The objective of this research is to develop a neural network model to predict the pore size of ultrafiltration membrane. Usually, the pore size of ultrafiltration membrane was determined experimentally using permeation and rejection rate experiments, followed by empirical equations. Therefore, in this study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been proposed as an alternative method to predict the pore size of flat sheet ultrafiltration membranes. Experimental data were collected from the previous research whereby the polyethersulfone (PES) polymeric membranes were fabricated with lithium bromide (LiBr) additive. The membranes were tested by using various polyethylene glycol PEG molecular weights solution. The neural network has a pyramidal architecture with three different layers which consists of an input layer, hidden layer and output layer. Feed-forward Backpropagation (FFBP) network was constructed in MATLAB version 7.2 environment by using Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm (trainlm) training method. In addition, Bayesian regularization method was introduced to improve the neural network generalization. The simulated results obtained from this study were then compared to the experiment results so as to obtain the best model with the smallest Root-Mean Square (RMS) error. The results revealed that the constructed networks were able to accurately estimate the pore size of ultrafiltration membrane.


Abstract Introduction. The aim of this study was to evaluate sex differences in anthropometric indicators, body composition, physical fitness, and physiological parameters in young women and men performing extremely strenuous exercise during the 3-Minute Burpee Test (3-MBT). Post-exercise recovery during a 6-minute break was determined in the tested subjects. Material and methods. Ninety-six university students volunteered to take part in this study (45 women aged 20.05 ± 1.81 years and 51 men aged 20.20 ± 2.71 years). Endurance-strength abilities were determined during the 3-MBT motor fitness test, and body composition was determined with an InBody720 analyser. Data were analysed using a Mann-Whitney U test, with statistical significance accepted at p ≤ 0.05. Results. The anthropometric indicators, body composition parameters, physical fitness levels (47.22 cycles/3 min), and physiological parameters measured during the 3-MBT were significantly higher in men (VO2avg – 41.57 mL/kg/min, VO2max – 49.67 mL/kg/min, EPOCavg – 11.02mL/kg, and EPOCpeak – 27.84mL/kg) than in women. Women were characterised by significantly higher (p < 0.05) body fat mass (BFM = 18.80 kg) and percent body fat (PBF 28.26%) than men. Conclusions. Male subjects were characterised by higher values of anthropometric indicators, body composition parameters (excluding body fat), motor fitness levels, and physiological parameters than women, and endurance-strength abilities were 23.75% higher, on average, in men than women.


The importance of the artists George Romney and Ozias Humphry as collectors of William Blake in the mid-1790s has yet to be fully described and evaluated. Although Romney had told their mutual friend John Flaxman that Blake's historical drawings "rank with those of Ml. Angelo," his early acquisition of at least five (or four if the Songs are counted as one book) illuminated books was unknown until 1989. Humphry's role as a Blake collector has long been known, but most scholarly attention has been on his later relations with Blake, especially his obtaining for Blake the commission for one of the Last Judgment drawings (National Trust, Petworth) and eliciting a detailed written description of it in 1808, rather than on his importance to Blake as a client earlier. Humphry commissioned two sets of images, mostly from illuminated books: the eight folio-sized prints known as A Large Book of Designs copy A, and A Small Book of Designs copy A (comprising twenty-three prints); he also purchased America copy H, Europe copy D, and copy H of Songs. Romney acquired America copy A, The [First] Book of Urizen copy B, Visions of the Daughters of Albion copy F, Songs copy A, and a copy of Europe that has been identified as A. Taken together, the two artists' purchases compose a substantial portion of Blake's known sales of illuminated books and associated material in the period from his initial prospectus "To the Public" (E 692-93), dated 10 October 1793, to 1796.


Allan Greenwood shows how vacuum arcs and current interruption in vacuum are different from gaseous arcs and interruption in gas circuit breakers, and leads the reader to understand these differences thereby enabling successful design, construction and use of vacuum switchgear. This comprehensive treatment (including an introductory historical perspective) makes the book useful for users and manufacturers as well as designers. The book includes chapters on:


The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Age, smoking, obesity, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes have been described as risk factors for severe complications and mortality in COVID-19. Obesity and diabetes are usually associated with dysregulated lipid synthesis and clearance which can initiate or aggravate pulmonary inflammation and injury. It has been shown that for viral entry into the host cell, SARS-CoV-2 utilizes the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors present on the cells. We aimed to characterize how SARS-CoV-2 dysregulates lipid metabolism pathways in the host and the effect of dysregulated lipogenesis on the regulation of ACE2, specifically in obesity. In our study, through the re-analysis of publicly available transcriptomic data, we first found that lung epithelial cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed upregulation of genes associated with lipid metabolism, including the SOC3 gene which is involved in regulation of inflammation and inhibition of leptin signaling. This is of interest as viruses may hijack host lipid metabolism to allow completion of their viral replication cycles. Furthermore, a mouse model of diet-induced obesity showed a significant increase in Ace2 expression in the lungs which negatively correlated with the expression of genes that code for sterol response element binding proteins 1 and 2 (SREBP). Suppression of Srebp1 showed a significant increase in Ace2 expression in the lung. Together our results suggest that the dysregulated lipogenesis and the subsequently high ACE2 expression in obese patients might be the mechanism underlying the increased risk for severe complications in those patients when infected by SARS-CoV-2.


This paper proposes distributed turbo block codes (DTBC) for wireless relay networks by using extended Bose, Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (eBCH) codes as the constituent codes. The proposed technique assumes all channels are orthogonal and requires two phases to complete the transmission. In the first phase, the source broadcasts its information together with the parity bit sequence from the first code. The relay received the data from the source and process the data by using decode and forward protocol. The decoded systematic data at relay is interleaved and encoded by the second encoder. For the second phase, the parity sequence generated by the second encoder at relay is forwarded to the destination. In order to retrieve the original information bits, the signals received at destination from the source and relay are processed by using turbo iterative decoding technique, and for that purpose, soft-input soft-output Chase-Phyndiah (CP) algorithm is used for the decoding. We have conducted a series of simulations to study the effect of different iteration numbers at destination, different numbers of test pattern for Chase algorithm at destination and different locations of relay in a line network model. From our results, we showed that the proposed cooperative scheme outperforms the non-cooperative system as long as the relay is not too far away from the source. Finally, we presented the results of the proposed system by using different constituent codes with different minimum Hamming distances.


Unsolvated 5,10,15,20-tetra-4-pyridylporphyrin, C(40)H(26)N(8), (I), its sesquihydrate, C(40)H(26)N(8).1.514H(2)O, (II), and its 2-chlorophenol disolvate, C(40)H(26)N(8).2C(6)H(5)ClO, (III), reveal different conformational features of the porphyrin core. In (I), the latter is severely deformed from planarity, apparently in order to optimize the intermolecular interactions and efficient crystal packing of the molecular entities. The molecular framework has a C(1) symmetry. In (II), the porphyrin molecules are located on 4 symmetry axes, preserving the marked deformation from planarity of the porphyrin core. The molecular units are interlinked into a single-framework supramolecular architecture by hydrogen bonding to one another via molecules of water, which lie on twofold rotation axes. In (III), the porphyrin molecules are located across centres of inversion and are characterized by a planar conformation of the 24-membered macrocyclic porphyrin ring. Two trans-related pyridyl substituents are hydrogen bonded to the 2-chlorophenol solvent molecules. The interporphyrin organization in (III) is similar to that observed for many other tetraarylporphyrin compounds. However, the organization observed in (I) and (II) is different and of a type rarely observed before. This study reports for the first time the crystal structure of the unsolvated tetrapyridylporphyrin.


Osteoporosis is a metabolic disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to enhanced bone fragility and a consequent increase in fracture risk. Bone fragility depends on bone density, turnover and microarchitectural features, such as relative trabecular volume, spacing, number and connectivity. Previous fragility fractures increase the fracture risk irrespective of bone density. Other risk factors must also be considered as many fractures occur in patients with osteopenia on densitometry. On the other hand, the diagnosis of osteoporosis and increased fracture risk should not be based on densitometric data alone when young populations such as men below 65 years, premenopausal women, adolescents and children are considered. (Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab 2006;50/4:674-684)


In order to deeply understand many walking gaits of hexapod robot in unstructured terrain and some relative factors of adapting various obstacles, an articulated leg model with six degree-of-freedom (DOF) is built in the initial researches. Based upon the designed six-DOF leg mechanism, a hexapod robot with total 42 DOFs is constructed, which can realize omni-directional movement. The tripod gait of hexapod robot is simulated. According to the leg mechanism and its model, kinematic angular displacement, angular velocity and angular acceleration of each joint of each leg can be analyzed. Therefore the detailed movement information can be obtained. Such researches provide good theoretical base for future dynamic analysis. Index Terms Hexapod robot, Tripod gait, Leg mechanism, Kinematic simulation


Microwave ablation (MWA) therapy is a hyperthermic treatment for cancerous tumors whereby
microwave energy is dispersed into a target tissue region. Absorption of these waves leads to
temperature rise through microwave heating with the aim of exposing cancerous cells to a thermal
dose sufficient to kill them whilst minimizing the damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. Being
able to predict the progression of ablation during a procedure is of high value when designing
equipment and planning patient-specific care, as current dosimetry is given in guidelines by the
equipment provider. From a modelling standpoint this poses a complex multi-physics problem
coupling electro-magnetics and heat conduction. Added to this there are existence of multiple
temperature sensitive properties of tissue, as well as physiological processes such as blood perfusion which are heavily influential in the overall temperature profile. Here, we create a two
dimensional axisymmetric geometry of a probe embedded within a tissue material, solving the
coupled electromagnetic and bioheat equation using the finite element method, utilizing hp discretisation and the NGSolve library. Temperature, electric field strength and energy absorption
can be calculated and investigations into the effects of the highly temperature-sensitive properties
of tissue on the distribution of temperature throughout ablation.


