Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool for high resolution surface measurements, nanolithography, and tip-based nanomanufacturing. An understanding of the nanoscale tribological behavior of the tip-sample contact, including adhesion and wear, is critical in these applications. In this dissertation, the adhesion and wear of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in contact with an ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) AFM tip is investigated using a combination of AFM-based nanomechanics experiments and finite element analysis (FEA). A novel AFM-based method, which combines pull-off force measurements and characterization of the 3D geometry of AFM tip, was developed to quantify the properties of the adhesive traction-separation relationship of UNCD-PMMA contacts. Adhesion range and strength, as well as work of adhesion, of the contacts were determined. Characterizing and understanding nanoscale wear of polymers has proven difficult in the past due to experimental complications associated with debris produced in the tests and the failure of traditional empirical wear relations, such as Archard's law. Here, nanoscale AFM-based line and raster wear experiments were performed on patterned PMMA structures, which had gaps that allow debris to be captured. Results from the line wear tests indicate that the relationship between height loss rate and stress is well described by a transition state theory wear model. The wear parameters obtained from line wear tests were applied to predict the volume loss in raster wear tests. Despite the significant differences in the loading and sliding geometry between line and raster wear experiments, the raster wear behavior was accurately predicted from the parameters obtained from line wear tests. In addition, experiments at varying temperatures were performed to study the temperature dependence of polymer wear. The results suggest that transition state theory overestimates the effect of temperature on wear for PMMA. Modified models considering viscoelastic relaxation of PMMA and atom-by-atom attrition were applied to describe the measured wear behavior. Finally, an iterative FEA method was developed for simulations of wear. These simulations were used to examine the evolution of geometry and stress during the wear process as a function of contact conditions, such as friction and surface roughness. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics First Advisor Kevin T. Turner


The goal of this research is to test the relationship model between motive, structural dimension, relational dimension, and cognitive dimension, as well as core self evaluation personality with organizational citizenship behaviour. The research integrates the use of atribution theory, social exchange theory, core self evaluation theory, and two raters of organizational citizenship behavior. Eventhough organizational citizenship behaviour is positively correlated with social capital, motive, and personality, the relationship of each factor is not the same strength. This is due to differences in job conditions, environment, task independency, and research setting.

A survey was conducted by using questionnaires from previous research. The questionnaires were sent to 128 branches of the bank industry located in 16 major cities in Java. The sampel consisted of 636 tellers and 129 head tellers. Validity testsand reliability tests were used to test the questionnaires contents. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the relationship among the variables. The result proved that organizational motive and core self evaluation personality have the strongest effect on individual organizational citizenship behaviour eventhough core self evaluation personality does not moderate the relationship between motive and social capital with organizational citizenship behaviour. The result also showed that self rating and supervisor rating differs significantly with respect to organizational citizenship behaviour. Both are valid and have an equal effect on organizational citizenship behaviour. A thorough discussion on the relationship among the variables as well as on self rating and supervisor rating are presented in this paper.


During the last decade, increasingly advanced turbocharger models have been developed for sizing, engine matching and one-dimensional modeling. This work goes further and, instead of using these models for turbocharged engines design or analysis, it implements them in the data acquisition and control system of a turbocharger gas stand. This way, interesting new capabilities arise. The paper shows that there are important synergies between advanced turbocharger gas stand data acquisition and control systems and the modern turbocharger holistic models that have not been deeply exploited until now. They can be summarized as: on-line heat fluxes analysis, in-situ outlier testing points detection, testing time saving and using digital-twin techniques to monitor turbocharger health during testing.


Cracking is one of the most influential distresses that mostly affect the service life of asphalt concrete pavements. These cracks start as microcracks that later coalesce to form macrocracks, which propagate due to tensile and/or shear stress. As the cracks propagate, the pavement serviceability starts to reduce dramatically. In order to improve the cracking performance of asphalt pavements, it is important to acquire a good understanding of the cracking mechanism and to have a reliable system to determine mixture's resistance to crack development and propagation. An HMA (Hot Mix Asphalt) fracture mechanics framework based on Superpave IDT (InDirect Tension test) has been developed in the US. The main ideology of this framework is the concept of the existence of a damage threshold. The dissipated creep strain energy (DCSE) limit and the fracture energy (FE) limit of asphalt mixtures are the lower and upper thresholds, respectively. According to this fracture mechanics framework, three types of testing are performed in the IDT testing device for predicting the fracture resistance of bituminous mixtures. Testing comprises resilient modulus, static creep and tensile strength. In this study, theory of this framework and application to field will be explained extensively.


Previously acetophenone 1,3,4,5,6,7,8-heptafluoro-2-naphthylhydrazone and acetophenone pentafluorophenylhydrazone were reported to react in tetralin at reflux temperature to give among the products 4,5,6,7,8,9- hexafluoro-2-phenylbenz[ e ]indole and 4,5,6,7-tetrafluoro-2-phenylindole respectively. These are typical Fischer indole products, and yet are formed by the surprising loss of ortho-fluorine rather than orthohydrogen. The work contained in this thesis is concerned with exploring the generality of this reaction: polyfluoroaromatic hydrazones with a variety of substituents have been synthesized, and their response to cyclization investigated. The thesis is divided into three main sections. Chapters one, two, three, and four deals with the literature on the synthesis of partially fluorinated heterocyclic compounds. Chapter five discusses the synthesis of some new partially fluorinated indoles, whilst chapter six contains the experimental detail for this work.


These researches have aimed to know about the concentration and giving of blocked essence in mepiquat chloride toward growth and the result of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.). In addition, its have influence toward growth of the result potatoes. The hypothesis from this study is there are interaction between given of concentration with giving of blocked essence mepiquat chloride to potatoes. Moreover, the concentration and giving of blocked essence mepiquat chloride will give growth and the result well. Farmer?s field in Junggo - Malang, had done this study from January up to May 2002. Which is use split plot design in frame of group random. The concentration of blocked essence can be placed as particular partition and giving of blocked essence that has placed as sub-partition. The observation toward the growth parameter can start 25 HST for age, with 6 of plant samples. In addition, the next observation will be done with time interval 10 days once. While the observation to the result, parameter would be done for the guest period with 8 samples plant. The growth parameters can involve such as plant high (cm), amount of leaves, stem diameter (cm) and wide of leaves to each plant (cm2). While to the result parameter can included amount of tuber each plant, weight of tuber each plant (g), weight of each tuber 9g), the result of guest (t/ha) and class percentage of tuber (%). The processing and data analysis that have use is frame of group random split plot. The data processing can included, like data construction, raw data (primer data) and statistics. After the data have obtained of each parameter and observation interval, so its will continued with account of variety analysis with BNJ test ( Tukey test). This test has based on the value group that have different from size and it depends on the distances of two middle values that have compared. If there is interaction between both of factors, it will continue with regression. The result of this analysis can shown that vegetative phase to plant high, amount of leaves, wide of leaves is not influence, but for the diameter stem to concentration of blocked essence mepiquat chloride 4ml/1 each of partition that given 40 hst, give high value. For the generative phase to tuber per plant, weight per tuber, the result of guest is not influence. While weight of tuber per plant have influence to concentration of concentration of blocked essence mepiquat chloride 10mlo/1, class percentage of tuber 30g ? 60g have influence for 6 ml/1 and percentage tuber class 30g have influence at giving blocked essence mepiquat chloride 60 hst. By using blocked essence, mepiquat chloride is well, because it can increase the result of potatoes if it is compared from the research previously. Keyword : MEPIQUAT KLORIDA; TANAMAN KENTANG Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/63/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2005-lusyratnas-3148-Pendahul-n.pdf


The design of modern BWR assemblies is governed by general requirements such as safe and reliable performance, optimal fuel utilization and cycle length, and a high degree of flexibility in reactor operation. These requirements are fulfilled via the use of increased enrichments, high gadolinium loadings and part-length fuel rods, which lead to very heterogeneous assembly designs, causing not only large variations in the power density of individual fuel pins, but also strong radial and azimuthal gradients in reaction rate distributions within the pins themselves. The invasive technique of activation foils (depleted uranium) is applied and the experimental results are compared with calculations performed using the deterministic code CASMO-4 as well as the stochastic code MCNP


Purpose: Retrospective study of associationism and accounting knowledge in Catalonia, during the period 1924-1940, through the analysis of the journal Organitzacio, published by the Associacio de Comptables de Catalunya (ACC, Catalonian Association of Accountants). Comparison between the ACC and the Associacio Catalana de Comptabilitat I Direccio (ACCID, Catalonian Association of Accounting and Management), to highlight the evolution of the accounting profession in Catalonia over the course of one century. Design/methodology: Exploratory study of each issue of the journal Organitzacio during its period of publication (1925-1938) and a review of the literature in the area being studied. Processing of the information obtained through dynamic tables, to obtain the results and conclusions of the research conducted. Exploratory comparison of the ACC and ACCID. Findings: The study highlights the work carried out by the ACC during its existence, as the driving force behind the accounting profession in Catalonia, and relations with other international associations. It also establishes a parallelism with the ACCID. Research limitations/implications:  Slow access to all the issues of the journal Organitzacio in order to create the corresponding technical files of the works collected in each journal and difficulty in finding ACC documentation in the literature review. Practical implications:  This work highlights the work of professionals in the field of accounting in the 20th and 21st centuries, showing the need for accounting regulations, continued training and internationalization to meet the demands of the business world. Social implications:  It makes professionals and scholars in the field of accounting aware of the importance of the work carried out by the ACC in the first half of the 20th century, and the harmony with the work currently carried out by the ACCID. Originality/value:  The study draws attention to the activity carried out by the ACC, unknown at the time of the founding of the ACCID, and shows that at certain times, associations of accountants have been important on a business level.


