Background: Severe pectus excavatum in children may result in cardiorespiratory functional impairment; therefore, we evaluated cardiopulmonary response to exercise before and after the Nuss procedure. Methods: Twenty-four physically active pediatric patients aged 9–18 years with severe pectus excavatum (Haller index >3.25) were included in the study. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing using treadmill and modified Bruce protocol was performed before and after the Nuss procedure. Results: Maximal oxygen uptake and oxygen pulse improved by 40.6% (32 ± 13–45 ± 10 ml/kg/min; P = 0.0001) and 44.4% (9 ± 4–13 ± 5 ml/beat; P = 0.03), respectively, after surgical correction of pectus excavatum by Nuss procedure. Significant improvement in maximum voluntary ventilation and minute ventilation after Nuss procedure was also noted. Conclusions: We found that, after repair of pectus excavatum by Nuss procedure, the exercise capacity as measured by maximal oxygen consumption improved significantly primarily due to increase in oxygen pulse, an indirect measurement of stroke volume.


This study was conducted to investigate the contemporary dietary life of residence in Kyunggi province. People living in Kimpo, Yoju districts(farm villages), Kapyung districts (mountain villages) and Hwasung districts (fishing villages) were selected for this research as subjects from August S to 19,1997. The results of the survey are summarized as follows: 1. Cooked rice was a staple food. However nuddles and soojaebees(soup with dough flakes) was taken as lunch or snacks but Juk(rice guel) or Dduk(rice cake) was not treated as a meal. 2. Dishes were consisted with soup or chigae, kimchi and namul(seasoned vegetables), and fishes, meats, salted sea foods, dried fishes, jangacchi(dried seasoning radish) were also taken by sometimes. 3. Soy sauce, bean paste, red pepper bean paste were made by every home even if they were very busy. 4. Festival days such as New Year's Day, daeborum(the 15th day of January), chusok(mid-autumn festival), and kosaa(October ceremony) and dongee(one of 24 seasons by lunar calendar) are skipped oftenly and slowly forgotten by people. They do not celebrate Samgin-nal(the third day of March), Buddha's birthday(the 8th day of April by lunar calendar), danoh(the 5th day of May), yoodoo(the 15th day of June), chilsok(the 7th day of July), Jungyang(the 9th day of September) and the last day of the year either 5. Due to improved kitchen system, we couldn't see the old kitchen devices.


Purpose This large population-based analysis aims to investigate whether the additional induction chemotherapy to concurrent chemoradiotherapy improved overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LRANPC). Patients and Methods The study group comprised 3,980 patients who were treated either with IC+CCRT (1,888 patients) or CCRT alone (2,092 patients) between January 1998 and June 2013. Survival outcomes were compared using Cox proportional hazards regression models with adjustments for confounding provided by propensity score methods. Primary outcome variables included OS and DFS. Results Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that CCRT and IC+CCRT were of similar benefit to OS (P=0.099), whereas there was a marginal benefit of CCRT to DFS (P=0.063) in the overall cohort, which showed no differences between the two treatment regimens using multivariate Cox analysis and propensity score. Interestingly, for patients with 2D radiationtherapy (2DRT), CCRT had OS and DFS benefits for stage III, with 5-year and 10-year OS for CCRT vs IC+CCRT being 88% and 75% vs 81% and 67%, respectively (P=0.002); 5-year and 10-year DFS for CCRT vs IC+CCRT being 84% and 74% vs 76% and 66%, respectively (P=0.002). In contrast, IC + CCRT had OS and DFS benefits for stage IVa-b, with 5-year and 10-year OS for CCRT vs IC+CCRT being 71% and 55% vs 76% and 60%, respectively (P=0.037, HR=0.786); 5-year and 10-year DFS for CCRT vs IC+CCRT were 64% and 50% vs 69% and 58%, respectively (P=0.038, HR=0.801). No difference was found in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) subgroup. Conclusion Our study indicates that CCRT and IC+CCRT may have similar OS and DFS benefits for overall LRANPC. Stage-specific chemoradiotherapy may be administered based on the greatest benefit of IC+CCRT for stage IVa-b patients and CCRT alone for stage III patients received 2DRT. The optimal chemotherapy pattern in combination with IMRT needs further investigation. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02604472


By using specific anti-ACAT-1 antibodies in immunodepletion studies, we previously found that ACAT-1, a 50-kDa protein, plays a major catalytic role in the adult human liver, adrenal glands, macrophages, and kidneys but not in the intestine. Acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) activity in the intestine may be largely derived from a different ACAT protein. To test this hypothesis, we produced specific polyclonal anti-ACAT-2 antibodies that quantitatively immunodepleted human ACAT-2, a 46-kDa protein expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. In hepatocyte-like HepG2 cells, ACAT-1 comprises 85-90% of the total ACAT activity, with the remainder attributed to ACAT-2. In adult intestines, most of the ACAT activity can be immunodepleted by anti-ACAT-2. ACAT-1 and ACAT-2 do not form hetero-oligomeric complexes. In differentiating intestinal enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells, ACAT-2 protein content increases by 5-10-fold in 6 days, whereas ACAT-1 protein content remains relatively constant. In the small intestine, ACAT-2 is concentrated at the apices of the villi, whereas ACAT-1 is uniformly distributed along the villus-crypt axis. In the human liver, ACAT-1 is present in both fetal and adult hepatocytes. In contrast, ACAT-2 is evident in fetal but not adult hepatocytes. Our results collectively suggest that in humans, ACAT-2 performs significant catalytic roles in the fetal liver and in intestinal enterocytes.


Electricity is a sector in crisis in Senegal. The main part of production and all the activities oftransmission and distribution of electricity are managed by the Senegalese National Society ofElectricity called SENELEC which is encountering enormous difficulties. One of the mostimportant problems is the fact that 21% of the produced energy is lost without being sold.This figure is enormous but quite typical with regards to African countries.Moreover, the distribution of these losses is insufficiently known. Only the production andtransmission losses can be determined from frequent and accurate measurements. Thedistribution losses represent the rest and constitute more than 80% of the losses. However, thedistribution between technical and non-technical losses (essentially due to fraud) is unknownin the distribution grid. In addition, the distribution of distribution technical losses betweenthe 30 kV, 6.6 kV and 400V grids is unknown. The goal of this Master's Thesis is to estimatethese unknown losses. Moreover, some recommendations are suggested to reducetransmission and distribution losses.Regarding the transmission grid, Senelec does not take transmission losses into account in itsdispatching decisions, which increases transmission losses. After a Matlab modeling of thetransmission grid, a basic optimal dispatching program was developed to include losses and toprove that it would be better to consider losses in the dispatching decision.The study of the distribution grid constitutes the main part of this Master's Thesis. Thedistribution grid can be divided in a medium-voltage grid (30 kV and 6.6 kV) and a lowvoltagegrid (400V). Losses in medium-voltage grid are estimated by the modeling of a partof this grid by using the software PSAF. Losses in low-voltage grid cannot be estimated thisway because of the lack of knowledge regarding the structure of this grid; thus, these lossesare estimated using a semi-empirical formula. Finally, non-technical distribution losses arededuced by calculating the difference between the total losses and the technical losses.The results show that the main part of the losses in Senegal are non-technical losses, whichrepresent 2/3 of the total losses and 40 billion of FCFA (61 million €), which is twice as highas what the company believed. High priority must be given to reduce them by an ambitiousplan against fraud. Technical losses even if they are smaller are not negligible and can also bereduced with some well-focused actions.


Increased recognition of the importance of workplace strategies and other facility-related business decisions are preoccupying owners and academics alike. In Finland, the real estate sector has a pressing need to develop a new generation of industry-aware researchers to deal with and resolve matters of strategic value to real estate owners and occupiers. The approach being advocated is a programme of accelerated knowledge acquisition in which information and communications technology will play a key role in delivering learning to a dispersed group of doctoral researchers. Use will be made of an international body of experts backed by recognised centres of excellence. Specific challenges in implementing the programme include agreement on a curriculum that will build on existing academic strength, as well as support the diverse interests of the industry. A multidisciplinary perspective is being adopted to ensure that the necessary research expertise and rigour is accessible to participants in the programme in ways that will encourage greater interaction between the experts and researchers. Formalisation of a new set of core competencies is likely to arise and this is expected to become a major part of the programmeis appeal. The paper will present the arguments for this new approach and discuss the thinking behind the core competencies that will help in developing the next generation of industry-aware researchers. These agents of change will be expected to add impetus to the real estate sectoris need for answers on key issues connected with, amongst other things, risk, value and sustainability


The genomic catalogue of the human microbiota has expanded dramatically in recent years, and insights derived from human microbiota genomics has vast potential to generate treatments for human diseases. However, predictably harnessing the microbiota for beneficial outcomes is currently limited by our lack of understanding of the physiology of the constituent bacteria. For instance, the functions of most of their genes are not known. Here, we systematically measure mutant phenotypes for genes from the gut commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Using a barcoded transposon mutant library, we measured the fitness of 4,055 B. thetaiotaomicron genes across 492 experiments, including growth on 45 carbon substrates and in the presence of 57 stress-inducing compounds. Our data is in strong agreement with previous studies, and more importantly also uncovers the biological roles of poorly annotated genes. We identified 497 genes with a specific phenotype in only one or a handful of conditions, thus enabling informed predictions of gene function for a subset of these genes. For example, we identified a glycoside hydrolase important for growth on type I rhamnogalacturonan, a DUF4861 protein for glycosaminoglycan utilization, a DUF1080 protein for disaccharide utilization, and a tripartite multidrug resistance system specifically important for bile salt tolerance. Our approach can be applied to other members of the human microbiota to experimentally characterize their genes.


