Objective. Examine health of preschoolers by BMI status. Methods. A cross-sectional analysis of children 3 to 5 years old in the 1999-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was carried out. The measured age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles were used to categorize children as very obese, obese, overweight, or healthy weight. The authors used logistic regression to examine the effect of weight status on 17 available measures of current child health potentially related to obesity. Results. Except for very obese children, weight status had minimal effect on most measures of health for preschool-aged children (n = 2792). Parents of very obese children reported poorer general health and more activity limitations for their children. Additionally, very obese girls had more frequent/severe headaches, and overweight/obese boys had more asthma diagnoses. Conclusions. Only severe obesity appears consistently related to immediate health problems in preschool-aged children. Parental perception that very obese children have worse health and more activity limitations may lead to decreases in physical activity, which would perpetuate obesity.


Trial production of surgical gloves from irradiated natural rubber latex at the PT. Laxindo Utama Serang Banten glove factory has been carried out. The variation of heating temperature and leaching time during processing were evaluated. The physical and mechanical properties and the protein allergen respond of surgical gloves using ELISA method were measured. The results showed that the physical and mechanical of surgical gloves such as tensile strength, modulus, and elongation at break arefound to meet the requirements of the ISO or SNI standard for surgical gloves. While the allergic response through clinical tested latex-sensitive protein allergen known as ELISA test is found to be negative.


: The basic principles of thermoelectrics rely on the coupling of entropy and electric charge. However, the long-standing dispute of energetics versus entropy has long paralysed the field. Herein, it is shown that treating entropy and electric charge in a symmetric manner enables a simple transport equation to be obtained and the power conversion and its efficiency to be deduced for a single thermoelectric material apart from a device. The material's performance in both generator mode (thermo-electric) and entropy pump mode (electro-thermal) are discussed on a single voltage-electrical current curve, which is presented in a generalized manner by relating it to the electrically open-circuit voltage and the electrically closed-circuited electrical current. The electrical and thermal power in entropy pump mode are related to the maximum electrical power in generator mode, which depends on the material's power factor. Particular working points on the material's voltage-electrical current curve are deduced, namely, the electrical open circuit, electrical short circuit, maximum electrical power, maximum power conversion efficiency, and entropy conductivity inversion. Optimizing a thermoelectric material for different working points is discussed with respect to its figure-of-merit zT and power factor. The importance of the results to state-of-the-art and emerging materials is emphasized.


The Network Endpoint Assessment (NEA) protocols are subject to a
subtle forwarding attack that has become known as the NEA Asokan
Attack. This document describes the attack and countermeasures that
may be mounted. This document is not an Internet Standards Track
specification; it is published for informational purposes.


We consider cross‐sectional genetic association studies (common and rare variants) where non‐genetic information is available or feasible to obtain for N individuals, but where it is infeasible to genotype all N individuals. We consider continuously measurable Gaussian traits (phenotypes). Genotyping n < N extreme phenotype individuals can yield better power to detect phenotype‐genotype associations, as compared to randomly selecting n individuals. We define a person as having an extreme phenotype if the observed phenotype is above a specified threshold or below a specified threshold. We consider a model where these thresholds can be tailored to each individual. The classical extreme sampling design is to set equal thresholds for all individuals. We introduce a design (z‐extreme sampling) where personalized thresholds are defined based on the residuals of a regression model including only non‐genetic (fully available) information. We derive score tests for the situation where only n extremes are analyzed (complete case analysis) and for the situation where the non‐genetic information on N − n non‐extremes is included in the analysis (all case analysis). For the classical design, all case analysis is generally more powerful than complete case analysis. For the z‐extreme sample, we show that all case and complete case tests are equally powerful. Simulations and data analysis also show that z‐extreme sampling is at least as powerful as the classical extreme sampling design and the classical design is shown to be at times less powerful than random sampling. The method of dichotomizing extreme phenotypes is also discussed.


Abstract Background Annual vaccination against influenza virus is generally recommended to elderly and chronically ill, but the relative importance of factors influencing the outcome is not fully understood. Methods In this study of 88 individuals all aged 69 years, the increase in haemagglutinin-inhibiting (HI) antibodies to trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine was correlated with HI titres before vaccination, prior vaccinations against influenza, cytomegalovirus serostatus and, as an estimate of immune risk profile, the ratio between CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. Results Vaccine responses were impaired by high pre-existing HI antibody titres. For influenza B repeated vaccinations and an inverse CD4/CD8 ratio had a negative impact on the vaccine response. Cytomegalovirus seropositivity had no apparent effect on HI titres before or after vaccination. Conclusions It is concluded that both pre-existing HI antibodies and previous vaccinations to influenza may influence the humoral response to influenza vaccination and that a CD4/CD8 ratio < 1 may indicate an impaired ability to respond to repeated antigenic stimulation.


A directed acyclic graph (DAG) is the most common graphical model for representing causal relationships among a set of variables. When restricted to using only observational data, the structure of the ground truth DAG is identifiable only up to Markov equivalence, based on conditional independence relations among the variables. Therefore, the number of DAGs equivalent to the ground truth DAG is an indicator of the causal complexity of the underlying structure–roughly speaking, it shows how many interventions or how much additional information is further needed to recover the underlying DAG. In this paper, we propose a new technique for counting the number of DAGs in a Markov equivalence class. Our approach is based on the clique tree representation of chordal graphs. We show that in the case of bounded degree graphs, the proposed algorithm is polynomial time. We further demonstrate that this technique can be utilized for uniform sampling from a Markov equivalence class, which provides a stochastic way to enumerate DAGs in the equivalence class and may be needed for finding the best DAG or for causal inference given the equivalence class as input. We also extend our counting and sampling method to the case where prior knowledge about the underlying DAG is available, and present applications of this extension in causal experiment design and estimating the causal effect of joint interventions.


Axon injury elicits profound cellular changes, including axon regeneration. However, the full range of neuronal injury responses remains to be elucidated. Surprisingly, after axons of Drosophila dendritic arborization neurons were severed, dendrites were more resistant to injury-induced degeneration. Concomitant with stabilization, microtubule dynamics in dendrites increased. Moreover, dendrite stabilization was suppressed when microtubule dynamics was dampened, which was achieved by lowering levels of the microtubule nucleation protein γ-tubulin. Increased microtubule dynamics and global neuronal stabilization were also activated by expression of expanded polyglutamine (poly-Q) proteins SCA1, SCA3, and huntingtin. In all cases, dynamics were increased through microtubule nucleation and depended on JNK signaling, indicating that acute axon injury and long-term neuronal stress activate a common cytoskeleton-based stabilization program. Reducing levels of γ-tubulin exacerbated long-term degeneration induced by SCA3 in branched sensory neurons and in a well established Drosophila eye model of poly-Q–induced neurodegeneration. Thus, increased microtubule dynamics can delay short-term injury-induced degeneration, and, in the case of poly-Q proteins, can counteract progressive longer-term degeneration. We conclude that axon injury or stress triggers a microtubule-based neuroprotective pathway that stabilizes neurons against degeneration.


Covering the period from the re-establishment of the Irish militia during the Crimean War until the disbandment of the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1992, this book examines the Irish amateur military tradition within the British Army, distinctive from a British amateur military tradition. Irish men and women of both religions and political persuasions made a significant contribution to these forces, and in so doing played an important role within the British Empire, whilst also providing a crucial link between the army and Irish society.

 Utilising new source material, this book demonstrates the complex nature of Irish involvement with British institutions and its Empire. It argues that within this unique tradition, two divergent Protestant and Catholic traditions emerged, and membership of these organisations was used as a means of social mobility, for political patronage, and, crucially, to demonstrate loyalty to Britain and its Empire.


Background Parental perception of safe and risk-free environment is critical in the prevention of unintentional childhood injury. An accurate perception of risky situations is essential to minimise the rate of childhood injuries. Knowledge on parental perception in rural India will be helpful in planning preventive strategies. This study was conducted to assess parental perception on risks and hazards leading to unintentional childhood injuries. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in 13 clusters of a rural block in South India. Double stage cluster sampling method was used to recruit 100 mothers and they were interviewed using a tool developed by Glik and Kronenfeld. Two FGDs were also conducted. Results Mothers' perception of likelihood of injury from hazards such as household door and drawers, small toys, plastic bags and cribs was poor. These objects were also perceived as less dangerous hazards. Mothers had a poor perception of injury by entrapment in refrigerators, choking and strangulation by a rope or a cord. Choking bruises, puncture wounds were perceived as less serious events. Age, education and literacy were found to be significant predictors of perception of risk and hazard in univariate analysis, the logistic regression model did not show any significant associated factors for perception of risk and hazard. 9% of mothers believed injuries can be completely prevented and illiteracy (p = 0.04) was associated with poor perception on prevention in univariate analysis. Few mothers in FGD believed that injuries cannot be prevented as it is natural (Vidhi) for children to sustain injuries. Conclusions It is a fact that the mother's literacy and schooling is closely related to child health and survival. Promotion of injury preventive engineering strategies and enforcement will only be effective when the literacy of the mother increases. Health education can improve maternal perception and have a positive impact on prevention of unintentional injuries.


