Many studies have documented that erosion reduces crop yields (Langdale and
Shrader, 1982; Follet and Stewart, 1985; Am. Soc. Ag. Engr., 1985). Few of
those studies have incorporated the effect on yield of changes in technology
(Young, 1984) and only one, to our knowledge, has considered the effect of
yield-enhancing agricultural technical progress on erosion damage assessment
(Walker and Young, 1986). Lost yield potential is the major on-site effect
of erosion. Off-site effects in the form of sedimentation and impaired water
quality are also important but are not discussed here. A conservation practice
that reduces erosion and yield damage produces a benefit from conservation.
This potential benefit, in the form of yield damage avoided, is the
objective of soil conservation research and conservation adoption. Understanding
the cost of erosion damage and the benefits from erosion control are
essential for developing long range policies for conserving soil resources.
The tri-state STEEP multidisciplinary research program is dedicated to finding
solutions to the erosion problems in the Pacific Northwest. STEEP
research results concerning the long term productivity impacts of erosion are
the focus of this paper.
This paper describes the different types of erosion damage and presents concepts
for correctly measuring that damage or the potential benefits from erosion
control. STEEP research is presented to show the effect of erosion on
the soil resource and on crop productivity. The potential for restoring productivity
on eroded soils is discussed. The paper also describes how to separate
the effects of technology and yield damage and presents empirical estimates
of conservation benefits.
A first classification of erosion damage distinguishes between current damage
and long-term damage. Current erosion damage is due primarily to seedbed erosion,
reduced tillering, and plant suffocation by sediment, all of which
reduce stand density. Current damage is yield loss this year due to erosion
this year. These erosional effects do not carry over into subsequent years.
Long-term erosion damage occurs when erosion this year reduces yield in
future years. This yield loss is due to the loss of nutrient-rich topsoil,
to degradation of soil structure and to reduction of plant-available water-holding capacity of eroded soil. Long-term damage is of great concern because
its effects are enduring, even irreversible in large part. Estimates of the
long-term productivity benefits of soil conservation are formulated in terms
of long-term erosion damage avoided by conservation.


A major goal of molecular systems biology is to understand the coordinated function of genes or proteins in response to cellular signals and to understand these dynamics in the context of disease. Signaling pathway databases such as KEGG, NetPath, NCI-PID, and Panther describe the molecular interactions involved in different cellular responses. While the same pathway may be present in different databases, prior work has shown that the particular proteins and interactions differ across database annotations. However, to our knowledge no one has attempted to quantify their structural differences. It is important to characterize artifacts or other biases within pathway databases, which can provide a more informed interpretation for downstream analyses. In this work, we consider signaling pathways as graphs and we use topological measures to study their structure. We find that topological characterization using graphlets (small, connected subgraphs) distinguishes signaling pathways from appropriate null models of interaction networks. Next, we quantify topological similarity across pathway databases. Our analysis reveals that the pathways harbor database-specific characteristics implying that even though these databases describe the same pathways, they tend to be systematically different from one another. We show that pathway-specific topology can be uncovered after accounting for database-specific structure. This work present the first step towards elucidating common pathway structure beyond their specific database annotations.


OBJECTIVE
To test for and estimate variation among rheumatologists in their prescribing of prednisone and second-line agents for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), after taking into account the characteristics of their patients.

METHODS
Multiple logistic regression incorporating random effects for rheumatologists, with adjustment for patient characteristics.

RESULTS
Values for the likelihood-ratio statistic provided strong evidence of such variation. Random-effect variance estimates showed that the variation is of great magnitude.

CONCLUSION
Even after patient characteristics have been taken into account, the data show that the rheumatologist may strongly influence the use of prednisone and second-line agents by a patient.


We explore how an organization's financial misconduct may affect pay for former employees not implicated in wrongdoing. Drawing on stigma theory we hypothesize that although such alumni did not participate in the financial misconduct and they had left the organization years before the misconduct, they experience a compensation penalty. Our results support this prediction. The stigma effect increases in relation to the job function proximity to the misconduct, recency of the misconduct, and an employee's seniority. Collectively, our results suggest that the stigma of financial misconduct could reach alumni employees and need not be confined to executives and directors that oversaw the organization during the misconduct.


Welcome to New York in the 1960s! "Art and Design in 1960s New York," a key component of Amanda Gluibizzi's Doctor of Philosophy research at the "Graduate School of The Ohio State University," has been first published in the UK and USA in 2021 by Anthem Press, and the book is now available to acquire on major websites. Anthem Press is a leading independent academic, professional, and trade publisher with a strong international and interdisciplinary focus in the established and emerging social sciences, business/law, and humanities fields of study. The Rail's art editor is Amanda Gluibizzi, who is the co-founder and co-director of the New Foundation for Art History, as well as the author of the book titled "Art and Design in 1960s New York." She is a well-known art historian, researcher, and associate professor. She has a background in history, education, teaching, and publishing, as well as a specialisation in modern and contemporary art and design. Two of her notable research talks and papers are "Design Systems: What Not to Include" at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and "Making New York Understandable": Revolutionary Proposals for a City in Crisis-Design, History, and Revolution at Parsons New School in New York. The author takes a broader view of New York's "Visual World" in the 1960s. The author uses a formal approach to explore the relationship between art and design and highlight their mutual influence, which has been overlooked throughout history. The author employs ethnographic and multidisciplinary methods throughout the book to highlight the art and design experiments and challenges in 1960s New York. The author examines design and art side-by-side to explore how their relationship manifests itself. The author included quotations and excerpts from journals, books, magazines, newspapers, interviews, and film scenes, in addition to diverse analyses of visuals and literature cognate to art and design. This research-based book gives readers an opportunity to take a look back with curiosity at the art and graphic design of 1960s New York.


Verapamil hydrochloride is a calcium ion influx inhibitor, which is used widely in the treatment of angina pectoris, hypertension and supraventricular tachyarrhythmias and used as conventional and sustained release dosage form. Present study is aimed at proper designing of the formulation parameters in terms of the excipient incorporation. Excipients include broadly hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers, plasticizers and penetration enhancer. Polymers includes ethyl cellulose, hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose K4M and polyvinyl pyrrolidone.Polyvinyl alcohol was used as to prepare backing membrane, Dibutyl phthalate was used as plasticizer and DMSO was used as transdermal penetration enhancer. After preparation of the transdermal patches, they were examined in respect to several physicochemical properties thickness, percent moisture content, percent moisture absorption, percent flatness, tensile strength, weight variation to satisfy the suitable physicochemical criteria for transdermal patch. For all the formulations, invitro release and skin permeation of the drug with and without incorporation of penetration enhancer (DMSO) through abdominal skin of albino rat were studied using Keshary-Chien diffusion cell. Formulation containing increased proportion of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose K4M and polyvinyl pyrrolidone showed faster release of drug over a period of 24 hours where as increased proportion of ethyl cellulose produce a prolonged release of drug through transdermal route for a period of more than 24 hours. DMSO significantly increased the permeation of drug through abdominal skin of albino rat.


Project Goals: The BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) focuses on fundamental understanding and elimination of biomass recalcitrance. BESC's approach to improve accessibility to the sugars within biomass involves (1) improved plant cell walls for rapid deconstruction and (2) multi-talented microbes for converting plant biomass into biofuels in a single step [consolidated bioprocessing (CBP)]. Biomass research works with two potential bioenergy crops (switchgrass and Populus) to develop improved varieties and to understand cell wall biosynthesis pathways. We test large numbers of natural variants and generate specific modified plants samples. BESC's research in deconstruction and conversion targets CBP manipulating thermophilic anaerobes and their cellulolytic enzymes for improved conversion, yields, and titer. Enabling technologies in biomass characterization, 'omics, and modeling are used to understand chemical and structural changes within biomass and to provide insights into mechanisms.


This work presents the development of computational models that capture vorticity generation and turbulent diffusion within wind and hydrokinetic turbine farms. The use of vortex methods is examined as an alternative for modeling turbulent wakes and rotor-wake interaction. The vorticity-velocity formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations are simulated by a hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian method involving both fluid particles that carry vorticity and mesh discretizations which enable an efficient solution to N-body vorticity dynamics. A "mesh free" particle-strength-exchange (PSE) algorithm and a "particle-mesh" vortex-in-cell (VIC) algorithm are implemented for a series of benchmarks to verify the simulation method for low Reynolds number flows, including: vortex ring dynamics, flow over bluff bodies, and a 3D wing. These examples are presented on a variety of computer architectures, with support for distributed-memory parallelism, multi-core, and GPGPU computing. The scalability and stability of these proposed vortex methods shows potential for modeling the large range of scales present between rotor-scale and farm-scale hydrodynamics. The desired feature of this methodology is faithful prediction of unsteady phenomenon, capture of vortex shedding, and tracking the evolution of vortical structures as they evolve and interact with immersed structures and ambient turbulent flow.


