Abstract:For almost 30 years, the diagnosis of schizophrenia has been subject to an extensive critique of its validity as an object of scientific research. It has also been identified with negative social consequences in its own right. This raises the question of why the label retains so much professional and social currency. Authors who have addressed this issue attribute schizophrenia's success to the material interests of the profession of psychiatry, but it is here argued that this account is insufficient. I draw on what I call the reference account to explain why schizophrenia persists. Despite its problems, I suggest that the label continues to exist because, in certain usage contexts, it successfully refers to some aspects of reality. Schizophrenia will likely be decomposed and replaced by more precise diagnostic terms, but for the time being a coherent and unanimously agreed upon alternative is missing.


The past fifteen years have seen the emergence of a new sport in America and around the world: mixed martial arts ("MMA"). MMA is an interdisciplinary combat sport whose participants engage in and combine a variety of fighting disciplines (e.g., kickboxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu, and so on) within one match. In this Article, I examine and analyze the sport's evolution, articulate a theory of sporting legitimacy, supply a conceptual taxonomy of regulation, and highlight potential reform. More specifically, my foundational treatment proceeds as follows. I first explain the modern history and development of MMA, tracing it from its shaggy, brutish beginnings to its current incarnation. I next offer a pragmatic justification for the legitimacy and propriety of MMA, consider objections, and compare it to other sports and entertainment accepted as part of modern American life. I then review the state-based and administrative nature of MMA regulation, and identify the three conceptual categories of existing MMA regulation that are most useful in understanding the connection between legitimacy and regulatory oversight. I conclude by briefly highlighting two reform possibilities - federalization and unionization - that are of interest to industry players, reformers, and scholars.


Vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) films, comprising nanopillars of one phase embedded in a matrix of another, have shown great promise for a range of applications due to their high interfacial areas oriented perpendicular to the substrate. In particular, oxide VANs show enhanced oxide-ion conductivity in directions that are orthogonal to those found in more conventional thin-film heterostructures; however, the structure of the interfaces and its influence on conductivity remain unclear. In this work, 17O NMR spectroscopy is used to study CeO2–SrTiO3 VAN thin films: selective isotopic enrichment is combined with a lift-off technique to remove the substrate, facilitating detection of the 17O NMR signal from single atomic layer interfaces. By performing the isotopic enrichment at variable temperatures, the superior oxide-ion conductivity of the VAN films compared to the bulk materials is shown to arise from enhanced oxygen mobility at this interface; oxygen motion at the interface is further identified from 17O relaxometry experiments. The structure of this interface is solved by calculating the NMR parameters using density functional theory combined with random structure searching, allowing the chemistry underpinning the enhanced oxide-ion transport to be proposed. Finally, a comparison is made with 1% Gd-doped CeO2–SrTiO3 VAN films, for which greater NMR signal can be obtained due to paramagnetic relaxation enhancement, while the relative oxide-ion conductivities of the phases remain similar. These results highlight the information that can be obtained on interfacial structure and dynamics with solid-state NMR spectroscopy, in this and other nanostructured systems, our methodology being generally applicable to overcome sensitivity limitations in thin-film studies.


Summary (1) Dogs anesthetized with nitrous oxide were given positive pressure respiration and nebulized ethanol for 30 min in a manner similar to that used in treating human subjects for acute pulmonary edema. A control group was given the same treatment without the ethanol. Blood and urine samples were collected during this 30-min period and for 2 hr afterward while the animals were maintained under anesthesia and artificial respiration. (2) Blood alcohol levels reached an average of 59 mg/100 ml in 30 min and diminished to 17 mg/100 ml at the end of the 1 hr postnebulization period. It is considered that these concentrations are high enough to have important systemic effects on sedation but probably have little hemodynamic effect. (3) The urine of the dogs breathing ethanol vapor showed a significant decrease in osmolal-ity in contrast to the increased osmolality of the urine of the control dogs. The fact that they did not develop a positive clearance of free water is attributed to the antidiuretic effects of positive pressure respiration and the anesthesia.


We propose a next generation Internet architecture that will allow natural sharing of resources among multiple organizations by dynamically reconfiguring and creating a virtual network for a particular application. Our architecture called "Internet 3.0" consists of a 3-tier object model. The bottom tier consists of a high-speed network infrastructure owned by multiple ISPs. The second tier consists of hosts owned by different organizations such as DoE, DARPA, Amazon, etc. The third tier consists of users and data objects. This is a three tiered virtualization model as compared to single tier virtualization being discussed in NSF's GENI and FIND communities. This three tiered virtualization model allows users to quickly setup a virtual cloud for any application. The users and data can easily move among the host clouds that themselves move on the infrastructure cloud. The users, data, hosts, and infrastructures are owned by different organizations that have their own policies for sharing and isolation. Also the multi-tiered virtualization concept allows each tier to recursively provide richer and more diversified set of core services to the tier above it.


Introduction Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are everywhere. Most of our technology today and in future is based upon applications using electric currents, magnets and thus bear the risk to emit hazardous levels of electromagnetic fields. For this purpose workplace exposure due to EMF has to be assessed to ensure that impermissible exposure of employees is avoided. Particular attention has to be paid to employees with medical implants. Our presentation focusses on the process of exposure assessment of electromagnetic fields at several industrial workplaces. Methods Commonly measurements are performed to assess electromagnetic fields at workplace. Electromagnetic field simulations via numerical calculations can be needful if the EMF source is very complex or direct measurement is not possible. Measurements require a high degree of expert knowledge to assess the entire exposure scenario: relevant field sources have to be identified with both knowledge of fundamental functionality and operating frequency. Risk assessment usually considers working procedures and the whole working area at large. Results Several industrial applications imply a potential risk for safety and health of employees at their workplace. Thus, exposure has to be minimised by either technical, organisational and/or personal measures. Most of the required measures are simple as well as inexpensive, e.g. provision of operating instructions, safety instructions of employees, labelling of critical areas or just increase of distance to the field source. Only few cases require extensive measures, which may lead to a prohibition to resume work – especially for employees with active implants. Discussion EMF at workplace are underestimated and somehow neglected in the scope of risk assessment. That's why people have to become sensitised to this topic to recognise possible hazards. Especially employees with medical implants are particularly vulnerable with regard to EMF. For this purpose a specially tailored risk assessment procedure is needed to address this problem completely and more adequate.


We have demonstrated previously that pretreatment with an angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) agonist is neuroprotective against a subsequent stroke independent of any changes in blood pressure. Therefore, in the current study, we have examined the potential neuroprotective effect of AT2R stimulation initiated after stroke induction to mimic the clinical setting. Intracerebroventricular administration of the AT2R agonist CGP42112 was commenced 6 hours after an ischemic stroke had been induced in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats. CGP42112 given over 4 doses in the same rats (3 µg/kg per dose centrally) at 6, 24, 48, and 72 hours after stroke induction reduced total infarct volume (32±13 mm3 versus vehicle, 170±49 mm3; P<0.05) and improved motor function. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that AT2R stimulation after stroke increased neuronal survival, decreased apoptosis, and caused an increase in the number of activated microglia in the core region of damage. The effects of CGP42112 were partially reversed with the coadministration of an AT2R antagonist, PD123319. Thus, the current study has shown for the first time that delayed central AT2R stimulation after a cerebral incident is neuroprotective in a conscious rat model of stroke.


BACKGROUND
 Patients with a normal stress image on technetium-99m (Tc-99m) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) have a good prognosis for diagnosing coronary artery disease. However, current guidelines recommend stress and rest imaging to confirm that a stress image is normal.

METHODS AND RESULTS
 We determined all-cause of cardiac events (acute coronary syndrome and sudden death) in 1,939 patients undergoing stress myocardial perfusion SPECT with Tc-99m radiotracers. Patients with an abnormal stress image were excluded, so we focused on 1,125 patients in whom the stress SPECT study was interpreted as normal. A stress-only protocol was used in 726 patients (adenosine=339; exercise=387), whereas 399 had both stress and rest imaging (adenosine=294; exercise=105). Mean follow-up was 1,252 days. At the end of follow-up, there were 39 cardiac events in the stress-only cohort and 19 in the stress-rest cohort. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that there were no differences for the entire cohort of cardiac events not only between the stress-only and stress-rest protocols but also for stressor modality, despite the fact that the stress-rest cohort showed higher coronary risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS
 Patients determined as having a normal SPECT on the basis of stress imaging alone have a similar cardiac event rate as those who have a normal SPECT on the basis of evaluation of both stress and rest images. This imaging strategy will significantly reduce radiation exposure in a substantial number of patients.


Although the role of vitamin A deficiency in the development of xerophthalmia is well established, there is still some question as to whether the deficiency alone is sufficient cause for the development of keratomalacia. This article describes the clinical, histologic, and microbiologic changes occurring in eyes of vitamin A-deficient rats when keratomalacia-like stromal ulceration is induced by epithelial injury alone. The corneal epithelia of 21 severely vitamin A-deficient rats and 11 pair-fed controls were totally removed either by scraping or by n-heptanol. At 96 hr after epithelial removal, 93% of the deficient animals showed extensive epithelial defects and stromal ulceration. Histologically, an intense acute inflammatory response and abundant bacterial forms were consistently evident. Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus fecalis were the most frequent pathogens cultured from these ulcerating eyes. In contrast, the control corneas showed essentially complete re-epithelialization, with no ulceration, minimal inflammatory reaction, and an absence of morphologically demonstrable bacteria. Bacterial cultures from the control eyes showed abundant Pasteurella, with pathogens also present. These observations suggest that abnormal epithelial recovery, acute inflammation, and bacterial infection may be important factors for the development of keratomalacia-like corneal ulceration in experimental vitamin A deficiency.


