Single point diamond tools are commonly used for ultraprecision machining. At high cutting speeds, frictional contact and local heat may cause material damage to the diamond tool. The diamond crystal is softened and its mechanical strength decreases with the increase in temperature. Plastic deformation of diamonds was recently reported in some experimental studies. In this work, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was implemented to predict the deformation of single crystal diamond at various temperatures. Diamond is brittle at room temperature, however, it starts to exhibit plastic dislocation at a temperature above 1200 K under a confining pressure. The condition in ultraprecision machining is indeed a temperature gradient distribution at the tool tip, between the maximum temperature at the tool-workpiece interface and the average temperature at the core. The simulation results predicted that diamond deformed plastically under the gradient between 1500K and 860K. It is surprising that secondary cracks were resulted from the gradient, as comparing to a single slip obtained in an evenly distributed temperature. Bond dissociation nucleated the fractures along the (111) shuffle planes, perfect dislocation merely occurred in the hot zone and sp3-to-sp2 disorder at the cool zone. The temperature gradient created a lattice mismatch and nucleated the secondary cracks. The results give an insight that a catastrophic fracture and local material damage can occur at a diamond tool tip at the cutting temperature above 1200 K, due to softening and graphitization.


Abstract Levels of neutral genetic diversity largely reflect effective population size (Ne), which is influenced by physical and biological environmental variables. While large populations of marine fishes generally harbor higher diversities than freshwater species, historical demography or the effects of natural selection may significantly reduce Ne and differentially affect genomic diversities. Here, we surveyed levels of genetic diversity and examined genetic structure among populations of the Atka mackerel Pleurogrammus monopterygius across most of its geographic range by screening variation at nine nuclear microsatellite DNA markers (n = 745) and in a 468-base-pair segment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (n = 119). Samples from Japan to the western Gulf of Alaska were collected between 2004 and 2006 at six locations, including temporal replicates at two sites. Microsatellite allele frequency homogeneity across the North Pacific indicated an apparent lack of genetic population substructure. While levels of polymorphism at microsatellite loci were typical for marine fishes (haplotype diversity h = 0.34–0.96), mtDNA control region diversity was extremely low (nucleotide diversity = 0.00007; h = 0.033). Only three mtDNA haplotypes, two occurring as singletons, were detected among 119 individuals. The strong contrast between microsatellite and mtDNA diversities appears to be due to the smaller Ne for mtDNA, perhaps resulting from population bottlenecks during postglacial colonizations of the central North Pacific or the effects of natural selection on mtDNA.


This paper explores the cultural and social phenomenon surrounding Sonyosang, a bronze statue symbolizing the so-called "comfort women"—young women who were drafted for military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Fifteen Years War (1931–1945). After the 2015 agreement between South Korea and Japan over the issue of the "comfort women," Sonyosang has developed into the Sonyosang phenomenon: voluntary citizen activism involving protecting the statue from being removed and installing replicas and variations of the statue in South Korea and abroad. Using the methods of art history and visual culture studies, the paper analyzes Sonyosang and the Sonyosang phenomenon in relation to the anti-colonial, patriarchal nationalism, and feminism that had reemerged in South Korea by 2015, examining how these discourses generate active interaction and participation with the statue from the viewers. It also discusses how these discourses either perpetuate the image of the "comfort women" as frail victims or, instead, transform it into one of empowered activists, generating solidarity among emancipated spectators and the subalterns of power.


Abstract—Ice slurries are considered as a promising phasechanging secondary fluids for air-conditioning, packaging or cooling industrial processes. An experimental study has been here carried out to measure the rheological characteristics of ice slurries. Ice slurries consist in a solid phase (flake ice crystals) and a liquid phase. The later is composed of a mixture of liquid water and an additive being here either (1) Propylene-Glycol (PG) or (2) Ethylene-Glycol (EG) used to lower the freezing point of water. Concentrations of 5%, 14% and 24% of both additives are investigated with ice mass fractions ranging from 5% to 85%. The rheological measurements are carried out using a Discovery HR-2 vane-concentric cylinder with four fulllength blades. The experimental results show that the behavior of ice slurries is generally non-Newtonian with shear-thinning or shearthickening behaviors depending on the experimental conditions. In order to determine the consistency and the flow index, the HerschelBulkley model is used to describe the behavior of ice slurries. The present results are finally validated against an experimental database found in the literature and the predictions of an Artificial Neural Network model.


Aim: The objective of this study was to (1) evaluate the oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels during intraoral and extraoral impression taking and (2) compare the SpO2 levels during impression taking before and after presurgical orthopedic therapy (POT) of infants with cleft lip and palate (CLP). Patients and Methods: In our study, 31 babies with CLP before (mean age 7.6 ± 3.2 days) and after (mean age 108.3 ± 24.2 days) POT were monitored, and SpO2 levels were measured under operating conditions before any intervention (T1), after oxygenation (T2), during taking intraoral (T3), and extraoral (T4) impressions with oxygen support and immediately before the discharge from the operating room (T5). Results: In both groups, statistically significant differences in SpO2 measurements at T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 stages were found (P < .01). For the pre‐POT measurements, increases in SpO2 levels from T1 to T2 and T4 to T5 (P < .05) and decreases from T2 to T3 and T3 to T4 (P < .01) were noted. Similarly, SpO2 levels decreased significantly from the intraoral (T3) to extraoral (T4) post‐POT impression periods (P < .01). Comparisons of pre‐ and post‐POT measurements revealed that the SpO2 level of each time period was higher at the post‐POT impression taking except for stages T2 and T5 (P < .01). Conclusion: The SpO2 values were low at the onset of POT in infants with CLP before any intervention. Oxygen saturation levels may decrease particularly during extraoral impression taking in infants with CLP despite the supplemental oxygen. SpO2 measurements were higher during post‐POT intraoral and extraoral impression taking when compared with pre‐POT measurements.


We study the influence of bubble-bubble interactions on the propagation of linear acoustic waves in bubbly liquids. Using the full model proposed by Fuster and Colonius [J. Fluid Mech. 688, 253 (2011)], numerical simulations reveal that direct bubble-bubble interactions have an appreciable effect for frequencies above the natural resonance frequency of the average size bubble. Based on the new results, a modification of the classical wave propagation theory is proposed. The results obtained are in good agreement with previously reported experimental data where the classical linear theory systematically overpredicts the effective attenuation and phase velocity.


The focus of the current study is on the numerical investigation of airflow and temperature distribution in a representative Class B Recreational Vehicle (RV) with the objective of optimizing the inlet and exhaust vent configurations to enhance thermal comfort levels. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are carried out using ANSYS FLUENT. The CFD model of a representative RV is described in detail. First, a reference case that is based on the existing RV model is presented. For further optimizations with respect to this reference case, a parametric study is performed. This parametric study focuses on evaluating the impact of inlet and outlet vent locations, supply airflow direction, and varying the number of exhaust vents on temperature and airflow distributions. Seven test cases are simulated in total. The simulation results are evaluated based on their temperatures, velocity magnitudes, PMV (Predicted Mean Vote), and PPD (Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied) values.


Since December 2019, the novel SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak has resulted in millions of cases and more than 200 000 deaths worldwide. The clinical course among nonpregnant women has been described, but data about potential risks for women and their fetus remain scarce. The SARS and MERS epidemics were responsible for miscarriages, adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes, and maternal deaths. For COVID‐19 infection, only nine cases of maternal death have been reported as of 22 April 2020, and pregnant women seem to develop the same clinical presentation as the general population. However, severe maternal cases, as well as prematurity, fetal distress, and stillbirth among newborns have been reported. The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic greatly impacts prenatal management and surveillance and raise the need for clear unanimous guidelines. In this narrative review, we describe the current knowledge about coronaviruses (SARS, MERS, and SARS‐CoV‐2) risks and consequences on pregnancies, and we summarize available current candidate therapeutic options for pregnant women. Finally, we compare current guidance proposed by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the World Health Organization to give an overview of prenatal management which should be utilized until future data appear.


The aim of this work was to generate mathematical models capable of identifying photosynthetic pigments and soluble proteins from the leaves of Jatropha curcas using the relationship between classical readings performed by spectrophotometry and the chlorophyll meter, ClorofiLOG ® 1030. The work was conducted at Embrapa Cotton, in the city of Campina Grande, state of Paraiba, Brazil. For indirect analysis, portable equipment was used to read leaf discs at different stages of development. The chlorophyll in these discs was then determined using a classical method, while the Bradford method was used to determine soluble proteins. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and regression analyses, in which the readings obtained using the portable chlorophyll meter were the dependent variables and the photosynthetic pigments and soluble protein determined by the classical method the independents variables. The results indicated that with the exception of chlorophyll b and soluble protein, the mathematical models obtained with the portable chlorophyll ClorofiLOG ® 1030 can be used to estimate the concentration of photosynthetic pigments with high precision, thus saving time and the chemical reagents required for conventional procedures. .


Is it possible to protect the environment and foster economic growth at the same time? Yes, according to these authors, who call for cooperative ecosystem management that goes beyond the win-lose negotiations that plague most environmental debates. They advocate a balanced approach that considers environmental and development interests simultaneously.

