Miniaturization of electrochemical detection methods for point-of-care-devices is ideal for their integration and use within healthcare environments. Simultaneously, the prolific pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa poses a serious health risk to patients with compromised immune systems. Recognizing these two factors, a proof-of-concept electrochemical method employing a micro-interface between water and oil (w/o) held at the tip of a pulled borosilicate glass capillary is presented. This method targets small molecules produced by P. aeruginosa colonies as signalling factors that control colony growth in a pseudo-multicellular process known as quorum sensing (QS). The QS molecules of interest are 4-hydroxy-2-heptylquinoline (HHQ) and 2-heptyl-3,4-dihydroxyquinoline (PQS, Pseudomonas quinolone signal). Hydrophobic HHQ and PQS molecules, dissolved in the oil phase, were observed electrochemically to facilitate proton transfer across the w/o interface. This interfacial complexation can be exploited as a facile electrochemical detection method for P. aeruginosa and is advantageous as it does not depend on the redox activity of HHQ/PQS. Interestingly, the limit-of-linearity is reached as [H+] ≈ [ligand]. Density functional theory calculations were performed to determine the proton affinities and gas-phase basicities of HHQ/PQS, as well as elucidate the likely site of stepwise protonation within each molecule.


The focus of this thesis is to develop a suitable power management optimization strategy for a three-source hybrid vehicle powertrain. This strategy takes into account the integration of optimized parameters that limit the battery and fuel cell current by utilizing a third power source, namely supercapacitor. The goal is to develop a modular structure with decoupled online and offline parts such that implementation in case of real driving conditions is feasible. Based on the literature review it can be concluded that providing optimal solutions in terms of multiple objectives online is an issue. Adaption of optimized control strategy to real driving data is another concern. The developed strategy employs an online rule-based control with embedded offline-optimized parameters. The parameters are optimized with respect to multiple and conflicting objectives such as fuel consumption and state-of-charge deviation minimization. By a suitable selection of parameters, operation of all three sources within desired working ranges is possible, keeping in mind the load demand. By varying the weights between the objectives, one or more objectives can be given more priority than others. The application of this concept to fuel cell-battery-supercapacitor hybrid is discussed in this thesis. Detailed modeling of all components along with verification and plausibility assessment is done. For the purpose of experimental validation, the real powertrain components are replaced by controllable power sources and sinks that emulate the dynamics of real components. Finally, a brief concept is presented to integrate the developed power management optimization in real driving scenarios. For validation/verification purposes, a driving simulator environment is connected to the experimental hybrid electric vehicle set-up and with the help of an illustrative example, the desired predicted optimal values are calculated online and displayed to the human driver by a suitable interface. The absence of online tuning of controller parameters in this example is counteracted by developing a concept based on literature. With the help of this concept, the adaption of the power management control concept, developed in this thesis, can be realized.


Thymus-derived lymphocyte (T cell) levels were determined in 72 healthy patients who had viral warts, in 21 healthy patients who had been cured of warts from one to 15 years previously, and in 35 age-matched normal controls who had no history of warts. The mean percentage of lymphocytes that formed rosettes with sheep erythrocytes was less in patients with warts and patients previously cured of warts than in normal controls (P less than .001 and P less than .001, respectively). The number of total T cells/cu mm was decreased in untreated patients with warts (P less than .01) but was normal in patients cured of warts for more than one year. In addition, the morphology of the rosettes in the two patient groups differed from the controls; 32% had small numbers of sheep erythrocytes bound loosely to T cells compared with a rosette of numerous erythrocytes closely adherent to the T cell in 91% of the controls. The results suggest a defect of cellular immunity in many healthy patients with warts.


Visual similarity has been a lively topic of analysis in Scalable image search. Progressive solutions usually use hashing ways to plant high-dimensional image options into playing area, wherever search may be performed in period supported playing distance of compact hash codes. Not like ancient metrics (e.g., Euclidean) that provide continuous distances, the playing distances area unit separate number values. As a consequence, there area unit usually an outsized range of pictures sharing equal playing distances to a question that mostly hurts search results wherever fine-grained ranking is vital. This paper introduces associate approach that allows query-adaptive ranking of the came pictures with equal playing distances to the queries. This can be achieved by first off offline learning bitwise weights of the hash codes for a various set of predefined linguistics thought categories. We have a tendency to formulate the burden education method as a quadratic programming drawback that minimizes intra-class distance whereas conserving inter-class relationship captured by original raw image options. Query-adaptive weights area unit then computed online by evaluating the proximity between a question and also the linguistics thought categories.


Traditional operating systems limit the performance, flexibility, and functionality of applications by fixing the interface and implementation of operating system abstractions such as interprocess communication and virtual memory. The exokernel operating system architecture addresses this problem by providing application-level management of physical resources. In the exokernel architecture, a small kernel securely exports all hardware resources through a low-level interface to untrusted library operating systems. Library operating systems use this interface to implement system objects and policies. This separation of resource protection from management allows application-specific customization of traditional operating system abstractions by extending, specializing, or even replacing libraries. We have implemented a prototype exokemel operating system. Measurements show that most primitive kernel operations (such as exception handling and protected control transfer) are ten to 100 times faster than in Ultrix, a mature monolithic UNIX operating system. In addition, we demonstrate that an exokernel allows applications to control machine resources in ways not possible in traditional operating systems. For instance, virtual memory and interprocess communication abstractions are implemented entirely within an application-level library. Measurements show that application-level virtual memory and interprocess communication primitives are five to 40 times faster than Ultrix's kernel primitives. Compared to state-of-the-art implementations from the literature, the prototype exokernel system is at least five times faster on operations such as exception dispatching and interprocess communication.


Aims: Subinhibitory concentration of antibiotics at periodontal sites may increase the microbial resistance development; hence, this study was carried out to support the hypothesis that antimicrobial as well as anti-inflammatory action of caffeine and its locally deliver nanoparticles, which can deeply penetrate into the periodontal sites might potentiate and synergize the antibacterial effect of systematically used antibiotics for the treatment of periodontitis. Materials and Methods: In this study, the caffeine-loaded low-molecular-weight chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by ionic gelation methodology. Ex vivo antimicrobial activity of prepared nanoparticles was carried out by periodontitis patient's stimulated saliva sample. Result: Our finding showed that caffeine nanoparticles in combination with amoxicillin affect the growth of periodontitis microorganisms. Periodontitis microorganism grew on a nutrient agar medium in Petri plates. Agar cups were filled in combination of different concentrations of amoxicillin with or without fixed caffeine concentration containing nanoparticles. High amoxicillin concentration (0.5 μg/ml) with 1 mg of caffeine-containing nanoparticles showed maximum zone of inhibition (1.81 ± 0.24 cm). On the other hand, low amoxicillin concentration (0.3 μg/ml) with 1 mg of caffeine-containing nanoparticles demonstrated significant potentiating inhibitory zone (1.54 ± 0.15 cm) as compare to high amoxicillin concentration (0.5 μg/ml) alone (1.50 ± 0.21 cm). Conclusions: It was shown that caffeine nanoparticles potentiate antibacterial effect of amoxicillin.


The detection of state-sponsored trolls acting in misinformation operations is an unsolved and critical challenge for the research community, with repercussions that go beyond the online realm. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the detection of troll accounts, which consists of two steps. The first step aims at classifying trajectories of accounts' online activities as belonging to either a troll account or to an organic user account. In the second step, we exploit the classified trajectories to compute a metric, namely "troll score", which allows us to quantify the extent to which an account behaves like a troll. Experimental results show that our approach identifies accounts' trajectories with an AUC close to 99% and, accordingly, classify trolls and organic users with an AUC of 97%. Finally, we evaluate whether the proposed solution can be generalized to different contexts (e.g., discussions about Covid-19) and generic misbehaving users, showing promising results that will be further expanded in our future endeavors.


We present a novel method to fabricate uniform GaN nanocone arrays (GNA) using Nickel-nanoisland masks. The nanoscale conelike arrays with high density can be formed over the entire 2-inch wafer by inductively couple plasma etching. The results of X-ray diffraction exhibit significant decrease on the (102) reflection in GaN sample with the GNA. Field-emission measurements show that the GNA with sharp tips have a turn-on field of ~ 5.5 V/μm. It is believed that the high aspect ratio resulting from the conelike morphology is responsible for the enhancement of the field-emission properties of GNA.


Background Gelsemium dilutions are prescribed for their anxiolytic and its analgesic effects. Investigations using alkaloids isolated from Gelsemium support the hypothesis of Gelsemiuminduced analgesia. Aims We evaluated the antinociceptive effect of Gelsemium dilutions 3, 5 and 9C in neuropathic models. Methodology To investigate the potential effect of Gelsemium dilutions 3, 5 and 9C to prevent or to correct sciatic nerve chronic constriction (CCI) injury, we used the von-Frey hair behavioral test. CCI-induced neuropathic pain in rats represents characteristic painful behaviors like hyperalgesia and allodynia, thus validating its suitability for the evaluation of anti-neuropathic drugs. To test the corrective effect, Gelsemium 3, 5 or 9 C or placebo were administered from Day 14 after sciatic nerve ligation, i.e., when neuropathic symptoms were observed. In the preventive strategy, Gelsemium dilutions and placebo began immediately after the sciatic nerve ligation (D0). Results and discussion We observed that in placebo groups, the mechanical-sensitivity thresholds remained unchanged all treatment days whereas Gelsemium dilutions 3C and 5C exerted a strong or moderate antinociceptive effect, respectively. In CCI-rats, the contralateral paw of placebo-treated animals did not respond to 4g non-noxious stimulation but the ipsilateral responses increased progressively (0%-D0, 52%-D14, 72%-D21 and 88%-D28), confirming the occurrence of allodynia. Gelsemium dilution 3C corrective and preventive treatments efficiently reduced the allodynic responses (72-to-38%-D21 and 88-to-22%-D28). Gelsemium 5C also exhibited significant antiallodynic action while Gelsemium 9C was ineffective. Similarly, one week treatment with Gelsemium 3 or 5C efficiently reduced 15g or 26g-evoked hyperalgesia and the beneficial action improved after 2 weeks. Chronic therapies with current analgesics induce several side-effects. Conclusion The present work, suggest that Gelsemium dilutions devoid of toxicity and used as anxiolytic in humans induced analgesia, opens interesting/alternative perspectives for long-term management of pain without undesirable effects.


