To what extent does continued work later in life in the form of bridge job employment impact the relocation decisions of older Americans? Continued work later in life has been suggested as a way for older workers to help maintain their standard of living in retirement, by increasing income in the near term and simultaneously delaying the date at which assets are drawn down. While the financial benefit of continued work is straightforward and potentially large, the ripple effects of continued work can impact the lives of older Americans in many other ways. This paper focuses on relocation decisions following career employment. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), an ongoing nationally-representative longitudinal survey of older Americans that began in 1992, to explore the frequency and determinants of relocations among career workers who moved to a bridge job relative to those who exited from the labor force directly. For both groups we find that long-distance relocations following career employment were infrequent, as less than one in twenty career workers moved to a new Census Division. Moves that involved a change in "area" or change in residence, however, were much more common, with a frequency at the time of transition from career employment of 9 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Most importantly, the frequency of moves was similar for those who took bridge jobs and those who exited directly, as were key determinants of moves, suggesting that continued work does not significantly limit or promote relocations.


A grapevine hybrid progeny was generated to track the inheritance of the Ren1 and the Run1 powdery mildew resistance alleles and the segregation of the powdery mildew resistance phenotype. Genotypic analysis was carried out using flanking microsatellite markers; phenotypic evaluations were done under in vitro and greenhouse conditions. Pairing the phenotypic and genotypic data demonstrated that Ren1 and Run1 acted as single dominant loci and assorted independently without considerable distortion of segregation. Chromosomal recombination events were detected in the Ren1 but not in the Run1 region, corroborating earlier observations that crossover between homologous chromosomes was suppressed around the Run1 locus. Taken together, the results confirmed that microsatellite marker-assisted selection is a reliable and expeditious method to combine multiple alleles that confer resistance to a pathogen.


There is disagreement regarding the usefulness of barium nasopharyngeal coating for clinical velopharyngeal evaluation. One hundred and thirty lateral videofluoroscopic studies performed both with and without barium at the same sitting were reviewed to evaluate multiple structural and functional characteristics of velopharyngeal valving behavior during speech production. Clinical ratings of hypernasality were also available for 105 of the patients studied by x-ray. Agreement between ratings of hypernasality and radiographic evidence of VP incompetency did not differ with respect to the presence or absence of barium. However, velopharyngeal incompetence was generally judged to be greater when the barium coating was used. The barium coating also provided more information as to the presence or absence of Passavant's ridge, generalized posterior pharyngeal wall movement, and palatal asymmetry. However, because the barium may produce artifacts or occasionally obscure structures, we recommend that lateral videofluoroscopy be performed both with and without barium.


Mass extinctions occur frequently in natural history. While studies of animals that became extinct can be informative, it is the survivors that provide clues for mechanisms of adaptation when conditions are adverse. Here, we describe a survival pathway used by many species as a means for providing adequate fuel and water, while also providing protection from a decrease in oxygen availability. Fructose, whether supplied in the diet (primarily fruits and honey), or endogenously (via activation of the polyol pathway), preferentially shifts the organism towards the storing of fuel (fat, glycogen) that can be used to provide energy and water at a later date. Fructose causes sodium retention and raises blood pressure and likely helped survival in the setting of dehydration or salt deprivation. By shifting energy production from the mitochondria to glycolysis, fructose reduced oxygen demands to aid survival in situations where oxygen availability is low. The actions of fructose are driven in part by vasopressin and the generation of uric acid. Twice in history, mutations occurred during periods of mass extinction that enhanced the activity of fructose to generate fat, with the first being a mutation in vitamin C metabolism during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction (65 million years ago) and the second being a mutation in uricase that occurred during the Middle Miocene disruption (12–14 million years ago). Today, the excessive intake of fructose due to the availability of refined sugar and high‐fructose corn syrup is driving 'burden of life style' diseases, including obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.


Background With population aging, there is widespread recognition that the healthcare system must be prepared to serve the unique needs of substance using older adults (OA) in the decades ahead. As such, there is an increasingly urgent need to identify efficient and effective substance abuse treatments (SAT) for OA. Despite this need, there remains a surprising dearth of research on treatment for OA. Aims of review This review describes and evaluates studies on SAT applied to and specifically designed for OA over the last 30 years with an emphasis on methodologies used and the knowledge gained. Methods Using three research databases, 25 studies published in the last 30 years which investigated the impact of SAT on OA and met specific selection criteria were reviewed. Results A majority of the studies were methodologically limited in that they were pre-to-post or post-test only studies. Of the randomized controlled trials, many were limited by sample sizes of 15 individuals or less per group, making main effects difficult to detect. Thus, with caution, the literature suggests that among treatment seeking OA, treatment, whether age-specific or mixed-age, generally works yielding rates of abstinence comparable to general populations and younger cohorts. It also appears that with greater treatment exposure (higher dosage), regardless of level of care, OA do better. Finally, based on only two studies, age-specific treatment appears to potentiate treatment effects for OA. Like younger adults, OA appear to have a heterogeneous response to treatments, and preliminary evidence suggests a possibility of treatment matching for OA. Conclusions Expansion of research on SAT for OA is urgently needed for maximum effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare system serving these individuals. Future research needs to include laboratory and community based randomized controlled trials with high internal validity of previously vetted evidenced-based practices, including Motivational Interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medications such as naltrexone, to determine the best fit for OA.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the attachment scale added in the newly developed self-rating questionnaire Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 (TSI-2). Participants were recruited from the Swedish parent-infant unit Hagadal (N=58). Reliability analyses concluded Cronbach´s α .92 for attachment total scale, .88 for avoidance subscale, and .91 for rejection sensitivity subscale. Convergent validity analyses concluded moderate to strong correlations between TSI-2 attachment scale and subscales, and Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) total scale and subscales (r= .34 - .68, p ≤ .01). Criterion validity analyses concluded that adverse childhood circumstances measured by Linkoping Youth Life Experiences Scale (LYLES) signficantly estimated 17 % of variance in TSI-2 attachment scale scores. Preliminary support for reliability and validity of the TSI-2 attachment scale was obtained. No previous trauma symptom rating instrument has included information about adult attachment styles. The present findings point to the benefits of such inclusion.


This paper aims to analyze the feasibility of establishing a dynamic drivetrain model from condition monitoring measurements. In this study SCADA data and further sensor data is analyzed from a 1.5MW wind turbine, provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. A multibody model of the drivetrain is made and simulation based sensors are placed on bearings to look at the possibility to obtain geometrical and modal properties from simulation based vibration sensors. Results show that the axial proxy sensor did not provide any usable system information due to its application purpose. SCADA data did not meet the Nyquist frequency and cannot be used to determine geometrical or modal properties. Strain gauges on the shaft can provide the shaft rotational frequency, while torque and angular displacement sensors can provide the torsional eigenfrequency of the system. Simulation based vibration sensors are able to capture gear mesh frequencies, harmonics, sideband frequencies and shaft rotational frequencies.


ABSTRACT We used the rhesus macaque model of heterosexual human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission to test the hypothesis that in vitro measures of macrophage tropism predict the ability of a primate lentivirus to initiate a systemic infection after intravaginal inoculation. A single atraumatic intravaginal inoculation with a T-cell-tropic molecular clone of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), SIVmac239, or a dualtropic recombinant molecular clone of SIV, SIVmac239/1A11/239, or uncloned dualtropic SIVmac251 or uncloned dualtropic simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) 89.6-PD produced systemic infection in all rhesus macaques tested. However, vaginal inoculation with a dualtropic molecular clone of SIV, SIVmac1A11, resulted in transient viremia in one of two rhesus macaques. It has previously been shown that 12 intravaginal inoculations with SIVmac1A11 resulted in infection of one of five rhesus macaques (M. L. Marthas, C. J. Miller, S. Sutjipto, J. Higgins, J. Torten, B. L. Lohman, R. E. Unger, H. Kiyono, J. R. McGhee, P. A. Marx, and N. C. Pedersen, J. Med. Primatol. 21:99–107, 1992). In addition, SHIV HXBc2, which replicates in monkey macrophages, does not infect rhesus macaques following multiple vaginal inoculations, while T-cell-tropic SHIV 89.6 does (Y. Lu, P. B. Brosio, M. Lafaile, J. Li, R. G. Collman, J. Sodroski, and C. J. Miller, J. Virol. 70:3045–3050, 1996). These results demonstrate that in vitro measures of macrophage tropism do not predict if a SIV or SHIV will produce systemic infection after intravaginal inoculation of rhesus macaques. However, we did find that the level to which these viruses replicate in vivo after intravenous inoculation predicts the outcome of intravaginal inoculation with each virus.


This paper describes the gender distribution of research fields chosen by the faculty members in the top fifty Economics departments, according to the rankings available on the Econphd.net website. We document that women are unevenly distributed across fields and test some behavioral implications from theories underlying such disparities. Our main findings are that the probability that a woman chooses a given field is positively related to the share of women in that field (path-dependence), and that the share of women in a field at a given department increases with the sizes of the department and field, while it decreases with their average quality. However, these patterns seem to be changing for younger female faculty members. Further, by using Ph.D. cohorts, we document how gender segregation across fields has evolved over the last four decades.


