Artemisia annua is currently the only economically viable source of the antimalarial compound artemisinin. Synthesis of artemisinin takes place in glandular trichomes, primarily on the leaves from where artemisinin is extracted. It is not well understood why yields and concentrations of artemisinin vary across crops in relation to external conditions and agricultural practices. We therefore studied the diverse processes underlying artemisinin synthesis in A. annua crops, focussing on effects of |nitrogen fertilization on processes involved in formation of leaves and trichomes, and production of artemisinin in the individual leaves. In two field experiments, effects of nitrogen application levels (0, 75, 175, 400 kg N ha -1 ) on leaves from a selected position at the main stem and a primary branch were studied. Measurements during part of the life cycle of the leaves included: area and dry weight per leaf, trichome density on the abaxial (lower) leaf side, trichome size, and artemisinin concentration. Results showed that effects of N fertilization were generally small, but in line with the hypothesis that at low N levels individual leaves remain smaller but have higher trichome densities. These trends were especially clear in the branch leaves. The total |number of trichomes per leaf usually increased with increase in N application up to at least 175 kg N ha -1 . Within a leaf position, effects of N application on artemisinin concentration in the leaf dry mass were similar to effects on percentage of leaf area covered by trichomes. The total quantity of artemisinin produced per (abaxial) trichome varied, but seemed to decrease linearly with increase in N level. There were no systematic linear or quadratic responses to N application in the total quantity of artemisinin per leaf. The reduction in artemisinin concentration in the leaf mass at higher N levels was therefore caused by increased dry weights per leaf.


UNLABELLED
The ability to estimate absorbed doses in experimental animals to which radiolabeled material has been administered may be important in explaining and controlling potential radiation toxicity observed during preclinical trials. Most previously reported models for establishing doses to small animals have been stylized and mathematically based. This study establishes dose factors for internal sources in realistic models of a typical mouse and a typical rat, based on image data obtained using a dedicated small-animal CT scanner.

METHODS
A transgenic mouse (body mass, 27 g) and a Sprague-Dawley rat (body mass, 248 g) were imaged using the dedicated small-animal CT scanner. Identified organs were segmented using computer tools that Vanderbilt University applies to process human images for 3-dimensional dosimetry. Monte Carlo N-particle transport code (MCNP) input files were prepared from the 3-dimensional, voxel-based image data. Using methods established for human studies, radiation transport calculations of absorbed fractions (AFs) were performed using MCNP, version 4C, on the segmented images, and dose conversion factors for several radionuclides were developed.

RESULTS
AFs were established at discrete energies for electron and photon sources assumed to be uniformly distributed throughout approximately 10 source and target regions in both models. Electron self-irradiation AFs were significantly less than 1.0 for many organs, at energies above 0.5 MeV, and significant cross irradiation was observed for high-energy electrons, such as those from (90)Y or (188)Re, in many organs. Calculated dose conversion factors reflected these trends and agreed well with the results of other authors who have undertaken similar investigations.

CONCLUSION
The AFs calculated in this study will be useful in determining the dose to organs for mice and rats similar in size to those studied here. The segmented, voxel-based models developed here can be used for external dose calculations as well.


It was previously determined that the distal portion of the ilvGMEDA operon was expressed despite the insertion of transposons into ilvG and ilvE. This observation suggested the existence of internal promoters upstream of ilvE (pE) and ilvD (pD). The internal promoter pE, responsible for part of ilvEDA expression, has been analyzed both in vivo and in vitro. Our results indicate that: pE exists in both E. coli K-12 and S. typhimurium; pE is located in the distal end of the ilvM coding sequence; the pE sequence is highly conserved in the two bacteria; the amino acid sequence of the ilvM gene product is 93% homologous between the two bacteria; transcription from pE can be demonstrated both in vivo and in vitro; the efficiency of pE is essentially equivalent in the two bacteria.


Lasers could enable deep-space communication between Earth and planets at the farthest reaches of our solar system. Over the next two decades, optical communications technology is expected to deliver at least an order-of-magnitude higher data rate than conventional radio frequency systems from deep space.


Dementia has become one of the most feared diseases. It is feared more than cancer for those over 50 years of age. The progressive and distressing nature of the symptoms have been widely known to affect both the person with dementia as well as their families. Eventually, the family has to decide whether to take care of their loved ones themselves or send them to a professional care facility. Currently, dementia care facilities are generally disconnected from the community, confine the residents and lack stimulation. Inactive bodies and minds can result in agitation and faster progression of the disease.  Through multidisciplinary literature review, first-hand observations of the patient behaviours and a review of existing case studies, this thesis explores how landscape architecture can help in creating a better life experience for those with dementia who live in a care facility. The design ideas are near Te Hopai, an existing dementia care facility in Newtown, Wellington.  To overcome the stigmatised environment in the existing facility, this thesis explores the possibilities for bringing the residents out and encouraging the public into their territory, increasing social interaction. A wide group of people such as carers, families and the wider community were considered in the design. Te Hopai's surroundings, which are currently empty spaces and car parks, have been transformed into a functional and welcoming landscape which the public can use. The landscape has also been designed to encourage residents with dementia who were previously confined inside to experience the outdoor environment. Through designing a socially active, accessible and experiential space that is easy to navigate and interact with, this thesis hope to reconnect and improve the life experience of the person with dementia as well as their community.


This study explored the nature of transfer among bilingual vs. trilinguals with varying levels of competence in English and their previous languages. The hypotheses were tested in writing tasks designed for 75 high (N= 35) vs. intermediate (N=40) proficient EFL learners with Turkish, Persian, English and Persian, English linguistic backgrounds. Qualitative data were also collected through some think aloud procedures. The findings revealed: 1) a significantly positive relationship between writing skills of the languages known by participants; 2) trilinguals performed significantly better than bilinguals in English writing tasks, although, qualitative data revealed that both groups used the same language, i.e. Persian, as the most frequently referred language and; 3) the higher-level writers tended to present less cross-linguistic influence than the lower level writers. The results are discussed in relation to different patterns of linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis and implications for language teaching in multilingual contexts.


With direct torque control (DTC), the stator flux magnitude and the torque of an induction motor (IM) drive are controlled in a closed-loop way. The actual values of the controlled variables are estimated by processing the inverter dc-link voltage and the stator currents by means of the IM voltage model. Any error in the model parameter (the stator resistance) or in the voltage and current transduction degrades the drive performance. In this paper, a theoretical investigation of the effects of the various errors on a DTC IM drive is carried out. The investigation gives a proof of the drive instability due to some errors and provides, for the other errors, the amount of the deviation produced on the controlled variables in steady state. The theoretical findings are substantiated by experimental and simulation results.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to present a very rare dermatologic condition of the vulva. Angiokeratoma is a benign dilation of ectatic thin-walled blood vessels and congested capillaries in the superficial dermal layer of skin. It occurs predominantly in men and extremely rare in women. Angiokeratoma presents as single or multiple papular lesions on the vulva with smooth or verrucous surface. These lesions are easily confused with infectious disease, inflammatory lesions, and epithelial tumors. In this report, we presented a 42 year old unmarried woman who was admitted to our clinic with complaints of two papuler lesions of the right labium majus with vaginal discharge, vulvar pruritis, and vulvar edema. She had been previously treated with different local or systemic antiinfectious agents and her screening tests for sexually transmitted disease were negative. The genital examination showed a very thinned, hyperemic and edematous vulvar skin with two lesions measured 0,5-1 cm in diameter on the right labium majus. The surface of the lesions was partly uneven and partly veined. A local excision was performed. Histological examination showed hyperkeratosis, papillomatosis and acanthosis with dilated vascular areas in the dermis and the specimen revealed angiokeratoma. In conclusion, we should be aware of this clinical entity to make the differential diagnosis of a lesion on the vulva.


In this Essay, I focus attention on and raise some questions about the treatment of women by three power centers: the corporate businesses that provide medical products to women, the regulatory governmental structures that exist to protect consumers from hazardous drugs and medical devices, and the adjudicatory legal system that exists to apply legislative and common law norms to redress the grievances of people injured by drugs and medical devices.The Essay notes the striking amount of harm that is done to women by the businesses that provide medical products to women, and asks how conditions might be changed to prevent or deter those wrongs and to better redress the injuries that occur nonetheless. It also explores whether the legal system – including the regulatory system – is significantly different from the corporate culture that permits so many injuries to women, or whether the legal system is similarly infected by cultural influences that render unequal the protection that women are afforded by regulatory agencies and by the courts.


The rapidly shrinking size of processor chips and memory, coupled with increasing speed and processing elements, has enabled widespread usage of embedded systems running software code, for the overall control and monitoring of larger systems. These embedded systems have proliferated in almost all the modern electronic equipment used in industries, home, automobiles, military battlefields, space or personal consumer electronic systems. The omnipresent and pervasive computing enabled by these embedded systems controlling/monitoring a wide array of complex networked or independent systems, need to be dependable and safe. With mass proliferation, the security of embedded systems presents a unique set of requirements and challenges. It is therefore important to study and assess the potential risks, threat vectors, potential adversaries/attackers and attack methodologies in order to effectively incorporate security in technology and processes right from the conceptual/design stages. The identification and analysis of the threats, vulnerabilities and study of risk mitigation methods, potential attackers and common attack methodologies is critical in implementing security measures in design, development, exploitation and final disposal phases of the embedded system.


