Stream flow predictions in ungauged basins are one of the most challenging tasks in surface water hydrology because of nonavailability of data and system heterogeneity. This study proposes a method to quantify stream flow predictive uncertainty of distributed hydrologic models for ungauged basins. The method is based on the concepts of deriving probability distribution of model's sensitive parameters by using measured data from a gauged basin and transferring the distribution to hydrologically similar ungauged basins for stream flow predictions. A Monte Carlo simulation of the hydrologic model using sampled parameter sets with assumed probability distribution is conducted. The posterior probability distributions of the sensitive parameters are then computed using a Bayesian approach. In addition, preselected threshold values of likelihood measure of simulations are employed for sizing the parameter range, which helps reduce the predictive uncertainty. The proposed method is illustrated through two case studies using two hydrologically independent sub‐basins in the Cedar Creek watershed located in Texas, USA, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The probability distribution of the SWAT parameters is derived from the data from one of the sub‐basins and is applied for simulation in the other sub‐basin considered as pseudo‐ungauged. In order to assess the robustness of the method, the numerical exercise is repeated by reversing the gauged and pseudo‐ungauged basins. The results are subsequently compared with the measured stream flow from the sub‐basins. It is observed that the measured stream flow in the pseudo‐ungauged basin lies well within the estimated confidence band of predicted stream flow. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Recently, high-thermal-conductivity graphene and carbon nanotube nanoparticles have attracted particularly close attention from researchers. In the present study, the thermal conductivity and viscosity properties of two kinds of graphene and carbon nanotube nanofluids added to distilled water ? two graphenes and carbon nanotubes of differing size ? were compared and analyzed. The thermal conductivities of the nanofluids, formulated in the usual manner by adding graphene and carbon nanotube to distilled water and subjecting the mixture to ultrasonic dispersion, were measured by the transient hot-wire method, and the viscosities were determined using a rotational digital viscometer. As a result, we concluded that the nanofluid of small particle diameter have outstanding properties as heat transfer media, due to their excellent thermal conductivity and viscosity, compared with the other nanofluid.


A novel system has been developed that harnesses the phenomena of vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) from a slow current (<0.5 m/s) of water to generate renewable hydrokinetic energy. It utilizes a single degree of-freedom pivoting cylinder mechanism coupled with an electromagnetic induction generator. As a result of observation and concept development, the final prototype includes a stationary cylindrical shedder upstream of the oscillator. The system is referred to as 'Vortex Assisted Generation' (V.A.G.) throughout the report. Given the novelty of the system, an extensive investigation has been conducted to identify key parameters and functional relationships between system variables, regarding their effect on output voltage, frequency, and power. A range of flow velocities have been established that instigate system lock-in, where the cylinder oscillates at high amplitude and frequency. For the tested prototype up to 37% of system extraction efficiency has been achieved in the lab conditions.


Vibrio parahaemolyticus produces a thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diarrhoeal disease caused by this organism. In previous work, TDH induced Cl- secretion in human colonic epithelial cells that was dependent on the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, [Ca2+]in. This study investigated whether Cl- secretion induced by TDH is influenced by the stage of maturation of intestinal epithelial cells. Two different human colonic cell lines, villus cell-like Caco-2 cells and crypt cell-like T84 cells, cultured by different methods to obtain differentiated samples, were used. When these cells were exposed to butyrate, a transcriptional regulator of differentiation genes, or co-cultured with 18Co cells, a human colonic fibroblast cell line, they showed increased trans-epithelial resistance and villus cell marker enzyme activity. In Caco-2 cells, exposure to butyrate or co-culturing with 18Co cells resulted in increased TDH binding, higher short-circuit currents (Isc) and greater [Ca2+]in. These results suggest that sensitivity to TDH is affected by the stage of cellular differentiation of cultured intestinal epithelial cells.


Using Media to Teach Religious Studies 17 2017, aBstraCt in terms of media theories, teaching religious studies provides a second-order mediatisation of religious phenomena – a mediatisation of phenomena already mediatised by religious traditions. That tension needs to be reflected upon, as it raises a number of questions before we even reach the classroom. furthermore, in class another tension comes to light, between teaching objectives and their limits. By formulating a hypothesis and problematising these tensions, this article develops a strategy based on the application of a concept of "competence acquisition". how this strategy might look in a teaching scenario is demonstrated from an introductory seminar on islam.


Purpose

This paper aims to conduct an exploratory research of recruitment source and professional staff retention for succession planning, as well as suggests some experiences of keeping qualified staff in Vietnamese libraries. It stems from the context of academic and public libraries in the Mekong Delta region, Vietnam.

Design/methodology/approach

This research draws on transformational leadership theory initiated by Burns (1978) and expanded by Bass (1985). It was conducted through a multi-method case study approach at 13 public and 4 academic libraries in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Data collection consisted of an online survey with 162 responses and 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Findings

Research result indicates that staff recruitment for managerial positions in Vietnamese libraries is mainly from within the organisation. Staff retention relies on differing factors, of which salary was considered the most important by several participants. However, succession planning itself may be a good way to keep qualified employees who would like to be promoted. For those employees attracted by high salaries rather than future managerial positions, supplemental income is believed to be a possible solution.

Research limitations/implications

A larger research coverage will be suggested to further research, so as to get further information about staff recruitment and how to retain qualified staff in Vietnamese library settings.

Practical implications

This study aims to benefit library leaders by providing good insights into which recruitment source is suitable to look for qualified staff for managerial positions in Vietnam. Most importantly, the research would inform library leaders and the local government in the Mekong Delta of the possible reasons for staff turnover. This study also helps to raise library leaders' awareness of how to retain their qualified professional employees within a highly dynamic environment.

Originality/value

This research contributes to literature about qualified staff recruitment and retention in an Asian country context, which has not been discussed so far. It also helps to raise awareness of library leaders about applying some practical strategies, including succession planning, into retaining managing employees in their organisations.


Abstract Background: Psoriatic patients often display depression and sleep disturbances. In previous research, we found high rates of depression and poor sleep quality among psoriatic patients, unrelated to psoriasis severity. However, these results referred to a sample mainly composed of patients under remission. Aim: To compared the prevalence of depression and sleep disturbances in patients suffering from mild versus moderate-tosevere plaque psoriasis, also investigating the association between psoriasis severity and psychopathological variables. Keypoints Psoriasis affects the patients' psychophysical health. Depressive symptoms and/or sleep disturbances are frequent among psoriatic patients. This study investigates these issues comparing the sub-populations of mild and moderate-to-severe psoriatic patients, with special attention to the association between sleep and pruritus. In clinical practice, the link between psychopathological disturbances and psoriasis should not be underestimated.


This is the first of three prospective papers examining how well forecasters can predict the future time path of short-term interest rates. Most prior work has been done using US data; in this exercise we use forecasts made for New Zealand (NZ) by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), and those derived from money market yield curves in the UK. In this first exercise we broadly replicate recent US findings for NZ and UK, to show that such forecasts in NZ and UK have been excellent for the immediate forthcoming quarter, reasonable for the next quarter and useless thereafter. Moreover, when ex post errors are assessed depending on whether interest rates have been upwards, or downwards, trending, they are shown to have been biased and, apparently, inefficient. In the second paper we shall examine whether (NZ and UK) forecasts for inflation exhibit the same syndromes, and whether errors in inflation forecasts can help to explain errors in interest rate forecasts. In the third paper we shall set out an hypothesis to explain those findings, and examine whether the apparent ex post forecast inefficiencies may still be consistent with ex ante forecast efficiency. Even if the forecasts may be ex ante efficient, their negligible ex post forecasting ability suggests that, beyond a six months' horizon from the forecast date, they would be better replaced by a simple 'no-change thereafter' assumption.


The aim of this article was to use the Support Vector Machine (SVM) to predict the benign and malignant solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) in early-stage lung cancer in order to lessen the patient's pain and save the money. Fifty and one patient records were collected .Each record consisted of four clinical characteristics and nine morphological characteristics. The SVM classifier was built by radial basis kernel function. The penalty factor C and kernel parameter σ were optimized by comparing particle swarm optimization (PSO), grid search algorithm (GSA) and genetic algorithm (GA)and then employed to diagnose the SPNs. By comparison with a Logistic regression (LR) model, the overall results of our calculation demonstrated that the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve for the model (0.913 ± 0.051, p<0.05) was higher than the LR model. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity in the model were 90.7%, 89.3% and 93.3% respectively. It is represented that the PSO-SVM model can be used in predicting the early-stage lung nodules.


This paper presents a formal framework for implementing a query refinement method. The method uses general principles of facet analysis. Two key notions are advanced and discussed: diversity and focus. Diversity refers to the information needs of a querying user; it is captured by the notion of 'facet'. A focus refers to how diversity is captured from the documents as organized by the user; it provides a kind of context to the user query. The method is situated within the formal framework of the smallest propositionally closed description logic ALC, thereby betting that ALC provides us with a suitable SAT solver to implement a facet engine, which is the main component of our method.