The problem of traffic management, especially in big cities is particularly actual. Due to unavoidable motorization increase in number of vehicles has resulted in congestion, traffic jams, difficulty of the movement of pedestrians, increasing the number of accidents. Traffic jams are undesirable because of higher fuel consumption, increased pollution due to exhaust gases as well as noise, etc. The only way to avoid harmful consequences is to optimize the operation of the traffic lights cycle. The purpose of the work is creation the simulation model in GPSS for determining the optimal traffic lights cycle at adjustable crossroads when managing vehicle flows with specified intensities. The mathematical model of adjustable crossroads can be presented as a queuing system. Development of the simulation model includes several stages: programming in GPSS, verification and assessment of the adequacy. The algorithm for optimizing the traffic lights cycle and diagrams are used to find the optimal value of the cycle. The minimum intersection travel time (including time of queuing) is selected as the optimal criterion. The object of study is the traffic lights cycle regulation of the intersection Sovietskaya St. – Rogachevskaya St. – Telman St. in Gomel, Belarus. The existing traffic lights cycle regulation at the intersection Sovietskaya str. – Rogachevskaya str. – Telman str. has been studied. Simulation modeling of the intersection has been created in GPSS and traffic light cycle optimization algorithm has been developed. According to a worked out algorithm the traffic lights cycle at research intersection during saturation flux has been improved. Transport delays both at the existing and optimized crossings have been estimated. Optimization of the traffic lights cycle will Article history: Received: February 27, 2020 1st Revision: March 12, 2020 Accepted: April 08, 2020 DOI: 10.14254/jsdtl.2020.5-1.5 ISSN 2520-2979 Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics, 5(1), 2020 ‹ 49 › increase the traffic capacity of the intersection, reduce the volume of toxic emissions and decrease the accident risk. The developed simulation model can be modified for other types of intersections and used as the basis for a decision support system based on low-level simulation.


We present a privacy-preserving system for estimating the size of inhomogeneous crowds, composed of pedestrians that travel in different directions, without using explicit object segmentation or tracking. First, the crowd is segmented into components of homogeneous motion, using the mixture of dynamic textures motion model. Second, a set of simple holistic features is extracted from each segmented region, and the correspondence between features and the number of people per segment is learned with Gaussian process regression. We validate both the crowd segmentation algorithm, and the crowd counting system, on a large pedestrian dataset (2000 frames of video, containing 49,885 total pedestrian instances). Finally, we present results of the system running on a full hour of video.


This study was done to preserve snake fruit cultivar Pondoh cold temperature storage. Snake fruits was obtained from Turi, Sleman, Yogyakarta and transferred to the laboratory with the aseptic condition. The sortation based on the visual method was used to collect the proper snake fruit. The cleaning using aseptic cloth was done prior to storage. The snake fruit was collected individually in refrigeration containers at temperatures of 10±5˚C. The storage was done for 30 days and it was stopped until appearance of physical damage in snake fruit. The result indicates that the storage using this method might extend the shelf-life of snake fruit until 28 days. However, snake fruit was hardly to peeled and dry. It can be concluded that cold temperature might extend the shelf-life of snake fruit.


Advanced nanomaterials indubitably represent one of the most propitious class of new materials due to their intriguing optical, electronic and redox properties. The incredible progress achieved in this research area has been propelled by the development of novel synthetic procedures owing to the emergence of nanotechnology and by the wide range of applications. These nanostructured materials possess high surface area, biocompatibility, nontoxicity and charge-sensitive conductance which have led to the development of simple, rapid, highly sensitive, inexpensive and portable electrochemical genosensors. This review accentuates on the development and validation of various advanced nanomaterials based electrochemical genosensors that utilize unique properties of nanomaterials for signal transduction purpose or as an electroactive species for direct detection of analyte. The intent is to highlight the recent progress on highly sensitive and flexible nanostructured material based electrochemical genosensors that have the potential to be developed as the next generation field-deployable analytical tools.


In a recent work, explicit formulas of smooth time-varying state feedbacks which make the origin of a model of an underactuated surface vessel globally uniformly asymptotically stable are proposed. In the present work experimental results are presented where these control laws are implemented for control of a model of an offshore supply vessel in order to investigate the values and limitations of the theoretical results. In the experiments the ship is exposed to perturbations including unmodeled dynamics, waves, currents and measurement noise. The experiments indicate that the control system possesses some robustness to these perturbations, something which complies with theory. The experimental results suggest that unmodeled ship dynamics and environmental disturbances should be taken into account in the controller design for practical implementation.


The preparation of nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs), by a simple and inexpensive synthetic procedure, is reported with blue emission and a high quantum yield of 78%. This procedure involves synthesis via the pyrolysis of citric acid, as a source of carbon, and tris-hydroxymethyl aminomethane, as a surface passivation agent. These N-GQDs have low toxicity and are photostable. They displayed excitation-independent behavior, although their fluorescence intensity was linearly dependent on pH values ranging from 3 to 10. The quenching of the fluorescence intensity of the N-GQDs increases, in a relatively very small amount of time, with the addition of sunitinib varying from 0.05 to 20.00 μmol L−1 and with a detection limit of 0.03 μmol L−1. The N-GQDs have low toxicity and are pH-sensitive between 3.00 and 10.00, giving a general pH-sensor with a wide range of applications in real urine and serum samples.


Blend shape animation is the method of choice for keyframe facial animation: a set of blend shapes (key facial expressions) are used to define a linear space of facial expressions. However, in order to capture a significant range of complexity of human expressions, blend shapes need to be segmented into smaller regions where key idiosyncracies of the face being animated are present. Performing this segmentation by hand requires skill and a lot of time. In this paper, we propose an automatic, physically-motivated segmentation that learns the controls and parameters directly from the set of blend shapes. We show the usefulness and efficiency of this technique for both, motion-capture animation and keyframing. We also provide a rendering algorithm to enhance the visual realism of a blend shape model.


The growing dependency of users on social media, telecommunication services, mobile applications, banking amenities, and other cloud services requires a plan that mitigates inevitable failures and ensures the always-on access to these services. This emanates high availability (HA) concerns regarding the adoption of cloud. To maintain HA, the cloud provider and/or user should design a system that is immune to both application and infrastructure failures. This paper proposes live migration approach to maintain service delivery upon a sudden failure, a virtual machine (VM)/infrastructure overload, or maintenance. It develops a mixed integer linear programming model that minimizes the migration downtime based on the VM memory pages and the optimal HA-aware placement of the VM. It also provides different design considerations to achieve HA-aware applications placement. The proposed placement is used in the migration approach to find new hosts for the VMs. It considers VMs/applications deployments in geographically distributed data centers and satisfies redundancy, applications interdependency, and other HA and performance requirements. Then the deployments are assessed using a formal Petri Net model to improve them in terms of HA. The HA-aware placement and migration approaches are evaluated on 3-tier web applications.


"Land resource is restricted and scarce, in order to avoid developing in inadequate manner, the evolutionary process of the land use change and the natural and artificial reasons should be considered to plan for the land use plan. The theoretical system and analytic frameworks will complete at first through documents studies, theories analysis and related references comparison. The analytic frameworks including three components, the first one is to master the key factors of land use change, the second one is to approach the casual relationships between the factors among land use change, and consequently is to establish the integrated multilevel analysis for urban land use change to interpret local land use change, which applied the concept of multilevel and through the land use change overall interpret model and individual spatial choice model. We hope it would be more complete simulation and forecast of land use change through this study, and helpful to the relevant studies.""


Doxorubicin is commonly used to treat leukemia, lymphomas, and solid tumors, such as soft tissue sarcomas or breast cancer. A major side effect of doxorubicin therapy is dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. Doxorubicin's effects on cardiac energy metabolism are emerging as key elements mediating its toxicity. We evaluated the effect of doxorubicin on [(14)C]creatine uptake in rat neonatal cardiac myocytes and HL-1 murine cardiac cells expressing the human creatine transporter protein. A significant and irreversible decrease in creatine transport was detected after an incubation with 50-100 nmol/l doxorubicin. These concentrations are well below peak plasma levels (5 μmol/l) and within the ranges (25-250 nmol/l) for steady-state plasma concentrations reported after the administration of 15-90 mg/m(2) doxorubicin for chemotherapy. The decrease in creatine transport was not solely because of increased cell death due to doxorubicin's cytotoxic effects. Kinetic analysis showed that doxorubicin decreased V(max), K(m), and creatine transporter protein content. Cell surface biotinylation experiments confirmed that the amount of creatine transporter protein present at the cell surface was reduced. Cardiomyocytes rely on uptake by a dedicated creatine transporter to meet their intracellular creatine needs. Our findings show that the cardiomyocellular transport capacity for creatine is substantially decreased by doxorubicin administration and suggest that this effect may be an important early event in the pathogenesis of doxorubicin-mediated cardiotoxicity.


In this paper, we explore the impact of the use of an interactive video website, comprising videos promoting a company's core values, on organizational learning. More specifically, we studied how the use of a video website affected the awareness of a company's core values and whether or not this would also influence the behaviour of the employees. Two web surveys were designed for the study. The first survey was conducted prior to introducing the video website. The second survey was a follow-up survey in order to assess cognitive and behavioural effects. As a complement, we also conducted focus groups. We identified a slightly negative effect on cognition and behaviour. A number of factors that might explain the negative effect were identified. Employees that perceived themselves as active participants were more likely to prefer video, were more satisfied and perceived greater positive effect on cognition and behaviour.


We propose a craniofacial growth model that characterizes growth related shape variations observed in human faces during formative years. The model draws inspiration from the 'revised' cardioidal strain transformation model proposed in psychophysical studies related to craniofacial growth. The model takes into account anthropometric evidences collected on facial growth and hence is in accordance with the observed growth patterns in human faces across years. We characterize facial growth by means of growth parameters defined over facial landmarks often used in anthropometric studies. We illustrate how the age-based anthropometric constraints on facial proportions translate into linear and non-linear constraints on facial growth parameters and propose methods to compute the optimal growth parameters. The proposed craniofacial growth model can be used to predict one's appearance across years and to perform face recognition across age progression. This is demonstrated on a database of age separated face images of individuals under 18 years of age.


