This research aimed to highlight a model of self-efficacy in emerging adults (ages 18/20 – 30 years). We selected a sample of 191 participants, students and graduates. Our goal was to identify the optimum period of intervention to prevent the abandon and capitalization of the latent abilities of these young people. According to a report of the NASOR [14], the rate of academic studies abandon is of 40 per cent. At the same time, there is a significant number of students or graduates who do not succeed to secure a position suitable to their academic training and thus the opportunity of enhancing the development area closest to them. Between the ages of 18 and 26 we noticed a decrease of the records of the perceived self-efficacy, with a minimum between 25 and 26 years. The reasons could be some artefacts coming from their adolescence period, the changing of the paradigm linked to the educational system (different in the academic environment), the tendency towards independence and the confrontation with difficulties in ensuring adequate material conditions, the low perception of the practical utility of the accumulated knowledge. We identified a peak of the high scores of self-efficacy, statistically significant, around the age of 27. The explanation may be due to positive changes such as: the first professional achievements, followed by the emergence of new career opportunities, the future oriented perspective regarding the foundation of a family. We did not ascertain gender regarding differences.


In this paper, we aim to develop the averaging principle for a slow-fast system of stochastic reaction-diffusion equations driven by Poisson random measures. The coefficients of the equation are assumed to be functions of time, and some of them are periodic or almost periodic. Therefore, the Poisson term needs to be processed, and a new averaged equation needs to be given. For this reason, the existence of time-dependent evolution family of measures associated with the fast equation is studied and proved that it is almost periodic. Next, according to the characteristics of almost periodic functions, the averaged coefficient is defined by the evolution family of measures, and the averaged equation is given. Finally, the validity of the averaging principle is verified by using the Khasminskii method.


Artificial intelligence (AI) has a huge impact on our personal lives and also on our democratic society as a whole. While AI offers vast opportunities for the benefit of people, its potential to embed and perpetuate bias and discrimination remains one of the most pressing challenges deriving from its increasing use. This new study, which was prepared by Prof. Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius for the Anti-discrimination Department of the Council of Europe, elaborates on the risks of discrimination caused by algorithmic decision-making and other types of artificial intelligence (AI).


Over the last few years, a new multidisciplinary academic area has emerged around interest in digital media and learning. As with any such new area, the question arises as to how work in such an area can achieve enough commonality across different disciplines for contributors to engage in fruitful collaboration and the accumulation of shared knowledge? This paper is in two parts. The second part makes a specific proposal about one way in which such commonality can be achieved, namely in a new use of the concept of "worked examples". The first part of the paper deals with what core themes constitute the emerging area of work on digital media and learning and how we, from different directions and disciplines, got here to this shared interest. I overview several earlier multidisciplinary areas that have come to contribute to, and serve as a background for, work on digital media and learning. These areas are: The New Literacy Studies (NLS); Situated Cognition Studies; New Literacies Studies; and New Media Lit...


This paper proposes a control project using adaptive feedback linearization on the AC servo system. The project achieves the aim of linearization control by applying estimated parameters to coordinate substitution and nonlinear state feedback. Theory derivation and computer simulation proved that the project can implement robust control of parameters and has the actual application value. This paper also discusses the question of strengthening the convergence of parameters.


We describe the use of an asymmetric feedback ring in an unstable resonator to obtain arbitrarily narrow-linewidth radiation across the full available aperture. We demonstrate its use with an electric-discharge XeCl laser to produce single-line radiation with a linewidth of 0.15 cm−1.


Change detection can either be carried out using multitemporal optical or synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Due to the different electromagnetic spectrum used, these two types of imagery provide different representations of the same physical reality. Change information extraction can benefit from the fusion of SAR and optical data. In this paper we investigate the fusion of SAR and optical for change detection application. Beijing, the capital of China that has experienced rapid urbanization, is selected as a case study. Two multitemporal datasets that consist of Landsat and SAR (ERS-2 and ENVISAT) images are used. An unsupervised classification framework that combines the virtues of the k-mean and SVM supervised classifier is proposed. Different fusion strategies are tested including fusion at the feature level and at the decision level. The analysis reveals that the best result can be obtained when the fusion of change information is carried out at the decision level.


To control the length and morphology of carbon nanotubes(CNTs) is difficult in its producing process. Influencing factors of length and morphology of carbon nanotubes have been analyzed in the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) process. According to the growth characteristic of carbon nanotubes, the diffusion model was developed. Over time, the diffusion potential decreases due to a reduction in the carbon atom concentration gradient. With the model, the shape of catalytic particle is analyzed. From theoretical derivation, it is demonstrated that with the temperature ranging from 1173K to1373K, the growth rate raises up sharply with the increasing of temperature. Growth rate of CNTs increases with increasing layers at the same temperature.


Considering the widespread use of mobile robots in different parts of society, it is important to provide them with the capability to behave in a socially acceptable manner. Therefore, a research topic of great importance recently has been the study of Human-Robot Interaction. Autonomous navigation is a fundamental task in Robotics, and several different strategies that produce paths that are either length or time optimized can be found in the literature. However, considering the recent use of mobile robots in a more social context, the use of such classical techniques is restricted. Therefore, in this article we present a social navigation approach considering environments with groups of people. The proposal uses a density function to efficiently represent groups of people, and modify the navigation architecture in order to include the social behaviour of the robot during its motion. This architecture is based on the combined use of the Probabilistic Road Mapping (PRM) and the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) path planners and an adaptation of the elastic band algorithm. Experimental evaluation was carried out in different simulated environments, providing insight on the performance of the proposed technique, which surpasses classical techniques with no proxemics awareness in terms of social impact.


1. Type all copy including footnotes double-spaced on standard bond paper, allowing two-inch margins at top and bottom of page, and generous margins on the sides. 2. Footnotes hould be numbered consecutively throughout he manuscript. 3. A glossy print of each illustration should accompany the manuscript; authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions. 4. All quotations, titles, names, and dates should be double-checked for accuracy. 5. The original and a duplicate copy of the manuscript should be submitted with a standard, stamped self-addressed envelope. We cannot be responsible for returning manuscripts without return postage. Address correspondence to the Editor, Critical Inquiry, Wieboldt Hall 202, University of Chicago, 1050 East 59th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637.


Fifteen patients with active duodenal ulcers were treated for 6 weeks with ulcerone, aluminium sucrose sulphate, or bromazepam to promote healing. Biopsies taken from the edge of ulcers before treatment showed an epithelium exclusively populated with cells of a mucus-secreting type which resembled those normally found in the gastric antrum. Biopsies taken at endoscopy from the edge of ulcers or scars at time intervals during treatment to endoscopic healing showed, irrespective of the drug used, a sequence of ultrastructural changes in villar epithelial cells, from a gastric secretory to a duodenal absorptive cell type. We suggest that the gastric cells in the duodenum are derived from stem cells in the crypts of Lieberkuhn surrounding an ulcer and are produced in response to luminal fluids of abnormally low pH. Their function is probably protective, in that they isolate regions of ulceration from the healthy mucosa and, by the continuous secretion of gastric mucin, protect the ulcer from the harmful effects of luminal acids. Their transformation to absorptive cells during ulcer healing is part of a natural sequence that is aided by, but not dependent on, drug therapy.


LIM TY, LIM YY & YULE CM. 2014. Bioactivity of leaves of Macaranga species in tropical peat swamp and non-peat swamp environments. Very few studies have been reported on the chemical properties of peat swamp plants compared with their non-peat swamp counterparts. In this study, the total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and antibacterial activity of fresh Macaranga gigantea, M. hosei, M. hypoleuca, M. kingii, M. pruinosa and M. triloba leaf extracts from four tropical peat swamp forests and three non-peat swamp forests were measured and compared. Total phenolic content was measured by the Folin–Ciocalteu assay. Antioxidant activity was determined using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging and ferric reducing power assays, while disc-diffusion technique was used to determine the antibacterial properties. Reversed-phasehigh-performance liquid chromatography methods were used to identify and quantify the concentrations of phenolics. Antioxidant properties of leaf extracts from peat swamp forest species were 42 to 60% higher than those of the same plant species from non-peat swamp forest. However, no significant differences were observed for samples collected from within the same environmental conditions. No significant differences were found in antibacterial activities between peat swamp and non-peat swamp samples. The results suggest that trees in peat swamp forests are producing higher levels of phenolic compounds in response to extreme conditions.


Heavy investment in many developing countries in the social sector including health is based on the premise that human capital is vital to the growth and development of a nation. However, Pakistan's spending on this sector has been one of the lowest in the region. In the present environment of high budget deficits, one does not expect substantial public funds to be forthcoming and diverted towards the social sector in the intermediate- or medium-term future. The critical issue facing the public sector should then be to design health policies which must be cost-effective and efficient. This study examines these health policy issues within the context of an optimisation framework for public health system, forecasts future upto (2002-03) and discusses an efficient optimal mix of health inputs, outputs, expenditures, and wage policies under alternative scenarios. The study recommends that, first, growth of health infrastructure building in the urban areas be slowed down in the short-term (two to three years), and some of the resources reallocated towards the rural sector either in terms of building new Basic Health Units or upgrading the existing Rural Health Centres. Second, not only attractive wage policies be formulated for health personnel, but the status of nurses in the public health system be also elevated by giving them higher grades. Third, for every rupee of development expenditure incurred, Public Health Department must plan or keep provisions for recurring outlays. All this reallocation of resources is feasible within the projected actual budget and it will lead to efficiency gains in the order of 8 to 10 percent for the entire public health system.


