Object detection and classification have countless applications in human–robot interacting systems. It is a necessary skill for autonomous robots that perform tasks in household scenarios. Despite the great advances in deep learning and computer vision, social robots performing non-trivial tasks usually spend most of their time finding and modeling objects. Working in real scenarios means dealing with constant environment changes and relatively low-quality sensor data due to the distance at which objects are often found. Ambient intelligence systems equipped with different sensors can also benefit from the ability to find objects, enabling them to inform humans about their location. For these applications to succeed, systems need to detect the objects that may potentially contain other objects, working with relatively low-resolution sensor data. A passive learning architecture for sensors has been designed in order to take advantage of multimodal information, obtained using an RGB-D camera and trained semantic language models. The main contribution of the architecture lies in the improvement of the performance of the sensor under conditions of low resolution and high light variations using a combination of image labeling and word semantics. The tests performed on each of the stages of the architecture compare this solution with current research labeling techniques for the application of an autonomous social robot working in an apartment. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed sensor architecture outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.


The production of virus-induced proteins in chicken embryo fibroblast cells infected with a herpesvirus of turkeys was studied. It was found that glycoproteins isolated from membrane-rich fractions of infected cells by affinity chromatography using concanavalin A induced neutralizing and precipitating antibody in rabbits and chickens. After analytical electrophoresis, such isolates were found to contain three polypeptide bands of between 100 x 10(3) and 120 x 10(3) molecular weight not present in glycoprotein extracts of uninfected cells, and these polypeptides were further purified by preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Inoculation of chickens with purified material also resulted in the production of precipitating and neutralizing antibody, showing that these high-molecular-weight polypeptides play a role in the humoral immunity to Marek's disease. Challenge of these chickens with virulent Marek's disease virus revealed that a partial protection was afforded by the inoculated glycoproteins.


Two elements can be seen to evolve progressively with globalization: political risk and mega projects. Although a fair amount of research has been carried out in regards to political risk and mega projects as separate units of investigation, few studies have attempted to combine the two. This thesis fills a void in the existing literature by providing a specialized approach to political risk, focusing on political risk of oil and gas mega projects in particular. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of political risk in developing countries, the investigation consists of three constituent parts: a descriptive empirical analysis of 90 cases of political risk between 1998 and 2005; a comparative analysis with 240 cases of political risk across all affected industries within that same period; and three case studies. My intention is to illustrate the conceptual framework and to establish the causal mechanism at play. The findings of this text highlight the need for a more thorough and current political risk- and mega project theory, one which incorporates the important aspect of globalization and consequently sees political risk as a multidimensional phenomenon. The findings support the relevance of the obsolescing bargain mechanism, challenge the proposed significance of non-governmental activism and environmental issues, and, perhaps most decisively, accentuate the importance of the need of a social license to operate.


: There are, of course, many disorders other than those discussed here that have distinctive orofacial findings. The conditions discussed in this paper were chosen to illustrate the importance of recognizing that an abnormality of teeth exists. In many multisystem syndromes a correct diagnosis depends on the type of dental involvement. For the dentist who is not a geneticist, or the geneticist who is not a dentist, it is important to recognize that something is "different" and to refer for a definitive diagnosis and comprehensive treatment plan. It is often not what we see and know but what we don't see and don't know that is important.


In vivo, during mechanical loading, articular cartilage is exposed to a complex biophysical environment. These biophysical and biochemical concepts have not yet been fully understood due to intricate combination of direct, shear and tensile compressive strains on articular cartilage. Mechanical forces and deformations are sensed by cells and turned into biochemical signals; which evolution is essential in regulating chondrocyte function; both in metabolic and catabolic modus operandi. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of biaxial loading on chondrocytes. This thesis will also describe the strain rate influence of biaxial loading on chondrocytes in 3D agarose scaffold in different types of waveform. Prior to the core studies, an optimized protocol to harvest the highest numbers of viable cells was obtained. These allow the preparation of a sufficient quantity of cells for high seeding density, which in turn promotes the expression of normal chondrocytic phenotype and facilitates cartilage repair. This study modulated parameters such as collagenase type, enzymatic duration and collagenases" concentration in order to obtain the highest cell yield and viability. From this study, maximum cell yield was harvested from the two-step digestion with 1-hour digestion of protease and 16-hour in collagenase type-II, without jeopardizing their viability. Cell yield obtained with this protocol was 14 million cells per ml (±0.41% SEM) and cell viability of 97.5% (±0.19% SEM).
Consequently, obtained chondrocytes were seeded in 4% three-dimensional agarose constructs. Seeded constructs were exposed to cyclic loading of 10% direct compressive and/nor 1% shear strain(s) to see the effect of biaxial and uniaxial loadings. A novel-designed bioreactor was used to deliver the loads. The load was delivered for two 12
hours-blocks, at a frequency of 1Hz, with 12 hours resting period in the middle. The incubator-housed bioreactor is used to give various types of waveforms to the constructs. The suspension was analyzed for DNA content using Hoechst 33258 dye with calf thymus DNA as a standard. GAG was measured with DMB assays and chondroitin-4-sulphate was used as the reference solution. The need for pre-culturing before exposure to biaxial loading was also examined. Predominantly, chondrocytes favoured to be pre-cultured for 24 hours upon seeding before being subjected to any load and prefer biaxial loading to increase GAG levels. Biaxial loading shows stimulatory effect on matrix synthesis with 1.5-fold increase in GAG production of chondrocytes upon being exposed to biaxial loading vs. uniaxial loading. Nevertheless, chondrocytes seem to favour for sinusoidal loading when it comes to proteoglycans synthesis.
This study has moved research into the effects of mechanical loading on cartilage regeneration a step forward. Due to the complex structure of cartilage – anisotropy and heterogeneity, articular cartilage subjected to mechanical loading has been shown to activate multiple regulatory pathways; upstream signalling, transcription, post-translational modification and vesicular transport. Mechanical loading such as simultaneous matrix stretch and compression facilitates transportation of molecules and nutrients. Signalling mechanisms due to cyclic loading involve the actin cytoskeleton, stretch-activated ion channels and activation of tyrosine kinase.


The efficiency of fertilizer N is usually low when potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) are grown on irrigated sands, because of rapid leaching of NO₃. The objective of this research was to determine if optimum levels of N might be maintained throughout the growing season by delaying nitrification with a nitrification inhibitor, Nitrapyrin [2-chloro-6-(trichloromethyl)pyridine] (NI). This method would increase fertilizer N efficiency and also reduce the potential for groundwater contamination. Several field experiments were conducted on a Plainfield loamy sand (Typic Udipsamment; sandy, mixed, mesic) involving various N sources, rates, and times of application with and without NI. Potato tuber yield and the forms and distribution of N in and below the fertilizer bands were determined. Nitrapyrin extended the persistence of applied NH4 in all experiments, but inhibition of nitrification was of relatively short duration. Nitrapyrin persistence was likely reduced by the more rapid volatilization and hydrolysis in sandy soils. Further, the effectiveness of NI was likely limited by rapid leaching of NH₄ out of the NI-treated zone. Application of NI reduced both total tuber yield and the proportion of marketable tubers. The greatest reductions were found on treatments receiving NI both at planting and at sidedress. The soil sampling data showed that NI maintained a much higher NH₄-N/NO₃-N ratio than comparable non-NI treatments. It appears that the predominance of NH₄-N interfered with plant metabolism so that both yield and normal development of tubers were impaired.


With the objective of identifying candidate tumor suppressor genes, we used fluorescence in situ hybridization to map leukemia-related deletions of the long arm of chromosome 6 (6q). Twenty of 24 deletions overlapped to define a 4.8-Mb region of minimal deletion between markers D6S1510 and D6S1692 within chromosome 6 band q16. Using reverse transcriptionPCR, we found evidence of expression in hematopoietic cells for 3 of 15 genes in the region (GRIK2, C6orf111, and CCNC). Comparison between our own and published deletion data singled out GRIK2 as the gene most frequently affected by deletions of 6q in acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Sequence analysis of GRIK2 in 14 ALL cases carrying heterozygous 6q deletions revealed a constitutional and paternally inherited C to G substitution in exon 6 encoding for an amino acid change in one patient. The substitution was absent among 232 normal alleles tested, leaving open the possibility that heterozygous carriers of such mutations may be susceptible to ALL. Although low in all normal hematopoietic tissues, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR showed higher baseline GRIK2 expression in thymus and T cells than other lineages. Among T-cell ALL patients, 6q deletion was associated with a statistically significant reduction in GRIK2 expression (P 0.0001). By contrast, elevated GRIK2 expression was measured in the myelomonocytic line THP-1 and in one patient with common ALL. Finally, we detected significant levels of GRIK2 expression in prostate, kidney, trachea, and lung, raising the possibility that this gene may be protective against multiple tumor types.


An approach is proposed for incorporating the variations in timber growth and yield due to climate change uncertainty into the forest harvesting decision process. A range of possible climate scenarios are transformed by a forest growth and yield model into tree growth scenarios, which in turn are integrated into a multistage stochastic model that determines the timber cut in each future period so as to maximize net present value over the planning horizon. For comparison purposes, a deterministic model using a single average climate scenario is also developed. The performance of the deterministic and stochastic formulations are tested in a case study of a medium-term forest planning problem for a Eucalyptus forest in Portugal where climate change is expected to severely impact production in the coming years. Experiments conducted using 32 climate scenarios demonstrate the stochastic model's superior results in terms of present value, particularly in cases of relatively high minimum timber demand. The model...


