Abstract. One of prime aspects of surveying projects is guidance of paths of a long tunnel from different directions and finally ending all paths in a specific place. This kind of underground surveying, because of particular condition, has some different points in relation to the ground surveying, including Improper geometry in underground transverse, low precise measurement in direction and length due to condition such as refraction, distinct gravity between underground point and corresponding point on the ground (both value and direction of gravity) and etc. To solve this problems, astro-geodetic that is part of geodesy science, can help surveying engineers. In this article, the role of astronomy is defined in two subjects: 1- Azimuth determination of directions from entrance and exit nets of tunnel and also calibration of gyro-theodolite to use them in Underground transvers: By astronomical methods, azimuth of directions can be determine with an accuracy of 0.5 arcsecond, whereas, nowadays, no gyroscope can measure the azimuth in this accuracy; For instance, accuracy of the most precise gyroscope (Gyromat 5000) is 1.2 cm over a distance of one kilometre (2.4 arcsecond). Furthermore, the calibration methods that will be mention in this article, have significance effects on underground transverse. 2- Height relation between entrance point and exit point is problematic and time consuming; For example, in a 3 km long tunnel ( in Arak- Khoram Abad freeway), to relate entrance point to exit point, it is necessary to perform levelling about 90 km. Other example of this boring and time consuming levelling is in Kerman tunnel. This tunnel is 36 km length, but to transfer the entrance point height to exit point, 150 km levelling is needed. According to this paper, The solution for this difficulty is application of astro-geodetic and determination of vertical deflection by digital zenith camera system TZK2-D. These two elements make possible to define geoid profile in terms of tunnel azimuth in entrance and exit of tunnel; So by doing this, surveying engineers are able to transfer entrance point height to exit point of tunnels in easiest way.


A 37-year-old immunocompetent female resident of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, presented with a 2-month history of headache, without fever or any other symptoms. Results of serology for HIV and a venereal disease research laboratory test were both negative. Analyses of cerebrospinal fl uid yielded normal fi ndings. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a mass on the tentorium showing iso/hypointensity on T1and T2-weighted images (Figure A and Figure B, respectively) with exuberant contrast enhancement (Figure C). Meningioma located in the tentorium was the main diagnosis. After surgical treatment, a histopathological diagnosis of histoplasmosis was made. Central nervous system (CNS) histoplasmosis commonly occurs in immunocompromised patients with disseminated infection1,2. The most common manifestation of CNS involvement is subacute or chronic meningitis1,2. Histoplasmosis mimicking a meningioma is exceptional and, in some cases, presents with the dural tail sign. This sign is seen on MRI as thickening of the dura mater, enhanced by venous contrast, which resembles a tail extending from a mass, and is generally related to meningiomas, which are the most common tumors of the meninges. In conclusion, histoplasmosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of CNS masses.


This major reevaluation of Paul Gauguin presents the artist and his work in an entirely new light. The vivid, unnaturalistic colors and bold outlines of Gauguin's paintings and the strong, semiabstract quality of his woodcuts had a profound effect on the development of twentieth-century art. Here readers will discover why Gauguin was one of the most important artists behind European modernism--yet one who also challenged its very tenets. Because while modern art largely rejected narrative, for Gauguin it remained central. Gauguin is the first book to fully examine his use of stories and myth to give powerful narrative tension to his paintings at a time when other painters thought storytelling was dead. Gauguin's life in French Polynesia is often portrayed as a quest for the other, with the artist as the romantic explorer encountering primitive cultures for the first time. In fact, he was deeply immersed in world art and a great reader of Polynesian stories and myths. This book cuts through the mystique surrounding Gauguin--one the artist himself cultivated--to show how he self-mythologized, presenting himself to the world as a suffering, Christ-like figure. Stunningly illustrated and unprecedented in scope, Gauguin features more than 200 museum-quality reproductions of paintings, works on paper, ceramics, woodcarvings, and writings, including Gauguin's beautifully illustrated letters and books. Exhibition Schedule: Tate Modern, London September 30, 2010 - January 16, 2011 National Gallery of Art, Washington February 27 - June 5, 2011


Introduction: The temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) include a heterogeneous group of clinical conditions affecting the stomatognathic system and its related structures. It is characterized by pain specific to the maxillofacial region, and these disorders are the main cause of chronic facial pain and disability. Management of TMDs is challenging due to the unknown etiology and complex anatomy of the temporomandibular joint region. Aim and Objectives: To evaluate the effect of botulinum toxin type-A (BTX-A) on pain and day to day functional and social activities of myofascial pain with or without TMDs, and to compare the effectiveness of BTX-A with a placebo group with the aid of EMG and a Behavioural Questionnaire. Materials and Methods: The study was done on 24 patients randomly divided into two groups and each group contains 12 participants. The study group showed a statistically significant decrease in the muscle activity after 14 days, and the patients responded that there was a significant reduction in the pain and improvement in their day-to-day functional as well as social activities after BTX-A treatment with 8 months follow-up. Conclusion: BTX-A has been proven to have positive desired effects on patients with TMDs.


BACKGROUND
Approximately half of the patients with long-standing diabetes are known to have diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Pain from DPN deteriorates quality of life and hinders activities of daily living.

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effect of high-frequency (10 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the left primary motor cortex (M1) for neuropathic pain in the lower extremities due to DPN.

STUDY DESIGN
A randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
The outpatient clinic of a single academic medical center.

METHODS
In this randomized trial, 22 patients with DPN were randomly assigned to the rTMS group (10 Hz stimulation, 5 sessions) or the sham group. A numeric rating scale (NRS) was used to measure pain intensity before treatment and after one day and one week of treatment. Physical and mental health status were evaluated using the Short Form 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), comprising 2 subscales (physical and mental component scores [PCSs and MCSs]), at one-week posttreatment. Of the 22 included patients, 20 (10 patients in each group) completed the study.

RESULTS
In the rTMS group, the NRS score at one day and one week posttreatment was significantly lower than that at pretreatment. The SF-36 PCS and SF-36 MCS were significantly increased one week after the rTMS sessions. However, in the sham group, the NRS score, SF-36 PCS, and SF-36 MCS did not significantly change after the rTMS sessions.

LIMITATIONS
The small number of included patients and no long-term follow-up.

CONCLUSION
High-frequency rTMS on the left M1 may be useful for managing pain in the lower extremities due to DPN and may improve a patient's the quality of life.


Nanoparticle zeta-potentials are relatively easy to measure, and have consistently been proposed in guidance documents as a particle property that must be included for complete nanoparticle characterization. There is also an increasing interest in integrating data collected on nanomaterial properties and behavior measured in different systems (e.g. in vitro assays, surface water, soil) to identify the properties controlling nanomaterial fate and effects, to be able to integrate and reuse datasets beyond their original intent, and ultimately to predict behaviors of new nanomaterials based on their measured properties (i.e. read across), including zeta-potential. Several confounding factors pose difficulty in taking, integrating and interpreting this measurement consistently. Zeta-potential is a modeled quantity determined from measurements of the electrophoretic mobility in a suspension, and its value depends on the nanomaterial properties, the solution conditions, and the theoretical model applied. The ability to use zeta-potential as an explanatory variable for measured behaviors in different systems (or potentially to predict specific behaviors) therefore requires robust reporting with relevant meta-data for the measurement conditions and the model used to convert mobility measurements to zeta-potentials. However, there is currently no such standardization for reporting in the nanoEHS literature. The objective of this tutorial review is to familiarize the nanoEHS research community with the zeta-potential concept and the factors that influence its calculated value and interpretation, including the effects of adsorbed macromolecules. We also provide practical guidance on the precision of measurement, interpretation of zeta-potential as an explanatory variable for processes of interest (e.g. toxicity, environmental fate), and provide advice for addressing common challenges associated with making meaningful zeta-potential measurements using commercial instruments. Finally, we provide specific guidance on the parameters that need to be reported with zeta-potential measurements to maximize interpretability and to support scientific synthesis across data sets.


We clarify the relationship among several existing achievable multiple description rate-distortion regions by investigating the role of refinement layer in multiple description coding. Specifically, we show that the refinement layer in the El Gamal-Cover (EGC) scheme and the Venkataramani-Kramer-Goyal (VKG) scheme can be removed; as a consequence, the EGC region is equivalent to the EGC* region (an antecedent version of the EGC region) while the VKG region (when specialized to the 2-description case) is equivalent to the Zhang-Berger (ZB) region. Moreover, we prove that for multiple description coding with individual and hierarchical distortion constraints, the number of layers in the VKG scheme can be significantly reduced when only certain weighted sum rates are concerned. The role of refinement layer in scalable coding (a special case of multiple description coding) is also studied.


Locally adapted plants can be considered as an alternative to commercial crops for cultivation in harsh environments within semi-arid regions. Nowadays, exploring these plants industrial benefits has motivated many farmers around the world to extend their cultivation. However, agronomic characters of these forgotten plants are still unknown. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of fall sowing dates on yield and yield components of different Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L., Apiaceae) ecotypes in the semi-arid region of Khorasan Iran. An experiment of two years duration was performed using a split-plot randomized complete block design, employing sowing dates as main-plot factor, and cumin ecotypes as sub-plot factor in three replicates. Three levels of sowing dates included the following: mid October, mid November and mid December. Additonally, sub-plot treatments consisted of four local ecotypes of cumin from different regions of the Khorasan province (Gayen, Torbat, Sabzevar and Khaf ). The plants' survival percentage in field conditions, number of umbels m-2, number of seeds per umbel, thousand seed weight, biological, and seed yield were measured in this experiment. The results showed that all study parameters were influenced by different sowing dates except thousand seed weight. The third sowing date resulted in the highest biological (110 g m-2 and 94 g m-2 in 2006 and 2007) and seed yield (50 g m-2 and 55 g m-2 in 2006 and 2007). There was a significant positive correlation between average minimum temperature and biological yield of cumin across all ecotypes and years. The results showed significant difference in productivity of different ecotypes of cumin from various parts of northeast of Iran. The Gayen and Khaf ecotypes showed the highest plant survival percentage, biological and seed yield across study ecotypes under the third sowing date. In conclusion, delayed fall sowing date and appropriate cumin ecotypes are able to increase yield of this plant in northeast of Iran.