After an overview of the Endangered Species Act and the controversies surrounding its implementation, Hoffman et al. suggest the economic benefits that can be gained from protecting endangered species. For example, some pharmaceutical companies see nature as one large R&D lab in which millions of years of evolution have developed new products for human use. Some plant materials and plant by-products are stronger and more lightweight than synthetic materials. Food and animal stocks rely on genetic diversity. Wetlands can serve as purification and detoxification systems. And an increasingly urban population is more interested in recreational use of land, rather than logging, mining, and grazing.

On the other hand, say the authors, economics should not be the sole criterion for determining the merit of endangered species protection. By moving away from an extractive view of natural resources, we shift toward stewardship; a shift in mind-set is crucial in enhancing economic competitiveness rather than diminishing it.

To improve the implementation of the ESA, the authors propose:

1. Promoting economic incentives by reforming tax codes, establishing special trust funds, swapping government land for more valuable private land, and charging land-use fees for hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping.

2. Reducing uncertainty for affected groups by establishing fixed time periods and streamlining ESA procedures. This involves generating more information about species and ecosystems, encouraging collaborative problem solving, and providing adequate resources for implementation.

3. Allocating adequate resources for implementation by ensuring funding for generating information and training personnel.

4. Involving stakeholders in decisions by forming advisory boards of affected, interested groups and ensuring negotiations through federal mandates.

5. Moving toward ecosystem management by making science-based decisions, involving stakeholders, articulating social values, and planning for the long term.

A broad look at all aspects of ecosystem management ? economic, environmental, and political ? will foster environmental protection along with economic growth.


This paper presents the results of a theoretical-experimental study on the aerodynamic behavior of a 150m high, slenderness 30, concrete chimney. For the wind tunnel tests two scaled models were built: one rigid for the measurement of the external pressures, and other aeroelastic, in which the main dynamic characteristics of the real structure were reproduced. The dynamic response under atmospheric turbulence (along-wind direction) is described in the paper and is compatible with the methodology of the Brazilian wind code NBR-6123. A brief analysis of the transversal response due to vortex shedding is presented according to the Canadian Wind Code NBCC. It is observed that, due to the low frequency of the structure, the dynamic approach leads to results significantly larger than those obtained from applying the conventional static approach of gust wind speed. The presence of the neighborhood have increased the loads on the structures.


Part One: The Great Ones Part Two: The Ten Best Italian Artist Lists and the Recordings Part Three: The Newer Fellers Part Four: Special Features Part Five: Honourable Mentions.


Despite the longstanding role of radiation in cancer treatment and the presence of advanced, high-resolution imaging techniques, delineation of voxels at-risk for progression remains purely a geometric expansion of anatomic images, missing subclinical disease at risk for recurrence while treating potentially uninvolved tissue and increasing toxicity. This remains despite the modern ability to precisely shape radiation fields. A striking example of this is the treatment of glioblastoma, a highly infiltrative tumor that may benefit from accurate identification of subclinical disease. In this study, we hypothesize that parameters from physiologic and metabolic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at diagnosis could predict the likelihood of voxel progression at radiographic recurrence in glioblastoma by identifying voxel characteristics that indicate subclinical disease. Integrating dosimetry can reveal its effect on voxel outcome, enabling risk-adapted voxel dosing. As a system example, 24 patients with glioblastoma treated with radiotherapy, temozolomide and an anti-angiogenic agent were analyzed. Pretreatment median apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA), relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), vessel leakage (percentage recovery), choline-to-NAA index (CNI) and dose of voxels in the T2 nonenhancing lesion (NEL), T1 post-contrast enhancing lesion (CEL) or normal-appearing volume (NAV) of brain, were calculated for voxels that progressed [NAV→NEL, CEL (N = 8,765)] and compared against those that remained stable [NAV→NAV (N = 98,665)]. Voxels that progressed (NAV→NEL) had significantly different (P < 0.01) ADC (860), FA (0.36) and CNI (0.67) versus stable voxels (804, 0.43 and 0.05, respectively), indicating increased cell turnover, edema and decreased directionality, consistent with subclinical disease. NAV→CEL voxels were more abnormal (1,014, 0.28, 2.67, respectively) and leakier (percentage recovery = 70). A predictive model identified areas of recurrence, demonstrating that elevated CNI potentiates abnormal diffusion, even far (>2 cm) from the tumor and dose escalation >45 Gy has diminishing benefits. Integrating advanced MRI with dosimetry can identify at voxels at risk for progression and may allow voxel-level risk-adapted dose escalation to subclinical disease while sparing normal tissue. When combined with modern planning software, this technique may enable risk-adapted radiotherapy in any disease site with multimodal imaging.


Metal contamination of the soils is a widespread problem and immobilization of metals with organic amendments is one of the different remediation technologies. We investigated the effect of activated carbon, poultry manure and pressmud on immobilization of nickel, manganese, copper, zinc, iron and lead in the contaminated soil, plant growth and metal concentrations in maize shoots. The amendments were applied to the soil at the rate of 4% on dry weight basis. Amendments significantly (P < 0.001) affected shoot dry weight and concentrations of all metals in maize shoots as compared to the control. The maximum shoot dry weight (4.54 g pot-1) was recorded with pressmud, while it was minimum with the control (2.22 g pot-1). Maize shoots contained the minimum nickel (3.54 mg kg-1) with activated carbon and the minimum concentrations of manganese (11.02 mg kg-1), zinc (48.06 mg kg-1) and iron (104.66 mg kg-1) were recorded with pressmud. Maize shoots contained the minimum concentrations of copper (25.41 mg kg-1) and lead (53.40 mg kg-1) with poultry manure and control, respectively. Amendments significantly (P < 0.001) decreased ammonium bicarbonate-diethylene triamine penta acetic acid (AB-DTPA) extractable concentrations of metals except lead. Activated carbon treated pots had minimum AB-DTPA extractable concentrations of all the metals except iron and lead. Activated carbon was most effective in immobilization of Ni, Mn, Zn and Cu decreasing AB-DTPA extractable Ni in the soil, while Fe and Pb was increased due to application of other amendments.


This paper considers the importance of local champions for the successful initiation and development of car clubs. The parallels between car club champions and other environmental champions are explored and the roles such individuals have within companies and communities are investigated. The paper highlights how important it is for car club champions to be embedded within the community so that their role as 'agents of change' can be maximised. In order to achieve such change champions need to be able to tap into social capital and use and develop social networks within their community. Champions also need to be sensitive to the heterogeneous nature of many communities and should be ready to adjust their message according to their audience. This paper also considers the impact champions have on the characteristics of resulting car clubs and looks at their continuing role once a car club has been established. The policy implications of our findings are then explored.


Abstract Spatial data modeled to have come from a random function with a nonstationary mean are considered. The spatial prediction method known as kriging exploits second-order spatial correlation structure to obtain minimum variance predictions of certain average values of the random function. But to do so, it must be assumed that either the mean function (the drift) is known up to a constant or the second-order structure (the variogram) is known exactly. Knowledge of the drift allows the (stationary) variogram to be estimated and leads to ordinary kriging. Knowledge of the variogram allows the drift to be estimated and leads to universal kriging. More usually, neither is known. This article shows how median polish of gridded spatial data provides a resistant and relatively bias-free way of kriging in the presence of drift, yet yields results as good as the mathematically optimal (but operationally difficult) universal kriging. Comparisons are performed on two data sets.


Wireless Sensor Networks are proven highly successful in many areas, including military and security monitoring. In this paper, we propose a method to use the edge-betweenness community detection algorithm to determine clusters and to facilitate in-network data aggregation for these applications. To minimize the cost of determining the clusters, the approach is based on exploiting the topology information from the ad hoc routing protocol. Three different schemes are proposed. (1) A distributed clustering scheme using the OLSR routing protocol. (2) A centralized scheme using OLSR. (3) A centralized scheme using an extension to the DYMO-low routing protocol. All schemes support sensor heterogeneity allowing that different data content can use different routing paths. The paper presents simulation results and analysis of the cluster generation for each of the schemes. The results show that our method is a simple and effective method to improve scalability and lifetime of roadside sensor networks.


AIM: To assess the prevalence of the two mutations, C282Y and H63D of HFE gene, in healthy subjects, patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), and patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Taiwan and to explore the contribution of the HFE mutation on serum iron stores in CHC and NAFLD groups.METHODS: We examined C282Y and H63D mutations of HFE gene in 125 healthy subjects, 29 patients with CHC,and 33 patients with NAFLD. The serum iron markers,including ferritin, iron, and total iron binding capacity (TIBC),were assessed in all patients.RESULTS: All of the healthy subjects and patients were free from C282Y mutation. The prevalence of H63D heterozygosity was 4/125 (3.20%) in healthy subjects, 2/29(6.90%) in CHC group, and 1/33 (3.03%) in NAFLD group.The healthy subjects showed no significant difference in the prevalence of H63D mutation as compared with the CHC or NAFLD group. Increased serum iron store was found in 34.48% of CHC patients and 36.36% of NAFLD patients.In three patients of H63D heterozygosity, only one CHC patient had increased serum iron store. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of HFE mutations between patients with increased serum iron store and those without in CHC or NAFLD group.CONCLUSION: The HFE mutations may not contribute to iron accumulation in the CHC or NAFLD group even when serum iron overload is observed in more than one-third of these patients in Taiwan.


