Using direct numerical simulations (DNS), we verify that in the kinematic regime, a turbulent helical dynamo grows in such a way that the magnetic energy spectrum remains to high-precision shape-invariant, i.e. at each wavenumber k the spectrum grows with the same growth rate. Signatures of large-scale dynamo action can be identified through the excess of magnetic energy at small k, of one of the two oppositely polarized constituents. Also a suitably defined planar average of the magnetic field can be chosen such that its rms value isolates the strength of the mean field. However, these different means of analysis suggest that the strength of the large-scale field diminishes with increasing magnetic Reynolds number Re-M like Re(M)(-1/2)for intermediate values and like Re-M(-3/4) for larger ones. Both an analysis from the Kazantsev model including helicity and the DNS show that this arises due to the magnetic energy spectrum still peaking at resistive scales, even when helicity is present. As expected, the amplitude of the large-scale field increases with increasing fractional helicity, enabling us to determine the onset of large-scale dynamo action and distinguishing it from that of the small-scale dynamo. Our DNS show that, contrary to earlier results for smaller scale separation (only 1.5 instead of now 4), the small-scale dynamo can still be excited at magnetic Prandtl numbers of 0.1 and only moderate values of the magnetic Reynolds numbers (similar to 160).


N-Cyclohexyl ammonium resorcinarene halides, stabilized by an intricate array of hydrogen bonds in a cavitand-like assembly, form multivalent halogen-bonded deep-cavity cavitands with perfluoroiodobenzenes. As observed from the macromolar to infinite concentration range through crystal growth and single crystal X-ray analyses, four 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzenes form moderate halogen bonds with the bromides of the N-cyclohexyl ammonium resorcinarene bromides leading to a deep-cavity cavitand-like structure. In this assembly, the N-cyclohexyl ammonium resorcinarene bromide also acts as a guest and sits in the upper cavity of the assembly interacting with the 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene through strong π⋯π interactions. Solvent molecules act as guests and are located deep in the cavity of the resorcinarene skeleton. In the millimolar range, 1H and 19F NMR spectroscopic analyses confirm halogen bonding in solution. Fast exchange binding of electron rich fluorophores (naphthalene, anthracene and pyrene) in the upper layer of these assemblies was also observed in the millimolar range while in the micromolar range, using fluorescence analysis, no binding of the fluorophores was observed.


Prior specification is an essential component of parameter estimation and model comparison in Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). Oaks et al. present a simulation‐based power analysis of msBayes and conclude that msBayes has low power to detect genuinely random divergence times across taxa, and suggest the cause is Lindley's paradox. Although the predictions are similar, we show that their findings are more fundamentally explained by insufficient prior sampling that arises with poorly chosen wide priors that critically undersample nonsimultaneous divergence histories of high likelihood. In a reanalysis of their data on Philippine Island vertebrates, we show how this problem can be circumvented by expanding upon a previously developed procedure that accommodates uncertainty in prior selection using Bayesian model averaging. When these procedures are used, msBayes supports recent divergences without support for synchronous divergence in the Oaks et al. data and we further present a simulation analysis that demonstrates that msBayes can have high power to detect asynchronous divergence under narrower priors for divergence time. Our findings highlight the need for exploration of plausible parameter space and prior sampling efficiency for ABC samplers in high dimensions. We discus potential improvements to msBayes and conclude that when used appropriately with model averaging, msBayes remains an effective and powerful tool.


This paper develops a software service for dynamic performance optimization and control in performance-sensitive systems. The next generation of performance-sensitive systems is expected to be more distributed and dynamic. They will have multiple "knobs" that affect performance and resource allocation. However, relying on the conglomeration of independent knob controls can become increasingly suboptimal. The problem lies in performance composability or lack thereof; a challenge that arises because individual optimizations in performance-sensitive systems generally do not compose well when combined. Performance adaptation in such systems needs to be carefully designed and implemented by holistically considering performance composability in order to achieve desired system performance. A flexible supporting software layer is therefore needed to easily apply different holistic performance management techniques. In this paper, we develop a software service, called OptiTuner, that monitors the current performance and the resource availability in performance-sensitive systems and allows easy implementation of different performance management schemes based on theoretical concepts of constrained optimization and feedback control. In order to show the efficacy of OptiTuner, we apply it to implement three holistic energy minimization techniques in a real-time web server farm comprising 18 machines. Using an industry standard e-Business benchmark, TPC-W, we demonstrate that the three approaches save up to 40 percent of total energy cost compared to the baseline approaches that do not holistically optimize the cost.


ABSTRACT In addition to the primary cell surface receptor CD4, CCR5 or another coreceptor is necessary for infections by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), yet the mechanisms of coreceptor function and their stoichiometries in the infection pathway remain substantially unknown. To address these issues, we studied the effects of CCR5 concentrations on HIV-1 infections using wild-type CCR5 and two attenuated mutant CCR5s, one with the mutation Y14N at a critical tyrosine sulfation site in the amino terminus and one with the mutation G163R in extracellular loop 2. The Y14N mutation converted a YYT sequence at positions 14 to 16 to an NYT consensus site for N-linked glycosylation, and the mutant protein was shown to be glycosylated at that position. The relationships between HIV-1 infectivity values and CCR5 concentrations took the form of sigmoidal (S-shaped) curves, which were dramatically altered in different ways by these mutations. Both mutations shifted the curves by factors of approximately 30- to 150-fold along the CCR5 concentration axis, consistent with evidence that they reduce affinities of virus for the coreceptor. In addition, the Y14N mutation specifically reduced the maximum efficiencies of infection that could be obtained at saturating CCR5 concentrations. The sigmoidal curves for all R5 HIV-1 isolates were quantitatively consistent with a simple mathematical model, implying that CCR5s reversibly associate with cell surface HIV-1 in a concentration-dependent manner, that approximately four to six CCR5s assemble around the virus to form a complex needed for infection, and that both mutations inhibit assembly of this complex but only the Y14N mutation also significantly reduces its ability to successfully mediate HIV-1 infections. Although several alternative models would be compatible with our data, a common feature of these alternatives is the cooperation of multiple CCR5s in the HIV-1 infection pathway. This cooperativity will need to be considered in future studies to address in detail the mechanism of CCR5-mediated HIV-1 membrane fusion.


Grid computing facilitates resource sharing typically to support distributed virtual organizations (VO). The multi-institutional nature of a grid environment introduces challenging security issues, especially with regard to authentication and authorization. This article presents a state-of-the-art review of major grid authentication and authorization technologies. In particular we focus upon the Internet2 Shibboleth technologies and their use to support federated authentication and authorization to support interinstitutional sharing of remote grid resources that are subject to access control. We outline the architecture, features, advantages, limitations, projects, and applications of Shibboleth in a grid environment. The evidence suggests that Shibboleth meets many of the demands of the research community in accessing and using grid resources.


Oxidized glutathione inhibits acetate kinase (EC 126.96.36.199) of E. coli. The rate of inactivation depends on ATP concentration. The rate constant for the glutathione-induced inhibition is 0.17 min-1, Ki is 4.2 mM (pH 7.2, 25 degrees C). The inhibition of acetate kinase by glutathione is reversible, the equilibrium constant being equal to 4.4 or 0.09 at saturating concentrations of ATP (pH 8.0, 25 degrees C). The physiological level of reduced and oxidized glutathione can modulate the acetate kinase activity in vivo.


Hotel reviews influence travellers' booking decisions. Research on this topic is focused on the scores or comments given through the reviews. However, no studies have looked into the one-word descriptions associated with the overall scores received by hotels. This study examines
 this practice by conducting secondary research and identifying the one-word descriptions assigned to the different scores. The results suggest that each website providing average scores and one-word descriptions to summarize the scores uses a different policy to associate one-word descriptions
 to scores, suggesting lack of consistency. Furthermore, misleading practices have been identified, such as the use of the word 'average' to describe establishments with ratings lower than the midpoint of the scale. The findings have important implications both for the industry
 and for academia, as they highlight the need for transparent strategies and policies.


Infertility is a global healthcare problem, and despite long years of assisted reproductive activities, a significant number of cases remain idiopathic. Our currently restricted understanding of basic mechanisms driving human gametogenesis severely limits the improvement of clinical care for infertile patients. Using exome sequencing, we identified a nonsense mutation leading to a premature stop in the TEX15 locus (c.2130T>G, p.Y710*) in a consanguineous Turkish family comprising eight siblings in which three brothers were identified as infertile. TEX15 displays testis-specific expression, maps to chromosome 8, contains four exons and encodes a 2789-amino acid protein with uncertain function. The mutation, which should lead to early translational termination at the first exon of TEX15, co-segregated with the infertility phenotype, and our data strongly suggest that it is the cause of spermatogenic defects in the family. All three affected brothers presented a phenotype reminiscent of the one observed in KO mice. Indeed, previously reported results demonstrated that disruption of the orthologous gene in mice caused a drastic reduction in testis size and meiotic arrest in the first wave of spermatogenesis in males while female KO mice were fertile. The data from our study of one Turkish family suggested that the identified mutation correlates with a decrease in sperm count over time. A diagnostic test identifying the mutation in man could provide an indication of spermatogenic failure and prompt patients to undertake sperm cryopreservation at an early age.