Supply chain management is an area which gains much attention both from scholars and practitioners when considering the relationship between economic and ecologic issues and goals. Initiatives from Green IT and Green IS are widely discussed and broad supply chain management concepts like Green SCM, which extends the concept of global supply chain management with ecological aspects like resource optimization and recycling. Current research shows, that concepts like Green SCM might be a first step towards an ecologic more responsible supply chain. The current scientific discussion only covers parts of the supply chain like transport management or sourcing strategies. But the question for a holistic concept for sustainable economic supply chain remains still open. To address this issue, this paper proposes the integration of the industry standard Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR) with Green IS to establish a sustainable supply chain management model Green SCOR beyond Green SCM. By applying Green SCOR to a selected Green SCM concept, we show the comprehensive approach in contrast to existing isolated concepts. Green SCOR may be used to analyze existing supply chains on their long-term sustainability and as a blueprint for the development of sustainable, supply chain management systems.


Amino acids play central roles for living organisms being the monomer building blocks of proteins and having a variety of other vital physiological functions. Thus, amino acids are important nutrients that are absorbed by the small intestine and reabsorbed by the kidney proximal tubule through their epithelia. An important characteristic of epithelial cells is their polarity, and hence, different sets of proteins are expressed apically and basolaterally to allow the vectorial transport of nutrients. Various amino acid transporters perform passive (uniport) or active (cotransport and exchange) transport. A well characterized amino acid transporter expressed in the small intestine and the kidney basolateral membrane is LAT2-4F2hc (SLC7A8-SLC3A2) which has a broad selectivity for neutral amino acids, including aromatic amino acids. LAT2 acts as an obligatory exchanger and thus cannot contribute alone to the net vectorial flux of amino acids. In order to fulfil the directional transport of specific amino acids, LAT2 needs to exchange them against other amino acids that are recycled via a directional transporter inserted in the same membrane, for instance by a uniporter(s) such as TAT1 (SLC16A10) which transports aromatic amino acids by facilitated diffusion. A functional cooperation between the uniporter TAT1 and the exchanger LAT2 was demonstrated in X. laevis oocytes (Ramadan, Camargo et al. 2007). Moreover, mice lacking TAT1 were shown to excrete in urine not only aromatic amino acids but also other neutral amino acids that are substrates of LAT2 (Mariotta, Ramadan et al. 2012) and LAT2 knockout mice to display a modest increase of Slc16a10 (TAT1) mRNA in their kidneys (Braun, Wirth et al. 2011). These studies indicate the functional importance of cooperation between LAT2 and TAT1. To further investigate their role in vivo a double knockout (dKO) mouse lacking both TAT1 and LAT2 transporters was generated.
For my dissertation, the dKO mouse model was used to answer the question whether the lack of both TAT1 and LAT2 transporters changes the amino acid balance between cells, blood and urine more dramatically than the single transporter defects. Our main focus was to investigate the absorptive function of small intestine and kidney, and to test for compensatory mechanism(s) in dKO mice.
In contrast to the single KOs, dKO mice had lower body weight and reduced breeding performance. However, the intestinal function of dKO animals was mildly disrupted and
7
overall amino acid absorption was not retarded. The lack of both TAT1 and LAT2 induced compensatory mechanisms for intestinal absorption, and our data suggest that the paracellular pathway is involved in this process. Further investigation is needed to elucidate this mechanism of regulation. Unlike the intestinal function, the kidney absorption was highly affected in dKO animals. Urinary hyperexcretion of all neutral amino acids revealed synergistic cooperation between TAT1 and LAT2 for renal reabsorption. Furthermore, overexpression of the amino acid transporter y+LAT1 (Slc7a7) on mRNA and protein levels demonstrated a possible compensatory mechanism to the loss-of-function of TAT1 and LAT2.
In the course of dKO mouse characterisation I noticed higher incidence of cataract formation in these animals. As a result, a second project was initiated that is part of my dissertation. The main goal of this project was to investigate cataract development in our mouse population by screening dKO, TAT1 KO, LAT2 KO, and wild type (WT) eye lenses. Mice at different ages (between 2 and 19 months of age) were analyzed. Overall we found a statistically significant increase of cataract formation in LAT2 KO (p=0.009) and much more in dKO mice (p<0.0001), while TAT1 KO alone did not seem to influence cataract formation. When looking at age and gender in a combinatorial analysis, we found out that old females had the highest occurrence of cataract when both LAT2 and TAT1 were abolished (p=0.017) and also when LAT2 alone was knocked out (p=0.0187). Furthermore, genetic screening of patients with cataract was performed. Mutations in SLC7A8 were found in 30 out of 570 cases. Taken together, we conclude that a defect in LAT2 favors cataract formation and that this deleterious effect is further stimulated by a defect of TAT1. This latter observation further supports the notion that the cooperation between the exchanger LAT2 and the uniporter TAT1 is of functional importance in physiology.


A number of morphometric analyses of Neandertal tali since the turn of the century have failed to reach a consensus on the functional affinities of these fossil foot bones. To clarify the problem a univariate and multivariate analysis of the available Neandertal and Skhūl tali in relation to those of modern humans was performed using nine linear dimensions and four angles. Our analysis indicates that Neandertal tali are indistinguishable from modern human tali in the implied locomotor capabilities and similar in overall size and proportions. The primary differences between the fossil and modern tali involve the greater articular robustness of the fossils, probably to compensate for higher levels of biomechanical stress.


The transmission of monetary policy refers to how changes to the cash rate affect economic activity and inflation. This article outlines the stages of transmission and the channels through which it occurs. The effects of monetary policy are hard to quantify, though the housing market seems particularly important to the transmission process in Australia. A lower cash rate stimulates household spending and housing investment, partly through increasing the wealth and cash flow of households. A lower cash rate also tends to result in a depreciation of the exchange rate, leading to higher net exports and imported inflation.


The controlling, operating and monitoring of electric devices has been possible because of the knowledge of power system parameters. The relay functionality in power systems is influenced by the two vital power system parameters which are frequency and harmonics. Hence in power systems, phasor estimation is of utmost importance. These computations not only facilitate realtime state estimation, but also improve protection schemes. However, in the presence of power frequency deviation, the phasor undergoes rotation in the complex plane. Interconnection of power grids and distributed generation systems becomes difficult because of this phenomenon. Hence, in this report different algorithms are studied and implemented for the estimation of phasor. The parameters estimated are limited to voltage amplitude and phase, change of frequency and rate of change of frequency. In this thesis, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) technique and Recursive Least Square (RLS) algorithms are used to estimate the amplitude and phase for different harmonics present in a distorted power system signal. Simple DFT algorithm is used to estimate the phasor variation, change of frequency and rate of change of frequency when deviated from the nominal frequency.


Twenty two potato accessions from USA were evaluated for nutrient contents. Two Bangladeshi varieties were also included for comparison. Nutritional analyses were performed in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, BAU during November, 2014 to April, 2015. Considering macro nutrient content, the highest values of N, P, K and S were found in the accession AC 10062 whereas Ca and Mg contents were found highest in Bangladeshi variety Cardinal and USA accessions AC 10073, respectively. In case of micro nutrient, the maximum amounts of Cu, Mn, B and Zn were observed in accession AC 10110, AC 10069, AC 10073 and AC 10109, respectively. Significant positive correlations were observed between N-P, N-K and K-Mn contents while K-Mg, Mn-B and Cu-B contents were negatively correlated. Considering all the parameters studied, the USA accession AC 10062, AC 10069 and AC 10110 were nutritionally superior to Bangladeshi variety Diamant and Cardinal. The accession AC 10062 was found as the best USA accession to produce nutrient rich potato in Bangladesh. J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 13(2): 207-214, December 2015


Background: Inflammatory myopathies represent a special group of pathology. Establishing the correct diagnosis in the early phase and a better follow-up are the main objective for improving the life quality of these patients. Objective: The aim of this research was to assess the usefulness of sonoelastography in diagnosis of inflammatory myopathies. Material and Method: A prospective longitudinal study with a control group was carried out in the Radio-Imaging Department, Cluj-Napoca District University Hospital, Romania, from May 2007 to July 2010. Measurements: Image Processing 2.8 software was used to analyze the elastographic images in correlation with clinical and biochemical data was used. Results: Analysis of Receiver Operating Characteristic curves statistics for elastography parameters showed significant values for the following parameters: average green color, average blue color, average intensity of color, dispersion of red, dispersion of green, and dispersion of hue. Conclusions: Our study highlighted the utility of some elastography parameters in the diagnosis of inflammatory myopathies; the parameter proved to be statistically different in case group compared to control. Anyway, standardization of sonoelastography and larger studies are required to ensure accurate diagnosis, reproductibility and reliability.


