UNLABELLED
Any new class of materials requires a new cutting technology which, unless complied with properly, may negatively impact on the advantages and performance of the material. The modifications appeared as a result of the technological processes in the structure or surface aspect of the materials not only affects the mechanical resistance of the restorations but also casts doubts on their biological qualities.

AIM
This study evaluates the impact of biomaterials involved in fixed restorations on the periodontal architecture, bearing extremely important connotations in the long run.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The "in vitro" testing was conducted on culture cells for the cytotoxic effect of certain restorative materials--metallic alloys used in prosthetic restorations, composite materials, in collaboration with the Virology Laboratory of the Public Health Institute.The tested materials were metallic alloys, composite materials and acrylic resins used for the construction of standard sized plates (out of each material) in order to avoid the differences that might arise from the technological process. Artificial saliva processed to reach a pH = 7 was prepared in the Biophysics Laboratory of UMF Iasi. Material samples and the saliva inoculated with these were tested. -p.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The cytotoxic effect of the tested materials on the celular cultures takes on extremely diverse forms, from discrete morphological modifications of the cells with regard to the size, shape, internal structure (for the noble and semi-noble alloys) up to the partial stripping-off of the celular film, the modification of density and coloration. In the case of the witness of non-inoculated culture, the testing results showed the presence of a continuous film, with cells having the same size, transparency and colouring, with an unaltered polyhedral contour, with visible nuclei, an image also kept in the case of the saliva witness.

CONCLUSIONS
The involvement of restaurative materials in triggering, maintaining and aggravating a periodontal pathology indicates the capital role played by the dentist in the identications of lesions during measures by avoiding or excluding etiological agents before an obvious lesions occurs in the process of active dispensarization.


Built environment professionals have the opportunity to contribute towards a significant reduction in GHG emissions using green design principles. The starting point of green design is the optimum building form that requires less energy to construct and to operate, provided that the other design goals are satisfied. Using the interoperability based Architectural Design Optimisation Tool (ArDOT) software environment, this research was aimed at the optimisation of form and orientation of an example building in two different climatic locations. The optimisation process was driven by the results from the building simulation software, integrated into ArDOT using Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The objectives were to reduce annual demand for energy and to maximise daylight availability. The applicability of the framework has been investigated in the early stages of architectural design, where required parameters for building simulation are not fully known. A standards based mapping is used to compensate for the missing data and to enable the design team the access to detailed based simulation programs. The results from the research show the advantages of using mathematical optimisation techniques for environmental sustainability through a directed exploration of the solution space.


Study objectives Sleepiness at the wheel is widely believed to be a cause of motor vehicle accidents. Nevertheless, a systematic review of studies investigating this relationship has not yet been published. The objective of this study was to quantify the relationship between sleepiness at the wheel and motor vehicle accidents. Methods A systematic review was performed using Medline, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science. The outcome measure of interest was motor vehicle accident defined as involving four- or two-wheeled vehicles in road traffic, professional and nonprofessional drivers, with or without objective consequences. The exposure was sleepiness at the wheel defined as self-reported sleepiness at the wheel. Studies were included if they provided adjusted risk estimates of motor vehicle accidents related to sleepiness at the wheel. Risk estimates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were extracted and pooled as odds ratios (ORs) using a random-effect model. Heterogeneity was quantified using Q statistics and the I2 index. The potential causes of heterogeneity were investigated using meta-regressions. Results Ten cross-sectional studies (51,520 participants), six case-control studies (4904 participants), and one cohort study (13,674 participants) were included. Sleepiness at the wheel was associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents (pooled OR 2.51 [95% CI 1.87; 3.39]). A significant heterogeneity was found between the individual risk estimates (Q = 93.21; I2 = 83%). Conclusions Sleepiness at the wheel increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents and should be considered when investigating fitness to drive. Further studies are required to explore the nature of this relationship. Systematic review registration number PROSPERO 2015 CRD42015024805.


Problem solving can be a cognitively intensive undertaking; as design is characterized by ambiguity and unknowns, design problems in particular can be cognitively expensive. Few studies examine the evolution of cognitive load during the engineering design process and the linkages between sub-dimensions of cognitive load and design task outcomes. To address this issue, the goal of this work is to establish a relationship between cognitive load, design task, and design outcomes. Twenty participants were recruited to perform a design task where their mental workload was recorded at each stage of the design process. Their ideation and prototype outcomes were then evaluated to determine if there is a relationship between cognitive load, design task, and design outcomes. Results suggest that there is a significant difference in cognitive load experienced by the designer during each stage of the design process and while cognitive load is correlated with idea generation design outcomes, it may not be tied to prototyping design outcomes.


Spatial/Spatiotemporal interdependence - i.e., that the outcomes, actions, or choices of some unit-times depend on those of others - is substantively and theoretically ubiquitous and central in binary outcomes of interest across the social sciences. However, most empirical applications omit spatial interdependence and, at best, treat temporal dependence as nuisance to be "kludged"; indeed, even theoretical and substantive discussion usually ignores (inter)dependence. Moreover, in the few contexts where spatial interdependence has been acknowledged or emphasized, such as in the social-network and policy-diffusion literatures, empirical models either do not fully reflect the simultaneity of the outcomes across units, or they do not recognize the endogeneity of the spatial lags which are used (appropriately) to model the interdependence. This paper notes and explains some of the severe challenges posed by spatiotemporal interdependence in binary-outcome models and then follows recent spatial-econometric advances to suggest two simulation-based approaches for surmounting the computational intensiveness of these models: classical recursive-importance-sampling (RIS) or Bayesian Markov-chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC). Serial autocorrelation in binary outcomes raises essentially the same challenges, so these strategies offer effective approach to temporal dependence as well. We provide Monte-Carlo comparisons of the performance of these alternative estimators for spatial probit, including comparisons to estimation-strategies blind to or naive about (inter)dependence - i.e., omitting spatial lags or including them but treating them as exogenous regressors in standard probit estimation - and then we show how to apply related simulation methods to calculate estimated spatial effects of hypothetical shocks in terms of outcomes or probabilities of outcomes (with associated confidence/credibility regions) rather than only in parameter-estimate or latent-variable terms as in all prior spatial-probit applications. We illustrate with applications to U.S. states' adoptions of legislative term-limits and to great-power decisions to enter World War I.


The purpose of this paper is to characterize and model waves that are observed within the potential core of subsonic jets and relate them to previously observed tones in the near-nozzle region. The waves are detected in data from a large-eddy simulation of a Mach 0.9 isothermal jet and modelled using parallel and weakly non-parallel linear modal analysis of the Euler equations linearized about the turbulent mean flow, as well as simplified models based on a cylindrical vortex sheet and the acoustic modes of a cylindrical soft duct. In addition to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability waves, three types of waves with negative phase velocities are identified in the potential core: upstream- and downstream-propagating duct-like acoustic modes that experience the shear layer as a pressure-release surface and are therefore radially confined to the potential core, and upstream-propagating acoustic modes that represent a weak coupling between the jet core and the free stream. The slow streamwise contraction of the potential core imposes a frequency-dependent end condition on the waves that is modelled as the turning points of a weakly non-parallel approximation of the waves. These turning points provide a mechanism by which the upstream- and downstream-travelling waves can interact and exchange energy through reflection and transmission processes. Paired with a second end condition provided by the nozzle, this leads to the possibility of resonance in limited frequency bands that are bound by two saddle points in the complex wavenumber plane. The predicted frequencies closely match the observed tones detected outside of the jet. The vortex-sheet model is then used to systematically explore the Mach number and temperature ratio dependence of the phenomenon. For isothermal jets, the model suggests that resonance is likely to occur in a narrow range of Mach number, $0.82


The problem of transmitting CO(2) laser radiation through metallic or metallic with inner dielectric coating (metallic-dielectric) bent hollow cylindrical waveguides is investigated using a ray model. Computer calculations of transmission as a function of the geometrical dimensions of the waveguide are performed. The coupling of laser radiation at the entrance of the waveguide is also taken into account. The theoretical calculated transmission is compared with previously published experimental data and good agreement is obtained for a large range of curvatures. The devised ray model contributes to a better understanding of the role of the dielectric layer in the metallic-dielectric waveguide, increasing the transmission of the radiation. The calculation of the transmission as a function of the radius of the cross section of the waveguide shows that, for a best metallic-dielectric waveguide, an optimal cross-sectional diameter appears where the transmitted energy is maximum. The method presented will be of value as a tool in the design of hollow cylindrical waveguides.


