[1] The Context Camera (CTX) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a Facility Instrument (i.e., government-furnished equipment operated by a science team not responsible for design and fabrication) designed, built, and operated by Malin Space Science Systems and the MRO Mars Color Imager team (MARCI). CTX will (1) provide context images for data acquired by other MRO instruments, (2) observe features of interest to NASA's Mars Exploration Program (e.g., candidate landing sites), and (3) conduct a scientific investigation, led by the MARCI team, of geologic, geomorphic, and meteorological processes on Mars. CTX consists of a digital electronics assembly; a 350 mm f/3.25 Schmidt-type telescope of catadioptric optical design with a 5.7° field of view, providing a ∼30-km-wide swath from ∼290 km altitude; and a 5000-element CCD with a band pass of 500–700 nm and 7 μm pixels, giving ∼6 m/pixel spatial resolution from MRO's nearly circular, nearly polar mapping orbit. Raw data are transferred to the MRO spacecraft flight computer for processing (e.g., data compression) before transmission to Earth. The ground data system and operations are based on 9 years of Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera on-orbit experience. CTX has been allocated 12% of the total MRO data return, or about ≥3 terabits for the nominal mission. This data volume would cover ∼9% of Mars at 6 m/pixel, but overlapping images (for stereo, mosaics, and observation of changes and meteorological events) will reduce this area. CTX acquired its first (instrument checkout) images of Mars on 24 March 2006.


This paper describes high-power electrostatic linear motor that is deformable. The motor consists of pairs of flexible printed circuit films. It is characterized by superior output performance; typically, the motor can generate several tens of newtons, or slider speed can exceed 1 m/s. In this paper, we focus on its flexibility. Due to the flexibility of the films used, the motor can be mechanically deformed. On top of that, the motor can even operate while being deformed. Our analyses show that the motor can operate even when it is bent 180 degrees. In this paper, thrust force characteristics of the motor under deformed state are summarized and some examples of motor deformation are shown.


We propose a novel approach to describe the $D^+\to K^+K^-K^+$ decay
 amplitude, based on chiral effective Lagrangians, which can be used
to extract information about $K\bar{K}$ scattering.
Our trial function is an alternative to the widely used isobar model and
includes both nonresonant three-body interactions and
two-body rescattering amplitudes, based on coupled channels and resonances,
for S- and P-waves with isospin $0$ and $1$.
The latter are unitarized in the $K$-matrix approximation and represent the only
source of complex phases in the problem.
This approach allows one to disentangle the two-body scalar contributions with
different isospins, associated with the $f_0(980)$ and $a_0(980)$ channels.


The microstructure of a Ni-based self-fluxing alloy coating produced by an oxygen-acetylene flame spraying Ni-16.5Cr-3.3B-4.7Si-4. 4Fe-0. 8C system alloy powder onto a common steel substrate was investigated by microanalysis methods. The phases in the coating were observed by SEM and determined by XEDS X-Ray energy spectrum and X-Ray diffraction patterns. Meanwhile, some molecular formulas were calculated.


Interview in 1999 with James J. Morgan, Marvin L. Goldberger Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, emeritus. Born in New York City to Irish immigrant parents, Morgan was raised in County Monaghan, Ireland, during the Depression. He studied civil engineering at Manhattan College, received a master's degree from the University of Michigan in environmental health engineering with C. J. Velz (1956), and after three years as an instructor at the University of Illinois took his PhD at Harvard in 1964 with the water chemist Werner Stumm. Morgan came to Caltech in 1965 to join the environmental engineering science program in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, where he worked on manganese chemistry in water and the use of polyelectrolytes in water treatment. Recollections of colleagues Jack McKee, Sheldon Friedlander, Norman Brooks, and the early years of the environmental engineering science program. In 1966 he became first editor of the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science and Technology. Recalls stint on Caltech's Freshman Admissions Committee and as dean of students in the early 1970s. Coauthored Aquatic Chemistry with Werner Stumm. Comments on his consulting for industry and government in the 1970s. Becomes vice president for student affairs (1980-1989). Recalls postdocs and students, including Francois Morel, James Pankow, Alan Stone, Howard Liljestrand, Yigal Erel, Windsor Sung. Awarded 1999 Stockholm Water Prize jointly with Werner Stumm (d. April 1999). In an epilogue to this interview, Morgan describes his trip to Stockholm to accept the award on behalf of Stumm and himself and his receipt that year of the Clarke Prize of the National Water Research Institute.


The purpose of this study was to compare the work values of students in the School of Dental Hygiene and the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba, Canada, both with each other, and with national sample of Canadian practitioners in both fields. The study was an outgrowth of a larger study measuring the work values of graduating students in six faculties selected to represent the occupational classification system of John Holland. The English version of the Canadian form of the Values Scale which measures 20 work and life values, was used in this study. Differences in values found between the student hygienists and practitioners in both dentistry and dental hygiene may indicate a growing desire for professional status by dental hygienists. Value differences found between practising dentists and hygienists may reflect a traditional hierarchical relationship between these occupations. Limitations of the study and future research questions are discussed.


20.1 Disappointment at Current Lack of Progress Despite the impressive accomplishments that have steadily accumulated since
the 1960s that now consist of the publication of thousands of peer-reviewed
papers [that can be retrieved by a PubMed search using the MeSH term
"LLLT" and a new MeSH term "photobiomodulation therapy" (PBM)] and
hundreds of clinical trials, many of which have been high-quality, randomized,
and well-controlled, LLLT has still not reached the stage of acceptance by
mainstream medicine. There remains considerable skepticism (and sometimes
frank disbelief) amongst biomedical scientists, the medical profession, and the
public at large. The reasons for this skepticism and disbelief are many and various, and
they differ depending on the source. Biomedical scientists often refer to a lack
of mechanism and the absence of agreement on dosimetry and parameters.
Physicians often claim there is a lack of large clinical trials and not enough
systematic reviews. Hospital and insurance administrators cannot agree on
coverage and reimbursement. Finally (and regrettably), there has been
marketing hype, over-promising, and frank misinformation from some of the
companies that make devices (lasers, LED arrays, mixed clusters) that are
used in the LLLT industry.


Purpose: Recurrent internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations are observed in various cancers including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), where ITD mutations in tyrosine kinase receptor FLT3 are associated with poor prognostic outcomes. Several FLT3 inhibitors (FLT3i) are in clinical trials for high-risk FLT3-ITD–positive AML. However, the variability of survival following FLT3i treatment suggests that the mere presence of FLT3-ITD mutations might not guarantee effective clinical response. Motivated by the heterogeneity of FLT3-ITD mutations, we investigated the effects of FLT3-ITD structural features on the response of AML patients to treatment. Experimental Design: We developed the HeatITup (HEAT diffusion for Internal Tandem dUPlication) algorithm to identify and quantitate ITD structural features including nucleotide composition. Using HeatITup, we studied the impact of ITD structural features on the clinical response to FLT3i and induction chemotherapy in FLT3-ITD–positive AML patients. Results: HeatITup accurately identifies and classifies ITDs into newly defined categories of "typical" or "atypical" based on their nucleotide composition. A typical ITD's insert sequence completely matches the wild-type FLT3, whereas an atypical ITD's insert contains nucleotides exogenous to the wild-type FLT3. Our analysis shows marked divergence between typical and atypical ITD mutation features. Furthermore, our data suggest that AML patients carrying typical FLT3-ITDs benefited significantly more from both FLT3i and induction chemotherapy treatments than patients with atypical FLT3-ITDs. Conclusions: These results underscore the importance of structural discernment of complex somatic mutations such as ITDs in progressing toward personalized treatment of AML patients, and enable researchers and clinicians to unravel ITD complexity using the provided software. See related commentary by Gallipoli and Huntly, p. 460


Pottery is a ceramic which generally used as household utensils or religious necessities such as spiritual ceremonies. This object has been used by society since long time ago that make it has certain historical and cultural values. One problem with pottery that it is hard to define its source. We believe that mineralogy could help finding the source of the pottery by comparing mineralogy of pottery and mineralogy of alluvial sand that usually used for pottery. This study was carried out to analyze the pottery-forming material of pottery fragments in the Muaro Jambi Temple complex and compare them with the Batanghari River sediments on the opposite to the temple. Data retrieval is done by collecting pottery fragments in the excavation field and taking sand samples in the downstream of the Batanghari River. The fragments of pottery and river sands were separated based on their texture and analyzed using microscope. Each material will be described based on its physical appearance and frequency of existence. From the study we found that minerals found in the pottery fragments from Muaro Jambi have similarity with the mineralogy of alluvial sand from Batanghari River. Thus, it might be a good indication that there is a correlation between them. From this research, we also conclude that the mineralogy characteristic could be useful for identifying the source of pottery.


A variance reduction technique is a method used to reduce the variance of a Monte Carlo simulation. In this paper four of the most commonly used variance reduction techniques are tested to estimate the trade of between trading and security in a three-area electric power system. The comparison is made by regarding both the variance reduction and the bias induced by the method.


