A consecutive series of 235 total knee arthroplasties using the PFC system was followed prospectively for at least ten years in 186 patients. The operation was for osteoarthritis in 150 knees, for rheumatoid arthritis in 83, and for Paget's disease and femoral osteonecrosis in one knee each. At the latest review 56 patients had died, five were too ill to assess and three could not be traced. The PFC knee replacement utilised was a non-conforming posterior-cruciate-retaining prosthesis with a polyethylene insert which is flat in the sagittal plane. The patella was resurfaced using a metal-backed component in 170 cases, but later in the series we used an all-polyethylene component in 22 knees; 43 patellae were not resurfaced. The survival without need for reoperation for any reason was 90% at ten years. Nineteen revisions were component-related due to failure of nine metal-backed patellae, nine polyethylene inserts, and one unresurfaced patella; two reoperations were for synovectomy (one for recurrent haemarthrosis and one for recurrent rheumatoid synovitis) and three were for metastatic joint infection. There were no revisions for aseptic loosening of femoral or tibial components, or the all-polyethylene patellar replacement. The PFC system provides good and predictable results in tricompartmental arthritis of the knee. Loosening appeared to be negligible, but there were wear-related problems in 8%. The change from a metal-backed patella and an increase in the contact area of the tibial insert should provide further improvement by minimising wear.


This paper describes a 3D semantic scene segmentation with convolutional neural networks for unordered point clouds of autonomous robots. Euclidean coordinates and RGB color spaces are used as well as multi-scaling layers. An outlier removal is designed to optimize the classification rate. We tested our system on real scenes using an RGB-D camera installed on a mobile robot. Additionally, we did comparison experiments on three different scene benchmarks. Compared to state-of-the-art point cloud semantic scene segmentation networks, our network produces better quality of segmentation results and achieves higher training and testing accuracies, as well as average intersection over union (IoU) and overall accuracy.


Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesizes telomeric DNA onto chromosomal ends. Its activity has been reported to be a novel diagnostic marker of malignant potential. However, no study has investigated the diagnostic importance of the expressions of human telomerase mRNA component (hTERC) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA in effusion cytology. We investigated the expressions of hTERC and hTERT using in situ hybridization in 20 malignant cytologic specimens from 20 patients with adenocarcinomas disseminating into the pleura or peritoneum, and 16 benign cytologic specimens in pleural or peritoneal fluid (including reactive mesothelial cells) from 16 patients with non‐neoplastic diseases. Expressions of hTERC and hTERT mRNA were detected in 95% and 90% of the 20 malignant cytology specimens, respectively, and were apparent within the cytoplasm of malignant cells. However, no expression was detected in reactive mesothelial cells in the 16 benign cytologic specimens. The expressions of hTERC and hTERT mRNA would appear to be a useful addition to cytology examination for diagnosis based on effusion cytology. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2003;29:212–216. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The project to map the human genetic codes has been widely hailed as a monumental achievement with vast medical promise. Yet the project is also fraught with ambiguities and, Susan Thistlethwaite claims, great potential dangers to society. This important book combines a basic primer on genetic research with ethical reflection by an interdisciplinary team on key questions and a deeper look, in light of such research, at what it means to be human. Part 1 of the book places genetic research in historical perspective, including the historical prickliness between science and religion. It shows how we have gotten from Gregor Mendel's experiments with peas to today's Human Genome Project. Part 2 explores ethical issues posed by genetic testing, screening, and counseling; gene therapy; stem-cell research; dangers of misuse through genetic identification; and engineering of particular populations (violent people, ethnic groups, gays and lesbians). Part 3 explores the possibilities of reconstruing human identity for the coming "biological age." Contributors include Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Laurel Schneider, Lainie Ross, Theodore W. Jennings Jr., Ken Stone, and Lee Butler.


The EU‐funded project UAN (Underwater Acoustic Network) was aimed at conceiving, developing, and testing at sea an innovative and operational concept for integrating underwater and above‐water sensors in a unique communication system to protect offshore and coastline critical infrastructures. This work gives details on the underwater part of the project. It introduces a set of original security features and gives details on the integration of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as mobile nodes of the network and as surveillance assets, acoustically controlled by the command and control center to respond against intrusions. Field results are given of the final UAN project sea trial, UAN11, held in May 2011 in Norway. During the experimental activities, a UAN composed of four fixed nodes, two AUVs, and one mobile node mounted on the supporting research vessel was operated continuously and integrated into a global protection system. In this article, the communication performance of the network is reported in terms of round‐trip time, packet loss, and average delivery ratio. The major results of the experiment can be thus summarized: the implemented network structure was successful in continuously operating over five days with nodes seamlessly entering and exiting the network; the performance of the network varied greatly with fluctuations in the acoustic channel; the addition of security features induced a minor degradation in network performance with respect to channel variation; the AUVs were successfully controlled from a remote station through acoustic signals routed by the network. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The zinc finger structure where a Zn2+ ion binds to 4 cysteine or histidine amino acids in a tetrahedral structure is very common motif of nucleic acid binding proteins. The corresponding interaction model is present in 3% of the genes of human genome. As a result, zinc finger has been shown to be extremely useful in various therapeutic and research capacities, as well as in biotechnology. In stable configuration, the cysteine amino acids are deprotonated and become negatively charged. This means the Zn2+ ion is overscreened by 4 cysteine charges (overcharged). It is question of whether this overcharged configuration is also stable when such negatively charged zinc finger binds to negatively charged DNA molecule. Using all atom molecular dynamics simulation up to microsecond range of an androgen receptor protein dimer, we investigate how the deprotonated state of cysteine influences its structure, dynamics, and function in binding o DNA molecules. Our results show that the deprotonated state of cysteine residues are essential for mechanical stabilization of the functional, folded conformation. Not only this state stabilizes the protein structure, it also stabilizes the protein-DNA binding complex. The differences in structural and energetic properties of the two (sequence-identical) monomers are also investigated showing the strong influence of DNA on the structure of zinc fingers upon complexation. Our result has potential impact on better molecular understanding of one of the most common classes of zinc fingers


This paper examines the effects of deterrent tax policies on tax compliance in Nigeria. Following the introduction, we reviewed the existing tax policies and reforms in Nigeria. This is followed by a discussion of the various compliance strategies prescribed in the literature from where we developed our hypotheses. The method of data analysis used in the study is the ordinary least square (OLS) regression technique. This method was adopted because of its properties of consistency, unbiasedness and efficiency. The OLS regression technique was estimated using a computer software (Microfit 4.1). It was observed that the existing deterrent tax policies in Nigeria are inadequate and have not helped to promote tax compliance in the country. It was also discovered that fostering voluntary compliance and enhancing taxpayer's morale will enhance tax compliance. We recommend that the Nigerian revenue authorities should strive to adopt the approach that will encourage voluntary compliance and prescribe appropriate sanctions for defaulters.


Many research results show that students often highlight "mixed-type" reasoning when tackling problematic situations and problems. This reasoning is based on the simultaneous use of common-sense and mere descriptions of facts, perceived as sufficient to build an "explanation" of observed or proposed situations and problems. This fact can be interpreted as a lack of coherence. In this paper, we study the coherence of responses that a sample of undergraduate chemical engineering student give when they are asked to face real-life situations, to create explanations, and to use models in different contexts. We administered open-ended questionnaires before and after a twenty-hour Inquiry-Based workshop related to phenomena activated by a thermal overcoming of a potential barrier. Based on the Physics Education Research literature on student understanding of relevant physics contents, the student responses are analysed by using researcher-generated categories of reasoning and their coherence is studied. Finally, we discuss some implications of the results to improve the development of students' explicative skills.


The interpolation of correspondences (EpicFlow) was widely used for optical flow estimation in most-recent works. It has the advantage of edge-preserving and efficiency. However, it is vulnerable to input matching noise, which is inevitable in modern matching techniques. In this paper, we present a Robust Interpolation method of Correspondences (called RicFlow) to overcome the weakness. First, the scene is over-segmented into superpixels to revitalize an early idea of piecewise flow model. Then, each model is estimated robustly from its support neighbors based on a graph constructed on superpixels. We propose a propagation mechanism among the pieces in the estimation of models. The propagation of models is significantly more efficient than the independent estimation of each model, yet retains the accuracy. Extensive experiments on three public datasets demonstrate that RicFlow is more robust than EpicFlow, and it outperforms state-of-the-art methods.


In May 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in Oracle America v. Google ruled that Google infringed Oracle's copyright when Google replicated the Java application program interface in the Android application program interface. In July 2015, the Supreme Court rejected Google's petition for a writ of certiorari, and the case was remanded to the district court, which now will determine whether Google's actions were permitted under the fair use doctrine.A final determination that Google infringed Oracle's copyrights could have a negative impact on the development of interoperable systems. It could signal the extension of copyright protection to program elements necessary for interoperability. This would allow a company that develops a platform that becomes an industry standard to use copyright law to control the ability of other companies to develop their own programs that attach to or compete with that platform. At the same time, Oracle and other large software companies have argued that the decision ensures that software companies receive a return on their investment in the development of software, which in turn will incentivize further innovative activity. This article describes the facts and the holdings of the trial court in favor of Google. It then reviews the CAFC decision reversing the trial court. The article analyzes the decision, identifying several troubling legal conclusions. Finally, the article explores the arguments made before the Supreme Court.