This study introduces the concept of personal innovative behaviour and demonstrates its validity in the context of e-book reader adoption and use. Personal innovative behaviour, unlike measures of consumer innovativeness, amalgamates decisions about product adoption with reports of the product's actual use. Quantitative methodology was used, and probability proportional stratified sampling technique was used to obtain the proportionate sample. Items to measure personal innovative behaviour for e-book readers were included in a questionnaire distributed to students at a Malaysian university. Of the 386 participants, 79% used the e-book reader, half of them for academic purposes. Confirmatory factor analysis using Amos tested the concept of personal innovative behaviour for both users and non-users. The results indicated that the underlying dimensions, (intended Adoption Behaviour and actual Use Behaviour), could be measured and combined in a structural model only for users, i.e. innovators. Good model fit confirmed the validity and reliability of the framework. The redefined construct and scale validation will be helpful to researchers to measure the individual personal behaviour in terms of their final decision to adopt and actual usage of the novel product. The personal innovative behaviour scale presented here can be used by researchers and practitioners to measure adoption and use of personal information products and devices. The two dimensional conceptualization of personal innovative behaviour (intended Adoption Behaviour and actual Use Behaviour) reconciles similarities and differences between the decision and action variables in innovation diffusion theory and the technology acceptance model.


Sir: Recently, increased frequen( bodies to retroviral proteins has t in serum samples from patients wi Sj6gren's syndrome. Talal et al re presence of antibodies to p24 gag HIV-I in serum samples of 14 of (30%) with primary Sjogren's 4 Moreover, they found that two sa reacted with p17 protein. Coll et reported high prevalence (33%) of to p24 in 21 patients with primar syndrome.2 In addition, they fox seven positive samples reactivity HIV-1 proteins namely, with samples), with p55 (six), and with No other studies have hitherto these interesting results. The aim of our study was to v findings in northern Italian pai primary Sj6gren's syndrome. We 48 outpatients with primary Sj6j drome followed up at two i (Clinical Immunology, Brescia ai Rheumatology, Ferrara). All th were female (mean age 53-4 ye 21-80). None was in a risk group Diagnosis of Sj6gren's syndrome according to established criteria.3 fulfilled American Rheumatism criteria for diagnosis of associate connective tissue disease. Antinuclear antibodies were d indirect immunofluorescence usi cells as a substrate. Antibodies to extractable nucle were detected by counterimmi phoresis according to Bernstein 4 both rabbit thymus acetone p human spleen extract.


Artificial neural network (ANN) is an intriguing data processing technique. Over the last decade, it was applied widely in the chemistry field, but there were few applications in the porous NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA). In this paper, 32 sets of samples from thermal explosion experiments were used to build a three-layer BP (back propagation) neural network model. According to the registered BP model, the effect of process parameters including heating rate ( ), green density ( ) and particle size of Ti ( d ) on compressive properties of reacted products including ultimate compressive strength ( v D σ ) and ultimate compressive strain (ε ) was analyzed. The predicted results agree with the actual data within reasonable experimental error, which shows that the BP model is a practically very useful tool in the properties analysis and process parameters design of the porous NiTi SMA prepared by thermal explosion method.


: We give a survey of epistemological and ontological approaches that have left traces in the 20th-century biology. A common motive of most of them is the effort to incorporate biology into the realm of physical sciences. However, such attempts failed, and must fail in the future, unless the criterion for what science is becomes biologically oriented. This means broadening the realm of classical natural sciences, incorporating at least part of the thesaurus of the "humanities". We suggest three mutually complementary candidates for further development in this direction: modular biology, the hermeneutics of the living, and the semiotic disciplines.


Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic commonly used in the treatment of gram-positive bacterial infections. With the rising prevalence of resistant gram-positive bacterial infections in healthcare institutions and the advent of attempts to curb escalating medical cost, vancomycin is being used with increasing frequency in the homecare setting for infection management. In view of its variability in pharmacokinetics and the potential for toxicities, serum concentrations often are measured. This article reviews the pharmacology of vancomycin and suggests a practical approach to serum concentration monitoring in homecare.


This paper gives an overview of the state of the art in the field of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and investigates the applicability of HCI research to the development of large, data intensive software systems. 1 We employ our experiences in a project on administration software for the health insurance sector, for which we designed and implemented an HCI prototype. We describe problems we encountered, focussing on the design process, user involvement, and GUI design. We propose possible solutions for these problems and conclude that for e-government applications the problems we pointed out are also typical but even more critical to solve due to issues like web-based user interface constraints, for instance, as there are neither any usability guidelines for web pages established, nor is there any usability awareness.


Agriculture is considered as one of the major drivers of deforestation worldwide. Especially
in Africa, this process is driven by small-scale agriculture. Agricultural intensification is
widely proposed as measure to reduce pressure on forests. Empirical evidence suggests,
however, that win-win relations between agricultural intensification and forest conservation
are the exception. As option, payments for ecosystem services (PES) could be linked to
small-scale agricultural support programs and safeguard reduced deforestation while
achieving agricultural intensification. Nevertheless, little scientific evidence exists regarding
perceptions of potential PES recipients for such designs. We report from a discrete choice
experiment in Zambia, that elicited preferences of small scale farmers for PES contracts
incorporating incentives for agricultural intensification. The experimental design included
both monetary and non-monetary contract attributes. Our results suggest that potential PES
recipients in Zambia value in-kind agricultural inputs higher than cash payments,
highlighting that PES could potentially succeed in conserving forests and intensifying smallscale
agriculture. Respondents also put significant emphasis on improved tenure security and
non-monetary contract attributes, thus allowing to considerably reduce overall costs of PES if
designed appropriately.


Do players find it more enjoyable to win, than to play even matches? We have made a study of what a number of players expressed after playing against computer opponents of different kinds in an RTS game. There were two static computer opponents, one that was easily beaten, and one that was hard to beat, and three dynamic ones that adapted their strength to that of the player. One of these three latter ones intentionally drops its performance in the end of the game to make it easy for the player to win. Our results indicate that the players found it more enjoyable to play an even game against an opponent that adapts to the performance of the player, than playing against an opponent with static difficulty. The results also show that when the computer player that dropped its performance to let the player win was the least enjoyable opponent of them all.


Mandated testing is not working as advertised. Too much classroom time and energy is being spent on tests that do little to measure or instill in our students the skills and knowledge needed for their later life. Corruption and political manipulation of the testing process and test results further add to questions about the use of such testing. Teachers, students, and parents are being uduly stressed out by these test mandates and schools are overburdened by their cost. ********** Recently, school districts, state education authorities, and the federal Department of Education have promulgated rules and procedures greatly increasing the frequency of student testing in the schools of America. The amount of time used to prepare for such testing and the testing itself occupies an alarming proportion of class time for teachers and students. This article posits the belief that such testing is counterproductive due to its frequency, content and question style, and stress it places on students and teachers. It is apparent that results are being used by many politicians eager to be seen as "education friendly" to voters in scurrilous ways and that advancing students' learning is not being achieved as advertised. President George W. Bush's "No child left behind" program now mandated across the nation was heralded as a means to provably and measurably improve student academic performance and to increase student retention rates. This program is modeled after Dr. Ron Paige's program when he headed Houston's, Texas Education Department. The program looked promising as Mr. Bush became President; however, soon thereafter, complaints about the program from teachers, students, and parents began to surface. Complaints centered about matters of lack of teacher preparation in administering and evaluating the tests; the enormous time such test preparation and administration took away from class instruction; and students exhibiting debilitating evidence of testing fatigue. In 2004-2005, evidence of testing fraud by administrators and teachers in order to achieve "satisfactory" or better results is emerging. Teachers fabricating results, changing test pages, and inappropriately prompting students during test taking; school administrators making (and in many cases being enabled by state and federal rules) decisions as to what constitutes student drop outs, failure, and exemptions from such testing in such ways as to advantageously and outrageously manipulate test achievement records for individual students, schools, and school system advantage. Some of these manipulating measures border on, if not actually are, criminal. One school district held back 40% of its 3rd grade students so it would not have to give these low achievers the important 4th grade achievement tests. Some students have been held back more than one year even though they achieved high class grades over the year. (1) Retention rates were manipulated by creatively defining jailed students as non-dropouts. (2) Many other students with marginal learning disabilities were characterized as exempt from regular testing and therefore were not included in testing statistics thus making a class or school seem better prepared than reality suggests. (3) The troubling aspects of excessive class time spent on tests, the increased stress to teachers and students, the fact that many teachers concentrate on teaching the test rather than on material classically assumed to be the proper substance of class time, and the corrupt teacher, school, and system practices now being reported are alarming enough; but there is an even more alarming feature of this mandated over testing: it is highly questionable in terms of educational validity. Mandated tests are all similar--not exactly alike--in that they are objective in form; mostly multiple choice, true-false, and fill in the blank in style; and tightly timed in administration. For each item, there is a single correct response; no deviation is allowed or expected. …


Liquid whole egg or egg white, inoculated with Escherichia coli 1485, Salmonella senftenberg ATCC 8400, or Salmonella typhimurium 84-I, was treated with concentrations of β-propiolactone ranging from 0.05 to 0.3%. Egg white containing 1 × 103 to 1 × 106 cells of E. coli 1485 per ml was sterilized in 1 hr at 27 C by lactone concentrations of 0.2 and 0.3%. Egg white containing 1 × 105 cells of S. senftenberg ATCC 8400 per ml was sterilized in 12 hr at 10 C by 0.1% lactone and in 2 to 3 hr by 0.3% lactone at the same temperature. Liquid whole egg inoculated with 1 × 105 cells of either species of Salmonella was sterilized in 4 to 5 hr at 10 C with 0.2% lactone or in 2 to 3 hr by 0.3% lactone at this temperature. A mild heat treatment of either 15 min at 37 C or 1 min at 55 C markedly shortened the exposure times required for sterilization by β-propiolactone at 10 C. After disinfection was complete, the lactone-treated liquid whole egg was reinoculated with low cell numbers of either species of Salmonella to determine the presence of residual lactone or toxic products. Liquid whole egg treated with 0.2% lactone would support the growth of salmonellae after 13 to 14 hr at 10 C. A heat treatment of 45 min at 37 C or 10 min at 55 C immediately after addition of 0.2% lactone allowed growth of the salmonellae in the lactone-treated liquid whole egg. No evidence of residual toxicity from the lactone treatment was found. The amount of lactone needed to prevent the outgrowth of low cell numbers of either strain of Salmonella in liquid whole egg was quantitated. Liquid whole egg containing 0.06 to 0.07% lactone would not support salmonellae growth from inocula of 1 to 10 cells per ml of egg. Lactone concentrations above 0.08% prevented outgrowth of salmonellae inocula of 10 to 200 cells per ml of liquid whole egg.