This is an extraordinary work. It demonstrates the continuation of serious and multidisciplinary study of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and it initiates modern and comprehensive scholarship of the Mixtec peoples of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano is extremely well read in the studies of Mexican indigenous cultures and has a masterly knowledge of the Mixtecs (or as they prefer to be called, the Nudzahui). An extensive historiography documents a comprehensive analysis of this important culture throughout the 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. The Mixtecs have received little serious attention by modem scholars, but their isolation in the valley of Oaxaca meant that their culture remained soniewhat intact and available for study. Terraciano introduces scholars to a third group of indigenous people who join the Aztec and Mayan cultures as a similarly advanced society. He thoroughly explains the geography, history, and linguistic traditions of the Nudzahui (or Mixtecs). The evolution of written culture. from the use of ideograms to phonetic symbols, and finally to the use of the Spanish language in recording Nudzahui culturc, is related in fine detail. Dominican priests are shown as culture recorders and culture brokers in the colonial era in Oaxaca. I t is instructive to learn that Dominicans claim to have mastered some thirteen different dialects in the area around Oaxaca, and that at the time of the conquest Nudzahui was spoken by an estimated one million people. The terrible population decline due to disease hrought by the Spanish in the sixteenth century is discussed. It is interesting to see the importance of women in the Nudzahui society and to know that some of the lines of trade reached as far as Guatemala. A slow conversion to Christianity is described, as the people learned to survive in a Spanish dominated world. Terraciano notes the diminishing political role of women but sees a lasting preColumbian legacy that will not die. There is some comparison to the Nahuas of central Mexico studied by James Lockhart, but much more needs to be done in comparing the Nudzahui to the Mayans and other Meso-American indigenous groups. Terraciano says that there are still some 250,000 Nudzahui speaking peoples in the region, and he hopes that his study can revive interest in this continuing and amazing culture. The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca is a book for scholars, but all readers will be informed and encouraged to learn more about the ancient and important cultures still found among the native peoples of Mexico.


Public toilet is an unavoidable option for sanitation in many low-income towns and cities of developing countries. In most parts of Ghana, it is common practice for people to answer the call of nature in the open field as a result of the lack of household and public toilet facilities, which results in a poor sanitary, health and environmental situation. This paper assesses the accessibility and utilisation of public toilet facilities in Wa, a medium-sized city located in north-western Ghana. Using a stratified random sampling technique, a total of 123 households and 110 house owners were selected for the study using questionnaire survey. In addition, hand-held global positioning system (GPS) receivers were used to pick geographic coordinates of various public toilets. The results indicate inadequacies in the spatial distribution of public toilets with a concentration of these facilities in the central areas of the town. It also revealed financial constraints, distance travelled and poor condition of public toilets as the main factors determining utilisation of public toilet facilities. The study opined that given several sociocultural conditions, the current system of public toilet operating in the town cannot be resource intensive to meet households' aspirations because they do not respond to local sanitation needs. On the contrary, it tends to create even more problems, thereby encouraging open defecation. Also, their impact on human and environmental health needs to be taken into account. The paper thus calls for suitable alternative sanitation options which consider local beliefs and needs of potential users such as the flush system of public toilets.


Novocaine segregation zones in frog's erythrocytes, isolated by differential centrifugation, were shown to be ATPase active. The enzyme displays half of its maximum activity at 0.18 Mm ATP concentration to be inhibited by high concentrations of ATP. ATPase is activated by both Mg2+ and Ca2+ (in a lesser degree), with the maximum activity being at pH 7.5. A 5 minutes heating without the substrate results in decreasing the enzyme activity at 30 degrees, and in the total inhibition at 50 degrees C. Along with ATP, the enzyme can hydrolyse GTP and, in a lesser degree, ADP and sodium pyrophosphate. The ATPase activity is not effected with oligomycin (0.5-1.5 mkg/ml) or ouabaine (0.1 mM). Oligomycin in concentration 5 micrograms/ml induced non-specific inhibition of ATPase. Uncouplers, like 2,4-dinitrophenol and carbonyl cyanid p-trifluorometoxyphenylhydrazone, stimulate the enzyme activity. The lack in the ATP-ase sensitivity to oligomycin (specific inhibitor of mitochondrial F1-ATPase) and ouabaine (specific inhibitor of Na+, K+-ATPase) may suggest that the ATPase activity of novocaine segregation zones in frog's erythrocytes is not associated with a random contamination with mitochondria or cytoplasmic membranes. The ATPase under study has much in common with the lysosomal +H-ATPase. The results obtained support a hypothesis that +H-ATPase may function as a course of protones for maintaining acidic medium in segregation zones and promote accumulation of weak bases by means of their protonation.


This paper develops a strategy to coordinate the charging of autonomous plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) using concepts from non-cooperative games. The foundation of the paper is a model that assumes PEVs are cost-minimizing and weakly coupled via a common electricity price. At a Nash equilibrium, each PEV reacts optimally with respect to a commonly observed charging trajectory that is the average of all PEV strategies. This average is given by the solution of a fixed point problem in the limit of infinite population size. The ideal solution minimizes electricity generation costs by scheduling PEV demand to fill the overnight non-PEV demand "valley". The paper's central theoretical result is a proof of the existence of a unique Nash equilibrium that almost satisfies that ideal. This result is accompanied by a decentralized computational algorithm and a proof that the algorithm converges to the Nash equilibrium in the infinite system limit. Several numerical examples are used to illustrate the performance of the solution strategy for finite populations. The examples demonstrate that convergence to the Nash equilibrium occurs very quickly over a broad range of parameters, and suggest this method could be useful in situations where frequent communication with PEVs is not possible. The method is useful in applications where fully centralized control is not possible, but where optimal or near-optimal charging patterns are essential to system operation.


In the history of the Uruguayan textile industry two characteristic stands out: the concentration and centralization of capital and the important participation of capital investment from Argentina. The Uruguayan textile industry started in the early XXth century based on the production of woven fabric and wool spinning mill (tops). From the years of the 1929's crisis onwards, it went through a great expansion due to a protectionist policy based on favourable exchange rates. Those were the times of the Import Substitutive Industrialization (ISI) in the country. After the Second World War and, particularly, during the fifties it reached its height with the production of cotton fabrics and synthetic fibers. Meanwhile, wool exports would grow strongly. However, in the late fifties, the ISI strategy was in trouble and the obstacles for export's growth and the economic stagnation together with the removal of the protectionist's policies put an end to the textile industry development. As a consequence, it experienced a deep crisis and lost importance both for the industry and for the economy as a whole.


: One hundred and forty-five stool samples from children with diarrhoea at various health centres in Lagos were investigated for Campylobacter jejuni/coli. These organisms were isolated from 24 samples (16.5%). They were later biotyped as 23 C. jejuni and one C. coli. Previous studies (3,6) recorded isolation rates of 5.2% and 11% respectively. No Campylobacter species was isolated from 100 control patients who did not have diarrhoea. Diarrhoea due to Campylobacter jejuni/coli is still common in males, and the ration of males to females is still 2:1 but the isolation rate is now 11.7%:4.8%. All the isolates of Campylobacter jejuni are still from children under two years of age. Campylobacter jejuni biotype 1 accounted for 52.5% in an earlier study (18), but accounted for 87.5% in this study. Serogroup 29(70.8%) was the commonest in this study, whereas serogroup 36(20.7%) was very common in an earlier study(18). Erythromycin, which is the drug of choice for the treatment of campylobacter enteritis, had 82% sensitivity to the organism(6) but in the present study only 20.8% of the isolates were sensitive to the antibiotic. Betalactamase production was detected in 12.5% of the isolates as against 6.4% earlier reported(17).


N-type conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) are promising electron transport materials (ETMs) in high-performance polymer solar cells (PSCs). The regulation of the counterions of CPEs can efficiently tune the properties of CPEs as well as their photovoltaic performance. In this contribution, we report a series of counterion-tunable n-type CPEs for the interface engineering of polymer solar cells, and the size, species and substituent groups of the counterions are discussed. The size of counterions had a great impact on the alcohol solubility and photophysical properties of CPEs. Besides, the self-doping behaviors of these CPEs are also highly correlated with their counterion species. Moreover, the charge transport and electrode modification study results show that the counterion species and their substituent groups are critical to the electron mobilities and electrode modification ability of these CPEs as well as their performance in PSCs. PSCs with these CPEs as ETMs can deliver high power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 10.5%, and over 9.5% PCE can be maintained even when these CPEs are used as thick (80 nm) ETMs, indicating great potential of using these CPEs as thickness-insensitive ETMs for the fabrication of future large-area PSCs using roll-to-roll techniques.


Misclassification of seat belt use In a recent article, Robertson commented on our study of seat belts and death in a crash. Robertson wrote: "What is not explained adequately by the theory [about misclassification of seat belt use] is the sudden gap in police reported use by the dead and survivors that appeared in the mid-1980s". Robertson's criticism seems misplaced, as we offered no theory to explain changes in the prevalence of belt use. We reported that among front seat occupant pairs in which one or both died, the prevalence of belt use decreased from 12% in 1975 to 4% in 1980, and then rose to 40% in 1998. Explaining these changes, however, was not the focus of our paper. Using matched cohort methods, we noted that the risk ratio for death, comparing belted with unbelted occupants, was 0.59 using data from 1975–83, and 0.39 using data from 1986–98. We examined theories that might explain why these risk ratio estimates changed over time. We presented evidence against the theory that seat belts have become truly more effective and against the theory that estimates changed because of changes in crash characteristics. The observed change in risk ratio estimates could be explained by either, or both, of two theories: (1) Differential misclassification. Seat belt misclassification is differential when the proportion misclassified is related to the outcome (death). Risk ratio estimates could move away from their true value and toward 0 if, over time, an increasing proportion of crash survivors were classified as belted, when they were not, or an increasing proportion of those who died were classified as unbelted, when they were: this possible mechanism is illustrated with hypothetical data in the top half of table 1. (For simplicity, the table ignores the matching used in our published analysis.) (2) Non-differential misclassification. Without regard to death or survival, some belt users could be classified as not belted, or some nonusers as belted, or both. Non-differential misclassification of a binary variable tends to bias risk ratio estimates toward 1. If nondifferential error decreased over time, more recent risk ratio estimates could be less subject to this bias; they could move away from 1 toward their true value. However, even if non-differential error was constant over time, more recent risk ratios might also tend to be less biased, because of the influence of changing seat belt prevalence: bottom half of table 1. For both differential and non-differential misclassification, the size and direction of any change over time in risk ratio estimates will be related to the size and direction of the errors and changes in the prevalence of seat belt use. The observed changes in risk ratio estimates alone cannot tell us which estimates are least subject to bias. One of us has reported that there is some degree of both differential and nondifferential misclassification of belt use; but the amount of error in recent data suitable for a matched-cohort analysis was so trivial, and biases toward 1 and toward 0 so balanced, that the misclassification did not appreciably influence the risk ratio estimate. Robertson interpreted these results as showing only that trained crash investigators were as prone to differential misclassification as police investigators. Whatever the correct interpretation, we and Robertson agree that additional measures of seat belt use would be useful. We hope that information from electronic crash recorders will be added to publicly available data, such as the Crashworthiness Data System (CDS). It might be feasible for the CDS to assess some crashes with a second investigator assigned to determine belt use only by vehicle inspection, without knowledge of occupant outcomes or the police report. To minimize costs, this additional investigation could be reserved for those crashes with front seat occupant pairs among whom at least one died. This would allow a matched cohort analysis to compare risk ratio estimates using three sources of belt information: (1) police reports; (2) the usual CDS investigation; and (3) an investigator who could not be biased by knowledge of the outcome.


