The objective of this study was to evaluate the strain characteristics in asphalt pavements with respect to five in situ factors: Layer thickness, vehicle speed, axle weight, pavement temperature, and lateral distance between loading tire and sensor (i.e., loading offset). Two sets of moving load tests have been performed at three asphalt sections (A14, A5, and A8) selected from the Korea Highway Corporation Test Road. Design variables for those sections included base thickness (80, 180, and 280 mm) and base type (BB1, BB3, and aggregate). A three-axle (single-tandem) dump truck was adopted as a loading source, and steel plates were added to simulate heavy axle loads. Each pavement section was loaded at different speeds ranging from 20 to 80 km/h and was tested in different seasons from 2003 to 2004. In addition, the effect of loading offset was investigated with seven loading courses in one of the sections in 2006. This study first demonstrated that the rank between longitudinal and transverse strains can be changed as pavement ages under different temperatures. With multiple regression analysis on 123 data collected, a relation between field testing variables and the maximum strains in both directions was created to further understand statistical contributions of individual variables to stain anisotropy characteristics. As a result, both pavement temperature and layer thickness were found to be the most significant field variables.


Background:Psychological therapies are becoming more and more important in schizophrenia, and not as mere adjuncts to medication. The psychotherapy of schizophrenia is taking on a new lease of life in the wake of person-based phenomenological and psychological developments. Method: The case in question was a complex one, with variegated symptomatology that had persisted over many years. Approaching the case from the perspective of person-based cognitive therapy allowed us to understand the psychotic symptoms in the biographical context and to apply a therapy focused on the patient's recovery of her sense of self and of life. Results: At the end of the therapy and throughout the 12-month follow-up, the psychotic experiences had practically disappeared, or ceased to be disturbing, and the patient had become re-integrated in social life. Conclusions: Psychotic symptoms take on meaning in the biographical context. Adopting this perspective can aid the psychopathological explanation of the disorder and provide significant therapeutic help, more focused on recovery. Psychological therapy has shown itself to be viable in complex cases treated within the public-sector healthcare context.


We report the synthesis and characterization of mesoporous cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4, named CFO) nanospheres cross-linked by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as anode nanocomposites (CFO/CNT) for Li-ion batteries. CFO/CNT nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile one-pot solvothermal method using Co(CH3COO)2 and FeCl3 as the metal precursors in the presence of CH3COOK, CH3COOC2H5, HOCH2CH2OH, and CNTs. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, nitrogen adsorption, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. It is found that most CFO nanospheres are interconnected with CNTs forming a network composite possibly due to the presence of defects at the open ends and on the external surface of CNTs. These defects may act as nucleation centers for growth of CFO nanospheres. Compared with the bare CFO nanospheres and the physically mixed CFO nanospheres with CNTs, the CFO/CNT composite containing 16.5 wt% CNTs shows much higher capacities of 1137.6, 1003.4, 867.3, and 621.7 mA h g−1 at the current densities of 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 mA g−1 after 10 charge–discharge cycles, respectively, and even after 100 cycles, it still maintains a high capacity of 1045.6 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1. The super electrochemical properties of the CFO/CNT composite should originate from the formed network structure with the intimate interconnection between CFO nanospheres and CNTs, which not only provides stable electrical and ionic transfer channels but also significantly shortens the diffusion length of the Li+ ions. This work opens a new way for fabrication and utilization of metal oxide–CNT composites as anode materials for Li-ion batteries.


The paradigm of previous 4G cellular technology has led to an increase in requirements for high data rate demands of mobile users in 5G. In order to meet this demand, constant densification of communication networks was required. Ultra Dense Networks (UDNs) have been proposed as a promising 5G technology to fulfill these requirements by the efficient and dynamic distribution of the radio resources. However, for implementation of UDN, mobile operators have to face many challenges such as severe interference resulting in a limited capacity due to the dense deployment of small cells, site location and acquisition for the deployment of base stations, backhauling issues, energy consumption, etc. In this article, in order to alleviate these limitations, we propose a novel idea of Ultra Dense Cloud-Drone Network (UDCDN) architecture. This scheme is featured with "on-demand" quality and substantial flexibility in terms of deployment. This anchors the challenges of traditional UDN settings and offers numerous benefits. Through simulation results of cell coverage, we verify the genuineness of implementing the proposed scheme and offer a new paradigm shift for UDN.


To achieve lightweight network collaborative modeling on the client, this paper designs the collaborative modeling architecture based on B/S structure. Considering the product CAD model information can't be shared on the network, the XML technology is applied to build the middle model expression format which converts the CAD model to the middle model that can be shared among collaborative clients on the network. To solve the problem that the middle model is too huge to transmit on the limited internet bandwidth, the face representation method based on loops is proposed. With this method, the size of the middle model shared on the network can be reduced greatly. The structure of bidirectional inquiring between the feature information and the geometric element information is established in geometric models, and the problem that how to get modified features, topology relationship and geometric elements after design models have been changed is solved.


In concrete construction, it is usual to encounter integrating problems between old and new concrete interfaces, such as disease concrete's repairing and anchoring, concrete blocking construction and etc. Due to low cohesion strength between old and new concrete interfaces, weak interface is formed, then old and new concrete cannot construct as an integrate whole which tends to be damaged along the interfaces after being loaded and results in hidden danger. Regarding of this situation, the paper optimizes the mix on the base of mixes tests on inorganic cohesion material used between old and new concrete interfaces. When the material is used to old and new mortar interfaces and old and new concrete interfaces, cohesion tensile strength in interfaces equates or is higher than that of mortar itself and concrete itself; In the mean time, through permeability test the impermeability in the interface equates that of concrete itself, eliminating weak interfaces between old and new concrete. Physical property tests show that the material's mechanical property is better than that of concrete, deformation property is close to concrete's, especially linear expansion (temperature deformation) coefficient is basically consistent with that of concrete, avoiding peel-off damage after repeated internal forces due to too much difference between linear expansion coefficients when organic cohesion material is used. By analysis of hydraulic productions in interfaces and micro structure, the mechanism of inorganic cohesion glue is illuminated. It results in satisfying cohesive effect when optimized inorganic cohesion material is applied to high-strength concrete repair and RCC interfaces.


Fixed-rate loans may contribute to financial stability because they lower the volatility of interest rates. This reduced volatility of interest rates, however, may undermine the effectiveness of monetary policy. Fixed-rate loans, also, may change the steady-states of economy because fixed interest rates are usually higher than variable interest rates, which can alter incentives of borrowers for loans. This paper tests how fixed-rate loans affect the steady-states of economy and the effectiveness of monetary policy, using the DSGE model. The steady-states in the economy are shown to vary in the ratio of fixed-rate loans. When the ratio of fixed-rate loans rises, borrowers bear more burden of interests because fixed interest rates are higher than variable interest rates. Therefore, borrowers reduce their loans, which lead into decreased weight of financial sector in the economy. Total output, however, remains almost unchanged regardless of the ratio of fixed-rate loans because households increase labor supply to compensate for their financial losses. The similar phenomenon happens when the mark-up of fixed interest rates over variable interest rates increases. Effects of fixed-rate loans on monetary policy turn out to be different in financial economy and real economy. Financial economy variables, such as interest rates and loans, respond differently to monetary policy shocks when the ratio of fixed-rate loans increases. These differences, however, are offset by each other within financial economy and not transmitted to real economy. That is, real economy variables, such as output, consumption, and price, react virtually the same to monetary policy shocks regardless of the ratio of fixed-rate loans. The same results occur when I vary the mark-up of fixed interest rates or the stickiness of fixed interest rates.


In order to ensure the safety production of coal industry and improve the security of coal mine power supply system, CAN bus based monitoring and warning system for coal mine high-voltage power supply system is designed. The design requirements and the hardware configuration and its implementation of monitoring and warning system are particularly introduced, including the construction of communication network, the design of monitoring master station, the design of communication tributary station and so on. The practice shows that this system can ensure the security of coal mine power supply system.


An initial implementation of an interactive programming assistant system called the programmer's apprentice (PA) is described. The PA is designed to be midway between an improved programming methodology and an automatic programming system. The intention is that the programmer will do the hard parts of design and implementation while the PA will assist him wherever possible. One of the major underpinnings of the PA is a representation (called a plan) for programs which abstracts away from the inessential features of a program, and represents the basic logical properties of the algorithm explicitly.


Low-cost FPGAs have comparable number of Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs) with respect to resource-rich FPGAs but have much less routing tracks. For CAD tools, this situation increases the difficulty of successfully mapping a circuit into the lowcost FPGAs. Instead of switching to resource-rich FPGAs, the designers could employ depopulation-based clustering techniques which underuse CLBs, hence improve routability by spreading the logic over the architecture. However, all depopulation-based clustering algorithms to this date increase critical path delay. In this paper, we present a timing-driven nonuniform depopulationbased clustering technique, T-NDPack, that targets critical path delay and channel width constraints simultaneously. T-NDPack adjusts the CLB capacity based on the criticality of the Basic Logic Element (BLE). Results show that T-NDPack reduces minimum channel width by 11.07% while increasing the number of CLBs by 13.28% compared to T-VPack. More importantly, T-NDPack decreases critical path delay by 2.89%.


