In order to obtain high-order accuracy, a fourth-order accurate finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method is presented by Kyu-Pyung Hwang. Unlike conventional FDTD methods, a staggered backward differentiation scheme instead of the leapfrog scheme is used to approximate the temporal partial differential operator. However, the high order of its characteristic equation derived by the Von Neumann method makes the analysis of its numerical dispersion and stability very difficult. In automatic control theory, there are two effective methods for the stability analysis, i.e., the Routh-Hurwitz test and the Jury test. The combination of the Von Neumann method with each of the two can strictly derive the stability condition, which only makes use of the coefficients of its characteristic equation without numerically solving it. The method of analysis in this paper is also applicable in the stability and numerical analysis of other high-order accurate FDTD methods


Pink-footed Geese in Scotland in mid-April had larger median abdominal profiles than those newly arrived at a lowland staging area in southwest Iceland in the second half of April. Their profiles returned to Scottish levels within about ten days of arrival and continued to increase until about 10 May, when many geese were leaving for their breeding places. Unpaired adults and those less than a year old had smaller profiles than paired adults, both before and after migrating. paired females had larger profiles than their mates. In Iceland, females in isolated pairs or small groups tended to have larger profiles than those still in large flocks. The small numbers of paired females feeding on newly-tilled ground in Scotland and on rough pastures in Iceland tended to have smaller profiles than the majority feeding on improved grasslands in both countries. Increases in profiles in Iceland were directly associated with rising daily temperatures, which affected both the rate of snowmelt and the early growth of food plants. Annual breeding success (as measured by mean brood-size and the proportion of young found in Scotland in the autumn) was correlated significantly with differences in the median profiles of females and males in the previous early May. Although less informative about causation than detailed analyses of the body composition of dead geese, or repeated observations of changes in the profiles of individually identifiable live birds, scanning the profiles of relatively large numbers of unmarked geese yields results consistent with those from more intensive studies. This can help to decide which questions to ask about changes in the body condition of geese through the year, and their relationship to survival and breeding success.


Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been used on adult bivalve shells to investigate organic and inorganic shell components but has not yet been applied to bivalve larvae. It is known that the organic matrix of larval shells contains pigments, but less is known about the presence or source of these molecules in larvae. We investigated Raman spectra of seven species of bivalve larvae to assess the types of pigments present in shells of each species and how the ratio of inorganic : organic material changes in a dorso-ventral direction. In laboratory experiments, we reared larvae of three clam species in waters containing different organic signatures to determine if larvae incorporated compounds from source waters into their shells. We found differences in spectra and pigments between most species but found less intraspecific differences. A neural network classifier for Raman spectra classified five out of seven species with greater than 85% accuracy. There were slight differences between the amount and type of pigment present along the shell, with the prodissoconch I and shell margin areas being the most variable. Raman spectra of 1-day-old larvae were found to be differentiable when larvae were reared in waters with different organic signatures. With micro-Raman spectroscopy, it may be possible to identify some unknown species in the wild and trace their natal origins, which could enhance identification accuracy of bivalve larvae and ultimately aid management and restoration efforts. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A method for the detection and correction of water pixels affected by adjacency effects is presented. The approach is based on the comparison of spectra with the near infrared (NIR) similarity spectrum. Pixels affected by adjacency effects have a water-leaving reflectance spectrum with a different shape to the reference spectrum. This deviation from the similarity spectrum is used as a measure for the adjacency effect. Secondly, the correspondence with the NIR similarity spectrum is used to quantify and to correct for the contribution of the background radiance during atmospheric correction. The advantage of the approach is that it requires no a priori assumptions on the sediment load or related reflectance values in the NIR and can therefore be applied to turbid waters. The approach is tested on hyperspectral airborne data (Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI), Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS)) acquired above coastal and inland waters at different flight altitudes and under varying atmospheric conditions. As the NIR similarity spectrum forms the basis of the approach, the method will fail for water bodies for which this similarity spectrum is no longer valid.


Parametric pumping, a dynamic separation technique, comprises alternating axial displacement of a fluid mixture in a column of adsorptive particles upon which a synchronous cycling temperature is imposed. With direct coupling, separations of 105:1 between column ends have been obtained, with indications of great potential for further separation. A mathematical model and its solution describe the behavior of the system.


Spacetrees are a popular formalism to describe dynamically adaptive Cartesian grids. Even though they directly yield a mesh, it is often computationally reasonable to embed regular Cartesian blocks into their leaves. This promotes stencils working on homogeneous data chunks. The choice of a proper block size is sensitive. While large block sizes foster loop parallelism and vectorisation, they restrict the adaptivity's granularity and hence increase the memory footprint and lower the numerical accuracy per byte. In the present paper, we therefore use a multiscale spacetree-block coupling admitting blocks on all spacetree nodes. We propose to find sets of blocks on the finest scale throughout the simulation and to replace them by fused big blocks. Such a replacement strategy can pick up hardware characteristics, i.e. which block size yields the highest throughput, while the dynamic adaptivity of the fine grid mesh is not constrained—applications can work with fine granular blocks. We study the fusion with a state-of-the-art shallow water solver at hands of an Intel Sandy Bridge and a Xeon Phi processor where we anticipate their reaction to selected block optimisation and vectorisation.


In this study, we examine how financial stress is associated with problem behavior in adolescents through the lives of their parents. Using an actor–partner interdependence model, we explore pathways within (actor) and between (partner) parents. Our data included 340 families, with both parents rating their financial stress, depressive symptoms, and interparental conflict, and with parents and adolescents rating parenting and problem behavior in adolescents. The results indicate that the association between financial stress and problem behavior in adolescents is mediated by depressive symptoms, interparental conflict, and positive parenting. Another finding is that financial stress has direct and indirect effects on interparental conflict. Furthermore, the impact of financial stress on positive parenting is greater for fathers than it is for mothers. Although actor effects are more prominent, there is also evidence of partner effects. Our results underscore the importance of including multiple family members in studies on family stress processes.


Current interest in methods for controllably adding organic molecules to silicon surfaces relates to proposed hybrid silicon-organic devices. It was recently shown that a "self-directed" growth process, requiring only limited scanned probe intervention, has the potential to permit rapid, parallel production of ordered molecular nanostructures on silicon with predefined absolute position, structure, composition, and extent of growth. The hybrid organic-silicon structures formed are bound by strong covalent interactions. In this work, we use scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory techniques to show that molecule-surface dispersion interactions enable the growth process and play a crucial role in the final configurations of the nanostructures.


Background: Swimming motility, an important trait for successful root colonization, by Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 requires flagella, expression of which is activated in a hierarchical manner by the master regulator FleQ. A non-motile, aflagellate strain, AR2 ΔfleQviscB had been shown to reacquire flagella driven motility through 2 step mutation of a related two-component regulator, the NtrBC nitrogen sensor:regulator. Overexpressed NtrC-P is assumed to activate flagella expression. NtrBC responds to nitrogen limitation by upregulating expression of operons involved in nitrogen assimilation, including glnAntrBC [encoding: glutamine synthetase (GS), NtrBC] and glnKamtB (encoding PII and AmtB ammonium channel).
Aims: To investigate the influence of different nitrogen sources and different motility phenotypes on the evolution pathway and probability/frequency of re-establishment of swimming motility in aflagellate P. fluorescens SBW25 ΔfleQ strains.
Research hypothesis: The physiological status of NtrBC under nitrogen limitation will increase the probability of identification of evolved swimming isolates of P. fluorescens SBW25 ΔfleQ strains carrying mutations in ntrBC. Also, as mutation of ntrBC has global effects and impact on cell fitness, it was hypothesized that other enhancer binding proteins (EBP) might rescue loss of fleQ, particularly in nitrogen replete conditions.
Methods: Evolution of swimming motility in the aflagellate strains, SBW25ΔfleQ (Fla-, Visc+), AR1 (Fla, Visc-), and AR2 (Fla-, Visc-) was performed in 0.25 % M9 –glucose agar medium with glutamine, glutamate (nitrogen limiting) or ammonium (nitrogen replete) as nitrogen source. Colony spreading phenotypes of evolved isolates on minimal and rich media were monitored and quantitated by timelapse photography. Mutations were identified by targeted sequencing of segments of ntrB, ntrC and the entire glnK gene or by whole genome sequencing (WGS).
Results: As predicted, swimming motility of the sessile strains, AR1 and AR2, evolved later with ammonium as N-source (mean = 5.53 days, SD = 0.61 days, n = 19) compared to glutamine (mean = 2.88 days, SD = 0.89 days, n = 17) or glutamate (mean = 2.94 days, SD = 0.80 days, n = 17). Notably, SBW25ΔfleQ which spreads with spidery-like tendrils over the surface of the agar also evolved swimming motility thus enhancing migration within the liquid phase and access to nutrients within the agar. Irrespective of parent strain or N-source all evolved mutants had acquired a mutation in NtrB, primarily T97P within the PAS domain, or a D228A/N mutation known to interfere with PII interaction, thus increasing NtrC-P levels by decreasing phosphatase activity. Despite impaired growth in ammonium, none of the evolved mutants possessed anticipated secondary mutations in the Helix-turnHelix (HTH) domain of NtrC that might moderate the unregulated Ntr response. Mutation in AlgP histone-like protein may have been selected in response to a different stress, but could be an indication of involvement of an alternate EBP. Possession of an unrelated mutation in a predicted ammonium transporter PFLU_RS08590, correlated with improved growth on ammonium and deserves further investigation.
Conclusions: Mutation in NtrB is the primary evolutionary pathway for re-establishment of swimming motility in P. fluorescens ΔfleQ strains irrespective of nitrogen status. Delayed recovery of these mutants from ammonium/glucose plates may be due to a combination of low transcription of ntrBC and uncontrolled assimilation of ammonia due to dysregulation of the Ntr regulon. Details of the mechanism by which mutated NtrBC compensates for loss of the FleQ regulator remain to be fully elucidated and will provide a fuller picture of the evolution pathway. Understanding details of crosstalk between these critical regulons, flagella regulon, and the Ntr system are likely to enhance understanding of the ecology of this important rhizosphere associated bacterium and may have downstream implications in the application of P. fluorescens as biopesticide or biofertiliser.


