Abstract Nosema ceranae is a pathogen of Apis mellifera, which seems to have jumped from its original host Asiatic honey bee Apis ceranae. Nosemosis which affects the honey bee Apis mellifera is caused by two parasitic fungi described as etiologic agents of the disease. Nosema apis was the only microsporidian infection identified in A. mellifera until N. ceranae in Taiwan and Europe. Nosema spp. positive samples of adult worker bees from the Venezuelean state of Lara were determined through light microscopy of spores. Samples were then tested to determine Nosema species (N.apis/N.ceranae) using previously reported PCR primers for the 16S rRNA gene. A multiplex PCR assay was used to differentiate both N. apis and N. ceranae species. Only N. ceranae was found in the analyzed samples and the percentage of infected foragers fluctuated between 18% and 60%.


This dissertation focused on the impact of circulation, a key climate variable, on air quality from regional to global scale. The relationships between circulation and tropospheric ozone (O3) levels were investigated for the surface over the northeastern U.S. as well as for the spring-, winterand summertime North American export and trans-Atlantic Transport. The latter studies utilized the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) retrievals of O3 and carbon monoxide (CO) to explore the three-dimensional structure of continental outflow and to identify anthropogenic influence on the free troposphere over the remote oceanic region. The key findings are summarized as follows. First, the most common among the top five circulation patterns across the northeastern U.S. for summers 2000-2004, identified with a correlation-based synoptic categorization technique, was associated with stagnant warm conditions that were intimately associated with occurrence of high O3. O 3 varied on an interannual timescale from a mean daily maximum value of 64 ppbv in 2002 to 52 ppbv in 2004. The sea level pressure (SLP) system intensity and frequency of each map type accounted for 46% of the interannual variability. The remainder was possibly due to non-linear relationships between climate and biogenic emissions and decreasing power plant emissions over the analysis period. Second, during spring continental export was evident from enhanced O3 (>55 ppbv) and CO (>115 ppbv) at the 681 hPa retrieval level suggesting anthropogenic influence. The export was found to be facilitated by both the primary and secondary branches of the warm conveyor belt (WCB) of cyclones which lofted pollutants from the continental boundary layer to the free troposphere enabling fast long distance transport with subsequent global impact. Ample evidence suggested stratospheric intrusions associated with cyclonic circulations particularly to the north of 45°N. Third, during winter the O3 levels at 681 hPa were uniformly low (∼45 ppbv) and the continental export was only evident in enhanced CO. Export to the free troposphere was mainly via the WCB and shallow convection behind cold fronts resulting from cold air flowing over warmer ocean waters. In summer O3 levels were highly variable and the main export band was shifted northward around the Bermuda High, except during the passage of weak cyclones and cold fronts when export was shifted further south.


The mortality of thoracic aortic diseases (mainly aneurysms and dissections) is high, even with surgical treatment. Epidemiology and long-term outcomes are incompletely investigated. Stroke is a major complication contributing to mortality, morbidity, and possibly to reduced quality of life. Study I Increasing incidence of thoracic aortic diseases 1987 – 2002 was demonstrated (n=14229). Annual number of operations increased eight-fold. Overall long-time survival was 92%, 77%, and 57% at 1, 5, and 10 years. Risk of operative and long-term mortality was reduced across time. Study II 2634 patients operated on the proximal thoracic aorta (Swedish Heart Surgery register) were examined. Aortic valve replacement, coronary revascularization, emergency operation, and age were independently associated with surgical death. Long-term mortality was similar for aneurysms and dissections. Operative mortality was reduced (13.7% vs 7.2%) for aneurysms but remained unchanged (22.3% vs 22.4%) for dissections across time. Study III 65 patients underwent selective antegrade cerebral perfusion (SACP) uni- or bilaterally. Stroke was significantly more common after unilateral SACP (29% vs 8%, p=0.045), confirmed by propensity score-matched analysis. Subclavian artery cannulation with Seldinger-technique entailed vascular complication in one case (1.5%). Study IV Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to monitor cerebral tissue saturation (rSO2) during SACP in 46 patients. Lower rSO2 were encountered (1) in patients suffering a stroke (2) with unilateral SACP, and (3) in the affected hemisphere of stroke victims. A decrease of rSO2 by 14 – 21% from baseline increased the risk of stroke significantly. Study V Quality of life (QoL) in 76 survivors of thoracic aortic surgery was examined with the SF-36 health questionnaire. Except for pain, QoL was reduced in all dimensions. QoL was not affected by acuity of operation. Tendencies of lower QoL after descending aortic operations, after major complications, and with persistent dysfunction were non-significant.


Symptoms of lower limb chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) are related to hypertension in vena cava inferior system. All changes that take place in macrocirculatory segment of hemodynamics are reflected at microcirculatory level, including metabolic and trophic processes -- the most important function of microcirculation, which is named "transcapillary exchange". Endothelial dysfunction and blood-venous wall interface changes play a crucial role in the development of pathology. Drug therapy remains the main and integral part of CVI treatment. One of its aims is to protect venous wall, normalize permeability and alleviate CVI symptoms at microcirculatory level. Antistax efficiency in patients with CVI was demonstrated in several trials and warranted the inclusion of this drug into complex treatment of lower limb CVI.


Recently MPI implementations have been extended to support accelerator devices, Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) and nVidia GPU. This has been accomplished by changes to different levels of the software stacks and MPI implementations. In order to evaluate performance and scalability of accelerator aware MPI libraries, we developed portable micro-benchmarks to indentify factors that influence efficincies of primitive MPI point-to-point and collective operations. These benchmarks have been implemented in OpenACC, CUDA and OpenCL. On the Intel MIC platform, existing MPI benchmarks can be executed with appropriate mapping onto the MIC and CPU cores. Our results demonstrate that the MPI operations are highly sensitive to the memory and I/O bus configurations on the node. The current implemetation of MIC on-node communication interface exhibit additional limitations on the placement of the card and data transfers over the memory bus.


Abstract The present study explored light pollution as it may be produced by on premise identification signs. More than just "storefront" signs, on premise identification signs can also be found on the property of professional offices, financial institutions, corporate headquarters, governmental agencies, and medical offices. The present study did not examine off premise signs, such as billboards or outdoor advertising. Relevant literature and light pollution standards as they pertain to on premise sign lighting were reviewed and photometric measurements were taken of light emitted by in-service on premise signs representative of the various sign illumination modes and sign designs employed by the on premise sign industry. Data were collected on 58 internally illuminated, externally illuminated, neon, and channel letter signs. While there were some particularly bright signs, the majority of the signs tested fell below the photometric levels believed to be associated with light pollution.


This paper is to illustrate the Cellular Differential Evolution with the cellular structure originated from Cellular automata. Cellular neighbor local search has been designed; base vector or global best in mutation operator is substituted by neighborhood-best, which overcomes the weakness of single selection relating to global best, and balances the contradiction of local and global search, and improves the diversity of population. In addition, cellular structure ensures information exchange, inheritance and diffusion. Finally, a specific algorithm has been implemented: compared with similar variants of DE, the simulation results on 9 benchmark functions demonstrate that cellular differential evolutions are provided with obvious advantages in the solution-quality, stability and speed.


The effects of intravenous carrier-free salmon calcitonin on renal clearances of phosphate, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium were studied in male parathyroid-ectomized (PTX) and intact rats. Both natural and synthetic hormone, when infused at constant rates (0.005 approximately 0.5 MRC U/hr), produced a rapid increase (peaking at about 60-90 min) in phosphate clearance. However, the maximal increase was transient in nature in PTX rats. In intact rats, the phosphaturic response was somewhat more pronounced and the decline after the peak was rather modest. When a large amount (4 MRC U) of calcitonin was given in divided doses, the second dose produced a lesser extent of phosphaturia in both intact and PTX rats. The phosphaturic response was accompanied by an increase in sodium and potassium clearances in PTX rats and by an increase in potassium clearance in intact rats. A fall in the apparent clearance values for calcium and magnesium occurred and was maintained throughout the infusion period of hormone in both intact and PTX rats. In conclusion, PTX rats respond to the intravenous administration of salmon calcitonin with a transient phosphaturic response which is accompanied by parallel diuresis of sodium and potassium along with sustained retention of calcium and magnesium by the kidney.


Abstract We report acute fatal pasteurellosis in wild big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) in Wisconsin, USA. Mortality of approximately 100 bats was documented over 4 wk, with no evidence for predatory injuries. Pasteurella multocida serotype 1 was isolated from multiple internal organs from four of five bats examined postmortem.


The paper investigates the impact of EMU on foreign direct investment flows. Using the option value approach to investment decisions, it is possible to show how exchange rate uncertainty hinders cross-border investment flows. By permanently fixing bilateral exchange rates, a currency union can then be expected to spur international investment. Results from a gravity model on a sample of OECD countries confirm the hypothesis that currency unions have a positive impact on FDI; moreover, adopting the same currency appears to do more than merely eliminating exchange rate volatility. These findings closely resemble those recently obtained in the trade literature. JEL Codes: F15, F21.


OBJECTIVE--To examine coronary flow reserve immediately after emergency coronary angioplasty in patients with acute myocardial infarction. DESIGN--A 3 F coronary Doppler catheter was used to measure coronary blood flow velocity in the infarct artery and in the non-infarct artery. Maximal hyperaemia was produced by 10 mg of intracoronary papaverine and coronary flow reserve was calculated. PATIENTS--11 patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing both emergency coronary angioplasty (4.7 (3.6) h after the onset of chest pain (mean (SD))) and at follow up catheterisation 16 (4) days after angioplasty. SETTING--Hiroshima City Hospital. RESULTS--There was no stenosis of > or = 50% in the coronary artery of interest. Immediately after coronary angioplasty the mean (1 SD) coronary flow reserve of the infarct artery was significantly less than that of the non-infarct artery (1.4 (0.4) v 2.8 (0.8), p < 0.001). At follow up catheterisation the coronary flow reserve of the infarct artery increased almost to the value of the non-infarct artery (2.8 (1.2) v 3.1 (0.8) p = NS). CONCLUSION--The coronary flow reserve in the infarct region was severely impaired immediately after reperfusion, even with a widely patent infarct artery. This could restrict the beneficial effects of reperfusion therapy, especially when there is a severe residual stenosis.