During inflammatory responses, monocytes are recruited into inflamed tissues, where they become monocyte-derived macrophages and acquire pro-inflammatory and tissue-damaging effects in response to the surrounding environment. In fact, monocyte-derived macrophage subsets are major pathogenic cells in inflammatory pathologies. Strikingly, the transcriptome of pathogenic monocyte-derived macrophage subsets resembles the gene profile of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF)-primed monocyte-derived human macrophages (M-MØ). As M-MØ display a characteristic cytokine profile after activation (IL10high TNFlow IL23low IL6low), we sought to determine the transcriptional signature of M-MØ upon exposure to pathogenic stimuli. Activation of M-MØ led to the acquisition of a distinctive transcriptional profile characterized by the induction of a group of genes (Gene set 1) highly expressed by pathogenic monocyte-derived macrophages in COVID-19 and whose presence in tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) correlates with the expression of macrophage-specific markers (CD163, SPI1) and IL10. Indeed, Gene set 1 expression was primarily dependent on ERK/p38 and STAT3 activation, and transcriptional analysis and neutralization experiments revealed that IL-10 is not only required for the expression of a subset of genes within Gene set 1 but also significantly contributes to the idiosyncratic gene signature of activated M-MØ. Our results indicate that activation of M-CSF-dependent monocyte-derived macrophages induces a distinctive gene expression profile, which is partially dependent on IL-10, and identifies a gene set potentially helpful for macrophage-centered therapeutic strategies.


Industrial policy is back at the centre stage of policy debate, while the world is undergoing dramatic transformations. This article contributes to the debate by developing a new theory of industrial policy, incorporating some issues that have been neglected so far and taking into account the recent changes in economic reality. The authors explore how the incorporation of some of the neglected issues — commitments under uncertainty, learning in production, macroeconomic management (especially demand management), and conflict management — changes the theory. They then examine how the theory of industrial policy should be modified in light of recent changes in economic reality: the rise of the global value chain, financialization and new imperialism. This contribution aims at promoting a pragmatic approach to industrial policy and pointing to new areas for policy intervention in a changing world.


Background and aim: Liver injury leads to infiltration of immune cells and a subsequent activation of hepatic stellate cells. Chemokines are ubiquitous chemotactic proteins which are involved in inflammatory pathways. It has been recently suggested that chemokines can also induce the expression of other chemokines and thereby indirectly regulate immune cell recruitment. We therefore investigated the ability of the chemokine CXCL9 to induce CXCL1, an important neutrophil chemoattractant.
Methods: The ability of CXCR3 ligands CXCL9 and CXCL10 to induce CXCL1 expresssion was analyzed in immortalized (GRX) and primary hepatic stellate cells isolated from wild-type and CXCR3-/- mice. Cells were treated with different concentrations of chemokines in the absence and presence of pertussis toxin. Furthermore, mice were treated systemically with CXCL9 and hepatic CXCL1 levels as well as neutrophil infiltration were assessed.
Results: Treatment of GRX cells with CXCL9 leads to a dose dependent induction of CXCL1 protein expression. This stimulatory effect was validated in primary hepatic stellate cells (P<0.01). In contrast, stimulation of stellate cells with CCL2 did not result in CXCL1 induction. Increased CXCL1 expression in response to CXCL9 was completely abolished by co-incubation with pertussis toxin and in stellate cells derived from CXCR3-/- mice, the canonical receptor for CXCL9 and CXCL10. Notably, systemic treatment of mice with CXCL9 led to elevated hepatic CXCL1 levels and was associated with enhanced neutrophil infiltration into the liver.
Conclusions: The study describes a chemokine-chemokine pathway in hepatic stellate cells which leads to augmented infiltration of neutrophils into the liver during acute liver injury.


Objective : To present the process of taking advantage of an opportunity in the health segment by a chiropractic clinic. Methodology : It was adopted the methodology of problem solving and seizing opportunities, as it is work applied to the reality of a business. Results: The rapid growth in demand for services by 361.97% in revenues and 4.41% in profit margin between June 2018 and May 2019, as it doubled the number of calls. This allowed the clinic to expand with the establishment of a new facility at the end of this period. Theoretical / methodological contributions : The methodology used has been shown to be sufficiently robust and efficient to address a practical entrepreneurship theme, involving concrete and complex issues of the company's reality. Relevance/originality : Show the development of a successful venture, showing how it is possible to double the revenue of a business using a scientifically based methodology that allows replication and is valid for dealing with reality. Social/management contributions : The fact that a start-up company in the health business has doubled its size, has generated benefits for more people in need of health recovery, resulting in the expansion of staff by hiring more professional and administrative support, as well as reinvestment in business expansion. For managers, it is important to emphasize that businesses start and expand by meeting customer needs and delivering what they are effectively demanding.


This guide contains information about the Music Library, and details of resources that are useful to staff and students in the School of Music at UWA, including databases, online scores and sound recordings, theses and web resources. Theses


Abstract. Monthly wildfire burned area frequency is here modeled with a power law distribution and scaling exponent across different European biomes are estimated. Data sets, spanning from 2000 to 2009, comprehend the inventory of monthly burned areas from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) and simulated monthly burned areas from a recent parameterization of a Land Surface Model (LSM), that is the Community Land Model (CLM). Power law exponents are estimated with a Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) for different European biomes. The characteristic fire size (CFS), i.e. the area that most contributes to the total burned area, was also calculated both from EFFIS and CLM data set. We used the power law fitting and the CFS analysis to benchmark CLM model against the EFFIS observational wildfires data set available for Europe. Results for the EFFIS data showed that power law fittings holds for 2–3 orders of magnitude in the Boreal and Continental ecoregions, whereas the distribution of the Alpine, Atlantic are fitted only in the upper tail. Power law instead is not a suitable model for fitting CLM simulations. CLM benchmarking analysis showed that the model strongly overestimates burned areas and fails in reproducing size-frequency distribution of observed EFFIS wildfires. This benchmarking analysis showed that some refinements in CLM structure (in particular regarding the anthropogenic influence) are needed for predicting future wildfires scenarios, since the low spatial resolution of the model and differences in relative frequency of small and large fires can affect the reliability of the predictions.


The rotational band built on the i13/2 proton [660,1/2] Nilsson state in 173Re is proven to be identical to that in 171Ta. The close similarity of the two bands in 171Ta and 173Re suggests that the 173Re nucleus with the odd proton based on the i13/2 [660,1/2] Nilsson state may be triaxially superdeformed.


The fires of summer 2003 in south-eastern Australia burnt tens of thousands of hectares of treeless alpine landscape. Here, we examine the environmental impact of these fires, using data from the Bogong High Plains area of Victoria, and the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales. Historical and biophysical evidence suggests that in Australian alpine environments, extensive fires occur only in periods of extended regional drought, and when severe local fire weather coincides with multiple ignitions in the surrounding montane forests. Dendrochronological evidence indicates that large fires have occurred approximately every 50–100 years over the past 400 years. Post-fire monitoring of vegetation in grasslands and heathlands indicates that most alpine species regenerate rapidly after fire, with >90% of species present 1 year after fire. Some keystone species in some plant communities, however, had not regenerated after 3 years. The responses of alpine fauna to the 2003 fires were variable. The core habitat (closed heathland) of several vulnerable small mammals was extensively burnt. Some mammals experienced substantial falls in populations, others experienced substantial increases. Unburnt patches of vegetation are critical to faunal recovery from fire. There was, however, no evidence of local extinction. We conclude that infrequent extensive fires are a feature of alpine Australia. For both the flora and fauna, there is no quantitative evidence that the 2003 fires were an ecological disaster, and we conclude that the flora and fauna of alpine Australia are highly resilient to infrequent, large, intense fires.