Abstract This paper presents a logic framework for modeling the interaction among deductive databases in a peer-to-peer (P2P) environment. Each peer joining a P2P system provides or imports data from its neighbors by using a set of mapping rules, that is, a set of semantic correspondences to a set of peers belonging to the same environment. By using mapping rules, as soon as it enters the system, a peer can participate and access all data available in its neighborhood, and through its neighborhood it becomes accessible to all the other peers in the system. A query can be posed to any peer in the system and the answer is computed by using locally stored data and all the information that can be consistently imported from the neighborhood. Two different types of mapping rules are defined: mapping rules allowing to import a maximal set of atoms not leading to inconsistency (called maximal mapping rules) and mapping rules allowing to import a minimal set of atoms needed to restore consistency (called minimal mapping rules). Implicitly, the use of maximal mapping rules states it is preferable to import as long as no inconsistencies arise; whereas the use of minimal mapping rules states that it is preferable not to import unless a inconsistency exists. The paper presents three different declarative semantics of a P2P system: (i) the Max Weak Model Semantics, in which mapping rules are used to import as much knowledge as possible from a peer's neighborhood without violating local integrity constraints; (ii) the Min Weak Model Semantics, in which the P2P system can be locally inconsistent and the information provided by the neighbors is used to restore consistency, that is, to only integrate the missing portion of a correct, but incomplete database; (iii) the Max-Min Weak Model Semantics that unifies the previous two different perspectives captured by the Max Weak Model Semantics and Min Weak Model Semantics. This last semantics allows to characterize each peer in the neighborhood as a resource used either to enrich (integrate) or to fix (repair) the knowledge, so as to define a kind of integrate–repair strategy for each peer. For each semantics, the paper also introduces an equivalent and alternative characterization, obtained by rewriting each mapping rule into prioritized rules so as to model a P2P system as a prioritized logic program. Finally, results about the computational complexity of P2P logic queries are investigated by considering brave and cautious reasoning.


Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a grade IV astrocytoma, is the most common and deadly type of primary malignant brain tumor, with a patien's median survival rate ranging from 12 to 15 months. Over the last fifteen years, the treatment for GBM has included maximal safe surgical resection with combination radiotherapy and adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy. The low efficacy of mentioned therapies has forced researchers to explore an appropriate alternative or complementary treatment for GBM. It has been shown that curcumin has therapeutic potentials to fight against GBM via affecting on cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, invasion and angiogenesis pathways. In addition, curcumin possess a synergistic impact with chemotherapeutic agents. Herein, we summarized the current findings on curcumin as potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of GBM.


Laser surface texturing improved tribological property is regarded as an optimistic method. However, many technological parameters have crisscross effects on surface topographies, the complexity of relations between variables devoted to a tough way to express functions accurately. Meanwhile, enough basic tents of theory can be borrowed to interruption for obtained the expectation in the process of micro-texturing on critical surfaces. And thus pumping current and number of laser pulse were chosen and studied for improving the surface topographies realized by Nd3+: YAG laser, assisting a better expectation of reduction of abrasive grains. The single-factor method was exerted in the process of analysis, one international 3D-morphology meter and its accessory codes were adopted before the analysis of constitutive influence from pumping current and pulse times in given duration on characteristic parameters of texturing surface, the results are shown in figures by Abbott curve and characteristic parameters which were compared in the literate.


Capabilities of methanol extracts from oregano and rosemary in retarding oxidation of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid C22:6 (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid C20:5 (EPA), in menhaden oil were investigated. The fish oils after mixing with the extracts at different concentrations were oxidized in an accelerated study by heating at 150 degrees C for 30 min or incubating at 60 degrees C for 5 d. After heating at 150 degrees C, only 15.9% of DHA and 18.5% of EPA remained in the fish oil without extract, while 38.8% to 65.9% of DHA and 44.7% to 69.0% of EPA were retained in the fish oil mixed with 1% to 5% of oregano extract. The highest retained DHA (56.9%) and EPA (58.0%) in the fish oils mixed with rosemary extract were observed at 2.5% addition. Increasing rosemary extract to 5% lowered its capability of inhibiting DHA and EPA oxidation. After incubation at 60 degrees C for 5 d, the highest inhibition capability was also found at 2.5% of added rosemary extract, and the oil retained 88.2% DHA and 88.3% EPA. However, only 18.8% DHA and 23.6% EPA were retained in the fish oil mixed with 5% of oregano extract and no DHA and EPA were detected in the fish oil without extract after 5-d incubation at 60 degrees C. Thus, antioxidant activity of the rosemary extract was greater than that of oregano extract, but was sensitive to heat. The rosemary extract also demonstrated higher DPPH (2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging capability, which was approximately 3 times higher than oregano extract, although there was no significant difference in the total phenolic contents between both extracts.


Although highly active antiretroviral regimen' (HAART) reduces HIV-related morbidity and mortality, it affects patients and induces HIV viral resistance which could lead to more complex therapeutic regimens. The present study evaluated and compared the cost-effectiveness of a protease inhibitor based highly active antiretroviral regimen' (PHAART) with a non nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor based highly active antiretroviral regimen' (NHAART) in HIV-patients. The impact of initial HAART was investigated using retrospective cost analysis over a 10-year period and 6 months prospective HRQoL analysis of 150 patients (male 125, mean age 40 years) attending the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and the University Hospital of Wales. Data was collected on each patient's care resource utilization and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessed using the Health Utility Index Mark III (HUI3) questionnaire. The effect of the HAART regimen, demographic attributes and clinical characteristics on costs and HRQoL were analyzed using a multilevel model of change. A Markov Monte Carlo model was then developed to simulate the impact, and evaluate the cost effectiveness, of both regimens beyond the study time horizon. The mean monthly outpatient cost for all patients was estimated to be 237.59. Patients receiving NHAART as the initial regimen cost significantly more (p 0.01, mean 262.19) than patients receiving PHAART (mean 234.98). Other factors associated with higher costs were being a non-British national, having a low CD4 count, a high viral load, and having AIDS. Patients receiving an initial NHAART regimen had a significantly better HRQoL (p 0.05). Factors associated with a higher HRQoL included being in employment and being in the asymptomatic stage of HIV. With respect to lifetime cost-effectiveness analysis, PHAART was found to be more cost-effective as an initial regimen since the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of 8,871 per quality adjusted life years (QALY) gained, was below the UK threshold of 30,000 per QALY. The findings of this study indicate that patients receiving NHAART as their initial regimen had higher outpatient costs than those initiated on PHAART, but had a better HRQoL. In the long term, however, PHAART was estimated to be more cost- effective than NHAART as an initial regimen for HIV patients.


We observed 29 patients with hyponatremia associated with oropharyngeal carcinoma. In 19/29 the hyponatremia was attributable to a decreased effective arterial blood volume whereas in the remainder (10/29) the presence of SIADH could be demonstrated. These etiologies of hyponatremia were best differentiated by the plasma urea concentration (less than 30 mg/dl in SIADH), urate concentration (less than 4,0 mg/dl in SIADH) and creatinine concentration (less than 0,9 mg/dl in SIADH). Furthermore, SIADH patients had a spontaneous natriuresis. The mainstay of therapy in either form of hyponatremia is fluid restriction (less than 1 l/d).


The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of human capital (e.g., English ability and educational attainment) and social capital (e.g., ethnic bonding capital and bridging social capital to main society) on the economic integration (e.g. Income, employment, occupation prestige, and welfare utilization) of immigrant in the United State. The current study addressed the following hypotheses: 1) Immigrants' human capital would have an effect on the economic integration of immigrants, 2) Immigrants' human capital would have an indirect effect on the economic integration of immigrants via ethnic bonding social capital, and 3) Immigrants' human capital would have an indirect effect on the economic integration of immigrants via bridging social capital to mainstream. It was also hypothesized that the indirect effect of human capital on immigrants' economic integration will be different, depending on the types of social capital. To address these hypotheses, secondary data analysis was conducted, using data from the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles Survey (IIMMLA), which investigated assimilation patterns among six Latino and Asian groups in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in 2004. Given that this study aimed to examine the roles that human and social capital play in the process of immigrants' economic integration into the host society, the current study focused on the 1st/1.5th, and 2nd generations (N=3,440). Using Mplus 7, structural equation modeling (SEM) path analyses were conducted to test theoretical mediation models. The results, first, showed that immigrants' human capital (education attainment and English ability) had a positive effect on their economic integration such as income, prestige occupation, employment, and welfare utilization. Second, immigrants' ethnic bonding and bridging social capitals had a positive effect on income, but this positive effect of social capital was not detected for other economic integration outcomes. Third, education attainment had a positive effect on both ethnic bonding and bridging social capital, whereas English ability had mixed effects on social capital; English ability decreased ethnic bonding social capital, but increased bridging social capital to mainstream society. As a result, lastly, there was two positive indirect effects of human capital via social capital on income (English→ bridging social capital→ income, and Education attainment→ bridging social capital→ income), and one negative pathway of human capital to income (English→ bonding social capital→ income). Implications and limitations were discussed.


Objectives: To analyse the variability in health status within as well as between socioeconomic groups. What is the range of individual variability in the health effects of socioeconomic status? Is the adverse effect of lower socioeconomic status uniform across the entire distribution of health status? Design: Nationally representative telephone survey of the US population in 1996. Setting: 60 US metropolitan and rural areas. Participants: 47 076 adult respondents to the community tracking study. Main outcome measures: Self rated physical and mental health status, measured by the Short Form-12 instrument. Results: There is considerable variability in self rated health within socioeconomic strata and that variability increases in a step-wise fashion at each lower stratum of income. Most of the increased variability is accounted for by changes in the middle and lower (10th, 25th, and 50th centiles) rather than the upper (75th and 90th) portions of the distribution. A resilient subgroup of lower socioeconomic status people seems to maintain excellent self rated health throughout life, while a more vulnerable lower socioeconomic status group experiences rapid deterioration in health status as people reach middle age. Conclusions: Within the population level social structuring of health there are differences in individual resilience and vulnerability that are amenable to further exploration and potential modification.


