Author(s): Veale, Melanie | Advisor(s): Ma, Chung-Pei; White, Martin | Abstract: Massive galaxies are the end product of a long evolutionary history, impacted by many complex processes. A coupling between quasars and their host galaxies is thought to be an important factor in quenching star formation in these galaxies, although a single unified picture of this process has yet to emerge. The first and smaller portion of this work compares several simple models for quasar demographics, tuning the model parameters to match observations at redshifts from z = 1 to z = 6. A key feature of the models is the enforcement of self-consistent mass growth across time. A variety of models fit the observed luminosity functions, but physical arguments and comparison to additional observations can distinguish among the models. The second and larger portion of this work focuses on two-dimensional stellar kinematics for the most massive local galaxies. The MASSIVE survey is a volume-limited sample of 116 galaxies with absolute magnitude MK l −25.3 mag, corresponding to stellar mass above approximately 10^11.8 M⊙, within a distance of D l 108 Mpc in the northern hemisphere, with observations from the Mitchell Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) for each galaxy a main component of the survey. The line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD) is extracted from optical spectra over a 107′′ square field of view, with a Gauss- Hermite parameterization up to order 6. After characterizing the statistics of the velocity V , dispersion σ, and higher moments h3, h4, h5, and h6 for the most massive 41 galaxies of the sample, the first two moments (rotation velocity V and dispersion σ) are studied in more detail as a function of galaxy environment. Several measures of environment are calculated, and particular attention is paid to untangling the joint correlations among kinematic properties, galaxy mass, and galaxy environment. The properties of the MASSIVE sample suggest that merger histories and galaxy environment impact galaxy mass and angular momentum in tandem, with no independent correlation between angular momentum and environment once mass is controlled for. The shape of radial velocity dispersion profiles, however, depends on both galaxy mass and environment, with the correlation between dispersion profiles and environment persisting even when mass is controlled for (and vice versa). We include discussion of the kurtosis h4 to distinguish qualitatively between the influence of the total mass profiles and velocity anisotropy on the line-of-sight dispersion profile, and argue that variations from isothermal total mass profiles are very likely in our sample.


Our society relies heavily on fossil resources to fulfill our energy and commodity demands and this dependence has led to negative economic, environmental and societal consequences. The re-generation rate of fossil resources is much slower than their consumption rate, making these resources a non-renewable feedstock for the supply of energy and goods to our society. Moreover, the rapid consumption of fossil resources releases the carbon sequestrated in the last few million years in a much shorter time span, which contributes to the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration increase in the atmosphere and potentially global warming. The geographically-uneven distribution of fossil resources also induces social insecurities and political conflicts. An alternative feedstock is necessary for energy and goods supply to our society, and such alternative feedstock should be renewable, economically sustainable, environmentally sound and geographically wide-spread,. Organic waste is an emerging and promising alternative feedstock. The production of organic waste is inevitable, occurs in large quantities and is geographically wide-spread, especially the so-called "mixed organic waste," e.g. organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and food processing waste. Mixed organic waste contains a large quantity of carbon materials that can be valorised into energy carriers and commodities. However, the extremely heterogeneous composition and the relatively high water content of mixed organic waste make its valorisation via the current waste management methods (e.g. incineration, composting and anaerobic digestion) less efficient and not economically attractive. Given this context, a novel bioprocess based on a mixed culture fermentation, i.e. microbial chain elongation, was developed to promote the valorisation of mixed organic waste. In microbial chain elongation, the diverse, complex organic matter in mixed organic waste are homogenised via hydrolysis and bacterial acidification into basic building blocks; like short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), CO2 and hydrogen (H2). After the homogenisation, energy-rich co-substrates like ethanol are added to these basic building blocks to synthesise medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) via a mixed culture fermentation. MCFAs are organic compounds with a higher economic value and a higher energy content. Microbial chain elongation can be operated under a non-sterile condition, which makes it applicable to valorise mixed organic waste where diverse microorganisms exist. Caproate is the most dominant product in the microbial chain elongation of mixed organic waste and ethanol, which can be produced at a high rate and selectivity. Caproate has a higher economic value, a lower solubility in water and an interesting market potential. Thus, caproic acid production from mixed organic waste and ethanol via microbial chain elongation is currently undergoing up-scaling and commercialisation. Many studies were done to improve the process of caproate production via microbial chain elongation to make it of industrial interest. The on-going commercialisation of microbial chain elongation also supports the economic feasibility. However, until now, no study addressed the environmental sustainability of microbial chain elongation. Chapter 2 of this thesis took the first attempt in analysing the life-cycle environmental impacts of caproic acid production from organic waste via microbial chain elongation, based on the literature and existing business case. The use of ethanol as a co-substrate (i.e. the electron donor) was shown to be the largest cause the environmental impact. This was found in in all assessed cases and all impact categories studied, and regardless of the feedstocks from which ethanol was produced. An alternative for ethanol as electron donor in microbial chain elongation is, therefore, an effective way to improve the environmental sustainability of microbial chain elongation. In Chapter 3, we investigated the use of methanol as an alternative electron donor in microbial chain elongation, i.e. methanol chain elongation, for butyrate and caproate production. Methanol chain elongation was previously demonstrated using a pure culture, but never with a mixed culture. To employ organic waste as feedstock, the feasibility of applying methanol chain elongation in an open mixed culture condition needs to be investigated. In Chapter 3, it was demonstrated in a batch incubation that methanol chain elongation could occur with a mixed culture, where butyrate was the dominant product (4.2 g/L). Caproate production via methanol chain elongation was also demonstrated, though only in a low concentration (0.1 g/L). In a continuous reactor operation, continuous butyrate production (1.5 g/L.day) was achieved via microbial chain elongation of acetate and methanol. However, caproate was not observed in the continuous methanol chain elongation. Interestingly, microorganisms that can perform methanol chain elongation were likely present in the inoculum taken from a previous ethanol chain elongation reactor without any methanol supplement. In Chapter 4, the use of methanol chain elongation to synthesise a novel product, i.e. isobutyrate, was proposed and investigated. Methanol chain elongation was found to continuously produce butyrate as the main metabolite, the accumulation of which was found to trigger isobutyrate formation in several previous methanogenic anaerobic digestion studies. It was, therefore, hypothesised that by elevating the butyrate concentration in the medium, methanol chain elongation might be able to produce isobutyrate as another metabolite. The result showed that isobutyrate could be produced as the main product, up to 6.2 g/L, when using acidified supermarket food waste and methanol as the substrate. A continuous methanol chain elongation using synthetic medium was also performed, which achieved a production rate of 2.0 g/L.day over five hydraulic retention times. Moreover, the production of isovalerate was also observed. Isobutyrate has a much larger market potential than caproate, though its production relies wholly on fossil-based feedstock. Isobutyrate biosynthesis was demonstrated in previous studies, but was only achieved using metabolically engineered microorganisms as the biocatalyst and glucose as the substrate. Methanol chain elongation, in contrast, could employ derivatives from organic waste as the substrates and a self-regenerating mixed culture biocatalyst for producing isobutyrate. Moreover, methanol chain elongation may be integrated into the current microbial chain elongation production facility without a significant infrastructure retrofit. All these advantages make methanol chain elongation an interesting and promising isobutyrate production process. The relatively large market potential of isobutyrate promotes the application of chain elongation and the use of organic waste for value-added chemical production. In Chapter 5, isobutyrate production was integrated with the caproate production via microbial chain elongation, by concurrently feeding both methanol and ethanol to a mixed culture. The result from Chapter 3 supports the possibility of coexistence of ethanol and methanol chain elongation microorganisms in the same microbiome. In Chapter 4, the possible concurrence of methanol and ethanol chain elongation was also observed. Based on these observations, we hypothesised that methanol and ethanol chain elongation could be integrated to simultaneously produce caproate and isobutyrate. The result showed that such integration was possible when a stable pH was maintained. When pH was controlled between 6.2 – 6.5 and butyrate was supplied in the medium, caproate and isobutyrate could be produced simultaneously. Additionally, increasing the ethanol feeding rate promoted the chain elongation of butyrate to caproate via ethanol chain elongation. The outcome of this chapter demonstrated the possibility of producing two valuable products in a single reactor with a mixed culture which, coupled with further process improvement, may be of industrial interest. In Chapter 6, we reflected on the caproate production performance of methanol chain elongation, in comparison with other electron donors used in microbial chain elongation, i.e. ethanol and lactate. Furthermore, we also reflected on the isobutyrate production via methanol chain elongation, in comparison with other emerging products in microbial chain elongation. These reflections could serve as a benchmark for methanol chain elongation as a waste management strategy. Based on this benchmarking, we proposed that methanol chain elongation is a promising bioprocess for isobutyrate production but not for caproate production. A potential strategy for improving the isobutyrate production via methanol chain elongation was proposed and discussed. The outcomes of this thesis may contribute to future application and assessments of microbial chain elongation in waste management. It may fuel discussion on how to further promote microbial chain elongation for a more sustainable waste management.