The Strange Child examines how the Japanese financial crisis of the 1990s gave rise to "the child problem," a powerful discourse of social anxiety that refocused concerns about precarious economic futures and shifting ideologies of national identity onto the young. Andrea Gevurtz Arai's ethnography details the different forms of social and cultural dislocation that erupted in Japan starting in the late 1990s. Arai reveals the effects of shifting educational practices; increased privatization of social services; recessionary vocabulary of self-development and independence; and the neoliberalization of patriotism. Arai argues that the child problem and the social unease out of which it emerged provided a rationale for reimagining governance in education, liberalizing the job market, and a new role for psychology in the overturning of national-cultural ideologies. The Strange Child uncovers the state of nationalism in contemporary Japan, the politics of distraction around the child, and the altered life conditions of-and alternatives created by-the recessionary generation.


Background Although ranibizumab has been used for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) since 2007, real-world studies still report undertreatment resulting in a less favorable visual outcome. In this study, two different time cohorts of patients treated with ranibizumab for wet AMD in routine care were analyzed to observe whether there was a change over time regarding visual outcome, injection frequency, and quality of life (QoL). Methods We compared patients with treatment-naïve wet AMD in two observational follow-up cohorts 2007–2010 (n=50 patients) and 2009–2013 (n=26). After a loading dose of three intravitreal ranibizumab injections, the patients were treated under the pro re nata regimen. Visual acuity (VA) was examined by Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) charts. The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 was answered by patients at baseline and at 37±7 months (cohort 1) and at 45±4 months (cohort 2). Results At baseline, the cohorts were homogeneous considering mean age (76±7 vs 75±8 years), mean VA (53±14 vs 52±15 ETDRS letters), and mean self-reported symptom duration (14±11 vs 13±11 weeks). Mean VA decreased in both cohorts over time, from 53±14 to 45±24 letters (P=0.011) and from 52±15 to 46±22 letters (P=0.175), respectively. The patients received a mean of 8±5 and 9±7 injections, respectively. The mean composite score change from baseline to follow-up decreased in cohort 1 from 64±21 to 59±25 scores (P=0.04) but increased in cohort 2 from 64±28 to 67±23 scores (P=0.38). Conclusion We could not demonstrate any improvement in the number of injections in two different time cohorts of patients treated with ranibizumab for wet AMD in a Swedish county. Visual outcomes decreased after 3 years of follow-up, but QoL scores were divergent.


While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda is applicable to the member states of the UN, many other players are also involved, such as corporations. The primary and economic value chain activities and aims of major companies mean they will ultimately have a crucial and explicit role to play in enabling the SDGs to be attained. In Malaysia, there have been few studies on firms' engagement in reaching the SDGs. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the roles played by corporations in enabling SDGs to be attained. A specific analysis was conducted to determine if a company's participation in the SDGs can be influenced by first-rate corporate governance. The data was collected using content analysis of 87 corporate annual reports of public listed companies from Malaysia. The boards' independence, size, meeting frequency, and gender diversity were the corporate governance practices examined. An annual report may include details of the company's role in the SDGs as a proxy for the corporate's SDG involvement. The findings shed light on the nature of business involvement in the SDGs. The SGD with the most frequent reporting was Goal 8 - Decent work and economic growth, while the SDG with the most frequent reporting was Goal 2 - Zero Hunger. These results indicate that a company's SDG participation has a positive relationship with certain governance practices of corporations, especially the board meeting frequency. Moreover, these results may serve to emphasise to regulators and policymakers that all corporations require effectual corporate governance so that the challenges facing the world and its population every day can be addressed, leading to an improved and more sustainable future for everyone.
Keywords Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), corporate governance, Malaysia, companies, content analysis


Abstract. We discuss Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) surface mass balance (SMB) differences between the updated polar version of the RACMO climate model (RACMO2.3) and the previous version (RACMO2.1). Among other revisions, the updated model includes an adjusted rainfall-to-snowfall conversion that produces exclusively snowfall under freezing conditions; this especially favours snowfall in summer. Summer snowfall in the ablation zone of the GrIS has a pronounced effect on melt rates, affecting modelled GrIS SMB in two ways. By covering relatively dark ice with highly reflective fresh snow, these summer snowfalls have the potential to locally reduce melt rates in the ablation zone of the GrIS through the snow-albedo-melt feedback. At larger scales, SMB changes are driven by differences in orographic precipitation following a shift in large-scale circulation, in combination with enhanced moisture to precipitation conversion for warm to moderately cold conditions. A detailed comparison of model output with observations from automatic weather stations, ice cores and ablation stakes shows that the model update generally improves the simulated SMB-elevation gradient as well as the representation of the surface energy balance, although significant biases remain.


Eph receptor tyrosine kinases, including EphA2, are expressed in the mammary gland. However, their role in mammary gland development remains poorly understood. Using EphA2-deficient animals, we demonstrate for the first time that EphA2 receptor function is required for mammary epithelial growth and branching morphogenesis. Loss of EphA2 decreased penetration of mammary epithelium into fat pad, reduced epithelial proliferation, and inhibited epithelial branching. These defects appear to be intrinsic to loss of EphA2 in epithelium, as transplantation of EphA2-deficient mammary tissue into wild-type recipient stroma recapitulated these defects. In addition, HGF-induced mammary epithelial branching morphogenesis was significantly reduced in EphA2-deficient cells relative to wild-type cells, which correlated with elevated basal RhoA activity. Moreover, inhibition of ROCK kinase activity in EphA2-deficient mammary epithelium rescued branching defects in primary three-dimensional cultures. These results suggest that EphA2 receptor acts as a positive regulator in mammary gland development, functioning downstream of HGF to regulate branching through inhibition of RhoA. Together, these data demonstrate a positive role for EphA2 during normal mammary epithelial proliferation and branching morphogenesis.


and keywords 1 Abstract Having an efficient production is vital for companies that are facing highly demanding customers along with tough competition. In addition, the production layout has a significant impact on the production efficiency hence it the choice of production layout is an important question to consider. A common production layout is the assembly line whereas companies with products that are not adequate for assembly line production; are seeing advantages of working with assembly lines. An example is the modular house manufacturing industry. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate how an assembly line for modular house manufacturing and the related material supply may be designed in order to increase the overall efficiency of the manufacturing process. A single case study has been conducted at Zenergy AB, Skillingaryd. Empirical data has been collected through various sources; interviews, observations and document studies. In addition, a literature review has been conducted. The theoretical framework and empirical data has been established by the means of pattern matching and further on data analysis was done thus the results of the study were acquired. To conclude, it is shown in the results that implementation of an assembly line for modular house manufacturing can be beneficial despite the fact that its products are not adequate for assembly line production. Further on, there are three main critical factors to consider during the assembly line design process for modular house manufacturing. The critical factors are; line balancing, dry time and bulky materials. The critical factors will in turn have a significant impact on the choice of the assembly line production layout and the related material supply.


In systems with multiple potentially deceptive agents, any single agent may have to assess the trustworthiness of other agents in order to decide with which agents to interact. In this context, indirect trust refers to trust established through third-party advice. Since the advisers themselves may be deceptive or unreliable, agents need a mechanism to assess and properly incorporate advice. We evaluate existing state-of-the-art methods for computing indirect trust in numerous simulations, demonstrating that the best ones tend to be of prohibitively large complexity. We propose a new and easy to implement method for computing indirect trust, based on a simple prediction with expert advice strategy as is often used in online learning. This method either competes with or outperforms all tested systems in the vast majority of the settings we simulated, while scaling substantially better. Our results demonstrate that existing systems for computing indirect trust are overly complex; the problem can be solved much more efficiently than the literature suggests.


Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic, aromatic organochlorine chemicals regulated by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) due to their slow degradation, toxicity, lipophility and the ability to accumulate and biomagnify in food chains. Several studies have revealed a wide range of adverse health and developmental effects associated with exposure to PCB congeners. In order to investigate the magnitude and spatial distribution of PCBs in biota in Ghana, the bivalve Galatea paradoxa from Ada in Ghana was analyzed to determine their PCB congener concentration levels during the wet and dry seasons. The number of bivalves collected for both seasons was 180. PCB congeners were extracted using 1:1 acetone-hexane solvent mixture and the samples analyzed with a gas chromatogram; model CP 3800, equipped with electron capture detector (GC-ECD), using mixed PCBs standard of ICES 7 after clean-up. Quality assurance assessment was carried out to validate the efficiency and precision of extraction and analytical methods by the use of spiked samples and certified reference material, 1941b, from NIST, USA and analyzed alongside the samples. Total mean PCB congener levels detected ranged from 7.56 ± 1.08 µg/kg wet weight (for the dry season) to 8.26 ± 1.18 µg/kg wet weight (for the wet season); with a mean of 7.91 µg/kg wet weight. The levels of PCB congeners detected in Galatea paradoxa were very low and compared favorably well with those obtained in bivalves from other regions of the world. The compositions of PCB homologues detected followed the descending order: hepta (24.78%), tetra (22.62%), hexa (21.61%), tri (17.44%t) and penta (13.65%). Results of risk assessment conducted on the data showed that PCBs levels in Galatea paradoxa from Ada in Ghana were not high and fall within the recommended standards set by the World Health organization (WHO) and other regulatory authorities, hence may not pose any significant health risk to consumers.