An overview of the behavioral, electrophysiological and neurochemical data found in the literature concerning the involvement of serotonin (5-HT) receptors in the regulation of anxiety was presented on the basis of animal models. At present, 5-HT receptors are classified into 7 families including at least 14 subtypes. Among these 5-HT receptors, it is conceivable that 5-HT1A-receptor-mediated effects are the most important part of the mechanism of anxiety. The demonstrated efficacy of 5-HT1A-receptor partial agonists in anxiety disorders has emphasized the importance of these receptors. Enhanced anxiety was observed in mutant mice lacking 5-HT1A receptors. In 5-HT1B receptors knockout mice, on the other hand, aggressive behavior was increased. Some of the selective antagonists acting on 5-HT2 and 5-HT3 receptors have shown the anxiolytic effects in various animal models. Inactivation of mRNA encoding 5-HT6 receptors using antisense oligonucleotide produced decreases in cortical 5-HT release enhanced by anxiety. These observations lead to the suggestion that different mechanisms, mediated by various 5-HT receptors, are involved in the pathogenesis of anxiety.


For the geoscientist, interest in sediment dynamics relates to the understanding of modern processes, together with their extrapolation to the interpretation of ancient deposits within the stratigraphic record. Over the years, various measurement techniques and scientific approaches have been applied to the determination of sediment transport pathways and the derivation of erosion, transport and deposition rates. Recently, a number of new techniques and approaches have been developed, associated with different temporal and spatial scales, and it is appropriate and timely to review a representative selection, by reference to recently undertaken coastal and shelf investigations.

The various contributions in the volume cover, for example: optical and acoustic backscatter measurements; particle tracking; the use of mutibeam imagery; grain-size trend analysis; and analytic, numerical and conceptual modelling. Although no single method provides a complete solution to the problem posed, this overview will assist sedimentologists and sediment dynamicists in their selection of the most appropriate approaches, towards the establishment of 'high confidence' in the interpretation of sediment transport rates and directions.


The paper deals with measurement error, and its potentially distorting role, in information on industry and professional status collected by labour force surveys. The focus of our analyses is on inconsistent information on these employment characteristics resulting from yearly transition matrices for workers who were continuously employed over the year and who did not change job. As a case-study we use yearly panel data for the period from April 1993 to April 2003 collected by the Italian Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The analysis goes through four steps: (i) descriptive indicators of (dis)agreement; (ii) testing whether the consistency of repeated information significantly increases when the number of categories is collapsed; (iii) examination of the pattern of inconsistencies among response categories by means of Goodman's quasi-independence model; (iv) comparisons of alternative classifications. Results document sizable measurement error, which is only moderately reduced by more aggregated classifications. They suggest that even cross-section estimates of employment by industry and/or professional status are affected by non-random measurement error.


: The article contains results of laboratory and experimental investigation carried out for comparative estimation of antiviral activity of thymosin-alpha1 (Ta1) against herpes simplex virus (HSV). It was demonstrated that administration of tymosin-alpha1 in cultivated in vitro cellular system had been inoculated with HSV provided inhibition of HSV reproduction and defense of cells of HSV cytopathogenic action. Moreover Ta1 ability to inhibit HSV reproduction in cell was comparable with the same ability of human alpha-interferon. Besides it was demonstrated that Ta1 parenteral administration to mice infected with HSV leaded to reduce of mice morbidity percent and prolonged of their survival rate. Ta1 ability to depress experimental viral infection development was higher than same ability of acyclovir.


Years ago, I recommended that my City, my Polis, Gloucester, MA, never sell its natural resources to any outsider. Last year, with the passing of Fidel Castro, I saw a possibility for Cuba to become finally free. Naturally, I urged Cubans not to repeat the errors made by Russia and China at the collapse of communism; I urged Cubans not to sell their natural resources to the oligarchs, whether local or foreign. This time around, I also urged Cubans not to repeat the political errors of the past, namely trying to correct horrors of the left with horrors of the right; this time around I urged Cubans and anyone else who might want to hear to achieve a revolution from the center of the political system. With the forthcoming elections in Kenya, in the hope of averting the bloodshed that followed the 2007 elections there, I recently felt impelled to enlarge my focus to appeal to every nation in Africa, and the rest of the world for that matter, not to sell their natural resources to foreigners. The financial resources to achieve this goal are the same the world over: One must organize local financial resources, through: 1. Any such instrument as a Local Interdependence Fund; and 2. A reform of central bank operations to issue a) loans only to create real wealth; b) loans at cost; c) loans to benefit as many people as possible, hence loans to individual entrepreneurs, cooperatives, corporations with ESOPs and/or CSOPs, and to public agencies with taxing power to fund public works projects.


Neverov N.A., Belyaev V.V., Chistova Z.B., Kutinov Y.G., Staritsyn V.V., Polyakova E.V., Mineev A.L. (2017): Effects of geo-ecological conditions on larch wood variations in the North European part of Russia (Arkhangelsk region). J. For. Sci., 63: 192–197. The present study examines the macrostructure and density of larch wood and possible influences on the productivity of larch stands. The studies were conducted in the middle and sub-tundra taiga in the Arkhangelsk region. The selected trees were of the same age and diameter at breast height. In all sample plots the average annual ring width varied from 0.68 to 0.93 mm, the average content of latewood was about 29.7–35.1% and the average wood density of these old Siberian larch trees was 572 (500–698) kg·m–3. There were no significant differences between sample plots in terms of the latewood content, density and annual ring width of the growth rings. Wood macrostructure of larch wood has the same values in forests growing in the sub-tundra and middle taiga. A possible explanation for this is the location of these stands in the karst landscape, which possesses abundant mineral nutrition. Geological factors are surpassing the influence of climatic factors and contribute to the formation of productive larch stands in the subtundra taiga in the European part of Russia.


This paper puts forward a new method of pre-stress hard cutting which integrates pre-stress and hard cutting technology. A thermo-mechanical coupling model of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for pre-stress hard cutting on material 42CrMo steel is established. In this model, chip-work separating is made by applying shear fracture failure criterion, element deletion and adaptive mesh technique based on arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method. The key technology for FEA, such as intrinsic equation of workpiece material, chip separating criterion and friction model of tool-chip interface and thermal conduction equation are researched respectively. Then FE simulation of chip forming and cutting force in pre-stress hard cutting is made and relationship between pre-stress and residual stress on machined surface under various cutting conditions is got. Simulation result is compared with that of experiment and found they are good in accordance.


Integrative design of communication mechanism and coordinated control law is an interesting and important problem for multi-agent networks. In this paper, we consider distributed coordination of discrete-time second-order multi-agent systems with partially measurable state and a limited communication data rate. A quantized-observer based encoding-decoding scheme is designed, which integrates the state observation with encoding/decoding. A distributed coordinated control law is proposed for each agent which is given in terms of the states of its encoder and decoders. It is shown that for a connected network, 2-bit quantizers suffice for the exponential asymptotic synchronization of the states of the agents. The selection of controller parameters and the performance limit are discussed. It is shown that the algebraic connectivity and the spectral radius of the Laplacian matrix of the communication graph play key roles in the closed-loop performance. The spectral radius of the Laplacian matrix is related to the selection of control gains, while the algebraic connectivity is related to the spectral radius of the closed-loop state matrix. Furthermore, it is shown that as the number of agents increases, the asymptotic convergence rate can be approximated as a function of the number of agents, the number of quantization levels (communication data rate) and the ratio of the algebraic connectivity to the spectral radius of the Laplacian matrix of the communication graph.


INTRODUCTION
Cardiogenic shock is associated with significant mortality, particularly when caused by myocardial infarction. Intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) is the primary hemodynamic adjunct in patients with cardiogenic shock; however, evidence suggests that IABP may not improve mortality in this population.

METHODS
We conducted an electronic search of the Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane trial registry databases. Two reviewers independently screened citations and identified eligible trials. The same reviewers abstracted data independently. We pooled the data using a fixed effect model and reported dichotomous outcomes as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subsequently, we used the GRADE approach to judge the quality of evidence.

RESULTS
We included 4 randomized trials with 735 patients. The use of IABP did not reduce the risk of death in patients with cardiogenic shock secondary to cardiac ischemia when compared with usual care (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.79-1.13; P = 0.52; I² = 0%; moderate confidence). The use of IABP was not associated with an increased risk of stroke (RR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.22-2.69; P = 0.68; I² = 48%; very low confidence), limb ischemia (RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.59-2.59; P = 0.58; I² = 0%; low confidence), or major bleeding (RR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.34-1.72; P = 0.52; I² = 0%; low confidence).

CONCLUSIONS
The use of IABP in patients with cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial ischemia does not reduce mortality (moderate confidence) and is not associated with a higher risk of complications (very low to low confidence). The results should be interpreted with caution owing to limitations such as imprecision, risk of bias, and clinical heterogeneity.


A 58 year old female with a history of end stage renal disease on hemodialysis, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, ischemic cardiomyopathy, and adrenal insufficiency, presented from home with altered mental status and hypotension. She developed refractory hypotension requiring vasopressors and was admitted to the medical ICU for management of septic shock due to bacterial peritonitis. She was intubated and had an oro-gastric tube placed for enteral nutrition. However, significantly elevated gastric residuals developed secondary to delayed gastric emptying. We decided to place a post-pyloric Dobhoff tube as an alternative gastric access to continue enteral feeding. Since a Cortrak machine (an electromagnetic-guided enteral access system) was unavailable, we used a two-step approach with a portable chest x-ray to assess accurate and safe placement.