Effective bandwidth utilization and scalability are vital issues for IP networking over a large-scale uni-directional link (UDL), such as a wide-area wireless broadcast over satellite or terrestrial digital broadcasting. On a large-scale UDL, the current network architecture is not scalable to cover an extraordinary number of receivers that communicate using a Link-layer Tunneling Mechanism (LLTM). This paper proposes a network architecture for a large-scale UDL that: (1) decreases the traffic load of LLTM at the upstream network of the UDL, (2) coordinates the data link layer and network layer of receivers without communications via UDL, and (3) enables neighbor discovery for direct communication between receivers via a bi-directional link that is used as a return path for LLTM. Simulation results showed that our approach reduces by more than 90% the control messages to be sent via UDL compared with IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration on the existing network architecture. Our proposal improves the UDL bandwidth consumption from O(N) to O(1), so that the bulk of the bandwidth can be utilized for delivering services, not for network configuration of receivers.


This essay reads the concealment and revelation of pregnancy in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (1847) and Charlotte Mary Yonge's The Clever Woman of the Family (1865) in order to demonstrate Victorian textual convention for the treatment of pregnancy. These readings establish the period tendency to conceal the pregnancies of modest/moral women and to reveal (as punishment, example, and narrative necessity) the pregnancies of immodest/immoral women. I also explore the ways in which a vocabulary of illness cooperates with the concealment and revelation of pregnant bodies. Reading illness and pregnancy in Wuthering Heights makes particularly legible our participation in the punishing narrative treatment of reproductive bodies that transgress normative behaviours: this heightened legibility prompts my unconventional pairing of Bronte with Yonge, a novelist invested in the novel as means of moral instruction and correction. This essay is about the gender, narration, (un)ethical modes of reading, and the specificities of bodies, about what pregnancy can tell us about these things and about what these things can tell us about pregnancy. The message in both directions is simple and important: when we see a character's pregnant body in a Victorian novel, chances are it is because she has done something wrong.


The vehicle routing problem with task priority and limited resources (VRPTPLR) is a generalized version of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) with multiple task priorities and insufficient vehicle capacities. The objective of this problem is to maximize the total benefits. Compared to the traditional mathematical analysis methods, the pointer neural network proposed in this paper continuously learns the mapping relationship between input nodes and output decision schemes based on the actual distribution conditions. In addition, a global attention mechanism is adopted in the neural network to improve the convergence rate and results. To verify the effectiveness of the method, we model the VRPTPLR and compare the results with those of a genetic algorithm. The parameter sensitivity of each algorithm is assessed using different datasets. Then, comparison experiments with the two algorithms employing optimal parameter configurations are performed for the validation sets, which are generated at different instance scales. It is found that the solution time of the pointer neural network is much shorter than that of the genetic algorithm and that the proposed method provides better solutions for large-scale instances.


In a prospective randomized study of elderly patients, a total of 130 units of blood were donated by 45 patients prior to a total hip arthroplasty. Fifteen patients served as controls (no phlebotomy). The average age was 71 (60-82) years. No major complication occurred with phlebotomy. All the patients were able to maintain their hematologic and chemical parameters within the normal range throughout the donation period. The autologous blood covered all the peroperative transfusion needs and 97 percent of the total transfusion requirements. There was less postoperative blood loss, as well as total blood loss, in the autologous groups compared with the control group. There was no difference in the rate of postoperative complications between the groups. The use of predeposited autologous blood in elective orthopedics, regardless of patient age, is feasible, cost effective, and avoids the risks associated with homologous blood transfusion.


A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, College of Business and Economics, Department of Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Executive Masters in Business Administration (EMBA)


Abstract Background Trastuzumab is a highly efficient drug in HER2-positive breast cancer that increases patient survival. Due to cardiotoxicity is the most important side effect of trastuzumab treatment, cardiac monitoring should be a priority, especially in the presence of comorbidities. Left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) determination remains the most used technique to diagnose cardiotoxicity in clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to analyse the usefulness of NT-ProBNP as a biomarker of cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab. Methods The study included 66 patients who received trastuzumab. We collected the LVEF and NT-proBNP values measured during the course of treatment, and cardiovascular risk factors including diabetes, hypertension, smoking, hypercholesterolemia and BMI. Cardiotoxicity was diagnosed during the follow-up program considering a decrease of the LVEF from baseline or clinical manifestation of congestive heart failure. According to the literature, NT-proBNP cut-off points were considered to stablish normal or abnormal values in terms of patent age. Results 174 paired LVEF/NT-proBNP values were found. 27.3% of patients suffered cardiotoxicity during trastuzumab treatment and most of cases were diagnosed based on cardiac symptomatology (66.7 %). Logistic regression analysis of NT-proBNP and the cardiovascular risk factors showed a significant association of diabetes mellitus (OR 5.9, 95% CI 1.2 - 28.5, p = 0.028) and NT-proBNP (OR 22.0, 95% CI 5.7 - 85.4, p = 0.000) with the development of cardiotoxicity during trastuzumab treatment, whereas the other variables were not statistically significant. Conclusions Diabetes and NT-proBNP values seem to be associated with an increased risk of cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients during trastuzumab treatment. In diabetics, glycaemic control and a more intense cardiac monitoring could provide objective benefits during the treatment. Moreover, NT-proBNP determination could become an accessible way to evaluate cardiac risk in this context. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Polyaniline (PANI) was deposited on the glassy carbon electrode in organic electrolyte. The deposition mechanism and properties of resulted PANI were characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that: the polymerization of PANI can carry in a relatively high potential (2.4V), and the electrochemical deposition mechanism of PANI at high potential in organic electrolyte is different from that in inorganic system due to the low conductivity and diffusion coefficient of organic electrolyte. The electro-conductivity of PANI is good in the range of 0.2~0.8V which is wider than that reported in inorganic electrolyte.


This paper describes a compact high-performance orthomode transducer (OMT) with a circular waveguide input and two rectangular waveguide outputs based on the superimposition of three aluminum blocks. Several prototypes operating in the band 1 (31-45 GHz) of the atacama large millimeter array have been fabricated and measured. The design is based on the use of a turnstile junction that is machined in a single block, requiring neither alignment nor a high degree of mechanical tolerances. Thus, a high repeatability of the design is possible for mass production. Across the 31-45 GHz band, the isolation is better than 50 dB and the return losses at the input and outputs of the OMT are better than -25 dB.


Surface Flow Types (SFTs), distinctive patterns of disturbance on the surface of flowing water resulting from the interaction between flow and channel shape, were used to delimit meso-scale in-channel habitats in eight British lowland rivers to determine whether SFT mesohabitats were capable of being mapped, and were physically and biologically distinct. Five different SFTs - No Perceptible (NP), Smooth (SM), Rippled (RP), Unbroken wave (UW) and Upwelling (UP) - were investigated, a further three rare types (Chute, Broken wave and Confused) were mapped but not investigated further.
Identification and mapping the extent of SFTs of was shown to be practical by estimating SFT mesohabitat extent onto large scale plans of the stream channel supported by differential Global Positioning Satellite technology. Mesohabitats were drawn as they existed, giving a large degree of variability in relation to channel shape and improving over several current rapid habitat mapping methods.
The physical distinctiveness of five SFT mesohabitats was examined using data collected from 596 mesohabitats over a wide range of discharges. Mean column velocity and substrate grain size (dominant and sub-dominant) increased from NP, through SM and RP to UW. Velocity, substrate size and embeddedness of fine particles were significantly different (ANOVA and Pair-wise) between the five SFTs investigated. Substrate size was positively associated with increasing velocity, depth and embeddedness were negatively associated with velocity. PCA showed that substrate opposes embeddedness and velocity opposes depth. The degree of distinctiveness was diminished by data ranges which encompassed several SFTs.
Macroinvertebrates were collected in 375 samples from 139 SFTs, using one-minute kick samples and identified to Biological Monitoring Working Party family level. ANOVA and Pair-wise analysis of Lotic-invertebrate Index for Flow Evaluation Velocity Group shows significant differences between 80% of SFT combinations with UP least distinct. Mean relative abundance and taxonomic richness increased from NP, through SM and RP to UW and were positively related to velocity. ANOVA showed significant differences between relative abundance and richness in SFTs, whilst Pair-wise analysis shows that adjacent SFTs, in relation to velocity, were less different than those further away. Thus NP is similar to SM and different to UW. Diversity and Equitability between SFTs were less distinct. Thirteen macroinvertebrate family groups were significantly associated (X2 Test) with particular Surface Flow Types, e.g. Ancylidae with UW; Chironomidae with NP. Biological distinctiveness was not established, although general trends were identified
One mesohabitat – UP - is rare, being physically related to NP and SM in depth and substrate, and to SM and RP in velocity and embeddedness. It is biologically less distinct than the other four SFTs.
The research shows that the extents of NP, SM, RP and UW mesohabitats in British lowland rivers are capable of being mapped. There are significant trends in their physical distinctiveness which are linked to increasing downstream velocity although is not strong. The macroinvertebrate relationship is weaker, with abundance and richness increasing with velocity.