The expansion of energy crops such as miscanthus Miscanthus x giganteus has changed the habitat of European farmland birds. However, most studies on the subject are based in Western Europe. We surveyed the avian community in a sample bioenergy landscape in Poland to investigate the pattern of use of the crop by birds in Central Europe. During a year-long survey, 80 species were noted, with 32 sighted in miscanthus. The number of bird sightings was negatively correlated with the area covered by miscanthus in study plots. In contrast to results from Western Europe, most woodland-generalist bird species tended to avoid miscanthus. Farmland species (e.g. the corn bunting Miliaria calandra; the tree sparrow Passer montanus; the starling Sturnus vulgaris; the yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella) were less frequently sighted in the crop than in other habitats. Only a few species were sighted more often in miscanthus than in other habitats, e.g. the marsh warbler Acrocephalus palustris; the reed bunting Emberiza schoeniclus; the whinchat Saxicola rubetra. The potential impact of expanded miscanthus cropping on bird communities in Central and Eastern Europe may diverge from predictions derived from studies based in Western Europe due to differing habitat preferences and bird densities between the regions. For a majority of farmland species, the crop may constitute only a suboptimal, supplementary habitat, with only a few birds potentially adapting to the exploitation of bioenergy plantations.


Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) is a promising language describing the Service Oriented Software (SOS) orchestrations in form of Business Processes, but it lacks of a sound formal semantic, which hinders the formal analysis and verification of business processes specified in it. Formal methods, like Petri Nets (PN), may provide a means to analyse BPEL4WS processes, evaluatingits performance, detecting weaknesses and errors in the process model already at design-time. This paper addresses quality of SOS orchestrations created using the BPEL4WS and a framework for transformation of BPEL4WS into Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN) is proposed to analise the performance and throughput of SOS, based on the execution of orchestrated processes.


ABSTRACT Terrestrial palynomorphs from the siliciclastic rocks of the Hørbyebreen and Mumien formations in the Birger Johnsonfjellet area, Spitsbergen are documented, providing new knowledge of the stratigraphical ranges of the recorded taxa. Together with a reassessment of previous palynological work in the light of recent advances in palynology, the definitions of three informal palynological assemblages are established. These are correlated to the Carboniferous miospore biozones of Western Europe but differences in the stratigraphical ranges are recorded, as Spitsbergen is located in a different paleofloristic province. Paucity of palynological data from the Arctic areas, as well as lack of independent age control, hampers exact age assignment of the palynological assemblages described. Two age alternatives of the lower part of the Hoelbreen Member are discussed, with the most plausible age for the studied section being mid to late Visean in age. A more consistent and up-to-date correlation of the Mississippian palynofloras in the Arctic region is provided, demonstrating similarities to other Arctic regions. The new age reassessment also improves knowledge of stratigraphical breaks in the succession, providing better understanding of the tectono-stratigraphical history of the region.


Towards stable human pose estimation from monocular images, there remain two main dilemmas. On the one hand, the different perspectives, i.e., front view, side view, and top view, appear the inconsistent performances due to the depth ambiguity. On the other hand, foot posture plays a significant role in complicated human pose estimation, i.e., dance and sports, and foot-ground interaction, but unfortunately, it is omitted in most general approaches and datasets. In this paper, we first propose the Cross-View Fusion (CVF) module to catch up with better 3D intermediate representation and alleviate the view inconsistency based on the vision transformer encoder. Then the optimization-based method is introduced to reconstruct the foot pose and foot-ground contact for the general multi-view datasets including AIST++ and Human3.6M. Besides, the reversible kinematic topology strategy is innovated to utilize the contact information into the full-body with foot pose regressor. Extensive experiments on the popular benchmarks demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches by achieving 40.1mm PA-MPJPE on the 3DPW test set and 43.8mm on the AIST++ test set.


The sources that reionized the universe are still unknown, but likely candidates are faint but numerous galaxies. In this paper we present results from running a high resolution, uniform volume simulation, the Vulcan, to predict the number densities of undetectable, faint galaxies and their escape fractions of ionizing radiation, $f_\mathrm{esc}$, during reionization. Our approach combines a high spatial resolution, a realistic treatment of feedback and hydro processes, a strict threshold for minimum number of resolution elements per galaxy, and a converged measurement of $f_\mathrm{esc}$. We calibrate our physical model using a novel approach to create realistic galaxies at z=0, so the simulation is predictive at high redshifts. With this approach we can (1) robustly predict the evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at faint magnitudes down to $M_\mathrm{UV}$~-15, two magnitudes fainter than observations, and (2) estimate $f_\mathrm{esc}$ over a large range of galaxy masses based on the detailed stellar and gas distributions in resolved galaxies. We find steep faint end slopes, implying high number densities of faint galaxies, and the dependence of $f_\mathrm{esc}$ on the UV magnitude of a galaxy, given by the power-law: log $f_\mathrm{esc} = (0.51 \pm 0.04)M_\mathrm{UV} + 7.3 \pm 0.8$, with the faint population having $f_\mathrm{esc}$~35%. Convolving the UV luminosity function with $f_\mathrm{esc}$($M_\mathrm{UV}$), we find an ionizing emissivity that is (1) dominated by the faintest galaxies and (2) reionizes the universe at the appropriate rate, consistent with observational constraints of the ionizing emissivity and the optical depth to the decoupling surface tau_es, without the need for additional sources of ionizing radiation.


This paper argues that the Monyomiji age class institution, focused on the youth, is essential in the South Sudan civil war resolution. Local cultures, through which the traditional roles of youth are manifest, should be included at national conflict resolution negotiations to prevent decades of failed national, regional and international interventions. Interventions in South Sudan civil war have excluded traditional peace values, and at times sought to train locals, particularly youth, in conventional-style negotiation and mediation. Often foreign-led, interventions are dominated by conventional conflict resolution approaches that regard the local institutions inefficient in modern conflict resolution. The case for Monyomiji presented here demonstrates a contrary view. The paper explores traditional roles of youth in conflict resolution and argues that Monyomiji, as an institution with a heritage of peacebuilding, should have priority not only at inter-ethnic but national conflict resolution levels.


This thesis aimed to establish the impact of pressure ulcers (PUs) on health-related quality of life (HRQL) and determine the need for a PU-specific patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument. The thesis comprises literature reviews, development of a conceptual framework and development and evaluation of a PU-specific PRO (PU-QOLI) for future research and clinical practice. Methodological developments were woven into the research.

This thesis demonstrates that PUs impact HRQL and there is need for standardised methods for assessing health outcomes important in PUs. The PU-QOLI was developed using qualitative and quantitative psychometric methods and meets international standards for rigorous measurement. Individual scales can be selected from 10 outcomes of PU-symptoms, physical functioning, psychological well-being, and social participation, intended for interview-administration. It is appropriate for use in adults with any type of PU and suitable for all UK healthcare settings.

This research makes important contributions to the PU and wider health measurement fields. The findings demonstrate that mixed methods, including Rasch measurement, were suitable for developing a PRO instrument, the PU-QOLI provides a means for the comprehensive assessment of PU impact and for quantifying the benefits of PU interventions from the patient"s perspective, thus far lacking in the area, and the use of PROs will provide evidence-based information to allow health authorities to select the most effective healthcare for patients and to audit and monitor the quality of care given in the PU field.

This work was the first step towards establishing measurement precision. Further research is needed to improve some of the measurement properties of PU-QOLI scales, assess responsiveness, confirm study findings in an independent sample, investigate feasibility of use in specific subgroups and economic evaluation, and develop proxy measures and language translations. Long-term goals include developing the PU-QOLI as a clinical tool intended for individual-patient decision making.


In the last decade the increase in energy demand, the awareness of limited availability of fossil fuels and the need to reduce green house gases emission impelled governments and research institutions to focus on the study of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass derived energy and on the increase in the energy production devices efficiency.
Within such scenario a relevant contribution is given by fuel cells technologies as advanced power generation system. Fuel cells are high efficiency devices and comply with the request of environmental friendly source of energy. They convert directly fuel energy into power and heat by electrochemical reactions without the need for combustion as intermediate step. The possibility to use Hydrogen makes fuel cells virtually zero-emission devices being water the only reaction product; nevertheless, also the use of hydrocarbons as fuel reduces considerable CO2 emissions.
Among the different systems, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) operate at high temperatures (650-1000°C) and allow to achieve the highest electrical efficiency, from 45 to 60% for common fuels, values not attainable by traditional electrical power generation methods, and up to 70% in combination with a gas turbine for Hybrid Power System generation, with an overall electrical and thermal efficiency higher than 90%.
Moreover, such technology presents many advantages such as the possibility to be fed with different fuels, the absence of moving parts, modularity and limited emissions. These characteristics make SOFC suitable for application in the distributed generation market.
Despite all the mentioned advantages, SOFCs show problems that make these devices not suitable for the production on industrial scale yet. In particular they present low reliability and are not competitive with traditional powers sources.
SOFCs are constituted by single cells (consisting of an anode and a cathode separated by a solid electrolyte) that are collected together in a stack by interconnects in order to obtain the required power. This means that a stack is a multilayer assembly of materials with different thermal, mechanical and chemical properties that need to fulfil many prerequisites for their own function. Moreover, some of these properties must match for other connected components; for instance they have to show similar thermal expansion coefficients, to be stable at high temperatures and during thermal transients.
Due to the high working temperature, stack components are necessarily subjected to degradation phenomena, which reduce their long term reliability. Among them, poisoning of cathode by Chromium evaporation from metallic interconnects, chemical interactions between glass–ceramic sealants and ferritic steel interconnects, anode poisoning caused by carbon or sulphur deposition, reduction of electrical conductivity are worthy of mention. Furthermore, various cycling conditions such as thermal cycle, redox cycle, and load cycle affect stability of SOFCs. All these degradation phenomena must be minimized in order to increase SOFC reliability. All these issues are object of intense research.

