This paper draws attention to Foucault's genealogy of critique. In a series of inquiries, Foucault traced the origins and trajectories of critical practices from the ancient tradition of parrhesia to the enlightenment and the (neo)liberal critique of the state. The paper will elucidate the insights of this history and argue that Foucault's turn to the genealogy of critique also changed the valence of his theoretical assumptions. Foucault developed a more affirmative practice of genealogy that not only discredits truth claims by tracing them back to their inglorious origins. Rather, he presents a politics of truth as a complex interaction of (governmental) power-knowledge and critique that questions the power effects of truth and rationality. This genealogy of critique contributes to current problematizations of critique by thinkers like Boltanski, Latour and Rancière in highlighting the role of epistemological and technical critique of social rationalization and political reason.


In recent years convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been successfully applied to various applications that are appropriate for deep learning, from image and video processing to speech recognition. The advancements in both hardware (e.g. more powerful GPUs) and software (e.g. deep learning models, open-source frameworks and supporting libraries) have significantly improved the accuracy and training time of CNNs. However, the high speed and accuracy are at the cost of energy consumption, which has been largely ignored in previous CNN design. With the size of data sets grows exponentially, the energy demand for training such data sets increases rapidly. It is highly desirable to design deep learning frameworks and algorithms that are both accurate and energy efficient. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study on the power behavior and energy efficiency of numerous well-known CNNs and training frameworks on CPUs and GPUs, and we provide a detailed workload characterization to facilitate the design of energy efficient deep learning solutions.


Background Tocilizumab (TCZ), a receptor inhibitor of IL-6, has proven effective in patients with active RA refractory to synthetic DMARDs (modifying antirheumatic drug Disease) and anti-TNF (TNF antagonists). Objectives The study purpose was to evaluate whether a shorter infusion of tocilizumab (TCZ) time would be as safe and tolerable as the schedule suggested by the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) recommendation (1 hour), by comparing 8 mg/kg (6 infusions every 4 weeks during 24 weeks) in a fast infusion time of 31 minutes (FA) vs. 1 hour (normal administration, NA) Methods Open-label, randomized, parallel-group, multicenter pilot study in patients with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). 80 patients were include,40 on each treatment arm.Primary endpoint was incidence of infusion reactions (IR)and secondary endpoints included assessment after 24 weeks of the incidence of adverse events, EULAR response, ACR response (20%, 50% and 70%), and HAQ. Statistical analysis was performed with SAS v8, and included Student's t-test for numerical variables and Chi-Squared test for categorical data, all with a two-sided alpha error of 0.05, although study was not powered for that. Results Out of 76 patients, 20 presented at least one IR (26.3%), none of them leading to withdrawal (22 IRs in 20.5% of FA patients vs. 24 IRs in 32.4% of NA patients), 1 patient received antihypertensive treatment before and during 1 infusion. There were not significant differences in the AEs incidence (66.7% FA vs. 81.1% NA). Four serious AEs were reported (2 per group: 5.1% FA vs. 5.4% NA): hepatitis and infection (FA), abdominal pain and Crohn's disease (NA); with only the hepatitis episode probably related to the study medication. One patient withdrew from the study because of an adverse event (thrombocytopenia of moderate intensity, probably related to the study medication). Secondary efficacy analyses included after 24 weeks 91.5% of patients achieving EULAR response (71.2% good response and 20.3% moderate response); 61.0% remission (DAS28<2.6) and 72.9% low score disease activity (DAS28<3.2); 76.8% ACR20, 63.8% ACR50, 47.8% ACR70, and 65.2% of patients with improvement of at least 0.22 units in the HAQ questionnaire Conclusions Faster administration of tocilizumab in 31 min did not show any significant differences compared to the current recommended administration time with regards to any adverse event or any infusion reaction). The safety profile of a faster administration of tocilizumab was consistent with the results of clinical studies where a 60 minutes administration procedure was recommended. However, additional studies are necessary to confirm these results which on the other hand did not differ from those reported in similar open label trials. Disclosure of Interest M. Alperi: None Declared, M. Belmonte-Serrano: None Declared, P. Lluch: None Declared, P. Trenor: None Declared, J. Calvo-Alen: None Declared, E. García-Fernández: None Declared, A. Olivé: None Declared, J. Tinture: None Declared, A. Romero Employee of: Roche Employee


: From a series of 110 cases of surgically treated trigeminal neuralgia the author reports two cases in which impressio basilaris was the cause of neuralgia. One of these patients was operated on by the method of Frazier-Spiller, the other by Dandy's method in a microsurgical modification. These two methods gave the author an opportunity of comparing intraoperative findings in the middle and posterior cranial fossa. In the middle cranial fossa besides deformity of the base of the skull thinning was found of the dura, flattening of Gasser's ganglion and the postganglionic fibres of the trigeminal nerve were taut on the edge of the pyramid. In the posterior fossa the pontocerebellar angle was crowded despite removal of some cerebrospinal fluid. The postganglionic fibres of the trigeminal nerve were closely adherent to the pons and were visible on a small distance from the tentorium to the pons. In both cases postganglionic rhizotomy was done and the patients were relieved from pain.


Association rule mining is the process of finding some relations among the attributes/attribute values of huge database based on support value. Most existing association mining techniques are developed to generate frequent rules based on frequent itemsets generated on market basket datasets. A common property of these techniques is that they extract frequent itemsets and prune the infrequent itemsets. However, such infrequent or rare itemsets and consequently the rare rules may provide valuable information. So, many applications demand to mine such rare association rules which have low support but higher confidence. This paper presents a method to generate both frequent and rare itemsets and consequently the rules. The effectiveness of the rules has been validated over several real life datasets.


The central feature of prion disease is the conversion of normal host-encoded cellular prion protein, PrPc, to an abnormal isoform, PrP. PrP80 appears to be the principal, if not the sole, component of infectious prions. Prion strain diversity seems to be encoded within PrP itself through a combination of PrP conformation, glycosylation and possibly other, as yet, unidentified post-translational modifications. Efficient purification of PrP will facilitate detailed chemical characterisation and investigation of conformations or assembly states required for prion infectivity. Purification of denatured PrP has been achieved through enrichment from brain homogenate using selective precipitation followed by chemical and thermal denaturation and isolation by immunoafTinity chromatography. These methods have isolated PrP from rodent prion strains with a yield of 50 % and purity of > 90 % of total protein and for the first time permit isolation of full length denatured PrPSc facilitating comprehensive structural analysis. Purified denatured PrP is expected to have all the covalent post-translational modifications that may be required for prion infectivity. In attempts to reconstitute prion infectivity, denatured PrP was refolded under different solvent conditions and assessed for changes in solubility, resistance to proteolytic digestion and infectivity in bioassay. Although distinct changes in the physicochemical properties of PrP were observed, to-date no evidence for reconstitution of prion infectivity has been found. In the course of these studies, it was discovered that Cu2f ions inhibit proteinase K activity and a detailed kinetic description of this inhibition was obtained. The lack of prion infectivity seen in refolded preparations of denatured PrP suggests a requirement for other as yet unidentified co-factors. The identity of PrP interacting proteins was investigated during the purification of PrP under differential extraction conditions in which prion infectivity was observed using an in vitro assay. Proteinase K digestion gave a change in prion infectivity implying that a correlation with the removal of a protease sensitive component occurred. Continuation of these studies may facilitate the identification of co-factors required for specific prion infectivity.


Developing approaches to integrating manufacturing applications is important for increasing manufactur ing productivity. A reactive scheduling system archit ecture has been developed that defines how to integrate scheduling technology with manufacturing shop floor applications. Prototype implementations based on this architecture have been built using a simulation of a shop floor instead of a real shop floor. A composite representation of commonly available simulator technology is used as a basis for describing the co mm n approach used for several prototype implementations .


Abstract In his libertarian manifesto, For a New Liberty, Murray Rothbard [15] points to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an excellent model for what a private welfare program would look like in a free society. In analyzing this same organization, we can see that nearly 50 years later Rothbard's analysis is truer than ever. Unlike the public welfare programs in the U.S., the LDS church has successfully helped lift countless individuals out of poverty and off the welfare rolls by increasing their level of productivity – a point that Henry Hazlitt [7] made in his book, The Conquest of Poverty. Public welfare, on the other hand, has continuously failed to increase the standard of living or even lift those it ostensibly seeks to help out of poverty; on the contrary, it is a system that prevents economic independence. The analysis in the present paper seeks to revive, amplify and bring up to date Rothbard's observation and provide further insight on key factors that other private organizations can take from the Church's model. Ultimately, it reveals that the successful journey out of poverty is not a public but rather a private endeavor.


Background: Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are known to play an important role in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis (AP). Activation of the complement cascade has been shown to occur in AP. The aim of this study was to examine whether complement component 3 is involved in the generation of NETs in AP. Methods: AP was induced in wild-type and C3-deficient mice by retrograde infusion of taurocholate into the pancreatic duct. Blood, lung, and pancreas tissue were collected and MPO activity was determined in lung and pancreas tissue. Histological examination of the inflamed pancreas was performed. Plasma levels of CXCL2, MMP-9, IL-6, and DNA-histone complexes as well as pancreatic levels of CXCL1 and CXCL2 were determined by use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. NETs were detected in the pancreas by electron microscopy. The amount of MPO and citrullinated histone 3 in neutrophils isolated from bone marrow was examined using flow cytometry. Results: In C3-deficient mice, challenge with taurocholate yielded much fewer NETs in the pancreatic tissue compared with wild-type controls. Taurocholate-induced blood levels of amylase, tissue injury, and neutrophil recruitment in the pancreas were markedly reduced in the mice lacking C3. Furthermore, MPO levels in the lung, and plasma levels of IL-6, MMP-9, and CXCL2 were significantly lower in the C3-deficient mice compared to wild-type mice after the induction of AP. In vitro studies revealed that neutrophils from C3-deficient mice had normal NET-forming ability and recombinant C3a was not capable of directly inducing NETs formation in the wild-type neutrophils. Conclusion: C3 plays an important role in the pathophysiology of AP as it is necessary for the recruitment of neutrophils into the pancreas and ensuring NETs formation. Targeting C3 could hence be a potential strategy to ameliorate local damage as well as remote organ dysfunction in AP.