This article attempts to rethink agency for childhood studies, drawing on Foucault's theorisations of power, Deleuze and Guattari's concept of assemblage, Bennett's vital materialism and Grosz's account of Bergson's conception of freedom. I argue that (1) agency is ambivalent, that is, it has no intrinsic ethical value; (2) agency is not a property of individual children but happens within assemblages; (3) it is analytically useful to distinguish between more routine and more inventive tendencies of agency; and (4) agency arises in the relations between the organic and the inorganic, as life actualises the virtual potential of matter for indeterminacy. These ideas contribute to ongoing debates about agency within the field, and connect these debates with wider questions about children's relations with materials and nonhumans.


Objective. This study aimed to assess olfactory dysfunction in patients at six months after confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 infection. Methods. Coronavirus disease 2019 positive patients were assessed six months following diagnosis. Patient data were recoded as part of the adapted International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium Protocol. Olfactory dysfunction was assessed using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test. Results. Fifty-six patients were included. At six months after coronavirus disease 2019 diagnosis, 64.3 per cent of patients (n = 36) were normosmic, 28.6 per cent (n = 16) had mild to moderate microsmia and 7 per cent (n = 4) had severe microsmia or anosmia. There was a statistically significant association between older age and olfactory dysfunction. Hospital or intensive care unit admission did not lead to worse olfactory outcomes compared to those managed in the out-patient setting. Conclusion. At six months after coronavirus disease 2019 diagnosis, approximately twothirds of patients will be normosmic. This study is the first to describe six-month outcomes for post-coronavirus disease 2019 patients in terms of olfactory dysfunction.


The mechanical properties of formamidinium lead halide perovskites (FAPbX3 , X=Br or I) grown by inverse-temperature crystallization have been studied by nanoindentation. The measured Young's moduli (9.7-12.3 GPa) and hardnesses (0.36-0.45 GPa) indicate good mechanical flexibility and ductility. The effects of hydrogen bonding were evaluated by performing ab initio molecular dynamics on both formamidinium and methylammonium perovskites and calculating radial distribution functions. The structural and chemical factors influencing these properties are discussed by comparison with corresponding values in the literature for other hybrid perovskites, including double perovskites. Our results reveal that bonding in the inorganic framework and hydrogen bonding play important roles in determining elastic stiffness. The influence of the organic cation becomes more important for structures at the limit of their perovskite stability, indicated by high tolerance factors.


We show the effect of the ultrafast optical nonlinear interactions on the efficiency of a frequency converter based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). The ultrafast nonlinearities generate a dip of a few decibels in the down-conversion sideband of the conversion efficiency at detuning higher than 1 THz. The frequency detuning at which the minimum occurs depends on the device length and on the pump wavelength. The presence of the minimum of the efficiency affects the design of amplifiers specifically optimized for frequency conversion by FWM.


Soot particles pose significant adverse health effects and influence on earth's temperature and climate. Hence, the elimination of soot emissions from diesel engines has attracted a lot of attention. Prior to this work, the investigation of soot oxidation is done mostly under air environment. However, since it is typical for NO2 to be used in promoting regeneration under low-temperature soot oxidation for modern DPF, this study focuses on deriving the kinetics of soot oxidation under the influence of NO2 being a major oxidant. An online aerosol technique of high temperature oxidation-tandem-differential mobility analysis is used with soot being oxidized in a laminar flow reactor at temperature ranging from 500 to 900℃ with NO2 concentration from 0 to 600 ppm. The exposure of soot particles to the non-uniform temperature and NO2 mixing ratio inside the furnace causing NO2 thermal decomposition is thoroughly accounted for the first time. The soot oxidation rates being calculated as a function of frequency factor Asoot and activation energy Esoot are found to be: Asoot = 2.4 x 10-14 nmK-0.5s-1cm3molecule-1 and Esoot = 47.1 kJ mol-1. NO2 oxidation shows significantly lower activation energy when compared to that for O2 at temperatures below 500℃. Even at higher temperature (800 to 900℃), the soot oxidation rates with NO2 is still comparable to that with air. This indicates that NO2 is a stronger oxidant than O2 since only parts per million levels of NO2 are sufficient to cause such significant soot oxidation. After the emissions from diesel exhausts are released into the atmosphere, secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are formed from the photo-chemical oxidation of organic vapors and followed by gas-to-particle partitioning. This study aims to advance the understanding of diesel emission influences on SOA formation with a major focus on the photo-oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons inside an environmental chamber that simulates atmospheric chemistry. The investigation through combining the real-time density measurement and other physical/chemical analysis (APM-SMPS, HR-ToF-AMS) demonstrates that mass-based measurement techniques are necessary for interpreting the physical processes (evaporation of SVOCs and condensation of secondary organic compounds) during SOA formation due to the external void space in the agglomerate particles. Analysis of O/C ratio has shown to increase rapidly from 0.05 to 0.25 within 12 hours inside the chamber, emphasizing that the multigenerational oxidation of volatile organic vapors from the exhaust to be an important source of SOA formation. The impact of different dilution methods on the diesel particles evolution inside the chamber is investigated for the first time. Lower effective densities and stronger evaporation of semi-volatile species is observed from the intense dilution by the ejector dilutor as opposed to the raw exhaust injection into a full bag inside the environmental chamber.


The objective of this research is to improve the quality of higher education institution, namely: the Study Program of Accounting Education through well-traced graduates from the view of the alumni of the Study Program of Accounting Education – the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sebelas Maret University and their users. The population of this research was all of the alumni. Its samples consisted of 860 alumni of the class of 2000s. The data of research were collected through observation, documentation, and focus group discussion with the users of alumni and APRODIKSI (Association of the Study Programs of Accounting Education). They were then analyzed by using the descriptive statistics. The results of research are as follows: 1) 88% of the alumni are satisfied with the education and learning process management at the Study Program of Accounting Education, Sebelas Maret University. 2) Based on the view of its alumni, the waiting time to get the first job is short; 60% of the graduates get their first job within three months following their graduation; 25% of them get their first job from three months to six months following their graduation, and the rest get their job after six months following their graduation. 3) Only 30% of the graduates have a job which is relevant to their field of study – they become Accounting teachers, or instructors in some related courses and staffs at the Ministry of Education and Culture. Furthermore, 70% of the graduates have varied positions namely: Directors in manufacturing companies, Financial Managers, Marketing Managers, staffs of financial institutions such as banks or leasing companies. Moreover, only 5% of them become entrepreneurs. 4) The first salary that they earn is decent enough, but only 10% of the graduates get the first salary in the amount of more than IDR 3,000,000 and 90% get the first salary in the amount between IDR 1,000,000 – 3,000,000. In addition, from the view of the users of alumni, they feel fairly satisfied with the alumni's performance, and they expect that the institution will enhance the 'flexible attitudes' of their graduates in facing certain situations which require wise solutions to solve the existing problems.


Biological weapons have the potential to inflict deliberate, potentially devastating epidemics of infectious disease on populations. The science and technology exist to create deliberate outbreaks of human disease, as well as disease among plants and animals, crops, and livestock. A new awareness among policymakers of the link between public health and national security requires the attention of public health professionals. The issues posed by biological weapons are likely to challenge the political assumptions of many progressive public health professionals and will demand new coalitions. The prospect of bioterrorism may offer new opportunities for improving the public health infrastructure and its capabilities.


We show that the prompt and afterglow X-ray emission of GRB 060218, as well as its early (t ≲ 1 day) optical-UV emission, can be explained by a model in which a radiation-mediated shock propagates outward from a compact progenitor star into a dense wind. The prompt thermal X-ray emission is produced in this model when the mildly relativistic shock, β ≈ 0.85, carrying a few times 1049 erg, reaches the wind (Thomson) photosphere, where the postshock thermal radiation is released and the shock becomes collisionless. Adopting this interpretation of the thermal X-ray emission, we predict a subsequent X-ray afterglow, due to synchrotron emission and inverse Compton scattering of supernova UV photons by electrons accelerated in the collisionless shock. Early optical-UV emission is also predicted, due to the cooling of the outer δM ~ 10-3 M☉ envelope of the star, which was heated to high temperature during the shock passage. The observed X-ray afterglow and the early optical-UV emission are both consistent with those expected in this model. Detailed analysis of the early optical-UV emission may provide detailed constraints on the density distribution near the stellar surface.


The hip is the joint that serves as a force transmitter for the upper and lower extremities and is vital for daily activities, such as walking. The hip joint has a deep socket and surrounding strong muscles; it relies on a balance of muscle flexibility and strength. For the prescription of exercises for the hip, the imbalance between muscle groups, muscles with signs of weakness, muscles under overload, and muscle shortness should be assessed. Strength progression usually advances as isometric, isotonic, isokinetic, and plyometrics; however, full strength can not be achieved until flexibility is restored. In this review, we aimed to summarize the exercises that can be used for the treatment of disorders, such as hip osteoarthritis, inflammatory conditions, osteoporosis, piriformis syndrome, great trochanteric pain syndrome, tendinopathies, labral tears, and femoroacetabular impingement, under the light of scientific evidence.


For 'As You Change, So Do I', artist Scott King will produce Keep the home fires burning, an event that will include performances by a lone violinist and local Bedfordshire musicians at Luton railway station during the morning and evening rush hours on 29 September to send off and subsequently welcome back commuters to London. Importantly, the artist will work alongside the renowned filmmaker Paul Kelly to create a document of the town's commuter population on this day that will result in a short, three-minute film that will operate in much the same way as a pop video.

