Verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis (VVPE) has been identified in a variety of languages, including Irish (McCloskey 1991), Hebrew (Doron 1991; Goldberg 2005), Russian (Gribanova 2013a, b), and Hindi-Urdu (Manetta, 2018). The present paper concerns the socalled "adverb test" for diagnosing VVPE (e.g. Oku 1998; Goldberg 2005; Simpson, Chowdhury, and Menon 2013), and in particular a solution to the puzzling failure of this test in languages which have otherwise been argued to exhibit VVPE. I propose an account which posits that the apparent failure of the adverb test in these contexts emerges due to the interaction of ellipsis, verb movement, and contrastive polarity (following insights in Gribanova 2017). I claim that in contrastive environments in which the verb moves as high as a TP-external Polarity head, MaxElide will force ellipsis of the largest possible constituent. The upshot of this claim is that the string which would appear to indicate failure of the adverb test is not a string generated by ellipsis at all, but instead by a missing internal argument. This small project contributes to the wider program of recent work investigating the nature of head movement and its role in the syntax (Chomsky 2001; Hartman 2011; LaCara 2016; McCloskey 2016; Keine and Bhatt 2016; Gribanova and Mikkelsen, 2018; Manetta, 2018).


The evolutionary spectrum (ES) is a "time-varying power spectrum" of nonstationary random processes. Starting from an innovations system interpretation of the ES, we introduce the generalized evolutionary spectrum (GES) as a novel family of time-varying power spectra. The GES contains the ES and the transitory evolutionary spectrum as special cases. We consider the problem of finding an innovations system for a process characterized by its correlation function, and we discuss the connection between GES analysis and the class of underspread processes. Furthermore, we show that another special case of the GES-a novel time-varying power spectrum that we call the Weyl spectrum-has substantial advantages over all other members of the GES family. The properties of the Weyl spectrum are discussed, and its superior performance is verified experimentally for synthetic and real-data processes.


The rising levels of drug abuse among youths in the world require evidence-based, cost effective and research-informed intervention strategies. These strategies will need to be formulated around observed socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics of youths who abuse drugs. This paper presents reports of two studies which investigated the roles of psychoticism, social alienation, religious commitment, and thriving in drug abuse among secondary school students ( n = 293, 53% males) and undergraduates ( n = 300, 76% males) students in southeastern Nigeria. The emerging psychoactive substances of abuse among the students were also explored. Participants completed measures of the relevant variables and provided their demographic information. Psychoticism and social alienation were positively significant predictors of substance abuse among secondary school students, while thriving and religious commitment were negatively significant predictors of substance abuse among university undergraduates. It was suggested that psychological factors such as psychoticism, social alienation, thriving and religious commitment be considered in drug use policies and intervention programmes for young persons in Nigeria. Keywords: adolescents, drug abuse, intervention, prevention, psychoticism, thriving


A 38-year-old para 2 presented with the gradual onset of nausea vomiting and increasing left lower quadrant pain, at 33 weeks' gestation. She was known to have uterine leiomyomas, with ultrasonography depicting an 8-cm intramural fundal leiomyoma. In addition a left lateral nondiscrete 10 x 8-cm mass was depicted at the point of maximum tenderness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated diverticulosis of the descending and sigmoid colon. The patient remained afebrile and received repeated doses of intramuscular analgesics and was cleared by the surgical consultant, only to be readmitted with similar symptomatology 24 hours later. Subsequently, following repeat discharge she delivered at 34 weeks' gestation, and developed a small bowel obstruction during the immediate postpartum course. With the continued finding of a left lower abdominal mass and computed tomography findings suggestive of perforated sigmoid diverticulitis and resulting small bowel obstruction, laparotomy was performed. Multiple adhesions and phlegmon sequelae of chronic perforation of the sigmoid were confirmed, and a diverting descending colostomy and Hartman's procedure were performed. We present unusual MRI findings of diverticulitis in the third-trimester and review the literature pertaining to this unusual complication of pregnancy.


The Guidebook is a ready reckoner for transit agencies to help them adopt a calibrated approach to induct electric buses in their services. This is to ensure that the technology shift neither disrupts the quality of the bus service nor becomes burdensome for the transit agencies. Such a phased implementation hinges on several technical and financial considerations which are often inter-linked and limited by some constraints. To address this complex problem, the Guidebook suggests a six-step approach and two decision trees for transit agencies' reference for route prioritization and implementation planning


The fertility potential of male albino rats (wistar strain) treated with penicillin- treptomycin combination (PSC) was studied. Thirty apparently healthy male albino rats weighing between 150 and 160g were grouped into three (A-C) n=10. Group A received therapeutic (normal) dose 0.02ml and B received hyper-therapeutic dose (hyper-dose) 0.04ml of PSC intra-peritoneally for 7 days, respectively. Rats in group C were given feed and water serving as control within the same period after which 5 animals were randomly selected from each group A, B and C and were sacrificed. Semen samples were collected to study changes in sperm motility, liveability, morphological characteristics, and blood for haematology and serum testosterone profile. The remaining five animals in each group were given water and feed for another 7 days to check for recovery. There was a significant decrease (P 0.05) occurred in the blood parameters across the groups, however the serum testosterone profile and sperm liveability of groups A and B rats were significantly higher at 7 days post recovery than the values obtained at 7 days post- treatment with PSC. It was concluded that Penicillin-streptomycin administration in rats at both therapeutic and hyper-therapeutic doses for 7 days had a negative effects on their sperm motility, liveability, morphological characteristics and testosterone profile, thereby reduced the fertility potentials of wistar strain albino rats. Therefore, caution must be taken in its use for animals and prolonged administration should be discouraged.


The doubly salient permanent-magnet (DSPM) machine is a new class of stator-PM brushless machines, which inherently offers the fault-tolerant feature. In this paper, a new operation strategy is proposed and implemented for fault-tolerant DSPM motor drives. The key is to operate the DSPM motor drive in a remedial brushless ac (BLAC) mode under the open-circuit fault condition, while operating in the conventional brushless dc mode under normal condition. Both cosimulation and experimental results confirm that the proposed remedial BLAC operation can maintain the average torque, reduce the torque ripple, and retain the self-starting capability under the open-circuit fault.


: The DNA duplex 5'-d(GCCACAAGCTC).d(GAGCTGGTGGC), which contains a central G.A mismatch has been studied by one and two-dimensional NMR techniques. The duplex corresponds to the sequence 29-39 of the K-ras gene. The mismatch position is that of the first base of the Gly12 codon, a hot spot for mutations. The observed NOEs of the nonexchangeable protons show that both of the bases of the mismatched pair are intrahelical over a wide range of pH. However, the structure of the G.A mispair and the conformation of the central part of the duplex change with pH. This structural change shows a pK of 6.0. At low pH, the G.A bases are base paired with hydrogen bonds between the keto group of the G residue and the amino group of the A residue and, secondly, between the N7 of the G and a proton on N1 of A. This causes the G residue to adopt a syn conformation. On raising the pH, the N1-H proton of the protonated A residue is removed, and the base pair rearranges. In the neutral G.A base pair both residues adopt an anti conformation, and the mismatch is stabilized by hydrogen bonds. Our results on the exchangeable and A(H2) protons of the mismatched pair indicate a shift from a classical face-to-face two hydrogen-bonded structure to a slipped structure stabilized by bifurcated hydrogen bonds. This may be a particular characteristics of this oncogenic sequence in which the G.A error is poorly repaired.


The operationalisation in late 2014 of Regulation 1024/2013 conferring specific tasks on the European Central Bank concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions and establishing a Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSMR) has profoundly changed the European financial market regulatory and supervisory landscape. The most apparent change is the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the new integrated single supervisory framework in which it is responsible for the effective and consistent functioning of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). One prominent feature of the SSM are the arrangements concerning the application of national law by the ECB. Pursuant to Article 4 (3) sub-para. 1 SSMR, in applying all relevant Union law for the purpose of carrying out the tasks conferred on it by the SSMR, including all relevant secondary law, the ECB must not only apply national legislation by which options explicitly granted in regulations have been exercised, but also national legislation transposing relevant EU Directives. These arrangements have implications that surpass the operation of the SSMR itself, as they touch upon fundamental aspects of European legal doctrine that have received comparably less attention until now. By way of illustration, in this short written version of a contribution to the 2019 ECB Legal Conference the implications of two aspects linked to the application by a Union institution of national law are discussed: the direct application by the ECB of Directives that have been inadequately implemented into national law and, moreover, the exercise of public power by the ECB that is at least partially rooted in national law. The latter point has recently also been scrutinised by the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in its decision on the compatibility with the German Federal Constitution of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between type 2 diabetes, glucose-lowering therapies (monotherapy with either metformin, sulphonylurea or insulin) and cancer risk in Taiwan.

METHODS
Using Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes database of 1,000,000 random subjects from 2000-2008, we found 61777 patients with type 2 diabetes (age ≥20 years) and 677378 enrollees with no record of diabetes.

RESULTS
After adjusting for age and sex, we found patients with diabetes to have significantly higher risk of all cancers (OR: 1.176; 95% CI: 1.149-1.204, P < 0.001). Diabetic patients treated with insulin or sulfonylureas had significantly higher risk of all cancers, compared to those treated with metformin (OR: 1.583; 95% CI: 1.389-1.805, P < 0.001 and OR: 1.784; 95% CI: 1.406-2.262, P < 0.001). Metformin treatment was associated with a decreased risk of colon and liver cancer compared to sulphonylureas or insulin treatment. Sulfonylureas treatment was associated with an increased risk of breast and lung cancer compared to metformin therapy.