Cold drawn gold wires are widely applied in electronic packaging process to interconnect micro-electronic components. They basically provides a conducting path for electronic signal transfer, and experience thermo-mechanical loads in use. The mechanical stability of drawn gold wires is a matter of practical concern in the reliable functioning of electronic devices. It is known that mechanical properties of materials are deeply related to the microstructure. With appropriate control of deformation and heat processes, the mechanical properties of final products, such as tensile strength and elongation can be improved. Severe plastic deformation by torsion usually contributes to grain refinement and increment of strength. In this study, microstructure variations with torsion strain followed by drawing and heat treatment were investigated. Analyses by focused ion beam (FIB) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) were carried out to characterize the effect of deformation and heat treatment on the drawn gold wires. Pattern quality of EBSD measurements was used as a quantitative measure for plastic deformation.


Stokes inversion calculation is a key process in resolving polarization information on radiation from the Sun and obtaining the associated vector magnetic fields. Even in the cases of simple local thermo-dynamic equilibrium (LTE) and where the Milne-Eddington approximation is valid, the inversion problem may not be easy to solve. The initial values for the iterations are important in handling the case with multiple minima. In this paper, we develop a fast inversion technique without iterations. The time taken for computation is only 1 / 100 the time that the iterative algorithm takes. In addition, it can provide available initial values even in cases with lower spectral resolutions. This strategy is useful for a filter-type Stokes spectrograph, such as SDO/HMI and the developed two-dimensional real-time spectrograph (2DS).


Flooding is a situation that occurs when land that is usually dry is covered with water of a river overflow or heavy rainfall. Floods are among the most devastating natural disasters in the world, claiming more lives and causing more property damage than any other natural phenomena. In Nigeria, flooding and erosion constitutes the most critical elements of coastal hazards. Though not leading in terms of claiming lives, floods affect and displace more people than any other disaster; they also cause more damage to properties. At least 20% of the population is at risk from one form of flood or another. This study examines peoples' perception on the effects of flood in the riverine areas of the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Flooding has profound effects on the area regarding: loss of properties, destruction of food crops, biodiversity loss, increased erosion, land and water pollution, spread of water borne diseases, reduction in economic activities, and in severe cases loss of lives and destruction of entire settlements, etc. The effects are occasioned by natural and human factors. Data were collected through questionnaire and interview methods. The chi-square statistical technique was used to analyse the data. The study indicates that: the people at the study area perceive the effects of flooding differently. Those that are married, and especially farmers, perceive floods to be destructive, while the single people, those that are employed in government offices, and the people of the kolo creek who are not seriously affected by floods perceive floods to be less destructive. Those who live along Ekole creek generally see floods as much more destructive than those far away from Ekole creek. These differences occur as a result of the difference in the levels of responsibilities, and occupational and terrain characteristics. However, there is a general perception that flooding is destructive to those who live by the river bank (flood plains). The study suggests a number of ways for ameliorating the devastating effects of floods. These approaches include: flood plain zoning, channelization, pilling and construction of dykes, encouragement of people to take up flood insurance, and setting up a flood victims' relief and rehabilitation fund to relieve the peoples' burden.


Si Nanowires (NWs) have been commonly fabricated via expensive synthesis processes on particular substrates without some critical features such as mechanical flexibility and optical transparency. Lack of these features limit the applications in their potential research area. In this work, we demonstrated that ordered and disordered single crystalline silicon nanowires can be transferred from Si wafer onto a wide range of alien substrates while preserving their original order and alignment on the mother substrate. Vertically well-aligned Si NWs with different lengths and densities were successfully transferred on Ag-pre-coated glasses, transparent-conductive-oxides and metal foils (Cu), which enable ohmic contact formation between Si NWs and the employed substrates, which is essential for the fabrication of electronics and opto-electronics devices. This approach offers promise to construct low-cost device fabrication with highly crystalline semiconductor materials, which is a crucial step for the realization of next generation highly efficient core-shell solar cells. As an illustrative application, the transferred disordered Si NWs were then decorated with a thin layer of CZTS for the fabrication of a third generation solar cell, which has been exhibited the best power conversion efficiency so far in a device constructed with the same material combination.


Sandeel abundance and sediment particle size data from 2886 grab samples collected during 14 surveys undertaken in the Wee Bankie/Marr Bank region of the north-western North Sea between 1998 and 2003 are analysed. Odds Ratio, an analysis that compares the proportion of all samples assigned to a particular sediment category, with the proportion of samples containing sandeels assigned to the same category, reveals clear patterns of either selection for, or avoidance of, seabed habitats containing varying proportions of 8 sediment particle size categories. As the propor- tion of Coarse Gravel, Fine Gravel, Fine Sand, Coarse Silt, Medium Silt and Fine Silt in the seabed habitat increases, sandeels show reduced selection for and increased avoidance of the habitat. Con- versely, as the proportion of Coarse Sand and Medium Sand in the sediment increases, sandeels show reduced avoidance of and increased selection for the habitat. Classification Tree and Principal Com- ponents Analysis define 8 types of seabed habitat on the basis of their sediment particle size compo- sition that vary in sandeel occupancy rate, sandeel density and the size of sandeels that occupy the habitat. Variation in sandeel density across these 8 habitat types is primarily influenced by the silt content in the sediment. Variation in the size of sandeels occupying each habitat type is mainly dic- tated by the coarseness of the sediment. The value of such results for the design of grab surveys intended to monitor variation in local sandeel abundance is discussed.


In this paper, a new method, so-called finite particle method, for form-finding of tensegrity systems is proposed. It models the analyzed domain by finite particles instead of mathematical functions and continuous bodies in traditional mechanics. Examples including simple regular tensegrity systems and complex irregular tensegrity systems are carried out to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. Also a comparison between the proposed method and the dynamic relaxation method is conducted. It proves that the proposed method is much more effective than the dynamic relaxation method in the form-finding of large-scale tensegrity systems. Hence, the proposed method has a great potential of developing into a general and effective form-finding method for irregular and large-scale tensegrity systems.


Abstract Besides motivation and attitude, anxiety proves to strongly affect L2 learning. Synchronous text-based environments offer an opportunity to investigate situational anxiety in a learning environment which differs from the traditional classroom. In catering differently to factors such as personality trait, acceptance, orientation, communication, performance and evaluation, virtual learning spaces may alter users' behaviour and situational anxiety.This paper reports on a small-scale case study carried out with EFL tertiary learners at the Language Centre, University of Calabria, Italy and in-service teachers training at the local chapter of TESOL-Italy. Under different circumstances and for different purposes, both groups were sharing the common ground of approaching virtual learning environments as novices. Findings reflect on comparative L2 situational anxiety in relation to virtual behaviour.


Wheat is a fundamental crop for improving global food security and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been a central pillar for providing high yielding, nutritious, disease- and climate-resilient wheat varieties to target countries, which is the basis for establishing more resilient agri-food systems especially in the developing world. Increasing wheat yield potential through plant breeding will play a crucial role in fulfilling the projected future global demand of wheat. New emerging technologies and breeding strategies must be looked at to accelerate the rate of genetic gains in wheat. Genomic selection (GS) in one of these strategies that has already demonstrated higher rates of genetic gains in animal breeding and is becoming an essential component of many plant breeding programs including wheat. Throughout the last decades the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program has made significant contributions to promote the implementation of GS in wheat. Several new genome-wide prediction models (e.g., models accounting for genotype × environment interaction or, more recently, deep learning methods) were developed and tested on CIMMYT wheat datasets. GS is routinely implemented in the CIMMYT spring bread wheat program since 2013. Here we summarize the learnings from 10 years of experience with GS in the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program and give a brief outlook on future work.


This guide provides tips, fact checking websites, and resources to help you discern whether the news and other information you see, read, and hear about is real or fake.


We present a hierarchical framework for zero-shot human-activity recognition that recognizes unseen activities by the combinations of preliminarily learned basic actions and involved objects. The presented framework consists of gaze-guided object recognition module, myo-armband based action recognition module, and the activity recognition module, which combines results from both action and object module to detect complex activities. Both object and action recognition modules are based on deep neural network. Unlike conventional models, the proposed framework does not need retraining for recognition of an unseen activity, if the activity can be represented by a combination of the predefined basic actions and objects. This framework brings competitive advantage to industry in terms of the service-deployment cost. The experimental results showed that the proposed model could recognize three types of activities with precision of 77% and recall rate of 82%, which is comparable to a baseline method based on supervised learning.


We synthesized a novel bimetallic core–shell–satellite surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate (AuNS@mSiO2@AgNP) that consists of a gold nanostar (AuNS) core, a mesoporous silica (mSiO2) shell and a layer of silver nanosphere (AgNP) satellites. The core–shell–satellite nanostructure was formed by growing branches in the mSiO2 shell of mSiO2 coated gold nanospheres (AuNP@mSiO2) using AuNPs as the seeds, and the subsequent deposition of AgNPs on the mSiO2 surface. The growth of AuNSs in mSiO2 leads to the formation of a large number of closely spaced branches which provide enormous hotspots; and by varying the length of the branches, the nanogap distance between the AuNS core and the AgNP satellites can be carefully adjusted. Besides, mSiO2 could allow the infiltration of the analyte into the nanogap area that has high SERS enhancement. To demonstrate the feasibility of the SERS substrate, the bimetallic core–shell–satellite nanostructures were used for the label-free detection of a pesticide named thiram. The AuNS@mSiO2@AgNP was shown to have excellent selectivity and SERS activity which is significantly higher than that of AuNS@mSiO2, mSiO2@AgNP and AuNP@mSiO2@AgNP. This method exhibits a good linear response when the thiram concentration ranges from 10−9 M to 10−3 M, and the limit of detection (LOD) is 10−9 M, showing that the bimetallic core–shell–satellite nanostructure is a promising SERS substrate.