Based on the authors' 43 years of combined experience in industry, this paper describes a number of ways to ensure a metrics programme is considered successful. Experiences of a number of industries provide lessons on the planning of a metrics programme, the motivation of employees collecting the metrics, embedding metrics collection into everyday processes, presenting the metrics in financial terms and using metrics that already exist. It is acknowledged that metrics collected in industry can prove very little, but they are useful if used with other data or as a pointer for further investigations. The lessons learned from these experiences form guidelines which, if followed, should give valuable assistance in achieving a successful software metrics programme.


At the undergraduate level, Graphic Design history is essential in understanding the core foundations of our discipline; however, it is often taught in a traditional mode that does not engage and inspire students. As was the case of previous unit offering at the University of Canberra, students spent an inordinate amount of their study memorizing periods and styles and generating essays based on that content. In order to make this unit more engaging, the graphic design teaching team at the University of Canberra set out to create a syllabus that would enhance the learning outcomes by using a collaborative teaching approach. By presented the students with skill based activities based on the application of design principles rather than essays, the students were able to interact with theoretical information in a dynamic way. According to Heller (2003: xii), 'to [teach design] effectively, a teacher must balance the requisites of the class, needs of the students expectations of the school and still have a fresh result.' Heller (2003: xii) goes on to explain that the essential ingredient in this process is the charisma of the lecturer in delivering the material, however, 'the syllabus is her blueprint, roadmap and manifesto rolled into one.' Through the use of collaborative teaching methods and unique syllabus, the Graphic Design teaching team at the University of Canberra has effectively attempted to provide the best outcome for the delivery of history units. In an attempt to facilitate new teaching directions, this paper will discuss the methods, outcomes and techniques utilized by the staff in creating Design history units.


This study aims to analyze the bank soundness assessment using  ANGELS approach in an Islamic bank. This research is a qualitative research. This research uses a non-interactive qualitative approach that is an analysis research that conducts an assessment based on document analysis and provides interpretation of a concept. The data used are primary data and secondary data. Primary data is done by using structured interviews using prepared questionnaires. Secondary data from this research are sharia financial report year 2016 in the form of ROA, ROE, CAR, NPF, LDR, and MR. The results of this study indicate that the soundness assessment of Islamic bank using ANGELS has a score of 86.79 so it is said to be soundless. The concept of ANGELS which consists of Amanah Management, Non-Economic Wealth, Give Out, Earning, Capital and Asset, Liquidity and Sensitivity to Market and Economy Wealth in practice needs to be done revision is indicators Amanah Management of accountability to God and accountability to nature because in practice these indicators are contrary to the concept practiced in the field. Revision of accountability to God and accountability to nature is changed into ihsan and tablig. JEL Classification : G21; G24 DOI :  https://doi.org/10.26905/jkdp.v22i1.1563


The growth of supermassive black holes appears to be driven by galaxy mergers, violent merger-free processes and/or 'secular' processes. In order to quantify the effects of secular evolution on black hole growth, we study a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in galaxies with a calm formation history free of significant mergers, a population that heretofore has been difficult to locate. Here we present an initial sample of 13 AGN in massive (M* ≳ 1010 M⊙) bulgeless galaxies – which lack the classical bulges believed inevitably to result from mergers – selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using visual classifications from Galaxy Zoo. Parametric morphological fitting confirms that the host galaxies lack classical bulges; any contributions from pseudo-bulges are very small (typically <5 per cent). We compute black hole masses for the two broad-line objects in the sample (4.2 × 106 and 1.2 × 107 M⊙) and place lower limits on black hole masses for the remaining sample (typically MBH ≳ 106 M⊙), showing that significant black hole growth must be possible in the absence of mergers or violent disc instabilities. The black hole masses are systematically higher than expected from established bulge–black hole relations. However, if the mean Eddington ratio of the systems with measured black hole masses (L/LEdd ≈ 0.065) is typical, 10 of 13 sources are consistent with the correlation between black hole mass and total stellar mass. That pure disc galaxies and their central black holes may be consistent with a relation derived from elliptical and bulge-dominated galaxies with very different formation histories implies the details of stellar galaxy evolution and dynamics may not be fundamental to the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which the total radiation dose for CT urography can be lowered by selective reduction of the dose in the unenhanced and excretory phases when images in these phases are systematically evaluated alongside normal-dose corticomedullary phase images.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Twenty-seven patients (mean age, 74±9 years) underwent single-bolus CT urography with acquisition in the unenhanced, corticomedullary, and 5-minute excretory phases. The scanning parameters for normal-dose CT urography were as follows: 16×0.75 mm, 120 kV, and automatic exposure control technique reference tube loads of 100, 120, and 100 effective mAs (mAseff). The patients also underwent low-dose unenhanced and excretory phase scanning, in which the dose was escalated stepwise from a volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) of 1.7 to 6.6 mGy (reference 20-40-60-80 mAseff). Images were analyzed for quality and diagnostic confidence. If low-dose scans of three patients were inadequate, the study continued to the next dose level. When 20 patients were successfully included in the unenhanced and excretory phase groups, the study ended. Doses were calculated with a CT patient dosimetry calculator.

RESULTS
Combined with the normal dose for corticomedullary phase scanning, doses of CTDIvol 1.5 mGy for the unenhanced phase and CTDIvol 2.7 mGy for the excretory phase were sufficient. The effective dose for three-phase CT urography was lowered from 16.2 to 9.4 mSv, a decrease of 42%. Diagnostic confidence in low-dose images was equal to that in normal-dose images when low-dose unenhanced and excretory phase images were read along-side normal-dose corticomedullary phase images.

CONCLUSION
With a three-phase CT urographic protocol, significant dose reductions in the unenhanced and excretory phases can be achieved when these phases are combined with a normal-dose corticomedullary phase.


Background Nowadays, in our health area, most of the oral antineoplastic drugs prescribed to outpatients are dispensed in hospital pharmacy services. Patients receiving these kinds of drugs are susceptible to suffering adverse events (AE) due to medicines errors (MEs). Purpose To evaluate the quality of oral chemotherapy drug prescriptions (OCDPs) in oncohaematological outpatients. Materials and Methods Descriptive prospective study. OCDPs for adult patients received in a pharmaceutical outpatient care unit were analysed for two months. The information necessary for OCDPs was established based on legal rules and international recommendations. We established that omitted or confused information in patient identification (identification number), weight, height and/or corporal surface (in drugs dosed depending on these parameters), diagnosis, treatment duration, dose and frequency of administration, presented serious risk based on possible consequences. Results 291 prescriptions were analysed from 183 patients. 100% of prescriptions had almost one omission, 78.7% of which showed serious errors of omitted or confused information related to the following items: patient identification (0.7%), weight, height or corporal surface (56.7%), diagnosis (28.9%), treatment duration (14.1%), dose (5.8%) or frequency (12.1%). Information omitted or confused about patient and treatment information included: age or birth date (1.4%), allergies (omitted 56%, unknown 38.8%), morbidities (59.5%), cycle number (67%) and periodicity (46.7%). Drug information omitted or confused included: drug name (generic 35.7%, originator 61.5% or both 2.7%), dose units (10.7%), pharmaceutical form (83.1%) or route of administration (58.4%). Physician information omitted or confused included: name (7.6%), signature (1%) and collegiate number (1%). Conclusions Our results show a high rate of omitted and confused information in prescriptions in OCDP. Extreme attention during the validation process was required in order to prevent MEs and AEs. New tools, such as electronic prescription, pre-printed medical orders or educational programmes for prescribers, must be implemented in order to improve the quality of OCDP. No conflict of interest.


The three-step search (TSS) algorithm for block-matching motion estimation, due to its simplicity, significant computational reduction, and good performance, has been widely used in real-time video applications. A new search algorithm is proposed for further reduction of computational complexity for motion estimation. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is simple and efficient and requires about one half of the computation for the TSS while keeping the same regularity and good performance.


NYU Law's Guarini Center submitted this amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting the US government's position in the case Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association.The outcome of the case will determine the extent to which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) can regulate and promote demand response programs in wholesale electricity markets. These programs pay consumers for reducing their electricity consumption when demand is high, such as on hot summer days.The brief argues that the Court should reverse the D.C. Circuit's holding below, which took a restrictive interpretation of FERC's jurisdiction, and thereby preserve FERC's authority over wholesale demand response programs. The brief emphasizes that these programs play a critical role in promoting the performance of the organized wholesale electricity markets that FERC regulates by enabling market operators to meet electricity needs through the lowest cost means available. Wholesale demand response programs benefit consumers by reducing the cost of electricity, and can confer environmental benefits, such as facilitating the incorporation of renewable energy sources in the electricity system.For over fifteen years, FERC has worked step by step to incorporate demand response programs into the wholesale energy markets as the Commission has become increasingly convinced of the benefits such programs provide. The D.C. Circuit decision could undo this long and careful process. The brief accordingly urges the Supreme Court to reverse the Court of Appeals' jurisdictional decision.The brief was a collaborative effort of the Guarini Center's Faculty Director Richard B. Stewart, Energy Program Director Katrina M. Wyman, and Executive Director Danielle Spiegel-Feld. Michael Lenoff, a member of the JD class of 2007, provided research assistance.


