BACKGROUND
One of the most important factors involved in the pathophysiology of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the lower esophageal sphincter rest pressure (LESRP), but these patients can have esophageal motor disorders (EMD).

AIM
To assess an association between LESRP and the appearance of EMD in patients with GERD.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 229 patients with GERD and 49 healthy controls. Forty five patients with LESRP < 6 mmHg and a mean age of 49 years were assigned to group 1, 128 patients with a LESRP between 6 and 12 mmHg and mean age of 47 years were assigned to group 2, 56 patients with a a LESRP > 12 mmHg and a mean age of 47 years were assigned to group 3 and group 4 was conformed by 49 healthy subjects aged 40 years old. Esophageal manometry was performed using previously published techniques.

RESULTS
There was a significant association between LESRP, waves amplitude and the frequency of tertiary waves.

CONCLUSIONS
Resting lower esophageal sphincter pressure is inversely proportional to the presence of esophageal motor disorders in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease.


The Multi-Instrument Integrated Data Acquisition System (MIIDAS), developed by the NASA Langley Research Center, uses commercial off the shelf (COTS) products, integrated with custom software, to provide a broad range of capabilities at a low cost throughout the system's entire life cycle. MIIDAS combines data acquisition capabilities with online and post-test data reduction computations. COTS products lower purchase and maintenance costs by reducing the level of effort required to meet system requirements. Object-oriented methods are used to enhance modularity, encourage reusability, and to promote adaptability, reducing software development costs. Using only COTS products and custom software supported on multiple platforms reduces the cost of porting the system to other platforms. The post-test data reduction capabilities of MIIDAS have been installed at four aerospace testing facilities. The systems installed at these facilities provide a common user interface, reducing the training time required for personnel that work across multiple facilities. The techniques employed by MIIDAS enable NASA to build a system with a lower initial purchase price and reduced sustaining maintenance costs. With MIIDAS, NASA has built a highly flexible next generation data acquisition and reduction system for aerospace test facilities that meets customer expectations.


While protest in many ways epitomises the democratic principles of freedom of expression and association, it can simultaneously challenge other democratic ideals. This ability to both exemplify and undermine democracy results in a tension within the concept of 'protest,' which is tangible in the bandhas (shutdowns) favoured by protestors in Nepal. Ranging in scale from localised to nation-wide, the most effective and influential bandhas take the form of an involuntary, enforced general strike. Bandhas can be called by groups seeking a platform for their policies or grievances, but also by groups striving to boost their profile or support base within a political system perceived of as ineffective and weak. Despite allowing people a way to express their views on policy and other decisions, in circumventing processes of negotiation, curtailing the freedoms and choices of others, inflicting physical and emotional violence on the population and crippling fragile economies, bandhas can be seen to undermine the very essence of democracy. The article concludes with reflections on the reasons for the prevalence of bandhas, suggesting that the country's reliance on this protest mechanism stems from the contextual particularities of twenty-first century Nepal as well as from the country's problematic and incomplete transition to democracy.


This research aims to analyze the influence of marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) and consumer knowledge towards consumer decision of kefir mask. This research is based on the theory of consumer decision processes developed by Engel et al. (2012). In addition, the independent variables included in this research, are based on the theory developed by Sumarwan et al. (2009), and consumer knowledge developed by Peter and Olson (2010). The research design is descriptive, with the survey conducted through questionnaire. The sampling technique used was convenience, with 152 samples obtained. There are six latent variables in this research, include marketing mix elements (product, price, place, and promotion) as well as consumer knowledge as independent variables, and consumer decisions as a dependent variable. The data obtained were processed using descriptive and structural equation modeling (SEM) method through LISREL software. Descriptive analysis explains that most of the examples obtained are women, with an age range between 18-25 years, married, undergraduate, and work as students. SEM analysis explains that there is a positive significant relationship of all marketing mix variables and consumer knowledge towards consumer decision process.


It is widely recognisedt hat for small stand-aloneb attery chargingw ind-turbines,
below lOkW in rated power, the issue of regulating the rotor speed is one that has not
been resolved definitively, especially with regard to the runaway condition. Current
methods of regulation work, but are prone to problems. It is desirable to find methods
of regulation with reduced mechanical complexity.
Building on earlier work at Reading University, a method of blade construction is
examined which involves asymmetric lay-up of fibre-composite materials. This may
be done in a manner which causes the blade to twist in response to centrifugal loads and thus the rotor speed of the turbine. There is a need to optimise the blade design to
exploit this effect to the full. The equations describing the blade twist are developed
and expresseds imply and explicitly in terms of blade shaped esignp arameters. Along with an established aerodynamic model, a system is developed for examining the expected steady state behaviour of a wide range of rotors of this type in order to find the most appropriate configuration.
A range of existing aerofoil profiles is also examined in order to select the most
appropriate choice and a shortlist of these is modelled numerically in 2D negative
incident flow using an established model.
In recognition of the inevitable flexibility of self-twisting designs of blade, a start is
made on dynamic modelling of the rotor. A Rayleigh-Ritz approach is used in order
to find both static blade deflections under loading and the blade's natural modal
frequencies and shapes. A prototype design is developed, commissioned and tested under forced-rotation
conditions to validate the twisting and bending models. The predicted modal
frequencies are also compared with the results of vibration tests on the blades.
Recommendations are made for further improvements.


The class of all natural images is an infinitely small fraction of all possible images. The structure of natural images can be statistically modeled, revealing striking regularities. The human visual system appears to be optimized to view natural images, as opposed to any possible image, and therefore expects to interpret images which conform to these statistics. Research has shown that images that do not statistically behave as natural images are harder for the human visual system to interpret. This paper reviews the statistics of natural images and the implications for computer graphics in general are assessed. We argue that these statistics are important for graphics applications and finally, we provide a direct application of these findings to random subdivision terrain modeling.


: A study of the dependence of diaphragmatic properties of the iris on the degree of its atrophy carried out in 76 patients (78 eyes) with a pseudoexfoliative syndrome has shown that under the action of mezatone injected into the anterior chamber the maximum diameter of the pupil and the degree of its widening are in direct dependence on the degree of iris atrophy. The results obtained are of practical importance, allow to plan the course of cataract extraction and foresee complications. In iris atrophy of degree I, the maximum diameter of the pupil is sufficient to be that needed for cataract extraction made by a common method. In atrophy of degree II, it may become necessary during the operation to make sphincterotomy for a free withdrawal of the lens, and in atrophy of degree III, sphincterotomy should be planned, because maximum widening of the pupil in such patients is 3.88 +/- 0.16 only.


Banking is one of sectors that drive the economy in Indonesia. One of them is Regional Development Bank that is scattered throughout Indonesia, each have different performance based on the state of the region itself. Judging from the character of Indonesia is an agricultural country, of course, the economic character formed historically, geographical conditions also have an important role in the economy of a region. PT. Bank SulutGo and PT. Bank Papua is a Go Public bank located in eastern Indonesia. This study aims to determine the differences in financial performance between PT. Bank SulutGo and PT. Bank Papua by using RBBR method analysis. The method of this research is comparative analysis. The results show the financial performance seen from ROA there is no a significant difference, whereas if viewed from NPL, LDR, GCG, NIM, and CAR there are a significant difference. PT. Bank SulutGo and PT. Bank Papua management should not only satisfied with the results already obtained and continue to improve the company's performance in order to further increase in the future.


To test the ability of plants to integrate small-scale imbalances in soil nitrate and phosphate patches, plant growth and acquisition of nitrate and phosphate were measured for the perennial grass Agropyron desertorum (Fisch. ex Link) Schult. and the shrub Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle in soil where the principal supply of nitrate and phosphate came from two enriched patches. The soil was calcareous loamy-skeletal Typic Haploxerolls. These patches were applied in two treatments: either nitrate and phosphate were applied in both patches (balanced treatment) or one patch contained only nitrate and the other only phosphate (unbalanced treatment). The same total quantity of nutrients was applied in both treatments and these included 15N and 32P tracers. The plants were in large pots in open field conditions. There were no significant differences in total biomass production and nitrogen concentration between the two treatments, indicating that both species had the physiological ability to integrate soil nutrient resources. Artemisia was able to acquire more phosphate in the unbalanced treatment, probably due to the high local solution phosphate concentration. Generally Artemisia acquired more N and P than did Agropyron.


The master's thesis 'Seismic surveys in ice-covered waters' describes several methods within the maritime seismic industry to acquire data concerning the Earth's strata. It is the objective of this thesis to present a viable solution enabling the seismic industry to perform surveys in ice influenced waters. The hardware conducted for conventional seismic surveys are introduced and explained. Arctic area and ice issues in regards to marine seismic surveys are investigated. A suitable theoretical solution to the issues discussed is described and argued. Development and description of Submergible Depth Controlled Bodies (SDCBs) are presented. Dynamic finite element model 3D simulations are conducted with the software package OrcaFlex 3D. The simulations evaluate the characteristics of the SDCBs in regards to response time. Results of the simulations imply that the SDCBs will have the desired effect and the response times for vertical effect of the configuration. The overall conclusion presents a theoretical solution for a seismic capable system able to operate within ice-influenced waters.


