After the turn of the century, growing social attention has been paid to environmental concerns, especially the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and it comes down to a personal daily life concern which will affect the purchasing decision of vehicles in the future. Among all the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the transportation industry is the primary target of reduction and almost every automotive company pours unprecedented amounts of money to reengineer the vehicle technologies for better fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emission. Besides those efforts paid for sheer improvements of genuine vehicle technologies, NISSAN testified that "connectivity" with outside servers contributed a lot to reduce fuel consumption, thus the less emission of GHG, with two major factors; 1. detouring the traffic congestions with the support of probe-based real-time traffic information and 2. providing Eco-driving advices for the better driving behavior to prompt the better usage of energy. This article explains how the connected vehicle via network realized the reduction of fuel consumption and, thus, CO2 emission in real-life deployments in Japan and China.


At its inception three decades ago, digital learning seemed to promise access to quality higher education. The physically disabled (i.e., a paraplegic vet who could commute to local colleges only with difficulty) would be able to take online courses at home. Adults with little leisure time (i.e., a single mother with two dead-end jobs and no daycare for her children) could earn a college degree at night, on weekends, or between work shifts. But while it gave instructors flexible schedules, no work commutes, and the opportunity to teach in pajamas, online education also allowed administrators to lower faculty salaries. If a mere one thousand dollars could not induce anyone within fifty miles of a college to teach a certain course, then instructors might now be lured from farther away. In addition to lowering labor costs, online education allowed universities to forego expenses for maintenance, energy, and physical plants.


In the current times of information empowerment, certain age-old socio-cultural practices such as the local custom of instilling oil into the nose and mouth of infants continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in infants. Aim: To evaluate the magnitude of the problem of oil instillation and co-morbidities associated with it in a referral hospital. Materials and methods: Medical records of the children admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of oil-instillation pneumonia were reviewed with regard to the clinical and radiological features, management issues and outcome. Results: History of oil instillation was present among 8.9% (69 / 774) of the children admitted with pneumonia; eighty seven percent of the patients with oil instillation were acutely symptomatic; 10% of them required mechanical ventilation for worsening hypoxia and respiratory failure of which three (4.1%) expired. Conclusion: Oil Instillation pneumonia is a common problem among the inpatients in this tertiary care hospital catering to Puducherry and adjoining parts of Tamilnadu. Campaign targeting the local rural population with the help of health agencies, media and the local administration should be done on a priority basis to tackle this preventable health hazard


This study focuses on newspaper maps, which have an important role in conveying spatial information to newspaper readers. Maps and map-like items in the main Turkish newspapers within a certain period were evaluated in regard to the scope of the study. A database was constructed to organize the collected data and conduct the analysis. In addition to cartographic and thematic analyses, the database allows "georeferencing" to be conducted as well. However, the current study focused on the cartographic and thematic properties of these maps. Their deficiencies were identified from a cartographic perspective and with that, the parts of newspapers that maps are mostly included in were investigated, and we aimed to identify the topics and events that increase map usage in newspapers. For this purpose, maps of earthquake-related news were evaluated as a case study to show some spatial and thematic determinations. Thus, the contribution of newspapers to spatial thinking abilities and geographic knowledge of the readers was evaluated by cartographers. The study proves the importance of cartography in spreading knowledge through maps in newspapers. This opens up new possibilities for future studies to develop a different cartographic perspective on map usage and improve the geographic knowledge of newspaper readers.


In the paper "Research of calculation method of young female body circumference based on 3d body scanning point and cloud diagrams", regression value of each girth has a certain error. The reason might be different methods of classification. In order to analysis the reason, in the paper error distribution and comparison between girth regression value and actual measurement data were analyzed which classified with 0.1 and 0.05 category files by using SPSS16.0 software. More accurate methods can be obtained to simulate three dimensions which can provide effective applications to three dimension body scanner and lay a foundation to the research of pants and skirts auto-generation pattern system.


The controlled synthesis of quantized colloidal CdTe nanocrystals (in aqueous solutions) with narrow size distributions and stabilized against rapid oxidation was achieved by capping the quantum dot particles with 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol. Nanocrystals (i.e., quantum dots) with mean diameters of 20, 25, 35, and 40 A were produced. Optical absorption spectra showed strong excitonic peaks at the smallest size; the absorption coefficient was shown to follow an inverse cube dependence on particle diameter, while the extinction coefficient per particle remained constant. The quantum yield for photoluminescence increased with decreasing particle size and reached 20% at 20 A. The valence band edges of the CdTe quantum dots were determined by pulse radiolysis experiments (hole injection from oxidizing radicals); the bandgaps were estimated from pulse radiolysis data (redox potentials of hole and electron injecting radicals) and from the optical spectra. The dependence of the CdTe bandgap on quantum dot size was found to be much weaker than predicted by the effective mass approximation; this result is consistent with recently published theoretical calculations by several groups. 36 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.


Fishers (Martes pennant,) are important forest carnivores and furbearers that are susceptible to overharvest. Traditional indices used to monitor fisher populations typically overestimate litter size and proportion of females that give birth. We evaluated the usefulness of 2 indices of reproduction to determine proportion of female fishers that gave birth in a particular year. We used female fishers of known age and reproductive histories to compare appearance of placen- tal scars with incidence of pregnancy and litter size. Microscopic observation of freshly removed reproductive tracts correctly identified pregnant fishers and correctly estimated litter size in 3 of 4 instances, but gross observation of placental scars failed to correctly identify pregnant fishers and litter size. Microscopic observations of reproductive tracts in carcasses that were not fresh also failed to identify pregnant animals and litter size. We evaluated mean sizes of anterior nip- ples to see if different reproductive classes could be distinguished. Mean anterior nipple size of captive and wild fishers correctly identified current-year breeders from nonbreeders. Former breeders were misclassified in 4 of 13 instances. Presence of placental scars accurately predict- ed parturition in a small sample size of fishers, but absence of placental scars did not signify that a female did not give birth. In addition to enabling the estimation of parturition rates in live ani- mals more accurately than traditional indices, mean anterior nipple size also provided an esti- mate of the percentage of adult females that successfully raised young. Though using mean ante- rior nipple size to index reproductive success looks promising, additional data are needed to evaluate effects of using dried, stretched pelts on nipple size for management purposes.


PURPOSE
Increased expression of eicosanoids in cancer has been associated with adverse prognosis. We performed a randomized phase II trial to test the hypothesis that inhibitors of two eicosanoid pathways (cyclooxygenase-2 [COX-2], celecoxib and 5-lipoxygenase [5-LOX], zileuton) added to chemotherapy would improve outcome in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients with advanced NSCLC, a performance status of 0 to 2, and no prior therapy were eligible. All patients received carboplatin area under the curve (AUC) 5.5 mg/mL x min day 1 + gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2)) days 1 and 8. Patients were randomly assigned to: (a) zileuton 600 mg PO qid, (b) celecoxib 400 mg PO bid, or (c) celecoxib and zileuton at the same doses. Immunohistochemical staining for COX-2 and 5-LOX was performed without knowledge of outcomes.

RESULTS
One hundred forty patients were entered and 134 were eligible and treated. There was no survival difference between the arms. COX-2 expression was a negative prognostic marker for overall survival (OS; hazard ratio [HR] = 2.51, P = .019 for index >or= 4; HR = 4.16, P = .005 for index = 9) for patients not receiving celecoxib. Patients with increased COX-2 expression (index >or= 4), receiving celecoxib had better survival than did COX-2-expressing patients not receiving drug (HR = .342, P = .005 for OS; HR = .294, P = .002 for failure-free survival). Multivariate analysis confirmed the interaction of COX-2 and celecoxib on survival. 5-LOX expression was neither prognostic nor predictive.

CONCLUSION
This study failed to demonstrate the value of dual eicosanoid inhibition or benefit from either agent alone in addition to chemotherapy. However, a prospectively defined subset analysis suggests an advantage for celecoxib and chemotherapy for patients with moderate to high COX-2 expression.


The creation of new saints often has a political edge; the Catholic Church molds saints' lives to fit its needs, and individual popes have particular priorities in saint-making. In the early modern Church, this was particularly important after the Council of Trent. The Tridentine decrees (1563) instructed bishops to reform the Church but provided few practical suggestions for how to do this. One solution was to hold up exemplary post-Tridentine bishops as models through beatification and canonization. Historians have noted the importance of model bishops but have not fully considered the process of creating them and its implication for the histories of Catholic Reform and of canonization. The case of Cardinal-Bishop Gregorio Barbarigo of Padua (bp. 1664–1697) tells a complicated and interesting story about the intersection of Catholic Reform and canonization. Barbarigo was beatified in 1761 during the Catholic Enlightenment and was finally canonized in 1960, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Examining the construction of his image from 1699–1960, this article argues that the Catholic Church in both the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries molded Barbarigo into the model bishop needed at those particular times, in response to the issues facing contemporary bishops and clergy.


Graphical abstracts are representative of the rising promotionalism, interdisciplinarity and changing researcher roles in the current dissemination of science and technology. Their design, moreover, amalgamates a number of transdisciplinary skills much valued in higher education, such as critical and lateral thinking, and cultural and audience awareness. In this study, I investigate a corpus of 56 samples of graphical abstracts devised by my aeronautical engineering students, to find out the 'semiotic shortcuts' or encoding strategies they deploy, without any previous instruction, to pack information and translate the verbal into the visual. Findings suggest that their 'natural digital-native graphicacy' is conservative as to the medium, format and type of representation, but versatile regarding particular meanings, although not always unambiguous or register-appropriate. Consequently, I claim the convenience of including graphicacy/visual literacy and some basic training on graphical abstract design in the English for Specific Purposes and the disciplinary English-medium curriculum.