The purpose of the article is to outline and comprehend the Descartes' theory about anthropological component of ontology as the most important part of his philosophy. The accomplishment of this purpose covers the successive solution of the following tasks: 1) review of the research literature concerning the problem of human's presence and the individual nature of truth; 2) emphasize the ambivalence of the basic intention of his legacy; 3) justify the thesis about constitutivity of human's presence and comprehend passions as the form of disclosure of ontology's anthropological component. Methodology. The use of the euristic potential of phenomenology, postpositivism and postmodernism makes it possible to emphasize the multiple-layer and multiple-meaning classical philosophy works, to comprehend the limitation and scarcity of the naive-enlightening vision of human nature and to look for a new reception of European classics that provides the overcoming of established nihilism and pessimism concerning the interpretation of human nature. Scientific novelty. It is the first time that anthropological component of Descartes' ontology became an object of particular attention. It previously lacked attention because of following main reasons: 1) traditional underestimating of the fact of Descartes' legacy incompleteness as an unrealized anthropological project and 2) lack of proper attention to the individual nature of truth. The premise for its constructive overcoming is the attention to ambivalence of the basic intention and the significance of ethics in the philosopher's legacy. His texts and research literature allow confirming the constitutive nature of human's presence and passions as the key form of disclosure of the ontology anthropological component. Conclusions. The established tradition of interpretation the Descartes' philosophizing nature as the filiation process of impersonal knowledge loses its cogency these days. The unprejudiced vision of the texts urges to revise (1) the interpretation of cognition process as reflection, (2) the vision of philosophizing process as the depersonalized one, and (3) reduced human image as a thinking thing as unacceptable.


Digitization is the new steam. Steam allowed us to leverage like never before and spawned a series of new offerings and new needs. The steam era started with many competitors and inventors and ended with only a few concentrated winners. The winners contributed vast amounts to society and spawned a need for new laws, from antitrust to product liability to intellectual property to securities, and more. Just as steam disrupted old industries and fostered new ones, digitization is providing the same changes today. Digitization opens the door to decentralized production, lower costs, and disruption of incumbents, but digitization does not mean perpetual disruption is at hand. In this essay, I begin to set out why new, centralized winners will emerge. Digitization spawns an abundance of person-to-person transactions but with the problems of impersonal transactions. Copyright industries were some of the first to experience the change from few to many producers. Technologies such as 3D printing, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology further the shift from centralized to small and local production. Although some champion disruption and new businesses, a paradox of centralized production and markets with fewer players is that such sectors are easier to regulate. The ability of almost anyone to make guns, sell harmful software, or produce other sophisticated offerings removes that easy pressure point. Put differently, even though digitization enables decentralized, lower-cost production, economic questions will remain. We must understand what they are and why they persist to see what the future may be. In simplest terms, transactions costs related to safety, quality, property rights, contracting, and knowledge may be more acute in a digitized, decentralized world. I offer that companies such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Google, Apple, Amazon, and eBay, have thrived, in part because they have enabled decentralized production to operate at scale. In addition, as established players understand digitization and network technology better, they have adapted to the new marketplace. For example, rather than giving consumers a music or video file, part of the copyright industry has shifted to streaming music and video. Consumers have access to the content with no fear of malware but lose the ability to manipulate that content. This strategy could be used to limit 3D printing and other creative technologies. Instead of having design files that can be altered, consumers will stream a file for the specific design. Many may welcome this shift, because they are not tinkerers but instead are simply consumers who want a safe, stable product or service. But that stability flows from centralized players. In short, this era of disruption and decentralization will likely pass and new winners, who will look much like firms of old, will emerge, if they have not already.


Abstract This research examines the relationship between social integration and health status (i.e., prevalence of chronic health conditions) among older first generation Asian Indian (AI) immigrants in the U.S. Data were collected through a telephone survey from 226 respondents (50 years and over) in the Southeastern U.S. The correlates of health status were determined using a Poisson regression analysis. The prevalence of major chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension in this sample was similar to those found in other studies of AI immigrants. Better health was associated with greater perceived support and having relatives nearby, whereas poorer health was associated with higher body mass index, longer residence in the U.S., being older, and being female. Implications for interventions designed to address the diversity within this immigrant community are discussed.


Directionally solidified oxide ceramic eutectic composites with superior strength, oxidation resistance, creep resistance, structural stability and low sensitivity to crack at high temperature have aroused much attention in recent years, and various preparation techniques have been developed. In situ fabrication of ceramic eutectic composites by laser rapid solidification is a cheap and quick method compared to conventional multi-step fabrication methods of fiber reinforced composites for high temperature use. In this paper, Al2O3/YAG/ZrO2 ternary eutectics are rapidly prepared from melt by directional solidification using laser zone remelting technique, the growth characteristic and fracture toughness are investigated. The results show that: (1) Laser rapidly solidified Al2O3/YAG/ZrO2 ceramic eutectic in situ composite presents a fine interpenetrating network structure, in which Al2O3, YAG and ZrO2 phases are continually interconnected and finely coupled without pores, colonies and grain boundaries between interfaces. (2) Laser scanning rate and power density strongly affect the eutectic growth. With the processing parameters adjusted properly, the eutectic shows homogeneous and coupled lamellar microstructure. The characteristic dimensions of the microstructure are around 2~3 1m for Al2O3 and YAG phases, and around 0.2~1 1m for ZrO2 phases, respectively. (3) The hardness and fracture toughness of the rapidly solidified Al2O3/YAG/ZrO2 eutectic are 16.7 GPa and 8.0 MPa.m1/2, respectively.


This article was written to give researchers and clinicians a short synopsis of ethical and thorough design, conduct, analysis, publication, and interpretation of randomised controlled clinical trials according to the European quality standards of Good Clinical Practice (GCP). The paper consists of two parts. In the first part we introduce important elements of study design, especially study hypothesis, criteria of inclusion and study population, sample size calculation, validity considerations, bias and confounding, randomisation, stratification, and masking of treatment assignment. Different treatment allocation like multiple parallel groups, factorial experiment, cross-over, and sequential design are presented. Requirements of ethical standards according to the Declaration of Helsinki are discussed for their necessity in any experimentation in humans. Principles of informed consent are demonstrated with emphasis on special conditions in anaesthesia, emergency medicine, and intensive care research. In the second part of this article we explain issues of baseline assessment, experimental intervention, data recording, and data monitoring, particularly of negative or hazardous treatment effects. Topics of data analysis and reporting of trial results in publications are illustrated with regard to their influence on subsequent interpretation.


BACKGROUND
Bell's palsy or idiopathic facial palsy is an acute facial paralysis due to inflammation of the facial nerve. A number of studies published in China have suggested acupuncture is beneficial for facial palsy.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this review was to examine the efficacy of acupuncture in hastening recovery and reducing long-term morbidity from Bell's palsy.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group Trials Register, MEDLINE (January 1966 to April 2006), EMBASE (January 1980 to April 2006), LILACS (from January 1982 to April 2006) and the Chinese Biomedical Retrieval System (January 1978 to April 2006) for randomised controlled trials using 'Bell's palsy' and its synonyms, 'idiopathic facial paralysis' or 'facial palsy' as well as search terms including 'acupuncture'. Chinese journals in which we thought we might find randomised controlled trials or controlled clinical trials relevant to our study were handsearched. We reviewed the bibliographies of the randomised trials and contacted the authors and known experts in the field to identify additional published or unpublished data.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included all randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials involving acupuncture in the treatment of Bell's palsy irrespective of any language restrictions.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors identified potential articles from the literature search and extracted data independently using a data extraction form. The assessment of methodological quality included allocation concealment, patient blinding, differences at baseline of the experimental groups and completeness of follow-up. Two review authors assessed quality independently. All disagreements were resolved by discussion between the review authors.

MAIN RESULTS
Six studies including a total of 537 participants met the inclusion criteria. Five of them used acupuncture while another one used acupuncture combined with drugs. No trials reported on the outcomes specified for this review. Harmful side effects were not reported in any of the trials. Flaws in study design or reporting (particularly uncertain allocation concealment and substantial loss to follow-up) and clinical differences between trials prevented conclusions about the efficacy of acupuncture.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The quality of the included trials was inadequate to allow any conclusion about the efficacy of acupuncture. More research with high quality trials is needed.


An organization's promotion decision between two workers is modelled as a problem of boundedly-rational learning about ability. The decision-maker can bias noisy rank-order contests sequentially, thereby changing the information they convey. The optimal final-period bias favours the "leader" , reinforcing his likely ability advantage. When optimally biased rank-order information is a sufficient statistic for cardinal information, the leader is favoured in every period. In other environments, bias in early periods may (i) favour the early loser, (ii) be optimal even when the workers are equally rated, and (iii) reduce the favoured worker's promotion chances.


Objective To study psychological outcomes after hazardous materials incidents. Methods Individuals exposed to hazardous materials were contacted to complete a telephone questionnaire within 8 to 40 days of the incident. The Brief Symptoms Inventory was used for psychological assessment. General severity index, depression, anxiety, hostility, and somatization were analyzed. Positive findings were defined as two standard deviations above a normative mean. Results A total of 202 (60%) of the 339 subjects in 87 incidents were surveyed. For 159 adults with valid Brief Symptoms Inventory scores, all dimensions were within normal ranges of elevation, with 1% to 5% of the subject pool having elevation, except for somatization. Twenty-four (14%) of 160 subjects had elevated somatization scores. Based on logistic regression analysis, prior medical therapy for a psychological condition and transport to a health care facility were predictors of elevated somatization scores. Conclusions Somatization was the most frequently elevated score after exposure to hazardous materials incidents. Further research is needed to determine whether specific risk factors are useful in identifying individuals for intervention after hazardous materials incidents.


