Australian soils are naturally low in nutrient concentrations, particularly nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Native plants are well adapted to low-nutrient soils, and can be adversely affected when exposed to higher concentrations of nutrients. The Hawkesbury Sandstone soils in northern Sydney are naturally low in nutrients, but often receive additional nutrient input from urban stormwater run-off. Increases in soil nutrients in urban bushland are associated with the presence of exotic species, and the decline in the diversity of native species. This study tested the hypothesis that high concentrations of nutrients, in particular P, in the disturbed soils of urban bushland, reduce survival of native plants. We examined the survival of native species under five different nutrient concentrations that are typical of nutrient-enriched urban bushland soil, in two glasshouse experiments. The experiments examined both survival of seedlings and survival of 6-month-old plants. We used native species that are adapted to both nutrient-poor and nutrient-rich soils. In general, the survival of native plants decreased with increasing nutrient concentrations. At soil total-P concentrations >200 mg kg–1, most plants died. Seedlings were more sensitive to added nutrients than the 6-month-old plants. Species that were from higher-nutrient soil had consistently higher survival than species from low-nutrient soils, under the nutrient addition treatments. These results suggest that at high soil nutrient concentrations typical of stormwater-affected urban bushland, native plant species of low-nutrient soils will be unable to survive. If ecological restoration works are to be done in such areas, replanting with more mature plants from naturally high-nutrient habitats is likely to be the most successful. However, restoration of these areas may have limited success and they are likely to remain dominated by exotic plant species.


The appearance of magnetic order in the (Fe0.2Cr0.8)1.5[Cr(CN)6]·15H2O Prussian blue analogue at low temperature has been investigated by means of synchrotron radiation-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. With the help of ligand field multiplet analysis we have been able to identify the oxidation states of the metallic cations present in the sample and their evolution with temperature. Our experiments reveal that the appearance of ferromagnetic order is triggered by the transformation of CrIII cations to CrII high-spin caused by a transfer of electrons from the Fe to the Cr resulting in an increase of the magnetic interactions within the (Cr, Cr) sublattice. The misfit strain between the (Fe, Cr) and the (Cr, Cr) moieties that coexist within this ternary material influences the balance of oxidation states and hence the magnetic properties of the metallic ions. Misfit relaxation also plays a role in determining the differences between the surface and the bulk of the material. The measurement of the magnetic moments in those two regions suggests that the surface may have a reduced Curie temperature compared to the bulk.


We analyze the influence of the excited states (ES) on the dynamics of optically injected quantum dot lasers. In our model carriers from the wetting layer are first being captured into the excited state and then relax to the ground state. Our results indicate that the dynamics of optically injected QD lasers are driven by the relaxation time in the sense that it scales the regions where the laser exhibits distinct behaviors. It also influences the size of the locking region. The capture time has minor effect and influences mainly static characteristics. Bifurcation maps are studied with the main focus on self-pulsations. In particular our results show that the dynamics of self-pulsations is consistent with experimental observations of excitable dynamics. To utilize the self-pulsations we propose and investigate properties and limitation of the system used for all-optical signal processing. In our approach the slave laser is switched by the information signal acting as a master laser between the locking region and the region of self-pulsations. The maximum bit rate of such a system has been estimated to be 0.5 GHz. This value can be improved to 1 GHz by applying correction to the detection algorithm. The correction reflects the nature of self-pulsations and is calculated from the distribution of the time the system needs to fire a pulse.


ABSTRACT Background: Gait disorders are common in Parkinson's disease patients who respond poorly to dopaminergic treatment. Blockade of adenosine A2A receptors is expected to improve gait disorders. Istradefylline is a first-in-class selective adenosine A2A receptor antagonist with benefits for motor complications associated with Parkinson's disease. Research design and methods: This multicenter, open-label, single-group, prospective interventional study evaluated changes in total gait-related scores of the Part II/III Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) and Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOG-Q) in 31 Parkinson's disease patients treated with istradefylline. Gait analysis by portable gait rhythmogram was performed. Results: MDS-UPDRS Part III gait-related total scores significantly decreased at Weeks 4–12 from baseline with significant improvements in gait, freezing of gait, and postural stability. Significant decreases in MDS-UPDRS Part II total scores and individual item scores at Week 12 indicated improved daily living activities. At Week 12, there were significant improvements in FOG-Q, new FOG-Q, and overall movement per 48 h measured by portable gait rhythmogram. Adverse events occurred in 7/31 patients. Conclusions: Istradefylline improved gait disorders in Parkinson's disease patients complicated with freezing of gait, improving their quality of life. No unexpected adverse drug reactions were identified. Trial registration: UMIN-CTR (UMIN000020288).


The study of phytocenotic and bioecological features of phytoinvasions allows to better understand the nature of these plants and develop quarantine measures to limit their activity. The article provides phytocenotic and bioecological characteristics of Xanthium strumarium L. in Quba and Khachmaz regions. It has been established that X. strumarium occurs along roadsides, railways, on wastelands, and also forms communities on forest outskirts, along open water channels and along the coastlines of the Caspian. The communities with the dominance of X. strumarium described in natural habitats are characterized by us as groupings, associations, and formations. The species is invasive. The study of the underground part of the plant showed that its root system can change depending on the soil moisture regime. Plant with taproot of 10-20 cm grows on dry and periodically humidified due to moisture of atmospheric precipitation areas (wastelands, roadside strips, household plots, light forest coenoses). Reproduction is exclusively by seed. In areas with high or "swampy" type of moisture and salinity (riverine strip, coastal sands, ditches, water channels, etc.), the root system is located in the upper soil horizon (5-10 cm), numerous root shoots of 30-40 cm long extend from the main root. In this case, reproduction can occur both interchangeably and vegetatively. The invasive activity of the species is facilitated by the features of biology: the efficiency of seed distribution, the ability to vegetative reproduction, resistance to all forms of anthropogenic impact, and wide ecological amplitude. In spite of this, the invasive activity of X. strumarium is limited by vertical zoning and by more highly competitive invasive species ‒ Amaranthus retroflexus, Xanthium spinozum.

http://plantfungalres.az/uploads/2020-2/Phytocenotic, bioecological and invasive activity of the invasive species.pdf


"War as a climactic moment in history," David Bevan writes, "is well-placed to advance the critical quest for the status of (the) text, and . . . war literature is thus very much in the mainstream of recent theoretical debate." The current proliferation of critical studies on the relationship of war in the twentieth century and literary production certainly lends considerable support to Bevan's assertion. In 1989 alone, the publication date of this present collection of fourteen essays, at least two other major studies appeared: Paul Fussell's Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War and the anthology Arms and the Woman: War, Gender, and Literary Representation (eds. Cooper, Munich, and Squier). Unfortunately, Literature and War, despite its exciting breadth (the essays range throughout the century, including World Wars One and Two, the Spanish Civil War, Portuguese colonial war, the National Liberation Movement in Uruguay, and Vietnam), fails to deliver in terms of depth, and measures unfavorably against these other studies. Part of the problem stems from the fact that most of the essays were originally papers delivered at a 1989 conference on "Literature, Revolution and War" held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The editor seems to have done little more than arrange the essays in some unspecified manner (roughly chronological?) and add just over a page of "introduction." Although there is nothing wrong with using a conference as the starting-point for an anthology, the reader expects more than mere "proceedings," unless, of course, the editor is up-front from the start and clearly labels the volume as such. Several of the exceedingly brief essays, when not explicidy peppered with the worries about time and space constraints peculiar to the conference paper, suffer simply from a lack of development. No sooner does the reader settle into an essay than one reaches its conclusion. For example, an essay (in fact, a mere twelve paragraphs) on the novels of Claude Simon and the philosophy of history gestures provocatively toward significant questions investigating how the writer negotiates historical experience and ahistorical vision in order to reconceive the boundaries of generic expectation, but the discussion is too clipped or abbreviated to account adequately for such complex issues. The extreme brevity of this piece (and others) is offset by a few excellent studies, especially Knibb's analysis of the war text and language, Carchidi's reading of Malraux against T. E. Lawrence, and Ball's revealing scrutiny of the underground press of the French Resistance. The final result, however, is a volume that as a whole is uneven. In his opening remarks, Bevan indicates that such a volume is particularly timely, as we are now in the midst of media commemorations of "sundry fatal anniversaries, including the birth of Hitler, the end of the Spanish Civil War, and the beginning of World War II." This anthology works best to remind readers of this fact and to call more urgently for scholars to join in exploring, perhaps


Enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA, P.L. 109-171) ended more than four years of congressional debate on "reauthorizing" the block grant of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The DRA extended funding for most TANF grants through FY2010, except TANF supplemental grants which expire after FY2008. Supplemental grants go to 17 states that have high population growth or low historic funding in TANF's predecessor programs per poor person. TANF is best known as the funding source for welfare benefits for low-income families with children. In 2005, about two million families per month received TANF cash welfare, down from the historical high of five million families receiving cash welfare in the mid-1990s. In 2005, about three in ten poor children were in families that received TANF cash welfare. However, TANF funds a wide range of "nonwelfare" benefits and services for needy families with children. In FY2005, spending on activities related to traditional cash welfare accounted for a little more than half of total TANF funding, while other "nonwelfare" activities accounted for the remainder. Still, most issues that Congress has debated in the past, and will potentially consider in the 110th Congress, relate to TANF cash welfare. The DRA revised the rules relating to TANF work participation standards for families receiving welfare, by requiring states to either increase participation in activities or reduce their welfare caseloads to meet these numerical performance standards. Many states had to act quickly to avoid failing these standards, which were effective in FY2007. Further, states must engage 90% of their two-parent welfare caseload in activities — a fairly high standard that President Bush's FY2008 budget seeks to eliminate. The DRA also required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue regulations defining the specific activities that may be counted toward the participation standards. The regulations, published June 29, 2006, clarified that the participation standards focus on work or short-term job preparation. This raises old issues of whether a "work-first" orientation is best for those who have barriers to employment, such as very low levels of educational attainment or disabilities. Congress might consider proposals left over from TANF reauthorization proposals, but not included in DRA, to loosen some rules for nonwelfare spending, such as allowing carry-over funds to be used for nonwelfare benefits and services and to consider any TANF child care or transportation benefits "nonwelfare" and not subject to the rules associated with welfare benefits. Congress might also consider improving the information available on how TANF funds are used for nonwelfare benefits. Additionally, legislation that affects foster care, child welfare services for abused and neglected children, and child care funding would have an effect on TANF, since large amounts of TANF "nonwelfare" dollars are used to supplement dedicated federal and state funding for these programs. This report will be updated as legislative events warrant.


