The purpose of this examination was to explore the effects of stride length (SL) perturbations on walking gait, relative to preferred walking (PW) and running (PR), via lower extremity range of motion (ROM) variability. ROM variability at the hip, knee, and ankle joints, in the sagittal and frontal planes were used in evaluating motor control of gait, where increased gait variability has been previously implicated in fall susceptibly.Nine participants (5 male, 4 female; mean age 23.11±3.55 years, height 1.72±0.18m, mass 72.66±14.37kg) free from previous lower extremity injury were examined. Kinematic data were acquired using a 12-camera system (Vicon MX T40-S; 200Hz). Data filtering and interpolation included a low pass, 4th order, Butterworth filter (15Hz cutoff) and cubic spline. Five gait trials were completed for PW and PR, with subsequent SL manipulations computed as a percentage of leg length (LL). SL perturbations included 60%, 80%, 100%, 120%, and 140% of LL.Kinematic analysis involved one stride (two steps) during each gait trial, assessing ROM at the hip, knee, and ankle from heel contact to toe-off for each limb, in the sagittal and frontal planes. Variability was expressed using coefficient of variation (%). Comparisons were made using 3×7 (joint × stride condition) mixed model ANOVAs, with repeated measures on stride condition (α = 0.05), using SPSS 20.0.Differences in lower extremity ROM variability were detected among stride conditions in the frontal and sagittal planes (F[3.185,76.451] = 3.004, p = .033; F[4.595,110.279] = 2.834, p = .022, respectively). Greater ROM variability was observed at, and in excess of SLs of 100%LL relative to PW in the frontal plane (PW: 9.2±4.2%; 100%LL: 11.8±3.6%, p = .014; 120%LL: 13.5±5.8%, p = .046; 140%LL: 13.8±6.5%, p = .016), and between SLs of 80%LL and 120%LL in the sagittal plane (4.9±3.0%; 7.8±4.7%, p = .046, respectively). From this, PW appeared to occur within SLs of 60%LL to 80%LL, while SLs exceeding 100%LL resulted in increased lower extremity ROM variability. This may have consequences for fall susceptibility at increased stride lengths during walking. PR did not reveal significant variability differences (p>.05) compared to walking conditions in either the sagittal or frontal plane (7.5±5.0%; 12.8±7.7%, respectively), suggesting that running represents a separate, but stable gait pattern. In the sagittal plane, ROM variability was significantly lower at the hip (3.9±1.5%), relative to the ankle (8.4±1.6%, p<.001) and knee joints (7.4±2.6%, p = .001), suggesting that gait control may be more active at the ankle and knee joints. Future investigations should examine kinetic changes in gait when altering stride length.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Authoritarianism is on the rise globally, threatening democratic society and ushering in an era of extreme division. Most analyses and proposals for challenging authoritarianism leave intact the underlying foundations that give rise to this social phenomenon because they rely on a decontextualized intergroup dynamic theory. This Article argues that any analysis that neglects the impact of dominance as a legitimizing characteristic of in-group formation and identity construction based on dominant in-group membership will fall short of understanding the surge of authoritarianism. In the West, and the United States in particular, this dominant ingroup takes shape around the ideology and social force of whiteness. Whiteness, as the bonding element of a dominant identity-based in-group, compels narrow identities and exclusive group membership. It also makes promises of social gain and advantage to those constituted as white, the erosion of which is the source of the authoritarian uprising in the United States. This Article discusses the establishment of the Western metanarrative, and whiteness's relation to it, and then advances a strategy to replace it with a more inclusive narrative of deep belonging, offering guidance to the social justice movement in its work toward this end.


PURPOSE
To analyze Pten and Smad4 gene expression in the urogenital system of Wistar rats in differents ages.

METHODS
Pten and Smad4 mRNA expression was assessed in the bladder, ventral prostate, testis, ovaries, and uterus by real-time PCR. Statistical analysis using the ANOVA (p<0.05).

RESULTS
Pten levels showed a progressive age-dependent increase in the bladder (male and female) and prostate and were elevated in the ovaries of the middle-aged. In the uterus, no statistically significant differences were observed; in the testis, increased and decreased levels were seen in young adult and middle-aged rats, respectively. Smad4 expression was downregulated in the ovaries of the pubertal group but increased in the middle age group. In the uterus, Smad4 expression in the oldest group was higher than the others groups. In the testis, Smad4 expression steadily declined with age; in the prostate, it was higher in middle-aged rats than in younger rats. A similar trend was observed in the bladder of male and female middle-aged rats, compared with the pubertal group.

CONCLUSION
The changes in phosphatase tensin homologue and Smad4 mRNA expression in Wistar rats appear to be associated with hormonal modifications in puberty and may be related to early follicular and testicular development.


1. Some mucus glycoproteins form soluble complexes with lysozyme at neutral pH values. 2. The extent of complex-formation was determined, by an ultracentrifugal difference method, for a range of glycoproteins covering the common blood-group specificities. 3. Interaction was strongest with those glycoproteins of blood-group Lea specificity; these were also richest in sialic acid. 4. Interaction diminished with increase of ionic strength, and was not detectable at I 0.50; however, an asialoglycoprotein was found to retain some activity. The interaction is accordingly primarily, but probably not exclusively, coulombic in origin. 5. The buoyant density of lysozyme in CsCl, CsBr, CsI and Cs2SO4 was determined; the values in the last three salts are anomalously high. This finding accounts for the previously noted difficulty of separating free protein from glycoproteins by single-stage centrifugation in CsBr. 6. Conditions for effective separation of glycoproteins from secretions containing lysozyme by density-gradient centrifugation are reported.


Histologic changes of muscle tissue in the early stage of heterotopic osteogenesis induced by syngeneic insoluble bone matrix gelatin (BMG) with bone morphogenetic protein in rats was observed by light and electron microscopy. BMG induced cartilage in muscle tissue by Day 7 after its implantation, woven bone by Day 10, and lamellar bone with bone marrow by Day 14. The new findings in this work include (1) the disappearance of the basement membrane of muscle fibers; (2) the activation of the satellite cells of muscle fibers; (3) the appearance of fibroblastlike cells that closely resembled activated satellite cells among the degenerated muscle fibers or on the surface of the BMG; and (4) the change of fibroblastlike cells to chondroblasts or osteoblasts. These findings suggest that intramuscular implantation of BMG caused the conspicuous disappearance of the basement membrane of the muscle fiber and may play a part in osteogenesis induced by BMG.


Reduced therapeutic efficacy of sorafenib, a first-generation multikinase inhibitor, is often observed during the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Emodin is an active component of Chinese herbs, and is effective against leukemia, lung cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and HCC; however, the sensitizing effect of emodin on sorafenib-based HCC therapy has not been evaluated. Here, we demonstrate that emodin significantly improved the anti-cancer effect of sorafenib in HCC cells, such as HepG2, Hep3B, Huh7, SK-HEP-1, and PLC/PRF5. Mechanistically, emodin inhibits sterol regulatory element-binding protein-2 (SREBP-2) transcriptional activity, which suppresses cholesterol biosynthesis and oncogenic protein kinase B (AKT) signaling. Additionally, attenuated cholesterol synthesis and oncogenic AKT signaling inactivated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), an oncogenic transcription factor. Furthermore, emodin synergistically increased cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase and apoptotic cells in the presence of sorafenib. Animal models xenografted with HepG2 or SK-HEP-1 cells also showed that the combination of emodin and sorafenib was sufficient to inhibit tumor growth. Overall, these results suggested that the combination of emodin and sorafenib may offer a potential therapy for patients with advanced HCC.


Lenhardt Ľ., V. Cigankova, V. Almasiova, K. Holovska Jr., P. Skrobanek, S. Mozes, M. Zibrin: Effect of Long-Term Hypodynamy on Alkaline Phosphatase Activity of Small Intestine in Japanese Quail Chicks. Acta Vet. Brno 2007, 76: 333-338. The functional development of the small intestine was investigated in Japanese quail chicks subjected to simulated microgravity (hypodynamy) on the second day after hatching and reared under these conditions to 63 days of age. On days 5, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 56 and 63 the activity of brush-border-bound alkaline phosphatase (AP) in the duodenum and jejunum were determined in experimental animals as well as in control quail chicks housed in a fl oor box during these periods. As compared with control quails the experimental animals displayed a signifi cantly increased enzyme activity until day 42 in the duodenum and day 35 in the jejunum (P < 0.001) whereas in older quails no signifi cant enzymatic differences between these groups was found. However, a decrease in food consumption due to a partial physical constraint cannot be excluded. Moreover, the results suggested that the activity of AP in the control birds did not change substantially during all the periods examined. In contrast, in older hypodynamy quail the AP activity signifi cantly decreased in the duodenum on days 56 and 63 and in the jejunum on days 42, 56 and 63, respectively. These results indicate that a) the enhanced intestinal function in early periods of life may refl ect the higher sensitivity of small intestine to simulated weightlessness, b) the decrease of the AP activity in older animals to the level of controls might be considered as a part of intestinal mechanisms involved in adaptation of quail chicks to long-term hypodynamy, c) differnt activity of AP in the small intestine of Japanese quail may not have resulted only from hypodynamy but also due to decreased food intake.