This article reviews findings from a first survey of employers' views on collective bargaining reform that now forms the centrepiece of post-apartheid South Africa's experiment with 'democratic corporatism'. Using factor analysis, three constructs have been identified that inform employer attitudes to a revised system of sectoral bargaining: 'autonomous capacity'; 'conditional association'; 'external threat'. Despite the potential for anomie, these factors appear significant in the way they consistently explain an employer's orientation towards associational membership and, by proxy, sectoral bargaining. Moreover, at least two-thirds of responding firms identified strongly with each of the three factors but, typically, firms with weak capacity and in need of collective protection from the other actors are most likely to associate. Regression analysis further reveals company well-being, foreign ownership and union presence to have a significant impact on these three factors to varying degrees. Equally, two of the factors (autonomous capacity and external threat) impact significantly on an employer's tolerance of free-riding in others and on the temptation to do so for oneself. Overall, for this sample of firms, employer bodies are to be viewed more as 'political devices' than as 'economic agents' in the immediate aftermath of political liberation. In this sense, they are different from their European counter-parts. However, there is an increasing likelihood of this changing as the flexibility agenda looms ever larger in employers' minds and as issues of 'political insecurity' correspondingly fade.


The food and agriculture could be a driver of the economy in Russia if intensive growth factors were mainly used. In particular, it is necessary to adjust the food export structure to fit reality better. This problem implies longterm forecasting of the commodity combinations and export directions which could provide a persistent export gain in the future. Unfortunately, the existing solutions for food market forecasting tackle mainly with short-term prediction, whereas structural changes in a whole branch of an economy can last during years. Long-term food market forecasting is a tricky one because food markets are quite unstable and export values depend on a variety of different features. The paper provides a multi-step data-driven framework which uses multimodal data from various databases to detect these commodities and export directions. We propose the quantile nonlinear autoregressive exogenous model together with pre-filtering to tackle with such long-term prediction tasks. The framework also considers textual information from mass-media to assess political risks related to prospective export directions. The experiments show that the proposed framework provides more accurate predictions then widely used ARIMA model. The expert validation of the obtained result confirms that the framework could be useful for export diversification.


A post-discharge flow that is formed downstream of a microwave argon plasma in atmospheric air was investigated to clarify the generation and transport of chemical species, which are considered to result in the inactivation of bacteria. The flow, which is characterized by ultra-weak emission, can be visualized using an optical analysis system. This visualized jet-like flow forms downstream of the nozzle exit, and then, as the gas temperature is 877 K at the center of the nozzle exit, the main flow travels upstream around the quartz tube due to buoyancy, the reason being that the temperature decreases to room temperature at 30 mm downstream. It was clarified that excited argon atoms, molecular nitrogen (N2 second positive system) and OH radicals were generated in the post-discharge flow, subsequent to which NO2 and ions with a number density of 106 counts cm-3 were transported downstream below the main flow. These results imply that most of the heat and chemical species were transported by convective transport of the main flow, but that a small amount of chemically active species and ions might have been transported further downstream by diffusive transport, these species being considered to result in an inactivation effect on bacteria.


Purpose: This study aimed at evaluating the pattern of changes in estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and the HER2 expression in primary and recurrent breast cancer. Methods: In the study, we analyzed the changes of the ER and PR and the HER2 immunohistochemical expression to identify the patterns of changes and the predictive factors for the changes in 153 patients with primary and recurrent breast cancer between 1991 and 2005. Results: There was a significant decrease in the positive rate of ER (50.3% to 38.6%, p<0.001), PR (43.8% to 26.8%, p= 0.0095) and the HER2 (40.3% to 36.3%, p<0.001) expression in the primary breast cancers and recurrent breast cancers. The rate of triple negativity (ER/PR/HER2: all negative) was increased from 25.8% to 43.5% (p<0.001). Among 44 (28.6%) patients with changes in ER and ER status changed from positive to negative in 31 patients (20.3%) and negative to positive in 13 patients (8.3%) (p=0.007). For 58 patients (37.9%) who showed a change of the PR, the PR status changed from positive to negative in 42 patients (27.5%) and vice versa in 16 patients (10.4%) (p=0.0006). Twenty one patients (16.9%) changed from HER2 positive to HER2 negative and vice versa in 9 patients (7.3%) (p=0.029) among the 30 patients (24.2%) with changes in the HER2 expression. A multivariate analysis indicated that hormonal therapy was a significant factor that had an influence on the ER (odds ratio, 4.4) and PR (odds ratio, 2.6) changes. There were no significant differences in the survival rates according to the changes of the ER and PR, and the HER2 expression. Conclusion: The more common changes from positive to negative among the ER, PR, and HER2 indicated poor tumor biology of recurrent tumor. Therefore, the assessment of the ER, PR, and HER2 statuses is important for effectively treating recurrent breast cancer and especially those who have a previous history of hormonal therapy although survival benefit was not observed in this study.


With the increasing seriousness of climate change problem, carbon footprint has become a very useful method to measure carbon emissions and has been widely accepted. In modern industry, electricity is almost consumed in all industry processes, and electricity is the first "footprint" of most products. As carbon emissions is always measured by theoretical estimation from input inventory but not experimental data, the input inventory of electricity generation becomes very important in carbon footprint analysis. Electricity generation is a very complex process, where all input items inter-dependant on each other and the whole system is an infinite cycle net. But in the traditional calculation model of input inventory, the interaction effect of production system is usually neglected. The major work of this study is to make clear the carbon emissions of provision 1kWh thermal power generation to consumers in China in 2006, since thermal power generation takes the most proportion of Chinese electricity. This study used a matrix-based model which includes interaction effect of the system to calculate the input inventory of electricity generation, and then the carbon emissions of thermal electricity generation in China in 2006 can be calculated. The final result of this paper can be used in carbon footprint, Life Cycle Assessment or some other related fields.


Gender gaps on the most widely used conceptual inventories created by physics education researchers have been extensively studied. Most of the research exploring the consistent gender gaps has been performed at the student level using the total evaluation score; less research has been performed examining these assessments at the item level and this research has been predominately restricted to the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Many studies have identified subsets of FCI items as unfair to either men or women. An item is fair if men and women of equal ability in conceptual physics score equally on the item. This study explored the item-level gender fairness of the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM). Classical test theory and differential item functioning (DIF) analysis were employed to examine item fairness. Fairness was investigated with four large post-test samples, two for the FMCE ( n 1 ¼ 3016 , n 2 ¼ 3719 ) and two for the CSEM ( n 1 ¼ 2014 , n 2 ¼ 2657 ). Men and women performed significantly differently on the majority of FMCE items but with no more than a small effect size. There were fewer items in the CSEM where men and women performed differently. Using DIF analysis, which assumes that overall test score is an accurate measure of ability, only one item in the FMCE demonstrated large DIF in both samples with that item unfair to women. One additional item showed large DIF in a single sample, also unfair to women. Only one item in the CSEM demonstrated large DIF. The item was unfair to men but this result was not consistent across all samples. The number of large DIF items identified in both the FMCE and the CSEM was substantially smaller than the number of large DIF items identified in the FCI by previous studies.


The agriculture and agri-food sector faces a number of challenges such as rapid technological change, increased competition and changes in consumer requirements. The sector therefore needs to adjust to keep up with the changes and become more competitive. This report provides information about the pork supply chain and highlights the structural changes that have occurred over time in the pork industry. The report uses tables, charts and figures to describe performance indicators and structural changes within the industry and shows that the Canadian pork supply chain is healthy, growing and export-oriented.


PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to develop a shortened version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) appropriate for use in edentulous patients and to evaluate its measurement properties.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data were collected from the Ontario Study of Older Adults and a longitudinal clinical trial of implant-retained prostheses undertaken in Newcastle Dental Hospital, UK. All subjects completed an OHIP at baseline, and UK subjects also completed an OHIP posttreatment. Using an item impact reduction method, a shortened version of the OHIP (called OHIP-EDENT) was derived from both datasets. Discriminant validity and responsiveness properties of this modified version were compared with OHIP-14 and OHIP-49.

RESULTS
Using an item impact method of reducing the 49 OHIP items produced very similar subsets in both Canadian and British populations; the modified version had little overlap with the current short version (OHIP-14). Discriminant validity properties of OHIP-EDENT were similar to OHIP-14 and OHIP-49. Using effect sizes to assess sensitivity to change, OHIP-EDENT exhibited less susceptibility to floor effects than OHIP-14 and appeared to measure change as effectively as OHIP-49.

CONCLUSION
The modified shortened version of the OHIP derived in this study has measurement properties comparable with the full 49-item version. This modified shortened version may be more appropriate for use in edentulous patients than the current short version.