Objective: Since the Vascular Dementia (VD) is one of serious complication of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), we study the molecular mechanism of Toll Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) in autoimmunity respond on VD patients.
Methods: The clinical symptoms of VD related T2DM patients are investigated and VD risk factors are analysed. We exam the blood samples by immunofluorescence assay. After collecting the patients' Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF), it tests the level of TLR4 in CSF and blood at gene and protein degrees, respectively. Flow cytometry is used to verify the higher level of TLR4 play an important role in the autoimmune response of VD patients.
Results: The average incidence of T2DM is 1.36%, and VD incidence is 0.33% in 2016. The VD patients are concentrated in old and middle-age women. The risk factors of VD are including rural residence, inadequate health-management, >7 years of T2DM-history and mental pressure. TLR4 protein were at higher presence in VD groups than the normal T2DM group and control group, which consistent with the results of TLR4 mRNA expression in CSF. Additional, their CD4+/CD8+ ratio is increased significantly, associated with TLR4 increasing expression.
Conclusion: VD is directly related with TLR4 increasing expression, which is a threat to the health of the T2DM patients.


The WatSup™ (Watsup Model Systems Ltd) model is a high resolution model of dendritic water supply networks formed by interconnected modules. Each module, e.g. a house, office, etc, can have multiple users using elemental demands, which can be stochastic or deterministic, to produce representative flows. Elemental demands represent water using devices, e.g. a toilet, and are modelled as flow against time. Stochastic elemental demands have modeller defined variability and can include queuing. Deterministic elemental demands occur at fixed times. Modules, which can include local storage, are interconnected to form networks with the flows being aggregated at each node. Network and system faults can be introduced as stochastic processes, flow limits and hydraulic constraints are observed and queued demands carried forward until satisfied. A novel double sweep algorithm is used to distribute flows within the model. The WatSup model uses an advanced object-oriented numerical engine to provide a robust, fast modelling system with a time step of one second.


This study develops hourly water level forecasting models with lead-times of 1 to 3 h using an artificial neural network (ANN) for Anyangcheon stream, one of the major tributaries of the Han River, South Korea. To consider the backwater effect from this river, an enhanced tributary water level forecasting model is proposed by adding multiple water level data on the main river as input variables into the conventional ANN structure which often uses rainfall and upstream water level data. Four types of ANN models per each lead-time are built with increasing complexity of the input vector, and their performances are compared. The results indicate that the inclusion of multiple water level data on the main river to the network provides water level forecasts with greater accuracy at the Ogeumgyo gauging station of interest. The final best ANN models for water level forecasts with lead-times of 1 to 2 h show good performance with root mean square errors (RMSE) below 0.06 m and 0.12 m, respectively. However, the final best ANN model for forecasting 3 h ahead was unsatisfactory, showing underestimation at many rising parts of the hydrograph.


When the electron transport chain (ETC) function is impaired, cancer cells rely on reductive carboxylation (RC) to convert α-ketoglutarate (αKG) to citrate for macromolecular synthesis, thereby promoting tumor growth. Currently, there is no viable therapy to inhibit RC for cancer treatment. In this study, we demonstrate that the mitochondrial uncoupler treatment effectively inhibits RC in cancer cells. Mitochondrial uncoupler treatment activates the ETC and increases the NAD+/NADH ratio. Using U-13C-glutamine and 1-13C-glutamine tracers, we show that mitochondrial uncoupling accelerates the oxidative TCA cycle and blocks RC under hypoxia, in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor-deficient kidney cancer cells, or under anchorage-independent growth condition. Together, these data demonstrate that mitochondrial uncoupling redirects α-KG from RC back to the oxidative TCA cycle, highlighting that the NAD+/NADH ratio is one key switch that determines the metabolic fate of α-KG. Inhibiting RC could be a key mechanism by which mitochondrial uncouplers inhibit tumor growth.


The development of improved cultivars is essential for continued economic production of cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. Information is limited on how different cotton cultivars compare under elevated densities of tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (E), an economically important cotton pest. Seven field tests were conducted between 1988 and 1992 to evaluate cotton cultivars grown under elevated densities of tobacco budworm (TBW). Cultivars were grown under two regimes : (i) artificial elevated infestation, w/TBW, and (ii) elimination of tobacco budworm, w/o TBW. Elevated densities of TBW (w/TBW) significantly reduced yields compared with w/o TBW, but reduction varied among years and tests. The regression equation for lint yield w/TBW on lint yield w/o TBW was Y = -111.0 + 0.6X. Thus, for every 1.0 kg of lint yield increase per hectare due to cultivar improvement, the corresponding increase under artificial TBW infestation was only 0.6 kg. The regression coefficient for lint percentage on lint yield w/o TBW was Y = 30.85 + 0.006X. These data show that cotton breeders have developed high-yielding cultivars, but that progress is still needed in the development of resistance to the tobacco budworm injury. They also show that, as cultivars with higher yield potential were developed, these cultivars were better able to tolerate damage by the tobacco budworm. The parity between yield increase per se and yield under elevated densities of tobacco budworm is not 1.0 :1.0, but rather 1.0 :0.6. This is a useful and practical level of parity.


Introduction Centrally mediated disorders are characterised by chronic continuous or near continuous abdominal pain (CCAP)1. Due to lack of cohort-specific evidence, their management remains challenging. We examined impacts of opiate use, surgery and anti-neuropathic (antiNP) analgesia on clinical outcome in a cohort of CCAP patients. Method Consecutive tertiary referrals with CCAP to a neurogastroenterology clinic between 2009–2016 were included. Other primary functional gut disorders and anterior cutaneous nerve entrapment were excluded. Medical, surgical and drug histories; interventions and outcomes were collected retrospectively. Clinical outcomes were compared (categorical: Chi Square/Fisher; continuous: one way ANOVA) by neuropathic pain (NP)2 diagnosis and opiate use. Results 104 patients (mean age 40 years, 86% female) were included. 92/104 (88%) had been diagnosed clinically with NP and 12/104 (12%) with narcotic bowel syndrome (NBS). Opiate use was associated with poor symptom response in most patients (50/73, 68% NP and 11/12, 92% NBS). Short-acting oral morphine (p=0.02) and use of ≥4 opiates (p=0.01) were associated with NBS. Weaker opiates were inversely associated with NBS (p=0.03). Current (p=0.01) and previous opiate use (p=0.004) were associated with constipation. 44/104 (42%) patients had ≥1 diagnostic or therapeutic surgical procedure for their pain. Surgery did not resolve symptoms in any patient and 13/44 (35%) patients, reported pain worsened after surgery. Opiate use (p=0.03) and NBS (p=0.03) were associated with increased number of surgeries performed for pain. 96/104 (92%) received antiNP drugs with clinical outcomes in 51/96 (response 34/51, 67%; non-response 10/51, 19%; intolerant 7/51, 14%). Sub-analyses (n=7 excluded as unknown prescribing sequence) showed combination therapy (>1 antiNP (86% response, n=14), or antiNP + linaclotide (100% response, n=11) was superior to antiNP monotherapy (47% response, n=19), p=0.002. Duloxetine was the single most effective antiNP (p=0.05). Opiate use and NBS were associated with more tertiary appointments and service use (p=0.02). Conclusion This is the largest cohort-specific study of centrally mediated abdominal pain management to date. Opiate use, exploratory and therapeutic surgical procedures for CCAP are associated with worse clinical outcomes. Combinations of antiNP agents and linaclotide appear efficacious but optimum regimes need further exploration. References . Keefer, et al. Gastro2016. . Searle, et al. Br J Anaes2012. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Enteric fever infections remain a significant public health issue, with up to 20 million infections per year. Increasing rates of antibiotic resistant strains have rendered many first-line antibiotics potentially ineffective. Genotype 4.3.1 (H58) is the main circulating lineage of S. Typhi in many South Asian countries and is associated with high levels of antibiotic resistance. The emergence and spread of extensively drug resistant (XDR) typhoid strains has increased the need for a rapid molecular test to identify and track these high-risk lineages for surveillance and vaccine prioritisation. Current methods require samples to be cultured for several days, followed by DNA extraction and sequencing to determine the specific lineage. We designed and evaluated the performance of a new multiplex PCR assay, targeting S. Paratyphi A as well as the H58 and XDR lineages of S. Typhi on a collection of bacterial strains. Our assay was 100% specific for the identification of lineage specific S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A, when tested with a mix of non-Typhi Salmonella and non-Salmonella strains. With additional testing on clinical and environmental samples, this assay will allow rapid lineage level detection of typhoid of clinical significance, at a significantly lower cost to whole-genome sequencing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a SNP-based multiplex PCR assay for the detection of lineage specific serovars of Salmonella Typhi.