The ongoing surge of international research on Asian Climate and Tectonics enables to better assess interactions between forcing mechanisms (global climate, India-Asia collision, Tibetan Plateau growth) and paleoenvironmental changes (monsoons, aridification), land-sea distribution, surface processes, paleobiogeographic evolution and the global carbon cycle. We review here the progress of the ERC MAGIC project (Monsoons in Asia caused Greenhouse to Icehouse Change?) integrating regional geodynamic constraints, well-dated environmental / biodiversity records and climate modeling. MAGIC focuses on the Paleogene period that includes the global Greenhouse to Icehouse cooling, the early collision and plateau growth and associated regional development of monsoons and westerlies over the Proto-Paratethys sea. Our work focuses on three areas constraining Asian paleoenvironments. (1) In Myanmar, paleomagnetic results, new dating of magmatic rocks and sediments along with additional detrital geochronology and basin analysis of the Burmese subduction margin and implications for the history of India-Asia convergence. (2) Along the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau margin, the combination of multiple proxies (leaf wax stable isotope, pollen, grain size, etc…)  applied to an extended lacustrine Paleogene record enables to identify precisely Asian climate changes and their consequences on ecosystems. (3) In westernmost China and Tajikistan, the proto-Paratethys sea fluctuations and the sedimentary records of Pamir tectonic evolution are now precisely dated enabling to constrain driving mechanisms and paleoenvironmental consequences. Together these results are used to constrain climate modeling experiments which permit validation of hypotheses on interactions between paleogeography, paleoenvironments and paleobiodiversity at Asian and global scales in response to long-term and short-term events.


Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the chief complaints of psychological crisis hotlines during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Jiangsu, China, and to summarize the psychological characteristics of the public during the different stages of COVID-19. Methods The chief complaints of calls to the psychological crisis hotline from 27 January 2020 to 30 June 2020. A total of 578 calls were extracted and grouped using thematic analysis into categories. After statistical analysis, the monthly and three-period trends were observed dynamically to determine whether there were statistical differences in the proportion of specific chief complaints over the phases. Results There were a total of 495 cases of psychological problems or physical discomfort, accounting for 85.64% of the total sample number of hotline calls related to the pandemic. The numbers of callers with anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, illness anxiety, insomnia, and physical discomfort were 370 (64.01%), 103 (17.99%), 33 (5.71%), 36 (6.23%), 51 (8.82%), and 72 (12.46%), respectively, and 83 (14.36%) callers consulted other problems. The monthly main complaints showed a fluctuating trend, and each main complaint peaked at different stages. The main complaints during the three stages had distinct features, respectively, and the proportions of calls for the specific complaints differed statistically over the phases. Conclusion Dynamic observation and qualitative analysis of psychological crisis hotline data might indicate dynamic changes and accordingly provide guidance for online crisis intervention when other public health crises occur.


Porous metal–organic frameworks associated with functional materials have attracted considerable attention due to their excellent catalytic performance. In this work, AuCo–MeIm was synthesized by coating amorphous cobalt–methylimidazole [Co(MeIm)2] frameworks on AuCo particles, which was also used as a Co(II) source for the construction of Co(MeIm)2. TEM, XRD and TG results indicated the identification of amorphous Co(MeIm)2 in the heterostructured composite. AuCo–MeIm showed size-selective catalytic performance in the photocatalytic removal of Cr(VI) and methylene blue attributed to the network of amorphous Co(MeIm)2 coatings. Although Co(MeIm)2 coatings contributed to the adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of MB by the affinity of aromatic rings and ligands for the metal charge transfer mechanism, the coatings still showed a significant inhibitory effect on the removal of methylene blue. This size-selective property was also well described by the proposed interface transfer kinetics.


Context: Sythetic pyrethroid and two botanical may reduce the fecundity and egg viability of red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and can be used in grain protection. Objective: To determine the effect of cypermethrin, fenitrothion, Murraya paniculata L. and Jatropha gossypifolia L. plant extracts on fecundity and egg viability of T castaneum . Materials and Methods: Newly hatched T. castaneum larvae were kept in a petridish containing 30 g either fresh or treated flour separately. After pupation the pupae were sieved and sexed by microscopic examination and kept separately for adult emergence. Twenty five pairs (1 ♂ : 1 ♀ ) adults were paired from treated and one pair from untreated media and placed in a glass vial containing 2 g of food either treated or untreated for oviposition in an incubator at 30 ± 0.5°C. Eggs were collected and counted after every three days over a period of 45 days. The eggs laid by the first 15 pairs from each treatment were collected from the experimental vials and kept in separate petridish for hatching. Eggs were regularly observed with a microscope and hatched larvae were counted. Results : The females of all treated media laid less number of eggs than the untreated females. Both insecticides and botanicals affected oviposition significantly (P<0.001) at all doses levels. All the treatments of both the insecticides and botanicals significantly (P < 0.001) reduced the fertility of eggs laid by T. castaneum females in comparison to those of the control. Conclusion : The plant extracts of kamini and jamalgota can effectively reduced the fecundity and egg viability against stored product insect pests with low mamalian toxicity. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbs.v19i0.13007 J. bio-sci. 19 95-97, 2011


Although counseling expectations have been studied in late adolescent and adult samples, little is known about younger adolescents' openness to counseling and perceptions of the counseling process. In this study, 329 middle school students completed the Expectations About Counseling Questionnaire–Brief Form (Tinsley, 1982). An exploratory factor analysis indicated support for a two-factor structure, consisting of expectations about (a) the student's role and (b) the school counselor's role. Implications are considered for future research and practical efforts to enable young adolescents to benefit more fully from responsive counseling services.


The northern part of the North American Western Interior Sedimentary Basin has yielded well-preserved terrestrial palynomorphs whose occurrences allow the biostratigraphic characterization of the basin. Data have been compiled from sections that in composite span the latest Turonian to Paleocene. These data allow for the identification of species that are biostratigraphically useful within Alberta and adjacent portions of the basin. Progress has been made in establishing a stable biostratigraphic context for the basin using the first and last occurrences of 103 taxa. These palynomorphs provide a refined chronostratigraphic framework when combined with radiometric ages, polarity chronologies and ammonite biozonations. This framework has allowed the intrabasinal correlation of widely distributed sections in the Alberta and Montana portion of the basin and can be applied to stratigraphic problems in the more northern portion of the Western Interior Basin.


With the emergence of more and more applications for quantum computing, also the development of corresponding methods for design automation is receiving increasing interest. In this respect, decision diagrams provide a promising basis for many design tasks such as simulation, synthesis, verification, and more. However, users of the corresponding tools often do not have a proper background or an intuition about how these methods based on decision diagrams work and what their strengths and limits are. In an effort to make decision diagrams for quantum computing more accessible, we present a visualization tool which visualizes quantum decision diagrams and allows to explore their behavior when used in the design tasks mentioned above. The installation-free web-tool allows users to interactively learn how decision diagrams can be used in quantum computing, e.g., to (1) compactly represent quantum states and the functionality of quantum circuits, (2) to efficiently simulate quantum circuits, and (3) to verify the equivalence of two circuits. The tool is available at https://iic.jku.at/eda/research/quantum_dd/tool


Time-delays are pervasive in such real-world complex networks as social contagions and biological systems, and they radically alter the evolution of the dynamic processes in networks. We use a non-Markovian spreading threshold model to study the effects of time-delays on social contagions. Using extensive numerical simulations and theoretical analyses we find that relatively long time-delays induce a microtransition in the evolution of a fraction of recovered individuals, i.e., the fraction of recovered individuals versus time exhibits multiple phase transitions. The microtransition is sharper and more obvious when high-degree individuals have a higher probability of experiencing time-delays, and the microtransition is obscure when the time-delay distribution reaches heterogeneity. We use an edge-based compartmental theory to analyze our research and find that the theoretical results agree well with our numerical simulation results.