Ferrous sulfate administered intragastrically to rats produced two types of intestinal lesions: corrosive injury to the stomach and upper part of the small intestine, and ileal infarcts associated with venous thrombosis in some animals given fatal doses. Iron was deposited at the interface of viable and necrotic mucosa and in blood vessels of all layers. By means of electron microscopy the iron deposits were located in the basement membrane of the vessels. Fatal doses were always associated with intestinal injury, although the time of death suggests that death was caused by absorption of iron rather than by the local injury.


When the majority of modern contract and consumer protection laws were written in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, consumers almost always acted as buyers, and businesses almost always acted as sellers. As a result, these laws reflect a model of strong sellers and weak buyers. But paradigms are shifting. Advances in technology and constraints on consumers' financial lives have pushed consumers into new roles. Consumers today often act as sellers — hawking gold to make ends meet, peddling durable goods on eBay, or offering services in the sharing economy to make a profit. Consumers and business models have changed, but the laws have not. This Article uncovers the new role that consumers play as sellers and argues that lawmakers should reform outdated laws to protect them.


Abstract The Skiddaw Group in the Cross Fell inlier comprises the Catterpallot Formation of latest Tremadoc or earliest Arenig age, the Murton Formation of Arenig age, and the Kirkland Formation of early Llanvirn age. Each of these formations can be correlated with formations in the Skiddaw Group of the Lake District. The faulted contact of the Catterpallot and Kirkland formations is the probable extension of the Causey Pike Fault (CPF), which separates two distinct sequences in the Skiddaw inlier of the northern Lake District. Contrasts across the CPF in the Cross Fell inlier reflect those seen in the Skiddaw inlier. The CPF is a major basement structure, separating markedly different successions in the Ordovician strata of northern England.


This paper presents validation methods for assessing the accuracy and precision of motion-sensing device (i.e. accelerometer) measurements. The main goals of this paper were to assess the accuracy and precision of these measurements against a gold standard, to determine if differences in manufacturing and assembly significantly affected device performance and to determine if measurement differences due to manufacturing and assembly could be corrected by applying certain post-processing techniques to the measurement data during analysis. In this paper, the validation of a posture and activity detector (PAD), a device containing a tri-axial accelerometer, is described. Validation of the PAD devices required the design of two test fixtures: a test fixture to position the device in a known orientation, and a test fixture to rotate the device at known velocities and accelerations. Device measurements were compared to these known orientations and accelerations. Several post-processing techniques were utilized in an attempt to reduce variability in the measurement error among the devices. In conclusion, some of the measurement errors due to the inevitable differences in manufacturing and assembly were significantly improved (p < 0.01) by these post-processing techniques.


A cholate-inducible, NADH-dependent flavin oxidoreductase from the intestinal bacterium Eubacterium sp. strain VPI 12708 was purified 372-fold to apparent electrophoretic homogeneity. The subunit and native molecular weights were estimated to be 72,000 and 210,000, respectively, suggesting a homotrimeric organization. Three peaks of NADH:flavin oxidoreductase activity (forms I, II, and III) eluted from a DEAE-high-performance liquid chromatography column. Absorption spectra revealed that purified form III, but not form I, contained bound flavin, which dissociated during purification to generate form I. Enzyme activity was inhibited by sulfhydryl-reactive compounds, acriflavine, o-phenanthroline, and EDTA. Activity assays and Western blot (immunoblot) analysis confirmed that expression of the enzyme was cholate inducible. The first 25 N-terminal amino acid residues of purified NADH:flavin oxidoreductase were determined, and a corresponding oligonucleotide probe was synthesized for use in cloning of the associated gene, baiH. Restriction mapping, sequence data, and RNA blot analysis suggested that the baiH gene was located on a previously described, cholate-inducible operon > or = 10 kb long. The baiH gene encoded a 72,006-Da polypeptide containing 661 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of the baiH gene was homologous to that of NADH oxidase from Thermoanaerobium brockii, trimethylamine dehydrogenase from methylotrophic bacterium W3A1, Old Yellow Enzyme from Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, and the product of the baiC gene of Eubacterium sp. strain VPI 12708, located upstream from the baiH gene in the cholate-inducible operon. Alignment of these five sequences revealed potential ligands for an iron-sulfur cluster, a putative flavin adenine dinucleotide-binding domain, and two other well-conserved domains of unknown function.


This paper deals with the design of jerk-limited time-optimal control sequences for rest-to-rest maneuvers of flexible structures. The resulting jerk profiles will be either bang-bang or bang-off-bang. To ensure quiescent states at the end of the maneuver, a pole cancellation technique will be used. Further constraints account for the geometric boundary conditions. This paper will also investigate the development of the control profile upon variation of the maximum allowable amount of jerk. The last section presents numerical results. The proposed control algorithm is implemented for the Floating Oscillator benchmark problem.


The Academy Pluton is located in the western Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Fresno, California (Fig. 1). It cuts the northern end of the Kings-Kaweah ophio-lite belt, which forms a 125-km-long northwest-trending zone of highly deformed mafic and ultramafic country rocks between the Kings and Tule Rivers of the foothills region (Saleeby, 1975, 1976a, 1976b). The Academy Pluton is one of a number of Jurassic and Early Cretaceous plutons which have intruded and metamorphosed the ophiolitic rocks; these crosscutting plutons form the western margin of the Sierra Nevada Batholith in the latitude of the Kings-Kaweah ophiolite belt. They range in composition from olivine-hornblende melagabbro to hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and many of then appear to have been preferentially emplaced into the structurally weakened zone provided by the disrupted ophiolite belt (Saleeby, 1975, 1976b). To the east, the main body of the Sierra Nevada Batholith is underlain primarily by more silicic middle to Late Cretaceous plutons which range in composition from granodiorite to granite. North of the Academy area, this compositional trend is found to exist all along the western Sierra Nevada foothills. The Guadalupe complex east of Merced (Best, 1963), the Pine Hill gabbro east of Sacramento (Springer, 1971), and the Bucks Lake Pluton (Hietanen, 1973) at the north end of the western metamorphic belt are representative of the more basic and older plutons comprising the western margin of the Sierra Nevada Batholith.

The Academy Pluton is one of the most complexly zoned plutons in the western sierra Nevada. The earliest reference to the pluton was by Macdonald (1941), who described the pluton as being composed of hypersthene-bearing quartz diorite. His map (1941, P1.1) showed an indefinite contact between hypersthene-bearing quartz diorite and surrounding pyroxene-free quartz diorite and tonalite. The present investigation has established that pyroxene-free quartz diorite and tonalite lying peripherally to the morth and east of Macdonald's contact is part of the Academy Pluton but tonalite South of the pluton cuts across the Academy structure and thus represents a later magmatic esisode. In preliminary studies, the senior author of this paper noted that there were at least three, and possibly four, ring-like zones comprising the pluton and that the innermost zone was composed of more basic rock than the outermost zones. The difficulty in explaining the gradational contacts and the apparent reversed zoning in the pluton prompted this study.


Objective: Pulmonary fibhrosis is a disease of the connective tissues in the respiratory system. Nigella sativa has been used for the treatment of pulmonary diseases like asthma. This study investigated the early and late preventive effect of methanolic extract of N. sativa on a bleomycin- induced pulmonary fibrosis model. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out using 52 rats. Pulmonary fibrosis was induced by a single endotracheal injection of bleomycin (5 mg/kg). Extract of N. sativa (500 mg/kg per day) or methylprednisolone succinate (4 mg/kg per day) was injected intraperitoneally in two periods (i.e. days 1-14 as early preventive group and days 15-28 days as late preventive group). The lung tissues were histologically examined at the end of each period and inspected for the amount of hydroxyproline and biomarkers of oxidative stress. Results: The pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis were significantly decreased in groups treated with methylprednisolone and N. sativa extract compared to bleomycin group in both early and late prevention groups (p<0.001). The hydroxyproline concentration in pulmonary tissue was significantly decreased in N. sativa and methylprednisolone groups compared to the bleomycin group in both prevention groups (p<0.001). Significant reductions in lipid peroxidation (p<0.001) and increases in catalase activity were also observed in N. sativa and methylprednisolone groups compared to bleomycin group. Conclusion: This study suggested that N. Sativa extract is effective for early and late prevention of pulmonary fibrosis and inflammation. However, more studies are needed to identify its anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic mechanisms in the respiratory system.


Since the introduction of the National Student Survey in 2005, it has been noted that the average satisfaction scores vary across different disciplines (see, for example, Vaughan and Yorke 2009, p.8). And for just as long, it has been noted that art and design graduates' satisfaction is among the lowest scoring disciplines. As the influence and reach of the NSS has increased - most recently in its inclusion as a key component of the government's Key Information Set initiative - the art and design community has become increasingly concerned to explain the satisfaction gap experienced by many students studying in this area.