Temperature is considered one important environmental condition that controls the exuterine development of eggs of Ascarids to the injective stage and therefore is deemed to affect dissemination of the parasites. Effects of varying temperatures on post uterine development of eggs of A galli were investigated by incubation of mature eggs stripped from the uteri of live female nematodes. Specimens of the nematodes were dissected out from naturally parasitized native fowls purchased from local vendors in markets in Owerri area of Imo State, Nigeria. The eggs were placed in Petri dishes in small quantities of water and incubated in thermostat-filled ovens at temperatures varying from 0 0 C to 40 0 C for a maximum of 30days. No development was observed in the eggs at 0 0 C and < 38 0 C. The shortest incubation period was recorded at 30 0 C while the longest was at 15 0 C. Maximum embryonation (76.5%) was achieved at 280C (table1). These observations strongly suggest that the global warning maybe increasing the rate of dissemination of the parasites and related forms, including man's important ones, by hastening the exuterine development of the eggs of the nematodes to infective stages.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine compositional differences between brown and white varieties of Agaricus bisporus during shelf life and to determine if the growing demand for the brown variety is scientifically justified.

Design/methodology/approach
Field research enabled analyzing consumers' perceptions on intrinsic, extrinsic and quality characteristics of mushrooms. A total of 275 consumers participated in the survey. Obtained results were used for comparing white and brown varieties of A. bisporus over a period of 22 days. Mushrooms were packed in air and in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) at 4°C. Samples were analyzed for their nutritional, antioxidative and microbiological characteristics.

Findings
Two weeks from harvest, white variety showed higher amount of essential nutrients, while during the third week, brown mushrooms were more nutritionally valuable. Brown variety had better antioxidative ability for all 22 days of storage. Aerobic plate count (APC) was as expected for the mushrooms. MAPs significantly lowered APC in both varieties. The number of Enterobacteriaceae was equal for both varieties at the beginning, but later on they developed much faster in the case of brown variety. Field research combined with specific analyses clarified that there are no nutritive or microbiological reasons for the precedence of brown variety over white.

Research limitations/implications
Sensory aspect of the quality of mushrooms was not analyzed.

Originality/value
Market trend toward brown variety was scientifically challenged.


Complaining behaviour is a topic that has not been studied much in South America. Considering this, the aim of this investigation was to determine the customers complaining behaviour of a South American country, Chile. To do so, a survey was done, which was applied to a random sample of 498 Chileans. Results show that Chileans do not consider complaining as a right, they have a regular opinion of the way companies are handling complaints, and that the product characteristics is the dimension that has the biggest influence on their complaining behaviour. In addition those Chilean consumers who have complained in the past have a more positive attitude toward complaining than those who have never done it.


OBJECTIVE
ESWL is now widely used for the treatment of renal stone disease. Although ESWL has many advantages for patients' quality of life, few reports have demonstrated the long-term outcomes of the alterations of renal morphology after ESWL. We reported renal scarring after ESWL monotherapy in patients with renal calyceal stones. In this study, we evaluated a large series of patients' cohort treated at our institution, and assessed the causal effect of ESWL on the late occurrence of renal scar formation.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
ESWL was performed with EDAP (LT-01,02) that generates shock wave energy by piezoelectric discharge. We analyzed the records of 285 kidneys treated between Dec. 1986 and Nov. 1998. Renal scarring was noted in 44 kidneys and not in 241 kidneys with periodical ultrasonography. We compared the backgrounds of the two groups using chi-square or non-parametric analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model determined the analysis of renal scar formation.

RESULTS
Univariate and multiple regression analysis revealed that the total amount of ESWL emission and hyperuricemia independently affected the probability of renal scar formation.

CONCLUSIONS
Over-emission of ESWL (over 10,000 shots) must be care for the prevention of renal scarring in patients with renal calyceal calculi, especially when associated with hyperuricemia. After ESWL, periodical checkups with ultrasonography will provide useful information for the clinical diagnosis of renal scarring.


Simulation of alpha, beta and gamma radiation detection and measurement experiments which are part of nuclear physics laboratory courses was realized with Monte‐Carlo method and JAVA Programming Language. As it is well known, establishing this type of laboratory is very expensive. At the same time, highly radioactive sources used in some experiments carry risks for students and also for experimentalists. By taking into consideration these problems, the aim of this study is to setup a virtual radiation laboratory with minimum cost and to speed up the training in radiation physics for students. Bearing in mind the training capabilities of the software is coded to allow the users creating their own experimental setup and searching for experimental setup suitable for a specific type of experiment. As an example, mixed source isotope identification with high purity germanium, bismuth germanate, and sodium iodine detectors is studied in this paper and the importance of energy resolution of a detector in such an experiment is discussed. Software shows the nature of radiation and radiation transport with the help of Monte‐Carlo method. In this software, experimental parameters can be changed manually by the user and experimental results can be followed in an multi channel analyzer (MCA) or an single channel analyzer (SCA). Results obtained in experiments can be analyzed by these MCA or SCA panels. Virtual radiation laboratory which is developed in this study with reliable results and unlimited experimentation capability seems a useful educational tool. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 550–560, 2013


Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating joint disorder with a complex pathogeny wherein diverse factors interact, causing a process of deterioration of the articular cartilage and the subchondral bone. It can be primary or secondary but has common clinical, radiological, and pathological manifestations. Unfortunately, there are no curative or preventive options available for this disease. The knee is the most common site to develop OA among all synovial joints. Both environmental and genetic factors play an essential role in the initiation of the disease. Identifying the genes underlying the genetic background could give new insights into the pathophysiology of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and could potentially lead to new drug targets. Several genes involving developmental processes or maintenance of cartilage and bone are found to be associated with KOA susceptibility and progression. Understanding the gene functions has improved the knowledge towards the disease pathogenesis. So, it will be of interest to investigate the role of gene-gene interaction in the disease.


The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 and H7N9 viruses may lead to the next pandemic if human-to-human transmissibility is established because the host range restriction can be changed via virus mutations or reassortments. Therefore, effective and efficient detection methods are crucial for the early stage identification and surveillance of an outbreak of HPAI viruses. In this review, viral mutation and pathogenicity are briefly introduced first. Then, traditional detection methods, including virus isolation, immunoassays, and molecular biology methods, for H5N1 and H7N9 viruses are presented in detail. Finally, the state of the art in biosensing methods for the detection of H5N1 and H7N9 viruses is presented and discussed with an emphasis on advances made in biosensors. Future developments may make biosensing methods more accessible for low-cost and point-of-care application.


Author(s): Weaver, Marisa Gail | Advisor(s): Pettus, Thomas R. R. | Abstract: The tetracyclic natural product, tetrapetalone A has eluded chemists since its isolation in 2002. The complex structural features of this natural product provide a platform from which new synthetic methods can be developed. One approach to build tetrapetalone includes formation of a Nitrogen-Aryl bond. Despite the prevalence of this bond connection in natural and pharmaceutical compounds, previous methods to form Nitrogen-Aryl bonds were not applicable in our approach to the tetrapetalone A scaffold. To overcome this limitation and provide a different route to access compounds containing Nitrogen-Aryl bonds, we approached the problem with a different strategy. This divergent strategy relies upon distinct deprotonation conditions of a cyclic vinylogous amide to afford regioisomeric dienes. Each diene can then undergo a tandem Diels-Alder and retro-Diels-Alder sequence with a variety of acetylenic dienophiles to afford a range of multi-substituted aromatic products containing Nitrogen-Aryl bonds. The scope of this method and its application toward tetrapetalone A will be discussed. While investigating different synthetic approaches, our group also probed the reactivity of the tetramic acid C-5 position. When our group encountered limitations among the current methods to install vinyl groups at the C-5 position we turned to develop a more general vinylation strategy. Our progress toward a "vinylation reagent" is reported and future directions will be discussed.


: The author made angiographic studies of pancreas in 94 patients with chronic pancreatitis. In all patients there were alterations in angiographic architecture of the pancreas. Ten angiographic signs were described which in combinations of three or more, were deemed sufficient for diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. Wide use of angiography of pancreas is recommended for diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis as well as for morphological assessment of the pancreas.


