Civil participation is the main component of effective governance. The topicality of this paper lies in civil participation in decision-making defined by the principles of "new public governance" of the 21st century. This study aims to analyze the impact of civil participation in decision-making on waste management at the municipal level. In this work, the following aspects were considered: theoretical assumptions of civil participation; civil participation in the activities of institutions responsible for environmental protection; issues regarding the development of opportunities of citizens' involvement in municipal waste management. The article is devoted to the theoretical assumptions about civil participation, theoretical model of analysis, and activity of institutions. To develop a theoretical model of analysis, a classification of civil participation was carried out. Among the methods used, one can mention the questionnaire. The analysis was focused on a legal basis for the activity of institutions; the actual activity of institutions and survey of representatives of the national environmental authorities in Lithuania. The results showed that currently there is no mechanism in Lithuania to ensure civil participation in municipal waste management. Civil participation is still formal and limited. Overall, citizens are informed about the decisions made, but they do not participate actively in decision-making. The analysis of civil participation capacity in waste management leads to the conclusion that Lithuania has no single mechanism to ensure civil participation in waste management. To enhance civil participation in decision-making on waste management, it is suggested to set up a council where the representatives of civil population are delegated.


Clostridium thermocellum produces a consortium of plant-cell-wall hydrolases that form a cell-bound multi-enzyme complex called the cellulosome. In the present study two similar xylanase genes, xynU and xynV, were cloned from C. thermocellum strain YS and sequenced. The deduced primary structures of both xylanases, xylanase U (XylU) and xylanase V (XylV), were homologous with the previously characterized xylanases from C. thermocellum strain F1. Truncated derivatives of XylV were produced and their biochemical properties were characterized. The xylanases were shown to be remarkably thermostable and resistant to proteolytic inactivation. The catalytic domains hydrolysed xylan by a typical endo-mode of action. The type VI cellulose-binding domain (CBD) homologue of XylV bound xylan and, to a smaller extent, Avicel and acid-swollen cellulose. Deletion of the CBD from XylV abolished the capacity of the enzymes to bind polysaccharides. The polysaccharide-binding domain was shown to have a key role in the hydrolysis of insoluble substrates by XylV. The C-terminal domain of XylV, which is absent from XylU, removed acetyl groups from acetylated xylan and acted in synergy with the glycosyl hydrolase catalytic domain of the enzyme to elicit the hydrolysis of acetylated xylan.


This paper examines the effects of deploying digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband on job creation within existing firms. We use spatial information on broadband and firm locations, exploiting geographical and temporal variation in broadband availability in Ireland during 2007-2014. This is linked to a panel of firm-level data on employment and other characteristics. Econometric models are used to explore the relationship between DSL and employment over time and across local economic and industry contexts. We also investigate whether effects might vary depending upon local educational attainment. We find little evidence of a general effect of DSL roll-out on employment in Irish firms.


Background and Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by a progressive decline in insulin action. Boswellia serrata administration during diabetes exerts beneficial effects in diabetic rats. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of Boswellia serrata on blood glucose, insulin, insulin resistance index in type 2 diabetes patients. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was done on sixty patients, males and females in the age range of 30-48 years with type 2 diabetes. The patients were divided into 2 groups: 1. control group, 2. test group. Test group received Boswellia serrata (300 mg, three times daily for 6 weeks، chewing and packaged form) and control group received oral agents alone. Before and after 6-week treatment, blood samples were collected, Plasma was separated and frizzed at -20 o C until measurement. The insulin levels and fasting blood glucose were measured and insulin resistance index was also calculated. Results: The 6-week administration of Boswellia serrata significantly decreased blood glucose (173.71±10 vs 147.57±8 mg/dl, P<0.01). Plasma insulin increased (13.3±1.5 vs 24.54±3.7 μIU/ml, p<0.01). Insulin resistance index did not change in the test group, but insulin resistance index increased in control group (6.7±1.9 vs 15.4±2.3, p<0.05). Insulin resistance index in test group decreased in comparison with control group (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that Boswellia serrata had probably anti-diabetic effect that is exerted through increasing insulin secretion and reduction of blood glucose in type 2 diabetes patients.


The sire effect and the fixed effects of sex, training center, type of course, specific racetrack, horse age and track condition were evaluated regarding best racing times of thoroughbred horses. The records of best racing times at the Japan Racing Association were collected from the electronic racing book. The data set was edited so that each sire was required to have at least twenty progeny in the racing distances of 1200m and 1800m. The total numbers o f sires and progeny were 34 and 1486 for 1200m and 34 and 1520 for 1800m. First, the least-squares analysis of variance was carried out by using the linear model which included the sire effect and the six fixed effects. Second, heritabilities for best racing times were calculated, and additionally sire evaluations were carried out by using the sire model of the BLUP method. As a result of analysis of variance, almost all effects included in the linear model were significant for both racing distances. The sire, type of course, horse age and interaction between the type of course and track condition had a highly significant effect on best racing times. Estimates of heritability were 0.11 and 0.09 for 1200 m and 1800 m, respectively. Rankings of sires' breeding values based on progeny records were quite different for the two racing distances. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient for these rankings was 0.350 (P<0.05).


Background: Prediction of the mesio-distal width of the unerupted premolars and canine is an important point to the practitioner. Objectives: The main goal of this study was to find the relationship of the teeth size to be used when needed in treatments planning. Materials and Methods: 200 plaster casts including 5600 teeth were measured and studies. A caliper with accuracy of 0.1 mm was used for measuring teeth and most teeth were measured twice and the average value was considered as the teeth size. In all cases, the vernier calipers jaws were moved along the teeth longitudinal axis and the biggest width was measured in the contact point area. Results: Tables of mesiodistal widths of the permanent teeth and some equations were prepared. The measurement difference varied from 0 to 0.04 mm. the average value of difference was 0.016 mm with SD of 0.02 mm. All teeth in male are bigger than those in female and this different is most evident in canine teeth, especially the lower jaw canine teeth. Conclusions: At the end of this study an equation was found which was used to measure the total value of mesiodistal width of canine and premolar teeth of upper and lower jaws in a simple and exact way.


This guide will direct you to background information, books, journals, and other resources for topics in criminology, criminal and deviant behaviour, and law.


Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of caprylic triglyceride (CT) in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) in routine clinical practice via review of medical records and caregiver questionnaires. Methods: Participants were outpatients aged $ 50 years with a diagnosis of probable mild-to-moderate AD who had received CT for $ 6 months. The primary outcome was change from baseline in the patient's condition as rated by the treating physician using a physician's overall assessment. Results: A total of 55 patients were included. The physician's overall assessment indicated that ∼ 80% of patients who had CT added to ongoing pharmacotherapy were stable or improved. Mini-Mental State Examination scores also remained stable over 15 months of therapy (20.6 ± 3.0 at baseline and 20.1 ± 5.6 at follow-up, P = 0.5233, n = 27). Caregiver assessments indicated that most patients were stable or improved with respect to memory and ability to carry out activities of daily living. The most frequent adverse events with CT involved the gastrointestinal system. Conclusion: Results from this chart review indicate that addition of CT to pharmacotherapy was associated with stable disease or improvement over a follow-up period of 18.8 months.


Summary The administration of recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) by continuous infusion has provided a safe and convenient alternative to bolus injections in haemophiliacs with inhibitors, but it has only been reported in a single case with congenital factorVII (FVII) deficiency. The results of 12 consecutive surgical procedures in 7 patients with congenital FVII deficiency are reported here. rFVIIa was always given in continuous infusion, aiming at plasma FVII activity of 0.5 IU/mL. Treatment was given for 2 to 7 days with a mean total dose of 7.8 mg rFVIIa. Blood loss was as expected from the different types of procedures and the only thromboembolic complication was a superficial thrombophlebitis at the infusion site. This mode of substitution was therefore safe, effective and well tolerated.


In this study, the frequency of mylohyoid bridging (MHB) was investigated on 227 mandibles belonging to 8 prehistoric and historic Anatolian populations recovered from various archaeological sites dating from the Early Bronze Age (EBA) to the first quarter of the 20th century. The change in the frequency of MHB was analyzed in relation to age, sex, skull side, and population according to the criteria of Hauser and De Stefano (1989). The results revealed no significant relation between the occurrence of MHB and age or sex. An incidence rate of MHB varying between 6.07% and 30.00% was found in the Anatolian populations. The results revealed that these samples of ancient Anatolian populations exhibited a heterogeneous structure in view of the trait. However, the differences between the populations were not found to be statistically significant. When the population data is pooled, the frequency is 10.01%. This value falls within the levels of Europeans and Mongoloids. Bilaterality in the expression of MHB and its occurrence being independent of age and sex are findings that are consistent with the assumption that genetic background is relevant to its formation. Thus, MHB may be useful as a non-metrical feature in population studies when used in combination with other characteristics.


