Certain historical
events may be driven by anthropological topoi surfacing from layers
below culture and society, once the structures of society and culture allow for
that to happen. Difficulties in finding a suitable term to describe a
historical event may hint at such a situation. The events in autumn 1989
in the German Democratic Republic, often referred to as "peaceful revolution",
are analyzed in this regard and it is argued that in essence this was a
spontaneous caucus.


A greenhouse experiment was conducted to elucidate the influence of soil acidification due to application of different doses of elemental sulphur (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 g S kg-1 soil) on Al3+ solubility at 0, 20 and 40 days after incubation. Maize plants were grown after soil treatment with the elemental S and were allowed to grow for 45 days. The results showed that addition of elemental sulphur significantly increased the soil acidity; each g S decreased soil pH for 1.52 units. The Al3+ concentration in soil remained rather unchanged from the pH value of 7.3 to around 5 and experienced a 22000-time increase at the pH value of 4. Soil acidification from the background of 7.03 to 6.29 resulted in 41.83% increase in root Al3+ concentration and it was not significantly affected with further soil acidification. Soil acidification progressively decreased Al3+ concentration in the stem but it failed to affect Al3+ concentration in the leaves. The optimum rate of sulphur for maize without the risk of Al3+ toxicity under greenhouse conditions was 0.82 g S kg-1 soil. Further evaluation under field conditions is required.


Can rising states credibly signal their future
intentions during a power shift? Existing theories suggest that
rising states have strong incentives to misrepresent hostile
intentions, in order to avoid incurring opposition while they are
still relatively weak. As a result, the conventional wisdom holds
that a rising state''s cooperative behavior is not a credible
signal of its intentions in the future, when it will have become
more powerful. In contrast, this study presents two formal models
that identify conditions under which rising states' 'cooperative
signals are credible despite their incentives to misrepresent. In
addition, the models identify two "screening mechanisms" that
declining states can employ to elicit credible signals of a rising
state''s future intentions. First, a strategy of limited preventive
opposition in response to cooperative signals reduces the rising
state's incentive to misrepresent, inducing hostile riser's to
reveal their true intentions through non-cooperative behavior,
while making the rising state''s cooperative signals more credible.
Second, a strategy of targeted retrenchment elicits credible
signals by removing constraints over the rising state''s immediate
behavior in a particular region, and making hostile risers more
likely to attempt revision of the regional international order. The
information provided by these screening mechanisms then benefi…ts
the declining state by allowing it to fully contain the rise of
hostile states, while avoiding unnecessary confl‡ict with benign
ones. The theoretical hypotheses are illustrated in four recent
cases of great power decline: US retrenchment from Eastern Europe
and the origins of the Cold War; British retrenchment from the
Western Hemisphere and Anglo-American rapprochement at the turn of
the 20th century; British prevention in response to a rising
Germany in the 1890s; and a negative case, the lack of US
prevention in response to a rising Soviet Union during WWII. These
cases largely support the theoretical hypotheses, but also indicate
that leaders have been largely unaware of the informational
benefi…ts of prevention and retrenchment. Thus, the fi…ndings of
the study yield valuable prescriptions for the contemporary world,
particularly US foreign policy toward a rising China.


After perfusion of rabbit carotid sinus with prethrombin 1, hypocoagulation was found in the system circulation due to reflectory reaction of the anticoagulation system. Heparin was secreted already within the first minutes of the perfusion with prethrombin 1 (1 . 10(-6) M); maximal activity of the process was observed within 5 min. Liberation of heparin from the vessel wall of carotic artery was not caused by a mechanism of local secretion, as evidenced by absence of the phenomenon in perfusion of the carotid sinus with prothrombin at molar concentration, corresponding to the concentration of prethrombin 1. Perfusion of denervated carotid sinus by means of prethrombin 1 did not stimulate the heparin secretion. Thus, the heparin secretion was regulated by a nervous mechanism, exhibiting the reflectory nature. The data obtained suggest that perfusion of the rabbit carotid sinus with prethrombin 1 stimulates the anticoagulation system and secretion of heparin.


Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan Purpose: Pseudo-progression (PsPD) is a rare phenomenon observed in <5% of cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This event is challenging for both clinicians and patients. Viable biomarkers to distinguish between PsPD and true progressive disease (TPD) are lacking. The aim of our study was to determine the correlation between PsPD and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of NSCLC patients treated with ICI monotherapy from December 2015 to October 2018 at Kobe University Hospital, Japan. Twenty-five patients were determined to have either PsPD (n =4) or TPD (n =21). We focused on longitudinal radiological images and NLRs. Results: Here, we report four patients with PsPD. The preand post-treatment NLRs were significantly lower in patients with PsPD than in patients with TPD (p = 0.019 and p = 0.007, respectively). The receiver operating characteristic curve according to the preand post-treatment NLR showed areas under the curve of 0.82 and 0.94, respectively. The optimal cut-off values for preand post-treatment NLR were 4.1 and 3.2, respectively. The preand post-treatment NLRs were useful in distinguishing between PsPD and TPD. Both a pre-treatment NLR <4.1 and a posttreatment NLR <3.2 were significantly associated with longer overall survival compared to a pretreatment NLR ≥4.1 (p < 0.001) and post-treatment NLR ≥3.2 (p = 0.004), respectively. Conclusion: The NLR could be a viable clue for distinguishing between PsPD and TPD. Patients with a high post-treatment NLR in this study all had TPD, suggesting that these subjects should be considered for an early transition to the next drug treatment regimen.


Introduction: Competition increases and companies need to adjust their business to stay competitive. Employees have gained an important for an or-ganisation and are often seen as the key to business success. Motiva-tion is important for increased performance. A reward system can, amongst other things, help an organisation to motivate, attract and retain their employees. Historically, rewards have concerned mostly senior management. We where interested in how a reward system could affect people further down in the hierarchy.How can a reward system influence motivation in small shop-floor business units?What are the benefits and possible pitfalls with a reward system for such a setting?Purpose: The purpose of this report is slightly wider than what the research questions suggest. By thoroughly investigating the motivating ele-ments we aim to create a frame of reference, which is thought to give insight into the important components of a reward system and the motivating factors. It is our aim that this frame will be applicable to other settings similar to the one which we will investigate. We also intend to look into what positive and negative aspects there are and how the disadvantages with a reward system can be minimized.Method: To fulfil our purpose we have chosen to perform a case study on the service unit of Hedin Goteborg Bil AB. In order to retrieve the necessary empirical data we have interviewed two managers and car-ried out a questionnaire amongst the thirteen service technicians.Results: In line with theory, we found that financial rewards it is not the prime source for motivation; there are many factors that play a lar-ger role. Some of the most motivating factors turned out to be col-leges, autonomy and responsibility, fun and rewarding work tasks. More interestingly, we saw a relation between many of these and the reward system, indicating that financial rewards enhance the motiva-tional effects of other factors.We found that there are several positive and negative aspects with any reward system. The case study presented solutions to many of the possible pitfalls and indicated that they benefited from their cur-rent reward system.


An oxygen-bleached eucalypt kraft pulp (Kappa number 10.5) was used in a study of oxidative delignification with laccase and the mediator 1-hydroxybenzotriazole. The laccase treatment, followed by alkali extraction, lowered the Kappa number to 6.6. Addition of xylanase to the reaction liquor resulted in a further reduction to 5.9. Spent liquor from the laccase treatment was not effective when used a second time. The hexenuronic acid groups in the treated pulps contributed to more than half of the measured Kappa numbers. The pulp was bleached with an L(EO)LQ(PO) sequence (where L is a laccase-mediator stage, (EO) an oxygen reinforced alkali extraction, Q a chelation stage and (PO) a pressurized hydrogen peroxide stage). Brightness of 89% ISO was attained and the tearing resistance was the same as that of pulp bleached with a D(EO)DD sequence. An extended delignification pulp (ITC procedure) was bleached to 90% brightness with this sequence, but the tearing resistance was about 15% lower than when the pulp was bleached with an ECF sequence.


Duruor rounds are a central aspect of calculating moves in a group of mancala games. It is shown that the ability to calculate multiple duru is a prerequisite to mancala (bao) expertise in Zanzibar, while duru-related optimization strategies explain the accomplishments of Maldivian mancala (ohvalhu) players. Since bao masters define duru calculation skills as part of bao expertise, their performance on duru calculation tasks is contrasted with that of novice players. The results show that only game-specific duru calculation skills distinguish novices from master players. Maldivian players of ohvalhu solved their mancala game by identifying a winning opening. Their optimization strategy includes a minimization of the number of duru for a move choice. Duru calculations have a central role in our understanding of mancala expertise and both game-specific and general aspects of duru inform us about problem-solving and decision-making processes of mancala experts.


Line-intensity mapping observations will find fluctuations of integrated line emission are attenuated by varying degrees at small scales due to the width of the line emission profiles. This attenuation may significantly impact estimates of astrophysical or cosmological quantities derived from measurements. We consider a theoretical treatment of the effect of line broadening on both the clustering and shot-noise components of the power spectrum of a generic line-intensity power spectrum using a halo model. We then consider possible simplifications to allow easier application in analysis, particularly in the context of inferences that require numerous, repeated, fast computations of model line-intensity signals across a large parameter space. For the CO Mapping Array Project and the CO(1–0) line-intensity field at z ∼ 3 serving as our primary case study, we expect a ∼10% attenuation of the spherically averaged power spectrum on average at relevant scales of k ≈ 0.2–0.3 Mpc−1 compared to ∼25% for the interferometric Millimetre-wave Intensity Mapping Experiment targeting shot noise from CO lines at z ∼ 1–5 at scales of k ≳ 1 Mpc−1. We also consider the nature and amplitude of errors introduced by simplified treatments of line broadening and find that while an approximation using a single effective velocity scale is sufficient for spherically averaged power spectra, a more careful treatment is necessary when considering other statistics such as higher multipoles of the anisotropic power spectrum or the voxel intensity distribution.