The raison d'etre of a local government is to collect its revenue efficiently and to use that revenue to provide infrastructural development for its tax payers. Local government as the third tier of government cannot, therefore be ideal from the financial view lens if it collects its revenue in a slip-shod manner and devotes a large percentage of it to the maintenance of a top- heavy administrative set-up, with a relatively small proportion of the revenue left for the provision of infrastructural development which are of direct benefits to the local inhabitants. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine local government accountability in respect of budget and budgeting system in order to improve sustainable development at the local level. The paper tries to study the main source of revenue of local governments in Nigeria, and determine how the resources are utilized to deliver infrastructural development to the people. Also, information on budget and budgeting of Irepo local government is analyzed in the study. There are 774 local governments in Nigeria. This research study covers  33 local governments in terms of disbursement of statutory allocation, and Irepo local government in terms of budget and budgeting analysis.  As far back as 1999, the Nigerian local governments are being given enough by the Federal Government in order to provide infrastructural development to the citizens in the local area, but it seems the said public revenue are being mismanaged by political leaders and local governments' officials in Nigeria. The findings of this paper revealed that 10% is used for personnel expenditure as the cost of delivering infrastructural development by local governments in Nigeria. So, further researches can still be carried out on fiscal planning by local governments for sustainable development in the remaining local governments in Nigeria. This paper therefore recommended that the policy/decision-makers should make use of the findings of this study to help inform future decisions on fiscal planning in the local government administration in order to bring about sustainable development to the rural dwellers in the local governments. It is found that there is need for proactive measure for fiscal planning in order to sustain infrastructural development in the local government administration. Also found, is that local governments need to put in place a good fiscal planning that will sustain development at the local level.

 Key words: Fiscal planning, sustainable development, local government.


This study has investigated the severe corrosion of Biogas engines by the blowby gases. The formation of blowbYt its composition and flowrate have been measured and simulated. The nature of the piston ring sealing, lubrication and breakdown has been examined. A study of Biogas engines showed that Copper corrosion of the small end and camshaft bearings by HZS gas was the reason for engine failure. H2S is present in all Biogas at a concentration of usually less than 1%, but succeeds in chemical attack despite its good combustion properties, and the expected reaction with the bases present in the lubrication oil. The HZS was corroding in its gaseous state, but only those bearings with indirect lubrication. The solution to this problem is either to adopt force fed lubrication of the bearings, or to replace the alloy with Aluminium-Tin. The experimental work used four engines of differing wear. The constant speed work showed that the fuel content of blowby gas increases with load despite any increase in fuelling rate. This trend was consistent for all gaseous fuels present including H2S. A series of computer calculations of piston ring blowby were completed, using conventional and novel input data. The resultant blowby flow was within an order of magnitude, confirming that two blowby mechanisms, ring gap blowby and ring seal breakdown, are present on worn engines. The composition results showed that the fuel content of blowby is subject to the complex nature of the quenching process in the combustion chamber. A study of the oil present at the top ring showed that the oil is greatly modified when compared with the sump oil, as a result of thermal degradation and base depletion. The oil has a high acid TAN, which suggests it could encourage corrosive wear of the cylinder liner.


Based on theory and semi-empirical formula, this paper uses the method of reference enthalpy to calculate the surface aerodynamic heating flux of waverider with sharp leading edge. On this basis, applying ultra high temperature ceramic materials ZrB2–SiC, thermal response of the sharp leading edge is studied. The results show that the aerodynamic heating can make thermal stress intensity extremum inside the structure exceed the ultimate strength of material quickly. Though the temperature inside the structure is much lower than material heat-resistant temperature extremes, thermal stress shock is able to cause material to damage in a very short time.


Preclinical data suggest that small quantities of estramustine phosphate are synergistic with taxanes and may be useful in the treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The current trial was designed to reduce the duration of exposure to estramustine phosphate, which carries with it the risk of anorexia and gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and thromboembolic toxicity during long-term treatment. Patients with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the prostate showing evidence of progressing disease 4 to 6 weeks after antiandrogen withdrawal were enrolled into the study. Patients may have received up to two prior chemotherapy regimens. Patients received estramustine phosphate 280 mg orally every 6 hours for a total of five doses (24-hour exposure), docetaxel (Taxotere; Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, Collegeville, PA) 70 mg/m2 intravenously over 1 hour, coumadin 2 mg orally every day, and dexamethasone as premedication for docetaxel. Cycles were repeated every 21 days, up to a maximum of 6. Of the 18 evaluable patients, seven showed more than 50% declines in prostate-specific antigen for a duration > or =4 weeks; two of eight patients had soft tissue partial responses. Nine of 11 had improvement in pain and/or urinary symptoms. In a total of 98 cycles, grade 3 toxicities observed included leukopenia (N = 7), neutropenia (N = 6), fatigue (N = 13), headache (N = 1), local skin reactions after extravasation (N = 2), nail changes (N = 1), diarrhea (N = 2), and hyperglycemia (N = 3); grade 4 toxicities included neutropenia/fever requiring admission (N = 2), leukopenia (N = 2), and neutropenia (N = 6). No thromboembolic complications were seen. All toxicities were reversible within 1 week after occurrence. Thus, preliminary evidence suggests that in this heavily pretreated patient population 1-day treatment with an estramustine/docetaxel combination is active and has acceptable toxicity.


The objective of the present study is to investigate diffusion-thermo (Dufour effect) and radiation effects on unsteady MHD free convection flow past an impulsively started infinite vertical plate with variable temperature and uniform mass diffusion in the presence of transverse applied magnetic field through porous medium. At time t > 0, the plate is given an impulsive motion with constant velocity in the vertical upward direction against to the gravitational field. At the same time the plate temperature is raised linearly with time t and the level of concentration near the plate is raised to . A magnetic field of uniform strength is applied normal to the direction to the flow. The dimen- sionless governing equations are solved in closed form by Laplace-transform technique. The effect of flow parameters on velocity, temperature, concentration, the rate of heat transfer and the rate of mass transfer are shown through graphs.


Mutagenic action of UV-light, nitrosoguanidine and nitrosomethylbiuret was studied in Streptomyces antibioticus VNIIA 1607. Nitrosomethylbiuret appeared to be most effective inducer of auxotrophic mutations (mutation frequency reached 15%). By means of hybridological analysis, it was shown that heterokaryons predominated in the progeny of mixed cultures of multiply marked strains. The test for functional allelism using heterokaryons permitted us to divide 93 independently obtained mutations into 28 complementation groups.


Purpose: Gene-expression profiling has revolutionized the way we think about cancer and confers the ability to observe the synchronous expression of thousands of genes. The use of putative genome-level expression profiles has allowed biologists to observe the complex interactions of genes that constitute recognized biologic pathways. We used gastric and ovarian datasets to identify gene-expression signatures and determine any functional significance. Experimental Design: Microarray data of 94-tumor and 45-benign samples derived from patients with gastric cancer were interrogated using Hierarchical Ordered Partitioning and Collapsing Hybrid analysis identifying clusters of coexpressed genes. Clusters were further characterized with respect to biologic significance, gene ontology, and ability to discriminate between normal and tumor tissue. Tumor tissues were separated into epithelial and stromal compartments and immunohistochemical analysis performed to further elucidate specific cell lineages expressing genes contained in the signature. Results: We identified a "stromal-response" expression signature, highly enriched for inflammatory, extracellular matrix, cytokine, and growth factor proteins. The majority of genes in the signature are expressed in the tumor-associated stroma but were absent in associated premalignant conditions. In gastric cancer, this module almost perfectly differentiates tumor from nonmalignant gastric tissue and hence can be regarded as a highly tumor-specific gene-expression signature. Conclusions: We show that these genes are consistently coexpressed across a range of independent gastric datasets as well as other cancer types suggesting a conserved functional role in cancer. In addition, we show that this signature can be a surrogate marker for M2 macrophage activity and has significant prognostic implications in gastric and ovarian high-grade serous cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 20(10); 2761–72. ©2014 AACR.


ABSTRACT Xiao, Z., 2020. Structure and fatigue analysis of semisubmersible offshore communication platform. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 506–509. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. As an important tool and means of marine oil and gas resources, a marine communication platform not only plays an important role in the development of marine high technology in China, but also plays an important role in marine environment monitoring. Therefore, it has become the current research hot spot. This paper first introduces the fatigue damage analysis method of a semisubmersible offshore communication platform, then calculates its structural design and hydrodynamic load, and finally analyzes the structural fatigue and maintenance of the semisubmersible offshore communication platform and gives maintenance advice.


In this paper the faunistic sample, the stratigraphy and the chronology of the archaeological site of Kobeaga
II cave (Ispaster, Bizkaia) is described. The five Classes of vertebrates are represented in this site, where,
the mammals are the most abundant with five Orders, nine Families, and fifteen Genera. To end, it is
remarked the interest of some species as a paleoecological indicator in the general sketch of the Holocene
in the North of the Iberian Peninsula.


An algorithm using walks of unit length has been developed for transforming arbitrarily weighted graphs into isospectral linear chains (with weighted vertices and edges). Eigenspectral features of some regular graphs such as complete graphs, cycles and stars have been shown to be generated by a single-step operation of the algorithm. Recursive relationships for the coefficients of characteristic polynomials (CPs) of weighted linear chains have been given, and it has been shown that CPs of complicated chemical graphs and graphs with arbitrary edge, and vertex, weights can be constructed fairly easily using such relationships, after they have been linearised by the algorithm.


Hemingway's war experiences contributed enormously and essentially to his sense of gender (however confused) such that studies of either war or gender in his life and work ought to consider the other. Cultural-historic constructions of the war-gender relationship very much informed Hemingway's own sensibilities and thus his fiction. Even in his work not directly about war, we should be able to read the war's presence through textual performances of gender. Texts the essay considers include "Big Two-Hearted River," A Farewell to Arms, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "Cross-Country Snow," and "An Alpine Idyll."