Patients under neurocritical care may require mechanical ventilation for airway protection; respiratory failure can occur simultaneously or be acquired during the ICU stay. In this chapter, we will address the ventilatory strategies, in particular the role of protective lung ventilation, and the potential increase in intracranial pressure as a result of permissive hypercapnia, high airway pressures during recruitment maneuvers, and/or prone position. We will also describe some strategies to achieve mechanical ventilation liberation, including evaluation for tracheostomy, timing of tracheostomy, mechanical ventilation modalities for weaning and extubation, or tracheostomy weaning for mechanical ventilation.


In its exploration of literary representations of ideal landscapes and the production of English identity across Latin and vernacular texts from Bede to Chaucer, this study looks in particular at pastoral and locus amoenus traditions in Medieval English literature, and the early mythologisation of English landscape, space and identity through pastoral topoi. From Bede's Ecclesiastical History and its seminal interpretation of Britain as the delightful island, the study moves through representations of landscape in Old English poetry to the exploitation of the symbolic potential of their local landscapes by regional monastic houses in twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts and pastoral conventions, performances and the idea of the city in the fourteenth century. Introductory and concluding sections form bridges to current scholarship on representations of Englishness through pastoral topoi in the Early Modern period


Abstract In 2013, in light of the mass atrocity cases in Libya and Syria, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament recommended 'to reconfirm the EU's commitment to R2P [Responsibility to Protect] by adopting an interinstitutional "Consensus on R2P"'. Despite such reaffirmation, the Union's role in implementing R2P remains an open-ended question. To date, the EU's contribution to R2P has rarely been studied. In our attempt to contribute to the literature, approaching the issue from an ethical perspective, we aim to answer the following questions: what are the existing capacities of the EU in contributing to R2P; and what can the EU do to be a more responsible actor in the future? After identifying the existing capacities of the Union, we analyse what the EU can do to make the international community more responsible in the future given that we have already left behind the first decade of the norm, which was characterized by inconsistent implementation. Finally, we conclude that the Union holds a genuine potential for further development and a consistent implementation of the norm mainly by utilizing its non-military tools.


Abstract The adsorption of the large cationic alkaloid berberine by montmorillonite in aqueous suspensions was investigated. An adsorption isotherm of berberine and desorption isotherms of exchangeable Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ were determined by chemical analysis of the non-adsorbed berberine and the released cations in the supernatants. The isotherms suggest that the adsorption of berberine takes place in two different types of reaction mechanism: (1) cation exchange, and (2) a secondary organophyllic adsorption. The cation exchange occurring first is followed by the secondary adsorption which is accompanied by Cl- adsorption. Monovalent cations are exchanged before the divalent cations. Samples loaded with increasing amounts of berberine were examined by X-ray diffraction at room temperature, and after gradual heating up to 420°C. The basal spacing of the loaded samples after the thermal treatment became 1.28 nm, indicating the formation of carbon in the interlayer, thus proving that the adsorbed berberine was located in the interlayer space. At room temperature the basal spacing of samples loaded with 8 and 15 mmol of berberine per 100 g of clay was 1.28–1.30 nm indicating that in the interlayer space berberine cations were lying parallel to the alumino-silicate layers. The basal spacing of a sample with 36 mmol of berberine per 100 g of clay was 1.48 nm. This spacing does not give conclusive information on the arrangement of berberine in the interlayer. The spacing of samples with 57–147 mmol of berberine per 100 g of clay was 1.59 nm, suggesting the presence of bilayers of berberine in the interlayers. During thermal dehydration, the spacing of samples with 36–73 mmol of berberine per 100 g of clay decreased, but that of samples with 105–147 mmol of berberine per 100 g of clay increased to 1.66 nm. These samples contain organophilic adsorbed berberine and it is suggested that due to the thermal treatment berberine was tilted relative to the TOT lamellae, with anhydrous Cl- between the berberine cations.


The twelve edition of The Lighting Fixtures market in the United States offers a comprehensive picture of the lighting fixtures industry in the US, providing data and trends 2012-2017 and forecast up to 2021. From one hand, the report analyzes the main trends affecting the market over the last five years, considering the production, the consumption, the imports and the exports of lighting fixtures in the country. On the other hand, it offers an analysis of the market structure and the competitive system, an overview of the distribution system and the main players operating in the market. International Trade. Lighting fixtures exports and imports are considered, broken down by country and by geographical area of destination and origin. The time frame considered is 2012-2017. Market Structure. The lighting fixtures market is divided into four main segments: residential-consumer, architectural-commercial, industrial, outdoor. Within them, the market is further broken down by types of product, by light sources, and by the place of production. A financial analysis, on a sample of a selected number of companies operating in the market, includes profitability ratios and financial indicators. Distribution Channels. The analysis of the distribution system is organized by the following channels: Contract/Builders, Lighting Specialists, Lifestyle stores, DIY stores, E-commerce. A selection of architectural offices and lighting designers, electrical and lighting wholesalers, and furniture stores is also included. Competitive System. Finally, the report offers an analysis of the leading local and foreign players present in the market and in each segment considered; through sales data, market shares and short profiles. An address list of more than 130 US lighting fixtures manufacturer is included. Among the considered products: indoor and outdoor lighting, decorative residential lighting, commercial lighting, industrial lighting, technical lighting, traditional-transitional-contemporary lighting, floor-table-wall-ceiling lamps, suspensions, downlights recessed, tracks systems, projectors spotlights, hospitality, retail, office lighting, entertainment lighting, lighting for museums, lighting for industrial plants, explosion-proof lighting, marine lighting, healthcare lighting, emergency lighting, residential outdoor lighting, lighting for urban landscape, Christmas lighting, street lighting, sporting facilities and galleries, incandescence, fluorescence, gas discharge, LED, lighting controls and IoT applications.


We propose an indirect-link-weakened mass diffusion method (IMD), by considering the indirect linkage and the source object heterogeneity effect in the mass diffusion (MD) recommendation method. Experimental results on the MovieLens, Netflix, and RYM datasets show that, the IMD method greatly improves both the recommendation accuracy and diversity, compared with a heterogeneity-weakened MD method (HMD), which only considers the source object heterogeneity. Moreover, the recommendation accuracy of the cold objects is also better elevated in the IMD than the HMD method. It suggests that eliminating the redundancy induced by the indirect linkages could have a prominent effect on the recommendation efficiency in the MD method.


This brief presents an area-efficient tree architecture for finding the first two minima as well as the index of the first minimum, which is essential in the design of a low-density parity-check decoder based on the min-sum algorithm. The proposed architecture reduces the number of comparators by reusing the intermediate comparison results computed for the first minimum in order to collect the candidates of the second minimum. As a result, the proposed tree architecture improves the area-time complexity remarkably.


This study investigated whether married individuals' relational humor styles were significant predictors of their marital satisfaction levels. The study was conducted with a total of 228 married participants (139 women and 89 men). The duration of marriage of the participants ranged from 1 to 46 years (M = 9.34, SD = 10.37). The data were obtained by using the Marital Life Scale and Relational Humor Inventory. The data were tested with multiple regression analysis supported by bootstrapping process. According to the regression results, self-positive and self-negative relational humor styles significantly predicted their own marital satisfaction. On the other hand self-instrumental humor did not predict marital satisfaction significantly. Otherwise, marital satisfaction was significantly predicted by partner-positive, partner-negative, and partner-instrumental humor styles. The findings obtained in the study were discussed in accordance with the related literature and suggestions were made for the following studies


Fine single solid solution α-Mg phases with an average grain size of less than 5 um was obtained in the melting layer of the surface of AM60 Mg alloy by means of plasma beam treatment. The influence of the plasma parameter on both the melting depth and the grain size was discussed. The microstructure, morphology and corrosion properties of the melting layer were analyzed by optical microscopy (OP), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), simulated corrosion test, respectively. The micro-hardness of the melting layer is up to 200 HV0.05 by means of environment-friendly plasma surface treatment and the corrosion resistance of AM60 magnesium alloy was greatly improved.


Numerous reports have suggested that surgical readiness during Operation Desert Storm was poor. We surveyed active duty Navy surgeons to assess current trauma experience and capability. A survey concerning trauma and critical care experience, as well as self-rating of skills, was mailed to all active duty surgeons (n = 185) in 1993. The response rate was 79% (146/185). A high turnover rate of surgeons was indicated by: (1) 51% (75/146) of surgeons had less than 3 years of experience following residency; and (2) only 42% (61/146) had served in the Gulf War. Only 12% of active duty surgeons (18/146) were involved in trauma care. Only 10% (14/146) had performed more than 20 operations for trauma in the preceding 1 years, and 85% (124/146) had performed fewer than 10 operations. In the preceding 5 years, 84% (122/146) had performed fewer than 100 operations for trauma, and 42% (61/146) had performed none. Critical care experience ranged from 0 to 20 patients per month (mean = 3). Despite limited recent experience, 84% (123/146) of respondents rated their trauma skills as adequate (n = 43), good (n = 49), or excellent (n = 31). We conclude that most Navy surgeons have minimal recent experience in trauma care. A high rate of turnover mandates training strategies that provide an ongoing exposure to injured patients. This could be accomplished by designating military hospitals as trauma centers or by placing military surgeons in civilian trauma centers.