We propose an information-theoretic bound on the generalization error based on a combination of the error decomposition technique of Bu et al. and the conditional mutual information (CMI) construction of Steinke and Zakynthinou. In a previous work, Haghifam et al. proposed a different bound combining the two aforementioned techniques, which we refer to as the conditional individual mutual information (CIMI) bound. However, in a simple Gaussian setting, both the CMI and the CIMI bounds are order-wise worse than that by Bu et al. This observation motivated us to propose the bound, which overcomes this issue by reducing the conditioning terms in the conditional mutual information. In the process of establishing this bound, a conditional decoupling lemma is established, which also leads to a meaningful dichotomy and comparison among these information-theoretic bounds. As an application of the proposed bound, we analyze the noisy and iterative stochastic gradient Langevin dynamics and provide an upper bound on its generalization error.


A careful examination of our attitudes toward end-of-life care is critical to our understanding of where change is needed to improve patient outcomes. The objectives of our narrative review are 1) to review why the intensive care unit setting presents particular challenges for the delivery of optimal end-of-life care, 2) to outline how four different research methods can provide insights into our understanding of attitudes about withdrawal of life support, and 3) to suggest seven different approaches to changing prevailing attitudes toward withdrawal of life support in the intensive care unit. To better understand attitudes about end-of-life care in general and withdrawal of life support in particular, we reviewed four different sources of data: 1) decision support tools, 2) qualitative research, 3) surveys, and 4) observational studies. Understanding these attitudes offers valuable insights about strategies that may help to improve the care of dying patients and their families. There are several ways to change attitudes; the approaches we reviewed are 1) promoting social change professionally, 2) legitimizing end-of-life research, 3) determining what families of dying patients need, 4) initiating quality improvement locally, 5) evaluating the benefits and harms of new initiatives, 6) modeling quality end-of-life care for future clinicians, and 7) using narratives. Attitudes toward end-of-life care are influenced by many factors and change slowly. Our attitudes have social and personal origins; they are grounded in values that are collective and community based. Different research methods provide insights into attitudes toward death in the intensive care unit and withdrawal of life support in particular. Understanding these attitudes may offer valuable insights about strategies that should help improve the care for dying patients and their families.


The mineral-respiring bacterium Shewanella oneidensis uses a protein complex, MtrCAB, composed of two decahaem cytochromes brought together inside a transmembrane porin to transport electrons across the outer membrane to a variety of mineral-based electron acceptors. A proteoliposome system has been developed that contains Methyl Viologen as an internalized electron carrier and valinomycin as a membrane-associated cation exchanger. These proteoliposomes can be used as a model system to investigate MtrCAB function.


Glycine betaine (GB) is one of the compatible solutes that accumulate in the chloroplasts of certain halotolerant plants under salt or cold stress. The codA gene for choline oxidase, the enzyme that converts choline into GB, has been cloned from a soil bacterium Arthrobacter globiformis. We generated transgenic sweetpotato plants (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) expressing codA gene in chloroplasts under the control of the SWPA2 promoter (referred to as SC plants) and evaluated SC plants under oxidative and drought stresses. SC plants showed enhanced tolerance to methyl viologen (MV)-mediated oxidative stress and drought stress due to induced expression of codA. At 5 μM of MV treatment, all SC plants showed enhanced tolerance to MV-mediated oxidative stress through maintaining low ion leakage and increased GB levels compared to wild type plants. When plants were subjected to drought conditions, SC plants showed enhanced tolerance to drought stress through maintaining high relative water contents and increased codA expression compared to wild type plants. These results suggest that the SC plants generated in this study will be useful for enhanced biomass production on global marginal lands.


Considering the characteristics of hysteresis and permanent magnet motors, it seems that these two motors are complements of each other. Thus, their combination yields a motor with an excellent performance. In order to preserve the major advantages of both motors in the new motor, a disc-type slotless structure is chosen. This paper presents a new finite-element method for the modeling of disc-type permanent magnet hysteresis synchronous (PMHS) motor. In this modeling method a new iterative algorithm is used. Programming software has been linked to finite- element software because of its limitation in the modeling of hysteresis phenomena. Validity of the proposed analysis is checked by experimental results. Reasonably close agreement between the two is obtained and good performance of the PMHS motor is verified.


We study the effect of onium salts (benzyl triphenyl phosphonium chloride, BTPC; tetrabutyl ammonium perchlorate, TAP) on the crystallization of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) from a melt. The β phase of PVDF crystals is polar and has excellent piezoelectric properties, in contrast to the nonpolar α phase. Processing of PVDF results in the formation of predominantly α-phase crystals. Different amounts of the onium salts were melt-mixed into PVDF using a micro-compounder. PVDF containing about 0.5 wt % of BTPC is found to have predominantly β-phase crystals in compression molded PVDF films, with an increase in the melting temperature by about 7 °C. A significant increase in the toughness of PVDF is obtained by the addition of BTPC. Polarizing microscopy indicates that the onium salts act as nucleating agents and result in significant reduction in spherulite size. Similar results were observed for samples prepared with TAP. The results of the study indicate a facile method for producing β-phase PVDF films. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 49: 1339–1344, 2011


The Wireless communication networks are evolving rapidly. Current scenario demands connectivity anytime, anywhere with bandwidth intensive services such as videos, voice, text etc [3][4]. These are high data rate services and have more QoS requirement. For such situation hybrid network emerged as a promising solution. Hybrid wireless network can be seen as group of individual networks integrated as a single network and mobile nodes present in the network, can connect either via gateway node or directly to other network. This paper discusses various hybrid wireless architectures. A classification of hybrid wireless network based on pricing schemes is also presented.


The purpose of this study was to compare the rating tendencies of Korean and Chinese raters in a Korean Speaking Test. For this purpose, graduate students majoring in Korean education were trained, and an individual rating process was performed. The results of the rating were then analyzed using the multi-faceted Rasch model, focusing on rating consistency, severity, and bias. The results of the analysis indicate that rating severity differed among raters even in the same group, and rating consistency was either an overfit or a misfit in the Chinese rating (CR) group. The results also showed that the CR group tended to be more tolerant of assessment evaluation items with less difficulty than the Korean rating (KR) group, and to score assessment evaluation items with higher difficulty more strictly. In the analysis of criteria, the KR group scored more strictly than the CR group on the three criteria except vocabulary and grammar, and organization. In contrast, there was a statistically significant tendency toward the opposite for "organization". The two groups differed in judging the proficiency of test takers, with differences between the test takers in cases where proficiency is relatively high and when specific languages are reflected in the test taker's pronunciation or intonation, some of which were analyzed as significant bias. Finally, the use of the evaluation scale showed that the CR group had a wider distribution, but the reliability of using the zero scale was low, and the difference between the mean scores of each scale was not uniform. This group also tended toward the middle point rather than toward the peak.


Patients with diabetes mellitus are more frequently hypertensive than age-matched non-diabetic subjects. They are confronted with a markedly increased risk of coronary vascular disease, of progressive nephropathy and renal end-stage diseases. The most common type of hypertension in type I and type II diabetics is essential hypertension, probably as a consequence of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Hyperglycemia and hypertension are both significantly involved in the progression of diabetic nephropathy. Hence, the modern therapeutic concept consists of optimal blood glucose control and strict blood pressure control. Progression of the nephropathy may be halted in most of the cases by adhering to set limits in mean arterial blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin and urinary albumin excretion rate. Furthermore, a significant decrease in cardiovascular mortality may be achieved. In case the blood pressure targets cannot be met by non-drug therapies and life-style modifications, antihypertensive drug therapy has to be initiated. The selection of antihypertensives should be based on the concomitant diabetes mellitus with its additional cardiovascular risk factors hyperlipidemia and hyperinsulinemia. In general, preference should be given to so-called metabolic neutral substances such as ACE inhibitors or calcium antagonists or to alpha-blockers which may have positive metabolic effects. Meanwhile, data from several prospective studies claim that ACE inhibitors and calcium antagonists exert nephroprotective effects beyond their beneficial blood pressure lowering effects, thereby preventing the progression of diabetic nephropathy. However, these drugs should not be uncritically used and we should be aware of their potential adverse effects. The differential therapy of hypertension in diabetes mellitus requires mature consideration before initiation of therapy, an individualized concept of therapy, and careful monitoring during treatment.


Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LC) is a rare but challenging manifestation of advanced breast cancer with a severe impact on morbidity and mortality. We performed a systematic review of the evidence published over the last two decades, focusing on recent advances in the diagnostic and therapeutic options of LC. Lobular histology and a triple-negative intrinsic subtype are well-known risk factors for LC. Clinical manifestations are diverse and often aspecific. There is no gold standard for LC diagnosis: MRI and cerebrospinal fluid cytology are the most frequently used modalities despite the low accuracy. Current standard of care involves a multimodal strategy including systemic and intrathecal chemotherapy in combination with brain radiotherapy. Intrathecal chemotherapy has been widely used through the years despite the lack of data from randomized controlled trials and conflicting evidence on patient outcomes. No specific chemotherapeutic agent has shown superiority over others for both intrathecal and systemic treatment. Although endocrine therapy was heuristically considered unable to exert significant control on central nervous system metastatic disease, retrospective data suggest a favourable toxicity profile and even a possible positive impact on survival. In recent years, encouraging data on the use of targeted agents has emerged but further research in this field is required. Palliative treatment in the form of whole brain or stereotactic radiotherapy is associated with improvement in clinical manifestations and quality of life, with no proven impact on survival. The most investigated prognostic factors include performance status, non-triple-negative disease and multimodal treatment. Validation of prognostic scores is necessary to aid clinicians in the identification of patient subgroups that are most likely to benefit from an intensive therapeutic approach.


This study examines human resource valuation and the performance of selected banks in Nigeria. Human resources are the only factor of production that is not recognized in the reporting mechanisms, despite an interest dating back to the 1960s. In other to investigate the above  issues, the researcher gathered data from Nigerian banks listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) using a survey design. The data were then tabulated and analyzed using Ordinary Least Square (OLS). The study revealed that all the variables of human resource valuation used are statistically significant. Conclusively, human resources cost approach to corporate performance measurement which have gained substantial attention and use in recent years provides further opportunities for utilization of human resource accounting measures. The study therefore, recommended that banks should use career management programs to assist their employees in career planning. A well-functioning company career planning system would encourage employees to take more responsibility for their own development, including the development of skills viewed as significant in the bank. Finally, banks should note that career planning system not only helps ensure that employees have the skills they need to advance in the bank, but also may help ensure that employees possess the mix of skills that the firm believes is important for its future success. Keywords : Human Resources, Human Asset, Cost Based Valuation, Economic Valuation and Market Based Valuation


Probiotics, defined as "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host" have many attributes including the lack of adverse side effects associated with their use. While probiotics have proven benefits, the optimism associated with their use is counterbalanced by the fact that many so-called "probiotic" products are unreliable in content and unproven clinically. Therefore much remains to be done to gain the acceptance of the broader medical community. Recognition of the obvious product inequality and the lack of any regulatory guidelines lead to the development of Operating Standards in 2002 (FAO/WHO), that would ensure product safety, reliability and a level playing field for all companies producing probiotic products. The guidelines constitute a set of parameters required for a product/strain to be termed "probiotic" and also the clinically relevant steps to be followed to move probiotics closer to being embraced by the medical community. These include i) implementation of Guidelines for use of probiotics; ii) phase I, II and III clinical trials to prove health benefits that are as good as or better than standard prevention or treatments for a particular condition or disease; iii) Good Manufacturing Practice and production of high quality products; iv) studies to identify mechanism of action in vivo; v) informative/ precise labelling; vi) development of probiotic organisms that can carry vaccines to hosts and/or anti- viral probiotics; vii) expansion of proven strains to benefit the oral cavity, nasopharynx, respiratory tract, stomach, vagina, bladder and skin as well as for cancer, allergies and recovery from surgery/ injury.


ABSTRACT Formed in 1996 by former National Front activist Troy Southgate, the National Revolutionary Faction (NRF) is a 'national-anarchist' groupuscule. In contrast to the International Third Position, the reactionary Catholic fascist sect from which it emerged, the NRF promotes a radical anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist 'anarchist' agenda of autonomous rural communities within a decentralized, pan-European framework. While the NRF retains an ideological core that is readily identifiable as fascist, that ideology is far from a mimetic atavism. As a result of its increasing radicalization the NRF has attempted to move 'beyond left and right', transcending the traditional limits of national-Bolshevism, to forge a seemingly incongruous synthesis of fascism and anarchism. Through its print and online publications, the NRF seeks to utilize its unique ideological position to exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and Satanism that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism. A detailed examination of its history, activism, structure and continued ideological morphology reveals the NRF as an ideological crucible for a growing international network of dissident 'national-revolutionaries' who are currently recalibrating their ideals in order to overcome their acute marginalization.


This research aims to reveal stakeholder views on early literacy and reading and writing acquisition in the preschool period. It is a case study conducted with the descriptive survey model. The research participants consisted of academics, primary school teachers, early childhood education teachers, primary school teaching students, and prospective early childhood education students. Five semi-structured interview forms were used as the data collection tool. The data were analyzed through content analysis method. The results indicate that stakeholders have a flexible approach to teaching reading and writing in the preschool period and support early literacy education. The roles that early childhood education teachers, preschool education institutions, and parents should play, are presented. It is recommended to increase the cooperation of stakeholders having an essential role in literacy skills development and to reshape the pre-service and in-service training related to early literacy.


As a flexible, accurate tool for representing practical industrial and military systems, multi-state systems have been paid great attention to in both academic and engineering fields. Multi-state consecutive-k systems are extensions of binary consecutive-k systems. In this paper, by using the finite Markov chain imbedding approach, we present a unified formula with the product of matrices for evaluating state distributions of two kinds of multi-state consecutive-k systems. Moreover, the analytic expressions are given for the expectation, the probability mass function, and the distribution of the waiting time for the appearance of a state of multi-state consecutive- k systems. The formulas obtained in this paper will be useful for start-up demonstration tests, quality control, and so on. Finally, numeral examples are given, which show the flexibility and effectiveness of our model.


Discrete mass gain method is adopted to determine the oxidation kinetic behaviors of 2Cr12NiMoWV steel in water vapor at 540°C and 17.5 MPa. Results indicate that the kinetic curve of the oxidation experiences a dramatic turning where the oxidation has lasted 20h, namely, the oxidation is faster than before the oxidation point of 20h, then oxidation rate is greatly reduced;, and after the oxidation has lasted for 300h, its reaction is inhibited to enter into a relatively stable period. The test analysis of oxide film under scanning electronic microscopy and electronic probe microanalyser shows that the formation process of the oxide film is as follows: needle-like oxide nuclei → short-strip oxide → fine equiaxed crystal grains → large equiaxed crystal grains or columnar crystal particles. The alloying elements involved in oxidation represent the law as follows: Fe, Mo and Si react with vapor at the initial stage of oxidation reaction to form Mo and Si-contained Fe-rich oxide. As the oxidation reaction proceeds, Cr gathered at the interface between the surface oxide film and the matrix, is internally oxidized. The Mo, Si and Cr in the surface oxide will be continuously volatilized with the occurrence of oxidation reaction.


This thesis investigated the behaviour of angular distortion due to multipass GMAW process using finite element method (FEM). Various cases studies were conducted started with basic welding structure of butt and T-joint which is considered as the preliminary study to develop the fundamental numerical model. Further, the study was continued on the combined butt and T-joint to test the numerical model developed in the basic study of butt and T-joint before the models were applied on the ship panel application. Finally, the study was conducted on the ship panel (Laboratory Mock-up). In the simulation study, the distortion was analysed using 2D and 3D analysis based on thermo-elastic-plastic approach using FE software package SYS WELD 2010. It was found out that, 2D multipass analysis could be employed to obtain the fast average result of angular distortion while 3D multipass analysis to produce more accurate and complete results. To validate the simulation study, experimental investigations were conducted using fully automated robotic welding process. Almost all the simulation results were in good agreement with the experiments, except in 2D analysis on complex and large geometry. This result of the study indicates that the simulation study is reliable tool in predicting the welding induced distortion on the particular geometry and welding joint in this study. The effects of the clamping and welding sequence on distortion were also investigated in this study, and it was found out that the clamping condition and the welding sequences play a considerable factor in angular distortion.


Raman scattering from surface optic (SO) phonons has been observed and identified in cylindrical and rectangular cross-section nanowires with lateral dimensions in the range 20-50 nm and lengths of ~ 10 microns. The position of the SO band is found to depend on both the shape of the wire cross section (i. e., circular or rectangular) and on the dielectric constant of the external medium. The position of the SO band in GaP and ZnS nanowires is in good agreement with a dielectric continuum model that takes the shape of the wire cross section into account. We propose that the symmetry breaking mechanism which activates the Raman sacttering of the SO phonon in our nanowires is a quasi-periodic modulation of the cross-sectional area along the nanowire axis. We suggest this modulation stems from an interesting growth instability associated with vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth.


The medium-spin structure of the neutron-rich, odd-odd nucleus Rb-94 was studied by means of gamma-ray spectroscopy. Excited levels were populated in the neutron-induced fission of U-235 and in the spontaneous fission of Cf-252 and Cm-248. Two isomeric states were found at 1485.2 and 2074.8 keV with half-lives of 18 and 107 ns, respectively. The probable structures of the two isomers involve the fully aligned, proton-neutron configurations [pi(g(9/2))circle times nu(g(7/2))](8+) and [pi(g(9/2))circle times nu(h(11/2))](10-), respectively. These new data give information on the single-particle energies in the region.


OBJECTIVE
How quality control in a university hospital and immediatly after to resents publications; we planed to evaluation of the correlation of cystoscopy impression with the histologic diagnosis after of transurethral resection (TUR).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
To give more truthfulness to the study, we requested to all department member's, that to base in your experience to describe the endoscopic characteristic of the next bladder tumors groups: superficial and low-grade GI-II Ta, superficial and high-grade GIII Ta and high grade and/or T1-< T2. In a total of 172 patients, we evaluated the initial cystoscopy impression and we to compared it with histologic diagnosis after to TUR.