This paper considers Greek archaeology as a product of the development of the nation state and investigates the way this relationship has determined the discipline and its museums. A critical presentation of the foundation of the Greek state sheds light on the conditions from which the relationship between archaeology and the State originated. The changes in archaeological legislation and administration demonstrate the way this relationship developed. Greek museums constitute the main agents of representation, interpretation and communication of archaeological heritage and as such they are considered. Classical Greek antiquity as the fount of the European spirit contributed immensely to the materialization of modern Greece. This ideological premise set constrains on the displays and narratives presented in archaeological museums and on the development of the entire discipline. Almost two centuries after the foundation of the State Archaeological Service and the National Archaeological Museum few things seem to have changed.


Brain injury remains one of the leading causes of death and disability in children. Appropriate therapy involves aggressive management of intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral perfusion pressure, which often requires placement of an intraparenchymal ICP monitor or intraventricular catheter. These potentially life-saving interventions require normal coagulation function; however, several factors may lead to coagulopathy in the head-injured patient. Standard therapies, which often include multiple doses of fresh frozen plasma (FFP), have a number of drawbacks when used in the pediatric population. The use of FFP requires time to type and crossmatch, thaw, and administer. It imposes a significant volume load on a child in whom cerebral edema remains a problem. Success in using recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) in the hemophiliac population suggests an alternative therapy. Three patients suffered severe coagulopathy after cerebral injury. One patient received rFVIIa after repeated doses of FFP had failed to correct the coagulopathy; the other two patients received rFVIIa as the initial therapy. Treatment with rFVIIa consisted of a bolus of 90 microg/kg. Recombinant activated factor VII rapidly corrected the patients' coagulopathies, which allowed placement of intraparenchymal fiberoptic lines and intraventricular catheters to monitor ICP. The patients suffered no complication from the placement of ICP monitoring devices, as demonstrated on computerized tomography scans obtained within 24 hours after placement. Brain injury-induced coagulopathy may lead to significant secondary injury and delays the invasive monitoring necessary for the aggressive management of intracranial hypertension. Fresh frozen plasma takes time to administer. may require repeated doses of significant volume for the pediatric patient, and may ultimately fail. Preliminary data indicated that rFVIIa provides a rapid and successful correction of coagulopathy in the head-injured patient.


Biographical data on George Huntington, the 'discoverer' of Huntington's Chorea and George Sumner Huntington--a well-known American anatomist of the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century--have been confused repeatedly. This paper elucidates their mutual relationship and corrects biographical inaccuracies concerning George Huntington and George Sumner Huntington.


Using 63Cu NMR, we establish that the enhancement of spin order by a magnetic field H in YBa2Cu3O6.45 arises from a competition with superconductivity because the effect occurs for H perpendicular, but not parallel, to the CuO2 planes, and it persists up to field values comparable to Hc2. We also find that the spin-freezing has a glassy nature and that the frozen state onsets at a temperature which is independent of the magnitude of H. These results, together with the presence of a competing charge-ordering instability at nearby doping levels, are strikingly parallel to those previously obtained in La-214. This suggests a universal interpretation of magnetic field effects in underdoped cuprates where the enhancement of spin order by the field may not be the primary phenomenon but rather a byproduct of the competition between superconductivity and charge order. Low-energy spin fluctuations are manifested up to relatively high temperatures where they partially mask the signature of the pseudogap in 1/T1 data of planar Cu sites.


It is a widely held belief that status and wealth affect subjective well-being (SWB). This is reflected in the efforts of many people to climb up the 'social ladder' and to transcend their social background. By being upwardly mobile, they hope to benefit from various rewards they believe to be associated with desirable societal positions. However, findings from a range of disciplines provide evidence that these benefits are not to be taken for granted. Thus, we decided investigate the question of how upward social mobility impacts life satisfaction, the cognitive component of SWB.


About the Book: Johannesburg is most often compared with Sao Paulo and Los Angeles and sometimes even with Budapest, Calcutta and Jerusalem. Johannesburg reflects and informs conditions in cities around the world. As might be expected from such comparisons, South Africa's political transformation has not led to redistribution and inclusive social change in Johannesburg. In Emerging Johannesburg the contributors describe the city's transition from a post apartheid city to one with all too familiar issues such as urban/suburban divide in the city and its relationship to poverty and socio-political power, local politics and governance, crime and violence, and, especially for a city located in Southern Africa, the devastating impact of AIDS.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Multiple sclerosis (MS) disease processes in normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) may be different close to MR-visible lesions than farther from these lesions. We aimed to investigate the relationship of NAWM changes to the distance to the lesions.

METHODS
We measured B(1)-corrected T1 and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) maps in 63 patients with MS (11 primary progressive, 34 relapsing-remitting, 18 secondary progressive). We used histogram analyses to assess the global properties of lesions, of 4 consecutive 1-mm pixel layers of NAWM around the lesions, and of distant NAWM located at least 4-mm from lesions in all directions. In 22 healthy controls, we measured white matter MTR and T1 histograms. Histogram parameters were statistically analyzed by using a linear mixed model.

RESULTS
The first and second NAWM pixel layers around the lesions had a significantly lower MTR histogram peak position than distant NAWM, whereas T1 histogram peak position was similar between all types of NAWM. Furthermore, MTR histograms of distant NAWM were statistically indistinguishable from those of control white matter, whereas T1 histograms of distant NAWM had significantly decreased peak height for relapsing-remitting MS and secondary progressive MS and significantly increased peak position for secondary progressive MS.

CONCLUSION
Our results may suggest that axonal damage and demyelination in NAWM mainly arise as a secondary result of visible lesions, with the largest effect close to these lesions. NAWM disease farther from the lesions may be mainly characterized by subtle blood-brain barrier damage, with leakage of fibrinogen into the parenchyma and microplaque formation, processes that are detected with T1 but not with MTR.


Although companies in Slovakia achieve value in the use of design at the level of the European Union average, the lack of knowledge and information about the possibilities and potential benefits of design hinders the effective use of design as a key factor in successful innovation. Good design does not just happen by chance. It is usually the result of a well-managed process. Design management is becoming necessary because it allows the company to reflect the market's needs better and adapt to customers. When design management is part of a company's management processes, the design would significantly impact the company's economic performance and help ensure a competitive advantage in the market. Lack of design management skills is a major obstacle to the wider deployment and integration of design into companies. The paper aims to verify the impact of the achieved level of design management skills on the use of design in product innovation. Through a survey of Slovak companies in selected industries, the authors identified the attitude of companies to the use of design in product innovation. The authors used statistical methods to analyse the level of skills achieved in individual areas of design management. They identified the impact of the level of skills on the design use rate in innovation. This study includes factor and regression analysis methods. The design management skills assessment survey confirms the relationship and correlation between the level of design management skills and the intensity of the use of design in product innovation. The ability to engage others has emerged as the weakest in the design management skills assessment survey. Involving customers and suppliers and creating interdisciplinary teams could bring the company effective use of design in product innovation and thus achieve a significant and sustainable competitive advantage. According to the confirmed results, companies' training to gain the necessary skills in individual areas of design management should increase the level of mastery of these skills and consequently support the use of design in product innovations.


Plasma concentrations of immunoreactive atrial natriuretic peptide (mean (SEM] were measured in 135 patients admitted to two coronary care units with myocardial infarction, ischaemic chest pain, or non-ischaemic chest pain. Concentrations were significantly higher in patients with acute myocardial infarction not treated with systemic thrombolysis (60.4 (14.3) pg/ml) than in patients with non-ischaemic chest pain (21.1 (4.3) pg/ml). Patients with ischaemic chest pain had intermediate values (39.3 (7.1) pg/ml). Patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with intravenous streptokinase had normal concentrations of plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (20.2 (3.6) pg/mg), which were significantly lower than those in patients with myocardial infarction not given streptokinase. These changes could not be explained by factors such as age, pre-existing hypertension, renal dysfunction, or cardiac failure, nor treatment other than streptokinase. Raised plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide in acute myocardial infarction may be a homoeostatic response acting to reduce atrial pressures by natriuresis, diuresis, and venodilatation. The lower concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with streptokinase may reflect a short term beneficial haemodynamic effect of streptokinase.


This book is from the proceedings from the 7 International Conference on Electrorheological (ER) fluids and Magnetorheological (MR) suspensions that took place in July 1999. Ninetyseven of the 120 total papers presented are published in this volume, describing the current research in ER and MR fluids. Materials technology, physical mechanisms, material properties, and applications of ER and MR fluids are presented. A wide range of papers was evident in the new materials technology section, which showed growing interest in these diverse materials. Some examples were carbon particle suspensions, conductive polymer suspensions, coated glass microspheres, and metal oxide nano-composites. The physical methods section contained details on measurements of the physical properties of fluids including shear flow, tensile, compressive, and oscillatory forces. There were also papers on electrostatic forces on particles, temperature effects, and damping characteristics. The microstructure section covered dynamic simulation studies, domain structures, dipole-interactions, and minimum energy configurations in various types of suspensions. The chapter on properties of ER and MR fluids described the behavior of various suspensions when subjected to inputs such as electric fields, impulsive loads, shear stress, and magnetic fields. The section on applications of MR fluids included fluid dampers, vibration suppression, a fluid clutch, polishing methods, magnetic seals, and a medical application. The ER application section had papers describing mechanical actuators, shock absorbers, and clutches. The papers in this book, describing the state of the art in ER and MR technology, would be very useful to researchers developing or applying these materials.