The community's response is well articulated in the title of a study that explores this issue: "'I can't believe it's not better': The Paradox of NSS scores for Art & Design" (Vaughan and Yorke 2009). This study was commissioned by GLAD to look at how art and design has experienced and responded to the NSS, especially in the two major areas of feedback and assessment and organisation and management. The report showed that institutions varied considerably in terms of the ratings students gave to NSS questions, implying that there had been differential success in addressing aspects of the student experience probed by the survey. What the report did not attempt to do was gain an understanding of the basis of the ratings given by students.

It was therefore a logical extension to ask how art and design students understand and interpret the questions in the National Student Survey, and GLAD and HEA commissioned the authors to carry out a small research project which takes a snapshot of how a small group of art and design students interpreted the NSS questions in 2011.

This report is an overview of this study, and it aims to help colleagues in art and design subjects to:

• understand why art and design subjects receive the NSS ratings that they do;
• illuminate and understand how art and design students interpret and understand this generic questionnaire; and
• provide further information to assist staff and students to prepare for the NSS.

The key aim of this study is not to explain the responses that students give in the NSS. Its focus is instead on seeking to understand the ways in which students understand the NSS questions. As a result this is a qualitative interview-based study.

The NSS questionnaire comprises 22 questions, and before the interviews the researchers narrowed the focus of this study down to eight of these. The eight questions were selected because they were viewed as central to the survey (e.g. question 22), or because they were questions that are particularly interesting in relation to creative and studio-based pedagogy in art and design (e.g. question 1).


Steel strip surface oxidation during hot mill processing represents an industrial and environmental problem: secondary oxide is removed after roughing, but tertiary oxide scales already start to form before entering the finishing stands. Their properties affect the final steel surface quality and its response to further processing. Controlling the oxide layer growth kinetics and mechanical properties can make pickling easier and improve downstream behaviour. A thin wustite-dominated scale layer (<20 μm) is created under controlled conditions in an original laboratory device adequately positioned in a compression test machine to investigate plane strain compression. A first series of oxidation tests were performed on a ULC steel grade to measure the kinetics of oxide scale growth. The samples were first heated up under a protective atmosphere (nitrogen), before being oxidised in air at different temperatures for various oxidation times. These experiments can be considered fair quantitative and qualitative simulations of scale growth as it occurs in a hot strip mill, insofar as the results thus obtained are in good agreement with the literature. After the oxide growth, plane strain compression (PSC) was performed immediately to simulate the hot rolling process. The oxide layers were characterised before and after compression tests by optical and secondary electron microscopy. As expected, the oxide is seen to deform during compression. The obtained oxide layers exhibit good adhesion to the substrate and homogeneity over the thickness, even after compression.


This paper examines how the issue of collaboration was presented and dealt with in Soviet, Western and post-Soviet Russian and Belarusian writings. Furthermore the paper discusses the national, socioeconomic and political preconditions of collaboration with the German occupation forces in Belarus. The author highlights the relationship of collaboration with the prewar Soviet policies and analyses the politics of Belarusian nationalists and independentist émigrés from 1917 to 1941. The Nazi recruitment of Belarusian exiles of different military, political and intelligence organisations and the funding of Belarusian pro-German oriented right-wing organisations are described. The reactions of the Belarusian civilian population and its attitudes vis-à-vis the German occupation authorities and Soviet partisans at the initial stage of the war are then discussed. The paper underlines the complexity of motives and the variety of forms of collaboration. The collaboration movement in Belarus was far from homogeneous: some people supported the Germans on the basis of their political principles, nationalistic ideas and state-building aspirations; some collaborated because they rejected Soviet economic and cultural polices, while the majority just wanted to survive the war and improve their postwar chances. Particular attention is devoted to the nature and peculiarities of Nazi polices in the occupied territory of Belarus. The harsh measures introduced by Germans (requisitions by the troops, forced labour program, collective reprisals and the genocide of Belarusian Jewry etc.) jeopardised the positive or neutral attitude of the local population toward the Germans, aroused hostility and became one of the main factors that caused the change in attitude. Finally, the paper analyses the transition from collaboration to resistance in late 1943–1944 on the basis of several considerations: the change in the course of the war, the influence of propaganda, and an emerging understanding that the Soviets would emerge victorious.


We previously proposed the term 'opportunistic non‐communicable diseases (NCDs)' to raise awareness of how NCDs thrive in societies with inadequate healthcare services. However, we did not anticipate that within the next year the new coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) would sweep the globe. Lockdowns became the primary strategy for mitigation in most countries. However, the extensive restrictions and allocation of resources towards the containment of the pandemic have likely served as a catalyst of NCDs, especially in populations, societies and individuals already at high risk. We are presenting evidence to qualify two primary factors responsible for the potential impact on the development of NCDs during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The first is disrupted healthcare services including avoidance and postponement of healthcare visits. The second is effects of changing lifestyle and living conditions including isolation, loss of job and income. The accumulated effect of these factors will likely further accelerate the development of NCDs and impair their management, especially in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Insufficient vaccination coverage due to inequality in vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy left room for the incubation of immune‐evasive variants that threatened to sustain or reinitiate the pandemic. We believe the concept of opportunistic NCDs and the potential catalytic effect that pandemics may have on the development of NCDs and their management, should be used as further arguments to secure equal vaccine distribution, promote global vaccine acceptance and to speed up and increase investments in primary health care in low‐ and middle‐income countries to cope with the already existing NCD crisis and to prepare for future epidemics.


The traditional theories behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and connectivism are regarded as essential theories of learning. However, transformational learning theory works with critical thinking in adult learning. This process is based on their experience and it is followed by the steps of thinking and transformation process in perspective in ten phases. In addition, for critical thinking, developing profound understandings regarding knowledge and skills in a certain domain is of high importance. Critical thinking, like transformative learning, requires continuous use or internalization of them rather than rote learning and retention of information. However, critical thinking is the mandatory skill for this transformative learning and change. This study aims to present critical thinking and transformative learning in a comparative way to analyse the relationship between them.


The role of trust in facilitating economic growth has been highlighted in previous contributions to this journal. In order to take this debate forward, this article argues (1) that more attention needs to be given to the relationship between sanctions and trust, and (2) that it is worth distinguishing between the minimal trust for making markets effective and the extended trust required for deeper kinds of inter-firm co-operation to work. The article goes on to ask why minimal trust is lacking and so hard to construct in the republics of the former Soviet Union. It then examines how extended trust grows or can be made to grow in industrial supply chains and clusters in developing countries.


Objective: Elderly patients with their deteriorating global health are becoming more vulnerable to mental disorders, especially depression. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and associated factors of depression amongst patients attending outpatient clinics in Songklanagarind Hospital, a tertiary care center in southern Thailand. Material and Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Elderly people (65-99 years of age) attending the outpatient department of Songklanagarind Hospital during 1 of September-30 of November 2015 were included in the study. The sample size was calculated using Epicalc in R program. We used the 15-item Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS-15) questionnaire to find the prevalence of depression among this group. Associated factors of depression were identified by multiple logistic regression using a backward-stepwise method. Results: The total number of participants in this study was 408. The prevalence of depression based on the TGDS-15, cut-off score of >5, among elderly outpatients in Songklanagarind Hospital was 9.6%. However, regarding multiple regression analysis, no statistically significant factors; sex, age, marital status, educational level, and religion, could be found to be associated with depression. Conclusion: Almost one-tenth of the elderly patients visiting the outpatient clinics within Songklanagarind Hospital had depression. This prevalence was quite high. The depression would worsen their health conditions. Good, rigorous screening coupled with a referral system should be encouraged and then implemented in this hospital.


This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different selection methods of parent lines on the body weight of Japanese quails. For this purpose, line M55 was subjected to individual selection for body weight at 5 weeks of age, while a reciprocal recurrent selection method was applied to lines R33 and S55. Selection lasted two generations. Body weight changes, age and weight at sexual maturity, egg weight, and egg production were investigated in the parent generations as well as in the selection lines. Body weight at 5 weeks of age of the parents of the M55, R33 and S55 lines were 299.0, 285.3, and 280.4 g in the first generation, and 314.8, 316.6, and 306.8±3.11 g in the second generation, respectively. The first generation of the M55, R33, and S55 lines presented egg production rates of 73.4, 77.6, and 75.8%, respectively, and egg weights of 12.7, 11.9, and 12.1g, respectively. The second generation of the M55, R33, and S55 lines presented egg production rates of 74.6, 77.8, and 78.3%, and egg weights of 12.72, 12.59, and 12.56 g, respectively. Both egg production and egg weights were significantly different between the first and the second generations (p>0.05). As a result, despite significant increase in body weight of the selection lines, no significant differences in egg production or egg weight were determined among generations. However, reciprocal selection lines of both generations presented higher egg yield than the individual selected line.


BACKGROUND
Acute pericarditis is rare in children; it can evolve to effusion or even cardiac tamponade. The main infectious agents are viruses and bacteria. The pharmacological treatment includes NSAIDs; just a few patients need pericardiocentesis.

CLINICAL CASE
A school-age patient was hospitalized because of chest pain; she was diagnosed with acute pericarditis and pericardial effusion, without any other symptoms. The disease pattern then evolved to dry cough, crushing epigastric abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. Due to a poor response to the initial treatment, immunological studies were requested. She tested positive to antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-double stranded DNA, direct Coombs and anticardiolipin antibodies; hypocomplementemia with lymphopenia was detected too, which is an indicative of systematic lupus erythematosus.

