Background This study aimed to assess the dietary advice practice of UK and New Zealand (NZ) adult gastroenterologists in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Methods A questionnaire regarding dietary advice practice was emailed or mailed to all members of the British Society of Gastroenterology (n=983) and the NZ Society of Gastroenterology (n=54). Results 363 questionnaires were returned in the UK (response rate 37%) and 51 in NZ (94%). More respondents gave specific dietary advice to more than 25% of their patients on IBS than IBD (84% vs 27% UK, 90% vs 55% NZ; p=0.001 for both) and gave advice about dietary exclusions to more than 25% of patients on IBS than IBD (61% vs 13% UK, 77% vs 14% NZ; p<0.001 for both). They were most likely to provide dietary advice to patients with small bowel Crohn's disease, difficult to control IBD, diarrhoea predominant IBS and difficult to control IBS. The majority of respondents agreed strongly or a little that dietary exclusion was effective in the treatment of IBS, compared to the minority in IBD (71% vs 39% UK, 84% vs 43% p<0.05 for both). Conclusions UK and NZ gastroenterologists give dietary advice more commonly to IBS than IBD patients. The majority of gastroenterologists have some confidence in the use of dietary exclusion in IBS, the converse is true in IBD. However, the advice given is largely empiric and mostly comprises the exclusion of fibre, dairy and wheat.


Nanocrystalline CeO2-ZrO2 (Ce:Zr 1:1) samples doped with La, Pr or Gd cations (containing up to 30 at.%) were prepared via the Pechini route. Pt (1.4 wt.%) was supported via impregnation with H2PtCl6 solution followed by drying and calcination. The samples' surface features were studied by SIMS and FTIRS of adsorbed CO. The oxygen mobility was characterized by the dynamic oxygen isotope exchange and H2 TPR. Catalytic activity was studied in the flow installation using diluted feeds (0.7% CH4 +0.5% O2 or 1% C3H6O + 0.5% O2 +0.5% H2O in He). In the selective oxidation of methane (POM), the catalytic activity correlates with Pt dispersion controlled by the oxidized sample's ability to stabilize Pt2+ cations as precursors of small reactive Pt clusters formed under reaction conditions. This is favoured by a larger doping cation (La) and a developed network of nanodomain boundaries. At comparable Pt dispersion, the highest performance was demonstrated by a La-doped system, which correlates with the highest surface/near-surface oxygen mobility controlled by the strength of Ce-O bonds in the surface layer. In the autothermal reforming of acetone, the activity trends differ from those in POM because of the more prominent role of the oxygen mobility required to prevent surface coking.


This paper develops an online and freely available framework to aid teaching and learning the prosodic control of Tokyo Japanese: how to generate its adequate word accent and phrase intonation. This framework is called OJAD (Online Japanese Accent Dictionary) [1] and it provides three features. 1) Visual, auditory, systematic, and comprehensive illustration of patterns of accent change (accent sandhi) of verbs and adjectives. Here only the changes caused by twelve fundamental conjugations are focused upon. 2) Visual illustration of the accent pattern of a given verbal expression, which is a combination of a verb and its postpositional auxiliary words. 3) Visual illustration of the pitch pattern of any given sentence and the expected positions of accent nuclei in the sentence. The third feature is technically implemented by using an accent change prediction module that we developed for Japanese Text-To-Speech (TTS) synthesis [2], [3]. Experiments show that accent nucleus assignment to given texts by the proposed framework is much more accurate than that by native speakers. Subjective assessment and objective assessment done by teachers and learners show extremely high pedagogical effectiveness of the developed framework. key words: speech training in Japanese, word accent, intonation, speech synthesis, accent prediction, assessment


This article examines the wage policy developed by MGEN, the mutual health insurance company of the French educational system, founded in 1946. Today MGEN is the largest health insurance company in France. Since the 1970s, MGEN has experienced unprecedented growth in the numbers of its members, its employees and its medical center affiliates. As a result, the board members of MGEN, former activists from the teachers' trade-union movement, have had to manage an increasingly large and diverse workforce. Because the board members were trade-unionists, they aimed to create a special relationship between management and employees. Despite their good will, however, these "social bosses" were not spared numerous industrial actions, particularly frequent during the 1970s. This article examines the wage policy implemented by MGEN in order to understand the evolution of personnel management and the impact of these labor conflicts.


Avoiding disease certainly has value to the individual in escaping pain, suffering and death. It would seem obvious that mechanisms would evolve to enhance the ability of an individual to recognize and avoid contact leading to infection or exposure to infection. Social animals especially display evidence of behavior that avoid or limit disease and death, as in the grouped behavior of the water flea Daphnia where grouped animals give off more carbon dioxide than single ones and this extra CO2 can neutralize some toxic substances in the water (Allee, 1938). It is clear from animal research in the wild and captivity that behavior can play a significant role in infection and the spread of disease and the production of mortality (Loehle, 1995). Such behavior would then have a selective role to play in evolution. Hart (1988, 1990) has documented a variety of behaviors that can be described as sanitary, preventing the spread of infection among animals. Mary Douglas (1966) found that in studying the varieties of human religious practice, pollution and danger were often associated with a positive effort to organize the environment. She also found that "...pollution has indeed much to do with morals." This book investigates the role of disease in shaping human society and its institutions.


Methods: In the sagittal image of the fetus, in profile (magnification head and torax, like used to measure nuchal translucency), we identified the nostrils by moving the transducer slightly to the side. We placed the sample volume size adjusted in the nostril diameter and start measurement the inspiratory and expiratory flow. Results: Through the calculation of the area under the curve of the flows, we will obtain the inspired and expired volume, and consequently the tidal lung volume. Conclusions: We can create from this technique curves of normality for the tidal lung volume of different gestational ages.


In retrospect, the possibility of an E.C.H.O. virus aetiology was considered, and on December 10 a faecal specimen was collected for virological examination. From this, E.C.H.O. type 20 virus was isolated in human amnion tissue culture, which, according to Duncan and Bell,' may be more sensitive to this virus than monkey kidney. This was the first type 20 among over 380 typed E.C.H.O. viruses isolated in Ruchill Hospital during the past five years. This virus was isolated three weeks after onset, not at the acute stage of illness; however, excretion of this virus for up to six weeks has been recorded by Dr. L. Rosen and his colleagues.2 No blood was taken for serological tests. In these circumstances we cannot prove conclusively that the boy's illness was caused by this virus. Nevertheless it seemed worth recording the isolation of E.C.H.O. 20 virus in this country from a patient whose mild respiratory disease was not dissimilar from the illnesses associated with natural infections2 and the experimental infections studied by Dr. Buckland and his associates.-We are, etc.,


In May 2019, the City of New York passed the Climate Mobilization Act (CMA), the most ambitious climate legislation ever enacted by any city or county in the State of New York. The CMA mandates the reduction of the City's overall carbon emissions by 80 percent within 20 years. Generally, buildings are responsible for 70 percent of the City's emissions – by far the highest percentage of any sector (Climate Mobilization Act: Mayor's Office of Sustainability, 2019). Building emissions are likely only to increase compared to other sectors, such as transportation, which have had a head start in reducing their carbon emissions. Given buildings' contributions to carbon emissions and the lack of significant progress to date, this legislation is seen by many as overdue. With numerous large developments occurring throughout the City, this legislation could yield major long-term improvements to the environment. In fact, "the Climate Mobilization Act is a down payment on the future of New York City – one that ensures we lead the way in the ever-growing fight against climate change," Council Member Costa Constantinides said in a statement before the bill was passed (New York City Council [NYCC], 2019). With the help of Constantinides, the CMA also included Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing – a voluntary financing mechanism that enables energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to receive long-term financing for little or no money down – to assist building owners in complying with the CMA (NYCC, 2019). This article is available in Cornell Real Estate Review: https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/crer/vol18/iss1/20


Atrium is largely designed nowadays to service a public space and to provide a pleasant space for the occupants. However atrium design is often focused only on aesthetic aspect overlooking environmental comfort. As a result, numerous problems were raised that involves overheating and local discomfort in cooling and intermediate period. Therefore it is important to plan proper openings to improve thermal environment in atrium.
In this study, thermal environmental evaluation was performed to estimate possible issues in atrium and opening plans were presented that improve thermal environment in atrium. The results show that shading device is needed to reduce incoming solar radiation. Also, upper and lower openings are essential for natural ventilation and the larger the size of openings are more effective but the same portion of upper and lower openings should be maintained.


Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are the leading causes of death among developed and developing countries, and account for approximately 75 percent of deaths worldwide. With the sequencing of the human genome and subsequent genomic studies, we now know genetic factors alone are responsible for a relatively small portion of these diseases. Specifically, cancer risk attributed to genetic factors is typically about eight percent. Thus, the vast majority of cancer risk likely lies within the realm of exposures (non-genetic factors) or a combination of genetic factors and exposures. The collection of exposures over an individual's lifetime comprise the concept of the exposome, an epidemiological complement to the genome. The exposome is defined by measurement of both endogenous (inflammation, lipid peroxidation, microbiota) and exogenous (air pollutants, pesticides, drugs, diet, etc.) exposures within an individual.Much exposure data is from non-individualized sources, such as air quality monitors or other spatial-temporal data, which have limited use in epidemiology. Individual exposure assessment consists largely of self-reported dietary and lifestyle data from interviews or questionnaires. In recent years, advances in analytical chemistry have permitted the simultaneous detection of thousands of molecules in biological fluids including urine, whole blood, plasma, and serum.High resolution liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) is a powerful technique to measure the accurate masses of molecules in biological fluids for high-throughput epidemiological studies. Chapter 1 of this dissertation details a method for the analysis of lipophilic molecules in plasma using specimens from 158 healthy volunteer subjects. The resulting data revealed levels of lipids and other molecules that differed between smoking and nonsmoking, white and black, and male and female subjects. A modified version of this LCMS method was used in the analysis of serum from subjects in a nested case-control study, described in Chapters 2 and 3.Colorectal cancer (CRC) accounts for one fourth of all cancer deaths worldwide and less than about 15 percent of CRC risk is attributable to genetic factors alone. To investigate possible influences of exposures on CRC risk, serum from 190 subjects in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) were extracted for lipophilic molecules and analyzed with high resolution LCMS. These prospective samples – collected up to 22 years prior to diagnosis - offered a unique opportunity to differentiate between CRC biomarkers related to disease causes and those that result from disease progression. Chapter 2 describes the testing of one class of lipids, ultra-long chain fatty acids (ULCFAs), that had been reported as a probable protective factor of CRC. Paired case-control differences were assessed with respect to the time period from when the serum was collected (study enrollment) to when the case was diagnosed. Since, case-control differences decreased with increasing time prior to case diagnosis, ULCFAs were likely depleted by cancer progression rather than by protective exposures. Many of the features in LCMS profiling are unannotated (identity unknown) chemicals. Rather than relying on hypothesis-driven analyses of only known compounds, data-driven analyses of reliably detectable features can result in the generation of new hypotheses of possible disease-causing exposures. This untargeted methodology, used in Chapters 1 and 3, makes lipidomic and other exposure-related profiling a powerful tool in exposure assessment. In Chapter 3, the untargeted analysis of features in EPIC CRC serum samples revealed potentially relevant molecules associated with CRC causes and disease progression. As opposed to traditional p-value-centric analysis used in Chapters 1 and 2, a combination of regularized regression, random forest, and t-tests were employed in the feature selection for this untargeted analysis.In Chapter 4, the lipophilic data from the healthy volunteer samples of Chapter 1 are studied once again. Using a method similar to the regularized regression technique described in Chapter 3, we determined which lipids were associated with levels of adductomic biomarkers (another methodology developed in our laboratory), which had also been measured in plasma from the same healthy volunteers. Analysis of the combined data from these two OMIC datasets found interesting correlations between particular lipids and adducts in these samples.


Background: Malignant skin appendage tumours are rare and could be a source of diagnostic difficulty. They share many features in common and detailed morphological classification run into difficulties owing to the variety of tissue elements and patterns seen. This is a report of our experience of these tumours in Zaria, Nigeria.
Methods: A review of malignant appendage tumours diagnosed over a 16 year period (1990-2006). Histology slides stained routinely with Haematoxylin & Eosin were reviewed. Special stains were used where applicable for further characterization of the tumours. Patients' bio-data and clinical information were obtained from records.
Results: Six malignant appendage tumours were studied. There were 5 males and 1 female
aged 23 - 70 years. Mean age was 48.3 years. Clinical presentations varied from ulcerated
lesions to circumscribed swellings. One patient presented with a recurrent lesion. Differential
diagnoses included foreign body granuloma, keloid, fibroma, rhabdomyosarcoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The sites of occurrence were the axilla and trunk mainly. Histology of tissue biopsies showed nests of large oval to spindle to polygonal tumour cells forming occasional tubule containing eosinophilic globules and separated by fibrous septa. They were diagnosed malignant adnexeal tumour of Eccrine sweat gland origin.
Conclusion: Malignant appendage tumours showed a higher frequency in middle aged men
in this review. A good knowledge and understanding of the pathology, high index of suspicion and immunohistochemical studies should help in making diagnosis. Surgical intervention with wide margin excision should reduce recurrence rate. Further characterization of these tumours is desirable in our setting. Keywords : Skin Appendage, Malignant, Eccrine Sweat gland Sudanese Journal of Dermatology Vol. 5 (1) 2007: pp. 11-14


Many real-world applications deal with uncertain or missing data, prompting a surge of activity in the area of probabilistic databases. A shortcoming of prior work is the assumption that an appropriate probabilistic model, along with the necessary probability distributions, is given. We address this shortcoming by presenting a framework for learning a set of inference ensembles, termed meta-rule semi-lattices, or MRSL, from the complete portion of the data. We use the MRSL to infer probability distributions for missing data, and demonstrate experimentally that high accuracy is achieved when a single attribute value is missing per tuple. We next propose an inference algorithm based on Gibbs sampling that accurately predicts the probability distribution for multiple missing values. We also develop an optimization that greatly improves performance of multi-attribute inference for collections of tuples, while maintaining high accuracy. Finally, we develop an experimental framework to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of our approach.


In the one-cell C. elegans embryo, polarity is maintained by mutual antagonism between the anterior cortical proteins PAR-3, PKC-3, PAR-6 and CDC-42, and the posterior cortical proteins PAR-2 and LGL-1 on the posterior cortex. The mechanisms by which these proteins interact to maintain polarity are incompletely understood. In this study, we investigate the interplay among PAR-2, LGL-1, myosin, the anterior PAR proteins and CDC-42. We find that PAR-2 and LGL-1 affect cortical myosin accumulation by different mechanisms. LGL-1 does not directly antagonize the accumulation of cortical myosin and instead plays a role in regulating PAR-6 levels. By contrast, PAR-2 likely has separate roles in regulating cortical myosin accumulation and preventing the expansion of the anterior cortical domain. We also provide evidence that asymmetry of active CDC-42 can be maintained independently of LGL-1 and PAR-2 by a redundant pathway that includes the CDC-42 GAP CHIN-1. Finally, we show that, in addition to its primary role in regulating the size of the anterior cortical domain via its binding to PAR-6, CDC-42 has a secondary role in regulating cortical myosin that is not dependent on PAR-6.


A significant number of manufacturers have started to sell their products through company-owned stores as well as through independent retailers. More interestingly, many do so in direct competition with their retailers. In addition, growth in the use of the Internet for commerce and developments in logistics have increased the ways a manufacturer might reach its end customers. In this thesis, we study a manufacturer's problem of managing its direct sales channel alongside an independently-owned bricks-and-mortar retail channel, when the channels compete in price. We develop multi-stage game theoretical models of the relation between the manufacturer and the retailer. We study two different dual channel models: In Model 1, the manufacturer's direct channel is online, whereas the retail channel is traditional. In this model, we assume a population of consumers that are heterogeneous in their channel preferences. Our focus is on understanding how consumer valuation and the relative attractiveness of the channels affect the manufacturer's dual channel strategies. In Model 2, we did not specify particular channel formats. In this model, our focus is on the interaction of the dual channel strategy with the double marginalization issue. To this end, we compare the results in centralized and decentralized scenarios under different price sensitivity combinations in the two channels. We also illustrate our findings in the two models through numerical examples.


Significant obstructive jaundice in chronic pancreatitis is generally considered to be rare. Eleven of 57 consecutive patients with proven chronic pancreatitis have developed significant obstructive jaundice of more than transient duration. Eight presented as jaundice complicating known pancreatitis and three as jaundice of unknown cause. Life table analysis showed a steady rise in the risk of developing jaundice up to the end of 10 years from the onset of chronic pancreatitis. Jaundice was found to occur in the presence of more "destructive" disease, and jaundiced patients had a higher incidence of pancreatic calcification, diabetes and malabsorption at the time of presentation with jaundice. Obstructive jaundice caused by chronic pancreatitis was found to carry a good prognosis for jaundice, for pain and for life. Only one of the 11 patients died in hospital. It is important to distinguish chronic pancreatitis from cancer in these patients. Pre-operative and intraoperative cytology have been helpful. Stent insertion is not an appropriate method of treatment for these patients because of the benign nature of the disease and the possibility of exacerbating the pancreatitis. It is important to be aware of another form of "malignant masquerade" causing obstructive jaundice.


As our cities continue to grow, we should defend the protection of natural areas and even try to create new space for nature within this urban fabric. This volume explains the context and concept of urban protected areas, profiles urban protected areas in 15 metropolitan areas around the world, and offers best practice guidelines. Although it emphasizes management approaches and is designed primarily for managers of urban protected areas and those responsible for protected area systems, it has been written with a broader readership in mind.


The relative contribution of marine-derived carbon in the ancient diet is essential for correcting the marine reservoir effect on the radiocarbon age of archaeological human remains. In this study, we evaluated the marine protein consumption of 3 human populations from the Okhotsk culture (about AD 550–1200) in Hokkaido, Japan, based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions in bulk bone collagen as well as the nitrogen isotopic composition of glutamic acid and phenylalanine. Despite the similarity of carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk collagens, nitrogen isotopic composition of their constituent amino acids suggests differences in fur seal contributions among northern Hokkaido (0–24% for Kafukai 1, 0–10% for Hamanaka 2) and eastern Hokkaido (78–80% for Moyoro) populations. It suggests that nitrogen composition of glutamic acid and phenylalanine could provide a detailed picture of ancient human subsistence.


Brassica juncea is one of the economically important plants, well known because of its medicinal and nutritive values. DNA barcoding technology has been used successfully in past years for species identification and phylogenetic construction. Thus, the present work was planned to study the divergence amongst 15 species of Brassica juncea through construction of phylogenetic tree using computational approach. Here, DNA barcoding genes such as ITS, rbcL and trnHpsbA of Brassica juncea were selected for tree construction using bioinformatics tools and techniques. Further, biogeographical study of Brassica juncea were performed for fourteen countries and continents using RASP, which resulted the world wide distribution as well as advocated for the origin of few subspecies of Brassica juncea from china and Asia. Thus, this work would throw lights on further genetic evaluation study of Brassica juncea.


Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) has become a favored target for imaging and therapy of malignancy. We have synthesized and characterized two new (4-quinolinoyl)-glycyl-2-cyanopyrrolidine-based small molecules for imaging of FAP, QCP01 and [111In]QCP02, using optical and single-photon computed tomography/CT, respectively. Binding of imaging agents to FAP was assessed in six human cancer cell lines of different cancer types: glioblastoma (U87), melanoma (SKMEL24), prostate (PC3), NSCLC (NCIH2228), colorectal carcinoma (HCT116), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (NCIH226). Mouse xenograft models were developed with FAP-positive U87 and FAP-negative PC3 cells to test pharmacokinetics and binding specificity in vivo. QCP01 and [111In]QCP02 demonstrated nanomolar inhibition of FAP at Ki values of 1.26 and 16.20 nM, respectively. Both were selective for FAP over DPP-IV, a related serine protease. Both enabled imaging of FAP-expressing tumors specifically in vivo. [111In]QCP02 showed high uptake at 18.2 percent injected dose per gram in the U87 tumor at 30 min post-administration.


Unlike the rather stereotypic image by which it was portrayed until not too many years ago, p53 is now increasingly emerging as a multifaceted transcription factor that can sometimes exert opposing effects on biological processes. This includes pro-survival activities that seem to contradict p53's canonical proapoptotic features, as well as opposing effects on cell migration, metabolism, and differentiation. Such antagonistic bifunctionality (balancing both positive and negative signals) bestows p53 with an ideal attribute to govern homeostasis. The molecular mechanisms underpinning the paradoxical activities of p53 may be related to a protein conformational spectrum (from canonical wild-type to "pseudomutant"), diversity of DNA response elements, and/or higher-order chromatin configuration. Altogether, this functional flexibility positions p53 as a transcriptional "super hub" that dictates cell homeostasis, and ultimately cell fate, by governing a hierarchy of other functional hubs. Deciphering the mechanisms by which p53 determines which hubs to engage, and how one might modulate the preferences of p53, remains a major challenge for both basic science and translational cancer medicine.


Technological advances are in part enabled by the development of novel manufacturing processes that give rise to new materials or material property improvements. Development and evaluation of new manufacturing methodologies is labor-, time-, and resource-intensive expensive due to complex, poorly defined relationships between advanced manufacturing process parameters and the resulting microstructures. In this work, we present a topological representation of temper (heat-treatment) dependent material micro-structure, as captured by scanning electron microscopy, called TopTemp. We show that this topological representation is able to support temper classification of microstructures in a data limited setting, generalizes well to previously unseen samples, is robust to image perturbations, and captures domain interpretable features. The presented work outperforms conventional deep learning baselines and is a first step towards improving understanding of process parameters and resulting material properties.


The paper provides a critical analysis of the notion of generic or transversal skills contained with European Union policy discourses. The author presents a conceptual framework that challenges the idea that generic skills are universal, transferable and autonomous. An alternative analysis is put forward that argues the case for contextualising skills and knowledge within particular understandings and cultures that are more collective than individualistic in nature. The arguments are framed within wider cross-disciplinary debates in linguistics, geosemiotics and social-cultural theory and build upon an earlier paper exploring core skills in the UK (Canning, 2007).


Mass measurement is the main outcome of mass spectrometry-based proteomics yet the potential of recent advances in accurate mass measurements remains largely unexploited. There is not even a clear definition of mass accuracy in the proteomics literature, and we identify at least three uses of this term: anecdotal mass accuracy, statistical mass accuracy, and the maximum mass deviation (MMD) allowed in a database search. We suggest using the second of these terms as the generic one. To make the best use of the mass precision offered by modern instruments we propose a series of simple steps involving recalibration of the data on "internal standards" contained in every proteomics data set. Each data set should be accompanied by a plot of mass errors from which the appropriate MMD can be chosen. More advanced uses of high mass accuracy include an MMD that depends on the signal abundance of each peptide. Adapting search engines to high mass accuracy in the MS/MS data is also a high priority. Proper use of high mass accuracy data can make MS-based proteomics one of the most "digital" and accurate post-genomics disciplines.


Grid-based modelling is widely used for estimating stellar parameters. However, stellar model grid is sparse because of the computational cost. This paper demonstrates an application of a machine-learning algorithm using the Gaussian Process (GP) Regression that turns a sparse model grid onto a continuous function. We train GP models to map five fundamental inputs (mass, equivalent evolutionary phase, initial metallicity, initial helium fraction, and the mixing-length parameter) to observable outputs (effective temperature, surface gravity, radius, surface metallicity, and stellar age). We test the GP predictions for the five outputs using off-grid stellar models and find no obvious systematic offsets, indicating good accuracy in predictions.As a further validation, we apply these GP models to characterise 1,000 fake stars. Inferred masses and ages determined with GP models well recover true values within one standard deviation. An important consequence of using GP-based interpolation is that stellar ages are more precise than those estimated with the original sparse grid because of the full sampling of fundamental inputs.


The deformations that occur in an actual structural frame may significantly influence the joints' equations of equilibrium and hence the theoretical load-carrying capacity. The finite deflection theory is introduced to deal with the influence of finite displacements on the behavior of structural frames. The method is applied to rigid-jointed pitched roof portal frame and the results are presented in the form of nondimensional graphs. The bowing functions (b\D1\N and b\D2\N) and stability functions (s and c) influence significantly the behavior of this type of frame at high load parameter which indicates their importance for the estimation of the theoretical load-carrying capacity. The classical phenomenon of elastic critical load needs to be reconsidered since the load-deflection curve does not produce the buckling phenomenon. In general, the nonlinear behavior of structural frames as influenced by instability, bowing and finite deflections are studied. A relaxation method has been developed for solving the problem because direct solution is not possible.


Res_eng:This book presents 12 papers about the influences of the classical tradition (Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian mythologies, Greek and Renaissance philosophy, classical theatre, etc.) in Spanish modern and contemporary cultural production, with special focus on literature, popular culture and cinema. Within the wide range of proposed studies, the monograph is divided into three thematic sections. The first unit investigates the subjective poetics in authors who are focused on the theme of exile and on the The Odyssey's imaginary. After that, the book focuses on the presence of female mythological matrices in the recent Hispanic literature. The last section is devoted to theoretical studies on relations between mythologisation and fictionality in the cultural artifacts of the Hispanic world.


Heavy goods vehicle overloading is a serious problem across much of Sub-Saharan Africa. Such overloading not only significantly accelerates the rate of deterioration of road pavements but, when coupled with inadequate funding for road maintenance, it contributes significantly to poor road conditions and high transport costs. The indicative cost of overloading in East and Southern Africa has been estimated at more than US$4 billion per annum. This exceeds the amounts being spent on road rehabilitation. Therefore, unless the problem is tackled head on, it will negate the expected benefits from the huge amounts of resources that countries and donors are investing into improved road infrastructure across the continent. The cost associated with vehicle overloading can be avoided through effective control measures. The guidelines presented here are an important contribution to tackling the challenge of vehicle overloading in East and Southern Africa. The solutions should be relevant to other parts of Africa as well as to other developing regions of the world. The document makes two facts very apparent: there are in various countries numerous examples of effective overload control strategies which have shown positive results and vehicle axle load control is a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder effort. In other words, vehicle overload control is not an intractable problem and can be tackled effectively with benefits to all road users and to society at large.


Background: Female triple jumping is a relatively new athletics event. A limited number of researchers have focused on comparing male and female jumpers competing in international events, resulting in scarce findings in the literature regarding gender differences of the determinants of triple jump performance. Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the possible gender differences in the approach step characteristics, the spatiotemporal parameters of the separate phases of the triple jump as performed by athletes participating in sub-elite international events. Methods: The male and female participants of the 2015 European Team Championships triple jump event were recorded with a panning video camera. Approach speed was measured using photocells. Kinematical parameters were extracted using the APAS WIZARD 126.96.36.199 software. The relationships between the examined parameters and the actual triple jump performance were examined with Pearson's correlation analysis. Repeated measures ANOVA and chi-square statistical tests were run to examine the significance of the differences between genders. Results: Approach speed significantly correlated with the actual jumping distance in both males and females (p < .05). Significant gender differences (p < .05) existed concerning basic kinematical parameters. Men were found to have larger average horizontal speed of the 11 m to 1 m segment of the final approach, step length of the final six steps of the approach, step frequency of the final two steps, actual phase distances and percentage distribution of the step. Women, unlike men, used solely single arm swing techniques. No athlete executed the jump using a jump dominated technique. Conclusions: Gender differences in triple jump performance lies upon the kinematical parameters of the final two steps of the approach, the length of the step phase and the support time for the jump. The technique elements of the penultimate step are suggested to be the factor for the existence of these differences.


