The compuational reconstruction of cardiac activation times in a noninvasive manner was performed in ten patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), complete left bundle branch block (LBBB) patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and ten patients without structural heart disease undergoing an EP study (control group). The noninvasive funtional imaging technique employed in this study fused data from high-resolution ECG mapping with a model of the patient's individual cardiac and thoracic anatomy obtained by magnetic resonance imaging. Single beat endoand epicardial ventricular activation sequences were computed during native rhythm and ventricular pacing. A bidomain theory based algorithm was employed solving the underlying ill-posed inverse problem of electrocardiography. The control group showed a deterioration of the ventricular activation sequence during right ventricular pacing, which was found to be similar to the intrinsic activation pattern of CHF patients. CHF patients had a right-to-left septal activation with the latest activation in the epicardial lateral wall of the left ventricle. Biventricular pacing led to a resynchronization of biventricular activation sequences and to a significant decrease of the total left ventricular activation duration compared to intrinsic conduction and RV pacing (129 ± 16 versus 157 ± 28 and 173 ± 25 ms; both p < 0.05). Endocardial and epicardial ventricular activation of structurally healthy individuals and of patients with CHF or LBBB can be visualized in a noninvasive manner by the method proposed in this study. Thus noninvasive determination of individual patients' ventricular activation properties might help to further improve positive responses to CRT by pacemaker therapy tailored to a patient's specific needs.


This paper studies the effect of 3D magnetic perturbations (MPs) on fast-ion confinement, and its impact on the toroidal rotation velocity profile. Two low collisionality H-mode experiments carried out at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak have been analysed. The two discharges feature different magnetic field helicity (q 95), and differences in the velocity-space and level of fast-ion losses are observed. A new analysis technique has been developed that sheds light on the dependencies between fast-ion losses and toroidal rotation, providing for the first time correlation patterns resolved in radius and velocity space of the lost fast-ions. The correlation intensifies towards the plasma edge and is strongly dependent on the orbit topology of the lost fast-ions. The ASCOT orbit following code has been used to characterize the fast-ion resonant transport and beam driven torques, using the vacuum approach and including plasma response (PR). The change of the toroidal canonical momentum, which serves as figure of merit for resonant fast-ion transport, has been calculated with ASCOT. The beam geometry and q 95 are found to have a strong impact on the fast-ion transport and losses. The fast-ion transport induced by the MPs affects the beam driven torques. The effect of the changes of the j × B and collisional torques on plasma rotation is analysed using the torques simulated by ASCOT and simple momentum balance calculations. For the low q 95 = 3.8 discharge, which benefits from a resonant amplification, we find excellent agreement with the measured variation of the toroidal velocity. For the high q 95 = 5.5 discharge, the inclusion of the PR improves the comparison with experimental data with respect to the vacuum estimation, but still some differences with experiments are observed. This suggests that other non-resonant effects could play a role for the determination of the toroidal rotation profile.


Background and Objectives: Events are the second leading cause of disability and one of the problems that can cause physical and psychological disorders, and in more severe cases lead to death. Therefore, at the first, the risks must be identified, so that one can offer how to confront and eliminate risk. Thus, this study aimed to determine the frequency and type of events among nomads. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 534 nomad in ChaharmahalBakhtiari Province during first half of 2014. The data collection was through interviews based on a predetermined checklist and finally the data gathered were analyzed using SPSS (Ver.19) software and descriptive statistics. Results: It was found that out of 534 nomads, 144 were female (26.97%) and 390 male (73.03%) and age average of them was 26.32±24.12. These people are often faced with 18 types of events in their location or during their shifting; the most frequent one is caused by sinking of thorns and sharp rock aggregates in their organs during labor activities (62.46%) and the least frequent one was hurt caused by lightning (0.19%) and electric shock by electrical tower (0.19%). The results showed that there was a significant relationship between sex, season of the year, the summer location, and accident rate (P ≤0.002) but there was no significant relationship between the nomads and clans of the study and event rate. Conclusion: Like many diseases, events are preventable, and this requires the development of knowledge about the principles of safety during migration and housing. Therefore, it seems that for the preserving nomadic population and reducing lost caused by these events, the national event management centers and emergency medical centers should have better planning in this field.


In May 2015, the Flow-Based Market Coupling (FBMC) model replaced the Available Transfer Capacity (ATC) model in Central Western Europe to determine the power transfers between countries or price areas. The FBMC model aims to enhance market integration and to better monitor the physical power flows. The FBMC model is expected to lead to increased social welfare in the day-ahead market and more frequent price convergence between different market areas. This paper gives a discussion of the procedures of market clearing and a mathematical formulation of the FBMC model. Moreover, we discuss the relationships between the nodal pricing, ATC, and FBMC models. In addition to an illustrative 3-node example, we examine the FBMC model in two test systems and show the difficulties in implementing the model in practice. We find that a higher social surplus in the day-ahead market may come at the cost of more re-dispatching in real time. We also find that the FBMC model might fail to relieve network congestion and better utilize the power resources, even when compared to the ATC model.


The fabrication and modification of polymer monoliths, in capillary formats, for the separation of small ions is presented. The separation of small ions using polymer monoliths has limitations and this work aims to investigate increasing the ion exchange capacity using photo-grafting techniques. Chapter 1.0 includes a comprehensive review on the use of capillary ion chromatography including advancements made in capillary instrumentation, stationary phases and detection devices. This chapter also includes the various methods of modifying stationary phase with ionogenic functionalities suitable for use in capillary ion chromatography.

Chapter 2.0 shows the modification of polymer monoliths with quaternary ammonium ions, namely poly([2(methacryloyloxy)ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride) with immobilisation of the ion exchange functionalities taking place using photo-grafting techniques. In this work, the method of functionalisation of the polymer monolith was compared to a previously published polymer monolith bearing the same ion exchange functionalities. Chapter 2.0 also includes the separation of anions using a portable inhouse assembled capillary ion chromatography system.

In Chapter 3.0, the photo-grafting of poly(3-sulfopropyl methacrylate) on a polymer monolith for the separation of cations is presented. The effect of temperature on the retention of Mg(II), Ca(II) and Ba(II) was carried out using an in-house constructed capillary column heater which was easily incorporated into the ion chromatography system. This chapter also introduces post-column reaction chemistry which involves the reaction of the eluted metals with a suitable reagent in a post-column mixer and detection of the coloured complex formed. In this work, the use of polymer monoliths as post-column mixers was investigated. Monoliths prepared with increasing pore size were incorporated into a flow injection analysis system and their suitability as postcolumn mixers was determined and compared to a commercially available postcolumn mixer.

Chapters 4.0 and 5.0 deal with the immobilisation of chelating ligands on a polymer monolith to produce a capillary chelating ion exchanger. Two methods of immobilisation of the chelating ligand were identified and compared. Scanning capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection was used to characterise the chelating stationary phases. Chapter 5.0 includes the use of a novel bimodal detector set-up i.e. on-column C4D was used in conjugation with UV-Vis detection following the reaction of the eluted metals with a post-column reagent. Chapter 4.0 shows applications of the capillary chelating ion exchangers including the determination of Ca(II) and Mg(II) in bottled water samples and also the separation of metal cations in a spiked sea-water samples.


The ALICE experiment at CERN will study heavy ion collisions at a center-of-mass energy 5.5∼TeV per nucleon. Particle tracking around the interaction region at radii r<45 cm is done by the Inner Tracking System (ITS), consisting of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors. The outer two layers of the ITS use double-sided silicon strip detectors. This thesis focuses on testing of these detectors and performance studies of the detector
module prototypes at the beam test.
Silicon strip detector layers will require about 20 thousand HAL25 front-end readout chips and about 3.5 thousand hybrids each containing 6 HAL25 chips. During the assembly procedure, chips are bonded on a patterned TAB aluminium microcables which connect to all the chip input and output pads, and then the chips are assembled on the hybrids. Bonding failures at the chip or hybrid level may either render the component non-functional or deteriorate its the performance such that it can not be used for the module production. After each bonding operation, the component testing is done to reject the non-functional or poorly performing chips and hybrids. The LabView-controlled test station for this operation has been built at Utrecht University and was successfully used for mass production acceptance tests of chips and hybrids at three production labs. The functionality of the chip registers, bonding quality and analogue functionality of the chips and hybrids are addressed in the test. The test routines were optimized to minimize the testing time to make sure that testing is not a bottleneck of the mass production.
For testing of complete modules the laser scanning station with 1060 nm diode laser has been assembled at Utrecht University. The testing method relies of the fact that a response of the detector module to a short collimated laser beam pulse resembles a response to a minimum ionizing particle. A small beam spot size (∼7 μm ) allows to deposit the charge in a narrow region and measure the response of individual detector channels. First several module prototypes have been studied with this setup, the strip gain and charge sharing function have been measured, the later is compared with the model predictions. It was also shown that for a laser beam of a high monochromaticity, interference in the sensor bulk significantly modulates the deposited charge and introduces a systematic error of the gain measurement. Signatures of disconnected strips and pinholes defects have been observed, the response of the disconnected strips to the laser beam has been correlated with the noise measurements.
Beam test of four prototype modules have been carried out at PS accelerator at CERN using 7 GeV/c pions. It was demonstrated that the modules provide an excellent signal-to-noise ratio in the range 40-75. The estimated spatial resolution for the normally incident tracks is about 18 μm using the center-of-gravity cluster reconstruction method. A non-iterative method for spatial resolution determination was developed, it was shown that in order to determine the resolution of each individual detector in the telescope, the telescope should consist of at least 5 detectors. The detectors showed high detection efficiency, in the order 99%. It was shown that the particle loss occurs mostly in the defected regions near the noisy strips or strips with a very low gain. The efficiency of the sensor area with nominal characteristics is consistent with 100%.