We report preliminary results of a mixed methods study of relationships between family-based information behavior and social support in chronic illness. Twenty-four participants (12 people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) and 12 people with diabetes) completed surveys, visualized their family-based social support networks, and participated in in-depth, qualitative interviews. Findings revealed that our sample of people with diabetes had significantly larger family support networks than did PHAs. These differences seem linked to greater interpersonal constraints in talking about HIV/AIDS in families. Yet, the two groups did not differ in terms of perceived social support (PSS), frequency of collaborative information behavior (CIB), or use of information obtained collaboratively. However, a surprising relationship between CIB and PSS emerged among diabetics but not PHAs: the greater the frequency of CIB with family members, the less supportive they were perceived to be. This seems rooted in the prevalence of attempted influence and interference by diabetics' family members. Nevertheless, among both PHAs and diabetics, a significant overlap existed between receipt of informational and emotional support. Indeed, information sharing and emotional support could be the same in interactions such as questions of concern, goal attainment, and caring forwards. This study is among the first to document differences in social support and CIB among people with different diseases, pointing to the merit of information services and systems differentiated by disease. The overlap between informational and emotional support suggests the value of organizing, presenting, or rating health information according to emotional valence. Demonstrating that CIB may have negative effects challenges information scientists to reconsider whether receipt of information is always positive. Health information behavior in families therefore appears more complex than has been previously shown.


The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has been keeping its
finger on the pulse of entrepreneurship since 1999. In 2019, fifty economies across the world participated in the research by collecting representative surveys among the adult population, as well as surveys among each economy's experts in entrepreneurship.
Over 3,000 people started a new business every month in Ireland in
2019 and the rate of early stage entrepreneurial activity observed was
the highest it has ever been since we began to track rates. This was
driven by an increase in the rate at which both men and women were
early stage entrepreneurs. The rate for men increased more strongly
than it did for women. Across the OECD Ireland ranks 10th in terms of early stage entrepreneurs and 4th in Europe. The entrepreneurial funnel in Ireland would also appear to be strong with one in five aspiring or planning to start a business in the next three years. Men and women are well represented among those that aspire to be entrepreneurs in the future. However, they are planning and starting quite different types of businesses. Women are more focused on consumer services.
An observation across countries is that levels of early stage
entrepreneurship increase with age and then decline. In Ireland, we
have noted for many years a relatively low rate of involvement by
young people as early stage entrepreneurs. In 2019, however, there
was a significant increase in young people planning and starting a
business. The rate of early stage entrepreneurs among those aged
55+ continued to strengthen in Ireland, placing Ireland to the fore in
Europe in this regard and 6th across the OECD. Entrepreneurs are valued for a myriad of reasons including their job creation potential. However, in many countries, such as Norway and Sweden for example, a considerable proportion does not expect to become employers. In Ireland, however, 79% of early stage entrepreneurs expect to become employers and a significant proportion expect to grow their employment numbers considerably over time. Ireland is ranked first across the OECD in terms of jobs growth expectation.


This article exhibits some caution in deploying the polarity between 'rules' and 'discretion' in an historical context before first establishing the context in which these terms originated and have been used. It takes Nigel Lawson, a British Treasury minister in the 1980s, as one example of a policymaker who consciously favoured rules over discretion, and likewise takes the economist H.C. Simons as an academic economist who did likewise in the 1930s. In establishing how Keynes saw this issue, the centrality of the gold standard as the prime example of a rules-based system becomes apparent. The evolution of Keynes's own views here is the main theme. As a young economist he accepted the authority of the gold standard as an impartial arbiter, governed by 'the rules of the game'. But he came to see that its ostensible lack of bias was compromised in practice by the interests of creditor countries and their power to enforce their own priorities upon debtors. In this sense, it was the replacement of Britain as the international hegemon by the United States after the First World War that opened Keynes's eyes to the defects of a rules-based system that, to modern eyes, has parallels with the workings of the euro today.


siVirus () is a web-based online software system that provides efficient short interfering RNA (siRNA) design for antiviral RNA interference (RNAi). siVirus searches for functional, off-target minimized siRNAs targeting highly conserved regions of divergent viral sequences. These siRNAs are expected to resist viral mutational escape, since their highly conserved targets likely contain structurally/functionally constrained elements. siVirus will be a useful tool for designing optimal siRNAs targeting highly divergent pathogens, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), influenza virus and SARS coronavirus, all of which pose enormous threats to global human health.


Spherical and swellable gel beads in the size range 35–200 µm were prepared by suspension polymerization of 2-hydroxypropylmethacrylate (HPMA). In the proposed method, a mixture of cyclohexanol and octanol was used as a diluent phase dispersed in an aqueous medium including poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as the stabilizer. The polymerization was initiated within the organic phase including the monomer and the crosslinker (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) by an oil soluble initiator benzoyl peroxide. Spherical and swellable gel beads carrying both hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups were also prepared by suspension copolymerization of HPMA and a water soluble comonomer (methacrylic acid). For this purpose, the suspension polymerization method proposed for HPMA was modified by using poly(vinyl alcohol) as a stabilizer instead of PVP. The effect of initiator concentration, polymerization temperature, monomer/diluent ratio, crosslinker concentration, stirring rate on yield, average size, size distribution, and carboxyl content of the HPMA based gel beads, were investigated. The swelling characteristics of the gel beads were defined.

© 2000 Society of Chemical Industry


Calcic cores in plagioclase of Karymsky andesite of the 1996–2000 eruptive cycle texturally and compositionally (both trace and major elements) mimic the plagioclase phenocrysts of basalt erupted 6 km away at the onset of the cycle. These observations support the view that simultaneous eruption of andesite and basalt at Karymsky in the beginning of the cycle represents an example of replenishment and eruption triggering of an andesitic reservoir. Homogeneity of andesitic output occurred within two months. This suggests to us that blending of injected basalt into reservoir magma was thorough and rapid.


In this paper, we present a technique called bookmark per Web page by which users can build a new link structure in a hypermedia. It allows users to create their own links for Web pages. Our aim is to provide an adaptive hypermedia with additional adaptive features by considering properties which the author of the hyperspace did not provide when the hyperspace was designed. In addition, a general hypermedia that does not have adaptive features can support personalized views of hyperdocuments using this technique. We expect that the bookmark per Web page can enhance information accessibility and reduce navigation disorientation and cognitive overload. We implemented our technique by modifying AHA![De Bra et al., 2003] which is an open source adaptive hypermedia system. We developed Java servlets and included them in the adaptation engine of AHA!. We added a link attribute for each concept at the user profile and assigned URL addresses of new links for its values.


The gravitational field of a rigidly rotating cylinder of charged dust is found analytically. The general and all regular solutions are divided into three classes. The acceleration and the vorticity of the dust, as well as the conditions for the appearance of closed timelike curves, are given.


The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) parameters g factor and the hyperfine structure constant A factor for the substitutional Rh+ in NaCl are theoretically studied from the perturbation formulas of these parameters for a 4d8 ion in cubic octahedra. In these formulas, the ligand orbital and spin-orbit coupling contributions which were normally omitted in the previous studies are taken into account using the cluster approach. The calculated g and A factors are in good agreement with the experimental data. The ligand contributions to the EPR parameters are somewhat important and should be considered in the analysis of the EPR spectra for a 4d8 ion in chlorides. The local structure of this center is also discussed.


Few concepts are more central to the endeavors of archaeologists, yet more ambiguous, than style. This is in part due to a general lack of theoretical and methodological consideration of the phenomena of style. However, despite the conceptual muddle style represents, most archaeologists have an intuitive feel for what style is. There is general agreement that style is some aspect of artifact variability and most researchers would accept decoration on pottery or the difference between corner notching and side notching of projectile points as being stylistic. This general intuition allows researchers to discuss stylistic variability with a fair degree of agreement on what formal properties of artifacts are in question. However, the lack of conceptual clarity results in ad hoc interpretation of the meaning of this variability for past cultural systems.


This paper addresses comprehensive reparation as a fundamental right and guiding principle in civil and State liability so that it is taken into account in a prevalent manner when assessing material and immaterial damages suffered by people. Due to the need to weigh such principle, there are many discussions raised from a normative, doctrinal, and – even- jurisprudential point of view, not only in the domestic sphere but also in the international sphere. However, its evolution has been remarkable and, currently, judges must apply it based on grounds of protection of human rights and international humanitarian law. For this research, the development, the analysis, the content, and the scope of the reparation principle was studied in the various international human rights instruments. Afterward, the research focuses on the criteria used by the Constitutional Court and the Council of State from 1991 onwards; along with the relevant doctrine on this subject. Lastly, the paper argues that the comprehensive reparation principle has consolidated as a prevalent principle within Colombian case-law which faces interesting interaction with the block of constitutionality and conventionality in the search of true restorative and transformative justice.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21017/Rev.Repub.2020.v28.a77


State-dependent effects on memory and subjective classification were found in two of four tasks performed by experienced marihuana smokers. The dose of marihuana used (7.5 mg tetrahydrocannabinol content) was considerably less than used in other studies, and corresponded much more closely to a naturalistic "street use" dose. As predicted by a state-dependent model, subjects reproduced material best when they were in the same drug state as they had been when they first encountered the material to be recalled. In particular, marihuana-marihuana reproduction surpassed marihuana-placebo or placebo-marihuana reproduction; that is, material first encountered in the drug state was better reproduced when the subject was again in the drug state than when he was sober. Marihuana did produce some overall impairment in performance; placebo-placebo reproduction was substantially better than marihuana-marihuana. The phenomenon of state-dependence has been demonstrated for other widely used psychoactive drugs including alcohol, stimulants, and barbiturates, and may be a factor in their appeal as mind-changing agents.