It is difficult to achieve low expense and high accuracy in computational methods, yet it remains a key objective in atomistic approaches. In solid state physics, advanced atomistic potentials using reactive force fields have shown promise in delivering both. However, these methods have not been applied widely beyond their development environment and thus their strengths and weaknesses are not fully understood. In this work we present benchmark calculations on silica (SiO2) and hafnia (HfO2) structures, comparing a leading charge optimized many-body potential to a more advanced density functional calculation. We find that although the atomistic potential gives excellent results for bulk structures, it has severe shortcomings when applied to small systems with low coordinated atoms. We also establish clearly the components of the many-body potential and how these relate to predicted physical properties.


Pupil's interests in rapidly changing technology pose threats and opportunities in schools. The present research examines the perspectives of pupils, teachers and parents from two high schools in relation to their experiences of using and regulating mobile phones. Psychological and social (psychosocial) influences on regulation and use of mobile phones are explored. Three key psychosocial factors were found to influence behaviour in relation to use and regulation of mobile phones: Teaching and Learning; Value Sets; and Availability. Teaching and Learning – whether there were advantages to mobile phones in school and their compatibility with the school and its principles of teaching. Value Sets – personal values in relation to identity and belonging, self knowledge and individual responsibility. Availability – the feeling that individuals are more available because of technology. The subject area studied is changing rapidly with the introduction of new technology. The study proposes that the relationship between individuals and mobile technology is an evolving one. The study recognises the psychosocial influences on parents, pupils and teachers. Educational psychologists do have knowledge and skills to contribute in relation to modern technology. Key areas include the role of modern technology within identity and belonging, risk taking behaviours and developmental differences.


The reminiscence bump is the tendency to recall more autobiographical memories from adolescence and early adulthood than from adjacent lifetime periods. In this online study, the robustness of the reminiscence bump was examined by looking at participants' judgements about the quality of football players. Dutch participants (N = 619) were asked who they thought the five best players of all time were. The participants could select the names from a list or enter the names when their favourite players were not on the list. Johan Cruijff, Pelé, and Diego Maradona were the three most often mentioned players. Participants frequently named football players who reached the midpoint of their career when the participants were adolescents (mode = 17). The results indicate that the reminiscence bump can also be identified outside the autobiographical memory domain.


A study was carried out to compare the effects of three dialysis regimens of different durations. Nineteen patients dialysed over 1975--7 for an average of only 11.2 hours per week were compared with nine dialysed for 24 hours per week (1974--6) and 10 dialysed for 27 hours (1971--3). Clinical, biochemical, and haematological results showed that the short dialysis regimen was as effective as the longer regimens, except that patients had to take a phosphate binder regularly, and that it was considerably cheaper. Short dialysis has social and economic benefits, since patients have more free time and more patients can be treated with the same number of staff and dialysis stations. As in many areas there is a shortage of places for patients needing dialysis, a short regimen is recommended.


Abstract Vibration energy harvesting can be an effective method for scavenging wasted mechanical energy for use by wireless sensors that have limited battery life. Two major goals in designing energy harvesters are enhancing the power scavenged at low frequency and improving efficiency by increasing the frequency bandwidth. To achieve these goals, we derived a magneto-elastic beam operated at the transition between monoand bi-stable regions. By improving the mathematical model of the interaction of magnetic force and beam dynamics, we obtained a precise prediction of natural frequencies as the distance of magnets varies. Using the shooting technique for the improved model, we present a fundamental understanding of interesting combined softening and hardening responses that happen at the transition between the two regimes. The transition regime is proposed as the optimal region for energy conversion in terms of frequency bandwidth and output voltage. Using this technique, low frequency vibration energy harvesting at around 17 Hz was possible. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The target application is to power wildlife bio-logging devices from bird flights that have consistent high power density around 16 Hz [1].Vibration energy harvesting can be an effective method for scavenging wasted mechanical energy for use by wireless sensors that have limited battery life. Two major goals in designing energy harvesters are enhancing the power scavenged at low frequency and improving efficiency by increasing the frequency bandwidth. To achieve these goals, we derived a magneto-elastic beam operated at the transition between monoand bi-stable regions. By improving the mathematical model of the interaction of magnetic force and beam dynamics, we obtained a precise prediction of natural frequencies as the distance of magnets varies. Using the shooting technique for the improved model, we present a fundamental understanding of interesting combined softening and hardening responses that happen at the transition between the two regimes. The transition regime is proposed as the optimal region for energy conversion in terms of frequency bandwidth and output voltage. Using this technique, low frequency vibration energy harvesting at around 17 Hz was possible. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The target application is to power wildlife bio-logging devices from bird flights that have consistent high power density around 16 Hz [1].


The present study examined acoustic cue utilisation for perception of vocal emotions. Two sets of vocal-emotional stimuli were presented to 35 German and 30 American listeners: (1) sentences in German spoken with five different vocal emotions; and (2) systematically rate- or pitch-altered versions of the original emotional stimuli. In addition to response frequencies on emotional categories, activity ratings were obtained. For the systematically altered stimuli, slow rate was reliably associated with the "sad" label. In contrast, fast rate was classified as angry, frightened, or neutral. Manipulation of pitch variation was less potent than rate manipulation in influencing vocal emotional category choices. Reduced pitch variation was associated with perception as sad or neutral; greater pitch variation increased frightened, angry, and happy responses. Performance was highly similar for the two samples, although across tasks, German subjects perceived greater variability of activity in the emotional stimuli than did American participants.


Maintenance of production equipment is one of the most critical support actions in manufacturing companies for staying competitive. More recently, with the introduction of Industry 4.0, academia, as well as industry, put a lot of effort into condition monitoring in order to implement predictive maintenance. Most stakeholders agree that maintenance need to be more data-driven. However, in order to draw true advantage of data-driven decisions, it is necessary for manufacturing companies to have implemented basic maintenance to a high standard in order to reduce for example: recurring failures, human errors, unsafe machines, etc. The real-time data can then be used to improve efficiency of maintenance tasks and schedule that adds value to the processes. In manufacturing industry, maintenance actions are commonly administered in a Computerized Maintenance Management System, CMMS, still, rather few companies analyze their maintenance records. Behind these data there is often a treasure of improvement opportunities that could be used to improve basic maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to explore how historical data from a CMMS can be used in order to improve maintenance effectiveness and efficiency of activities. In order to exemplify the possibilities of analyzing CMMS records, a case study has been performed in a plant, manufacturing driveline components for heavy construction vehicles. The study shows that one major obstacle for utilizing the CMMS data is poor description of faults and failures when it comes to work order requests, mostly performed by operators and assemblers, as well as work order reporting, mostly performed by repairmen and maintenance technicians. However, by thorough analysis of well described corrective maintenance, it is possible for industry to understand the nature of the occurring breakdowns and thus, refine the preventive maintenance program in order to further increase the dependability of the production system.


The 1990s saw a resurgence of interest in land-use reform in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of Australia. Scientists and conservationists called for a reassessment of land use in areas now used for extensive grazing of cattle and sheep. Landcare groups formed by pastoralists were criticised for deflecting resources away from questions of land-use reform. While Landcare groups in agricultural regions of Australia have been subject to considerable assessment, analysis of rangelands Landcare has tended to revolve around questions of land use to the neglect of analysis of the operation of the groups themselves. Based on a case study of a pastoral Landcare group in the rangelands, the research reported in this paper found that pastoral Landcare in the rangelands has comparable outcomes to Landcare elsewhere in terms of the creation of opportunities for improved communication and learning among landholders. In addition, this group has developed from an emphasis on single-issue projects towards multi-faceted projects focussed on social as well as ecological sustainability. The analysis also found that political considerations were significant in the forma-tion of the group and remained important for some pastoralists at the time of fieldwork. Finally, rangelands Landcare in this case study has provided a vehicle for reformist pastoralists and their associates to work actively towards influencing their peers to acknowledge land management problems and to reflect on their management practices.


Agile EA is the process for managing enterprise architecture modeling and redesign efforts with principles of agile methods such as iterations, lean thinking, pair programming etc., for faster development times. However, very little work has been done till date on how organizations adopt these methodological innovations such as integration of agile methods with enterprise architecture. This is problematic, because we know that organizations face stiff challenges in bringing new innovations that fundamentally disrupt their enterprise architecture. It is for this reason organizations rely on external consultants to internalize the concepts that are non-native to its actors. Hence we ask: What factors affect the adoption process of agile EA in organizations? If so what is the adoption rate over time? And what is the role of internal and external change agents in adoption process? To address this questions, we plan on conducting a field study in a top railroad company referred to as "Alpha" (a pseudonym) for exploring the variations in routines to understand the agile EA adoption process. Specifically, the proposed research study has two goals. First, we wish to develop a formal process theory about the adoption of agile enterprise architecture innovations using grounded theory approach. Second, through this study we would like to provide design guidelines for crossing the chasm of agile EA.