CONCLUSIONS
Taiwanese with type 2 diabetes are at a high risk of breast, prostate, colon, lung, liver and pancreatic cancer. Those treated with insulin or sulfonylureas monotherapy are more likely to develop colon and liver cancer than those treated with metformin.


Aim: One approach to regionally analyze temporal glucose consumption consists in drawing linear profiles over the maximal values measured in the temporal cortical ribbon. The aim of our study was to test the reproducibility of this method and to compare its diagnostic performance to that of visual analysis in patients with complex partial seizures (CPS). Methods: Regional cerebral glucose consumption (rCMRGIc) was measured interictally in 25 CPS patients and 10 controls using F-18-deoxyglucose and the positron emission tomography (PET) camera ECAT EXACT 47. The PET scans were visually analyzed for the occurrence of unilateral temporal hypometabolism. Furthermore, rCMRGIc was quantified on six contiguous coronal planes by manually tracing maximal values of temporal glucose consumption, thus creating line profiles of temporal glucose consumption for each side. Indices of asymmetry (ASY) were then calculated from these line profiles in four temporal regions and compared to the corresponding 95% confidence intervals of the control data. All analyses were performed by two observers independently from each other and without knowledge of the clinical findings. Results: The agreement between the two observers with regard to focus lateralization was 96% (k = 0.93) on visual analysis and 100% (k = 1) on quantitative analysis. There was an excellent agreement with regard to focus lateralization between visual and quantitative evaluation (k = 0.8). Conclusion: Quantitation of local temporal rCMRGIc by using linear profile analysis is highly reproducible; for the lateralization of epileptogenic foci, however, this method does not possess significant advantages over the visual evaluation of the scans.


Abstract:In research on the formation of the "book" of Psalms, there are four points of consensus regarding the use of Davidic superscriptions. They are seen as (1) having little value for the interpretation of individual psalms; (2) providing clues to the diachronic formation of the collection; (3) fundamental in the overall Davidization of the book of Psalms; and (4) important in the overall structure of the book of Psalms. There is some tension, however, between the second and the third points, with the observed Davidization bearing the potential of overturning the use made of Davidic superscriptions in diachronic reconstructions. In the current article, I revisit this issue by analyzing the way the superscriptions appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and argue that the variance observed indicates that Davidic superscriptions are not reliable clues to earlier collections of psalms.


Purpose: To evaluate the inhibitory effect of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on choroidal neovascularization (CNV) by posterior sub-Tenon administration using a laser-induced CNV model in the rat. Methods: Experimental CNV was induced by laser photocoagulation in Brown–Norway male rats. Experimental eyes received posterior sub-Tenon administration of either 2 mg (n = 10) or 0.5 mg (n = 8) of TA. Control eyes (n = 10) received posterior sub-Tenon administration of isotonic sodium chloride solution. Two weeks after treatment, CNV was evaluated by fluorescein angiography and histopathological examination. Concentrations of TA in the vitreous, retina, and choroid were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography at 3 and 7 days after posterior sub-Tenon administration. Results: The eyes treated with 2 mg of TA showed statistically significant inhibition of fluorescein leakage by fluorescein angiography, as compared with control eyes and eyes treated with 0.5 mg of TA (P < 0.01). The thickness of CNV membranes in eyes treated with 2 mg of TA also decreased statistically significantly, as compared with control eyes (P < 0.01). TA was detected in the vitreous, retina, and choroid 3 days after administration and in the choroid 7 days after administration. Conclusions: Posterior sub-Tenon administration of TA may be useful to treat CNV.


Abstract Two distinct and newly recognized, formation-scale stratigraphic units, predominantly red-bed sandstones and shales, are found on the surface and in the shallow subsurface of the central Michigan region. Here, we use core, field, and laboratory observations to document these strata, which we propose as one new formation, the Pewamo Formation. The Pewamo Formation consists of eolian quartz sandstones with red coloration due to iron-oxide diagenesis, and interbedded interdune lacustrine siliciclastic mudstones. We also describe for the first time the Haybridge strata, which contains red sandstones, red and gray shales, and coal, and has plant fossils and paleosol features. Macroscopic plant fossils and palynomorphs suggest a Pennsylvanian age for both units. These newly described continental deposits provide data about past environments, life, and climate for the late Carboniferous of Michigan. In addition, this study is an evaluation of Michigan's controversial "Jurassic red beds" and "Ionia sandstone."


The purpose of this study was to investigate the sensitivity of orientation and recent memory questions in the diagnosis of concussion. In a prospective study over 7 consecutive years (1985-1991), all players at a professional Australian Rules Football club who sustained a concussive injury (n = 28) were administered a set of questions evaluating orientation and recent memory. Concussion was diagnosed independently on the basis of loss or disturbance of consciousness and clinical symptoms. A control group of age-matched nonconcussed players was administered the same set of questions. The results showed that items evaluating recently acquired information were more sensitive in the assessment of concussion than standard orientation items. The relative sensitivity of orientation questions must be considered when they are used in the clinical diagnosis of concussion in sport.


The fate of naive CD8+ T cells is determined by the environment in which they encounter MHC class I presented peptide Ags. The manner in which tumor Ags are presented is a longstanding matter of debate. Ag presentation might be mediated by tumor cells in tumor draining lymph nodes or via cross-presentation by professional APC. Either pathway is insufficient to elicit protective antitumor immunity. We now demonstrate using a syngeneic mouse tumor model, expressing an Ag derived from the early region 1A of human adenovirus type 5, that the inadequate nature of the antitumor CTL response is not due to direct Ag presentation by the tumor cells, but results from presentation of tumor-derived Ag by nonactivated CD11c+ APC. Although this event results in division of naive CTL in tumor draining lymph nodes, it does not establish a productive immune response. Treatment of tumor-bearing mice with dendritic cell-stimulating agonistic anti-CD40 mAb resulted in systemic efflux of CTL with robust effector function capable to eradicate established tumors. For efficacy of anti-CD40 treatment, CD40 ligation of host APC is required because adoptive transfer of CD40-proficient tumor-specific TCR transgenic CTL into CD40-deficient tumor-bearing mice did not lead to productive antitumor immunity after CD40 triggering in vivo. CpG and detoxified LPS (MPL) acted similarly as agonistic anti-CD40 mAb with respect to CD8+ CTL efflux and tumor eradication. Together these results indicate that dendritic cells, depending on their activation state, orchestrate the outcome of CTL-mediated immunity against tumors, leading either to an ineffective immune response or potent antitumor immunity.


A clock synchronization algorithm was given by P. Verissimo et al. (1989), dubbed a posteriori agreement, a variant of the convergence nonaveraging technique. By exploiting the characteristics of broadcast networks, the effect of message delivery delay variance is largely reduced. In consequence, the precision achieved by the algorithm is drastically improved. Accuracy preservation is near to optimal. A particular materialization of this algorithm, implemented as a time service of the xAMp group communications system, is given here. The algorithm was implemented using some of the primitives offered by xAMp, which simplified the work and stressed its advantages. Performance results for this implementation obtained on two different infrastructures are presented. Timings validate the design choices and clearly show that the algorithm is able to provide improved precision without compromising accuracy and reliability.<<ETX>>


Iron and silicon in various proportions are the major components of the newly formed hydrothermal sediments in the Atlantis II Deep, Red Sea. Iron-rich 2:1 phyllosilicates with morphologies varying from ribbons to plates represent clays in initial formation stage. Well-crystallized goethite particles contain domains of hundreds of nanometers in length with the rare presence of dislocations. Molar compositions show ratios of Si/Fe = 0.12 and Al/Fe = 0.05. Euhedral feroxyhyte with curled edges forms clusters with the goethite. The feroxyhyte has ratios of Si/Fe = 0.3 and are the major Si-associated iron oxides. Two nanometer-size phases showing short range periodity are common in the newly formed Atlantis II sediments: (1) hematite with traces of Si and (2) ferrihydrite with Si/Fe molar ratios varying between 0.17–0.89. The ferrihydrite forms large clusters. Hematite appears also as well-crystallized large crystals. Feroxyhyte probably forms at the transition zone between Red Sea Deep Water and the upper convective layer in the brine, whereas goethite and ferrihydrite form in the upper convective layer. The two forms of hematite represent two stages of recrystallization, which occur within the brine.


Continual learning has become increasingly important as it enables NLP models to constantly learn and gain knowledge over time. Previous continual learning methods are mainly designed to preserve knowledge from previous tasks, without much emphasis on how to well generalize models to new tasks. In this work, we propose an information disentanglement based regularization method for continual learning on text classification. Our proposed method first disentangles text hidden spaces into representations that are generic to all tasks and representations specific to each individual task, and further regularizes these representations differently to better constrain the knowledge required to generalize. We also introduce two simple auxiliary tasks: next sentence prediction and task-id prediction, for learning better generic and specific representation spaces. Experiments conducted on large-scale benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in continual text classification tasks with various sequences and lengths over state-of-the-art baselines. We have publicly released our code at https://github.com/GT-SALT/IDBR.


The Svara yoga concept of Ida, Pingala and Susumna svara representing rest, active and turbulent states was examined in this study by recording nostril dominance (svara) and bilateral volar GSR (galvanic skin resistance) as an indicator of sympathetic activity under field and laboratory conditions. The sympathetic activity was low in Ida svara, followed by Pingala svara and was maximum in Susumna svara group of subjects under both field and laboratory conditions which agreed with the traditional Svara yoga description. The volar GSR on the right side more readily varied with svara, particularly so in the physically relaxed subjects of laboratory condition than the left volar GSR. The latter observation was worth noting because the subjects were right handed. The right side could be recommended as the standard site for recording volar GSR to closely reflect the sympathetic activity, particularly so when physical rest was given to subjects.


