The objective of this paper is to investigate the reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) effect on hot-mix asphalt (HMA) volumetric and mechanical properties. An experimental program, including tests for measuring mixture complex moduli and fracture energy, was conducted. Six different mixture designs were prepared with varying percentages of RAP material (0, 20, and 40%) and two different material sources from Illinois. Because RAP binder is believed to be the only factor contributing to stiffness changes in the mixtures, it is essential to determine RAP's binder contribution; in other words "working RAP binder," which affects the HMA stiffness and the mixing/compaction process. Control specimens and actual practice specimens were also prepared to serve as reference mixes. Control specimens included RAP materials (binder and aggregate) recovered using the Rotovapor method and virgin materials. Control specimens were designed to simulate the presence of varying proportions of working RAP binder in a RAP mixture. Actual practice specimens were a combination of RAP and virgin materials (binder and aggregate). A complex modulus test was conducted on HMA to quantify the impact of the change in binder stiffness. The study found that the optimum job mix formula (JMF) asphalt content of the virgin HMA and HMA containing RAP is similar. The current assumption of 100% working binder does not need to be modified from a mix design point of view. The effect of aggregate selective absorption of binder on virgin and RAP materials was manifested in the results of the complex modulus tests. In addition, fracture energy tests were conducted to investigate the impact of RAP materials on HMA susceptibility to low-temperature cracking. The study concluded that using RAP materials may increase the potential for low-temperature cracking.


This article evaluates price and earnings momentum strategies constructed using either single or multiple criteria not only to establish how these strategies performed in the major European markets over the last 15 years but also to enhance our knowledge as to how to place a stock in its momentum life cycle. In terms of performance, we established that price momentum strategies outperformed earnings momentum strategies but that they complemented each other when combined. We also established means for enhancing both price and earnings momentum strategies and determined what combination of price momentum with enhanced earnings momentum produced the best results both at the country/region level and the aggregated level. These findings suggest that the earnings forecasts made by the equity analysts provide a good indication as to the positioning of a stock in its momentum life cycle. However, subsequent analysis established that this is only true for wining stocks and that these forecast provide no incremental information when it comes to predicting the future performance of losing stocks over the holding periods considered.


There is an increasing interest in science communication and promotion of new inventions in this deluge digital information age. The social media tools available on the Internet assist the promotion of science dramatically and the change is happening in real time models. Expansion of World Wide Web and newer technologies has improved the ways in which science is communicated and its evaluation techniques. The use of conventional metric tools gauges the impact of scholarly publications using citation and download counts. They are widely used to evaluate articles, authors and disciplines on publishers' platforms. These tools analyse the citation data in natural course of time and make them available over a period of time. 'Altmetrics' is a concept that addresses and measures the conversations happening in the virtual world in real time. The concept supports the prediction mechanism of possible citations for an article in future, if it gets cited in the social media. This paper attempts to create awareness about ' Altmetrics' among Indian scholars and takes a closer look at various features available in 'Altmetric Explorer' in order to gain insights of the rapidly changing science communication landscape.


The electric arc in current limiting circuit breakers is often depicted as a well defined region of current flow. During a short circuit fault the current through the arc in a current limiting miniature circuit breaker can range from 100 to 10000 Amps. This range of current, along with varying electrode conditions, will lead to variation in both the form of the arc and the processes occurring at the electrodes. These electrode processes, in particular the emission mechanism at the cathode root, dominate the mobility characteristics of the arc. Previously proposed electrode processes are reviewed and the interaction of the mechanisms discussed. Using data recorded on a high speed Arc Imaging System observations about the arc behaviour at different intervals of the arc event are related to possible electrode processes. The variation of arc form in miniature circuit breakers is also discussed.


Within a dynamic programming approach, an optimal rule for the central bank to attain its inflation targeting goals is derived. The short-run nominal interest rate is used as an instrument to achieve monetary objectives. The model is tested for the Brazilian economy and compared with results found for other countries. Evidence for the estimated feedback interest rule for the Central Bank suggests that the cost of reducing inflation in an open economy is lower than that of a closed economy.


As the demand for machine learning–based inference increases in tandem with concerns about privacy, there is a growing recognition of the need for secure machine learning, in which secret models can be used to classify private data without the model or data being leaked. Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) allows arbitrary computation to be done over encrypted data, providing an attractive approach to providing such secure inference. While such computation is often orders of magnitude slower than its plaintext counterpart, the ability of FHE cryptosystems to do ciphertext packing—that is, encrypting an entire vector of plaintexts such that operations are evaluated elementwise on the vector—helps ameliorate this overhead, effectively creating a SIMD architecture where computation can be vectorized for more efficient evaluation. Most recent research in this area has targeted regular, easily vectorizable neural network models. Applying similar techniques to irregular ML models such as decision forests remains unexplored, due to their complex, hard-to-vectorize structures. In this paper we present COPSE, the first system that exploits ciphertext packing to perform decision-forest inference. COPSE consists of a staging compiler that automatically restructures and compiles decision forest models down to a new set of vectorizable primitives for secure inference. We find that COPSE's compiled models outperform the state of the art across a range of decision forest models, often by more than an order of magnitude, while still scaling well.


The GABA A receptor undergoes conformational changes upon the binding of agonist that lead to the opening of the channel gate and a flow of small anions across the cell membrane. Besides the transmitter GABA, allosteric ligands such as the general anesthetics pentobarbital and etomidate can activate the receptor. Here, we have investigated the agonist specificity of structural changes in the extracellular domain of the recep- tor. We used the substituted cysteine accessibility method and focused on the (cid:2) 2(S195C) site (loop F). We show that modification of the site with (2-sulfonatoethyl)methanethiosulfonate (MTSES) results in an enhanced response to GABA, indicating accessibility of the resting receptor to the modifying agent. Coapplication of GABA or muscimol, but not of gabazine, with MTSES prevented the effect, suggesting that GABA and muscimol elicit a conformational change that reduces access to the (cid:2) 2(S195C) site. Exposure of the receptors to MTSES in the presence of the allosteric activators pentobarbital and etomi- date resulted in an enhanced current response indicating accessibility and labeling of the (cid:2) 2(S195C) site. However, comparison of the rates of modification indicated that labeling in the presence of etomidate was significantly faster than that in the presence of pentobarbital or gabazine or in resting receptors. We infer from the data that the structure of the (cid:1) 1- (cid:2) 2 subunit interface undergoes agonist-specific conformational changes.


Functional structural changes in the myocardium in different developmental phases of nephrotoxic glomerulonephritis were studied in rats. Electrocardiography, electron microscopy, and biochemical study of respiration, linked with oxidative phosphorylation, by polarography in the fraction of mitochondria isolated by differential centrifugation were employed. In experimental glomerulonephritis the ECG shifts were attended with diminished oxidative phosphorylation in the myocardial mitochondria, destructive changes in the cardiomyocytes (disorganization of mitochondria, myofibrils, endoplasmic reticulum), loosening and swelling of the basilar membranes, and changes and swelling in the capillaries and interstitium. The functional structural changes in the heart are reversible in character but persist for a longer period of time than the clinical manifestations of glomerulonephritis.


Methylotrophs inhabit the human mouth. In this study, methylotrophic bacteria were isolated from the human mouth microflora of 63 subjects, especially from the tongue, gingival, and subgingival area using minimal agar supplemented with 1% methanol. The obtained isolates were subjected to biochemical assays, continued with antibiotics susceptibility testing using ampicillin (10 μg), tetracycline (20 μg), kanamycin (30 μg), trimethoprim (5 μg), and streptomycin (10 μg). Genetic diversity was analyzed using ARDRA method. Isolates varying in morphology characteristics were amplified for 16S rRNA gene and continued with DNA sequencing. As many as 21 methylotrophic bacterial isolates were purified and divided into seven groups with different phenotypic profiles. A majority of the isolates were resistant to trimethoprim but sensitive to kanamycin, streptomycin, and tetracycline. Resistance to ampicillin was variable in each isolate. ARDRA showed nine different digestion profiles. DNA sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed that six isolates with different phenotypic and digestion profiles were closely related to Methylobacterium radiotoleran (94%), Microbacterium esteraromaticum (99%), Pseudomonas sp. (100%), and three of them were exhibited 99, 99, and 98% sequence similarity with Gordonia sp., respectively. The results of this study revealed diversity among methylotrophic bacteria particularly in human mouth.


This paper aims to investigate how productive oral vocabulary development can be promoted by focusing on word stress patterns. The Rhythmic Fight Club (RFC) pronunciation technique has been used in numerous ESL/EFL classrooms, but its effect on the L2 vocabulary development of learners has yet to be investigated. The present study focused on adult ESL learners and tested a four-stage learning cycle aimed at developing productive oral vocabulary. This paper focuses on findings related to one aspect of that learning cycle which used the RFC to draw learner attention to word stress patterns in order to control productive output. Findings reveal that repetition of target words whilst making a gesture helped to enhance the learners' productive output accordingly. The paper concludes that kinaesthetic/tactile classroom teaching techniques such as the RFC can help learners to develop productive oral vocabulary by reconceptualising their perception of English speech rhythm.