In the early stages of vestibular compensation (VC) (the behavioural recovery that follows unilateral vestibular deafferentation), neurons in the medial vestibular nucleus (MVN) on the lesioned side develop a sustained up-regulation of their intrinsic excitability. This plasticity is dependent on the activation of glucocorticoid receptors, which presumably occurs during the acute stress response that accompanies the vestibular deafferentation symptoms. Recent studies have established that the access of glucocorticoids to their intracellular receptors in brain is potently modulated by 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11b-HSD1), which catalyses the generation of active glucocorticoids from their inert 11-keto forms. In this study, we investigated the presence of 11b-HSD1 bioactivity, and possible changes in activity in the early stage after vestibular deafferentation, in the cerebellar nodulus and uvula, the flocculus/paraflocculus (F/PF) complex and the MVN of the rat. 11b-HSD1 activity was found in each of these brain areas, with especially high levels of activity in the F/PF complex. No differences were found in the level of 11b-HSD1 activity in these brain areas between control rats, sham-operated rats and rats that underwent VC for 4 h after unilateral vestibular deafferentation. These findings demonstrate 11b-HSD1 bioactivity in the MVN and vestibulocerebellum, but exclude the possibility that changes in 11b-HSD1 activity occur in the early period after deafferentation, over the time when changes in MVN neuronal properties take place.


In recent years, cyclometalated Pt(II) complexes with a terdentate ligand have been used as prospective blue phosphorescent materials. For improving these materials further, the introduction of o-carborane is treated as an excellent strategy to promote the luminescence efficiency. A series of new materials show over 82% phosphorescence quantum yield and good stability, but they are still not fully elucidated. In this work, several different stable o-carborane cages are introduced into the traditional C,N,C-cyclometalated Pt(II) complexes in order to explore their influence completely in contrast to the original phenyl ligand from the view of theoretical investigation. Comprehensive analyses of the geometric structure, molecular orbital and configuration information, spin–orbit coupling elements, vibrational modes, etc. have been carried out. More importantly, our theoretical model highlights that the embedded o-carborane ligands will have an impact on the photophysical properties and quantum efficiency of these Pt(II) complexes significantly, which can provide a valuable guideline for designing and regulating several aspects of highly efficient blue phosphorescent materials.


Following subarachnoid hemorrhage, a considerable number of cases develop disturbances of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics. The author studied the criteria of indication of cerebrospinal fluid shunting operation in clinical cases of subarachnoid hemorrhage following the rupture of intracranial aneurysm. The author conducted (169)Yb-DTPA cisternography in 34 patients with ruptured intracranial aneurysm, and 0.3-0.5mCi of (169)Yb-DTPA was injected by lumbar puncture. Brain scintigrams were taken in various projections at 1, 2, 6, 24 and 48 hours, and at the same time blood was withdrawn at regular intervals up to the 6th hour. Then, the transport of (169)Yb-DTPA from the subarachnoid space to the blood was evaluated. Twenty-six cases out of 34 developed disturbance in cerebrospinal fluid dynamics with reflux of (169)Yb-DTPA to the ventricles. Studying further these cases the blood (169)Yb-DTPA concentration curve within the period of 1-2 hours after (169)Yb-DTPA injection by lumbar puncture, is likely to reflect the (169)Yb-DTPA transport from the intrathecal subarachnoid space to the blood, but cases in which (169)Yb-DTPA absorption from the intrathecal space was poor, had the dilatation of the cerebral ventricles, while those with good absorption except one case had no dilatation. Cases with moderate to marked degree of dilatation of the ventricles, were accompanied with mental, gait disturbance and incontinence, and they were taken the cerebrospinal fluid shunting operation. Cases in which complete lack of cerebral convexity filling of (169)Yb-DTPA was seen in 24-hour scintigram, were clinically benefited, while cases in which both ventricular dilatation and stasis were seen and moreover convexity filling was observed, were not benefited by shunting operation.From these findings, the considerable dilatation of the ventricles, the ventricular stasis and the complete lack of convexity filling of (169)Yb-DTPA at 24 hours in cisternography, and the malabsorption of cerebrospinal fluid in the intracranial as well as intrathecal space are reliable criteria in determining the indication of the cerebrospinal fluid shunting operation for the patients with specific clinical symptoms.


The perturbation theory for critical points of causal variational principles is developed. We first analyze the class of perturbations obtained by multiplying the universal measure by a weight function and taking the push-forward under a diffeomorphism. Then the constructions are extended to convex combinations of such measures, leading to perturbation expansions for the mean and the fluctuation of the measure, both being coupled in higher order perturbation theory. It is explained how our methods and results apply to the causal action principle for causal fermion systems. It is shown how the perturbation expansion in the continuum limit and the effect of microscopic mixing are recovered in specific limiting cases.


The characteristics of Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) demands new set of network strategies in order to provide reliable group communication. Group communication is an essential requirement for MANET since nodes forming these temporary networks generally come together for common purposes and they need to collaborate. Multicast routing protocols plays a significant role in MANET to provide this communication. Multicast transmission allows the operator to drastically save network resources, it also makes the routing of the traffic flows more complex than in unicast transmissions. A huge amount of possible tress have to be considered and analyzed to and the appropriate routing paths. To address this problem, we propose the use of the genetic algorithms, which considerably reduce the number of solutions to be evaluated. Then we select a single path from the set of paths between each node-pair. The routes are computed using the on-demand source routing principle considering the reliability of the nodes. Simulations were conducted on the computed routes to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.


As the rapid advancement and wide application of computer hardware, software and network, hospital information systems (HISs) have entered almost all hospitals in China and are becoming more important and covering more parts in daily hospital operations. Most functions in a HIS provide the users an easier and faster way in doing their medical tasks with graphic user interface. But the HIS is a management information system focusing on daily operations within hospital to improve efficiency of work by using online clinical data acquisition and processing. So, to some extent, a HIS improve quality of health care services, but it cannot measure and evaluate the quality of health care services. At present, hospitals in China are in a competitive environment. In order to attract more patients, high customers' satisfaction is most important for a hospital in the competition. Hospital services management system (HSMS), which is an information system of health care services management in hospital can improve quality of service and lead to cost reduction, high customers' satisfaction and great attractability to other hospitals' customers. In this paper, we study the HSMS. The main work as follows: review services management and HIS, analyze the contents of health care services management and the functions of a HSMS, design the framework of a HSMS, study the implementation technology of a HSMS, discuss the how to integrate a HSMS into a HIS.


Multitemporal satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are a useful source of information for geophysicists to monitor changing regions. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to extract from multitemporal SAR images two kinds of information: temporal changes (flooded areas, coastline erosion, etc.) and stable spatial features (roads, rivers, etc.). The novelty of the proposed approach is to detect simultaneously these two kinds of discontinuities. In a first step, the contrast and the heterogeneity information is extracted by a "multitemporal" application of the ratio of local means and by new three-dimensional texture parameters based on the log-cumulants. In a second step, the resulting attributes that measure the time variability or the presence of spatial features are merged. An interactive fuzzy fusion approach is proposed to provide end-users with a simple and easily understandable tool for tuning the change-detection results. The performances of the proposed attributes and fusion technique are presented on a set of seven multitemporal SAR images acquired by the European Remote Sensing (ERS-1) satellite.


Abstract
This chapter presents a historical analysis of how rural and small libraries have traditionally used nontheatrical film, including a discussion of how bookmobiles presented these materials to persons in broader service areas. After establishing the entertainment and educational benefits patrons historically received from the screening of these materials, the author transitions to discuss how recently established regional film archives and other organizations have made significant strides in recent years in preserving motion pictures that document local and regional culture. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how rural and small libraries can work with regional motion picture archives to design screenings and other programs that fulfill traditional roles of entertaining and educating patrons while also reaffirming local cultural identity.

Summative research and archival sources provide the foundations for the discussion of the role and purpose of film in rural and small libraries. Specific libraries and collections serve as case studies.

Small-gauge motion pictures were popular with rural library and bookmobile patrons during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, bringing entertainment and information to persons who normally had limited options in these areas due to geographic barriers.

Regional film archives and nontheatrical film advocacy organizations have emerged during recent decades, collecting previously overlooked materials that can help reaffirm local and regional culture.

Several regional film archives have already collaborated with rural and small libraries as well as other local institutions, providing a roadmap for libraries that wish to expand their cultural-heritage-oriented programming.

Numerous scholars have published studies on regional and local nontheatrical film in recent decades, but relatively little has been written to connect these films with their value to rural public libraries and their constituents. By beginning with a historical analysis of how films have traditionally been of value to these audiences, the author is able to transition to presenting ideas on how nontheatrical works can continue to be of value in rural contexts. This has practical applications for rural libraries and other rural cultural organizations throughout the United States.


A mathematical model has been developed for the separation of CO2 from natural gas (CH4) using hollow-fiber membrane module. Numerical solution technique using Runge-Kutta-Merson method, available from the NAG FORTRAN Library as the subroutine D02BBF, is used to solved the mathematical model. The model is used to predict the effects of the operating conditions, namely, feed pressure and feed composition on the performance of the separation of CO2 from natural gas (CH4). The solution strategy employs initial value problem estimate and the establishment of feed pressure profile and gas composition profile .
The model developed was used to predict the performance of a commercial size membrane permeator with a diameter and length of 5.08 cm and 304.8 cm respectively. The membrane area utilized was 232877.97 cm2 with 7200 active fibers. The volumetric feed flow rate was 1.83 x 10 (6) cm3 (STP)/s. The ranges of pressure and feed composition used are 2068-5170 cm Hg and 5-50% respectively. The model predicted the carbon dioxide purity in the permeate stream 65.54% and retentate 0.146% respectively. The results obtained was based on feed pressure, feed composition and temperature of 5170 cm Hg, 5% carbon dioxide and 25C respectively. The model also found that the Mechanical Energy Balance equation (Bernoulli equation) which was incorporated in the mathematical model satisfactorily predict the feed pressure drop along the fiber length. The predicted feed pressure drop was found to significantly affect the performance of a single-stage hollow-fiber membrane permeator.