A reported fluorometric method to determine tetracycline in biological material was modified to determine low levels of the antibiotics when using only small amounts of starting material. The method is applicable to tissue distribution studies in small experimental animals and also can be used for serial determinations in blood samples of these animals and for biopsy material. The tetracyclines are extracted in the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and the phosphate precipitation steps are omitted. This omission makes the procedures considerably less time consuming. The recoveries of the tetracyclines, oxytetracycline and doxycycline, are approximately 80-100%. The values obtained by this method were consistent with those from microbiological assays, and its reliability was shown further in a comparison with the fate of radioactive tetracycline.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Factors that control pancreatic regenerating (reg I) gene expression are unknown, but it is believed that its expression may correspond with cellular differentiation. The authors recently demonstrated that reg I is expressed in AR42J, a rat acinar cell line whose state of differentiation can be modulated by dexamethasone. They used this line to study reg I expression during cellular proliferation and differentiation.

METHODS
After treatment of cells with 10 nmol/L dexamethasone, proliferation was assayed by thymidine incorporation; differentiation by expression of elastase I mRNA. Reg I mRNA levels were measured using a rat reg I cDNA probe, and reg I protein levels assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of cellular lysates with a polyclonal antibody. The effect of gastrin, cholecystokinin and glucagon on reg I expression was also studied.

RESULTS
When compared with controls, treatment with dexamethasone caused thymidine incorporation to decrease and elastase mRNA levels to increase. Reg I mRNA decreased from controls of 100 +/- 16% to 40 +/- 18% (p < 0.05), and reg I protein levels decreased as well. Gastrointestinal hormones had no significant effect on either elastase or reg I gene expression.

CONCLUSIONS
Expression of reg I inversely correlates with the level of cellular differentiation, can be modulated via the glucocorticoid receptor, and is a potential marker of gastrointestinal epithelial differentiation. Despite its presence within a pancreatic acinar cell line, reg I gene expression is not modulated by gastrointestinal hormones.


Mammalian hair follicles cycle between stages of rapid growth (anagen) and metabolic quiescence (telogen) throughout life. Transition from anagen to telogen involves an intermediate stage, catagen, consisting of a swift, apoptosis-driven involution of the lower half of the follicle. How catagen is coordinated, and spares the progenitor cells needed for anagen re-entry, is poorly understood. Keratin 17 (K17)-null mice develop alopecia in the first week post-birth, correlating with hair shaft fragility and untimely apoptosis in the hair bulb. Here we show that this abnormal apoptosis reflects premature entry into catagen. Of the proapoptotic challenges tested, K17-null skin keratinocytes in primary culture are selectively more sensitive to TNFα. K17 interacts with TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1)-associated death domain protein (TRADD), a death adaptor essential for TNFR1-dependent signal relay, suggesting a functional link between this keratin and TNFα signaling. The activity of NF-κB, a downstream target of TNFα, is increased in K17-null skin. We also find that TNFα is required for a timely anagen–catagen transition in mouse pelage follicles, and that its ablation partially rescues the hair cycling defect of K17-null mice. These findings identify K17 and TNFα as two novel and interdependent regulators of hair cycling.


The influence of 5 rootstocks (Parramatta sweet orange, trifoliate orange, Troyer citrange, Appleby Smooth Seville and Somersby Smooth Seville) on the productivity and fruit quality of Marsh and Davis grapefruit was studied over 15 years in the Lower Murray region of New South Wales. Annual yields of mature trees and cumulative yield were highest on Troyer citrange; cumulative yield was lowest on trifoliate orange. Canopy volume was largest on Troyer citrange and smallest on trifoliate orange. Production efficiency (fruit yield per unit of tree size) was significantly greater on trifoliate orange than all other rootstocks. Canopy volume was 44% smaller on trifoliate orange than on Troyer citrange, but cumulative yield was only 26% lower. Because of their small size and high production efficiency, trees on trifoliate orange would be suitable for high density plantings. Trifoliate orange produced the best quality fruit. Fruit from trees on trifoliate orange had the highest total soluble solids (TSS) and TSS :acid ratio. Sweet orange and Appleby Smooth Seville produced the least acceptable fruit due to low TSS :acid ratios. Fruit size was largest on Troyer citrange and trifoliate orange. Trees on trifoliate orange accumulated excessive chloride (Cl-) during periods of high irrigation water salinity; however, no adverse effects on growth or long-term productivity were apparent. Leaf C1- concentrations for trifoliate orange varied from 0.42 to 1.10%. Leaf C1- concentrations remained below 0.30% for the other rootstocks. There were no significant effects of scion cultivar on tree size, yield or production efficiency, and differences in fruit quality were slight. Fruit size was larger with Marsh than Davis.


Today, national standard, enterprise standard and other related indicators for sports goods companies have been attached with great importance by the state. Since there have been no relevant standards, or no formal industry standards for sports industry for long, or due to other factors, the production level of sports goods in China has always lagged behind the Western countries. So it is imperative to develop technical standards, standardized production processes, strengthen quality management of sports products, and quickly make China the largest producer of sports goods. This paper analyzes the current situation and shortcomings of sporting goods industry, and proposes solutions to these problems.


The development of large software systems demands intensive cooperation among multiple project team members with different responsibilities. The development process is often distributed across time and space and takes place within and between specialized workgroups. This necessitates finding appropriate answers to questions related to division of labor, to communication, and to coordination and cooperation in the planning, development and maintenance of software systems. Development environments that explicitly support group work are an important prerequisite for the production of high quality software systems. Most of the software development environments in use today support primarily technical aspects and have shortcomings in the area of organizational support. The paper describes a model for cooperative work processes in software projects and a corresponding development environment that provides balanced support for both organizational and technical aspects of software development. The work toward the conception of the model and the implementation of the development environment have been completed, and the evaluation of the proposed approach has begun. Experience to date with using the developed environment confirms the assumption that the cooperative, cluster oriented development improves both productivity and quality. The presented approach excels primarily in its easily understandable model, the intuitive usability of the tools and the comprehensible presentation of process- and product-related information.


Detailed and generalized protocols are presented for the synthesis and subsequent purification of four palladium N-heterocyclic carbene complexes from benzimidazolium salts. Detailed and generalized protocols are also presented for testing the catalytic activity of such complexes in arylation and Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. Representative results are shown for the catalytic activity of the four complexes in arylation and Suzuki-Miyaura type reactions. For each of the reactions investigated, at least one of the four complexes successfully catalyzed the reaction, qualifying them as promising candidates for catalysis of many carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions. The protocols presented are general enough to be adapted for the synthesis, purification and catalytic activity testing of new palladium N-heterocyclic carbene complexes.


The Bureau of Mines report describes the laboratory processing of manganese nodules and the results of tailings characterization obtained during the cooperative program with the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Bureau. Five technically feasible first-generation nodule-processing methods were operated at bench scale to generate sufficient tailings and slags for physical and chemical analyses. A description is given for the laboratory operation of the individual unit operations of each process. The laboratory-generated tailings and slags were tested for physical properties, mineral content, elemental and ion content, and leachability for all five processes. The results of leachate testing using the Environmental Protection Agency extraction procedure (EP) toxicity test, the American Society for Testing and Materials shake extraction test, and the EPA-U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seawater elutriant test showed very low to negligible leaching of metals from the tailings and slags. Results of the EP toxicity test demonstrated that the wastes are nonhazardous as defined in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Public Law 94-580).


Social media have improved the operations of public relations. The ability of social media to elicit immediate feedback has made social media veritable tools in the hands of public relations practitioners in counselling school management on corporate policies. This study explores the pattern of social media usage by public relations practitioners. It shows the level of impact made with the use of social media in public relations practice in influencing management on corporate policies. The study was guided by diffusion of innovation theory and system theory. Diffusion of innovation theory offers a solid and replicable framework for the process of moving an innovation through a social system over time. System theory deals with the interactivity that exist in an organisation as a social system. Using the descriptive design, questionnaire was administered on 170 purposively selected public relations practitioners in some selected institutions of higher learning across the country but only 120 responded. Findings show that public relations practitioners use social media in influencing top school management on corporate policies. This is evident as all the respondents affirmed that they use social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, among others to inform and influence top school management on corporate policies. The study concludes that social media are potent tools in influencing school's policy formulation and implementation. The study recommends that institutions of higher learning should formulate and implement productive ICT policies and public relations practitioners should be trained regularly on the use of social media with a consequent expectation of migrating from the analogue to digital culture.