Side-channel attacks are a kind of cryptanalytic attacks by means of the electric current in the range of radio frequency (RF) leaking out from a cryptographic integrated circuit (IC) and/or the electromagnetic radiation generated by the RF power current. The RF power current is caused by simultaneous switching activities of logic gates during an encryption process operated in the cryptographic IC. The RF power current is a major cause of the electromagnetic interference (EMI). To decrease the RF power current at PCB level can lead to decrease designing costs. As a preparation of applying LECCS models to a cryptographic IC for estimating the RF power current occurred during an encryption process, the model parameters were identified from measurements in this paper. The LECCS models were composed of a current source that expressed the RF power current occurred in the cryptographic circuit and a passive network. The current source identified grown in amplitude 200 ns after the beginning of the encryption process. This agreed to the beginning of the target round. In frequency domain, current spectra were seen at 24 MHz and its harmonics. The authors obtained waveforms of the RF power current from analog circuit simulations with the LECCS model identified, and validated the cryptographic device in security against the side-channel attacks by means of the correlation power analysis (CPA) method. Results of CPA with the simulated waveforms were consistent to CPA results with measured waveforms. These results means that model parameters were identified correctly, and suggests that the LECCS model is effective for validation of cryptographic devices with respect to side-channel attacks.


The article considers the issues concerning the order of medical care provision in neurosurgery taking on account the particularities of the Chechen republic. The characteristics of clinical course of diseases and traumas on neural system are considered too to improve the organization of neurosurgical care in concrete territory.


This paper presents a device ("fluidic biomill") and method for integrated mechanical structuring and biofunctionalization of microfluidic channels, enabling rapid prototyping of biochips. The fluidic biomill leverages hydrodynamic flow confinements (HFCs) to localize the interaction between a fluid and a substrate to a microscale region. By confining organic solvents, and scanning with the biomill over the substrate surface, microchannels as deep as 90 µm are fluidically milled. Subsequently, by switching the confined fluid from a milling solution to a patterning solution, biomolecules are immobilized on the surface of the microchannel. An in‐depth analysis of fluidic milling rates and milled microchannel properties is presented, along with a discussion on the dominant factors in controlling the dimensions of the fluidically milled channel. To demonstrate the utility of this method, a biotin functionalized biochip is fabricated in less than 5 min out of a polystyrene slide and its functionalities are validated by implementing on‐chip electrokinetic sample focusing, pressure driven flow, and a surface‐based reaction.


Tidal current energy is looked upon worldwide as a largely untapped, potentially significant and reliable source of energy. Countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, are working towards the implantation of tidal turbine farms in order to exploit this promising form of renewable energy. One of the barriers to further developing tidal energy extraction is the difficulty of accurately assessing the extractable energy or realisable tidal current output of a given site. Various numerical models for site assessments currently exist. Three of them, the Kinetic Energy Flux and two models, named GC05 and V10, which take into account the effect on the flow of the introduction of turbines are described, discussed and used throughout this work. Data regarding 239 channels worldwide have been collected. These data are used to investigate the possible existence of patterns between channel characteristics or parameters and channel potential estimates. New upper limits for the tidal current potentials of the UK and Ireland are calculated using the collected data and the most advanced model V10, and compared to previous values. Finally, resource assessments, based on realisable power, are produced using the V10 model and the Seagen turbine characteristics. For these resource assessments, limits of up to 20% with regards to the blockage ratio and the reduction in flow speed for a given channel are put in place. These results show that a substantial fraction of the upper tidal current potential limit can be realised with only a 20% blockage ratio and a 20% reduction in flow speed for most channels.


Abstract The palmettos Serenoa repens and Sabal etonia are foundation species in many peninsular Florida vegetative associations. We monitored survival and growth of palmetto seedlings using two cohorts found in different vegetative associations. Mixed-species cohorts containing both Serenoa repens and Sabal etonia were individually tagged in 1989 and have been monitored until 2008. One cohort (N  =  100 seedlings) is in an "inopina-phase" scrubby flatwoods and a second cohort (N  =  78 seedlings) is in a "wiregrass-phase" flatwoods. The sand substrates at both sites are nutrient-poor Entisols that show rapid permeability, low available-water capacity, and acidic pH. In addition to experiencing seasonal and variable annual precipitation patterns, these cohorts endured a severe and prolonged drought during 1999–2001 as well as an intense fire at the height of this drought. Seedlings showed remarkable survivorship, with 57% of the flatwoods cohort and 35% of the scrubby flatwoods cohort surviving from 1989 until 2008. In spite of their high survival, the seedlings experienced minimal height and crown width increases during the 19-year study. Height increase from 1989 to 2008 for the flatwoods cohort was a modest <0.5 cm per year and that of scrubby flatwoods was ∼0.3 cm per year. Serenoa repens and Sabal etonia seedlings show extraordinary persistence and tolerance but at a cost of exceptionally slow growth rates. These data suggest that: (1) the transition from seedlings to reproductive palmettos in nutrient-poor Florida uplands takes multiple decades; and, (2) the restoration of palmettos as foundation species in disturbed sites will require effort.


Whereas initially physical capital and later, knowledge capital were viewed as crucial for growth, more recently a very different factor, entrepreneurship capital, has emerged as a driving force of economic growth. In this paper, we define a region's capacity to create new firms start-ups as the region's entrepreneurship capital. We then investigate the local embeddedness of this variable and which variables have an impact on this variable. Using data for Germany, we find that knowledge-based entrepreneurship capital is driven by local levels of knowledge creation and the acceptance of new ideas, indicating that local knowledge flows play an important role. Low-tech entrepreneurship capital is rather increased by regional unemployment and driven by direct incentives such as subsidies. All three measures are locally clustered, indicating that indeed, entrepreneurship capital is a phenomenon that is driven by local culture, and is therefore locally bounded.


Abstract. The main aim of this paper is to test economic benefits of landslide prevention measures vs. post-event emergency actions. To this end, detailed- and large-scale analyses were performed in a training area located in the northeastern Italian pre-Alps that was hit by an exceptional rainfall event occurred in November 2010. On the detailed scale, a landslide reactivated after 2010 event was investigated. Numerical modeling demonstrated that remedial works carried out after the landslide – water-removal intervention such as a drainage trench – could have improved slope stability if applied before its occurrence. Then, a cost/benefit analysis was employed. It defined that prevention would have been economically convenient compared to a non-preventive and passive attitude, allowing a 30 % saving relative to total costs. On the large scale, one of the most affected areas after 2010 event was considered. A susceptibility analysis was performed using a simple probabilistic model, which allowed to highlight the main landslide conditioning factors and the most hazardous and vulnerable sectors. In particular, such low-cost analysis demonstrated that almost 50 % of landslides occurred after 2010 event could be foreseen and allowed to roughly quantify benefits from regional landslide prevention. However, a large-scale approach is insufficient to carry out a quantitative cost/benefit analysis, for which a detailed case-by-case risk assessment is needed. The here proposed approaches could be used as a means of preventive soil protection in not only the investigated case study but also all those hazardous areas where preventive measures are needed.


In this comprehensive volume, the editors have gathered together some of the most outstanding contributors in the field of pediatric medicine to examine the wide-ranging applications and promise of the use of hypnosis with children and adolescents. In Part 1, the broad framework of hypnosis is presented. The concepts, developmental considerations, approaches to induction, hypnotic ability, hypnosis with families and ethical considerations are thoroughly reviewed. Parts 2 and 3 focus on key psychological and medical applications of hypnosis. The medical section describes the integration of hypnosis from acute care settings to the operating room. Throughout the book, clinical vignettes help the reader understand the hypnotic encounter while supportive evidence, strategies and caveats provide insights. This volume will surely become one of the most invaluable sources of practical clinical knowledge that will enrich the repertoire of all child health care providers. It will be consulted again and again by readers who wish to bring hypnosis to their therapeutic encounters with children.


Offshoring arrangements have become a common setting for intercultural collaborations. There is ample evidence that the success of these offshoring arrangements is influenced on the relational behaviours between offshore and onshore colleagues. However, it has not been questioned whether and how the attitudes that onshore colleagues hold towards offshoring affect their relational behaviours towards offshore colleagues. This paper draws together the literatures on offshoring and transnational teams, to argue for the importance of offshoring attitudes. It presents a qualitative case study examining the offshoring attitudes of German IT developers working with Indian colleagues in an Indian subsidiary of the firm. The inquiry revealed that respondent's offshoring attitudes were associated with their relational behaviours towards Indian offshore colleagues, namely whether Germans treated their Indian colleagues as fellow team members or as mere suppliers, how much effort they spent in communicating and transferring knowledge, and whether they supported or avoided the transfer of tasks to India. Importantly, these relational behaviours also had a reverse effect on the German's offshoring attitudes, creating vicious and virtuous circles of offshoring attitudes and relational behaviours. Certain departmental context factors were identified to explain the differences in offshoring attitudes and resulting vicious and virtuous circles. The findings demonstrate that researchers and practitioners have to pay more attention to offshoring attitudes in order to better understand relational behaviours between onshore and offshore members, and thereby achieve more successful offshoring collaborations.


Background : Hemodialysis is a prolonged process that affects all life aspects of the patient and his family including the physiological, psychological, functional ability, and lifestyle changes. The aim of this study was as to evaluate the effect of family centered empowerment model on hemodialysis patients and their caregivers. Methods : Quasi experimental design was used in this study. This study was conducted in dialysis unit in Tanta University Hospital. Fifty hemodialysis patients and fifty caregivers attending the previous setting were included in the study. Tools of the study: Five tools were used in this study; Pre-test data were obtained by using two socio-demographic data form for patients and caregivers and three questionnaires tools for self-efficacy and burden level. Empowerment intervention was given to the studied subjects then post test data was collected. Results : The majority of the studied subjects obtained low score level of self-efficacy in relation to (autonomy, self - integration, problem solving ability and seeking social support category) pre-empowerment intervention, while post empowerment, none of them fall in the same category and more than two thirds of them had high score regarding level of autonomy, level of self integration and problem solving ability. Most caregivers have low self efficacy pre empowerment. While post empowerment, more than two thirds and nearly one third of them fall in moderate and high level respectively. All caregivers obtained severe burden level pre empowerment while post empowerment 66% falls in mild to moderate level. Conclusions and recommendation : Empowerment of hemodialysis patients and their caregivers can assist them with the management of health-related problems and improve their self efficacy and decrease the burden level of the caregivers so the study recommended that before the beginning of dialysis therapy, health professionals should identify and explore patient needs and potential caregiver in the family of patient and established empowerment programs to prepare them for the task to be carried out, mainly in the initial phase of their activities.