Abstract Atomistic simulations based on energy minimisation method were employed to compute the structural and defect properties of the symmetric and asymmetric Ni tilt grain boundaries (GBs). The GB structures have been investigated in terms of global GB metrics (GB energy, excess volume) and at the atomic-scale analysis (atomic site energy, binding energy and displacement field of vacancies). The GB properties are treated by the notion of the plane inclination angle between the two symmetric tilt grain boundaries: coherent twin boundary and symmetric incoherent twin boundary configurations. We observed correlations: (i) between the GB energy and the net expansion at the boundary and (ii) between the vacancy properties and GB energetics. We identified that the GB sink efficiency character, which reflects the defect absorption capacity, can be influenced by the GB energy. The minimum defect formation energy in each GB tends to decrease with increasing grain boundary energy. In addition, energetic and structural analyses are linked together to characterise vacancies segregation as a function of the defect location within the GB interface. Our results show a non-symmetric trend especially near the GB plane between the vacancy binding energy and the displacement field generated around the vacancy core. However, the distribution between the binding energy and the displacement field of a vacancy permits to identify whether the atomic relaxations around the GB-defect site are isotropic or anisotropic.


Finding a novel way for fast sequence alignment and exploiting information theory in bacterial genomes and complete phages by Sajia Akhter Claremont Graduate University and San Diego State University, 2013 The invention of next generation sequencing technology (NGS) provides the capability of generating high throughput low cost sequencing data, and is used by scientists to address a diverse range of biological problems. Several data analysis algorithms have been developed in last few years to best exploit NGS data. New tools and methods have also been implemented for better understanding of these data. This dissertation presents several novel techniques involving NGS datasets. The first technique, qudaich is a novel sequence aligner, which can be used as a key part of NGS data analysis. Qudaich generates the pairwise local alignments of a query dataset against a database. Qudaich can efficiently process large volumes of data and is well suited to the next generation reads datasets. This aligner can also handle both DNA and protein sequences and tries to generate the best possible alignment for each query sequence. In contrast to other contemporary aligners, qudaich is more efficient in terms of execution time and accuracy. Next, in this dissertation, I show different ways to extract useful genomic information from NGS data, which, in turn, shows promising directions to solve some of the existing biological problems like prophage prediction. Prophages are viruses that integrated into, and replicated as part of, the bacterial genome. These genetic elements can have tremendous impact on their hosts. The majority of other phage finding tools mainly rely on homology-based approach for prophage prediction, which limits the de novo discovery of novel prophages. This dissertation presents a novel algorithm, PhiSpy to predict prophages in bacterial genomes. PhiSpy combines similarity based and composition based strategies to identify prophages. It finds 94% of the known prophages in 50 complete bacterial genomes with a 6% false negative rate and a 0.66% false positive rate. This led to a successful prediction of the largest set of prophages comparing to other prophage finding applications. Finally, this dissertation also demonstrates that information theory can be effectively applied to find informative sequences, to predict the lifestyle restrictions of an organism, and to analyze the deviation of the amino acid utilization profile in different metabolic processes in different organisms. Together, these tools will enable the next generation of sequence analyses using next generation sequence data.


BACKGROUND
Men with localized prostate cancer who present with high risk features may benefit from determination of pelvic lymph node status by a laparoscopic lymph node dissection prior to definitive therapy.

METHODS
One hundred eighty-nine men with a median age of 69 years (range 49-80) with T1-T3 prostate cancer had a laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection (LPLND) prior to definitive therapy (radiation or surgery). All patients had a negative bone scan and a computerized tomography of the pelvis prior to the LPLND. In addition, all patients also underwent a seminal vesicle biopsy (SVB) in order to determine the presence of T3c disease. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) ranged from 1.6-190 ng/mL (median 11 ng/mL) and was > 10 ng/mL in 56.6%, Gleason score was > or = 7 in 46.7%, and 67.8% had clinical stage T2b-T3a.

RESULTS
Of the 189 patients who underwent an LPLND, 22 (11.6%) had a positive dissection. Between 1 and 51 nodes (median 9) were removed per dissection. PSA, clinical stage, Gleason score and SVB results all significantly influenced node findings. Positive nodes were encountered in 26.5% of those with a PSA > 20 ng/mL (p = 0.0002), in 16.4% with stage T2b-T3a (p = 0.003), in 20% with Gleason scores 7-10 (p = 0.0006) and in 38% of men with a positive SVB (p < 0.0001). Logistic regression analysis with PSA, Gleason score, clinical stage and the results of the SVB demonstrated that a positive SVB was the most significant predictor of node positivity. The overall transfusion rate was 1% (2/189) and median hospital stay was one day. The complication rate for the LPLND was 9% (17/189).

CONCLUSION
The LPLND is an effective and efficient means of detecting positive pelvic lymph nodes in patients with localized prostate cancer. It should be considered a necessary diagnostic modality in all appropriate patients who may be candidates for curative therapy.


This study investigates the impact of telecommunications penetration on the aggregate production efficiency in a large cross-section of fifty countries. We show that higher levels of ICT capital stock penetration increase technical efficiency levels in the aggregate production function. However, depending on the geographical location the effects of ICT penetration are different. Our empirical findings suggest that increasing the per capita telecommunications capital in the form of land line and mobile telephones, computers, Internet access and the like is likely to considerably increase productive efficiency in case of the poorest nations, while in the more developed countries such gains have been largely exhausted. In the end we offer several avenues for more research based on the caveats discovered while working on this study.


Background: Cognitive impairments occur frequently in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), resulting in worse health outcomes than expected. These impairments can remain undetected unless specifically screened. There are limited sensitive screening measures available in nursing practice to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Aim: To compare the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) with the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) in screening for MCI in CHF patients. Methods: The MMSE and MoCA were administered to 93 hospitalized CHF patients (70±11 years), without a history of neurocognitive problems. Patients with low MoCA scores (<26) were compared to those with low MMSE scores (<27). Two different parameters were examined between the MoCA and the MMSE: level of MCI agreement (Kappa coefficient) and task errors on assessed cognitive domains (χ2 test). Results: Statistically more patients had low MoCA scores compared with low MMSE scores (66 vs. 30, p=0.02). The MoCA classified 38 (41%) patients as cognitively impaired that were not classified by the MMSE. A significantly low level of agreement was found (κ=0.25, p=0.001) between the MMSE and MoCA in identifying patients with scores suggestive of MCI. More task errors were observed on the MoCA cognitive domains compared with the MMSE cognitive domains. In 68% of patients with low cognitive scores, visuospatial task errors were observed on tasks from the MoCA compared with 22% on a similar task of the MMSE. Conclusion: The MoCA, a screening tool for MCI, identified subtle but potentially clinically relevant cognitive dysfunctions with greater frequency than MMSE.


Towing kites bear large potential for carbon neutral energy generation using high altitude wind. However, to realize this potential reliable, safe, and efficient control is essential. This task is often tackled using a trajectory tracking model predictive control formulation. We show that such a formulation limits the achievable performance due to a fixed and predefined trajectory speed. This can be bypassed by a tailored path following predictive control formulation, enhancing the controller's robustness in different scenarios. Additionally, we show that learning an accurate model using input-output data improves the performance of both path following and trajectory tracking. In case of the trajectory tracking controller the improvements allow to mask its inherent drawbacks, raising the question whether learning can be used to compensate an unfavorable problem formulation. Our results show that the path following controller performs well for a wide range of parameters and exhibits a trade-off between generated thrust and tracking accuracy. Furthermore, the path following controller significantly outperforms the trajectory tracking controller in terms of robustness.


Abstract In vitro selected ribozymes are promising tools for site‐specific labeling of RNA. Previously known nucleic acid catalysts attached fluorescently labeled adenosine or guanosine derivatives through 2′,5′‐branched phosphodiester bonds to the RNA of interest. Herein, we report new ribozymes that use orthogonal substrates, derived from the antiviral drug tenofovir, and attach bioorthogonal functional groups, as well as affinity handles and fluorescent reporter units through a hydrolytically more stable phosphonate ester linkage. The tenofovir transferase ribozymes were identified by in vitro selection and are orthogonal to nucleotide transferase ribozymes. As genetically encodable functional RNAs, these ribozymes may be developed for potential cellular applications. The orthogonal ribozymes addressed desired target sites in large RNAs in vitro, as shown by fluorescent labeling of E. coli 16S and 23S rRNAs in total cellular RNA.


Introduction: Pontocerebellar hypoplasia (PCH) involves a diverse range of etiologies including a group of single gene disorders. Mutations in the tRNA splicing endonuclease complex (TSEN) 54 gene can be responsible for PCH type 2, 4 and 5. The more common and less severe PCH 2 phenotype is caused by homozygosity for the common missense mutation A307S, while the severe phenotype seen in type 4 and 5 is caused by compound heterozygosity of the A307S mutation along with a nonsense or splice site mutation. Report: We report a 4- month-old girl who presented with epileptic spasms that remained intractable to several antiepileptic medications. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain showed fairly severe hypoplasia with superimposed atrophy of the cerebellum and brainstem with prominent extra-axial fluid spaces. Extensive metabolic testing was negative. Commercial testing for PCH via TSEN54 gene revealed missense mutation of Ala307Ser. A novel sequence variant, designated c.17_40 del, was also found and was predictive of an in-frame deletion of eight amino acids. Follow-up over 2 years revealed intractable epileptic spasms, progressive microcephaly and development of prominent choreoathetosis. Conclusion: This case report describes a rare case of PCH with overlapping features of the less severe PCH2 and the more severe PCH4/5 phenotype. It also adds another new entity in the list of genetic conditions where West syndrome and pontocerebellar hypoplasia can be seen together, emphasizing the need for further investigations of the genotype-phenotype correlation of mutations in order to advance our understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanism in these rare conditions.