This study describes the quality of drinking water sampled over 2 years (2018 and 2019) from 20 ASADAS (Spanish acronym for Administrative Associations for Water and Sewer Systems) in Costa Rica. The analysis included Rotavirus (RV), somatic coliphages, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia coli. The ASADAS were categorized into three regions as temperate rainy (region 1), tropical rainy (region 2), and tropical rainy and dry (region 3) according to biogeographic classification. The concentrations of fecal coliforms and E. coli were higher in samples from surface water sources from the ASADAS in region 3 compared to regions 1 and 2. RV-positive samples (24/296) were detected in drinking-water samples from regions 2 and 3 during dry and transition seasons, with higher concentrations more frequently in the dry season. In addition, somatic coliphages were detected in samples from the three regions, with higher concentrations in region 2. Furthermore, a statistically significant relationship was found between somatic coliphages and diarrheal cases, classified as outbreaks or alerts in the region. Thus, the results confirmed that somatic coliphages are a good indicator of the presence of diarrhea cases in a specific region.


The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present study aims to contribute to how the degree of SI attendance affects course results in an engineering context at a Swedish University. In the study we divide the students into four categories, those with high, average, low, and no SI attendance. In terms of student success in a course, it is found that there is a clear relation between the number of SI sessions attended and course success. Students with high SI attendance do best followed by students with average, low, and no SI attendance, respectively. (Less)


In the practical application of push-pull based production planning and scheduling architecture, the manufacturing system was found lacking of collaborative mechanism, especially for a networked-manufacturing environment, which requires each individual manufacturer interact and cooperate with each other for a collaborative manufacturing. This paper presents a production planning and scheduling architecture for networked-manufacturing system based on available-to-promise, which can effectively merge forecast-driven production activity with order-driven production activity, thus ensures the steady and prompt supply of material, and also cooperation and mutual benefit of individual manufacturer. This architecture consists of 1) an ATP-based order management and decision-making system, 2) a push-pull based multi-plant master production schedule collaboration model, 3) a pre-reactive collaborative replenishment model, 4) a production scheduling model of unrelated parallel machine and 5) the corresponding production planning and scheduling methods for each model. By combining the concept of ATP, this architecture can not only provide resource planning for networked-manufacturing system, but also offer quick response and promise to customer requests.


This paper shows that legislation which requires recommended retail prices to attract some positive share of sales may act as a commitment device and enable a monopolist manufacturer to efficiently engage in wholesale price discrimination. By creating asymmetries between retailers, where ex-ante there are none, a manufacturer indirectly screens searching consumers. Under wholesale price discrimination, endogenously created low cost retailers sell to a disproportionate share of low search cost consumers, which gives these retailers stronger incentives to compete, resulting in lower retail margins. Moreover, even endogenously created high cost retailers have an incentive to compete more severely given that their competitors have lower prices. We show that under such a discriminatory pricing scheme the average wholesale and retail prices increase, leading to higher manufacturer profits, but lower consumer welfare (and retail profits). We also show that without legislation requiring positive sales at the recommended retail prices, wholesale price discrimination is not possible as the manufacturer would be better off "secretly" giving all retailers the lower wholesale prices. Thus, the paper shows that consumers are better off (and total surplus would be higher) without the legislation aiming to protect them. JEL Classification: D40; D83; L13


The present work is intended to evaluate renewable energy resource potential with common criteria based on spatial data. It is necessary for the world to promote renewable energy use from the view point of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Evaluation of renewable energy potential is important in order to con-struct renewable energy facilities efficiently. The authors developed a new method for the renewable energy potential evaluation in large scale with the aid of Geographic Information System. This new method consists of three processes. The first process is simulation of the meteorological parameters such as river discharge and direct solar radiation. The second process is extraction of potential areas with restrictions according to climate conditions, geographical features and social environment. The third process is calcula-tion of annual energy production on the condition that the extracted potential area is filled with renewable energy facilities as much as possible. The application of the new method to Kyushu area shows that Kyushu area has 35,728 GWh/year of wind power potential, 28,283 GWh/year of mini-micro hydropower potential, 2,404 GWh/year of solar power potential.


This research examines the effect of gamified information presentation—conveying information about a product innovation in the form of a game—on consumer adoption of that innovation. The key hypothesis is that gamified information presentation promotes consumer innovation adoption and that it does so through two parallel psychological processes—by increasing consumer playfulness, which stimulates curiosity about the innovation, and by enhancing the perceived vividness of information presentation, which increases the perceived advantage of the innovation relative to (less innovative) competing products. Evidence from seven studies, including two field experiments, supports this theorizing. The results also show that for gamified information presentation to increase innovation adoption, it is essential that the information is integrated into the game. These findings advance the understanding of the psychological forces that govern how consumers respond to receiving product information in the form of games, and they have important practical implications for how firms might use gamified information presentation to promote sales of new products.


We investigated characteristics of Ti-Ni-Zr amorphous thin films before and after annealing, in order to search for novel Ti-Ni-Zr thin film metallic glasses (TFMGs) that exhibit a shape memory effect after crystallization. We found that the Ti42Ni47Zr11 TFMG exhibited a stable shape memory effect after crystallization. This alloy showed a glass transition with the glass transition and crystallization temperatures of 703 and 760 K, respectively. Moreover, this alloy showed a one-step martensitic phase transformation of B2 to B19', when annealed at 973 K for 3.6 ks. The martensitic phase start temperature and reverse martensitic phase start temperature were 296 and 352 K, respectively. In addition, this alloy showed a recovery strain of about 2.4%.


Introduction: Malnutrition permeates all aspects of health, growth, cognition, motor and social development of young children. Anganwari Worker (AWW) is a community based frontline honorary worker of the ICDS Programme. She is an agent of social change and capable of mobilizing community support for promotion of Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, thereby helping to curb child malnutrition to a large extent. Rationale : The AWW is the key functionary who can appropriately guide the mothers regarding appropriate IYCF practices in the best possible way, provided she herself is well equipped with adequate knowledge. OBJECTIVE: T o assess the knowledge, attitude and beliefs of Anganwari workers regarding IYCF practices. Material & Methods: 100 AWWs were assessed for their knowledge, attitude and beliefs regarding IYCF practices. Both pre-test and post-test evaluations were done. Results : About 19% of the AWWs did not know the age up to which the child should be exclusively breastfed and 13% did not know about the age of introduction of complementary feeding. Only 47 % of the AWWs knew about the "feeding on demand" concept.  More than 90% of AWWs believed that colostrum should be given to the baby. None of the AWWs knew about the quantitative additional calorie, protein and calcium requirements in lactating mothers. There was significant difference (P<0.001) between mean pre test scores (19.48±1.98) and mean post-test knowledge scores (22.21±0.93) of Anganwari workers. Conclusion: Repetitive practical orientation programmes would help in increasing the knowledge of AWWs and improving their skills for implementation of correct IYCF norms. Efficient, coordinated and well-targeted approaches can bring about positive changes in child under nutrition.


**Dr. Stafford-Clark rightly draws attention to a case reported by himself and Dr. E. J. Rolls in which alcoholic tincture of cannabis was used in the treatment of a depersonalization syndrome which immediately followed labour. The syndrome had failed to respond to other therapy, and after treatment using cannabis the patient recovered rapidly and completely. The leading article made the point that little research had been done on the pharmacological activity of cannabis in man, possibly because of its lack of "known therapeutic value." The most recent edition of "Martindale "I states, " Cannabis was formerly employed in mania and nervous disorders as a cerebral sedative or narcotic and it has occasionally been used for the relief of migraine and of headache due to hypertension.. It is now rarely used as a therapeutic agent. Its action is very unreliable. Different samples of cannabis may vary greatly in potency." At p. 430 of this issue we print a list of publications mentioning cannabis abstracted by Medlars from 2,000 journals in the world literature for the period from 1963-7. Very few of these papers are clinical.-ED., BM.7.


Research has shown that people bereaved by suicide have an increased risk of mental health problems, suicidality and associated stigma, as well as higher rates of sick leave and increased rates of receiving disability pensions. Peer-led suicide bereavement support groups are perceived to enhance people's recovery by enabling shared experiences with others who are bereaved in similar circumstances. The aim of the research was to explore the viewpoints of participants living in Denmark and the Republic of Ireland on these peer-led support groups. This study focused on how the participants experienced being part of the peer-led support and how the participation affected them. We conducted four focus groups, two in Denmark and two in the Republic of Ireland, and two individual interviews, involving a total of 27 people bereaved by suicide. Data were analyzed thematically. The participants' experiences in the peer-led support groups were in contrast to what they had experienced in their daily lives. They felt alienated in daily living, as they believed that people could not comprehend their situation, which in turn led participants to search for people with similar experiences and join the peer-led support groups. While peer-led support groups may not be helpful for everyone, they created 'supportive spaces' that potentially affected the participants' recovery processes, from which we generated three key themes: (i) 'A transformative space', describing how the peer-led support group created a place to embrace change, learning and knowledge about suicide and suicide bereavement and the making of new connections; (ii) 'An alternative space for belonging and grieving', describing how the participants felt allowed to and could give themselves permission to grieve; and (iii) 'A conflicted space' describing how it was troublesome to belong to and participate in the peer-led support groups. In conclusion, despite the two cultural settings and different organizational approaches, the experiences were comparable. Peer-led support groups can, despite being a conflicted space for some, provide supportive spaces aiding the participants' recovery process.