With the adoption of a new foreign policy Concept of the Russian Federation, approved in 2008, relations with the Latin American region as a whole, and with one of the leading countries of Latin America - Argentina - began to develop incrementally. Both parties have demonstrated a commitment to long-term interaction. The establishment of relations of mutual understanding between leaders of the two countries has played a special role, which is confirmed by the unprecedented intensification of visits at the highest level. Between 2008 and 2015, took place four visits of the presidents of the two countries and were signed about sixty Russian-Argentine documents of different levels, including the Joint Declarations of presidents of relations of strategic partnership and the relations of the comprehensive strategic partnership. The cooperation covered the most important areas, acquired new forms. The task was to converge the integration blocks with the participation of the two countries, to provide the more effective support of each other's positions within international organizations, to join forces in the fight against drug traffic, terrorism and organized crime. The real results were achieved in the field of energy, economy, and military-technical sphere. The 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, celebrated in 2015, made it possible to trace the trajectory of cooperation and summarize the results of the bilateral dialogue, which were highly appreciated by both parties. However, despite the transition to a new stage of relations - relations of a comprehensive strategic partnership, more needs to be done to see real progress and not remain on paper signed agreements and memoranda, overcome challenges, primarily in the area of trade. The Russian leadership expressed concern that mutual trade develops with a positive balance for Argentina. At the same time in the conditions of the sanctions war, the role of Argentina as a supplier of food products to the Russian market is rather important. Its makes the task of increasing the Russian exports even more difficult.


The importance of endogenous rhythms in the photoperiodic control of the annual reproduction cycle in female rainbow trout was investigated. The effect of photoperiod regimes on the different stages of maturation was assessed by recording the timing of ovulation and from quantifying associated changes in serum oestradiol-17,testosterone and total calcium. Maintained under constant 6L:18D and constant temperature for up to four years, rainbow trout exhibited an endogenous rhythm of maturation with a periodicity of approximately one year. This rhythm of maturation appears to be driven by an autonomous circannual oscillator or clock which can be dissociated from the neuroendocrine mechanisms controlling gonadal maturation. Under conditions of constant 18L:6D or LL the periodicity of the maturation rhythm was 5.5-6 months; it is suggested that this periodicity may be caused by a splitting or uncoupling of at least two circannual clocks involved in the control of maturation. Abrupt changes in the length of the photoperiod act as a zeitgeber to entrain the endogenous rhythm of maturation. Whether the timing of maturation is advanced or delayed depends primarily on the direction of the change in photoperiod and its timing in relation to the phase of the rhythm, with the magnitude of the alteration in photoperiod having only a supplementary effect. The effect of specific changes in photoperiod on the entrainment of the maturation cycle can be described in terms of a phase-response curve. Photic information is transduced, probably by the pineal gland, into a daily rhythm of melatonin; exposure of rainbow trout to skeleton and resonance photoperiod regimes indicated that daylength measurement is effected by endogenous circadian clock(s) rather than by hour-glass mechanisms. A gating mechanism is closely associated with the circannual clock which determines the timing of onset of maturation in virgin female rainbow trout, only allowing fish that have attained a threshold stage of development to undergo gonadal maturation. Collectively the results support the hypothesis that the female rainbow trout exhibits an endogenous circannual rhythm of maturation which can be entrained by changes in photoperiod.


We investigate the transparency of executive stock option disclosures of Australian firms for the financial years ending 2000 and 2002. Transparency is measured using an index based on the requirements of the accounting standards dealing specifically with the disclosure of executive stock options. Our study also examines the relationship between firm characteristics and disclosure transparency and the difference in transparency between the years 2000 and 2002. We find that the transparency of executive stock option disclosures is low but improves a little in the year 2002. We also find that the existence of a compensation committee is positively associated with transparency with size being the only significant control variable. Our results are consistent with the contention of Hope (2003a) that managers of firms appear to be treating mandatory requirements as voluntary, possibly due to the low levels of enforcement of the accounting standards.


Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCNs) are promising Deep Learning models for time-series processing tasks. One key feature of TCNs is time-dilated convolution, whose optimization requires extensive experimentation. We propose an automatic dilation optimizer, which tackles the problem as a weight pruning on the time-axis, and learns dilation factors together with weights, in a single training. Our method reduces the model size and inference latency on a real SoC hardware target by up to 7.4× and 3×, respectively with no accuracy drop compared to a network without dilation. It also yields a rich set of Pareto-optimal TCNs starting from a single model, outperforming hand-designed solutions in both size and accuracy.


In practice, researchers often face the problem of being able to collect only one, possibly large, dataset, and they are forced to make inferences from a single sample. Based on the results of the polarisation operator technique of Bowman et al (1969), we computed the dependence of joint entropy and mutual information estimates on the sample size in terms of asymptotic series. These expressions enabled us to control the bias of the estimates caused by finite sample sizes and obtain an expression for the accuracies. The result is important in data mining when joint entropy and mutual information are used to find interdependences within large data sets with unknown underlying structures.


The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history. Only five days earlier, the main field army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and the four dreary years of civil war were yielding to a spring of national rebirth. But by then, the man to whom everyone looked for guidance in reconstructing the nation was dead. [excerpt] Required Publisher's Statement Original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/ 2015/04/13/what-if-abraham-lincoln-had-lived/ This opinion is available at The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: http://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cwfac/63 What if Abraham Lincoln had Lived? His plan for Reconstruction would've been difficult to realize. By Allen Guelzo April 13, 2015 President Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history. Only five days earlier, the main field army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and the four dreary years of civil war were yielding to a spring of national rebirth. But by then, the man to whom everyone looked for guidance in reconstructing the nation was dead. The result was a costly but successful war followed by a botched and even more costly reconstruction. Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, took the presidential oath within hours of Lincoln's death. But Johnson had none of Lincoln's political skills, much less Lincoln's convictions about justice and equality for the 4 million slaves freed after the Civil War. The defeated Confederates gained a second wind from Johnson's follies, and by the time he left office in 1869, reconstruction was already faltering. The victorious North sank into "reconstruction fatigue," while the former Confederates simply substituted Jim Crow for slavery. Would it have been different if Booth's bullet had missed? Having guided the nation through a wartime valley of shadows, could Lincoln have found,as he once described it: "some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new"? Lincoln never laid out a specific plan for reconstruction. Still, if he had lived, all the evidence points us toward four paths to reconstruction which he would likely have adopted: Voting rights: If the Confederates wanted amnesty, Lincoln, as he wrote in January 1864, could not "avoid exacting in return universal suffrage, or, at least, suffrage on the basis of intelligence and military service." Even if the Confederates balked at trading amnesty for voting rights, there was still no practical alternative to black voting rights, since only the voting power of the newly freed slaves could offset the political dominance of unbowed whites in the South. Economic integration: Economic independence gives heft to political aspiration, something Lincoln understood from his own struggle to rise from poverty. "I want every man to have the chance — and I believe a black man is entitled to it -in which he can better his condition," Lincoln said in 1860. But in Lincoln's world, economic opportunity was tied to the ownership of land, and the newly freed slaves owned none. Lincoln's means for redressing this imbalance was the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau. It was launched in March 1865 with a mandate to claim land that had been abandoned by plantation owners — or land that had been forfeited by non-payment of taxes during the war — and divide it in 40-acre plots for former slaves to farm as their own. Western development: The Civil War actually sprang from the dispute of free and slave states over the future of the Western territories — and Lincoln regarded the West as an integral part of Reconstruction. He signed homestead legislation that opened huge tracts of public land to private ownership, and he pledged government support to a transcontinental railroad that would carry the harvests of those homesteads to world markets. On the day of his assassination, Lincoln promised Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax that he planned to point Union veterans "to the gold and silver that waits for them in the West." Turning the freedmen's gaze westward would accomplish the same goal as the Freedmen's Bureau. Cleaning the Confederate slate: Lincoln was not exaggerating, in his second inaugural address, when he spoke of his hope of malice toward none and charity for all after the war. He had no wish to hunt down the Confederacy's leaders after the war ended, but he also had no wish to stop them leaving. "Frighten them out of the country," he said, "open the gates, let down the bars ... scare them off." This would clear the way for a new leadership in the South, a leadership of Unionist white Americans and their natural allies, the freed slaves, which in turn would establish a "practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation." Bear in mind, though, that whatever Lincoln's intentions, he would have faced stiff opposition. White northerners hated slavery, but they also disliked African Americans and they routinely turned back state ballot initiatives on black voting rights. Similarly, Lincoln could scarcely have guaranteed the operation of his "practical system" without an ongoing military presence in the South to enforce it. Yet Americans were chronically unwilling, in times of peace, to foot large military budgets, and the soldiers themselves were mostly civilians-in-uniform who wanted nothing more than to go home at war's end. Above all, Lincoln would have been in office only until 1869, which is not a long time to implement the vast programs his version of Reconstruction would have required. His successor would surely have been (as Johnson's was) Ulysses Grant, and Grant had problems of his own. Even Abraham Lincoln might not have been able to bulldoze his way to a triumphant "Mission Accomplished." But it is hard to imagine how we could have done worse. One hundred and fifty years later, we are still struggling to do better. Allen Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of the Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. His most recent book is "Gettysburg: The Last Invasion." http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/13/what-if-abraham-lincoln-had-lived/


Optim™ fine is a new generation of ultrafine wool fibres, which are transformed by stretching and setting from merino wool. The Optim™ fine retains some of the physical and chemical properties of merino wool, but the morphology and other properties changes, such as the diameter, length, lusture, breaking extension and shrinkage. These changes results in the performance difference btween the fabric woven from Optim™ fine and fine wool fiber. To clearly understande the reason of the difference, the morphological and physical properties changes of Optim™ fine was examined in this paper, and the performance difference between wool fabric and Optim™ fine fabric was evaluated by Fabric Assurance by Simple Testing(FAST). It was found that the decreasing in breaking extension and increasing in shrinkage of Optim™ fine resulted in the declining in formability and dimensional stability of Optim™ fine fabric. Suggestions on the ways of constructing Optim™ fine into fabric were also given according to the anlysis of relationship between the properties changes of Optim™ fine fiber and that of its fabric.