- Increasing the implication of growing data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) brings the focus toward extracting knowledge from sensors' raw data. In the current cloud computing architecture, all the IoT raw data is transmitted to the cloud for processing, storage, and control things. Nevertheless, the scenario of sending all raw data to the cloud is inefficient as it wastes the bandwidth and increases the network load. This problem can be solved by Providing IoT Gateway at the edge layer with the required intelligence to gain the Knowledge from raw data to decide to actuate or offload complicated tasks to the cloud. This collaboration between cloud and edge called distributed intelligence. This work highlights the distributed intelligence concept in IoT. It presents a deep investigation of distributed intelligence between cloud and edge layers under IoT architecture, with an emphasis on its vision, applications, and research challenges. This work aims to bring the attention of IoT specialists to distributed intelligence and its role to deduce current IoT challenges such as availability, mobility,


In the present chapter, after a thorough review of state-of-the-art in biometric antispoofing, we present a software-based spoof detection prototype for mobile devices, named MoBio_LivDet (Mobile Biometric Liveness Detection) that can be used in multiple biometric systems. MoBio_LivDet analyzes local features and global structures of face, iris and fingerprint biometric images using a set of low-level feature descriptors and decision-level fusion. In particular, we propose to use image descriptor classification algorithms Locally Uniform Comparison Image Descriptor (LUCID) [15], CENsus TRansform hISTogram (CENTRIST) [16] and Patterns of Oriented Edge Magnitudes (POEM) [17] for face, iris and fingerprint spoof detection. The proposed system allows user to choose "Security Level" (SL) against spoofing, between "low," "medium" and "high." Depending on SL, the system selects unitdescriptor or multidescriptors-fusion-based liveness detection. These descriptors are computationally inexpensive, fast and novel approach to real-time image description, which are desirable requisites for mobile processors. Experiments on publicly available data sets containing several real and spoofed faces, irises and fingerprints show promising results.


The kinetics of the initial growth stages of cadmium telluride (CdTe) films on silicon substrates covered with silicon carbide (SiC) buffer layers grown by the method of topochemical substitution of atoms is investigated theoretically. The model based on the classical nucleation theory is proposed to depict the CdTe film growth by the method of thermal evaporation and condensation in vacuum. The model accounts for the mechanical stresses caused by the lattice mismatch and difference of thermal expansion coefficients of CdTe film and substrate. The influence of substrate and evaporator temperature on the nucleation mechanism and kinetics of the initial growth stages of CdTe film is estimated. The different growth regimes of CdTe films on the SiC/Si substrates are discussed, and the optimal growth conditions are found. It is shown that the elastic stresses in the CdTe/SiC/Si structure are approximately three times lower than the elastic stresses in the CdTe film grown coherently on the Si substrate without the SiC buffer layer. This leads to the large difference in the nucleation rates of the CdTe films on the SiC/Si substrate and Si substrate. The diagram of the nucleation rates of CdTe islands on the SiC/Si depending on the substrate and evaporator temperature is presented.


A dissertation presented to the Department of Building Technology in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Master of Science (MSc.) in
Construction Management, 2014


A broadband microstrip-to-coplanar strip (CPS) transition employing composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission line technology is presented. The transition is based on the unique phase slope and offset control properties of the CRLH transmission line. The pairing of a microstrip delay line and the CRLH transmission line has a broadband out-of-phase characteristic, thus enabling the broadband transition between microstrip and CPS. An unbalanced and a balanced type of transition are built and tested. A 3dB insertion loss bandwidth of 85% and 80% can be achieved by connecting the transition back-to- back for the unbalanced and balanced type, respectively. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed microstrip-to-CPS transition, a modified quasi-Yagi antenna is designed. An impedance bandwidth of 65% can be obtained, showing a 15% improvement compared to the conventional one.


Abstract: Three aspects of the role of clinical evidence in guiding therapy in the field of neonatology are presented: 1) what is embodied in the concept "evidence‐based medicine"? 2) the contribution of the Cochrane Collaboration and its Neonatal Review Group in summarizing and disseminating evidence, in the form of systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials, concerning the benefits and risks of therapies in the field of neonatology; 3) approaches to bridging the gap between the evidence per se and the uptake and application of that evidence in practice.


Macroscopic and microscopic adhesion tests were performed in an attempt to make quantitative adhesion measurements. The microscopic adhesion measurements using the AFM provided an opportunity to juxtapose these results with values predicted by wellestablished thermodynamic theory. Good correlation was found when probing lowenergy interactions. Interactions measured on high-energy surfaces were lower than theory predicts, however, these results are consistent with other AFM results. Several limitations of the AFM as a microscopic adhesion tester were elucidated in particular the necessity for the accurate evaluation of the tip radius and cantilever spring constant. Scan rate an applied load also appeared to play a minor role in the measured adhesion -low loads and low scan rates appearing to produce more accurate data. Macroscopic adhesion tests performed on polyester and fluorocarbon paint coated sheet steel, found the white polyester in question to be significantly poorer than all other paint combinations evaluated in terms of pull-off strength, and environmental durability, irrespective of ageing environment. This appears to be a result of the poor adhesion of the pigment to the binder. Primer "B" (standard duty) primer appeared to provide superior pull-off strength to Primer "A" (severe environment) primer, and it was noted that a thinner layer of primer vastly increased the measured pull-off strength of the paint coating to the substrate. The results of the macroscopic tests indicate that the adhesive properties of the paint coatings are much superior to their cohesive strength, and that attempts to improve the performance of these coatings should concentrate on their mechanical properties rather than their adhesion.


Traditionally farming system of rural area in Ethiopia is based on producing maize without oxen ploughing which is characterized with clearing land by their own land and cultivating it without oxen ploughing. Thus for many years the farmers of Ethiopia are unable to meet their food security. This situation is continued currently in the study area in which the production system of maize is based on producing advanced methods of production that need improvements of efficiency of farmers .Therefore these studies analyze economic efficiency and constraints of maize production under shifting in the low land farming of Gudeya Bila district. The study was conducted using cross-sectional data collected during the 2020/2021 production year from 154 randomly selected sample households. To estimate the level of technical, allocative and economic stochastic production frontier model was employed and Tobit model was used to identify factors affecting technical, allocative and economic efficiency of sample households.The mean technical, allocative and economic efficiency were 78.78%, 69.99% and 56.66% respectively. The Tobit model results shows that education levels, family size, farm size, construction of terrace, frequency of extension contact, uses of credit, participation in off/non-farm activities and shifting cultivation had a significant positive effect on technical efficiency. Livestock holding and participation in off/nonfarm activities have positive effects and distance to plot were found to have negative effect on allocative efficiency while family size, soil conservation practice, credit, extension service, off/non-farm activities were found to have positive effect and distance to plot is negative influence on economic efficiency. The main conclusion steaming from this analysis was there is the possibility to enhance the efficiency of maize producers in the study area. Thus policies and strategies of the government should be directed towards the contraction of terrace, shifting from shifting cultivation to oxen farming, producing by fragmented of land rather than focusing only on single plot.


The aim of the studies described in this thesis was to investigate the differences
in work and metabolism between concentric and eccentric muscle actions and to
examine the relationship between these muscle actions and sprint performance.
The relationship between concentric and eccentric isokinetic muscle strength
across three lower limb joints and sprinting performance, including the use of
theoretical models was examined, in elite performers. Sprints were performed
over 15 m and 35 m with times recorded over 0–15 m and 30–35 m. Using linear
regression and expressing sprint performance as time, the strongest relationship
found, amongst those joint actions and speeds tested, was between concentric
knee extension at 240 deg.s-1 and sprint performance (0–15 m times, r=-0.518,
p<0.01, and 30–35 m times, r=-0.688, p<0.01). [Continues.]


The main objective of the present work was to study the effect of electron beam radiation on the morphology stabilization and properties of polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl methyl ether (PVME) blends both in single and two-phase state, formed during spinodal decomposition process. Morphology development in particular, the domain growth rate of PVME dispersed phase was studied by using optical microscopy. The increasing rate of the interphase thickness resulted from interdiffusion of the samples produced by melt mixing was studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Radiochemistry and Flory-Rhener analysis were performed to determine the cross-link density of samples. The cross-link density of the interphase was measured using FTIR. A combination of thermal analysis techniques and physical properties measurement were used to study the effect of electron beam radiation dose on morphology stabilization due to interfacial modification and properties of both single and two-phase polymer blends. The phase separation rate of PS/PVME miscible blend was found to be a power law type function of separation time with an exponent 0.77. The interphase growth rate was found to be about 3.5 nm.min-1. It was demonstrated that the irradiation process can play significant role in stabilization of PS/PVME blend morphology through immobilization of interphase resulting from copolymerization and/or cross-linking.


The design, evaluation and implementation of a busbar current differential protection relay suitable for use with measurement type current transformers (CTs) is described in the paper. The relay operates in conjunction with a saturation detection algorithm, which effectively detects the start and end of each saturation period using a technique based on the third-difference function applied to the current signal. A blocking signal is activated immediately after the onset of saturation and is maintained active until the saturation period plus an additional delay of one cycle has expired. For internal faults that result in CT saturation, the relay issues a trip command before the blocking signal is activated. For external faults, that result in CT saturation, the blocking signal arrives first and the trip command remains inactive. Test results indicate that the relay successfully discriminates between internal and external faults, even when the remanent flux in a CT is high and the fault capabilities of the measurement CTs are severely limited. The paper concludes by describing how the relay was implemented on a prototype relay based on a digital signal processor. Compared to a conventional busbar differential protection scheme, the new relay achieves greater stability on external faults and enhanced sensitivity for internal faults.