Background: Goat milk is recognized for its high nutritive profile. The practise of antimicrobials in feeding of animals produces resistance in bacteria. Therefore, the present study was proposed to study the incidence of drug-resistant E. coli from raw goat milk samples and investigate the genes responsible for the resistance. Methods: A total of 250 raw milk samples were obtained from different farms of Taif province, Saudi Arabia. Collected samples were cultured on MacConkey agar. Morphological and biochemical tests were achieved for the identification of isolates. Antimicrobial resistance pattern of E. coli was estimated by the disk diffusion method. The resistance genes tet(A) and tet(B), ere(A), aadA1, blaSHV, aac(3)-IV, sul1, catA1 and cmlA, were examined by PCR. Results: Results of the present study showed that out of the 250 samples examined, 100 (40%) Original Research Article Abo-Amer and Alorabi; ARRB, 30(2): 1-9, 2018; Article no.ARRB.45445 2 were found to be infected with E. coli. Antimicrobial resistance profile evaluated showed a higher resistance against ceftriaxone (90 %) and ticarcillin (86%), followed by amikacin and cefotaxime (87%), and augmentin and penicillin (85%). Lower percentage was observed for gentamicin (58%), ampicillin (66%), bacitracin (75%) and imipenem (32%). Furthermore, multi-drug resistance was observed in most of the isolates. Among E. coli isolates, 86% gave positive amplicons for the blaSHV gene followed by tet(A) and tet(B) genes (85%). Conclusion: The results suggested a probability of possible public health risk of multi-drug resistance of E. coli strains collecting from raw goat milk samples. Consequently, appropriate handling of goat milk processing is significant to prevent E. coli infection.


This paper presents an interdisciplinary review of the correlation properties of random wavefields. We expose several important theoretical results of various fields, ranging from time reversal in acoustics to transport theory in condensed matter physics. Using numerical simulations, we introduce the correlation process in an intuitive manner. We establish a fruitful mapping between time reversal and correlation, which enables us to transpose many known results from acoustics to seismology. We show that the multiple-scattering formalism developed in condensed matter physics provides a rigorous basis to analyze the field correlations in disordered media. We discuss extensively the various factors controlling and affecting the retrieval of the Green's function of a complex medium from the correlation of either noise or coda.Acoustic imaging of complex samples in the laboratory and seismic tomography of geologic structures give a glimpse of the promising wide range of applications of the correlation method.


JAMES DELISLE STATES "social studies is only 'social' when we get involved with other people." He further explains, "States and regions mean very little unless we learn about the individuals who inhabit them, and nothing feels better than thanking or comforting a stranger." (1) The social studies curriculum for sixth graders involves learning about countries of the world; however, reading about locations, physical features, products, governments, and even lifestyles does not involve students personally unless they are able to reach beyond descriptions to become acquainted with people. Today, following the tsunami disaster in South Asia, many opportunities exist for U.S. students to get involved with other people and to provide comfort. Yet years before this tragedy, such an opportunity presented itself for one sixth grade class when the island of Antigua, 1200 miles southeast of Miami, suffered invasive damage from Hurricane Georges in 1998. Food, clothing, and medical supplies were rushed to Antigua from international agencies, but no school supplies were shipped to the devastated schools. Ill equipped to begin with, the schools had lost everything except for their damaged structures and a few chalkboards, desks and chairs. The Press-Republican in Plattsburgh, New York, learned of the dilemma and contacted newspapers throughout the nation to ask if school classes would volunteer to "adopt" a class in Antigua. Daniel, a student teacher at the time in Provo, Utah, and one of the authors of this article, learned of the appeal and seized the opportunity to make social studies real and personal for his sixth grade class. Outsiders might feel that the students in Daniel's class had little to give. At their school, 78 percent of the children are on free or reduced-price lunch, and 14 percent are legally homeless. Many are the children of migrant workers or are from other families new to the United States; 78 percent speak languages other than English in their homes, and a few years ago the school's turnover rate was more than 100 percent. Yet, despite such discouraging statistics, Daniel knew that by combining social studies with service his students could use the knowledge and skills they gained in school to help students whose struggles were greater than their own. He also knew his students would gain a new perspective on their relationship with less fortunate students as fellow citizens in a global community. Ultimately students in the class were to do research reports on countries and cultures. To make the production of these reports a meaningful experience, students would need (1) to learn how to find information, and (2) to view that information as personally significant. Introducing the project to help Antigua gave Daniel a context for promoting both the skills and the motivation. He began by telling the class about the needs of the students in Antigua and explaining ways the class could help. He and the cooperating teacher were very enthusiastic; the students were interested and agreeable but not as excited in the beginning. As residents of the poverty district of a middle-class suburban community, many of the students viewed themselves as victims; helping other victims was a concept that did not come naturally for them. Daniel introduced research methods by using the methods to learn about Antigua. He conducted research on the internet and on the Encarta encyclopedia program to learn about the history, geography and culture of the island. He prepared graphs that compared life in Antigua with life in the United States, including money, wages, education, climate, transportation, and more. During the next two social studies periods he presented the results of his research, along with some information he had received by e-mail from Antigua. As he shared the information, the students began to think about the lives led by the children of the island. They became enthusiastic, asking many questions and brainstorming with Daniel on ways they could find out even more. …


The European project GeoNet ran for two years (2008-2010). It specified, implemented and tested the combination of IPv6 and GeoNetworking into a single protocol architecture. In short, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6 and particularly the mobility support protocols) gives to ITS applications all the communication power of the Internet most notably within the ITS station architecture designed by ETSI TC ITS and ISO TC 204 (CALM) whereas GeoNetworking provides the ability for communication systems to transmit a message to all nodes within a geographic area. GeoNetworking was first designed by the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and is dedicated to safety-critical applications. A non-IP choice was made for efficiency reasons (very short latencies are necessary). Once combined with IPv6, GeoNetworking expands Internet communications with the ability to transmit IPv6 packets to vehicles in a geographic area beyond single hop radio reach, and IPv6 expands GeoNetworking with the ability to transmit geographic-bound packets to vehicles not immediately reachable on the radio link but reachable through the Internet. As such, IPv6 GeoNetworking provides the necessary communication means for road-safety, traffic efficiency, and infotainment types of applications. The GeoNet project was launched to ensure the convergence between the two communication systems (IPv6 and GeoNetworking) that seemed to be developed in parallel and to provide an input to ETSI and ISO standardization. This paper aims at giving a high level overview of what exactly is IPv6 GeoNetworking, what it is for and why it is considered as a key feature in standardization.


Accurate and timely maps of tree cover attributes are important tools for environmental research and natural resource management. We evaluate the utility of Landsat 8 for mapping tree canopy cover (TCC) and aboveground biomass (AGB) in a woodland landscape in Burkina Faso. Field data and WorldView-2 imagery were used to assemble the reference dataset. Spectral, texture, and phenology predictor variables were extracted from Landsat 8 imagery and used as input to Random Forest (RF) models. RF models based on multi-temporal and single date imagery were compared to determine the influence of phenology predictor variables. The effect of reducing the number of predictor variables on the RF predictions was also investigated. The model error was assessed using 10-fold cross validation. The most accurate models were created using multi-temporal imagery and variable selection, for both TCC (five predictor variables) and AGB (four predictor variables). The coefficient of determination of predicted versus observed values was 0.77 for TCC (RMSE = 8.9%) and 0.57 for AGB (RMSE = 17.6 tons∙ha−1). This mapping approach is based on freely available Landsat 8 data and relatively simple analytical methods, and is therefore applicable in woodland areas where sufficient reference data are available.


We have measured the performance of several area-based stereo matching algorithms with noise added to synthetic images. Dense disparity maps were computed and compared with the ground truth using three metrics: the fraction of correctly computed disparities, the mean and the standard deviation of the disparity error distribution. For a noise-free image, S. Birchfield and C. Tomasi's pixel-to-pixel dynamic algorithm performed slightly better than a simple sum-of-absolute-differences algorithm (67% correct matches vs 65%) $considered to be within experimental error. A census algorithm performed worst at only 54%. The dynamic algorithm performed well until the S/N ratio reached 36 dB after which its performance started to drop. However, with correctly chosen parameters, it was superior to correlation and census algorithms until the images became very noisy (/spl sim/15 dB). The dynamic algorithm also ran faster than the fastest correlation algorithms using an optimum window radius of 4, and more than 10 times faster than the census algorithm.