The spectra of natural oscillations of human erythrocyte cell membranes were studied experimentally and theoretically. The measurements were carried out at room temperature for both single normal cells and erythrocyte rouleaux in a range of 0.03-500 Hz. The spectra were measured at a resolution better than 1% using two techniques: registration of spontaneous membrane oscillations induced by thermal agitation in the surrounding medium and registration of the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the forced oscillations of erythrocyte elongation induced by a high-frequency electric field with the amplitude harmonic modulation. The spectra measured by both techniques had no resonance frequencies and decreased monotonically with the frequency increase. These results are confirmed by the theory developed for the extracellular excitation mechanisms of membrane oscillations. The spectra of active oscillatory biomechanical processes were measured for comparison. These processes are ciliary beating of human bronchial epithelium and ciliary beating and artificial periodic contractions of the cytoplasm of the ciliate Spirostomum ambiguum. The quality of the resonance lines of the order of 10-20 registered may serve as estimates for the line width in search of the resonance oscillations in erythrocytes induced by active cell processes.


The fundamental question in change-point analysis is whether an observed stochastic process follows one model or whether the underlying model changes at least once during the observational period. Most of the older works discuss independent observations, yet from a practical point of view cases of dependent data have become more and more important. In this dissertation we develop testing procedures for dependent models. In change-point analysis critical values for testing procedures are usually obtained by distributional asymptotics. These critical values, however, do not sufficiently reflect dependency. Moreover it is a well-known fact that convergence rates especially for extreme-value statistics are very slow. Using resampling methods we obtain better approximations, which take possible dependency structures more efficiently into account. We prove that the original statistics and their resampling counterparts follow the same distributional asymptotics. First we obtain limit theorems for the corresponding rank statistics, which then combined with laws of large numbers imply the resampling asymptotics conditionally on the given data. In a first part we consider abrupt and gradual changes in models of possibly dependent observations satisfying a strong invariance principle. The main part of this dissertation studies a location model with dependent errors that form a linear process. Different types of statistics are considered, such as maximum-type statistics (particularly different CUSUM procedures) or sum-type statistics. The resampling-methods have to be adapted to allow for dependent errors. Thus, we analyze a block bootstrap as well as a bootstrap in the frequency domain. Finally, some simulation studies illustrate that the permutation tests usually behave better than the original tests if performance is measured by the type I and II errors, respectively.


Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) plays important roles in immune responses. In order to examine whether ICAM-1 is involved in pathogenesis of adjuvant arthritis (AA), we investigated the effect of anti-ICAM-1 mAb, 1A29, on AA in rats. In vivo administration of 1A29 exerted a very strong suppressive effect on the development of arthritis and induced a marked reduction of inflammatory parameters. 1A29 suppressed the Ag-specific proliferative response of lymph node cells from AA rats, suggesting that the mAb blocked the Ag recognition phase. The study using adoptive transfer of AA revealed that 1A29 completely inhibited production of arthritogenic lymphocytes in donors and partially suppressed progression of arthritis in recipients caused by these lymphocytes. These findings indicated that the inhibitory effect of 1A29 on development of arthritis was at least twofold, i.e., 1) interference with cell-cell interaction between APC and T cells, which resulted in abrogation of effector cell generation; and 2) blocking of effector cell migration to inflammatory lesions. These results indicated that ICAM-1-dependent pathway is critically involved in the pathogenesis of AA. The data support the concept that ICAM-1-dependent pathways are important in chronic inflammatory disease.


The effect of heat recovery ventilation on indoor temperature, carbon emissions and energy efficiency of variable refrigerant volume (VRV) system in a hotel building were investigated. The distribution of temperature in different zones of the building was tested, and energy consumption of this VRV system was analyzed. The results show that the VRV air conditioning system can meet the heating and cooling request of many rooms while at the same time maintain high energy efficiency. This system reduces thermal pollution for the outdoor environment greatly. It is one kind of highly effective energy conversion and utilization system.


Resilience to disasters depends on measures taken before, during and after the occurrence of adverse events. These measures require interactions between people belonging to different organizations (public, private, nonprofit) and citizens in normal and stressful situations. The efficiency of resilience measures results from the collective interaction of individuals, groups of individuals, and organizations, as well as the situational characteristics of the decision environment. The aim of the French-German research project INCA is to develop a decision support framework for improving cross-border area resilience to disasters. This project comprises the design and the implementation of a multi-agent system with the objective to study the behavioral and organizational implications of cross-border cooperation for crisis management and disaster resilience. The analyzed measures focus on citizens who require medical support and the integration of volunteers into the crisis management procedure. This paper outlines the potentials of the multi-agent system and provides first implementation insights.


Pump intake structures are a necessary component of the cooling water systems for power plants, process and manufacturing facilities, flood control and water/wastewater applications. Large cooling water systems often use substantial sea / river water intakes or cooling towers to provide the required cooling of the process or circulating water. These structures can be very large and often house multiple pump with capacities ranging in size from a few hundred m3/hr to 60,000 m3/hr or more. With such large flow rates care must be taken to ensure uniform flow to the pump to limit vortex activity, vibration, flow induced cavitation and performance problems. In many cases, a physical hydraulic model study is conducted to evaluate the overall approach flow and the performance of the intake. This paper presents a synopsis of several recent physical model studies and a review of recurring problems associated with common design features.This paper takes a closer look at stop log support walls, an intake design feature common to seawater intakes. This wall is often used to minimize the height of the stop logs. In applications with large variations of water level, such as a seawater intake, there are times when the support walls are submerged significantly, resulting in significant flow disturbances. A feature common to cooling towers is the use of 90-degree suction elbows to supply horizontal pumps. A review of short radius vs. long radius elbow performance is presented. Cooling towers often have another common feature which is a significant difference in depth between the cooling tower basin and the pump sump. This results in typical shallow basins and deeper sumps. A common problem is the utilization of minimum pump submergence to set the water levels without reference to the basin invert elevation. A discussion of choked flow conditions in cooling towers is presented. A final discussion is presented regarding cross-flow and the use of concentrated supply channels in cooling tower applications to facilitate the isolation of individual tower cells.This paper presents a synopsis of several recent physical model studies and a review of recurring problems associated with common intake design features. The results of several model studies are presented to demonstrate the negative impacts that these common intake features have on approach flow conditions. The intent of the paper is to provide the design engineer some additional guidance not offered in industry guidelines or standards with the hope of avoiding common problems which can be costly and difficult to remediate after the intake has been constructed.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Morphologically motivated spellings in English are usually thought to be restricted to cases like 〈electric – electrician – electricity〉, where the stem final letter 〈c〉 is kept constant in spelling although the corresponding phoneme varies in spoken language. However, there are many more – and fundamentally different – spellings that refer to morphological information. We will show this by systematically going through the three major parts of morphology: inflection, derivation, and compounding. In each area, we will identify spellings that can best be explained with reference to morphology. As a result, we will present an overview of formal and functional means of morphological spellings which goes far beyond the ubiquitous example cited above. Keywords: English; spelling; writing system; morphology; stem constancy


This thesis presents results of a study conducted jointly with a regional hospital and concerned with the inpatient discharge process. A thorough mapping of the existing process flow and analysis of 1700 historical cases were conducted. Results revealed that in its current form the process is inadequately defined, lacks consistency, and its performance is hard to predict. These issues cause inpatient overstays past their prescribed acute care (so called Alternative Level of Care, or ALC days) and thus at least 8% of available hospital bed capacity is wasted. Key factors extending unnecessary patient stays were identified and used as predictors for individual patients. Another simulation model was created to explore the effects of standardizing parts of the discharge process. Obtained results indicate that organizational changes (e.g., early involvement of social workers, improved information flow, close collaboration with external facilities accepting patients, etc.) will lead to process improvement and substantial economic benefits.


The effect of gyrotaxis on the linear stability of a suspension of swimming, negatively buoyant micro-organisms is examined for a layer of finite depth. In the steady basic state there is no bulk fluid motion, and the upwards swimming of the cells is balanced by diffusion resulting from randomness in their shape, orientation and swimming behaviour. This leads to a bulk density stratification with denser fluid on top. The theory is based on the continuum model of Pedley, Hill & Kessler (1988), and employs both asymptotic and numerical analysis. The suspension is characterized by five dimensionless parameters: a Rayleigh number, a Schmidt number, a layer-depth parameter, a gyrotaxis number G, and a geometrical parameter measuring the ellipticity of the micro-organisms. For small values of G, the most unstable mode has a vanishing wavenumber, but for sufficiently large values of G, the predicted initial wavelength is finite, in agreement with experiments. The suspension becomes less stable as the layer depth is increased. Indeed, if the layer is sufficiently deep an initially homogeneous suspension is unstable, and the equilibrium state does not form. The theory of Pedley, Hill & Kessler (1988) for infinite depth is shown to be appropriate in that case. An unusual feature of the model is the existence of overstable or oscillatory modes which are driven by the gyrotactic response of the micro-organisms to the shear at the rigid boundaries of the layer. These modes occur at parameter values which could be realized in experiments.