This study explains the use of resistivity imaging profiling. The Resistivity Imaging Profiling (RIP) became the one of some important techniques in order to get more information for finding out some hidden water in geophysical survey and this has been applied in Beriah Landfill Site in task of exploring the location storing underground water. Two dimensional geoelectrical imaging has been applied for this study. The method can be used for map the distribution of resistivity for the subsurface materials layer. The principle goals of this survey are to define the depth of aquifer layers from the subsoil, the water table and the depth of bedrock as well as suitable site for well. The imaging method was used in this study to map the subsurface soil and groundwater in and around the landfill area that includes six resistivity line. Surveys were conducted using SAS4000 resistivity meter and ABEM LUND electrode and the measured resistivity profiles were interpreted with 2-D resistivity inversion programme (RES2DINV) software presented by two dimensions which is axis-x represent as a length on the ground surface while axis-y referred to the depth of the subsurface in meter.


The results of recent neutron scattering and μSR studies on C60 and C70 fullerenes and their derivatives in the solid state are briefly reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the temperature evolution of the rotational dynamics and the phase transitions accompanying orientational ordering. The potential of muons as spin labels both inside and outside the fullerene cage is also explored. Solid C60 shows a first-order phase transition at 260 K from a face-centred to a simple cubic structure. The isotropic molecular reorientations change abruptly to quasi-random jump motion between nearly-degenerate orientations differing in energy by 11.4(3) meV. A transition to an orientational glass state occurs at 85 K. Static disorder dominates the crystal chemistry of C70. The orientational ordering transitions from the high temperature face-centred cubic structure to the low temperature rhombohedral and monoclinic structures are accompanied by severe hysteresis effects. The rotational dynamic behaviour changes progressively on cooling from isotropic to anisotropic to uniaxial reorientations about the unique molecular axis. High pressure diffraction experiments reveal that C70 has a smaller compressibility than C60. Disorder effects are also present well in the superconducting state for the potassium fulleride K3C60. Small-amplitude librational motion of the C603− units is evident up to 650 K.


Competition and intellectual property rights (IPRs) are both necessary for a market to work efficiently and to promote consumer welfare. The tension between them is only apparent. Properly applied, intellectual property rules define a legal framework which allows undertakings to profit from their inventions. This in turn encourages competition among firms and enhances dynamic efficiency, to the benefit of consumer welfare. From this perspective, IPRs and competition generate a fruitful symbiosis. Standard setting represents one of the fields where the interaction between competition law and IPRs clearly comes to light. The collaborative goal of standard setting organizations (SSOs) is to adopt and promote standards that either do not conflict with anyone's right or, if they do, are developed under condition that patents are licensed under defined terms. On the one hand, patents are important to promote innovation, as they confer exclusive rights to the inventors. On the other, standards are paramount for enhancing the interoperability of products, expanding network externalities, and facilitating the dissemination of knowledge. Conflicts between IP and competition laws may arise in case IPRs owners in standardization contexts overexploit the rights they have been granted. This may lead to the hold-up problem, which represents both a private and public concern. How to strike, then, the optimal balance between IPRs and industry standards? By answering the question, this work aims at filling a gap in the academic literature, which does not appear so far to have attempted an in-depth assessment of the right equilibrium between investment incentives and competition goals in standard setting. Any abuse of market power may harm significantly consumer well-being. At the same time, any form of control of market power should preserve the incentives of firms to invest in the market. The crucial aim, hence, is to define the optimal balance in order to avoid risks of significant losses in consumer and societal welfare.


The purpose of the present study was to prepare & characterize the colon targeted matrix tablet of dexamethasone for treatment and management of inflammation in colon cancer. The matrix tablet was prepared by wet granulation method. The matrix tablet was then coated with different concentration of shellac solution by dip coating method to prevent drug release in stomach. The prepared matrix tablets were evaluated for hardness, weight variation, friability and (in-vitro) dissolution. The in-vitro drug release of different formulation was found to be minimum 84.84±2.16 and maximum 99.41 ±0.96. The formulation F5 shows best result in in-vitro drug release.


A methodological review was conducted to critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of distinct research designs employed with a variety of populations to investigate the functions of self-injury. Identified designs included: retrospective self-report; retrospective informant report; qualitative phenomenological interviews; direct observation; ecological momentary assessment; experimental functional analysis; and lab-based self-injury proxy studies. The inclusion of multiple functional assessment methods within future studies was strongly supported.
The empirical and discussion papers focused on the functions of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury within clinical populations of adults and adolescents. Participants completed the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Inventory (Linehan, Comtois, Brown, Wagner, & Heard, 2006) to assess the reasons, antecedents, and consequences associated with different methods of self-injury. Multiple methods of self-injury, serving multiple functions, were reported by all participants. Within-person analyses found that individuals' nonsuicidal acts were intended to relieve negative emotions and punish themselves, more than their suicidal acts, and resulted in greater reductions in feeling numb/dead. Suicidal acts were intended to benefit others, preceded by intense feelings of burdensomeness, and resulted in receiving help, more than nonsuicidal acts. Within-person comparisons for individual methods of self-injury found that cutting was intended to relieve negative emotions, occurred following an argument, and resulted in the generation of pain and/or normal feelings, more than self-injury involving hitting the body.
The experience of conducting the research, and the motivation behind it, were reflected on. When considering the contribution of the findings to future theory and research, two areas were focused on: evidence for conceptualising suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury along a continuum of experiential avoidance behaviours; and evidence regarding the stability of self-injury functions across different methods, situations, and time. Specific implications were highlighted for clinical interventions aimed at addressing underlying vulnerabilities, and the multiple triggers and reinforcing consequences, of these life-threatening behaviours.


Blockchain technology has come to most people's attention through Bitcoin as the leading cryptocurrency today. But the technology can be used for a lot of other applications as a way to store decentralized data and information. Blockchains are filing their records through a continuously growing number of single "blocks" which are linked and secured using cryptography. Typically, such blockchains are managed by a peer-to-peer network using a specified protocol for validating new blocks. By storing data across an international network, this new technology is operating independently of any government or central bank as it is not residing in a specific area of influence of any given regulation or jurisdiction. Also, there is the question as to which court has jurisdiction in context of blockchain disputes based on the international and anonymous structure. These systems also offer a high level of anonymity to their participants. Given these scenarios it has to be considered that blockchains with shared use of distributed ledgers by several competitors might be a considerable risk under antitrust and competition laws. To get full value for future blockchain applications, a deep cooperation and collaboration on a common platform by all participants – that often will also be competitors – will be necessary. Although collaborating to achieve an outcome more efficiently is generally not sanctioned by antitrust laws, there are still potential antitrust concerns to be considered. And finally, due to the automatic and irreversible execution of blockchain transactions, one has also to think about technical precautions for enforcing any possible court decisions. All these challenges for the future will ask for a strong self-regulation of the market participants in the digital marketplace.


The goal of this thesis is to develop techniques for post-processing the output of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. Specifically, our approach explicitly models ASR errors, which represent an important difference between speech and text-based data, such as newspaper and newswire data. Our approach provides a tight coupling between the ASR system and the natural language processing (NLP) system analyzing its output, resulting in a richer information flow than a simple sequence of output words. We introduce a new probabilistic model for text-based information extraction that improves on previous text and speech data results for a range of ASR error conditions. We describe a method for explicitly modeling uncertainty in the ASR output, and we present our experimental results showing that our uncertainty modeling improves the performance of an information extraction system. Our experiments demonstrate that one component of our uncertainty model, word-level confidence scores, can be improved by using long range document-level and task-dependent information, in addition to the local acoustic and language model information provided by the ASR system. Our method for explicitly modeling errors allows for multiple error types, and we demonstrate improved performance by representing both out-of-vocabulary and in-vocabulary errors. We introduce a multi-pass processing framework, in which our uncertainty modeling assists in the identification of name phrases in ASR output, and the name phrases thereby identified are used to produce a better uncertainty model. The combination of the various advances in uncertainty modeling leads to a 17% reduction in the error rate of our spoken language information extraction system compared to our state-of-the-art text-based system. Finally, we describe a novel use of our text-based information extraction system to provide efficient and broad coverage of out-of-vocabulary words in the ASR data, and we use a phonetic distance ranking to order the vocabulary and to correct ASR errors. This results in a 97% reduction in the size of the vocabulary, with only a 6% decrease in the vocabulary coverage.


In this article, we examine the production of biogenic amines, histamine, putrescine, tyramine, and cadaverine by 90 strains of Oenococcus oeni isolated from different cellars of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) during wine malolactic fermentation. Amino biogenic capacity of strains was qualitatively analyzed on agar. After that, production of amines on a synthetic medium and on wine, and presence in strains of histidine, ornithine, and tyrosine decarboxylase genes were determined. Only two strains were able to produce histamine or putrescine, both on synthetic medium and wine. The presence of the corresponding genes in these strains was also confirmed. These results suggest that O. oeni does not significantly contribute to the overall biogenic amine content of wines. The main contribution of this work is the isolation of a putrescine-producing O. oeni strain that harbors the ornithine gene, since this gene appears to be rarely present in the genome of O. oeni.


Two unrelated adult males, aged 36 (patient 1) and 25 (patient 2) years, presented with subacute carnitine-deficient lipid storage myopathy that was totally and partly responsive to riboflavin supplementation in the two patients, respectively. Plasma acyl-carnitine and urinary organic acid profiles indicated multiple acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency, which was mild in patient 1 and severe in patient 2. The activities of short-chain and medium-chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenases in mitochondrial fractions were decreased, especially in patient 2. This was in agreement with Western blotting results. Flavin-dependent complexes I and II were studied by immunoblotting and densitometric quantification of two-dimensional electrophoresis with comparable results. Complex I was present in normal amounts in both patients, whereas complex II was decreased only in the pretherapy muscle of patient 2. Flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN) concentrations in muscle and isolated mitochondria, and the activity of mitochondrial FAD pyrophosphatase, showed that patient 1 had low levels of FAD (46%) and FMN (49%) in mitochondria, with a significant increase (P < 0.01) in mitochondrial FAD pyrophosphatase (273%) compared with controls. Patient 2 had similar low levels of FAD and FMN in both total muscle (FAD and FMN 22% of controls) and mitochondria (FAD 26%; FMN 16%) and normal activity of mitochondrial FAD pyrophosphatase. All of these biochemical parameters were either totally or partly corrected after riboflavin therapy.