New polymeric photobase generators containing oxime–urethane groups were prepared by the polyaddition reaction of 2,4-tolylene diisocyanate with terephthalaldehyde dioxime in the presence or absence of a polyol component to study the ability of these polymers to generate amines through the photolysis of oxime–urethane linkage. The amines induced the crosslinking of poly(glycidyl methacrylate), as proved by the variation of the amount of the insoluble fraction of polymer films with the heating temperature and/or irradiation time. UV and IR absorption spectra indicated that the thermal crosslinking of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) was catalyzed by the photogenerated amines. The photobehavior of the polymers was followed by a reduction of the absorption band at 290 nm, which was characteristic of oxime–urethane groups, as a function of the UV irradiation time. Blue fluorescence was visualized by the treatment of irradiated films with fluorescamine. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 2324–2332, 2004


Domains play an integral role in linguistic theories. This paper combines locality domains with current models of the computational complexity of phonology. The first result is that if a specific formalism – strictly piecewise grammars – is supplemented with a mechanism to enforce first-order definable domain restrictions, its power increases so much that it subsumes almost the full hierarchy of subregular languages. However, if domain restrictions are based on linguistically natural intervals, we instead obtain an empirically more adequate model. On the one hand, this model subsumes only those subregular classes that have been argued to be relevant for phonotactic generalisations. On the other hand, it excludes unnatural generalisations that involve counting or elaborate conditionals. It is also shown that strictly piecewise grammars with interval-based domains are theoretically learnable, unlike those with arbitrary, first-order domains.


The assembling technology of fine-pitch Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs) is used for high-end applications such as technology of very high density circuits and package-on-package structures [1]. Vapor phase soldering is a perspective technology, but as it is still not very widespread in the industry and in research laboratories, there are a lot of things to examine to standardize the process and to get more experiences. SAC solder bumps made with different technologies were compared to each other and to bumps of commercial BGA components. Another aim was to determine the limits of our laboratory facilities in bumping and PWB technologies. Bumping experiments were carried out on model BGA components with stencil printing, reflowed with vapor phase and with applying solder with mini-wave selective soldering equipment. The optimization of the solder amount and the appropriate technology was in the focus of our research. To have acceptable, high, uniform and good quality bumps, we developed these processes with parameter optimization.


After exploring the structure of the dynamics derived by using the Appell equation, we propose a hierarchical tracking controller for a tri-wheeled mobile robot in this paper. With appropriately chosen privileged variables, the reduced equations are decoupled from the kinematic equations associated with the underlying nonholonomic constraints. This special character of the system makes it possible to separate the design into three levels: motion planning, kinematic, and dynamic. In the proposed scheme, a fuzzy inference engine in the kinematic level is used to update the desired trajectory computed in the motion-planning level. An adaptive sliding-mode controller is then adopted to track the new reference values of privileged variables in the dynamic level, which subsequently drives the nonprivileged variables. Simulation results show the effectiveness of such a tracking-control scheme, which concurrently takes kinematics and dynamics into consideration. All system variables can be tracked asymptotically to their desired values, which are assured by the skew-symmetric property of the Appell equation


The Eulerian-Eulerian approach is used to simulate the two phase flow of air and water in a dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank. Unsteady simulation is adopted to obtain the quasi-steady result. The two dimensional model cannot capture the three dimensional feature of flow pattern in the tank. The three dimensional model reproduces the stratification structure observed in the experiment and obtains the satisfactory volume fraction of air bubbles in the separation zone. To account for the turbulence effect, four two-equation turbulence models are evaluated. Although all turbulence models capture the stratification structure in the separation zone, the re-normalization group theory (RNG) k-ɛ model obtains the best agreement with the experimental data. The effect of bubble diameter on the performance of DAF tank is simulated. Small air bubbles can form a big range of high volume fraction of air bubbles, which helps to remove the suspended matters.


Over 5400 lightning-ignited wildfires were detected on federal land in Arizona and New Mexico from 1996 through 1998 during the fire season of May through September. The non-uniform and sporadic spatial nature of precipitation events in this region makes the use of rain gauge data a limited means of assessing when and where a cloud-to-ground lightning strike might have ignited a wildfire due to dry lightning. By analysing weather radar reflectivity data with lightning and wildfire data, characteristics of radar reflectivity can be used by fire weather forecasters to identify regions of increased ignition potential. Critical ranges of reflectivity, life span of a reflectivity cell, and storm movement are characteristics of radar reflectivity that are examined in this analysis. The results of this type of analysis can help focus attention of wildfire personnel to particular locations where there is known to be cloud-to-ground lightning in conjunction with radar reflectivity patterns that have been historically associated with wildfire ignition. Results from the analysis show that wildfire ignitions typically occur near the perimeter of a radar echo. The reflectivity values at the ignition location are less than the highest reflectivity located within the echo, and often magnitudes are sufficiently low to suggest that the precipitation is not reaching the ground in this dry region with high cloud bases. Interpretation of the duration, size and level of lightning activity of the radar echo associated with the ignition indicate that ignitions tend to occur in the early stages of a radar echo. However, there are often multiple storm cells having isolated areas of higher reflectivity within a radar echo at the time of ignition. Nearly two-thirds of radar echoes associated with wildfire ignitions moved more than 50 km throughout the echo's lifetime. These moving storm systems often propagated in a northerly or easterly direction, and ignitions occurred on the leading edge of the storm in over half of the cases that propagated in the same direction. Forecasters can use results from this study to determine where there is an increased potential of wildfire ignitions when similar radar patterns appear in conjunction with lightning activity in the future.


Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was used to identify the optimal timolol:functional monomer ratio for preparing soft contact lenses (SCLs) able to sustain drug release. ITC profiles revealed that each timolol molecule required six to eight acrylic acid (AAc) monomers to saturate the binding and that these ratios could be the most suitable for creating imprinted cavities. Various poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-AAc) hydrogels 0.2 and 0.9 mm thick were prepared with timolol:AAc molar ratios ranging from 1 : 6 to 1 : 32 and also in the absence of timolol. The hydrogels were reloaded with timolol by immersion in 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.10 mM drug solutions. Both imprinted and nonimprinted hydrogels showed a high affinity for the drug because of the presence of AAc. Nevertheless, the 1 : 6 and 1 : 8 imprinted hydrogels loaded less timolol but sustained the release better than the other hydrogels. These differences were explained in terms of the different arrangement of the functional monomers along the network. The imprinting effect was more noticeable in the case of the thinnest hydrogels, where the contribution of the diffusion path to the release rate was smaller. The results obtained prove the interest of ITC for the rational design of drug-imprinted networks to be used as medicated SCLs. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


SUMMARY: Detailed study of a representative paracolon strain showed that the delayed fermentation of 1% lactose coincided with the development of lactose-fermenting mutants, and that the essential difference between the normal non-lactose-fermenting (lac-) organisms and the lactose-fermenting (lac+) mutants was one of decreased permeability for lactose. Both types of organism showed the same degree of β-galactosidase activity when grown on lactose-free media; the permeability of the lac- organisms was increased by raising the concentration of lactose in the medium. On the assumption that permeability is governed by a specific permease which is genetically distinct from β-galactosidase, a hypothetical scheme based on these two factors together with the presence or absence of hydrogenlyase suggested the existence of six phenotypes among the paracolon bacilli. In an examination of 51 naturally occurring paracolon strains four of these phenotypes were demonstrated. Since the lactose-fermenting paracolon organisms differ from coliform bacilli merely in being less permeable to 1% lactose, whereas the non-lactose-fermenting organisms differ from both the other groups in lacking β-galactosidase activity, it is suggested that the term paracolon should not be applied to this last group but should be restricted to the late-lactose-fermenters. Alternatively, these could be classed within the coliform group.


Generator paralleling is a frequent and essential operation in the power system. If the frequency error is too great, the oncoming generator could slip a pole, causing damage to the machine. Therefore, the precision frequency measurement of the generator and the power system is one of important conditions to ensure that the automatic quasi-synchronizer can operate accurately. A new method of frequency measurement used in the generator automatic quasi-synchronizer is discussed in this paper. The basic principle of the frequency measurement is introduced. The frequency measurement is finished by combining PIC16F877 and FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) technique. The hardware and software designs were introduced. The device adopted PIC16F877 as main controller and FPGA as assistant controller which detects the frequency and the PIC16F877 manages the data and implements intelligent control. The excellence of the mix design is that two advantages are reinforced. The hardware circuit is simple and the reliability of the system is high, so that the generator realizes quasi-synchronizing quickly and veracity.