Excellent Chinese traditional culture is the concentrated expression of national and national culture and spirit. It is an important cultural symbol to build cultural confidence and show national image. The Internet has developed to a higher stage, which creates a new communication environment for the spread and development of Chinese traditional culture. First of all, this paper develops the definition of Chinese elements, and believes that the necessary cultural screening is the key to adapt to the modern innovation and transformation of Chinese elements and to build a national image in cross-cultural communication. Secondly, this paper makes a systematic study on the digital art translation of Chinese elements, and discusses the principles and Strategies of digital art translation from five aspects: concise symbolic language expression and context inheritance in immersion experience. Thirdly, this paper discusses the network node advantages of the Internet and constructs a spontaneous growth type of communication structure. Finally, based on the higher development stage of Internet, this paper systematically discusses the theoretical research of digital art communication of Chinese elements. The results show that the method proposed in this paper can promote the digital inheritance of Chinese traditional folk art in college art teaching.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether the extent of white matter lesions (WMLs) and the number of small deep infarcts and territorial infarcts progress over time in patients with stroke and to test the hypothesis that WMLs are associated with small deep infarcts.

DESIGN
Computed tomographic follow-up study in a cohort of 107 patients with ischemic stroke (median follow-up, 3.0 years).

SETTING
Primary and referral care center.

PATIENTS
Sixty-three of 144 registered patients with a first-ever symptomatic lacunar stroke and 44 of 155 with a territorial stroke entered this study. Forty-seven (33%) of the nonparticipating patients with a lacunar stroke and 54 (35%) of those with a territorial stroke died, and 34 (24%) and 57 (37), respectively, refused computed tomographic follow-up.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The extent of the WMLs and the number of small deep and territorial infarcts on computed tomographic scans at study entry and at follow-up.

RESULTS
Progression of WMLs occurred in 26 patients (26%), and multivariate regression analysis showed that it was associated with symptomatic lacunar stroke at study entry (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 5.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-20.3), silent small deep infarcts at study entry (aOR, 6.0, 95% CI, 1.0-34.6), old age (aOR, 5.5; 95% CI, 1.3-23.1), and longer follow-up (aOR, 12.7; 95% CI, 1.8-89.0). We found progression of small deep infarcts in 41 patients (38%). The progression was associated with symptomatic lacunar stroke at study entry (aOR, 27.7; 95% CI, 6.3-120.9) and longer follow-up (aOR, 7.7; 95% CI, 1.4-41.3). Progression of both WMLs and small deep infarcts, which occurred in 16 patients (16%), was associated with symptomatic lacunar stroke at study entry (aOR, 34.1; 95% CI, 2.5-471.7), silent small deep infarcts at study entry (aOR, 12.5; 95% CI, 1.4-112.0), and longer follow-up (aOR, 29.7; 95% CI, 1.8-501.0). The number of territorial infarcts increased in 14 patients (13%). The increase was associated with symptomatic territorial stroke at study entry (aOR, 7.9; 95% CI, 1.5-40.8) and a history of ischemic heart disease (aOR, 6.6; 95% CI, 1.3-34.8).

CONCLUSIONS
The marked progression of WMLs and small deep infarcts that occurred mainly in patients with lacunar stroke suggests that both WMLs and small deep (lacunar) infarcts are caused by a similar vasculopathy that affects small vessels, which is progressive despite standard stroke treatment.


AIMS
To test the relationship between greenery in gardens at residential facilities for older people and the self-perceived health of residents, mediated by experiences of being away and fascination when in the garden and the frequency of visitation there. To examine how these indirect effects vary with the number of physical barriers to visiting the garden.

BACKGROUND
Many older people in residential facilities suffer from complex health problems. Access to a green outdoor environment may enable psychological distance, engage effortless attention, encourage more frequent visitation and promote resident health.

DESIGN
A multi-level, cross-sectional, correlational design.

METHODS
Questionnaires were administered June-August, 2011 to convenience samples of residents at 72 facilities for older people with complex healthcare needs. One to 10 eligible residents were sampled during self-motivated garden visits at each facility (n = 290). They reported on their garden experiences and health. Facility staff reported on objective garden characteristics and barriers to access. A serial mediation model was tested with multiple linear regression analysis.

RESULTS
The total indirect effect of greenery on self-perceived health was positive and significant. Garden greenery appears to affect health by enhancing a sense of being away, affording possibilities to experience the outdoor environment as interesting and encouraging visitation. Among residents in homes with multiple barriers, only fascination mediated the relationship between greenery and self-perceived health.

CONCLUSION
Ample greenery in outdoor space at residential facilities for older people appears to promote experiences of being away and fascination, more frequent visitation and better health.


Selective markers are generally indispensable in plant genetic transformation, of which the frequently used are of antibiotic or herbicide resistance. However, the increasing concerns on transgenic biosafety have encouraged many new and safe selective markers emerging, with an eminent representative as phosphite (Phi) in combination to its dehydrogenase (PTDH, e.g. PtxD). As bacterial alkaline phosphatase (BAP) can resemble PtxD to oxidatively convert toxic Phi into metabolizable phosphate (Pi), herein we harnessed it as the substitute of PtxD to develop an alternative Phi-based selection system. We first validated the Escherichia coli BAP (EcBAP) did own an extra enzymatic activity of oxidizing Phi to Pi. We further revealed EcBAP could be used as a dominant selective marker for Agrobacterium-mediated tobacco transformation. Although the involved Phi selection for transformed tobacco cells surprisingly required the presence of Pi, it showed a considerable transformation efficiency and dramatically accelerated transformation procedure, as compared to the routine kanamycin selection and the well-known PtxD/Phi system. Moreover, the EcBAP transgenic tobaccos could metabolize toxic Phi as a phosphorus (P) fertilizer thus underlying Phi-resistance, and competitively possess a dominant growth over wild-type tobacco and weeds under Phi stress. Therefore, this novel BAP/Phi-coupled system, integrating multiple advantages covering biosafe dominant selective marker, plant P utilization and weed management, can provide a PTDH-bypass technological choice to engineer transgenic plant species, especially those of great importance for sustainable agriculture.


A block copolymer (BCP) and a polymer blend containing small amounts of fluorogenic molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics exhibited dramatic differences in the fluorescence properties. In particular, AIEgens with different polarities were doped in BCP polystyrene-b-polylactide (PS-b-PLA) and the PS/PLA blend. For the BCP, whether the AIEgens were selectively located in one phase or not, the intramolecular motions of the phenyl rings in AIEgens were affected by both the PS and PLA segment motions, due to the covalent bonds between the constitutive blocks. Therefore, the fluorescence was affected by the segment movements of PS and PLA. In contrast, the AIEgen-doped polymer blend exhibited location dependent fluorescence. The fluorescence was affected by the segment movements where the AIEgens were located, because there were no connections between the PS and PLA chains. This visualization method will provide new insights into monitoring the chain motions of macromolecules with more complex structures.


Parenteral therapy with trisulfapyramidines (Triple Sulfas) for 21 days did not alter the bacterial flora of the conjunctiva and lid margin. Topical therapy with tetracycline and erythromycin for six weeks significantly reduced the isolation frequency of Staphylococcus albus , increased the number of S albus strains resistant to either drug, and increased the number of sterile cultures. It is apparent that prolonged administration of topically applied tetracycline and erythromycin can reduce the incidence of certain bacteria on conjunctiva and lid margin, but such treatment may promote growth of resistant, wild-type allele strains which populate the ecological niche created by the therapy. There was no tendency for gram-negative overgrowth to occur following treatment with the three drugs in this study.


Music evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) occur in people with Alzheimer's dementia (AD), but there is limited study of such memories in people with other dementia types such as behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (Bv-FTD). Furthermore, there has been no study of the integrity of such memories over time, and scarce comparison with other memory cues such as photos. Our aim was to address this current gap in our knowledge and to characterize MEAMs and photo-evoked autobiographical memories (PEAMs) in healthy elderly people and people with AD and Bv-FTD on two occasions, 6 months apart. Twenty-two participants (7 with AD, 6 with Bv-FTD, and 9 healthy elderly people) reported memories following exposure to two famous songs and two famous event photographs from each decade from 1930–2010 on two occasions. All people with AD and all healthy elderly controls reported at least one MEAM or PEAM at both times. In contrast, two people with Bv-FTD reported no memories at either time. The percentage of memories over time for songs and photos remained stable for the Healthy Elderly and AD groups, whilst the percentage of memories to songs increased over time for people with Bv-FTD. Songs elicited more positive memories than photos. The specific music and photo stimuli that triggered memories, and the topic of the memories that were evoked, remained stable over a 6-month period across all groups. Our results suggest that music and photos are efficient memory cues in people with AD and Bv-FTD. Future large-scale studies of people with different dementia types over a longer time period will provide insights into the integrity of music- and photo-evoked autobiographical memories as dementia progresses.


Phylogenetic relationships of the species belonging to the genus Myxococcus were elucidated based on the sequences of 16S rRNA genes and 16S-23S rRNA gene internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. The Myxococcus species were consequently classified into four distinct groups. The type strain of Myxococcus coralloides occupied an independent position (Group 1); it has been recently reclassified as Corallococcus coralloides. Group 2 comprised the type strains of both Myxococcus virescens and Myxococcus xanthus, and some strains assigned to Myxococcus flavescens. The type strain of M. flavescens was contained in Group 3 along with the strains of Myxococcus fulvus. Group 4 included the strains belonging to C. coralloides, M. fulvus, and M. stipitatus. The type strain of M. fulvus that was allocated outside Group 4 in the 16S rRNA gene tree belonged to Group 3 in the ITS tree. These results strongly suggest that the morphological characteristics of Myxococcus species are not consistent with the phylogenetic relationships. The Myxococcus species must therefore be redefined according to the phylogenetic relationships revealed in this study.