As wind turbines operate within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), the study of their interaction with the ABL flow can help us better understand and predict their performance. In addition to the performance of wind turbines, this interaction has an effect on the flow both upwind and downwind (i.e., wake region) of the turbines. In particular, the study of turbine wakes is of great importance because they are the main cause of power losses and fatigue loads in wind farms. In the current thesis, four studies are conducted to fully examine the turbine interaction with the ABL flow, with an emphasis on turbine wakes. In the first study, a new analytical wake model is proposed and validated to predict the wind velocity distribution in the far-wake region, where downwind turbines usually operate. The proposed model is derived by applying the conservation of mass and momentum and assuming a Gaussian distribution for the velocity deficit in the wake. This simple model only requires one parameter to predict the velocity distribution in the far wake of a wind turbine. In general, it is found that the velocity deficit in the wake predicted by the proposed analytical model is in good agreement with the experimental and numerical data. Furthermore, the results show that the new model predicts the power extracted by downwind wind turbines more accurately than other common analytical models, some of which are based on less accurate assumptions like considering a top-hat shape for the velocity deficit. In the second study, wind tunnel measurements are carried out to systematically investigate turbine wakes under yawed conditions. The detailed experimental data are used to perform a budget study of the continuity and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. This theoretical analysis reveals some notable features of the wakes of yawed turbines, such as the asymmetric distribution of the wake skew angle with respect to the wake center. Under highly yawed conditions, the formation of a counter-rotating vortex pair in the wake cross-section as well as the vertical displacement of the wake center are also shown and analyzed. Finally, this study enables us to develop general governing equations upon which a simple and computationally inexpensive analytical model is built. The proposed model aims at predicting the wake deflection and the far-wake velocity distribution for yawed turbines. The findings of this study can be especially useful to assess the possibility of optimizing wind-farm power production by controlling the yaw angle of the turbines. In the third study, comprehensive wind tunnel experiments are performed to study the interaction of a turbulent boundary layer with a wind turbine operating under different tip-speed ratios and yaw angles. Force and power measurements are performed to characterize the wind turbine performance. Moreover, a high-resolution stereoscopic particle-image velocimetry (S-PIV) system and hot-wire anemometry are used to study the flow in the upwind, near-wake and far-wake regions. This study provides new insights on the turbine and flow characteristics such as the evolution of tip vortices and wake meandering. Finally, the last study concerns the design and the performance analysis of a new three-bladed horizontal-axis miniature wind turbine with a rotor diameter of $15$ cm. Due to its small size, this turbine is particularly suitable for studies of wind farm flows and the interaction of the turbine with an incoming boundary-layer flow. Special emphasis is placed on accurate measurements of the mechanical power extracted by the miniature turbine from the incoming wind. In order to do so, a new setup is developed to measure the torque of the rotor shaft. The thrust and power coefficients of the miniature turbine are found to be around $0.8$ and $0.4$ in optimal conditions, respectively, which are close to the ones of large-scale turbines in the field.


Abstract Background Large datasets of detailed anthropometric measurements are scarce in children. The Japanese Standard Association 1978–1981 survey provides a rare opportunity to use high quality data from Japanese children. Aim To construct inside leg length (ILL) and inside leg length to stature ratio (ILL/S) reference centile curves for Japanese children. Subjects and methods The study sample consisted of 14,825 boys and 14,577 girls age 0–18 years for stature and weight measurements, and 9064 boys and 8796 girls age 0–12 years for ILL measurements, who participated in the 1978–1981 national survey on body sizes. LMS method was used to construct the reference centile curves. The reference centile curves for stature, weight, ILL, and ILL/S were compared to those of British children. Results The L, M, and S reference values for Japanese children are presented for stature, weight, ILL, and ILL/S. Compared with British children of 0–12 years of age, Japanese children of 0–12 years of age had shorter median stature, shorter median ILL, and shorter median ILL/S. Conclusion We present the first reference values for ILL and ILL/S in Japanese children. Japanese children had relatively shorter legs compared to British children from infancy.


Benz(a)pyrene content in the samples of salt obtained from water ground of the Krasnodar field was assayed by means of the spectral fluorescent method. The table salt "Extra" manufactured by the Slavyansk salt-works supplying the trade network (GOST 13830-68) served as control. 15 samples (60 reference standards) were examined. It was established that 3 of 5 tested samples obtained from purified concentrated brine of water ground of the Krasnodar field contained benz(a)pyrene in an amount of 0.0351 microgram/kg up to 0.16 microgram/kg. Benz(a)pyrene (0.104 microgram/kg) was detected in 1 of 4 tested samples of the salt "Extra". It is concluded that tested salt samples obtained from concentrated brine of water ground of the Krasnodar field contain an insignificant amount of benz(a)pyrene.


Collective processes of organizational knowledge creation remain poorly explored. Yet efficient knowledge management has to focus on those processes as far as it aims at dealing with sustaining knowledge development and knowledge sharing rather than solely its memorization. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of two processes of knowledge creation within a business intelligence unit. This analysis leads to a five stages model that can be used either as a descriptive or prescriptive tool for knowledge management.


The concept and political initiatives in support of Industry 4.0 have been a hot topic on the agenda of major industry events for several years. And as a result, today we are seeing a range of products and services to meet these needs. But what is the hype about Industry 4.0? Do current available approaches deliver what they promise? What has lived on from the original hype of Industry 4.0 from its starting point in 2011?. As Industry 4.0 has evolved, so too has our understanding of it over time. In politics, digitization has become the measure of all things. However, in its application to the theory, some promises regarding the potential of the digital revolution have disappeared. In the manufacturing sector specifically, there is more uncertainty as to how Industry 4.0 can be truly implemented on the factory floor.


The electrochemical and transport properties and thermal stability of epoxy coatings electrodeposited on aluminium and modified aluminium surfaces (anodized, phosphatized and chromatized-phosphatized aluminium) have been investigated in 3% NaCl solution by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), gravimetric liquid sorption experiment and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Higher values of pore resistance and charge-transfer resistance and lower values of coating capacitance and double layer capacitance were observed for epoxy coatings on anodized and chromatized and phosphatized aluminium. Smaller values of diffusion coefficient of water through epoxy coating from sorption measurements and smaller amount of absorbed water inside the coatings from TGA were obtained for coatings on anodized and chromatized-phosphatized aluminium. On the other hand, the somewhat lower thermal stability of these coatings was obtained.


Recent P2P systems, represented by Oceanstore and PAST, offer an administration-free and fault-tolerant storage utility. Nodes in these systems collectively contribute towards a storage space, in a self-organizing fashion. While elegant from a theoretical perspective, they can be improved in three important areas: (i) low maintenance cost; (ii) the ability to make discriminative use of the nodes in the system that has different capacity and resource constraints; (iii) the ability to adapt to the underlying network conditions and the applications' needs. In this paper, we explore "expressways" as an auxiliary mechanism to deliver high routing performance, leaving the baseline infrastructure concentrating on tasks such as efficient resource utilization and simple management. The basic ideas of our proposal are to divide the total space in the overlay network into topology areas of different spans; we then select candidates in these areas to collectively construct a balanced, self-organized expressway system. By archiving the relevant system information (e.g., physical coordinates of the nodes) as objects stored on the system itself, we can further tune the expressway dynamically to fit both physical network conditions and application needs. Using CAN as the target system, we show that expressways can easily boost its routing performance from O(N1/d) to O(ln N), while keeping CAN's low maintenance cost. Our simulation studies show that our techniques to tune the expressways toward network conditions reduce the routing latency to about 50% over the default "random strategy" while staying within 2-3 times of the optimal. Furthermore, our simple heuristics to adjust the expressways toward application behavior can further reduce the physical latency up to 19%. Our mechanisms are robust and flexible, irrespective to the physical distribution of the participating nodes.


Suspended sediments load estimation in the Indus River and its important tributaries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan is presented to determine siltation in major reservoirs in the area and to create a strategy to minimize and/or control this risk for the enhancement of hydel energy production, irrigation, and other domestic purposes. The study area is part of an orogenically active region along the northwestern collision zone of Indian-Eurasian plates. During spring and summer suspended sediment load is highest, but least in winter. Sediment load of all rivers studied is directly proportional to the melting of glaciers and/or high rainfall during spring and summer. Glacier melt, rainfall, lithology of rocks (shale, slate, phyllite, mudstone, and siltstone), discharge, and other anthropogenic factors caused the high suspended load in rivers. Mostly the fine sediments settle during winter due to flow velocity of rivers reducing appreciably and residence time of water increasing in reservoirs. The high sediment influx deposition in major reservoirs like the Terbella and Warsak, etc. reduces their storage capacity as well as power generation capacity. So it is proposed that life span of these reservoirs can be lengthened by the construction of small check dams (silt control dams) on upstream, dam cleaning tactics, effective watershed management, extensive afforestation on the steep mountain slopes upstream of the lake, and the use of runoff rivers for electricity generation using steep gradient and fast flow velocity.


Selective Modal Analysis (SMA) has been used in the design of WAMS based damping of inter-area oscillations. In conjunction with a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) formulation and a polytopic model a single control law can be found to guarantee pole placement for multiple contingencies. The previous attempts have used a model containing all the ε and ω modes, with SMA used to eliminate all other states. In practical applications the resulting system is still too large to use in a polytopic model. This paper presents an algorithm to further reduce the system size to the relevant modes of oscillations. A 16 machine, 68 bus system is used as the test case with PSSs, DC lines and SVCs acting as the control.