Abstract Background Different surveillance strategies for patients with low-risk branch-duct (BD) intraductal papillary neoplasm (IPMN) have been described. The aim of this study was to describe the natural history of low-risk BD-IPMN, and to identify risk factors for the development of worrisome features (WF)/high-risk stigmata (HRS) and of pancreatic malignancies. Methods This was a multicentre retrospective study of patients with BD-IPMN who were under active surveillance between January 2006 and December 2015. Patients were eligible if they had a low-risk lesion and had a minimum follow-up of 24 months. Outcomes were development of WF/HRS or cytologically/histologically confirmed malignant IPMN. Results Of 837 patients included, 168 (20 per cent) developed WF/HRS. At the end of the observation time, 132 patients (79 per cent) with WF/HRS were still under surveillance without progression to pancreatic cancer. Factors associated with the development of WF or HRS in multivariable analysis included localized nodules (versus diffuse: hazard ratio (HR) 0.43, 95 per cent c.i. 0.26 to 0.68), cyst size 15–19 mm (versus less than 15 mm: HR 1.88, 1.23 to 2.87) or at least 20 mm (versus less than 15 mm: HR 3.25, 2.30 to 4.60), main pancreatic duct size over 3 mm (versus 3 mm or less: HR 2.17, 1.41 to 3.34), and symptoms at diagnosis (versus no symptoms: HR 2.29, 1.52 to 3.45). Surveillance in an endoscopy-oriented centre was also associated with increased detection of WF or HRS (versus radiology-oriented: HR 2.46, 1.74 to 3.47). Conclusion Conservative management of patients with low-risk BD-IPMN is safe and feasible.


OBJECTIVE: To describe morphological features of the interatrial septum in normal fetuses, especially foramen ovale (FO) and septum primum (SP), in order to compare septum primum excursion with foramen ovale diameter. METHODS: Septum primum excursion (SPE) toward the left atrium (LA) and foramen ovale diameter (FOD) were measured in the hearts of ten formaldehyde-fixed human fetuses ranging from 28 to 36 weeks of gestation. Histological sections were obtained from the foramen ovale (FO), septum primum (SP), septum secundum (SS), left atrium (LA), and right atrium (RA). RESULTS: FOD and SPE measurements were the following: FOD 3.1-3.5 mm and SPE 2.8-3.1 mm in three fetuses with presumed gestational age (GA) of 28 weeks; FOD 3.3-3.5 mm, and SP excursion 4.0-5.0 mm in four fetuses with presumed GA of 34 weeks, plus FOD 3.3-4.5 mm and SPE 6.0-9.0 in three fetuses with presumed GA of 36 weeks. Cardiac muscular fibers were identified in both the septum primum and secundum. CONCLUSION: Based on its muscular components, it may be suggested that SP is active in character, influencing blood flow through the FO, SP mobility, and its excursion into the LA.


Purpose Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the most common cause of acute liver failure. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which Ganoderma lucidum mushroom (GLM) may ameliorate cisplatin (CP)-induced hepatotoxicity theoretically and experimentally. Materials and Methods Thirty-six male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into six groups, two of them are normal and Ganoderma lucidum control groups. Liver injury was induced by a single dose of CP (12 mg/kg i.p) in four groups, one of them is CP control group. Besides cisplatin injection in day 1, rats in groups (4–6) were subjected to GLM (500 mg/kg/day) either every other day or daily oral dose or via i.p injection for 10 consecutive days. Results In this study, GLM supplementation caused significant reduction of elevated high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) with a concurrent decline in TNF-α and upregulation of IL-10 compared to the CP group (P<0.05). The histopathological and fibrosis evaluation significantly confirmed the improvement upon simultaneous treatment with GLM. Moreover, immunohistochemical examination also confirmed the recovery following GLM treatment indicated by downregulation of NF-κB, p53 and caspase-3 along with upsurge of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression (P<0.05). GLM treatment significantly decreased serum levels of hepatic injury markers; ALT, AST, T. bilirubin as well as oxidative stress markers; MDA and H2O2 with a concomitant increase in hepatic GSH and SOD. Also, the performed docking simulation of ganoderic acid exhibited good fitting and binding with HMGB-1 through hydrogen bond formation with conservative amino acids which gives a strong evidence for its hepatoprotective effect and may interpret the effect of Ganoderma lucidum. Conclusion GLM attenuated hepatic injury through downregulation of HMGB-1/NF-kB and caspase-3 resulted in modulation of the induced oxidative stress and the subsequent cross-talk between the inflammatory and apoptotic cascade indicating its promising role in DILI.


We reexamine the behavior of money growth, inflation, and real money balances in post–World War II Taiwan. Our results suggest that the importance of the June 1949 reform package has been overstated. The empirical work reveals an extended period of instability that begins several months prior to the June 1949 announcements and continues until early 1950. This implies that stabilization was achieved only gradually. We also point to the importance of two high-interest deposit programs—introduced in May 1949 and March 1950—in helping account for the Taiwanese authorities' ability to end the inflationary spiral.


Language acquisition is one of the most fundamental human traits, and it is obviously the brain that undergoes the developmental changes. During the years of language acquisition, the brain not only stores linguistic information but also adapts to the grammatical regularities of language. Recent advances in functional neuroimaging have substantially contributed to systems-level analyses of brain development. In this Viewpoint, I review the current understanding of how the "final state" of language acquisition is represented in the mature brain and summarize new findings on cortical plasticity for second language acquisition, focusing particularly on the function of the grammar center.


Purpose: This report describes a novel technique that allows for 3-dimensional augmentation of localized bone defects of the posterior maxilla and simultaneous implant placement by means of using the maxillary tuberosity as a block graft. Materials and Methods: The residual bone in maxillary tuberosity is harvested as a whole. The recipient site and the bone graft are prepared with compatible implant drills. The bone graft is flipped to fit the defect and fixated in place using the dental implant, which anchors both the graft and the subantral bone. Results: The defect of the posterior maxilla is reconstructed with autogenous bone harvested from maxillary tuberosity, and simultaneous implant placement is achieved. Conclusion: The proposed technique enables the clinician to reconstruct alveolar defects of the posterior maxilla without the need for an additional donor site and simultaneously place dental implants.


Layers of ptype germanium have been produced by bombardment of ntype specimens with 40keV Ga+ or In+ ions. Measurements of Hall mobility and carrier concentration as a function of depth suggest that the degradation of mobility due to the radiation damage produced by the implant is completely removed after anneal. 50% of Ga ions and 10–15% of In ions became electrically active. These percentages were independent of dose over the range measured (1011cm-2 3 × 1013cm-2).


We present a customized 3D mesh Transformer model for the pose transfer task. As the 3D pose transfer essentially is a deformation procedure dependent on the given meshes, the intuition of this work is to perceive the geometric inconsistency between the given meshes with the powerful self-attention mechanism. Specifically, we propose a novel geometry-contrastive Transformer that has an efficient 3D structured perceiving ability to the global geometric inconsistencies across the given meshes. Moreover, locally, a simple yet efficient central geodesic contrastive loss is further proposed to improve the regional geometric-inconsistency learning. At last, we present a latent isometric regularization module together with a novel semi-synthesized dataset for the cross-dataset 3D pose transfer task towards unknown spaces. The massive experimental results prove the efficacy of our approach by showing state-of-the-art quantitative performances on SMPL-NPT, FAUST and our new proposed dataset SMG-3D datasets, as well as promising qualitative results on MG-cloth and SMAL datasets. It's demonstrated that our method can achieve robust 3D pose transfer and be generalized to challenging meshes from unknown spaces on cross-dataset tasks. The code and dataset are made available. Code is available: https://github.com/mikecheninoulu/CGT.


Maxwell's equations are expressed in the language of vector calculus, so a significant portion of the previous chapters has been devoted to explaining vector calculus, not Maxwell's equations. For better or worse, that's par for the course, and it's going to happen again in this chapter. The old adage "the truth will set you free" might be better stated, for our purposes, as "the math will set
you free." And that's the truth. 4.1 Beginnings In mid-1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Orsted discovered that a current in a wire can affect the magnetic needle of a compass.
His experiments were quickly confirmed by Francois Arago and, more
exhaustively, by Andre Marie Ampere. Ampere's work demonstrated
that the effects generated by the current, which defined a so-called
"magnetic field" (labeled B in Fig. 4.1), were centered on the wire, were perpendicular to the wire, and were circularly symmetric about the wire. By convention, the vector component of the field had a direction given by the right-hand rule: if the thumb of the right hand were pointing in the direction of the current, the curve of the fingers on the right hand gives the direction of the vector field. Other careful experiments by Jean-Baptiste Biot and Felix Savart
established that the strength of the magnetic field was directly related to the current I in the wire and inversely related to the radial distance from the wire r.


The cooling process of a protoneutron star (PNS) is investigated with focus on its sensitivity to properties of hot and dense matter. An equation of state, which includes the nucleon effective mass and nuclear symmetry energy at twice the saturation density as control parameters, is constructed for systematic studies. The numerical code utilized in this study follows a quasi-static evolution of a PNS solving the general-relativistic stellar structure with neutrino diffusion. The cooling timescale evaluated from the neutrino light curve is found to be longer for the models with larger effective masses and smaller symmetry energies at high densities. The present results are compared with those for other equations of state and it is found that they are consistent in terms of their dependences on the effective mass and neutron star radius.


Trying to give a definition of Citizenship Education is a challenging operation: it is characterized by a variety of meanings flowing from Civic Education (related to knowledge and practice about the system of laws, rules, conventions referring to a particular civil community) to Socio-political education (related to the awareness of being part of the system of cultural elements, values, traditions historically produced by the community itself). It would be not be correct identifying Citizenship Education only with elements of Civic Education, as it would restrict its range to formal level of rules and laws, rights and duties. Otherwise, limiting its understanding only on elements of Sociopolitical Education, would offer the risk of investing in cultural similarities, common roots, values homogeneity, that are strong in giving hold on identity, membership, participation, but so exposed to acts of fanaticism, exclusion of diversity, hostility towards minorities. Therefore, it is necessary to assume that Citizenship Education has to be established on problematic integration of the two presented perspectives, thus founding knowledge and practice about the rules of civil society on the system of values and cultural aspects that every single micro-community (and every single individual) recognizes to be source of the rules: a complex system of various elements made of homogeneity and inhomogeneity, similarities and differences in constant modification an dynamic intercommunication.