CONCLUSIONS
The torpid evolution or recurrence of pericarditis must direct toward excluding neoplastic or autoimmune bodies. Cardiovascular manifestations rarely appear initially in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.


The primitive cells that emerged at the origin of life are commonly viewed as spherical biosurfactant shells, freely suspended in aqueous media1–3. This model explains initial, but not subsequent events in the development process towards structured protocells. Taking into consideration the involvement of naturally occurring surfaces, which were abundant on the early Earth4, we report feasible and productive pathways for the development of primitive cells. Surfaces intrinsically possess energy, easily utilized by the interfacing amphiphiles, such as lipids, to attain self-organization and spontaneous transformations5–7. We show that the physical interaction of phospholipid pools with 20 Hadean Earth analogue materials as well as a Martian meteorite composed of fused regolith representing the ancient crust of Mars, consistently lead to the shape transformation and autonomous formation of surfactant compartment assemblies. Dense, colony-like protocell populations grow from these lipid deposits, predominantly at the grain boundaries or cleavages of the investigated natural surfaces, and remain there for several days. The model protocells in our study are able to autonomously develop, transform and pseudo-divide, and encapsulate RNA as well as DNA. We also demonstrate that they can accommodate non-enzymatic, DNA strand displacement reactions. Our findings suggest a feasible route towards the transformation from nonliving to living entities, and provide fresh support for the 'Lipid World' hypothesis8.


Author(s): Morgan, Paul James | Advisor(s): Bandelj, Nina | Abstract: Crafts serve as a theoretically and empirically important site for investigating the sociological bases of economic phenomena. This dissertation highlights the convergence of price, value, labor, space, and consumption as integral points for conceptualizing the realities of entrepreneurial craft production. For this project, I conducted 29 semi-structured interviews with craftspeople who sell on Etsy.com and/or at Renegade Craft Fair, ethnographic observations at Renegade Craft Fairs, and content analysis of publicly posted price advice from Etsy and Pricerie to form the empirical foundation of this project. I first focus on the how craftspeople come to pursue craft as an occupation, highlighting familial influence and self-directed education. I point to how this forms the basis for later occupational trajectories that are entrepreneurial in nature, while also precariousness because of the financial instability of craft more generally. From there, I turn to how craftspeople determine the prices for their good. Initially, I highlight how the organizations that facilitate craft markets offer advice on pricing. I contrast this to the actual ways in which craftspeople actually price, pointing toward the variability of pricing practices. This variability is not a weakness, though, but is beneficial, allowing for self-determined needs and goals of the craftsperson, with labor value being the most common factor. Finally, I highlight the uniqueness of craft markets as novel spaces of consumption, distinct from both bazaars and brick-and-mortar stores. This uniqueness allows for consumers and producers to experience extra-economic interactions and build social ties beyond mere consumption. It further points toward the importance for conceptualizing how the space of a market is integral in understanding how consumption operates. In sum, this dissertation serves as a basis for theoretically understanding the importance of craft as a sociological object alongside pointing toward ways that it is important for contextualizing labor, space, and consumption are important for pricesetting.


I. Project Overview .................................................................................................................................... i A. Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i B. SCEC Annual Science Highlights ..................................................................................................... i C. Exemplary Figure ............................................................................................................................ ii D. SCEC Science Priorities .................................................................................................................. ii E. Intellectual Merit ............................................................................................................................. iii F. Broader Impacts ............................................................................................................................. iii G. Project Publications ........................................................................................................................ iv


Women living in remote and rural areas of the UK face inequalities in provision of abortion services compared to their urban counterparts. Distances to travel, lack of providers, and legal restrictions that require administration of both mifepristone and misoprostol at the abortion service hamper access to, and provision of, abortion. NHS Highland provides care for women from a wide geographical area in the far north of Scotland, much of which is remote and rural and includes small islands. Abortion care is provided from a single National Health Service hospital department of obstetrics and gynaecology in Inverness. For some women, this means that they need to travel distances of over 100 miles to be assessed for an abortion, often using multiple modes of transport (including ferry and plane). Although abortion rates in this region are lower than the Scottish average (9.1 vs 11 per 1000 women aged 15–44 years), the total number of women having an abortion in the region is much lower than most parts of Scotland (fewer than 500 annually), reflecting the smaller population.1 This, combined with a lack of abortion providers in the region, means that the dedicated clinic for women requesting abortion takes place only once per week, adding to delays for some women. These factors undoubtedly contribute to the consistent failure to meet national standards for sexual health that recommend that 70% of women seeking abortion should undergo the procedure at 9 weeks' gestation or earlier (i.e. 67% in 2014).1 ,2 We piloted and evaluated four new initiatives in the service aimed at improving access to abortion and minimising delays in provision.

The chair of the local research ethics committees confirmed that ethical committee approval was not required for this health services research. The initiatives were piloted between June 2010 (or June 2011) and August …


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by progressive loss of memory and cognitive function, and is associated with the deficiency of synaptic acetylcholine, as well as chronic neuroinflmmation. Tacrine, a potent acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor, was previously a prescribed clinical therapeutic agent for AD, but it was recently withdrawn because it caused widespread hepatotoxicity. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we synthesized a new compound, a tacrine-H2S donor hybrid (THS) by introducing H2S-releasing moieties (ACS81) to tacrine. Subsequently, pharmacological and biological evaluations of THS were conducted in the aluminum trichloride (AlCl3)-induced AD mice model. We found that THS (15 mmol/kg) improved cognitive and locomotor activity in AD mice in the step-through test and open field test, respectively. THS showed strong AChE inhibitory activity in the serum and hippocampus of AD mice and induced increased hippocampal H2S levels. Furthermore, THS reduced mRNA expression of the proinflammatory cytokines, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β and increased synapse-associated proteins (synaptophysin and postsynaptic density protein 95) in the hippocampus of AD mice. Importantly, THS, unlike tacrine, did not increase liver transaminases (alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase) or proinflammatory cytokines, indicating THS is much safer than tacrine. Therefore, the multifunctional effects of this new hybrid compound of tacrine and H2S indicate it is a promising compound for further research into the treatment of AD.


The inverse magnification rule in cortical somatotopy is the experimentally derived inverse relationship between cortical magnification (area of somatotopic map representing a unit area of skin surface) and receptive field size (area of restricted skin surface driving a cortical neuron). We show by computer simulation of a simple, multilayer model that Hebb-type synaptic modification subject to competitive constraints is sufficient to account for the inverse magnification rule.


In the design and engineering of functional core-shell nanostructures, material characterization at small length scales remains one of the major challenges. Here we show how electron tomography in high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) mode can be applied successfully to perform nano-metrological characterization of Au@Ag core-shell nanostructures. This work stresses the benefits of HAADF-STEM tomography and its use as a novel and rigorous tool for understanding the physical-chemical properties of complex 3D core-shell nanostructures. The reconstructed Au@Ag core-shell architecture was used as an input for discrete dipole approximation (DDA)-based electrodynamics simulations of the optical properties of the nanostructures. The implications of localized surface plasmon spectroscopy as well as Raman-enhanced spectroscopy are analysed.


This report investigates the relationships between mobility (the amount people travel) and crash risk, and the safety impacts of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies that change how and the amount people travel. Evidence summarized in this report indicates that per capita traffic crash rates tend to increase with per capita vehicle travel, and mobility management strategies can provide significant safety benefits. Strategies that reduce per capita vehicle travel, or shift travel from automobile to alternative modes, tend to reduce overall crash risk. Shifting vehicle travel to lesscongested conditions tends to reduce crash frequency but may increase crash severity due to higher traffic speeds. Smart growth land use policies tend to reduce crash severity and fatality rates, although crash frequency may increase due to increased traffic density. Strategies that reduce traffic speeds reduce crash frequency and severity. Conventional traffic risk analysis understates many of these impacts. This analysis indicates that TDM is a cost effective traffic safety strategy, and increased safety is one of the largest benefits of mobility management. A summary of this research was published in Injury Prevention, Vol. 15, Issue 6 (2009). Safe Travels: Evaluating Mobility Management Traffic Safety Impacts Victoria Transport Policy Institute


Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a common chronic disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Currently available antidiabetic agents work by different mechanisms to lower blood glucose levels. Available treatments (such as metformin, sulfonylureas, glitazones, and insulin) have proven unsatisfactory in producing a long-lasting impact on glycemic control. In addition, most of these treatments have undesirable side effects such as weight gain and hypoglycemia. As a result, exploring new treatment targets and new therapies is mandatory in order to treat this condition. The incretin pathway, in particular
glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1), plays an important pathological role in the development of T2DM, and
treatments targeting the incretin system have recently become available. The actions of GLP-1 include (a) a
stimulation of insulin secretion in a glucose-dependent manner, (b) a suppression of glucagon, (c) a reduction
in appetite and food intake, (d) a deceleration of gastric emptying, (e) a stimulation of s-cell neogenesis,
growth and differentiation in animal and tissue culture experiments. Intravenous GLP-1 can normalize and
subcutaneous GLP-1 can significantly lower plasma glucose in the majority of patients with Type 2 diabetes.
Current data suggest that liraglutide significant reductions in fasting and postprandial plasma glucose and
hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Liraglutide is well tolerated and does not increase hypoglycemia. Liraglutide, a GLP-1
analog, offers a novel treatment option for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.


This study examines the engagement of two secondary school students participating in a compulsory gymnastics unit within a physical education class. Using Dewey''s notions of engagement, interest, occupation and purpose, the student experience has been considered. An important element of the outcome has been the consideration of the occupations of the student-gymnast and gymnast- student. These arise as important factors in the planning and teaching of secondary school gymnastics.