Gravity and most seismic interpretations agree that the Sierra Nevada is at present isostatically compensated by a crustal root. The most reasonable timing for emplacement of the root was during Mesozoic batholithic intrusions. This is difficult to reconcile with the evidence that major uplift of the mountains occurred in the past 10 m.y. A simple quantitative model for flexural isostasy of an elastic plate before and after breaking resolves this problem and explains the tilt of the Sierra Nevada block and variations in topography along the range. We postulate that cooling and elastic strengthening of the Mesozoic magmatic arc prevented its reaching local isostatic equilibrium during erosion in the Cenozoic. Thus, an overcompensated residual mountain range was held down elastically until Basin and Range extension broke the elastic plate along the Owens Valley and allowed rapid uplift. The Moho density contrast that best models the amplitude of both late Cenozoic uplift and prior topography is slightly larger than seismic and gravity models suggest; this implies that up to 20% of the uplift may be driven by density contrasts in the upper mantle. The idea of overcompensated erosional remnants and their release upon lithospheric faulting has a more general application to "anorogenic" uplift of mountain blocks.


This thesis has proposed a slender well concept for exploration drilling with 15000 psi pressure rating based on enabling technologies. The main findings relates to the use of expandable liner hangers to reduce the required radial clearance between consecutive casing sections. Finite element analysis of the liner hanger expansion is performed in Ansys Workbench, a platform for advanced engineering simulations. The background for the thesis relates to the high cost of constructing offshore wells. There is a potential for considerable cost reduction by starting the well with a substantially smaller diameter, without compromising the final pipe size across the zone of interest. The topic builds on ongoing research in SBBU – Centre for drilling and wells for improved recovery, a joint project between NTNU, Sintef, University in Stavanger and IRIS. The slender well concept renders the possibility to use modified 3rd or 4th generation semi-submersible rigs. These rigs have significantly lower day-rates compared to new 5th and 6th generation rigs. Cost reduction is also expected with respect to consumption of steel for casing, drilling fluids and cement. Additional savings in steel is obtained by basing the casing program mainly on liners. The expandable liner hanger of choice is based on the XPak liner hanger developed by TIW. Finite element analysis indicated that a pressure rating of 15000 psi is feasible with the proposed liner hanger system. To avoid reduction in burst and collapse rating, the expansion mandrel is retained in the liner hanger after expansion. The mandrel is designed such that it creates an internal flush design with the liner string. It is recommended to use metal-to-metal sealing to avoid communication around the liner top. The slender well is constructed with limited radial clearance between consecutive casing sections. The problem of high surge pressures during running in hole is overcome by introducing a surge protection system with an artificial inner annulus to displace drilling fluids. The concept of pre-installing a liner string in the surface casing is introduced to render the possibility of an additional casing section and reduction in riser ID. The concept is untested and further evaluation is recommended. For further work on the topic proper field testing is recommended to validate the reliability of the concept. An assessment of slender well production drilling is also recommended to fully exploit the potential in slender well design. More detailed analysis and testing is necessary to qualify the expandable liner hanger for 15000 psi.


The Dave vector model is shown to be a good representation of the atmospheric effects on the photometry and polarimetry of the sky above Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) on 6 Nov. 1982 produced by the El Chichon veil. Observations and modeling were accomplished at 0.36, 0.400, and 0.500 μm based on fundamental aerosol data. The effects of nonsphericity of the aerosols are included as a previously validated approximation in the input data. Extensive use was made of ground and air truth data available at MLO and the National Weather Service. From the modeling, the vertical number density of the El Chichon aerosol is deduced. The sky is found to be unusually bright from the aerosol scattering (radiance of 0.4 MW/m2/sr at a wavelength of 0.500 μm in the southerly and westerly directions at a sensor zenith angle of 60°) and the corresponding percent polarization low (~3%). Associated meteorological observations indicate stratospheric heating.


The Cordillera Darwin orogenic core complex is a structural and topographic culmination in the southern Andes, which underwent mid-Cretaceous penetrative deformation and metamorphism associated with the deformation and incipient obduction of a partly ophiolitic back-are basin (Rocas Verdes) block along its southern boundary. Whereas structural evidence suggests uplift of the Rocas Verdes terrane relative to the Cordillera Darwin during this event, metamorphic assemblages reflect a greater net uplift of the opposite sense. New fission track ages together with existing K-Ar and Rb-Sr ages were used to estimate cooling and uplift histories and their relationships to foreland sedimentation and present-day topographic relief. The results suggest that, whereas initiation of uplift in the Cordillera Darwin and Rocas Verdes blocks may have accompanied mid-Cretaceous deformation, the major, rapid uplift (around 0.5–1.5 mm/y) occurred after the deformation. Also, uplift occurred earlier in the Rocas Verdes block than in the Cordillera Darwin block, the latter having experienced a greater net uplift since the mid-Cretaceous. The major, post-tectonic uplift of the Cordillera Darwin occurred at a slower rate (0.05–0.20 mm/y) and coincides with the deposition of thick flysch and conglomerates in the foreland basin


Community co-insurance is a contract which stems from European Law (Directives 78/473/EEC, 88/357/ EEC, 2009/138/EC) and which has been subject to a troubled iter of transposition into the national laws of various Member States, having also received four condemnatory sentences from the Court of Justice of the European Union in 1986, for violations of art. 169 EEC Treaty (art. 226 EC Treaty) reported by the Commission. This paper, through a historical- -juridical analysis on the phase of implementation of this Community law, will offer some observations from the comparison of various implementation laws, in particular with regard to the figure of the leading insurer. The aim is to understand the reasons for the limited application of this type of contract.


Patients suffering from neovascular glaucoma who had been treated at the First Vienna University Eye Clinic in the years 1966-1979 were analyzed recently in a retrospective study. The present paper concentrates on 144 cases of hemorrhagic secondary glaucoma after central venous thrombosis. It considers only those patients who had not undergone laser therapy prior to vascular occlusion. The items dealt with in detail are the clinical symptoms, the early and rapid loss of vision, the high intraocular pressure, the interval between the occurrence of the vascular occlusion and the neovascular glaucoma, the distribution among age groups and sexes and the relation to general diseases.


This work considers the reconstruction of strong gravitational lenses from their observed effects on the light distribution of background sources.
After reviewing the formalism of gravitational lensing and the most common and relevant lens models, new analytical results on the elliptical power law lens are presented, including new expressions for the deflection, potential, shear and magnification, which naturally lead to a fast numerical scheme for practical calculation.

The main part of the thesis investigates lens reconstruction with extended sources by means of the forward reconstruction method, in which the lenses and sources are given by parametric models.
The numerical realities of the problem make it necessary to find targeted optimisations for the forward method, in order to make it feasible for general applications to modern, high resolution images.
The result of these optimisations is presented in the \textsc{Lensed} algorithm.
Subsequently, a number of tests for general forward reconstruction methods are created to decouple the influence of sourced from lens reconstructions, in order to objectively demonstrate the constraining power of the reconstruction.

The final chapters on lens reconstruction contain two sample applications of the forward method.
One is the analysis of images from a strong lensing survey.
Such surveys today contain $\sim 100$ strong lenses, and much larger sample sizes are expected in the future, making it necessary to quickly and reliably analyse catalogues of lenses with a fixed model.
The second application deals with the opposite situation of a single observation that is to be confronted with different lens models, where the forward method allows for natural model-building.
This is demonstrated using an example reconstruction of the ``Cosmic Horseshoe''.

An appendix presents an independent work on the use of weak gravitational lensing to investigate theories of modified gravity which exhibit screening in the non-linear regime of structure formation.


This essay demonstrates that in the area of Fourth Amendment law doctrine and technology are inextricably linked. I focus on brief searches in public places for weapons, a category of search that largely dominates the Fourth Amendment landscape. I demonstrate that the problems with the current method of detecting handguns are as much a function of technology as of law; courts have had to permit searches by pat downs, metal detectors, and x-ray machines based upon less than probable cause because they do not have any other options. Perhaps the problem is not with the least invasive search doctrine that the courts have adopted, but with the methods that are currently the least invasive means for detecting weapons. The essay investigates emerging technologies that may lead the courts out of the constitutional muddle in which they find themselves on the question of weapons detection. While the use of these technologies would certainly be an improvement over current practices, it becomes clear that what is needed is a device that can reliably separate those carrying weapons from those who are not without providing any other information about the individuals being screened. This hypothetical smart detector would not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment and could provide law enforcement with probable cause to make a more invasive search. Because it would place searches for weapons back within the rubric of probable cause, this new technology could aid law enforcement in its ability to detect concealed weapons while at the same time protecting civil liberties. It would also have the added benefit of tidying up a messy bit of Fourth Amendment doctrine.


The supply of doctors has been estimated for the period 1979-2000. The number of graduates from Norwegian medical schools has declined from 380 to about 320 a year. Similarly, the number of Norwegians with a degree in medicine from abroad has declined from 170 to 50 per year, whereas doctors of another nationality are increasing. Over the past two years they have accounted for 25% of the supply of new doctors. The total supply of doctors increased till the mid-1980s, but has since declined. It is anticipated that the decline will continue, and that factors such as retirement will reduce the net supply over the next decade. The study concludes that the lack of doctors is likely to persist. It is proposed that enrollment to Norwegian medical schools be increased. This increase should preferably take place at the three "peripheral" medical schools (Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø) so as to alleviate vacancy problems in peripheral districts of Norway.


