The complexity of the evolutionary history of Senecio is reflected in its conflicted taxonomy. Within this genus, Senecio section Crociseris (Compositae, Senecioneae), a group of perennial herbs distributed in Europe, western and Central Asia, and northwestern Africa, was not fully revised. A worldwide revision of this section recognizing 28 species and eight subspecies is presented here. The main morphological characters revealed as useful for distinguishing between species are the number and shape of supplementary and involucral bracts, synflorescence architecture, indumentum, and the shape and size of leaves and achenes. In this new taxonomic treatment S. provincialis and S. lagascanus have been segregated from S. doronicum , within which three subspecies are recognized ( S. doronicum subsp. orientalis is validly published herein). On the other hand, S. ruthenensis from France and S. lusitanicus from Portugal have been synonymized to S. lagascanus , as well as S. ovatifolius, S. pisidicus, and S. tmoleus from Anatolia to S. kolenatianus, S. olympicus , and S. castagneanus respectively, S. bertramii from Lebanon to S. cilicius, and S. delbesianus from Syria to S. racemosus subsp. racemosus . Sixty eight names are lectotypified, the names S. barrelieri , S. pyrenaicus, and S. scopolii are neotypified, and one epitype is designated for the name S. perralderianus . Descriptions and distribution maps are provided for all the species included, as well as an identification key. Nine species are illustrated for the first time.


There have been many models proposed in the past decade on the best practices in teaching and learning processes, especially in medical education. The main trend is a major shift from tutor-centered system to student-centered learning processes with the aid of information technology and communications, more often called e-learning. The introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) and student centered team based learning SCTL) in the early 80's became a trend which spread like wildfire in most modern medical schools. The acceptance of these new methodology received different reactions, mainly from the tutors, most of whom were split on whether the need of change was really necessary, asking the main question of "what is wrong with the traditional methods" or "have we produced inefficient doctors through the years of traditional system teachings". It seemed for some time that a significant number of older generation tutors were much more comfortable with the methods they were used to. Considerable curricular changes were made by many medical institutes to implement the student centered learning system. This approach, however, necessitated the training of tutors and the creation of a learning environment, which was later found not to be too easy. The major consideration of a shift in techniques of teaching learning processes is the understanding of the trends in the younger generation of the Y2K century. A generation which prefers to express rather than listen, to research and find rather than being spoon-fed and a generation where knowledge is always available whenever they are connected to the internet. Hence the change of the role of tutors to be facilitators rather than content providers was seen to be more acceptable to the new generation of students. The advancing information technology (IT) has been able to provide the necessary tools to achieve that objective. The students may be granted the opportunity to have more freedom in selecting their learning material and to enjoy a degree of distance-learning. The consequence of applying IT in medical institutes would, probably, enforce the trend towards moving to a student-centered learning environment, inducing hesitant tutors to become more compliant with the change. The future medical curriculum is anticipated to be more student-centered, more modular, more integrated, more PBL or SCTL-oriented and more inter-institutionalized, with less memorizing and with more learning about learning. In addition, medical education as a whole at least in part, would be, performed at distance. The future medical tutor may have to be more PBL-oriented, more qualified in learning strategies, competent in small group (probably single-student) learning, more of a 'mentor' or a 'facilitator' than of a 'teacher', able to train students at higher cognitive levels rather than being an 'authority' in its field. He has no choice but to be fluent in IT, and interactive with learning via other learning-collaborating institutions. Key Words: Medical education. DOI:10.3329/bjms.v9i1.5226 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.09 No.1 Jan 2010 4-13


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: 4D MRA has been evolving as a noninvasive supplement for DSA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a newly developed blood flow visualization technique for the classification of cerebral AVMs. We hypothesized that 4D-hMRA allows detection of different flow patterns within the nidus as well as differentiation of feeders and draining veins and has very good agreement with DSA regarding the Spetzler-Martin grade. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one consecutive patients with AVMs were evaluated by using 4D-hMRA and DSA by 2 blinded raters. Rating criteria included Spetzler-Martin score and other morphologic variables together with a new scale for 3 intranidal flow patterns (homogeneous = 1, unidirectional = 2, heterogeneous = 3). RESULTS: The Spetzler-Martin grades were rated different from DSA in 5 cases by rater 1 and in 3 cases by rater 2 with an excellent interrater reliability of κ = 0.96 (4/31, 1 by size and 3 by drainage). Each reader missed 5 feeders on 4D-hMRA. Draining veins were distinguished in the temporal course in 7 on DSA but in 8 and 12 on 4D-hybrid-MRA (raters 1 and 2 respectively), with κ = 0.79. A type 1 intranidal flow pattern was recognizable in 9 (30%) patients; type 2, in 19 (60%); and type 3, in 3 (10%). CONCLUSIONS: 4D-hMRA allows reliable Spetzler-Martin grading and detection of brain arteriovenous malformation feeding arteries and draining veins, with the drawback that for small vessels DSA is still needed. Draining veins might even be detected with higher sensitivity than on DSA. Discrimination of different intranidal flow patterns is possible, but their relevance for hemorrhage risk assessment and therapy planning requires further study.


This paper provides a new statistical approach to blind recovery of both earth signal and source wavelet given only the seismic traces using independent component analysis (ICA) by explicitly exploiting the sparsity of both the reflectivity sequence and the mixing matrix. Our proposed blind seismic deconvolution algorithm consists of three steps. Firstly, a transformation method that maps the seismic trace convolution model into multiple inputs multiple output (MIMO) instantaneous ICA model using zero padding matrices has been proposed. As a result the nonzero elements of the sparse mixing matrix contain the source wavelet. Secondly, whitening the observed seismic trace by incorporating the zero padding matrixes is conducted as a pre-processing step to exploit the sparsity of the mixing matrix. Finally, a novel logistic function that matches the sparsity of reflectivity sequence distribution has been proposed and fitted into the information maximization algorithm to obtain the demixing matrix. Experimental simulations have been accomplished to verify the proposed algorithm performance over conventional ICA algorithms such as Fast ICA and JADE algorithm. The mean square error (MSE) of estimated wavelet and estimated reflectivity sequence shows the improvement of proposed algorithm.


All-dielectric metamaterials utilizing Mie resonances in high-permittivity dielectric resonators offer a low-loss alternative to plasmonic metamaterials. Here we present the demonstration of a single-negative all-dielectric metamaterial, comprised of a single layer of cylindrical silicon resonators on a silicon-on-insulator substrate, that possesses peak reflectance over 99% and an average reflectance over 98% across a 200 nm wide bandwidth in the short-wavelength infrared region. The study is also extended to disordered metamaterials, demonstrating a correlation between the degree of disorder and the reduction in reflectance. It is shown that near-unity reflection is preserved as long as resonator interaction is avoided. Realization of near-unity reflection from disordered metamaterials opens the door to large-area implementations using low-cost self-assembly based fabrication techniques.


In this paper, we give a formal model for real-time database systems using Duration Calculus. Our model supports the formal reasoning about the operations in the systems. As a case study for our technique, we give a formal specification and verification of the Read/Write Priority Ceiling Protocol (R/WPCP).


Evaluation of the biological and economic potentials of cassava foliage (CSF) processing and utilization as feed for water buffalo was conducted at the Philippine Carabao Center, Ubay, Bohol. Analysis showed that fresh CSF contains hydrocyanic acid (HCN) ranging from 86-186 ppm (fresh basis). Wilting or drying reduced HCN content below biologically acceptable level of 80 ppm (dry basis) for low and medium HCN varieties but not for high HCN variety which was reduced only by ensiling. Silage pH (3.5-4.5) and physical appearances Indicated that cassava foliage is a good silage material. Buffaloes fed with different levels of ensiled cassava foliage showed that average daily gain (ADG) increased (P<0.01) from 0.74 kg in control (0% CSF) to 0.86 kg with 50% CSF in roughage. Feeding CSF at 75% of roughage did not improve animal performance. Dry matter intake was highest at 25% CSF feeding with 2.36% of body weight. This reduced to 2.28% at 50% CSF and 2.14% at 75% CSF. Feed intake reduction at high CSF silage feeding could be attributed to increased HCN ingestion. Sulfur supplementation for HCN detoxification increased (P<0.05) dry matter intake for animals fed 75% CSF. An ADG of 1 kg was attained which could be attributed to increased sulfur content of the diet due to increased concentrate supplementation. Comparative income analysis of different cassava-based production system showed that income increased from PhP15,360 in cassava without defoliation to P22,160 in cassava with defoliation and PhP36,775 for cassava with livestock integration. Therefore, income in cassava-based farming can be maximized by livestock integration.


Porous and bioactive composite scaffolds based on poly ε-caprolactone(PCL) and hydroxyapatite(HA) were successfully fabricated by solvent casting and salt leaching method. The scaffolds have interconnected pore structure with pore size ranging from 10μm to 500μm. The pore size of PCL scaffold and PCL/HA scaffold were similar to that of the salt particles. The pore walls became thick and the small pores on the surface of macropores were formed as the HA increased. MTT assay showed that HA content did not affect initial cell attachment in both PCL scaffolds and PCL/HA scaffolds. The osteoblasts proliferated in both scaffolds, but the cell number was higher in the PCL/HA composite scaffolds. It was found that the incorporation of hydroxyapatite enhances bone cell proliferation rather than initial cell attachment in PCL/HA composite scaffolds. The results suggest that the PCL/HA composite scaffolds have a potential for the bone tissue engineering applications.