Although there is continuing progress in the use of ET for environmental management, there is no clear direction that one can establish in terms of its future. Directional change occurs as different models are implemented and evaluated under changing technological and cultural circumstances. If the emphasis will be on international emission trading or CDM, a thorough review of past Joint Implementation efforts should be undertaken. There is no doubt that lessons gained can shape up the trading system. If the focus is to be on domestic trading of selected emissions, then capacity building and further pilot trading should be pursued. The promotion of ET for environmental management is consistent with the broad development strategies adopted by many developing countries in protecting the environment. It is important that the governments provide policy support through studies that assess experiences in ET and identify the positive and negative aspects of implementation, and assist in capacity building in terms of training programs, human resource development, and institutional strengthening. It is also important to promote regional cooperation by exploring potential for CDM and related activities of various international protocols. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v3i0.3491 SJAE 2000; 3(1): 71-92


A theoretical model was developed to describe the bending behaviour and property of nonwovens with two-dimensional structure. The bending and tensional behaviours of single fibre with and without slippage in a bent fabric were analyzed. The method determining the neutral plane of bent nonwovens and the bending rigidity of fabrics with general two-dimensional structure were developed, incorporating fibre orientation distribution, number of fibres, fibre original position before bending and the Poisson's ratio of the fabric. The analyses also give the fibre orientations that lead to the maximum and minimum contributions to the bending rigidity of the nonwovens in laminate and sandwich structures


Over the past decades, the number of disasters has been on the rise, including earthquakes, war, flood and other incidents that cause destruction of society, such as education and health services. Forecasts show that over the next 50 years, natural and manmade disasters are expected to increase five-folds both in the number and impact. Therefore, there is a need for effective and efficient disaster support actions during emergencies. This compels humanitarian organizations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their approaches and facilitate decision making in resolving such complicated problems characterized by numerous parameters. Besides, humanitarian organizations face situations with multiple critical events, inadequate funding, limited time to plan and react, and operating in increasingly challenging circumstances. Useful approaches for tackling problems in such dynamic conditions require methods and tools that take into account uncertainty and enable managers to evaluate the dynamic complexity of such systems, to facilitate decision making. Among the large amount of decision-aid tools for humanitarian organizations, System Dynamic (SD) is a method used for the evaluation of complex system behavior and for presenting the effect of decisions over time in an easy-to-use model. This method has been applied in humanitarian problems, and this paper aims to present a review of the most relevant humanitarian publications associated with system dynamics. This literature review is a structured review of the papers published since 2003 onwards. The finding of this research can be used to facilitate further research in developing the system dynamic methodology for humanitarian organizations and to present the essential requirement of SD tools for modeling complex environments.


For the first time, the performance impact of (110) silicon substrates on high-k + metal gate strained 45 nm node NMOS and PMOS devices is presented. Record PMOS drive currents of 1.2 mA/um at 1.0 V and 100 nA/um Ioff are reported. It will be demonstrated that 2D short channel effects strongly mitigate the negative impact of (110) substrates on NMOS performance. Narrow width (110) device performance is shown and compared to (100) for the first time. Device reliability is also reported showing no fundamental issue for (110) substrates.


Mastocytosis is a rare disease characterized by abnormal expansion and accumulation of tissue mast cells (MC) in one or multiple organs. In most adult patients, systemic mastocytosis (SM) is diagnosed. Based on his- topathological findings and organ damage, SM is divided into indolent SM (ISM), smoldering SM (SSM), SM with an associated hematologic non-MC-lineage disease (SM-AHNMD), aggressive SM (ASM), and MC leukemia (MCL). The clinical course and prognosis vary greatly among these groups of patients. In all variants of SM and most patients, neoplastic cells display the KIT mutation D816V. This suggests that additional KIT-independent molecular defects cause progression. Indeed, additional oncogenic lesions, including RAS- and TET2 mutations, have recently been identified in advanced SM. In patients with SM-AHNMD, such additional lesions are often detectable in the 'AHNMD- component' of the disease. Clinically relevant symptoms of SM result from i) malignant MC infiltration and the sub - sequent organ damage seen in advanced SM and/or ii) the release of pro-inflammatory and vasoactive mediators from MC, found in all disease-variants. Therapy of SM has to be adjusted to the individual situation in each patient. In ISM, the aim is to control mediator release and mediator effects. In advanced SM, a major goal is to control MC expansion by using conventional drugs or novel targeted drugs directed against mutant forms of KIT and/or other pro-oncogenic kinase-targets. In rapidly progressing ASM, MCL and drug-resistant AHNMD, chemotherapy and sub- sequent stem cell transplantation has to be considered.


Mizrach analyzes the jump frequency in the MarketABX.HE Index of subprime home equity credit default swaps and CME housing futures. Jumps began to appear prior to 2007. The jumps are more pronounced in housing futures than in the ABX index. He explains nearly 85% of the jumps from news and housing futures.A 20-point slope in the housing futures curve leads to an expected jump of -1.4% in the BBB– ABX index.


Cloud computing has become an emerging standard that brings about various technologies and computing ideas for internet. Massive storage centre are provided by the cloud which can be access easily from any corner of the world and at any time. Problems faced in modern communications are not only just related to security but also concerned with the communication speed and content size, Nowdays network demand exchange of information with more security and reduction in both the data storage and the time for data transmission.The on-demand service provision with utilization of fewer resources of client system benefits the client.This can be realised by adopting an integerated approach using Merkle Hash Tree and RSA algorithm. The proposed storage security scheme also assures data integrity and recovery of data in case of data lose or corruption by providing a recovery system .Thus, the proposed scheme aims at keeping the user data restore.The system reduces the server computation when compared with previous system.


Two experiments investigated temporal bisection in pigeons using a procedure similar to that of Stubbs (1976). This procedure measures the point in time at which the bird switches from the shorter to the longer valued of two fixed-interval reinforcement schedules with a common starting point. The first experiment substantiated previous findings of switching at the geometric mean of the two interval values and strengthened identification of this switching with bisection by eliminating the possibility that the birds simply switched to the longer interval when the shorter one was perceived to have expired. The experiment also extended the range of values for which temporal intervals have been found to be bisected at their geometric mean. A second experiment demonstrated that the usefulness of the present procedure for determining temporal bisection points is limited to cases in which the longer interval is no more than four times the duration of the shorter interval. Greater separation of the two interval durations produced a period of nonresponding during which the location of the switching or bisection point was totally ambiguous.


The paper considers stability analysis of linear time-periodic (LTP) systems based on the dynamic phasor model (DPM). The DPM exploits the periodicity of the system by expanding the system state in a Fourier series over a moving time window. This results in an L 2-equivalent representation in terms of an infinite-dimensional LTI system which describes the evolution of time varying Fourier coefficients. To prove stability, we consider quadratic time-periodic Lyapunov candidates. Using the DPM, the corresponding time-periodic Lyapunov inequality can be stated as a finite dimensional inequality and the Lyapunov function can be found by solving a linear matrix inequality.


The Greater Mekong Sub-region Power Trade Project consists of mainly two construction works. One is the construction of a transmission line of 82km from Ban Hat substation to Stung Treng substation. Responsibility of the Laotian side is the 25.7km distance between Ban Hat Substation and the Lao-Cambodian border. The other construction work is the expansion of the existing Ban Hat Substation to connect the above-mentioned transmission lines. Based on the survey during the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), no people will be resettled. Moreover, no structural assets, spiritual or cultural property will be affected. The main negative aspects will come from some permanent land losses and temporary land occupation. The affected people will be given every opportunity to have redress to their grievances.


High-speed permanent magnet machines are currently being developed for a number of applications including gas-turbine generator sets and machine tools. Due to the high peripheral speed of the rotor and the relatively high conductivity of the magnets used, rotor eddy current loss can be substantial. Quite low levels of loss may present a serious problem if rotor cooling is poor. The accurate calculation of these losses, and appreciation of their dependence on machine parameters, are therefore of great importance for reasons of both efficiency and temperature rise. In this, thesis, a method has been developed to evaluate the asynchronously rotating harmonics with respect to the rotor and to calculate rotor power loss caused by these harmonics. The harmonics are determined by double Fourier analysis of the normal flux density data over the rotor surface. The data is obtained from finite element magnetostatic analysis of the machine at different rotor positions, with all possible harmonic sources present, except rotor induced eddy currents whose effect on harmonics was found to be negligible. Rotor power loss is calculated for each harmonic using a 2D rectilinear current sheet model of the machine. The magnitude of the current sheet, which is placed on the inner surface of a toothless stator, is adjusted to produce the same magnetostatic normal flux density over the rotor surface as that of the corresponding harmonic. The 2D current sheet model does not allow for 3D end effects and magnet segmentation. The accuracy of the analytical rectilinear current sheet model was verified by comparison with a cylindrical FE current sheet model, and by solving a benchmark eddy current problem that can be also solved using FE steady-state AC analysis. The current sheet model was used to calculate rotor loss in a number of generic machines, with two basic types of rotor construction: 1) non-salient rotor with arc shaped surface magnets and 2) salient rotor with chord shaped surface magnets. The results show that rotor loss depends strongly on the ratio of slot opening to slot pitch (s/X.) and on the ratio of total airgap to slot pitch (g/X). For the same fundamental airgap flux density, rotor loss reduces dramatically by increasing airgap length and reducing slot opening. Increasing the number of slots also reduces the loss. The results also show that rotor loss in a generator increases as the power factor moves from lagging to leading due to the armature reaction effect. Using a conducting sleeve, instead of a non-conducting one, with conductivity in the range of practical values, increases rotor losses dramatically. Reducing magnet conductivity reduces rotor loss. Rotor power loss in machines with non-conducting sleeve is concentrated on the surface of the magnet and a small part on the surface of the hub. In machines with chord shaped magnets, the power loss density can be very high in the parts of the steel hub near the intersection of two poles where local total airgap is small. The harmonics caused by inverter switching in a motor or rectifier switching in an alternator can cause a very significant increase in rotor loss, compared to a machine with a sinusoidal mmf. The results also show that the loss depends strongly on the switching strategy, e.g., switching harmonics in 6 step mmf waveform produce 3 times more loss than a 12 step mmf waveform. Although the developed method for calculation of rotor power loss does not take the effect of magnet peripheral discontinuity or segmentation into account, it is clear that segmentation reduces power loss by interrupting the eddy current return path, specially for harmonics with long wavelengths. The effect of segmentation requires further study.