"Pioneer Family" is based on the recollections of Hugie and Oleta Oesterreicher, who lived in rural northeast Florida in the early decades of the twentieth century. Northeast Florida was frontier country then, and Hugie and Oleta were pioneers. Although the time and setting of their story are particular, the theme of survival during hard times is universal. Born in a cypress cabin on the edge of the great Durbin Swamp located midway between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, Hugie knew every alligator hole, every bog, every creek; he could dry venison so it lasted without refrigeration for months, could build a potato bank that kept potatoes warm all winter, and put down a well without machinery. He knew how to cope with rattlesnakes and moccasins. Early one morning in 1925, Hugie fell in love with a tall, brown-eyed girl as he passed her place on a cattle drive. He courted this girl, Oleta Brown, with no success at first, but finally they were married in 1927. Their daughter retells their story from vivid accounts they gave of their childhood, courtship, early years of marriage, and struggles during the Great Depression. In an age bereft of heroes, the story of their courage, their faith, and their commitment provides a fascinating empathy with a time that has passed; a place that has disappeared."One can not read these stories without thinking of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's "Cross Creek." Indeed, these stories are just as compelling. There are even Faulknerian qualities to some of the characters....The University of Alabama Press has produced yet another excellent book on Florida. Gracefully written, it offers one of the most compelling images of rural life in early 20th-century Florida that exists in print. It should enjoy wide readership." --James M. Denham, Florida Southern College, in "The Florida Historical Quarterly""


Abstract: Composite microspheres with two different fillers were developed using a solid‐in‐oil‐in‐water (s/o/w) emulsion solvent removal method. Two types of bioactive ceramic powders, specifically calcium hydroxyapatite (HA) and modified bioactive glass (MBG), were incorporated into degradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA) polymer matrix to form composite microspheres. For each filler material, microspheres with three different weight ratios of filler material to polymer, namely, 1: 1, 1: 3, and 1: 9, were synthesized. In vitro immersion using simulated physiological fluid (SPF) was employed to evaluate the surface reactivity of the microspheres. SEM analysis revealed that after a 14‐day immersion the surface of the microspheres containing 50% MBG was fully transformed into a bone‐like apatite. In contrast, a limited number of mineral nodules were present on the surface of microspheres containing HA. The solution chemical analyses performed to determine changes of Ca, P, and Si concentrations as a function of the immersion time showed that the ion concentration profiles were similar for all microspheres, except the [Si] profile. A higher Si concentration was detected in the SPF immersed with MBG‐containing microspheres. These data show that the MBG filler significantly enhances the surface reactivity of the composite microspheres. This observation enables us to conclude that the composite MBG‐containing microspheres are the preferable microspheres for three‐dimensional bone tissue engineering.


The next generation of electromagnetic launchers (EMLs) will require compact, lightweight power supplies which can generate high-magnitude, repetitive current pulses of a very specific shape. Additionally, a simple, reliable system in which logistic concerns are minimized is required. Rotating machines, in particular compulsators, can meet these needs. The compulsator is a specialized alternator which has been designed to produce a series of high-power pulses. A number of advantages are inherent in the use of these devices for EML applications. In addition to high energy and power density, and the lack of additional power conditioning components, the machines are well-suited for the requirements of an electromagnetic (EM) gun circuit. The compulsator produces an alternating voltage which drives the current pulse through a current zero, achieving the desired pulsewidth. Conceptual designs of compulsator-driven pulsed power systems for use in 18 missions of interest were analyzed. These missions, which are summarized, include a wide variety of projectile masses and launch energies. Power supplies were designed to accommodate five types of launchers for each mission: railguns, coilguns, thermal-electric guns, hybrid guns, and the advanced electric gun. The hybrid gun represents a railgun with a thermal-electric injector and the advanced gun is a hypothetical far-term coilgun. The results of this analysis, including a general description of the compulsator, design assumptions, the methods used to achieve the desired pulse shape,s a discussion of magnetic energy recovery, gyroscopic effects, and scaling information are included. >


The incidence and mortality rates of gastric cancer are one of the highest of all types of cancers. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that altered expression of micro (mi)RNAs may be implicated in the tumorigenesis of numerous types of cancer. Therefore, miRNAs may have potential as important tools in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. miRNAs regulate the expression of genes involved in mediating cell proliferation and developmental timing, among numerous other processes. Altered expression levels of miRNAs may result in the ability of cells to proliferate aberrantly and migrate. The present study used reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays to analyze miRNA-577 expression in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines, MTT and cell cycle analysis to examine cell proliferation in vitro, and luciferase assays and western blot to investigate miRNA-577's downstream targets. The results demonstrated that miRNA-577 was significantly downregulated in gastric cancer patient samples and cell lines. In addition, miRNA-577 affected an important regulator of E2F transcription factor 3 expression and that altered miRNA-577 expression resulted in the aberrant proliferation of gastric cancer cells.


Tafenoquine (TQ), a fluorescent antimalarial drug, was used as a receptor for the fluorometric detection of hypochlorite (OCl−). TQ itself exhibits a strong fluorescence at 476 nm, but OCl−-selective cyclization of its pentan-1,4-diamine moiety creates a blue-shifted fluorescence at 361 nm. This ratiometric response facilitates rapid, selective, and sensitive detection of OCl− in aqueous media with physiological pH. This response is also applicable to a simple test kit analysis and allows fluorometric OCl− imaging in living cells.


Purpose: The Varian TrueBeam, TM, STx linear accelerator is equipped with flattening filter free (FFF) mode (6 MV and 10 MV), high definition multileaf collimators (HDMLC), as well as onboard imaging (OBI) devices, making it ideal for SBRT delivery. The purpose of this work is to design an end‐to‐end test to determine the dosimetric and targeting accuracy achievable with the TrueBeam system. Methods: An anthropomorphic head phantom with a Ball Cube II insert and FilmQA software were used to evaluate the accuracy of TrueBeam image guidance and dose delivery. Laser cut Gafchromic EBT2 films with 0.15 mm accuracy were used. The phantom with previously irradiated films inserted was first scanned with a CT scanner, and imported into the planning system. Four RapidArc plans and five IMRT plans were created with different energies, target sizes and delivery modalities. Plans were then delivered on the TrueBeam using image guidance to locate the isocenter. Films were analyzed using FilmQA, TM, (3cognition) software. The film dose was compared with Eclipse v8.9 calculated dose, and was analyzed using a Gamma index criterion of 3%/1 mm and 3%/2 mm. The shifts required to align the film with the calculated dose after the auto registration was estimated to be the targeting accuracy. Results: Targeting accuracy was found to be within 1 mm in all three orthogonal directions. Gamma index (3%, 1 mm) for all the plans was found to be above 90% except the plans with the smaller targets (2 cm and 1 cm) and higher energy (15 MV). Gammas index (3%, 2 mm) for all the plans was found to be above 97%. Conclusions: An end‐to‐end test has been designed and found to be excellent in accessing the targeting and dosimetric accuracy of the overall delivery of the TrueBeam system.


Mats Boij and Jonas Soederberg (math.AC/0611081) have conjectured that the Betti table of a Cohen-Macaulay module over a polynomial ring can be decomposed in a certain way as a positive linear combination of Betti tables of modules with pure resolutions. We prove, over any field, a strengthened form of their conjecture. Applications include a proof of the Multiplicity Conjecture of Huneke and Srinivasan and a proof of the convexity of a fan naturally associated to the Young lattice.
We also characterize the rational cone of all cohomology tables of vector bundles on projective spaces in terms of the cohomology tables of "supernatural" bundles. This characterization is dual, in a certain sense, to our characterization of Betti tables.


Sign Language is a visual gesture language used by speech impaired people to convey their thoughts and ideas with the help of hand gestures and facial expressions. This paper presents a stroke based representation of dynamic gestures of Indian Sign Language Signs incorporating both local as well as global motion information. This compact representation of a gesture is analogous to phonemic representation of speech signals. To incorporate the local motion of the hand, each stroke contains the features corresponding to the hand shape as well. The dynamic gesture trajectories are segmented based on Maximum Curvature Points(MCPs). MCPs are selected based on the direction change of trajectories. The frames corresponding to the MCP points of the trajectory are considered as the key frames. Local information features are taken as the hand shape of the Key frames. The existing methods of Sign Language Recognition has scalability problems apart from high complexity and the need for extensive training data. In contrast, our proposed method of stroke based representation has less expensive training phase since it only requires the training of stroke features and stroke sequences of each word. Our algorithms also address the issue of scalability. We have tested our approach in the context of Indian Sign Language recognition and we present the results from this study.


Objective

To study the factors associated with choice of therapy and prognosis in octogenarians with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS).

Study Design

Prospective, observational, multicenter registry. Centralized follow-up included survival status and, if possible, mode of death and Katz index.

Setting

Transnational registry in Spain.

Subjects

We included 928 patients aged ≥80 years with severe symptomatic AS.

Interventions

Aortic-valve replacement (AVR), transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) or conservative therapy.

Main outcome measures

All-cause death.