IdentifiersNorth Carolina To investigate and compare educational and vocational goals of urban youth from rural and non-rural backgrounds, with each other and with their parents and to explore the effect of sex of child, level-of--living, and family size on these goals, 11 schools were randomly selected from predominantly white junior high schools in cities of at least 40,000 population. Questionnaires were administered to 126 9th and 10th grade students and their parents. An analysis of variance of the responses yielded the following major findings: (1) Differences in valuation of education by level of living were not significant, (2) Years of school was related to level of living, (3) Youth with higher level of living communicate better with their fathers regarding educational plans than those with a lower level of living, (4) A larger percentage of boys than girls felt that parents had strongly urged them to continue school, (5) There was close agreement between reality and aspiration in occupational plans, (6) Family size was related to financial help with education, (7) There was no significant difference in the occupational choices according to background of youth, and (8) 60 percent of the fathers held different expectations than those indicated by their children. (DM) DOCUMENT RESUME


Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), characterised by transient left ventricular systolic dysfunction, is divided into five types: (1) apical ballooning, (2) mid-ventricular, (3) basal or inverted, (4) and focal wall-motion patterns, and (5) other types, including biventricular type, isolated right ventricular and global type. The common clinical features of TTS are similar to acute coronary syndrome, which makes them indistinguishable in the early stages. TTS has a wide spectrum of emotional or physical triggers. Pheochromocytoma has been widely recognised as a distinct physical trigger of TTS. Although reports of pheochromocytoma causing TTS are not uncommon, spontaneous rupture of pheochromocytoma causing TTS is extremely rare because of the low incidence of tumour rupture. Here we report on a case of a 31-year-old man with adrenal pheochromocytoma rupture developing basal TTS.


Aspects of a control system that employs a minicomputer for the programming and control of industrial robots are described. The control system hierarchy, the system interface, and the software controller design are presented along with the mode of operation and the methods of robot training and on-line testing. The features of the robot control language (Alfa) and a typical program structure of material handling processes are described. Alfa is a high-level problem-oriented language that allows the operator to program the robot's activities, including process and timer interrupt handling, effectively, without resorting to lower level languages.


We present the application of different nonlinear image deformation models to the task of image recognition. The deformation models are especially suited for local changes as they often occur in the presence of image object variability. We show that, among the discussed models, there is one approach that combines simplicity of implementation, low-computational complexity, and highly competitive performance across various real-world image recognition tasks. We show experimentally that the model performs very well for four different handwritten digit recognition tasks and for the classification of medical images, thus showing high generalization capacity. In particular, an error rate of 0.54 percent on the MNIST benchmark is achieved, as well as the lowest reported error rate, specifically 12.6 percent, in the 2005 international ImageCLEF evaluation of medical image specifically categorization.


Liver cancer is one of the most fatal cancers worldwide, the management of which demands a multidisciplinary approach. Conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have gained reasonable success. However, most of these patients experience a severe torment, both mentally and physically. Numerous studies have indicated that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), when used in conjunction with conventional allopathic therapies, can enhance their efficacy and diminish the resulting side effects and complications. Therefore, a deeper understanding of TCM is of immense help to physicians and other health care providers in providing a better care to patients. TCM is proved to be efficacious in terms of suppressing tumor progression, improving immune system function, and increasing the sensitivity to chemo- and radio-therapies. Although TCM can be delivered in various dosage forms, pills, decoctions, and injections are the three most commonly used forms in treating liver cancer. While these traditional dosage forms limits the usage of herbal medicines to their full potential novel TCM delivery forms such as nanoparticles can enhance the bioavailability, reduce any associated side effect, achieve targeted delivery, and improve the acceptance of TCM by patients. This review summarizes the current application of TCM in different prescriptions and dosage forms in the treatment of liver cancer, along with their advantages and disadvantages, all of which is believed to contribute to better understanding of Chinese herbal medicines as an essential part in the treatment of liver cancer and the importance of this trend to combine TCM and western medicine in novel dosage forms for a better management of the condition.


Temperature control is omnipresent in today's life: from keeping your fridge cold, maintaining a room at a pleasant temperature or preventing your computer from overheating. Efficient ways of heat transfer are often based on phase change, making use of the high latent heat of evaporation. In the context of spray cooling, liquid drops are impacting a hot plate to ensure a rapid cooling. At some temperature however, no contact occurs between the liquid and the plate, and the heat transfer rate is strongly reduced.

The origins of this so-called Leidenfrost phenomenon are investigated in this thesis from an experimental point. By investigating the wetting behaviour and bubble generation at the interface between a heated plate and a liquid drop, new light is shed on the onset of this undesirable phenomenon. Rather than a sudden change between contact boiling and Leidenfrost boiling, a new regime is found and described where the drop is only partially in contact with the wall. The lower temperature boundary of this new regime is found to correlate strongly with that of a deposited gently Leidenfrost drop. The upper temperature boundary depends strongly on the impact dynamics, forcing the drop onto the wall in the early stages of the impact process.

The identification of the relevant time- and length scales give insight on how the both liquid and solid properties influence the onset of the Leidenfrost effect. Depending on the impact parameters and plate properties, a second touch-down mechanism is found in which the heat transfer towards the evaporative front is limited in the case of a poor thermal conducting plate. These findings allow for a better prediction of the heat transfer between drops and a heated plate, aiding the optimization of efficient cooling processes.


So far, little is understood about the causes and potential implications of changing family patterns. Insight into these processes is essential in framing policies to safeguard the solidarity thal families help providing.This volume aims to contribute to this insight by offering a first overview of empirical results of the so-called Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS), a large-scale database on family and kinship in the Netherlands. How much family solidarity is there in the Netherlands and what forms does it take? The popular idea of a middle generation that has to cope with a double caring task has to be qualified: the so-called "sandwich generation" is quite limited in size. The often assumed "lack" of intergenerational solidarity seems to be mainly a problem of those with higher education: the more highly educated have less contact with their parents and children than do those with lower education. Strong family bonds tend to accrue mainly to those who are already in a stronger social position because they are more highly educated, more wealthy and are involved in a partner relationship. Family obligations are much more strongly felt by migrants than by the native Dutch, a finding that is constistent with popular notions of the collectivistic character of family relationships in ethnic communities.


Sortases are transpeptidase enzymes that anchor surface proteins, including virulence factors, to the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria, and they are potential targets for the development of anti-infective agents. While several large compound libraries were searched by high-throughput screening, no high-affinity inhibitors of sortases could be developed to date. Here, we applied phage display to screen billions of peptide macrocycles against sortase A (SrtA) of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). We were able to identify potent and selective inhibitors of SrtA that blocked SrtA-mediated anchoring of synthetic substrates to the surface of live S. aureus cells. A region present in all inhibitory peptides (Leu-Pro-Pro) resembled the natural substrates of SrtA (Leu-Pro-Xaa-Thr-Gly), suggesting that the macrocycles bind to the enzyme's active site and that they form similar molecular contacts as natural substrates. The evolved peptide macrocycles may be used as lead structures for the development of potent peptidomimetic SrtA inhibitors.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the technology confidence, skills, and post-skills-test emotions in traditional (younger than 24 years old) and non-traditional (24 and older) first-year college students at three undergraduate campuses in the Northeastern USA.

Design/methodology/approach

Totally, 39 college freshmen from three college campuses were recruited for the study. An online test environment and screen recording software were used to measure student proficiency in using PDFs, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Gmail, and Windows. Data were collected in September 2013.

Findings

The majority of the students struggled with at least one facet of academic software. Traditional students were more confident than non-traditional students in their technology skills, but they did not score any higher on the skills test. Students who placed at the high end and low end of the test results curve most accurately assessed their technology skills, and their post-test feelings were the most appropriate in light of their test results. A large percentage of the traditional aged students were overconfident about their skills and self-identified as "happy" or "wonderful" even after performing poorly on the test.

Originality/value

Having concrete data about student technology skills, rather than anecdotal data from Reference Desk interactions, can help librarians design improved instruction and tutorials that target areas of student technology weakness. In addition, there have been no studies that examine student immediate emotional response to test performance in this type of testing environment.


As software systems grow in size they will also grow in complexity. If the increased complexity is not managed the system will be increasingly difficult to maintain. The effect of unmaintainable software is even more distinct when using a agile development process. By increasing the maintainability of the system these problems will be dealt with and the system can be extended with sustained efficiency.This thesis will evaluate the development process of a modern, agile company in order to find changes that will promote increased maintainability. The result is an modified process that will increase the maintainability with the smallest possible overhead for the development organisation.The result is based on earlier studies of development technologies that have proven to increase the maintainability. The implementation of these technologies are adjusted to fit the development team, and some of the technologies that are not suitable for the team are rejected.


State-owned enterprises pervaded Italian capitalism from the 1930s to 1999. Historians have stressed the relevance of stateowned enterprises to capital-intensive industries, but argued they also might curb private-sector growth. While researchers have mapped the extension of the major Italian state-owned groups, private companies in the Italian corporate network remain largely unexplored. We use the interlocking directorates technique to assess Antonio Chiesi's thesis that in the mid-1970s the Italian corporate network was marked by two distinct centers, one stateowned and one private. We base our analysis on Imita.db for 1972 and 1983, using both network analysis and a prosopographic approach. Contrary to Chiesi's results using a different sample, in 1972 the Italian corporate network was characterized by one large center, comprising both private and state-owned companies. By 1983, however, system cohesion had decreased sharply; stateowned enterprises had disappeared from its center, and the Italian corporate network, as Chiesi argued, had two distinct centers.