This interdisciplinary paper investigated the impact of US capitalization policy on Africa and the postcolonial responses of Africans to these forces of internationalism by applying post-Marxist theory to a selection of social 'writings', creative works of art and films. It examined the post-World War II environment that necessitated the politics of capitalization by the emerging US Core and its allied powers. It analyzed the impact of capitalization on this environment and found that the policy led to new ideological clashes, widening social gaps, political and economic conditionalities, patron-client regimes, ineffective delivery systems, militarization of aid delivery and new consumerist practices. It concluded with suggestions for new strategic perspectives on how to deliver the capitalization policy in the globalizing context of Africa. It pointed out that social'writings', creative works of art and films were ideally placed as qualitative sources of data for this kind of research.

 Key words: US capitalism, neo-imperialism, new forms of nationalist resistance in Africa, underdevelopment, post-Marxism, new development strategies, creative art, films and social writings.


The process of cutting granite material is simulated with using analysis of LS-DYNA finite element. The stress, strain and cutting force of a diamond saw blade are analyzed when cutting granite materials. Then the stress-strain distribution and cutting force curve of the diamond saw blade can be got in the process of cutting granite materials and a conclusion of the change rule of the cutting force is also obtained. When the diamond saw blade just contacts the workpiece, the cutting force rises gradually and after entering the certain cutting depth, the cutting force fluctuates in a very small range. Through the simulation, the theory of FEM model to calculate granite materials cutting force is obtained. By changing the parameters of the diamond saw blades, the influence of all parameters on cutting force of diamond saw blade is analyzed .A diamond saw blade's structure is optimized, when the parameters of saw blades is suitably selected. The processing performance of a diamond saw blade is improved further, and the result has important practical significance to process the granite material.


Government publishing reflects nearly every aspect of life in America, and this wealth of information is easily available if one knows how and where to obtain it. The third edition of this standard reference work contains a profusion of titles covering the period of June 1989 to January 1993. Some previous publications-parts of long-standing series or those of continuing topical interest-are included. Many entries (e.g. AIDS, women, Iran-Contra, and space exploration) reflect the profound changes in our society since the last edition was published. Arrangement is by subject; each entry includes bibliographic description, issuing agency, SuDocs number, GPO stock number and price, and an annotation.


Low-folate status and genetic polymorphisms in folate metabolism have been linked to several cancers. Possible biological mechanisms for this association include effects on purine and thymidine synthesis, DNA methylation, or homocysteine concentrations. The influence of genetic variation in folate metabolism on these putative mechanisms or biomarkers of cancer risk has been largely unexplored. We used a mathematical model that simulates folate metabolism biochemistry to predict (a) the effects of polymorphisms with defined effects on enzyme function (MTHFR and TS) and (b) the effects of potential, as-of-yet-unidentified polymorphisms in a comprehensive set of folate-metabolizing enzymes on biomarkers and mechanisms related to cancer risk. The model suggests that there is substantial robustness in the pathway. Our predictions were consistent with measured effects of known polymorphisms in MTHFR and TS on biomarkers. Polymorphisms that alter enzyme function of FTD, FTS, and MTCH are expected to affect purine synthesis, FTS more so under a low-folate status. In addition, MTCH polymorphisms are predicted to influence thymidine synthesis. Polymorphisms in methyltransferases should affect both methylation rates and thymidylate synthesis. Combinations of polymorphisms in MTHFR, TS, and SHMT are expected to affect nucleotide synthesis in a nonlinear fashion. These investigations provide information on effects of genetic polymorphisms on biomarkers, including those that cannot be measured well, and highlight robustness and sensitivity in this complex biological system with regard to genetic variability. Although the proportional changes in biomarkers of risk with individual polymorphisms are frequently small, they may be quite relevant if present over an individual's lifetime. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(7):1822–31)


This chapter explores some key topics within pragmatics. It starts with the notion of language as action encapsulated within speech act theory, one of the founding theories of the discipline, and moves on to considering the indeterminacy of utterances and the role that context plays in the production and understanding of language use. Some aspects of indirectness are then examined, including how it has been characterized, some of the motivations behind its use as well as situational and cross-linguistic variability in how it is used. How implied meanings are generated with reference to Grice's CP and maxims is considered next as well as how these notions have been employed to shed light on cross-linguistic variability in particular contexts. It then examines how some scholars, building on Grice's CP, went on to propose theories of politeness that attempted to account for the social motivations behind the use of indirectness and other strategies. It focuses on a number of issues that have come up in the study of (im)politeness phenomena and that have resulted in proposals for amending some of the seminal theories as well as in new theories that attempt to reflect the complex and dynamic nature of rapport management in interaction. In the final section, it looks at how conversation is coordinated by participants at various levels, stressing the notion of language as interaction rather than action alone. It also highlights the interest in the study of the organization of conversation / talk-in-interaction for understanding, for example, how particular communicative activities are constituted through talk.


The article presents a methodology for developing the marketing strategy for the adoption of optimal managerial solutions by means of smart analytics. Such issues as marketing strategy modeling methods; software products based on the integration of smart analytics; optimal choosing electro mobile and others have been considered. The main subject of the article is constructing an optimal decision-making model using a combination of classical statistical and mathematical methods and models, as well as modern information technologies including methods of smart analytics. The conceptual scheme of the effective marketing management has been created according to the structural components: information, statistical, mathematical, analytical and technological etc. The structure and main features of every component have been considered in detail. The created conceptual scheme of the effective management was demonstrated through the simple example of optimal choosing electro mobile. To investigate sales on electro mobiles Ukrainian market a set of factors has been considered. According to them the correlation and cluster analyses have been conducted. The main factors, which are the most influent for the price of electro mobile on Ukrainian market have been revealed. All considered models of electro cars have been divided onto three groups depending on the characteristics price–quality.


The effects of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR), both mid-ultraviolet (UVB; 280-320 nm) and near-ultraviolet (UVA; 320-400 nm), on benthic algal and invertebrate communities were compared in three reaches of a British Columbia coastal stream that differed in the degree of shading by riparian canopy (a full canopy, a partial canopy, and no canopy). At each of the three sites benthic communities were exposed to three different radiation treatments: photosynthetically active radiation alone (PAR; 400-700 nm), PAR1UVA, and PAR1UVA1UVB. Relative to the site with no canopy, UVR was 88% and 66% lower, and PAR was 83% and 49% lower at sites with full and partial canopy, respectively. Late summer increases in UVR to the streambed caused by declines in water level and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were also lower at sites with high canopy. Sites with less canopy shading had greater algal accrual, decreased biomass of total invertebrates, mayflies, and stoneflies, and reduced invertebrate community diversity com- pared to the heavily shaded reach of the stream. UVR produced taxon-specific community responses that varied across sites and increased with increasing UVR as summer progressed. At the full canopy site UVR had no impact, and the final (day 91) biomass and diversity of invertebrates was highest, and algal biomass lowest. Higher UVA radiation under reduced canopies inhibited algal accrual but had little effect on algal community composition. The biomass of several invertebrate taxa (e.g., Dicosmoecus spp., Limnephilidae) and com- munity diversity were reduced by both UVA and UVB. Less sensitive taxa (e.g., Paralep- tophlebia spp., Paraleptophlebidae) were inhibited only by the highest UVB levels in late summer when water transparency to UVR was greatest. Inhibition of grazers by UVR appeared to indirectly increase algal accrual, particularly at the partial canopy site. Our results indicate that riparian shading may moderate UVR effects on benthic com- munities, mainly through impacts on invertebrates with indirect effects on algae. By re- ducing UVR exposure of streambeds, riparian canopies may be important for ameliorating UVR effects on shallow lotic systems, especially during late-summer, low-flow periods when DOC concentrations are reduced.


Abstract. Trough mastering background information of Yunnan province grassland resources utilization and ecological conditions to improves grassland elaborating management capacity, it carried out grassland resource investigation work by Yunnan province agriculture department in 2017. The traditional grassland resource investigation method is ground based investigation, which is time-consuming and inefficient, especially not suitable for large scale and hard-to-reach areas. While remote sensing is low cost, wide range and efficient, which can reflect grassland resources present situation objectively. It has become indispensable grassland monitoring technology and data sources and it has got more and more recognition and application in grassland resources monitoring research. This paper researches application of multi-source remote sensing image in Yunnan province grassland resources investigation. First of all, it extracts grassland resources thematic information and conducts field investigation through BJ-2 high space resolution image segmentation. Secondly, it classifies grassland types and evaluates grassland degradation degree through high resolution characteristics of Landsat 8 image. Thirdly, it obtained grass yield model and quality classification through high resolution and wide scanning width characteristics of MODIS images and sample investigate data. Finally, it performs grassland field qualitative analysis through UAV remote sensing image. According to project area implementation, it proves that multi-source remote sensing data can be applied to the grassland resources investigation in Yunnan province and it is indispensable method.