It's important to extract target points center from image in computer vision quickly and accurately. The center extract with the raw gradient information in the neighborhood of the target points boundary to get the parameters of the ellipse, avoids the intermediate stage of precisely extracting individual edge points. Moreover, under the dual space representation, the ellipse parameter can easily be calculated from the dual conic with the qualification of the ellipse, and the ellipse center will be got at the same time. Then, the RANSAC algorithm is used to match the pair of corresponding points between the calibration image and the calibration plate. The experiment and application result shows that the method is efficiently.


Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum Ps29 is attracted by nonmetabolizable d-malate, an unnatural enantiomer. Screening of a complete collection of single-mcp-gene deletion mutants of Ps29 revealed that the RSc1156 homologue is a chemosensor for d-malate. An RSc1156 homologue deletion mutant of Ps29 showed decreased but significant responses to d-malate, suggesting the existence of another d-malate chemosensor. McpM previously had been identified as a chemosensor for l-malate. We constructed an RSc1156 homologue mcpM double deletion mutant and noted that this mutant failed to respond to d-malate; thus, the RSc1156 homologue and McpM are the major chemosensors for d-malate in this organism. To further characterize the ligand specificities of the RSc1156 homologue and McpM, we constructed a Ps29 derivative (designated K18) harbouring deletions in 18 individual mcp genes, including mcpM and RSc1156. K18 harbouring the RSc1156 homologue responded strongly to l-tartrate and d-malate and moderately to d-tartrate, but not to l-malate or succinate. K18 harbouring mcpM responded strongly to l-malate and d-tartrate and moderately to succinate, fumarate and d-malate. Ps29 utilizes l-malate and l-tartrate, but not d-malate. We therefore concluded that l-tartrate and l-malate are natural ligands of the RSc1156 homologue and McpM, respectively, and that chemotaxis toward d-malate is a fortuitous response by the RSc1156 homologue and McpM in Ps29. We propose re-designation of the RSc1156 homologue as McpT. In tomato plant infection assays, the mcpT deletion mutant of highly virulent R. pseudosolanacearum MAFF106611 was as infectious as wild-type MAFF106611, suggesting that McpT-mediated chemotaxis does not play an important role in tomato plant infection.


Purpose : Long-term survivors of Hodgkin's disease who received mantle-field irradiation at a young age have a strongly increased risk of developing breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether this increased risk was substantially greater among women heterozygous for a germline mutation in the ataxia-telangiectasia gene (ATM). Materials and methods : Thirty-two patients were selected who had developed breast cancer at least 10 years following irradiation for Hodgkin's disease before the age of 45 years. In these patients, the complete open reading frame of the ATM gene was analysed for the presence of germline mutations using the protein truncation test and two mutation-specific tests, followed by genomic sequencing. Results : No A-T disease causing germline mutations were found in these selected Hodgkin patients. However, several alternative splicing events were detected which might influence protein expression levels. Conclusions : The data suggest that truncating mutations in the ATM gene are not a major component underlying the increased risk of breast cancer following Hodgkin's disease.


International teaching assistants (ITAs) are Indian, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, etc. international students who have been admitted to graduate study at universities in the U.S.A. and Canada, and are being supported as instructors of undergraduate-level classes and labs in biology, chemistry, physics, and math. For the past 30 years, the number of ITAs has been increasing, and many departments at universities have come to rely largely on ITAs to cover their undergraduate teaching needs. As high-intermediate and low-advanced second language learners who must use their second language for professional purposes, ITAs face linguistic, social, professional, and cultural challenges. This is a learner population that deserves more attention, as I hope to establish here with this presentation of six research tasks. I have organized proposed research projects in such a way as to increase readers' familiarity with this little publicized field, and also to relate the projects to different contexts of inquiry. By 'contexts' I mean 'who is asking what and for what reasons.' The two contexts of inquiry are: (1) Established areas of ITA program concern, including acquisition of fluency, prosody, and vocabulary; and (2) Working with 'outside' theories, such as the Output Hypothesis, and deliberate practice theory.


Primitive ancestors of Homo sapiens and their colonizing bacteria have coevolved for approximately 500,000 years; some experts estimate that the total number of human cells is 1013 and the total number of colonizing microbes is 1014. Despite this 10-to-1 inequity, the balance of power is influenced by an intact human immune system and the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes. Operative procedures disrupt this balance, resulting in a risk of surgical-site infections from endogenous flora, including colonizing strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Each year in the United States, more than 30 million operative procedures are performed. The risk . . .


Inhabited by a number of indigenous groups, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh, is one of the most militarized regions in South Asia and the site of colonial and post-colonial wars, state-making, and displacement as well as development, indigenous movement and "alternative" development. The most recent war in the CHT, waged between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) and the Bangladesh security forces, was a low intensity war that endured for more than two decades, ending in 1997 with the CHT Treaty. This paper presents selected narratives of ethnic conflict, war and peacemaking in the CHT, as articulated by Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, the president of the PCJSS and the key architect of the insurgency war in CHT and the peace-making process. These narratives unfolded during an extensive interview conducted in the Bengali language in three parts that occurred between June 2008 and May 2009 in Dhaka and Rangamati. The paper, prompted by the occasion of twentieth anniversary of the CHT Treaty, has several aims. Specifically it seeks not only to problematize dominant narratives of religious nationalism in South Asia but also to give voices and space to indigenous peoples and their imaginaries of nations, alternative development and politics for achieving dignity and recognition.


A protein is generally classified into one of the following four structural classes: all alpha, all beta, alpha+beta and alpha/beta. In this paper, based on the weighting to the 20 constituent amino acids, a new method is proposed for predicting the structural class of a protein according to its amino acid composition. The 20 weighting parameters, which reflect the different properties of the 20 constituent amino acids, have been obtained from a training set of proteins through the linear-programming approach. The rate of correct prediction for a training set of proteins by means of the new method was 100%, whereas the highest rate of previous methods was 82.8%. Furthermore, the results showed that the more numerous training proteins, the more effective the new method.


In III patients with hypertension the activity of renin in blood plasma and excretion of kallikrein and kinins in urine and in 53 the activity of carboxycatepsin were determined. Hypertensive patients showed enhanced renin activity and excretion of kallikrein and kinins with urine. A more significant rise of these figures is noted during the early stage of illness, with labile arterial hypertension. In stable hypertension renin activity is lower than in the labile form, however this index remained higher than in the control group. Activity of kallikrein-kinin system and of carboxykatepsin in stable hypertension drops below normal.


Estuarine outflow plumes are important coastal processes whose variable nature can make it difficult to monitor using traditional ship-based surveys. Satellite ocean color observations of the optical properties of coastal surface waters can be used to distinguish plume water from ambient water masses, particularly based on increased concentrations of Total Suspended Matter (TSM) in the plumes. In this work, 71 MERIS scenes were considered, covering the region surrounding the Douro river mouth. An automatic procedure for the identification of the Douro river plume has been proposed based on the thresholding of the MERIS data through an automatic search for the optimum value of the threshold parameter TSMcutoff. A manual identification of the river plumes was manually performed by two operators, in order to evaluate the performance of the automatic method. A set of attributes for the characterization of the river plume in terms of shape and TSM concentration was also proposed. A high and significant correlation of 0.719 was achieved between the river plume size and river discharges, which increases up to 0.838 excluding two of the images. Moreover, it was found a significant correlation between the river discharges and the orientation of the river plume, which is associated with important practical considerations in terms of sedimentary balance. Significant advances on the spatial-temporal analysis of the Douro river plume from MERIS data has been achieved in this work. Moreover, the proposed methodology may also be applied to other study areas and sources of remote sensing data.


Background: This study evaluates whether the initial amount of dietary protein intake could influence the combined effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and citrulline (CIT), or HIIT alone, on body composition, muscle strength, and functional capacities in obese older adults. Methods: Seventy-three sedentary obese older men and women who completed a 12-week elliptical HIIT program with double-blinded randomized supplementation of CIT or placebo (PLA) were divided into four groups according to their initial protein intake (CIT–PROT+: n = 21; CIT–PROT−: n = 19; PLA–PROT+: n = 19; PLA–PROT−: n = 14). Body composition (fat and fat-free masses), handgrip (HSr) strength, knee extensor (KESr) strength, muscle power, and functional capacities were measured pre-intervention and post-intervention. Results: Following the intervention, the four groups improved significantly regarding all the parameters measured. For the same initial amount of protein intake, the CIT–PROT− group decreased more gynoid fat mass (p = 0.04) than the PLA–PROT− group. The CIT–PROT+ group increased more KESr (p = 0.04) than the PLA–PROT+ group. In addition, the CIT–PROT− group decreased more gynoid FM (p = 0.02) and improved more leg FFM (p = 0.02) and HSr (p = 0.02) than the CIT–PROT+ group. Conclusion: HIIT combined with CIT induced greater positive changes than in the PLA groups. The combination seems more beneficial in participants consuming less than 1 g/kg/d of protein, since greater improvements on body composition and muscle strength were observed.