Aim : Root hydraulic conductivity is one of the main factors that control water flow in the soil-plant system and ultimately affect crop irrigation requirements. This work sets out to estimate root water conductivity for three self-rooted or grafted table grape cultivars. Methods and results : We evaluated root water conductivity of the cultivars 'Black Magic' , 'Matilde' and 'Victoria' grafted onto 1103 Paulsen rootstock or self-rooted. Measurements were performed on two-year-old table grapes grown in pots filled with pumice. Root water conductivity was determined by placing the pots in a pressure chamber and increasing pressures from 0.05 to 0.30 MPa, at intervals of 0.05 MPa. Plant growth in terms of shoot and root dry matter was also evaluated, as well as leaf and root area. Conclusion : Root water conductivity differed according to cultivar and grafting. The 'Victoria' cultivar had higher root water conductivity than the other two, which differed little between them. The grafted plants showed higher root water conductivity than the self-rooted plants, except the plants of the cultivar 'Matilde' , whose root water conductivity for the grafted and self-rooted plants was almost the same. It was also observed that the higher root water conductivity in relation to cultivar and grafting changed with increasing water flux and was constant for high water flux. Significance and impact of the study : Estimation of root hydraulic conductivity helps to determine the water consumption of the cultivars investigated, whether self-rooted or grafted, as well as the amount of irrigation water to apply to vineyards.


The influence of Lu2O3 on phase transformation and seeds morphology was investigated. The result showed that the β-Si3N4 seeds with up to 95% β phase content could be obtained with 2wt% Lu2O3 as the additive content under 1750°C for two hours. The microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-pressed Si3N4 ceramics, using 9wt.% of Lu2O3• additives were investigated by the means of MTS measurements and Vickers indentation crack size measurements, as well as XRD and SEM. It was known that the high fracture toughness of Si3N4 ceramics was attributed to the rodlike morphology of β-Si3N4 grains. And the reinforcement effect and mechanism of β-Si3N4 seed were studied. It was found that the grain size and its distribution influence the property and microstructure of Si3N4 ceramics, namely, the relative narrow distribution of grain diameter in some extent and relative wide range of bimodal distribution of grain aspect ratio could improve the property of Si3N4 ceramics. The improvement in the fracture toughness with the amount of additive was mainly attributed to elongated grain growth during the sintering process.The high temperature properties of self-reinforced Si3N4 with different additives were studied. By this method, self-reinforced Si3N4 ceramics with an increment of 10~20 percent of fracture toughness was successfully fabricated.


In this thesis data taken by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar during the International PolarYear have been analyzed. The radar data have been searched for anomalous radarechoes. These radar echoes appear in an altitude range between 200 and 300 km, showa strong enhancement of the backscattered power and are limited in altitude to tensof kilometers. These anomalous radar echoes also show a distinct zero Doppler shiftedpeak in the ion line spectrum. The power prole of the data have been visually inspectedto identify the anomalies. The data have then been analyzed using a Matlab programcalled GUISDAP in order to get basic plasma parameters. It has been found that thereis a high occurrence of these anomalies during particle precipitation and at a certainE-region electron density peak more than 40 % of the data contains these anomalies.


In order to establish a comparison between public perception and instream field assessments of ecosystem quality, the results from two years of bioassessment from Clear Creek Watershed, located in the Ozark Highlands Ecoregion of northwest Arkansas, United States, were compared to results from a mail-out survey conducted within the same watershed during the same time frame. The Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP) was used to conduct a bioassessment of the watershed, and results were compared to stakeholder perceptions of the watershed's ecosystem integrity. The results indicated that respondents significantly overestimated or underestimated ecosystem integrity and tended to disagree with bioassessment results from each site sampled in the watershed. Disparity between perception and scientifically assessed ecosystem integrity was observed regardless of respondent residence location or knowledge of factual information regarding ecosystem processes. However, respondents with lifestyles that tended to connect them to watershed ecosystem processes were more likely to rank ecosystem quality similarly to the results attained through the bioassessments used for this study. Perceptions among respondents in this study suggest a disconnection between ecosystem processes and the everyday lives of residents of Clear Creek Watershed. Understanding how well public perception agrees with scientific information provides insight into environmental education and policy initiatives that strive to conserve ecosystem services. As a result, conservation initiatives should be developed in such a way as to reduce the disparity between public perception of watershed ecosystem integrity and the scientific assessments that help communities understand how to manage and conserve those systems. If perception is not taken into consideration, there is a danger in creating policy or developing programs that are not compatible with stakeholder expectations or ecosystem function.


Aim: The aim of this thesis was to explore the perceptions and experiences of women living with obstetric fistula in Eastern Sudan, in order to identify discourses that may contribute to the incidence of obstetric fistula.Background and relevance: Women with obstetric fistula suffer from stigmatisation and isolation. Obstetric fistula is often associated with child marriage, socioeconomic and gender inequalities which influence women's decision-making power. Previous studies have not focused on power relations that may put women at risk for obstetric fistula as well as how they affect their experiences. Additionally, obstetric fistula has not been studied sufficiently in Eastern Sudan. Method: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with nine women in Sudan was conducted. Discourse analysis with a Foucauldian approach was used.Findings: Three discourses were identified; powerlessness, normalisation and resistance. Powerlessness revealed the existence of power relations between the women, their families, their husbands and their society with regards to circumcision and marriage which influenced their status and their experiences with obstetric fistula. Normalisation included an acceptance and internalisation of social norms as absolute truth. Subtle resistance discourse was observed as women tried to take a stand against social norms as well as harassment from the community connected to their fistula.Conclusion: Powerlessness, normalisation and reproduction of social and gender practices contribute to the development of obstetric fistula and the experiences of affected women. Historical, legal, political, economical and global discourse should be analysed to fully grasp the contextual effect and plan achievable interventions to improve maternal health.


The Object Constraint Language is widely used to express precise and unambiguous constraints on models and object oriented programs. However, the notion of temporal constraints, controlling the system behavior over time, has not been natively supported. Such temporal constraints are necessary to model reactive and real-time systems. Although there are works addressing temporal extensions of OCL, they only bring syntactic extensions without any concrete implementation conforming to the OCL standard. On top of that, all of them are based on temporal logics that require particular skills to be used in practice. In this paper, we propose to fill in both gaps. We first enrich OCL by a pattern-based temporal layer which is then integrated into the current Eclipse's OCL plug-in. Moreover, the temporal constraint support for OCL, that we define using formal scenario-based semantics, connects to automatic test generators and forms the first step towards creating a bridge linking model driven engineering and usual formal methods.


Previous studies have examined variability of pharmacokinetics (PK, plasma insulin concentration) and pharmacodynamics (PD, glucose infusion rate, GIR) of basal insulins at steady-state (SS) and at fixed doses in all subjects studied. To establish within-day PK/PD variability of individual, different, doses of insulin Glargine 300 U/ml (Gla-300) vs. Glargine 100 U/ml (Gla-100) that people with T1DM use in real life. Eighteen T1DMs [age 40±11 years, diabetes duration 26±12 years, BMI 23.4±2.1 kg/m2, A1C 7.2±0.5% (55±6 mmol/mol)] were studied after 3 month treatment with Gla-300 and Gla-100 titrated to fasting euglycemia, with a 24 h euglycemic clamp (randomized, crossover). The individual basal insulin doses that subjects used (0.35±0.Gla-300, 0.28±0.07 Gla-100, U/kg) were injected s.c. in the clamp study. Prior to clamp, glycemic control was comparable with Gla-300 and Gla-100. In the clamp, the individual doses of Gla-300 and Gla-100 resulted in 24 h PK/PD bioequivalence, but in lower variability indices of PK/PD with Gla-300 vs. Gla-100 (Table). In conclusion, at clinical, individual doses used by T1DMs in real life, Gla-300 has lower PK/PD within-day variability vs. Gla-100. These results may explain the lower glycemic variability and lower risk for hypoglycaemia reported in clinical studies with Gla-300 vs. Gla-100. Disclosure C. Fanelli: Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi. Other Relationship; Self; Menarini Group. P. Lucidi: Other Relationship; Self; Abbott, Menarini Group, Sanofi-Aventis. P. Candeloro: None. P. Cioli: None. A. Marinelli Andreoli: None. G.B. Bolli: Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Menarini Group, Sanofi. Research Support; Self; Sanofi. F. Porcellati: Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi. Board Member; Self; Sanofi. Other Relationship; Self; Medtronic. Board Member; Self; Eli Lilly and Company.


The effects of dietary fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ), a toxin produced mainly by Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum that  grow on maize worldwide, on protein profiles of serum, brain regions and hypophyses were studied in 24 male Large White weanling pigs randomly divided into four groups (n = 6). In a completely randomized design, each group of the animals with six replicates, received one of the four diets containing 0.2, 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 mg FB 1 /kg constituting the Control, Diet 1, Diet 2 and Diet 3, respectively, in a 6-month feeding experiment. At the end of the feeding experiment, blood sample was collected from the ear vein of each animal for serum protein analysis. All the animals were slaughtered and the brains and the hypophyses were carefully dissected out to determine the total protein (TP) concentrations in the regional brain and hypophyses. Animals fed the Control diet and Diet 1 had significantly (P<0.05) higher serum protein profiles than those on Diets 2 and 3. It was observed that TP concentrations decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in the cerebellum, hypothalamus and the medulla oblongata as the dietary FB 1 concentration increased. The TP concentrations in these brain regions and hypophyses of the animals on Diets 1, 2 and 3 ranged from 42.1-105.6, 30.5-96.2 and 26.3-92.3 % of the Control, respectively. Chronic dietary exposure to FB 1 at concentrations above 5.0 mg/kg is a potential health  risk that may interfere with protein metabolism and result in significantly reduced serum protein profiles. This may not be lethal to growing pigs but a potential health risk that may produce adverse physiological response in the animals. Keywords: Brain; Fumonisin B 1 ; Hypophysis; Pigs; Protein; Serum.