Climate change as expressed by erratic rainfall, increased flooding, extended droughts, frequency tropical cyclones or saline water intrusion, poses severe threats to smallholder farmers in Vietnam. Adaptation of the agricultural sector is vital to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers' livelihoods in times of climate change. To complement efforts already implemented by farmers to reduce social vulnerability it is important to understand how farmers perceive their current and future capacity to adapt to climate change. This paper aims to explore smallholder farmers' capacity to respond to climate change in current and future agricultural production. We carried out open, in-depth interviews (n = 13), focus group discussions, and structured interviews (n = 114) in the Thua Thien Hue province. Our findings show that farmers nowadays experience more extreme climate variability. Farmers report increasing stresses due to temperature increase and droughts. The autonomous adaptation strategies adopted by farmers include; adjusting the season calendar, using tolerant varieties and breeds, applying integrated crop production models, and income diversification. The motives for adopting particular planned adaptation options differ between farmers in crop production and livestock production. Four factors were found to be significant (p < .05) in influencing the spread of adaptation measures (AMs) farmers adopted: farm income, the number of available information sources, number of workers on the farm, and farmable land available during the summer season. Farmers report several barriers to implement adaptation strategies including; market price fluctuations, lack of skilled labour, lack of climate change information, and lack of capacity to learn and apply techniques in their daily practice. While both crop and livestock farmers participated in one or several training courses on climate change in the past years, livestock farmers were still uncertain about their future capacity and possible AMs.


Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the perceptions and reported practices of osteopathic physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction. Copies of survey questions were sent to the 344 members of the West Virginia Osteopathic Society. A total of 176 (51.2%) physicians responded; of these responses, 166 surveys were used for analysis. Respondents included 130 practicing physicians and 36 physicians in internship or residency training programs. Of those responding, 133 were men and 33 were women, and ages ranged from 24 to 81 years with a mean of 41.6 years. Respondents who were graduates of the West Vrrginia School of Osteopathic Medicine numbered 132 (79.5%), and 99 (59.6%) were in family practice. Characteristics most commonly attributed to addiction were a chronic nature and psychological or physical dependence. More than half of the test subjects did not consider addiction to be a primary disease independent of other factors or psychiatric conditions. Respondents reported a mean addiction prevalence of 20.4%, wi~h the most common substances reported as tobacco , alcohol, and benzodiazapines, respectively. Individual prevalence reports varied from 0% to 95% (SD± 20.4%). The most commonly used diagnostic tools were the CAGE (Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, and Eye7opener) test, DSM fil-R (Diagnostic and Stahstical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition, revised) or DSM-N (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition) criteria, and quantity and frequency questions. Medical sequelae such as jaundice or emphysema were the most likely reasons for the respondents to address a substance abuse problem. For referral resources, respondents were most likely to use inpatient or outpatient treatment. A mean success rate of 27.7% was reported by the 133 physicians responding. The wide variance in reported prevalence and the low success rate reported in comparison to that demonstrated in published treatment studies indicate that there is a need for further education of both physicians in training and those presently in practice. Medical seq uelae are frequently irreversible signs of late-stage addiction, and physicians should be urged to include such tools as the CAGE test in each regular physical to facilitate earlier intervention.


Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is a serpin class protease inhibitor that plays a central role in the regulation of vascular function and tissue remodeling by modulating thrombosis, inflammation, and the extracellular matrix. A central mediator controlling PAI-1 is transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), which induces its expression and promotes fibrosis. We have found that a unique member of the Smad family of signal transduction molecules, Smad6s, modulates the expression of PAI-1. Overexpression of Smad6s in endothelial cells increases promoter activity and PAI-1 secretion, and an antisense to Smad6s suppresses the induction of PAI-1 by TGF-beta. The effect of Smad6s on the PAI-1 promoter appeared to be the result of increase binding of the forkhead winged helix factor FoxD1 to a TGF-beta-responsive element. Furthermore, the effect of Smad6s on PAI-1 up-regulation and on FoxD1 binding was found to result from up-regulation of TGF-beta and could be inhibited by the blocking TGF-beta signaling with Smad7. The ability of Smad6s to regulate the TGF-beta promoter and subsequent PAI-1 induction was suppressed by a selective protein kinase C-beta (PKC-beta) inhibitor. Consistent with the in vitro data, we found that increased Smad6s in diseased vessels correlated with increased TGF-beta and PAI-1 levels. Overall, our results demonstrate that the level of Smad6s can alter the level of TGF-beta and the subsequent induction of PAI-1 via a FoxD1 transcription site. Furthermore, our data suggest that this process, which is up-regulated in diseased vessels, can be modulated by the inhibition of PKC-beta.


When molten plastic is extruded, the upper limiting throughput is often dictated by fine irregular distortions of the extrudate surface. Called sharkskin melt fracture, plastics engineers spike plastics formulations with processing aids to suppress these distortions. Sharkskin melt fracture is not to be confused with gross melt fracture, a larger scale distortion arising at throughputs higher than the critical throughput for sharkskin melt fracture. Sharkskin melt fracture has been attributed to a breakdown of the no slip boundary condition in the extrusion die, that is, adhesive failure at the die walls, where the fluid moves with respect to the wall. In this article, we account for the frictional heating at the wall, which we call slip heating. We focus on slit flow, which is used in film casting, sheet extrusion, curtain coating, and when curvature can be neglected, slit flow is easily extended to pipe extrusion and film blowing. In slit flow, the magnitude of the heat flux from the slipping interface is the product of the shear stress and the slip speed. We present the solutions for the temperature rise in pressure-driven slit flow and simple shearing flow, each subject to constant heat generation at the adhesive slip interface, with and without viscous dissipation in the bulk fluid. We solve the energy equation in Cartesian coordinates for the temperature rise, for steady temperature profiles. For this simplest relevant nonisothermal model, we neglect convective heat transfer in the melt and use a constant viscosity. We arrive at a necessary dimensionless condition for the accurate use of our results: Pe≪1. We find that slip heating can raise the melt temperature significantly, as can viscous dissipation in the bulk. We conclude with two worked examples showing the relevance of slip heating in determining wall temperature rise, and we show how to correct wall slip data for this temperature rise. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2042–2049, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers


Inactive renin in normal plasma, Factor XII-deficient plasma and prekallikrein-deficient plasma was fully activated by dialysis to pH 3.0 for 24 hours at 4 degrees C. This activation was reversed after neutralization and incubation of the plasma at 37 degrees C. The reversible activation-inactivation was not affected by the presence of soya bean trypsin inhibitor. If acidified normal plasma was neutralized and stood at 4 degrees C, plasma kallikrein, but not plasmin, was generated. This rendered the initial acid-activation irreversible. Since no kallikrein was generated in the deficient plasmas, the acid-activation was reversible in these plasmas even after neutralization and standing at 4 degrees C. Thus the apparent activation of inactive renin by kallikrein in acidified, neutralized plasma is not a direct action by the serine protease on inactive renin but a two-stage process in which the inactive renin is first fully activated by acid treatment and the reverse reaction is prevented by plasma kallikrein.


Scholars have extensively documented social class differences in students' relationships with educational institutions through their interactions with authority figures and the unequal institutional advantages these interactions yield. However, little is known about whether or how social class also shapes students' peer interactions in ways that produce these inequalities. Using a qualitative case study of an elite engineering school in which I draw on participant observation and interviews with 88 undergraduates and six administrators, I argue that social class context—a proxy for social class—shapes the peer help-seeking and help-giving (collaborative) strategies students use, which can create inequalities in the institutional advantages they secure in the form of academic help, support, and learning opportunities. Focusing specifically on the social class context of students' high schools, I find that compared to their less-privileged counterparts, privileged students—who came from class-advantaged high school contexts where they became familiar with collaboration and upper-middle-class cultural signals—more easily collaborated with their college classmates and displayed signals that communicated they were "good" collaborators. The findings highlight new mechanisms through which inequalities are reproduced in educational institutions and make theoretical contributions to research on cultural capital, inequality, and education.


Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate the supplier's view on supplier‐initiated relationship dissolution due to lack of customer profitability. Design/methodology/approach – The research is focused on inter‐organisational buyer‐seller relationships. An exploratory study in the German mechanical engineering industry was conducted to provide insights into the usage of customer valuation techniques and the preponderance of unprofitable customer relationships, and to identify various ways of managing unprofitable customer relationships by means of cluster analysis. Findings – The study shows that many companies in the industry lack knowledge and use of customer valuation techniques. Three clusters of supplying firms are identified that differ in their willingness to end unprofitable customer relationships. Research limitations/implications – Provides an exploratory study into a neglected aspect of relationship marketing characterised by a low response rate. The sample contained companies from one major German industry, limiting the applicability of its findings. The main implications are that unprofitable customer relationships are a common feature of industrial markets, which merits further investigation. Respondents were shown to have a range of different views and approaches to such relationships. Research on customer valuation needs to focus on the implementation barriers of valuation methods. Practical implications – Study results stress the importance of developing and implementing customer valuation methods, the relevance of unprofitable relationships, and suppliers' decision making concerning such precarious relationships. It is a useful source of information and impartial advice for managers involved with customer management. Originality/value – The paper leads to a more thorough understanding of relationship marketing and provides empirical data on a neglected field of marketing research, as prior work did not consider the supplier's view on dissolution management in detail.