Observations on an epidemic of rabbit pox occurring in an isolated animal room during the winter of 1933-34 are reported. The clinical manifestations, consisting of a generalized papular eruption involving the skin and mucous membranes, together with blepharitis, ophthalmia, nasal discharge and lymphadenopathy were essentially similar to those noted in a pox epidemic of the previous year. This was true in general also of the pathological findings except that vacuolization, local necrosis and vesicle formation were seen in the epidermis, while in the previous year the microscopic pathology in the skin was confined to the corium. Evidence was presented indicating that the infection can be transmitted through the medium of a personal carrier, and that transmission in this manner can occur during the incubation period or before a definite diagnosis is possible. The findings also demonstrated that the etiological agents responsible for the disease reported here and that of the previous year were immunologically related, and that the immunity in recovered animals effectively persisted during the entire period for which data are available, 9 to 12 months. It appeared also that young animals suckling an immune doe were more refractory to the development of the lesions of rabbit pox than were the young of susceptible does.


Transmission load was one of the important parameters for engineering vehicle powertrain system, on the basis of calculating drive shaft torque values and ascertaining the measurement point positions, we selected resistance strain guages to design torque sensors and also chose a signal telemetry system, after using a self-made torque calibration bench to statically calibrate torque sensors, we developed a test system for loader drive shaft load. According to the given test program, we performed an actual loader experiment to measure torque at the loader drive shaft measurement points and analyzed the test waveforms. The results of bench calibration and actual loader test showed that the designed torque sensors had a high sensitivity and a good linearity, and the developed test system was correct and effective.


This paper presented key findings from the study which
aimed to assess the impacts of climate variability and local adaptation
strategies in selected villages of Mbeya and Makete Districts located in the
most upper Great Ruaha River catchment in Southern Tanzania. Together, the study districts cover a wide
range of climate change related hazards. Both qualitative and quantitative
methods are used for data collection and analysis. The study shows that, there
is significant change in
pattern and amount of rainfall contributing to water stress, making people more
vulnerable. Local communities are adapting to spatial and temporal climate
variability, with varying degrees of success. Traditional smallholder irrigated
systems used as adaptation strategies for crop production are characterized by
low water use efficiency and high water losses. This implies that, if
irrigation is managed properly, it can lead to sustainable increases in small farmer's productivity and
income, thus alleviating rural poverty and enhancing environmental management
objectives.


We improved the optical quality and stability of an exfoliated monolayer (ML) MoSe2 and chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown WS2 MLs by encapsulating and sealing them with both top and bottom few-layer h-BN, as tested by subsequent high-temperature annealing up to 873 K and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. These transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) MLs remained stable up to this maximum temperature, as seen visually. After the heating/cooling cycle, the integrated photoluminescence (PL) intensity at 300 K in the MoSe2 ML was ∼4 times larger than that before heating and that from exciton and trion PL in the analogous WS2 ML sample was ∼14 times and ∼2.5 times larger at 77 K and the exciton peak was ∼9.5 times larger at 300 K. This is attributed to the reduction of impurities, the lateral expulsion of contamination leading to clean and atomically flat surfaces, and the sealing provided by the h-BN layers that prevents the diffusion of molecules such as trace O2 and H2O to the TMD ML. Stability and optical performance are much improved compared to that in earlier work using top h-BN only, in which the WS2 ML PL intensity decreased even for an optimal gas environment. This complete encapsulation is particularly promising for CVD-grown TMD MLs because they have relatively more charge and other impurities than do exfoliated MLs. These results open a new route for improving the optical properties of TMD MLs and their performance and applications both at room and higher temperatures.


Veterinary Hospital of Education Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Bogor Agricultural University, received a Golden Retriever with clinical symptoms of anorexia, abdominal pain, vomiting and constipation in April 2016. Blood profile examination showed leukocytosis, erythropenia and low hemoglobin level. Radiographic examination without contrast showed a foreign body which is characterized by a large mass radiopaque in intestinal area. Forty-five minutes after the administration of radiographic contrast, contrast material was still in gastrium and only reached partial intestinal. Endoscopy examination showed there was irritation symptoms of the esophagus to gastrium. Black colored liquid was seen while the endoscope inserted into the gastric. Enterotomy was carried out to remove foreign objects. The foreign body is consisted of bones fragments and the plastic that was eaten by the patient. One week after surgery, the animals showed clinical symptoms and had a good appetite. These case can be prevented by not giving foods that contain animal bones and keeping animals in a dirty environment.


Vortex induced vibration aquatic clean energy (VIVACE) is a renewable energy (RE) device being developed that uses multiple oscillating circular cylinders in one degree of freedom to produce electrical energy due to fluid induced motion (FIM). VIVACE is a modular system intended for use in ubiquitous slow velocity water flows of rivers, tides and ocean currents. Velocities of 1 to 5 knots are to slow for use by turbines and represents a massive opportunity for widespread, continuous RE power.

VIVACE currently uses passive turbulence control (PTC), a pair of symmetrical roughened surfaces on the circular cylinder to increase amplitudes and therefore increase power output. PTC works by effecting the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) within the boundary layer and the separation of the water from the cylinder creating changes in the characteristics of forces on the cylinder. The problem with a roughened surface in the marine environment is become fouled by marine organisms and therefore lose its effectiveness.

The intent of this research is to investigate the likelihood of biofouling of the PTC and suggest an alternative using indentations partially covering a circular cylinder to act in a similar wat to PTC increasing amplitudes. Indentations are an alternative design because they have smooth surfaces which can be treated with anti-biofouling coatings while still creating the disturbance to the boundary layer mechanism that causes the increased amplitude.

A review of FIM, FSI and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is conducted to inform the research. A literature review is conducted on topics of current FIM technologies, surface roughness and indentation research on FIM and marine biofouling. The literature analysis strongly suggests that biofouling will be an issue for the current VIVACE PTC design. CFD using ANSYS is conducted to baseline the design against existing studies and then investigate four cases of indentations. Of the four indentation designs trialled they produce a reduced amplitude compared to PTC or completely dampened FIM. Further research with improved computational resources is required to complete this work.


The spillovers in knowledge among largely college-educated workers were among the key reasons for the impressive degree of economic growth and spread of entrepreneurship in the United States during the 1990s. Prior 'industrial policies' in the 1970s and 1980s did not advance growth because these were based on outmoded large manufacturing models. Zoltan Acs and Catherine Armington use a knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship to explain new firm formation rates in regional economies during the 1990s period and beyond. The fastest-growing regions are those that have the highest rates of new firm formation, and which are not dominated by large businesses. The authors of this text also find support for the thesis that knowledge spillovers move across industries and are not confined within a single industry. As a result, they suggest, regional policies to encourage and sustain growth should focus on entrepreneurship among other factors.


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the nature and prevalence of environmental scanning as practiced by organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and explore the impact of perceived uncertainty on the way various information sources are used in managerial decision-making. Specifically, by targeting firms in the region, the paper examines whether the degree and frequency of scanning activities influence the relationship between perceived uncertainty and the use of environmental information in making strategic decisions.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a cross-sectional research design, with self-administered questionnaires as the main mode of data collection, and uses quantitative data analysis tools to answer the research questions.

Findings
The study finds that perceived environmental uncertainty significantly influences scanning efforts in an organization, which in turn influence the use of environmental information in decision-making. Additionally, findings suggest that while perceived source quality significantly influences frequency of scanning, the influence of perceived source accessibility on scanning is statistically insignificant.

Research limitations/implications
The results of this study have several implications for academics in the field of strategic management and industry professionals involved in long range planning. Results indicate that scanning activities should be more extensive and frequent when perceived uncertainty is high and indicates the potential value of timely market research to assess demand, gather consumer feedback and respond to changing needs of the customers.

Originality/value
The study addresses an identified gap in the literature and adds to the existing body of work by exploring organizational practices in a unique cultural context and assessing a conceptual model that links perceived uncertainty and environmental scanning to strategic management practices.


The vertical electronic excitation energies for the narrow-bandgap polymers LBPF, EP37 and EP62 have been calculated using Density Functional Theory (DFT). Also the vertical excitation energies for the acceptor unit of LBPF have been calculated using the Hartree-Fock (HF), DFT and Coupled Cluster (CC) methods. The calculations cover the visible and infrared wave length region and two strong transitions are obtained, one corresponding to the pi to pi* transition and one corresponding to the pi to Acceptor transition. The excitation energies obtained from DFT are below the corresponding experimental results and attempts have therefore been made to perform bench-marking calculations using a hierarchy of CC methods.


There have been many robust image steganography methods that are invented in recent decades. However, this technique also may be used by malicious users to transmit dangerous information through the Internet beyond the control of the security agencies. How to detect and/or block potentially dangerous information transmission on the Internet through billions of images while not affecting the normal digital images becomes a challenging problem. Existing steganalysis methods or steganography attacking methods cannot be used for analyzing a large volume of digital images in a short time. In this paper, we propose an effective steganography attacking method that is not limited by the types of the steganography method. The proposed method can process the digital images to remove the potentially dangerous hidden information while keeping the digital image in a high visual quality. Inspired by the way in which printers and scanners work, our method decouples the human visual perception and the digital image's numerical values. It causes the numerical values of the image to change dramatically, and then the hidden information are largely damaged, while at the same time, the visual image quality can be maintained. Our experimental results have demonstrated that the peak signal-to-noise ratio of images can be above 32dB while the stego data are destroyed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Presents a QoS (quality of service) scheduler that assigns bandwidth over a wireless channel such that the amount of energy spent by a mobile device is minimized, while maintaining the QoS of the connections. Energy efficiency is an important issue for mobile computers, since they must rely on their batteries. We have designed and implemented an energy-efficient architecture and MAC protocol for wireless multimedia traffic. The scheduling is based on two mechanisms: (1) short-term transmission frame scheduling that concatenates the uplink and downlink traffic of a mobile device, and (2) long-term scheduling that tries to collect traffic as much as possible within the QoS requirements of the connections. The result is that the transceiver can be in a low-power operating mode for an extended period of time and that the number of operating mode transitions is reduced.