The discourse of restitution often takes place within the framework of the `ethics of collecting' with a focus on the return of objects obtained violently, but this has restricted the debate.  The case study of the return of two sacred stones from Finland to Namibia reflects on the cultural impact of their return. Largely Christianised communities re-encountered objects that were sacred and central to earlier belief systems.  We argue that the role of the sacred stones changed over time, before they went into exile, in a way that challenges any assumption of stasis that might be assumed when deploying the concept of `tradition'.   The return of the two stones provoked renewed interest in pre-Christian rituals, but also related to efforts to strengthen the position of `traditional authorities' in relation to the democratic system of governance in Namibia.  The ripples of restitution illustrate the wider importance of the return of cultural artifacts to stimulating contemporary cultural and political debate.


Has science found the anatomic substrate for dyslexia? If so, will this knowledge lead to simple diagnostic tests and new treatment methods for this disorder? These and similarly dramatic questions have been raised since an article entitled, "Study Ties Dyslexia to Brain Flaw Affecting Vision and Other Senses," appeared on the front page of The New York Times (September 15, 1991:1). The Times interviewed several investigators, including Drs Margaret Livingstone and Albert Galaburda, who discussed their study due to appear later in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) . The PNAS article, coauthored by Drs Glenn Rosen and Frank Drislane, used two approaches aimed at testing the magnocellular system (large ganglion cells) in dyslexic patients. First, they examined necropsy specimens from five dyslexic and five normal brains and reported a 27% reduction in the areas of magnocellular neurons in the lateral geniculate


Citrus plants often suffer from temperature stress, which seriously inhibits tree growth and even results in tree death. The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of Glomus mosseae on growth, root morphology, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and soluble protein content of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) seedlings at low (15°C), optimum (25°C) and high (35°C) temperatures. Sixty-eight days after temperature stresses, mycorrhizal colonization and number of both entry points and vesicles were significantly inhibited by low or high temperature. Mycorrhizal seedlings recorded significantly higher growth characteristics than non-mycorrhizal seedlings at both optimum and high temperatures, but the beneficial effects were almost lost at low temperature. Generally, mycorrhizal seedlings presented notably higher root traits (projected area, surface area, number of forks and volume) than non-mycorrhizal seedlings regardless of temperature levels. Mycorrhizal colonization significantly increased SOD and CAT activities and soluble protein content at high temperature, increased only SOD activity at optimum temperature, and decreased only soluble protein content at low temperature. It suggests that mycorrhizal alleviation of temperature stress in trifoliate orange seedlings was at high temperature, but the alleviation was obviously weakened at low temperature.


In this introduction we give an account of the reasons for writing the Manifesto for a Post-Critical Pedagogy. These stem from our experiences in the field of educational research, as well as our work with teachers and future teachers, which we felt increasingly reflected the exhaustion of the critical paradigm in the humanities and social sciences, as discussed by Bruno Latour, Jacques Ranciere and others. We summarise the main claims of the Manifesto, i.e. the principles we defend there, and explain why we find it important to do so. We elaborate on what we mean by principles with reference to the concept of «requirements» developed by Isabelle Stengers. We conclude with an overview of the projects that have emerged since the publication of the Manifesto, illustrating the various ways in which the post-critical perspective has been taken up in educational research. In particular we highlight how this has been taken up in the development of specifically educational accounts of higher education, teaching, and upbringing.


Anorexia nervosa (AN) means literally "a nervous loss of appetite" and is characterized by reduced food intake, extreme body weight loss, hypothermia, amenorrhea and emaciation. The average prevalence of AN has been reported to be 0.3% and has the highest mortality rate (>10%) of all psychiatric disorders. Excessive physical activity is demonstrated by many, if not most, patients with AN at some point in the course of the disorder, and has been described as a hallmark feature of the syndrome. The prevalence of hyperactivity varies widely between 31-80%, due to a lack of clear definition of hyperactive behavior in AN patients. Pharmacotherapy thus far played only a limited role in the treatment of AN and the fact that there are no effective drugs to treat AN argues against a straight forward involvement of common neurotransmitters in the etiology of AN. The neural mechanisms underlying AN remain obscure. Disturbances in dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission and to a limited extent in some peripheral hormones have been described in AN. Studies on the frequently used animal model for AN, the activity-based anorexia model, suggest a normal starvation response at the level of the hypothalamus in the brain. Regulation of food intake and body weight involves complex interactions between peripheral signals and neural circuits that influence metabolism and behavior. Dysfunction of this energy balance regulatory system may underlie eating disorders, such as AN. In the present thesis we focused on regulatory neuronal pathways underlying anorectic behavior and the possible involvement of endocrine signaling with special emphasis on the involvement of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. We thereby concentrated on starvation-induced hyperactivity, since this trait appears prominent in patients suffering from AN. The overall aim of this thesis was to identify the neural mechanism(s) underlying starvation-induced hyperactivity in order to better understand the pathophysiology seen in AN patients. First we determined which brain areas are involved in starvation-induced hyperactivity. Important hypothalamic brain areas known to be involved in the regulation of food intake were also identified to play a significant role in starvation-induced hyperactivity. Second, we determined the role of dopamine and its receptors by two different approaches; by blockade of dopamine receptors in the brain, and by measuring extracellular levels of dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, a brain area known to be involved in food regulation and dopamine signaling. Next, we investigated the contribution of peripheral signals, leptin and ghrelin, in starvation-induced hyperactivity. We thereby identified that lack of leptin signaling in the ventral tegmental area of the brain accelerates starvation-induced hyperactivity. Moreover, blockade of ghrelin signaling reduces starvation-induced hyperactivity. Finally, we identified genetic loci and possible candidate genes underlying starvation-induced hyperactivity. Further research is needed to confirm whether the candidate genes are truly involved in AN. As a final point, this thesis provides novel data on the role of ghrelin, leptin and dopamine in particular on the hyperactivity observed in the ABA model. These data give new insights into the mechanisms underlying starvation-induced hyperactivity that may also underlie hyperactivity as observed in AN.


© 2018 Deputy of Research and Technology of Baqiyatallah Hospital Abstract Introduction: Exposure to trauma, before and during puberty has specific implications for personality development and raises risk for borderline personality disorder. The aim of this study is to determine the mediating role of positive and negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between childhood trauma and borderline personality features. Materials and Methods: The research method was a descriptive correlational type and the statistical population consisted of all residents of the Karaj city in summer of 2017, among which 300 were chosen randomly and selected voluntarily. The study tools were the childhood trauma questionnaire, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, and borderline symptom list. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: The results showed that the total path coefficient that is, sum total of the direct relationship between childhood trauma and borderline personality and the indirect relationship between these two, by mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=0.654, P<0.01); the direct path coefficient of the relationship between negative cognitive emotional regulation strategies and borderline personality (β=0.513, P<0.01) and the indirect path coefficient between childhood trauma and borderline personality that is, the indirect relationship by mediating role of negative emotion regulation strategies (β=0.550, P<0.01) are positive and significant at 0.01 level; In other words, it's likely to have a reason other than chance. Conclusion: Childhood trauma seems to prevent the development of cognitiveemotional regulation capabilities in a healthy way. Negative affect in people with a borderline personality disorder is the initiator of negative emotional strategies including rumination, which leads to deeper self-blame and other-blame thinking that ultimately leads to symptoms of borderline personality disorder.


We consider the problem of learning latent community structure from multiple correlated networks. We study edge-correlated stochastic block models with two balanced communities, focusing on the regime where the average degree is logarithmic in the number of vertices. Our main result derives the precise information-theoretic threshold for exact community recovery using multiple correlated graphs. This threshold captures the interplay between the community recovery and graph matching tasks. In particular, we uncover and characterize a region of the parameter space where exact community recovery is possible using multiple correlated graphs, even though (1) this is information-theoretically impossible using a single graph and (2) exact graph matching is also information-theoretically impossible. In this regime, we develop a novel algorithm that carefully synthesizes algorithms from the community recovery and graph matching literatures.


Especially during the past 8–12 months, the strong rise in prices for meat and milk has made consumers aware of the increased demand for livestock products that had already been predicted under the "livestock revolution" concept in the late 1990s. At the same time, the globally increased demand for energy, high oil prices, regional harvest failures and market speculation lead to a sudden increase in prices of major cereals used for food and feed. Against this background, the paper tries to identify to what extent different types of livestock producers might be affected by feed price increases. The large-scale market-oriented livestock farmers should be able to pass down increased feed costs to the buyers of their products, and smallscale farmers as well as pastoralists who predominantly raise their animals on internal or communally available feed resources might, to some extent, benefit from improved product prices but suffer little or not from increased feed prices. The group for which the question cannot be answered unambiguously consists of those smallholders who rely, at least seasonally, on the supplementation of their animals with purchased feeds. For them the (un)certainty of marketing the livestock product at a profitable price will determine their willingness to invest in feeds. Smallholders with a weak link to markets may need to reduce herd sizes, abandon animal husbandry altogether or at least change their feeding practices. Since crop residues are least affected by increasing prices, these might regain importance for the latter group of farmers. To make up for reduced concentrate feeding, qualitative upgrading of crop residues through physical, chemical or biological measures, or through crop breeding strategies contributing to improved residue quality might be (re)condsidered. While such measures have largely been investigated with respect to ruminants, studies targeting pigs and poultry are less numerous. However, the majority of these studies focussed on the feeding value of (treated) crop residues and their utilisation by the animal, while questions such as smallholders' access to these techniques, ease of their applicability on farm, maintenance of feed quality during storage, and economic considerations including questions of scale tended to be ignored. Another option is the increased use of (monogastric) livestock breeds with a higher capacity of using poorer quality and high fibre feeds. The "reduced productivity" of such breeds might need re-evaluation if production costs for modern breeds with a probably higher demand for high quality feeds continue to rise.