A high-CO2-requiring mutant of Synechococcus sp. PCC7942 las been isolated after chemical mutagenesis of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS). It was able to grow at 4% CO2, but not under ambient CO2. The initial screening of the mutant showed that the genetic reversion rate was about 10(-7) and death occurred 2 -3 days after being transferred from 4% CO2 to the ambient air. Its photosynthetic dependence on external dissolved inorganic carbon was higher than that of the wild type cells, but its carbonic anhydrase activity was comparatively low. In the ultrastructural level, various types of aberrant carboxysomes appeared in the mutant cells: rod-shaped carboxysomes, irregular carboxysomes and the "empty-inclusion carboxysomes" with increasing number of glycogen granules surrounding the thylakoids. All these alterations indicated that the mutant was defective in utilizing the external CO2. The induction of carboxysomes by lower levels of CO2 and the biogenesis of carboxysomes are herein discussed.


Hermeneutics is one of the main traditions within recent and contemporary European philosophy, and yet, as a distinctive mode of philosophising, it has often received much less attention than other similar traditions such as phenomenology, deconstruction or even critical theory. This series aims to rectify this relative neglect and to reaffirm the character of hermeneutics as a cohesive, distinctive, and rigorous stream within contemporary philosophy. The series will encourage works that focus on the history of hermeneutics prior to the twentieth century, that take up figures from the classical twentieth-century hermeneutic canon (including Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur, but also such as Strauss, Pareyson, Taylor and Rorty), that engage with key hermeneutic questions and themes (especially those relating to language, history, aesthetics, and truth), that explore the cross-cultural relevance and spread of hermeneutic concerns, and that also address hermeneutics in its interconnection with, and involvement in, other disciplines from architecture to theology. A key task of the series will be to bring into English the work of hermeneutic scholars working outside of the English-speaking world, while also demonstrating the relevance of hermeneutics to key contemporary debates. Since hermeneutics can itself be seen to stand between, and often to overlap with, many different contemporary philosophical traditions, the series will also aim at stimulating and supporting philosophical dialogue through hermeneutical engagement. Contributions to Hermeneutics aims to draw together the diverse field of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics through a series of volumes that will give an increased focus to hermeneutics as a discipline while also reflecting the interdisciplinary and truly international scope of hermeneutic inquiry. The series will encourage works that focus on both contemporary hermeneutics as well as its history, on specific hermeneutic themes and areas of inquiry (including theological and religious hermeneutics), and on hermeneutic dialogue across cultures and disciplines. All books to be published in this Series will be fully peer-reviewed before final acceptance.


In this study, we demonstrate that sigma(E), an alternative sigma factor of Corynebacterium glutamicum, is involved in cell surface stresses. Cells in which the sigE gene was deleted evidenced increased sensitivity to magnesium deficiency, as well as to SDS, lysozymes, EDTA and heat. We utilized physiological analyses to show that the downstream gene, designated cseE, encodes an anti-sigma factor. The retarded growth of the cseE mutant cells under ordinary growth conditions could be recovered by an additional deletion of sigE encoding sigma(E). Under stress conditions, the phenotype of the cseE-overexpressing cells mimicked that of the sigE mutant. The sigE and cseE genes were transcribed into a single transcript, and gene transcription was stimulated by heat. The SigE and CseE proteins interacted physically in vitro, in the form of glutathione S-transferase (GST) and maltose binding protein (MBP) fusion proteins, respectively. 2D-PAGE analysis of the wild-type and mutant crude extracts showed that the sigE mutant failed to synthesize a 34 kDa polypeptide that was normally induced in wild-type cells grown under heat (or SDS)-stressed conditions. The protein turned out to be expressed from ORF NCgl1070 and showed similarity to methyltransferases which may confer resistance to antibiotics. Accordingly, the sigE mutant evidenced extreme sensitivity to antibiotics, including nalidixic acid, penicillin and vancomycin. Finally, we present a discussion of the possible role of the sigE and cseE genes in the acclimation of C. glutamicum to cell surface stress conditions.


1. Chondromalacia of the patella starts most frequently on the medial facet. 2. The anatomy of the medial femoral condyle is described, including the rim at its superior border, and the different arrangement at the upper border of the lateral femoral condyle. 3. Rubbing of the medial patellar facet on the rim at the upper border of the medial femoral condyle can explain in part the etiology of chondromalacia.


Metabolism
Disagreement abounds over what constitutes a healthy diet and which components might provoke overeating and obesity in human populations. Hu et al. took a systematic approach to the latter question by feeding mice diets that differed in their proportion of fat (from 8 to 80%), protein (from 5 to 30%), carbohydrate (from 10 to 80%), or sucrose (from 5 to 30%). The only mice that ate more than they needed and became overweight were those eating a diet high in fat content. Furthermore, high-fat diets stimulated hedonic or reward pathways in the brain, as measured by gene expression. Because an equivalent comparison in humans would require a decade of study, we are unlikely to know how closely the results would be replicated in people.

Cell Metab. 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.06.010 (2018).


Abstract : A limiting feature of electron beam (EB) processing for traditional composite applications is the high cost of processing equipment compared to an oven for elevated cure processing. A model system was developed in SIMPROCESS to compare the net manufacturing costs associated with fabrication of flat-panel glass composite plates using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding in combination with thermal oven curing or EB curing to process composite thermosets. SIMPROCESS integrates process mapping, hierarchical event-driven simulation, and activity-based costing into a single tool and allows accurate computation of industrial costs to be determined under various imposed constraints and economic conditions. In the model evaluation, a determination is made that demonstrates the impact of resin cost on total manufacturing costs for the various components and demonstrates how various scenarios from ownership to toll processing can be implemented by a manufacturer to keep total processing costs from EB curing relatively competitive with oven curing processes.


The authors report on new voltage regulator circuitry used in a 4 Mb CMOS DRAM. The DRAM accepts a 5 V external power supply and generates 3.3 V on chip. The chip photomicrograph is provided with a magnified portion of the regulator. The internal voltage V/sub INT/ is regulated at 3.3 V (25 degrees C), while V/sub DD/ varies from 3.3 to 6.2 V. V/sub INT/ presents a positive temperature coefficient, which is adjustable, to compensate the higher cell leakage and the slowdown of MOSFET operations at higher temperature. While V/sub DD/ is raised above 6.3 V, the regulator enters the burn-in mode where V/sub INT/ follows a 2/3 V/sub DD/ curve, which gives an exact internal burn-in voltage as desired. This internal burn-in voltage is insensitive to temperature and process variations.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND
Despite advances in medical and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), individuals with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) have persistent symptoms, including exercise intolerance. Optimizing cardio-locomotor coupling may increase stroke volume and skeletal muscle perfusion as previously shown in healthy runners. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that exercise stroke volume and cardiac output would be higher during fixed-paced walking when steps were synchronized with the diastolic compared with systolic portion of the cardiac cycle in patients with CHF and CRT.

METHODS
Ten participants (58±17 years of age; 40% female) with CHF and previously implanted CRT pacemakers completed 5-minute bouts of walking on a treadmill (range, 1.5-3 mph). Participants were randomly assigned to walking to an auditory tone to synchronize their foot strike to either the systolic (0% or 100±15% of the R-R interval) or diastolic phase (45±15% of the R-R interval) of their cardiac cycle and underwent assessments of oxygen uptake (V̇o2; indirect calorimetry) and cardiac output (acetylene rebreathing). Data were compared through paired-samples t tests.

RESULTS
V̇o2 was similar between conditions (diastolic 1.02±0.44 versus systolic 1.05±0.42 L/min; P=0.299). Compared with systolic walking, stroke volume (diastolic 80±28 versus systolic 74±26 mL; P=0.003) and cardiac output (8.3±3.5 versus 7.9±3.4 L/min; P=0.004) were higher during diastolic walking; heart rate (paced) was not different between conditions. Mean arterial pressure was significantly lower during diastolic walking (85±12 versus 98±20 mm Hg; P=0.007).

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with CHF who have received CRT, diastolic stepping increases stroke volume and oxygen delivery and decreases afterload. We speculate that, if added to pacemakers, this cardio-locomotor coupling technology may maximize CRT efficiency and increase exercise participation and quality of life in patients with CHF.


Background Trombidid mites have a unique lifecycle in which only the larval stage is ectoparasitic. In the superfamily Trombiculoidea ("chiggers"), the larvae feed preferentially on vertebrates, including humans. Species in the genus Leptotrombidium are vectors of a potentially fatal bacterial infection, scrub typhus, which affects 1 million people annually. Moreover, chiggers can cause pruritic dermatitis (trombiculiasis) in humans and domesticated animals. In the Trombidioidea (velvet mites), the larvae feed on other arthropods and are potential biological control agents for agricultural pests. Here, we present the first trombidid mites genomes, obtained both for a chigger, Leptotrombidium deliense, and for a velvet mite, Dinothrombium tinctorium. Results Sequencing was performed using Illumina technology. A 180 Mb draft assembly for D. tinctorium was generated from two paired-end and one mate-pair library using a single adult specimen. For L. deliense, a lower-coverage draft assembly (117 Mb) was obtained using pooled, engorged larvae with a single paired-end library. Remarkably, both genomes exhibited evidence of ancient lateral gene transfer from soil-derived bacteria or fungi. The transferred genes confer functions that are rare in animals, including terpene and carotenoid synthesis. Thirty-seven allergenic protein families were predicted in the L. deliense genome, of which nine were unique. Preliminary proteomic analyses identified several of these putative allergens in larvae. Conclusions Trombidid mite genomes appear to be more dynamic than those of other acariform mites. A priority for future research is to determine the biological function of terpene synthesis in this taxon and its potential for exploitation in disease control.