The recovery of trace amounts of DNA has been demonstrated to be a reliable tool in conservation genetics and has become a key component of modern forensic casework. To date, genetic data have been successfully recovered from a variety of sources, including biological fluids, faeces, clothing, and even directly from fingerprints. However, to our knowledge and despite their widespread occurrence and clear potential as a source of DNA, genetic information has not previously been recovered directly from footprints. Here, we extract and amplify mitochondrial DNA from a snow footprint, <48-hours old, made by a Swedish Arctic Fox ( Alopex lagopus ). Our results demonstrate that it is possible to recover sufficient DNA from recent footprints to accurately type the source of the print, with implications for conservation biology and forensic science.


Abstract The mid-infrared range contains many spectral features associated with large molecules and dust grains such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and silicates. These are usually very strong compared to fine-structure gas lines, and thus valuable in studying the spectral properties of faint distant galaxies. In this paper, we evaluate the capability of low-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopic surveys of galaxies that could be performed by SPICA. The surveys are designed to address the question how star formation and black hole accretion activities evolved over cosmic time through spectral diagnostics of the physical conditions of the interstellar/circumnuclear media in galaxies. On the basis of results obtained with Herschel far-infrared photometric surveys of distant galaxies and Spitzer and AKARI near- to mid-infrared spectroscopic observations of nearby galaxies, we estimate the numbers of the galaxies at redshift z > 0.5, which are expected to be detected in the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon features or dust continuum by a wide (10 deg2) or deep (1 deg2) blind survey, both for a given observation time of 600 h. As by-products of the wide blind survey, we also expect to detect debris disks, through the mid-infrared excess above the photospheric emission of nearby main-sequence stars, and we estimate their number. We demonstrate that the SPICA mid-infrared surveys will efficiently provide us with unprecedentedly large spectral samples, which can be studied further in the far-infrared with SPICA.


The stress distribution of cruciform shape welded joints is analyzed by finite element codes ABAQUS. Welded joints with various weld shapes and sizes are investigated to estimate the fatigue life of different joints. The fatigue behavior is evaluated under constant amplitude loading (R=0.1). The aim of this work is fatigue behavior evaluation of fillet welded cruciform joint for different weld geometry. The weld geometry are considered: concave, convex and flat weld shape of different weld sizes.  The stress intensity factor (SIF) of a TI 6AL4V, is calculated by using Extended finite element method (XFEM) in ABAQUS software. Simulations of fatigue life for different weld shapes at different stresses are analyzed and crack initiations are identified the number of severe fatigue life cycles which are obtained are very close to the theoretical values. In present study the importance of XEFM method is recognized to predict the crack growth rate for convex specimen which is subjected maximum fatigue stress.


Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are free-living soil-borne bacteria that colonize the rhizosphere and have great importance in governing the functional property of terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, rhizospheric bacteria were isolated from maize and wheat and screened for their plant growth promoting activities. These isolates were identified as Pseudomonas , Bacillus , Azospirillum and Azotobacter species. All isolates were tested for their indole acetic acid (IAA) production ability. All isolates produce the varying amount s o f IAA ranging from 0.6- 2.7 μg/ml. The highest concentration of IAA was produced by bacterial strain Bacillus subtilis AK31. A series of growth pouch and pot experiments were conducted to study the effect of bacterial inoculants on the growth of maize and wheat. It was concluded that IAA plays a key role i n the growth promotion of roots in maize and wheat in growth pouch study. In maize, isolate AK1, AK21, AK31 and AK8 showed high indole acetic acid (6.86, 7.11, 7.11 and 7.36 pmol/ml, respectively) and root elongation activity ( 4.10, 5.00, 5.00 and 3.80 cm, respectively) after 96h of growth. In wheat, bacterial strains AK31, AK2, AK14, AK32 and AK15 showed high IAA ( 6.59, 5.66, 5.35, 7.53 and 5.66 pmol/ml, respectively) and root elongation ( 6.07, 4.00, 5.20, 6.90 and 5.20 cm, respectively) activity after 96h of growth. In pot experiments, Bacillus sp. AK21, Bacillus subtilis AK31, Azotobacter diazotrophicus AK14, Microbacterium sp. AK19 and Pseudomonas fluorescens AK32 showed effective results in term s of increase in root and shoot dry weight in maize (123, 130, 121, 120, 124g and 116, 126, 116, 114, 120g/pot, respectively) and wheat (130, 135, 125, 118, 140g and 105, 106, 110, 102, 110g/pot, respectively), in comparison to controls of maize and wheat crops. Thus, it might be concluded that PGPR strains AK21, AK31, AK14, AK19 and AK32 could be used as crop- enhancer and bio- fertilizer for production of maize and wheat .


There have been conflicting accounts of the role and influence of local opposition within planning application outcomes for wind power developments. There is an expanding literature that considers public responses to proposed renewable energy developments and much of this suggests that public opposition is a key factor in the slow growth in renewable energy capacity. However, this paper will show that local opposition groups' power over such planning processes is very limited, and in fact extends only so far as delaying an outcome. Through a thematic content analysis of objection letters to one particular proposed wind power development, the key issues raised in connection with the development will be highlighted. Subsequently, these issues will be compared with those discussed in the official report of the planning appeals process, and it will be shown that the concerns of local objectors had little influence over the eventual verdict.


Building a general education program from scratch for a population of first generation and underserved students provided both a challenge and opportunity. Faculty who had limited previous experience teaching and assessing first year students engaged in study of the best practices and research. Faculty designed a four-year general education curriculum that began with a robust First Year Seminar (FYS) course, the focus of this study. This required three-credit hour interdisciplinary humanities course (FYS) was designed to embrace the understanding of what it means to be human, including understanding oneself in relation to the natural world and to others. Full time faculty from all disciplines were selected through a competitive process to teach the FYS course with embedded High Impact Practices (HIPs). Four years of teaching FYS has provided qualitative and quantitative data on the effectiveness of the design, the role of faculty, and application of HIPs. Through the course assessment process and data analysis, faculty have expanded their repertoire of pedagogical strategies to engage the first year student, and as a result, positively influenced teaching in their other courses. This report offers insights on strategies for course design, the role of faculty, and the power of selected HIPs that may be replicated at other institutions.


The inherent bottom-up nature of social software diffusion differs markedly from the adoption trajectories to which most organisational IT strategies are accustomed. Through case studies in two organisations, this paper presents insights into how adoption of emergent social software platforms may take form, and discusses the implications of two radically different approaches to manage these processes. Our findings suggest that organisations may need to cede control over parts of the IT innovation adoption process to benefit from grassroots initiatives, and rather standardise successful innovations on an ongoing basis to avoid detrimental fragmentation of media usage across organisational boundaries.


CINP is a leading organization in the field of CNS drugs. As Public Private Partnerships for CNS drug innovation activity, we have discussed in Japan on three topics 1.  Imaging biomarkers, 2. Stratification factors, 3. How to share the clinical study data with Academia, Industry and Regulators. Working group 1 focused on imaging biomarkers those can be useful for decision making in drug development. The idea of three pillars to ensure the steps to get clinical POC has been reported form Pfizer. Pillar 1 means the evidence reaching the target site, pillar 2 means the evidence of binding to the pharmacological target and pillar 3 means the evidence of pharmacological action in the brain. The imaging biomarker can be used whether the candidate drug fulfill pillar 2, using receptor occupancy. Using common terminology to express the developing stage would be useful in PPP setting, since different company used different terminology in each company. During our discussion, we thought more precise classification would be needed to explain the stage of the candidate drugs. We propose tier as an alternative of pillar, [Tier 1;target exposure, Tier 2; target binding/engagement, Tier 3a; mechanism-related change, Tier 3b; functional modulation, Tier 4; patient stratification, Tier 5 Disease-related change]. Future needs of imaging biomarkers will be discussed in relation to the various imaging methods. Working group 2 focused stratification factors using the data on randomized double-blind clinical trials of conventional antidepressants vs placebo that have been conducted so far in Japan. Working group 3 focused how to share the clinical study data with Academia. Although majority of the pharmaceutical companies have disclosed not only an initiation/completion of their sponsored clinical trials but also the results through the public domain like clinical trial. gov., the details of the disclosed data have been limited. Working group 3 aimed to create a system to construct a database which unifies all clinical data obtained in the sponsored clinical studies in order to facilitate the pharmaceutical products of the next-generation.


Introduction: Electromagnetic field emitted by laptops are known as extremely low frequency (ELF) Waves. The aim of this study was to investigate the intensity of electric and magnetic field with extremely low frequency emitted by common laptops. Material and Method: Intensity of electric and magnetic field were measured on four sides of 40 common by used laptop at the distance of 30, 60 and 90 cm. Measurements ere done according to standard in four func-tional model including: non-performing turned on, sleep mode, performing office program and performing audio visual files. Result: Magnetic field values for all laptops were almost constant and about 28-32 mA/m. The results of measurements related to the electric field showed different values at distances of 30, 60 and 90 cm around the laptops on four sides. Moreover, mean electric field on the keyboard at the four operating modes were statisti-cally different for DELL and hp laptops (P< 0/05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that laptops produce extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields which their intensity depends on laptop type, laptop operation mode and the location of the measurement.