In the first days of summer, there is an increase in the number of summer-related accidents and injuries. Typical for the types of sports practiced in summer, such as ball games, cycling or skating are injuries to the wrist and ankle, knee, head and shoulder. The most frequent victims of swimming accidents are children under four years of age, and adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years. During grilling, burns often occur, most of which, however, are superficial and can be treated in the doctor's office. The incidence of dog bites also increases in summer. In such cases consideration must be given not only to tetanus boosters, but also to the possibility of an infection with rabies.


We present Point-BERT, a new paradigm for learning Transformers to generalize the concept of BERT [8] to 3D point cloud. Inspired by BERT, we devise a Masked Point Modeling (MPM) task to pre-train point cloud Transformers. Specifically, we first divide a point cloud into several local point patches, and a point cloud Tokenizer with a discrete Variational AutoEncoder (dVAE) is designed to generate discrete point tokens containing meaningful local information. Then, we randomly mask out some patches of input point clouds and feed them into the backbone Transformers. The pre-training objective is to recover the original point tokens at the masked locations under the supervision of point tokens obtained by the Tokenizer. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed BERT-style pre-training strategy significantly improves the performance of standard point cloud Transformers. Equipped with our pre-training strategy, we show that a pure Transformer architecture attains 93.8% accuracy on ModelNet40 and 83.1% accuracy on the hardest setting of ScanObjectNN, surpassing carefully designed point cloud models with much fewer hand-made designs. We also demonstrate that the representations learned by Point-BERT transfer well to new tasks and domains, where our models largely advance the state-of-the-art of few-shot point cloud classification task. The code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/lulutang0608/Point-BERT.


Haemophilus somnus (Histophilus somni) has been reported in many countries around the world as a cause of many disease manifestations in cattle and sheep including thrombotic meningoencephalitis, septicaemia, pneumonia, abortion, orchitis, arthritis and myocarditis, etc... which are collectively known as "Haemophilus somnus disease complex". Haemophilus somnus disease has not been reported in the Sudan till 1998, when El Sanousi and co-workers diagnosed a chronic disease of cattle with nervous manifestations as "thromboembolic meningoencephalitis" caused by Haemophilus somnus . This disease was observed to affect cattle following stresses such as viral or parasitic diseases or exhaustion due to walking long distances. The disease is characterised by decreased heat tolerance and hair over growth in addition to other symptoms which include respiratory distress, hyper-salivation, plegia of one or both hid limbs, elevated temperature, decreased milk yield, reproductive failure and decreased appetite with consequent loss of body condition. In another separate study, the same investigators showed that most of these symptoms can be alleviated or abolished by treatment with antibiotics that can cross the blood brain barrier, confirming the their previous diagnosis of the disease and the bacterial nature of the causative agent. In the present investigation we revised the relation of H. somnus to this disease by re-identification of some of the early isolated bacteria by molecular methods. With PCR using primers specific to H. somnus, four of these isolates were either negative or yielded non-specific amplicons. Further identification by 16S rDNA sequencing confirmed the PCR results. Another part of the investigation was conducted using ELISA for the detection of anti-H. somnus antibodies in affected cattle. Although ELISA results showed varying degrees of antibody titre in sera from both affected and apparently healthy cattle, healthy cattle had relatively higher antibody titres against H. somnus. These results are consistent with results of other investigators, who reported that cattle with lower titre against H. somnus were more susceptible to H. somnus disease.


We investigated top and bottom exchange biased perpendicularly magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) with IrMn and the effects of the multilayer structure on the magnetoresistance and perpendicular exchange bias. The TMR ratio of the top exchange biased (TEB)-pMTJ was significantly deteriorated compared with that of the pseudo-pMTJ, due to the high junction resistance and the in-plane anisotropy induced in the Co/IrMn interface. The TMR ratio and perpendicular exchange bias were improved in the bottom exchange biased (BEB)-pMTJ as compared with those of the TEB-pMTJ. Perpendicularly magnetized buffer layers, such as (Pd/Co)n, should be used to induce perpendicular exchange coupling with antiferromagnets such as IrMn in BEB-pMTJs.


Are concurrent partnerships (multiple partnerships at a time) driving HIV epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa? Opinions differ! While simulation studies show the potential impact concurrency can have, empirical evidence is inconclusive. In my PhD research I used mathematical models to understand how network structures, such as concurrency, impact the spread of sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV. The sexual network is dynamic as it changes over time due to individuals entering and leaving the population and partnerships breaking and forming. The main part of my PhD project consisted of the formulation and analysis of mathematical models for the spread of infectious diseases on dynamic networks. We developed a class of that is general and flexible and amenable to mathematical analysis. In the tradition of physiologically structured population models, the model formulation starts at the individual-level. Influences from the 'outside world' on an individual are captured by environmental variables. These variables are population-level quantities. A key characteristic is that individuals can be decomposed into a number of conditionally independent components: each individual has a fixed number of 'binding sites'. In this way, we can distinguish three different levels: binding sites, individuals, and the population. By focusing on the binding-site level and relating the three levels to each other we are able to write down a system of renewal equations for the environmental variables that determine the dynamics on all three levels. This system of renewal equations can be used to characterize population-level epidemiological quantities such as R_0 and the endemic equilibrium. The endemic disease prevalence is characterized implicitly by a fixed-point problem of the system of renewal equations. We also easily derived an explicit expression for the basic reproduction number R_0. This is one of the most important quantities in infectious disease. It is a threshold parameter for an epidemic to take off. In the second part of my dissertation I used the models of the first part to gain qualitative insights in the relation between concurrency and disease dynamics. We isolated specific network characteristics to study their impact on disease dynamics by fixing some key network quantities such as sexually active lifespan, mean partnership duration, mean lifetime number of partners. We showed that concurrency could drive an HIV epidemic by moving the epidemic threshold value R_0 from below to above one. Using the same methodology we also investigated gender asymmetry in concurrent partnerships. We found that more gender asymmetry in this respect is associated with lower levels of disease prevalence in the population. This is especially the case with polygyny (where men may have concurrent partnerships but women are monogamous). The balance in this PhD project has been on the side of model formulation and analysis. This has lead to a lot of enjoyable mathematics, subtle modelling issues and R_0-calculations and -interpretations. More importantly, it has lead the development of a class of models for the spread of infetious diseases on dynamic networks that enrich the mathematical modelling toolbox for understanding infectious disease dynamics.


In this paper we analyse the use of form postponement based on the positioning of the differentiation point and stocking policy. Six classes of manufacturing configurations are identified based on the choice of whether or not form postponement is employed and the decision regarding the stocking policy for the final product configurations as well as for the generic component. Analytical evaluation methods based on queuing models are used to assess operational measures for each class of configuration and solution algorithms are developed to determine the optimal positioning of the differentiation point and the optimal stocking levels. This allows us to compare the relative merits of all manufacturing configurations based on their respective best performances. The results of a numerical experiment show how different operational parameters may influence the choice of optimal configuration, the preference of early or late postponement, and the relative cost savings obtained from employing form postponement.


Migration is now rmly embedded as a leading global policy issue of the twentyrst century. Whilst not a new phenomenon, it has altered signi cantly in recent decades, with changing demographics, geopolitics, con ict, climate change and patterns of global development shaping new types of migration. Against this evolving backdrop, this Handbook o ers an authoritative overview of key debates underpinning migration and health in a contemporary global context.


The present paper describes a mechanism that enables multi-homed mobile terminals to load balance the data traffic from different applications or the media streams that belong to a multimedia session between multiple access networks. The mechanism is based on the idea of extending the UMTS-WLAN interworking architecture specified by 3GPP to enable the routing of the data traffic through multiple IPsec tunnels that span multiple IP-based access networks. The approach provides for a straightforward integration of the routing function with the IMS policing framework, whose network resource management policies may be mapped into a set of IPsec rules. The proposed mechanism enables a continuous adaptation of the data traffic routing to the momentary availability of the network resources.


State attorneys general represent their citizens in aggregate litigation that bears a striking resemblance to the much-maligned damages class action. Yet, while class actions are subject to a raft of procedural rules designed to protect absent class members, equivalent suits in the public sphere are largely free from constraint. The procedural disconnect between the two categories of aggregate litigation reflects a widespread assumption that attorneys general will adequately represent the interests of the state's citizens, obviating any need for case-specific mechanisms for assuring the loyalty of lawyer to client.This Article challenges the presumption of adequate public representation. By conflating consent of the governed with consent of the client, the conventional wisdom ignores the important differences between political and adjudicative representation. Class-action scholars have produced mountains of commentary detailing the agency costs of aggregate litigation, including substantial conflicts between the interests of class counsel and the members of the plaintiff class. I show that the same risks are present in state suits. Attorneys general may not be driven by the pursuit of attorney's fees, but their status as political representatives means that they must negotiate between the interests of the public at large and those of the individuals they purport to represent in an adjudicative capacity. The potential for conflicted representation would not be troubling if citizens could easily monitor and control the work of the attorney general, but, as in the class context, they cannot. If anything, the costs of monitoring and control are higher in the public sphere because the only way to "fire" the attorney general is to vote her out of office — hardly a viable solution when the attorney general's political responsiveness is the source of the conflict. Thus, far from solving the problems that scholars have emphasized in the class-action context, the fact that the attorney general is an elected or appointed official should provide cause for heightened concern. That concern assumes a constitutional character when state litigation stands as a bar to subsequent private claims for damages or other monetary relief. In order to protect the due-process rights of the individuals whose interests are at stake in public aggregate litigation, courts must either ramp up the procedural requirements for state suits, or — better — hold that public suits cannot bind private claimants.