King will also involve local residents to reconstruct Henry Moore's famous series of sculptures Mother and Child, works that were made during the 1920s through to the 1960s, and which became a staple for civic public sculpture during the post-war era in the UK.

Titled Mother and Child (Luton), new images taken by photographer Elliot Kennedy will result in a series of projected impressions of families from the local community, a selection of which will be shown in sequence between September and December 2016 on the site of the old Gurney's hat factory wall on the corner of Bute Street and Guildford Street.

'As You Change, So Do I' has been commissioned by Luton Culture and is funded by Arts Council England.


BACKGROUND
 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent psychiatric condition that is associated with symptoms such as hyperarousal and overreactions. Treatments for PTSD are limited to medications and in-session therapies. Assessing the way the heart responds to PTSD has shown promise in detecting and understanding the onset of symptoms.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to extract statistical and mathematical approaches that researchers can use to analyze heart rate (HR) data to understand PTSD.

 METHODS
 A scoping literature review was conducted to extract HR models. A total of 5 databases including Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline) OVID, Medline EBSCO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) EBSCO, Excerpta Medica Database (Embase) Ovid, and Google Scholar were searched. Non–English language studies, as well as studies that did not analyze human data, were excluded. A total of 54 studies that met the inclusion criteria were included in this review.

 RESULTS
 We identified 4 categories of models: descriptive time-independent output, descriptive and time-dependent output, predictive and time-independent output, and predictive and time-dependent output. Descriptive and time-independent output models include analysis of variance and first-order exponential; the descriptive time-dependent output model includes a classical time series analysis and mixed regression. Predictive time-independent output models include machine learning methods and analysis of the HR-based fluctuation-dissipation method. Finally, predictive time-dependent output models include the time-variant method and nonlinear dynamic modeling.

 CONCLUSIONS
 All of the identified modeling categories have relevance in PTSD, although the modeling selection is dependent on the specific goals of the study. Descriptive models are well-founded for the inference of PTSD. However, there is a need for additional studies in this area that explore a broader set of predictive models and other factors (eg, activity level) that have not been analyzed with descriptive models.

 CLINICALTRIAL


Background: Low back pain (LBP) is characterized for its prevalence, great variability, high rates of disability and costs. Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) has excessive rate of surgery. Evidence based studies demonstrates only few techniques are cost-effective and many others dangerous. CLBP may originate in dysfunctional nociceptive processing within the central nervous system for that Neuromodulation offers emergent possibilities. Neuromodulation is reversible, adjustable, less invasive avoiding surgery and providing functional recovery. The cost is significantly lower and Quality of life clearly better than conventional pain therapy. The International Association for the study of pain (IASP) and the Special Interest Group on Neuromodulation (SIGN) is the leading forum for science to design therapeutic algorithms for back and neuropathic pain. Objectives: This Comprehensive Review explains concepts, epidemiology, cost, indications and types of Neuromodulation on management of LBP and radiating pain. Methods: A comprehensive review of literature: Clinical Guidelines, IASP sources, SIGN policies, focused on chronic low back pain (CLBP) and Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS). Also we include one big Meta-Analysis where were reviewed all Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG), 871 Systematic Reviews, Randomized control trials (RCT ́) and Prevention studies for COST B13 Program, literature reviews Searching in the Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase and other electronic databases. Results: Neuromodulation offers good and promising results in patients with CLBP and radiated intractable pain. RCTs demonstrated the efficacy without important side effects. Technological advances and clinical evidences continue to expand new modalities. IASP SIGN coordinate efforts including therapeutic algorithms based on scientific evidence. Conclusion: Neuromodulation is a safe, minimally invasive and reversible technique to relieve back and radiated pain when conservative management has failed, avoiding surgery and opioids. It is included in CLBP algorithms of management adopted by National Health Systems of European Union from 2005.


We investigate future changes in winter precipitation around Japan and their uncertainties using the downscalings of a non-hydrostatic regional climate model (NHRCM) with 20-km grid spacing according to global climate projections. The global climate projections were conducted by the atmospheric general circulation model with three patterns of sea surface temperature changes in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5. Moreover, three cumulus convective parameterizations were applied in the present and future climate experiments. The ensemble mean of nine future NHRCM experiments shows decreases in the winter precipitation on the coast of the Sea of Japan and over the Pacific Ocean in the south of the Japanese archipelago. The former decrease in precipitation results from a weakened winter monsoon. The latter corresponds to changes in extratropical cyclone number around Japan, which have a large uncertainty. On the other hand, winter precipitation increases over the northernmost part of Japan (Hokkaido) and the northeastern Asian continent. The strengthened northwesterly around Hokkaido, which results from the reduction of sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk, causes increased precipitation in the inland area of Hokkaido. In addition, moistening due to global warming relates to increased precipitation in extremely cold regions. These signals are common to most experiments.


Recently there has been greatly expended interest in narrow bandgap materials. Modern epitaxial techniques and the growing interest in nanostructures have provided areas of application for some of the unique properties of the narrow bandgap material. As always, one of the primary sources of interest is the small bandgap which makes them the material of choice for many applications in the infrared. However, in recent years their other unique properties have been the basis for a broader set of interests in narrow bandgap semiconductors. The type II band offsets (InAs/GaSb) have been the basis for novel tunnel devices and infrared superlattices. The very small effective masses inherent in small bandgap materials make them the obvious candidates in which to observe quantum confinement effects at larger dimensions than in materials of larger effective mass and wider gap. The ease of making electrical contact to some of the materials (ohmic contact to n-InAs) has made them the material of choice for electrical nanostructures. The ability to put in large amounts of magnetic ions to make magnetic semiconductors has led to a number of novel properties. The technical importance of a narrow bandgap and the unique applications promised by some of the other properties of these materials bode well for substantial research in narrow bandgap semiconductors well into the next decade.


Data assimilation arises in a vast array of different topics: traditionally in meteorological and oceanographic modelling, wind tunnel or water tunnel experiments and recently from biomedical engineering. Data assimilation is a process for combine measured or observed data with a mathematical model, to obtain estimates of the expected data. The measured data usually contains inaccuracies and is given with low spatial and/or temporal resolution. In this thesis data assimilation for time dependent fluid flow is considered. The flow is assumed to satisfy a given partial differential equation, representing the mathematical model. The problem is to determine the initial state which leads to a flow field which satisfies the flow equation and is close to the given data. In the first part we consider one-dimensional flow governed by Burgers' equation. We analyze two iterative methods for data assimilation problem for this equation. One of them so called adjoint optimization method, is based on minimization in L2-norm. We show that this minimization problem is ill-posed but the adjoint optimization iterative method is regularizing, and represents the well-known Landweber method in inverse problems. The second method is based on L2-minimization of the gradient. We prove that this problem always has a solution. We present numerical comparisons of these two methods. In the second part three-dimensional inviscid compressible flow represented by the Euler equations is considered. Adjoint technique is used to obtain an explicit formula for the gradient to the optimization problem. The gradient is used in combination with a quasi-Newton method to obtain a solution. The main focus regards the derivation of the adjoint equations with boundary conditions. An existing flow solver EDGE has been modified to solve the adjoint Euler equations and the gradient computations are validated numerically. The proposed iteration method are applied to a test problem where the initial pressure state is reconstructed, for exact data as well as when disturbances in data are present. The numerical convergence and the result are satisfying.


Background: Frontline workers were the first cohorts vaccinated with Covishield™ (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) vaccine with dose-interval of 4–6 weeks. We evaluated vaccine effectiveness (VE) of Covishield and studied epidemiological risk factors associated with COVID-19 during second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted a 1:3 case-control community-based study, as per WHO protocol. We identified case-patients from COVID-19 surveillance system and recruited controls from the same community as per the WHO protocol. Information was obtained through questionnaire; and all potential confounders were identified to evaluate VE. Results: We enrolled 243 case-patients and 712 controls. Adjusted VE of fully vaccinated was 74% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 53%–86%) against infection and 91% (95% CI: 78%–97%) against moderately severe disease. Pre-infection high-risk exposure events such as ccontact with COVID-19-positive patient, visit to a crowded place, and attending social-gathering in confined space were significantly associated with contracting infection, with odds ratios 10.1 (95% CI: 5.6–18.3), 6.0 (95% CI: 1.8–20.2) and 3.9 (95% CI: 1.4–10.5) respectively. The use of double-mask and past COVID-19 infection was 60% and 70% protective, respectively. Conclusion: Covishield vaccine is highly effective against infection and mainly against disease-severity during high-transmission settings. We recommend three-layer shield to minimize breakthrough and re-infections comprising of vaccination, double-masking, and avoiding "pre-infection high-risk exposure events."