An analysis of ocean surface temperature records show that low frequency changes of tropical Pacific temperature lead global surface air temperature changes by about 4 years. Anomalies of tropical Pacific surface temperature are in turn preceded by subsurface temperature anomalies in the southern tropical Pacific by approximately 7 years. The results suggest that much of the decade to decade variations in global air temperature may be attributed to tropical Pacific decadal variability. The results also suggest that subsurface temperature anomalies in the southern tropical Pacific can be used as a predictor for decadal variations of global surface air temperature. Since the southern tropical Pacific temperature shows a distinct cooling over the last 8 years, the possibility exists that the warming trend in global surface air temperature observed since the late 1970's may soon weaken.


Experiment design is to find the main influence factors through analysis of initial experiment data, which is an important foundation to further experiment .This paper studies a kind of biodegradable foam packaging material. It is composed of starch and plant fiber and PVA as raw materials by molding. Using of uniform experimental design method obtains the experimental program. And applying SAS software, selecting stepwise linear regression method analyzes on the experiment results. Analysis results indicate that the contents of starch, fiber and PVA have significant influence to material tensile strength and establish the regression model. This research lays the foundation and provides the theories basis for further studies.


This paper considers the coupled formation control of three mobile agents moving in the plane. Each agent has only local inter-agent bearing knowledge and is required to maintain a specified angular separation relative to its neighbors. The problem considered in this paper differs from similar problems in the literature since no inter-agent distance measurements are employed and the desired formation is specified entirely by the internal triangle angles. Each agent's control law is distributed and based only on its locally measured bearings. A convergence result is established which guarantees global convergence of the formation to the desired formation shape.


Collaborative applications including email, chat, file-sharing networks, blogs, and gaming are under constant threat of automated programs that are gaining access to, attacking, degrading, or otherwise disrupting the intended communications and interactions. Thus, an important issue in collaborative systems security is how to verify that a user is a human, and not a computer attempting to access the system for malicious purposes. We propose and discuss several AI-hard examples from perception and cognition that may be useful for distinguishing between human-level intelligence and artificial intelligence.


For two decades, Rosetta has consistently been at the forefront of protein structure
prediction. While it has become a very large package comprising programs, scripts, and tools, for
different types of macromolecular modelling such as ligand docking, protein-protein docking,
protein design, and loop modelling, it started as the implementation of an algorithm for ab initio
protein structure prediction. The term 'Rosetta' appeared for the first time twenty years ago in the
literature to describe that algorithm and its contribution to the third edition of the community wide
Critical Assessment of techniques for protein Structure Prediction (CASP3). Similar to the Rosetta
stone that allowed deciphering the ancient Egyptian civilisation, David Baker and his co-workers
have been contributing to deciphering 'the second half of the genetic code'. Although the focus of
Baker's team has expended to de novo protein design in the past few years, Rosetta's 'fame' is
associated with its fragment-assembly protein structure prediction approach. Following a
presentation of the main concepts underpinning its foundation, especially sequence-structure
correlation and usage of fragments, we review the main stages of its developments and highlight
the milestones it has achieved in terms of protein structure prediction, particularly in CASP.


A phosphorylated form of alpha-Gi-2 (the alpha-subunit of Gi-2), immunoprecipitated from hepatocytes under basal conditions, migrated as a single species of pI approximately 5.7, the labelling of which increased approximately 2-fold in cells challenged with either vasopressin or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA); agents which activate protein kinase C. In contrast, treatment of hepatocytes with 8-bromo-cyclic AMP produced a more acidic species of phosphorylated alpha-Gi-2 having a pI of approximately 5.4 and whose labelling was increased approximately 3-fold. Trypsin digestion of labelled alpha-Gi-2 isolated from hepatocytes under basal conditions identified, on two-dimensional peptide analyses, three positively charged phosphoserine-containing peptides (C1, C2 and C3), with only peptides C1 and C2 being evident upon less extensive digestion with trypsin. These are suggested to reflect a single site of phosphorylation, with proteolysis by trypsin being incomplete, and where C2 is larger than C1, which is larger than C3. An identical pattern of tryptic phosphopeptides was seen in hepatocytes treated with either vasopressin or PMA, although labelling of this group of peptides was increased by approximately 2-fold compared with the basal state. In contrast, treatment of hepatocytes with glucagon, 8-bromo-cyclic AMP or forskolin not only resulted in increased labelling of the 'basal' sites approximately 3-fold, but identified a novel positively charged tryptic phosphoserine-containing peptide (AN). All four tryptic peptides were susceptible to proteolysis by V8 protease. Treatment of labelled alpha-Gi-2 from basal and PMA-treated cells produced a pattern of peptides which was identical with those found when the tryptic phosphopeptide was treated with V8 protease. We tentatively suggest that, on alpha-Gi-2, Ser144 is phosphorylated through the action of protein kinase C and Ser207 is phosphorylated upon elevation of the intracellular concentrations of cyclic AMP.


In the Lao PDR 78% of the population are classified as rural and efforts to improve access to potable water and sanitation infrastructures are reaching limited areas, these inhabitants may be particularly affected by water quality-related hazards. The objective of this study was to complete a preliminary assessment of stream water quality, at the community-level, using a set of field indicators (i.e. oxygen content, total bacteriological flora and suspended load). Our findings concluded that the water quality is extremely variable depending on the location along the stream and the prevailing rainfall and water flow conditions. Changes in water quality were affected by an uncertain balance between potential self-cleaning processes in the stream environment and human pressure in the riparian zone (i.e. urbanization, riparian vegetation removal, wastewater discharges, stream flow extractions). Several interesting observations were noted that influence water quality: (i) high bacteria and turbidity levels were related to free ranging livestock roaming near the stream in isolated areas; (ii) very low oxygen content and high bacteriological contamination downstream of small remote villages due to low stream discharge and poor sanitation conditions; (iii) high bacteria levels along continuously urbanized reaches; (iv) low oxygen content following organic-rich wastewater inflows from a small agro-factory; (v) very high suspended load and bacteria levels during flood events due to soil erosion of steep cultivated hillslopes. Besides pollution related to these human activities we also noted "naturally" metal-rich stream water when crossing swampy areas fed by dysoxic groundwater. We propose a set of pro-poor recommendations to improve or maintain good stream water quality in the uplands and for environmentally friendly management of surface water resources.


Causal discovery from observational data has been intensely studied across fields of study. In this paper, we consider data involving irregular occurrences of various types of events over the timeline. We propose a suite of scores and related algorithms for estimating the cause-effect association between pairs of events from such large event datasets. In particular, we introduce a general framework and the use of conditional intensity rates to characterize pairwise associations between events. Discovering such potential causal relationships is critical in several domains, including health, politics and financial analysis. We conduct an experimental investigation with synthetic data and two real-world event datasets, where we evaluate and compare our proposed scores using assessments from human raters as ground truth. For a political event dataset involving interaction between actors, we show how performance could be enhanced by enforcing additional knowledge pertaining to actor identities.


Currently, the street tree resource survey using Mobile laser scanning (MLS) represents a hot spot around the world. Refined trunk extraction is an essential step for 3D reconstruction of street trees. However, due to scanning errors and the effects of occlusion by various types of features in the urban environment, street tree point cloud data processing has the problem of excessive noise. For the noise points that are difficult to remove using statistical methods in close proximity to the tree trunk, we propose an adaptive trunk extraction and denoising method for street trees based on an improved iForest (Isolation Forest) algorithm. Firstly, to extract the individual tree trunk points, the trunk and the crown are distinguished from the individual tree point cloud through point cloud slicing. Next, the iForest algorithm is improved by conducting automatic calculation of the contamination and further used to denoise the tree trunk point cloud. Finally, the method is validated with five datasets of different scenes. The results indicate that our method is robust and effective in extracting and denoising tree trunks. Compared with the traditional Statistical Outlier Removal (SOR) filter and Radius filter denoising methods, the denoising accuracy of the proposed method can be improved by approximately 30% for noise points close to tree trunks. Compared to iForest, the proposed method automatically calculates the contamination, improving the automation of the algorithm. Our method can provide more precise trunk point clouds for 3D reconstruction of street trees.


Background: Rapid advance of genome technologies accelerate the discovery of genetic basis of cardiomyopathy and heart failure and also enable system biology studies to pinpoint underlying mechanism. However, the limited throughput of mammalian models restricted the number of genes that can be studied in a particular lab. Adult zebrafish has been recently pursued as a new model with higher throughput. However, as a non-mammalian model, its conservation is not tested.

Objective: To assess the conservation of zebrafish for genetic studies of human dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) via transcriptome analysis of 51 known DCM-causative genes.

Methods and Results: By conducting RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis of larva and adult zebrafish, we identified genes with high expression level in the heart and fetal gene program using differential expression between embryonic and adult stages. We then searched zebrafish orthologues for 51 reported human DCM-causative or associated genes and identified zebrafish orthologues for 49 of them. While 30 genes have a single orthologue, 14 genes have two homologues and the remaining 5 genes have more than three. We then applied the transcriptome data to prioritize these homologues for the 19 DCM causative genes with more than one homologue. Based on the cardiac abundance and cardiac enrichment hypothesis, we are able to recommend a single zebrafish homologue of high priority for 12 out of 19 DCM genes, 2 zebrafish homologues of high priority for ACTC1. Interestingly, our expressional data suggested zebrafish othologues for human MYH6 and MYH7 , respectively. Similar to that in mammals, these two zebrafish othologues are oppositely expressed during zebrafish embryonic and adult stage.

Conclusions: Orthologues for the majority of DCM causative genes can be found in Zebrafish, supporting its usage as a conserved vertebrate model for studying DCM. The definition of cardiac transcriptome in zebrafish will facilitate the future system biology studies. This vertebrate model with higher throughput can be further leveraged to validate the novel variants identified from human patients, to understand underlying signaling pathways and to develop novel therapeutics.