Construction activities are common across cities; however, the studies assessing their contribution to airborne PM10 (≤10 μm) and PM2.5 (≤2.5 μm) particles on the surrounding air quality are limited. Herein, we assessed the impact of PM10 and PM2.5 arising from construction works in and around London. Measurements were carried out at 17 different monitoring stations around three construction sites between January 2002 and December 2013. Tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM 1400) and OSIRIS (2315) particle monitors were used to measure the PM10 and PM2.5 fractions in the 0.1-10 μm size range along with the ambient meteorological data. The data was analysed using bivariate concentration polar plots and k-means clustering techniques. Daily mean concentrations of PM10 were found to exceed the European Union target limit value of 50 μg m(-3) at 11 monitoring stations but remained within the allowable 35 exceedences per year, except at two monitoring stations. In general, construction works were found to influence the downwind concentrations of PM10 relatively more than PM2.5. Splitting of the data between working (0800-1800 h; local time) and non-working (1800-0800 h) periods showed about 2.2-fold higher concentrations of PM10 during working hours when compared with non-working hours. However, these observations did not allow to conclude that this increase was from the construction site emissions. Together, the polar concentration plots and the k-means cluster analysis applied to a pair of monitoring stations across the construction sites (i.e. one in upwind and the other in downwind) confirmed the contribution of construction sources on the measured concentrations. Furthermore, pairing the monitoring stations downwind of the construction sites showed a logarithmic decrease (with R(2) about 0.9) in the PM10 and PM2.5 concentration with distance. Our findings clearly indicate an impact of construction activities on the nearby downwind areas and a need for developing mitigation measures to limit their escape from the construction sites.


The study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical properties of the Old Brahmaputra River and Sewage water in Mymensingh Municipality. To perform the study fifty samples were collected from five different stations from the river and surrounding sewage discharge points. The samples were analyzed to determine pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd). The mean value of pH was 7.1 and 6.8 for river and sewage water samples, respectively. Mean EC value was 183 μS/cm and 589.18 μS/cm for river and sewage samples, respectively signifies that EC of all samples were within the acceptable range. 66.32 ppm and 260.36 ppm were the mean TDS value for river and sewage samples, respectively indicates no harm to aquatic lives and irrigation water use. Mean DO and BOD values for river water samples were 4.21 mg/L and 6.02 mg/L, respectively. 3.08 mg/L and 9.98 mg/L were the mean DO and BOD values for sewage water samples, respectively implies that river water is usable for irrigation but sewage water is unfit for it. Mean Pb concentration for river and sewage water samples was 0.428 ppm and 0.467 ppm, respectively.J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 10(2): 105-108 2017


In order to find out whether there is any relationship between blood pressure, body mass index, weight, heart rate in youth and arterial hypertension later on in life, 212 subjects (16-26 years of age) were re-examined 2 years later. Previous blood pressure level were very significantly associated with present blood pressure levels A relationship was also discovered with the other parameters measured 2 years earlier: weight, body mass index and heart rate. These findings confirm the fact that it is possible to detect future hypertensives early in life and to take effective preventive measures.


There is now an unprecedented demand for authoritative information on the past, present, and future states of the world's snow and ice resources. The cryosphere is one of the most useful indicators of climate change, yet is one of the most under-sampled domains in the climate system. The Sixteenth World Meteorological Congress (Geneva, 2011) decided to embark on the development of a Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) as an International Polar Year (IPY) legacy. Through WMO and its partners, GCW is now being implemented for sustained cryosphere observing and monitoring and provision of cryosphere data and information. GCW will ensure a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable system of observations and information that will allow for a full understanding of the cryosphere and its changes. It will initiate a surface-based cryosphere observing network called "CryoNet" that will establish best practices and guidelines for cryospheric measurement, data formats, and metadata by building on existing efforts. A complementary task involves developing an inventory of candidate satellite products that are mature and generally accepted by the scientific community. GCW is establishing interoperability between data management systems, and the GCW data portal will provide the ability to exchange data and information with a distributed network of providers.


Introduction: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently issued final rules for the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP), offering an unprecedented opportunity to provide lifestyle intervention to the estimated 48.3% of seniors with prediabetes. The MDPP is based on the widely disseminated National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP), which has lesser but still beneficial risk-reduction outcomes among racial/ethnic minority participants. We assess the extent to which the MDPP's pay-for-performance reimbursement model may cover costs of service delivery to diverse Medicare beneficiaries. Methods: Denver Health Medical Center is a safety net healthcare system that provided the yearlong NDPP to 232 diverse Medicare beneficiaries between 2013-2017, primarily through grant funding. Based on their NDPP attendance and weight loss outcomes, we compared projected performance-based-payments (e.g., $160 for ?5% weight loss) to service costs. Results: Participating Medicare beneficiaries were 40.6% Hispanic, 31.6% non-Hispanic black, and 26.9% non-Hispanic white. Only 4.7% of beneficiaries achieved all attendance and weight loss outcomes associated with the maximum $470 payment for services in months 1-12. Overall beneficiary performance would result in an average reimbursement of $138.52 (SD=142.58). Program delivery costs were $800.64 per-participant, leaving an average gap of $662.12 per beneficiary served. Discussion: Numerous MDPP suppliers are needed to reach Medicare beneficiaries with prediabetes, yet insufficient reimbursement is a likely deterrent. Health disparities may also widen as suppliers serving diverse populations will likely receive especially low payments, threatening their MDPP delivery. Higher payments appear needed and are supported by strong return-on-investment findings. A risk-adjusted model that accounts for demographic differences in outcomes is also needed to promote health equity. Disclosure N. Ritchie: None. M. Gritz: None.


This study uses CTD and microstructure measurements of shear and temperature from 348 glider profiles to characterize turbulence and turbulent mixing in the southeastern Beaufort Sea, where turbulence observations are presently scarce. We find that turbulence is typically weak: the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate ε has a median value (with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses) of 2.3 [2.2, 2.4] × 10−11 W kg−1 and is less than 1.0 × 10−10 W kg−1 in 68% of observations. Variability in ε spans five orders of magnitude, with indications that turbulence is bottom enhanced and modulated in time by the semidiurnal tide. Stratification is strong and frequently damps turbulence, inhibiting diapycnal mixing. Buoyancy Reynolds number estimates suggest that turbulent diapycnal mixing is unlikely in 93% of observations; however, a small number of strongly turbulent mixing events are disproportionately important in determining net buoyancy fluxes. The arithmetic mean diapycnal diffusivity of density is 4.5 [2.3, 14] × 10−6 m2 s−1, three orders of magnitude larger than that expected from molecular diffusion. Vertical heat fluxes are modest at O(0.1) W m−2, of the same order of magnitude as those in the Canada Basin double-diffusive staircase, however, staircases are generally not observed. Despite significant heat present in the Pacific Water layer in the form of a warm-core mesoscale eddy and smaller, O(1) km, temperature anomalies, turbulent mixing was found to be too low to release this heat to shallower depths.


This paper presents a user-independent emotion recognition method with the goal of recovering affective tags for videos using electroencephalogram (EEG), pupillary response and gaze distance. We first selected 20 video clips with extrinsic emotional content from movies and online resources. Then, EEG responses and eye gaze data were recorded from 24 participants while watching emotional video clips. Ground truth was defined based on the median arousal and valence scores given to clips in a preliminary study using an online questionnaire. Based on the participants' responses, three classes for each dimension were defined. The arousal classes were calm, medium aroused, and activated and the valence classes were unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant. One of the three affective labels of either valence or arousal was determined by classification of bodily responses. A one-participant-out cross validation was employed to investigate the classification performance in a user-independent approach. The best classification accuracies of 68.5 percent for three labels of valence and 76.4 percent for three labels of arousal were obtained using a modality fusion strategy and a support vector machine. The results over a population of 24 participants demonstrate that user-independent emotion recognition can outperform individual self-reports for arousal assessments and do not underperform for valence assessments.


We propose a different entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for nonlocal N-electron systems in a partially entangled Bell-type pure state using the CNOT gates and the projection measurements on an additional electron. For each nonlocal N-electron system, Alice first entangles it with the additional electron, and then she projects the additional electron onto an orthogonal basis for dividing the N-electron systems into two groups. In the first group, the N parties obtain a subset of N-electron systems in a maximally entangled state directly. In the second group, they obtain some less-entangled N-electron systems, which are the resource for the entanglement concentration in the next round. By iterating the entanglement concentration process several times, the present ECP has the maximal success probability, which is the theoretical limit of an ECP, equal to the entanglement of the partially entangled state, and higher than the others. This ECP may be useful in quantum computers based on electron-spin systems in the future.


The high Arctic archipelagos around the globe are among the most strongly glacierized landscapes on Earth apart from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Over the past decades, the mass losses from land ice in the high Arctic regions have contributed substantially to global sea level rise. Among these regions, the archipelago of Svalbard showed the smallest mass losses. However, this could change in the coming decades, as Svalbard is expected to be exposed to strong climate warming over the 21st century. Here we present extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the future ice-mass evolution of 29 individual land-terminating glaciers on the Svalbard archipelago under an RCP 8.5 climate forcing. An extrapolation of the 29 sample glaciers to all land-terminating glaciers of the archipelago suggests an almost complete deglaciation of the region by 2100. Under RCP 8.5, 98% of the land-terminating glaciers will have declined to less than one tenth of their initial size, resulting in a loss of 7392 ± 2481 km2 of ice coverage.