Abstract : Since 1990, GAO has designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) management of major weapon system acquisitions a high risk area. DOD has taken some action to improve acquisition outcomes, but its weapon programs continue to take longer, cost more, and deliver fewer capabilities than originally planned. These persistent problems-coupled with current operational demands-have impelled DOD to work outside of its traditional acquisition process to acquire equipment that meet urgent warfighter needs. Poor outcomes in DOD's weapon system programs reverberate across the entire federal government. Over the next 5 years, DOD expects to invest more than $357 billion on the development and procurement of major defense acquisition programs. Every dollar wasted on acquiring weapon systems is less money available for other priorities. This testimony describes DOD's current weapon system investment portfolio, the problems that contribute to cost and schedule increases, potential solutions based on past GAO recommendations, and recent legislative initiatives and DOD actions aimed at improving outcomes. It also provides some observations about what is needed for DOD to achieve lasting reform. The testimony is drawn from GAO's body of work on DOD's acquisition, requirements, and funding processes, as well as its most recent annual assessment of selected DOD weapon programs.


Conflict, Custom and Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017, edited by Jim Marbrook, Del Abcede, Natalie Robertson and David Robie. Auckland: Pacific Media Centre. 2017. 78 pages. ISBN 978-1-927184-45-5.
At an event marking 10 years of the Pacific Media Centre in Auckland in November 2017, Radio New Zealand journalist Johnny Blades said New Zealand's role in establishing a ceasefire in Bougainville in 1998—and paving the way for a subsequent peace agreement—was an achievement New Zealanders should be proud of. 'We should be shouting about it from the rooftops,' he said. But sadly, he added, too few people seemed to know much about it these days.


An LLC resonant converter would have light-load voltage regulation problems due to the effect of parasitic capacitances in a high-frequency range. In this paper, an energy feedback control method is proposed to improve the light-load regulation capacity by using synchronous rectifiers (SRs). The SR bridges are controlled ahead of the primary inverter bridges to deliver the energy from load to source, reducing the output voltage independent of the load. Then the desired voltage can be achieved even in no-load conditions by regulating the operation time of the energy feedback mode. The gain, voltage ripple, and efficiency performances of the proposed control method are discussed based on the precise analysis and an accurate model of the converter. Moreover, the light-load operations of the LLC resonant converter are analyzed deriving the critical load condition. Finally, the proposed control method is verified by the experiments of a 12 V/8 A LLC resonant converter prototype.


Delta-Domain Predictive Control and Identification for Control The present thesis is concerned with different aspects of modelling, control and identification of linear systems. Traditionally, discrete-time sampled-data systems are represented using shift-operator parametrizations. Such parametrizations are not suitable at fast sampling rates. An alternative parametrization using the so-called delta-operator is examined. It is shown how to maintain a close correspondence to continuous-time when sampling a system described in continuous-time by stochastic differential equations. Using delta-operator parametrizations makes it possible to unify discrete-time and continuous-time theory. In addition these parametrizations possess certain numerical advantages compared to shift-operator representations. A new prediction method is developed. It is based on ideas from continuoustime but derived from discrete-time delta-operator models. It is shown to include the optimal minimum-variance predictor as a special case and to have a well-defined continuous-time limit. By means of this new prediction method a unified framework for discrete-time and continuous-time predictive control algorithms is developed. This contains a continuoustime like discrete-time predictive controller which is insensitive to the choice of sampling period and has a well-defined limit in the continuous-time case. Also more conventional discrete-time predictive control methods may be described within the unified approach. The predictive control algorithms are extended to frequency weighted criterion functions. Also a statespace approach is described which extends straightforwardly to the multi-variable case. Finally, aspects on the connection between system identification and control design are discussed. Several approaches to improve this interconnection have been proposed. The frequency-distribution of the estimation error with low-complexity models is treated and proves to be important for the development of control-relevant prefilters in estimation. Iterative approaches are presented, both using standard estimation methods with prefiltering and non-standard control-relevant estimation methods. New combined adaptive/iterative techniques are proposed.


Abstract In the twenty-first century, multicultural encounters have become an experience that is familiar even to the youngest. In superdiverse trilingual Luxembourg, over 50% of the population are foreigners, and many of them do not speak the titular language of the country. Multicultural classrooms are studied very closely, but Russian-speaking students, a new but exponentially growing addition to the cultural mix, have not been studied yet in their journey of school integration. There is a gap between the parents and the teachers regarding perception of the content of the studies and family aspirations. Instruction in the Luxembourgish language, usually unfamiliar to Russian families, is not the only obstacle for a child to make good progress at school. The Slavic family group and the Cyrillic alphabet, different holiday calendar and traditions, as well as differences in behavioural patterns and educational models complicate the perception of implicit school rules both for the children and their parents. In this short ethnographic study, based on five in-depth semi-structured interviews with parents, qualitative data were analysed in order to single out the main challenges that Russian-speaking families face while adapting to the public Luxembourgish preschool, the first contact with Luxembourgish language and community life.


Extracellular single‐unit recordings were used to assess the effects of PCP and PCP‐like drugs (MK‐801 and TCP) on the burst firing of ventral tegmental A10 dopamine neurons in the rat. The effects of these noncompetitive N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists were compared to the potent and competitive NMDA antagonists CGS 19755 and (±)CPP, and to BTCP, a PCP‐derivative possessing little affinity for the PCP binding site within the ion channel gated by NMDA. PCP, MK‐801, and TCP produced dose‐dependent increases in the firing rate, which were accompanied by increases in the amount of burst activity, the number of action potentials within a burst, and the conversion of nonbursty cells to bursty. However, the coefficient of variation, a measure of the regularity of firing, was not significantly altered. These predominately excitatory effects contrast with the inhibition of firing, decrease in bursting, and regularization of pattern produced by BTCP. CGS 19755 and (±) CPP failed to alter any of the measured parameters. Thus, the increase in firing rate and amount of burst activity of dopamine neurons produced by PCP and PCP‐like drugs, and the resultant hyperdopaminergia within the mesolimbic‐mesocortical regions, could underlie the psychotomimetic properties of these compounds. Moreover, this effect would not appear to be related to a loss of activity at the NMDA recognition site, as evidenced by the lack of effect of the competitive NMDA antagonists. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Letter from W. G. Connor to J. D. Giddings. Connor explains that he has sent Bro. Mood with twelve dollars to give to Giddings, and since he has another subscriber, Connor asks Giddings to pay him back fifteen dollars for a three dollar credit. Connor also says that Giddings needs to pay Dr. F.O. Dannelly of Waxahachie five dollars for paying Giddings' subscription to the Southern Quarterly.


In this paper we discuss whether the EU may be held liable by individuals for damages they suffer due to a violation of world trade organization (WTO) law by the EU.We focus on European companies whose exports to a third country are suddenly blocked as a result of WTO-authorized retaliation by that country against the EU, for as long as the EU fails to adjust those measures which have been found to infringe WTO law. Typically, the affected European companies are in no way involved in the trade dispute between the EU and a third country, as the dispute normally relates to a completely different sector.The problem that arises here has also been referred to as 'collateral damage', or damage to 'innocent bystanders'. In view of disappointing developments in the European Courts' case law, we propose a legislative solution to compensate innocent bystanders.


Aim: The scientific production in each country shows its development. The stable development of a country is determined by its special abilities. This study aimed at mapping of the scientific production of type-1 Medical Science Universities in Iran and determining place of Babol University of Medical Science in Scopus during 2006-2015. Methods: This is a descriptive-survey study with Scientometric approach. Research population consisted of all documents and articles produced by 24 type-1 Iranian medical science universities that were affiliated by Iranian researchers and authors during 2006-2015 and indexed by Scopus database. SPSS 19 and Excel were used for data analysis. . Results: Findings show that these 24 type-1 medical science universities produced 23523 scientific articles. Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences is the highest-ranked university by producing 2538 scientific papers. Babol University of Medical Science ranked seventh by 1368 scientific papers. Scientific production of studied universities had 23 growth and most articles wrote in the field of occupational and environmental Health. The Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Science published the most documents of these researchers affiliated in the 24 universities. Conclusion: According to results, it is needed that research managers in healthcare system assign dedicated funds for research activities in these universities in order to increasingly improve the quantity as well as the quality of their research activities. n


A clutch is a very important component when engine starts and gear shifting is needed. The clutch the most commonly used is the dry clutch. This type of clutch has pads, and they are worn after disengagement of clutch little by little. The characteristics of the clutch changes as these pads wear, so wear needs to be measured, and the clutch should be controlled for proper operation. In this study, the clutch contact point estimation algorithm has been developed. From this algorithm, clutch force map changes depending on wear, and the clutch operates properly. We also see the shifting transient of a vehicle for drivability with throttle valve position control and synchronizer movement.


