Introduction The benefits of short versus long-term dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) based on the third generation P2Y12 antagonists prasugrel or ticagrelor, in patients with acute coronary syndromes treated with percutaneous coronary intervention remain to be clearly defined due to current evidences limited to patients treated with clopidogrel. Methods All acute coronary syndrome patients from the REgistry of New Antiplatelets in patients with Myocardial Infarction (RENAMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and treated with aspirin, prasugrel or ticagrelor were stratified according to DAPT duration, that is, shorter than 12 months (D1 group), 12 months (D2 group) and longer than 12 months (D3 group). The three groups were compared before and after propensity score matching. Net adverse clinical events (NACEs), defined as a combination of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) and major bleedings (including therefore all cause death, myocardial infarction and Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) 3–5 bleeding), were the primary end points, MACEs (a composite of all cause death and myocardial infarction) the secondary one. Single components of NACEs were co-secondary end points, along with BARC 2–5 bleeding, cardiovascular death and stent thrombosis. Results A total of 4424 patients from the RENAMI registry with available data on DAPT duration were included in the model. After propensity score matching, 628 patients from each group were selected. After 20 months of follow up, DAPT for 12 months and DAPT for longer than 12 months significantly reduced the risk of NACE (D1 11.6% vs. D2 6.7% vs. D3 7.2%, p = 0.003) and MACE (10% vs. 6.2% vs. 2.4%, p < 0.001) compared with DAPT for less than 12 months. These differences were driven by a reduced risk of all cause death (7.8% vs. 1.3% vs. 1.6%, p < 0.001), cardiovascular death (5.1% vs. 1.0% vs. 1.2%, p < 0.0001) and recurrent myocardial infarction (8.3% vs. 5.2% vs. 3.5%, p = 0.002). NACEs were lower with longer DAPT despite a higher risk of BARC 2–5 bleedings (4.6% vs. 5.7% vs. 6.2%, p = 0.04) and a trend towards a higher risk of BARC 3–5 bleedings (2.4% vs. 3.3% vs. 3.9%, p = 0.06). These results were not consistent for female patients and those older than 75 years old, due to an increased risk of bleedings which exceeded the reduction in myocardial infarction. Conclusion In unselected real world acute coronary syndrome patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention, DAPT with prasugrel or ticagrelor prolonged beyond 12 months markedly reduces fatal and non-fatal ischaemic events, offsetting the increased risk deriving from the higher bleeding risk. On the contrary, patients >75 years old and female ones showed a less favourable risk–benefit ratio for longer DAPT due to excess of bleedings.


"Spa(R) … Could you tell me where I can find a spa(r)?" "Are you sure you want to find a spar?" A Chinese traveller, inquiring about the nearest spa while on a tour in South Africa, left the local hotel receptionist confused. This anecdote involved the overuse of the R-colouring sound and aroused my interest in rhoticity in China English. Rhoticity in English refers to 'the production of historical or orthographic /r/ in the syllable coda of words such as father and card" (Becker, 2014: 141). However, since the R-colouring sound in English, a simple allophone feature, does not distinguish word meanings, its pronunciation features and phonological environments have seldom been taught in EFL classes in China.


Testicular testosterone produced during a critical perinatal period is thought to masculinize and defeminize the male brain from the inherent feminization program and induce male-typical behaviors in the adult. These actions of testosterone appear to be exerted not through its androgenic activity, but rather through its conversion by brain aromatase into estrogen, with the consequent activation of estrogen receptor (ER)-mediated signaling. Thus, the role of androgen receptor (AR) in perinatal brain masculinization underlying the expression of male-typical behaviors remains unclear because of the conversion of testosterone into estrogen in the brain. Here, we report a null AR mutation in mice generated by the Cre-loxP system. The AR-null mutation in males (AR(L-/Y)) resulted in the ablation of male-typical sexual and aggressive behaviors, whereas female AR-null homozygote (AR(L-/L-)) mice exhibited normal female sexual behaviors. Treatment with nonaromatizable androgen (5alpha-dihydrotestosterone, DHT) was ineffective in restoring the impaired male sexual behaviors, but it partially rescued impaired male aggressive behaviors in AR(L-/Y) mice. Impaired male-typical behaviors in ERalpha(-/-) mice were restored on DHT treatment. The role of AR function in brain masculinization at a limited perinatal stage was studied in AR(L-/L-) mice. Perinatal DHT treatment of females led to adult females sensitive to both 17beta-estradiol and DHT in the induction of male-typical behaviors. However, this female brain masculinization was abolished by AR inactivation. Our results suggested that perinatal brain masculinization requires AR function and that expression of male-typical behaviors in adults is mediated by both AR-dependent and -independent androgen signaling.


Indium tin oxide (ITO) films had been deposited on glass substrate without substrate heating and then tungsten oxide (WO3) films were deposited on ITO films by DC magnetron sputtering. In this work, we present the annealing ambient effect of ITO substrate on electrochromic properties of WO3 films. The ITO films were annealing in air and in vacuum at 350°C before coating with WO3 films. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of ITO films for as-deposited, annealing in air and in vacuum were investigated by X-ray diffraction, UV-VIS-NIR spectroscope and four point probe. The ITO films had a better crystallinity and lager grain size after annealing in air and in vacuum. The resistivity of ITO films increase with annealing in air, but decrease with annealing in vacuum. The WO3 films show difference surface morphology with higher grain size and surface roughness when coating on annealed ITO films in both cases. The electrochemical properties of film systems were characterized by cyclic voltammetry. The film systems of ITO plus WO3 showed that the charge capacity of ITO substrate annealing in vacuum was higher than the as-deposited ITO substrate and the ITO substrate annealing in air, respectively. This result corresponded to electrical conductivity of each ITO substrate.


A hull-form for a 32,000G/T class Ro-Pax ferry has developed in accordance with a need of ferry operators to reduce fuel oil consumption(FOC) due to the drastic increase in oil prices recently and strengthening of environmental rules and regulations such as CO2 emission. A twin-skeg type is applied as the hull-form in lieu of an open-shaft type in order to improve propulsion performance. In order to achieve this object, flow control devices are installed to reduce a propeller induced vibration which is a main reason to obstruct the application of twin-skeg type passenger vessels owing to an uncomfortable vibration level. Numerical simulation by using an in-house code and a commercial code (Fluent) has performed to find out an optimum design of the flow control devices and to check an improvement in cavity volume. Model tests in Samsung Ship Model Basin are carried out to evaluate propulsion performance with the developed twin-skeg type hull and a reference hull of open-shaft type. In conclusion, it is shown that the twin-skeg type hull is better than the open-shaft in FOC by around 7% and in cavity volume by 20% as well.


We combine two approaches to describe an activated carbon which contains micro- and mesopores. We propose a simple approach of packing individual three-dimensional rigid structures to represent microporous region of commercially available BAM-P109 activated carbon. Mesopores are represented by planar walls interacting via the standard Steele 10-4-3 potential assuming experimental pore-size distribution. The models are used to predict n-perfluorohexane adsorption at 273 K temperature. We used uncharged united atom model for n-perfluorohexane molecule. The non-bonded interactions were described by the Gordon potential model, with parameters adjusted to reproduce the Mie force field potential, which was designed to accurately represent vapour pressure of alkanes and perfluoroalkanes. Adsorption isotherm was calculated using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo method implemented in MCCCS Towhee. We show that predicted n-perfluorohexane loading at relative pressures of interest are significantly lower than the experimental ones. The underprediction is attributed to the low aromatic carbon interaction strength and sensitive calculations of chemical potential. Adjusted interaction parameter of aromatic carbon and chemical potential led to n-perfluorohexane adsorption that agreed well with the reported experimental values.


Vehicle collisions result in many injuries and fatalities every year all around the world. A significant number of those incidents occur outside the roadway, partly owing to the incompatibility between the roadside safety hardware and impacting vehicles. Although the purpose of using roadside safety hardware is safely to contain impacting vehicles and reduce impact severity, use of inadequate safety hardware can have serious consequences. In this study, the crash behaviour of a currently used double W-beam transition barrier was analysed and its adequacy is evaluated using a series of five vehicular impacts. Finite element simulations were used to perform the analysis, and a full-scale crash test result was used to validate the finite element models used in the study. Results of the analysis predict that double W-beam transition can safely contain and redirect vehicles ranging from compact automobiles to high centre of gravity heavy trucks up to 10,000 kg in mass. Occupant injury risk values obtained from all five cases are also calculated and presented. Further use of computational tools in safety evaluation of the existing roadside safety hardware is strongly recommended.


The research aims to recognize the influence of mentioned historical stories at Quran on the artistic thoughts of the miniaturists in Islamic Manuscripts of medieval epoch and later 17 th century. Questioning if all four fundamental narrations of Sūrah Al-kahf had illuminated on papers of manuscripts or not, with giving chosen examples of miniatures explaining their details, investigating the compatibility of those details with divine text at verses of the Sūrah. The verses presented 4 main narrations; theme of The Companions of the Cave "Ashabu Al-Kahf "that leis between verses 9 –26, theme of the rich and the poor or the owner of 2 gardens that leis between verses 32 – 44, theme of Moses and Al-Al-Khiḍr that leis between verses 60–82, theme of Dhul-Qar-nayn with Gog and Magog between verses 83–98 from the same Sūrah. Although Sūrah Al kahf has another 5 th story of Iblis and Adam but this one is already repeated more times in other verses and chapters while the above 4 mentioned ones are only appeared across verses of Sūrah Alkahf which is the main topic of this article. Not only previous investigations had been introduced stories of Quran, but also full versions of manuscripts presented with Prophets' narrations like Syir Al-nabi [1] and manuscript of Falnameh [2] . While it is assured that no research focusing on stories of Sūrah Al-kahf, as it has been enjoyed various advantages and remarkable rewards at Muslim belief which gave it especial promotion on social thoughts and traditions. This encourages otherwise discussing history of Qur'an texts' reception and presentation through gate of Islamic miniature in the mentality of Muslim miniaturists in the medieval epoch. Study bases on verses of the sūrah narrating those stories and illustrated manuscripts gave the interest to its episodes with analyzing its compatibility with the divine texts. Keywords: Quran, Sūrah Al-kahf, Islamic Miniatures, Illustrated Manuscripts, Islamic painting, Art History, Historical stories, Religious texts.