Results

Mean age was 84.2 ± 3.5 years, and only 49.0% were independent (Katz index A). The most frequent planned management was conservative therapy in 423 (46%) patients, followed by TAVI in 261 (28%) and AVR in 244 (26%). The main reason against recommending AVR in 684 patients was high surgical risk [322 (47.1%)], other medical motives [193 (28.2%)], patient refusal [134 (19.6%)] and family refusal in the case of incompetent patients [35 (5.1%)]. The mean time from treatment decision to AVR was 4.8 ± 4.6 months and to TAVI 2.1 ± 3.2 months, P < 0.001. During follow-up (11.2–38.9 months), 357 patients (38.5%) died. Survival rates at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months were 81.8%, 72.6%, 64.1% and 57.3%, respectively. Planned intervention, adjusted for multiple propensity score, was associated with lower mortality when compared with planned conservative treatment: TAVI Hazard ratio (HR) 0.68 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.49–0.93; P = 0.016) and AVR HR 0.56 (95% CI 0.39–0.8; P = 0.002).

Conclusion

Octogenarians with symptomatic severe AS are frequently managed conservatively. Planned conservative management is associated with a poor prognosis.


This paper presents new information on the fraction of adjusted gross income, and of wages and salaries, that is reported by taxpayers in the top one half of one percent of the income distribution. This corresponds to roughly five hundred thousand households in the late 1990s. This paper relies on data from the Treasury's Individual Income Tax Model for the period 1960-1995. The definition of adjusted gross income is standardized, so that changes in the tax law do not affect the measured concentration of AGI. The results suggest that the share of AGI reported by the highest income households increased significantly between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, with most of the increase taking place in the years immediately following the Tax Reform Act of 1986. While we find some evidence of transitory changes in the concentration of income around major tax changes, which may be the result of income retiming by high income taxpayers, re-timing does not seem to explain most of the changes since 1986.


An indifference to the affective domain and an allegiance to the education of the rational autonomous subject and public citizen are at the heart of formal education. The impact of Cartesian rationalism is intensifying with the glorification of performativity measured by league tables and rankings. The citizen carer and the care recipient citizen are only recognised in the educational arena when professionals are being trained to manage those in need of care. Education for informal care labour, solidarity work and love labour is generally not part of the formal educational trajectory. Because the scholarly understanding of work has been equated with economic self preservation and self‐actualisation through interaction with nature, education is seen as preparation for this type of work. Education is indifferent to other‐centred work arising from our interdependencies and dependencies as affective, relational beings. In particular it has ignored the centrality of nurturing for the preservation and self‐actualisation of the human species. In this article the authors argue that sociologists need to engage with the extensive feminist scholarship on care if they are to challenge the deeply care‐less view of the citizen that is implicitly accepted in new and older forms of liberal thinking. The rational economic actor model of the citizen is contrasted with the care‐full view of the citizen and the implications of both for education are explored.


We present a framework of an online partial evaluator for a call-by-value l-calculus with destructive updates of data structures. It properly and correctly specializes expressions that contain side-effects, while preserving pointer equality, which is an important property for programs using updates. Our partial evaluator uses a side-effect analysis to extract immutable data structures and then performs an online specialization using preactions. Once mutable and immutable data structures are separated, partial evaluation is done in such a way that accesses to immutable ones are performed at specialization time, while accesses to mutable ones are residualized. For the correct residualization of side-effecting operations, preactions are used to solve various issues, including code elimination, code duplication, and execution order preservation. The preaction mechanism also enables us to reduce expressions that were residualized when the conventional let-expression approach of Similix was used. The resulting partial evaluator is simple enough to prove its correctness. Based on the framework, we have constructed a partial evaluator for Scheme, which is powerful enough to specialize fairly complicated programs with side-effects, such as an interpreter.


The influence of wind on the splash dispersal of Septoria nodorum pycnidiospores was studied in a raintower/wind tunnel complex with single drops or simulated rain falling on spore suspensions or infected stubble with windspeeds of 1.5 to 4 m/sec. When single drops fell on spore suspensions (depth 0.5 mm, concentration 7.8 × 105 spores/ml) most of the spore-carrying droplets collected on fixed photographic film between 0–4 m downwind (windspeed 3 m/sec) were >200 μm in diameter. However, most spores were carried in droplets with diameter > 1000 μm, 70 % of which carried more than 100 spores. When simulated rain fell on infected stubble most of the spore-carrying droplets collected beyond 1 m downwind (windspeeds 1.4 and 4 m/sec) were 600 μm; most of these droplets carried only one spore.

The distribution of splash droplets (with diameter >100 μm) deposited on chromatography paper showed a maximum at 40–50 cm upwind of the target but many more droplets were deposited 20–30 cm downwind, when single drops fell on a spore suspension (concentration 1.2 × 105 spores/ ml) containing fluorescein dye with a windspeed of 2 m/sec; droplets were collected up to 3 m downwind but not more than 70 cm upwind. With a windspeed of 3 m/sec, numbers of sporecarrying droplets and spores collected on film decreased with increasing distance downwind; most were collected within 2 m of the target but some were found up to 4 m. When simulated rain fell on infected stubble, increasing the windspeed from 1.5 to 4 m/sec greatly increased the number of spores deposited more than 1 m downwind. At 1.5 m/sec none were collected beyond 2 m downwind, whereas at 4 m/sec some were collected at 4 m. A few air-borne S. nodorum spores were collected by suction samplers at a height of 40 cm at distances up to 10 m downwind of a target spore suspension on which simulated rain fell.


DESCRIPTION
The American College of Physicians (ACP) developed this guidance statement to present the available evidence on screening for HIV in health care settings.

METHODS
This guidance statement is derived from an appraisal of available guidelines on screening for HIV. Authors searched the National Guideline Clearinghouse to identify guidelines on screening for HIV in the United States and used the AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation) instrument to evaluate guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. GUIDANCE STATEMENT 1: ACP recommends that clinicians adopt routine screening for HIV and encourage patients to be tested. GUIDANCE STATEMENT 2: ACP recommends that clinicians determine the need for repeat screening on an individual basis.


Abstract Aim: To assess the risk for trisomy 21 in children, depending on the polymorphisms C677T and A1298C of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene in mothers. Methods: For 93 mothers who have children with trisomy 21 and 202 mothers of healthy children (control group), genotyping of MTHFR polymorphisms C677T and A1298C was performed. Results: For each polymorphism, three genotypes were identified (normal homozygous, heterozygous and mutant homozygous). For the polymorphism C677T, the frequencies of the three genotypes (CC, CT and TT) were 50.5%, 40.8% and 8.6% in mothers of children with trisomy 21, versus 42.6%, 46% and 11.4% in mothers of healthy children, with no statistically significant differences. The frequency of the polymorphism A1298C was not statistically significant between the two groups for the genotype (AA) (48.4% vs 56.4%) or the genotype (AC) (39.8% vs 38.6%), but the genotype TT was more frequent in mothers of children with trisomy 21 (11.8% vs 4.9%; p = 0.033; OR = 2.57). Conclusion: Women with genotype CC for the polymorphism A1298C of the MTHFR gene have a 2.57 times higher risk of offspring with trisomy 21.


Human Immune deficiency Virus (HIV) infected patients have many deficiencies and vitamin D could be one of them. This could be due to HIV disease-related factors, such as poor intake and absorption, impaired liver and kidney function, less sun exposure and interference of Antiretroviral (ARV) with vitamin D metabolism. This can have detrimental effects on health. In HIV patients, vitamin D is important for healthy cell function and immunity to illness. Evidence shows that vitamin D modulates the adaptive immune system through direct effects on T cell activation and functioning of Antigen presenting cells. This study determined the serum vitamin D levels in 118 HIV infected patients on Antiretroviral therapy and those not on Antiretroviral therapy visiting the Aga Khan University Hospital. The association of vitamin D level, CD4 cell count and HIV viral load were evaluated. Liver enzymes and bilirubin were determined to evaluate liver function. The total viral load in blood samples was determined using COBAS Ampliprep/TaqMan HIV-1 test kit. The CD4 cells count was done using fluorescence- activated cell sorter system. Vitamin D in serum was determined using electrochemiluminescence binding assay in Cobas E601 mass analyzers. The percentage of patients with deficient levels (≤20ng/ml) of serum vitamin D was 39%. Vitamin D deficiency was proportionately higher in patients who were not on ART than in patients who were on ART. Abnormal levels of serum enzymes were observed to associate with deficient levels of vitamin D. sufficient levels of vitamin D was found to associate with high CD4 cell count and low viral load. These observations suggest a need to enhance ART with vitamin D supplements in order to ameliorate the detected deficiency as a strategy to improve HIV management


Abstract The diurnal variation of the structure of pollutant transport and diffusion in the Ohio River Valley is examined by combining meteorological cross sections with vertical profiles of several air pollutants. An increased frequency of rawinsonde releases from NWS stations at Salem, Dayton and Pittsburgh during the period 1–10 August was supplemented on 5 and 6 August by vertical profiles taken along the cross-section line by an aircraft. The data on 5 August, a day without convective activity to complicate analyses, merit special study. Analyses of the bscat structure superimposed on the meteorological cross sections lend support to the theory of horizontal transport of polluted layers above the nocturnal inversion or developing mixed layer without significant dilution. The effect of the daily breathing of the planetary boundary layer on the vertical structure of pollutants can be seen in the sequence of cross sections.