Traditional treatment regimens for adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, result in an overall survival of approximately 40%, a figure hardly comparable with the extraordinary 80% to 90% cure rate currently reported in children. When translated to the adult setting, modern pediatric-type regimens improve the survival to approximately 60% in young adults. The addition of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive disease and the measurement of minimal residual disease to guide risk stratification and postremission approaches has led to additional improvements in outcomes. Relapsed disease and treatment toxicity-sparing no patient but representing a major concern especially in the elderly-are the most critical current issues awaiting further therapeutic advancement. Recently, there has been considerable progress in understanding the disease biology, specifically the Philadelphia-like signature, as well as other high-risk subgroups. In addition, there are several new agents that will undoubtedly contribute to additional improvement in the current outcomes. The most promising agents are monoclonal antibodies, immunomodulators, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells, and, to a lesser extent, several new drugs targeting key molecular pathways involved in leukemic cell growth and proliferation. This review examines the evidence supporting the increasing role of the new therapeutic tools and treatment options in different disease subgroups, including frontline and relapsed or refractory disease. It is now possible to define the best individual approach on the basis of the emerging concepts of precision medicine.


Tests were made to investigate the variation of thrust distribution over the propeller disk with angle of pitch of the propeller thrust axis and to determine the disposition and the minimum number of rakes necessary to measure the propeller thrust. The tests were made at a low Mach number for a low and a high blade angle with the propeller operating at three small angles of pitch, and some of the tests were repeated at a higher Mach number. The data obtained show that, for small angles of pitch, large changes occur in the energy distribution in the wake which prohibit the use of a single survey rake for thrust measurement in flight tests and limit the use of a single rake in wind-tunnel tests. Under certain conditions, the energy distribution in the wake took on a symmetrical form and two diametrically opposed survey rakes were shown to be satisfactory for obtaining propeller thrust. (author).


Tyres are a mixture of vulcanized or cross-linked polymers, carbon black, dispersing oil, sulphur, synthetic fibres, pigments, processing chemicals and steel/fiberglass. Burning of tyre materials produces smoke and toxic air pollutants, including benzene, dioxins, furans, heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We investigated the effects of the accumulation of these toxicants on fish smoked with waste tyre materials as fuel source on liver function and oxidative stress parameters in Albino Wistar rats. In this toxicological study, some of the rats were exposed to diet formulated with the smoked fish and some were allowed diets formulated with smoked fish and/or Solanum lycopersicum and Allium cepa. At the end of the study period, the liver function parameters (total protein, albumin, AST, ALP, ALP, bilirubin and cholesterol) indicated negative hepatic changes with adverse fluctuations in oxidative stress parameters (GPx, catalase, SOD, GSH and MDA). Incorporation of S. lycopersicum and A. cepa in the diets ameliorated these adverse biochemical changes in rats exposed to fish smoked with these toxic materials.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate and compare the sizes of teeth in mild and severe hypodontia patients with those of healthy controls.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Dental casts of 154 patients with two or more congenitally missing teeth were obtained. Patients were divided into two groups according to severity of hypodontia. Group I (mild) consisted of 118 patients with two to five missing teeth. Group II (severe) consisted of 36 patients with six or more missing teeth. In addition, a control group was included, which consisted of 50 patients who had an Angle Class I jaw relationship and no missing teeth. Mesiodistal and labiolingual dimensions of the teeth were measured with a digital caliper on dental casts. The independent-samples t-test was used to evaluate the effect of gender on measurements. Intergroup differences for mesiodistal and labiolingual dimensions were evaluated with analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey tests.

RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found between girls and boys with hypodontia in the mesiodistal dimension of the mandibular first premolar and the labiolingual dimension of the mandibular lateral incisor (P < .01). Mesiodistal and labiolingual width measurements of the teeth of hypodontia patients showed statistically significant differences compared with the control group (P < .05). Most teeth showed significant dimensional reductions in severe hypodontia compared with mild hypodontia (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS
The mesiodistal and labiolingual dimensions of teeth in both mild and severe hypodontia groups were smaller than those in control subjects. The reduction in size was more excessive in the severe hypodontia group. The teeth showing the greatest difference in tooth dimensions were the maxillary lateral incisor (in mesiodistal dimension) and the mandibular canine (labiolingual dimension).


This study utilises an innovative creative method of plasticine modelling to explore the identities of local students (those who live in their family home) at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Students created models representing their identity, which were used as a springboard for in-depth discussion. Through drawing upon Bourdieusian theory this article attempts to shed new sociological light on the subject of local student experiences. In much of the literature this is presented as problematic and it is often argued that local students either 'miss out' on the conventional university experience or that they are stuck between two worlds. This paper, however, presents a more complex picture of local students' experiences of inhabiting local and university spaces. The data is analysed through a Bourdieusian lens in which the university and local worlds are seen as fields of struggle, this allows for a nuanced understanding of how students conceptualise their positions and dispositions in relation to both fields. The findings indicate that living at home can be both problematic and of benefit to the working-class students in particular. Despite being immersed within two somewhat contradictory fields they can sometimes develop various strategies to enable them to overcome any internal conflict. In this article we draw uniquely upon Bhabha's concept of a third space to expand upon Bourdieusian theory, arguing that a 'cleft habitus' is not always negative and can be a resource for some in their attempts to negotiate new fields.


INTRODUCTION
The Australian states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland implemented bans on tobacco pack displays at point-of-sale (PoS) in July 2010 and November 2011, respectively. This study evaluated the medium-term impact of the bans on youth.

METHODS
Data were drawn from the Tobacco Promotion Impact Study, a repeated cross-sectional survey of youth (12-24 years) in NSW and Queensland conducted yearly 2010-2012 (n = 6,014). Regression analyses examined differences in youth's recall of PoS tobacco displays, smoking-related beliefs, and smoking behaviors in relation to the timing of the PoS display bans.

RESULTS
Recall of PoS tobacco displays was significantly less likely for youth interviewed after the bans versus before (OR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.39, 0.52, p < .01). They were also less likely to report tobacco brand awareness (OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.62, 0.92, p < .01), to over-estimate peer smoking (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.74, 0.96, p < .01), or be current smokers (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.55, 0.96, p < .05). Stratified analyses showed that these differences were primarily apparent in the group of youth most likely to be affected by tobacco PoS displays: those who visit tobacco retailers most frequently. After the bans, smokers were less likely to report that they think about smoking as a result of seeing PoS tobacco displays (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.37, 0.97, p < .039).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest an immediate impact of display bans on youth's exposure to tobacco pack displays, and likely impacts on smoking-related outcomes. These results suggest that removing tobacco displays from retail environments can positively contribute to the denormalization of smoking among youth.


In this work, the microstructural evolution of aluminum containing commercial grade TRIP steels during gas tungsten arc (GTA), Laser beam (LB) and resistance spot (RS) welding have been studied. Microstructural analysis was carried out using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Results show that fusion zones of welded TRIP steels contain complex inclusions with similar size distribution. The energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis of inclusions indicated that these inclusions are primarily oxides of aluminum with epitaxial enrichment of manganese and phosphorous. The fusion lines of GTA and LB welded aluminum containing TRIP steel contain a zone of polygonal ferrite with a size of about 200 m and 50 m respectively. It is found that aluminum partitioned from the liquid weld to the solidified delta ferrite in the fusion line causing enrichment and resulting in ferrite stabilisation. This ferrite zone was not found in the case of resistance spot welded samples due to faster cooling rates.


The UK Government has mandated the use of Level 2 Building Information Modelling (BIM) on all publicly funded projects above £5 million by 2016. As a major construction client, the government would hope to see the widespread adoption of BIM throughout the industry as the requirements disseminate through the supply chain. The drive towards this target has been accompanied by much publicised advances in the information technology associated with BIM but while many larger firms in the construction industry are well advanced in their plans to implement the government plans, a large proportion of SMEs are not so well prepared for the deadline. The National Federation of Builders (2012) found that 81% of SMEs have either no familiarity or a vague familiarity with the levels of BIM. Findings such as this have led to fears of an emerging two tier industry. This study aims to determine the extent of readiness of SMEs to meet the requirements using a live case study, and examines the barriers that such firms working in this environment may encounter. The case study emphasises the benefits of the adoption of a collaborative mindset, underpinned by IT tools, which is the concept behind the government definition of BIM. However, research has shown that significant barriers still exist among SMEs to the adoption of BIM and this has been borne out by findings in this case study, though potential solutions to some of the issues are suggested.


X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been used to study LaNi1-x Mn(x)O3+delta perovskites (x = 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9). We have analysed both, the oxidation state and the local structure around the transition metal atoms. XANES spectra of these samples suggest a mixed valence state for both transition metal atoms. The Mn K-edge is shifted to high energies as the Ni content is increased up to x=0.5. The opposite behavior is found instead, for the Ni K-edge. Samples with x=0.5 and x=0.25 present the Mn K-edge at the same energy but the absorption features are different for both samples. The local structure has also been studied by means of the EXAFS technique. The first coordination shell nicely reflects the structural change observed in this series from rhombohedral perovskites (x>0.5) to orthorhombic perovskites x<0.5). The changes in the local structure for Ni and Mn atoms agree with the variation of the oxidation state observed in the XANES spectra.