OBJECTIVE—Elevated triglyceride (TG) is the major plasma lipid abnormality in obese and diabetic patients and contributes to cardiovascular morbidity in these disorders. We sought to identify novel mechanisms leading to hypertriglyceridemia. Resistance to negative feedback signals from adipose tissue in key central nervous system (CNS) energy homeostatic circuits contributes to the development of obesity. Because triglycerides both represent the largest energy depot in the body and are elevated in both the plasma and adipose in obesity and diabetes, we hypothesized that the same neural circuits that regulate energy balance also regulate the secretion of TGs into plasma. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—In normal fasting rats, the TG secretion rate was estimated by serial blood sampling after intravascular tyloxapol pretreatment. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) signaling in the CNS was modulated by intracerebroventricular injection of NPY, receptor antagonist, and receptor agonist. RESULTS—A single intracerebroventricular injection of NPY increased TG secretion by 2.5-fold in the absence of food intake, and this was determined to be VLDL by fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC). This effect was recapitulated by activating NPY signaling in downstream neurons with an NPY-Y5 receptor agonist. An NPY-Y1 receptor antagonist decreased the elevated TGs in the form of VLDL secretion rate by 50% compared with vehicle. Increased TG secretion was due to increased secretion of VLDL particles, rather than secretion of larger particles, because apolipoprotein B100 was elevated in FPLC fractions corresponding to VLDL. CONCLUSIONS—We find that a key neuropeptide system involved in energy homeostasis in the CNS exerts control over VLDL-TG secretion into the bloodstream.


Many modern processors execute instructions out of their original program order to exploit instruction-level parallelism and achieve higher performance. However even though instructions can execute in an arbitrary order, they must eventually commit, or retire from execution, in program order. This constraint provides a safety mechanism to ensure that mis-speculated instructions are not inadvertently committed, but can consume valuable processor resources and severely limit the degree of parallelism exposed in a program. We assert that such a constraint is overly conservative, and propose conditions under which it can be relaxed. This paper deconstructs the notion of commit in an out-of-order processor, and examines the set of necessary conditions under which instructions can be permitted to retire out of program order. It provides a detailed analysis of the frequency and relative importance of these conditions, and discusses microarchitectural modifications that relax the in-order commit requirement. Overall, we found that for a given set of processor resources our technique achieves speedups of up to 68% and 8% for floating point and integer benchmarks, respectively. Conversely, because out-of-order commit allows more efficient utilization of cycle-time limiting resources, it can alternatively enable simpler designs with potentially higher clock frequencies.


Lamivudine treatment of hepatitis B after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is often accompanied by fast viral‐resistance formation. Although no clinical data are available, in vitro data indicate that lamivudine‐resistant reinfection has a mild course because of defective viral replication. Between 1996 and 1999, a total of 34 patients were treated with lamivudine because of hepatitis B recurrence after OLT. All patients developed reinfection despite long‐term passive immunoprophylaxis with hepatitis B immunoglobulin, diagnosed by positive hepatitis B surface antigen and positive hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA. Before treatment with lamivudine, 21 of these patients underwent a course of famciclovir and developed resistance. Monthly laboratory tests and sequential liver biopsies were performed during the follow‐up period. Nineteen of 34 patients (56%) developed lamivudine resistance during the follow‐up period of 12 to 49 months. One‐ and 3‐year graft survival rates after the diagnosis of lamivudine resistance were 89% and 66%, respectively. In most cases, lamivudine resistance was associated with high viral replication (3,012 ± 574 pg/mL 1 month after the diagnosis of lamivudine resistance); however, liver enzyme levels were only moderately elevated (alanine aminotransferase [ALT], 45 ± 16 U/L). Only 3 patients (15%) showed a rapid increase in ALT level to more than 500 U/L within 3 months after resistance developed. All other patients had mildly elevated liver enzyme levels during the first 6 to 8 months after lamivudine resistance. In the later course, liver enzyme levels increased in most patients. Fourteen patients with elevated transaminase levels were switched to lamivudine plus interferon alfa (n = 8) or lamivudine plus famciclovir therapy (n = 6). This combination was successful in most cases, decreasing HBV DNA and liver enzyme levels. Four patients with lamivudine resistance died during follow‐up, only 1 patient because of HBV reinfection. In addition, 2 patients underwent retransplantation because of hepatitis B cirrhosis of the first graft. Compared with historic courses of wild‐type recurrence, lamivudine‐resistant reinfection is characterized by a milder clinical course. Fulminant cases were not observed; however, in three cases, chronic liver failure developed. The combination of different antivirals diminished viral replication after lamivudine resistance. In the future, new antiviral agents, such as adefovir, might further expand therapeutic options.


Abstract Eight persons from five institutions in different countries carried out polymerizations of aniline following the same preparation protocol. In a "standard" procedure, aniline hydrochloride was oxidized with ammonium peroxydisulfate in aqueous medium at ambient temperature. The yield of polyaniline was higher than 90 % in all cases. The electrical conductivity of polyaniline hydrochloride thus prepared was 4.4 ± 1.7 S cm-1 (average of 59 samples), measured at room temperature. A product with defined electrical properties could be obtained in various laboratories by following the same synthetic procedure. The influence of reduced reaction temperature and increased acidity of the polymerization medium on polyaniline conductivity were also addressed. The conductivity changes occurring during the storage of polyaniline were monitored. The density of polyaniline hydrochloride was 1.329 g cm-3. The average conductivity of corresponding polyaniline bases was 1.4 x108 S cm-1, the density being 1.245 g cm-1. Additional changes in the conductivity take place during storage. Aging is more pronounced in powders than in compressed samples. As far as aging effects are concerned, their assessment is relative. The observed reduction in the conductivity by ~10 % after more than one-year storage is large but, compared with the low conductivity of corresponding polyaniline (PANI) base, such a change is negligible. For most applications, an acceptable level of conductivity may be maintained throughout the expected lifetime.


The HiLASE Centre is equipped with a Laser Shock Peening station (LSP). LSP is a surface enhancing technique and it is used to prolong the fatigue life of metallic components. Part of the station is a FANUC M-20iA/20M 6-axis industrial robotic arm equipped with an R-30iB controller. The robotic arm is used to handle the LSP samples In order to facilitate the utilisation of the LSP station at the HiLASE centre for untrained operators, a human-machine interface (HMI) for the station's industrial robotic arm is being developed. This project aims to determine what type of HMI is the most suitable for the given application and to implement this solution.


Abstract The prediction of America's decline is a regularly recurring phenomenon; this also pertains to the pivotal field of global finance. This article argues that, first we have to consider the United States together with the other Anglophone countries. The English-speaking countries and territories – Anglo-America – have deep common political and socioeconomic roots, of which the unique global Five Eyes intelligence cooperation is merely one manifestation. In finance, New York and London (NY-LON) constitute the decision-making core of this transnational formation. Second, to analyse the highly complex phenomenon of structural power in the globalised international political economy we have to dig deeper to uncover truly meaningful data. Thus, this article evaluates data for nine central segments of global finance from around the year 2000 to 2014. Contrary to the assertions of many declinists, these data show that Anglo-America's dominant structural power has been persistent during this period. Moreover, four novel visualisations show that the US-UK axis is the fulcrum of the international financial system. However, contemporary global finance is characterised by a high degree of latent fragility; significant imbalances, inequalities and contradictions persist and are even likely to grow, potentially undermining the legitimacy and the stability of the whole system.


Abstract The silkglands of the 5 th instar larvae of silkworms were dissected under the stereomicroscope.  There are 3 parts to the gland : anterior, straight part; middle, loop-shaped part; and the posterior, coiled part.  The anterior part of the silkglands were processed through the standard technique for the transmission electron microscope for this study.  We found in the columnar cells of this simple tubular gland that it possessed the rough endoplasmic reticulum and a great number of mitochondria.  This finding led us to propose that the anterior part of the gland also synthesized proteins.  We also disclosed that the respiratory tract (air tubes) sent its terminal branches to the gland cell cytoplasm.  This gave proof through our study that both oxygen and harmful things in the air could reach the cytoplasm of silkgland cells quite readily. Key words : silk gland, Bombyx mori, function, ultrastructure.


The energy management of the fast-charging stations (FCSs) in power systems, while maintaining the power quality and the grid codes, can be particularly challenging, given the highly dynamic load curve, the heterogeneous PEV charging, and the inconvenience to the FCS customers. In this article, a consecutive horizon-based energy management (CHEM) process is proposed for the optimal techno-economic operation of the FCSs integrated with battery energy storage systems (ESS). The proposed CHEM process employs a central supervisory control and a resilient distributed control, for the energy management of FCSs and the active and reactive power control to maintain the grid codes. As such, the grid operator can realize and direct the economic and technical operation of the FCSs with low computational burden, without the need for real-time collaboration with the FCSs. Moreover, the FCSs can autonomously cope with the volatility of PEV charging with the use of the ESS. Furthermore, a novel Volt/VAr control is proposed to confine the unpredicted voltage deviations, including voltage sags, within an acceptable limit. The heterogeneous PEV charging is modeled using the queuing theory, while the inherent characteristics of the lithium-ion batteries are considered. Through multiple case studies, it is shown that the developed CHEM process can provide lower costs and a leveled active power profile for the FCSs, while ensuring that the voltage deviations are well confined and the convenience of PEV owners can still be met.