Migration to 3-D provides a possible pathway for future Integrated Circuits (ICs) beyond 2-D CMOS, which is at the brink of its own fundamental limits. Partial attempts so far for 3-D integration using die to die and layer to layer stacking do not represent true progression, and suffer from their own challenges with lack of intrinsic thermal management being among the major ones. Our proposal for 3-D IC, Skybridge, is a truly fine-grained vertical nanowire based fabric that solves technology scaling challenges, and at the same time achieves orders of magnitude benefits over 2-D CMOS. Key to Skybridge's 3-D integration is the fabric centric mindset, where device, circuit, connectivity, thermal management and manufacturing issues are co-addressed in a 3-D compatible manner. In this paper we present architected fine-grained 3-D thermal management features that are intrinsic components of the fabric and part of circuit design; a key difference with respect to die-die and layer-layer stacking approaches where thermal management considerations are coarse-grained at system level. Our bottom-up evaluation methodology, with simulations at both device and circuit level, shows that in the best case Skybridge's thermal extraction features are very effective in thermal management, reducing temperature of a heated region by up to 92%.


Selective grinding of bauxite with ratio of Al2O3/SiO2(A/S) 4.4 at ball mill were studied in order to investigate the effect of grinding media characteristics on selective grinding of bauxite. Results show that when diameter of ball media is Φ15mm, selective grinding effect is best and at this moment A/S of the product at -0.5+0.28mm granularity is up to 7.5. Ball/powder weight ratio, charge rate, and size composition of grinding media have little influences on particle size composition of powder product, but have great influences on the A/S at different granularity powder product. At condition of size composition of grinding media Φ30mm:Φ20mm:Φ15mm=20%:50%:30% and charge rate 40%, the grinding results are best and at the moment ωAl2O3/SiO2 is up to 7.5, yield 27%, and Al2O3 recovery 30%.


Rainfall during the germination, growing and flowering periods is a major determinant of wheat yield. The degree of uncertainty attached to a wheat-yield prediction depends on whether the prediction is made before or after the rainfall in each period has been realised. Bayesian predictive densities that reflect the different levels of uncertainty in wheat-yield predictions made at four different points in time are derived for five shires in Western Australia.


Advances in data analytics techniques allow auditors to process the entire population of transaction data to identify outliers (i.e., unusual/suspicious transactions) that are more likely to be subject to misstatement. However, these techniques often generate a large number of outliers, making it impractical for auditors to investigate them in their entirety when performing substantive tests. This study proposes a Multidimensional Audit Data Selection (MADS) framework that provides a systematic approach for auditors to use data analytics in the audit data selection process. The framework also addresses a common obstacle of applying data analytics to the entire population of data—dealing with a potentially large number of outliers. By identifying problematic items from the entire population using data analytics and then applying prioritization methodologies to the resulting items, this framework allows auditors to focus on items with a higher risk of material misstatement and ultimately enhance the effectiveness of the audit.


This work has been focused on the study of how we can affect the short heat stress on the bioactive compounds content. Some recent investigations have observed that management of nitrogen fertilization can alleviate short-term heat effects on plants. Additionally, the short-term heat stress can be also ameliorated by using putrescine, a polyamine, due to its crucial role in the adaptation of plants to heat stress Therefore, different NO3−/NH4+ ratios and a foliar putrescine treatment have been used in order to increase tolerance to thermal stress in order to take advantage of the more frequent and intense heat waves and make this crop more sustainable. So, other objective of this work is to make the cauliflower waste more attractive for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical preparations. Thus, the effect of a thermal stress combined with a 50:50 NO3−/NH4+ ratio in the nutrient solution, and the foliar application of 2.5 mM putrescine increased in the content of various sugars (inositol, glucose, and fructose), total phenolic compounds and polyamines, as well as in the antioxidant activity. The greatest accumulation of these compounds was observed in young leaves. Our results show from a physiological and agronomic point of view, that the foliar application of putrescine and the 50:50 NO3−/NH4+ treatment managed to alleviate the negative effects of the abiotic stress suffered at high temperature, yielding plants with higher antioxidant compounds content.


A teacher's efficacy beliefs have been found to influence their professional commitment (Coladarci, 1992; Ware and Kitsantas, 2007, 2011; Klassen et al., 2013), their job satisfaction (Caprara et al., 2006, Hoigaard et al., 2012) and how resilient they are in difficult situations (Ashton and Webb, 1986), as well as influencing student achievement and teaching performance (Armor et al., 1976; Caprara et al, 2006; Klassen and Tze, 2014). Bandura (1997) has suggested that self-efficacy beliefs are formed from four sources: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological and affective states. Considering the potential importance of developing positive teacher efficacy cognitions, there has been a lack of research investigating the sources of teacher efficacy beliefs (Henson, 2002; Klassen et al, 2011).
This study used a constructivist grounded theory method to investigate the sources of teachers' efficacy beliefs, a method that has not been employed by other researchers in this area. The use of a social constructivist framework (Charmaz, 2006), with its focus on processes and the creation of knowledge through interaction, reflected my belief that my own experiences as a teacher may influence the interpretation of the data. In this study, 18 interviews were conducted with teachers in a secondary school in Essex.
Teachers appeared to use a variety of sources to validate their efficacy beliefs. In contrast to Bandura's (1997) theory about the sources of self-efficacy beliefs suggesting mastery experiences as the most important, verbal persuasion in the form of lesson observation feedback appeared to be a particularly salient source for teachers in this study. The study suggests that this may be due to the increasing accountability culture in English schools. The study contributes to our understanding of how teacher efficacy beliefs are influenced by contextual factors, in particular the influence of government agendas, and suggests some implications for school leaders and areas for future research.


Cold spray is a solid state spray deposition process utilizing a supersonic De Laval nozzle to accelerate fine particles to high velocities. Particles plastically deform on impact to the substrate and to each other to create dense well adhered structures. In this study, the microstructure and mechanical properties of cold spray Titanium coatings deposited using nitrogen gas at different gas temperature and pressure were examined. In general, it was found that gas-atomised CP-titanium powder is capable of producing dense coating structures on aluminium alloy (Al6061) substrates. The micro-hardness, oxygen and nitrogen content of the coatings were found to be slightly higher than powder in the as-received condition. It was also found the coating residual stress was purely compressive when cold spray is conducted at high gas pressure and temperature.


The purpose of this article is to analyze the social representations about solidarity economy, work and crafts, circulating among the craftswomen of the Solidarity Economy Commercialization Center of the municipality of Cariacica-ES. For this purpose, we use the collection technique of data triangulation based on non-participant observation of ethnographic inspiration, interviews, and documentary research. The main results point to the valuation of crafts as a therapy and not only as work, with solidarity economy being pointed out by the craftswomen as the best format, given the possibility of performing shared management and the valorization of the human being. The conception of being able to do something with the hands dictates the rhythm of producing the crafts, reflected in the way of conducting management in a particular way, overcoming the difficulties encountered.


Polyphonic Sound Event Detection (SED) in real-world recordings is a challenging task because of the dynamic polyphony level, intensity, and duration of sound events. Current polyphonic SED systems fail to model the temporal structure of sound events explicitly and instead attempt to look at which sound events are present at each audio frame. Consequently, the event-wise detection performance is much lower than the segment-wise detection performance. In this work, we propose a joint model approach to improve the temporal localization of sound events using a multi-task learning setup. The first task predicts which sound events are present at each time frame; we call this branch 'Sound Event Detection (SED) model', while the second task predicts if a sound event is present or not at each frame; we call this branch 'Sound Activity Detection (SAD) model'. We verify the proposed joint model by comparing it with a separate implementation of both tasks aggregated together from individual task predictions. Our experiments on the URBAN-SED dataset show that the proposed joint model can alleviate False Positive (FP) and False Negative (FN) errors and improve both the segment-wise and the event-wise metrics.


Since late 1980s, Pakistan"s policy makers have been following the economic liberalization policies, particularly financial and trade liberalization for attaining sustainable economic growth. Gauging the impact of such policies on Pakistan economic performance is indispensable to pave the way of sustainable economic growth. This study contributes to the existing literature in the case of Pakistan by estimating the impact of financial and trade liberalization on economic growth through the channels of private saving and investment. Further, this study also analyzes the determinants of capital account liberalization. Study applied autoregressive distributed lag approach (ARDL) on time series data from 1971 to 2013 for analyzing the objectives. The ARDL results indicate that the long run relationship exists in all models. First, the results of the economic growth model show that labor force (skill), capital stock, and financial liberalization index are positively related with the economic growth. The financial openness index and trade openness are negatively related to growth. Second, the long term results of the impact of financial and trade liberalization indicators on private saving show that per capita real private income, real deposit rate, public saving and financial liberalization index are positively linked with private saving. The capital account liberalization, financial openness index, and trade openness are negatively related to private saving in the long run. Third, the long term results of the impact of financial/trade liberalization indicators on private investment exhibit that per capita real private income, public investment, financial liberalization index are positively related to private investment in the long run. The real interest rate and trade openness are negatively linked to private investment in the long run. Last, the results of the impact of trade liberalization/openness on the capital account liberalization/openness highlight that trade openness (de facto) is positively related with capital account liberalization. Further, the results also indicate trade liberalization and
iv
trade openness are positively associated with the financial openness. Putting together, the overall results show that financial liberalization index is positively related to economic growth, private saving and investment. Against this backdrop, study suggests policy makers to promote financial liberalization in banking and stock sector as such liberalization policies are positively linked to economic growth. In the context of negative juxtaposition of capital account liberalization/openness to economic growth, there is need to relook at the capital account liberalization policies. The study also highlights a need to revise import liberalization policy of discouraging the imports of luxury consumer goods and subsidizing the machinery for industry. The control variable of skill labor force is positively linked to economic growth, thus this study suggests that skill labor is playing an important role in the growth process. Presently Pakistan is spending 2.1 % of GDP on education (GOP 2011), which is lower than other regional countries like India, Bangladesh and Nepal. An increase in education expenditures and their effective allocation is vital in order to sustain EG by improving the quality of human capital.