Objectives: To investigate the differences between bone mineral density (BMD), lean and fat mass of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-) positive and HIV-negative black women and to investigate factors associated with low BMD. Methods: Case-control study of black women (n = 565) aged 29–65 years from Potchefstroom, North West province, South Africa, based on secondary analysis of data. Total BMD, left femur neck of the hip (LFN BMD), spine BMD, total fat, fat-free tissue mass and percentage body fat (%BF) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results: HIV-negative women had significantly higher median BMD, %BF, appendicular skeletal mass (ASM), ASM index, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference than HIV-positive women. When the groups were matched for age and BMI, only spine BMD was marginally lower in HIV-positive women. In the total group, age, smoking and HIV status were associated with lower BMD, while calcium intake was positively associated with BMD. Similar variables were associated with BMD in HIV-negative women, while age and educational status were associated with BMD in HIV-positive women. Conclusion: Low BMD was more common among HIV-positive than HIV-negative women. Older HIV-positive women with low educational status are particularly at risk.


Artefacts found during archaeological fieldwork are the objects most favoured by academic research. Private collections on the other hand, of which many exist and which may contain large numbers of artefacts, are mostly disregarded. These overlooked objects are often retrieved by people looking for artefacts in agrarian fields or in construction yards. Their private collections carry considerable value for archaeological and heritage research, but have never been systematically documented. They are therefore hardly known within professional circles in the Netherlands. The central aim of PAN (Portable Antiquities of the Netherlands) is to document and publish archaeological finds in private ownership online, particularly metal artefacts found by metal detector users. PAN makes information about these objects and their find locations available for a variety of stakeholders, significantly increasing the amount of archaeological artefacts that can be used for research and for the creation of object distribution maps in the Netherlands, which are an important research tool for archaeologists.


This graduate textbook offers advanced and contemporary readings in international trade and economic development and provides an overview of the fundamental topics in this area. It brings together many of the issues that are considered staple reading for a course in trade and development and it offers a systematic coverage of the relevant and state of the art research on various aspects of the subject. This includes detailed analysis of important sub-topics such as: trade and labour market, trade and public economics, the theory of the second best, foreign aid, factor mobility, and regional and global welfare. It also covers international trade and labour standards, the informal labour market, and TRIPS. Aimed at post-graduate students interested in trade theory and applications in development issues, this book should also prove a valuable resource for practicing economists, policy makers, and advanced undergraduate students studying international trade. The text balances extensive coverage of available literature in the area with substantive inclusions from new research published in leading journals and volumes. It aims to fill the gap in the teaching resources and should promote further theoretical and empirical research in the subject.


In an attempt to determine and compare the nature of virtual reference services in both academic and public libraries outside the United States, we analyzed data compiled from webform transactions e-mailed to and from libraries via the Question-Point virtual reference service. The study reviewed transactions that were handled during a typical week in April 2006 and in April 2008 by twenty-three libraries in ten countries: Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. We analyzed transactions by language, type of institution (public or academic), question type (access, bibliographic, or subject), answer type, subject, and response time, with attention to how these characteristics had changed in two years. The results of the study provide insight into how students and the general public use virtual reference services in various countries and how service efficiency differs among countries and library types.


Banqiao school building had to be demolished for rebuilding because of severe damage induced by liquefaction following the 2008 Wenchuan Ms 8.0 Earthquake. The mechanism of the building damage and the characteristics of liquefied soils were investigated by trench, borehole drilling, and Dynamic Penetration Test. The detailed field investigation and in-situ tests show that: (1) The Banqiao school building suffered more severe damages than its surrounding buildings from the liquefaction rather than inertia force of shaking during the earthquake; (2) The subsurface liquefied soils are gravelly soils at the depth of 3.0 to 6.1m, which are significant different from the ejected fine sands; (3) It is unreasonable to regard gravels as non-liquefiable soils and a new procedure for gravels liquefaction evaluation need to be developed.


Basing on the study of contents of medical logistics modern system the principles for modelling of the processes controlling the medical property reserves in the troops and stores were developed. The developed methodology has allowed to define the optimal sizes of reserves and to establish the dependence between the troops' medical property provision and the efficiency of medical care and treatment rendered the casualties and patients.


Although evidence regarding the journey-to-crime in juvenile offenders is available for some areas of the world, little is known about their mobility patterns in Southern Europe. Variables such as prosocial facilities, transport stations, or socioeconomic backdrop have been proved to influence the traveled distance. Therefore, we aimed to confirm previous findings in the journey-to-crime literature using data provided by the Juvenile Justice Department of the Basque Country (Spain). Although some results are in line with those of previous studies, emphasizing the relevance of environmental factors for better understanding crime patterns in the juvenile population, other specific patterns also emerged that suggest the need to replicate research across countries and to consider specific behavior patterns and styles of spatial design in each study setting.


The analysis of the main directions in the study and research on recidivism deserves some thoughts regarding both the methodological and theoretical references. It is also necessary to ask questions about the purposes that such studies must have and about the relationships with the preventive action and the fight against crime. In fact, the criminal career studies tend to neglect the influence that the impact of the judicial intervention has on the development of life course. Judicial intervention may break the deviant career because of the length of the sentence, favouring courses of socialization or, otherwise, of stigma. According to the labelling approach, the impact of the justice facilitates the construction of the deviant identity and the subsequent life choices in irreversible way. In this perspective, the studies on recidivism have often coincided with the studies on the deviant career. These studies have recently settled according to a multifactorial model of interpretation of crimes, although they have gained greater fluidity than the stiffness of an approach based on the causal factors model. This work proposes a conception of deviance still centred on the collection and analysis of determinants. The emphasis on the search of the causes takes to give little importance to the various effects of justice on the genesis and development of the deviant career. The judicial intervention is often crucial to deny the access to social opportunities. otherwise, the enforcement of penalty can enable integration processes, not only from a social point of view, but also encouraging personal itineraries of reflection. These considerations lead to the conclusion that a review of the theoretical and methodological studies on recidivism and more emphasis on the true extent of the judicial intervention on the development of deviant life course are needed. It is so proposed a reformulation of the definition of recidivism focused not only on the outcome of the positive conclusion of the measure applied, but also on the future development. It is also stated that the studies on recidivism have to consider how the sentence will not only affect the commission of crimes, but also change the person through the activation of processes of accountability and internal self.


This paper examines the impact of late-career investment returns and job loss on subsequent retiree well-being. Specifically, we explore whether there is a link between the income of retirees aged 70 to 79 and the stock market and labor market conditions that existed around the time of their retirement. We use data from the 2000 Census and the 2001 through 2007 American Community Surveys and consider both total personal income and income by type. We find that a long-term decline in the stock market in the years leading up to retirement leads to a modest reduction in investment income a decade or so later for those in the top third of the income distribution. The consequences of approaching retirement when the labor market is weak are more severe. A higher unemployment rate around the time of retirement reduces Social Security income for those in the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution; we estimate that an unemployed worker experiences a roughly 20 percent drop in Social Security income, consistent with claiming benefits several years early. Overall, our results indicate the importance of the challenges faced by lower-income workers who face a weak labor market as they approach retirement.


Recent research has suggested that ten percent of school aged children and young people within the UK experience a clinically diagnosable mental health problem (Green et al., 2005). Schools, teachers and educational psychology services are increasingly required to help with the prevention, early recognition and management of mental health difficulties. In particular, teachers have been identified as important supporters of pupil mental health needs as tier one mental health workers and providers of universal mental health services (DfCSF & DH, 2008; Ofsted, 2005). However, a comprehensive review of both government and academic literature indicated that the feasibility of this expectation is largely unexplored, particularly within the UK context. Therefore, this thesis sought to investigate the perspectives of mainstream secondary school teachers regarding pupil mental health needs in order to develop a predictive model of their willingness. The rationale for focusing on willingness was that psychological theory indicates that willingness is an important determinant of actual behaviour (e.g. Ajzen, 2005). A model was developed based upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), but which included other relevant elements identified within the literature. The model was tested using a questionnaire developed for the purpose of the study, which was found to have both internal reliability and validity. Teachers from 14 schools within 9 South Wales LEAs completed the questionnaire (n=217). Regression analysis provided support for the proposed model, indicating that teacher age, level of personal experience and attitude towards the role were particularly strong predictors of teacher willingness. This research has many implications in terms of developing the capacity of schools to support the mental health needs of their pupils, for example, in providing an understanding of some of the social-cognitive processes which may influence teacher willingness. Additionally, the research has identified an important role for educational psychologists in terms of supporting schools to develop teacher willingness, for example, through tailored training.