This research investigates the stability and change of postmaterialist/ materialist value priorities of college students with longitudinal data collected on a Midwestern university campus from 1975 to 1978. Time series results suggest a trend toward materialism, with clear differences between value types regarding policy issues but not regarding sociopolitical backgrounds. Panel studies results indicate


Background Although the haemodynamic effects of oxygen in healthy subjects are well documented, there have been no well-controlled studies of the effects of oxygen in patients with heart failure (HF). Aims To non-invasively evaluate haemodynamic and neurohumoral effects of oxygen in patients with HF at rest. Methods and results 13 men with heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) were randomised in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial to receive medical air or oxygen (40% and high concentration via Hudson non-rebreathing mask). Haemodynamic measurements were made with applanation tonometry, impedance cardiography and venous occlusion plethysmography. Plasma C-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide and A-type natriuretic peptide were measured. Data were analysed with paired t tests. Cardiac output fell by −0.58 (0.62) l/min on high-flow oxygen compared with −0.02 (0.58) l/min on air, p=0.031. Oxygen caused a reduction in heart rate (−4.02 (4.21) vs 0.41 (5.35) beats/min, respectively, p=0.021) and a trend towards increased systemic vascular resistance (875 (1174) vs 235 (321) dyne/s/m5, p=0.050). Oxygen led to a paradoxical increase in forearm blood flow (0.513 (0.391) vs 0.024 (0.246) ml/min/100 ml forearm volume on air, p=0.01). Natriuretic peptides were unchanged with oxygen. Conclusions High-concentration inhaled oxygen has significant haemodynamic effects in patients with LVSD and mild HF. Such effects may be detrimental in patients with decompensated HF.


This paper describes a prototype application that gathers textual data from the microblogging platform Twitter and carries out sentiment analysis to determine the polarity and subjectivity in relation to Brexit, the UK´ s exit from the European Union. The design, implementation and testing of the developed prototype will be discussed and an experimental evaluation of the product described. Specifically we provide insight into how events affect public opinion and how sentiment and public mood may be gathered from textual twitter data and propose this as an alternative to opinion polls. Traditional approaches to opinion polling face growing challenges in capturing the public mood. Small sample response and the time it takes to capture swings in public opinion make it difficult to provide accurate data for the political process. With over 500 million daily messages posted worldwide, the social media platform Twitter is an untapped resource of information. Users post short real time messages views and opinions on many topics, often signed with a '#hashtag' to classify and document the subject matter in discussion. In this paper we apply automated sentiment analysis methods to tweets giving a measure of public support or hostility to a topic ('Brexit'). The data were collected during several periods to determine changes in opinion. Using machine learning techniques we show that changes in opinion were also related to external events. Limitations of the method are that age, location and education are confounding factors where Twitter users over represent a young, urban public. However, the economic advantage of the method over real-time telephone polling are considerable.


Ubiquinol-10 (QH2), the reduced form of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) serves as a potent antioxidant of lipid membranes. Because many antioxidants reveal potent anti-inflammatory effects, the influence of QH2 on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were determined in the human monocytic cell line THP-1. Stimulation of cells with LPS resulted in a distinct release of Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), Macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1α), Regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) and Monocyte chemotattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). The LPS-induced responses were significantly decreased by pre-incubation of cells with QH2 to 60.27 ± 9.3% (p = 0.0009), 48.13 ± 6.93% (p = 0.0007) and 74.36 ± 7.25% (p = 0.008) for TNF-α, MIP-1α and RANTES, respectively. In conclusion, our results indicate anti-inflammatory effects of the reduced form of CoQ10 on various proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in vitro.


The ionosphere is a dominant source of Global Positioning System receiver range measurement error. Although dual‐frequency receivers can eliminate the first‐order ionospheric error, most second‐ and third‐order errors remain in the range measurements. Higher‐order ionospheric error is a function of both electron density distribution and the magnetic field vector along the GPS signal propagation path. This paper expands previous efforts by combining incoherent scatter radar (ISR) electron density measurements, the International Reference Ionosphere model, exponential decay extensions of electron densities, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, and total electron content maps to compute higher‐order error at ISRs in Arecibo, Puerto Rico; Jicamarca, Peru; and Millstone Hill, Massachusetts. Diurnal patterns, dependency on signal direction, seasonal variation, and geomagnetic activity dependency are analyzed. Higher‐order error is largest at Arecibo with code phase maxima circa 7 cm for low‐elevation southern signals. The maximum variation of the error over all angles of arrival is circa 8 cm.


Based on the eikonalized Glauber representation of hadron-hadron scattering, we study the diffractive processes of p̄p and pp elastic scattering at high energies. From our theoretical calculations and fits to the corresponding experimental data at high energies and all available momentum transfer, we find that the Pomeron exchange contributions play a significant role in description of differential cross section dσ/dt in the whole experimental domain. The Pomeron exchange contributions are related to multi-gluon exchanges in QCD, which are color singlet bound state of Reggeized gluons, such as tensor glueball and Odderon. Accordingly, we may claim that the p̄p and pp diffractive processes at high energies s and moderate momentum transfer t would be a good tool to verify the existence of the color singlet multigluon bound states and to test QCD since QCD theory does predict the existence of these states. Therefore, we believe that the experimental measurement should be done for these diffractive processes.


Cabbage production is constrained by myriad of pest infestations reducing the farmers' profit margin substantially. The objectives of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different land preparation methods, reduce the use of conventional toxic pesticides in the management of cabbage pests, and make comparison of recorded parameters to determine change in pest density, injury and yield in two regions of Ghana. The effect of three different land preparation methods: planting on the flat, ridge and raised bed on pest infestations and yield of cabbage was investigated in 2012 and 2013 at Asiwa and Dormaa Ahenkro in Ghana respectively using Farmer Field School (FFS). This is a participatory method of learning, technology development, and dissemination. In the IPM fields, every pest management/ intervention was preceded by regular monitoring of pest populations to determine the need for chemical intervention. Data collected included insect pest population, plant injury and yield. Results indicated that there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) among the three different land preparation methods under both research (IPM) and Farmers practice for any of the parameters measured. However, comparison of recorded parameters to determine either per cent decrease or increase over farmers practice gave some remarkable difference from both locations. IPM technologies generated and transferred to the farmers through FFS would reduce the use of conventional pesticides in the management of cabbage pests, thus resulting in vegetables that are safer to produce and consume.


the complicated investigations Wartenberg would have discouraged. One trigeminal root had been decompressed; other authors had explored the trigeminal nerve to exclude tumours. Papers still continue to appear describing various aspects of interstitial neuritis as though they are rarities. R. A. Taylor' has described five generations involving 119 patients with "heredofamilial mononeuritis multiplex with brachial predilection". S. S. Jolly and A. Singh" have reported 20 cases of "neuralgic amyotrophy of the lower limbs", in which all biochemical and radiological investigations had revealed no abnormalities. D. W. Mulder, J. R. Calverley and R. H. Miller" in a very recent article have moved a long way in the direction of Wartenberg. They state that "autogenous mononeuropathy" is virtually the same disease whatever nerve is attacked; it often appears in healthy patients but may complicate systemic disease. The correct diagnosis, they say, depends on awareness of the disorder, and prevents the direction of extensive and expensive treatment to the wrong area.


The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between Teachers' Self-efficacy beliefs, locus of control and intercultural sensitivities and to analyze these variables based on various demographic variables. The data of the study were collected through teachers' locus of control scale developed by Sadowski, Taylor, Woodward, Peacher, & Martin (1982) adopted into Turkish by Bulus (2011), teachers' self-efficacy beliefs scale developed by Dellinger, Bobbett, Olivier, & Ellet (2008) adopted into Turkish by Taskin & Haciomeroglu (2010) and Intercultural Sensitivity scale developed by Chen & Starosta (2000) adopted into Turkish by Bulduk, Tosun, & Ardic (2011). The research is a descriptive study in relational screening model. 237 volunteer teachers who worked in different schools all of which are in the city of Bursa participated in the research. According to the results of the research, the self-efficacy beliefs of the teachers participating in the research differ significantly from the variables studied in the scope of the research according to the branch and seniority variables. The intercultural sensitivity of the teachers differed significantly only according to the seniority variable. It has been determined that the level of locus of control of teachers is not significantly different from the variables studied in the scope of the research. It was determined that there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers' self-efficacy beliefs; intercultural sensitivity and locus of control levels. It was also found that self-efficacy beliefs and intercultural sensitivity variables together account for 30% of change in locus of control.