This is the first study to examine the relationship between organisational characteristics and the practice of strategic planning in Jordan. Organisational size, age and sector are all factors which have been found to influence the adoption and practice of strategic planning in developed economies. Three hypotheses are generated concerning the relationship between these variables and the extent of the practice of strategic planning in Jordanian publicly quoted companies.

The population of the research is 203 companies registered on the Amman Stock Exchange. These companies contributed more than 75% of Jordan's GDP. The companies were located in the financial, industrial and service sectors. A questionnaire survey of these companies yielded a 41 per cent response rate.

The results of the survey provide a rich source of data in relation to the practice of strategic planning in Jordanian publicly quoted companies. Key findings are that company size is a significant influence on the practice of strategic planning in Jordan, but that age is less influential. There were small differences between the three sectors regarding the practice of strategic planning.

The study provides empirical evidence about some important areas of strategic planning practice in Jordan including: the nature of the involvement of top and line management in planning activities; the time horizon for planning; the use of environmental scanning (internal and external); commitment to strategic activities and the use of strategic tools and techniques.

The results indicate that there are considerable similarities between strategic planning practice in Jordan and those which have been found in earlier studies in developed economies. This is likely to be because there are few barriers to the dissemination of the knowledge elements of strategic planning practice.
The research findings lead to a number of recommendations for Jordanian companies. These include the need to pay greater attention to outside resources and the scanning of internal strategic factors in the strategic planning process and, most importantly of all, the need to pay more attention to the involvement of line managers in the strategic planning process, especially in relation to the choice of a strategic proposal.


In order to determine the effectiveness of paramedian suboccipital transmeatal vestibular neurectomy, pre- and postoperative neurotological studies were conducted and questionnaire responses of 30 patients who underwent surgery were evaluated. Hearing was maintained within 10 dB of the preoperative level or improved in 54% of patients 2 years after surgery. Questionnaire responses indicated that all patients suffering from intractable vertigo experienced no vertiginous symptoms after surgery. Based on this study, we conclude that paramedian suboccipital transmeatal vestibular neurectomy is a sueful method for relieving ear-related vertigo.


We present a quantitative estimate of the total carbon footprint for the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI), based on a survey of travel and commuting patterns for our ∼ 150 person workforce, and utility consumption in electricity, heat (steam + natural gas), and chilled water cooling of the physical plant. Each of these was independently evaluated over a one-year interval during 2018-2019 before the COVID-19 scaleback of campus research and teaching. Exact start and end dates varied for the different sources considered according to how data were collected. Our best estimate is that MKI produces 1826 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e) per year, or 12 MTCO2e per capita, per year. The largest contributor (40%) is from heating our physical plant, especially the Ronald McNair building which houses a majority of our staff. Air travel comprises 15% of the total carbon footprint; the largest total contribution comes from travel associated with professional development of our junior colleagues and support of current and future experiments, though the largest per capita contribution is from the faculty. Colloquium travel is a negligible contributor to the carbon footprint. MKI's computing cluster consumes both electricity and chilled water. While the total cooling load of the cluster is difficult to isolate accurately, if one uses standard ratios of total-to-computing power the implied footprint of cluster computing and cooling approaches 200 MTCO2e / year, similar to air travel and roughly 10% of MKI's total footprint. MKI has already realized a 20% net reduction in carbon footprint relative to 2014 levels, through MIT's purchase of offsets from a solar farm in North Carolina. To reach 2030 targets set by MIT (which meet or exceed the US Nationally Determined Contribution in the Paris Accord) a further reduction of 15% below present levels, or 220 MTCO2e per year, would be required. This goal could potentially be achieved by replacing the single-pane windows and their deteriorating wood frames on the Ronald McNair building's North facade, together with reduced emissions caused by pandemic-induced changes in commuting patterns and air travel.


In developing countries, the effects of climate change interact with factors such as underdevelopment, high dependence on natural resource-based livelihoods, inequality, weak state institutions and marginalization to increase the risk of insecurity and violent conflict. Along with sustainable development and climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation is another key entry point for addressing climate-related security risks. However, key social factors that could positively influence adaptation outcomes and ultimately mitigate climate-related security risks are often overlooked. This SIPRI Policy Brief offers insights into the importance of social capital for facilitating climate change adaptation and preventing and resolving natural resource-related communal conflict in developing countries. The policy brief recommends: (a) improving trust between communities and governments through collaborative processes for knowledge exchange, setting priorities and determining appropriate climate change adaptation practices; and (b) increasing knowledge of climate change among traditional and local leaders to strengthen local conflict resolution mechanisms.


Biological organisms have an incredible ability to adapt to almost any
environment and the humans activities on earth have created many
new habitats for different kinds of organisms. For example can certain
organisms grow on rocks and vertical cliffs, and when humans
started building houses with mineral based facades, some organisms
found that these were new habitats to live on. Some of these expansions
of habitats to our houses are not desirable for the us humans and
are considered as "contaminations". Even if this contamination sometimes
only is an aesthetically problem, some contamination is highly
unwanted because it can be unhealthy for the inhabitants - for example
the growth of moulds - or it can degrade the building materials it
grows on -as for example wood-degrading fungi.
For an organism to grow in a certain environment, different requirements
on abiotic (physical and chemical) and biotic (biological) factors
have to be fulfilled. Suitable conditions for growth of organisms
on facades are certain ranges in temperature and a high moisture level
(RH), but also the surface structure, nutrient availability, pH, cardinal
direction etc. might be influencing. Different organisms have different
demands on these factors and it is a complex interaction of these
different factors that decides if an organism can grow in a certain environment.
The last decades many houses in Sweden have been built with constructions
of thin rendering on thermal insulation, a so called ETICS
construction (External Thermal Insulation Construction System). This
construction consist most often of a framework of wooden studs with
thermal insulation in between, and gypsum boards or cement based
boards on both sides. On the outside a thermal insulation layer is applied
and the render is then applied directly on the outside of this thermal
insulation layer. This is a an efficient and compact construction
which is easy to produce. However, many of these constructions have
experienced discolourations from growth of algae and moulds on the
facades already a few years after construction. It has not always been
possible to explain this discolouration. Sometimes one part of the
facade had discolorations and another part of the same facade did not.
One possible explanation for the fast growth of organisms is the
external rendering layer (on thermal insulation that has a low heat capacity
and during night the long-wave radiation from the material to
the sky can contribute to a lower temperature on the surface than the
temperature in the air -on clear nights, when the heat loses through
long-wave radiation is high. The lowered surface temperature then
causes the RH on the surface to increase, sometimes giving condensation
-which increases the risk of biological growth.
In this project we have compared temperatures and RH on surfaces
on facade elements in a test house with constructions with low heat
capacity in the outermost layer (light walls) and constructions with
a high heat capacity in the outermost layer (heavy walls). Simulations
of the growth risk showed that thin rendering on thermal insulation
has a higher growth risk that traditionally render on bricks especially
on the north side. On the south side the most important factor
was the surface colour. In our study we compared a red and a white
surface, and since dark surface colours absorbs more short-wave radiation
from the sun they have a higher temperature during daytime
and therefore a lower RH on the surface.
Another factor which might influence the growth risk is the surface
structure of the render. We fabricated specimens with different
renders with different surface structures and with a thin and thick
rendering layer (3mm and 20mm, respectively) and exposed the specimens
outdoors for four years. This study showed that algaes preferred
a very rough surface structure while moulds (Cladosporium sp.)
also grew on more smooth surfaces. In addition we found that algaes
most often grew on the north side whereas moulds rather grew on the
south side (Cladosporium has a dark pigment in the cells which protects
against radiation from the sun). Furthermore we found a connection
between the amount of growth and the season of the year. The
biological growth was more clearly seen during spring and especially
autumn and occasionally seemed to disappear during summer and
winter. It was found that thin (3-4mm) and thick (20mm) render on
thermal insulation had the same amount of discolouration.
The activity of photosynthetic organisms -algae, lichens and mosseson
facades can be measured with Imaging-PAM. This is an instrument
that measures the chlorophyll fluorescence and gives an indirect measure
of photosynthetic activity. A pilot study was performed where
we -during three days in the autumn- studied algae and mosses growing
on render. Algae dries out easily and is dependent of moisture
from the surroundings and showed the highest activity during mornings
before the sun dried them out. The mosses were active a greater
part of the day; they are able to some extent store water in their leaves
and is not as dependent on moisture from the surroundings as algae.
Another method for measuring activity of biological organisms is
isothermal calorimetry which measures the produced heat from an
organism's metabolism. In this project we tested a new type of calorimeter
that measures activity at four different temperatures at the same
time. With measurements of a moss (Tortula ruralis) we found that it
was possible to get an activity measure at four different temperatures
at the same time, thus being able to get an understanding of how the
temperature influences the activity. This method should therefore be
very useful in future studies of activity of different types of biological
organisms.
The aim of this project was to investigate constructions of thin rendering
on thermal insulation and the biological organisms growing on
the facades of these constructions. With a multidisciplinary approach
we have increased the knowledge of the facade as a habitat, the organisms
growing, and their interactions with different biotic and abiotic
factors.