Cheerleading occupies a contested space in American culture and a key point of controversy is whether it ought to be considered a sport. Drawing on interviews with college cheerleaders on coed squads, as well as five years of fieldwork in various cheerleading sites, this paper examines the debate over cheerleading and sport in terms of its gender politics. The bid for sport status on the part of cheerleaders revolves around the desire for respect more than official recognition by athletic organizations; cheerleaders recognize the prestige associated with sport, a function of its historic association with hegemonic masculinity, and they claim that prestige for cheerleading by highlighting its recent transformation into a more athletic, competitive activity that is no longer "just for girls." However, the support function of college cheerleading, combined with its "feminine" performance demands, make the bid for sport status controversial. Male cheerleaders in particular distance themselves from the feminine elements of cheerleading because they want to avoid being perceived as gay. The gender politics at work here illustrate both the elasticity of gender categories and the limits of that elasticity, as gendered boundaries are drawn and redrawn between what gets to count as sport and what does not, and as cheerleading simultaneously challenges and reinforces the notion of sport as a male preserve. Because masculinity and femininity are performed side-by-side in coed cheerleading, this research underscores the importance of relational analyses for examining and critiquing the construction of gender and sexuality.


The current research project originated from the manufacturing limitations of integrated circuits. In the near-term future, it will not be competitive to use automated machine or hand assembly processes to produce consumer products. It is our contention that such a conceptual process can be rendered obsolete for numerous consumer products. To achieve this, the investigators' goal in ongoing research is to deposit conductive materials onto a multitude of substrates and products using specialized continuous ink-jet (CIJ) print heads. Currently, electrical conducting materials to provide the equivalent traces of a PCB can be directly deposited on 2-D structural components. Research at the University of Pittsburgh also makes it possible to fabricate various electronic components by the same production process as the conductive elements. The focus of this paper, however, is on the thermodynamic and heat transfer properties of potential substrates that will make 3-D circuit printing possible. Three substrate materials were considered: Delrin, epoxy/glass composite, and Butter-Board. To overcome issues of curing temperature and component heat release, the melting/breakdown temperature and thermal conductivity value had to be found for each material. Oven curing tests were conducted over predetermined temperature intervals for 1"x1"x1" cubes of each substrate material. After each curing cycle, the test specimens were examined for discoloration, melting, and volume expansion. The results were then used to specify the design parameters for thermal conductivity testing. A firebrick test block was constructed, and repeatable conductivity tests were completed using a known heat output and experimentally determined temperatures. In comparing the three materials, it was discovered that epoxy/glass composite possesses the highest melting temperature, at between 275°C and 300°C, and a potentially good thermal conductivity of 0.653 W/m*K. Butter-Board, however, had the lowest of the thermal conductivity values of 0.416 W/m*K, but also exhibited a lower breakdown temperature. Of the three materials, the epoxy/glass composite is the most promising given the current curing temperature requirements of the thermally conductive inks. Future research directions could include investigation of the operational thermal conductivity of the chosen substrate materials, and a comparison of the experimental values with those predicted by finite element modeling.


The real-time system research community has paid a lot of attention to the design of safety critical hard real-time systems for which the use of non-standard hardware and operating systems can be justified. However, stream processing applications like medical imaging systems are often not considered safety critical enough to justify the use of hard real-time techniques that would increase the cost of these systems significantly. Instead commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware and OS are used, and techniques at the application level are employed to reduce the variation in the end-to-end latency of these imaging processing systems. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of a number of scheduling heuristics that are intended to reduce the latency and the jitter of stream processing applications that are executed on COTS multiprocessor systems. The proposed scheduling heuristics take the execution times of tasks into account as well as dependencies between the tasks, the data structures accessed by the tasks, and the memory hierarchy. Experiments were carried out on a quad core symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) Intel processor. These experiments show that the proposed heuristics can reduce the end-to-end latency with almost 60%, and reduce the variation in the latency with more than 90% when compared with a naive scheduling heuristic that does not consider execution times, dependencies and the memory hierarchy.


Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are able to improve on-road safety and provide convenience in our daily lives. To perform autonomous path tracking and navigation, CAVs can exploit vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications to determine their vehicle dynamics parameters, such as location, heading angle, and curvature, which can be then used as inputs to their control system. However, the interference and uncertainty of the wireless channels can increase the transmission delay on the vehicle dynamics and, thus, impair the CAV's ability to track its target path. In this paper, the problem of joint communication network and control system design is studied to solve the path tracking problem for CAVs. In particular, a novel approach is proposed to maximize the number of reliable V2X transmitter-receiver pairs while jointly considering the stability of the controller and the state of the wireless network. Based on the joint design, the maximum transmission delay which can prevent instability in the controller is determined. Then, the reliable V2X links maximization problem is decomposed into two equivalent sub-problems. The first sub-problem is the control mechanism design in which a dual update method is used to determine the headway distance parameter for the control system. The second sub-problem uses the outcome of the first sub-problem to optimize the power allocation for the communication system. To solve this power allocation problem, a novel risk-based approach that uses the so-called conditional value at risk (CVaR) from financial engineering is proposed. Simulation results validate the theoretical results and show that the proposed joint design can improve the number of reliable V2X pairs by as much as 70% compared to a baseline scheme that optimizes the communication and control systems independently.


Introduction: A jinn possession model from the Islamic epistemology is discussed and its role in causing inter-psyche and intra-psyche conflicts. An analysis of the symptoms of jinn possession can also help differentiate jinn possession from mental disorders. Methods: An analysis of 34 symptoms of jinn possession, derived from symptoms used by globally established ruqyah experts, was conducted using quantitative approach. Out of the 1088 participants, 530 were diagnosed as having jinn possession. Their symptoms were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Principal Component extraction method and Varimax rotation. Results: Some cases of mental health disorders can also be diagnosed as jinn possession according to ruqyah practitioners. The EFA analysis of the symptoms extracted 6 factors associated with jinn possession i.e. "abnormal thoughts", "faith delusion", "scary dreams", "sleep disturbances", "low mood" and "hallucinations". Conclusion: Some mental disorders may also be cases of jinn possession. Jinn possession refers to any disorder with an underlying jinn possession factor. "Faith delusion" can be used to distinguish jinn possession from mental disorders. The findings can act as a foundation for the development of a model for jinn possession that will lead to the development of an instrument for the diagnosis of jinn possession.


Antiresonance-guiding hollow-core fibers are shown to enable highly sensitive detection of cell proliferation probes using Raman scattering within the region where the cellular Raman activity is minimal. We demonstrate that such fibers can substantially reduce the level of the background compared to standard index-guiding optical fibers, thus radically improving the sensitivity of Raman detection of DNA synthesis in cells and offering a powerful tool for fiber-based live-cell imaging.


Background & Aims: In regard to the importance of atropine and scopolamine as medicines with natural source, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of chloramphenicol as an inhibitor of protein synthesis on the alkaloids content of Datura stramonium. Method: After initial preparation of medicinal garden seeds, they were planted 50 cm apart in four different sections. Three different concentrations of chloramphenicol (100, 200 and 400 ppm) were sprayed on the plant once a week for a period of 18 weeks. Water was applied for the control group. Replicate samples were taken randomly every two weeks from each section. After extraction and separation of the samples, the quantitative analyses were carried out. The levels of atropine and scopolamine were determined using UV spectroscopy (13 CNMR, UV, IR, Mass). Results: The maximum levels of alkaloids were observed in young stems of the plants. The best result was obtained following applying the concentration of 200 ppm, which caused a significant increase in atropine and scopolamine levels in all parts of plant by 100 and 110 respectively in comparison with the control group (p< 0.005). Conclusion: Increase in the availability of amino acids may lead to an increase of alkaloids production following protein inhibition synthesis.


We investigate a lift based wave energy converter (WEC), namely, a cycloidal turbine, as a wave termination device. A cycloidal turbine employs the same geometry as the well established Cycloidal or Voith-Schneider Propeller. The interaction of intermediate water waves with the Cycloidal WEC is presented in this paper. The cycloidal WEC consists of a shaft and one or more hydrofoils that are attached eccentrically to the main shaft and can be adjusted in pitch angle as the Cycloidal WEC rotates. The main shaft is aligned parallel to the wave crests and fully submerged at a fixed depth. We show that the geometry of the Cycloidal WEC is suitable for wave termination of straight crested waves. Two-dimensional potential flow simulations are presented where the hydrofoils are modeled as point vortices. The operation of the Cycloidal WEC both as a wave generator as well as a wave energy converter interacting with a linear Airy wave is demonstrated. The influence that the design parameters radius and submergence depth on the performance of the WEC have is shown. For optimal parameter choices, we demonstrate inviscid energy conversion efficiencies of up to 95% of the incoming wave energy to shaft energy. This is achieved by using feedback control to synchronize the rotational rate and phase of the Cycloidal WEC to the incoming wave. While we show complete termination of the incoming wave, the remainder of the energy is lost to harmonic waves travelling in the upwave and downwave direction.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


The poor matric results currently in the Soweto Township Secondary Schools are a cause for
concern. This study aims to explore and understand the role of the principal on learner
achievement. It transpired from the reviewed literature that the instructional leadership theory
was helpful in providing insights into understanding issues of principals leading or supporting
learner achievement efforts within the school context. This study relied on in-depth taped
interviews with school principals, curriculum deputy principals and focus group discussions with
the Representative Council of Learners (RCL), together with the documentary analysis to answer
the research question and sub–questions. The sample schools were selected purely on the
previous, "academic excellence."
This study also investigated what students, teachers and deputy principals perceive principals to
do to influence learner achievement. The study discovered that the scope of principals" influence
on learner achievement varies from one school to the next. The influence was both direct and at
times mediated. The findings were that instructional leadership was a dominant style of
leadership in the schools studied, as students identified direct and highly influential instructional
leadership behaviours. It also transpired that the critical role of the principal to influence and
enhance learner achievement was to manage teaching and learning, which is the core business of
the school.