In this invited talk at the "historical" session of PHOTON2005, I was asked to recount the history and the development, from its earliest days to the present, of the idea of photon colliders based on conversion of high energy electrons to high-energy photons at a future high-energy linear ee collider. Described in this talk are the general features and schemes of a photon collider, the evolution in understanding of what the parameters of a realistic photon collider are, possible solutions of various technical problems, the physics motivation, and the present status of photon collider development. For a more detailed description of the photon collider at the ILC and a discussion of the associated technical issues, please refer to my talks at PLC2005, the conference that immediately followed PHOTON2005 (to be published in Acta Phys. Pol. B as well).


Background/Aims: Eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG) is a rare disease characterized by prominent eosinophilic infiltration that may involve a variable depth of one or more gastrointestinal organs. We analyzed the largest number of patients with EG among the studies carried out at a single center in Korea. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, and radiologic features, management, and clinical outcome in 17 patients who were diagnosed as EG from January 1994 to Febuary 2008. Results: Median age was 36 (2-67 years). Two of the 17 patients had a history of allergy. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain and diarrhea. Fifteen patients (88.2%) had hypereosinophilia. The ESR was moderately raised in 6 out of 14 patients. Eleven patients (64.7%) had predominant involvement of the mucosa, 1 (5.9%) of muscularis, and 5 (29.4%) of subserosa. EGD revealed non-specific findings such as erythema and edema. Abdominal Computed tomography revealed gastrointestinal wall thickenings of the involved organ, and all of 5 cases of the subserosal type had ascites. Thirteen patients (76.5%) were improved by corticosteroid treatment. Among five patients who had been followed for more than one year (12-84 months), two experienced relapse after discontinuing corticosteroids. Conclusions: EG should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms even in the absence of peripheral eosinophilia and in non-specific endoscopic findings. (Korean J Gastroenterol 2010;55:361-367)


Abstract The crystal structure of Ba2F2(S6+O3S2-), a natural thiosulphate weathering product of old smelting slags at the Surrender Mill, Yorkshire, England, UK, has been solved to R1 = 0.88% for 399 unique [Fo > 4σ F] reflections and 0.91% for all 407 reflections. The compound is monoclinic, C2/m, a 15.3172(5), b 4.5898(1), c 4.6320(2) Å, β 101.449(1)º, V 319.17(2) Å3. The structure of Ba2F2(S6+O3S2-) consists of BaF2Ba layer fragments of the fluorite-type structure of frankdicksonite (BaF2) parallel to (100) alternating with layers of thiosulphate groups. The layer sequence in one unit cell is (S6+O3S2-)-BaF2Ba-(S6+O3S2-)-BaF2Ba. The structure resembles that of grandreefite, Pb2F2SO4.


Is David Lykken's theory of crime likely? Lykken proposed a model of antisocial behaviour based on the criminal's temperamental difficulties. Personality traits stressed by this model are impulsivity, fearlessness, and sensation seeking. The present study compares one sample taken from the general population with a sample of prison inmates on these traits. The results indicate that prison inmates score higher than the general population on sensation seeking and fearlessness, whereas their scores on impulsivity are lower. Some implications are discussed.


Net present value is the traditional approach to evaluate the financial viability of projects including large ones. Unfortunately, the NPV may mislead decision makers for two reasons. First, it does not take into consideration managerial flexibility which is the ability of decision-makers to react to upcoming information related to some uncertain events in a way that may change the project design and planning. Randomness based on standard deviation is usually utilized to accommodate such flexibility. Second, the NPV calculation relies on some fuzzy variables that are subject to imprecision or ambiguity such as the characteristics of the project cash flow and investment cost. The variability of these errors can also be represented in the volatility of the model. In such scenario, volatility would be randomness as well as fuzziness based. Researchers in the field propose to use project Investment and Project cost as fuzzy variables. We argue in this paper that both of these factors can be embedded in the randomness-based volatility factor. This paper investigates the use of the volatility factor as fuzzy parameter in a Real options approach to evaluate projects. Hence, the overall ambiguity would be represented in a combination of randomness as well as fuzziness to achieve acceptable evaluations.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of prudential regulation and monetary policies on the supply of credit as well as the influence of such policies on the aggregate investment through the credit channel in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach - – The empirical analysis is based on estimates through ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized method of moments (GMM), system of equations through GMM (system-GMM), and impulse response functions through vector autoregressive (VAR). Findings - – The results suggest that monetary policies and prudential regulation affect aggregate investment through the bank lending channel. With regards to elasticities, the findings indicate that the credit is very sensitive to variations in economic activity and, in turn, prudential regulation presents a stronger influence on credit than the basic interest rate and the reserve requirement rate. Moreover, the estimates suggest that aggregate investment is more sensitive to entrepreneurs' expectations and credit supply. Practical implications - – Aiming to reduce systemic risk in the economy, capital requirements may be increased in order to induce banks to a lower risk exposure by reducing the supply of loans. However, while this instrument strengthens the banking system, it can also lead the banking system to become less sensitive to monetary policy shocks, and also discourage aggregate demand through the influence that the credit exerts on investments. As a consequence, prudential regulation is an important tool because it acts on the balance between economic growth and low risk exposure of banks. Originality/value - – The paper provides useful insights to academicians, economists and policymakers who are interested in understanding the effects of monetary policies and prudential regulation on aggregate investment through the credit channel in an emerging economy under inflation targeting. Moreover, the paper develops a theoretical model in order to show the influence of different monetary policies, as well as the influence of prudential regulation on the supply of credit.


The health status of people is a precious commodity and central to economic, socio-political, and environmental dimensions of any country. Yet it is often the missing statistic in all general statistics, demographics, and presentations about the portrait of immigrants and natives. In this paper we are concerned with international migration and health outcomes in the host countries. Through a general literature review and examination of specific immigration countries, we provide insights into the Healthy Immigrant Paradox and the health assimilation of immigrants as we also elucidate selection and measurement challenges. While health is part of human capital, health assimilation is the mirror image of earnings assimilation. Namely, immigrants arrive with better health compared to natives and their health deteriorates with longer residence in the host country, converging to the health of natives or becoming even worse. A deeper understanding of immigrant health trajectories, and disparities with natives and other immigrants is of great value to societies and policymakers, who can design appropriate policy frameworks that address public health challenges, and prevent the health deterioration of immigrants.


DNA damage is a critical factor in the initiation of chemically induced toxicities (including cancer), and the repair of this damage represents the cell's first line of defense against the deleterious effects of these agents. The various mechanisms of DNA repair are reviewed briefly and the actions of the DNA repair protein O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase (ATase) are used to illustrate how DNA repair can protect cells against alkylating agent-induced toxicities, mutagenesis, clastogenesis, and carcinogenesis. The effectiveness of this repair protein can be measured based on its ability to deplete levels of its promutagenic substrate O6-methylguanine (O6-meG) in the DNA of cells. These studies reveal that the repair of O6-meG from DNA occurs heterogeneously, both intra- and intercellularly. Even in cells that repair O6-meG hyperefficiently, certain regions of chromatin DNA are repaired with difficulty, and in other regions they are not repaired at all; most likely this lack of repair is a result of the location of the lesion in the DNA sequence. When individual cells are compared within a tissue, some cells are clearly repair deficient, because the O6-meG can persist in DNA for many weeks, whereas in other cells, it is removed within a matter of hours. The role of these repair-deficient cells as targets for alkylating agent induced carcinogenesis is considered. The mechanisms of the homeostatic control of DNA repair function in mammalian cells are not yet well understood. Because there are now indications of the mechanisms by which the level of DNA damage may be sensed (and so influence the activity of the ATase repair protein), this is an important area for future study.


A study has been carried out on the relationship between the composition, poling condition and piezoelectric properties of thick film layers. Pastes based on lead‐titanate‐zirconate (PZT) powders, with either PbO or a lead‐alumina‐silicate glass frit as binder, were prepared. Microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties were analysed. Processing and poling conditions modify these properties; then a wide latitude of opportunities is offered in the choice of ferroelectric/piezoelectric characteristics of the layers used as sensing elements for sensors. A pressure sensor was realised where a circular diaphragm of alumina supports two piezoelectric layers obtained by screen printing and firing a PZT/PbO‐based ferroelectric paste. The design and the performance characteristics are described.


Despite the ubiquity of agents in the modern world, agency law does not have a coherent explanation or unified theory. The Restatement (Third) of Agency updates and attempts to explain the law, but its explanations are limited in scope and at times unpersuasive. Like other contemporary commentary on agency law, the Third Restatement draws from contract and tort theory, an approach which ignores the unique features of agency law. Agency law enables principals to act through agents; it also ensures that principals using agents do not thereby escape liability or other consequences of their choices. This paper develops a theory to fit agency law. The "costbenefit internalization theory" is based on the simple premise that the principal, who has chosen to conduct her business through an agent, must bear the foreseeable consequences of that choice. Conversely, as the bearer of the risks, the principal is entitled to receive the benefits created by the agency relationship. The cost-benefit internalization theory explains and illuminates virtually all agency law doctrine.