The changes in climate led to the increased importance of environmental monitoring. In order to determine the quality of the environment, continuous tracking of the environmental parameter is needed. .As the IoT is the most emerging technology, it plays an important role in collecting the information from the sensing unit. Generally sensing unit is composed of different sensors like temperature, humidity, moisture etc., the paper uses an Arduino UNO, Wi-Fi module that helps in processing and transferring the sensed data to the Thingspeak cloud. Thus the parameters received is stored in the cloud platform (Thing speak). The changes in the environment is updated in the form of a database through the cloud computing method. Thing speak also provide a feature to create a public based channel to analyze and estimate it through the public. An Android application is created for the direct access of the measured parameters


The 8th Annual International Conference on Material Science and Engineering (ICMSE 2020) was successfully held in Guiyang, Guizhou, China, from August 14 to August 15, 2020. The ICMSE2020 is becoming one of the leading international conferences for presenting novel and fundamental advances in the fields of material science and engineering in China. We believe that through keynote speeches by outstanding, internationally recognized scholars, in oral sessions and posters presentations, the Conference has reflected an overview of the latest developments in materials science. The topics of ICMSE 2020 ensured an exchange of scientific information and opinions in a field with impressive dynamics, considering the technological progress, theoretical and practical aspects of the research. This forum provides opportunities for the senior and young researchers, as well as representatives to the academia and industry, to exchange new ideas, to establish research or business relations and to find partners for future collaboration. We hope that the conference has constituted significant contribution to the knowledge in this up to date scientific field. This proceeding tends to collect the up-to-date, comprehensive and worldwide state-of-art knowledge on material science and engineering. All of accepted papers were subjected to strict peer-reviewing by 3-5 expert referees. The papers have been selected for this proceedings based on originality, significance, and clarity for the purpose of the conference. The selected papers and additional late-breaking contributions made an exciting technical program on conference. The conference program was extremely rich, featuring invited keynote speeches, panel discussions, high-impact oral and poster presentations. The keynote speaker is internationally recognized leading expert in the research field of material science and engineering, who have demonstrated outstanding proficiency and have achieved distinction in their profession. We hope this conference will not only provide the participants a broad overview of the latest research results on material science and engineering, but also provide the participants a significant platform to build academic connect ions. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the members of Technical Program Committee and organizers for their enthusiasm, time, and expertise. Our deep thanks also go to many volunteers and staffs for the long hours and hard work they have generously given to ICMSE 2020. List of Chair, Editor, Chair of TPC and Technical Program Committee are available in this pdf.


The resumption of meiosis results in synthesis of tissue‐type plasminogen activator (tPA) in the rat and mouse oocytes (Haurte et al., Cell 43:551–558, 1985). The present study demonstrates that freshly ovulated rat oocytes released their tPA into the surrounding medium upon in vitro activation by sperm penetration or treatment with a calcium ionophore. The presence of a neutralizing monoclonal anti‐tPA antibody during in vitro activation by the calcium ionophore inhibited the activation‐induced zona hardening and also preserved the ability of the oocyte to be penetrated by sperm subsequent to activation. Rat oocytes undergo zona hardening during in vitro maturation in the absence of serum, presumably as a result of spontaneous cortical granule release, based on findings in mice and hamsters. In the present study, the anti‐tPA antibody prevented the zona hardening and enhanced partition by spermatozoa of rat oocytes that were matured in vitro without serum. Collectively, the observations reported here suggest a possible role of tPA released during the cortical granule reaction in the zona reaction, which contributes to the block to polyspermy.


Objectives: The hemodynamic changes of Twin–twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) induce the deterioration of cardiac function among recipient twins. N-terminal-prohormone BNP (NT-proBNP) is one of biomarkers for cardiac ventricular wall stress and elevated amniotic fluid NT-proBNP (afNT-proBNP) has been reported in severe TTTS cases. However, it is unclear which ultrasonographic parameters could non-invasively detect ventricular wall stress. We investigated the relationships between afNT-proBNP levels and ultrasonographic parameters in recipient twins. Methods: This prospective study included monochorionic twin pregnancies complicated with TTTS from 2015 to 2020. Pulsed Doppler evaluation of umbilical artery (UA), ductus venosus (DV), and middle cerebral artery (MCA) flow was performed, and their pulsatility indices (PI) were measured in both recipient and donor twins. AfNT-proBNP was measured using recipient's amniotic fluid samples obtained at the time of fetoscopic laser surgery and afNT-proBNP level was corrected by amniotic fluid total protein (TP) levels. Results: 124 TTTS cases were included in this study. Gestational age at surgery and discordant rate of estimated fetal weight did not show significant correlation with afNT-proBNP/TP (p > 0.05). Recipient's DV-PI showed a strong positive correlation with afNT-proBNP/TP (r = 0.679, p < 0.001), and UA-PI (r = 0.261, p = 0.004) and MCA-PI (r = -0.332, p < 0.001) also showed weak correlations with afNT-proBNP/TP. On the other hand, donor's DV-PI (r = 0.268, p = 0.003), UA-PI (r = 0.227, p = 0.013) and MCA-PI (r = 0.251, p = 0.007) showed weak correlations with afNT-proBNP/TP. Conclusions: Elevated recipient's DV-PI reflected increased NT-proBNP levels in amniotic fluid. In contrast, recipient's afNT-proBNP did not have strong correlations with donor's Doppler parameters. It seems that DV is directly influenced by cardiac pressure-volume changes, which results in effectively detecting recipient's ventricular wall stress caused by TTTS.


The three‐transducer free‐field reciprocity calibration technique has been extended to apply to ultrasonic transducers operating in air at frequencies above 100 kHz. The reciprocity method was extended to apply to this frequency range by correcting for attenuation, which is severe in air, and for diffraction. Validation of the extended reciprocity calibration technique was performed by comparing experimental measurements of receive and transmit sensitivity over the frequency range 100–500 kHz with predictions obtained from a mathematical model for the test transducers and calibration system. It is believed that these are the first measurements of absolute sensitivity to appear in the technical literature for transducers operating in this frequency range in air. Receive and transmit sensitivity measurements obtained with the extended reciprocity calibration technique agreed to within 2.5 dB of model predictions. The location of the resonance peaks in the sensitivity measurements had a maximum difference of...


This study was designed to determine whether there was any difference in the T-cell subset counts and serum immunoglobulin concentrations in patients with chronic renal failure as compared to normal controls. Ninety individuals participated in the study. These were divided into three groups as follows; (i) 30 subjects with normal renal function; (ii) 30 subjects with chronic renal failure (CRF)(creatinine clearance 10-50 mls/min), not requiring haemodialysis and; (iii) 30 subjects with end stage renal disease (creatinine clearance < 10 mls/min) on haemodialysis. The subjects in the three groups were matched for age and sex. In addition, it was ascertained that none of the subjects was on any medication or suffered from any ailment known to interfere with the immune system. The T-cell subset counts were carried out using flow cytometry while the serum concentration of immunoglobulins was measured using the radio-immunodiffusion method. Patients with CRF, whether on haemodialysis or not, had significantly lower lymphocyte counts as a proportion of total white cell count (19% and 19.2% respectively versus 39%) and low absolute CD4 cell counts per mm3 (337 +/- 94 and 449 +/- 116 respectively versus 891 +/- 360) and CD8 cell counts per mm3 (437 +/- 234 and 490 +/- 176 respectively versus 644 +/- 228) as compared to normals, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups with CRF. The CD4: CD8 ratios in the three groups studied were 1.487 +/- 0.233, 0.961 +/- 0.326 and 0.751 +/- 0.167 respectively, being significantly higher in normal controls than in any of the groups with CRF (p < 0.05) and in the group with CRF not requiring dialysis than in those requiring it (p < 0.05). The serum concentration of immunoglobulins in the two groups with CRF were similar to those in the group with normal renal function. It is concluded that CRF represents a state of immunodeficiency not significantly corrected by haemodialysis.


Air pollution and its relationship to the ecosystem and human life has always been the subject of a significant amount of study. The effect of highway air emissions on urban air quality has been studied for many years. This report contains a simulation of a single intersection in an urban area, using Arena®, a general purpose simulation program, and taking into account dynamic and stochastic considerations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) emission factors for idling situations were used to measure the emission of carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxide (Nox) for the delay time. The simulation result predicts emission levels to be higher in a two-phase plan (unprotected left lane) with three different cycle times studied in this case (90, 120, and 140 seconds) compared to a three-phase plan (a protected left lane). However, the degree to which a two-phase plan is positively correlated with intersection cycle time suggests that a multi-faceted approach needs be taken in implementing modifications to reduce overall emissions.


This guide will provide information to facilitate the transition from the "legacy" version of PubMed to the new version, and provide alternative means of searching MEDLINE.


This article presents a comparative study of the pefiormance of three operating systems that run on the personal computer architecture derived from the IBM-PC. The operating systems, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, and NetBSD (a freely available variant of the UNIX operating system), cover a broad range of system functionality and user requirements, from a single-address-space model to full protection with preemptive multitasking, Our measurements are enabled by hardware counters in Intel's Pentium processor that permit measurement of a broad range of processor events including instruction counts and on-chip cache miss counts, We use both microbenchmarks, which expose spcific differences between the systems, and application workloads, which provide an indication of expected end-to-end performance, Our microbenchmark results show that accessing system functionality is often more expensive in Windows for Workgroups than in the other two systems due to frequent changes in machine mode and the use of system call hooks. When running native applications, Windows NT is more efficient than Windows, but it incurs overhead similar tQthat of a microkernel, since its application interface (the Win32 API) is implemented as a user-level server. Overall, system functionality can be accessed most efficiently in NetBSD; we attribute this to its monolithic structure and to the absence of the complications created by hardware backward-compatibility requirements in the other systems, Measurements of application performance show that although the impact of these differences is significant in terms of instruction counts and other hardware eventa (often a factor of 2 to 7 difference between the systems), overall performance is sometimes determined by the functionality provided by specific subsystems, such as the graphics subsystem or the file system buffer cache.