Fresh root of Geodorum densiflorum (Lam.) (Orchidaceae) has applications in regularizing menstrual cycle and as topical aids in insect bites and wounds. The tuber extracts of some plants belonging to Geodorum have folkloric reputation in the management of transient anxiety. The current study was undertaken to investigate the sedative/ anxiolytic effects of G. densiflorum root extracts using rodent behavioral models, such as open field, hole cross, thiopental sodium-induced hypnosis and elevated plus maze test. Present data shows that the organic extracts of G. densiflorum root increase the thiopental sodium induced sleeping time and reduce the time for the onset of sleep. A statistically significant reduction in motor activity and exploratory behavior were observed in the open field and hole cross tests. The results of the current studies provide scientific evidence for its uses in traditional medicines as sedative and anxiolytic agents.


In this paper, we present a facial expression recognition method based on Gabor feature and sparse representation. Sparse Representation based Classification (SRC) has been widely used in computer vision and pattern recognition. And Gabor filter banks can be used to approximately model the signal processing in visual primary cortex. We believe that the nature of the attractive performance of SRC and Gabor feature lies in that they both followed the natures of signal perception of retina and information processing of cortex in human vision. Therefore, we combined the Gabor feature and SRC for facial expression recognition. The comparison experiments of proposed Gabor+SRC algorithm and straightforward SRC application are conducted on JAFFE database. And the experimental results showed the attractive performance of the proposed Gabor+SRC method.


In this work, grey and black-box approaches are used in order to model a electromechanical positioning system (EMPS). An ensemble model is then constructed by combining these two approaches, by using the predictions of both models in order to generate an improved estimated output. Four friction models, in their symmetric and asymmetric versions, namely (i) Coulomb model with finite slope at zero velocity and viscous friction, (ii) Coulomb model with viscous friction, (iii) Tustin friction model, (iv) Coulomb model with viscous friction and Stribeck effect were used to describe the dynamic behavior of the EMPS. The results have shown that the combination of grey and black-box models was able to perform better than the grey-box model and that the proposed friction models are also able to improve the relative error. This encourages further research on the application of the concept of ensemble model construction from machine learning to the nonlinear system identification context towards more accurate model construction.


The International Conference on Logic Programming, sponsored by the Association for Logic Programming, includes tutorials, lectures, and refereed papers on all aspects of logic programming, including theoretical foundations, constraints, concurrency and parallelism, deductive databases, language design and implementation, nonmonotonic reasoning, and logic programming and the Internet.


The first littoral locality connected with the sediments overlying the Korytnica Clays in the southern part of the Korytnica Basin (Middle Miocene, Badenian; Holy Cross Mts, Central Poland) is described. Sedimentological and ecological premises show that the discussed littoral structures originated in an environment of energy higher than those associated with the Korytnica Clays. It is also suggested that the present-day extent of the Badenian deposits is of erosional nature and cannot be directly used as a base for paleogeographical reconstruction.


: Karyological investigation of 22 East-Asiatic mice from different points of the North Mongolia showed the availability in all the mice from 1 to 13 B chromosomes, including from 1 to 5 middle-sized and small two-shoulder chromosomes, from 0 to 11 dot-like B chromosomes, and, seldom, 1 small acrocentric B chromosome. Nearly every mouse is characterized by its variant of B-chromosome system. Most frequent mice with 3, 4 and 8 B chromosomes were met. The comparison of the B-chromosome system variants in mice from Buryatia, Chita Province (USSR) and the North Mongolia, showed an increase in the number of B chromosomes, mainly at the expense of the number of dot-like B chromosomes, in the direction from Ulan-Ude to the south and to the east.


Understanding the interaction of tides and waves is essential in many studies, including marine renewable energy, sediment transport, long-term seabed morphodynamics, storm surges and the impacts of climate change. In the present research, a COAWST model of the NW European shelf seas has been developed and applied to a number of physical processes. Although many aspects of wave–current interaction can be investigated by this model, our focus is on the interaction of barotropic tides and waves at shelf scale. While the COWAST model was about five times more computationally expensive than running decoupled ROMS (ocean model) and SWAN (wave model), it provided an integrated modelling system which could incorporate many wave–tide interaction processes, and produce the tide and wave parameters in a unified file system with a convenient post-processing capacity. Some applications of the model such as the effect of tides on quantifying the wave energy resource, which exceeded 10% in parts of the region, and the effect of waves on the calculation of the bottom stress, which was dominant in parts of the North Sea and Scotland, during an energetic wave period are presented, and some challenges are discussed. It was also shown that the model performance in the prediction of the wave parameters can improve by 25% in some places where the wave-tide interaction is significant.


This essay provides a dialectical analysis of how we attempt to
visualize antiquity within modern suburbia. Beginning with an
unfolding of the physical process of the photographic reproduction I
want to suggest that this is the necessary material condition for the
emergence of the process of visualization, in which the social
process of interpretation now becomes the dominant moment. And
by metabolizing these two processes a one-sided appropriation of
an indefinite 'diversity of the world' is obtained, but this is
necessary in order to separate an authentic historical entity from
the blandness of suburbia and its constant tendency to aestheticize
everything. Therefore, the photograph allows the 'captured'
countenance of the historical object to be recontextualized away
from its real concrete context to a textual form. Within, the
visualization process takes on an abstract social in the narrative
process and with regard to the reproduced image of the Ballybrack
dolmen its takes on the specific social form of an archaeological
cult form, which has become the particular exhibition form of the
dolmen in the concrete setting of south Dublin suburbia. It is
accordingly maintained by the state as it attempts to preserve and
conserve it against some of the everyday activities of modern
suburban living. Thus the dolmen is presented so that it can be
photographed and this "photographability" is determined by the
archaeological exhibition value.


This article examines current trends in debt buyer litigation, including a review of recent regulatory actions and the impact of debt buyer lawsuits on individual consumers and on small claims courts. The article calls for a ban on the sale of consumer junk debt by banks, and for a requirement to make public the terms, conditions and disclaimers from sales contracts between banks and junk debt buyers.


User modelling has been a central issue in the development of user-adaptive systems, which behaviour is usually based on the user's preferences, goals, interests and knowledge. This is particularly the case when the user is a student and the system is a computer-based learning environment. The aim of this paper is to present a mechanism for diagnosing and modelling learner's conceptions based on a theoretical model of conceptions. Our approach takes the diagnosis of learner's conceptions as the emergent result of the collective actions of agents sharing an environment, transforming it and as a consequence influencing new actions. We apply techniques from voting theory for group-decision-making. This approach is at the core of the design of a distance learning platform for the learning of geometry.


This paper presents a method for calculating internal powers of multilayered configurations with anisotropic porous materials. The methodology takes a plane wave solution for anisotropic multilayered structures as a mathematical base for the derivation of the corresponding integral expressions. Different physical phenomena within the assessed structure can be then studied in detail as a whole or in terms of partial contributions to the total power balance. In the paper, an analysis of the dissipation in an anisotropic porous material as a function of its material coordinate orientation is performed.


Gray Matters is a thorough examination of the main topics in recent philosophy of mind. It aims at surveying a broad range of issues, not all of which can be subsumed under one position or one philosopher's theory. In this way, the authors avoid neglecting interesting issues out of allegiance to a given theory of mind.


Within the increasing body of research that examines students' reasoning on socioscientific issues, we consider in particular student reasoning concerning acute, open-ended questions that bring out the complexities and uncertainties embedded in illstructured problems. In this paper, we propose a socioscientific sustainability reasoning (S3R) model to analyze students' reasoning exchanges on environmental socially acute questions (ESAQs). The paper describes the development of an epistemological analysis of how sustainability perspectives can be integrated into socioscientific reasoning, which emphasizes the need for S3R to be both grounded in context and collective. We argue the complexity of ESAQs requires a consideration of multiple dimensions that form the basis of our S3R analysis model: problematization, interactions, knowledge, uncertainties, values, and governance. For each dimension, in the model we have identified indicators of four levels of complexity. We investigated the usefulness of the model in identifying improvements in reasoning that flow from cross-national web-based exchanges between groups of French and Australian students, concerning a local and a global ESAQ. The S3R model successfully captured the nature of reasoning about socioscientific sustainability issues,with the collective negotiation of multiple forms of knowledge as a key characteristicin improving reasoning levels. The paper provides examples of collaborative argumentation in collective texts (wikis) to illustrate the various levels of reasoning in each dimension, and diagrammatic representation of the evolution of collective reflections. We observe that a staged process of construction and confrontation, involving groups representing to some extent different cultural and contextual stances, is powerful in eliciting reasoned argument of enhanced quality.


Peter Abelard's autobiography, the Historia calamitatum, is one of the best-known medieval texts, especially because of the story of his love for Heloise which it recounts. In recent decades, there was so much controversy about the authenticity of the documents concerning Abelard and Heloise that the critical interpretation of the texts was relegated to the sidelines. The present volume provides a way out of this impasse. In it, the famous text is subjected to a series of exemplary analyses from the perspectives of seven different 20th century literary theories (aesthetics of reception, Foucault, Gender Studies, Rhetorical Stylistic Analysis, Psychology of Literature, Cultural Studies, Deconstruction). The analyses are preceded by the Latin text of the Historia calamitatum with a modern German translation. This is thus the first time that the Historia calamitatum has been presented in a bilingual edition.