The benefits and longer impact of a strong cooperation university-industry particularly for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises  - SMEs -  are known from different studies but it seems that measures in order to strength it are not sufficient. This paper explores the innovation barriers faced by small companies, challenges they face when collaborating with universities and explores if workplace research skills can potentially offer a method to enhance the absorptive capacity of small companies.  Some forms of mentoring for entrepreneurs, a definition of the relationship mentor-mentee are shortly presented. Example of projects with the participation of the authors and measures which are planned to be implemented to to improve cooperation university-industry are also given.


Previous research has documented that export shipments are "lumpy"— exporters make infrequent and relatively large shipments to any given export destination. This fact has been interpreted as implying that fixed, per shipment cost and inventory management decisions play a key role in international trade. We document here that exports from poor countries are considerably more lumpy—have higher fixed per shipment cost— than those from rich countries. Using a model of trade with inventory management, we estimate that the country at the ninetieth percentile of the distribution of per shipment costs has almost three times higher costs than the one at the tenth percentile. We show that these per shipment cost differences have a reduced-form representation given by an ad  valorem trade cost that varies with export country income (as in Waugh 2010 ). A calibrated version of the model that incorporates these estimates and allows for endogenous product quality reveals that cross-country differences in per shipment costs explain almost 40 percent of the observed cross-country differences in income. It also shows that policies that lower per shipment costs can lead to significant welfare gains, mainly due to induced quality upgrading. (JEL F12, F14, F43, G31, O16, O19)


Genes capable of conferring resistance to clinically used antibiotics have been found in many different natural environments. However, a concise overview of the resistance genes found in common human bacterial pathogens is lacking, which complicates risk ranking of environmental reservoirs. Here, we present an analysis of potential antibiotic resistance genes in the 17 most common bacterial pathogens isolated from humans. We analyzed more than 20,000 bacterial genomes and defined a clinical resistome as the set of resistance genes found across these genomes. Using this database, we uncovered the co-occurrence frequencies of the resistance gene clusters within each species enabling identification of co-dissemination and co-selection patterns. The resistance genes identified in this study represent the subset of the environmental resistome that is clinically relevant and the dataset and approach provides a baseline for further investigations into the abundance of clinically relevant resistance genes across different environments. To facilitate an easy overview the data is presented at the species level at www.resistome.biosustain.dtu.dk.


This paper presents a new approach to obtain unbiased estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) with labor market data. Investigating job changes, we combine the advantages of recent panel studies, which allow to control for unobserved heterogeneity of workers, and conventional cross-sectional estimations, which primarily exploit the variation of wage and risk between different jobs. We find a VSL of 6.1 million euros from pooled cross-sectional estimation, 1.9 million euros from the static first-differences panel model and 3.5 million euros from the job-changer specification. Thus, ignoring individual heterogeneity causes overestimates of the VSL, whereas identifying the wage-risk tradeoff not only by means of between job variation (job-changer model) but also on the basis of noisy variation on the job (panel models) may lead to underestimates of the VSL. Our results can be used to perform cost-benefit analyses of public projects aimed at reducing fatality risks, e.g., in the domains of health, environmental or traffic policy.


Tidal Stream Energy is considered a regular, predictable and dense energy source with potential to make a significant contribution to our future energy needs. Development of the industry, from resource assessment to device design and operation, requires characterisation of the flow environment at a variety of spatial and temporal scales at tidal energy sites. Demand for flow characterisation arises from companies developing, installing and operating tidal turbine prototypes or small arrays in locations from Scotland to France to Canada. Flow characterisation for tidal stream applications relies on the measurement of water velocity at the relevant scales, yet given the non-uniformity of the flow field, no single instrument measures all the necessary data inputs required by the sector. This paper provides an overview of a variety of current, surface wave and turbulence metrics of industrial relevance to tidal stream and discusses methods employed to secure these datasets. The use of variants of acoustic current profilers is presented, which have been utilised and developed on previous and ongoing industrial-academic projects, including ReDAPT (ETI, UK), FloWTurb (EPSRC, UK) and RealTide (EC H2020, EU). These variants feature differing numbers of acoustic transducers and varying geometrical configurations with installations at both seabed locations and atop operating tidal stream energy converters. Ongoing development of advanced sensor configuration is discussed, aiming to achieve resilient, high resolution three-dimensional measurement of mean and turbulent flow tailored for tidal energy applications. The paper gives practitioners and researchers an overview of tidal stream flow characterisation and practical lessons learnt.


This paper presents a new approach to reconstructing 3D solid model from the two given 2D orthographic views based on AutoCAD, which is much more effective and high efficient for a special kind of compound object than the currently existing ways. The approach emphasizes integrated operating of AutoCAD software and basic knowledge of engineering drawing with no needs for complicated computation and 3D rich imagination and reconstruction. Using this approach, the 3D solid model can be reconstructed effectively and efficiently from the two given 2D orthographic views by several steps of simple operation on computer on the basis of judgment. The research work provides a theoretical possibility for the automatic reconstruction of 3D Solid model of such compound objects, and a simple and practical 3D solid model-reconstructing method for engineers and learners of engineering drawing.


The antioxidant properties of Boletus edulis, Cantharellus cibarius and Craterellus cornicupioides decoctions and the effect of mushroom addition on the total phenolic content and the degree of secondary oxidative changes on lipids in frankfurters was studied. Moderate antioxidant activity was obtained by DPPH assay when mushroom decoctions were tested in vitro. Using the conjugated diene method, moderate antioxidant activity was achieved with Boletus edulis and Craterellus cornicupioides decoction, while with Cantharellus cibarius decoction, antioxidant activity was low. Constant amounts of phenolic acid were obtained in frankfurters fortified with Boletus edulis, while lipid oxidation on each tested day was several times less than in the control group of frankfurters, throughout two months of refrigerated storage. Generally, these mushrooms could be used as natural antioxidants to interfere with the chemical deterioration of food products and specifically, to extend the shelf life of cooked pork sausages.


We imagine that many clinical investigators will have been dismayed by the findings of the recent study by Antrobus (Anaesthesia 1988; 43 267-9) who demonstrated that seeking informed consent resulted in 23% of patients declining to take part in an (hypothetical) study of anxiolytic premedication. Moreover the decliners were demonstrably more anxious, so those most likely to show reduction in anxiety and potential benefit from any reduction would not be included in such studies of efficacy of premedication in which informed consent was sought. We have recently completed an investigation of a novel anxiolytic agent in daycase patients in whom informed consent was sought by sending the patients a letter which detailed the aims of the study and how the patients would be assessed. The letter was sent the week before surgery to allow plenty of time to consider the request, and queries were invited on the day of surgery in the Day Bed Unit, at which time consent was obtained. Fourteen out of the 134 patients (10%) who received a letter declined to take part in our study. This is very different from the response obtained by Dr Antrobus who had 10 refusals out of 43 (23.2%). All those who declined appeared calm and we did not attempt to study them but it would have been interesting to see if they had heightened anxiety scores. Antrobus did not find a significant effect of scale of operation on the pattern of consent, although we suspect that a larger study might reveal such an effect. Nonetheless it would appear that granting of informed consent by patients to take part in clinical studies is more likely to occur if sufficient time is allowed for consideration of the request than if an instant response is required.


To observe the effects of allicin on the growth and apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line. The viability of gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 was determined by MTT, cell morphology was observed under AO staining and electron microscopy, the apoptosis was measured using flow cytometry analysis. The results indicated that the growth of gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 was significantly inhibited by allicin, and the IC50 was 80µg/mL. Morphological variations of apoptosis were observed at 48 hours treated with allicin by AO staining and apoptosis body was observed under electron microscope. The results indicated that allicin can suppress the growth of gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and induce apoptosis of the cells.


A 1987 survey of 365 members of the Retina and Vitreous societies revealed that use of long-acting intraocular gases was both widespread and frequent. However, despite the expanded use of intravitreal gases and the stated intention of the Food and Drug Administration to approve premarket applications for use of sulfur hexafluoride and perfluoropropane, there are still limitations in the ready availability of these substances. Therefore, we conducted another survey to determine current patterns of intraocular gas use. The results indicate that more surgeons are using long-acting gases. The data also demonstrate the selective use of pneumatic retinopexy with geographic pockets of increased retinopexy use in California and Florida. Finally, 100% of respondents now indicate that they consider the use of sulfur hexafluoride and perfluoropropane to be a standard of care.