The authors present a machine learning pipeline for fairness-aware machine learning (FAML) in finance that encompasses metrics for fairness (and accuracy). Whereas accuracy metrics are well understood and the principal ones are used frequently, there is no consensus as to which of several available measures for fairness should be used in a generic manner in the financial services industry. The authors explore these measures and discuss which ones to focus on at various stages in the ML pipeline, pre-training and post-training, and they examine simple bias mitigation approaches. Using a standard dataset, they show that the sequencing in their FAML pipeline offers a cogent approach to arriving at a fair and accurate ML model. The authors discuss the intersection of bias metrics with legal considerations in the United States, and the entanglement of explainability and fairness is exemplified in the case study. They discuss possible approaches for training ML models while satisfying constraints imposed from various fairness metrics and the role of causality in assessing fairness. Key Findings ▪ Sources of bias are presented and a range of metrics is considered for machine learning applications in finance, both pre-training and post-training of models. ▪ A process of using the metrics to arrive at fair models is discussed. ▪ Various considerations for the choice of specific metrics are also analyzed.


Glycans are critical to every facet of biology and medicine, from viral infections to embryogenesis. Tools to study glycans are rapidly evolving, however the majority of our knowledge is deeply dependent on binding by glycan binding proteins (e.g., lectins). The specificities of lectins, which are often naturally isolated proteins, have not been well- defined, making it difficult to leverage their full potential for glycan analysis. Herein, we use glycan microarray analysis of 116 commercially available lectins, including different preparations of the same lectin, to extract the specific glycan features required for lectin binding. Data was obtained using the Consortium for Functional Glycomics microarray (CFG v5.0) containing 611 glycans. We use a combination of machine learning algorithms to define lectin specificity, mapping inputs (glycan sequences) to outputs (lectin-glycan binding) for a large-scale evaluation of lectin-glycan binding behaviours. Our motif analysis was performed by integrating 68 manually defined glycan features with systematic probing of computational rules for significant binding motifs using mono- and disaccharides- and linkages. Using a combination of machine learning and manual annotation of the data, we created a detailed interpretation of glycan-binding specificity for 57 unique lectins, categorized by their major binding motifs: mannose, complex-type N-glycan, O-glycan, fucose, sialic acid and sulfate, GlcNAc and chitin, Gal and LacNAc, and GalNAc. Our work provides fresh insights into the complex binding features of commercially available lectins in current use, providing a critical guide to these important reagents.


We describe gtutr, an interactive feedback system designed to assist students in developing context-free grammars and corresponding ANTLR parsers. It intelligently controls students' access to a large test suite for the target language. After each submission, gtutr analyzes any failing tests and uses the Needleman-Wunsch sequence alignment algorithm over the tests' rule traces to identify and eliminate similar failing tests. This reduces the redundancy in the feedback given to the students and prevents them from being overloaded. gtutr uses simple gamification to encourage independent problem solving by students: it gives as little information as possible, and students need to prompt the system for further details such as failing tests similar to or different from already seen tests, or even for hints about rules that are the most likely to contain faults. It tracks the students' information requests and uses this to attenuate marks following an instructor-set penalty schema. The system also visualizes test outcomes over multiple submissions, helping students to keep track of the effects of their changes as their grammar development progresses.


Background: Neuroinflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various neurological and cerebrovascular diseases. Recently, microglia has became a promising target to treat neuroinflammation-related diseases. BuyangHuanwu Decoction (BYHWD), a traditional Chinese medicine recipe, is a representative prescription for the treatment of neuroinflammation, showed great therapeutic potential in neuroinflammation-related cerebrovascular disorders including cerebral ischemia. However, it's possible mechanism of action remains unclear.Methods: In the present research, we studied the therapeutic effects of BYHWD on LPS-induced inflammatory response in BV2 microglia cells. The inflammatory cytokines include interleukin (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and nitric oxide (NO) were detected by commercial kit. The inflammatory-related protein was measured by western blot and immunofluorescence.Results: Our findings showed that BYHWD could significantly reverse LPS-induced morphological changes in BV2 microglial and inhibit the local synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and free radical via directly regulating NF-κB activity and inflammasome assembly. Our data showed that BYHWT inhibit LPS-induced TNF-α, IL-6, and NO production, Also can inhibit iNOS protein expression and the activation of NF-κB taccording to inhibit NLRP3 activation.Conclusions: In conclusion, our results demonstrated that BYHWD is a potential candidate for treating neuroinflammation-related diseases. Certainly, more comprehensive researches on the precise mechanism of action of BYHWD in cerebrovascular disease is required in future vivo studies.


ZnO-Al2O3 core-shell nanorods (NRs) have been fabricated through the vapor phase condensation method and atomic layer deposition. It is found that the nanorod comprises a wurtzite single crystalline ZnO core with the main axes along the [0001] direction and an amorphous Al2O3 shell. The temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties of the as-grown and annealed ZnO/Al2O3 NRs are investigated systematically. The PL of the as-grown ZnO/Al2O3 NRs demonstrates a normal thermal quenching feature. However, the salient behavior of negative thermal quenching (NTQ), i.e., the increase in PL intensity with an increase in temperature, is clearly observed in the annealed ZnO/Al2O3 NRs. A multi-level model is adopted to account for this behavior and the thermal activation energy of the NTQ process is estimated to be ∼69 meV. Moreover, we suggest that the activation energy is related to the Al donor defect in ZnO resulting from the inter-diffusion between the ZnO core and the Al2O3 shell during the annealing process.


OBJECTIVE
To establish whether changes in a spoken verbal task performance while walking compared with being at rest could predict falls among older adults.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study of 12 months' duration.

SETTING
Twenty-seven senior housing facilities.

PARTICIPANTS
Sample of 187 subjects aged 75-100 (mean age 84.8 +/- 5.2). During enrollment, participants were asked to count aloud backward from 50, both at rest and while walking and were divided into two groups according to their counting performance. Information on incident falls during the follow-up year was monthly collected.

MEASUREMENTS
The number of enumerated figures while sitting on a chair and while walking, and the first fall that occurred during the follow up year.

RESULTS
The number of enumerated figures under dual-task as compared to single task increased among 31.5% of the tested subjects (n = 59) and was associated with lower scores in MMSE (P = 0.034), and higher scores in Geriatric Depression Scale (P = 0.007) and Timed Up & Go (P = 0.005). During the 12 months follow-up, 54 subjects (28.9%) fell. After adjusting for these variables, the increase in counting performance was significantly associated with falls (adjusted OR = 53.3, P < 0.0001). Kaplan-Meier distributions of falls differed significantly between subjects who either increased or decreased their counting performance (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Faster counting while walking was strongly associated with falls, suggesting that better performance in an additional verbal counting task while walking might represent a new way to predict falls among older adults.


Objectives
Empirical research has indicated shift work to attain negative effects on sleep, social isolation, stress and other factors. However, albeit a vast amount of literature has been conducted in this field there were still aspects to be explored. In light of this the main objective of this study was to investigate if the negative impacts of shift work would be identifiable if conducted within the Irish hospitality industry as all previous research was conducted on the nursing population in America. A secondary objective sought to fill a gap in the literature as to date no research has considered the impact that roster schedule may have on sleep, stress and social isolation. The researcher set out to explore these novel aspects and add to the literature.

Method
This study was a mixed method, between groups cross sectional design. The sample was of opportunistic nature consisting of 109 hotel employees working both fixed and shift work schedules in The Republic of Ireland. Various measures were implemented to analyse participants. The Bergan shift work sleep scale, The work non-work interference scale and the perceived stress scale. Additionally, 9 participants took part in a semi-structured interview to investigate their perceptions of shift work and roster schedule. The data within this study was analysed through two-way ANOVA, one-way ANOVA and thematic approach.

Results
Two-way ANOVAS indicated those who worked a fixed work week reported greater levels of sleep, social isolation and stress than their shift work counterparts. Additionally, the one-way ANOVAS indicated the fixed roster group reported greater levels of sleep, social isolation and stress than any other roster schedule. Finally, the qualitative analysis indicated that the individuals reported immense levels of social isolation and stress as a result of shift work and roster schedule. Additionally, participants reported other negative effects of shift work and roster schedule on their health such as lack of exercise and poor diet.

Conclusions
In conclusion, the quantitative analysis indicated fixed workers and the fixed roster group to report greater levels of sleep, social isolation and stress. However, in contrast the qualitative analysis clearly indicated shift workers to experience detriments to their lives resulting from shift work and short roster schedule. However, upon replication of this study a larger sample size must be obtained as this may have impacted the results. Additionally, qualitative analysis should be conducted on both fixed and shift workers to enable researchers to compare their responses.