In dysplasia of the vaginal cervix every 7th patient (in 68 of 500) showed hyperplastic and metaplasic changes in the mucous membrane of the cervical canal and 1 per cent--Ca in situ of the cervical canal. Females with different forms of dysplasia of the vaginal portion of the cervix should be referred to the high risk groups in cancer. They should be subjected to separate curetting of the cervical canal and uterine cavity to avert intraepithelial or initial forms of the invasive cancer in this area.


With over 850 Neighbourhood Plans underway, and some already guiding the shape of development, can we tell if the devolution of influence and control to local communities envisaged by the Coalition government is also taking place? Neighbourhood planning provides the statutory framework to integrate participatory and representative democracy in local plan-making so we might very well expect there to be political – with a small 'p'- impact. Government Ministers have talked about giving local people power and control over what happens in their neighbourhood, and one of the principle objectives of the policy is to increase civic and democratic participation . Although there is healthy scepticism over the extent to which any real delegation of power is taking place and deep concerns over the patchwork of uneven development emerging, there are already signs that neighbourhood planning may have a reinvigorating effect on local democracy. Research being carried out by Leeds Metropolitan University, involving a sample of 25 rural and urban neighbourhoods, suggests that there may be four areas of impact where the policy is capable of achieving a fundamental shift in civic engagement.


The polyene antibiotic, amphotericin, inhibited phosphate uptake in Candida albicans more strongly than it inhibited growth. Cultures grown from an inoculum of young (2 h) cells were more affected than those inoculated with old (24 h) cells. Thus, the polyene displays a double effect on C. albicans (and presumably on other eukaryotic cells): it interferes with membrane sterols and also inhibits synthesis of a factor (or factors) during growth. Whether this factor(s) interferes with the uptake of the polyene antibiotic or neutralizes its effect by reacting with it remains unsolved.


In recent years the role of arginine in the replication of certain intranuclear DNA viruses has been well documented. Rouse, Bonifas & Schlesinger (1963) demonstrated that arginine is required for the replication of type 2 adenovirus and Tankersley (1964) and Sharon (1966) showed that it is essential for the multiplication of herpes virus. More recently, Rouse & Schlesinger (1967) showed for type 2 adenovirus, Russell & Becker (1968) for type 5 adenovirus and Becker, Olshevsky & Levitt (1967) for herpes virus that arginine is not required in the early steps of virus replication which include synthesis of viral DNA, but is essential for the production of complete infectious virions.
The purpose of this communication is to report on the effect of depletion in arginine and other amino acids on the replication of SV 40 virus, and on the synthesis of the early 'T' antigen (Pope & Rowe, 1964) and late viral coat proteins of this virus in BSC 1 cells.


In this study, the authors present a novel dipole antenna for microwave imaging (MWI) applications. Different from the previous works, the designed dipole is compact while having a wide-impedance bandwidth of 1–4.2 GHz along with a moderate gain. In particular, the largest dimension of the antenna is 6 cm, which is 0.2 wavelength at the very lower end of the operating frequency bandwidth. Furthermore, the resultant design has a cross-polarisation level <20 dB. Important characteristics of the proposed design are given with the simulations through analysis system high-frequency structure simulator. Obtained simulation results are also shown to be consistent with the measurements. In addition to measuring fundamental parameters of the designed dipole, they also test the proposed antenna in a circular MWI system. In this context, several dielectric scatterers are measured in a circular scanner and obtained scattered field measurements are supplied to the well-known contrast source inversion method. Imaging results show that the proposed antenna is quite suitable for MWI applications.


The emphasis in post-Keynesian macroeconomics on wage- versus profit-led growth may not have been helpful. The profit share is not an exogenous variable, and the correlations between the profit share and economic growth can be positive for some exogenous shocks but negative for others. The terminology, second, suggests a unidirectional causality from distribution to aggregate demand while in fact distribution can itself be directly affected by shifts in aggregate demand. The reduced form correlations, third, depend on interactions with the labor market, and a focus on the goods market can be misleading. If, fourth, empirical estimates are taken at face value, the support for wage-led conclusions is much weaker than suggested by the literature. A focus on the growth benefits of a reduction in inequality, finally, makes for an impoverished policy discussion.


Background: There is a concern as to whether long-term administration of immunosuppressants in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) would increase the risk of malignancy. Objective: To compare the risks of developing malignancy between patients with IBD treated with immunosuppressive agents and patients with IBD not receiving these agents. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted, and a meta-analysis was performed on data retrieved from cohort studies that followed patients with IBD who received immunosuppressive agents for more than a year and documented the incidence of newly developed malignancy. An electronic search was conducted using MEDLINE (1966–September 2006), the Cochrane Library (issue 3, 2006), and Japana Centra Revuo Medicina (1981–September 2006). Medical subject headings used in the searches were azalhioprine, 6-mercaptopurine, cyclosporine, methotrexate, tacrolimus, inflammatory bowel disease, and neoplasms. We imposed no language limitation in the searches. Additionally, a manual search of reference listings from all articles retrieved from the electronic databases was performed. Using data obtained from control groups or population-based studies, the incidence of newly developed malignancy in patients with IBD treated with immunosuppressive agents was compared with that of patients with IBD who were not receiving immunosuppressive agents. Statistical analysis for the change in risk of developing malignancy was performed using the weighted mean difference (WMD) normalized to per person-year and its 95% confidence interval. Results: Nine cohort studies met the inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. Analysis of these studies showed no discernible difference (WMD −0.3 × 10-3/person-year; 95% CI −1.2 × 10-3 to 0.7 × 10-3) in the incidence of any kind of malignancy in patients with IBD who received immunosuppressants compared with those who did not receive immunosuppressants. No significant difference in WMD was observed when the data from patients with either Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) were analyzed separately. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the administration of immunosuppressive agents in patients with either CD or UC probably does not confer a significantly increased risk of malignancy compared with patients with IBD who are not receiving these agents.


Currently more and more large, vertically integrated firms are being transformed into flatter organisations that encompass decentralised decision structures. The author argues that an understanding of this new type of firm, called market-like firm, is missing from the theory of the firm (transaction cost theory), for two reasons. On the one hand, the Williamsonian framework of governance structures does not explore the distinguishing mark of the firm, and, on the other hand, it cannot explain the variety of firms. To overcome these shortcomings, the author proposes the extension of the Williamsonian framework with the concept of "firm-ness" that is based on the distinction between ideal-type and real-type.


The paper brings an analysis of the new Polish translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Grzegorz Wasowski, published as Perypetie Alicji na Czarytorium. By defining the translation strategy followed by the translator and pointing to possible reasons for this choice and its consequences, the author enters into discussion with the translator. Wasowski claims that "it is not possible to do it better than the previous translators – but it is possible to do it differently". This leads to the eternal question about limits of translation and to the conclusion that at the time when reading the text is considered as its interpretation (and hence a translation is a translation of an interpretation, and the reception of the translation is an interpretation of the interpretation) each new interpretation becomes a significant element of the translation series.


: The development of a labelled antibody for radioimmunoscintigraphic tumor localisation necessitates a major optimisation procedure to carefully balance factors such as radionuclide, anchoring site on the antibody, method of labelling and addition of radioprotective agents. Even under ideal conditions radiolytic and enzymatic degradation of the biologically active antibody cannot be avoided. The resulting radioactive fragments will exhibit organ distribution patterns different from those of the parent antibody and may pose a major obstacle to scintigraphy of certain organs such as liver, kidney and spleen.


The sequential synthesis in vitro of a heptasaccharide diphosphate prenol, containing glucose, mannose, glucuronic acid and rhamnose in the ratio 4:1:1:1 is described. The enzyme preparation consisted of EDTA-treated Acetobacter xylinum cells and UDP-glucose, GDP-mannose, UDP-glucuronic acid and TDP-rhamnose were employed as sugar donors. The compounds soluble in chloroform/methanol/water (1:2:0.3) formed from incubations carried out under different conditions in the presence of a variety of combinations of the donors labeled with 14C, 3H or 32P were analysed by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, gel filtration, partial acid hydrolysis, acetolysis, periodate oxidation, etc. The following structure is proposed for the most complex compound characterized: rhamnosyl-(1 leads to 6)-beta-glucosyl-(1 leads to 6)-alpha-glucosyl-(1 leads to 4)-beta-glucuronyl-(1 leads to 6)-beta-mannosyl-(1 leads to 3)-beta-glucosyl-(1 leads to 4)-alpha-glucosyl diphosphate prenol. The smaller oligosaccharide diphosphate prenols formed as intermediate steps are also characterized in this or in previous work [Garcia, R. C., Recondo, E. and Dankert, M. A. (1974) Eur. J. Biochem. 43, 93-105; Couso, R. O., Ielpi, L., and Dankert, M. A. (1980) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 204, 434-443]. The role of these compounds in the biosynthesis of a complex exopolysaccharide that this microorganism forms in addition to cellulose is discussed.


In this paper, two Translation Memory (TM) sharing models adopted in XMCAT, a Computer Assisted Translation tool (CAT) supporting cooperated work in machine translation, was described in detail. One is Center-based TM sharing model, which is only fit for users in a local area network (LAN) and the other is a novel model called P2P-based TM sharing model, which could be used through Internet by geographically distributed users. With the two TM sharing models, a user may share data with other users through network, so that he/she may reduce the repeated work further and cooperate with others more easily. Besides, the methods used in XMCA T to deal with the problem of multi-translations arose in the cooperated memory sharing models, were also proposed in this paper. XMCAT system has been adopted and approved by some translation companies.