Large vocabulary automatic speech recognition might assist hearing impaired telephone users by displaying a transcription of the incoming side of the conversation, but the system would have to achieve su cient accuracy on conversationalstyle, telephone-bandwidth speech. We describe our development work toward such a system. This work comprised three phases: Experiments with clean data ltered to 200-3500Hz, experiments with real telephone data, and language model development. In the rst phase, the speaker independent error rate was reduced from 25% to 12% by using MLLT, increasing the number of cepstral components from 9 to 13, and increasing the number of Gaussians from 30,000 to 120,000. The resulting system, however, performed less well on actual telephony, producing an error rate of 28.4%. By additional adaptation and the use of an LDA and CDCN combination, the error rate was reduced to 19.1%. Speaker adaptation reduces the error rate to 10.96%. These results were obtained with read speech. To explore the language-model requirements in a more realistic situation, we collected some conversational speech with an arrangement in which one participant could not hear the conversation but only saw recognizer output on a screen. We found that a mixture of language models, one derived from the Switchboard corpus and the other from prepared texts, resulted in approximately 10% fewer errors than either model alone.


The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of large doses of sodium sulfadiazine (the monohydrate sodium salt of 2-[paraaminobenzenesulfonamido]-pyrimidine) given subcutaneously to rabbits with wounds inoculated with a measured amount of a culture of beta hemolytic streptococcus of known virulence. METHOD Rabbits weighing from 2,200 to 3,800 Gm. were used. Soluble pentobarbital (0.80 cc. of a solution containing 0.06 Gm. of pentobarbital per cubic centimeter) administered in an aural vein supplemented by light open drop ether was used to induce anesthesia for all operations. Aseptic technic was used throughout. A longitudinal incision 2 cm. long was made 1 cm. to the left of the midline posteriorly and 2 cm. inferior to the lowest rib. The skin, the subcutaneous tissue and the muscle sheath were incised. By means of a brass cork borer with a diameter of 1 cm., a segment of sacrospinalis muscle 2 cm. in depth


I recall years ago reading an interview with Bertold Brecht in which the interviewer asked Brecht whether he thought his work would be read in a hundred years. Brecht's reply was something like, "That depends who wins." At an historical moment when the apparently triumphant voices of self-appointed pundits and mysteriously funded "think-tanks" are proclaiming both the cultura and political failure of the Cuban Revolution, I think it is appropriate to recall one of the true masterpieces created by the Cuban Revolution, the film Lucia. I speak of the film as "created by the revolution" not in any disparagement of the extraordinary contributions of the director Humberto Solas and his collaborators, but because -as I hope will become clear from my analysis- I believe that many of the film's most striking formal features are unimaginable outside the context of a successful revolution.


Transportation is a spatial activity. The geographic Information System (GIS) is the process of capturing, managing, analyzing, and presenting spatial data. GIS techniques are essential to the study of various aspects of transportation. In this entry, the state of knowledge regarding atomized transportation modes is presented. Atomized transportation modes are defined as transportation modes which deal with low passenger numbers.


Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a novel evolutionary algorithm that is based on the mathematics of biogeography. Biogeography is the study of the geographical distribution of biological organisms. In the BBO model, problem solutions are represented as islands, and the sharing of features between solutions is represented as immigration and emigration between the islands. This paper presents an application of the BBO algorithm to the power flow problem for an IEEE 30-bus Test Case system. The BBO solution is compared with the solution of the same problem using a genetic algorithm (GA). The results of Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the BBO algorithm consistently performs better than the GA in determining an optimal solution to the power flow problem.


Microsatellite loci for Chaerephon pumilus sensu lato from south eastern Africa were cross-amplified using primers developed for the Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis . Two dinucleotide and four tetranucleotide loci were recovered and genotyped for 74 bats, yielding 9 to 15 alleles per locus. The observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.06 to 0.84 and 0.54 to 0.81 respectively, and the PIC values ranged from 0.51 to 0.80, indicative of considerable variability within the sample. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium among pairs of loci, or of deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These six loci were informative in studies of population genetic structure of C. pumilus sensu lato. Keywords : Bats, Chaerephon pumilus, Chiroptera, microsatellites, Molossidae, cross-genus amplification African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(21), pp. 3143-3147


SUMMARY Eradikacion therapy at patients with chronic pancreatitis and combined with Helicobacter associated erosive gastropathy in a month after treatment appeared successful at 75% patients which accepted therapy of the first line--pantoprazol, amoksicillin, klaritromicin. Inclusion in antihelicobakter therapy of seknidazol in place of klaritromicin rendered a positive antihelicobakter effect at 85% patients with a chronic pancreatitis. Therapy with the use of seknidazole was better tolerated. Application of synbiotik laktiale on a background antihelicobakter therapy helped normalizations of chair and was comfortable in application, which is important in the treatment of patients. Application of synbiotika laktiale on a background antigelikobakter therapy is helped in the improvement of clinical effect.


Hepatitis B is an infectious inflammatory illness of the liver caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) which is transmitted to a large population through blood transfusion or by exposure to other body fluids. HBV is a member of the family Hepadnaviridae and also a DNA virus. In this study, the prevalence of hepatitis B infection among immunocompromised individuals attending Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria was determined. Blood samples were collected from 100 subjects (50 males and 50 females). 30 of these subjects were undergoing dialysis for kidney failure and 70 were positive for Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The samples were analyzed using in vitro diagnostic strip designed for the qualitative determination of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) in human serum. Twelve out of the 100 subjects investigated (12 %) were positive for hepatitis B infection while 88(88%) were negative. Out of the 70 HIV positive subjects tested, 9 (12.9%) were positive for HBV and of the 30 undergoing dialysis for kidney failure, 3 (10%) were positive. The distribution of HBV infection among the subjects revealed that the males had a higher rate of infection (16%) than the females (8%). The prevalence of hepatitis B virus was significantly higher among subjects aged 20-29 years (22.9%) compared to those aged 50-59 years (0%), 40-49 years (5.6%) and 30-39 years (9.4%). This high HBV infection rate among the immunocompromised individuals could be related to their low CD4 cell count, which is associated with an impaired response to vaccination among the subjects. The study therefore highlights the need for an intervention through increased awareness, provision of drugs and immunization in the studied area. Keywords: hepatitis B virus, infection, immunocompromise, prevalence


This study was carried out to determine the level of soil contamination by metals around some automobile mechanic workshops in Oyo town in order to assess their possible adverse health implications on man and his environment. Concentrations of metals above certain levels have been shown to impair man's health. Automobile mechanic workshops are sources of metals discharge into the environment and most of these workshops in Oyo are sited within residential areas. 12 samples of top soils were therefore collected from some automobile mechanic workshops within Oyo town and analyzed for Lead (Pb), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Chromium (Cr), Vanadium (V), Copper (Cu), Strontium (Sr), Cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd) using the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique. The indices of contamination including Geo-accumulation index, Contamination Factor, and Degree of Contamination were used to determine the pollution status of the soils. Pb and Zn were the main metals of pollutant status with Pb having very high Contamination Factor, and the soils in general showing very high degree of contamination. This high level of Pb and Zn in the environment is significant with possible health risk to man and his environment. Keywords: Automobile mechanic workshops, Contamination Factor, Degree of Contamination, Geo-accumulation Index, Oyo town, Soils


In this paper,the chromosome numbers of 4 species in Gesneriaceae from Guangxi are reported for the first time. The results are formulated as follows: Metabriggsia ovali folia 2n = 24;Pseudochirita guangx-iensis 2n = 28; Didymocarpus hancei 2n = 20; Chirita longgangensis 2n = 28. The chromosomes of the four species are small in size.


Many channel models for MIMO systems have appeared in the literature. However, with the exception of a few recent results, they are largely focussed on two dimensional (2D) propagation, i.e., propagation in the horizontal plane, and the impact of elevation angle is not considered. The assumption of 2D propagation breaks down when in some propagation environments the elevation angle distribution is significant. Consequently, the estimation of ergodic capacity assuming a 2D channel coefficient alone can lead to erroneous results. In this paper, for cross polarized channels, we define a composite channel model and channel coefficient that takes into account both 2D and 3D propagation. Using this composite channel coefficient we assess the ergodic channel capacity and discuss its sensitivity to a variety of different azimuth and elevation power distributions and other system parameters.


Event picking is used in many steps of seismic processing. We present an automatic event picking method that is based on a new attribute of seismic signals, instantaneous traveltime. The calculation of the instantaneous traveltime consists of two separate but interrelated stages. First, a trace is mapped onto the time-frequency domain. Then the time-frequency representation is mapped back onto the time domain by an appropriate operation. The computed instantaneous traveltime equals the recording time at those instances at which there is a seismic event, a feature that is used to pick the events. We analyzed the concept of the instantaneous traveltime and demonstrated the application of our automatic picking method on dynamite and Vibroseis field data.