ABSTRACT CD40 ligand (CD40L, CD154) is a membrane protein that is important for the activation of dendritic cells (DCs) and DC-induced CD8+ T cell responses. To be active, CD40L must cluster CD40 receptors on responding cells. To produce a soluble form of CD40L that clusters CD40 receptors necessitates the use of a multitrimer construct. With this in mind, a tripartite fusion protein was made from surfactant protein D (SPD), HIV-1 Gag as a test antigen, and CD40L, where SPD serves as a scaffold for the multitrimer protein complex. This SPD-Gag-CD40L protein activated CD40-bearing cells and bone marrow-derived DCs in vitro. Compared to a plasmid for Gag antigen alone (pGag), DNA vaccination of mice with pSPD-Gag-CD40L induced an increased number of Gag-specific CD8+ T cells with increased avidity for major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted Gag peptide and improved vaccine-induced protection from challenge by vaccinia-Gag virus. The importance of the multitrimeric nature of the complex was shown using a plasmid lacking the N terminus of SPD that produced a single trimer fusion protein. This plasmid, pTrimer-Gag-CD40L, was only weakly active on CD40-bearing cells and did not elicit strong CD8+ T cell responses or improve protection from vaccinia-Gag challenge. An adenovirus 5 (Ad5) vaccine incorporating SPD-Gag-CD40L was much stronger than Ad5 expressing Gag alone (Ad5-Gag) and induced complete protection (i.e., sterilizing immunity) from vaccinia-Gag challenge. Overall, these results show the potential of a new vaccine design in which antigen is introduced into a construct that expresses a multitrimer soluble form of CD40L, leading to strongly protective CD8+ T cell responses.


—We introduce hand movement, orientation, and grasp (HMOG), a set of behavioral features to continuously authenticate smartphone users. HMOG features unobtrusively capture subtle micro-movement and orientation dynamics resulting from how a user grasps, holds, and taps on the smartphone. We evaluated authentication and biometric key generation (BKG) performance of HMOG features on data collected from 100 subjects typing on a virtual keyboard. Data were collected under two conditions: 1) sitting and 2) walking. We achieved authentication equal error rates (EERs) as low as 7.16% (walking) and 10.05% (sitting) when we combined HMOG, tap, and keystroke features. We performed experiments to investigate why HMOG features perform well during walking. Our results suggest that this is due to the ability of HMOG features to capture distinctive body movements caused by walking, in addition to the hand-movement dynamics from taps. With BKG, we achieved the EERs of 15.1% using HMOG combined with taps. In comparison, BKG using tap, key hold, and swipe features had EERs between 25.7% and 34.2%. We also analyzed the energy consumption of HMOG feature extraction and computation. Our analysis shows that HMOG features extracted at a 16-Hz sensor sampling rate incurred a minor overhead of 7.9% without sacrificing authentication accuracy. Two points distinguish our work from current literature: 1) we present the results of a comprehensive evaluation of three types of features (HMOG, keystroke, and tap) and their combinations under the same experimental conditions and 2) we analyze the features from three perspectives (authentication, BKG, and energy consumption on smartphones).


Major kinetic parameters of endonuclease S1 were determined on superhelical bacteriophage PM2 DNA and on relaxed nicked circular PM2 DNA. At 37 degrees and 0,25 M NaCl, the Michaelis constants were respectively 1.7 . 10(-8) M and 1 . 10(-9) M, and catalytic constants were respectively 0.36 sec-1 and 1.2 . 10(-2) sec-1. The inhibition of the enzyme reaction by its product was detected.


In this paper, we extend the two-dimensional discrete time model of the virtual fly, developed by Boddeker and Egelhaaf [2003], into three space dimensions, and introduce its continuous time analog. Like real blowflies, the virtual counterparts exhibit a dichotomous chasing behavior: depending on size, velocity and the course of the targets; they catch the targets or pursue them at constant distance. Here, we analyze this behavioral characteristic with respect to the course of the target, in particular, we choose trajectories, spiraling upwards. After setting up the three-dimensional model, we transform it into the local coordinates of the pursuer, using equivariance properties. Then bifurcation tools apply, and it turns out that depending on the gradient and the curvature of the spiraling trajectory, a fixed point in the transformed system can lose or gain stability. A stable fixed point corresponds in the original system to a trajectory, on which the virtual fly follows the target at a constant distance. In this way, we explain the dichotomous behavior through the occurrence of bifurcations.


A central purpose of knowledge acquisition technology is to assist with the formulation of domain models that underlie knowledge systems. In this article we examine the model formulation process itself as a problem‐solving task. Drawing from AI research in qualitative reasoning about physical systems, we characterize the model formulation task in terms of the inputs, the reasoning subtasks, and the knowledge needed to perform the problem solving. We describe the elements of a high‐level representation of modeling knowledge, and techniques for providing intelligent assistance to the model builder. Applying the results from engineering modeling to knowledge acquisition in general, we identify properties of the representation that facilitate the construction of knowledge systems from libraries of reusable models. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


In this paper, the optimal production of oil from Forzooan field is extracted Based on Buy Back contract governing it. With regard to the role of the National Iranian Oil Company in managing operating process of the field, this optimal production is estimated in according to maximization net present value of NIOC from oil production of the field. Thus, in this paper in according to mechanism and information of fiscal regime of Buy Back contract, revenue and cost functions of NIOC for period of the contract is estimated and then based on target function of this study and using optimal control method Generalize Reduced Gradient (GRG) is estimated optimal production in the framework three scenario and three expected price conditions. Finally, from this study concluded that optimal production level has direct relation with expectations of price and depletion rate of the field and it has reserve relation with discount factor. Also because of obligation of protective production principal, optimal production level is lower than contractual production level.


—We are currently observing the softwarization of communication networks, where network functions are translated from monolithic pieces of equipment to programs running over a shared pool of computational, storage, and communication resources. As the amount of this resources might vary over time, in this paper we discuss the potential benefits of introducing resource awareness to softwarized network functions. More specifically, we focus on the case of computational elasticity , namely, the ability to endure shortages of computational re- sources while providing an adequate (although non-ideal) service. We discuss how to enable this ability by re-designing network functions, and illustrate the potential benefits of this approach with a numerical evaluation.


The high β plasma response to rotating n=1 external magnetic perturbations is numerically studied and compared with the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). The hybrid magnetohydrodynamic(MHD)-kinetic modeling shows that drift kinetic effects are important in resolving the disagreement of plasma response between the ideal MHD prediction and the NSTX experimental observation when plasma pressure reaches and exceeds the no-wall limit (Troyon et al 1984 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 26 209). Since the external rotating fields and high plasma rotation are presented in the NSTX experiments, the importance of the resistive wall effect and plasma rotation in determining the plasma response is also identified, where the resistive wall suppresses the plasma response through the wall eddy current. The inertial energy due to plasma rotation destabilizes the plasma. The complexity of the plasma response in this study indicates that MHD modeling, including comprehensive physics, e.g. the drift kinetic effects, resistive wall and plasma rotation, are essential in order to reliably predict the plasma behavior in a high beta spherical tokamak device.


In recent years, allergy skin testing has increasingly become an area of interest and is being widely performed by physicians other than allergists and immunologists. In this article, the indications, necessity, selection of allergens to be used, risks and adverse events, essential precautions during application, evaluation methods, and disadvantages of evaluation mistakes of allergy skin tests and why they should be performed by an allergist or immunologist are reviewed.


Although many image processing applications are ideally suited for parallel implementation, most researchers in imaging do not benefit from high‐performance computing on a daily basis. Essentially, this is due to the fact that no parallelization tools exist that truly match the image processing researcher's frame of reference. As it is unrealistic to expect imaging researchers to become experts in parallel computing, tools must be provided to allow them to develop high‐performance applications in a highly familiar manner. In an attempt to provide such a tool, we have designed a software architecture that allows transparent (i.e. sequential) implementation of data parallel imaging applications for execution on homogeneous distributed memory MIMD‐style multicomputers. This paper presents an extensive overview of the design rationale behind the software architecture, and gives an assessment of the architecture's effectiveness in providing significant performance gains. In particular, we describe the implementation and automatic parallelization of three well‐known example applications that contain many fundamental imaging operations: (1) template matching; (2) multi‐baseline stereo vision; and (3) line detection. Based on experimental results we conclude that our software architecture constitutes a powerful and user‐friendly tool for obtaining high performance in many important image processing research areas. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The objectives of these experiments were to obtain medium composition to enlarge leaf size for protoplast production and to obtain medium composition for plant regeneration. The result showed that the best medium to produce the larger leaves was medium MS with double concentration of macronutrients without hormone supplemented with Morel vitamins, 3% (w/v) sucrose and. 7 g/l agar. This medium produced leaves with diameter of 1.44 cm comparing to control medium MS with 0.67 cm in diameter. Medium MS containing 0.1 mg/l 1AA, 0.5 mg/l Zeatin and 0.5 mg/l GA3 was able to regenerate vigorous shoots of 7 clones. Protoplast isolation of 5 clones using enzyme composition containing 0.5 % cellulase Onozuka RS, 0.05 %, pectolyase Y-23, 0.05 % MES, 9.1 % mannitol and pH 5.5, without CP W medium produced protoplast with variable yield from 10.50 x 1oJ protoplast/g leaves for Atlantic to 46.58x 1oJ protoplast/gforBF15. Keyword: Leaves size, Plant regeneration, Potato, Protoplast i


We present an analytical model of the relation between the surface density of gas and star formation rate in galaxies and clouds, as a function of the presence of supersonic turbulence and the associated structure of the interstellar medium. The model predicts a power-law relation of index 3/2, flattened under the effects of stellar feedback at high densities or in very turbulent media, and a break at low surface densities when ISM turbulence becomes too weak to induce strong compression. This model explains the diversity of star formation laws and thresholds observed in nearby spirals and their resolved regions, the Small Magellanic Cloud, high-redshift disks and starbursting mergers, as well as Galactic molecular clouds. While other models have proposed interstellar dust content and molecule formation to be key ingredients to the observed variations of the star formation efficiency, we demonstrate instead that these variations can be explained by interstellar medium turbulence and structure in various types of galaxies.