Buildings are large consumers of energy in all countries. According to the statistic, more than 40% of final energy is used in buildings. A reduction of the energy consumed in buildings is, for that reason, one of the priorities of the world. To achieve this goal it is necessary to reduce the heat loss by the selection of the building thermal insulation materials. Phase change materials could absorb or release a large amount of heat before melting or solidifying. And this unique property could help PCM in building applications to maintain the thermal comfort without using mechanical heating and air-conditioning. The paper is focus on a review of different types of phase change material for building applications. And it provides more information in this aspect.


Two planar winding structures have been built to compare the characteristics of traditional and alternating winding methods. The alternating winding method reduces the potential difference of adjacent conductors, thus reducing substantially the self-capacitance in the winding. Measurements confirmed that the two inductors have similar equivalent inductance and low-frequency series resistance. However, the alternating winding method has a higher self resonant frequency. It is also evident that the reduction of self-capacitance in the winding not only increased the operating bandwidth of the device but also reduced the power losses of the inductor at high frequency.


The preignition characteristics of a number of fuels have been studied under conditions similar to those encountered in an engine. These conditions were simulated by suddenly compressing a fuel-air mixture in contact with an electrically heated hot spot in the cylinder head of the NACA combustion apparatus. Schlieren photographs and indicator cards were taken of the burning, and the hot-spot temperatures necessary to cause ignition under various conditions were determined.


Performance Appraisal System (PAS) which can be defined as the process of determining and communicating to an employee how he or she is performing on the job. In Kenya, PAS within the Civil Service was introduced around 2006 and has over the years become a popular staff management system driven via the popular government performance contracting initiative. The system is being embraced in the Kenyan public service for tracking employees' performance in service delivery. PAS has signaled possibility for improved performance in civil service productivity and employee motivation. Despite the impressive performance and staff motivation signals elicited by PAS in civil service, no detailed description of the situation has been done. This study then sought to assess the effect of PAS in job performance and employee motivation in the Ministry of State for Public Service. The study adopted stratified random sampling. Staff were randomly sampled from also randomly selected departments who were interviewed using pre-tested questionnaires and through focused group discussions. Data was analyzed using appropriate statistical applications in SPSS. The researcher concluded that employees at the MSPS are usually involved in the setting of performance targets. They are also substantially appraised against the targets set at the beginning of the appraisal period. The study revealed that employees were given feedback to enable them improve their performance. This shows that PA has a positive impact on the employee's performance which leads to motivation. The Ministry was for example number seven in the recent performance rankings released by the President and Prime minister. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations among others are made for consideration by the MSPS so as to enhance the employee's work performance. PA is a good management tool but is should be subjected to continuous reviews in line with the changing trends. This is because HRM is dynamic and for PA to be Relevant, it has to keep up the pace. All stakeholders should be consulted during the PA process. This should include use of 360degree feedback.


This paper proposes a video-based framework for face recognition to identify which faces appear in a video sequence. Our basic idea is like a tracking task to track a selection of person candidates over time according to the observing visual features of face images in video frames. Hence, we employ the state-space model to formulate video-based face recognition by dividing this problem into two parts: the likelihood and the transition measures. The likelihood measure is to recognize whose face is currently being observed in video frames, for which two-dimensional linear discriminant analysis is employed. The transition measure estimates the probability of changing from an incorrect recognition at the previous stage to the correct person at the current stage. Moreover, extra nodes associated with head nodes are incorporated into our proposed state-space model. The experimental results are also provided to demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of our proposed approach. Keywords—2DLDA, face recognition, state-space model, likelihood measure, transition measure.


This work demonstrates the detection method for a high throughput droplet based agglutination assay system. Using simple hydrodynamic forces to mix and aggregate functionalized microbeads we avoid the need to use magnetic assistance or mixing structures. The concentration of our target molecules was estimated by agglutination strength, obtained through optical image analysis. Agglutination in droplets was performed with flow rates of 150 μl/min and occurred in under a minute, with potential to perform high-throughput measurements. The lowest target concentration detected in droplet microfluidics was 0.17 nM, which is three orders of magnitude more sensitive than a conventional card based agglutination assay.


Zero Net Energy Buildings are increasingly being designed and constructed in response to the demand for sustainable buildings. But, we must now go beyond merely sustaining our environment for future generations we must provide regenerative designs that restore our natural environment. This paper will document the design of a regenerative high-rise tower in Shreveport, Louisiana, which will serve as a facility to train individuals in a non-profit organization's renewal strategies and demonstrate by example the pedagogy of regenerative design. The 16-story structure – built in the 1950s and named the Petroleum Tower, reflecting the commodity that then ruled the local economy – was vacant and asbestos-laden when given to the non-profit Community Renewal International (CRI) in 2001. In 2006, funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, workers removed the asbestos. Through a follow up grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the design process of a new CRI headquarters building, the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture completed architectural design studies for the building renewal. The principles of this new design include: day lighting, envelope configuration, building integrated photovoltaic systems, green surfaces, ventilation strategies, advanced mechanical cooling systems, regenerative elevator systems, energy management systems, water harvesting, grey water systems, trigeneration systems and a combined heating, hot water and power biodiesel plant.


The article is aim to consciously bring natural elements and natural processes into landscape design, which have such sound effect of continuously changing features from a traditional garden. There are two main methods of design with natural thinking: one is expansion of the natural elements, including direct and indirect demonstration of the natural elements and abstract refinement of the natural forms; the other is expression of natural dynamic forces, such as site conditions, the forces of nature and ecological significance. The landscape reacting with natural affinity and dynamic helps people to re-perception, experience and care of natural realism and vitality.


The case for policy intervention in social or economic problems should be based on incidence, severity and persistence of the problem. In this article, we show the usefulness of panel data in this regard by comparing preferred working hours to actual working hours, and examining the degree of mismatch between the two. Some individuals report working more hours than they would prefer, whereas others prefer working less. We examine the prevalence, severity and persistence of both types of problems. The case for policy intervention is weak as most working hour mismatch problems are resolved in a short time period.


With today's rapid development of science and technology, mechanical design calls for more advanced methodologies. The Creative Mechanical Design Methodology established by Yan [1] is one of the most effective ways to form new mechanisms according to existing ones based on certain requirements. However, few research of this method applied on transmission mechanism exists, especially gear trains with large rated power and transmission ratio. This paper introduces how the Creative Mechanical Design Methodology is applied in the design of the accelerator (gear box) with an output power of 1.25 MW in wind power generator. In the process, feasible schemes are obtained following the steps of Creative Mechanical Designing, and an evaluation based on practical manufacturing, assembly and application situations is conducted to obtain the best mechanism among all these schemes.


Thyrotrophin (TSH)-secreting pituitary adenomas, although rare, should be recognised as a possible cause of normal or elevated serum TSH in the presence of elevated serum free thyroid hormone levels. Clinical hyperthyroidism may be mild or absent. Early recognition provides the best chance for surgical cure. We report a patient with a TSH-secreting pituitary tumour with cavernous sinus invasion. This case illustrates that multiple modalities of treatment are often necessary and complementary in achieving control of tumour growth and hormonal hypersecretion when these tumours are diagnosed late.


This article explores how variation in political embeddedness of social movement organi-zations (SMOs) influences the management of emotions. By variation in the political embed-dedness of SMOs, we mean variation in the strength and the number of ties between SMOs and the political establishment. By management of emotions, we mean the efforts of SMO leaders to evoke particular emotions among SMO members. Using data from protest surveys conducted at demonstrations regarding climate change in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2009, we find that protestors who are members of more politically embedded SMOs are generally less angry than protestors who are members of less politically embedded SMOs. The finding that this pattern is especially strong among SMO members who heard about the dem-onstration through an SMO confirms the assumed role of SMO leaders in the management of emotions.


Rational planning models often include knowledges mainly derived from top-down, state-sponsored institutions. Such a model has been heavily critiqued in planning literature for its failure to address community level concerns and include divergent knowledges. The failure of rational, state-centered planning is nowhere more pervasive than in agriculture in the U.S. Corn Belt, yet industrial agricultural systems continue to proliferate, even amidst growing concerns over soil health and water quality. Conservation agriculture efforts to promote conservation practices, such as cover cropping, continue to come primarily from the state, but recently, state-backed policy, farmers, and agricultural groups are championing a more place-based approach to agricultural planning. The recent shift, however, still has not inspired widespread adoption of cover cropping, indicating a need for a middle ground, including multiple, place-specific strategies and knowledges. This research utilizes a case study approach to explore the degree to which types of knowledge networks (from scientific to local to integrated) influence cover cropping adoption among farmers. I employ an actor network theory method to identify the impact of histories, landscapes, institutional actors, and conservation policy that make up knowledge networks in the Vermilion Headwaters in north central Illinois. The theory is more beneficial compared to other approaches in that it better elucidates divergent knowledges in the watershed and allows me to show how farmers and agricultural professionals use such knowledges when adopting conservation practices. The research finds that farmers operating within mixed knowledge networks are more likely to adopt cover cropping than farmers only involved in scientific or local knowledge networks. However, not all farmers adhere to this pattern, therefore, I further draw on in-depth interviews to conclude that farmers adopting cover cropping are likely to experience three key moments: inspiration, collaboration, and experimentation. Urban and agricultural planning, then, may find it useful to bolster conservation planning programs and policies that not only encourage the integration of knowledges but also create the conditions for the three moments to occur if practices like cover cropping are to become widespread.