An application of the semi-solid alloy Al-6Si-2Mg to produce automobile components was carried out for farther development of this new alloy. The experiments were done in a self-developed SSM trial line composed of semi-continuous caster combined with electromagnetic stirring for feedstock billet production, 6-station induction reheating equipment for restoring thixotropy of SSM billet and modified die-casting unit for semi-solid thixoforming. The results show that Al-6Si-2Mg alloy has such a suitable fraction solid and low temperature sensitivity of fraction solid that the controllability of SSM process is increased greatly. The billets have uniformly fine microstructure with a higher degree of sphericity and also retain good thixotropic properties. During thixoforming, the die is filled completely, the microstructure of components is dense, and the primary phases are near spherical, and the mechanical property after heat treatment has good performance.


Creating filled or hollow channels within 3D tissues has become increasingly important in tissue engineering. Channels can serve as vasculature enhancing medium perfusion or as conduits for nerve regeneration. The 3D biofabrication seems to be a promising method to generate these structures within 3D constructs layer-by-layer. In this study, geometry and interface of bioprinted channels were investigated with micro-computed tomography and fluorescent imaging. In filament printing, size and shape of printed channels are influenced by their orientation, which was analyzed by printing horizontally and vertically aligned channels, and by the ink, which was evaluated by comparing channels printed with an alginate-gelatin hydrogel or with an emulsion. The influence of geometry and cell-embedding in the hydrogel on feature size and shape was investigated by printing more complex channels. The generation of hollow channels, induced through leaching of a support phase, was monitored over time. Horizontally aligned channels provided 16× smaller cross-sectional areas than channels in vertical orientation. The smallest feature size of hydrogel filaments was twice as large compared to emulsion filaments. Feature size and shape depended on the geometry but did not alter when living cells were embedded. With that knowledge, channels can be consciously tailored to the particular needs.


ABSTRACT Guo, X. and Chen, Z.B., 2020. Research on the allocation of ecological resources in urban small watershed based on improved optimization algorithm. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 425-429. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Rivers and the basins they cover are an important part of cities. In the process of continuous urban development, comprehensive planning based on river basins has become a trend of urban resource allocation research. In the study of specific urban watershed resource allocation methods, How to make the urban resource allocation program scientific has always been a hot topic. Aiming at this system problem, this paper proposes a set of urban resource allocation methods based on improved optimization algorithm, which mainly includes the design of multi-dimensional indicator system and the improvement of classical multi-objective optimization algorithm. Based on the new method, experiments were conducted on the real data of Beijing GUI River Valley. Experiments show that compared with the existing methods, the improved method has obvious advantages in terms of local search ability, convergence and space complexity. This method can be widely used in the study of ecological resource allocation in urban small watershed.


Background Release and insufficient removal of endogenous nucleic acids may be involved in triggering harmful autoimmune reactions important in the initiation of systemic autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Nucleic acid sensing molecules, such as the endosomal Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 7 and 9, have been linked to pathogenic autoimmune processes, but their role in RA is less clear. To gain more insight into the role of TLR9 in autoimmune arthritis, rats with pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) were treated with a TLR9 antagonist. To further investigate TLR9 involvement, serum transfer arthritis was induced in TLR9 knock-out mice. Materials and methods Arthritis was induced in mice with arthritogenic K/BxN serum and in rats with the mineral oil pristane. Rats were treated with a TLR9 antagonist every other day, starting one day before disease induction. Arthritis was scored using established scoring systems, inflammation and bone erosion were quantified by histological analysis. Furthermore, the role of TLR9 in osteoclast differentiation and activation was investigated in vitro. Results In the serum transfer model, which is independent of the adaptive immune system, arthritis severity was not changed in mice lacking a functional tlr9 gene. In PIA, which is T cell-dependent, the TLR9 antagonist reduced arthritis severity by ~50%. TLR9 inhibition led to reduced inflammation, bone erosion and cartilage degradation. However, when treatment was started after the onset of arthritis TLR9 inhibition did not influence disease severity. Treatment with the TLR9 antagonist influenced downstream signalling, mainly via NFκBp65, in lymph nodes. Remarkably, mRNA levels of TLR7 and TLR9 strongly differed in the course of in vitro osteoclastogenesis. Whereas TLR7 expression did not change throughout osteoclastogenesis, expression of TLR9 was higher in precursor cells than in mature osteoclasts and stimulation with a TLR9 agonist (CpG) completely inhibited osteoclastogenesis. Conclusions Taken together, the results suggest a role for TLR9 in the T cell-dependent initiation phase of PIA and thus an important involvement of the DNA (CpG) recognising TLR9 in the initiation of autoimmune arthritis and during osteoclastogenesis. The precise role(s) of TLR9 in the different stages of arthritis needs to be further elucidated in future experiments.


We describe the construction of plasmids which express fusion proteins representing various regions of Germiston virus M polyprotein. The fusion proteins were purified and inoculated into rabbits to produce antisera. The N- and C-terminal regions of the polyprotein induced specific antibodies which reacted with glycoproteins G2 and G1, respectively, and the intermediate region induced antibodies against the NSM polypeptide. This enabled us to determine the gene order: G2-NSM-G1. Glycoproteins G1 and G2 form the spikes on the surface of the virion. We attempted to determine the structural organization of the glycoproteins by using a membrane-permeable cross-linking reagent, dimethyl suberimidate, but were unable to demonstrate that G1 and/or G2 form oligomeric structures. We analysed the glycoproteins further and showed that, like peripheral membrane proteins, the G2 and NSM proteins are almost completely extracted into the aqueous phase of detergent Triton X114-treated cellular extracts, whereas glycoprotein G1 is distributed in almost equal proportions between the aqueous and the detergent fractions. This indicates that G1 is a membrane-associated protein, but its presence in the aqueous phase suggests that it is less hydrophobic than a typical membrane protein. We have also characterized the intracellular transport of the envelope glycoproteins from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex. Pulse-chase labelling followed by immunoprecipitation and treatment with endoglycosidase H (endo H) showed that both G1 and G2 are transported from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex. Conversion to the endo H-resistant form is a rather slow process which takes more than 2 h. The mature G1 and G2 proteins present in the virion particle contain almost completely endo-H-resistant glycans.


We theoretically investigate the emission spectrum for a Λ-type three-level atom trapped in the node of a standing wave. We show that the atomic center-of-mass motion not only directly affects the peak number, peak position, and peak height in the atomic emission spectrum, but also influences the effects of the cavity field and the atomic initial state on atomic emission spectrum.


Editing 3D models is a very challenging task, as it requires complex interactions with the 3D shape to reach the targeted design, while preserving the global consistency and plausibility of the shape. In this work, we present an intelligent and user-friendly 3D editing tool, where the edited model is constrained to lie onto a learned manifold of realistic shapes. Due to the topological variability of real 3D models, they often lie close to a disconnected manifold, which cannot be learned with a common learning algorithm. Therefore, our tool is based on a new deep learning model, DiscoNet, which extends 3D surface autoencoders in two ways. Firstly, our deep learning model uses several autoencoders to automatically learn each connected component of a disconnected manifold, without any supervision. Secondly, each autoencoder infers the output 3D surface by deforming a pre-learned 3D template specific to each connected component. Both advances translate into improved 3D synthesis, thus enhancing the quality of our 3D editing tool.


This paper highlights the astonishing diversity of both form and function in a group of protists that were once obscure, but which now attract considerable attention from cell biologists, evolutionists, ecologists, aquaculturists and even public health authorities. They surprise and confuse all those who learn about them. For example, having only 50% of the species photosynthetic, they have been claimed to be plants (algae) by botanists and animals (protozoa) by zoologists and were separately classified as such, but both were wrong: they are flagellated protists belonging to the Alveolates and evolutionarily diverged in the Neoproterozoic, long before true animals and plants. However, they left little trace until the Mesozoic when, according to the record left by their highly resistant resting cysts, they radiated rapidly. The most likely explanation for this is the development of shallow continental shelves. Unlike many other groups they show little signs of extinction at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, most major dinoflagellate lineages having persisted through more than 100 million years of Earth's history. As zooxanthellae they have contributed significantly to the success of reef-building corals. Present-day dinoflagellates are unusual in many ways. Their chromosomes are not constructed like all other eukaryotes, lacking histones. The nuclear envelope does not break down during mitosis and the spindle is extranuclear. They have multiple chloroplast types. The genome of the commonest type has fragmented into minicircles and only two genes have been identified in the mitochondrial genome. Their morphology is astonishingly diverse, ranging from unicellular to multicellular and even coenocytic. The heterotrophic forms have various, complex feeding mechanisms and even the photosynthetic ones may engulf prey (mixotrophy). They show remarkable examples of form mimicking multicellular organisms, such as resemblances to tapeworms, jellyfish, nematocysts and even eyes. They can be beneficial symbionts or deadly parasites. More than 70 species can produce deadly toxins which can kill marine life or, if concentrated by shellfish or fish, can kill


Background: Age-related declines in sexuality and increase in mental health complications have been well documented. However, whether these two phenomena are related has not been explored. The present study therefore aimed to investigate associations between a decline in sexuality and markers of mental health and wellbeing. Method: Data were collected in 2012/13 from 2,614 men and 3,217 women participating in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a population‐representative panel study of older adults (≥50y). Past-year declines in sexual desire, frequency of sexual activities, and sexual function were selfreported. Three markers of wellbeing (depressive symptoms, quality of life and life satisfaction) were assessed using validated scales. Associations between declines in sexuality and wellbeing were analysed using one-way independent analyses of variance, adjusted for a range of sociodemographic and health-related covariates. Results: Men and women who reported a past-year decline in sexual desire or frequency of sexual activities had a higher number of depressive symptoms (desire p=0.001, frequency p<0.001) and lower quality of life (all p<0.001). Decline in sexual desire was also associated with lower life satisfaction in men (p=0.012) and decline in frequency of sexual activities was associated with lower life satisfaction in women (p<0.001). Declines in erectile function in men and ability to become sexually aroused in women were also significantly associated with more depressive symptoms (p<0.001), lower quality of life (p<0.001) and lower life satisfaction (p<0.001 in men, p=0.024 in women). Conclusion: Older adults who experience a decline in sexuality report poorer wellbeing than those who do not.