The many kinds of complication that have been observed following operations of basilar impression and/or malformation of Arnold-Chiari are analysed. Two surgical techniques were adopted in the treatment of the patients. In the first 64 cases, the operation consisted in the craniectomy of the posterior fossa and high cervical laminectomy, while the dura-mater remained opened and saturated to the lateral musculature. Concerning the other 75 cases, it was made a plastic of the dura-mater of the posterior fossa and, in most of the cases, the patients were intubated with no retroflexion of the head and operated in sitting position without anterior flexion of the head. In the second group of patients, it was observed lesser occurrence of complications and death.


High-performance low-cost superhydrophobic sponges are desired for selective recycling of leaking oils from open water. Herein, an ingenious method is proposed to fabricate an ultrathin superhydrophobic coating layer on a commercial sponge. The coating layer is composed of a shish-kebab-structured porous ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) film that is fabricated from a UHMWPE/xylene solution by shear flow-induced crystallization. A strong relationship between the shish-kebab crystallite morphology and the superwetting performance is confirmed. The UHMWPE coating layer fabricated at a 900 rpm rotation rate possesses a lamellae size of 95.1 nm and a lamellae distance of 27.4 nm, which lead to a high water contact angle of 157° and a low contact angle hysteresis of 4.5°. The UHMWPE layer prepared in 4 min of treatment is thick enough to prevent the intrusion of water even under vacuum and remain superoleophilic. The developed UHMWPE-coated sponge (UCS) exhibited a high absorption capability of 70-191 g/g toward various oils and solvents, which is comparable with the neat melamine sponge. Its excellent compressibility and durability enabled fast recovery of absorbed oil with a high recovery rate (over 85%) by mechanical squeezing. The UCS could be assembled into small devices to selectively collect oil from open water and a water/oil mixture using a pump, which manifests its promising practical applicability. Apart from these extraordinary properties, the approach developed has the lowest material cost and the shortest processing time hitherto.


Introduction: Birth weight is an important determinant of infant morbidity and mortality. Its effect extends upto adult life and may explain some non-communicable diseases that may occur in adult life. In general, males weigh more than females. Birth weight is categorised into three levels, viz., low, normal and high. This study analysed the relationship between gender and the categories of birth weights.
Materials and Methods: Data on babies' gender and birth weights from 961 term life deliveries in a private general practice hospital were analysed. Test on equality of the mean weight of males and females at the three categorical levels were done using z test and t-tests, as necessary.
Results: Mean birth weight was found to be 3.30 ± 0.495 kg. Males weighed significantly heavier than females at mean weights of 3.343 ± 0.495 kg and 3.258 ± 0.490 kg, respectively. In the low birth weight category, males weighed 1.844 ± 0.297 kg and females weighed 1.992 ± 0.397 kg. There was no significant difference. Similarly, the mean weight of males and females in the high birth weight category were 4.462 ± 0.343 kg and 4.342 ± 0.219 kg, respectively with no significant difference. In the normal weight category, males weighed significantly more than the females with the mean weight of 3.30 ± 0.359 kg and 3.248 ± 0.392 kg, respectively.
Conclusion: Male babies weighed more than female babies only in the normal birth weight category. The factor that selectively affected the birth weight of male babies must be acting under the category of normal birth weight only.
More studies are necessary to identify the factors and the reasons, for which they act only at the level of the normal birth weight.


Graphene is an elementary unit for various carbon based nanostructures. The recent technological developments have made it possible to manufacture hybrid and sandwich structures with graphene. In order to model these nanostructures in atomistic scale, a compatible interatomic potential is required to successfully model these nanostructures. In this article, an interatomic potential with modified cut-off function for Tersoff potential was proposed to avoid overestimation and also to predict the realistic mechanical behavior of single sheet of graphene. In order to validate the modified form of cut-off function for Tersoff potential, simulations were performed with different set of temperatures and strain rates, and results were made to compare with available experimental data and molecular dynamics simulation results obtained with the help of other empirical interatomic potentials.


Abstract Why did Britain intervene in Libya in 2011? Several explanations suggest themselves: security, R2P and status. The article shows that status was a significant motivating factor, and this demonstrates a dynamic that helps to refine a classical realist theory of intervention. The article calls for status to be seen intrinsically and instrumentally, and for more attention to be paid to the related motive of revenge. The findings suggest (though do not prove from a causal standpoint) that status may be a stronger motive than security for state decision-makers. The article's central empirical argument is that regime change in Libya was not the last stage of Britain's foreign policy of intervention. Rather, intervention was the last stage in Britain's status and revenge-driven foreign policy of regime change. Britain saw the Libya crisis as a chance to preserve its great power status and revenge Muammar Gaddafi for past wrongs.


Time series prediction is of primary importance in a variety of applications from several science fields, like engineering, finance, earth sciences, etc. Time series prediction can be divided in to two main tasks, point and interval estimation. Estimating prediction intervals, is in some cases more important than point estimation mainly because it indicates the likely uncertainty in the prediction process. Recently, the sieve bootstrap method has been successfully used in prediction of nonlinear time series. In this work, we study the performance of the prediction intervals based on the sieve bootstrap technique, which does not require the distributional assumption of normality as most techniques that are found in the literature. The construction of prediction intervals in the presence of different types of outliers is not robust from a distributional point of view, leading to an undesirable increase in the length of the prediction intervals. In the analysis of time series, it is common to have irregular observations that have different types of outliers. For this reason, we propose the construction of prediction intervals for returns based on the winsorized residual and bootstrap techniques for time series prediction. We propose a novel, simple and distribution free resampling technique for developing robust prediction intervals for returns and volatilities for GARCH models. The proposed procedure is illustrated by an application to known synthetic and real-time series.


Using a model derived from McAnany's (1995) study of ancient Mayan ancestor veneration, this study evaluated the patterns of treatment of the dead, and corresponding sociopolitical implications, at the Middle Horizon (A.D. 500-1000) site of Conchopata, a secondary center of the Wari Empire located in Ayacucho, Peru. In addition to residential zones, public plazas, ceramic workshops, and temples, Conchopata has yielded an abundant sample of tombs and burial contexts including two multi-roomed mortuary complexes. This study explores how burial practices and mortuary complexes within domestic contexts related to ancestor veneration by high-status households.Several types of analyses were conducted. First, 40 architectural spaces from five zones were analyzed to assess spatial variability in household status and wealth, activities, and function. Second, a multidimensional scaling analysis of 38 architectural spaces was undertaken to establish room function and identify special activities. Third, a multidimensional scaling analysis of 31 burial contexts was carried out to identify patterns within the burial population and distinguish status differences in burial treatments. Finally, architectural spaces and burial contexts were compared across zones in terms of artifact proportions and presence/absence of features and artifact types. The results suggest that all five zones investigated were residential zones composed of high-status households. These households contained at least one room where mortuary ceremonies and rituals were conducted. Both high-status and low-status tombs were identified within the domestic domain, including a special category of infant/child burials. The practice of ancestor veneration at Conchopata was confirmed by evidence for protracted burial rites, continued interaction with the dead, and other criteria of the McAnany model. High-status households engaged in a specific form of ancestor veneration involving continued interaction with the ancestors through offering holes and post-burial rituals. Although all high-status households engaged in similar types of deathways, two households placed considerably greater investment in activities surrounding the dead by constructing multi-roomed mortuary complexes within their residences. Overall, the type of ancestor veneration evidenced at Conchopata differs markedly from that of the Maya (in which important ancestors were flaunted) as well as from the late prehispanic chullpa and Inka practices.


We explored the clinical characteristics, risk factors, pathogen species spectrum and antifungal susceptibility of non-albicans Candida fungemia in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The retrospective study was conducted on 492 VLBW infants who were admitted to NICU at the Maternal and Child Care Hospital in Shenzhen, China from January 2008 to December 2011. Among them, 21 VLBW infants (4.27%) were diagnosed with fungemia. All of these infants received parenteral hyperalimentation therapy. Among the infants with fungemia, 12 received endotracheal intubation, 19 received a peripherally inserted central catheter and all were treated with antibiotics. The main clinical manifestations in the infants were abrupt fever, pallor, mottling, cold clammy skin, tachycardia or bradycardia,tachypnea or apnea, cyanosis, abdominal distention, poor feeding and lethargy. The pathogen species isolated from the infants were nonalbicans Candida: specifically, Candida tropicalis (52.4%), and C. parapsilosis (47.6%). In the 21 infants with fungemia, fluconazole was used empirically from the onset of the disease. Among these infants, four were treated with itraconazole as a replacement therapy for fluconazole. The outcome was that of the 21 infants with fungemia, 19 were cured while two died. Fluconazole and itraconazole susceptibility in the 21 Candida isolates was 90.48% and 100%, respectively. The incidence of fungemia in VLBW infants remains quite high in southern China. Fluconazole and itraconazole should be considered as a first choice therapy for timely fungemia treatment.


