Molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate the relationship between Voronoi entropy and viscosity for rapid solidification processing of Zr36Cu64 binary alloy melt. The simulation results at different temperatures, cooling rates, and pressures, show that Voronoi entropy is able to accurately describe the relationship of the transition between the cluster structure and the viscosity of Zr36Cu64 binary alloy melt through Voronoi polyhedron analysis. That is, the higher the degree of order of the microstructure, the lower the Voronoi entropy is and the higher the viscosity is. The simulation provides an important reference for studying metallic glass with high glass-forming ability.


In the Northeast, the principal market expansion for its manufactured products is likely to come from outside. Sales to export markets can create jobs and could potentially exacerbate the region's dependence on imported energy. 'Ibis analysis demonstrates that 26% of the Northeast's manufacturing employment is in sectors which have experienced significant expansion in exports in recent years. For most of the export sectors, the employment contribution is above the average for domestically-oriented industries, and the energy requirement is below the average. By focusing export promotion policies on these sectors, employment objectives need not conflict with energy conservation objectives.


Seasonal variation in the size of song nuclei in the brains of male songbirds may be related to the ability to learn to sing new songs as adults. This hypothesis was tested with the rufous-sided towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), a species in which song repertoires are stable after 1 yr of life. Towhees were hand raised in the laboratory and tutored with normal towhee songs. After song repertoires were recorded at 1 yr of age, photoperiods were manipulated so that 10 male towhees experienced short days and 10 males experienced long days. Circulating hormone concentrations and anatomical attributes of song nuclei were then measured. Photoperiod-related differences in the song nuclei of these towhees were as large as those seen in "open-ended learners" (i.e., species that continue to learn new songs as adults). Seasonal changes of the adult song system may thus occur without disrupting existing song repertoires and without the development of new songs. The synaptic plasticity provided by such seasonal variation, however, may enable song learning by adult birds.


Supply planning is an integral part of any manufacturing company. The fundamental need of having a supply planning framework arises from various issues during the procurement of goods. A proper framework is always required to ascertain exact quantity of goods emanating from one end to the other end. In order to handle data coming from multiple resources and to create a home for all, Data Staging (DS) is one of the finest approaches. The primary aim of DS is to develop a home for data thus manifesting a controlled and monitored flow of data along a supply chain. Besides, DS maintains the shared data across the network. As planning processes became more integrated and more sophisticated, common data models to support integration and databases to manage the planning data and integrate among systems became necessary. The data when comes from one source and it is processed and sent to the target, is used ultimately to decide what quantities of goods are going to be manufactured or shipped. These quantities are known as schedules which indicate the future volume to be produced by a factory and represent the build plan at a given point of observation in time. Actual subject area deals with bringing in lot level transactions from the source for different factories aligned with the respective factory cut off times. Actual quantities of items produced for each manufacturing stage are calculated based on the lot movement from one operation to another operation and rolled up to  work week based on the factory cut off time that are stored in the core table. Future scenario will be capturing the quantities of items produced for each manufacturing stage from various external locations. The maintenance issue rests with the DS and it also takes care of sharing data along the network so the sync issue is resolved by the functionality provided. Using this feature one can enable the user to maintain data quality as there is an automatic and early detection of data inconsistencies and there is a comprehensive proactive resolution to be applied to get the data fixed. Teradata Master Data Management Studio (Teradata MDM) tool is used to develop the staging systems.


Kernel method is a nonlinear feature extraction approach. Firstly, the samples in the original feature space are transformed into a higher dimensional feature space by nonlinear mapping. Then, linear approaches are used in the higher dimensional feature space, and thus nonlinear features of original samples are extracted. The Heteroscedastic Discriminant Analysis (HDA), in which the equal within-class scatters matrix constraint of Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is removed and more discriminant information is achieved. In this paper, take the advantages of kernel method and HDA, kernel Heteroscedastic discriminant analysis (KHDA) is presented and used for face recognition. Experimental results based on Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL), ORL and Yale mixture face database show the validity KHDA for face recognition.


This article focuses on two main topics of modernization theory: individualization and value fragmentation. According to this theory it is to be expected that 1. individualized orientations will be dominant in modern society, and 2. that values in modern society are fragmented. These ideas were empirically investigated for the values in the domain of work using the survey data from the 1990 European Values Study. It is assumed that the process of individualization has induced a shift in basic orientations in the domain of work from instrumental towards expressive. Another distinctive feature of modern society is value fragmentation. Value fragmentation denotes first of all a process of increasing heterogeneity of the populations of modernized societies. Modern people pick and choose their attitudes and values according to their own preferences and it has become less likely that they will make similar choices. All kinds of combinations of choices are possible and this implies that values no longer do constitute coherent patterns. In other words, a weakening of associations between value orientations will have occurred. Four regions have been distinguished in Europe: North, West, South and East and hypotheses with respect to value preferences and fragmentation have been formulated for these regions. Finally, the impact of age and education, two important predictors of values and value changes, has been investigated.


The price at which a product is offered often does not consist of a single item of information, for example VW Golf, price; DM25,476. Instead, a multidimensional pricing system is used, e.g. the price comprises a down payment, monthly installments and a repayment period in months. Despite the considerable significance of offers of this type for marketing policy, no information is presently available to describe how a consumer integrates the individual price dimensions (e.g. down payment, monthly installments and number of repayment periods) to form a global judgment. This article derives hypotheses to explain the formation of a price judgment about multidimensional prices. Then, an empirical study designed to verify the formulated hypotheses is described. Finally, this article discusses the implications of the results of the study.


Human endothelial cells (EC) exposed to human recombinant IL 1 and to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) demonstrated a time dependent increase in their ability to bind peripheral blood monocytes (M0). The enhancement of endothelial-M0 interactions was shown to represent a direct alteration of EC and was not explained by IL 1 and LPS affecting M0. Other experiments indicated that the enhancement represented an acceleration in EC binding of M0 suggesting that EC may play a role in initiating proinflammatory events prior to the recruitment of inflammatory cells by chemotactic peptides.


The phosphorus tungsten(PW) heteropoly acids were immobilized on the mesoporous molecular sieves(MCM-41) by wet impregnation. The prepared catalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, TG and DTA,FTIR. The alkylation of p-cresol with isobutylene was carried out over the PW /MCM-41 catalysts. The influences of various reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, time, PW loading, and catalysts amount on the conversion of p-cresol and the products selectivity were also investigated. Under the optimized reaction conditions of 90 °C,PW loading of 10%, catalyst amount of 1.5%, p-cresol conversion was found to be 93.89% with product rate to 2-tert-butyl-p-cresol 51.29%, 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol 42.48% and tert-butyl-p-tolyl ether 0.12%, responding to selectivity of 2, 6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol 45.24%.


This dissertation presents empirical evidence intended to help answer two research questions. The first question asks whether executive compensation systems appear to exploit the bias in accounting-based performance measures in order to reduce the volatility in executive compensation and to allocate incentives more effectively across the range of activities performed by the executive. The second question asks whether compensation systems systematically differ between firms that use alternative accounting methods and whether any such systematic difference helps explain accounting choice. Parameters estimated in fixed-effects endogenous switching regression models were used to test the risk-shielding and incentive-allocation hypotheses. The models were estimated across a dataset consisting of 1151 executive-year observations of annual compensation paid to 222 top-level executives in 40 oil and gas firms. The dataset was partitioned by accounting method and separate models estimated for the full cost and successful efforts partitions. The tests provided modest support for the risk-shielding and incentive-allocation hypotheses, revealing that accounting measurement bias is used to focus incentives for effort in the exploration activity and to reduce executives' exposure to production risk. The design also allowed an estimate of the proportional change in compensation that was realized from the accounting choice actually made.


Cotton fabric was directly inkjet printed with reactive dye ink, the ink would appear on the permeability of the fabric, the depth of color yield is low, light fastness is poor. Pretreatment agents with different mass fractions had been used to do the pretreatment of the cotton fabric before ink-jet printing, the results showed that: when the concentration of alginate ester or seaweed was between 1.0% -1.5%, the fabrics had the high color yield and the fixation color rate of the dye was the highest. When the amount of NaHCO3 was 3%, the inkjet printing effect of cotton fabrics was the best; color fastness of colors was all good. After Inkjet printing, the best effect can be achieved by steaming the cotton fabrics under the 100 °Csaturated water vapor for 25min: the colors of black, red and yellow of the K / S value were of the maximum, color fastness was fine.


Germline mutations of EXT2, encoding Exostosin Glycosyltransferase 2, are associated with multiple osteochondromas (MO), an autosomal dominant disease characterized by the development of multiple peripheral cartilaginous benign tumors with a weak risk of malignant transformation. We report here a family with a remarkable clinical presentation characterized by the development of isolated chondrosarcomas, mostly located in ribs. Comparative analysis of exomes from two third‐degree affected relatives led us to identify a single common disruptive variation, corresponding to a stop mutation (c.237G > A, p.Trp79*; (NM_000401.3); c.138G > A, p.Trp46*; (NM_207122.1)) within exon 2 of the EXT2 gene. Interestingly, no obvious sign of MO was detected in affected members by radiological examination. This report shows that germline mutations of EXT2 can result, not only in the development of multiple benign osteochondromas, but also in the development of isolated malignant cartilaginous tumors including central tumors, and that the presence of germline EXT2 mutation should be considered in patients suspected to have an inherited predisposition to chondrosarcoma, even in the absence of MO. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Following infection with Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus in a nucleus herd with 190 Sows, eradication of the virus was attempted. This was facilitated by the detailed recording system used for the herd. PRRS seronegative replacement stock was used and, after weaning at three weeks of age, piglets were transported to a separate unit. The attempt of the PRRS eradication was based on the importance of this herd as a breeding stock. The sows, which were specified-pathogen-free (SPF) represented an important genetic potential.