This book is a collection of 49 independent articles systematically organized and published as volume 3 in a series of books entitled Frontiers in Neuroscience . All of the articles reflect current trends in research on electrical (and magnetic) responses that are detectable noninvasively from the surface of the human body by appropriate stimulation, ie, evoked responses. This area of research depends on the use of electronic computers because they can increase the signal-to-noise ratio sufficiently to detect these relatively small signals, usually a few microvolts or less. The book includes research representing all major neurologic systems in which this approach is clinically useful at present—visual, auditory, somatosensory, vestibular, motor, and perceptual systems. All of these responses depend on the type of stimulus used, and stimulation is especially sophisticated in vision research. Three distinctly different types of visual stimuli are now being used: (1) brief flashes, usually full field or


Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a persistent environmental contaminant proposed to contribute to autoimmune disease. Experimental studies in lupus-prone MRL+/+ mice have suggested that TCE exposure can trigger autoimmune hepatitis. The vast majority of studies examining the connection between TCE and autoimmunity utilize this model, and the impact of TCE exposure in other established models of autoimmune liver disease is not known. We tested the hypothesis that TCE exposure exacerbates experimental hepatic autoimmunity in dominant negative transforming growth factor beta receptor type II (dnTGFBRII) mice, which develop serological and histological features resembling human primary biliary cholangitis. Female 8-week-old wild-type and dnTGFBRII mice were exposed to TCE (0.5 mg/ml) or vehicle (1% ethoxylated castor oil) in the drinking water for 12 or 22 weeks. Liver histopathology in 20- and 30-week-old wild-type mice was unremarkable irrespective of treatment. Mild portal inflammation was observed in vehicle-exposed 20-week-old dnTGFBRII mice and was not exacerbated by TCE exposure. Vehicle-exposed 30-week-old dnTGFBRII mice developed anti-mitochondrial antibodies, marked hepatic inflammation with necrosis, and hepatic accumulation of both B and T lymphocytes. To our surprise, TCE exposure dramatically reduced hepatic parenchymal inflammation and injury in 30-week-old dnTGFBRII mice, reflected by changes in hepatic proinflammatory gene expression, serum chemistry, and histopathology. Interestingly, TCE did not affect hepatic B cell accumulation or induction of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10. These data indicate that TCE exposure reduces autoimmune liver injury in female dnTGFBRII mice and suggests that the precise effect of environmental chemicals in autoimmunity depends on the experimental model.


The aim of the work described in this thesis was to identify gene (s) involved in determining the neurovirulence of HSV-2 strain HG52 in the mouse model system using deletion variants. The availability of variants with deletions in specific regions of the genome afforded the unique opportunity to determine the possible role of specific sequences in virulence. The phenotype of the parental wild type virus has also been determined by examining the neurovirulence of individual plaque stocks to identify the baseline from which to evaluate the deletion variants. Twenty well separated plaques were picked from the elite stock of HG52 and passaged twice at 37C. Restriction endonuclease analysis of the DNA from each of the twenty plaque stocks showed no differences in the size of fragments and distribution of the sites. To determine their neurovirulence, ten of the individual plaque stocks were selected randomly for mice inoculation. Following intracranial inoculation of 3 week old BALB/c mice, the plaque stocks segregated into three classes of neurovirulence on the basis of their LD50 values; high (10 3 pfu/mouse), intermediate (10e3-10e4 pfu/mouse) and low virulence (>10 5pfu/mouse). The particle : pfu ratios of the plaque stocks were within the acceptable range for HSV-2. Restriction endonuclease analysis of viruses reisolated from the brains of infected mice showed no apparent difference in their DNA profiles compared to the initial infecting viruses. Two plaque stocks of high, one of intermediate and one of low virulence were selected on the basis of their LD50 values and particle : pfu ratios. These stocks retained their original values compared to the non-plaque purified elite stock of HG52 (10 2pfu/mouse) when retested in mice. Following intraperitoneal inoculation, the selected plaque stocks showed differences in their LD50 values comparable to the differences seen following intracranial inoculation. The selected plaque stocks grew as well as the parental HG52 in one step growth experiments in BHK-21 C13 cells. However, they showed differences in the growth kinetics in vivo in mouse brain where the high virulence stocks showed comparable growth to HG52, while the intermediate and low virulence stocks grew less well. The selected plaque stocks were passaged five times in BHK-21 C13 cells and ten plaques from each were picked and stocks grown. Restriction endonuclease analysis of their DNA showed no differences compared to the wild type HG52. Following intracranial inoculation of the virus stock derived from the fifth passage, those derived from intermediate or low virulence virus remained stably of intermediate or low virulence, while those derived from high virulence virus showed in some cases a shift to intermediate levels of virulence. These results clearly demonstrate virulence heterogeneity within the elite stock of HSV-2 strain HG52. The LD50 value of high virulence virus was chosen as a baseline from which to evaluate the virulence of deletion variants A number of deletion variants of HSV-2 strain HG52 with deletions ranging in size from 1.5 to 9 kb have been tested for virulence following intracranial inoculation of 3 week old BALB/c mice. The variants were segregated into three categories of virulence on the basis of their LD50 values; avirulent (>10e7 pfu/mouse), reduced (10 -10 pfu/mouse) and attenuated (10 pfu/mouse) compared to 10 pfu/mouse for the elite stock of HG52. Analysis of the variants with deletions in U S /TR S indicated that the US4, US10, US11 and US12 genes have a role in neurovirulence. Deletion of one copy of oris and one copy of the IE3 gene has a minor effect on neurovirulence. Analysis of the variants with deletions in IR L/TR L regions of the genome implies that deletion of one copy of the IEl gene and part of LAT transcripts in IR L has a minor effect on neurovirulence. The analysis demonstrated that none of the deleted genes appear to be a unique determinant of neurovirulence with the exception of the DNA sequences between 0-0.02 and 0.81-0 83 m. u. The variant JH2604 whose genome is deleted by 1.5 kb in both copies of the BamHI v fragment between 0-0.02 and 0.81-0.83 m. u. in TR L and IR L respectively was avirulent for mice following intracranial and footpad inoculation with LD 50 values of >10e7 and >10e8 pfu/mouse respectively compared to 10 pfu/mouse for the elite stock of HG52. Therefore, the variant JH2604 is at least 6 logs less neurovirulent than the wild type virus. The variant JH2604 grew as well as the wild type virus in vitro in BHK-21 C13 and 3T6 cells, but it failed to grow in mouse brain in vivo demonstrating that the lack of neurovirulence was due to inefficient replication in mouse brain.


Abstract. The mean residence times (MRT) of different compound classes of soil organic matter (SOM) do not match their inherent recalcitrance to decomposition. One reason for this is the stabilization within the soil matrix, but recycling, i.e. the reuse of "old" organic material to form new biomass may also play a role as it uncouples the residence times of organic matter from the lifetime of discrete molecules in soil. We analysed soil sugar dynamics in a natural 30-year old labelling experiment after a wheat-maize vegetation change to determine the extent of recycling and stabilization by assessing differences in turnover dynamics between plant and microbial-derived sugars: while plant-derived sugars are only affected by stabilization processes, microbial sugars may be subject to both, stabilization and recycling. To disentangle the dynamics of soil sugars, we separated different density fractions (free particulate organic matter (fPOM), light occluded particulate organic matter (≤ 1.6 g cm−3; oPOM1.6), dense occluded particulate organic matter (≤ 2 g cm−3; oPOM2) and mineral-associated organic matter (> 2 g cm−3; mineral)) of a silty loam under long-term wheat and maize cultivation. The isotopic signature of neutral sugars was measured by high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry (HPLC/IRMS), after hydrolysis with 4 M Trifluoroacetic acid. While apparent MRT of sugars were comparable to total organic carbon in the bulk soil and mineral fraction, the apparent MRT of sugar carbon in the oPOM fractions were considerably lower than those of the total carbon of these fractions. This indicates that oPOM formation was fuelled by microbial activity feeding on new plant input. In the bulk soil, MRT of the mainly plant-derived xylose were significantly lower than those of mainly microbial-derived sugars like galactose, rhamnose, fucose, indicating that recycling of organic matter is an important factor regulating organic matter dynamics in soil.


This article defines differences between courts of the member states, performing constitutional control. It is stated that two main models of such control exist: American model based on constitutional control performed via main competence courts and European (also referred to as Austrian) model, which is distinct for the presence of constitutional court that is established for the specific aim. Constitutional courts established as separate courts have a monopoly of legal acts constitution supervision. Courts, having constitutional jurisdiction, belong to the hierarchy of main competence courts; they solve constitutional issues and perform legal acts' constitution supervision function which does not exist in common courts. The article emphasizes that European Court of Justice although having characteristic features of national constitutional courts, but also because its' competence is considerably wider than constitutional courts is more similar to the Supreme Court, having constitutional jurisdiction. The article analyses problems of European Court of Justice and national constitution courts, thus explaining the reason of idle recognition of superiority of European Community law. The article discusses if Constitutional courts are covered in the notion defined in the article 234 "Courts and Tribunals" of the Establishment Agreement. Case analysis, taking into consideration opinions of ECJ and constitutional courts is presented. Constitutional courts' obligation to apply to European Court of Justice is suggested. The article covers some member states constitutional courts' opinion regarding cooperation with ECJ.


The use of a soft-open point (SOP) to interlink two LV networks in order to increase the PV hosting capacity has been investigated in a study preparing a pilot demonstration project within Romande Energie's (DSO in western Switzerland) grid. The contribution describes the selection of the location, the control mode and the size of the demonstrator based on the achievable improvement of the network performance in terms of voltage variations, cable / transformer loading and network losses. The size of the SOP has also been compared to the achievable distributed generation hosting capacity increase. The interface and protection of the SOP into the network is implemented using both local protection criteria and transfer tripping over a radio link. Simulations confirm that the chosen location and control mode for the SOP permit to achieve a more balanced utilisation of the available network capacity. Overall, more PV can be added to the network with no adverse effect on voltage quality or on the system's fault behaviour. On this basis, a demonstration SOP has been developed and tested in a laboratory environment. The final step has been to deploy the device into the distribution grid.