Abstract Shoulder arthroscopy is used to treat various diseases of the shoulder, including refractory adhesive capsulitis. Effective postoperative pain relief is critical for these patients, as the success of surgery largely depends on early and regular physiotherapy. Although traditionally, various methods of postoperative analgesia have been described, each has its own disadvantages. We report a case of adhesive capsulitis, for which arthroscopic capsular release was carried out under cervical epidural anaesthesia with general anaesthesia, resulting in excellent intraoperative and postoperative analgesia, with a better patient compliance for physiotherapy, and a significant improvement in the range of movement at the shoulder joint.


The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is known worldwide for its success in providing credit to the poor. However, subsequent replications of its methodology in other parts of the world have been less successful. Is there really an infallible solution that works everywhere, and is outreach to the poor compatible with sustainability? A Grameen replic ator in the Philippines, the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), has recently set itself firmly on the path to sustainability through becoming a formal sector, rural bank – the first credit NGO in the country to do so. During the period 1993 to June 1999, CARD?s all-female outreach soared from 1,711 to 26,369 and its operational self-sufficiency ratio increased from 0.46 to l.09. At the end of June 1999, CARD?s loan portfolio stood at $2.7 million, its repayment rate was 99.9 per cent and its financial self-sufficiency ratio was 0.85. The principal lesson to be learned from CARD?s success is that Grameen-type MFIs can be sustainable and can substantially increase their outreach. CARD?s social capital comprises: (a) a core of good Grameen practices, such as high moral commitment on the part of the leaders, based on values instilled through training; peer control – to preclude adverse selection and moral hazard; and a strict credit discipline; (b) innovative adaptations to suit the Philippine context, such as the adoption of rural bank status under central bank supervision; vigorous mobilization of voluntary savings; the provision of differentiated, profit-making loan and insurance products; and a broadening of the clientele to include poor and non-poor depositors, while adhering to its mission of lending to poor women only.


Differences in anthropometric and metabolic parameters among people of African, European, South Asian, and other origins are well described in the literature. In addition, we and others have reported that many of these parameters are different when comparing African Americans with Africans who recently moved to the U.S. In contrast, reports comparing African populations of various ethnicities and geographic areas are still lacking. The black sub-Saharan populations of Africa show variation in culture, cuisine, language, ethnicity and genetics. The Africans-in-America cohort was established to evaluate the cardiometabolic status of Africans living in the United States who self-identify as healthy. Our goal was to compare anthropometric and metabolic parameters in 419 African-born blacks currently living in Washington, DC. The African regions of origin were West 53% (222/419), Central 21% (89/419), and East 26% (108/419). The Table below shows key findings among the three groups. The prevalence of previously undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes in the entire cohort was 6.2% and 31.5% respectively. Compared with West and Central Africans, East Africans had higher % body fat, plasma TG, MCV and eGFR but lower systolic BP, vitamin B12, frequency of variant hemoglobin and serum albumin. Further studies will be needed to understand the underlying reasons for these findings, their meaning and long-term consequences. Disclosure A. Ahmed: None. E.S. Siraj: Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi. Consultant; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. C. DuBose: None. R. Mugeni: None. M.F. Horlyck-Romanovsky: None. J.Y. Aduwo: None. K. Williams: Advisory Panel; Self; Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., Hygieia. A.E. Sumner: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; National Institutes of Health Clinical Center


Climatic changes, such as heatwaves, pose unprecedented challenges for insects, as escalated temperatures above the thermal optimum alter insect reproductive strategies and energy metabolism. While thermal stress responses have been reported in different insect species, thermo-induced developmental abnormalities in phloem-feeding pests are largely unknown. In this laboratory study, we raised two groups of first instar nymphs belonging to two clones of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, on fava beans Vicia faba. The instars developed and then asexually reproduced under constant exposure to a sub-lethal heatwave (27°C) for 14 days. Most mothers survived but their progenies showed abnormalities, as stillbirths and appendageless or weak nymphs with folded appendages were delivered. Clone N116 produced more deceased and appendageless embryos, contrary to N127, which produced fewer dead and more malformed premature embryos. Interestingly, the expression of the HSP70 and HSP83 genes differed in mothers between the clones. Moreover, noticeable changes in metabolism, e.g., lipids, were also detected and that differed in response to stress. Deformed offspring production after heat exposure may be due to heat injury and differential HSP gene expression, but may also be indicative of a conflict between maternal and offspring fitness. Reproductive altruism might have occurred to ensure some of the genetically identical daughters survive. This is because maintaining homeostasis and complete embryogenesis could not be simultaneously fulfilled due to the high costs of stress. Our findings shine new light on pea aphid responses to heatwaves and merit further examination across different lineages and species.


The problems associated with groups that commit crime are well known and notoriously complex. However, there are many questions that we still cannot answer with certainty. This book seeks to deepen understanding of the group processes involved in crime and the treatment of offenders' thoughts and behaviour. Together, the chapters in this volume address the following questions:

 Are people more likely to commit crime because of the influence of their group?
 Does group membership cause people to become criminals, or does the group merely foster people's pre-existing criminal inclinations?
How does group membership exert such a strong hold on people so that some risk imprisonment or even death, rather than relinquish their membership?

The contributors to Crime and Crime Reduction consider the social psychological influences of groups and specific forms of group crime such as street and prison gangs, terrorism, organized criminal networks, and group sexual offending. The book also addresses important questions about the role of groups in treating offenders, and why existing group membership should be considered when treating offenders.

Group criminal activity is a key area of study for researchers and for students of Forensic Psychology and Criminology courses. This book will therefore be of interest to students, scholars, and law enforcement practitioners who want to understand the group processes involved in crime and its reduction.


In recent years, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has become a de facto standard for exporting and exchanging data on the Web. XML structures data as trees. Querying capabilities are provided through patterns matched against the XML trees. Research on the processing of XML queries has focused mainly on tree-pattern queries. Tree-pattern queries are not appropriate for querying XML data sources whose structure is not fully known to the user, or for querying multiple data sources which structure information differently. Recently, a class of queries, called Partial Tree-Pattern Queries (PTPQs) was identified. A central feature of PTPQs is that the structure can be specified fully, partially, or not at all in a query. For this reason, PTPQs can be used for flexibly querying XML data sources.
This thesis deals with processing techniques for PTPQs. In particular, it addresses the satisfiability, containment and minimization problems for PTPQs. In order to cope with structural expression derivation issues and to compare PTPQs, a set of inference rules is suggested and a canonical form for PTPQs that comprises all derived structural expressions is defined. This canonical form is used for determining necessary and sufficient conditions for PTPQ satisfiability.
The containment problem is studied both in the absence and in the presence of structural summaries of data called dimension graphs. It is shown that this problem cannot be characterized by homomorphisms between PTPQs, even when PTPQs are put in canonical form. In both cases of the problem, necessary and sufficient conditions for PTPQ containment are provided in terms of homomorphisms between PTPQs and (a possibly exponential number of) tree-pattern queries. This result is used to identify a subclass of PTPQs that strictly contains tree-pattern queries for which the containment problem can be fully characterized through the existence of homomorphisms. To cope with the high complexity of PTPQ containment, heuristic approaches for this problem are designed that trade accuracy for speed. The heuristic approaches equivalently add structural expressions to PTPQs in order to increase the possibility for a homomorphism between two contained PTPQs to exist. An implementation and extensive experimental evaluation of these heuristics shows that they are useful in practice, and that they can be efficiently implemented in a query optimizer.
The goal of PTPQ minimization is to produce an equivalent PTPQ which is syntactically smaller in size. This problem is studied in the absence of structural summaries. It is shown that PTPQs cannot be minimized by removing redundant parts as is the case with certain classes of tree-pattern queries. It is also shown that, in general, a PTPQ does not have a unique minimal equivalent PTPQ. Finally, sound, but not complete, heuristic approaches for PTPQ minimization are presented. These approaches gradually trade execution time for accuracy.


Context: Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski. is a member of the family Asteraceae and has used traditionally in the prevention and treatment of various diseases. Aim: The research was aimed to determine chronic toxicity of 80% ethanolic leaf extract from S.trilobata (STLE). Materials and Methods: STLE at the doses of 200 or 400 mg/kg b. w. was oral given to the healthy Wistar rats daily for 90 days. Statistical analysis used: Statistical analysis was carried out using F-test (One-Way ANOVA) followed by Duncan's New Multiple Range Test. Results: STLE did not produce any signs or symptoms of chronic toxicity. And also, the mortal rat was not observed during a period of an observation. Furthermore, STLE did not alter the body weight, relative organ (liver, pancreas, kidney and heart) weight, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, platelet, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, blood cell characteristics, ultrastructure of RBC, and histological features of hepatic, pancreatic and renal tissues in the STLE treated rats comparing to control rats. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the leaf extract from S. trilobata exerts non chronic toxicity in rats and can be used safely as a traditional medicine or diet complement without any effect on hepatic and renal functions.