RESULTS
In 172 tumors the cystoscopy classifed in 69 cases how superficial and low grade GI-II Ta-T1, 40 how superficial and high grade and 55 how high grade and/or invasive tumors GIII T1-< T2. When, we compared it with the histologic diagnosis, the cystoscopy to coincided in 46 de 69 cases (66.6%) (PNS) with the group of low-grade GI-II Ta-T1 in 13 of 40 (32.5%) (P < 0.005) with the group of superficial high grade GIII Ta and 45 of 51 (88.2%) (PNS) with the group of GIII T1 and/or invasive tumors. In 15 of 172 the endoscopic description its not conclusive. And finally in 12 cases the histologic diagnosis were normal.

CONCLUSIONS
In order of this results, we to consider that in a university hospital is essential the histologic diagnosis before any therapeutic decision, because the initial cystoscopy impression have a low correlation with the histologic diagnosis. We are disagreement with recent publication that propose the outpatient cystoscopy with fulguration to base only to the cystoscopy impression.


Synaptic structures between receptors and horizontal and bipolar cells in the outer plexiform layer (OPL) of Golgi‐impregnated catfish retina were examined by conventional electron microscopy of serial ultrathin sections and by high‐voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) off thick sections. Cone terminals contained multiple synaptic ribbons and rod terminals contained single synaptic ribbons. This observation was used to identify these two types of photoreceptors. The cone horizontal cell, located in the most distal part of the inner nuclear layer (INL), invaginated only cone terminals, whereas the rod horizontal cell, located in the proximal part of the INL, invaginated only rod terminals. Both lateral elements of the triad in the rod terminal originated from a single rod horizontal cell whereas the same structures in the cone terminal were often derived from several cone horizontal cells. Golgi‐impregnated catfish bipolar cells were classified into two types based on the differences in their axonal arborization as described by Famiglietti et al. ('77). Axonal endings of type a bipolar cells were located in the distal part, sublamina a, of the inner plexiform layer (IPL), and axonal endings of type b cells were located in the proximal part, sublamina b, of the IPL. Dendrites from type a bipolar cells made direct contact with the synaptic ribbons in both rod and cone terminals whereas those from type b cells made indirect contact with the ribbons in both rod and cone terminals, but rare direct contact with the ribbon in rod terminals were also seen. In addition, bipolar cells made basal junctions or superficial contact in both rod and cone terminals. The "lateral" processes of bipolar cells invaginating rods penetrated between the rod terminal and rod horizontal cell processes, and made basal junctions with both rod terminals and rod horizontal cells. There was no definitive morphological feature that could be associated with signconserving and sign‐inverting signal transmission.


The cooperation among sensor nodes is a significant issue in large-scale, complicated Wireless Sensor Networks(WSN). Target tracking is a canonical application of WSN. The dynamic coalition mechanism in WSN for target detection is an important method to improve the tracking quality which saves much energy. An energy efficient coalition formation algorithm is needed because the energy resource of WSN is restricted. In this paper, we propose a WSN dynamic coalition formation based on Ant Colony algorithm (DCF_AC). The sink node of every group is the group head, which knows the global coordinate of its own and inclines to wake sensor nodes around the target with high residual energy to form coalition periodically. The algorithm can balance the energy consumption among sensor nodes, so as to extend the network lifetime for more tasks. The results of experiments concludes the validity of this algorithm.


A teaching reform initiative, started in the spring semester of 1993 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), is described. The program seeks to increase student success in a freshman computer science course, and ultimately in the entire NJIT curriculum. The traditional teaching methods where the teacher presided over a lecture session supplying facts and figures, providing ideas, and presenting problems and their solutions, has been altered. The new learning environment described in this paper aims to create an all‐inclusive setting inviting the students to make the transformation from passive learners to active participants. Rather than merely listening to lectures, students formulate problems and devise their own approaches to answering questions and finding solutions. Such a teaching/learning methodology requires instructional redesign and role redefinition. The presentation of class material is reordered as the teacher and students cross each other's confines becoming a more cohesive entity.


Optimizing management practices and selecting the best cultivar for planting play a significant role in increasing agricultural food production and decreasing environmental footprint. In this study, we develop optimization frameworks under uncertainty using conditional value-at-risk in the stochastic programming objective function. We integrate the crop model, APSIM, and a parallel Bayesian optimization algorithm to optimize the management practices and select the best cultivar at different levels of risk aversion. This approach integrates the power of optimization in determining the best decisions and crop model in simulating nature's output corresponding to various decisions. As a case study, we set up the crop model for 25 locations across the US Corn Belt. We optimized the management options (planting date, N fertilizer amount, fertilizing date, and plant density in the farm) and cultivar options (cultivars with different maturity days) three times: a) before, b) at planting and c) after a growing season with known weather. Results indicated that the proposed model produced meaningful connections between weather and optima decisions. Also, we found risk-tolerance farmers get more expected yield than risk-averse ones in wet and non-wet weathers.


This paper presents non-photorealistic rendering methods of hedcut-style effects by using reaction-diffusion model. Reaction-diffusion model is a mathematical model proposed by Turing to describe the biological formation of natural patterns but we adapted this model as a tonal depiction method of stipples and curve patterns. According to the input image brightness, this model generates stipple patterns of black or white dots for near-black or near-white image area while it produces curve patterns for middle gray image area. Our method uses simple pre-processing step to compensate brightness and contrast of input image. We compare previous method and hand-made hedcut artwork with our results. Our works can be applied in game application and stylized rendering area.


Anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria associated with soft rot of yam (Diascorea rotundata) were isolated by the looping-out method and found to consist of Clostridium (three isolates), Corynebacterium (three isolates), Vibrio (one isolate), and Bacillus lentus (one isolate). Enzyme assay for hydrolase, lyase, and pectinesterase activities by the cup-plate method showed that except for Vibrio sp., B. lentus, and two isolates of Corynebacterium no pectinase activity could be detected for organisms cultured on pectin medium. Most of the cultures on yam tissue, however, showed activities for the three enzymes. The viscometric assay for hydrolase and lyase enzymes indicated a significant level of hydrolase activity (a 40.90% decrease in viscosity for Vibrio sp. and Corynebacterium spp.), but no lyase activity for most of the isolates. Two isolates of Corynebacterium and B. lentus caused changes in fresh yams suggestive of soft rot.


ABSTRACT Anakinra, which is an Interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor antagonist with the advancing disease process, has started to be considered as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 patients with cytokine storms. We evaluated the effect of corticosteroids and IL-1 receptor blockage with anakinra on pregnant patients with Covid-19 at high risk for respiratory distress, ongoing fever, deterioration in their general condition and consequently maternal and fetal complications. Fourteen pregnant women who received anakinra (median dosage: 400 mg) and corticosteroid (methylprednisolone-median dosage: 80 mg) treatment were evaluated retrospectively. Patients were assessed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) scale. The mortality rate of the cohort was 7.1%, the median hospitalization period of the patients was 15 days and 2 patients had premature births. Covid-19 was found to have a similar spectrum of symptoms in pregnant and non-pregnant women, such as dyspnea, cough and fever. Our study was the first to analyze the combined treatment of corticosteroid and anakinra in pregnant patients with pneumonia from Covid-19 based on the WHO scoring system. Due to the obscurity in the treatment process in pregnant patients, studies are ongoing on managing Covid-19 infection in these patients. We presume that the early use of anakinra and corticosteroid treatments in patients severely infected with Covid-19 may have positive effects on disease progression and survival.


Zero-shot learning (ZSL) can be considered as a special case of transfer learning where the source and target domains have different tasks/label spaces and the target domain is unlabelled, providing little guidance for the knowledge transfer. A ZSL method typically assumes that the two domains share a common semantic representation space, where a visual feature vector extracted from an image/video can be projected/embedded using a projection function. Existing approaches learn the projection function from the source domain and apply it without adaptation to the target domain. They are thus based on naive knowledge transfer and the learned projections are prone to the domain shift problem. In this paper a novel ZSL method is proposed based on unsupervised domain adaptation. Specifically, we formulate a novel regularised sparse coding framework which uses the target domain class labels' projections in the semantic space to regularise the learned target domain projection thus effectively overcoming the projection domain shift problem. Extensive experiments on four object and action recognition benchmark datasets show that the proposed ZSL method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-arts.


An imager and a spectrometric imager, which achieve multiplexing by the use of binary optical encoding masks, have been built and tested. The masks are based on orthogonal, pseudorandom digital codes derived from Hadamard matrices. The spatial (and/or spectral) data are therefore obtained in the form of a Hadamard transform of the spatial (and/or spectral) scene; computer algorithms are used to decode the data and reconstruct images of the original scene. The hardware, algorithms processing and display facility are described. A number of spatial and spatial/spectral images, obtained in the laboratory, are presented. We present an analysis of the situations for which the multiplex advantage may be gained and of the limitations of the technique. Potential applications of the spectrometric imager are discussed. The spectrometric imager is covered by U.S. Patent 3,720,469 assigned to Spectral Imaging Inc., Concord, Mass.


Engineering design is a plan to build an artifact that needs to be communicated and discussed among designers. The concept is an abstract idea that can only be transmitted through a document containing the description of the artifact's form, function and behavior as well as the designer's rationale for them. Most engineering design domains are multidisciplinary. Understanding design decisions and their rationale becomes crucial to allow collaborative work. The Active Design Documents (ADD) approach has been very effective in assisting the capture, retrieval and use of rationale during the design process in various engineering domains. This paper presents the development and results of ADD applied to the domain of Ventilation and Air Conditioning (VAC) design of offshore oil production platforms. We focus our discussion on the way rationale availability improved the design process itself and on the problems encountered during development.