OBJECT
The authors had previously reported on a replication-competent retrovirus (RCR) that has been demonstrated to be stable, capable of effective transduction, and able to prolong survival in an intracranial tumor model in nude mice. The purpose of this study was further investigation of this gene therapy option.

METHODS
The transduction efficiency of RCR in RG2, an immunocompetent intracranial tumor model, was tested in Fischer 344 rats. The immune response to the RCR vector was expressed by the quantification of CD4, CD8, and CD11/b in tumors. The pharmaceutical efficacy of the suicide gene CD in converting prodrug 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was measured using fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance (19F-NMR) spectroscopy. Animal survival data were plotted on Kaplan-Meier survival curves. Finally, the biodistribution of RCR was determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of retroviral env gene. There was no evidence of viral transduction in normal brain cells. Neither severe inflammation nor immunoreaction occurred after intracranial injection of RCR-green fluorescent protein compared with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The 19F-NMR spectroscopy studies demonstrated that RCR-CD was able to convert 5-FC to 5-FU effectively in vitro. The infection of RG2 brain tumors with RCR-CD and their subsequent treatment with 5-FC significantly prolonged survival compared with that in animals with RG2 transduced tumors treated with PBS. In contrast to the nude mouse model, evidence of virus dissemination to the systemic organs after intracranial injection was not detected using RT-PCR.

CONCLUSIONS
The RCR-mediated suicide gene therapy described in this paper effectively transduced malignant gliomas in an immunocompetent in vivo rodent model, prolonging survival, without evidence of severe intracranial inflammation, and without local transduction of normal brain cells or systemic organs.


Generally, blind people use a traditional cane (known as white cane) for moving from one place to another. Although, white cane is the international symbol of blindness, it could not help them to detect place and to avoid obstacles. In this paper, we represent a model of walking stick for blind people. It consists of GPS module, GPS Antenna, Arduino, ultrasonic sensor and buzzer. This stick can detect place and obstacles. Position detection part is done with GPS module and GPS antenna. Ultrasonic sensor is used for detecting obstacles. Here, the buzzer produces two types of sound. When the blind reaches to his destination, buzzer buzzes continuously. When the blind faces any obstacles, buzzer buzzes with interruption. By discovering these two types of sound, blind can be confirmed about his destination and also can avoid obstacles in front of him. The whole system is designed to be small, light and is used in conjunction with the white cane so that it could ensure safety of the blind.


Wave climate change by the end of the 21st century (2075–2100) was investigated using a regional wave climate projection under the RCP 8.5 scenario. The performance of the historical run (1980–2005) in representing the present wave climate was assessed when compared with in situ (e.g., GTS) and remote sensing (i.e., Jason-1) observations and wave hindcasts (e.g., ERA5-hindcast). Compared with significant wave height observations in different subdomains, errors on the order of 20–30% were observed. A Principal Component (PC) analysis showed that the temporal leading modes obtained from in situ data were well correlated (0.9) with those from the historical run. Despite systematic differences (10%), the general features of the present wave climate were captured by the historical run. In the future climate projection, with respect to the historical run, similar wave climate change patterns were observed when considering both the mean and severe wave conditions, which were generally larger during summer. The range of variation in the projected extremes (±10%) was consistent with those observed in previous studies both at the global and regional spatial scales. The most interesting feature was the projected increase in extreme wind speed, surface Stokes drift speed and significant wave height in the Northeast Atlantic. On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the North Sea and the southern part of the Baltic Sea basin, while increased extreme values occurred in the Gulf of Bothnia during winter.


Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a unique morphological appearance, associated coagulopathy and canonical balanced translocation of genetic material between chromosomes 15 and 17. APL was first described as a distinct subtype of AML in 1957 by Dr Leif Hillestad who recognized the pattern of an acute leukemia associated with fibrinolysis, hypofibrinogenemia and catastrophic hemorrhage. In the intervening years, the characteristic morphology of APL has been described fully with both classical hypergranular and variant microgranular forms. Both are characterized by a balanced translocation between the long arms of chromosomes 15 and 17, [t(15;17)(q24;q21)], giving rise to a unique fusion gene PML-RARA and an abnormal chimeric transcription factor (PML-RARA), which disrupts normal myeloid differentiation programs. The success of current treatments for APL is in marked contrast to the vast majority of patients with non-promyelocytic AML. The overall prognosis in non-promyelocytic AML is poor, and although there has been an improvement in overall survival in patients aged <60 years, only 30%–40% of younger patients are still alive 5 years after diagnosis. APL therapy has diverged from standard AML therapy through the empirical discovery of two agents that directly target the molecular basis of the disease. The evolution of treatment over the last 4 decades to include all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide, with chemotherapy limited to patients with high-risk disease, has led to complete remission in 90%–100% of patients in trials and rates of overall survival between 86% and 97%.


Abstract Developmentally programmed genome rearrangement accompanies differentiation of the silent germline micronucleus into the transcriptionally active somatic macronucleus in the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila. Internal eliminated sequences (IES) are excised, followed by rejoining of MAC-destined sequences, while fragmentation occurs at conserved chromosome breakage sequences, generating macronuclear chromosomes. Some macronuclear chromosomes, referred to as non-maintained chromosomes (NMC), are lost soon after differentiation. Large NMC contain genes implicated in development-specific roles. One such gene encodes the domesticated piggyBac transposase TPB6, required for heterochromatin-dependent precise excision of IES residing within exons of functionally important genes. These conserved exonic IES determine alternative transcription products in the developing macronucleus; some even contain free-standing genes. Examples of precise loss of some exonic IES in the micronucleus and retention of others in the macronucleus of related species suggest an evolutionary analogy to introns. Our results reveal that germline-limited sequences can encode genes with specific expression patterns and development-related functions, which may be a recurring theme in eukaryotic organisms experiencing programmed genome rearrangement during germline to soma differentiation.


PURPOSE
Accurate and robust segmentation of the prostate from magnetic resonance (MR) images is extensively applied in many clinical applications in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this study is the development of a robust interactive segmentation method for accurate segmentation of the prostate from MR images.

METHODS
We propose an interactive segmentation method based on a graph convolutional network (GCN) to refine the automatically segmented results. An atrous multiscale convolutional neural network (CNN) encoder is proposed to learn representative features to obtain accurate segmentations. Based on the multiscale feature, a GCN block is presented to predict the prostate contour in both automatic and interactive manners. To preserve the prostate boundary details and effectively train the GCN, a contour matching loss is proposed. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated on 41 in-house MR subjects and 30 PROMISE12 test subjects.

RESULTS
The proposed method yields mean Dice similarity coefficients of 93.8±1.2% and 94.4±1.0% on our in-house and PROMISE12 datasets, respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art segmentation methods.

CONCLUSION
The proposed interactive segmentation method based on the GCN can accurately segment the prostate from MR images. Our method has a variety of applications in prostate cancer imaging.


This paper shows that the method of water and air purification using immobilized cells and enzymes can be applied in regenerative life support systems in a habitable enclosed environment. This method is based on selective and adaptive functions of enzymic systems of microorganisms to assimilate organic components of the medium to be eliminated. Advantages of biocatalysis are low energy requirements and mild temperatures of purification leading to practically complete elimination of the substrate. Due to immobilization, cells and enzymes constitute an independent component which can be added to any continuously operating system of purification without generating a specific interface which is crucially important in microgravity. This allows the process of purification to be controllable. The resulting water and air meet biological requirements because they are formed under the influence of living organisms as in natural biogeocenoses. The production of ecologically pure water and air is highly important for long-duration space missions, especially for flights to Mars.