Birational rowmotion — a birational map associated to any finite poset $P$ — has been introduced by Einstein and Propp as a far-reaching generalization of the (well-studied) classical rowmotion map on the set of order ideals of $P$. Continuing our exploration of this birational rowmotion, we prove that it has order $p+q$ on the $\left(  p, q\right)  $-rectangle poset (i.e., on the product of a $p$-element chain with a $q$-element chain); we also compute its orders on some triangle-shaped posets. In all cases mentioned, it turns out to have finite (and explicitly computable) order, a property it does not exhibit for general finite posets (unlike classical rowmotion, which is a permutation of a finite set). Our proof in the case of the rectangle poset uses an idea introduced by Volkov (arXiv:hep-th/0606094) to prove the $AA$ case of the Zamolodchikov periodicity conjecture; in fact, the finite order of birational rowmotion on many posets can be considered an analogue to Zamolodchikov periodicity. We comment on suspected, but so far enigmatic, connections to the theory of root posets.


Financial crises cause economic, social and political havoc. Macroprudential policies are gaining traction but are still severely under-researched compared to monetary and €scal policy. We use the general framework of sequential predictions, also called online machine learning, to forecast crises out-of-sample. Our methodology is based on model aggregation and is "meta-statistical", since we can incorporate any predictive model of crises in our analysis and test its ability to add information, without making any assumption on the data generating process. We predict systemic €nancial crises twelve quarters ahead out-of-sample with high signal-to-noise ratio. Our approach guarantees that picking certain time dependent sets of weights will be asymptotically similar for out-of-sample forecasts to the best ex post combination of models; it also guarantees that we outperform any individual forecasting model asymptotically. We analyse which models provide the most information for our predictions at each point in time and for each country, allowing us to gain some insights into economic mechanisms underlying the building of risk in economies. ∗We are highly indebted to Pierre Alquier for his generous help. We thank Gilles Stoltz for multiple discussions and very useful comments. We are also very grateful to our discussants Fabrice Collard, Frank Diebold, Christian Julliard, Sebnem Kalemli Ozcan, Luc Laeven and Philip Lane as well as to Richard Portes and Nicolas Vayatis and seminar participants at the NBER IFM meeting, the ASSA 2021 Meetings, the Society for Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics 2020 Meetings, the Applied Machine Learning, Economics and Data Science seminar, UC Berkeley, MIT, Boston University, Cambridge Judge, Oxford, Bocconi, ENSAE, KTO-GREDEQ-OFCE, Nowcasting, the LBS AQR academic symposium, the Annual BIS Conference, Chicago conference in the honour of Alejandro Justiniano, the Bank of Spain Macroprudential Conference and the Women in Economics Chicago Conference for comments. Our thanks also go to Virginie Coudert, Julien Idier, Mikael Juselius, Anna Kovner, Marco Lo Duca, to Benoit Mojon and to Katja Taipalus for help with the database. Rey thanks the ERC (Advanced Grant 695722). We thank Francesco Amodeo for outstanding research assistance. Jérémy Fouliard bene€ted greatly from the hospitality of the BIS where part of this paper was wriŠen. Œis work does not represent in any way the views of the French Macroprudential Authority. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com.


Diagnosing central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma remains a challenge. Most patients have to undergo brain biopsy to obtain tissue for diagnosis, with associated risks of serious complications. Diagnostic markers in blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could facilitate early diagnosis with low complication rates. We performed a systematic literature search for studies on markers in blood or cerebrospinal fluid for the diagnosis CNS lymphoma and assessed the methodological quality of studies with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool (QUADAS‐2). We evaluated diagnostic value of the markers at a given threshold, as well as differences between mean or median levels in patients versus control groups. Twenty‐five studies were included, reporting diagnostic value for 18 markers in CSF (microRNAs ‐21, ‐19b, and ‐92a, RNU2‐1f, CXCL13, interleukins ‐6, ‐8, and ‐10, soluble interleukin‐2‐receptor, soluble CD19, soluble CD27, tumour necrosis factor‐alfa, beta‐2‐microglobulin, antithrombin III, soluble transmembrane activator and calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand interactor, soluble B cell maturation antigen, neopterin and osteopontin) and three markers in blood (microRNA‐21 soluble CD27, and beta‐2‐microglobulin). All studies were at considerable risk of bias and there were concerns regarding the applicability of 15 studies. CXCL‐13, beta‐2‐microglobulin and neopterin have the highest potential in diagnosing CNS lymphoma, but further study is still needed before they can be used in clinical practice.


Forty patients with previously untreated intracranial glial neoplasms underwent stereotaxic serial biopsies assisted by computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Tumor volumes defined by computer reconstruction of contrast enhancement and low-attenuation boundaries on CT and T1 and T2 prolongation on MRI revealed that tumor volumes defined by T2-weighted MRI scans were larger than those defined by low-attenuation or contrast enhancement on CT scans. Histological analysis of 195 biopsy specimens obtained from various locations within the volumes defined by CT and MRI revealed that: contrast enhancement most often corresponded to tumor tissue without intervening parenchyma; hypodensity corresponded to parenchyma infiltrated by isolated tumor cells or in some instances to tumor tissue in low-grade gliomas or to simple edema; and isolated tumor cell infiltration extended at least as far as T2 prolongation on magnetic resonance images. This information may be useful in planning surgical procedures and radiation therapy in patients with intracranial glial neoplasms.


Allyloxy-pyridinium salts with various substituents on the allylic moiety are shown to be very efficient coinitiators in radical promoted cationic polymerization of cyclohexene oxide. Depending upon the radical initiator chosen, cationic polymerizations may be initiated by either heat or light. For the most part, the mechanism of initiation involves the addition of free radicals formed by the radical initiator, and a subsequent fragmentation of the energy-rich intermediate yielding initiating pyridinium type radical cations. In addition– fragmentation polymerization, the substituent at the allylic moiety does not significantly influence the polymerization rate, thus implying that fragmentation is the rate determining step. In some cases, oxidation of the primarily formed free radicals contributes to the formation of initiating species. The salts under investigation are also able, to various extents, to initiate cationic polymerization upon external stimulation (heating or UV irradiation) without added radical initiators. © 1998 Society of Chemical Industry


Purpose: Because BRCA1 is a high-risk breast/ovarian cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA1 sequence variants of uncertain clinical significance (VUS) complicate genetic counseling. As most VUS are rare, reliable classification based on clinical and genetic data is often impossible. However, all pathogenic BRCA1 variants analyzed result in defective homologous recombination DNA repair (HRR). Thus, BRCA1 VUS may be categorized based on their functional impact on this pathway. Experimental Design: Two hundred thirty-eight BRCA1 VUS—comprising most BRCA1 VUS known in the Netherlands and Belgium—were tested for their ability to complement Brca1-deficient mouse embryonic stem cells in HRR, using cisplatin and olaparib sensitivity assays and a direct repeat GFP (DR-GFP) HRR assay. Assays were validated using 25 known benign and 25 known pathogenic BRCA1 variants. For assessment of pathogenicity by a multifactorial likelihood analysis method, we collected clinical and genetic data for functionally deleterious VUS and VUS occurring in three or more families. Results: All three assays showed 100% sensitivity and specificity (95% confidence interval, 83%–100%). Out of 238 VUS, 45 showed functional defects, 26 of which were deleterious in all three assays. For 13 of these 26 variants, we could calculate the probability of pathogenicity using clinical and genetic data, resulting in the identification of 7 (likely) pathogenic variants. Conclusions: We have functionally categorized 238 BRCA1 VUS using three different HRR-related assays. Classification based on clinical and genetic data alone for a subset of these variants confirmed the high sensitivity and specificity of our functional assays.


"Broken Land" traces the everyday lives of Polish-speaking farmers as they navigated the transition from subjects of the German, Austrian, and Russian Empires to citizens of an independent nation-state. Covering the period 1914-1939, it explores this moment of social and cultural contestation, telling a story of grass-roots rural activism that rebuilt the physical, moral, and social character of the Polish village in the face of political instability, stymied land reform, abject poverty, and lasting imperial structures. As such, it offers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in the Second Republic and they ways they viewed their national identity, relationships with the state, and plans for the future of the countryside. I argue that Polish-speaking farmers' attitudes toward Polishness was still limited during the partitions and First World War, and that though Second Republic leaders tried to bridge villagers' gaps in national belonging via standardization schemas, it was mainly through local activism that farmers came to embrace the idea of Poland and Polishness more closely. For the first time in their history farmers across Polish territory could engage fully in associational life—through rural youth organizations, agricultural circles, and housewives' groups. The nation-wide explosion of these organizations connected farmers from across Poland, forging a strong rural voice in the infant country.


In a previous paper posted in full on SSRN, entitled "The Original Intentions of the Framers for US Presidential Elections," I focused on how the anti-party spirit of the Framers is manifested in the provisions for the Electoral College. The Framers hoped that these carefully crafted provisions would protect the presidential election process from party corruption. In the present essay, posted in full here on SSRN, I will compare the original intentions of the Framers for presidential elections to the actual practices followed in our country today. Because those elections are dominated by the two-party system, the inquiry will be as to how well that system fulfills, or fails to fulfill, those original intentions. If the plan of the Framers is considered as a measuring stick for how well politics and government are operating in the US, then this paper will read as a kind of report card. To illustrate how the presidential election system currently works, I discuss in detail how Barrack Obama raised the funds needed to leap from his station as a young lawyer in Chicago to his position as our nation's 44th President. If reasonable minds could disagree with my grading of the two-party system at the conclusion of this essay, I would like to know why.


