A. J. Tomarken and R. J. Davidson (1994) reported that defensiveness is characterized by relative left frontal brain activation. Because they examined only women, gender differences in this relation are possible. In the present study, resting alpha asymmetries in right-handed men (n = 25) and women (n = 60) were related to defensiveness, measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire L scale. These results were similar to those of Tomarken and Davidson in that defensiveness correlated positively with relative left frontal activation in women. An unexpected finding was that high-defensive men showed relative right frontal activation, a result virtually opposite that for women. These results imply that the nature of defensiveness as a coping strategy may vary as a function of gender.


Magnesium alloys are potential in biomedical materials, but their corrosion rates are high in human body fluid so that they can not be used enough time. Therefore, to improve the anti-corrosion property of the alloys is important for their application in biomedical materials. In the work, a new coating was prepared from poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a biopolymer used as a sustained release carrier of drugs. The effect of the PHB coating was studied by electrochemical tests, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and weight loss corresponding with the corrosion time. The result showed the sample coating PHB have a higher corrosion potential than one before coating PHB, that is, PHB coating is effective for improvement of corrosion resistant of the alloy. Moreover, the corrosion state on the surface is even by SEM, implied the corrosion rate of the PHB coating is divinable and controllable. Whereby, PHB should be suitable for anti-corrosion of magnesium alloys applying in biomedical materials.


This paper presents an evaluation of the benefits and user acceptance of a multimodal interface in which the user interacts with a game-like interactive virtual reality application "The Enigma of the Sphinx". The interface consists of a large projection screen as the main display, a "magic wand", a stereo sound system and the user's voice for "casting spells". We present our conclusions concerning "friendliness" and sense of presence, based on observations of more than 150 users in a public event.


is hectic at midday. The rehabbed building is now home to a local HIV prevention program, with a busy sexually transmitted infection clinic, drop-in counseling facilities, and a safe house for victims of violence. At one large table sits a group of peer educators, all women—most of them poor and illiterate— reviewing data they have gathered in the neighborhoods where they conduct HIV prevention activities for other sex workers. Dressed in bright saris of every color, their self-confidence and pride in their achievements could not be more evident as they discuss their work. These women, like thousands of other peer educators who work with the Avahan-India AIDS Initiative, play a critical role on the front lines of India's epidemic.


Recent studies show that pre-trained language models (LMs) are vulnerable to textual adversarial attacks. However, existing attack methods either suffer from low attack success rates or fail to search efficiently in the exponentially large perturbation space. We propose an efficient and effective framework SemAttack to generate natural adversarial text by constructing different semantic perturbation functions. In particular, SemAttack optimizes the generated perturbations constrained on generic semantic spaces, including typo space, knowledge space (e.g., WordNet), contextualized semantic space (e.g., the embedding space of BERT clusterings), or the combination of these spaces. Thus, the generated adversarial texts are more semantically close to the original inputs. Extensive experiments reveal that state-of-the-art (SOTA) large-scale LMs (e.g., DeBERTa-v2) and defense strategies (e.g., FreeLB) are still vulnerable to SemAttack. We further demonstrate that SemAttack is general and able to generate natural adversarial texts for different languages (e.g., English and Chinese) with high attack success rates. Human evaluations also confirm that our generated adversarial texts are natural and barely affect human performance. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/AI-secure/SemAttack.


Patent medicine vendors (PMVs) are major providers of reproductive health services in Nigeria. Although several studies have explored the role of PMVs in the provisioning of contraceptive services in general, few have specifically assessed their contribution to the delivering injectable contraceptives. Little information is also available on the experiences of Nigerian women who use injectable contraceptives provided by PMV in rural medically underserved communities. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in four rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Oyo state, Nigeria. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews among all the 396 PMVs identified using the snow-balling approach. The PMV were interviewed using a 52-item validated questionnaire that elicited information on their demographics, knowledge and delivery of injectable contraceptives. Face-to-face interviews, using a 35-item questionnaire were also conducted among 393 previous or current users of injectable contraceptives who were randomly selected from their households. Information collected from the women included personal characteristics, use of injectable contraceptives, and sources of supply. Majority of the PMVs were females (84.8%) and 29.3% had previously worked in a health facility. Almost all (94.6%) the PMVs were shop owners. Majority (89.1%) of the PMV were aware of injectable contraceptives and 39.0% had ever received any training on the provision of family planning services. Yet almost all (95.9%) reported providing at least some type of contraceptive services. About 13% of the PMVs had sold injectables. Besides selling injectable contraceptives, 14.9% of the PMVs reported administering injectables and 43.9% reported referring clients to a formal health facility for this contraceptive. Slightly over half (51.9%) of the women were in the 30-39 year age group. Depo-Provera was the most popular injectable used, accounting for 82.3% of previous use and 77.6% of current use. Among previous users, 68.9% had received services from a health facility, 19.6% from a PMV, and 11.5% from a community health worker. Current users obtained their services from PMVs (22.6%), health facilities (66.0%), and community health workers (11.4%). Although pharmacy laws in Nigeria do not permit PMVs to offer injectable contraceptives, PMVs reported sale and administration of injectable contraceptives in response to demand from clients. Interventions and policy actions are needed to ensure that PMVs are a safe contact for clients with family planning needs. Keywords: Patent medicine vendors, injectable contraceptives, delivery of reproductive health services, Nigeria


Biolistic drug delivery is a novel method for the intradermal needle-free injection of a wide array of drugs and vaccines. These devices project microparticles, containing a drug or vaccine, onto the skin at speed up to 500 m/s. To achieve the optimal therapeutic or prophylactic effect, the particles need to be delivered to specific skin layers. In order to evaluate the critical parameters and understand their influence on the penetration depth, an analytical model has been developed. The model is based on the real time tracking of the position of a ball shot into ballistic gelatin and Perma-Gel using a high-speed camera. This macro-scale model is then analyzed in a micro-scale perspective and compared to the results observed with the biolistic needle-free injector. Finally, based on the model, a method to characterize the viscosity and the ultimate strength of gels at intermediate strain rate impact is proposed.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Late diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma results in a significant reduction of average survival times. Yet despite screening programs, about 70% of tumors are detected at advanced stages (International Union Against Cancer stages III/IV). We explored whether detection of malignant disease would be possible through identification of tumor-specific protein biomarkers in serum samples.

METHODS
A discovery set of sera from patients with colorectal malignancy (n = 58) and healthy control individuals (n = 32) were screened for potential differences using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Candidate proteins were identified and their expression levels were validated in independent sample sets using a specific immunoassay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).

RESULTS
By using class comparison and custom-developed algorithms we identified several m/z values that were expressed differentially between the malignant samples and the healthy controls of the discovery set. Characterization of the most prominent m/z values revealed a member of the complement system, the stable form of C3a anaphylatoxin (ie, C3a-desArg). Based on a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, serum levels of complement C3a-desArg predicted the presence of colorectal malignancy in a blinded validation set (n = 59) with a sensitivity of 96.8% and a specificity of 96.2%. Increased serum levels were also detected in 86.1% of independently collected sera from patients with colorectal adenomas (n = 36), whereas only 5.6% were classified as normal.

CONCLUSIONS
Complement C3a-desArg is present at significantly higher levels in serum from patients with colorectal adenomas (P < .0001) and carcinomas (P < .0001) than in healthy individuals. This suggests that quantification of C3a-desArg levels could ameliorate existing screening tests for colorectal cancer.


This paper presents a systematic study of wind drags on high-rise buildings of various shapes using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). By increasing the side number of a polygon, the drag coefficient of the extruded tower decreases and eventually approaches to that of a circular tower. The results also show consistent reduction of wind drag when round corners are applied to the polygonal cross section and when the radius of the round corner is gradually increased. This paper also investigates the effect of twisting the build ing on reducing the wind drag. Design of Experiments (DOE) shows that the wind drag can be reduced if the building is twisted appropriately.


I feel very privileged to have been asked to introduce to you all today Professor Lloyd Fernando. Our friendship goes back a long time, just over thirty years to be exact, when many of the young people in the audience were not even born. Our original meeting took place at the very first conference of ACLALS which was held at the University of Queensland in 1968. The Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies had been formed several years before by Professor A.N. Jeffares. I should add here that I have always had problems with the word Commonwealth — Common Wealth? But here is neither the time nor the place for a discussion of the word. It was a very rich and exciting meeting where we were able to meet writers and scholars from all around the former Empire — yes, we could all recite Wordsworth! None of us at that conference would have gone away not enriched. There was a great sense of a common bond, books and ideas were shared and friendships made that would last for many years. At the end of the week we packed our bags and took ourselves off to the four comers of the world hoping to meet again in three years time at the next international conference which was to be held at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. This serial is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol22/iss1/3 Lloyd Fernando: A Tribute


Focusing on corporate identity (i.e. employee view of corporate reputation), this study is an analysis of the employee branding process encompassing an antecedent (PC; psychological contract), a mediator (CI; corporate identity), consequences (OI and OC; organisational identification and commitment), and a covariant (EP; employee personality). Customers and employees are the two most important stakeholder groups of a business organisation. A review of the existing literature suggests that research into corporate reputation predominantly takes a customer perspective. In contrast, the employee view of corporate reputation has rarely attracted academic attention. For this reason, the value of this study is justified not only by the importance of employer brand as a strategic asset that drives competitiveness, but also by the paucity of academic research into the employee branding process over the years. Previous literature suggested that the employee psychological contract directly influences employees? organisational commitment. Based on a survey of 390 employees from 14 firms in the UK and China (PRC), a structural equation model has been developed and tested. It shows that the effect of PC is better seen as indirect and operating via corporate identity (i.e. the employee view of corporate reputation) and their sense of identification. Both corporate identity (Agreeableness) and organisational identification have strong influences on employees? organisational commitment. Both corporate identity (Agreeableness and Competence) and identification mediate the effect of the psychological contract on commitment. Further, this study shows that the personality of the employee can influence their perceptions of the content of the psychological contract. Employee personality also covaries with their perceptions of corporate identity. This study also has several practical implications. In order to enhance organisational identification and commitment managers need to, first, promote corporate identity dimensions of agreeableness (e.g. friendly, supportive, trustworthy) and competence (e.g. reliable, leading, secure); second, clearly communicate management willingness to offer a series of employment inducements and try to keep these promises. Finally, managers should introduce personality tests into the recruitment and selection process and hire applicants who score high in agreeableness (e.g. friendly, cooperative, compassionate) and conscientiousness (e.g. efficient, organised, achievement-oriented).