Gas bearings in microturbomachinery (MTM) offer significant system level benefits, such as improved fuel efficiency, reduction in weight and number of components, extending life cycle and maintenance intervals, and reducing NOX emissions with a lower CO2 footprint. Emerging opportunities for gas bearings applications range from automotive turbochargers to engines for business jet aircraft, for example. Gas bearings, because of the inherently low gas viscosity, have low damping relative to oil-lubricated bearings and are prone to wear during rotor start-up and shut down procedures. The lack of damping brings concerns about rotor-gas bearing system robustness and endurance to tolerate shock induced loads, sudden while landing in jet engines, or intermittent in vehicles while moving across a rough terrain, for example. The paper demonstrates the reliability of a hybrid gas bearing system from rotor vibration measurements induced by sporadic shock loads acting on the base of a test rig and while the rotor is coasting down from a top speed of 60 krpm (1000 Hz). In the tests, (1) an electromagnetic pusher delivers impacts to the rig base, or (2) the whole rig is manually tilted and dropped. The test rig consists of a rigid rotor, 0.825 kg and 28.6 mm in diameter, supported on two flexure pivot tilting pad type, hybrid gas bearings, each with four pads and 60% pivot offset and 0.6 mm feeding holes. The bearings are supplied with feed pressures of 2.36, 3.72, and 5.08 bar (ab). Intermittent shocks, up to 30 g pk-pk and exciting a broad frequency range to 400 Hz, produce a remarkable momentary increase of the overall rotor response amplitude, up to 50 μm (pk-pk). The shocks readily excite the fundamental natural frequency of the rotor-bearing system (150–200 Hz), and on occasion the natural frequency (40 Hz) of the whole test rig. For operation at rotor speeds above the system critical speed, the rotor synchronous response is isolated; with transient motions induced by a shock, subsynchronous in whirl frequency, quickly disappearing. Full recovery takes place in ∼0.10 second. The measurements demonstrate that the hybrid gas bearings have enough damping to rapidly attenuate rotor transient motions and to dissipate the energy induced from intermittent shocks. Note that the shocks acted while the rotor traversed its critical speeds. The reliability of engineered gas bearings to forced transient events is no longer in question.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) can progress to malignant metastatic cancer, including an aggressive subtype known as spindle cell carcinoma (spSCC). spSCC formation involves epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), yet the molecular basis of this event remains unknown. The transcriptional co-activator YAP undergoes recurrent amplification in human SCC and overexpression of YAP drives SCC formation in mice. Here, we show that human spSCC tumours also feature strong nuclear localisation of YAP and overexpression of activated YAP (NLS-YAP-5SA) with Keratin-5 (K5-CreERt) is sufficient to induce rapid formation of both SCC and spSCC in mice. spSCC tumours arise at sites of epithelial scratch wounding, where tumour-initiating epithelial cells undergo EMT to generate spSCC. Expression of the EMT transcription factor ZEB1 arises upon wounding and is a defining characteristic of spSCC in mice and humans. Thus, the wound healing response synergises with YAP to drive metaplastic transformation of SCC to spSCC.


Each of the four critical Severi varieties arises from a minimal holomorphic nilpotent orbit in a simple regular rank 3 hermitian Lie algebra and each such variety lies as singular locus in a cubic—the chordal variety—in the corresponding complex projective space; the cubic and projective space are identified in terms of holomorphic nilpotent orbits. The projective space acquires an exotic Kähler structure with three strata, the cubic is an example of an exotic projective variety with two strata, and the corresponding Severi variety is the closed stratum in the exotic variety as well as in the exotic projective space. In the standard cases, these varieties arise also via Kähler reduction. An interpretation in terms of constrained mechanical systems


Background & Aims of the Study : Consumption of honey has remarkably increased in the last years all over the world. Factors such as plant species, environmental, processing, and storing condition are affecting honey quality. The purpose of this study was to evaluation of Hygienic quality of honey samples produced from Qazvin province. Materials and Methods: 34 fresh honey Samples were obtained from beekeepers from different regions of the alamut area in the period between June and November 2011. The microbial contamination (bacteria and fungi) was determined using conventional microbiological methods and the total aflatoxin was detected by "high performance liquid chromatography" (HPLC). Results: The results of microbial analysis showed that the aerobic mesophil bacteria count (50 cfu/g) and fungal count (1.5*10 2 cfu/g) were in low levels. However, coliforms were not detected in any of the honey sample. The most prevalent bacteria and fungi were Bacillus cereus and Aspergillus flavus respectively. Based on the HPLC method analysis, all of honey samples were contaminated whit aflatoxin and the mean concentration of aflatoxin was 3.67 ppb. Also the aflatoxin levels in 35% honey samples were higher than the maximum allowable amount of Europe Union (4 µg/kg). Conclusion : According to the results, should have more control on the Hygienic quality of honey over the production, storage and supply periods in this area.


Background In hypertrophic scar tissue, no sweet gland and hair follicle exist usually because of the dermal and epidermal damage in extensive thermal skin injury, thus imparing regulation of body temperature. This study was designed to reveal the morphological and distributional characteristics of the sweat glands in normal skin and hypertrophic scar obtained from children and adults, and to study the possible interfering effects of the scar on regeneration of the sweat gland after burn injury. Methods Biopsies of hypertrophic scar were taken from four children (4-10 years) and four adults (35-51 years). Normal, uninjured full-thickness skin adjacent to the scar of each patient was used as control. Keratin 19 (K19) was used as the marker for epidermal stem cells and secretory portion of the sweat glands, and keratin 14 (K14) for the tube portion, respectively. Immunohistochemical and histological evaluations were performed. Results Histological and immunohistochemical staining of skin tissue sections from both the children and adults showed K19 positive cells in the basement membrane of epidermis of normal skin. These cells were seen only single layer and arranged regularly. The secretory or duct portion of the eccrine sweat glands was situated in the dermis and epidermal layer. However, in the scar tissue, K19 positive cells were scant in the basal layer, and the anatomic location of the secretory portion of sweat glands changed. They were located between the border of the scar and reticular layer of the dermis. These secretory portions of sweat glands were expanded and were organized irregularly. But a few K14 positive cells were scattered in the scar tissues in cyclic form.Conclusions There are some residual sweat glands in scar tissues, in which the regeneration process of active sweat glands is present. Possibly the sweat glands could regenerate from adult epidermal stem cells or residual sweat glands in the wound bed after burn injury.


A thorough understanding of the network impact of emerging large-scale distributed systems -- where traffic flows and what it costs -- must encompass users' behavior, the traffic they generate and the topology over which that traffic flows. In the case of BitTorrent, however, previous studies have been limited by narrow perspectives that restrict such analysis. This paper presents a comprehensive view of BitTorrent, using data from a representative set of 500,000 users sampled over a two year period, located in 169 countries and 3,150 networks. This unique perspective captures unseen trends and reveals several unexpected features of the largest peer-to-peer system. For instance, over the past year total BitTorrent traffic has increased by 12%, driven by 25% increases in per-peer hourly download volume despite a 10% decrease in the average number of online peers. We also observe stronger diurnal usage patterns and, surprisingly given the bandwidth-intensive nature of the application, a close alignment between these patterns and overall traffic. Considering the aggregated traffic across access links, this has potential implications on BitTorrent-associated costs for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Using data from a transit ISP, we find a disproportionately large impact on a commonly used burstable (95th-percentile) billing model. Last, when examining BitTorrent traffic's paths, we find that for over half its users, most network traffic never reaches large transit networks, but is instead carried by small transit ISPs. This raises questions on the effectiveness of most in-network monitoring systems to capture trends on peer-to-peer traffic and further motivates our approach.


A further example of diffuse pulmonary hypersensitivity to an inhaled organic antigen is reported. A 42-year-old maltworker, who developed an illness resembling farmer's lung, was found to have been heavily exposed to the spores of Aspergillus clavatus. Precipitating and complement-fixing antibodies against an extract of A. clavatus were detected in his serum, a late (Arthus-type) reaction was produced by intradermal injection of the same extract, and a pyrexial reaction, accompanied by a reduction in forced vital capacity and carbon monoxide transfer factor, occurred 6 hours after the inhalation of spores of A. clavatus. Two of the patient's four workmates complained of similar but less severe symptoms, and their sera also contained specific antibodies. Although the spores of A. clavatus and of Cryptostroma corticale, the fungus responsible for maple-bark disease, are much larger than the 1 μ spores of Micropolyspora sp., they may give rise to a diffuse pulmonary hypersensitivity reaction indistinguishable from that observed in farmer's lung. This suggests that the occurrence of such a reaction is not necessarily related to the size of the inhaled particles, and there is reason to believe that the concentration of spores or other antigenic particles in the inspired air may in this respect be more important than their size. The pulmonary hypersensitivity in this group of disorders appears to be a precipitin-mediated (type III) response to a variety of inhaled antigens, but some of these antigens may in certain patients, presumably atopic individuals, also provoke a reagin-mediated (type I) bronchial hypersensitivity reaction. It is suggested that a term such as `allergic alveolitis' or `extrinsic allergic alveolitis' may suitably be used to describe the group of diseases caused by pulmonary hypersensitivity to inhaled organic antigens.


Interferometric observations of two well-known Be stars, γ Cas and ϕ Per, were collected and analyzed to determine the spatial characteristics of their circumstellar regions. The observations were obtained using the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer equipped with custom-made narrowband filters. The filters isolate the Hα emission line from the nearby continuum radiation, which results in an increased contrast between the interferometric signature due to the Hα-emitting circumstellar region and the central star. Because the narrowband filters do not significantly attenuate the continuum radiation at wavelengths 50 nm or more away from the line, the interferometric signal in the Hα channel is calibrated with respect to the continuum channels. The observations used in this study represent the highest spatial resolution measurements of the Hα-emitting regions of Be stars obtained to date. These observations allow us to demonstrate for the first time that the intensity distribution in the circumstellar region of a Be star cannot be represented by uniform disk or ringlike structures, whereas a Gaussian intensity distribution appears to be fully consistent with our observations.