The new phase of space exploration involves a growing number of human and robotic space missions to remote planets with varying communication and service requirements. Due to the critical nature of the missions, security is a very important requirement that needs to be addressed. Among primary security requirements are user authentication and message integrity that are needed to ensure that the data in the network is transmitted without unauthorized modifications between the source and destinations, and that data from only authorized network nodes are accepted by other nodes. In this paper we focus on the issue of user authentication and data integrity for a specific space network architecture supporting lunar exploration. We consider a hybrid network consisting of a terrestrial network on Earth, a network on the lunar surface, and a satellite constellation that connects the two surface networks. The lunar network comprises sensor nodes serviced by stationary gateways and mobile robotic vehicles with sensing capability, while the network on Earth is envisioned as a combination of private and public networks. The problem of authentication in this network is complex due to the presence of nodes with varying capabilities in terms of computation strength, storage and energy. The nodes on Earth and the gateways on the lunar surface would have higher computation and energy capabilities compared to the satellites and the sensor nodes. In this situation, an authentication protocol that is optimized to the strengths and limitations of the different classes of nodes would be most suited. We focus on a solution that will operate under the constraints of the space environment (delay, limited energy, limited processing capability at remote nodes). We present a framework for user authentication and data integrity based on an authentication algorithm that makes use of symmetric certificates and hash chains of keys used to compute Message Authentication Codes, to provide asymmetric authentication capabilities to the network nodes. nodes with more resources. We give a detailed description of the authentication protocol we develop for this network and provide an analysis of the security of the protocol by considering various types of passive and active attacks. We also highlight the savings incurred in terms of processing, storage and network bandwidth, which we get in using the proposed protocol in comparison to standard public-key authentication protocols.


This paper proposes an MP-CELP (Multi-Pulse-based CELP) speech coding at 6.4 kb/s with 10 ms frame. In MP-CELP, amplitudes or signs of multi-pulse excitation are simultaneously vector quantized (VQ). A combination search between multiple pulse location candidates and VQ codebook remarkably improves the quantization performance. In order to improve speech quality for background noise conditions, an adaptive pulse location restriction method is developed. The subjective evaluation results show that speech quality for 6.4 kb/s MP-CELP is higher than that for G.726 at 32 kb/s and is equivalent to that for 6.3 kb/s G.723.1 with 30 ms frame in clean speech and tandem conditions. For background noise conditions, the adaptive pulse location restriction significantly improves MOS value by 0.9. The speech quality is equivalent to that for G.723.1, but still does not reach to that of 24 kb/s G.726, except interference talker condition.


AIM AND OBJECTIVE:
To assess the effectiveness of Emergency Preparedness Protocol on knowledge and skill regarding pre hospital management of cardiac emergencies among patients with chronic illness and their caregivers.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi- experimental, non – equivalent control group pre test, post test research design was adopted to assess the effectiveness of Emergency Preparedness Protocol among 120 patients and their care givers (30 patients with chronic illness + 30 caregivers in each experimental group and control group) conducted at Governmental Hospital setting, Chennai who satisfied the inclusion criteria were selected as samples based on Non probability convenient sampling technique. Education given on Emergency Preparedness Protocol using power point presentation includes general information about cardiac emergencies, signs and symptoms, assessment techniques, emergency measures and use of cardiac emergency kit to handle cardiac emergencies at home for 20 – 30 minutes, preparation of cardiac emergency kit for 5 -10mins, demonstration and re demonstration on the steps of Blood pressure monitoring on the patient and Adult Basic Life Support (BLS) techniques on a mannequin to a group of 5 to 10 care givers for 10mins. The pre and post test level of knowledge for patients with chronic illness and their caregivers and pre and post test level of skill for caregivers were assessed using structured knowledge questionnaire and observational checklist respectively.
RESULTS:
The findings of the study revealed that the calculated unpaired 't' value for the post test level of knowledge among experimental group patients was t=13.32 which showed a very high statistical significance at p < 0.001 level. The calculated unpaired 't' value for the experimental group caregivers was t=14.28 which showed a very high statistical significance at p < 0.001 level. The calculated unpaired 't' value for the post test level of skill among experimental group caregivers was t=13.43, which showed a very high statistical significance at p < 0.001 level.
CONCLUSION:
The results revealed that Emergency Preparedness Protocol was effective in improving knowledge and skill regarding pre hospital management of cardiac emergencies among patients with chronic illness and their caregivers.


ABSTRACT Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.


Process of methylation of histone H3 for lysine 4 (H3K4) was studied in hippocampal pyramidal neurons of rats—intact and submitted to emotional-pain stress with active and inactivated channels of NMDA-receptors with taking into account the interhemisphere lateralization and in connection with the genetically determined level of excitability of the animals' nervous system. There were revealed interstrain differences in the basal level of the H3K4 methylation whose direction depends on structural-functional peculiarities of hippocampal fields and lateralization. Under action of stress the direction of the observed changes in the degree of the H3K4 methylation depended on the functional states of channels of NMDA-receptors. On the background of active receptors the proportion of immunopositive cells predominantly increased. In the CA1 field this change was not connected with excitability and lateralization, whereas in the CA3 field it had a complex character and depended on these two factors. At inactivation of channels of NMDA-receptors the portion of immunopositive nuclei as a result of the stress action, on the contrary, predominantly decreased; interstrain specificity of these changes was connected with lateralization, while its direction in different hippocampal fields was different. Action of the short-time emotional-pain stress did not lead to a change of shape of interhemisphere at active state of receptors, whereas at inactivation of receptors it changes depending on the structural-functional organization of hippocampus and on excitability of the nervous system. DOI: 10.1134/S0022093013060091


Background : Postpartum hemorrhage considered to be one of the most important cause of women mortality in developing countries. Usage of oxytocin is one of the outstanding success in medicine but it should not be taken for granted and should be used only if it is necessary and not as routine. Objective : To determine the amount of postpartum hemorrhage on the absence of IM injection of oxytocin. Design : This was a randomized controlled clinical trial. Control group received to units of oxytocin after completion of second of labor which was the hospital's routine but the trial group did not get any drugs. The amount of blood for first one hour after completion of 3 rd stage, 23 hours after that, and altogether 24 hours after labor were compared in two groups. Sample : 120 full term women with singleton pregnancy who had no problem were randomly assigned to one of the trial (with out oxytocin) or control (with oxytocin) group (60 in each group). Results : There was no significant difference between the two groups considering amount of post partum hemorrhage at 4 th stage of labor, 23 hours after that and altogether 24 hours after delivery. Discussion : The usage of oxytocin is not recommended as routine at least for those who have normal pregnancy and delivery. But further researches are necessary to make us able to make definite decision.


In anaesthetized dogs, medullary pyramid stimulation produces a decrease of myocardial contractility. The peak of the first derivative of the left ventricular pressure (dP/dt max) was used to assess myocardial contractility; this index is independent of afterload. Medullary pyramid stimulation produces a decrease of dP/dt max and of the maximal left ventricular pressure (L.V.P. max) also, after bilateral vagotomy. But the same stimulation induces only a decrease of L.V.P. max after inhibiting beta-adrenergic efferences and bilateral vagotomy. Just as corticopyramidal fibres inhibiting alpha-adrenergic vascular tone, one does consider the existence of corticopyramidal fibres inhibiting beta-adrenergic efferences to myocardium.


This study examines the effectiveness of a model called LINGRA-N-Plus to simulate the interaction of climate, soil and management on the green leaf and total dry matter yields of ryegrass in England and Wales. The LINGRA-N-Plus model includes modifications of the LINGRA-N model such as temperature- and moisture-dependent soil nitrogen mineralization and differential partitioning to leaves and stems with thermal time from the last harvest. The resulting model was calibrated against the green leaf and total grass yields from a harvest interval x nitrogen application experiment described by Wilman et al. (1976). When the LINGRA-N-Plus model was validated against total grass yields from nitrogen experiments at ten sites described by Morrison et al. (1980), its modelling efficiency improved greatly compared to the original LINGRA-N. High predicted yields, at zero nitrogen application, were related to soils with a high initial nitrogen content. The lowest predicted yields occurred at sites with low rainfall and shallow rooting depth; mitigating the effect of drought at such sites increased yields by up to 4 t ha−1. The results highlight the usefulness of grass models, such as LINGRA-N-Plus, to explore the combined effects of climate, soil, and management, like nitrogen application, and harvest intervals on grass productivity.


We present the performance evaluation of impulse radio ultrawideband (IR-UWB) over fiber using a simple pulse design technique with a high fractional bandwidth. The technique, based on the linear combination of the first-order Gaussian derivatives with different pulse-shaping factors, shows full compliance with Federal Communications Commission mask requirements even in the most severely power-restricted GPS band. We validated our approach with experiments employing an intensity-modulation direct-detection scheme. The experimental setup uses a directly modulated DFB laser at 1302.56 nm and a multimode fiber-coupled photodetector with 24 μm diameter photosensitive area. The transmission link consists of 25 km single-mode fiber or 4.4 km multimode fiber. Error-free transmission at 2 Gb/s is achieved over both fiber links. The result shows the proposed pulse-generation technique to be simple and cost-effective compared to higher order Gaussian derivative schemes. This can be implemented successfully to distribute UWB signals over optical links for access and in-building networks.


As one of three important points in the human life, marriage, including the old Turkish societies, shows the most colorful cultural practices of the Turks. During the wedding ceremonies several traditions, customs, and morals carefully were obeyed, otherwise it is believed that it will bring discomfort, misery, and bad luck. Every ritual that is believed to bring unity, happiness, and luck to the new family, is performed. Wedding customs that carries the beliefs of the old Turkish societies were transformed according to technological developments, cultural structure, and the sociological expectations. Some of them were totally forgotten but some of them preserved their oldest version. In this article, wedding ceremonies of Pazarağaç village of Çay district of Afyonkarahisar province is evaluated in this context. Departing from source narrators and supporting with the written sources, old and new applications were compared. Asking for the girl in marriage, relative visits during engagement, pinning sausage during haircut ceremony and making the bride cry during the hen night were still practiced but the bridal bath, groom dressing, and affiancing the youths without informing are not practicing. In this study, mentioned customs were explained in depth and effects of the sociological and economic variables on the customs were evaluated.