Soil pest management is particularly complicated, especially in protected crop, because several biotic and abiotic fac- tors may favor the soil pest occurrence and, meantime, can influence the efficacy of plant protection adopted strategies. In the past, several effective active ingredients (e.g. methyl bromide) were available and an "soil adversities eradication" approach was adopted by the growers. More recently, a new "soil adversities managing" approach was proposed due to restriction use of several available active ingredients and thanks to Directive CE128/2009 regarding "sustainable use of plant protection products". This innovative approach suggests to keep the soil adversities infection level below the damage threshold without soil pest eradication. Since 2001, a specific integrated soil pest management program, CleanStart®, has been developed by Certis Europe in order to provide several tools for soil adversities control and to guarantee soil fertility. CleanStart® has been developed thanks a scientific collaboration and information network between Certis and several Universities and Plant Protection Research Centers from several European Countries. The CleanStart® program is based on comprehensive portfolio of chemical and organic plant protection products, including various fumigants. Their integrated use and their combination with different agronomic tools (e.g. solarization) provide to the growers the most innovative pest management program. The CleanStart® program ensures the sustainable use of plant protection products through the promotion of Good Application Practices, technical support to the growers, training to the applicators and Products Stewardship.


The kinetics of kraft lignin (KL) aggregation at alkaline conditions was studied by quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS) and turbidity measurements. Stability ratios (W) for HL were obtained at 70 degreesC and various concentrations of sodium chloride. By analyzing the early-time evolution data of aggregate growth obtained from QELS, fractal dimensions of flocs formed in both reaction-limited cluster-cluster aggregation regimes and diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation regimes were determined. Correlations between the fractal dimension and the W-ratio were found in accordance to recent studies of a system containing monodisperse polystyrene colloids. By cryogenic transmission electron microscopy, the fractality of KL aggregate structures in the system was also shown. It was seen from stability studies of KL solutions that the effects of specific co- and counterions follow the Hofmeister series. From the outcome of the investigation, different modes of aggregation occurring in a KL system are proposed. Starting from the macromolecular state of KL and evolving through larger aggregates, the KL clusters finally exhibit a supramolecular structure similar to what earlier has been proposed for native softwood lignin.


Abstract This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between refugees and development in host economies from a macroeconomic point of view. The results obtained show that this relationship is non-linear. The empirical results demonstrate that refugees have a positive and significant direct effect in high and lower-middle-income countries. A positive and significant indirect effect of refugees through labor force and RD channels is also present in the same groups. In upper-middle-income and low-income countries, the direct effect of refugees is negative and significant. Similarly, the indirect effect of the refugee population on development through labor force channel is also negative and statistically significant. However, the indirect effect of refugees through RD channel is statistically significant only for the low-income country group.


The Split Up project applies knowledge discovery techniques (KDD) to legal domains. Theories of jurisprudence underpin a classification scheme that is used to identify tasks suited to KDD. Theoretical perspectives also guide the selection of cases appropriate for a KDD exercise. Further, jurisprudence underpins strategies for dealing with contradictory data. Argumentation theory is instrumental for representing domain expertise so that the KDD process can be constrained. Specifically, a variant of the argumentation structure proposed by Toulmin is used to decompose tasks into independent sub-tasks in the data transformation phase. This enables a complex KDD exercise to be decomposed into numerous simpler exercises that each require less data and have fewer instances of missing values. The use of the structure also facilitates the development of information systems that integrate multiple reasoning mechanisms such as first order logic, neural networks or fuzzy inferences and provides a convenient structure for the generation of explanations. The viability of this approach was tested with the development of a system that predicts property split outcomes in cases litigated in the Family Court of Australia. The system has been evaluated using a mix of strategies that derive from a framework proposed by Reich.


Now a days the global warming and air pollution are big issues in the world. The 70% of air pollution is due to emissions from an internal combustion engine. The harmful gases like NOX, CO, unburned HC and particulate matter increases the global warming, so catalytic converter plays an vital role in reducing harmful gases, but the presence of catalytic converter increases the exhaust back pressure due to this the volumetric efficiency will decrease and fuel consumption is higher. So analysis of catalytic converter is very important. The rare earth metals now used as catalyst to reduce NOX are costly and rarely available. The scarcity and high demand of present catalyst materials necessitate the need for finding out the alternatives. Among all other particulate filter materials, knitted steel wire mesh material is Change and selected platinum, palladium, and rhodium coated on the surface of ceramic honeycomb structures as filter materials in this paper. Through CFD analysis, various models with different wire mesh grid shapes rectangular, circular, Diamond combinations were simulated using the appropriate boundary conditions. The comparison of back pressure of different catalytic converter models is made in this paper.


A continuous-wave (CW) and actively Q-switched Nd:Lux(x=0.15) Y 1-xVO4 laser was demonstrated for the first time. The maximum CW output power of 9.92 W was obtained, corresponding to an optical conversion efficiency of 52.5% and a slope efficiency of 56.1%. For actively Q-switched operation, a 10.4-ns pulse was attained with the repetition frequency of 10 kHz. Under the same conditions, the pulse energy and the peak power were estimated to be 0.6 mJ and 57.9 kW, respectively.


Climate warming shows great diurnal variations with higher warming rate at nighttime, and consequently causes significant impacts on rice growth and grain yield. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of asymmetric warming (all-day warming, AW; daytime warming from 7:00 to 19:00, DW; and nighttime warming from 19:00 to 7:00, NW; and a control, CK) on rice growth characteristics andyield. Two bucket warming experiments were performed in Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, China under Free Air Temperature Increases (FATI) in 2013 and 2014.< The daily mean temperatures in the rice canopy in the AW, DW and NW plots were 2.0°C, 1.1°C and 1.3°C higher, respectively, than those in the CK plots. Asymmetric warming reduced the maximum tillers and effective tillers in the order CK>DW>NW>AW. In the AW, DW and NW treatments, the effective tillers were decreased by18.57%-37.77% in both years. Asymmetric warming also decreased plant height, the Absolute Growth Rate (AGR), the Soil and Plant Analyzer Development (SPAD) value, the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and the Net Photosynthetic Rate (Pn). The order of the plant height and Pn values were also in the order CK>DW>NW>AW. The warming treatments affect the length of rice growth. The length from the transplanting date to the heading date was shortened by 3.5 days, 2.5 days and 3.0 days on average in the AW, DW and NW plots, respectively, in both years, while the length from the heading date to the maturation date did not show obvious changes. The aboveground biomass in the maturation stage declined by 13.38%, 3.56% and 6.22%, and the grain yield was decreased by 10.07%, 5.06% and 7.89% on average in the AW, DW and NW plots, respectively, in both years. There was a decreasing trend in the panicle number, grain number per panicle and grain filling rate, whereas irregular changes in the 1000-grain weight were observed in the warmed plots. Our results suggested that under the predicted climate warming, rice productivity would be further declined in the Yangtze River Basin.


Sanitation is at the heart of not only environmental security but also food security and health. About 42,000 people die every week due to drinking water polluted with faecal matter. The problem is most acute in India, China, many countries of Africa and a few countries of Latin America. Why is there such a crisis in the toilets market? How much of the present problem is due to a lack of supply and how much is it due to a lack of demand? What is the optimal role of the State, the firms and the NPOs? The present paper attempts to give some insight on the above questions through the case study of the market for toilets for the poor in India. It examines the toilet history and achievements of India, the innovations in the market for toilets targeting the group at the bottom of the income pyramid and the factors that influence the adoption and usage of toilets in an Indian coastal village, in order to infer answers to the above questions.


Background: Crucial gaps persist in knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of adolescent girls that affect anemia and linear growth failure. Objective: To understand the role of KAP as a risk factor of anemia and linear growth problem in adolescent girls. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 335 adolescent girls selected by clustered random sampling. The KAP questionnaire had 18 variables consisting of 9 knowledge, 3 attitude, and 6 practice components. Twelve variables addressed nutrition, dietary diversity, and health environments related to both anemia and stunting. The questionnaire was adapted from the 2014 Food and Agriculture Organization nutrition-related KAP guidelines for anemia. Dietary practice was evaluated from 2-day 24-hour recalls and a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Associations between KAP and anemia, and height-for-age z-score (HAZ), were analyzed using multivariate logistic and linear regression models, respectively. Results: The mean hemoglobin (Hb) level was 119.7 g/L, with 44% of the adolescent girls being anemic (Hb < 120 g/L) and mean height was 151.0 cm with 25% being stunted (HAZ < −2 standard deviation [SD]). The median KAP score was 7 and ranged from 3 to 10. Low to moderate KAP scores were not significantly associated with being anemic (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.26; P = .43), however 1-point KAP score increment was associated with an increase of HAZ by 0.037 SD (P = .012). Conclusions: The KAP related to diet and healthy environments was not associated with anemia prevalence, but was positively associated with increased HAZ among adolescent girls. Strategy to reduce anemia risk in this population should combine KAP improvement with other known effective nutrition interventions.


Habitable buildings can be protected from surface fault rupture by establishing structure "setback zones" similar in purpose to legally mandated zones in California and Utah. But post-earthquake surveys of offset and warped linear cultural features, believed to have been straight prior to the event, demonstrate that potentially damaging inelastic strains or off-fault deformation can extend tens of meters beyond the principal slip zone of strike-slip surface fault ruptures. Setback zones designed to also mitigate off-fault deformation are likely to be prohibitively wide, indicating the need for structural and geotechnical engineering solutions to accommodate the potentially damaging strains within adequate design buffers. This study analyzes nine strike-slip surface fault ruptures between 1906 and 2014 and develops a simplified procedure to quantify off-fault deformation based on earthquake magnitude and distance from the principal slip zone of strike-slip faults.