This study examines the socioeconomic barriers to safe motherhood in booked patients in the Ife-Ijesha health administrative zone, Nigeria. During the period of study (January 1998 to December 1998), 161 booked patients of Ife State Hospital, Ile-Ife and Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha presented with an avoidable obstetric emergency, Seventeen (10.6%) presented during the antenatal period, while 89 (55.3%) and 55 (34.2%) presented in labour and postpartum respectively. The patients presented with obstetric complications such as obstructed labour (24.2%), postpartum haemorrhage (21.1%), puerperal sepsis (24.2%), imminent eclampsia and eclampsia (15.5%), retained second twin (9.3%). Three maternal deaths occurred (MMR 1467/100 000 births) and the perinatal mortality rate was 290/1000 total births. The adduced reasons for late presentation included, financial constrains (85.1%), poor access to hospital/transportation difficulties (33.5%), objection to hospital admission by relatives (23.0%), aversion to caesarean section (21.7%) and attitude to hospital staff (8.1%). The patients were of the opinion that reducing the economic burden associated with hospital fee, provision of transportation, encouraged family support and reduction of operation rate would lead to reduction in late presentation.


Image repurposing is a commonly used method for spreading misinformation on social media and online forums, which involves publishing untampered images with modified metadata to create rumors and further propaganda. While manual verification is possible, given vast amounts of verified knowledge available on the internet, the increasing prevalence and ease of this form of semantic manipulation call for the development of robust automatic ways of assessing the semantic integrity of multimedia data. In this paper, we present a novel method for image repurposing detection that is based on the real-world adversarial interplay between a bad actor who repurposes images with counterfeit metadata and a watchdog who verifies the semantic consistency between images and their accompanying metadata, where both players have access to a reference dataset of verified content, which they can use to achieve their goals. The proposed method exhibits state-of-the-art performance on location-identity, subject-identity and painting-artist verification, showing its efficacy across a diverse set of scenarios.


The objective of the study was to determine the effects of antibiotics, yeast culture (YC), and Lactobacillus culture (LC) on the gut microbiome and metabolites in the serum and caecum of weaning piglets. Twenty-four weaning piglets were divided into four treatment groups: control, antibiotic (1% chlortetracycline), 1.8% yeast culture (YC), and 1.6% Lactobacillus culture groups (LC). Each group had six replicated pens with one pig per pen. Feed and water were available ad libitum . Dietary supplementation with antibiotics, YC and LC increased the abundance of phylum, Firmicutes, and decreased the abundance of phylum, Proteobacteria. Beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Megasphaera in YC and LC groups increased, whereas the proportion of Shigella was decreased. Genera Alloprevotella and Lachnospira were biomarkers in the control and antibiotic groups, respectively. Phylum, Bacteroidetes, and genus, Collinsella , were biomarkers in the YC group, and Mitsuokella , Anaerotruncus , Syntrophococcus and Sharpea were biomarkers in the LC group. Dietary supplementation with different probiotics changed the serum and caecum metabolite profiles too. Antibiotic supplementation increased the levels of D-mannose, D-glucose, and hexadecanoic acid in the serum, and the levels of myo-inositol, D-mannose and benzenepropanoic acid in the caecum. LC increased the concentrations of D-mannose, cis-9-hexadecenoic acid and heptadecanoic acid in caecum compared with the control group. YC and LC supplementation in the weaning diet could improve the abundance of beneficial bacteria by changing the concentrations of some metabolites in the serum and caecum. Therefore, dietary supplementation with YC or LC could be used as additives instead of antibiotics in weaning piglets. Keywords: antibiotic; lactobacillus culture; yeast culture; high-throughput sequencing; gas chromatography mass spectrometry


For large power application using high-T/sub c/ superconducting (HTS) tape, parallel face-to-face stacked tape conductor should to be used because single tape is limited in flowing of demanded large current, also, appropriate distance between tapes in stacked tape conductor is needed for high voltage insulation. The stacked tape conductor has different characteristics compared with single tape because of screening effect. In general situation, HTS tapes are used by winding in coil shape, so, magnetic fields generated in the coil are operated as external fields and have various direction to each tape in the coil. In this paper, we research the magnetization loss in stacked tape conductor exposed to external magnetic fields having various direction and compare measured results of stacked tape with those of single tape, and we also present influences of insulation thickness between tapes in stacked tape conductor by comparison to the measured results for noninsulation stacked tape. We solve the magnetization loss in stacked tape conductor by finite element method to examine the experimental results.


Medical healthcare is one of the fascinating applications using Internet of Things (IoTs). The pervasive smart environment in IoTs has the potential to monitor various human activities by deploying smart devices. In our pilot study, we look at narcolepsy, a disorder in which individuals lose the ability to regulate their sleep-wake cycle. An imbalance in the brain chemical called orexin makes the sleep pattern irregular. This sleep disorder in patients suffering from narcolepsy results in them experience irrepressible sleep episodes while performing daily routine activities. This study presents a novel method for detecting sleep attacks or sleepiness due to immune system attacks and affecting daily activities measured using the S-band sensing technique. The S-Band sensing technique is channel sensing based on frequency spectrum sensing using the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing transmission at a 2 to 4 GHz frequency range leveraging amplitude and calibrated phase information of different frequencies obtained using wireless devices such as card, and omni-directional antenna. Each human behavior induces a unique channel information (CI) signature contained in amplitude and phase information. By linearly transforming raw phase measurements into calibrated phase information, we ascertain phase coherence. Classification and validation of various human activities such as walking, sitting on a chair, push-ups, and narcolepsy sleep episodes are done using support vector machine, K-nearest neighbor, and random forest algorithms. The measurement and evaluation were carried out several times with classification values of accuracy, precision, recall, specificity, Kappa, and F-measure of more than 90% that were achieved when delineating sleep attacks.


KM3NeT is a new generation neutrino telescope in the abyss of the Mediterranean Sea. It will instrument a volume of several cubic kilometres of sea water in its final configuration. Currently, the project is in its first phase with the aim of constructing and installing 31 detection units up to 700 m in height, each equipped with 18 digital optical modules. The optical modules are equipped with 31 3-inch photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light of charged secondary particles produced in high-energy neutrino interactions. This contribution describes a live detector monitoring system, which enables real-time parameter control and a reconstruction of events soon after the data acquisition. It also allows a rapid response to or provision of external alarms of multi-messenger campaigns. The data acquisition system of KM3NeT provides pre-filtered data in event form, as well as general detector status messages. The events will be processed almost in real-time – with a delay in the range of minutes – using fast reconstruction mechanisms. This allows for high-level monitoring of the detector status using derived distributions, such as time and charge distributions and event rates. The resulting data is displayed on a web page using a dedicated, flexible web service. The same service also displays low-level monitoring data such as trigger rates, PMT hit rates and the general status of the optical modules.


The crotonase homolog, 6-oxo camphor hydrolase (OCH), catalyzes the desymmetrization of bicyclic β-diketones to optically active keto acids via an enzymatic retro-Claisen reaction, resulting in the cleavage of a carbon-carbon bond. We have previously reported the structure of OCH (Whittingham, J. L., Turkenburg, J. P., Verma, C. S., Walsh, M. A., and Grogan, G. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 1744–1750), which suggested the involvement of five residues, His-45, His-122, His-145, Asp-154, and Glu-244, in catalysis. Here we report mutation studies on OCH that reveal that H145A and D154N mutants of OCH have greatly reduced values of kcat/Km derived from a very large increase in Km for the native substrate, 6-oxo camphor. In addition, H122A has a greatly reduced value of kcat, and its Km is five times that of the wild-type. The location of the active site is confirmed by the 1.9-Å structure of the H122A mutant of OCH complexed with the minor diastereoisomer of (2S,4S)-α-campholinic acid, the natural product of the enzyme. This shows the pendant acetate of the product hydrogen bonded to a His-145/Asp-154 dyad and the endocyclic carbonyl of the cyclopentane ring hydrogen bonded to Trp-40. The results are suggestive of a base-catalyzed mechanism of C-C bond cleavage and provide clues to the origin of prochiral selectivity by the enzyme and to the recruitment of the crotonase fold for alternate modes of transition state stabilization to those described for other crotonase superfamily members.


As a movable workspace, a deployable vehicle shelter has the advantages of easy transportation, good environmental adaptability, convenient maneuverability and large expansion space. Therefore, it has been widely applied in engineering rescue, medical security, living reserve, building, tourism and other fields. This paper aims to design the structure of a lightweight shelter assembly whose deployable mechanism is proposed for multi-level deployable vehicle shelter and whose steel frame and outer panel are replaced by aluminum and Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) composites to reduce the weight of shelter. Additionally, the structural strength and stiffness are analyzed by the finite element method (FEM) under typical operation loads, such as bending, torsion, hard brake, turn, as well as modal analysis. This study could contribute to the knowledge for the lightweight design and engineering application of deployable vehicle shelters.


A recently developed parallel asynchronous solver for systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is used to simulate flows along the channels in a river network. In our model, precipitation is applied over the hillslopes adjacent to the river network links and water movement from hillsope to link and along the river network is represented as a system of ODEs. The numerical solver is based on dense output Runge-Kutta methods that allow for asynchronous integration. A static partition method is used to distribute the workload among different processes, enabling a parallel implementation that capitalizes on a distributed memory system. Communication between processes is performed asynchronously. We illustrate the solver capabilities by integrating flow transport equations for a 32,000 km 2 river basin subdivided into 574,000 sub-watersheds that are interconnected by the river network. We show that the runtime for an eight month-long simulation forced by 1-km resolution NEXRAD rainfall is completed in under 4 minutes using 64 computing nodes. In addition, we include equations to simulate small reservoirs spread throughout the river network and estimate changes in hydrographs at multiple locations. Our results provide a firm theoretical basis for the concept of distributed flood control systems.