In this study, we demonstrate geomechanical modeling with fully automatic parameter calibration to estimate the full geomechanical stress fields of a prospective US CO2 storage site, based on sparse measurement data. The goal is to compute full stress tensor field estimates (principal stresses and orientations) that are maximally compatible with observations within the constraints of the model assumptions, thereby extending point-wise, incomplete partial stress measurement to a simulated full formation stress field, as well as a rough assessment of the associated error. We use the Perch site, located in Otsego Country, Michigan, as our case study. Input data consists of partial stress tensor information inferred from in-situ borehole tests, geophysical well logs and processing of seismic data. A static earth model of the site was developed, and geomechanical simulation functionality of the open-source MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) used to model the stress field. Adjoint-based nonlinear optimization was used to adjust boundary conditions and material properties to calibrate simulated results to observations. Results were interpreted through a Bayesian framework.
 The focus of this article is to demonstrate how the fully automatic calibration procedure works and discuss the results obtained but does not attempt a detailed analysis of the stress field in the context of the proposed CO2 storage initiatives. Our work is part of a larger effort to non-invasively determine in-situ stresses in deep formations considered for CO2 storage. Guided by previously published research on geomechanical model calibration, our work presents a novel calibration approach supporting a potentially large number of linear or nonlinear calibration parameters, in order to produce results optimally agreeing with available measurements and thus extend partial point-wise estimates to full tensor fields compatible with the physics of the site.


Experiential learning has been documented as an effective method for student learning, yet its use in large-enrollment classes remains limited. Kolb's experiential learning theory emphasizes that experiential learning requires a hospitable learning space (HLS) that is conducive to learning. In this article, we reframe the challenges to experiential learning in large classes as a failure to create and maintain an HLS, and we propose Appreciative inquiry as one solution to this problem. Appreciative inquiry is an organizational development methodology that practitioners have successfully used to engage large groups to leverage their strengths and resources. First, we describe the HLS as an overarching theoretical framework to address the lack of engagement when conducting experiential learning in large classes. Second, we use the principles of Appreciative inquiry to provide actionable suggestions to instructors facing these challenges. Finally, through the use of appreciative inquiry, we argue that some characteristics of large classes can instead be viewed in an appreciative way as available resources to generate an engaging experiential learning process for students.


The article analyzes medical evaluations of athletes conducted in the early years of the São Paulo State Department of Physical Education's (DEF-SP) medical office, founded in 1935 to promote medical supervision of 'exercise and sports' in the state. Through sports medicine supervision, and influenced by eugenicist scientific reasoning, the DEF-SP endeavored to promote more hygienic sports habits that would mold physical types suited for certain modalities of sports. We also observed that in these early years of sports medicine in São Paulo, efforts were made to define the characteristics of a Brazilian physical type.


Taking the Korogocho community as its starting point, this article explores the respective roles, dynamics and relationship between formal and informal volunteering. Following an overview of the research's participatory systemic action research (SAR) methodology, the article outlines how the widespread use of stipends and allowances by external development organisations has blurred the distinction between formal volunteerism and low‐paid work – something that disincentivises volunteering through local organisations who lack the resources to pay allowances. It examines informal volunteering, such as mutual aid and self‐help groups, and highlights how they add significant value when they emerge in response to a directly experienced community need. Finally, it discusses the risks and opportunities associated with formal and informal volunteering. Issues include how volunteering can be used in complementary ways to address community needs, the scales at which they are most effective, and their potential in promoting greater inclusion and more equitable gender roles.


The purpose of this study was to examine practices of parental involvement in the education of their children with disabilities in inclusive government primary schools. Qualitative case study design was used to investigate the problem. A sample of six parents of children with disabilities and two teachers were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview guide and analyzed thematically based on Epstein's (2001) framework of parental involvement with six dimensions. Results indicate that parents of children with disabilities involved better in parenting activities to support the education of children with disabilities. However, communication of parents with teachers and school principals was found to be minimal. They did not visit the schools regularly and discuss with school teachers and principals on their children's learning. In addition, while few parents of children with disabilities provided learning support for their children at home; most parents of children with disabilities were unable to do so due to time constraints, wrong perceptions and skill deficits. Findings also revealed that parental direct involvement in decision making process was low although their indirect participation via parent-student-teacher association was better. Finally, parents of children with disabilities in the study area did not involve at all in volunteering and community activities to support their children's education. Thus, the schools are required to organize discussions and trainings that would enable parents of children with disabilities recognize and discharge their multifaceted roles.
Keywords: Children with disabilities; Epstein's framework; Ethiopia; Parental involvement


Objective—The ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) protein maintains cellular cholesterol homeostasis in several different tissues. In the liver, ABCA1 is crucial for high-density lipoprotein biogenesis, and in the pancreas ABCA1 can regulate insulin secretion. In this study, our aim was to identify novel microRNAs that regulate ABCA1 expression in these tissues. Approach and Results—We combined multiple microRNA prediction programs to identify 8 microRNAs that potentially regulate ABCA1. A luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that 5 of these microRNAs (miR-148, miR-27, miR-144, miR-145, and miR-33a/33b) significantly repressed ABCA1 3′-untranslated region activity with miR-145 resulting in one of the larger decreases. In hepatic HepG2 cells, miR-145 can regulate both ABCA1 protein expression levels and cholesterol efflux function. In murine islets, an increase in miR-145 expression decreased ABCA1 protein expression, increased total islet cholesterol levels, and decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Inhibiting miR-145 produced the opposite effect of increasing ABCA1 protein levels and improving glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Finally, increased glucose levels in media significantly decreased miR-145 levels in cultured pancreatic beta cells. These findings suggest that miR-145 is involved in glucose homeostasis and is regulated by glucose concentration. Conclusions—Our studies demonstrate that miR-145 regulates ABCA1 expression and function, and inhibiting this microRNA represents a novel strategy for increasing ABCA1 expression, promoting high-density lipoprotein biogenesis in the liver, and improving glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in islets.


Author(s): Yarish, Jasmine Noelle | Advisor(s): Lopez-Alves, Fernando | Abstract: This study extends W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of abolition democracy by exploring the political thought of Black women in and around the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1850 and 1880. As the historical site of the nation's founding, the U.S. abolitionist movement, and the largest concentration of Blacks in the United States at the end of the 19th century, Philadelphia is central to the American democratic imaginary, yet Black women's contributions to the city, the nation, and that imaginary, even by those exploring black political thought, remain largely unexplored. By returning to how Sarah Mapps Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fanny Jackson Coppin, and Gertrude Bustill Mossell negotiated and transgressed the newly drawn boundaries of the expanding city, the "splendid failure of Reconstruction" that Du Bois documented in Black Reconstruction takes on gendered and urban dimensions. Attending to these Black women as they adapted to global trends of enclosure, industrialization, and urbanization, I find that the political concept of fugitivity that spurned the democratic movement for the abolition of slavery retains theoretical significance beyond the antebellum period. Having a history in Black political thought, fugitivity is a paradigm through which people in their everyday practices escape the capitalist impulse to confine, detain, and commodify their existence as both capital and labor. Black women as political thinkers complicate the spatialized reality and romantic idea of "home" that underpinned both the hunting and freeing of fugitives in the years leading up to the U.S. Civil War. Their work raises the following question: what does democracy mean when the nation is built from and by those deemed "homeless"?


An airport is a key infrastructure project in many cities. However, its structural effects on the distribution of employment and the commuting patterns are rarely examined at the city level. This paper aims to examine the impact of the relocation of the Hong Kong International Airport on the jobs-housing balance of the city under two scenarios. The first scenario shows the actual situation in 2002 after the airport was relocated to a suburban area. This scenario reflects the government's effort to have co-ordinated urban development. The second scenario shows the situation with a hypothetical and relatively monocentric city structure. The airport was assumed to remain within the urban core area. Different indicators of minimum and excess commuting are compared. The results show that the airport relocation has enabled shorter commuting and, hence, lower commuting emissions. This analytical framework can be applied to other cities and for analysing other land use changes.


This paper was presented at the 16th International Conference of the International Trade and Finance Association in Lodz, Poland, May 12, 2006.


: Computer security has recently become more and more important as the world economy dependency from data has kept growing. The complexity of the systems that need to be kept secure calls for new models capable of abstracting the interdependencies among heterogeneous components that cooperate at providing the desired service. A promising approach is attack graph analysis, however, the manual analysis of attack graphs is tedious and error prone. In this paper we propose to apply the metabolic network model to attack graphs analysis, using three interacting bio-inspired algorithms: topological analysis, flux balance analysis, and extreme pathway analysis. A developed framework for graph building and simulations as well as an introductory to some IoT scenarios as use cases are also outlined.


A twenty year retrospective study was carried out in the Small Animal Clinic, University of Nairobi, Kenya and in a private Small Animal Clinic in Nairobi between the years 1988 to 2008. A total of 6548 bitches had been presented with reproductive problems. The cases were categorically grouped according to the type of infertility diagnosed. Non-infectious infertilities were sixty nine percent and infectious types were thirty one percent. Only two percent of the latter were confirmed in one clinic. 23.20 % of non-infectious infertility were managerial, 29.1% anatomical and 7.80% physiological types while 39.80 % were unclassified miscellaneous cases. The cases classified under infectious infertility consisted of; vaginitis/endometritis/metritis (36.3%), pyometra (25.3%), abortions (21.5%), vaginal discharges (11.7%) and miscarriages (5.1%). The incidence of infertilities was highly common in breeds of German shepherd (39%), Doberman (6%), Rottweiler (12%) and their crosses (43%). The percentage of the reproductive cases presented in both clinics had no statistical difference at (p<0.05). It was evident from the results of this study that infectious infertility exists among the bitches in Kenya and it would be beneficial to do further studies to establish the causative agents to avert any possible outbreaks of zoonotic diseases.