Accumulated rainfall thresholds were studied in seven field experiments conducted in Ecuador and Peru for their value in timing applications of fungicide to control potato late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans. Fungicide regimes based on accumulated rainfall thresholds ranging from 10 to 70 mm were compared with calendar spray schemes of every 5 or 7 days. Very low thresholds of 10 to 20 mm gave similar levels of control and resulted in similar number of sprays as did calendar spraying. However, neither low thresholds nor calendar sprays were effective in protecting susceptible potato genotypes in over half of the experiments. Thresholds of 25 to 50 mm of rainfall led to reduction in the number of sprays needed to protect resistant cultivars but also resulted in high levels of disease on susceptible cultivars. We conclude that timing fungicide sprays based on accumulated rainfall thresholds could be a successful component of integrated management strategies that include cultivars with moderate or high levels of resistance. The simplicity of measuring accumulated rainfall means that the technology can potentially be used by resource-poor farmers in developing countries.


To solve the extracting problem caused by the sealing structure design of a new-type swing chamber artillery, the sealing system was analyzed and the sealing reliability standard was established. Based on the multi-disciplinary design optimization platform and the large-scale nonlinear FEA software ABAQUS, with the residual contact force as optimized objective and the standard as constraint, the optimized simulation has been conducted to the sealing structure. The optimization results show that in case the sealing time changed not so much, 25.76% of the extracting force would be reduced. Experiments show that the success of the sealing systems provides a way for solving engineering-related problems.


The aim of this paper is to introduce and characterize a new class of functions called almost G-precontinuous functions in ideal topological spaces by using G-preopen sets.


Background Online learning can play a vital role in the process of teaching and learning during Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, learners' satisfaction is extremely important in effective implementation of the online learning, especially at institutions where it is newly adopted. Objective To assess satisfaction towards online learning and its predictors among students at Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur. Method A web-based cross-sectional survey was undertaken among 434 undergraduate and postgraduate students from various academic programs who had participated in the online classes started during this COVID-19 pandemic. A structured questionnaire consisting of 31 items (5-point Likert scale) covering four major student satisfaction domains (learners' dimensions, technological characteristics, instructors' characteristics and course management and coordination) was distributed to the students using Google Form. Result More than half (53.5%) of the students were satisfied with the online learning, while 29.7% gave neutral views. Bivariate analyses found that all four domains scores were positively correlated with each other as well as with the students' overall satisfaction towards learning. In multivariate analysis, female gender [aOR: 2.72, p = 0.013], WiFi as internet modality for learning [aOR: 3.36, p = 0.001) and learners' dimension score [aOR: 1.27, p<0.001] were the significant predictors of students' satisfaction. Conclusion Although recently adopted, the satisfaction of the students towards online classes appears good, and prioritizing the identified predictors and working on the weak links could assist in enhancing students' satisfaction and better outcomes.


In the framework of a refined Kolmogorov hypothesis, the scaling behavior of the Bz-component of the photospheric magnetic field is analyzed and compared with flaring activity in solar active regions. We use Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Michelson Doppler Imager, Huairou (China), and Big Bear measurements of the Bz-component in the photosphere for nine active regions. We show that there is no universal behavior in the scaling of the Bz-structure functions for different active regions. Our previous study has shown that scaling for a given active region is caused by intermittency in the field, ϵ(B)(), describing the magnetic energy dissipation. When intermittency is weak, the Bz field behaves as a passive scalar in the turbulent flow, and the energy dissipation is largely determined by the dissipation of kinetic energy in the active regions with low flare productivity. However, when the field ϵ(B)() is highly intermittent, the structure functions behave as transverse structure functions of a fully developed turbulent vector field, and the scaling of the energy dissipation is mostly determined by the dissipation of the magnetic energy (active regions with strong flaring productivity). Based on this recent result, we find that the dissipation spectrum of the Bz-component is strongly related to the level of flare productivity in a solar active region. When the flare productivity is high, the corresponding spectrum is less steep. We also find that during the evolution of NOAA Active Region 9393, the Bz dissipation spectrum becomes less steep as the active region's flare activity increases. Our results suggest that the reorganization of the magnetic field at small scales is also relevant to flaring: the relative fraction of small-scale fluctuations of magnetic energy dissipation increases as an active region becomes prone to producing strong flares. Since these small-scale changes seem to begin long before the start of a solar flare, we suggest that the relation between scaling exponents, calculated by using only measurements of the Bz-component, and flare productivity of an active region can be used to monitor and forecast flare activity.


Far-infrared photoconductive detectors based on intersubband transitions in III-nitride semiconductor quantum wells are demonstrated. The device active material is based on a double-step quantum-well design, where two different (Al)GaN compositions are used both in the wells and in the barriers. With this approach, one can create a virtually flat multiple-quantum-well potential energy profile, where the deleterious effects of the intrinsic spontaneous and piezoelectric fields of nitride heterostructures are almost completely eliminated. Photocurrent spectra centered at a wavelength of 23 μm (13 THz frequency) are resolved up to 50 K, with responsivity of approximately 7 mA/W.


Deceptive pollination strategies, in which plants rely on animal pollinators but provide no benefits to their pollinators, have evolved many times in angiosperms. However, the conditions that favour deceptive pollination strategies over mutualistic strategies are poorly understood. One factor that may be important for the success of deceptive strategies is the plants' dispersion in relation to co-flowering, rewarding species. We compared pollinator behaviour across two artificial environments, one in which a rewardless species was mixed with a rewarding species and one in which the two species occurred in contiguous patches. Bumblebees both encountered and visited rewardless flowers more often when they were mixed with rewarding species. However, the rate of switching was also higher under those conditions, which could result in higher rates of interspecific pollen transfer. The environmental conditions most favourable to deceptive pollination strategies may vary depending on the vulnerability of the plant species to interspecific pollen transfer.


Over the past fifteen years most advanced education programmes within Schools of Architecture have been questioning the parameters and requirements of doctoral research both in terms of content and form. This double issue of Footprint was motivated by the question of where the field stands today. Footprint 10|11 presents nine contributions from both recently defended and developing PhD candidates from a variety of institutions. The diversity of their work, as well as the similarities found in the submissions, offers a partial view into research topics currently addressed in PhD programmes within Schools of Architecture.

In addition to the nine papers by PhD researchers, we have included a paper by Andrew Leach that we believe provides an overview of the general state of contemporary architecture research. Leach makes an appeal to refrain from making all research operational. At a time when the application of research and its economic value seem to form the primary criteria for judging value, this appeal should not be taken lightly.


Insects are a sustainable and efficient protein and lipid source, compared with conventional livestock. Moreover, insect proteins and lipids are highly nutritional. Therefore, insect proteins and lipids can find its place as food ingredients. The use of insect proteins and lipids as food ingredients requires a deep understanding on the chemical and physical characteristics of these ingredients, as well as its functionality. Information on the chemical and physical characteristics of insect proteins and oils will help to assess the possibilities of its use on different food applications. In this chapter, we briefly review the nutritional aspects of insect proteins and lipids, insect processing, protein and lipid extraction as well as the perspectives of food applications of insect protein and lipids. Future studies should delve into extraction methods and into intrinsic properties of insect ingredients. This knowledge will be useful to introduce insect ingredients into various food preparations. Also valuable will be the study of other insect species with perspectives for its commercial rearing.


Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are a class of materials that have advantageous properties, such as extended π-conjugation, tuneable micropore size and surface area, and the ability to swell. Owing to the limited solubility and the amorphous nature of CMPs, little information is known about their structure and characterisation is dominated by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. NMR is a technique which is sensitive to both molecular level structure and dynamics. An increase in understanding of these networks is required to give an overall picture of their physical properties and origins of flexibility, ultimately leading to the design of such materials for specific applications. In addition to the challenges with characterisation, a considerable disadvantage of CMPs is the cost of their synthesis. Many of the current routes to CMPs involve the use of heavy metal catalysts. Development of methodologies that use cheap monomers and do not require metal catalysts would increase the viability of CMPs for use in industrial applications. In this work advanced structural elucidation and investigations of network flexibility and porosity were achieved using two approaches. The first involves identification of a reaction mechanism for the formation of CMP-1 by examination of the products of reaction after incremental time periods. The second involves employing advanced solid-state NMR techniques, specifically deuterium NMR, to probe the molecular motions of deuterated versions of CMP-1 and CMP-2. Swelling experiments of CMP-1 and CMP-2 with benzene-d6 were also used to investigate changes in porosity for swollen and non-swollen networks. A new synthetic route to CMPs was also developed by exploiting the reaction between aldehydes and amines. In particular the formation of aminal linkages shall be explored, as this would allow preparation of branched networks from bi-functional monomers. Newly synthesised materials are to be fully characterised and their gas sorption properties will be analysed.


The Kachchh Bustard Sanctuary (KBS) is the only habitat left in Gujarat that is sustaining all the three important bustards of the region especially the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) with a population of 40 + birds. The unique ecosystem of grasslands with shrubs, insects, rap tors and reptiles forms the sufficient food and prey base for these endangered species. The only problem is the biotic interference by over-grazing and efforts to increase the area for cash crops in zone of influence. The management has to take steps for enlarging the area under the Sanctuary and controlling the biotic interference through all the tools of wildlife management.


Precise knowledge of the optical constants of perovskite lead halide quantum dots (QDs) is required to both understand their interaction with light and to rationally design and optimize the devices based on them. However, their determination from colloidal nanocrystal suspensions, or films made out of them, remains elusive, as a result of the difficulty in disentangling the optical constants of the organic capping ligands and those of the semiconductor itself. In this work, we extract the refractive index and extinction coefficient of ligand-free methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) and bromide (MAPbBr3) nanocrystals. In order to prevent the use of organic ligands in the preparation, we follow a scaffold assisted synthetic procedure, which yields a composite film of high optical quality that can be independently and precisely characterized and modelled. In this way, the contribution of the guest nanocrystals can be successfully discriminated from that of the host matrix. Using a Kramers-Kronig consistent dispersion model along with an effective medium approximation, it is possible to derive the optical constants of the QDs by fitting the spectral dependence of light transmitted and reflected at different angles and polarizations. Our results indicate a strong dependence of the optical constants on the QD size. Small nanocrystals show remarkably large values of the extinction coefficient compared to their bulk counterparts. This analysis opens the door to the rigorous modelling of solar cells and light-emitting diodes with active layers based on perovskite QDs.


This paper considers two historical events in Canada's past that have a haunting presence in the South Asian Canadian diasporic imaginary, the 1914 Komagata Maru incident and the second is the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. In recent years, there has been a rather striking proliferation of texts about the Komagata Maru and Air India. Even more interesting is that these texts have come out in various forms including novels, short stories, museum exhibits, inquiries, websites, illustrated books, apologies, and so on. This paper examines two of these texts: Bharati Mukherjee's 1987 short story "The Management of Grief" and Ajmer Rode and Jarnail Singh's 2011 museum exhibit the " Komagata Maru Stories." It argues that set against the forgetting of the Komagata Maru and Air India cases in official history are the efforts of writers, artists, and activists who have done the hard work of inserting diasporic histories into the national imaginary and who have therefore sought to remember the nation differently.


Adult mice can be rendered immunologically tolerant of allogeneic tissues if transplanted under cover of mAbs to CD4 and CD8. Tolerance generated in this manner is characterized by the presence of regulatory CD4+ T cells that can recruit naive T cells to become tolerant also through "infectious tolerance." Regulatory CD4+ T cells can also suppress rejection of third party transplant Ags provided they are expressed on the same graft as the tolerated Ags. This process of linked suppression can act across whole MHC barriers and represents a powerful mechanism with therapeutic potential. Tolerance can also be induced to reprocessed minor transplantation Ags presented through host APCs (indirect recognition). We here demonstrate that linked suppression can also be induced through the indirect pathway. This finding may be important in the development of transplantation tolerance in the clinic.


Fatiguing exercise alters neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics that increase athlete's risk for non-contact lower extremity injury. Sports nutrition research has demonstrated the ability to delay fatigue and improve performance through carbohydrate feedings. However, the effect of nutrition on delaying neuromuscular risk factors affected by exercise and fatigue has not been examined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a carbohydrate-electrolyte (CHO-E) beverage compared to a placebo (PLA) on landing kinematics, balance, and muscle activation patterns throughout an intermittent high-intensity exercise (IHE) protocol. The IHE protocol was designed to mimic sports competition and has demonstrated the ability to induce changes in landing mechanics during pilot testing. A total of 24 (12 male/12 female) athletes (age: 23.0±4.0yrs; height: 173.3±7.1cm; weight: 72.9±11.5kg; body fat: 18.0±6.4%) completed three days of testing. The first day of testing consisted of anthropometrics and familiarization with the IHE protocol. The next two testing sessions participants performed four quarters of IHE while consuming either a CHO-E or PLA beverage. Landing kinematics, muscle activation, and dynamic postural stability index (DPSI) scores were assessed immediately before, at break three, and break four of the IHE protocol. The DPSI scores were measured during a single-leg jump landing. Landing kinematics (knee flexion and valgus/varus at initial contact, and peak hip flexion) and muscle activity (surface electromyography pre-activity and re-activity of the hamstrings and quadriceps) were measured during a single-leg stop-jump. Separate two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was performed to determine the interaction between time and treatment for landing kinematics and DPSI. Change in muscle activation was examined using a related samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank test. The CHO-E beverage had no effect on preventing changes in knee flexion at initial contact (p=0.472), peak hip flexion (p=0.456), and muscle activation (p>0.05). A significant interaction effect occurred for DPSI scores (p=0.023) and knee valgus/varus at initial contact (p=0.007) however, these changes were small and lack clinical significance. Consuming a 6% CHO-E beverage before, during, and after IHE had no effect on preventing neuromuscular/biomechanical changes occurring as a result of IHE. Future studies should continue to investigate nutritional approaches for injury prevention.


Clause linkage has long been associated with the cohesive narrative functions of temporal organisation and participant tracking (eg. Givon 1983a, Myhill & Hibiya 1988). In this paper I use data from Garrwa, a language of Northern Australia, to show that in addition to these functions, clause linkage also contributes to the interpretation of narrative perspective. The results of this investigation illustrate the range of functions that can be associated with clause linkage, contributing to the analysis of clause linkage cross-linguistically, as well as demonstrating the utility of narrative perspective as a discourse-pragmatic phenomenon motivating choices in linguistic form, and coherence in narrative structure.


ABSTRACT Background: In the setting of metastatic RCC (mRCC), pazopanib is approved as first line therapy. Unfortunately treatment may lead to cardiotoxicity such as hypertension, heart failure, and myocardial ischemia. Objective: Define the in vivo role of pazopanib in the development of cardiotoxicity. Methods: Wild type mice were dosed for 42 days via oral gavage, and separated into control and treatment (pazopanib) groups. Baseline ECG's, echocardiograms, and blood pressures were recorded. At the conclusion of the study functional parameters were again recorded, and animals were used for pathological, histological, and protein analysis. Results: After 2 weeks of dosing with pazopanib, the treatment group exhibited a statistically significant increase in mean arterial pressure compared to control mice (119 ± 11.7 mmHg versus 108 ± 8.2 mmHg, p = 0.049). Treatment with pazopanib led to a significant reduction in the cardiac output of mice. Conclusion: Our findings in mice clearly demonstrate that treatment with pazopanib leads to a significant elevation in blood pressure after 2 weeks of dosing and this persists for the duration of dosing. The continued development of the cardio-oncology field will be paramount in providing optimal oncologic care while simultaneously improving cardiac outcomes through further investigation into the mechanisms of CV toxicity.


Probability distributions of response times are important in the design and analysis of transaction processing systems and computer-communication systems. We present a general technique for deriving such distributions from high-level modelling formalisms whose state spaces can be mapped onto finite Markov chains. We use a load-balanced, distributed implementation to find the Laplace transform of the first passage time density and its derivatives at arbitrary values of the transform parameter s. Setting s = 0 yields moments while the full passage time distribution is obtained using a novel distributed Laplace transform inverter based on the Laguerre method. We validate our method against a variety of simple densities, cycle time densities in certain overtake-free (tree-like) queueing networks and a simulated Petri net model. Our implementation is thereby rigorously validated and has already been applied to substantial Markov chains with over 1 million states. Corresponding theoretical results for semi-Markov chains are also presented.


This book is an attempt to answer Michel Foucault's question, 'What is an author?' It examines the relationship between personal identity, the physical person of the writer, and the 'author' projected as a matter of public perception via the reception of written texts. It approaches this problem by analyzing the way Romantic writers play upon and subvert the 'author' position projected upon them in the public reception of their texts, and it sheds light on the use of anonyms and pseudonyms as strategies that subvert the emerging institution of authorship.


The practice of surrogate motherhood raises many complex ethical, legal and social issues. This paper focuses on the challenges posed by intercountry surrogacy arrangements to domestic legislations that prohibit this practice. Many European states are today placed in a paradoxical situation regarding surrogate motherhood because they prohibit this practice on the grounds that it is both degrading and exploitative of vulnerable women, as well as contrary to the best interest of the child. However, recent jurisprudence in Europe is compelling those same states to recognize the effects of surrogacy arrangements made abroad, and to recognize the parent-child relationship. The paradox lies in the fact that this jurisprudence is also based on the best interest of the child.