Abstract Laparoscopic hernia repeair is associated with its own set of complications, such as intra-abdominal organ and vascular injury, gas embolism, penumoperitoneum, small bowel obstruction secondary to trocar site fascial defects, intra-abdominal adhesion, and reaction to synthetic mesh. With the extraperitoneal approach, the abdominal cavity is not violated, thereby eliminating the risks for these complications. However, small bowel obstruction, albeit rarely, do occur with this approach because of inadvertent violation of the peritoneal cavity, or failure to close the peritoneal opening of the hernia sac, as shown in this case presentation.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Both technical and pathophysiologic factors affect PSR in DSC-MR imaging. We aimed to determine how TE, flip angle (α), and contrast dose impact PSR in high-grade gliomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively computed PSR maps for 22 patients with high-grade gliomas, comparing 3 DSC-MR imaging methods by using single-dose gadodiamide without preload administration: A (n = 7), α = 35°, TE = 54 ms; B (n = 5), α = 72°, TE = 30 ms; C (n = 10), α = 90°, TE = 30 ms. Methods A-C served as preload for subsequent dynamic imaging using method D (method C parameters but with double-dose contrast). We compared first- and second-injection tumor PSR for methods C and D (paired t test) and tumor PSR for both injections grouped by the first-injection acquisition method (3-group nonparametric 1-way ANOVA). We compared PSR in tumor and normal brain for each first- and second-injection method group (paired t test). RESULTS: First-injection PSR in tumor and normal brain differed significantly for methods B (P = .01) and C (P = .05), but not A (P = .71). First-injection tumor PSR increased with T1 weighting with a significant main effect of method groupings (P = .0012), but there was no significant main effect for first-injection normal brain (P = .93), or second-injection tumor (P = .95) or normal brain (P = .13). In patients scanned with methods C and D, first-injection PSR significantly exceeded second-injection PSR for tumor (P = .037) and normal brain (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: PSR strongly depends on the T1 weighting of DSC-MR imaging, including pulse sequence (TE, α) and contrast agent (dose, preload) parameters, with implications for protocol design and the interpretation and comparison of PSR values across tumor types and imaging centers.


Environmental tax rhetoric in the Estonian policy discussion leads to a dilemma. Policy makers want to increase environmental charges for budgetary reasons and at the same time achieve environmental goals. The article examines the empirics of this issue, i.e. whether pollution charges have been successful as a fiscal or as an environmental instrument. By index analysis the authors find that pollution charges were fiscally successful in the beginning of the 2000's and have since 2004 been successful environmental taxes. The proposition that environmental charges do not cover the damage costs of pollution is also under investigation. It is found that the damage cost estimates have incorrectly been interpreted as average costs. The implication is that the damage costs which have been used as evidence for increasing pollution charges are incorrect and that the over-estimation of damages is in the order of a magnitude of two or more.


The EU and EURATOM are the only international organizations ever to have made a declaration entitled "reservation" when approving an international agreement. Though the ability of the EU to express its own consent also implies its ability to make reservations, the legal regime applicable to this new practice needs to be clarified. This article sets out the challenges presented when determining the customary international law rules on reservations applicable to the EU. In particular, uncertainty as to the relevant rules has led to an ambivalent reservations practice. The EU sometimes acts as a unidimensional entity and makes reservations or objections in order to express its own unilateral interests. However, it remains compelled by the multidimensional reality of its status as a regional integration organization. Reservations may thus be a tool to reconcile this reality and accommodate the regime of a multilateral agreement to the participation of an international organization. This article concludes that the EU's practice provides useful insights into the development of reservations-making by international organizations and into their autonomous participation in international lawmaking more broadly.


Action learning has evolved as an efficient tool for learning and bringing about change simultaneously in the 21st century. The growing body of literature on action learning acknowledges the wide use of action learning in a variety of organizations and contexts. However since its conception by Revans in 1940's, action learning has been subject to different interpretations mostly due to its simplistic concepts and flexibility of being adopted quickly. In pursuit of a better understanding, the author sets on a unique journey to investigate the relationship between action learning and multicultural groups. The author upon detailed review of literature identifies that there is a gap on the knowledge provided by researchers on conducting action learning within multicultural cohorts, especially in an academic environment. This study helps to determine the learning impact and offers educationists and academics themes on what to expect and how to mould their group learning strategies to maximize learning while using action learning.


This paper presents a new analysis of the concept of non-instrumental need, and, using it, demonstrates how a need-satisfaction theory of well-being is much more plausible than might otherwise be supposed. Its thesis is that in at least some contexts of evaluation a central part of some persons' well-being consists in their satisfying certain "personal needs". Unlike common conceptions of other non-instrumental needs, which make those out to be moralised, universal, and minimal, personal needs are expansive and particular to particular persons, generated rather by persons' non-moral personal commitments. Against objections to the contrary, I show how these are genuine necessities, since unlike mere desires and freely escapable aims, personal needs constitute objective, inescapable, and non-compensable practical requirements. The personal-need-satisfaction theory of well-being combines objectivity with subject-dependence in novel ways, and motivates well-being pluralism at the level of individual agency. Implicating necessity as it does in the structure of individual well-being, this account presents a robust challenge to ethical and political theories that rely on the intrapersonal aggregation of well-being to be unproblematic.


How did we come to a modern understanding of our bodies and souls? What were the breakthroughs that allowed human beings to see themselves in a new light? Starting with the revolutionary ideas of the Renaissance that challenged the sense of the body as a corrupt vessel for the soul, Roy Porter goes on to chart how - through figures as diverse as Locke, Swift, Johnson and Gibbon - ideas about medicine, politics and religion fundamentally changed notions of self. He shows how the body moved centre stage in the 18th century, writing on the ways in which men and women flaunted, decorated, tanned and dieted themselves: activities that we find familiar but that a Puritan divine would have considered Satanic. Porter also explores how, at the end of the century, the human soul took on a new significance in the works of Godwin, Blane and Byron.


Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. At school age, 4-7% of all children is experiencing asthmatic symptoms. Improvement of asthma control and health related quality of life (HRQOL) may lower the huge burden of this disease. This requires insight into the determinants of asthma control and asthma related quality of life. Although it seems to be attractive to control all the determinants of asthma control in order to achieve proper asthma management, in clinical practice we do not succeed. In this thesis, we showed that in children, upper and lower respiratory tract infections are important determinants of asthma control. We also found that during the fall asthmatic children experience lower HRQOL. This may be due to the higher prevalence of viruses during this season. We furthermore identified two self perceived triggers for wheeze that negatively influenced HRQOL: emotions and perceived foods and drinks that trigger wheeze. In 91% of the children that perceived food and drinks to trigger wheeze, food allergic symptoms were present. It is not unlikely that underlying fear for food related respiratory symptoms may be present in this group of children. Besides the important role viruses play in asthma control, some viruses are thought to be associated with the development of asthma. For instance, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which is the most frequent cause for hospitalization in infancy. It is unknown why RSV causes mild disease in some children, and severe disease, requiring hospitalization, in others. In most hospitalized no risk factors are present. We showed that hospitalization for RSV bronchiolitis during infancy is associated with increased risk of wheezing, asthma, and impaired lung function at age 6, as compared to an unselected birth cohort. We also studied whether early treatment of RSV bronchiolitis affects these long term outcomes, and showed that high dose inhaled beclomethasone during RSV bronchiolitis does not affect lung function, nor prevents the development the atopic diseases during long term follow-up. An explanation for this ineffectiveness may be the fact that these children are predisposed to develop asthma and already have lower lung functions from birth. We studied this hypothesis and found that neonatal lung functions in children that would be hospitalized for a severe RSV infection in the first year of life were significantly lower than children experiencing a less severe RSV infection.


AbstractKnowledge management (KM) systems can provide businesses a wide range of advantages and efficiency improvements. Increasing competition forces companies to seek new ways to streamline their processes and manage their information and knowledge better, leading to increased demand for KM solutions. Considering various needs of organizations and diverse features of available KM alternatives, choosing the most suitable KM tool is an important decision for businesses. The contribution of this paper to the KM literature is a KM evaluation framework for decision makers to compare available KM products of different vendors by first identifying relevant evaluation criteria and then proposing a group decision making framework using the Interval Type-2 TOPSIS technique. This method has more flexibility in handling uncertainties compared to the Type-1 fuzzy sets and enables decision makers to effectively analyze, compare and select the most appropriate KM tools. The framework is also used in a case study for t...


With the addition of six newly discovered lines, only four pumped media (CH3OH, CH3OD, CD3OD, and CH2CF2) are needed to cover the range 8 to 244 cm−1 densely for submillimeter laser spectroscopy. The 35 reported lines have powers far exceeding those available in conventional blackbody sources and provide an average spacing comparable with that found in Fourier spectrometers. The new lines were found in CH3OD at 24.0, 30.3, 43.6, 74.2, and 214.1 cm−1 and in CH2CF2 at 13.1 cm−1.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate ictal nystagmus and audiovestibular characteristics in episodic spontaneous vertigo after cochlear implantation (CI).

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective and prospective case series.

PATIENTS
Twenty-one CI patients with episodic spontaneous vertigo after implantation were recruited.

INTERVENTIONS
Patient-initiated home video-oculography recordings were performed during one or more attacks of vertigo, using miniature portable home video-glasses. To assess canal and otolith function, video head-impulse tests (vHITs) and vestibular-evoked myogenic potential tests were conducted.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Nystagmus slow-phase velocities (SPVs), the presence of horizontal direction-changing nystagmus, and post-CI audiovestibular tests.

RESULTS
Main final diagnoses were post-CI secondary endolymphatic hydrops (48%) and exacerbation of existing Ménière's disease (29%). Symptomatic patients demonstrated high-velocity horizontal ictal-nystagmus (SPV, 44.2°/s and 68.2°/s in post-CI secondary endolymphatic hydrop and Ménière's disease). Direction-changing nystagmus was observed in 80 and 75%. Two were diagnosed with presumed autoimmune inner ear disease (SPV, 6.6°/s and 172.9°/s). One patient was diagnosed with probable vestibular migraine (15.1°/s).VHIT gains were 0.80 ± 0.20 (lateral), 0.70 ± 0.17 (anterior), and 0.62 ± 0.27 (posterior) in the implanted ear, with abnormal values in 33, 35, and 35% of each canal. Bone-conducted cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials were asymmetric in 52 and 29% of patients (all lateralized to the implanted ear) with mean asymmetry ratios of 51.2 and 35.7%. Reversible reduction in vHIT gain was recorded in three acutely symptomatic patients.