Interaction of Streptococcus pneumoniae with the surface of endothelial cells is mediated in blood flow via mechanosensitive proteins such as the Von Willebrand Factor (VWF). This glycoprotein changes its molecular conformation in response to shear stress, thereby exposing binding sites for a broad spectrum of host-ligand interactions. In general, culturing of primary endothelial cells under a defined shear flow is known to promote the specific cellular differentiation and the formation of a stable and tightly linked endothelial layer resembling the physiology of the inner lining of a blood vessel. Thus, the functional analysis of interactions between bacterial pathogens and the host vasculature involving mechanosensitive proteins requires the establishment of pump systems that can simulate the physiological flow forces known to affect the surface of vascular cells. The microfluidic device used in this study enables a continuous and pulseless recirculation of fluids with a defined flow rate. The computer-controlled air-pressure pump system applies a defined shear stress on endothelial cell surfaces by generating a continuous, unidirectional, and controlled medium flow. Morphological changes of the cells and bacterial attachment can be microscopically monitored and quantified in the flow by using special channel slides that are designed for microscopic visualization. In contrast to static cell culture infection, which in general requires a sample fixation prior to immune labeling and microscopic analyses, the microfluidic slides enable both the fluorescence-based detection of proteins, bacteria, and cellular components after sample fixation; serial immunofluorescence staining; and direct fluorescence-based detection in real time. In combination with fluorescent bacteria and specific fluorescence-labeled antibodies, this infection procedure provides an efficient multiple component visualization system for a huge spectrum of scientific applications related to vascular processes.


This article focuses on the cultural strategies used in French translations of the best-selling Italian comic book series, Geronimo Stilton, in particular through onomastics, i.e. anthroponomy and toponymy. The main characters' names (Geronimo and Benjamin for instance) are not translated, whereas most proper names referring to fictional characters are, especially when they convey connotative values; in other cases, there is a simple adaptation to the L2 morphological system. Place names are translated too when they are fictional and semantically motivated (Topazia > Sourisia). Furthermore, our study of "secondary expressive interjections" brings out their role in typifying characters. This effect, however, sometimes gets lost in translation, when multiple equivalents are provided for the same interjection. Finally, there is an analysis of parallel texts translated in France and Quebec and a discussion of differences at diatopic, diaphasic, stylistic and cultural level: the conclusion is that texts published in Quebec are aimed at more conventional target readers than those sold in France, as can be seen in the constant use of a higher register, more elaborated sentences and in the total avoidance of derogatory terms.


Crankshaft is one of the main components in reciprocating mud pump (RMP). Its stress significantly affects reliability and performance of high pressure and large power RMP. In this study CAE stress analysis was actively applied to secure the high reliability of main components and improve the performance of RMP. Through movement analysis and computation for various components of RMP, the load of crankshaft was obtained. By effectively using CAE stress analysis to three kinds of dangerous working conditions of crankshaft, distribution characteristics of the max main stress, the min. main stress and the Mises stress were obtained. The most dangerous condition and position were gotten through stress analysis. The analysis results give theory support for design and development of high pressure, large power, high performance and high reliability RMP.


The paigeite resources are abundant in China, but most of them are difficult to be utilized efficiently because of the current technical problems on industrial practice. It is necessary to perfected and innovated for comprehensive utilization of paigeite. The new process of gas-based shaft furnace direct reduction-electric furnace smelting separation provides a new way to efficient and clean comprehensive utilization of paigeite resources. In this paper, the pellets are prepared from boron-bearing iron concentrate. The mechanisms of roasting, the rules of reduction, and the properties of reduction swelling are also investigated. And then the pellets after reduction are smelted and separated in electric furnace to study the properties of products and analyze the feasibility and superiority of new technique. The results showed that boron-bearing iron concentrate is a kind of good raw material for pelletizing process. The properties of boron-bearing pellets after roasting for 20 min at 1200°C could meet to the requirements of gas-based shaft furnace direct reduction process, which exhibited fast reaction rate, good reduction swelling properties and high compressive strength both before and after reduction. With the new process, the efficient separation of boron and iron can be realized. The high boron grade and high activity of boron-rich slag obtained from new process can be used directly in boric acid manufacture. The new process shows excellent tech-economy feasibility to achieve efficiency and clean comprehensive utilization of paigeite resources.


The Trimble Zephyr Geodetic Antenna is a new highperformance GPS antenna utilizing two key technological innovations, for which US patents 5,515,057 and 5,694,136 have been issued to Trimble Navigation Ltd. This paper explains these GPS antenna technologies, their advantages and presents the results of performance testing on this new antenna design. The n-point antenna feed technology is described. This is designed to reduce the electrical phase center error ellipsoid through enhanced antenna element and feed point pattern symmetry. This symmetry is also designed to improve the Right Hand Circular Polarization Characteristics of the antenna, resulting in enhanced GPS signal tracking and improved multipath rejection in cases where a polarization reversal has taken place as a result of the signal reflection. The second key technology described is that utilized in the Trimble Stealth Ground Plane, an integral component of the Zephyr Geodetic Antenna. Conventional GPS ground planes typically use one of two designs; the circular metal ground plane or the choke ring ground plane. The method used for the Trimble Stealth Ground Plane is one whereby the e-field of the electromagnetic wave is cut off before it can reach the GPS antenna element. This is achieved through the use of a material in which the sheet resistivity increases exponentially along any radial line out from the antenna element to the edge of the ground plane. The use of this material offers the advantages of lighter weight and lower cost over conventional ground plane designs. As the name suggests, the material was developed out of research conducted as part of the development of the Stealth aircraft. This method is frequency independent at L-band, so is expected to be equally effective at the L1 and L2 frequencies. This property also offers a potential advantage in future triple-frequency antennas capable of tracking L1, L2 and L5 signals, with the ability to reject multipath equally effectively at all three frequencies. In order to test the performance of the new design, a number of tests were carried out with well known designs such as the choke ring used as a control. The results of these tests, including low and high elevation tracking performance, code and carrier phase multipath rejection, phase center repeatability and positioning precision are presented. Physical characteristics such as size and weight are also compared.


RATIONALE
The metabolism of methylprednisolone is revisited in order to find new metabolites that could be important for distinguishing between different routes of administration. Recently developed liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) strategies for the detection of corticosteroid metabolites have been applied to the study of methylprednisolone metabolism.

METHODS
The structures of these metabolites were studied using two complementary mass spectrometric techniques: LC/MS/MS in product ion scan mode with electrospray ionization and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in full scan mode with electron ionization. Metabolites were also isolated by semipreparative liquid chromatography fractionation. Each fraction was divided into two aliquots; one was studied by LC/MS/MS and the other by GC/MS after methoxyamine-trimethylsilyl derivatization.

RESULTS
The combination of all the structural information allowed us to propose a comprehensive picture of methylprednisolone metabolism in humans. Overall, 15 metabolites including five previously unreported compounds have been detected. Specifically, 16β,17α,21-trihydroxy-6α-methylpregna-1,4-diene-3,11,20-trione, 17α,20β,21-trihydroxy-6α-methylpregna-1,4-diene-3, 11-dione, 11β,17α,21-trihydroxy-6α-hydroxymethylpregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione, 11β,17α,20ξ,21-tetrahydroxy-6α-hydroxymethylpregna-1,4-diene-3-one, and 17α,21-dihydroxy-6α-hydroxymethylpregna-1,4-diene-3,11,20-trione are proposed as feasible structures for the novel metabolites. In addition to the expected biotransformations: reduction of the C20 carbonyl, oxidation of the C11 hydroxy group, and further 6β-hydroxylation, we propose that hydroxylation of the 6α-methyl group can also take place.

CONCLUSIONS
New metabolites have been identified in urine samples collected after oral administration of 40 mg of methylprednisolone. All identified metabolites were found in all samples collected up to 36 h after oral administration. However, after topical administration of 5 g of methylprednisolone aceponate, neither the parent compound nor any of the metabolites were detected.


The observed cure rates in childhood Hodgkin's disease (85 to 95%) and the knowledge of late complications of treatments, radiotherapy as well as chemotherapy, lead to studies aiming at decreasing the treatment burden without compromising these good results. An international workshop helped to make an update of the different presently used strategies. It appeared that the benefit and the risks of the staging laparotomy are still controversial, though most of the teams are now omitting this procedure. Different options have been selected in decreasing the treatments. If a few teams choose to treat by chemotherapy alone, the majority prefer to treat by combined modality therapy allowing to reduce at the same time the intensity of the radiation therapy (doses and fields) and of the chemotherapy (use of chemotherapy devoid of procarbazine and alkylating agents for the favorable cases). The presented french study shows the feasibility of such a strategy.


The report presents an international literature review on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) research carried out in order to frame the research problem and gaps for a research project that is to be carried out largely in the Swedish context. The literature searches of peer-reviewed articles, literature reviews, and conference papers were carried out in the bibliographic databases Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science based on keywords selected by the project team. The report presents definitions of TOD, the application of the TOD concept in semi-peripheral, peripheral and rural areas, the role of the private sector in delivering TOD, as well as best practice examples, including enabling processual planning factors, barriers and outcomes. It then identifies research gaps that are related to the above topics. Based on the findings of the literature review, the report suggests an outline for future research.