Abstract Polymethine cyanine dyes have been widely recognized as promising chemical tools for a range of life science and biomedical applications, such as fluorescent staining of DNA and proteins in gel electrophoresis, fluorescence guided surgery, or as ratiometric probes for probing biochemical pathways. The photophysical properties of such dyes can be tuned through the synthetic modification of the conjugated backbone, for example, by altering aromatic cores or by varying the length of the conjugated polymethine chain. Alternative routes to shaping the absorption, emission, and photostability of dyes of this family are centered around the chemical modifications on the polymethine chain. This Minireview aims to discuss strategies for the introduction of substituents in the meso‐position, their effect on the photophysical properties of these dyes and some structure–activity correlations which could help overcome common limitations in the state of the art in the synthesis.


PTS 601. Advanced Clinicial Practice: Counterstrain 1. 1 Credit Hour. This seminar course will provide an in depth discussion of the history, physiologic rationale, and fundamentals of the Strain Counterstrain method of manual therapy. Newer concepts of facial science will also be explored. Counterstrain I will stress palpation skills as the foundation for any manual therapist and will teach advanced palpatory anatomy techniques. 30-50 Counterstrain techniques spanning the whole body and consisting of the musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and visceral systems will be taught through lecture, demonstration, and lab. Components: LEC. Grading: SUS. Typically Offered: Fall.


SegBlocks reduces the computational cost of existing neural networks, by dynamically adjusting the processing resolution of image regions based on their complexity. Our method splits an image into blocks and downsamples blocks of low complexity, reducing the number of operations and memory consumption. A lightweight policy network, selecting the complex regions, is trained using reinforcement learning. In addition, we introduce several modules implemented in CUDA to process images in blocks. Most important, our novel BlockPad module prevents the feature discontinuities at block borders of which existing methods suffer, while keeping memory consumption under control. Our experiments on Cityscapes, Camvid and Mapillary Vistas datasets for semantic segmentation show that dynamically processing images offers a better accuracy versus complexity trade-off compared to static baselines of similar complexity. For instance, our method reduces the number of floating-point operations of SwiftNet-RN18 by 60% and increases the inference speed by 50%, with only 0.3% decrease in mIoU accuracy on Cityscapes.


Despite a massive expansion of Medicaid and an upswing in the economy, the total number of Americans uninsured in 1993 was 39.7 million, more than at any time since the passage of Medicaid and Medicare in the 1960s. Since 1989, the ranks of the uninsured have swelled by 6.3 million. Millions more would be uninsured if Medicaid enrollment had not risen dramatically, by 10.5 million people since 1989. Loss of health coverage is a growing problem for middle-income families, women, and children, as it has long been for low-income families. Even in Hawaii, whose employer mandate program is often cited as a model of universal coverage, there was a large increase in uninsurance. Nationwide, the sharp upswing in the number of Americans who are uninsured has coincided with government and corporate policies to encourage medical competition and push people into managed care plans. Republican proposals to limit AFDC benefits threaten to further increase uninsurance, particularly among women and children. Only a Canadian-style single-payer reform can assure universal coverage and simultaneously contain costs.


Vitamin D levels of pregnant women and their neonates tend to be related; however, it is unknown whether there are any subgroups in which they are not related. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was measured in prenatal maternal and child cord blood samples of participants (n = 241 pairs) in a birth cohort. Spearman correlations were examined within subgroups defined by prenatal and delivery factors. Cord blood as a percentage of prenatal 25(OH)D level was calculated and characteristics compared between those who did and did not have ≥25% and ≥50% of the maternal level and those who did and did not have a detectable 25(OH)D level. The correlation among Black children was lower than in White children. When the maternal 25(OH)D level was <15 ng/mL, the overall correlation was r = 0.16. Most children had a 25(OH)D cord blood level less than half of their mother's; 15.4% had a level that was <25% of their mother's. Winter birth and maternal level were associated with the level being less than 25%. Children with undetectable levels were more likely to be Black and less likely to be firstborn. These data suggest mothers may reduce their contribution to the fetus's 25(OH)D supply once their own level becomes low.


This paper addresses the problem of estimating the 3-DoF camera pose for a ground-level image with respect to a satellite image that encompasses the local surroundings. We propose a novel end-to-end approach that leverages the learning of dense pixel-wise flow fields in pairs of ground and satellite images to calculate the camera pose. Our approach differs from existing methods by constructing the feature metric at the pixel level, enabling full-image supervision for learning distinctive geometric configurations and visual appearances across views. Specifically, our method employs two distinct convolution networks for ground and satellite feature extraction. Then, we project the ground feature map to the bird's eye view (BEV) using a fixed camera height assumption to achieve preliminary geometric alignment. To further establish content association between the BEV and satellite features, we introduce a residual convolution block to refine the projected BEV feature. Optical flow estimation is performed on the refined BEV feature map and the satellite feature map using flow decoder networks based on RAFT. After obtaining dense flow correspondences, we apply the least square method to filter matching inliers and regress the ground camera pose. Extensive experiments demonstrate significant improvements compared to state-of-the-art methods. Notably, our approach reduces the median localization error by 89%, 19%, 80% and 35% on the KITTI, Ford multi-AV, VIGOR and Oxford RobotCar datasets, respectively.


Interleukin (IL)-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine, is expressed in the brain and can inhibit microglial activation. Herein, we utilized lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory Parkinson's disease (PD) cell model to determine whether microglia and astrocytes are necessary targets for IL-10 neuroprotection. Primary ventral mesencephalic (VM) cultures with different composition of neurons, microglia and astrocytes were prepared. The cells were exposed to IL-10 (15, 50 or 150 ng/mL) 1 h prior to LPS (50 ng/mL) treatment. LPS induced dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neuronal loss in VM cultures, VM neuron-enriched cultures, and neuron-microglia co-cultures, but not in neuron-astrocyte co-cultures. IL-10 reduced LPS-induced neuronal loss particularly in single VM neuron cultures. Pro-inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-1β, inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2) were upregulated in both neuron-microglia and neuron-astrocyte co-cultures by LPS. In contrast, neurotrophic factors (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, insulin-like growth factor-1 or glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor) were downregulated in neuron-microglia co-cultures, but upregulated in neuron-astrocyte co-cultures by LPS. IL-10 reduced both the increase in production of the pro-inflammatory mediators and the decrease in production of the neurotrophic factors induced by LPS. These results suggest that astrocytes can balance LPS neurotoxicity by releasing more neurotrophic factors and that IL-10 exerts neuroprotective property by an extensive action including direct on neurons and indirect via inhibiting microglial activation.


ObjectiveThe correct diagnosis of tumor thrombosis and its differentiation from benign thrombus can change patient management and prevent unnecessary anticoagulation treatment. This study was aimed at evaluating the role of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) in the diagnosis of tumor thrombosis, and its differentiation from benign thromboembolism. MethodsWe conducted a retrospective review of FDG PET-CT scans of patients who underwent the study for staging/restaging of a known malignancy and had FDG-avid thrombosis. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the thrombus, SUVmax of tumor (if any), and SUVmax of mediastinal blood pool were calculated. PET-CT results were confirmed with clinical follow-up, structural imaging, and histopathology when available. ResultsA total of 24 patients (15 male and nine female) with a mean age of 43.8 years (range: 3–72 years; median: 47.5 years) were evaluated. On the basis of structural imaging and clinical follow-up, 10 patients had benign and 14 patients had tumor thrombosis. On FDG PET-CT, uptake in the thrombus was linear in 18 patients and focal in six patients. The most common site of thrombosis was the inferior vena cava. The mean SUVmax was 3.2 (range: 2.3–4.6; median: 3.3) in the benign thrombosis group and was 6.0 (range: 2.3–13.8; median: 3.3) in the tumor thrombosis group. The difference in SUVmax was significant (P=0.013). On receiver operating characteristic analysis, a cut-off SUVmax of 3.63 (sensitivity: 71.4% and specificity: 90%) was obtained to differentiate tumor thrombus from benign thromboembolism. In six patients, FDG PET-CT detected occult vascular thrombosis. ConclusionFDG PET-CT can detect active tumor thrombosis and is helpful in differentiating it from benign thrombus.


I investigated how the interrelationship between parental investment and sexual immune dimorphism shape the evolution of parental care strategies within the cichlids and syngnathids. To understand why parental investment is displayed in such diversity in the animal kingdom, I assessed evolutionary and provisioning costs of parental investment in male pregnancy, biparental and maternal mouthbrooding. Additionally, to address the importance of parental investment, I tested for maternal effects transferred via mouthbrooding, focusing on the transferofimmunologicalinformation. Icouldidentifydifferentialallocationof resources between the two parental care strategies, mouthbrooding and male pregnancy, in both provisioning and evolutionary costs of parental care. Further, my data suggest that both parental care and mating system influence sexual dimorphism. I was not able to detect transfer of immunological information via mouthbrooding; rather, my data imply that stressed mothers are impeded in their resources that can be allocated to boost their offspring survival.