The ribosome translates the genetic information of an mRNA molecule into a sequence of amino acids. The ribosome utilizes tRNAs to connect elements of the RNA and protein worlds during protein synthesis, i.e. an anticodon as a unit of genetic information with the corresponding amino acid as a building unit of proteins. Three tRNA-binding sites are located on the ribosome, termed the A, P and E sites. In recent years the tRNA-binding sites have been localized on the ribosome by three different techniques, small-angle neutron scattering, cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray analyses of 70 S crystals. These high-resolution glimpses into various ribosomal states together with a large body of biochemical data reveal an intricate interplay between the tRNAs and the three ribosomal binding sites, providing an explanation for the remarkable features of the ribosome, such as the ability to select the correct ternary complex aminoacyl-tRNA.EF-Tu.GTP out of more than 40 extremely similar tRNA complexes, the precise movement of the tRNA(2).mRNA complex during translocation and the maintenance of the reading frame.


The phenomenon of transformer magnetizing inrush current has been discussed in many papers throughout the years. A brief review of magnetizing inrush is given to provide the basis of need for transient testing. Previous studies have shown that inrush currents contain harmonic components of the fundamental waveform. Conventional philosophy has been to utilize the second harmonic current to provide inhibited operation of differential relays because of its dominance. Manufacturers have used various designs regarding higher order harmonics. The use of second and third, as well as the inclusion of all harmonics, have been seen over the years. The relay considered in this article utilized the second harmonic current to provide restraint on magnetizing inrush. The reasons for this are discussed. The authors discuss relay transient testing, EMTP transient testing, factory transient tests, EMTP testing facility, transformer differential EMTP tests, and EMTP transformer modeling. Several case studies relating to transformer differential relays are then discussed.


The Spodoptera litura nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltNPV) gp37 fusion gene was inserted into the transfer vector (pBacPAK9), named pBacPAKSL37fus. The vector was cotransfected BT1-Tn5B1-4 (Hi5) cells with liner Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus(AcNPV) DNA (BacPAK6).The purified, non-occluded body recombinant baculovirus (Ac-PAKSL37fus) was selected by successive 3 cycles of plaque purification. The inserted gp37 fusion gene under the control of polyhedrin gene could high-express gp37fus protein. At 24 hours post infection (hr.p.i), sf-21 cells infected with recombinant virus had a distinctive cytopathic effect compared to cells with wild type (w.t) AcNPV. Through successive 5 generation infections, cytotoxicity of the recombinant virus did not weaken. The result from infected beet armyworm larvae showed that mortality of test group infected with recombinant virus was 26 percent higher than the control group with parent virus at 60 hr p.i. The recombinant baculoviruses were co-embedded in insect with wt parent virus via subcutaneous injection. If again, beet armyworm larvae infected with the NPV isolated from dead insects, mortality of insects was 17% higher than that of the control.


We report here on the design, fabrication and characterization of highly-integrated 3-D Optochips consisting of a Si carrier platform with 4 flip-chip attached components: two 24-channel 850-nm optoelectronic (OE) arrays (VCSELs and photodiodes) and two 24-channel CMOS ICs (receivers and laser drivers). The Si carrier incorporates three copper wiring levels for interconnection between the CMOS ICs and the OE arrays, and a dense array of electrical through-silicon-vias (TSVs) for the off-carrier dc and high-speed electrical connections. In addition, to allow optical transmission through the silicon carrier, 150-μm diameter "optical vias" (holes) are etched through the carrier at the locations of the optoelectronic array elements. The ICs and OEs are designed for 10–15 Gb/s operation to provide 48-channel modules with bidirectional aggregate bandwidths of 240 to 360 Gb/s. Optochips based on TSV Si carriers with flip-chip bonded ICs and OEs have been assembled using AuSn solder. DC characterization verified electrically and optically operative Optochips with 24 VCSELs and 24 photodiodes (PDs). Assembly of the Optochips to a high-speed, high-density organic carrier to form the full optical modules has also been developed and demonstrated. The Si carrier TSV technology is key to enabling the bonding of the Optochip to the organic carrier using a C4 solder process. Initial high-speed characterization of the complete module showed receiver channels operating at 12.5 Gb/s and transmitter channels operating up to 15 Gb/s. This is the first demonstration of Terabus optical modules with dense 24 TX + 24 RX transceiver Optochips based on TSV Si carriers.


The increasing concerns about environmental issues caused by fossil fuels, and the demand for renewable energy have trigged extensive research into efficient energy storage and conversion systems. Owning to their unique properties of a high specific area, well-defined pore size, and tunable molecular structure, 2D metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent–organic frameworks (COFs), as two typical classes of 2D porous polymers, have been considered as intriguing materials for energy storage and conversion. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the up-to-date synthesis strategies of 2D MOFs and COFs, and their further applications. We mainly focus on the top-down and bottom-up synthesis methods, and applications in supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, batteries beyond lithium-ion batteries (lithium–sulfur batteries, and sodium-ion batteries), and electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction, oxygen evolution, oxygen reduction, and hydrogen evolution.


This study explores the transformations implemented by health authorities in a hospital over the last forty years with the purpose of institutionalizing geriatrics in the Chilean public health system. The transformations have been implemented through a process of identity conversion that had implied high levels of ambiguity due to the contradictory coexistence of the old hospital's identity with the new geriatric practices. These ambiguities are associated with the erratic, precarious support provided by state authorities to the development of the public geriatric framework. Through the handling of images, authorities have paradoxically amplified the achievements of these transformations, thus promoting apparent complacency in internal and external audiences.


Standing for a mammography exam is difficult for some elderly patients due to dizziness, loss of strength or other age-related changes. This article reports on a pilot study that examined seated mammography as an alternative for older women. Results indicate that seated and standing mammography produced images of comparable quality and patients were equally satisfied with the procedures. The author advocates further investigation with a larger cohort of patients.


Past climatic changes and especially the ice ages have had a great impact on both the distribution and the genetic composition of plant populations, but whether they promoted speciation is still controversial. The autopolyploid complex Biscutella laevigata is a classical example of polyploidy linked to glaciations and is an interesting model to explore migration and speciation driven by climate changes in a complex alpine landscape. Diploid taxa survived the last glacial maximum in several never‐glaciated areas and autotetraploids are clearly dominant in the central parts of the Alps; however, previous range‐wide studies failed to identify their diploid ancestor(s). This study highlights the phylogeographical relationships of maternal lineages in the Western Alps and investigates the polyploidy process using plastid DNA sequences (trnS‐trnG and trnK‐intron) combined with plastid DNA length polymorphism markers, which were transferable among Brassicaceae species. Twenty‐one distinct plastid DNA haplotypes were distinguished in 67 populations densely sampled in the Western Alps and main lineages were identified by a median‐joining network. The external Alps harboured high levels of genetic diversity, while the Central Alps contained only a subset of haplotypes due to postglacial recolonization. Several haplotypes were restricted to local peripheral refugia and evidence of in situ survival in central nunataks was detected by the presence of highly differentiated haplotypes swamped by frequent ones. As hierarchical genetic structure pointed to an independent evolution of the species in different biogeographical districts, and since tetraploids displayed haplotypes belonging to different lineages restricted to either the northern or the southern parts of the Alpine chain, polytopic autopolyploidy was also apparent in the Western Alps.


Prescription drug shortages have become increasingly common and more severe over the past decade. In addition, reported shortages are longer in duration and have had a greater effect on patient care. Some of the causes of current drug shortages are multifactorial, including the consolidation of drug manufacturers, quality problems at production plants that restrict the supply of drugs, and a lack of financial incentives for manufacturers to produce certain products, particularly generic medications. Generic injectable medications are most commonly affected by shortages because the production process is complex and costly for these drugs, and profit margins are often smaller than for branded medications. Many commonly used emergency department (ED) generic injectables have been affected by shortages, including multiple resuscitation and critical care drugs. Several reports have shown that shortages can potentially have major effects on the quality of medical care, including medication errors, treatment delays, adverse outcomes, and increased health care costs. Currently, no published data exist outside of case reports that directly link ED-based drug shortages to overall patient safety events; however, there are several examples in the ED where first-line therapies for life-saving medications have been in short supply, and alternatives have higher rates of adverse events, narrower therapeutic indexes, or both. Aside from increasing notification about shortages, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has little power to coerce manufacturers to produce medications during a shortage. Therefore, ED providers must learn to mitigate the effects of shortages locally, through active communication with pharmacy staff to identify safe and effective alternatives for commonly used medications when possible. Particularly given the effect on critical care medications, therapeutic alternatives should be clearly communicated to all staff so that providers have easy access to this information during resuscitations. This review focuses on the etiology of drug shortages, their effect on the ED, and potential solutions and mitigation strategies.