A study was performed on the immune reactivity of coniotuberculosis cases among iron-ore miners from initial to developed stages by means of a postmortem morphometric analysis of the pathologic changes. It was revealed that the disease was characterized by a marked decrease in immune reactivity which progressed along with the disease. It was established that the process was influenced by the age, the ferrum oxide (III) and cremnium dioxide content in the lungs, and the TB infection as such. Much influence was also caused by other sporadic environmental factors.


The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 and the Divorce Court it created were hailed by some contemporary observers as "one of the greatest social revolutions of our time." Among the many "revolutionary" consequences of this new Court was an increased legal and social recognition of psychological cruelty in marriage and, through the journalistic reportage of its proceedings, the creation of a new reading public that had become fascinated with tales of marital strife. This essay suggests and examines a correlation between these legal and social changes and the emphasis found in George Eliot9s fiction on silence as a sign of matrimonial conflict. Throughout Eliot9s fiction, from "Janet9s Repentance" in Scenes of Clerical Life, through to Felix Holt and Middlemarch, and culminating in the portrayal of Henleigh Grandcourt in Daniel Deronda, there is a progressive emphasis on the nonphysical signs of matrimonial conflict and, in particular, on the oppressive power of silence in sexual relationships. Eliot9s use of silence to evoke this experience reflects a new social awareness of psychological cruelty in marriage, one that was being formally recognized in the law courts at this time. But by hinting at a form of matrimonial cruelty so terrible that it must remain veiled, Eliot9s use of silence also functions as a rhetorical device that whets a new public appetite for tales of matrimonial conflict.


In this paper, we consider the problem of automated plan synthesis for a vehicle operating in a road network, which is modeled as a weighted transition system. The vehicle is assigned a set of demands, each of which involves a task specification in the form of a syntactically co-safe LTL formula, a deadline for achieving this task, and a demand priority. The demands arrive gradually, upon the run of the vehicle, and hence periodical replanning is needed. We particularly focus on cases, where all tasks cannot be accomplished within the desired deadlines and propose several different ways to measure the degree of demand violation that take into account the demand priorities. We develop a general solution to the problem of least-violating planning and replanning based on a translation to linear programming problem. Furthermore, for a particular subclass of demands, we provide a more efficient solution based on graph search algorithms. The benefits of the approach are demonstrated through illustrative simulations inspired by mobility-on-demand scenarios.


The IEEE 1588 precision time protocol (PTP) is a time synchronization protocol with sub-microsecond precision primarily designed for wired networks. In this letter, we propose wireless precision time protocol (WPTP) as an extension to PTP for multi-hop wireless networks. WPTP significantly reduces the convergence time and the number of packets required for synchronization without compromising on the synchronization accuracy.


Split-thickness rabbit skin was processed into small chips that were cultured in vitro and subjected to inverted phase contrast microscopic and scanning electron microscopic observation. The fibroblasts swam out of the skin chips and they increased in number rapidly and became confluenced. The cells exhibited squamous configuration, possessing arboreal bifurcations and forming multi-layer structure. The fibroblasts then excreted numerous minute granules, heaping up on and around the cells. Henceforth emerged on the cell surface fine needle-like crystals, that agglomerated with the granules to form nodules. The fibroblasts orientated themselves in a radiating pattern around the large nodules. Neighbouring nodules could be linked up into trabecular structure. Histochemical study of both the nodules and the trabecular structure with specific new bone labeller (Tetracycline and Alizarin red S) revealed positive reaction, denoting that the nodules and the trabecular structure produced by the fibroblasts were bone tissues. These results pointed out clearly to the osteogenic potential of the dermal fibroblasts.


Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) having a completely amorphous structure possess many attractive properties, and several groups from academia and industry have conducted research to expand their application in the market. Although many efforts have focused on investigating scientific issues related to the mechanical and chemical properties of these amorphous alloys, very few studies have assessed the development trends of these amorphous materials, especially from the viewpoint of market application and R&D directions. Therefore, in this chapter, the development trajectory of BMG materials is summarized based on data extracted from patent bibliometric information. These data were used because the information on patent documents obtained from a commercial patent database, World Intellectual Property Service (WIPS 2.0), can provide the most comprehensive information on valuable R&D activities and market issues. The results summarize advances in technology based on various alloy categories and processing routes. Furthermore, the research interests are also analyzed according to different countries, companies, and research institutions. The patent information provided in this chapter can provide a clear direction to assist metallurgist/metallurgy engineers in further technology development forecasting and R&D plan management.


The Contact Process has been studied on complex networks exhibiting different
kinds of quenched disorder. Numerical evidence is found for Griffiths phases and other
rare region effects, in Erd˝os Renyi networks, leading rather generically to anomalously
slow (algebraic, logarithmic,...) relaxation. More surprisingly, it turns out that Griffiths
phases can also emerge in the absence of quenched disorder, as a consequence of sole
topological heterogeneity in networks with finite topological dimension. In case of scalefree
networks, exhibiting infinite topological dimension, slow dynamics can be observed
on tree-like structures and a superimposed weight pattern. In the infinite size limit the
correlated subspaces of vertices seem to cause a smeared phase transition. These results
have a broad spectrum of implications for propagation phenomena and other dynamical
process on networks and are relevant for the analysis of both models and empirical data.


Cyclone venturi dryer is suitable for drying materials with large particle size and wide distribution. The working process of cyclone venturi dryer is a very complicated three-dimensional and turbulent motion, so it is difficult to be studied theoretically and experimentally. In order to study the internal flow characteristics of the biomass particle cyclone venturi dryer, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to simulate the gas-solid two-phase flow field inside the cyclone venturi dryer. The continuous phase adopts the Realizable k-ε turbulence model and the particle phase is discrete. The effects of different injection volume on the pressure, velocity, and temperature fields inside a cyclone venturi dryer were analyzed. The results showed that the maximum pressure drop and velocity change inside the dryer were at the venturi pipe. The wet material of the cyclone venturi dryer was inhaled into the venturi contraction tube by the negative pressure formed after the highspeed airflow was ejected, thus the mixture was completed in the venturi throat. The wood debris material was mixed with the high-speed hot gas flow in the venturi throat and then sprayed into the diffusion pipe. In the diffusion pipe of venturi, the heat and mass transfer process of wet wood debris and heat flow in venturi diffusion tube was completed. It is in good agreement with the simulation results. This study can provide a reference for the optimization design of the related cyclone venturi dryer structure.


Even though reservoirs targeted for CO2 storage are expected to be located in low-deformed tectonic settings, they can still present reservoir-scale faulted structures. Such faulting at the medium sub-seismic scale can play a significant role regarding several risk issues related to the injection-induced fluid pressure increase (fluid compartmentalization, loss of integrity in reservoir–caprock systems potentially associated with triggered seismicity and generation of leakage pathways). Yet, the characterization of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of such reservoir-scale fault structures is still lacking mainly due to the necessary seismic resolution ranging from 1 to 10 m at the reservoir scale (i.e. the "sub-seismic region"). The objective of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of the shear reactivation of such structures subjected to pore pressure increase induced outside the CO2 injection zone. The present study relies on the combination of geological outcrop surveys in a carbonate analogue for CO2 storage reservoir (southern France) and fully coupled hydro-mechanical finite-element two-dimensional simulations. A special attention was paid to the influence of the characteristics of two specific fault components: 1. damage zone geometry and 2. fault core architecture (curvature and number of curved branches).


Bi-alkali antimonide photocathodes are one of the best known sources of electrons for high current and/or high bunch charge applications like Energy Recovery Linacs or Free Electron Lasers. Despite their high quantum efficiency in visible light and low intrinsic emittance, the surface roughness of these photocathodes prohibits their use as low emittance cathodes in high accelerating gradient superconducting and normal conducting radio frequency photoguns and limits the minimum possible intrinsic emittance near the threshold. Also, the growth process for these materials is largely based on recipes obtained by trial and error and is very unreliable. In this paper, using X-ray diffraction, we investigate the different structural and chemical changes that take place during the growth process of the bi-alkali antimonide material K2CsSb. Our measurements give us a deeper understanding of the growth process of alkali-antimonide photocathodes allowing us to optimize it with the goal of minimizing the surface roughness to preserve the intrinsic emittance at high electric fields and increasing its reproducibility.


