Background: Acne is a very common skin disease in which scars are seen in 95% of the patients. Although numerous treatments have been recommended, researchers are still searching for a single modality to treat the complication due to its variety in shape and depth. We compared the effects of fractional carbon dioxide (CO2) laser alone and in combination with subcision in the treatment of atrophic acne scars. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was performed in Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center (Isfahan, Iran) during 2011–2012. Eligible patients with atrophic acne scars were treated with fractional CO2laser alone (five sessions with 3-week interval) on the right side of the face and fractional CO2laser plus subcision (one session using both with four sessions of fractional CO2laser, with 3-week interval) on the left side. The subjects were visited 1, 2, and 6 months after the treatment. Patient satisfaction rate was analyzed using SPSS 20 software. Results: The average of recovery rate was 54.7% using the combination method and 43.0% using laser alone (P < 0.001). The mean patient satisfaction was significantly higher with the combination method than laser alone (6.6 ± 1.2 vs. 5.2 ± 1.8; P < 0.001). Bruising was only seen with the combination method and lasted for 1 week in 57.0% and for 2 weeks in 43.0%. Erythema was seen in both methods. Postinflammatory pigmentation and hyperpigmentation were associated with combination method. No persistent side effects were seen after 6 months. Conclusion: Using a combination of subcision and laser had suitable results regarding scar recovery and satisfaction rate.


An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that inclusion of Zn at a pharmacological level in diets fed to pigs affects apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of Ca and P and standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of Ca. The second hypothesis was that inclusion of microbial phytase increases the ATTD of Ca and P and the STTD of Ca regardless of the concentration of Zn in the diet. Fifty-six growing barrows (15.4 ± 1.9 kg average BW) were allotted to a randomized complete block design with 7 dietary treatments and 8 pigs per treatment. A maize-based basal diet was formulated with either 0 or 2,400 mg/kg Zn from ZnO and 0, 1,000, or 3,000 units of phytase (FTU) per kilogram. A Ca-free diet was used to determine basal endogenous losses of Ca. Experimental diets were fed for 13 d, and feces were collected from the feed provided from d 6 to 11 using the marker-to-marker approach; urine was also collected from d 6 to 11. Retention of Ca, ATTD of Ca, and STTD of Ca increased ( < 0.01) as the concentration of phytase in the diet increased and were less ( < 0.01) if ZnO was used than if no ZnO was added to the diet. Retention of P and the ATTD of P increased ( < 0.0001) as the concentration of phytase increased in the diet, but the increase was greater if ZnO was not added than if ZnO was added to the diet (interaction, < 0.05). In conclusion, pharmacological levels of Zn reduced Ca and P digestibility and retention, but this effect was partly ameliorated by the inclusion of phytase in the diets. Inclusion of microbial phytase increased the ATTD and STTD of Ca in diets and also the ATTD of P.


The various Precambrian areas of the Sahara region are very similar geologically. Within the basement complex, the Pharusian unconformity separates two great groups of crystalline rocks. The older group, generally katamorphic, corresponds to the Suggarian cycle; the younger, generally epimorphic, corresponds to the Pharusian cycle. In the latter, several distinct phases can be distinguished which have not as yet been correlated between the different areas. Throughout the region the Precambrian is separated from younger beds by the Tassilian unconformity.


: 15,000 years ago, the Sahara was moist, inhabited by tropical fauna and travelled over by nomadic populations. Later, the dryness incited human migrations to North or West Africa. African bilharziasis (S. mansoni and S. haematobium) could have been carried by nomadic populations infected in the Nile River. Sickle cell disease and alpha-thalassemia are derived from Saudi Arabia (unless in the case of alpha-thalassemia there was an identical mutation in several regions). Echinococcosis was brought with the dromedary in the ptolemaic era whereas ankylostomiasis was brought by the Romans or the Arabs.


The paper will analyze over 50 years of science publications by British Antarctic Survey to establish the pattern of annual publications, changes in disciplinary output and how these might be related to changing fashions in science and management objectives within the UK. To set the British output in a global context an analysis of ISI Web of Science for publications identified by search terms 'Antarctic*', 'subantarctic*' and 'southern ocean' was undertaken. Comparisons between countries show major differences in total output, mean citation numbers and the calculated Hirsch-index. Subject rankings and percentage output comparisons demonstrate the differences between British Antarctic science and the general trends for all Antarctic countries. Examination of the papers with over 400 citations shows the predominance of ozone as a subject, the USA as the major research country and, for these papers, a surprising lack of international authorship.


Flexicurity represents a concept that aims at enhancing both labour market flexibility and employment and income security. The European Union has picked up this concept in its European Employment Strategy, inspired by developments in a number of its member states. This paper describes the way that flexicurity has developed in the Dutch context. The core of this development can be characterized as the 'normalisation' of atypical forms of employment, offering securities to these workers, but without curbing the flexibility in the labour market. Notwithstanding good performance in terms of low unemployment and high labour market participation the Netherlands faces further challenges with regard to flexicurity and security. The second part of the paper focuses on the question how employment security could be best organised in the Dutch labour market. Employment security is defined as the security to get a job and to remain in employment, but not necessarily in the same job with the same employer. Thus, employment security differs from job security. The paper presents and discusses empirical results of a study on arrangements or systems to prevent unemployment for employees who are threatened by redundancy. An analysis is carried out of "job to job" transition arrangements whereby the Netherlands is compared with Sweden. The question is raised whether a systematic approach can be observed in these two countries to warrant new employment opportunities for employees who have been given notice. The different actors and coordination mechanisms involved in these systems are identified. Furthermore, the relevant preconditions for 'job to job transition systems' to be successful are fleshed out. The paper concludes with lessons that, from an international perspective, can be learned in shaping employment security as (literally) the security of the future.


The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of plant growth regulators for enhancing fruit color of 'Gala Standard' apples (Malus domestica). The experiment was carried out in the 2015 and 2016 crop seasons. The treatments consisted of water, as a control; 300 mg L-1 ethephon, as a positive control; 400 mg L-1 prohydrojasmonate; and 400 mg L-1 abscisic acid. Flesh firmness, soluble solids content, fruit weight, and red color were assessed after harvest. Plant growth regulators enhanced red color of fruit and chlorophyll degradation. Prohydrojasmonate and abscisic acid did not reduce flesh firmness, in the 2016 season.


A magnetically geared machine (MGM) integrates a magnetic gear with a low torque, high speed electric machine to create a single compact high torque, low speed device with the size advantages of a mechanically geared system and the reliability of a direct drive machine. This work investigates the use of MGMs for wave energy conversion through the development of a large scale magnetically decoupled inner stator radial flux magnetically geared generator rated for 10 kW at an input speed of 30 rpm. Critical design trends are illustrated using parametric 2D and 3D finite element simulation results. Information is also provided about the prototype's mechanical structure and key magneto-mechanical design considerations, including the impact of modulator bridges and the extent of axially escaping leakage flux. The prototype's experimental stall torque of 3870 N·m represents a 99.1% match with the simulated stall torque and corresponds to volumetric and gravimetric torque densities of 82.8 kN·m/m3 and 14.5 N·m/kg, respectively. Additionally, the prototype achieves an experimental efficiency of approximately 90% over much of its operating range.


The article examines the effects of exposure to loud noise on the hearing of the residents of Calabar, Nigeria. To determine how related the subjective responses, assessed by the use of questionnaires as the study instrument were to the objective responses measured with the sound level meter, the coefficients of correlation were calculated for the noise measurements. Noise is a disturbance to the human environment that is escalating at such a high rate that it will become a major threat to the quality of human lives if nothing is done to reduce it. Noise has been a constant threat since the industrial revolution. Too much noise exposure may cause a temporarily change in hearing or a temporarily ringing in your ears (tinnitus). These short-term problems usually go away within a few minutes or hours after leaving the noise. However, repeated exposures to loud noise can lead to permanent, incurable hearing loss or tinnitus.


Blue InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a conventional electron blocking layer (EBL), a common n-AlGaN hole blocking layer (HBL), and an n-AlGaN HBL with gradual Al composition are investigated numerically, which involves analyses of the carrier concentration in the active region, energy band diagram, electrostatic field, and internal quantum efficiency (IQE). The results indicate that LEDs with an n-AlGaN HBL with gradual Al composition exhibit better hole injection efficiency, lower electron leakage, and a smaller electrostatic field in the active region than LEDs with a conventional p-AlGaN EBL or a common n-AlGaN HBL. Meanwhile, the efficiency droop is alleviated when an n-AlGaN HBL with gradual Al composition is used.


[1] The accurate definition of the lunar cratering chronology is important for deriving absolute model ages across the lunar surface and throughout the Solar System. Images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Cameras and Wide-Angle Camera and the SELENE/Kaguya Terrain Camera provide new opportunities to investigate crater size-frequency distributions (CSFDs) on individual geological units at lunar impact craters. We report new CSFD measurements for the Copernican-aged craters North Ray, Tycho, and Copernicus, which are crucial anchor points for the lunar cratering chronology. We also discuss possible reasons for an age discrepancy observed between the impact melt and ejecta units. Our CSFDs for North Ray and Tycho crater ejecta deposits are consistent with earlier measurements. However, for Copernicus crater and one of its rays, we find significantly lower cumulative crater frequencies than previous studies. Our new results for Copernicus crater fit the existing lunar absolute chronologies significantly better than the previous counts. Our derived model ages of the ejecta blankets of North Ray, Tycho, and Copernicus agree well with radiometric and exposure ages of the Apollo 16, 17, and 12 landing sites, respectively, and are generally consistent with a constant impact rate over the last 3 Ga. However, small variations of the impact rate cannot be resolved in our data and require further investigations.