Feedback to students remains a contentious issue for both staff and learners:
"the UK-wide National Student Survey has shown consistently that feedback is an area in which students are often least satisfied, irrespective of institution or discipline" (Rodway-Dyer et al, 2011)

"Feedback on students' work is, probably, one of the most important aspects of learning, yet students' report, according to the National Union of Students (NUS) Survey of 2008, unhappiness with the feedback process" (Lunt & Curran, 2010)

"... teaching staff complain about lack of student engagement with feedback and a loss of connection with students" (Cann, 2014)

This paper presents a case study carried out with first year undergraduate students to compare and contrast the use of audio feedback and text-based feedback. ("Audio feedback may be defined as a digital sound file containing formative or summative verbal feedback given by the tutor". Hennessy & Forrester, 2014).

Shriver (1992) has suggested that recordings of spoken feedback can be used as "think-aloud reading" and help students to focus on the impressions their writing gives to the reader. This research was directed towards writing skills but other research e.g. Lunt & Curran (2010) indicated that audio feedback had been favourably tested by students in business and tourism. Rodway-Dyer et al (2011) tested similar ideas with geography students and met with a largely positive response.

Other research has suggested that the issue is not so clear-cut: "some [students] found the richness of the audio feedback a precursor to even greater effort, some students pointing out forcefully that its pro-social nature created an affective relationship, whilst others found it at best, redundant in terms of its cognitive effects, and at worst, an intrusive and unwelcome intimate obstruction to understanding." (Gleaves & Walker, 2013)

The study carried out in BA(Hons) Photography suggests that not all students see a benefit in audio feedback but that it may have a role within the curriculum as part of a broader feedback strategy.


Abstract
Salinity is one of the major abiotic challenges influencing plant productivity worldwide. To examine the response of two alfalfa cultivars (Bami and Hamedani) to six levels of water salinity (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 mM L-1 NaCl), a glasshouse experiment was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran in 2008. The results showed that in Bami (which appeared to be more tolerant to salinity), with increasing salt stress from 75 to 125 mM L-1, dry weight per pot was significantly decreased from 15.1 to 10.3 g, while in Hamedani decrease in dry weight was started from 50 mM L-1 salinity level. In both Bami and Hamedani cultivars leaf area per pot was significantly decreased when salt stress was higher than 75 mM   L-1. There was a significant difference in leaf relative water content (RWC) between the two alfalfa cultivars in 75, 100 and 125 mM L-1 NaCl salinity levels. With increase in salinity level, the Na+ concentration was increased from 220 to 565 mmol kg-1 dry weight in Bami, and from 238 to 643 mmol kg-1 dry weight in Hamedani. The Cl- concentration in Hamedani (622 mmol kg-1 dry weight in 125 mM L-1 NaCl) was higher than that in Bami (503 mmol kg-1 dry weight in 125 mM L-1 NaCl). The K+ concentration was increased from 203 to 604 mmol kg-1 dry weight in Bami, and from 135 to 571 mmol kg-1 dry weight in Hamedani. Furthermore, phytomass production in Bami was significantly correlated with K+ (r=0.97), and Ca2+ (r=0.96) concentrations, as well as with leaf area (r=0.50) and plant height (r=0.87). Path analysis showed that there were significant direct effects of leaf area (p=0.73), Ca2+ (p=1.02) and K+ (p=0.59) on dry weight in Bami. In Hamedani, there were significant direct effects of K+ (p=0.61) and Ca2+ (p=1.07 on dry weight. Overall, based on both correlation and path analyses, it was concluded that measurements of K+ and Ca2+ concentrations may be appropriate criteria for evaluating susceptibility of cultivars to salt stress. These results may also be used for screening the salt resistant cultivars of alfalfa.


Computing the Euclidean Distance Transform (EDT) for binary images is an important problem with applications involving medical image processing, computer vision, computational geometry, and pattern recognition. Currently, there exists a sequential algorithm of O(n) complexity developed by Maurer et al. and a parallel implementation of Maurer's algorithm developed by Staubs et al. with a theoretical complexity of O(n/p) for n voxels and p threads. In this paper, we present an efficient, scalable parallel implementation of Maurer's algorithm for large datasets with high efficiency for 16 processors.


While sexual health literature identifies youths' sexual health information sources and its impact on their sexual practices, little is known about the way youth evaluate the credibility of this information. This knowledge gap is significant among young, Black gay and other men who have sex with men (YBGM) who belong to intersectional populations disproportionately impacted by HIV and other STIs—youth, Black Canadians, gay and other men who have sex with men. We conducted a qualitative study using constructivist grounded theory to explore YBGM's approaches to evaluating sexual health information sources' credibility. Intersectionality and the socioecological model informed our analysis. We explored connections between social locations (e.g., race, sexual orientation) and socio-ecological environments and how their impact shaped YBGM's evaluation of sexual health information. Findings revealed evaluation strategies varied by source: friends, the internet and healthcare providers. Friends' information was deemed credible if they were older, shared social locations and provided embodied testimonials. Testimonials mirrored oral-traditions specific to Black populations where oral narratives help disseminate sensitive information in a culturally relevant way. Website selection was informed by YBGM's social locations and ranged from being implicitly trusted to assessed by its association with established healthcare organizations. Many participants' acceptance of healthcare providers' information revealed patient-client power imbalances and a perception that providers' actions reflected their institutions' sexual health policies. Findings highlight a need for sexual health services to create culturally effective ways to disseminate information that accounts for the histories, contexts and approaches YBGM use to identify credible sources.


Background— Identity-by-descent mapping using empirical estimates of identity-by-descent allele sharing may be useful for studies of complex traits in founder populations, where hidden relationships may augment the inherent genetic information that can be used for localization. Methods and Results— Through identity-by-descent mapping, using ≈400 000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), of serum lipid profiles, we identified a major linkage signal for triglycerides in 1007 Pima Indians (LOD=9.23; P=3.5×10−11 on chromosome 11q). In subsequent fine-mapping and replication association studies in ≈7500 Amerindians, we determined that this signal reflects effects of a loss-of-function Ala43Thr substitution in APOC3 (rs147210663) and 3 established functional SNPs in APOA5. The association with rs147210663 was particularly strong; each copy of the Thr allele conferred 42% lower triglycerides (&bgr;=−0.92±0.059 SD unit; P=9.6×10−55 in 4668 Pimas and 2793 Southwest Amerindians combined). The Thr allele is extremely rare in most global populations but has a frequency of 2.5% in Pimas. We further demonstrated that 3 APOA5 SNPs with established functional impact could explain the association with the most well-replicated SNP (rs964184) for triglycerides identified by genome-wide association studies. Collectively, these 4 SNPs account for 6.9% of variation in triglycerides in Pimas (and 4.1% in Southwest Amerindians), and their inclusion in the original linkage model reduced the linkage signal to virtually null. Conclusions— APOC3/APOA5 constitutes a major locus for serum triglycerides in Amerindians, especially the Pimas, and these results provide an empirical example for the concept that population-based linkage analysis is a useful strategy to identify complex trait variants.


In keeping with the Symposium theme, "The Mass Media's Influence on Health Law and Policy," this essay is designed to share my experience using clips from three recent popular films as a method of enhancing coverage and discussion of legal and policy issues surrounding the private health insurance system, and to provide some practical advice for others interested in doing the same. Specific topics include the erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance, continuation of private coverage under COBRA and HIPAA, public health care programs, physician incentives, the uninsured and access to care and legal remedies for claim denial. This essay builds upon a presentation that I gave along with Professors Timothy S. Hall and Ross D. Silverman at the 2004 Health Law Teachers Conference entitled "Health Law, Policy and Media," and was inspired by Professor Paul Bergman's entertaining and informative essay, "Teaching Evidence the 'Reel' Way." I am grateful to the Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy for the invitation to contribute to this issue.


Bacterial AvrRpt2-like cysteine proteases specifically suppress flagellin-induced phosphorylation of specific Arabidopsis mitogen-activated protein kinases. To establish infection, pathogens deliver effectors into host cells to target immune signaling components, including elements of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MPK) cascades. The virulence function of AvrRpt2, one of the first identified Pseudomonas syringae effectors, involves cleavage of the plant defense regulator, RPM1-INTERACTING PROTEIN4 (RIN4), and interference with plant auxin signaling. We show now that AvrRpt2 specifically suppresses the flagellin-induced phosphorylation of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MPK4 and MPK11 but not MPK3 or MPK6. This inhibition requires the proteolytic activity of AvrRpt2, is associated with reduced expression of some plant defense genes, and correlates with enhanced pathogen infection in AvrRpt2-expressing transgenic plants. Diverse AvrRpt2-like homologs can be found in some phytopathogens, plant-associated and soil bacteria. Employing these putative bacterial AvrRpt2 homologs and inactive AvrRpt2 variants, we can uncouple the inhibition of MPK4/MPK11 activation from the cleavage of RIN4 and related members from the so-called nitrate-induced family as well as from auxin signaling. Thus, this selective suppression of specific mitogen-activated protein kinases is independent of the previously known AvrRpt2 targets and potentially represents a novel virulence function of AvrRpt2.


In the current paper, sustainability assessment framework was designed using a set of multidimensional indicators to assess and monitor eight community-based water supply management in four different states in Sudan. The assessment framework consisted of site visits, a systematic secondary information collection, and analysis approach and documents reviews. A sustainability index was developed based on the projects stakeholder's discussions and the dataset were further analyzed using multivariate analysis techniques. The study revealed that 89% of the implemented water projects had low sustainable performance although they are considered as young projects (1-4 years age projects). According to Principal component analysis (PCA), 39% of the low sustainability performance of the projects was mostly related to the poor organizational and financial capacity of the communities and poor post-implementation governmental and/or external agencies involvement and support in terms of monitoring, capacity building facilities, and financial support. There is a strong need to develop post implementation strategies and models and mechanisms to backup community-based water projects technically as well as financially to assure the sustainability and verify the project implementation goals.