Iran. Abstract Background: The heavy metals are the most important pollutants their concentration of which in the environment is increasing in connection with cities and industrials development. One of these metals is chromium which, in the trivalent and Hexavalent oxidation state, is used in industries such as electroplating, glass, ceramic, tannery and leather. Hexavalent Chromium has proven several health hazards such as being carcinogenic. The aim of this study was to investigate nano-alumina modified with Schiff base ligands in removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution in acidic conditions. Methods: This study is experimental which was performed in batch reactor at 20 ° C temperature to investigate the effect of initial chromium concentration, adsorbent dose and reaction time on removal of chromium by nano-alumina. For adsorbent preparation, nano-alumina was purchased from Nano Kimia Pajoh company, and for increasing adsorption power, it was modified with Schiff base ligands in the presence of proper surfactant. The study was performed on the synthetic samples containing 2 and 5 mg/L concentration of chromium . The unknown concentration of Hexavalent Chromium was detected by spectrophotometer set (UV/VisibleSP-3000 Plus-Japan) at 540 nm. Results: According to the results, removal efficiency increases with increasing adsorbent dose and reaction time and decreases with increasing initial concentration of chromium. Results of this study indicated that Hexavalent chromium adsorption by nano-Alumina modified with Schiff base ligands reaches equilibrium at 30 minutes and maximum capacity will be obtained. The maximum removal efficiency, and adsorption capacity in optimum conditions (adsorbent dose=0.1mg/L ,pH=3), with chromium initial concentration of 5mg/L at 30 minute, were 83.4% and 4.17 mg/L respectively. Conclusion: Nano-alumina modified with Schiff base ligands is an effective adsorbent in removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution


Much design theory research seeks to create, evaluate, improve or optimize design methods. Whether that research focuses on design thinking, tools, methods, or education, short design problems are often provided to participants in order to evaluate the effects of the variables being tested. When designing and creating such problems, certain characteristics may influence design outcomes: experience and exposure to the design problems vary between participants, and each problem may be more or less favorable to the controlled variable.In this paper we conjecture a small set of design problem characteristics that may influence experimental outcomes, and we discuss two experiments targeted at uncovering this influence. In our first experiment we examine differences in evaluation metrics between two design problems. In a follow up experiment we correlate the hypothesized characteristics to the variances in experiment outcome. These early results assist to further compare and contrast the empirical differences in common evaluation metrics, as well as show how familiarity and extent of the subjects' knowledge of a design problem influence these metrics. We also expose the potential for interaction between the design method and the design problem.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Transonic similarity rules are applied to the correlation of experimental data for a series of related rectangular wings of varying aspect ratio, thickness, and camber. The data correlation is presented in two parts: the first part presents the correlation for a series of 22 wings having symmetrical NACA 63a-series sections; the second part is concerned with a study of one type of camber by correlation of the data for a series of 18 cambered wings having NACA 63a2xx and 63a4xx sections.


The pathophysiology of emphysema is best explained on the basis of decreased pulmonary elastic recoil. At any pleural pressure, the lung volume is higher than normal. Additionally, the altered relation between pleural and alveolar pressure facilitates expiratory dynamic compression of airways. Such compression limits airflow during forced expiration and, in severe instances, during tidal expiration. Another factor contributing to airflow limitation is disease of the airways, both large and small. In general, patients with relatively pure emphysema maintain blood gases in or near the normal range until very late in their course. PaO2 is maintained because of the preserved matching of ventilation and perfusion as alveolar walls are destroyed. PaCO2 is maintained because the ventilatory response to CO2 is not usually impaired. It is not clear why patients who are categorized clinically as "chronic bronchitics" are more likely to respond to an increased flow-resistive work of breathing by hypoventilating. Physical findings in emphysema are not specific. Radiologic changes are insensitive and are of less value than physiologic measurements.


The presentation of meaning through things occurs via images in the society. Many ideas have been presented in relation to this issue and discussion sections have occurred concerning this problem. The implementation of the meaning through things is impossible without visualization. The understanding of this visualization is one of the main aspects of concern. Having reviewed two works devoted to the problem of meaning I would like to express my personal opinion in relation to these works having supported it with Brown"s argumentation. Jameson"s and Baudrillard"s arguments presented in their books Simulacra and Simulation and Postmodernism respectively differ in their attitude to meaning and its origin. Sub cultural "meaning" raises several complexities surround the inference. These two theorists have various arguments in relation to the meaning which disappears in the never-ending play of images that are comparable and atheistically not alike.


We survey results that address the problem of non-preemptive scheduling on parallel machines with fixed jobs or unavailability periods with the purpose of minimizing the maximum completion time. We consider both identical and uniform processors, and also address the special case of scheduling on nonsimultaneous parallel machines, which may start processing at different times. The discussed results include polynomial-time approximation algorithms that achieve the best possible worst-case approximation bound of 1.5 in the class of polynomial algorithms unless P = NP for scheduling on identical processors with at most one fixed job on each machine and on uniform machines with at most one fixed job on each machine. The presented heuristics have similarities with the LPT algorithm or the MULTIFIT algorithm and they are fast and easy to implement. For scheduling on nonsimultaneous machines, experiments suggest that they would perform well in practice. We also include references to the relevant work in this area that contains more complex algorithms. We then discuss the main methods of argument used in the approximation bound proofs for the simple heuristics, and comment upon current challenges in this area by describing aspects of related practical problems from the automotive industry.


PUPs B-LONG evaluated the safety and efficacy of recombinant factor IX Fc fusion protein (rFIXFc) in previously untreated patients (PUPs) with hemophilia B. In this open-label, phase 3 study, male PUPs (age <18 years) with hemophilia B (≤2 IU/dL of endogenous factor IX [FIX]) were to receive treatment with rFIXFc. Primary end point was occurrence of inhibitor development, with a secondary end point of annualized bleed rate (ABR). Of 33 patients who received ≥1 dose of rFIXFc, 26 (79%) were age <1 year at study entry and 6 (18%) had a family history of inhibitors. Twenty-eight patients (85%) received prophylaxis; median dosing interval was 7 days, with an average weekly dose of 58 IU/kg. Twenty-seven patients (82%) completed the study. Twenty-one (64%), 26 (79%), and 28 patients (85%) had ≥50, ≥20, and ≥10 exposure days (EDs) to rFIXFc, respectively. One patient (3.03%; 95% confidence interval, 0.08% to 15.76%) developed a low-titer inhibitor after 11 EDs; no high-titer inhibitors were detected. Twenty-three patients (70%) had 58 treatment-emergent serious adverse events; 2 were assessed as related (FIX inhibition and hypersensitivity in 1 patient, resulting in withdrawal). Median ABR was 1.24 (interquartile range, 0.00-2.49) for patients receiving prophylaxis. Most (>85%) bleeding episodes required only 1 infusion for bleed resolution. In this first study reporting results with rFIXFc in pediatric PUPs with hemophilia B, rFIXFc was well tolerated, with the adverse event profile as expected in a pediatric hemophilia population. rFIXFc was effective, both as prophylaxis and in the treatment of bleeding episodes. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT02234310.


Optical spectroscopy and imaging methods have proved to have potential to discriminate between normal and abnormal tissue types through minimally invasive procedures. Raman spectroscopy and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) provides chemical and morphological information of tissues respectively, which are complementary to each other. When used individually they might not be able to obtain high enough sensitivity and specificity that is clinically relevant. In this study we combined Raman spectroscopy information with information obtained from OCT to enhance the sensitivity and specificity in discriminating between Colonic Adenocarcinoma from Normal Colon. OCT being an imaging technique, the information from this technique is conventionally analyzed qualitatively. To combine with Raman spectroscopy information, it was essential to quantify the morphological information obtained from OCT. Texture analysis was used to extract information from OCT images, which in-turn was combined with the information obtained from Raman spectroscopy. The sensitivity and specificity of the classifier was estimated using leave one out cross validation (LOOCV) method where support vector machine (SVM) was used for binary classification of the tissues. The sensitivity obtained using Raman spectroscopy and OCT individually was 89% and 78% respectively and the specificity was 77% and 74% respectively. Combining the information derived using the two techniques increased both sensitivity and specificity to 94% demonstrating that combining complementary optical information enhances diagnostic accuracy. These results demonstrate that a multimodal approach using Raman-OCT would be able to enhance the diagnostic accuracy for identifying normal and cancerous tissue types.


We study the two-dimensional process of integrated Brownian motion and Brownian motion, where integrated Brownian motion is conditioned to be positive. The transition density of this process is derived from the asymptotic behavior of hitting times of the unconditioned process. Explicit expressions for the transition density in terms of confluent hypergeometric functions are derived, and it is shown how our results on the hitting time distributions imply previous results of Isozaki-Watanabe and Goldman. The conditioned process is characterized by a system of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) for which we prove an existence and unicity result. Some sample path properties are derived from the SDEs and it is shown that $t \to t^{9/10}$ is a "critical curve" for the conditioned process in the sense that the expected time that the integral part of the conditioned process spends below any curve $t \to t^{\alpha}$ is finite for $\alpha < 9 /10$ and infinite for $\alpha \geq 9/10$.


Ramsey theory looks for regularities in large objects. Model theory studies algebraic structures as models of theories. The structural Ramsey theory combines these two fields and is concerned with Ramsey-type questions about certain model-theoretic structures. In 2005, Nešetřil initiated a systematic study of the so-called Ramsey classes of finite structures. This thesis is a contribution to the programme; we find Ramsey expansions of the primitive 3-constrained classes from Cherlin's catalogue of metrically homogeneous graphs. A key ingradient is an explicit combinatorial algorithm to fill-in the missing distances in edge-labelled graphs to obtain structures from Cherlin's classes. This algorithm also implies the extension property for partial automorphisms (EPPA), another combinatorial property of classes of finite structures.


This study focuses on European integration of national visa policies as a case study on the constitutional structure of the European Union (EU). The thesis starts by tracing the nature of visas in international practice and in national laws. Visas are inextricably linked to the concept of the State and to some of its essential functions. They express the sovereign right to control entry into the State, play an important role in recognition of other States and governments, and reflect information from overseas embassies. From the national point of view, they are an instrument of foreign policy and of internal security. The present constitutional design of the EU permits the Member States to retain sovereign status and autonomy in the maintenance of internal order and security through recourse to the intergovernmental method for cooperation on foreign and security policy (the Second Pillar) and for police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (the Third Pillar). Increasingly, the two legal methods deployed by the EU (the Community and the intergovernmental methods) cross-fertilize and the EU acts as a 'unity'. Against this background, the thesis traces the development of the common policy on short-term visas and its characteristics. Within the EU constitutional structure, the nature of visas is at the heart of the difficulties which have been encountered in the process of harmonization and explains the sui generis character of the common policy. The thesis describes cooperation before the Treaty on European Union adopted at Maastricht, under the Schengen Convention and under the Maastricht Treaty. It considers the highly complex legal framework introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty and changes proposed in the Draft Constitutional Treaty. It further considers the issue of 'consistency' with regard to the overlap of powers under different Pillars of the EU on visas and with regard to policy formulation on the 'area of freedom, security and justice'. The thesis finally draws conclusions on what visa policy reveals on constitutional issues such as vertical division of competence, convergence of legal methods, consistency and the increasing complexity of the European legal framework.