A flow system based on the multicommutation concept was developed for the determination of free and total sulfur dioxide in table wines, exploiting gas diffusion separation and spectrophotometric detection. The system allowed the comparison of malachite green and pararosaniline chemistries, using the same manifold configuration. Free and total SO(2) were determined within the ranges 1.00-40.0 and 25.0-250 mg L(-1), at determination throughputs of 25 and 23 h(-1), respectively. Employing the malachite green reaction, detection limits of 0.3 and 0.8 mg L(-1) were attained for free and total SO(2), respectively. Pararosaniline chemistry provided detection limits of 0.6 mg L(-1) for free SO(2) and 0.8 mg L(-1) for total SO(2). Relative standard deviations better than 1.8 and 1.4% were obtained by the malachite green and pararosaniline reactions, respectively. With regard to the two tested chemistries, 18 wines were analyzed and the results achieved by the pararosaniline reaction compared better with those furnished by the recommended procedure.


In this paper, we develop a lung area extraction technique from X-ray computed tomography (CT) images for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems. In lung cancer cases, pulmonary nodules are typical pathological changes and thus they are the target to be detected by CAD systems. The isolated nodules can be detected more easily by CAD systems developed previously, while previous CAD systems are often hard to detect nonisolated nodules. The extraction technique can then be used for transforming the non-isolated pulmonary nodules connected to the walls of the chest into isolated ones. The technique proposed here is based on an active contour model, but such model is often trapped into a local optimum solution. To avoid the local optimum solutions, an essential core of the proposed technique is to select an appropriate initial contour by using an anatomical feature of the lung shape in X-ray CT slices. Some experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed technique for assisting the CAD systems to detect non-isolated nodules more accurately.


In order to assess the seismic risk for Switzerland, and particularly for the city of Basel, the seismic vulnerability of the existing buildings needs to be evaluated. Since no major damaging earthquake has occurred in Switzerland in recent times, vulnerability functions from observed damage patterns are not available. A simple evaluation method based on engineering models of the building structures suitable for the evaluation of a larger number of buildings is therefore proposed. The method is based on a nonlinear static approach acknowledging the importance of the nonlinear deformation capacity of the buildings subjected to seismic action. Eighty-seven residential buildings in a small target area in Basel were evaluated. The results are vulnerability functions that express the expected damage as a function of the spectral displacement. In order to extrapolate the results to other residential areas of the town, building classes were defined for which the vulnerability is presented in a probabilistic form that can be used directly for earthquake scenario projects.


A new type of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate consisting of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) coated SiO2@Au@Ag nanoparticles (SiO2@Au@Ag@CD NPs) has been achieved. Our protocol was a simplified approach as the fabrication and modification of the silver shell were realized in a single-step reaction by taking advantage of β-CD as both the reducing and stabilizing agents. The as-synthesized SiO2@Au@Ag@CD NPs were uniform in size and demonstrated high SERS activity and reproducibility. The substrates consisting of the SiO2@Au@Ag@CD NPs were employed for SERS detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) including PCB-3, PCB-29 and PCB-77. The SERS detection sensitivity was significantly improved due to enrichment of more PCB molecules captured by β-CD on the substrate surface, as confirmed by the appearance of the new Raman bands which are attributed to the complexes between β-CD and PCBs according to the theoretical simulation. Therefore, this work presents a novel approach to the fabrication of effective SERS substrates that can be employed for rapid determination of trace amounts of PCBs in the environment with high detection sensitivity and recognition selectivity.


Caverns in hard limestone form natural karstic features. Surveying, detecting, and managing caverns are valuable as they provide an accurate and reliable understand-ing of the geohazards that caverns represent. With the construction of the highway network in Duqm (Duqm Port, Sultanate of Oman), near-surface stability prob-lem (caverns) appeared. Three geophysical tools – ground penetrating radar, electri-cal resistivity tomography, and multichannel analysis of surface waves – were uti-lized to delineate the subsurface cavities beneath an area of 10,000 m2 (200 m × 50 m). Based on interpretation of the results of two-dimensional and three-dimensional ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and multi-channel analysis of surface waves, the caverns are found to extend in the N–S direc-tion. The results show two cavern systems of varying thicknesses. The caverns are separated at the top, but at some locations they become an one-unit cavern system, especially in the northerly direction. The cavern system is not completely hollow; at some locations, they are filled with materials of different physical properties than the host rock. The depth of the cavern system varies between 0 and 5.2 m. The caverns are found only within the limestone rock unit. There is no evidence of caverns within the shale rock unit. The results from the three methods show good agreement in terms of depth and dimensions of the detected caverns.


In the present contribution, we first propose a methodology that enables to detect wave-like structures propagating in ionosphere, by tracking the local maxima of the modulus of continuous complex wavelet transform coefficients with respect to heights. From the derivation of the phases of the wavelet transform, we measure the corresponding propagation parameters. These tools are applied to measurements collected by vertical ionospheric sounding at high-time resolution sampling regime (sampling periods ranged from 1 to 3min) in the observatory Průhonice (49.9N, 14.5E, Czech Republic). The aim of these experiments is to analyze the changes in the ionospheric plasma induced by three different solar eclipse events (total solar eclipses, 11 August 1999, 29 March 2006, and annular solar eclipse, 3 October 2005) and to detect and analyze the propagation of the generated acoustic–gravity waves (AGWs). Second, injecting wave vector components measured from the data into the AGW propagation equations, we obtain a full description of the propagation of the waves. This enables us to differentiate AGWs from others wave-like oscillations and to discuss similarities and differences of the waves detected during these three particular events. These procedures also enabled us to detect acoustic waves. We believe that the methodology proposed here brings significant improvement in detecting and characterizing AGW propagations from empirical data and can be readily used in the ionosphere community. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


: Specialty physicians are feeling the heat from managed care because of shrinking reimbursement, selective paneling and clinical re-engineering. They have felt the need to leverage their influence by developing specialty groups and networks. While each network is unique in its external circumstances, there are several common elements to successful specialty networks, including having a clear network mission, obtaining adequate capitalization, obtaining equity, accepting only a manageable amount of risk, gaining member volume establishing and maintaining payer diversity, being high quality and efficient, developing and using information tools, supporting network efficiencies, allying with other physician organizations, exercising network panel selection and deselection, and empowering physicians with knowledge.


Background An international review of the Cambodian Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 2010 and other data show that despite immunization coverage increases and vaccine preventable diseases incidence reductions, inequities in access to immunization services exist. Utilizing immunization and health systems literature, analysis of global health databases and the EPI review findings, this paper examines the characteristics of immunization access and outcome inequities, and describes proposed longer-term strategic and operational responses to these problems. Findings The national programme has evolved from earlier central and provincial level planning to strengthening routine immunization coverage through the District level 'Reaching Every District Strategy'. However, despite remarkable improvements, the review found over 20% of children surveyed were not fully immunized, primarily from communities where inequities of both access and impact persist. These inequities relate mainly to socio-economic exposures including wealth and education level, population mobility and ethnicity. To address these problems, a shift in strategic and operational response is proposed that will include (a) a re-focus of planning on facility level to detect disadvantaged communities, (b) establishment of monitoring systems to provide detailed information on community access and utilization, (c) development of communication strategies and health networks that enable providers to adjust service delivery according to the needs of vulnerable populations, and (d) securing financial, management and political commitment for 'reaching every community'. Conclusions For Cambodia to achieve its immunization equity objectives and disease reduction goals, a shift of emphasis to health centre and community is needed. This approach will maximize the benefits of new vaccine introduction in the coming 'Decade of Vaccines', plus potentially extend the reach of other life-saving maternal and child health interventions to the socially disadvantaged, both in Cambodia and in other countries with a similar level of development.


The production and delivery of rapidly perishable goods in distributed supply networks involves a number of tightly coupled decision and optimisation problems regarding the just-in-time production scheduling and the routing of the delivery vehicles in order to satisfy strict customer specified time-windows. Besides dealing with the typical combinatorial complexity related to activity assignment and synchronisation, effective methods must also provide robust schedules, coping with the stochastic perturbations (typically transportation delays) affecting the distribution process. In this paper, we propose a novel bi-objective meta-heuristic approach for robust scheduling. The proposed algorithm returns a set of solutions with different cost and risk tradeoffs, allowing the analyst to adapt the planning depending on the attitude to risk. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by a real-world case concerning the production and distribution of ready-mixed concrete.


Protrusions are deformations that form at the surface of living cells during biological activities such as cell migration. Using combined optical tweezers and fluorescent microscopy, we quantified the mechanical properties of protrusions in adherent human embryonic kidney cells in response to application of an external force at the cell surface. The mechanical properties of protrusions were analyzed by obtaining the associated force-length plots during protrusion formation, and force relaxation at constant length. Protrusion mechanics were interpretable by a standard linear solid (Kelvin) model, consisting of two stiffness parameters, k 0 and k 1 (with k 0 . k 1 ), and a viscous coefficient. While both stiffness parameters contribute to the time-dependant mechanical behavior of the protrusions, k 0 and k 1 in particular dominated the early and late stages of the protrusion formation and elongation process, respectively. Lowering the membrane cholesterol content by 25% increased the k 0 stiffness by 74%, and shortened the protrusion length by almost half. Enhancement of membrane cholesterol content by nearly two-fold increased the protrusion length by 30%, and decreased the k 0 stiffness by nearly two-and-half-fold as compared with control cells. Cytoskeleton integrity was found to make a major contribution to protrusion mechanics as evidenced by the effects of F-actin disruption on the resulting mechanical parameters. Viscoelastic behavior of protrusions was further characterized by hysteresis and force relaxation after formation. The results of this study elucidate the coordination of plasma membrane composition and cytoskeleton during protrusion formation.