Objectives: The goal of this research was to compare lateral cephalometric radiography and cavum radiography in nasopharyngeal airway space evaluation. Methods: The sample of this study consisted of 36 Brazilian mouth breathing children, no racial distinction, with ages ranging from 5 to 12. These children were selected in Recife/PE, Brazil (2005) and divided into 6 groups. In each group, the radiographs were taken on the same day. The sample was composed of 72 radiographs, 36 lateral cephalometric and 36 cavum. Results: The results were based on the Schulhof method and, at the end, an Index representing a summary of all measurements taken was calculated. Student paired t-test, chi-square, Pearson correlation and Kappa index scores were calculated to analyze the results. Only the values of the Airway Occupation Percentage were significantly different (p = 0.006) among the analyzed radiographs. A high degree of correlation was found for all measurements, including the Index values. Conclusions: It can be concluded that, both the lateral cephalometric radiography and the cavum radiography can be used for nasopharyngeal airway space evaluation. Abstract


The microstructures and magnetic properties of CoPt thin films with thicknesses between 1 and 20 nm deposited on amorphous glass substrate and post-annealing at 600°C for 30 min were investigated. The morphology of CoPt thin film would change from a discontinuous nano-size CoPt islands into a continuous film gradually as the film thickness was increased from 1 to 20 nm. The formation mechanism of the CoPt islands may be due to the surface energy difference between the glass substrate and CoPt alloy. Each CoPt island could be a single domain particle. This discontinuous nano-island CoPt recording film may increase the recording density and enhance the signal to noise ratio while comparing with the continuous film. The as-deposited 5 nm CoPt film revealed the separated islands morphology after annealing at 600°C for 30 min. This nano-size CoPt thin film may be a candidate for ultra-high density magnetic recording media due to its discontinuous islanded nanostructure.


Tumor heterogeneity frequently develops through the course of disease, therapy and metastasis. This molecular evolution is a major challenge in the clinical setting and is the main reason for resistance to therapy. Although metastatic disease is the cause of death in breast cancer, most studies involve primary tumors compared to normal breast. An alternative approach of serial assessments can add an informative value and highlight important molecular players that may be otherwise underestimated. We sought to explore alterations through the course of disease by profiling serial samples from individual breast cancer cases followed from diagnosis to recurrence. We have assembled a unique cohort of patients having matched samples from pre-treatment, post-treatment and recurrent events. We collected paraffin-embedded samples and profiled miRNA expression across all samples for each patient using NanoString analysis. We hypothesized that expression modulations in individual patients through their course of disease can target miRNAs sets that differentially function at the various stages of the disease. We therefore used an innovative approach for analysis, identifying modulation patterns as opposed to differential absolute expression. We defined all the 8 possible patterns of expression modulations in 3 time points across the course of disease. For each pattern, we identified a set of miRNAs that are shared between patients by limiting the search algorithm to find modulations of at least 1.5 fold in at least 3 patients. Each miRNA set was examined for enrichments in known miRNAs datasets (METABRIC), for target predictions and for literature evidences. We found an agreement between the predicted pattern of each assigned miRNAs and the observed trend. For example, miRNAs assigned to a pattern of an increased expression post-treatment and a decrease at recurrence were found to be down-regulated in breast cancer and negatively correlated with the cell cycle pathway. Interestingly, we found that this miRNAs set can differentiate between individual patients, based on their response to therapy. All patients sharing the same pattern for its assigned set of miRNAs had a partial response to therapy. In contrast, patients that showed the opposite pattern demonstrated a minimal response to therapy. Finally, although this miRNA set were identified by the pattern dynamics, we found a significant difference in its average absolute expression level between patients having recurrence and patients that are recurrence free, suggesting that the identified miRNA set may have a prognostic value. In summary, examining serial assessments enabled us to identify significant molecular signatures characterizing breast cancer progression based on expression patterns through the course of disease. This longitudinal approach of profiling individual patients may have important consequences for personalized medicine. Citation Format: Maya Dadiani, Noa Bossel, Shani Paluch-Shimon, Gili Peri, Anya Pavlovski, Smadar Kahana-Edwin, Nora Balint, Adi Yosepovich, Adi Zundelevich, Einav Gal-Yam, Raanan Berger, Iris Barshack, Eytan Domany, Bella Kaufman. Tumor evolution inferred by patterns of miRNA expression through the course of disease, therapy and recurrence in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4011. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4011


As we become increasingly dependent on information systems, personal identification and profiling systems have received an increasing interest, either for reasons of personali- sation or security. Biometric profiling is one means of identification which can be achieved by analysing something the user is or does (e.g., a fingerprint, signature, face, voice). This Ph.D. research focuses on behavioural biometrics, a subset of biometrics that is concerned with the patterns of conscious or unconscious behaviour of a person, involving their style, preference, skills, knowledge, motor-skills in any domain. In this work I explore the cre- ation of user profiles to be applied in dynamic user identification based on the biometric pat- terns observed during normal Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by continuously logging and tracking the corresponding computer events. Unlike most of the biometrics systems that need special hardware devices (e.g. finger print reader), HCI-based identification sys- tems can be implemented using regular input devices (mouse or keyboard) and they do not require the user to perform specific tasks to train the system. Specifically, three components are studied in-depth: mouse dynamics, keystrokes dynamics and GUI based user behaviour. In this work I will describe my research on HCI-based behavioural biometrics, discuss the features and models I proposed for each component along with the result of experiments. In addition, I will describe the methodology and datasets I gathered using my LoggerMan application that has been developed specifically to passively gather behavioural biometric data for evaluation. Results show that normal Human-Computer Interaction reveals behavioural information with discriminative power sufficient to be used for user modelling for identification purposes.


The conversation piece is the product of a group interview with Professor Jack Zipes and provides useful insights about publishing for early career researchers across disciplines. Based on his wider experiences as academic and writer, Professor Zipes answered questions from PhD researchers about: writing books, monographs and edited collections; turning a PhD thesis into a monograph; choosing and approaching publishers; and the advantages of editing books and translations. It presents some general advice for writing and publishing aimed at postgraduate students. Professor Zipes is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, United States, a world expert on fairy tales and storytelling highlighting the social and historical dimensions of them. Zipes has forty years of experience publishing academic and mass-market books, editing anthologies, and translating work from French, German and Italian. His best known books are Breaking the Magic Spell (1979) , Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983) , The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012 ) , and The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (2014) .


staggering claim, but they adduce no evidence in their support, and we are unaware of any evidence in published reports that would support this contention. Indeed, it is well established that cholesteatoma may occur even after the use of grommets.5 Clinical impressions may well be the precursor of clinical research but are not a substitute for it. In some hospitals it may be expedient to insert grommets at the first operation when the waiting time is long and the refractory case would thus have to endure two delays with all the problems consequent on prolonged deafness. These are not scientific reasons, however, and this should be recognised. In conclusion, may we paraphrase Lildholdt3 on the subject: the use of ventilation tubes in primary serous otitis may result in chronic ear disease. A A NARULA PJ BRADLEY


Interior designers are well suited as activists for change, undertaking the multitude of social issues plaguing our democratic society. On a daily basis designers are directly engaged with the world around them, inspiring dialogue in order to create the physical spaces and places where others live, work, and play. As our nation is facing obstacles and difficult issues pertaining to aging, the economy, and health care, designers can offer diversity and fulfill a multitude of responsibilities including as social scholars and educators. Inspiring and empowering the next generation of interior designers is a challenge educational institutions face. Therefore, the creation of responsible designers, who tackle difficult issues, will require educational institutions to actively participate in the social issues facing communities around the country, in particular the aging baby boomer. Academic service-learning is a teaching strategy in which students are engaged in authentic activities, where course curriculum is applied to address the needs of communities in order to enrich the educational experience and encourage lifelong civic engagement (Furco, 2001; Howard, 1998). Service-learning has often been accepted as a teaching tool among educational institutions yet widely criticized as a research methodology (Bailis, 2001; Furco, 2001). Research is an integral part of all service-learning projects, including aging in community, since the solutions viii discovered for community problems should be derived from research (Enos and Troppe, 1996). Therefore, service-learning and research should be aligned to increase faculty and student use of evidence-based design decisions. In 2006, Partners for Livable Communities found less than half, 46%, of American communities have begun planning to address the needs of the aging baby boomers. In response to this finding, this study will explore the implementation of a well defined service-learning philosophy to address the need for appropriate housing options within rural communities. This visual study will inspire leaders and members of the community into lasting partnerships with educational institutions, to address the evolving and challenging community social issues surrounding the aging baby boomer. 1 CHAPTER


This report gives an overview of housing refurbishments in the social housing sector in the Netherlands. As the social housing stock in the Netherlands is almost completely owned by social housing associations, most refurbishment projects are carried out by housing associations themselves and are largely influenced by the regulatory and financial framework in which they operate. Housing refurbishments, both of the social housing stock and of owner-occupied dwellings, have also been supported by the government since the late seventies, starting with support for single measures such as wall insulation. During the nineties support was aimed at more integrated approaches leading to an increase of the energy performance of new houses and the already existing building stock. This was stimulated by regulation, setting minimum energy performance standards, as well as by financial support. After 2002 a number of these financial instruments were cut back or completely abolished. This has led to a need to look for alternative financing mechanisms for increasing the energy efficiency, both for private house-owners as well as housing associations.