Boarding out and fostering poor children was a favoured method of poor relief in many rural areas in northern Europe. This article discusses children who were boarded out to foster-parents by public auction in a rural parish in northern nineteenth-century Sweden. Poverty was the main reason why children were boarded out, frequently associated with loss of parents and difficulties in providing for a large household. It is suggested that the Swedish system of boarding out poor children must be understood in the context of a welfare system where cost efficiency was important. The auction method was used in spite of the risks involved because it was considered to be the best way to provide poor children with food, clothes, shelter and care, while keeping the compensation to the foster-parents at a reasonably low level.


The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of green tea on the level of blood pressure and LDL in patient with hypertension at UPT Pelayanan Sosial Lansia Pasuruan. The design was a quasi experimental study using a equivalent control group with pre and post test approach. A total sampling of 20 patients employed as an intervention group and a control group of 20 patients. Green tea have showed a ability to reduce the level of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p= 0,001). It is recommended to conduct further research using appropriate number of samples, composition test of green tea characteristic, and also using repeated measure approach.


Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been considered as a promising new tool to combat the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis. However, the high toxicity and high cost of AMPs hampered their further development. Herein, a series of star poly(L-lysine) (PLL) homo- and copolymers with excellent antimicrobial activity and improved biocompatibility were prepared by the combination of ultra-fast ring opening polymerization (ROP) and side-chain modification. The amine-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer (Gx-PAMAM) mediated ROP of Nε-tert-butyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine N-carboxyanhydride (Boc-L-Lys-NCA) and γ-benzyl-L-glutamic acid-based N-carboxyanhydride (PBLG-NCA) was able to prepare star PLL homo- and copolymers with 400 residues within 50 min. While the star PLL homopolymers exhibited low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC = 50-200 μg mL-1) against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (i.e., S. aureus and E. coli), they showed high toxicity against various mammalian cell lines. The star PLL copolymers with low contents of hydrophobic and hydroxyl groups showed enhanced antimicrobial activity (MIC = 25-50 μg mL-1) and improved mammalian cell viability. Both SEM and CLSM results indicated the antimicrobial mechanism of membrane disruption.


Direct-infusion mass spectrometry (MS) was applied to study the metabolic effects of the symbiosis between the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium lolii and its host perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) in three different tissues (immature leaf, blade, and sheath). Unbiased direct-infusion MS using a linear ion trap mass spectrometer allowed metabolic effects to be determined free of any preconceptions and in a high-throughput fashion. Not only the full MS mass spectra (range 150–1,000 mass-to-charge ratio) were obtained but also MS and MS product ion spectra were collected on the most intense MS ions as described previously (Koulman et al., 2007b). We developed a novel computational methodology to take advantage of the MS product ion spectra collected. Several heterogeneous MS bins (different MS spectra from the same nominal MS) were identified with this method. Exploratory data analysis approaches were also developed to investigate how the metabolome differs in perennial ryegrass infected with N. lolii in comparison to uninfected perennial ryegrass. As well as some known fungal metabolites like peramine and mannitol, several novel metabolites involved in the symbiosis, including putative cyclic oligopeptides, were identified. Correlation network analysis revealed a group of structurally related oligosaccharides, which differed significantly in concentration in perennial ryegrass sheaths due to endophyte infection. This study demonstrates the potential of the combination of unbiased metabolite profiling using ion trap MS and advanced data-mining strategies for discovering unexpected perturbations of the metabolome, and generating new scientific questions for more detailed investigations in the future.


The objective of the present study was to employ a transesophageal atrial pacing (TAP) technique that would permit the use of the lowest possible currents for consistent atrial capture (CAC) and a more accurate recording system. An electrode catheter containing five poles (E1 to E5) spaced 22 mm apart was constructed, with pole E1 being the most cranial one. The catheter was introduced nasally into the esophagus of eleven adult healthy volunteers, and five unipolar intraesophageal leads were recorded and analyzed until the tracings obtained with E2, E3 and E4 showed P waves of the highest potentials, when the catheter was fixed in place. An electric generator specially constructed for TAP was used. CAC was attempted with each of the 20 stimulating bipoles formed by the permutations of the five poles of the fixed catheter. The least voltage needed for CAC in each individual was always detected in at least one of the six stimulating bipoles formed by the permutations involving poles E2, E3 and E4. Thus, in the population studied as a whole, the minimum voltage range needed to obtain TAP was between 5 and 15 V (mean 11.2 +/- 3.0 V), which was tolerated quite well by the individuals. Pulse durations of more than 10 ms did not lead to use of significantly lower voltages for CAC. Six simultaneous tracings were used during and after TAP, and at least one of them recorded intraesophageal or esophago-thoracic bipolar leads.


Grain-oriented electrical steels are highly anisotropic by design. An optimised grain growth is induced during their manufacturing process in order to ensure that the global easy direction of magnetisation lies in the rolling direction of the steel sheet. This is achieved by exploiting the anisotropic properties of the cubic crystals of silicon-iron. The magnetic properties of these materials can crudely be approximated to a cubic single crystal. This model is widely used for representing the anisotropic magnetization characteristics of the materials. Anisotropic magnetization characteristics of two commercially produced grain-oriented steels have been determined in 10/spl deg/ steps, between 0/spl deg/ and 90/spl deg/ to the rolling direction, and their comparison shows that for accurate representation of the materials a large number of BH curves is required instead of the ones usually considered at 0, 55 and 90/spl deg/ to the rolling direction. >


Navigation is a technique for determining the position and the direction of an object to travel in the real environment. This navigation system is implemented on an autonomous mobile robot in order to determine the position of the robot on its environment and to determine the direction of the movement. In this project, Fuzzy Kohonen Network (FKN) method is applied as an autonomous mobile robot navigation system. This method is chosen because it has a fast response movement in avoiding obstacles on the several environmental conditions and able to recognize patterns of the surrounding environment, so that the robot can move freely and precisely by itself.
In this project, a hardware module that used to detect environmental patterns is 5 pieces of infrared proximity sensors which are placed at 5 directions. Hardware modules that use of the robot actuator are 2 pieces DC-motor that are placed on the left and right, and a free-wheel in front. In this project, reliability testing of robotic navigation system is conducted for 21 environmental classifications, simple environment, complex environment and unstructured environment that result compared with the Fuzzy Logic method.
As results of validation of proposed technique such as the percentage of success for pattern recognition is 86, 67 %and time processing of FKN method known 160 ms faster compared to Fuzzy Logic method. In the simple and complex environment, the data is obtained for the change angle of FKN is 28,24˚ → 28,63˚ → 29,02˚ → 29,80˚, while the Fuzzy Logic is 12,16˚ → 13,33˚ → 13,73˚ → 29,80˚. From these data the robot-based FKN known action movement by recognizing patterns encountered, while the Fuzzy Logic method action is slower because it is based on the calculated speed of the active rule. In unstructured environments, the robot navigation system with Fuzzy Logic stop at the position of time 432 x 32 ms (unstructured environment 1) and at position 288 x 32 ms time (unstructured environment 2), while in the robot navigation system using FKN successfully exploring the environment.


Academic Administration Bureau is a bureau considered asstandards for giving service to all students of Informaticsand Business Institute Darmajaya (IBI Darmajaya).Information system at this bureau plays an important rolein providing service to the students and is expected to beable to improve job performance and service quality. Forthe time being the implemented service information systemat Academic Administration Bureau has not been muchbenefited and not known whether it is in accordance withthe vision and mission of the institution.To make the service offered by the academicadministration bureau relevant to the business goal of theinstitution, it is required to know the conformity levelbetween TI goal and Institutional goal. To obtain theconformity level between TI goal and institutional goal, itneeds a measurement of conformity level between the twogoals by using COBIT 4.1.The result finding of the research is the conformity levelbetween TI goal and institutional goal is obtained andstands at Defined level because the average of TI processeshas been above the international level standard as 2.5(Guldentops, 2000). Even though the average of TIprocesses has been over the international level standard,there are still some TI processes below the internationalstandard, so it requires recommendation to increase theconformity between TI goal and institutional goal to reacha higher level. KEY WORDS: Maturity level, Expected, InformationSystem, Asset Management, COBIT


Graphics processing units (GPUs) are attractive for high-performance computing due to their massively parallel architecture, modest power consumption, and relatively low cost. Recent attempts were made to speed up the chemical kinetics in reactive-flow simulations. However, these approaches did not realize the full potential of the GPU as inter-processor communication was intensive. In some popular high-fidelity closure models, there is a very large set (e.g. 10 4 –10 6 ) of independent chemical kinetics integrations to perform. This leads to a new strategy of performing all the chemistry integrations on the GPU to minimize communication between the CPU and GPU and to maximize the computational load on the GPU. We demonstrated this technique with a detailed hydrogen kinetics system (9 species and 38 reactions) and observed a speed up factor of 70. Also, the computing time on the GPU is short enough that when the CPU is designed to handle the transport terms, the impact of chemistry on the overall computational "clock time" is minimal. Thus, for practical-scale LES simulations, the GPU allows the inclusion of detailed kinetics in closure models.