This research attempts to examine that how service quality, trust and reputation effects customer loyalty in Pakistan Banking Industry. Despite the fact that world was facing a global financial crisis especially due to failure of the biggest banking channels of the world at that time. This high growth in banking sector of Pakistan can't be achieved without the customer's loyalty existing banking structure. Anchored in the theoretical model, a comprehensive set of hypotheses were devised and methodology for testing them was outlined. A total of 645 bank customers' responses were collected an empirical research. The finding of this paper indicate that service quality, trust and reputation are positively influences customer's loyalty. Also there is strong, positive and significant correlation among all three factors of customer's loyalty. There are mixed trend observed as far as bank type is concerned, greater part of the respondents showed their trust toward private banks, also they believed among all three types of banks, private banks have good reputation in Pakistan existing banking sector. On the other hand, a high percentage of respondents believed that service quality of foreign bank is much better than public and private banks. All the results of this research are in line with our expectations and accepted hypotheses.


Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) affects approximately 11,000 persons per year in the United States, is increasing in incidence, and is associated with an exceptionally high mortality rate.[1-4] In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Krasna reviews the role of multimodality therapy in the treatment of EAC. Poor outcome in patients with EAC is reflective of both deficiencies in early detection and the inadequacy of available therapies across stages.


Introduction: Vasculogenic mimicry, as previously described in aggressive melanoma, is characterized by the de novo generation of intratumoral patterned vascular channels, composed of PAS-positive basement membrane in the absence of endothelial cells, providing additional microcirculation, in support to the classic tumoral angiogenesis. Methods: We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of two endothelial markers, CD31 and CD34, in tumoral cells of 60 melanomas (45 primary cutaneous and 15 metastatic) as possible evidence of vasculogenic mimicry. In addition we investigated the relationship between CD31 and CD34 expression and three pathological markers such as Clark's level, and skin ulceration, predictive of melanoma's aggressive behaviour, and mitotic index. Results: No cases of common melanocytic nevi immunoreacted with CD31 or CD34. Random CD31 immunoreactivity was present in 6% of Clark's level I/II, 50% of Clark's level III and 80% Clark's level IV/V. CD34 was negative in Clark's level I/II but randomly stained the 20% and 55% of level III and IV/V respectively. 66% (10/15) of metastatic melanomas were CD31 positive showing a canalicular immunostaining pattern, conversely CD34 expression was never found. 7/8 cutaneous ulcerated melanomas immunostained for CD31 and 4/8 for CD34. CD31 immunostained 88% high/intermediate MI, and 53% of low MI melanomas. CD34 decorated the 29% of high/intermediate and 38% of low MI melanomas. Conclusions: CD31 and CD34 immunoreactivity closely parallel both the different morphologic steps of melanocytic tumor progression and the presence of histological parameters related to the aggressive behaviour. Their expression could be related to endothelial transdifferentiation of melanoma cells although a consequent functional role has not been demonstrated yet.


Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in challenging behaviors, which may interfere with their daily functioning, development, and well-being. To address this issue, we conducted a four-week randomized waitlist control trial to examine the effects of a fully self-guided interactive web training (IWT) on (a) child engagement in challenging behaviors and (b) parental intervention. After 4 weeks, parents in the treatment group reported lower levels of challenging behaviors in their children and more frequent use of behavioral interventions than those in the waitlist groups. Furthermore, within-group analyses suggest that these changes persisted up to 12 weeks following completion of the IWT. Our results highlight the potential utility of web training, but our high attrition rate and potential side effects prevent us from recommending the training as a standalone treatment.


The right-to-die movement-known variously as death with dignity, physician-assisted suicide, or aid in dying-remains controversial. The recently publicized death of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who chose to end her life through physician-assisted suicide, forced many health care professionals to evaluate or re-evaluate their stance on the issue. Currently, only five states have aid-in-dying laws, but many others have bills under consideration. The legalized process for physician-assisted suicide has a strict set of procedures that physicians and patients must follow to ensure the competency and safety of all parties involved. Opposition against legalizing physician-assisted suicide encompasses more than simply moral, religious, or ethical differences. While some individuals believe that physician-assisted suicide gives patients autonomy in their end-of-life care, health care professionals also may have reservations about the liability of the situation. Pharmacists, in particular, play a pertinent role in the dispensing of, and counseling about, the medications used to assist patients in hastening their death. It is imperative that pharmacists be aware of the intended use of the particular medication so that they can make informed decisions about their participation and ensure that they perform all the necessary steps required to remain compliant with the laws or statutes in their jurisdiction. This practice places an increased burden on pharmacists to evaluate their opinion on the concept of death with dignity and whether or not they want to participate.


The article is devoted to the complex scientific research of the conceptual provisions of the civil codes of the CIS countries. The basement of the research is the scientific analysis of some of the provisions for Model Code for the CIS countries. The attention is given to the legal power and the legislative technique of the civil codes. Besides, in the article the problem is researched of releasing the civil code from the public law institutions.


We present a numerical study of the evolution dynamics of "optical rogue waves", statistically-rare extreme red-shifted soliton pulses arising from supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber [D. R. Solli, et al. Nature 450, 1054-1058 (2007)]. Our specific aim is to use nonlinear Schrödinger equation simulations to identify ways in which the rogue wave dynamics can be actively controlled, and we demonstrate that rogue wave generation can be enhanced by an order of magnitude through a small modulation across the input pulse envelope and effectively suppressed through the use of a sliding frequency filter.


Purpose: Develop and validate simple risk scores based on initial clinical data and no or minimal laboratory testing to predict mortality in hospitalized adults with COVID-19. Methods: We gathered clinical and initial laboratory variables on consecutive inpatients with COVID-19 who had either died or been discharged alive at 6 US health centers. Logistic regression was used to develop a predictive model using no laboratory values (COVID-NoLab) and one adding tests available in many outpatient settings (COVID-SimpleLab). The models were converted to point scores and their accuracy evaluated in an internal validation group. Results: We identified 1340 adult inpatients with complete data for nonlaboratory parameters and 741 with complete data for white blood cell (WBC) count, differential, c-reactive protein (CRP), and serum creatinine. The COVID-NoLab risk score includes age, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation and identified risk groups with 0.8%, 11.4%, and 40.4% mortality in the validation group (AUROCC = 0.803). The COVID-SimpleLab score includes age, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, WBC, CRP, serum creatinine, and comorbid asthma and identified risk groups with 1.0%, 9.1%, and 29.3% mortality in the validation group (AUROCC = 0.833). Conclusions: Because they use simple, readily available predictors, developed risk scores have potential applicability in the outpatient setting but require prospective validation before use. ( J Am Board Fam Med 2021;34:S127–S135.)


The international organizations acting at world-wide scale seems unable to manage the multitude of rising problems due to the accelerated globalization and of the fast geopolitics' shift. The world is facing growing imbalances in international trade and financial flows, deepening of social inequalities and people's poverty, increasing international conflicts and insecurity, widening of terror threats and religion fundamentalism. The article points out some weaknesses of the international organizations framework highlighting the tendency of power dispersion from global to regional levels towards a multi-polar world.


This thesis looks at three important aspects of the well-being of individuals.

The first chapter looks at earnings and tries to estimate earnings over the life course accounting for selection. It does so by being silent a priori about the relative productivity of those who stay out of work and instead lets the data speak. Data suggest that nonworkers are not always worse than workers, and it also suggests cohort effects are also important when lifecycle profiles do not follow the same people over the whole age range. This chapter also provides an economic model which partly explains how higher productivity individuals may leave the market earlier than low productivity ones.

The second chapter looks at another dimension of well-being over the life course. It estimates age-happiness profiles and it focusses more specifically on the identification of linear age effects, in a life satisfaction equation which also includes linear cohort and period effects. As in the first chapter, this chapter also accounts for selective attrition. It finds that cohort effects and selection are important and an adequate account of them changes the age effect on happiness quite substantially.

The third chapter looks at domestic violence and tries to find a measure of the cost it has for victims. This is an under-researched area in Economics due to the challenges it presents to the discipline: it questions some of the assumptions often made in the literature about cooperation and efficiency in households; it cannot be easily (if at all) inferred from market behaviour; and data are quite sensitive to gather. We have used a data set designed in the UK, which culminates happiness and income data, and find that costs of violence are often larger than what most households would be able to compensate victims for.


The age of the Earth has long been a subject of great interest to scientists from many disciplines, particularly geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers. This volume, The Age of the Earth: from 4004 BC to AD 2002 , brings together contributors from these different subjects, along with historians, to produce a comprehensive review of how the Earth's age has been perceived since ancient times. Touching on the works of eminent scholars from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, it describes how concepts of the Earth's history changed as geology slowly separated itself from religious orthodoxy to emerge as a rigorous and self-contained science. Fossils soon became established as useful markers of relative age, while deductions made from geomorphological processes enabled the discussion of time in terms of years. By the end of the nineteenth century biologists and geologists were fiercely debating the issue with physicists who were unwilling to give them the time needed for evolution or uniformitarianism.

With the discovery of radioactivity, attempts to calculate the Earth's age entered a new era, although these early pioneers in radiometric dating encountered many difficulties, both technical and intellectual, before the enormity of geological time was fully recognized. This effort affected both the theory and practice of geology. Geochronology was largely responsible for it maturing into a professional scientific discipline, as increasingly refined techniques measured not only the age of the rocks, but the rate of processes which now elucidate many aspects of the Earth's evolution.

Even today the Earth's chronology remains a contentious topic — particularly for those dating the oldest rocks — and it is implicated in debates surrounding our hominid ancestors, the origins and development of life, and the age of the universe.