The research work of the present thesis has been focused on the increase of redox stability of anode supported cells, which is considered one of the key point to improve stack reliability.
The state of the art materials for the anode is Ni/YSZ cermet due to its high performance. Nevertheless, this cermet is prone to severe degradation upon redox cycling.
Due to the high operating temperatures, Nickel particles tend to coalesce and coarsen. Fuel supply interruptions, over-potentials and leakages can cause the re-oxidation of Ni to NiO with a consequent volumetric expansion that can generate internal stresses and lead to cracks formation within the YSZ network and the electrolyte resulting in cell failure. Different approaches can be taken in account in order to minimize redox instability.
In order to study redox phenomena and produce redox stable cells many aspects related to the modification of anodic microstructure were analyzed. Among these, one of the most promising method is to modify the anode microstructure by increasing its porosity.
The present thesis is divided in two parts. In the first section the theoretical background of fuel cells, specifically SOFCs, is reported. A particular attention is dedicated to describe redox phenomenon and the state of the art of the research in this field.
The second experimental part concerns with the production of anodes with improved microstructure. The modification of microstructure was realized by using different powders and by adding different pore formers and doping elements. A detailed study of the effects on redox stability of the microstructure modifications induced by the addition of each of the aforesaid substances is described.


This bachelor degree project was carried out at Saab AB Service and Repair, Arboga, Sweden. The objective was to design, construct and implement a new stable and reliable method of measuring the continuous vertical displacement (height) of the military search radar PS861 mounted on a hydraulic powered elevator. The end product needs to be durable enough to be fully operational in the harsh environment of an outdoor elevator shaft and yet as accurate and precise as possible since one of its purposes is to calibrate control equipment. Previously used technique has proven not to meet any of the above mentioned properties. A prototype using a high resolution quadrature output rotary encoder has been developed, allowing a completely digital interface. This new method has been evaluated in laboratory environment where tests have been conducted regarding both reliability and validity. The tests show that the new digital system provides highly improved accuracy and precision and in addition to that, the sensor with its IP-64 classification ensures operation even in the worst conditions. The technology developed in this project is also versatile and may be used in other situations where rotational motions are to be measured. Real life tests have not yet been carried out, but future test results will determine whether the product will replace the old system or not.


It is ironic that Otto Neurath, one of those responsible for the 'linguistic turn' in philosophy of the twentieth century, should have been concerned during the last twenty years of his life with developing a 'pictorial language'. By using simplified pictograms as components, the Wiener Methode der Bildstatistik (later called Isotype) bypassed verbal language to a great extent, creating the potential for universal understanding of biological, social and economic correlations. However, despite its consistency and rigour, Isotype was not a complete language, and Neurath knew that it never could be. This paper will examine the linguistic characteristics of Isotype and describe the deliberate resistance on the part of its creators to develop a full theory behind it.


In this paper, we address the issue of analyzing the effects of aging mechanisms on ICs' soft error (SE) susceptibility. In particular, we consider bias temperature instability (BTI), namely negative BTI in pMOS transistors and positive BTI in nMOS transistors that are recognized as the most critical aging mechanisms reducing the reliability of ICs. We show that BTI reduces significantly the critical charge of nodes of combinational circuits during their in-field operation, thus increasing the SE susceptibility of the whole IC. We then propose a time dependent model for SE susceptibility evaluation, enabling the use of adaptive SE hardening approaches, based on the ICs lifetime.


Seismogenic nodes capable of earthquakes with M\(\geq 5.0\) have been identified in the Northern Vietnam that exhibit the highest seismic activity over the Vietnam territory. Recognition objects - morphostructural nodes - have been delineated with the morphostructural zoning (MZ) method and their classification into seismogenic nodes and non-seismogenic ones was performed with the pattern-recognition. With MZ we have compiled a morphostructural map (scale 1:1,000,000) for the study region. The map shows the hierarchical block-structure of the region, the network of boundary zones bounding blocks, and the loci of the nodes. A three-level hierarchy has been established for the blocks and their boundaries. The recorded  M\(\geq 5.0\)  earthquakes nucleate at the nodes delineated by MZ, i.e. ignoring the seismic record. Among all delineated nodes we recognized the seismogenic ones (D), prone to  M\(\geq 5.0\)  earthquakes, with the pattern recognition algorithm CORA-3. The performed recognition pinpoints a number of \(D\) nodes where events with M\(\geq 5.0\) have not been recorded to date.


The intent of this article is to review the postoperative complications of dysphagia and dysphonia after cervical surgery. The focus is on prevention, early identification, and initial treatment.
Anterior cervical procedures have become commonplace in spine surgery. Within the past year the incidence of postoperative dysphagia and dysphonia has been estimated to be as much as 47%. Recent studies have implicated damage to the recurrent laryngeal, hypoglossal, or superior laryngeal nerves as a causative factor. Damage may occur from direct injury during surgery or as a result of extrinsic pressure from retractors and the endotracheal tube. A recent study has shown no increase in the incidence of nerve injury when right-sided and left-sided approaches are compared. Diagnostic modalities include physical examination, plain radiographs, and endoscopy. Advances in treatment use diet modification, therapy, and autologous and allogeneic substance injection into the vocal cords.
Operative modalities for the cervical spine continue to evolve. As techniques progress efforts must be made to prevent, identify, and treat complications that may arise.


The deformation processes of hydrate sediments during hydrate gas production are complex due to the coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) phenomena of deformation, fluid flow, heat flow, and phase changes. Among all these aspects, the mechanical response (i.e. The stress and strain profiles) near production region that recovers methane gas from the hydrate bearing sediments is most crucial for triggering potential geohazards. In this study, a fully coupled numerical simulator CMHGS (Cambridge Methane Hydrate Geomechanics Simulator) was used to simulate the large scale field behavior during gas production trial at Eastern Nankai Trough, Japan. The investigation results suggest that the stress and strain profiles of the hydrate bearing sediments near the production region during hydrate gas production are related to the hydrate dissociation status. Typical element-based mechanical responses of both far field elements and near wellbore elements are examined. This study provides important guidelines for future site production test as well as further experimental and numerical research. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London.


Leadership Behavior and Knowledge Management are two very important themes in Business Administration. The purpose of this study is to examine how Leadership Behavior influences Knowledge Management practices in business organizations. This paper is based on existing theories of these two themes and uses a case study to further investigate the correlation between them. Transformational and transactional elements of Leadership Behavior helped to define the relevant style of the investigated case, and to explore the leader ́s influence on Knowledge Management practices, existing theoretical models were utilized for the qualitative research of this study. Data is collected from directing managers and the founder of a case study company in the maritime crewing sector. The research was conducted with a qualitative approach. For the data collection 13 interviews from the case company were conducted and the researchers used knowledge resources from previous case studies and theoretical frameworks relevant to the research question. The data was analyzed by deductive reasoning in the existing knowledge with an interpretive approach in order to conclude from the empirical investigation in conjunction with current academic literature studies. Results from the research showed that the leadership model as indicated in the empirical data from the case study, is Paternalistic. The concluded model influences Knowledge Management practices by affecting the level of employee's motivation to engage in the organizational mission and willing to acquire productive knowledge. The findings of this research suggest


A structural analogue of gamma-butyrobetaine 3-(2,2,2-trimethylhydrazine)propionate (THP) administered orally in doses of 50 and 150 mg/kg for 10 days prevented isoproterenol-induced increase of the activity of the hepatic isoform of lactate dehydrogenase in the rat blood serum and in a dose of 150 mg/kg prevented an increase of creatine phosphokinase activity. Against a background of the course administration of THP isoproterenol failed to cause the accumulation of acyl-insoluble acylcarnitine in the myocardium. In this case a dose-dependent decrease of free carnitine concentration and accumulation of fatty acids in the myocardium were noted. The cardioprotective effect of THP manifested itself in prevention of a decrease of ATP and ADP concentrations, accumulation of AMP and a reduction of energy charge under the influence of isoproterenol. The ability of THP to decrease the intracellular concentration of free carnitine and to depress as a result carnitine-dependent oxidation of free fatty acids may underlie the anti-ischemic effect of THP.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Plant species are considered as a good source of dietary proteins, although the nutritional quality of proteins depends on their amino acid composition. In this work the protein content and amino acid composition of nutlets of 21 Teucrium taxa (Lamiaceae) from Spain were analysed and their nutritional quality was compared with the minimum values established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In addition, the amino acid composition was evaluated as a chemical character to clarify the taxonomic complexity in this genus.

METHODS
Amino acid content of nutlets was determined after derivatization with diethyl ethoxymethylenemalonate by high-performance liquid chromatography. Previously, nutlets samples were hydrolysed and incubated in an oven at 110 degrees C for 24 h.

KEY RESULTS
The protein content was variable, ranging from 6.4 % in T. dunense to 43.8 % in T. algarbiense. According to the FAO values all taxa contain satisfactory amounts of leucine, threonine and valine and are deficient in lysine. The similarity analysis of Teucrium taxa using amino acid composition data did not clearly reflect the infrageneric classification of this genus.

CONCLUSIONS
Annual species, such as T. spinosum, T. aristatum and T. resupinatum showed a better balanced amino acid composition. The dendrogram partly matched with the karyological complexity of Teucrium. No correlation between amino acid composition and habitat has been observed, showing that Teucrium nutlet amino acid composition may not be strongly influenced by the environment.