Background There are many obstacles to contemporaneous record keeping following time-critical clinical events, which may lead to a delay in documentation. We postulated that such delays may create time for reflection that could influence the accuracy of recorded notes. Objective To observe whether a delay in documenting in patient notes and/or an opportunity to debrief affects the accuracy of note recording. Methodology University of Sheffield ethical approval was obtained. Final year Student doctors volunteered to participate in controlled simulated acute patient care scenarios. Standardised scenarios (anaphylaxis, cardiac arrest and sepsis) were chosen as appropriate to the level of learning. All scenarios took place in a formal simulation suite, set up as a general Hospital ward. Participants were split into three groups; each which followed a different approach to note keeping. Group 1 received no debrief/time for reflection and were required to make notes immediately after the critical event. Group 2 were debriefed immediately but recorded notes the following day. Group 3 were debriefed and made notes immediately following the event. Note keeping was limited to 10 minutes, with access to simulated patient records, in quiet environment without interruption. Scenarios were videoed, and the documented notes were subsequently scored for accuracy against the recorded events. This allowed for rating of each student's performance to address any counfounding that could occur from using different groups with potentially different skills. Results Note keeping accuracy rates for Groups 1, 2 and 3 were 0.57, 0.63 and 0.69 respectively. Conclusion There is increased accuracy in patient note recording when the medical professional has the opportunity to immediately debrief and write up notes.


Aims Clinical guidelines are important tools in promoting high quality, evidence-based practice and in reducing unnecessary variability. Difficulty physically accessing the information and lack of time to do so are among the barriers that discourage clinicians from using guidelines routinely. We aimed to increase use of the trust's on-line paediatric guidelines by improving their accessibility from computers in paediatric A&E. Methods We selected six paediatric guidelines relevant to the A&E department from the trust's intranet: Fever, Head Injury, Bronchiolitis, Limp, Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), Antibiotic Policy. We determined how frequently these guidelines were viewed on-line between 1st September and 31st October 2012 using a "click-counter". We conducted a survey of A&E staff to assess barriers to using on-line guidelines. We then installed an eye-catching icon on the A&E desktop, enabling access to the paediatric guidelines page in a single click. This allowed staff to by-pass the former, time-consuming process of clicking on seven sequential links. To advertise the system we displayed posters depicting the new icon. Between 1st September and 31st October 2013, we re-evaluated how frequently the guidelines were viewed. Results Staff identified difficulty finding guidelines on-line, poor access to computers and time pressure as barriers to guideline use. Comparing 1st September–31st October 2013 with the same time period in 2012, total on-line views of the guidelines increased by 53% (224 v. 146). Views of head injury guidance increased over 3-fold (36 v. 10), bronchiolitis over 2-fold (47 v. 21) and fever 2-fold (22 v. 11). Views of antibiotic guidelines increased by 35% (91 v. 67). Views of limp guidance remained unchanged (no views). Views of UTI guidelines fell by 32% (28 v. 37). Conclusion Overcoming practical problems with access to guidelines can increase their use. This is likely to improve clinical decision-making and consistency, resulting in better patient care. A single-click desk-top icon enables quick access to on-line guidelines, encouraging their use. This simple, targeted intervention is easily adopted by A&E departments. "Click-counting" is an accurate way to assess frequency of guideline views on-line and is a useful tool for evaluating effect of interventions that aim to increase guideline use. Abstract G189 Figure 1


In geographical epidemiology, disease counts are typically available in discrete spatial units and at discrete time-points. For example, surveillance data on infectious diseases usually consists of weekly counts of new infections in pre-defined geographical areas. Similarly, but on a different time-scale, cancer registries typically report yearly incidence or mortality counts in administrative regions. A major methodological challenge lies in building realistic models for space-time interactions on discrete irregular spatial graphs. In this paper, we will discuss an observation-driven approach, where past observed counts in neighbouring areas enter directly as explanatory variables, in contrast to the parameter-driven approach through latent Gaussian Markov random fields (Rue and Held, 2005) with spatio-temporal structure. The main focus will lie on the demonstration of the spread of influenza in Germany, obtained through the design and simulation of a spatial extension of the classical SIR model (Hufnagel et al., 2004).


The aim of this paper is to define and study a class of Bazilevic functions using the generalized Salagean operator. Some properties of this class are investigated: inclusion relation, some convolution properties, coe ffi cient bounds, and other interesting results.


The effects of H2O2 on active ion transport and resistance to passive solute flow were studied utilizing rat alveolar epithelial cell monolayers cultured on permeable supports. Type II alveolar epithelial cells were plated onto tissue culture-treated polycarbonate membrane filters. The resulting confluent monolayers on days 3 and 4 were mounted in a modified Ussing chamber and bathed on both sides with N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid-buffered Ringer solution. These monolayers have a high transepithelial resistance (> 2,000 omega.cm2) and actively transport Na+ from apical fluid. H2O2 (0-100 mM) was then delivered to either apical or basolateral fluid. The changes in short-circuit current (Isc) and monolayer resistance (R) in response to the exogenous hydroperoxide were measured. To determine the degree of cellular catalase participation in protection against H2O2 injury to the barrier, experiments were repeated in the presence of 20 mM aminotriazole (ATAZ; an inhibitor of catalase) in the same bathing fluid as the hydroperoxide. Results indicated that H2O2 decreased Isc and R gradually in a dose-dependent manner. The effective concentration of apical H2O2 at which Isc (or R) was decreased by 50% at 1 h (ED50) was approximately 4 mM. However, basolateral H2O2 exposure led to ED50 for Isc (and R) of approximately 0.04 mM. Inhibition of cellular catalase yielded ED50 for Isc (and R) of approximately 0.4 mM when H2O2 was given apically, while ED50 for basolateral exposure to H2O2 did not change in the presence of ATAZ. The rate of H2O2 consumption in apical and basolateral bathing fluids was the same, while cellular catalase activity rose gradually with time in culture.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Many prosecutors, judges and journalists have claimed that watching television shows like CSI have caused jurors to wrongfully acquit guilty defendants when no scientific evidence is presented. This is the first empirical study designed to investigate whether the CSI effect exists. This survey of 1027 persons called for jury duty in a State court looked at jurors' television viewing habits, their expectations that the prosecutor would produce scientific evidence, and whether they would demand scientific evidence as a condition of a guilty verdict. While the study did find significant expectations and demands for scientific evidence, there was little or no indication of a link between those preconceptions and watching particular television shows. The authors suggest that to the extent that jurors have significant expectations and demands for scientific evidence, it may have more to do with a broader tech effect in our popular culture rather than any particular CSI effect. At the same time, this article contends that any such increased expectations and demands are legitimate and constitutionally based reflections in jurors of changes in our popular culture, and that the criminal justice system must adapt to accommodate jurors' expectations and demands for scientific evidence.


This work aims to prepare and evaluate a natural dye named catechu as a dye and antibacterial substance. Cotton and viscose fabrics were dyed at different pH values and duration temperature. In addition, the antibacterial properties was evaluated for dyed fabrics towards Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Results showed that the dyed fabrics used as bactericidal substance and it is durable with washing at 25 times wash cycles.


The 2010 Mw = 8.8 earthquake in Chile subjected thousands of modern buildings to strong shaking. The 15-story, residential, Torre Alto Rio building was the only modern reinforced concrete building over ten stories to collapse. Since the concrete building code used in Chile is based on ACI 318-95, it is a valuable exercise to assess the performance of this building and to identify possible reasons for collapse. Potential reasons for collapse were studied using post-earthquake observed damage, structural drawings, and nonlinear static and dynamic response analyses. Analysis results indicate that collapse was likely influenced by a number of factors, including flexural-compression failure at the web boundary of T-shaped walls below discontinuities on the east side of the building, shear damage in walls across the central corridor at the first level, and tensile fracture and splice failure of the wall boundary and web vertical reinforcement at the ground line on the west side of the building.


Regeneration of diabetic axons has delays in onset, rate, and maturation. It is possible that microangiopathy of vasa nervorum, the vascular supply of the peripheral nerve, may render an unfavorable local environment for nerve regeneration. We examined local nerve blood flow proximal and distal to sciatic nerve transection in rats with long-term (8 month) experimental streptozotocin diabetes using laser Doppler flowmetry and microelectrode hydrogen clearance polarography. We then correlated these findings, using in vivo perfusion of an India ink preparation, by outlining the lumens of microvessels from unfixed nerve sections. There were no differences in baseline nerve blood flow between diabetic and nondiabetic uninjured nerves, and vessel number, density, and area were unaltered. After transection, there were greater rises in blood flow in proximal stumps of nondiabetic nerves than in diabetic animals associated with a higher number, density, and caliber of epineurial vessels. Hyperemia also developed in distal stumps of nondiabetic nerves but did not develop in diabetic nerves. In these stumps, diabetic rats had reduced vessel numbers and smaller mean endoneurial vessel areas. Failed or delayed upregulation of nerve blood flow after peripheral nerve injury in diabetes may create a relatively ischemic regenerative microenvironment.