A process for the precipitation of trivalent arsenic sulphide in sulphate-reducing condition at low pH would be very attractive due to the high arsenic content (60%) in the final precipitate. A bacterial consortium able to reduce sulphate at pH 4.5 served to inoculate column bioreactors that were continuously fed with As(V) or As(III), glycerol and/or hydrogen, at pH values between 2 and 5. The diversity, functionality and evolution of the consortium colonizing the bioreactors were characterized by means of biomolecular tools, in relation with operating parameters (pH, As, sulphide, acetate). The highest As removal rate obtained during these experiments was close to 3 mg.l-1.h-1 using As(V) as the initial arsenic form, while precipitation rates were improved using As(III). When glycerol was replaced by hydrogen in a bioreactor containing a mature biofilm, sulphate-reducing activity increased roughly. Organisms related to Desulfosporosinus were the only sulphate-reducing bacterium (SRB) detected in the bioreactor. arrA genes, involved in As(V) dissimilatory reduction, were also detected and suggested that As(V) was reduced by a Desulfosporosinus-like organism. Molecular fingerprints evidenced an evolution of the bacterial population structure according to changes in operating conditions.


The European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) Very High Frequency (224 MHz) Radar has been used to investigate the aspect sensitivity of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) in the period 13–15 July 2010. The aspect sensitivity of PMSE using this radar and at such a high frequency has not been previously reported. Data concerning the aspect sensitivity of PMSE were collected by traversing the antenna beam from the zenith direction, and comparing the received power. Surprisingly, as the intensity received by the oblique beam was often larger than that of the vertical beam, suggesting the presence of tilted dusty plasma layers as a potential cause, a theoretical model was developed to confirm the existence of these layers and their formation process. The experimental results and theoretical model presented help elucidate the structural properties of the possible generation mechanism of strong radar echoes in the polar summer mesosphere region. Citation: Li H, Wu J, Tian R H, et al. Aspect sensitivity of polar mesosphere summer echoes observed with the EISCAT VHF radar. Adv Polar Sci, 2018, 29(1): 34-39, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2018.1.00034


Context Individualised care rooms (ICR) were established in District General Hospital with a Level 2 Neonatal Unit. This was a result of consultation between the medical health professionals, members of the allied health professionals and parent groups. Problem In a traditional Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) setting, the majority of care is undertaken by neonatal nurses and incubators are set out in an 'open bay' layout. Assessment of problem and analysis of its causes As a result of this traditional setting, parents often report feeling disempowered. The lack of privacy also limits opportunities for kangaroo care and this can affect parent-child bonding. In the Individualised Care Rooms (ICR) model, parents are encouraged to be resident alongside their premature baby from an early stage and become integral to their daily care in a developmental care environment. They are supported by doctors and nurses, and the babies are monitored by cardiac monitoring and pulse oximetry. Research has shown that there is greater parents' satisfaction with the ICR model and premature babies benefit from a shorter length of stay and lower incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Evidence also supports the provision of regular kangaroo care to improve cerebral function. Intervention There are three broad phases: First phase: Design and building of the ICR. We converted an area within our neonatal unit that was not in clinical use into 10 fully equipped individual rooms. Each room is designed specifically to allow adequate natural lighting, ventilation and space for an adult bed and an incubator. The rooms are also equipped with monitoring equipment and amenities including washbasin and television. Parents share bathrooms and dayroom facilities. A nursing station with central monitor is manned by trained neontal nurses to support parents and babies. Second phase: Education and training. We formulated an admission policy and expected standard of care for the ICR. We set off to promote the ICR in a launch event. There is an ongoing programme of education and training sessions for health professionals and parent groups. Third phase: Admission of babies to the ICR since December 2013. Study design We are in the process of designing a pilot cohort analytical study comparing outcomes of premature babies in the ICR with matched controls of babies nursed in the open bay in our neonatal unit. Our primary outcome targets will include duration of stay, gestational age at discharge and weight at discharge. The secondary outcome target will be a formal neurodevelopmental assessment at various corrected gestation age timepoints. Strategy for change The implementation of the ICR was carried out in a phased manner. This allows adequate time for specific consideration in the design and build of the rooms, education and training sessions, troubleshooting and lastly, implementation. Measurement of improvement Alongside with the planned pilot cohot analytical study, we also plan to conduct a parent satisfaction survey to obtain formal feedback about the ICR. Effects of changes Observation from health professionals are that babies are being discharged at a younger gestational age and lower birth weight with no significant unintended consequence in the community. Verbal feedback from the parent groups regarding ICR has been overwhelmingly positive so far. However we hope to produce a more formal and measurable outcome with the planned study and parents' satisfaction survey. Lessons learnt With the change of junior doctors every six months, education and training sessions need to be ongoing to promote awareness of the purpose and benefits of ICR. Ongoing troubleshooting sessions also help fine tune the running of ICR. Message for others Based on current evidence, we believe that the ICR model should be taken into consideration in the future design and planning of any neonatal unit.


Summary form only given. This paper describes the current connection regime for distributed generation (DG) in the UK and presents a novel application of the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) technique for automatic power flow management (PFM) to manage thermal constraints in distribution networks. OPF formulations have been used, in an offline mode, as a power system planning tool for several years. The novel implementation of OPF for `corrective' PFM in an online operational mode, for MV distribution networks, is presented and tested in this paper. The authors demonstrate, through simulations conducted on a commercially available substation computer, that such an application of OPF can represent first on, last off generator connection agreements that reflect the current principles of access in the UK. Two case study networks, a 33kV and an 11kV, provide the basis for assessment of the OPF-based PFM algorithm in terms of computation time to arrive at a solution in the event of a network thermal excursion and the level of DG curtailment necessary to meet network thermal limits. Assessments are made and fully discussed of the suitability for an OPF-based approach for distribution network management within an online network control scheme including discussion of the important consideration of control robustness.


A quality assessment method for eight commercially available optically active flavor compounds: menthol, menthyl acetate, perillaldehyde, 1,8-cineole, α-pinene, limonene, neomenthol, and neomenthyl acetate, was developed for commercial foods. The simultaneous determination of the eight flavor compounds and the optical purity test for the complete enantiomeric separation of each flavor compound were achieved by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) equipped with a tandem capillary column consisting of a fused silica column (DB-17MS) coupled with a cyclodextrin chiral column (β-DEX). The extraction of the flavor compounds from the food samples was carried out by a multiple headspace (MHS) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique in order to improve the quantitativeness of SPME. Optimization of MHS-SPME using a mathematical technique with repeated extraction yielded the total peak area of each flavor compound and excellent recoveries from the food samples in three repeated measurements. Of the twelve commercial samples subjected to the optical purity test, some were found to have undesirable enantiomers that are not designated as flavor compounds by the Food Hygiene Law of Japan. The results show the efficiency of the developed method, and suggest a need to conduct further optical purity tests for the quality assessment of flavor compounds in commercial foods.


Frame-based speech processing inherently assumes a stationary behavior of speech signals in a short period of time. Over a long time, the characteristics of the signals can change significantly and frames are not equally important, underscoring the need for frame selection. In this paper, we present a low-complexity and effective frame selection approach based on a posteriori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) weighted energy distance: The use of an energy distance, instead of, e.g., a standard cepstral distance, makes the approach computationally efficient and enables fine granularity search, and the use of a posteriori SNR weighting emphasizes the reliable regions in noisy speech signals. It is experimentally found that the approach is able to assign a higher frame rate to fast changing events such as consonants, a lower frame rate to steady regions like vowels and no frames to silence, even for very low SNR signals. The resulting variable frame rate analysis method is applied to three speech processing tasks that are essential to natural interaction with intelligent environments. First, it is used for improving speech recognition performance in noisy environments. Second, the method is used for scalable source coding schemes in distributed speech recognition where the target bit rate is met by adjusting the frame rate. Third, it is applied to voice activity detection. Very encouraging results are obtained for all three speech processing tasks.


We report the results of a double blind placebo controlled crossover randomized study of the calcium channel blocking agent diltiazem in the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon. Our results showed a significant reduction in both frequency and duration of attacks of vasospasm in the hands. There was no detectable difference in response between patients with primary and those with secondary Raynaud's phenomenon. Our study supports the use of calcium channel blocking agents in the treatment of intermittent digital vasospasm.


Ranging from Durkheim's original lecture in sociology to an excerpt from the work incomplete at his death, these selections illuminate his multiple approaches to the crucial concept of social solidarity and the study of institutions as diverse as the law, morality, and the family. Durkheim's focus on social solidarity convinced him that sociology must investigate the way that individual behavior itself is the product of social forces. As these writings make clear, Durkheim pursued his powerful model of sociology through many fields, eventually synthesizing both materialist and idealist viewpoints into his functionalist model of society.


Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek) seeds have previously been shown to have hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic effects on type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and experimental diabetic animals. The Trigonella foenum-graecum extract has now been investigated for its effects on general properties, blood glucose and blood lipid, and hemorheological parameters in experimental diabetic rats. Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were administrated by oral intragastric intubation separately with low dose (0.44 g/kg.d), middle dose (0.87 g/kg.d), high dose (1.74 g/kg.d) of Trigonella foenum-graecum extract, and Metformin HCl (0.175 g/kg.d) for 6 weeks. Compared with diabetic group, rats treated with Trigonella foenum-graecum extract had an increase in body weight and a decrease in kidney /body weight ratio (p<0.05). Compared with diabetic group, rats treated Trigonella foenum-graecum extract had lower blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, triglycerides, total cholestrol and higher higher-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). The plasma viscosity, whole blood viscosity of high shear rate (200 s-1) and low shear rate (40 s-1), erythrocyte sedimentation rate, whole blood reduction viscosity and platelet conglutination were significantly reduced in diabetic rats treated with high and middle doses of Trigonella foenum-graecum extract, but not in those treated with low dose of Trigonella foenum-graecum extract. It may be concluded that Trigonella foenum-graecum extract can lower kidney /body weight ratio, blood glucose, blood lipid levels and improve hemorheological properties in experimental diabetic rats following repeated treatment for 6 weeks.


We present a critical view of the analysis of experimental island densities acquired as a function of temperature in terms of barriers and prefactors for tracer diffusion at surfaces. We investigate the achievable precision for methods ranging from simple application of scaling laws, via integration of mean-field rate equations within various approximations for the capture rates, to kinetic Monte Carlo simulations that account for the various island shapes realized on square and hexagonal lattices. The discussion of theoretical models will be accompanied by variable temperature STM data for the nucleation of Ag on a Pt~111! surface. We introduce experimental methods to test for dimer diffusion and dissociation, as well as for transient mobility of monomers. Density scaling is analyzed in the presence of post-deposition mobility and easy adatom attachment to islands and other monomers. From extended kinetic Monte Carlo simulations we establish density scaling for the various island shapes on square and hexagonal lattices for coverages up to percolation, which is particularly relevant for methods working in reciprocal space. @S0163-1829~99!01231-X#


Two coupled four-beam acoustic Doppler current profilers were used to provide simultaneous and independent measurements of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate ϵ and the TKE production rate P over a 36 h long period at a highly energetic tidal energy site in the Alderney Race. The eight-beam arrangement enabled the evaluation of the six components of the Reynolds stress tensor which allows for an improved estimation of the TKE production rate. Depth-time series of ϵ, P and the Reynolds stresses are provided. The comparison between ϵ and P was performed by calculating individual ratios of ϵ corresponding to P. The depth-averaged ratio ε/P averaged over whole flood and ebb tide were found to be 2.2 and 2.8 respectively, indicating that TKE dissipation exceeds TKE production. It is shown that the term of diffusive transport of TKE is significant. As a result, non-local transport is important to the TKE budget and the common assumption of a local balance, i.e. a balance between production and dissipation, is not valid at the measurement site. This article is part of the theme issue 'New insights on tidal dynamics and tidal energy harvesting in the Alderney Race'.


This research guide is a portal to library services for students participating in projects sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and other undergraduate research.


Competencies are very important for achieving inter-organizational competitiveness, so organizations strive to enhance these as part of human resources management development. Education and training of employees as a form of organizational learning is the key to ensuring their competencies for the job, which in turn leads to their increased motivation and greater efficiency and quality of work. The Slovenian wood industry is of strategic importance for the preservation of rural areas, and offers wide employment opportunities, but in recent years it has become less competitive, mainly because of the low level of knowledge and / or inadequate competencies of employees. In this study we examined the impact of using a competency model for the wood industry in designing training programs for different profiles of employees in order to raise their competencies. The results showed the positive effects of such training in enhancing the level of professional, job-specific and general competencies of employees, as well as reducing the related deficits. The results showed significant progress for almost all of the 91 competencies in the wood industry competency model, in which the overall proportion of deficits (grades 1 and 2) decreased by 58%. Such training can thus ensure the greater competitiveness of the Slovenian wood industry, and the greater flexibility and efficiency of the related companies.


The Constitution's first eight amendments expressly safeguard certain enumerated rights, and the Ninth Amendment instructs that the listing of some rights "shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." But the constitutional text says nothing about how such unenumerated rights are to be identified, evaluated, or enforced. Naturally this has made the Ninth Amendment difficult to apply, and the prevailing approach among courts and commentators has been to trivialize the amendment or ignore it completely. As a result, we have lost sight of its true subject and forgotten the question it was intended to answer.
Part I of this essay observes that most aspects of a new constitution can be classified as either continuous with the old order (maintaining something that already existed) or discontinuous (in the sense of ending a pre-existing institution or initiating something genuinely new). Whether the Ninth Amendment represents continuity or discontinuity, however, is not entirely clear – and this gets to the heart of what the Amendment was intended to do. We know that its author, James Madison, was responding to fears that a partial listing of rights might endanger other rights that were not listed; in the First Congress he proposed an amendment designed simply to clarify what enumeration did and did not do. Congress adopted the idea, but eliminated much of Madison's proposed language, obscuring both the point of the amendment and the legal effect of enumeration.
Part II sorts the competing views, not according to how they define retained rights, but according to how they answer that question: Does enumeration actually change anything? Does it make any difference whether a right is enumerated? Those who think enumeration might make some difference I call differentialists; those who think it makes no difference at all I call non-differentialists. I subdivide differentialists into strict differentialists, who think enumeration makes ALL the difference (i.e., that rights not enumerated are not judicially enforceable), and moderate differentialists, who think enumeration matters to an extent but that enforceability should not turn entirely on enumeration per se. In Part III, I add a fourth group – I call them exoconstructionists –who interpret the Ninth Amendment not as an invitation to inquire into retained rights but as an instruction about how to construe other parts of the Constitution.
Part IV uses these concepts to examine an idea first suggested by Michael McConnell: that the Ninth Amendment is best understood from the standpoint of Lockean social compact theory. Under this reading, the "rights retained by the people" are simply the individual natural rights that the people did not relinquish as part of the original social compact. McConnell interprets the Ninth Amendment to mean that the enumeration of some rights in the written Constitution does not abrogate other rights that are not enumerated; those rights remain in force, but can be superseded by sufficiently explicit positive law. Finally, Part V observes that judicial discretion is at its lowest ebb when we are at one of the two extreme "poles" (i.e., non-differentialism and strict differentialism). The further we get from both poles, the more discretion the courts enjoy – not only to determine which unenumerated rights are judicially enforceable, but to draw conclusions about which narrative accounts of those rights are most plausible as a matter of historical fact.


The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a limb Fourier transform spectrometer that operated onboard the polar-orbiting ESA ENVIronmental SATellite from July 2002 to April 2012. MIPAS measured the atmospheric limb emission in the middle/upper atmosphere in the spectral range from 4.15 to 14.6 μm. The MIPAS instrument was designed to improve the knowledge of the distribution of some key chemical components and the dynamics of the middle atmosphere.
The main target of this PhD thesis is the retrieval and the study of minor constituents of the middle atmosphere using MIPAS measurements. These molecules give a minor contribution to the MIPAS spectra but their retrieval is fundamental to improve the general knowledge of the chemistry of the middle atmosphere.
In the first part of this PhD project, we focused on the retrieval of carbonyl chloride (COCl2) and on the study of its distribution in the UTLS region. COCl2 is a gas used in the insecticides, pharmaceuticals and herbicides preparation. Due to its high toxicity, its usage has been reduced over the years. COCl2 has been retrieved for the first time using MIPAS measurements. The main features and the seasonality of its distribution have been studied and compared with ACE-FTS measurements.
In the second part, we studied the carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) lifetime, its global distribution and its seasonality in the UTLS region using the ESA official Level 2 Version 7 products. CCl4 is a strong ozone-depleting substance, banned by the Montreal protocol starting from 1996. MIPAS CCl4 measurements have been compared with independent measurements from ACE-FTS, MIPAS-Balloon and data from the EMAC model. CCl4 trends as a function of latitude and altitude have been evaluated and compared with other satellite trend estimates and other surface global network measurements.


Homologous recombination between circular sister chromosomes during DNA replication in bacteria can generate chromosome dimers that must be resolved into monomers prior to cell division. In Escherichia coli, dimer resolution is achieved by site-specific recombination, Xer recombination, involving two paralogous tyrosine recombinases, XerC and XerD, and a 28-bp recombination site (dif) located at the junction of the two replication arms. Xer recombination is tightly controlled by the septal protein FtsK. XerCD recombinases and FtsK are found on most sequenced eubacterial genomes, suggesting that the Xer recombination system as described in E. coli is highly conserved among prokaryotes. We show here that Streptococci and Lactococci carry an alternative Xer recombination machinery, organized in a single recombination module. This corresponds to an atypical 31-bp recombination site (dif SL) associated with a dedicated tyrosine recombinase (XerS). In contrast to the E. coli Xer system, only a single recombinase is required to recombine dif SL, suggesting a different mechanism in the recombination process. Despite this important difference, XerS can only perform efficient recombination when dif SL sites are located on chromosome dimers. Moreover, the XerS/dif SL recombination requires the streptococcal protein FtsKSL, probably without the need for direct protein-protein interaction, which we demonstrated to be located at the division septum of Lactococcus lactis. Acquisition of the XerS recombination module can be considered as a landmark of the separation of Streptococci/Lactococci from other firmicutes and support the view that Xer recombination is a conserved cellular function in bacteria, but that can be achieved by functional analogs.