This project addresses a two-millennium old mystery surrounding the authorship of ancient Latin war memoirs attributed to Caesar, using Distributional Semantics, a modern computational method for detecting written text patterns. The Civil War has been confirmed to be Caesar's work, as well as the first seven of the eight chapters of the Gallic War, the eighth by Hirtius. The authorship of the African, Alexandrine, and Spanish Wars, though attributed to Caesar, is still under debate. Methods of distributional semantics derive representations of words from their distribution across a large amount of text, such that words that occur in similar contexts have similar representations.  These representations can then be combined to model larger units of text, such as chapters and whole books. SemanticVectors software was used to calculate the similarity between chapters or books after dimension reduction using Random Indexing. The results show that the Gallic War's eighth chapter is significantly different from its other seven chapters and from the Civil War, verifying the ability of distributional semantics to detect different Latin authorships. The African, Alexandrine, and Spanish Wars are notably different from the Civil War andGallic War (first seven chapters), suggesting that Caesar did not write these three. Furthermore, the African, Alexandrine, and Spanish Wars are different from each other and from the Civil and Gallic Wars, suggesting that they were written by different authors. This project demonstrates the value of distributional semantics in classics research. Its implications for digital humanities and real world problems such as plagiarism are discussed.


This is the third edition of the very successful CCrISP course manual written by a multi-disciplinary team of surgeons and anaesthetists. The first edition was published in 1999 and the book has been extensively updated for its third edition. However, the original aim of the course continues: that is to encourage trainees to have an understanding of the pathophysiology of critically ill patients, particularly in surgery, and to develop and hone patient management skills as part of a team. The course is now mandatory for the trainee surgeon and this manual is an important adjunct to the course. The lead co-ordinating author is Ian Loftus, a vascular surgeon in St George's Hospital, London, and the Critical Care Tutor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has gathered together a very experienced team of surgeons and anaesthetists.

The course manual covers the main topics important in the management of the critically ill surgical patient. The layout is clear with bullet point boxes and realistic case scenarios. The objectives of this popular course remain, namely to develop an understanding of the theory of the management of critically ill patients, and to develop the practical skills to assess and manage these patients successfully. As is to be expected, there is an emphasis on communication, multi-disciplinary and multi-professional management of these ill patients.

The major topics covered include the assessment of the critically ill surgical patient, airway management, blood gases, cardiovascular problems, various types of shock including haemorrhage, monitoring, renal failure and detailed discussion on fluid, electrolyte balance and sepsis. Pain management, communication and organisational skills are also included.

As is to be expected in a manual of this sort, it is written in a very didactic fashion. Relatively minor critiques would include the observation that some of the figures are small and the font size in some figures is a little too small for easy reading, such as figure 7.2 on page 92. Despite proof reading some typing errors have been included such as page 17 (CVP should be CNS). For a future edition the authors may want to discuss in some more detail the management of hypovolaemic shock, particularly, as it applies to trauma. While I appreciate some of these principles are covered in the equally popular ATLS course, nonetheless, some of the lessons learned from Afghanistan should be mentioned, such as in resuscitation and damage limitation surgery; permissive hypotension, particularly the avoidance of prolonged surgery, acidosis, hypothermia, all of which lead to coagulopathy. These relatively minor criticisms, all of which can be remedied in a future edition aside, I recommend this as an excellent course manual for trainees.

Finally, a significant part of the senior FRCS Intercollegiate Examination in General Surgery is a viva on critical care; more senior trainees would benefit from reading this short manual (only 250 pages) prior to this examination.

Established Consultants will also find this manual of benefit, to scan as a refresher, for their day to day practice and as a useful teaching aid.

Overall, with some minor criticisms as outlined above, this manual can be recommended.


Materials abound on the Korean Yi dynasty. In addition to the vast store of official documents and private libraries in the Republic of Korea, collections in Japan, America, and Europe also offer a wealth of information. Chinese sources are especially fruitful, as the Yi dynasty roughly paralleled the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties of China. Scholars in the field have long recognized that the Ming and Ch'ing Shih-lu [Veritable records], the Hui-tien [Precedents of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties], and the tremendous assortment of Ming and Ch'ing manuscripts and private works are indispensable in researching the Yi dynasty. In this research note, I wish to highlight a number of Chinese sources which hitherto had been ignored or misunderstood but which yield considerable information and insight into the Yi dynasty.


Whole blood and purified hemoglobins from a patient heterozygous for Hb British Columbia were studied with various types of electrophoresis. Isoelectric focusing of whole blood in cylindrical polyacrylamide gels showed 3 major hemoglobin species at equilibrium: Hb A, Hb British Columbia, and an unidentified Hb with an isoelectric point of 7.15. In addition, a transient asymmetric hybrid band was observed between Hb A and Hb British Columbia; it had disappeared at equilibrium. Hb A2 was never present.Isoelectric focusing of purified Hbs A2 and British Columbia in various proportions, and gel permeation chromatography of them in equal amounts, indicated that the PI 7.15 component was a very stable hybrid. This hybrid was recovered from thin-layer isoelectric focusing in agarose. Electrophoresis on agar at pH 6.0 showed 3 hemoglobins: A2, British Columbia, and one of intermediate migration. On cellulose acetate at pH 9.2, only the 2 parent Hb components, A2 and British Columbia were seen. Thus, the singleHb ...


This paper presents a proposal for reconciliation between the warehouse of legal documents created during legislation and Knowledge Warehouse that is dedicated to assisting both citizens and public officers in the procedural legal rules of Public Administration in Hungary. The Knowledge Warehouse contains several thousand detailed rules that describe how to manage and handle life events of citizens. This description can be considered as generic legal cases within legal procedures of authorities. The citizens trigger specific instances of the generic ones. The evolving Knowledge Warehouse main purpose is to enable citizens to get their specific legal cases started either through Web on the Government Portal or with the help of public officers. The Knowledge Warehouse will be extended by ontologies and semantic search capabilities. An Integrated System for Supporting of Codification will be created in an on-going project that will serve as sound basis for the National Warehouse of Legal Rules. The National Warehouse pursues the prescription of MetaLex legal standards in the case of representation of electronic legal documents. The two Warehouse are strongly coupled to each other. However, the syntactic and semantic structure of both differs profoundly. The representation of e-documents within the National Warehouse is in line with ELI, the European Legislation Identifier, even the ontologies and attached semantic description concentrates on the legal documents structural elements and their interpretation. The Knowledge Warehouse focuses on ontologies of life events and procedures of authorities to leverage semantic searching. The proposed solution tries to reconcile and integrate the two differing approaches.


This study attempts to examine the relationship between monetary policy and housing prices in India. We use monthly data from January 2009 to December 2018 of four variablesHousing Price Index (HPI), Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), Gross Domestic Price (GDP), and interest rate for our estimations using the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) Model. The results from the study show that the impact of monetary policy on housing prices is significant only on lag three; however, the coefficient is very small. The results from the ARDL model are also supported by the variance decomposition of housing price. The variance decomposition of housing prices highlights that monetary policy explains around 13 percent of the variation in housing prices over a period of ten months. Further, the accumulated impulse response function reveals that with one-unit shock to interest rate results in a -0.000875 unit change in housing price. The study stipulates that, since conventional monetary policy has a modest impact on housing prices, therefore, it is insignificant for addressing the problems of real estate in India.


Small swine are the most common model now used for electrical safety studies. Because of the significant anatomical and electrophysiological differences and the effect of animal size on the ventricular fibrillation (VF) threshold, there are concerns that these differences may exaggerate the risks of electrical devices to humans. We chose, as an illustrative and relevant example, swine studies of the TASER® conducted electrical weapon (CEW) as it has numerous published VF studies. We reviewed the published electrical swine safety studies for CEWs and compared them to finite element modeling studies, electrical safety standards, and epidemiological experience from field usage. We also compared the body weights of the swine to those of law enforcement arrest-related deaths. Studies of small swine exaggerate the risks of CEWs to humans. This conclusion may be extrapolated to suggest that the use of small swine for electrical safety studies should be questioned in general.


To avoid the compensatory hemodynamic responses, which have limited interpretation of hemoglobin-oxygen affinity modifications in animal experimentation, an isolated blood-perfused rabbit heart model providing metabolic, functional, and vectorcardiographic measurements has been developed. Fixed-flow perfusions of unchanged or affinity-modified red blood cell suspensions were carried out to assess the benefits of high affinity during hypoxic hypoxia and of low affinity during posthypoxic recovery. Using fully saturated suspensions, the influence of affinity level during restricted flow and reperfusion was also studied. Higher myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) was associated with high-affinity blood during mild hypoxia and low-affinity blood during posthypoxic recovery. At low flows, heart rate and MVO2 tended to be lower in high-affinity perfusions, and to recover more completely during low-affinity reperfusions. Ventricular function, vectorcardiographic patterns, and lactate levels were affected by hypoxia and ischemia, but not by level of affinity. The relevance of these observations to the therapeutic potential of hemoglobin-oxygen affinity modification is discussed.


Dynamic programming is a powerful technique for efficiently solving recursive problems, but it's hardly the end of the story. In many cases, once we have a basic dynamic programming algorithm in place, we can make further improvements to bring down the running time or the space usage. We saw one example in the Fibonacci number algorithm. Buried inside the naïve iterative Fibonacci algorithm is a recursive problem—computing a power of a matrix—that can be solved more efficiently by dynamic programming techniques—in this case, repeated squaring.