In this paper we propose an efficient tomographic approach for the early detection of 2D rogue waves. The method relies on the principle of detecting conical spectral features before rogue wave becomes evident in time. More specifically, the proposed method is based on constructing the 1D Radon transforms of the emerging conical 2D spectra of the wavefield using compressive sampling (CS) and then constructing 2D spectra from those projections using filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm. For the 2D rogue wave models we use the radially symmetric Peregrine soliton and Akhmediev-Peregrine soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, which can model characteristics of the peaked structure of 2D rogue waves and their conical spectra which may be treated as a sparse signal. We show that emerging conical spectra of 2D rogue waves before they become evident in time can be acquired efficiently by the proposed method.


From Pushkin to 'Polisandriia' is a collection of essays devoted to Richard Freeborn, who retired from the Chair of Russian Literature at London University in 1988. Contributors include some of his former students and colleagues such as Robin Aizlewood, David Budgen, Neil Cornwell, Roy Davison, Jane Grayson, Michael Kirkwood, Arnold McMillin, Gordon McVay, Richard Peace, Don Piper, Donald Rayfield, Patrick Waddington, Faith Wigzell, and James Woodward. Given the reputation of these contributors, there is much to be said about the impact of Freeborn's scholarship. As the title suggests, these essays cover a period that begins with the nineteenth century and ends with recent history—as recent as the writing of Sasha Sokolov whose novel, Palisandriia, takes us into the postmodern era. To enumerate the perspectives in this collection is to acknowledge a richness and clarity of critical opinion. Budgen's and Aizlewood's essays provide a point of entry into the foundation of the Russian novel. Budgen discusses Pushkin's novelistic fragments in the context of the period and Aizlewood—the emblematic features of Lermontov's novel, Geroi nashego vremeni, with reference to Bakhtin's theories. Peace, Rayfield, and Davison turn to Dostoevsky, underscoring, respectively, the quality of psychological analysis in Bednye liudi, the traces of Dumas fils's La Dame aux camelias in The Idiot, and the veiled control of intricate sequence and simultaneity of events in Besy. Wigzell then discloses the folkloric basis of Oblomov's levels of consciousness and Waddington and Woodward make a case for the substance and integrity of Turgenev's frequently dismissed novels, Dym and Nov', bringing to an end a well-established path in the development of the novel of the golden age. The essays that focus on the Russian novel of the twentieth century take us along the path of the avant-garde and the experimental. Among the seven authors of this period that are examined, all have broken with the novel of Turgenev and Tolstoy. Cornwell's analysis of the response to the recent publication oÃDoktor Zhivago does not lead us to the modernist camp, but it does expose the difficulties of literary rehabilitation. Of particular interest are the insights into the experimental prose that persists in the Soviet period: from the Bohemian to the phantasmagoric. McVay, for example, introduces the work of Mariengof and Piper examines Tynianov's Smert' Vazir-Mukhtara as an analogy between the Russian Revolution and the Decembrist Revolt. Grayson compares Nabokov to Olesha, not forgetting that likenesses do not conceal their opposites. Kirkwood and McMillin conclude the collection with an essay on Zinov'ev and Sasha Sokolov, two of the most experimental prose writers of the 1970s and 1980s who demonstrate that the Russian novel has come to the same discursive crossroads as in the West.


Benzyl and naphthyl bromides react with dimethylpalladium(II) complexes PdMe2(L2) (L2 = bpy, phen) to form the palladium(IV) complexes PdBrMe2(CH2Ar)(L2) (Ar = p-C6H4X( X = H, Me, Br, NO2),C6F5) and PdBrMe2(CH2Ar)(bpy) (Ar = 1-C10H7, 2-C10H7). The 2,2'-bipyridyl complexes and PdBrMe2-
(CH2C6F5)(phen) reductively eliminate ethane with formation of PdBr(CH2Ar)(bpy) and PdBr(CH2C6F5)(phen), respectively, on warming to ca. 40 C in (CD3)2C0. The other 1,lO-phenanthroline complexes undergo less selective reductive elimination, to form PdBr(CH2Ar)(phen) and PdBrMe(phen) in a ca. 1O:l ratio (Ar = p-C6H4Me) and ca 3:l ratio (Ar = p-C6H4X where X = H, Br, NO2). alpha, alpha'-Dibromo-meta-xylene reacts with PdMe2(bpy) to form PdBrMep(CH2-meta-C6H4CH2Br)(bpy), and this complex undergoes further oxidative addition with MMe2(bpy) (M = Pd, Pt) to form the binuclear complexes (PdBrMe2(bpy))2(mu-meta-(CH2)2C6H4) and (PdBrMe2(bpy))(PtBrMe2(bpy))(mu-meta-(CH2)2(C6hH4). The complex PdBrMe2(CH2-p-C6H4Br)(phen) has a fac-PdC3 configuration with the Pd-Br bond (2.636 (1) A) trans to the benzyl group. The Pd-C(benzy1) bond (2.091 (6) A) is ca. 0.06 A longer than the Pd-CH3 bonds.


In the last years, research interest has focused on the possible role of maternal periodontitis in the achievement of a pregnancy, as well as the possible role of paternal periodontitis in the success of medication administered for the treatment of infertility. The purpose of this publication is the presentation of the limited number of research data that highlight the relationship between maternal/paternal periodontitis and the effectiveness of fertility treatment.
From the results of the small number of studies published to this day, mainly conducted in small population samples, it can be shown, that periodontal disease, especially periodontitis, could, as a chronic bacterial infection, affect the effort to treat fertility problems. Nevertheless, the confirmation of this effect requires further in-depth research. Until then, one could point out that periodontal disease should be treated upon diagnosis, even before addressing the infertility problem.


The impact of Asian dust on the determination of cloud phase is analyzed over dust sources and downwind using cloud phase products from cloud-aerosol lidar and infrared pathfinder satellite observations (CALIPSO), atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS), moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS), and polarization and anisotropy of reflectances for atmospheric sciences coupled with observations from a lidar (PARASOL). The results show that the presence of dust greatly affects determination of cloud phase in both source and downwind regions. CALIPSO products demonstrate better ice cloud discrimination of about 70% and 60% over source and downwind regions, respectively, compared to passive sensors. These results suggest that semi-direct effects of dust, which act to warm clouds and evaporate large cloud particles, may play a role in cloud phase determination. This study suggests that the presence of dust tends to increase misclassification of ice clouds as water or uncertain phase by AIRS, MODIS, and PARASOL.


A critical component in the pattern matching approach to speech recognition is the training algorithm, which aims at producing typical (reference) patterns or models for accurate pattern comparison. In this paper, we discuss the issue of speech recognizer training from a broad perspective with root in the classical Bayes decision theory. We differentiate the method of classifier design by way of distribution estimation and the discriminative method of minimizing classification error rate based on the fact that in many realistic applications, such as speech recognition, the real signal distribution form is rarely known precisely. We argue that traditional methods relying on distribution estimation are suboptimal when the assumed distribution form is not the true one, and that "optimality" in distribution estimation does not automatically translate into "optimality" in classifier design. We compare the two different methods in the context of hidden Markov modeling for speech recognition. We show the superiority of the minimum classification error (MCE) method over the distribution estimation method by providing the results of several key speech recognition experiments. In general, the MCE method provides a significant reduction of recognition error rate.


Introduction: Hormone therapy is widely used to control the menopause symptoms, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and dementia in old women. This study was performed with aim to identify the long-term effects of hormone therapy on menopausal problems. Methods: This study was performed as a review of 25 articles related to hormone therapy after menopause between 1999 and 2010. Searching was performed in databases including ISI web of Science, Up to date, and Scopus using keywords of menopause, hormone therapy, complications of hormone therapy, estrogen and progesterone. Inclusion criteria included the insertion of search terms in the title or keywords of the article. Articles with incomplete data and articles which only their abstracts are available were excluded. Results: In relatively healthy women, continuous combined hormone therapy significantly increases the risk of venous thromboembolism or coronary events, stroke, breast cancer and gallbladder disease. Long-term hormone therapy with estrogen alone significantly increases the risk of stroke and gallbladder disease. In general, the only benefits of hormone therapy are reducing the incidence of fractures and colon cancer with long-term use. Conclusions: Hormone therapy is not an indication for routine management of chronic disease. There is a need for more evidence on the safety of hormone therapy to control the menopausal symptoms. It is believed that short-term use of hormones is relatively safe for healthy younger women.


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and one of the greatest burdens to economies worldwide. Cardiac rehabilitation can effectively address risk factors prevalent to cardiovascular disease, as well as reduce morbidity and mortality. In spite of documented benefits, poor rates of referral, uptake and utilization of cardiac rehabilitation programs continue. The Care Assessment Platform (CAP) is an innovative home care model which provides an alternative delivery approach to rehabilitation for cardiac patients, utilising a mobile phone platform. This paper reports results on use and user acceptance of mobile phone applications utilised in the CAP model and evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. The implementation of mobile applications in the CAP model showed high usage and acceptance by patients (>85%). Mobile applications, such as a health diary and step counter, show promise in supporting self monitoring and management of lifestyle related health risk factors in the management of other chronic diseases.