ABSTRACT Yan, X. and Mohammadian, A., 2020. Evolutionary prediction of the trajectory of a rosette momentum jet group in flowing currents. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(5), 1059–1067. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This study proposes a new approach to predicting the trajectory of a rosette momentum jet group in flowing currents, using multigene genetic programming (MGGP), which is an evolutionary-based artificial intelligence (AI) technique. The MGGP algorithm is used to develop explicit mathematical models that predict the dimensionless coordinates of the jet centerline trajectory as functions of the jet-to-ambient velocity ratios, the Reynolds numbers, the dimensionless jet angle, and the dimensionless travel distance. Experimental data are used to train the models, and the optimal models are identified using the Pareto-optimal approach, based on a performance–complexity trade-off. The same data, and some additional unseen data, are used to assess the performances of the developed models. The results show that the MGGP predictions have a good match with both the training and testing experimental datasets. The best MGGP model is also found to be superior to the best single-gene genetic programming (SGGP) model. This study demonstrates the suitability and capability of the MGGP technique in developing models for predicting the trajectory of a rosette momentum jet group in flowing currents, which can be used in many applications in the field of coastal science and engineering, such as the design of coastal outfall systems and assessment of environmental impacts.


A prospective cohort study of the incidence of reported maladjustment in Vietnam returnees during their first seven months back in the United States is presented. Indexes of disciplinary-legal and emotional maladjustment for population of Vietnam veterans (N=577) and nonveterans (N=172) entering the same Army unit at a garrison post in late 1970 were tabulated and compared. Only 23% of the veterans showed indexes of either type of maladjustment, and the incidence of veteran maladjustment was not significantly different than that of nonveterans. These findings contrast sharply with more subjective overgeneralized reports, from uncontrolled studies, of widespread Vietnam veteran maladjustment and suggest the need for controlled quantitative longitudinal studies of Vietnam veteran readjustment. From my experience and the recent literature on Vietnam veterans, some observations are made on psychiatric research in the political arena.


A systematic study of single-loop, cascaded, and multibit modulators of second to fourth order is presented, based on a combination of behavioral simulations and linear mod- eling. Constraints for optimal performance and precise guidelines for the choice of parameters are derived. Moreover, the optimal parameters and the corresponding performance are found and given in tables. A graph showing the maximal achievable per- formance of each topology as a function of the oversampling ratio is presented, offering a valuable help for the design of analog-to-digital converters.


Abstract This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who were admitted during off-hours and treated with primary angioplasty associated with an increased risk of mortality compared with those admitted during regular working hours. We performed a systematic literature search using PubMed, SCOPUS, Europe PMC, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases that was finalized on March 15, 2021. The primary outcome was mortality comprising early (in-hospital), midterm (30 days to 1 year), and long-term mortality (>1 year). A total of 384,452 patients from 56 studies were included. The overall mortality of acute STEMI patients admitted during off-hours and regular hours were 6.1 and 6.7%, respectively. Patients admitted during off-hours had similar risk of early, midterm, and long-term mortality compared to those admitted during regular working hours ([relative risk or RR = 1.07, 95% confidence interval or CI, 1.00–1.14, p  = 0.06; I 2  = 45%, p  = 0.0009], [RR = 1.00, 95% CI, 0.95–1.05, p  = 0.92; I 2  = 13%, p  = 0.26], and [RR = 0.95, 95% CI, 0.86–1.04, p  = 0.26; I 2  = 0%, p  = 0.76], respectively). Subgroup analyses indicated that the results were consistent across all subgroups ([women vs. men], [age >65 years vs. ≤65 years], and [Killip classification II to IV vs. Killip I]). Funnel plot was asymmetrical. However, Egger's test suggests no significance of small-study effects ( p  = 0.19). This meta-analysis showed that patients with acute STEMI who were admitted during off-hours and treated with primary angioplasty had similar risk of early, midterm, and long-term mortality compared with those admitted during regular working hours.


This study developed methods and determined the impact of influenza vaccination on elderly persons in 3 large health plans: Kaiser Permanente Northwest, HealthPartners, and Oxford Health Plans. Data for the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 seasons were extracted from administrative databases. Subjects were health plan members > or = 65 years old. Comorbid conditions collected from the preceding year were used for risk adjustment with logistic regression. The virus-vaccine match was excellent for year 1 and fair for year 2. Both years, during peak and total periods, vaccination reduced all causes of death and hospitalization for pneumonia and influenza: hospitalizations were reduced by 19%-20% and 18%-24% for years 1 and 2, respectively, and deaths were reduced by 60%-61% and 35%-39% for the same periods. These results show that all elderly persons should be immunized annually for influenza. The methods used in this study are an efficient cost-effective way to study vaccine impact and similar questions.


Microbial systems are being increasingly developed as production hosts for a wide variety of chemical compounds. Broader adoption of microbial synthesis is hampered by a limited number of high-yielding natural pathways for molecules with the desired physical properties, as well as the difficulty in functionally assembling complex biosynthetic pathways in heterologous hosts. Here, we address both of these challenges by reporting the adaptation of the butanol biosynthetic pathway for the synthesis of odd-chain molecules and the development of a complementary modular toolkit to facilitate pathway construction, characterization, and optimization in engineered Escherichia coli. The modular feature of our pathway enables multientry and multiexit biosynthesis of various odd-chain compounds at high efficiency. By varying combinations of the pathway and toolkit enzymes, we demonstrate controlled production of propionate, trans-2-pentenoate, valerate, and pentanol, compounds with applications that include biofuels, antibiotics, biopolymers, and aroma chemicals. Importantly, and in contrast to a previously used method to identify limitations in heterologous amorphadiene production, our bypass strategy was effective even without the presence of freely membrane-diffusible substrates. This approach should prove useful for optimization of other pathways that use CoA-derivatized intermediates, including fatty acid β-oxidation and the mevalonate pathway for isoprenoid synthesis.


Satellite technologies are used in various disciplines with the improvements in resolutions of sensors. Although spatial resolution of remotely sensed images has increased, automatic information extraction from these images could not reach the desired accuracy. Different studies have been conducted for eliminating the automatic information extraction errors and producing highly accurate spatial information from these images. In this study, building detection analysis was performed with object oriented classification of high resolution satellite images. Results of the object based classification were compared with the integration of normalized digital surface model (nDSM) and NDVI to the object based classification and the effects of these additional data on the classification accuracy were evaluated.


Beige adipocytes are inducible thermogenic cells formed in response to cold exposure and other environmental cues within white adipose tissue. Their capacity to produce heat would provide metabolic benefits against obesity and type 2 diabetes; however, the mechanisms underlying beige adipocyte recruitment, so-called adipocyte browning, induced by different stimuli remain unclear. Using our new adipocyte cell line with improved browning potentials, we compared adipocyte browning responses induced by cAMP (forskolin) versus PPARɣ activation (rosiglitazone) . Time-course RNA-seq revealed that chronic activation of cAMP but not PPARɣ resulted in a biphasic response. The cAMP signaling promoted tissue remodeling at the early phase and subsequently activated energy metabolism while inhibiting cell cycle, which resembles the kinetics of in vivo cold-induced browning. Those late-phase changes were highly correlated with those by PPARɣ activation. Consistently, the cAMP-driven effects were abolished by treatment with PPARɣ antagonists, suggesting PPARɣ as a converging point of its thermogenic actions. Assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq) revealed unique dynamics of chromatin landscape distinct from transcriptional changes during cAMP-induced browning. Chromatin at early-induced genes opened acutely and stayed open until the late phase despite the rapid return of gene expression. The chromatin regions at late-induced genes also opened early, preceding transcriptional activation. Using a motif discovery method, we identified NFIL3 that was enriched in both early and late phases of cAMP-induced browning. Reduced thermogenic gene expression and mitochondrial respiration by NFIL3 knockdown suggest NFIL3 as a putative transcription factor mediating the biphasic response of adipocyte browning. These findings define new mechanisms that orchestrate transcriptional and epigenetic remodeling underlying beige adipocyte formation.

 J. So: None. S. Taleb: None. J. Wann: None. O. Strobel: None. H. Roh: None.

 American Diabetes Association (7-21-JDF-056) , National Institute of Health (DK129289)


Examining the level of farm-specific technical inefficiency of maize-based farming households in Niger state of Nigeria, this study fitted cross-sectional data into a Cobb- Douglass production frontier. Data used for this study were obtained using structured questionnaire administered to 108 randomly selected maize-based farming households. Descriptive analysis and the stochastic frontier production function methodology were used to achieve the research objectives. The mean technical inefficiency is 0.357 (35.7%), implying that about 36% percent efficiency gap from the  optimum (100%) was yet to be attained by all Niger State maize-based farming households. The main determinants of technical inefficiency  among the households are farm income, crop production intensification and market access. Policy that would promote adoption of hybrid seeds  and other inputs as well as facilitate the development of infrastructures such as roads and market facilities among farming households are  therefore encouraged. The government policy of subsidizing hybrid maize seeds and fertilizers is consistent with the findings of this study. Keywords : Productivity, stochastic frontier model and crop production intensification.