Dominant lethal mutation assay was carried out on rats after being treated with graded doses of ethanol extract of the seeds of Mucuna urens. Male albino rats (Wistar strain) were caged in three groups labeled, groups II, III and IV and treated with three different dosages of the ethanol extract of the seeds of M. urens; 70, 140 and 210 mg/kg body weight (BW), respectively, for 14 days. The positive control animals (group I), were treated with distilled water for the entire period. At the end of the feeding period of two weeks, they were co-habited with virgin female albino rats at a ratio of 1:1 for 3 days. 14 days after mating, the females were sacrificed for the dominant lethal mutation assay. The results of the dominant lethal mutation assay showed that only female rats in group II had implants on the uterine horn, of all the treated groups. The rats in groups III and IV did not have any implants at all. Biological evaluations (pre-implantation losses) carried out showed 0, 76, 100 and 100% lethal mutations in groups I, II, III and IV, respectively. The statistical evaluations obtained showed 8.6b ± 0.47, 6.6a ± 0.94, 0 ± 0.0 and 0 ± 0.0 in groups I, II, III and IV, respectively. Photographs of the corpora lutea were obtained using a digital camera (DCR-HC48E, KODAK). The results obtained can be attributed to the induction of dominant lethal mutations in spermatocytes and early spermatids in the male Albino rats, showing the mutagenic effect of the seeds of the plant M. urens and its potential as a male contraceptive.

 Key words:  Mucuna urens seeds, dominant lethal mutations assay, mutagenesis, male Albino rats.


The influences of σ* and Φ mesons,temperature and coupling constants of nucleons on the moment of inertia of the proto neutron star(PNS) are examined in the framework of relativistic mean field theory for the baryon octet {n,p,Λ,Σ+,Σ0,Σ+,Ξ-,Ξ0} system.It is found that,compared with that without considering σ* and Φ mesons,the moment of inertia decreases.It is also found that the higher the temperature,the larger the incompressibility and symmetry energy coeficient,and the larger the moment of inertia of a PNS.The influence of temperature and coupling constants of the nucleons on the moment of inertia of a PNS is larger than that of the σ* and Φ mesons.


The wave method of Kelley and Rubinow [Ann. Physics, 9 (1960), p. 24–75] is extended to the biharmonic eigenvalue problem with rectangular or circular geometry and clamped boundary conditions. First, it is noted from the clues of computer graphics that mode shapes of a clamped circular plate and those of a circular membrane look very similar to each other. This suggests that plate and membrane should have very similar vibration behavior and leads to the assumption that the covering space of a rectangular plate is still a torus By adding several waves on the boundary, approximate eigenfrequency equations are derived. Their solutions are shown to agree remarkably with numerical solutions obtained by the Legendre-tau spectral method here and by the finite-element method elsewhere at all frequency ranges. The same idea is also applied to the circular plate and yields excellent agreement between the exact values of eigenfrequencies and the asymptotic solutions.


An automated layer counting technique is developed to estimate the chronology of a marine sediment core and this technique is validated with Pb210 chronology. The marine sediment core was sampled in front of the delta of Mittivakkat Glacier meltwater river in the Sermilik Fjord, SE Greenland, and is a proxy of the sediment delivery from a glacial drainage basin to a fjord. The estimated time series was based on automatic lamination detection (varves) on a line scan of the core using gray scale intensities, and covered the last two centuries. The estimated time series of sediment accumulation rates was coupled to modelled runoff from the Mittivakkat Glacier and compared with local climatic parameters (air temperature and precipitation) and with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index. Maxima in the sediment accumulation rate at the bottom of the side-fjord, about 1 km from the delta, mostly depended on glacier ablation and consequently on changes in river runoff, which were initiated by the air temperature. This was especially the case during transition from colder periods towards warmer, where short-lived maxima in sediment accumulation rates were followed by lower rates, even though the temperature remained high. This suggested a quite rapid glacial response to changes in climatic forcing, and/or a hysteresis effect, where sediment stored in the glacier/valley system was evacuated soon after a temperature dependent increase in discharge. The air temperature was in turn controlled by the AMO index.


Because of the infrequency with which fluid is withdrawn from normal joints, most descriptions of the morphology of normal synovial fluid cells are based upon examination of the small quantity of fluid obtained either at autopsy (Ropes and Bauer, 1953) or from patients with non-articular disease following prolonged rest in bed (Coggeshall, Warren, and Bauer, 1940). The cells present have been reported to consist predominantly of monocytes and "clasmatocytes" with small numbers of lymphocytes and only occasional polymorphonuclear leucocytes. Certain other cells, regarded as the actual synovial cells and originating from the joint lining, were extremely few in number (Davies, 1964). Ropes and Bauer (1953) reported an average differential count for normal synovial fluid as:


Results of morphological examination of the skin and vessels in patients with large and giant brain artery aneurysms are presented. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (type IV) was diagnosed in half of the cases; very thin skin and vessel walls, the disturbance of the collagen fibril structure in dermis, increased permeability and the tendency to rupture of the inner elastic membrane of brain arteries combined with a severe intimal atrophy. The absence of the III type collagen in the skin biopsies was shown immunohistochemically. The feasibility of the morphological diagnosis of this syndrome by skin biopsies and the significance of such diagnosis for prevention of complications in a surgical treatment are demonstrated.


Pine needle litters, a key fuel in coniferous forest systems, are highly porous fuel beds. They provide a source of continuous fuel medium that can be easily ignited and will sustain flame spread on the ground during forest fires. This work represents an experimental study that is focused on the influence of the fuel moisture content on the burning dynamics and the flammability characteristics of forest fuel beds. The FM Global Fire Propagation Apparatus was utilized to obtain time to ignition, heat release rate, total heat released and CO/CO2 concentration data. The methodologies applied in previous studies were improved with new modifications. The results were analyzed with respect to the sample's fuel moisture content as well as other test conditions, such as airflow condition (wind), sample holder openness and external heat flux. The importance of the fuel moisture content is critical to understand as the majority of fuels present in the natural environment have elevated moisture content compared to dead dry fuel. Samples studied are representative of wet ground fuels as well as live fuels which do burn when crowning conditions develop. The results presented here are a building block for developing an experimental database that can be used to understand the influence of environmental conditions on the flammability of porous forest fuels and assess the risks that comes with a wildfire. Furthermore, the data can also be used for fire behavior model validation.


Numerous social theories have been explored to unearth the role of sports in society but consensus remains remote. Political parties and politicians present their manifestos to the electorates on the eve of elections to solicit for political candidacy and eventual incumbency. Kenyan political parties/politicians just like in other parts of the world have championed the youth agenda through sports. Some of the electoral promises however are never implemented fully, with some of the youth agenda fading as soon as the election-earring period is over. This paper discusses some of the social theories which are tenable when censoring sports and politics at international and national level. The pledges on sports development made during the controversial 2007 general elections by the two main political parties in Kenya, Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) are weighted against session paper No.3 of 2005 on Sports Development. The recommendations which the Grand Coalition Government needs to embrace for the sake of Sports Development in Kenya are made.


Preventive newborn male circumcision has been at the center of scientific debate for many years. The reason for promoting preventive newborn male circumcision, is the reduction of the incidence of UTIs (in the first six months of life), penile cancer, transmission of STDs/HIV infection/AIDS. However preventive interventions in the newborn involving violations of bodily integrity elicit several ethical questions. In this article, we reviewed the literature regarding circumcision, the prevention of UTIs, penile cancer, transmission of STDs/HIV infection/AIDS and complications of this practice in the neonatal period. The very limited reduction of incidence of UTIs and the uncertain preventive role of newborn male circumcision towards penile cancer, STDs/HIV infection and AIDS, makes it difficult to justify male circumcision in newborns. Moreover, the challenge in obtaining a unanimous opinion on newborn male circumcision derives from the fact that, as a preventive intervention, it requires evaluation criteria that are not comparable to those of therapeutic treatments. Since preventive male circumcision determines permanent alteration of the body, some authors believe that it can be used only in subjects that are capable of giving their valid consent. In the case of a newborn, the ″child's best interest″ should be used as a standard, but preventive newborn male circumcision does not satisfy it.


SIR,-Minerva reports that mortality in Britain from pulmonary embolism is twice as high in women as it is in men.' This is confirmed by the published figures for England and Wales for 1988,2 with deaths of 485 men and 856 women being assigned to this underlying cause (ICD (ninth revision) 415. 1). Death rates from pulmonary embolism are much higher in older people than in younger people, and differences between men and women change when the risk at different ages is considered.


This paper introduces an algorithm to obtain the probability distribution of the best-fit ellipsoid of an individual random-walk polymer chain from planar projections. This algorithm allows the true three-dimensional behaviour of polymer chains to be inferred from planar experimental measurements such as those obtained by light microscopy. Our algorithm is effective in retrieving the Gaussian probability density functions (PDFs) of evolving best-fit prolate and oblate ellipsoids with axial symmetry. The implementation depends on the properties of the projections of rigid ellipsoids from which the desired PDFs can be retrieved by optimization. Detailed derivation of the relevant formulae is provided, and examples are given to help to explain the algorithm. An error analysis shows that the algorithm has good properties of convergence and robustness. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is applicable to the analysis of data obtained from experiments.


Atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) must be reduced to avoid an unsustainable climate. Because carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered in forests and wood products, mitigation strategies to sustain and increase forest carbon sequestration are being developed. These strategies require full accounting of forest sector GHG budgets. Here, we describe a rigorous approach using over one million observations from forest inventory data and a regionally calibrated life-cycle assessment for calculating cradle-to-grave forest sector emissions and sequestration. We find that Western US forests are net sinks because there is a positive net balance of forest carbon uptake exceeding losses due to harvesting, wood product use, and combustion by wildfire. However, over 100 years of wood product usage is reducing the potential annual sink by an average of 21%, suggesting forest carbon storage can become more effective in climate mitigation through reduction in harvest, longer rotations, or more efficient wood product usage. Of the ∼10 700 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents removed from west coast forests since 1900, 81% of it has been returned to the atmosphere or deposited in landfills. Moreover, state and federal reporting have erroneously excluded some product-related emissions, resulting in 25%–55% underestimation of state total CO2 emissions. For states seeking to reach GHG reduction mandates by 2030, it is important that state CO2 budgets are effectively determined or claimed reductions will be insufficient to mitigate climate change.