Previous experiments implicate cholinergic brainstem and spinal systems in the control of locomotion. Our results demonstrate that the endogenous cholinergic propriospinal system, acting via M2 and M3 muscarinic receptors, is capable of consistently producing well-coordinated locomotor activity in the in vitro neonatal preparation, placing it in a position to contribute to normal locomotion and to provide a basis for recovery of locomotor capability in the absence of descending pathways. Tests of these suggestions, however, reveal that the spinal cholinergic system plays little if any role in the induction of locomotion, because MLR-evoked locomotion in decerebrate cats is not prevented by cholinergic antagonists. Furthermore, it is not required for the development of stepping movements after spinal cord injury, because cholinergic agonists do not facilitate the appearance of locomotion after spinal cord injury, unlike the dramatic locomotion-promoting effects of clonidine, a noradrenergic α-2 agonist. Furthermore, cholinergic antagonists actually improve locomotor activity after spinal cord injury, suggesting that plastic changes in the spinal cholinergic system interfere with locomotion rather than facilitating it. Changes that have been observed in the cholinergic innervation of motoneurons after spinal cord injury do not decrease motoneuron excitability, as expected. Instead, the development of a "hyper-cholinergic" state after spinal cord injury appears to enhance motoneuron output and suppress locomotion. A cholinergic suppression of afferent input from the limb after spinal cord injury is also evident from our data, and this may contribute to the ability of cholinergic antagonists to improve locomotion. Not only is a role for the spinal cholinergic system in suppressing locomotion after SCI suggested by our results, but an obligatory contribution of a brainstem cholinergic relay to reticulospinal locomotor command systems is not confirmed by our experiments.


It is well established that cancers are caused by the accumulation of genomic and epigenomic alterations.
However, molecular changes occuring in the early stages of cancer development or in precursor lesions remain to be
poorly understood.The employment of molecular characterization of tumors prior to therapy has opened the door for
personalized therapy of individual patients. Such genetic alterations that are utilized to predict response to therapy
are considered predictive biomarkers. The development of high throughput technologies lead to the establishment
of a relatively new field of cancer genomics. These genome-wide approaches are increasingly more important in
cancer diagnostic, prognosis, and treatment. Here we briefly discuss cancer transcriptome, cancer genome and
epigenome analyses approches and their clinical utility. Gene expression patterns in tumors (cancer transcriptome)
are analyzed by expression microarrays who can serve as a diagnostic tool which facilitates distinguishing different
cancer subtypes. Another high throughput technology that may revolutionize personalized cancer therapy, lead to
the development of new genetic diagnostic tests and biomarkers is next generation sequencing (NGS). NGS has
an ability to fully sequence large number of genes in a single test and simultaneously detect deletions, insertions,
copy number alterations, translocations and exome-wide base substitutions in cancer-related genes. NGS methods
analyses DNA methylation, detection of modified histones, mapping of transcription factor occupancy, and epigenetic
regulators. DNA diagnosis often trumps clinical diagnosis in oncology. This will cause the shift toward testing minute
amounts of DNA and specimens including needle biopsies, circulating tumor cells, and ciruclating cell-free DNA
are likely to become clinically relevant. Thus, as NGS enters clinical testing it will impact clinical decisions and
cancer outcomes. Finally, improved understanding of cancer biology will lead to further development of targeted
therapies and the use of combinations of targeted approaches simultaneously, increasing treatment effectiveness
and supporting highly individualized patient care.


Using socioconstructivism as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the ways in which classrooms that used peer learning groups influenced students' goals. Specifically, my goal was to examine collaborative learning as a process that may influence individuals' social and achievement goals. After confirming that 2 sixth‐grade math teachers had fundamental beliefs supporting socioconstructivist practices, I administered surveys designed to measure achievement and social goals in their math classes to approximately 200 of their students at 2 times during the school year. I used hierarchical linear modeling techniques, with mastery, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance goals as dependent variables at Time 2 and a selection of social goals and achievement goals as independent variables at Time 1. At the collaborative learning level, shared achievement goals were measured by asking students questions about the importance of group work, calculated as a mean score for students in their respective peer learning groups. For the more experienced math teacher, results indicated that students in groups that collectively valued the academic goals of group work were likely to adopt individual motivational strategies associated with performance‐avoidance goals over time. I discuss explanations for this dynamic and suggestions for future research examining individual goals in the context of socioconstructivist teaching practices.


We present an animation interface designed to conveniently control the motion capture process. The transition of performer's hand gestures tracked by a dataglove is recognized for software remote control. An intuitive camera metaphor allows one to specify the viewpoint location using the magnetic sensors strapped to the performer's head. The human motion capture is based on the Anatomical Converter, a toolkit to convert sensor measurements into human anatomical rotations in real time. An improved human motion capture technique, the multi-joint control, is introduced.


Landscape alteration is generally one of the most significant impacts resulting from surface mining and quarrying, particularly when the excavation activities are located within environmentally sensitive areas. We describe the results of two different methods of visual impact assessment applied to selected case studies in the Polish Carpathians. The study concerns areas of significant landscape value and holiday destinations for many people living in the Silesian and Krakow urban-industrial agglomerations. One of the two methods refers to the EC decision 272/02, which establishes ecological criteria for the award of the Community eco-label for hard floor-coverings. The second method was proposed in previous research and is based on the application of a visual impact indicator (Lvi) in which two objective aspects of landscape alteration are included: the extent of the visible excavation and its chromatic contrast with its surroundings. The results of the two methods are compared and discussed for each of the case studies considered.


High-resolution regional climate simulations driven by NCEP-reanalysis for the eastern Mediterranean (EM) region covering 48 yr (1961−2008) are used to examine the coastal effects over the EM region. The present study uses the ICTP-RegCM3 to downscale to a 10 km resolution over the EM with a 50 km driving nest. The high-resolution simulation captures strong temperature gradients as a result of resolving the steep topography over the eastern Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey, as well as the Ionian coast of Greece. In terms of the validation based on the coastal meteorological stations, the annual temperature bias in the high-resolution simulation is <0.7°C for the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions over Turkey and the same bias is 1°C in the 50 km simulation. Moreover, the model is able to capture the observed warming trend in summer temperatures during the last 5 decades. In terms of the precipitation simulation, the error in the 10 km simulation (17%) over the Black Sea region is much lower than that in the 50 km simulation (42%) when considering coastal meteorological stations. In addition, existence of many small islands over the EM domain is another unresolved challenge for climate simulations. The small islands tend to be overwhelmed by the influence of sea-surface temperature, and local climate effects related to topography are suppressed in 10 km temperature simulations. However, the precipitation error in the 10 and 50 km simulations based on the island stations (Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus) over the EM domain are 12 and 24%, respectively. In terms of the cross-section analysis comparing model elevation to simulated precipitation, the implementation of highresolution simulation illustrates the importance of modeling the complex terrain over the eastern Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey, as the precipitation error was reduced to 7 and 18%, respectively.


The farm crisis in the United States in the 1980s had profound effects on rural, agricultural regions of the country, but almost no impact on urban and suburban areas. I use a difference-in-difference methodology and find that religiosity as measured by religious attendance increased significantly in areas impacted by the crisis for those who worked in agriculture. Chen (2010) describes increased religiosity in Indonesia following the 1998 financial crisis, and this paper demonstrates a similar response to severe financial distress in the United States. I also find evidence that this increase is not due to a lower opportunity cost of time, as those who are currently employed have higher levels of attendance than those who are not. I hypothesize that the increased religiosity results from religious institutions' ability to provide public goods, both financial and emotional, in the form of community support.


Large weighing lysimeters are currently the most precise method to directly measure all components of the terrestrial water balance in parallel via the built-in weighing system. As lysimeters are exposed to several external forces such as management practices or wind influencing the weighing data, the calculated fluxes of precipitation and evapotranspiration can be altered considerably without having applied appropriate corrections to the raw data. Therefore, adequate filtering schemes for obtaining most accurate estimates of the water balance components are required. In this study, we use data from the TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) SoilCan research site in Bad Lauchstadt to develop a comprehensive filtering procedure for high-precision lysimeter data, which is designed to deal with various kinds of possible errors starting from the elimination of large disturbances in the raw data resulting e.g., from management practices all the way to the reduction of noise caused e.g., by moderate wind. Furthermore, we analyze the influence of averaging times and thresholds required by some of the filtering steps on the calculated water balance and investigate the ability of two adaptive filtering methods (the adaptive window and adaptive threshold filter (AWAT filter; Peters et al., 2014), and a new synchro filter applicable to the data from a set of several lysimeters) to further reduce the filtering error. Finally, we take advantage of the data sets of all 18 lysimeters running in parallel at the Bad Lauchstadt site to evaluate the performance and accuracy of the proposed filtering scheme. For the tested time interval of 2 months, we show that the estimation of the water balance with high temporal resolution and good accuracy is possible. The filtering code can be downloaded from the journal website as Supplement to this publication.


Adenocarcinoma, not otherwise specified (NOS), is a salivary gland carcinoma that shows glandular or ductal differentiation but lacks the prominent histomorphologic features that characterize other, more specific types of carcinoma. We report a rare case of adenocarcinoma, NOS, arising in the submandibular gland.A 32-year-old woman was referred to the Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Prefectural Central Hospital because of a tumor in the left submandibular gland. Fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed, and the histopathological diagnosis was Warthin's tumor. The tumor was resected with the mandibular gland. The resected tumor was diagnosed as adenocarcinoma, NOS, and a supra-omohyoid neck dissection was performed. There has been no recurrence or metastasis of the tumor as of 2 years after presentation to our department.