In this paper, axisymmetric free vibration analysis of a circular Nano-plate having variable thickness was studied. The variation in thickness of plate was considered as a linearly in radial direction. Nonlocal elasticity theory was utilized to take into account size-dependent effects. Ritz functions was utilized to obtain the frequency equations for simply supported and clamped boundary. To verify accuracy of Ritz method, differential transform method (DTM) also used to drive the size dependent natural frequencies of circular nano-plates. The validity of solutions was performed by comparing present results with those of the literature for both classical plate and nano plate. Effect of nonlocal parameter, mode number and taper parameter on the natural frequency are investigated. Results showed that taper parameter has significant effect on the non-dimensional frequency and its effects on the clamped boundary condition is more than simply support. © 2018 IAU, Arak Branch. All rights reserved.


Owing to the expeditious growth in the information and communication technologies, smart cities have raised the expectations in terms of efficient functioning and management. One key aspect of residents' daily comfort is assured through affording reliable traffic management and route planning. Comprehensively, the majority of the present trip planning applications and service providers are enabling their trip planning recommendations relying on shortest paths and/or fastest routes. However, such suggestions may discount drivers' preferences with respect to safe and less disturbing trips. Road anomalies such as cracks, potholes, and manholes induce risky driving scenarios and can lead to vehicles damages and costly repairs. Accordingly, in this paper, we propose a crowdsensing based dynamic route planning system. Leveraging both the vehicle motion sensors and the inertial sensors within the smart devices, road surface types and anomalies have been detected and categorized. In addition, the monitored events are geo-referenced utilizing GPS receivers on both vehicles and smart devices. Consequently, road segments assessments are conducted using fuzzy system models based on aspects such as the number of anomalies and their severity levels in each road segment. Afterward, another fuzzy model is adopted to recommend the best trip routes based on the road segments quality in each potential route. Extensive road experiments are held to build and show the potential of the proposed system.


1. We recorded single-unit and multi-unit activity in response to transient presentation of texture and grating patterns at 25 sites within the parafoveal representation of V1, V2, and V3 of two awake monkeys trained to perform a fixation task. In grating experiments, stimuli varied in orientation, spatial frequency, or both. In texture experiments, stimuli varied in contrast, check size, texture type, or pairs of these attributes. 2. To examine the nature and precision of temporal coding, we compared individual responses elicited by each set of stimuli in terms of two families of metrics. One family of metrics, D(spike), was sensitive to the absolute spike time (following stimulus onset). The second family of metrics, D(interval), was sensitive to the pattern of interspike intervals. In each family, the metrics depend on a parameter q, which expresses the precision of temporal coding. For q = 0, both metrics collapse into the "spike count" metric D(Count), which is sensitive to the number of impulses but insensitive to their position in time. 3. Each of these metrics, with values of q ranging from 0 to 512/s, was used to calculate the distance between all pairs of spike trains within each dataset. The extent of stimulus-specific clustering manifest in these pairwise distances was quantified by an information measure. Chance clustering was estimated by applying the same procedure to synthetic data sets in which responses were assigned randomly to the input stimuli. 4. Of the 352 data sets, 170 showed evidence of tuning via the spike count (q = 0) metric, 294 showed evidence of tuning via the spike time metric, 272 showed evidence of tuning via the spike interval metric to the stimulus attribute (contrast, check size, orientation, spatial frequency, or texture type) under study. Across the entire dataset, the information not attributable to chance clustering averaged 0.042 bits for the spike count metric, 0.171 bits for the optimal spike time metric, and 0.107 bits for the optimal spike interval metric. 5. The reciprocal of the optimal cost q serves as a measure of the temporal precision of temporal coding. In V1 and V2, with both metrics, temporal precision was highest for contrast (ca. 10-30 ms) and lowest for texture type (ca. 100 ms). This systematic dependence of q on stimulus attribute provides a possible mechanism for the simultaneous representation of multiple stimulus attributes in one spike train. 6. Our findings are inconsistent with Poisson models of spike trains. Synthetic data sets in which firing rate was governed by a time-dependent Poisson process matched to the observed poststimulus time histogram (PSTH) overestimated clustering induced by D(count) and, for low values of q, D(spike)[q] and D(intervals)[q]. Synthetic data sets constructed from a modified Poisson process, which preserved not only the PSTH but also spike count statistics accounted for the clustering induced by D(count) but underestimated the clustering induced by D(spike)[q] and D(interval)[q].


: Among fourteen patients with disruption of the thoracic esophagus, the overall mortality rate was 36%. The mortality was greatly reduced in a group of five of these patients who were treated by closed-chest tube drainage and intravenous hyperalimentation. The cause of death in most cases was sepsis and malnutrition. Although the ideal treatment in early cases of eosphageal disruption is thoracotomy and direct suture, it is believed that in patients presenting late, in old and debilitated patients, and in cases of a leaking thoracic anastomosis, the mortality will be greatly improved by the use, primarily, of conservative measures,, with the addition of intravenous hyperlimentation.


One way to construct, from filled polygons, a hollow beam with polygonal cross section is to make prismatic sections from squares or rectangles and attach these back-to-back. In this paper, we explore an alternative way, based on folding a single strip of rhombuses into a discrete helix. By taking rhombuses with an appropriate aspect ratio, you can control the cross section of the resulting beam. Using a rhombus with an aspect ratio of v2 : 1 yields a triangular beam. This rhombus turns out to be a particularly fruitful construction element (alas, discontinued by Polydron). Triangular beams of this kind can be connected at an angle, in various ways, without cutting rhombuses. The resulting joints are regular miter joints, or false miter joints. We provide a mathematical analysis and show some elegant shapes constructed from such triangular rhombus-based beams. One of these shapes is a doubly-linked octagon. Another shape is a trefoil knot, which can be linked into an interesting space-spanning structure known as triamond, and that led to the Bamboozle.


This article reads Lovecraft's weird fiction in relation to his historically-minded eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century precursors. In Lovecraft's essay 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' (1927) the first text he focuses on at length is Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1764), a supernatural tale which, he claims, exerted a virtually unparalleled influence on weird literature. Forming a distorted mirror image of Georg Lukacs's description of Otranto as a piece of costumery that nonetheless becomes the most famous historical novel of the eighteenth century, Lovecraft's equivocal praise places Walpole in a tradition of cosmic horror that also includes Clara Reeve, William Godwin, and Walter Scott (Lukacs, The Historical Novel, p. 19) . Yet the relationship between Lovecraft's fiction and these earlier writers of historical fiction has been more assumed than explored. Aware of history as a malleable and potentially destructive force, these precursors search for an alternative tradition to the 'divine right' of kings on which to base the British constitution. In the process, they both interrogate the idea of Anglo-Saxon liberty and exploit the progressive narratives of stadial history. Lovecraft follows their historical experiments in search of liberty, constructing a prosthetic past in an attempt to interpret the American people and their constitution. Despite Lovecraft's horror of labor unrest and miscegenation, his racist political vision is, as a result, haunted by the radical and progressive potential of these past traditions.


The essence of hunting as a historical phenomenon cannot be defined in the economic aspect alone. In the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period, it was a multi-faceted symbiotic relationship combining both the daily life of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the economic life of the state, and even foreign policy. It also partially shaped the image of the sovereign and legitimated his power. Hunted animals provided meat, bone material, furs, skins, and other products necessary for the needs of the ruler's court. This article represents the latest research on the prices and value of the hunted animals and the products made from them in late fifteenth century and the second half of the sixteenth century in the environment of the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The second part of the analysis reveals the variety and prices of different products made from the hunted animals and their use.


We propose a novel approach, i.e., a noisy chaotic neural network with variable thresholds (NCNN-VT), to solve the frequency assignment problem in satellite communications. The objective of this NP-complete optimization problem is to minimize cochannel interference between two satellite systems by rearranging frequency assignments. The NCNN-VT model consists N times M of noisy chaotic neurons for an N-carrier M-segment problem. The NCNN-VT facilitates the interference minimization by mapping the objective to variable thresholds (biases) of the neurons. The performance of the NCNN-VT is demonstrated by solving a set of benchmark problems and randomly generated test instances. The NCNN-VT achieves better solutions, i.e., smaller interference with much lower computation cost compared to existing algorithms.


Magnetic bead-based lab-on-a-chip systems offer significant advantages compared to more conventional systems, mainly through the possibility of controlled manipulation of the magnetic carriers on-chip. In particular, microfluidic immunoassays using functionalized magnetic beads raise increasing interest. We present here a new approach for performing immuno-agglutination assays on-chip. Our system is based on a quadrupolar magnetic field set-up. Dynamic actuation of a confined plug of functionalized magnetic beads is used for analyte capture in a microchannel. A simple detection method based on the swelling of the released plug after agglutination is presented. We demonstrate the feasibility of on-chip agglutination tests by means of a streptavidin/biotinylated-bovine serum albumin (bBSA) model assay. A detection limit of about 200 pg/mL (approximately 3 pM) is achieved.


This paper reports a method of assessing the implications for human error on system requirements, a topic not usually considered during requirements engineering (RE). In our previous work, we proposed a taxonomy of influencing factors that might contribute to human error. This paper takes the taxonomy and elaborates it to suggest generic requirements to deal with problems in different layers of the taxonomy. Components of the taxonomy are combined into a causal model for error, represented as a Bayesian Belief Net (BBN). BBNs model the error influences arising from user knowledge, ability and the task environment. These are combined with factors describing the complexity of action and user interface quality in scenarios of projected system usage. The BBN model predicts probabilities of slips and mistakes. These are assessed according to action types in the scenario to suggest generic requirements to prevent the error or to deal with its consequences.