Fatigue occurs prematurely during exercise in hot conditions. The role of thermal perception in driving pacing has yet to be determined. We tested the hypothesis that improved thermal perception (feeling cooler and more comfortable) in the absence of changed thermal state, would alter pacing and improve time trial (TT) performance. Eleven trained cyclists (mean(sd):age 30 (8) y; height 1.78 (0.06) m; mass 76.0 (8.3) kg) completed three 40 km TTs in standardised conditions (32°C, 50%RH) with thermal perception altered prior to one TT using cold-receptor-activating menthol spray (0.05% MENTHOL and surfactants) in contrast to a control spray (CS; surfactants only) and no spray control (CON). Perceptual responses (thermal comfort, sensation and perceived exertion), thermal responses (skin and rectal temperature) and performance (power output, time to completion) were measured. Data were compared within participant between trials using repeated measures ANOVA with α level for statistical tests of 0.05. MENTHOL improved thermal perception prior to and during exercise up to 15 km compared to CS and CON. There was no difference in the pacing strategy adopted as a consequence of the altered thermal perception (5 km 'bins' or the first 1 km of each TT up to 10 km) despite a difference in skin temperature profile at the start of exercise (CS 33.3 (1.1)°C and MENTHOL 33.4 (0.4)°C cp CON 34.5 (0.5)°C). There was no performance benefit in the MENTHOL condition; TT completion time CON: 71.58 (6.21) min, CS: 70.94 (6.06) min, MENTHOL 71.04 (5.47) min. RPE was not different between trials at any stage. Thermal perception is not a primary driver of pacing at the start of exercise or during cycling in hot conditions. Prior to reaching a threshold for thermal perceptual disturbance pacing strategy may be subconsciously regulated in accordance with RPE. MENTHOL spray did not enhance initial TT performance in the conditions of the present study.


OBJECTIVE
To study the prevalence of microalbuminuria and its association with more severe diabetic retinopathy in a group of insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
During the period of January 1998 to December 2005 we examined 360 insulin-dependent diabetic patients with at least five years of evolution. We evaluated the presence of microalbuminuria by immunoanalysis. Patients were evaluated by direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy and classified as non-retinopathy, non-proliferative, severe non-proliferative/proliferative, or macular edema.

RESULTS
In this study, 24.1% of patients had microalbuminuria. Most of the patients with microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria were male and had a longer history of diabetes. Microalbuminuria was associated with more severe diabetic retinopathy.

CONCLUSIONS
All patients with insulin-dependent diabetes of at least five years' evolution should undergo an evaluation of renal function including tests for microalbuminuria. In the presence of microalbuminuria an ophthalmologic follow-up may be particularly important.


European publishing is developing in a highly competitive international environment. What innovating strategies should be adopted by those publishers who are concerned with maintaining the interest of their public and who wish to inject a new dynamism into their business operations? We shall evoke the principal theories of innovation to see how they can be applied to this particular subject. Firstly, the paper summarises the European political and economic contexts for electronic publishing. Secondly, it examines the factors that contribute to the publisher's expertise and then looks at different strategic paths that combine to map out the way forward for the evolution of the publishing profession, especially in the European context. In conclusion, this paper will set out some recommendations concerning new services that could be offered by publishers to their users in order to improve the quality of their experience.


The Leguminosae, the third-largest angiosperm family, has a global distribution and high ecological and economic importance. We examine how the legume systematic research community might join forces to produce a comprehensive phylogenetic estimate for the ca. 751 genera and ca. 19,500 species of legumes and then translate it into a phylogeny-based classification. We review the current state of knowledge of legume phylogeny and highlight where problems lie, for example in taxon sampling and phylogenetic resolution. We review approaches from bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing, which can facilitate the production of better phylogenetic estimates. Finally, we examine how morphology can be incorporated into legume phylogeny to address issues in comparative biology and classification. Our goal is to stimulate the research needed to improve our knowledge of legume phylogeny and evolution; the approaches that we discuss may also be relevant to other species-rich angiosperm clades


Background: Methotrexate is a folic acid antagonist which is widely used as a cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agent for leukemia and other malignancies. Methotrexate (MTX) leads to acute toxic side effects in tissues or organs containing rapidly dividing cells such as seminiferous tubules. In this study, we investigated the protective effects of vitamin C against MTX-induced injury in rat testis. Methods: A total of 31 rats were divided into 4 groups, including the control group. The study was completed within 4 weeks and the rats received daily doses of 2 mL/kg SF, 100 mg/kg vitamin C and 10 mg/kg/day MTX i.p according to their groups. The mean seminiferous tubular diameter, germinal epithelial cell thickness, and mean testicular biopsy score were determined by histologic examination of each group. Differences between estimated means for experimental groups were compared between groups using one-way analysis of vari¬ance (ANOVA). Results: The vitamin C+MTX group showed more similarity with the control group. Statistically significant results were achieved between groups as for mean seminiferous tubular diameter, germinal epithelial cell thickness, and mean testicular biopsy score. When compared with the group which received vitamin C after MTX therapy, values for mean seminiferous tubular diameter, germinal epithelial cell thickness, and mean testicular biopsy score were significantly higher in the group which received vitamin C before initiation of MTX therapy. Conclusion: Vitamin C decreased MTX-induced testicular histological injuries, especially when used before MTX therapy.


The application of bone marrow transplant (BMT) therapy to address a variety of pathologies has increased dramatically in the last decade. The list of diseases treated by this complex technology is quite lengthy. Side effects of BMT include a variety of documented untoward effects on oral health, many of which are age-dependent. With the increasing number of people, particularly children, receiving bone marrow transplants, it is entirely possible that these recipients may appear as "routine, healthy" patients in a general practice or other oral health care setting. They will present significant, unusual findings related to their history of BMT treatment. The purpose of this paper is to review this treatment modality, its current applications, and the short- and long-term effects that the oral health care practitioner must identify, understand and address.


The Insense VM is a specialised Java virtual machine for running Insense programs on wireless sensor nodes. The VM runs on top of InceOS, a purpose-built operating system. A split VM architecture is used, in which Insense programs are compiled to Java classes, then linked and compacted on a more powerful machine into a form suitable for execution by the VM. Measurements demonstrate that the virtual machine achieves good performance and memory usage for realistic Insense programs.


A newly formed National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) panel on bone marrow transplantation has the task of ensuring the incorporation of allogeneic and autologous transplantation into all disease guidelines where significant evidence exists to warrant their inclusion. The panel is further charged with ensuring that there is consistency among guidelines regarding the use of marrow transplantation. A preliminary review of existing NCCN guidelines found that marrow transplantation was appropriately included for the treatment of the common hematologic malignancies of adults, including acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, myelodysplasia, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease, and the malignant lymphomas. Frequent refinements regarding lymphomas will be necessary, particularly in rapidly evolving areas, such as multiple myeloma and myelodysplasia, and conditions with changing definitions, such as malignant disease. The increasing volume of data supporting the use of autologous bone marrow transplantation in advanced primary and responding metastatic breast cancers needs to be reflected in the breast cancer guideline if it is to remain credible. Well-designed and well-conducted clinical trials are the most appropriate setting for all bone marrow transplantations and patient referral to these trials remains the standard of care in all settings.


The investigation of the effects of atmospheric pollution on metabolism and growth of woody species has long been hampered by the very difficult task of exposing mature individuals to controlled environments of air pollutants. This paper describes the design, construction, and testing of an alternative tool to whole-tree enclosures for measuring pollution response in mature woody tissue. The chamber is a new design, though not a new concept, and is referred to as a branch exposure chamber. Designed primarily for ozone and acid precipitation exposures (and used additionally for CO₂ measurements), the branch exposure chamber incorporates four major parts: support structure, fan-air supply unit, charcoal filter unit, and exposure chamber. The exposure chamber is a 1.5-m long by 0.7-m diam. cylinder. The chamber is constructed of Teflon sheeting stretched over an aluminum frame; the aluminum frame is totally wrapped with nonreactive, aluminum-backed Teflon tape. Three zones in the chamber affect exposure of the experimental tissue: an initial buffer region for mixing, a main exposure region, and an exhaust frustrum. Aerodynamic testing of the chamber-mixing characteristics show that mixing is uniform and complete within the main exposure region. Thermal buildup within the chamber was a maximum of 3 °C under a wide range of ambient meteorological conditions. Based on current field trials of the chamber, material deterioration due to environmental variables (e.g., ultraviolet radiation, heat oxidants), is not expected to affect operation of the chamber for 24 mo. The BEC is inexpensive to build and operate, and represents a viable alternative to a whole-tree chamber.


Agency relationships, and associated information symmetries, exist in many areas of economic activity including healthcare. Information on healthcare providers'
relative performance can be used to reduce information asymmetries and hold providers to account. This collection of essays focuses on the appropriate derivation and use of performance measures to incentivise healthcare providers in the English National Health Service (NHS). It gives special consideration to the role of patient self-reported health status measures to assess the differential effect of healthcare providers' care on their patients' health.

The thesis explores three themes: the relationship between variation in resource use and quality, the appropriate assessment and reporting of multidimensional hospital performance, and the use of performance information to motivate hospitals in a public reporting context.

Chapter 2 examines cost variation between hospitals for the four surgical procedures covered by the national patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) programme. It explores the empirical relationship between costs and patient health
outcomes to assess the claim of hospital providers that their higher costs are justified by better quality of care.

Chapter 3 sets out an empirical methodology to conduct provider performance comparisons when there are multiple dimensions of health-related quality of life affected by treatment. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of analysing disaggregate PROM data for the purpose of informing prospective patients, clinicians and managers.

Chapter 4 extends the previous chapter by providing a methodology for assessing and summarising multidimensional provider performance using dominance criteria. This methodology is then applied to study the performance of providers of hip replacement surgery with respect to length of stay, emergency readmissions, waiting time and improvements in PROMs.