Telomerase (TERT) is overexpressed in 80% to 90% of primary tumors and contributes to sustaining the transformed phenotype. The identification of several TERT epitopes in tumor cells has elevated the status of TERT as a potential universal target for selective and broad adoptive immunotherapy. TERT-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) have been detected in the peripheral blood of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) patients, but display low functional avidity, which limits their clinical utility in adoptive cell transfer approaches. To overcome this key obstacle hindering effective immunotherapy, we isolated an HLA-A2-restricted T-cell receptor (TCR) with high avidity for human TERT from vaccinated HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice. Using several relevant humanized mouse models, we demonstrate that TCR-transduced T cells were able to control human B-CLL progression in vivo and limited tumor growth in several human, solid transplantable cancers. TERT-based adoptive immunotherapy selectively eliminated tumor cells, failed to trigger a self-MHC-restricted fratricide of T cells, and was associated with toxicity against mature granulocytes, but not toward human hematopoietic progenitors in humanized immune reconstituted mice. These data support the feasibility of TERT-based adoptive immunotherapy in clinical oncology, highlighting, for the first time, the possibility of utilizing a high-avidity TCR specific for human TERT. Cancer Res; 76(9); 2540-51. ©2016 AACR.


Introduction Determining HIV serostatus is crucial for linking HIV-infected patients to appropriate care, which might reduce their risk of subsequent morbidity and mortality. A recent South African study demonstrated a potentially harmful association between an unknown HIV serostatus and rehospitalisation. The impact of an unknown HIV status on inpatient mortality has not yet been established in that setting, which formed the impetus for the current study. Methods This was an unmatched case-control analysis of adult patient data collected as part of a demographic survey at the Hlabisa Hospital, South Africa between October 2009 and February 2014. Cases were defined as patients who suffered inpatient mortality, while controls were patients who did not suffer inpatient mortality. A sample size of 92 cases and 276 controls was used in this study. Patient data related to age, gender, distance between referral clinic and the hospital, HIV serostatus (HIV-negative, HIV-positive or an unknown HIV serostatus) and comorbidity were analysed using recommended methods for unmatched case-control studies. Results When potential confounders were accounted for, we found an unknown HIV serostatus to be associated with an almost 8-fold increase in the odds of inpatient mortality when compared with patients who were known HIV-negative (Odds Ratio: 7.64, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.11-52.33, p = 0.038). Conclusion An unknown HIV serostatus was independently associated with a higher odds of inpatient mortality. This finding highlights the potential benefit of adopting an "opt-out" approach to HIV counseling and testing. Further research on this topic is required.


*These authors contributed equally to this work Background: The immune environment of lung cancer is complex, and the critical immune factors that promote lung cancer progression need to be explored. Granulocytic myeloidderived suppressor cells (G-MDSCs) are regarded as immune suppressing cells. However, they also promote tumor progression through other ways, which needs to be explored further. Therefore, we sought to study the regulatory mechanisms underlying the cancer promoting function of G-MDSCs in lung cancer. Methods: G-MDSCs were isolated from lung cancer tissues using flow cytometry. Exosomes were separated from the G-MDSCs supernatant by ultracentrifugation and verified using flow cytometry, Western blot, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). RNA sequencing was used to identify the differential miRNAs and genes. Real-time quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) confirmed these results. The proliferation rate was assessed using the CCK-8 assay. Lentiviral vectors were used to alter the expression of the miRNAs and genes to analyze their effects on lung cancer progression. Results: G-MDSCs secreted more exosomes in the lung cancer tissues, which promoted cancer progression by accelerating proliferation. Micro RNA-143-3p (miR-143-3p) increased in G-MDSCs derived exosomes and downregulated integral membrane protein 2B (ITM2B) by targeting the 3ʹ-untranslated region (UTR) region. Overexpression of miR-143-3p enhanced proliferation by inhibiting transcription of ITM2B to activate the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which can be blocked by deguelin. This phenomenon was further confirmed by accelerated tumor growth and worse prognosis in mice. Conclusion: The key findings of this study highlight the potential of the G-MDSC-derived exosomes and the miR-143-3p/ITM2B axis as therapeutic targets and clinical indicators of lung cancer.


This study used densitometry to investigate the areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) in an Australian Rett syndrome cohort and to assess how factors such as genotype, epilepsy, BMI, and mobility affect these parameters. The influence of lean tissue mass (LTM) and bone area (BA) on total body BMC (TBBMC) was also investigated. Participants, recruited from the Australian Rett Syndrome Database (ARSD), had TBBMC and lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) aBMD measured using Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Mean height standardized Z scores and CIs for the bone outcomes were obtained from multiple regression models. The mean height Z score for the FN aBMD was low at −2.20, while the LS aBMD was −0.72. The TBBMC mean height Z score was −0.62, although once adjusted for BA and LTM, the mean was above zero, suggesting that low BMC can be explained by narrow bones and decreased muscle mass, likely secondary to decreased mobility. Multiple linear regression identified the p.R168× and p.T158M mutations as the strongest predictors of low aBMC and BMD for all bone outcomes. The strong relationship between genotype, BMC, and aBMD is likely underpinned by the strong relationship between LTM, mobility, and bone outcome measures.


Large-scale training for semantic segmentation is challenging due to the expense of obtaining training data for this task relative to other vision tasks. We propose a novel training approach to address this difficulty. Given cheaply-obtained sparse image labelings, we propagate the sparse labels to produce guessed dense labelings. A standard CNN-based segmentation network is trained to mimic these labelings. The label-propagation process is defined via random-walk hitting probabilities, which leads to a differentiable parameterization with uncertainty estimates that are incorporated into our loss. We show that by learning the label-propagator jointly with the segmentation predictor, we are able to effectively learn semantic edges given no direct edge supervision. Experiments also show that training a segmentation network in this way outperforms the naive approach.


Developing academic writing skills is crucial to degree outcomes but can be specifically challenging
for widening participation students. Research suggests that writing support offered to university
students should also attend to the affective dimensions of writing, particularly self-efficacy beliefs.
This thesis explores the benefits of a writing workshop designed to foster self-efficacy beliefs with
the broader aim of contributing to understanding of widening participation into Higher Education.
The thesis reports on the impact of a writing self-efficacy intervention, using a quasi-experimental
design, to assess the effectiveness of three writing workshop conditions. Forty-two students,
following a Foundation degree programme, completed writing self-efficacy questionnaires at three
time intervals. Correlational analysis investigated the relationship between assignment grades,
academic goals and performance self–efficacy, and further statistical analysis assessed the impact of
the different workshop conditions. In addition, qualitative research, in the form of eight semistructured interviews, explored the relative influence of each of the four sources of self-efficacy
(mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion and physiological and emotional state)
on writing beliefs.
The relationship observed between self-efficacy for writing, performance self-efficacy and academic
goals evidenced the importance of self-efficacy beliefs to academic attainment. Crucially, a lack of
correlation was observed between self-efficacy for writing and writing attainment, with students
interpreting their grades inconsistently. While students within the writing self-efficacy workshops
experienced an uplift in self-efficacy for writing scores, this was not maintained over time. Mastery
and vicarious experiences were fundamental in fostering self-efficacy beliefs, as was having an
internal academic locus of control.
The research contributes new insights into the importance of an internal locus of control to longterm increases in self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, it contributes to the evidence that it is the
student's interpretation of their grade, not the grade itself, which impacts on their self-efficacy
beliefs. This not only furthers our knowledge on the sources of self-efficacy beliefs but has
implications for those supporting students to become more efficacious, particular with regards their
academic writing.


The poster presents EKT's ePublishing platform, an innovative service to support open access publishing in Greece, which enables the research community of the country to transition from a print-only mode of work to online working environments and enhance the visibility and impact of their research outputs. Emerging within an ecosystem with no prior experience or open access oriented culture, it enables the cultural shift towards open and collaborative scientific practices and the open science/open access paradigm. Focusing on the Open Book Press, EKT through its participation at the HIRMEOS project is expected to enhance the technical capacities and services of the platform that enable identification, authentication and interoperability as well as tools that enrich information and entity extraction.


Rabbits pretreated with Aminopterin (4-amino pteroylglutamic acid) for 4 weeks were fed an atherogenic diet for 8 weeks, during which Aminopterin injections also were continued. The atherogenic diet consisted of a stock diet with 3/4 per cent cholesterol added. As a result of some manipulation of the Aminopterin dosage during the period before cholesterol feeding was begun, some of the Aminopterin-treated animals lost weight from overdosage, and 7 of the original 20 died. The surviving animals upon reduction of dosage made good weight gains, comparable to the controls, during the cholesterol feeding period. When sacrificed after 8 weeks of cholesterol feeding, the control animals, 21 in number, all had grossly demonstrable 1+ to 4+ atheromatosis of the aorta. Of the 13 surviving Aminopterin-treated animals, 9 had no atheromatosis or doubtful deposits of minimal extent. Only 4 had definite atheromatosis comparable in extent to the controls. Serum cholesterol levels were 30 to 50 per cent lower in the treated animals than in the controls.