From the observance of the HSS team and SCP team in 1998, they gained the mass density of the negative(HSS: ΩM = -0.38(±0.22), SCP: ΩM = -0.4(±0.1) ), using field equations which do not have the cosmological constant. In they thought, the quantity of the mass couldn't be a negative value, so the value was discarded. We have to know that not the field equation has disposed the value, but our thought disposed that value. In the world of positive mass, ground state is a point that energy is low, but in case of negative mass, ground state is a point that energy is the highest. Accordingly, in the world of negative mass, energy level is filled from the highest to the lowest, and stable state means the highest energy state, so the catastrophe to energy level of minus infinity never happens even if negative mass spontaneously emits energy. Assuming that negative mass exists, Newton's Law of motion was derived in between negative and positive masses and also between negative and negative masses. As a method for proving the existence of negative mass, an explanation on the revolution velocity of the galaxy through negative mass has been presented. In this process, the existence of spherical mass distribution was given; furthermore, explanation was done using this, to show observation results where dark matter effect through negative mass is proportional to distance r. If ΩM is -0.38, universe's age is 14.225 Gyr. It is in the range estimated by other observations. Universe's radius R is 96:76[-11:44+12:13]Gly = (85.32 ~ 108.89)Gly. Assuming that negative mass and positive mass were born together at the beginning of universe, it satisfies the various problems that previous dark matter and dark energy possess, such as, centripetal force effects of galaxy and galaxy clusters from previous dark matters, mass effects that is proportional to the distance r, repulsive force needed for expansion, dark energy that has positive values, low interaction between dark matter when collision occurs between dark matter, deceleration expansion and acceleration expansion of universe, formation of void, in ation mechanism, fine tuning problem of mass density, collision of Bullet cluster, universe's age, universe's size, the reason of that dark energy seems to has a small and non-zero value. Also, we prove to the dark energy observation value (10-47GeV4). As a result, the necessity of observation focusing on exact computation and detection of negative mass is stated.


: The author presents the results of ultrasound investigation (USI) of 419 patients with cholecystocholedocholithiasis. The diagnostic accuracy of USI methods in patients with calculous cholecystitis was 98.8%. Direct signs of visualization of concrements in the common bile duct (CBD) were found but in 68.5% of patients. On the basis of USI results the common bile stones were found in 287 (68.5%) patients. The concrements omitted in transabdominal USI were diagnosed using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography, magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreaticography, endoscopic ultrasonography as well as in operative intervention.


Opsonins are soluble, extracellular proteins, released by activated immune cells, and when bound to a target cell, can induce phagocytes to phagocytose the target cell. There are three known classes of opsonin: antibodies, complement factors and secreted pattern recognition receptors, but these have limited access to the brain. We identify here two novel opsonins of bacteria, calreticulin, and galectin-3 (both lectins that can bind lipopolysaccharide), which were released by microglia (brain-resident macrophages) when activated by bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Calreticulin and galectin-3 both bound to Escherichia coli, and when bound increased phagocytosis of these bacteria by microglia. Furthermore, lipopolysaccharide-induced microglial phagocytosis of E. coli bacteria was partially inhibited by: sugars, an anti-calreticulin antibody, a blocker of the calreticulin phagocytic receptor LRP1, a blocker of the galectin-3 phagocytic receptor MerTK, or simply removing factors released from the microglia, indicating this phagocytosis is dependent on extracellular calreticulin and galectin-3. Thus, calreticulin and galectin-3 are opsonins, released by activated microglia to promote clearance of bacteria. This innate immune response of microglia may help clear bacterial infections of the brain.


Background The burden of influenza-like illness (ILI) is typically estimated via hospitalizations and deaths. However, ILI-associated morbidity that does not require hospitalization remains poorly characterized. Objective The main objective of this study was to characterize ILI burden using commercial wearable sensor data and investigate the extent to which these data correlate with self-reported illness severity and duration. Furthermore, we aimed to determine whether ILI-associated changes in wearable sensor data differed between care-seeking and non–care-seeking populations as well as between those with confirmed influenza infection and those with ILI symptoms only. Methods This study comprised participants enrolled in either the FluStudy2020 or the Home Testing of Respiratory Illness (HTRI) study; both studies were similar in design and conducted between December 2019 and October 2020 in the United States. The participants self-reported ILI-related symptoms and health care–seeking behaviors via daily, biweekly, and monthly surveys. Wearable sensor data were recorded for 120 and 150 days for FluStudy2020 and HTRI, respectively. The following features were assessed: total daily steps, active time (time spent with >50 steps per minute), sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and resting heart rate. ILI-related changes in wearable sensor data were compared between the participants who sought health care and those who did not and between the participants who tested positive for influenza and those with symptoms only. Correlative analyses were performed between wearable sensor data and patient-reported outcomes. Results After combining the FluStudy2020 and HTRI data sets, the final ILI population comprised 2435 participants. Compared with healthy days (baseline), the participants with ILI exhibited significantly reduced total daily steps, active time, and sleep efficiency as well as increased sleep duration and resting heart rate. Deviations from baseline typically began before symptom onset and were greater in the participants who sought health care than in those who did not and greater in the participants who tested positive for influenza than in those with symptoms only. During an ILI event, changes in wearable sensor data consistently varied with those in patient-reported outcomes. Conclusions Our results underscore the potential of wearable sensors to discriminate not only between individuals with and without influenza infections but also between care-seeking and non–care-seeking populations, which may have future application in health care resource planning. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04245800; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04245800


The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and heterodyne efficiency are investigated for coherent (heterodyne detection) laser radar under the Fresnel approximation and general conditions. This generality includes spatially random fields, refractive turbulence, monostatic and bistatic configurations, detector geometry, and targets. For the first time to our knowledge, the effects of atmospheric refractive turbulence are included by using the path-integral formulation. For general conditions the SNR can be expressed in terms of the direct detection power and a heterodyne efficiency that can be estimated from the laser radar signal. For weak refractive turbulence (small irradiance fluctuations at the target) and under the Markov approximation, it is shown that the assumption of statistically independent paths is valid, even for the monostatic configuration. In the limit of large path-integrated refractive turbulence the SNR can become twice the statistically independent-path result. The effects of the main components of a coherent laser radar are demonstrated by assuming untruncated Gaussians for the transmitter, receiver, and local oscillator. The physical mechanisms that reduce heterodyne efficiency are identified by performing the calculations in the receiver plane. The physical interpretations of these results are compared with those obtained from calculations performed in the target plane.


Augmented reality (AR) is a promising technology for building applications in an Internet of Things (IoT) environment, utilized for visualizing information provided by IoT devices. In this paper, we enable Web-based mobile AR applications with mobile agents in a resource-oriented IoT system architecture. We present an adaptable mobile agent composition that contains the data representation logic and mappings between AR applications and system resources. Thus, mobile agents and AR application-specific data structures are exposed as global system resources. System resource linkages are considered between real-world objects and their virtual representations for mobile agent-based AR applications. The agent composition also complies with the REST principles for resource access and control system-wide. This allows dynamic runtime adaptation and addressing the device and resource heterogeneity, thus eliminating the need for application-specific communication protocols. Moreover, we utilize a Web-based mobile AR application framework, running completely in a Web browser, which facilitates straightforward AR application development. Lastly, a proof of concept mobile AR application is implemented, where a coffee maker with a visual tag is connected to a low-power resource-constrained wireless sensor network node as an IoT device. A mobile agent is injected into the IoT environment to expose the state changes of the coffee maker. Through the visual tag, AR applications are able to visualize the state changes of the coffee maker in their user interface.


1. The effects of azaserine and nicotinamide, agents which inhibit and stimulate hepatic NAD synthesis respectively, on the content of NAD(+) and NADH in isolated rat islets of Langerhans incubated in vitro were studied. The effects of these compounds on the rates of insulin release, from isolated islets incubated in vitro, in response to various secretagogues were also measured. 2. Preincubation of islets in the presence of azaserine (0.3mm) caused a marked depletion of the normal islet-cell content of both NAD(+) and NADH and prevented the secretion of insulin in response to stimulatory concentrations of d-glucose, xylitol, d-xylulose, l-arginine hydrochloride and l-leucine. 3. Preincubation of islets in the presence of nicotinamide (2mm) increased the islet content of NAD(+) and enhanced the rate of release of insulin in response to d-glucose. Also when nicotinamide was present the inhibitory effect of azaserine on insulin release and the azaserine-induced depletion of the islet content of NAD(+) and NADH was prevented. 4. Preincubation with azaserine was without effect on the stimulation of insulin release caused by theophylline or dibutyryl cyclic AMP. 5. It is suggested that insulin release caused by sugars and amino acids is dependent on the maintenance of NAD concentrations, though this may not be the case for release due to theophylline and dibutyryl cyclic AMP.


Difficulty obtaining sufficient hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) directly from the donor has limited the clinical use of HSC transplantation. Numerous attempts to stimulate the ex vivo growth of purified HSCs with cytokines and growth factors generally have induced only modest increases in HSC numbers while decreasing their in vivo reconstituting ability. We previously developed a recombinant single-chain form of a naturally occurring murine hybrid cytokine of IL-7 and the β chain of hepatocyte growth factor (rIL-7/HGFβ) that stimulates the in vitro proliferation and/or differentiation of common lymphoid progenitors, pre-pro-B cells, and hematopoietic progenitor cells (day 12 spleen colony-forming units) in cultures of mouse BM. Here we used the rIL-7/HGFβ in culture to induce large numbers of HSCs from multiple cell sources, including unseparated BM cells, purified HSCs, CD45- BM cells, and embryonic stem cells. In each instance, most of the HSCs were in the G0 phase of the cell cycle and exhibited reduced oxidative stress, decreased apoptosis, and increased CXCR4 expression. Furthermore, when injected i.v., these HSCs migrated to BM, self-replicated, provided radioprotection, and established long-term hematopoietic reconstitution. These properties were amplified by injection of rIL-7/HGFβ directly into the BM cavity but not by treatment with rIL-7, rHGF, and/or rHGFβ.