Improvements in health services require a range of technical skills, but like all complex organisational tasks they also rely on the personal skills and attitudes of the staff carrying out the changes. That much is axiomatic.1 2 3 Less certain, but surely potentially helpful to front-line staff undertaking improvement initiatives, is ascertaining just what might be the right sets of skills needed for different kinds of improvement tasks in varying circumstances.4 5 6

Useful insights into the ways in which a range of organisational circumstances demand such skills were exposed when the Heath Foundation, an independent charity working to improve healthcare quality in the UK, funded our project to help local 'improvement groups' learn how to bring about specifically agreed developments, while simultaneously observing how the improvements worked out. By formatively evaluating the processes involved, the intention was to help the Health Foundation promulgate improvement skills more effectively in future. The methods that we used are briefly summarised in box and have been published fully elsewhere along with the details of the sites, participants, processes and outcomes.7 In brief, two National Health Service (NHS) sites were chosen for being exceptionally well primed, due to their apparent excellence in continual quality improvement, to benefit from extra funding, facilitation and expertise aimed at helping them make better use of 'improvement science'.8 The expectation was that the focus would be on technical skills (such as rapid improvement cycles, process mapping, tailored outcome measures and data analysis), which would be made available as needed through the Health Foundation's extensive network of improvement experts.Box
### Methods

Once we had carried out our orientation interviews and got to know the two organisations, the authors (four senior academics specialising in qualitative health services research and service development) helped each site to identify a …


Previous research on broadcast databases in a mobile computing environment utilizing wireless channels has been focused on mechanisms for a mobile client to selectively pick database items in which the client is interested from a broadcast channel. The fundamental issue of identifying the appropriate database items for broadcast or refrained from being broadcast have largely been ignored. In this paper, we consider the concept of 'air-storage', by treating the wireless broadcast media as a layer of cache storage. Broadcasting database items over the air-storage becomes similar in spirit to the caching of database items from the database server. Similarly, determining which database items need to be broadcast or refrained from being broadcast becomes similar in nature to cache management. Existing caching mechanisms are reviewed and management issues specific to the new air-storage are raised and discussed. In view of new issues in air-storage management, we propose and investigate several mechanisms in selecting the proper database items to be placed over this new layer of air-storage under a variety of data access patterns. Finally, the effectiveness of the mechanisms is evaluated by means of simulated experiments and the results are discussed.


Background: The defining molecular feature of rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcoma (ES), and poorly differentiated chordomas is the absence of tumor expression of INI1 (SMARCB1), a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. INI1 loss impairs SWI/SNF activity and induces a dependence on the activity of EZH2, the catalytic subunit of PRC2, a separate complex responsible for chromatin remodeling and transcriptional repression through trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3). Tazemetostat, a potent and selective EZH2 inhibitor, has demonstrated tumor regressions in INI1-negative preclinical malignant rhabdoid tumor (MRT) models and durable objective responses in adults with certain INI1-negative ES or chordoma. Interim results from dose escalation (DEsc) cohorts of a Phase (Ph) 1 pediatric study are reported. Methods: EZH-102 (NCT02601937) is a Ph 1, multicenter study of tazemetostat dosed continuously as an oral suspension administered twice daily (BID) in patients (pts) aged 6 months to 21 years with synovial sarcoma, or INI1-negative tumors including atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRT), MRT, ES, chordoma, and others. A "Rolling 6" design was used for DEsc. Objective response was assessed every 8 weeks using disease-appropriate response criteria, i.e., RANO or RECIST 1.1. Primary endpoints included identification of dose-limiting toxicities (DLT) and recommended Ph 2 dose (RP2D). Secondary endpoints included characterization of safety/tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), and duration of response. Exploratory endpoints included assessing the relationship between tazemetostat exposure and the pharmacodynamic (PD) marker H3K27me3 in peripheral blood. Results: Forty-six pts have been treated in 7 dose cohorts: 240 (n=8), 300 (n=6), 400 (n=6), 520 (n=7), 700 (n=6), 900 (n=6), and 1200 mg/m2 BID (n=7). One pt at 300 mg/m2 had DLTs of dyspnea (grade 4)/hypoxia (grade 3), but no DLTs were observed in any other cohort. Adverse events were generally mild to moderate, consistent with the safety profile observed in adults. Plasma concentrations were generally dose-proportional across the dose range studied and were lower at steady-state on Day 15 vs. those measured on Day 1. Mean systemic exposure in the 1200 mg/m2 cohort was ~ 4-fold greater than that at the adult RP2D of 800 mg BID. A PK:PD relationship between C1D15 tazemetostat exposure and H3K27me3 levels in peripheral blood monocytes and granulocytes was observed with consistent and significant post-dose reductions in H3K27me3 at the 900 and 1200 mg/m2 doses. Confirmed complete or partial responses (CR/PR) per RECIST/RANO were observed in pts with ES (n=1), chordoma (n=2), and ATRT (n=1) at dose levels ranging from 520 to 900 mg/m2. Conclusion: Tazemetostat was generally well tolerated in children and showed promising antitumor activity including CRs in pts with INI1-negative tumors. The RP2D of 1200 mg/m2 BID was defined on the basis of PK, PD, and clinical safety, and resulted in higher systemic exposure than in adults. Dose expansion cohorts are currently enrolling. Citation Format: Susan Chi, Maryam Fouladi, Neerav Shukla, Franck Bourdeaut, Ashley Margol, Guy Makin, Geoff McCowage, Cynthia Wetmore, Margaret Macy, Ted Laetsch, Darren Hargrave, Navin Pinto, Joanna Yi, Dave Ebb, Giles Robinson, Maria Roche, Benjamin Suttle, Alicia Clawson, Peter Ho, Jill Rodstrom, Scott Daigle, Karsten Nysom. Phase 1 study of the EZH2 inhibitor, tazemetostat, in children with relapsed or refractory INI1-negative tumors including rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcoma, chordoma, and synovial sarcoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2017 Oct 26-30; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2018;17(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A175.


Calcium-deficient hydroxylapatite (CDHA) powders with Ca/P ratios from1.5 to 1.67 were synthesized by wet-chemical method. Rietveld structure refinement was performed on the X-ray diffraction data and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to characterize molecular and crystal structure of CDHA. With the decrease of Ca/P ratio, the crystallite size and crystallinity decreased, but the acid phosphate content and amount of vacancies in hydroxyapatite hexagonal structure increased. The disorder of CDHA structure increase indicated calcium-deficiency and HPO4 replacement resulted in disorder of crystal in apatite structure. The more calcium is deficient, the more disorder or imperfect in CDHA structure


Understanding the factors that influence cigarette smoking among adolescents is critical. We identified personal, community, and environmental factors associated with current cigarette smoking among adolescents. This population-based cross-sectional analysis study was conducted using the 2012 Taiwan Global Youth Tobacco Survey and the sociodemographic statistics of the city or county from Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior. A total of 27,524 participants (age: 12–18-years) was included. The associated factors were identified through logistic regression. A path analysis was performed to examine the pathway from the associated factors to current cigarette smoking. According to this analysis, the following factors were prominently and positively associated with adolescent cigarette smoking: one personal factor (pocket money), five environmental factors (home secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, smoker friends, outside SHS exposure, school SHS exposure, and smoker parents), and two community factors (free cigarettes from tobacco companies and indigenous population). By contrast, five personal factors (feeling less comfortable smoking at social occasions, feeling indifferent about smoking or not smoking at social occasions, female sex, feeling that quitting is difficult, and feeling that quitting after having smoked is harmful to health) and one environmental factor (school antismoking education) had negative effects. Thus, comprehensive interventions promoting the perception of harm caused by smoking and interrupting access to cigarettes through social networks can reduce cigarette smoking in adolescents.


Abstract. The existing literature faces difficulties when accounting for the simultaneity of socio-environmental conflict and cooperation. We suggest that this puzzle can be solved by more recent constructivist works, which argue that conflictive or cooperative behavior is driven by discursively constructed interests, identities and situation assessments. Based on a literature review and field interviews, we analyze and compare the dominant water discourses in Israel and Palestine with the discourse dominant among the activists of a water cooperation project between communities from Israel and the West Bank. Our main result is that discourses are indeed crucial for understanding water-related conflict and cooperation. This finding highlights the relevance of constructivist approaches in the study of socio-environmental conflict and cooperation as well as of practices of bottom-up discursive conflict transformation.


While changes in the abundance of keystone predators can have cascading effects resulting in regime shifts, the role of mesopredators in these processes remains underexplored. We conducted annual surveys of rocky reef communities that varied in the recovery of a keystone predator (sea otters Enhydra lutris) and the mass mortality of a mesopredator (sunflower sea star Pycnopodia helianthoides) due to an infectious wasting disease. By fitting a population model to empirical data, we show that sea otters had the greatest impact on the mortality of large sea urchins, but that Pycnopodia decline corresponded to a 311% increase in medium urchins and a 30% decline in kelp densities. Our results reveal predator complementarity in size-selective prey consumption strengthens top-down control on urchins, affecting the resilience of alternative reef states by reinforcing the resilience of kelp forests and eroding urchin barrens. We reveal previously underappreciated species interactions within a 'classic' trophic cascade and regime shift, highlighting the critical role of middle-level predators in mediating rocky reef state transitions.