The purpose of this subject guide is to provide students conducting research in Art with available resources from the LBCC Library, online databases, and via the Web.


John Gardner's From Personal Life to Private Law is a striking marriage of cultivated sensibility and analytic prowess. Professor Gardner is both acutely sensitive to the lived experience of our moral relationships and highly skilled at disentangling the threads which those relationships weave together to realize rich and distinctive forms of value. From Personal Life to Private Law pursues its thesis that there are multiple and deep connections between the ideas of duty, responsibility and reparation that lie at the center of private law and their counterparts in the relationships that figure centrally in our private lives with both subtlety and rigor. The work stimulates in the way that only the best tort theory does.My Comment is shaped by two responses to this overarching theme. On the one hand, I share Gardner's doubts that the form of the tort lawsuit should loom as large as it does in the tort theories of Coleman, Ripstein, Weinrib and others. Duties of repair live in the shadow of primary duties of respect, and come into play only when those primary duties have not been discharged. Tort lawsuits and their form are secondary, not primary. On the other hand, private law and personal life diverge in very important ways. Coercion and rights loom large in tort whereas they are conspicuously absent from Gardner's account of the morality of private life. In private life, obligations loom much larger than rights. We have the tort duties that we have primarily because we have interests important enough to justify constraining our conduct towards each other. Many of the duties that we have in personal life, by contrast, are not owed to specific persons and are not coercively enforceable by them. Characteristically, the duties on which Professor Gardner dwells are justified because they enable to realize values which are important to our (private) lives, but which have little if anything to do with respect for important interests of others. We tend to lose sight of this fundamental difference between private law and private life if we focus too intently on the interconnections between the two domains.


A carbon nanotube yarn core graphitic shell hybrid fiber was fabricated via facile heat treatment of epoxy-based negative photoresist (SU-8) on carbon nanotube yarn. The effective encapsulation of carbon nanotube yarn in carbon fiber and a glassy carbon outer shell determines their physical properties. The higher electrical conductivity (than carbon fiber) of the carbon nanotube yarn overcomes the drawbacks of carbon fiber/glassy carbon, and the better properties (than carbon nanotubes) of the carbon fiber/glassy carbon make up for the lower thermal and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotube yarn via synergistic hybridization without any chemical doping and additional processes.


The aim of the article was to determine symptoms and surgical management for patients in cases of the rare and iatrogenic orthopaedical diseases. Methods. The article concerns Erb-Duchen disease, iatrogenic hallux varus, gout arthropathy of the 1st MTP, spastic supinated foot after astrocytomectomy of the brain, bilateral Haglund disease. Authors describe all symptoms of these rare diseases. Results. There were determined reasons for external apparatuses for lower extremity correction. Accurate preoperative planning allowed to perform effective surgery for patients with rare and hard orthopaedic pathology.


Glycogen is a complex glucose polymer found in a variety of tissues, including brain, where it is localized primarily in astrocytes. The small quantity found in brain compared to e.g., liver has led to the understanding that brain glycogen is merely used during hypoglycemia or ischemia. In this review evidence is brought forward highlighting what has been an emerging understanding in brain energy metabolism: that glycogen is more than just a convenient way to store energy for use in emergencies—it is a highly dynamic molecule with versatile implications in brain function, i.e., synaptic activity and memory formation. In line with the great spatiotemporal complexity of the brain and thereof derived focus on the basis for ensuring the availability of the right amount of energy at the right time and place, we here encourage a closer look into the molecular and subcellular mechanisms underlying glycogen metabolism. Based on (1) the compartmentation of the interconnected second messenger pathways controlling glycogen metabolism (calcium and cAMP), (2) alterations in the subcellular location of glycogen-associated enzymes and proteins induced by the metabolic status and (3) a sequential component in the intermolecular mechanisms of glycogen metabolism, we suggest that glycogen metabolism in astrocytes is compartmentalized at the subcellular level. As a consequence, the meaning and importance of conventional terms used to describe glycogen metabolism (e.g., turnover) is challenged. Overall, this review represents an overview of contemporary knowledge about brain glycogen and its metabolism and function. However, it also has a sharp focus on what we do not know, which is perhaps even more important for the future quest of uncovering the roles of glycogen in brain physiology and pathology.


BACKGROUND
Outcomes for patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the United States are suboptimal. There is poor education and preparation for end-stage kidney disease, as well as a high rate of hospitalization in this group of patients.

STUDY DESIGN
A randomized, parallel-group, 2-arm, controlled trial.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
The study was conducted at 3 sites: a clinic of an academic medical center, a public hospital academic clinic, and a community-based private practice. All participants had late-stage CKD (stages 4-5 CKD). Patients were excluded only if they had significant cognitive impairment.

INTERVENTION
The care management intervention involved nurse care manager coordination aided by the use of a disease-based informatics system for monitoring patients' clinical status, enhancing CKD education, and facilitating preparation for end-stage kidney disease. The comparison control group received usual late-stage CKD care alone.

OUTCOMES
The primary outcome was rate of hospitalization.

MEASUREMENTS
Rates of preemptive transplantation, home dialysis, hemodialysis (HD) starts without a hospitalization, and HD therapy initiation rates with catheters or with functioning accesses.

RESULTS
130 patients were randomly assigned. The hospitalization rate was significantly lower in the intervention group versus controls: 0.61 versus 0.92 per year, respectively (incidence rate ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.43-0.99; P=0.04). Peritoneal dialysis or preemptive transplantation was the initial end-stage kidney disease treatment in 11 of 30 (37%) participants receiving the intervention versus 3 of 29 (10%) receiving usual care. Among HD starts, treatment was initiated without hospitalization in 11 of 19 (58%) participants in the intervention group versus 6 of 26 (23%) in the control group. At the time of HD therapy initiation, a catheter was present in 7 of 19 (37%) participants in the intervention group versus 18 of 26 (69%) in the control group. A functioning arteriovenous access was in place in 10 of 19 (53%) participants in the intervention group and 7 of 26 (27%) in the control group LIMITATIONS: Moderate sample size, limited geographic scope.

CONCLUSIONS
The augmented nurse care management intervention resulted in reduced hospitalizations in late-stage CKD and there were suggestions of improved end-stage kidney disease preparation. Given suboptimal outcomes in late-stage CKD, care management interventions could potentially improve patient outcomes.


For many years, GE has been conducting research to understand better the loss mechanisms that degrade the aerodynamic performance of steam turbine stages, and to develop new computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer programs to predict these losses accurately. This paper describes a number of new steam path design features that have been introduced in the GE steam turbine product line to improve turbine performance and reliability. These features include diaphragms with contoured sidewalls, advanced vortex blading with compound tangential lean, new continuously coupled last-stage buckets with improved aerodynamic efficiency and reliability, improved downward and axial flow exhaust hoods, and better steam leakage control devices. The benefits of these new features for both new units and retrofits of existing units are discussed. In addition, the paper discusses the new generation of three-dimensional viscous CFD analysis codes being used to develop new design concepts, including codes developed by GE as well as those obtained externally. Also described are the extensive laboratory test programs being conducted to validate the CFD codes and verify the predicted efficiency gains for new design features. Last, the paper describes new and unique state-of-the-art steam path design automation and optimization tools that dramatically reduce the design cycle time for new advanced aerodynamic designs.


This is a short, comparative paper about the contemporary National-Populist parties in the three largest Scandinavian countries. In it, the author argues that the label 'National-Populist' best describes the parties in Scandinavia. Furthermore, an identification is made of two main types of populist movements in the region and the general ideological developments are traced in order to identify which are shared, and which differ, among the parties in question. It also treats some of the factors that are likely to have caused the shared history and features of parties across the region, such as linguistic similarity, the states' creation of an additional, regionalist level of nationalist feeling, and other socio-economic developments.


A compact multiband frequency reconfigurable meander antenna proposed for wireless communication systems is designed and described in this paper. A folded structure has been chosen due its good tradeoff between size, bandwidth and efficiency. The reference antenna is based on a meander patch structure radiating at F1=1, F2=1.94, F3=2.6GHz and optimized to be integrated in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB). In order to sweep the resonance frequencies, a chip capacitor was inserted between the meander patch printed on the top layer and a floating ground plane on the back one, in first case. Than in second case, by inserting a varactor diode to tuning electronically the resonance frequencies over wide bands. The measured results agree with simulations and good radiation properties were obtained. Realized prototype and related results are indeed presented and discussed.


We present a Brownian dynamics model which we use to study the kinetics and thermodynamics of single-stranded DNA hairpins, gaining insights into the role of stem mismatches and the kinetics rates underlying the melting transition. The model is a base-backbone type in which the DNA bases and sugar-phosphate backbone are represented as single units (beads) in the context of the Brownian dynamics simulations. We employ a minimal number of bead-bead interactions, leading to a simple computational scheme. To demonstrate the veracity of our model for DNA hairpins, we show that the model correctly captures the effects of base stacking, hydrogen bonding, and temperature on both the thermodynamics and the kinetics of hairpin formation and melting. When cast in dimensionless form, the thermodynamic results obtained from the present model compare favorably with default predictions of the m-fold server, although the present model is not sufficiently robust to provide dimensional results. The kinetic data at low temperatures indicate frequent but short-lived opening events, consistent with the measured chain end-to-end probability distribution. The model is also used to study the effect of base mismatches in the stem of the hairpin. With the parameters used here, the model overpredicts the relative shift in the melting temperature due to mismatches. The melting transition can be primarily attributed to a rapid increase in the hairpin opening rate rather than an equivalent decrease in the closing rate, in agreement with single-molecule experimental data.