A pattern of crustal seismic reflectivity tentatively dated as Ordovician- Silurian recurs along strike in the Newfoundland Appalachians. Comparable fault patterns are produced in sandbox models of asymmetric compressional systems where oppositely dipping step-up shear zones are localized above a discontinuity in basal velocity. The reflectivity pattern may be produced by a mechanically analogous process in which a stress discontinuity results from detachment and underthrusting of mantle and possibly lower crustal lithosphere during con- tinent-continent collision. Similar seismic reflectivity patterns exist elsewhere in the Appalachian-Caledonide mobile belt as well as in older and younger compressional orogens, suggesting that detachment and underthrusting leading to asymmetric crustal deformation may be a common feature of compressional orogens.


An estimate of tropospheric ozone concentrations was obtained from the difference in the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data between the high Andes and the Pacific Ocean. From 1979 to 1992 the tropospheric ozone concentration apparently increased by 1.48 ± 0.40 percent per year or 0.21 ± 0.06 Dobson unit per year over South America and the surrounding oceans. An increase in biomass burning in the Southern Hemisphere can account for this trend in tropospheric ozone concentrations.


ABSTRACT Background: Surgical management of spinal tuberculosis (TB) has been classically the anterior, then combined, and of late increasingly by the posterior approach. The posterior approach has been successful in early disease. There has been a paradigm shift and inquisitive to explore this approach in the more advanced and even long-segment disease. Our study is a retrospective analysis by authors in variable disease pattern of TB Spine operated at an institute using a single posterior approach. Settings and Design: A retrospective case study series in a tertiary level hospital. Aims: The aim of this study is to evaluate the functional and radiological results of an all posterior instrumented approach used as a "universal approach" in tubercular spondylodiscitis of variable presentation. Materials and Methods: The study is from January 2015 to May 2018. Twenty-four of 38 patients met the inclusion criterion with a male: female = 8:16, and mean age 44.26 years. The initial diagnosis of TB was based on clinic-radiologic basis. Their level of affection, number of vertebrae affected, and vertebral body collapse, the kyphosis (preoperative, predicted, postoperative, and final residual) and bony fusion were measured in the preoperative, postoperative, and final X rays. Functional scoring regarding visual analog scale and Frankel neurology grading was done at presentation and follow-up of patients. Histopathological data of all patients were collected and anti-tubercular therapy completed for a period of 1 year with 4 drugs (HRZE) for 2 months and 2 drugs (HR) for rest of period. Statistical Analysis Used: The descriptive data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and other parameters were calculated using the appropriate statistical tests such as the Student paired t-test for erythrocyte sedimentation rate, visual analog scale score, and kyphosis. Results: The mean number of vertebrae involved was 3.29 ± 0.86 (2–6) with mean vertebral body destruction was 0.616. Preoperatively, the mean kyphosis angle was 22.42° ± 12.56° and was corrected postoperatively to 13.08° ± 11.34° with an average correction of 9.34° (41.66%). At the latest follow-up, there was mean loss of correction of 0.80° resulting in 13.88° of final correction. Bony fusion was achieved in 20 patients (83.33%) cases. Neurological recovery occurred in all patients (100%), and 92% could be ambulatory at 1 year follow-up. There was improvement of visual analog scale from 6.33 ± 1.05 preoperatively to 1.042 ± 0.75 at 3 months of postoperative period. Two patients had bed sore, two had urinary infection, and one had neurological worsening requiring re exploration and cage removal eventually recovering to Frankel E. Two patients died due to unrelated cause. Conclusions: The procedure in safe and has satisfactory results in variable group affection of Pott's spine including early and late disease, multisegment involvement using pedicle screw fixation with/without cage support.


The inhibition effect of a new imidazolpyridine derivative namely 2,6-bis(2,5-dimethyl-2H-imidazol-4-yl)pyridine (BDIP) on corrosion of mild steel in 1 M HCl was studied at 308 K. Weight-loss measurements, potentiodynamic polarisation and impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods were used. Results showed that BDIP was a good inhibitor and its inhibiting efficiency reaches 97,4% at 10− 3 M. The values of the inhibition efficiency calculated from these techniques are reasonably in good agreement. Polarisation curves revealed that this organic compound acted predominately as a cathodic inhibitor. EIS measurements showed that the charge transfer resistance increases with the inhibitor concentration. The temperature effect on the corrosion behaviour of mild steel in 1 M HCl with and without BDIP at 10− 3 M was studied in the temperature range 308–353 K. The associated activation energy was determined. The adsorption of BDIP on the mild steel surface obeyed to the Langmuir's adsorption isotherm model.


We have derived the HSV amplicon vector in 1981/1982 after elaborate experience with "defective viruses", arising spontaneously in viral stocks propagated at high multiplicities of infection (m.o.i.). The defective viruses were found to contain large concatemeric genomes with repeat units of limited complexity. We employed cloned defective genome repeats to generate the "amplicon" vectors, which in the presence of helper virus replicate to produce packaged large concatemeric genomes, transmissible to uninfected cells. The cloned amplicons were then employed to fine map and analyze the signals essential for amplicon propagation: (i) A DNA replication origin, producing concatemeric genomes by rolling circle replication. Three DNA replication origins were identified in the HSV genome. (ii) Signals termed pac-1 and pac-2, directing a measuring function for coordinate cleavage of the concatemeric genomes and their packaging as full-size (150 kb) genomes. Using amplicons, foreign genes of large sizes could be linked to less than 1 kb of the cis-acting HSV DNA sequences and become amplified in packaged defective genomes, transmissible to new cells. The transgenes are expressed efficiently, due to sequence reiterations. Large quantities of vectors can be produced in vitro. The amplicons are attractive vectors for use as non-integrating gene delivery vectors. The packaging signals pac-1 and pac-2 are well conserved in different herpesviruses and amplicons with a DNA replication origin and cleavage and packaging signals have been produced in additional herpesviruses. Depending on amplicon-host cell combination, the vectors can be employed with and without mutated helper virus(es) to obtain high gene expression, and desired effect on the target cell. In the absence of helper virus, the defective virus produced is limited for spread in the targeted cells. We expect that new vectors employing state of the art transgenes, will be developed to generate amplicon based concatemeric defective viruses capable of efficient expression of these genes.


Based on process optimizing, in this article the dust was made a extraction analysis to investigate the ratio of lipophilic substances, which was collected in shanghai different traffic concentration areas. Also, the samples was made a infrared spectroscopy analysis to investigate the organic groups contained. It illustrates that the ratio of lipophilicity in traffic-intensive areas is higher up to 90.1 percent than in living area which is 33.5 percent, those of Shanghai suburb is the littlest, only 12.3 percent. the main functional groups of dust in Shanghai traffic-intensive areas are amino, associating hydroxyl, benzene ring, alkyl and-SH, which is similar to the main component of organic pollutants in motor vehicle exhaust.


In the Internet era, many forms of human communication leave massive digital traces that could serve as a revolutionary source of empirical information. However, researchers are often faced with extensive challenges when they try to access these "big communication data." These restrictions prevent scientific exploration and the application of new computational methods and, thus, ultimately constrain the development of the field of computational communication science (CCS). As a first step to improve scientific access to large communication data, this article systematizes the data acquisition options and outlines their specific advantages and barriers based on a qualitative interview study with 22 researchers in the field of CCS. Three overarching themes are identified that seem to determine the resulting data quality of all data collection methods. On the basis of these findings, we develop an agenda on how communication science could overcome the challenges of accessing large data sets in the future.


Abstract Objectives An important step in mitigating the burden of diagnostic errors is strengthening diagnostic reasoning among health care providers. A promising way forward is through self-explanation, the purposeful technique of generating self-directed explanations to process novel information while problem-solving. Self-explanation actively improves knowledge structures within learners' memories, facilitating problem-solving accuracy and acquisition of knowledge. When students self-explain, they make sense of information in a variety of unique ways, ranging from simple restatements to multidimensional thoughts. Successful problem-solvers frequently use specific, high-quality self-explanation types. The unique types of self-explanation present among nurse practitioner (NP) student diagnosticians have yet to be explored. This study explores the question: How do NP students self-explain during diagnostic reasoning? Methods Thirty-seven Family NP students enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at a large, Midwestern U.S. university diagnosed three written case studies while self-explaining. Dual methodology content analyses facilitated both deductive and qualitative descriptive analysis. Results Categories emerged describing the unique ways that NP student diagnosticians self-explain. Nine categories of inference self-explanations included clinical and biological foci. Eight categories of non-inference self-explanations monitored students' understanding of clinical data and reflect shallow information processing. Conclusions Findings extend the understanding of self-explanation use during diagnostic reasoning by affording a glimpse into fine-grained knowledge structures of NP students. NP students apply both clinical and biological knowledge, actively improving immature knowledge structures. Future research should examine relationships between categories of self-explanation and markers of diagnostic success, a step in developing prompted self-explanation learning interventions.