In this study, the role of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) for the pharmacokinetics of dextromethorphan, a CYP2D6 substrate, and of melperone, a CYP2D6 inhibitor, was investigated. The substances were administered subcutaneously near the nape of the neck of wild-type mice and of abcb1ab (-/-) mice. One hour after injection, concentrations of the two drugs in cerebrum, plasma and in different organs were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. No significant differences between wild-type mice and abcb1ab (-/-) mice were observed for melperone, suggesting that P-gp is not involved in the uptake of melperone into the brain or other organs of mice. The concentration of dextromethorphan in the brain was more than twice as high in abcb1ab (-/-) mice compared to wild-type mice. Therefore, P-gp appears to be a factor in the uptake of dextromethorphan into the mouse brain, and abcb1-polymorphisms need to be considered for CYP2D6 phenotyping experiments with this drug. There is an overlap in substrate specificity between P-gp and CYP2D6. P-gp is a factor in the uptake of dextromethorphan, but not of melperone.


Orbital metastases are known to arise from primary breast carcinoma followed by prostate, malignant melanoma, and lung carcinoma. We report a case of orbital metastasis as the initial presentation of an occult primary gall bladder carcinoma. The FDG PET/CT helped in localizing the occult distant primary site, which previously escaped detection, and also enabled the evaluation of orbital metastasis.


The effect of selected phenolic compounds, namely, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, genistein, catechin, cyanidin-3-glucoside and rutin, on the formation of specific protein carbonyls, alpha-aminoadipic and gamma-glutamic semialdehydes (AAS and GGS, respectively), from oxidized myofibrillar proteins, was studied in the present article. Suspensions containing myofibrillar proteins (20 mg/mL) and the aforementioned phenolic compounds (1 mM) were oxidized (37 degrees C for 20 days) in the presence of copper acetate, iron (FeCl(3)), or myoglobin (10 microM) in combination with 1 mM H(2)O(2) and analyzed for AAS and GGS using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS). Suspensions with added alpha-tocopherol (1 mM) and a control group (with no phenolic compound) were also considered. In the presence of copper, the alpha-tocopherol and most phenolic compounds significantly inhibited the formation of AAS and GGS. In iron- and myoglobin-oxidized suspensions, however, some of those phenolic compounds (i.e., chlorogenic acid and genistein) promoted the formation of the semialdehydes. Besides the influence of the oxidation promoters, the overall effect of plant phenolics on protein oxidation is likely affected by the chemical structure of the phenolics and the result of the interactions between these compounds and myofibrillar proteins. Plausible mechanisms for the antioxidant and pro-oxidant effects of plant phenolics on myofibrillar proteins are proposed in the present article. This study highlights the complexity of redox reactions between plant phenolics and oxidizing myofibrillar proteins.


"Mr Tasker's Gods" was T. F. Powys' first novel. Written during the First World War it wasn't published until 1925. It is an unsettling work constantly showing the brutal reality behind the facades. Mr Tasker himself, on the surface, a respectable farmer and God abiding churchwarden is, in fact, 'a brute beast of the most foul nature'. Many of the initial reviews were hostile, but that was largely because of the author's treatment of the church. It is under constant attack with the services being described as 'a sort of roll-call to enable authority to retain a proper hold upon the people'. Faber Finds are reissuing six works by T. F. Powys: "Mr Tasker's Gods", "Mark Only", "Mockery Gap", "Innocent Birds", "Fables" and" God's Eyes A-Twinkle".


This paper presents GAP/D, a VLSI implementation of a dynamic adaptation scheme for the frequency of inter-deme migration in distributed genetic algorithms (GA). Distributed GA, or multi-deme-based GA, uses multiple populations which evolve concurrently. The purpose of dynamic adaptation is to improve convergence performance so as to obtain better solutions. Through simulation experiments, we proved that our scheme achieves better performance than fixed frequency migration schemes.


From Jan. 1981 to Dec. 1986, 1053 patients with cervical cancer were treated with Cobalt-60 high dose-rate afterloading therapy (Ralstron-20B). All cases have been followed up over 5 years. This paper analysed the 5-year survival rates and complications of cervical carcinoma treated with high dose-rate afterloading therapy. According to the point A dosage, the whole series was divided into four groups: group A 141 patients (65Gy/6 wks), group B 130 patients (60Gy/6 wks), group C 243 patients (55Gy/6 wks) and group D 539 patients (50Gy/5 wks). The dosage of external irradiation in four groups was the same. The 5-year survival rates of the four groups were little better than that of the conventional radium-treated group. The incidence of late rectal and bladder reactions in group D was lower than that in group A B C or radium-treated group. These results indicate that the point A dosage of 50Gy/5 wks (dose rate about 100cGy/min) is suitable in HDR intracavitary afterloading therapy of cervical cancer.


This article draws on qualitative interview data collected from 55 African Americans residing in the New York City area to examine African Americans' experiences of consumer racial profiling or "Shopping While Black." I find that racial discrimination alters African Americans' experiences as consumers. Racial stigma in retail settings impacts the consumptive process for Blacks in two central ways. First, retail settings are often sites where anti-Black bias is made evident, requiring Black shoppers to navigate racial hierarchies while procuring goods. Second, discrimination alters the experience of shopping, arguably raising the costs and reducing the rewards derived from consumption. When a store's sales staff is hesitant to serve Black shoppers or suspects that they are prospective shoplifters, shopping no longer becomes a form of leisure. A qualitative assessment of Blacks' reports of racial stigma and discrimination in retail settings reveals that race can change the meaning and status attached to goods, when they are sought out or owned by racial minorities. By examining Blacks' experiences of retail racism and the cultural strategies they adopt in responding to occasions when they are treated discriminatorily, this research brings to light Blacks' experiences of discrimination on the ground, while also examining how racism impacts the quality of Black consumers' experiences.


This study aimed at describing 1) implementation of school policy in tackling juvenile delinquency in SMA Muhammadiyah 9 Rawabening; 2) supporting and inhibiting factors in implementing school policy implementation. This research is qualitative research. This research was conducted in SMA Muhammadiyah 9 Rawabening with research subjects is headmaster, student, teacher, and class guardian. Data collection techniques were interview, observation and document study. Data analysis technique using Miles and Hubberman interactive model. The results showed that 1) implementation of school policy in tackling delinquency teenagers composed in curative countermeasures in the form of socialization provided from the Department of Education of South Sumatra; Police; as well as the National Narcotics Agency. Representative efforts in the form of school rules that are applied in everyday life and must be obeyed by learners. Preventive efforts include reprimands for students who violate school rules. 2) supporting factor was high commitment of all school residents and parents, relationships are woven, and active participation of all parties. Inhibiting factors were resources that are not optimal, differences in inter-educator handling, and less strict punishment.


The availability of compute and data to train larger and larger language models increases the demand for robust methods of benchmarking the true progress of LM training. Recent years witnessed significant progress in standardized benchmarking for English. Benchmarks such as GLUE, SuperGLUE, or KILT have become de facto standard tools to compare large language models. Following the trend to replicate GLUE for other languages, the KLEJ benchmark has been released for Polish. In this paper, we evaluate the progress in benchmarking for low-resourced languages. We note that only a handful of languages have such comprehensive benchmarks. We also note the gap in the number of tasks being evaluated by benchmarks for resource-rich English/Chinese and the rest of the world. In this paper, we introduce LEPISZCZE (the Polish word for glew, the Middle English predecessor of glue), a new, comprehensive benchmark for Polish NLP with a large variety of tasks and high-quality operationalization of the benchmark. We design LEPISZCZE with flexibility in mind. Including new models, datasets, and tasks is as simple as possible while still offering data versioning and model tracking. In the first run of the benchmark, we test 13 experiments (task and dataset pairs) based on the five most recent LMs for Polish. We use five datasets from the Polish benchmark and add eight novel datasets. As the paper's main contribution, apart from LEPISZCZE, we provide insights and experiences learned while creating the benchmark for Polish as the blueprint to design similar benchmarks for other low-resourced languages.


The main objective of this paper is to show new possibilities of wireless communication for mobile robotic and industrial units in the real time. The means of using wireless communication networks based on parallel processing and data transfer for various network topologies are discussed here. We have been focusing our research on ultra low power communication chips based on frequency 2.4GHz. Furthermore we have shown procedures for creation of the network communication nodes with multiple inputs and multiple outputs. The nodes are designed as embedded mobile devices. With regards to data transfer communication there are modulation, security and protocols presented. The contribution shows similar problems that can possibly occur when we use multiple transfer sources at the same time on the close area, which is quite difficult to avoid when we design embedded devices.


Biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate across the globe, with extinction rates up to a hundred times greater than historical norms. Climate change will only exacerbate this crisis. The rapid pace of projected climate change is set to push birds to seek new locations, drastically reshuffling the avian communities of North America. In an emerging climate crisis, effective conservation requires both adaptation and mitigation to improve the resilience of species. However, the pledged reductions in greenhouse gas emissions outlined in the Paris Agreement framework would still lead to a 3.2°C or greater increase in global mean temperature by the end of this century. In this study, we use big data analytics to develop species distribution models and assess the vulnerability of 604 North American birds to multiple climate change scenarios. We assess how climate change mitigation can affect the number of species vulnerable to climate change, as well as the species and locations at risk if emissions continue unchecked. Our results indicate that over two-thirds of North American birds are moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change under a 3.0°C global warming scenario. Of these climate-vulnerable species, 76% would have reduced vulnerability and 38% of those would be considered non-vulnerable if warming were stabilized at 1.5°C. Thus, the current pledge in greenhouse gas reductions set by the Paris Agreement is inadequate to reduce vulnerability to birds. Additionally, if climate change proceeds on its current trajectory, arctic birds, waterbirds and boreal and western forest birds will be highly vulnerable to climate change; groups that are currently not considered of high conservation concern. Thus, there is an urgent need for both aggressive policies to mitigate emissions and focused conservation adaptation actions to protect birds and the places they need in a changing climate.


This article explores the top-down production of the statistics frequently circulated in global health. These data must first originate in a place like the public hospital in Saint-Louis, Senegal, in doctor's offices and laboratories and medical archives. At their root, these data are an accumulation of individual bodies, experiences, and intimate diagnostic moments. This aggregation turns the afflicted into categories and statistical regimes that shape a global health understanding of diabetes specifically, and noncommunicable diseases broadly. This article explores the individual diabetes diagnostic moment itself and the politics of the current nosology of Type 1 and Type 2, a seemingly neutral dichotomy that belies colonial relationships between Senegal, slavery, sugar production and consumption, and the effects these relationships have on contemporary conceptions of diabetes diagnosis in Senegal and global health.


Environmental sociology and the sociology of natural resources constitute two research traditions regarding the interactions between societies and the natural world. While discussion of the relationships between these two fields is largely restricted to the United States, their implications for developing disciplines focused on environment and society issues in other countries have seldom been addressed. In this article we introduce the dialogue between environmental sociology and the sociology of natural resources into the context of China, where environmental sociology is being established as an important academic subdiscipline. We suggest that with a transdisciplinary orientation, environmental sociology in China holds promise for integrating environmental and natural resource sociologies in responding to China's strategic goal of building a "resource-efficient and environment-friendly" society.


The aim of this article is twofold. First, an existing trailing edge noise model is validated by comparing with airfoil surface pressure fluctuations and far field sound pressure levels measured in three different experiments. The agreement is satisfactory in one case but poor in two other cases. Nevertheless, the model reproduces the main tendencies observed in the measurements with respect to varying flow conditions. Second, the model is implemented into an airfoil design code that is originally used for aerodynamic optimization. An existing wind turbine airfoil is optimized in order to reduce its noise emission, trying at the same time to preserve some of its aerodynamic and geometric characteristics. The new designs are characterized by less cambered airfoils and flatter suction sides. The resulting noise reductions seem to be mainly achieved by a reduction in the turbulent kinetic energy across the boundary layer near the trailing edge and to a lesser extent by a smaller boundary layer displacement thickness.


In marine systems, behaviorally-mediated indirect interactions between prey, mesopredators, and higher trophic-level, large predators are less commonly investigated than other ecologic interactions, likely because of inherent difficulties associated with making observations. Underwater videos (n = 216) from SharkCam, a camera installation sited beneath Frying Pan Tower, a decommissioned light house and platform, on a natural, hard bottom site approximately 50 km off Cape Fear, North Carolina, were used to investigate association behavior of round scad Decapterus punctatus around sand tiger sharks Carcharias taurus. Videos containing sand tiger sharks were analyzed for the simultaneous presence of round scad, and six species of scad mesopredators, with scad-shark interactions assigned to one of three categories of association: no visible interaction, loosely associated, or tightly associated. The likelihood of scad being loosely or tightly associated with sharks was significantly higher in the presence of scad mesopredators, suggesting that sharks provide a predation refuge for scad. This behaviorally-mediated indirect interaction has important implications for trophic energy transfer and mesopredator control on hard bottoms, as scad are one of the most abundant planktivorous fish on hard bottoms in the western Atlantic Ocean. Although we were not able to provide statistical evidence that sand tiger sharks also benefit from this association behavior, we have clear video evidence that round scad association conceals and attracts mesopredators, enhancing predation opportunities for sand tiger sharks. These interactions potentially yield additional trophic consequences to this unique association and highlight the value of exploring behaviorally-mediated interactions in marine communities.


Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) offer excellent improvements in wide range of physical and engineering properties at low filler content. Due to their outstanding properties such as large aspect ratio, high surface area, flame retardant and good optical clarity, HNTs polymer nanocomposites are widely used in automotive, coating, packaging and medical devices. The results showed that the incorporation of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) into polyester significantly improved dynamic mechanical properties of the nanocomposites including the glass transition temperature (Tg), storage moduli, microhardness, tensile properties, flexural properties and impact toughness. The mechanical properties of polyester-based nanocomposites were degraded after water-methanol exposure. The maximum microhardness, tensile, flexural and impact toughness values were measured at 1 wt% of HNTs reinforcement and the results also showed that HNTs improved the liquid barrier properties of polymers due to an increase in the tortuosity path. Several deterioration effects are likely to take place concurrently after seawater exposure. Plasticization reduced the mechanical properties of the nanocomposites and microorganisms such as microbes entered through microvoids to further increase the deterioration in mechanical properties of the nanocomposites. Microbes can cause chemical degradation and the breakage of hydrocarbons using seawater molecules. Nanocomposite biodegradation is highly undesirable for material integrity as these are mostly used in structural designs of marine applications. Structural damage may result in premature weakening which is often translated into system failure and enormous economic losses. The influence of short-term water absorption on the mechanical properties of HNTs-multi layer graphene-reinforced polyester hybrid nanocomposites was also investigated. After short-term water exposure, the maximum microhardness, tensile, flexural and impact toughness values were observed in case of polyester-multi-layer graphene (MLG) nanocomposites. It was also found that synergistic effects were not effective at a concentration of 0.1 wt % in producing considerable improvement in the mechanical properties of the hybrid nanocomposites.


The Orion Star-forming Complex (OSFC) is a central target for the APOGEE-2 Young Cluster Survey. Existing membership catalogs span limited portions of the OSFC, reflecting the difficulty of selecting targets homogeneously across this extended, highly structured region. We have used data from wide-field photometric surveys to produce a less biased parent sample of young stellar objects (YSOs) with infrared (IR) excesses indicative of warm circumstellar material or photometric variability at optical wavelengths across the full 420 square degree extent of the OSFC. When restricted to YSO candidates with H < 12.4, to ensure S/N ∼ 100 for a six-visit source, this uniformly selected sample includes 1307 IR excess sources selected using criteria vetted by Koenig & Liesawitz (2014) and 990 optical variables identified in the Pan-STARRS1 3π survey: 319 sources exhibit both optical variability and evidence of circumstellar disks through IR excess. Objects from this uniformly selected sample received the highest priority for targeting, but required fewer than half of the fibers on each APOGEE-2 plate. We filled the remaining fibers with previously confirmed and new color–magnitude selected candidate OSFC members. Radial velocity measurements from APOGEE-1 and new APOGEE-2 observations taken in the survey's first year indicate that ∼90% of the uniformly selected targets have radial velocities consistent with Orion membership. The APOGEE-2 Orion survey will include >1100 bona fide YSOs whose uniform selection function will provide a robust sample for comparative analyses of the stellar populations and properties across all sub-regions of Orion.


In the last decade optical tweezers became an important tool in microbiology. However the setup becomes very complex if more than one trap needs to be moved. Holographic tweezers offer a very simple and cost efficient way of manipulating several traps independently in all three dimensions with an accuracy of less than 100 nm. No mechanically moving parts are used therefore making them less vulnerable to vibration. They use computer-generated holograms (CGHs) written into a spatial light modulator (SLM) to control the position of each trap in space and to manipulate their shape. The ability to change the shape of the optical trap makes it possible to adapt the light field to a specific particle shape or in the case of force measurements to adjust the trapping potential. Furthermore the SLM can be used to correct for aberrations within the optical setup.


On the basis of the Manning equation and basic mass conser- vation principles, we derive an expression for scaling the steady- state width (W) of river channels as a function of discharge (Q), channel slope (S), roughness (n), and width-to-depth ratio (a): W 5 (a( a1 2) 2/3 ) 3/8 Q 3/8 S 23/16 n 3/8 . We propose that channel width-to- depth ratio, in addition to roughness, is a function of the material in which the channel is developed, and that where a river is con- fined to a given material, width-to-depth ratio and roughness can be assumed constant. Given these simplifications, the expression emulates traditional width-discharge relationships for rivers incis- ing bedrock with uniformly concave fluvial long profiles. More sig- nificantly, this relationship describes river width trends in terrain with spatially nonuniform rock uplift rates, where conventional discharge-based width scaling laws are inadequate. We suggest that much of observed channel width variability in river channels confined by bedrock is a simple consequence of the tendency for water to flow faster in steeper reaches and therefore occupy smaller channel cross sections. We demonstrate that using conventional scaling relationships for channel width can result in underestima- tion of stream-power variability in channels incising bedrock and that our model improves estimates of spatial patterns of bedrock incision rates.