The paper aims to present the implementation of the RDA research data policy framework in Slovenian scientific journals within the project RDA Node Slovenia. The activity aimed to implement the practice of data sharing and data citation in Slovenian scientific journals and was based on internationally renowned practices and policies, particularly the Research Data Policy Framework of the RDA Data Policy Standardization and Implementation Interest Group. Following this, the RDA Node Slovenia coordination prepared a guidance document that allowed the four pilot participating journals (from fields of archaeology, history, linguistics and social sciences) to adjust their journal policies regarding data sharing, data citation, adapted the definitions of research data and suggested appropriate data repositories that suit their disciplinary specifics. The comparison of results underlines how discipline-specific the aspects of data-sharing are. The pilot proved that a grass-root approach in advancing open science can be successful and well-received in the research community, however, it also pointed out several issues in scientific publishing that would benefit from a planned action on a national level. The context of an underdeveloped data sharing culture, slow implementation of open data strategy by the national research funder and sparse national data service infrastructure creates a unique environment for this study, the result of which can be used in similar contexts worldwide.


Line pipe manufacturers always have to verify the mechanical properties on pipe to make sure that the pipe meets the requirements specified by the standard and/or customer. This involves measurement of mechanical properties along the hoop direction. The most accurate way to do so is by performing a ring expansion test, which, however, requires dedicated tools. The two other methodologies consist of standard tensile tests on either non-flattened round bar samples or so called 'flattened tensile samples'. Round bar samples have the disadvantage that only part of the pipe's wall thickness is considered. Furthermore they can only be used in case of larger OD/t ratios. Tests on flattened samples, on the other hand, require a flattening operation, which induces additional plastic deformation. However, this flattening operation is not standardized. Moreover, it was observed that the mechanical properties — especially the yield strength — resulting from tensile tests on flattened samples largely depend on test parameters such as residual deflection, extensometer position, flattening procedure, etc. Most manufacturers prefer to test flattened samples, because sample preparation is straightforward and cheap. Moreover it only requires a standard tensile bench.An extensive FEA (Finite Element Analysis) study was launched to investigate the influence of those parameters on the measured yield strength. The applied FEA methodology consists of three steps. First the complete pipe forming process is modeled (in a simplified way). Next a pipe sample is flattened. Finally a tensile sample is cut from the flattened pipe sample and loaded in tension. The mechanical material behaviour is described by a combined kinematic-isotropic hardening model, which allows taking into account the Bauschinger effect. The results are also compared to simulations of ring expansion tests and tests on round bar samples.Next a dedicated experimental test campaign was performed to verify the results of FEA. Results of ring expansion tests are compared to results obtained on round bar samples and flattened tensile samples.The results of this study have shown that the applied methodology significantly affects the measured yield strength. Moreover tests on insufficiently flattened samples could considerably underestimate the actual yield strength on pipe. Finally some guidelines are provided to improve the reproducibility of the measured yield strength when using flattened samples.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Planning and design of infrastructures is a complicated process, which is caused by the complexity of the subject matter. The theory of Complex Adaptive Systems offers insights that can be of use in the design process. However, translating theory into practice is difficult. Gaming is proposed as a tool to bridge this gap by simulating complex adaptive systems. The objective of the paper is to analyze whether gaming can simulate the behavior of a complex adaptive system. We use the game SimPort-MV2 as a case study. Based on this example, we conclude that games can simulate complex adaptive systems. However, we raise specific concerns about the validity of the outcome and use of the game.


At the present stage of polymeric material science, the physical and chemical modifica - tion of the surface of reinforcing fibers and liquid polymer binder is the basic direction in the development of functional polymeric composite materials (PCMs) for structural purposes. In this chapter, various aspects of the physical and chemical modification of the components of reactoplastic materials of structural design on the basis of classical and nano-modified (NM) PCMs are analyzed. The choice of the most effective types of carbon nanofillers for creating functional PCMs is exemplified by the example of carbon plastics. The main emphasis is made on ultrasonic processing as the dominant method of physi cal modification when obtaining PCMs. It is shown that such a physical modification is aimed at the intensification of many technological operations for the production of such materials, as well as at improving the physico-mechanical and operational characteris - tics of the resulting products and structures on their basis. The questions of designing the technological process for the production of functional classical and NM PCMs are briefly analyzed. The aspects of creation of NM carbonocomposites in which a continu ous carbon fiber is combined with a binder in the volume of which the ultradisperse car - bon nanoparticles are evenly distributed are considered. The prospects of production of functional hybrid PCMs based on reinforcing fabric with NM filler are shown. Features of obtaining functional NM carbono-composites with improved physico-mechanical and operational properties, in particular, with increased strength, electrical conductivity and crack resistance are described.


Power electronic controller based power system equipment are widely used in industrial, commercial and residential sectors. These controllers help in energy saving, but they introduce different power quality issues such as harmonic distortions in current and voltage, voltage sag/swell etc. These power quality issues cause malfunctioning of associated circuits. This paper presents an adaptive shunt hybrid filter where voltage support for DC link capacitor is provided by solar photovoltaic source which improves the power quality by eliminating current harmonics, and improving the power factor. With the help of suitable control algorithm, the filter achieves capability of real power pumping to the grid in addition to harmonic and reactive compensation. The simulation results are carried out with three phase non-linear loads under balanced and/or unbalanced source/load conditions. The results obtained are satisfactory which depicts the effectiveness of the control algorithm and improvement in the power quality with Solar Photo Voltaic integration.


The separation of cobalt from zinc sulfate solutions by oxidation-precipitation process using peroxy-monosulfuric acid as oxidant has been presented according to the technological conditions of removal of cobalt from zinc electrolyte. After investigating the important parameters governing the separation of cobalt and their effect on the separation process, the optimal parameters of oxidation precipitation of cobalt were determined, the oxidation precipitation percent of cobalt was up to 90% under the conditions. The XRD analysis results of precipitates demonstrated that the precipitate was cobalt hydroxide oxide (CoOOH) in pure cobalt system while the precipitates were cobaltosic oxide (Co3O4) and basic zinc sulfate (ZnSO4(OH)6.H2O) in zinc-cobalt system.


The study aims to identify the type of information that firms are trying to convey when they change dividend. The first step is to test the relationship between unexpected dividend changes and stock prices by employing the event study methodology. The next step is to evaluate the information content of dividend changes in the context of three hypotheses: the cashflow signaling hypothesis, the dividend clientele hypothesis and the free cashflow hypothesis. Past explanation to the effect of dividend changes on stock prices is that firms are signalling their current and/or future cashflow of the firm, or known as the cashflow signalling hypothesis. Later studies have incorporated other explanations, which are the dividend clientele hypothesis and the free cash flow hypothesis. Regression analysis is applied to study the wealth effect of
dividend changes on stock prices and to test for the three hypotheses. The effect of firm size on the relationship between dividend changes and stock prices are also analysed by using total assets per share as the proxy variable
for firm size. The findings show a significant relationship between unexpected dividend changes and stock prices, which also constitute support for the cash flow signalling hypothesis. Mixed support is found for the dividend clientele hypothesis while strong support is found for the free cash flow hypothesis.


Create-Rank-Compete (CRC) is a teaching method designed to promote learner-to-learner, learner-to-material, and learner-to-instructor engagement through asynchronous and synchronous online interactions. The CRC method is rooted in the constructivism theory of learning; by design, it is a Bruner's spiral that supports metacognitive skill development through problem posing and peer assessment activities. The method is implementable in both seated and remote courses. Periodically during a course, students are asked to create multiple choice questions based on the covered material; then they perform pairwise comparisons of the de-identified peers' creations; from the ranked list of the questions, the instructor is able to track the class progress and use this student-generated content to compose quiz materials for testing and discussion. This paper details the CRC method and reports on its first implementation, which took place during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the semester when a large public university in the northeastern United States switched from live to online teaching. Students engaged with the CRC activities two times more than required, and reported high enjoyment and knowledge acquisition value delivered by the method.


Ventricular late potentials (LPs) are high-frequency low-amplitude signals obtained from signal-averaged electrocardiograms (ECGs) [SAECGs]. LPs are useful in identifying patients prone to ventricular tachycardia (VT), spontaneous or inducible during electrophysiology testing. A combination of self-organizing and supervised artificial neural network (ANN) models was developed to identify patients with a positive electrophysiology (PEP) test for inducible ventricular tachycardia from patients with a negative electrophysiology (NEP) test using LPs. We have added morphology information of vector magnitude waveform to an original set of three time-domain features of LPs, which are total QRS duration (TQRSD), high-frequency low-amplitude signal duration (HFLAD), and root-mean-square voltage (RMSV). Pattern recognition results from an ANN model with this combination feature set are superior to the results from Bayesian classification model based on conventional three time-domain features of SAECG. In order to increase the robustness of the recognition, a filtered QRS offset point is randomly shifted /spl plusmn/8 ms to form a fuzzy training set, which was to simulate the possible error in detecting QRS offset point of filtered SAECG. We also found that nonlinear transformation through the hidden layer of developed ANN model could increase Euclidean distance between PEP and NEP patterns.