Managing creativity has proven to be one of the most important drivers in software development and use. The continuous changing market environment drives companies like Google, SAS Institute and LEGO to focus on creativity as an increasing necessity when competing through sustained innovations. However, creativity in the information systems (IS) environment is a challenge for most organizations that is primarily caused by not knowing how to strategize creative processes in relation to IS strategies, thus, causing companies to act ad hoc in their creative endeavors. In this paper, we address the organizational challenges of creativity in software organizations. Grounded in a previous literature review and a rigorous selection process, we identify and present a model of seven important factors for creativity in software organizations. From these factors, we identify 21 challenges that software organizations experience when embarking on creative endeavors and transfer them into a comprehensive framework. Using an interpretive research study, we further study the framework by analyzing how the challenges are integrated in 27 software organizations. Practitioners can use this study to gain a deeper understanding of creativity in their own business while researchers can use the framework to gain insight while conducting interpretive field studies of managing creativity.


A total of 714 adrenograms (graphic depiction of adrenalin and noradrenalin excretion in relation to the circadian rhythm) obtained from neurotic patients were analyzed. The authors succeeded in ascertaining the differences of their types in patients suffering from hysterical neurosis, neurasthenia and obsessive neurosis. The adrenographic method is believed to be capable of serving as an additional diagnostic criterion in the differential diagnosis of these pathological forms.


A dual-loop architecture employs eight distributed microregulators (UREGs) to achieve load response times below 500 ps in 45-nm SOI CMOS. The trip point of an asynchronous comparator inside each UREG is tuned for high DC accuracy with a local charge pump, which receives UP/DOWN currents from a slow outer feedback loop. The feedback through the charge pumps also ensures balanced load sharing among the UREGs. Two techniques are introduced to reduce the output ripple generated by switching the pMOS passgate on and off: hybrid fast/slow passgate control (in which the DC portion of the load current is supplied by a parallel output device with slew-rate-limited gate drive) and pMOS strength calibration (which adjusts the active width of the passgate to compensate for PVT variations). The distributed regulator system is integrated into a DDR3 I/O core and supplies power to CMOS delay lines used for clock-to-data deskewing. Each of the eight UREGs is sized to provide up to 5.3 mA of load current and occupies an area of 55 × 60 μm2. The measured DC load regulation is better than 10 mV down to an 85-mV dropout voltage. Jitter readings of the CMOS delay lines indicate output noise close to 28 mVpp.


The objective of this paper is to explore how zakat as tax deduction affects zakat payment. This topic is important for understanding corporate compliance to sharia and rules of the country. Using database of Thompson Reuters over 2007-2018, sample of this research comprises all islamic organization which discloses zakat payment. Final sample for this study is 709 observations. Different with previous study, this study is cross country analysis so that result of the study is more generable than before and look carefully at zakat as tax deduction. The finding indicates that regulation affects the zakat payment. Unfornately, the different between regulation which treats zakat as a deduction for taxable income and zakat as tax rebate is not significant. In addition, based on descriptive statistic finding, zakat payment in zakat as deduction from tax liability regulation is higher than zakat as deduction from taxabale income regulation. Results of this study provide empirical evidence to support government for confirming zakat law. This is the first study in cross country so that this finding lays some foundation for zakat law.


This article examines the relationship between television viewing and public perceptions of juvenile crime rates and the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. Special attention was devoted to viewers of television news and shows like Cops and America's Most Wanted, where researchers expected a greater misperception of crime rates and the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The results showed significant media effects on perceptions of juvenile crime and the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system in the expected direction. As viewers watched more crime-related television, they were more likely to misperceive realities of juvenile crime and juvenile justice.


Authentication is an important security requirement for wireless sensor networks. Digital signature plays a crucial role to provide integrity, authentication and non-repudiation of data. In this letter, we propose a practical identity-based online/offline signature scheme for wireless sensor networks. Our scheme splits the signature generation into two phases: offline phase and online phase. In the offline part, most heavy computations are done without the knowledge of a message. In the online stage, only light computations are done when the message is known. As compared with the existing four pairing-based identity-based online/offline signature schemes, our scheme has the lowest computational cost.


Foreign outsourcing, otherwise known as off-shoring, has become a matter of intense public debate and great concern in the United States presidential contest, especially in light of the large job losses experienced by U.S. workers since George Bush became president. Yet, there is a lack of good data on foreign outsourcing since the early 1990s. This paper presents updated measures of foreign outsourcing for the recent period. Its main findings are that the share of foreign-sourced goods in total manufactured inputs almost doubled – from 12.4% to 22.1%– in U.S. manufacturing between 1987 and 2002. Since the early 1990s, outsourcing has accelerated in key industries and has been associated with a loss of employment. In particular, for the period from 1997 to 2002, there has been a strong association between manufacturing job losses and foreign outsourcing.


Climate-related shifts in marine mammal range and distribution have been observed in some populations; however, the nature and magnitude of future responses are uncertain in novel environments projected under climate change. This poses a challenge for agencies charged with management and conservation of these species. Specialized diets, restricted ranges, or reliance on specific substrates or sites (e.g., for pupping) make many marine mammal populations particularly vulnerable to climate change. High-latitude, predominantly ice-obligate, species have experienced some of the largest changes in habitat and distribution and these are expected to continue. Efforts to predict and project marine mammal distributions to date have emphasized data-driven statistical habitat models. These have proven successful for short time-scale (e.g., seasonal) management activities, but confidence that such relationships will hold for multi-decade projections and novel environments is limited. Recent advances in mechanistic modeling of marine mammals (i.e., models that rely on robust physiological and ecological principles expected to hold under climate change) may address this limitation. The success of such approaches rests on continued advances in marine mammal ecology, behavior, and physiology together with improved regional climate projections. The broad scope of this challenge suggests initial priorities be placed on vulnerable species or populations (those already experiencing declines or projected to undergo ecological shifts resulting from climate changes that are consistent across climate projections) and species or populations for which ample data already exist (with the hope that these may inform climate change sensitivities in less well observed species or populations elsewhere). The sustained monitoring networks, novel observations, and modeling advances required to more confidently project marine mammal distributions in a changing climate will ultimately benefit management decisions across time-scales, further promoting the resilience of marine mammal populations.


With the use of the diffusion bonding system of Ni/B/Ni, the liquid layer at the Ni/B interface was studied. In the Previous report we suggested that the intermediate layer of pure B which has a high diffusivity in Ni and a high melting temperature can reduce the bonding time of the TLP (Transient Liquid Phase) process. In the present study the Ni/B/Ni specimen was bonded at temperatures of 1433-1473 K in vacuum. As a result, a liquid metal in the bonding zone was formed by mixing the diffused atoms of the intermediate layer of solid state with the base metal. For this procedure incubation time of 25 s was required. The initial width and the maximum width of the liquid layer were 3.5 and 9 times, respectively, wider than the thickness of the intermediate layer. With a similar bonding procedure, pure carbon (C) can be used also as an intermediate layer.


Interest in layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has proliferated due to their properties, making them promising materials for electrochemical applications. Despite this, almost exclusive attention has been placed on group 6 TMDs. Hitherto, there has been a lack of understanding of the electrochemical behaviour of group 4 TMDs, which could serve as promising materials for electrochemical applications with their semiconducting properties. In this work, we provide a first insight into the inherent electrochemistry of group 4 TMDs (i.e., TiS2, TiSe2, TiTe2, ZrS2, ZrSe2, ZrTe2, HfS2, HfSe2 and HfTe2) and their catalytic activities towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In particular, HfS2 is electrochemically inert within a wide potential range of −1.8 V to +1.8 V vs. Ag/AgCl and displays superior HER activity compared to the other group 4 TMDs, making it a promising candidate for electrochemical sensing applications. Towards the aim of tuning their HER catalytic properties, the materials are subjected to electrochemical treatment. Electrochemical activation towards the HER is displayed for ZrSe2 and HfSe2via both electrochemical oxidation and reduction, and TiTe2via electrochemical reduction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis points towards the importance of material purity in tuning the catalytic performances of group 4 TMDs. Such findings provide a foundational understanding of the electrochemistry of group 4 TMDs, which when applied appropriately can springboard this field of research towards achieving aims in electrochemical applications.


This paper presents the design and fabrication of a Lamb wave device based on ZnO piezoelectric film. The Lamb waves were respectively launched and received by both Al interdigital transducers. In order to reduce the stress of the thin membrane, the ZnO/Al/LTO/Si3N4/Si multilayered thin plate was designed and fabricated. A novel method to obtain the piezoelectric constant of the ZnO film was used. The experimental results for characterizing the wave propagation modes and their frequencies of the Lamb wave device indicated that the measured center frequency of antisymmetric A0 and symmetric S0 modes Lamb wave agree with the theoretical predictions. The mass sensitivity of the MEMS Lamb wave device was also characterized for gravimetric sensing application.