The Children and Technology Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is designed to address the broad question "How does children's use of Information Technology (IT) influence their cognitive, social, psychological and moral development?" Based on an ecological systems theory perspective, IT use is conceptualized as a reciprocal proximal process that occurs over time and is embedded in a social and cultural context. Thus, to understand the impact of IT use on children's developmental outcomes requires a consideration of Child and Contextual factors as they interact with IT use over Time. A longitudinal study is underway that consists of six waves of data collection from middle-school children, their parents and teachers to assess Person and Contextual factors, IT use, and a diverse set of cognitive, social, psychological and moral developmental outcomes. In addition to examining the overall impact of IT use on development, the study will examine whether impact is different for children living in disadvantaged environments than for other children, as suggested by ecological system theory. Findings from the project will have implications for how IT is used in educational settings, parental regulation of children's IT use, and policy-makers decisions about resource allocation for IT in educational and other public settings.


Although Delaware statutes as recently amended prohibit charter and bylaw provisions that would shift fees to stockholders in litigation involving the corporation's internal affairs, those statutes leave open the possibility that charter and bylaw provisions may regulate other aspects of such stockholder litigation, in addition to choice of forum. This article suggests that the enforceability of such provisions should depend on their tendency to deter or eliminate meritless litigation while not unduly deterring meritorious litigation. The article examines a bylaw under which a stockholder claim would be dismissed if a committee chosen by the largest stockholders affirmatively supported such dismissal. The article evaluates this proposal against the backdrop of previous attempts to limit stockholder litigation, namely security for expenses statutes, special litigation committees in derivative suits, the "most adequate plaintiff" provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and a recently adopted bylaw requiring consent of 3% of the stockholders in order to initiate a stockholder class or derivative action.


We sought to test the hypothesis that mutant bacterial strains could be discriminated from each other on the basis of the metabolites they secrete into the medium (their 'metabolic footprint'), using two methods of 'global' metabolite analysis (FT–IR and direct injection electrospray mass spectrometry). The biological system used was based on a published study of Escherichia coli tryptophan mutants that had been analysed and discriminated by Yanofsky and colleagues using transcriptome analysis. Wild-type strains supplemented with tryptophan or analogues could be discriminated from controls using FT–IR of 24 h broths, as could each of the mutant strains in both minimal and supplemented media. Direct injection electrospray mass spectrometry with unit mass resolution could also be used to discriminate the strains from each other, and had the advantage that the discrimination required the use of just two or three masses in each case. These were determined via a genetic algorithm. Both methods are rapid, reagentless, reproducible and cheap, and might beneficially be extended to the analysis of gene knockout libraries.


Abstract. To determine what effect different preparative protocols and different platelet storage bags have on in vitro release, platelet concentrates were prepared according to two different protocols (group I: 2,200 g for 3.5 min followed by 4,900 g for 5 min; group II: 1,000 g for 9 min and 3,000 g for 20 min). The storage bags used were either a standard polyvinyl chloride (PL‐146) or a polyolefin bag (PL‐732). The results for platelet concentrates stored in PL‐146 showed that while group I had undergone more alpha granule release at 24 and 48 h of storage than had group II, by 72 h both groups showed a similar degree of release. Results for platelets stored in PL‐732, however, did not show any significant difference in release between the two protocol groups at any storage time up to 120 h. We conclude that although the preparative protocol used may induce different degrees of platelet release in vitro, the platelet storage bag also has a significant influence on the degree of in vitro damage which occurs during subsequent storage.


Enterprise IT infrastructure incurs many costs ranging from hardware costs and software licenses/maintenance costs to the costs of monitoring, managing, and maintaining IT infrastructure. The recent advent of cloud computing offers some tangible prospects of reducing some of those costs; however, abstractions provided by cloud computing are often inadequate to provide major cost savings across the IT infrastructure life-cycle. Multi-tenancy, which allows a single application to emulate multiple application instances, has been proposed as a solution to this problem. By sharing one application across many tenants, multi-tenancy attempts to replace many small application instances with one or few large instances thus bringing down the overall cost of IT infrastructure. In this paper, we present an architecture for achieving multi-tenancy at the SOA level, which enables users to run their services and other SOA artifacts in a multi-tenant SOA framework as well as provides an environment to build multi-tenant applications. We discuss architecture, design decisions, and problems encountered, together with potential solutions when applicable. Primary contributions of this paper are motivating multi-tenancy, and the design and implementation of a multi-tenant SOA platform which allows users to run their current applications in a multi-tenant environment with minimal or no modifications.


Phonetic analysis often requires reliable estimation of formants, but estimates provided by popular programs can be unreliable. Recently, Dissen et al. [1] described DNN-based formant trackers that produced more accurate frequency estimates than several others, but require manually-corrected formant data for training. Here we describe a novel unsupervised training method for corpus-based DNN formant parameter estimation and tracking with accuracy similar to [1]. Frame-wise spectral envelopes serve as the input. The output is estimates of the frequencies and bandwidths plus amplitude adjustments for a prespecified number of poles and zeros, hereafter referred to as "formant parameters." A custom loss measure based on the difference between the input envelope and one generated from the estimated formant parameters is calculated and back-propagated through the network to establish the gradients with respect to the formant parameters. The approach is similar to that of autoencoders, in that the model is trained to reproduce its input in order to discover latent features, in this case, the formant parameters. Our results demonstrate that a reliable formant tracker can be constructed for a speech corpus without the need for hand-corrected training data.


New methods are employed to develop an anatomically accurate, analysis-ready isogeometric model of skeletal muscles. Current modeling techniques for the analysis of skeletal muscles include the utilization of finite element meshing, which inherently poses a few well-known problems that provide motivation for isogeometric analysis. In addition to those issues, standard FEA meshing cannot preserve smooth geometries, therefore the accuracy of the foregoing model and analysis is reduced. Moreover, there is no easy means to characterize fiber direction in the FEA framework due to discontinuities at element boundaries. Additionally, material property distributions such as the transition of the muscle-tendon complex along the longitudinal axis through FEA are prescribed on an element by element basis, leading to abrupt, unrealistic property changes at element boundaries. The current research builds on the idea of an isogeometric tensor-product rod using harmonic coordinates and NURBS [1]. Through a direct comparison between a meshed, FEA model and the tensor-product rod model, it can be shown that the tensor-product rod model preserves smoothness, enhancing the geometric representation passed through to analysis while reducing the total DOF of the model. Muscle fibers can be easily implemented as parametric lines with muscle-specific orientations along the muscles' longitudinal axis that match distinct fiber orientations existent within common skeletal muscles. This technique not only allows for the representation of perfectly parallel-fibered structures, but also those that do not directly follow the longitudinal axis such as a helical twist. Utilizing this geometric method also provides the framework for implementing material properties using an interpolative-style scheme. Varying properties iii at specific longitudinal control point cross-sections near muscle termination areas can be designated to more accurately represent the muscle-tendon complex. These new techniques allow for the creation of an analysis-ready, realistic skeletal muscle model of the male human arm. The model contains 28 muscles complete with muscle-specific geometric, fiber, and heterogeneous property characterizations all compiled into a complete " digital muscle library. " iv TABLE OF CONTENTS


INTRODUCTION
Parkinsonism may occur after brain lesions such as subarachnoid hemorrhage (1), hydrocephalus (2,3), slit ventricle (4), or shunt revision (5).Until now, pathogenesis remains unclear.

METHOD
Case Report.

RESULTS
We described the case of a 53 years Caucasian male with subarachnoid hemorrhage after anterior communicating artery aneurysm rupture, with subsequent complications and early development of bilateral extrapiramidal symptoms. A DatSCAN showed an impairment of the nigro-sytriatal dopaminergic way. Levodopa therapy induced complete symptoms remission.

CONCLUSIONS
Patient developed Parkinson Disease responding to Levodopa. Subarachnoid hemorrhage itself, shunt placement and revision, hydrocephalus, slit ventricle: all of these complications occurred and could be possible causes of shear, torsion, and ischemia of the nigrostriatal projection fibres.


Hypertension is one of the major causes of stroke. Stroke can be prevented by controlling hypertension. Noni fruit proved to have antihypertensive effect. Noni Fruit contains scopoletin and xeronin compounds that play a role in antihypertensives. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of noni fruit extract to controlling hypertension. The research method used is pre-test and post-test matched control group. The 6 Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups consisting of 1 treatment group and 2 control groups. Group P1 was induced by using ketamine 0.05 ml + epinephrine 0.2 ml + 6 ml noni fruit extract, group K (-) induced by ketamine 0.05 ml + epinephrine 0.2 ml without extract, and group K (+) induced by using ketamine 0.05 ml + epinephrine 0.2 ml + captopril 2.5 mg. The results showed that epinephrine can be used as a hypertensive inducer. Noni fruit extract as much as 6ml can provide antihypertensive effects. In Vitro, test result showed that noni fruit extract can reduce blood pressure by an average decrease in blood pressure of 58,5 mmHg While captopril 25,5 mmHg. in addition to the in vitro test, the results of the in-silico test showed that the noni fruit extract can significantly reduce blood pressure compared to anti-hypertensive drugs (captopril). the value of scopoletin in noni fruit is -7.6. and captopril only -5.7.