A comprehensive study of the surf industry was conducted to identify the key issues within the industry. Using a sample of 125 surfers a questionnaire was performed to gain insight on green consumer behaviour and attitudes. A further questionnaire was conducted on 20 surf retailers. Results showed that the majority of UK surfers and retailers interviewed thought that there were not enough eco-products on the market, and when looking at the results the retailers gave it was clear they saw a strong future for the eco-product, that it wasn"t just a phase and that demand in the future is set to increase. Results found that as a generalisation the surfer shows high concern for the environmental issues in the industry, however this is not matched by their levels of green consumer activism as the majority had not bought eco-products. Demographics of the green consumer were thoroughly investigated with Chi-square statistical analysis conducted to establish probabilities of relationship. The marketing implications from such an investigation can put an eco-company at a serious advantage, enabling them to target and identify their main customers and even to "tap" into new customer populations. The key findings were that longboarders considered themselves to be more eco-friendly than shortboarders. The "Surfers Path" readers were shown to be more concerned about the levels of toxicity within the industry, and also to be a more active green consumer, than other magazine readers. The other key findings were that over 30"s show more concern about the levels of toxicity than under 30"s and also are more active green consumers. Males were shown to be more active green consumers than females. Non-students showed a higher level of concern about the toxicity levels and to be more active green consumers than the student surfers interviewed. The main limitation to this study was the size of the samples. There are also limitations to technique such as a bias in the questionnaires, due to the participants knowing what the investigation was about and possibly filling in answers that they believe the interviewer desired.


ABSTRACT The trade traffic estimate was made by using real data from 2 years of seizures (2000 and 2001), combined with river stage-level data. Abufari Reserve is located about 600 km south of Manaus, where the largest stretch of the Amazonian floodplain is protected by a federal conservation unit. In the minds of the local people, the chelonian populations are still abundant and inexhaustible. However, records show that in 2000 and 2001, 3992 chelonians and 122 Podocnemis nets were confiscated, which represent only a small part of the total catch from this river. Consequently, these natural stocks could be decreasing because of trafficking by animal peddlers who invade the area and escape with animals to the detriment of the ecosystem and the local people.


Hybrid bearings represent an attractive alternative to ball bearings for use in highspeed cryogenic turbopumps. However, the internally-developed cross-coupled forces can generate instabilities responsible for a speed limitation of the machine. To reduce these forces and raise the onset speed of instability, the use of deliberately-roughened stators, already successfully tested for liquid damper seals, is investigated. Rotordynamic results are presented for a five-pocket orifice-compensated hole-pattern-land hybrid bearing tested with water at high speed and high pressure, Experimental data show a good prediction of leakage flow rate and direct damping but a significant improvement in stability compared to a conventional smooth-land hybrid bearing, resulting in an elevation of the onset speed of instability. Comparisons between measurements and predictions from a code developed by San Andres (1994) shows good predictions for flowrate and direct damping but an over prediction for the direct and cross-coupled stiffness coefficients by about 30 and 50 percent, respectively. The use of the Moody friction-factor model is thought to be mainly responsible for the poorer predictions of stiffness coefficients.


GOVT 296/ CEAS 296: This introductory course begins with an overview of the Japanese political system: its historical origins, institutional structures, and main actors. The course then moves on to explore specific policy areas.


Structure-based stabilization of protein–protein interactions (PPIs) is a promising strategy for drug discovery. However, this approach has mainly focused on the stabilization of native PPIs, and non-native PPIs have received little consideration. Here, we identified a non-native interaction interface on the three-dimensional dimeric structure of the N-terminal domain of the MERS-CoV nucleocapsid protein (MERS-CoV N-NTD). The interface formed a conserved hydrophobic cavity suitable for targeted drug screening. By considering the hydrophobic complementarity during the virtual screening step, we identified 5-benzyloxygramine as a new N protein PPI orthosteric stabilizer that exhibits both antiviral and N-NTD protein-stabilizing activities. X-ray crystallography and small-angle X-ray scattering showed that 5-benzyloxygramine stabilizes the N-NTD dimers through simultaneous hydrophobic interactions with both partners, resulting in abnormal N protein oligomerization that was further confirmed in the cell. This unique approach based on the identification and stabilization of non-native PPIs of N protein could be applied toward drug discovery against CoV diseases.


We propose optimization techniques for coordinated multi-cell beamforming in the presence of local users and a global user. The local users are served by only the corresponding basestation (BS) while the global user is served by multiple basestations. The global user, with the aid of multiple antennas, is able to decode multiple data streams transmitted by various transmitters through singular value decomposition of the channels at the receiver and using left dominant singular vectors as the receiver beamforming. The coordinating basestations employ semidefinite programing based transmitter beamforming and agree to perform optimum data rate split for the global user in order to minimise the transmission power.


104 children with imperforate anus and 68 children with megacolon congenitum were subjected to careful analysis in respect of postoperative incontinence of urine. This was observed in 20 patients with imperforate anus (19.2%) and 15 patients with Hirschsprung's disease (22%). In children with imperforate anus urine incontinence showed a slight tendency only to spontaneous cure. For example, 19.1% of the children with imperforate anus still showed signs of incontinence 11 years after the first operation. On the other hand, there was often a spontaneous cure of incontinence of urine in children with Hirschsprung's disease, so that 5.8% only of the patients had incontinence after the same period. The causes of incontinence are of a multifactorial nature. Rectourethral fistulas, which can damage the sphincter vesicae externus, play an important part. This is likewise true of sequel operations in the pelvis minor with iatrogenic lesions of the sacral nerve fibres; of associate malformations of the urogenital tract and of the vertebral column; and of chronic relapsing infections of the urinary tract caused by an accompanying encopresis (incontinence of faeces).


The main goal of this research is to provide an insight of human or pedestrian tracking based
on feature and develop a framework using statistical modelling. Understanding and tracking
human motion is very important and key to explain human activity. Most important video
content based analysis depends on it. Exemplar based human motion tracking techniques
have been very successful for human body motion analysis. However, their accuracy
strongly depends on the similarity of both camera viewing angle and scene properties
between training and testing images captured by a static camera with a similar viewing angle
observing only one individual.

In this thesis three major aspects of pedestrian tracking are discussed. Firstly, the contour
feature based tracking has been employed. The silhouettes of the person in question are
extracted and fed to a Bayesian filter. Secondly, an online trained model has been proposed
for tracking framework. Some major features like, colour, HOG and foreground extraction
etc. have been used and exploited to propose an online tracker. Finally, a novel body pose
based human tracking model is proposed for pedestrian tracking. Specifically, this method
attempts to exploit the curvature information of different body poses in tracking framework
to overcome general tracking problems. Results show that poselet-based features are more
suitable for tracking than just detecting the person over the frames.

Performance has been evaluated in a rich evaluation fiamework. Three public datasets like,
HumanEva, PETS and Muhavi are chosen for their unique characteristic. Each method has
been implemented carefully and they are tested on these datasets. Finally, they are evaluated
based on a standard metric.


The genetics of ovarian cancer are a complex, ever evolving concept that presents hurdles in classification, diagnosis, and treatment in the clinic. Instead of common driver mutations, genomic instability is one of the hallmarks of ovarian cancer. While ovarian cancer is stratified into different clinical subtypes, there still exists extensive genetic and progressive diversity within each subtype. In high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common subtype, TP53 is mutated in over 90% of all patients while the next most common mutation is less than 20%. However, next-generation sequencing and biological statistics have shown that mutations within DNA repair pathways, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, are common in about 50% of all high-grade serous patients leading to the development of a breakthrough therapy of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. This is just one example of how a better understanding of the complex genetic background of ovarian cancer can improve clinical treatment. A thorough review of ovarian cancer genetics and the effect it has on disease development, diagnosis, progression, and treatment will enhance the understanding of how to better research and treat ovarian cancer.


A5'pppp5'A has been proposed to serve as a molecular signal that triggers DNA replication. When published methods proved to be inadequate for the assay of A5'pppp5'A in Physarum polycephalum by h.p.l.c. (high-pressure liquid chromatography), a set of purification procedures was developed that allowed assay of as little as 2pmol of A5'pppp5'A. A5'pppp5'A was purified from cellular extract by covalent boronate chromatography, treated with alkaline phosphatase to hydrolyse residual mononucleotides and analysed by isocratic ion-exchange h.p.l.c. The analysis was facilitated by a pre-column switching procedure that allowed early-eluted species to be diverted from the analytical column. By using this procedure A5'pppp5'A has been detected in Physarum polycephalum (1.4 pmol/mg of protein), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (3.6 pmol/mg of protein) and rat liver (3.3 pmol/mg of protein). In each case a minor peak was also seen, which was identified as A5'pppp5'G. The identity of both peaks was confirmed by co-elution with standards on isocratic and gradient h.p.l.c. and treatment with enzymes, including a dinucleoside polyphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase from Physarum polycephalum.