An analytical approach using enhanced Raman spectroscopy to record molecular vibrations and associated molecular images within nanometric apertures is presented, which can essentially rival or surpass its counterparts, i.e. fluorescence microscopy, by providing unique structure-specific information forward to chemical identification and structure elucidation. Utilizing a precise nanolithographic technology and the following chemically electroless silver deposition procedure, we deliberately construct the large scale zero-mode waveguide array in gold film with embossed silver nanostructures on the bottom of nanowells capable of acquiring enhanced Raman spectra with substantial sensitivity and high chemical fidelity. Two chemicals, aminothiophenol (4-ATP) and Rhodamine 6G, respectively, are employed as molecular indicators to successfully demonstrate the capability of this analytical strategy by exhibiting high-quality Raman spectra and 2D chemical-specific images. With a high magnitude objective (60×), we enable to acquire Raman spectra from a single nanometric aperture and quantitatively determine a peak enhancement factor of 3.63 × 105 for ATP, while 1.25 × 106 to Rhodamine 6G, comparable with a regular nanoparticle-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy-active substrate. Overall, the compelling characteristics of this detection scheme highlight its privileges for interrogating the individual molecular behavior in extremely confined geometry and illustrating the chemical insights of trace components without any labeling reagent and extra sample preparation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper presents phonetic-phonological variation in articulatory and perceptual terms, both at segmental and suprasegmental levels. It also presents the determining factors of linguistic diversity and change, that is, the factors responsible for the external, geographical (intra-dialectal and inter-dialectal), chronolectal, social and functional variation of a language. Several examples of a few relevant phenomena of the Northwestern phonetics in Lleida are included, especially the phenomenon of vocalism as seen from the relation between internal and external variation of a language.


Objective To test the hypothesis that myeloneuropathy is a presenting phenotype of paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes we retrospectively reviewed clinical, radiologic, and serologic features of 32 patients with concomitant paraneoplastic spinal cord and peripheral nervous system involvement. Methods Observational study investigating patients with myeloneuropathy and underlying cancer or onconeural antibody seropositivity. Results Among 32 patients with paraneoplastic myeloneuropathy, 20 (63%) were women with median age 61 years (range 27–84 years). Twenty-six patients (81%) had classified onconeural antibodies (amphiphysin, n = 8; antineuronal nuclear antibody [ANNA] type 1 [anti-Hu], n = 5; collapsin response mediator protein 5 [CRMP5] [anti-CV2], n = 6; Purkinje cell cytoplasmic antibody type 1 [PCA1] [anti-Yo], n = 1; Purkinje cell cytoplasmic antibody type 2 [PCA2], n = 2; kelch-like protein 11 [KLHL11], n = 1; and combinations thereof: ANNA1/CRMP5, n = 1; ANNA1/amphiphysin, n = 1; ANNA3/CRMP5, n = 1). Cancer was confirmed in 25 cases (onconeural antibodies, n = 19; unclassified antibodies, n = 3; no antibodies, n = 3). Paraneoplastic myeloneuropathies had asymmetric paresthesias (84%), neuropathic pain (78%), subacute onset (72%), sensory ataxia (69%), bladder dysfunction (69%), and unintentional weight loss >15 pounds (63%). Neurologic examination demonstrated concomitant distal or asymmetric hyporeflexia and hyperreflexia (81%), impaired vibration and proprioception (69%), Babinski response (68%), and asymmetric weakness (66%). MRI showed longitudinally extensive (45%), tract-specific spinal cord T2 hyperintensities (39%) and lumbar nerve root enhancement (38%). Ten of 28 (36%) were unable to ambulate independently at last follow-up (median 24 months, range 5–133 months). Combined oncologic and immunologic therapy had more favorable modified Rankin Scale scores at post-treatment follow-up compared to those receiving either oncologic or immunologic therapy alone (2 [range 1–4] vs 4 [range 2–6], p < 0.001). Conclusions Paraneoplastic etiologies should be considered in the evaluation of subacute myeloneuropathies. Recognition of key characteristics of paraneoplastic myeloneuropathy may facilitate early tumor diagnosis and initiation of immunosuppressive treatment.


The study by Byrne et al 1 in this edition of Heart , analysing the distribution of angiographic measures of restenosis after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, provides an opportunity for reflection and discussion of the applicability of surrogate end points in the evaluation of coronary stents ( see page 1572 ). A surrogate end point is defined as a biomarker that is intended to substitute for a clinical end point and is expected to predict clinical outcomes based on epidemiological, therapeutic, pathophysiological, or other scientific evidence.2 The concept of using physical signs, laboratory assays, or imaging measures as a substitute for clinical outcomes has a long history and surrogate end points have become frequently used in all branches of medical research. In cardiology, blood pressure, cholesterol and haemoglobin A1C are all used as surrogates for clinical vascular events, including death, stroke and myocardial infarction.3 They are attractive end points in the design of clinical studies as they allow for smaller sample sizes.

However, not all surrogates perform equally well as substitutes for a clinical end point. The ideal surrogate end point has the following characteristics: ( a ) a strong statistical correlation with the clinical end point of interest (Prentice criterion No 1)4 5; ( b ) however, "a correlate does not a surrogate make" and replacement of the clinical outcome requires that "the effect of the intervention on the surrogate predicts the effect on the clinical outcome—a much stronger condition than correlation" (Fleming criterion)6; ( c ) it captures the net effect of all of the treatment's mechanisms of action on the clinical end point; thus any treatment difference in clinical outcome should be entirely explained by treatment differences in the surrogate (Prentice criterion No 2)4 5; ( d ) the magnitude of treatment difference in clinical outcome is …


When an embankment is to be constructed over ground that is too soft or compressible to adequately support the embankment, columns of strong material can be placed in the soft ground to provide the necessary support by transferring the embankment load to a firm stratum. This technology is known as column-supported embankments (CSEs). A geosynthetic-reinforced load transfer platform (LTP) or bridging layer may be constructed immediately above the columns to help transfer the load from the embankment to the columns. There are two principal reasons to use CSEs: 1) accelerated construction compared to more conventional construction methods such as prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) or staged construction, and 2) protection of adjacent facilities from distress, such as settlement of existing pavements when a roadway is being widened. One of the most significant obstacles limiting the use of CSEs is the lack of a standard design procedure which has been properly validated. This report and the testing described herein were undertaken to help resolve some of the uncertainty regarding CSE design procedures in light of the advantages of the CSE technology and potential for significant contributions to the Strategic Highway Research Program, which include accelerated construction and long-lived facilities. Twelve design/analysis procedures are described in this report, and ratings are assigned based on information available in the literature. A test facility was constructed and the facility, instrumentation, materials, equipment, and test procedures are described. A total of 5 CSE tests were conducted with 2 ft diameter columns in a square array. The first test had a column center-to-center spacing of 10 ft and the remaining four tests had center-to-center spacings of 6 ft. The Adapted Terzaghi Method of determining the vertical stress on the geosynthetic reinforcement and the Parabolic Method of determining the tension in the geosynthetic reinforcement provide the best agreement with the test results. The tests also illustrate the importance of soft soil support in CSE performance and behavior. A generalized formulation of the Adapted Terzaghi Method for any column/unit cell geometry and two layers of embankment fill is presented, and two new formulations of the Parabolic Method for triangular arrangements is described. A recommended design


The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics and variations of instrumental color parameters of passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims) at different maturation stages. Fruits were harvested directly from passion fruit plants, selected according to maturation stage and distributed into three distinct groups: Fruits with 1/3 yellow peel (stage 1); fruits with 2/3 yellow peel (stage 2) and yellow fruits (stage 3). Physical characteristics (length, equatorial diameter, length / equatorial diameter ratio, volume, weight and peel thickness), aryl, peel, pulp and seed yield, maturation index and physicochemical characteristics (pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity and vitamin C) were evaluated. Instrumental color parameters (L *, a *, b *, chroma and H °) of peel and pulp were evaluated for passion fruits at the three maturation stages. The results were analyzed using a completely randomized design. Passion fruits showed high peel yield. Parameters pH, titratable acidity and TSS of passion fruit pulp were consistent with minimum values established by Brazilian legislation. Peel and pulp lightness were inversely proportional and pulp decreased lightness with increasing maturation stages. Color parameters could be used to assess color changes during maturation of passion fruit with more suitable results for maturation stages 2 and 3.

 Key words: Passifloraceae, chroma, maturation stage, yield.


In 1948, Jean Dubuffet wrote a thirty-one-page pamphlet entitled Peinturez hardi (Paint boldly!) for his unrealized Almanach de l'art brut. Divided into twelve monthly installments, this "treatise on the techniques of painting" reads like a how-to manual, presenting concise, straightforward guidelines for what materials to use and how to use them. As a practical guide for the amateur, it inventories and evaluates products on the market (much like an issue of Consumer Reports) and then offers more economical, do-it-yourself recipes for the "common man." Drawing largely from the techniques and materials of house painting, Dubuffet aligns himself with the worker as opposed to the professional artist and insists upon art as labor. As yet unpublished, Peinturez hardi underscores materiality as absolutely central to Dubuffet's understanding of what art brut is and how it differentiates itself from arts culturels.


Link-based data may be studied formally by means of unordered trees. On a dataset formed by such link-based data, a natural notion of support-based closure can be immediately defined. Abstracting information from subsets of such data requires, first, a formal notion of intersection; second, deeper understanding of the notion of closure; and, third, efficient algorithms for computing intersections on unordered trees. We provide answers to these three questions.