We study the problem of stochastic combinatorial pure exploration (CPE), where an agent sequentially pulls a set of single arms (a.k.a. a super arm) and tries to find the best super arm. Among a variety of problem settings of the CPE, we focus on the full-bandit setting, where we cannot observe the reward of each single arm, but only the sum of the rewards. Although we can regard the CPE with full-bandit feedback as a special case of pure exploration in linear bandits, an approach based on linear bandits is not computationally feasible since the number of super arms may be exponential. In this paper, we first propose a polynomial-time bandit algorithm for the CPE under general combinatorial constraints and provide an upper bound of the sample complexity. Second, we design an approximation algorithm for the 0-1 quadratic maximization problem, which arises in many bandit algorithms with confidence ellipsoids. Based on our approximation algorithm, we propose novel bandit algorithms for the top-k selection problem, and prove that our algorithms run in polynomial time. Finally, we conduct experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets, and confirm the validity of our theoretical analysis in terms of both the computation time and the sample complexity.


While conceding that time has proven him wrong in doubting public acceptance of the idea of the "science shops," first sponsored by the Free University of Amsterdam to provide access to technical expertise for customers who could not afford more orthodox services, the author remains convinced that the somewhat analogous concept of "fee for service research," which offers experimental medical treatments for those who can afford to pay for them, is wrong. Such research has been justified as a private sector enterprise that provides patients who are unresponsive to standard forms of therapy with scientifically sound experimental options. However, the objections that such work might be kept secret and not contribute to medical knowledge, and that therapy would be available only to the rich, remain unanswered and pose an insurmountable obstacle to the support of this idea.


Ayurveda is one of the old traditional science which deals with healthy and diseased state of human beings through lifestyle, dietary supplements, medication, yoga, purification techniques. In decades of old age can be reduced by the rasayana therapy, which is the line of treatment for vriddha age groups with dominant of vata dosha, agni mandya, dhatu and upadhatu Kshaya. Women are mostly vulnerable at early stage by the vata dosha, dhatu Kshaya especially asthi dhatu, upadhatu like aartava etc. Kshaya of asthi dhatu in menopausal period can be considered as menopausal osteoporosis. Prevention is better than cure as per this proverb, this study was held to prevent the risk of postmenopausal osteoporosis with the drugs lashuna and shatavari treated in comparison method. By its guna of snigdha, vatahara, rasayana etc.


Three kinds of historiography and the process of their development throughout the course of history are described in the paper. The first of them, known as long back as in antiquity, is the judging historiography. According to the Latin maxim historia vitae magistra, its objective is to provide the contemporaries with moral instructions through the assessment of past events. Following this one is the positivistic historiography that arose during the 19th century. It is meant to reconstruct the past as it was, with no evaluation. In this approach the possibility of an absolute objectivity is assumed, presenting sheer facts instead of judgments. The third kind – that is the anthropological historiography – was developed in the 20th century, as the possibility of avoiding judgments in the historiographical discourse, has been questioned. Even presenting irrefutable facts includes some method of information selection and thus is based on an assessment of importance that implies an axiology. The anthropological historiography relinquishes the judgment as well as objectivity and instead it chooses to comprehend past societies in the way of empathetic interpretation of human actions: positivistic method of source criticism needs to be enhanced with deciphering the communication code to which the source belongs.


The enlargement of the European Union in May 2004 by ten new member states bear increasing challenges in creating social cohesion among its citizens and regions. Social cohesion is understood here in a broad sense as a coalescence of European societies in such a way that living conditions and quality of life of its citizens converge. This paper's empirical focus is on the two core life domains that are currently taking center stage in EU policy debates: (1) employment and working conditions and (2) economic resources and social exclusion. The analyses show that the 15 former member states are converging in terms of lliving and work-ing conditions and the situation has improved in all of these countries during the 1990s. With the enlargement the situation becomes more diverse in the enlarged EU. In particular the post-socialist countries have to make great efforts to catch up with their EU counterparts. We can identify three emerging clusters of countries that share empirically very similar living stan-dards. The first, wealthy cluster consists of the old northern European member states. The second, intermediary country group contains the most well-off accession countries and the old Mediterranean member countries with a lower living standard. The third, less developed clus-ter embraces new member states that were former post-communist countries.


This paper presents a theoretical advance by which factored POSGs can be decomposed into local models. We formalize the interface between such local models as the influence agents can exert on one another; and we prove that this interface is sufficient for decoupling them. The resulting influence-based abstraction substantially generalizes previous work on exploiting weakly-coupled agent interaction structures. Therein lie several important contributions. First, our general formulation sheds new light on the theoretical relationships among previous approaches, and promotes future empirical comparisons that could come by extending them beyond the more specific problem contexts for which they were developed. More importantly, the influence-based approaches that we generalize have shown promising improvements in the scalability of planning for more restrictive models. Thus, our theoretical result here serves as the foundation for practical algorithms that we anticipate will bring similar improvements to more general planning contexts, and also into other domains such as approximate planning, decision-making in adversarial domains, and online learning.


Our group began a National Pilot Liver Transplantation Programme in January, 1986, for which this report documents the results of the first 15 months' work. Seventy potential recipients (55 adults, 15 children) were referred for consideration for liver transplantation either directly or by state selection committees that had been established in most Australian states. The most common conditions for referral of adults were chronic active hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cirrhosis; 11 patients had fulminant hepatic failure. In children, the most common condition for referral was biliary atresia. Twenty-nine (41%) patients were considered unsuitable candidates for liver transplantation, 25 patients (21 adults and four children) were accepted for transplantation at a later time, and 16 patients (11 adults and five children) were selected for immediate transplantation. Of these 16 patients, three patients died before a donor could be found. Of the 13 patients to receive transplants (one patient received two transplants), 10 patients (seven of nine adults; three of four children) are alive and well; nine patients have good liver function and one patient has impaired liver function. The additional costs of the Programme to the hospitals were estimated at approximately $2 million a year. It is concluded that for those persons who require liver transplantation in Australia, worthwhile survival after this procedure can be obtained.


ABSTRACT DNA replication involves the inherent risk of genome instability, since replisomes invariably encounter DNA lesions or other structures that stall or collapse replication forks during the S phase. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the multi-BRCT domain protein Brc1, which is related to budding yeast Rtt107 and mammalian PTIP, plays an important role in maintaining genome integrity and cell viability when cells experience replication stress. The C-terminal pair of BRCT domains in Brc1 were previously shown to bind phosphohistone H2A (γH2A) formed by Rad3/ATR checkpoint kinase at DNA lesions; however, the putative scaffold interactions involving the N-terminal BRCT domains 1 to 4 of Brc1 have remained obscure. Here, we show that these domains bind Rhp18/Rad18, which is an E3 ubiquitin protein ligase that has crucial functions in postreplication repair. A missense allele in BRCT domain 4 of Brc1 disrupts binding to Rhp18 and causes sensitivity to replication stress. Brc1 binding to Rhp18 and γH2A are required for the Brc1 overexpression suppression of smc6-74, a mutation that impairs the Smc5/6 structural maintenance of chromosomes complex required for chromosome integrity and repair of collapsed replication forks. From these findings, we propose that Brc1 provides scaffolding functions linking γH2A, Rhp18, and Smc5/6 complex at damaged replication forks.


Manmade chemicals can interfere with endocrine processes and have permeated many ecosystems. Arguably, the most devastating example of endocrine disruption occurred in gastropod molluscs which led to the banning of tributyltin. The invertebrates consist of ∼95% of all known animals and possess endocrine systems that can significantly differ from that of vertebrates. An expert group in the late 1990s highlighted considerable paucity in our knowledge of these endocrine systems and the limited ability to ascertain risks of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to invertebrates. Twenty years later, we surveyed experts in this field on the current state of the science. Respondents agreed that endocrine disruption is still a significant issue and noted that there was key evidence that EDCs were impacting invertebrates groups. Respondents noted a variety of impediments to advancing the science, including inadequate funding, insufficient knowledge to develop appropriate assays, and generally low support for invertebrate studies. Several scientists highlighted that resources were being misdirected with studies that address impacts of vertebrate EDCs or using biomarkers specific to vertebrate endocrine disruption. Sadly, many of the recommendations proposed by respondents matched those made over two decades ago. Accordingly, the field has not advanced as much as one might have expected.


ABSTRACT Most studies on the reduction of disease incidence in soil treated with Trichoderma asperellum have focused on microbial interactions rather than on plant responses. This study presents conclusive evidence for the induction of a systemic response against angular leaf spot of cucumber (Pseudomonas syringae pv. lachrymans) following application of T. asperellum to the root system. To ascertain that T. asperellum was the only microorganism present in the root milieu, plants were grown in an aseptic hydroponic growth system. Disease symptoms were reduced by as much as 80%, corresponding to a reduction of 2 orders of magnitude in bacterial cell densities in leaves of plants pretreated with T. asperellum. As revealed by electron microscopy, bacterial cell proliferation in these plants was halted. The protection afforded by the biocontrol agent was associated with the accumulation of mRNA of two defense genes: the phenylpropanoid pathway gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and the lipoxygenase pathway gene encoding hydroxyperoxide lyase (HPL). This was further supported by the accumulation of secondary metabolites of a phenolic nature that showed an increase of up to sixfold in inhibition capacity of bacterial growth in vitro. The bulk of the antimicrobial activity was found in the acid-hydrolyzed extract containing the phenolics in their aglycone form. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of phenolic compounds showed a marked change in their profile in the challenged, preelicited plants relative to that in challenged controls. The results suggest that similar to beneficial rhizobacteria, T. asperellum may activate separate metabolic pathways in cucumber that are involved in plant signaling and biosynthesis, eventually leading to the systemic accumulation of phytoalexins.