Volatile organic substances (VOS) were extracted from the coelomic fluid of gravid specimens of the lugworm Arenicola marina through the use of using a closed loop stripping technique and analysed via coupled gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. VOS detectable in coelomic fluid of mature specimens include aldehydes, n-alkanes, methyl-alkanes, terpenes and ketones. The bouquet of compounds is very similar to nereid volatiles that have been recently described as having sex pheromonal activity. One of the major constituents is the ketone 5-methyl-3-heptanone, the sex pheromone of Platynereis dumerilii and Nereis succinea. Behavioural bioassays with gravld specimens produced no evidence that this substance has any pheromonal function in A. marina. Samples taken at monthly intervals showed an increase in the content of VOS in the coelomic fluid of both sexes during maturation with 1 major peak, 2-ethyl-hexanol, representing up to 50% of the total amount of VOS in spawning male lugworms. Behavioural assays with ripe females established the existence of a chemical cue inducing the burrow ~rngation behaviour during which sea water is pumped through the burrows. This behaviour ensures transport of spermatozoa from the water column into the tube inhabited by the female and increases fertilization success by minimising the dilution effects of the incoming tide. The VOS extract obtained from male spawning water had biological activity in eliciting the 'pumping' behaviour in females, with 16 of 24 worms irrigating continuously upon exposure, whilst controls showed no increase of activity, with 'pumping' occurring at 30 to 40 min intervals. K E Y WORDS: Arenicola marina . Spawning . Pheromones . Volatile organic substances


The current review is intending to highlight the main advances in the field of collagen/hydroxyapatite (COLL/HA) composite materials as regenerative supports in bone tissue engineering but also as a platform for the delivery of different biological active agents with curative application. Basically, the review will highlight the most important synthesis routes as well as parameters able to tailor the characteristics of the COLL/HA composite materials as well as the most important achievements in the field of drug delivery systems based on COLL/HA using various classes of biologically active agents with different activity.


An M-polysymmetrical hyperring $(R,+,cdot )$ is an algebraic system, where $(R,+)$ is an M-polysymmetrical hypergroup, $(R,cdot )$ is a semigroup and $cdot$ is bilaterally distributive over $+$. In this paper, we introduce the concept of hyperideals of an M-polysymmetrical hyperring and by using this concept, we construct an ordinary quotient ring. Finally, the fundamental theorem of homomorphism is derived in the context of M-polysymmetrical hyperrings.


Graphene structural defects, namely edges, step-edges, and wrinkles, are susceptible to severe mechanical deformation and stresses under tribo-mechanical operations. Applied forces may cause deformation by folding, buckling, bending, and tearing of these defective sites of graphene, which lead to a remarkable decline in normal and friction load bearing capacity. In this work, we experimentally quantified the maximum sustainable normal and friction forces, corresponding to the damage thresholds of the different investigated defects as well as their pull-out (adhesion) forces. Horizontal wrinkles (with respect to the basal plane, i.e., folded) sustained the highest normal load, up to 317 nN, during sliding, whereas for vertical (i.e., standing) wrinkles, step-edges, and edges, the load bearing capacities are up to 113, 74, and 63 nN, respectively. The related deformation mechanisms were also experimentally investigated by varying the normal load up to the initiation of the damage from the defects and extended with the numerical results from molecular dynamics and finite element method simulations.


The focus of the study is to analyze the maximum wind speed, maximum gust speed and damage to buildings cause of extreme wind in Peninsular Malaysia. Natural wind flow is one of the most effective methods to help achieve energy savings in large cities, particularly under tropical climate such as Malaysia. The weather in Malaysia is characterized by four monsoon regime of the southwest monsoon, northeast monsoon and two shorter than the monsoon season. For this study, data of wind velocity in a weather station in Malaysia obtained from the Department of Meteorology and considered in the environmental assessment of the wind. The maximum wind speed 6.68 m/s in July 2008, the maximum wind velocity and wind maximum in 2003-2013 to station in Penang. From these data, according to the Beaufort scale of wind is fresh Breeze and the maximum gust speed of 6.31 m/s in January 2005, the maximum wind velocity and wind maximum in 2003-2013 to station in Malacca. From these data, according to the Beaufort scale of wind is fresh Breeze. From this data, according to the Beaufort scale of wind is fresh Breeze. This study results are compared in Table 2.1 in the Beaufort scale. The damage of buildings caused by wind conditions often occur and are relevant for the design of the building was a storm, and the wind velocity at a specific height above the ground. This condition is generally associated with one of these situations including tornado, storm, wind conditions specific local wind from the geographical and climatic conditions and the latter is odd local wind conditions resulting from sea level. The effect of wind on the building can be classed into several parts due to certain criteria; the wind was in the know of direct pressure between the outer wall, the outer wall suction, pressure on the surface of the roof, the whole of the building and more. The effect of this can be solved with several conditions including a strong connection, a secure site, and the selection of appropriate materials, orderly arrangement of buildings and failure modes and prevention. Wind is moving air with a specific mass (density or weight) and it moves in a certain direction with a certain velocity. Whenthis moving air collides with an object, it will produce a number of effects that result in a force on the object


The growing use of cellular and biomolecular processes in energy, medical, and environmental applications has created a need for real-time sensing of both reactants and products through process analytical technology (PAT). Raman is already an established process monitoring tool used in PAT, providing excellent analytical selectivity while being particularly insensitive to water present as solvent or moisture within the sample. In this application note, we explore the use of Raman to monitor a simple bioprocess: fermentation of glucose (a common feedstock) with yeast, a microorganism often used in biotechnology. The results show how a sensitive, stable Raman system based on our WP 785 spectrometer can be successfully applied in PAT for bioprocessing applications, even when fluorescence background is present.


Historically, women have been underrepresented in Latin America. In recent years, many countries promoted electoral reforms to improve the representation of women in national political institutions. The reforms incorporated affirmative action mechanisms (quota laws) and/or the principle of gender parity in the registry of candidacies that forced the parties to allow women to compete for political office. These changes, together with women-friendly electoral systems and the active commitment of political actors (women's movements, academics, women in politics, judges, and electoral officials) have allowed formal and informal collaborative mechanisms to monitor, reinforce, and demand compliance with the laws, which have increased the levels of women's political representation.


Organic polymeric microspheres, which can be easily synthesized through simple emulsion polymerization, are important building blocks of photonic crystal structural color materials. However, the poor heat resistance of organic polymeric photonic crystals is the intrinsic drawback that severely limits their practical application. In this study, novel polymeric photonic crystal structures with robust heat resistance are developed from the self-assembly of thiodiphenol–formaldehyde (TPF) microspheres. TPF microspheres with controllable particle size and high monodispersity are synthesized through polycondensation and cross-linking reaction between 4,4′-thiodiphenol and formaldehyde via a hydrothermal process. Derived from the highly cross-linked network structure and high content of aromatic rings and sulfur atoms of the TPF microspheres, the obtained polymeric photonic crystals exhibit bright structural colors and excellent heat resistance up to 250 °C. By contrast, general polystyrene photonic crystals possess poor heat resistance (<110 °C), due to the linear macromolecular structure. The distinct heat resistance feature of TPF structural colors is highly important for expanding their practical applications.


: Structure changes of ganglioside micelles in the process of serotonin bonding are considered. It was shown by viscosimetric and differential refraction studies that stretching of elliptical ganglioside micelles in the serotonin bonding process took place. The scope of micelles form changes depends on the pH value. An increase of the micelles summary negative charge at pH 9 increased the number of bonding centres and simultaneously caused deeper deformation of micelles due to the repulsion of the identically charged groups.


Transforming business transactions from the old "bricks and mortar" physical transaction to "click and order" via digital devices gave birth to financial technology or Fintech. Fintech has arguably democratized financial services, allowing non-traditional firms to enter the space. Fintech refers to digital technologies that integrate various forms of technology, including Blockchain, Robo-advisors, Crowdfunding, Big Data, Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and intelligent investment consulting in the financial sector. Nonetheless, the Fintech research topic in developing countries like Malaysia is still at the nascent stage. The previous literature has recognized the Fintech evolvement, features, and effect but has not yet provided a comprehensive conceptualization and manifestation. The governing issues of Fintech are also still worth further investigation. Based on the fintech literature review, this paper explores the Fintech conceptualization and its governing issues in-depth. The study will contribute to understanding Fintech, its manifestation, and how Fintech evolves. This concept paper also shed some light on Fintech research areas by identifying the governing issues surrounding Fintech implementation. From the practical perspective, the contribution is a recommendation on how the Fintech application could be utilized optimally by the Fintech companies that would positively impact the Malaysia ecosystem and contribute to the national agenda.


This study aimed to evaluate natural infection of bats by trypanosomatids. Using blood culturing, 86 specimens from different genera were examined, and 22 samples (25.58%) of Desmodus rotundus and Lonchorhina aurita were isolated. These results contribute towards knowledge of the occurrence of trypanosomatids in bats in the State of Rio de Janeiro.


New forms of representation at a fine spatial scale, where units of space are conceived as cells and populations as individual agents, are currently changing the way we are able to simulate the evolution of cities and related systems. In this paper, we review progress to date in this field. We show how these new approaches are consistent with traditional urban models that have gone before with the emphasis no longer being on spatial interaction but on the dynamics of development and local movement. We first introduce a generic structure for urban simulation based on ideas about spatial evolution as reaction and diffusion, and then show how problems conceived in terms of cells, or agents, or both enable new implementations of this generic model. We sketch the rudiments of cellular automata (CA) which emphasises rules of development, and agent-based models which focus on how agents respond to attributes of their environment often encoded in cellular landscapes. We develop various exemplars based on residential location to impress the way these approaches work. Three applications are then presented at very different spatial scales: first pedestrian movement at the building scale, then the evolution of systems of cities at a country scale, and finally urban growth at the city scale. In developing these approaches, we show how cellular and agent-based models have the potential for explicitly incorporating spatial interaction and transportation which is their current weakness. We conclude with proposals that formal policy analysis in this domain should always be informed by more than one approach.