From March 1991 to December 1993, 30 patients underwent transbronchial biopsy (TBB) after lung transplantation (16 with a heart lung transplant, 7 with a single lung transplant, and 7 with a double lung transplant). The now standard TBB technique was used. Initially, TBB was performed only when clinically indicated, i.e. when there were sound reasons to suspect the existence of acute rejection (AR) or pulmonary infection. From 1992, all the patients were entered into a prospective study, the protocol of which called for serial "surveillance" TBB to be performed, in addition to those for clinical indications, 15 days, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after the transplant, and then annually. One hundred and twenty nine transbronchial biopsies were performed in 2.5 yrs. Of the 121 successful TBBs, 54 (45%) were positive, i.e. showed signs of acute rejection. Sixty six of 129 (51%) of the TBBs were performed because of clinical indications, 45 of them (68%) within the first 3 months following the transplant. The other 63 were surveillance biopsies. About two thirds of the clinically indicated TBBs and more than a quarter of the surveillance TBBs, yielding adequate samples, were positive for AR > or = A2 (mild rejection). The sensitivity and specificity of the method in detecting AR were 91 and 100%, respectively. The overall incidence of complications was 10.8% (pneumothorax in 9% of cases). There were no deaths correlated to the procedure. Our results confirm the decisive role of TBB in the diagnosis of acute lung rejection. The high incidence of mild acute rejection, and the occasional finding of moderate acute rejection in stable asymptomatic patients, support the use of surveillance TBB in the first 6 months.


We report the fabrication and characterization of wavelength-scale diffractive optical elements etched directly on the surface of red (660 nm) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. The structures were fabricated by focused ion beam etching. Linear and two-dimensional (2-D) grating configurations were investigated. Each showed excellent suppression of the zeroth-order diffracted beam. Compared to the power from an unetched laser, /spl sim/22% of the emission was coupled into the first order for linear gratings and 12% for the 2-D structures. Polarization was independent of grating orientation for grating pitches as small as 1/spl lambda/. Threshold current increases of 35%-40% were measured.


E-learning now accounts for a substantial proportion of medical education provision. This progress has required significant investment and this investment has in turn come under increasing scrutiny so that the costs of e-learning may be controlled and its returns maximised. There are multiple methods by which the costs of e-learning can be controlled and its returns maximised. This short paper reviews some of those methods that are likely to be most effective and that are likely to save costs without compromising quality. Methods might include accessing free or low-cost resources from elsewhere; create short learning resources that will work on multiple devices; using open source platforms to host content; using in-house faculty to create content; sharing resources between institutions; and promoting resources to ensure high usage. Whatever methods are used to control costs or increase value, it is most important to evaluate the impact of these methods.


Current unsupervised deep learning-based image registration methods are trained with mean squares or nor- malized cross correlation as a similarity metric. These metrics are suitable for registration of images where a linear relation between image intensities exists. When such a relation is absent knowledge from conventional image registration literature suggests the use of mutual information. In this work we investigate whether mutual information can be used as a loss for unsupervised deep learning image registration by evaluating it on two datasets: breast dynamic contrast-enhanced MR and cardiac MR images. The results show that training with mutual information as a loss gives on par performance compared with conventional image registration in contrast enhanced images, and the results show that it is generally applicable since it has on par performance compared with normalized cross correlation in single-modality registration.


Post-stroke depression is a serious complication of ischemic stroke that exerts a negative effect on patient's quality of life, restoration of symptoms and prognosis. The study of efficacy of the drug opra (citalopram) in the treatment of post-stroke depression revealed the improvement in 93.3% of patients. Along with antidepressant action, opra has a marked anxiolytic effect. The drug does not exert a negative influence on daily activities, cognitive functioning and has minimal side-effects.


The anticonvulsant activity of diazepam and phenobarbital may be mediated in part by enhancement of inhibition involving gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). While both diazepam and phenobarbital increase GABA receptor chloride current, they may have different mechanisms of action, since they bind to different sites on the GABA receptor-chloride channel complex. We used the patch clamp technique to compare the effects of diazepam and phenobarbital on single GABA receptor currents. Outside-out patches were obtained from mouse spinal cord neurons grown in cell culture for 2 to 4 weeks. GABA (2 microM) evoked single channel currents that occurred as single brief openings or in bursts of multiple openings. Diazepam (20 nM) and phenobarbital (500 microM) both increased the GABA receptor current by increasing mean open time without altering channel opening frequency. However, the temporal grouping of openings into bursts suggested that the enhancement occurred via different mechanisms. Diazepam increased the frequency of bursting GABA receptor currents with minimal effect on the duration of bursts. Phenobarbital increased the duration of bursting GABA receptor currents without altering the frequency of bursts. These results suggest that diazepam binds to a site that may enhance single channel burst frequency by increasing the affinity of GABA binding, while phenobarbital may stabilize the bursting open state of the channel by binding to a different modulatory site at or near the chloride channel.


1 Kaplan GA, Salonen JT. Socioeconomic conditions in childhood and ischaemic heart disease during middle age. BMJ 1990;301: 1121-3. (17 November.) 2 MacMahon S, Peto R, Cutler J, et al. Blood pressure, stroke and coronary heart disease. 1. Prolonged differences in blood pressure: prospective observational studies corrected for the regression dilution bias. Lancet 1990;335:765-74. 3 Rosner B, Spiegelman D, Willett W. Correction of logistic regression relative risk estimates and confidence intervals for measurement error: the case of multiple covariates measured with error. AmJ Epidemiol 1990;132:734-45. 4 Savitz DA, Baron AE. Estimating and correcting for confounder misclassification. AmJ7 Epidemiol 1989;129:1062-71. 5 Goldblatt P. Mortality and alternative social classifications. In: Goldblatt P, ed. Longitudinal study: mortality and social organisation. London: HMSO, 1990:163-92. 6 Davey Smith G, Bartley M, Blane D. The Black report on socioeconomic inequalities in health 10 years on. BMJ 1990;301:373-7. (18-25 August.) 7 Smnith GD, Phillips AN. Declaring independence: why we should be cautious. J Epidemiol Community Health (in press).


A new concept for the design of coaxial cables was recently proposed and developed by the research team by introducing the change in topology of the cable structure when the cable is subjected to strain effects. In this study, three implementation issues are discussed to further advance the emerging technology towards its commercialization and implementation for crack monitoring and detection of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. They include plasma sprayed coating of a coaxial cable sensor, correlation between the reflection coefficient and the width of a crack, and interference of steel reinforcing bars with the electromagnetic field used for timedomain reflectometry measurements. Test results have shown that the sprayed coating can significantly enhance the uniformity of coaxial cable sensors and thus the quality of measured data. With controlled cracking tests, the peak reflection coefficient was found linearly related to the width of a crack. Furthermore, the interference by the adjacent steel bars is negligible even when a coaxial sensor is nearly in contact with a reinforcing bar.


Adverbial clauses of time are positioned either before or after their associated main clauses. This study aims to assess the importance of discourse-pragmatics and processing-related constraints on the positioning of adverbial clauses of time in research articles of applied linguistics written by authors for whom English is considered a native language. Previous research has revealed that the ordering is co-determined by various factors from the domains of semantics and discourse-pragmatics (bridging, iconicity, and subordinator) and language processing (deranking, length, and complexity). This research conducts a multifactorial analysis on the motivators of the positioning of adverbial clauses of time in 100 research articles of applied linguistics. The study will use a random forest of conditional inference trees as the statistical technique to measure the weights of the aforementioned variables. It was found that iconicity and bridging, which are factors associated with discourse and semantics, are the two most salient predictors of clause ordering.


Noting that a common question circulating among academics and investors alike is how to measure risk, the author notes that there has yet to be a single quantitative measure that can properly encompass the risks inherent in hedge funds. Quantitative factors are often mistakenly cited as the "risk" of a strategy, when they are in fact only one component of a hedge fund manager's risk. There are over a dozen known calculations to analyze risk, but the author suggests that they are primarily based on two basic measures. In the traditional framework, volatility measures focus on application of the standard deviation of returns, whereas hedge fund practitioners tend to emphasize the drawdown calculation. The latter measure has evolved in an attempt to provide non-traditional or hedge fund investors with more insight into potential risks they may encounter in the future. The author then will compare the results of ratios applied to traditional and hedge fund portfolios so that the reader can gain a perspective as to the magnitude of these challenges.


The study of indigenous ecological knowledge has become an important building block of any participatory approach to natural resources management. It is not the outsiders alone who benefit from the study of indigenous ecological knowledge but even the communities themselves may benefit a great deal if they are provided the opportunity to learn from each other as well as from formal science. In this paper, I look at the relationship among knowledge providers and the outside users with specific reference to aquatic biological diversity. Given the asymmetric relationship among the knowledge providers and the users, I draw attention to the efforts made by Honey Bee Network in influencing the ethics and equity of the knowledge exchange among various stake holders. I discuss the concept of sacred waters and other institutions for conserving aquatic biodiversity. Different kinds of material and non-material incentives for individuals and communities are described. Suggestions are made for changing the ethical basis of knowledge and resource exchange among those who conserve resources and those who use them besides other policy and management interventions that can empower local communities and enrich modern science and technology in the context of aquatic biological diversity.