This study aimed to investigate the reality of counseling services provided by the school counselor for gifted and talented students in the Jordanian governmental school. Also, it aimed to know the effects of some demographic variables. The researchers developed a scale for the counseling services that consisted of 50 items. The instrument included: psychological, academic, vocational, familial, social, and cognitive aspects. It was administrated after checking it's appropriate reliability and validity. The sample consisted of 174 counselors from Salt, Zarqa, Almafraq, Alrosaifa, and Ain Albasha directories in Jordan. The results showed that the counselors practicing low level of the counseling services. Also, the results indicated a significant difference in the counseling services provided to gifted and talented students due to the years of the experience fevoring to the counselors with an experience less than five years. On the other hand, there were no significant differences due to gender, degree, type of school, and the number of the students. In light of these results the researchers recommended that training opportunities and enhanecement should be provided to the counselors who serve the gifted and talented students in public schools.


Matag coconut F2 embryos were screened for in vitro embryo development when subjected to different shaking conditions, lighting and plant growth regulators. A higher rate of shoot initiation was observed with continuous shaking of the cultures. Media supplemented with 0.5 mg/L indole-butyric acid (IBA) showed the highest shoot initiation success (80%), followed by 70% shoot initiation with benzylamino purine (BAP), and 50% success with indole-acetic acid (IAA). Expansion of embryos was improved under a 16hr/8hr (light/dark) photoperiod as compared with continuous light. A higher rate of shoot initiation (80%) was also observed when activated charcoal was introduced into the culture media that were supplemented with either BAP or IBA. These methods and their further development could facilitate the production of large numbers of germinated embryos useful in the propagation of Matag coconut


In this paper, because Gabor filter has the optimum connection resolution ratio of the time and frequency field and its good band-pass, Gabor filter is used to filter the noise of fingerprint images with low quality. The ridge voting algorithm is presented to get ridge structure of fingerprint images, based on which the direction information of fingerprint images is extracted, and the image is enhanced by use of direction information. At the same time, based on K. Karu's (1996) classification model of core and delta, its applicable condition and physical meaning is analyzed, and the topologic structure and characteristic is considered, moreover, the strict constraint condition and relevant concept, definition are created in our paper. Its correctness is enunciated in theory, and fingerprint experiment results verify the validity and correctness of the previous enhancement and classification algorithm.


This graduation approach focuses on helping the poorest and most vulnerable households develop sustainable livelihoods, increase incomes, and move out of extreme poverty. It consists of a carefully sequenced, multisectoral intervention comprising social assistance to ensure basic consumption, skills training, seed capital, and employment opportunities to jump-start an economic activity, financial education and access to savings, and mentoring to build confidence and reinforce skills. The interventions are time bound (generally 24–26 months) to preclude longterm dependence. The participating household's trajectory, however, continues beyond the phase of the program interventions. Sustained progress rests on continued income earning and asset building and effective social protection systems to cushion against shocks. Given the Sustainable Development Goals' (SDG) global focus on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, the graduation approach should form an integral component of national social protection and poverty reduction strategies, along with social transfers, guaranteed employment, social insurance, and labor market support.


nosis, need for surgery, and presence of extraintestinal manifestations. When an insufficient number of studies reported on an outcome, we described the findings qualitatively. RESULTS: 72 studies representing 95,607 patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative and quantitative analyses. The overall prevalence of a family history of IBD in UC patients was 12% (95% confidence interval [CI] 11 to 13%). Family history of UC (9%) was more prevalent than CD (2%). UC patients who were younger (age 18 or less) at time of diagnosis were more likely to have a family history of IBD (prevalence 15%, 95% CI: 11-20%) than older patients (prevalence 11%; 95% CI: 9-13%). There was insufficient data to perform metaanalyses or identify trends in the other secondary outcomes, including concordance of degree of family history, need for surgery, disease location, extraintestinal manifestations. CONCLUSION(S): 12% of UC patients have a family history of IBD. Family history is greater among pediatric-onset patients. Family history among pediatric UC is 15%. UC patients are more likely to have a family history of UC compared with CD. Further research examining the relationship between family history and disease course may help clarify pathophysiologic mechanisms of IBD.


Hypercholesterolemia is characterized by high levels of cholesterol in the blood and is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Early detection of hypercholesterolemia is necessary to prevent onset and progress of cardiovascular disease. Optical imaging techniques might have a potential for early diagnosis and monitoring of hypercholesterolemia. In this study, hyperspectral imaging was investigated for this application. The main aim of the study was to identify spectral and spatial characteristics that can aid identification of hypercholesterolemia in facial skin. The first part of the study involved a numerical simulation of human skin affected by hypercholesterolemia. A literature survey was performed to identify characteristic morphological and physiological parameters. Realistic models were prepared and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to obtain hyperspectral images. Based on the simulations optimal wavelength regions for differentiation between normal and cholesterol rich skin were identified. Minimum Noise Fraction transformation (MNF) was used for analysis. In the second part of the study, the simulations were verified by a clinical study involving volunteers with elevated and normal levels of cholesterol. The faces of the volunteers were scanned by a hyperspectral camera covering the spectral range between 400 nm and 720 nm, and characteristic spectral features of the affected skin were identified. Processing of the images was done after conversion to reflectance and masking of the images. The identified features were compared to the known cholesterol levels of the subjects. The results of this study demonstrate that hyperspectral imaging of facial skin can be a promising, rapid modality for detection of hypercholesterolemia.


Inhibitors of glycoprotein synthesis in eucaryotic cells also inhibited iodophilic polysaccharide (IPS) storage in group A streptococcus pyogenes. Addition of bacitracin or amphomycin, known inhibitors of polyisoprenol phosphate metabolism or lipid-linked oligosaccharide synthesis, indicated that a key intermediate must be synthesized before IPS storage could be detected. Based on inhibitor action and energy requirements the intermediate was most likely an undecaprenol pyrophosphoryl maltosaccharide. Biosynthesis of the maltosaccharide had an ATP requirement as shown by arsenate action but IPS synthesis via amylomaltase was energy independent if the lipid-linked saccharides were preformed. Maltosaccharide acceptor site blockade with 2-deoxy-d-glucose immediately inhibited IPS storage, which demonstrated the need of acceptor glucose residues for transglycosylation activity of amylomaltase. Tunicamycin failed to inhibit IPS synthesis although it was added in lethal concentrations.


An experimental investigation for evaporation frictional pressure drop in horizontal enhanced tubes with an outer diameter of 12.7 mm was studied using R410A as the working fluid. The experiment was conducted: the mass flux in the range of 100 kg/(m2s) to 200 kg/(m2s), over a vapor quality range of 0.2 to 0.8, an average saturation temperature at 279 K. The inner tubes were the tested tubes, which included a smooth tube, a three-dimensional enhanced tube (a tube enhanced by protrusions and petal arrays background patterns), respectively. The results show that the frictional pressure drop increases with the mass flux increasing. Moreover, the frictional pressure drop of the enhanced tube is 1.6∼2.4 times than that of the smooth tube. This is mainly due to the increase of the flow resistance inside the enhanced tube, which is caused by the increased interfacial turbulence, flow separation and secondary flow. It is also observed that the pressure drop increases with vapor quality increasing. In addition, some existing correlations are used to compare with our experimental data and verify their accuracy. A new modified correlation is proposed to predict the frictional pressure drop of EHT-1 tube.


In ELID (Electrolytic In-process Dressing) operations, the setting of starting point is quite important for reducing waste of time and for achiving high quality surface. In this study, the authors proposed a new describing mode for ELID grinding. The oxide layer formed on the wheel surface was divided to four sub-layer: porous-layer, polishing-layer, grinding-layer and interface-layer. The influence of the oxide layer on material removal rates and surface properties was investigated. It was found that, olny the oxide layer with thickness less than 24'm has capability of material removal. In ELID grinding, optimal thickness of the oxide layer is about 8~9'm. And the oxide layer with thickness of 4~9'm is suitable for grinding.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how emergent changes are handled in research and development (R&D) projects. R&D projects' business potential lies in their exploration of the unknown; conversely, this makes them uncertain endeavours, prone to emergent changes.

Design/methodology/approach
Uses a single-case-study design, based on a projects-as-practice perspective and a soft systems methodology (SSM) analysis, to map how ad hoc R&D teams handle emergent changes, specifically the solution identification and assessment phase and the implementation plan. An R&D project in the power industry, involving over 250 engineers, was analysed.

Findings
This paper shows how emergent changes are handled differently from initiated changes during the decision-making phase. The system analysis shows that the most critical factors for managing these changes are: collective reflection between project parties; and including experienced engineers in implementation-plan reviews.

Practical implications
The results are of relevance both to R&D managers aiming to improve team performance and to general project management. Informal notions of emergent changes can be formalised in the change request process. Weaknesses in the project team's organisation are highlighted, and details of how of how to mitigate these are provided.