Wave transmission through soil due to dynamic load causes many problems to civil engineers craving safe construction. In this article, a laboratory model study is conducted to investigate the vibration propagation characteristics of soil due to the falling masses at different depths. Different types of impact, soils, and relative densities are used to study the characteristics of vibration transmission and energy dissipation. It was found that the increase in relative density and decrease in the depth causes an increase in the Peak Particle Acceleration and wave velocity of soil. An attempt is also made to determine the dynamic properties of soil using wave velocity ratios. A simple laboratory arrangement discussed here can be used to predict the wave propagation in soil reasonably and can determine its elastic constants. From the studies, it was revealed that the wave travel in soil and the peak particle acceleration depends on many factors like density, particle gradation, impact energy, etc.


It is well accepted that acquiring downlink channel state information in frequency division duplexing (FDD) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is challenging because of the large overhead in training and feedback. In this paper, we propose a deep generative model (DGM)-based technique to address this challenge. Exploiting the partial reciprocity of uplink and downlink channels, we first estimate the frequency-independent underlying channel parameters, i.e., the magnitudes of path gains, delays, angles-of-arrivals (AoAs) and angles-of-departures (AoDs), via uplink training, since these parameters are common in both uplink and downlink. Then, the frequency-specific underlying channel parameters, specifically, the phase of each propagation path, are estimated via downlink training using a very short training signal. In the first step, we incorporate the underlying distribution of the channel parameters as a prior into our channel estimation algorithm. We use DGMs to learn this distribution. Simulation results indicate that our proposed DGM-based channel estimation technique outperforms, by a large gap, the conventional channel estimation techniques in practical ranges of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, a near-optimal performance is achieved using only few downlink pilot measurements.


Allergic asthma is characterized by airway hyperreactivity, inflammation, and a Th2-type cytokine profile favoring IgE production. Beneficial effects of TGF-β and conflicting results regarding the role of Th1 cytokines have been reported from murine asthma models. In this study, we examined the T cell as a target cell of TGF-β-mediated immune regulation in a mouse model of asthma. We demonstrate that impairment of TGF-β signaling in T cells of transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative TGF-β type II receptor leads to a decrease in airway reactivity in a non-Ag-dependent model. Increased serum levels of IFN-γ can be detected in these animals. In contrast, after injection of OVA adsorbed to alum and challenge with OVA aerosol, transgenic animals show an increased airway reactivity and inflammation compared with those of wild-type animals. IL-13 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum as well as the number of inducible NO synthase-expressing cells in lung infiltrates were increased in transgenic animals. These results demonstrate an important role for TGF-β signaling in T cells in the regulation of airway responses and suggest that the beneficial effects observed for TGF-β in airway hyperreactivity and inflammation may be due to its regulatory effects on T cells.


Biliary tract cancers are rare cancers that arise from epithelial lining of gallbladder and bile ducts. Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common cancer of the biliary tract and accounts for two thirds of the cases, whereas bile duct cancer accounts for the remaining one-third. Although anatomically these malignancies are related and have similar metastatic patterns, each has a distinct clinical presentation, molecular pathology, and prognosis. Radical surgery offers the only chance of cure, given their proximity to the complex anatomy of porta hepatis, only one third of cases at presentation are resectable, after radical resection relapse is often very frequent. Pattern of recurrence is typically local, although first relapse at a distant site is not uncommon. With high rates of relapse, strategy aimed at optimizing local control with postoperative radiation alone or in combination with chemotherapy or optimizing systemic recurrence with chemotherapy have potential to improve treatment outcomes. Evidence for use of adjuvant therapy for these rare tumors is fragmentary and has not been evaluated in prospective randomised controlled trials. On basis of uncontrolled institutional series and registry analyses adjuvant approach is favoured and used in up to 70% of centres worldwide.  However there is lack of consensus regarding optimal use of post operative therapy, in the present article we review and present pertinent data for use of adjuvant radiotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy and chemotherapy for intrahepatic, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas and carcinoma of the gall bladder and propose guidelines for use of adjuvant therapy based upon retrospective data.


THE ABSTRACT COULD BE REWRITTEN EMPHASIZING THE TRADITIONAL DIFFICULTIES IN FINDING A RELATION BETWEEN INEQU. AND CONFLICT AND OUR EXPLANATION FOR THAT. Most empirical studies on civil conflict are not able to find a significant relationship between interpersonal-measures of economic inequality and the likelihood of conflict. When individuals belong to groups, general inequality (measured by the Gini) can be decomposed into three components: between-group inequality (BGI), within-group inequality (WGI), and 'Overlap' (which is inversely related to the economic segregation of groups). This paper shows that is possible to establish a robust empirical relation between group-based measures of income differences and conflict. Drawing on over 200 individual-level surveys from 89 countries, we create a new data set that allows us to measure these three components and to examine their empirical relationship with civil conflict. Consistent with Esteban and Ray's (2011) argument about the need for labor and capital to fight civil wars, we find a strong, robust positive association between WGI and civil conflict. And consistent with the "contact hypothesis" in sociology, we find that the economic segregation of groups (as measured by a lower Overlap component) is often associated with more civil conflict. Since some components of inequality are associated with more civil conflict but others are associated with less, the analysis helps explain why it has been difficult to identify a relationship between general inequality and civil war. And the strong finding for WGI underscores the value of developing clear theories about how the internal characteristics of groups influence the incidence of civil conflict.


Background. A controlled study tested whether the superior outcome of community care for serious mental illness (SMI) in Madison and in Sydney would also be found in inner London. Method. Patients from an inner London catchment area who faced emergency admission for SMI (many were violent or suicidal) were randomised to 20 months or more of either home-based care (Daily Living Programme, DLP; n = 92), or standard in-patient and later out-patient care (controls, n = 97). Most DLP patients had brief in-patient stays at some time. Measures included number and duration of in-patient admissions, independent ratings of clinical and social function, and patients' and relatives' satisfaction. Results. Outcome was superior with home-based care. Until month 20, DLP care improved symptoms and social adjustment slightly more, and enhanced patients' and relatives' satisfaction. From 3 to 18 months DLP care greatly reduced the number of in-patient bed days as long as the DLP team was responsible for any in-patient phase its patients had. Cost was less. DLP care did not reduce the number of admissions, nor of deaths from self-harm (3 DLP, 2 control). One DLP patient killed a child. Even at 20 months many DLP and control patients still had severe symptoms, poor social adjustment, no job, and need for assertive follow-up and heavy staff input. (Beyond 20 months most gains were lost apart from satisfaction.) Conclusions. It is unclear how much the gain until 20 months from home-based care was due to its site of care, its being problem-centred, its teaching of daily living skills, its assertive follow-up, the home care team's keeping responsibility for any in-patient phase, its coordination of total care (case management), or to other care components. Home-based care is hard to organise and vulnerable to many factors, and needs careful training and clinical audit if gains are to be sustained.


The drive to satisfy customers in narrowly defined market segments has led firms to offer wider arrays of products and services. Delivering products and services with the appropriate mix of features for these highly fragmented market segments requires understanding the value that customers place on these features. Conjoint analysis endeavors to unravel the value or partworths, that customers place on the product or service's attributes from experimental subjects' evaluation of profiles based on hypothetical products or services. When the goal is to estimate the heterogeneity in the customers' partworths, traditional estimation methods, such as least squares, require each subject to respond to more profiles than product attributes, resulting in lengthy questionnaires for complex, multiattributed products or services. Long questionnaires pose practical and theoretical problems. Response rates tend to decrease with increasing questionnaire length, and more importantly, academic evidence indicates that long questionnaires may induce response biases.

The problems associated with long questionnaires call for experimental designs and estimation methods that recover the heterogeneity in the partworths with shorter questionnaires. Unlike more popular estimation methods, Hierarchical Bayes HB random effects models do not require that individual-level design matrices be of full rank, which leads to the possibility of using fewer profiles per subject than currently used. Can this theoretical possibility be practically implemented?

This paper tests this conjecture with empirical studies and mathematical analysis. The random effects model in the paper describes the heterogeneity in subject-level partworths or regression coefficients with a linear model that can include subject-level covariates. In addition, the error variances are specific to the subjects, thus allowing for the differential use of the measurement scale by different subjects.

In the empirical study, subjects' responses to a full profile design are randomly deleted to test the performance of HB methods with declining sample sizes. These simple experiments indicate that HB methods can recover heterogeneity and estimate individual-level partworths, even when individual-level least squares estimators do not exist due to insufficient degrees of freedom.

Motivated by these empirical studies, the paper analytically investigates the trade-off between the number of profiles per subject and the number of subjects on the statistical accuracy of the estimators that describe the partworth heterogeneity. The paper considers two experimental designs: each subject receives the same set of profiles, and subjects receive different blocks of a fractional factorial design. In the first case, the optimal design, subject to a budget constraint, uses more subjects and fewer profiles per subject when the ratio of unexplained, partworth heterogeneity to unexplained response variance is large. In the second case, one can maintain a given level of estimation accuracy as the number of profiles per subject decreases by increasing the number of subjects assigned to each block.