The analysis of current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments is based on the interpretation of multi-frequency sky maps in terms of different astrophysical components and it requires specifically tailored component separation algorithms. In this context, Internal Linear Combination (ILC) methods have been extensively used to extract the CMB emission from the WMAP multi-frequency data. We present here a Modified Internal Linear Component Algorithm (MILCA) that generalizes the ILC approach to the case of multiple astrophysical components for which the electromagnetic spectrum is known. In addition MILCA corrects for the intrinsic noise bias in the standard ILC approach and extends it to an hybrid space-frequency representation of the data. It also allows us to use external templates to minimize the contribution of extra components but still using only a linear combination of the input data. We apply MILCA to simulations of the Planck satellite data at the HFI frequency bands. We explore the possibility of reconstructing the Galactic molecular CO emission on the Planck maps as well as the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We conclude that MILCA is able to accurately estimate those emissions and it has been successfully used for this purpose within the Planck collaboration.


"A definitive history of the case...notable alike for its clarity and its fairness....Professors Joughin and Morgan conclude that Sacco and Vanzetti were the victims of a sick society, in which prejudice, chauvinism, hysteria, and malice were endemic. Few who will read this moving work will doubt that they have proved their point."--"The New York Times" "This was not merely a trial in court nor even a sociological phenomenon in the history of the United States. It was a spiritual experience and setback which only a fundamentally healthy America could have endured....What influence was it that brought such world figures as Clarence Darrow, William Borah, H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, Edna St. Vincent Millay, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Brisbane, William Allen White, Fritz Kreisler, Albert Einstein and others to plead for men entirely unknown to them? Joughin and Morgan tell you why with the clarity and thoroughness of scholars and with the authority which their long study, impartiality, and sincerity assure and guarantee. It is a book that will excite and anger you."--"The New Republic" Originally published in 1978.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


In some places people are trying to write their dissertations on queer topics and are encountering opposition because what they are doing seems unprecedented, a break with academic norms. Their advisors just say, "No, no one has ever done that before and you can't either." But elsewhere, it seems like queer topics are already passé. I heard of someone who was told, "You can't write a queer dissertation – that's so '90s."

Some people assume the good old days of queer theory have passed because they think of extremely brilliant, prominent, individual thinkers, such as Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, D. A. Miller, and so on. Where is the Judith Butler of today? This is part of the reason why I have been drawn to work on queer method. For me, method is about teaching and about the idea that rather than queer theory being the writings of a few individual geniuses, it should be something that can be and should be taught, and that anyone can do. I think it is okay to make clear what we think the field of queer studies is, and teach it widely. Even if it is not always the most brilliant, exceptional work, that is okay with me. People say, "Oh the work now, it's boring, it just copies other people." But copying other people – we also call that learning. If the field is to grow it has to include all kinds of scholarship, original, unoriginal, brilliant, dutiful, etc. I want many, many people to know how to think about sexuality, say in literature, without having to make it up themselves, or have to be a genius. We want some of those mind-blowing books that completely change everything, of course, but we also want regular books.


We examine the nanoscale behavior of an equilibrium three-phase contact line in the presence of long-ranged intermolecular forces by employing a statistical mechanics of fluids approach, namely density functional theory (DFT) together with fundamental measure theory (FMT). This enables us to evaluate the predictive quality of effective Hamiltonian models in the vicinity of the contact line. In particular, we compare the results for mean field effective Hamiltonians with disjoining pressures defined through (I) the adsorption isotherm for a planar liquid film, and (II) the normal force balance at the contact line. We find that the height profile obtained using (I) shows good agreement with the adsorption film thickness of the DFT-FMT equilibrium density profile in terms of maximal curvature and the behavior at large film heights. In contrast, we observe that while the height profile obtained by using (II) satisfies basic sum rules, it shows little agreement with the adsorption film thickness of the DFT results. The results are verified for contact angles of 20, 40 and 60 degrees.


The kinetic of oxidation of Ethyl 2 cholopropionate by potassium permagnate has been studied in the presence of acidic medium. The reaction is first order with respect to ester concentration. The reaction rate has been determined at different temperature and different thermodynamic parameters have been calculated which shows with increase in temperature reaction rate increases. With increase in the concentration of acid the reaction rate increase. A suitable mechanism has been proposed


Phytochemicals of nutraceuticals importance are bioactive constituents that sustain or promote health and occur at the intersection of food and pharmaceutical industries. Such substances may range from isolated nutrients, dietary supplements and specific diets to genetically engineered designer foods, herbal products, processed foods and beverages. Phytochemicals are broadly described as phytoestrogens, terpenoids, carotenoids, limonoids, phytosterols, glucosinolates, polyphenols, flavonoids, isoflavonoids and anthocyanidins. They have tremendous impact on the health care system and may provide medical health benefits including the prevention and/ or treatment of diseases and physiological disorders. Majority of foods, such as whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables and herbs contain phytochemicals of nutraceutical importance. These phytochemicals, either alone and/or in combination, have tremendous therapeutic potential in curing various ailments. The respective health benefits are based on science and ethics, for health claims, functional foods and presence of certain phytochemicals. They play specific pharmacological effects in human health as anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antioxidants, antibacterial, antifungal, antispasmodic, chemopreventive, hepato-protective, hypolipidemic, neuroprotective, hypotensive, antiaging, diabetes, osteoporosis, DNA damage, cancer and heart diseases, induce apoptosis, diuretic, CNS stimulant, analgesic, protects from UVB-induced carcinogenesis, immuno-modulator and carminative.


We compared estimates of Halodule wrightii leaf growth rates obtained from leaf-clip- ping and leaf-piercing methods in a south Texas lagoon. Leaf clipping underestimated leaf produc- tion from 15 to 37% in winter and 25 to 60% in summer relative to leaf piercing. The underestimation of leaf-clipping derived growth rates were corrected using a linear regression between leaf growth rates determined by leaf-clipping and leaf-piercing methods. To examine the effect of clip height on H. wrightii leaf growth rate estimation, leaves were clipped at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 cm above the sediment. Leaves clipped at 2 cm exhibited the fastest leaf growth rate (average = 3.66 mm d -1 ) while leaves clipped at 8 cm had the slowest rate (average = 2.30 mm d -1 ). Depressed leaf growth rates for 8 cm clip height were likely due to the slowing of growth rate with increasing leaf age. Reduced growth rate for the 0 cm clip height treatment may be attributable to removal of nearly all photosynthetic tis- sue and limited below-ground resources. In design of leaf-clipping studies, it is suggested that the selection of clip height and the period of growth after clipping be optimized for each season of a study.


Background Appropriate use of diagnostic laboratory tests is challenging, and estimates of 20% for overutilization and 45% for underutilization have been reported. Introducing effective and sustainable solutions to stimulate optimal use of laboratory testing in clinical practice is a challenge. A recent pilot study from our group, focusing on increasing the awareness about appropriate laboratory testing with the aim of changing the mindset of health care workers, has shown promising results. In this project, we aim to extend this multistep intervention to the internal medicine departments of 4 large Dutch hospitals. We aim to reduce unnecessary laboratory testing by 5%. Objective Our primary objective is to determine the effect of our intervention on diagnostic laboratory test order volume. Our secondary objectives are to determine the effect of our intervention on laboratory expenditure and order volumes, expenditures for other diagnostic modalities, and clinical patient outcomes. We will also analyze the barriers and facilitators for deimplementation of unnecessary laboratory testing. Methods The main interventions of this before-after study will be an intensified supervision of residents by experienced physicians regarding test ordering, creating awareness through education and monthly feedback on ordering patterns, and changes in (computerized) order entry systems. Results At the time of publication of this protocol, the project is in the phase of data collection. We expect to present data on reduction early in the fourth quarter of 2018. Conclusions In this project, we aim to reduce the unnecessary diagnostic testing in the internal medicine departments of 4 teaching hospitals. Although the main interventions will be similar, each clinic is given the opportunity to focus on the specific facets of the interventions as deemed useful according to the local situation. If effective, the study provides a framework for a nationwide initiative for reducing inappropriate laboratory testing. Registered Report Identifier RR1-10.2106/10473


This article presents the results of a student survey conducted in 2004 at Tallinn University within the framework of the project "School as a developmental environment and students' coping." The questionnaire was completed by 3,838 7th, 9th and 12th grade students from 65 Estonian schools. The project arose from the need to prevent students from school drop-out and repeating grades. The main hypothesis was that by modifying a school's social climate, one can either help or disable the development of students' constructive coping strategies and thus support, or not, students' academic success. Our most important conclusion is that the school climate parameters, especially the school value system and teachers' attitudes toward students as perceived by the latter, influence students' optimistic acceptance of life, their psychological and physiological well-being, and academic success.


A graph G=(V,E) is called equidominating if there exists a value t in IN and a weight function w : V -> IN such that the total weight of a subset D of V is equal to t if and only if D is a minimal dominating set. Further, w is called an equidominating function, t a target value and the pair (w,t) an equidominating structure. To decide whether a given graph is equidominating is referred to as the EQUIDOMINATION problem.