We present a model for prediction of pedogenic environments and soil properties based on energy input to the soil system. The model estimates rates of precipitation and net primary production (NPP) energy input using the Parameter-Regression Independent Slope Model (PRISM) climate data, and a parent material index (PMI). Soil order, soil C, and day data from the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) database were compared with rates of NPP and precipitation energy input for major geographic regions of the continental USA, including California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, North Dakota, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. Soil orders in all states show differences in total energy input (E im , kJ m -2 yr -1 ) and the percentage of E in from NPP (%E upp ) (e.g., Ultisols E in = 29915, %E npp = 49%; Mollisols E in = 5880, %E mpp = 90%). Using linear regression models, rates of NPP estimated (R 2 = 0.82***) trends in soil C content in western states, but failed to estimate soil C in other geographic areas. Parent material index adjusted energy flux estimated soil clay content for the majority (99.5%) of igneous parent materials in California and Oregon (R 2 = 0.67**), the only states with digital geologic data. The model underestimated clay content in steeply sloping Inceptisols and Andisols (0.5% of igneous land area). Results suggest that rates of NPP may be used to estimate soil C for climate regimes with steep environmental gradients. Landscape age and stability components might improve clay prediction in young and erosive landscapes. Modeled energy input provides a tool for estimating pedogenic environments, soil order, and soil properties. Energy input parameters may aid efforts to pre-map broad landscape units for soil survey.


The authors have investigated the optical signal transmission over the wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) fiber optic transmission systems (FOTS) that are offered as a model for the future design of backbone optical networks. The proposed model is fully characterized by the modulation formats used for the manipulation of optical signal freedom degrees and particular channel's bitrate. In this paper investigated mixed-WDM system complies to the following configuration scheme: [1st, 4th and 7th channels: NRZ-OOK, R= 10 or 40 Gbit/s] - [2nd, 5th and 8th channels: 2-POLSK, R= 10 or 40 Gbit/s] - [3rd, 6th and 9th channels: NRZ - DPSK, R= 10 or 40 Gbit/s]. This research revealed not only the optimal configuration of such FOTS that secures the lowest in system's channels detected signals bit-error rate but also the frequency plan for channels central wavelength that allows achieving the maximum allowable systems spectral efficiency. In addition, the maximum permissible transmission distance for the spectrally efficient configurations of mixed-WDM FOTS and the impact of nonlinear effects to optical signal transmission are evaluated.


Objective: The aim of this study was to elucidate the etiology and treatment of primary ovarian insufficiency, which is of unknown cause in 95% of the cases. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients aged 18-40 years who presented to Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology between June 2012 and January 2014 and were diagnosed as having primary ovarian insufficiency based on their clinical and endocrinologic data, and 30 healthy controls were included in this study. Results: No significant differences were found between patients with primary ovarian insufficiency and control subjects in demographic data and lipid profile levels, thyroid- stimulating hormone, prolactin, and glucose. However, the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, total antioxidant status, total oxidant status, and oxidative stress index were significantly higher in patients with primary ovarian insufficiency than in control subjects. In the correlation analysis, follicle-stimulating hormone exhibited a positive correlation with total oxidant status, oxidative stress index, and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (r=0.573** p<0.001, r=0.584** p<0.001, r=0.541 p<0.001, respectively) and correlated negatively with total antioxidant status (r=-0.437** p<0.001). Conclusion: The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, total oxidant status, and oxidative stress index levels are elevated in primary ovarian insufficiency. Therefore, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory treatment might be administered to patients in the early stage of primary ovarian insufficiency. However, larger studies are needed to clarify whether these elevated levels are a cause or a consequence of primary ovarian insufficiency.


ABSTRACT Question: The practice of extracting logging residues after clear-cutting for bioenergy purposes is spreading. Logging residues constitute a shelter in clear-cut areas and therefore concerns have been expressed that their removal could make the ground and its vegetation more exposed to extreme microclimatic conditions. We asked whether logging residues and forest edges can protect ground-dwelling forest bryophytes from fatal microclimate events following clear-cutting. Location: Boreal forests of central Sweden. Methods: Using transplants of eight forest floor bryophyte species we experimentally analysed the sheltering effect (less solar radiation and less wind) of logging residues and forest edges in seven clear-cut areas. Transplants were placed in two contrasting positions in each area; near a north-facing forest edge and in the centre of the clear-cut area. In each position, half of the transplants were covered by a layer of spruce branches and the other half was left uncovered. We estimated proportion of apparently living shoots (apparent vitality) and measured radial growth of transplants during one growing season. Results: Position in the clear-cut area, but not cover of spruce branches, clearly influenced radial growth. Vitality scores were higher among transplants covered with branches and the lowest apparent vitality was observed in uncovered transplants in the middle of clear-cut areas. The change in area of apparently living shoots during the course of the experiment (growth minus mortality) was unaffected by branch cover close to the edge but positively affected in the centre of the clear-cut area. In general, the effect of branch cover on bryophytes was higher in the centre of clear-cut areas. Here, climatic measurements showed that branch cover buffers during periods of extreme microclimates. Conclusions: Extraction of logging residues after clear-felling may reduce the survival of some ground-dwelling forest organisms. The additional sheltering provided by branches was unimportant close to forest edges. We suggest smaller clear-cut areas, green-tree retention and other ways to make logged areas shadier and less windy to mitigate the reduced shelter caused by harvest of logging residues. Nomenclature: Hallingbäck et al. (2006) for bryophytes and Krok & Almquist (1994) for vascular plants.


Management of valve diseases in children demands an eclectic approach by the surgeon. Whenever possible, valve function should be restored by repair rather than prosthetic replacement. Recent evidence firmly demonstrates that there are accelerated calcification and degeneration of porcine heterografts in children, especially in the aortic and mitral positions. For this reason, we reserve the use of heterograft prostheses for the right atrioventricular position and for conduits from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. Such patients are observed carefully for signs of valve degeneration. Long-term followup of the Starr-Edwards prosthesis in children demonstrates excellent durability and a thromboembolic rate that is equal to or lower than that found in adult patients. Hemodynamic properties of the Starr-Edwards valve are adequate even in the smallest size used in infants and have allowed children to reach early adolescence at which time valve re-replacement with an adult-sized prosthesis is possible. Intermediate-term experience with the Bjork-Shiley valve in children has also been favorable. At present we continue to use systemic anticoagulation with warfarin in all children with mechanical prostheses.


Chip-multiprocessors (CMPs) have become the mainstream parallel architecture in recent years; for scalability reasons, designs with high core counts tend towards tiled CMPs with physically distributed shared caches. This naturally leads to a Non-Uniform Cache Access (NUCA) design, where on-chip access latencies depend on the physical distances between requesting cores and home cores where the data is cached. Improving data locality is thus key to performance, and several studies have addressed this problem using data replication and data migration. In this paper, we consider another mechanism, hardware-level thread migration. This approach, we argue, can better exploit shared data locality for NUCA designs by effectively replacing multiple round-trip remote cache accesses with a smaller number of migrations. High migration costs, however, make it crucial to use thread migrations judiciously; we therefore propose a novel, on-line prediction scheme which decides whether to perform a remote access (as in traditional NUCA designs) or to perform a thread migration at the instruction level. For a set of parallel benchmarks, our thread migration predictor improves the performance by 24% on average over the shared-NUCA design that only uses remote accesses.


As elections draw near, citizens look up to the media for information about contestants. This study examines the coverage, by four dominant newspapers, of an incumbent President and his challenger in the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, to determine how the news was constructed and the framing patterns in their reports. Using the continuous week formula, 28 editions spread over four months were studied. Results show that there were 110 articles on the 2015 election that captured a total of 245 frames. The history frame was dominant, followed by national security and corruption . The findings also show that the 2015 presidential elections were adequately reported by the media but contents focused more on the candidates than on issues. This study recommends that the issues raised by contestants in their manifestos could be appropriated by the media to expand their discussion on matters affecting the citizens rather than the personality of the contestants.


Nod-over-roll is a commonly used gimbal configuration especially in air-to-air missile seekers due to its volumetric advantage. It may further scaled down by implementing a folded optical layout and locating the detector off-gimbal. Yet, the concept suffers from an inherent kinematic singularity problem right at the center of its task space, where roll axis and pointing vectors coincide. The phenomenon is called zenith pass problem and has to be solved in real time for proper target tracking. A second drawback of the mentioned seeker structure is image registration problem, which reflects itself as rotation of constructed image on the FPA, and shall be considered while localizing the target. This work focuses on the kinematic analysis of the zenith pass and image registration problems in an air-to-air missile seeker perspective.


Background According to the Dutch GMP-hospital pharmacy directive (1) three types of microbiological controls are required when aseptic dispensing is performed: 1. microbiological monitoring of the air in the working area, the gloved hands of the operator and the work surface at the critical place in the laminar airflow cabinet; 2. microbiological validation of the operators through media fill runs; 3. validation of the aseptic process by repeating the procedures with an appropriate broth. Purpose To develop a web-based program for data of microbiological controls on aseptic dispensing for Dutch hospital pharmacies for: simple processing of environmental monitoring data; trending of environmental monitoring data; comparing individual data with other hospital pharmacies nationwide. Materials and methods The web-based program MICROBIO was designed in collaboration with an expert group of hospital pharmacists. Participating hospital pharmacies collected microbiological control data and entered them into the program. Limits for microbiological contamination are based on EU-GMP recommendations (2). Results Currently 49 of 80 Dutch hospital pharmacies use MICROBIO. More than 85% of the microbiological controls on monitoring comply with the results (air 87%, gloved hands 90%, work surface 86%). Conclusions MICROBIO is a standardised tool which fully supports processing data and evaluation for all three types of microbiological controls and presents them in diagrams and histograms. The results show that the directive on aseptic dispensing in GMP-hospital pharmacy is met. Literature 1. Aseptic dispensing. In GMP-hospital pharmacy. The Hague: Dutch Association of Hospital Pharmacists; 2005; www.nvza.nl. 2. The rules governing medicinal products in European Union. Volume 4. Good manufacturing practices. Medicinal products for human and veterinary use. Annex I. Manufacture of sterile medicinal products. European Commission, revision May 2003.