Decisions are influenced by the environment in which the choices are presented. In fact, no choice is
made in a vacuum, as there is no neutral way to present choices. Presenting choices in certain ways,
even unintentionally, can "nudge" people to change their behavior in predictable ways. "Nudging" is a
concept from behavioral economics that describes how even minor changes to decision environments
(e.g., setting defaults) can influence decision outcomes—typically without the decision-maker noticing
this influence. The more decisions people make using digital devices, the more the software engineer
becomes a choice architect who knowingly or unknowingly influences people's decisions. Thus, we
extend the nudging concept to the digital environment, defining "digital nudging" as the use of userinterface design elements to guide people's behavior in digital choice environments, and present a
digital nudge design process to help online choice architects take nudging principles into consideration
when designing digital choice environments like Web sites and apps.


The global warming and climate change are the actual and challenging topics.
 Recently there is one question, frequently asked: whether today's climate is
 changing? The studies of this issues are mainly related to the two the most
 important climatic elements - air temperature and precipitation amounts. We
 have done research about temperature variability for Montenegro and the main
 aim of this paper is analysis precipitation changes for station Podgorica
 (Montenegro) in the period of sistematic observation - are there changes, to
 what extent and whether they are significant. According to the results,
 acumulated precipitation do not show significant changes for annual and
 seasonal values in the period 1951-2010. The interannual variations of the
 precipitation (which are characterictic for this climate element) do not show
 increases in recent times. The component trend shows some changes, but
 statisticaly insignigficant. The previous results for precipitation
 conditions in Podgorica are not in accordance with the concept of
 Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which predicted a general
 decerease in precipitation and increase variability on this area.


In 2015, the City of Pittsburgh partnered with several community organizations to design and pilot a unique model of PB tailored to best meet its needs. As a result of this effort, the City implemented Deliberative Community Budget Forums as a more engaging and inclusive method for soliciting public input on the 2016 Capital Budget. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the Deliberative Forums on the quality and level of community participation, deliberation, and engagement, as well as measure outcomes in the budget. Data collected from the 2014 Community Budget Hearings are used as a baseline for comparison. The study found the forums led to considerable quantitative and qualitative improvements in the budget process with respect to public participation and deliberation, and increased general knowledge of the budget and political engagement among participants. The study also determined areas where the forums could be improved, particularly in regards to diversity and political voice. The impact of the forums on the Capital Budget were not able to be determined. At the end, several key recommendations to address these issues are made. This paper concludes by briefly summarizing the findings of the study and discussing their positive implications for the future of the forums as an effective alternative form of PB in Pittsburgh and possibly in the United States.


Intestine samples of Bufo sp. tadpoles with parasitism confirmed for Giardia agilis were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The G. agilis trophozoites were long and thin. The plasma membrane was sometimes undulated and the cytoplasm, adjacent to the dorsal and ventral regions, showed numerous vacuoles. The two nuclei presented prominent nucleoli. The cytoplasm was electron-dense with free ribosomes, glycogen and rough endoplasmic reticulum-like structures. Polyhedral inclusions were observed in the cytoplasm and outside the protozoan; some of these inclusions exhibited membrane disruption. The flagella ultrastructure is typical, with the caudal pair accompanied by the funis. Next to the anterior pair, osmiophilic material was noticed. The ventro-lateral flange was short and thick, supported by the marginal plates that penetrated into its distal extremity; only its distal portion had adjacent osmiophilic filament. The G. agilis trophozoites showed the general subcellular feature of the genus. However, the ventro-lateral flange ultrastructure was an intermediate type between G. muris and G. duodenalis.


Immunologic studies have illuminated both bacteriology and serology by proving that the majority of pathogenic bacteria belong to groups composed of various types which may be identified by their reactions in the serum of infected animals. Dochez and Gillespie 1 showed that the pneumococcus group comprises four types which have since been found in Germany as well as in this country. Two additional types of pneumococci apparently exist in South Africa. 2 Types 1, 2 and 3 have definite immunity reactions identical to all members of the group, while Type 4 comprises a number of independent varieties differing from Types 1, 2 and 3 and also from each other. Pneumococci of Type 4 are ordinarily present in the mouth in healthy persons who have not been in contact with lobar pneumonia patients, and cause only 20 to 25 per cent. of the disease. While pneumococci of this type may be


Application of Sabar and Taghsim Argument in Determining the Concise Cause of Damage (A Case Study of Hemophiliacs) Mohsen Kazemi, Abolghasem Naghibi Abstract "Sabr and Taghsim" is a method which is utilized by jurists to achieve the cause in "Mostanbetol Elleh" analogy. Since the result of this method is to arouse suspicion and not to provide knowledge, it has mostly been neglected. But among different branches of law, civil liability enjoys more flexibility and it doesn't always require absolute knowledge. This feature is more distinctive especially in determining the cause from probable causes. Because if we assume that the creation of responsibility is subjected to knowledge, many civil liability cases in sequence may be limited and a lot of damage remain uncompensated. "Sabr and Taghsim" could be helpful for victims of civil liability cases. The similar argument in French law named "proof of elimination" has been used in the civil liability. This approach has been utilized in Iran and France in determining the cause in the contaminated blood case. It seems that "Sabr and Taghsim" is so practical here; since in determining the cause we are looking for a factor which enjoys more possibility for being damaging.


Functional capacity evaluation (FCE) has been widely used to assess workers' physical state of readiness to return to work (RTW) after an injury and to make recommendations for the time and capacity in which they might return. FCEs are also used to prevent re-injury after RTW. Despite being a commonly used tool, little is known about how effective FCE is in preventing occupational injuries.


Regulatory Competition against Public Health? The
Building of a European Medicines Regulation
The emergence of a European political space in the pharmaceutical sector has created competition between regulatory agencies. But
regulatory competition has long been recognized as a potential downward
pressure on regulation standards. As a consequence, this article discusses the
hypothesis of a "race to the bottom" in the sanitary control of medicines in
Europe. After describing the growing rivalry between sanitary authorities in
Europe since the 1960s, the author identifies several threats it represents for
public health care. He nevertheless states that regulatory competition has not
led to a weakening of public controls. In fact, the economic aspect of regulatory competition should not be overestimated: the European medicines regulatory system implies confrontation between experts that reinforces public
supervision and, in this field, cooperation and normalization have always
framed the dynamics of competition.


Early ideas on human nature and personality were presented by Muslim
scholars during the Golden Age of Islam (750-1258). The decline of the Islamic
civilization and the dawn of the era of European colonization has somehow dwindled
the study on man and his personality until the poet-philosopher Mohammed Iqbal
(1879-1938) came up with his philosophy on the Ego (Khudi). Using philosophy and
poetry as his vehicles, Iqbal called upon the Muslims to pay attention to the
development and maintenance of the human Ego. Given Iqbal"s fame in the East and
West, it is pertinent to explore his ideas on human nature, philosophy of Ego or self, and
personality. This study surveys the underlying factors that challenged Iqbal to
conceptualize a theory on personality which is very different from others in the Islamic
world.


Objectives Our study aimed to inform insurance decision-making in China by investigating patients' preferences for insurance coverage of new technologies for treating chronic diseases. Design We identified six attributes of new medical technologies for treating chronic diseases and used Bayesian-efficient design to generate choice sets for a discrete choice experiment (DCE). After conducting the DCE, we analysed the data by mixed logit regression to examine patient-reported preferences for each attribute. Setting The DCE was conducted with patients in six tertiary hospitals from four cities in Jiangsu province. Participants Patients aged 18 years or older with a history of diabetes or hypertension and taking medications regularly for more than 1 year were recruited (n=408). Results The technology attributes regarding expected gains in health outcomes from the treatment, high likelihood of effective treatment and low incidence of serious adverse events were significant, positive predictors of choice by the study patients (p<0.01). The out-of-pocket cost was a significant, negative attribute for the entire study sample (β = −0.258, p<0.01) and for the patients with Urban-Rural Residents Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) (β = −0.511, p<0.01), but not for all the patients with Urban Employees Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) (β = −0.071, p>0.05). The severity of target disease was valued by patients with lower EQ-5D-5L index value as well as URRBMI enrollees. Conclusions Patients highly valued the health benefits and risks of new technologies, which were closely linked to their feelings of disease and perceptions of health-related quality of life. However, there existed heterogeneity in preferences between URRBMI and UEBMI patients. Further efforts should be made to reduce the gap between insurance schemes and make safe and cost-effective new technologies as a priority for health insurance reimbursement.