AIM
We aimed to determine the relationship between blood lactate, carboxy-hemoglobin (COHb) levels and the severity of clinical findings in patients with CO poisoning.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients over 18 years old and of both gender who were admitted to Emergency Department with the diagnosis of CO poisoning between 10.02.2008 and 17.03.20011 were enrolled in this study. Detailed physical examination of each patient was performed, patients and their relatives were informed about the study and written consents were noted. The levels of consciousness, physical examination findings, electrocardiographic findings, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores, laboratory results (lactate, COHb, CK-MB, Troponin-I levels) and applied treatments [normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT), hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)] were recorded to standart data entry form for each patient. "SPSS for Windows version 18″ package program was used for statistical analysis of the data.

RESULTS
Total 201 patients were included in this study. Thirty five patients (17.4%) received HBOT and lactate, COHb, CKMB, Troponin-I levels of this group were higher than the other patients. Lactate and COHb levels were statistically significantly higher in patients with GCS < 15 than the ones with GCS = 15 (p < 0.01). The patients whose both Troponin-I and CK-MB levels increased have higher lactate levels (p = 0.038), but COHb levels of these patients did not change (p = 0.495).

CONCLUSIONS
According to our study, blood lactate and COHb levels were both correlated with the changes of consciousness in CO poisoning. Blood lactate levels together with COHb in defining indications for HBO treatment might be suggested.


Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is a robust tool to systematically evaluate the effects of design decisions on spatial performance and to identify the relationship between the space and its users. Although there is a growing body of POE research on complex buildings, such as hospitals and education spaces, studies on the POE evaluation of public open spaces are limited. More importantly, few studies have investigated public squares designed at the periphery and how they are used. This study aims to identify the extent to which spatial configuration of public squares is related to users' behavior (i.e., modes/distances of access, level of satisfaction). For this purpose, we focused on four peripheral urban squares located in Istanbul, Turkey. The methodology applied in the study includes a synthesis of three types of expertise: 1) behavioral mapping of urban squares (through the analysis of patterns of use based on direct observation), 2) cognitive evaluation of spaces based on perceived factors (through user questionnaires), and 3) quantifying urban public spaces objectively (through the methodology of space syntax and urban morphology). The results identify associations between objective characteristics of public spaces designed at the peripheral districts, patterns of use and users' perception of these areas, to a certain extent. For example, the variety and intensity of activities within the square as well as the length of occupancy are highest for Avcılar square, which is most integrated within its urban surroundings with reduced average block size. An important finding is the association between the average street connectivity levels of these squares with their pedestrian catchment areas. In other words, the more integrated a public urban space is with its surroundings (800mt buffers), its users will access this space on foot from a larger distance. Based on these findings, spatial configuration as measured by space syntax measures appears to be an explanatory measure assessing the potentiality of public open spaces for bringing users together, hence, creating a lively, well-used space. However, the results also point to some disagreements between the perceived (users' evaluations) and objective (syntactic analysis) measurements, which indicate that both types of measurements are needed in POE research of public spaces.


In this study, in the primary cell culture of human fetal cardiomyocytes proliferation of myocytes combines with their differentiation. The cells were isolated enzymatically from 19-22 week-old human fetuses and cultured for 14 days. DNA synthesis, ultrastructure and presence of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) were examined. In 7 day-old culture, the myocytes make about 60%, in 14 day-old culture--about 50%. Myocytes synthesize DNA and divide mitotically. After a 24 h incubation with 3H-thymidine in 7 day-old culture 1.8 +/- 0.5% of muscle and 25.2 +/- 11.7% of non-muscle cells are labeled, in 14 day-old culture--2.5 +/- 0.5 and 8.1 +/- 1.7% of cells are labeled, respectively. In 7 and 14 day-old cultures the degree of redifferentiation of contractile apparatus in myocytes varies from scattered actin and myosin filaments surrounded by ribosomes to differentiating myofibrils with distinct sarcomeres and Z-discs. Single electron-dense granules, morphologically similar to secretory atrial granules, display ANP-immunoreactivity. Thus, human fetal ventricular cardiomyocytes in cell culture proliferate, differentiate and synthesize ANP for 14 days; this is indicative of vitality of these cells.


Abstract: Different sources of patient heterogeneity or personal characteristics may contribute to differential cost-effectiveness profiles of national screening programs for colorectal cancer (CRC). To motivate the use of subgroup analyses when individual level data are unavailable, we provide a stylized example of the potential economic value of capturing patient heterogeneity in CRC screening. We developed a Markov model to capture the impacts of patient heterogeneity on the cost-effectiveness of CRC screening involving once-only sigmoidoscopy compared to no screening. We simulated cohorts of Norwegian men, women, and six comorbidity subgroups that differentially influenced the relative treatment effect, the risks of developing CRC, dying from CRC, dying from background mortality or screening-related adverse events and baseline quality of life. We calculated the discounted (4%) incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), defined as the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained, and the net monetary benefit (NMB) gained by stratification, from a societal perspective. Screening in men was cost-effective at any threshold value, while screening in women only provides good value for money from threshold values of €50,000 per QALY gained and above. Comorbidities unrelated to CRC development yielded generally less attractive cost-effectiveness ratios (i.e., increased the ICER), while related comorbidities improved the cost-effectiveness profiles of screening for CRC. A stratified policy that accounts for different screening outcomes between men and women could potentially improve the value of screening by €5.8 million annually. Accounting for patient heterogeneity in CRC screening will likely improve the value of screening strategies, as a single screening approach for the entire population can result in inefficient use of resources.Published: Online December 2018.


Background: Renal function recovery in postrenal acute kidney injury (AKI) patient is not always achieved and risk factor for chronic disease. Factors that affect of kidney function recovery include duration of symptoms, AKI stage and degree of hydronephrosis. The aim of the study is to determine the correlation of predisposing factors of renal function recovery in postrenal AKI patient. Methods: A prospective observational analytic study with a cross-sectional study approach that involves postrenal AKI with urinary tract stones formers from August to November 2017. Renal function recovery was assessed by comparing creatinine levels before obstruction and after obstruction (3rd and 7th day) and be correlated by the duration of symptoms, AKI stage, and degree of hydronephrosis. Results: 66 patients were included in the analysis of this study. Renal function recovery was found in 29 patients (43.9%) at 3rd day and 47 patients (71.2%) on the 7th-day post obstruction. There was a significant difference in mean creatinine levels before and after obstruction (p <0.0001). Both duration of symptoms, AKI stage, and hydronephrosis showed correlation on renal function recovery on 3rd and 7th day after obstruction (p < 0.05). In logistic regression analysis, hydronephrosis was the most correlated predisposing factor for renal function recovery in 3rd and 7th day after obstruction (p = 0.0001). Conclusion: Factors duration of symptoms, AKI stage, and degree of hydronephrosis significant correlated to renal function recovery after post-renal AKI. Degree of hydronephrosis was the most correlated predisposing factors.


The study ascertained the innovative adaptive measures used by farmers in northern Nigeria to cushion the harmful effects of climate change. Quantitative and qualitative approaches (Rapid Rural Appraisal, focus group discussions, and semi – structured interview schedule) were used to elicit information from a total of 500 farmers, which were selected using multistage random sampling technique. Findings revealed that 84% and 79% of the farmers were aware and knowledgeable of climate change
issues, respectively, while 81% of them noted that they had at various times experienced climate change incidences. Farmers reported that factors which informed their perception of climate change incidence were: unusual early rains followed by weeks of dryness (M= 2.84), erratic rainfall pattern (M= 2.66), drought (M=2.68), reduction in farm yields (M=2.68) and high rate of disease incidence (M= 2.67). Adaptive measures used by the farmers in northern Nigeria included: changes in planting dates (88.4%) and harvesting dates (85.4%), multiple cropping
(81.8%), intensive manure application (69.2%), shift to different sites (56.8%) and use of wetland/river valley (fadama) for farming (52.6%). The study concludes that there is need for government to make concrete efforts to enact appropriate policies on climate change adaptation and assist local farmers in the short and long term to improve their resilience to climate change impact.


The problem of elastic stability of plates with square, rectangular, and circular holes as well as slotted holes was discussed. The existence of the hole reduces the deformation energy of the plate and it affects the redistribution of stress flow in comparison to a uniform plate which causes a change of the external operation of compressive forces. The distribution of compressive force is defined as the approximate model of plane state of stress. The significant parameters of elastic stability compared to the uniform plate, including the dominant role of the shape, size, and orientation of the hole were identified. Comparative analysis of the shape of the hole was carried out on the data from the literature, which are based on different approaches and methods. Qualitative and quantitative accordance of the results has been found out and it verifies exposed methodology as applicable in the study of the phenomenon of elastic stability. Sensitivity factor is defined that is proportional to the reciprocal value of the buckling coefficient and it is a measure of sensitivity of plate to the existence of the hole. Mechanism of loss of stability is interpreted through the absorption of the external operation, induced by the shape of the hole.


The accurate and efficient evaluation of potentials with singular or weakly-singular kernels is of great importance for the numerical solution of partial differential equations. When the integration domain of the potential is irregular and is discretized by an unstructured mesh, the function spaces of near field and self-interactions are non-compact, and, thus, their computations cannot be easily accelerated. In this paper, we propose several novel and complementary techniques for accelerating the evaluation of potentials over unstructured meshes. Firstly, we observe that the standard approximation of the near field by a ball or a triangle often leads to an over-estimated near field. We rigorously characterize the geometry of the near field, and show that this analysis can be used to reduce the number of near field interaction computations dramatically. Secondly, as the near field can be made arbitrarily small by increasing the order of the far field quadrature rule, the expensive near field interaction computation can be efficiently offloaded onto the FMM-based far field interaction computation, which leverages the computational efficiency of highly optimized parallel FMM libraries. Finally, we observe that the usual arrangement in which the interpolation nodes are placed on the same mesh over which the potential is integrated results in an artificially large number of near field interaction calculations, since the discretization points tend to cluster near the boundaries of mesh elements. We show that the use of a separate staggered mesh for interpolation effectively reduces the cost of near field and self-interaction computations. Besides these contributions, we present a robust and extensible framework for the evaluation and interpolation of 2-D volume potentials over complicated geometries. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques with several numerical experiments.