One important problem in radiation therapy for cancer treatment is the selection of the set of beam angles radiation will be delivered from. A primary goal of this problem is to find a beam angle configuration (BAC) that leads to a clinically acceptable treatment plan. Further, this process must be done within clinically acceptable times. Since the problem of selecting beam angles in radiation therapy is known to be extremely hard-to-solve as well as time-consuming, both exact algorithms and population-based heuristics might not be suitable to solve this problem. In this paper, we compare three matheuristic methods based on local search algorithms, namely, steepest descent (SD), next descent (ND), and tabu search (TS) to approximately solve the beam angle optimisation problem (BAO). Although the SD algorithm is able to find locally optimal BACs for the BAO problem, it takes too long before convergence. For this reason, we try the ND algorithm as it has been shown to converge quickly to good quality solutions, although no (local) optimality guarantee is given. Finally, the well-known tabu search is also applied to the BAO problem in order to evaluate its performance. A prostate case which considers two organs at risk, namely the rectum and the bladder is considered in this paper. Results show that the ND finds solutions as good as the ones found by the SD algorithm. TS outperforms both the SD and the ND algorithms. Convergence curves for the all three algorithms are studied.


An industrial scale injection molding machine is used to prepare fly ash cenosphere reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) syntactic foams. Thermosetting matrix foams with glass microspheres are being used in marine and aerospace applications owing to higher specific properties. Thermoplastic matrix syntactic foams have not been studied extensively despite interest in them for lightweight underwater vehicle structures and consumer products. Syntactic foams are fabricated with 20 and 40% cenospheres by weight. The studies on the manufacturing process suggest that a small percentage of cenospheres fracture in syntactic foams containing up to 40 wt.% cenospheres. Incorporation of particles, which are inexpensive, helps in fabricating low cost syntactic foams. Quasi-static compression tests are conducted at 10-4, 10-3 and 10-2 s-1 strain rates. The compressive strength of syntactic foams is higher than that of HDPE resin at the same strain rate due to the incorporation of ceramic particles. Yield strength shows an increasing trend with strain rate.


The World Health Organisation's top staff has been replaced by an entirely new team. The announcement came on 21 July--the day Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, assumed office as the WHO's new director general.

Since January Dr Brundtland's transition team has been working to mastermind a radical break with the WHO's tarnished past in terms of a new leadership, structure, priorities, and operations. Despite nervous grumbling about the "heavy input" from headquarters and a lack of transparency in the "Scandinavian-Anglo-Saxon mafia" the transition team seems to have achieved its goal.

The names of the new appointees to the WHO's cabinet were unveiled in Dr Brundtland's first teleconference address to the WHO's 3500 staff around the world on the day of her arrival.

It is rumoured that the Norwegian government has placed a sizeable sum ($30m; £19m) at the WHO's disposal to ease the departure of staff whose services will no longer be required.

Unusual within the United …


This thesis investigates various roles that investor sentiment may play in asset pricing. The empirical analysis consists of three main parts based on the role of investor sentiment in the stock markets. The first part discusses the role of investor sentiment as conditioning information. It aims to examine its ability to explain the dynamic nature of the expected returns for individual stocks and its explanatory power capture the financial market anomalies such as the size, value, liquidity, and effects. The second part focuses on the role of investor sentiment as a risk factor. The purpose is to construct a risk factor on the basis of investor sentiment and test whether this proposed sentiment factor is priced and helps to explain the aforementioned financial market anomalies. The third part explores the role of investor sentiment in different international stock markets. It attempts to assess the extent to which investor sentiment affects the stock market volatility and returns of different regions.
The results suggest that investor sentiment exhibits explanatory power for cross section of stock returns in the U.S. market. Acting as conditioning information or a risk factor, investor sentiment can generally capture the size and value effects. Furthermore, it can also capture the momentum effect under certain model specifications. The thesis shows that investors require compensation for bearing noise traders; in other words, investor sentiment is a priced factor. At the market level, the impacts of investor sentiment on stock volatility and returns vary across countries. For some countries investor sentiment affects both volatility and returns while for the others investor sentiment has less influence on stock price behaviour.
Overall, the findings of the thesis provide empirical evidence that overlooking the role of investor sentiment in classical finance theory could lead to an imperfect picture of describing the stock price behaviour.


Mastering the pragmatic norms of another language is one of the greatest challenges to non-native speakers. One particularly difficult aspect of pragmatic conventions is the appropriate use of pragmatic devices such as like, you know, I think, and or something like that which have been found to serve a number of important textual and interactive functions in discourse. This study investigates the use of such devices by non-native speakers in cross-cultural conversations in terms of frequency and function in order to establish to what extent L2 usage differs from native speaker norms. In particular, the study examines the use of the English pragmatic devices like, eh and General Extenders (and things like that, or something like that) by German non-native speakers of English (GNNSE) in interactions with native speakers of New Zealand English (NSNZE). The results are compared with the use of these forms in native-native conversations in New Zealand English and the use of close equivalent forms in German by the same GNNSE. The analysis is based on a corpus of approximately 18 1⁄2 hours of dyadic conversation or about 224,338 words of transcription.


Selenium is an essential trace element for human and animal health. Numerous studies reported selenium to possess antioxidant effects, anticarcinogenicity and fertility improvements to name a few. The assimilation of selenium into the yeast via the sulfur metabolic pathway creates selenised yeast which is one of the primary sources of selenium supplementation.
In this thesis, novel approaches to the extraction and characterisation of commercial selenised yeast products are described. Extraction procedures were developed for selenomethionine determination. These methods involved both enzymatic and chemical extraction approaches and utilised microwave and ultrasonication energy for the purpose of liberating intracellular selenomethionine. Both the enzymatic and chemical extraction methods were subsequently validated for determination of the analyte.
A quantitative assay was also developed for the determination of chiral enantiomers of selenomethionine. The method was applied to commercially-available selenised yeast to characterise any differences in the water-soluble extracts of the products. Significant differences were evident, not only from chiral composition but also from the selenocompounds present in the water extract. Further screening of the water extract by HPLC-ICP-MS revealed numerous other selenocompounds. While coupling of HPLC to ICP-MS was sufficient as an investigative screening tool, selenocompound identification was not possible unless a standard of the analyte was available. To combat these issues other mass spectrometric techniques were investigated. The target water-soluble extracts were lyophilised and resuspended to increase analyte concentration and were analysed by liquid chromatography electrospray quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-QTOF-MS). Selenium-containing species were confirmed by selenium's unique isotopic pattern. Determination of the elemental composition and proposed structure of some of these previously unreported selenocompounds was possible due to the accurate molecular mass from the first mass analyser and from MS2 fragmentation analysis. Therefore, LC- ESI-QTOF-MS may be used as a fingerprint tool to make comparisons between commercially-available selenised yeast products.


Political science research frequently models binary or ordered outcomes involving related processes. However, traditional modeling of these outcomes ignores common data issues and cannot capture nuances. There is often an excess of zeros, the observed outcomes for different actors are inherently related, and competing actors may respond to the same factors differently. This paper extends existing models and develops a zero-inflated multivariate ordered probit to simultaneously address these issues. This model performs better than existing models at capturing the true parameters of interest, estimates the nature of the related processes, and captures the differences in actors' decision-making. I demonstrate these benefits through simulation exercises and an application to party behavior in Mexico.


General abstract: Here we introduce biosemiotics as a field of research that develops models of life processes focusing on their informational aspects. Peirce's general concept of semiosis can be used to analyze such processes, and provide a powerful basis for understanding the emergence of meaning in living systems, by contributing to the construction of a theory of biological information. Peirce's theory of sign action is introduced, and the relation between 'information processing' and sign processes is discussed, in fact, a semiotic definition of information is introduced. Three biosemiotic models of informational processes, at the behavioral and molecular levels, are developed, first, a model of genetic information processing in protein synthesis; second, a model of signal transduction in Bcell activation in the immune system; and, finally, a model of symbolic nonhuman primate communication. We also address some perspectives for the development of applied semiotic research in fields such as Artificial life, cognitive ethology, cognitive robotics, theoretical biology, and education.


Sitting in calm and deep waters, neatly tucked away from the sometimes perilous streams of the North Pacific and Japan Sea, Hakodate was in some ways an obvious choice as a port to be opened. It offered a suitable location for American whalers to call for supplies and repairs as they ventured on voyages of plunder in the nearby seas, and a safe anchorage for the naval ships of treaty powers—especially Russia—as they "wintered" or otherwise sought to project their power over East Asia. Despite the blessings of its physical geography, however, Hakodate sat on the southern tip of Ezo (later Hokkaido), an island which constituted the thinly populated fringe, or frontier, of the Japanese realm. This meant that despite its rumoured richness in natural resources, Ezo was by all accounts an economic backwater when Hakodate was opened to international trade, providing exports of various marine products to the main islands of Japan via a network of seasonal fisheries across Ezo. In the decades that followed Hakodate's opening, the port's trade and population expanded rapidly, transforming what was previously described as "a long fishing village" into a bustling port of over 50,000 by the mid-1880s. Nonetheless, this paper will argue that this expansion was not primarily a result of the opening of Hakodate to international trade; rather, it was the opening of Hakodate's hinterland—Ezo, or from 1869, Hokkaido—which allowed Hakodate to prosper, enhancing its existing role as a hub for the marketing and distribution of northern marine products throughout Japan. The fact that foreign traders struggled to make any inroads into Hakodate's principal trades serves as a warning to scholars not overstate the transformative capacity of western capitalism everywhere in East Asia.