The population of the Anza–Terwilliger area relies solely on groundwater pumped from the alluvial deposits and surrounding bedrock formations for water supply. The size, characteristics, and current conditions of the aquifer system in the Anza–Terwilliger area are poorly understood, however. In response to these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the High Country Conservancy and Rancho California Water District, undertook a study to (1) improve mapping of groundwater basin geometry and lithology and (2) to resume groundwater-level monitoring last done during 2004–07 in the Anza–Terwilliger area. Inversion of gravity data, including new data collected for this study, was done to estimate the thickness of the alluvial deposits that form the Cahuilla and Terwilliger groundwater basins and to understand the geometry of the underlying basement complex. After processing of the gravity data, the thickness of the alluvial aquifer materials was modeled by using all available lithology, density, and geophysical data. The thickest alluvial deposits (greater than 500 feet) are in the northern part of the study area along the south side of the San Jacinto fault zone, in the southern part of the Cahuilla groundwater basin, and in the western part of the Terwilliger groundwater basin. Through most of the area of alluvial materials, the thickness of the alluvium estimated from gravity data is less than 400 feet. Analysis of more than 900 drillers' logs indicated that in areas having relatively thick alluvium, particularly along the San Jacinto fault zone and in the Terwilliger Valley, the alluvium is predominantly composed of sands and gravels. Fine-textured sediments appeared to be discontinuous rather than forming laterally extensive, low-permeability layers. More than 500 drillers' logs indicated only bedrock is present, indicating that the fractured bedrock is an important source of groundwater, primarily for domestic use, in the study area. The depths of the holes drilled into the bedrock indicated that fractures potentially supplying water to wells persist in the upper few hundred feet and that the permeable zone of the fractured bedrock extends to depths greater than weathered zones in the upper part of the basement complex. Water-level data were collected from 59 wells during fall 2013. These data indicated that hydraulic head did not vary substantially with well depth and that the measured water levels in bedrock and alluvium were similar. Large offsets in groundwater altitude across the San Jacinto fault zone indicated that the fault zone is a barrier to groundwater flow in the northeastern part of the Anza Valley. On the basis of data from 33 wells, water levels mostly declined between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2013; the median decline was 5.1 feet during this period, for a median rate of decline of about 0.7 feet/year. Based on data from 40 wells, water-level changes between fall 2004 and fall 2013 were variable in magnitude and trend, but had a median decline of 2.4 feet and a median rate of decline of about 0.3 feet/ year. These differences in apparent rates of groundwater-level change highlight the value of ongoing water-level measurements to distinguish decadal, or longer term, trends in groundwater storage often associated with climatic variability and trends. Fifty-four long-term hydrographs indicated the sensitivity of groundwater levels to climatic conditions; they also showed a general decline in water levels across the study area since 1986 and, in some cases, dating back to the 1950s.


Incremental computation takes advantage of repeated computations on inputs that differ slightly from one another, computing each new output incrementally by making use of the previous output rather than from scratch. This thesis concerns the theory, design, and implementation of a general approach to incremental computation. It also elucidates the essence of improving the efficiency of computations by relating it to incremental computation. Our general approach allows incremental computation to be obtained systematically from non-incremental computation and program efficiency to be systematically improved. This research focuses on identifying the fundamentals of efficient incremental computation out of domain-specific properties and language-specific features, devising a general framework that accommodates these fundamentals, and developing a systematic approach based on the framework that exploits program semantics. Three fundamental aspects of incremental computation are identified: avoiding repeated identical computations, caching useful intermediate results, and discovering appropriate auxiliary information. Given a program $f$ and an operation $\oplus$, an incremental program is developed to compute $f(x\oplus y)$ efficiently by using $f(x)$, the intermediate results computed in computing $f(x)$, and auxiliary information about $x$ that can be inexpensively maintained. The approach in this thesis is formalized for a simple functional language, but the underlying principles also apply to other programming languages. It exploits program semantics to discover incrementality that is not directly embedded in primitive operators and takes into consideration properties of application domains as well. It is composed of step-wise program analysis and transformation modules that can, for the most part, be mechanized. Since every non-trivial computation proceeds by iteration (or recursion), the approach is used straightforwardly for achieving efficient computation in general, by computing each iteration incrementally using an appropriate incremental program. This method is applied to problems in interactive systems, optimizing compilers, transformational program development, {\it etc}. The design and implementation of a prototype system, CACHET, for obtaining incremental programs is also described.


Abstract A compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) of dimension 3 or higher admits a metric of constant (positive or negative) sectional curvature if the following conditions hold: the diameter is bounded from above, the part of the Ricci curvature which lies below some fixed negative number is bounded in LP norm for p > n/2, and the metric is almost spherical or almost hyperbolic in the LP sense. The idea of the proof is to obtain stronger (i.e. L ∞) pinching by deforming the initial metric using the Ricci flow, thus reducing the problem to the theorems of Gromov in the case rg < 0 and of Grove, Karcher and Ruh in the case rg > 0. The reduced curvature tensor changes along the flow according to the heat equation, which implies a weak nonlinear parabolic inequality for its norm. The iteration method of De Giorgi, Nash and Moser is applied to obtain the estimate for the maximum norm of the reduced curvature tensor. The crucial step in the iteration consists of controlling the Sobolev constant of the appropriate imbedding (which also changes along the flow, but behaves well) by the isoperimetric constant, which, in turn, can be bounded in terms independent of the particular manifold.


The juvenile Tillaux fracture is a transitional ankle fracture that occurs in the adolescent population. The juvenile Tillaux fracture is an avulsion injury of the distal tibia's anterolateral epiphysis as the result of excessive external rotation. The purpose of this article is to present a pediatric ankle fracture that is best described as a supination-external rotation type IV ankle injury with an associated Tillaux fragment. This fracture pattern represents a unique variant to classically described pediatric ankle fractures. keywords: Adolescent ankle fracture, Juvenile Tillaux fracture, Transitional ankle fracture. Dial BL, Morwood MP, Fitch RD. Pediatric Tillaux Ankle Fracture with Concomitant Adult-type Supination External Rotation Fracture Pattern: A Rare Injury. The Duke Orthop J 2016;6(1):61-63. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None


This paper studies intertemporal information acquisition by agents that are rational Bayesian learners and that dynamically optimize over consumption, investment in capital, and investment in information. The model predicts that investors acquire more information in times when future capital productivity is expected to be high, the cost of capital is low, new technologies are expected to have a persistent impact on productivity, and the scalability of investments is expected to be high. My results shed light on the economic mechanisms behind various dynamic aspects of information production by the financial sector, such as the sources of variation in returns on information acquisition for investment banks or private equity funds.


The term 'child abuse' is undoubtedly recognised throughout society, however the definition behind child abuse does not appear to be universally acknowledged. Both lay people and professionals have struggled to attach a solid and universally acceptable definition to the term, which leaves the obvious question as to what child abuse is and how it is understood within society.
This study attempted to explore child abuse from a social constructive perspective to identify and analyse prominent themes surrounding child abuse in current society.
Ten semi structured interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic discourse analysis, from which three significant themes were identified.
These significant themes surrounded shifting boundaries of responsibility, the media as a position of power and the abnormality and pathological implications associated with child abuse.
These findings were concurrent with previous literature into both child abuse and the social construction of identity. This has therefore shed more light into the somewhat clouded construct of child abuse.
The implications provided from this study centre upon how these themes could be deconstructed on a societal level, such as media campaigns to draw public attention to misconceptions.
However, it is acknowledged that deeper, more detailed discourse analysis must first be considered before strong implications could be taken from the study and this may be seen as the starting point for future research.


Social scientists have sketched four distinct theories to explain a phenomenon that appears to have ramped up in recent years, the diffusion of policies across countries. Constructivists trace policy norms to expert epistemic communities and international organizations, who define economic progress and human rights. Coercion theorists point to powerful nation-states, and international financial institutions, that threaten sanctions or promise aid in return for fiscal conservatism, free trade, etc. Competition theorists argue that countries compete to attract investment and to sell exports by lowering the cost of doing business, reducing constraints on investment, or reducing tariff barriers in the hope of reciprocity. Learning theorists suggest that countries learn from their own experiences and, as well, from the policy experiments of their peers. We review the large body of research from sociologists and political scientists, as well as the growing body of work from economists and psychologists, pointing to the diverse mechanisms that are theorized and to promising avenues for distinguishing among causal mechanisms.


All hydrogen atoms of the NH3 in [Mn(depe)2(CO)(NH3)]+ are abstracted by 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenoxyl radical, resulting in the isolation of a rare cyclophosphazenium cation, [(Et2P(CH2)2PEt2)N]+, in 76% yield. An analogous reaction is observed for [Mn(dppe)2(CO)(NH3)]+. Computations suggest insertion of NHx into a Mn-P bond provides the thermodynamic driving force. Contextualization of this reaction provides insights on catalyst design and breaking strong N-H bonds.