The surface chemistry and activity of a range of supported-palladium catalysts, known for their high
activity in methane oxidation reactions, were studied using near-ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) and in-situ mass spectrometry. Using NAP-XPS, the chemical state of the catalyst
was monitored under 0.33 mbar of a methane and oxygen gas mixture and a temperature ramp up
to 800 K. In-situ mass-spectrometry was able to quantify the partial pressures of reactants and products
throughout the temperature ramp, and the chemical state of the catalyst as determined by NAP-XPS
was correlated to product formation. As a result, the impact of Pd particle size and support material on
catalytic behaviour was studied, in addition to finding the active state of the catalyst.
For supported-Pd catalysts on Al2O3, SiO2 and SiO2-Al2O3, NAP-XPS showed PdO to be the dominant
oxidation state at 500 – 600 K. Despite a gas ratio of [CH4]:[O2] = 2, the complete oxidation of methane
is favoured at these temperatures where CO2 and H2O are produced. PdO, therefore, was found to be
the active state for complete methane oxidation. As the O2 depletes and the temperature increases to
>650 K, PdO reduces to PdOx, where 0 ≤ x < 1. The partial pressures of CO2 and H2O decrease and
syngas formation (H2 and CO), the product of partial methane oxidation, is dominant, suggesting reduced
Pd is the active state for partial methane oxidation. From NAP-XPS, it is possible to identify this
change in oxidation state from a shift in binding energy. The temperature at which the shift from high to
low binding energy of the Pd 3d peaks occurs corresponds to the onset temperature of syngas, as determined
by mass spectrometry. A particle size effect was observed for Pd/Al2O3 and Pd/SiO2 catalysts
with Pd particle size ranges of 4 – 10 nm and 2 – 6 nm respectively, whereby the onset temperature of
syngas, and the temperature at which PdO reduced, decreased with increasing particle size. This effect
suggests that a larger particle size is more active towards partial methane oxidation, due to a greater
metal-support interaction, and hence decreased reducibility, of smaller sized particles. The reactivity of support materials increased in the order: SiO2 < SiO2-Al2O3 < Al2O3.


After Matteo Salvini announced his plan of holding snap elections, the former Italian prime minister (Presidente del Consiglio), Matteo Renzi, launched the idea to postpone elections by forming a transitional government supported by the Partito democratico and the MoVimento 5 stelle, amongst others. Renzi knows that, according to the polls, Salvini's political party (the Lega) could win the elections and form a government with Fratelli d'Italia, a post-fascist and still far-right party or with Forza Italia, the party created by Silvio Berlusconi. But would this move prevent a populist government?


Inferring land use from satellite images is extensively studied by the remote sensing and pattern recognition communities. In previous studies, the focus was on classifying large regions due to the resolution of available satellite images. Nowadays, very high-resolution satellite imagery (Ikonos and Quickbird) allows researchers to focus on more complex land-use problems such as monitoring development in urban regions. Solutions to these complex problems may improve the life standards of city residents. To this end, we focus on automatically monitoring construction zones using their very high-resolution panchromatic satellite images through time. To monitor land development, we obtain sequential images of a selected region. Then, we extract features from each image in the sequence. Comparing values of these features, we expect to measure the degree of land development through time. In a similar study, we introduced graph theoretical measures over Ikonos imagery to measure organization in a given satellite image. This paper is an extension of our previous work with more powerful new features. Here, we first introduce a novel method to extract straight line segments using a least squares ellipse fitting. Then, we introduce four new graph theoretical features. More importantly, we introduce a novel method to embed the spatial information in gray-level co-occurrence matrix statistical features to measure land development. Finally, we test all our existing and new features to measure land development in 19 different urban construction zones. Our test set consists of Ikonos satellite images of these regions captured in separate times.


Several scholars, such as Corneliis de Waard (1933) and Frances Amalia Yates (1947), have suggested that Marin Mersenne may have translate d some parts (or even the whole) of Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum. Th is supposed translation, into Latin, according to De Waard, or into French, according to Yates, has not yet come to light. Th is paper presents the identifi cation of a partial French translation of Century II of the Sylva Sylvarum in a manuscript by Mersenne, written between 1626 and 1629. Th is partial translation was probably realized by Marin Mersenne himself, for his own use. It consists of a part of Sylva Sylvarum concerning sounds, the subject Mersenne was working on in that period.


The irreversible inhibition of type I dehydroquinase (DHQ1), the third enzyme of the shikimic acid pathway, is investigated by structural, biochemical and computational studies. Two epoxides, which are mimetics of the natural substrate, were designed as irreversible inhibitors of the DHQ1 enzyme and to study the binding requirements of the linkage to the enzyme. The epoxide with the S configuration caused the covalent modification of the protein whereas no reaction was obtained with its epimer. The first crystal structure of DHQ1 from Salmonella typhi covalently modified by the S epoxide, which is reported at 1.4 Å, revealed that the modified ligand is surprisingly covalently attached to the essential Lys170 by the formation of a stable Schiff base. The experimental and molecular dynamics simulation studies reported here highlight the huge importance of the conformation of the C3 carbon of the ligand for covalent linkage to this type of aldolase I enzyme, revealed the key role played by the essential His143 as a Lewis acid in this process and show the need for a neatly closed active site for catalysis.


Most historically and predominantly white institutions (HPWIs) now desire some number of black students on their campuses. However, recent theoretical scholarship suggests that HPWIs' desire for and willingness to embrace black students is predicated on their racial palatability. The theory of intraracial discrimination stipulates that white gatekeepers are increasingly inclined to screen blacks to "weed out" those they perceive as too concerned with race and racism. In this study, the author assessed whether there was evidence of intraracial discrimination within the HPWI admissions regime. The data were derived through an audit of 517 white admissions counselors, employed at the same number of institutions, who received inquiry e-mails from fictitious black high school students who presented as more or less racially salient. The findings reveal that white admissions counselors are more responsive to black students who present as deracialized and racially apolitical than they are to those who evince a commitment to antiracism and racial justice. These findings provide convincing support for the theory of intraracial discrimination within the HPWI admissions regime. The author concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Accurate and consistent placement of a patient identification (ID) band is used in health care to reduce errors associated with patient misidentification. Multiple safety organizations have devoted time and energy to improving patient ID, but no multicenter improvement collaboratives have shown scalability of previously successful interventions. We hoped to reduce by half the pediatric patient ID band error rate, defined as absent, illegible, or inaccurate ID band, across a quality improvement learning collaborative of hospitals in 1 year. METHODS: On the basis of a previously successful single-site intervention, we conducted a self-selected 6-site collaborative to reduce ID band errors in heterogeneous pediatric hospital settings. The collaborative had 3 phases: preparatory work and employee survey of current practice and barriers, data collection (ID band failure rate), and intervention driven by data and collaborative learning to accelerate change. RESULTS: The collaborative audited 11 377 patients for ID band errors between September 2009 and September 2010. The ID band failure rate decreased from 17% to 4.1% (77% relative reduction). Interventions including education of frontline staff regarding correct ID bands as a safety strategy; a change to softer ID bands, including "luggage tag" type ID bands for some patients; and partnering with families and patients through education were applied at all institutions. CONCLUSIONS: Over 13 months, a collaborative of pediatric institutions significantly reduced the ID band failure rate. This quality improvement learning collaborative demonstrates that safety improvements tested in a single institution can be disseminated to improve quality of care across large populations of children.


We develop a dynamic entry model of multi-store oligopoly with heterogeneous markets, and estimate it using data on hamburger chains in Canada (1970-2005). Because more lucrative markets attract more entry, firms appear to favor the presence of more rivals. Thus unobserved heterogeneity across geographical markets creates an endogeneity problem and poses a methodological challenge in the estimation of dynamic games, which we address by combining the procedures proposed by Kasahara and Shimotsu (2009), Arcidiacono and Miller (2011), and Bajari, Benkard, and Levin (2007), respectively. The results suggest the omission of unobserved market heterogeneity attenuates the estimates of competition, and the tradeoff between cannibalization and preemption is an important factor behind the evolution of market structure.


Abstract Hygienic behaviour is a complex trait that gives Apis mellifera L. resistance against brood diseases. Variability in the expression of hygienic behaviour is evidenced at the colony-level and is explained by the proportion and propensity of individual worker bees that engage in hygienic activities. We investigated the temporal performance and the dynamics of task-specialisation of individual bees over time, both in selected hygienic (H) and non-hygienic (NH) colonies. Then we evaluated the impact of these behavioural aspects on the colony performance. Bees that perform hygienic behaviour (hygienic bees) in our H colonies were more persistent in the hygienic activities throughout the days of the investigation. Such bees were more efficient in the removal of pin-killed brood than hygienic bees in the NH colonies. Hygienic bees in the H colonies were also specialist in the sub-tasks involved in the detection of odour stimulus from dead brood and continued to perform these activities throughout the days of the investigation (temporal persistence). Age-distribution of hygienic bees in the H colonies was asymmetrical, with a larger proportion of these bees performing hygienic activities early in life. At a colony-level, H showed higher efficiency compared to the NH colonies. The present results highlight the fact that individual behaviour may influence the collective dynamics of the hygienic behaviour in honeybee colonies. The results also note that the selection for highly hygienic colonies would result in changes in individual bees that improve the performance of the behaviour at the colony level. The relevance of task-partitioning and age-specialisation of hygienic bees on social immunity is discussed.


Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the market structure and financial performance of Malaysian commercial banks over the period of 2000 to 2011 by testing the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) and efficient-structure (ESH) hypotheses.

Design/methodology/approach

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is employed to measure the efficiency of banks, while concentration ratio is used to assess the market structure of Malaysian banks. Next, utilizing the least squares method, both variables – market structure and efficiency of banks – among other explanatory variables (market share, operating expenses, loans ratio and size of banks) are regressed upon the dependent variable, namely financial performance of banks represented by return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIMTA).

Findings

The concentration of Malaysian banking industry is at a declining trend; structurally speaking, Malaysian banks are more competitive due to less market concentration. In terms of efficiency, the DEA results reveal that Malaysian banks are operating below their capacity at 40 per cent of efficiency. Thus, Malaysian banks could reduce their utilization of inputs by 60 per cent to operate on the efficient frontier. Next, the results offer support to ESH, which implies that market concentration and banking efficiency determines the profitability performance of Malaysian commercial banks.