This research investigates the possibility of influencing users' motivation with visual persuasion. Visual persuasion is identified as the design triggers that affect users' first impression, which is seen as the conceptualisation of motivation. While past research studied the effect of web design towards users' motivation, not many are looking into the persuasive value of the visual design itself. It is foreseen that visual persuasion helps to produce a more persuasive website and consequently, has an impact on web users' first impression of the website. Once motivation is positively influenced, the likelihood for them to stay on a website long enough to influence certain behaviour will be higher. Hence, this research is designed to empirically measure the effects of persuasive visual design on people's attitude and behavioural intention. The investigation is accomplished by looking at the causal relationship between the variables in the proposed persuasive visual design model. For this purpose, a persuasive model for the destination website is extended. In the persuasive visual design model for website design, the constructs are divided into two factors: 1) the hygiene factor that consists of perceived informativeness and usability as the underlying determinants and 2) the motivation factor that is predicted by perceived credibility, visual aesthetic, engagement and social influence. Meanwhile, users' satisfaction and behavioural intention are identified as the observed variables.

In the early stage of the research, the measurement constructs were identified and pilot-tested. Two web prototypes (non-persuasive website and persuasive website) were developed for an experiment conducted in an actual online environment. Participants of the age 18 or older were recruited with the expediency of Facebook. Each of them was randomly assigned to evaluate a website and answer the relevant questionnaire. Participants were encouraged to invite their Facebook friends to also participate in the research. This makes the sample group non-representative as it relies heavily on volunteers.

Once the measurement model of the research is verified and validated, the conceptual model was analysed using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM); amendments to the model were made as necessary. In general, the results show favourable outcomes as it confirms the significance of visual persuasion in affecting the first impressions on web design. The findings offer new insights into the role of visual persuasion in web design with respect to the relationships between predictors (dimensions of hygiene and motivation factors) and observed variables (users' satisfaction and behavioural intention). From the theoretical perspective, the research contributes to the understanding of the persuasion process in an online environment. Furthermore, the identification of persuasive visual triggers could help web designers create more effective websites.


The San Francisco Giants were crowned champions of Major League Baseball in 2010 after defeating the Texas Rangers in the World Series. The World Series matchup may have come as a surprise to many baseball fanatics; the Rangers ended the regular season with the worst record of any of the eight playoff teams, and the Giants ended with the fourth worst. Did these two teams simply catch fire at the right time? Or were they better than their regular season records showed? To answer these questions, the regular season statistics of individual players on each team were used to simulate the postseason. These simulations determined the probability with which each playoff team could have been expected to win the 2010 World Series.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this work is to analyze the clinical results of treating severe mitral stenosis (MS) with mild to moderate functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR) with mitral valve replacement (MVR) alone or together with two different methods of tricuspid valvuloplasty (TVP).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We split 132 patients into three groups: simple MVR with 47 cases (control group), MVR+ TVP (De Vega loop reduction) with 45 cases (observation group 1) and MVR+ TVP (Edwards MC3 tricuspid forming ring implantation) with 40 cases (observation group 2).

RESULTS
As expected, surgery for both observation groups was longer than for the control group, but we found no differences in aortic clamping time, cardiopulmonary bypass time, perioperative complications, and postoperative hospital stay. We found significantly fewer complications in both observation groups compared to the control group. After surgery, the diameter of the tricuspid valve ring and the maximum reflux bundle were significantly lower in the observation groups compared to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the long-term clinical effect of combined MVR and TVP to treat severe MS with mild to moderate FTR is better than using the simple MVR procedure. Our results also suggest that the Edwards MC3 tricuspid forming ring implantation is superior to the De Vega loop reduction.


Cysts are specific rounded closed structures characteristic of some hepatoid glands. They never occur in other cutaneous glands of mammals. The cysts of the circumanal hepatoid glands of the dog and polar fox, the violet gland of the polar and common red fox, and the groin pouches of three species of gazelles were studied. The cyst is enclosed in a cellular wall saturated with glycogen. The amorphous content of the cyst is rich in hydrophobic lipids and it also contains protein. The cysts of the dog and gazelle contain also carboxylated mucopolysaccharides. The amorphous masses of the cyst are surrounded by concentric fibers rich in sulfated mucopolysaccharides. It was shown, using the circumanal glands of adult male dogs, that cysts are permanently formed from single secretory cells capable of synthesizing hydrophobic lipids before their destruction. During the involution of the hepatoid cysts (circumanal glands of an old female dog), whole acini and glandular lobes transform into cysts.


This study is a qualitative, descriptive, exploratory research aimed at understanding nursing professors' concept of care. The information was collected using focal group technique. The subjects were nursing professors of a Nursing Undergraduate course, and the information was analyzed by Thematic Analysis, which evidenced the category, Care Understanding, among others. The report on the professors' concept of care shows differences regarding their educational practices underlining technical issues. Thus, the findings show that these concepts were based on personal experiences and lacked political, humanistic, philosophical, and theoretical grounds.


This article discusses the implications for archival and media archaeological research and reenactment artwork relating to a recent arts practice project: reenacttv: 30 lines / 60 seconds. It proposes that archival material is unstable but has traces and fragments that are full of creative potential to re-think and re-examine past media historical events through a media archaeological approach to reenactment. The article contains images and links to videos from the final reenactment artworks as well as from rehearsals in Vienna and Bradford.


© Medwell Journals, 2015. The purpose of the study is to show the role of philosophical principle of anthropologism, constituted in the situation of "anthropological turn" during the first half of the 20th century, in cognitive and institutional organization of modern social-humanitarian knowledge. It was proved that, despite the fact that substantively and methodologically anthropologism is positioned today only in a negative way. It discovers certain points of growth and reveals its positive resource, especially outside the philosophical spiritual and practical space. The importance of anthropologism principle as the factor of differentiation and integration of social and humanitarian knowledge is shown. It is proved that modern anthropologism is capable of a theoretical situation production, on the other side of social and human opposition. Anthropologism is an important principle in view of the fact that modern social nature reveals its anthropic character. All this allows us to put forward the idea that an "anthropological turn" was noted in social theory during the last two or three decades which may be able to overcome an extreme old anthropologism.


Fruit flies require protein for reproductive development and actively feed upon protein sources in the field. Liquid protein baits mixed with insecticide are used routinely to manage pest fruit flies, such as Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt). However, there are still some gaps in the underpinning science required to improve the efficacy of bait spray technology. The spatial and temporal foraging behaviour of B. tryoni in response to protein was investigated in the field. A series of linked trials using either wild flies in the open field or laboratory-reared flies in field cages and a netted orchard were undertaken using nectarines and guavas. Key questions investigated were the fly's response to protein relative to: height of protein within the canopy, fruiting status of the tree, time of day, season and size of the experimental arena. Canopy height had a significant response on B. tryoni foraging, with more flies foraging on protein in the mid to upper canopy. Fruiting status also had a significant effect on foraging, with most flies responding to protein when applied to fruiting hosts. B. tryoni demonstrated a repeatable diurnal response pattern to protein, with the peak response being between 12:00–16:00 h. Season showed significant but unpredictable effects on fruit fly response to protein in the subtropical environment where the work was undertaken. Relative humidity, but not temperature or rainfall, was positively correlated with protein response. The number of B. tryoni responding to protein decreased dramatically as the spatial scale increased from field cage through to the open field. Based on these results, it is recommend that, to be most effective, protein bait sprays should be applied to the mid to upper canopies of fruiting hosts. Overall, the results show that the protein used, an industry standard, has very low attractancy to B. tryoni and that further work is urgently needed to develop more volatile protein baits.


In this preliminary study, nine Stone Martens were recorded from different localities in Turkey. Their morphological characteristics were found to be consistent with previously published papers. However, the throat patches of Turkish Stone Martens show variations with respect to shape. In addition, it was determined that the morphologic and biometric characteristics of Turkish samples were consistent with those of M. f. syriaca. According to the karyological findings, the diploid number of chromosomes and the fundamental number were 38 and 76, respectively.


This paper aims to analyze the effects of climate change on Brazilian agriculture considering irrigation adoption as an adaptation strategy. Investigation on how climatic variability influences irrigation adoption was performed as well as whether this adaptation measure actually reduces producers' vulnerability to climate change. We used matching methods to analyze the choice of irrigation in the first stage and the land values for two types of farmer (irrigators or dryland) in the second stage. Temperature and precipitation projections for the 2010-2099 time period were used, considering different climate scenarios, according the 4th Assessment Report of IPCC (2007). Simulation results showed that irrigation can be a very effective tool to counteract the harmful effects of climate change. Land values for irrigated production are less vulnerable than those of rainfed production. Farmers' income tends to grow on lands where irrigation techniques are practiced, while on those where agricultural production is exclusively rainfed, losses can sum to approximately 14% in relation to current period. These conclusions confirm the need to invest in adaptation strategies in order to make Brazil ready to cope with the adverse effects of global climate change.


At present there are serious grounds to believe that motion aftereffect is characteristic for all sensory systems involved in spatial orientation, and that adaptation to movement in one sensory system causes changes in another one and that such adjustment is of critical adaptive significance. In this part of the review there are briefly presented developments and the current state of studies on this issue in visual modality. The visual motion aftereffect has been studied considerably more completely as compared with other modalities. The main concepts about mechanisms of this phenomenon and employment of adaptation to motion in studies of visual analysis of movement at its different levels are actively used in the current scientific literature to understand mechanisms of this phenomenon in other sensory systems. The leading role of vision for orientation in space is manifested in the multimodal interaction where visual adaptation to movement produces significant changes of perception in other modalities.