ABSTRACT. The authors report 2 familial cases of neonatal congenital lactic acidosis with pyruvate carboxylase deficiency in the liver. In both cases, disorders started immediately after birth and were characterized by major neurological symptoms, acute metabolic acidosis with hyperketonemia and hyperammonemia. Course was rapidly fatal despite intensive care, bicarbonate therapy and several therapeutic attempts with biotin and thiamine. Hyperlactacidemia was associated with dramatic increase in lactate/pyruvate ratio, without anoxia, in contrast with decreased /3 hydroxybutyrate/ acetoacetate ratio. This unusual metabolic pattern may be assumed to result from decreased oxaloacetate synthesis as a result of pyruvate carboxylase deficiency, and impairment of oxaloacetate dependent mitochondria1 redox shuttles. Post mortem enzymatic study of the liver and kidney showed biotin unresponsive total deficiency of pyruvate carboxylase. Other gluconeogenic enzyme activities were normal.


Objective: To examine whether social inequalities in all-cause and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in Britain have reduced between 1978 and 2005. Design: A prospective study of a socioeconomically representative population. Setting: 24 British towns. Participants: 7735 Men, aged 40–59 years at recruitment in 1978–1980 and followed up until 2005 through the National Health Service Central Register (164 120 person-years). Main outcome measures: Relative hazards and absolute risk differences for all-cause and CHD death comparing manual with non-manual social classes, calculated for different calendar periods. Results: 3009 Deaths from all causes (1003 from CHD) occurred during follow-up. The overall hazard ratio (manual versus non-manual) was 1.56 (95% CI 1.45 to 1.69, p<0.001) for all-cause mortality and 1.54 (95% CI 1.35 to 1.76, p<0.001) for CHD mortality. The relative difference between these social groups tended to increase over time. The overall relative increase in hazard ratio comparing manual with non-manual groups over a 20-year calendar period was 1.22 (95% CI 0.83 to 1.80, p = 0.31) for all-cause mortality and 1.75 (95% CI 0.89 to 3.45, p = 0.11) for CHD mortality. The absolute difference in probability of survival to age 65 years between non-manual and manual groups fell from 29% in 1981 to 19% in 2001 for all-cause mortality and from 17% to 7% for CHD mortality. Conclusion: Relative differences in all-cause and CHD mortality between manual and non-manual social class groups persisted and may have increased during this period. Absolute differences in mortality between these social groups decreased as a result of falling overall mortality rates. Greater effort is needed to reduce social inequalities in all-cause and CHD mortality in the new millennium.


Improving the efficiency of pig farming requires biologically complete feeding in accordance with the age, physiological and sexual characteristics of animals based on the knowledge of composition and nutritional value. The health and productivity of animals depends on the use of protein, fat, carbohydrates and minerals, and high-quality vitamins. Traditional feed does not provide animals with a sufficient and optimal ratio of minerals and vitamins. One of the factors providing young pigs with these nutrients may be the inclusion of the DKB vitamin-mineral energy supplement in the diet. The article analyzes the influence of DKB on the productivity of young pigs. The aim of the study was to justify an increase in productivity indicators of large white pigs feeding with DKB. In order to trace the impact of DKB on the productivity of pigs, we took into account the change in their live weight. During the experiment (60 days), 54 kg of the vitamin-mineral complex worth 3300 rubles was spent on the 20 piglets of the experimental group. This entailed an increase in the total costs. The results of the study indicate a positive effect of the additive on the dynamics and growth rate of the piglets of the experimental group and on the cost of feed and nutrients, which favorably affects the profitability and economic efficiency of pork production.


High levels of circulating advanced glycation end products (AGE) are associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and increased mortality, but factors that influence levels of circulating AGE are not well known. Our objective was to characterize the relationship between serum carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), a major circulating AGE, and body composition in adults. In a cross-sectional study, total body DXA was performed and serum CML was measured in 592 adults, aged 26-93 y, from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Median (25th, 75th percentile) CML concentrations were 2.26 (1.86, 2.67) μmol/L. Total fat mass [β = -0.17 (95% CI -0.10, -0.24); P < 0.0001], truncal fat mass [β = -0.17 (95% CI -0.10, -0.25); P < 0.0001], and appendicular fat mass [β = -0.13 (95% CI -0.05, -0.20); P = 0.001] per 1 SD increase were inversely associated with serum CML in separate multivariate linear regression models, adjusting for age, sex, BMI, systolic blood pressure, TG, HDL cholesterol, and renal function. Lean body mass was not independently associated with serum CML. These findings suggest that serum CML concentration is strongly affected by body fat, possibly because CML is preferentially deposited in fat tissue or because adipocytes affect the metabolism of AGE.


In magnetic resonance (MR) cine imaging applications, it is common that only a fraction of the field of view is used for delineating dynamic features whereas surrounding static structures are merely served as landmarks for three‐dimensional orientation. This paper presents a method of using motion‐selective encoding for fast cine imaging. By the use of a simple RF saturation pulse, the imaging field of view was divided into two areas, one with motion and the other without. This allowed the static material to be imaged by fast ungated acquisition and dynamic structures by reduced phase encoding. Issues related to phase error correction were addressed and the proposed algorithm was validated using images acquired from five normal subjects. The saving in imaging time was dependent on the size of the moving structures and a 35% reduction in imaging time did not cause visually noticeable changes in image quality. The application of the technique is limited to cine images with large surrounding static structures and a theoretical analysis of maximum savings in imaging time in relation to the size of the moving structures within the image field of view is provided. Magn Reson Med 42:430–435, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This article presents a preliminary study of the institutional approach through the lens of economic geography. In the theoretical framework, the line of thought of Veblen (1965) and Douglass North (1993) on institutional economics is highlighted, recovering concepts such as institutions and organizations. The ideas which are specifically highlighted are Martin's (1996, 2000), being new economic geography, using the concepts of environment and institutional arrangement. These ideas are based on the recognition that the theoretical perspective which is adopted opens a possibility of analysis and understanding of long-term dynamics, contradictions and all necessary adjustments to structural change. Finally, it is deemed pertinent to consider the inclusion of the institutional approach in geographical studies as an alternative for understanding territory.


Globally, investments in physical and human capital have been identified to foster real economic growth and development in any economy. Investments, which could be domestic or foreign, have been established in the literature as either complements or substitutes in varying scenarios. While domestic investments bring about endogenous growth processes, foreign investment, though may be exogenous to growth, has been identified to bring about productivity and ecological spillovers. In view of these competing – conflicting perspectives, this chapter examines the differential impacts of domestic and foreign investments on green growth in Nigeria during the period 1970-2017. The empirical evidence is based on Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Granger causality estimates. Also, the study articulates the prospects for growth sustainability via domestic or foreign investments in Nigeria. The results show that domestic investment increases CO2 emissions in the short run while foreign investment decreases CO2 emissions in the long run. When the dataset is decomposed into three sub-samples in the light of cycles of investments within the trend analysis, findings of the third sub-sample (i.e. 2001-2017) reveal that both types of investments decrease CO2 emissions in the long run while only domestic investment has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in the short run. This study therefore concludes that as short-run distortions even out in the long-run, FDI and domestic investments has prospects for sustainable development in Nigeria through green growth.


Describes some characteristics of Danish human resource management and analyses recent trends that point towards future practices and HRM concepts. Presents a theoretical framework in which the HRM of the 1990s can be understood, based on empirical research in a number of Danish companies from 1989 to 1991. Concludes that Danish firms are gradually changing their HRM outlook, from one dominated by the fascination of new technologies combined with a traditional cost‐conscious economic strategy to a new techno‐human paradigm of HRM and work organization. Outlines a number of challenges that HRM specialists will face in the 1990s, within the framework of a new techno‐human paradigm.


In Uganda, public health and education services are poorly equipped to respond to needs of children with spina bifida. Such children are highly dependent on their families for care and support. In this study, we explore the children's and their siblings' perceptions of family relationships, support, restrictions and care to inform policy and practice for the children and their families. Semi-structured interviews were held with 30 children with spina bifida, and 30 of their siblings in central Uganda. Using the Family Relations Test, we created a set of local dolls and culturally appropriate messages to evaluate the children's feelings about their family members and themselves. Our findings confirm a highly interdependent and supportive family care model in which mothers play a key role in the children's lives and care; fathers are relatively absent for both children with spina bifida and their siblings; siblings, and other household members play an important role in the care and social inclusion of children with spina bifida; and children with spina bifida have more negative self-perceptions compared to their siblings. The internal family networks of children with spina bifida in Uganda are wide and varied, and characterized by higher support from mothers and elder siblings and househelps. We argue for an extended family centered approach in health care and social services, in which children with spina bifida, their parents (including their fathers), siblings, house-helps and other family members are included. We believe family led advocacy for inclusive care and support services on community and national level is key to enable a shift in the current service model and thinking about persons with disabilities in the country.