Based on the classical electrostatic theory, the distributions of potential and electrical field at the apex of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs), both in normal-gate type triode structure and under-gate type triode structure, were simulated and calculated respectively. The gate electrode's position and gate aperture's effect on CNTs' field emission characteristics were analyzed. The results indicate that under-gate structure, compared with normal-gate structure, has better field emission performance and lower threshold voltage. Both the gate aperture and the distance between gate electrode and CNTs' apex have crucial effect on field enhancement factors of normal-gate structure and under-gate structure.


Studies of paleo–sea level and past climate have focused upon proxy methods in ice and deep-sea cores and more direct information provided by past shorelines, in some cases preserved as raised or submerged reef deposits in tropical areas. Paleo-shorelines need to be constrained by accurate tectonic history because these environments and their marine deposits can be confused with past tsunami deposits and vice versa. A maximum 21-m-high extensive emerged reef on Oahu, Hawaii, U-series dated to 334 ± 17 ka, together with a mean U-series age of 335 ± 22 ka (n = 5) for slightly higher, energetic shoreline deposits nearby, suggest a marine isotope stage 9 (MIS 9) highstand, and extend the earlier work indicating a linear uplift for Oahu of 0.060 ± 0.001 mm/yr over the past 500 k.y. Five of the past six major emerged interglacial highstand reefs on Oahu have been identified, and these data provide little evidence for past maximum sea levels significantly greater than 2 m above the sea level datum at that time. There is currently no evidence for a MIS 11 highstand on Oahu.


This paper will report on work undertaken in the context of understanding more about the roles of non-university public research institutes in the European Union context. We have undertaken a historical review, mapping and characterisation of metrology research institutes, including interviews with senior managers to understand the evolution and recent changes in the institutes. We then undertook a foresight exercise, again with the managers and related experts, to gain an understanding of drivers for change and future scenarios.This sector is extremely interesting as it shows how managers have formulated and orchestrated a new funding model, namely a European programme of metrology research, which is now implemented as an Article 169 action. Highly diverse organisations (in terms of size, funding and research capacity, as well as in national context) now coordinate and share a common R&D programme, mainly as a response to static or dwindling budgets for research and also anticipating competitive threats from outside Europe. This case demonstrates the need for pro-active strategic management which goes well beyond the institutional boundary, into national policy and European decision-making. As other areas of European research begin to think about the importance of European cooperation, this sector allows some interesting lesions to be drawn.


BACKGROUND
Evidence continues to accumulate that oxidative stress is etiologically important in the pathogenesis of age-related maculopathy (ARM) and that appropriate antioxidants of dietary origin may protect against this condition.

OBJECTIVE
Risk factors for ARM may be classed as established or putative. We report a study designed to investigate whether such risk factors are associated with a dietary lack of antioxidants relevant to retinal health.

DESIGN
Dietary, anthropometric, and sociodemographic details relating to 828 healthy Irish subjects aged 20-60 y were recorded in a cross-sectional fashion and analyzed for associations between risk factors for ARM and dietary intake of relevant nutrients.

RESULTS
Of the established risk factors for ARM, increasing age was associated with a relative lack of dietary zeaxanthin (P < 0.05) and tobacco use with a relative lack of dietary vitamin C (P < 0.05). Of the putative risk factors for ARM, alcohol consumption was associated with a relative lack of dietary alpha-linoleic acid (P < 0.05), and female sex was associated with a relative lack of dietary zinc (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
We showed that several variables related to risk for ARM are associated with a relative dietary lack of key nutrients. Our finding that age, the most important and universal risk factor for ARM, is associated with a relative lack of dietary zeaxanthin, is an important finding that warrants further investigation.


We evaluate the lifetime attributable risks induced by an increasing concentration of cosmic radiation and cosmogenic radionuclides during periods of low solar activity for the specific conditions in the Czech Republic. The concentration of cosmic radiation and cosmogenic radionuclides reaches its highest values during the solar minima when the Earth's magnetosphere is more penetrable. The computed estimate of lifetime attributable risks from solid neoplasms (colon, lung, and stomach) induced by doses of natural background radiation is higher for the period of low activity in solar cycle No. 24 than for the forced solar activity in the previous solar cycle Nos. 19–23. We estimated the lifetime attributable risks induced by the annual dose of natural background radiation by sex for the Czech Republic and the USA. In addition, three different scenarios based on dose radiation level were explored. The cosmogenic radionuclides in our environment may thus play a greater role than in the last decades.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Recombinant equine growth hormone (reGH) has recently been evaluated for effects on body condition and wound healing. It has the potential to influence articular cartilage via stimulation of IGF-1.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate effects of administration on synovial joint metabolism.

METHODS
Six mature horses were given 20 microg/kg bwt reGH daily for 8 weeks by i.m. injection. Three control horses were injected with sterile water. Serum and synovial fluid samples were collected at 6, 8, 11 and 16 weeks for GH and IGF-1 assays. Articular cartilage harvested at week 16 was evaluated by Western analysis using monoclonal antibodies BC-13, BC-4, 8-A-4 and CH-3.

RESULTS
Concentrations of IGF-1 in serum and synovial fluid were significantly elevated (P < 0.05) at 6 and 8 weeks in the reGH group. Glycosaminoglycan concentrations in synovial fluid were significantly less than controls at these time points, suggesting that reGH may modulate proteoglycan metabolism in articular cartilage. In the reGH group, there were not any alterations in synovial fluid content of 3B3(-) epitope or aggrecan metabolite, or in aggrecan or link protein catabolites retained within cartilage, that might be expected with development of osteoarthritis.

CONCLUSIONS
Intramuscular administration of reGH may be a more efficient means of delivery of IGF-1 to joints for cartilage resurfacing initiatives.

POTENTIAL RELEVANCE
We found no alterations in cartilage metabolism indicative of development of osteoarthritis.


The prevalence of learning providers for third agers continues to expand alongside the growth of the older adult population, yet there remains little empirical evidence on what types of learning experiences are most desired by lifelong learners. This article examines the effects that different learning topics have on attendance at classes hosted by a university-based lifelong learning institute, asking, Which learning topics draw enrollment in a lifelong learning program? Registration data were collected from 7,332 attendees of 290 learning experiences held over four semesters; class topics were coded and analyzed using a multivariate regression procedure. Results indicate that lifelong learners are more interested in classes concerning global issues, religion/philosophy, and social issues focusing on particular groups and individuals. The results remain significant after accounting for structural arrangements such as class time, day of the week, number of sessions, and location. Implications for enhancing lifelong learning experiences and programs are discussed.


Learning discriminative image representations plays a vital role in long-tailed image classification because it can ease the classifier learning in imbalanced cases. Given the promising performance contrastive learning has shown recently in representation learning, in this work, we explore effective supervised contrastive learning strategies and tailor them to learn better image representations from imbalanced data in order to boost the classification accuracy thereon. Specifically, we propose a novel hybrid network structure being composed of a supervised contrastive loss to learn image representations and a cross-entropy loss to learn classifiers, where the learning is progressively transited from feature learning to the classifier learning to embody the idea that better features make better classifiers. We explore two variants of contrastive loss for feature learning, which vary in the forms but share a common idea of pulling the samples from the same class together in the normalized embedding space and pushing the samples from different classes apart. One of them is the recently proposed supervised contrastive (SC) loss, which is designed on top of the state-of-the-art unsupervised contrastive loss by incorporating positive samples from the same class. The other is a prototypical supervised contrastive (PSC) learning strategy which addresses the intensive memory consumption in standard SC loss and thus shows more promise under limited memory budget. Extensive experiments on three long-tailed classification datasets demonstrate the advantage of the proposed contrastive learning based hybrid networks in long-tailed classification.


ABSTRACTThis article focuses on natural, institutional, and human factors threatening archaeological sites. A methodology is developed for assessing risks to multiple assets on a territorial scale. The methodology consists of hazard assessment, vulnerability assessment, and risk assessment. Hazard assessment involves identifying hazard exposure areas and measuring the frequency and intensity of each hazard. Vulnerability assessment incorporates examining physical, managerial, and contextual vulnerabilities of structures and remains. Geographical information systems are utilised for producing hazard, vulnerability, and risk maps. An overall picture of risks for an entire territory allows decision-makers to make informed decisions at an upstream level to limit further degradation and ensure the preservation of archaeological assets. The methodology was tested by conducting a comprehensive study in Izmir (Turkey), where 229 archaeological sites located in 21 metropolitan districts were studied. The proposed ...


ABSTRACT We disrupted the rtxC gene on the chromosome of Bradyrhizobium elkanii USDA94 by insertion of a nonpolar aph cartridge. The rtxC mutant, designated ΔrtxC, produced serinol and dihydrorhizobitoxine but no rhizobitoxine, both in culture and in planta. The introduction of cosmids harboring the rtxC gene into the ΔrtxC mutant complemented rhizobitoxine production, suggesting that rtxC is involved in the final step of rhizobitoxine biosynthesis in B. elkanii USDA94. Glycine max cv. Lee inoculated with ΔrtxC or with a null mutant, Δrtx::Ω1, showed no foliar chlorosis, whereas the wild-type strain USDA94 caused severe foliar chlorosis. The two mutants showed significantly less nodulation competitiveness than the wild-type strain on Macroptilium atropurpureum. These results indicate that dihydrorhizobitoxine, the immediate precursor of the oxidative form of rhizobitoxine, has no distinct effect on nodulation phenotype in these legumes. Thus, desaturation of dihydrorhizobitoxine by rtxC-encoded protein is essential for the bacterium to show rhizobitoxine phenotypes in planta. In addition, complementation analysis of rtxC by cosmids differing in rtxC transcription levels suggested that rhizobitoxine production correlates with the amount of rtxC transcript.