SUMMARY: Explants of young tumour tissue from several Brassica species infected with Plasmodiophora brassicae plasmodia gave rapid callus growth on medium containing 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and coconut milk. Degeneration of the callus followed as resting spores were formed. The resting spores germinated in situ and primary plasmodia and zoosporangia developed in some cells, then secondary plasmodia reappeared and normal callus growth was resumed; thereafter all stages of the parasite life-cycle were present in active cells. This situation has been maintaned for over 18 months by 8-weekly transfer of calluses to new medium. Callus clones containing only vegetative plasmodia were established on a coconut-milk + 2, 4-dichloro-phenoxyacetic acid medium. Sporogenesis did not occur readily in these clones unless callus was transferred to a kinetin + α-naphthylacetic acid medium or to other media which did not contain 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Stages of the P. brassicae life-cycle found in callus appeared similar to those in intact hosts, while zoosporangia were formed in the root hairs of Sinapis alba organ cultures infected with callus-produced resting spores. It was concluded that on suitable media P. brassicae may be maintained in complete balance with host callus.


How would women's film history be written if there were no women filmmakers? This problem is not entirely hypothetical in the case of Canada because Canadian film history cannot be centered on film production, the model of so many other national film histories, because there was relatively little film production in Canada in the first decades. The dearth of Canadian domestic film production, whether with men or women in creative control, however, stands in stark contrast to a rich film-going culture in the silent era in Canada. The possibility of a history of Canadian women filmmakers from the silent era thus grapples with the processes that integrated moving pictures into the Canadian social formation, despite their imported status, most notably from the U.S. Because of this foundation of "history from below" rather than from the motion picture studio "down," the Canadian Women's Film History Project provides a significant and atypical historiographical intervention in the Women Film Pioneers project as well as film history generally (Morris 1978; Lacasse 1988; Gaudreault et al. 1996). In order to study the particularities of the Canadian case, the project inverts traditional power dynamics between production and consumption, filmmaking and film-going, and film as an aesthetic expression of authorship versus film as a popular pastime.


Management greatly depends on knowledge, and its detection, creation, transmission, and number of intangibles play a fundamental role in success. In tourism, information systems must work on immaterial concepts and take steps to satisfy the expectations of multiple potential customers. These systems require complex models of reality and suitable conceptual tools to work out strategies. This article expounds the use of different mathematical and management techniques that can be applied to the modeling, application, and control of strategic and operative management.


Context: Skin damage is one of the most common injuries that occur daily for millions around the world. Considering this high prevalence, developing new methods of cells and stem cell administration for healing injured skin is necessary. We discuss different new methods of stem cell and cell administration for repairing injured skin, such as skin stem cell gun, scaffolds, hydrogels, and autologous keratinocytes sheets. Evidence Acquisition: Many approaches are available in injured skin healing, such as traditional therapy, transplanting, cell therapy, and stem cell therapy. Skin grafting is still a standard solution to treat patients; however, there are a lot of limitations in this procedure, for example, patients with severe burns have an insufficient skin area for grafting, which is a painful procedure. Results: Although cell therapy approaches dissolve scarring and reduce healing time, considering its high cost, they are not used in everyday society. This article discusses different regenerative dermatology products and compares them with each other. Conclusions: Herein, we introduced several examples of skin cell products in the pharmaceutics market. Although these products are not well known and even some of them didn't reach clinical trials, comparing different kinds of skin engineered products reveals appropriate guidelines for their use and entrance to dermatology market.


1. Simultaneous whole‐cell patch‐clamp and Fura‐2 microfluorimetric recordings of calcium currents (ICa) and the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) were made from neurones grown in primary culture from the dorsal root ganglion of the rat. 2. Cells held at ‐80 mV and depolarized to 0 mV elicited a ICa that resulted in an [Ca2+]i transient which was not significantly buffered during the voltage step and lasted long after the cell had repolarized and the current ceased. The process by which the cell buffered [Ca2+]i back to basal levels could best be described with a single‐exponential equation. 3. The membrane potential versus ICa and [Ca2+]i relationship revealed that the peak of the [Ca2+]i transient evoked at a given test potential closely paralleled the magnitude of the ICa suggesting that neither voltage‐dependent nor Ca2(+)‐induced Ca2+ release from intracellular stores made a significant contribution to the [Ca2+]i transient. 4. When the cell was challenged with Ca2+ loads of different magnitude by varying the duration or potential of the test pulse, [Ca2+]i buffering was more effective for larger Ca2+ loads. The relationship between the integrated ICa and the peak of the [Ca2+]i transient reached an asymptote at large Ca2+ loads indicating that Ca2(+)‐dependent processes became more efficient or that low‐affinity processes had been recruited. 5. Inhibition of Ca2+ influx with neuropeptide Y demonstrated that inhibition of a large ICa produced minor alterations in the peak of the [Ca2+]i transient, while inhibition of smaller currents produced corresponding decreases in the [Ca2+]i transient. Thus, inhibition of the ICa was reflected by a change in the peak [Ca2+]i only when submaximal Ca2+ loads were applied to the cell, implying that modulation of [Ca2+]i is dependent on the activation state of the cells. 6. Intracellular dialysis with the mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake blocker Ruthenium Red in whole‐cell patch‐clamp experiments removed the buffering component which was responsible for the more efficient removal of [Ca2+]i observed when large Ca2+ loads were applied to the cell. 7. When cells were superfused with 50 mM‐K+, [Ca2+]i transients recorded from the cell soma returned to control levels very slowly. Pharmacological studies indicated that mitochondria were cycling Ca2+ during this sustained elevation in [Ca2+]i. In contrast, [Ca2+]i transients recorded from cell processes returned to basal levels relatively rapidly. 8. Extracellular Na(+)‐dependent Ca2+ efflux did not significantly contribute to buffering [Ca2+]i transients in dorsal root ganglion neurone cell bodies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Authentication of face is a considerable challenge in pattern recognition since the face can undergo a large variety of changes in illumination, facial expression and aging. This paper proposes Diverse- Chromatic Texture Pattern (DCTP), a technique for effective feature extraction which aids face recognition through Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR). It extracts the spatio-chromatic information of an image by generating three sequences of patterns from inter-channel information of an image. This produces three different successions of diversified chromatic feature vectors which extract the unique information from each interactive plane (RGB, GBR and BRG) of an image. The information is extracted by forming different sequences of patterns according to the position of mid-pixel. The analysis made in CASIA database (DB1) shows significant improvement over the previous works like Local Binary Pattern (LBP) (91.75%/75.18%), Local Tetra Pattern (LTrP) (91.64%/76%) and Local Oppugnant Color Texture Pattern (LOCTP) (99.21%/89.38%) as 99.67%/93.47% in terms of Average Precision/ Average Recall. The analysis on Indian Face Database (DB2) shows the result of DCTP is improved from LBP (78.64%/57.35%), LTrP (79.84%/56.8%) and LOCTP (82.64%/58%) to 84.06%/ 58.7%.


The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the most extensive and restrictive barrier to brain delivery for therapeutic agents. A low proportion of low molecular-weight agents can cross into the CNS. This decreases further as the molecular weight increases, meaning therapeutic antibodies, oligonucleotides and other supramolecular entities effectively cannot reach therapeutic levels within the CNS. Targeting ligands against receptors thought to undergo transcytosis across the brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs), can boost CNS delivery of therapeutics. Understanding these mechanisms, in an in-vitro setting, has proved challenging, due to the constraints of cell culture systems and the difficulty to replicate the in-vivo environment. With even the most extensively studied targeting receptor, transferrin receptor, not producing clear evidence to suggest the occurrence of transcytosis.
To understand in-vitro trafficking of brain targeting ligands a pulse-chase assay, in combination with sub-cellular localisation microscopy was developed and compared to the current permeability-based assay method. The characterisation was done by comparison of transferrin receptor ligands; native holo-transferrin, the 8D3 antibody and a low-affinity variant; with the non-specific uptake probe, dextran. The method could distinguish between the two endocytosis methods, with concentration-dependent efflux efficiency observed with the targeted probes. The combination of techniques was then applied to the novel targeting ligand, Rabies-Virus Glycoprotein (RVG) peptide, to assess its suitability as a brain delivery. Studies were performed to confirm the target receptor of the RVG peptide, including competitive uptake, siRNA knockdown methods. The RVG peptide demonstrated desirable delivery characteristics, and the target receptor was confirmed as the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Finally, attempts were made to develop a total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy assay for the assessment of ligand arrival at the basolateral membrane of BMECs. Initial work for this was performed with the transferrin receptor and transferrin, using both labelled ligand and photoswitchable receptor constructs. In summary, the pulse-chase assay provides a complementary technique to permeability assays for the assessment of brain targeting ligand trafficking in BMEC cell-lines in-vitro.