Chapter 5 estimates the demand elasticity of providers with respect to quality. It makes use of choice models to assess the usefulness of disseminating hospital PROM scores to prospective patients as a market-based incentive for providers to compete on quality.


In this study we evaluate the potential of local binary descriptors for automatic sorting in an industrial context. This problem is different from that of retrieval for human handling as we need to identify the one correct class, rather than finding all the similar classes. We have looked at classes of objects that need to be identified by their cover or label, rather than their shape. Challenges for this application are that the process needs to be very fast and the approach must be able to distinguish between a large number of classes, where the classes can be quite similar and have identical elements. We have studied various combinations of detectors and binary descriptors in combination with approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) searches in such contexts. Our conclusion is that these approaches are well suited for this type of automatic sorting, and our experiments show that for the best performing combinations we are able to obtain a 99% recognition rate on a database of 80,000 images using an average of less than 0.5 seconds per image.


Leukocyte adhesion is important for the proper functioning of the immune system. While leukocyte homing is mediated by adhesion receptors, the activation of these receptors is modulated by intracellular signaling molecules. In Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency Type 3, the loss of the kindlin-3 prevents the activation of Leukocyte Function-associated Antigen-1 (LFA-1), which leads to a defect in adhesion, causing recurrent infections and bleeding disorders. Here, we use Integrated Signaling Adhesive Dynamics, a computer model of leukocyte rolling and adhesion combined with a simulated intracellular signaling cascade, to predict the response of T cells to depletion of kindlin-3. Our model predicts that cell adhesion is hypersensitive to the amount of kindlin-3 in the cell, while the rolling velocity is independent of kindlin-3 concentration. In addition, our simulation predicted that the time to stop, an important metric of adhesion, would increase with decreasing kindlin-3 expression. These predictions were confirmed experimentally in experiments using Jurkat cells with reduced expression of kindlin-3. These results suggest that Adhesive Dynamics is a versatile tool for quantifying adhesion in the immune response and predicting the effects of engineering cellular components.


Changes in head posture have been observed as a compensatory mechanism for the nasal airflow impairment. This study aimed to compare the craniocervical posture between children with normal and decreased nasal patency and correlate nasal patency with craniocervical posture. Children aging from six to twelve years went through nasal patency and craniocervical assessments. The biophotogrammetric measures of craniocervical posture used were Cervical Distance (CD), Head Horizontal Alignment (HHA) and Flexion-Extension Head Position (FE), evaluated by SAPO software (v.0.68). Nasal patency was measured using Peak Nasal Inspiratory Flow meter (PNIF) and Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale. One hundred thirty-three children were distributed into two groups: G1 (normal nasal patency - PNIF higher than 80% of predicted value) with 90 children; G2 (decreased nasal patency - PNIF lower than 80% of predicted value) with 43 children. Differences between groups were not found in CD and HHA measures. FE was significantly higher in G2 than G1 (p=0.023). Negative weak correlation between FE and %PNIF (r=-0.266; p=0.002) and positive weak correlation between CD and PNIF (r=0.209; p=0.016) were found. NOSE scores negatively correlated with PNIF (r=-0.179; p=0.039). Children with decreased nasal patency presented greater head extension. This postural deviation is prone to increase as nasal airflow decreases, thus indicating the relationship between craniocervical posture and nasal patency. Lower values of PNIF reflected on additional problems caused by nasal obstruction symptoms.


Model Predictive Control (MPC) has emerged as an alternative to traditional control method to reduce building energy consumption. With the presence of model uncertainty, such as mismatch between the plant and control-oriented model, the use of MPC may result in thermal comfort violation or energy waste. The influence of model uncertainty becomes even more significant as the size and complexity of the investigated building increase. Robust MPC (RMPC), which requires knowledge on the system uncertainty, has been investigated for enhancing the stability of MPC. However, the implementation possibility of the RMPC is prevented by increased computational burden and conservativeness of controller performance. This paper deals with the latter issue by presenting a novel adaptive RMPC scheme for temperature regulation in commercial buildings. The novelty comes from the development of a comparison model built based on a nonlinear autoregressive model for worst-case analysis. This comparison model enables us to transform a linear, robust MPC problem into an adaptive one with a time-varying uncertainty bound. The proposed method is tested on a simulation model developed from building data collected from a spacious hall at an airport terminal. By conducting simulation using different MPCs, it is found that the proposed RMPC method is able to behave robustly against uncertainty with the least performance loss. This means the maximum energy saving and the least thermal comfort violation.


Remote sensing of terrain characteristics is an important component for autonomous operation of mobile robots in natural terrain. Often this involves classification of terrain into one of a set of a priori known terrain classes. Situations can frequently arise, however, where an autonomous robot encounters a terrain class that does not belong to one of these known classes. This paper proposes an approach for visual detection of novel terrain based on a two-class support vector machine (SVM) for situations when known terrain classes can be confidently associated with only a subset of the training data. Experimental results from a four-wheeled mobile robot in Mars analog terrain demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.


Tianjin Tower is the tallest building in North China. It is an out-of-code super high-rise building. Considering the special structure and safety factors during the construction, this paper describes the monitoring of the construction. The problems on numerical simulation model, creep calculation model and steel plate sheer wall welding during the construction monitoring have been discussed and corresponding solutions are given. Through the comparison and studies on the results of field monitoring, the solutions in this paper have provided practical advice on performance evaluation of the structure of Tianjin Tower and construction methods of Tianjin Tower, and are of certain significance in the reference for the construction monitoring of super high-rise buildings alike.


We propose a new approach for predicting iron losses in soft magnetic materials with any voltage supply, starting from the knowledge of the iron losses with a sinusoidal or pulsewidth modulation supply. The model is based on the separation of the loss contributions due to hysteresis, eddy currents, and excess losses with the two supplies. Since any contribution depends on the voltage supply characteristics, it is possible to find a direct mathematical relationship between the iron loss contribution and the voltage supply characteristics. As a consequence, an iron loss prediction can be obtained with any voltage supply if it does not produce a hysteresis minor loop. The energetic model is based on coefficients that depend on the magnetic material characteristic. We performed an accurate analysis of the model on eight magnetic materials used for electrical machine construction, of different thicknesses and alloy compositions. In this way, we found the main coefficients for a large spread of magnetic materials. As a consequence, our approach can be a useful support for electrical machine designers when the energetic performance of a magnetic material has to be predicted for a voltage supply different from the sinusoidal one.


We present a general framework of the related-key linear attack that can be applied to a class of block ciphers including the keyalternating iterative ones with linear or affine key schedules. In contrast with the existing linear attacks that use linear characteristics with linear correlations up to around ±2−n/2, where n is the block length of the block cipher, the proposed attack can use linear characteristics with linear correlations up to around ±2−k/2, where k is the key length, by exploiting related-key linear approximations introduced in this work. The attack utilizes the key differences as the additional data source so it can use data of size larger than the codebook size. Thus it can cover more rounds than the current linear attacks when the key length is much larger than the block length. The attack is meaningful when the product of the computational complexity and the data size is less than 2k+n considering the generic known related-key attack mentioned by J. Kelsey et al. at Crypto '96 that is an extension of the chosen related-key attack by R. Winternitz et al. Our new attack has significance even when it requires more computation and data than the single-key linear attacks since it can utilize related-key data such that the number of data entries for each related key is not large. We also present a method of the related-key linear attack using multiple independent linear trails that provides a way to estimate the computational complexity, the data complexity, and the success probability of the attack in terms of the capacity of the system of the linear approximations. It is based on hypothesis testing with new decision rule and can be regarded as an alternative approach of the attack provided by A. Biryukov et al. at Crypto 2004 that is based on maximum likelihood approach and cannot estimate the success probability. By applying the framework to Simon, we get various attack results. Then we justify our claims by presenting experimental results that are close to expected ones with a small-scale variant of Simon.


This study analyzes the speed of propagation time performance capabilities of the integrated circuit type of standard Dual 3-Wide 3-Input TTL IC AOI on the characteristic levels of forward common emitter current gain (βf). Simulation is carried out using SPICE software with capacitor load (CL) of 15 pf and levels of forward common emitter current gain (βf) are 5, 10, and 15. The simulation results show that tPLH (transition low to high), tPHL (transitions high to low), and mean time propagation produced differ for each βf. A propagation time of 1.59ns is obtained for βf of 5, slower than βf performance of 10, which is 1.53ns. Furthermore, βf performance with a value of 15 is 1.50ns, faster than others'. But this βf has greater power dissipation, which is 29 mW. Power dissipation produced by βf of 10 is 27 mW, and βf of 5 produced 26 mW. Therefore, IC designing must consider the characteristic level of the forward common emitter current gain (βf) value. Higher βf values produce larger power dissipation.


Temperature management is a key challenge for many-core platforms in the dark silicon era as all the cores cannot be powered-on together at the maximum frequency and either some cores should run at lower frequency or only a portion can be used without burning the device. In addition, due to process variations and/or design optimization, not all the integrated processing elements (PEs) are identical and each of them may feature a different power/temperature/frequency trade-off. Many works have been proposed to tackle the thermal-aware task mapping problem in multicore devices, but none has yet demonstrated the capability to find optimal solutions within seconds for a large number of cores, with heterogeneous power/frequency operating points, while ensuring a safe transient thermal map. In this paper we propose a new Integer Linear Programming formulation, based on a coarse-grain dynamic thermal model, for this class of problems. Our solver finds optimal solutions in few seconds for a 64 core system. Furthermore, we show that by limiting the number of iterations in the solver, we achieve low optimality gaps, with times compatible to an on-line (execution time) use of the optimal allocator.