The accountability mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have changed the relationship between schools and data. State assessments provide new sources of data and the high - stakes associated with these tests have increased the pressure on schools to use this data to drive instructional decisions. Under NCLB, accountability is based on overall student performance and achievement of designated subgroups of students. Within this system, the existence and needs of low-performing students who do not comprise a subgroup for accountability purposes could be concealed in a school with high overall levels of student achievement. This study examined the use of data by sixth-grade and seventh-grade reading teachers in three high-performing middle schools to improve the reading achievement of low-performing students. The selection of schools was based on the achievement levels of eighth-grade students on the 2004-05 Reading PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment). Each of the middle schools involved in the study scored in the top 10 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, based on the percentage of students at the advanced or proficient levels.Data was collected through a teacher survey and teacher interviews. While teachers in each school reported use of data to identify low-performing students, identify the reading strengths and weaknesses of low-performing students, and monitor students' reading progress, the data used differed among the schools and teachers within the schools. The variation in data use was related to the grade level of students taught, the placement of students in regular education or special education reading classes, the number of low-income students in the school, and the resources provided by the school and/or district to facilitate data use.


Mihaylov, R., Dimitrov, R., Stamatova-Yovcheva, K., & Fejzulla, F. (2019). Investigation of the opportunities for introduction of the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in the territory of Bulgaria. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(4), 717–723 In Biology the introduction is the establishment of outlandish species within the borders outside their natural range (natural habitats) under conditions in which they have not previously developed. The aim was to investigate the possibilities of introduction of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in the territory of Bulgaria and the changes to which they might have led to the morphological features of this species. The study was carried out in the territory of Trankovo village, Stara Zagora region (the pheasantry is a part of Mazalat), the territory of Stara Zagora Zoo and in a licensed game farm Graus. The used methods are: • interviews with poultry specialists; • photographic method – photo-documentation of areas, inhabited by wild turkeys and photo-documentation of morphological features of live wild turkeys; • biometric morphological method. In Bulgaria there are real opportunities for introduction of wild turkey due to the presence of objects with parental herds – the pheasantry in the village of Trankovo and the Zoo in Stara Zagora. The program for the production and displacement of birds bred in farms does not work with wild turkey, although it has been included in the program from 2006. Hunting farms prefer to buy wild turkeys ready for shooting from the pheasantry in Trankovo rather than rear them in the hunting area. When trying to introduce a group of wild turkeys, it should be composed of young and adult birds as well. The birds that are displaced should be at a distance from the rest that they cannot hear the birds from the parent fl ock. In order for a higher percentage of birds to survive, strict control must be carried out over the harmful predators – foxes, jackals and martens.


Social Security benefits are the most important component of the income of a large fraction of older Americans. A significant fraction of persons approach the end of life with few financial assets and no home equity, relying almost entirely on Social Security benefits for support. Whether persons reach late-life with positive non-annuity wealth depends importantly on health, which is quite persistent over the life-time. Persons in poor health in old age have a higher-than-average probability of having experienced low earnings while in the labor force, which puts them at greater risk of having low Social Security benefits in retirement. While the progressivity of the Social Security benefit formula provides a safety net to support low-wage workers in retirement, a noticeable fraction of persons, especially those in single-person households, still have income below the poverty level in their last years of life. Many of these individuals have few assets to draw on to supplement their income, and are in poor health. In general, low assets and low income in old age are strongly related to poor health. We explore this nexus and describe the relationship between Social Security benefits and the exhaustion of non-annuity assets near the end of life. We examine the relationship between the drawdown of assets between the first year an individual is observed in the AHEAD data (1995) and the last year that individual is observed before death, and that individual's health, Social Security benefits, and other annuity benefits. We conclude that Social Security and defined benefit pension benefits are strongly "protective" of non-annuity assets, with a negative relationship between these income flows and the likelihood of exhausting non-annuity assets. We note that this result may in part reflect population heterogeneity in saving propensities. We also find that poor health is an important determinant of the drawdown of non-annuity wealth.


SUMMARY. Domestic poultry act as a reservoir for persistent H5N1 endemicity in Vietnam, and the circulation of poultry flocks across farms and to market is thought to drive the spatial movement and evolution of avian influenza viruses. Using a dataset of complete or nearly full genomic sequences from highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses collected in domestic poultry in Vietnam from 2003 to 2007, we explore potential differences in genetic characteristics according to species of isolation and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the viruses. Clustering algorithms and ANOVA indicate that H5N1 viruses in Vietnam show differences in the amount of genetic change that chicken viruses experience as compared to duck viruses, with duck viruses showing higher rates of molecular evolution on all eight of influenza's gene segments. There also exist distinct patterns of genetic differentiation according to the year in which they were isolated. These findings suggest that genetic evolution of avian influenza viruses is continuous through time but could also be mediated by the species in which the viruses occur, information that has implications for prevention efforts.


This paper presents an optimal relay precoding scheme for two-hop amplify-and-forward based MIMO relay networks with one source, one destination and multiple relays. A constrained optimization problem for relay precoder is formulated by using the mutual information criterion along with a total relay transmitting power constraint. It is shown that due to the block-diagonal structure of the precoding matrix, the optimization problem can not be solved directly by the existing methods. We then simplify it into an equivalent problem involving scalar optimization variables only. Through an in-depth study of the problem formulation, it is revealed that the objective function is convex only when the relay power is larger than a certain threshold, which can be determined mainly by the system configurations and the channel condition. Finally, under the convex condition, the simplified problem is solved by a convex optimization method. The effectiveness of the proposed precoder is validated by Monte-Carlo simulations with comparison to some of the existing methods.


In recent years, postgraduate research students have been more expected to gain knowledge and experience through work-integrated learning. The key advantages of work-integrated learning include non-conventional university support and facility for research. Students can also gain alternative and other in-depth and comprehensive experience in the research area. This off-campus learning also provides opportunities for students to explore other research interests. On the other hand, work-integrated learning has its deficiencies and limitations. Since the learning is conducted outside the university, it is difficult to make arrangement and be available, in particular most of the time not the best available locally. Therefore, work-integrated learning is sometimes necessary to be carried out in remote regions. This situation creates more barriers and un-predictable matters for planning, implementation and management of the learning. To review the needs of work-integrated learning, this paper takes a collaboration of work-integrated learning for postgraduate design research students between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong as a case study. The paper then identifies some key issues and problems. After that, the paper identifies and discusses possibilities for improvement and directions for further investigation. Problems and Possibilities to Enhance Non-Local Work-Integrated Learning Experience for Postgraduate Design Research


Object ranking or "learning to rank" is an important problem in the realm of preference learning. On the basis of training data in the form of a set of rankings of objects represented as feature vectors, the goal is to learn a ranking function that predicts a linear order of any new set of objects. In this paper, we propose a new approach to object ranking based on principles of analogical reasoning. More specifically, our inference pattern is formalized in terms of so-called analogical proportions and can be summarized as follows: Given objects A,B,C,D, if object A is known to be preferred to B, and C relates to D as A relates to B, then C is (supposedly) preferred to D. Our method applies this pattern as a main building block and combines it with ideas and techniques from instance-based learning and rank aggregation. Based on first experimental results for data sets from various domains (sports, education, tourism, etc.), we conclude that our approach is highly competitive. It appears to be specifically interesting in situations in which the objects are coming from different subdomains, and which hence require a kind of knowledge transfer.


ABSTRACT Conic open-channel flow as occurs in sub-drains, sewers, and culverts is computed by Manning's or Darcy's resistance equations for the cross-sectional average velocity only. Yet, fish passage culvert design requires the cross-sectional velocity distribution, which is proposed in this paper based on two hypotheses: (i) centreline velocity distribution follows the conventional log-law with a cubic deduction near the water surface; (ii) cross-sectional velocity distribution is described by Guo and Julien's modified log-wake-law but neglecting the squared sine function. These hypotheses result in a novel and simple velocity distribution model without any fitting parameter. Its graphical interpretation for the elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic channels indicates reasonable velocity contours with dip phenomenon. Further, it agrees well with circular pipe data related to the average shear velocity, velocity-dip position, centreline and cross-sectional velocity distributions. A potential application includes fish passage culvert design by specifying a low velocity zone near the wall.