A RL has built a program of assessment over time and continues to seek opportunities to develop this capacity in research libraries. In 2009, the Association launched a new initiative to help libraries make a stronger case for the value they deliver through services and programs by developing metrics that are directly tied to strategic goals. ARL invited interested libraries to participate in a pilot effort to develop library scorecards along the lines of the Balanced Scorecard approach created by Harvard business professors Kaplan and Norton. The ARL initiative began as a collaborative project with external consultant Ascendant Strategy Management Group and four participating libraries: Johns Hopkins University, McMaster University, University of Virginia, and University of Washington. At this early stage the project had two primary goals: to assist, train, and facilitate the use of the scorecard in a small number of ARL libraries; and to test the value of a collaborative model for learning about and implementing the new tool. The Ascendant Strategy Management Group brought deep expertise in the application of the Balanced Scorecard to these four-mission driven organizations that are facing challenges to demonstrate their impact, increase leadership and management effectiveness, leverage networks of stakeholders, and ensure organizational capacity for growth. The consultants were also strongly advocating, "the cornerstone of an effective Balanced Scorecard, or any strategic measurement system, is to identify strategic priorities and clarify the cause-andeffect linkages among them." Many ARL member libraries have long shown an interest in the Balanced Scorecard, as they have closely watched the scorecard's application for almost a decade at the University of Virginia. Jim Self described the University of RLI 271 33


Osteoporosis, characterised by low bone mineral density (BMD) and increased risk of bone fracture, constitutes a high socio-economic cost worldwide and is predicted to rise further in the future due to the ageing population. Asians are generally reported as having shorter stature, lower BMD and lower fracture risk (despite lower BMD) than people of European origin. There is evidence that lower BMD in South Asians (SA) is associated with smaller skeletal size, whilst possible explanations for their lower fracture risk include smaller body size and stronger hip structure. Migration Theory predicts that migrants from poor income countries to higher income countries increase in height over subsequent generations, as a consequence of a healthier environment in the host country. If this is the case for UK SA, then it would suggest that their BMD and some hip geometry dimensions (markers for fracture risk) would increase in parallel with increased height i.e. skeletal size. My study thus aimed to evaluate intergenerational differences in SA mother-daughter dyads, and differences related to place of birth, as well as confirming previous studies that ethnic differences between SA and Europeans could be explained by skeletal size.
My study focussed on a specific UK SA group, the Bangladeshi (BD) community. The study predictions were: 1) differences in bone mass and hip geometry dimensions between BD and indigenous British (IB) women would be associated with skeletal size, 2) BD daughters (born in UK or migrated at a younger age) would be taller, with greater bone mass and hip geometry dimensions, than their mothers (migrated at older age), and 3) BD daughters born in the UK would be taller, with greater bone mass and hip geometry dimensions, than BD daughters born in Bangladesh.
Data on these measurements, along with sociodemographic, early life environment and reproductive variables, were collected from Bangladeshi (BD) and indigenous British (IB) mother-daughter pairs. Study results confirmed previous evidence that lower BMD in Asians compared to Europeans is associated with skeletal size, but the other two predictions could not be adequately tested, due to limitations of the data set including small sample size. UK-born BD daughters appeared to have greater height, but lower BMD, than BD-born daughters, contrary to the usual association of skeletal size with BMD, and might suggest that UK-born BD daughters have a more gracile skeletal frame than BD-born daughters. This agrees with previous reports that populations in higher income countries are becoming more gracile with increasing sedentism and lower physical activity, meriting further study.
My study provides data on an under-researched area (bone status in the UK BD community) and hopefully will provide a useful platform for future research.


The weakest link in the field of information security that has been identified in the literature is the organisation's employees. Information security policy compliance is one of the main challenges facing organisations today. Although implementing technical and procedural measures clearly helps to improve an organisation's information security, the human factor or the employees' compliance with these measures is the key to success. However, organisations are now having some issues regarding the extent of employee adherence to policy. The problem of employees being unaware or ignorant of their responsibilities in relation to information security is still an open issue. The proposed idea in this paper will seek to enhance end user adherence to information security policies by proposing a framework for security policy compliance monitoring and targeted awareness raising. The foremost aim of this framework is to increase users' awareness of the importance of following information security policies. Continuously subjecting users to targeted awareness and monitoring their adherence to information security policies should enhance the effectiveness of such awareness efforts. The proposed framework is a part of on-going research and is intended to provide a foundation for future research on a dynamic adaption of users' behaviour with information security policies.


OBJECTIVE
Hyponatremia is infrequently reported in the constellation of metabolic abnormalities in patients with eating disorders. We sought to identify the etiology and describe the management of a patient with anorexia nervosa and hyponatremia.

METHOD
We report the case of a 23-year-old woman with anorexia nervosa who suffered with severe hyponatremia.

RESULTS
The etiology of hyponatremia in this case, as in most patients with eating disorders, was multifactorial, encompassing both hypovolemic and euvolemic categories of hyponatremia. Multiple impairments in the ability to clear free water are responsible for a heightened risk for hyponatremia in patients with anorexia nervosa.

DISCUSSION
This case underscores the importance of careful scrutiny of fluid intake, an awareness of medications that lead to hyponatremia, and the need for regular monitoring of serum electrolytes, even in patients with anorexia nervosa, to allow for an early diagnosis and to assist in the formulation of an effective treatment and prevention strategy.


A major objective of vehicular networking is to improve road safety and travel convenience. The experience of individual vehicles on traffic conditions and travel situations can be shared with other vehicles for improving their route planning and driving decisions. Nevertheless, the frequent occurrence of adversary vehicles in the network is unavoidable. These vehicles may engage in various malicious activities affecting the overall network performance. To control and monitor effectively security threats in vehicular networks, an efficient trust management system should be employed to identify the trustworthiness of individual vehicles and detect malicious drivers. This study provides a review of the research efforts aimed at enabling trust in vehicular environments. The major challenges are highlighted, and an edge-based architecture is proposed as a supportive platform. Furthermore, existing models proposed for trust evaluation, aggregation, propagation and decision making are reviewed. Finally, the current directions to enforce trust in vehicular environments are highlighted.


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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health previously conducted a retrospective cancer incidence and mortality study of workers employed at a rubber chemical manufacturing plant. Compared with New York State incidence, the bladder cancer risk was 6.5 times higher for workers considered to have definite exposure to ortho-toluidine and aniline, and 4 times higher for workers with possible exposure. Exposure characterization in the original study utilized a surrogate measure based only on departments in which each worker was ever employed. As part of an update of that study, some departments in the three original exposure groups were reclassified based on a follow-up site visit; interviews with employees, management, and union representatives; and review of records including exposure data. An additional evaluation of department-job combinations, rather than only departments, was used to stratify exposure into four categories. An approximate rank of "relative" exposure level for each department-job-year combination was also assigned using a ranking scale of 0 to 10. The ranks were supported by quantitative exposure levels and by professional judgment. The numerical ranking scale was applied to each worker by multiplying the exposure rank by duration for each job held based on comprehensive individual work histories. The cumulative rank scores for this cohort ranged from 0 to 300 unit-years. The medians of the cumulative rank scores for the exposure categories showed very good agreement with increasing exposure classifications (e.g., 0.72, 4.6, 11, 14 unit-years for the four exposure categories). Workers' breathing zone air sampling data collected at this plant from 1976–2004 were well below published occupational exposure limits for these chemicals, but additional cases of bladder cancer have been reported. The exposure assessment revisions and rank estimates will be used to analyze the updated bladder cancer incidence data.


The relationship between humans, biodiversity, and ecosystem has been a subject of ecological, social and political interest in the past decades. Trends in wildlife population have followed changes associated with human interventions such as expanding urbanization, logging, agriculture, and hunting. Typically human interference on wildlife habitats and the exploitation of wildlife species has rendered wildlife vulnerable. This study was aimed at assessing the negative impact of human activities on wildlife in the kimbi-fungom national park. The research data was collected through the laying of 3-kilometer transects in different locations of the national park. Along these transects, human activity signs or presence is seen or heard were recorded. The study revealed a significant link between human activity and the seasonal changes, χ2=8.182 df=14 P<0.05. Also, the association between human and animal activities χ2=72.290 df=70, P<0.05 within the national park was a reflection of a forced relation. Furthermore, the national park was observed with a lot of anthropogenic activities, very challenging to the conservation of wildlife. Among the human activities observed in the national park, farming was the most prominent 13.16% closely followed by trapping of wildlife 11.84%. The conservation management plan of a national park prevents farming and animal killing within the national park area. But in a conservation management system which does not give a provision for alternative farming land and hunting areas for the local inhabitants the tendency for encroachment is highly expected. The unsustainable hunting of wildlife, gathering of nontimber forest resources, and the various forms of crop cultivation in kimbi-fungom national park is raising many conservation questions on the welfare of these resources. The primate ecology, especially the arboreal primate species is so dependent on trees for their survival, hence, crop cultivation and felling of trees has constituted many problems to these animals. Consequently, the primate population may face a serious decline and extirpation if not properly checked and controlled by the conservation authorities. However, this study recommends a sustainable conservation management plan as an ecological remedy.


On January 2008 in the bank of the Bogak Beach, in the front of Fisherman Housing, Dusun XII Bogak Village, Tanjung Tiram District, Batubara Regency, North Sumatera Province found a boat. It was already researched that it was a heritage and related to that area in 18 century, and in that era was trade lines witches' traders and fishermen from foreign countries sailed to Sumatera. Not only boat but also found Chinese ceramic and coins in 1734, 1752, 1760, 1780, 1781, 1788 and 1790 years. This paper tries to describe the role of Pantai Bogak Port at 18 th Century until 20th Century in the east coast maritime, and to research the archaeological and historical resources in Tanjung Tiram Regency; to look for the authenticity from Batubara Regency, North Sumatera Province. It could be proud Indonesia, and give a horizon about the activities and the cultural human history in 18 th century until 20 th century. The data was from collecting data observation in the field, and to analysis data then to give recommendation. The information process is from collecting data about historical data and the archaeological data, and the collecting data was also used from the primer data through observation. The secondary data was from rapport, inventories register, study result, and from libraries.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the effect of social mobility and to assess the use of socioeconomic indicators in monitoring health inequities over time, we examined the association of self-rated health with socioeconomic position over the life course.

METHODS
Data came from a cross-sectional telephone survey (n = 2999) that included life-course socioeconomic indicators and from a chronic disease and risk factor surveillance system (n = 26 400). Social mobility variables, each with 4 possible intergenerational trajectories, were constructed from family financial situation and housing tenure during childhood and adulthood.