Iran Abstract Background and Aim: This study aimed to provide an overview about the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) versus SRP alone in non-surgical periodontal therapy. Materials and Methods: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) with a minimum duration of 3 months, evaluating PDT+SRP versus SRP alone in non-surgical periodontal treatment of patients diagnosed with aggressive or chronic periodontitis who had at least 2 teeth with probing depth (PD) ≥4 mm, and in vitro studies evaluating the effect of adjunctive PDT on proliferation or viability of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) were included. An electronic search of the literature was carried out mainly through PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google scholar for relevant English articles published from January 2011 to January 2021 using the following therapy" "periodontitis" diseases". Results: Twelve articles were reviewed in this study. Analysis of the clinical attachment level (CAL), PD, gingival index (GI), plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BOP) and microbiological counts of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans) and Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) demonstrated variable outcomes. Five articles revealed significant improvement of clinical parameters in the PDT groups compared with the control group (P<0.05); five studies reported significant improvement of CAL (P<0.05). However, three studies found no significant difference between PDT and control groups in terms of CAL (P>0.05). Conclusion: PDT+SRP could help improve the periodontal parameters, compared with SRP alone. Further studies are required to reach a stronger conclusion regarding the superiority of one over the


This work presents a method to decompose a layer of the generative networks into the painting actions. To behave like the human painter, these actions are driven by the cost simulating the hand movement, the paint color change, the stroke shape and the stroking style. To help planning, the Mask R-CNN is applied to detect the object areas and decide the painting order. The proposed painting system introduces a variety of extensions in artistic styles, based on the chosen parameters. Further experiments are performed to evaluate the channel penetration and the channel sensitivity on the strokes.


ENGLISH/ANGLAIS] Affiliations: 1 Human Genetics Laboratory, Department of Studies in Zoology, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, Mysore, Karnataka, INDIA 2 Mediwave IVF and Fertility Research Hospital, Mysore, Karnataka, INDIA * Email Address for Correspondence/ Adresse de courriel pour la correspondance: email@example.com. in Accepted/Accepté: August, 2011 Full Citation: Chaithra PT, Sreenivasa G, Vineeth VS, Kavitha P, Najafi M, Kumar S, Malini SS. Male Factors: An Ignored Etiology in Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. World Journal of Life Sciences and Medical Research 2011;1(4):76-82. The etiologies of recurrent pregnancy loses could be chromosomal aberrations, uterine defects, immunological problems, endocrinological problems, advanced reproductive age, sperm deformities and gene mutations. But most often the male factors are neglected and not consider as major factor in Pregnancy loss. In male partner of the patients with recurrent pregnancy loss RPL have a significant increase in sperm DNA fragmentation and decreased sperm functions. This study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between male factors and pregnancy loss. In our study with 50 idiopathic RPL cases 30 cases were identified with female factors responsible for RPL, 7 cases with both male and female eitiologiesand rest 13 were idiopathic. Randomly selected males were taken as controls with proven fertility rate and compared with RPL group. The semen samples of the respective male partners were analysed along with basic semen analysis procedures. Sperm function test was carried out by Hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOS), Acrosomal Reaction (AR) and Nuclear decondensation test (NCD). Sperm motility, viability and sperm function tests scores were significantly lower in the RPL group when compared to the control group. Through this pilot study it is significant that male factor might be a possible contributing factor towards RPL. Therefore both the partners should be evaluated and treated simultaneously in order to achieve successful pregnancy.


Warm-needling (also called thermo-acupuncture) is a combination of acupuncture and moxibustion. Due to the intense heat involved, there have been concerns over the biological safety of the acuneedles used in the treatment. This paper reports two phases of a safety test. For a preliminary test, we compared the temperature change patterns of stainless steel (SS304) needles and traditional gold alloy needles, which have been increasingly replaced by the former. To verify the effects of the presence of coating materials, the main test involved three different kinds of SS304: silicone-coated, salicylic acid-coated and non-coated needles. Each group of needles was tested for pH level, heavy metals and UV absorbance spectrum along with biological tests on the cytotoxicity and hemolysis of the needle. All the tests on the extractants from the needles were negative. In the biological tests, each test result showed a significant difference from the positive control samples, while no significant difference was observed compared with the negative control samples. In the hemolysis tests, all samples satisfied the Korean Government Standards. All the results suggest that SS304 needles are biologically safe to be used in warm-needling, though they can be improved to perform as well as the gold alloy needles in terms of temperature fluctuations.


Abstract On the fringes of post-Reformation Europe, church and state authorities faced problems in enforcing church attendance. In the Swedish kingdom, religious uniformity was seen as vital for the success of the state after the Lutheran confession had been established, and absences from church were punishable by law. The seventeenth century saw significant tightening of legislation relating to church absences and other breaches of the Sabbath, and severe punishments were introduced. Despite considerable deterrents, it was sometimes difficult to control local inhabitants: absence cases were regularly brought before the local courts in Eastern Finland, where authorities were hampered by a combination of geographical distance and a highly mobile population. In this article, popular church-going practices are studied with an approach inspired by historical anthropology. In popular practice church attendance was required only on the most important holy days of the year, whereas on Sundays and prayer days, work or leisure were considered socially acceptable pursuits. Explanations of nonattendance should not only make reference to trying conditions: in certain situations people would travel long distances to church, despite the obvious difficulties they faced. Popular religious traditions and old conceptions of sacred time also affected behaviour among peasants. The great holy days of the year formed a ritual cycle, the aim of which was the maintenance of good relations with the supernatural. For the success of oneself and one's household, it was more important to follow the norms of popular culture than the orders of the authorities.


Abstract The interest in lean management in the UK's civil infrastructure sector is on the rise. In parallel with this interest, a team-based, participative management technique called Continuous Improvement (CI) cells has been widely adopted by the sector. The research on the technique has been scarce even though it has been adopted widely in some sectors as part of lean management. The study presented in the paper explores implementation characteristics, benefits, challenges and roles of CI cells in other management strategies through a case study conducted at a large public client organisation in the infrastructure sector in the UK. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through interviews, participant observation at CI cell meetings, and from organisational and team records. It was found that CI cells show some similarities and differences in application with other participative management techniques in lean management. A large set of CI cell benefits and challenges were identified. CI cells were also found linked with Visual Management, kaizen, hoshin kanri, work coordination and planning, and employee training at team level.


Abstract The industrial developments in the fusion industry will have to overcome numerous technical challenges and will have a strong need for modern information technology (IT) systems. The fusion industry has manifested itself with an unprecedented international collaboration, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Data accumulated in ITER will be the major output of the project and will create the knowledge base for a future fusion power plant. A modern and effective information infrastructure will be critical to the success of the ITER project. To accumulate and maintain the knowledge base at all stages of the project, we propose to build an integrated information system for ITER: ITER Information Plant (IIP). IIP will minimize lost experiment time and accelerate the understanding, interpretation, and planning of fusion experiments. IIP will allow to reap maximum benefits from the project's scientific and technological achievements, make the ITER results accessible to hundreds of researchers worldwide. This will facilitate collaboration, dramatically increasing the pace of scientific and technological discovery and the rate at which practical use is made of these discoveries. As the first of its kind, the ITER Information Plant could be used in the future as a prototype IT system for national and international fusion projects, in which multicountry collaboration, distributed work sites and operations are catalysts for success.


Pastoral caregivers are mediators for healing both body and spirit.  However, healing of the body through the spirit, and the spirit through the body is overlooked by caregiving disciplines. Different specialties emphasize more bodily healing or spiritual healing.  For example, medical doctors and psychologists aim to heal bodies, while pastoral caregivers seek to heal the spirit.  Additionally, this "healing" is complete once one reaches neutral functioning.  I believe healing is, instead, a journey towards optimal functioning that is flourishing.  In this paper, I explain how the body and spirit become disconnected in trauma survivors, and how those seeking healing ultimately are seeking to reconnect the body and spirit as one.  That is to say, bodily trauma hurts the spirit, and vice versa.  Secondly, I discuss the dangers of dualistic thinking and the language that separates body and spirit in society and among all types of caregivers, but especially pastoral caregivers.  Finally, I connect how an integrative body/spirit approach leads to more holistic healing.  Overall, I urge pastoral caregivers (as well as other disciplines) be more integrative, open-minded, and less dualistic in their approach to service and healing in order to build flourishing communities.


More than 20 years after the identification of Helicobacter pylori as a human pathogen, gastric cancer continues to be a leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Genetic association studies have the potential for helping to identify those at greatest risk for developing gastric cancer subsequent to infection by H. pylori. IL1B promoter polymorphisms have been supported by several meta-analyses as being associated with gastric cancer risk. In this review, we discuss challenges in experimental design of gene association studies in gastric cancer, with attention to gene-environment interactions that may lead to inconsistency in findings across populations.


This article examines the close ties that developed between Desiderius Erasmus and the Polish kingdom and the implication of these relationships on our understanding of the religious landscape of late medieval and early modern Europe. Few regions embraced Erasmus as enthusiastically as Poland, and nowhere else did he have such a concentration of allies positioned at the highest levels of society including the king himself. More than any other figure from western Europe, Erasmus helped shape the intellectual and religious agenda of the Polish kingdom during this period. A close analysis of this relationship expands our understanding of Reformation Europe in a number of critical ways. It brings Poland, normally viewed peripherally in this period, into key debates and discussions of the Reformation. Erasmus's relationship with Poland also speaks to wider issues and processes of change in the Christian world. As confessional distinctions were becoming more pronounced in the 1520s and 1530s and hope for ecclesial reunion receded, Erasmus looked to Poland as a model for Christendom. He held up the kingdom as an example of how difference could be accommodated and compromise could be reached through wise leadership in church and state.