Originality/value

Past studies on Malaysian banking sector had tended to focus either on measuring the performance or assessing the market structure of banks. Thus, this study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by testing the nexus between the market structure and the performance of banks.


High capacity mobile broadband access requires a dense infrastructure of base stations. The costs associated with the backhaul transmission for these base stations is often a significant part of the total cost of the access network. It has been proposed to use part of the available spectrum to route data between base stations, so-called in-band relaying or self-backhauling. Although self-backhauling may result in a lower total system capacity, we will in this paper show examples where temporary use of in-band relaying postpones investments in fixed backhaul connections. This reduces the total (life-time) cost of the access network. In our incremental strategy example the total cost savings are in the order of 5 to 10%, depending on the relation between the additional equipment cost and the cost of leasing the fixed backhaul. Self-backhauling is not worth implementing when the entire network capacity needs to be achieved up-front, but the savings are significant when service uptake is slow or difficult to predict. The discount rate used in the investment analysis has only a minor impact on the results.


A liquid-liquid interface (LLI) at liquid-infused surfaces (LISs) plays a significant role in promoting slip flow and reducing frictional drag. By employing the transverse many-body dissipative particle dynamics simulations, the behavior of local and effective slip at a flat LLI for shear flows over periodically grooved LISs has been studied. With increasing viscosity ratio between the working fluid and lubricant fluid, two local slip modes are identified. For a small viscosity ratio, the local slip length remains finite along the LLI, while a hybrid local slip boundary condition holds along the LLI for large viscosity ratios, i.e., the local slip length is finite near the groove edge and unbounded in the central region of the LLI. The vortical flow inside the groove can be enhanced by increasing viscosity ratio due to the change in the local slip mode from the finite state to the hybrid one. Moreover, the results suggest two scenarios for the variation of the effective slippage. For LISs with a large LLI fraction, the effective slip length increases significantly with increasing viscosity ratio, while for a small LLI fraction, the effective slippage is rather insensitive to the viscosity ratio. The underlying mechanism for the relationship between the effective slip length and the viscosity ratio for different LLI fractions is revealed based on the two slip modes. These results elucidate the effect of LLI on slip boundary conditions and might serve as a guide for the optimal design of LISs with enhanced slip properties.


Penile chordee, with and without hypospadias, is amenable to surgical correction. The Nesbit technique of dorsal plication of the ventral tunica albuginea is effective in correcting most cases of corporal disproportion. A hazard with this approach is the potential inclusion of the dorsal neurovascular bundle, with resultant erectile and sensory dysfunction. We developed a simple technique using the Freer elevator to isolate the neurovascular bundle prior to plication. This ensures that no injury occurs to the neurovascular bundle during plication. Since 1994, 37 boys with chordee have been repaired using this approach. Their ages at the time of operation ranged from 5 months to 28 years (mean 9 months). Following standard degloving of the penis, an incision through Buck's fascia is made lateral and parallel to the neurovascular bundle at the maximum level of the chordee. A similar incision is carried out on the contralateral side. A 4-mm-wide Freer elevator is positioned under Buck's fascia while hugging the tunica albuginea. The Freer elevator slides across the midline to the contralateral side, separating Buck's fascia and underlying layers from the tunica albuginea. Following isolation of the bundle, each corporal body is plicated by creating a longitudinal incision through the tunica albuginea, which then is closed transversely with a 5-0 polydioxanone suture. Buck's fascia subsequently is closed with an absorbable suture following confirmation of chordee correction. No complications have been encountered during a mean follow-up of 21 months (range 5-51 months). No patients have required reoperation for persistent chordee. We developed a technique that elevates the neurovascular bundle prior to plication, thereby ensuring no injury to this structure. We have successfully used this modified Nesbit technique since 1994 and have had no complications. Utilization of the Freer elevator adds an estimated 5 minutes to chordee correction compared to a standard plication lateral to the neurovascular bundles. Although long-term follow-up needs to be performed to confirm any erectile or sensory advantage, this approach should be considered whenever plication is to be performed.


Enhanced luminescence in rare-earth-doped chalcogenide glass–ceramics is of great interest for the potential integrated optoelectronic devices. However, fundamental mechanism on the enhancement of luminescence upon crystallization remains largely unknown. We report the fabrication and characterization of wide transmission chalcogenide glass and glass–ceramics based on the 25GeS2·35Ga2S3·40CsCl:0.3Er glass composition, and discuss the mechanism of enhanced luminescence. By monitoring the 4I9/2–4I15/2 of Er3+ transition, up-conversion luminescence of 12 times higher was observed in glass–ceramics compared with that in base glass. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and Raman scattering spectroscopies were employed to obtain the information of selective environment of Er3+ ions and microstructural evolution with the crystallization progress. Both of them evidenced that the enhanced up-conversion luminescence was mainly related to the local environmental evolution from a mixed chlorine-sulfur coordination to a low phonon energy chlorine coordination in the residual glassy matrix of glass–ceramics.


This dissertation examines the ways in which first year female college students have been prepared by educational systems in our culture to handle knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge during the first year of college experience. It is the contention of the author that women are not actively encouraged in our culture to take ownership of educational concepts in the same way as men. This happens for two reasons, first that because women's methods of interaction in the classroom might differ from men's those methods might not be perceived as acceptable or taken seriously; and second that a woman's discomfort with her gender identity inhibits her ability to learn. These two problems work together in that each one builds on the other. In order to study the problems and determine the relationships between them, this dissertation uses a participant observer approach and autobiographical narrative. Three sites of observation are studied, two of which are secondary institutions, one being a traditional co-educational high school and the other being a small residential minimum-security facility for female sexual offenders. The third site is a first-year university English composition classroom. At each site, interviews were conducted with both students and faculty. In addition, written course work was collected and studied. In order to honor feminist techniques of scholarship, autobiographical narrative has been used to collate and report findings as well as for the purpose of the author's use of her own experience as a means to demonstrate both differences in the learning patterns between genders and to offer such narrative as a serious learning technique. Conclusions of the study include ways in which gender either interferes or coordinates with traditional classroom pedagogy. When gender and pedagogy are ill-matched, learning is impeded. The study concludes with suggestions as to how an understanding of engendered learning patterns can facilitate learning and how college composition pedagogy can be appropriately matched to women's needs.


This study aims at developing and applying a spatially-distributed coupled glacier mass balance and ice-flow model to attribute the response of glaciers to natural and anthropogenic climate change. We focus on two glaciers with contrasting surface characteristics: a debris-covered glacier (Langtang Glacier in Nepal) and a clean-ice glacier (Hintereisferner in Austria). The model is applied from the end of the Little Ice Age (1850) to the present-day (2016) and is forced with four bias-corrected General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the historical experiment of the CMIP5 archive. The selected GCMs represent region-specific warm-dry, warm-wet, cold-dry, and cold-wet climate conditions. To isolate the effects of anthropogenic climate change on glacier mass balance and flow runs from these GCMs with and without further anthropogenic forcing after 1970 until 2016 are selected. The outcomes indicate that both glaciers experience the largest reduction in area and volume under warm climate conditions, whereas area and volume reductions are smaller under cold climate conditions. Simultaneously with changes in glacier area and volume, surface velocities generally decrease over time. Without further anthropogenic forcing the results reveal a 3% (9%) smaller decline in glacier area (volume) for the debris-covered glacier and a 18% (39%) smaller decline in glacier area (volume) for the clean-ice glacier. The difference in the magnitude between the two glaciers can mainly be attributed to differences in the response time of the glaciers, where the clean-ice glacier shows a much faster response to climate change. We conclude that the response of the two glaciers can mainly be attributed to anthropogenic climate change and that the impact is larger on the clean-ice glacier. The outcomes show that the model performs well under different climate conditions and that the developed approach can be used for regional-scale glacio-hydrological modeling.


: The immediate and late follow-up result of surgical treatment of 98 patients with colostoma, formated for the colonic damage, was investigated. The life saving of a survivor constitutes the main task of operating surgeon. The late follow-up period course was not investigated. The method of estimation of the patient quality of life was elaborated and applied for assessment of the medicinal-rehabilitational measures efficacy. Unfortunate site of the stoma putting up on anterior abdominal wall, mistakes during its formation, the absence of qualitative stomal rigging, the absence or inadequacy of specialized dispanseric follow-up conduction unfavourably influence the quality of life. When specialized medicinal-rehabilitational measures are applied the quality of life indexes stabilization is observed in patients, to whom colostoma was performed, approximately in 3 months after the damage occurs, persisting during 3-4 months.


Localization and synchronization are two important issues in communication systems and wireless sensor networks. These two problems are addressed in many applications, and share many aspects in common. However, these two problems are traditionally treated separately. In this paper, we present a unified framework to jointly solve these two problems at the same time. The maximum likelihood joint estimation of location and timing is firstly derived. Then, a more computationally efficient twostage least square method is proposed. The Cramer-Rao lower bound for the joint localization and time synchronization is also derived. Simulation results show that the performances of the maximum likelihood and two-stage least square estimators can both achieve the Cramer-Rao lower bound.


Adding the sense of touch to hearing and seeing would be necessary for a true immersive experience. This is the promise of the growing "4D-cinema" based on motion platforms and others sensory effects (water spray, wind, scent, etc.). Touch provides a new dimension for filmmakers and leads to a new creative area, the haptic cinematography. However design rules are required to use this sensorial modality in the right way for increasing the user experience. This paper addresses this issue, by introducing principles of haptic cinematography editing. The proposed elements are based on early feedback from different creative works performed by the authors (including a student in cinema arts), anticipating the role of haptographers, the experts on haptic content creation. Three full short movies have been augmented with haptic feedback and tested by numerous users, in order to provide the inputs for this introductory paper.