ABSTRACT Wang, D., 2020. Risk management for oceanside hotel industry: The viewpoint of marine tourism. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 205–208. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With the rapid development of the marine tourism economy and the gradual rise of offshore, oceanfront, and oceanside hotels based on marine tourism projects, economic risks for hotels have become a research hotspot of hotel management. This paper first analyzes the risk identification for oceanside hotels based on ocean tourism projects and then studies the economic risk evaluation of oceanside hotels based on ocean tourism projects. Then, the economic risk management is analyzed, and finally the management mode of oceanside hotels is studied based on ocean tourism projects.


The components in top-fuel dragster and stock car engines undergo significantly more force than their production passenger vehicle counterparts do. Therefore, they must be manufactured and processed to withstand those forces so that they do not catastrophically fail while in service. In this project, the effects of austempering and adding a cryogenic processing step to the control quench and double temper heat treatment on the tensile and hardness properties of E4340 high-strength steel were examined. Tensile test samples were machined from raw connecting rod forgings and underwent either a quench-double temper heat treatment, an austempering heat treatment, or the quench-double temper heat treatment with an added cryogenic processing step after the quench. The mechanical properties caused by each heat treatment were then measured through hardness and tensile testing. The average yield strength produced through austempering was less than that produced through the current heat treatment or through cryogenically processing. The cryogenically processed and control samples had statistically similar yield strength values, which is likely due to the difference in retained austenite between the two sample groups being relatively small.


Intermittent Auscultation (IA) of the fetal heart (FH) is a screening tool for the assessment of fetal well-being during labour; the detection of changes in the FH rate and rhythm may signal fetal compromise. While the evidence reveals that IA is as effective as continuous cardiotocography (CTG) for FH monitoring for low-risk women, current practitioners favour the use of continuous CTG despite the risk of significantly increased maternal and fetal morbidity. Translating the knowledge of the effectiveness of IA into practice became the primary aim of this study. While auscultation and palpation are essential midwifery skills, the teaching of IA does not go beyond simply outlining the protocol for frequency, duration, and timing and less is understood about the underlying physiology associated with what is heard and the reassurance of fetal wellbeing that this provides. A knowledge translation intervention, in the form of an evidence-based informed decision-making framework for Intelligent Structured Intermittent Auscultation (ISIA) and a comprehensive educational intervention were developed to enhance midwives' knowledge and awareness of IA and to influence decision-making and practice for FH monitoring for low-risk women. A mixed methods non-experimental pre- and post - intervention study design was used to evaluate the knowledge intervention. Pre measures included a retrospective review of 511 medical records to assess existing FH monitoring practices, and focus groups with 14 midwives explored barriers and facilitators to the use of IA. The intervention was then delivered to a mix of 33 midwives and doctors three months later, followed by a second review of 422 medical records and focus groups with seven midwives to determine any changes in practice and to evaluate outcomes. The findings revealed a statistically significant increase in the use of ISIA with improved documentation, and a relative decrease of 14% in the use an admission CTG for low risk women. The ISIA framework has wide applicability in all maternity settings. This research has illuminated the effects of culture, organisation and the socio-political context on the ability for midwives to utilise their fundamental midwifery skills to promote, facilitate and protect normal physiological birth in the institutional maternity care setting. Engagement with a Knowledge Translation project and the introduction of the ISIA framework for FHR monitoring for low risk women has given midwives voice to generate change.


BACKGROUND: Gabapentin and ketamine are popular analgesic adjuvants for improving perioperative pain management. We designed this double-blind, placebo-controlled study to test and compare the preventive effects of perioperative ketamine and gabapentin on early and chronic pain after elective hysterectomy. METHODS: Sixty patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy were randomly assigned to 1 of the following 3 groups: control group received oral placebo capsules and bolus plus infusion of saline; ketamine group received oral placebo capsules and, before incision, 0.3 mg/kg IV bolus and 0.05 mg·kg−1·h−1 infusion of ketamine until the end of surgery; and gabapentin group received oral gabapentin 1.2 g and bolus plus infusion of saline. The anesthetic technique was standardized, and the postoperative assessments included verbal rating scales for pain and sedation, IV morphine usage, quality of recovery assessment, recovery of bowel function, resumption of normal activities, and patient satisfaction with their pain management. Patients were questioned at 1, 3, and 6 mo after surgery for chronic postoperative pain. RESULTS: Postoperative pain scores were significantly lower in the gabapentin group compared with the ketamine and control groups, and patient-controlled analgesia morphine use was significantly reduced in both treatment groups (versus control group) (P < 0.001). Total patient-controlled analgesia morphine use was decreased by 35% and 42% in the ketamine and gabapentin groups, respectively, compared with the control group (P < 0.001). Patient satisfaction with pain treatment was significantly improved in the ketamine and gabapentin groups compared with the control group (P < 0.001). The incidence of incisional pain and related pain scores at the 1-, 3-, and 6-mo follow-up were significantly lower in the gabapentin group compared with the ketamine and control groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Gabapentin and ketamine are similar in improving early pain control and in decreasing opioid consumption; however, gabapentin also prevented chronic pain in the first 6 postoperative months.


This paper presents a systematic review on trauma treatment interventions. These interventions have different theoretical perspectives on trauma etiology and its application. The empirical findings of these trauma treatment therapies are presented. The literature identifies five therapies as the most effective treatment modalities. These therapies are cognitive therapy (CT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), prolonged exposure therapy (PE), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. They are all validated with a small nuance on treatment approach and effectiveness. However, to use these five interventions, practitioners need to consider and apply the research findings that indicate which intervention is best for which population. Based on the findings, suggestions are made for which population the different interventions are best suited.


A basic amphiphilic alpha-helix is a structural feature common to many calmodulin-binding peptides and proteins. A set of fluorescent analogues of a very tight binding inhibitor (dissociation constant of 200 picomolar) of calmodulin has been synthesized. The fluorescent amino acid tryptophan has been systematically moved throughout the sequence of this peptide. The fluorescence properties for the peptides repeat every three to four residues and are consistent with the periodicity observed for an alpha-helix.


The review was aimed at carrying out a systematic review of intervention programmes that have been designed and implemented for the prevention of teenage pregnancy at either community, national or international levels. The review procedure was guided by the protocol described by the Centre for Review Dissemination. It was initiated by conducting a literature search for relevant papers that focussed on teenage pregnancy prevention. After the elimination of random and unrelated results, selected abstracts were downloaded and initially screened for inclusion or exclusion criteria in the study. From the preliminary screening based on the abstract, a total of 35 papers were provisionally selected. After further screening, a total of 20 articles and reports that meet the inclusion criteria were selected and analysed further. For each of the qualifying studies, information that relates to the demographics of the teenage participants, description of the programme, and the level of success of the intervention were extracted. The major stakeholders of the 20 published national and international intervention programmes were governments, NGOs, academics/educators, community, health workers, youth workers and parents. In all the studies, the etiology for the intervention were poverty, poor sex and relationship education, poor sexual health services, substance abuse, crime, poor family relations, gender inequities and school dropout. With the exception of two of the reports, all the interventions were considered successful. All interventions revealed the prevention level to be secondary while 13 of the intervention programmes used the top-bottom approach. Due to the negative, long-term consequences of teenage pregnancy and childbirths, the prevention of unplanned teenage pregnancy and childbirths is a vital contribution to the overall aim of enhancing teenagers' reproductive health and fulfilment of potentials.


In the present investigation the effect of laser surface melting on wear and corrosion resistance of Al-11 wt.% Si alloy has been investigated. Laser surface melting has been carried out using a 2 kW continuous wave CO 2 laser at an applied power of 2.3 kW and scan speed ranging from 6 to 12 mm/min. Following the laser surface melting, a detailed investigation of the melted zone in terms of microstructure, composition and phases were undertaken. Mechanical properties of the melted zone were evaluated so far as the microhardness and wear resistance were concerned. The corro-sion behaviour of the as-received and the laser surface melted surface was evaluated in 1(M) H 2 SO 4 , 1(M) HNO 3 and 3.56 wt.% NaCl solutions. The microstructure of the melt zone consists of grain refinedAl andAl-Si eutec-tic colonies which results in an improved microhardness from 87 VHN as compared to 55 VHN of the as-received Al-Si alloy. The wear resistance of the melt surface was improved significantly as compared to the as-received Al-Si alloy. A detailed corrosion study in various environments showed that corrosion resistance was marginally less in the 3.56 wt.% NaCl and 1 M H 2 SO 4 solutions, but was better in the 1 M HNO 3 solution.


Background: The voltage reference circuits are mainly used in the portable devices like mobiles, laptops for the long battery runtime. Due to this voltage reference circuits the circuit can be operated in the very low supply voltage because of this the power consumption of the circuit can be reduced. Method Adopted: In this paper the low power Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) voltage has been designed by using the conventional charge pump and to achieve the better low power consumption voltage reference circuits and high constant voltage reference different types of charge pumps like Dickson charge pump and the Static Charge Transfer Switch (CTS) charge pump has been replaced in the place of the conventional charge pump. The conventional CMOS volatge reference circuit has the power consumption of 1.007μW and the constant voltage reference of 210mV. Findings: By using the Dickson charge pump the power consumption has been reduced to 1.389μW and the constant voltage reference has been icreased to 231mV. Similarly by using by using the Static (CTS) charge pump the power consumption has been reduced to 0.803μW and the constant voltage reference has been icreased to 229.03mV compared to the reference voltage circuit using the conventional charge pump. Improvements: The CMOS voltage reference circuit has been designed by using the two types of the charge pump Dickson charge pump and the Static CTS charge pump and all the power consumption and the constant voltage reference circuits has been compared.