In order to reduce the relative intensity noise (RIN) in the interferometric signal of the fiber optic gyroscope (FOG), an adaptive noise subtraction method is presented, which aims to overcome to the drawbacks that the fixed delay time and gain of the digital noise subtraction method. The drawbacks will make the performance of FOG to be degraded greatly in the changing environment. In the paper the adaptive noise subtraction system based on the recursive least squares algorithm (RLS) is formed in FPGA, in which the interferometric signal is regarded as the signal source, and RIN in the free end of the optical fiber coupler of FOG is looked as the noise reference signal. The two critical parameters that minimum delay time and its varying range result from measuring the minimum and maximum delay times of the interferometric signal in a certain temperature range. The off-line and on-line temperature experimental results verify the capability of adapting to the environmental temperature.


Jungians and Christians use the word evil in different and contradictory senses. The moral aim of the Jungian is the 'integration of evil', whereas for the Christian it is 'the overcoming of evil by good'. This paper guides the reader through Victor White's thinking on evil—understood in the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas as parasitic on good—malum est privatio boni, and concludes by considering the clinical significance of the relationship between moral evil—malum culpae—and guilt. Although Jung and White never resolved their differences on evil, they agreed that the subject demands concentration and careful reflection. The hypothesis here is that, although the literature on the Jung–White dialogue offers extensive analysis on evil, it does not go far enough. There is little evidence of dynamic engagement with the underlying ethical issues that White's clarity of thought challenges one to consider.


The ability of a liquid to sustain mechanical tension is a spectacular manifestation of the cohesion of matter. Water is a paradigmatic example, because of its high cohesion due to hydrogen bonds. The knowledge of its limit of rupture by cavitation can bring valuable information about its structure. Up to now, this limit has been obscured by the diversity of experimental results based on different physical measures of the degree of metastability of the liquid. We have built a fiber optic probe hydrophone to provide the missing data on the density of the liquid at the acoustic cavitation limit. Our measurements between 0 and 50°C allow a clear-cut comparison with another successful method where tension is produced in micron-sized inclusions of water in quartz. We also extend previous acoustic measurements of the limiting pressure to 190°C, and we consider a simple modification of classical nucleation theory to describe our data. Applying the nucleation theorem gives the first experimental value for the size of the critical bubble, which lies in the nanometer range. The results suggest the existence of either a stabilizing impurity in the inclusion experiments, or an ubiquitous impurity essential to the physics of water.


Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has had significant antitumor effects in rodents and in man. In mice, BCG is capable of increasing lymphocyte-mediated immunity to allogenic leukemia cells and of creating "pseudoimmune" cytotoxic lymphocytes when administered alone. Lymphocyte-activating factor (LAF) produced by macrophages, a T-lymphocyte mitogenic substance, is increased significantly by the administration of BCG and may play a role in the evocation of cytotoxic cells. BCG acts as a mitogen for splenic and thymic cells "in vitro". Macrophages were important regulators in the response, since a critical concentration (at least 0.25 % to 0.5 %) were required for T-cell stimulation and a high concentration (approximately 5 to 10 %) inhibited splenic lymphocytes. LAF was increased 20-fold above baseline "in vitro" by BCG. Methanol extraction residue (MER) stimulated thymic and splenic cells as well as did whole BCG. A delipidated cell fraction (DMC) stimulated only splenic non-T lymphocytes. BCG has antagonized several sorts of immunosuppression and may be useful clinically in this regard. There is also the possibility of antagonizing the myelosuppressive toxic effects of chemotherapeutic agents through the stimulation of the macrophage-made granulocyte colony stimulating factor. Finally, if BCG can induce cytotoxic lymphocytes (or macrophages) in vitro, it may be possible to use these in clinical adoptive immunotherapy. BCG is a useful prototype of an immunological adjuvant with antitumor activity. Elucidation of its actions on lymphoid cells and its effects in therapeutic situations can serve as a model for future investigations with other substances with similar potential.


Background Although patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) achieve prolonged survival, long-term complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among long-term survivors of HL. Methods We retrospectively evaluated long-term complications in 336 HL survivors treated between January 1990 and January 2006 at the Department of Medical Oncology of the Hacettepe University Institute of Oncology who were >16 years old at presentation. All patients were regularly followed up every 3 months for the first 2 years after complete response, biannually for 3 years, and annually after 5 years. Results Median follow-up was 8.5 years. The mean age (±SD) of the patients at the time of diagnosis was 35.7 ± 13.1 years. The male to female ratio was 61%/39%. During follow-up, 29 second malignancies (8.6%) were diagnosed in 28 patients with HL; 22 were solid tumors and 7 were hematological malignancies. Forty-seven (14.0%) of all patients with HL were found to have thyroid abnormalities. During follow-up, 54 (16.1%) patients developed cardiovascular complications. Overall, 29 (8.6%) patients developed late pulmonary toxicities. The cumulative number of chronic viral infections was 13 (3.9%). Conclusions Long-term survivors of HL need to be properly followed up not only for disease control but also for evaluation of possible late morbidities to minimize the consequences.


A key function of the brain is to provide a stable representation of an object's location in the world. In hearing, sound azimuth and elevation are encoded by neurons throughout the auditory system and auditory cortex is necessary for sound localization. However the coordinate frame in which neurons represent sound space remains undefined: classical spatial receptive fields in head-fixed subjects can be explained either by sensitivity to sound source location relative to the head (egocentric) or relative to the world (allocentric encoding). This coordinate frame ambiguity can be resolved by studying freely moving subjects and here we recorded spatial receptive fields in auditory cortex freely moving ferrets. We found two distinct populations of neurons: While the majority (∼80%) of spatially tuned neurons represented sound source location relative to the head, we provide novel evidence for a group of neurons in which space was represented in an allocentric world-centered coordinate frame. We also use our ability to measure spatial tuning in moving subjects to explore the influence of sound source distance and speed of head movements on auditory cortical activity and spatial tuning. Modulation depth of spatial tuning increased with distance for egocentric but not allocentric units, whereas for both populations modulation was stronger at faster movement speeds. Our findings argue that auditory cortex is involved in the representation of both sound source location relative to ourselves and sound location in the world independent of our own position.


The aim of this study is to determine the total amount of Staphylococcus aureus in a traditional sausage (urutan) sold in Denpasar traditional market in Bali. Sausage samples are taken from four areas in Denpasar (North Denpasar, East Denpasar, West Denpasar, and South Denpasar). From each area, three traditional markets are selected and from each market 2 merchants are chosen. The calculation of the number of Staphylococcus aureus is done by platting method and by pour plate method. The results show that the highest number of Staphylococcus aureus belongs to the North Denpasar region in the mount of 241,067 CFU/g while the lowest belongs to the region of West Denpasar with 71,233 CFU/g. These two results are significantly different with one another (P<0,05). The maximum limit of microbial contamination in processed meats (sausages) for Staphylococcus aureus based on Indonesian National Standard (SNI) is equal to 102 CFU / g. Based on the testing that has been done, all urutan contamination by the Staphylococcus aureus in Denpasar traditional market, has exceeded the threshold amount of SNI. Keywords : Traditional Sausages (urutan), Staphylococcus aureus


The purpose of this study was to examine the association between perceived and actual movement skill competence among primary school children in Hong Kong. Participants were 568 primary (P) school children (229 boys, 339 girls; Mage = 9.3 years, SD = 1.7). Children's perceived skill competence was assessed using an identical format to that of Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children in the same 12 fundamental movement skills (FMS) objectively measured. The actual locomotor and object control skills were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development (2nd edition). Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the association between children's perceived and actual movement skill competence separately for lower (P1–P3) and upper (P4–P6) grades. There was no association between students' perceptions and actual FMS scores. MANCOVA results indicated that children in upper grades had significantly lower skill perceptions than their younger counterparts. Overall, boys had higher perceptions of object control skill than girls did. The findings indicate that many primary school children have inaccurate perceptions of their FMS competence. These misperceptions may lead to low self-confidence and to gradually opting out of sport and physical activity.


The author provides a perspective of the nature and scientific characterization of the unique plasmas occurring in the various modes of thermionic converter operation associated with different application requirements. The basic plasma types associated with various modes of converter operation are described, with emphasis on identification and semi-quantitative characterization of the dominant physical processes and utility of each plasma type. Their characteristic advantages are identified with particular applications. The author is concerned primarily with the physics of the various types of plasma employed to conform to the constraints of particular options and applications. >


The rules concerning the inconsistency of Commonwealth and territory laws have been little explored and largely neglected. They rose to recent prominence in the challenge to the validity of the ACT's same-sex marriage laws. The ACT claimed that even if the Commonwealth's Marriage Act was intended to cover the field, the ACT's same-sex marriage law could still operate concurrently with it, because of the different application of inconsistency rules in the ACT. This article considers how inconsistency rules operate in the different territories, what was intended by the ACT inconsistency provision, how the High Court determined the issue, and whether a better explanation can be given for the outcome.


W/Cu functionally gradient materials (FGMs) are fabricated by a novel process—multi-billet extrusion (MBE). Different W/Cu superfine powders made by mechanical alloying (MA) are used to improve the sinterability of W/Cu compacts. Good quality of three-layer W/Cu extrudes are obtained after confirming the extrusion parameters and the type and the content of binder during extrusion process. The green products are pressureless sintered at the temperature range of 1100-1300 oC for 1 h. W/Cu FGMs with relatively high density and high homogeneous microstructure are attained after sintering at 1200 oC for 1 h. The mechanisms for the enhance of sinterability and improvement of density of the mechanical alloyed (MAed) W-Cu powder products have been discussed. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope are used to identify and observe phase constitution and microstructure, respectively.