Sensitivity analysis (SA) concerns the quantification of changes in Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) solution due to perturbations in the model input. Stan- dard SA techniques for PDEs, such as the continuous sensitivity equation method, rely on the differentiation of the state variable. However, if the governing equations are hyperbolic PDEs, the state can exhibit discontinuities yielding Dirac delta functions in the sensitivity. We aim at modifying the sensitivity equations to obtain a solution without delta functions. This is motivated by several reasons: firstly, a Dirac delta function cannot be seized numerically, leading to an incorrect solution for the sensi- tivity in the neighbourhood of the state discontinuity; secondly, the spikes appearing in the numerical solution of the original sensitivity equations make such sensitivities unusable for some applications. Therefore, we add a correction term to the sensitivity equations. We do this for a hierarchy of models of increasing complexity: starting from the inviscid Burgers' equation, to the quasi 1D Euler system. We show the influence of such correction term on an optimization algorithm and on an uncertainty quantification problem.


A wrinkling model for sandwich panels in compression is developed with the assumption of a continuous isotropic linear elastic core. Wrinkling stresses for the three modes, defined in a well-known book by H.G. Allen, are expressed by a unified, single expression. The expression depends linearly on a case parameter η defined to specify the three cases of wrinkling: η=0 for single-sided face wrinkling (case 1), η=1 for in-phase wrinkling (case 2), and η=–1 for out-of-phase wrinkling (case 3). It is shown that the stresses in all three cases are almost identical for short wavelength wrinkling and can be expressed by a single simplified analytical expression; however, they may differ significantly in moderate and long wavelength wrinkling, and for these cases they are given by simplified analytical expressions. It is proved that the in-phase wrinkling stress is the lowest among the three cases. Based on the analysis, conducted limitations of the commonly used Winkler and two-parameter models are discussed. Finally, engineering design procedures are recommended for the wrinkling effect in sandwich panels under compression.


Previous experiments demonstrated that the accidental release of high pressure hydrogen into air can lead to the possibility of spontaneous ignition. It is believed that this ignition is due to the heating of the mixing layer, between hydrogen and air, that is caused by the shock wave driven by the pressurized hydrogen during the release. Currently, this problem is poorly understood and not amenable to direct numerical simulation. This is due to the presence of a wide range of scales between the sizes of the blast wave driven and the very thin mixing layer. The present study addresses this fundamental ignition problem and develops a solution framework in order to predict the ignition event for given hydrogen storage pressures and dimension of the release hole. In this problem, only the mixing layer between the hydrogen and air is considered. This permits us to use much higher resolution than previous studies. This mixing layer, at the jet head, is advected as a Lagrangian fluid particle. The key physical processes in the problem are identified to be the mixing of the two gases at the mixing layer, the initial heating by the shock wave, and a cooling effect due to the expansion of the mixing layer. The results of the simulations indicate that for every storage pressure, there exists a critical hole size below which ignition is prevented during the release process. Close inspection of the results indicate that this limit is due to the competition between the heating provided by the shock wave and the cooling due to expansion. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the details of the mixing process do not play a significant role to leading order. The limiting ignition criteria were found to be well approximated by the Homogeneous Ignition Model of Cuenot and Poinsot, supplemented by a heat loss term due to expansion. Therefore, turbulent mixing occurring in reality is not likely to affect the ignition limits derived in the present study. Comparison with existing experiments showed very good agreement.


The threat of nuclear annihilation has never been higher than in 1962, when US President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khruschev engaged in brinkmanship over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba during October 16-28. Although the resolution of the crisis was followed by a sustained recovery in the US, Canadian and Mexican stock markets, the stock market impact of the crisis itself, at first glance, seems relatively limited. Notwithstanding the fact that empirical analysis of 1962 US market data reveal a significant break on October 23, 1962, which is the day after President Kennedy's television address about the Cuban missile crisis, the drop on this day was smaller than prior one day declines seen in the earlier part of the year. When we focus on the 1% left tail of the distribution, that is, just the very largest negative returns, a different story emerges, however. US uncertainty is now seen to have a significant negative impact on returns across each of the US, Canadian and Mexican markets. Moreover, the size of the negative response to the rise in uncertainty is comparable in all three cases notwithstanding the fact the pre-crisis Mexican stock market trajectory had been very different from that seen in the United States and Canada.


At the time of writing this thesis, the construction industry related media's attention
was dominated by the issues of alternative procurement systems and the ability to
profit from such variances. In the last decade Sir Michael Latham and Sir John Egan's reports have
contributed to a fundamental shift in the manner in which construction is procured.
The risk: reward ratio is much talked about, but little has been reported
academically to accurately quantify this relationship from a contractors
perspective.
Hence, the inspiration for this study stemmed from these factors, but rather than
consider them in isolation, this thesis analyses the relationship between the mode
of procurement and the contractor's profitability variance associated therewith.
To facilitate the investigation a literature review, questionnaire/survey and
statistical analysis of anonymous subject companies' data significantly proves that
procurement and profit are related in the construction industry. This research is a
contribution to knowledge, which supports and challenges certain established
procurement paradigms. This research could be utilised to gain competitive
strategic advantage.


Hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have not been prevalent in China until early 1970 s. However, over the past 40 years CVD has become one of the major health concern, and hypertension is now one of the most prominent CVD problems. It is estimated that China has now over 290 million hypertensives.The first national survey on hypertension was conducted in 1958, followed by the 2nd survey in 1979, 3rd survey in 1991, 4th survey in 2002, and 5th survey in 2014. The total prevalence of hypertension was 5.1% in 1958, 7.7% in 1979, 13.6% in 1991, 18.8% in 2002 and 27.2% in 2014 respectively, demonstrating a significant increase over the past half century. Ecological studies on relationship between hypertension and CVD have shown that the incidence and mortality of stroke and coronary heart disease were closely associated with population average hypertension rate. In China, stroke incidence is four to five times higher than that of coronary heart disease, indicating that hypertension control is very demanding.It is predicted that hypertension and the related CVDs are expected to be major health constraints in China in the years to come. Over the past 40 years much work has been done in China in community control of hypertension and CVDs. The first Chinese guidelines on hypertension was formulated in 1999, based on internationally accepted guidelines, which was revised 3 times. During the past the Chinese government has attached great importance to the prevention program directed at entire populations, with emphasis on blood pressure control by both pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches. Much achievements have been accomplished in the past. However more efforts are needed in the future in view of the size of the problem.


This paper introduces a biological flapping micro air vehicle (FMAV) with four wings, instead of two wings, where wing clap-and-fling of real insects has been mimicked. The total weight is 2.236g. A spatial linkage is implemented in the flapping wing system, which is symmetry. This can prevent the flapping wing MAV from tilting toward the left or the right in the course of flight. By using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), it has been confirmed that the flapping wing system can utilize the clap-and-fling mechanism, which is essential to enhance the lift and thrust in the insect flight.


Injury during the perinatal period can have significant health effects on the pregnant woman, the fetus, and the child; therefore, injuries during pregnancy and during labor and delivery in the form of birth trauma were the focus of this dissertation. Through a three papers format, this dissertation addressed three unique research questions that fell under the overarching theme of injury during the perinatal period. The first paper tested the association between injury during pregnancy and nervous system birth defects through a case control study and the utilization of the Texas Birth Defects Registry. The second paper applied an underutilized semi-automated method of sensitivity analysis to determine the effect of misclassification of injury during pregnancy on the association tested in the first paper. The third paper primarily determined the rate of birth trauma overall and specific types of birth trauma in the United States through the utilization of the HCUP Kids Inpatient Database. Through sophisticated statistical analyses it was determined that there is was an association between injury during pregnancy and nervous system birth defects among breech presentation infants, but no association among normal presentation infants or among the entire study population, even when accounting for exposure misclassification. Additionally, it was found that the national rate estimate of birth trauma in the United States for 2003 was 29 per 1,000 in-hospital births. This rate is higher than a majority of previously published studies; therefore, the occurrence and subsequent burden of birth trauma is higher than previously thought. The public health significance of this dissertation was to determine if injury during pregnancy could account for some of the 65-70% of unknown causes of birth defects, to determine where in the range of 0.2-37 per 1,000 births the rate of birth trauma actually falls, and to further explore an area of maternal and child health and injury research that is inadequately studied. Therefore, the results of this dissertation suggest that strategies to prevent injuries during pregnancy and birth trauma should be explored, implemented, and subsequently evaluated for effectiveness to reduce maternal, fetal, and infant morbidity and mortality.


A statistical method for extracting smallsignal FET models is presented. The method is derived as a maximum likelihood estimate of the model parameters with respect to measured S-parameters. The method accounts for uncertainties both in measurements and in extracted parasitic elements. An advantage with the proposed method is that the covariance of the estimate is obtained. The covariance is then used to calculate statistical bounds of the extracted parameters. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to verify the statistical bounds of the parameters. Good agreement between theory and experiments is obtained, especially for the parasitic elements.