This volume offers the first major survey of the history of Christian thought on children. Each chapter, written by an expert in the field, discusses the particular perspectives on children held by influential theologians and Christian movements throughout church history, asking what resources they can contribute to a sound contemporary view of childhood and child-rearing. Intended for all readers, this needed book will be a valuable resource for laying the foundation for a new, more meaningful Christian view of childhood today. Contributors: Clarissa W. Atkinson Margaret Bendroth Catherine Brekus Marcia J. Bunge Dawn DeVries Richard P. Heitzenrater Mary Ann Hinsdale Judith Gundry-Volf Vigen Guroian Keith Graber Miller Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore Barbara Pitkin Marcia Y. Riggs Martha Ellen Stortz Jane E. Strohl Cristina L. H. Traina William Werpehowski


As it has been suggested that involvement of individuals in environmental work is necessary for halting environmental degradation, one focus for contemporary environmental policy and political theory is the need for comprehensive individual lifestyle changes. Ecological Citizenship (EC) has been suggested within the field of political theory as an approach to realize personal responsibility for the environment. However, empirical research on whether EC can serve this purpose is still lacking. Based on a survey sent to 4,000 Swedish households, this paper makes the theory of EC empirically operational and explores whether, and to what extent, people in general hold values and beliefs in line with what is expected of EC, in order to shed light on the feasibility of cultivating ecological citizens in Sweden. The study concludes that a significant proportion of the respondents do demonstrate a value base consistent with EC, i.e. , non-territorial altruism and the primacy of social justice. While additional tests and studies are needed, the results support the use of EC as a theoretical model for behavioral change.


This study addresses real estate's riskiness from a distributional standpoint. Several studies have found that real estate returns are best modeled with stable Paretian distributions. This is confirmed using National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries individual property returns, but the first application of stable distributions to commercial real estate portfolio returns provides evidence that diversification effects ultimately reduce tailedness and, surprisingly, drive the tail parameter toward normality. Further insight is provided by highlighting the importance of a complete view, beyond pure tail parameter considerations. Even when tail parameters reflect normality, the return risk may still be tremendous, and it can only be reduced by diversification effects in property portfolios (and only to a certain, time-dependent extent).


This report summarises findings about the impact of Reducing Burglary Initiative projects covered by the Southern Consortium. It considers what worked in reducing domestic burglary and aims to explain the factors underlying this success. The issues of whether interventions were theoretically robust, and how intensively they needed to be implemented in practice to achieve any impact are examined.

Projects tended to be more successful if the underlying theory of interventions was clearly thought through so that they complemented rather than contradicted each other. If this was the case, so-called 'packages' of interventions were most effective when designed to be relevant to the local area in terms of the local community, local offending and to management experience. The 'dosage' of an intervention needed to be considered so as to maximise effect, taking into account financial and personnel restrictions. Combinations of short- and long-term interventions were found to have a more sustainable impact on offending.

Other internal and extraneous factors are considered that may have acted to the benefit or detriment of implementation. These may have masked the impact of successful projects from the evaluators, or given the spurious impression of success. The projects could be undermined by changing operational and community priorities. Despite the wide range of problems that projects had with implementation, the Southern Consortium SDPs proved that successful projects were possible.


This thesis deals with the error control problems, which is one of the major issues
for supporting quality of service (QoS) in wireless ATM (W A TM). Generally in
wireless communication, error is induced by impairment prone wireless links. As a
method of quality of service based error control, the design and performance
evaluation of a retransmission based error control scheme is proposed to overcome
wireless channel impairments for multimedia traffic support over wireless A TM
networks. The purpose of the proposed error control scheme is to provide error-free
services to the higher layers by either correcting the errors in a packet or
recovering corrupted packets by retransmission in a wireless link.
From the perspective of error control, multimedia traffic can be divided into two
types: loss-sensitive traffic and delay-sensitive traffic. To support all these traffic
over W ATM networks, we propose two approaches for error control. One
approach is to utilize the reliable AAL protocol, which are referd to as AALXl and AALX2, as the end-to-end error control, based on our knowledge-based selectivereject
automatic repeat request (KSRARQ) scheme, and adaptive header protection
with KSRARQ scheme for loss-sensitive and delay-sensitive traffic, respectively.


Previous research has indicated that ridge topology can be predicted by a model based on a principle of ridge length minimization. Results of direct tests of this "minimum spanning tree" postulate provide strong confirmation. In a sample of 230 ridge units from northeastern Kentucky, the observed topology minimized total ridge length in 174 cases (76%). The mean excess length for all ridge units was only 1.20%. Two other test areas, in California and British Columbia, produced similar results, although both have undergone considerable tectonic activity and one has been glaciated. Analysis of the geomorphometry of simple polyhedra indicates that a ridge configuration that minimizes total ridge length also minimizes the ratio of surface area to volume. This may provide a physical interpretation, heretofore lacking, for the minimum spanning tree postulate.


Both Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and John Hawkes' Travesty (1976) employ unconventional and unsettling narrative strategies: unconventional in that these works deliberately flout the traditions of the conventional canonical novel, and unsettling as a result of techniques consciously and deliberately adopted by the narrator of each work. The unconventionality and the deliberate assault on the reader's expectations are both characteristic of metafictions--those self-conscious texts which demand that the reader react intensely to the world of the text while simultaneously acknowledging its fictionality. As Linda Hutcheon observes, metafiction is characterized by paradox.


The law is clear that it is the plaintiff-patentee's burden to prove both infringement and damages. It is unclear, however, in cases involving inconsistent manufacturing techniques, what level of evidence is required to meet this burden and when, if at all, such burden should pass to the defendant-infringer to provide rebuttal evidence. One consideration in this analysis is when findings of infringement can extend to the entire product line. Another matter considered in this paper is how the court deals with the confusion of goods and the commingling of records. This Article examines the various patent doctrines that may have some bearing on these issues, analyzes the relevant and analogous statutory law and case law, and, ultimately, proposes suggestions as to how to handle cases of this nature.


UNLABELLED
The World Health Organization records that indigenous peoples throughout the world experience poor health. The concept of health was explored from a Māori world view and compared with occupational therapy perspectives. The aim was to understand and value indigenous knowledge and promote culturally safe responsive practice. Māori methodologies were employed to protect the Māori knowledge shared in the study. This involved applying seven principles, including respect for people, be cautious, and look, listen, and speak. Perspectives on health and wellbeing were collected in 2008-2009 from indigenous occupational therapists, other occupational therapists and indigenous health practitioners using interviews and a questionnaire. The findings are presented as a conceptual framework, depicting a whare, a Māori meeting house to show relationships between culture and health. Key concepts held by occupational therapists and Māori were spirituality, holistic views, client responsive practice, and environmental contexts. Areas of difference were the focus on occupations, the interdependence of indigenous relationships, and the place of the extended family in supporting wellness. A strength was the respect for Māori methodologies and limitations were the number of participants (N = 23) and the small proportion of Māori therapists in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Attention to culture is vital for appropriate, safe, and responsive practice. The conceptual framework provides a tool to inform, guide, and evaluate practice understandings. It acknowledges the importance of the individual within their extended family, their natural environment, and the historical, social, and political realities of living as Māori. Further research should explore the use of the framework and interaction between occupational therapy practice and specific indigenous cultures.


As the complexity of system design has substantially increased, so, too, has the need for incorporating tradeoffs into the design process. When such tradeoffs are incorporated, the optimal system performance of each objective is sacrificed to increase the overall range of the system's functionality. Reconfigurable systems have been defined as systems designed to maintain a high level of performance through real-time change in their configuration when operating conditions or requirements change in a predictable or unpredictable way. When effectively applied, these reconfigurable systems have the ability to achieve the optimal performance for all system objectives, while also meeting the different constraints of each objective. A method of designing effective reconfigurable systems is presented that focuses on determining how the design variables of a system change, as well as investigating the stability of a reconfigurable system through the application of a state-feedback controller. This method is then applied to a study involving the design of a reconfigurable Formula One race car traversing a predefined racetrack where the design variables change values to achieve maximum performance.


Abstract Globalisation is associated with long periods of sustained economic growth and credit expansion, whereas major recessions tend to lead to falling trade and protectionism. The sensitivity of trade to global economic conditions is not simply driven by policy: rather, in a model of costly search, firms who are engaged in a searching process are very sensitive to changing economic circumstances. In turn, this causes protectionism to be partly endogenous, since optimal noncooperative tariffs can be high during periods when the sensitive, searching firms have exited the market.


The generation and characterization of narrowband THz pulses by means of chirped pulse difference frequency generation in Auston-switch type photoconductive antennas is reported. Using optical pulses with energies in the range from 1 nJ to 1 µJ, we generate THz pulses with up to 50 pJ in energy and electric field strengths on the order of 1 kV/cm. Two emitter concepts are investigated and circumvention of the fast saturation for small area excitation by scaling of the THz emitter is demonstrated.


This article reviews the state of art of scientific knowledge on oral infections microbiology, with the purpose of bringing a contribute to a better selection of chemotherapeutic agents. It is also presented a description of the main groups of antibiotics, antifungals and antivirals, as well as their indications, dosages and routes of administrations.


In the paper, the superiority-inferiority in various calculations of hardenability has been compared, and the method of nonlinear regression equation was chosen to establish a mathematical model. The model was modified through the actual production of the gear steel hardenability data. Based on the model, a prediction platform was developed with computer tools to calculate the hardenability of gear steel. The hardenability prediction software can calculate random Jominy distance hardness according to chemical composition and grain size. The forecast accuracy is better than that of unmodified nonlinear regression equation and multiple linear regression equation, but equal to that of artificial neural network.