The quality of education and training children receive today will significantly impact their development into adulthood and their impact on society (Kibwiki & Semana, 2001). Burundi, Africa is the second poorest country in the world and has a turbulent history laced with economic, political, and cultural challenges (Headrick, 2016). With more than half the population under the age of 18, educating the youth of Burundi is paramount to bringing about change in the country. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the needs of primary school teachers, administrators, afterschool program educators and their students; and to determine if a 4-H Youth Development school gardening program was a viable methodology to meet their needs. The desire of local partners to empower Burundian youth and the fact that empowerment is a fundamental principle of the 4-H methodology led to the selection of Empowerment Theory as the conceptual framework for this study. A needs assessment using focus groups was conducted with 34 primary school teachers, administrators, and afterschool staff in two rural communities in Burundi. Findings indicated that poverty and hunger were the primary barriers to quality education and climbing out of poverty. School educators also reported a need for professional development to better provide quality education for youth. Based on the outcomes of the focus groups, the researchers recommend that the 4-H Youth Development school gardening program is implemented in rural Burundi using Empowerment Theory as a framework to address the needs of educators and youth.


The finding of a granular deposition of immunoglobulin in the kidney in experimental animal models of glomerulonephritis has been been interpreted as resulting from the random deposition of immune complexes in the glomeruli. Recent data suggests that although immune complex deposition may be an important factor in some forms of glomerulonephritis, the in situ formation of immune complexes between circulating anti-kidney antibodies and fixed glomerular capillary wall antigens may also be a significant factor in the pathogenesis of some animal models of glomerulonephritis. To examine the characteristics of discontinuously represented glomerular capillary wall antigens in the rat, monoclonal antibodies were generated against a glomerular plasma membrane fraction, depleted of glomerular basement membrane, prepared from isolated Lewis rat glomeruli. A total of 17 hybridomas, generated from the fusion of splenocytes obtained from mice immunised with the glomerular membrane fraction produced monoclonal antibodies which reacted with discontinuously represented antigens in the glomerulus and renal tubules. One further hybridoma secreted a monoclonal antibody which reacted with an antigen present on glomerular and tubular nuclear membranes. No hybridomas were produced which secreted a monoclonal antibody which reacted with linearly arrayed glomerular basement membrane antigens. Two of these monoclonal antibodies, both of the IgM subclass and code-named PH7 and SC5, produced a heavy granular glomerular staining pattern when examined by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Neither monoclonal antibody was kidney specific, with reactivity being demonstrated with a number of non-renal tissues. When administered intravenously to normal Lewis rats both SC5 and PH7 induced a mild proteinuric lesion. The proteinuria was not associated with histopathological changes at the light or electron microscope level. Immunoblotting experiments revealed that SC5 reacted predominantly with a protein band of 96 kDa present in detergent extracts of isolated glomeruli and glomerular plasma membranes. PH7 was shown to react with three low molecular weight proteins of 14, 13 and 11 kDa The findings of this study demonstrate the potential for a nephritogenic response to occur following the in situ formation of immune complexes between circulating anti-kidney antibodies and discontinuously arrayed non-glomerular, basement membrane glomerular capillary wall antigens characterised by granular immunofluorescence patterns,in animal models of glomerulonephritis.


A chance encounter with Alice, a retired nurse, led to a rich life history investigation exploring her journey from school girl to tuberculosis nurse in the 1930s; through nursing in Second World War London; to a lengthily successful career as a nurse educationalist in the north of England. Further interviews with retired nurses from the same generation and documentary analysis were also completed. A feature of their histories is the way in which gender weaves a powerful thread. Manners, behaviour, communication, dress and aspirations are all linked to a gendered image of self.
Julia Hallam Identifies nursing image as having popular, professional and personal elements: using this as a framework to critique the life history, this paper will explore the ways in which gender was used and misused by nursing education and practice to form a particular, controlling, feminised nursing identity. It will argue that historically gender is distorted for example in that femininity is to be conveyed without overt sexuality and motherly caring without any apparent emotional engagement. This dislocation of the emotional and sexual self is part of the socialisation of people into nursing identities.


Akwugo Emejulu discusses changes to 'collective public politics' – including the third sector, activism, community development and political and union campaigning – alongside Black feminist activism, her own intellectual development, and institutional racism at British universities. In these right-wing times, she argues 'we need people in lot of different kinds of spaces and places to take back power'. She outlines the consequences of the defeat of the left since the 1980s and the rise of neoliberal technocratic managerialism in the third sector: how it put already-vulnerable people further at risk and destabilised the political power of NGOS. More recently there has been a surge of interest in political education and in campaigning on 'the bigger political picture' amongst community activists. We need a far more expansive conception of 'activism': for more attention to be given to its role in everyday life, its intersectionality and its sustainability. To do this, and to foreground the diverse contributions of women of colour activists, is to address and redress the 'raceless discussions of the white left'. The interview concludes by considering academia in a neoliberal climate. 'We do not have to be vicious, competitive, or managerial', she says: all academics need to behave well at every level to change institutional racism.


Private equity (PE) fund managers constantly face the problem of having an adequate selection of firms to invest in. Optimal investment decisions are of high importance to PE funds because there is a greater degree of risk associated with them than with traditional investments, which tend to be more objective in terms of risk–return profiles. This article analyzes and details the various factors that affect the investment decisions of PE funds and reveals two models to determine the optimal investment candidate from a set of probable candidates: a risk-weighted fuzzy optimal investment model and a neural-network-based optimal investment model.


BACKGROUND
Seasonal influenza vaccination is an important behavior with significant individual and public health consequences, yet fewer than half of individuals in the USA are vaccinated annually. To promote vaccination adherence, it is important to understand the factors that affect vaccination behavior.

PURPOSE
In this research, we focused on one such factor, an individual's vaccination history. We gathered longitudinal data to track and understand the relationship between an individual's vaccination history and their current behaviors.

METHODS
U.S. adults completed multiple surveys over an 8 year period, which asked about whether they had received the influenza vaccination during the previous flu season. We analyzed the data to determine the strength of the relationship between vaccination decisions across single-year and multiyear intervals. Additionally, we fitted two mathematical models to the data to determine whether individuals were better characterized as having a stable propensity to vaccinate or a stable propensity to repeat their previous decisions.

RESULTS
Individuals exhibited highly consistent behavior across adjacent years, yet, across the complete extent of the longitudinal study, they were far more likely to repeat the earlier decision to vaccinate. Surprisingly, the results of the mathematical model suggest that individuals are better characterized as having a stable propensity to repeat their previous decisions rather than a stable propensity to vaccinate per se. Although most individuals had an extremely strong tendency to repeat the previous decision, some had a far weaker propensity to do so.

CONCLUSIONS
This suggests that interventions intended to increase vaccination uptake might be most impactful for those individuals with only a weak tendency to vaccinate or not to vaccinate.


OBJECTIVE
To discuss the epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, expected course, prognosis, and treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative disorder of the nervous system associated with progressive weakness.

QUALITY OF EVIDENCE
PubMed and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched using the MeSH headings "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis," "therapy," "epidemiology," and "etiology." Articles containing the best available evidence were reviewed. Most provided level II and III evidence. There were some level I drug trials.

MAIN MESSAGE
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is associated with progressive dysarthria, dysphagia, and weakness in the extremities. Diagnosis is based on physical examination, electrophysiology, and excluding other confounding conditions. There is no cure for this devastating disorder. Certain treatments, however, can improve survival and quality of life.

CONCLUSION
Because ALS is a complex disease, care of ALS patients is best provided at multidisciplinary clinics that specialize in managing patients with this disorder.


The effects of internal manifold designs on the reactants feed-stream in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells [PEFCs] is studied to figure out flow and thermal distribution patterns over an entire fuel cell stack. Reactants flows are modeled either laminar of turbulent depending on regions and the open channels in the bipolar plates are simulated by porous media where permeability should be pre-deter-mined for computational analysis. In this work, numerical models for reactants feed-stream In the PEFC manifolds are classified Into two major flow patterns: Z-shape and U-shape. Several types of manifold geometries are analyzed to find the optimal manifold configurations. The effect of heat generation in PEFC on the flow distribution is also Investigated applying a simplified heat transfer model in the stack level (i.e. multi-cell electrochemical power-generation unit). This modeling technique Is well suited for many large scale problems and this scheme can be used not only to account for the manifold flow pattern but also to obtain Information on the optimal design and operation of PEFC systems.