A switching adaptive controller is proposed to control the phase currents in brushless DC motor (BLDCM) drives. After deriving the error dynamics, the conduction and commutation periods of the drive is taken into account separately, and two different controllers are designed for each operation region of the current loop of BLDCM drives. All the system constants in the dynamical model of the drive are considered uncertain, and adaptation rules are derived for these unknown parameters. The stability of the closed-loop system is shown by a common Lyapunov function, and the convergence of the current error to zero is proved as well. Various numerical simulations are performed for different working conditions to test the viability of the designed controller.


In this paper, we present our English-to-Turkish translation methodology, which adopts a tree-based approach. Our approach relies on tree analysis and the application of structural modification rules to get the target side (Turkish) trees from source side (English) ones. We also use morphological analysis to get candidate root words and apply tree-based rules to obtain the agglutinated target words. Compared to earlier work on English-to-Turkish translation using phrase-based models, we have been able to obtain higher BLEU scores in our current study. Our syntactic subtree permutation strategy, combined with a word replacement algorithm, provides a 67 % relative improvement from a baseline 12.8 to 21.4 BLEU, all averaged over 10-fold cross-validation. As future work, improvements in choosing the correct senses and structural rules are needed.


Carbon dioxide is a physiologic compound present in our body, mainly as a result of cellular metabolism. The frequency of carboxytherapy use by dermatologists and cosmetologists increased significantly in the second half of the 20th century due to the fact that it improves blood circulation within skin tissues. This article focuses on the use of carboxytherapy in case of various skin problems, such as stretch marks, scars, loss of elasticity, redundancy of fatty tissue, cellulite, morphea, and alopecia. The review of sparse studies that are available indicate increasing interest in this method.


In this paper we examine the effect of monetary policy on the Israeli economy, and in particular on unemployment and the evolution of prices, for the period between 1990 and 1999, using the SVAR methodology. The four endogenous variables are the unemployment rate in deviations from its trend, the inflation rate, the Bank of Israel nominal interest rate and local-currency depreciation. We posit two models. In the first the identification restrictions imply that aggregate supply does not respond immediately to changes in aggregate demand, while in the second the aggregate supply response to demand shocks has been designed to have the maximum effect. The impulse response function analysis in both models indicates that an unexpected tightening of monetary policy is followed by a relatively fast slowdown in the inflation rate and a rise in the unemployment rate. This result differs from the findings in other empirical work concerning relatively large closed economies in which prices respond with a delay to policy changes, lagging behind the output response. The analysis of the actual structural shocks during the period surveyed indicates that supply shocks are the main reason why unemployment deviates from its longterm level. The contribution of monetary policy shocks to the evolution of unemployment between 1993 and 1994 and after 1997 in the context of the second model is in line with existing appraisals of monetary policy, according to which it was loose in the first sub-period and tighter in the second one. It may therefore be inferred that this model, which is characterized by nominal frictions, is more suitable for describing Israel's economy during the estimation period.


The concept of inclusion within the English education system is often taken for granted. There are a number of factors that can impact on inclusive practice and this demands careful exploration. Chronic health conditions (CHCs), such as anaphylaxis, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and eczema, pose particular challenges to inclusion for practitioners who teach, educate and care for children under the age of five years in day care settings. These conditions can have a significant effect on children's health, especially in the minority world. However, there is a paucity of research about how the symptoms affect children's early education.

This mixed-methods study collected quantitative data by sending a postal survey to 60 settings in order to find out how many children are affected by these conditions in day care settings. Four of the surveyed settings went on to participate in the qualitative aspect of the study. Qualitative data were also collected from parents of children with CHCs and the study included observations of a child in his early childhood setting over the course of a year.

The findings revealed that 11% of children attending the settings in this study had been diagnosed with one or more CHCs and that CHCs had a profound effect on children and their parents. Parents reported that knowledge of the specific conditions is important for practitioners to have in order to create inclusive relationships with them. Practitioners in this study demonstrated a collaborative approach to leadership when creating inclusive environments. However, the findings revealed tensions for practitioners regarding the inclusion of all children in the curriculum. The findings suggest that achieving inclusion may therefore be problematic for some children. However, the communication skills, knowledge of CHCs and willingness of practitioners were vital to the inclusion of children with CHCs in their early education.


Ion exchange resin (IER) mixed polyethersulfone (PES) hybrid membranes were prepared by a phase inversion method, using polyethyleneglycol-400 (PEG-400) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as additives. Two different types of resin, D201 and D061, were incorporated into polyethersulfone dope solution separately with intention of producing highly permeable and hydrophilic membranes. The effect of filler on morphology, pure water permeation, and rejection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated. It was found that the morphology of hybrid membranes showed a typical asymmetry structure. The amount of IER, the concentration of additives and the temperature of coagulation bath showed to be powerful factors to influence the pore size and pure water flux. Membranes prepared from a solution containing PES concentrations from 13wt% to 15wt%, the pure water flux decreased from 244.6 to 97.5 L/(m2•h). And PVP could serve as an additive to render the hybrid membrane hydrophilic. High values of BSA rejection capacity were performed by the resin mixed polyethersulfone hybrid membranes.


Most component models currently in use do not try to provide extensive support for dealing with hardware devices like sensors and actuator. Lack of such support means that software components and subsystems often include device- and platform-specific code, limiting our ability to reuse them and forcing us to deal with specifics of underlying hardware in high-level software models. In this paper we propose a solution that would enable automatic generation of device-specific code. We remove device- and platform-specific code outside of software components and specifying it as reusable units. Based on a system model we then generate glue-code that binds this reusable units of code to each other and to the software components, resulting in a system-specific solution.


Abstract : This thesis analyzes the Navy's procurement contract termination model, the mathematical model on which the Navy's Inventory Control Points will rely to determine whether to terminate procurement actions on items in long supply. The analysis focuses on which costs are relevant to the model and which costs are irrelevant. Suggestions for improvement are offered which include both eliminating irrelevant costs considered by the model and adding relevant costs not considered. Finally, the thesis evaluates the model's recommendations for terminations over a range of values of key model parameters to determine which parameters have the most impact on the model's decisions. Then it recommends further research in determining more precise values for those parameters with the largest effect on the model's decisions.


Introduction: Among the chronic course diseases, chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis is one of those that generate the greatest impact on patients quality of life. Objective: To characterize the impact of renal replacement therapy on the quality of life in patients with chronic renal failure. Materials and Methods: This is a literature review conducted in the Bireme database using the following descriptors: quality of life, hemodialysis and chronic renal failure. Results: The search resulted in eight complete scientific papers published between 2003 and 2010. The presence of a chronic disease, the need to commit to a long treatment, the reduction of social life and especially the physical limitations imposed by the treatment are the main causes of poor quality of life in these patients. Conclusion: The papers have showed a reduction in the quality of life of patients with chronic renal failure undergoing renal replacement therapy, indicating that the worst scores on scales that assess the quality of life are related to the sex, longer treatment duration and the age.


CANCER GENOMICS
Myc is an oncogenic transcription factor that contributes to more than 70,000 deaths annually in the United States. When expressed inappropriately, Myc causes uncontrolled cell proliferation, but the precise mechanism by which this occurs remains unclear. An early hypothesis that Myc regulates a small number of target genes crucial to cell cycle control has been called into question by recent gene expression profiling indicating that Myc affects the transcription of several hundred genes.

Genome-wide analyses of Myc binding sites by Orian et al. and Fernandez et al. are consistent with the revisionist view that Myc regulates the expression of a large and diverse set of target genes. Using different strategies and different organisms (fruit fly and human, respectively), the two groups independently conclude that Myc binds to several thousand coding sequences—or about 10% of all cellular genes. These surprising results raise the possibility that Myc malfunction may cause cancer through perturbation of multiple metabolic pathways in the cell—a hypothesis that will interest systems biologists.— PAK

Genes Dev. 17 , 1101; 1115 (2003).


In this paper, an intelligent electronic nose (EN)system designed using cheap metal oxide gas sensors (MOGS) is designed to detect fires at an early stage. The time series signals obtained from the same source of fire are highly correlated, and different sources of fire exhibit unique patterns in the time series data. Therefore, the error back propagation (BP) method can be effectively used for the classification of the tested smell. The accuracy of 99.6% is achieved by using only a single training dataset from each source of fire. The accuracy achieved with the k-means algorithm is 98.3%, which also shows the high ability of the EN in detecting the early stage of fire from various sources.


Current potato varieties have not fully met the market demands of the rapidly expanding Kenyan potato industry. Newer varieties with tolerance to the major diseases, higher yields, better storability and processing qualities are therefore required. Through a collaborative research, six promising late blight tolerant clones initially from the International Potato Centre (CIP) were evaluated in National Performance Trials (NPT) in six potato growing regions. Three clones, namely: 393385.39, 393371.58 and 391691.96 were released by the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) under the respective names of Sherekea, Kenya Mpya and Purple Gold. Sherekea had high yields (40-50T/ha), high tolerance to late blight and to major viruses, attractive red skin color, good storability, good cooking and processing qualities. Kenya Mpya had high yields (35-45 T/ha), high resistance to late blight, good chipping and mashing quality, short dormancy (75-90 days), early tuber bulking and early physiological maturity (90-105 days). Purple Gold had moderate to high yields, excellent crisping and good chipping, Table, cooking and mashing qualities, long dormancy and very good storability. The new varieties are expected to respond to various demands of the potato industry while increasing the varietal options available to the farmers.