Abstract Postdispersal weed seed predation is a significant source of weed mortality in agroecosystems. The magnitude of seed predation, however, is variable. Understanding the relative importance of factors driving variability in seed predation rates will increase the potential utility of seed predation to farmers. We conducted landscape-scale field experiments to quantify and compare the effects of space, time of sampling, and habitat on weed seed predation. Seed predation assays, with and without vertebrate exclosures, measured seed predation rates at spatially explicit sample sites across 8.5 ha of crop and noncrop habitats on a diversified organic vegetable farm in Maine. Total and invertebrate seed predation averaged 8% and 3% d−1, respectively. Vertebrate seed predators detected by motion-sensing cameras included small mammals and birds. A ground beetle, Harpalus rufipes, was highly dominant in pitfall traps, comprising 66% of invertebrate seed predators captured within crop fields. Seed predation was randomly distributed in space. However, time of sampling and habitat were highly significant predictors of seed predation. Variance partitioning indicated that habitat factors explained more variation than did time of sampling. Total seed predation was greater in crop and riparian forest habitats than in mowed grass, meadow, or softwood forest. Generally, invertebrate seed predation was greatest at sites with an intermediate degree of vegetative cover, whereas habitat type was the chief biotic determinant of vertebrate seed predation rates. These results suggest cover cropping and wetland conservation as practices that may bolster seed predation rates. Nomenclature: Harpalus rufipes DeGeer.


ABSTRACT: Purpose. The purpose of this study is to assess the predictive ability of the test-positive findings of an elementary school vision screening program, conducted by 2nd-year optometry students, in identifying children with eye or vision disorders. Methods. A modified version of the Modified Clinical Technique (MCT) vision screening was administered to elementary children from a below-average socioeconomic neighborhood in Houston, Texas. Comprehensive eye and vision examinations were provided to the available children who failed the vision screening. The screening was administered by groups of 2nd-year optometry students with the assistance of a 4th-year optometry student, and supervised by a faculty member licensed to practice optometry. The follow-up examinations were provided by supervised 4th-year optometry students in a clinical setting based at the elementary school. Positive predictive values calculated from the screening and examination findings estimate the probability that a failure on one or more of the screening tests would identify children with eye or vision disorders. Results. Sixty-nine percent of the test-positive children examined were found to be true positives by the criteria developed in a study of vision screening methods in Orinda, California from 1954 through 1956. Conclusions. The predictive ability of this study's test-positive findings for identifying eye and vision disorders was found to be less than the predictive ability of the Orinda Study findings. This reduced predictive ability of the present study resulted in a larger number of children being overreferred for examinations than had occurred in the Orinda Study. The reduction in the ability of the test-positive findings of the current study's screening program to identify accurately children with eye and vision problems is most likely due to the limited experience of the optometry students conducting the screening program. The inability of this retrospective study to evaluate the accuracy of the test-negatives is a major limitation in assessing the total effectiveness of this vision screening program. Although the present study may indicate some value in optometry students conducting elementary vision screening programs, a prospective study which could assess the predictive ability of both test-positive and test-negative findings, as well as determine the sensitivity and specificity of the screening program, is needed to assess more fully the effectiveness of school vision screening programs using professional students.


The concept of legal service has already been discussed in research works of the Law University of Lithuania.  We understand the concept as an equivalent cultural exchange in society, when the number of services subjects use is equal to the number of services they render. A conclusion has been drawn that legal service, the structure of which comprises identical duties and obligations of subjects, eliminates prerequisites for social instability and discrepancies, and that due to legal service society reaches the state of justice and getting on. For this reason the development of relations based on legal services between the society and authorities is within the interests of society. But state institutions and the police can not act on their own. They must carry out its activities within legal framework. If laws consolidate cultural superiority of a certain subject, the services on this basis could not be called legal services. In order for relations between and institutions to develop on the basis of adequate mutual obligations it is necessary for these relations to be regulated by legal laws. Activities of the police are strictly based on the foundation of legality, therefore its functions and organizational reform may only be carried out on the basis of a legal act regulating this kind of activities. Until now the police has remained the only one unreformed institution of law enforcement. That's why legal reform of the police needs a legal law. And although legal law is the basis of development of legal services, it is not enough for cultural exchange between subjects to take place in the way of legal service. The author, having used various sources and those of A. Vaisvila in particular, has tried to perceive the importance of legal law to legal service of the police. He also tried to find out what else is necessary for relations of society and the police to develop in the practical framework of legal service, which guarantees human rights to the utmost.


The development of new private business has both economic and social significance for the post-communist transition. New business firms offer industrial dynamism and flexibility to former command economies typically dominated by gigantic monopolies, while, unlike privatised enterprises, not reproducing formerly institutionalised practices. They further presage the rise of new social groups and values with direct implications for civic, social and political renewal. The author argues that conventional economic theories of business foundation, which presume the stable institutional conditions of Western-style capitalism, are by themselves poor explanations of the development of private business in transitional conditions. The paper proposes instead a social-institutional approach, in which small firms are examined as a socially constructed process undertaken by business founders within ambiguous institutional circumstances characterised by historical legacies and simultaneous discontinuities. The empirical findings allow the exploration of the process of business founding by former nomenklatura. Their stock of inherited social capital gave them a privileged position in the contest to construct new firms and thereby access to the legitimate accumulation of economic capital, which completed their personal assimilation to the emergent form of market-economic capitalism. The paper concludes by assessing the social implications of these observations.


Additive manufacturing (AM) for metals is a widely researched, continuously enhanced manufacturing process and is implemented across various industries. However, the AM process exhibits variation that affects the geometric quality of the end product. The effect of process variation on geometric quality is rarely considered during design stages. This paper discusses the various sources that contribute to geometric variation and the prospect of applying robust design method to produce geometry assured AM products. A framework for geometric robustness analysis of AM products is presented as an outcome. This framework would facilitate development of methods and tools to produce geometry assured AM products. The prospects of variation simulation to support geometric robustness analysis and the challenges associated with it are discussed.


Long-term dopamine replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease leads to the development of disabling involuntary movements named dyskinesias that are related to adaptive changes in striatal signaling pathways. The chronic transcription factor ΔFosB, which is overexpressed in striatal neurons after chronic dopaminergic drug exposure, is suspected to mediate these adaptive changes. Here, we sought to demonstrate the ability of ΔFosB to lead directly to the abnormal motor responses associated with chronic dopaminergic therapy. Using rAAV (recombinant adenoassociated virus) viral vectors, high levels of ΔFosB expression were induced in the striatum of dopamine-denervated rats naive of chronic drug administration. Transgenic ΔFosB overexpression reproduced the entire spectrum of altered motor behaviors in response to acute levodopa tests, including different types of abnormal involuntary movements and hypersensitivity of rotational responses that are typically associated with chronic levodopa treatment. JunD, the usual protein partner of ΔFosB binding to AP-1 (activator protein-1) sites of genes, remained unchanged in rats with high ΔFosB expression induced by viral vectors. These findings demonstrate that the increase of striatal ΔFosB in the evolution of chronically treated Parkinson's disease may be a trigger for the development of abnormal responsiveness to dopamine and the emergence of involuntary movements.


Abstract An isolated, completely ossified vertebra tentatively ascribed to the non-cyamodontid placodont Pararcus diepenbroeki is described from the Anisian Vossenveld Formation in Winterswijk, the Netherlands, and compared to other material from the same locality. This fossil is the first completely ossified vertebra of the taxon and most likely originates from an adult specimen. It was recovered c. 16 m deeper in the stratigraphy than previously described material of the species, which is thus far known only from Winterswijk. Based on the slanting angle of the transverse process, the vertebra is interpreted to originate from the dorsal region. Besides the overall agreements in morphology that warrant a tentative identification as Pararcus diepenbroeki, the newly described vertebra deviates from other known Pararcus vertebrae in the presence of a longer, well-ossified neural spine and a strongly constricted, less pachyostotic and ovaloid vertebral centrum. General agreement in morphology with previously described vertebrae suggests this novel condition indicates a different anatomical position and perhaps a varied ossification pattern.


To obtain high performance ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), fiber coatings are often fabricated as the interphase between fiber and matrix. The SiC coating was synthesized at low temperature and reduced pressure in the present experiment. SiC was derived from a gaseous methyltrichlorosilane (MTS)/H2 precursor by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI). The thickness of the coating was inspected by SEM. The correlation between the coating thickness and the depositing conditions, i.e. the deposition temperature, the pressure, the deposition time per pulse and the pulse number were investigated. Based on these work, the C/SiC double-layer coating was fabricated.


This paper reviews published research on behavior modification in sport and physical education. Following an introduction and some general information concerning operant technology, the actual review covers three areas: (a) behavior modification and coaching/teaching behavior, (b) behavior modification in physical education and sport environments, and (c) behavior modification and skill development. The studies reviewed document the significant value of using reinforcement principles to create or sustain specific coaching, teaching, and participant behaviors germane to sport and physical education.


We extend nonlinear pump-probe microscopy, recently demonstrated to image the microscopic distribution of eumelanin and pheomelanin in unstained skin biopsy sections, to the case of melanocytic conjunctival lesions. The microscopic distribution of pigmentation chemistry serves as a functional indicator of melanocyte activity. In these conjunctival specimens (benign nevi, primary acquired melanoses, and conjunctival melanoma), we have observed pump-probe spectroscopic signatures of eumelanin, pheomelanin, hemoglobin, and surgical ink, in addition to important structural features that differentiate benign from malignant lesions. We will also discuss prospects for an in vivo 'optical biopsy' to provide additional information before having to perform invasive procedures.