[1] Khao Lak, SW Thailand was severely affected by the tsunami on 26 December 2004. Here we present reconstructions of its coastal impact in this area. These are based on (1) eyewitness reports alone and (2) eyewitness reports supported by videos and photos of the tsunami and the damage it caused, field measurements, and satellite imagery. On the basis of eyewitness reports, we estimated that the sea began retreating at 1000 local time (LT) and, based also on photos, that the tsunami arrived at 1026–1029 LT. On the basis of videos of the tsunami, we estimated an offshore wave direction of 083 ± 3° and on the basis of the paths by which eyewitnesses were carried, we estimated an onshore direction of 088 ± 6°. On the basis of videos, we calculated that the velocity of the wavefront on its final approach was 33 ± 4 km/h. We obtained tsunami heights of 7.3 ± 0.8 m (relative to ground level) on the basis of eyewitness reports and 8.0 ± 0.6 m (relative to mean sea level) on the basis of field and photographic data. On the basis of eyewitness reports and photos, we concluded that Khao Lak experienced at least two main waves with a period >40 min. From eyewitness reports and satellite imagery, we measured maximum inundation ≤0.5 km in the southern part of the area, which is confined by a steeply sloping hinterland, and ≤1.5 km in the more gently sloping northern part. Comparison between these reconstructions supports the reliability of eyewitness reports as a source of quantitative data, and comparison with the numerical simulation by Ioualalen et al. (2007) supports the validity of the simulation.


Sir. — AJDC recently published two commentaries by me concerning the educational goals (vs service needs) of resident rotations in the neonatal intensive care unit 1 and the implications of an 80-hour workweek for pediatric residents. 2 In these pieces, I reflected on the potential impact of these issues on the educational curricula of pediatric postgraduate programs. Now, after several months of "lively discussion," not only in AJDC , but with residents and faculty at my own institution, it is appropriate now for me to present some additional thoughts and "closing arguments." Concerns that excess workloads result in overstressed physicians and ensuring that residents go home to sleep after a rigorous night on call are important as we design optimal residency educational curricula. However, dwelling on these topics at the expense of the learning process may sidestep some of the more pressing issues about postgraduate residency training. The long working hours


The processes that lead to the selection of information for additional processing, which characterizes attention, depend upon previous experiences and expectancies generated in the light of stored past experiences regularities and plans for action. It is proposed that conceptual association between memory and attention brings advantages for explaining a diversity of attentional phenomena and allow to generate testable predictions relating past experiences and performance in tests for attention. A model is presented relating the trained neural network (memories) and attention during performance of behavioral tasks.


This article investigates how prominent preachers within Sweden's most active puritan Salafi group, Islam.nu, relate to COVID-19. The article analyzes material published online between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2020, which is herein divided into three categories: rhetorical responses, social responses, and theological responses. Salafism is often presented in academic literature and by the media as a current that is at odds with the majority society. The material analyzed shows that the Salafi group upon which this article focuses can rhetorically criticize certain expressions in the majority culture while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of heeding the recommendations of the Swedish authorities. Islam is presented both as an alternative and as a complement. The material also shows how the strong emphasis on proselytizing that is typical for Islam.nu is also apparent in relation to COVID-19.


With funding provided by the Oak Foundation, we have been investigating how companies developing connected toys and devices for use by children and families in the home are managing the opportunities and risks that arise. Our research recognises that operating in this sector presents businesses with some particular challenges around issues such as data privacy, device security and gathering of parental consent. Through our findings, we seek to develop policy recommendations and research insights that might better support both responsible business practice and safe, empowering use for children. We argue that safety advice for families and children needs to be updated to incorporate the array of data-related risks that arise through use of such devices. More speculatively, we also suggest that we should expand our understanding of wellbeing in the digital age to encompass the broader societal implications of relying ever more heavily on abstract data collected about children (the 'algorithmic child') rather than judgements formed through embodied relationships with children.


The β-thalassemias are caused by more than 200 mutations that reduce or abolish β-globin production. The severity of the resulting anemia can lead to lifelong transfusion dependency. A genetic treatment based on globin gene transfer would require that transgene expression be erythroid specific, elevated, and sustained over time. We report here that long-term synthesis of chimeric hemoglobin (muα2:huβ 2 A ) could be achieved in mice with β-thalassemia intermedia following engraftment with bone marrow cells transduced with a lentiviral vector encoding the human β-globin gene. In the absence of any posttransduction selection, the treated chimeras exhibit durably increased hemoglobin levels without diminution over 40 weeks. Ineffective erythropoiesis and extramedullary hematopoiesis (EMH) regress, as reflected by normalization of spleen size, architecture, hematopoietic colony formation, and disappearance of liver EMH. These findings establish that a sustained increase of 3 to 4 g/dL hemoglobin is sufficient to correct ineffective erythropoiesis. Hepatic iron accumulation is markedly decreased in 1-year-old chimeras, indicating persistent protection from secondary organ damage. These results demonstrate for the first time that viral-mediated globin gene transfer in hematopoietic stem cells effectively treats a severe hemoglobin disorder.


We report the electrical studies of nanocomposites of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) and Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF).The MWCNTs were synthesized by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method. Solvent evaporation method is used to prepare MWCNT-PVDF composite films. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to study structure and morphology of the composites. The temperature dependant conductivity measurements for the nanocomposites were performedusing the well established four probe method.


Current breakthroughs in green nanotechnology are capable of transforming many of the existing processes and products that enhance environmental quality, reduce pollution, and conserve natural and non-renewable resources. Successful use of metal nanoparticles and nanocomposites in various catalytic applications, electronics, biology and biomedical applications, material science, physics, environmental remediation and interdisciplinary fields as well as their toxicity essentially depends on the structural features such as size, shape, composition and the surface chemistry of nanomaterials. Moreover, to prolong the life span of metal nanoparticles and avoid undesired effects such as aggregation in aqueous solutions and organic solvents, to prevent contamination of the environment as well as to reuse and recycle nanoparticles, it is vital to select stabilizing agents and functionalization pathways that are environmentally friendly, non toxic and easy to implement. In recent years, stabilization and surface functionalization of metal nanoparticles became 'greener' to the extent that biocompatible stabilizing agents, e.g. biodegradable polymers and enzymes among others were introduced. These agents were able to produce a great variety of extremely stable spherical-, rod- or flower-shaped metal nanoparticles that opened up vast opportunities for their utilization and potential mass production. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art in the use of biocompatible and biodegradable homo- and copolymers as well as enzymes for the production of stable, environmentally benign, selective and active metal nanoparticles for desired applications.


Determination of the severity of rock breakdown due to experimental weathering is strongly influenced by the properties quantified. Traditionally, percentage weight loss has been used to quantify breakdown but this method does not reflect in situ breakdown, nor hidden, internal breakdown which may occur at the microscale. In this paper, results of some experimental rock weathering studies are presented to illustrate the relative merits associated with a range of different methods for quantifying rock breakdown. A range of sedimentary rocks were subjected to accelerated freezing and thawing, salt weathering and wetting and drying tests. The amount of deterioration was measured using techniques selected to provide insight into different facets of rock breakdown. For instance, percentage weight loss was measured to indicate the extent of material detachment; change in fracture density was measured to indicate visible, in situ weakening and fracturing; and fracture porosity (based on change in ultrasonic velocity) was calculated to indicate change in void space induced by weathering. Percentage change in Young's dynamic modulus was also recorded to indicate changes in elastic and mechanical properties. The results show that in some cases there is good agreement between different methods, in terms of the relative magnitude of breakdown and temporal trends, while in other cases there is little or no agreement. For cases in which there is good agreement between methods, it can be inferred that a range of breakdown processes are operating and that the quantification of breakdown is therefore independent of the method used. However, the converse is true for rocks where there is poor agreement between methods. For these, it can be inferred that a much narrower range of breakdown processes are operating and that the results of quantification of breakdown are therefore dependent on the method used. This may bring into question the validity of breakdown assessments for some rocks where the results are based on a single measurement method. The paper includes a description of the theoretical basis of the measurement methods listed. Selected results from experimental weathering are used to illustrate their relative merits. It is concluded that rock weathering studies would benefit from a more holistic approach to the quantification of breakdown which utilises several complementary indicators.


An indispensable resource on the Treaty of Versailles, one of the most influential and controversial documents in history, this book explains how the treaty tried to solve the complex issues that emerged from the destruction of World War I. This carefully curated primary source collection includes roughly 60 documents related to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. By collecting all of the most significant documents in one volume, it allows readers to hear the original arguments surrounding the treaty and to explore the voices of the people involved at the Paris Peace Conference. Moreover, it allows readers to engage with the documents so as to better understand the complex motivations and issues coming out of World War I and highlights the differences between the victors and identifies the problems many countries had with the treaty before it was even signed.
 The documents are organized in chronological order, providing a blueprint to help students to understand all of the significant events that led to the treaty, as well as the vast repercussions of the treaty itself. In addition to the Treaty of Versailles itself, documents include such significant primary sources as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and Germany's response to the treaty.