A 70-year-old woman developed a mild cerebellar syndrome including hypotonia and moderate postural instability which did not progress with time. Hypotonia related to cerebellar signs was associated with scarce and slight jerky arrhythmic involuntary movements of the arms, which disappeared as the disease progressed. After 1 year, she developed progressive dysarthria and dysphagia associated with bucco-linguofacial apraxia. The cognitive evaluation revealed mild praxis impairment during reflexive movements, but memory and executive testing were normal. Eighteen months after disease onset, she developed signs of spastic face, including jaw jerk and brisk nasopalpebral reflex. She had also reduced tongue protraction, tongue amyotrophy, fasciculations, and progressive swallowing impairment. Complete anarthria was noted 2 years after disease onset. Swallowing apraxia worsened, requiring tube feeding. The disease progressed with left leg spastic paresis and amyotrophy, which extended to other limbs. She died after 3 years of disease duration. Until death, she communicated by writing. All sentences and responses to questions demonstrated that cognitive function was roughly intact. Neither rigidity of the limbs nor limited amplitude of the eye movements was noted. During the follow-up, standard biological results were normal, as well as brain MRI. Technecium 99m SPECT showed bilateral fronto-temporoparietal hypoperfusion. Repeated electromyography showed signs of anterior horn in face muscles only, but never in limbs. She had no familial history of neurodegenerative disorder. Because of scarce and slight jerky arrhythmic involuntary movements of the arms, genetic testing of Huntington's disease was performed. A CAG repeat corresponding to an expanded allele (40 repeats) was found. The brain weighed 1,265 g. A moderate and diffuse atrophy was noticed, with a mild narrowing of the frontal and temporal gyri. Microscopically, lesions associated neuronal loss, astrocytic gliosis, and superficial spongiosis. They were mainly observed in the frontal and temporal cortices. The basal ganglia were also affected, but the severity of lesions was lower than in cortical areas. Scarce ballooned neurons were found in the frontal cortex. Using anti-Tau antibody, Tau immunoreactivity appeared as neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and pre-tangles in the hippocampus and in the temporal neocortex, oligodendroglial inclusions (coiled bodies) in the cerebral white matter (Fig. 1A) and thread processes. In subcortical areas, Tau immunostaining was restricted to rare NFT and coiled bodies in the caudate nucleus, the putamen, and the substantia nigra. b-amyloid, a-synuclein, and prion protein immunoreactivities were negative. The neuroanatomical distribution of this Tauopathy was in favor of corticobasal degeneration, as confirmed by biochemical characterization of pathological hyperphosphorylated tau proteins using western blot analysis of paired helical filaments (PHF-tau), mainly in temporal cortex, hippocampus, pallidum, and Meynert nucleus. A typical tau 64, 69 doublet on electrophoresis gave the molecular signature of corticobasal degeneration. An associated Huntington's disease was suggested by the demonstration of characteristic aggregates. Anti-Huntingtin EM48 antibody showed neuropil inclusions and rare nuclear aggregates (Fig. 1B), which were located in the cerebral cortex and in the striatum. In the same areas, anti-polyglutamine 1C2 antibody stained many neurons. The striatal degenerative changes were dorsally situated, consistent with a Grade 1 according to the Vonsattel classification of Huntington's disease pathological severity. Double immunofluorescence for Huntingtin and Tau was performed and colocalization was detected in some aggregates by confocal microscopy in our case (Fig. 1C), but no costaining was observed in a corticobasal degeneration case control (Fig. 1D). The association of speech and swallowing apraxia, without cognitive impairment and the progressive involvement of parietal cortex, cerebellum and anterior horn of spinal cord suggested a neurodegenerative disorder which could be corticobasal degeneration. The neuropathological study and the biochemical characterization of pathological hyperphosphorylated tau proteins confirmed the clinical features were related to a corticobasal degeneration type tauopathy. With a CAG repeat size of 40, the expected median age at Huntington's disease onset is 59. However, asymptomatic carriers of 40 CAG repeats have already been reported with an oldest age at onset of 78 years. The lack of clinical symptoms of Huntington's disease in this 72-year-woman was then not remarkable. Neuropathological examination of brain and striatum confirmed a low grade in Huntington, but interestingly demonstrated the presence of huntingtin aggregates that colocalize with tau aggregates. Numerous proteins have been demonstrated to interact with huntingtin, modifying mutant hutingtin toxicity. Tau has never been documented to interact with mutant huntingtin. The present observation raises the question to whether or not the level of tau phosphorylation could limit the severity and/or progression of Huntington's disease.


We present new thermal equilibrium solutions for optically thin and optically thick disks incorporating magnetic fields. The purpose of this paper is to explain the bright hard state and the bright/slow transition observed in the rising phases of outbursts in black hole candidates. On the basis of the results of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we assume that magnetic fields inside the disk are turbulent and dominated by the azimuthal component and that the azimuthally averaged Maxwell stress is proportional to the total (gas, radiation, and magnetic) pressure. We prescribe the magnetic flux advection rate to determine the azimuthal magnetic flux at a given radius. Local thermal equilibrium solutions are obtained by equating the heating, radiative cooling, and heat advection terms. We find magnetically supported (β = (pgas + prad)/pmag < 1), thermally stable solutions for both optically thin disks and optically thick disks, in which the heating enhanced by the strong magnetic field balances the radiative cooling. The temperature in a low-β disk (T ∼ 107–1011K) is lower than that in an advection-dominated accretion flow (or radiatively inefficient accretion flow) but higher than that in a standard disk. We also study the radial dependence of the thermal equilibrium solutions. The optically thin, low-β branch extends to , where is the mass accretion rate and is the Eddington mass accretion rate, in which the temperature anticorrelates with the mass accretion rate. Thus, optically thin low-β disks can explain the bright hard state. Optically thick, low-β disks have the radial dependence of the effective temperature Teff ∝ ϖ−3/4. Such disks will be observed as staying in a high/soft state. Furthermore, limit cycle oscillations between an optically thick low-β disk and a slim disk will occur because the optically thick low-β branch intersects with the radiation pressure dominated standard disk branch. These limit cycle oscillations will show a smaller luminosity variation than that between a standard disk and a slim disk.


Flight vehicles such as wheel wells and bomb bays have many cavities. The flow around a cavity is characterized as an unsteady flow because of the formation and dissipation of vortices brought about by the interaction between the Fee stream shear layer and the internal flow of the cavity. The resonance phenomena can damage the structures around the cavity and negatively affect the aerodynamic performance and stability of the vehicle. In this study, a numerical analysis was performed for the cavity flows using the unsteady compressible three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation with Wilcox's turbulence model. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) parallelized code was used for the calculations by PC-cluster. The cavity has aspect ratios (L/D) of 2.5 ~ 7.5 with width ratios (W/D) of 2 ~ 4. The Mach and Reynolds numbers are 0.4 ~ 0.6 and 1.6×106, respectively. The occurrence of oscillation is observed in the "shear layer and transient mode" with a feedback mechanism. Based on the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) analysis of the pressure variation at the cavity trailing edge, the dominant frequencies are analyzed and compared with the results of Rossiter's formula. The dominant frequencies are very similar to the result of Rossiter's formula and other experimental data in the low aspect ratio cavity (L/D = ~ 4.5). in the large aspect ratio cavity, however, there are other low dominant frequencies due to the leading edge shear layer with the dominant frequencies of the feedback mechanism. The characteristics of the acoustic wave propagation are analyzed using the Correlation of Pressure Distribution (CPD).


One key task of fine-grained sentiment analysis on reviews is to extract aspects or features that users have expressed opinions on. Generally, fine-tuning BERT with sophisticated task-specific layers can achieve better performance than only extend one extra task-specific layer (e.g., a fully-connected + softmax layer) since not all tasks can easily be represented by Transformer encoder architecture and special task-specific layer can capture task-specific features. However, BERT fine-tuning may be unstable on a small-scale dataset. Besides, in our experiments, directly fine-tuning BERT on extending sophisticated task-specific layers did not take advantage of the features of task-specific layers and even restrict the performance of BERT module. To address the above consideration, this paper combines Fine-tuning with a feature-based approach to extract aspect. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to combine fine-tuning with a feature-based approach for aspect extraction.


The interaction of the linker histone H1Z from the sperm chromatin of starfish Asterias amurensis with DNA was studied by spectroscopic and thermodynamic approaches. It has been shown that at the physiological conditions the interaction of the H1Z with DNA results in more compact structures compared to complexes of DNA with somatic histone H1. The typical profile of the DNA melting curves reveals two peaks attributed to the bound and unbound DNA. It has been shown that H1Z from starfish sperm stabilizes DNA to a greater extent compared to the somatic H1. It is possible that the presence of the additional α—helical segments within the C-terminal part of the H1Z typical for the linker histones from echinoderm sperm facilitates the protein-protein interactions which in turn stimulate cooperative binding of the histones to DNA, resulting in the formation of the supercompact sperm chromatin.


Engineering design and technological risk assessment both entail learning or discovering new knowledge. Optimal learning is a procedure whereby new knowledge is obtained while minimizing some specific measure of effort (e.g., time or money expended). A paradox is a statement that appears self-contradictory, contrary to common sense, or simply wrong, and yet might be true. The paradox of optimal learning is the assertion that a learning procedure cannot be optimized a priori—when designing the procedure—if the procedure depends on knowledge that the learning itself is intended to obtain. This is called a reflexive learning procedure. Many learning procedures can be optimized a priori. However, a priori optimization of a reflexive learning procedure is (usually) not possible. Most (but not all) reflexive learning procedures cannot be optimized without repeatedly implementing the procedure which may be very expensive. We discuss the prevalence of reflexive learning and present examples of the paradox. We also characterize those situations in which a reflexive learning procedure can be optimized. We discuss a response to the paradox (when it holds) based on the concept of robustness to uncertainty as developed in info-gap decision theory. We explain that maximizing the robustness is complementary to—but distinct from—minimizing a measure of effort of the learning procedure.


The protagonists of Shobha De do not want to be docile, weak and dependant women. They want to be powerful and ready to revolt against unfair treatment and are not for compromise. They always want to show self-confidence in abundance. Boldly, they are ready to challenge hinders so that they attain their desired goal. They tend to be aggressive always, which helps them to shatter the male ego and male hierarchy. In order to be precise, they are not doormats. They raise their voice strong against patriarchal culture and marginalization of women. Thus, this paper aims to prove that how women in India tend to be transformed from margin to centre. It also aims to prove the fact that they want to be liberated physically and mentally and long for an independent identity by being aware of the choices open to them.Crossing the Border: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol.5(1) 2017: 51-60


In the last twenty years in real estate appraisal there has been a growing interest for new and reliable assessment techniques essentially through the introduction of pluriparametric estimate, in particular of linear regression. However, also these techniques seem having not a great deal of adherence to very complex markets, for which the detection of best suited techniques to investigate market segments is necessary. The aim of the research is to test the applicative possibilities of model tree to land market, in order to highlight possible market segments in the original data set not detectable a priori.