The Age of the Earth: from 4004 bc to AD 2002 will be of particular interest to geologists, geochemists, and historians of science, as well as astronomers, archaeologists, biologists and the general reader with an interest in science.


The complete nucleotide sequence of the DNA of Indian cassava mosaic virus (ICMV) and a key part of that of a group B isolate of African cassava mosaic virus from Malawi (ACMV-M) were determined and compared at the nucleotide and encoded amino acid levels with the published sequences of an ACMV group A isolate (ACMV-K) and other whitefly-transmitted gemini-viruses (WTGs). The DNA of ICMV consists of two circular single-stranded molecules, DNA-A [2815 nucleotides (nt)] and DNA-B (2645 nt), which differ substantially in sequence from the genome components of ACMV-K (DNA-A 70%, DNA-B 47% sequence identity) and other WTGs. ICMV DNA-A contains eight open reading frames (ORFs) encoding proteins of > 100 amino acid residues, of which four ORFs (one genome sense, three complementary sense) are comparable to those of other WTGs. DNA-B contains one ORF in each sense, as in other WTGs. None of the putative viral proteins are more similar in amino acid sequence to the proteins of ACMV-K than to those of another WTG. The coat protein of ACMV-M is more like that of tomato yellow leaf curl virus from Sardinia (86% sequence identity) than those of ICMV or ACMV-K. The intergenic regions of ACMV-K, ACMV-M and ICMV DNAs differ in size, and largely in sequence, except for two 30 to 40 nt sequences which are also conserved in other WTGs and can form stem-loop structures. The intergenic region of ICMV DNA contains three copies of a 41 nt sequence, and that of ACMV-M DNA contains an imperfect repeat of a 34 nt sequence which resembles the repeated sequence in ICMV DNA. The differences between ACMV-K, ACMV-M and ICMV are considered great enough to justify their separation as isolates of three distinct WTGs: African cassava mosaic virus, East African cassava mosaic virus and Indian cassava mosaic virus.


The presidency of the Western Surgical Association is an honor that comes as a stunning surprise, heartwarming to be sure from the knowledge that friends have judged one worthy of the office, but also somewhat frightening with the sudden realization that the title carries with it certain demanding obligations, not the least of which is the presidential address. Having listened to and read the many provocative statements made by past presidents of our Society, I quite naturally was awed by the prospect of trying to bring any really meaningful message to our membership. However, when I had time to reflect, the challenge became an opportunity to express my convictions, my concerns, and my hopes and expectations for the future of surgery in this country. I deeply thank you for this privilege. All of us are aware of the public's growing disenchantment with the medical profession, fanned by the frequently distorted


Monetary transmission mechanism, which is used by central banks to affect consumption, investment and saving decisions of both households and firms, has been subject of many theoretical and empirical studies. It seems that there is a consensus that monetary policy affects real economy in the short run. But on the other hand, the question "how it actually does" has been discussed by many economists for several years. The reason for this is that the countries which are at different stages of development also have financial systems at different levels. While in industrialized countries, the capital market system is more effective in the financial system; in developing countries, banking system is dominant in the financial system. From this viewpoint, this study tries to answer the question "which of the two channels of transmission mechanisms is effective in the two developing countries, Argentina and Turkey, "money channel or credit channel (which is not alternative but complementary for money channel)". VAR model is used to identify relative strengths of different monetary transmission channels in each country by five macroeconomic variables which are stated in the following order: overnight rate, bank deposits, bank loans, consumer price index and industrial production index. The data period of these variables ranges from 2003:01 to 2010:08. The paper proceeds as follows: Section I provides theoretical background of the money and credit channels of transmission mechanism. Section II summarizes recent empirical studies. Section III describes variables and discusses the empirical findings of the model. Section IV provides concluding remarks


High-spatial-resolution microfocus-based X-ray imaging technology, both real-time and film, has been used to study the thickness variation that occurs in the oxide core of silver-sheathed BSCCO ribbons produced by the powder-in-tube method. This thickness variation (also called 'sausaging') occurs during incremental rolling and degrades the critical current densities of the ribbons. Using X-ray image data, we determined the onset acid severity of sausaging. Onset occurred at a ribbon thickness of 203 mu m, and the severity increased with subsequent rolling reductions. Scanning electron microscopy was used to confirm the X-ray image data. X-ray imaging provides several advantages over more traditional methods of characterizing the superconductors, such as optical or scanning electron microscopy. The X-ray imaging provides nondestructive information about the entire width of the ribbon, with far greater speed, lower cost, and more flexibility than the traditional techniques.


This paper is aimed at investigating the damage and remaining life of a whole HP-Nb hydrogen reformer tube serviced for 12 years. The damage and remaining life evaluation of different parts of the tube were made using metallographic examination, ambient and high temperature uniaxial tensile tests, creep rupture tests and damage mechanics analysis. The results showed that different parts of the tube have the different damage and remaining life due to different service temperature, higher the service temperature, severer the damage and shorter the remaining life. Based on these research results, a case of local maintenance of the reformer tube was introduced.


Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a tumor of parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland. It has served as a useful experimental model for the study of tumor proliferation and differentiation. Although recent studies have identified the gene involved in familial forms of MTC, little is known about the molecular pathogenesis of the sporadic variants of this tumor. It has become increasingly clear that deregulation of programmed cell death is a critical component in multistep tumorigenesis. The present investigation was undertaken to determine whether similar molecular events occur in human MTC. Eighteen MTCs from 18 patients (including 12 sporadic and six familial cases and one metastatic lymph gland) and a MTC cell line (TT cells) were used in this study for detecting the expression of apoptosis-regulatory genes bcl-2, bax, c-myc, and p53. Immunohistochemical results showed that all MTC tumor samples displayed Bcl-2 and c-Myc immunoreactivity, whereas only 4 and 2 tumors showed a minority of cells positive for Bax and p53, respectively. Western and Northern blotting showed high levels of 26-kd Bcl-2 protein and bcl-2 transcript. The co-expression of Bcl-2 and c-Myc was also detected in the TT cells by indirect fluorescence immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Moreover, Bcl-2 immunoreactivity was also found in C-cell hyperplasia from familial patients indicating that expression of this oncogene may represent an early event in the pathogenesis of MTC. The present study suggests that deregulation of programmed cell death may be a critical component in multistep tumorigenesis of MTC and that the frequent expression of the Bcl-2 oncoprotein in these tumors may contribute to their pathogenesis. The genetic complementation of simultaneously deregulated bcl-2 and c-myc may be implicated in the multistep tumorigenesis of human MTC.


The summer spatial distribution of the dinoflagellate community along an open coastal sea gradient in the Gulf of Gabes (Tunisia, Eastern Mediterranean Sea), together with environmental factors, were studied. The most dominant families were represented by Gymnodiniaceae (32%), Peridiniaceae (20%), Prorocentraceae (15%), Ceratiaceae (13%) and Ebriaceae (10%). The dinoflagellate community was spatially more concentrated along the coast of the gulf than in the open sea. Eight toxic dinoflagellates were recorded, including Karenia cf. selliformis (37% of total toxic dinoflagellates) which was evenly distributed in both the neritic and open sea areas. Dinocysts contributed 33% of the total motile cells and were more abundant along the coast than in the open sea. This high concentration may be ascribed to nitrogen inputs in the coastal waters of Gabes. The Modified Atlantic Water governed dinoflagellate development in the open sea. The degradation of the water quality due to eutrophication in the Gulf of Gabes may have significant socioeconomic consequences. We suggest that a management framework, similar to that used in freshwater ecosystems, should be developed for the Gulf coast in order to drastically reduce urban interferences.


Women's history and oral history grew up together. Each developed from a commitment to reveal and reverse, to challenge and to contest what were perceived to be dominant discourses framed by gender and class. In this article the relationship between these two endeavours is explored. Beginning with the 1960s the influence of feminist approaches to research and representation are given due consideration and acknowledgement. In reviewing changes over the last four decades the dilemma for women of being both subject and object in research is explored. The tension in this dilemma is discussed in relation to developments in relation to subjectivity in the interview, the process of doing oral history, the developments in public history and remembering in late life. The article concludes with an overview of new work in the field and concedes that, whatever issues remain unresolved, oral history continues to interest and attract researchers working in a wide range of disciplines with the promise of yet more theorised and gendered explorations of the past in years to come.


In this paper, we study how forced migration impacts the in-group and out-group social capital of Syrian refugees and the host population in Northern Lebanon by administering a novel survey experiment in which we manipulate the salience of the migration experience (for refugees) and the refugee crisis (for the host population). Additionally, we study the social spillovers to Palestinians, an established refugee population in Lebanon. We find that the impact of forced migration is largely restricted to the Syrian refugee-Lebanese host population channel, and that it increases the relative disparity between in-group and out-group social capital. This may cause refugees to favor in-group interactions and therefore forgo more economically advantageous interactions with out-group members.


As the custodians of honour, Khap Panchayats are self-proclaimed tribunals with full validity and authority among the segments of their caste. These Panchayats are not real courts and do not have a constitutional basis. Under this unconstitutional system, all people of a village huddle around a Chabutara in order to make rapid, unilateral, and incontestable decisions on a variety of problems such as social transgression, marriage, offences, property rights, or situations endangering the village's tranquillity. It is concerning to notice that, in an era where individuals communicate via 3G technology, Indian civilization has regressed to the Dark Age. In today's culture, when legal standards and constitutional authority rule society, organisations like the Khap Panchayat obstruct progress and good government. The residents of the particular territory or community in which 'Khap' exists praise the dictates of Khap Panchayat; this is the most significant hurdle to Khap Panchayat's elimination. This study attempts to answer the question, "Why do Khaps still exist in India?" What is Khap's source of strength? It provides a thorough examination of the problem and attempts to propose a solution.