The emergence of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) environments has increased the risk of undesired access to individuals' physical space or their information, anytime and anywhere, raising potentially serious privacy concerns. Individuals lack awareness and control of the vulnerabilities in everyday contexts and need support and care in regulating disclosures to their physical and digital selves. Existing GUI-based solutions, however, often feel physically interruptive, socially disruptive, time-consuming and cumbersome. To address such challenges, we investigate the user interaction experience and discuss the need for more tangible and embodied interactions for effective and seamless natural privacy management in everyday UbiComp settings. We propose the Privacy Care interaction framework, which is rooted in the literature of privacy management and tangible computing. Keeping users at the center, Awareness and Control are established as the core parts of our framework. This is supported with three interrelated interaction tenets: Direct, Ready-to-Hand, and Contextual. Direct refers to intuitiveness through metaphor usage. Ready-to-Hand supports granularity, non-intrusiveness, and ad hoc management, through periphery-to-center style attention transitions. Contextual supports customization through modularity and configurability. Together, they aim to provide experience of an embodied privacy care with varied interactions that are calming and yet actively empowering. The framework provides designers of such care with a basis to refer to, to generate effective tangible tools for privacy management in everyday settings. Through five semi-structured focus groups, we explore the privacy challenges faced by a sample set of 15 older adults (aged 60+) across their cyber-physical-social spaces. The results show conformity to our framework, demonstrating the relevance of the facets of the framework to the design of privacy management tools in everyday UbiComp contexts.


A review of court cases decided under the New Zealand Fair Trading Act 1986 shows that a television advertisement would be found to contravene the Act where it could be shown to convey an implied claim that is false. A review of the literature reveals that a variety of empirical tests have been proposed to determine whether an advertisement conveys an implied claim. A review of legal decisions in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, suggests that the most probative evidence as to whether an advertisement conveys an implied claim is an empirical test using artificial viewing conditions and forced-choice questions. A survey of expert lawyers in New Zealand shows that evidence of such tests is likely to be given substantial weight in litigation under the Fair Trading Act 1986.


Considering the escalating cost of fossil fuels in correlation with the growing influence of sustainability, the need to seek new alternative fuels is increasing rapidly. This movement has lead researchers to look beyond the usual alternative fuels and focus on plastics as an energy resource in the form of a low density polyethylene (LDPE) used throughout the global community. The authors investigated the injection and combustion of a new class of polymer fuel containing 5% LDPE by weight in a heavy fuel oil (AHFO) in a direct injection diesel engine, in order to evaluate its effectiveness for application as a new alternative fuel. The analysis occurred at 1200 rpm, under loads that ranged from BMEP 1.4-6.04 bar. In order to maintain the fuel's viscosity around 20 cSt the fuel was heated at 130-150 °C. The smoke (bosch) and emission analysis were also performed and provided promising results in terms of engine performance. This suggests that the feedstock of LDPE may be a viable substitute for AHFO for application in a diesel engine with the addressing of the technical challenges associated with the injection system operation.


Desmosterolosis is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by multiple congenital anomalies. Patients with desmosterolosis have elevated levels of the cholesterol precursor desmosterol, in plasma, tissue, and cultured cells; this abnormality suggests a deficiency of the enzyme 3β-hydroxysterol Δ24-reductase (DHCR24), which, in cholesterol biosynthesis, catalyzes the reduction of the Δ24 double bond of sterol intermediates. We identified the human DHCR24 cDNA, by the similarity between the encoded protein and a recently characterized plant enzyme—DWF1/DIM, from Arabidopsis thaliana—catalyzing a different but partially similar reaction in steroid/sterol biosynthesis in plants. Heterologous expression, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, of the DHCR24 cDNA, followed by enzyme-activity measurements, confirmed that it encodes DHCR24. The encoded DHCR24 protein has a calculated molecular weight of 60.1 kD, contains a potential N-terminal secretory-signal sequence as well as at least one putative transmembrane helix, and is a member of a recently defined family of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)–dependent oxidoreductases. Conversion of desmosterol to cholesterol by DHCR24 in vitro is strictly dependent on reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate and is increased twofold by the addition of FAD to the assay. The corresponding gene, DHCR24, was identified by database searching, spans ∼46.4 kb, is localized to chromosome 1p31.1-p33, and comprises nine exons and eight introns. Sequence analysis of DHCR24 in two patients with desmosterolosis revealed four different missense mutations, which were shown, by functional expression, in yeast, of the patient alleles, to be disease causing. Our data demonstrate that desmosterolosis is a cholesterol-biosynthesis disorder caused by mutations in DHCR24.


A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, physics, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states, such as "On" and "Off". The grid can be in any finite number of dimensions. For each cell, a set of cells called its neighborhood (usually including the cell itself) is defined relative to the specified cell. For example, the neighborhood of a cell might be defined as the set of cells a distance of 2 or less from the cell. An initial state (time t=0) is selected by assigning a state for each cell. A new generation is created (advancing t by 1), according to some fixed rule (generally, a mathematical function) that determines the new state of each cell in terms of the current state of the cell and the states of the cells in its neighborhood. For example, the rule might be that the cell is "On" in the next generation if exactly two of the cells in the neighborhood are "On" in the current generation, otherwise the cell is "Off" in the next generation


Sweet-potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) is the 3rd most important root and tuber plant in the world, after potatoes and cassava. The knowledge of the structure of Genotype × Environment interaction (GEI) could assist in the development of cultivars of sweet-potato. The objective of this research was to select superior sweet-potato genotypes in Indonesia based on Finlay-Wilkinson regression, additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis, AMMI stability value (ASV), and Genotype plus Genotype × Environment (GGE) biplot methods. Genetic materials evaluated in this research were 10 Indonesian superior genotypes developed by the Plant Breeding and Seed Technology Lab., Faculty of Agriculture, University of Padjadjaran, Bandung. The research was arranged in randomized block design, with 16 genotypes as treatments. Data analysis of the yield characters was performed by using combined variance analysis: Finlay-Wilkinson regression, ASV, AMMI, and GGE Biplot. The GEI significantly influenced the tested genotypes at three sites. However, they did not show any significant differences in the GEI. Ayamurasaki, Beniazuma, Awachy2, 15(112), Awachy4, Awachy5, 80(109), 54(160), 35(180) were specific adaptation genotypes of marginal land based on Finlay-Wilkinson analysis; whereas, Rancing, AC Putih, Ayamurasaki, Naruto Kinotoki, Awachy1, Awachy2, 15(112), Awachy4, 57(97), 80(109), 54(160), 68(120) and 35(180) performed as stable genotypes based on ASV. Ayamurasaki, Naruto Kinotoki, Awachy1, Awachy2, 57(97), 80(109) and 68(120) were stable genotypes based on AMMI analysis. However, based on GGE Biplot analysis Ayamurasaki, Awachy1, 80 (109) and 68 (120) were stable genotypes. ASV analysis provided effective stable genotype selections of 87.50% greater than other stability methods. Ayamurasaki, Awachy1, 80(109) and 68(120) were stable genotypes based on AMMI, ASV, and GGE biplot analysis.


In this paper, catalytic reduction of formic acid to methanol with different catalyst under mild hydrothermal conditions was investigated. Formic acid was successfully converted into methanol using Al as reductant and Cu as a catalyst under mild hydrothermal conditions. The selectivity of conversion from formic acid to methanol was found to be as high as 30% at 300 °C for 9 h with formic acid 60 g∙L-1, filling rate 35% and 4.35 mmol Al and 12 mmol Cu. The addition of Al2O3 was favorable for the synthesis of methanol. Comparing the yield of methanol with the same reaction condition for 3 h without the addition of Al2O3, the yield of methanol can be increased by near 100 per cent under the same condition with Al2O3 3 mmol. This process may provide a promising solution to provide methanol as fuel for transportation and mobile devices.


Previous research highlighted how algorithms on social media platforms can be abused to disseminate disinformation. However, less work has been devoted to understanding the interplay between Facebook news curation mechanisms and propaganda content. To address this gap, we analyze the activities of RT (formerly, Russia Today) on Facebook during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. We use agent-based algorithmic auditing and frame analysis to examine what content RT published on Facebook and how it was algorithmically curated in Facebook News Feeds and Search Results. We find that RT's strategic framing included the promotion of anti-Biden leaning content, with an emphasis on antiestablishment narratives. However, due to algorithmic factors on Facebook, individual agents were exposed to eclectic RT content without an overarching narrative. Our findings contribute to the debate on computational propaganda by highlighting the ambiguous relationship between government-sponsored media and Facebook algorithmic curation, which may decrease the exposure of users to propaganda and at the same time increase confusion.


The characteristics of commercially available refined and bodied linseed and tung oils, used as binders in the production of armour paints after historic recipes, are explored. Employed as anticorrosive paints mainly from the 1920s to 1960s, armour paints are greener alternatives that can be used for protection in industrial heritage conservation. Using a multi-analytical approach, chemical and physical properties of the fresh oils and solid films before and after accelerated ageing (ISO 16474-2:2013) were investigated to better understand which features are beneficial for the technical function of armour paints. Tests included measurements of density, the refractive index, insoluble impurities, alkaline impurities, the water content, the iodine value, the saponification value, the free fatty acid concentration, the acid value, the peroxide value and colour (Lovibond) and cold tests. The characterisation of the fresh oils using molecular analysis with FTIR and GC-MS revealed the complexity of the commercial formulations, for which additions of semi- and non-drying oils were detected. The results show that organic paint binders follow complex chemical reactions (such as oxidation and decrease of unsaturation being variable or swelling following water-immersion tests), with implications for their suitability for use in protection.