The CD45 glycoprotein family exhibits cell line-age-associated structural heterogeneity arising in part from alternate 5' exon shuffling. Previous studies of exons involved in the final glycoprotein structure have provided evidence of alternate exon use for only three exons (Ex-4, 5 and 6). However, our prior data using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) suggested the presence of at least one additional CD45 alternate exon. By using RT-PCR, Southern blotting with exon-specific or exon splice junction-specific oligonucleotide probes and direct DNA sequencing of RT-PCR products, we demonstrated additional alternate use involving Ex-7. PCR analysis of stage I thymocytes (CD4-CD8-) revealed only faintly detectable bands for two isoforms: one lacking Ex-4, 5, 6 and 7 (a "minus-one" [Ex(-1)] isoform), and a smaller isoform preliminarily characterized as also lacking Ex-8. Stage II thymocytes (CD4+CD8+) prominently expressed both Ex(-1) and zero alternate exon (Ex(0] isoforms, with one exon (Ex(1] and two exon (Ex(2] isoforms also present. Among stage III thymocytes, both CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+ cells expressed only Ex(-1) and Ex(0) isoforms. CD45 alternate exon use in resting CD4+ and CD8+ lymph node T cells was divergent, with CD8+ cells additionally expressing an Ex(2) isoform. Among alloreactive T cell clones, band intensity for the Ex(1) isoform in CD4+ BC-3 cells was much less than for resting CD4+ T cells, while the CD8+ CTL clone 8.2.2 exhibited production of the higher alternate exon isoforms, Ex(2) and Ex(3). We conclude that at least four and possibly five alternate exons exist in the CD45 glycoprotein family, with a previously unrecognized isoform lacking Ex-4, 5, 6 and 7 prominently expressed in T cells. Shuffling of CD45 alternate exons appears to occur in an organized and predictable sequence during cellular maturation and activation.


Abstract This article proposes Noordzee, Texas, a romantic coming-of-age drama, as an implicitly queer film. Noordzee portrays boys falling in love without engaging in gay identity politics, while also queering a working-class and Belgian context through a combination of aesthetic techniques, including language choice. Its queerness lies in its blend of subverting and ignoring various identity discourses — national, formal and sexual. Its production history illustrates the added difficulty of making a queer film in the complex industry environment that is Belgium. First, the article examines Noordzee in its visual and cultural contexts, explaining its mise-en-scène as being recognizably Belgian but also subverting aspects of Belgianness. The film's approach to the nation mirrors its depiction of homosexuality independent of identity labels, both strategies drawing on innovations in iconography, colour and prettiness. Next, the article discusses the film's production history against the background of the recent Belgian film industry, with the aim of contextualizing fully the claim that making an implicitly queer film is particularly difficult in an industrial milieu where so many social categories, including language, nationality and sexuality, influence the funding process.


The oceans are teeming with heat as an immense source of renewable energy. Seawater source heat pump system is a proven technology for resurrecting heat from the seawater as a source of heat. The system has attracted attention as a renewable energy solution technique for the countries where heating is essential throughout the year. As the most efficient form of technology, the system is able to extract heat from cold seawater for energy utilization and space heating. However, extracting large amounts of heat from the cold seawater is a challenge, and hardly feasible if the seawater temperature is only a few degrees above the freezing point. Iceland, as a cold country with a high demand for space heating, is surrounded by the cold seawater with the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean sources. This thesis assesses the feasibility of ocean heat extraction in Icelandic coastal waters through a case study of Önundarfjörður, a fjord located in Westfjords region of Iceland. In order to acquire better insight about the heat source, this research collected one year field measurements and carried out numerical simulations of oceanographic parameters. The results show that the seawater temperature in the research area is generally higher than 1 °C and rarely exceeds 10 °C. The simulations indicate that the fjord is tidal dominated with higher current velocity which prominently flanks alongshore during ebb. The outcome reveals that extraction of the heat via seawater source heat pump system is theoretically feasible from Önundarfjörður. This research also presents suitable locations for extracting heat from the fjord.


The high-latitude forest-tundra transitional zone is a region which is highly vulnerable to the current Arctic warming. The local changes accompanying expected northward migration of the treeline requires systematic monitoring. We focus on an area in the east of the Mackenzie Delta in Northwest Territories, Canada, which is characterised by patches of black spruce forest. We investigate the capability of TerraSAR-X / TanDEM-X bistatic constellation for the characterisation of these forest patches. Interferometric phase and coherence from seven image pairs were used to estimate tree height and density. We compare the SAR products with standard vegetation metrics from airborne LiDAR, such as vegetation height percentiles and vegetation ratio. The preliminary analysis shows a high agreement between SAR and LiDAR data.


Ruptures and continuities of Czeh memory, Antoine Mares. ; Depending on political balances of power and the worries of the moment, Czech national memory has wavered between highly different anchoring points. The analysis of the communist Czechoslovak historiographie production is witness to that practice of a selective reading of the past and of its many-sided perverse effects in terms of collective identity. It is essential for the Czechs that all of their history be integrated into their common heritage.


Abstract : A cap model algorithm and the associated FORTRAN subroutine, CAP75, are presented. The algorithm lends itself to a wide range of soil and rock cap models and can easily be incorporated into most dynamic codes. The routine permits the user to obtain flexibility with respect to changes in functional forms and parameters with minor coding changes. (Author)


A field experiment was conducted to investigate the potential of iodine biofortification in tomato fruits by fertilizing potassium iodate in soil, foliar form and chitosan complex forms. While foliar spray alone increases iodine content in leaves (95%), chitosan iodate complex alone and soil application alone increased iodine contentin roots (11% and 16%) and stems (19% and 27%). However, higher iodine accumulation (3%) in tomato fruits was achieved through the combination of foliar and iodine chitosan forms, as electrostatic interaction between chitosan and iodate prevents volatilization and gradually increases the bioavailability of iodine from soil to fruits. The transfer factor was higher for iodate and chitosan complex from soil to plant. Further, the average and relative distribution of iodine in plants revealed that the chitosan iodate complex and foliar spray combination is proven to be the most effective, as it keeps adequate amounts of iodine in roots, stems, and leaves while also increasing iodine content in final fruit. Biofortifying iodine through iodate chitosan complex increases iodine content in tomato fruit and introducing it in our daily diet may help to reduce iodine deficiency.


Revenue insurance with shallow loss protection for farmers has been introduced recently. A common attribute of most shallow loss proposals is that they would be area-revenue triggered. The impact on optimal hedge ratios of combining these shallow loss insurance proposals with deep loss farm-level insurance is examined. Since crop insurance, commodity programs and forward pricing are commonly used concurrently to manage crop revenue risk, the optimal combinations of these tools are explored. Numerical analysis in the presence of yield, basis and futures price variability is used to find the futures hedge ratio which maximizes the certainty equivalent of a risk averse producer. The results generally reveal a lower optimal hedge ratio with area-insurance than with individual insurance and show that STAX and ARC tend to slightly increase optimal hedge ratios.


Psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) are small sucking insects with high host plant specificity. Despite the primitive olfactory system of psyllids, some species have been suggested to rely on host plant volatiles (HPVs) for seasonal migration between summer deciduous hosts and winter coniferous hosts. Similarly, enhanced attraction of psyllid vectors has been observed as a result of the manipulation of host odors by plant pathogens. As yet, there are no studies of olfaction in psyllids that utilize evergreen eucalypt hosts. We investigated the behavioral responses of adults of four Eucalyptus-feeding psyllids—Ctenarytaina eucalypti, C. bipartita, Anoeconeossa bundoorensis and Glycaspis brimblecombei—to their respective HPVs in Y-tube olfactometer bioassays. We also used existing physiological data for C. eucalypti to investigate potential olfactory tuning that may modulate the preference for morphologically juvenile leaves over morphologically adult leaves. Although adult C. eucalypti were consistently repelled by HPVs from damaged host leaves, none of the species exhibited positive chemotaxis to HPVs from undamaged leaves. Surprisingly, G. brimblecombei was repelled by HPVs from undamaged host leaves. Our findings provide little support for a significant role of olfaction in host location by Eucalyptus-feeding psyllids. We propose a number of ecological hypotheses to explain these unexpected findings.


Diabetes mellitus (DM) and osteoporosis (OP) are common disorders with a significant health burden, and an increase in fracture risk has been described both in type 1 (T1DM) and in type 2 (T2DM) diabetes. The pathogenic mechanisms of impaired skeletal strength in diabetes remain to be clarified in details and they are only in part reflected by a variation in bone mineral density. In T2DM, the occurrence of low bone turnover together with a decreased osteoblast activity and compromised bone quality has been shown. Of note, some antidiabetic drugs (e.g., thiazolidinediones, insulin) may deeply affect bone metabolism. In addition, the recently introduced class of incretin-based drugs (i.e., GLP-1 receptor agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors) is expected to exert potentially beneficial effects on bone health, possibly due to a bone anabolic activity of GLP-1, that can be either direct or indirect through the involvement of thyroid C cells. Here we will review the established as well as the putative effects of incretin hormones and of incretin-based drugs on bone metabolism, both in preclinical models and in man, taking into account that such therapeutic strategy may be effective not only to achieve a good glycemic control, but also to improve bone health in diabetic patients.


Stroke in childhood is not common outside of congenital heart disease and a few other conditions including sickle cell disease (SCD). The background rates reported have been between 2.3 and 2.7 per 100 000 per year.1–3 Adults, on the contrary, have a background rate of ≈800 per 100 000.4 There are some special conditions that increase the risk including congenital heart disease, trauma, infections (basilar meningitis), cancer, and SCD.5

Stroke rates in SCD were estimated to be high at 500 to 1000 per 100 000.6 The Baltimore Washington Cooperative Young Stroke Study reported data from 1988 to 1991 at rate of 285 per 100 000 children for SCD.7 For children with SCD, this is a long way for a stroke-free childhood.

SCD fundamental pathophysiology results from hemoglobin S forming polymer strands inside the red blood cell which causes distortion of the red blood cell, leading to microcirculatory occlusion and accelerated erythrocyte destruction with release of toxic-free hemoglobin into the vascular system.8 How SCD leads to cerebrovascular disease is only partly understood. Although there are many manifestations of vascular pathology in SCD, the one that plays the most prominent role is an intracranial cerebral large artery vasculopathy causing stenosis or occlusion. This unusual vascular disease process was confirmed 90 years ago9 as a cause of large brain infarctions in patients with SCD, typically children, and confirmed with arterial studies much later.