Organic fertilizers preserve food cycle, reduce pollution and remediation of soil physicochemical properties and stabilization of plants in soil. To investigate the effect of organic fertilizer (vermicompost, compost and manure) on physiological characteristics of Petunia hybrida, a factorial greenhouse experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with three replications at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Treatments consisted of three irrigation levels (irrigation based on 100% of field capacity (FC), equivalent to 360 ml of water (D1), 50% of field capacity, equivalent to 180 ml water (D2), and 25% of field capacity, equivalent to 90 ml water (D3), in each 2-kg pot) and four fertilizer treatments (control, compost, vermicompost and manure). The measured morphophysiologic traits were plant height, number of lateral branches, number of leaves, number of flowers, volume of roots, dry weight of leaf, root, stem and flower, electrolyte leakage, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic pigments. Results showed that irrigation levels and fertilizer types were significant for all measured traits. The interaction of irrigation and fertilizer treatments showed that the highest amount of leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, plant height, number of flowers and stomatal conductance was obtained in the 100% FC and manure fertilizer. In 25% FC treatment, 10-flower weight was increased by 38, 29 and 61% in compost, manure and vermicompost, respectively, compared to control. Among the fertilizer treatments, the highest level of chlorophyll a was measured in control. However, the highest chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid content was observed in vermicompost treatment. Generally, manure and vermicompost had better effects in improving the performance and number of flowers of petunia under deficit irrigation.


When gene sequences from the influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic were first compared with those of related viruses, they yielded few clues about its origins and virulence. Our reanalysis indicates that the hemagglutinin gene, a key virulence determinant, originated by recombination. The "globular domain" of the 1918 hemagglutinin protein was encoded by a part of a gene derived from a swine-lineage influenza, whereas the "stalk" was encoded by parts derived from a human-lineage influenza. Phylogenetic analyses showed that this recombination, which probably changed the virulence of the virus, occurred at the start of, or immediately before, the pandemic and thus may have triggered it.


Abstract : Currently, fire department performance is measured in terms of tangible loss reduction, meaning lower dollar losses of tangible structures and contents equate with greater performance. This metric is flawed because it ignores the unmeasured performance of a fire department that saves nearby at-risk properties and businesses. Therefore, this thesis proposes a new metric: the saved ratio metric. It includes damages and business losses that may have occurred but did not, thanks to the suppression actions of an effective fire department. The saved ratio is defined as the ratio of the value that was saved at an incident versus the value of what was at-risk. The total value of what was saved is defined as the total amount of what was at risk minus the total amount of what was lost, and total at risk is quantified using a new network model of at risk property. Adjacent at-risk property is cast into a network model whereby structures are nodes and adjacency or direct contact is represented by links.Three major conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, the methodology of the real estate and economic industries can be used to quantify tangible and intangible value for structure fires. Second, network theory can be used to map the potential spread of a fire, allowing the user to identify which structures were saved or lost. Third, it is possible to estimate the return on investment added to the community from a fire suppression response model.


Theoretical models predict that ambiguity is an asset pricing factor in addition to risk, however few of them have been tested in the real market. This thesis tests one of the hypotheses that, investors' propensity to invest in stocks is reduced when ambiguity in the marketplace increases. The hypothesis is tested by using equity fund flows and households' equity holding as measurements of the market participation, and using dispersion in analysts' forecasts about aggregate returns as measurement of ambiguity. The results confirm this hypothesis, since the increases in ambiguity are significantly and negatively related to equity fund flows, as well as the likelihood that the average household invests in equities. Moreover, the results also find that the fund flows in non-dividend paying stocks are more sensitive to the changes in ambiguity, and investors transfer capital from the equity market into more liquid asset classes during highambiguity periods. In addition, this thesis also tests whether there is heterogeneity in individuals' ambiguity aversion, and examines the psychological roots of ambiguity aversion. FNE theory explains ambiguity aversion as the result of fearing negative evaluation from others. It predicts that married households are more ambiguity averse; while households with higher income and education, or households that are more mature, are less ambiguity averse. On the other hand, selfevaluation theory explains ambiguity aversion as the result of minimizing anticipated regret. It predicts that households that are more optimistic, or have less income, are less ambiguity averse; while households that have negative market experience, or have higher income, are more ambiguity averse. The results show that married households, or households with high income / negative market experience, are more ambiguity averse; and households that are more optimistic / more mature, are less ambiguity averse. Therefore, both theories have successful predictions, suggesting that the ambiguity aversion is the combined result of the two motivations.


This article traces global economic trends and sources of energy from the fossil fuel era of the Industrial Age to the Information and Solar Age. Keynesian economics as well as political, economic and military power, led to the industrialized countries' petroleum addiction and the demonization of OPEC. The shift from the Old Economy to the New Economy will be accompanied by greater emphasis on energy efficiency and a shift towards renewable resources, "green" energy technologies and environmental protection and restoration. The globalization of economics, finance, markets and trade driven by technology and liberalization of capital flows have led to the dematerialization of OECD economies. This will necessitate recognition of, and investment in, people and social infrastructure with education and health care as key economic sectors and knowledge, intellectual, social and ecological capital as the key factors of production. Due to advances in the internet and e‐commerce and the increasing interchangeability of money with information there will be a continuing flight into pure information‐based electronic trading systems and the growth of a less costly and more efficient pure high‐tech barter system. The issues of unequal terms of trade, poverty and the need for development will continue. If OPEC is able to grasp the significance of the shift to the Solar Age, it has an opportunity to reassert its leadership role in development.


. We state concentration inequalities for the output of the hidden layers of a stochastic deep neural network (SDNN), as well as for the output of the whole SDNN. These results allow us to introduce an expected classifier (EC), and to give probabilistic upper bound for the classification error of the EC. We also state the optimal number of layers for the SDNN via an optimal stopping procedure. We apply our analysis to a stochastic version of a feedforward neural network with ReLU activation function.


Innovative Management Behaviour, we aver, is a sure strategy for ensuring survival and growth of organizations particularly in a turbulent environment. Whereas efforts are geared through Research and Development as well as training in whatever form to acquire such innovative skills and ideas, application of such skills and ideas are sometimes resisted vehemently by those who we christened "enemies of innovation". And these abound in the Nigerian Public Service. As a consequence, the innovator is frustrated and tends to resort to either the status quo ante/or, in extreme cases, an exit option. Either way, the action leads to loss of productivity to the organization. This may have accounted for non-improvement of the Nigerian Public Service despite the several reform exercises it had undergone. To ameliorate the situation, this article canvases an exposure of other colleagues particularly superior officers to similar experiences as their innovative subordinates. In addition, the article suggests that the innovator could adopt a strategy of patience, perseverance, persuasion and tact to convince his resistant superior officers as this may enhance pushing through the innovative ideas for applicability, thereby ensuring systems improvement particularly in the Nigerian Public Service.


Background: Biomarkers can provide a more accurate measure of long-term intake than can dietary questionnaires. Objective: The objective was to identify which adipose tissue fatty acids are suitable biomarkers of intake as assessed with a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Design: Costa Rican men with a mean ( ± SD) age of 56 ± 11 y (n = 367) and women aged 60 ± 10 y (n = 136) completed a 135-item food-frequency questionnaire and provided an adipose tissue sample. Fifty fatty acids were identified by capillary gas chromatography. Correlation coefficients were calculated after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, and smoking status. Results: The best adipose tissue marker for total intake of saturated fatty acids was 15:0 + 17:0 (r = 0.18). Both 15:0 and 17:0 were also the best correlates of dairy product intake (r = 0.31 for each). The diet-adipose tissue correlations for n 3 fatty acids were r = 0.34 for 18:3, r = 0.15 for 20:5, and r = 0.18 for 22:6. Fish intake correlated significantly with these adipose tissue n 3 fatty acids. Dietary and adipose tissue n 6 fatty acids were highly correlated: 18:2 (r = 0.58) and 18:3 (r = 0.24). The best indicators of total trans fatty acid intake were ct18:2n–6 and tc18:2n–6 (r = 0.58 for each); total 18:1 trans fatty acid (r = 0.45) and 16:1 trans fatty acid (r = 0.16) were the next best indicators. Conclusions: Adipose tissue is a suitable biomarker of dietary fatty acid intake, particularly for n 3 and n 6 cis polyunsaturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids. Ideally, adipose tissue and dietary questionnaires should complement, rather than substitute for, each other in epidemiologic studies. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:750–7.


SUMMARY: A new species Mycobacterium parafortuitum is described. A number of strains of the genus Mycobacterium isolated from soil resembled M. fortuitum in their rapid growth, in their pattern of utilization of organic acids and in their pattern of amidase tests. However, these strains differed from M. fortuitum in the following points: they showed negative 3-day aryl-sulphatase test, they showed negative salicylate degradation and PAS degradation, they did not utilize nitrite as sole nitrogen source, and they formed acid from pentoses, arabinose, xylose, inositol and mannitol. This group of strains has been named as M. parafortuitum sp.nov.


We present a study of p (p) over bar collisions at roots=1800 and 630 GeV collected using a minimum bias trigger by the CDF experiment in which the data set is divided into two classes corresponding to "soft" and "hard" interactions. For each subsample, the analysis includes measurements of the multiplicity, transverse momentum (p(T)) spectrum, and the average p(T) and event-by-event p(T) dispersion as a function of multiplicity. A comparison of results shows distinct differences in the behavior of the two samples as a function of the center of mass (c.m.) energy. We find evidence that the properties of the soft sample are invariant as a function of c.m. energy.