Background: Extracellular matrices regulate megakaryocyte function in the bone marrow environment. Results: Collagen receptor discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) regulates human megakaryocyte migration by the modulation of phosphatase SHP1 activity. Conclusion: DDR1 is a new regulator of megakaryocyte function. Significance: This is the first evidence that the new receptor DDR1 is involved in the complex modulation of megakaryocyte-collagen interactions. Growing evidence demonstrates that extracellular matrices regulate many aspects of megakaryocyte (MK) development; however, among the different extracellular matrix receptors, integrin α2β1 and glycoprotein VI are the only collagen receptors studied in platelets and MKs. In this study, we demonstrate the expression of the novel collagen receptor discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) by human MKs at both mRNA and protein levels and provide evidence of DDR1 involvement in the regulation of MK motility on type I collagen through a mechanism based on the activity of SHP1 phosphatase and spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk). Specifically, we demonstrated that inhibition of DDR1 binding to type I collagen, preserving the engagement of the other collagen receptors, glycoprotein VI, α2β1, and LAIR-1, determines a decrease in MK migration due to the reduction in SHP1 phosphatase activity and consequent increase in the phosphorylation level of its main substrate Syk. Consistently, inhibition of Syk activity restored MK migration on type I collagen. In conclusion, we report the expression and function of a novel collagen receptor on human MKs, and we point out that an increasing level of complexity is necessary to better understand MK-collagen interactions in the bone marrow environment.


INTRODUCTION
Limited knowledge of dementia among health professionals is a well-documented barrier to optimal care. This study examined the self-perceived challenges with dementia care and learning needs among primary care clinicians and assessed whether these were associated with years of practice and perceived preparedness for dementia care.

METHODS
Participants were multi-disciplinary clinicians attending a 5-day team-based dementia education program and physicians attending a similar condensed continuing medical education workshop. Pre-education, they completed an online survey in which they rated (5-point scales): interest in learning about various dementia-related topics, perceived challenges with various dementia-related practice activities and preparedness for dementia care, provided additional dementia-related topics of interest, number of years in clinical practice, and discipline.

RESULTS
Thirteen hundred surveys were completed across both education programs. Mean ratings of preparedness for dementia care across all respondents reflected that they felt somewhat prepared for dementia care. Challenge ratings varied from low to very challenging and mean ratings reflected a high level of interest in learning more about all of the dementia-related topics; significant differences between disciplines in these ratings were identified. In most cases, perceived challenges and learning needs were not correlated with number of years in clinical practice, but in some cases lower ratings of preparedness for dementia care were associated with higher ratings of the challenges of dementia care.

DISCUSSION
Clinicians perceived that their formal education had not prepared them well for managing dementia and desired more knowledge in all topic areas, regardless of years in practice. Implications for education are discussed.


We show how to automatically construct a system that satisfies a given logical specification and has an optimal average behavior with respect to a specification with ratio costs.
When synthesizing a system from a logical specification, it is often the case that several different systems satisfy the specification. In this case, it is usually not easy for the user to state formally which system she prefers. Prior work proposed to rank the correct systems by adding a quantitative aspect to the specification. A desired preference relation can be expressed with (i) a quantitative language, which is a function assigning a value to every possible behavior of a system, and (ii) an environment model defining the desired optimization criteria of the system, e.g., worst-case or average-case optimal.
In this paper, we show how to synthesize a system that is optimal for (i) a quantitative language given by an automaton with a ratio cost function, and (ii) an environment model given by a labeled Markov decision process. The objective of the system is to minimize the expected (ratio) costs. The solution is based on a reduction to Markov Decision Processes with ratio cost functions which do not require that the costs in the denominator are strictly positive. We find an optimal strategy for these using a fractional linear program.


A chemical reaction at the interface between slag and metal can be analyzed as a kind of electrode reaction because of the ionic nature of liquid slag.In the present work, application of an A.C. impedance method to slag-metal reaction in iron- and steel-making process was tried to clarify the individual kinetic factors concerning the electrode reactions at the interface between slag and metal. The total impedance between CaO-Al2O3 slag and Cu-S or Fe-C-S melts was measured in this paper.The results obtained were successfully used to determine the individual factors on kinetics of the electrode reaction between slag and metal, such as solution resistance of slag, interfacial capacitance in electric double-layer, overvoltage of charge transfer, rate constant and so on.


INTRODUCTION
Dental caries is one of the most common conditions affecting the general health of children. The present study was carried out among school children of Kathmandu valley to determine the prevalence of dental caries in two age groups.

METHODS
The study was conducted from December 2007 to May 2008. The age of the school children of the study was divided into two group: 5 - 6 years and 12 - 13 years. A stratified cluster sampling with proportional allocation was used while grouping the subjects. The dental status examination was done with the help of trained dentists. Decayed, missed and filled teeth index and decayed, missed and filled surfaces index (dmft for primary dentition and DMFT for permanent dentition) were used as the standard tools for the determination of prevalence.

RESULTS
A total of 638 students (325 of age group 12 - 13 years and 313 of age group 5 - 6 years) from 30 different schools of the Kathmandu valley were included in the study. The caries status was found higher in the age group of 5 - 6 years than in the 12 - 13 years and it was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.001). The dmfs and caries percentage of the age group 5 - 6 years and the DMFS and caries percent of the 12 - 13 years was found to be 3.79, 69 % and 1.6, 53.23 % respectively. The dmft/dmfs value was found to be significant according to the districts in the 5 - 6 years age group whereas the DMFS was found statistically significant among the sexes of the 12 - 13 years age group.

CONCLUSION
The caries percentage was found to be above the recommended level of the World Health Organization. However, the DMFS and DMFT values were within the WHO level.


Some applications require to solve a Bayesian network in a distributed fashion. It can lead to a large amount of messages exchanged between hosts if the variables of the Bayesian network are not allocated to good hosts. The technique we implement uses an algorithm that allocates variables to hosts so that the tension of the Bayesian network is minimized. We present and discuss our results.


: After 3, 15 and 30 sessions of electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus by means of stereotaxically implanted bipolar electrodes into the area hypothalamica posterior, in the cortex of the cerebellar hemispheres, predominantly in the ganglionic layer, certain reactive, as well as poorly and intensively manifested pathological changes develop in neural and glial cells. Mosaicism of Purkinje's cells lesions within the layer, the state of their cytoplasmic matrix, granular endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, essential shifts in activity of oxidation-reduction enzymes at a simultaneous disorder in blood circulation and decreased content of catecholamines in the neural structures of the cerebellar vessels make it possible to estimate the process as centrogenic and neurodistrophic.


Travel surveys often serve as the primary sources of information on travel demand characteristics. They provide critical data for transportation planning and decision making. In recent times, several factors motivate a comparative examination of travel survey methods. First, new travel demand modeling tools, such as those based on activity-based methods, are placing greater demands on travel behavior data gathered from household travel surveys. Second, response rates from household travel surveys have been showing a steady decline, possibly because of an increasingly survey-fatigued population. Third, declining resource availability at metropolitan planning agencies places emphasis on the need to maximize response rates to lower data collection costs per completed respondent. Ideally, a comparative examination of travel survey methods is best done through a carefully constructed experimental design that permits the isolation of the impact of various survey design parameters on response rates. However, the conduct of such a controlled experiment virtually is impractical. A metaanalysis of a sample of travel surveys conducted in the past 10 years is presented. A predictive model of response rates is developed by using linear regression techniques and the practical application of the model is demonstrated through several numerical examples.


One of the greatest challenges before the Indian subcontinent which accommodates more than one-third of the population is poverty. India, one of the BRIC nations with more than 1.2 billion population is seen by many developed countries as an emerging economy. India's economic growth has failed to make a significant improvement in its poverty figures with 400 million-more than the total in the poorest African Nationsstill stuck in poverty. Government of India with its concern started various poverty alleviation programs but they have failed to deliver the objectives to the level which is desired. The reasons may be many such as failure to reach the target group, loopholes in the system, developing a robust mechanism to name a few. Many countries including India experimented with subsidized credit which only led to increase in the NPAs. The microfinance has come forward to fill up the gap. But the outreach is too small as compared to the requirement and potential. However there is some progress in this regard after active role played by NABARD and formation of SHGs groups. A number of NGOs and MFIs have also delved into the business. Some of them have also started in a big way and have started making profit by issuing IPOs (Initial public offers). But certain development in recent years has brought a fresh focus on the problem of regulation in field of microfinance. The paper delineates three distinct aspects of microfinance, first growth of microfinance in India and some other countries; secondly it discusses the role played by NABARD and other National Banks in growth of SHGs and Grameen Bank. Third, it deals with the role of government in framing legislation for protection of right of micro borrowers. The study also deals with the need for a regulatory body to regulate, develop and guide the numerous MFIs and NGOs who work in the field of microcredit. The paper discusses the factors and theoretical position associated with evolution of microfinance and its role in global scenario.