These results provide marketing researchers the option of using shorter questionnaires for complex products or services. The analysis assumes that response quality is independent of questionnaire length and does not address the impact of design factors on response quality. If response quality and questionnaire length were, in fact, unrelated, then marketing researchers would still find the paper's results useful in improving the efficiency of their conjoint designs. However, if response quality were to decline with questionnaire length, as the preponderance of academic research indicates, then the option to use shorter questionnaires would become even more valuable.


Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are accreting black holes for which their X-ray properties have been seen to be different to the case of stellar-mass black hole binaries. For most of the cases their intrinsic energy spectra are well described by a cold accretion disc (thermal) plus a curved high-energy emission components. The mass of the black hole (BH) derived from the thermal disc component is usually in the range of 100-1000 solar masses, which have led to the idea that this might represent strong evidence of the Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBH), proposed to exist by theoretical studies but with no firm detection (as a class) so far. Recent theoretical and observational developments are leading towards the idea that these sources are instead stellar-mass BHs accreting at an unusual super-Eddington regime. In this paper we briefly describe the model SLIMULX that can be used in XSPEC for the fit of thermal spectra of slim discs around stellar mass black holes in the super-Eddington regime. This model consistently takes all relativistic effects into account. We present the obtained results from the fit of the X-ray spectra from NGC 5408 X-1.


This paper describes a method of resynthesising utterance-initial voiceless plosives, given an original utterance by one speaker and a speech database of utterances by many other speakers. The system removes an initial voiceless plosive from an utterance and replaces it with another voiceless plosive selected from the speech database. (For example, if the original utterance was /tat/, the resynthesised utterance could be /k+at/.) In the method described, techniques used in general concatenative speech synthesis were applied in order to find those segments in the speech database that would yield the smoothest concatenation with the original segment. Results from a small listening test reveal that the concatenated samples are most often correctly identified, but that there is room for improvement on naturalness. Some routes to improvement are suggested.


Evaluation of activity of main enzymatic systems involved in metabolism of lipoproteins, lipids and apoproteins in blood plasma of patients with heart ischemic disease, demonstrated that dissimilar alterations occurred in activity of the enzymatic systems responsible for transformation of lipoproteins in blood plasma. These alterations appear to be of great importance in the course of atherogenous impairments of lipoprotein metabolism found in the patients even in absence of distinct hyperlipidemia.


Tropical forest biomass is a crucial component of global carbon emission estimations. However, calibration and validation of such estimates require accurate and effective methods to estimate in situ above‐ground biomass (AGB). Present methods rely on allometric models that are highly uncertain for large tropical trees. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) tree modelling has demonstrated to be more accurate than these models to infer forest AGB. Nevertheless, applying TLS methods on tropical large trees is still challenging. We propose a method to estimate AGB of large tropical trees by three‐dimensional (3D) tree modelling of TLS point clouds. Twenty‐nine plots were scanned with a TLS in three study sites (Peru, Indonesia and Guyana). We identified the largest tree per plot (mean diameter at breast height of 73.5 cm), extracted its point cloud and calculated its volume by 3D modelling its structure using quantitative structure models (QSM) and converted to AGB using species‐specific wood density. We also estimated AGB using pantropical and local allometric models. To assess the accuracy of our and allometric methods, we harvest the trees and took destructive measurements. AGB estimates by the TLS–QSM method showed the best agreement in comparison to destructive harvest measurements (28.37% coefficient of variation of root mean square error [CV‐RMSE] and concordance correlation coefficient [CCC] of 0.95), outperforming the pantropical allometric models tested (35.6%–54.95% CV‐RMSE and CCC of 0.89–0.73). TLS–QSM showed also the lowest bias (overall underestimation of 3.7%) and stability across tree size range, contrasting with the allometric models that showed a systematic bias (overall underestimation ranging 15.2%–35.7%) increasing linearly with tree size. The TLS–QSM method also provided accurate tree wood volume estimates (CV RMSE of 23.7%) with no systematic bias regardless the tree structural characteristics. Our TLS–QSM method accounts for individual tree biophysical structure more effectively than allometric models, providing more accurate and less biased AGB estimates for large tropical trees, independently of their morphology. This non‐destructive method can be further used for testing and calibrating new allometric models, reducing the current under‐representation of large trees in and enhancing present and past estimates of forest biomass and carbon emissions from tropical forests.


In order to demystify the complexities of the social media and surveillance systems in China, this article offers a case study of Tencent. It also discusses the historical context, political agendas, and cultural productions of the technological sublime that obscure the political-economic realities of China's rapidly evolving internet industry. Tencent's conglomeration is situated within the context of China's social surveillance infrastructure as well as the historical development of science and technology. Tencent's effort in content generation, comprehensive multi-platform connection strategy and ecosystem building encapsulates the construction of a commercial surveillance infrastructure that embodies a surveillance capitalism logic. In addition, this article examines the mutually constitutive relationships between the state and Tencent in the process of the latter's conglomeration. In general, the technological sublime fabricated by various political and economic forces have hidden Tencent's conglomeration, its entanglement with the state sector and the establishment of a commercial surveillance infrastructure. By demystifying this process, it is possible to depict contemporary China as a commercial-state surveillance complex, wherein the state and tech-giants like Tencent work hand-in-hand to engineer user behavior and public discourse.


While Business Process Management (BPM) is an established discipline, the increased adoption of BPM technology in recent years has introduced new challenges. One challenge concerns dealing with the ever-growing complexity of business process models. Mechanisms for dealing with this complexity can be classified into two categories: 1) those that are solely concerned with the visual representation of the model and 2) those that change its inner structure. While significant attention is paid to the latter category in the BPM literature, this paper focuses on the former category. It presents a collection of patterns that generalize and conceptualize various existing mechanisms to change the visual representation of a process model. Next, it provides a detailed analysis of the degree of support for these patterns in a number of state-of-the-art languages and tools. This paper concludes with the results of a usability evaluation of the patterns conducted with BPM practitioners.


Objective: To investigate the effects of neonatal stroke on progenitor cells lining the lateral ventricles. Methods: Intraventricular injection of replication-incompetent green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing lentivirus was performed in postnatal day 1 (P1) rats to specifically label radial glia/type B neural stem cells and ependymal cells of the lateral ventricle. A subset of animals was exposed to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) at P7, with mild or moderate injury confirmed by diffusion-weighted MRI and histology. Newborn cells were identified by GFP expression, location and expression of cell type-specific markers in the striatum, cortex and olfactory bulb using confocal microscopy and systematic random sampling. Results: Three weeks lentiviral GFP transduction of cells in the lateral ventricle, abundant GFP-expressing neurons and glia were identified in the rostral migratory stream, olfactory bulb and striatum as expected from labeling the subventricular zone (SVZ) type B neural stem cell lineage. Two weeks following mild or severe focal stroke at P7, no GFP-expressing neurons were detected in striatum or cortex although some single-labeled doublecortin+ immature neurons were detected in the penumbra. The densities of GFP+/ glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)+ astrocytes and GFP+/O4+ oligodendrocytes were reduced in the striatum following MCAO (4.8 ± 1.02 vs. 2.5 ± 0.4 cells/high-power field, HPF; p = 0.005; 2.8± 1 vs. 0.5 ± 0.2 cells/HPF, p = 0.008). Furthermore, there was a reduction of GFP+ cells in the olfactory bulb following MCAO (58.8 ± 14.9 vs. 19.6 ± 5.4 cells/HPF, p = 0.025). Finally, there was an increased percentage of GFP+/GFAP+ cells (70 vs. 50%), with a decreased proportion of GFP+/O4+ cells (14 vs. 30%) in injured animals. Conclusion: Neurogenesis originating from cells of the lateral ventricle, including SVZ type B cells, is significantly reduced following neonatal stroke. Furthermore, neonatal stroke disrupts gliogenesis in the striatum, decreasing overall numbers of new glia and shifting the population towards astrocytes.


Globally, innovative treatment systems are needed to incentivise safe faecal sludge management practices and resource recovery. In rural Tanzania 83% of the population do not have access to basic sanitation. Communities rely on on-site sanitation (pit latrines) that are not safely managed and allow for faecal sludge to contaminate groundwater used for drinking. This study reports on the design and evaluation of a novel treatment system; dewatering of faecal sludge in solar drying beds, followed by capturing of faecal sludge leachate and leachate heat sterilisation using a rocket stove fired with agricultural waste. Faecal sludge was manually extracted from 25 pit-latrines in rural Tanzania and analyzed at 0.5 m depth profiles. For aged latrine sludge (1.5 m deep) the ratio of total volatile solids to total solids halved, indicating stabilization. However, densities of Escherichia coli remained elevated (5.6 × 104 cfu g−1). Extracted sludge was loaded (∼0.9–1.35 m3) into drying beds for 21 days and final E. coli densities were highly variable. The leachate was captured from drying beds in 150 L batches and took 40 min to heat to 98 °C in the rocket-stove with a rice husk fuel feeding rate of 48 kg h−1. Heat treatment of leachate completely inactivated 3.1 × 105 cfu/100 ml of E. coli (5.5 log10 reduction) and reduced total coliforms by 99.9% (3.1 log10); reaching safe guideline values for unrestricted agricultural reuse. Thus, the stove is an innovative low-cost technology for treatment of faecal sludge for rural communities in developing countries that produces faecal products that can be safely used in agriculture.