Aim of study: Human settlements and activities have completely modified landscape structure in the Mediterranean region. Vegetation patterns show the interactions between human activities and natural processes on the territory, and allow understanding historical ecological processes and socioeconomic factors. The arrangement of land uses in the rural landscape can be perceived as a proxy for human activities that often lead to the use, and escape, of fire, the most important disturbance in our forest landscapes. In this context, we tried to predict human-caused fire occurrence in a 5-year period by quantifying landscape patterns. Area of study: This study analyses the Spanish territory included in the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands (497,166 km 2 ). Material and Methods : We evaluated spatial pattern applying a set of commonly used landscape ecology metrics to landscape windows of 10x10 sq km (4751 units in the UTM grid) overlaid on the Forest Map of Spain, MFE200. Main results : The best logistic regression model obtained included Shannon's Diversity Index, Mean Patch Edge and Mean Shape Index as explicative variables and the global percentage of correct predictions was 66.3 %. Research highlights : Our results suggested that the highest probability of fire occurrence at that time was associated with areas with a greater diversity of land uses and with more compact patches with fewer edges. Keywords: human-caused wildfires; landscape ecology; logistic regression.


In the Solar System, planets have a small inclination with respect to the equatorial plane of the Sun, but there is evidence that in extrasolar systems the inclination can be very high. This spin-orbit misalignment is unexpected, as planets form in a protoplanetary disc supposedly aligned with the stellar spin. Planet-planet interactions are supposed to lead to a mutual inclination, but the effects of the protoplanetary disc are still unknown. We investigate therefore planet-disc interactions for planets above 1M_Jup. We check the influence of the inclination i, eccentricity e, and mass M_p of the planet. We perform 3D numerical simulations of protoplanetary discs with embedded high-mass planets. We provide damping formulae for i and e as a function of i, e, and M_p that fit the numerical data. For highly inclined massive planets, the gap opening is reduced, and the damping of i occurs on time-scales of the order of 10^-4 deg/yr M_disc/(0.01 M_star) with the damping of e on a smaller time-scale. While the inclination of low planetary masses (<5M_Jup) is always damped, large planetary masses with large i can undergo a Kozai-cycle with the disc. These Kozai-cycles are damped in time. Eccentricity is generally damped, except for very massive planets (M_p = 5M_Jup) where eccentricity can increase for low inclinations. The dynamics tends to a final state: planets end up in midplane and can then, over time, increase their eccentricity as a result of interactions with the disc. The interactions with the disc lead to damping of i and e after a scattering event of high-mass planets. If i is sufficiently reduced, the eccentricity can be pumped up because of interactions with the disc. If the planet is scattered to high inclination, it can undergo a Kozai-cycle with the disc that makes it hard to predict the exact movement of the planet and its orbital parameters at the dispersal of the disc.


2013 News Literacy Leaders Conference Photos (Hi-Resolution Photographs) 5616 x 37441/100 sec / 3.2135 mm ISO 800 Canon EOS 5D Mark II.


Digital dating abuse (DDA), which is the use of social media and mobile phones to abuse a dating partner, is a common and harmful form of dating violence among youths. To date, this issue has not been studied among Latinx youths. The current study examined DDA among a sample of 70 Latinx youths with dating experience, using survey data on participants' experiences with traditional forms of offline dating violence, DDA victimization and perpetration, healthy relationship knowledge, and self-reported conflict resolution skills. Results showed that Latinx youths experienced DDA and that there was a strong link between DDA and offline forms of dating abuse. Most participants reported high levels of healthy relationship knowledge and conflict resolution skills, but results indicated a link between DDA experience and fewer positive conflict resolution behaviors. The study has implications for the assessment and prevention of DDA among diverse populations of youths, supports the incorporation of conflict resolution skills in dating violence prevention efforts, and calls for future research on the cultural context of DDA among Latinx youths.


In this study, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the jet and plume behavior in order to determine the optimum discharge conditions for different scenarios. The model was divided into two sub-models, describing respectively the near and intermediate field properties of the discharge for different inclinations and bottom slope. The lateral spreading and electrical conductivity was also described through a generalization of measured data. The predictions of the model were compared with experimental data collected in lab as well as results obtained with a commercial software CORMIX. A Matlab code was also developed describing the lateral spreading and centerline dilution of buoyant jet and plumes for near and intermediate field was developed. The model produces results in acceptable agreement with data and observations, even though some improvements should be made in order to give the correct weight to the bottom slope parameter and to reduce the need for user calibration. This study has limited result for only 16% bottom slope and 30 degrees inclination. Concentration was improved with the bottom slope by 10% than the horizontal bottoms and improved by about 40% with bottom slope together with inclination of 30 degrees. (Less)


Little seems reported about group-based rehearsals of popular music and the peer
learning opportunities that might arise from this activity. Although there are an
increasing number of studies exploring approaches to the assessment of musical
ensembles, they often focus on performance rather than rehearsing and, typically, do
not specifically address popular music courses (Hunter, 2006). Indeed, Lebler (2008)
describes popular music as being usually learned in the broader community as a selfdirected
activity, sometimes including interactions with peers and group activities, but
rarely under the direction of an expert mentor/teacher. The role of the tutor, in
facilitating learning opportunities that may be available for students working in
popular music genres within a band rehearsal context, can be quite different to that
required for rehearsing repertoire which might be described as being drawn from
western art music traditions. If so, and given the apparent lack of literature on, and
pedagogical resources for, band rehearsing of popular music (Lebler, 2007) within the
HE curriculum, the aim of this project is to provide a contribution towards filling that
gap.


The management of cognitive, organisational and geographical interfaces is a major competitiveness challenge for the automotive industry. Market and network imperfections, like underinvestment in innovation, or finance and labour market suboptimalities, are notorious obstacles in this regard. It is argued that the capacity of regional policies to help the industry overcome such failures will be critical for automotive localities to ride the wave of ongoing integration of IT components and functions into automotive conjoints. This paper focuses on the policy actions that can be undertaken at regional level in dealing with blurring sectoral and technological borders to the automotive industry. After developing a conceptual framework for analysis, two empirical cases are reviewed. The primary research results stress the relevance of regional policy action in supporting automotive complexes to overcome market and network failures in order to marry IT and automotive realms more productively.


In the common linear and quadratic regression model with an autoregressive error structure exact D-optimal designs for weighted least squares analysis are determined. It is demonstrated that for highly correlated observations the D-optimal design is close to the equally spaced design. Moreover, the equally spaced design is usually very efficient, even for moderate sizes of the correlation, while the D-optimal design obtained under the assumptions of independent observations yields a substantial loss in efficiency. We also consider the problem of designing experiments for weighted least squares estimation of the slope in a linear regression and compare the exact D-optimal designs for weighted and ordinary least squares analysis.


We consider the joint design and control of discrete-time stochastic dynamical systems over a finite time horizon. We formulate the problem as a multi-step optimization problem under uncertainty seeking to identify a system design and a control policy that jointly maximize the expected sum of rewards collected over the time horizon considered. The transition function, the reward function and the policy are all parametrized, assumed known and differentiable with respect to their parameters. We then introduce a deep reinforcement learning algorithm combining policy gradient methods with model-based optimization techniques to solve this problem. In essence, our algorithm iteratively approximates the gradient of the expected return via Monte-Carlo sampling and automatic differentiation and takes projected gradient ascent steps in the space of environment and policy parameters. This algorithm is referred to as Direct Environment and Policy Search (DEPS). We assess the performance of our algorithm in three environments concerned with the design and control of a mass-spring-damper system, a small-scale off-grid power system and a drone, respectively. In addition, our algorithm is benchmarked against a state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning algorithm used to tackle joint design and control problems. We show that DEPS performs at least as well or better in all three environments, consistently yielding solutions with higher returns in fewer iterations. Finally, solutions produced by our algorithm are also compared with solutions produced by an algorithm that does not jointly optimize environment and policy parameters, highlighting the fact that higher returns can be achieved when joint optimization is performed.


A dramatic increase in the amount of recombinant proteins that used in therapeutic applications. TNF-α is one of over 750 recombinant proteins available for use in a broad range of therapeutic applications, including neutrophil chemotaxis, anticoagulatory inhibition, cytolysis and cytostasis of many tumor cell lines. Therefore, in this research Human TNF-α gene has been amplified from the PHA-stimulated peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PBMCs) cDNA pool isolated from healthy volunteers. The amplified human TNF-α gene was combined and was cloned to pPIC9 Plasmid. The fusion gene was expressed in the host strain p.pastoris GS115 using the electroporation technique and inserted under the AOX1promoter's control. Tricine-SDS–PAGE and Western blotting were achieved for methanol-induced expression strain to confirm the successfully secretion of fusion TNF-α protein into the culture medium. Ni-NTA resin was used to purify the recombinant protein. (MTT) assay was used for screening the biological activity of the purified human TNF-α results showed that the Fusion TNF-α reduced the viability of HEP2 cells as long as metabolic activity in dose-dependent manner. Our findings show that TNF-α-gene expressed in the present study is active and had the same pharmacokinetic and biochemical properties as the standard TNF-α and recommended to be used therapeutically as treatment for human diseases, and could be helpful to develop new strategies to cancer therapy.


MOTIVATION
Neighbor-dependent substitution processes generated specific pattern of dinucleotide frequencies in the genomes of most organisms. The CpG-methylation-deamination process is, e.g. a prominent process in vertebrates (CpG effect). Such processes, often with unknown mechanistic origins, need to be incorporated into realistic models of nucleotide substitutions.