The purpose of the present work was to investigate the effect of including date flesh and date powder in the steamed yoghurt processing on some quality during four weeks of storage. In order to obtain the powders, date variety of H'loua was washed, cut into small particles, and then dried at 90 °C during 2 h. Seven steamed yoghurts were manufactured: control prepared by 80 g/L sucrose, yoghurts manufactured by replacement of some quantity of sucrose by 10, 20 and 25 g/L of the date powder and yoghurts prepared by replacement of some quantity of sucrose by 60, 70 and equal quantity 80 g/L of date flesh. All samples were analyzed for some physicochemical, biochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics at 1, 7, 15, 21 and 29 days of storage. The total or partial replacement of the sucrose by date flesh and date powder improves the nutritional quality of the yoghurts such as proteins, fat, ash, and dry mater, but the level of the total sugars was decreased. Results of microbiological analyze showed complete absence of the total and fecal coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, faecal streptococci and Salmonella in all yoghurts prepared and throughout the storage period. Replacement of the sucrose by all types of date improves the sensory characteristics of the yoghurts included taste and texture. Keyword: Date flesh, date powder, H'loua, Quality, Sucrose, Yoghurt.


Motivated by the need to gain fundamental insights into the mechanisms of bed-load sediment transport in turbulent junction flows, we carry out a computational study of Lagrangian dynamics of inertial particles initially placed on the bed upstream of a surface-mounted circular cylinder in a rectangular open channel (Dargahi, J. Hydraul. Engng, vol. 116, 1990, pp. 1197–1214). The flow field at Re = 39000 is simulated using the detached eddy simulation (DES) approach (Spalart et al., In Advances in DNS/LES, ed. C. Liu & Z. Liu, 1997, Greyden), which has already been shown to accurately resolve most of the turbulent stresses produced by the low-frequency, bimodal fluctuations of the turbulent horseshoe vortex (Paik et al., J. Hydraul. Engng, vol. 131, 1990, pp. 441–456; Escauriaza & Sotiropoulos, Flow Turbul. Combust., 2010, in press). The trajectory and momentum equations for the sediment particles are integrated numerically simultaneously with the flow governing equations assuming one-way coupling and neglecting particle-to-particle interactions (dilute flow) but taking into account bed–particle interactions and the effects of the instantaneous hydrodynamic forces induced by the resolved fluctuations of the coherent vortical structures. The computed results show that, in accordance with the simulated clear-water scour condition (i.e. the magnitude of the particle stresses is near the threshold of motion), the transport of sediment grains is highly intermittent and exhibits essentially all the characteristics of bed-load sediment transport observed in laboratory and field experiments. Groups of sediment grains are dislodged from the bed simultaneously in seemingly random bursting events and begin to move, saltating or sliding along the bed. Furthermore, particles that are not entrained into the bed-load layer are found to form streaks aligned with near-wall vortices around the cylinder. The global transport of particles is studied by performing a statistical analysis of the bed-load flux to reveal scale-invariance of the process and multifractality of particle transport as the overall effect of the coherent structures of the flow. A major finding of this work is that a relatively simple Lagrangian model coupled with a coherent-structure resolving simulation of the turbulent flow is able to reproduce the sediment dynamics observed in multiple experiments performed under similar conditions, and provide fundamental information on the initiation of motion and the multifractal nature of bed-load transport processes. The results also motivate the development of new Eulerian bed-load transport models that consider unsteady conditions and incorporate the intermittency of the unresolved scales of sediment motion.


The use of concrete in high-rise buildings has increased significantly in the last 20 years mainly owing to improvement in all of the technologies associated with this material: admixtures, pumping, transportation and elevation methods, etc. These enhanced possibilities are illustrated by means of four high-rise buildings that were built recently in Madrid, each about 250 m high. The main structural elements of these buildings are presented focusing on the advantages offered by concrete compared to other materials that are commonly used in high-rise construction. The types of concrete considered are high-resistance concrete up to C80, self-compacting concrete, precast and in situ concrete, reinforced or prestressed concrete, as well as normal weight or lightweight concrete. These examples clearly show that, even in structures where the role of self weight is determinant, concrete can be the best solution if all of the different factors involved in the success of a construction site are considered: geometr...


Based on the 55th series of the Hamlyn Lectures presented by the Honourable Justice Michael Kirby in November 2003, the issue of "Judicial Activism" is a live one in most countries of the common law. The accusation that judges have exceeded their proper function is often made by politicians, media commentators and even some lawyers. The accusers allege that judges should stick to applying the law - they should not make it. The slightest familiarity with current and recent debates over judicial decisions in Australia, Canada, India and the United States shows that "judicial activism" is a topic that lawyers need to address seriously. In these lectures, Justice Kirby explores many cases including Bush v Gore and Lawrence v Texas from the United States. In examining the judicial method in a topical context, Justice Kirby suggests that the debate over judicial activism has so far largely passed the judiciary of the United Kingdom by. However, he points out that recent developments make it unlikely that this state of affairs will persist. The developments he mentions include: A The proposed creation of a Supreme Court for the United Kingdom A The resulting identification of the Supreme Court judges as public figures A The increased roles of the judge in reviewing legislation under the Humans Rights Act A The developments in judicial review of administrative action A The new procedures for selecting and training judges and changes in the arrangements affecting the senior members of the Bar from whom the judges are chosen Justice Kirby suggests that the judges of the United Kingdom will not be immune from the debate over judicial activism that affects judges in most parts of the world. This makes an examination of what is happening to the judicial method in other countries with similar legal systems and judicial traditions particularly timely.


Women with breast carcinoma commonly experience psychologic distress following their diagnosis. Women who participate in breast cancer support groups have reported significant reduction in their psychologic distress and pain and improvement in the quality of their lives. Web‐based breast cancer social support groups are widely used, but little is known of their effectiveness. Preliminary evidence suggests that women benefit from their participation in web‐based support groups.


Coiera and Braithwaite1 suggest a daring new "market-based" strategy to improve patient safety (see page 99) . Their cap and trade idea is predicated on the assumption that some level of preventable adverse events in health care is appropriate but that the level of adverse events should be set by balancing the harms produced by the adverse events and the cost of avoiding them. Recognising that the costs of avoiding adverse events may vary across settings, they suggest that a cap and trade system could be used to make healthcare providers (or the systems they work for) pay for the harm resulting from those adverse events through a system in which they must pay for the right to produce (or have produced) those adverse events at a price that would be set by a market based on an agreed upon amount of adverse events for the system as a whole. The attractive aspect of the logic of the system they propose, like the cap and trade system for pollutants, is that those entities best suited to reduce errors at low cost would have incentives to do so, while those entities that find it most costly to reduce errors would not spend an excessive amount of resources attempting to eliminate them. From this perspective, the proposed system would seem to be attractive because it would be expected to produce the agreed upon level of error at the lowest cost.

Unfortunately, regardless of any attraction of the proposal from that perspective, a variety of fundamental challenges arise. First, setting the right level of errors would be exceptionally difficult. Presumably, the …


We first present our molecular orbital cluster calculation results that indicate the presence of strong interaction between doped holes and the underlying lattice in the cuprate. It is also indicated that the naive Zhang-Rice singlet picture for the local electronic state needs to be revised: the doped hole is mainly concentrated in a single bridging oxygen, and the bridging oxygen p orbital and two nearby copper dx2-y2 orbitals form a valence bond type bonding; this state is stabilized by local lattice distortions and the doped hole becomes a small polaron. Next, we consider the current generation mechanism compatible with the above small polaron formation; actually, we present a new current generation mechanism that is effective even if all the doped holes become self-trapped small polarons. The current generation here reverses a long-standing belief that at half-filing the effective Hamiltonian for the U >> t Hubbard model is the Heisenberg model, thus, possible low energy excitations are those include spin degrees of freedom only. The new current generation mechanism yields the Fermi arc seen in the ARPES simulation; it also suggests that the phase of the superconductivity order parameter in underdoped cuprates arises without Cooper pair formation; i.e., the London current formula with effective charge 2e is realized without the Cooper pair formation. The electric current here is generated by a fictitious magnetic field induced by spin vortices: because the presence of spin vortices causes a sign ambiguity of wave functions for electron hoping motion, a phase factor that ensures the single-valuedness of the wave function appears; and this phase factor gives rise to a vector potential for the fictitious magnetic field. The strong hole-lattice interaction stabilizes spin vortices by pinning each center at a polaron occupied site; thus, it will also stabilize the spin vortex induced current. Based on the new current generation mechanism, possibility of an artificial superconducting nano wire is presented. It is made in the Cu-O plane, and consists of pining centers of nonmagnetic atoms arranged in two parallel lines; here the nonmagnetic atoms play the role of lattice small polarons; and the region between the two arrays of vortex centers is a superconducting wire where a thermodynamically stable current flows.


Among the four five-year periods from 1951 through 1970, the overall incidence of common duct calculi was relatively stable at 13% in 3,012 patients undergoing cholecystectomy with or without common duct exploration. The use of operative cholangiography rose progressively from 2.9% in the 1951-1955 period to 93% in the 1966-1970 group. This change was associated with a decrease in number of patients undergoing choledochotomy from 41% to 25% and by a striking increase in the number of positive explorations from 28% to 62% (1966 to 1970). No morbidity or mortality could be attributed directly to cholangiography. The recovery rate for calculi in patients who had choledochotomy for traditional criteria, to the exclusion of cholangiography, remained unchanged during these 20 years.