We propose lightweight protocol for securing communication and preserving users' anonymity and location privacy in hybrid ad hoc networks. Symmetric-key-cryptography operations and payment system are used to secure route discovery and data transmission. To reduce the overhead, the payment can be secured without submitting or processing payment proofs (receipts). To preserve users' anonymity with low overhead, we develop efficient pseudonym generation and trapdoor techniques that do not use the resource-consuming asymmetric-key cryptography. Pseudonyms do not require large storage area or frequently contacting a central unit for refilling. Our trapdoor technique uses only lightweight hashing operations. This is important because trapdoors may be processed by a large number of nodes. Developing low-overhead secure and privacy-preserving protocol is a real challenge due to the inherent contradictions: 1) securing the protocol requires each node to use one authenticated identity, but a permanent identity should not be used for privacy preservation; and 2) the low overhead requirement contradicts with the large overhead usually needed for preserving privacy and securing the communication. Our analysis and simulation results demonstrate that our protocol can preserve privacy and secure the communication with low overhead.


The study describes how relationships are created with persons with moderate to severe dementia. The material comprises 24 video sequences of Relational Time (RT) sessions, 24 interviews with persons with dementia and eight interviews with professional caregivers. The study method was Constructivist Grounded Theory. The categories of 'Assigning time', 'Establishing security and trust' and 'Communicating equality' were strategies for arriving at the core category, 'Opening up', which was the process that led to creating relationships. Both parties had to contribute to create a relationship; the professional caregiver controlled the process, but the person with dementia permitted the caregiver's overtures and opened up, thus making the relationship possible. Interpersonal relationships are significant to enhancing the well-being of persons with dementia. Small measures like RT that do not require major resources can open paths to creating relationships.


Modified gravity theories are a popular research field in the hope that they could explain some of the unanswered questions in cosmology, for example how the universe starts, evolves and ends. One way to test proposed modified gravity models is by analyzing how the model affects the evolution of large scale structures in the universe. In the non-linear regime the only way of doing this is by performing N-body simulations, which simulates how a dynamical system of particles behave and evolve under the influence of physical forces. After performing such a simulation we wish to compare the data from the simulation with the observed universe. This cannot be done directly from the output from N-body simulations. To extract the necessary statistics a halo finding process should be performed, which determine how galaxies are grouped into halos and calculates the properties of these halos. As of yet, no one has taken into account the differences between standard general relativity and modified gravity in their halo finders, so the validity of other halo finders in the regime of modified gravity is therefore unknown. This is what has been the focus of this thesis. Here, we introduce MORPH, the first halo finder that is completely independent of the gravity model used in the Nbody simulations. MORPH can analyze any dataset from a modified gravity N-body simulation. This is performed without the need for code modifications to accommodate for the modified gravity theory. As a part of this work we have examined various unbinding algorithms and their dependence on the gravity model. The main question this thesis set out to answer was whether there is a justified need for a modified gravity adjusted halo finder. The conclusion is that modified gravity must be taken into consideration when we intend to analyze halos in modified gravity datasets. However, only if the halo finders have a high unbinding percentage, making the errors from the unbinding routine larger than the current 10% error bars for halo finding.


While nitric oxide (NO) is implicated as an important mediator of hypotension in sepsis and endotoxemia, its role as a mediator of tissue injury in shock is controversial. During porcine endotoxemia (lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 1.7 w g·kg -1 ·h -1 i.v. for 6 h), we compared circulatory and morphological changes in the liver induced by two different NO synthase inhibitors (N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, L-NAME, 25 mg·kg- 1 i.v., and aminoethyl-isothiourea, AE-ITU, 10 mg·kg- 1 i.v.), both given after 3 h. LPS induced time-dependent tissue reactions with edema, sinusoidal dilation, packing of red cells and leukocyte infiltration, progressing to endothelial cell and hepatocyte damage, formation of thrombi, and at 6 h widespread necrosis. These changes were similar in all pigs receiving LPS, regardless of treatment with NOS inhibitors. LPS caused significant increases in aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and alpha glutathione S-transferase ( f -GST). L-NAME caused further increases in AST, ALP and f -GST, while AE-ITU prevented the late increase in ALP and f -GST observed in the other LPS groups. LPS reduced liver blood flow by ~ 40%. L-NAME further reduced flow by ~ 50%, while AE-ITU restored liver blood flow to baseline values. Conclusion: L-NAME in endotoxemia had detrimental effects on liver circulation, while AE-ITU improved liver blood flow and attenuated the late increase in liver enzymes. Liver morphology was unaffected within the 3-h observation time after NOS inhibition.


A sample of 128 highly religious (Christian) midlife American adults completed a series of attitudinal and personality trait measures and narrated 12 important autobiographical scenes in their life stories. Individuals high on self-reported political conservatism tended to accentuate the theme of self-regulation in their life stories, repeatedly describing important autobiographical scenes wherein they struggled to control, discipline, manage, restrain, protect, or preserve the self. By contrast, individuals high on political liberalism tended to emphasize the theme of self-exploration, telling stories about expanding, discovering, articulating, or fulfilling the self. Demographics and dispositional traits (especially openness to experience) showed significant associations with conservatism-liberalism, as well, but these variables did not mitigate the robust relationship between life-narrative themes and political orientation. The results are discussed in terms of a broadened understanding of personality that conceives of dispositional traits and narrative identity as comprising distinct layers and complementary features of psychological individuality, both implicated in political lives.


The electroretinograms (ERG) were recorded during light adaptation at various levels of background in the urethane-anaesthetized cat. Our previous assumption that for a fixed background all the stimulus strength-response amplitude curves at any moment during light adaptation were similar in slope[1] has been confirmed experimentally. It thus offers a method to deduce the transient sensitivity from b-wave amplitude. Two kinds of change in retinal sensitivity were observed during light adaptation according to the strength of adapting light. When a dim adapting light was used the sensitivity decreased suddenly and then remained at a low level, as soon as the adapting light was over 10(3) scotopic td the initial decrease in sensitivity was followed by a partial recovery within 10 min after the onset of adapting light. It is suggested that the sensitivity recovery is related to the degree in which cones are released from rod suppression and participate in the generation of the b-wave.


Arsenic is a well-documented human carcinogen. Previous studies on urinary bladder and skin cancers have shown that arsenic can cause specific cell types of malignancy. To evaluate whether this is also true for lung cancers, we conducted a study on 243 townships in Taiwan. We identified patients through the National Cancer Registry Program and compared the proportion of each major cell type between an endemic area of arsenic intoxication with exposures through drinking water, which includes 5 of the townships and the other 238 townships. To control for gender and age, we analyzed data on men and women separately and divided patients into four age groups. A total of 37,290 lung cancer patients, including 26,850 men and 10,440 women, was diagnosed between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 1999 in study townships. Patients from the endemic area had higher proportions of squamous cell and small cell carcinomas, but a lower proportion of adenocarcinomas. These findings were similar across all age groups in both genders, although the lack of data on smoking is a limitation of our study. The results suggested that the carcinogenicity of arsenic on lungs is also cell type-specific: squamous cell and small cell carcinomas appeared to be related to arsenic ingestion, but not adenocarcinoma. Whereas data in the literature are limited, the association between adenocarcinoma and arsenic exposures through inhalation appeared to be stronger than that of squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, we speculate that arsenic may give rise to different mechanisms in the development of lung cancers through different exposure routes.


This article reviews some trends in the sociotechnical development of urban spaces and controlled environments. It provides past and present examples of spatial, volumetric and symbolic constructions that have functioned to enclose or divide before describing a new context of markets that promise to provide habitats or settlements offering 'environmental exemption'. In other words, this is the ability to pay for access to 'clean', 'green', 'pure' and 'politically free' environments. Examples of existing and proposed eco-enclaves of various kinds are given and discussed. The conclusion considers some implications of these possible projects of 'salvation' or 'segregation'.


Starting with a review of the literature and documents pertaining to health promotion in the developed countries, highlighting the Canadian output, the author reflects on the multiple meanings ascribed to the "empowerment" category/strategy. After a summary of the conceptual development of health promotion ideals, the paper analyzes the theoretical aspects of "empowerment", suggesting its classification into two main approaches: psychological and community-based. The author contends that community "empowerment" helps define health promotion as a proposal aimed at transforming the status quo and the production of healthy subjects. The paper concludes by exploring the potential contributions of social/community "empowerment" to health education practices and reorganization of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS).


This research examines special needs education professional development needs among both general and special education schoolteachers in northern Malawi. A semi-structured questionnaire with open and close-ended questions was used for the research. Quantitative and thematic analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which teachers believe that students with disabilities should be educated together with students without disabilities, the importance of professional development for teaching students with disabilities, prioritised professional development needs regarding special education knowledge, and self-identified needs for successful special education classrooms. Results indicate that teachers are generally in favour of inclusive practices and identify a high need for special education professional development. Participants identified training and resources to teach students with visual impairments or auditory impairments as a high priority. Participants noted a need for improved infrastructure, more educational materials, and recognition by the government for work in special education.