Just as exactly marginal operators allow one to deform a conformal field theory along the space of theories known as the conformal manifold, appropriate operators on conformal defects allow for deformations of the defects. When a defect breaks a global symmetry, there is a contact term in the conservation equation with an exactly marginal defect operator. The resulting defect conformal manifold is the symmetry breaking coset, and its Zamolodchikov metric is expressed as the two-point function of the exactly marginal operator. As the Riemann tensor on the conformal manifold can be expressed as an integrated four-point function of the marginal operators, we find an exact relation to the curvature of the coset space. We confirm this relation against previously obtained four-point functions for insertions into the 1/2 BPS Wilson loop in N=4 SYM and 3D N=6 theory and the 1/2 BPS surface operator of the 6D N=(2,0) theory.


The mesomechanics behavior of a polycrystalline microstructure subjected to creep and constant strain rate loadings is investigated. The analysis is based on a Voronoi polygonization strategy for the generation of grains, that are bonded to each other via interfaces along the grain boundaries. A new constitutive model is proposed for the rate-dependent debonding along these interfaces, whereby damage is kinetically coupled to viscoplastic slip and dilatation. The paper may be viewed as generalizing the rate-independent model used in Cannmo et al. (1995).


ABSTRACT There is a complex inter-relationship between nutrition and morbidity in human health. Many diseases reduce nutritional status, but on the other hand, having low nutritional status is also known to make individuals more susceptible to certain diseases and to more serious illness. Modern evidence on these relationships, determined after the introduction of antibiotics and vaccines, may not be applicable to historical settings before these medical technologies were available. This paper uses a historical cohort study based on records from the London Foundling Hospital to determine the causal effect of nutritional status of children, proxied by weight- and height-for-age Z-scores, on the odds of contracting five infectious diseases of childhood (measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and whooping cough) and on sickness duration from these diseases. I identify a causal effect by exploiting the randomisation of environmental conditions as foundling children were removed from their original homes, then fostered with families in counties nearby London and later returned to the Foundling Hospital's main site in London. I find no effect of nutritional status on the odds of contracting the five diseases, but I do find a historically important and statistically significant effect of nutritional status on sickness duration for measles and mumps. These findings have three implications. First, historical incidence of these diseases was unrelated to nutritional status, meaning that poor nutritional status during famines or during the Colombian Exchange did not affect the spread of epidemics. However, undernutrition in these events may have exacerbated measles severity. Second, improving nutritional status in the past 150 years would have reduced the severity of measles and mumps infections but not affect the decline in whooping cough mortality. Finally, selective culling effects from measles would be larger than those from whooping cough since whooping cough severity was not correlated with underlying nutritional status.


The main objective to this work is to establish a relationship between shoreline evolution and sediment wear. The shoreline evolution trend is similar to of the results obtained by the accelerated particle wear test (APW). However, the relationship between the number of APW test cycles and the years of shoreline evolution is not clear. In Guardamar beach the ratio (years/cycles) is 9.7, in Marineta Casiana beach (it is 5.6, and in Arenal beach it is 3. Differences may be due to the different mineralogical composition and morphology of the sand particles.


The development of psychoanalytic theory is traced from its origins in Freud's early thinking in terms of his advancing clinical experience. While the influence of clinical experience on the modifications of theory has long been accepted, little attention has been paid to the broad spectrum effects of changing theoretical perspectives on the technique of clinical psychoanalysis. This development is traced through the emergence of ego psychology and the dominance of the structural theory to more current developments having to do with object relations and the theory narcissism. The residual theoretical ambiguities and clinical perplexities are illustrated in two clinical cases. The development of psychoanalytic theory and the correlative aspects of technique are seen as manifesting an organic developmental process which has led to an increasing sophistication of analytic intervention and a broadening capacity for dealing with increasingly difficult and less classical types of cases. The conclusion is drawn that therapeutic lestening is equivalently an informed listening, and it is theory that lends understanding and sensitivity to the hearing process. It is theory that is to be put in the service of listening, rather than listening to be put in the service of theory.


Animal models of disease help accelerate the translation of basic science discoveries to the bedside, because they permit experimental interrogation of mechanisms at relatively high throughput, while accounting for the complexity of an intact organism. From the groundbreaking observation of emphysema-like alveolar destruction after direct instillation of elastase in the lungs to the more clinically relevant model of airspace enlargement induced by chronic exposure to cigarette smoke, animal models have advanced our understanding of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) function. Experimental in vivo models that, at least in part, replicate clinical human phenotypes facilitate the translation of mechanistic findings into individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and with AAT deficiency. In addition, unexpected findings of alveolar enlargement in various transgenic mice have led to novel hypotheses of emphysema development. Previous challenges in manipulating the AAT genes in mice can now be overcome with new transgenic approaches that will likely advance our understanding of functions of this essential, lung-protective serine protease inhibitor (serpin).


Acute arrhythmia is a condition covering a wide variety of rhythm disturbances. The aim of the article is to give practical recommendations for the approach and the treatment of the patient presenting with an acute arrhythmia. We discuss bradycardia and tachycardia. Tachycardias are divided into the small QRS complex tachycardias and the wide QRS complex tachycardias. Another important distinction with immediate therapeutic consequences is that between the hemodynamic stable and unstable patient. Flowcharts with diagnostic means and therapeutic schemes are added and a table with practical considerations for electrical cardioversion.


Plants usually tolerate drought by producing organic solutes, which can either act as compatible osmolytes for maintaining turgor, or radical scavengers for protecting cellular functions. However, these two properties of organic solutes are often indistinguishable during stress progression. This study looked at individualizing properties of osmotic adjustment vs. osmoprotection in plants, using cowpea as the model species. Two cultivars were grown in well-watered soil, drought conditions, or drought followed by rewatering through fruit formation. Osmoadaptation was investigated in leaves and roots using photosynthetic traits, water homoeostasis, inorganic ions, and primary and secondary metabolites. Multifactorial analyses indicated allocation of high quantities of amino acids, sugars, and proanthocyanidins into roots, presumably linked to their role in growth and initial stress perception. Physiological and metabolic changes developed in parallel and drought/recovery responses showed a progressive acclimation of the cowpea plant to stress. Of the 88 metabolites studied, proline, galactinol, and a quercetin derivative responded the most to drought as highlighted by multivariate analyses, and their correlations with yield indicated beneficial effects. These metabolites accumulated differently in roots, but similarly in leaves, suggesting a more conservative strategy to cope with drought in the aerial parts. Changes in these compounds roughly reflected energy investment in protective mechanisms, although the ability of plants to adjust osmotically through inorganic ions uptake could not be discounted.


The Schottky barrier height of Cr-Si and CrSi2-Si junctions for both nand p-type samples has been measured by using I-V, C-V and activation energy techniques in a temperature range of 170-300 K. In most cases samples showed near ideal I-V characteristics. The transition from Cr-Si to CrSi2-Si upon annealing at 440 degrees C was observed from the variation of the barrier height. The barrier height and the ideality factor were found to be temperature independent for p-type samples. The deviations from the ideality in n-type samples are discussed in terms of the current mechanisms that might contribute to the total measured value.


The utility of recombinant Sendai virus (rSeV) has been considerably examined over the last decade as a potent gene transfer candidate in a cytoplasmic gene expression system. Such risks as excessive immune responses associated with this virus administration in vivo however have limited its applicability in clinical settings as is the case with other viral vectors including adenoviruses. In consequence of extensive assessment on the mechanisms of immune responses against SeV, we found that ex vivo infection of immature dendritic cells (DCs) with SeV demonstrates their spontaneous maturation and activation. We applied this result to create a unique, representative, and powerful agent to activate DCs, namely rSeV-modified DCs (rSeV/DCs), for use in cancer immunotherapy. Use of this system in vivo resulted in the induction of efficient antitumor immunity against vascularized rodent tumors, including melanoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, neuroblastoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and prostatic cancer, and it even frequently associated with elimination of those tumors. These results indicate that rSeV could be a powerful immune booster for DC-based cancer immunotherapy that is worth investigating further. We propose a conceptual term "immunostimulatory virotherapy" to describe this new method of cancer therapy using the rSeV/DCs system.


: Six patients with alkaline reflux gastritis postoperative were treated between 1977 and 1984 by Roux-en-Y diversion. All of the patients had a typical history of mild epigastric burning pain and bilious vomiting. The diagnosis was reached by endoscopic results of the gastric mucosa. The pain, complaints and the macroscopically apparent gastritis subsided completely after surgery but the histological manifestations of gastritis improved though no disappear. In four cases we used the Roux-en-Y procedure; in two, the Henley jejunal loop with the Soupault-Bucaile, technique. All patients were vagotomized for the fear recurrent peptic ulceration if increased the acid secretion. One patient was most complex because after derivation with Roux-en-Y developed severe diarrhea and was necessary to change to loop jejunal Henley and reversed 10 centimeter the jejunal loop at 1 meter from Treitz angle.