ABSTRACT Background: The design is a retrospective cohort study. Charcot spinal arthropathy (CSA) is a rare and poorly understood progressive destructive spine condition that usually affects patients with preexisting spinal cord injury. The complexity of this condition, especially when additionally burdened by superimposed infection in the CSA zone, can potentially lead to suboptimal management such as protracted antibiotic therapy, predisposition to hardware failure, and pseudarthrosis. While in noninfected CSA primary stabilization is the major goal, staged surgical management has not been stratified based upon presence of a superinfected CSA. We compare clinical and radiological outcomes of surgical treatment in CSA patients with and without concurrent spinal infections. Methods: Our single-institution database was reviewed for all patients diagnosed with CSA and surgically treated, who were subsequently divided into 2 cohorts: spinal arthropathy with superimposed infection and those without. Those were comparatively studied for complications and reoperation rate. Results: Fifteen patients with CSA underwent surgical intervention; mean follow up of 15.3 months (range, 0–43). Eleven patients received stabilization with a quadruple-rod thoracolumbopelvic construct, while 4 patients with superinfected CSA underwent a staged procedure. Patients treated with a staged approach experienced fewer intraoperative complications (0% versus 18%) and fewer revision surgeries (25% versus 36%). Both cohorts had the same eventual healing. Conclusions: Surgical management in CSA patients with primary emphasis on stability and modified surgical treatment based on presence of an active infection in the zone of neuropathic destruction will lead to similar eventual successful results with relatively few and manageable complications in this challenging patient population. Level of Evidence: 4. Clinical Relevance: The proposed treatment algorithm including the use of a quadruple-rod construct with lumbopelivic fixation and a staged approach in patients with superinfected CSA represents a reasonable option in the surgical treatment of CSA.


ABSCTRACT In section 2 sentence (1) Code Law No. 19 Year 2002 about Copyrights explained that function and nature of copyrights represent exclusive rights to right owner or creator create to announce or multiply creation borne without lessening demarcations according to law and regulation going into effect. Copyrights as this special rights, because only passed to creator or right owner. Other prohibited to use except of creator permission as owner of copyrights, or one who accept belonging of creator. The other exempted from usage of mentioned rights, because copyrights told as rights having the characters of is special, which have the character of exclusively. But fact in Indonesia just still happened of collisions concerning exclusive rights to rights owner or creator create to announce or multiply creation. Writer in this case interest to express matter which background still the hoisterous of collisions concerning exclusive rights. This research aim to analyse problems that happened with existence of giving exclusive rights to creator or right owner of creation and also consequence of juridicial from existence of exclusive rights which arranged in section 2 sentence (1) Code Law No. 19 year 2002 about Copyrights to announce multiply its creation. In this research, writer use method approach of normative juridicial is which solution will be relied on Code Law No. 19 year 2002 about Copyrights and also other related law and regulation to know exclusive rights of author. From solution, can know that problems that happened with existence of giving exclusive rights to right owner or creator concerning copyrights in Indonesia because of copyrights represent exclusive rights, which if seen from cultural root of nation, can be told not have root in culture as well as do not there are in society customary law system and consequence of juridicial from existence of exclusive rights which arranged in section 2 sentence (1) Code Law No. 19 Year 2002 about Copyrights to announce or mutiply its creation hence earning writer conclude that only creator or right owner of just creature which have right to earn to announce or multiply its creation, but there is matter which need writer highlighthere that the exclusive rights is not have the character of absolute because of code law give boundaries which must obey by creator or right owner of creature. According to economizing writer, ought to be governmental see and comprehend cultural system of applicable law in Indonesia society in general to is later then harmonized in regulation of law and also give guarantee punish and protect of creator rights of deed conducted by irresponsible sides.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe safety measures between reality and intentions among nursing students regarding needle stick injuries.Methods: Research Design: descriptive study cross sectional design. Setting: The study was carried out at three setting as the following: Faculty of Nursing, Institute of Nursing, School of Nursing at Menofia University, Menofia Governorate, Egypt. Subjects: 150 student nurses were included in the study. Tools for data collection: Interviewing questionnaire comprised of two sections: Demographic information, questionnaire regarding; mechanism of a needle stick injury the nursing students if present, at which stage needle injury occurs and reasons for not reporting that injury from student's point of view, and safety injection checklist for assessing injection practices among injection providers.Results: Majority of studied sample were female mostly injured at outpatient clinic, medical department. Injury occurred mainly during IV injection, followed by IM injection and recapping needle. The majority of studied subject perceived that the reason of injury of needle stick injury were excitement and fear of Punishment and low grade during evaluation was the most common cause for non- reporting injury of needle stick injuries. Safety Injection Checklist for assessing injection practices among injection providers; showed 18% of study group were unsatisfied practiced while 100% of 3rd group showed satisfied practice.Conclusions: Increasing the awareness about the importance of reporting needle stick injuries is cardinal intervention to take adequate preventive measures for safety and continuous training and awareness program on injection safety to all the student nurses is a necessity for reducing the unsafe practices.


that this is established recommended practice. An assurance was added that no harm would follow, provided environmental conditions did not encourage the dissemination of spores. Remote from the bedside the euphemism for saturation resulting from incontinence is "condensation," and it has, apparently, long been known that the covers of certain best buy NHS mattresses provide uncertain protection against this and other forms of pollution. The mattresses themselves cannot be cleaned and are too costly to be destroyed. I am advised that it would be unhelpful to tell unsuspecting patients that when the beds they occupy become malodorous it is due to "natural condensation." It might offend the critical value-productivity divided by expenditure-in a business struggling desperately for survival and having already abandoned any pretensions of propriety. EIRIAN WILLIAMS Withybush General Hospital, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire


Objective: Endometrial receptivity is likely to be regulated by a number of factors including uterine perfusion. Yet, there is still controversy as to whether the impedance to blood flow in uterine arteries correlates with subsequent pregnancy in In vitro Fertilization cycles. This non-invasive evaluation of uterine perfusion is possible by the application of color Doppler sonography. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the possibility of altered uterine perfusion in infertile women, detected by color Doppler. Materials and Methods: Prospective blind controlled study. Eighty seven patients between 21 and 39 years, were evaluated between 2003 and 2005, in the periovulatory period of a non conceptional cycle. The average pulsatility index (PI) of both uterine arteries was calculated by transvaginal pulsed Doppler sonography. GE Logic 500 Pro equipment was used. Endometrial pattern and width were registered too. The study group (I) was composed of 55 infertile patients, and the control group (II) were 32 patients with proven fertility. Diagnostic categories in group I included : unexplained recurrent early pregnancy loss (n = 15); severe male factor (n = 9); unexplained infertility (n = 9); severe endometriosis (n = 9) and Policystic Ovarian Syndrome (n = 13). A PI ≥ 3 was considered an abnormally high impedance to blood flow. T test and Chi2 were used accordingly and statistical significance was established as P < 0.05. Results: Age of patients between groups were comparable. No patients got pregnant in the study group.


The process of akhlaq education in education circumstances nowadays was narrative and verbal, the cognitive parts defeated the implementation process. The methodology existed hadn't have push and preventive effects to students to respond akhlaq education. In Islam perspective, akhlaq related to the teachings and Islam sources itself, revelation. Therefore, attitudes and akhlaq assessments always related to shariah and its rules. Akhlaq in Islam perspective has samawi values that based on Al-Qur'an. Akhlaq could be understood by leaned to the law and five shariah laws: wajib, sunnah, mubah, makruh, haram, because there are the realities of akhlaq.


Existing techniques for model inversion typically rely on hard-to-tune regularizers, such as total variation or feature regularization, which must be individually calibrated for each network in order to produce adequate images. In this work, we introduce Plug-In Inversion, which relies on a simple set of augmentations and does not require excessive hyper-parameter tuning. Under our proposed augmentation-based scheme, the same set of augmentation hyper-parameters can be used for inverting a wide range of image classification models, regardless of input dimensions or the architecture. We illustrate the practicality of our approach by inverting Vision Transformers (ViTs) and Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) trained on the ImageNet dataset, tasks which to the best of our knowledge have not been successfully accomplished by any previous works.


AIM
To describe the relationship between general practitioner demographic factors and the recognition of psychological and physical symptoms in consultation.

METHODS
A survey of a random sample of 70 GPs and their patients (n=3414) from the lower North Island of New Zealand.

RESULTS
No relationship was found between GP personal and practice demographic characteristics and GP identification of psychological and physical symptoms. Patients were more likely not to present psychological symptoms (62%) than not present physical symptoms (5%) in consultation. Thirteen percent of GPs wanted more formal psychiatric training, 45% wanted more contact time in consultation, and 72% thought that cost was a barrier to patients attending. No significant relationship was found between these factors and GP detection of significant psychological symptoms in consultation.

DISCUSSION
Personal and practice demographics of GPs may not predict their ability to detect physical and psychological symptoms. More research is needed to explore these findings which contradict previous work.


Based on the findings of the study `Tell me the truth': A subjective understanding of diagnosis disclosure (Pratt & Wilkinson, 2001), this article proposes a psychosocial model for understanding the experience of people with dementia. The model operates on two main aspects, the combined desire and/or ability to know the diagnosis, and the social context that surrounds an individual. The model proposes that these two aspects are inexorably linked and are represented as two axes. There are four `quadrants' represented in the model: detachment, distress, maximizing coping, and decline and denial. The model proposes that individual experience can be located in any of these `quadrants' as a function of the combined effect of social context, alongside individual response. The model proposes that social context can contribute to the experience of `distress' or the ability of individuals to access `maximizing coping strategies'. In terms of diagnosis disclosure the model advocates that when an individual shows an `ability and desire' to know their diagnosis, withholding the diagnosis may directly contribute to feelings of distress. This situation would be one example of the potential impact of the social context on individual experience. The implication for practice, and research, is that social context needs to be assessed and explored as part of individual assessment to find ways to minimize distress and maximize positive coping responses.