Although liposarcoma is one of the most common soft tissue sarcomas, its location in the oral cavity is very rare. To our knowledge, only 43 cases of liposarcoma originating in the oral tissues have been reported in the English-language literature. In this article, we report a case of well-differentiated liposarcoma affecting the cheek of a 28-year-old man and review the oral liposarcoma literature. Immunohistochemical analysis of the tumor revealed an MDM2+/CDK4+/p53+ immunophenotype that is consistent with the immunohistochemical profile of well-differentiated liposarcoma originating in other areas of the body. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of the DNA levels of the MDM2 (human homologue of the murine double-minute type 2), CDK4 (cyclin-dependent kinase 4), and SAS (sarcoma amplified sequence), genes was performed, revealing only SAS gene amplification. The possibility of misdiagnosis of oral liposarcoma because of its sometimes inconspicuous clinical and microscopic features is emphasized. Careful pathologic examination of liposarcoma is essential for discrimination from benign adipose tissue neoplasms and for precise histologic classification, both of major prognostic significance. Possible implications of molecular and cytogenetic analysis for unraveling the pathogenesis and determining the prognosis of liposarcoma are discussed.


Three experiments were conducted to investigate the relative bioavailability of reagent-grade (RG) and feed grade (FG) Zn sources for 1-d-old broiler chicks. In Exp. 1, 13 treatments included a basal corn-soybean meal diet (63 ppm Zn) or the basal diet supplemented with 400, 800, or 1,200 ppm Zn from RG sulfate, basic carbonate, oxide, or metal and fed for 20 d. Using multiple regression slope ratios with Zn sulfate set at 100%, bioavailability estimates were 78, 77, and 46% for carbonate, oxide, and metal, respectively. In Exp. 2, chicks were allotted randomly to 16 treatments that included a basal corn-soybean meal diet (75 ppm Zn) or basal diet supplemented with 300, 600, or 900 ppm Zn as either RG sulfate, FG sulfate-A, FG sulfate-B, FG oxide-A, or FG oxide-B and fed for 21 d. Multiple linear regression slope ratios gave relative estimates of 99, 81, 78, and 54% for sulfate-A, sulfate-B, oxide-A, and oxide-B sources, respectively, with RG sulfate set at 100%. In Exp. 3, chicks were fed a basal corn-soybean meal diet (35 ppm Zn) or the basal diet supplemented with 40, 80, or 120 ppm Zn from RG Zn sulfate, FG sulfate, or FG oxide and fed for 20 d. Multiple regression slope ratios with RG sulfate set at 100% gave relative bioavailability estimates of 94 and 74% for the FG sulfate and oxide, respectively. Bioavailability estimates were similar when Zn was supplemented to diets at high or low concentrations.


The work descriptionbed here attempts to underscore the importance of the time lag between the end of a loading phase and the instant a winding drum begins its acceleration phase. Traces generated from a computer-simulation model show that the amplitude of the stress oscillations occurring in mine hoisting cable during the constant-velocity-of-ascent phase is a direct result of the temporal sequence employed between the loading and the raising phases. While current and early literature indicates that extensive work has been undertaken on the isolated effects of these two independent sequences, the literature does not appear to contain any documented evidence to suggest an optimal control or interfadng between these two dynamic regimes.


OBJECTIVE
Frequent violent behavior among adolescents has been found to be associated with previous exposure to violence, personal victimization, depression, hopelessness, and older age. Although young adolescents engage in less severe violent behavior than older adolescents, their perceived normative expectations to use violence to resolve conflicts may already be established by early adolescence. This study examined the influence of exposure to violence, depression, church attendance, multiple drug use, and demographic variables on young adolescents' intentions to use violence to resolve conflict.

METHODS
Young adolescents (N = 225, males = 49.4%, black = 88.7%, mean age = 12.9 +/- 1 years) in two middle schools serving low-income and working-class communities were administered a previously tested anonymous questionnaire. They were also asked how they would resolve conflict in 15 different hypothetical situations. Each situation had 10 possible responses ranging from humor or avoidance to severe violence (eg, use of a gun). The Intentions to Use Violence in Hypothetical Situations Scale had a high internal reliability (alpha = .88) and was correlated (r = .46) at the expected level for this age group with a standardized use of violence and weapon-carrying scale.

RESULTS
The Intentions to Use Violence in Hypothetical Situations Scale was significantly correlated with age (r = .17), school grade (r = .14), lower church attendance (r = -.23), frequency of smoking (r = .24), alcohol use (r = .37), marijuana use (r = .36), crack cocaine use (r = .14), smokeless tobacco use (r = .20), injecting drug use (r = .16), depression (r = .12), and exposure to violence (r = .48). Based on multiple regression analysis, exposure to violence, marijuana use, frequency of church attendance, alcohol use, cocaine use, and tobacco use accounted for 36.6% of the variation in the Intentions to Use Violence in Hypothetical Situations Scale.

CONCLUSION
Although the intention to use violence was associated with previous exposure to violence and current drug use, adolescents who attended religious services more often were less likely to report that they would use violence to resolve interpersonal conflict.


: The possibility of thiamine phosphates to participate in the regulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activity on the level of isolated mitochondria is studied. It is shown that an increase in the thiamine diphosphate concentration in incubation medium produces no significant changes in the pyruvate dehydrogenase activity of mitochondria. The pyruvate dehydrogenase activity decreases when mitochondria are incubated with thiamine triphosphate or ATP under different conditions. Thiamine triphosphate is not able to replace ATP in kinase reaction of the isolated complex, but it inhibits reactivation of the complex with exogenase phosphatase; under the same conditions thiamine diphosphate activates phosphatase. Analysis of these data leads to conclusion that under native conditions an increase of the intramitochondrial thiamine triphosphate concentration can produce a drop in the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activity by inhibition of the phosphatase reaction.


Modern volleyball is developing and connecting with specific software programs that help in the game's progress, training process, and these modern practices are becoming decisive in obtaining victory in sports performance. Currently, in high-performance sports, there is a broad range of instruments and means from mathematics and informatics domain, different in form and complexity, which have improved over the last few years regarding the versatility and technical possibilities, the extent of their applicability, and the facile way with which they used at present. Our research focused on analyzing the setter position at CSM Sibiu women volleyball team, using specific software programs to discover this position's efficiency. The sample was formed by the team's two setters and analyzed their evolution on the 22 stages of the Romania's national championship in 10 months in the season 2018-2019. As a research method, we used the Click & Scout software program to analyze the two players' evolution and the statistical interpretation of the results; we used the Student t test. The investigation results showed that subject SM had better performance in the first part of the championship regarding the service and attack parameter and the second subject improved his performance in the second part of the championship regarding the efficiency of the attack. The research conclusions highlighted that using software programs and coaches can improve the training activity and objectively analyze their players' performance, bringing the current sports activity to another level. The investigation concluded that using computer programs to analyze the evolution of volleyball setters, specialists, and coaches can obtain an objective image of their players' efficiency, strong points, weaknesses, and future training modalities. This kind of software can also provide information about opponents' strong and weak points that can be explored and achieved.


A stable flow-induced transition of a wormlike micellar solution to a structured solution phase is studied. This transition occurs when the solution is flowed through a specially designed microfluidic device. Rheological properties of the structured phase are presented along with a simple model for structure formation. We model the solution and structure formation using a network scission model that contains two species of interacting, elastically-active micellar chains. The model permits transition to the structured state when the chains experience a high degree of elongation primarily due to extensional strains that are present in the microchannel flow but absent in conventional shear flows.


This thesis is an account of an action research project undertaken in a Greek
primary private school. The project aimed at personalising the students' learning
with the use of ICT. The project ran for three consecutive school years and involved
students (twenty-six in year 1, sixteen in year 2, and fifty-one in year 3) and, their
parents (in years 1 and 2). The students were eight-years old when the project
started. The focus of the innovation concerned the teaching and learning of English
as a Foreign Language.
The project was an attempt to create a partnership with students and to offer
opportunities for students to make choices in their learning. In year 1 teaching
methods, including argumentative processes, learning task design and assessment
processes, were re-designed and students were encouraged to engage in
collaborative learning. All these changes were sustained in year 2 and the use of
ICT, including online discussion, was introduced to enhance and extend
collaboration and learning. The use of on line 'chat' was extended to parents as a
way of communication with school. All these innovations were sustained in year 3
and further exploration of students' and parents' perceptions of learning with
technology carried out.
Action research is employed as a methodological approach in this study. In
particular, the study reports on cycles of implementation and reflection carried out
over three years. A variety of methods were used. Diaries were selected to record
situations, questionnaires to access the perceptions of the children and parents, and
chat logs and interviews used to explore these perceptions in greater depth. The mix
of methods enabled comparison and contrast not just between data derived by
different methods but by different sources as well, i.e. parents and children.
The main theoretical concepts explored in this thesis are Personalised Learning, ICT
use, and Collaboration. This research project sees Personalised Learning as the
'focal innovation' and ICT use as embedded within personalisation. Collaboration is
considered a fundamental construct in both personalisation and the embedded use
of ICT. This thesis asks whether personalisation is a coherent concept and whether
it can be sustained with the use of ICT. It finds that personalised learning can offer a
coherent organising principle for pedagogic reform, and can be defined by its
concern for collective co-production of knowledge, student voice, assessment for
learning, learning-to-learn strategies, and student centeredness. Personalised
learning and ICT are recognised as a good match and personalised learning is seen
to need ICT in order to be sustained. However, innovation requires time and
evaluation of outcomes is value laden. The thesis finds action research to be an
appropriate methodology for curriculum reform.