We studied the effect of CSF drainage on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and non-NPH dementia using the 133Xenon inhalation technique. Dementia patients had lower CBF than matched elderly normals. Flow values for NPH and non-NPH patients did not differ before or after CSF drainage. CBF did not increase after lumbar puncture, and these measurements were not useful in predicting the outcome of ventricular shunt surgery. Postoperative CBF did not increase after successful shunting.


To reverse the emergency environmental degradation of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, the localgovernment enforced a new developing project – Eco-migration, which aims at bothenvironmental restoration and poverty alleviation. Within ten years' time, more than 400,000 ruralresidents were relocated. Through professional training and labor transportation, the financialcondition was largely improved. The annual income of these eco-migrants was highly raised from0.2 USD a day in 2000 to 3.51 USD a day in 2010. From the environmental perspective, morethan 70 percent of the sandy wasteland was restored. The vegetable coverage jumped up to 75percent, comparing to 30 percent in 2000. Through field study, the feedbacks from theseeco-migrants were collected. Eco-migrants were highly satisfied with the economic andenvironmental improvement. However, there are lots of improvements can be done. In one word,that's the way the government trying to achieve the goal of sustainable development, whichproviding valuable experience for future.


BACKGROUND
Nurses from low-income countries (LICs) face extreme nursing shortages, faculty shortages and a lack of professional development opportunities. Nurses from high-income countries (HICs) can leverage their wealth of resources to collaborate with nursing colleagues in LICs to expand clinical, education and research capacity. In turn, nurses from HICs gain stronger competency in the care they provide, improved communication skills and an increased understanding of global health issues.

AIM
The purpose of this literature review is to identify international nursing clinical, education and research partnerships among nurses from LICs and HICs and to analyse the degree of collaboration involved in each partnership using DeSantis' counterpart concept.

METHODS
We conducted a systematic review of international nursing partnerships in the scientific literature from January 2001 to July 2012. A total of nine articles met inclusion criteria for analysis.

FINDINGS
All of the articles discuss lessons learnt in building international nursing partnerships among nurses from HICs and LICs. However, the articles failed to meet the criteria set forth by DeSantis' counterpart concept to achieve fully collaborative nursing partnerships.

CONCLUSIONS
International nursing partnerships require more foresight and planning to create partnerships in which the benefits derived by nurses from LICs equal those of their colleagues from HICs. By striving for such collaboration, international nursing partnerships can help build nursing clinical, education and research capacity in LICs.


College major choice is one of the most complex human capital investment problems. When a recession hits, not all majors are affected in the same way. In this project, I first examine how the labor market outcomes of individuals with different majors were affected by the Great Recession using American Community Survey (ACS). I find that Psychology, Religion and Theology, and Social Service Professions are the majors that are less adversely affected by the Great Recession. I then analyze whether and how the Great Recession affected the major choices of college students in the US by utilizing state-level variation on the severity of reces- sion and using institution level data obtained from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Using differences in differences methodology, I find that there is substantial decrease in the degrees awarded in Education and sizable increase in the degrees awarded in Life Sciences, Psychology and Religion and Theology in the severely affected states during the post-recession period. The findings suggest that college students understand which majors are less adversely affected by the recession and substitute towards those majors.


Channel Bonding (CB) combines two adjacent frequency bands to form a new, wider band to facilitate high data rate transmissions in MIMO-based 802.11n networks. However, the use of a wider band with CB can exacerbate interference effects. Furthermore, CB does not always provide benefits in interference-free settings, and can even degrade performance in some cases. We conduct an in-depth, experimental study to understand the implications of CB. Based on this study we design an auto-configuration framework, ACORN, for enterprise 802.11n WLANs. ACORN integrates the functions of user association and channel allocation, since our study reveals that they are tightly coupled when CB is used. We show that the channel allocation problem with the constraints of CB is NP-complete. Thus, ACORN uses an algorithm that provides a worst case approximation ratio of [EQUATION] with Δ being the maximum node degree in the network. We implement ACORN on our 802.11n testbed. Our experiments show that ACORN (i) outperforms previous approaches that are agnostic to CB constraints; it provides per-AP throughput gains from 1.5x to 6x and (ii) in practice, its channel allocation module achieves an approximation ratio much better than [EQUATION].


Peripheral nerve neuromas are growths that develop after nerve trauma, which can result in enlarged and painful nerve ends when severed. Treatment of neuromas that form within a continuous nerve is controversial; however, success has been reported after general neurolysis with decompression of the nerve after its isolation from the surrounding scar bed. We describe a 21-year-old man who presented with symptoms of pain and intermittent numbness in his left elbow. Findings of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound confirmed the diagnosis of median nerve neuroma at the level of the forearm. He subsequently underwent neurolysis with protective nerve wrap, with complete resolution of symptoms at 6 weeks postoperatively. Surgeons may consider this surgical option in treating patients with neuromas that form within a continuous nerve.


Significant geophysical studies on Ischia Island have been recently produced based on the geological interpretation of Sparker data within marine geological projects. High resolution seismic reflection profiles (Sparker Multitip) have been presented. In this framework, new
geological data are herein provided concealing the slide deposits and the canyon systems in the Ischia offshore through seismo-stratigraphic interpretation aimed at improving the knowledge on the Ischia geologic evolution during Quaternary times. In this chapter, a stratigraphic and structural interpretation of the seismic profiles recorded in the northern Ischia Island is presented aimed at improving the knowledge of the northern Ischia coastal belt and its relationships with the emplacement of the slide deposits in the offshore surrounding the Ischia island, which has been controlled by the complex and different volcano-tectonic events.
The Casamicciola town is located in the northern Ischia sector and is characterized by an active seismicity and by the occurrence of the reworked deposits pertaining to the Ischia activity and suggesting a cyclical slope instability. The marine counter-part of this instability is represented by the wide submarine landslides which, in the Casamicciola offshore, correspond to the wide hummocky topographies observed on the Multibeam, Sidescan Sonar and seismic data.
The relationships among the seismicity and the structural elements in the Ischia Island have been studied through the macro-seismic data analysis and the structural geology. The structural analysis of the faults occurring in the volcanic deposits of the Casamicciola outcrops has evidenced a main tectonic extension, N-NNE trending in the oldest pyroclastic rocks, whose age exceeds 35 ky B.P. A secondary tectonic extension occurs along a NNW direction and seems to affect also the younger formations. The two extensional tectonic episodes have been recognized in correspondence with the E-W and WNW-ESE trending geological structures.
The hummocky area offshore the Northern Ischia Island in correspondence with the Casamicciola town has been singled out and mapped based on the Multibeam bathymetry. The hummocky deposits occupy a tongue extending from Lacco Ameno to Punta La Scrofa (northern Ischia Island) towards the Tyrrhenian sea, culminating in correspondence with the Punta Cornacchia submarine canyon's head.
The hummocky topographies, located at water depths ranging between 20 m and 180 m, show the large blocks, cropping out at the sea bottom and partly buried by the Holocene sediments. These deposits form a wide field cropping out at the sea bottom, whose shape is sub-circular. This field is bounded by the morphologic reliefs represented by the depositional levees of turbiditic slope systems, triggered by the strong erosion and by the canyon development. In fact, the portion of the sea bottom occupied by the hummocky topographies is involved by a network of erosional gullies, shown by the Multibeam bathymetric data.
The hummocky deposits (H1 and H2) are distinguished from two different bodies, which have been identified on the seismic profiles. They are characterized by an acoustically-transparent seismic facies. The H1 body is overlain by the forced regression system tract deposits (FST),
deposited on the continental shelf offshore the Casamicciola town. The occurrence of the two different wedges, which have been detected based on the seismic data interpretation, suggests that two distinct volcano-tectonic events have probably controlled the emplacement of the Casamicciola slide deposits. Moreover, the seismo-stratigraphic data collected from other authors have suggested that the incised fan-shaped valley, which develops offshore the Lacco Ameno town, should be related with the emplacement of a recent landslide event.


NASA will mark the worldwide observance of International Asteroid Day at noon EDT Friday, June 30, with a special television program featuring the agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office and other projects working to find and study near-Earth objects (NEOs). The program will air on NASA Television and the agency's website.


Environmental contour method is an efficient method for predicting the long-term extreme response of offshore structures. The traditional environmental contour is obtained using the joint distribution of mean wind speed, significant wave height, and spectral peak period. To improve the accuracy of traditional environmental contour method, a modified method was proposed considering the non-monotonic aerodynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines. Still, the modified method assumes constant wind turbulence intensity. In this paper, we extend the existing environmental contour methods by considering the wind turbulence intensity as a stochastic variable. The 50-year extreme responses of a monopile-based offshore wind turbine are compared using the extended environmental contour methods and the full long-term method. It is found that both the environmental contour method and the modified environmental contour method, with the wind turbulence intensity included as an individual variable, give more accurate predictions compared with those without. Using the full long-term method as a benchmark, this extended approach could reduce the nonconservatism of the environmental contour method and conservatism of the modified environmental contour method. This approach is effective under wind-dominated or combined wind-wave loading conditions, but may not be as important for wave-dominated conditions.