Generation length (GL) is defined as the average age of parents of the current cohort, reflecting the turnover rate of breeding individuals in a population. GL is a fundamental piece of information for population ecology as well as for measuring species threat status (e.g. in the IUCN Red List). Here we present a dataset including GL records for all extant mammal species (n=5427). We first reviewed all data on GL published in the IUCN Red List database. We then calculated a value for species with available reproductive parameters (reproductive life span and age at first reproduction). We assigned to missing-data species a mean GL value from congeneric or confamilial species (depending on data availability). Finally, for a few remaining species, we assigned mean GL values from species with similar body mass and belonging to the same order. Our work provides the first attempt to complete a database of GL for mammals; it will be an essential reference point for all conservation-related studies that need pragmatic information on species GL, such as population dynamics and applications of the IUCN Red List assessment.


MaxNet TCP is a congestion control protocol that uses explicit multi-bit signalling from routers to achieve desirable properties such as high throughput and low latency. In this paper we present an implementation of an extended version of MaxNet. Our contributions are threefold. First, we extend the original algorithm to give both provable stability and rate fairness. Second, we introduce the MaxStart algorithm which allows new MaxNet connections to reach their fair rates quickly. Third, we provide a Linux kernel implementation of the protocol. With no overhead but 24-bit price signals, our implementation scales from 32 bit/s to 1 peta-bit/s with a 0.001% rate accuracy. We confirm the theoretically predicted properties by performing a range of experiments at speeds up to 1 Gbit/sec and delays up to 180 ms on the WAN-in-Lab facility.


A compact canonical form and a computational procedure for solving the Boolean matching problem under permutation and complementation of variables are presented. The proposed approach, which utilizes generalized signatures and variable symmetries, can handle combinational functions with no limitation on the number of input variables. Experimental results demonstrate the generality and effectiveness of the proposed canonical form and the associated Boolean matching algorithm.


While concepts of environmental accounting and sustainability may have emerged originally in the context of European forests, they would later be extended to many other places, including the vast American grasslands. To be accountable in the larger political economy, observations and experiences of the natural world had to be rendered in a form that could circulate in an increasingly global, cosmopolitan science. Local, experiential knowledge was converted into a set of categories, tabulations, calculations, statistics, and maps that could be applied to the political management of capitalist development. This process of 'factification' rendered observations and experiments on the western American grasslands in the form of stabilized facts. Factification relied on several modes of scientific practice: the transformation of ranchers' knowledge through the introduction of systematic surveys, field networks and stations. The resulting knowledge entailed the equivalent in epistemic terms of commodification in the material economy. 'Factified' knowledge was embedded in forms of economic calculation and political control to transcend the individualism and resource depletion characteristic of the region's early ranching economy. In the wake of range degradation during the great cattle boom, scientific knowledge of range grasses was increasingly produced to rationalize the use of the grasslands and improve their efficiency and sustainability. Environmental scientists, including state-level botanists and field researchers from the US Department of Agriculture's Division of Agrostology studied the region's native and introduced grasses through systematic modes of scientific practice—modes of environmental knowledge production deeply intertwined with political economy. Range grass science thus illuminates the crucial role of science in constructing how nature has been viewed, classified, and manipulated in the modern world—how natural resources for capitalist development came to be perceived by modern eyes.


Managing public health care organizations is becoming more demanding and complicated task. The ever-increasing demand for health services and at the same time substantially decreasing resources sets new challenges to the area. Expectations towards information systems (IS) are high and it is seen as one solution to increasing problems. However, it is noticed that also development of IS needs professional management and strategic planning to become an effective tool - again a new challenge to the management. This paper discuss which are the main management areas to pay attention to in IS development in public health care, and which factors in the operational environment affect those areas the most. The areas are: organizations strategy, information management strategy, strategy implementation, implementation and use of IS and evaluation of IS. Results from two large empirical cases show that developing IS in public health care is far more complicated because of a wide operational environment and number of stakeholders compared to the development in other public areas not to mention private industries. The paper is based on experiences in Finnish public health care.


Abstract The characteristics of tidal constituents along the nearshore waters of Karnataka, west coast of India, are described. These are based on the sea level data measured at three locations by the Valeport wave and tide gauge during the presummer monsoon period. The objective of the study is to identify the tidal and nontidal variations along the coast. Analysis shows that astronomical tides are responsible for most of the observed sea level variability along the Karnataka coast. Ninety-seven percent of the variation in measured sea level at Honnavar and Malpe and 96% of the sea level variation at Kundapur was due to tide. The observed nontidal sea levels were related to local wind forcing. The study shows that when the wind from the south was strong, a rise in sea level was observed, and when the wind from the north was strong, a fall in sea level was observed. Correlation between the alongshore component of wind and nontidal sea level was 0.54 at Malpe and 0.48 at Honnavar. The nontidal sea level variation was found to vary according to the significant wave height. High residuals of sea level were found during high waves. Amplification of shallow-water constituents were relatively high compared with other constituents from south to north along the study area.


One thousand consecutive sera from individual patients attending the Christchurch venereal disease clinic were examined for hepatitis B surface antibody (anti HBs) and antigen (HBsAg). There were 682 males and 318 females. 182 (18.2 percent) were anti HBs positive, 126 (18.5 percent) males and 56 (17.6 percent) females. 18 (1.8 percent) were HBsAg positive, 14 (2.1 percent) males and four (1.3 percent) females. The risks of clinic staff contracting hepatitis are discussed.


An adaptive fuzzy logic control (FLC) scheme is presented for permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) as an alternative to conventional control techniques. Unlike other controllers, the proposed strategy achieves speed tracking without any current loop regulation, which yields reduced complexity. However, the absence of current control leads to higher energy consumption and limits the operation range of these machines. This paper proposes a simple power factor compensation technique to decrease the machine's consumption and extent its operation range. The controller is validated through a set of simulations on an experimentally validated PMSM model. Results for different situations highlight the performance of the proposed strategy in transient, steady-state, and standstill conditions.


BACKGROUND
Cancer patients need to trust their oncologist to embark in the process of oncologic treatment. Yet, it is unclear how oncologist communication contributes to such trust. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three elements of oncologists' communication on cancer patients' trust: conferring competence, honesty, and caring.

METHODS
Eight videotaped consultations, 'vignettes', were created, reflecting an encounter between an oncologist and a patient with colorectal cancer. All vignettes were identical, except for small variations in the oncologist's verbal communication. Cancer patients (n = 345) were randomly assigned to viewing two vignettes, asked to identify with the patient and afterwards to rate their trust in the observed oncologist. The effects of competence, honesty, and caring on trust were established with multilevel analysis.

RESULTS
Oncologist's enhanced expression of competence (β = 0.17, 95% CI 0.08, 0.27; P < 0.001), honesty (β = 0.30, 95% CI 0.20, 0.40; P < 0.001), as well as caring (β = 0.36, 95% CI 0.26, 0.46; P < 0.001) resulted in significantly increased trust. Communication of honesty and caring also increased patients' expectation of operation success and reported willingness to recommend the oncologist.

CONCLUSION(S)
As hypothesized, oncologists can influence their patients' trust by enhanced conveyance of their level of competence, honesty, and caring. Caring behavior has the strongest impact on trust. These findings can be translated directly into daily clinical practice as well as in communication skills training.


Join the world's most famous travelling reporter in two exciting adventures as he heads for the Congo. The young reporter Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy set off on assignment to Africa. But a sinister stowaway follows their every move and seems set on ensuring they come to a sticky end. Tintin and Snowy encounter witch doctors, hostile tribesmen, crocodiles, boa constrictors and numerous other wild animals before solving the mystery and getting their story. Join the most iconic character in comics as he embarks on an extraordinary adventure spanning historical and political events, and thrilling mysteries. Still selling over 100,000 copies every year in the UK and having been adapted for the silver screen by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in 2011. The Adventures of Tintin continue to charm more than 80 years after they first found their way into publication. Since then an estimated 230 million copies have been sold, proving that comic books have the same power to entertain children and adults in the 21st century as they did in the early 20th.


This paper presents GLITCH, a new technology-agnostic framework that enables automated polyglot code smell detection for Infrastructure as Code scripts. GLITCH uses an intermediate representation on which different code smell detectors can be defined. It currently supports the detection of nine security smells and nine design & implementation smells in scripts written in Ansible, Chef, Docker, Puppet, or Terraform. Studies conducted with GLITCH not only show that GLITCH can reduce the effort of writing code smell analyses for multiple IaC technologies, but also that it has higher precision and recall than current state-of-the-art tools. A video describing and demonstrating GLITCH is available at: https://youtu.be/E4RhCcZjWbk.


ABSTRACT This study focuses on understanding the fundamentals of energy transfer and electron transport in photovoltaic devices with uniquely designed nanostructures by analysing energy transfer in purple photosynthetic bacteria using dye-sensitised solar cell systems. Förster resonance energy transfer between the xanthene dye (donor of energy) and a new polymethine dye (acceptor of energy) was studied in dye-sensitised solar cells, which leads to a doubling of energy conversion efficiency in comparison to the cell with only the polymethine dye. The electron transport in the two different nanostructures of zinc oxide (nanorods and nanosheets) was investigated by spectroscopic methods (UV-vis spectrometer, time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy) and electrochemical potentiostat methods. The nanosheet structure of zinc oxide showed high short circuit current and long diffusion length. This fundamental study will lead to efficient artificial photosystem designs.