Many years of significant investment into the production and adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies and practices in agriculture have not yielded the desired results. Most smallholder farmers in Africa remain trapped in poverty. Having realised that addressing production challenges alone is not enough to impact the lives of poor smallholder farmers, resources and attention have now shifted to the marketing side of agriculture. Organising farmers into farmer producer organisations (FPOs), like clubs, associations and cooperatives, has been one of the strategies aimed at commercialising smallholder agriculture. In Malawi, smallholder farmers have been organised into FPOs of various types and sizes. This qualitative study interrogated the effectiveness of FPOs in Malawi in meeting their objectives, including the objective of enhancing commercialisation of smallholder farmers through increased access to farm inputs, markets, and agricultural extension and advisory services.


The uterine myometrium is the rarest location for an ectopic pregnancy resulting in the so-called 'intramural or intramyometrial ectopic pregnancy'. It presents a particular diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the treating physician. If passed undiagnosed can lead to life-threatening uterine rupture, which may warrant hysterectomy, leaving the woman with irreversible infertility. Different treatment modalities have been proposed for the management of this condition. In this case report, we are describing a rare case of intramural ectopic pregnancy and reporting the use of hysteroscopy for the surgical management of this case for the first time in the literature.


The paper identified the new opportunities for relaunching the Romanian milk and dairy consumption, from the perspective of domestic supply restructuring, having in view the support measures of the sector under the new NRDP (2014-2020). The method used for the elaboration of scenarios with regard to increasing self-sufficiency in milk and dairy products was based on statistical calculations of the average yearly growth rate and the dynamics index of the utilizable production, import and export of dairy products in milk equivalent, as well as production, import and export forecasts, having as data sources the publications of the National Institute of Statistics – Food Balance Sheets, Population's Consumption Availabilities, 2007-2014. The results reveal that the decrease of imports by an average yearly rate of 1.5%, together with the increase of utilizable production by an yearly rate of 3%, will lead to self-sufficiency increase to 96%, beginning with 2016, and this situation will be maintained until the year 2018. The conclusions highlight that in the period 2014-2018, Romania will be still dependent on dairy imports.


Fractures of the proximal phalanges of the hands can be treated by many methods. With surgical intervention, a loss in proximal interphalangeal joint movement is common. Using the stabilizing effect of the zancolli complex-metacarpophalangeal retention apparatus and an external device such as a thermoplastic metacarpophalangeal block splint, proximal phalangeal fractures can be stabilized in terms of axis, length, and rotation.This study reports the authors' 10-year results managing these fractures with dynamic treatment. All patients with closed fractures of the proximal phalanges admitted to Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, China, between July 2000 and June 2010 were analyzed. Fractures with rotational deformities or displaced intra-articular configurations were excluded. A dynamic splint that kept the metacarpophalangeal joint maximally flexed while allowing free movement of the proximal and distal interphalangeal joints of the injured finger was applied for at least 4 weeks. Results were evaluated using the Belsky classification and grip strength assessment. The results of 97 patients (103 fractures) were analyzed. At a minimum 1-year follow-up, 75% of patients attained excellent or good results. Neither nonunion nor delayed fracture union was noted. The 25% of patients who attained poor results were older than those who attained excellent or good results (average age, 53.1 vs 35.1 years, respectively) and tended to comply poorly with the rehabilitation program. Using the stabilizing effect of the zancolli complex-metacarpophalangeal retention apparatus and a metacarpophalangeal block splint, bone healing and movement recovery can be achieved simultaneously.


We present the implications of a novel approach to design-based research, Special Education Embodied Design (SpEED), for inclusive education. SpEED is a new way of thinking about how Special Education students can learn through whole-body participation (Tancredi et al., in press). The goal of SpEED is to update our thinking about special education and inclusion based on the latest developments in cognitive science. We illustrate the utility of embodied design to teaching and research on issues affecting learners in Special Education through examples centering different Special Education populations, including Deaf learners, learners on the autism spectrum, and sensory-seeking learners. Each project focuses on deepening the learning opportunities we offer students by using learners' existing embodied resources. We conclude with a commentary on considerations for implementing SpEED within the Italian educational system.


The data set used for calibration of regional numerical models which simulate groundwater flow and vadose zone processes is often dominated by head observations. It is to be expected therefore, that parameters describing vadose zone processes are poorly constrained. A number of studies on small spatial scales explored how additional data types used in calibration constrain vadose zone parameters or reduce predictive uncertainty. However, available studies focused on subsets of observation types and did not jointly account for different measurement accuracies or different hydrologic conditions. In this study, parameter identifiability and predictive uncertainty are quantified in simulation of a 1‐D vadose zone soil system driven by infiltration, evaporation and transpiration. The worth of different types of observation data (employed individually, in combination, and with different measurement accuracies) is evaluated by using a linear methodology and a nonlinear Pareto‐based methodology under different hydrological conditions. Our main conclusions are (1) Linear analysis provides valuable information on comparative parameter and predictive uncertainty reduction accrued through acquisition of different data types. Its use can be supplemented by nonlinear methods. (2) Measurements of water table elevation can support future water table predictions, even if such measurements inform the individual parameters of vadose zone models to only a small degree. (3) The benefits of including ET and soil moisture observations in the calibration data set are heavily dependent on depth to groundwater. (4) Measurements of groundwater levels, measurements of vadose ET or soil moisture poorly constrain regional groundwater system forcing functions.


The development of nanoparticles (NPs) for the delivery of therapeutic agents has introduced new opportunities for the improvement of medical treatment. Among these opportunities, surface based analytical techniques are promising tools to improve our understanding of biointerfacial phenomena, such as NP interactions at biological barriers. The University of Liege (ULg), Belgium, has recently developed electrostatically assembled NPs, made of polycationic polymers and biopharmaceutical drugs with the intention of promoting their delivery through non-invasive administration. Adopting polymers of four different number average molecular weight (Mn) and procedures of the ULg, we successfully reproduced the preparation of those NPs either loaded with Human Insulin (HI) or chicken Ovalbumin (OVA). The formulation of this latter protein has highlighted interesting findings related to problems in its solubilization. An unexpected aggregation of this protein has been directly correlated to the agitation mode adopted and was found to be time and pH dependent. NPs, prepared at Chalmers or provided by the ULg, were characterised by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). Typically, NP size was about 200 nm in diameter with a relatively good agreement between these two techniques. In addition, the analysis of their electrophoretic mobility (zeta potential measurement) showed that these NPs were positively charged with a zeta potential of around +25 mV. Difficulties were encountered with respect to the OVA dissolution state, and high-quality OVA loaded NPs could not be formed. This interesting aggregation phenomenon, that could not be totally suppressed, was found to depend on pH, on filtering, and on time of dissolution. Using the Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation monitoring technique (QCM-D), we studied in real time the interaction between HI loaded NPs and both neutral and negatively charged model lipid membranes, successfully formed on SiO2 coated crystals. First, the four polycationic polymers of different Mn were investigated. We found that the electrostatic properties of the polymers had a determinant role in their interaction with the model lipid membranes: on a negatively charged model lipid membrane, the polycations irrespectively of their Mn collapsed and formed thin and rigid layers, whereas hydrated viscoelastic layers, as indicated by a high dissipation by QCM-D, were formed on a neutral membrane. A different behaviour was observed for the NPs. We found that, on a negatively charged membrane, NPs formed increasingly dissipative layers for higher Mn of the polycation used to prepare the NPs. Thicker layers were formed on a neutral membrane. Functionalized NPs with a ternary compound were also investigated. Interestingly, without modifying drastically the mean size or the Zeta potential of the NP, the presence of this additional compound was shown to alter completely the adsorption profile and total amount of NP on the negatively charged membrane, with appearance of a transient mass uptake. The difference in interaction profiles between binary and ternary NPs makes the study of those NPs very interesting in terms of drug release.


This guide is designed to help you find the most useful information in the field of Christian ministries available through Hiebert Library.


As computers become pervasive in environments that include the home and community, new applications are emerging that will create and manipulate sensitive and private information. These applications span systems ranging from personal to mobile and hand held devices. They would benefit from a data storage service that protects the integrity and confidentiality of the stored data and is highly available. Such a data repository would have to meet the needs of a variety of applications, handling data with varying security and performance requirements.
Providing simultaneously both high levels of security and high levels of performance may not be possible when many nodes in the system are under attack. The agility approach to building secure distributed services advocates the principle that the overhead of providing strong security guarantees should be incurred only by those applications that require such high levels of security and only at times when it is necessary to defend against high threat levels. A storage service that is designed for a variety of applications must follow the principles of agility, offering applications a range of options to choose from for their security and performance requirements.
This research presents secure store, a secure and highly available distributed store to meet the performance and security needs of a variety of applications. Secure store is designed to guarantee integrity, confidentiality and availability of stored data even in the face of limited number of compromised servers. Secure store is designed based on the principles of agility. Secure store integrates two well known techniques, namely replication and secret-sharing, and exploits the tradeoffs that exist between security and performance to offer applications a range of options to choose from to suit their needs.
This thesis makes several contributions, including (1) illustration of the principles of agility, (2) a novel gossip-style secure dissemination protocol whose performance is comparable to the best-possible benign-case protocol in the absence of any malicious activity, (3) demonstration of the performance benefits of using weaker consistency models for data access, and (4) a technique called collective endorsement that can be used in other secure distributed applications.