Damage modes, causes, and effects of railway wheel set are investigated from wide production fields. And then, the reliability strategies are classified as service reliability and development reliability. The development one includes design, material and manufacturing, quality approval/authentication, which is a basis of the service one. The service one is the true product quality, which has not only the basis of development reliability but also the effects of non-destructive monitoring level, damage analysis and assessment capacity, and repairing and renewing policies. Reliability of wheel set is so important that a series of code-based regularities have been issued by professional societies or associations. Optimal design is a most effective way to improve wheel set reliability. And in service, non-destructive inspection and repair opportunities are valuable to be synthetically programmed. The critical damage defect/flaw sizes should be scientifically determined. Three advances in strength reliability field should be introduced. They are affordable and appropriate method for reliability assessment and fatigue life prediction including the super long life regime, no-Paris type crack growth models which include crack initiation, stable growth, and approach fracture, and fatigue S-N relation derived from short cracking growth behaviour.


T. Meshkova, PhD in Political Science, Director of the OECD-HSE Partnership Centre of the SU-HSE International Organisations Research Institute, Y. Vasyakova, Researcher of the OECD-HSE Partnership Centre of the SU-HSE International Organisations Research Institute The article presents OECD estimation of a current and predictaible situation in global economy, having repercussions (feeling the consequences) of economic and financial crisis, and besides OECD attitude to the G20s Action Plan, accepted in November 2008, concerned with increase of controlling mechanisms efficiency for economic growth recovery and stability achievement, and also possible OECD contribution to joint efforts on economic stabilisation, which may carry, first of all, analytical and recommendatory (advisory) character. The article examines basic approaches to global economic stabilization, generalised in the document "OECD Strategic Response to the Financial and Economic Crisis. Contributions to the global effort" and based on both existing OECD legal instruments, and on current results of projects and investigations made by various OECD departments and national authorities of member states. Two interconnected directions of the economy restoration provided by OECD Strategic Response are in detail considered. The first direction includes political measures (policy action), aimed at the prompt stabilisation of the economy and easing of recession influence, including: the control of financial sector, activization of financial institutions interaction, maintenance of a competition and investment flows, increase of taxes transparency and management efficiency. The second direction - all-round strategy (comprehensive strategy) - assumes taking measures for steady growth maintenance in long-term outlook (prospect), including: stimulation of a fiscal policy, keeping markets open and increase of conducting reforms efficiency, development of innovative activity and augmentation of investments into the human capital. Simultaneously OECD will be developing strategies assisting authorities gradually weaken government regulation of economy problem sectors, which have strengthen in the conditions of (during)crisis.


Three molecular clouds have been mapped in the nearby metal-poor dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 using the Owens Valley Millimeter-Wave Interferometer. Based on upper limits to the virial masses of the clouds, the CO-to-H2 conversion factor in NGC 6822 is <2.2+/-1.3 times larger than the Galactic value. Conversion factors obtained for Galactic molecular clouds,
NGC 6822, and the SMC are consistent with the variation in the CO-to-H2 conversion factor being linearly proportional to the oxygen abundance of the galaxy. However, the uncertainties are sufficiently large that equal conversion factors in NGC 6822 and the Galaxy cannot be ruled out. The gas depletion time obtained for the HII region Hubble V is comparable to those of giant HII regions in M33. Thus high-efficiency star formation is not limited to the giant HII regions seen spiral galaxies, but can also occur in a small group of relatively low-mass molecular clouds.


We investigated breeding activity of a community of desert anurans at two sites in north-central Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, during 1990-1995. Four species used these sites for breeding during the summer monsoon season: Colorado River toad, Bufo alvarius, Great Plains toad, B. cognatus, red-spotted toad, B. punctatus, and Couch's spadefoot toad, Scaphiopus couchii. Breeding activity was restricted primarily to 1990 and 1992 when significant rainfall events (>25 mm of rainfall within 24 h) occurred repeatedly. No breeding (i.e., oviposition) occurred during 1991 or 1993, and only S. couchii bred on a single night in 1994 and B. alvarius on a single night in 1995. We undertook a skeletochronologic analysis of lines of arrested growth in digits and femurs with all four study species. Conservative estimates of age based on lines of arrested growth (LAG's) suggest that populations of all four taxa were relatively young (average age between two and four years) at both sites in 1994 and 1995. Growth, as indicated by the amount of bone deposited between LAG's, was greatest during the second year in B. alvarius and B. cognatus, but not B. punctatus or S. couchii. These results indicate rapid growth to maturity but do not support the notion that these anuran amphibians are long-lived organisms that exhibit an extended reproductive lifespan as adults in response to a highly variable, harsh desert environment.


Background Up-to-date information regarding the scope and impact of cannabinoid use among persons with MS (PwMS) is necessary to guide clinical practice and cannabinoid research. Objectives To assess utilization patterns and perceived impact of cannabinoid use among a national cohort of PwMS. Methods Data collected were part of a nationwide survey to characterize pain in PwMS. Items included questions about current/recent cannabinoid use, reasons for use, preferred THC/CBD formulations, and perceived benefits/side effects. PROMIS short-forms assessed symptom severity. Pain phenotype was assessed with the painDETECT questionnaire and FMSurvey Criteria Questionnaires. Results Among n = 1,027 respondents, 42% endorsed recent cannabinoid use, of which 18% endorsed healthcare provider guidance regarding use. PROMIS scores (except cognitive abilities), and pain centralization and neuropathic pain scores, were higher among recent/current users (each p < 0.0001). Sleep and pain were the most frequently reported reasons for use. Benefit from cannabinoids for sleep and pain were strongly correlated (r = 0.65, p < 0.0001). For those who expressed a preference for specific THC/CBD ratios, CBD-predominant formulations were favored. Conclusion Cannabinoid use is common in PwMS, despite a paucity of provider guidance. The range of perceived benefits, and potential differential effects of THC and CBD, highlight the need for personalized, evidence-based guidelines regarding cannabinoid use.


With the advanced multi-particle code DYNAMION it is possible to calculate beam dynamics in linear accelerators and transport lines under space charge conditions with high accuracy. Special features as data from the real topology of RFQ electrodes, drift tubes, quadrupole lenses, misalignment and fabrication errors and consideration of field measurements lead to reliable results of the beam dynamics simulations. Recently the DYNAMION code is applied to the upgrade and optimization of the GSI UNILAC as an injector for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research at Darmstadt (FAIR). An operation of the FAIR requires for the increase of the beam- intensity and -brilliance coming from the UNILAC (up to a factor of 5). End-to-end simulations for the whole linac (from ion source output to the synchrotron entrance) allow for the study and optimization of the overall machine performance as well as for calculation of the expected impact of different upgrade measures, proposed to improve the beam brilliance. The results of the beam dynamics simulations by means of the DYNAMION code are compared with the recent measurements, obtained after upgrade of the High Current Injector (HSI) in 2009.


Whatever a business entity does or doesn't do has a quality dimension and direct or indirect impact on quality of services provided and also on customer satisfaction. This consequently affects repeat purchases and has a direct relationship with the business success through increased customer retention, increased market share, increased revenue and finally increased profits. Trends in business operations with regard to concept of quality show that with changing customer and business demands, businesses are being driven to manage themselves more efficiently and to look more closely at service delivery. Service is deemed worthy of repeat purchase and recommendation to friends if it meets customer specifications. Quality that really counts is in the eye of the customer. Aiming at quality therefore is aiming at the best possible satisfaction of customer needs and requirements. In the current competitive marketplace where products of equally acceptable quality are on sale, businesses are differentiating themselves more on quality of service than on quality of products or people skills and experience. This study aims at evaluating the quality of service offered by Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) with the eventual aim of prescribing intervention mechanisms for the area of study and MSEs in general. The study focuses on Shauri Moyo ( Burma) market in Nairobi's Eastlands region. The market has been closed twice since its opening in 1962, the latest being in April 2004 due to its filthy state. It was given a facelift and reopened by the Minister for Local Government end May 2004. Various models of service quality have been studied and the SERVQUAL model adopted for application in this study. Characteristics of services were studied in order to understand the special emphasis that should be paid to service provision as opposed to the traditional view of product quality. Literature on standards of measuring service quality was shared with all respondent SME operators to serve as reference material for further improvement of service quality in their business operations through repositioning their approach to customers. A descriptive research design was adopted and questionnaires administered to business operators and customers to collect quantitative data. Qualitative data was also collected through observation method. All operating stalls formed the population of study, and an appropriate sample was obtained through simple random sampling after stratifying the population by type of gender to ensure representation of both genders in the study. Data was analysed by modern statistical methods and applications. Data has been presented by use of various types of charts, and descriptive statistics. The study has established that quality service is offered in the market, particularly in view of the facelift given to the entire market recently by the local authority.