The present protocol analysis supplements Sasaki's(1993) study, which used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships among measures of second language proficiency (SLP), foreign language aptitude, and two types of intelligence (verbal intelligence and reasoning). In the present study, 6 participants randomly selected from the same subject pool took different types of SLP tests, a foreign language aptitude battery, and an intelligence test. The researcher attempted (a) to test Bachman and Palmer's (1982) hypothesis that a general SLP factor is related to the amount of information processing required for solving a given item, (b) to compare cognitive processes and strategies employed for different types of aptitude/intelligence tests, and (c) to compare the quality and quantity of test-taking processes employed by students with different levels of SLP.

The results provided important information not captured in the previous product-oriented psychometric study (Sasaki, 1993). First, Bachman and Palmer's (1982) hypothesis only partly supported the data. The size of the general second language proficiency (SLP) factor effect on test scores did not completely correspond to the amount of information processing required by these tests. Second, the protocol analysis helped to check the validity of the tests. Most of the tests appeared to measure what they were supposed to measure. Lastly, the results revealed differences in information processing between the high and low SLP groups. The high SLP group differed from the low SLP group in assessment, planning, and execution of problem solving processes.


By reading out both anode and cathode strips, double-sided CdTe strip detectors can achieve a large area and a high position resolution with few readout channels, which makes them very attractive for X-ray and γ-ray imaging and spectroscopy. We have developed double-sided CdTe strip detectors, 1.28 ×1.28 cm2 in size and 0.5 and 2.0 mm in thickness. Both electrodes are divided into 32 orthogonal strips with a pitch of 400 µm. For a detector of 0.5 mm thickness, the energy resolution was measured to be 1.5 keV (FWHM) at 60 keV. For the 2.0-mm-thick detector, an energy resolution of 8.0 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV was obtained using only the anode signal. By combining both the anode and cathode signals, we successfully improved the spectral performance and measured an energy resolution of 5.9 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV.


Seamless cloning of a source image patch into a target image is an important and useful image editing operation, which has received considerable research attention in recent years. This operation is typically carried out by solving a Poisson equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, which smoothly interpolates the discrepancies between the boundary of the source patch and the target across the entire cloned area. In this paper we introduce an alternative, coordinate-based approach, where rather than solving a large linear system to perform the aforementioned interpolation, the value of the interpolant at each interior pixel is given by a weighted combination of values along the boundary. More specifically, our approach is based on Mean-Value Coordinates (MVC). The use of coordinates is advantageous in terms of speed, ease of implementation, small memory footprint, and parallelizability, enabling real-time cloning of large regions, and interactive cloning of video streams. We demonstrate a number of applications and extensions of the coordinate-based framework.


Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a T-cell-tropic betaherpesvirus. A glycoprotein (g) complex that is unique to HHV-6, gH/gL/gQ1/gQ2, is a viral ligand for its cellular receptor, human CD46. However, whether complex formation or one component of the complex is required for CD46 binding and how the complex is transported in cells are open questions. Furthermore, in HHV-6-infected cells the gQ1 protein modified with N-linked glycans is expressed in two forms with different molecular masses: an 80-kDa form (gQ1-80K) and a 74-kDa form (gQ1-74K). Only gQ1-80K, but not gQ1-74K, forms the complex with gQ2, gH, and gL, and this four-component complex is incorporated into mature virions. Here, we characterized the molecular context leading to the maturation of gQ1 by expressing combinations of the individual gH/gL/gQ1/gQ2 components in 293T cells. Surprisingly, only when all four molecules were expressed was a substantial amount of gQ1-80K detected, indicating that all three of the other molecules (gQ2, gH, and gL) were necessary and sufficient for gQ1 maturation. We also found that only the tetrameric complex, and not its subsets, binds to CD46. Finally, a gQ2-null virus constructed in the BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) system could not be reconstituted, indicating that gQ2 is essential for virus growth. These results show that gH, gL, gQ1, and gQ2 are all essential for the trafficking and proper folding of the gH/gL/gQ1/gQ2 complex and, thus, for HHV-6 infection.


ABSTRACT Land crabs are found in marine and terrestrial sediments and sedimentary rocks from the Pleistocene and Holocene throughout the Caribbean. Field surveys of two widespread and abundant species, Gecarcinus lateralis and Gecarcinus ruricola, were conducted three times a week for 4 weeks along the northern coast of San Salvador Island, the Bahamas, at three localities that varied in vegetation cover, available sediment, and wind and wave energy. A total of 1400 identifiable remains were found and scored for four taphonomic characters: fragmentation, edge modification, surface alteration, and color loss. The majority of specimens exhibited various levels of disarticulation, from complete limbs to only isolated podomeres. Overall, claws are overrepresented, and the distribution of recovered remains differed significantly (p < 0.0001) from that expected based on the anatomy of a single crab (eight legs, two claws, and one carapace per individual). Remains found in direct sunlight and open spaces consistently showed more surface alteration, edge modification, and more loss than those found within vegetation or on the beach. Fragmentation was not significantly different across localities (p  =  0.045). This result suggests that the fossil record of land crabs may be biased as a result of their low preservation potential in terrestrial environments. The discovery of eight poorly preserved Holocene chelae on San Salvador Island contrasts starkly with the abundance and preservational quality of surficial remains. Rapid burial is likely required for their preservation but may not ensure the preservation of the cuticle.


The study was conducted at eleven sites in the Cederberg Mountains, about 200 km north of Cape Town, during March 2006, to gain some information on soil characteristics of natural habitats of Buchu (Agathosma betulina) and determine possible variations in Buchu oil quality at different sites. Plant samples were collected and plant height was recorded at each site. Soil samples were taken as close as possible to the sampled plants, while the direction of the slope was also recorded. The soil analyses indicated that soils of the Cederberg Mountains are mostly very sandy with low levels of nutrients. The pH of the soil was found to vary between pHKCl 3.7 and 5.3. Plant height varied with age and between sites and the analyses of the leaves indicated low levels of most of the inorganic elements. Essential oil from the sites showed slight variations, but generally low pulegone levels, high levels of diosphenol and the absence of measurable amounts of cis-trans acetylthio-p-menthan-3-one isomers indicated that all the material originated from pure A. betulina genetic material. High levels of diosphenol also indicated that the material was from diosphenol chemotype.


Abstract Researchers in the human-computer interaction field have advocated that interface designers use analytical models of the user (e.g. the GOMS model) to help them consider user needs during the design process. This paper surveys the literature on analytical models for interface designers, focusing initially on empirical studies of the validity of these models. This survey shows that analytical models can by used by interface designers in two ways: (1) as task analytic tools that help in generating preliminary design ideas, and (2) as tools for evaluating preliminary designs by predicting user performance and satisfaction. Empirical studies have demonstrated that analytical models can be used in the task analysis phase of design; in these studies, models were successfully used to generate new designs for existing interfaces, with the new designs leading to improved user performance. Regarding the use of analytical models to evaluate interface designs, a number of empirical studies have shown that these models can help explain the factors affecting user performance in a precise, quantitative fashion. However, these explanations have only been given for existing interfaces. Advocates of analytical models have not yet demonstrated convincingly that models can generate accurate a priori predictions of user performance for a new interface. This kind of prediction is necessary before analytical models can be used effectively by interface designers. The final section of the paper focuses on the practical constraints affecting the use of analytical models in interface design organizations, such as organizational schedules, budgets and training requirements. In this section, suggestions are made concerning research needed before analytical models can be used in real-world design projects.


Residual stress effects in MEMS wafer adhesive bonding were investigated. A waferlevel finite element (FE) modelling approach was used, which accounted for wafer configuration and allowed the deformation of individual devices across a wafer to be considered. A specific test was carried out to determine the adhesive's viscoelastic response, through an effective timedependent Young`s modulus, so that initial and longer-term post-curing responses could be estimated. These results are compared with predictions based on modulus values obtained from Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) testing. The predicted wafer deformations are compared with optical surface profile measurements of actual specimens. Initial response predictions using the effective modulus show excellent agreement with measurements, while the DMA modulus gives a significant underestimate. On the other hand, difficulty was found in modelling long-term relaxation, due to non-linear mechanisms such as polymer "ageing" which are harder to model.


Introduction: Ward rounds permeate health care delivery worldwide and form an important daily activity within all hospitals. In this study, the daily morning ward round in plastic surgery was examined from a teleological and systems point of view. Methods: Data were gathered from the following sources to inform the systems analysis: patient interviews, staff interviews, direct observations of the ward round on multiple occasions, and through process mapping. Results: To better understand the ward and its layout, a schematic of it was developed. Following observations of the ward round and the way in which decisions are made on it, an IDEF0 map was developed. Three patients were invited to take part in the study. Three members of staff were interviewed. The overarching themes from the interviews related to aspects of communication which this paper details. Conclusions: This small-scale study demonstrates how the ward round as a process can be assessed, including product quality, process quality, the measurement and management of capacity, the role of standardization, the role and significance of bottlenecks, the key information flows, including the role of feedback, and the motivation and incentives of system participants and ideas for improvement generated.