The availability and demand for proton therapy is rapidly expanding across the globe. One of the key decisions that must be made in the procurement process by all new centres is which proton treatment planning system (TPS) to purchase. The first topic of this thesis is therefore to evaluate the performance of three different proton TPSs in the planning of ten meningioma patients. The comparison is built upwards from the beam commissioning and attempts are made to make as many variables as possible consistent between systems. Few statistically significant differences were found between the plans, although differences between the systems (such as layer spacing and spot positioning) are discussed. It is hoped this work will be of general use to the whole proton physics community and will encourage further development of proton TPSs from vendors. One of the major sources of range uncertainty in current proton treatment planning is due to the necessary conversion of the patient's X-ray computed tomography (CT) dataset from CT numbers to relative stopping powers (RSPs). The remainder of the thesis looks to address this. The stoichiometric procedure is considered the most accurate method to generate the X-ray CT to RSP calibration curve. In the third chapter of the thesis an investigation is made into the errors of this procedure: specifically, the theoretical calculation of the RSP, step four of the process. The impact of these errors on the proton beam range is calculated for both phantom and patient cases. It has been suggested that proton radiography could offer a solution to the uncertainty in this calibration curve. The fourth chapter of the thesis therefore looks at a novel method of proton radiography, which involves taking the dose ratio of two pristine Bragg peaks. The investigation proceeds with a theoretical analysis of the application limits of the technique, together with an experimental validation of the theoretical approach. The fifth chapter of the thesis demonstrates an approach that uses proton radiography to improve the calibration curve. Assuming the information in the proton radiograph to be correct, the calibration curve can be optimised by comparison with a digitally reconstructed radiograph through the X-ray CT. The function of this optimiser is validated on synthetic datasets and its application is demonstrated with real measurements on plastic and real tissue phantoms. The technique is also shown to offer an improvement in the water-equivalent path length prediction at a therapeutic depth.


The physico-chemical properties of the soil in shifting cultivation fields in Xiang Ngeun district, Luang Phabang province were investigated in order to provide a basis for developing an agricultural system that will be sustainable under higher population pressure on the land and increased demand to engage in intensive farming. The soils in the study area have reasonably high contents of soil nutrients despite being on erosion-prone sloping land. Soil fertility status may not be fully restored even when the length of fallow is 10 years. The nutrients accumulated in the soil during fallow period are small compared with the nutrients supplied from the ash input when the biomass is burned so that soil nutrients were found not to be exhausted after a single year of cultivation. However, the density of weeds increases as the fallow period is shortened. Therefore, fallow plays an important role in weed control during the cropping period. These findings suggest that an agroforestry system that combines crop cultivation with paper mulberry production could be a sustainable farming system for short-fallow shifting cultivation. To be acceptable to the farmers, this agroforestry system must be effective both in controlling weeds and in generating income for the shifting cultivators.


One-, 4-, and lo-week-old pigs were exposed to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) to determine the effect of age on clinical signs, hematologic alterations, the onset and duration of viremia, routes of virus shedding, antibody production, and microscopic lesions produced by PRRSV isolate ATCC VR-2332. The response to PRRSV infection was similar among age groups. Fever, usually prolonged, and a marked dyspnea with cutaneous erythema when restrained for sample collection were the most consistent clinical signs. Prolonged periocular edema was unique to the 1-week-old pigs. The white blood cell count was decreased on day 4 postexposure (PE) due to decreases in neutrophils and lymphocytes. The virus was isolated from buffy coats at day 1 PE and was isolated from serum, buffy coat, or plasma at each sample collection period through the end of the trial (day 28 PE). Virus was most consistently isolated from lung, lymph node, spleen, and tonsil on day 7 PE and exclusively from lymph node, spleen, and tonsil on day 28 PE. Virus was infrequently isolated from urine and fecal and nasal swabs. Consistent microscopic changes in all age groups included interstitial pneumonia and lymph node hypertrophy and hyperplasia on days 7 and 28 PE, lymph node necrosis on day 7 PE, and subacute mononuclear myocarditis on day 28 PE. Findings presented here indicate that interstitial pneumonia, lymphoid necrosis, and mononuclear myocarditis are characteristic lesions of PRRSV isolate ATCC VR-2332 infection in 1-, 4-, and lo-week-old pigs.


Through observations and modeling, we demonstrate how the recently discovered large-scale bar in NGC 5248 generates spiral structure that extends from 10 kpc down to 100 pc, fuels star formation on progressively smaller scales, and drives disk evolution. Deep inside the bar, two massive molecular spirals cover nearly 180° in azimuth, show streaming motions of 20-40 km s-1, and feed a starburst ring of super-star clusters at 375 pc. They also connect to two narrow K-band spirals that delineate the UV bright star clusters in the ring. The data suggest that the K-band spirals are young, and the starburst has been triggered by a bar-driven spiral density wave (SDW). The latter may even have propagated closer to the center where a second Hα ring and a dust spiral are found. The molecular and Hubble Space Telescope data support a scenario where stellar winds and supernovae efficiently clear out gas from dense star-forming regions on timescales less than a few Myr. We have investigated the properties of massive CO spirals within the framework of bar-driven SDWs, incorporating the effect of gas self-gravity. We find good agreement between the model predictions and the observed morphology, kinematics, and pitch angle of the spirals. This combination of observations and modeling provides the best evidence to date for a strong dynamical coupling between the nuclear region and the surrounding disk. It also confirms that a low central mass concentration, which may be common in late-type galaxies, is particularly favorable to the propagation of a bar-driven gaseous SDW deep into the central region of the galaxy, whereas a large central mass concentration favors other processes, such as the formation and decoupling of nuclear bars.


Plasmodesmata establish a pathway for the intercellular trafficking of viral movement proteins and endogenous non-cell-autonomous proteins, such as the two closely related meristem-maintaining KNOTTED1-like homeobox (KNOX) proteins Zea mays KNOTTED1 (KN1) and Arabidopsis thaliana SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM). KNOX family members are DNA binding proteins that regulate the transcriptional activity of target genes in conjunction with BEL1-like homeodomain proteins. It has been shown previously, using in vivo transport assays, that the C-terminal domain of KN1, including the homeodomain, is necessary and sufficient for cell-to-cell transport through plasmodesmata. Here, using interaction and coexpression assays, we demonstrate that the microtubule-associated and viral movement protein binding protein MPB2C from Nicotiana tabacum, and its homolog in Arabidopsis, At MPB2C, are KN1/STM binding factors. Interaction between the MPB2C proteins and KN1/STM was mapped to the KN1 homeodomain, a region not essential for heterodimerization with BEL1. Expression of MPB2C in single cells prevented KN1 cell-to-cell movement. Furthermore, in vivo trichome rescue studies established that MPB2C negatively regulates KN1 association to plasmodesmata and, consequently, cell-to-cell transport. These findings are discussed in terms of the role played by MPB2C proteins in regulating the cell-to-cell trafficking of homeodomain proteins in plants.


Abstract Policy making in the area of immigration and ethnic affairs relies increasingly on the findings of social science research. A new "conventional wisdom" is emerging in sociological and economic studies. Its claim to objectivity is based on the use of a methodology which emphasises the use of sophisticated statistical methods, especially multiple regression models. The present paper suggests that this apparently objective approach is actually based on a set of of subjectivist and voluntaristic assumptions on: the nature of society, the character of the groups being examined, and on the practice and logic of scientific research. This type of analysis leads to the reconstitution of the "ethnic group" through the use of dummy variables, which mask many of the specific structural features of labour migrants. Moreover, the emphasis on multiple regression models makes it necessary to quantitify the variables to be examined. This involves a subjective decision by the researcher: either to give a numerical value to something for which there is no single correct form of quantification, or to exclude it altogether from the analysis. The approach is based on a human capital model, in which migrants are seen only as economic subjects in a rational market system. This blocks historical understanding of the way labour relations function in capitalist societies, in particular of the significance of labour migration, and of the role of segmentation of the labour market according to ethnciity and gender in class relations.


This paper deals with the problem of reliable group communication for distributed applications, in the context of the Reliable Broadcast class of protocols. An atomic multicast protocol for token passing Lans is presented. The actual implementation is on an 8802/4 Token-bus, although it is applicable to 8802/5 Token-rings and the FDDI Fibre-Optic network.
The simplicity and efficiency of reliable broadcast protocols may be considerably improved, if the system fault model is restricted or convenient architectures are used. Fail-controlled communication components are used here to build an efficient reliable multicast protocol on top of the exposed MAC interface of a VLSI Lan controller. The architecture is built on standard Lans, in view of taking advantage of the availability of communications hardware and the possibility of coexistence with standard stations, in the same network.
The service offered allows transparent multicasting inside logical groups, which are dynamically created and updated. The primitive is highly parallel and provides atomic agreement and consistent delivery order, respecting logical precedence. These features are an important contribution for the implementation of high performance distributed computing systems.