Underutilized vegetables are currently studied not only for their nutrient values but also for their health-promoting components for protection against chronic diseases. The present study was performed to evaluate chemical compositions and antioxidant properties of underutilized vegetable palm hearts, namely, lalis (Plectocomiopsis geminiflora) and pantu (Eugeissona insignis). Additionally, the vegetable extracts were evaluated for their activities in the inhibition of digestive enzymes and effects on insulin secretion using BRIN BD11 pancreatic cell lines. Both vegetables contain valuable sources of dietary fiber, potassium, and zinc. For the first time, the phenolic compounds of the vegetables were identified and quantified using HPLC-DAD and LC-ESI-MS. Appreciable amounts of chlorogenic acid were found in the studied vegetables. The sample extracts exhibited potential antioxidant capacities through chemical and biological in vitro assays. High inhibition of α-amylase activity (>50%) was found from the extracts. Thus, it was suggested the vegetable consumption could fulfill the nutrient requirements among local communities.


Yield and growth criteria of irrigated and rainfed sunflower Helianthus annus and chickpea Cicer arientinum were studied under simulated climate change for Tabriz in Iran. Monthly average temperature and rainfall under doubling CO2 were predicted using Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) models. The effects of cli- matic change on crop growth period, yield components and water requirements of those crops were evaluated by a crop simulation model (OSBOL). Based on GISS and GFDL predictions, with doubling CO2 concentration, mean annual temperature for Tabriz increased by 4.6 and 4.3°C, respectively. The results obtained by GISS showed that doubling CO2 will lead to an increase in mean tempera- ture of 3.7°C, and a 40% increase in mean rainfall, during the first 5 mo of the year. However, GFDL predicted an increase of 4.7°C in mean temperature and a reduction of 12% in mean rainfall during the first 5 mo of the year. According to OSBOL under GDFL predictions, the period from sowing to maturity and harvest index were reduced by climate change, whereas yield, biomass and water requirement for irrigated sunflower were increased. The biomass for rainfed sunflower increased, while days to maturity and harvest index were reduced. Yield predictions of OSBOL based on GISS contrasted with those based on GFDL. Doubling CO2 caused a reduction in days to maturity, biomass, yield and water requirements for irrigated chick pea. The number of days to maturity for rainfed chickpea was reduced and harvest index, biomass and yield were increased due to climate change.


Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess the degree of efficiency of mental health education for non-psychiatrist medical specialists in attracting public cooperation and the provision of mental health in the form of an urban cooperative model. Method: The residents of districts 11, 16, and 18 in municipality area 6 of Tehran were considered as the covered community. 20 volunteers (as mental health contact), three individuals with master degree in clinical psychology or consultation, three psychiatrists, and 15 non-psychiatrist specialists (all from municipality area 6) comprised the subjects of the present study and voluntarily participated in this research. Data were gathered using quantitative (demographic questionnaires, specialists' survey, and mental health contact survey) as well as qualitative (registering observations and experiences) methods. Data analysis was done via SPSS-15 and using dependent t-test. Results: The findings revealed that the scores of the volunteers and specialists changed from pretest to post-test (p≤0.002). Also, urban mental health contacts identified the districts' patients subsequent to the training, and referred them to consultation centers, medical specialists, and district hospitals. Conclusion: Teaching mental health concepts to volunteers and medical professionals and involving them in a cooperative fashion in districts can be an efficient method of providing primary mental health services in large cities.


Three-dimensional motion of a thin vortex filament with axial velocity, embedded in an inviscid incompressible fluid, is investigated. The deflections of the core centreline are not restricted to be small compared with the core radius. We first derive the equation of the vortex motion, correct to the second order in the ratio of the core radius to that of curvature, by a matching procedure, which recovers the results obtained by Moore & Saffman (1972). An asymptotic formula for the linear dispersion relation is obtained up to the second order. Under the assumption of localized induction, the equation governing the self-induced motion of the vortex is reduced to a nonlinear evolution equation generalizing the localized induction equation. This new equation is equivalent to the Hirota equation which is integrable, including both the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the modified KdV equation in certain limits. Therefore the new equation is also integrable and the soliton surface approach gives the N-soliton solution, which is identical to that of the localized induction equation if the pertinent dispersion relation is used. Among other exact solutions are a circular helix and a plane curve of Euler's elastica. This local model predicts that, owing to the existence of the axial flow, a certain class of helicoidal vortices become neutrally stable to any small perturbations. The non-local influence of the entire perturbed filament on the linear stability of a helicoidal vortex is explored with the help of the cutoff method valid to the second order, which extends the first-order scheme developed by Widnall (1972). The axial velocity is found to discriminate between right- and left-handed helices and the long-wave instability mode is found to disappear in a certain parameter range when the successive turns of the helix are not too close together. Comparison of the cutoff model with the local model reveals that the non-local induction and the core structure are crucial in making quantitative predictions.


The authors made an analysis of surgical methods of treatment of 63 patients and long-term results in the period from 1 to 6 years in 23 of them. The restoration of all the injured anatomical structures of the forearm and, in particular, the restoration (suture, autovenous plasty) of the major arteries and primary suture of the injured nerves are thought to be necessary for good results.


Granular materials are processed in many industries including agricultural, pharmaceutical, mining, and oil-sand and several geophysical processes such as landslides and avalanches. There are few models capable of predicting the flow of granular materials and particularly their collapse. Theoretical studies of the topic usually encounter difficulties in accurately predicting the collapse dynamics and final stable heaps. The two-dimensional gravitational collapse of cohesionless rectangular granular piles is numerically investigated in this paper. Piles surrounded by either air (dry case) or an oil-water mixture (wet case) undergo a dam-break collapse onto a horizontal base. The granular material is modeled as a perfectly plastic substance based on the Mohr-Coulomb law. The constitutive relations represent the granular material as a fluid, with a shear viscosity as a function of solids pressure, the second invariant of the deviatoric strain-rate tensor, and the internal angle of friction of the granular material. This two-phase flow problem (grains and liquid or air) is then formulated accordingly and solved by the mixture model method for the wet collapse and the level-set method for the dry collapse using COMSOL finite-element software. In both air and the liquid, stable heaps are achieved. The results are compared with experimental measurements of Balmforth & Kerswell [1] and Rondon et al. [2]. The model can closely predict the final shape of the collapsed dry pile. The final shape of the collapsed wet pile is also well-predicted when its initial packing concentration is relatively low. Further developments are needed to model the wet collapse of high-initial-concentration piles.© 2013 ASME


Transitions attract attention, as rare periods of major change that can offer hope (or fear) for sustainability. Research has attempted to uncover the dynamics of transitions of socio-ecological systems. Recently scholars started to look at governance and strategies employed by policy entrepreneurs (individuals or organisations) during transitions, characterised by major policy change. So far the emphasis has been on reinforcing a transition and on transition supporters. The influence of opponents on the direction of a transition and opponents' strategies remain largely unexplored. This paper looks specifically at the role of individuals and the strategies that they -consciously or unconsciously- use in bringing about or opposing policy change. Five strategies are explored: to develop new ideas, to build coalitions to sell ideas, to use windows of opportunity, to play multiple venues and to orchestrate networks. We discuss the importance of each strategy and what individuals are behind it, using empirical evidence of contested transitions in Dutch and Hungarian water management. Our analysis shows the importance of recognition of a new policy idea at an abstract level by responsible civil servants and advocacy of the concept by a credible regional coalition. The recognition of a new idea, political attention following a number of major (near) floods and a new government coalition after national elections, provided a window of opportunity for changing water management. Opponents used similar strategies as the supporters of the transition. Opposition is inherent to policy transitions and engaging with opponents is an important strategy for those aiming to manage change


Nowadays a lot of applications have been developed especially in face recognition
system. Face recognition became an interesting application in surveillance,
identification system and security system. This project is focusing on the
development of face recognition based on lip using Neural Network Technique. The
objective is to identify the persons' ID based on individual lip from different
expression of facial image. This project is divided into two phases. The first phase is
image pre-processing using MATLAB. The pre-processing is conducted by applying
all fimctions in MATLAB image processing Toolbox. Tthis project used 'imadjust'
and 'histeq' functions for Grayscale Enhancement, 'imfilter' for Linear Filtering and
'im2bw' for Image Segmentation. The second phase is NN application design and
development. Training and testing has been conducted to measuring the performance
of learning by manipulating the parameters to achieve a better performance. It
demonstrates that 60 percent of accuracy which person's lip can be recognized in the
form of normal and smile expressions.