An extension of the linear complementarity problem (LCP) of mathematical programming is the so-called rational complementarity problem (RCP). This problem occurs, if complementarity conditions are imposed on input and output variables of linear dynamical input/state/output systems. The resulting dynamical systems are called linear complementarity systems. Since the RCP is crucial both in issues concerning existence and uniqueness of solutions to complementarity systems and in time simulation of complementarity systems, it is worthwhile to consider existence and uniqueness questions of solutions to the RCP. In this paper necessary and sufficient conditions are presented guaranteeing existence and uniqueness of solutions to the RCP in terms of corresponding LCPs. Using these results and proving that the corresponding LCPs have certain properties, we can show uniqueness and existence of solutions to linear mechanical systems with unilateral constraints, electrical networks with diodes, and linear dynamical systems subject to relays and/or Coulomb friction.


Biogas stands as a renewable and carbon-neutral energy source of fast growing interest. The produced gas can be used for electricity generation, heat production or combined heat and power generation. It can also be upgraded to bio-methane for vehicle refuelling or to feed natural gas grids.
Additionally, biogas plays an important role in the transition towards a more competitive, secure and sustainable energy system in Europe. It can contribute to reducing external energy dependency and tackle air pollution and greenhouse gases emissions, while having the potential to drive growth on
innovative technologies within the renewable energies sector. Moreover, biogas production can be considered as an important aspect of the European Union's policy for waste disposal, as biogas generation systems can be fed by different types of wastes from society and industry.
Within this context, measures to promote the production of biogas have been implemented in the European Union and also in the renewable energy production strategies of most countries in Europe over the last years, according to specific policy drivers
and support instruments. However, these have evolved differently in Europe over time and the amount of biogas produced as well as the means of production and utilisation of the gas vary significantly between countries. This is the result of different views of what the biogas should be used for and of the different approaches to policies and promotion strategies addressed by the different member States. This aim of this Master's dissertation is to identify existing policy instruments and barriers for the expansion of the renewables and biogas sectors in the European Union. To investigate this, a comprehensive overview of the renewable energies landscape and biogas market status quo in Europe is carried out from an energy production and energy market point of view, but also from a technology deployment, innovation and market development perspectives, both on the EU level and at country scale. A review and analysis of the existing policies and strategies for renewables and biogas production and utilisation, with particular attention to the European electricity and heating energy markets, has been elaborated. Furthermore, investigation of the renewables and biogas sectors in three specific EU countries, namely the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Spain, is thoroughly addressed. Criteria applied for selection of these three country case-studies are, amongst others, geographical spread, differences in innovation performance and economic structure, differences in the energy mix and drivers for renewables, as well as other aspects of local nature. Cross-comparisons between the strategies of the country case-studies selected and results obtained are also analysed and discussed, in order to assess the impact of policy instruments approached, to identify which barriers may hinder the deployment and development of biogas and other renewable energy technologies and to conclude which factors may enable a more effective expansion of the renewable and biogas markets across the Union.


This paper analyzes the performance and scalability of an iteration of the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm on parallel architectures with a variety of interconnection networks, such as the mesh, the hypercube, and that of the CM-5 parallel computer. It is shown that for block-tridiagonal matrices resulting from two-dimensional finite difference grids, the communication overhead due to vector inner products dominates the communication overheads of the remainder of the computation on a large number of processors. However, with a suitable mapping, the parallel formulation of a PCG iteration is highly scalable for such matrices on a machine like the CM-5 whose fast control network practically eliminates the overheads due to inner product computation. The use of the truncated Incomplete Cholesky (IC) preconditioner can lead to further improvement in scalability on the CM-5 by a constant factor,as a result, a parallel formulation of the PCG algorithm with IC preconditioner may execute faster than that with a simple diagonal preconditioner even if the latter runs faster in a serial implementation. >


ABSTRAC Kampung Padang village is one of the villages in the Panyabungan district are endemic Malaria with AMI (Annual Malaria Incidence) of 29.21 ‰ and API (Annual Parasite Incidence) of 63.41 ‰. Incidence of malaria caused by human contact with malaria mosquitoes and supported by the housing and unfavorable environmental conditions. The purpose of this study to know the relationship of the characteristics of respondents and the physical environmental factors on the incidence of malaria in the Kampung Padang village Panyabungan of District Mandailing Natal of Subdistrict. This research was conducted with non parametric methods of analysis with Case Control design. The total sample of 85 heads of families consisting of 35 cases and 50 controls. Data were analyzed with non-parametric analysis methods of analysis with Chi Square test. The results obtained that there is a relationship of the education  (p = 0,009, OR = 0,304: 95% CI = 0,124-0,750), employment (p = 0,001),, social cultural, wire gauze on ventilation (p = 0.001), lagit-sky home (p = 0,001, OR = 0,135: 95% CI = 0,051-0,358), wall density (p = 0,001, OR = 0,160: 95% CI = 0,059-0,439), humidity (p = 0,001, OR = 5,608: 95% CI = 2,152-14,611) and lighting (p = 0,007, OR = 3,656: 95% CI = 1,394-9,592)on the incidence of malaria. It is suggested to health department to educate the community particulary Malaria disease . This can be done through socialization with PKK, IHC, or community health center and should increase the activity PJB (Larva Monitoring Periodic) in each home or in public places such as schools, mosques, markets, terminals, and raised his interpreter monitors larva e and for the people should pay attention to the cleanliness of the environment. Key Words: Characteristics, Physical Appearance, Environmental, Malaria


From the early days of Winterbottom to the controversial appointment and performance of a non-national in Goran-Eriksson, the England hotseat has always attracted an incredible level of interest from Press and fans. This book looks at all of the incumbents of the position of England coach - including the successful (such as Ramsey and Robson), the short-lived (Don Revie), the controversial (Hoddle) and the pilloried (Graham Taylor), with detailed biographies and anecdotes about each of them, as well as career statistics and a photographic section. All the managers are featured in chronological order: Winterbottom, Ramsey, Mercer, Revie, Greenwood, Robson, Taylor, Venables, Hoddle, Wilkinson, Keegan, Taylor and Eriksson.


This article examines popular diet plans for weight loss and provides information about their efficacy. Diets covered include: very-low-calorie and low-calorie diets; low-fat and very-low-fat diets; moderate-fat, low-calorie diets; and low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets. The importance of portion size and behavioral change is also discussed.


For decades, elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been associated with the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including myocardial ischemia and infarction (MI). However, several large clinical trials failed to demonstrate beneficial outcomes in response to the global reduction of ROS in patients with underlying CVD. Recent studies from our and other labs showed that it is rather a critical balance between mitochondrial and cytosolic ROS than total ROS levels which determines resilience of coronary endothelial cells (EC). Here, we will discuss published and unpublished work that has helped elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which subcellular ROS levels, duration and localization modulate metabolic pathways, including glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, energy production and utilization, and dNTP synthesis in EC. These redox-regulated processes play critical roles in providing resilience to EC which in turn help protect existing coronary vessels and induce coronary angiogenesis to improve post-MI recovery of cardiac function.


In this paper, two different methods for iron loss prediction are analyzed. The first method is based on the classical separation of loss contributions (hysteresis, eddy-current, and excess losses). The model requires loss contribution separation using iron loss measurements with sinusoidal supply. In this paper, this method will be called the ldquolow-frequency method.rdquo The second method, named the ldquohigh-frequency method,rdquo is based on the assumption that, under pulsewidth modulation supply, the higher order flux density harmonics do not influence the magnetic work conditions. These magnetic conditions depend only on the amplitude of the fundamental harmonic of the flux density. In this paper, both the proposed methodologies and the related measurements are described in detail, and the obtained results are compared with the experimental ones. The experimental results show that both methods allow getting excellent results. The high-frequency method is better than the lower one but requires a more complex test bench. Depending on the accuracy required by the user, the more handy method can be chosen, with the guarantee that the estimation errors will be lower than 5%.


In late 2001 a category 3 cyclone impacted forest plots that were established in Tonga in 1995, and additionally, one plot was accidentally burned by an escaped land-clearing fire. Subsequent surveys provide observations of 10 years of forest dynamics in this poorly studied region, and the first reported observations of large interannual variation in juvenile (seedling and sapling) abundance in the western tropical Pacific. The severely disturbed (burned) plot was initially colonized by a non-native early pioneer, Carica papaya L., but 3.5 years later a native pioneer, Macaranga harveyana (Muell. Arg.) Muell. Arg., was the most abundant tree species. The seedling layer included some long-lived pioneers and shade-tolerant species. Two mature forest plots affected only by the cyclone changed very little over a decade. Late-successional shade-tolerant species that dominated the overstory were also abundant as seedlings and saplings. This is in contrast with a 30- to 40-year-old, formerly cultivated, secondary forest plot that still shows no recruitment of late-successional dominants, in spite of the proximity of remnant forest patches. This study suggests differing pathways of succession following shifting cultivation versus cyclone and fire disturbances in Tonga. Land use legacies appear to have a long-lasting effect on community composition.