The school system in Nigeria is often influenced by the constant changes that are occurring within the political institutions. The ability of the stakeholders and actors within the educational system to adapt to the organizational changes has attracted attention in the last decade. Currently, there is controversy as to the nature, pattern and methods of training teachers in the country. At the centre of the controversy is the confusion over the role of the educational administrators in secondary schools. This paper conducts a comprehensive assessment of the role of educational administrators in Nigeria in view of the dynamism of the constantly changing political and economic landscape. The paper presents information and recommendations on how teachers training and continuous professional development can be positively influenced by the school administrators.


The objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of controlled internal drug release (CIDR), sponge impregnated with cronolone (Chronogest) on estrus synchronization and pregnancy during the breeding season in Ossimi sheep. About 18 ewes used in this study were distributed into 3 groups, Group A (vaginal sponge, n=7) which received the hormonal treatment for 9 days plus an injection of 400 IU of PMSG 48 hrs before the removal of the sponge, Group B (CIDR, n=7) which received the hormonal treatment for 12 days plus an injection of 400 IU of PMSG at the day of removal of CIDR and Group C act as control without any hormonal treatment. Estrus was monitored every 6 hrs for 3 days until the estrus detected by the teaser rams. Natural mating with fertile ram during the estrus. In this study the results showed that the incidence of the estrus was higher in CIDR group than the others. The interval from the device removal to the onset of estrus was longer in the sponge than in CIDR (27 - 30 hrs versus 23 - 25 hrs). Vaginal mucus discharge was observed at a higher level in sponge group than those in CIDR. The duration of estrus was longer in CIDR than in sponge (37 hrs versus 30 hrs), Therefore, the conception rate was higher in the CIDR than sponge group. It was concluded that treatment with CIDR device give high estrus response, short onset to estrus, longer duration and high in conception rate. Along overall CIDR was effective in the efficiency of estrus synchronization.


A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH FOR MODELING AGENTS Hamdi Kavak Old Dominion University, 2019 Director: Dr. Jose J. Padilla Agents are commonly created on a set of simple rules driven by theories, hypotheses, and assumptions. Such modeling premise has limited use of real-world data and is challenged when modeling real-world systems due to the lack of empirical grounding. Simultaneously, the last decade has witnessed the production and availability of large-scale data from various sensors that carry behavioral signals. These data sources have the potential to change the way we create agent-based models; from simple rules to driven by data. Despite this opportunity, the literature has neglected to offer a modeling approach to generate granular agent behaviors from data, creating a gap in the literature. This dissertation proposes a novel data-driven approach for modeling agents to bridge the research gap. The approach is composed of four detailed steps including data preparation, attribute model creation, behavior model creation, and integration. The connection between and within each step is established using data flow diagrams. The practicality of the approach is demonstrated with a human mobility model that uses millions of location footprints collected from social media. In this model, the generation of movement behavior is tested with five machine learning/statistical modeling techniques covering a large number of model/data configurations. Results show that Random Forest-based learning is the most effective for the mobility use case. Furthermore, agent attribute values are obtained/generated with machine learning and translational assignment techniques. The proposed approach is evaluated in two ways. First, the use case model is compared to another model which is developed using a state-of-the-art data-driven approach. The model's prediction performance is comparable to the state-of-the-art model. The plausibility of behaviors and model structure in the use case model is found to be closer to real-world than the state-ofthe-art model. This outcome indicates that the proposed approach produces realistic results. Second, a standard mobility dataset is used for driving the mobility model in place of social media data. Despite its small size, the data and model resembled the results gathered from the primary use case indicating the possibility of using different datasets with the proposed approach.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret the findings from different sources on the corporate decisions during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: The COVID-19 is a new phenomenon;grounded theory research approach is adopted to develop propositions on prospect theory and strategic decisions. The paper examines and interprets the findings from different sources on the corporate decisions during COVID-19. Findings: Conventionally, it is believed that innovation brings risks, and individuals preferred certainty over uncertainty, even if the gains under uncertainty were twice as high. But, the results of the study indicate a divergent trend. Under threat perceptions of risks, companies explore significant opportunities and possibilities for organizational growth. Practical implications: The study provides a framework to analyze the strategic decisions of corporate enterprises. The decisions replicate value function as concave in a gain situation and convex in a loss realm in times of pandemic crises. Originality/value: This paper uses "actions taken" by enterprises offering various solutions in the testing times. The study is multidisciplinary in nature;it analyses the transformation strategic decisions in the context of economic and social dimensions for surviving the pandemic crises. The study provides a foundation for future research, as inferences are based on select examples. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.


Boring operations of deep holes with a slender boring bar are often hindered by the precision because of their low static stiffness and high deformations. Because of that, it is not possible to remove much larger depths of cuts than the nose radius of the tool, unlike the case of turning and face milling operations, and consequently, the relationship between the cutting force distribution, tool geometry, feed rate and depth of cut becomes non-linear and complex. This problem gets worse when working with a rotating boring head where apart from the cutting forces and the variation of the inclination angle because of shape boring, the bar and head are affected by de centrifugal forces. The centrifugal forces, and therefore the centrifugal deflection, will vary as a function of the rotating speed, boring bar mass distribution and variable radial position of the bar in shape boring. Taking in to account all this effects, a load and deformation model was created. This model has been experimentally validated to use as a corrector factor of the radial position of the U axis in the boring head.


The vaginal microbiota is believed to protect women against Chlamydia trachomatis, the etiologic agent of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI) in developed countries. The mechanism underlying this protection has remained elusive. Here, we reveal the comprehensive strategy by which the cervicovaginal microbiota modulates host functions to protect against chlamydial infection, thereby providing a novel conceptual mechanistic understanding. Major implications of this work are that (i) the impact of the vaginal microbiota on the epithelium should be considered in future studies of chlamydial infection and other STIs and (ii) a fundamental understanding of the cervicovaginal microbiota's role in protection against STIs may enable the development of novel microbiome-based therapeutic strategies to protect women from infection and improve vaginal and cervical health. ABSTRACT The mechanism(s) by which Lactobacillus-dominated cervicovaginal microbiota provide a barrier to Chlamydia trachomatis infection remain(s) unknown. Here we evaluate the impact of different Lactobacillus spp. identified via culture-independent metataxonomic analysis of C. trachomatis-infected women on C. trachomatis infection in a three-dimensional (3D) cervical epithelium model. Lactobacillus spp. that specifically produce d(−) lactic acid were associated with long-term protection against C. trachomatis infection, consistent with reduced protection associated with Lactobacillus iners, which does not produce this isoform, and with decreased epithelial cell proliferation, consistent with the observed prolonged protective effect. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that epigenetic modifications involving histone deacetylase-controlled pathways are integral to the cross talk between host and microbiota. These results highlight a fundamental mechanism whereby the cervicovaginal microbiota modulates host functions to protect against C. trachomatis infection. IMPORTANCE The vaginal microbiota is believed to protect women against Chlamydia trachomatis, the etiologic agent of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI) in developed countries. The mechanism underlying this protection has remained elusive. Here, we reveal the comprehensive strategy by which the cervicovaginal microbiota modulates host functions to protect against chlamydial infection, thereby providing a novel conceptual mechanistic understanding. Major implications of this work are that (i) the impact of the vaginal microbiota on the epithelium should be considered in future studies of chlamydial infection and other STIs and (ii) a fundamental understanding of the cervicovaginal microbiota's role in protection against STIs may enable the development of novel microbiome-based therapeutic strategies to protect women from infection and improve vaginal and cervical health.


This work was a 12-month LDA-funded collaborative project with Prior2Lever, a sports footwear start-up company combining design and podiatry with 3D direct manufacturing technology to develop custom fit and design sports footwear for elite athletes, resulting in the launch to market of the "assassin" football boot. My role was to explore novel surface decoration strategies to give the sole unit the required aesthetic appeal that such a high value application required, and to advise on the overall product aesthetic design. This was a progression of my research into mass-customisation, and the opportunities offered by direct 3D manufacturing to produce individualised, functional parts without the need for tooling. This new manufacturing paradigm emerged from Rapid Prototyping (RP) technologies which allow layered manufacturing of 3D objects directly from a CAD file.

While some RP technologies allow colour parts to be produced (3D printing), laser sintering which involves high temperatures is not, as yet able to deliver surface texture mapped images. Subsequently, post-manufacturing techniques for finishing and colouring the parts were explored, such as vacuum dye-sublimation. As a result, a number of designs were developed for the launch.

This work situates my practice between craft design practice (engaging with the aesthetic possibilities offered by digital tools) and engineering design practice (using digital tools to derive design from optimised structures and materials). My work looks at the combination of these in their relationship to the body and the decorated surface. The "assassin" boot is subsequently being trialled with a female England player, and a male Manchester City and Danish international player.


Abstract Wind energy is the fastest-growing electricity-generating technology. The wind energy targets set during the last decade have all been surpassed. Climate change is a major challenge to sustainable development worldwide and is increasingly recognized by forward-looking political and business leaders. One of the tasks we are facing is a profound transformation of our energy system over the next few decades of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies and dramatically increasing energy efficiency. This article reviews the progress made by wind energy in recent years, and discusses the potential of this technology in the world. The Denmark and Germany experience has shown that wind energy today comprises a reliable and cost-effective technology with positive effects on the reduction of CO2 emissions.