The discovery of stem cells in the adult central nervous system raises questions concerning the neurotrophic factors that regulate postnatal neuronal development. Olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) are a useful model, because they are capable of robust neurogenesis throughout adulthood. We have investigated the role of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in postnatal neuronal development by using ORNs as a model. LIF is a multifunctional cytokine implicated in various aspects of neuronal development, including phenotype determination, survival, and in response to nerve injury. LIF-deficient mice display significant increases, both in the absolute amount and in the number of cells expressing olfactory marker protein, a marker of mature ORNs. The maturation of ORNs was significantly inhibited by LIF in vitro. LIF activated the STAT3 pathway in ORNs, and transfection of ORNs with a dominant negative form of STAT3 abolished the effect of LIF. These findings demonstrate that LIF negatively regulates ORN maturation via the STAT3 pathway. Thus, LIF plays a critical role in controlling the transition of ORNs to maturity. Consequently, a population of ORNs is maintained in an immature state to facilitate the rapid repopulation of the olfactory epithelium with mature neurons during normal cell turnover or after injury.


The Electric Power System (EPS) and attitude control system (ACS) are the essential components of any satellite. EPS and ACS efficiency and compactness are substantial for the proper operation and performance of the satellite's entire mission life. So, realizing the significance of EPS and ACS subsystems for any satellite, they have been assimilated and developed in modular forms focusing on efficiency and compactness. The EPS is comprised of three modules called the solar panel module (SPM), power conditioning module (PCM), and power distribution module (PDM) while the ACS has an embedded magnetorquer coil. For compactness and miniaturization purposes, the magnetorquer coil is embedded inside the SPM. The components used are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components emphasizing on their power efficiency, small dimensions, and weight. Latch-up protection systems have been designed and analyzed for CMOS-based COTS components, in order to make them suitable for space radioactive environment. The main design features are modularity, redundancy, power efficiency, and to avoid single component failure. The modular development of the EPS and ACS helps to reuse them for future missions, and as a result, the overall budget, development, and testing time and cost are reduced. A specific satellite mission can be achieved by reassembling the required subsystems.


We construct a utility-based model of fluctuations, with nominal rigidities and unemployment, and draw its implications for the unemployment-inflation tradeoff and for the conduct of monetary policy. We proceed in two steps. We first leave nominal rigidities aside. We show that, under a standard utility specification, productivity shocks have no effect on unemployment in the constrained efficient allocation. We then focus on the implications of alternative real wage setting mechanisms for fluctuations in unemployment. We show the role of labor market frictions and real wage rigidities in determining the effects of productivity shocks on unemployment. We then introduce nominal rigidities in the form of staggered price setting by firms. We derive the relation between inflation and unemployment and discuss how it is influenced by the presence of labor market frictions and real wage rigidities. We show the nature of the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment stabilization, and its dependence on labor market characteristics. We draw the implications for optimal monetary policy.


This paper identifies the essential components of a requirements engineering (RE) process and provides alternatives to the requirements analyst when deciding on a particular set of RE methods. Existing methods of choosing RE techniques are discussed, and a new technique is proposed specifically for choosing RE techniques for projects with critical time-to-market projects. The components of the essential RE process as well as many other insights into the practice of RE were identified by examining the current literature and by analyzing the data from 25 completed surveys concerning the area of RE. The survey data provides insight into the state of the practice in requirements engineering.


The term information security is related with the protection of information as well as the systems from unauthorized access and further misuse by disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording or destruction. Information security means protecting sensitive information which is a growing concern for the body whose business mostly depends on information technology and protecting such critical data in various sectors, including the business, healthcare and defense sectors, has become the first priority of information management. The growing use of networking such as extranets and cross-organizational collaboration tools, including customers, suppliers, and business partners—increasingly need access to the required applications and data, Reviews can be collected through social media technologies. Extended networks can help organizations reduce the operational expenses through greater process efficiencies; it also promote cross-organizational innovation; and reduce the need to build costly and time-consuming point-to-point connections. In spite of tremendous benefits to this expansion of the corporate network, the need for strong security has never been more apparent. Any compromise or failing to protect this asset results in huge loss in terms of trust of customers and investors which in fact results to financial disaster. The information systems consist of three major areas communication channel, user interface and information storage; the protection of these three areas means adoption of the information security. Issues such as dynamic sensitive information ownership, group authentication and authorization and privacy protection also create challenges for the protection of information systems Biometrics has made a significant impact in forensics like identification of criminals or authentication of authorized users. In this system the main emphasis is on a pattern recognition that recognizes a person by determining the authenticity of a specific physiological constraint such as face and/or behavioral characteristic possessed by that person like audio or frequency of key stroke entered. Face recognition is highly preferable and acceptable biometrics used by humans in their visual interaction. Cryptography in conjunction with biometrics is the main objective which leads to high level of security for authentication and key retrieval and will model the secure information exchange. The challenges in face recognition system such as aging, facial expressions, variations in the imaging environment, illumination and pose of the face


Aims
Short QT syndrome (SQTS) is a rare cardiac channelopathy characterized by a shortened corrected QT (QTc)-interval that can lead to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical phenotypes and long-term outcomes of three families harbouring genetic mutations associated with the SQTS.

Methods and results
Clinical data included medical history, physical examination, 12-lead ECG, 24-h Holter-ECG, and transthoracic echocardiography from three index patients and their first-degree relatives. Next generation clinical exome sequencing and genetic cascade screening were performed in index patients and their relatives, respectively. Two index patients experienced malignant ventricular arrhythmias and one patient suffered from arrhythmogenic syncope during a median follow-up period of 8 years. They all had genetic mutations associated with the SQTS. Two mutations were found in the KCNH2 gene, and one in the CACNA2D gene. One patient had an additional SCN10A variant. Alive and mutation-positive family members had short QTc-intervals, but no further phenotypic manifestations. None of the mutation-negative family members had an abnormal ECG or any symptoms. In all patients with shortened QTc-intervals, the QTc-interval had a low long-term variability and QTc shortening always remained detectable by 12-lead ECG.

Conclusion
This study shows the variety of phenotypic manifestations in different families with SQTS. It further emphasizes the importance of a 12-lead ECG for early diagnosis, and the utility of next generation sequencing for the identification of mutations associated with the SQTS.


Through a close reading of a passage of the Rhetorica ad Herrenium this paper aims to recover some features of what the elite of Republican Rome consider linguistic impolite behavior. Describing the different strategies adopted by the participants in a "corrective interchange", where people are normally exspected to use special devices of linguistic politeness, and commenting on it the text allow to capture what a Roman would understand under communicative im/proper behavior in such situations and to catch a glimpse of the role of pragmatic competence  in conferring distinction and confirming social identity. Francesca Mencacci Dipartimento di Filologia e critica delle letterature antiche e moderne Universita degli Studi di Siena Via Roma 56 53100 Siena (Italy) firstname.lastname@example.com


Stable structured layouts of buttons are a primary means of control for input in current graphical user interfaces. Such layouts are ubiquitous---from tiny iPhone screens to large kiosk screens in the malls---they are found everywhere. Yet, there has been relatively little theoretical account that compares the impact of cognitive effort on learning such stable layouts. In this paper, we demonstrate that prior empirical results on cognitive effort in learning stable layouts are theoretically predictable through the memory activation model of a cognitive architecture, ACT-R. We go beyond previous work by quantitatively comparing the level of cognitive effort in terms of a newly introduced parameter in the declarative memory model of ACT-R. We theoretically compare the cognitive effort of two different layouts of graphical buttons with respect to their label representativeness in the domains of traditional keyboard and ShapeWriter.


Abstract This study investigates the use of disaster metaphors in the American media coverage of the 2008 global financial crisis. More specifically, it aims to examine the role of different sub-metaphors in performing various pragmatic and rhetorical functions in financial news discourse. Using the Metaphor Identification Procedure, this study identifies key words from the 1-million-word corpus which comprised the news articles published from September 15, 2008 to March 15, 2009, and examines the associated concordance lines to discern their metaphorical connotations. The findings show that a wide range of sub-source domains of disaster—namely, wind, storm, and water—metaphors was deployed by journalists to capture the various negative impacts of the financial crisis. These findings suggest that the salient extension and mixing of metaphors could enhance the popularization of specialist financial news discourse. The findings also indicate that the news media was complicit in constructing the collective illusion that the financial crisis was unavoidable and not caused by anyone.


In this paper, an adaptive resource allocation (subframe, subcarrier, bit and power allocation) in a cellular multiuser OFDMA-based relay network is considered. We have studied a margin adaptive problem that satisfies link rate requirements with minimum total base station and relay stations power for a fixed set of discrete modulation levels. This problem has been solved by various optimization techniques such as integer programming algorithms, linear programming, suboptimal heuristic methods and finally greedy algorithm for adaptive bit loading. In our work, we have proposed a method for distributing the users randomly and uniformly in a network, a method for dynamic user selection in the central stations, an algorithm for subcarrier allocation in a relay-cellular network with frequency reusing to extend the coverage and minimize power consumption. Finally, we have compared the performance of our proposed algorithm with static methods and non-frequency reusing schemes and showed the prominent achievable gain.


Overexploitation is a pervasive threat to mammal species worldwide and ranks second to habitat destruction as the major cause of their decline in the United States. Fine-scale analyses and quantitative studies on the threats to endangered species are lacking, which can undermine conservation and recovery efforts. Using threats data gathered from official Federal Register notices and recovery plans from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, I quantified the extent to which anthropogenic exploitation threatens the mammal species, subspecies, and populations that are protected under the US Endangered Species Act. Of the federally endangered mammal species in the United States, 65% are threatened by intentional or incidental exploitation by humans, including all endangered ungulates and whales. The most prevalent threats to endangered mammals are harvesting for raw materials (53%), incidental shooting, trapping, and poisoning (37%), and persecution (32%). A significantly higher proportion of marine than terrestrial mammals are threatened by exploitation (96 vs. 57%; χ2 = 10.3, df = 1, p = 0.001). The results from this fine-scale analysis can be used to understand the relative importance of threats in order to guide the distribution of conservation resources and develop context-specific conservation strategies.