RESULTS
Based on a general framework of nucleotide substitutions we developed a method that is able to identify the most relevant neighbor-dependent substitution processes, estimate their relative frequencies and judge their importance in order to be included into the modeling. Starting from a model for neighbor independent nucleotide substitution we successively added neighbor-dependent substitution processes in the order of their ability to increase the likelihood of the model describing given data. The analysis of neighbor-dependent nucleotide substitutions based on repetitive elements found in the genomes of human, zebrafish and fruit fly is presented.

AVAILABILITY
A web server to perform the presented analysis is freely available at: http://evogen.molgen.mpg.de/server/substitution-analysis


A Review of:
Howard, K., Nicholas, T., Hayes, T., & Appelt, C. W. (2014). Evaluating one-shot library sessions: Impact on the quality and diversity of student source use. Community & Junior College Libraries, 20(1-2), 27-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02763915.2014.1009749

Objective – To assess the effect of one-shot library research workshops focused on database searching on student coursework bibliographies.

Design – Comparative bibliometric analysis of student bibliographies.

Setting – Career and Transfer Program at a community college in Illinois, United States of America.

Subjects – Students taking an English 101 course.

Methods – During the study, 39 sections of English 101 occurred. An optional library instruction session was offered to faculty and as a result students from 18 sections participated. Each session consisted of a 45-minute lecture and 30 minutes of independent research time. The librarian delivering the session introduced students to keyword searching and demonstrated the online library catalogue and two core electronic databases; Academic Search Complete, and Opposing Viewpoints in Context (OVC), and other databases of their choosing. Students in each session were required to submit a variety of assignments in an exit portfolio at the end of the semester. Sections of students were excluded if the instructors did not submit the students' portfolios and they no longer taught at the community college, making it impossible to track down the portfolios. Exclusion also occurred in cases where sections were taught by the researchers. Seventeen sections who had attended library instruction group and 14 sections who had not attended the library instruction group were included in the study and randomised.

Researchers evaluated portfolios according to the following criteria: whether the student who submitted the portfolio attended library instruction; whether their portfolio earned a pass or fail mark; total number of citations in bibliographies; number of each type of source (e.g., book, journal, Internet resource, or other; and dates of sources).

Main Results – Data were collected from 115 portfolios submitted by students who had attended a library session and 92 portfolios from students who had not attended a library session. Student pass or fail status was not reported. Attending library instruction did not have a significant effect on the mean number of total citations: 5.513 for attendees vs. 6.076 for non-attendees. Of 205 student portfolios evaluated, there was no difference in the number of types of resources used by students who had library instruction (2.3 ± 0.1) and those who had none (2.2 ± 0.1; p > 0.05).

Conclusion – The library instruction sessions did not increase the use of academic journals or the diversity of sources used. However, students were more likely to use library sources if they attended training. The authors recommend that demonstrating multiple databases should be covered in later sessions and more conceptual information literacy instruction should be the first step. Librarians could teach the value of different types of sources; connect the sources to the tools needed to locate and access them; and demonstrate how to effectively evaluate sources. The authors recommend further research to evaluate objectives, content and outcomes of this type of library instruction.


Genetic Algorithms have been successfully used for a long time in solving optimization problems in so many diversified fields. Most of the research effort focused on devising a suitable mapping for the problem in hand, or proposing efficient types of operations, finding an optimal set of parameters like crossover and mutation rates, mutation step size and crossover format, or selection methods towards optimizing the search in the sense of reducing the run time, computational burden, escaping local minima, etc.. In this research work, we present an intensive mutation with fitness based step size as a main player in the space exploration and exploitation. The test results show that mutation can be as good as the crossover operation in upgrading the population fitness, and the longer time it takes to execute population-wide mutation pays off in terms solution quality under time constraint and chance of getting an optimal solution, compared to the classical genetic algorithm.


A helicopter tail, with a fatigue induced crack near the rear rotor gear, was repaired by a bonded composite patch that was instrumented with Fiber-Bragg- Grating (FBG) sensing net. A repair damage detection algorithm, based on the Principal Component Analysis, was used for tracking anomalies in the vibration signature as recorded by the sensors. Sensors' readings, taken during engine runs, demonstrated excellent mutual correlations, indicating that the repair still maintains its airworthiness capability after more than four years of service. Using this airworthiness assessment concept, the many advantages of bonded repairs (smoother load transfer, good fatigue and damage-tolerance behavior of the composite patch, ease of application on curved surfaces) are preserved without the need for complex inspections techniques, thereby minimizing maintenance costs and A/C down time.


Rippled noises evoke the perception of pitch in human listeners. Infinitely iterated rippled noise (IIRN) is generated when wideband noise (WBN) is delayed, attenuated, and added to the original WBN through either a positive (+) or a negative (-) feedback loop. The pitch of IIRN[+] is matched to the reciprocal of the delay, whereas the pitch of IIRN[-] for the same delay is an octave lower. Chinchillas (Chinchilla laniger) were trained to discriminate IIRN[+] with a 4-ms delay from IIRN[+] with a 2-ms delay and then tested in a stimulus generalization paradigm with IIRN[+] at delays between 2 and 4 ms. Systematic gradients in behavioral response occurred along the dimension of delay, suggesting that a perceptual dimension corresponding to pitch exists for IIRN[+]. Behavioral responses to IIRN[-] test stimuli were more variable among chinchillas, suggesting that IIRN[-] did not evoke similar pitches relative to IIRN[+]. Systematic gradients in behavioral response were observed when IIRN[-] test stimuli were presented in the context of other IIRN[-] stimuli. Thus, other perceptual cues such as timbre may dominate the pitch cues when IIRN[-] test stimuli are presented in the context of IIRN[+] stimuli.


This study explores the relationship between professional contractors and the permanent employees they work with at organisations in New Zealand. This thesis uses two concepts, organisational socialisation and the psychological contract, as lenses through which the working relationship is explored. The 20th century notion of standard employment has largely been eroded, giving way to different forms of non-standard work. Professional contractors are now found performing a variety of roles in many organisations across this country. Many are doing the work of permanent employees, but they are neither employees nor permanent. Professional contractors are a type of non-standard, transient worker. As part of a blended workforce, professional contractors work alongside permanent employees, but little is known about how they work together.  This qualitative study involves 49 face-to-face interviews with professional contractors, permanent employees and managers working in the Information Technology (IT) divisions of 10 organisations in three major cities in New Zealand. This research design results in a rich data set. The data collected was subject to analysis using the software NVIVO. This data was analysed in relation to the literature on organisational socialisation and the psychological contract to further explain the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees.  The findings reveal professional contractors' experience of Van Maanen's (1979) socialisation tactics were: collective, informal, variable, random and serial. It was found that an organisation's policy sets the tone for the treatment (induction, inclusion and management) of professional contractors. According to the professional contractors interviewed, the Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, and Gardner (1994) socialisation content dimensions that are important are structure, culture and values and language but history was not considered important. According to the managers interviewed, contractors need to know about the processes and procedures of the client organisation, have strong technical skills and industry, sector or domain knowledge. It was found that the indicator of adjustment 'acceptance by insiders' (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012) may be a sign that the contractor is adjusting to their new role but it is not essential. A new indicator of adjustment for professional contractors – output – clearly emerged from the data. The notion of 'time to productivity' is highly relevant to professional contractors and three factors affecting it are identified (contractor capability, role complexity and organisation readiness). Another important finding is that permanent employees play a key role as socialisation agents (Feldman, 1994; Jones, 1983; Van Maanen, 1978) in the socialisation of professional contractors. Surprisingly, it was found that other professional contractors also act as socialisation agents assisting the newcomer to adjust. It was found that proactive socialisation is particularly important for professional contractors. Together these findings establish the need to reconceptualise organisational socialisation for professional contractors specifically.  The second part of this thesis explores the psychological contract by asking interviewees about their mutual expectations. The expectations of each of the three parties (managers, professional contractors, and permanent employees) are subtly different, potentially influencing the psychological contract they develop. Permanent employees expect great things, professionalism and independence from professional contractors. Managers expect speed, professionalism and value for money from contractors. On the other hand, professional contractors simply expect to be treated with respect by their colleagues. Professional contractors expect to be given autonomy by their managers and support or guidance, should they require it. This study was not able to ascertain what type of psychological contract a professional contractor may develop. It is possible that a professional contractor develops a hybrid psychological contract. Alternatively, it is possible that a professional contractor's psychological contract moves between the types developed by Rousseau (1995) over the course of their term with the client organisation. The insights gained by exploring the expectations of professional contractors, permanent employees and their managers are two-fold. Firstly, these expectations provide a valuable insight into the working relationship. Secondly, the exploration of a breach or violation of the psychological contract indicates that a malleable psychological contract (one that will shift or adjust) is less likely to manifest a breach or violation. Therefore, it is better for a professional contractor to develop and maintain a malleable rather than rigid psychological contract.  This study's findings highlight the interrelationship between organisational socialisation and the psychological contract. This thesis asserts that the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees is specifically influenced by the socialisation of contractors as newcomers and in the mutual expectations, which form the psychological contract. As a result, it contributes to theorising and understanding of the working relationship between professional contractors and permanent employees. It identifies several tensions in the co-dependent working relationship, which are: time, team, treatment and training. This study has implications for Human Resource practitioners and managers because there is a need for corporate or HR policy relating to the treatment professional contractors. The use of organisational socialisation and the psychological contract as lenses with which the working relationship is explored is both original and meaningful.