Originality/value
Combines engineering-design and project-management research on emergent changes, adding to the former regarding people–organisational and strategic issues. Furthers understanding of the projects-as-practice approach and emergent change (deviations) handling by ad hoc teams in a project environment. SSM has not previously been used to explore aspects of projects-as-practice, and this is a novel way of adding to the body of knowledge on project praxis and practise.


When searching for resources in heterogeneous environments, animals must rely on their abilities to detect the resources via their sensory systems. However, variation in the strength of the sensory cue may be mediated by the physical size of the resource patch. Patch detection of insects are often predicted by the scaling of sensory cues to patch size, where visual cues has been proposed to scale proportional to the diameter of the patch. The scaling properties of olfactory cues are, however, virtually unknown. Here, we investigated scaling rules for olfactory information in a gradient of numbers of odour sources, relevant to odour-mediated attraction under field conditions. We recorded moth antennal responses to sex pheromones downwind from pheromone patches and estimated the slope in the scaling relationship between the effective length of the odour plumes and the number of odour sources. These measurements showed that the effective plume length increased proportional to the square root of the number of odour sources. The scaling relationship, as estimated in the field experiment, was then evaluated against field data of the slope in the relationship between trap catch and release rate of chemical attractants for a wide range of insects. This meta-analysis revealed an average slope largely consistent with the estimated scaling relationship between the effective plume length and the number of odour sources. This study is the first to estimate the scaling properties of olfactory cues empirically and has implications for understanding and predicting the spatial distributions of insects searching by means of olfactory cues in heterogeneous environments.


A model-based technique addressing the effect of display or visual scene quality upon human pilot dynamics is introduced. The technique builds upon a methodology proposed for the preliminary assessment of flight simulator fidelity which uses a structural model of the human pilot. This model is incorporated in what is termed the primary control loop(s) for the task at hand. It is shown that the measured effects of degradations in display quality upon human pilot dynamics can be modeled by simple reductions in the gains associated with error and proprioceptive signals in the structural model. A control theoretic rationale for these gain reductions is presented. The effect of display quality upon perceived handling qualities is discussed and demonstrated in a simple example. Although the research had its genesis in flight simulator fidelity studies, the modeling procedure is applicable to any continuous control task involving degraded visual conditions. >


Author(s): Healy, Meg | Advisor(s): Mukhija, Vinit | Abstract: As San Francisco and Oakland have endured critical affordable housing crises over the last decade, both cities have observed increases of proscribed, non-permitted living arrangements. The reconfiguration of informal housing landscapes has been evident in the reliance of not only low-income and immigrant residents, but tech workers, teachers, and college students, on cheaper housing units found in converted garages, basements, and warehouses. Informal housing, operating outside the bounds of municipal zoning and land use regulations, has been an integral component of the Bay Area housing market for the last century but has emerged as an urgent public policy priority in recent years. While most municipalities have tacitly ignored such arrangements, San Francisco and Oakland have reconfigured local planning agendas to more aggressively identify and regulate informal housing units. This thesis examines how San Francisco and Oakland have attempted to intervene into informal housing markets and analyzes the efficacy of such policy approaches. I evaluate whether patterns of increased enforcement reflect the informal housing markets of these cities by conducting analyses of building permit records, code violation complaints, and rental market data. I further consider whether life-safety conditions of buildings have been improved and investigate the extent to which tenants have been impacted through interviews with tenant advocates and organizers. Finally, I draw upon extensive interviews with planners, code enforcement officers, policymakers, and tenant advocates to elucidate both the motivations and challenges of attempting to regulate informal housing. These analyses illustrate the geographies of housing informality in San Francisco and Oakland and identify uneven secondary unit policies that prioritize formalized ADU typologies over the preservation of existing informal units. While rental market, code enforcement, and building permit data reveal the prevalence of informal units across both cities, ADU development has been concentrated among higher-income property owners and remain prohibitively expensive for the moderate and low-income communities that have long relied on garage, basement, and backyard conversions.


Modeling tribological contacts is commonly based on the Reynolds equation. This study discusses the validity of conventional, averaged Reynolds simulations for systems including starvation regimes. Two fundamental assumptions that are used as common practice in many elasto-hydrodynamic (EHD) calculations, are debated. First, the use of a cavitation pressure (in most cases assumed to be zero) independent of the microscopic roughness. Second, the application of a shear flow factor, which is determined on a microscopic scale with a fully filled gap. The validity of these two assumptions is analyzed with simulations on the microscopic scale. For this purpose, simulations of partially filled contacts are carried out using the partially filled gaps model developed by the authors. The topographies, the filling level and the fluid distribution were varied. The simulations comply with established models for the fully filled state and show a distinct behavior for partial filling and different fluid distributions. Neglecting the contribution to pressure buildup and shear flow of partially filled domains is a valid method in most cases. However, as this study shows, near the fully filled regime, the domains should be handled with care.


Background Developing country health systems are characterised by under-funded healthcare provision, distorted priorities in resource allocation, weak governance and regulatory structures, and sub-optimal policy interventions. Health sector reforms had been a long pending demand from both within the health system and outside. The central approach of the reforms was two-fold: increasing efficiency in resource use, and serving equity by excluding high-income groups and including only the poor in publicly-funded action. Reforms included revised health financing, insurance, and targeting low-income segments of the population. Targeting assumes a development approach of cost-effective poverty reduction rather than an administrative enterprise. Means testing is often suggested as a mechanism to shield the poorest under cost-recovery programme by granting fee waivers for individuals who are less capable of paying for goods and services. Providing a safety net for the poorest while permitting fees to be collected from those with ability to pay, means testing could be an essential tool to promote fee collection and equity simultaneously. Methods This study tries to understand the existing system of means testing in public hospitals in Kerala, India, by enquiring on the nature and institutional framework for means testing as well as the characteristics of the major criteria used to assess means testing. The study selected five major public hospitals in the state. These are specialised institutions offering advanced healthcare interventions available otherwise only in specialty private health institutions. A uniform schedule was circulated across selected healthcare institutions inquiring on basic details of the hospital, methods used for means testing, reliance on own sources of revenue, and magnitude and proportion of price discrimination. Findings The selected hospitals charge fees depending on their stature, legislative mandate and autonomy. There exist, primarily, about three categories of patients in these hospitals on the basis of charging fees. They include full paying category, partially paying category and fully exempted categories in these institutions. On average, in the year 2009–10, about 42% of patients paid full fees, while 20% paid partial charges and 38% were exempted from any payment. Though all institutions under study were public, institutions under the provincial government use indicators called Above-Poverty-Line (APL) and Below-Poverty-Line (BPL). All institutions have a defined user fee policy suggesting user fees as essential in tertiary care as it increases the compliance of medicines, as making patients and providers responsible for the use/misuse, and as ensuring economic sustainability. All institutions have a graded pricing system with multiple layers, except in provincial government run institutions where only the two mentioned categories exist. Some institutions have five categories. Institutions under state government have long waiting lists, extending more than 90 days for many elective interventions. The directly operated state-owned institutions do not charge anything for emergency care for both poor and non-poor. Discussion Though all institutions under study have a declared policy of non-denial of treatment in case of inability to pay, the realisation of this policy is questionable. The institutions assume an independent and objective assessment of the patient by an identifying official, which is a highly risky assumption in low-income settings where a well functioning governance system is non-existent. The pricing of services, it is stated, is not based on the cost incurred, but rather randomly done. Though prices in the studied public hospitals are significantly below these of their private counterparts, a costing exercise of major services would be useful for reduction of inefficiencies, expansion of certain services, and defining price pattern of different services. Provision of discretion to the local authority in the hospital has some advantages as it ensures that hardly anyone in genuine need of health care is denied. However, contemporary evidence suggests, if the exemption mechanisms are implemented under weak governance system as in most low-income settings, it is likely to aggravate the type II error in targeting (excluding a person who should have been provided benefits). One of the feasible options is to have a broader classification of above and below poverty line population so that a higher degree of self-selection would be achieved and administrative cost and corruption reduced. A major limitation of our study is that it reports the outcomes of only a few major institutions and generalisation is limited to the extent. Secondly, a patient-oriented analysis is essential if we are to identify whether appropriate targeting of benefits happened or otherwise. No conflict of interest.


The refractory diborides (HfB2 and ZrB2) are considered as promising ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTCs) where low damage tolerance limits their application for the thermal protection system in re-entry vehicles. In this regard, SiC and CNT have been synergistically added as the sintering aids and toughening agents in the spark plasma sintered (SPS) HfB2-ZrB2 system. Herein, a novel equimolar composition of HfB2 and ZrB2 has shown to form a solid-solution which then allows compositional tailoring of mechanical properties (such as hardness, elastic modulus, and fracture toughness). The hardness of the processed composite is higher than the individual phase hardness up to 1.5 times, insinuating the synergy of SiC and CNT reinforcement in HfB2-ZrB2 composites. The enhanced fracture toughness of CNT reinforced composite (up to a 196% increment) surpassing that of the parent materials (ZrB2/HfB2-SiC) is attributed to the synergy of solid solution formation and enhanced densification (~99.5%). In addition, the reduction in the analytically quantified interfacial residual tensile stress with SiC and CNT reinforcements contribute to the enhancement in the fracture toughness of HfB2-ZrB2-SiC-CNT composites, mandatory for aerospace applications.