Conventional wisdom confers iconic status on the clause of England's Act of Settlement (1701) mandating secure tenure for judges. This paper uses new databases of judges' biographies and citations to estimate how the move to secure tenure affected the number of citations to judges' decisions, a measure of the quality of decisions. Several strategies facilitate identification of the effect of secure tenure. A court-year panel permits use of a difference-in-differences framework. Controls capture judges' human capital and amount of litigation. Historical evidence, tests of sensitivity to omitted-variable bias, and instrumental variables estimates support the findings on the effects of tenure arrangements derived from ordinary least squares estimates. Secure tenure had a strong deleterious effect on associate judges' decisions and a smaller positive effect on chief judges' decisions. The effect of all judges having secure tenure is negative, large, and statistically significant. The act had an effect opposite of that universally assumed. According to the plan of the convention, all judges who may be appointed by the United States are to hold their offices during good behavior…. The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy, is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government. (Hamilton [1788] 1981, pp. 226–27) In one sense you could say that Judge [Roy] Bean was independent. He did whatever he liked. (O'Connor 2009, p. 47) According to the plan of the convention, all judges who may be appointed by the United States are to hold their offices during good behavior…. The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy, is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government. (Hamilton [1788] 1981, pp. 226–27) In one sense you could say that Judge [Roy] Bean was independent. He did whatever he liked. (O'Connor 2009, p. 47)


Gastric cancer is an aggressive disease. Several risk factors are involved in gastric cancer pathogenesis, likely Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, genetic factors in hereditary syndromes, lifestyle, and diet. However, well-implemented screening strategies are lacking in most countries, including those in Southern Europe. Nevertheless, gastric cancer outcomes are better in some Southern European countries than in others, likely because of the incidence and distribution of different histologic types. Robotic surgery has been gaining favor as a treatment of early-stage disease, and the need for perioperative chemotherapy or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced disease has been debated. In the metastatic setting, trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy has helped to extend survival compared with chemotherapy alone for HER2-positive disease. This article will describe how gastric cancer is assessed and treated in Southern Europe in an attempt to correlate these approaches from a global perspective.


A proper balance between the n-3 and n-6 series of essential fatty acids (EFAs) is essential for homeostasis and normal growth in humans. Dietary supplement with fish oil and related n-3 EFAs has been used to study their antihypertensive property in animals and humans with borderline and essential hypertension. In the animal models, chronic treatment of young animals generally only attenuated the development of hypertension. In animals with hypercholesterolemia, n-3 EFA supplement increased the incidence of atherosclerosis. In humans, chronic treatment with fish oil only produced a small reduction in blood pressure. The concerns are that the high dose of fish oil may interfere with the control of blood glucose in diabetic patients, and may cause prolonged bleeding in surgical patients. Studies on the animal models of hypertension showed that n-6 EFAs are more effective than n-3 EFAs in lowering and normalizing the blood pressure of these animals, probably through the production of tissue prostaglandins, which favour vasodilation. The antihypertensive effect of the n-6 EFAs in humans is not well known, because there are only a few studies, usually involving a very small number of patients. A possible side effects of n-6 EFAs for concern is that they might stimulate tumour development. A careful examination of these risk factors is needed before any recommendation can be made concerning the use of EFAs for the control of hypertension for humans.


Background: Task shifting can expand antiretroviral therapy access, but little is known about effective approaches to improve clinical practice among midlevel practitioners (MLPs) such as clinical officers, nurses, and midwives. The Integrated Infectious Diseases Capacity Building Evaluation compared training alone with training combined with on-site support (OSS). Methods: Two MLPs each from 36 health facilities attended the 5-week Integrated Management of Infectious Disease training. After training, 18 facilities randomly assigned to arm A received OSS for 9 months, whereas 18 arm B facilities did not. Clinical faculty assessed MLP HIV clinical practice on 6 tasks: history taking, physical examination, laboratory investigations, diagnosis, treatment, and patient education. We analyzed the effect of training alone and training combined with OSS as the pre/post change within each arm. We analyzed the incremental effect of OSS with a difference-in-difference analysis that compared changes between arms. Results: Training alone and training combined with OSS significantly improved clinical practice in patient history taking (13% and 24% increase, respectively), physical examination (54% and 71%), laboratory investigations (32% and 20%), and diagnosis (31% and 51%). Combined training and OSS also improved patient education significantly (72% increase). Effect sizes for training combined with OSS were larger than for training alone except for laboratory investigations, and the effects were robust in sensitivity analyses. The incremental effect of OSS on diagnosis was significant [adjusted relative risk = 1.23; 95% confidence interval = 1.00 to 1.50]. Conclusions: Combined training and OSS improved MLP HIV clinical practice over training alone and can contribute to continued expansion of access to antiretroviral therapy.


ABSTRACT During virus assembly, the capsid proteins of RNA viruses bind to genomic RNA to form nucleocapsids. However, it is now evident that capsid proteins have additional functions that are unrelated to nucleocapsid formation. Specifically, their interactions with cellular proteins may influence signaling pathways or other events that affect virus replication. Here we report that the rubella virus (RV) capsid protein binds to poly(A)-binding protein (PABP), a host cell protein that enhances translational efficiency by circularizing mRNAs. Infection of cells with RV resulted in marked increases in the levels of PABP, much of which colocalized with capsid in the cytoplasm. Mapping studies revealed that capsid binds to the C-terminal half of PABP, which interestingly is the region that interacts with other translation regulators, including PABP-interacting protein 1 (Paip1) and Paip2. The addition of capsid to in vitro translation reaction mixtures inhibited protein synthesis in a dose-dependent manner; however, the capsid block was alleviated by excess PABP, indicating that inhibition of translation occurs through a stoichiometric mechanism. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a viral protein that inhibits protein translation by sequestration of PABP. We hypothesize that capsid-dependent inhibition of translation may facilitate the switch from viral translation to packaging RNA into nucleocapsids.


This paper studied the ultrasonic removal of indigenous blue-green algae taken from Lake Taihu. The results showed that higher ultrasound frequency benefited the removal of indigenous algae. But in consideration of complex condition of the natural lakes and reservoirs such as the lack of powerful electrical supply system, low sound frequency is more suitable. Because of slightly improvement in the algae removal rate constants among the low frequency range (20-100 kHz), 20 kHz is the best ultrasound frequency for indigenous algae removal. Moreover, little change in the microcystins concentration was found with sonication at 20 kHz, 2W for 60s, which was compared with the increased microcystins from 2.67 to 2.851 mg/L after sonication at 1000 kHz, 2W for 60s. the concentration of chlorophyll.


This paper describes and evaluates the impact of the transition process in the agricultural sector in the Czech Republic; its objective is to analyse and clarify the outcome of transition, and the prospects of the sector. The paper starts with examination of agriculture under the communist regime, continues with the transformation process, in particular changes in total economic output, employment, production and other structural attributes. The qualitative assessment examines the transformation of state and collective farms into other corporate structures, where assets are not based on collective ownership. The paper further questions the reasons for a lack of profit and credit sources. The analysis is concluded with suggestions for further restructuralisation.


Listeria monocytogenes ( Lm ) is the causal agent of listeriosis, a foodborne disease that exhibits a high mortility rate (20-30%).Listeriosis outbreaks are linked to the consumption of ready-to-eat food and some dairy products have been clearly identified as a primary source of infection. Lm post-process contaminations in cheese from thermized/pasteurized milk or in whey cheese can be tracked to the cheese-making plants environment. The present study evaluated Lm prevalence and distribution in sheep's cheese factories. In two plants located in Sardinia (Italy) were carried-out 7 sampling, representative of seasonal evolution of the production activities. The samples were collected from the environment (570), from Pecorino Romano (PR) rind (47) and Ricotta salata (RS) surface (32 RS). Each sample was analyzed according to ISO 11290-1:2005. PFGE and multiplex PCR serotyping, were carried out on 70 Lm isolates, to track the contaminations to sites from the dairy plants environment. Lm prevalence ranged between 23%-12.4% in samples collected from the environment and 26%-9.5% from PR rind, all RS samples were negative. The most contaminated environmental areas were the washing and the ripening premises. Serotyping generated three serovars: 1/2a, 1/2b, 4b. PFGE analysis allowed to classify the Lm isolates into 8 clusters. The same strains were detected in the PR rind and in the environmental surfaces, suggesting a clear route of contamination for Lm and its niches into dairy plants.


The area of Mojosongo is a Perumnas which rapidly growing new growth center in Surakarta City. Existing commercial activities have expanded to enter the residential area. The emergence of this commercial area to facilitate trade activities and services between communities requires (demand) and people who sell services (supply) that can absorb labor in urban areas so that they can contribute to the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP). The purpose of this study is to find out space utilization changes from residential into commercial fin Mojosongo in 2004-2019 and to know what factors influence it. The method used in this study is a quantitative and and the analytical techniques used are descriptive analysis techniques, spatial analysis and factor analysis. The subjects of this study is small-medium enterprises in the area of Mojosongo. The results of this study are  69% space utilization change from residential into commercial area in Mojosongo which is influenced by 4 factors: economic factors, the existence of housing, location, and accessibility.