The strategic partnerships of the European Union (EU) with Brazil, China, India, South Africa and South Korea include discussion of development issues, and in some cases commitments to collaboration. However, little is known about whether this high-level, bilateral dialogue influences the EU's engagement with these strategic partners on the ground in developing countries. This paper examines how the EU engages with these emerging powers in aid recipient countries, and identifies challenges and opportunities for strengthening engagement. It draws on field research in Mozambique and Nepal.


In this paper, we take a look at some of the measures taken by the central bank of the United States viz. the Federal Reserve System, to help businesses, both small and large, to weather the unprecedented economic challenges faced by managers and owners of businesses to survive through the crisis of shutdowns, lost sales, unemployment, and illness. One such step taken by the Federal Reserve was to lower the discount rate, the rate at which Federal Reserve gives loans (Discounts and Advances) to U.S. financial institutions.  It may be taken as a standard response to economic slowdowns by central banks around the globe, but Federal Reserve's action has more significant effects than any other central bank.
While there is no "one size fits all" economic measure that works in all countries in the wake of the pandemic, we believe that knowing and discussing what one central bank did – can lead to bankers, academics, politicians, business managers and owners from different countries share their experiences and tailor proposals and plans to fit the needs of an individual country. In this spirit, this proposed paper is an endeavor to examine the role of monetary policy in averting the forces of the pandemic.  The paper is divided into three sections.  Section 1 talks about the structure of the Federal Reserve System, surveys some historical behavior and examines the decision-making process in the system.  Section 2 discusses the economic impacts of coronavirus on all economic aspects but focuses more on the monetary structure of the US economy.  Section 3 makes the argument that expansionary monetary policy was a tremendous necessity of the time, but overdoing its activity in the same direction may bring back the threat of inflation.  Summary and conclusion follow Section 3.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate the growth and development of Manchester airport and the implications of municipal ownership. The main theme is the nature of municipal ownerships structures and their interaction with other institutional structures and agencies in the immediate locale and at national level, which have influenced development processes and exercised control with the UK civil air transport industry as a Whole, in terms of development policy and regulation. The implications of municipal ownership structures within this wider context are viewed from the general perspective of the process of growth and development and from the specific standpoint of their implications for the evolution of procedures for and conduct of industrial relations at Manchester Airport. In essence, the study of industrial relations forms a microcosm in which the potential problems introduced by the co-existence of municipal ownership structures alongside other ownership forms within the civil air transport industry are explored. It is argued that the pattern of growth and development at Manchester Airport has differed from that experienced at other airports situated in the provinces. Despite the potential constraints upon airport development emanating from municipal ownership, it has constituted a positive factor in promoting the growth and development of airport facilities in Manchester. In essence, municipal enterprise has proven to be an appropriate vehicle for maximising gains in an industry subject to rapid technological change and growth. Municipal ownership supporting the injection of local knowledge, drive, initiative and enthusiasm has promoted the establishment of a local agenda for development, in the absence of positive growth promoting forces deriving from agencies and institutions operating within the civil air transport industry as a whole and on the periphery of airport operation. It is further argued that the municipal ownership regime offered the flexibility of approach and adaptability of internal organisational structures essential to the changing requirements of airport development. As far as industrial relations is concerned, it is argued that the application of principles governing the conduct of industrial relations within the local Government Service to airport workers, has given co-existence, had a partially negative effect on industrial relations with the relatively large group of specialist manual workers. Whilst procedures were generally adapted to accommodate the special needs of a municipal airport undergoing a process of growth and development not experienced by its counterparts, at the end of the day, the constraints of local authority procedures and practices culminated in the rejection of a national negotiating machinery which was inherently inflexible.


DURING recent years, the association of adrenocortical hyperfunction and nonendocrine tumors has been noted. Elevation of serum hydroxycorticoids and of urinary 17-hydroxyand/or 17-ketogenic steroids has been found associated with carcinomatous states, principally in patients with bronchogenic cancer of the oatcell type, thymomas, and pancreatic cancer. 1-3 Increased corticotropin-like activity has been demonstrated in plasma and in tumor tissue extracts obtained from patients with these malignancies and may account for the adrenocortical hyperfunction. 4 Widening of the adrenal cortex at postmortem examination has been noted in patients with malignancy, especially with bronchogenic carcinoma. 5,6 In the case to be reported, an excessive amount of urinary estrogen was found in a patient with a highly anaplastic carcinoma. At postmortem examination, widening of the adrenal cortex was demonstrated. This patient developed striking spider angiomata and pulmonary osteoarthropathy during the late stage of his rapid illness, suggesting a causal relationship with the elevated


Pregnancy impairs baroreflex gain, but the mechanism is incompletely understood. To test the hypothesis that reductions in brain insulin contribute, we determined whether pregnant rats exhibit lower cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) insulin concentrations and whether intracerebroventricular infusion of insulin normalizes gain of baroreflex control of heart rate in conscious pregnant rats. CSF insulin was lower in pregnant (68±21 pg/mL) compared to virgin (169±25 pg/mL) rats (P<0.05). Pregnancy reduced baroreflex gain (pregnant 2.4±0.2 bpm/mm Hg, virgin 4.6±0.3 bpm/mm Hg; P<0.0001) and the maximum heart rate elicited by hypotension (pregnant 455±15 bpm, virgin 507±12 bpm; P=0.01). Infusion of insulin (100 &mgr;U/min) intracerebroventricularly increased baroreflex gain in pregnant (2.4±0.4 to 3.9±0.5 bpm/mm Hg; P<0.01) but not virgin (4.6±0.4 to 4.2±0.4 bpm/mm Hg; NS) rats. Maximum heart rate was not altered by intracerebroventricular insulin in either group. Interestingly, while in pregnant rats the baroreflex was unchanged by intracerebroventricular infusion of the artificial CSF vehicle, in virgin rats, vehicle infusion lowered baroreflex gain (4.7±0.3 to 3.9±0.3 bpm/mm Hg; P<0.05) and the maximum baroreflex heart rate (495±19 to 444±21 bpm; P<0.05). These data support the hypothesis that brain insulin is required to support optimal baroreflex function and that a decrease in brain insulin contributes to the fall in baroreflex gain during pregnancy.


Spinal cord injury (SCI) results from a mechanical primary injury that is followed by a multifactorial secondary injury which worsens the clinical course. Persistent inflammation is a crucial event during the secondary injury. Indeed, microglia/macrophage respond to traumatic stimuli by adopting an activated phenotype, which has a dual role. An M1 phenotype, associated with harmful effects, is expressed very early and persists for a long time in the injured site, whereas M2, associated with a beneficial phenotype, has only a transient expression in a subacute phase of the trauma. This suggests that microglia/macrophage mediated inflammation is a crucial therapeutic target.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are selectively engulfed by microglia/macrophage as part of their endocytic/phagocytic activity in removing foreign bodies. Microglia assume phagocytic activity after traumatic stimuli and this makes NPs an excellent tool for carrying drug to these cells. So, in order to counteract this deleterious pro-inflammatory response, we decided to maximize the efficacy of a well-known anti-inflammatory drug, minocycline, through a NPs delivery tool selectively targeted to microglia/macrophage. We developed and tested a new drug delivery nanocarrier (minocycline loaded in poly-e-caprolactone NPs, PCL Mino) in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, we demonstrated a reduced activation of microglia/macrophage after PCL Mino treatment in vitro and a reduction of cells with phagocytic-like phenotype, up to 15 days tested in vivo. To clarify the involvement of the inflammatory response associated to microglia/macrophage in SCI progression, we treated SCI mice in acute and subacute phase. PCL Mino treatment, only when administered acutely after the damage, was able to ameliorate the locomotor activity up to 63 days post injury. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this treatment reduced M1 macrophages recruitment orchestrated by activated microglial cells via CCL2 chemokine in the damaged site, suggesting a deleterious effect in the early phase of the injury of these cells.

In conclusion, this delivery tool represents a new hope for SCI treatment by showing several advantages compared to conventionally administered anti-inflammatory therapy, such as maximization of therapeutic efficiency and reduction of side effects. Furthermore, the potential of transfer to clinical practice is aided by the large clinical use of minocycline and the high biocompatibility of the proposed NPs.


ABSTRACT Freshwater mussels can be negatively affected by heavy machinery during stream restoration projects, requiring mussels to be relocated from the project area to unaffected areas. We assessed recapture and survival of Western Pearlshell (Margaritifera falcata) relocated in Tincup Creek, Idaho before and after a stream restoration project. From 2018 to 2020, we searched 4,350 m of Tincup Creek before restoration and salvaged 1,213 Western Pearlshell. Mussels were measured, marked with shellfish tags, and relocated among 10 sites in previously restored reaches elsewhere in Tincup Creek. At the time of salvage, mussels ranged from 19 to 84 mm with 83% of the mussels ≥50 mm, and most mussels were found in run habitats (63%). We surveyed all sites for tagged mussels 1 to 3 yr after relocation. We recaptured tagged mussels at seven of the 10 sites, and the recapture rate was positively related to the number of relocated mussels and mussel size. Tag retention was high but varied among relocation years. Estimated survival after 3 yr was 69.9–87.4% at two sites, and detection probability was 60.3–62.9%. Estimated survival after 1 yr was 55.8–91.3% at four other sites. Survival was low at three sites, likely due to low numbers of relocated mussels or scarcity of suitable habitat, and survival decreased dramatically at one site (from 91.3% to 28.6%) in 2 consecutive years, likely due to beaver activity. Our results suggest that stream restoration created habitat suitable for Western Pearlshell, and relocation was a successful strategy for avoiding direct mortality associated with restoration activities.