Flood frequency analysis (FFA) concentrates
on peak flows of flood hydrographs. However, floods that last years devastated
large parts of Poland lead us to revision of the views on the assessment of
flood risk in Poland. It turned out that it is the prolonged exposure to high
water on levees that causes floods, not only the water overflowing the levee
crest. This is because, the levees are weakened by water and their disruption
occurs when it seems that the danger is over, i.e. after passing culmination.
Two main causes of inundation of embanked rivers, namely over-crest flow and
wash out of the levees, are combined to assess the total risk of inundation.
Therefore the risk of inundation is the total of risk of exceeding embankment
crest by flood peak and risk of washout of levees. Hence, while modeling the
flood events in addition to the maximum flow one should consider also the
duration of high water in a river channel, Analysis of the frequency of annual
peak flows based on annual maxima and peaks over threshold is the subject of
countless publications. Therefore we will here mainly modeling the duration of
high water levels. In the paper the two-component model of flood hydrograph
shape i.e. "duration of flooding-discharge- probability of nonexceedance"
(DqF), with the methodology of its parameters estimation for stationary case
was developed as a completion to the classical FFA with possible extension to
non stationary flood regime. The model combined with the technical evaluation
of probability of levees breach due to the d-days duration of flow above alarm
stage gives the annual probability of inundation caused by the embankment
breaking. The results of theoretical research were supplemented by a practical
example of the model application to the series for daily flow in the Vistula
River in Szczucin. Regardless promising results, this method is still in its
infancy despite its great cognitive potential and practical importance.
Therefore, we would like to point to the usefulness and necessity of the DqF
models to the one-dimensional analysis of the peak flood hydrographs and to
flood risk analysis. This approach constitutes a new direction in FFA for
embanked rivers.


Aims: The present study aimed to evaluate the incidence of LBP and related factors in over 18-year-olds. Materials and Methods: This research was a cross-sectional study involving individuals over 18 years of age with any complaints in the period from May 2015-June 2016 at different hospitals. The research data were evaluated by the SPSS 15.0 statistical package program. Descriptive statistics were presented as mean (±) standard deviation, median (min, max), frequency distribution, and percentage. Pearson's Chi-square test, Yates corrected Chi-square test, and Fisher's test were used as statistical methods. Statistical significance was accepted as P < 0.05. Results: A total of 5,989 people admitted during that period and 50% unknown frequency were taken to reach 1715 subject persons with 2% deviation and 95% confidence interval which reached 1720. The sociodemographic status, occupational conditions, the frequency of low back pain, and risk factors have been evaluated. Around 92.9% of individuals of 65 years of age and older have lifelong LPB while 57.1% have present LBP. The difference was statistically significant for "the satisfaction of working people" and "individuals working more than 41 h a week." (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Low back pain is still a serious problem that can be avoided by ensuring optimal working conditions and a healthier life.


Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the fetal mouse lung tissue co-culture on in vitro maturation (IVM) of mouse immature oocytes. Materials and Methods In this experimental study, germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes from ovaries of a group of 25 female mice, 6-8 weeks of age, were dissected after being stimulated by 7.5 IU pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) through an intraperitoneal (IP) injection. The fetal lung tissues were then prepared and cultured individually. A total number of 300 oocytes were cultured in the following three groups for 24 hours: control group (n=100) containing only base medium, group I (n=100) containing base medium co-cultured with 11.5- to 12.5-day old fetal mouse lung tissues, and group II (n=100) containing base medium co-cultured with 12.5- to 13.5-day old fetal mouse lung tissues. The proportion of GV and metaphase І (MI) oocytes matured into MІІ oocytes were compared among the three groups using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Correlation test were also used to evaluate the successful rate of IVM oocytes. Results The proportions of GV oocytes reaching MІІ stage were 46, 65, and 56%, in control, I and II groups, respectively (P<0.05). The percentage of the oocytes remaining at the GV stage were higher in control group as compared with two treatment groups (P<0.05). Conclusion This study indicated that fetal mouse lung tissue co-culture method increased the percentage of GV oocytes reaching MII stage.


Observations by the Large Area Telescope detector on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are used to examine the 0.1 < E_gamma < 300 GeV gamma-ray emission characteristics of flat spectrum radio quasars. Specifically, the gamma-ray emission from 3C 454.3 and 3C 279 are analysed in detail, in order to put constraints on the location of the emission region. The variability in the spectral shape is explored, whether evidence of a spectral cutoff can be found and whether or not an energy-dependence of the emitting electron cooling exists. The significance of VHE emission is also quantified.

In May - July 2014, 3C 454.3 exhibited strong flaring behaviour. Observations with the Fermi-LAT captured the gamma-ray flux increasing fivefold during this period, with two distinct peaks in emission. The peak daily binned flux climbed to F = 1.3 ± 0.1 x 10^-5 ph cm^-2 s^-1 on MJD 56823. Gamma-ray intrinsic flux doubling timescales as small as tau_int = 0.68 ± 0.01 h at a significance of >5 sigma are found, providing evidence of a compact emission region. Significant E_gamma,emitted > 35 GeV and E_gamma,emitted > 50 GeV emission are also observed. The location of the emission region can be constrained to r > 1.3 x R_BLR^out, a location outside the broad-line region. The spectral variation of 3C 454.3 also suggests that these flares may be originating further downstream of the supermassive black hole than the emission before and after the flares.

3C 279 flared spectacularly in June 2015, becoming brighter than ever previously recorded by Fermi. The peak daily binned flux reached F = (2.5 ± 0.1) x 10^-5 ph cm^-2 s^-1 on MJD 56823. Interestingly, the smallest intrinsic flux doubling timescale is tau_int = 1.38 ± 0.16 h, and no sub-hour flux doubling timescales are found. Significant E_gamma,emitted > 35 GeV and E_gamma,emitted > 50 GeV emission are observed during the flare, alongside a significant spectral hardening. Using photon-photon opacity constraints, the location of the emission region must lie at least r > 2.5 x R_BLR from the SMBH, the mid-point of the broad-line region. As with 3C 454.3, the spectral variation across the period of interest hints that a multi-zonal model may be applicable to the gamma-ray emission.


Author(s): Hutchison, Alexandra A | Advisor(s): Ghosh, Abhijit | Abstract: Slow earthquakes essentially represent a gray area of the slip spectrum, where regular fast slip earthquakes and aseismic creep constitute the spectrum's end members. Since their discovery in 2003 [Rogers and Dragert, 2003], increasing seismic observations, in addition to models, geodetic observations, and laboratory studies, have helped elucidate the nature of these events that vary quite vastly amongst themselves. Empirically, however, they share a linear moment rate scaling law that distinguishes them from regular earthquakes [Ide et al., 2007]. Slow earthquakes include, but are not limited to, low frequency earthquakes (LFEs), tremor, very low frequency earthquakes (VLFEs), slow slip events (SSEs), and episodic tremor and slip (ETS) events. Each type of these events has distinctive properties that makes their detection challenging. Furthermore, their relationships to each other remains unclear, particularly in terms of source properties. They may be important in the context of regular earthquakes and seismic hazard assessment as they appear to have a correlation with large events. Some slow earthquakes have been observed spatiotemporally preceding regular earthquakes such as the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake [Kato et al., 2012] and the 2014 Mw 8.1 Iqueique earthquake [Ruiz et al., 2014]. Additionally, a region near the trench known to produce VLFEs ruptured coseismically during the Tohoku earthquake producing a larger earthquake and tsunami than was previously anticipated [Ide et al., 2012]. Ultimately, more observations and studies are required to understand the mechanical properties of slow earthquake source physics and to understand their greater role in the earthquake cycle.The research shared herein describes a variety of observations of slow earthquakes in discrete tectonic settings. The first section of this thesis examines a locked section of the San Jacinto Fault – a non-plate boundary transform fault – called the Anza Gap. The study begins in chapter 2 by introducing the detection of ambient tectonic tremor [Hutchison and Ghosh, 2017], likely acting as a seismic manifestation of slow-slip or deep creep. The latter chapter within this section, chapter 3, examines a series of teleseismically triggered tremor and small earthquakes leading up to the June 10, 2016 Mw 5.2 Borrego earthquake. This cascade of tremor and foreshocks is interpreted to signify seismic manifestations of deep creep triggered by the energy from two distant earthquakes that occurred earlier in the day. The second section of this thesis focuses on VLFEs in the Cascadia subduction zone, a plate boundary where the Juan de Fuca plate is subducting beneath the North American plate. The first chapter in this section (chapter 4) uses grid search centroid moment tensor inversion during the 2014 ETS event to detect VLFEs. Unlike previous studies where VLFEs and tremor are spatiotemporally coincident, tremor and VLFE are only quasicoincidentally occurring during this ETS event, indicating for the first time that VLFE and tremor may have discrete sources. Chapter 5 successfully employs matched filter analysis for VLFEs detection in Cascadia, indicating that VLFEs are repeating events, generating a high resolution temporal catalog for the 2011 and 2014 ETS events. These data are compared to SSE data in both ETS events. VLFEs acts as an accurate proxy for both SSEs, even when tremor does not. This further indicates that tremor and VLFEs may have discrete source mechanics, though they may both be related through slow-slip. In addition, an inter-ETS VLFE catalog shows sustained background VLFE activity throughout the inter-ETS period. Finally, in Chapter 6, a grid-search centroid moment tensor inversion VLFE catalog is created between the 2011 and 2014 ETS events. This allows for further investigation of VLFE behavior, particularly during inter-ETS periods. These new observations further underscore a quasi-spatiotemporal relationship between VLFE and tremor, suggesting an underlying process that uniting these events. Through these observations, I propose that there are ongoing small, and largely undetectable SSEs that are manifested through inter-ETS slow earthquake seismic signatures, "mini-ETS" events, and that these events would fill the gap in the slow earthquake scaling law [Ide et al., 2007]. These observations support the Colella et al., [2011] rate- and state- dependent friction models that suggest a non-linear scaling relationship between moment and duration. I also propose slow-slip is the driving mechanism uniting all slow earthquake activity, or the gray area, of the slip spectrum [e.g. Wech and Bartlow, 2014, Wech et al., 2009, Bartlow et al., 2011].