CONCLUSION
High-velocity, direction-changing nystagmus time-locked with vertigo attacks may be observed in post-CI implant vertigo and may indicate endolymphatic hydrops. Fluctuating vHIT gain may be an additional marker of a recurrent peripheral vestibulopathy.


Proceedings: AACR 107th Annual Meeting 2016; April 16-20, 2016; New Orleans, LA

Introduction

Expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in breast cancer have been widely studied and used as prognostic markers or therapeutic targets in breast cancer patients. However, clinical and pathologic roles of these hormone receptor genes have not been clearly established in thyroid cancer.

Materials and methods

To evaluate the relationship between sex hormone receptor gene expressions and clinicopathologic variables, we analyzed ESR1, ESR2, ESR ratio (ESR1/ESR2) and PGR mRNA expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) RNA sequencing experiment in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). To validate results from TCGA analysis, we additionally analyzed a public microarray data (GSE 54598) from the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database.

Results

In TCGA data analysis, ESR1, ESR ratio and PGR expression were significantly higher in PTC tissue than in normal thyroid tissue (Mean value of normal versus tumor were 264.045 vs 659.427 in ESR1, 19.064 vs 92,017 in ESR ratio and 58.514 vs 119.792 in PGR, respectively). In female patients, ESR1 and ESR ratio was negatively correlated with advanced age (t-value was -2.257 and -2.949 in linear regression analysis). Expression of ESR1 and ESR ratio were higher in classic type PTC, presentation of lymphovascular invasion and BRAF V600E mutation. Higher expression group of ESR1 and ESR ratio showed worse overall survival in female PTC patients (Hazard ratio was 6.348 in ESR1 and 4.031 in ESR ratio, respectively). In microarray analysis, ESR1 and ESR ratio expressions were higher in tumor than normal, classic than follicular variant and BRAF V600E than wild type.

Conclusion

Expression of ESR1 and ESR ratio were associated with aggressive prognostic factors and worse overall survival in female PTC patients. These results suggest that higher expression of ESR1 and ESR ratio can be used as prognostic markers to predict survival in female patients.

Citation Format: Jin Wook Yi, Ra-Yeong Song, Hyeong Won Yu, Joon-Hyop Lee, Hyungju Kwon, Young Jun Chai, June Young Choi, Su-jin Kim, Kyu-Eun Lee. ESR1 gene expression and expression ratio of ESR1 to ESR2 are associated with worse prognosis in papillary thyroid carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3483.


Traditional evaluation metrics based on statistical formulas employed to assess the performance of a recommender system are now considered to be inadequate when utilized solely. New metrics considering the quality of user-system interaction alongside with traditional ones have been proposed in evaluation process in order to arrive at more adequate results. Generating explanations for recommendations is a research topic that has emerged as a way to evaluate the system with respect to various criteria considering users' opinions and feelings. This paper presents the state-of-the-art with respect to the explanation of a


Purpose: Melanoma subtypes based on anatomic location and UV light exposure can be further classified based on genetic alterations recently identified. Mutations and gene amplification in KIT have been described in a significant percentage of mucosal and acral melanomas. We recently reported a patient with metastatic mucosal melanoma harboring a known KIT mutation treated with imatinib mesylate who experienced a major response. Biological effects of KIT inhibition in these melanomas remain poorly understood. We sought to investigate further the effects of imatinib in these melanoma subsets. Experimental Design: Mucosal melanoma cells were analyzed for KIT aberrations by genomic sequencing, quantitative PCR, and single nucleotide polymorphism analyses. Imatinib effects were assayed by viability measurements and apoptotic cytotoxicity. Tumor cell lysates were assayed by Western blots to determine effects on multiple signaling pathways after imatinib exposure. Results: Mucosal melanoma cells exhibited imatinib sensitivity correlating with KIT mutational status. Imatinib dramatically decreased proliferation and was cytotoxic to a KIT mutated and amplified cell culture. Exposure to drug affected the mitogen-activated protein kinase, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT, JAK-STAT, and antiapoptotic pathways. Conclusions: Rational targeting of KIT in melanoma offers a unique and potent clinical opportunity. In vitro analyses revealed major sensitivity to KIT kinase inhibition by imatinib, with potent induction of melanoma cell apoptosis. Biochemical studies identified changes in signaling molecules regulating proliferation and survival responses, which may serve as mediators and/or biomarkers of in vivo treatment efficacy. Pathways affected by KIT inhibition provide a model for understanding components in effective melanoma cell death and insights into targeting for resistance mechanisms.


The two studies reported here were designed to test the proposition that greater motor overflow occurs when movements are performed by the non-dominant hand. Unlike previous studies using normal adults, the task in these studies did not require force production. In the first study, a group of 19 right-handed participants performed unweighted finger lifting. That the frequency of motor overflow occurrence was the same regardless of which hand performed the task, did not support findings from other studies where tasks involving force production resulted in more overflow when performed by the non-dominant hand. To investigate further the influence of task characteristics on motor overflow occurrence, in the second study participants were required to remember and reproduce a prescribed sequence of four finger lifts. Left- and right-handed participants (N =30) performed both single and sequenced finger lifting. The relative frequency of motor overflow (unintended lifts of fingers of the passive hand) was compared between hand preference groups, active hand and task type (single/sequenced). Contrary to the expectation that motor overflow would be greater for the sequenced finger lifting task, overflow was exhibited with a significantly greater frequency on single finger lifting. This finding indicates that task characteristics influence the pattern of overflow occurrence in normal adults. The task used in this study did not involve force production and did not result in an intermanual asymmetry of motor overflow. This contrasts with findings from other studies requiring adults to exert forces where greater overflow occurred when the non-dominant hand was active. However, this study confirms previous findings which show that left-handers produce greater overflow compared to right-handers regardless of the task being performed and the hand performing the task.


Information about the time-dependent production and temperature-dependent diffusion of radiogenic argon in feldspars can be used to constrain the thermal evolution of meteorites, mountain belts, intrusive magmatic bodies, and a host of other Earth and planetary processes. To better asses the accuracy of such thermal models, an understanding of the mechanisms, pathways, and processes by which argon diffuses in feldspars is required. In this thesis I present step-heating diffusion experiments conducted on feldspars with diverse compositions, structural states, and microstructural characteristics. The experiments reveal systematic variations in diffusive behavior that appear closely related to these variables, with apparent closure temperatures for 0.1-1 millimeter grains of ~200 to 400 °C (assuming a 10 °C/Ma cooling rate). Given such variability, there is no broadly applicable set of diffusion parameters that can be utilized in feldspar thermal modeling; sample-specific data are required. Diffusion experiments conducted on oriented cleavage flakes do not reveal directionally-dependent diffusive anisotropy to within the precision limits of our approach. Additional experiments aimed at constraining the physical significance of the diffusion domain are presented and indicate that unaltered feldspar crystals with or without coherent exsolution lamellae diffuse at the grain scale, whereas feldspars containing hydrothermal alteration and/or incoherent sub-grain intergrowths do not. Arrhenius plots for argon diffusion in feldspars appear to reflect a confluence of intrinsic diffusion kinetics and structural transitions that occur during incremental heating experiments. These structural transitions, along with sub-grain domain size variations, cause deviations from linearity (i.e., upward and downward curvature) on Arrhenius plots. Detailed descriptions of the structural responses of different feldspars to heating are given, and an atomistic model for coincident Arrhenius behavior is proposed. The resulting implications for accurately extrapolating laboratory-derived diffusion parameters to natural settings and over geologic time are discussed. The data indicate that considerable inaccuracies may exist in published thermal histories obtained using multiple diffusion domain (MDD) models fit to exsolved alkali feldspar Arrhenius plots, where the inferred Ar partial retention zones may be anomalously hot.


The capacity of forests to mitigate global climate change can be negatively influenced by tropospheric ozone that impairs both photosynthesis and stomatal control of plant transpiration, thus affecting ecosystem productivity and watershed hydrology. We have evaluated individual and interactive effects of ozone and climate on late season streamflow for six forested watersheds (38–970 000 ha) located in the Southeastern United States. Models were based on 18–26 year data records for each watershed and involved multivariate analysis of interannual variability of late season streamflow in response to physical and chemical climate during the growing season. In all cases, some combination of ozone variables significantly improved model performance over climate‐only models. Effects of ozone and ozone × climate interactions were also consistently negative and were proportional to variations in actual ozone exposures, both spatially across the region and over time. Conservative estimates of the influence of ozone on the variability (R2) of observed flow ranged from 7% in the area of lowest ozone exposure in West Virginia to 23% in the areas of highest exposure in Tennessee. Our results are supported by a controlled field study using free‐air concentration enrichment methodology which indicated progressive ozone‐induced loss of stomatal control over tree transpiration during the summer in mixed aspen‐birch stands. Despite the frequent assumption that ozone reduces tree water loss, our findings support increasing evidence that ozone at near ambient concentrations can reduce stomatal control of leaf transpiration, and increase water use. Increases in evapotranspiration and associated streamflow reductions in response to ambient ozone exposures are expected to episodically increase the frequency and severity of drought and affect flow‐dependent aquatic biota in forested watersheds. Regional and global models of hydrologic cycles and related ecosystem functions should consider potential interactions of ozone with climate under both current and future warmer and ozone‐enriched climatic conditions.