How spatial language varies regionally? This study investigates the possibility of exploring regional linguistic variations in spatial language by collecting and analyzing a Spatially-strAtified Route Direction Corpus (SARD Corpus) from volunteered spatial language text on the Web. Because of the fast content sharing functionality of the World Wide Web, it quickly becomes a hotbed for volunteered spatial language text, such as directions on hotels' Websites. These route directions can serve as a representation of everyday spatial language usage on the WWW. The spatial coverage and abundance of the data source is appealing while collecting and analyzing large quantities of spatially distributed data is still challenging. Through automated crawling, classifying and geo-referencing web documents containing route directions from the web, the SARD Corpus has been built covering the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. We implement a semantic categorical analysis scheme to explore regional variations in cardinal versus relative direction usages. Preliminary results show both similarity and differences at national level and geographic patterns at regional level. The design and implementation of building a geo-referenced large-scale corpus from Web documents offers a methodological contribution to corpus linguistics, spatial cognition, and the GISciences.


Analysis of polymorphism and divergence in the non-coding portion of the human genome yields crucial information about factors driving the evolution of gene regulation. Candidate cis-regulatory regions spanning more than 15,000 genes in 15 African Americans and 20 European Americans were re-sequenced and aligned to the chimpanzee genome in order to identify potentially functional polymorphism and to characterize and quantify departures from neutral evolution. Distortions of the site frequency spectra suggest a general pattern of selective constraint on conserved non-coding sites in the flanking regions of genes (CNCs). Moreover, there is an excess of fixed differences that cannot be explained by a Gamma model of deleterious fitness effects, suggesting the presence of positive selection on CNCs. Extensions of the McDonald-Kreitman test identified candidate cis-regulatory regions with high probabilities of positive and negative selection near many known human genes, the biological characteristics of which exhibit genome-wide trends that differ from patterns observed in protein-coding regions. Notably, there is a higher probability of positive selection in candidate cis-regulatory regions near genes expressed in the fetal brain, suggesting that a larger portion of adaptive regulatory changes has occurred in genes expressed during brain development. Overall we find that natural selection has played an important role in the evolution of candidate cis-regulatory regions throughout hominid evolution.


Red mud as environmental restoration materials has the characteristics of low cost, simple process and controlling waste by waste. The paper introduced the application of red mud on heavy metal contaminated water and soil in details. Powdered or granular red mud both has good adsorption efficiency of Cu , Zn, Pb, Ni, Ca, Cd, As and other heavy metal ions in wastewater. Langmiur or Frendlich model can express the adsorption isotherm of red mud on heavy metal ions. Red mud can not only solidify the heavy metals in soils, but also increase the soil microbial activity and population types. At the same time, de-alkali treatment can not be ignored in the process of using red mud avoiding the second pollution to environment, and achieve the zero pollution release of red mud.


With growing electrification of light-duty vehicles, fast and super-fast (or high-power) charging stations for electric vehicles will be instrumental to continue enabling this transformation. In addition to plug-in charging, high-power wireless charging has been attracting increasing attention and interests. Despite the fact that wireless super-fast charger is highly efficient (above 90%), the amount of wasted energy it releases is still considerable. For instance, for a 1MW wireless charger under investigation, the expected heat dissipation rate will be minimum of 50 kW. Meanwhile, due to the compactness of these power electronics, the resultant heat flux (i.e., 25 kW/m2) will be challenging for conventional air-cooling solutions. In this study, thermal management of wireless supercharger module of electrical vehicle using a finned base heat sink integrated with Phase Change Material (PCM) has been investigated. Specifically, paraffin RT70 has been numerically investigated to study its feasibility as the desired PCM. A 2D model of the PCM domain has been developed in ANSYS Fluent, followed by simulations under high heat flux condition (i.e., 25 kW/m2). Given control of the junction temperature of power electronics is crucial to keep the system working efficiently and reliably, alternative PCMs and conduction enhancement techniques using different finned base heat sink configurations have been applied to achieve improved thermal management performance. Meanwhile, the effect of using PCM with different thermal conductivity has been studied to have a better understanding of its effect on the efficiency of thermal management system. In the end, a PCM-based heat sink will be introduced to maintain the junction temperature below 80 °C in charging time of 35 minutes.


Excavations in 'Marea' in 2018 were conducted within a broader project, the aim of which was to recognize the ancient topography of this settlement. The work this season was mainly carried out at the promontory in the north-eastern part of the site with some partially visible buildings along an ancient street. The goal was threefold: to define when they had been built, for how long they had been in use and to verify results from the previous survey. Consequently, six trenches were made to gain material essential to date the aforementioned constructions. The oldest remains turned out to be from the Roman period, when this area became a rubbish dump for production wastes from adjacent pottery kilns. Above the heaps mainly made of amphorae AE 3 and AE 4 sherds, two occupation levels were recognised with the older one beginning in 3rd century or later. Unfortunately function of the structures uncovered at this level is still unclear. The consecutive phase can be dated to 5th–6th century. During that time buildings were constructed according to the regular grid which fits into the overall plan of the town. Executed works led to better understanding of the particular changes that occurred in this part of 'Marea'.


Sustainable technologies in the chemical industry need to incorporate cleaning processes of effluents and recycling media. Substituted aromatics present in high concentration in industrial waste waters, originating mainly from pharmaceutical and dye industries are usually refractory and/or toxic for a biologically active sludge. A catalytic wet oxidation of water seems to be an economic alternative to an incineration process. The key factors of the possible wet oxidation are discussed and a case study of two different industrial problems (water with sulphonaphthol or acrylic acid) is presented. The efficiency of a wet oxidation system depends on reaction conditions and it is possible to improve it by initiation with hydrogen peroxide. The treatment capacity, strong corrosive conditions and a utilization of reaction heat are necessary to account for design purposes.


In golden hamsters, seasonal changes in day length act via a pineal-dependent mechanism to regulate feedback and behavioral effects of androgen. Endogenous opiates participate in photoperiodically regulated neuroendocrine functions, but the effects of androgen on expression of the gene encoding POMC, the precursor of beta-endorphin, have been controversial. We used quantitative in situ hybridization to examine regulation of POMC messenger RNA (mRNA) by testosterone and to test the hypothesis that short day lengths act through the pineal gland to amplify POMC mRNA expression. We studied intact hamsters and castrates with or without androgen treatment held in long (14 h of light, 10 h of darkness) or short (5 h of light, 19 h of darkness) days for 10 weeks. POMC gene expression differed with rostral-caudal plane, photoperiod, and surgical treatment (castration and testosterone administration). Testosterone increased the number of silver grains in labeled cells throughout the arcuate nucleus, and short day castrates given androgen consistently had more silver grains per labeled cell than did their long day counterparts. Testosterone exerted an inhibitory effect, however, on the number of POMC mRNA-positive cells, and more POMC mRNA-labeled cells were found in the arcuate nucleus of long than short day castrates treated with testosterone. Photoperiod had no significant influence in castrates not receiving androgen. Testosterone treatment had generally similar effects whether it was begun at the time of castration or 5 weeks later. Pinealectomy blocked the influence of photoperiod on both the mean number of silver grains per labeled cell and the number of labeled cells. The results indicate that day length regulates POMC gene expression when androgen levels are held constant, but that androgen is necessary for photoperiod effects to be expressed.


This Dissertation depicts about the use of overdraft facility by the business men/women as customers of the private banks and how it affects the liquidity status and income of those private banks in Bangalore. This study helps the private bankers to identify the financial changes in the annual reports supported by statistical tools depicting the significant changes in relation to market liquidity and the income of the private banks.
An overdraft allows an individual to continue withdrawing money even if the account has no funds in it and the bank will cover the checks which would otherwise bounce. The interest on the outstanding balance of an overdraft loan often is lower than credit cards. Market Liquidity is an asset's ability to be sold without causing a significant movement in the price and with minimum loss of value. Referring this meaning to the banks, overdraft plays a small part in changing the interest rates and also incurring a very minimal expense to maintain the OD account for the customers among the banks compared to cash credits and loan repayable on demand which are the major reasons for the influence on bank rates. In order to provide for the overdraft facility to the customers, even though for period of 22 days up to 45 days depending on the respective bank's policies, banks must maintain a ready source to compensate the customers demand to withdraw beyond a nil balance. Thus Total Deposits are considered to represent the market liquidity of the banks.
Income of private banks mainly in connection to the topic of the study considers only the interest earned on the overdraft for approximate comparison between the overdraft balance and interest earned on it. Thus giving no grounds for confusions as to why net profit or income earned through other sources is not considered.

Reason for taking the liquidity and income to compare it with overdraft is that all three factors are of shorts terms in nature. It gives a common ground for significant comparison. It also provides appropriate data for correct statistical analysis giving accurate result.
While increase in overdraft balance increases the interest amount earned on it or the banks have to increase the deposits to provide for the increasing overdraft balances. Other than the problem of the study, smooth or turbulent financial periods, behaviour of funds rate in response to declining required reserves, political scandals, bad cheques etc. are the various factors practically influencing the overdraft to affect the private bank's market liquidity and income
The scope of the study reckons to give the results as an answer for various queries of not only to the selected sample private banks but also to other banks that are providing the overdraft facility. It also helps the other researchers to carry on the further study.
The hypothesis is to prove whether or not the overdraft affects the market liquidity and income.
Sample size N=20 taken for data analysis includes the five years of the three variables of the study from 17 NSE Listed and 3 non listed private banks located in Bangalore which are available from annual reports the websites of sample banks, pay sites like report junction and CMIE-business beacon. This sample size is accumulated through convenient sampling of non-probabilistic sampling technique. Mainly Correlation is used as Statistical Technique for analysis and other than that, financial analytical tools are also employed i.e. Growth analysis, Peer group comparison and Industrial benchmarking. Through correlation analysis, findings are drawn that the effect of overdraft on market liquidity and as well as the effect of overdraft on income of the 20 banks are highly significant (p<0.01). Thus, the null hypothesis 1 and 2which shows that overdraft does not affect the market liquidity and income is proved otherwise.
Increase in overdraft does affect the market liquidity and income positively.