The relevance of environmental issues for financial reporting and financial auditing is a matter of concern for many individual accountants and auditors, and for professional bodies and regulatory agencies in the UK and elsewhere. This paper reports on a large scale survey of audit practitioners in the UK which was part of a project funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The questionnaire investigated auditors' experience of the issues and any actions that they may have taken in response to them. The survey also sought opinions about (1) the need for professional guidance and regulation in the fields of financial accounting and auditing and (2) a possible wider role for the financial auditor in the verification of environmental reports. Two quite distinct populations were surveyed: half the questionnaires were sent to offices of 'large' firms (drawn from the approximate top 100 in terms of fee income), and half were sent to a random sample of other firms listed in the ICAEW directory. These groups have been further subdivided for parts of the analysis and firm size was found to be significantly related to responses in some, though not all, areas. In particular, the results suggest that some firms may be at risk of giving insufficient attention to the financial implications of environmental issues. A clear majority of respondents thought that the environmental awareness of auditors needed to be raised but opinions were more evenly divided on the need for regulation.


We describe a robust manufacturing process for single-mode photonic crystal (PhC) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Various PhC designs are investigated to determine endlessly single-mode designs, whereby the same PhC design yields single-mode operation for three different wavelengths (780, 850, and 980 nm). The fabrication of the PhC pattern is based on a self-aligned optical lithography process. The fabrication process results in VCSELs with a maximum output power greater than 1 mW under continuous-wave (CW) operation with side-mode suppression ratio greater than 35 dB. We also show microfluidic laser structures that are enabled by our fabrication process, which integrate fluid channels into VCSELs. Optical and electrical properties of these microfluidic VCSELs are investigated with and without fluids present under CW and pulsed operation. A shift of the lasing wavelength is found with fluid insertion.


ABSTRACT Several studies have reported a relationship between governments' behaviour in the EU Council and public opinion. However, doubts remain about which mechanisms drive this relationship. We argue that governments align their behaviour with public opinion to forestall future electoral sanctions (rational anticipation). To test this, we deduce hitherto untested observable implications of rational anticipation which suggest that governments' responsiveness to public opinion depends on national-level electoral competitiveness. Using DEU modules I-III and an original empirical measure of electoral competitiveness, we ascertain whether governments adjust their responsiveness as: (1) the expected time period to upcoming elections decreases, and (2) the probability of losing their position in the party system in the next election changes. Our results provide evidence that government parties rationally anticipate risks related to their position in the party system but not to early elections. These findings have implications for our understanding of representation in the Council.


A statistical method for predicting the annual cumulative probability distribution for the magnetic field of a set of power transmission lines is presented. This is necessary because of both random and more predictable variations of current on the lines. Also described is a simple method for calculating the currents induced on and magnetic fields of a series impedance loaded loop which is inductively coupled to the power lines. A program (MAGFLD 2.0) has been written to incorporate these methods and has been validated theoretically and experimentally by comparison to other programs and long term measured transmission line data respectively. >


The wide application on fields of designing and NC programming based on 3D model of part not only provide the supporting for applying 3D based process planning, but also raise the challenge for the design capability of 3D based process planning. The 3D based process is not just replacing 3D process drawing with 3D model, it is concerned with schemas of designing, managing information applying of process. This paper presents a novel architecture of modeling process information in 3D scene, the 3D based architecture proposed manages process information on the base of geometries and serial changes, which reflect machining operations applied to part, of geometry of part from raw material to final part and comprises such three sub-modules as manufacturing features, 3D model based processes and manufacturing resources. A methodology is exploited aiming at reducing overload of 3D modeling for process planner and keeping the consistency among 3D working procedure models when inevitable process change occurred, then a related algorithm is detailed in which the process decision information retrieved from the technician is transformed automatically to geometrical information to generate 3D working procedure model. Several typical applying of 3D based process consisting of Recognition and analysis of technology dimension chain based on 3D serial model, NC programming for CMM and analysis of feasibility of process are discussed and a prototype is demonstrated to verifying validity of the architecture and the methodology.


The French mussel industry produces around 60,000 metric tons on a yearly basis using two common species: Mytilus edulis, which is widely distrib uted along the Atlantic coastline, and Mytilus galloprovincialis, distributed mainly on Mediterranean shores. This production represents only halfofthe yearly consumption of mussels in France, leading to large imports from Spain and the Netherlands. Most imports occur between September and March, when the Atlantic production is reduced becau se oflow meat qual ity due to spawning events. Although a public mussel fishery still exists, most production is based upon 3 culture techniques: on-bottom culture, longline and suspended culture, and bouchot-type culture, with the latter being de veloped in the l3 lh century. Annual landings from the public fishery are highly variable because of irregular spat recruitment. Presently, more than 1600 km of bouchots are distributed along the coastline, yielding around 55,000 t ofmussels. On-bottom culture, a traditional activity, is limited and yields around 3000 t. Harvests from longline culture have significantly in creased in the last 10 years, showing various degrees of success depending on the geographic location. This technique allows development offshore, far away from any pollutant source. Suspended culture has been success fully used to compensate for the irregular spat settlement within the intertidal area, as well as to expand marketing activity and increase growth rates. ln the near future, the mussel industry will likely face several chal lenges, including increased sanitary regulations at the French and EU levels. This could result in further off-shore development, but might lead to space conflicts with other users (e.g., tourism, fisheries). To address that matter, Integratcd Coastal Zonc Management plans (ICZM) arc currently under de velopment in several Atlantic traditional rearing areas. The issues of prod uct quality and labelling, such as geographic identification for marketing purposes, arc among thc top priorities for the mussel industry.


Porges' polyvagal theory (1991) proposes that the activity of the vagal nerve modulates moment-by-moment changes in adaptive behavior during stress. However, most work, including research with infants, has only examined vagal changes at low temporal resolutions, averaging 30+ s across phases of structured stressor paradigms. Thus, the true timescale of vagal regulation-and the extent to which it can be observed during unprompted crying-is unknown. The current study utilized a recently validated method to calculate respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) dynamically at a high resolution of 5 Hz (updated every 200 ms) in a home-based infant study. Using an event-related analysis, we calculated the relative change in RSA around the onset of naturally occurring unprompted instances of n = 41 infants' 180 crying events. As predicted, RSA significantly decreased after the onset of crying compared to non-crying chance changes in RSA. Decreasing trends in RSA were driven by infants with higher pre-cry RSA values, infants rated lower in Negative Affectivity, and those rated both high and low in Orienting by their mothers. Our results display the timescale of RSA in spontaneous and naturalistic episodes of infant crying and that these dynamic RSA patterns are aligned with real-time levels of RSA and also caregiver-reported temperament.


– A low‐cost, open source, self‐replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) has been developed, which greatly expands the potential user base of rapid prototypers. The operating cost of the RepRap can be further reduced using waste polymers as feedstock. Centralized recycling of polymers is often uneconomic and energy intensive due to transportation embodied energy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept for high‐value recycling of waste polymers at distributed creation sites., – Previous designs of waste plastic extruders (also known as RecycleBots) were evaluated using a weighted evaluation matrix. An updated design was completed and the description and analysis of the design is presented including component summary, testing procedures, a basic life cycle analysis and extrusion results. The filament was tested for consistency of density and diameter while quantifying electricity consumption., – Filament was successfully extruded at an average rate of 90 mm/min and used to print parts. The filament averaged 2.805 mm diameter with 87 per cent of samples between 2.540 mm and 3.081 mm. The average mass was 0.564 g/100 mm length. Energy use was 0.06 kWh/m., – The success of the RecycleBot further reduces RepRap operating costs, which enables distributed in‐home, value added, plastic recycling. This has implications for municipal waste management programs, as in‐home recycling could reduce cost and greenhouse gas emissions associated with waste collection and transportation, as well as the environmental impact of manufacturing custom plastic parts., – This paper reports on the first technical evaluation of a feedstock filament for the RepRap from waste plastic material made in a distributed recycling device.


Abstract. During the second half of 2002, from late June to mid December, the University of Northampton Radon Research Group operated two continuous hourly-sampling radon detectors 2.25 km apart in the English East Midlands. This period included the Dudley earthquake (ML = 5, 22 September 2002) and also a smaller earthquake in the English Channel (ML = 3, 26 August 2002). Rolling/sliding windowed cross-correlation of the paired radon time-series revealed periods of simultaneous similar radon anomalies which occurred at the time of these earthquakes but at no other times during the overall radon monitoring period. Standardising the radon data in terms of probability of magnitude, analogous to the Standardised Precipitation Indices (SPIs) used in drought modelling, which effectively equalises different non-linear responses, reveals that the dissimilar relative magnitudes of the anomalies are in fact closely equiprobabilistic. Such methods could help in identifying anomalous signals in radon – and other – time-series and in evaluating their statistical significance in terms of earthquake precursory behaviour.


Deep Learning and back-propagation has been successfully used to perform centralized training with communication protocols among multiple agents in a cooperative environment. In this paper we present techniques for centralized training of Multi-Agent (Deep) Reinforcement Learning (MARL) using the model-free Deep Q-Network as the baseline model and message sharing between agents. We present a novel, scalable, centralized MARL training technique, which separates the message learning module from the policy module. The separation of these modules helps in faster convergence in complex domains like autonomous driving simulators. A second contribution uses the centrally trained model to bootstrap training of distributed, independent, cooperative agent policies for execution and thus addresses the challenges of noise and communication bottlenecks in real-time communication channels. This paper theoretically and empirically compares our centralized training algorithms to current research in the field of MARL. We also present and release a new OpenAI-Gym environment which can be used for multi-agent research as it simulates multiple autonomous cars driving cooperatively on a highway.