Recently reprocessed aeromagnetic data reveal the slow-spreading Kolbeinsey Ridge underwent a regional axial reorganization at anomaly 3A time that signaled a major change in the segmentation behavior of the spreading center. Prior to anomaly 3A, the axis was a sinuous but essentially continuous feature. The anomaly 3A event separated the axis into four segments, created wide nontransform offsets, and established axial strikes more nearly orthogonal to the spreading direction. In the succeeding ∼5.5 m.y., the axis continued to evolve by ridge propagation, asymmetric spreading, and lateral ridge migration caused by either ultrafast propagation or synchronous ridge jumps. These data suggest that the brief perturbation of axial structure at anomaly 3A time may have altered the long-term segmentation behavior of the ridge. The mechanism for the ridge9s segmentation and the ridge9s post-segmentation behavior indicate styles of axial reorganization that may be significant on slow-spreading centers globally.


Haulage system in ore and waste material transportation plays an important role in most open pit mines. Queuing theory presents a promising method to account for idle time caused by trucks waiting to be served at either the loading or dumping point. This paper dealts with the analysis shovel-truck system performance using queuing model (M/M/1)in Viet Nam surface mine. The outputs of the model show relationships between truck fleet size with the length queue, waiting time in queue, shovel utilization and production. Analysis of operating costs while varying the number of truck to find out the optimized point at which the system works with minimal cost. KeywordsHaulage system, Queuing theory, trucks, shovel, optimized


By cytofluorometric and biochemical methods the content of total glycogen and its fractions was investigated on the smears of isolated liver cells: labile fraction (LF) and stable fraction (SF) and also activities of glycogen phosphorylase (GP), glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase) and glycogen synthase. The material was obtained from serial liver biopsies from each investigated animal prior to CCl4 action (control), with cirrhosis (6 months of CCl4 poisoning) and 1, 3 and 6 months after CCl4 poisoning was finished. It was shown that chronic CCl4 poisoning induced a typical liver cirrhosis accompanied with the 2-3 times increase in the total glycogen content, in comparison with the norm, with the decrease in LF to 53%, and also with the fall of G-6-Pase and GP activities by 82 and 25%, resp. After 1, 3 and 6 months following poisoning cessation, the lobule structure, infringed due to cirrhosis, was not restored. But functional parameters of the cirrhotic liver were seen gradually recovering without CCl4 poisoning. The application of carbohydrate rich diet favoured a most complete rehabilitation: the content of total glycogen and its fractions and the activity of G-6-Pase and GP returned to the normal level.


Notch signaling plays a critical role in controlling proliferation and differentiation of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMC). Upregulated Notch ligands and Notch3 receptors in PASMC have been reported to promote the development of pulmonary vascular remodeling in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and in animals with experimental pulmonary hypertension. Activation of Notch receptors by their ligands leads to the cleavage of the Notch intracellular domain (NICD) to the cytosol by γ-secretase; NICD then translocates into the nucleus to regulate gene transcription. In this study, we examined whether short-term activation of Notch functionally regulates store-operated Ca(2+) entry (SOCE) in human PASMC. Treatment of PASMC with the active fragment of human Jagged-1 protein (Jag-1) for 15-60 min significantly increased the amplitude of SOCE induced by passive deletion of Ca(2+) from the intracellular stores, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). The Jag-1-induced enhancement of SOCE was time dependent: the amplitude was maximized at 30 min of treatment with Jag-1, which was closely correlated with the time course of Jag-1-mediated increase in NICD protein level. The scrambled peptide of Jag-1 active fragment had no effect on SOCE. Inhibition of γ-secretase by N-[N-(3,5-difluorophenacetyl-L-alanyl)]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester (DAPT) significantly attenuated the Jag-1-induced augmentation of SOCE. In addition to the short-term effect, prolonged treatment of PASMC with Jag-1 for 48 h also markedly enhanced the amplitude of SOCE. These data demonstrate that short-term activation of Notch signaling enhances SOCE in PASMC; the NICD-mediated functional interaction with store-operated Ca(2+) channels (SOC) may be involved in the Jag-1-mediated enhancement of SOCE in human PASMC.


The recent decline in India's rural female labor force participation is generally attributed to higher rural incomes in a patriarchal society. Together with the growing share of the urban population, where female participation rates are lower, this alleged income effect does not bode well for the empowerment of women as India develops. This paper argues that a traditional supply-side interpretation is insufficient to account for the decline in female participation rates, and the transformation of the demand for labor at local levels needs to be taken into account as well. A salient trait of this period is the collapse in the number of farming jobs without a parallel emergence of other employment opportunities considered suitable for women. The paper develops a novel approach to capture the structure of employment at the village or town level, and allow for differences along six ranks in the rural-urban gradation. It also considers the possible misclassification of urban areas as rural, as a result of household surveys lagging behind India's rapid urbanization process. The results show that the place of residence along the rural-urban gradation loses relevance as an explanation of female labor force participation once local job opportunities are taken into account. Robustness checks confirm that the main findings hold even when taking into account the possibility of spurious correlation and endogeneity. They also hold under alternative definitions of labor force participation and when sub-samples of women are considered. Simulations suggest that for India to reverse the decline in female labor force participation rates it needs to boost job creation.


We determined regional myocardial blood flow (MBF: 15 /im tracer microspheres) and hemodynamics in 12 unanesthetized normal calves and 10 unanesthetized calves with severe right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH). RVH was produced by banding the main pulmonary artery of 24- to 48-hour-old calves 25–30 weeks prior to the study. Measurements were made in six normal calves and seven calves with RVH at control (baseline), during isoproterenol infusion (0.2 μg/kg per min), and during acute volume overload produced before and after propranolol pretreatment. In six normal calves and three RVH calves, these parameters also were determined before and during maximal coronary vasodilation produced by intraventricular infusion of adenosine (4 μM/kg per min). In this model of RVH, right ventricular (RV) MBF was significantly increased whereas the left ventricular (LV) mass and LV MBF were normal. Minimal coronary vascular resistance per unit weight of the hypertrophied RV was identical to that in the normal RV myocardium. This suggested that, although functional cross-sectional area of the vascular bed supplying RV myocardium, hypertrophied from soon after birth, kept pace with increasing muscle mass, higher baseline perfusion in the hypertrophied RV myocardium occurred at the expense of decreased available coronary vascular reserve. Isoproterenol infusion resulted in subendocardial underperfusion in both ventricles of calves with RVH, but this did not occur in the normal RV myocardium. Acute volume expansion of a similar magnitude was perceived as a more severe stress in calves with RVH as reflected by a larger increase in their RV and LV MBF. Propranolol pretreatment significantly blunted these increments in MBF despite markedly higher ventricular filling pressures. Throughout the study, blood flow in right and left sides of the interventricular septum closely resembled that in RV and LV, respectively.


This paper presents a multifactorial quantitative corpus-based analysis of the distribution of English-only ads in the Low Countries. The dataset consists of approximately one thousand job ads, published in Vacature (a Belgian Dutch job ad magazine) and Intermediair (a Netherlandic Dutch job ad magazine) in 2007 and 2008. About one in seven ads are written entirely in English. Using logistic regression analysis, we find that the occurrence of English-only advertising is mainly linked to occupational contexts where English plays a practical role: the phenomenon is typical for companies with headquarters located outside of the Low Countries (specifically US/UK-based companies), for companies with English-oriented corporate communication and for companies that are recruiting for IT and technical staff. Finally, more English-only ads are published in Flanders than in The Netherlands.


As our world becomes increasingly more technology driven and global competition continues to intensify, the technology resource components available to a firm will be required to become more sophisticated in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Higher levels of sophistication are achieved through technological innovation that is effectively managed. But, to effectively manage technological innovation, we must first come to a clearer understanding of the resource components of technology. This paper describes the way various people perceive the meaning of technology, discusses the confusion that exists, and suggests a construct for classifying the components of technology to mitigate the confusion. Finally, a framework for benchmarking and technology assessment is presented to suggest a way for a firm to better manage its technology component sophistication level for global competition.


Compression ignition engines produce excessive
NOX emissions compare to spark ignition engines. Lean NOX
trap system is currently being investigated as an aftertreatment
device to suppress the NOX emissions from
compression ignition engines. The application of this aftertreatment
device requires alternating lean and rich exhaust gas
mixture, in order to produce the necessary reducing agents
necessary for purging the LNT system. In this study an engine
testbed was set-up which consisted of a 4-cylinder light-duty
diesel engine, a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and an LNT
system. The LNT system purging utilised in-cylinder
enrichment method based on DSPACE system, which
controlled the engine management system (EMS) and the main
engine operating parameters. The enrichment method used
open-loop control system, to provide different storage/purge
cycles for the LNT system. During enrichment, extra fuelling
was needed to produce the required rich exhaust mixture.
Emissions test at low operating temperature using this method
had shown the capability of this in-cylinder enrichment
method to produce the required periodic rich exhaust mixture
for the LNT system. Nevertheless, the occurrences of periodic
rich combustion also led to the increase in fuel penalty.
Therefore, an acceptable trade-off between emissions
reduction and fuel penalty is necessary.