[1] We report a CO2 emission rate of 8500 metric tons per day (t d−1) for the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, several times larger than previous estimates. It is based on three sets of measurements over 4 years of synchronous SO2 emission rates and volcanic CO2/SO2 concentration ratios for the summit correlation spectrometer (COSPEC) traverse. Volcanic CO2/SO2 for the traverse is representative of the global ratio for summit emissions. The summit CO2 emission rate is nearly constant, despite large temporal variations in summit CO2/SO2 and SO2 emission rates. Summit CO2 emissions comprise most of Kīlauea's total CO2 output (∼9000 t d−1). The bulk CO2 content of primary magma determined from CO2 emission and magma supply rate data is ∼0.70 wt %. Most of the CO2 is present as exsolved vapor at summit reservoir depths, making the primary magma strongly buoyant. Turbulent mixing with resident reservoir magma, however, prevents frequent eruptions of buoyant primary magma in the summit region. CO2 emissions confirm that the magma supply enters the edifice through the summit reservoir. A persistent several hundred parts per million CO2 anomaly arises from the entry of magma into the summit reservoir beneath a square kilometer area east of Halemaumau pit crater. Since most of the CO2 in primary magma is degassed in the summit, the summit CO2 emission rate is an effective proxy for the magma supply rate. Both scrubbing of SO2 and solubility controls on CO2 and S in basaltic melt cause high CO2/SO2 in summit emissions and spatially uncorrelated distributions of CO2 and SO2 in the summit plume.


Pulsating heat pipes are high efficiency heat transfer components having a great potential application in the field of electronic cooling and space applications. In this investigation, an experiment was conducted to study the influence of working fluid thermophysical properties on the thermal performance of flat-plate closed loop pulsating heat pipes (FCLPHP). The analysis of the forces acting on the liquid-vapor mixture shows that the surface tension, viscosity and latent heat of vaporization have important impact on the thermal performance of FCLPHP. The overall thermal resistance decreases with the decrease in surface tension, viscosity and latent heat of vaporization, leading to the heat transfer improvement of FCLPHP. An experimental correlation was developed to describe the relationship among the relative overall thermal resistance and the relative thermophysical properties. With the correlation, a sensitivity analysis was made. The results show that latent heat of vaporization is the prior factor to the all others to impact the thermal performance of FCLPHP.


Because of their high temporal resolution, increased resilience to motion blur, and very sparse output, event cameras have been shown to be ideal for low-latency and low-bandwidth feature tracking, even in challenging scenarios. Existing feature tracking methods for event cameras are either handcrafted or derived from first principles but require extensive parameter tuning, are sensitive to noise, and do not generalize to different scenarios due to unmodeled effects. To tackle these deficiencies, we introduce the first data-driven feature tracker for event cameras, which leverages low-latency events to track features detected in a grayscale frame. We achieve robust performance via a novel frame attention module, which shares information across feature tracks. By directly transferring zero-shot from synthetic to real data, our data-driven tracker outperforms existing approaches in relative feature age by up to 120 % while also achieving the lowest latency. This performance gap is further increased to 130 % by adapting our tracker to real data with a novel self-supervision strategy. Multimedia Material A video is available at https://youtu.be/dtkXvNXcWRY and code at https://github.com/uzh-rpg/deep_ev_tracker


Managing energy resources is fast becoming a crucial issue of the 21st century, with groundbased heat exchange energy structures targeted as a viable means of reducing carbon emissions associated with regulating building temperatures. Limited information exists about the thermo-dynamic interactions of geothermal structures and soil owing to the practical constraints of placing measurement sensors in proximity to foundations; hence, questions remain about their long-term performance and interaction mechanics. An alternative experimental method using transparent soil and digital image analysis was proposed to visualize heat flow in soil. Advocating the loss of optical clarity as a beneficial attribute of transparent soil, this paper explored the hypothesis that temperature change will alter its refractive index and therefore progressively reduce its transparency, becoming more opaque. The development of the experimental methodology was discussed and a relationship between pixel intensity and soil temperature was defined and verified. This relationship was applied to an energy pile example to demonstrate heat flow in soil. The heating zone of influence was observed to extend to a radial distance of 1.5 pile diameters and was differentiated by a visual thermal gradient propagating from the pile. The successful implementation of this technique provided a new paradigm for transparent soil to potentially contribute to the understanding of thermo-dynamic processes in soil.


ABSTRACT Effective natural resource management (NRM) often depends on collaboration through formal and informal relationships. Social network analysis (SNA) provides a framework for studying social relationships; however, a deeper understanding of the nature of these relationships is often missing. By integrating multiple analytical methods (including SNA, evidence ratings, and perception matrices), we were able to investigate the nature of relationships in NRM social networks across five service types (e.g., technical advice, on-ground support) in our case study region, Daly catchment Australia. Only one service type was rated as highly associated with free choice in establishing relationships: technical advice/knowledge. Beneficial characteristics of NRM organizations, such as collaborative and transparent, were associated with the presence of freely chosen relationships between organizations. Our results suggest a need to improve our understanding of organizational roles and characteristics, in particular for use in applied NRM contexts, such as network weaving or disseminating information.


OF DISSERTATION SERVICE BEFORE SELF: THE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF WORKING IN PUBLIC CHILD WELFARE Child welfare workers respond to human tragedy and the job stresses associated with their positions that may result in their own trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. Workers continue to leave their positions at alarming rates, influencing service quality and the ability to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Decades of research have attempted to solve this national crisis by identifying salient factors found to influence the child welfare worker's experience and intention to leave their position. However, the problem prevails. Addressing a major gap in the literature, this mixed methods study took a unique approach by exploring how the stress of working in public child welfare affects workers' personal health. Using secondary data analysis from a statewide sample of public child welfare workers, qualitative thematic content analysis and binary logistic regression were used to explore what child welfare workers identified as unhealthy habits they have developed as a result of stress from their positions. Findings from this study provide clear evidence that the demands associated with working in this capacity negatively impact the health of the child welfare worker. Qualitatively, five self-reported themes emerged when workers were asked to describe the health consequences of their work. Workers described their affinity for unhealthy consumption (e.g., food, alcohol, tobacco) and the development of a number of unhealthy behaviors (e.g., disturbed sleep, lack of exercise, angry outbursts) as a result of the stress of their positions. Workers also provided descriptions of the physical and mental health implications of working, compounded by the poor work-life balances reported. Quantitatively, significant differences were found across all subscales of the Child Welfare Employee Feedback Scale (CWEFS) when examined by the current health status of the workforce. Workers reporting poorer health had worked at the agency longer and reported a greater intention to leave the agency in the next 12 months. Finally, a binary logistic regression identified Workload and Job Impact as factors predicting lower worker health outcomes. Although "marginally" significant, working outside of one's home county and working in an urban area were factors contributing to the stress-induced health impact associated with respondents' positions. The profession must recognize the health implications associated with working in public child welfare and organizational efforts to allow these employees to self-care seems to be an absolute necessity. Future research should integrate the use of biometric screening and multidisciplinary collaboration to investigate organizational, supervisory, and individual level efforts to improve the situation.


The influence of the global warming on tropical cyclones has been examined using a high resolution AGCM. Two ten-year integrations were performed with the JMA global model at T106 horizontal resolution. For the control experiment, the observed SST for the period 1979-1988 is prescribed, while for the doubling CO2 (2 × CO2) experiment, SST anomaly due to the global warming estimated from a coupled model transient CO2 experiment (Tokioka et al. 1995) is added to the SST used in the control experiment. The results of experiments show that a significant reduction in the frequency of tropical cyclones is possible in response to the greenhouse gas-induced global warming. The most significant decrease is indicated over the North Pacific. On the other hand, a considerable increase in tropical cyclone frequency is indicated for the North Atlantic. As for the maximum intensity of tropical cyclones, no significant change has been noted. It has been found that the regional change in tropical cyclone frequency is closely related to the distribution of the SST anomaly, and the change in convective activity associated with it. The results of the experiment indicate that the change in tropical cyclogenesis is strongly controlled by dynamical factors associated with the change in SST distribution, rather than the thermodynamical factors associated with the change in absolute value of local SST. On the other hand, for the decrease in the global total number of tropical cyclones on doubling CO2, a weakening of tropical circulation associated with the stabilization of the atmosphere (the increase in dry static stability), seems to be responsible. It is found that the rate of increase in the tropical precipitation due to the global warming is much less than the rate of increase in the atmospheric moisture. With this little increase in precipitation (convective heating), a considerable increase in the dry static stability of the atmosphere leads to a weakening of the tropical circulation.


Nano-Ni(OH)2 doped with special elements were prepared by supersonic co-precipitation method. Complex electrodes were prepared by immersion method and handwork method by mixing 8wt.% nickel hydroxides with commercial micro-size spherical nickel as the positive material of Ni-MH battery. The electrochemical performance and cyclic character affected by different electrodes' making methods were characterized in this article. The result indicates that the discharge capacities of IM electrodes (IM electrodes mean electrodes made by handwork method) are higher than that of HM electrodes (HM electrodes mean electrodes made by handwork method). Furthermore, IM electrodes have better reversibility and higher charge efficiency than HM electrode, and lower charge potential and higher discharge plateau were also observed for IM electrodes. It's worth noting that the phenomenon is more obvious at high charge/discharge rate. When the discharge rate is 0.5C,the discharge capacity of IM electrode is higher 67.1 mAh•g -1 than that of HM electrode.


In the present study, a program for predicting thermal performance of an air cooled condenser are illustrated. Heat transfer equations of single phase and two phase flow are formulated into the form that is convenient to incorporate the local analysis method. The resulting equations are solved by temperature and mass correction methods. Empirical equations for both side fluids are incorporated in the caculation procedures. In order to compare the calculation results, superheat temperatures of steam are varied. The tube length of superheated zone, wall temperature, temperature profile along the tube and steam qualities are predicted.