Hydraulic proppant fracturing is one of the most effective tools to optimize production in the mature, low- permeability reservoirs found in the Pannonian Basin in Central Europe. Fracturing can effectively enhance production by improving reservoir contact, but for wells already producing with high water cut, even a small fracture extension into a water-bearing or "wet" zone offsets the gains in hydrocarbon production. Fracture geometry control (FGC) techniques limit increases in water cut, which is one of the greatest challenges to extending economic production and maximizing ultimate recovery for mature wells. Artificial barrier placement and proppant channel fracturing were proven to improve hydrocarbon production while fracturing stimulation targets adjacent to high water saturation intervals.
 The pilot included candidates in thin, low-permeability sandstone reservoirs, located within 5 to 10 m of wet intervals. An integrated engineering approach to fracture height growth was applied, including a new proppant transport model to predict fracture geometry improvement using the FGC solution. The FGC solution consisted of injection of an engineered particulate mixture designed to bridge at the fracture edges and arrest height growth. Additionally, the bridging mixture provided reduced conductivity and acted as a fracture flow restriction for water. The FGC solution was also combined with channel fracturing in some trials as an attempt to reduce net pressure development, minimize the risk of height growth and improve fracture quality in the low-permeability reservoirs. The new engineering approach, incorporating the new solids transport simulator, enabled the successful implementation of the FGC technique in the pilot candidates. Fracture height control was achieved in absence of good geological barriers. The benefits of this new approach are supported by a consistent improvement in hydrocarbon production without an increase in water cut. In field A, the combination of FGC and channel fracturing resulted in additional production when compared to wells where only FGC was implemented. Evaluation of this pilot included a comparison with offset wells stimulated without this technique when a water cut increase was always observed in the field A.
 This paper describes the first implementation of the complex technology and engineering solution to control fracture height for conventional wells in the Pannonian Basin. For the first time, the mixture of solids was modeled directly, and the influence on fracture geometry and production results is shown. The cases are of significant interest because of the global challenge of maximizing recovery from mature reservoirs with nearby water hazards. The application of a full engineering process for the design, placement, and evaluation of the fracture height control treatments provides an improved degree of confidence that such operations can result successful production optimization. The workflow as presented and applied is an effective tool to reduce risk of high water production when fracturing close to water contacts.


The behavior of blood during its flow in human arteries has
always been a subject of keen interest. Flow parameters such as pressure, velocity and wall shear stress vary with changes mainly in the geometry of the artery. The work focusses on the variation of wall shear stress along the
walls of an Idealized Carotid Artery. Simulations are carried out for both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behavior of blood. In the Non-Newtonian flow, Carreau-Yasoda model is chosen for the calculations. Steady flow and
Transient flow cases are also analyzed where the User Defined Function is interpreted for further calculations. It is observed that recirculation of flow occurs at a critical area in the geometry. The results obtained are compared with the numerical results of Eleyas Shaik. The Wall Shear Stress plots are found to be in close correspondence to those in the thesis.


This issue falls into two thematic sections, one on the politics of Chinese identities, the other on art and collections. The first part deals with possibly the most pertinent topic in Chinese studies at present, and that is the question of Chinese identity, how it relates to China in the narrow sense of the PRC on the one hand and to alternative identity categories on the other. The question is of particular pertinence in the context of the surge of racism against Chinese and other East and Southeast Asian communities since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK and across the world. We alert you to our call for papers on Chinese Identity in an Age of Anti-Asian Racism and #StopAsianHate with a deadline of 15 August. The four articles engaging with the question of identity in this issue address the problematic in different timeframes and with different conceptualisations. The second half of this issue features three articles which each deal with differing aspects of art, aesthetics, and media in the contemporary PRC; it includes the prize-winning essay of the 2020 Early Career Researcher Prize by Angela Becher. We conclude with an elegy on a Hui Muslim mosque.
Image @ Zhang Xiaotao


A platinum-loaded TiO2 (Pt/TiO2) photocatalyst promoted cyanomethylation of aliphatic hydrocarbons, namely cyclohexane and cyclohexene, with acetonitrile, where the photogenerated hole oxidatively dissociates the C–H bond of both the acetonitrile and the aliphatic hydrocarbons to form each corresponding radical species before their radical cross-coupling. The Pt/TiO2 photocatalyst was more active than the Pd/TiO2 photocatalyst in these reactions. In contrast, the cyanomethylation of benzene was promoted by the Pd/TiO2 photocatalyst or a physical mixture of the Pt/TiO2 photocatalyst and a Pd catalyst supported by Al2O3, while it was hardly promoted by the Pt/TiO2 photocatalyst alone. The temperature dependence of the reaction rate proved that the Pd nanoparticles on the TiO2 photocatalyst thermally function as a metal catalyst. These results clearly suggest that the Pd metal catalyst is necessary for the cyanomethylation of benzene. However, in the cyanomethylation of aliphatic hydrocarbons, the catalytic effect of the metal particles was not observed, meaning that the radical coupling takes place without the metal catalysis. Thus, it is concluded that in the case of the benzene cyanomethylation the Pd nanoparticles play dual roles, as a catalyst to catalyse the substitution reaction of benzene with the cyanomethyl radical, and as an electron receiver to reduce the recombination of the photoexcited electrons and holes in the TiO2 photocatalyst, although they could not contribute as a catalyst to the cyanomethylation of aliphatic hydrocarbons.


We present the Civique system for emergency detection in urban areas by monitoring micro blogs like Tweets. The system detects emergency related events, and classifies them into appropriate categories like "fire", "accident", "earthquake", etc. We demonstrate our ideas by classifying Twitter posts in real time, visualizing the ongoing event on a map interface and alerting users with options to contact relevant authorities, both online and offline. We evaluate our classifiers for both the steps, i.e., emergency detection and categorization, and obtain F-scores exceeding 70% and 90%, respectively. We demonstrate Civique using a web interface and on an Android application, in realtime, and show its use for both tweet detection and visualization.


This paper first overviews the results of eight experiments that examined the effects of school health communication about alcohol and tobacco on low educated adolescents. Overall, it was found that there was a short term knowledge increase but only among adolescents with less knowledge. Also, the attitude became more negative towards alcohol among adolescents who were more positive towards alcohol at baseline. All of these effects disappeared within a month. There were no effects on intention. Importantly, the format of the health communication did not matter. Results were largely identical for print and audiovisual versions, as well as for informational and narrative versions. Adding testimonials of adolescents to the print and audiovisual informational formats did not make a difference. The second part of this paper focuses on a ninth experiment that tested the effects of connectives in alcohol health education. Studies on school education texts suggested that texts are easier interpretable if sentences are linked by connectives, but so far this has not been tested on health education texts for low educated adolescents. Overall, we found no differential effects on knowledge, attitude, and intention between a condition with connectives and a condition without connectives.


Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has been reported as a successful functional material in a broad variety of applications. One of the most important advantages of PEDOT:PSS is its water-solubility, which enables simple and environmental friendly manufacturing processes. Unfortunately, this also implies that pristine PEDOT:PSS films are unsuitable for applications in aqueous environments. To reach stability in polar solvents, (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GOPS) is typically used to cross-link PEDOT:PSS. Although this strategy is widely used, its mechanism and effect on PEDOT:PSS performance have not been articulated yet. Here, we present a broad study that provides a better understanding of the effect of GOPS on the electrical and electronic properties of PEDOT:PSS. We show that the GOPS reacts with the sulfonic acid group of the excess PSS, causing a change in the PEDOT:PSS film morphology, while the oxidation level of PEDOT remains unaffected. This is at the origin of the observed conductivity changes. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017, 55, 814–820


Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods have been proven successful in solving manipulation tasks autonomously. However, RL is still not widely adopted on real robotic systems because working with real hardware entails additional challenges, especially when using rigid position-controlled manipulators. These challenges include the need for a robust controller to avoid undesired behavior, that risk damaging the robot and its environment, and constant supervision from a human operator. The main contributions of this work are, first, we proposed a learning-based force control framework combining RL techniques with traditional force control. Within said control scheme, we implemented two different conventional approaches to achieve force control with position-controlled robots; one is a modified parallel position/force control, and the other is an admittance control. Secondly, we empirically study both control schemes when used as the action space of the RL agent. Thirdly, we developed a fail-safe mechanism for safely training an RL agent on manipulation tasks using a real rigid robot manipulator. The proposed methods are validated both on simulation and a real robot with an UR3 e-series robotic arm.