The interrelationships between different perceptions and attitudes of e-Learning users are widely researched, which reveals that whatever the perception and theory of a user about the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and e-Learning environment are, the same is reflected in his/her attitude towards using educational technologies for teaching and learning. The objective of this study was to measure the relationships between the indicators (perceptions about ICTs, educational technologies, development and use of e-Learning) and the Criterion variables (problems, satisfaction and prospects) among e-Learning users in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of N-W.F.P, Pakistan. The study found the existence of strong relationships in terms of indicators explaining the dependent variables. However, the impact is different from one variable to another. 81% of Problems, 57% of Satisfaction and 23% of Prospects are explained by the Indicators. Problems are significantly explained by all four indicators, while Satisfaction has been predicted by three of the indicators (excluding Perceptions). The study found that only two indicators (Perceptions about ICTs and Educational technologies) predict the Prospects, while Development and Use do not. The surprising finding is that Prospects are not defined by the 'Existing Development and Use Practices'. Rather, their perceptions about ICTs and e-Learning tools strongly forecast the Prospects.


The ability to detect online changes in stationarity or time variance in a data stream is a hot research topic with striking implications. In this paper, we propose a novel probability density function-free change detection test, which is based on the least squares density-difference estimation method and operates online on multidimensional inputs. The test does not require any assumption about the underlying data distribution, and is able to operate immediately after having been configured by adopting a reservoir sampling mechanism. Thresholds requested to detect a change are automatically derived once a false positive rate is set by the application designer. Comprehensive experiments validate the effectiveness in detection of the proposed method both in terms of detection promptness and accuracy.


In my thesis, I explore the cultural history of the French Revolution and its relation to the modern era which ensued. Many historians have studied the French Revolution as it relates to culture, the rise of modernity, and fashion. I combine the unique histories of all three of these aspects to reach an understanding of the history of the French Revolution and fashion's role in bringing about change. In the majority of literature of costume history, discussion of fashion surrounds its reflective properties. Many historians conclude fashion as a reflection of the broader cultural shifts that occurred during the Revolution. I, on the other hand, propose that fashion is an active force in bringing out cultural change during this time. In exploring fashion as a historical motivator, I examine the aesthetic world of fashion from 1740 to 1815, the modern system of cultural dissemination of fashion through particular historical heroes, and the rise of "taste" and its relation to modern identity. Through aesthetics, culture, and identity, I argue that fashion is a decisive force of culture in that it creates a visual world through which ideas form


Abstract Objective: To determine a potential source of MRSA colonization and infection among preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using molecular analysis of breast milk samples. Design: Case report, outbreak investigation. Results: Preterm triplets were delivered at 26 weeks' gestation via cesarean section when routine active surveillance for MRSA was performed for all infants in a NICU. Surveillance consisted of swabbing the throat, nose, and umbilicus (TNU) weekly. Although infants A and B initially had negative TNU swabs, repeat cultures were positive for MRSA on day of life (DOL) 10 and DOL 18, respectively. Surveillance and clinical cultures for infant C were negative. Infant A developed sepsis, and multiple blood cultures were positive for MRSA beginning on DOL 14. Infant B developed conjunctivitis and a conjunctival exudate culture was positive for MRSA on DOL 70. Both infants were fed breast milk via nasogastric tube. Cultures of breast milk samples for infants A and B dated prior to either infant's first positive surveillance culture were positive for MRSA. All MRSA isolates had identical results on antibiotic susceptibility testing. PFGE demonstrated identical banding patterns for the MRSA isolates from the blood culture of infant A, breast milk for infants A and B, and a surveillance swab from infant B. At no time did the mother develop evidence of mastitis or other local breast infection. Conclusions: MRSA can be passed from mother to preterm infant through contaminated breast milk, even in the absence of maternal infection. Colonization and clinical disease can result.


European local government policies have placed a strong emphasis on urban regeneration and existing buildings accommodation, especially in the nearest CBU degraded urban areas, not only to improve urban environments, but also to relieve the great demand of housing in growing cities. This paper examines the effect of a State Intervention by an Index which measures the efficiency that the development of a regeneration project carried out by the public sector, in close partnership with the property development industry, has on the housing market. The hedonic price function is seen as the most suitable methodology to isolate its effect, which is supposed to be uniform all along the intervention area. For this, we built two optimal investment location models: a pre-intervention one and a post-intervention one. The first one, before the intervention, allows determining in which places and at which cost would be better to carry out the intervention to get the desired effect, provided that we are able to minimize the variability of the investment influences as well as to concentrate investment in some places. The second one, after the intervention, allows judging the actions carried out and fixing the best amount of investment for each place in which the intervention took place so that the effects will get the most possible homogeneous distribution. Both models will assess the best performance according to the housing market and the local policies.


Release of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) from platelets has been postulated to stimulate at least some of the cell proliferation seen at sites of tissue damage, both beneficially (wound healing) and perniciously (during formation of atherosclerotic lesions). Two other growth factors have been localized to the platelet: epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor. These factors may function synergistically with PDGF in promoting smooth muscle cell proliferation in the injured vessel wall. PDGF-like molecules (PDGF-c) that bind to the PDGF receptor and are at least partially recognized by antiserum against PDGF may also be synthesized by vessel wall cells themselves under certain circumstances. Arterial endothelial cells secrete several mitogens, one of which is a PDGF-c. Release is greatly stimulated by exposure of the cells to physiologic concentrations of thrombin. Also, aortic smooth muscle cells from 2-week-old rats secrete mitogenic levels of PDGF-c. In this case, PDGF-c accounts for all the mitogenic activity in conditioned medium (when assayed on 3T3 cells). Smooth muscle cells obtained from adult rat aortae secrete 150-fold less PDGF-c. In a third example, when adult rat carotid arteries are damaged with a balloon catheter, smooth muscle cells migrate into the intima of the artery and proliferate. By 2 weeks, the number of smooth muscle cells in the artery has doubled. When these intimal smooth muscle cells are cultured, they are found to secrete PDGF-c. These findings suggest that activation of endogenous synthesis of PDGF-c may contribute to the smooth muscle cell proliferation seen in response to vascular injury.


Abstract Aim To assess faculty perceptions and experiences when implementing team-based learning (TBL) across a pharmacy curriculum. Study design A total of 19 faculty members participated in a series of individual semi-structured interviews that allowed freedom of discussion within a structured framework of inquiry. Data were transcribed, coded using NVivo, and analyzed to establish common themes. Participant quotations were chosen to reinforce the themes and give a voice to the participants. Findings and discussion The benefits of TBL were perceived to be enhanced student engagement, peer learning, increased faculty enjoyment of teaching, and student development of transferable skills. Challenges included increased initial workload, writing effective application exercises, and facilitating learner-centered classes. TBL may be useful in optimizing course content to ensure outcomes and activities focus on important concepts. Peer learning appears to benefit student learning. TBL may help equip students with valuable transferable skills. TBL requires an initial upfront investment in faculty development and time to prepare resources. A student-centered approach to learning may be daunting for faculty and require new skill sets. Conclusions Faculty described their support for TBL concluding that the pedagogical benefits of engaging students in active learning, the development of transferable skills for the workplace, and the personal satisfaction felt after a TBL class, outweigh the initial challenges of transitioning to TBL.


Estimation of cloud motion from all-sky image sequences is a very big challenge in the meteorological area that requires extensively study. In this paper, we propose a novel local features-based method to track clouds and to forecast short-term cloudiness up to fifteen minutes ahead using all-sky image sequences. This method allows us to estimate the cloud displacement as well as the change of size scale with high accuracy and robustness, leading to a significant improvement in the precision of cloud image prediction. The proposed Short-term All-sky Image Prediction System (SAIPS) includes three key steps: detection of clouds based on clustering, matching of the clouds from captured sequences, and analysis of cloud tracks to predict their locations. The effectiveness of the proposed system is verified using a database of captured images of real clouds. Experimental results demonstrate a better performance of the proposed approach compared to other algorithms.


Background There is a lack of epidemiological research on the mental health of young adults in Ireland. Objectives To determine prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a cohort of young Irish adults. Methods The Challenging Times study was a landmark study of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in adolescents in North Dublin, Ireland: 212 school children aged 12-15 years were recruited through schools and interviewed using the K-SADS semi-structured diagnostic instrument. This cohort was traced again at age 19-24 years (mean age 20.8 years) and interviewed using SCID I & II. Main outcome measures were current and lifetime Axis I and Axis II psychiatric disorders. Results Follow-up rate was 80%. Using a weighted population prevalence analysis 19.8% of the cohort had a current mental disorder, 56.0% had a lifetime mental disorder of whom 28.4% had mood disorders, 27.1% had anxiety disorders, 22.7% had substance use disorders; 25.4% had lifetime multi-morbidity. Cluster A personality disorders were found in 2.3%. Lifetime prevalence of binge-drinking was 75.0%, cannabis use 65% and 17% of young adults had fulfilled criteria for an alcohol use disorder at sometime in their life. Lifetime prevalence of suicidal thoughts/behaviour was 21.1%. Conclusions Lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder and substance use were high in this sample of young Irish adults. Mental Health service provision for this age group is a priority. Larger studies of nationally representative samples are needed to inform service development.