The success of genomic selection depends on the potential to predict genome-assisted breeding values (GEBVs) with high accuracy over several generations without additional phenotyping after estimating marker effects. Results from both simulations and practical applications have to be evaluated for this potential, which requires linkage disequilibrium (LD) between markers and QTL. This study shows that markers can capture genetic relationships among genotyped animals, thereby affecting accuracies of GEBVs. Strategies to validate the accuracy of GEBVs due to LD are given. Simulations were used to show that accuracies of GEBVs obtained by fixed regression–least squares (FR–LS), random regression–best linear unbiased prediction (RR–BLUP), and Bayes-B are nonzero even without LD. When LD was present, accuracies decrease rapidly in generations after estimation due to the decay of genetic relationships. However, there is a persistent accuracy due to LD, which can be estimated by modeling the decay of genetic relationships and the decay of LD. The impact of genetic relationships was greatest for RR–BLUP. The accuracy of GEBVs can result entirely from genetic relationships captured by markers, and to validate the potential of genomic selection, several generations have to be analyzed to estimate the accuracy due to LD. The method of choice was Bayes-B; FR–LS should be investigated further, whereas RR–BLUP cannot be recommended.


Over-fishing may lead to a decrease in fish abundance and a proliferation of jellyfish. Active movements and prey search might be thought to provide a competitive advantage for fish, but here we use data-loggers to show that the frequently occurring coastal jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) does not simply passively drift to encounter prey. Jellyfish (327 days of data from 25 jellyfish with depth collected every 1 min) showed very dynamic vertical movements, with their integrated vertical movement averaging 619.2 m d−1, more than 60 times the water depth where they were tagged. The majority of movement patterns were best approximated by exponential models describing normal random walks. However, jellyfish also showed switching behaviour from exponential patterns to patterns best fitted by a truncated Lévy distribution with exponents (mean μ = 1.96, range 1.2–2.9) close to the theoretical optimum for searching for sparse prey (μopt ≈ 2.0). Complex movements in these 'simple' animals may help jellyfish to compete effectively with fish for plankton prey, which may enhance their ability to increase in dominance in perturbed ocean systems.


PURPOSE Many individuals perceive their cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk to be lower than established clinical tools would estimate, yet little is known about the long-term consequences of holding such optimistic beliefs. We evaluated whether lower self-ratings of CVD risk are associated with lower rates of CVD death after addressing potential confounding by an extensive set of social and biologic CVD risk factors. METHODS We conducted a 15-year mortality surveillance study of adults aged 35 to 75 years from southeastern New England (n = 2,816) who had no history of myocardial infarction. Baseline evaluation in 1990–1992 included household interview, anthropomorphic measures, and laboratory analyses. Outcomes were obtained using the National Death Index records through December 2005. RESULTS Rating oneself to be at lower-than-average risk for one's age and sex was associated with lower rates of CVD mortality among men (hazard ratio [HR]=0.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2–0.7) but not among women (HR = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.5–1.7). None of the following weakened the findings among men: adjustment for baseline Framingham Risk Score, propensity score adjustment for both social and biologic factors, and censoring the first 2 years of surveillance. CONCLUSIONS Lower self-ratings of CVD risk are independently associated with lower rates of CVD death among men.


Anthocyanins from black bean canning wastewater were isolated and purified on a laboratory scale by column chromatography, and then identified by high performance liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. Dynamic adsorption and desorption were performed in glass columns packed with Sepabead Sp700 to optimize the purification process. Different temperatures during adsorption and desorption (25℃and 35℃) did not significantly affect the adsorption and desorption ratio. The adsorption ratio was significantly reduced when the flow rate increased from 1.5 mL/min to 2.5 mL/min. However, desorption ratio was not affected by flow rate (from 1.5 mL/min to 0.3 mL/min). Ethanol concentration (from 30% to 60%) was not a significant factor for desorption ratio. Four kinds of anthocyanins were identified in black bean canning wastewater. The major anthocyanins were delphinidin 3-glucoside, petunidin 3glucoside and maldvidin 3-glucoside, with a small amount of petunidin 3, 5-diglucoside also present.


The Pitkin Limestone overlies black shale of the Fayetteville Formation and is the youngest Mississippian unit in the Paleozoic succession of northwest Arkansas. Five major fades have been delineated within the formation by a petrographic examination of samples collected from 17 measured sections: (1) oolith facies, (2) bioclast facies, (3) nodular limestone-shale facies, (4) mudstone facies, and (5) lime mud mound facies. The distribution of these facies in the Pitkin Formation suggests that Fayetteville terrigenous sedimentation was succeeded by the deposition of widespread oolith shoals and skeletal blanket sand bodies across the northern Arkansas structural platform. Sparse accumulations of lime mud formed in quiet protected areas within the coalescing carbonate complex. Increasing water depth and decreasing turbulence as Pitkin sedimentation proceeded allowed the establishment of bryozoan and blue-green algal communities. The entrapment and stabilization of carbonate mud by these organisms promoted mound development and growth. Scattered oolith shoals formed adjacent to the growing mounds in more turbulent water. AAound development was terminated in shallower water by extensive oolith and by the appearance of extensive skeletal sand accumulations in more turbulent water as regression was initiated.


Relocation programs have restored elk (Cervus elaphus) to portions of its vast historical range. We examine the consequences of these relocation programs by assessing variation at 10 microsatellite loci in three elk herds, a source herd (Yellowstone National Park), a large herd reintroduced from Yellowstone (Custer State Park) and a bottlenecked herd reintroduced from both Yellowstone and Custer (the Pennsylvania herd). Observed single locus heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 0.739. Multi‐locus heterozygosities ranged from 0.222 to 0.589. Although significant differences were detected among all three herds, the Yellowstone National Park and Custer State Park herds possessed similar levels of variation and heterozygosity, and the genetic distance between these two herds was small. The Pennsylvania herd, on the other hand, experienced a 61.5% decrease in heterozygosity relative to its source herds, possessed no unique and few rare alleles, and the genetic distances between the Pennsylvania herd and its sources were large. Simulations were performed to identify bottleneck scenarios in agreement with levels of variation in the Pennsylvania herd. Our data confirm that the rate of population growth post‐relocation may have important genetic consequences and indicate that theoretical predictions regarding the maintenance of genetic variation during relocation events must be viewed with caution when small numbers of a polygynous species are released.


To resolve the problem of the parts deformation because of the milling force, a finite element model (FEM) of end milling process simulation in milling force field was established. On the base of FEM, we simulate the high-speed end milling type structure of aluminum alloy 7075 parts. We successfully predict the end milling force, obtain the effect between the upper and lower material to the milling force, and Mises stress and the tool length beyond the part.The simulation results show that the lower material can increase the milling force to upper, and upper material can decrease milling force to lower layer.The drilling tool length beyond the part is about 0.5 mm .


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To describe children's psychosocial adjustment to their mother's breast cancer and to compare their level of adjustment with normative data and with the level of adjustment of children of women with fibrocystic breast disease or diabetes. Hypotheses tested were (a) children of women with breast cancer would be most negatively affected and (b) families of mothers with fibrocystic breast disease would require less family adaptation than families of women with breast cancer or diabetes. DESIGN: One component of a larger longitudinal survey. SETTING: University-based physician clinic in a metropolitan area in the Northwestern United States. SAMPLE: Mothers, predominantly Caucasian, with medically controlled diabetes mellitus (n = 18), nonmetastatic breast cancer (n = 13), or biopsy-proven fibrocystic breast disease (n = 17) and their children (N = 48), who ranged in age from 6 to 12. METHODS: Five in-home interviews conducted at four-month intervals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Behavioral adjustment using the Louisville Behavior Checklist (maternal report) and the Zeitlin Coping Inventory (nurse-observer report) and self-esteem using the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children (children's self-report). FINDINGS: Children of women with breast cancer scored better than average on behavioral adjustment (mothers' ratings) and were judged by nurse observers to be better behaviorally adjusted than children in the noncancer illness groups. Children of women with breast cancer and of women with diabetes tended to score significantly lower on self-esteem than the comparative sample. CONCLUSIONS: Measures of childhood adjustment to chronic medical illness in mothers need to distinguish between behavioral adjustment and self-esteem. Discrepancies between child ratings and mother and nurse-observer ratings suggest that differences exist. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Findings are preliminary in nature, and other explanations for findings must be ruled out. However, if a child's self-appraisal is affected negatively by the mother's illness, it would be appropriate to identify ways to increase emotional and physical exchange with the child and to interpret inaccessibility in ways that protect the child's positive self-appraisal.


Candida albicans modulates cell surface hydrophobicity during growth and morphogenesis in vitro. To determine if surface hydrophobicity is expressed during pathogenesis, we generated a polyclonal antiserum against yeast hydrophobic proteins. The antiserum was then used for indirect immunofluorescence analysis of tissues from mice colonized and chronically infected with C. albicans. Results demonstrated that yeast hydrophobic proteins are exposed on fungal cells present in host tissues. The polyclonal antiserum distinguished between hydrophobic and hydrophilic cell surfaces in vitro and gave similar staining patterns and intensities for C. albicans cells in vivo. Of the yeast forms present within tissue lesions, approximately half exhibited moderate to intense immunofluorescence with the antiserum. Immunoblot analysis indicated that antigens recognized by the antiserum are predominantly low-molecular-mass hydrophobic proteins that are expressed by different C. albicans isolates and are expressed regardless of growth temperature. Taken together, the immunofluorescence and immunoblot analyses of antigens indicate that C. albicans displays surface hydrophobic proteins during pathogenesis and these proteins are available for hydrophobic interactions with host tissues. The effect of hydrophobic protein exposure on the virulence of C. albicans is discussed.