Abstract 1954 Backgrounds: Viral infections remain serious complications after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), despite a remarkable progress of the prophylactic and treatment strategies. Detection of the early stage of viral reactivation and infection was extremely important as CMV antigenemia monitoring and pre-emptive therapy. In this study, we performed a prospective PCR-guided viral monitoring for 13 species and evaluate the association with actual onset of viral disease. Patients and methods: Adult patients aged ≥ 16 years old who were scheduled for allogeneic or autologus HSCT were eligible for this study. Informed consent was obtained from all patients. From a week before transplantation to the 8 weeks after, the DNA quantity of 13 viral species was weekly measured using in-house multiplex PCR assays, which enable to simultaneously determine the amount of herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), human simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) humanherpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), humanherpesvirus 7(HHV-7), humanherpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), parvovirus B19, hepatitis B virus (HBV), JC virus (JCV), BK virus (BKV), and adenovirus (ADV). As antiviral prophylaxis for HSV/VZV and HHV-6 diseases, oral acyclovir and intravenous foscarnet in all recipients and exclusively in those receiving unrelated cord blood, respectively, whereas antigenemia-guided preemptive therapy against CMV disease with ganciclovir or foscarnet was performed in allo-transplant settings. Results: A hundred patients who underwent HSCT at Toranomon Hospital from May to December 2010 were enrolled for this study. Median age was 52 (16–71) years old. Six patients who underwent autologous transplantation were included. In a total of 821 peripheral specimens obtained during the study period, HHV-6 was detected in 69.6%, CMV in 37.7%, BK in 13.2% and ADV in 7.7% of 471 PCR positive samples, and the detection rate of other virus was lower than 3.1%. The cumulative incidences of positive viral load due to HHV-6, CMV, BKV, ADV during the study period were 88.5%, 54.3%, 24.1%, and 11.6%. During the study period, 31 patients developed any viral infections with a cumulative incidence of 34.0%, at a median of 18 (-1-56) days after HSCT. Ten patients had 2 or more episodes of different viral infections, and a total of 45 infectious episodes were documented. HHV-6 encephalitis accounted for 33.3% of all viral infections during prophylactic foscarnet administration. Other common viruses included ADV 22.2 % (dissemination in 8, hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) in 2), and BKV 35.6 % (HC in all 22 patients). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were analyzed for common virus such as ADV, BKV and HHV-6. CMV was excluded CMV antigenemia-guided pre-emptive therapy successfully suppressed the onset of diseases. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for diagnosing ADV infections were 85.7%, 100.0%, 100.0% and 98.9%. These data suggest ADV monitoring is a useful strategy for predicting the onset of disease. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for diagnosing BKV associated HC were 61.1%, 86.6%, 50.0% and 91.0%, whereas those of the PCR assay with use of a threshold of 10000 copies/ml were 46.6%, 71.8%, 29.1% and 88.4% for diagnosing HHV-6 encephalitis. Conclusion: Our multiple viral monitoring system using multiplex PCR assay was useful for detecting viral load kinetics for 13 species early after HSCT. As for ADV, viral load in blood detected in our assay had a high sensitivity and specificity for developing ADV infectious diseases. The sensitivity and specificity level for HHV-6 and BK was not as high as ADV because definite threshold level was not determined yet and HHV-6 encephalitis might be suppressed due to prophylactic foscarnet, these findings suggested that the multiplex PCR assay could be applied to the routine monitoring for viral infections in the early period after HSCT. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


During the last 20 years there has been much interest in nutritional treatment for patients with advanced cirrhosis. Most studies have measured the potential benefit of nutritional supplements of dietary proteins, generic protein hydrolysates, or specific branched-chain amino acid (BCAA)-enriched formulas in regard to nutritional parameters and hepatic encephalopathy. The issue is not definitively settled; data are conflicting and meta-analyses have failed to produce unequivocal results. A consensus review, recently produced under the auspices of the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, concluded that: (1) patients with cirrhosis tend to be hypermetabolic, and a higher-than-normal supply of dietary proteins is needed to achieve nitrogen balance; (2) most patients tolerate a normal or even increased dietary protein intake, without risk of hepatic encephalopathy; (3) a modified eating pattern, based on several meals and a late evening snack, is useful; (4) in severely malnourished patients, amino acid supplements may be considered to provide the necessary amount of proteins to meet protein requirements; (5) in a few patients intolerant to the required protein intake, BCAA supplements may be considered to provide the necessary nitrogen intake without detrimental effects on the mental state, perhaps even improving it. Future studies are needed to quantify the advantage of nutritional support with amino acids or BCAA supplements on overall well-being, complications, and ultimately survival with a long-lasting disease where self-perceived health-related quality of life is a major outcome.


Research and development in the applied sciences at the atomic or molecular level is the order of the day under the domain of nanotechnology or nano-science with enormous influence on nearly all areas of human health and activities comprising diverse medical fields such as pharmacological studies, clinical diagnoses, and supplementary immune system. The field of nano-dentistry has emerged due to the assorted dental applications of nano-technology. This review provides a brief introduction to the general nanotechnology field and a comprehensive overview of the synthesis features and dental uses of nano-materials including current innovations and future expectations with general comments on the latest advancements in the mechanisms and the most significant toxicological dimensions.


This article presents a synthesis of works of the sociology of education, in France. It focuses on the approaches that characterize the orientations and contents of sociological studies marked by the socio-political stakes that affect the functioning of School and have molded its construction for nearly one century. The main researches in this field always tried to explain, on the one hand, the relationships between School and the French society and, on the other, the conditions of organization of the educational system and the interactions that take place among its various actors.


A new exact algorithm is proposed to compute the 3D geometric moments of a homogeneous shape defined by an unstructured triangulation of its surface. This algorithm relies on the analytical integration of the moments on tetrahedra defined by the surface triangles and a central point and on a set of recurrent relationships between the corresponding integrals, and achieves linear running time complexities with respect to the number of triangles in the surface mesh and with respect to the number of moments that are computed. This effectively reduces the complexity for computing moments up to order N from N6 to N3 with respect to the fastest previously proposed exact algorithm.


With the development of economy, the acceleration of urbanization and the promotion of living standards, power users have put forward higher requirement of the power quality and reliability. The traditional methods of management can not satisfy the demands of users. Therefore, the power supply enterprises need to make use of the advanced technology to improve the technological and automation level. The marketing-distribution integrated system which takes the GIS platform as the basis, the users' demands as the orientation, is comprehensive and cross-business application system. It can improve the level of management obviously. This paper proposes the construction aims, construction principles, the frame of information platform and application platform which are critical for the integration system.


A new analytical solution is presented for functionally graded (FG) beams to investigate the bending behaviour under hygro-thermo-mechanical loading using a new fifth order shear and normal deformation theory (FOSNDT). The material properties of the FG beam are varied along the thickness direction according to the power law index. In the present theory, a polynomial shape function is expanded up to fifth-order in terms of thickness coordinate to consider the effects of transverse shear and normal deformations. The present theory is free from the shear correction factor. Using the Navier's solution technique the closed-form solution is obtained for simply supported FG beams. All the results are presented in non-dimensional form and validated it by developing the classical beam theory (CBT), first order shear deformation theory (FSDT by Mindlin) and third order shear deformation theory (TSDT by Reddy) considering the hygro-thermo-mechanical loading effects which is mostly missing in the literature. It is noticed that the presented FOSNDT is very simple and accurate to predict the bending behaviour of FG beams under linear and non-linear hygro-thermo-mechanical loadings.


Adult Culex quinquefasciatus, maintained from emergence on sugar, were fed blood and then fed either sugar (control) or water (starving) for 7 days. Analysis of ovaries and egg rafts for protein, lipids and glycogen showed that only glycogen levels were diminished by starvation. Eggs from both control and starving females, however, were equally viable. Nonbloodfed starving females lived longer than bloodfed starving females. These results suggest that the blood meal maximizes fertility, not longevity.


: A phonocardiographic index for determining the presence and severity of aortic regurgitation in patients with complex combined valvular diseases is suggested. This index comprises the relation between the amplitudes of the early diastolic murmur and the second sound and the relation between the maximum oscillations in early and late systole. The first two parameters are measured from a phonocardiogram recorded from the site where the early diastolic murmur is registered best(left third or fourth intercostal space at the sternum), the last from the site where the systolic murmur of aortic origin is recorded best (right second intercostal space). The differences in the value of the index between 4 groups of patients with different degree of aortic regurgitation are statistically significant (p less than 0.05). The index makes it possible to distribute according to the phonocardiogram all patients into 4 groups with 17% classification error and 2 groups of practical importance (with and without marked regurgitation) with 5% error.


The Lung Clearance Index (LCI) is superior to spirometry in detecting early lung disease in Cystic Fibrosis and correlates with structural changes seen on CT-scans. The LCI has the potential to become a novel outcome parameter for clinical and research purposes. Longitudinal studies are required to further prove its prognostic value. Multi-centre design is likely to facilitate realisation of such studies.

Therefore the aim of the present study was to assess multi-centre feasibility and inter-centre variability of LCI measurements in healthy children and adolescents.

Measurements were performed using the EasyOne Pro, MBW module (ndd, Switzerland) by 8 participating CF centres. Marien Hospital Wesel, 7 is the upper limit of normal for the LCI.

The success rate of LCI measurements was 75.5%, leaving n=102 measurements for final analysis. Mean age (range) was 12.5 (5-20) years. Mean LCI (range) was 6.3 (6.0-6.5) and thus normal. Inter-centre variability was 2.9% (p=<0.05).

Our study demonstrates good multi-centre feasibility and low inter-centre variability of the LCI in healthy volunteers when measured with the EasyOne Pro MBW module. Our data are comparable to published single-centre data. However, central coordination, quality control, regular training and supervision during the entire study appear essential for successfully performing multi-centre trials.