Abstract Interest groups are key intermediary actors between civil society and public officials. The EU has long emphasized the importance of interacting with representative groups that involve their members. Additionally, there is an increasing trend toward the professionalization of groups that invest in organizational capacities to efficiently provide policy expertise. Both member involvement and organizational capacity are crucial features for groups to function as transmission belts that aggregate and transfer the preferences of their members to policymakers, thus reinforcing the legitimacy and efficiency of governance systems. Yet, not all groups have these organizational attributes. This paper quantitatively examines the effects of interest groups' investment in member involvement and organizational capacity on the level of access to EU Commission officials. The results indicate that member involvement does not pay off in terms of higher levels of access. In contrast, groups with high organizational capacities have more meetings with public officials of the Commission.


certificates which do more than state what they consider is the condition from which the patient suffers. These conditions are most interesting to Dr. Elizabeth Butler and *others besides myself, so perhaps now that Order 1325 of the Ministry of Labour is gradually being used to get doctors to factories the next generation may have industrial medicine made a necessary part-of the curriculum, and opportunlity given to study it more ftuj*y. and gel a diplorn;a. As for masks, I tried an experiment on myself, being very susceptible to fume. Our masks in 1916 were stiff, such as were used for giving anaesthetics. Gamgee tissue was issued in closed envelopes, and one put on the tissue when one went into the works. I put first one, then two, then three layers of tissue on mine outside the "press houses," entered the place, wandered about with my hands in my pockets for about five minutes, then went to my place and tested the tissue for T.N.T. Every time one layer allowed the stuff to get through strongly; two layers let some through, and it was most uncomfortable to try and breathe through three layers, especially if one exerted oneself. Our workers often wore their masks on their chins or even foreheads ; they did not like them, and I agreed with those in authority that even if they had each been made to fit the wearer -faces differ-they were not efficient, and so we scrapped them. I know of at least one type of mask, macde by a firm Oear here, which can be squeezed so as to fit any face, but that does not touch the question of penetration of the fume. By the way, I squeezed my experimental mask so as to fit me as well as possible.-I am, etc., Birmingham. H. G. P. CASTELLAIN.


A speculation-based resource organising technique aids agencies in routing information across many industrial components. Organisation functions through IT (Information Technology) with the use of the latest technology helps HR (Human Resources) increase gross sales and beyond. The problem associated with an industry organizational tool is that it needs to share data from the MRP (Material Requirements Planning) system with financial accounting, customer relationships, the supply chain or other applications with the use of the latest technologies. Organisations cannot easily acquire choices, whatever ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) devices are made for their organisation.In this research paper, we performedand maintained QA (Quality Assurance) using two ERPs are Microsoft Design AX and SAP (Software and Application). Selecting the best ERP technique is never easy. These sort of options are likely to be a really expensive investment decision along with lifetime costs which include a huge amount of money. In this research article, we have highlighted the important elements of the investigation tasks – the biological materials or groupings, steps, treatment options or applications, and also strategies within the assignment. This study can be a resourceful approach to get the essential details through the most effective way possible. This is caused by truth migration; you can use technique personalisation and employee education thoroughly, making use of the types of programs and talks that take a couple of months to more comprehensive period of time to perform. This research study hasfound that ERP is better than the currently used Supply Chain module.


The evanescent coupling from a photonic crystal resonator to a micron-thick optical fiber is investigated in detail by using a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (3D-FDTD) method. Properly designed photonic crystal cavity and taper structures are proposed, and optimal operating conditions are found to enhance the coupling strength while suppressing other cavity losses including the coupling to the slab propagating mode and to the higher-order fiber mode. In simulation, the coupling into the fundamental fiber mode is discriminated from other cavity losses by spatial and parity filtering of the FDTD results. The coupling efficiency of more than 80% into the fundamental fiber mode together with a total Q factor of 5200 is achieved for the fiber diameter of 1.0 /spl mu/m and the air gap of 200 nm between the fiber and the cavity.


The effecl of total body cooling on force of contraction of the adductor pollicis was determined during a constant rate infusion of vecuronium. Anesthesia was induced with thiopental and maintained with isoflurane/nitrous oxide in eight volunteers (study group) and seven surgical patients (control group). After train‐of‐four (TOF) stimulation of the ulnar nerve, we measured the amplitude of the first response (Tl) in the train and the ratio of the fourth‐to‐first response (TOF ratio). Vecuronium was then administered as an intravenous (IV) bolus, 25 ug/kg, followed by continuous IV infusion, 25 μg‐kg‐1h‐1, central body (core) temperature was maintained stable for 60 min, at the end of which Tl and TOF responses were constant. In the study group, core temperature was then reduced (using circulating‐water blankets) by a mean of 2.6°C, decreasing the T1 and TOF ratio, respectively, by 19% and 18% per °C reduction in adductor pollicis temperature. Normothermia was maintained in the control group for a mean of 111 min, with no significant change in Tl and TOF responses. We conclude that, during a constantrate infusion of vecuronium, the magnitude of neuromuscular block increases significantly when adductor pollicis temperature decreases secondary to core cooling.


The state-based learning method presented is applicable to virtually any vision-based control problem. We use navigation as an example. In a controlled environment, we can define a few known landmarks before system design, and the navigation system can employ landmark detectors. Such navigation systems typically employ a model-based design method. However these methods have difficulties dealing with learning in complex, changing environments. To overcome these limitations, we have developed Shoslif (Self-organizing Hierarchical Optimal Subspace Learning and Inference Framework), a model-free, learning-based approach. Shoslif introduces mechanisms such as automatic feature derivation, a self-organizing tree structure to reach a very low logarithmic time complexity, one-instance learning, and incremental learning without forgetting prior memorized information. In addition, we have created a state-based version of Shoslif that lets humans teach robots to use past history and local views that are useful for disambiguation. Shoslif-N is a prototype autonomous navigation system using Shoslif. We have tested Shoslif-N primarily indoors. Indoor navigation encounters fewer lighting changes than outdoor navigation. However, it offers other, considerable challenges for vision-based navigation. Shoslif-N has shown that it can navigate in real time reliably in an unaltered indoor environment for an extended amount of time and distance, without any special image-processing hardware.


Partial discharges (PD) measurement is the most common technique to identify defects and the corresponding risks for Medium/High Voltage equipment. However, the methods of recognition developed under HVAC constraints must be adapted under DC. In that purpose, recognition methods based on PD pulse magnitude and pulse time sequence are being studied. A machine learning tool, with integrated Artificial Intelligence software, has been developed to analyze and recognize defect under DC voltage. The software compares several classification methods to diagnose different type of PD defects and allows to select the best one for recognition. To build PD database and to verify the performance of the proposed software, partial discharge measurements were performed with several types of defects (protrusion on HV conductor, particle on insulation and floating-moving particle) placed in a real size SF6 Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) filled at several pressures. Part of the database has been used for learning and the remaining data to evaluate recognition accuracy. The results show more than 98 % accuracy for all investigated defects. The learning database can be smaller than the validation one showing the reliability of results. Nevertheless learning data must be sufficiently various to be representative of most situations.


Joe Huggins' Lone Star, launched in 1982 and 62 feet in length, carried the Houston Yacht Club burgee to world wide ports when she circumnavigated the globe. When she crossed the Atlantic in 1985 and broke the cruising record for boats her size.


A plasma made out of strange-quark matter (SQM) and electrons, has a rather high plasma frequency (∼ 20 MeV). Thus, a compact star made of such material all the way up to its surface, i.e., a bare strange star, would be unable to radiate away its thermal emission. We use the MIT-bag model and assume that SQM is the ground state of nuclear matter at high density. We investigate whether the presence of a magnetic field will all ow propagation of radiation at frequencies below the SQM plasma frequencies. Hence, we study the presence of gyrofrequencies in a SQM plasma permeated by a strong magnetic field ( B > 10 12 G). We find that small regions in the frequency spectrum allow radiation propagation due to the presence of the magnetic fields. It is likely that narrow bands of radia tion would likely be observable from magnetized bare strange stars .


Dielectrics with high energy storage density and efficiency are of vital significance in modern electronic and electric power systems. Here, we designed a surface-modified TiO2 nanorod array/P(VDF–HFP) dielectric capacitor through a simple hydrothermal, surface modification and spin-coating process. The obtained nanocomposite capacitor shows an ultrahigh energy density of 17.5 J cm−3 at 509 kV mm−1, ∼9 times that of the benchmark BOPP (∼2 J cm−3). What is more, the composites can realize very high charge–discharge efficiency (86%) even at an electric field as high as ∼500 kV mm−1. Our phase-field simulation results reveal the significance of arrays in promoting the polarization and the interface between the array tips and the polymer in enhancing the energy density. The combination of nanorod arrays, non-ferrous fillers and surface modification provides an effective way to make dielectric composites viable in practical use.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Limbal corneal epithelial cells (LCECs) are responsible for corneal epithelial cell regeneration. However, corneal central epithelial cells (CCECs) are also suggested to display potential for self-renewal. Additionally, a better understanding of molecules that regulate corneal epithelial cell regeneration is important for studying conditions affecting the cornea, for example, keratoconus. Given our previous findings of reduced levels of secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) in tears from keratoconus patients compared to controls, we investigated the effects of SFRP1 on the proliferation and survival of cultured central and limbal human corneal epithelial cells. Material and methods: Limbal and central corneal explants were established from postmortem human corneas, and cultured in CnT-PR, an epithelial-specific tissue culture media. Subcultured cells from explants were immunostained for the cytokeratins CK3, 12, 19, and the proliferative/oligopotent markers Ki67 and p63. BrdU flow cytometry, Alamar Blue and LDH assays were used to assess effects of SFRP1 treatment on central and LCECs. Results: Primary limbal and central corneal epithelial cells were successfully cultured in vitro to confluence (P6 and P4, respectively). They all expressed varying levels of cytokeratins CK3, CK12 and CK19, and Ki67 and p63. Additionally, they showed significantly increased metabolic activity after SFRP1 treatment (p < 0.05), with a maximum response at 1 μg/mL of SPRF1. No difference in proliferation was detected in SFRP1 treated LCECs; however, a reduction in cell death was noted (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Similar to the LCECs, primary human CCECs can be cultured in vitro, and expressed epithelial markers. SFRP1 demonstrated an improvement on the metabolic activity of both CCECs and LCECs, which in LCECs could be resulted from reduced cell death. This may have implications in degenerative corneal disorders, such as keratoconus.