Problem statement: In speech communication, noises from surrounding environments
affect the communication quality with various aspects. The received speech quality should be analyzed
to see how the important noises reduce the speech quality so that we can eliminate them in an
appropriate way. Approach: This study presents a study on the analysis of the noise effects on Thai
speech. Four kinds of noises; air conditioner, car, factory and train, are chosen to be simulated in the
study. The various levels of signal-to-noise ratios are conducted. The root mean square error between
the fundamental frequency contours of the corrupted speech and the clean speech is calculated. Finally,
the analysis of the root mean square error in terms of comparisons among genders, the four kinds of
noises and various levels of signal-to-noise ratios is performed. Results: In the experiments, 400
speech utterances of male and female are used as speech materials. The average values of root mean
square error are calculated. The results show that the fundamental frequency contour of female speech
is affected more than that of male speech. Comparing among four kinds of noises, the car noise has the
highest influence, while the factory noise has the lowest influence. Moreover, the root mean square
error is inversely proportional to the level of signal-to-noise ratio. Conclusion: From the finding, the
noises from surrounding environments have affected the speech quality of fundamental frequency
contour. This study is the preliminary knowledge to enhance the speech quality for further works such
as speech synthesis systems or other speech processing technologies.


This paper presents an overview of research efforts focused on computer simulations of unique mechanical properties exhibited by graphene nanoribbons, narrow graphene ribbons with widths lower than 100 nm (typically < 10 nm). A particular attention is devoted to the edge, size and chirality effects on the Young modulus, fracture stress (strength) and strain of graphene nanoribbons. Also, fracture mechanisms are discussed which, according to computer simula- tions, effectively operate in graphene nanoribbons.


AIM
To examine variation in positive and negative subjective effects to alcohol, tobacco and marijuana and covariation between these three drugs and each effect.

DESIGN
Retrospective self-reports of subjective effects were collected to estimate the genetic and environmental influences and the extent of their specificity across three drugs.

PARTICIPANTS
Data were drawn from 1299 adolescent and young adult same- and opposite sex twin- and sibling-pairs participating in the Colorado Center for Antisocial Drug Dependence (CADD).

SETTING
A large, collaborative, longitudinal study of substance use and antisocial behavior in community and clinical adolescents.

MEASUREMENT
  Subjective effects were assessed using a 13-item questionnaire that included positive and negative responses to alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.

FINDINGS
Heritable influences contributed moderately (additive genetic effects 16-56%) to positive and negative subjective effects to all three drugs and did not differ for males and females. Genetic and environmental contributions to positive and negative subjective effects are largely non-overlapping for tobacco and marijuana. Multivariate genetic modeling indicated that subjective effects to alcohol, tobacco and marijuana share a common, heritable etiology and that drug-specific genetic influences were an important contributor to individual differences in drug response.

CONCLUSIONS
  Results from our genetic analyses suggest that subjective effects to these commonly used and misused drugs are heritable and that the genetic and environmental influences on effects to one drug also influence subjective effects to other drugs.


The present study aims to evaluate the antifungal activity of Amygdalus eburnea Spach. (Rosaceae family) extracts against some fungi strains. Antifungal effects of A. eburnea were performed using Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) methods on Aspergillus flavus (ATTCC 15546) and Candida albican (ATCC 10321). Both aqueous and menthanolic extract of A. eburnea at all concentration demonstrated fungistatic activity against the tested fungi from week to potent with the MIC ranging from 5.33 to 9.33 mg/mL and 7.3 to 13.33 mg/mL, respectively. To conclude, the obtained findings demonstrated that A. eburnean extracts were found to be more active against some pathogenic fungi strains and thus provided the evidence for its traditional use value and it is suitable substitute for treatment of fungi infections.


The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (or OEIS) is a database of some 130000 number sequences. It is freely available on the Web (http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/) and is widely used.

There are several ways in which it benefits research: 1 It serves as a dictionary, to tell the user what is known about a particular sequence. There are hundreds of papers which thank the OEIS for assistance in this way.
 1 The associated Sequence Fans mailing list is a worldwide network which has evolved into a powerful machine for tackling new problems.
 1 As a direct source of new theorems, when a sequence arises in two different contexts.
 1 As a source of new research, when one sees a sequence in the OEIS that cries out to be analyzed.

The 40-year history of the OEIS recapitulates the story of modern computing, from punched cards to the internet.

The talk will be illustrated with numerous examples, emphasizing new sequences that have arrived in the past few months. Many open problems will be mentioned.

Because of the profusion of books and journals, volunteers play an important role in maintaining the database. If you come across an interesting number sequence in a book, journal or web site, please send it and the reference to the OEIS. (You do not need to be the author of the sequence to do this.) There is a web site for sending in "Comments" or "New sequences".

Several new features have been added to the OEIS in the past year. Thanks to the work of Russ Cox, searches are now performed at high speed, and thanks to the work of Debby Swayne, there is a button which displays plots of each sequence. Finally, a "listen" button enables one to hear the sequence played on a musical instrument (try Recamaan's sequence A005132!).


To implement optimization for mechanical concepts acquired by function analysis more effectively, BP neural network is adopted to structure multilevel evaluation model, which capitalizes on the features of nonlinearity, self-organization, and fault tolerance of neural network. By using appropriate data sets to train the neural network, expertise is acquired and expressed using a trained weight and threshold matrix. Once evaluation objectives of each candidate are fuzzily quantified, converted into evaluation attribute value, and fed into the trained network model, the optimal concept can be obtained. During the process, neural network is used to solve the bottle-neck problem of knowledge acquisition and expression and can be viewed as knowledge base and reasoning engine for the optimization. Hence the proposed evaluation model can effectively deal with concept evaluation and optimization problem with multilevel objective system.


Agricultural activities are potential sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is one of the most important non-carbon-dioxide GHGs. Perennial legumes such as alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) have potential roles for reduction of soil GHG emissions as part of crop rotation systems. However, the implications of perennial legume termination by tillage and subsequent soil incorporation of the residues for reduced GHG emissions have been poorly examined in Mediterranean environments. With the aim to assess the magnitude of soil N 2 O emissions (important for the definition of mitigation strategies) after perennial legume termination in alfalfa-wheat crop rotation systems in a Mediterranean environment, we defined the hypothesis that alfalfa termination by tillage with incorporation of the crop residues will increase soil N 2 O emissions during the subsequent wheat season. To test this hypothesis, closed static chambers were used in a field–plot experiment, using a complete randomised block design with three replicates. Soil N 2 O emissions were monitored across 33 sampling dates from October 2017 to July 2018, as a comparison between an original 6-year-old alfalfa field ('con-tinuous alfalfa') and alfalfa termination followed by wheat ('alfal-fa+wheat'). The soil N 2 O emission fluxes varied markedly across the treatments and throughout the monitoring period (from – 0.02±0.01 to 0.53±0.14 g N-N 2 O ha –1 h –1 , and from 0.02±0.07 to 0.37±0.11 g N-N 2 O ha –1 h –1 for continuous alfalfa and alfalfa+wheat, respectively), generally following the changes in soil temperature. Several soil N 2 O emission peaks were recorded for both treatments, which mainly coincided with rainfall and with increased soil water content. In the 2 months following alfalfa termination, alfalfa+wheat showed higher cumulative weekly soil N 2 O emissions compared to continuous alfalfa. Following alfalfa termination for alfalfa+wheat, the increased cumulative weekly soil N 2 O emissions appeared to be due to asynchrony between nitrogen (N) released into the soil from mineralisation of the alfalfa residues and N uptake by the wheat. Despite these initial high soil N 2 O emissions for alfalfa+wheat, the seasonal cumulative soil N 2 O emissions were not significantly different (0.77±0.09 vs 0.85±0.18 kg N-N 2 O ha –1 for continuous alfalfa and alfalfa+wheat, respectively). These data suggest that legume perennial crop termination in alfalfa–wheat rotation systems does not lead to significant loss of N 2 O from the soil. The alfalfa termination by tillage performed in autumn might, on the one hand, have slowed the mineralisation process, and might, on the other hand, have synchronised the N release by the mineralised crop residues, with the N uptake by the wheat reducing the soil N 2 O emissions.


Power semiconductor devices find wide application in modern power electronic converters. Protection of these devices against overload/short circuit conditions is of paramount importance. Present day protection topologies employing different circuits have invariably one main drawback in that the fault current reaches the set value before action is initiated to trip the system. This poses a severe stress on the device. Hence an adequate safety margin has to be necessarily provided to prevent excessive device stresses and care has to be taken to see that the device is operated well within its safe operating areas. The present paper proposes a method wherein the slope or rate of rise of the fault current is detected and once the slope exceeds the set reference, action is initiated to trip the system much before the fault current reaches dangerous levels. The method provides a fast means of detection of overload and short circuit currents and can be conveniently adopted for the protection of devices in power transistor/IGBT based inverters against short circuited load conditions or shoot through faults. The possible reduction of stresses in the power devices are also highlighted. >


serum ALP was extremely low (20 U/L, normal range of 70 U/L). Further diagnostic testing was performed which determined that the infant had a heterozygous 1559delT mutation. Based on these findings, we suggest that ALP assay of a chorionic villi sample is strongly recommended in order to obtain more confident diagnosis of this lethal skeletal dysplasia when poorly ossified facial bone detected during the first trimester ultrasound examination.


: Reaction time (RT) and the number of correct estimations of time microintervals (10 and 180 ms) between two visual stimuli were recorded in healthy subjects. It has been shown that 10 ms interval is better estimated when the stimuli are presented in the right visual field, i.e. when they are addressed directly to the left hemisphere. At the same time the number of correct estimations of 180 ms interval is greater and their RT is less when the stimuli are addressed directly to the right hemisphere. This points to different hemispheric mechanisms of time microintervals estimation. Study of the influence of different forms of verbal reinforcement on this learning has shown that after positive reinforcement (the word "good") the number of correct estimations is on average by 10% greater than after negative reinforcement (the word "error"). This may be connected with such processes as isolation and identification of erroneous reaction.