This study was conducted to determine the effect of the variable Company Size, Tenure Audit, and Company Growth on Going Concern Audit Opinions on trade, service and investment sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the 2014-2018 period. The data used in this research are secondary data. The sample used in this study amounted to 104 companies using a purposive sampling method. The analysis technique used is logistic regression. At a significance level of 5%, the results of this study indicate that the Company Size variable and the Company Growth variable influence the Going Concern Audit Opinion. While the Audit Tenure variable does not affect the Going Concern Audit Opinion.

Keywords : Going Concern Audit Opinion, Company Size, Tenur Audit, Company Growth


: This special issue moves beyond an understanding of diagrams as mere inscriptions of objects and processes, proposing instead to re-evaluate diagrammatic reasoning as the work that is carried out with, on, and beyond diagrams. The introduction presents this issue's focus on 'working with diagrams' in a way that goes beyond semiotic, cognitive, epistemic, or symbolic readings of diagrams. It discusses recent research on diagrams and diagrammatic reasoning across disciplines and approaches diagrams as suspended between imagination and perception—as objects with which work is done and as objects that do work. Contributions to this issue probe diagrams for the work they do in the development of disciplinary theories, investigate their reworking of questions of time and scale, and ask how some diagrams work across fields and disciplines. Other authors shift the perspective to their own work with diagrams, reflecting on the practice and performative nature of diagrammatic reasoning in their respective fields and disciplines.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
The tam (tardy asynchronous meiosis) mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, which exhibits a modified cytokinesis with a switch from simultaneous to successive cytokinesis, was used to perform a direct test of the implication of cytokinesis in aperture-pattern ontogeny of angiosperm pollen grains. The aperture pattern corresponds to the number and arrangement of apertures (areas of the pollen wall permitting pollen tube germination) on the surface of the pollen grain.

METHODS
A comparative analysis of meiosis and aperture distribution was performed in two mutant strains of arabidopsis: quartet and quartet-tam.

KEY RESULTS
While the number of apertures is not affected in the quartet-tam mutant, the arrangement of the three apertures is modified compared with the quartet, resulting in a different aperture pattern.

CONCLUSIONS
These results directly demonstrate the relationship between the type of sporocytic cytokinesis and pollen aperture-pattern ontogeny.


Recent results have shown that some post-quantum cryptographic systems have encryption and decryption performance comparable to fast elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) or even better. However, this performance metric is considering only CPU time and ignoring bandwidth and storage. High-confidence post-quantum encryption systems have much larger keys than ECC. For example, the code-based cryptosystem recommended by the PQCRYPTO project uses public keys of 1MB. Fast key erasure (to provide "forward secrecy") requires new public keys to be constantly transmitted. Either the server needs to constantly generate, store, and transmit large keys, or it needs to receive, store, and use large keys from the clients. This is not necessarily a problem for overall bandwidth, but it is a problem for storage and computation time on tiny network servers. All straightforward approaches allow easy denial-ofservice attacks. This paper describes a protocol, suitable for today's networks and tiny servers, in which clients transmit their codebased one-time public keys to servers. Servers never store full client public keys but work on parts provided by the clients, without having to maintain any per-client state. Intermediate results are stored on the client side in the form of encrypted cookies and are eventually combined by the server to obtain the ciphertext. Requirements on the server side are very small: storage of one long-term private key, which is much smaller than a public key, and a few small symmetric cookie keys, which are updated regularly and erased after use. The protocol is highly parallel, requiring only a few round trips, and involves total bandwidth not much larger than a single public key. The total number of packets sent by each side is 971, each fitting into one IPv6 packet of less than 1280 bytes. The protocol makes use of the structure of encryption in code-based cryptography and benefits from small ciphertexts in code-based cryptography.


This paper proposes a novel autonomous decentralized system (ADS) for controlling high power LPMSM. The system decentralizes a control system into several subsystems, thus the power supply and power electronic devices of the control system can be replaced by smaller ones, and the better fault tolerance of the system can be obtained. We first study the architecture of the ADS for LPMSM, then study the mathematical model of the LPMSM with decentralized stator coils. Finally, the fault model of the system is analyzed and a fault-tolerance design based on redundancy is proposed. The experimental results show that this method is effective for LPMSM control; excellent current control and fault tolerant feature of the system confirm the validity of the proposed system


COVID-19, a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) betacoronavirus, affects children in a different way than it does in adults, with milder symptoms. However, several cases of neurological symptoms with neuroinflammatory syndromes, such as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), following mild cases, have been reported. As with other viral infections, such as rubella, influenza, and cytomegalovirus, SARS-CoV-2 induces a surge of proinflammatory cytokines that affect microglial function, which can be harmful to brain development. Along with the viral induction of neuroinflammation, other noninfectious conditions may interact to produce additional inflammation, such as the nutritional imbalance of fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Additionally, transient thyrotoxicosis induced by SARS-CoV-2 with secondary autoimmune hypothyroidism has been reported, which could go undetected during pregnancy. Together, those factors may pose additional risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection impacting mechanisms of neural development such as synaptic pruning and neural circuitry formation. The present review discusses those conditions in the perspective of the understanding of risk factors that should be considered and the possible emergence of neurodevelopmental disorders in COVID-19-infected children.


Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) offers a sustainable solution towards ammonia production but suffers poor reaction performance due to preferential catalyst-H formation and the consequential hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we electronically modify PtAu electrocatalyst d-band structure using zeolitic-imidazole framework (ZIF) to achieve a faradaic efficiency (FE) of >44% with high ammonia yield rate of >161 µg.mg cat -1 .h -1 at ambient conditions. Our strategy lowers electrocatalyst d-band position to weaken H adsorption and concurrently creates electron deficient sites to kinetically drive NRR by promoting catalyst-N 2 interaction. The ZIF coating on electrocatalyst doubles as a hydrophobic layer to suppress HER, further improves FE by >44-fold compared to without ZIF (~1%). Experimental and in-silico studies reveal PtAu-N ZIF interaction is key to enable strong N 2 adsorption over H atom. Our electrocatalytic design is universal and can be extended across metal electrocatalysts for diverse applications in NRR and air-to-fuel conversion.


An overview of films, film footage, and documentaries available in the May 4 Collection, Kent State University Special Collections and Archives


Introduction The B19 (B19V) parvovirus is responsible for Erythema Infectiosum. Approximately 30 to 60% of the population in some studies and 66% in others, have IgG + for B19V, with an equal distribution between both sexes. The B19V is considered a biological risk agent in pregnant women, mainly because of its potential ability to produce fetal pathology, especially in the form of fetal hydrops and abortion, especially during the 2nd trimester. Various articles describe an occupational exposure risk to B19V in certain job positions, especially child care and health care workers. Methodology A PubMed literature review is undertaken to identify fetal and pregnant pathology associated with B19V infection prior to the formalisation of occupational health prevention protocols in workers pregnant and in fertile age. The inclusion criteria are: any articles in Spanish, English or French, on the effects of B19V on pregnancy and fetus. The study covers the period from 2000/01/01 to 2015/12/31. The search strategy was B19V AND pregnancy. 154 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results The disease primarily affects the fetus. The health problems identified were classified (number of citations), the most common fetal pathologies are fetal hydrops with 93 citations, fetal death with 70 and aplastic anaemia with 64. The rest of detected pathologies specified and grouped by systems are also listed. In pregnant women the most commong pathologies are anaemia, oedema and mirror sd with 6 citations each, and fulminant hepatitis and myocarditis with 2. Conclusions After the literature review, it's determined the risk of both fetal and pregnant pathology due to exposure to B19V so a screening protocol by IgG and IgM is established for workers pregnant and in fertile age as well as prevention and monitoring of pregnant workers, repeating serology tests during pregnancy and assesing the risk presented by their workplace.


High‐grade U ore deposits are in various stages of exploitation across the Grand Canyon watershed, yet the effects of U mining on ecological and cultural resources are largely unknown. We characterized the concentrations of Al, As, Bi, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Hg, Mo, Ni, Se, Ag, Tl, Th, U, and Zn, gross alpha and beta activities, and U and Th radioisotopes in soil, vegetation (Hesperostipa comata, Artemisia tridentata, Tamarix chinensis), and rodents (Peromyscus maniculatus, P. boylii) to waste material at the Kanab North mine, a mine with decades‐long surficial contamination, and compared the concentrations (P < 0.01) to those at a premining site (Canyon Mine). Rodent tissues were also analyzed for radium‐226 and microscopic lesions. Radioactivities and some elemental concentrations (e.g., Co, Pb, U) were greater in the Kanab North mine biological samples than in Canyon Mine biota, indicating a mining‐related elemental signature. Mean rodent Ra‐226 (111 Bq/kg dry weight [dry wt]) was 3 times greater than expected, indicating radioactive disequilibrium. Multiple soil sample U concentrations exceeded a screening benchmark, growth inhibition thresholds for sensitive plants, and an EC20 for a soil arthropod. Lesions associated with metals exposure were also observed more frequently in rodents at Kanab North than those at Canyon Mine but could not be definitively attributed to U mining. Our results indicate that Kanab North biota have taken up U mining‐related elements owing to chronic exposure to surficial contamination. However, no literature‐based effects thresholds for small rodents were exceeded, and only a few soil and vegetation thresholds for sensitive species were exceeded; therefore, adverse effects to biota from U mining‐related elements at Kanab North are unlikely despite chronic exposure. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:112–125. Published 2018. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.