Background: Some patients after orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) develop coronary focal lesions and may need interven- tional therapy. Aim: To determine the frequency and time course of narrowing of epicardial coronary arteries in transplanted hearts, potential risk factors and results of percutaneous coronary interventions. Methods and results: Demographic and coronary angiography data of 265 patients after OHT, mean age 53.0 ±14.6, were analysed. Significant focal narrowing of the coronary artery was diagnosed when there was a decrease of 50% or more of the lumen of the coronary artery. Mean time from OHT to the end of observation was 6.2 ±4.5 (range 0.5-23) years. Thirty-six (14%) patients after OHT had significant focal changes in coronary arteries. In 16 patients the degree of stenosis, lesion, location or calibre of the vessel was not suitable for interventional therapy. Twenty (55%; 18 men) patients underwent coronary intervention. Mean age of patients dur- ing coronary intervention was 53.5 ±9.8 years and of those without intervention at the end of observation was 52.5 ±14.9 years (NS). In patients with intervention mean time from OHT to intervention was 7.0 ±4.6 years. In patients with coronary intervention mean time from OHT to the end of observation was 10.8 ±6.5 years and in patients without intervention 5.8 ±4.1 (p < 0.001). Analysis of Kaplan-Meier curves showed that probability of coronary stenosis-free survival diminishes rapidly after 5 years following OHT. Patients who required coronary intervention had significantly higher hsCRP as compared to those without intervention (0.720 vs. 0.044, p = 0.025). There were no statistical differences between the two groups in cholesterol level, BMI or incidence of diabetes, number of acute cellular episodes or Quilty effect. Conclusions: Significant focal coronary stenoses are found mainly more than 5 years post heart transplantation. Most patients can be treated safely and effectively with percutaneous coronary intervention with contrast-induced nephropathy prophylaxis. Risk factors of coronary vasculopathy post OHT require further investigations.


Substantial research has been carried out to explain the effects of economic variables on obesity, typically considering only a few factors at a time, using parametric linear regression models. Recent studies have made a significant contribution by examining economic factors affecting body weight using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data with 27 state-level variables for a period of 20 years (1990–2010). As elsewhere, the authors solely focus on individual effects of potential drivers of obesity than critical interactions among the drivers. We take some steps to extend the literature and gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of obesity. We employ state-of-the-art data mining techniques to uncover critical interactions that may exist among drivers of obesity in a data-driven manner. The state-of-the-art techniques reveal several complex interactions among economic and behavioral factors that contribute to the rise of obesity. Lower levels of obesity, measured by a body mass index (BMI), belong to female individuals who exercise outside work, enjoy higher levels of education and drink less alcohol. The highest level of obesity, in contrast, belongs to those who fail to exercise outside work, smoke regularly, consume more alcohol and come from lower income groups. These and other complementary results suggest that it is the joint complex interactions among various behavioral and economic factors that gives rise to obesity or lowers it; it is not simply the presence or absence of individual factors.


We present a self-supervised learning-based pipeline for dense 3D reconstruction from full-length monocular endoscopic videos without a priori modeling of anatomy or shading. Our method only relies on unlabeled monocular endoscopic videos and conventional multi-view stereo algorithms, and requires neither manual interaction nor patient CT in both training and application phases. In a cross-patient study using CT scans as groundtruth, we show that our method is able to produce photo-realistic dense 3D reconstructions with submillimeter mean residual errors from endoscopic videos from unseen patients and scopes.


3G long term evolution (LTE) introduces stringent needs in order to provide different kinds of traffic with Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics. The major problem with this nature of LTE is that it does not have any paradigm scheduling algorithm that will ideally control the assignment of resources which in turn will improve the user satisfaction. This has become an open subject and different scheduling algorithms have been proposed which are quite challenging and complex. To address this issue, in this paper, we investigate how our proposed algorithm improves the user satisfaction for heterogeneous traffic, that is, best-effort traffic such as file transfer protocol (FTP) and real-time traffic such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Our proposed algorithm is formulated using the cross-layer technique. The goal of our proposed algorithm is to maximize the expected total user satisfaction (total-utility) under different constraints. We compared our proposed algorithm with proportional fair (PF), exponential proportional fair (EXP-PF), and U-delay. Using simulations, our proposed algorithm improved the performance of real-time traffic based on throughput, VoIP delay, and VoIP packet loss ratio metrics while PF improved the performance of best-effort traffic based on FTP traffic received, FTP packet loss ratio, and FTP throughput metrics.


Purpose : To investigate the effects of chronic intake of a brand of energy drink (ED) on the liver and kidney of rats. Methods : Sixty male adult Sprague Dawley albino rats were randomly assigned to four groups (15 rats per group). Three groups received ED at different doses (0.4, 1.1 and 2.2 ml/100 g body weight/day) for 12 weeks. The fourth group (control) received distilled water. All treatments were administered by oral gavage. Blood samples were withdrawn at the start of the experiment, and at the 6th and 12th weeks for assay of hepatic and renal biochemical parameters. Histopathological studies were done at the end of the exposure period. Results : Exposure to ED doses of 1.1 and 2.2 ml/100g body weight/day for 12 weeks induced highly significant increases in serum aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and uric acid, when compared with the control group (p < 0.001). On the other hand, the activities of the antioxidant enzymes, viz, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) significantly decreased (p < 0.001) by exposure to these two ED doses, relative to controls. Pronounced histopathological changes were observed in hepatic and renal tissues of the ED-treated rats. Conclusion : Oral exposure of rats to ED for 12 weeks produced noticeable hepatic and renal damage, probably due to increased free radical production and oxidative stress.  Keywords : Energy drink, Reactive oxygen species, Liver function, Kidney function, Histopathological changes


Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a pathogenic human virus whose RNA genome and replication cycle resemble those of plant viroids. However, viroid genomes contain no open reading frames, whereas HDV RNA encodes a single protein, hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg), which is required for viral replication. A cellular gene whose product interacts with HDAg has now been identified, and this interaction was found to affect viral genomic replication in intact cells. DNA sequence analysis revealed that this protein, termed delta-interacting protein A (DIPA), is a cellular homolog of HDAg. These observations demonstrate that a host gene product can modulate HDV replication and suggest that HDV may have evolved from a primitive viroidlike RNA through capture of a cellular transcript.


A proteogenomic analysis is presented for Venturia pirina, a fungus that causes scab disease on European pear (Pyrus communis). V. pirina is host-specific, and the infection is thought to be mediated by secreted effector proteins. Currently, only 36 V. pirina proteins are catalogued in GenBank, and the genome sequence is not publicly available. To identify putative effectors, V. pirina was grown in vitro on and in cellophane sheets mimicking its growth in infected leaves. Secreted extracts were analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry, and the data (ProteomeXchange identifier PXD000710) was queried against a protein database generated by combining in silico predicted transcripts with six frame translations of a whole genome sequence of V. pirina (GenBank Accession JEMP00000000 ). We identified 1088 distinct V. pirina protein groups (FDR 1%) including 1085 detected for the first time. Thirty novel (not in silico predicted) proteins were found, of which 14 were identified as potential effectors based on characteristic features of fungal effector protein sequences. We also used evidence from semitryptic peptides at the protein N-terminus to corroborate in silico signal peptide predictions for 22 proteins, including several potential effectors. The analysis highlights the utility of proteogenomics in the study of secreted effectors.


In deepwater wells there is a risk of gas entering the riser. This can be caused by gas being trapped by the BOP after a well kill operation, or it can be that the BOP was not closed quickly enough upon kick detection. With oil-based mud (OBM), gas is dissolved, and larger kicks may go undetected and circulated up in the riser by accident.
 If a gas kick comes into the riser, a rapid unloading event can occur. This can in worst case lead to a blowout scenario. In addition, the riser may be subject to a collapse load due to reduced liquid level inside. The unloading behavior will be different when comparing kicks in oil-based and water-based mud (WBM).
 For water-based muds, field experience and experiments have shown that gas can be trapped by the mud. This effect is the same that causes mud to capture cutting particles, and it is related to the non-Newtonian and time-dependent rheology behavior of the mud. The suspended gas can only be removed from the riser by circulation. The kick must therefore be of a certain volume to be able to unload the well.
 Modelling of the mentioned complex phenomena, with the violent transient phase seen when a large volume of gas expands as it moves towards the liquid surface in the riser, is still a challenge for numerical algorithms to do accurately and reliably. Robust handling of numerical diffusion in two-phase flow is one of the key topics, as are slippage and extension of gas in the liquid.
 The paper describes how an explicit numerical scheme (AUSMV) is used as a numerical solver with the application of the slope-limiter technique to handle numerical diffusion. This has not yet been done for unloading of gas in riser.
 A simulation case will be constructed considering gas migration and expansion in a long riser. A sensitivity analysis will be performed where both the kick volumes and the threshold for gas suspension will be varied to study when kicks will start to unload the well vs. situations where they will become fully suspended. The phenomena mentioned will be studied for water-base drilling fluids.
 The paper will review previous work on the subject and highlight how transient flow models can be useful for gaining more insight into how the gas behaves in risers and what can be done to mitigate the consequences.


This article presents the findings of a study on child–parent interaction during suspicion of child sexual abuse as seen from the children's point of view. Study methods followed the principles of grounded theory approaches. Data were drawn from research interviews and child abuse assessment interviews with thirteen children referred to the child protection services because of suspected child sexual abuse. During analysis the core concept of Interactive Regulated Participation was constructed on the basis of the following main categories developed from the children's narratives: conversations on suspicion, receiving information, contributing in decision-making, sharing feelings and thoughts, and engaging in conversations on meaning-making. These categories help us understand the difficult situation children find themselves in when a suspicion of child sexual abuse is raised, and help us explore and support child–parent interaction in this specific situation. Attention to variations in child–parent interaction may help professionals and parents to focus on children's opportunities to talk about possible abuse as well as on the children's situation in the midst of child sexual abuse allegations.