In the mid-1980s, a confluence of factors, from disparate worlds, led to the work herein described. Aaslid et al introduced the transcranial Doppler (TCD) for detection of intracranial artery vasospasm in 1982 based on experience in Norway.10 Interest in this tool was at first manifested in neurosurgery but soon its potential as a noninvasive way to assess intracranial arteries became …


Maternal smoking or use of other products containing nicotine during pregnancy can have significant adverse consequences for respiratory function in neonates. We have shown, in previous studies, that developmental nicotine exposure (DNE) in a model system compromises the normal function of respiratory circuits within the brainstem. The effects of DNE include alterations in the excitability and synaptic interactions of the hypoglossal motoneurons, which innervate muscles of the tongue. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that these functional consequences of DNE are accompanied by changes in the dendritic morphology of hypoglossal motoneurons. Hypoglossal motoneurons in brain stem slices were filled with neurobiotin during whole‐cell patch clamp recordings and subjected to histological processing to reveal dendrites. Morphometric analysis, including the Sholl method, revealed significant effects of DNE on dendritic branching patterns. In particular, whereas within the first five postnatal days there was significant growth of the higher‐order dendritic branches of motoneurons from control animals, the growth was compromised in motoneurons from neonates that were subjected to DNE. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 1125–1137, 2016


The photocatalytic degradation of cinnamic acid, by TiO2, has been studied extensively in aerobic and anaerobic conditions and in the presence of common salts often found in industrial waste waters. Analysis of the intermediates formed found that molecular oxygen is central to forming the important radicals for the main benzaldehyde mechanism by which cinnamic acid initially degrades, as well as a key component required for the mineralisation to carbon dioxide. In the absence of molecular oxygen an alternate, but slower, pathway becomes the prevalent. The hydroxyl driven mechanism is capable of decarboxylation of the
initial carboxyl group but further oxidation does not occur at a reasonable rate.
By investigating the effect of salts in solution we found that sulfates and chlorides both interfere with degradation mechanisms and decrease the mineralisation efficiency of titania photocatalysis. Sulfates blocked important surface sites needed for substrate binding that inhibited the benzaldehyde pathway and slowed down the degradation pathway. Whilst chloride formed radical chlorine species (Cl∙) in the presence of TiO2 that resulted in the
increase of cinnamic acid removal and the emergence of new reaction pathways. Cl∙ competed with the superoxide radical anion (O2∙-) to attack across the double bond of cinnamic acid, decarboxylate and form several new acetophenone-derived intermediates. A widening of the intermediate map, through the formation of new intermediates, is coupled
with a significant slowing of total mineralisation which presents real issues for photocatalytic waste water treatment where chloride ions are present. Additionally, the chlorine radical induced pathways produce intermediates of a greater toxicity; bringing the implication that
partial oxidative degradation could result in waste water with an increased toxicity.
Anodic nanotubes were explored as an option for alternative materials to be used within photocatalytic reactors. Nanotubes anodised for 8 hours were found to be the most
photoactive in the liquid phase, and in the surface degradation of contaminants, due to the wider pores that were structurally sound enough to not slope and reduce light penetration.
The surface topography was identified as the key factor for promoting photocatalysis. It was also found that the materials had a cross-phase applicability, in that the most active liquid phase nanotubes were also the most efficient for surface degradation. The incorporation of tungsten into the anodisation process did not improve the photocatalytic activity.
Photodeposition of palladium and gold resulted in a decrease in the degradative efficiency of the nanotube arrays.
Pd/TiO2 and Au/TiO2 powders were found to reduce the degradation rate of cinnamic acid in oxygenated conditions, although both metals improved the oxidation of surface deposits of carbon. In deoxygenated conditions, Pd/TiO2 catalysts exhibited superior degradation of cinnamic acid in comparison to plain TiO2 and gold doped catalysts. Enhancements in the mineralisation rates, to CO2, were also found. The improvements were attributed to the presence of palladium improving charge separation and introducing new reaction sites capable of decarboxylating the alcohol and aldehyde functionalities, respectively. While the gold nanoparticles were poorly dispersed, they were found to increase the selectivity for phenylacetaldehyde, in deoxygenated conditions, by a factor of 5.


Commentary on: Schmidt M, Mansfield KE, Bhaskaran K, et al . Serum creatinine elevation after renin–angiotensin system blockade and long term cardiorenal risks: cohort study. BMJ 2017;356: j791.

An increase in serum creatinine level may occur in the first 2 weeks that follow ACE inhibitor (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) therapy as a consequence of lowering intraglomerular pressure. Such renal impairment at baseline should stabilise within 2–4 weeks assuming normal volume and sodium intake. Renal function might deteriorate further when increasing the dose of diuretics, initiation of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or development of volume depletion from non-diuretic-induced causes such as gastroenteritis.1 Most guidelines recommend monitoring and stopping the treatment, if there is a creatinine increase of 30% or more. Recent studies have shown that ACEI and ARBs may be particularly effective in lowering the incidence of cardiovascular events.2

This study examined the incidence of cardiorenal events in ACEI/ARB …


This paper proposes three new hybrid mechanisms for the scheduling of grid tasks, which integrate reactive and proactive approaches. They differ by the scheduler used to define the initial schedule of an application and by the scheduler used to reschedule the application. The mechanisms are compared to reactive and proactive mechanisms. Results show that hybrid approach produces performance close to that of the reactive mechanisms, but demanding less migrations.


Likelihood ratios (LRs) are used to characterize the efficiency of diagnostic tests. In this paper, we use the classical weighted least squares (CWLS) test procedure, which was originally used for testing the homogeneity of relative risks, for comparing the LRs of two or more binary diagnostic tests. We compare the performance of this method with the relative diagnostic likelihood ratio (rDLR) method and the diagnostic likelihood ratio regression (DLRReg) approach in terms of size and power, and we observe that the performances of CWLS and rDLR are the same when used to compare two diagnostic tests, while DLRReg method has higher type I error rates and powers. We also examine the performances of the CWLS and DLRReg methods for comparing three diagnostic tests in various sample size and prevalence combinations. On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations, we conclude that all of the tests are generally conservative and have low power, especially in settings of small sample size and low prevalence.


Zinc Oxide nanoparticles on silica matrix thin films were prepared by the Sol-gel method and dip coating on ceramic tiles. In this study, EC (Ethyl cellulose) and TP (alpha-terpineol) used as a binder and a solvent in Sol-gel method, respectively, were studied on the characteristics of thin films. The thin films were dried and calcined at the temperature of 500, 600˚C soaking 30 minutes with the heating rate of 1˚C/minutes. The result of Glancing X-Ray Diffraction showed that thin films were ZnO phase on the amorphous phase of silica matrix. Scanning electron microscope showed the ZnO nanoparticles dispersed on thin films and affected on the concentration of EC and TP. The antibacterial activity test on Gram positive (Escherichia coli) and Gram negative (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria were evaluated that films have good photocatalytic process under day light, and also exhibited high photocatalytic activity under repeating for 3 times. As mentioned above, ZnO nanoparticles on thin film have antibacterial activity by using photocatalytic process and this suitable for wastewater treatment to be eco-friendly, low cost and easy for preparation.


Some large construction companies have adopted quality certification such as ISO9000 to manage the construction projects to ensure the effectiveness, flexibility and competitiveness of a business as a whole. However, the aspects of quality management are not addressed systematically and quality management at site level is left to the site managers without due considerations by the senior management. It is perceived that quality management does not get a high enough priority in comparison to Health and Safety management. A study presented in this paper investigates the status of quality management on building construction sites of a major ISO9000 certified construction company in the UK. A questionnaire survey of site managers working in different projects was conducted and the views of site managers were analysed to investigate their perception, types of quality management techniques used; priority of quality management over health and safety and status of training of site managers in quality management. Finally, the conclusions of the study are discussed.


Decisions in supply chain planning and control are interconnected and depend on tackling uncertainties and dynamics. From this perspective, control theory (CT) is an interesting research avenue for the supply chain management (SCM). In this paper, the applicability of optimal CT to SCM is investigated. Our analysis is based on the fundamentals of control and systems theory and experimental modeling. The paper describes important issues and perspectives that delineate dynamics in supply chains, identifies and systemizes different streams in application of CT to production, logistics, and SCM in the period from 1960 to 2011. It derives some classifications, performs a critical analysis, and discusses further researches. Some drawbacks and missing links in the literature are pointed out. Several crucial application areas of control theory to SCM are discussed. Subsequently, optimal program control, challenges and advantages of its application in the SCM are addressed. It is shown how optimal program control can be applied to adaptive supply chain planning. In addition, it is concluded that with the help of CT, robustness, adaptability, and resilience of supply chains can be investigated in their consistency with operations planning and execution control within a conceptually and mathematically integrated framework. However, although SCs resemble control systems, they have some peculiarities which do not allow a direct application of CT methods. In this setting, further development of interdisciplinary approaches to supply chain optimization is argued. An extended co-operation between control and supply chain experts may have the potential to introduce more realism to the dynamic planning and models and improve real-time supply chain control policies.


Experts agree that character education should start at an early age. However, implementation is often found irregularities. The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed a number of kindergarten as a pilot project for the implementation of character education. This article reports how the management of character education in kindergarten to be the pilot project. By using a qualitative approach, which attempts to understand the specific situation with the case study method, it was found that kindergarten pilot project has been implemented in an integrated character education in learning through the development of habituation and specialized in the development of a learning theme. Planning the character education program is integrated in the weekly planning (RKM) and daily planning (RKH) and not in the form of an independent program. Implementation of the the character education program conducted through the internalization of the values of the characters in the learning activities using the model in groups with children as a center of learning (student centered). Assessment being applied on character education programs in kindergarten pilot project have not been using special instruments, but still combined with the assessment of child development in general (moral and religious, physical and motor, cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional child). One of the recommendation of this study is the kindergarten should start developing assessment instruments which are specialized in assessing development of learners.