In this paper we address the problem of producing a high-resolution image from a single low-resolution image without any external training set. We propose a framework for both magnification and deblurring using only the original low-resolution image and its blurred version. In our method, each pixel is predicted by its neighbors through the Gaussian process regression. We show that when using a proper covariance function, the Gaussian process regression can perform soft clustering of pixels based on their local structures. We further demonstrate that our algorithm can extract adequate information contained in a single low-resolution image to generate a high-resolution image with sharp edges, which is comparable to or even superior in quality to the performance of other edge-directed and example-based super-resolution algorithms. Experimental results also show that our approach maintains high-quality performance at large magnifications.


Purpose: To develop an algorithm to remove the RC‐like artifact with time‐dependent dose‐rate measurements using an ionization chamber and electrometer system. Method and Materials: A 0.07‐cc Farmer‐type ionization chamber, Capintec Model PR05‐P, was used for dose measurements. The electrometer was Standard Imaging MAX‐4000, which was connected to a laptop computer. Electrometer control software, a special version of the MAXcomm program, was used to sample the electric current readings every 100 msec. We formulated a rate equation for the number of electrons in the cavity by hypothesizing that the RC‐like artifact is caused by the finite time needed for electrons to recombine with ions in the cavity of the ionization chamber. The rate equation includes terms for the ionization, the loss of electrons due to two‐body recombination, and the loss of electrons due to the electrons flowing out from the chamber cavity to the electrometer. The unknown parameters in the equation were obtained by iteratively adjusting the values until we achieved the best fit of the corrected ionization current data with the ideal time‐dependent ionization current curve. For the parameter estimation, we used the data of one 100MU irradiation of a linacphoton beam. Next, the correction algorithm with the estimated parameter values was applied to the time‐dependent dose‐rate data obtained for a test case of Gamma Knife irradiation. Results: By iteratively adjusting the values of the two parameters in the rate equation, we could recover the ideal rectangular shaped beam pulse of the linacphoton beam. Using these parameters, the temporal variation of the ionization current for the Gamma Knife experiment was successfully corrected by removing the RC‐like artifact. Conclusion: The proposed method is capable to eliminate the artifact in the time‐dependent dose‐rate measurements.


One way to provide Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with maximum coverage, maximum connectivity, minimum deployment cost and minimum energy consumption is through an effective planning mechanism in arranging an optimum number of sensor nodes. Proper planning will provide a cost-effective deployment by having optimal placements for the sensor nodes. Sensor node placement schemes are needed to accommodate the balance of coverage and energy consumption since closer sensor nodes not only reduces the energy consumption but will result in the network coverage becoming smaller. This paper critically reviews the research and development work done in sensor node placement. Based on the review, the design objectives that need to be considered are identified. Most of the work reviewed focused on two or three design objectives.


Two new alkaloids, 4-O-methylnangustine (1) and 7-hydroxyclivonine (2) (montanine and homolycorine types, respectively), and four known alkaloids were isolated from the bulbs of Hippeastrum argentinum, and their cholinesterase-inhibitory activities were evaluated. These compounds were identified using GC-MS, and their structures were defined by physical data analysis. Compound 2 showed weak butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE)-inhibitory activity, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 67.3 ± 0.09 μM. To better understand the experimental results, a molecular modeling study was also performed. The combination of a docking study, molecular dynamics simulations, and quantum theory of atoms in molecules calculations provides new insight into the molecular interactions of compound 2 with BuChE, which were compared to those of galantamine.


This thesis presents an energy prediction tool for photovoltaic (PV) modules, based
on the measure-correlate-predict principle. The tool allows quantification of the
impact of the different environmental factors influencing PV device efficiency for
different sites as they deviate from standardised test conditions and combines their
effects for energy yield prediction of different module technologies operating in
different climates.
Amongst these environmental influences, the impact of angle of incidence has been
particularly under-researched. In this work, a systematic investigation of the
influence of angle of incidence on PV module performance is realised. This is
achieved using both short-term module characterisation and long-term energy yield
measurement campaigns. A customised purpose built dual axis tracker for mounting
paired sets of modules on a fixed south-facing, 45-degree tilted rack is used to
investigate the differences in module performance.
The quality and quantity of the composition of the incident irradiance is described for
various sky conditions at high latitude locations. Furthermore, an understanding of
the entangled effects on photocurrent of both the angle of incidence and spectral
variation is presented. This is achieved by analysing data from a system developed
especially in this work which integrates an instantaneous all-sky mapping of
irradiance from a monochromatic CCD camera with precision measurements of
small-aperture normal irradiance from a collimated pyranometer in the short-term
measurement campaign.
The proposed energy prediction tool is validated using long-term datasets from
several locations and is compared to other current methods. This was conducted
under the European-funded PV-Catapult and IP Performance projects. The tool's
prediction uncertainty falls within the ±5% for crystalline and ±10% for thin films,
which is the same accuracy as other methods and within the measurement
uncertainty of outdoor measurements.


In a Hilbert space setting, we study the stability properties of the regularized continuous Newton method with two potentials, which aims at solving inclusions governed by structured monotone operators. The Levenberg-Marquardt regularization term acts in an open loop way. As a byproduct of our study, we can take the regularization coefficient of bounded variation. These stability results are directly related to the study of numerical algorithms that combine forward-backward and Newton's methods.


Objective. To determine the relationship between return on investment (ROI) and quality of study methodology in workplace health promotion programs. Data Source. Data were obtained through a systematic literature search of National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), Health Technology Database (HTA), Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry, EconLit, PubMed, Embase, Wiley, and Scopus. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. Included were articles written in English or German reporting cost(s) and benefit(s) and single or multicomponent health promotion programs on working adults. Return-to-work and workplace injury prevention studies were excluded. Data Extraction. Methodological quality was graded using British Medical Journal Economic Evaluation Working Party checklist. Economic outcomes were presented as ROI. Data Synthesis. ROI was calculated as ROI = (benefits − costs of program)/costs of program. Results were weighted by study size and combined using meta-analysis techniques. Sensitivity analysis was performed using two additional methodological quality checklists. The influences of quality score and important study characteristics on ROI were explored. Results. Fifty-one studies (61 intervention arms) published between 1984 and 2012 included 261,901 participants and 122,242 controls from nine industry types across 12 countries. Methodological quality scores were highly correlated between checklists (r = .84–.93). Methodological quality improved over time. Overall weighted ROI [mean ± standard deviation (confidence interval)] was 1.38 ± 1.97 (1.38–1.39), which indicated a 138% return on investment. When accounting for methodological quality, an inverse relationship to ROI was found. High-quality studies (n= 18) had a smaller mean ROI, 0.26 ± 1.74 (.23–.30), compared to moderate (n= 16) 0.90 ± 1.25 (.90–.91) and low-quality (n= 27) 2.32 ± 2.14 (2.30–2.33) studies. Randomized control trials (RCTs) (n= 12) exhibited negative ROI, −0.22 ± 2.41(–.27 to –.16). Financial returns become increasingly positive across quasi-experimental nonexperimental, and modeled studies: 1.12 ± 2.16 (1.11–1.14), 1.61 ± 0.91 (1.56–1.65), and 2.05 ± 0.88 (2.04–2.06), respectively. Conclusion. Overall, mean weighted ROI in workplace health promotion demonstrated a positive ROI. Higher methodological quality studies provided evidence of smaller financial returns. Methodological quality and study design are important determinants.


Highly stable labelled complexes are formed between porphobilinogen deaminase and stoicheiometric amounts of [14C]porphobilinogen. On completion of the catalytic cycle by the addition of excess of substrate, the complexes yield labelled product and display all the properties expected from covalently bound enzyme intermediates involved in the deaminase catalytic sequence.


Data on four species of the ant genus Tapinoma FÖRSTER, 1850 are presented. Three of these maintain permanent outdoor populations in Central Europe: the autochthonous T. subboreale sp.n., T. erraticum (LATREILLE, 1798) and T. nigerrimum (NYLANDER, 1856) which is a recently established neozoon in Germany. All three species can be safely separated on the individual level both in the female castes and in males by principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) of multiple morphometric characters. As the lectotype of T. ambiguum EMERY, 1925 is heterospecific from a more northern species which had been constantly named T. ambiguum during the last 34 years, it was necessary to describe the latter as T. subboreale sp.n. The earlier synonymy of T. ambiguum with T. madeirense FOREL, 1895 was confirmed on the basis of genital characters. The neotype of T. erraticum was fixed from a sample collected at the type locality. Tapinoma madeirense, known from Madeira and southern France, and T. subboreale sp.n. from Central and North Europe cannot be safely distinguished in the female castes but are clearly heterospecific concluded from male genital morphology. Workers of the four considered species show a strong allometry of some shape characters: Within the average intraspecific body-size range and given in per cent of the mean, the relative depth of posterior head excavation, of the metanotal groove and of the clypeal excision grow by 66.3%, 52.1% and 14.2% while relative head length falls by 13.6%. Removal of allometric variance in all shape characters and computation of these data in a PCA and a DA showed that worker morphologies of T. nigerrimum and T. erraticum differed independently from body size and, in conclusion, should also be independent from colony maturity.