A numerical approach for forming simulation and manufacturing of micro part, based on the elastic and the rigid-plastic finite element methods by using grain element and grain boundary element, is proposed to simulate MEMS/micro-structural deformation behavior of material during micro forming. The idea is to present the polycrystalline material by an aggregate of so-called grain element that describes the plastic deformations of each individual grain in view of micro-structure. This grain element is connected by grain boundary element to account for shear deformation between grains. The main objective in this study is to develop the reliable finite element model and scheme for micro forming simulation with very thin sheet. The reliability for micro forming analysis is described from the comparisons of the micro-structural deformation behavior between the conventional rigid-plastic finite element analysis and the FE analysis of the developed program with very thin sheet material.


As the power industry considers moving from a deterministic paradigm to a stochastic one to clear the day-ahead market in systems with significant stochastic production, the following question arises: how should a stochastic clearing algorithm be formulated? Our analyses indicate that a three-stage stochastic approach is clearly superior to a two-stage one. To show this, we propose a model that includes three stages: the first one represents the day-ahead market, the second stage, the intraday market, and the third one, the real-time operation. The objective is to clear the day-ahead market, but with a prognosis of the future: the intraday market and the real-time operation. To assess the impact of the intraday market on the day-ahead outcomes, we compare the results obtained from the proposed model with those of a simpler but more common two-stage model, which represents the day-ahead market and the real-time operation.


The first successful full-thickness corneal transplant was performed in 1905

Despite attempts since the early 1800s, success in corneal transplantation remained elusive at the beginning of the 20th century.1 Then, seemingly against the odds, one of the bilateral corneal transplants performed by Eduard Zirm in December 1905 on a 45-year-old farm labourer remained clear.2 The patient had lime burns and would be considered a poor candidate for corneal transplantation today. The graft continued to function sufficiently well to allow the patient to return to lighter agricultural duties at home.

This remarkable outcome refuted Salzer's view, quoted by Zirm, that full-thickness grafts would never remain clear because of graft absorption and loss of histological identity. Although Fuchs had shown that graft integrity was indeed retained, he nonetheless believed that the seemingly inevitable clouding of grafts was a consequence of the healing process. Such opinions are entirely understandable, given the failure of any previous full-thickness graft to remain transparent for more than 2–3 weeks. Zirm's own comments and speculations on the reasons for his success provide a revealing insight into the thinking of the time.

Some 15 months after the lime burns, the patient's corneas were white–grey in colour and opaque with a flattened corneal curvature, but intraocular pressure was reported to be normal. Both eyes had light perception and the right eye could detect hand movements. The donor was an 11-year-old boy with an iron intraocular foreign body after a penetrating eye injury. Attempts to remove this foreign body ended in collapse of the eye and, with the father's permission, the eye was enucleated. Zirm kept the eye in warm physiological saline solution and began the …


Ara6 of Arabidopsis thaliana is a novel member of the Rab/Ypt GTPase family with unique structural features. It resembles Rab5 GTPases best, but lacks a large part of the C‐terminal hypervariable region and the cysteine motif, and instead harbors an extra stretch of amino acid residues containing myristoylation and palmitoylation sites at the N‐terminus. Ara6 is tightly associated with membranes and is expressed constitutively. In contrast, the conventional Rab5 ortholog, Ara7, is highly expressed only in actively dividing cells. Examination of green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐tagged proteins indicates that both Ara6 and Ara7 are distributed on a subpopulation of endosomes and suggests their roles in endosomal fusion. The endosomal localization of Ara6 requires N‐terminal fatty acylation, nucleotide binding and the C‐terminal amino acid sequence coordinately. Proteins similar to Ara6 are found only in higher plants and thus represent a novel class of Rab GTPases regulating endocytic function in a plant‐ specific manner.


The importance of the reading experience has been accepted in literary studies ever since the advent of reading-response theories in the 1970s-1980s. Several notable scholars have stressed that meaning is created through the interaction between reader and text, highlighting the significance of the reader. Even though the main principles of reader-response have become commonplace, for some time, reading theories remained relatively stagnant. In the 2000s, however, the topic of reading was rediscovered as new perspectives for examining the reading experience and the reader's relationship with the text were offered. These new theories shed new light on the figure of the reader and on the work that goes into the process of reading. While the question of the experience of reading has been under discussion in the Anglo-American context, it has never been widely discussed in Estonia. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of well-known reader-response theories that became popular in the 1970s. In addition, examples of a renewed interest in reader-response theories in recent decades are presented. Finally, the article will also examine how Estonian-language literary criticism has engaged with reader-response theories.


Objective: To evaluate the validity of transcranial Doppler (TCD) in confirming brain death from various pathological conditions. Methods: An observational case–control study over a 2.5 year period, in which transcranial Doppler (TCD) examinations were done on 101 comatose patients for confirmation of brain death. Between October 2002 to May 2005, 44 clinically diagnosed brain death cases (29 male, 15 female; mean (SD) age, 46.5 (19.5) years; Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, 3.0 (0.0)) and 57 controls (36 male, 21 female; age 48.1 (16.5) years; mean GCS, 4.9 (1.7)) were examined. Reverse diastolic flow, very small systolic spikes, or no signals were considered characteristic of cerebral circulatory arrest. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of TCD examination of both the basilar artery and the middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) in confirming brain death were 77.2% and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity of TCD-diagnosed brain death increased with elapsed time. There was a trend for the basilar artery to have greater sensitivity (86.4% v 77.2%), higher positive predictive value (90.5% v 85.1%), and fewer false negatives (14% v 23.7%) than the MCAs for diagnosing brain death (all NS). The consistency of the basilar artery and the MCAs for diagnosing brain death was significant (κ = 0.877, p<0.001 and κ = 0.793, p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions: TCD can be a confirmatory tool for diagnosing brain death. The validity of TCD diagnosed brain death depends on the time lapse between brain death and the performance of TCD. TCD of both the basilar artery and the MCAs showed significant consistency in brain death diagnosis.


We examine the problem of rapidly and efficiently estimating a neuron's linear receptive field (RF) from responses to high-dimensional stimuli. This problem poses important statistical and computational challenges. Statistical challenges arise from the need for strong regularization when using correlated stimuli in high-dimensional parameter spaces, while computational challenges arise from extensive time and memory costs associated with evidence-optimization and inference in high-dimensional settings. Here we focus on novel methods for scaling up automatic smoothness determination (ASD), an empirical Bayesian method for RF estimation, to high-dimensional settings. First, we show that using a zero-padded Fourier domain representation and a "coarse-to-fine" evidence optimization strategy gives substantial improvements in speed and memory, while maintaining exact numerical accuracy. We then introduce a suite of scalable approximate methods that exploit Kronecker and Toeplitz structure in the stimulus autocovariance, which can be related to the method of expected log-likelihoods [1]. When applied together, these methods reduce the cost of estimating an RF with tensor order D and d coefficients per tensor dimension from O(d3D) time and O(d2D) space for standard ASD to O(Dd log d) time and O(Dd) space. We show that evidence optimization for a linear RF with 160K coefficients using 5K samples of data can be carried out on a laptop in < 2s.


Simulated annealing (SA) is a powerful stochastic search algorithm applicable to a wide range of problems. This paper presents some experiments of applying SA to an NP-hard problem, i.e. call routing in circuit-switched telecommunications networks. The call routing problem considered here can be described as assigning calls to paths in a network so that the number of calls blocked can be minimized. Previously, the problem has been approached by linear programming and some heuristic algorithms. However, none of these algorithms has solved the problem satisfactorily, due to the nonlinear nature of the problem. Linear programming can only find a rough approximation to the actual global optimal solution. This paper applies SA to the call routing problem in circuit-switched telecommunication networks. We have carried out two sets of experiments. The first set investigates random selection of paths in SA with uniform distribution. The second set studies non-uniform probabilistic selection of paths in SA according to whether a path is a direct one or not and the path capacity available. These two results are also compared with the result generated by a simple heuristic algorithm. Our experiments show that non-uniform probabilistic selection of paths in SA can lead to the least number of calls blocked among the three methods we investigated. We also examine the impact of different probability distributions on the result of routing in this paper.


We study a setting where the nature of the collaboration necessitates two partner firms working together, which is often the case in supply chain and information technology (IT) environments. We consider that both firms get ongoing value from the project and the effort levels of both parties are dynamic. In this setting, one of the partners (say, the first partner) decides the terms of the payment it extends to the second partner in order to maximize the value it gets from the collaboration. We analyze the performance of output dependent, effort dependent, and hybrid (both effort and output dependent) payment structures, and find the best one under various scenarios. In particular, we find that if the output is relatively more sensitive to second party's effort, the hybrid payment structure should be preferred by the first partner. Furthermore, if the output is highly sensitive to second party's effort, the output‐dependent payment structure yields more value to the first partner (compared to the effort dependent structure). We further find that the time that has passed in the collaboration and the length of the planning horizon affect the behavior of the effort levels and some other characteristics in the collaboration. We also study and derive interesting results in the following additional settings: the first partner or the second partner gets utility from the output even after the project finishes.


We analyze multiple global reanalysis and precipitation datasets in order to explain the dynamic mechanisms that lead to an observed intensification of the monsoon trough and associated tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the Bay of Bengal (BOB) during the premonsoon month of May. We find that post‐1979 increases in both premonsoon precipitation and TC intensity are a result of enhanced large‐scale monsoon circulation, characterized by lower‐level cyclonic and upper‐level anticyclonic anomalies. Such circulation anomalies are manifest of the tropospheric expansion that is caused by regional warming. The deepened monsoon trough in the BOB not only affects TC frequency and timing, but also acts to direct more cyclones towards Myanmar. We propose that increasing sea surface temperature in the BOB has contributed to an increase in cyclone intensity. Our analyses of the Community Earth System Model single‐forcing experiments suggest that tropospheric warming and a deepening of the monsoon trough can be explained by two discreet anthropogenic causes—an increase in absorption due to aerosol loading and an increase in the land‐ocean thermal contrast that results from increased greenhouse gases. The ensuing circulation changes provide favorable conditions for TCs to grow and to track eastward towards Myanmar.