Between November 1973 and December 1996, the in situ freezing of tumor, i.e., cryotherapy, was performed with liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees C) on 235 patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). There were no operative mortalities or severe complications. The 5-year survival was 39.8% for the 235 PLC patients, and 55.4% for the 80 patients with small PLC (< or = 5 cm). When analyzed with respect to treatment modalities without considering the size of the tumor, the 5-year survival was 26.9% for 78 PLC patients treated by cryotherapy alone; 39.6% for 58 PLC patients treated by cryotherapy plus hepatic artery ligation and perfusion; 46.0% for 27 PLC patients treated by cryotherapy for residual tumor plus resection of the main tumor; and 60.4% for 72 PLC patients treated by cryotherapy followed by resection of the frozen tumor. These results indicate that cryotherapy is a safe and effective treatment for PLC.


Snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) are endemic to Antarctica. Their feeding grounds are located within the pack ice or open waters of the Southern Ocean. They feed on fish, krill and squid with changing proportions depending on sea ice conditions. The birds breed in un-glaciated areas along the coast but also on inland nunataks and mountain ranges up to 440 km from the coast. Their nests are sheltered in rock cavities, which are defended by the petrels against potential intruders (e.g., competitors and Skuas) by ejecting proventricular stomach oil. The stomach oil accumulates and fossilizes around the breeding sites, thus forming centimetre to decimetre thick deposits of so-called Antarctic mumiyo.
The distribution, age, and composition of the mumiyo deposits provide information concerning the environmental history at the breeding sites and potentially also on the sea-ice conditions of the adjacent ocean. The paleoenvironmental information concerns the position of marine and lacustrine shorelines, and the extent of glaciers or the ice sheet, since the nests only occur on dry and un-glaciated grounds. Information on the sea-ice history may be provided by biogeochemical proxies to be measured on the mumiyo, however, these proxies still need to be tested.
First radiocarbon-dating of mumiyo deposits from mountain ranges in Dronning Maud Land was carried out by Hiller et al. (1995). The results indicated snow petrel occupation during the last glacial, however, with some question marks arising from poor temporal resolution due to the employment of conventional 14C dating only. Here, we present first combined 14C AMS, biomarker and inorganic geochemical data that were obtained on mumiyo deposits from Petermann Range, Dronning Maud Land. The mumyio shows a finely laminated internal structure. 14C ages indicate a consistent age-depth relation spanning from 17 ka to > 58 ka. These data confirm the existence of un-glaciated areas during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), as assumed by Hiller et al. (1995), and extend the archive far into Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, which is poorly understood in coastal Antarctica. The biomarker and inorganic composition characterizes the material and has some potential to establish proxies for the environmental conditions at the surface of the adjacent Southern Ocean.
Keywords: Mumiyo deposits, Dronning Maud Land, environmental history
References
Hiller, A., Hermichen, W.D., Wand, U. 1995. Radiocarbon-dated subfossil stomach oil deposits from petrel nesting sites: Novel paleoenvironmental records from continental Antarctica. Radiocarbon 37, 171-180


"Functional foods" as a marketing term was initiated in Japan in the late 1980s and is used to describe foods fortified with ingredients capable of producing health benefits. This concept is becoming increasingly popular with consumers because of a heightened awareness of the link between health, nutrition, and diet. Food manufacturers are enthusiastic about developing such products because the added ingredients give increased value to food. The global market for functional foods in the coming years is predicted to grow rapidly. Although Japan currently accounts for about one-half of this market, the fastest rate of growth is expected to be in the United States. Probiotic products represent a strong growth area within the functional foods group and intense research efforts are under way to develop dairy products into which probiotic organisms such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are incorporated. Such probiotic foods may modulate gut microbial composition, thereby leading to improved gut health, for example, through improved tolerance to lactose in lactose-intolerant individuals or improved resistance to pathogenic bacteria. Large numbers of viable microorganisms are likely to be required in the food product, which should be consumed regularly to experience the health effect. The probiotic market, especially dairy products such as yogurts and fermented milks, has experienced rapid growth in Europe. The long-term exploitation of probiotics as health promoters is dependent on several factors, including sound, scientifically proven clinical evidence of health-promoting activity; accurate consumer information; effective marketing strategies; and, above all, a quality product that fulfills consumer expectations.


Law firm and department managers today wonder about the efficacy of diversity programming (and above all, one-off diversity "training�?). They want to move their law firm or company beyond mere representational diversity and on to building cultures of inclusion; yet they are not certain about the best way to get there. Members of the legal profession are asking whether there are any new ideas for opening access and creating structures, practices, and behaviors that will allow everyone (whether of minority background/orientation or not) to thrive in the law office? Some of the best new thinking on how to grow diversity and inclusion in the legal field is centered on development of diversity competencies for the various roles that lawyers fulfill. A diversity competency is the particular knowledge, skill or behavior required to be successful in the role of creating an organization that values differences. The reason for developing a set of diversity competencies is to make diversity learning strategic, pragmatic, and applicable to all. A diversity competencies approach may also resonate more strongly than a traditional training approach to attorneys who are wary of political correctness, and who experience the civil rights and identity movements of the 1970's as distant, if fundamentally important, history. A good way to develop a competency model is to ask what knowledge, skills, and behaviors does someone performing a certain function need to have, in order to fulfill his or her role as a builder of diversity and inclusion in the office.


We identify nine young stellar objects (YSOs) in the NGC 2264 star-forming region with optical CoRoT light curves exhibiting short-duration, shallow periodic flux dips. All of these stars have infrared excesses that are consistent with their having inner disk walls near the Keplerian co-rotation radius. The repeating photometric dips have FWHMs generally less than 1 day, depths almost always less than 15%, and periods (3 < P < 11 days) consistent with dust near the Keplerian co-rotation period. The flux dips vary considerably in their depth from epoch to epoch, but usually persist for several weeks and, in two cases, were present in data collected in successive years. For several of these stars, we also measure the photospheric rotation period and find that the rotation and dip periods are the same, as predicted by standard "disk-locking" models. We attribute these flux dips to clumps of material in or near the inner disk wall, passing through our line of sight to the stellar photosphere. In some cases, these dips are also present in simultaneous Spitzer IRAC light curves at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. We characterize the properties of these dips, and compare the stars with light curves exhibiting this behavior to other classes of YSOs in NGC 2264. A number of physical mechanisms could locally increase the dust scale height near the inner disk wall, and we discuss several of those mechanisms; the most plausible mechanisms are either a disk warp due to interaction with the stellar magnetic field or dust entrained in funnel-flow accretion columns arising near the inner disk wall.


As classifications datasets progressively get larger in terms of label space and number of examples, annotating them with all labels becomes non-trivial and expensive task. For example, annotating the entire OpenImage test set [32] can cost $6.5M. Hence, in current large-scale benchmarks such as OpenImages [32] and LVIS [16], less than 1% of the labels are annotated across all images. Standard classification models are trained in a manner where these un-annotated labels are ignored. Ignoring these un-annotated labels result in loss of supervisory signal which reduces the performance of the classification models. Instead, in this paper, we exploit relationships among images and labels to derive more supervisory signal from the un-annotated labels. We study the effectiveness of our approach across several multi-label computer vision benchmarks, such as CIFAR100 [31], MSCOCO panoptic segmentation [27], OpenImage [32] and LVIS [16] datasets. Our approach can outperform baselines by a margin of 2-10% across all the datasets on mean average precision (mAP) and mean F1 metrics.


We introduce two approaches for conducting efficient Bayesian inference in stochastic simulators containing nested stochastic sub-procedures, i.e., internal procedures for which the density cannot be calculated directly such as rejection sampling loops. The resulting class of simulators are used extensively throughout the sciences and can be interpreted as probabilistic generative models. However, drawing inferences from them poses a substantial challenge due to the inability to evaluate even their unnormalised density, preventing the use of many standard inference procedures like Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). To address this, we introduce inference algorithms based on a two-step approach that first approximates the conditional densities of the individual sub-procedures, before using these approximations to run MCMC methods on the full program. Because the sub-procedures can be dealt with separately and are lower-dimensional than that of the overall problem, this two-step process allows them to be isolated and thus be tractably dealt with, without placing restrictions on the overall dimensionality of the problem. We demonstrate the utility of our approach on a simple, artificially constructed simulator.


This paper examines the relationship between xenophobia and several social-economic factors, focusing on education, in Botswana. Education has moderating influence on discriminatory attitudes and behavior. The academia is vulnerable to discriminatory influences where existing ideas may be deemed threatened by some people. Education should improve the intellectual, social and economic wellbeing of individuals. The results of our study indicate that it has not been quite the case in Botswana. This study is based on primary data from Southern African Migration Project (SAMP), a nationally representative random sample survey of three urban areas (Gaborone, Francistown and Kanye) in June and July 2001. Our results support the theory that education moderates xenophobia. Adjusted odds ratios indicate that people with primary and secondary education were four and two times, respectively, as likely to be xenophobic than those with tertiary education [OR & 95% CI: 4.68(2.60, 8.43); 2.08(1.31, 3.32)]. There was no significant difference between the levels of xenophobia of city and rural dwellers. Policies to roll back xenophobia should include introduction of courses that focus on multicultural liberal democracy.