It is known that sex steroid hormones play an important role in the maintenance of bone mass in males as well as in females. Even though androgens are the major sex steroids in men, their primacy in regulating male skeletal remodeling has been increasingly questioned as direct and indirect evidence emerged suggesting that estrogens may also play a major role in male skeletal health. Recent data suggested that a threshold level of bioavailable estradiol is needed to prevent bone loss, and that with aging an increasing percentage of elderly men begin to fall below this level. The testes account for, at most, 15% of circulating estrogens in the male; the remaining 85% comes from peripheral aromatization of androgen precursors in different tissues, including bone. Human models of aromatase deficiency were the first to demonstrate the critical importance of the conversion of circulating androgens into estrogen in regulating male skeletal homeostasis. All four cases of aromatase-deficient men reported to date showed an identical skeletal phenotype, characterized by tall stature due to continued longitudinal growth, unfused epiphyses, high bone turnover, and osteopenia. Studies using knockout mice along with experimental observations in rats treated with an aromatase inhibitor provided useful information about the importance of aromatase in the male skeleton. Confirmatory evidence comes from recent interventional studies in adult men using aromatase inhibition, which confirmed that estrogens are critically important to the male skeleton by helping to control rates of bone remodeling. Intriguingly, common polymorphisms at the human aromatase (CYP19) gene have been associated with differences in aromatase activity, bone turnover, and rates of bone loss in elderly men, suggesting that variations in aromatase efficiency may also be relevant for skeletal homeostasis. Several additional mechanisms have been proposed in which aromatase activity could be modulated under certain circumstances in different tissues. Additional studies are needed to identify how these genetic, environmental, pathological, and pharmacological influences might modulate aromatase activity in vivo, increasing or reducing estrogen production in males and thereby affecting skeletal health.


Introduction and objective: Pityriasis (tinea) versicolor is a mild, chronic infection of the skin caused by Malassezia yeasts, and characterized by discrete or confluent, scaly oval to round macules scattered over characteristic areas of the body, including the upper trunk, neck, and upper arms. The color of patches varies from almost white to pink to reddish brown or fawn colored. The aim of the present study is to assess the effect of the common determinants factors on the clinical aspects of pityriasis versicolor in Missan province. Patients and methods: The study sample consist of 300 patients with pityriasis versicolor attending the Department of Dermatology in Al-Sader Teaching Hospital in Missan province during the period from October 2015 to March 2016.The diagnosis of pityriasis versicolor was done by clinical examination and established by woods lamp of the skin lesion and 10% KOH examination of scraping from skin lesion for suspected cases. Results: out of, 300 patients with pityriasis versicolor, there were 180 males and 120 females. The ages of patients ranged from 10 to above 60 years. The majority of cases 43% fall in age group of 20-29 years. The majority of cases came from urban areas (63.4%) compared to (36.6%) from rural areas. The indoor patients were 165 and outdoor patients were 135 with 48.3 % presented with hyperpigmentation, followed by 40% with hypopigmentation, 6.7% mixed and 5% erythematous. The time of onset in summer 55% compared to 45% in winter. Asymptomatic individuals were 56.7% while who complaining from mild pruritus were 43.3% with 51.47% were chronic cases compared to 48.3%were acute cases. The nonexposed area trunk (45%) infected more than exposed area (25%) and (30%) was mixed areas.


This paper deals with a new type of actuator which can be used for the driving of an Isoglide T3R1 Parallel Robot. The proposed machine is a linear transverse flux motor operating based on the variable reluctance principle. The topology of the motor is presented. A 3D finite element method analysis is carried out on a small dimension structure, evidencing the flux density distribution and the developed tangential and normal forces. The control strategies of this motor are approached. Experimental setup is presented in the final part of the paper.


Well-preserved foraminiferids have been found in the Chmielnik-Grabowka section (Skole Nappe, Polish Carpathians). The Abathomphalus mayaroensis (late Maastrichtian) and Racemiguembelina fructicosa (early late Maastrichtian) standard planktonic foraminiferal biozones have been recognized, based on the occurrence of their respective index species. Sediments of the R. fructicosa Zone contain diatoms, which are a rare component of Cretaceous flysch microfossil assemblages in the Carpathians. The diatom frustules and some foraminiferid tests are pyritized, probably after burial in the sediment, below the redox boundary or inthe oxygen-deficient microenvironment inside the frustules or tests of microfossils; the presence of trace fossils and bioturbational structures in the same bed indicate an oxygenated sea floor.


An aplanatic total reflection telescope for use in the soft x-ray region has been constructed and tested in this laboratory. The telescope has a collecting area of 2 cm2, an angular resolution of 1 min of arc, and a field of view of 40 min of arc. The focal length is 64 cm. The grazing angle of incidence on the telescope surface is about 1° for paraxial radiation. This results in an efficiency of reflection of 0.2% in the 8–12 A region and 5.0% at 44 A. These characteristics make it particularly suited to the study of celestial x-ray sources from rocket- and satellite-borne instrumentation.


Abstract. We have investigated the impact of the assumed nitrous oxide (N2O) increases on stratospheric chemistry and dynamics using a series of idealized simulations with a coupled chemistry-climate model (CCM). In a future cooler stratosphere the net yield of NOy from N2O is shown to decrease in a reference run following the IPCC A1B scenario, but NOy can still be significantly increased by extra increases of N2O over 2001–2050. Over the last decade of simulations, 50% increases in N2O result in a maximal 6% reduction in ozone mixing ratios in the middle stratosphere at around 10 hPa and an average 2% decrease in the total ozone column (TCO) compared with the control run. This enhanced destruction could cause an ozone decline in the first half of this century in the middle stratosphere around 10 hPa, while global TCO still shows an increase at the same time. The results from a multiple linear regression analysis and sensitivity simulations with different forcings show that the chemical effect of N2O increases dominates the N2O-induced ozone depletion in the stratosphere, while the dynamical and radiative effects of N2O increases are overall insignificant. The analysis of the results reveals that the ozone depleting potential of N2O varies with the time period and is influenced by the environmental conditions. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2) increases can strongly offset the ozone depletion effect of N2O.


We analyze a constrained dictator game in which the dictator splits a pie which will be subsequently created through simultaneous investments by herself and the recipient. We consider two treatments by varying the maximum attainable size of the pie leading to either high or low investment incentives. We find that constrained dictators and recipients invest less than a model with self-interested players would predict. While the splitting decisions of constrained dictators correspond to the theoretical predictions when investment incentives are high, they are more selfish when investment incentives are low. Overall, team productivity is negatively affected by lower investment incentives.


The history of the classification of the Tachinidae (Diptera) is traced from Meigen to the present. The contributions of Robineau-Desvoidy, Townsend, Villeneuve, Mesnil, Herting, Wood and many others are discussed within a chronological, taxonomic, and geographic context. The gradual development of the Tachinidae into its modern concept as a family of the Oestroidea and the emergence of the classificatory scheme of tribes and subfamilies in use today are reviewed. Certain taxa that have in the past been difficult to place, or continue to be of uncertain affinity, are considered and some are given in a table to show their varied historical treatments. The more significant systematic works published on the Tachinidae in recent decades are enumerated chronologically.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common, heterogeneous psychiatric disorder of childhood displaying inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive symptoms. Although the biological basis of ADHD remains unknown, it has been shown that genetic factors substantially contribute to the aetiology of the disorder. Our group has previously reported significant linkage to four chromosomal regions on 5p13, 6q12, 16p13 and 17p11 in genome-wide scans and subsequent fine-mapping. We selected nine positional candidate genes within the linkage intervals for study based on biological plausibility. We analyzed at least 189 ADHD trios to determine if common variants in these genes have a major affect on ADHD risk. None yielded significant association. This does however not completely exclude these genes as potential susceptibility genes for ADHD since it is plausible for common causal variants with low effect size to go undetected due to insufficient power of the study sample. We conclude that none of the tested alleles confer a major risk for developing ADHD and that investigation of other genes within the linked regions is warranted.


BACKGROUND
Effective implementation processes are essential in achieving desired outcomes of health initiatives. Whereas many approaches to implementation may seem straightforward, careful advanced planning, multiple stakeholder involvements, and addressing other contextual constraints needed for quality implementation are complex. Consequently, there have been recent calls for more theory-informed implementation science in health systems strengthening. This study applies the quality implementation framework (QIF) developed by Meyers, Durlak, and Wandersman to identify and explain observed implementation gaps in a primary health care system improvement intervention in Nigeria.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective process appraisal by analyzing contents of 39 policy document and 15 key informant interviews. Using the QIF, we assessed challenges in the implementation processes and quality of an improvement model across the tiers of Nigeria's decentralized health system.

RESULTS
Significant process gaps were identified that may have affected subnational implementation quality. Key challenges observed include inadequate stakeholder engagements and poor fidelity to planned implementation processes. Although needs and fit assessments, organizational capacity building, and development of implementation plans at national level were relatively well carried out, these were not effective in ensuring quality and sustainability at the subnational level.

CONCLUSIONS
Implementing initiatives between levels of governance is more complex than within a tier. Adequate preintervention planning, understanding, and engaging the various interests across the governance spectrum are key to improving quality.


Gil Churchill served at Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) during an important time of maturation for the field. Journal of Marketing (JM) and JMR were firmly established, and both encouraged articles across the realm of marketing (e.g., segmentation, pricing, channels, advertising). Whereas JM was positioned a bit more for immediate relevance to practitioners, JMR was oriented more toward methods of conducting research across those marketing realms. The balancing act was one that Gil handled brilliantly, as evidenced by the Tables of Contents across his issues. For example, consider the article by Aaker and Bagozzi (1979), "Unobservable Variables in Structural Equation Models with an Application in Industrial Selling," which nicely melds a methodological contribution with one in a substantive area of inquiry. Naturally, most articles emphasize one facet more than the other, but Gil achieved balance within each issue. For example, in the November 1978 issue (Vol. 15), there are two articles on sales force issues and two on measurement; in the August 1979 issue (Vol. 16), there are four articles on advertising and four articles on statistical issues.