This paper presents a summary of test results from an experimental flight campaign conducted as part of the Boeing 777 ecoDemonstrator program that used the Collins Aerospace Dual-Frequency Multi-Constellation (DFMC) enabled multi-mode receiver (MMR), the GLU-2100, as the primary position source. As part of this project the GLU-2100 software baseline that supports GPS and SBAS L1 was updated to support the acquisition and tracking of GPS L1/L5 and Galileo E1/E5a signals. This paper provides an overview of the software defined architecture of the GLU-2100 that enabled the addition of the DFMC capability to the certified baseline through a software update. Further the navigation mode and position integrity algorithms were updated to allow the DFMC navigation outputs to be used as the primary navigation outputs for the Flight Management System and the transponder. The details of the MMR software and firmware changes that were made to support the ecoDemonstrator program experimental use of DFMC positioning are provided. The ecoDemonstrator flight campaign included around 50 flight hours that covered Europe, Asia and North America. The flight test campaign is described in detail and an analysis of the raw GNSS data collected during this campaign is provided. A summary of the multipath error statistics of the DFMC signals is also provided. These statistics are critical in developing the error models that would be used in SBAS augmented and non-augmented DFMC RAIM algorithms such as ARAIM. Finally, the results from an initial test run against the currently available DFMC Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) is provided. The paper describes the very first use of a DFMC capable multi-mode receiver as the primary position source on a civil air transport aircraft. It is expected that the lessons learned from this flight test campaign will further enable and accelerate the use of DFMC signals in civil aviation.


As design systems have grown in complexity and clock speeds are constantly increasing, several limitations to the conceptual framework of synchronous design have begun to be noticed. Some notable problems due to higher performance demand are clock skew, power dissipation, interfacing difficulties and worst case performance. It is therefore not a surprise that the area of asynchronous circuits and systems, which generally do not suffer from these problems, is experiencing a significant resurgence of interest and research activity. Here we take into account new research concept which improves digital system implementations, which is basically asynchronous digital design. Asynchronous systems can be realized using clock-less chip implementation techniques which avoids the clock. This system gives importance to the arrival of data and sequence, only when required, thus reducing power consumption, EMI etc. The proposed methodology ensures the validity of the data by taking care of glitches, delays and hazards. The design of a new methodology for asynchronous system development and implementation of a simple ALU with the proposed methodology is discussed in this paper.


The processing and analysis of images generated by mechanically scanned sonar systems have received poor attention despite their widespread application. In this paper, some efficient methods for acoustic image enhancement and automatic object detection are presented and assessed using a large set of experimental data collected at sea with commercial sonar systems. Specifically, a set of methods for increasing the quality of the gray-level images produced by a fan-shaped-beam sonar is introduced. Such a set includes a dynamic brightness assignment, a precise interpolation, a speckle-reduction filter, and a contrast-enhancement block. Two versions of a template-matching-based method that allows the automatic detection of a simple object contained in a region scanned with a pencil-beam sonar are also proposed and assessed. The main difficulty to be coped with in this field is related to the sparseness of the binary maps generated by this sonar system. The performance and robustness of the proposed techniques have been evaluated using real data that provided satisfactory results for both the image-enhancement and the object-detection tasks. Moreover, the computational burden of most of the proposed techniques turned out to be quite limited, and their real-time implementation with a standard computer architecture could be estimated.


We propose that the Hawking radiation energy and entropy flow rates from a black hole can be viewed as a one-dimensional (1D), non-equilibrium Landauer transport process. Support for this viewpoint comes from previous calculations invoking conformal symmetry in the near-horizon region, which give radiation rates that are identical to those of a single 1D quantum channel connected to a thermal reservoir at the Hawking temperature. The Landauer approach shows in a direct way the particle statistics independence of the energy and entropy fluxes of a black hole radiating into vacuum, as well as one near thermal equilibrium with its environment. As an application of the Landauer approach, we show that Hawking radiation gives a net entropy production that is 50% larger than that obtained assuming standard 3D emission into vacuum.


Ambient ionization mass spectrometric imaging of all parts of the seedling of Dysoxylum binectariferum Hook. f (Meliaceae) was performed to reconstruct the molecular distribution of rohitukine (Rh) and related compounds. The species accumulates Rh, a prominent chromone alkaloid, in its seeds, fruits, and stem bark. Rh possesses anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and immuno-modulatory properties. Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging (DESI MSI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis detected Rh as well as its glycosylated, acetylated, oxidized, and methoxylated analogues. Rh was predominantly distributed in the main roots, collar region of the stem, and young leaves. In the stem and roots, Rh was primarily restricted to the cortex region. The identities of the metabolites were assigned based on both the fragmentation patterns and exact mass analyses. We discuss these results, with specific reference to the possible pathways of Rh biosynthesis and translocation during seedling development in D. binectariferum.


Firm performance is a relevant construct in strategic management research and frequently used as a dependent variable. Despite this relevance, there is hardly a consensus about its definition, dimensionality and measurement, what limits advances in research and understanding of the concept. This article proposes and tests a measurement model for firm performance, based on subjective indicators. The model is grounded in stakeholder theory and a review of empirical articles. Confirmatory Factor Analyses, using data from 116 Brazilian senior managers, were used to test its fit and psychometric properties. The final model had six first-order dimensions: profitability, growth, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, social performance, and environmental performance. A second-order financial performance construct, influencing growth and profitability, correlated with the first-order intercorrelated, non-financial dimensions. Results suggest dimensions cannot be used interchangeably, since they represent different aspects of firm performance, and corroborate the idea that stakeholders have different demands that need to be managed independently. Researchers and practitioners may use the model to fully treat performance in empirical studies and to understand the impact of strategies on multiple performance facets.


The city is a place with many social, economic and political reflections. Every concept it reflects has a transformative power within itself. The city, which is an important part of the social structure, is an important place where the Chinese artist Liu Bolin offers a critical approach to many social, ekonomic and political problems at a global level. It reveals this approach as camouflaging in front of spaces and objects through performance and photography. The artist tries to reveal the local and universal concerns he wants to show by hiding. The concept of camouflage, which is a strategy of protection from external threats, shows the threat itself to the audience in Liu Bolin's works. While the concepts of being watched and hiding (camouflage) present two opposing situations, it makes one feel tension. The situation pointed out by the artist, who touches on issues such as environmental pollution, sustainability, human rights and equality that directly affect the future of the world and humanity on a global scale in recent years, is presented directly to the audience. The camouflaged body, which can be seen when carefully looking at the works in the Hiding in the City series, confronts us with the magnitude of danger. Keywords: camouflage, city, art, photography, artist, Liu Bolin, hiding


This paper examines what drives author ordering in scientific research. We first discussa theoretical framework for the choice between alphabetical ordering and relative-contribution-based ordering and develop hypotheses, focusing on the nature of research, in particular, the importance of collaboration in the context of incomplete contract, the measurement cost of contribution-based ordering and the role of a principal investigator (PI). Our empirical examinations, based on the new large scale original scientists' surveys in the US and Japan, show the supporting results. In particular, an alphabetical ordering is more likely to be used when the research is theoretical and has less empirical component and when the team size is large and not co-located. The variation of research method goes a long way in explaining the variation of the use of alphabetic ordering across fields (mathematics and economics vs. the others) as well as its variation within a field. We also find that PI or Co-PIs are more likely to exist when the project uses more resources as well as when the team is more heterogeneous. Finally, we confirm that author ordering sends two signals in contribution based ordering, the first author for the largest research contribution and the last author for the PI ( or Co-PI).


Abstract We discuss on the performances of standard and robust Kalman filters to estimate the post-seismic deformation field produced by the 17 August 1999 lzmit, Turkey, earthquake. The data set covers a subset of the Marmara Continuous GPS (Global Positioning System) Network (MAGNET) and other available survey stations in the region. The results of the models suggest that the standard Kalman filter estimate is not optimal due to serious bias that occurs between epochs. The bias, however, can be detected and removed using a robust Kalman filter.


Malnutrition is the cause of the majority of deaths in children under five years old in Ethiopia. Micronutrient deficiencies such as iron, zinc and calcium, often seen in malnourished children, are major public health problems throughout Ethiopia. These deficiencies have negative consequences on the cognitive and physical development of children, and on work productivity of adults. There is, therefore, a need for sustainable methods to address iron inadequacy in complementary feeding. Animal products are a good source of iron, zinc and calcium, but due to their high costs, their consumption by most children in Ethiopia has declined. The grain amaranth grows wild in areas of Ethiopia but is considered a weed. This study, conducted in rural Ethiopia, was initiated to prepare nutrient-rich complementary food using recipes that substituted the usual maize gruel with porridge made from amaranth and chickpea flours. Using a laboratory based experimental study design, four porridges suitable for complementary feeding, with different proportions of amaranth grains, maize and chickpeas were formulated in triplicate and analyzed in triplicate for minerals including iron, and phytate levels. Mother-child pairs were recruited for acceptability testing, at the community level. Results showed adding amaranth improved the content of iron and other nutrients as compared to control porridge (100% maize) and decreased phytate levels. The lowest phytate to iron ratio (0.24) was observed in the 70% amaranth and 30% chickpea blend, and the lowest viscosity measure was also observed in this same formulation. Soaking amaranth seeds in warm (50oC) water then germinating in lemon juice-containing water at 32oC for 72 hours resulted in the lowest phytate levels. In sensory testing, all of the formulated porridges with different proportions of amaranth flour were acceptable to mothers and their children, although the red color was disliked by mothers and their children. Flavor preference was not altered; however, overall acceptability was reduced with increasing amounts of amaranth. The study indicated that a processed 70% amaranth and 30% chickpea product can be used to produce low-cost, nutrient-rich complementary food with moderate acceptability. Increased nutritional awareness, production and consumption of grain amaranth products may be the way to address mineral deficiencies including iron, in the study area.