Nowadays, many services in the internet including Email, search engine, social networking are provided with free of charge due to enormous growth of web users. With the expansion of Web services, denial of service DoS attacks by malicious automated programs e.g., web bots is becoming a serious problem of web service accounts. A HIP, or Human Interactive Proofs, is a human authentication mechanism that generates and grades tests to determine whether the user is a human or a malicious computer program. Unfortunately, the existing HIPs tried to maximize the difficulty for automated programs to pass tests by increasing distortion or noise. Consequently, it has also become difficult for potential users too. So there is a tradeoff between the usability and robustness in designing HIP tests. In their propose technique the authors tried to balance the readability and security by adding contextual information in the form of natural conversation without reducing the distortion and noise. In the result section, a microscopic large-scale user study was conducted involving 110 users to investigate the actual user views compare to existing state of the art CAPTCHA systems like Google's reCAPTCHA and Microsoft's CAPTCHA in terms of usability and security and found the authors' system capable of deploying largely over internet.


In the article the results of complex analysis of the columnar station with variation of depth contour interval with research of mobile loading influencing on ceiling are represented.


This study aims to propose that a proper waqf management and waqf accounting practices in Indonesian waqf institutions will be one of the solutions for the economic problems. Data were collected through secondary data such as books, journals, and articles related to the waqf accounting or management. A proper waqf management and waqf accounting report is a crucial tool for achieving socioeconomic development and, if properly applied, may significantly contribute to the reduction of unemployment and the eradication of poverty, ultimately aiding in the socioeconomic advancement of Muslim communities. This study only focuses on waqf in Indonesia. Thus, the results of waqf may not be generalizable to other waqf in other countries or to privately managed waqf institutions. This study is expected to contribute to the improvement of waqf administration. The paper suggests a proper waqf management and waqf accounting report as a solution to the economic problems such as poverty, hunger and unemployment.


A cohort analysis methodology is used in this article to study Chile's "new" middle classes. It describes the members of these cohorts and compares them with older cohorts that are still economically active. The relative size as of the 1990s and 2000s of these occupationally determined middle classes or strata are analysed, and a distinction is drawn between "new" and "old" cohorts. The question as to whether or not the emergence of new occupational cohorts correlates with differences in income is also explored. This analysis leads to the conclusion that a new middle class has taken shape that is composed of people who became full-fledged members of the labour force during the economic growth surge of the 1990s and 2000s. The upper stratum of these new middle classes occupies a preeminent position, and social class influences income levels.


Anterior abdominal wall defects are not too rare between developmental abnormalities. A case of abdominal wall defect associated with complex malformations diagnosed prenatally is reported in the paper. In the present case of limb-body wall complex a right sided abdominoschisis was associated with rotational abnormality of the lower limbs, clubfoot, scoliosis, meningomyelocele, lack of developed pelvic organs, consecutive dilatation of the upper urinary tract, anal atresia, lack of external genitalia, lack of diaphragm and hypoplastic lungs. Review of the pertinent literature has revealed over 100 cases that clearly indicate the possible phenotypic variation of the limb-body wall complex. These data add further evidence to support the existence of two different phenotypes and possibly pathogenesis under the heading of limb-body wall complex. The three principal theories on the possible aetiology of the complex are also discussed. Because the limb-body wall complex is incompatible with life, it is important to diagnose the lesions prenatally, and to differentiate them from other anterior abdominal wall defects. Serum alpha-fetoprotein measurement, and ultrasonographic examination are the key to prenatal diagnosis.


The problem addressed in this research is the in-flight generation of trajectories for
autonomous unmanned aircraft, which requires a method of generating pseudo-optimal
trajectories in near-real-time, on-board the aircraft, and without external intervention.
The focus of this research is the enhancement of a particular inverse dynamics direct
method that is a candidate solution to the problem. This research introduces the
following contributions to the method.
A quaternion-based inverse dynamics model is introduced that represents all
orientations without singularities, permits smooth interpolation of orientations, and
generates more accurate controls than the previous Euler-angle model.
Algorithmic modifications are introduced that: overcome singularities arising from
parameterization and discretization; combine analytic and finite difference expressions
to improve the accuracy of controls and constraints; remove roll ill-conditioning when
the normal load factor is near zero, and extend the method to handle negative-g
orientations. It is also shown in this research that quadratic interpolation improves the
accuracy and speed of constraint evaluation.
The method is known to lead to a multimodal constrained nonlinear optimization
problem. The performance of the method with four nonlinear programming algorithms
was investigated: a differential evolution algorithm was found to be capable of over
99% successful convergence, to generate solutions with better optimality than the quasi-
Newton and derivative-free algorithms against which it was tested, but to be up to an
order of magnitude slower than those algorithms. The effects of the degree and form of
polynomial airspeed parameterization on optimization performance were investigated,
and results were obtained that quantify the achievable optimality as a function of the
parameterization degree.
Overall, it was found that the method is a potentially viable method of on-board near-
real-time trajectory generation for unmanned aircraft but for this potential to be realized
in practice further improvements in computational speed are desirable. Candidate
optimization strategies are identified for future research.


We examine prosocial attitudes between refugees and host communities exposed to armed conflict and living in close proximity in Northern Uganda. By conducting trust and dictator games in the field, we test if there are in-group preferences or parochialism regarding trust, trustworthiness and altruism and whether parochial tendencies change with remoteness. We find that refugees show out-group preferences for reciprocating trust and altruism with increasing remoteness from district headquarters while members of the host communities show parochial preferences for trust although this changes with increasing remoteness. Refugees also do not perceive that their partners might expect them to discriminate along social identities of being refugee or host while hosts believe that their partners expect them to show parochial preferences. We conclude that refugees do not consider the social differentiation of "us refugees" and "them host" in their interactions as much as hosts do particularly in areas remote from urban areas which offer opportunities for increased interactions. The results are crucial to the policy arena in humanitarian contexts where concerns for the assistance of the vulnerable displaced people are high.


This work proposes a quality-oriented, real-time capable prioritization technique for media units of H.264/AVC video streams. The derivation of estimates is based on the analysis of the macroblock partitioning, the spatial extents of temporal dependencies, and the length and strength of prediction chains existing among macroblocks, thus incorporating the expected impact of error propagation. It is demonstrated how the prioritization scheme can be beneficially integrated into live streaming systems which are characterized by tight timing constraints, with the focus on content-aware selective automatic repeat request mechanisms. Additionally, it is shown how potentially limited feedback can be used to adapt the estimation process to leverage prediction preciseness. The approach is compared against existing techniques in terms of practicability and efficiency, and tested under independent and bursty loss conditions in a wired and a wireless test setup. Moreover, the performance is examined when low-latency and constant bitrate video settings are enforced by using x264's novel encoding feature periodic-intra-refresh. Results of both experiments and simulations indicate that the proposed technique outperforms all reference techniques in nearly all test cases, and that the video quality can be further improved by incorporating receiver feedback.


The design and construction of concrete water treatment and storage structures in Australia has catered for the existing markets. The next generation of these structures needs a more sophisticated approach. Engineers who analyse and design water treatment plants, or water and liquid storage structures, as well as other complex reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures, will find this paper of interest. Advanced water treatment plants and water factories for recycling domestic and industrial waste water have introduced new complexities into concrete tank design. Two recently constructed Australian water purifying plants provide examples of the theoretical and practical challenges of designing and constructing the large and complex process vessels required by modern plants to produce large volumes of high-quality water.


The elderly population is characterized by several baseline conditions that increase the risk and modify the etiology of pneumonia. Immunosuppression caused by either concomitant morbidities or treatments, susceptibility to aspiration, residency in long-term facilities, or frequent use of antimicrobials are some factors that need serious consideration in selecting the most appropriate treatment. In the absence of these conditions, pneumonia can be treated according to locally adapted international guidelines; however, specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies should be applied in the presence of these parameters, providing coverage for more resistant agents. Polymedication by the elderly poses a high risk for potentially severe drug interactions; consequently, modifications of dosages may be necessary along with close monitoring for clinical signs of adverse effects or serum levels of some drugs. Wide influenza and pneumococcal vaccines can significantly contribute to improving the future of the disease.


ICPF (Ionic Conducting Polymer Film) is a kind of smart film and has the characteristics of flexibility, good response and being driven by a low voltage. In order to illuminate the deformation dynamics of ICPF, the curvature of a thin strip ICPF under stepwise application of electric field is formulated according to Flory's gel swell theory. The interplay mechanism of the deformation of gel, permeation of water and the transport of ions is described. A novel fish-like flexible micro-robot whose fin is actuated by ICPF is presented. According to the Pseudo-Rigid-Body-Dynamic-Model (PRBDM) the frequency analysis of the micro-robot is investigated, and then, the relation between the structure parameters and the natural frequency of the fin is theoretically derived and some analysis and experiment graphs about the fin's angle displacement and angle velocity are performed.


In this discussion of jazz education, I contrast the development of traditions and practices in Britain with the indigenous practices of North America. In both cases, I categorize methods of jazz education into informal and formal schools of training, with the former focusing on early schemes of oral learning, and the latter on later codified systems. History has a particularly important role in three main areas of jazz education: (1) transgenerational mentors, (2) learning from recordings, and (3) repertory bands.


The impacts of storm water runoff on water quality are becoming more significant as urban areas continue to expand and improvements are made in treated wastewater effluent quality. Urban storm water runoff can contain significant amounts of various ,pollutants including bacteria, sediments, nutrients and' heavy metals (U .S. EPA, 1983). Urbanization or development of a watershed can have a variety of impacts on the stream, inCluding increased flooding, streambank erosion and pollutant export (Schueler, 1987). This paper describes a regional monitoring plan developed and implemented in the Atlanta Region to comply with Oean Water Act rules, to characterize local storm water discharges, evaluate storm water control measures and identify long-term trends.