The high cycle fatigue properties of two kinds of wrought Al 2519 alloys without and with scandium of 0.10% were investigated. The fatigue strength was determined at R = 0.1 under constant amplitude loading conditions in air. The alloy with scandium of 0.10% showed a little lower tensile yield strength and higher fatigue strength values. The fine grained Al-0.10Sc alloy exhibited a higher resistance against fatigue crack nucleation despite the lower yield stress in comparison to the coarse grained Al 2519 alloy. The results can be explained mainly with the microstructural differences between both alloys. This results are due to the presence of coherent Al3 (Sc, Zr) precipitates and a very fine subgrain structure.


A hybrid architecture that integrates artificial neural networks and knowledge-based expert systems to generate solutions for the real-time scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems is described. The artificial neural networks perform pattern recognition and, due to their inherent characteristics, support the implementation of automated knowledge acquisition and refinement schemes through a feedback mechanism. The artificial neural network structures enable the system to recognize patterns in the tasks to be solved in order to select the best scheduling rule according to different demands. The knowledge-based expert systems are the higher-order elements which drive the inference strategy and interpret the constraints and restrictions imposed by the upper levels of the flexible manufacturing system control hierarchy. The level of self-organization achieved provides a system with a higher probability of success than traditional approaches


A compact double-balanced frequency doubler with simple harmonic suppression and gain compensation functions is proposed. In order to enhance the suppression of fundamental and third harmonics of the doubler, the band-reject filter (BRF) is integrated into the Marchand balun, which also provides the ground for the coupler line of the balun. In addition, the simple bias circuit is applied to solve the gain variation, which improves the conversion efficiency at low input power. This doubler exhibits 11.7-16 dB conversion loss, while the fundamental suppression is better than 22.5 dB from 25 to 37 GHz. By controlling the voltage from 0 to 0.6 V, the doubler can increase the gain and provide better operational bandwidth.


86 patients with spontaneous abortion were interviewed and followed up in a longitudinal study with an interview and standardised questionnaires shortly after the D&C at 7, 13 and 24 months later. Our results indicate profound and long-term adverse psychological sequelae. For most of the patients, a spontaneous abortion was considered to be of major importance. Without regard to the gestational age or ultrasonographic image, the embryo is represented early in fantasies and dreams as a child. The severity of grief reactions following abortion did not correlate well with gestational age or a new pregnancy. Mourning is still present 24 months after the abortion. While grief decreases continuously during the first 7 months following abortion, despair remains constant and self-reproachful coping shows even a statistically significant increase between months 13 and 24. The reason is, because 20% of patients develop a pathological grief reaction with an increase in depression, self-reproachful coping and physical complaints. This risk group of patients, who needs closer and more detailed observation and guidance, may be recognised as early as at the time of abortion.


These times of declining academic budgets coupled with increased demand for information assurance professionals presents unique challenges for academic departments wishing to build capacity in information assurance. This paper discusses the evolution of the Advanced System Security Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT) Lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The effort began with the low cost construction of a proof-of-concept dedicated information assurance lab that was then used to leverage additional funding to build a high capacity research and educational environment to meet the needs of the students, faculty, and researchers who now utilize this vital facility. Index Terms – Information Assurance Laboratory, Computer Security, Educational Environment, ASSERT


Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed to investigate diffusion of AlCl4- ions in basic (AlCl3-NaCl-KCl) molten salt. Nyquist plots in different DC offset potentials showed finite and restricted aluminum ion diffusion due to insertion and blocking in the graphite electrode. The general Warburg, open Warburg, and short Warburg impedance in the complex Nyquist plot of this system showed the anomalous diffusion behavior of the ions in the graphite electrode. The diffusion coefficient of the AlCl4- ions was calculated from the slope of the Warburg line in a totally blocking film in the graphite electrode and was found to be 2.8 \times 10-10 cm2/s.


Background and aims : To date, there is not enough information about the toxic effects of dolomite. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which digging and excavating workers involved in constructing a dam in Fars province were exposed to dolomite dust and to evaluate the possible effects of this exposure on the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, functional impairments and radiographic abnormalities of the lungs. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at the constructing site of a dam in Shiraz, south of Iran. The study population consisted of thirty nine male workers with current exposure to dolomite dust and 40 healthy male unexposed employees. To determine the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, respiratory symptoms questionnaire were used. Personal dust samplers were used to assess the exposure concentrations. Additionally, subjects underwent lung function tests and chest X-ray. Results: Atmospheric concentrations of dolomite dust exceeded current permissible levels. Exposed workers had significantly higher prevalence rates of respiratory symptoms than their referent counterparts (P<0.05). Similarly, decrements were noted in most parameters of pulmonary functions of exposed workers, although the difference was only significant for FEV1/FVC ratio (P<0.05). No significant differences were noted between exposed and referent subjects as far as their chest radiographs were concerned. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that medium term exposure to very high concentration of dolomite dust is likely to be associated with respiratory symptoms.


The e-commerce marketplace in Malaysia is showing an advantageous trend, with gross value added contributed 6. 3% to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017.Online purchasing has attained a lot of important factors in the current marketing. But, because of the number of growth of trouble makers or scams had increased, such activities will create a fear in the mind of customers and as well can influence the attitude or mind set of consumers toward online purchase. Therefore, the issue in this area of this survey is customer's dissatisfaction and attitudes towards online purchasing.Apart from that, customers also concern about the security level whenever they order products online. The security refers to online transaction safety. The previous researchers suggest that the lack of security on the website will make the customers to have doubt or serious concern about their credit card transactions and privacy of personal information to avoid cybercrimes.In spite of comfort and advantages of online shopping, e-commerce poses a few demanding situations and concerns amongst consumers on security and privateness problems. Thus, this phase intends to identify degree of situation in regards to these issues. In widespread, slightly extra than half of on-line buyers claimed that they are problem on safety and privacy at the same time as buying online. The regression analysis indicates fraud and security was found to have significant at 5% significant level (sig, t = 0.004). This could explained that customers are more likely to take serious on fraud and security of the products they purchased.


Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of low viscosity chitosan on S. epidermidis growth and biofilm formation. Methods and Results. The antibacterial and antibiofilm properties were investigated, during both planktonic growth and biofilm formation. This was performed using different concentrations in media and by coating on polystyrene surfaces. In addition, the bactericidal effect was investigated using a modified direct contact test. The results showed that low viscosity chitosan in media had both a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect on planktonic growth and biofilm formation of S. epidermidis in a concentration dependent manner. Polystyrene discs coated with chitosan reduced both early biofilm formation (6 h) and late biofilm formation (18 h), as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The modified direct contact test showed a bactericidal effect. Conclusion. This study demonstrated that low viscosity chitosan has a bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity against S. epidermidis and that the activity is dependent on the amount of chitosan added. In addition, low viscosity chitosan reduced biofilm formation both when added to media and when coated on polystyrene surfaces. Significance and Impact of Study. Low viscosity chitosan could be a contribution to new treatment approaches of biofilm-related infections of S. epidermidis.


Social care funding is reducing in spite of a growing older population. Within this context, domiciliary services are increasingly failing to deliver care that respects the individuality and heterogeneity of older people (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2011). To date, there has been limited research in the U.K. that explores, from the older person's perspective, how care practices interact with self.
Using biographical narrative methodology, this study takes a constructionist approach to understand the individual's lived experience of care and how it interacts with sense of self. A three stage model of data collection was used, beginning with a narrative biographic enquiry, exploring with participants (65yrs+, n=17) their journeys into care and any consequential effects on personal identity. Stage 2 involved a two week period of diary completion, with participants recording daily reflections on their care experiences. In stage 3, a semi-structured interview explored the diary entries, linking back to the narrative biographic enquiry to reveal ways in which specific care practices interacted with the sense of self.
The findings reveal that a strong relationship between older person and carer, forged through familiarity, regularity and consistency, plays a significant role in promoting feelings of autonomy and dignity. Furthermore such relationship mediates against the loss of executional autonomy that comes with increasing disability. Maintaining autonomy and control was a recurring theme, including in relation to one's home, one's privacy and one's dignity. Findings also reveal increased feelings of autonomy and dignity when carers understand the unique ways in which individuals experience ageing and being in the cared-for relationship.
These findings make an important contribution to the body of work concerning best practice in delivery of domiciliary care that respects older people's sense of self. Furthermore, the narrative approach used within this study, and in particular the three stage data collection method of the narrative biographic enquiry, the diary and the follow-up interview, provides a valuable contribution to methodological knowledge.


Mintii I.S. and Soloviev V.N. Augmented Reality: Ukrainian Present Business and Future Education.
The aim of the study: analysis of the current state and prospects for the development of augmented reality in Ukraine in business and education. The objectives of the study: to analyze the experience of using the   augmented  reality in advertising, marketing, education of Ukraine; to investigate the problems existing in this direction. The object of the study: the process of using augmented reality in advertising, marketing, education. The subject of the study: specific projects using the augmented reality in advertising, marketing, education. The used method of study was theoretical that included analysis of articles and materials of conferences on the research problem. The results of the study: nowadays, the augmented reality is used primarily in the field of advertising and marketing of Ukraine. As an example is the advertisement of   Kyivstar (virtual tour around Ukraine, augmented reality quest), some of the Ukrainian companies have certain results in in this direction, for example, Augmented Pixels, Simo AR (in the development of a browser with augmented reality, the Kontramarka ticket service is implemented), Live Animations (such projects as Wonderland AR, My Yeti, Live Coloring, Gapchinska, Live Photo are already implemented). Among the problems that exist with the introduction of these technologies in education, first of all, we should note the shortage of specialists in the preparation of such educational projects and the uncoordinated actions of business and education in this direction. Main  conclusions and recommendations: in order to disseminate research results it is necessary to hold thematic events of the all-Ukrainian level.