This project was supported by Mukoviszidose eV Germany


A major challenge in combating global human trafficking is the availability of actionable intelligence about trafficking events and operations. The lack of timely and structured data remains a significant bottleneck in the monitoring and mitigation of human trafficking. In this collaborative work with Love Justice International, we aim to address this issue by developing an automated pipeline based on recent advances in natural language processing and machine learning to streamline the curation, analysis, and extraction of actionable intelligence from multi-sourced news media as OpenSources of Intelligence (OSINT). In our solution, we utilize and enhance the BERT Question Answering language model for information extraction from the unstructured text of the news. Furthermore, we develop algorithms for measuring the relevance and novelty of curated news articles to reduce the computation cost and redundant processing. Moreover, we evaluate the proposed pipeline on a dataset of annotated news articles containing actionable intelligence about victims and perpetrators of human trafficking.


Reproducibility is a cornerstone of science, as the replication of findings is the process through which they become knowledge. It is widely considered that many fields of science are undergoing a reproducibility crisis. This has led to the publications of various guidelines in order to improve research reproducibility. This didactic chapter intends at being an introduction to reproducibility for researchers in the field of machine learning for medical imaging. We first distinguish between different types of reproducibility. For each of them, we aim at defining it, at describing the requirements to achieve it and at discussing its utility. The chapter ends with a discussion on the benefits of reproducibility and with a plea for a non-dogmatic approach to this concept and its implementation in research practice.


Apixaban is an oral anticoagulant that directly inhibits Factor Xa and is indicated for the prophylaxis and treatment of deep venous thrombosis and stroke prevention in non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Rectus sheath hematoma is a rare, life-threatening complication of anticoagulant treatment. We describe a case of an elderly patient on apixaban for the treatment of deep venous thrombosis who developed severe abdominal pain during hospitalization. Computed tomography of the abdomen revealed left rectus sheath hematoma. Apixaban was discontinued and the patient was monitored for extension of the hematoma. After 2 days she was discharged home. Outpatient computed tomography 1 month later showed complete resolution of the rectus sheath hematoma. We recommend that clinicians become aware of the potential for rare and serious bleeding complications of anticoagulants and identify the need for early recognition and prompt management.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes of road construction delays in Ghana and identify appropriate mitigation measures.

Design/methodology/approach

The initial approach involved an empirical analysis of 48 road projects to quantify the extent of time. This was followed by a survey of the perception of road agency and donor partner officials of the critical causes of road project delays.

Findings

About 70 per cent of road projects experience delays and 52 per cent experience cost overruns. The average time overrun and cost overruns of road projects in Ghana was 17 months and US$1.15m (or 22.5 per cent), respectively. The five most critical causes of road construction delays were delay in finance and payment of completed work by owner (client-related); inadequate contractor experience (contractor-related); changes in scope by the owner during construction (client-related); delay to furnish and deliver the site to the contractor (client-related); and inflexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related).

Research limitations/implications

The most critical constraint of this study is the fact that findings are based on only the views of industry professional experts. It may be assumed that despite using broadly used terminology to refer to the causes of project delays, the interpretations by respondents may have differed from those intended. Further research could look at the correlation between time overrun and cost overrun using principle component analysis.

Practical implications

The identified delay factors are not unique to the road sector. From both academic and practical perspectives, the results emphasizes on the need for a holistic and integrated risk management model for the entire construction industry in Ghana.

Originality/value

The paper examined the causes of road project delays in the Ghanaian context and recommended remedial measures.


Finding communities, or clusters, is a topic of much current research in network science.
Defining a good clustering criterion is difficult. On the one hand, quality functions to be optimized have been proposed, the most studied of which is modularity. On the other hand, properties to be satisfied by each community of a partition have been suggested. It has recently been observed that one of the best known such properties, i.e., the weak condition proposed by Radicchi et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2004) was not satisfied by one or more communities in a partition which maximizes some of the best known criteria. We consider five community-defining conditions, that we call cohesion conditions (strong, semi-strong, almost-strong, weak and extra-weak conditions). We add these conditions, one at a time, as constraints to a modularity maximization problem, thus obtaining new mathematical optimization models, that we solve by exact methods. We thus study the impact of cohesion conditions on modularity maximization, attempting to move a step ahead towards
the identification of a sound criterion to detect informative partitions.


Bronchiectasis patients infected with P. aeruginosa require adequate treatment with antibiotics. The primary objectives of this study were to assess local tolerability and the pharmacokinetic parameters of inhaled excipient free dry powder tobramycin free base in this patient group. Escalating doses were administered with a new DPI (Cyclops) to eight participants with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis who were trained in operating the inhaler correctly. During drug administration the inspiratory flow curve was recorded and several flow parameters were computed. Local tolerability was assessed by spirometry and recording adverse events. Pharmacokinetic parameters were computed from serum samples collected before, and 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120 min; 4, 8 and 12 h after inhalation. The free base of tobramycin was well tolerated and a good drug dose-serum concentration correlation was obtained. Relatively small inhaled volumes were computed from the recorded flow curves, resulting presumably in substantial deposition in the central airways – i.e., at the primary site of inflammation. Normalised maximum serum concentration (C max ) increased with decreasing inhaled volume. We believe that this can be explained with an increased bronchial circulation in bronchiectasis patients from 1% to 30% of the cardiac output due to the inflammation. Because bronchiectasis is progressively deteriorating, accompanied by increased inflammation, it can be hypothesised that the higher blood circulation at a higher degree of inflammation increases the absorption rate of tobramycin from the site of deposition. Our data challenge to further investigate the effect of increased inflammation on the C max .


In sixteenth-century Antwerp, commercial contracts were supported with refined government-made rules that brought techniques, usages and customs practised by merchants to the level of sophisticated law. Because no body of unwritten substantive law on commerce existed and because commercial practices were often too rudimentary from a legal perspective, in the 1500s detailed and balanced normative precepts on contracts of trade came to be crafted. When in the first decades of the sixteenth century more and more foreign merchants visited Antwerp, its rulers gradually started supplementing and upgrading practices of merchants to default rules regarding contracts, with materials and concepts drawn from the ius commune. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the use of civil law not only further determined the contents of the default rules that were imposed by the Antwerp aldermen, but it also lay at the basis of a change in the latter's policy of establishing precepts of urban law. After 1550, the philosophy of rationality and exhaustiveness found within civil law writings, the appreciation of which was triggered by political and economic factors, was reflected in wide-ranging collections of Antwerp law that covered many legal questions regarding commercial arrangements.


Although the military and geopolitical relevance of World War I to Japan must be considered limited, its economic impact was considerable. In sharp contrast to the prewar deficit years, Japan saw its external trade expand rapidly. This article describes how the country's establishment reacted to this shift. In addition to lending to several allies, it also engaged in the politically risky strategy of extending loans to China. These "Nishihara loans" not only reverberated in U.S.-Japan relations for decades to come, but also impacted the Terauchi cabinet's decision to take part in a multilateral Siberian intervention. The domestic consequences of this intervention (the rice riots of 1918) would lead to the downfall of the cabinet and the shelving of pan-Asianist policies until the early 1930s. Economically, the 1920s were a decade of crises and reorientation in the postwar, mostly American-led order.


Nano-size TiNi powder prepared by electro explosion of TiNi wire process as processed by spark plasma sintering for 5 minutes at variable temperatures between 700 and 1000°C. The shape memory effect and crystallagraphy of both the powder and the sintered TiNi specimens were extensively characterized. The specimen sintered at a temperature of 700° showed high porosity and partial densification, but with apparent shape memory effect. By contrast, the specimens sintered at higher sintering temperatures above 900°C showed high density, but experienced extensive oxidation with teh resulting loss of the shape memory effect. High temperature sintering resulted in significant solid-state inter-diffusion of atoms and thus the formation of different intermetallic phases, such as NiTi2 and Ni3Ti. The phase transformation temperatures and enthalpies for the samples sintered at 700 and 800°C increased with increasing temperature. In addition, the differences between the start and finish transformation temperatures for the sintered specimens appear to be significantly narrower compared to those of the nano-powder.


Transparent conductive electrodes are an important part of LCD displays, solar cells, and lightemitting diodes, but a replacement must be found for indium tin oxide (ITO), which has become very expensive. One of the prime candidates is ZnO doped with Al, Ga, or In. Here we present a convenient analytical mobility model that yields donor ND and acceptor NA concentrations from Hall-effect measurements at a single temperature, including room temperature (RT). This model includes scattering from phonons and boundary imperfections as well as from ionized impurities and point defects. We apply it to films grown by pulsed laser deposition at 200 °C in 10 mTorr of pure Ar. For a film of thickness 275 nm, the Hall-effect measurements yield a RT resistivity ρ = 1.9 x 10-4 Ω-cm, mobility μ = 28 cm2/V-s, and carrier concentration n = 1.1 x 1021 cm-3, and the mobility model gives ND = 1.6 x 1021 cm-3 and NA = 4.9 x 1020 cm-3. Also, the transmittance is above 90% in the visible range. Annealing in forming gas gives ρ = 1.5 x 10-4 Ω-cm, mobility μ = 42 cm2/V-s, carrier concentration n = 1.0 x 1021 cm-3, ND = 1.1 x 1021 cm-3 and NA = 1.0 x 1020 cm-3. If the compensation ratio K = NA/ND can be maintained at about 0.1, and ND increased to about 3 x 1021 cm-3, then the model predicts a RT resistivity of less than 7 x 10-5 Ω-cm, well below present ITO values.