In Reply.— McCarley et al wrote to inform us of new data from their laboratory regarding P300 amplitude asymmetries in schizophrenia. 1 They report P300 asymmetry in schizophrenic patients "using only the waveform associated with the target stimulus." Previously, they derived P300 by a complex subtraction procedure involving P300s elicited under various conditions. Analysis of P300 to target stimuli alone is the more traditional approach and the one we use routinely. However, with this technique, we failed to obtain P300 asymmetry in schizophrenic patients. 2 It should be noted that the McCarley group also failed earlier to obtain P300 asymmetries in schizophrenic patients using the more traditional P300. In that report, 3 not cited in their letter, they report, "Thus, no statistically significant P300 ia topographic group differences were present." ( P300ia indicates attended target P300 3(p124 )). They concluded that the primary source of the P300 left/right temporal region topographic difference observed


Aim of study: The objective of this study was to analyze the stand structure and spatial pattern of two A. chilensis stands with contrasting soil conditions and different site qualities in order to explore if these differences lead to patterns similar to the ones observed under different precipitation conditions. Area of study: The study was carried out in two stands located near the city of El Bolson (41° 56'S - 71° 33' W), Rio Negro, Argentina. Material and methods: We evaluated age difference between canopy strata (upper and lower) in two stands with different site qualities by means of a Mann-Whitney test. Dead individuals by diameter class were compared by means of a chi square test. Spatial distribution pattern was analyzed using the pair-correlation function and the mark-correlation function. Main results: Both sites exhibited a random spatial distribution of A. chilensis but different processes seem to underlie the patterns. In the low-quality site facilitation and continuous establishment led to a transient clumped spatial pattern. Mortality mediated by competition occurred mainly on small trees resulting in the current random pattern. On the other hand, spatial pattern in the high-quality site does not reflect a facilitation mediated recruitment. The upper strata established synchronously and subsequent regeneration was episodic. Research highlights: The results show that the differences in site quality may lead to different establishment spatial patterns, showing the importance of facilitation processes in sites with drier soil conditions and lower quality, although results may be site specific, due to the lack of replications.


The current study included examination of 1525 buffaloes from (11) districts in Mosul city for detection of lice and ticks. Results showed that the total percentage of lice infestation was 48.63%, particularly blood sucking lice Haematopinus tuberculatus. Buffaloes reared in Al-Shalalate and Al-Kabate showed 100% lice infestation, sucking lice H. tuberculatus was diagnosed by thorax plate which was rectangular with the presence of anterior process on each side. The length of male was 3.5-4 mm while the length of female was 4.5-5 mm. Total tick infestation was 49.1%, with a heights percentage of 80% was noticed in Al-Kabat. Three species of hard ticks were identified, namely Hyalomma anatolicum, Boophilus annulatus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. H. anatolicum was diagnosed by the following characteristics: half circular capitulum; chilecera consist of 3 long pieces, bifurcated first coxa, breathing plate is comma shape, festoon is present with the presence of 2 sub anal plates project out of the body. In R. sanguineus, the capitulum is six angled with short mouth parts. The first coxa was bifurcated with presence of festoon. Breathing plate was comma shape. In B. annulatus the capitulim was six angled with short mouth parts. The first coxa was triangular in shape with short legs and absence of festoon while the breathing plate was oval or rounded in shape. Available online at http://www.vetmedmosul.org/ijvs دلجملا ،ةيرطيبلا مولعلل ةيقارعلا ةلجملا ٣٢ ددعلا ، ٢ ، ٢٠١٨ ) ٤٣ ٥٠ (


Two departments in a secondary school in England participated in 'lesson study' projects over a five-month period to explore its usefulness as a vehicle for professional development. Through a cycle of two research lessons, conducted separately in each department, teachers identified challenges that inhibited the learning of their students and collaboratively prepared innovative approaches to address the learning challenges. The process yielded multiple sets of data: DVD-recorded lessons, lesson plans and resources, transcripts of preparation and evaluation meetings and individual interviews at the end of the project. This paper draws principally on detailed qualitative analysis of end-of-project interviews about teacher experiences of learning and practice development in the two contexts. While the teachers encountered some logistical challenges to the implementation of lesson study, a number of important gains were reported: collaboration in lesson study reduced feelings of professional isolation; teachers reported a sharper focus on pupil learning and more confidence to take risks with approaches to teaching, which led to greater opportunities for pupils to engage in interactive activities, for example, involving problem-solving and peer teaching in groups.


In the post-Cold War world, military operations have often been justified by varying degrees of human rights considerations, a preventive approach towards self-defence, and the morality of overthrowing oppressive regimes. During the accompanying revision of the all too bothersome principle of sovereignty, the focus has shifted away from international peace and security in the original sense, i.e. understood as applying in inter-state relations, towards individuals as the ultimate beneficiaries of the international order. The practical implementation of this doctrinal approach has often led to criticism and sat uneasy with governments suspicious that it could be used against them; more often than not, alleged human rights considerations are deemed as merely providing a convenient shield for geostrategic goals. Many states fear that noble intentions may in reality be abused to impose forcible regime change. Upon closer inspection these fears are well-founded since the use of force in the name of human rights and regime change proceed from the same basic assumption, namely sovereignty as being conditional upon a certain conduct of states and their governments towards their citizens. Thus, it is only a small step from intervening on behalf of human rights to overthrowing the government responsible for mass atrocities. The ius post bellum aspect often even calls for a reorganization of the internal legal system or at least an exchange of leaders. Going even further, some just war theorists argue that no oppressive regime may rely on sovereignty as a shield from forceful interference because of its lack of legitimacy and regardless of the actual perpetration of massive human rights violations. Given the proximity between the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and just war theory, such assumptions need to be taken seriously. After all, the international order seems to be at a crossroads between traditional law and the notion of pluralism and ambitions to establish a worldwide concert of democracies – with the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and just war theory serving as the legal and doctrinal tool in justifying action on behalf of the latter. The ultimate question that still warrants an answer from a doctrinal viewpoint, especially when considering the various historic examples in this regard, is whether there can be an actual implementation of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine in the sense of using force without imposing regime change.


The emergence of Community Cohesion (Cantle, 2001) as national policy from 2001 was portrayed as the 'death of multiculturalism' in Britain (Kundnani, 2002). However, empirical evidence on how Community Cohesion policies were actually understood and enacted at the local level by front-line professionals (Thomas, 2011) suggested that Cohesion was actually a 'rebalancing' (Meer and Modood, 2009) of British multiculturalism, not its death.
Such evidence aids understanding of a situation now where national government is officially disinterested in Community Cohesion or 'Integration' of both settled and new minority communities (DCLG, 2012), and where some local authorities are consequently passive (Jones, 2013), whilst others remain passionate and proactive on Community Cohesion (a term the passionate refuse to give up). This localised passion is arguably driven by the highly racialised experience of local space (Amin, 2003) and significant physical segregation (Finney and Simpson, 2009) in certain localities. This paper draws on recent empirical evidence from research around cohesion implementation in West Yorkshire to analyse both the nature of this continuing local passion and the challenges it faces in relation to 'cohesion'. Crucial here are the concepts of local 'policy enactment' (Braun et al, 2011) and the commitment of the 'street level bureaucrats' (Lipsky, 2010) in shaping this passionate commitment to cohesion whilst the agenda withers on the vine in other local authority regions. The paper argues that such local variations have always been an inherent part of British multiculturalism, with local agency central to understandings of local/sub-national variations from national policy.


Runtime incremental parallel scheduling (RIPS) is an alternative strategy to the commonly used dynamic scheduling. In this scheduling strategy, the system scheduling activity alternates with the underlying computation work. RIPS utilizes advanced parallel scheduling techniques to produce a low-overhead, high-quality load balancing and adapts to applications of nonuniform structures.<<ETX>>


Abstract The Java margin is characterized by a distinct variation in lower to upper plate material transfer and recurring catastrophic tsunamogenic earthquakes. Both processes are closely linked to the subduction of oceanic basement relief resulting in varying degrees of fore-arc deformation. Tomographic models of refraction seismic profiles and reflection seismic lines in combination with high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data reveal the variability in the deep structure and deformation of the Java fore-arc. Shallow subduction processes are governed by the sediment supply in the trench as well as by the nature and fabric of the oceanic lithosphere. The deep structure of the fore-arc reveals a shallow upper plate crust–mantle transition, present along the entire Java margin section. The serpentinized fore-arc mantle wedge governs the depth extent of the seismogenic zone here, which is narrower compared to its Sumatran analogue. In addition, offshore central Java, high relief oceanic basement features potentially act as asperities as well as barriers to seismic rupture, limiting the possible magnitude of subduction thrust earthquakes. However, the potential for geohazards, in particular tsunamis, is high along the entire margin. This results from tsunamogenic earthquakes, ubiquitous splay faults and potentially tsunamogenic landslides, which further increase the risk of future tsunamis.


Health crisis and oil crisis. – The collapse in the oil price recorded in the early months of 2020 has far roots, but finds the contingent reasons in the health crisis caused by Covid-19. The health crisis Covid-19 produces a sharp drop in oil demand, first by China and then by other countries that gradually, after China, will suffer the effects of the coronavirus and proceeded to the so-called lockdown, that leads to the reduction of pro-ductive and commercial activities, limiting the movement of the population from their home. In this work we will highlight the connections between the health crisis and the oil price crisis, also highlighting the problems related to the international geopolitical context.