Although adenoviruses offer several potential advantages as gene transfer vectors, some hematopoietic cells, particularly lymphoid cells, are considered relatively resistant to adenovirus-mediated gene transfer. To examine the role of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in the lymphoid malignancy multiple myeloma (MM), we used E1- and E3-deleted adenoviral vectors to infect myeloma and lymphoma cell lines and subsequently primary bone marrow plasma cells and lymphocytes from patients with MM. Adenoviral vectors expressing LacZ or luciferase (AdCA18) reporter genes were used initially. Subsequently, we studied adenoviral vectors expressing genes of potential value in therapeutic immunomodulation, i.e., CD80 (AdB7-1) and interleukin-2 (AdIL-2). A human plasma cell line (OCI-My5) infected with LacZ or AdB7-1 vectors expressed the corresponding gene product in 95% and 85% of exposed cells, respectively. Time course experiments indicated that maximum expression of adenoviral transgenes in plasma cells was reached 3 days after infection. IL-2 was detected in the supernatant of AdIL-2-infected plasma cells, was functional, and could be detected for at least 30 days after infection. In contrast, three lymphoma cell lines (OCI-Ly2, OCI-Ly13.2, and OCI-Ly17) were significantly less sensitive to adenovirus infection, with relatively low efficiencies of gene transfer even using high adenoviral titers: Surface CD80 expression (13-25% of infected cells) and positive LacZ staining (0-5% of infected cells). Indeed, expression of luciferase was 96-168 times higher in AdCA18-infected OCI-My5 cells than in the OCI-Ly2 lymphoma cell line. Similar patterns were observed in primary plasma cells and lymphocytes from 19 MM patient bone marrow samples. After infection with AdB7-1, increased levels of CD80 expression on CD38 bright bone marrow plasma cells were observed in 84% of patients, with a 33% average increase in the number of plasma cells expressing CD80. In contrast, although increased CD80 expression was also detected on AdB7-1-infected CD19+ B lymphocytes from 63% of the MM patients, an average of only 14% of the infected lymphocytes demonstrated increased expression of CD80. Circulating T lymphocytes could not be transduced with AdB7-1. The relative resistance of B and T lymphocytes to adenovirus-mediated gene transfer warrants further investigation. Adenoviral vectors can efficiently infect malignant plasma cells and may be useful vehicles for therapeutic gene transfer.


Abstract Datson, N, Drust, B, Weston, M, Jarman, IH, Lisboa, P, and Gregson, W. Match physical performance of elite female soccer players during international competition. J Strength Cond Res 31(9): 2379–2387, 2017—The purpose of this study was to provide a detailed analysis of the physical demands of competitive international female soccer match play. A total of 148 individual match observations were undertaken on 107 outfield players competing in competitive international matches during the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 seasons, using a computerized tracking system (Prozone Sports Ltd., Leeds, England). Total distance and total high-speed running distances were influenced by playing position, with central midfielders completing the highest (10,985 ± 706 m and 2,882 ± 500 m) and central defenders the lowest (9,489 ± 562 m and 1,901 ± 268 m) distances, respectively. Greater total very high-speed running distances were completed when a team was without (399 ± 143 m) compared to with (313 ± 210 m) possession of the ball. Most sprints were over short distances with 76% and 95% being less than 5 and 10 m, respectively. Between half reductions in physical performance were present for all variables, independent of playing position. This study provides novel findings regarding the physical demands of different playing positions in competitive international female match play and provides important insights for physical coaches preparing elite female players for competition.


Abstract Two protocetid whale vertebrae, here referred to "Eocetus" wardii, have been recovered from the riverbed of the Pamunkey River in east-central Virginia. Neither bone was found in situ, but both were found with lumps of lithified matrix cemented to their surfaces. Most of this matrix was removed and processed for microfossils. Specimens of dinoflagellates were successfully recovered and this flora clearly demonstrates that both vertebrae came from the middle Eocene Piney Point Formation, which crops out above and below river level in the area where the bones were discovered. These vertebrae are the oldest whale remains reported from Virginia and are as old as any cetacean remains known from the western hemisphere.


Aptamers offer a great opportunity to develop innovative drug delivery systems that can deliver cargos specifically into targeted cells. In this study, a chimera consisting of two aptamers was developed to deliver doxorubicin into cancer cells and release the drug in cytoplasm in response to adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP) binding. The chimera was composed of the AS1411 anti-nucleolin aptamer for cancer cell targeting and the ATP aptamer for loading and triggering the release of doxorubicin in cells. The chimera was first produced by hybridizing the ATP aptamer with its complementary DNA sequence, which is linked with the AS1411 aptamer via a poly-thymine linker. Doxorubicin was then loaded inside the hybridized DNA region of the chimera. Our results show that the AS1411–ATP aptamer chimera was able to release loaded doxorubicin in cells in response to ATP. In addition, selective uptake of the chimera into cancer cells was demonstrated using flow cytometry. Furthermore, confocal laser scanning microscopy showed the successful delivery of the doxorubicin loaded in chimeras to the nuclei of targeted cells. Moreover, the doxorubicin-loaded chimeras effectively inhibited the growth of cancer cell lines and reduced the cytotoxic effect on the normal cells. Overall, the results of this study show that the AS1411–ATP aptamer chimera could be used as an innovative approach for the selective delivery of doxorubicin to cancer cells, which may improve the therapeutic potency and decrease the off-target cytotoxicity of doxorubicin.


This paper provides a complete stability proof of Theorem 1 of the above-mentioned paper (Canudas-de-Wit et al., 1995) for the tracking and the regulation case. In the paper, the proof presented for Theorem 1 only holds for the regulation case where the LaSalle's invariant principle may be invoked. In the tracking case, the closed-loop system becomes a nonautonomous one, and arguments other than the LaSalle's invariant principle should be used. Here we present these arguments and show that Theorem 1 holds for both cases.


In this paper we propose a new compression algorithm geared to reduce the time needed to test scan-based designs. Our scheme compresses the test vector set by encoding the bits that need to be flipped in the current test data slice in order to obtain the mutated subsequent test data slice. Exploitation of the overlap in the encoded data by effective traversal search algorithms results in drastic overall compression. The technique we propose can be utilized as not only a stand-alone technique but also can be utilized on test data already compressed, extracting even further compression. The performance of the algorithm is mathematically analyzed and its merits experimentally confirmed on the larger examples of the ISCAS '89 benchmark circuits.


Currently, cloud computing is a primary enabler of new paradigms such as edge and fog computing. One open issue is the pricing of services or resources. Current pricing schemes are usually oligopolistic and not fair. In this work, we propose OFM, an online learning based marketplace that dynamically determines the price for arbitrary resource types based on supply and demand existing at that period. Unlike state of the art solutions, OFM can handle an arbitrary number of customers and resource types at every instance of time. It further performs integral allocation of resources and thereby avoids the unbounded integrality gap. We evaluate OFM with both real and synthetic datasets to reflect varying buying interests, the number of resources sold and market volatility to demonstrate the feasibility of our solution for several realistic scenarios. We observe that (i) OFM achieves about 9% of optimal prices and maximizes the Nash social welfare (NSW); (ii) OFM converges faster and works with different data distributions; and (iii) OFM scales for a large number of resources and buyers and computational time is in the order of microseconds, making it applicable for real-time use cases especially in edge markets.


Objective. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a well-established disease associated with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). However, the original 1980 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria have poor sensitivity, especially for the detection of earlier SSc in previous studies. The objective was to evaluate the prevalence of SSc in patients with PBC using more sensitive 2001 LeRoy and Medsger criteria and the 2013 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria. The secondary objective was to evaluate the frequency of individual clinical features. Methods. One hundred consecutive patients with PBC without previously diagnosed SSc were recruited between 2005 and 2007 from a tertiary care gastroenterology clinic. All patients underwent a complete clinical examination, determination of SSc-specific antibodies, and a nailfold capillary microscopy. Fulfillment of the 3 different criteria sets was analyzed, along with individual disease features. Results. Of 100 patients with PBC, 1% met the ACR 1980 criteria, 22% met the 2001 LeRoy and Medsger criteria for early SSc, and 17% the 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria. Raynaud phenomenon, SSc-related antibodies, and SSc capillaroscopic patterns were the most prevalent findings, with the highest sensitivities to help guide future screening. Conclusion. Our data show a high prevalence of SSc in patients with PBC with probable underestimation by previous studies using the original ACR criteria. Comorbid SSc should be actively searched for based on newly described criteria to improve detection and increase benefits of earlier treatment.


The emerging data-intensive applications of today are comprised of non-uniform CPU and I/O intensive workloads, thus imposing a requirement to consider both CPU and I/O effects in the power management strategies. Only scaling down the processor's frequency based on its busy/idle ratio cannot fully exploit opportunities of saving power. Our experiments show that besides the busy and idle status, each processor may also have I/O wait phases waiting for I/O operations to complete. During this period, the completion time is decided by the I/O subsystem rather than the CPU thus scaling the processor to a lower frequency will not affect the performance but save more power. In addition, the CPU's reaction to the I/O operations may be significantly affected by several factors, such as I/O type (sync or unsync), instruction/job level parallelism, it cannot be accurately modeled via physics laws like mechanical or chemical systems. In this paper, we propose a novel power management scheme called MAR (modeless, adaptive, rule-based) in multiprocessor systems to minimize the CPU power consumption under performance constraints. By using richer feedback factors, e.g. the I/O wait, MAR is able to accurately describe the relationships among core frequencies, performance and power consumption. We adopt a modeless control model to reduce the complexity of system modeling. MAR is designed for CMP (Chip Multi Processor) systems by employing multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) theory and per core level DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling). Our extensive experiments on a physical test bed demonstrate that, for the SPEC benchmark and data-intensive (TPC-C) benchmark, the efficiency of MAR is 93.6-96.2\% accurate to the ideal power saving strategy calculated off-line. Compared with baseline solutions, MAR could save 22.5-32.5\% more power while keeping the comparable performance loss of about 1.8-2.9\%. In addition, simulation results show the efficiency of our design for various CMP configurations.