Data-gathering wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are operated unattended over long time horizons to collect data in several applications such as those in climate monitoring and a variety of ecological studies. Typically, sensors have limited energy (e.g., an on-board battery) and are subject to the elements in the terrain. In-network operations, which largely involve periodically changing network flow decisions to prolong the network lifetime, are managed remotely, and the collected data are retrieved by a user via internet. In this paper, we study an integrated topology control and routing problem in cluster-based WSNs. To prolong network lifetime via efficient use of the limited energy at the sensors, we adopt a hierarchical network structure with multiple sinks at which the data collected by the sensors are gathered through the clusterheads (CHs). We consider a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to optimally determine the sink and CH locations as well as the data flow in the network. Our model effectively utilizes both the position and the energy-level aspects of the sensors while selecting the CHs and avoids the highest-energy sensors or the sensors that are well-positioned sensors with respect to sinks being selected as CHs repeatedly in successive periods. For the solution of the MILP model, we develop an effective Benders decomposition (BD) approach that incorporates an upper bound heuristic algorithm, strengthened cuts, and an ε-optimal framework for accelerated convergence. Computational evidence demonstrates the efficiency of the BD approach and the heuristic in terms of solution quality and time.


ILO pub-WEP pub-ARTEP pub. Working paper on the employment effects of multinational enterprises in export processing zones in Asia - discusses the pattern of direct foreign investment by MNEs and its impact on manufacturing export oriented industry, exports and direct and indirect employment creation; examines the role of EPZs, their sectoral distribution, labour force participation characteristics by sex, age, etc. And working conditions. References and statistical tables.


A potent luminescent sensor for the detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and Fe3+ ion was developed based on a terbium(III)-based coordination polymer, [Tb(H2O)5(BTEC)][H(C5H6N2)]·3H2O (1), which was prepared under hydrothermal condition using a benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylate (BTEC) bridging ligand. 1 possesses one-dimensional zig-zag chains decorated with carboxylate functional sites and protonated 4-aminopyridine guests located in interlayer channels. The strong green emission of 1 could be efficiently quenched by trace amounts of 4-NP through a luminescence quenching mechanism even in the presence of other aromatic compounds such as 1,2-dimethylbenzene, bromobenzene, phenol, 4-bromophenol, 4-nitrotoluene, 1,2-dinitrobenzene, nitrobenzene, 2,6-dinitrotoluene, and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol. Furthermore, 1 exhibits superior luminescence quenching behavior towards Fe3+ ion over other competing interfering metallic ions such as Cr3+, Cu2+, Na+, Mg2+, Mn2+, Co2+, Fe2+, Pb2+, Pd2+, and Zn2+. The possible luminescence quenching mechanisms were also discussed. Moreover, visual fluorescent test papers based on 1 were fabricated and could be utilized for selective detection of nitroaromatic compounds and metal ions.


As monopolies gave their way to competitive wholesale electricity markets, volumetric risk came into play. Electricity supplier can buy weather derivatives to protect from volumetric risk due to unexpected weather conditions. However, contracts can only be negotiated for weather variables measured at few selected locations. To hedge their specific risk, electricity supplier have to correlate their risk with the risk at tradeable locations. In this paper, we concentrate on temperature derivatives. More precisely, we examine if and how bivariate GARCH models with dynamic conditional correlations can help in modelling correlation between two distinct temperature time series. The knowledge of correlation dynamics between the temperature time series enables an electricity supplier to correlate his risk with the risk of a traded city and to construct a sensible hedge. It turns out that the application of bivariate DCC GARCH models to three German temperature time series provides encouraging results.


This tutorial presents tools and techniques for effectively utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) for building advanced applications, including the Physical-Cyber-Social (PCS) systems. The issues and challenges related to IoT, semantic data modelling, annotation, knowledge representation (e.g. modelling for constrained environments, complexity issues and time/location dependency of data), integration, analysis, and reasoning will be discussed. The tutorial will describe recent developments on creating annotation models and semantic description frameworks for IoT data (e.g. such as W3C Semantic Sensor Network ontology). A review of enabling technologies and common scenarios for IoT applications from the data and knowledge engineering point of view will be discussed. Information processing, reasoning, and knowledge extraction, along with existing solutions related to these topics will be presented. The tutorial summarizes state-of-the-art research and developments on PCS systems, IoT related ontology development, linked data, domain knowledge integration and management, querying large-scale IoT data, and AI applications for automated knowledge extraction from real world data.


This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small group who retained a small proportion of their total wealth in landed assets. Low levels of social mobility are identified as a function of land purchase, and new insights are given into the relationship between wealth, status, and land ownership. Any integration of business and landed wealth in this period was not a consequence of businessmen becoming landowners.


Lidar, using pulsed lasers as energy sources, applies the radar principle at wavelengths in and near the visual spectrum to probe the atmosphere. It can detect particulate matter of much smaller dimensions and sparser concentration than is possible with meteorological radar. Lidar may be used to measure cloud base heights although difficulties arise with diffuse clouds, especially in foggy conditions. Inhomogeneities in turbidity that occur at the heights of temperature inversions in the relatively clear atmosphere are also revealed by lidar. Examples of work in progress that show promise of providing a measurement of visibility are presented. It is concluded that lidar can already contribute usefully in routine meteorological service, but that its full potential in ceilometry and visibility measurement awaits further developments. For routine unattended use, high pulse-rate low peak-power lidars are advocated on grounds of safety.


The UK is in a critical juncture with regard to the process of negotiations to leave the European Union. Important discussions are taking place which will shape the future relation between Britain and the EU. The economic analyses published on the issue have, so far, largely failed to grasp the attention of the general public. Most of the discussions about Brexit have focused at a national level and there has been very little evidence-based discussion at a local level. This project aims at stimulating a reflexive participatory research process involving citizens, policy-makers, business people and civil-society representatives. It introduces an innovative methodology that contextualises quantitative data through expert interviews and the analysis of local sources. The reports and discussion panels organised within the framework of the project seek to increase our understanding about the impact of Brexit at a local level


The presented study examines the concepts of "environmental marketing" and "environmental product". The study attempts to conceptualize these terms in Russian language with allowance for the concept of sustainable development and the principles of the circular economy.Aim. The study aims to develop the conceptual foundations of environmental marketing and its derivative — environmental product, laying the groundwork for future research in specifying the concepts of "environmental marketing" and "environmental product".Tasks. The authors examine the current state of environmental marketing and environmental product in Russia in terms of legislation and market practices; analyze the evolution of these concepts in foreign and Russian publications; systematize experience in this field; provide an original conceptualization of these terms; operationalize their key characteristics and features.Methods. This study is based on qualitative empirical research using such methods as content analysis, synthesis, formalization, and systematization. The theoretical and methodological approach of the study is based on the works of foreign and Russian scientists in the field of environmental marketing, the "green" approach to the promotion of goods, and sustainable enterprise development.Results. A research gap in the conceptualization of "environmental marketing" and "environmental product" in Russian language is identified. The authors provide an original interpretation of these concepts with allowance for the principles of sustainable development and "green" promotion.Conclusions. This study serves to elaborate on the scientific meaning of the concept of "environmental friendliness" applicable in marketing, changing the trend of the increasing number of products that fall under the definition of greenwashing. The published materials can be useful for environmental consultants, marketers, and representatives of legislative authorities in certifying products according to environmental standards.


This paper assesses the usefulness of emerging evidence-based studies in advancing the current understanding of the relationship between violent conflict and chronic poverty. Following a discussion of some key concepts, recent empirical research is reviewed. Both the transmission mechanisms from violent conflict through to chronic poverty and the impact of chronic poverty on conflict are considered. The paper concludes by identifying gaps in the current state of knowledge on this subject and proposes an ambitious future research agenda. This paper focuses on violent mass conflict, taking a dynamic view of both violent conflict and chronic poverty. A micro-level perspective is adopted, whereby impacts on individual and household poverty, exclusion and deprivation are considered. The approach is considered well-suited to uncover the links and dependencies of chronic poverty as both a cause and a consequence of conflict. It is felt that understanding how conflict develops at the micro-level will impact on how policies are designed and how incentives to prevent conflicts and maintain peace are structured. Three key questions are addressed: - Who are the chronically poor affected by/affecting violent conflict? - How are the chronically poor affected by violent conflict? - Do persistent levels of poverty impact on the likelihood of an individual, household or group participating in violent conflict? The review reveals that hard micro-level evidence on the relationship between violent conflict and (chronic) poverty is scarce and at times contradictory. However, this field of research is growing and some conclusions can be drawn. Violent conflict can cause chronic poverty and contribute to the creation of poverty traps, the chronically poor are likely to suffer disproportionately from violent conflict, and violent conflict can bring benefits to some groups (including the chronically poor) which may counterbalance the negative impacts. In turn persistent poverty can create the grounds for increased social discontent which can lead to violent conflict and chronic poverty may lead individuals to become fighters as a form of coping with poverty itself. In conclusion three main research gaps are identified: - Further research is needed on transmission mechanisms - for both violent conflict to chronic poverty and vice versa; - There is an absence of sufficient and adequate datasets for the analysis of both violent conflict and chronic poverty; - There is a large gap in knowledge between dominant macro-level policy interventions and the new emerging field of micro-level analysis of violent conflict. Each of these is considered and a research agenda thus proposed.