The impact of parameter variations on timing due to process variations has become significant in recent years. In this paper, we present a statistical timing analysis (STA) framework with quadratic gate delay models that also captures spatial correlations. Our technique does not make any assumption about the distribution of the parameter variations, gate delays, and arrival times. We propose a Taylor-series expansion-based quadratic representation of gate delays and arrival times which are able to effectively capture the nonlinear dependencies that arise due to increasing parameter variations. In order to reduce the computational complexity introduced due to quadratic modeling during STA, we also propose an efficient linear modeling driven quadratic STA scheme. We ran two sets of experiments assuming the global parameters to have uniform and Gaussian distributions, respectively. On an average, the quadratic STA scheme had 20.5times speedup in runtime as compared to Monte Carlo simulations with an rms error of 0.00135 units between the two timing cummulative density functions (CDFs). The linear modeling driven quadratic STA scheme had 51.5times speedup in runtime as compared to Monte Carlo simulations with an rms error of 0.0015 units between the two CDFs. Our proposed technique is generic and can be applied to arbitrary variations in the underlying parameters under any spatial correlation model


*These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: In recent years, there has been an increase in the incidence of small renal masses (SRMs) and nephrectomy was the standard management of this disease in the past. Currently, the use of active surveillance has been recommended as an alternative option in the case of some patients with SRMs due to its heterogenicity. However, limited studies focused on the regarding risk stratification. Therefore, in the current study, we developed a nomogram for the purpose of predicting the presence of high-grade SRMs on the basis of the patient information provided (clinical information, hematological indicators, and CT imaging data). Patients and methods: A total of 329 patients (consisting of development and validation cohort) who had undergone nephrectomy for SRMs between January 2013 and May 2016 retrospectively were recruited for the present study. All preoperative information, including clinical predictors, hematological indicators, and CT predictors, were obtained. Lasso regression model was used for data dimension reduction and feature selection. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was applied for the establishment of the predicting model. The performance of the nomogram was assessed with respect to its calibration and discrimination properties and externally validated. Results: The predictors used in the assessment of the nomogram included tumor size, CT tumor contour, CT necrosis, CT tumor exophytic properties, and CT collecting system oppression. Based on these parameters, the nomogram was evaluated to have an effective discrimination and calibration ability, and the C-index was found to be 0.883 after internal validation and 0.887 following external validation. Conclusion: Based on the aforementioned findings, it can be concluded that CT imaging– based preoperative nomogram is an effective predictor of SRMs and hence can be used in the preoperative evaluation of SRMs, due to its calibration and discrimination abilities.


At the WCNH 2007, world-leading experts will present their research on vasopressin and oxytocin including: Genes and Biosynthesis; Central and Peripheral Release; Mechanisms of Action; Receptor Physiology and Pharmacology; Electrophysiology; Neuropeptide Chemistry; Interaction with HPA Axis and Stress; Kidney and Water Metabolism; Reproduction; Cognition, Emotionality, Behavior; and Psychopathology.


Word reading is critical for reading development. However, it has long been debated on the processes involved in real word and pseudoword decoding in developmental dyslexia (DD). We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 neuroimaging studies (519 participants with DD, 562 typical readers, age range 5-63 years, female 37.65%, 382 foci, 64 experimental contrasts) using effect-size signed differential mapping. Individuals with DD compared with typical readers showed hypoactivity in the left-lateralized reading network, including the occipitotemporal regions, temporoparietal regions, and inferior frontal gyri (pars triangularis and pars opercularis), in real word and pseudoword decoding. In pseudoword compared with real word decoding, hypoactivity was more severely reduced in the inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis). Metaregression showed that no hypoactivity was associated with age in real word decoding, whereas in pseudoword decoding, hypoactivity in the left superior temporal gyrus was negatively associated with age and hypoactivity in the left inferior temporal gyrus was quadratically associated with age. Accommodating the connectionist triangle model, our findings demonstrate that DD may be associated with abnormalities in both the direct orthography-phonology and the indirect orthography-semantics-phonology pathways across real word and pseudoword decoding. Compared with real word decoding, pseudoword decoding in those with DD may be more associated with abnormalities in the indirect pathway. With development, abnormalities in both pathways seem stable in real word decoding. In pseudoword decoding, abnormalities in the indirect pathway become more severe initially but could be improved in later development; abnormalities in the direct pathway could be persistently becoming more severe with age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Magnesium wastes are among the gradually ascending and therefore challenging metal wastes, which are produced by many industrial activities. The purpose of this study is the usage of magnesium waste, a raw material in magnesium borate production by hydrothermal synthesis. Boron sources (boric acid (H3BO3) and boron oxide (B2O3)) react with magnesium wastes in order to synthesize the magnesium borate mineral of admontite (MgO(B2O3)3.7(H2O)). In addition to the synthesis from waste magnesium, magnesium oxide (MgO) and B2O3 are also used to produce magnesium borates, in order to compare the results. Techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy disperse (SEM-EDX) are used for further characterization analysis. The products boron oxide contents and overall yields are also calculated. According to the results, synthesized minerals are identified as admontite (MgO(B2O3)3.7(H2O)), mcallisterite (Mg2(B6O7(OH)6)2.9(H2O)) and magnesium borate hydrate (MgB6O7(OH)6.3(H2O)). It is seen that magnesium borates could be obtained as a mixture of different types of magnesium borate minerals or pure magnesium borate. A pure magnesium borate mineral of admontite is synthesized at the reaction temperature of 100oC and the reaction time of 240 minutes using magnesium waste (W) and both H3BO3 (W) and B2O3 (B). B2O3 content and overall yields of pure admontite for the W-H were found as 51.15 0.52% and 81.45 3.20%, respectively. Similarly, pure admontite synthesized from W-B have the 51.72 0.52% of B2O3 content and 74.56 3.20% overall reaction yield.


This cross-sectional study was carried out to assess disease management and biosecurity measures of small scale commercial poultry farms by structured questionnaire through personal interview. The data was analysed by χ2 and t-test, one way analysis of variance and general linear model by SPSS software. The result shown that, only 38.8% of the producers' suspects Coccidiosis was the frequently occurred disease in the farm. Some of the producers (30.6%) suspect the cause of the disease might be environmental problem, 24.5% management problem, and 12.2% both environment and management. The most leading symptoms of diseases that occurred in the study area were ruffled feather (15.5%), loss of appetite (15.1%), depression (12.6%), diarrhoea (9.7%), and others. About 79.6% of the farms had close relation with the veterinarian and consult about disease management. Only 12.2% of the farms vaccinate NCD, 49% NCD and Gumboro, 28.6% NCD, Gumboro and fowlbox and the rest 10.1% vaccinate their chicks for NCD, Gumboro, fowlbox, Fowl cholera/typhoid and Marix disease. Biosecurity measures were very crucial in the poultry farms. About 63.3% of the producers dressed on protective cloth (tuta), only 8.2% of the producers wear hand gloves. About 77.6% of the producers used the foot path in front of their farm entrance. Prevention and treatments were the major mechanisms for controlling measure of disease and the mortality percentage of chicks was only 4.7%. From this study, it could be concluded that better disease management and biosecurity measures are required to attain better poultry production

 Key words: Biosecurity, disease, mortality rate, symptoms, vaccination.


Life cycle differentiation of African trypanosomes entails developmental regulation of mitochondrial activity. This requires regulation of the nuclear genome and the kinetoplast, the trypanosome's unusual mitochondrial genome. To investigate the potential cross talk between the nuclear and mitochondrial genome during the events of differentiation, we have 1) disrupted expression of a nuclear-encoded component of the cytochrome oxidase (COX) complex; and 2) generated dyskinetoplastid cells, which lack a mitochondrial genome. Using RNA interference (RNAi) and by disrupting the nuclear COX VI gene, we demonstrate independent regulation of COX component mRNAs encoded in the nucleus and kinetoplast. However, two independent approaches (acriflavine treatment and RNA interference ablation of mitochondrial topoisomerase II) failed to establish clonal lines of dyskinetoplastid bloodstream forms. Nevertheless, dyskinetoplastid forms generated in vivo could undergo two life cycle differentiation events: transition from bloodstream slender to stumpy forms and the initiation of transformation to procyclic forms. However, they subsequently arrested at a specific point in this developmental program before cell cycle reentry. These results provide strong evidence for a requirement for kinetoplast DNA in the bloodstream and for a kinetoplast-dependent control point during differentiation to procyclic forms.


Background: Chronic pulmonary thromboembolism (CPTE) leads to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The electrocardiography (ECG) of the patients with CPTE reflects the right-sided heart overload due to PAH. Recently, percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty (PTPA) has been demonstrated to be effective for some patients with CPTE. The purpose was to investigate the changes of ECG in patients underwent PTPA. Methods: We performed PTPA to 18 patients with CPTE. ECG was recorded before and after PTPA. Hemodynamic variables through right heart catheterization were determined at the same time. Results: The hemodynamics after PTPA was significantly improved compared to the baseline (mean pulmonary arterial pressure, 46.4 mmHg vs. 34.4 mmHg; pulmonary vascular resistance, 14.2 wood units vs. 7.8 wood units). The P amplitude in lead II was significantly decreased (2.7 mV vs. 2.0 mV). The electrical axis of QRS waves went leftward significantly (102.6° vs. 89.9°). The R/S in lead V5 was significantly increased (1.5 vs. 2.7). Conclusions: Our results suggest that the changes of ECG reflect properly the changes of right-sided heart overload by PTPA. The evaluation of ECG is a simple and easy method to assess the treatment efficacy of PTPA.