Load forecasting has always been an essential part of an efficient power system's planning and operation. Several electric power companies are now forecasting load power based on conventional methods. However, since the relationship between load power and factors influencing load power is nonlinear, it is difficult to identify its nonlinearity by using conventional methods. Most papers deal with 24-hour-ahead load forecasting or next-day peak load forecasting. These methods forecast the demand power by using forecasted temperature as forecast information. But, when the temperature curves change rapidly on the forecast day, load power changes greatly and forecast error increases. In conventional methods, neural networks use similar-day data to learn the trend of similarity. However, learning of all similar day's data is very complex, and it does not suit learning of neural networks. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the neural network structure and learning time. To overcome these problems, we propose a one-hour-ahead load forecasting method using the correction of similar-day data. In the proposed prediction method, the forecasted load power is obtained by adding a correction to the selected similar day data.


Neisseria meningitidis, a causative agent of bacterial meningitis, has a relatively small repertoire of transcription factors, including NMB0573 (annotated AsnC), a member of the Lrp-AsnC family of regulators that are widely expressed in both Bacteria and Archaea. In the present study we show that NMB0573 binds to l-leucine and l-methionine and have solved the structure of the protein with and without bound amino acids. This has shown, for the first time that amino acid binding does not induce significant conformational changes in the structure of an AsnC/Lrp regulator although it does appear to stabilize the octameric assembly of the protein. Transcriptional profiling of wild-type and NMB0573 knock-out strains of N. meningitidis has shown that NMB0573 is associated with an adaptive response to nutrient poor conditions reflected in a reduction in major surface protein expression. On the basis of its structure and the transcriptional response, we propose that NMB0573 is a global regulator in Neisseria controlling responses to nutrient availability through indicators of general amino acid abundance: leucine and methionine.


The purpose of this study is to describe the readiness of higher education LPTK students in Lombok to become professional MI/SD teacher candidates in terms of knowledge, practice, and attitude, as well as to describe the dominant factors that hinder the readiness to become professional MI/SD teacher candidates. This type of research is quantitative survey method. Instruments for collecting test data, questionnaires, and observation sheets. This study aims to obtain an overview of the characteristics of the population related to the readiness of students to become professional MI/SD teacher candidates. The population in this research is Mataram State Islamic University and Mataram University. The sampling technique used is area sampling. The results of this study indicate in terms of knowledge about students and how to learn the results of the analysis show an average value of 25.74 in the high category. This shows that students are ready to become MI/D professional teachers. While the questionnaire on the ability to carry out learning when viewed from the average value, which is 136.24 in the high category. In the aspect of perception of being an MI/SD teacher, the average score is 103.60 with the agree category. Furthermore, on the confidence data to become a professional MI/SD teacher, the data analysis results obtained an average of 140.04 with the agree category


We report a case of a brain abscess which initially presented with subcortical hematoma and ultimately resulted in fatal brain stem infarction due to its rupture into the subarachnoid space. A 50-year-old male was admitted to a nearby hospital with complaints of headache, fever, and sensory aphasia. He had ventricular septal defect found 15 years previously, sinusitis, and liver cirrhosis. Computerized tomographic (CT) scan revealed a left temporal subcortical hematoma. Gadolinium-DTPA enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed faint ring-like enhancement at the margin of the lesion. The left internal carotid angiogram demonstrated the vascular blush and early venous filling of the vein of Labbé. Administration of antibiotics and predonine resulted in resolution of fever within five days. MRI obtained 17 days after the onset showed typical ring-like enhancement. The mass was just adjacent to the lateral ventricle. The patient was transferred to our hospital for further examination and treatment 21 days after the onset. Fever had recurred 2 days before admission to our hospital. One day after admission, the patient began to vomit. About 15 hours following this symptom, he suddenly became comatose and tetraplegic. CT scan demonstrated a rupture of the abscess. Emergent drainage from the lateral ventricle and the abscess cavity was undertaken. Follow-up CT scan revealed multiple infarctions involving the upper brain stem and the bilateral thalamus. He died on the 29th day after the onset. The mechanisms of hemorrhage with a brain abscess and cerebral infarction after rupture of brain abscess are discussed. Hemorrhage with brain abscess is extremely rare. However, brain abscess should be considered as a possible etiology of an atypical hematoma. To avoid fatal rupture of the brain abscess, immediate treatment is essential. Once the rupture of the brain abscess occurs, its contents might cause vasospasm severe enough to cause cerebral infarction.


Aerosol therapy must be applied according to specific indications. Therapy ranges, anatomically, from smallest to largest airways; physically, from fine "dry" cool to dense heated mists; pharmacologically, from potent to bland agents. Bronchodilators in minuscule amounts are used to counter mucosal edema and bronchospasm and should be used with other agents. Bland mists are used to mobilize secretions. Mucolytics are used when less potent agents fail. Chest percussion and postural bronchial drainage are adjuncts to evacuate mobilized secretions. Antibiotic aerosols can treat bronchial infections failing to respond to systemic antibiotics. Antiinflammatory steroids have only limited applicability. Antifoaming agents are used in fulminant pulmonary edema when there is no response to oxygen and positive pressure ventilation. Cromolyn sodium blocks spasmogen release from type I reagenic antigen-antibody reactions and should be used prophylactically for allergic asthma.


Introduction: Acute myocardial infarction is the most important and feared consequence of coronary artery disease. STEMI is the one of that kind and it occurs by formation of a vulnerable plaque from atherosclerosis and transforms into coronary artery thrombosis in the end. Streptokinase has been used as a thrombolytic agent in patients with acute STEMI. It combines with the circulatory plasminogen to form an activator complex and it converts into plasmin, where, the plasmin breaks the fibrin complex in the blood clot. Streptokinase can be given as 1,500,000U a slow I.V infusion over 30 min. Each STEMI subject is different with the aetiology, pain, ST segment elevation. By considering these factors the clinical efficacy of streptokinase will be evaluated. Materials and Methods: A total number of 75 subjects presenting with acute STEMI to the department of cardiology, King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, and, those were thrombolysed with streptokinase are included in the study. pain was assessed before and 90 min after administration of streptokinase on numerical pain rating scale from 0-10. ST segment resolution was assessed as percentage reduction in ST segment elevation before administration of streptokinase and the reduction of ST segment elevation 90 min after administration of streptokinase. Student t -test and chi-square test were applied to evaluate the results by using software SPSS. Results: A significant resolution in the pain and ST segment elevation were identified by comparing the numerical pain rating scale and ST segment elevation on pre and post streptokinase administration. Conclusion: Streptokinase has been shown to have significant effect on pain resolution and ST segment resolution in subjects with acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. Key words: Acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, Clinical efficacy, Pain, Streptokinase, ST segment elevation, Thrombolysed subjects.


English. Automatic Misogyny Identification (AMI) is a shared task proposed at the Evalita 2020 evaluation campaign. The AMI challenge, based on Italian tweets, is organized into two subtasks: (1) Subtask A about misogyny and aggressiveness identification and (2) Subtask B about the fairness of the model. At the end of the evaluation phase, we received a total of 20 runs for Subtask A and 11 runs for Subtask B, submitted by 8 teams. In this paper, we present an overview of the AMI shared task, the datasets, the evaluation method-ology, the results obtained by the participants and a discussion about the method-ology adopted by the teams. Finally, we draw some conclusions and discuss future work.


1. In the Horn of Africa, frankincense (an aromatic hardened wood resin) is obtained by tapping Boswellia papyrifera. World-wide, frankincense is of great economic and social importance as an important element of incense and perfumes. The production is declining as a result of poor natural regeneration of the Boswellia woodlands, possibly as a result of the low production of viable seeds. We hypothesize that this is because of the current intensive tapping regime, which might favour allocation of carbohydrates for synthesis of resin at the expense of allocation for generative growth. 2. Investigations were carried out at sites in different agro-ecological zones with annually tapped trees and with trees that had not been tapped for several years. Seed viability and germination success were determined for 200 randomly collected seeds in each site. For three stands, the sexual reproduction (number of flowers, fruits and seeds) was determined for different sized trees subjected to three experimental tapping intensities (no, normal and heavy tapping). 3. At the stand level, non-tapped trees produced three times as many healthy and filled seeds as tapped trees. Germination success was highest in stands with non-tapped trees (> 80%) and lowest for those with tapped trees (<16%). 4. At the tree level, sexual reproduction decreased with increasing tapping regime irrespective of tree size. Overall, large trees tended to produce slightly heavier seeds than small trees, and seeds from non-tapped trees were heavier than those from tapped trees. In the stands where tapping was prohibited changes in tapping regimes had the greatest effect on sexual reproduction. Trees subjected to annual tapping always showed the lowest sexual reproduction. 5. Synthesis and applications. Tapping for frankincense results in limited flower and fruit production, and low production of mainly non-viable seeds in B. papyrifera. We argue that tapping causes competition for carbohydrates between frankincense production, and fruit and seed setting. Consequently, the current tapping regimes will cause tree exhaustion and eventually a decline in vitality. Tapping may potentially reduce natural regeneration of the species. New tapping regimes are suggested that include periods of time in which tapping is prohibited in order for trees to recover and replenish their stored carbon pool, and a reduction in the number of tapping points per tree. This is important in view of the long-term sustainability of frankincense production, an internationally highly valued resource.