The body of drawings and sketches created by the Scottish painter David Roberts (1796-1864) during his expedition to the Holy Lands in 1838-9 marked the high point of his professional career. This paper will look at the period after his return to Britain in July 1839, particularly to 1842. It will suggest that although Roberts was no doubt influenced by his Scottish Presbyterian upbringing, religious faith was not as central to his trip as has often been supposed. It was instead through the business acumen of his publisher F.G. Moon that this body of work came to be regarded not merely as an aesthetic achievement but as a cause célèbre. A skilful and coordinated marketing campaign elevated these drawings to the status of a pilgrimage; a contemplative journey through the sites of biblical antiquity. Through detailed analysis of contemporaneous accounts it will show how one of the costliest publications of the era was disseminated, passing from prestigious galleries and the libraries of a wealthy elite through a continuum of public art exhibitions and popular media including panoramas, dioramas and the newly-emerging field of dissolving views. This will provide a rare case study into the interconnectedness of London's exhibition culture in the 1840s.


Our previous studies have shown that genistein can enhance the insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 receptor signalling pathway via an oestrogen receptor (ER) in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. The present study aims to investigate how genistein regulates IGF-1 receptor expression in human MCF-7 cells. Genistein at 1 μm stimulated the growth of MCF-7 cells and this effect could be completely blocked by the IGF-1 receptor antagonist JB-1, suggesting that IGF-1 receptor is essential for mediating the proliferative effects of genistein in MCF-7 cells. Genistein increased IGF-1 receptor promoter activity. This effect could be completely abolished by co-treatment of MCF-7 cells with ICI 182,780 (10− 6 m). Genistein increased IGF-1 receptor gene expression and this effect could be completely blocked by the IGF-1 receptor antagonist JB-1. Co-treatment of MCF-7 cells with cycloheximide (5 μg/ml) completely blocked the induction of IGF-1 receptor protein and mRNA expression by genistein. The results indicated that the induction of IGF-1 receptor promoter activity by genistein required the action of ER while the stimulatory actions of genistein on IGF-1 receptor expression required the activity of the IGF-1 receptor and de novo protein synthesis. These data provide evidence to support the hypothesis that the inductive effects of genistein on IGF-1 receptor expression require the cross-talk between IGF-1 receptor and the ER-dependent pathways.


This article details a newspaper-based composition exercise focused on examining coverage of a trio of local political sex scandals. The exercise encouraged first-year composition students to analyze how the rhetorical strategies that the New York Post used in covering these three similar scandals—which involved former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, then-current New York governor David Paterson, and former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey—differed markedly depending on the Post's then-relationship to each political figure. In the exercise, students chose several articles at random from a selection of newspaper clippings about these scandals and wrote any interesting headlines, epithets, or descriptions of cartoons they had found on the section of the board dedicated to each governor; students then used the evidence gathered in each section to generate and support thesis statements about the Post's differing coverage of the three governors' scandals. This examination through close reading of the Post's rhetorical strategies in covering parallel sex scandals inspired thoughtful discourse among my composition students, including an increased appreciation of and interest in the news media, an improved understanding of the strategies that scholars use when they gather and interpret textual evidence, and intelligent discussions about the implications of rhetorical strategies utilizing Otherness.


This paper presents a novel optimization-based path planner that is capable of planning multiple contingency paths to directly account for uncertainties in the future trajectories of dynamic obstacles. This planner addresses the particular problem of probabilistic collision avoidance for autonomous road vehicles that are required to safely interact, in close proximity, with other vehicles with unknown intentions. The presented path planner utilizes an efficient spline-based trajectory representation and fast but accurate collision probability bounds to simultaneously optimize multiple continuous contingency paths in real time. These collision probability bounds are efficient enough for real-time evaluation, yet accurate enough to allow for practical close-proximity driving behaviors such as passing an obstacle vehicle in an adjacent lane. An obstacle trajectory clustering algorithm is also presented to enable the path planner to scale to multiple-obstacle scenarios. Simulation results show that the contingency planner allows for a more aggressive driving style than planning a single path without compromising the overall safety of the robot.


Community reintegration among Latino stroke survivors: An ecological framework Alejandra N. Aguirre, MPH Purpose: In the United States, stroke is the leading cause of disability. The majority of survivors sustain permanent physical and/or cognitive impairments. Stroke survivors with impairments experience depression, loss of functional independence, and poor quality of life (QOL). Stroke disparities exist among different racial and ethnic groups of the US population. Latinos experience a first time stroke at a younger age compared to non-Latino Whites. As a result, Latinos live with impairments for a greater number of years. The vast majority of stroke survivors return to live in their communities. Reintegrating into home and social activities is key to survivors' perceived QOL. This dissertation project sought to understand from an ecological framework the post-stroke community reintegration experiences of Latino older adults in an urban New York City neighborhood. The study also sought to examine the viewpoints of health and social service providers, whose opinions, actions, and programs can support stroke survivors' reintegration into community. Methods: Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 Latino stroke survivors 50 years of age and older who had experienced a disabling stroke within 36 months. In addition, 20 health and social service providers based in a large medical center, and multiple senior centers in the northern Manhattan section of New York City were interviewed. The stroke survivor data was analyzed using a phenomenological approach. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data from the health and social service informants. Data analysis identified physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors pertinent to stroke survivors' community integration experiences. These identified factors were categorized into macro-, exo-, meso-, and micro-levels to capture the psycho, social, and environmental ecology in which community reintegration takes place for Latino stroke survivors. Results: Qualitative accounts of survivors revealed several microsystem factors, including a struggle to maintain a positive self-concept and to engage in activities associated with valued identities and roles, while simultaneously suffering chronic pain, fatigue, and functional limitations. Changes in their affect lead survivors to socially isolate themselves. In addition, they relied more on women than men for social support, a salient mesosystem factor. Survivors encountered significant exosystem level barriers in the environment that limited their ability to travel and access activities. For some, these barriers inadvertently left survivors homebound. Survivors also encountered a societal culture, a macrosystem factor, which stigmatized them due to their impairments. Interviews with health and social service professionals revealed various factors that influenced community reintegration of people with stroke. At the macrosystem level, funding for programs and healthcare financing dictated services and eligibility criteria. In the exosystem, a segmented medical model of care postponed the conversation on community integration. Professional practices, organizational level constraints and culture were mesosystem level factors that influenced community reintegration. The confluence of these factors created an ecological system that influenced stroke survivors' opportunities to socially engage in their home and community life. Conclusion: An ecological approach provides a useful framework to understand the complexity and potential interplay of factors that contribute to community integration post-stroke for Latino older adults in an urban area.


Employing a precise and sensitive double-isotope derivative technic, plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine were measured in twenty-three normal subjects and fourteen diabetics during various metabolic conditions. Patients with poorly controlled diabetes showed a rise in norepinephrine, which correlated with the degree of metabolic derangement, during resting conditions. High epinephrine values were seen only in patients with moderate to severe ketoacidosis. During exercise, diabetic patients with ketosis demonstrated large increments in plasma catecholamines as compared to normals. During insulin treatment, when good control had been achieved, plasma catecholaniine levels were similar to those in normal subjects. During prolonged fasting, plasma norepinephrine rose from 0.18 to 0.40 ng. per milliliter in four normal nonobese subjects. No change was observed in plasma epinephrine. During insulin hypoglycemia, high plasma epinephrine levels were seen only in subjects in whom the blood glucose concentration declined to values below 20 mg. per 100 ml. Plasma norepinephrine rose as blood glucose concentrations decreased even in diabetics in whom values had not reached hypoglycemic levels. No correlation was observed between plasma epinephrine and increase in pulse rate during hypoglycemia.


Using precoated whey protein concentrate gel films as a model milk protein fouling material, the removal kinetics from the inner surface of a stainless steel tube were determined continuously and noninvasively by a rapid UV spectrophotometric method. The influences of temperature, flow velocity, and the amount of fouling on the cleaning behavior were evaluated. For the first time, a cleaning model combining polymer dissolution and boundary layer mass transfer has been used to describe the cleaning process. It is suggested that the disengagement of protein molecules from the swollen gel–solution interface and the transfer of these disengaged protein molecules into the bulk cleaning solution are the rate-limiting steps in the range of conditions examined. The experimental results agree with the predictions of the cleaning model. The application of the current cleaning model to milk protein and whey protein fouling systems reported by various researchers is also discussed. 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50:1961–1973, 2004


With the increasing volume of images users share through social sites, maintaining privacy has become a major problem, as demonstrated by a recent wave of publicized incidents where users inadvertently shared personal information. Social Network is an emerging E-service for content sharing sites (CSS). It is emerging service which provides a reliable communication, through this communication a new attack ground for data hackers; they can easily misuses the data through these media. Some users over CSS affects users privacy on their personal contents, where some users keep on sending unwanted comments and messages by taking advantage of the users' inherent trust in their relationship network. To discussing this we focus on the issue to protect user Images on social site. Images are travelling on social site so we decide policy how image will be travel on social network. We consider to decide how to decide policy where own image become protective. This proposes a privacy policy prediction and access restrictions along with blocking scheme for social sites using data mining techniques. Toward addressing this need, we propose a novel system to help users compose privacy settings for their images. To deal with this dilemma, our mechanism attempts to utilize users' private photos to design a personalized FR system specifically trained to differentiate possible photo co-owners without leaking their privacy.