A traveling-wave microstrip array antenna with circular polarization in presented. It uses a novel circularly polarized dual-feed radiating element. The element is a square microstrip patch with a chamfered corner. It is fed by microstrip lines, so radiating element and feed lines can be realized in a single layer. A five-element array is designed and built. Measured performance is presented.


OBJECTIVE
To present the protocol called the Brazilian Scale of Hearing and Language Development.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a protocol developed in order to assess and record the development of hearing and language skills in young children who have undergone cochlear implantation during the first two years of hearing age. It was applied to the parents of 41 children over a period of 12 months at the cochlear implant clinic in the Pequeno Príncipe Hospital in Curitiba, Brazil. Registered were: the time taken to implement the protocol; ease of understanding the questions; numerical results obtained by the children evaluated.

RESULTS
In general, the questions were considered easy to understand. The minimum time taken for application of the protocol was two minutes and the maximum was 11 minutes. At the end of the evaluation, it was possible to quantify the development in 100% of the cases.

CONCLUSIONS
EDAL proved an agile, quick and easy, instrument to be used in the first two years of hearing age.


Alfred Meebold (29 September 1863 - 6 January 1952) was born in Heidenheim, Germany, and died in Havelock North, New Zealand, (aged 89 years). He was a keen traveller, a fervent Germanic chauvinist, an ardent botanist, and a forthright proponent of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy. Alfred Meebold can take some responsibility for the introduction of Anthroposophy and biodynamics to the Antipodes. In 1920, Meebold was in Dornach, Switzerland, at the inauguration of the first Goetheanum. Also present was the Italian/Australian artist, Ernesto Genoni. At the inauguration, Meebold sponsored Ernesto Genoni to join the Anthroposophy Society. In 1928, Meebold visited Western Australia, as a guest of the Genoni brothers, and delivered lectures on Anthroposophy to Australia's earliest biodynamic farmers. He travelled eastern Australia and to New Zealand. Alfred Meebold was a prolific botanical collector, carefully preserving and noting the date and location of his specimens. In Australia there are 1,539 specimens collected by Meebold recorded in the Australasian Virtual Herbarium, with specimens in 8 different herbaria, and specimens from 14 countries. In New Zealand there are 152 Meebold specimens, collected from 10 countries. Alfred Meebold's name is honoured in the plant genus Meeboldina (in the family Restionaceae) which is endemic to Western Australia. Several plant species are named for Alfred Meebold including: Geranium meeboldii (Pakistan), Lagenandra meeboldii (India), and Darwinia meeboldii (the Cranbrook bell) which is a shrub endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. Alfred Meebold was perhaps the earliest European Anthroposophist to proselytise in Australasia.


The mutual information of independent parallel Gaussian-noise channels is maximized, under an average power constraint, by independent Gaussian inputs whose power is allocated according to the waterfilling policy. In practice, discrete signaling constellations with limited peak-to-average ratios (m-PSK, m-QAM, etc.) are used in lieu of the ideal Gaussian signals. This paper gives the power allocation policy that maximizes the mutual information over parallel channels with arbitrary input distributions. Such policy admits a graphical interpretation, referred to as mercury/waterfilling, which generalizes the waterfilling solution and allows retaining some of its intuition. The relationship between mutual information of Gaussian channels and nonlinear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) proves key to solving the power allocation problem.


Abstract: During service, anticorrosion coatings in seawater are susceptible to wear and scratched damages resulting in the re-exposure of steel substrates. Smart coatings are prepared by formulating microcapsules in polymeric coatings, where healing agents can be released to seal scratches or as lubricant to mitigate wear damages after the microcapsules are broken. Among these microcapsules, isocyanates-loaded microcapsules attracted increasing attentions due to easy operation. However, short service life in moist environments, poor stability in organic solvents and weak mechanical strength of microcapsules restrict their further applications. Therefore, further development of robust microcapsules is of great importance.  4,4'-methylenebis (cyclohexyl isocyanate) (HMDI) was encapsulated successfully in water resistant microcapsules by combining interfacial polymerization and modified in situ polymerization in an oil-in-water emulsion system. The water resistant microcapsules were characterized through various analytical methods, and the influence of agitation rate on diameters, shell thickness and core fraction of microcapsules were investigated systematically. The relative residue of core fraction was higher than 80% after 20 days in moist environments including ambient water, open air, warm water, acidic and alkaline aqueous solutions. However, water resistant microcapsules resist poorly to organic solvents.  In addition, HMDI was also encapsulated successfully in double resistant microcapsules possessing superior stability in both aqueous solutions and organic solvents. Besides outstanding stability in aqueous solutions, double resistant microcapsules also possess outstanding stability in organic solvents. The relative residue of core fractions was beyond 90% after 30 days in ambient hexane, xylene and ethyl acetate, respectively. The influences of parameters including microcapsule size, concentration and immersion duration on the stability of double resistant microcapsules in organic solvents were investigated systematically. However, double resistant microcapsules possess poor stability in acetone and weak mechanical strength.  In order to improve shell strength and acetone resistance of resultant microcapsules, another layer of metal shell was covered on double resistant microcapsules as trifunctional microcapsules. The trifunctional microcapsules were characterized systematically, presenting superior stability in acetone, and higher mechanical strength than that of double resistant microcapsules.  In order to investigate the influence of metal shell on microcapsules, systematic comparison was conducted between double resistant microcapsules and trifunctional microcapsules. The trifunctional microcapsules possess shell strength several times higher than that of double resistant microcapsules. Even in polymeric matrix, the multifunctional composite coatings containing trifunctional microcapsules also possess higher compressive strength and compressive modulus than those containing double resistant microcapsules. Self-healing samples and self-lubricating samples were fabricated successfully by dispersing two types of microcapsules in epoxy resin. Both double resistant microcapsules and trifunctional microcapsules showed superior selfhealing anticorrosion performance towards steel panels. However, trifunctional microcapsules possess marginal self-lubricating performances in epoxy resin due to the existence of metals shell, comparing with outstanding self-lubricating performance of double resistant microcapsules.  Robust microcapsules were fabricated successfully through various encapsulation techniques. However, further investigations are still needed to improve the shortages of current microcapsules.


The polar Kerr rotation, Kerr ellipticity and optical constant n and k change regularly with the increase of Mn doping in Pt layer of Pt/Co multilayers. Through calculation and analyses, in heavy Mn doping the change of the Kerr rotation is due to the off-diagonal elements of dielectric tensor. However, in light Mn doping the change of Kerr rotation results from the change in the magneto-optical and optical constants. The enhanced magneto-optical Kerr rotation is due to the enhancement of Pt spin-orbit coupling. The variation of Pt spin-polarization results in the change of diagonal and off-diagonal elements of dielectric tensor.


The impacts of climate policies on air quality are twofold. First, climate policies imply energy efficiency measures and other technical measures that will have an impact on a wide range of human activities, emissions, and, in turn, on air quality. Second, air quality is sensitive to climate change (which affects physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere) and long range transport of background pollution. Measures designed to mitigate climate change and their effectiveness will thus have both direct and indirect impacts on air pollution. To quantify changes in air pollution in Europe resulting from climate policies at the 2050 horizon, we designed a comprehensive modelling system that captures the external factors considered to be most important for air quality and which relies on the latest set of air pollution and climate scenarios. Climate simulations rely on the recent Representative Concentrations Pathways (RCP) of IPCC whereas air quality modelling is based on the emissions produced in the framework of the more recent Global Energy Assessment. In both cases, we explored two scenarios that are consistent in the climate and air quality models in terms of policy measures: a reference in which climate policies are absent and a mitigation scenario which will limit global temperature rise to within 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. The results are presented in terms of indicators that are relevant regarding the impact of air pollution on health and vegetation. Furthermore attention is given to the de-convolution of the respective contribution of changes in European emissions, hemispheric background concentrations and climate conditions. A synthetic indicator is designed to quantify the respective impact of each compartment. This new indicator allows isolating the net effect of climate change on air quality, as well as the contributions of anthropogenic emission changes and long range transport.


We discuss and analyze absorption-dispersion response for the probe field in a typical four-level atomic system with vacuum-induced coherence (VIC) arising from the cross coupling pathways associated with a pair of upper excited hyperfine levels. We find that VIC effect can preserve electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) by using the detailed numerical simulations based on the density-matrix equations and analytical calculations in the dressed-state picture. We also show that the atomic hyperfine structure cannot be a hindrance to obtaining EIT.


In this work, we propose a modified DEFENSE architecture termed as xDEFENSE that can detect and react to hardware attacks in real-time. In the past, several Root of Trust architectures such as DEFENSE and RETC have been proposed to foil attempts by hardware Trojans to leak sensitive information. In a typical Root of Trust architecture scenario, hardware is allowed to access the memory only by responding properly to a challenge requested by the memory guard. However in a recent effort, we observed that these architectures can in fact be susceptible to a variety of threats ranging from denial of service attacks, privilege escalation to information leakage, by injecting a Trojan into the Root of Trust modules such as memory guards and authorized hardware. In our work, we propose a security monitor that monitors all transactions between the authorized hardware, memory guard and memory. It also authenticates these components through the use of Hashed Message Authentication Codes (HMAC) to detect any invalid memory access or denial of service attack by disrupting the challenge-response pairs. The proposed xDEFENSE architecture was implemented on a Xilinx SPARTAN 3 FPGA evaluation board and our results indicate that xDEFENSE requires 143 additional slices as compared to DEFENSE and incurs a monitoring latency of 22ns.