We have exploited two mutants of the rabbit intestinal Na+/glucose carrier SGLT1 to explore the structure/function relationship of this Na+/glucose transporter in COS-7 cells. A functional N-terminal myc-epitope-tagged SGLT1 protein was constructed and used to determine the plasma-membrane localization of SGLT1. The kinetic and specificity characteristics of the myc-tagged SGLT1 mutant were identical with those of wild-type SGLT1. Immunogold labelling and electron microscopy confirmed the topology of the N-terminal region to be extracellular. Expression of the SGLT1 A166C mutant in these cells showed diminished levels of Na+-dependent alpha-methyl-d-glucopyranoside transport activity compared with wild-type SGLT1. For SGLT1 A166C, Vmax was 0.92+/-0.08 nmol/min per mg of protein and Km was 0.98+/-0.13 mM; for wild-type SGLT1, Vmax was 1.98+/-0.47 nmol/min per mg of protein and Km was 0.36+/-0.16 mM. Significantly, phlorrhizin (phloridzin) binding experiments confirmed equal expression of Na+-dependent high-affinity phlorrhizin binding to COS-7 cells expressing SGLT1 A166C or wild-type SGLT1 (Bmax 1.55+/-0.18 and 1.69+/-0.57 pmol/mg of protein respectively); Kd values were 0.46+/-0.15 and 0.51+/-0.11 microM for SGLT1 A166C and wild-type SGLT1 respectively. The specificity of sugar interaction was unchanged by the A166C mutation. We conclude that the replacement of an alanine residue by cysteine at position 166 has a profound effect on transporter function, resulting in a decrease in transporter turnover rate by a factor of 2. Taken as a whole the functional changes observed by SGLT1 A166C are most consistent with the mutation having caused an altered Na+ interaction with the transporter.


The resonance characteristics of random lasers from dye-doped polymer dispersed liquid crystals (DD-PDLCs) within capillary tubes were investigated. After adding a monomer (NOA65) into the liquid crystal mixtures, the emission spectra from the capillary tube revealed multiple emission spikes with narrow emission linewidth due to enhancement of the light scattering. Besides, the number of emission spikes, full width of the half maximum (FWHM), and lasing threshold from the DD-PDLCs were determined by the density and grain size of the polymer clusters within the PDLC mixtures through the alternation of the monomer concentration. Furthermore, the lasing performance of the DD-PDLCs in the capillary tube can be controlled by temperature. At low temperature, more emission spikes at long wavelengths were excited, and the laser revealed a relatively high Q-factor, accompanied with relatively low-threshold pump energy. It is because the increase in the birefringence of the liquid crystal molecules efficiently enhanced multiple recurrent light scattering.


ABSTRACT Obese patientss with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are particularly prone to developing severe forms of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). The gut-to-lung axis is critical during viral infections of the respiratory tract, and a change in the gut microbiota's composition might have a critical role in disease severity. Here, we investigated the consequences of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the gut microbiota in the context of obesity and NASH. To this end, we set up a nutritional model of obesity with dyslipidemia and NASH in the golden hamster, a relevant preclinical model of COVID-19. Relative to lean non-NASH controls, obese NASH hamsters develop severe inflammation of the lungs and liver. 16S rRNA gene profiling showed that depending on the diet, SARS-CoV-2 infection induced various changes in the gut microbiota's composition. Changes were more prominent and transient at day 4 post-infection in lean animals, alterations still persisted at day 10 in obese NASH animals. A targeted, quantitative metabolomic analysis revealed changes in the gut microbiota's metabolic output, some of which were diet-specific and regulated over time. Our results showed that specifically diet-associated taxa are correlated with disease parameters. Correlations between infection variables and diet-associated taxa highlighted a number of potentially protective or harmful bacteria in SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters. In particular, some taxa in obese NASH hamsters (e.g. Blautia and Peptococcus) were associated with pro-inflammatory parameters in both the lungs and the liver. These taxon profiles and their association with specific disease markers suggest that microbial patterns might influence COVID-19 outcomes.


Background and Objective: Migraines are the third most prevalent diseases and the seventh most debilitating diseases in the world. Medical treatment options for acute migraine episodes are various while none are infinitely effective for all patients. The aim of the present study was to compare fixed combination of acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine with ibuprofen (AAC) with ibuprofen. Materials and Methods: This double-blind clinical trial (Registration No. IRCT2017052930680N4) was performed upon patients attending the neurology clinic at Shahid Mostafa Khomeini General Hospital with complaint of headache. Treatment protocol for this study consisted of 2 medications prescribed for 4 consecutive episodes: Ibuprofen 400 mg and AAC tablets. Each patient received two sets of medication each for two episodes of headaches consisting of 2 of each drug. Pain perception was evaluated by 11-point Box Scale at three stages: prior to administration of the medication, and 2 and 6 hours after taking the medications and daily functions of the patient were assessed 6 hours after administering the medications by filling the Behavioral Rating Scale (BRS-6) which is a clinical assessment tool. Results: Results of this study demonstrated that difference in severity of pain after taking 2 Ibuprofen tablets and AAC in the first and second episodes of migraine was statistically significant. Furthermore, AAC as compared to Ibuprofen, helped considerably more by allowing patients to regain enough focus to continue their daily life (P=0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that in patients with migraine, AAC is more effective than ibuprofen on improving patient's function and reducing pain.


The purpose of the article is to give an analysis of the anisotropic diffusion (AD) and propose adaptive nonlinear filtering based on a judicious choice of the conductance function (CF) and the edgeness threshold. A new undesirable effect, which we call the "pinhole effect" may result when AD is introduced for the first time. A robust solution to this effect is proposed and evaluated through experimental data. The evolution of the diffused signal is analyzed through a physical model using the optical flow technique (OFT). The overall strategy is evaluated through experimental results obtained on synthetic and actual images.


Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a key process, but despite the economic and environmental importance, few studies about quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling BNF traits are available, even in the economically important crop soybean Glycine max (L.) Merr. In this study, a population of 157 F2:7 RILs derived from crossing soybean cultivars Bossier (high BNF capacity) and Embrapa 20 (medium BNF capacity) was genotyped with 105 simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs). The genetic map obtained has 1231.2 cM and covers about 50% of the genome, with an average interval of 18.1 cM. Three traits, nodule number (NN), the ratio nodule dry weight (NDW)/NN and shoot dry weight (SDW) were used to evaluate BNF performance. A composite interval mapping for multiple traits method (mCIM) analysis mapped two QTLs for SDW (LGs E and L), three for NN (LGs B1, E and I), and one for NDW/NN (LG I); all QTLs were of small effect (R-values ranging from 1.7% to 10.0%) and explained 15.4%, 13.8% and 6.5% of total variation for these three traits, respectively.


Authors present 7 cases of spontaneous congenital chylothorax, all of them diagnosed antepartum echographycally. Six of them needed cardiopulmonary resucitation but none presented fetal anoxia. Three cases had associated malformations. Treatment included thoracocenthesis, pleural drainage, assisted ventilation and appropriate nutrition. Pleural effusion lasted from 14 days to 6 months. Complications were: pneumothorax, metabolic acidosis and bacterial infections. Three patients died by respiratory failure. Pulmonary hypoplasia was present in two of them, and suspected in the third one. Survivors are free of symptoms.


Yeast cells are protected by a cell wall that plays an important role in the exchange of substances with the environment. The cell wall structure is dynamic and can adapt to different physiological states or environmental conditions. For the investigation of morphological changes, selective staining with fluorescent dyes is a valuable tool. Furthermore, cell wall staining is used to facilitate sub-cellular localization experiments with fluorescently-labeled proteins and the detection of yeast cells in non-fungal host tissues. Here, we report staining of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall with Trypan Blue, which emits strong red fluorescence upon binding to chitin and yeast glucan; thereby, it facilitates cell wall analysis by confocal and super-resolution microscopy. The staining pattern of Trypan Blue was similar to that of the widely used UV-excitable, blue fluorescent cell wall stain Calcofluor White. Trypan Blue staining facilitated quantification of cell size and cell wall volume when utilizing the optical sectioning capacity of a confocal microscope. This enabled the quantification of morphological changes during growth under anaerobic conditions and in the presence of chemicals, demonstrating the potential of this approach for morphological investigations or screening assays.


The purpose of this paper is to develop and estimate a stochastic-intertemporal model of consumption behavior and to use it for testing a version of the Ricardian-equivalence proposition with time series data. Two channels that may give rise to deviations from this proposition are specified: Finite horizons and liquidity constraints. In addition, the model incorporates explicitly the roles of taxes, substitution between public , and private consumption, and different degrees of consumer goods' durability. The evidence, based on data for Israel in the first half of the 1980s, supports the Ricardian neutrality specification, yielding plausible estimates for the behavioral parameters of the aggregate consumption function.


Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and anxiety in middle-aged women. Methods: We carried out a secondary analysis of data from a multicenter study of women between 40 and 59 years old from 11 Latin America countries. Anxiety was assessed using the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale. WHtR was calculated according to World Health Organization standards and categorized in tertiles: upper, middle, and lower using 0.45 and 0.6 as cutoff values. Prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% CIs were calculated by generalized linear models of Poisson family with robust standard errors, both crude and adjusted models based on statistical and epidemiological criteria. Results: Data of a total of 5,580 women were analyzed. Mean age was 49.7 ± 5.5 years, and 57.9% were postmenopausal. The 61.3% of women had anxiety and mean WHtR was 0.54 ± 0.1. In the crude model, compared with women in lower tertile, those in the middle (PR: 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.13) and upper (PR: 1.23 95% CI, 1.07-1.29) WHtR tertile were significantly more likely to have anxiety. In the adjusted models, only women in upper tertile were, however, more likely of displaying anxiety than those in lower tertile (PR: 1.13; 95% CI, 1.08-1.18). Conclusions: In this series, WHtR was associated with anxiety in middle-aged women. It is advisable to further study this anthropometric measure in order for it to be incorporated in the routine clinical practice and evaluation of middle-aged women.