We present a new computation of the Lepton Flavor Violating effective vertex involving the Higgs boson and two leptons with different flavors. This vertex is generated from the integration to one-loop level of the heavy right handed neutrinos which are considered here within the context of the Low Scale Seesaw Models and with masses close to the TeV scale. We apply the Mass Insertion Approximation technique to compute the loop contributions from these heavy $\nu_R$ and derive a symple analytical formula for the $Hl_il_j$ effective vertex in terms of the input $Y_\nu$ Yukawa coupling matrix and right handed $M_R$ neutrino masses. Some interesting phenomenological applications of this $Hl_il_j$ effective vertex are also included.


Natural rubber (NR)/low density polyethylene (LDPE) composites are utilised to manufacture rubber-based articles. Properties of these composites become inferior if they are used alone due to the incompatibility of the base polymers. Peroxides help to cross-link both NR and LDPE, and the addition of peroxide to the composite at its optimum loading may enhance properties by developing a stable phase morphology. Therefore, the present work investigates the effect of dicumyl peroxide (DCP) loading on physicomechanical properties of calcium carbonate (CaCO3)-filled NR/LDPE (70/30) composites. The composite preparation was based on varying the DCP loading from 0 to 0.9 parts per hundred parts of polymer (phpp) at 0.1 phpp intervals. The composite at DCP loading of 0.3 phpp indicated the highest physicomechanical properties, gel content, the hardness of gel, and degree of crystallinity and the lowest degree of swelling. Properties of the composites with DCP were better than those of the control (without DCP). Water absorption decreased with the addition of DCP up to 0.3 phpp and increased after that with the rise in DCP loading. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image of the composite at DCP loading of 0.3 phpp revealed a smooth fracture surface. Therefore, 0.3 phpp was identified as the optimum DCP loading for the NR/LDPE (70/30) composite.


For the bidimensional version of the generalized Benjamin-Ono equation:

$u_t-H^{(x)}u_{x y}+u^p u_y=0, \quad t\in \mathbb R,\quad (x,y)\in
\mathbb R^2,$

we use the method of parabolic regularization to prove local
well-posedness
in the spaces $H^s(\mathbb R^2), \quad s>2$ and in the weighted spaces
$\mathcal F_r^s=H^s(\mathbb R^2) \cap
L^2((1+x^2+y^2)^rdxdy), \quad s>2,\quad
r\in [0,1]$ and $\mathcal F_{1,k}^k=H^k(\mathbb R^2)
\cap L^2((1+x^2+y^{2k})dxdy), \quad k\in\mathbb N, \quad k\geq 3. \quad $ As in the case of BO there is lack of persistence for both the linear
and
 nonlinear equations (for $p$ odd) in $\mathcal F_2^s$. That leads to
unique
 continuation principles in a natural way. By standard methods based on
 $L^p-L^q$ estimates of the associated group we obtain global
well-posedness
 for small initial data and nonlinear scattering for $p\geq 3,\quad s>3$.
 Nonexistence of square integrable solitary waves of the form
 $u(x,y,t)=v(x,y-ct),\quad c>0, \quad p\in \{1,2\}$ is obtained using the
results about existence of solitary waves of the BO and
variational methods.


Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been widely used in the simulation and analysis of community or urban wind environments. However, the CFD-based wind simulation of large-scale building groups usually consumes a lot of computing resources with high computing costs. To improve the efficiency of CFD-based wind simulation, this paper presents an experiment-based simplified method for the model of building groups. Two rectangular buildings are adopted as the basic unit and four control parameters (B/L, W/L, H/L, and D/L) are selected as the experiment factors to analyze the geometrical relationship of the two buildings. Note that L, W, and H, respectively, represent the windward edge length, width, and height of a building, B is building interval distance, and D is the distance between two building center axes. Then, a single factor experiment and an orthogonal experiment are designed and performed to determine the reasonable value range of each factor. Based on the experiment results and actual situation, the value ranges of four factors for the simplification of building group models are determined as follows: B/L∈{0, 1.5}, W/L∈{0, 2}, D/L∈{0, 0.25}, and H/L∈{0, 1}. Furthermore, a real case is presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed simplified method. The results indicate that the simplified method is able to improve the efficiency of CFD-based wind simulation of building groups, with the number of buildings decreasing from 620 to 395 (by 36.3%), and the number of tetrahedral grids decreasing from 8,832,199 to 7,766,778 (by 12.1%). Thus, this research contributes to the CFD-based wind simulation method of large-scale building groups and the analysis of the urban wind environment.


Objective: This study aims to evaluate the risk of bias (ROB) and reporting quality of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) prediction models by assessing characteristics of these models. Methods: The development and/or validation of IPF prognostic models were identified via an electronic search of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science (from inception to 12 August, 2021). Two researchers independently assessed the risk of bias (ROB) and reporting quality of IPF prediction models based on the Prediction model Risk Of Bias Assessment Tool (PROBAST) and Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prognostic model for Individual Prognosis or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) checklist. Results: Twenty prognostic model studies for IPF were included, including 7 (35%) model development and external validation studies, 8 (40%) development studies, and 5 (25%) external validation studies. According to PROBAST, all studies were appraised with high ROB, because of deficient reporting in the domains of participants (45.0%) and analysis (67.3%), and at least 55% studies were susceptible to 4 of 20 sources of bias. For the reporting quality, none of them completely adhered to the TRIPOD checklist, with the lowest mean reporting score for the methods and results domains (46.6% and 44.7%). For specific items, eight sub-items had a reporting rate ≥80% and adhered to the TRIPOD checklist, and nine sub-items had a very poor reporting rate, less than 30%. Conclusion: Studies adhering to PROBAST and TRIPOD checklists are recommended in the future. The reproducibility and transparency can be improved when studies completely adhere to PROBAST and TRIPOD checklists.


Background: Youth with type 2 diabetes (T2D) develop early treatment failure. Most patients do not self-monitor blood glucose (SMBG) levels at recommended frequency. Continuous glucose monitor (CGM) has been shown to improve glycemic control in pediatric T1D and adult T2D. Its feasibility and efficacy in youth-onset T2D is unknown.
 Hypothesis: Participants who wear the CGM >85% of the time will lower their HbA1c by at least 0.5%.
 Methods: T2D patients prescribed insulin were eligible to participate if their HbA1c was at least 8%. Participants were randomized to 3-months of SMBG or Dexcom G6 CGM, followed by 3 months of washout (SMBG) and 3-month crossover to the other treatment arm. Participants and their clinical providers agreed to not start new diabetes medications but could adjust insulin dosing or add on rapid-acting insulin if HbA1c >9% at follow-up. A nurse care manager provided coaching for the first 30 days of CGM use. The CGM-SAT satisfaction survey was administered at the end of CGM wear. Student t-test and Fisher's exact test were used to compare differences in continuous and categorical variables between groups, respectively. A 5% level of significance was used.
 Results: out of 14 participants completed the study. Our cohort was 55% female. At enrollment, mean age was 17.4±2.0 years, diagnosis duration was 4.0±2.8 years, and HbA1c was 11.5±2.5%. The percentage of days with CGM data trended from 89% down to 73% between the 1st and 3rd month of CGM use (not statistically significant) . CGM use lowered HbA1c by 2.8% for the cohort (SMBG: -0.1%, CGM: -3.1%, P=0.005) and by 3.8% for those who wore the CGM >85% of the time (P=0.01) . The mean CGM item score was 3.7 ± 0.5, comparable to prior results reported in T1D youth.
 Conclusion: Consistent CGM use improves glycemic control in youth-onset type 2 diabetes in this pilot study. Not all patients experienced an improvement in HbA1c. A larger study is warranted to validate the findings of this study and to identify patients who are most likely to benefit from CGM use.

 N.T.Chang: None. J.Smith: None. L.Chao: None.

 Dexcom


This article assesses the impact of populist radical right parties on national party systems in Western Europe. Has the emergence of this new party family changed the interaction of party competition within Western European countries? First, I look at party system change with regard to numerical and numerical–ideological terms. Second, I evaluate the effect populist radical right parties have had on the different dimensions of party systems. Third, I assess the claim that the rise of populist radical right parties has created bipolarizing party system. Fourth, I look at the effect the rise of the populist radical right has had on the logic of coalition formation. The primary conclusion is that, irrespective of conceptualization and operationalization, populist radical right parties have not fundamentally changed party systems in Western Europe.


A simplified computer-based trauma registry system with well-defined limits of data capture is presented. This registry was utilized to describe the profile of trauma at a university hospital. In 1 year there were 882 trauma victims hospitalized, with an overall mortality of 3.3%. The majority of the patients had relatively minor injuries, primarily involving soft tissue and bone. Severe multiple trauma was associated with a significant mortality. Intracranial or intra-abdominal injuries occurred in less than 10% of the patients. Transport accidents, falls, and assaults were the cause of injury in 70%. Key access to specific information about the trauma patient population demonstrated the potential of the registry system. The advantages and limitations of the registry are discussed.