Piecewise mixed-effects models are useful for analyzing longitudinal educational and psychological data sets to model segmented change over time. These models offer an attractive alternative to commonly used quadratic and higher-order polynomial models because the coefficients obtained from fitting the model have meaningful substantive interpretation. The current study thus focuses on the estimation of piecewise mixed-effects model with unknown random change points using maximum likelihood (ML) as described in Du Toit and Cudeck (2009). Previous simulation work (Wang & McArdle, 2008) showed that Bayesian estimation produced reliable parameter estimates for the piecewise model in comparison to frequentist procedures (i.e., first-order Taylor expansion and the adaptive Gaussian quadrature) across all simulation conditions. In the current article a small Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to assess the performance of the ML approach, a frequentist procedure, and the Bayesian approach for fitting linear–linear piecewise mixed-effects model. The obtained findings show that ML estimation approach produces reliable and accurate estimates under the conditions of small residual variance of the observed variables, and that the size of the residual variance had the most impact on the quality of model parameter estimates. Second, neither ML nor Bayesian estimation procedures performed well under all manipulated conditions with respect to the accuracy and precision of the estimated model parameters.


This paper deals with an analysis of cartographical studies, the real estate cadastre, and its practical implementation, as well as the introduction of cartography into different education modules in university-level studies in Montenegro. There is a discussion of the development, production, and creativity in the fields of cartography and real estate cadastre over time, cartographical projection, scientific results, and recent changes such as advanced computer- and satellite-based technologies, GIS, cartographical visualization, and digital cartography. The impact of these changes on cartographical studies at the University of Montenegro is considered. Particular attention is given to analyses of cartography and the cadastre in institutions, and their connection with the development of cartography teaching modules of Geography, Geodesy and Geoinformatics at the University of Montenegro. The integrated analysis also covers the results of the questionnaire and the significance of the geo-topographical and cartographical heritage of Montenegro, with the aim of carrying these out. It can be seen that the tasks solved by using maps have tended to become more complex and that the cartographical methods employed in this have been always directed towards Montenegro's most prominent and most urgent problems, including those that appear in the area of education.


The imaging characteristics of diagnostic x-ray systems are dependent, in part, upon the size, shape, and intensity distribution of the x-ray source. These properties, however, vary with such parameters as kVp (tube mA (tube current), and, because of the steep anode face, field position. We have investigated the voltage), characterization of the focal spot using the image of a random array of small radiopaque objects. The Fourier transform of this image is, to a good approximation, the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the focal spot. We have compared the accuracy and reliability of this technique with both pinhole and star imaging Focal spot variations with kVp, mA, and field position have been measured, and the use of this techniques. technique with microfocus x-ray sources has been demonstrated.


The parcelization of exurban landscapes creates a matrix of intermediately sized and privately managed land parcels, presenting a unique challenge to wildlife managers. During 2010–2011, we studied the correlates between land parcelization, deer density, and hunting patterns in exurban northwestern Virginia, USA. We estimated October deer densities (no. deer/km2) and conducted landowner surveys of deer harvest in 13 study blocks of mean size 34.8 km2. The extent of parcelization varied between study blocks; mean parcel size ranged from 2.00 ha to 26.12 ha. We used distance-sampling techniques to survey pre-harvest deer densities in each section, with estimated densities ranging from 9.4 deer/km2 to 30.1 deer/km2. We quantified deer harvest through calculations of harvest density and the percentage of land hunted. As parcel size increased, the percentage of land hunted increased. Harvest densities reported by landowners, however, remained constant with the exception of 2.0–4.0-ha parcels, which had higher harvest densities than 60.8–161.8-ha parcels. We used linear regression analysis to model the response of deer density (natural log) to landscape metrics, and the best-fit model predicted deer density from mean parcel size with equivalent models including habitat with mean parcel size. Our results suggest that development processes that subdivide rural lands can significantly increase deer populations. The mechanism for this increase may be restricted hunter access to smaller property parcels and-or increased probability of deer refuges nearby. © 2013 The Wildlife Society.


Core HU87033-015, an 11-m-long giant piston core from the western end of Karlsefni Trough, was taken only 25 km from the coast of northernmost Labrador. The regional acoustic framework was established via a high-resolution, deep-towed (Huntec DTS) seismic survey. We recognized four acoustic facies that are associated with designated and recovered major lithologic units. The ages of these units were determined from 13 accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C dates from marine biogenic carbonates. These results suggest that glacial ice was present on the shelf from at least the mid-Wisconsinan and that the basal sequence contains reworked glacial-marine diamicton. Furthermore, our data provide the first evidence that the northern Labrador inner shelf was ice free by ca. 11 14 C ka. The bulk of the postglacial deposition was around 8.2 ka and consists of increased detrital carbonate deposition. The deposition of this detrital carbonate is age equivalent with DC-0 on the southeastern Baffin Shelf and in the North Atlantic.


The operating principle of and the calculating method of the key technology parameters of precise system for mixing the protecting gas of magnesium-Alloy smelting are described. This system adopts the "static-pressure mixing" technology, which has two gas vessels to provide the gas in turn. This technology, compared to the current "dynamic throttling commingle " technology, enjoys higher precision of mixing and stability of gas-providing. The economic precision of the mixing is 0.1 percent, which can obviously reduce of the commingling-ratio density of the valid elemental gas' component and the operating cost of the equipment on the basis of ensuring the safety of segregation the oxygen during the magnesium- alloy smelting.


Here we propose a new methodology for calculating the Standardized Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (SEDI) at the global scale using the difference between the actual evapotranspiration (ET) and the atmospheric evaporative demand (AED). ET was estimated by the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) v3a. The SEDI has been proposed recently to quantify drought severity based on the difference between actual evapotranspiration (ET) and the atmospheric evaporative demand (AED). Our findings demonstrate that, regardless of the AED dataset used for calculations, a log-logistic distribution is needed in order to fit the ED time series. As such, in many regions worldwide, the SEDI is insensitive to the AED method used for calculation. The SEDI showed significant correlations with the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) across a wide range of regions, particularly for short SPEI time-scales. Overall, while this work provides a robust approach for calculating spatially and temporally comparable SEDI estimates, regardless of the climate region and land surface conditions, further studies remain needed to assess the performance and the applicability of the SEDI to quantify drought severity across varying crop and natural vegetation areas.


Rapid population growth observed in the Cote d'Ivoire is associated with rapid urbanization. This urban growth results in demand growth in food products. In this context, the Urban Agriculture for its specialization in production of fruits and vegetables generate a lot of interest. The purpose of this study is then to assess the performance of this agriculture and identify potential determinants of its technical efficiency. The estimate of the production frontier has found that the technical efficiency of producers is between 21% and 97% with an average technical efficiency of 76%. The analysis of the determinants of the efficiency showed that the legal status of the occupied space, the level of education, the quality of irrigation water, the access to credit and the nature of the main activity impact significantly on the technical efficiency. The improving of urban farmers' efficiency means strengthening training and technical support to producers for rational use of space and practices and by integrating this type of activity in development plans of this district.


The Manual to Online Public Records is the master guide to locating government and private online sources of public records and public information. Provides detailed profiles on public record websites for all 50 states including county, state, and federal government agencies and companies with gateway sites. An informative and descriptive How-To manual that educates researchers on the complexities of public record research.


This paper develops new, dynamic and conditional versions of Vasicek's widely used single factor, default rate distribution. We employ our new class of distributions in modelling US bank loan losses. We analyze the implications for risk, capital, diversiflcation and cyclical efiects in loan portfolios and investigate how observed macroeconomic factors such as shocks to industrial production and unemployment afiect the distribution of credit losses. A strength of our approach is the simplicity with which one may incorporate rich patterns of autocorrelation and dependence on observable factors into default rate distributions.


In this master thesis, an information system is described that integrates news articles from
various online sources, focusing on RSS news feeds, in the food industry domain. The
research was initially triggered by the consultancy company Infortellence, which is active in
this domain. The business goal was stated as:
To aggregate food-industry related news articles and provide a selection of this news tailored
to a customer's interest, resulting in more interest in other Infortellence services.
The system makes use of an ontology which contains terms from the food domain, to
automatically expand user queries with the aim to improve relevancy of the results to the user.
Thus, the system has been labelled FORCA – Food Ontology-driven RSS Content Aggregator.
In addition, the system enabled users to create profiles of their interest. These provide direct
access to the latest news articles matching the profile.
To measure relevancy, several experiments were done which measured the information
retrieval (IR) metrics of recall (percentage of all relevant articles that were retrieved) and
precision (percentage of relevant articles among the ones that were retrieved). Relevancy was
established through use of a gold standard: a domain expert evaluated all articles in the corpus
(around 1600) for their relevancy to each of the 14 test queries.
The first round of experiments did not use any other IR techniques such as stemming. In the
second round of experiments, stemming was implemented. This was found to grant a 6%
increase in recall, with precision remaining stable. However, automatic expansion of queries
with the ontology was found not to be beneficial overall. Narrower terms and synonyms were
found to have little effect. Related terms and broader terms resulted in a noticeable increase in
recall, but the loss in precision resulted in a lower overall performance.
Further research could focus on using a larger document corpus with a larger set of queries, or
using a pre-classified corpus from a large commercial database. This would take away some
of the subjectivity of relying on a single domain expert to do the gold standard classification.
Another avenue is to focus on different, more user-focused metrics. The system was found to
have value in saving time and effort to obtain information for its users. This could be further
confirmed with research using representative domain users to trial the system, and evaluate it
with a standardized questionnaire.
Finally, the FORCA system and methodology can be viewed as a business model that can be
applied to other companies as well. The idea of generating interest through news aggregation
ties in most closely with information service-related companies, such as consultancy
companies. However, it can provide value to any company interested in attracting more
visitors to their corporate website and learning more about their existing or potential
customers.