This PhD thesis focuses on the investigation and development of a feasible technology route for fabricating multifunctional flexible electronic devices through heterogeneous integration of organic/inorganic materials on polymeric substrates. The three types of printing technologies investigated during this research include: (a) Transfer printing of inorganic semiconductors processed through standard microfabrication techniques, (b) Spray coating for deposition of organic dielectrics and metal patterns, and (c) Screen-printing of solution based transducer materials. Fabrication of electronic devices based on transfer printing of high-mobility inorganic semiconductor materials (i.e. Si), aided by high-resolution possible with microfabrication technology, was explored for high performance electronics. A cost-effective processing of printable materials is desired and therefore, through printing technologies, this thesis also explored ways to bring closer the well-established microfabrication and conventional printing tools. Due to commercial interests, the major research focus in flexible electronics thus far has been on applications such as photovoltaics and displays. However, this research is focused on active/passive electronics for sensing applications like electronic skin, which is of significant interest in robotics for safe human-robot interaction and other manipulation and exploration tasks. Optimization of the Transfer Printing for translating Si microwires from SOI (silicon on insulator) wafers on secondary flexible substrates has been investigated. Processing steps have been improved for fabrication of Si microwires on donor wafers and dry transferring them onto flexible PI (polyimide) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) substrates. The downscaling of Si in the form of microwires and using them as building block for active devices such as field effect transistors were explored in this thesis. The microwires retain the high carrier mobility, robustness, high performance and excellent stability. Arrays of MISFETs (metal insulator field effect transistors) structures were successfully fabricated and the response variations were compared. The differently doped Si microwires were analyzed in an asymmetric metal semiconductor metal (MSM) structures under planar and bend mode conditions. The optical response as well as the thermoelectric properties of the alternately doped pn-Si microwires were also investigated.
A feasible fabrication route is presented, where combination of transfer printing for Si microwires and development of the subsequent post-processes by additive manufacturing techniques i.e. Screen-printing, Spray coating and Micro-spotting are mainly investigated. The Si microwires are employed as the semiconductor in the MISFET devices whereas screen-printed metal patterns are used for back-gate and deposition of dielectric layer is performed through spray coating. In parallel, screen-printing is also used for development of large area pressure sensor patches using two different materials i.e. P(VDF-TrFE) (Polyvinylidene Fluoride Trifluoroethylene) and nanocomposites of MWCNTs/PDMS (multiwall carbon nanotubes mixed with poly(dimethylsiloxane) for measuring dynamic and static contact events. Promising results have been achieved by developing a cost-effective way of manufacturing an all Screen-Printed flexible pressure sensors using piezoelectric transducer through P(VDF-TrFE) and piezoresistive based MWCNT/PDMS nanocomposites. Active electronic circuitry is needed for signal conditioning, amplification or processing of the sensory data on the flexible foils, which is deemed to be developed through Si microwires based technology in the next phase of the project. Ultimate goal of the PhD study was to develop a fabrication platform by combining three different printing technologies for large area sensor patches. Major challenges involved in the development of flexible device designs and printing technologies are highlighted and addressed with dependable solutions. The research concludes with proposing an innovative approach towards heterogeneous integration of large area sensory cells made of organic materials to the active devices based on inorganic semiconductors such as Si microwires. This technological platform for heterogeneous integration of devices made of diverse materials (organic, inorganic etc.) on soft substrates is believed to be a step-change needed to advance flexible electronics towards manufacturing.


Rapid, easy‐to‐use, and portable devices that can provide a read‐out without the need for expensive equipment represent the future of sensing technology, with applications in areas like environmental, food, chemical, and biological safety. Enzymes immobilized on a surface function as micropumps in the presence of species (e.g., substrate, cofactor, or biomarker) that trigger the enzymatic reaction. The flow speed in these devices increases with increasing reaction rate. This allows the detection of substances that inhibit the enzymatic reaction. Using this principle, sensors for toxic substances, like mercury, cadmium, cyanide, and azide, were designed using urease and catalase‐powered pumps, respectively, with limits of detection well below the concentrations permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency. The study was also extended to other inhibitors for these enzymes. The sensing range of fluid flow‐based inhibitor assays depends on the type of inhibition, the enzyme concentration on the sensing platform, and, for competitive inhibition, the concentration of substrate used.


BioCompose is an object-relational database query tool that runs on top of any relational database and provides an intelligent and complete object-relational interface to the user. Unlike the traditional approach, which is completely table driven, queries in BioCompose are structured along the lines of natural language and sentences. In BioCompose, the database server continuously monitors the triggers and integrity constraints which are expressed as logical rules and are evaluated based on incoming events which include real time events, value events, transaction events, abstract events, and message events. The paper presents a novel approach that compiles triggers and integrity constraints into an asynchronous network to minimize the rule evaluation effort under different kinds of events.


(57) ABSTRACT A device and method for etching a body are provided capable of etching fine geometry patterns utilizing the high selectivity of wet etching and the anisotropic etch characteristics of dry etching. The body to be etched is placed in a reduced pressure etching chamber. An inert carrier gas is bubbled through heated liquid etchant producing a vapor stream of liquid etchant. A non-reac tive gas is chilled producing a cold gas stream. The vapor stream and the cold gas stream are combined in an aerosol generation nozzle producing a high concen tration of fine aerosol particles by homogeneous nucle ation. The fine aerosol particles enter an aerosol growth chamber and form larger particles through thermal coagulation. The larger particles are accelerated out of the growth chamber through an expansion nozzle posi tioned within the reduced pressure etching chamber and directed toward the body to be etched. This aerosol jet of etchant impacts the surface of the body to be etched. The small size of these larger particles allows for etching fine geometry patterns. Additionally, aero sol jet etching avoids the need to rinse the body after being etched as required in wet etching to halt the etch ing process.


Objective: Peer influence is one the most consistent correlates of drug use among youth. However, beyond the dyadic level, there is the possibility that peer influence also functions at a more macro or group level, which calls for a better understanding of how positioning within larger social networks affects youth behaviors. Yet, whereas extant research among homeless youth indicates that having substance-using peers is associated with youth's own substance use, the issue of how peer influence operates in conjunction with network structure and position especially with regards to substance use is relatively unexplored. Method: Using Freeman's Event Based Approach, a sociometric network of 136 homeless youth (39.6% female; 38.1% African American; mean age 20.81 years) were recruited in 2008 at 1 drop-in agency in Los Angeles. Self-administered questionnaires and interviewer-administered social network interviews captured individual and network alters' risk behaviors. Network structure and position was assessed with UCINET and visualized with NetDraw. Logistic regressions assessed associations among substance use, adjacent peer substance use, and network position. Results: Youths' connections to specific substance-using peers and their overall position in the network exposed them to behaviors supportive of specific drugs. These results supported the general proposition that both peer and positional attributes affect substance use among homeless youth. Youth's position in the network exposed them to norms supportive of specific illicit drugs. Conclusions: These results underscore the importance of tailoring interventions to reduce drug use at the network level and of recognizing drug use as not only an individual problem but also a social problem. Limitations of this study include its small sample size, the lack of generalizability, and its focus on a finite set of variables.


Alfresco, an open source ECM (Enterprise Content Management) system, is highly developed for business critical document management. It has various content management support with a great variety of features and flexibility. It is one of the most used content management system in the world. There can be number of possible ways to migrate the content from one ECM system to Alfresco. A standout amongst the most proficient and practical technique is talked about here. As indicated by Alfresco, its Migration Services Tool has been designed to deal with the exchange of all content, security and basic metadata (authorizations, clients, and so forth) from the proprietary system to the Alfresco ECM.


Cardiac arrest is a significant medical emergency that can occur in outpatient medical facilities. Early defibrillation has been demonstrated to be critical to an individual's survival of a cardiac arrest. The 2010 guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council advocate that defibrillators should be available throughout outpatient medical facilities, including dental offices. Nevertheless, the underwhelming amount of available data showed that dental offices were under equipped with defibrillators. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of defibrillation equipment in dental offices. Additionally, this assessment also surveyed non-equipped offices regarding their decisions to not have a defibrillator. Design and Subjects: We conducted a prospective study by contacting all dental offices in five randomly drawn French cities of different sizes (Paris, Besancon, Blois, Romorantin-Lanthenay and Gray). Main Results : Of the 1716 dental offices called, 1358 (79%) were joined and 24 preferred to not answer the questionnaire. Our study indicated only 41 offices (3.1%) were equipped with a defibrillator and 1212 (94%) of the dental offices lacking a defibrillator had no plans to obtain the equipment. The non-equipped practices stated that the device was expensive and not worthwhile as the primary reasons for not having defibrillation equipment. Conclusions: This study determined that despite the recommendation by the European Resuscitation Council, dental practices in France are under-equipped and reluctant to purchase defibrillation equipment. The possibility of sharing the expense of defibrillation equipment between residents and health professionals of a building and storing the device in an accessible location is suggested.