The transition to hydrogen as a fuel source presents several challenges. One of the major hurdles is the cost-effective production of hydrogen in small quantities (less than 1MMscf/month). In the early demonstration phase, hydrogen can be provided by bulk distribution of liquid or compressed gas from central production plants; however, the next phase to fostering the hydrogen economy will likely include onsite generation and extensive pipeline networks to help effect a pervasive infrastructure. Providing inexpensive hydrogen at a fleet operator's garage or local fueling station is a key enabling technology for direct hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs). The objective of this project was to develop a comprehensive, turnkey, stand-alone, commercial hydrogen fueling station for FCVs with state-of-the-art technology that is cost-competitive with current hydrocarbon fuels. Such a station would promote the advent of the hydrogen fuel economy for buses, fleet vehicles, and ultimately personal vehicles. Air Products, partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), The Pennsylvania State University, Harvest Energy Technology, and QuestAir, developed a turnkey hydrogen fueling station on the Penn State campus. Air Products aimed at designing a station that would have 65% overall station efficiency, 82% PSA (pressure swing adsorption) efficiency, and the capability of producingmore » hydrogen at $3.00/kg (gge) H2 at mass production rates. Air Products designed a fueling station at Penn State from the ground up. This project was implemented in three phases. The first phase evaluated the various technologies available in hydrogen generation, compression, storage, and gas dispensing. In the second phase, Air Products designed the components chosen from the technologies examined. Finally, phase three entailed a several-month period of data collection, full-scale operation, maintenance of the station, and optimization of system reliability and performance. Based on field data analysis, it was determined by a proprietary hydrogen-analysis model that hydrogen produced from the station at a rate of 1500 kg/day and when produced at 1000 stations per year would be able to deliver hydrogen at a price of $3.03/kg (gge) H2. The station's efficiency was measured to be 65.1%, and the PSA was tested and ran at an efficiency of 82.1%, thus meeting the project targets. From the study, it was determined that more research was needed in the area of hydrogen fueling. The overall cost of the hydrogen energy station, when combined with the required plot size for scaled-up hydrogen demands, demonstrated that a station using steam methane reforming technology as a means to produce on–site hydrogen would have limited utility in the marketplace. Alternative hydrogen supplies, such as liquid or pipeline delivery to a refueling station, need to be included in the exploration of alternative energy site layouts. These avenues need to be explored before a definitive refueling station configuration and commercialization pathway can be determined.« less


Bias estimation or sensor registration is an essential step in ensuring the accuracy of global tracks in multisensor-multitarget tracking. Most algorithms previously proposed for bias estimation rely on local measurements in centralized systems or tracks in distributed systems, along with additional information like covariances, filter gains or targets of opportunity. In addition, it is generally assumed that such data are made available to the fusion center at every sampling time. In real distributed multisensor tracking systems, where each platform sends locals tracks to the fusion center, only state estimates and, perhaps, their covariances are sent to the fusion center at non-consecutive sampling instants or scans. That is, not all the information required for exact bias estimation, at the fusion center is available in practical distributed tracking systems. In this paper, a new algorithm that is capable of accurate bias estimation even in the absence of filter gain information from local platforms, is proposed for distributed tracking systems with irregular track transmission rates. It is shown that the performance of the new algorithm, which uses the tracklet idea and does not require track transmission at every sampling time or exchange of filter gains, can approach the performance of the exact bias estimation algorithm that requires local filter gains.


This paper describes an Embedded System (ES) for an inverter. In recent years, there is a worldwide interest in Distributed Generation (DG). This is due to the need to integrate renewable energy sources into the Distribution System. This paper proposes the development of a platform to the safe and intelligent management of the DG in the grid. The proposed system requires a platform to integrate, among others, innovative technologies of processing multifunctional, synchronization and communication, in a way that to perform the requirements of DG grid connection. The work here deals with the detection of power quality events, in particular sags, swells, transients and faults. Different statistical estimators have been used (skewness and kurtosis) to enhance characterization of these anomalies. Additionally, a real-time CUSUM algorithm for early detection of these events, have been implemented.


Companies are using patents to hide problems. Patents are supposed to encourage innovation and the dissemination of information, but sometimes they do just the opposite. Using the threat of litigation or restrictive licensing practices, patent holders have hindered rigorous evaluation of their patented technology. This Article examines patent cover-up in the areas of identification chips, genetic testing, and agricultural biotechnology. I discuss how much control patent holders should be able to exercise over information related to their technology. Information resulting from independent quality assessment should be beyond the patent holder's reach, considering its importance for privacy, health, and security. Unless courts interpret existing patent doctrines broadly enough to permit quality assessment, I propose that Congress or the courts should adopt a defense to infringement to allow for it. The proposed exception would allow for the use of a patented invention for quality assessment. This includes activities necessary to identify and analyze limitations and weaknesses of the patented invention. Because the quality assessment exception does not protect alternatives that could supplant demand for the patented technology, it is less likely to undercut incentives to innovate. An exception permitting quality assessment strikes a reasonable balance between the normal exploitation of the patent and the legitimate interests of the public.


We analyze a model of constituency service provision to understand how the level of constituency service responds to variation in both institutions and the competitiveness of elections. We show that single-member districts, separately elected executives, and more ideologically balanced electorates all increase incentives for constituency service. We use these results to explain why constituency service and party strength are negatively related in comparative evidence but positively related in historical evidence. We also discuss incentives for divided delegations and for personalized constituencies in multi-member districts.


The leadership literature is replete with admonitions that successful leadership requires confidence. While that may be true, striving for greater confidence runs the risk of overconfidence. Overconfident leaders put themselves, their teams, and their organizations at risk. There are reasons to be skeptical that greater confidence improves performance, and substantial reasons to worry that greater confidence can undermine preparation. This article offers suggestions to avoid being fooled by overconfident charlatans. It also offers strategies for wise and honest leaders who would like to be both confident and truthful.


Abstract: Electrical stimulation of the phrenic nerve in an isolated nerve‐diaphragm preparation resulted in the release of phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase into the organ bath. The released enzyme was Ca2+‐dependent and exhibited two pH optima. The enzyme was released in response to nerve stimulation even in the presence of d‐tubocurarine in concentrations that block neuromuscular transmission, and was not therefore released from the muscle as a consequence of its contractile activity. Phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase activity was determined in the soluble cytosol fractions prepared from different regions of skeletal muscles and from normal peripheral nerves and nerves that were degenerating after transection. The specific activity of the enzyme in the cytosol from the endplate‐rich region of the diaphragm was significantly greater than that in cytosol from either the endplate‐free region of the diaphragm or from the phrenic nerve. In degenerating nerve the activity of the enzyme was greater in the distal stump than in the proximal stump at 36 h after nerve section. Possible roles for released phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase at the neuromuscular junction are discussed.


An infection with Plasmodium falciparum may lead to severe malaria as a result of excessive binding of infected erythrocytes in the microvasculature. Vascular adhesion is mediated by P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein-1 (PfEMP1), which is encoded for by highly polymorphic members of the var-gene family. Here, we profile var gene transcription in fresh P. falciparum trophozoites from Ugandan children with malaria through var-specific DBL1α-PCR amplification and sequencing. A method for subsectioning region alignments into homology areas (MOTIFF) was developed to examine collected sequences. Specific PfEMP1-DBL1α amino acid motifs correlated with rosetting and severe malaria, with motif location corresponding to distinct regions of receptor interaction. The method is potentially applicable to other families of variant proteins and may be useful in identifying sequence-phenotype relationships. The results suggest that certain PfEMP1 sequences are predisposed to inducing severe malaria.


We have demonstrated through quantum chemical calculations that the reactivity of the carbon nanomaterials can be enhanced remarkably by introducing different types of curvature into the carbon nanosurface. This effect is observed to be more pronounced for a concave surface than for a convex one. The concept of curvature, derived from the structural parameters of the carbon nanosurface, can be used as a descriptor to measure the reactivity of the carbon nanotubes or fullerenes. Our results indicate that the tube diameter or radius alone may not be a good descriptor for their reactivity. However, the type of curvature as well as its magnitude can give valuable information regarding the nature of reactivity of the nanosurface. Finally, we demonstrate the application of this concept for the design of carbon nanomaterials with effective molecular hydrogen adsorption.


Unobtrusive transducers play an important part in wearable and mobile computing fields. One out of many methods of implementations is to use smart materials and integrate them into intelligent structures via the route of fabric manufacturing processes that are capable of transducer action. This new breed of transducers is called fabric transducers. However, fabric transducers that were developed mainly focused on the variations in the resistance and capacitance of the electroconductive fabric structures. Therefore, they inhibit the disadvantages that are common in resistive and capacitive transducers. Moreover, they have limitations in operating as strain or displacement transducers. To overcome the limitations, research has been carried out to investigate constructions of an inductive fiber meshed strain and of displacement transducer. Electroconductive fibers (polymeric and metallic) of different conductivity levels were arranged in helical paths to form coils. The fibers were arranged by using flat bed-knitting technology. This paper discusses the constructions, simulations, performances, and limitations of the inductive fiber meshed transducers. Also, the discussion is further extended toward two specific applications: respiratory measuring systems and motion capturing systems


Four studies focus on the deformation at Okmok Volcano, the Alaska Peninsula and Mt. Veniaminof. The main focus of the thesis is the volcano deformation at Okmok Volcano and Mt. Veniaminof, but also includes an investigation of the tectonic related compression of the Alaska Peninsula. The complete data set of GPS observations at Okmok Volcano are investigated with the Unscented Kalman Filter time series analysis method. The technique is shown to be useful for inverting geodetic data for time dependent non-linear model parameters. The GPS record at Okmok from 2000 to mid 2007 shows distinct inflation pulses which have several months duration. The inflation is interpreted as magma accumulation in a shallow reservoir under the caldera center and approximately 2.5km below sea level. The location determined for the magma reservoir agrees with estimates determined by other geodetic techniques. Smaller deflation signals in the Okmok record appear following the inflation pulses. A degassing model is proposed to explain the deflation. Petrologic observations from lava erupted in 1997 provide an estimate for the volatile content of the magma. The solution model VolatileCalc is used to determine the amount of volatiles in the gas phase. Degassing can explain the deflation, but only under certain circumstances. The magma chamber must have a radius between ~1and 2km and the intruding magma must have less than approximately 500ppm CO2. At Mt. Veniaminof the deformation signal is dominated by compression caused by the convergence of the Pacific and North American Plates. A subduction model is created to account for the site velocities. A network of GPS benchmarks along the Alaska Peninsula is used to infer the amount of coupling along the mega-thrust. A transition from high to low coupling near the Shumagin Islands has important implications for the seismogenic potential of this section of the fault. The Shumagin segment likely ruptures in more frequent smaller magnitude quakes. The tectonic study provides a useful backdrop to examine the volcano deformation at Mt. Veniaminof. After being corrected for tectonic motion the sites velocities indicate inflation at the volcano. The deformation is interpreted as pressurization occurring beneath the volcano associated with eruptive activity in 2005.