The extrapolation of current population trends indicates that the future will experience a huge influx of population that will return and settle in the city (Gallagher, 2013). This thesis is an investigation that attempts to incorporate the desirable qualities of rural living into the urban living condition and result in an alternative high-density residential solution for the future.

The issue of urban densification and high-density development has become highly debated in the past decade – this thesis engages with the debate through a critical examination of the current status quo approach towards high-density residential development. A comparative study of the living conditions of the glorified rural idyll, the criticized suburban sprawl and the concentrated contemporary urban condition was undertaken in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these living environments. This comparison assisted in the creation of a set of design criteria and design elements which emerged from the research and were further investigated through a series of diverse precedent studies.

The critical inquiry into the status quo and the varying living environments was used to define a humane design approach in a reinterpretation of high-density residential living in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


Soil fertility depletion is one of the main concerns of the farmers in the Costa Chica, Mexico. The current crop management exacerbates nutrient cycling unbalances and threatens the sustainability of the common maize production systems. It is necessary to supply the soil with organic sources. Field experiments were established in farmers' fields to estimate the decomposition rate and N release of organic materials: aboveground and belowground plant residues, and vermicompost. Decomposition was monitored using the litterbag method, and decomposition patterns were fitted by means of a dynamic mono-component mineralization model. To calculate the effects of crop residues retention and vermicompost on OM balance, five scenarios were evaluated with farm DESIGN model. The decomposition rate was greater during the first 4 months. After that period the remaining dry matter proportion of aboveground residues varied between 45 and 67%. In case of root residues, the dry weight loss ranged between 20 and 47% after the first month. For both types of residues, N released within the first month was 37%, on average. At the end of the sampling period 9 months, the remaining dry matter proportion of aboveground and belowground residues ranged from 30 to 55%, whereas more than 80% of their total N was released. After 6.5 months only 35% of the vermicompost mass was decomposed, but about 65% of its N was mineralized. Besides, around 70% of the vermicompost N was released during the first 30 days. In fields with vermicompost maize was responsible for 70% of total N uptake, on average. The N balance was 93% higher than maize fields without vermicompost. In scenario with 30% of crop residue retention along with vermicompost, OM balance was 86% higher than under current management. Vermicompost can be regarded as an attractive amendment for both crop N supply and soil organic matter build-up.


This paper describes and discusses the project 'Industrial Engineering Standards in Europe' (IESE). The project is funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Partnership program with partners from universities and organizations offering engineering education and continuing education in the field of industrial engineering. There are two main objectives in the project. The first is to use the European Qualification Framework (EQF) as a benchmark against the National Qualification Framework (NQF) of the partner countries and the Industrial Engineering educations offered by the partner institutions. What seemed to be a relatively straightforward task showed to be more complicated. Iceland, the Netherlands and Denmark have adopted the EQF approach with 8 levels - BSc, MSc and PhD as the top three levels. Ireland has adjusted to their national educational system with 10 levels, Germany is still discussing their NQF and Sweden has decided not to adjust to the EQF for the moment. The second objective in the project is to conduct a survey among industries employing industrial engineering in order to investigate a possible gap between the educational programs and the needs of the industry for competences in the field of industrial engineering. A survey has been carried out in Ireland, the Netherlands and in Iceland and the results are indicating gaps in various topics.


When the coal (rock) specimens are tested with infrared, one can observe that the specimens' temperature field is changing. Commonly, causes of the changes are due to specimens' plastic deformation and crack extension. But many coherent documents indicate that most specimens even has high temperature field after the peak strength. This paper put a forward that the influence of friction between the fracture planes on the specimens' temperature field could not be ignored. Meanwhile, the paper gives a simple friction model of two blocks,. In the model, the friction surface plays the different roles to the two blocks as moving heat source and fixed heat source respectively. Those different heat sources have different effect on the blocks' temperature field. In the end, analytic solutions of temperature change at any point of two blocks that caused by friction are given.


Be molten gold is a sequence of poems commissioned by editor Emmy Beber for The Bodies That Remain, alongside texts from artists and writers including Philip Hoare, Jeremy Millar, Heather Phillipson and Lynn Tillman. The Bodies That Remain is a collection of texts and images on the bodies of artists and writers who battled with the frustration of their own physicality and whose work reckoned with these limitations and continued beyond them. Be molten gold describes the morphing body of Michael Jackson as it becomes all of the bodies he was asked to be. The text itself is presented as multiple, subtly shifting, versions, with some 'drafts' situating Jackson's morphing in the context of pop-culture's fascination with early CGI in the mid-1990s; and others looking for traces of Jackson as human beneath it all.


Industrial processes often involves handling of objects and surfaces shaped like geometric primitives. This should be taken into consideration when designing computer vision-based systems for such processes. Both pose and parameters of geometric primitives can be established with 3D cameras and simple algorithms. In this thesis, robust estimation algorithms have been considered to detect primitive shapes in point clouds from 3D cameras. The primitives are described with conformal geometric algebra. Possible applications have been suggested and demonstrated through a robotic pick-and-place task solved with data from a 3D camera. A primitive shape detection algorithm is implemented in a C++ based software. The algorithm is implemented for planes, spheres and cylinders. Results show that the algorithm is able to detect the shapes in data sets containing up to 90% outliers. Furthermore, a real-time tracking algorithm based on the primitive shape detection algorithm is implemented to track primitives in a real-time data stream from a 3D camera. The run-time of the tracking algorithm is well below the required rate for a 60 frames per second data stream. A multiple shape detection algorithm is also developed. The goal is to detect multiple shapes in a point cloud with a single run of the algorithm. The algorithm is implemented for spheres and results show that multiple spheres can be successfully detected in a point cloud. The accuracy and efficiency of the algorithms is demonstrated in a robotic pick-andplace task. Primitive objects are detected in the robot workspace. These objects are used for robot-camera calibration and data cropping, in addition to the pick-and-place operation. The demonstration show that the algorithms are effective for high accuracy demanding industrial tasks, given raw data from consumer grade 3D cameras.


Timely vaccinations of children in developing countries are important for reducing morbidity and mortality, which are Millennium Development Goals. However, a majority of children do not possess vaccination cards compiling information on timing. We investigated the benefits of vaccination cards for the uptake of immunizations against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT), polio, tuberculosis (BCG), and measles using data on over 200,000 Indian children from the District Level Health and Facility Survey 3. Methodological issues such as whether parents of children with higher morbidity levels may have them vaccinated were investigated. The results from the models for DPT, polio, measles, and BCG vaccinations showed significant beneficial effects of maternal education, household possessions, and access to health care facilities. Moreover, models for children's ages at the time of vaccination showed significant interactions between maternal education and access to and availability of health care facilities. Finally, models for child morbidity due to diarrhea, cough, and fever showed that timely vaccinations against DPT, access to piped water, and cooking with electricity or natural gas were associated with lower morbidity. Overall, issuing paper or electronic vaccination cards to children is likely to enhance timely uptake of various immunizations thereby reducing child morbidity.


The parasite Giardia lamblia interacts with its host by directly attaching the lumen of the small intestine. Attachment is mediated by a cytoskeletal structure termed the ventral disc and proceeds in four distinct stages: skimming, seal formation, cell body contacts, and bare area contacts. The precise mechanism of disc-mediated attachment is unclear and attachment models rely heavily on whether or not the ventral disc is a dynamic structure. We sought to investigate the second stage of attachment in which a seal is formed beneath the ventral disc. Three-dimensional, live imaging of Giardia expressing specific ventral disc markers to the lateral crest, ventral groove, and disc body indicate dynamic movement in all of these regions. We observe seal formation by the lateral crest and determine that movement of the ventral groove region aids lateral crest seal formation. We also report the discovery of a new protein that is necessary for ventral disc formation and functional attachment (DAP_7268). Lastly, we observed that attachment largely depends on ventral disc ultrastructure as flattened discs display hindered attachment proficiency whether or not they retain the ability to form a seal. We propose a synthesized mechanism for attachment that includes flagellar hydrodynamic flow to help generate suction as well as disc conformational dynamics to aid in both hydrodynamic flow and the maintenance of negative pressure.


Colon cancer is a common malignant tumor that is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma-associated gene 6 (NGX6) is a novel candidate suppressor gene of tumor metastasis, which is down-regulated in colon cancer. This study was designed to investigate the roles of NGX6 on the growth and invasiveness of human colon cancer cell line, HT-29, and to elucidate the molecular mechanism of their action. Results showed that NGX6 could inhibit the invasiveness and extracellular matrix adhesion of HT-29 cells and restore the gap junctional intercellular communication of cells. Moreover, NGX6 could suppress the translocation of beta-catenin from nucleus and cytoplasm to plasma membrane, inhibit the activity of TCF4 transcript factor, and down-regulate the expression of Wnt-direct-targeted genes c-myc, cyclin D1 and COX-2. We suggested that NGX6 inhibits cell invasion and adhesion through the suppression of Wnt signal pathway in colon cancer.