If not recognized and treated early enough, the rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) embodies a devastating medical emergency. It is associated with high morbidity and mortality which can reach up to 100 % in untreated individuals. Patients are usually hypotensive, shocked, complain of pain in the abdomen or back, and can have a palpable pulsatile abdominal mass. rAAA can be misdiagnosed due to patient's comorbidities, site of rupture, or unusual presentations. Unusual clinical presentations include transient lower limb paralysis, right hypochondrial pain, groin pain, testicular pain, iliofemoral venous thrombosis, and others. When ruptured abdominal aneurysm is suspected an emergency ultrasound should be performed. In this article we are going to present a patient with unusual presentation of ruptured abdominal aneurysm and the importance of point-of-care ultrasound in similar cases.


Oceanic intraplate earthquakes are known to occur either on active ridge-transform structures or by reactivation of their inactive counterparts, generally referred to as fossil ridges or transforms. The Indian Ocean, one of the most active oceanic intraplate regions, has generated large earthquakes associated with both these types of structures. The moderate earthquake that occurred on 21 May 2014 (M-w 6.1) in the northern Bay of Bengal followed an alternate mechanism, as it showed no clear association either with active or extinct ridge-transform structures. Its focal depth of >50 km is uncommon but not improbable, given the similar to 90 Ma age of the ocean floor with 12-km-thick overlying sediments. No tectonic features have been mapped in the near vicinity of its epicenter, the closest being the 85 degrees E ridge, located similar to 100 km to its west, hitherto regarded as seismically inactive. The few earthquakes that have occurred here in the past are clustered around its southern or northern limits, and a few are located midway, at around 10 degrees N. The 2014 earthquake, sourced close to the northern cluster, seems to be associated with a northwest-southeast-oriented fracture, located on the eastern flanks of the 85 degrees E ridge. If this causal association is possible, we believe that reactivation of fossil hotspot trails could be considered as another mechanism for oceanic intraplate seismicity.


Young high-growth firms, or gazelles, have been investigated predominantly with respect to their outstanding short-term performance. The paper at hand adopts a different approach by analyzing the long-term performance of such firms to shed light on the sustainability of these job-creating machines. Using the Danish Integrated Database for Labour Market Research, we find that former gazelles are not able to sustain their headstart in terms of performance in the long run. We demonstrate that gazelles are often outperformed by initially slower growing competitors, as high initial growth negatively affects a firm's long-term survival. We also find that high-growth start-ups ultimately achieve lower employment growth and higher employee turnover. We explain these counterintuitive findings by arguing that an initial period of rapid employment growth impedes the emergence of a stable and efficient routine structure within the newly founded venture if expansion is undertaken too hastily. In turn, this impediment decreases these firms' long-term performance, as the initial set of structures and routines or the lack thereof has a long-lasting effect on the organization's development. Co-authored with Christina Guenther, Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena.


Self-harm among adolescents, mostly girls, has increased in the last years. Self-harm is associated with mental illness and the risk of suicide. This qualitative study aims to explore the lived experience of self-harm as it is related to everyday life and challenges among adolescents. Nineteen girls (13–18 years of age) in a clinical population (strategic selection) participated in personal interviews analyzed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to capture how they made meaning of self-harm and essential features of experiencing self-harm. Adult persons with the first-hand experience of self-harm were included in the research analysis. Data-analysis resulted in three superordinate themes which all speak about ways to handle inner pain and vulnerability: 1. "I deserve pain," 2. "I don't want to feel anything," and 3. "I'm harmed, and no one cares." Each superordinate theme included four main themes characterizing essential features of difficult experiences during self-harm, the purpose of the action, self-descriptions, and the role of others during self-harm. The three superordinate themes are discussed as emerging self-representations – "the punished self," "the unknown self," and "the harmed self" – during the transitional age of adolescence. This article argues that subjective personal data on self-harm related to adolescents' everyday lives may indicate diversity in the capacity to integrate difficult needs, feelings, and traumatic experiences as part of the self. This knowledge may bring a nuanced understanding of self-harm in adolescence, enhance self-understanding and treatment motivation, and inform clinical adjustment.


Background Emergence agitation (EA) can occur following recovery from general anesthesia. The patient may exhibit aggressive behavior, disorientation, agitation, and restlessness. If untreated, this complication may result in significant morbidity. EA has been poorly investigated in patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Aim The aim was to assess the efficacy of perioperative dexmedetomidine infusion on EA and quality of recovery after elective laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in morbidly obese adult patients. Materials and methods A total of 60 patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy were randomized into two groups (30 patients each). The dexmedetomidine group (group D, N=30) received dexmedetomidine infusion, whereas the control group (group C, N=30) received normal saline in the same volume and rate as placebo. Propofol, fentanyl, and atracurium were used for induction of anesthesia, and isoflurane was used for maintenance of anesthesia. Postoperative hemodynamic variables, postoperative pain, the need for 'rescue' analgesics and antiemetics, and the incidence of agitation were recorded up to 2 h postoperatively. Pain was evaluated using the visual analog scale score in the postanesthesia care unit on arrival, at 5 min, and then every 15 min for 120 min. EA was evaluated at the same time intervals by Richmond agitation-sedation scale (RASS). Pethidine 50 mg intravenously was given for pain (if pain score >4) or severe agitation (RASS score >+1). Results No patients in group D experienced postoperative EA during the second hour postoperatively (RASS ˂1). On the contrary, RASS scores of patients in group C were 2 (2–3) on arrival to postanesthesia care unit and greater than +1 during the remaining time up to 2 h postoperatively, indicating postoperative EA. In group C, 25 (92.5%) patients required rescue analgesia compared with only five (18.5%) patients in group D. Hemodynamic parameters were stable in group D. Conclusion Dexmedetomidine infusion during laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for morbidly obese patients is beneficial and effective in preventing postoperative pain and postoperative EA.


A hydrogeochemical study of an industrial site where sulfuric acid and copper sulfate (bouillie bordelaise) are manufactured showed that the phreatic aquifer is contaminated by copper, sulfate, chromium, arsenic and has an acid pH. Field observations and laboratory experiments, both necessary if we are to understand the processes controlling tranfers at the solid-liquid interface, were used to investigate the behaviour of chromium. In the field, monitoring the mixing of polluted and unpolluted water with a conservative tracer, we shows that chromium disappears from solution. In the laboratory, the potential for retention of dissolved chromium by an unpolluted aquifer solid was studied as a function of pH, with and without a complexing agent. Adding high concentrations of a complexing agent, EDTA, mobilizes the previously fixed chromium at basic pH (90%). Addition of Cr(III) with EDTA gathered, sorption is greatest (50%) for neutral and basic pH values. Unpolluted aquifer solids have a high sorption capacity for Cr(III). However, adding a complexing agent significantly mobilizes the chromium. Sorption of the complexed chromium is also considerably decreased. There should, therefore, be little risk of immediate chromium pollution in the absence of dissolved complexing agents, as long as the pH of the system is neutral.


This paper examines smallholder cashew farmers' socioeconomic characteristics and the profitability of cashew production in Wenchi Municipality of Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. The study used primary data which was collected from 140 randomly selected cashew farmers. Data for the 2009-2010 was collected through administration of a questionnaire. The methods of analysis used were discounted measures of project worth (net present value, benefit-cost ratio and internal rate of return). The results show that a one-hectare cashew plantation has a net present value of GH¢260.82 ($343.16) when discounted at 25%, a benefit-cost ratio of 1.13 and an internal rate of return of 43.85%. These indices show that cashew production is profitable. Government, non-governmental organizations and investors are therefore encouraged to consider cashew production in the Wenchi Municipality as an option to improve farm income and reduce poverty. Future studies on analysis of profitability of cashew apple processing are necessary because it can increase earning and add value to cashew production. Work on the analysis of the profitability of processing cashew apple is also necessary because existing research does not cover this important area and it was also not within the scope of the current study


Hepatitis is familiarly termed as inflammation to the liver. It can be incurred by both infectious and non-infectious ways. Infectious type may be caused by certain parasitic organisms, fungus, bacteria and virus. Non Infectious ways include metabolic diseases, autoimmune disorders, alcohols and certain drugs. Several types of hepatitis like Hepatitis type A (HAV), Hepatitis type B (HBV), Hepatitis type C (HCV), Hepatitis type D (HDV), Hepatitis type E (HEV). Hepatitis A and E are acute infection which can be cured in a lesser time whereas the other types are chronic and take long term medication for recovery. The present study describes in detail about the transmission mode, treatment options and preventive measures for all the types of hepatitis infections. A brief mention of hepatitis X and Hepatitis G was also produced.


Asymmetric epoxidation is one of the most important transformations in organic synthesis. Although tremendous progress was achieved in this field in the 1980s and 1990s, it is still desirable from both economical and ecological views to develop environmentally friendly catalytic epoxidation with a broad substrate scope. Hydrogen peroxide is a safe and cheap oxidant, which is easy to handle and generates water as the sole byproduct. Therefore, asymmetric epoxidation of olefins using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant has been a very active research field and has been investigated by many research groups in recent years. In this review, the exciting very recent developments of this rapidly growing area are surveyed and organized according to the catalyst systems.