Parents frequently present to the emergency department (ED) concerned about their child's fever. Fever management education programs have been found to improve parents' knowledge of managing fever, although no education program was identified that specifically considered parents with lower functional health literacy. This article describes the development of an easily understood children's fever management education program for parents with varying levels of health literacy. A review of existing literature and guidelines was conducted. Pictorial images and written material constrained to fifth-grade level of readability were used. Academics and ED experts confirmed the content of this evidence-based program. The education program, a combination of Digital Video Disc (DVD) and a brochure in relation to child fever management, is currently being trailed at an ED in Sydney and is appropriate for EDs or primary care settings. Tailoring education programs with plain and simple language is potentially beneficial to all parents (or caregivers) presenting to the ED with children experiencing fever. This program will provide nurses with a simple and clear fever management brochure or DVD to give to parents or caregivers with varying levels of health literacy. We envisage that this program will be continuously televised within local EDs and available for parents or caregivers to view online.


: The capacity of Enterobacteriaceae strains cultivated in a synthetic medium for the biosynthesis of catechols and hydroxamates has been studied. Among the strains under study all strains of the genera Salmonella (8 strains), Escherichia (102 strains), Citrobacter (5 strains), Enterobacter (2 strains), Serratia (1 strain) synthesize catechols. In the genus Shigella (128 strains) all Sh. flexneri serovars (79 strains) do not synthesize catechols, other representatives of this genus synthesize iron-fixing metabolites The synthesis of catecholsin the pathogenic Escherichia serovars is 1.5-2 times lower than in the non-pathogenic and opportunistic enterobacterial strains. Among the representatives of the genus Klebsiella (82 strains) catechols are synthesized by Kl. pneumoniae (68 strains) and not synthesized by kl. rhinoscleromatis (5 strains) and Kl. ozaenae (9 strains). Catechols are not synthesized also by all Proteus organisms under study (12 strains). All the enterobacteria under study show no capacity for the accumulation of hydroxamates under the conditions of catechol synthesis. The intensity of the synthesis of catechols depends on the composition of the medium and the conditions of cultivation.


Despite a wide reception of Antonovsky's salutogenetic model, only recently representative data measuring sense of coherence with the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) have been collected for Germany. Meanwhile, norms have been published for the long (SOC-29) and the short-form (SOC-13) of the scale. Also an alternative short-form (SOC-9L) has been developed. Basis of this investigation are data from 4002 subjects (70.2 % response rate) from a representative sample in the City of Lübeck and the surrounding communities. In addition to a comprehensive battery of psychometric instruments, the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) was used to derive DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. In this study, test statistical parameters for SOC-items stemming from a representative survey are reported. Internal consistencies (Cronbach's alpha) for the three forms are: SOC-29 = 0.91, SOC-13 = 0.86 und SOC-9L = 0.85. Critical differences with an alpha of 5 % are ascertained at: SOC-29 = 17.73, SOC-13 = 11.55 und SOC-9L = 8.61. Arithmetic means (and standard deviations) of the three scales for the whole sample are: SOC-29 = 155 (23), SOC-13 = 70 (11), SOC-9L = 51 (8). Also descriptive values, respecting age and gender for the three forms of the SOC are referred. Additionally all three SOC forms for the whole sample are contrasted with SOC scores of subjects who a) never fulfilled criteria for a psychiatric disorder in their lifetime, b) fulfilled criteria for a psychiatric disorder once in their lifetime, and c) fulfilled criteria for a psychiatric disorder in the last 12 months. Subjects who never fulfilled criteria showed highest scores, those who did so within the last 12 months showed lowest scores. The other two group scored in between.


The development of the liquid biofuels sector has been dynamic for more than 10 years, but from the very beginning of this process has been accompanied by a number of controversies as the production and use of liquid biofuels have both positive and negative effects. These consequences primary concern socio-economic and environmental areas. The most important economic benefits are connected with production, turnover and employment in the biofuels industry and the development of agriculture through higher demand on agricultural commodities. The aim of the paper was to quantify labour productivity in the liquid biofuels sector in European Union countries. It is hypothesized that highly developed countries (measured by GDP per capita) have higher labour productivity in the liquid biofuels industry than poorer European Union countries. The second hypothesis states that countries with high liquid biofuel production have higher labour productivity than other countries. The period under research covered the years 2009–2015. The data are mainly from Eurostat, EurObserv'ER consortium and World Bank. This research provides the general conclusion that a high level of economic development is not accompanied by high labour productivity (two types) in the liquid biofuels sector (there is no significant positive correlation). The same applies to the relation between biofuel production volume and labour productivity. The research proves that a high level of GDP per capita or the big scale of biofuel production (and use) is not a determinant of high labour productivity in this sector.


Numerical modeling of sintering by continuum mechanical simulations is successfully applied today to predict e.g. the distortions developing during sintering. Several examples that demonstrate the possibilities of such simulations especially for industrial applications have been published recently. However, there are still open questions regarding the influence of grain rearrangement, crack formation and anisotropic starting configurations (e.g. due to prior compaction). By using the Discrete Element Method the sintering process can be investigated on a more fundamental mesoscopic scale. This method also considers effects due to particle rearrangement or anisotropic configurations as well as crack developments automatically. Their influence on various macroscopic properties like densification rate and viscosities is studied. Suggestions how to use these insights to improve existing continuum mechanical models are given.


The marketing concept should be understood and practiced in varying degrees by all medical groups; otherwise, growth is left to chance. Operating on this premise, the author has set forth a very clearly written description of the key components and general considerations of a long-range marketing plan. The managerial functions of a plan are presented, as well as controllable and uncontrollable factors, and the needs and associated risks of various marketing growth strategies. Within this discussion, the administrator will find a framework for evaluating his particular situation and planning for the future.


Abstract. The fact that the climate on the earth is a highly complex dynamical system is well-known. In the last few decades great deal of effort has been focused on understanding how climate phenomena in one geographical region affects the climate of other regions. Complex networks are a powerful framework for identifying climate interdependencies. To further exploit the knowledge of the links uncovered via the network analysis (for, e.g., improvements in prediction), a good understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying these links is required. Here we focus on understanding the role of atmospheric variability, and construct climate networks representing internal and forced variability using the output of an ensemble of AGCM runs. A main strength of our work is that we construct the networks using MIOP (mutual information computed from ordinal patterns), which allows the separation of intraseasonal, intra-annual and interannual timescales. This gives further insight to the analysis of climatological data. The connectivity of these networks allows us to assess the influence of two main indices, NINO3.4 – one of the indices used to describe ENSO (El Nino–Southern oscillation) – and of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), by calculating the networks from time series where these indices were linearly removed. A main result of our analysis is that the connectivity of the forced variability network is heavily affected by "El Nino": removing the NINO3.4 index yields a general loss of connectivity; even teleconnections between regions far away from the equatorial Pacific Ocean are lost, suggesting that these regions are not directly linked, but rather, are indirectly interconnected via El Nino, particularly at interannual timescales. On the contrary, on the internal variability network – independent of sea surface temperature (SST) forcing – the links connecting the Labrador Sea with the rest of the world are found to be significantly affected by NAO, with a maximum at intra-annual timescales. While the strongest non-local links found are those forced by the ocean, the presence of teleconnections due to internal atmospheric variability is also shown.


The curvature of a polytope, defined as the largest possible total curvature of the associated central path, can be regarded as the continuous analogue of its diameter. We prove the analogue of the result of Klee and Walkup. Namely, we show that if the order of the curvature is less than the dimension d for all polytope defined by 2d inequalities and for all d, then the order of the curvature is less that the number of inequalities for all polytopes.


We compare two simple mechanisms for the enhancement of the time delay in slow light systems. Both are based on the superposition of the Brillouin gain with additional loss. As we will show in theory and experiment if two losses are placed at the wings of a SBS gain, contrary to other methods, the loss power increases the time delay. This leads to higher delay times at lower optical powers and to an increase of the zero gain delay of more than 50%. With this method we achieved a time delay of more than 120ns for pulses with a temporal width of 30ns. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest time delay in just one fiber spool. Beside the enhancement of the time delay the method could have the potential to decrease the pulse distortions for high bit rate signals.


The Internet would be more efficient and robust if routers could flexibly divide traffic over multiple paths. Often, having one or two extra paths is sufficient for customizing paths for different applications, improving security, reacting to failures, and balancing load. However, support for Internet-wide multipath routing faces two significant barriers. First, multipath routing could impose significant computational and storage overhead in a network the size of the Internet. Second, the independent networks that comprise the Internet will not relinquish control over the flow of traffic without appropriate incentives. In this article, we survey flexible multipath routing techniques that are both scalable and incentive compatible. Techniques covered include: multihoming, tagging, tunneling, and extensions to existing Internet routing protocols.


New stratigraphically controlled pollen data from the late Early Cretaceous of Portugal allow a recalibration of the classical continental succession of the Potomac Group (USA), which has long been used to demonstrate the gradual morphological changes of angiosperm leaves and pollen. The Portuguese record represents the best dated succession of angiosperm pollen assemblages of the interval between the late Barremian and the mid-Albian. Comparison of the angiosperm pollen record of the Potomac Group with the pollen assemblages from Portugal and with other independently dated records indicates that the distinct differences in the angiosperm pollen assemblages between the three formations of this group (the Patuxent Formation, Arundel Clay Formation and Patapsco Formation) are related to discontinuities. Our revised age model for the Potomac Group implies a major discontinuity between the Arundel Clay (of early Albian age), and the Patapsco Formation (of mid-Albian–early Cenomanian age). The Portuguese record reveals a so far undocumented radiation phase of angiosperms within the early Aptian to mid-Albian in which monocolpate angiosperm pollen of monocot and/or magnoliid affinity appear as a highly diversified group. These new findings imply that the onset of the radiation of monocots–magnoliids preceded the radiation of eudicots by at least 10 Ma.