Concrete is strong in compression but weak in tension and brittle also. Cracks also start forming as soon as the concrete is placed. These 3 drawbacks don't permit the use normal concrete in pavements as they lead to lack of ductility along with fracture and failure. These weaknesses in concrete can be mitigated by using fibers as reinforcement in the concrete mix. Waste materials in the form of polyethylene and tires cause environmental pollution which leads to various health problems. Polyethylene and waste tires can be recycled and used effectively in the concrete as reinforcement in the fiber form. Polyethylene is a synthetic hydrocarbon polymer which can improve the ductility, strength,shrinkage characteristics etc. This paper deals with the effects of addition of polyethylene fiber on the properties of concrete. Polyethylene and tire fibers were cut into the size of 30mm x 6mm and they were used 1.5% each by volume. Grade of concrete used were M30,M35 and M40. IRC 44:2008 was followed for the design of concrete mix. In this study,the results of the Strength properties of Polyethylene fiber reinforced concrete have been presented. 4 point bending test and double shear test were performed in the laboratory for flexure and shear strength determinations. There was seen an increase of 18% in the 28 day compressive strength along with an increase of 39% in flexure and 32% in shear strength. 22% decrease in 4 point bending test and 36% decrease in double shear test in deflection was found out from the experiments. Theoretical analysis of deflection was carried out by the help of energy methods. Practical values were verified with the theoretical values within the permissible limits. Finally it can be concluded that polyethylene and tire can be used effectively in reinforced cement concrete.


In this work cBN-TiN composites were studied. The composites were prepared by the HPHT technique (p=8 GPa, T=1750 0C). A TiN binding phase was used in two forms: as micro and nanomaterials. Thermodynamic calculations showed that formation of new phases in the cBNTiN composites was not possible in the experimental conditions which was confirmed by XRD investigations carried out. The surface morphology of nanocomposites was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The structure of these composites was compact; a TiN phase was uniformly distributed between cBN grains. Hardness was measured by the Vickers method using an indentation load of 9.81 N. The hardness of the investigated samples was dependent on the volume and grain size of the binding phase. Young's modulus of elasticity was determined, but its value was found to be dependent on the grain size of the TiN phase.


In present study, we aimed to express T4 Lysozyme gene (gene e) in Streptococcus salivarus subsp. thermophilus to create better probiotics for poultry. The Esherichia coli plasmid, Bluescript II SK +/- harboring gene e named pL1, was converted to a new E. coli-Streptococcus sp. shuttle vector (pL2) by cloning and inserting Streptococcal replication origin of pTRW10 vector into pL1. pL2 plasmid isolated from E. coli was introduced into S. salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactococcus lactis cells by electro-transformation. The lysozyme enzymes expressing by these bacteria were found to be active on Micrococcus luteus cells and thereby preventing their growth on assay plates. Thermostability of these enzymes from the recombinant bacteria was also found different from each other. The lysozyme expressed by S. salivarius subsp. thermophilus cells seemed to increase its capacity for thermoresistance and was not denaturated at 70°C for 15 min. In contrast, the enzyme expressed by L. lactis and E. coli cells were easily denaturated when exposed to the same temperature treatment.


Introduction: In India agriculture is the primary occupation of the people. With most of the population working in the fields, snakebite becomes a chief occupational hazard and a medical emergency. In India, more than 20,00,000 snake bites reported annually, of which 35,000-50,000 people die and Maharashtra alone contributes more than 2000 deaths each year. Thus this study is aimed to know the clinicepidemiological pattern of snake bite in rural Maharashtra. Aims and Objectives: To study clinical and epidemiological characteristics found in patients presenting with snakebite in rural tertiary care unit. Design: Descriptive Cross Sectional study Material and Methods: The study was conducted between 25/05/2017 to 10/09/2017 after obtaining institutional ethical clearance. A total of 70 patients were participated in study. Set questions were asked to the patient to know the clinic-epidemiological characteristics of snake bite. Statistical analysis: The data was analyzed and expressed in terms of percentage. Results: Patients with various age groups got admitted during the study period. Maximum number of (38) patients are in 21 to 40 yrs. Majority of patients were females were 36(51.4 %). Majority of patients (31) were farmer. Most of the patients were working in the farm 47(67.1%) while they had bite. Maximum bites are seen in patients right lower limb 22(31.2%). The most common vehicle used was twowheeler 38(54.2%). Out of 70 patients admitted in hospital, 36(51.4) patients suffered with vasculotoxicity. 14(20%) patients brought snakes after killing to the hospital for identification. 22(31.4%) patients out of 70 took primary treatment in primary health care center. Out of 27 patients 5 patients required ventilator support who suffered with neurotoxic type of snake bite. We observed no mortality among 70 patients admitted with snake bite. Conclusion: Regular public health programs educating about prevention, pre–hospital management, early and safe transfer of the victim to the hospital should be done.


In the 20th Century legal information presented a stable universe of cognitive authority. Law, divided into primary and secondary sources, was a well charted area. Certain sets of books were accepted as institutional authority in legal research, even though they were the products of commercial publishers. This system, which was built around print products, is collapsing. In the midst of this collapse new sources will be defined, but the process is complicated by an information generation gap. This essay will explore the old world of print sources, how they were used, how and why they are collapsing, and what comes next. It ends with a cry for help.


A rapid compression machine (RCM) has been designed and fabricated for the purpose of chemical kinetics studies at elevated pressures and temperatures. The present RCM is pneumatically driven and hydraulically actuated and stopped. Stroke of the machine varies from 7 to 10 inches and clearance is also adjustable. Compression ratio of up to 21 can be obtained. The optically-accessible reaction chamber is equipped with sensors for the measurements of pressure and temperature. In addition, a rapid sampling apparatus is incorporated in the reaction chamber for determining species concentration at specific post-compression time. A deliberately machined crevice on the cylindrical surface of the piston has been optimized, using STAR-CD CFD package, in order to suppress the formation of the roll-up vortex and provide a homogeneous core of reaction mixture. Temperature mapping using planar laser induced fluorescence of acetone shows that roll-up vortex is indeed suppressed by using the present creviced piston. Experiments with either inert gases or reactive mixtures demonstrate the reproducibility of pressure traces. Compression process is also shown to be very rapid and free from any significant mechanical vibrations. Measurements show that highly repeatable compressed conditions of up to 50 bar and greater than 1000 K can be obtained. A numerical model accounting for heat loss is also developed to simulate the RCM data. This work documents the design and operation of the present RCM as well as establishes its suitability for combustion studies.


Abstract Objective.—To determine the prevalence and predictors of injury and illness among long-distance hikers. Methods.—This was a cross-sectional study of long-distance hikers (>500 miles [805 km]) along the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trails between August and October of 2006. An 8-page survey instrument was made available to hikers at a designated station near the northern terminus of the respective trails. The survey questions were yes/no or multiple choice. Independent variables included packweight, footwear, and type and frequency of water purification. χ2 tests to compare categorical data and the Cochran-Armitage test for trend were used (P < .05 significant). We used logistic regression to compare the variables concurrently, and significance was determined using likelihood ratio tests. Profile likelihood confidence intervals for the odds ratios are reported. Results.—Of the 128 hikers completing surveys that met inclusion criteria, the mean age was 33 years (range  =  18–65 years), 94% walked >1500 miles (2400 km), and 70% were male. Using univariate analysis, trends were noted in the proportion of hikers reporting paresthesias and increasing packweight (35% with 10–20 pound [4.5–9 kg] packs, 50% with 21–30 pound [9.5–13.5 kg] packs, and 69% with >31 pound [14 kg] packs [P < .002]), as well as in the proportion of hikers reporting paresthesias and increasing footwear rigidity (29% sandals, 36% running shoes, 42% hiking shoes, and 68% hiking boots [P < .001]). In multivariate analysis compared to sandals, the odds ratio of suffering from paresthesias with running shoes was 1.57 (95% CI 0.3, 12.2), hiking shoes 1.73 (95% CI 0.3, 13.9), and hiking boots 3.9 (95% CI 0.7, 32.1) (P  =  .16). Compared to 10 to 20 pound (4.5–9 kg) packs, the odds ratios of suffering from paresthesias with 21 to 30 pound (9.5–13.5 kg) packs was 1.5 (95% CI 0.6, 3.9), and for >31 pounds (14 kg) was 2.2 (CI 0.7, 7.1) (P  =  .03). Adjusting for footwear and pack weight, only pack weight was significantly associated with paresthesias. Packweight and footwear were not significantly associated with other musculoskeletal injuries, such as joint sprains or chronic pain, and muscle injuries. Conclusions.—There is an association between packweight and the prevalence of paresthesias among long-distance hikers. The association between type of footwear and the prevalence of paresthesias is significant when analyzed independently, but loses its significance when the variables are examined together. This suggests that there is confounding between footwear and packweight.


Introduction

Ectoine is a compatible solute used for symptomatic treatment of rhinitis allergica, inflammatory dermatoses and irritated epithelia. Results from different studies demonstrated the efficacy of ectoine in reducing inflammation in the airways. Based on the positive results of a trial with asthmatic patients a study was set up to evaluate Ectoine Inhalation Solution (EIL) in subjects with mild airway obstruction and inflammation.

Methods

The study was designed as double blind, placebo-controlled cross-over trial. Subjects were randomly assigned to EIL or placebo (0.9% saline). Primary endpoint was defined as reduction of inflammatory markers IL 8 and % neutrophilic granulocytes in sputum. Other sputum and breath condensate biomarkers were analysed. QoL and spirometry data were collected on visit days.

Results

Reduction of inflammatory markers IL8 and granulocytes was greater after treatment with Ectoin compared to placebo (12% for IL8, 29% for neutrophils). Statistical significance could not be demonstrated. However, total Nitrogen from sputum showed a significant reduction after Ectoin (35%, p=0.02). Other biomarkers included in the investigation indicated advantages for Ectoin (granulocytes), or placebo (TNFα, LTB4, CRP). Analysis of QoL and spirometry data did not show significance to support superiority of one of the treatment arms.

No indication for increased health risks could be detected.