By using pig pancreatic lipase (EC 184.108.40.206 or PPL) as a biocatalyst, covalently immobilized on amorphous AlPO 4 support, a new second generation biodiesel was obtained in the transesterification reaction of sunflower oil with ethanol. The resulting biofuel is composed of fatty acid ethyl esters and monoglycerides (FAEE/MG) blended in a 2:1 molar ratio. This novel product, which integrates glycerol as monoacylglycerols (MG) into the biofuels composition, has similar physicochemical properties as conventional biodiesel and also avoids the removal step of the by-product by washing of the biodiesel with water. Immobilization of PPL was achieved by covalent attachment of the e -amino group of the lysine residues of PPL with the aldehyde groups of p -hydroxybenzaldehyde linked on a hybrid organic-inorganic functionalized AlPO 4 surface. With this procedure, the PPL biocatalyst was strongly fixed to the inorganic support surface (94.3%). Nevertheless, the efficiency of the immobilized enzyme was relatively lower compared to that of the free PPL, but it showed a remarkable stability as well as a great capacity of reutilization (25 reuses) without a significant loss of its initial catalytic activity. Therefore, this enzymatic method allows the production of a biodiesel which integrates the glycerol, allows a more efficient fabrication method and minimizes the waste production as compared to the conventional alkali-catalyzed process.


Prejudice against people with mental illnesses remains a sig- nificant problem in the United Kingdom and in many other countries despite sustained efforts by governments and charities. This is particularly so for people with schizophre- nia, who are seen as dangerous and unpredictable. The present study investigated the effect of brief, casual, stereo- typical representations on prejudice and behavioural inten- tions towards people with schizophrenia. Participants viewed Halloween costumes in an online environment under the guise of product research. In the experimental condition, they were exposed to a "Psycho Ward" Halloween outfit identical to one sold online by a leading super- market chain in the United Kingdom. Participants in the control condition saw a neutral "pumpkin" Halloween cos- tume. Exposure to the Psycho Ward outfit resulted in more negative behavioural intentions towards people with schizophrenia, mediated by increased prejudice. These find- ings confirm and extend earlier research that implicates adverse media stereotypes in the persistence of prejudice against people with mental illness. More research is war- ranted on the relative effects of different influences on community attitudes to mental illness.


Nano ceramics possesses excellent mechanical property and physical characteristics in contrast to conventional engineering ceramics, so it has tremendous application prospect. Adopting ultrasonic composite processing we describe the influences of grinding speed, grinding depth, wheel granularity and no-spark grinding times on the surface roughness of nano ZrO2 ceramics. By means of SEM and AFM the surface character and critical ductile grinding depth of nano ZrO2 ceramics in the condition of conventional and ultrasonic grinding are also discussed. At last, the residual stress of surface and crystalline phase transformation under the condition of conventional grinding and ultrasonic vibration grinding were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The research indicated that ultrasonic vibration grinding could obtain nano finished surface with high efficiency. The residual stress of nano ZrO2 ceramics surface is determined much by different grinding styles.


Abstract : Data are presented from static arching tests using right-circular cylinders buried vertically in a soil having a Unified Soil Classification of CL. Of primary interest in the tests was the total average axial load carried by a cylinder when buried in a soil medium having a uniform static pressure applied at the surface. (All cylinders were buried more than 2.5 diameters beneath the soil surface so that they could be considered as fully buried.) Principal variables were the axial stiffness of the cylinder, the soil stiffness, the overpressure level, and the configuration of the cylinder within the soil. (Cylinders were tested with bases both resting on a rigid foundation and floating in the soil.) A 10-percent moisture content was used for all tests, and all structures had provisions for minimizing the development of side-shearing stresses. All data were compared with theoretical predictions based on a formula developed by assuming no failure in the soil and used in conjunction with previously reported tests in which 20-30 Ottawa sand was the medium. In most cases reasonable agreement between test data and theoretical predictions was obtained. The peak overpressure applied in any test was 400 psi, but most tests were conducted to 140 psi. (Author)


Several scholars argue that high agricultural productivity can retard industrial development because it draws resources toward the comparative advantage sector, agriculture. However, agricultural productivity growth can increase savings and the supply of capital, generating an expansion of the capital-intensive sector, manufacturing. We highlight this mechanism in a simple model and test its predictions in the context of a large and exogenous increase in agricultural productivity due to the adoption of genetically engineered soy in Brazil. We find that agricultural productivity growth generated an increase in savings, but these were not reinvested locally. Instead, there were capital outflows from rural areas. Capital reallocated toward urban regions, where it was invested in the industrial and service sectors. The degree of financial integration affected the speed of structural transformation. Regions that were more financially integrated with soy-producing areas through bank branch networks experienced faster growth in nonagricultural lending. Within these regions, firms with preexisting relationships with banks receiving funds from the soy area experienced faster growth in borrowing and employment.


This article argues that in revising the Takeover Bid Directive, EU policymakers should adopt a neutral approach toward takeovers, i.e. enact rules that neither hamper nor promote them. The rationale behind this approach is that takeovers can be both value-creating and value-decreasing and there is no way to tell ex ante which kind they are. Unfortunately, takeover rules cannot be crafted so as to hinder all the bad takeovers while at the same time promoting the good ones. Further, contestability of control is not cost-free, because it has a negative impact on managers' and block-holders' incentives to make firm-specific investments of human capital, which in turn affects firm value. It is thus argued that individual companies should be able to decide how contestable their control should be. After showing that the current EU legal framework for takeovers overall hinders takeover activity in the EU, the paper identifies three rationales for a takeover-neutral intervention of the EU in the area of takeover regulation (pre-emption of "takeover-hostile," protectionist national regulations, opt-out rules protecting shareholders vis-à-vis managers' and dominant shareholders' opportunism in takeover contexts, and menu rules helping individual companies define their degree of control contestability) and provides examples of rules that may respond to such rationales.


Recently, the single-carrier transmission with frequency domain equalisation has attracted much attention for reasons of being able to obtain an excellent performance even in strong frequency selective channels. In the paper, the authors evaluate the performance of direct sequence – ultra wideband (DS-UWB) with frequency domain channel estimation (FDCE) and equalisation (FDE) in the UWB multipath channel and compare it to that of conventional DS-UWB with time domain channel estimation (TDCE) and RAKE receiver. The authors purpose is to compare the performances of both schemes under fair conditions. In particular, we focus on the computational complexity of frequency domain process (FDP) that uses FDCE and FDE and compare it to that of time domain process (TDP) that uses TDCE and RAKE receiver. The authors simulation results show that when Eb/N0 is high, DS-UWB with FDP has significantly less computational complexity and achieves a better performance than DS-UWB with TDP; conversely when Eb/N0 is low, DS-UWB with TDP has significantly more computational complexity and achieves a better performance than DS-UWB with FDP.


It is important to be aware of different ways of seeing design quality of interactive artifacts in order to appreciate the various aspects of a design, but how do professional interaction designers understand design quality? In theory, one way of approaching design quality of interactive artifacts has been the Vitruvian principles of commodity, firmness and delight, originally created for architecture. Such frameworks are, however, seldom directly employed in practice. This paper investigates what conceptions professional interaction designers have of design quality for interactive artifacts. Interviews were conducted with ten designers. The analysis disclosed four conceptions concerning: (a) Constraints & contexts, (b) motivations & purposes, (c) use-qualities of functions & content, and (d) experiential qualities of form & behaviour. An awareness of these conceptions may facilitate the appreciation for different aspects and opportunities in a design situation.


This study proposes a feature selection-based approach to identify reasonable spatial-temporal traffic patterns related to the target link, in order to improve the online-prediction performance. The prediction task is composed of two steps: one hybrid intelligent algorithm-based feature selector (FS) is proposed to optimise original state vectors, which are designed empirically during the offline process and optimised state vectors are employed to carry out the online prediction. Numerical experiments by three non-parametric algorithms are conducted with taxis' global positioning system data in an urban road network of Changsha, China. It is concluded that: (i) under optimised state vectors, the prediction accuracies improve or almost maintain the same; (ii) K-nearest neighbour (KNN) with the simplest state vectors obtains the greatest improvement of prediction performance; (iii) although the performance improvement of e-support vector regression is limited with optimised state vectors, it always outperforms backward-propagation neural network and KNN; and (iv) three non-parametric approaches with optimised state vectors outperform auto-regressive integrated moving average in relatively longer prediction horizons. In conclusion, such FS-based approach is able to improve or guarantee the prediction performance under the remarkably reduced model complexity, and is a promising methodology for short-term traffic prediction.


Abstract: Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders of the central nervous system of humans and animals, characterized by spongiform degeneration of the central nervous system, astrogliosis, and deposition of amyloid into the brain. The conversion of a cellular glycoprotein (prion protein, PrPC) into an altered isoform (PrPSc) has been proposed to represent the causative event responsible for these diseases. The peptide corresponding to the residues 106–126 of PrP sequence (PrP106‐126) is largely used to explore the neurotoxic mechanisms underlying the prion diseases. We investigated the intracellular signaling responsible for PrP106‐126‐dependent cell death in the SH‐SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line. In these cells, PrP106‐126 treatment induced apoptotic cell death and the activation of caspase‐3. The p38 MAP‐kinase blockers (SB203580 and PD169316) prevented the apoptotic cell death evoked by PrP106‐126 and Western blot analysis revealed that the exposure of the cells to the peptide induced p38 activation. However, whether the neuronal toxicity of PrP106‐126 is caused by a soluble or fibrillar form of this peptide is still unknown. In this study, we correlated the structural state of this peptide with its neurotoxicity. We show that the two conserved glycines in position 114 and 119 prevent the peptide to assume a structured conformation, favoring its aggregation in amyloid fibrils. The substitution of both glycines with alanine residues (PrP106‐126AA) generates a soluble nonamyloidogenic peptide, that retained its toxic properties when incubated with neuroblastoma cells. These data show that the amyloid aggregation is not necessary for the induction of the toxic effects of PrP106‐126.