A recent New York Times article highlighted the issue on the overuse of psychotropic medications in older adults with dementias who live in the United States. It was mentioned in this report that the US government had concerns regarding the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications like aripiprazole, risperidone, olanzapine and clozapine in individuals with dementias who lived at home or at assisted living facilities and nursing homes. In view of this recent report, it is prudent to evaluate the evidence for the use of antipsychotic medications for treating behavioral symptoms of dementia.


To understand and implement the rules of etiquette for humancomputer interaction, a counter-case for the study of good etiquette is presented. The Internet is seen as a crucible for studying a wide variety of behavior that violates veracity, the foundational rule of etiquette. In the past, deceit and its attendant behaviors were exercised more or less directly but with the advent of this ubiquitous computing environment, creative and subtle forms of practicing many of the old dishonesty tricks have arisen. Further, the emergence of (intelligent) agents for both local and global computing environments has opened up new possibilities for even greater abuse. Focusing on the Internet as a forum for studying the rules of good etiquette and their abuse has many advantages, among them: the vast amounts of data and the scope for studying both human and agent deceptions and their consequences. Studies in such a context cannot help but produce useful insights that generalize to many of the morre technical domains of interest presented in this Symposium.


The NF-κB family of transcription factors is crucial for the expression of multiple genes involved in cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and inflammation. The molecular basis by which NF-κB activates endogenous promoters is largely unknown, but it seems likely that it should include the means to tailor transcriptional output to match the wide functional range of its target genes. To dissect NF-κB–driven transcription at native promoters, we disrupted the interaction between NF-κB p65 and the Mediator complex. We found that expression of many endogenous NF-κB target genes depends on direct contact between p65 and Mediator, and that this occurs through the Trap-80 subunit and the TA1 and TA2 regions of p65. Unexpectedly, however, a subset of p65-dependent genes are transcribed normally even when the interaction of p65 with Mediator is abolished. Moreover, a mutant form of p65 lacking all transcription activation domains previously identified in vitro can still activate such promoters in vivo. We found that without p65, native NF-κB target promoters cannot be bound by secondary transcription factors. Artificial recruitment of a secondary transcription factor was able to restore transcription of an otherwise NF-κB–dependent target gene in the absence of p65, showing that the control of promoter occupancy constitutes a second, independent mode of transcriptional activation by p65. This mode enables a subset of promoters to utilize a wide choice of transcription factors, with the potential to regulate their expression accordingly, whilst remaining dependent for their activation on NF-κB.


OBJECTIVE
To observe and compare the effects of two kinds of lung recruitment maneuvers, namely sustained inflation (SI) and incremental positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) (IP) on oxygenation, respiratory mechanics, and hemodynamics of dogs with severe smoke inhalation injury.

METHODS
After being treated with conventional mechanical ventilation, 12 dogs were inflicted with severe smoke inhalation injury. They were divided into group SI and group IP according to the random number table, with 6 dogs in each group. Dogs in group SI were subjected to continuous positive airway pressure ventilation, with inspiratory pressure of 25 cmH2O (1 cmH2o = 0. 098 kPa), and it was sustained for 20 s. PEEP level in group IP was gradually increased by 5 cmH2O every 5 min up to 25 cmH2O, and then it was decreased by 5 cmH2O every 5 min until reaching 2-3 cmH2O. Then the previous ventilation mode was resumed in both groups for 8 hours. Blood gas analysis (pH value, PaO2, and PaCO2), oxygenation index (OI), respiratory mechanics parameters [peak inspiratory pressure (PIP), mean airway pressure, and dynamic lung compliance], and hemodynamic parameters [heart rate, mean arterial pressure (MAP), pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), and cardiac output (CO)] were recorded or calculated before injury, immediately after injury, and at post ventilation hour (PVH) 2, 4, 6, 8. Data were processed with analysis of variance of repeated measurement and LSD-t test.

RESULTS
(1) At PVH 6 and 8, pH values of dogs in group SI were significantly lower than those in group IP (with t values respectively 2. 431 and 2. 261, P values below 0.05); PaO2 levels in group SI [(87 ± 24), (78 ± 14) mmHg, 1 mmHg =0. 133 kPa] were lower than those in group IP [ (114 ± 18) , (111 ± 17) mmHg, with t values respectively 2. 249 and 3.671, P <0.05 or P <0.01]; OI values in group SI were significantly higher than those in group IP (with t values respectively 2.363 and 5.010, P <0.05 or P <0.01). No significant differences were observed in PaCO2 level within each group or between the two groups (with t values from 0. 119 to 1. 042, P values above 0.05). Compared with those observed immediately after injury, the pH values were significantly lowered (except for dogs in group IP at PVH 6 and 8, with t values from 2.292 to 3.222, P <0.05 or P <0.01), PaO2 levels were significantly elevated (with t values from 4. 443 to 6.315, P <0.05 or P <0.01), and OI values were significantly lowered (with t values from 2.773 to 9.789, P <0.05 orP <0.01) in both groups at all the treatment time points. (2) The PIP level at each time point showed no significant differences between two groups (with t values from 0. 399 to 1. 167, P values above 0. 05). At PVH 4 and 8, the mean airway .pressure values of dogs in group SI were significantly higher than those in group IP (with t values respectively 1.926 and 1. 190, P values below 0.05). At PVH 4, 6, and 8, the dynamic lung compliance levels of dogs in group SI [(9.5 ± 1.9), (12.8 ± 2. 1), (13. 1 ± 1.8) mL/cmH2O] were significantly lower than those in group IP [(11.6 ± 1.2), (15.4 ± 1.8), (14.9 ± 0.8) mL/cmH2O], with t values respectively 2. 289, 2. 303, 2. 238, P values below 0.05. Compared with those observed immediately after injury, PIP and the mean airway pressure values of dogs in two groups were significantly lowered at each treatment time point (with t values from 2. 271 to 7. 436, P <0. 05 or P < 0.01); the dynamic lung compliance levels were significantly elevated in both groups at PVH 6 and 8 (with t values from 2. 207 to 4. 195, P < 0.05 or P <0.01). (3) Heart rate, MAP, and PAP levels at each time point between two groups showed no significant differences (with t values from 0. 001 to 1. 170, P values above 0. 05). At PVH 4, 6, and 8, CO levels in group IP [(0. 6 + 0. 3), (0. 6 + 0. 4), (0. 5 + 0. 7) L/min] were significantly lower than those in group SI [(1.5 0.7), (1.8 + 1.1), (1.6 +0.9) L/min], with t values respectively 3. 028, 2.511, 2.363, P values below 0.05. Compared with that observed immediately after injury, CO level in group IP was significantly lowered at PVH 4, 6, or 8 (with t values respectively 2. 363, 2. 302, 2. 254, P values below 0. 05).

CONCLUSIONS
Both lung recruitment maneuvers can effectively improve oxygenation and lung compliance of dogs with severe smoke inhalation injury. IP is more effective in improving lung compliance, while SI shows less impact on the hemodynamic parameters.


We present new records of Phrynops williamsi in southern Brazil and field observations that point to at least three threats to the species in the Upper Uruguay River Basin.  Our report provides for the first time direct observation of death and injuries as a consequence of falls from dams and walls of hydroelectric plants shortly after the reservoir formation, apparently as an attempt to abandon the artificial lakes and corroborates the species' dependence on lotic environments, justifying the increasing concern with its conservation in southern Brazil.


ed/indexed in: America: History & Life (ABC-CLIO); ATLA (American Theological Library Association); Cabell's Directory: Educational Technology & Library Science; Catholic Periodical & Literature Index (CPLI); Christian Periodical Index; Computer & Control Abstracts (INSPEC The Institution of Engineering & Technology); Electrical & Electronic Abstracts (INSPEC The Institution of Engineering & Technology); FirstSearch Electronic Journal Collections Online/OCLC; Guide to Social Science & Religion in Periodical Literature; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (EBSCO); Information Science & Technology Abstracts (EBSCO); Historical Abstracts; IBZ; Index to Jewish Periodicals; International Bulletin of Bibliography on Education; Iter; JournalSeek; LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts); New Testament Abstracts; OCLC Article First; Referativnyi Zhurnal; Religious & Theological Abstracts; Informed Librarian, The Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. Journal of Religious & Theological Information (ISSN: 1047-7845) is published in print annually in December by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Journal of Religious & Theological Information (Online ISSN: 1528-6924) is published quarterly in March, June, September, and November by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. US Postmaster: Please send address changes to Journal of Religious & Theological Information, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Annual Subscription, Volume 15, 2016 Print ISSN – 1047-7845, Online ISSN 1528-6924 Institutional subscribers: $206, £168, €243 Personal subscribers: $73, £51, €62 An institutional subscription to the print edition includes free access to the online edition for any number of concurrent users across a local area network. Production and Advertising Office: 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel-215-625-8900, Fax-215-207-0047. Production Editor: Laura Fisher Subscription offices USA/North America: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 215-625-8900, Fax: 215-207-0050. UK/Europe: Taylor & Francis Customer Service, Sheepen Place, Colchester, Essex CO3 3LP, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5544; Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 5198. For a complete guide to Taylor & Francis Group's journal and book publishing programs, visit our website: www.taylorandfrancis.com. Copyright C © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, grants authorization for individuals to photocopy copyright material for private research use on the sole basis that requests for such use are referred directly to the requester's local Reproduction Rights Organization (RRO), such as the Copyright Clearance Center (www.copyright.com) in the USA or the Copyright Licensing Agency (www.cla.co.uk) in the UK. This authorization does not extend to any other kind of copying by any means, in any form, and for any purpose other than private research use. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any statements of fact or opinion expressed in the published papers. The appearance of advertising in this journal does not constitute an endorsement or approval by the publisher, the editor, or the editorial board of the quality or value of the product advertised or of the claims made for it by its manufacturer. Instructions for authors can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wrti. Permissions. For further information, please visit http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/permissions.asp