We study the power of classical and quantum algorithms equipped with nonuniform advice, in the form of a coin whose bias encodes useful information. This question takes on particular importance in the quantum case, due to a surprising result that we prove: a quantum finite automaton with just two states can be sensitive to arbitrarily small changes in a coin's bias. This contrasts with classical probabilistic finite automata, whose sensitivity to changes in a coin's bias is bounded by a classic 1970 result of Hellman and Cover. Despite this finding, we are able to bound the power of advice coins for space-bounded classical and quantum computation. We define the classes BPPSPACE/coin and BQPSPACE/coin, of languages decidable by classical and quantum polynomial-space machines with advice coins. Our main theorem is that both classes coincide with PSPACE/poly. Proving this result turns out to require substantial machinery. We use an algorithm due to Neff for finding roots of polynomials in NC; a result from algebraic geometry that lower-bounds the separation of a polynomial's roots; and a result on fixed-points of superoperators due to Aaronson and Watrous, originally proved in the context of quantum computing with closed timelike curves.


In this study, the microstructure and the texture development in Al–Zn–Mg–Cu–Zr alloys with/without 0.1%Sc has been investigated after extrusion, cold rolling, and aging treatment. After aging treatment, in Al alloy without Sc recrystallized equiaxed grains are obtained, while in Al alloy with Sc fine grains with an average size of 0.1~0.3 μm are obtained. After cold rolling, in case of the sample from the cross section (CS) to which Sc was added, texture with {112}<111>(Cu) + weak {123}<634>(S) component was developed while in case of the sample from longitudinal section (LS) to which Sc was added, texture with strong β-fiber + {110}<001>(Goss) components was developed. In case of CS and LS without Sc, texture of β-fiber was developed. After solid solution treatment and aging treatment, Al alloys (LS and CS) with Sc had rolling texture while Al alloys without Sc had random texture. The role of these differently developed textures in the plastic behavior, such as the normal anisotropy r-value (the plastic strain ratio) and planar anisotropy r-values are discussed.


The lower montane forest zone of Indonesia is undergoing rapid conversion of indigenous forests to agriculture. In this tropical region, however, the effects of forest conversion on soil N processes have not been investigated. Corn (Zea mays L.) and cacao (Theobroma cacao L.)–coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex Froehner) agroforestry are the main land use types in cleared lower montane forests in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Our main objective was to compare the soil N dynamics under agroforest systems and corn cultivation with indigenous forest. We measured the gross rates of N transformation processes using 15 N pool dilution. The agroforest systems and indigenous forests had higher gross N mineralization rates and faster turnover rates of NH4 1 and microbial N pools than the long-term cultivated corn sites. Faster soil N turnover rates in agroforest systems suggest a more dynamic soil N cycling. Leguminous shade trees, which are important components of these agroforest systems, may have influenced the fast microbial N cycling through release of N-rich root exudates and plant residues. Our results show that compared with corn, agroforestry is a better option in terms of sustainability in the N-supplying capacity of the soil. In addition, we measured higher 15 NH4 1 recoveries than 15 NO3 2 recoveries after 15 min of 15 N addition in all our sites. Our measured rates of gross nitrification were very low to negligible, due to rapid disappearance of added 15 NO3 2 . Such fast reaction of NO3 2 warrants further investigation, especially in tropical areas where 15 N studies are very few.


Starch obtained from Dioscorea dumetorium was employed as a disintegrant in Sodium Salicylate based tablets at concentrations of 5 –15 %w/w. Properties of the starch evaluated include: bulk and tapped densities, water uptake by capillarity, Hausner's quotient and percent compressibility. Compound tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, disintegration time and dissolution rate. Batches of tablets containing equivalent concentrations of AC-di-sol or maize starch were employed as standards. Results obtained indicate that Dioscorea dumetorium starch performed as much better as a disintegrant in sodium salicylate tablets as maize starch but less than Ac-di-sol.


The flight mechanism of insects has not yet been understood. Their wings produce more lift than predicted by steady‐ or quasisteady theory. The importance of unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms is now recognized but, except for the specialized ''flying'' mechanism, the origin of the extra lift is unclear. An attempt is made to explain the unsteady aerodynamic forces by aeroacoustics approach. Sound generated by a moving surface can be physically understood as composition of wing thickness noise, loading noise, and other elements, such as vortex noise. In insect flight, the velocity of the wing tip is much smaller than the velocity of sound, and the compressibility of the air can be neglected. In this case, it becomes easy to calculate the fluttering noise from a given aerodynamic load on the wing surfaces. A new approach to understanding the lift generation mechanism is proposed.


Geochronological data from the Golmud —Lhasa section across the Tibetan Plateau indicate progressively younger periods of magmatism from north to south associated with successively younger ocean closures. Pre -collision Eocene magmatism (50—4 0 Ma) exposed along the southern margin of the Lhasa Terrane in the Gangdise Belt resulted from anatexis of mid -Proterozoic crust (~ 1000 Ma) at depths greater than 10 km, but at higher crustal levels subduction-related intrusions were predominantly mantle-derived with ~ 30 % crustal assimilation . Intrusions from the northern Lhasa Terrane are early Cretaceous in age (130 —110 Ma). These form a bimodal suite comprised of two-mica granites derived from anatex is of Mid -Proterozoic crust and of biotite -hornblende granodiorites from about 60 % crustal assimilation by mantle magmas above a post-collision subduction zone. They place a minimum constraint on collision between the Lhasa and Qiangtang Terranes of 130 Ma . Granite magmatism from the Kunlun Mountains is late P ermian -early Jurassic in age (260—190 Ma). The Kunlun batholith represents reworked mid-Proterozoic crust (1400 —1000 Ma) at an active continental margin from 260 —2 4 0 M a . Post-tectonic granites were emplaced in a post-collision setting (200 -190M a). Collision between the Qiangtang and Kunlun Terranes is dated as end -Triassic. Nd model ages of sediments from across the plateau record up lift and erosion of young source regions throughout the Phanerozoic confirming that the Tibetan Plateau is the site of multiple continental collision through time. Phanerozoic magmagenesis throughout the plateau requires considerable crustal reworking and limited crustal growth which suggests thickened continental crust in the region may predate the most recent Eocene collision.


1. Sedatives such as the benzodiazepines and alcohol reduce upper airway muscle activity. We hypothesized that a sedating antihypertensive, alpha-methyldopa, might have similar effects. To investigate this hypothesis we studied the effect of alpha-methyldopa on alae nasi electromyographic (EMG) activity during hypercapnia. 2. We studied ten healthy subjects and three subjects with obstructive sleep apnoea during CO2-stimulated breathing. In a preliminary study four subjects demonstrated a fall in alae nasi EMG activity 4 h after the ingestion of 500 mg of alpha-methyldopa during CO2 rebreathing. 3. In six additional normal subjects and three subjects with obstructive sleep apnoea, we studied the alae nasi EMG activity during steady-state hypercapnia with PCO2 held constant 5 torr (0.7 kPa) above baseline. On 2 separate days we studied subjects before and 2 h after they had ingested 750 mg of alpha-methyldopa or placebo. 4. In the normal subjects the mean alae nasi EMG activity fell by 34% 2 h after ingestion of alpha-methyldopa (P less than 0.05) without a change in other ventilatory parameters. 5. In the sleep apnoea group the individual mean alae nasi EMG activity fell 16-49%, with ventilation and tidal volume falling in one patient. 6. We conclude that alpha-methyldopa selectively reduces upper airway motor activity.


This cross-sectional study used a mailed survey to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of individuals at least 5 years post–autologous stem cell transplant and to determine instrument preference. Instruments selected were the Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form (MOS-SF-36) as the generic measure and the City of Hope-Quality of Life-Bone Marrow Transplant (COH-BMT) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant (FACT-BMT) as transplant-specific measures. Subjects received the MOS-SF-36 and were randomized to receive (1) COH-BMT, (2) FACT-BMT, or (3) COH-BMT and FACT-BMT. Ninety-two subjects returned completed forms, for a 56% response rate. A study-specific form indicated subjects preferred the BMT-specific instruments. The health of the majority of subjects (85%) was similar to or somewhat better than what it was the previous year. Their MOS-SF-36 scores for physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, and general health subscales were lower than the values for the general population, but those for the other subscales were not significantly different. When compared to the data reported by Hann and colleagues for posttransplant in breast cancer, study subjects scored significantly lower on all scales except General Health and Mental Health. COH-BMT scores compared with those reported by Whedon and Ferrel (Semin Oncol Nurs. 1994;10:42–57) were higher for Physical Well-Being, Spiritual Well-Being, and Global QOL. FACT-BMT results compared with those reported by McQuellen et al (Bone Marrow Transplant. 1997;19:357–368) showed that Physical, Social/Family, Emotional, and Functional Scores were similar; only BMT scores were significantly different. Research is needed to determine when QOL plateaus and whether instrument preference changes over time. Awareness of long-term effects that affect QOL can guide program revisions and facilitate decisions regarding the need for supportive rehabilitative services.