By analysing data from the National Sample Survey for four rounds (1986–87, 1995–96, 2004 and 2014) this research focuses on changes in people's health seeking behaviour, the cost of treatment, and principal factors affecting health insurance premium payments by BPL and APL families. With variations between states, it is discovered that over time, less people sought care from public providers and more people preferred private providers. Despite the fact that both men and women are now more likely to seek treatment for their illnesses, a sizeable portion of the population (more in rural than in urban areas), still refuses treatment because they believe their illness is not serious enough to warrant it. Whilst the cost of healthcare has gone up over time, the difference between public and private costs of treatment has shrunk, possibly as a result of the higher recurring cost in public health facilities and imposing of user fees and cutting on the delivery of free medication. Since the middle of the 2000s, public insurance companies have offered low-cost hospitalisation insurance programmes like the Jan Arogya Bima Policy and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSYB) to help with the healthcare needs of the underprivileged sector of society. According to the insurance premiums, more households that paid premiums in 2004 and 2014 belonged to groups with higher Monthly Per Capita Expenditures (MPCE) and were not economically in the poorest tier. The inter-quintile MPCE differential (between the top and bottom quintile) also reveals significant inter-state disparities in terms of the percentage of households that paid a premium and the percentage of households that had health insurance. The factors that determine whether a family enrols in health insurance imply that increasing enrolment from the poor households got coverage through RSBY. At the national level, BPL/APL households with insurance reported, on average, higher hospitalisation costs than non-insured households, with the difference being significantly higher for urban households. This finding suggests the prevalence of insurance collusion and moral hazard, particularly in the cities from developed states of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Further, BPL households, particularly from rural India, have received very little financial relief as a result of the insurance.


Network externalities could be present for many low or zero emission technologies. One obvious example is alternative fuel cars, whose use value depends on the network of service stations. The literature has only briefy looked at environmentally benefcial technologies. Yet, the general literature on network effects is mixed on whether governments need to intervene in order to correct for network externalities. In this paper we study implications of network effects on environmental policy in a discrete time dynamic game. Firms sell a durable good. One type of durable is causing pollution when being used, while the other type is "clean". Consumers' utility increase in the number of other users of the same type of durable, which gives rise to the network effect. We find that the optimal tax depends on the size of the clean network. If starting from a situation in which the dirty network dominates, the optimal tax may exceed the marginal environmental damage, thereby charging consumers for more than just their own emissions. Applying a Pigovian tax may, on the contrary, fail to introduce a socially beneficial clean network.


Many practical digital library systems have had to deal with scalability of data collections and/or service provision. Early attempts at enabling this scalability focused on data/services closely coupled with or tightly integrated with various high performance computing platforms. This inevitably resulted in compromises and very specific solutions. This paper presents an analysis of current high performance systems and motivates for why utility computing can subsume existing models and better meet the needs of generic scalable digital library systems.


Swedish health care organizations are experiencing pressure to make ever greater efforts to rationalize and to increase effectiveness in the way they plan and provide services. In order to gain a better understanding of the current practice of the three groups of key actors in Swedish health care--politicians, senior civil servants and operational managers--and their perception of effectiveness, a study was carried out in a Swedish county council using both qualitative and quantitative methods. While in general the concept of effectiveness is thought of as crucial, it is not clearly or uniformly defined within the organization. Each of the three groups defines the concept in a way that reflects their own function, which may lead efforts to achieve effectiveness into a blind alley.


The goal of this research was to improve the speed and accuracy of reporting by clinical radiologists. By applying a technique known as eigenimage processing to chest radiographs, abnormal findings were enhanced and a classification scheme developed. Results confirm that the method is feasible for clinical use. Eigenimage processing is a popular face recognition routine that has only recently been applied to medical images, but it has not previously been applied to full size radiographs. Chest radiographs were chosen for this research because they are clinically important and are challenging to process due to their large data content. It is hoped that the success with these images will enable future work on other medical images such as those from CT and MRI. Eigenimage processing is based on a multivariate statistical method which identifies patterns of variance within a training set of images. Specifically it involves the application of a statistical technique called principal components analysis to a training set. For this research, the training set was a collection of 77 normal radiographs. This processing produced a set of basis images, known as eigenimages, that best describe the variance within the training set of normal images. For chest radiographs the basis images may also be referred to as "eigenchests". Images to be tested were described in terms of eigenimages. This identified patterns of variance likely to be normal. A new image, referred to as the remainder image, was derived by removing patterns of normal variance, thus making abnormal patterns of variance more conspicuous. The remainder image could either be presented to clinicians or used as part of a computer aided diagnosis system. For the image sets used, the discriminatory power of a classification scheme approached 90%. While the processing of the training set required significant computation time, each test image to be classified or enhanced required only a few seconds to process. Thus the system could be integrated into a clinical radiology department.


Growing attention has been paid to the innovation of ecological products, prompted by rising environmental concerns. As a natural polymer, thermoplastic sago starch has been regarded as an alternative material to petroleum-based plastic owing to its availability, cost, and biodegradability. In order to produce thermoplastic starch materials with enhanced structural and functional stability during use, kenaf fibers were incorporated as the reinforcing filler. In this work, thermoplastic sago starch (TPSS)/kenaf core fiber (KF) biocomposites were prepared at different fiber loadings (0 to 35 wt.%), and the effects of fiber loading were analyzed by mechanical tests, TGA, FTIR, SEM, and water absorption behavior. The tensile analysis showed a linear increase in strength and modulus upon increasing fiber content until it reached an optimum at 30 wt.% fiber loading. The thermal stability of biocomposites was improved slightly by the incorporation of kenaf fibers into TPSS matrices. FTIR results indicated a change in the functional group of the biocomposites. Moreover, the interfacial adhesion properties of biocomposites were evident from morphological studies of tensile fracture surfaces. It is interesting to note that water absorbed by the biocomposites was reduced by the addition of fiber, and it seems that the hydrophilic character was decreased especially for the glycerol-plasticized sample. The results obtained clearly illustrate the potential use of these fiber and biopolymers to establish their suitability as alternative biocomposite materials.


Today, online privacy is the domain of regulatory measures and privacy-enhancing technologies. Transparency in the form of external and public assessments has been proposed for improving privacy and security because it exposes otherwise hidden deficiencies. Previous work has studied privacy attitudes and behavior of consumers. However, little is known on how organizations react to measures that employ public "naming and shaming" as an incentive for improvement. We performed the first study on this aspect by conducting a qualitative survey with 152 German health insurers. We scanned their websites with PrivacyScore.org to generate a public ranking and confronted the insurers with the results. We obtained a response rate of 27%. Responses ranged from positive feedback to legal threats. Only 12% of the sites - mostly non-responders - improved during our study. Our results show that insurers struggle due to unawareness, reluctance, and incapability, and demonstrate the general difficulties of transparency-based approaches.


The objective is to investigate flow topology and related Reynolds-number scaling in the eigenframe of the strain-rate tensor for wall-bounded turbulent flows. The databases used in the current study are from direct numerical simulations (DNS) of fully developed channel flow up to friction Reynolds number Reτ ≈ 1500, and a spatially developing, zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer up toReθ ≈ 4300 (Reτ ≈ 1400). It is found that for all cases considered, the averaged flow patterns in the local strainrate eigenframe appear universal: large scale motions are separated by a shear layer with a pair of vortices. Based on Kolmogorov (η ,uη ), Taylor (lt ) and integral length scales, Reynolds-number scalings of the averaged flow patterns, including the thickness and strength of the shear layer, the distance between the two vortical regions, and the velocity distribution along the most compressing and stretching directions are considered. It is found that the Taylor scaling of the profiles for the thickness of the shear layer seems more suitable than the Kolmogorov scaling, and the integral scaling collapses well away from the shear layer, which confirms that those patterns represent large scales. Generally speaking, the scaling profiles based on the Kolmogorov length and velocity collapse well near the origin, but the Taylor scaling seems best suited in a broader region.


The name Anthony P. F. Turner, biosensor pioneer, is often considered synonymous with his chosen field. This 5th June will be his 61st birthday. We track here his professional footprint, in order to celebrate his upcoming birthday and to commemorate his 31-years of dedication to biosensors. Commemorating this pioneer"s achievements is a multidisciplinary celebration of his prominent contribution to biotechnology, chemistry, biomaterials and nanotechnology. Copyright © 2011 VBRI press.