The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) is a mission proposed for the 25th solar maximum by the Chinese solar community. The scientific objectives are to study the relationships between the solar magnetic field, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Three payloads are deployed: the Full-disk vector MagnetoGraph (FMG), the Lyman-α Solar Telescope (LST) and the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI). ASO-S will perform the first simultaneous observations of the photospheric vector magnetic field, non-thermal imaging of solar flares, and the initiation and early propagation of CMEs on a single platform. ASO-S is scheduled to be launched into a 720 km Sun-synchronous orbit in 2022. This paper presents an overview of the mission till the end of Phase-B and the beginning of Phase-C.


In this paper, we aim to develop a unified view of causal and non-causal feature selection methods. The unified view will fill in the gap in the research of the relation between the two types of methods. Based on the Bayesian network framework and information theory, we first show that causal and non-causal feature selection methods share the same objective. That is to find the Markov blanket of a class attribute, the theoretically optimal feature set for classification. We then examine the assumptions made by causal and non-causal feature selection methods when searching for the optimal feature set, and unify the assumptions by mapping them to the restrictions on the structure of the Bayesian network model of the studied problem. We further analyze in detail how the structural assumptions lead to the different levels of approximations employed by the methods in their search, which then result in the approximations in the feature sets found by the methods with respect to the optimal feature set. With the unified view, we are able to interpret the output of non-causal methods from a causal perspective and derive the error bounds of both types of methods. Finally, we present practical understanding of the relation between causal and non-causal methods using extensive experiments with synthetic data and various types of real-word data.


This paper considers an innovative model of continuing professional development in addressing the needs of children with literacy difficulties, namely the Special Educational Needs Continuing Professional Development Literacy Project. Stranmillis University College, in partnership with St Mary's University College, Belfast secured £4.06 million over 3 years to enable primary school teachers in Northern Ireland to participate in an online course held in their own school, and for two teachers from each school to attend specialist face-to-face seminars taught at Master's level. One teacher from each school had the opportunity to complete two Master's modules and to be assessed for the award of Approved Teacher Status from the British Dyslexia Association. This project is one of the largest professional development projects to be undertaken in Northern Ireland. The project is aligned to two key Department strategies: one is to address the provision for special educational needs in mainstream schools within an inclusive school environment, and the second is to improve outcomes in literacy; a key focus is on early identification of individual needs and appropriately matched intervention. This paper discusses the design and delivery of this continuing professional development programme using this novel integrated model. It considers how this model has facilitated stronger theory-practice links among practitioners leading to increased confidence and competence in meeting the needs of children with literacy difficulties.


This paper evaluates the accuracy and efficiency of collection-specific texture features for Content-Based Image Retrieval. Independent Component Analysis is used to extract Independent Component Filters (ICF) from an image set. As these ICF are learned from the image set, the hypothesis is that they should provide texture features that are more effective than those extracted using generic filter banks. We describe a method for extracting candidate ICF from an image set, and choosing a representative subset from them. These are then used to extract image features. A simple CBIR system has been developed to evaluate the performance of these features on two standard texture image collections, compared with features extracted using multiple banks of Gabor filters. The results indicate that ICF-based features perform better than Gabor-based features, even when a much smaller number of ICF features is used than Gabor features. The ICF features are thus more accurate, and more efficient.


Resource allocation is a fundamental problem in connection-oriented networks. A preemption mechanism would provide available and reliable services to new connections with higher priority by tearing down existing connections of lower priority. However, end users of the existing connections that are preempted will suffer service disruptions. The duration spent and the work done for these connections are wasted, leading to lower useful utilization of the overall network resources. Soft preemption can alleviate this by rerouting a connection that is about to be preempted before actually tearing it down so that the interruption of ongoing service can be avoided. In this paper, we focus on minimizing the service disruptions caused as a result of preemption by proposing algorithms that incorporate the soft preemption feature. A centralized algorithm is developed to select the network links that have a high number of reroutable connections in order to minimize service disruptions. For feasible deployment, a decentralized preemption algorithm that uses local information is subsequently proposed. Simulation results indicate that these approaches not only reduce the service disruption but also lead to higher network throughput than what can be achieved by existing preemption algorithms.


ABSTRACT By different approaches, we characterized the birnavirus blotched snakehead virus (BSNV). The sequence of genomic segment A revealed the presence of two open reading frames (ORFs): a large ORF with a 3,207-bp-long nucleotide sequence and a 417-nucleotide-long small ORF located within the N-terminal half of the large ORF, but in a different reading frame. The large ORF was found to encode a polyprotein cotranslationally processed by the viral protease VP4 to generate pVP2 (the VP2 precursor), a 71-amino-acid-long peptide ([X]), VP4, and VP3. The two cleavage sites at the [X]-VP4 and VP4-VP3 junctions were identified by N-terminal sequencing. We showed that the processing of pVP2 generated VP2 and several small peptides (amino acids [aa] 418 to 460, 461 to 467, 468 to 474, and 475 to 486). Two of these peptides (aa 418 to 460 and 475 to 486) were positively identified in the viral particles with 10 additional peptides derived from further processing of the peptide aa 418 to 460. The results suggest that VP4 cleaves multiple Pro-X-Ala↓Ala motifs, with the notable exception of the VP4-VP3 junction. Replacement of the members of the predicted VP4 catalytic dyad (Ser-692 and Lys-729) confirmed their indispensability in the polyprotein processing. The genomic segment B sequence revealed a single large ORF encoding a putative polymerase, VP1. Our results demonstrate that BSNV should be considered a new aquatic birnavirus species, slightly more related to IBDV than to IPNV.


The earthquake ( M w 7) that struck western Calabria (southern Italy) on 8 September 1905 profoundly struck a broad region, causing 557 deaths, injuring more than 2000 people, and leaving about 300,000 people homeless. Historical documents also reported a tsunami, although not devastating, for which effects were observed both along the coast and offshore. For all the damage it caused, this event was much studied but not fully explained. Literature source models for the 1905 earthquake are numerous and diverse, in fault geometry, location, and even associated magnitude. They also differ in nature, because these solutions are either field-based or derived from tsunami modeling and macroseismic data inversion. Above all, few or none of the previously published source models appear to be fully compatible with the damage pattern caused by this earthquake. To contribute to the identification of the seismogenic source of this destructive event, we computed a series of ground-shaking scenarios based on the different fault-source models that various authors associated with this event. The only documented data available that are suitable for our comparative purposes are the macroseismic intensities associated with localities affected by the event. Our results show that shaking scenarios for two out of seven literature source models are compatible with the damage distribution caused by the 1905 earthquake. The different parameters and boundary conditions constraining these two solutions suggest that either seismogenic source should include further complexities. Alternatively, because these two sources are antithetic and partially form a graben, they might have kinematically in-teracted, if passively, on 8 September 1905. Also, our critical analysis attempts to take site effects into account, at least qualitatively, allowing a more robust evaluation of damage distribution against numerical models.


People can learn rich, general-purpose conceptual representations from only raw perceptual inputs. Current machine learning approaches fall well short of these human standards, although different modeling traditions often have complementary strengths. Symbolic models can capture the compositional and causal knowledge that enables flexible generalization, but they struggle to learn from raw inputs, relying on strong abstractions and simplifying assumptions. Neural network models can learn directly from raw data, but they struggle to capture compositional and causal structure and typically must retrain to tackle new tasks. We bring together these two traditions to learn generative models of concepts that capture rich compositional and causal structure, while learning from raw data. We develop a generative neuro-symbolic (GNS) model of handwritten character concepts that uses the control flow of a probabilistic program, coupled with symbolic stroke primitives and a symbolic image renderer, to represent the causal and compositional processes by which characters are formed. The distributions of parts (strokes), and correlations between parts, are modeled with neural network subroutines, allowing the model to learn directly from raw data and express nonparametric statistical relationships. We apply our model to the Omniglot challenge of human-level concept learning, using a background set of alphabets to learn an expressive prior distribution over character drawings. In a subsequent evaluation, our GNS model uses probabilistic inference to learn rich conceptual representations from a single training image that generalize to 4 unique tasks, succeeding where previous work has fallen short.