Aiming to develop a biomaterial with excellent biocompability, a novel β-cyclodextrin modified polylactic acid (PLA-β-CD) was synthesized by N-acylation reaction of MPLA (maleic anhydride modified poly(d,l-lactic acid)) using hydrophilic mono(6-(2-aminoethyl)-amino-6-deoxy)- β-cyclodextrin(β-CD-6-E) as acylating agent. Surface wettability and blood biocompatibility of PLA-β-CD were investigated. The tests indicated that the static water contact angle of PLA-β-CD was decreased from 76.7º to 72.1º comparing with PLA. The morphology of blood platelets adhered on the surface of PLA-β-CD was observed by scanning, and only a few platelets, round and not aggregated. The results revealed that the blood compatibility of PLA-β-CD was better than PLA.


In this paper, an efficient method is proposed for optimum shape design of double-layer grids. In optimization process, the weight of structure is considered as objective function. The design variables are the number of spans divisions of grid in two directions, the height of between two layers and the cross sectional area of elements. The design constraints are considered as limitations of the stress and slenderness of elements and the displacement requirements of joints. The optimization is carried out by particle swarm algorithm that is suitable for discrete and continuous variables. To reduce the computational time of optimization process, the structural responses are predicted using properly trained radial basis function neural network. This network is a robust network for predicting the structural responses. The numerical results demonstrate the robustness and high performance of the suggested method for the optimum shape design of double-layer grids in.


Shi-Quan-Da-Bu-Tang (Ten Significant Tonic Decoction), or SQT (Juzentaihoto, TJ-48) was formulated by Taiping Hui-Min Ju (Public Welfare Pharmacy Bureau) in Chinese Song Dynasty in AD 1200. It is prepared by extracting a mixture of ten medical herbs (Rehmannia glutinosa, Paeonia lactiflora, Liqusticum wallichii, Angelica sinesis, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Poria cocos, Atractylodes macrocephala, Panax ginseng. Astragalus membranaceus and Cinnamomum cassia) that tone the blood and vital energy, and strengthen health and immunity. This potent and popular prescription has traditionally been used against anemia, anorexia, extreme exhaustion, fatigue, kidney and spleen insufficiency and general weakness, particularly after illness. In order to restore immunity in cancer patients, potentiate the therapeutic effect and ameliorate adverse toxicity of anticancer agents, 116 Chinese herbal formularies (Kampo) have been screened and evaluated. Fifteen compounds were found to have such actions. Among these, SQT was selected as the most effective as a potent biological response modifier. During the last eight years, animal models and clinical studies have revealed that SQT demonstrates extremely low toxicity (LD50 > 15 g/kg op murine), self-regulatory and synergistic actions of its components in immunomodulatory and immunopotentiating effects (by stimulating hemopoietic factors and interleukins production in association with NK cells, etc.), potentiates therapeutic activity in chemotherapy (mitomycin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide and fluorouracil) and radiotherapy, inhibits the recurrence of malignancies, prolongs survival, as well as ameliorate and/or prevents adverse toxicities (GI disturbances such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, hematotoxicity, immunosuppression, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia and nephropathy, etc.) of many anticancer drugs. The application and mechanistic studies of SQT in future development have potential importance in basic and clinical research of the traditional Chinese therapeutic approach of "toning the blood and strengthening Qi (vital energy)" in cancer immunotherapy.


Catastophy management, alpine and sea rescue as well as military operations are unimaginable without the advantage of helicopters. The possibility of landing in areas with none infrastructure is essential. At this the pilot is confronted with different environmental conditions witch handicap a controlled navigation. Dust and snow are the two most dangerous conditions during the approach for a landing, also troubled water surface with spindrift can compromise a rescue mission over sea. Today pilots have to navigate the landing by sight and optical sensors which are useless under brown-out conditions all types. No information about height and drift with the necessary precision can be given. Radar sensors offer this capability of transmission through dust, snow, fog, and spindrift. Employing an appropriate signal processing, also the necessary drift information can be extracted from the Doppler shift of the radar. A propotype radar in the millimeter range was build on, based upon distributed and networked modules, to extract precise height and drift information: This informations are fed into the avionic system of the helicopter and used as an aid for landing and take-off during adverse environmental conditions. The paper presents the design of the miniature millimetre wave radar modules, the design of the broadband high gain antennas and the implementation into the system.


AIM OF THE STUDY
To assess the awareness and practice of Immediate Dentures among the dentists who work in the private clinics in Khartoum state, Sudan Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among the dental medical officers, registrars, specialists, and consultants who are working in private clinics and centers in Khartoum state and registered the private medical institutions in Sudan. The sample population was 664, using the stratified sampling technique and simple randomization within the stratum, 265 dentists were asked to participate in the study voluntarily A self-administered questionnaire consisted of 32 closed questions and 3 sections, section (1) involved the participant's data, section (2) contained the participant's knowledge, and section (3) the participant's practice was distributed. The participant's knowledge and practice scores were calculated as percentages achieved by dividing the number of accurate answers of the participants by the total number of questions and categorized as Good (66.6-100%), Average (33.3-66.6%), and Poor (less than 33.3%) Data was collected and analyzed using a statistical package of Social Science (SPSS) computer software version 22. Chi-square was used for statistical analysis Results: The response rate was 100%, with nearly equal distribution between males (135, 50.9%) and females (130, 49.1%). The age range is 24-39 years, with a mean of 31.65 ± 7.52 years. The majority of the participants (172, 64.9%) were freshly graduated and young practitioners, with the majority of them having experience ranging from 1 to 6 years. The result of the study revealed that 65.7% of the respondents have average knowledge about immediate denture while 8.7% expressed poor knowledge and only 25.7% had excellent knowledge On the other hand, the majority of the participants (200,75.5%) have never constructed an immediate denture, while only 21.1% have a history of constructing 1-5 immediate dentures, 3% constructed more than 5-10 immediate dentures and only 0.4% constructed more than 10 immediate dentures The lack of knowledge and experience was the main barrier preventing the use of immediate dentures, and the mainstream of the participants (118, 44.5%), evaluated their knowledge about the immediate denture as poor Using the Chi-square test, the correlation between the participants' knowledge and their gender, years of experience, and qualification was found not significant (p -values of 0.46, 027, and 0.66, respectively) while a significant correlation was found between the participants' self-evaluation of their knowledge and their knowledge score with a p-value of 0.000* Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, the dental practitioners have average knowledge about the immediate denture, but the practice of the immediate denture is still very limited and requires enhancement Clinical significance: Immediate dentures have a significant role in maintaining the patient's esthetics, phonetics, masticatory efficiency, self-esteem, and quality of life. Hence, the knowledge and practice of the different dentists about the immediate denture are of great importance to improve the standard of care provided for the patient Keywords: Dentists, Immediate denture, Knowledge, Practice.


Nosocomial infections, also called health-care-associated or hospital-acquired infections, are a subset of infectious diseases acquired in a health-care facility. Historically, Staphylococci, Pseudomonas, and Escherichia coli have been the common known as nosocomial infection bacteria. Moreover, nosocomial pneumonia, surgical wound infections, and vascular access-related bacteremia have caused the most illness and death in hospitalized patients; and intensive care units have been the epicenters of antibiotic resistance . Acquired antimicrobial resistance is the major problem, and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is the pathogen of greatest concern. The shift to outpatient care is leaving the most vulnerable patients in hospitals. Aging of our population and increasingly aggressive medical and surgical interventions, including implanted foreign bodies, organ transplantations, and xenotransplantation, create a cohort of particularly susceptible persons. Moreover, renovation of aging hospitals increases risk of airborne fungal and other infections . To prevent and control these emerging nosocomial infections, we need to increase national surveillance, "risk adjust" infection rates so that inter hospital comparisons are valid, develop more noninvasive infection-resistant devices, and work with health-care workers on better implementation of existing control measures such as hand washing . In this review we aimed to review the previous projects which study incidence of hospital infection among delivery women with caesarean section in hospitals. Also, to discuss about the nosocomial infections and its types. We will also review the most common way a nosocomial infection is acquired, and the most common cause of nosocomial infection. In order to the modes of transmission of infection. In addition to a way to prevent nosocomial infections in hospitals. KEYWORDS: nosocomial infections, caesarean section


Background While life-long impacts exist for infants born one or two weeks early little evidence exists for those infants born after their due date. However interventions could be used to expedite birth if the risks of continuing the pregnancy are higher than intervening. It is known that the risk of epilepsy in childhood is higher in infants exposed to perinatal compromise and therefore may be useful as a proxy for intrapartum compromise. The aim of this work is to quantify the likelihood of children developing epilepsy based on their gestational age at birth (37–39 weeks or ≥41 weeks). Methods The work is based on term infants born in Sweden between 1983 and 1993 (n = 1,030,168), linked to data on disability pension, child mortality and in-patient epilepsy care. The reference group was defined as infants born at 39 or 40 completed weeks of gestation; compared with infants born at early term (37/38 weeks) or late/post term (41 weeks or more). Primary outcome was defined a-priori as a diagnosis of epilepsy before 20 years of age. Secondary outcomes were childhood mortality (before five years of age), and registered for disability pension before 20 years of age. Logistic regression models were used to assess any association of the outcomes with gestational age at birth. Findings In the unadjusted results, infants born 7 or more days after their due date had higher risks of epilepsy and disability pension than the reference group, but similar risks of child death. Early term infants showed higher risks of epilepsy, disability pension and child death. After adjustment for confounders, there remained a higher risk of epilepsy for both early term (OR 1·19 (1·11–1·29)) and late/post term infants (OR 1·13 (1·06–1·22)). Interpretation Infants born at 37/38 week or 41 weeks and above, when compared to those born at 39 or 40 weeks gestation, have an increased risk of developing epilepsy. This data could be useful in helping women and care givers make decisions with regard to the timing of induction of labour.