This study deals with robust $H_{\infty}$ controller design for active vibration suppresion system where the input constraints are taken into consideration in addition to model uncertainties that are present in the system model. Two different approaches are utilized in order to implement the input constraints into the controller design process. The robust $H_{\infty}$ controller design algorithms involving input constraints are carried out via linear matrix inequalities and the performance of obtained controllers is illustrated in simulation studies where a two-story structure supplied with an Active-Mass-Damper(AMD) is used.


Fassbinder's playwriting phase was brief, but as prolific some fifteen plays and adaptations between 1968 and 1975 and contradictory as his film-making, an 'antiteater' of dark images of the authoritarian personality and of West German society as the still-fertile womb from which Nazism had crawled: the psychopathy of Brady and Hindley in Pre-Paradise Sorry Now; language as (self-) repression in Blood on the Neck of the Cat; group violence, born of sexual repression and social rejection, towards outsiders in Katzelmacher. Fassbinder has been translated before (e.g., Anthony Vivis's version of Bremer Freiheit, (Methuen 1977), but this edition usefully collects all the major plays in English for the first time. Broadly, Denis Calandra seems to have succeeded in rendering the terse Bavariannuanced sociolect of Katzelmacher, the parodistic kitsch of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, or the ugly argot of the urban nightmare in Garbage, the City and Death into an appropriate and actable American idiom. His brief introduction stresses the 'strange, improbable truth' of Fassbinder's explorations of human cruelty and culpability and summarizes the scandal surrounding Garbage, the City and Death and its supposed anti-semitism, which makes it still virtually unperformable in Germany.


The Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition (LGIT) is a period of climatic complexity where millennial-scale climatic reorganization led to changes in ecosystems. Alongside millennial-scale changes, centennial-scale climatic events have been observed within records from Greenland and continental Europe. The effects of these abrupt events on landscapes and environments are difficult to discern at present. This, in part, relates to low temporal resolutions attained by many studies and the sensitivity of palaeoenvironmental proxies to abrupt change. We present a high-resolution palynological and charcoal study of Quoyloo Meadow, Orkney and use the Principal Curve statistical method to assist in revealing biostratigraphic change. The LGIT vegetation succession on Orkney is presented as open grassland and Empetrum heath during the Windermere Interstadial and early Holocene, and open grassland with Artemisia during the Loch Lomond Stadial. However, a further three phases of ecological change, characterized by expansions of open ground flora, are dated to 14.05–13.63, 10.94–10.8 and 10.2 cal ka BP. The timing of these changes is constrained by cryptotephra of known age. The paper concludes by comparing Quoyloo Meadow with Crudale Meadow, Orkney, and suggests that both Windermere Interstadial records are incomplete and that fire is an important landscape control during the early Holocene. Supplementary material: All raw data associated with this publication: raw pollen counts, charcoal data, Principal Curve and Rate of Change outputs and the age-model output are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4725269 Thematic collection: This article is part of the 'Early Career Research' available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/SJG-early-career-research


ABSTRACT Environmental licence based on the Law on Living Environmental Management and Protection (UUPPLH) is a condition to obtain a business licence and/or activity. Functioning as an instrument of damage prevention and/or living environmental pollution in the framework of protecting and managing living environment. Environmental pollution belongs to living creature, substance, energy and/or other components polluted by human activities which is greater than the set standard quality of living environment. A control is needed to monitor the incident of living environmental pollution. Living environmental control or control for short is a sequence of activities which is directly or indirectly by the Living Environmental Controlling Official (PPLH) to find out, to ensure, and to determine the level of compliance of guarantor of business and/or activity set in the evironmental licence and the legislations in the field of living environmental management and protection. The control activity is intended to develop law reinforcement. The reinforcement of administrative environmental law is the control and application of the administrative sanction which are preventive (control) and repressive (administrative sanction) in nature. According to the UUPPLH criminal act is a violation done by an individual on the regulation of legislation and/or the provision of environmental licence. The criminal provision according to the UUPPLH to apply the criminal sanction related to environmental licence as regulated in Article 109, Article 111, and Article 112 of UUPPLH. Keywords: Environmental Licence, Reinforcement of Administrative, Sanction, Environmental Criminal Provision.


Trichuris spp. is a widespread nematode which parasitizes a wide range of mammalian hosts including rodents, the most diverse mammalian order. However, genetic data on rodent whipworms are still scarce, with only one published whole genome (Trichuris muris) despite an increasing demand for whole genome data. We sequenced the whipworm mitogenomes from seven rodent hosts belonging to three biogeographic regions (Palearctic, Afrotropical, and Indomalayan), including three previously described species: Trichuris cossoni, Trichuris arvicolae, and Trichuris mastomysi. We assembled and annotated two complete and five almost complete mitogenomes (lacking only the long non-coding region) and performed comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses. All the mitogenomes are circular, have the same organisation, and consist of 13 protein-coding, 2 rRNA, and 22 tRNA genes. The phylogenetic analysis supports geographical clustering of whipworm species and indicates that T. mastomysi found in Eastern Africa is able to infect multiple closely related rodent hosts. Our results are informative for species delimitation based on mitochondrial markers and could be further used in studies on phylogeny, phylogeography, and population genetics of rodent whipworms


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Various dosages of aprotinin have proven to be effective in reducing blood loss and allogeneic transfusion requirements in cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, despite the controversy surrounding the precise hemostatic mechanisms of this drug. The aim of our prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to assess differences in blood loss and transfusion requirements and the effect of two dosages of aprotinin on hemostatic activation.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting received high-dose aprotinin (n=28), pump-prime-only (PPO) aprotinin (n=28), or placebo (n=28).

RESULTS
The high-dose and the PPO groups had a significantly lower blood loss (985 mL [95%CI 845-1,102] and 1,255 mL, [95% CI 1,025-1,406], respectively) than the placebo group (1,416 mL, 95%CI 1,248-1,612]. Transfusion requirements were lower in the aprotinin-treated groups than in the patients receiving placebo (21 units and 15 units in the high and low-dose groups vs 59 units in placebo group). As far as concerns parameters of thrombin generation, the aprotinin groups showed a significant reduction of F1+2 prothrombin fragment but not of thrombin-antithrombin complexes. There were higher levels of natural anticoagulants, i.e. antithrombin, protein C and protein S, in the high-dose aprotinin group. As regards fibrinolysis parameters, D-dimer was lower in the aprotinin groups, and the levels of alpha2-antiplasmin and plasmin-alpha2-antiplasmin complexes were raised. In summary, both dosages of aprotinin were equally effective in reducing blood loss and transfusion requirements. There was a lower activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis in cardiopulmonary bypass patients treated with aprotinin: the levels of natural anticoagulants were less decreased in the high-dose group. No differences in thrombotic complications were observed between aprotinin groups.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Our study shows that both dosages of aprotinin are safe and effective in reducing transfusion requirements. Considering the difference in cost of using a low-dose or high-dose schedule, the former should be recommended for patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.


This paper presents a simple, sound, complete, and systematic algorithm for domain independent STRIPS planning. Simplicity is achieved by starting with a ground procedure and then applying a general, and independently verifiable, lifting transformation. Previous planners have been designed directly as lifted procedures. Our ground procedure is a ground version of Tate's NONLIN procedure. In Tate's procedure one is not required to determine whether a prerequisite of a step in an unfinished plan is guaranteed to hold in all linearizations. This allows Tate's procedure to avoid the use of Chapman's modal truth criterion. Systematicity is the property that the same plan, or partial plan, is never examined more than once. Systematicity is achieved through a simple modification of Tate's procedure.


Abstract Music prediction tasks range from predicting tags given a song or clip of audio, predicting the name of the artist, or predicting related songs given a song, clip, artist name or tag. That is, we are interested in every semantic relationship between the different musical concepts in our database. In realistically sized databases, the number of songs is measured in the hundreds of thousands or more, and the number of artists in the tens of thousands or more, providing a considerable challenge to standard machine learning techniques. In this work, we propose a method that scales to such datasets which attempts to capture the semantic similarities between the database items by modelling audio, artist names, and tags in a single low-dimensional semantic embedding space. This choice of space is learnt by optimizing the set of prediction tasks of interest jointly using multi-task learning. Our single model learnt by training on the joint objective function is shown experimentally to have improved accuracy over training on each task alone. Our method also outperforms the baseline methods tried and, in comparison to them, is faster and consumes less memory. We also demonstrate how our method learns an interpretable model, where the semantic space captures well the similarities of interest.


Hydrogen clearance using the tissue polarographical electrode appears to be a potentially useful technique for intermittent measurements of rCBF in relatively small areas. Both chronic and acutely implanted electrodes were placed at different depths in rabbit cerebrum including cortex and subcortical gray and white matter. Polarographical electrodes, oppositely charged, sensing oxygen availability (O2a) also were implanted proximately for comparison of both rCBF response and O2a under conditions of normocapnia and hypercapnia. No functional difference was discerned between chronic and acute electrodes. Generally rates of blood flow were faster in gray matter than in white. Both monoexponential and biexponential curves, representing one and two compartments of blood flow, respectively, were observed in both gray and white matter. Some three-compartment curves also were seen. Hypercapnia generally induced faster rCBF in all compartments as well as increased O2a. Occasionally a change in compartmentalization was recorded from a single electrode during hypercapnia, and two instances of paradoxical decrease in rCBF were observed. A multicompartmental model with an arteriovenous thoroughfare shunt was postulated to account for the wide range of blood flow values recorded: from 5.2+ to 0.2 ml per gram per minute.