Point cloud based place recognition is still an open issue due to the difficulty in extracting local features from the raw 3D point cloud and generating the global descriptor, and it's even harder in the large-scale dynamic environments. In this paper, we develop a novel deep neural network, named LPD-Net (Large-scale Place Description Network), which can extract discriminative and generalizable global descriptors from the raw 3D point cloud. Two modules, the adaptive local feature extraction module and the graph-based neighborhood aggregation module, are proposed, which contribute to extract the local structures and reveal the spatial distribution of local features in the large-scale point cloud, with an end-to-end manner. We implement the proposed global descriptor in solving point cloud based retrieval tasks to achieve the large-scale place recognition. Comparison results show that our LPD-Net is much better than PointNetVLAD and reaches the state-of-the-art. We also compare our LPD-Net with the vision-based solutions to show the robustness of our approach to different weather and light conditions.


Many scholars have stated that the controversy over the acceptability of hastened death (alternately, and more narrowly, called "physician-assisted suicide" or "physician aid-in-dying") is, and will continue to be, the most important and pressing social issue in the country as the new century begins (e.g., Battin, 1994; McIntosh, 1993). On January 8, 1997, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments related to appeals of two circuit court decisions (Vacco v. Quill [95-1858] and Washington v. Glucksberg [96-110]), which independently declared that laws prohibiting physician aid-in-dying were unconstitutional. The Court's decisions were released on June 26, 1997. In late 1996, amicus curiae ("friend of the Court") briefs for the two cases going before the Supreme Court were filed by a large number of individuals and organizations. The American Psychiatric Association signed onto a brief with, among others, the American Medical Association, opposing physician-assisted suicide and urging the Supreme Court to overturn the two circuit court decisions (Brief for the American Medical Association et al., 1996). On the other hand, a brief was filed by a group of mental health organizations and professionals supporting the circuit courts (Brief for the Washington State Psychological Association et al., 1996--printed at the end of this article). This latter brief was signed by the Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA); the American Counseling Association (ACA); the Association for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling (AGLBIC); and a Coalition of Mental Health Professionals Supporting Individual Self-Determination in Decisions to Hasten Death (which included 25 psychologists, 13 psychiatrists, 9 social workers, and 4 professional counselors. A list of names can be obtained by contacting the first author.) One of the primary reasons that the brief was filed was that although nonpsychiatric mental health professionals are not directly involved in providing aid-in-dying, because of their inability to prescribe medications, it was clear to several individuals and organizations that the involvement of such professionals could alleviate many of the concerns associated with aid-in-dying. In other words, it was believed that mental health workers could play a valuable role in protecting the suffering person, the person's significant others, and society as a whole from the potential problems associated with aid-in-dying. Furthermore, a review led to the belief that appropriate mental health literature associated with aid-in-dying had been ignored, misinterpreted, or disavowed. THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE BRIEF To meet the requirements for filing briefs at the Supreme Court, the document had to be submitted in early December 1996. However, preliminary writing and searches for potential signers began in August 1996. Basing much of the material on the sole book devoted to the subject of mental health issues and hastened death (Werth, 1996) and subsequent research reports, we provided draft materials to three pro bono attorneys who framed the material so that it addressed the questions before the Supreme Court. As the attorneys worked on the legal document, we used personal and professional networks to identify mental health workers to form a coalition of prominent and qualified professionals. The coalition was made up of 51 professionals from four mental health fields who read the brief and supported its contents. Although it was called a "coalition," the "members" were actually individual professionals who had experience with end-of-life issues and who agreed to sign the brief--no formal organization was created and the signers did not have contact with one another, although they did provide feedback to us. In addition, professional organizations--including the American Psychological Association, National Association of Social Workers (NASW), ACA, AGLBIC, and WSPA--were contacted and asked to join the brief. …


This study aims to use the avatar sizing system of the 3D apparel CAD program instead of the existing 3D body scanners, and to commercialize 3D personal avatars. Towards these ends, the study examined a difference between a 3D avatar and actual body was determined to verify the 3D avatar sizing system. For the experiment, three subjects were selected, were measured as they were, and were made to undergo 3D body scanning and photographing. Then, using avatar sizing system on the 3D apparel CAD program, three types of virtual bodies, namely 3D avatars. The 3D avatar and actual body measurements were compared, and 3D avatars and 3D body-scanned shapes were likewise compared. As a result, the three types of actual bodies and their 3D avatars that were created based on the sizing system of the 3D apparel CAD program were overall similar. but, the thin body-YY type and the normal body-A type were different from their avatars. In the case of type B, who had a bulging abdomen, the 3D avatar was bigger than the actual body as measured. Also, in all body shapes, the girths around the chest, waist and abdomen were produced with exaggerated muscular amounts compared to their actual muscular amounts.


BACKGROUND
Vaccination rates in adolescents in Germany are not sufficient. An intervention programme, which has been launched by the community health centre in Essen, should significantly increase vaccination coverage.

METHODS
In 2001 the Children and Youth Health Service at the Community Health Centre in Essen implemented a specific strategy to improve vaccination rates in adolescents. Vaccination rates were determined by control of vaccination certificates of all 6 (th) graders in Essen (n=5 589). After control of vaccination records the parents got a written, individual vaccination counselling for their child as well as a referral to the paediatrician to get the missing vaccinations. After 6 months the vaccination certificates were looked at again and vaccination coverage was determined.

RESULTS
At the initial vaccination record control of 6 (th) graders in 2001 only 15% of the students, who presented their vaccination certificate, had an appropriate age related immunisation status. 84% of the students had had the tetanus/diphtheria and polio booster. But only 43% had been given a second measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) immunisation and only 24% had a complete hepatitis B coverage. The intervention programme (e. g., individual vaccination counselling) improved vaccination rates for hepatitis B and MMR by 16%. From 2001 to 2008 vaccination coverage in this age group could be improved from 43% to 87% for the second MMR vaccination and from 24% to 85% for hepatitis B.

CONCLUSIONS
A remarkable improvement in vaccination coverage in children and adolescents could be achieved by a single, individual, written vaccination reminder. As a prerequisite a good cooperation between schools/paediatricians and the health authorities is needed.


ASA and NSAIDs are responsible for a large number of adverse reactions. The association of adverse reactions to acetaminophen and to ASA is uncommon, especially in children, and raises the problem of finding alternative treatments. We present a case report of a 7-year-old boy with combined adverse reaction to acetaminophen and ASA/NSAIDs. The child, who had no history of atopy, first displayed the condition at age 6, when he suffered two episodes of urticaria and angioedema, 2 hours after administration of 500 mg of acetaminophen, following two earlier doses of 500 mg (total 1500 mg). At age 7 he suffered a third episode 3 hours after administration of 180 mg of ASA. The patient submitted to oral challenges with acetaminophen (positive at a cumulative dose of 2,040 mg), ASA (positive at a cumulative dose of 204 mg) and nimesulide (negative at a cumulative dose of 119 mg). In conclusion, nimesulide (an NSAID not available in the United States) may be regarded as an alternative treatment in such patients, but more research is needed in pediatric age groups.


In this paper, we are interested in the problem of estimating a discontinuous surface from noisy data. A novel procedure for this problem is proposed based on local linear kernel smoothing, in which local neighborhoods are adapted to the local smoothness of the surface measured by the observed data. The procedure can therefore remove noise correctly in continuity regions of the surface and preserve discontinuities at the same time. Since an image can be regarded as a surface of the image intensity function and such a surface has discontinuities at the outlines of objects, this procedure can be applied directly to image denoising. Numerical studies show that it works well in applications, compared to some existing procedures


An ABAB reversal design was used to test the effects of contingent access to a language laboratory on the academic achievement and off-task behavior of a 16-year-old Spanish-speaking high school student. Contingencies were introduced following baseline, removed, and reintroduced only for correctly answering a series of life survival questions in English (e.g., What should one do in case of fire?). No contingencies were placed on collateral off-task responses. Coincident with initiation of contingent privileges, correct English answers changed from less than 40% to more than 85%. Performance decreased toward baseline levels during the reversal condition and again increased when training was reinstituted. Further, there was a negatively correlated change in each of five separate untreated off-task responses corresponding to changes in correct English answers. Among these, aggression and disruptive noise responses were decreased to zero with an increase in academic achievement. Thus, reinforcement contingencies for academic achievement were shown as effective for simultaneously teaching life-survival English skills and decreasing socially inappropriate behavior for a Spanish-speaking immigrant.


Abstract The safety of students at American schools has become a national priority. With every incident of lethal violence, public fear swells and the demand for effective violence prevention methods increases. School resource officer (SRO) programs that assign sworn law enforcement officers to schools are frequently identified as one straightforward and popular strategy for making schools safer and more secure. However, the placement of these officers at schools raises complex issues and poses new challenges to students' rights, including the risks of unreasonable search and seizure, the inappropriate sharing of confidential information, and students' decreased feelings of safety. In this paper, the authors will provide the reader with a review of these students' rights issues and the possible consequences to students and schools when these rights are not respected. The authors then provide the reader with a review of the relevant literature on the relationship between SROs and students and outlines specific recommendations for the successful implementation and operation of SRO programs that foster positive and respectful connections with students and school officials.