It is often thought that if a developing human being is considered a "person" from the beginning, then it would follow that abortion (at any time) would be impermissible. For, after all, a person has a stringent right to life, and because life is a prerequisite for enjoying any other goods, it is plausible that the right to life is a "basic" or "fundamental" one, not easily overridden by other considerations. The right to life, it would seem, could not be outweighed by another individual's preferences, even preferences about what should happen in or to her body.


Lisbon is a city with more than half a million inhabitants and one of the most touristic capitals in Western Europe, constantly trying to find ways to deal with challenges in a smart and sustainable manner. How to turn Lisbon into a more inclusive, connected, and resilient city going into the future, is the question that researchers in the Fraunhofer project, Morgenstadt, are trying to solve. Lisbon has developed a city development strategy for the next decades, defining goals that aim to create more employment, attract more people and to become a more liveable city. This last goal does not only include the improvements in living standards of citizens, but addresses topics such as new mobility concepts, renewal of old buildings, increased energy efficiency, among others. All this can be fostered by using more participative approaches and an extensive exploration of the local resources to stimulate the economy and incentivize local innovation.

The question that arises is how to get there? How to make Lisbon a more liveable and attractive city not only for tourists but especially for its citizens and workers? This paper is based on an interdisciplinary project in the form of a so-called "City lab" that began in September 2015 in the context of the ongoing long-term research project called "Morgenstadt: City Insights" initiated by the Fraunhofer Society.

This paper therefore first provides a general introduction into the smart city concept (chapter 2) and an overview over the initial position of Lisbon in this regard (chapter 3). In a next step, the research methodology applied in the City Lab will be outlined, dividing the analysis process (chapter 4) and the project development process (chapter 5). In the following the results of the city lab Lisbon will be presented. While the first part of results concentrates on key outcomes such as the sensitivity analysis and exemplary sector specific results (chapter 6), the second part will provide an overview over the developed projects to foster a smart and sustainable development of Lisbon (chapter 7). According to the identified challenges and opportunities in chapter 6 that reveal a good level of smartness among the different sectors, the projects presented in chapter 7 will specifically address the strengthening of interdisciplinary and cross-department as well as cross -stakeholder cooperation, which has been identified as Lisbons key challenge.


Shear transformations, as fundamental rearrangement events operating in local regions, hold the key of plastic flow of amorphous solids. Despite their importance, the dynamic features of shear transformations are far from clear, which is the focus of the present study. Here, we use a colloidal glass under shear as the prototype to directly observe the shear-transformation events in real space. By tracing the colloidal-particle rearrangements, we quantitatively determine two basic properties of shear transformations: local shear strain and dilatation (or free volume). It is revealed that the local free volume undergoes a significantly temporary increase prior to shear transformations, eventually leading to a jump of local shear strain. We clearly demonstrate that shear transformations have no memory of the initial free volume of local regions. Instead, their emergence strongly depends on the dilatancy ability of these local regions, i.e., the dynamic creation of free volume. More specifically, the particles processing the high dilatancy ability directly participate in subsequent shear transformations. These results experimentally enrich Argon's statement about the dilatancy nature of shear transformations and also shed insight into the structural origin of amorphous plasticity.


Two simple, precise and accurate derivative spectrophotometric methods have been developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of Atenolol (ATN) and Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in bulk and pharmaceutical formulation. Method A is Area Under Curve method, which involved the measurement of area between 221 to 231 nm and 265 to 275 nm for the estimation of Atenolol and Hydrochlorothiazide respectively. Method B applied Second order derivative spectrophotometry, which involved measuring the absorbance values at 226 nm and 270 nm of second derivative spectrum, without mutual interference with a linearity range of 2-10 µg/mL and 1-5 µg/mL for the estimation of Atenolol and Hydrochlorothiazide, respectively for both the methods. Results of analysis were statistically reported and were found to be satisfactory.


We have tested the effect of dithiothreitol (DTT) treatment on the initial spreading of human fibroblasts in serum‐free medium in tissue culture dishes. Cell spreading was inhibited following treatment of these cells with 10 mM DTT. Inhibition occurred when the cells were treated at 37°C but not at 4° and was reversible metabolically but not by the addition of sulfhydryl oxidizing reagents. The inhibition was overcome when DTT‐treated human fibroblasts were plated on cold insoluble globulin (plasma fibronectin)—coated dishes. Under these conditions spreading appeared to be completely normal, including the formation of focal adhesions. Analysis of the fibronectin concentrations in the human fibroblasts following DTT treatment indicated that there was little decrease in the absolute level of activity as determined in a biological assay for BHK cell spreading on culture dishes. Analysis of the fibronectin distribution on the DTT‐treated human fibroblasts by indirect immunofluorescence using a specific anti‐CIG antiserum revealed that fibronectin was no longer deposited onto the culture dish surfaces. Even when the DTT‐treated human fibroblasts spread in the presence of fetal calf serum, the cell fibronectin remained for the most part in a perinuclear location. These results indicate that DTT treatment of human fibroblasts prevents the normal translocation of fibronectin from a perinuclear location to the surface of the culture dish. This study further supports our hypothesis that the initial spreading in serum‐free medium of fibroblasts from cell strains depends upon secretion of fibronectin onto the culture dish surface.


This paper investigates whether manufacturers using key supplier relationship management as a strategic tool will enable supply chain risk management to reduce or mitigate risks. An exploratory qualitative study conducted interviews with five auto manufacturers and five original equipment manufacturers or first-tier suppliers. Analysis found both groups are interested in doing so but that the practice is not wide-spread. Inhibitors include a continuing emphasis on cost, quality and supplier capacity, issues regarding new and smaller supply chain actors, sudden process and production changes impacting suppliers, and lack of auto manufacturer communication and information sharing. Suggestions to address these inhibitors include closer collaborative involvement between auto manufacturers and their original equipment manufacturers in a key supplier relationship management approach.


This study examined the factors explaining human resources (HR) involvement in strategic formulation and its consequences using three perspectives: resource-based view of the firm, institutional theory, and power.  The results showed that HR involvement in strategy formulation did not necessarily translate into competitive advantage. However, if HR involvement in strategy formulation was an important goal of the HR function, by itself, organizational age was not a deterrent to its adoption.  In addition, the centrality of HR also increased its level of involvement in strategy formulation.  This study utilized the Philippine data of the CRANET survey on comparative human resource management


In Reply. —I am sorry for your misunderstanding of the emphasis of the article. This patient had a massive pericardial effusion and had some evidence of hemodynamic compromise. The pericardiocentesis was performed to improve her overall cardiovascular status. It was not done to determine the efficacy of doing two-dimensional echocardiography simultaneously with the pericardiocentesis. The point that was apparently misunderstood was that simultaneous two-dimensional echocardiography was performed with a clinically and therapeutically indicated pericardiocentesis to determine the efficacy of using the two-dimensional instrument to visualize the pericardiocentesis needle. We clearly did not mean to imply that the pericardiocentesis was indicated to determine the efficacy of using the two-dimensional technique. Just the opposite is true. Furthermore, the published article does convey, by means of the physical description and the evidence of pulsus paradoxus, that the patient did have hemodynamic compromise. I do appreciate your letter. I must assure you that even


Classification error is analyzed for a situation where the number of possible classes may be on the order of a hundred or more. The error associated with classifying to a single class is shown to depend mainly on average nearest-neighbor distance between class means, noise level, and effective dimensionality of the class mean distribution and not much on other aspects of the distribution, noise correlation, or number of classes. Since single class error is large, separation of classes into groups is also explored. Group classification error has the same properties as single class error but the size of the error is moderated by the Bayes overlap between groups. Standard curves are provided to predict single class and group error. Also discussed are the effect of pattern blurring on classification error and the nearest-neighbor distance statistics throughout a distribution.


This book consists of eight chapters namely Limits and Continuity, Differentiation, Applications of Differentiation, Integration, Applications of Integration, Further Differentiation and Integration, Improper Integrals and Ordinary Differential Equations. Every chapter consists of introduction, subtopics, quizzes, and exercise, to enhance self learning. All concepts and skills presented for each subtopic were accompanied by detailed explanation, followed by examples and complete solutions. Suitable examples were given and arranged in ascending degree of difficulties so that the basic concepts could be understood clearly. More than 320 solved problems were given to assist the students and provide a better understanding of each topic. Hence, we also provide two different forms of questions which are quizzes and exercise for better self tutoring. Lastly, we also attached the differentiation and integration tables, trigonometric identities and answers to every exercises at the end of this book.


Wave Energy Converters (WEC) are deployed in arrays to improve the overall quality of the delivered power to the grid and reduce the cost of power production by minimizing the cost of design, deployments, mooring, maintenance, and other associated costs. WEC arrays often contain devices of identical dimensions and modes of operation. The devices are deployed in close proximity, usually having destructive inter-device hydrodynamic interactions. However, in this work, we explore optimizing the number of devices in the array and concurrently, the dimensions of the individual devices (heterogeneous) to achieve better performance compared to an array of identical devices (homogeneous) with comparable overall submerged volume. A  techno-economic objective function is formulated to measure the performance of the array while accounting for the volume of material used by the arrays. The power from the array is computed using a time-domain array dynamic model and an optimal constrained control. The hydrodynamic coefficients are computed using a semi-analytical method to enable computationally efficient optimization. The Hidden Gene Genetic Algorithm (HGGA) formulation is used in this optimization problem.  During the optimization, tags are assigned to genes to determine whether they are active or hidden. An active gene simulates an active WEC device in the heterogeneous array, while the hidden gene results in a reduction in the total number of devices in the array compared with the homogeneous array. The volume of the heterogeneous array is constrained to be close to that of the homogeneous array. These hidden tags do not exclude the associated devices from the optimization process; these devices keep evolving with the active devices as they might become active in subsequent generations. Heterogeneous arrays were found to perform better than homogeneous arrays.