Recently, tight network coordination in cellular systems has been demonstrated to improve the spectrum efficiency by means of signal processing methods. However, the performance of signal processing based multi-cell coordination is sensitive to backhaul delays, channel estimation errors and imperfections in fast link control. In this paper we consider tight network coordination for fast radio resource management (RRM) including packet scheduling, power control and modulation and coding scheme selection. We use a system level simulator to analyze the uplink performance of a multi-cell coordinated system that is built around a fast backhaul transport infrastructure for the purpose of enabling coordinated RRM rather than coordinated signal processing. We find that coordinated RRM alone can provide significant performance gains, up to 50% for cell edge and cell capacity as compared to traditional single-cell configurations and that multi-cell fast power control and modulation and coding scheme selection can significantly improve the accuracy of link adaptation in terms of signal-to-interference-and-noise (SINR) distribution, while imposing lower demands on the capacities of backhaul links compared to coordinated signal processing. Therefore RRM coordination can be an efficient complement to coordinated signal processing in multi-cell coordinated clusters.


This article analyses factors influencing farmers' willingness-to-pay for dipping services, as well as the revealed preference for dipping frequency using the multivariate and the logistic regression models. The study is based on a cross sectional survey of 125 small-scale cattle farmers interviewed in the Venda region of the Northern Province. Empirical multivariate and the logistic regression analysis show that liquidity, human resource, satisfaction with the programme and structure of production significantly influences farmers' willingness-to-pay. However, the most important factor influencing both the willingness-to-pay and the dipping frequency is liquidity (employment). The results of this study have important implications for the delivery of veterinary services particularly in developing regions.


Text visualization has become a growing and increasingly important subfield of information visualization. Thus, it is getting harder for researchers to look for related work with specific tasks or visual metaphors in mind. In this poster, we present an interactive visual survey of text visualization techniques that can be used for the purposes of search for related work, introduction to the subfield and gaining insight into research trends.


The article provides an analysis of the role of the folk costumes in the attempts to revitalize an authentic cultural identity within a geographical region and to oppose the effects of external cultural influence. The inhabitants of La Huasteca region in Hidalgo, Mexico, perceive Halloween imported to Mexico through international migration and media in the decade of 1980 as potential threat to the local tradition of the Day of the Dead. The costumes used for the Miss Cempoalxochitl contest, a pageant performed on November 1 and initiated in Tehuetlan in 1989, display important items of the celebration to reinforce the Day of the Dead ritual, to rebuild La Huasteca region and the Huasteco identity, and to create a direct kinship with the Toltecs. This ritual, celebrated once a year to gather the living and their dead relatives, has economic, cultural, and social functions, which are fostered through the Miss Cempoalxochitl beauty pageant.


Theoretically, the effect of household cash transfers depends on how businesses respond to the demand shock and on the resulting effect on prices. Such market effects have been largely overlooked in the literature, which mostly focuses on direct impacts on households. We study the impact of a household cash transfer program on retail businesses operating in two refugee sites in Kenya. Refugees receive a monthly mobile money transfer that can only be spent at licensed businesses. We compare licensed and unlicensed businesses, using matching methods to control for all variables considered in the licensing process. We show that licensed businesses- have much higher revenues and profits and charge higher prices than unlicensed businesses. The cash transfer program created a parallel retail market in which a limited number of businesses enjoy high market power. We identify a series of market imperfections explaining the results.


Abstract Antifouling extracts from the sea stars Astropecten articulatus and Luidia clathrata and from the brittle star Astrocyclus caecilia were fractionated by solid phase extraction and high performance liquid chromatography. Bioactive fractions were identified with the use of computer-assisted motion analysis-based bioassays utilising previously described Hincksia irregularis spore swimming behaviour parameters. Quantified parameters of spore movement were rate of change of direction (RCD) and speed (SPEE). The methods used initially required only 10 μg equivalent amounts of total crude extract and each resultant resolving step (normalised to 1 mg ml−1 of crude, unfractionated extract) required far less material. Statistical analyses of RCD and ratios of RCD:SPEE values in experiments comparing swimming in the presence of extract fractions to controls revealed that both parameters were useful individually and in combination for efficiently following compound bioactivity throughout the fractionation procedure. This technique was also able to detect synergistic or additive interactions between compounds.


Many therapeutic applications of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing rely on delivery using the highly versatile adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector. The smallest type II Cas9 ortholog-Cje1Cas9, derived from Campylobacter jejuni with <1,000 amino acids-is particularly attractive for AAV delivery. However, the complex protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) of Cje1Cas9 (N3VRYAC) greatly restricts the density of recognition sequences in human genome. In this study, we identify two compact CjeCas9 orthologs designated as Cje2Cas9 and Cje3Cas9, whose PAM-interacting residues are different from those of the well-known Cje1Cas9. They can induce efficient genome editing in human cells, and their simpler trinucleotide PAM (N4CYA) requirements expand the scope of targeting. Moreover, Cje3Cas9 efficiently disrupts the Tyr gene in mice after being micro-injected into zygotes with the corresponding sgRNA. It also successfully disrupts the Pcsk9 gene in 8-week-old mouse liver after delivery with an sgRNA using an all-in-one AAV delivery vehicle. The gene-edited mice showed lower cholesterol level than wild-type mice. Notably, the 8e-nCje3-ABE and an sgRNA targeting Pcsk9 were successfully packaged into a single AAV vector for genome editing in adult mouse liver, with editing efficiency up to 12%. Thus, simple PAMs and a compact size enable Cje2/3Cas9 to expand the target scope of CRISPR-Cas9 toolsets, exhibiting considerable potential for therapeutic applications.


BACKGROUND: Roux–en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is the most successful treatment for obesity that results in sustained, long-term weight loss and improved insulin sensitivity. Generally, these benefits are mediated by gut peptides such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). However, their role(s) in some scenarios is yet to be investigated, for example in some patients who, following weight-reducing surgery, develop chronic intolerable nausea and vomiting (N&V) symptoms, in those undergoing a primary obesity surgery endoluminal (POSE) procedure, a new less invasive, incisionless weight-loss technique that seems to be effective for losing weight, or in ethnicities that have a high prevalence of obesity. Therefore, the aim(s) were to investigate systemic GLP-1 concentrations in three separate groups: 1) patients with prolonged N&V after metabolic surgery (Study I), 2) patients who had POSE for weight loss, compared to RYGB (Study II), and 3) an obesityprone, Arab population (Study III). METHODS: Study I: female non-diabetic subjects were studied in five groups. Group 1: patients with N&V after RYGB surgery. Group 2: patients with no symptoms after RYGB surgery. Group 3: morbidly obese patients. Group 4: obese/overweight subjects. Group 5: lean healthy subjects. Study II: female subjects were studied before surgery (POSE and RYGB), and 1 week, 2 months and 6 months after surgery, in the fasting and postprandial states. Study III: Arab non-diabetic female subjects were studied before and after a 388.6-kcal liquid mixed-meal challenge. Blood was collected in the fasting and postprandial states after a defined meal challenge (182.7-kcal meal used in Study I and 388.6-kcal meal used in Studies II and III). Systemic concentrations of glucose, lipids, insulin, GLP-1 and adipokines were determined using a routine chemistry analyser (Roche) or commercial ELISA. Subcutaneous (SC) adipose tissue organ cultures were incubated with recombinant GLP-1, and leptin concentrations were detected from the conditioned medium. RESULTS: Study (I): subjects with N&V post-RYGB had significantly elevated fasting GLP-1 levels compared to those without N&V (p = 0.035) and compared to morbidly obese, obese/overweight and lean subjects. Weight loss and glucose, insulin and GLP-1 response to a 180-kcal meal challenge were similar in subjects with and without N&V. Fasting plasma leptin was significantly lower in subjects with N&V compared to those without N&V (p = 0.04). In vitro, leptin secretion was inhibited by GLP-1. Study (II): both POSE and RYGB patients lost a significant amount of weight early after surgery, with a concomitant decrease in leptin. However, only RYGB patients continued to lose weight at 6 months. Adiponectin increased at 2 and 6 months, and serum lipid levels were unchanged. First-phase responses (30 minutes) of insulin and GLP-1 were dramatically increased 1 week after RYGB only. Study (III): in the non-diabetic Arab subjects, the mixed meal provoked a similar GLP-1 response to that reported in Caucasians. However, even in this apparently healthy population, postprandial hyperinsulinemia was evident. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects with persistent N&V post-RYGB surgery had elevated fasting GLP-1 levels related to their symptoms. Inhibiting GLP-1 with antagonists might help to ameliorate these symptoms. However, potential detrimental effects on weight maintenance and insulin sensitivity need to be considered. GLP-1 directly inhibits leptin secretion, so a decreased leptin level early after RYGB might be explained by an elevated GLP-1 level, and this could at least partially be explained by the alteration in GLP-1. POSE provides reasonable short-term weight loss without having an effect on GLP-1 in the morbidly obese but it is not as effective as RYGB. Finally, no significant lesion in systemic GLP-1 levels was seen in a cohort that could explain the obesity phenomenon in this population.