Agricultural production in Malaysia has been continually growing. Most of the agricultural waste has been discarded or burnt on land; however, these agricultural wastes can serve as a feedstock for biochar production, which contributes an insignificant net amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere after soil incorporation. Three kinds of primary biochar were used in this study: empty fruit bunch biochar (EFB), wood biochar (WB), and rice husk biochar (RHB). EFB and WB were produced by slow pyrolysis, whereas RHB was produced by gasification. This study aimed to understand how pyrolysis technologies of native feedstocks impact the chemical characteristics and short-term soil stability of biochar. The kinetic parameters of C-mineralization suggested a tri-phasic C-mineralization process (labile, unstable, and recalcitrant carbon). The estimates indicated the existence of a very labile C-fraction in RHB with a very small decay constant K3. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction showed the three phases of the biochar, from the microcrystalline C of the labile fraction to the largely amorphous intermediate C of the unstable fraction, and lastly the formation of turbostratic crystallite C in the recalcitrant fraction. It has been concluded that RHB had a higher degree of aromaticity and greater stability, and therefore should be more recalcitrant to biological and chemical degradation.


The human body is what we come to know the world by. Everything is relative. Using a body centred approach, the relationships held between the Body, Clothing and Architecture are explored through the identification of Skin, Intimacy and Boundary. Beginning with the layers and skins closest to the body, a process of building around and working out is used to establish an understanding of the relationships held between the three subjects. This methodological approach is used throughout the thesis, both theoretically and by design. The body is approached from a phenomenological perspective where experiential design methodologies are employed with the intent of altering the body's understanding of itself; its lived experience, embodied cognition and sensory perception. Photographic images capture experiential design moments, translating and expressing the theories being discussed throughout. The architectural conditions studied are contained within the parameters of the domestic. This environment represents the most intimate architectural expression of the self, grounding the body in context. A 1:1 scale structural model identifies the potentials of what contemporary architecture can be and how it can act on and with the body to alter the lived experience. It generates dynamic spatial conditions, demonstrating architectures ability to engage with the body. The interactive spatial changes experienced stimulate both physical and psychological shifts and as a result generate new embodied experiences. As the body is used to ground the generative design processes, clothing and architecture are bought together through the amalgamation of skin, intimacy and boundary, resulting in the production of the Embodied Architecture structure. The theoretical basis for the production of this architectural intervention seeks to be pushed further, challenging contemporary architecture to engage the body and enrich the lived experience.


As restricted by airplane R&D circle, aircraft tooling design is desired to comply with airplane product design and subsequent portions. However, cooperative design for aircraft tooling, especially large-sized one, is difficult and the reasons are as follows: ①The quantity for Aircraft tooling parts is enormously large, the size is large, and the structure is complex. ②Tooling design procedure is complicated with many portions to be coordinated. ③Airplane product amendments are frequent and hard to trace. Aircraft tooling design tends to proceed without effective mechanism to evaluate and optimize manufacturing process, scheduling and etc. With these difficulties considered, an aircraft tooling cooperative design model based on Neuron-Endocrine-Immunity working principle is presented in this paper. Resorting to shared chemical information molecules, Neuron-Endocrine-Immunity system forms an extensive and complicated regulating network which regulates all cells and tissues in human body. Referring to this principle, aircraft tooling design system involves controller and controlled objects. With adaptive and self-organized tooling design procedure, rapid adjustment or reconfiguration can be realized. Meanwhile, the feasibility and validity of adjusting task plans and tooling design schedules are ensured. To implement this model, a multi-agent-based framework for aircraft tooling cooperative design is proposed. This framework incorporates PDM and united structure for effective collaboration in terms of unified data sharing, convenient tool wrapping and decentralized control. A pilot system has been developed and testified in an aircraft manufacturing enterprise, thus lessening repetitive modifying workload, ensuring design quality and project schedule.


During the past two decades, in particular the past decade, the construction of hydropower and power grid was under rapid development stage. It is foreseeable that the same rate of development will be maintained in the next decade. The installed generation capacity of hydropower in China has now surpassed 200GW and ranks first in the world.The rate of expansion and scales of construction are very rare in the world history. The operation and management of large-scale hydropower systems have become one of significant factors in constraining the security and economic operation of power grid in China. With the appearance of huge hydropower plants in the southern region of China, the large-scale hydropower transmission with multi-level regulation, the multiple vibration zones for plants with huge capacity and high head, peak regulation for trans-provincial and trans-region multi-power grids, aggravation of influence of extreme climate on operation of hydropower, the solution efficiency and practicality of hydropower system, etc, are fresh difficulties which pose a real challenge to the modelers and have a great impact on hydropower scheduling and operations. There are needs for finding their solutions. This article introduces the current status of construction and development of hydropower in China, analyzes the new challenges that it faces, highlights the key scientific and technological issues that need to be solved, and pinpoints that the solution of these problems will be the key to the realization of energy saving and emission reduction by China in 2020.


Background: Percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation is an analgesic technique involving the percutaneous implantation of a lead followed by the delivery of electric current using an external pulse generator. Percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation has been used extensively for chronic pain, but only uncontrolled series have been published for acute postoperative pain. The current multicenter study was undertaken to (1) determine the feasibility and optimize the protocol for a subsequent clinical trial and (2) estimate the treatment effect of percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation on postoperative pain and opioid consumption. Methods: Preoperatively, an electrical lead was percutaneously implanted to target the sciatic nerve for major foot/ankle surgery (e.g., hallux valgus correction), the femoral nerve for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, or the brachial plexus for rotator cuff repair, followed by a single injection of long-acting local anesthetic along the same nerve/plexus. Postoperatively, participants were randomized to 14 days of either electrical stimulation (n = 32) or sham stimulation (n = 34) using an external pulse generator in a double-masked fashion. The dual primary treatment effect outcome measures were (1) cumulative opioid consumption (in oral morphine equivalents) and (2) mean values of the "average" daily pain scores measured on the 0 to 10 Numeric Rating Scale within the first 7 postoperative days. Results: During the first 7 postoperative days, opioid consumption in participants given active stimulation was a median (interquartile range) of 5 mg (0 to 30) versus 48 mg (25 to 90) in patients given sham treatment (ratio of geometric means, 0.20 [97.5% CI, 0.07 to 0.57]; P < 0.001). During this same period, the average pain intensity in patients given active stimulation was a mean ± SD of 1.1 ± 1.1 versus 3.1 ± 1.7 in those given sham (difference, −1.8 [97.5% CI, −2.6 to −0.9]; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation reduced pain scores and opioid requirements free of systemic side effects during at least the initial week after ambulatory orthopedic surgery. The use of active versus sham percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation was associated with a reduction in pain scores and opioid consumption in the first 7 days after upper and lower extremity surgery. Peripheral nerve stimulation may also reduce pain's interference with physical and emotional functioning with few side effects. Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.


Localization is one of the most important issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). A lot of effort has been devoted to this issue which can be broadly classified into two categories: range-based schemes and range-free schemes. This paper proposes a range-free localization scheme by utilizing mobile anchors. Each mobile anchor is assumed to be able to know its current position with specific hardware such as GPS. It moves in the sensor field and periodically broadcasts its current position. In the proposed mechanism, we refer to the circle centered at an unknown node, with a radius equal to the maximum radio communication distance of the unknown node, as the sensing circle of the unknown node. Through the beacon messages broadcasted from the mobile anchors, several beacon points whose locations are approximately on this sensing circle of an unknown node can be derived. These points are called reference points of this sensing circle, and through them the estimated location of the center of the sensing circle can be easily computed via the MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) algorithm. Simulations of the proposed scheme are conducted with Matlab. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms other range-free mechanisms in terms of better location accuracy and less energy consumption for the mobile anchors.


Hexagonal virus-like particles (VLPs) measuring 45 nm across were detected in mycelial extracts from Trichothecium roseum Himachal strain, the source fungus for the production of T-poly (Trichothecium polysaccharide), a known inhibitor of plant viruses. VLPs were found to contain double-stranded RNA (ds RNA) and the purified ds RNA was capable of inhibiting tobacco mosaic virus infection in Nicotiana glutinosa plants. Active preparations of T-poly were found to contain traces of ds RNA, probably of mycoviral origin.


Traditional time-cost trade-off analysis assumes that the time and cost of an option within an activity are deterministic. However, in reality the time and cost are uncertain. Therefore, in analyzing the time-cost trade-off problem, uncertainties should be considered when minimizing project duration or cost. Simulation techniques are useful for analyzing stochastic effects, but a general strategy/algorithm is needed to guide the analysis to obtain optimal solutions. This paper presents a hybrid approach that combines simulation techniques and genetic algorithms to solve the time-cost trade-off problem under uncertainty. The results show that genetic algorithms can be integrated with simulation techniques to provide an efficient and practical means of obtaining optimal project schedules while assessing the associated risks in terms of time and cost of a construction project. This new approach provides construction engineers with a new way of analyzing construction time/cost decisions in a more realistic manner. Historical time/cost data and available options to complete a project can be modeled, so that construction engineers can identify the best strategies to take to complete the project at minimum time and cost. Also, what-if scenarios can be explored to decide the desired/optimal time and/or cost in planning and executing project activities.