By 1875 bison (also called buffalo) were on the verge of disappearing from the Canadian West. By 1889 only 635 buffalo remained in North America. At the beginning of the 19th century, there had been 50 million freely roaming the Prairies and Plains of North America.

During this time, an increasing number of immigrants came to Canada. Many Ukrainians, Poles, and Russians made the prairies their home, whereas many South Asians, Chinese, and Japanese immigrated to the west coast.

Most of the treaties which displaced First Peoples onto reserves were designed to clear the prairies for new immigrants, agriculture, and the railway.


We discuss how knowledge of the whole evolutionary history of dwarf galaxies, including details on the early star formation events, can provide insight on the origin of the different dwarf galaxy types. We suggest that these types may be imprinted by the early conditions of formation rather than only being the result of a recent morphological transformation driven by environmental effects. We present precise star formation histories of a sample of Local Group dwarf galaxies, derived from color–magnitude diagrams reaching the oldest main-sequence turnoffs. We argue that these galaxies can be assigned to two basic types: fast dwarfs that started their evolution with a dominant and short star formation event and slow dwarfs that formed a small fraction of their stars early and have continued forming stars until the present time (or almost). These two different evolutionary paths do not map directly onto the present-day morphology (dwarf spheroidal versus dwarf irregular). Slow and fast dwarfs also differ in their inferred past location relative to the Milky Way and/or M31, which hints that slow dwarfs were generally assembled in lower-density environments than fast dwarfs. We propose that the distinction between a fast and slow dwarf galaxy primarily reflects the characteristic density of the environment where they form. At a later stage, interaction with a large host galaxy may play a role in the final gas removal and ultimate termination of star formation.


Evidence from major fraud investigations has revealed that auditors often fail to attend to visual fraud cues (i.e., red flags) within substantive testing evidence. Research in psychology on inattentional blindness (IB) provides a theoretical framework to explain why this occurs. Although most forensic research has focused on audit planning, we focus on the detection of visual fraud cues embedded in substantive testing evidence. We examine the impact of two interventions, priming and strategic reasoning, on senior audit associates to determine the extent to which these interventions mitigate IB effects. The results indicate that IB effects hinder auditor visual fraud cue detection during the performance of substantive testing procedures and that priming significantly reduced IB effects. The findings provide important implications for practice by drawing the auditor's attention to these effects and by suggesting priming as an efficient and cost-effective intervention to assist in mitigating IB effects in the auditing environment.


Making appropriately informative requests necessitates understanding what others know and what they are paying attention to. Matthews, Butcher, Lieven and Tomasello (2012) carried out two training studies in which 21?2-year-olds requested one of an array of pictures. If the child was ambiguous (e.g. 'pig one!' when the array contained two pigs), E2 provided feedback (e.g. 'Which pig?'). They found that 21?2-year-olds cannot take elements of picture detail into account when determining listener informational need. However, their pictures frequently required the children to infer actions and to produce reduced relative clauses (e.g. 'Can I have the pig dancing'). We modified Matthews et al.'s (2012) procedure to reduce cognitive load, primarily by reducing array size and modifying the stimuli so they contained no actions so 21?2-year-olds could produce complex requests by using early- acquired prepositions (e.g. 'rabbit on boat'). In each training trial, children requested one of two 'similar' pictures which contained identical animals (e.g. TARGET: pig on bike, DISTRACTOR: pig with cake) and received feedback if their first request was ambiguous. There were two post-test conditions: 'similar' vs. 'dissimilar' distractors. Our 21?2-year-olds were significantly less likely to produce complex referring expressions for 'dissimilar' pictures, showing sensitivity to when disambiguating information was needed. There was a relationship between individual differences in parent-rated conversation skills and training outcome. We discuss our data in terms of the roles of cognitive load reduction alongside how discourse around repair can focus attention on the need to incorporate listener informational need when planning requests.


The performance of a membrane bioreactor treating wastewater from a metal transformation industry was compared with the ultrafiltration system at the mill. Toxicity analysis using the microtox and algal tests on the untreated and treated effluents from both systems showed a 130 fold reduction in toxicity due to the ultrafiltration step and a further 10 fold reduction due to the biological step. This resulted in a biomass which must be disposed of as a hazardous waste. In comparison with the present situation, the overall quantity of hazardous waste was reduced by a factor of 3 due to the combination of the bioreactor and the ultrafilters.


The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) locus encodes classical MHC class I and MHC class II molecules and nonclassical MHC-I molecules. The architecture of these molecules is ideally suited to capture and present an array of peptide antigens (Ags). In addition, the CD1 family members and MR1 are MHC class I-like molecules that bind lipid-based Ags and vitamin B precursors, respectively. These Ag-bound molecules are subsequently recognized by T cell antigen receptors (TCRs) expressed on the surface of T lymphocytes. Structural and associated functional studies have been highly informative in providing insight into these interactions, which are crucial to immunity, and how they can lead to aberrant T cell reactivity. Investigators have determined over thirty unique TCR-peptide-MHC-I complex structures and twenty unique TCR-peptide-MHC-II complex structures. These investigations have shown a broad consensus in docking geometry and provided insight into MHC restriction. Structural studies on TCR-mediated recognition of lipid and metabolite Ags have been mostly confined to TCRs from innate-like natural killer T cells and mucosal-associated invariant T cells, respectively. These studies revealed clear differences between TCR-lipid-CD1, TCR-metabolite-MR1, and TCR-peptide-MHC recognition. Accordingly, TCRs show remarkable structural and biological versatility in engaging different classes of Ag that are presented by polymorphic and monomorphic Ag-presenting molecules of the immune system.


The free energy of a 600-atom Lennard-Jones cluster is calculated as a function of surface and bulk crystallinity in order to study the structural transformations that occur in the core of medium sized clusters. Within the order parameter range studied, we find the existence of two free energy minima at temperatures near freezing. One minimum, at low values of both bulk and surface order, belongs to the liquid phase. The second minimum exhibits a highly ordered core with a disordered surface and is related to structures containing a single fcc-tetrahedral subunit, with an edge length of seven atoms (l=7), located in the particle core. At lower temperatures, a third minimum appears at intermediate values of the bulk order parameter which is shown to be related to the formation of multiple l=6 tetrahedra in the core of the cluster. We also use molecular dynamics simulations to follow a series of nucleation events and find that the clusters freeze to structures containing l=5, 6, 7, and 8 sized tetrahedra as well as those containing no tetrahedral units. The structural correlations between bulk and surface order with the size of the tetrahedral units in the cluster core are examined. Finally, the relationships between the formation of fcc tetrahedral subunits in the core, the phase behavior of medium sized clusters and the nucleation of noncrystalline global structures such as icosahedra and decahedra are discussed.


Abstract Waiter's serve (WS) is a specific tennis serve posture frequently observed in young players, and commonly considered as a technical error by tennis coaches. However, biomechanical impact of WS is unknown. The aims of this study were to identify the potential consequences of WS in young elite players relating to performance and injury risk, and to explain the kinematic causes of WS. Serve of 18 male junior elite players (Top 10 national French ranking, aged 12–15 years) was captured with a 20 camera, 200 Hz VICON MX motion analysis system. Depending on their serve technique, the players were divided into two groups (WS versus Normal Serve [NS]) by experienced coaches. Injury data were collected for each player during a 12-month-period following the motion capture. Normalized peak kinetic values of the dominant arm were calculated using inverse dynamics. In order to explain WS posture, upper limb kinematics were calculated during the cocking and the acceleration phases of the serve. Shoulder internal rotation torque, wrist proximal and anterior forces (P < .05) and elbow varus torque (P < .01) were significantly higher in WS group, with no difference from NS group concerning serve velocity. Moreover, significant lower shoulder abduction and higher wrist extension (P < .05) were observed for WS players during the cocking phase. Even if no significant difference was found between groups concerning injuries, higher upper limb joint loads suggested WS could be considered as pathomechanical in young elite players and could lead to upper limb joint injuries.


Lead is one of the most toxic heavy metals that can create a severe risk to water ecosystem health. Zero-valent iron is an effective material for Pb2+ removal treatments. In particular, nanoscopic zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles are characterized by high reaction rates; nevertheless, their utilization in water and groundwater remediation techniques requires further investigations. Indeed, it is necessary to define effective methods able to avoid the drawbacks due to the aggregation tendency of nanoparticles and their potential uncontrolled transport in groundwater. In this work, nZVI was supported on magnesium oxide grains (MgO_nZVI) to synthesize an alternative material for lead removal from aqueous solutions. Many experiments were conducted under several operating conditions in order to analyze the effectiveness of the produced material in Pb2+ abatement. The performance of MgO_nZVI was also compared with those detected using commercial microscopic Fe0 (mZVI) as a reactive material. The experimental findings showed a much greater reactivity of the supported nanoscopic iron particles. By means of a kinetic analysis of batch tests results, it was verified that, both for MgO_nZVI and mZVI, the lead abatement follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic law. The reaction rates were affected by the initial pH of the treatment solution and by the ratio between the Fe0 amount and initial lead concentration. The efficiency of MgO_nZVI in a continuous test was steadily around 97.5% for about 1000 exchanged pore volumes (PV) of reactive material, while by using mZVI, the lead removal was approximately 88% for about 600 PV. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy EDS analyses suggested the formation of typical iron corrosion products and the presence of metallic lead Pb0 and Pb2+ compounds on exhausted materials.