Abstract. Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access, exploration, exploitation and enrichment of these CH data in a standardized and more structured form. This article presents the monitoring work developed for more than ten years on the excavation of the Xlendi site. Around an exceptional shipwreck, the oldest from the Archaic period in the Western Mediterranean, we have set up a unique excavation at a depth of 110m assisted by a rigorous and continuous photogrammetry campaign. All the collected results are modelled by an ontology and visualized with virtual and augmented reality tools that allow a bidirectional link between the proposed graphical representations and the non-graphical archaeological data. It is also important to highlight the development of an innovative 3D mobile app that lets users study and understand the site as well as experience sensations close to those of a diver visiting the site.


Nearly two decades of research has supported the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy when applied to the workplace. Known as Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) in workplace settings, research has shown promising results for both health and performance. The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic review of ACT training interventions in the workplace. Our review identified 14 studies that met the criteria specified. Findings indicate that approaches to the implementation of ACT vary. To date, only public sector and voluntary populations have been targeted in earnest.
There are encouraging signs in terms of ACT's ability to ameliorate distress in working populations, particularly with high-stress populations. There is also evidence that ACT can be effective in improving a wide range of performance-related outcomes. This fits the theory behind ACT – that it targets the fundamental processes of both human suffering and effectiveness. The evidence is broadly supportive that ACT training is effective because it improves psychological flexibility – a key process or mechanism of change in human flourishing. Due to the variety of implementation in terms of the content and design of interventions, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions about the most effective format of ACT training. In future it may be necessary to experiment with shorter interventions to see if they can still yield positive outcomes, whilst maintaining clarity over the mechanisms of change. Further research may also be required with different cohorts, in particular looking at its efficacy when implemented across whole organisations.


Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different fabrication techniques on the fracture strength of the composite resin-based inlay restorations of endodontically treated molars. Methods: Sixty mandibular molars were divided into six groups (n = 10) designated according to the treatment as: Group-1: Control group, intact teeth; Group-2: Filtek Ultimate Universal restorative with incremental technique; Group-3: Filtek Bulk Fill Posterior restorative; Group-4: Biodentine with Filtek Ultimate Universal restorative; Group 5: everX Posterior with Filtek Ultimate Universal restorative; and Group-6: Lava Ultimate CAD/CAM restorative. The standard mesio-occluso-distal cavities were prepared and the roots filled for all the teeth, except those of the control group. Following the placement of the restorations, the fracture resistance of the specimens was measured. The data were analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test. Results: While Group-1 (2815.80 N) exhibited significantly higher fracture strength than the other groups (p < 0.05), Groups-2 (2062.20 N), 3 (2166.00 N), 5 (2355.60 N), and 6 (2340.70 N) exhibited statistically similar results (p > 0.05). The Biodentine group (1480.50 N) exhibited significantly lower fracture strength than the rest of the groups (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The CAD/CAM and manual build-up techniques exhibited statistically similar results with the exception of Biodentine, which exhibited a significantly lower in vitro performance compared to the other composites used in the study. The fiber-supported composite everX Posterior increased the fracture strength of the endodontically treated teeth.


Mechanical engineering curriculums at German universities have mostly theoretical approaches to design theory. Several institutes and chairs have specialized courses regarding this topic, but these are seldomly integrated. The approach IDEE – Integrated Design Engineering Education – brings the specialized fields on design theory together in one course with a highly practical focus at the beginning of the mechanical engineering studies. This is realized by a mixture of theoretical lectures and a group project. For students, this includes their first experience of a complex group project with peers and also the first oral presentation in an engineering context. With a lack of professional and soft skills, there is often friction inside groups. There is also a need for appropriate tools to work collaboratively. Due to the Corona pandemic, lectures and the group project must be held completely online. This paper describes our approach in helping the students improve their professional and personal skills by integrating new courses within the project, monitor their group dynamics, and also use digitisation to provide an online-only solution. This paper presents the challenges regarding soft skills and collaborative work as well as the chosen approach on how to integrate digitisation, monitoring, and selforganisation skills into the lecture to face the challenges.


In the first part of the paper, I present a framework for the description and evaluation of teleosemantic theories of intentionality, and use it to argue that several different objections to these theories (the various indeterminacy and adequacy problems) are, in a certain precise sense, manifestations of the same underlying issue. I then use the framework to show that Millikan's biosemantics, her own recent declarations to the contrary notwithtanding, presents indeterminacy.

In the second part, I develop a novel teleosemantic proposal which makes progress in the treatment of this family of problems. I describe a procedure to derive a (unique) homeostatic property cluster [HPC] from facts having to do with the properties that a certain indicator relied on, in the events leading to its fixation in a certain population. This HPC is the one that should figure in the content attribution to the indicator in question.


Easter Sabbath for Adventists Holloway Seventh-day Adventist Church, London, England, 19 April 2003 Holloway Seventh-day Adventist Church is set into the commercial buildings that line Holloway Road in the Islington area of London. It has a rounded roof, a large window in the center of its facade, three double front doors, and two double side doors. The building has a certain Dutch rococo feeling about it, but the architectural style is probably best called "urban vernacular." Inside, the church is built in the concert-stage style. It has a center rostrum-pulpit, with two rows of seats above and behind it. Above the top row are curtains, arranged so that the area of white plaster between them appears to be a screen. Each side of the chancel contains organ pipes. A piano sits to the right. On this Saturday flowers are symmetrically arranged at the center, left, and right of the chancel. The church's white walls have yellow details, with blue painted panels separating each window. Dark wainscoting runs the length of the walls. Framed by green curtains, the clear glass windows have round arches. The church's pews and folding chairs seat perhaps 400 worshipers. At 11 AM on the day before Easter (a term the Adventist tradition does not use), it is parked. People of all ages keep coming in. Although the congregation is largely black, at least eight whites are among the worshipers. Most of the church's members are of West Indian heritage, with Trinidadians and Jamaicans predominating, but other members come from Africa. The two women sitting beside a visitor say they are the only Kenyans in the congregation. The socio-economic level of the congregation is not high. Such diversity among the congregation is unsurprising. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has fostered vigorous mission programs, particularly in third-world countries. Adventist missions to nonChristian countries began in 1894, when missionaries entered Ghana and other west African nations. Having been exposed to Adventism in their countries of origin, many emigrants from Africa and the Caribbean brought that faith with them to London. The service begins with a hymn from the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal led by a song leader wearing a gray suit. Approximately twenty members of the church's unvested choir sit in the two tiers of seats behind him. At the end of the hymn, the minister, an evangelist, and two elders enter from the back of the church and take seats immediately behind the song leader. An elder leads the opening prayer, giving special attention to visitors attending today's service. A female elder then asks all visitors to stand. Of the twenty who do, six are white. Welcoming all, she thanks them for coming, and says that the church has prepared a special meal for visitors (given Adventist dietary teaching, it will surely be vegetarian) following the service. Next she asks the senior members of the congregation to identify themselves to the congregation by waving. "You have been faithful Sabbath after Sabbath," she declares. "Thank you for coming." Led by the song leader and accompanied by the pianist, the congregation now sings the second hymn. Its refrain commands: "Bring them in from the fields of sin / Bring them in, Bring them in." Another hymn, "O Zion, haste," immediately follows. Most Protestant churches know its refrain well: "Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace / Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release." The congregation sings four verses of both hymns. Although the time is now 11:25 AM, worshipers are still entering the church. So far the worship of these Adventists has been sedate, with no clapping or shouting. Hence the song leader asks the worshipers to sing "O Zion, haste" again, with more enthusiasm. As the organ and piano join in, he enlivens the singing by directing the congregation to sing the first verse, the women to sing the next verse, the men to sing the third verse, and the entire congregation to join in the refrain. …


Extracellular ATP and other nucleotides are important autocrine/paracrine mediators that regulate diverse processes critical for lung function, including mucociliary clearance, surfactant secretion, and local blood flow. Cellular ATP release is mechanosensitive; however, the impact of physical stimuli on ATP release during breathing has never been tested in intact lungs in real time and remains elusive. In this pilot study, we investigated inflation-induced ATP release in rat lungs ex vivo by real-time luciferin-luciferase (LL) bioluminescence imaging coupled with simultaneous infrared tissue imaging to identify ATP-releasing sites. With LL solution introduced into air spaces, brief inflation of such edematous lung (1 s, ∼20 cmH2O) induced transient (<30 s) ATP release in a limited number of air-inflated alveolar sacs during their recruitment/opening. Released ATP reached concentrations of ∼10-6 M, relevant for autocrine/paracrine signaling, but it remained spatially restricted to single alveolar sacs or their clusters. ATP release was stimulus dependent: prolonged (100 s) inflation evoked long-lasting ATP release that terminated upon alveoli deflation/derecruitment while cyclic inflation/suction produced cyclic ATP release. With LL introduced into blood vessels, inflation induced transient ATP release in many small patchlike areas the size of alveolar sacs. Findings suggest that inflation induces ATP release in both alveoli and the surrounding blood capillary network; the functional units of ATP release presumably consist of alveolar sacs or their clusters. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of real-time ATP release imaging in ex vivo lungs and provides the first direct evidence of inflation-induced ATP release in lung air spaces and in pulmonary blood capillaries, highlighting the importance of purinergic signaling in lung function.