The self-healing and dewetting dynamics of a polymer nanofilm on a smooth, partial wetting surface are explored by many-body dissipative particle dynamics. Three types of dewetting phenomena are identified, (i) spinodal decomposition, (ii) nucleation and growth, and (iii) metastable self-healing. The outcome depends on the surface wettability (θY), the polymer film thickness (h0), and the radius of the dry hole (R0). The phase diagram of the dewetting mechanism as a function of θY and h0 is obtained for a specified R0. As the surface wettability decreases (increasing θY), the critical film thickness associated with the nucleation/self-healing crossover (hc) grows so that the metastability of the film can be retained by the self-healing process. In addition to θY and R0, hc depends on the polymer length (N) as well. It is found that a longer polymer requires a thicker nanofilm to avoid dewetting by nucleation. Two strategies for dewetting suppression are proposed. The metastability of a film of polymers with a large molecular weight can be promoted either by the addition of short polymers or by employing compact polymers such as star polymers. In the latter approach, the increment of the arm number enhances the nanofilm stability.


The paper presents panel data evidence for 13 transition countries on inflation, financial development and growth. It contributes to the growth literature by showing that the transition countries conform to developed country evidence in particular with the strong negative effect of inflation on growth. It also contributes more evidence to the debate on the role of financial development. Once inflation and the investment rate are included in the model, a key measure of financial development no longer has a positive effect on growth, as some recent literature has found.


Recently, software systems face dynamically changing environments, and the users of the systems provide changing requirements at run-time. Self-management is emerging to deal with these problems. One of the key issues to achieve self-management is planning for selecting appropriate structure or behavior of self-managed software systems. There are two types of planning in self-management: off-line and on-line planning. Recent discussion has focused on off-line planning which provides static relationships between environmental changes and software configurations. In on-line planning, a software system can autonomously derive mappings between environmental changes and software configurations by learning its dynamic environment and using its prior experience. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning-based approach to on-line planning in architecture-based self-management. This approach enables a software system to improve its behavior by learning the results of its behavior and by dynamically changing its plans based on the learning in the presence of environmental changes. The paper presents a case study to illustrate the approach and its result shows that reinforcement learning-based on-line planning is effective for architecture-based self-management.


According to a Cochrane review on opioid switching, sound evidence on the practice of substituting one strong opioid with another to improve pain control and reduce adverse effects was lacking in 2004. A systematic search strategy was developed to include studies after 2004, with adult cancer patients switching between strong opioids and reporting estimates of effect on pain and adverse effects. The search retrieved 288 publications (71 duplicates); 187 abstracts and 19 full papers were excluded. Eleven papers met the inclusion criteria; none were randomized controlled trials/meta-analyses. Studies comprised 280 patients (group size 10–32). A variety of opioids and switching strategies were studied. Pain intensity was significantly reduced in the majority of studies. Serious adverse effects were improved. Due to serious design limitations, the level of evidence was low (D). Randomized trials, with standardization of cohort classification, use of outcomes and analysis are warranted to establish the practice of opioid switching.


Abstract Implementation of genomic tools is desirable to increase the efficiency of apple breeding. Recently, the multi-environment apple reference population (apple REFPOP) proved useful for rediscovering loci, estimating genomic predictive ability, and studying genotype by environment interactions (G × E). So far, only two phenological traits were investigated using the apple REFPOP, although the population may be valuable when dissecting genetic architecture and reporting predictive abilities for additional key traits in apple breeding. Here we show contrasting genetic architecture and genomic predictive abilities for 30 quantitative traits across up to six European locations using the apple REFPOP. A total of 59 stable and 277 location-specific associations were found using GWAS, 69.2% of which are novel when compared with 41 reviewed publications. Average genomic predictive abilities of 0.18–0.88 were estimated using main-effect univariate, main-effect multivariate, multi-environment univariate, and multi-environment multivariate models. The G × E accounted for up to 24% of the phenotypic variability. This most comprehensive genomic study in apple in terms of trait-environment combinations provided knowledge of trait biology and prediction models that can be readily applied for marker-assisted or genomic selection, thus facilitating increased breeding efficiency.


The incorporation of on-site wastewater treatment systems is one means to meet the infrastructure needs of the rapidly expanding urban population. With space at a premium, the existing technologies for on-site systems should be reexamined and adapted to fit the needs of the urban setting. This study examined the potential to combine the existing wastewater treatment technology of the intermittent media filter with the new architectural trend of green walls, creating a treatment system with minimal spatial footprint and with a built-in urban greening component. A novel vegetated intermittent media filter wall was constructed in As, Norway and dosed with domestic greywater for a period of three months. Overall treatment performance and removal trends over the 175cm filter depth were monitored. Three separate wall sections were constructed to monitor the treatments effects of containing wall material choice and presence of vegetation. Despite a daily dosing rate of nearly 1000 l/m 2 the system achieved average reduction rates of over 95%, 80%, 90%, 30%, and 69% for BOD5, COD, TSS, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus, respectively, as well as approximately two log unit reduction of bacteria indicator E. coli. Examination over the depth of the system showed that most organic (COD) and solids removal takes place in the upper 15cm, but with a sudden increase in loading a greater removal was seen at lower depths. With regard to nitrification, increased nitrate levels did not appear before 100cm filter depth, likely suppressed by high organic loading at the surface. The findings suggest that the great filter height associated with the wall design was useful for buffering sudden increases in hydraulic loading, as well as for facilitating nitrification under extreme loading conditions. Wall material with a more permeable construction (geotextile grid) preformed slightly better in the treatment of organics than non-permeable wall material (plastic liner), but confounding variables reduce the confidence in this finding. The vegetated wall section showed the greatest removal rates in almost every parameter measured, especially removal of E. coli. A difference in hydraulic retention times as shown by (NaCl) tracer tests is the likely cause of this phenomenon, rather than the vegetation itself. The significant reduction of constituents of concern using only a small spatial footprint make this system a worthy candidate for further research and development regarding urban wastewater treatment applications.


Murine NK1 natural T (NT) cells are a population of alphabeta T cells that express NK cell receptors and an invariant TCR rearrangement. These cells rapidly produce large amounts of IL-4 upon activation and have been suggested to promote Th2 differentiation. We sought to determine whether a human NK1 T cell analogue could be detected in PBMC, and if so, characterize the TCR usage, cytokine expression, and surface phenotype of this subset. Using flow cytometry, we have demonstrated a distinct population of V alpha24+, V beta11+, CD56+ T cells consistent with NT cells. Upon sequencing, these cells expressed an invariant V alpha24-J alphaQ TCR rearrangement, verifying their identity as a human NK1 T cell analogue. NT cells demonstrated increased frequencies of both IFN-gamma and IL-4 production. Strikingly, 30 to 45% of CD4+ NT cells expressed IL-4, a sixfold greater frequency than that seen in mainstream CD4+ alphabeta T cells. Contrary to the pattern seen with mainstream T cells, virtually all IL-4-producing NT cells coexpressed IFN-gamma, indicating that this subset of NT cells has a unique Th0 phenotype. These data establish that V alpha24+ NT cells are a potent source of IL-4 and as such, may play a role in Th2 priming in human immune responses. This work demonstrates that human NT cells can be phenotypically identified and functionally studied in the blood of healthy or diseased subjects.


Purpose To explore the potential factors impacting the efficacy of venlafaxine extended release (ER) and treatment differences between 75 mg/day and 75–225 mg/day dose in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods We performed exploratory post hoc subgroup analyses of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study conducted in Japan. A total of 538 outpatients aged 20 years or older with a primary diagnosis of MDD who experienced single or recurrent episodes were randomized into three groups: fixed-dose, flexible-dose, or placebo. Venlafaxine ER was initiated at 37.5 mg/day and titrated to 75 mg/day for both fixed-dose and flexible-dose group, and to 225 mg/day for flexible-dose group (if well tolerated). Efficacy endpoints were changes from baseline at Week 8 using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression–17 items (HAM-D17) total score, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression–6 items score, and Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale total score. The following factors were considered in the subgroup analyses: sex, age, HAM-D17 total score at baseline, duration of MDD, duration of current depressive episode, history of previous depressive episodes, history of previous medications for MDD, and CYP2D6 phenotype. For each subgroup, an analysis of covariance model was fitted and the adjusted mean of the treatment effect and corresponding 95% CI were computed. Due to the exploratory nature of the investigation, no statistical hypothesis testing was used. Results Venlafaxine ER improved symptoms of MDD compared with placebo in most subgroups. The subgroup with a long duration of MDD (>22 months) consistently showed greater treatment benefits in the flexible-dose group than in the fixed-dose group. Conclusion These results suggest that a greater treatment response to venlafaxine ER (up to 225 mg/day) can be seen in patients with a longer duration of MDD. Further investigations are needed to identify additional factors impacting the efficacy of venlafaxine ER.