Eiders and other waterbirds were surveyed between 1993-1995 along the eastern Arctic coast of Russia by fixed-wing aircraft to obtain baseline information on size and distribution of breeding populations. Population estimates were obtained for segments of the coast stretching from Kolyunchin Bay to the Lena River delta, a distance of 2,340 kms. The Spectacled Eider was the most abundant waterbird (146,245) with 46,276 (32%) recorded on the Indigirka River delta. Steller's Eiders were the second most abundant waterbird (128,760) with 60% recorded from the Indigirka River delta to the Yana River delta. King Eiders numbered 55,800 and were widely distributed. Common Eiders numbered 15,515 and were restricted to the eastern survey area. Population estimates for all waterbirds observed are presented. Numbers presented are not corrected for visibility bias of birds present but not seen. This survey, the first widespread systematic survey of the region, provided new information on Eider distribution and abundance, and provided baseline population data for future monitoring.


Short-term eye banking is based mainly on moist chamber and McCarey-Kaufman medium (M-K medium) preservation. Both involve a controlled 4 C temperature for storage. Warming the cornea to room temperature, however, drastically affects the endothelial viability. On enzymatic staining and histological study, the M-K medium-stored rabbit corneas had more normal endothelium than did "moist chamber" eyes when storage was prolonged for seven days at room temperature. In human corneas that were kept at 4 C for 24 hours and then exposed to a temperature of 25 C, destruction of organelles had occurred by six hours and was increased by 12 hours. Corneas that were kept in M-K medium had relatively intact endothelium after four days, but cell disruption and vacuolation was present by the seventh day. The M-K medium, therefore, affords protection to tissue warmed to room temperature, where metabolic activity is resumed.


Complex elliptically symmetric (CES) distributions have been widely used in various engineering applications for which non-Gaussian models are needed. In this overview, circular CES distributions are surveyed, some new results are derived and their applications e.g., in radar and array signal processing are discussed and illustrated with theoretical examples, simulations and analysis of real radar data. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimator of the scatter matrix parameter is derived and general conditions for its existence and uniqueness, and for convergence of the iterative fixed point algorithm are established. Specific ML-estimators for several CES distributions that are widely used in the signal processing literature are discussed in depth, including the complex t -distribution, K-distribution, the generalized Gaussian distribution and the closely related angular central Gaussian distribution. A generalization of ML-estimators, the M-estimators of the scatter matrix, are also discussed and asymptotic analysis is provided. Applications of CES distributions and the adaptive signal processors based on ML- and M-estimators of the scatter matrix are illustrated in radar detection problems and in array signal processing applications for Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) estimation and beamforming. Furthermore, experimental validation of the usefulness of CES distributions for modelling real radar data is given.


Prunus africana is an endangered tree species, endemic to Africa and was included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In this study, we described the composition of arbu scular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonized roots and pool of spores of P. africana from three dry Afromountain forests of Cameroon. The large sub - unit (LSU) rRNA gene was amplified from these materials cloned and sequenced using the Glomeromycota specific primers FLR3 situated between the D1 and D2 domains o f LSU rRNA and FLR4 in the D2 domain . Molecular phylogenetic analysis reveal that the sequences obtained belong to three families; Gigasporaceae ( Gigaspora margarita ), Acaulosporaceae ( Acaulospora tuberculate, A. longula and Entrophospora colombiana ) and G lomeraceae ( Glomus manihotis and G. etunicatum ). The composition of the AMF communities differed significantly with a slight tendency of specificity between sampled trees and host plants used. Isolation and utilization of the indigenous AMF taxa from the r espective sites might be required for a successful enrichment of the plantations of P. africana species.


Abstract Dynamic explanations of mountain drag usually invoke viscous effects and/or wave momentum flux by either Rossby or internal gravity waves. This paper explores an alternative mechanism in terms of the unsteadiness of the incident flow. The reaction to acceleration (local time rate of change) of the flow put a stationary obstacle can manifest itself as a contribution to the drag on the flow. A simple model provides an estimate of this acceleration reaction in a geophysically relevant context. The shallow-water flow of a periodic current around a right-circular cylinder is determined for subinertial periods and arbitrary rotational Froude number. The results of this prototype calculation support the hypothesis that acceleration reaction may provide a substantial contribution to the mountain drag exerted by mesoscale and synoptic-scale obstacles.


Reducing adverse drug events among older adults in heterogeneous and often chaotic emergency department (ED) settings requires a multidisciplinary approach. Recent research evaluates the impact of multicomponent protocols designed to reduce ED physician prescribing of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), including transdisciplinary training and leveraging electronic health records to provide real-time alternative safer pharmaceuticals while providing personalized feedback to prescribers. Most new research is not randomized trial data. Although this current research does not consistently demonstrate a reduction in the prescribing of PIMs, these studies provide a foundation for emergency medicine healthcare teams, geriatricians, and pharmacists to collaborate with health informatics to continue advancing the frontiers of safer medication prescribing during episodes of acute care.


This is the second in a series of papers that investigate the semi-annual, annual and Universal Time (UT) variations in the magnetosphere. We present a varied collection of empirical results that can be used to constrain theories and modelling of these variations. An initial study of two years' data on transpolar voltage shows that there is a semi-annual variation in magnetospheric flux circulation; however, it is not as large in amplitude as that in geomagnetic activity, consistent with the latter showing a non-linear (quadratic) variation with transpolar voltage. We find that during the persistent minimum of the UT variation in geomagnetic activity, between about 2 and 10 UT, there is also a persistent decrease in observed transpolar voltage, which may be, in part, caused by a decrease in reconnection voltage in the nightside cross-tail current sheet. We study the response of geomagnetic activity to estimated power input into the magnetosphere using interplanetary data from 1995 onwards, an interval for which the data are relatively free of data gaps. We find no consistent variation in the response delay with time-of-year F and, using the optimum lag, we show that the patterns of variation in F-year spectrograms are very similar for geomagnetic activity and power input into the magnetosphere, both for average values and for the occurrence of large events. The Russell–McPherron (R–M) mechanism is shown to be the central driver of this behaviour. However, the (R–M) effect on power input into the magnetosphere is small and there is a non-linear amplification of the semi-annual variation in the geomagnetic response, such that a very small asymmetry in power input into the magnetosphere Pα between the "favourable" and "unfavourable" polarities of the IMF BY component generates a greatly amplified geomagnetic response. The analysis strongly indicates that this amplification is associated with solar wind dynamic pressure and its role in squeezing the near-Earth tail and so modulating the storage and release of energy extracted from the solar wind. In this paper, we show that the equinoctial pattern is found in the residuals of fits of Pα to the am index and that the amplitude of these equinoctial patterns in the am fit residuals increases linearly with solar wind dynamic pressure. Similarly, the UT variation in am is also found in these fit residuals and also increases in amplitude with solar wind dynamic pressure.


Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a minimally invasive procedure, which utilizes the body's natural orifices to gain access to the peritoneal cavity. The NOTES procedure is designed to minimize external scarring and patient trauma, however flexible endoscopy based pure NOTES procedures require critical scope handling skills. The delicate nature of the NOTES procedure requires extensive training. Thus, to improve access to training while reducing risk to patients, we have designed and developed the VTEST, a virtual reality NOTES simulator. As part of the simulator, a novel decoupled 2-DOF haptic device was developed to provide realistic force feedback to the user in training. A series of experiments were performed to determine the behavioral characteristics of the device. The device was found capable of rendering up to 5.62N and 0.190 Nm of continuous force and torque in the translational and rotational DOF, respectively. The device possesses 18.1 and 5.7 Hz of force bandwidth in the translational and rotational DOF, respectively. A feedforward friction compensator was also successfully implemented to minimize the negative impact of friction during the interaction with the device. In this work, we have presented the detailed development and evaluation of the haptic device for the VTEST.


Correlation between cell cycle of the synchronous yeast culture and ESR signal intensity at g 2.2 and 77 K was studied. It was shown that the maximal intensity of ESR signal was reached 10-15 min before the beginning of intensive cell division. The ESR signal with g 2.2 (77 K) is caused by the spin-glass like structure. The "freezing" temperature of these spin-glasses was measured.


Reflection high energy electron diffraction and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) are used to investigate the structure and morphology of Al films deposited on Si(111)-7×7 surface at room temperature. The films are polycrystalline, made up of (100) and (111) oriented islands, which primarily result from the interface elastic effect and free surface energies of the Al (100) and (111) surfaces.


The paper is based on a study undertaken in 2015 to 2017 that explored the micro-politics of schooling in Lesotho, with specific focusing on bullying. A qualitative research design was adopted to probe for in-depth information about bullying in schools. The methodology employed was the case study approach in two high schools in Roma Valley. The population of the study was all teachers and students in the two high schools in Roma valley, while the sample comprised six teachers and eight students, who were purposively selected.The study found out that bullying exists not only during school activities, but even during after school activities that learners are involved in. It was also found that bullying has negative consequences to all parties; perpetrators, victims and bystanders. Findings further revealed that the minority members of the society like visually impaired people, physically challenged and students with poor background are more prone to bullying because most of them do not have power to counteract bullies. The study further found that newly arrived students are the ones who are mostly targeted by bullies under the pretext of being taught the culture of the school. The study also found that teachers view bullying as an act of power imbalance where a powerful person takes advantage of a less powerful or vulnerable person. The study also found that cyber bullying is the latest form of bullying which is more harmful than any other form of bullying. The study also found that bullying contributes to depression and low self-esteem, which can lead to poor school performance and suicidal tendencies amongst the victims and bystanders. The study therefore recommends that Lesotho government should come up with a policy to eliminate bullying in schools and establish programmes directed at teaching learners attitudes, knowledge and skills which they can use to circumvent bullying.