Despite the widely held belief that organisational performance can be enhanced through the alignment of information technology (IT) and business strategy, alignment remains a top concern for IT and business executives. This means that the challenges of attaining strategic alignment have not been overcome. Environmental uncertainty, in particular, is one of the key challenges to achieving strategic alignment.  Organisations continually adapt their strategies due to rapid changes in the market, technology and regulations. Either the business strategy changes and the IT strategy has to adapt to remain in alignment, or new IT emerges and business and IT strategies have to be revised to seize opportunities. Changes in the regulations can also have a significant impact on organisational strategy. Uncertainty increases the difficulty of understanding the environment and places executives in a challenging situation with regard to strategic decision making. It is thus important for executives to develop an understanding of the effect of environmental uncertainty on strategic alignment.  This issue has received little attention in the alignment literature. The literature presents mixed arguments on the effect of environmental uncertainty on strategic alignment. There is literature which explain the implications of the antecedents of strategic alignment; however, it does not consider these antecedents in the context of a highly uncertain environment. Hence, the objective of this research is to identify the extent of the impact of environmental uncertainty on strategic alignment and to determine how this affects the impact of other antecedents.  This research adopts a post-positivist approach. Using the perspectives of the resource-based theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm, a conceptual model is presented which examines the impact of antecedents and environmental uncertainty on strategic alignment. Three antecedents – shared domain knowledge, relationship management, and prior IS success – were selected as key antecedents. Environmental uncertainty was also proposed as an antecedent. This research assumes that the effect of these antecedents on strategic alignment is mediated by two managerial practices: communication and planning connection. Based on data collected from 212 organisations in Sri Lanka, the conceptual model is tested against the research objective. As a developing country, Sri Lanka has a highly turbulent environment and thus provides a suitable setting in which to examine the impact of environmental uncertainty on strategic alignment. Partial Least Squares structural equation modelling is used to test the conceptual model.  The results reveal that environmental uncertainty has a positive impact on strategic alignment and that it is mediated by managerial practices. All the antecedents were also found to have a positive effect on managerial practices. As a managerial practice, planning connection has the stronger influence on strategic alignment, while communication plays a contingent role in the alignment process. Moreover, organisation size also has an influence on the alignment process. The relative influence of antecedents and environmental uncertainty differs between SMEs and large organisations. This suggests that the mechanisms used to attain strategic alignment vary by organisational size.  The findings contribute to the literature and practice of strategic alignment in several ways. One of the contributions is the introduction of environmental uncertainty as an antecedent to strategic alignment and the identification of the influence of three sources of uncertainty: market uncertainty, technological uncertainty and regulatory uncertainty. Another contribution is a theoretical explanation of the strategic alignment process using the resource-based theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm. Further, this research extends the validity of the alignment process to a developing country context. From the practitioners' point of view, this research provides valuable guidance about aligning IT strategy with business strategies in an uncertain environment. Moreover, this research provides prescriptive insights for attaining business–IT alignment for both SMEs and large organisations.


Research Methods: The Basics is an accessible, user-friendly introduction to the different aspects of research theory, methods and practice. This second edition provides an expanded resource suitable for students and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines including the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Structured in two parts - the first covering the nature of knowledge and the reasons for research, the second the specific methods used to carry out effective research and how to propose, plan, carry out and write up a research project - this book covers:

* Reasons for doing a research project
* Structuring and planning a research project
* The ethical issues involved in research
* Different types of data and how they are measured
* Collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data in order to draw sound conclusions
* Mixed methods and interdisciplinary research
* Devising a research proposal and writing up the research
* Motivation and quality of work.

Complete with a glossary of key terms and guides to further reading, this book is an essential text for anyone coming to research for the first time
(Book Depository)


Irresponsible driving is one of the leading causes of mishaps & deaths in the world today. The present work aims at developing a preventive solution to this problem in the form of a driving aid for drunk drivers or people who are not in a fit state to drive. The said system proposes to enhance certain existing frameworks using image processing. Haar-wavelet classifiers & Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm are used to analyze images of the drivers' eyes & patterns of movement to judge if they are eligible to drive. These complement the existing sensors, like the odor sensor, and help the system reach a confident decision. We plan to take this system further by creating collaborative MANETs among vehicles for preventing potential harm to other drivers as well.


Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) has now become a core lightweight hardware-intrinsic cryptographic primitive for device identification and authentication to secure edge computing in Internet of Things (IoT). The main challenge in most delay-based PUF implementations is the rival of response uniqueness and reliability. Due to routing constraint, implementation of delay-based strong PUF on FPGA tends to have either poorer reliability under varying operational conditions or vulnerably high predictability. Therefore, the design of high quality strong PUF often entails tradeoff between reliability and unpredictability (including uniqueness and randomness). Arbiter PUF is one of the most popular structures for FPGA implementation. It suffers from relatively low reliability and high susceptibility to machine learning attacks due to the linearity of its cascaded switch mode delay representation model. To overcome both problems simultaneously, we dichotomize the challenges to winnow out the unreliably weak challenges and obfuscate the remaining reliable strong challenges to increase its unpredictability against machine learning attacks. The security A-PUF is hardened at the expense of small hardware and latency overhead in preprocessing the challenges.


The present commentary delineates the scope of quantum-based artificial intelligence (AI) in confronting the escalating need for eco-friendly sources of energy. Contemporary concerns regarding the detrimental impacts of conventional energy sources on the environment have led to the exploration of alternative and sustainable options. The amalgamation of quantum computing and AI is a potentially effective remedy for the existing energy crisis. The present analysis explores the theoretical underpinnings of quantum artificial intelligence and its palpable ramifications in the energy realm. It highlights the capacity of quantum AI to enhance energy efficiency, reduce waste, and minimize the detrimental impact of energy production on the environment. Experimental techniques, such as solar irradiation, wind velocity, and pumped-water energy storage, were utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of quantum AI in predicting renewable energy generation. Several information models and machine learning techniques have been examined to identify models that yield accurate predictions of renewable energy generation. The results demonstrate that quantum AI can easily perform complex quantum sub-atomic simulations, making it a valuable tool in the fields of computational science and molecular physics. A quantum AI-powered automated robotic system is proposed to optimize energy management. The implementation of a monitoring system that monitors energy consumption levels, mechanizes the production and distribution processes of energy, and anticipates future energy demands in real time, renders it an indispensable device for both energy conglomerates and policymakers. This study ascertains that the amalgamation of quantum computing and artificial intelligence harbors substantial potential for sustainable energy generation, marked by streamlined energy production, minimal waste generation, and ecoconservation. The present investigation furnishes insightful observations pertaining to the potential benefits of quantum artificial intelligence for the purpose of ensuring sustainable energy production. Additionally, it presents a roadmap for future research in this area.


This thesis attempts to unravel the essence of the state in the Gulf Arab countries. The study's main argument is that the Gulf Emirates have been able to manipulate the oil wealth and create what appear to be modern states. The Gulf ruling families were confronted, however, with the dilemma of introducing the kind of civil society that accompanies modernity. They have been able to survive and legitimate their dominion by exploiting religion as the state ideology. Traditional patriarchal norms and cultures have been maintained by the ruling tribes in the Gulf. The issue of citizenship and citizens' rights has rarely been debated in regard to the Gulf. However, this is one of the main problems of the contemporary situation in the Gulf states. This study concentrates on this issue by means of a review of the media. The Gulf media have been utilised to promote the modem patriarchal structure of the state. The main body of the thesis examines the media in relation to two main issues: foreign workers in the Gulf and Gulf women. The final chapter of the thesis, however, exposes the fact that Gulf journalists themselves have no rights and that at times of crisis the tenuous autonomy they enjoy withers. A major crisis occurred very recently to reinforce this argument. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and the deployment of foreign troops in the Gulf created a further complication for the Gulf ruling families. They were forced to allow foreign - mainly American and British journalists- to cover the war, but they compelled national reporters to use material which was filtered through the foreign press.


ABSTRACT In spite of research efforts to develop vaccines against the causative agent of human malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, effective control remains elusive. The predominant vaccine strategy focuses on targeting parasite blood stages in the vertebrate host. An alternative approach has been the development of transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs). TBVs target antigens on parasite sexual stages that persist within the insect vector, anopheline mosquitoes, or target mosquito midgut proteins that are presumed to mediate parasite development. By blocking parasite development within the insect vector, TBVs effectively disrupt transmission and the resultant cascade of secondary infections. Using a mosquito midgut-specific mouse monoclonal antibody (MG96), we have partially characterized membrane-bound midgut glycoproteins in Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles stephensi. These proteins are present on the microvilli of midgut epithelial cells in both blood-fed and unfed mosquitoes, suggesting that the expression of the protein is not induced as a result of blood feeding. MG96 exhibits a dose-dependent blocking effect against Plasmodium yoelii development in An. stephensi. We achieved 100% blocking of parasite development in the mosquito midgut. Preliminary deglycosylation assays indicate that the epitope recognized by MG96 is a complex oligosaccharide. Future investigation of the carbohydrate epitope as well as gene identification should provide valuable insight into the possible mechanisms of ookinete attachment and invasion of mosquito midgut epithelial cells.