A facile approach for sensing an emerging persistent organic pollutant, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) isocyanurate (TBC) is developed based on coupling molecularly imprinting with electro-polymerization of o-aminophenol (OAP), which is an electro-active monomer containing multifunctional groups. The poly-OAP film was deposited in an OAP solution by the potentiodynamic cycling of the potential with and without the template (TBC) on a glassy carbon electrode. Using K3[Fe(CN)6] as an electro-active marker, the properties of the TBC imprinted electrode were investigated by electrochemical measurements. The results showed that the sensor with a low detection limit of 6.64 × 10−11 mol L−1 (S/N = 3) for TBC determination was significantly different from the non-imprinted electrode. By selecting aniline, without a hydroxyl group, as a reference for controlled trials, the limit of detection for the poly-OAP film-coated electrode is ca. 10 times smaller than that of the polyaniline-coated one, and the sensitivity of the poly-OAP film is ca. 2 times higher than that of the polyaniline one. It demonstrates that more binding sites might improve the detection ability of the imprinted sensor.


A method is described for the rapid preparation of peroxisomes from rat liver by using sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation in a vertical rotor. The preparation, shown to be virtually free of mitochondrial and microsomal contamination, can be used to study fatty acid metabolism by isolated peroxisomes.


Abstract This study uses a conversation analytic framework to analyze practices by which language learners display that they are searching for language they have not yet fully acquired, i.e., words, word forms, syntactic structure, or pronunciation. Learners can present their solutions with rising intonation as candidate solutions to be confirmed or corrected by another speaker. They can also elicit a specific lexical item by presenting a more general term with rising intonation. When learners receive an ambiguous response to these search turns, they can initiate repair to disambiguate the import of that response in order to pursue linguistic accuracy, even when communication is displayed as otherwise successful. These search sequences therefore display an orientation to language learning, showing how the participants' situated identities as language learner/student and language expert/teacher are contingently constructed and negotiated in and through their talk and other semiotic resources as the local context evolves.


In traditional cryptography, an attacker tries to infer a mathematical relationship between the inputs and outputs of a cryptosystem to recover secret information. With the advances in the theoretical basis of the cryptographic algorithms, this task became harder and attackers started to seek different approaches. A family of attacks known as side-channel attacks have focused on using information leaked through the underlying device when the cryptographic algorithm is running. For instance, a power analysis attack can exploit the relationship between the inputs of a cryptosystem and the underlying device's power consumption while performing cryptographic operations on these inputs. Such attacks have shown to be so successful and efficient in practice that prudent designers now insert countermeasures against these attacks to their hardware and software systems. However, the insertion process is challenging to a non-expert in cryptography due to several factors including unnatural structure of the countermeasures (e.g., obfuscating the implementation), use of non-standard elements in the design (e.g., using non-CMOS logic styles), conflict with standard design parameters and the optimization processes of design tools (e.g., adding dummy operations, which are normally eliminated by the design tools to increase performance), etc. To facilitate a reliably-secure design process, this thesis proposes automated methodologies which analyze a given hardware or software cryptosystem and insert appropriate side-channel countermeasures. We first propose one type of hardware countermeasure and show how it can easily be integrated into the standard electronic design automation flow to protect high-level hardware implementations. The countermeasure is based on adding random jitter to the clocks of sequential circuit elements, and incurs a modest area and energy overhead. Next, we propose a hardware extension unit, an instruction shuffler, to existing processors. The unit is very lightweight and does not require any architectural changes, and hence can be used with any processor, increasing the side-channel resistance of the overall system. We then present a compiler, which can easily be combined with the off-the-shelf compilers, to automatically apply countermeasures on given software implementations. We show that the compiler can produce protected implementations that are as efficient as their manually optimized counterparts, eliminating the need for designer expertise and time. Finally, we present an automated security verification methodology, which checks certain properties to detect potential vulnerabilities in a (manually or automatically) protected implementation. Our experiments show that we can successfully detect common security problems in a flawed implementation of a countermeasure within a reasonable amount of time.


Abstract Transparency and accountability are key concepts of good governance that are repeatedly demonstrated to have the capacity to translate natural resources wealth to sustainable development of economies. These concepts are particularly important to countries rich in natural resources and Nigeria is one of such countries. Evidence however suggests that Nigeria is not benefiting from the gains expected from its natural resources despite policies and legislations like the NEITI Act 2007 which are aimed at promoting sustainable development through transparency and accountability. Various attempts at theorizing the reasons behind these apparent failures have tended to blame external factors. These external factors are sometimes disguised under the omnibus descriptions of resource curse phenomenon and corruption. This paper argues that although these factors may be contributing to the continued failures of several development initiatives, there may be need to ensure that the legal frameworks and instruments developed to achieve these objectives are not in themselves faulty. The article posits that the internal normative incoherence in some of these laws creates the room for continued failures despite the best of intentions and interests. To demonstrate this argument, the paper through normative analysis, examines the NEITI Act 2007 in relation to its key transparency and accountability provisions.


The practice of science outreach is more necessary than ever. However, a disconnect exists between the stated goals for science outreach and its actual impact. In order to examine one potential source of this disconnect, we undertook a survey-based study to explore whether barriers to participation (either intrinsic or extrinsic) in science outreach exist within the academic community. We received responses to our survey from 530 individuals, the vast majority of whom engage in some type of science outreach activity on an annual basis. Those who engage in outreach report doing so for both personal and altruistic reasons, and having high (yet varied) levels of comfort with performing outreach activities. Respondents also report the existence of several significant yet surmountable barriers to participation, including lack of time and funding. Our findings demonstrate that both levels of participation in, and attitudes toward, science outreach within the academic community are generally favorable, suggesting that the general ineffectiveness of science outreach is due to other causes. We place our findings within the context of the broader science outreach, science communication and public engagement literature. We make recommendations on how existing approaches and infrastructure can, and must, be changed in order to improve the practice.


This thesis investigates the epidemiology of lifestyle behaviours and training injuries among British Army infantry recruits. In Study 1, the Military Pre-training Questionnaire (MPQ) was developed to assess multiple risk factors for injury (smoking; alcohol consumption; physical activity; diet; and injury history). Its feasibility and test-retest reliability was demonstrated in a representative sample (n = 58) with no evidence of systematic bias between administrations. The MPQ was subsequently completed by a large cohort of infantry recruits before commencing initial training (n = 1,960). This enabled its validity to be assessed in Study 2, which revealed that a simple, single-item measure of pre-training physical activity was a strong predictor of initial physical fitness levels and likely training outcomes. In Study 3, cross-sectional analyses of MPQ responses enabled the prevalence, co-occurrence and clustering of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours to be assessed. Although physically active, the majority of recruits entering infantry training smoked, drank hazardously and had low fruit and vegetable consumption. Six percent of recruits reported no unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, 20% reported one, 35% reported two, 31% reported three and 8% reported all four. Paired combinations of unhealthy behaviours were strongly associated, particularly smoking/drinking, smoking/inactivity and diet/inactivity. Finally, in Study 4, a high incidence of overuse injuries in infantry recruits was observed using a prospective study design. Recruits with lower pre-training fitness levels, low body mass and past injuries were exposed to a higher risk of sustaining a training injury, while there was no evidence to suggest that engaging in unhealthy lifestyle behaviours increased injury risk. Collectively, the four studies have enabled, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of lifestyle behaviours and training injuries among British Army infantry recruits. The findings have important implications for military health improvement and injury prevention strategies.


Gradient ratio test results are reported from the commissioning of a device that was modified to impose dynamic cyclic flow. The flow conditions, using head control, are similar to those in marine protection works. Each test included a stage of unidirectional flow, followed by stages of cyclic flow at a frequency of 0.2 Hz and 0.02 Hz. Flow reversal invokes an initial transient state of water head distribution in the sample, attributed to changes in hydraulic gradient to accommodate the new values of constant head at the inflow and outflow. Consequently, tests at the higher frequency yielded unsteady flow in the sample, while tests at the lower frequency resulted in steady flow during each half cycle. In unsteady flow, the transient state of water head distribution (and hence gradient ratio) cannot serve as an index of soil-geotextile compatibility. Therefore, a recommendation is made that testing of filtration compatibility in dynamic cyclic flow include a stage of slow flow reversal (or alternatively unidirectional flow) to permit a quantification of water head distribution under steady flow.


Intracranial pressure (ICP) was continuously recorded, isotope cisternography was performed, and the ventricular system size was evaluated on serial computerized tomography scans in 39 patients. All of these patients had communicating hydrocephalus after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) from rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. The studies were carried out in both the acute stage (within 7 days after SAH) and the communicating hydrocephalus stage. In patients in the acute stage who had no ventricular dilatation, but who later developed communicating hydrocephalus, the resting ICP was high, and an ICP pattern of B-wave activity was seen; there was no delay in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) absorption on isotope cisternography. Patients with communicating hydrocephalus in whom ICP recordings were started within 63 days after SAH had a pattern of plateau waves in conjunction with B-waves, and there was a marked delay in CSF circulation. In general, patients with higher resting ICP's had more frequent ICP irregularities. Patients with communicating hydrocephalus in whom recordings were begun more than 6 months after SAH had a low and flat ICP pattern, and there was no delay in CSF absorption in spite of bilateral convexity blocks on isotope cisternography. The results suggest that the ICP pattern of plateau waves in conjunction with B-waves can be regarded as a sign of delayed CSF absorption; hence, shunting procedures may be indicated in patients with plateau waves in conjunction with B-waves visualized on continuous ICP recordings.


Selective photomodification of fractal aggregates of silver nanoparticles is studied experimentally by photon-scanning-tunneling microscopy. Near-field optical images of the aggregates before and after photomodification show changes in the distribution of local electromagnetic fields in the near zone at subwavelength scale. These changes are much stronger than those measured in the far field. Results from numerical modeling of photomodification are in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations.