The activity of the agent producing sarcoma or leukosis in material deposited by high speed centrifugation is the same as that of the original crude extracts. Material sedimentable at high speed containing approximately 10–5 mg. N produces tumors at the site of injection. Small quantities of material sedimentable at high speed are present in normal chicken sera, and about twice as much in leukemic sera (strain 1). Normal chicken and mouse spleens and all other human and mouse tissues examined contain large amounts of material sedimentable at high speed. Extraction of leukemic blood cells with saline yields little additional virus. The washed cells readily produce leukosis even after irradiation with amounts of x-rays sufficient to destroy the leukemic cells but not the virus. Freezing at –60°C. preserves the activity of the high speed deposits for at least 6 months. Addition of 5 per cent of saturated Na2SO4 solution slightly delays deterioration of high speed deposits in the ice box. Most of the agent measured by inoculation of chickens and the fraction sedimentable at high speed measured by its nitrogen content is precipitated by one-third saturation with sodium sulfate.


All history is local history. A plea for the glocalization of local and regional history
Regional and local history go back a long time in the various provinces of the Netherlands. Focusing on the provinces of Friesland, Noord-Brabant, and Limburg this article shows how after a long and slow development, scientific historiography there only developed after the 1950s, leading to the establishment of research institutes and funded chairs. Nevertheless, the rise of the heritage field, the demand for valorization, and budget cuts may threaten their positions. Yet, doing regional history should be an integral part of national history and is ever more relevant in a globalizing world, which demands for glocalization, that is, the interaction of globalization with the local living environments and their idiosyncratic local structures, cultures, and histories.


This paper highlights and validates the use of shape analysis using Mathematical Morphology tools as a means to develop meaningful clustering of historical data. Furthermore, through clustering more appropriate grouping can be accomplished that can result in the better parameterizations or estimation of models. This results in more effective prediction model development. Hence, in an effort to highlight this within the research herein, a Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) is used to validate the classification achieved through the employment of Mathematical Morphology (MM) tools. Specifically, the Granulometric Size Distribution (GSD) is used to achieve clustering of daily traffic flow patterns based solely on their shape. To ascertain the significance of shape in traffic analysis, a comparative classification analysis of original data and GSD transformed data is carried out. The results demonstrate the significance of functional shape in traffic analysis. In addition, the results validate the need for clustering prior to prediction. It is determined that a span of two through four years of traffic data is found sufficient for training to produce satisfactory BPNN performance.


RATIONALE
Recent pediatric studies suggest a survival benefit exists for higher-volume extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) centers.

OBJECTIVES
To determine if higher annual ECMO patient volume is associated with lower case-mix-adjusted hospital mortality rate.

METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed an international registry of ECMO support from 1989 to 2013. Patients were separated into three age groups: neonatal (0-28 d), pediatric (29 d to <18 yr), and adult (≥18 yr). The measure of hospital ECMO volume was age group-specific and adjusted for patient-level case-mix and hospital-level variance using multivariable hierarchical logistic regression modeling. The primary outcome was death before hospital discharge. A subgroup analysis was conducted for 2008-2013.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
From 1989 to 2013, a total of 290 centers provided ECMO support to 56,222 patients (30,909 neonates, 14,725 children, and 10,588 adults). Annual ECMO mortality rates varied widely across ECMO centers: the interquartile range was 18-50% for neonates, 25-66% for pediatrics, and 33-92% for adults. For 1989-2013, higher age group-specific ECMO volume was associated with lower odds of ECMO mortality for neonates and adults but not for pediatric cases. In 2008-2013, the volume-outcome association remained statistically significant only among adults. Patients receiving ECMO at hospitals with more than 30 adult annual ECMO cases had significantly lower odds of mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 0.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.46-0.80) compared with adults receiving ECMO at hospitals with less than six annual cases.

CONCLUSIONS
In this international, case-mix-adjusted analysis, higher annual hospital ECMO volume was associated with lower mortality in 1989-2013 for neonates and adults; the association among adults persisted in 2008-2013.


Smart phones and other mobile devices have a simple notion of context largely restricted to temporal and spatial coordinates. Service providers and enterprise administrators can deploy systems incorporating activity and relations context to enhance the user experience, but this raises considerable collaboration, trust and privacy issues between different service providers. Our work is an initial step toward enabling devices themselves to represent, acquire and use a richer notion of context that includes functional and social aspects such as co-located social organizations, nearby devices and people, typical and inferred activities, and the roles people fill in them. We describe a system that learns to recognize richer contexts using sensor data from a person's Android phone along with annotations on her calendar and general background knowledge. Classifier models predict the individual users' context with respect to a mid-level detailed activity he is performing like 'Listening a Talk', 'Walking', 'Sleeping', etc. We report on an evaluation of the individual and generic models in the University setting for predicting context.


The purpose of this study was to describe the home literacy environments and literacy experiences of a select group of Asian American children, and to recommend an intervention program based on the findings. The target population was the families which sent their children to a Saturday Asian language and culture school while sending them to public schools during the week, because of their expressed interest in literacy and the probability of their being the group to most likely benefit from intervention.
The Home Literacy Environment and Literacy Experiences survey was initially sent out and results tallied and quantified. Upon placing the returned surveys into groups of "high," "middle," and "low" home literacy environment and literacy experiences, a sample of five "high" and five "low" families was selected for further study. Home visits, interviews, field notes, collection of artifacts and other methods of data collection provided a clearer picture of the state of the home literacy environment and literacy experiences of the families studied.
Families rated as having "high" home literacy environment and experiences were found to have a larger number of literacy-related materials and higher frequency of literacy-related activities. Bilingualism and education were perceived as being important. The families also exhibited a strong interest in music and music lessons.
Parents expressed a desire for two two-hour training sessions which would be held at the Saturday school location while their child attended classes there. It would be ideally held in the native language of the parents by a speaker from the native country. The parents preferred workshops with actual practice and examples which could be seen, accompanied by reading materials. Topics in which parents expressed interest include, in descending order: (a) 'selection of books for and with their child, (b) how to encourage their child to read, (c) how to discuss stories with their child, and (d) how to read aloud to their child.


Fighting poverty is the overall goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Africa has highest percent of poor people in the world and in order to achieve the MDGs poverty and development trends must take a new turn in almost all African countries. The overall objective with this study is to analyse and discuss why financial markets work inefficiently in developing countries and hence fail to reach poor and how provision of microcredits could be a way to overcome these problems. This is done through a case study on the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and a case study on the microcredit sector in Ghana. Financial markets in developing countries function inefficient mainly due to the high levels of asymmetric information and risk. Financial markets in developing countries are characterised by dual economies, segmented and fragmented markets and a lack of supporting institutions. Asymmetric information gives raise to problems with adverse selection and moral hazard and consequently problems with screening, monitoring and enforcement. Microcredits are believed to be a way to overcome these problems. The overall conclusion of this study is that the provision of microcredits has the potential to be a means to solve problems of financial markets in developing countries. However, there might be better ways to adopt microcredits to the African context. Therefore there needs to be more focus and research on Africa and the effect provision of microcredits have on poverty alleviation in Africa.


Conceived as an income generation alternative for rural inhabitants, tourism has an admitted economic genesis. However, the motivation of each family gradually neighbors the community as the activity outflows the boundaries of the property. The associative forms are an attempt to equalize diverging interests and to attempt to work for the collective welfare. In the district of Sao Pedro, Bento Goncalves – RS, previous experiences of union among families work as a basis for the "Caminhos de Pedra" (Stone Paths) association, which is meant to be an entity that prepares the farmers for their new role as tourism entrepreneurs.


Detailed experiments of fracture toughness in which SENB specimens of five different thicknesses were included were carried out to investigate the size effect in the ductile to brittle transition temperature region. It is found that the fracture toughness of the upper shelf increases with the thickness of the specimens with the similar geometry. While the fracture toughness of the lower shelf decreases with the thickness in the range of 4mm to 12mm and then drops up from 12mm to 16mm with the appearance of shear lips which present the shearing fracture under the plane stress state. The tearing modulus dJ/da which determines the resistance to stable crack growth increases with the increment of thickness and the reduction of the temperature. The results of the stress triaxiality increasing with the reduction of the thickness explain well the experimental results.