We provide empirical evidence on the quality of street cash flow from operations (CFO) as an alternative financial performance summary measure. We focus our investigation on the quality of the items analysts exclude in their determination of street CFO. Based on a sample of 8,518 firm-year observations over the 1993–2008 period, we find that the street CFO number is generally higher than the GAAP CFO number, indicating that analysts typically make CFO-increasing exclusions. Our inspection of hand-collected analyst reports reveals that, while some analysts make sophisticated exclusions of transitory cash items, many others ignore working capital and other accruals when adjusting forecasted earnings to arrive at their street CFO forecasts. We find that street CFO exclusions are negatively associated with future operating earnings, suggesting that these exclusions are not fully transitory or unimportant in forecasting future performance. Our results also indicate that street CFO exclusions are less transitory than the implicit accrual component of analysts' street earnings exclusions. These results suggest that the average quality of analysts' street CFO exclusions is quite low and that it is even lower than the quality of their implied accrual exclusions. Moreover, we find that investors perceive analysts' CFO exclusions to be of such low quality to render street CFO measures less informative than GAAP CFO figures. Finally, we find that analyst conflicts of interest and (to some extent) the greater inherent volatility of firms' CFO series contribute to the low-quality nature of analysts' street CFO exclusions.


By performing a few straightforward analyses on a gas chromatograph, it is possible to calculate the free energy, enthalpy, and entropy changes that occur when a compound transfers between the mobile and stationary phases. The partition theory of chromatography allows this transfer to be expressed as a chemical equlibrium. By calculating the equilibrium constant for this reaction from chromatographic retentiontimes, the standard free energy change may be determined, and from this, the standard enthalpy and entropy changes. Also, by calculating these values at several temperatures for structurally related compounds, it is possible to explore the relationship between chromatographic retention, standard free energy, and the structure of a compound. These calculations were performed for groups of homologous alcohols, acetates, and hydrocarbons on packed and capillary column gas chromatographs, using both polar and non-polar columns, and on computer simulation software. It is seen that for homologous compounds, the relationship between standard free energy change in partitioning and hydrocarbon chain length for this reaction is linear. It is also seen that gas chromatography represents a useful tool for the calculation and comparison of thermodynamic properties of compounds and that straightforward exercise of this type allows training of students in chromatographic analysis, basic partition theory, thermodynamic relationships, and linear free energy relationships.


Energy efficiency of existing buildings is a concept to manage and restrain the growth in energy consumption and one of the crucial issues due to the magnitude of the sector. Educational buildings are in charge of about 15% of the total energy consumption of the non-residential building sector. However, not only operational but also embodied energy of a building should be reduced to get the overall benefits of energy efficiency, where, using energy efficient architectural measures and low emitting materials during every retrofit action can be a logical step. The majority of buildings in Turkey and EU was built earlier than the development of the energy efficiency in the construction sector, hence, without energy retrofit, consume an enormous amount of energy that can be averted significantly by the implementation of some even not advanced retrofit measures. Furthermore, demolishing of a building to construct a new one is not a rational approach concerning cost, time and environmental pollution. The study has been focused on the impact assessment of the various architectural scenarios of energy efficiency upgrading on the Life Cycle Energy Consumption (LCEC) and Life Cycle CO2 (LCCO2) emission. Within the scope of the study, a primary school building is selected to be analysed. Through analysis, the total embodied and operational energy use and CO2 emission regarding the life cycle phase of the building is quantitatively defined and investigated in the framework of life cycle inventory. The paper concentrates on the operation and embodied energy consumption arising from the application of a variety of measures on the building envelope. An educational building with low LCCO2 emissions and LCEC in Turkey is proposed. To exemplify the approach, contributions are applied to a case study in Istanbul as a representative school building. The primary energy consumption of the case study building is calculated with a dynamic simulation tool, EnergyPlus. Afterwards, a sort of architectural energy efficient measures is implemented in the envelope while the lighting and mechanical systems remain constant. The energy used in the production and transportation of materials, which are the significant parts of the embodied energy, are taken into account as well.


Technology is an integral part of the work life of any information technology (IT) professional. However, the influence of technology on career related outcomes of IT professionals is at best limited. Using the P-E fit perspective, the present study investigated the implications of the perceived fit/ misfit between the expected and the experienced career growth and work-life balance from the technology the IT professionals are working in on their career satisfaction. Based on response surface methodology and polynomial regression analysis of the data collected from 286 IT professionals, the study found that not only the fit, but also the misfit between expected and experienced technology led career growth and work-life balance is important in explaining career satisfaction. Implications of the study for both research and practice were discussed.


There is an urgent need to develop an evidence-based framework for learning analytics whereby stakeholders can manage, evaluate, and make decisions about which types of interventions work well and under which conditions. In this article, we will work towards developing a foundation of an Analytics4Action Evaluation Framework (A4AEF) that is currently being tested and validated at the Open University UK. By working with 18 introductory large-scale modules for a period of two years across the five faculties and disciplines within the OU, Analytics4Action provides a bottom-up-approach for working together with key stakeholders within their respective contexts. A holistic A4AEF has been developed to unpack, understand and map the six key steps in the evidence-based intervention process. By means of an exemplar in health and social science, a practical illustration of A4AEF is provided. In the next 3–5 years, we hope that a rich, robust evidence-base will be presented to show how learning analytics can help teachers to make informed, timely and successful interventions that will help each learner to achieve the module's learning outcomes.


Nickel is one of several transition metal cations that have an important function in bacterial cells. Owing to similar sizes and chemical properties, all transition metal cations interact with each other's metabolism in biological systems. The task of a cell is to acquire sufficient nickel ions from its environment and to allocate this metal ion efficiently to nickel-dependent proteins. This must be done without causing too much collateral damage due to the potential negative effects of nickel ions on the metabolism of other transition metal cations, and vice versa. This chapter describes how this can be accomplished from the point of view of the bacterial cell.


The Martian meteorites record a wide diversity of environments, processes, and ages. Much work has been done to decipher potential mantle sources for Martian magmas and their interactions with crustal and surface environments. Chlorine isotopes provide a unique opportunity to assess interactions between Martian mantle derived magmas and the crust. We have measured the Cl isotopic composition of 17 samples that span the range of known ages, Martian environments, and mantle reservoirs. The δCl of the Martian mantle, as represented by the olivine-phyric shergottites, NWA 2737 (chassignite), and Shergotty (basaltic shergottite), has a low value of approximately -3.8‰. This value is lower than that of all other planetary bodies measured thus far. The Martian crust, as represented by regolith breccia NWA 7034, is variably enriched in the heavy isotope of Cl. This enrichment is reflective of preferential loss of Cl to space. Most basaltic shergottites (less Shergotty), nakhlites, Chassigny, and Allan Hills 84001 lie on a continuum between the Martian mantle and crust. This intermediate range is explained by mechanical mixing through impact, fluid interaction, and assimilation-fractional crystallization.


This article compares variants of republican and liberal theory in order to assess which can make a stronger proprietary claim to the new democratic practice of citizens' assemblies (CAs). I argue that in respect of the categories of representation, liberty and citizenship, CAs are primarily republican in character. The argument is significant for three reasons. First, the political theory terrain is remapped, affirming clear differences between liberal and republican theories while maintaining an appreciation of what they share. Second, a complex intertwining of negative, positive and republican forms of liberty emerges, which runs contrary to an established tendency where modes of liberty are conceived according to excessively narrow parameters. Finally, supporters of the republican revival in political theory acknowledge that its future success depends on real institutional innovations. Yet this challenge has been taken on 'timidly and inadequately' in the judgement of one prominent republican. This article presents the CA model as an ideal existing institution worthy of full republican support.


Ridge waveguides have been fabricated in Nd:YAG crystals by using ion irradiation and precise diamond blade dicing. Continuous-wave lasers at ~1064 nm have been realized in the ridge waveguides through optical pumping at 808 nm at room temperature. The ridge guiding structure shows superior lasing performance with respect to the planar counterpart with a slope efficiency of 43% and a maximum output power of 84 mW.


This study presents the results of experimental research
carried out to investigate the effects
of lime treatment on
naturally deposited kaolinite clay, containing quartz, and a
contaminated clay, containing calcium sulfide and heavy
metals, known as galligu. The efficacy of lime stabilisation
may be evaluated using unconfined compressive strength
(U
CS) tests which were carried out for different lime
contents (0%, 5% and 10% of the sample mass) and various
curing times (7, 28 and 90 days). Chemical and
mineralogical changes of the two clays were established
using X
-
R
ay diffraction (XRD) and X
-
Ray flu
orescence
(XRF) in order to establish their effect on the geotechnical
properties of the stabilised materials. Lime stabilised clay
demonstrated improved geotechnical characteristics
including a drop in moisture content (the ratio of the mass of
water to
the mass of solids in soil), increase in bulk density
(the weight of the soil in a given volume, in this case 1m
3
)
and decrease in air voids (pockets of air between aggregate
particles in the soil). However the net geotechnical
improvements in the natural
clay were demonstrably less
than the galligu, principally in terms of strength. Galligu as
recovered has a high moisture content and the alkaline
conditions were able to supply sufficient moisture and the
optimum chemical environment for effective cation exchanges and pozzolanic reactions. For the natural clay
the lime addition caused an increase in the optimum
moisture needed for effective compaction, which was higher
than the natural moisture content of the clay.