Reports from non-governmental organizations have raised concerns about the scale of illegal trade in merbau, a timber from nine species in the genus Intsia and there is concern over the sustainability of harvests from natural merbau populations. The study on which this report is based, funded by Bundesamt fur Naturschutz, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), aimed to investigate in detail the international trade in merbau timber and to provide scientific and current data on the population status, harvest management and trade in these species. The report offers recommendations to promote the sustainable management of harvest and trade in merbau, particularly in the range States of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Malaysia, but also in selected merbau consuming countries.


e describe a case of HenocheSchönlein purpura (HSP) in a 19-year-old woman W triggered by a diarrhoeal illness from Yersinia enterocolitica. The patient subsequently developed a widespread purpuric rash on the upper and lower limbs (Box), spasmodic abdominal pain, polyarthralgia and macroscopic haematuria. A skin biopsy confirmed leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Immunofluorescence testing on a percutaneous renal biopsy revealed strong mesangial staining for IgA. While post-infectious proliferative glomerulonephritis with Y. enterocolitica is described in several case series, the syndrome of HSP after this infection has rarely been reported. This case reinforces that any immune stimulus in IgA-producing tissue, including gastrointestinal infection, can trigger HSP.n


The Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO) region located within the Bahamas archipelago is a relatively understudied region in terms of both its biological and physical oceanographic characteristics. A prey-field mapping cruise took place in the fall between 15 September 2008 and 1 October 2008, consisting of a series of transects and ''clovers'' to study the spatial and temporal variability. The region is characterized by a deep scattering layer (DSL), which is preyed on by nekton that serves as the food for beaked whale and other whale species. This study marks the first of its kind where concurrent measurements of acoustic backscatter and turbulence have been conducted for a nekton scattering layer well below the euphotic zone. Turbulence data collected from a Deep Microstructure Profiler are compared to biological and shear data collected by a 38 kHz Simrad EK 60 echo sounder and a hydrographic Doppler sonar system, respectively. From these measurements, the primary processes responsible for the turbulent production in the TOTO region are assessed. The DSL around 500 m and a surface scattering layer (SSL) are investigated for raised e values. Strong correlation between turbulence levels and scattering intensity of prey is generally found in the SSL with dissipation levels as large as 10 W kg, 3 orders of magnitude above background levels. In the DSL and during the diel vertical migration, dissipation levels 10 W kg were observed.


We present a computational methodology for retrieving the shape of an impenetrable obstacle from the knowledge of some acoustic far-field patterns. This methodology is based on the well known regularized Newton algorithm, but distinguishes itself from similar optimization procedures by (a) a frequency-aware multi-stage solution strategy, (b) a computationally efficient usage of the exact sensitivities of the far-field pattern to the specified shape parameters, and (c) a numerically scalable domain decomposition method for the fast solution of three-dimensional direct acoustic scattering problems. We illustrate the salient features and highlight the performance characteristics of the proposed computational methodology with the solution on a parallel processor of various inverse mockup submarine problems.


Accurately estimating the worst-case execution time (WCET) of real-time event-driven software is crucial. For example, NASA's study of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles highlights poor support in timing analysis for event-driven code, which could put human life in danger. WCET occurs during the longest possible execution path in a program. Static analysis produces safe but overestimated measurements. Dynamic analysis, on other hand, measures actual execution times of code under a test suite. Its performance depends on the branch coverage, which itself is sensitive to scheduling of events. Thus dynamic analysis often underestimates the WCET. We present a new dynamic approach called event-driven directed testing. Our approach combines aspects of prior random-testing techniques devised for event-driven code with the directed testing method applied to sequential code. The aim is to come up with complex event sequences and choices of parameters for individual events that might result in execution times closer to the true WCET. Our experiments show that, compared to random testing, genetic algorithms, and traditional directed testing, we achieve significantly better branch coverage and longer WCET.


Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is an important disease on potato.  Several potato hybrids have been generated by crossing local varieties (Atlantic and Granola) with Katahdin SP951 which contains late blight resistance gene RB.  Prior to release, these hybrids need to be evaluated for their environ-mental effects on non-target organisms and natural pests and diseases. The objectives of the study were to investigate the effect of LBR potato hybrids on beneficial soil microbes, pests and diseases. The trial was conducted in the confined field trial (CFT) in Lembang, West Java. The parental non-transgenic (NT) clones (Granola, Atlantic and Katahdin) and LBR hybrids (four clones of Atlantic x Katahdin SP951 hybrids; 10 clones of Granola x Katahdin SP951) were planted at a plant spacing of 30 cm x 70 cm. Fungicide applications were used as treat-ments (no spray, five and twenty times sprays). The experi-ment was arranged in a randomized completely block design with three replications. The parameters determined were popula-tions of N2 fixing and P solubilizing bacteria, soil C/N ratio as well as natural pests and diseases. The results showed that the transgenic LBR potato hybrids did not have negative effect on N fixing bacteria. The bacterial populations were around 1010-11 cells g-1 soil before planting, 1012 cells at 1.5 months after planting (MAP) and 108 cells after harvest. For P- solubilizing bacteria, their populations were 1010 cells before planting, 1012 cells at 1.5 MAP and 1011 cells g-1  soil after harvest. The soil C/N ratio of the transgenic plot was not statistically different compared to non-transgenic plot, i.e. 12-15 before planting, 10-11 at 1.5 MAP, and 10 after harvest in non-spray plot. Pests and diseases such as Alternaria solani, Liriomyza, potato tubber moth, aphid and mites on the transgenic and non-transgenic plots were statistically not different. The resistance score for A. solani was 7.2 (parental tansgenic) and 7.6 (parental non-transgenic); for Liriomyza it was 2.07 (parental transgenic) and 2.32 insect per plant (parental non-transgenic), the PTM was 0.63 (parental transgenic) and 0.73 insect per plant (parental non-transgenic), aphid and mites were 0.75 (parental transgenic) and 1.68 insects per plant (parental non-transgenic). The study indicated that LBR potato hybrids did not have any negative impacts on non-target organisms.


GROUNDWATER AND TIDAL CONTROLS ON WETLAND HYDROLOGY, JULIE J. METZ WETLAND MITIGATION BANK, WOODBRIDGE, VIRGINIA Benjamin Stuart Hiza Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. G. Richard Whittecar Julie J. Metz Wetlands Mitigation Bank, a 92-hectare freshwater wetland located in Woodbridge, Virginia, borders the tidally-influenced Neabsco Creek. Seven pods separated by earthen berms were built by Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. (WSSI) in 1995 and 1997 by removing the toe of small sandy alluvial fans and covering the underlying coarse gravel bed with a low permeability cap. The basal Quaternary gravels were deposited in a creek valley incised into a thick sand-and-clay Cretaceous delta. The alluvial-fan apron developed at the base of steep slopes along the sides of the valley. Pressure transducer data from five monitoring wells along a transect across Pod 3 were used to generate hydrographs, create groundwater flow maps, calculate hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) by performing slug tests, and calibrate wetland water budget models using Wetbud software. Wetbud-generated water budgets using both Basic and Advanced scenarios calculated estimated water levels at Pod 3 for a typical Dry, Normal, and Wet year, and custom periods. Results from the pressure transducer data and the Wetbud Advanced Scenario indicate groundwater is the overall principal water source controlling water variability at Pod 3 in Julie Metz. However, surface water flow and direct precipitation contribute to the variability in Pod 3B. In Pod 3A, closer to Neabsco Creek, the water variability is strongly influenced by tidal forcings and storm surge. The T_TIDE (MATLAB) calculations indicate lunar tides, predominantly semi-diurnal, as well as wind contribute to fluctuations in Neabsco Creek. Because creek levels control the groundwater gradient they influence how quickly the groundwater leaves Pod 3. Based upon analyses of storm surge and tidal data, and using the current sea level rise rate (4.14 mm/year), Pod 3A will be consistently inundated in approximately 22 years. Permanent inundation of Pod 3 is projected in 132 years. The rise in sea level will gradually decrease the gradient and groundwater outflow from the wetland over time and the Julie Metz wetland will transition from a forested shrub-scrub wetland to an emergent wetland.


The paper presents the design of a new optic fibre sensor that simultaneously measures normal deformation, cross-sectional deformation and temperature with the minimum number of sensible elements. It is based on two assembled in phase quadrature traditional Fabry-Perot sensors. Lightness and the extreme compactness make the proposed sensor suitable to equipe composite materials with low specific weight and various percentage in fibre volume, that it can be used for aeronautical and/or automotive applications without modifying mechanical characteristics. The example host material is Ti-6Al-4V/SiC composite characterized with the volume fraction of carbon fibres of 35%; it permits to insert the sensor at low temperature by means of Cold-Gas Spray technology. Sensor construction is quite easy and does not require great economical effort in comparison with other types of optic fibre sensors reported in literature. The sensor has the capability of independently measuring the thermal and mechanical (bending and traction) loads. It has a great sensibility indeed it allows evaluating μm displacements and bending angle of the order of one hundredth of degree, operating in a temperature range between −190°C and 750°C. The paper concludes with the description of the mathematical model of the proposed sensor and with the correspondent numerical characterization in order to estimate sensor capabilities. Numerical simulation points out the potentials of the new proposed sensor.