Conclusions

Inhalation of Ectoin can reduce inflammatory markers and shows an excellent safety profile. The results of the EFECT study support the outcome of other studies that the membrane stabilizing Ectoin reduces epithelia derived inflammatory processes.


This essay divulges into the literary masterpieces of the popular 19th century American authors Mark Twain, Kate Chopin and Henry James. Influenced tremendously by the times, Twain and Chopin employed regionalism in their works while Henry James used realism. This essay defines both regionalism and realism as well as highlights the similar and different ways in which they were incorporated into Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chopin's The Awakening and James' Daisy Miller: A Study.


In the manufacturing industry, spray painting is often an important part of the process. Especially in the automotive industry, the perceived quality of the final product is closely linked to the exactness and smoothness of the painting process. For complex products or low batch size production, manual spray painting is often used. But in large scale production with a high degree of automation, the painting is normally performed by industrial robots. There is a need to improve and simplify the generation of robot trajectories used in industrial paint booths. A method for spray paint optimization is presented, which can be used to smooth out an initial trajectory and minimize paint thickness deviations from a target thickness. By fitting a spline function to experimental data, an applicator footprint profile is determined, which is a two-dimensional reference function of the applied paint thickness. This footprint profile is then projected to the geometry and used as a deposition model at each point along the trajectory. The positions and durations of all trajectory segments are used as optimization variables. They are modified with the primary goal to obtain a paint applicator trajectory, which will closely match a target paint thickness when executed. The algorithm is shown to produce satisfactory results on both a simple 2-dimensional test example, and a nontrivial industrial case of painting a tractor render. The final trajectory shows an overall thickness close to the target thickness, and the resulting trajectory is feasible to execute directly on an industrial robot.


To study the relationship between presence of gastrointestinal allergic manifestations in breast-fed infants and presence of IgE against Schistosoma mansoni antigens, sixty breast-fed infants of S. mansoni infected mothers were selected. Of them, thirty infants were suffering from manifestations of gastrointestinal allergy (patients) and the other thirty were not suffering from such manifestations (controls). Levels of IgE against S. mansoni adult worm antigen (AWA), soluble egg antigen (SEA) and cercarial antigen (CA) were determined, by ELISA, in sera of these infants. There was significant association between presence of allergic manifestations and presence of IgE against AWA (P = 0.018), SEA (P < 0.001) and CA (P = 0.002). Also, concentration of IgE against AWA was significantly higher in patients group than the control group (P = 0.024). IgE against AWA showed significant negative correlation with haemoglobin concentration (P = 0.009) and serum albumin level (P = 021) and significant positive correlation with absolute eosinophilic count (P = 0.005). Also, IgE against CA showed significant negative correlation with haemoglobin concentration (p = 0.047) and serum albumin level (0 = 0.036). It was concluded that gastrointestinal allergy in breast-fed infants of S. mansoni infected mothers may be due to hypersensitivity of Schistosoma mansoni antigens present in mothers' milk. Schistosoma mansoni should be investigated and treated in mothers from endemic localities when their breast-fed infants are suffering from manifestations suggestive of gastrointestinal allergy.


The rapid growth and development of wireless communication and networking technologies coupled with far more powerful and energy efficient mobile computing systems enable more intelligent behaviours such as user-centric and self-reflection to be used so that mobile user applications can leverage dynamic context information to provide customized services. In this research, an architectural model for the deployment of intelligent context-aware service adaptation process is introduced. A mobile spatial routing application is exploited to demonstrate the improved flexibility and robustness of the new system model.


Humans and closely related apes have four glycophorin-encoding genes, three of which form a small paralogous gene family. These genes encode sialoglycoproteins that localise to the plasma membrane of the red blood cell. Although the biological function of these proteins is not well understood, and their presence does not appear necessary for human viability or normal health, all four glycophorin-encoding genes show evidence of accelerated evolution through positive natural selection. This selection is likely caused by a coevolutionary dynamic between glycophorins and Plasmodium falciparum receptors that use these molecules to gain entry into the red blood cell.

Key Concepts:

Gene duplication, followed by DNA sequence divergence and non-homologous recombination, has shaped the GYPA-GYPB-GYPC gene family.

Positive natural selection, likely mediated by Plasmodium falciparum, has caused accelerated amino acid evolution at all glycophorin-encoding genes.

Keywords:

glycophorins;
sialoglycoproteins;
malaria;
natural selection;
gene duplication


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) affect Jordanian adults more than other age groups. Several studies highlight the independent effect of various lifestyle factors on the risk of IBD. Therefore, this study aims to compare the differences between some lifestyle factors among IBD cases and IBD-free controls, while detecting the varying degree of malnutrition in the study sample.

METHODS
A case-control study was conducted between November 2018 and December 2019. Three hundred and thirty-five Jordanian adults above the age of 18 years were enrolled in this study. Out of the 335 participants, 185 of them were recently diagnosed with IBD [100 ulcerative colitis (UC) and 85 Crohn's disease (CD)] and 150 IBD-free controls. Sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, dietary habits and the degree of malnutrition using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) were collected from all participants.

RESULTS
Body mass index and waist circumference were significantly different in UC patients as compared to controls. Cigarette smoking, work status, duration of sleeping hours, physical activity, number of daily main meals intake, meals skipped daily, number of daily snack meal intake, and fast-food intake were all significantly different when comparing IBD cases to controls. While cigarette smoking (OR=0.52, 95%CI: 0.29-0.96, p=0.02) and sleep duration hours during working day (OR=0.05, 95%CI: 0.01-4.68, p=0.001)] were found to be protective factors, the increase in daily working hours (OR=22.13, 95%CI: 10.35-47.32, p=0.001) was identified as a risk factor for IBD. The degree of moderate and severe malnutrition among patients with IBD was significantly (p<0.001) higher as compared to controls.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with IBD had lower BMI and physical activity values compared to controls. The number of daily main meals intake, meals skipped daily, number of daily snack meals intake, fast food intake and the degree of malnutrition were significantly different when IBD cases were compared to controls.


In a study, a layered LiCO1/ 3Mn1/3Ni1/ 3O2 include a solid-state solution method, co-precipitation, mixed hydroxide method, layered double hydroxides solid state reaction, spray dry method and the metal ecetate decomposition method. In the study, layered LiCO1/ 3Mn1/ 3Ni1/ 3O2 was first prepared by the Pechini process. Ni(NO3)2·6H2O(AR), Co(NO3)2·6H2O(AR) and Mn(NO3)2(AR) were mixed and dissolved in deionized water in a molar ration of Ni/Co/Mn =1:1:1. The aqueous solution was slowly dripped into a mixed solution of NH3·H2O and NaOH at a constant rate. The stoichiometric starting materials NiO(AR), Co(NO3)2·6H2O(AR) and Mn(CH3COO)2·H2O(AR) were dispersed in acetone and mixed. The structure and morphology of the prepared powders was characterized using Xray difraction and scanning electron microscopy. Results show that Sample 1 had a phase pure a-NaFeO2 structure and the least ion mixing degree in the lattice with fine, uniform particle sizes. They developed a well layered structure and are anticipated to display an excellent electrochemical performance. The new approach requires only low temperatures and saves on energy consumption.


In this study, the effect of thermal oxidation on the high cycle rotating bending fatigue behavior of Ti6Al4V alloy was investigated. Oxidation, which was performed at 600°C for 60 h in air, considerably improved the surface hardness and particularly the yield strength of the alloy without scarifying the tensile ductility. Unfortunately, the rotating bending fatigue strength at 5x106 cycles decreased from about 610 MPa to about 400 MPa upon oxidation. Thus, thermal oxidation leaded a reduction in the fatigue strength of around 34%, while improving the surface hardness (HV0.1) and yield strength 85 % and 36 %, respectively.


BACKGROUND
Demineralized bone matrix is commonly used as a bone graft substitute, either alone or to supplement an osteoconductive material, because of its osteoinductive properties. The aging of the population has led to an increase in the number of prospective donors of demineralized bone matrix who have taken bisphosphonates to prevent osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. The aim of this study was to determine whether oral bisphosphonate usage affects the osteoinductivity of demineralized bone matrix from donors.

METHODS
Sex-matched and age-matched pairs of samples were provided by four tissue banks (three or four pairs per bank). Demineralized bone matrix donors without bisphosphonate treatment had a mean age (and standard deviation) of 69.1 ± 2.5 years, and donors with bisphosphonate treatment had a mean age of 68.9 ± 2.0 years. Each pair included one donor known to have taken bisphosphonates and one who had not taken bisphosphonates. Demineralized bone matrix previously confirmed as osteoinductive was the positive control, and heat-inactivated demineralized bone matrix was the negative control. Demineralized bone matrix incubated with 1 mL of phosphate-buffered saline solution containing 0, 0.002, 2.0, or 2000 ng/mL of alendronate was also tested. Gelatin capsules containing 15 mg of demineralized bone matrix were implanted bilaterally in the gastrocnemius muscle of male nude mice (eight implants per group). The mice were killed thirty-five days after implantation, and hind limbs were recovered and processed for histological analysis. Osteoinductivity was measured with use of a qualitative score and by histomorphometry.

RESULTS
Nine of fifteen samples from donors who had had bisphosphonate treatment and ten of fifteen samples from patients who had not had bisphosphonate treatment were osteoinductive. Qualitative mean scores were comparable (1.7 ± 0.4 for those without bisphosphonates and 1.9 ± 0.7 for those with bisphosphonates). Osteoinductive demineralized bone matrix samples produced ossicles of comparable size, regardless of bisphosphonate usage. Histomorphometric measurements of the area of new bone formation and residual demineralized bone matrix were also comparable. The addition of alendronate to control demineralized bone matrix did not affect its osteoinductivity.