Gene expression data is often collected in time series experiments, under different experimental conditions. There may be genes that have very different gene expression profiles over time, but that adjust their gene expression patterns in the same way under experimental conditions. Our aim is to develop a method that finds clusters of genes in which the relationship between these temporal gene expression profiles are similar to one another, even if the individual temporal gene expression profiles differ. We propose a $K$-means type algorithm in which each cluster is defined by a function-on-function regression model, which, inter alia, allows for multiple functional explanatory variables. We validate this novel approach through extensive simulations and then apply it to identify groups of genes whose diurnal expression pattern is perturbed by the season in a similar way. Our clusters are enriched for genes with similar biological functions, including one cluster enriched in both photosynthesis-related functions and polysomal ribosomes, which shows that our method provides useful and novel biological insights.


Measurements in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are often correlated both in space and in time. This paper focuses on tracking multiple targets in WSNs by taking into consideration these measurement correlations. A sequential Markov Chain Monte Carlo (SMCMC) approach is proposed in which a Metropolis within Gibbs refinement step and a likelihood gradient proposal are introduced. This SMCMC filter is applied to case studies with cellular network received signal strength data in which the shadowing component correlations in space and time are estimated. The efficiency of the SMCMC approach compared to particle filtering, as well as the gradient proposal compared to a basic prior proposal, are demonstrated through numerical simulations. The accuracy improvement with the gradient-based SMCMC is above $90\%$ when using a low number of particles. Thanks to its sequential nature, the proposed approach can be applied to various WSN applications, including traffic mobility monitoring and prediction.


On board the aircraft JAS 39 Gripen a measuring system, Data Acquisition System (DAS), is sending sensor data to a server on the ground. In this master thesis, a unified API for distribution and handling of the sensor data is designed and implemented. The work has been carried out at Saab Aeronautics, Linkoping during, 2014.During flights with the aircraft the engineers at Saab need to monitor different sensors in the aircraft, including the exact commands of the pilots. All that data is serialized and sent via radio link to a server at Saab. The current data distribution solution includes several clients that need to connect to the server. Each client has its own connection protocol, making the system complex and difficult to maintain. An API is needed in order to make the clients connect in a unified manner. This would also enable future clients to implement the API and start receiving sensor data from the server.The research conducted in the thesis project was centered on the different choices that exist for designing such an API. The question that needed answering was; how can an existing complex system can be replaced by a publish-subscribe system and what the benefits would be in terms of latency and flexibility of the system? The design would have to be flexible enough to support multiple clients. The investigated research question was answered with a design utilizing ZMQ, pthreads and a design pattern. The result is a flexible system that was sufficiently fast for the requirements set at Saab and open to future extensions.The thesis work also included designing a unified API with requirements on latency and functionality. The resulting API was designed using the publish-subscribe design pattern, the network library Zero Message Queue (ZMQ) and the threading library pthreads. The resulting system supports multiple coexisting servers and clients that request sensor data. A new feature is that the clients can start sending calculations performed on samples to other clients.To demonstrate that the solution provides a unified framework, two existing clients and the server were developed with the proposed API. To test the latency requirements, tests were performed in the control room at Saab.


Gastric plasmacytoma is an infrequent form of presentation of monoclonal gammopathy that, if ulcerated, can cause upper gastrointestinal bleeding. This entity is usually localized but may progress to multiple myeloma or other forms of monoclonal gammopathy. Differential diagnosis should be performed with other monoclonal gammopathies, based on laboratory and histological criteria, as well as with other gastric tumors such as adenocarcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, neuroendocrine tumors and lymphomas. Differential diagnosis can be based on radiological and endoscopic characteristics, although definitive diagnosis will undoubtedly be based on histological study and immunohistochemical techniques. We describe the case of a male patient who underwent investigations for upper gastrointestinal bleeding and iron deficiency anemia. The final diagnosis was multiple myeloma associated with gastric plasmacytoma.


The work is devoted to the study of the interaction of hydrogen with point defects (vacancy, bivacancy, trivacancy, stacking fault tetrahedron, intrinsic interstitial atom) and linear (complete and partial edge dislocations, screw dislocation) defects in Pd and Ni by the method of molecular dynamics. The bond energies of the hydrogen impurity with considered defects were obtained. It is shown that the most effective hydrogen traps in Pd and Ni are vacancies and vacancy clusters. The high sorption capacity of vacancies should contribute to significantly effect of their concentration on the overall sorption capacity of the metal, especially for metals such as Ni, for which the energy of absorption by vacancies and vacancy clusters is negative while the absorption energy by a pure crystal is positive. The presence of dislocations and dislocation complexes in Ni, low-angle grain boundaries, according to the obtained data, weakly affects to the sorption ability of the metal in comparison with vacancies and vacancy clusters.


OF DISSERTATION PHYSIOLOGICAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL ROLES OF ABC TRANSPORTERS IN CELLULAR EFFLUX OF SUBSTRATES ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are transmembrane proteins that transport a wide variety of substrates across intra and extra-cellular membranes. A few examples of endo and xenobiotic substrates are metabolic products, lipids, sterols, and drugs. An important function of ABC transporters involved in export is to prevent intracellular the buildup of toxic products. Several ABC transporters have also been associated with drug resistance upon treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. P-glycoprotein (P-GP) and the multidrug resistant (MRP) transporters of the ABC C family are examples of transporters that confer chemoresistance. We have studied two unique roles of ABC transporters in the liver and the heart. In the liver, maintenance of bile secretion is important during lactation to ensure proper absorption of nutrients for the offspring. Three main ABC transporters are involved in this process: ABCB11 (transports bile acids), ABCB4 (transporters phospholipids), and ABCG5/ABCG8 (transports cholesterol). In the rat, expression of ABCB11 remains the same as the size of the bile acid pool increases. However, the expression of ABCG5/ABCG8 is abolished, preventing excessive export and loss of cholesterol from the liver. The regulation of these transporters during lactation maintains the production of bile acids from cholesterol by decreasing export while preventing toxicity from bile acids by maintaining bile flow. Another protective role of ABC transporters is seen in oxidative stress-induced toxicity of cardiac tissue following treatment with Doxorubicin (DOX), a drug used in cancer treatment. Multidrug resistance protein 1 (Mrp1) can transport toxic products by conjugation with sulfate, glutathione (GSH) or glucuronide. In Mrp1 mice, DOX causes advanced cell damage through intracellular edema and increased apoptotic nuclei. However, Pgp expression increases upon DOX treatment, potentially compensating for the loss of Mrp1. Mrp1 can also transport GSH, GSH disulfide (GSSG), and products of oxidation, like GSH conjugates. In the absence of Mrp1, GSH levels are increased in the heart, providing protection against oxidative stress. Both of these examples in liver and heart show the diversity of ABC transporters and the role they play in preventing cell toxicity. These studies also provide insight into ways to prevent cell toxicity through manipulation of ABC transport proteins.


We consider naming and categorization practices within the information technology (IT) arena. In particular, with how certain terminologies are able to colonise wide areas of activity and endure for relatively long periods of time, despite the diversity and incremental evolution of individual technical instances. This raises the question as to who decides whether or not a particular vendor technology is part of a product category. Who decides the boundaries around a technology nomenclature? Existing Information Systems scholarship has tended to present terminologies as shaped by wide communities of players but this does not capture how particular kinds of knowledge institutions have emerged in recent year to police the confines of technological fields. The paper follows the work of one such group of experts – the industry analyst firm Gartner Inc. – and discusses their current and past role in the evolution of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. We show how they make regular (but not always successful) 'naming interventions' within the IT domain and how they attempt to regulate the boundaries that they and others have created through episodes of 'categorisation work.' These experts not only attempt to exercise control over a terminology but also the interpretation of that name. Our arguments are informed by ethnographic observations carried out on the eve of the contemporary CRM boom and interviews conducted more recently as part of an ongoing investigation into industry analysts. The paper bridges a number of disparate bodies of literature from Information Systems, Economic Sociology, the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, and Science and Technology Studies.


In this work, we carried out dual-control-volume grand canonical molecular dynamics simulations of the transport diffusion of liquid water and methanol to vacuum under a fixed chemical potential gradient through a slit pore consisting of Au(111) surfaces covered by −CH3 or −OH terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Methanol and water are selected as model fluid molecules because water represents a strongly polar molecule while methanol is intermediate between nonpolar and strongly polar molecules. Surface hydrophobicity is adjusted by varying the terminal group of −CH3 (hydrophobic) or −OH (hydrophilic) of SAMs. We observed for the first time from simulations the convex and concave interfaces of fluids transporting across the slit pores. Results show that the characteristics of the interfaces are determined by the interactions between fluid molecules and surfaces. The objective of this work is to provide a fundamental understanding of how these interactions affect transport diffusion.In this work, we carried out dual-control-volume grand canonical molecular dynamics simulations of the transport diffusion of liquid water and methanol to vacuum under a fixed chemical potential gradient through a slit pore consisting of Au(111) surfaces covered by −CH3 or −OH terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Methanol and water are selected as model fluid molecules because water represents a strongly polar molecule while methanol is intermediate between nonpolar and strongly polar molecules. Surface hydrophobicity is adjusted by varying the terminal group of −CH3 (hydrophobic) or −OH (hydrophilic) of SAMs. We observed for the first time from simulations the convex and concave interfaces of fluids transporting across the slit pores. Results show that the characteristics of the interfaces are determined by the interactions between fluid molecules and surfaces. The objective of this work is to provide a fundamental understanding of how these interactions affect transport diffusion.