Background:
 Atherosclerosis is a disease of large and medium-sized muscular arteries and is characterized by endothelial dysfunction, vascular inflammation, and the buildup of lipids, cholesterol, calcium, and cellular debris within the intima of the vessel wall, oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) can reduce the expression of nitric oxide synthase, the enzyme that produces nitric oxide. Nitric oxide reduces injury to the vessel walls, which also helps prevent the development of atherosclerosis Recently, they discovered that pomegranate juice enhances the bioactivity of nitric oxide synthase in endothelial cells. Furthermore, pomegranate's antioxidant properties protect nitric oxide from oxidative destruction, thus augmenting its biological actions. Therefore the
 objective
 of present study was to assess the effect of pomegranateon atherosclerosis regression via interfering with inflammatory and oxidative pathways.

 Methods:
 60 local domestic rabbits were assigned to three groups: Group I (n = 30) fed normal diet,Group II (
 n
 = 30) Rabbit fed high cholesterol-diet (induced untreated group), Group III (
 n
 = 30) high cholesterol-diet for 12 weeks but adding oral pomegranate juice at 6 weeks .Blood samples were collected at (0 time ), after 6 and 12 weeks for measurement of serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), HDL-C and serum high sensitive C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP), serum IL-6 and serum TNF-a. At the end of 12 weeks,both carotid and right coronary arteries was removed, part of it for histopathology to assess the atherosclerotic change according to AmericanHeart Association classification of atherosclerosis phases and for aortic intema-media thickness also part of it homogenized for malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH).

 Results:
 Compared with the control, levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C, atherogenic index, hsCRP, IL-6, TNF-a and arterial MDA were increased and arterial GSH and serum HDL-C were decreased in the animals with a high-choleterole diet (
 P
 < 0.01). Histologically all induced-untreated rabbit showed significant atherosclerosis lesions in both arteries (
 P
 < 0.01) all occurred at 6 and 12 weeks. While in pomegranate treated group at 12 weeks, levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C, atherogenic index, hsCRP, IL-6, TNF-a and arterial tissue of MDA were decreased and coronary and carotid GSH and serum HDL-C were increased relatively (
 P
 < 0.01).Low power microscopic morphologic analysis revealed that pomegranate treated group markedly regressed (
 P
 < 0.01) the atherosclerotic lesion in form of decrease intima-media thickness in histomorphometric measurements in the studied arteries at 12 weeks compared with rabbits on a high-fat diet at same period. In
 conclusion
 pomegranate juiceregressed atherosclerosis in carotid and coronary arteries in hypercholesterolemic rabbit via inhibition of inflammatory, oxidative pathways, reduced level of lipid parameters and decreased aortic intima-media thickness.


Recently many enterprises are adopting Web services as the standard between heterogeneous software in the XML message based distributed environment to carry out businesses from B2C to B2B. For effective application of Web services, differentiated service quality must be guaranteed. However, majority of the current Web services do not differentiate quality of messages and the current Web servers do not reflect the quality factors of the service level agreement settled between the service provider and user. Our research analyzes the appropriate quality factor for the quality level where differentiated service is provided and suggests a method for assigning priorities to Web service message processing processes based on these quality factors. The suggested method assigns the priority dynamically in order to satisfy the service level agreement as much as possible.


Accurate assessments of the true elemental cellular content of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in bacteria have been a major difficulty in microbial research for some time. This study is the first to present single‐cell elemental C, N, and P measurements on natural populations of bacteria from the Sargasso Sea using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with an X‐ray detector unit. Elemental cell content showed a best fit as a power function of the cell size, and smaller bacteria had significantly more elemental C, N, and P per cell volume than the larger ones (scaling factor a < 1). Contrary to coastal, brackish, and freshwater systems, the bacteria collected in this study appeared to have a molar elemental P :N close to the Redfield ratio of 0.063 (N:P = 16). The geometric mean of C per cell volume analyzed in this study (148 fg C µm−3) was higher than any other estimates reported from coastal and brackish water systems. Total amount of bacterial C calculated from abundance estimates requires an average conversion factor, and the choice of a representative bacterial cell volume is therefore critical. We were able to demonstrate that the outcome of biomass assessments is highly dependant on the choice of cell‐specific conversion factors. By applying cell volumes previously reported from the BATS site, the average 0–250 m depth integration of bacterial C between 1991 and 1996 ranged between 1.7 and 2.5 times less than other recent biomass estimates for these waters.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Although alkylating agents are clearly beneficial in multiple myeloma (MM), their deleterious effect on bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells usually precludes their use as front-line therapy in patients scheduled to undergo autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). We analyzed the impact of first-line chemotherapy with alkylating agents on stem cell collection in MM patients.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Seven hundred and eighty-nine patients included in the Spanish multicenter protocol GEM-2000 underwent mobilization therapy after four courses of alternating VBMCP/VBAD chemotherapy.

RESULTS
The mobilization regimens consisted of standard or high-dose granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in 551 (70%) patients, and chemotherapy and G-CSF in 206 (26%) patients. The CD34+ cell yield was lower than 4x10(6)/kg in 388 patients (49%), and equal or greater than 4x10(6)/kg in 401 patients (51%). Multivariate analysis indicated that advanced age (p<0.0001) and longer interval between diagnosis and mobilization (p=0.012) were the two variables associated with a lower CD34+ cell yield. Significant differences in CD34+ cell yield were not observed between the mobilization regimens. Of the 789 patients included in the protocol, 726 (92%) underwent the planned ASCT, whereas 25 (3%) patients did not because of the low number of CD34+ cells collected. Following ASCT, 0.5x10(9) neutrophils/L could be recovered after 11 days (median time; range, 5-71 days) and 20x10(9) platelets/L could be recovered after 12 days (median time; range, 6-69 days).

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
A short-course of therapy with alkylating agents according to the GEM-2000 protocol was associated with an appropriate CD34+ cell collection, and allowed the planned ASCT to be performed in the majority of MM patients.


Arctic sea ice is shifting from a year-round to a seasonal sea ice cover. This substantial transformation, via a reduction in Arctic sea ice extent and a thinning of its thickness, influences the amount of light entering the upper ocean. This in turn impacts under-ice algal growth and associated ecosystem dynamics. Field campaigns have provided valuable insights as to how snow and ice properties impact light penetration at fixed locations in the Arctic, but to understand the spatial variability in the under-ice light field there is a need to scale up to the pan-Arctic level. Combining information from satellites with state-of-the-art parameterizations is one means to achieve this. This study combines satellite and modeled data products to map under-ice light on a monthly time-scale from 2011 through 2018. Key limitations pertain to the availability of satellite-derived sea ice thickness, which for radar altimetry, is only available during the sea ice growth season. We clearly show that year-to-year variability in snow depth, along with the fraction of thin ice, plays a key role in how much light enters the Arctic Ocean. This is particularly significant in April, which in some regions, coincides with the beginning of the under-ice algal bloom, whereas we find that ice thickness is the main driver of under-ice light availability at the end of the melt season in October. The extension to the melt season due to a warmer Arctic means that snow accumulation has reduced, which is leading to positive trends in light transmission through snow. This, combined with a thinner ice cover, should lead to increased under-ice PAR also in the summer months.


For biological polymers like DNA and proteins, supramolecular interactions dictate the folding and assembly of the polymer chains. Advances in synthetic polymer chemistry enable the synthesis of polymers of defined length and composition, but the field has yet to reach the same level of sophistication as nature's polymers. However, the incorporation of just a few supramolecular interactions into a synthetic polymer chain can drastically change the manner in which the polymer assembles and interacts, thereby altering the properties of a polymeric material. This highlight will focus on approaches wherein a low-density of supramolecular functionalities (<10 wt %) were used per polymer chain. How the selection of the appropriate supramolecular functionality (based on the directionality and strength of the interaction), along with the location of these groups on a polymer chain, can afford a spectrum of material properties has been highlighted. At one end, the supramolecular motif can dramatically alter the elasticity of a material, and at the other, the motif can have a more subtle effect like increasing the stability of a micelle. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 457–472


The article deals with the innovations available in the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) classification of renal tumors, which has replaced the previous 2004 WHO classification. The review highlights the key aspects necessary for practicing histopathologists who work in specialized cancer centers or multidisciplinary hospitals diagnosing renal tumors. How to choose a system for determining the malignancy grade of renal tumors is considered separately.