First, we examine several results on standard graph classes and operations with respect to equidomination. Furthermore, we characterize hereditarily equidominating graphs. These are the graphs whose every induced subgraph is equidominating. For those graphs, we give a finite forbidden induced subgraph characterization and a structural decomposition. Using this decomposition, we state a polynomial time algorithm that recognizes hereditarily equidominating graphs.

We introduce two parameterized versions of the EQUIDOMINATION problem: the k-EQUIDOMINATION problem and the TARGET-t EQUIDOMINATION problem. For k in IN, a graph is called k-equidominating if we can identify the minimal dominating sets using only weights from 1 to k. In other words, if an equidominating function with co-domain {1,...,k} exists. For t in IN, a graph is said to be target-t equidominating if there is an equidominating structure with target value t.

For both parameterized problems we prove fixed-parameter tractability. The first step for this is to achieve the so-called pseudo class partition, which coarsens the twin partition. It is founded on the requirement that vertices from different blocks of the partition cannot have equal weights in any equidominating structure. Based on the pseudo class partition, we state an XP algorithm for the parameterized versions of the EQUIDOMINATION problem.

The second step is the examination of three reduction rules - each of them concerning a specific type of block of the pseudo class partition - which we use to construct problem kernels. The sizes of the kernels are bounded by a function depending only on the respective parameter. By applying the XP algorithm to the kernels, we achieve FPT algorithms.

The concept of equidomination was introduced nearly 40 years ago, but hardly any investigations exist. With this thesis, we want to fill that gap. We may lay the foundation for further research on equidomination.


The chicken growth hormone (GH) and its receptor (growth hormone receptor, GHR) play important roles in chicken performances due to their crucial functions in growth. The variations of GH and GHR genes were then thought to be associated with the variations of the performances. This experiment was designed to identify the g.2248G>A GH and the g.565G>A GHR loci polymorphisms and to evaluate their associations with carcass components in Kampung and broiler chicken cross. A total of 215 chickens including 4 chicken populations (Kampung, Cobb broiler, F1, and F2 Kampung x broiler chicken cross) were screened to identify polymorphism using PCR-RFLP technique with EcoRV and Eco72I restriction enzyme for GH and GHR loci, respectively. The carcass components were recorded at 26 weeks of age on F2 Kampung and broiler chicken cross (42 chickens) for association study. Both the g.2248G>A GH and the g.565G>A GHR loci were polymorphic with two alleles (G and A) and three genotypes (GG, AG, and AA). The GG genotype and the G allele of GH locus were predominant in all chicken populations. While in GHR locus, the AA genotype and the A allele were found to be higher in all chicken populations. The association study showed that the g.565G>A GHR locus polymorphism had significant effect on carcass components, including live weight, carcass weight, breast weight, thighs weight, breast muscle weight, and thighs muscle weight. There was no significant association was found between the g.2248G>A GH genotype and carcass components. It could be concluded that the g.2248G>A GH and the g.565G>A GHR loci were polymorphic in Kampung and broiler chicken cross and the g.565G>A GHR locus was accosiated with carcass components. This g.565G>A GHR SNP might be an important candidate marker for chicken growth and muscle mass improvement.


About 95% of prostate cancers are adenocarcinomas. Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) is seen in virtually all cases of prostatic carcinoma, mostly in a focal pattern. Extensive NED is associated to aggressive disease with a poor prognosis and most cases are diagnosed in advanced stages.We present a 79-year- old male who was admitted to our department with severe lower urinary tract obstructive symptoms and weight loss. On digital rectal examination, the prostate was fixed to the rectum with irregular margins. Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was 1.9 ng/ml.Transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies revealed small-cell carcinoma of the prostate. Multiple metastatic lesions in vertebral bones and iliac lymph nodes were detected by nuclear bone scan and abdominal computerised tomography CT. Thereafter, the patient was treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy and palliative radiotherapy.


In Electric vehicles, the Li-ion battery reaches its end of life when the capacity is decreased to 80% of the initial rated capacity. However, a battery with only 20% used capacity does not mean the battery cannot be used in a secondary application with less current demand, in a controlled and secure environment. This necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the configuration of the end of life (EoL) batteries in module and pack level, in terms of inconsistencies in capacity and impedance of the cells forming the module and hence the battery pack. Accordingly, a safer and longer second life use can be granted. This paper investigates the impact of parallel connection on the impedance and capacity of four, pouch lithium-ion cells forming a battery module in 2P 2S configuration. The energy storage capacity and the AC impedance of each parallel pair and individual cells are recorded and compared. The results highlight that the capacity loss due to the parallel connection is 6% less than the sum of the individual capacity for each cell. With the help of a developed equivalent circuit model, the ohmic resistance of the pair and cell is estimated to demonstrate the contribution of interconnections in increasing the total impedance and hence the perceived loss of capacity in the parallel connection.


One of the most challenging patient groups that the psychiatrist of consultation-liaison psychiatry is called to work with, are the patients with Renal Failure, since this disease is related to complicated and multidimensional physical and psychosocial problems. In this review, a holistic approach is attempted, considering the biological, psychological and psychosocial factors related to the disease and to specific therapeutical programs as well. The interaction of these factors and their impact not only on the course of the disease, but also on the quality of life are discussed. Finally, a brief report on psychosocial and pharmaceutical interventions indicated for this group of patients is made, especially concerning the psychological and psychosocial consequences of renal failure.


Multiwatt emission from a continuous-wave diamond Raman laser pumped within a diode-pumped InGaAs-based semiconductor disk laser (SDL) is reported. The Raman laser achieved a maximum output power of 4.4 W at 1228 nm with a beam quality factor (M2) of 1.4 and diode-to-Stokes conversion efficiency of 14.2%. Via tuning of the SDL oscillation wavelength, the diamond Raman laser was tuned from 1209 to 1256 nm, with output power exceeding 4 W over a 10-nm range. The evolution of the emission spectra and beam quality of both the SDL and the Raman laser have been investigated for different pump powers, revealing the onset of spectral broadening and beam "clean-up" effects with increasing power. The SDL spectral linewidth and beam overlap are then taken into account in calculations of the efficiency of the Raman laser. Using intracavity frequency-doubling in lithium triborate (LBO) within the Raman laser, up to 1.5-W output power at orange wavelengths was achieved with M2 <; 1.3 and linewidth ~0.1 nm full-width at half-maximum. Tuning of the visible emission was achieved via tuning of the SDL and temperature control of the LBO and covered the range 604.5-619.5 nm.


This study was conducted to determine whether fetal blood sampling during the second trimester is associated with changes in circulating fetal beta-endorphin (BE) concentrations. We measured BE concentrations in 68 paired fetal and maternal blood samples obtained between 18 and 28 weeks' gestation. Patients were divided into a control group (n = 50), if the fetal blood samples were obtained by a single umbilical cord puncture, or multiple insertion group (n = 18), if multiple cord punctures were required to obtain a sample. The mean (+/- SE) fetal BE value for the multiple insertion group was significantly higher than BE levels from the control group (771.2 +/- 79.2 pg/ml versus 107.1 +/- 11.7 pg/ml; p < 0.001]. This elevation did not appear to be related to acidosis, since no differences in fetal umbilical pH were observed between the two groups. Fetal BE levels from the control but not from the multiple insertion group significantly correlated with maternal values (Spearman rank r = 0.59; p < 0.001 vs r = -0.08; p > 0.5). In neither group did fetal BE levels correlate with gestational age. These findings indicate that multiple cord punctures at the time of fetal blood sampling are associated with significant increases in BE release. Furthermore, although a maternal or placental contribution to steady state circulating fetal BE cannot be excluded, it would seem that the fetus itself is the primary source of elevated circulating BE levels following multiple cord punctures.


The dynamic properties of a nonlinear directional coupler made of Kerr materials are investigated using a normal-mode theory based on even and odd supermodes. This analysis provides a good platform to study the pulse propagation in nonlinear multimode waveguides, since the device is simple and can be regarded as a bimodal waveguide. Although the nonlinear directional coupler has already been well investigated using the standard coupled-mode theory, this paper presents new knowledge concerning the device operation from the standpoint of supermodes. Under the normal-mode model, power exchange between the two supermodes is performed through non-phase-matched four-wave mixing (FWM) and new frequency components are created on propagation, leading to spectral broadening of optical pulses. It is found that the group-delay mismatch between the two modes induces instability in collaboration to the nonlinearity when the duration of input pulses is of the order of sub-picoseconds. The dynamic properties of the nonlinear directional coupler are quite similar to those of the nonlinear MMI coupler that were more recently investigated by the present authors.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: DTI data of the normal healthy spinal cord in children are limited compared with adults and are typically focused on the cervical spinal cord. The purpose of this study was the following: to investigate the feasibility of obtaining repeatable DTI parameters along the entire cervical and thoracic spinal cord as a function of age in typically developing pediatric subjects; to analyze the DTI parameters among different transverse levels of the cervical and thoracic spinal cord; and to examine the sex differences in DTI parameters along the cervical and thoracic spinal cord. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two subjects underwent 2 identical scans by using a 3T MR imaging scanner. Axial diffusion tensor images were acquired by using 2 overlapping slabs to cover the cervical and thoracic spinal cord. After postprocessing, DTI parameters were calculated by using ROIs drawn on the whole cord along the entire spinal cord for both scans. RESULTS: An increase in fractional anisotropy and a decrease in mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were observed with age along the entire spinal cord. Significantly lower fractional anisotropy and higher mean diffusivity values were observed in the lower cervical cord compared with the upper cervical cord. Axial diffusivity values in the cervical cord were higher compared with the thoracic cord. No statistically significant sex differences were observed for all DTI parameters. There was a moderate-to-strong repeatability for all DTI parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an initial understanding of DTI values of the spinal cord relevant to age and sex and shows that obtaining repeatable DTI values of the entire cord in children is feasible.