Heavy metals are stable and persistent environmental contaminants. The range of metal concentrations is generally below acute thresholds in coastal areas, where recognition of chronic sublethal effects is more relevant. Evidence of long‐term adverse effects, such as cancer, due to heavy metals in marine animals comes from a number of field and experimental studies. The mechanism of metal carcinogenicity remains largely unknown, although several lines of experimental evidence suggest that a genotoxic effect may be involved. The aim of our study was to evaluate the sensitivity of genotoxicity tests, alkaline elution and micronucleus test, as biomarkers for the detection of heavy metals in mussels as the sentinel species. Experimental studies were carried out on Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed in aquarium (5 days) to different concentrations of three selected metal salts, CuCl2 (5, 10, 20, 40, 80 µg/l/a), CdCl2 (1.84, 18.4, 184 µg/l/a), and HgCl2 (32 µg/l/a), and to a mixture of equimolar doses of the three metals to study the results of their joint action. Metallothionein quantitation was used as a marker of metal exposure. Lysosomal membrane stability was applied to evaluate the influence of physiological status on genotoxic damage. The ranking of genotoxic potential was in decreasing order: Hg > Cu > Cd. Cu and Hg caused an increase of DNA single‐strand breaks and micronuclei frequency. Cd induced a statistical increase of DNA damage, but gave negative results with the micronucleus test. A relationship between genotoxic effects and metallothionein content was observed. Reduction in lysosomal membrane stability with the increasing concentration of heavy metals was also evident. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 33:287–292, 1999 © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Petrol station attendants encounter several hazards and health problems while working. This study was conducted to determine the occupational hazards, health problems and safety practices of petrol station attendants in Uyo, Nigeria. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out among all consenting attendants working in filling stations owned by independent petroleum marketers in Uyo. Data was collected using structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed using STATA 12.1 software. Analysis employed descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results: A total of 215 respondents participated in the study. The mean age of respondents was 24.3 ± 4.6 years with 117 (54.4%) being females. Hazards reported included inhalation of petrol fumes 145 (67.4%), confrontation from customers 112 (52.1%) and noise 98 (45.6%). Health problems reported included headache (53.6%), low back pain (33.3%), eye irritation (29.5%), dizziness (24.6%), cough (18.6%) and nausea (18.6%). There was a statistically significant association between having headache, nausea, cough and inhalation of petrol vapour (p<0.01) or car exhaust fumes (p<0.05). Awareness about personal protective equipment was 30.7%, while use was 7.0%. Hand washing after contact with fuel was practiced by 73.5% of the respondents. Only 4.2% reported ever undergoing preor postemployment medical examination. Conclusion: Petrol station attendants in this study were exposed to various hazards and health problems. Awareness and use of PPE was very low. Efforts should be made by stakeholders to ensure that owners of filling stations take responsibility for the health and safety of their workers. Correspondence to: Dr Ofonime E. Johnson Department of Community Health, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo Email firstname.lastname@example.com Telephone +2348161518358


The majority of planetary nebulae (PNe) are not spherical, and current single-star models cannot adequately explain all the morphologies we observe. This has led to the Binary Hypothesis, which states that PNe are preferentially formed by binary systems. This hypothesis can be corroborated or disproved by comparing the estimated binary fraction of all PNe central stars (CS) to that of the supposed progenitor population. One way to quantify the rate of CS binarity is to detect near infra-red (IR) excess indicative of a low-mass main sequence companion. In this paper, a sample of known PNe within data release 2 of the ongoing VPHAS+ are investigated. We give details of the method used to calibrate VPHAS+ photometry, and present the expected colours of CS and main sequence stars within the survey. Objects were scrutinized to remove PN mimics from our sample and identify true CS. Within our final sample of 7 CS, 6 had previously either not been identified or confirmed. We detected an $i$ band excess indicative of a low-mass companion star in 3 CS, including one known binary, leading us to to conclude that VPHAS+ provides the precise photometry required for the IR excess method presented here, and will likely improve as the survey completes and the calibration process finalised. Given the promising results from this trial sample, the entire VPHAS+ catalogue should be used to study PNe and extend the IR excess-tested CS sample.


Many treatment options for chronic low back pain are available, including varied forms of electric stimulation. But little is known about the electricity effect between electro-acupuncture and pulsed radiofrequency. The objective of this study is to assess the difference in effectiveness of pain relief between pulsed radiofrequency and electro-acupuncture. Visual analog score (VAS) pain score, the Oswestry disability index (ODI) to measure a patient's permanent functional disability, and Short form 36 (SF-36) which is a survey used in health assessment to determine the cost-effectiveness of a health treatment, were used as rating systems to measure the pain relief and functional improvement effect of pulsed radiofrequency and electro-acupuncture, based on the methodological quality of the randomized controlled trials, the relevance between the study groups, and the consistency of the outcome evaluation. First, the baseline status before therapy shows no age and gender influence in the SF-36 and VAS score but it is significant in the ODI questionnaire. From ANOVA analyses, it is apparent that radiofrequency therapy is a significant improvement over electro-acupuncture therapy after one month. But electro-acupuncture also showed functional improvement in the lumbar spine from the ODI. This study provides sufficient evidence of the superiority of pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) therapy for low back pain relief compared with both electro-acupuncture (EA) therapy and the control group. But the functional improvement of the lumbar spine was proved under EA therapy only. Both therapies are related to electricity effects.


As the apostles proceeded to carry out the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20), they utilized a two-fold approach of meeting in the temple courts for large-group meetings and in the homes for more intimate small-group encounters. Very quickly, the house church became the definitive expression of church in the early Christian movement. In the wake of the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys, numerous churches sprang up and virtually all of the New Testament churches mentioned in the letters of Paul were in private homes. The house church remained the most significant context for early church worship, fellowship, and Christian education up to the early part of the fourth century, when Constantine legitimized Christianity. At that point in history, basilicas replaced the house church along with the small-group style of worship, ministry, and teaching. This article will explore the early house church as a model of small-group meetings and how these gatherings served as the context for the ongoing life of the early church.


Characteristics of jelly drink are have soft gel so that when consumed using a straw, gel will break easily, but the gel form is still felt in the mouth. Those characteristics can be achieved by adding gelling agent, which is carrageenan. The concentration of carrageenan will affects on the stability and gel characteristics of jelly drink. This research is aimed to determine the effect of difference carrageenan concentration on the physicochemical and sensory properties of papaya jelly drink and determine the right carrageenan concentration that obtain the most preferred papaya jelly drink by panelists. This research used Randomized Block Design with one factor, which was concentration of carrageenan (P), which consisted of six levels, 0.1% (P1); 0.125% (P2); 0.15% (P3); 0.175% (P4); 0.2% (P5); 0.225% (P6) with four replications. Analysis for physicochemical properties were syneresis, easiness to sucked, and pH and sensory properties were preference of easiness consumed using straw, mouthfeel, and taste. The result of papaya jelly drink's analysis showed that higher carrageenan concentration caused declined on syneresis, while on easiness to sucked and pH parameter are increased. Best concentration of carrageenan determined by the result of organoleptic using spiderweb method is adding jelly drink with 0,150% of carrageenan which had results during storage for 1,4, and 7 days respectively on syneresis (14,96%; 9,56%; 5,62%), easiness to sucked (12,44; 11,04; 10,17), pH (4,65; 4,56; 4,51) with average of organoleptic on easiness consumed using straw 5,02; mouthfeel 4,96; and taste 4,68 with score of 1-7.


This paper proposes a full-rate cooperative communication technique with spatial diversity for single-carrier transmissions. In order to achieve both the spatial diversity and the full-rate, data streams are simultaneously transmitted through all direct and relay channels with different phase rotation and cyclic delay patterns. The phase rotation and cyclic delay patterns are derived in the sense of minimizing interlayer interference and a corresponding destination structure is presented for decoupling each layer at the destination. Simulation results show that the proposed technique achieves spatial diversity without sacrificing spectral efficiency and outperforms conventional full-rate cooperative communication techniques.


An unexpected result from the reaction of 3-ethoxycyclohex-2-enone with 3-oxo-1,2-pyrazolidinium ylide is described. This transformation catalyzed by TFA/H2O in the presence of DMSO, leading to 9-aryl-xanthenediones in good yields (75-94%). The structures of the prepared compounds were characterized thoroughly by IR, elemental analysis, MS, NMR together with X-ray crystallographic analysis. A possible mechanism of this unusual reaction process is proposed.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate the proposal that The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) by J.G. Ballard is a visual response to traumatic experience. This investigation identifies key motifs, concepts and techniques of the narrative and examines relevant literary readings in conjunction with creative practice.

The main readings include 'peritraumatic dissociation'; narrative as the traumatic experience rather than a retelling of traumatic experience, 'negotiated truth'; the manipulation of details to better suit a perceived truth, 'moral pornography'; the use of parody as critique which creates awareness around mediation and trauma, and lastly war trauma; the concept that the events that are conveyed by the narrative indicate experiences of war.

Additionally, the thesis establishes the concepts 'transformative aesthetic' portrayed through the numerous alternate realities of the narrative and 'conceptual death' which is presented through multiple layers of consciousness. This links to the surrealist movement which fuses the subjective with the objective and is recognised as a prominent influence of the narrative. Altogether these aspects play an important role in the investigation of the narrative as a visual response to trauma.

The findings of the research are reinforced by creative practice which attempts to interpret the motifs and concepts and their meaning rather than illustrate the events of the narrative. The objective of the investigation is to analyse why the narrative might be read as a response to trauma and how this is conveyed visually through the examination of meaning and motive behind the narrative's motifs and
concepts.