RESULTS
Low socioeconomic position during both childhood and adulthood and improved financial situation in adulthood were associated with a reduced prevalence of excellent or very good health. Trends over time indicated that socioeconomic disadvantage in adulthood was associated with poorer self-rated health.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results support policies aiming to improve family financial situation during childhood and housing tenure across the life course. Inclusion of life-course socioeconomic measures in surveillance systems would enable monitoring of health inequities trends among socially mobile groups.


With the emergence of e-Learning, governments provide opportunities for online learning, whether formal or informal. However, most of e-learning systems in Indonesia have been used at formal education environments, today. Therefore, this study proposes an E-Learning model to support non-formal education in Indonesia. This model is called as E-learning for the Equivalency Education Program (E-LEEP) model. The E-LEEP consists of three components: User, Education Program, and Monitoring. The user will be students and tutor. The education program includes Package A, Package B, and Package C for elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school respectively. The monitoring will be used by institution and stakeholders. Each component will support the needs of students programs in e-Learning environment, in order to achieve the goal learning.


We obtained molecular markers useful for population level studies of the black rat snake ( Elaphe obsoleta ) by screening genomic DNA libraries enriched for dinucleotide, tetranucleotide, and pentanucleotide microsatellite repeats. Following sequencing of the positive clones, 11 pairs of primers were designed for polymorphic loci and their variability assessed in > 350 individuals from four populations in North America. The loci had between 9 and 40 alleles and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.071 to 0.87. Some of these pairs of primers also successfully amplified DNA from two other snake species.


The three factors in the marketing communication context namely, the spokesperson, message and channel is vital in affecting the purchase intention of a consumer. In the Sri Lankan context, the marketers of the personal care brands had put more effort on selecting the spokesperson the most while the consumers tend to give prominence to the message in determining their purchases. Brand personification has become one of the most salient aspect used in the marketing communication context in designing the message. Reflecting a human like character in the brand aims to attract the consumers in a unique manner with the brands. This becomes more vital in the case of brands to which the consumers are personally attached to. Hence, the personification alone wouldn't be sufficient as the means of personifying and the most suitable aspect to be personified in the brand is also vital. This research focused upon understanding the association between brand personality and brand preference, was conducted as a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The survey with a self-administered questionnaire developed by the researcher, served as the main source of data collection a convenient-judgmental sample. Findings would aid the decision makers in the chosen area of business.


Coating@fabrics with self-healing hydrophobic properties for oil/water separation have attracted significant attention. However, currently used self-healing coating@fabrics only enable the recovery of surface properties of the coating on fabrics. If the coating gets seriously damaged from the interior (i.e., torn apart), the recovery of the oil/water separation performance becomes difficult. In this study, a novel strategy to achieve a self-healing ability based on coating materials with reversible dynamic bonds was proposed. To develop this idea, a self-healing silicon elastomer cross-linked via cobalt (Co)-based coordination was coated on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics. The as-modified fabrics exhibited hydrophobic properties with a contact angle (CA) of >140°, a high oil/water separation factor of around 99%, high durability (even at extremely low temperatures), and an ultra-fast self-healing ability at room temperature. After being immersed in liquid nitrogen and damaged under beating, the modified fabrics still exhibited fast self-healing properties (healing time was just 10 min) and a high oil/water separation efficiency of above 98%. Thus, this study proposes a novel design concept for the fabrication of coating@fabrics with outstanding self-healing efficiency to recover oil/water separation performance at room temperature, and may pave a way for the development of an efficient family of self-healing fabrics.


The changes in the sonic surface wave velocity of concrete under stress were investigated in this paper. Surface wave velocities at sonic frequency range were measured on a prismatic concrete specimen undergoing several cycles of uniaxial compression. The loading was applied (or removed) gradually in predefined small steps (stress-controlled). The surface wave velocity was measured at every load step during both loading and unloading phases. Acoustic Emission (AE) test was conducted simultaneously to monitor the microcracking activities at different levels of loading. It was found that the sonic surface wave velocity is highly stress dependent and the velocity-stress relationship follows a particular trend. The observed trend could be explained by a combination of acoustoelasticity and microcracking theories, each valid over a certain range of applied stresses. Having measured the velocities while unloading, when the material suffers no further damage, the effect of stress and damage could be differentiated. The slope of the velocity-stress curves over the elastic region was calculated for different load cycles. This quantity was normalized to yield a dimensionless nonlinear parameter. This parameter generally increases with the level of induced damage in concrete.


Ultimately the strength of cement is determined by the properties, amounts and distributions of the phases it contains and by the way these are bonded together. Here an example is presented of the determination of the amount and distribution of calcium hydroxide, by BEI and quantitative image analysis, in a cement paste and cement/fly ash mixture which had previously been studied by TGA. Examination of crack paths on BEIs of polished cement surfaces gives some indication as to the importance of calcium hydroxide in determining the properties of the cement.


Aims. Submillimetre-selected galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift (z ∼ 2) are potential host galaxies of active galactic nuclei (AGN). If the local Universe is a good guide, ∼50% of the obscured AGN amongst the SMG population could be missed even in the deepest X-ray surveys. Radio observations are insensitive to obscuration; therefore, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) can be used as a tool to identify AGN in obscured systems. A well-established upper limit to the brightness temperature of 105 K exists in star-forming systems, thus VLBI observations can distinguish AGN from star-forming systems via brightness temperature measurements.
Methods. We present 1.6 GHz European VLBI Network (EVN) observations of four SMGs (with measured redshifts) to search for evidence of compact radio components associated with AGN cores. For two of the sources, e-MERLIN images are also presented.
Results. Out of the four SMGs observed, we detect one source, J123555.14, that has an integrated EVN flux density of 201 ± 15.2 μJy, corresponding to a brightness temperature of 5.2 ± 0.7 × 105 K. We therefore identify that the radio emission from J123555.14 is associated with an AGN. We do not detect compact radio emission from a possible AGN in the remaining sources (J123600.10, J131225.73, and J163650.43). In the case of J131225.73, this is particularly surprising, and the data suggest that this may be an extended, jet-dominated AGN that is resolved by VLBI. Since the morphology of the faint radio source population is still largely unknown at these scales, it is possible that with a ∼10 mas resolution, VLBI misses (or resolves) many radio AGN extended on kiloparsec scales.


The present study was design for standardization of procured sample of marketed kumari asava was by various physico-chemical standards include pH, viscosity, specific gravity, total solid, total alcohol, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar, phenolic content as well as heavy metal and mineral content. The pH, viscosity, specific gravity, total solid, total alcohol, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar was found to be 3.62 ± 0.017, 1.6738 ± 0.010 cp, 1.1243 ± 0.014, 34.68 ±1.990 % w/v, 6.18 ± 0.8141 % w/v, 7.00 ± 1.870 % w/v and 0.27 ± 0.010 % w/v respectively. Total phenolic content of kumari asava by folin-coutigue reagent test by comparing with gallic acid as a standard was found to be 0.063 ± 0.001 % w/v. Quantitative determination of major heavy metal and minerals content of kumari asava by Atomic absorption spectrometer (ASS) showed presence of metal such as Lead 4.29 ppm, Aluminum 183 ppm minerals such as Zinc 27 ppm, Copper 12.6 ppm, Irons142 ppm, Nickel l3.61 ppm and Chromium 0.148 ppm. Present study provides quality control standards which may help in authenticity of the drug and to compile suitable information as per pharmacopoeial monograph for the better utility and safe use of this formulation.


This paper describes the process of implementing an architecture for secure distributed transaction processing, the process of verifying that it has the desired security properties, and the implementation that resulted. The implementation and verification processes provided us with valuable experience relevant to answering several questions posed by our research on transformational development of architectures. To what extent can implementation-level architectural descriptions be derived from abstract description via application of transformations that preserve a broad class of properties, which includes satisfaction of various access control policies? To what extent can a formal derivation of a non-secure implementation-level distributed transaction processing architecture be reused in derivation of a secure architecture? Are the transformation verification techniques that we have developed sufficient for verifying a collection of transformations adequate for implementing complex secure architecture? Do our architecture hierarchies effectively fill the gap between abstract, intellectually manageable models of a complex architecture and the actual implementation? Exploring the answers to these questions resulted in a reference implementation of an architecture for secure distributed transaction processing, and an independently interesting demonstration instance of the reference implementation.


The robotic manipulator is a device to carry out the various tasks according to the requirements without any human intervention. Vibration analysis of flexible manipulators has been an important area of research in order to model and control of such systems. In the present analysis, the Timoshenko beam theory based single and double link flexible manipulators made up of advanced composite material have been analyzed using finite element method. A three noded beam element has been implemented for modelling and analysis of the flexible composite manipulators under different input torques. The effects of hybridization of the different composite materials on the positions and residuals of the end effectors have also been studied. The input shaping has also been carried out in order to reduce the residual vibration of the end effector by adjusting the amplitude and time delay. The influences of the taper angles of the tapered flexible composite manipulators on the end effector movement and vibration have also been presented. The linear quadratic regulator control (LQR) scheme has been applied in order to further reduce the residual vibration of the end effector. Various results have been obtained based on the different analyses. The results reveal that the tapered hollow flexible composite manipulators give the better performances in terms of end effector positions and residual vibration. The obtained results based on the LQR control scheme show that residual vibration can be controlled without compromising the end effector movement.