects were observed for both reactions,
indicating that the C-H bond cleavage was involved in the rate-limiting step. A
mechanistic model based on the trapping-mediated mechanism is used to explain
the observed kinetic behavior. The activation energies for C-H bond dissociation
of the thermally accommodated methane and ethane on the surface extracted from
the model are 18.4 and 10.3 kcal/mol, respectively. The studies of the catalytic decomposition of formic acid on the Ru(001) surface
with thermal desorption mass spectrometry following the adsorption of DCOOH and
HCOOH on the surface at 130 and 310 K are described. Formic acid (DCOOH)
chemisorbs dissociatively on the surface via both the cleavage of its O-H bond to
form a formate and a hydrogen adatom, and the cleavage of its C-O bond to form
a carbon monoxide, a deuterium adatom and an hydroxyl (OH). The former is the
predominant reaction. The rate of desorption of carbon dioxide is a direct measure
of the kinetics of decomposition of the surface formate. It is characterized by a
kinetic isotope effect, an increasingly narrow FWHM, and an upward shift in peak
temperature with Ɵ_T, the coverage of the dissociatively adsorbed formic acid. The
FWHM and the peak temperature change from 18 K and 326 K at Ɵ_T = 0.04 to
8 K and 395 K at Ɵ_T = 0.89. The increase in the apparent activation energy of the
C-D bond cleavage is largely a result of self-poisoning by the formate, the presence
of which on the surface alters the electronic properties of the surface such that the
activation energy of the decomposition of formate is increased. The variation of the
activation energy for carbon dioxide formation with Ɵ_T accounts for the observed
sharp carbon dioxide peak. The coverage of surface formate can be adjusted over
a relatively wide range so that the activation energy for C-D bond cleavage in the
case of DCOOH can be adjusted to be below, approximately equal to, or well above
the activation energy for the recombinative desorption of the deuterium adatoms.
Accordingly, the desorption of deuterium was observed to be governed completely by
the desorption kinetics of the deuterium adatoms at low Ɵ_T, jointly by the kinetics
of deuterium desorption and C-D bond cleavage at intermediate Ɵ_T, and solely by
the kinetics of C-D bond cleavage at high Ɵ_T. The overall branching ratio of the
formate to carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide is approximately unity, regardless
the initial coverage Ɵ_T, even though the activation energy for the production of
carbon dioxide varies with Ɵ_T. The desorption of water, which implies C-O bond
cleavage of the formate, appears at approximately the same temperature as that of
carbon dioxide. These observations suggest that the cleavage of the C-D bond and
that of the C-O bond of two surface formates are coupled, possibly via the formation
of a short-lived surface complex that is the precursor to to the decomposition. The measurement of steady-state rate is demonstrated here to be valuable in
determining kinetics associated with short-lived, molecularly adsorbed precursor to
further reactions on the surface, by determining the kinetic parameters of the molecular
precursor of formaldehyde to its dissociation on the Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface. Overlayers of nitrogen adatoms on Ru(001) have been characterized both by
thermal desorption mass spectrometry and low-energy electron diffraction, as well as
chemically via the postadsorption and desorption of ammonia and carbon monoxide. The nitrogen-adatom overlayer was prepared by decomposing ammonia thermally
on the surface at a pressure of 2.8 x 10^(-6) Torr and a temperature of 480 K. The
saturated overlayer prepared under these conditions has associated with it a (√247/10 x √247/10)R22.7° LEED pattern, has two peaks in its thermal desorption spectrum, and
has a fractional surface coverage of 0.40. Annealing the overlayer to approximately
535 K results in a rather sharp (√3 x √3)R30° LEED pattern with an associated
fractional surface coverage of one-third. Annealing the overlayer further to 620
K results in the disappearance of the low-temperature thermal desorption peak
and the appearance of a rather fuzzy p(2x2) LEED pattern with an associated
fractional surface coverage of approximately one-fourth. In the low coverage limit,
the presence of the (√3 x √3)R30° N overlayer alters the surface in such a way that
the binding energy of ammonia is increased by 20% relative to the clean surface,
whereas that of carbon monoxide is reduced by 15%. A general methodology for the indirect relative determination of the absolute
fractional surface coverages has been developed and was utilized to determine the
saturation fractional coverage of hydrogen on Ru(001). Formaldehyde was employed
as a bridge to lead us from the known reference point of the saturation fractional
coverage of carbon monoxide to unknown reference point of the fractional coverage
of hydrogen on Ru(001), which is then used to determine accurately the saturation
fractional coverage of hydrogen. We find that ƟSAT/H = 1.02 (±0.05), i.e., the surface
stoichiometry is Ru : H = 1 : 1. The relative nature of the method, which cancels
systematic errors, together with the utilization of a glass envelope around the mass
spectrometer, which reduces spurious contributions in the thermal desorption spectra,
results in high accuracy in the determination of absolute fractional coverages.


In this paper, the applicability of local approach is examined for SA515 Gr.60 nuclear steel through a series of finite element analyses incorporating modified GTN and Rousselier models as well as fracture toughness tests. To achieve the goal, fracture toughness test data of standard compact tension (CT) specimens are used for calibration of micro-mechanical parameters. Then, from finite element analyses employing the calibrated parameters, fracture resistance (J-R) curves of CT specimens with different crack length to width ratio, with different thickness and with/without 20% side-grooves are predicted. Finally, suitability of the numerically estimated J-R curves was verified by comparison with the corresponding experimental J-R curves.


The study was carried out in four divisions of Rungwe District of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania to investigate the effect of market access on market orientation of smallholder dairy farmers. Multistage and simple random sampling techniques were employed in selecting 120 dairy farmers in villages across four divisions of Rungwe District. Both descriptive and quantitative techniques were used in data analysis. The results revealed that more than 79% of the farmers had 'experience of more than 5 years in dairying and owned an average of three heads of dairy cattle including one milking cow. Market access as measured by traveltime and frequency of milk sales had respectively, 'a significant (P<O.Ol) and highly significant (P<0.001) influence on volume of milk sold per household. The amount of milk consumed per household was a highly significant indicator of farmers' failure to participate in dairy markets., On average, each household consumed an average of 2.7 litres of milk in excess of WHO recommended daily intake due to poor access to fresh milk markets with a range 1.2 - 6.0 litreslhh across the four divisions. Level of input use' demand was strongly and negatively influenced by the price of the input and distance to market. Lack of information and access to extension services ,also limited farmers' participation in dairy input and output markets. The findings from this study suggest that participation in dairy market depended on access to both in-put and output markets and years of experience in dairying. '


Background and purpose: With increase in human population the demand for meat products has raised. One of such products is poultry meat which could be contaminated by heavy metals in production process. The purpose of this study was to estimate the concentration levels of cadmium, lead, and zinc in chicken tissues consumed in Sanandaj, Iran, 2016. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, twenty samples of liver, thigh and pectoral muscle were collected from chickens. The samples were digested by acid method and concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: The liver and pectoral muscle of chickens had the highest and lowest concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn, respectively. Zn and Pb were found to have the most and least concentrations, respectively. Daily and weekly intake of heavy metals in edible tissues showed that the estimated amount of metals intake is lower than the maximum acceptable level permitted by the joint FAO/WHO expert committee. Conclusion: The present study showed that chicken meat in Sanandaj is safe to consume and does not threaten the health of consumers.