Moisture permeability is an important property of cotton fabrics. Fully understanding of cotton fabric moisture absorption and moisture permeability plays an important role in the further study of the cotton fabric property and development of new cotton fabric. According to 6 kinds of cotton fabrics, the moisture permeability was measured by wet cup moisture absorption method under normal temperature. Such structural parameters have been analyzed as the yarn density, warp and weft density, weight per square meters, thickness, twist, which influenced the moisture permeability of fabrics. By the grey relational analysis, the grey relational sequence of structural parameters have been concluded which affect the moisture permeability of fabrics: thickness>weight per square meters>weft density>weft twist>warp density>wefts yarn density>warp twist>warp yarn density. The results provide theoretical basis for research and designing of textile products and modification of fabrics.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Surfing is an uncommon cause of an acute nontraumatic myelopathy. This study describes the MR imaging characteristics and clinical correlates in 23 subjects with surfer's myelopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective review of 23 cases of surfer's myelopathy from 2003–2012. Spinal cord MR imaging characteristics and neurologic examinations with the use of the American Spinal Injury Association scale were reviewed. Logistic regression was used to determine associations between MR imaging characteristics, American Spinal Injury Association scale, and clinical improvement. RESULTS: All subjects (19 male, 4 female; mean age, 26.3 ± 7.4 years) demonstrated "pencil-like," central T2-hyperintense signal abnormalities in the spinal cord extending from the midthoracic region to the conus with associated cord expansion and varying degrees of conus enlargement on spinal cord MR imaging within 24 hours of symptom onset. T1 signal was normal. Faint gadolinium enhancement was present in a minority. Although there was a strong correlation between initial American Spinal Injury Association score and clinical improvement (P = .0032), MR imaging characteristics were not associated with American Spinal Injury Association score or clinical improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Surfer's myelopathy should be considered in the radiographic differential diagnosis of a longitudinally extensive T2-hyperintense spinal cord lesion. MR imaging characteristics do not appear to be associated with severity on examination or clinical improvement.


Dysregulation of apoptotic machinery is one mechanism by which acute myeloid leukemia (AML) acquires a clonal survival advantage. B-cell lymphoma protein-2 (BCL2) overexpression is a common feature in hematologic malignancies. The selective BCL2 inhibitor, venetoclax (VEN) is used in combination with azacitidine (AZA), a DNAmethyltransferase inhibitor (DNMTi), to treat patients with AML. Despite promising response rates to VEN/AZA, resistance to the agent is common. One identified mechanism of resistance is the upregulation of myeloid cell leukemia-1 protein (MCL1). Pevonedistat (PEV), a novel agent that inhibits NEDD8-activating enzyme, and AZA both upregulate NOXA (PMAIP1), a BCL2 family protein that competes with effector molecules at the BH3 binding site of MCL1. We demonstrate that PEV/AZA combination induces NOXA to a greater degree than either PEV or AZA alone, which enhances VEN-mediated apoptosis. Herein, using AML cell lines and primary AML patient samples ex vivo, including in cells with genetic alterations linked to treatment resistance, we demonstrate robust activity of the PEV/VEN/AZA triplet. These findings were corroborated in preclinical systemic engrafted models of AML. Collectively, these results provide rational for combining PEV/VEN/AZA as a novel therapeutic approach in overcoming AML resistance in current therapies.


The applicability of distributed hydrological models to the semi-arid conditions in the Western Cape was investigated through the application of PRMS and J2000 in the Sandspruit Catchment. The Sandspruit is an annual river, with the catchment receiving 300-400 mm/a of rainfall. The catchment exhibits shallow soils, with the dominant land uses being cultivated lands and pastures. To optimise the parameterisation of the models, 21 boreholes were drilled throughout the catchment for data collection and to get a better conceptual understanding of the catchment's hydrologic conditions. Field evidence suggests that subsurface flow is the dominant contributor of streamflow and thus the models were calibrated accordingly. The models were run for a 20 year period. Both models were able to match the timing of seasonal hydrograph responses, however they were not able to match annual discharge volumes. Annual discharge was overestimated in certain cases and underestimated in others. Both models exhibited daily Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiencies of below 0.4. As the models were parameterised and calibrated manually, the feasibility of using automatic techniques needs to be investigated.


Adversarial contrastive learning (ACL) is a technique that enhances standard contrastive learning (SCL) by incorporating adversarial data to learn a robust representation that can withstand adversarial attacks and common corruptions without requiring costly annotations. To improve transferability, the existing work introduced the standard invariant regularization (SIR) to impose style-independence property to SCL, which can exempt the impact of nuisance style factors in the standard representation. However, it is unclear how the style-independence property benefits ACL-learned robust representations. In this paper, we leverage the technique of causal reasoning to interpret the ACL and propose adversarial invariant regularization (AIR) to enforce independence from style factors. We regulate the ACL using both SIR and AIR to output the robust representation. Theoretically, we show that AIR implicitly encourages the representational distance between different views of natural data and their adversarial variants to be independent of style factors. Empirically, our experimental results show that invariant regularization significantly improves the performance of state-of-the-art ACL methods in terms of both standard generalization and robustness on downstream tasks. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to apply causal reasoning to interpret ACL and develop AIR for enhancing ACL-learned robust representations. Our source code is at https://github.com/GodXuxilie/Enhancing_ACL_via_AIR.


: In this work, the dissipation of the antibiotics doxycycline (DC) (from the group of tetracy-clines), enrofloxacin (ENR) (a fluoroquinolone), and sulfamethoxypyridazine (SMP) (a sulfonamide) is investigated both under simulated sunlight and in the dark, at three different pH (4.0, 5.5, and 7.2), and in the presence of different salts and humic acids. The results indicate that all three antibiotics are very sensitive to photodegradation, and this sensitivity increased with rising pH values, from 4.0 to 7.2. The rise in pH also caused an increase in the degradation kinetic constants and a decrease in the half-lives of antibiotics. In general, the half-lives ranged from a few minutes to 6 h, depending on the pH conditions and the specific antibiotic, and followed the sequence DC > SMP > ENR, although at pH 5.5 the sequence changed to SMP > DC > ENR. After 24 h of simulated sunlight, mineralization was always lower than 10%, although the antibiotic was not quantifiable after the same time of exposure to light (24 h), which indicates that intermediate compounds were generated. The effect of the presence of salts on the dissipation of the three antibiotics was negligible for NaCl and NaNO 3 , while NaHCO 3 did favor the dissipation of DC and ENR. The presence of humic acids showed no effect on the dissipation of SMP, and it only slightly increased the dissipation of DC and ENR. These results may be useful in the assessment of the persistence/degradation of the antibiotics studied when they reach different environmental compartments and may suffer exposure to light under different physicochemical conditions.


We simulate a rental housing market with search and matching frictions, in which both landlord and tenant agents are imperfectly informed. Homogeneous landlords set rents to maximise revenue, using information on the market to estimate the relationship between asking rent and time on the market (TOM). Tenants, heterogeneous in income, engage in undirected search accepting residences based on their idiosyncratic tastes for housing and a disagreement point derived from information on the distribution of offers. Landlords deduce hasard rates across asking rents through knowledge of the number of recent rentals and the total TOM of both these residences and of vacant residences in narrow intervals of rents. They fit an estimation of the relationship between TOM and rent, and using the expected duration of stay for a tenant and a discount rate, set their asking rent to maximise their revenue. Tenants see a percentage of offers and from the distribution of offers decide their disagreement utility for acceptation of a visited residence. The model is closed with equal numbers of tenants and landlords, who own one residence each. The simulation converges to a steady state with dispersed rents and positive vacancy rates and times on the market. The main results concern the asymmetric effects of increasing information on both sides of the market. When tenants see more of the distribution of offers: the population rises and tenants' utilities rise as does overall welfare, as tenants learn to refuse high rents. When landlords have greater information: landlords' utilities fall and overall welfare rises slightly, as increased competition between landlords causes rents to fall. When two types of landlords are present with different levels of information, the better informed landlords charge lower rents, and experience lower vacancy rates.


Organometallic multiple-decker sandwich clusters are topics of great interest due to their unique electronic and magnetic properties originating from anisotropic structures. We report a joint anion photoelectron spectroscopic and computational study on a new family of manganese (Mn)-benzene (Bz) anionic clusters MnnBzn-. In stark contrast to the most widely studied vanadium-Bz sandwich clusters, it is found that MnnBzn- (n = 1-5) clusters exhibit unprecedented multiple-decker structures with a tilted Mn-Bz stacking and a monotonically increasing behavior of their high spin multiplicities. Furthermore, a couple of closed ring forms of Mn18Bz18- and its neutral state are computationally anticipated as an intriguing "cluster of Mn1Bz1 clusters" in which the neutral Mn18Bz18 has extremely high C18h symmetry with an uncommon spin state of 2S + 1 = 55. The extensively delocalized electron environment of Mn18Bz18 allows the simple Hückel model to reveal the strong intra-atomic exchange interactions within the Mn 3d electrons.