Valorization of lignocellulose (nonedible plant matter) is of key interest for the sustainable production of chemicals from renewable resources. Lignin, one of the main constituents of lignocellulose, is a heterogeneous aromatic biopolymer that can be chemically depolymerized into a heterogeneous mixture of aromatic building blocks; those can be further converted by certain microbes into value-added aromatic chemicals, e.g., the flavoring agent vanillin. We previously isolated a Pseudomonas sp. strain with the (for the genus) unusual trait of vanillyl alcohol production during growth on vanillin. Whole-genome sequencing of the isolate led to the identification of a vanillin reductase candidate gene whose deletion in a recombinant vanillin-accumulating P. putida strain almost completely alleviated the undesired vanillyl alcohol by-product yield. These results represent an important step toward biotechnological production of vanillin from lignin using bacterial cell factories. ABSTRACT Microbial degradation of lignin and its related aromatic compounds has great potential for the sustainable production of chemicals and bioremediation of contaminated soils. We previously isolated Pseudomonas sp. strain 9.1 from historical waste deposits (forming so-called fiber banks) released from pulp and paper mills along the Baltic Sea coast. The strain accumulated vanillyl alcohol during growth on vanillin, and while reported in other microbes, this phenotype is less common in wild-type pseudomonads. As the reduction of vanillin to vanillyl alcohol is an undesired trait in Pseudomonas strains engineered to accumulate vanillin, connecting the strain 9.1 phenotype with a genotype would increase the fundamental understanding and genetic engineering potential of microbial vanillin metabolism. The genome of Pseudomonas sp. 9.1 was sequenced and assembled. Annotation identified oxidoreductases with homology to Saccharomyces cerevisiae alcohol dehydrogenase ScADH6p, known to reduce vanillin to vanillyl alcohol, in both the 9.1 genome and the model strain Pseudomonas putida KT2440. Recombinant expression of the Pseudomonas sp. 9.1 FEZ21_09870 and P. putida KT2440 PP_2426 (calA) genes in Escherichia coli revealed that these open reading frames encode aldehyde reductases that convert vanillin to vanillyl alcohol, and that P. putida KT2440 PP_3839 encodes a coniferyl alcohol dehydrogenase that oxidizes coniferyl alcohol to coniferyl aldehyde (i.e., the function previously assigned to calA). The deletion of PP_2426 in P. putida GN442 engineered to accumulate vanillin resulted in a decrease in by-product (vanillyl alcohol) yield from 17% to ∼1%. Based on these results, we propose the reannotation of PP_2426 and FEZ21_09870 as areA and PP_3839 as calA-II. IMPORTANCE Valorization of lignocellulose (nonedible plant matter) is of key interest for the sustainable production of chemicals from renewable resources. Lignin, one of the main constituents of lignocellulose, is a heterogeneous aromatic biopolymer that can be chemically depolymerized into a heterogeneous mixture of aromatic building blocks; those can be further converted by certain microbes into value-added aromatic chemicals, e.g., the flavoring agent vanillin. We previously isolated a Pseudomonas sp. strain with the (for the genus) unusual trait of vanillyl alcohol production during growth on vanillin. Whole-genome sequencing of the isolate led to the identification of a vanillin reductase candidate gene whose deletion in a recombinant vanillin-accumulating P. putida strain almost completely alleviated the undesired vanillyl alcohol by-product yield. These results represent an important step toward biotechnological production of vanillin from lignin using bacterial cell factories.


We present a new algorithm for inferring the home location of Twitter users at different granularities, including city, state, time zone, or geographic region, using the content of users' tweets and their tweeting behavior. Unlike existing approaches, our algorithm uses an ensemble of statistical and heuristic classifiers to predict locations and makes use of a geographic gazetteer dictionary to identify place-name entities. We find that a hierarchical classification approach, where time zone, state, or geographic region is predicted first and city is predicted next, can improve prediction accuracy. We have also analyzed movement variations of Twitter users, built a classifier to predict whether a user was travelling in a certain period of time, and use that to further improve the location detection accuracy. Experimental evidence suggests that our algorithm works well in practice and outperforms the best existing algorithms for predicting the home location of Twitter users.


The interference between two optical fields with nonzero spectral linewidths forms multiple moving space-charge fields inside photoconductive semiconductors that contain deep-level donors and traps. The dc components of the photocurrents generated can be expressed in terms of a convolution of a function that is characteristic of the crystal and the signal optical power spectrum when the other optical field (local oscillator) has a negligible linewidth. This permits the recovery of the optical signal power spectrum.


In Part I [5], we proposed an approach to formally describe and compare functional languages implementations. We focused on call-by-value and described well-known compilers for strict languages. Here, we complete our exploration of the design space of implementations by studying call-by-name, call-by-need and graph reduction. We express the whole compilation process as a succession of program transformations in a common framework. At each step, different transformations model fundamental choices or optimizations. We describe and compare the diverse alternatives for the compilation of the call-by-name strategy in both environment and graph-based models. The different options for the compilation of beta-reduction described in [5] can be applied here as well. Instead, we describe other possibilities specific to graph reduction. Call-by-need is nothing but call-by-name with redex sharing and update. We present how sharing can be expressed in our framework and we describe different update schemes. We finally classify some well-known call-by-need implementations.


Southern pine particleboard, bonded with urea and phenolic-formaldehyde resins, manufactured for modular home decks was evaluated for the effect of weathering on its mechanical behavior. Aging reduced the static bending. internal bond, and hardness more for urea than for phenolic-bonded particleboard. The reduction in tension and compression strength in the plane of the board due to weathering was not as severe as observed for static bending properties. Load-carrying stiffness was also reduced by all weathering treatments. All weathered boards failed to meet the minimum requirement of concentrated-load capacity for this material.


Summary

In this diary study, we investigated multi-level predictors of daily counterproductive work behavior (CWB) relying on the theoretical frameworks of affective events theory and the emotion-centered model of CWB. We assessed significant work events, event-based fairness perceptions, negative emotional reactions to work events, and employee CWB over a 10-day period. We tested within-person relations predicting CWB, and cross-level moderating effects of two emotion regulation strategies (suppression and reappraisal). Results from a multi-level path analysis revealed that significant work events had both direct and indirect effects on negative emotional reactions. Further, negative emotional reactions in turn mediated the relationships between significant work events and all forms of daily CWB as well as the relationship between event-based fairness perceptions and daily CWB-O. Results also supported the moderating role of reappraisal emotion regulation strategy on relations between significant work events and negative emotional reactions. Less support, however, was found for the moderating influence of suppression on the link between negative emotional reactions and CWB. Among the broad work event categories we identified, our supplemental analyses revealed that negative work events involving interactions with supervisors elicited the highest levels of employee negative emotional reactions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


— This article presents a voltage-mode universal biquadratic filter performing simultaneous 3 standard functions: lowpass, high-pass and band-pass functions, employing differential different current conveyor (DDCC) and current controlled current conveyor (CCCII) as active element. The features of the circuit are that: the quality factor and pole frequency can be tuned independently via the input bias currents: the circuit description is very simple, consisting of 1 DDCC, 2 CCCIIs, 2 electronic resistors and 2 grounded capacitors. Without requiring component matching conditions, the proposed circuit is very appropriate to further develop into an integrated circuit. The PSPICE simulation results are depicted. The given results agree well with the theoretical anticipation.


Multiresponse semiparametric regression model is a combination of parametric regression model and nonparametric regression model with response variables more than one and correlate. The estimate used in estimate the parameters is spline truncated. Excess spline truncated is a model that has excellent statistical and visual interpretation and can model data with changing patterns on certain sub-intervals, because spline is a kind of polynomial pieces. The data used in this study is the value of Computer Based National Examination (CBNE) Vocational High School (VHS) in the province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) in 2017, each subject tested on CBNE serve as response variables. Based on the significant correlation test results obtained p-value <0.05 so it can be concluded that there is correlation between the responses. The result of the multiresponse semiparametric regression model estimation is obtained by the best model with the value of MSE of 49,608; R2 of 0.84 and minimum GCV value of 0.00000323 so it can be concluded that the value of CBNE VHS in NTB province satisfies goodness of fit criterions.


We take advantage of the site-selective nature of the ^{75}As and ^{63}Cu NMR techniques to probe the Cu substitution effects on the local magnetic properties of the FeAs planes in Ba(Fe_{1-x}Cu_{x})_{2}As_{2}. We show that the suppression of antiferromagnetic Fe spin fluctuations induced by Cu substitution is weaker than a naive expectation based on a simple rigid band picture, in which each Cu atom would donate three electrons to the FeAs planes. Comparison between ^{63}Cu and ^{75}As NMR data indicates that spin fluctuations are suppressed at the Cu and their neighboring Fe sites in the tetragonal phase, suggesting the strongly local nature of the Cu substitution effects. We attribute the absence of a large superconducting dome in the phase diagram of Ba(Fe_{1-x}Cu_{x})_{2}As_{2} to the emergence of a nearly magnetically ordered FeAs plane under the presence of orthorhombic distortion.


Complete removal of endodontic obturation materials and remnant from the root canal is the key to Endodontic retreatment success however no single method has shown to achieve this purpose so far. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasonic activation solvent as final irrigant in removal of residual obturation materials during endodontic retreatment procedure using protaper universal retreatment system. Using digital microscope and Scanning electron microscope SEM. forty lower premolars were selected and divided into five groups of 8 one control group without solvent the other groups were divided according to the solvent and the ultrasonic activation G1: without solvent, G2 orange oil without ultrasonic activation, G3 orange oil with ultrasonic activation, G4 chloroform without ultrasonic activation, G5 chloroform with ultrasonic activation. After retreatment the roots were split and examined under digital microscope for residual obturation materials then 3 samples of each group is examined under SEM for observation. The result showed significant difference between G4 and G5 compared to G1 and G2. Conclusion no method show complete removal of obturation materials however the use of solvent and ultrasonic activation enhance the removal of residual obturation materials.


Atrocity crimes rage today in Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Burundi, and Yemen. Given their potential to establish facts and promote accountability, recently opened United Nations investigations of international law violations in each of these states are thus a welcome, even if belated, development. However, these initiatives prompt questions about their designs, both in isolation and relative to each other.
This article describes the investigations into alleged violations in these five states, examines their respective sponsors and scopes, and presents a wide range of questions about the investigations and their implications, including their coordination with each other and their use of evidence in domestic, foreign, hybrid, and international courts (such as the International Criminal Court). The article concludes that, while seeking accountability for international law violations is certainly laudatory, these particular investigations raise significant questions about achieving that goal amidst rampant human rights abuses in these five states and beyond. International lawyers, atrocity crime survivors, and other observers thus await answers before assessing whether these investigations will truly promote justice.