In our everyday discourse many good things have been done and attributed for the sake of wellbeing of children. This paper questions the effectiveness of what we have been doing in education in the name of children by, first, portraying children and adolescents according to recent scholarship, and then presenting problems in our current educational practice. To address the problems which arise from the observation, some strategic steps are then presented to conclude the discussion


BACKGROUND
HeartSteps is an mHealth intervention that encourages regular walking via activity suggestions tailored to the individuals' current context.

PURPOSE
We conducted a micro-randomized trial (MRT) to evaluate the efficacy of HeartSteps' activity suggestions to optimize the intervention.

METHODS
We conducted a 6-week MRT with 44 adults. Contextually tailored suggestions could be delivered up to five times per day at user-selected times. At each of these five times, for each participant on each day of the study, HeartSteps randomized whether to provide an activity suggestion, and, if so, whether to provide a walking or an antisedentary suggestion. We used a centered and weighted least squares method to analyze the effect of suggestions on the 30-min step count following suggestion randomization.

RESULTS
Averaging over study days and types of activity suggestions, delivering a suggestion versus no suggestion increased the 30-min step count by 14% (p = .06), 35 additional steps over the 253-step average. The effect was not evenly distributed in time. Providing any type of suggestion versus no suggestion initially increased the step count by 66% (167 steps; p < .01), but this effect diminished over time. Averaging over study days, delivering a walking suggestion versus no suggestion increased the average step count by 24% (59 steps; p = .02). This increase was greater at the start of study (107% or 271 additional steps; p < .01), but decreased over time. Antisedentary suggestions had no detectable effect on the 30-min step count.

CONCLUSION
Contextually tailored walking suggestions are a promising way of initiating bouts of walking throughout the day.

CLINICAL TRIAL INFORMATION
This study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT03225521.


Abstract. Social inclusion has grown as an important goal for heritage planning over the past decades. Whilst the document Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape called a decade ago for novel tools for civic engagement and knowledge documentation, social media already functions as a platform for online communities to actively get involved in heritage-related activities by sharing their ideas. Especially when radical events occur around heritage properties, either positive or negative, emotions and opinions would spread rapidly across the globe via the internet to reach online communities of interested or concerned citizens. This paper presents a theoretical framework defined to classify social inclusion of online communities in heritage planning processes through differentiating the everyday baseline scenarios from the event-triggered activated ones. A preliminary systematic literature review shows that research integrating and comparing both scenarios is still scarce, and that specific tools and algorithms to handle large datasets are needed to identify the structure of communication networks underpinning the spread of information on social media. This framework is the first step on future research to investigate the different focal attention points, mechanisms, and patterns of social inclusion of online communities in heritage planning, towards transforming it to a more socially inclusive practice.


Conservation and management of rangelands require clear understanding of species composition. The objective of this paper is to show the differences in species composition, abundance, mean cover and height between the grazed and ungrazed plots in a specific pasture of Lo Manthang VDC in Upper Mustang. Two seasons' data were collected during July (wet season) and November (dry season) 2005. Species richness, Importance Value Index (IVI), cover and height of the species compared between grazed and ungrazed plots. Twenty species (17 belonging to 14 families: high-7, medium- 2, low – 6 and non palatable – 2 and 3 unidentified species) were recorded in the experimental plots. Species richness didn't show any significant difference in between the ungrazed and grazed plots in both the seasons. On the basis of IVI value, Kobresia spp. a highly palatable species is dominant in the ungrazed plots in both the seasons. A significant difference (Chi 2 , p ) in cover during July indicates that the pasture has some impact of grazing. Key words: Conservation, Grazed and ungrazed plots, Management, Rangeland, Species composition doi:10.3126/on.v3i1.337 Our Nature (2005) 3: 69-76


The chicken genome is sequenced and this, together with microarray and other functional genomics technologies, makes post-genomic research possible in the chicken. At this time, however, such research is hindered by a lack of genomic structural and functional annotations. Bio-ontologies have been developed for different annotation requirements, as well as to facilitate data sharing and computational analysis, but these are not yet optimally utilized in the chicken. Here we discuss genomic annotation and bio-ontologies. We focus specifically on the Gene Ontology (GO), chicken GO annotations and how these can facilitate functional genomics in the chicken. The GO is the most developed and widely used bio-ontology. It is the de facto standard for functional annotation. Despite its critical importance in analyzing microarray and other functional genomics data, relatively few chicken gene products have any GO annotation. When these are available, the average quality of chicken gene products annotations (defined using evidence code weight and annotation depth) is much less than in mouse. Moreover, tools allowing chicken researchers to easily and rapidly use the GO are either lacking or hard to use. To address all of these problems we developed ChickGO and AgBase. Chicken GO annotations are provided by complementary work at MSU-AgBase and EBI-GOA. The GO tools pipeline at AgBase uses GO to derive functional and biological significance from microarray and other functional genomics data. Not only will improved genomic annotation and tools to use these annotations benefit the chicken research community but they will also facilitate research in other avian species and comparative genomics.


BaTiO3 (BT) nanopowders were synthesized in acetone to remove the TiO2 second phase, which was formed in the specimens synthesized in the 2-methoxyethanol solvent at above 100 °C due to H2O evaporation. No TiO2 second phase was formed in the specimens synthesized in acetone, even at 260 °C, due to the low boiling temperature of acetone which evaporated at above 55 °C and suppressed the H2O evaporation by increasing the vapor pressure in the vessel. However, for the BT nanopowders synthesized at 250 °C for 60 h, TiO2 second phase was formed at a Ba/Ti ratio of ≤1.5 and the BT nanopowders were agglomerated at a ratio of ≥3.0. Homogeneous BT nanopowders were obtained at a ratio of 2.0 and they exhibited a high c/a ratio of 1.0082 with a small size of 95.2 nm. Therefore, these nanopowders can be a good candidate for future multi-layer ceramic capacitor.


Background: The ambulance service studied introduced the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) to help paramedics decide whether patients could be appropriately treated closer to home, via an alternative non-emergency care pathway, or needed conveying to hospital. I investigated the effectiveness and usefulness of the NEWS to support paramedics' decisions to appropriately treat patients closer to home.
Methods: I adopted a pragmatic approach and used mixed methods.
I used an interrupted time-series design and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) methods to analyse ambulance data. My analysis focused on the change in outcome and trend in outcome, before and after NEWS was introduced. Primary outcomes measured were numbers and proportions of patients not conveyed to the emergency department (i.e. treated closer to home), which included those treated and left at scene and those conveyed to a minor injury unit or similar. Secondary outcomes measured were numbers and proportions treated and left at scene who recontacted the ambulance service within 24-hours. Numbers of 999-calls attended, patients treated and left at scene and life-threatening calls were also analysed to provide a baseline measure and enhance understanding about primary and secondary outcomes.
A self-selected sample of paramedics participated in semi-structured interviews and a non-participant observation study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain insight of perceived effectiveness and usefulness of the NEWS to support decision-making. Non-participant observations were conducted to observe how the NEWS was used in context.
Results: Baseline measures showed no significant difference in the numbers of emergency calls attended to by ambulance, although numbers of life-threatening calls increased significantly. Despite the increase in life-threatening calls, the numbers and proportion of patients being treated closer to home remained constant. While a significant decline was found in the numbers of patients left at scene, the numbers and
ii
proportions of patients who recontacted within 24-hours did not differ significantly.
Sixteen paramedics were interviewed. Those interviewed did not perceive the NEWS to have affected their decision-making or clinical practice. Other factors influenced their decision to convey or treat closer to home more than NEWS. They would use the NEWS to inform a decision only at times of uncertainty. NEWS was considered ineffective and not useful when assessing patients with complex conditions. NEWS was more readily adopted in localities where other healthcare providers were familiar and were using the NEWS.
Eight paramedics were observed as they worked in the clinical setting. Those observed rarely calculated, documented or verbalised a NEWS. Half the NEWS documented, were calculated or documented incorrectly. There was no visible evidence of the NEWS tool being used; any scores documented were calculated from memory.
Conclusions: The effectiveness and usefulness of the NEWS to support paramedics' decision-making to appropriately treat patients closer to home was compromised by a lack of coherence between service providers and practitioners, and lack of accessibility to alternative care pathways. My findings will be of value to service providers seeking to achieve NHS England's ambition to increase the uptake of the NEWS to 100%, and those responsible for redesigning and commissioning integrated care services.


The current finite element (FE) assessment methods of dented pipes are based on specific dent profiles, which are generally created based on the shape of indenters. However, the actual dent profile in real case scenarios is mostly irregular in shape, depending on the cause of damage. In this paper, FE analyses of dented pipes using inline inspection (ILI) data are presented. Based on the ILI data, the dent profile is generated by applying the nodal displacements to all the pipe nodes. The validation of this nodal displacement approach is discussed in this paper. Besides, a parametric study is carried out to study the behavior of dent for different dent depth, pipe geometry, and pipe grades. The significance of residual stresses generated during the dent formation on the behavior of dented pipe during the service life is also discussed. Finally, the remaining life estimation of dented pipes according to the API 579-1 is presented using FE analysis results.