CONCLUSIONS
Demineralized bone matrix samples from donors treated with bisphosphonates and donors not treated with bisphosphonates have the same ability to induce bone formation. However, it is not known if the quality of the new bone is affected, with subsequent consequences affecting bone remodeling.


Often described as a clinico-radiological entity, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is being increasingly diagnosed nowadays. However, mystery still surrounds its exact etiology. Though there are no standardized diagnostic criteria for this syndrome, there is a consistent feature associated with it: brain vasogenic edema in combination with neurotoxicity. The nonspecific nature of this condition leaves room for the diagnosis to be overlooked, leading to delays in providing appropriate treatment and unfavorable patient outcomes. PRES is associated with a variety of medical conditions including hypertension, eclampsia, autoimmune conditions, renal failure, sepsis, and an immunocompromised state, such as that secondary to the use of immunosuppressive therapy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and organ transplants. Treatment by a multidisciplinary team and prompt identification and reversal of the underlying cause can lead to beneficial outcomes, as in the case we present in this report.


Media stream quality is highly dependent on underlying network conditions, but identifying scalable, unambiguous metrics to discern the user-perceived quality of a media stream in the face of network congestion is a challenging problem. User-perceived quality can be approximated through the use of carefully chosen application layer metrics, precluding the need to poll users directly. We discuss the use of data mining prediction techniques to analyze application layer metrics to determine user-perceived quality ratings on media streams. We show that several such prediction techniques are able to assign correct (within a small tolerance) quality ratings to streams with a high degree of accuracy. The time it takes to train and tune the predictors and perform the actual prediction are short enough to make such a strategy feasible to be executed in real time and on real computer networks.


Small landslides in the upper submarine slopes of volcanic islands present potential hazards locally because of their high frequency. We examine evidence for landsliding in high‐resolution bathymetric data from Faial, Pico, São Jorge, and Terceira islands of the Azores. Because the rugged morphology of the upper slopes makes landslides difficult to interpret, we develop two classification schemes for the 1,227 identified slope valleys. One scheme addresses how recognizable the valleys were as originating from landslides (whether scarps are prominent or indefinite), whereas the other scheme addresses valley types (whether apparently produced by single or multiple failures). Size distributions are used to assess the relative occurrence of large versus small landslides. Thirteen landslides are predicted to have generated tsunami heights at source of >1 m and one with height of >7 m. Some slopes have gradients far above 30°, the angle of repose of incohesive clastic sediment, so the seabed in those areas is strengthened perhaps by carbonate cementation, by seismic shaking or by the presence of coherent lava or lava talus. Using all types of slope valleys, Faial and Pico have smaller affected volumes per unit slope area than those of São Jorge and Terceira. These differences could be associated with varied seismic activity, with more frequent earthquakes beneath Faial and Pico preventing the build‐up of sediments on their slopes. Submarine landslide statistics are therefore potentially useful for assessing long‐term earthquake hazards of volcanic islands in seismically active environments such as the Azores.


The impact of performance-oriented work practices on the gender pay gap has been the subject of considerable conjecture but little empirical investigation. Using the 2004 and 2011 British Workplace Employment Relations Surveys, the analysis finds that whilst average earnings are significantly higher for men and women across private sector workplaces that have introduced so-called high-performance work practices, the presence of such practices is not associated with a narrowing of the gender pay gap and, if anything, tends to exacerbate the differential in earnings between men and women. Data from the 2004 survey suggest that women are more likely to work in high-performance workplaces, but this is not the case for 2011. There is no evidence that gender segregation is significantly less in high-performance workplaces than in workplaces taking a more traditional route. Policy makers and employing organisations therefore need to be careful in reconciling their performance and equality strategies. In particular, they need to examine whether the former are truly gender-neutral. This requires additional measures, possibly the introduction of human resource audits in the public and private sectors.


In 2009, the Journal of Web Librarianship published a literature review covering best practices for creating library online tutorials. These principles included (1) knowing the tutorial's purpose, (2) using standards, (3) collaborating with others, (4) engaging students, and (5) conducting evaluations. The purpose of this current essay is to serve as an updated literature review, culling and synthesizing seven other pedagogical facets from newer literature: (1) technology updates, (2) tutorial maintenance and revision, (3) multimedia learning by gaming, (4) cognitive load theory and chunking, (5) adult education theory, (6) blended and flipped learning, and (7) the importance of ongoing engagement.


This article describes a method to directly measure the physical sag of overhead electric power transmission conductors. The method used relies on the global positioning system (GPS) used in the differential mode. The direct measurement of sag is a main advantage of the concept. The digital signal processing required is described in detail in a four-level configuration. Typical accuracy, response time, problems, strengths, and weaknesses of the method are also described.


ABSTRACT Notch proteins are plasma membrane-spanning receptors that mediate important cell fate decisions such as differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. The mechanism of Notch signaling remains poorly understood. However, it is clear that the Notch signaling pathway mediates its effects through intercellular contact between neighboring cells. The prevailing model for Notch signaling suggests that ligand, presented on a neighboring cell, triggers proteolytic processing of Notch. Following proteolysis, it is thought that the intracellular portion of Notch (Nic) translocates to the nucleus, where it is involved in regulating gene expression. There is considerable debate concerning where in the cell Notch functions and what proteins serve as effectors of the Notch signal. Several Notch genes have clearly been shown to be proto-oncogenes in mammalian cells. Activation of Notch proto-oncogenes has been associated with tumorigenesis in several human and other mammalian cancers. Transforming alleles of Notch direct the expression of truncated proteins that primarily consist of Nic and are not tethered to the plasma membrane. However, the mechanism by which Notch oncoproteins (generically termed here as Nic) induce neoplastic transformation is not known. Previously we demonstrated that N1ic and N2iccould transform E1A immortalized baby rat kidney cells (RKE) in vitro. We now report direct evidence that N1ic must accumulate in the nucleus to induce transformation of RKE cells. In addition, we define the minimal domain of N1ic required to induce transformation and present evidence that transformation of RKE cells by N1ic is likely to be through a CBF1-independent pathway.


The high speed implementation of a DFE (decision feedback equalizer) requires reformulation of the DFE into an array of comparators and a multiplexer loop. The throughput of the DFE is limited by the speed of the multiplexer loop. This paper proposes a novel look-ahead computation approach to pipeline multiplexer loops. The proposed technique is demonstrated and applied to design multiplexer loop based DFEs with throughput in the range of 3.125-10 Gbps.


Abstract In recent years, it has been claimed that releasing accurate statistical information on a database is likely to allow its complete reconstruction. Differential privacy has been suggested as the appropriate methodology to prevent these attacks. These claims have recently been taken very seriously by the U.S. Census Bureau and led them to adopt differential privacy for releasing U.S. Census data. This in turn has caused consternation among users of the Census data due to the lack of accuracy of the protected outputs. It has also brought legal action against the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this article, we trace the origins of the claim that releasing information on a database automatically makes it vulnerable to being exposed by reconstruction attacks and we show that this claim is, in fact, incorrect. We also show that reconstruction can be averted by properly using traditional statistical disclosure control (SDC) techniques. We further show that the geographic level at which exact counts are released is even more relevant to protection than the actual SDC method employed. Finally, we caution against confusing reconstruction and reidentification: using the quality of reconstruction as a metric of reidentification results in exaggerated reidentification risk figures.


Management and organization studies commentary on how authors experience peer review of journal papers suggests that it can be an overly interventionist process which reduces the originality and coherence of eventual publications. In the literature on co-authorship, this argument is reversed. Here, free riders who do not contribute fully to research collaborations and the practice of gift authorships are problematized, and it is argued that everyone involved in writing a published paper should be rewarded with co-authorship. In this article, qualitative interviews with 12 management and organization studies academics see respondents describing peer review as a transaction during which reviewers – and editors – actually co-author published papers. But their perspectives on this vary with the subject position from which they are speaking. When they speak as reviewers or editors, this co-authorship is depicted as a collegiate gift, a professional obligation or a process where authors might over-rely on reviewers' generosity. When they speak as authors or their proxies, it is characterized as reproducing disciplinary orthodoxy and ethnocentric exclusion, perpetuating disciplinary cliques, creating disorganized papers and constituting excessive interference with authorial privilege. These various perspectives on peer review deserve more attention in our empirical studies of academic labour. They also suggest we should reflect more on when, how and why we collaborate in our research and on how much we should recognize additional co-authors on (or resist their input into) 'our' work.


An internet protocol (IP) router determines the next hop for a packet by finding the longest prefix match. This lookup often occurs in ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), which allows bit masking of the IP address. In this paper, an internet protocol content addressable memory (IPCAM) circuit that directly determines the longest prefix match to the stored address is described. The proposed IPCAM produces an encoded prefix match length that is limited by the prefix mask. Entries need not be sorted in order. One of the proposed IPCAM entries replaces on average 22 TCAM entries. Consequently the longest prefix matching CAM is less than 1/10 the size of the equivalent TCAM and dissipates 93.5% less dynamic power. The encoded outputs drive a priority encoder to determine the longest prefix match in the IPCAM arrays. A priority encoder circuit architecture appropriate to the unsorted IPCAM entries is also presented.