Whole body exposure of wild type control littermates and A2A adenosine receptor (A2AR) gene deleted mice to low oxygen containing inspired gas mixture allowed the investigation of the mechanism that controls inflammatory liver damage and protects the liver using a mouse model of T cell-mediated viral and autoimmune hepatitis. We tested the hypothesis that the inflammatory tissue damage-associated hypoxia and extracellular adenosine ➔ A2AR signaling plays an important role in the physiological anti-inflammatory mechanism that limits liver damage during fulminant hepatitis. After induction of T cell-mediated hepatitis, mice were kept in modular chambers either under normoxic (21% oxygen) or hypoxic (10% oxygen) conditions for 8 h. It was shown that the whole body exposure to hypoxic atmosphere caused tissue hypoxia in healthy animals as evidenced by a decrease in the arterial blood oxygen tension and increase of the plasma adenosine concentration (P < 0.05). This "hypoxic" treatment resulted in significantly reduced hepatocellular damage and attenuated levels of serum cytokines in mice with acute liver inflammation. The anti-inflammatory effects of hypoxia were not observed in the absence of A2AR in studies of A2AR gene-deficient mice or when A2AR have been pharmacologically antagonized with synthetic antagonist. The presented data demonstrate that total body hypoxia-triggered pathway provides protection in acute hepatitis and that hypoxia (upstream) and A2AR (downstream) function in the same immunosuppressive and liver tissue-protecting pathway.


This paper looks at how metadata, encoded in XML, can be used to support better resource discovery and extensible information presentation,
through the application of standard XML related technologies.
By applying XSLT transformation scripts to a structured metadata corpus, the metadata can be presented in differing styles. These scripts can be used to filter and present specific resource descriptions within the corpus. Because the metadata that is presented is a function of the scripts applied to the corpus, altering the scripts can alter how the metadata is presented.
This paper looks at the advantages of presenting metadata through the use of dynamically generated XSLT scripts that give a simple yet wide-ranging
degree of control over the presentation. The possibility of graphical metadata presentation is discussed. The services described in this paper utilize metadata harvested by the OAI's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.


This article is the second of a two-part series on evaluating the effects of forced aeration during Phase I mushroom
substrate preparation on substrate temperature, oxygen concentration, and heat generation. Part 2 describes testing of four
different aeration schemes: 1, 3, 5, and 10 min of aeration per hour at a flow rate of 0.47 m3/s and a pressure of 6200 Pa.
To estimate the rate of heat generation during substrate preparation, an energy balance model was developed and applied
to an environmentally controlled Phase I system. This model development is presented in part 1 of this series. Results showed
that oxygen demand during Phase I was time dependent, with demand being greatest at the onset of processing and
immediately after the substrate was mixed. Results also indicated that heat generation and oxygen demand were greatest at
temperatures between 45°C and 60°C and that, during these periods of vigorous activity, at least 61.3 m3/tonne/hour of air
should be delivered to the substrate in order to maintain aerobic conditions. At temperatures above 80°C, heat generation
was minimal and the demand for oxygen was very low.


A polarization-converting system is designed by using axicons and wave plate transforming naturally polarized laser to linearly polarized laser at real time to resolve difficulties of generating high-power linearly polarized laser. The energy conversion efficiency reaches 96.9% with an enhancement of extinction ratio from 29.7% to 98%. The system also keeps excellent far field divergence. In the one-way SHG experiment the double frequency efficiency reached 4.32% using the generated linearly polarized laser, much higher than that of the naturally polarized laser but lower than that of the linearly polarized laser from PBS. And the phenomenon of the SHG experiment satisfies the principle of phase matching. The experiment proves that this polarization-converting system will not affect laser structure which controls easily and needs no feedback and controlling system with stable and reliable properties at the same time. It can absolutely be applied to the polarization-conversion of high power laser and enhance the SHG efficiency and the energy efficiency.


Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence have revived long-standing debates about what happens when robots become smarter than humans. Will they destroy us? Will they put us all out of work? Will they lead to a world of techno-savvy haves and techno-ignorant have-nots? These debates have found particular resonance in finance, where computers already play a dominant role. High-frequency traders, quant hedge funds, and robo-advisors all represent, to a greater or lesser degree, real-world instantiations of the impact that artificial intelligence is having on the field. This Article will argue that the primary danger of artificial intelligence in finance is not so much that it will surpass human intelligence, but rather that it will exacerbate human error. It will do so in three ways. First, because current artificial intelligence techniques rely heavily on identifying patterns in historical data, use of these techniques will lead to results that perpetuate the status quo (a status quo that exhibits all the features and failings of the data itself). Second, because some of the most "accurate" artificial intelligence strategies are the least transparent or explainable ones, decisionmakers may well give more weight to the results of these algorithms than they are due. Finally, because much of the financial industry depends not just on predicting what will happen in the world, but also on predicting what other people will predict will happen in the world, it is likely that small errors in applying artificial intelligence (either in data, programming, or execution) will have outsized effects on markets. This is not to say that artificial intelligence has no place in the financial industry, or even that it is bad for the industry. It clearly is here to stay, and, what is more, has much to offer in terms of efficiency, speed, and cost. But as governments and regulators begin to take stock of the technology, it is worthwhile considering artificial intelligence's real-world limitations.


This presentation will report upon the findings of an ethnographic case study that examined factors affecting peer mentorship in an undergraduate health and social welfare programme.
The research posed three main questions:
• What are the affects of introducing peer mentorship on learning and assessment performance?
• What impact do social and cultural factors have upon the peer mentorship relationship?
• What are the institutional influences that impact upon peer mentorship?

The study draws upon data collected from a small sample of students (18) who volunteered to act as mentors and mentees within a dyadic relationship over a period of one academic year. Data collection tools included semi structured interviews, reflective journals, student assessment and course evaluation data.

Analysis of the data collected identified a number of key findings:
• Peer mentorship positively influences the learning experience and assessment performance of both mentee and mentor
• Key social and cultural factors are identified that influence the mentoring relationship and its affect upon the learning experience
• The nature of the institution has a significant effect upon the success of a programme.

A number of implications for the practice of peer mentorship are identified and seven key recommendations are made to enhance the learning experience, and mentorship success.


We investigate the time variability of abnormal returns from socially responsible investing (SRI). Using portfolio regressions and event studies on multiple data sources including analyst ratings, firm announcements and realized incidents, we consistently find that "good" stocks significantly outperform "bad'' stocks during good economic times, e.g., periods with high aggregate consumption and market valuation but underperform during bad times such as recessions. This is consistent with a wealth-dependent investor preference that is more favorable toward SRI during good times, resulting in higher temporary demand for SRI---similar to time-varying shifts in the demand for luxury goods.


According to the National Weather Service (NWS), Hurricane Charley will go down in the record books as one of the most damaging hurricanes ever to hit South Florida. After developing as a Tropical Depression on August 9, 2004, the system grew into a powerful category 2 hurricane that pounded western Cuba a few days later. On August 13, Charley intensified into a category 4 hurricane with sustained winds reaching 145 mph (Pasch, Brown, & Blake, 2004). The projected path of Hurricane Charley took the storm along the west coast of Florida with the center of the cone running through the Tampa Bay metropolitan Area. While all areas within the cone are at risk, media attention focused on the 'direct-hit line,' of Tampa Bay (Johnson, 2004; Kaye, 2004; Stein, 2004). However, on August 13th Hurricane Charley veered several degrees to the east from the mid projection line, which put landfall not in Tampa Bay, but farther south in Charlotte Harbor. This presented serious problems for hazard managers since many people had evacuated to perceived safe areas inland.


Adapting cities and region to facilitate car use is not only a technical issue. It has made society heavily car-dependent, increasing the vulnerability of society to adverse changes in social, economic, environmental, or other spheres. This paper analyzes how the spatial context shapes conditions for car dependency, specifically focusing on the case of the Netherlands. Our research shows that, except in the periphery of the country, most daily amenities are within walking or biking distance, both in cities as well as in suburban and rural areas. However, regarding accessibility to jobs, there is no competitive alternative to the car—even in central city areas, which provide many more travel choices. The differences are not only related to population density or land use within the city, as is often thought, but also to the position of the urban area in the regional spatial context (i.e., its location relative to other urban areas). The bicycle as an alternative transport mode to the car scores highest in monocentric urban regions and in the central areas of cities close to a coastline or a national border. Public transport scores highest in central areas of medium-sized cities in polycentric regions and satellite towns near big cities.


This guide provides lists of databases, web sites, books, CD-ROMs, videos and DVDs on the study of chemistry. Other sources can be found by searching the catalog for books and the library's databases for journal articles.


Recovering a signal from its Fourier intensity underlies many important applications, including lensless imaging and imaging through scattering media. Conventional algorithms for retrieving the phase suffer when noise is present but display global convergence when given clean data. Neural networks have been used to improve algorithm robustness, but efforts to date are sensitive to initial conditions and give inconsistent performance. Here, we combine iterative methods from phase retrieval with image statistics from deep denoisers, via regularization-by-denoising. The resulting methods inherit the advantages of each approach and outperform other noise-robust phase retrieval algorithms. Our work paves the way for hybrid imaging methods that integrate machine-learned constraints in conventional algorithms.