In the article the ways to support and provide a high level of financial security of railway transport are highlighted. Thus, the importance of the article is caused by this problem. Insufficient attention to the problem of financial security in this area may lead to loss of competitiveness, financial stability and financial independence of railway enterprises. The objective point is to provide a high level of financial security of the railway transport companies.


ABSTRACT This paper sets out to demonstrate the creative engagement of a group of three and four year old children at Tate Liverpool Art Gallery and how this was facilitated. The paper starts by providing background on the project at Tate Liverpool and to a pedagogy of engagement. In doing so its value of creative engagement within the context of gallery education and the perceived barriers that can sometimes prevent or restrict young children's engagement are acknowledged. It progresses to show how artworks were used as provocations for encouraging children's creative engagement as part of workshops in the gallery space and the creative engagement signs that were observed. Vignettes of children's spontaneous responses are used to illustrate and analyse their engagement, and how this was facilitated by artists. Most significantly, the paper presents 'visible rhythms' as a new phenomenon or 'signs' of creative engagement. Through a facilitation of curiosity and self-discovery over sustained periods of time, as part of an environment where power is shared, children's engagement was observed as they expressed themselves through their 'visible rhythms'.


Although cancer is still one of the most significant global challenges facing public health, the world still lacks complementary approaches that would significantly enhance the efficacy of standard anticancer therapies. One of the essential strategies during cancer treatment is following a healthy diet program. The ketogenic diet (KD) has recently emerged as a metabolic therapy in cancer treatment, targeting cancer cell metabolism rather than a conventional dietary approach. The ketogenic diet (KD), a high-fat and very-low-carbohydrate with adequate amounts of protein, has shown antitumor effects by reducing energy supplies to cells. This low energy supply inhibits tumor growth, explaining the ketogenic diet's therapeutic mechanisms in cancer treatment. This review highlights the crucial mechanisms that explain the ketogenic diet's potential antitumor effects, which probably produces an unfavorable metabolic environment for cancer cells and can be used as a promising adjuvant in cancer therapy. Studies discussed in this review provide a solid background for researchers and physicians to design new combination therapies based on KD and conventional therapies.


Routers built around a single-stage crossbar and a centralized scheduler do not scale, and (in practice) do not provide the throughput guarantees that network operators need to make efficient use of their expensive long-haul links. In this paper we consider how optics can be used to scale capacity and reduce power in a router. We start with the promising load-balanced switch architecture proposed by C-S. Chang. This approach eliminates the scheduler, is scalable, and guarantees 100% throughput for a broad class of traffic. But several problems need to be solved to make this architecture practical: (1) Packets can be mis-sequenced, (2) Pathological periodic traffic patterns can make throughput arbitrarily small, (3) The architecture requires a rapidly configuring switch fabric, and (4) It does not work when linecards are missing or have failed. In this paper we solve each problem in turn, and describe new architectures that include our solutions. We motivate our work by designing a 100Tb/s packet-switched router arranged as 640 linecards, each operating at 160Gb/s. We describe two different implementations based on technology available within the next three years.


The hydrocarbon prospects of the Western China Thrust Belt require solving a most challenging problem in seismic imaging --- irregular topography associated with a rugged terrain, complexity of the near-surface that includes high-velocity layers and outcrops with significant lateral velocity variations, complexity of the overburden, and the complexity of the target imbricate structures themselves. We present a case study that demonstrates a workflow to solve this challenging problem: (1) The near-surface model is estimated by nonlinear traveltime tomography that accounts for topography, and resolves lateral and vertical velocity variations. The near-surface corrections are based on wavefield datuming rather than shot-receiver statics. (2) The subsurface overburden model is estimated by prestack time migration combined with powerful interactive tools to pick rms velocities that are structurally consistent and laterally consistent, and the substratum model is estimated by half-space velocity analysis. (3) The subsurface image is obtained by prestack depth migration of shot gathers from topography.


In this paper we propose and demonstrate stable robot controllers that use a small omnidirectional array of visual sensors and a fly-like autocorrelation scheme for sensing visual motion using minimal computation. Designing the controllers required deriving a model for the response of an array of correlators observing the motion of a flat moving surface such as the ground or a wall. The model operates in the frequency domain and incorporates the effects of perspective, motion parallax, and spatial blurring. Using it, suitable parameters for inter-sensor spacing and blur width were found that mitigated the effect of incorrect estimates arising from aliasing. Controllers that decomposed the correlator response into harmonics to observe and control the robot's state were implemented on a fan-actuated hovercraft robot. They were able to stabilize it as it moved through a corridor, the first use of correlators to control the motion of a flight-like (nonkinematic) dynamic vehicle.


Abstract In this paper, an optical
array resonator with phase shifting end mirror has been combined with the RF excited
diffusively cooled slab waveguide CO 2 lasers to obtain a desirable output laser beam with
single peaked far field intensity distribution, which is highly spatially suppressed with the
merits of high brightness and good characteristics of propagation. In the experiments, a
maximum output power of 46 W and highest conversion efficiency of 11.3% have been obtained
from a 200 mm gain length device. The laser beam intensity distribution acquired has similar
characteristics to the ouptut beam from laser arrays due to the periodical structure of the phase
shifting total reflector, and has an excellent stability due to the mode selection capability of this
type of resonator. In this paper, theoretical analysis is also given, based on which
corresponding theoretical model is established, the practical feasibility is shown, and the laser
beam output with characteristics of in phase array mode is predicted. The systematical
experimental investigation indicates the prominent influence of the parameters of the phase
shifting array end mirror on the property of the output beam. Furthermore, the manufacturing
errors of the phase shifted array resonator are analyzed and the analysis provides a theoretical
guide to the design of this type of lasers.


This casebook provides an overview of trade regulation, including an integrated discussion of the major antitrust guidelines from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission during the 1990s and significant antitrust process issues. The book's comparative law materials reflect expanded antitrust systems of other nations, and a series of economic essays and notes offer views on antitrust policy development. The casebook offers hypothetical problems throughout as a teaching aid. Highlights of the new edition include full integration of Supreme Court cases into appropriate sections of the casebook; important Court of Appeals and District Court opinions; important merger cases; increased attention on cases and scholarship relating to the intersection between antitrust and intellectual property; additional Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines; and an expanded section on extraterritorial reach and comity.


Among neglected tropical diseases, leishmaniasis is one of the most important ones, affecting more than 12 million people worldwide. The available treatments are not well tolerated, and present diverse side effects, justifying the search for new therapeutic compounds. In the present study, the activity of ursolic acid (UA) and oleanolic acid (OA) were assayed in experimental cutaneous leishmaniasis (in vitro and in vivo). Promastigote forms of L. amazonensis were incubated with OA and UA for 24h, and effective concentration 50% (EC50) was estimated. Ultraestructural alterations in Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes after UA treatment were evaluated by transmission electron microscopy, and the possible mode of action was assayed through Annexin V and propidium iodide staining, caspase 3/7 activity, DNA fragmentation and transmembrane mitochondrial potential. The UA potential was evaluated in intracellular amastigotes, and its therapeutic potential was evaluated in L. amazonensis infected BALB/c mice. UA eliminated L. amazonensis promastigotes with an EC50 of 6.4 μg/mL, comparable with miltefosine, while OA presented only a marginal effect on promastigote forms at 100 μg/mL. The possible mechanism by which promastigotes were eliminated by UA was programmed cell death, independent of caspase 3/7, but it was highly dependent on mitochondria activity. UA was not toxic for peritoneal macrophages from BALB/c mice, and it was able to eliminate intracellular amastigotes, associated with nitric oxide (NO) production. OA did not eliminate amastigotes nor trigger NO. L. amazonensis infected BALB/c mice submitted to UA treatment presented lesser lesion size and parasitism compared to control. This study showed, for the first time, that UA eliminate promastigote forms through a mechanism associated with programed cell death, and importantly, was effective in vivo. Therefore, UA can be considered an interesting candidate for future tests as a prototype drug for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.


Abstract A large ventricular foreign body was identified on radiographs in a captive-bred gyr falcon (Falco rusticolus) that was presented for paresis and swollen abdomen. On endoscopic examination, a large shiny mass was visible in the ventriculus. An ingluviotomy was done, and pieces of the mass, which consisted of a ball of artificial grass fibers, were removed by using a rigid endoscope and grasping forceps. Subsequently, 4 more ingluviotomies were required to gain endoscopic access to the ventriculus and to allow staged removal of the mass in a piecemeal fashion. Feeding the falcon a feathered quail and allowing it to cast naturally removed the remaining fibers of the mass. No deleterious effects were observed in the bird.


A micro-magnetic field sensor is developed using the giant magneto-impedance (GMI) effect in a 30 /spl mu/m diameter amorphous FeCoSiBNd wire of zero magnetostriction. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices are described as passive, radio requestable sensor devices. A new type employs the electrical load of the SAW device by the impedance of conventional sensors. In order to develop a wirelessly interrogable magnetic field sensor, the combination of GMI sensors and SAW transponders is discussed by several measurements. The device shows a relative signal sensitivity of 80 dB/T at low magnetic flux density B<30 mT, quick response (/spl ges/40 MHz bandwidth), and a high-temperature stability.


Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass support (PCPS) has become a widespread standard modality for the treatment of circulatory collapse; however, its clinical use for postcardiotomy low cardiac output syndrome (LOS) has been reported to be unsatisfactory. We reviewed the clinical outcomes of twenty-three patients undergoing cardiac surgery and treated with PCPS. Solitary coronary artery grafting was undertaken for nine patients, while three had concomitant procedures. The remaining patients underwent valvular surgery. The indications for PCPS were preoperative shock in two patients and postcardiotomy LOS or shock in twenty-one patients. All patients except one underwent an intraaortic balloon pump. Sixteen of the twenty-three patients (69.6%) were weaned from PCPS and twelve patients (52.2%) reached hospital discharge. A univariate analysis revealed that risk factors for hospital mortality were age older than seventy years (P = 0.05), PCPS running time (P = 0.017), low cardiac function at the institution of PCPS (P = 0.004), and urine output within the initial 24 h (P = 0.041). The cardiac index (CI) in survivors was improved within 24 h, and eleven of the twelve survivors were weaned off PCPS within 48 h, whereas ten of the twelve nonsurvivors required PCPS for more than 48 h (P = 0.0006). There is little possibility of weaning patients from PCPS who do not show any signs of hemodynamic recovery within 48 h after its institution. Limited use of PCPS within 48 h may be applicable for postcardiotomy patients, but other cardiopulmonary support, such as a left ventricular assist device, may be required when hemodynamic recovery is not obtained within 48 h.


A physically based, fully distributed Hortonian Infiltration and Runoff/On hydrologic model was used to model infiltration excess as the dominant runoff generation mechanism on a pasture hillslope. The model was evaluated for its applicability to simulate spatial and temporal variability of runoff generation areas observed on a pasture hillslope in the Sand Mountain region of North Alabama, United States. Three rainfall events of varying intensity and duration were simulated for a highly instrumented pasture hillslope to study the dynamics of runoff generation and runon areas. Calibration and cross validation were performed on all three rainfall events. Performance of the Hortonian Infiltration and Runoff/On–simulated hydrographs was evaluated using root mean squared error, coefficient of determination and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency. The calibrated model for the first event resulted in a root mean squared error of 1.18 m3 (41.7 ft3) for runoff volume; the next two events resulted in root mean squared errors of less than 1 m3 (35.3 ft3). Similarly, the coefficient of determination and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency values for all three events were greater than 0.70 for the calibrated model. Results from cross validation showed that the Hortonian Infiltration and Runoff/On model-simulated runoffs were in agreement with the observed data. In addition, the model simulated spatial and temporal variations in runoff generation, and runon areas were in agreement with observed variations. Model results helped explain the interactions among hydrologic and climatic characteristics, such as topography, soil parameters, and rainfall variations, and their connections to surface runoff–generation processes. Although the model does not simulate subsurface lateral flow, it shows promise for identifying runoff generation and runon areas for controlling nonpoint source pollution from pasture hillslopes in this and similar regions.


There is a marked difference between speech heard in direct face-to-face conversation and speech heard over the telephone. A good example is provided by an FM radio broadcast when a listener calls in to chat with the disk jockey on the air. This disparity in quality led us to develop an algorithm of generating wideband speech from ordinary telephone speech. The algorithm has two novelpoints. The first is spectrum envelope reconstruction based on codebook mapping. The other is speech signal reconstruction using the speech waveform specified by the reconstructed spectrum envelope. Because the algorithm makes it possible to generate high quality speech without the use of any additional transmitted information, it is important and useful in the area of speech coding. Evaluation by the acoustic distance measure and by listening tests confirmed the good performance of the algorithm


A new and showy Masdevallia from the Huanuco region in Peru is described and illustrated with a line drawing and color photographs. It belongs to the subgenus Masdevallia , section Masdevallia . The new species is compared to several more or less morphologically similar species, such as M. burianii , M. cranion and M. popowiana that appear to be closely related. The new species differs from them by a combination of features, including the rather fleshy leaves and the bell-shaped flowers covered internally with magenta to white pubescence.


BACKGROUND
Working ability is known to be related to good physical condition, clear work tasks, positive feedback and other occupational, organizational and psychosocial factors. In Sweden, high levels of sickness absence are due to stress-related disorders and musculoskeletal pain.

AIMS
To identify work health characteristics in a working population with a large variety of professional skills and occupational tasks.

METHODS
Employers' data on occupation, sickness absence, age and gender in a working population of 11 occupational groups and questionnaire responses regarding work-organization, environment, work stress, pain, health, and socio-demographic factors were collected. Employees with no history of sick-leave were compared with those with a history of sick-leave (1-182 days, mean 25 days).

RESULTS
Of 2641 employees, 1961 participated. Those with no history of sick-leave reported less work-related pain, work-related stress, sleep disturbances, worry about their health, 'sick-presenteeism', monotonous work, bent and twisted working positions and exposure to disturbing noise than those with a history of sick-leave (P < 0.001). They also reported better health, support from superiors, having influence on their working hours and evening and week-end working, longer working hours per week (P < 0.001) and more regular physical training (P < 0.01). Socio-demographic factors were less important than gender, and differences in responses between occupational groups were also found.

CONCLUSIONS
Workers without a history of sick-leave experienced less stress, sleep disturbances, worry about their own health and less neck, shoulder and back pain and more support from their superiors and influence on their working hours.


INTRODUCTION
Obesity is rapidly growing problem worldwide. It predisposes to a variety of serious ailments including heart disease, diabetes mellitus, degenerative joint disease, atherosclerosis, etc. This is probably related to proinflammatory state associated with obesity due to release of several inflammatory mediators by the adipose tissue. The mediators are also probably responsible for metabolic syndrome associated with obesity. Besides, they may also induce significant changes in haematological parameters associated with inflammation.

AIM
Present study was undertaken to ascertain the relationship between obesity and leucocyte counts (particularly TLC and ANC) and find out if the changes induced in them are significant enough to be used as predictors of metabolic syndrome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This case-control study was carried out on 243 female subjects allocated to four groups based on WHO and IDF criteria: Control, Overweight, Obese and Obese with Metabolic Syndrome. From all the subjects, data pertaining to obesity related anthropometric measurements, lipid profile, fasting plasma glucose levels and complete blood counts were collected. These were analysed statistically.

RESULTS
There was a strong positive correlation between obesity related anthropometric measurements (BMI, BF, WC) and leucocyte counts - TLC and ANC - which were statistically highly significant; TNC and ANC also showed strong positive correlation with FPG. Mean values for TLC and ANC showed statistically significant difference between each and every group. The difference in the mean values of these parameters between obese and metabolic syndrome was highly significant. Both elevated FPG and BMI were independently associated with relative leucocytosis; when both of them were elevated simultaneously, the effect appeared to be potentiating.

CONCLUSION
Increase in obesity associated anthropometric measurements (BMI, WC, BF) is associated with relative leucocytosis within the physiological range. The changes in TLC and ANC are significant enough to be used as predictors of onset of metabolic syndrome in obese subjects.


Slurry is a necessary material in high-speed railway pile foundation construction. A lot of waste slurry which is harmful to the eco-environment will be generated after the construction is finished. If the slurry isn't disposed properly, it will cause serious pollutions to the environment. This paper analyses environmental impact of waste slurry through four aspects: surface water, crops, soil and wastewater treatment system etc. Finally, it gets the conclusion that there are four methods to reduce the environmental pollutions of waste slurry: the first one is using the environment-friendly slurry in pile foundation construction; the second one is raising the slurry use efficiency; the third one is decreasing the amount of slurry usage and the output of waste slurry; the last one is developing the more eco-friendly waste slurry treatment methods.


It is commonplace for firms to collaborate with others to gain access to technological components for innovation. This paper examines the choice of organizational form for such activities: when should a firm hire a technological expert as a temporary employee, transact through consulting spot markets, or engage in a long-term employment or supply relationship with the expert? Property rights theory is applied to examine the incentives and commitment created by different organization forms when the property rights of knowledge assets are incomplete. The model highlights the role of fallback options in sustaining socially efficient implicit contracts. Comparison of long-term employment and supply relationships shows that, contrary to received wisdom, an employment relationship is a less robust arrangement than a supply relationship in the presence of large knowledge spillovers. Nevertheless, the employment relationship is relatively more sustainable when there are complementarities between the parties' cooperation investments. Empirical implications for structuring R&D and consulting arrangements are discussed.


The integration equation theory (IET) provides highly efficient tools for the calculation of structural and thermodynamic properties of molecular liquids. In recent years, the 3D reference interaction site model (3DRISM), the most developed IET for solvation, has been widely applied to study protein solvation, aggregation, and drug‐receptor binding. However, hydrophobic solutes with sufficient size (>nm) can induce water density depletion at the solute–solvent interface. This density depletion is not considered in the original 3DRISM theory. The authors here review the recent developments of 3DRISM at hydrophobic surfaces and related theories to address this challenge. At hydrophobic surfaces, an additional hydrophobicity‐induced density inhomogeneity equation is introduced to 3DRISM theory to consider this density depletion. Accordingly, several new closures equations including D2 closure and D2MSA closures are developed to enable stable numerical solutions of 3DRISM equations. These newly developed theories hold great promise for an accurate and rapid calculation of the solvation effect for complex molecular systems such as proteins. At the end of the report, the authors also provide a perspective on other challenges of the IETs as an efficient solvation model.