Nail polish that we used today may contain the following toxic chemicals like dibutyl phthalate, toluene and formaldehyde as well as traces of heavy metals that may produce toxicity. The study aimed to assess the lead and arsenic levels in human blood among salon workers and to correlate its results to the serious effects of lead and arsenic on human health. The study was carried on human blood samples extracted from 90 respondents' selected using purposive sampling and identified into three groups: non-nail polish users (NNPU), nail salon workers-non nail polish users (NSW-NNPU) and nail salon workers-nail polish users (NSW-NPU). The human blood samples were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for its lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) content. It was also subjected to complete blood count (CBC) to determine the correlation of haemoglobin level of the respondents with the Pb and As content. Based on analysis performed, the results show that NSW-NNPU were reported to have the highest mean blood concentration of 0.192 ppm (Pb) and 0.354 ppm (As) respectively. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compute the data and the results showed that there is a very significant difference between NNPU versus NSW-NNPU, NNPU versus NSW-NPU and NSW-NNPU versus NSW-NPU with a p-value of <0.01 for lead and arsenic content. On the other hand, there is a very significant difference between the haemoglobin levels of NSW-NNPU with the Pb and As content with the calculated p-value of <0.01 and r-values of -0.793 (Pb) and -0.822 (As).The results revealed that human blood samples from NSW-NNPU were found to contain high levels Pb and As and it has direct impact to the haemoglobin level of the said group which can lead to anemia.


A method to enhance the performance of stereo matching is presented. The position of the specular light reflection on an object surface varies due to the change in the position of the camera, light source, object or all combined. Additionally, there may be situations exhibiting a colour shift owing to a change in the light source chromaticity or camera white balance settings. These variations cause misleading results when stereo matching algorithms are applied. In this reported work, a single-image-based statistical method is used to normalise source images. This process effectively eliminates non-saturated specularities regardless of their positions on the object. The effect of specularity removal is tested on stereo image pairs.


Autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI) is a heterogeneous group of rare cornification diseases. Germline mutations in TGM1 are the most common cause of ARCI in the United States. TGM1 encodes for the TGase‐1 enzyme that functions in the formation of the cornified cell envelope. Structurally defective or attenuated cornified cell envelop have been shown in epidermal scales and appendages of ARCI patients with TGM1 mutations. We review the clinical manifestations as well as the molecular genetics of ARCI. In addition, we characterized 115 TGM1 mutations reported in 234 patients from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (Caucasion Americans, Norwegians, Swedish, Finnish, German, Swiss, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Hispanics, Iranian, Tunisian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Afghani, Hungarian, African Americans, Korean, Japanese and South African). We report 23 novel mutations: 71 (62%) missense; 20 (17%) nonsense; 9 (8%) deletion; 8 (7%) splice‐site, and 7 (6%) insertion. The c.877‐2A>G was the most commonly reported TGM1 mutation accounting for 34% (147 of 435) of all TGM1 mutant alleles reported to date. It had been shown that this mutation is common among North American and Norwegian patients due to a founder effect. Thirty‐one percent (36 of 115) of all mutations and 41% (29 of 71) of missense mutations occurred in arginine residues in TGase‐1. Forty‐nine percent (35 of 71) of missense mutations were within CpG dinucleotides, and 74% (26/35) of these mutations were C>T or G>A transitions. We constructed a model of human TGase‐1 and showed that all mutated arginines that reside in the two beta‐barrel domains and two (R142 and R143) in the beta‐sandwich are located at domain interfaces. In conclusion, this study expands the TGM1 mutation spectrum and summarizes the current knowledge of TGM1 mutations. The high frequency of mutated arginine codons in TGM1 may be due to the deamination of 5′ methylated CpG dinucleotides. Hum Mutat 0, 1–12, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In tests on dogs the influence has been studied of bilateral electrolytic lesion of the caudate nuclei heads on realization of acquired conditioned instrumental defensive reactions to spatially separated sound signals (clicks series) under dichotic stimulation. It is shown that caudatectomy does not influence the dogs differentiation of the side of monaural sound stimulation, but leads to their absolute disability for a long time to differentiate right- and left-side positions of the sound image, modelled by changes in interaural difference in time of sound signal arrival at binaural stimulation.


TinyECC 2.0 is an open source library for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) in wireless sensor networks. This paper analyzes the side channel susceptibility of TinyECC 2.0 on a LOTUS sensor node platform. In our work we measured the electromagnetic (EM) emanation during computation of the scalar multiplication using 56 different configurations of TinyECC 2.0. All of them were found to be vulnerable, but to a different degree. The different degrees of leakage include adversary success using (i) Simple EM Analysis (SEMA) with a single measurement, (ii) SEMA using averaging, and (iii) Multiple-Exponent Single-Data (MESD) with a single measurement of the secret scalar. It is extremely critical that in 30 TinyECC 2.0 configurations a single EM measurement of an ECC private key operation is sufficient to simply read out the secret scalar. MESD requires additional adversary capabilities and it affects all TinyECC 2.0 configurations, again with only a single measurement of the ECC private key operation. These findings give evidence that in security applications a configuration of TinyECC 2.0 should be chosen that withstands SEMA with a single measurement and, beyond that, an addition of appropriate randomizing countermeasures is necessary.


The intermolecular hydrative dimerization of 1-alkyne was developed through the chelation-assisted catalytic system with Rh(I)/2-amino-3-picoline. This novel transformation afforded branched and linear α,β-enones directly from two 1-alkyne molecules and H2O. The results demonstrate that a branch/linear ratio can be controlled by the alkyl substituent of 1-alkyne.


In this study, the effect of the quality of the animation service to the perceived quality of a resort hotel and, thus, overall customer satisfaction within hotel service departments is addressed comparatively. The perceived quality of animation services (PQAS) has been measured by the behaviour of workers, the sufficiency of service's content, knowledge and experiences of workers, and the factors of the program. Surveys were used by quota sampling to tourists who were in resort hotels in Antalya, Turkey, wherein 1189 usable feedbacks were obtained. The model, which was tested using SmartPLS, was found significant. It has been determined that the PQAS significantly affected the perception of the quality of the hotel even though it is lesser than the perceived quality of other departments. The perception of the quality puts forward a significant amount of overall customer satisfaction. The results were analyzed in customer satisfaction theory and experiential marketing fields.


In some datasets, the self-employed earn markedly less than wage earners, even though those at the top end of the distribution earn more than their wage-earning peers. This observation is explained by a model of entrepreneurial choice that blends Lazear's [Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 23, pp. 649-680 (2005)] notion that entrepreneurs must be skilled in a variety of activities with the strong complementarity between skills central to Kremer's [Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 108, pp. 551-575 (1993)] O-ring theory of production. We test some predictions of the model using two datasets, with mixed results.


The current obesity epidemic has become a major health crisis to citizens around the United States. Obesity has been successfully linked to a plethora of different disease states including cardiovascular disease diabetes and stroke. Although many people might not recognize the trends the obesity epidemic is putting children as young as 5 and 6 years of age at a health disadvantage compared to children of a healthier weight. With 17% of American's children being classified as obese it is important to uncover what detrimental influences obesity has on the childhood body. Specifically with respect to bone health there is a good amount of information supporting the concept that there is increased acquisition of bone mineral density (BMD) through exercise in children. However none of these studies have investigated the effects of physical exercise on BMD in obese children compared to lean children. Previous studies show that overweight and obese children are at an increased risk of bone fracture due to low bone mass and bone area for weight. An increased response in BMD or bone mineral content (BMC) of obese children due to exercise could improve bone strength and decrease fracture risk. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in BMD acquisition in lean and obese children in response to a 16-week exercise intervention. Dual energy X-absorptiometry (DEXA) was used to assess the change in BMD in children at week 0 and 16. Participants were grouped by body mass index percentile as obese (n=41) or lean (n=19) and then randomly assigned to exercise or control groups. The exercise protocol consisted of aerobic activities such as running basketball tennis football etc. Participants were required to meet a heart rate average of >140 beats per minute each one-hour exercise session. The protocol for the study was reviewed and approved by the East Carolina University Institutional Review Board. Both lean and obese exercise groups increased total body bone mineral density (+0.026±0.001g/cm[superscript]2 +0.028±0.001g/cm[superscript]2 respectively; p<0.05) from week 0 to 16. Total body BMC also increased in the lean and obese (+111± 4.4g +106±4.3g respectively; p<0.05) exercise groups. There were no significant increases in BMD in controls groups. The increases in BMD and BMC of the exercise groups suggests that bone metabolism responded similarly in both treatment groups. The results advocate that there is no difference in bone acquisition of lean and obese prepubescent children of different BMI percentiles.


The challenge of implementing a combined target and kaizen costing approach has been recognized as a promising strategy for construction companies seeking to increase their profit margins, efficacy of production process and relationship with suppliers. Construction companies use to perform their services in a competitive market and can apply this combination to reduce construction costs, while at the same time assuring their profitable business margins. This research sought to implement a combined target and kaizen costing approach along the planning and construction phases of brand retail units (BRU). A context specific case study with four BRU has been devised. The main idea was firstly to design and to specify the units to reduce historical product development costs by means of product's definition interventions. On the target costing application the "customers care service center" of the company has been consulted about possible product conception interventions that were not perceived as value by customers. Later, the kaizen costing approach sought continuous improvements on production processes mostly based on suggestions originated by the main sub-contractors. The case study results show cost reductions around 13% compared with previous cost data of the company for these facilities.