In the 1950s and 60s, Alexander Gerschenkron claimed that banks facilitate economic growth among "backward" countries. In 1990s and 2000s, many theorists similarly claim that banks promote growth. Banks do so by their superior monitoring and screening capabilities, they reason. Through those capabilities, banks reduce informational asymmetries and the attendent moral hazard and adverse selection, and thereby improve the allocation of credit. As a fast-growth but allegedly bank-centered economy, Japan plays an important part in these discussions of finance and growth. In early 20th century Japan firms relied heavily on bank debt, observers argue. Those firms with preferential access to debt outperformed the others, and those that were part of the zaibatsu corporate groups obtained that preferential access through their affiliated banks. With data from the first half of the century, we ask whether Japanese banks performed the roles Gerschenkron and modern theorists assign them. Notwithstanding the usual accounts, we find that they did not. Japan was not a bank-centered economy; instead, firms relied overwhelmingly on equity finance. It was not an economy where firms with access to bank credit outperformed their rivals; instead, firms earned no advantage from such access. And it was not a world where the zaibatsu manipulated their banks to favor affiliated firms; instead, zaibatsu banks loaned affiliated firms little more (if any) than the deposits those firms had made with the banks. During the first half of the last century, Japanese firms obtained almost all their funds through decentralized, competitive capital markets.


Tommy Carr was a kind man; Eve had been able to tell that after half an hour of knowing him. There had never been a day when he had not shown her some small kindness. The birth of a daughter, Jeannie Eliza, crowns the young couple's happiness - just as her shockingly early death casts them low. But they do not need to talk about Jeannie because she remains with them, and their love does not change. In some ways it is no wonder that one of them falls ill, for grief takes its toll, and one Christmas even Eve's sister Miriam is remarking that Tommy looks unwell. But what happens next is entirely unexpected, not least for the kind man.


The operation of the university library as a means to supply information is examined. It is shown that despite the increase in size of libraries, their standard of service is declining. Reasons for this decline are advanced. The strategic goals of the library are redefined with implications for the library's acquisition, shelving, and retention policies. A Bayesian approach is then developed for determining the information value of the library's resources. In contrast to other work in this field, stress is placed on user evaluation of the library's resources. The approach developed is applicable to decisions relating both to the acquisition of volumes and the maintenance of collections.


The semiclassical, dynamical description of diffraction dissociation of weakly bound nuclei is applied to analyze the decay-energy spectra of C that have been measured at 68 MeV/nucleon on a Pb target. The optical potentials that are used to describe the nuclear interaction of C with the target nucleus are realistic because the fits to the two measured spectra, one with a small and one with a very large acceptance angle, are consistent and of similar quality. The cross section for the radiative neutron capture on C to the 1/2 ground state of C is deduced from the analysis. When combined with an estimated contribution from the capture to the 5/2 excited state of C, an excellent agreement with a recent direct capture measurement is achieved.


A priori determination of the sex of a human individual before gestation is a desirable goal in some cases. To achieve this, it is necessary to perform the separation of sperm cells containing either X or Y chromosomes. As is well known, male sex depends on the presence of chromosome Y. Once this separation is achieved in principle, we require to determine, with a high degree of accuracy, whether the sperm cells of interest contain the desired X or Y chromosomes. If we are able to obtain certain simple measurements regarding the sperm cells under consideration we will be able to control the fertilization process reliably. In this paper we report a method which allows for non-invasive verification of the characteristics of the separated sperm. We determined a set of easily measurable characteristics. From a sample drawn from previously cropped sperm we trained a neural network with a genetic algorithm. The trained network was able to perform a posteriori classification with an error much smaller than 1%. This percentage of efficiency is better than the ones reported in centers of assisted fecundation.


This paper is concerned with a simplified GPC algorithm of networked control systems. Networked predictive control is recently used to cope with the random and uncertain time delay induced by network transmission. Instead of predicting a set of control sequences at one sampling period in former networked predictive control systems, a simplified generalized predictive control (GPC) algorithm is presented through adding a simulated GPC controller which starts to run earlier. The outputs of simulated GPC controller are sent to a buffer then multiplexed with that of practical GPC controller together. Thus only two computation step of GPC controller are required to produce the total control sequences. Moreover, traditional GPC controllers can be used to build the networked predictive control systems without any change except the delay compensator added. The off-line and real-time simulations show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


There is growing consensus among both practitioners and the academic community that the cooperative business model is a form of institution that meets most of the dimensions of poverty, providing opportunities, facilitating empowerment, and enhancing security. But what is the basis for the claim that the cooperative model has a potential to reduce poverty? This paper presents a literature review of empirical research on cooperatives' potential to reduce poverty and finds substantial evidence to support this claim. Four different perspectives on this proposition are identified, all agreeing to this claim but emphasizing further the need to respect cooperative principles and values.


The main objective of this work is to improve the speed and torque responses of three phase Induction Motor (IM) during different loads and speeds conditions. Induction Motor is most commonly used in different industrial applications, that require fast dynamic response and accurate control over wide speed ranges. Therefore, this work proposes Direct Torque Control (DTC). Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique is used for optimal gains tuning of PI. The results show the improvement in the speed response of DTC, in terms of reducing steady state error, ripple reduction in the torque and speed responses. Neurofuzzy (ANFIS) controller is used to improve the performance of PI -PSO controller. ANFIS controller is trained by using PI-PSO data. The results of th e ANFIS controller are better than PI-PSO in terms of torque ripple minimization, less steady state error in the speed response and more robustness. The simulation of the overall drive system is performed using MATLAB/Simulink program version 7.10 (R2010a).


Research may be applied or fundamental, quantitative or qualitative, whatever be the type of research, its purpose is to discover answers to question through the application of scientific procedures. The present study aims to citation analysis of the Ph.D. thesis submitted to Goa University in the Department of Economics for the period 1995 -2019. Total 27 theses submitted during this period are taken up for the study. The total citations generated is 5405. From this study, it is found that Books are the most preferred source of information used by research scholars in the field of economics. The citations pertained to journals, books, reports, working papers, newspapers, websites etc.


Abstract The extension of computational technique for the generalization of automatics, information and process monitoring involve the conception and materialization of complex data acquisition equipments, processing, memorizing and sending data taken from those processes at a higher level - dispatcher. In this way, it is presented data acquisition equipment for energetic measures which is incorporated in a dispatching system aiming the monitoring and storing of electrical measures which are taken from electrical cells which compose the supervised electrical station. There are distinguished the component elements of the monitoring system: Local data acquisition equipments (LDAqE), Local data acquisition equipments synchronization subsystem, Data communication subsystem, Processing, storing and data displaying subsystem and the software for data processing at the dispatcher level and also at the local data acquisition equipment level.


Purpose: In April 2003, the first national eligibility framework for adult services, Fair Access to Care Services (FACS), was implemented by local authorities in England. The intention was to ensure equity in the provision of adaptive equipment. This study examined how the criteria were being used by local authority occupational therapy teams and if equity was being achieved. Procedure: Five vignettes or hypothetical case histories were used to capture the experiences of a purposefully selected group of 12 employees from three local authority occupational therapy teams in the Midlands. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to explore the themes raised by responses to the vignettes. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was independently conducted by two of the authors. Findings: There are inconsistencies in the access to services and the use of eligibility criteria, particularly at the point of entry to the service and for those people who are classified as having 'low' level needs. However, there is consistency within professional practice and evidence that staff prioritise client need. Conclusion: The implementation of FACS has been inconsistent and has not resulted in equity of provision. Some occupational therapy staff appear to prioritise the needs of clients above organisational policies.


The urbanization of new areas beyond the existing perimeter of a town implies the expansion of several infrastructures, including the district heating network. The main variables involved in the design of the district heating network expansion are the layout of the new pipes, their diameters, and the capacity of the new heat production sites that are required to satisfy the increased demand of room heating and hot tap water. In this paper, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is applied to the minimization of the costs related to the expansion of the district heating network of the town of Kiruna, in northern Sweden. The results show that the spectrum of the optimal design compromises between investment costs for the new pipes and the new heat generation site on one side, and operating costs due to overall fuel consumption and pumping power in the network on the other. The presented methodology is a tool meant for the decision makers in the company who own the district heating network, to evaluate all the possible best design alternatives before making a decision.


Insecticides form a major proportion of the agricultural products and their importance and impact on the farm cannot be denied. In this context, new molecules and strategies are urgently needed to preserve the efficacy of insecticide-treated materials used in public health. The purpose of this paper is to consider the best possible roles of synergists in insecticide resistance management by highlighting the types of formulations which are available. Among the different strategies proposed, the combination of a repellent with a carbamate or an organophosphate is an effective approach to manage pesticide resistance by the addition of synergists to counteract metabolic resistance. Synergists are also useful for laboratory investigation of resistance mechanisms through their ability to inhibit specific metabolic pathways. These natural or synthetic chemicals are by themselves considered nontoxic, which increase the lethality and effectiveness of currently available insecticides. The mode of action of the majority of synergists is to block the metabolic systems that would otherwise break down insecticide molecules. These interfere with the detoxication of insecticides through their action on polysubstrate monooxygenases and other enzyme systems. The role of synergists in resistance management is related directly to an enzyme-inhibiting action, restoring the susceptibility of insects to the chemical, which would otherwise require higher levels of the toxicant for their control. Synergists are among the most straightforward tools for overcoming of metabolic resistance because they can directly inhibit the resistance mechanism itself. Their effective application against agricultural pests has offered tremendous promise, but achieved little utility. Synergism is the application of a mixture in which one component when used alone is inactive at the rate of treatment and insecticide combinations can also give a greater than additive effect. Their contributions as research tools and as control agents are quite different, these can be less active on predators than pests, and at times these approaches have vital implications in integrated pest management.