Fatwa is the answer to the problem that arises, usually respond to contemporary things. This can be seen from a series of fatwa issued by the MUI. from the problem golput, cigarettes, pre-wedding photos, motorcycle taxi women and many other things. Fatwa is a very urgent case for humans because not everyone is able to explore the laws of the Shari'a. Or it can be concluded that the fatwa is an explanation of Sharia law on various issues that occur in the midst of society.
Therefore, given the importance of the position of the fatwa, it should be done that the people do not ignore the fatwas issued by the Fatwa scholars born because of the consideration of the benefit of the ummah or mashalihul ummah, and in this paper will be discussed about the methods of law enforcement in berfatwa.
One of the conditions for determining fatwas is that they must fulfill the methodology (manhaj) in teaching, because it establishes fatwas without regard to manhaj including those which are prohibited by religion. Establish a fatwa based solely on the necessity (li al-hajah), or because of the benefit (li al-mashlahah), or because the essence of religious teachings (li maqashid as-syari'ah), with no adhering to nushus syar'iyah, including the excessive group (ifrathi).
Within the scope of the fatwa there are some important things that must be noticed by a mufti (giver of fatwas) and a mustafti (the person who asks fatwas) so that the resulting fatwa can be useful in solving a problematika. For the sake of perfection a fatwa of mustafti must use some method which must be consumed in solving problem which in ijtihadi at that time, like method bayani, ta'lili and termi.


In order to address the role of the state and its reconfiguration in the liberalisation of employment policies it is first necessary to situate the dynamics involved both temporally and geographically. The countries that are the subject of this chapter can be broadly divided into three groups: first, the UK, a member of the European Union (EU) with its own currency that has been at the forefront of implementing neoliberal policies. The second is France, Spain and Germany, EU member states that use the single currency. While there are of course important differences between the three, the membership of a monetary union introduces a number of common dynamics. The last is Poland, a more recent EU member state that had undergone a rapid transition from being a so-called member of the communist bloc to the free market with its own currency. The chapter begins by discussing the emergence and development of neoliberalism, before moving on to discuss migration. The example of the UK will be examined, focusing on the role of the state and new employment policies. The next part will discuss France, Spain and Germany while considering the trends in the Eurozone more generally. Finally, the last section considers the trajectory of Poland, before drawing overall conclusions.


Shape-controlled colloidal nanocrystal syntheses often require aid from facet-selective solution-phase chemical additives to regulate atom addition/migration fluxes or oriented particle attachment. Because of their highly tunable chemical property and robustness to a wide range of experimental conditions, peptoids contribute to a very promising group of next-generation functional chemical additives. To generalize the design philosophy, it is critical to understand the origin of facet selectivity at the molecular level. We employ molecular dynamics simulations and biased sampling methods to investigate the origin of Au(111)-favored adsorption of a peptoid, Nce3Ncp6, that is evidenced to assist the formation of five-fold twinned nanostructures. We find that the facet-selectivity is achieved through a synergistic effect of both molecule-surface and solvent-surface interactions. Extending beyond the single-chain scenario, the order of peptoid-peptoid and peptoid-surface energetics, i.e., peptoid-Au(100) < peptoid-peptoid < peptoid-Au(111), further amplifies the distinct behavior of Nce3Ncp6 chains on different Au surfaces. Our studies set the stage for future peptoid design in shape-controlled nanocrystal syntheses by probing the facet selectivity from various perspectives.


To discuss reflexivity in anthropology is not a new approach. The purpose of this article is to examine the meaning of reflexivity for the hermeneutical or confessional anthropology, which has been endemic in social sciences ever since the publication of Malinowski's diaries and the onset of the recurrent and persistent crisis of objectivity that haunts modern scholarship. We have determined that anthropology is no longer a one-sided, self-centred, objective science. Today anthropology is interpreted for its subjectivity and its multiple faces that create a mosaic reflection of the anthropologist and the researcher. This article aims not to be innovative, for it is far from accomplishing such a task. This article, however, discusses the coherence of a discourse that emanates from contested narratives about the self. It responds to what some call the reflexive turn in anthropology – a homology between defamiliarisation and literary exposition, which undermines the fictionality (or the falsehood) of anthropological writing, in the sense that each reflexive critique is in its own right an autonomous interpretation, blurring the lines between the true and the imaginary (understood from Latin as a sort of plastic modelling, self-construction). Reflexivity is all: a turn into the deeper self, which denudes, and a hypothesis into the construction of meaning.


The paper deals with the issue of unfair terms in regard to insurance contracts in the European context. It focuses in particular on Council Directive 93/13/EEC and on Article 2:304 of the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law. A list of abusive clauses in insurance contracts is also analyzed.


Molecular clouds at the Galactic center (GC) have environments considerably different from their disk counterparts. The GC may therefore provide important clues about how the environment affects star formation. Interestingly, while the inner 50 pc of our Galaxy include a remarkable population of high-mass stars, the initial mass function (IMF) appears to be consistent with a Salpeter slope down to ∼1 M⊙. We show here that the loss of turbulent pressure due to ambipolar diffusion and the damping of Alfvén and fast MHD waves can lead to the formation of dense condensations exceeding their Jeans limit. The fragmentation and subsequent collapse of these condensations is similar to the diffusion-driven protostellar collapse mechanism expected to occur within nearby "regular" molecular clouds. As such, a Salpeter IMF at the GC is not surprising, though the short dynamical timescales associated with the GC molecular clouds may help explain the lower star formation efficiency observed from this region.


Where is everyone drawn to...? On a group of proverbsThe article is devoted primarily to two Polish proverbs: "Każdy rad tam chodzi, gdzie się urodzi" Everyone likes to go where they were born and "Każdy tam ciągnie, gdzie się ulągnie" Everyone is drawn to where they came from. They were mentioned by Julian Krzyżanowski, who concluded that their meaning is erotic, pornographic even, a view challenged and rejected in the article, and replaced with the author's own explanations. Three most important meanings have been established: 1. when urodzi and ulągnie denote growth, prosperity, profit; 2. concern a return to the birth place: home, town, homeland; 3. tell us that people are ruled by inclinations, customs, nature, i.e. old Polish nałogi habits and przyrodzenie nature; cf. M. Rej's "Muszą myśli nasze tam ciągnąć, gdzie je przyrodzenie wlecze; do czego kogo nałóg a przyrodzenie ciągnie, tym się zawżdy para i tego pilnie szuka" Our thoughts are necessarily drawn to where nature attracts them, what habit and nature attracts one is what one always does and diligently seeks. The author has also established that the Polish proverbs in question have their European predecessors: Greek, Latin, Egyptian, e.g. "Habit is the second nature of man" Aristotle, "Everyone is dragged on by their favorite pleasure" Trahit quemque sua voluptas – Virgil; "To each his own is beautiful" Suum cuique pulchrum — Cicero, "You will return to your own mud floor, you will find your sycamore Egyptian.


Abstract The purpose of the current study is to verify the thermal insulation capacity of concrete block masonry in a fire situation through the thermal simulation of prisms. Initially, a prism with mortar coating on the face exposed to fire was numerically simulated and compared to experimental results provided by a company in order to validate the block thermal properties. To represent air in the block cavities, fluid-structure interaction was used in ABAQUS software. The uncoated and mortar-coated prisms on both sides were analyzed in a fire situation. The thermal insulation of the uncoated prism was maintained for more than 60 minutes and with the application of coating on both faces there was an increase of 59% of this time. The thermal fields were generated, thus leading to future thermomechanical analysis.


A novel method of common voltage eliminating is put forward for SVM diode clamping three-level inverter connected to grid by calculation of common voltage of its various switching states. PLECS is used to model this three-level inverter connected to grid and good results are obtained. First analysis of common mode voltage for switching states of diode clamping 3-level inverter is given in detail. Second the common mode voltage eliminating control strategy of SVM is described for diode clamping three-level inverter. Third, PLECS is briefly introduced. Fourth, the modeling of diode clamping three-level inverter is presented with PLECS. Finally, a series of simulations are carried out. The simulation results tell us PLECS is a very powerful tool to real power circuits modeling. They have also verified that proposed common mode voltage eliminating control strategy of SVM is feasible to control the diode clamping three-level inverter. But further research has to be done to get rid of the common mode voltage completely by controlling the voltages of two capacitors at the input terminal.


The objective of this work is to apply metabolic algorithm to the various items involved during the software development process. The metabolic algorithm is introduced in the rewriting mechanism of membrane or P system considering many time varying functions. Rules for requirement evolution, reaction between items in the membrane, communications between data items, process speed-up and abort rule are being proposed. The metabolic algorithm is applied for the transformation of user requirements into system requirements which can be further segregated into functional as well as non-functional requirements. The requirement elicitation is illustrated and verified to obtain the most expected requirement objects using C# programming language.


The sharp rising incidence of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Komi Republic at the North-east of European Russia was recorded last decades. Tick-bite incidence also was grown. Rapid rise of TBE incidence growth and Ixodidae ticks depends on a number of factors, and the impact of climate change being one of them. Ixodes persulcatus ticks is considered as a main vector of TBE in Komi. Our objective is to estimate the influence of air temperature change on the tickbite incidence and Ixodes persulcatus population in Komi. Komi Republic is located near the Polar circle where the northern frontier of Ixodes persulcatus ticks situated and we expected the growth of tick's population. The number of Komi inhabitants seeking medical care after tick bites in 1992–2014 was considered. Gridded monthly air temperature data with grid size 0.5 degree were recalculated to temperature referred to Komi administrative units. The time series of annual number of tick victims from 1992 till 2014 and model air temperature from 1948 till 2016 for all Komi administrative units were compiled. We analyzed the data on tick-bite incidence in Komi administrative units in relation to changes in local annual average air temperature within the study area. The linear dependence of the tick-bite incidence on air temperature was established when of the tick-bite incidence is represented in logarithm form. The tick population depends not only on temperature but humidity, landcover and hosts. Described areas of Komi belong to humid climate, where precipitations exceed evaporation. Most of the Komi territory is covered by taiga with underwood, grass and bush. Hosts of the first and the major levels are represented by birds and rodents. The dependence of tick-bite incidence and temperature looks like "Malthus's law", but the development of population depends on temperature not on time. The exponential growth in the nearest future will ceased and the population will proceed to stable phase. Ticks population in Komi Republic is moving to the North and the air temperature determines the dynamics of population.