Certifiable robustness is a highly desirable property for adopting deep neural networks (DNNs) in safety-critical scenarios, but often demands tedious computations to establish. The main hurdle lies in the massive amount of non-linearity in large DNNs. To trade off the DNN expressiveness (which calls for more non-linearity) and robustness certification scalability (which prefers more linearity), we propose a novel solution to strategically manipulate neurons, by"grafting"appropriate levels of linearity. The core of our proposal is to first linearize insignificant ReLU neurons, to eliminate the non-linear components that are both redundant for DNN performance and harmful to its certification. We then optimize the associated slopes and intercepts of the replaced linear activations for restoring model performance while maintaining certifiability. Hence, typical neuron pruning could be viewed as a special case of grafting a linear function of the fixed zero slopes and intercept, that might overly restrict the network flexibility and sacrifice its performance. Extensive experiments on multiple datasets and network backbones show that our linearity grafting can (1) effectively tighten certified bounds; (2) achieve competitive certifiable robustness without certified robust training (i.e., over 30% improvements on CIFAR-10 models); and (3) scale up complete verification to large adversarially trained models with 17M parameters. Codes are available at https://github.com/VITA-Group/Linearity-Grafting.


This paper studies the basic principles of finite element method, then researches on the core algorithm of finite element method, according to Saint-Venant principle, introduce the concept of composite element, proves that if the element is composite element, the original integration is still able to calculate. Based on the feature that numerical integration solution is in fact the Gaussian integration points are calculated, we endow element internal with different material property values according to the different location artificially. This is the efficient and local accuracy decrease algorithm. The algorithm is able to simplify the work of mesh generation, improve the overall computing efficiency, is especially suitable for underground engineering, and we can quickly get the overall characteristics of the structure that we are most concerned about. Finally, builds the actual examples of underground engineering, uses the finite element software Ansys and the efficient and local accuracy decrease algorithm program to calculate the actual examples respectively, compares the results between them, expounds and set the analysis theory and relevant principles, makes conclusion: the efficient and local accuracy decrease algorithm can simplify mesh generation, improve the overall computing efficiency; and it can be used in underground engineering very well.


The paper examines the Kuhn Tucker model in the context of estimating recreation demand when the choice set it very large. It examines the temporal stability of parameter estimates using multiple years of data on trips to 127 lakes in Iowa made by households in Iowa. The study finds that for the given dataset, the estimates derived from a Kuhn-Tucker model are largely stable over time.


All-transretinoic acid (RA) reduces human neuroblastoma growth by inducing either differentiation or apoptosis. The apoptotic program in these cells is regulated by RA and is paralleled by the transcriptional induction of "tissue" transglutaminase (tTG). tTG is a protein cross-linking enzyme, which specifically accumulates in cells undergoing apoptosis in variousin vivoandin vitrosystems. In neuroblastoma cells, tTG is detected exclusively in the cells expressing the S-type phenotype and showing an increased apoptosis. The present study was undertaken to identify the retinoid receptors which are involved in the regulation of tTG and apoptosis as well as in thein vitroneuronal differentiation of the human SK-N-BE(2) neuroblastoma cell line. We have previously characterized the retinoid acid receptors expressed in this cell line. In the present study, by using synthetic retinoids selectively activating RAR/RXR isoforms, we have identified the RAR/RXR receptors involved in the induction of either apoptosis or differentiation. We have also studied the effect of the selective RA analogs on tTG activity. We observed that while RARα- and RARγ-selective retinoids alone were able to induce tTG activity, only the combined stimulation of both RARα and RARγ induced apoptosis. Conversely, several combinations of RAR/RXR closely mimicked the differentiation effects observed with all-transretinoic acid. These results indicate that, at variance with differentiation, the induction of apoptosis in human SK-N-BE(2) neuroblastoma cells is under the specific control of RARα and RARγ. These data seem relevant for the reported ability of RARγ to suppress the clinically malignant tumor phenotype in patients.


Vascular access is used as a lifeline for hemodialysis in patients with end stage renal disease failure (ESRD). Failure of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) maturation is still high. The purpose of this study was to research the effects of clopidogrel in combination with oral iloprost, a synthetic analog of prostacyclin PGI2. Ninety-six diabetic ESRD patients were divided into two groups. In the first group (Group 1, N = 50), clopidogrel (75 mg daily dose) and an oral prostacycline analog (200 mg daily dose) were administered. In the second group (Group 2, N = 46), placebo was given. All patients took study medication 7–10 days prior to surgery. A Doppler ultrasound (USG) was performed for measurement of arterial and venous diameters, and peak systolic velocity of arterial flow based on subsequent fistula adequacy. Autogenous AVFs were constructed in forearm as distally as possible in all patients. Both groups were followed-up for a year. In the placebo group, early AVF thrombosis was detected in two patients (4.3%). AVF maturation failure was noted in 14 patients (30.4%) in placebo group and in four patients (8%) in clopidogrel plus oral prostacycline analog group in the early postoperative period (P = 0.001). The mean maturation time was 38 ± 6.5 and 53 ± 12.8 days in study and placebo groups, respectively (P = 0.023). The mean blood flow was 352 ± 94 mL/min in placebo group and 604 ± 125 mL/min in study group (P = 0.001). The arterial end diastolic velocity was 116 ± 14 cm/s in study group and 72 ± 21 cm/s in placebo group (P = 0.036) 1 year after the surgery. Our data indicated that clopidogrel and oral prostacycline analog combination is effective and safe for the prevention of primary AVF failure in hemodialysis patients and decreased acute and chronic thrombotic events.


A novel analytical blind single-input single-output (SISO) identification algorithm is presented, based on the noncircular second-order statistics of the output. It is shown that statistics of order higher than two are not mandatory to restore identifiability. Our approach is valid, for instance, when the channel is excited by phase shift keying (PSK) inputs. It is shown that the channel taps need to satisfy a polynomial system of degree 2 and that identification amounts to solving the system. We describe the algorithm that is able to solve this particular system entirely analytically, thus avoiding local minima. Computer results eventually show the robustness with respect to noise and to channel length overdetermination. Identifiability issues are also addressed.


Dynamic interactions among various controllers used for stabilising a synchronous generator are investigated. The effectiveness of a power system stabiliser (PSS) connected to the exciter and/or governor in damping electromechanical oscillations of an isolated synchronous generator is examined. The interaction(s) among power system stabiliser(s) connected to the exciter and/or the governor loop, automatic voltage regulator, governor and multi-stage double-reheat turbine and dynamic load are considered. It is shown that depending on the type and number of controllers used and dynamics modelled, interactions can result in unstable operation of the system for a range of operating conditions. It is also shown that the power system stabiliser connected to the governor loop provides better damping of low-frequency oscillations and better robustness of the generator to a change in operating conditions than the PSS connected to the exciter loop.


Abstract The aim of this article was to examine how people arrived at the decision to divorce. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with twelve couples in which both agreed the relationship was in trouble and at least one partner was seriously considering divorce. We found that initiating informants used cognitive, interactional and preparatory strategies, aiming at reconstructing the mental representation of the partner, the self, the relationship, as well as of the divorce option. Noninitiating partners sometimes used resistance strategies. Results are discussed in terms of dynamics between partners, identity making process and implications for family practice.


Abstract Synedrella is a tropical annual plant species of the family Asteraceae that is widely distributed in many crops in nearly 50 countries. Experiments were conducted to determine the influence of various environmental factors on seed germination and seedling emergence of synedrella. Germination response was greater at 30/20 C and 35/25 C than at 25/15 C fluctuating day/night temperatures. Light stimulated germination; however, a small proportion of after-ripened seeds germinated in the dark. Seedling emergence was greatest (96%) for seeds placed on the soil surface but declined with increased seed burial depth. No seedlings emerged from a depth of 4 cm. Seedling emergence and seedling dry matter declined with the addition of crop residue to the soil surface; however, higher quantities of residue than those normally found in low-yield systems were required to result in substantial reductions in emergence. Seed germination was tolerant of moderate salt concentrations (40 to 100 mM sodium chloride) and a broad range of pH (4 to 10) but was sensitive to low osmotic potentials (< −0.8 MPa). The information gained from this study could help predict the invasion potential of this species and could lead to improved management strategies. Nomenclature: Synedrella, Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn


A discrete-argument stochastic process is presented. The process is a generalization of the Cinlar (1975) semiregenerative process and process /spl eta/(t) given in Tsybakov (1993). For this process, the theorem, which is similar to the Smith regenerative process theorem, is given. We use this theorem to find the transmission rate and mean packet delay for stack and part-and-try random multiple access algorithms in their supercritical regions. For the part-and-try algorithm, the results are new. For the stack algorithm, we give a new method of finding the rate and delay.


We present a uniform framework generalising and extending the classical theories of projective differential geometry, c-projective geometry, and almost quaternionic geometry. Such geometries, which we call \emph{projective parabolic geometries}, are abelian parabolic geometries whose flat model is an R-space $G\cdot\mathfrak{p}$ in the infinitesimal isotropy representation $\mathbb{W}$ of a larger self-dual symmetric R-space $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$. We also give a classification of projective parabolic geometries with $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$ irreducible which, in addition to the aforementioned classical geometries, includes a geometry modelled on the Cayley plane $\mathbb{OP}^2$ and conformal geometries of various signatures. The larger R-space $H\cdot\mathfrak{q}$ severely restricts the Lie-algebraic structure of a projective parabolic geometry. In particular, by exploiting a Jordan algebra structure on $\mathbb{W}$, we obtain a $\mathbb{Z}^2$-grading on the Lie algebra of $H$ in which we have tight control over Lie brackets between various summands. This allows us to generalise known results from the classical theories. For example, which riemannian metrics are compatible with the underlying geometry is controlled by the first BGG operator associated to $\mathbb{W}$. In the final chapter, we describe projective parabolic geometries admitting a $2$-dimensional family of compatible metrics. This is the usual setting for the classical projective structures; we find that many results which hold in these settings carry over with little to no changes in the general case.