In most real-world recommender systems, the observed rating data are subject to selection bias, and the data are thus missing-not-at-random. Developing a method to facilitate the learning of a recommender with biased feedback is one of the most challenging problems, as it is widely known that naive approaches under selection bias often lead to suboptimal results. A well-established solution for the problem is using propensity scoring techniques. The propensity score is the probability of each data being observed, and unbiased performance estimation is possible by weighting each data by the inverse of its propensity. However, the performance of the propensity-based unbiased estimation approach is often affected by choice of the propensity estimation model or the high variance problem. To overcome these limitations, we propose a model-agnostic meta-learning method inspired by the asymmetric tri-training framework for unsupervised domain adaptation. The proposed method utilizes two predictors to generate data with reliable pseudo-ratings and another predictor to make the final predictions. In a theoretical analysis, a propensity-independent upper bound of the true performance metric is derived, and it is demonstrated that the proposed method can minimize this bound. We conduct comprehensive experiments using public real-world datasets. The results suggest that the previous propensity-based methods are largely affected by the choice of propensity models and the variance problem caused by the inverse propensity weighting. Moreover, we show that the proposed meta-learning method is robust to these issues and can facilitate in developing effective recommendations from biased explicit feedback.


Residuals stresses can be present in almost every industrial component. Manufacturing processes such as casting, welding, and heat treatment are the most common causes of residual stresses. Thermal residual stresses could be developed in a component during heat treatment process as a result of non-uniform heating or cooling operations. In this study, experiments were carried out to develop insights into and understanding of the residual stresses that can arise during thermal treatments of Al-Si components. Due to the complexity of residual stresses analysis in real components, a common mixed-section casting was employed. In order to fulfill the requirements of performing different thermal treatments, a special cooling apparatus was designed and built. A number of the casting components of an Al-Si alloy were annealed for stress relief, and then removed from the furnace and cooled with different water flow rates. Then, the amount of accumulated residual stresses in the components was measured relaxation of stress using cutting. Thermal analysis and residual stress measurement for different thermal treatment regimes showed that by choosing a specific holding temperature before direct cooling, the value of residual stress increases linearly with flow rate of cooling. On the other hand, for a constant value of cooling water flow, ∆Tmax and residual stress level decreases when the value of base temperature of furnace decreases. Moreover, the cutting method can be a suitable method for measuring thermal residual stresses in Al-Si components and thermal analysis is a powerful technique to predict residual stresses.


Patients with primary ovarian carcinoid tumors may develop carcinoid syndrome and heart disease in the absence of metastasis. The release of bioactive amines by carcinoid tumors into the systemic circulation leads to right-sided valvular dysfunction and subsequent right ventricular failure. Surgical correction of carcinoid heart disease can reduce the symptoms of heart failure and lead to an improved prognosis. We report a case of a 55-year-old female who presented with carcinoid heart disease caused by a primary ovarian carcinoid tumor and underwent valve replacement surgery.


Decentralization is a perfect concept but it doesn't always demonstrate its superiority in the implementation stage. Approximately 80% new autonomous regions in Indonesia are considered to be failed in implementing decentralization values. In order to achieve the expected outcomes, decentralization should be accompanied by appropriate preconditions such as careful planning, effective implementation, and sufficient capacity both in individual, institutional, and system level. In the context of East Kalimantan Province, decentralization is perceived as an opportunity to accelerate local development through broader authorities and wider financial resources. In other words, East Kalimantan Provincial Government is visioning decentralization as an instrument to run governance reform and, at the same time, as a precondition to better development processes. Besides, the implementation of decentralization in East Kalimantan Province is directed to produce a synergistic win-win relationship with the central government, not a kind of trade-off or zero-sum relationship. In that sense, East Kalimantan Provincial Government has formulated priority agendas on local development issues. These priorities would be combined with pillars of bureaucratic reform as key leverage and indicators to measure the progress of local development in the wide-decentralization era.


Background Changes in professional boundaries have allowed many of the tasks traditionally undertaken by doctors to be delegated to Nurses and Allied Health professionals. The employment of an appropriately experienced specialist physiotherapist in orthopaedic clinics in the NHS to triage patients is well established. This paper examines the background, establishment and outcomes of the use of a Physiotherapist Extended Scope Practitioner (ESP) in the Orthopaedic Department at the Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport. Method The post at RH Haslar has evolved in the five years since its implementation. All military patients referred to RH Haslar Orthopaedic Department with spinal, predominantly low back, pain are assessed in the Military Spinal Triage Clinic. The Physiotherapist ESP case-manages patients with access to radiological and haematological investigations and onward referral to other specialities as appropriate. Results In eighteen months 235 new patients have been assessed. Only 25 patients required review by the consultant spinal surgeon, while 5 were referred to non-spinal orthopaedic consultants with shoulder/hip pathology. A total of 18 patients were referred to Pain Clinic and 3 patients to rheumatology. The results indicate that nearly 90% (n=210) of patients who would previously been reviewed by a consultant spinal surgeon could be managed by a Physiotherapist ESP. The waiting time to spinal surgery has reduced from approximately 8 months to between 6 and 16 weeks. Conclusions It is concluded that an appropriately trained specialist physiotherapist is clinically and economically appropriate to manage patients in an Orthopaedic Department. This has important implications for optimising patient management and additionally supports the wider clinical employment of senior military physiotherapists.


This thesis investigates the representation of Sicilian mafia women on the Italian press after the second postwar, in particular by examining three Italian newspapers, Il Corriere della Sera, L'Ora and Il Giornale di Sicilia. The focus is on the 1963 – 1983 twenty-year period, after which there has been a big change in the world of Sicilian crime organization with the phenomenon of pentitismo that changes a lot of thing in the whole universe of mafia.
In this research there are two aspects very different but very central at the same time. On one hand the careful counting of quoted newspapers and the filing of the articles about general mafia and mafia women, which rendered a whole database about the interest for these woman figures founded in print, in a historical period never analyzed from this point of view; on the other hand the interpretation of these articles and the different representation forms. The founded material was compared with the cultural Italian history of that period to understand if there was a difference between general woman perception and that of mafia woman and if there was also an iconographic prototype of southern woman which it is possible to apply on photographs and descriptions. In fact the most important result of the thesis is to underline that, in front of a woman who belongs to mafia context, the Italia press represented the female gender as first and the mafia gender as the second one.


Background The aim of this study was to compare nutrition-related adverse events and clinical outcomes of ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide regimen (ICE therapy) and ranimustine, carboplatin, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide regimen (MCEC therapy) instituted as pretreatment for autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Material/Methods We enrolled patients who underwent autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation between 2007 and 2012. Outcomes were compared between ICE therapy (n=14) and MCEC therapy (n=14) in relation to nutrient balance, engraftment day, and length of hospital stay. In both groups, we compared the timing of nutrition-related adverse events with oral caloric intake, analyzed the correlation between length of hospital stay and duration of parenteral nutrition, and investigated the association between oral caloric intake and the proportion of parenteral nutrition energy in total calorie supply. Five-year survival was compared between the groups. Results Compared with the MCEC group, the ICE group showed significant improvement in oral caloric intake, length of hospital stay, and timing of nutrition-related adverse events and oral calorie intake, but a delay in engraftment. Both groups showed a correlation between duration of parenteral nutrition and length of hospital stay (P=0.0001) and between oral caloric intake (P=0.0017) and parenteral nutrition energy sufficiency rate (r=−0.73, P=0.003; r=−0.76, P=0.002). Five-year survival was not significantly different between the groups (P=0.1355). Conclusions Our findings suggest that compared with MCEC therapy, ICE therapy improves nutrition-related adverse events and reduces hospital stay, conserving medical resources, with no significant improvement in long-term survival. The nutritional pathway may serve as a tool for objective evaluation of pretreatment for autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.


The measurement of surface temperatures of hot-gas path components of gas turbines under operating conditions provides a considerable challenge because the complexity of measurements under the prevailing conditions is substantial. The results from temperature measurements from an engine test using Thermal History Paint (THP) are presented here. The sensor material in the THP is an oxide ceramic which is doped with lanthanide ions to make the material luminescent. The properties of the luminescence depend on the temperature of exposure. The paper describes the first application of this technology in an extended, rather than dedicated, engine test in which components in both the hot gas path and the secondary air system were coated with THP. During the test campaign the engine components operated below maximum temperature for extended periods of time, which required a novel approach to the calibration of the paint. An overview over the correspondence between the temperatures measured with the THP, thermal paints and CFD calculations is provided for a sideplate and turbine blade. There is very good correlation between the results of the different methods. For the sideplate, the temperature measured with the THP was within 10K of the CFD calculation. Furthermore, the THP exhibited only minor erosion damage after over 50 hours of engine testing. The high durability and measurement accuracy demonstrate the feasibility of using the THP in extended engine tests.


A parallel algorithm and architecture for pruned bit-reversal interleaving (PBRI) are proposed. For a pruned interleaver of size N with mother interleaver size M = 2n ges N, the proposed algorithm interleaves any number x isin [0, N - 1] in at most n - 1 steps, as opposed to x steps using existing PBRI algorithms. A parallel architecture of the proposed algorithm employing simple logic gates and having a short critical path delay is presented. The proposed architecture is valuable in reducing (de-)interleaving latency in emerging wireless standards that employ PBRI channel (de-)interleaving in their PHY layer such as the 3GPP2 ultra mobile broadband standard.