Coastal wetlands are among the most carbon-rich ecosystems in the world.
Litter decomposition is a major process controlling soil carbon input.
Litter mixing has shown a non-additive effect on the litter
decomposition of terrestrial plants particularly of those species having
contrasting litter quality. But the non-additive effect has been rarely
tested in coastal plants which generally having low-quality litters. We
selected three common mangrove species and one saltmarsh species,
co-occurring in subtropical coasts, to test whether the non-additive
effect occurs when the litters of these coastal species mixing together.
We are also concerned whether the changes in the decomposition rate of
litter will affect the nutrient contents in waters. A litter-bag
experiment was carried out in a glasshouse with single and mixed leaf
litters. A non-additive effect was observed in the litter mixtures of
mangrove species Aegiceras corniculatum vs. Kandelia obovata
(antagonistic) and A. corniculatum vs. Avicennia marina (synergistic).
Whereas, the mixture of A. corniculatum (mangrove species) and Spartina
alterniflora (saltmarsh species) showed an additive effect. The strength
of the non-additive effect was unrelated to the initial trait
dissimilarity of litters. Instead, the decomposition rate and mass
remaining of litter mixtures were strongly related to the carbon
concentrations in litters. Nutrient content in waters was dependent on
the decomposition rate of litter mixtures but not on the initial
nutrient concentrations in litters. Despite the behind mechanisms were
not yet revealed by the current study, these findings have improved our
understanding of the litter decomposition of coastal species and the
consequent nutrient release.


The emergence of CD-ROM (compact disc/read-only memory) versions of the MEDLINE database requires experienced MEDLINE searchers to examine assumptions about searching MEDLINE, since some expectations may not be fulfilled by this new technology. When applied to a particular CD-ROM MEDLINE product, the evaluation procedure involves testing assumptions concerning database contents; mechanics of searching; display, print, and download capabilities; and user-friendly features. The extent to which a CD-ROM product preserves and exploits important MEDLINE strengths should be assessed, e.g., the MeSH controlled vocabulary, the designation of major and minor MeSH emphasis, and the use of subheadings. Search software characteristics that affect ease of searching and quality of results also need to be examined, e.g., the ability to truncate search terms and the order of precedence in which Boolean operators are evaluated. A checklist to assist in the evaluation process is presented, including search examples for use in testing search functions.


There is a paucity of information regarding QTc prolongation in critically ill patients. A prospective observational study was conducted to assess the incidence and predictors of QTc prolongation associated with medications in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Consecutive adult patients prescribed prespecified QTc-prolonging medications were assessed for development of the combined incidence of QTc >500 ms at anytime and QTc increase >60 ms above baseline. Over 3 months, 200 consecutive patients (63 ± 18 years; 52% female; 73% Caucasian; baseline QTc 447.3 ± 51.5 ms) were evaluated. The primary end point occurred in 48% of the patients (QTc >500 ms 40%, QTc increase >60 ms 29%). The majority of patients experienced a QTc >470 or 450 ms (60.5%). Mean increase in QTc at 48 hours was 20 ± 35 ms. Upon multivariate analysis, length of stay [odds ratio 1.30, 95% confidence interval (1.15, 1.47)] and baseline QTc [1.01 (1.01, 1.02)] were associated with an increased risk for the primary end point, while beta-blockers [0.41 (0.20, 0.81)] were associated with a risk reduction. In conclusion, increased risk of proarrhythmia, as assessed by QTc prolongation, occurs in the majority of ICU patients when prescribed medications with electrophysiologic properties. Increased vigilance is warranted. The possible protective effect of beta-blockers requires confirmation.


Narrow band Fabry-Perot (F-P) based electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) bandpass filter is designed, fabricated and measured. This narrow bandpass characteristic is due to the defect cavity formed in the bandgap structures by the insertion of a transmission line resonator in between the two bragg reflectors. The parametric analyses of the FP-EBG filter are investigated by considering; i) effect of EBG cells on Q factor and ii) change in the defect length and the slot dimension to influence the filter performance characteristics. The Fabry-Perot EBG filter is fabricated on silicon substrate using surface micromachining process. The measurement result of the F-P filter shows a 3dB bandwidth of around 250MHz with an insertion loss of 4dB.


A water-soluble CdTe QDs capped by 3-Mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) were synthesized. The results confirmed that the grain size of the QDs was controlled by changing the reflux time of precursor solution and that the QDs possessed obviously quantum size effect. The results showed that a depletion layer CdTe1-xSx (0£x≤1) formed in between CdTe nanoparticle and ligand MPA. It is believed that two heterojunction-like structures possess quite distinct surface photovoltaic characteristic excited between the core-CdTe and the shell-CdS, and between CdTe/CdS and the ligand MPA, respectively, according to the EFISPS results of the MPA-capped CdTe QDs.


This article maps a way beyond an impasse in today's treatment of philanthropy in both theory and law by taking us back to philanthropy's core function, helping the neediest among us and promoting the highest achievements of our best. The standard academic model of philanthropy sees it as subordinate and supplemental to our society's other public sectors, the market and the state, and uses their metrics, aggregate consumer demand and majority voter preference, to measure philanthropy's performance. The standard model gives us, as individuals and as a society, no single measure of philanthropy's traditional goal, the public good, besides consumer and voter preference. This article proposes to reverse the dominant theoretical perspective and reveal a radically different relationship among society's three public sectors, the market, the state, and the philanthropic. Following both classical western philosophy and the West's three Abrahamist faiths, this perspective places philanthropy first and measures everything, including our current economic and political systems, by this traditional philanthropic standard: enabling all human beings to participate in what both the classics and the Scriptures take to be the highest human function, governing wisely for the good of all.


The Meddis inner hair cell model is a widely accepted, but computationally intensive computer model of mammalian inner hair cell function. We have produced an analogue VLSI implementation of this model that operates in real time in the current domain by using translinear and log-domain circuits. The circuit has been fabricated on a chip and tested against the Meddis model for (a) rate level functions for onset and steady-state response, (b) recovery after masking, (c) additivity, (d) two-component adaptation, (e) phase locking, (f) recovery of spontaneous activity, and (g) computational efficiency. The advantage of this circuit, over other electronic inner hair cell models, is its nearly exact implementation of the Meddis model which can be tuned to behave similarly to the biological inner hair cell. This has important implications on our ability to simulate the auditory system in real time. Furthermore, the technique of mapping a mathematical model of first-order differential equations to a circuit of log-domain filters allows us to implement real-time neuromorphic signal processors for a host of models using the same approach.


The stable propagation of genetic material during cell division depends on the congression of chromosomes to the spindle equator before the cell initiates anaphase. It is generally assumed that congression requires that chromosomes are connected to the opposite poles of the bipolar spindle ("bioriented"). In mammalian cells, we found that chromosomes can congress before becoming bioriented. By combining the use of reversible chemical inhibitors, live-cell light microscopy, and correlative electron microscopy, we found that monooriented chromosomes could glide toward the spindle equator alongside kinetochore fibers attached to other already bioriented chromosomes. This congression mechanism depended on the kinetochore-associated, plus end–directed microtubule motor CENP-E (kinesin-7).


We construct evolutionary models of the remnant of the merger of two carbon-oxygen (CO) core white dwarfs (WDs). With total masses in the range 1–2 M⊙, these remnants may either leave behind a single massive WD or undergo a merger-induced collapse to a neutron star (NS). On the way to their final fate, these objects generally experience a ∼10 kyr luminous giant phase, which may be extended if sufficient helium remains to set up a stable shell-burning configuration. The uncertain, but likely significant, mass-loss rate during this phase influences the final remnant mass and fate (WD or NS). We find that the initial CO core composition of the WD is converted to oxygen-neon (ONe) in remnants with final masses ≳1.05 M⊙. This implies that the CO core/ONe core transition in single WDs formed via mergers occurs at a similar mass as in WDs descended from single stars and thus that WD–WD mergers do not naturally provide a route to producing ultramassive CO-core WDs. As the remnant contracts toward a compact configuration, it experiences a "bottleneck" that sets the characteristic total angular momentum that can be retained. This limit predicts that single WDs formed from WD–WD mergers have rotational periods of ≈10–20 minutes on the WD cooling track. Similarly, it predicts remnants that collapse can form NSs with rotational periods ∼10 ms.


This paper investigates theoretically and numerically on the electro-optical coupling (EOC) for a circular Airy beam (CAB) propagating along the optical axis of a uniaxial crystal after deducing the wave coupling equations of EOC. For a circularly polarized incident CAB, EOC can be used to generate vortex beam by coupling the incident left-handed component into the right-handed vortex component with a vortex topological charge of 2. What's more, EOC plays important role in enhancing or suppressing the abrupt autofocusing, the most important property of CABs, for both left-handed and right-handed components. Near the focal plane, EOC can result in electrically controllable optical "needle" and "cage", which shall be interesting in micromanipulation. In addition, EOC can influence or even forbid the exchange between spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbit angular momentum (OAM). For a linearly polarized incident CAB, its two Cartesian field components of the beam cannot only couple their powers to each other, but also lead to the changes of the intensity pattern and polarization distributions. The polarization state becomes spatially inhomogeneous, and possesses vortex phase with a topological charge of 2 during propagation. EOC presents a new way to control an Airy beam fast and efficiently.