There has been a recent increase in interest in task design as a focus for research and development in mathematics education. This is well illustrated by the success of theoretically based long term design research projects in which design and research over time have combined to develop materials and approaches that have appealed to teachers. One area of investigation is how published tasks are appropriated by teachers for complex purposes and influences mathematics teaching. Tasks generate activity which affords opportunity to encounter mathematical concepts and also to use and develop mathematical thinking and modes of enquiry. Tasks also arise spontaneously in educational contexts, with teachers or learners raising questions or providing prompts for action by drawing on a repertoire of past experience. We are interested in how these are underpinned with implicit design principles. It is important to address also the question of sequences of tasks and the ways in which they link aspects of conceptual knowledge. The communities involved in task design are naturally diverse: designers, professional mathematicians, teacher educators, teachers, researchers, learners, authors, publishers and manufacturers, and individuals acting in several of these roles. We wish to illuminate the diverse communities and methods that lead to the development and use of tasks.


Background: The role of adenosine as cardio protective factor is well established. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) contributes to the control of adenosine concentration in body fluids and, as ecto-enzyme, to the regulation of adenosine receptors activity. ADA and adenosine receptors expressions have been found down regulated in heart failure. We have studied the relationship between genetic variability within the ADA gene and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Methods: The genotypes of three polymorphic sites (SNPs) within the ADA gene have been determined in 346 patients admitted to the hospital for cardiovascular diseases. Informed consent was obtained by the patients to participate to the study that was approved by the Council of Department of Biomedicine and Prevention. The three polymorphic sites in the ADA gene are called ADA1, ADA2 and ADA6. Each locus shows two alleles called ADA1*1 and ADA1*2, ADA2*1 and ADA2*2, ADA6*1 and ADA6*2 respectively. Results: The joint "ADA2*2 carrier/ADA6*1/*1 genotype" shows a statistically significant lower value of LVEF as compared to other joint genotypes (p=0.004). Such association is statistically significant in subjects with coronary artery disease only. Conclusions: The study of polymorphic sites of ADA gene could allow to detect subjects with higher risk of cardiac failure following infarction.


In this paper, we study the problem of ordering subgoals under binding pattern restrictions for queries posed as nonrecursive Datalog programs. We prove that despite their limited expressive power, the problem is computationally hard—PSPACE-complete in the size of the nonrecursive Datalog program even for fairly restricted cases. As a practical solution to this problem, we develop an asymptotically optimal algorithm that runs in time linear in the size of the query plan. We also study extensions of our algorithm that efficiently solve other query planning problems under binding pattern restrictions. These problems include conjunctive queries with nested grouping constraints, distributed conjunctive queries, and first-order queries.


Tumor metastasis is a highly inefficient biological process as millions of tumor cells are released in circulation each day and only a few of them are able to successfully form distal metastatic nodules. This could be due to the fact that most of the epithelial origin cancer cells are anchorage-dependent and undergo rapid anoikis in harsh circulating conditions. A number of studies have shown that in addition to tumor cells, activated endothelial cells are also released into the blood circulation from the primary tumors. However, the precise role of these activated circulating endothelial cells (CECs) in tumor metastasis process is not known. Therefore, we performed a series of experiments to examine if CECs promoted tumor metastasis by chaperoning the tumor cells to distal sites. Our results demonstrate that blood samples from head and neck cancer patients contain significantly higher Bcl-2-positive CECs as compared to healthy volunteers. Technically, it is challenging to know the origin of CECs in patient blood samples, therefore we used an orthotopic SCID mouse model and co-implanted GFP-labeled endothelial cells along with tumor cells. Our results suggest that activated CECs (Bcl-2-positive) were released from primary tumors and they co-migrated with tumor cells to distal sites. Bcl-2 overexpression in endothelial cells (EC-Bcl-2) significantly enhanced adhesion molecule expression and tumor cell binding that was predominantly mediated by E-selectin. In addition, tumor cells bound to EC-Bcl-2 showed a significantly higher anoikis resistance via the activation of Src-FAK pathway. In our in vivo experiments, we observed significantly higher lung metastasis when tumor cells were co-injected with EC-Bcl-2 as compared to EC-VC. E-selectin knockdown in EC-Bcl-2 cells or FAK/FUT3 knockdown in tumor cells significantly reversed EC-Bcl-2-mediated tumor metastasis. Taken together, our results suggest a novel role for CECs in protecting the tumor cells in circulation and chaperoning them to distal sites.


During a 24 month period, 30 patients were treated for central vessel trauma (CVT). Injured vessels included all of the major arteries and veins in the chesk, neck and abdomen except the infrarenal aorta. Overall survival was 70 per cent. Experience with specific injuries is reviewed with commentary on surgical access to difficult areas including the thoracic outlet, suprarenal aorta and inferior vena cava. Common factors in the nine deaths are reviewed with the findings that cardiac arrest at any time during pre- or intraoperative management is uniformly lethal; emergency thoracotomy for control of bleeding carries an expectedly high mortality; cross-clamping of the descending thoracic aorta to control hemoperitoneum has a limit of tolerance of about one hour, and prolonged shock, whether compensated or profound is poorly tolerated and is associated with a high mortality.


Curriculum learning (CL) or self-paced learning (SPL) represents a recently proposed learning regime inspired by the learning process of humans and animals that gradually proceeds from easy to more complex samples in training. The two methods share a similar conceptual learning paradigm, but differ in specific learning schemes. In CL, the curriculum is predetermined by prior knowledge, and remain fixed thereafter. Therefore, this type of method heavily relies on the quality of prior knowledge while ignoring feedback about the learner. In SPL, the curriculum is dynamically determined to adjust to the learning pace of the leaner. However, SPL is unable to deal with prior knowledge, rendering it prone to overfitting. In this paper, we discover the missing link between CL and SPL, and propose a unified framework named self-paced curriculum leaning (SPCL). SPCL is formulated as a concise optimization problem that takes into account both prior knowledge known before training and the learning progress during training. In comparison to human education, SPCL is analogous to "instructor-student-collaborative" learning mode, as opposed to "instructor-driven" in CL or "student-driven" in SPL. Empirically, we show that the advantage of SPCL on two tasks.


Objective: To determine the effect of self-medication with chloroquine and pyrimethamine on malaria infection and anaemia during pregnancy. Subjects and Methods: The study involved 210 women who attended Ade Oyo Maternity State Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Of these, 156 were pregnant women while 54 were not pregnant (controls). Of the pregnant women, 66 were primigravidae, while 90 were multigravidae. History of treatment of malaria with antimalarial drugs was obtained from the subjects. Gravidity and gestation period were also documented. Two millilitres of blood was withdrawn from each subject, for haematological parameters. Thin and thick films were prepared for malaria parasite identification and quantification. Results: Of the primigravidae and multigravidae 68 and 16.4%, respectively, had taken antimalarial drugs prior to booking. Among primigravidae, only18% of those with drugs compared with 32% without drugs were malaria-positive. The parasite density was significantly lower among those who took antimalarial drugs than among those who did not (976 B 60 versus 2,421 B 78, p ! 0.05). Similarly, among multigravidae, only 16.4% of those who took antimalarial drugs compared with 34% of those who were not malaria-positive. The parasite density was also significantly lower in multigravidae with drugs than among those without drugs (350 B 45 versus 1,000 B 65, p ! 0.05). The prevalence of anaemia (packed cell volume, PCV !33) was high, 89% in primigravidae and 70% in multigravidae. Severe anaemia (PCV !21) was more common in malaria-positive primigravidae and multigravidae than in malaria-negative women. Conclusion: The findings indicate that self-medication with chloroquine and pyrimethamine at booking was able to reduce the prevalence of malaria and anaemia in pregnancy.


Open volumetric absorbers have been tested and evaluated with the objective to determine their ability to heat air for small scale concentrating solar systems, more exactly a solar oven where a stove is heated up by a rock bed storage provided with air above 220°C. The absorbers were tested in terms of different size, shape and material. Heating up air to the target temperature has been a challenge for years, but was achieved with good margin with an experimental setup based on the flaws of previous test setups. At a concentration factor of 300 and a parabolic dish aperture area of 1.07 m2, steady state air temperatures at 300°C were achieved with a stainless steel fiber mesh absorber and a silicon carbide honeycomb absorber which has been exposed for extensively testing in solar towers. The air temperatures were achieved at a flow rate of 1.96*10^-3 kg/s, and as the flow rate was increased the air temperature decreased. At increased flow rate the absorber temperature was reduced and caused less radiation and convection loss which resulted in increased heat transfer between absorber and air. Efficiency defined as air energy increase through absorber divided by the normal direct solar irradiance ranges between 50 % and 80 %, where the efficiency peaked at the highest flow rate employed during the tests. The greatest average air temperature measured was 350°C which was achieved by employment of the honeycomb absorber at a concentration factor of 600 and a mass flow of 1.5*10^-3 kg/s.