During July-December 1962,the Health Inter-view Survey collected information on personal health expenditures during the year prior to interview, Health expenses included in the survey were of five types-hospital, doctor, medicine, dental, and special and other expenses. Health expenses included amounts paid or to be paid by the family or friends or by insurance but excluded insurance premiums and expenses paid by governmental or private agencies. Thus, these health expenditures are consumer out-of-pocket expenses plus benefits received from insurance. Results of this survey have been published on a person basis in "Personal Health Expenses, Distribution of Persons by Amount and Type of Expenses," Vital and Health Statistics, Series 10, No, 22, and in "Personal Health Expenses, Per Capita Annual Expenses," Vital and Health Statistics, Series 10, No, 27. In the present report the data on health expenditures are presented for families and unrelated individuals. The information for persons in the civilian, noninstitutional population during the interview period was collected within each inter-viewed household by family group. A family is de-fined as two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption who are living together in the same household. Members of the Armed Forces, excluded by definition from the civilian, noninstitutional population, are not counted in classifying the family group even if they live with the family. Thus the number of families will differ of Health Interview Statistics from other family statistics in which these persons are considered family members. Data for any unrelated individuals who were living in the household were excluded from the family and classified separately. Annual per family estimates of health expenses were prepared by summing the reported expenditures for which all members of the family responded with known information (a dollar amount or no expense, but not a nonresponse or unknown amount) and dividing by the number of families with known data for all members of the family. This procedure imputes to the families with less than complete reporting the same distribution of health expenditures as that reported for families with known data for the entire membership. About 92.4 percent of all families and unrelated individuals reported known data for hospital expense. The estimates for special and other expense are based on 90.0 percent of all families, while the data for doctor, dental, and medicine expense per family are based on known data for 91.8 percent of all families and individuals.


To Americans over 30, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are buzzwords that lack much meaning. But to those born between 1982 and 2001—often referred to as "millennials" or "Generation Y"—they are a part of everyday life. For the uninitiated, these Web sites are used for social networking and communication. They are also places where individuals can post pictures and news about themselves and express their opinions on everything from music to movies to politics. Some sites, such as YouTube, allow individuals to post videos of themselves, often creating enough "buzz" to drive hundreds and even thousands of viewers; in some instances, these videos create instant media stars—such as the Obama imitator, Iman Crosson.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To explore the application of the Nintendo Wii game console to motivate hospitalized adult patients with cancer to be physically active during treatment periods.

DESIGN
An exploratory study with a mixed-method approach, including descriptive statistics and Mayring's qualitative data evaluation method.

SETTING
The Department of Radiation Oncology at the University Hospital in Halle (Saale) in Germany.

SAMPLE
Convenience sample of 7 adult inpatients.

METHODS
All patients received physical training for five days for 30 minutes per day with Nintendo Wii. After the last training session, patients were interviewed using a semistructured guideline.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Applicability of a motion-activated game console during inpatient treatment periods, patients' distraction from the hospital environment.

FINDINGS
In general, the use of a motion-activated game console in a hospital environment was evaluated positively. Participants showed a high degree of acceptance using this kind of physical activity. Because of the Nintendo Wii, the majority of individuals felt stimulated to become physically active during hospitalization. In addition, all patients lost time awareness and felt distracted from the daily hospital routine. A majority of the patients reported an improved mood state from the game sessions.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that a motion-activated game console could be useful to motivate adult patients with cancer to be physically active during hospitalization.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses can recommend the use of game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii for physical exercise; in addition, the motivational effects of playing motion-activated game consoles might be particularly helpful for patients with cancer-related fatigue to overcome barriers and begin exercise.


The advance of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) enables realistic face image synthesis. However, synthesizing face images that preserve facial identity as well as have high diversity within each identity remains challenging. To address this problem, we present FaceFeat-GAN, a novel generative model that improves both image quality and diversity by using two stages. Unlike existing single-stage models that map random noise to image directly, our two-stage synthesis includes the first stage of diverse feature generation and the second stage of feature-to-image rendering. The competitions between generators and discriminators are carefully designed in both stages with different objective functions. Specially, in the first stage, they compete in the feature domain to synthesize various facial features rather than images. In the second stage, they compete in the image domain to render photo-realistic images that contain high diversity but preserve identity. Extensive experiments show that FaceFeat-GAN generates images that not only retain identity information but also have high diversity and quality, significantly outperforming previous methods.


A prospective serologic investigation was undertaken on 3 California dairies (herds 1,3, and 4, as previously designated in a report on abortion surveillance) to determine if fetal loss was associated with infectious disease agents in cows. The diagnostic problem in these herds was typical of many dairies in that abortions were not discovered for several months and aborted fetuses were seldom recovered. Blood from approximately 100 pregnant cows in each herd was sampled at monthly intervals, beginning when the cows were palpated at approximately 40 days gestation. Sera were tested for antibodies to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus and bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and to the Leptospira serovars pomona, hardjo, grippotyphosa, icterohemorrhagiae, canicola, and szwajizak. Logn antibody titers were examined for an association with fetal loss, using multivariate methods of logistic regression and survival analysis. Of the 325 cows followed, 37 aborted, and no fetuses were recovered. Statistical analyses indicated that significant fetal loss was associated with high titers to L. hardjo and with low titers to L. szwajizak (herds 1 and 4) and BVDV (herd 1). Results for herd 3 revealed a connection between abortion and L. icterohemorrhagiae (P = 0.036) and L. canicola (P = 0.050) and possible vaccinal protection against abortion caused by L. grippotyphosa (P = 0.027 and 0.015). For herd 4, there was a marginally significant tendency for the first vaccination of the gestation against leptospirosis to have protected against fetal death (P = 0.077). Advantages of the diagnostic design were that it permitted comparison of titers of aborted cows with those of nonaborted cows and it considered vaccinationinduced titers in analyses. Findings suggest that use of prospective serology and multivariate analysis has application in diagnosis of abortion on large dairies.


ASTM C-359, a standard test method for early stiffening of Portland cement (mortar method), is used to assess false set and flash set behaviors of cement in mortar. This test method defines cement false set as "the early development of stiffness . . . . . .without evolution of much heat, which stiffness can be dispelled and plasticity regained by further mixing without addition of water," while flash set is described as "the early development of stiffness . . . . . .usually with the evolution of considerable heat, which stiffness cannot be dispelled nor can the plasticity be regained by further mixing without addition of water." Therefore, if penetration is regained after remixing, then the early stiffening is considered as false set. If remixing cannot restore the penetration, the early stiffening is considered as flash set. Although ASTM C-359 does not specify the causes of false set and flash set, it is generally understood that false set is mostly due to re-hydration of dehydrated gypsum in the cement, while flash set is believed to be the result of gypsum deficiency in the cement. The deficiency of gypsum allows rapid hydration of aluminate phase. Our test results indicated that in some cases ASTM C-359 alone could not be directly used to explain the origin of false set or flash set. It is found that early stiffening behavior is related to the amount of gypsum and degree of gypsum dehydration, to the clinker mineralogy and morphology, and to the physical property such as cement fineness.


The rising worldwide energy demand leads to the depletion of fossil fuels reserves and at the same time, it increases the environmental impact caused by emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).
Utilization of fossil fuels causes not only climate change impacts such as global warming, but also many other environmental problems such as water and soil contamination that pose potential risks to human and animal health.
Furthermore, increasing population growth leads to increased food demand and consumption. This upward trend creates competition between food and bioenergy markets. Hence, the so‐called "food or fuel" discussion is back.
Challenges to counteract deciding between food and fuel that focus on the need to produce sustainable energy, while protecting environment, are the keys to replacing fossil fuels and lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. For this purpose, a completely new strategy with a proper sustainable system to supplying world's energy demand must be found.


[FeFe] hydrogenases catalyse the reversible formation and oxidation of H2. They presumably feature a hydride species as a key intermediate. The H− ligand can either be bound between the iron atoms of the [2Fe]H subsite (μ-H) or terminally to the distal iron atom of the active site (terminal-H). Although the μ-H species is thermodynamically most stable, experimental evidence points to the terminal-H species as the relevant intermediate. In order to understand these contradictory results, we investigate the catalytic cycle of [FeFe] hydrogenases (including transition states) with a special focus on the role of the two possible hydride intermediates. For this, density functional theory calculations were carried out for a large quantum mechanical active-site model. It is shown that formation of the μ-H intermediate is prohibited by high activation barriers which are caused by interactions of the H cluster with surrounding amino acids. We provide direct evidence for the anchoring of the H cluster in the protein to be decisive for the kinetic hindrance of μ-H formation.


Illustrations.—Pl. XXXV. to XLI. Introduction. In the following pages two memoirs are embodied. One of them, read before the Society in February 1834, gave a short account of some of the principal faults and disturbances of the Coalbrook Dale coal-field; the other, read April 1836, described the several formations comprised in that district, as well as certain phænomena exhibited by the coal-measures, and not noticed in the former communication. Before I proceed, it is necessary to observe, that prior to the researches of Mr. Murchison into the formations between the carboniferous rocks and the slates of Wales, the examination, of the Coalbrook Dale district was attended with very considerable difficulties. A few of the rocks, which crop out against the flanks of the Wrekin, had been ascertained to be counterparts of others; but their order of superposition and relative antiquity had not been determined. Mr. Murchison's labours, however, have removed these difficulties, by showing, that the thin zones of gray and liver-coloured sandstones, shales, and limestones, which overlie the limestone at Wenlock, and underlie the coal-measures at Madeley, Broseley, &c., are referable to the Ludlow rocks, the first formation beneath the old red sandstone, and constituting, with the Wenlock limestone and shale, the upper Silurian group; and that the shelly sandstone at Morrell's Wood, as well as the quartzose grit, and dark-coloured flags at the base of the Wrekin, belong to the Caradoc sandstone, or lower Silurian rocks. The deposits just noticed form, in this district, the terminating points