In Reply. —We believe our choice of patient-care months as the denominator for occupational exposures is neither inappropriate nor misleading. In our study, we were interested in the difference in the frequency of occupational exposures before and after implementation of UPs and, specifically, with regard to needlestick injuries, the percent reduction as a result of UPs (ie, the rate of injuries after implementation divided by the rate of injuries before implementation). For this calculation, it is clear that the choice of denominators is irrelevant since they cancel out. We contend that the risk of needlestick injuries is procedure-dependent and the number of patients cared for on the study wards is the most important determinant of the number of procedures performed. Since we observed no variations in the month-to-month patient census or any changes in ward practices during the study period, we attributed the reduction in the frequency of exposures to


Micro swimmers have a great potential to realize minimally invasive medical procedures to detect and treat diseases. They are promising candidates for achieving targeted drug delivery, which can reduce the side effects of potent drugs and minimize the secondary complications of dangerous treatments. However, swimming at low Reynolds number environments such as bodily fluids requires breaking the time reversal symmetry to achieve propulsion, therefore swimming of micro structures in viscous environments presents a challenge. In this thesis, swimming characteristics and performance of both chiral and magnetically actuated axisymmetric structures swimming inside cylindrical v conduits at low Reynolds numbers are investigated using computational and numerical models, as well as experimental studies. Computational tools that predict the swimming performance of both chiral and axisymmetric swimmers are presented to provide a comprehensive analysis that considers both types of swimmers used in this research field. Effects of geometric parameters on the swimming performance of chiral structures are analyzed and guidelines for designing helical tails for optimized velocity or efficiency are established using a computational fluid dynamics model. Symmetry breaking with axisymmetric particles is achieved by exploiting their hydrodynamic interactions with confining boundaries. A numerical model based on the resistive force theory that can predict their trajectories with high accuracy is reported. Non-inertial focusing and controlled motion of rigid spheres inside cylindrical channels are experimentally demonstrated. The findings presented contribute to our understanding of the swimming characteristics of both symmetric and asymmetric micro swimmers and pave the way for new applications.


To those of us physicians who were stimulated by the psychology of 35 years ago to enter medical school and learn more about that most fascinating of subjects, ourselves, this book will reawaken our interest. It indicates that some psychologists have at last got away from the frog, the monkey, and similar behavioristic studies. The author is cognizant of the work with computers which are supposed to think and duplicate some of the mental processes of men. He believes that the primary characteristic of a living system is the ability to duplicate or repeat itself and its kind in space and time. Volume I is devoted to "The Positive Affects." Volume II will consider "The Negative Affects," and Volume III, "Cognition and Ideology." Tomkins properly points out that behaviorism and psychoanalysis have delayed the empirical analysis of consciousness. He believes that the role of consciousness as a control mechanism has


In this article we outline a research line whose main goal is to give access to the software agents inhabiting the Web to a powerful inference service built around Defeasible Logic Programming (DeLP), a formalism that combines features of Logic Programming with Defeasible Argumentation. To do so, the web service prototype we proposed is the next logical step to take in order to allow agents to draw conclusions through DeLP within the Semantic Web.


The development of microbial resistance to common small molecule antibiotics is continuing to be a thread to modern medicine and drives the search for novel antibiotics for the clinic. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), part of the innate immune system, are versatile and show multifaceted antimicrobial activity that has attracted recent focus as only limited cases of resistance are reported to date. AMPs primarily develop their potency at the pathogenic membrane, where they adapt different modes of action that compromise membrane integrity and result in cell death. While the primary peptide structure and overall biophysical characteristics are important for AMP activity, a precise structure–function relationship is still unresolved. The destructive membrane-activity and large conformational space exploited by AMPs is a challenge for biophysical characterisation and typically a battery of different techniques is required to study precise AMP activity. Magnetic resonance methods are outlined and reviewed that span the relevant time scales of the highly dynamic peptide–membrane interaction in a native-like environment. An overview of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and uniaxially oriented nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodologies is presented, which in combination resolve the peptide–lipid interaction in detail; understanding of the bilateral relationship of lipids and peptides is essential for the precise characterisation of native and synthetic AMP sequences.


The impact of carvacrol at different levels (0.1%, 0.5%, and 1%) on ammonia (AMN) and biogenic amines (BAs) production by 8 common foodborne pathogens (FBPs) (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria monocytogenes, Aeromonas hydrophila, and Salmonella Paratyphi A) was studied using a rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method. Significant differences among bacteria (P < 0.05) in AMN and BA production were observed using a tyrosine decarboxylase broth. Tyramine, dopamine, agmatine, spermine, and putrescine were the main amines produced by the bacteria. Tyramine production by P. aeruginosa was the highest (967 mg/L), whereas K. pneumoniae was the poorest tyramine producer (6.42 mg/L). AMN and BA production varied significantly depending on carvacrol levels and the specific bacterial strains. Tyramine production for all bacterial strains was significantly suppressed by addition of carvacrol at levels of 0.5% and 1%, but not 0.1%. Consequently, the effect of carvacrol on BA and AMN formation by FBP was dependent on bacterial strain as well as carvacrol level.


We recently reported in Gut that non-coeliac wheat sensitivity (NCWS) is associated with a state of systemic immune activation in conjunction with a compromised intestinal epithelium.1 Patients with NCWS experience GI symptoms, most commonly including abdominal pain and bloating, as well as extraintestinal symptoms, among which fatigue, headache and cognitive difficulties feature prominently.1 2 A principal component analysis of the generated data from our study, including markers of antibody reactivity to wheat gluten, intestinal cell damage and systemic innate and adaptive immune responses to microbial components, found clustering of the patients and controls into discernible groups and demonstrated the potential utility of the identified biomarkers for identifying patients with NCWS.1

Extreme fatigue, in particular one that does not improve with rest, is a hallmark of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).3 Immune system abnormalities have been found to be associated with symptoms in a substantial number of patients with ME/CFS.4 5 Furthermore, many patients complain of GI symptoms of unknown aetiology. …


Experimental work within the broad spectrum of fuels technology calls for both accurate and uniform analytical methods for fuels and combustion products. Recent experience, however, has shown wide variation in analytical results obtained by different laboratories each possessing generally high competence for petroleum analysis. Analytical capability across laboratories would be improved through use of more nearly uniform methods so that laboratories doing air pollution research would be able to separate, identify, and quantify the many fuel components and products in comparable manner. Moreover, to fully utilize the advantages of such uniform analyses, results must then be expressed in a systematic, standardized format. Improved accuracy in the analytical data is needed, but accuracy alone will not suffice and should be sought in conjunction with uniform procedures and identification format. The paper suggests a hydrocarbon identification and classification scheme to be used in reporting analyses that are obtained following uniform, standardized analytical procedures. The resulting information would be readily translatable from laboratory to laboratory.


In semiconductor assembly and test manufacturing (ATM), a station normally consists of multiple machines (maybe of different types) for a certain operation step. It is critical to optimize the utilization of ATM stations for productivity improvement. In this paper, we first formulate the bottleneck station scheduling problem, and then apply ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve it metaheuristically. The ACO is a biological-inspired optimization mechanism. It incorporates each ant agent's feedback information to collaboratively search for the good solutions. We develop the ACO-based scheduling framework and provide the system parameter tuning strategy. The system implementation at an Intel chipset factory demonstrates a significant machine conversion reduction comparing to a traditional scheduling approach.


Describes the design, fabrication, and performance of GaAs monolithic low-noise broad-band amplifiers intended for broadcast receiver antenna amplifier, IF amplifier, and instrumentation applications. The process technology includes the use of Czochralski-grown semiinsulating substrates, localized implantation of ohmic and FET channel regions, and silicon nitride for passivation and MIM capacitors. The amplifiers employ shunt feedback to obtain input matching and flat broad-band response. One amplifier provides a gain of 24 dB, bandwidth of 930 Mhz, and noise figure of 5.0 dB. A second amplifier provides a gain of 17 dB, bandwidth of 1400 MHz, and noise figure of 5.6 dB. Input and output VSWR's are typically less than 2:1 and the third-order intercept points are 28 and 32 dB, respectively. Improved noise figure and intercept point can be achieved by the use of external RF chokes.


Twenty-three children and 52 adults with torsion dystonia of various etiologies and distribution patterns of the involuntary movements were treated in an open-label study with anticholinergic medication. The dosage was increased gradually until there was either benefit or intolerable adverse effects. Trihexyphenidyl was used initially, but later ethopropazine was given to adult subjects. Significant benefit occurred in 61% of children and in 38% of adults. The average daily dosages were 41 mg trihexyphenidyl for children, 24 mg trihexyphenidyl for adults, and 350 mg ethopropazine for adults. Adverse effects were the major limiting factor to high dosage in adults, but not in children.


This review examined the intersections between mental health and sexual assault and abuse. It aimed to identify key learnings related to service delivery and responses to improve mental health outcomes for people impacted by sexual assault and abuse. It reviewed themes related to sexual abuse and/or assault and mental illness in adulthood including assistance seeking, negative responses to disclosure and risk factors for poorer mental health among survivors. In relation to service delivery and responses, key themes included: important principles of care, service and support availability, trauma-informed models, staffing, coordination between sectors and providers and holistic approaches to care. Significant gaps in the evidence were found related to people with disability, older people, refugees and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.