A highly transparent front contact layer system for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells is investigated and optimized. This contact system consists of a wet-chemically grown silicon tunnel oxide, a hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon carbide [SiO2/µc-SiC:H(n)] prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD), and a sputter-deposited indium doped tin oxide. Because of the exclusive use of very high bandgap materials, this system is more transparent for the solar light than state of the art amorphous (a-Si:H) or polycrystalline silicon contacts. By investigating the electrical conductivity of the µc-SiC:H(n) and the influence of the hot-wire filament temperature on the contact properties, we find that the electrical conductivity of µc-SiC:H(n) can be increased by 12 orders of magnitude to a maximum of 0.9 S/cm due to an increased doping density and crystallite size. This optimization of the electrical conductivity leads to a strong decrease in contact resistivity. Applying this SiO2/µc-SiC:H(n) transparent passivating front side contact to crystalline solar cells with an a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction back contact we achieve a maximum power conversion efficiency of 21.6% and a short-circuit current density of 39.6 mA/cm2. All devices show superior quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region compared to the reference cells with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction front contacts. Furthermore, these transparent passivating contacts operate without any post processing treatments, e.g., forming gas annealing or high-temperature recrystallization.


We propose a data-driven scene flow estimation algorithm exploiting the observation that many 3D scenes can be explained by a collection of agents moving as rigid bodies. At the core of our method lies a deep architecture able to reason at the object-level by considering 3D scene flow in conjunction with other 3D tasks. This object level abstraction enables us to relax the requirement for dense scene flow supervision with simpler binary background segmentation mask and ego-motion annotations. Our mild supervision requirements make our method well suited for recently released massive data collections for autonomous driving, which do not contain dense scene flow annotations. As output, our model provides low-level cues like pointwise flow and higher-level cues such as holistic scene understanding at the level of rigid objects. We further propose a test-time optimization refining the predicted rigid scene flow. We showcase the effectiveness and generalization capacity of our method on four different autonomous driving datasets. We release our source code and pre-trained models under github.com/zgojcic/Rigid3DSceneFlow.


In Finland, a detailed, regularly updated and complex searchable database of exonyms has been available on the website of the Institute for the Languages of Finland since 2018. The database, compiled through the collaboration of geographers and linguists, currently has about three and a half thousand entries and contains a fair number of Finnish geographical names for locations outside of Finland, or names of Finnish origin used outside of Finland. The latter should be noted because the dictionary also includes the names from areas of neighbouring countries where Finnish is spoken. The database contains a wealth of information regarding the different names for geographical objects (even beyond names used in the official language of a given place). Thus it presents itself as an outstanding source of data for those who do not speak Finnish. The Finnish exonym database is also an excellent model for researchers in other countries to follow.


Deforestation is a major cause of biodiversity loss in Asia. India's biologically-diverse state of Arunachal Pradesh has been undergoing forest loss due to multiple drivers. We assessed the change in forest cover in a state-managed Reserved Forest adjoining an important Protected Area (PA), i.e. the Pakke Tiger Reserve using satellite imagery at a fine spatial resolution. A conservation program to protect three species of endangered hornbills and their nesting habitat outside the PA had been set up in 2011-12. We assessed the effectiveness of the conservation programme in protecting forests. We report a loss of 32 km2 of forest cover between 2013 and 2017 with a 5% decline in total forest area in four years. In the habitat around the 29 hornbill nest trees we estimated a loss of 35% of forest cover. This loss occurred despite varied efforts through the conservation program and by individuals in the community/government. We identify illegal logging (despite a ban by the Supreme Court of India) as the main driver that is depleting forest cover within this important area. Our results highlight the ongoing threats to biologically-rich forests and the need for urgent measures to halt this loss. We suggest that this study has general practical implications for the governance of non-PA state-managed forests in Arunachal Pradesh. The ongoing deforestation appears to be due to organized crime, institutional inadequacy from a combination of limited resources, bureaucratic apathy, and/or ambiguity in use and ownership of forest land compared to other community forests which appear to have robust governance systems.


In this paper, we present the use of the interaction between aromatic rings—usually called π–π interaction—as the main tool in the organization of coordination complexes in a crystal. To do so, we selected coordination compounds with aromatic rings pointing outside the molecules to favor their self-assembly through these interactions. Here, we report the molecular and crystal structures of three Cu(II) complexes: [Cu2(terpy)2(bz)2](ClO4)2 (1), [Cu2(terpy)2(tfipth)2] (2) and [Cu4(terpy)4(tfipth)2(ClO4)2](ClO4)2 (3), where terpy = 2,2′:6′,2′′ terpyridine, bz = benzoate and tfipth = tetrafluoro-isophthalate. In the three crystals, the interaction between aromatic rings organizes molecules in chains that closely pack with disordered anions or water molecules located in the space between the chains. A study of the Crystal Structure Database (CSD) indicates that the main interaction in terpy molecules is between a lateral ring and the central ring of different molecules and when terpy molecules point in opposite directions, they tend to form chains, suggesting that these interactions can be used as a design tool. The metal complexes were designed to obtain a square pyramidal structure around the metal ion, but we observed a contact between the non-coordinated O (carboxylate) and the Cu(II) ion. We studied the presence of this interaction and its nature with computational chemistry.


Abstract. Loose abrasive grinding was performed on a wide range of optical workpiece materials [single crystals of Al2O3 (sapphire), SiC, Y3Al5O12 (YAG), CaF2, and LiB3O5 (LBO); a SiO2-Al2O3-P2O5-Li2O glass-ceramic (Zerodur); and glasses of SiO2  :  TiO2 (ULE), SiO2 (fused silica), and P2O5-Al2O3-K2O-BaO (phosphate)]. Using the magneto rheological finishing (MRF) taper wedge technique (where a wedge was polished on each of the ground workpieces and the resulting samples were appropriately chemically etched), the subsurface mechanical damage (SSD) characteristics were measured. The SSD depth for most of the workpiece materials was found to scale as E11/2  /  H1, where E1 is the elastic modulus and H1 is the hardness of the workpiece. This material scaling is the same as that for the growth of lateral cracks, suggesting that lateral cracks are a dominant source for SSD rather than radial/median cracks, as previously proposed. Utilizing the SSD depth data from both this study and others, semiempirical relationships have been formulated, which allows for estimating the SSD depth as a function of workpiece material and important grinding parameters (such as abrasive size and applied pressure).


Terahertz (THz) spectroscopic investigations of condensed-phase biological samples are reviewed ranging from the simple crystalline forms of amino acids, carbohydrates and polypeptides to the more complex aqueous forms of small proteins, DNA and RNA. Vibrationally resolved studies of crystalline samples have revealed the exquisite sensitivity of THz modes to crystalline order, temperature, conformational form, peptide sequence and local solvate environment and have given unprecedented measures of the binding force constants and anharmonic character of the force fields, properties necessary to improve predictability but not readily obtainable using any other method. These studies have provided benchmark vibrational data on extended periodic structures for direct comparisons with classical (CHARMm) and quantum chemical (density functional theory) theories. For the larger amorphous and/or aqueous phase samples, the THz modes form a continuum-like absorption that arises because of the full accessibility to conformational space and/or the rapid time scale for inter-conversion in these environments. Despite severe absorption by liquid water, detailed investigations have uncovered the photo- and hydration-induced conformational flexibility of proteins, the solvent shell depth of the water/biomolecule boundary layers and the solvent reorientation dynamics occurring in these interfacial layers that occur on sub-picosecond time scales. As such, THz spectroscopy has enhanced and extended the accessibility to intermolecular forces, length- and timescales important in biological structure and activity.


Stretchable strain sensors with high sensitivity or gauge factor (GF), large stretchability, and long-term durability are highly demanded in human motion detection, artificial intelligence, and electronic skins. Nevertheless, to develop high-sensitive sensors without sacrificing the stretchability cannot be realized using simple device configurations. In this work, an acid-interface engineering (AIE) method was proposed to develop a stretchable strain sensor with high GF and large stretchability. The AIE generates a layer of SiO x at the interface between the carbon nanotube (CNT) film and Ecoflex, playing a key role in enhancing the sensor's GF. Compared to devices without AIE (GF = 2.4), the ones with AIE are significantly improved. At an AIE time of 10 min, the GF up to 1665.9 is achieved without sacrificing the stretchability (>100%). The AIE-generated cracks are found to modulate the electrical behaviors and enhance the GFs of sensors with AIE through the crack-induced rapid reduction in the electrical conduction pathway, which is manipulated by the CNTs bridging over the cracks. The device with AIE proves its high mechanical durability through a cycling test (>10 000 cycles) at a high strain up to ∼80%, further paving its practical applications in various human motion detections.


We calculate the primordial trispectrum of curvature perturbation in quasi-single field inflation, with general sound speeds for both the inflaton and the massive scalar. Special attention is paid to various soft limits of the trispectrum, where the shape function shows characteristic oscillatory pattern (known as the quantum primordial standard clock signal) as a function of the momentum ratio. Our calculation is greatly simplified by using the "mixed propagator" developed under a diagrammatic representation of the in-in formalism. 1 ar X iv :1 80 3. 04 41 2v 2 [ he pth ] 2 1 M ay 2 01 8