Fragile X syndrome (FXS) results from a repeat expansion mutation near the FMR1 gene promoter and is the most common form of heritable intellectual disability and autism. Full mutations larger than 200 CGG repeats trigger FMR1 heterochromatinization and loss of gene expression, which is primarily responsible for the pathological features of FXS . In contrast, smaller pre-mutations of 55–200 CGG are associated with FMR1 overexpression and Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), a late-onset neurodegenerative condition. While the role of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) in FMR1 gene silencing has been studied extensively, the role of 5-hydroxymethylation (5hmC), a newly discovered epigenetic mark produced through active DNA demethylation, has not been previously investigated in FXS neurons. Here, we used two complementary epigenetic assays, 5hmC sensitive restriction digest and ten-eleven translocation-assisted bisulfite pyrosequencing, to quantify FMR1 5mC and 5hmC levels. We observed increased levels of 5hmC at the FMR1 promoter in FXS patient brains with full-mutations relative to pre-mutation carriers and unaffected controls. In addition, we found that 5hmC enrichment at the FMR1 locus in FXS cells is specific to neurons by utilizing a nuclei sorting technique to separate neuronal and glial DNA fractions from post-mortem brain tissues. This FMR1 5hmC enrichment was not present in cellular models of FXS including fibroblasts, lymphocytes and reprogrammed neurons, indicating they do not fully recapitulate this epigenetic feature of disease. Future studies could investigate the potential to leverage this epigenetic pathway to restore FMR1 expression and discern whether levels of 5hmC correlate with phenotypic severity.


An a priori assessment of the disparities in estimating the filtered chemical reaction rates in Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) is performed using two Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of turbulent premixed flames. DNS of turbulent premixed flames with the same turbulent Reynolds number but different Karlovitz numbers are carried out using semi-detailed finite-rate chemistry to represent different flame conditions. The sensitivities of the differences between the LES-filtered chemical reaction rates and those constructed using LES-filtered thermochemical variables (referred to as 'disparity' below) to reaction types, species characteristics, and flame conditions are systematically investigated. The sensitivity to reaction type is examined by quantifying the disparity in the filtered temperature-dependent reaction rate constant as a function of kinetic rate parameters. The sensitivity to species characteristics is examined by quantifying the disparity in the filtered law of mass action as a function of species chemical time scales and formation location. The sensitivity to flame conditions is examined by contrasting the results obtained from the two simulations. These disparities are compared to characterise distinct reaction/species categories with different levels of disparity in estimating the filtered chemical reaction rates in LES. For both flames, it is found that the rate constants estimated using LES-filtered temperature severely under-predict the LES-filtered rate constants, especially for reactions with high activation energies. The law of mass action estimated using LES-filtered species concentrations severely over-predicts the LES-filtered law of mass action, especially for reactions involving reactants with small chemical time scales. The combined effects are found to lead to considerable differences between the LES-filtered chemical reaction rates and those constructed using LES-filtered thermochemical quantities for all reaction types involving different classes of reactants typically included in combustion reaction mechanisms. The details and explanations of these differences provide test cases useful to the improvement of key LES modelling approximations.


Campaign journalism is a distinctive but under-researched form of editorialised news reporting that aims to influence politicians rather than inform voters. In this it diverges from liberal norms of social responsibility, but instead campaigning newspapers make claims to represent the interests or opinions of publics such as their readers or groups affected by the issue. This could be understood as democratically valid in relation to alternative models such as participatory or corporatist democracy. This essay examines journalists' understanding of the identity and views of these publics, and how their professional norms are operationalised in their journalistic practice in relation to five case studies in the Scottish press. The campaigns are analysed in terms of four normative criteria associated with corporatist and participatory democracy: firstly, the extent to which subjective advocacy is combined with objectivity and accuracy; secondly, the extent to which civic society organisations are accorded access; thirdly, whether the disadvantage of resource-poor groups in society is compensated for; and finally, to what extent the mobilisation of public support for the campaigns aims to encourage an active citizenry.


ABSTRACT This paper recounts the experiences of three faculty and a group of graduate teachers as they experimented with a classroom mode of in‐service education known as "clinical supervision". It was used as a way of teachers gaining entry into an analysis of their own teaching. Unlike most university courses this one did not start out to "tell" these experienced teachers anything of a prescriptive kind. Rather, it provided them with a framework within which they could begin to collaboratively examine their own practice. Journals and diaries were used as the main method by which these experienced teachers were able to engage in reflective conversations with their work contexts. The study reports on some of the strengths as well as the problems of this way of working, and points to some further agenda in need of exploration.


The main objective of this work is to evaluate the bond strength for different types of repair materials. Three test methods; slant shear, splitting prism and Bi-Surface shear test with conventional and two polymer modified repair mortars were used, The conventional mortar (M C), polymer modified mortar (MSBR) was prepared by admixing SBR 15% of cement weight, polymer modified and fiber reinforced repair mortar named commercially Cempatch S (M CS) was prepared by mix Cempatch S with a water ratio of 0.2. The results show that the use of SBR and Cempatch S improves the bond strength of repair mortar compared with conventional repair mortar but the percentage increased with Cempatch S was greater than SBR. The percentage increase in bond strength for concrete substrate repaired with Mcs (CMcs) were 52.67, 174.8, and 46.7% for Slant Shear, Splitting Prism and Bi-Surface shear test respectively relative to the corresponding repaired with conventional mortar MC(CMC); while, the corresponding percentages increase for concrete substrate repaired with MSBR (CMSBR) was 45.13, 129 and 30%. It is found that the bond strengths obtained from some tests was up to an average of four times larger than those obtained from others.


This paper is concerned the breaking elongation properties of Carbon/Aramid-, Carbon/Glass- and Aramid/Glass- matrix hybridized commingling yarns. The hybrid yarns produced by commingling process were investigated in terms of breaking elongation property. In experiments, carbon (CF), aramid (AF), and glass (GF) filament yarns were combined. In this study, selected matrix materials include Polyether-ether-Keeton (PEEK), and polyester (PES), or polypropylene (PP). The volume content of filament in hybrid yarn cross section was maintained at 50% for both reinforced and matrix, ant hybrid yarns count at 600 tex, respectively. The reinforcement to matrix filament combination was selected as 1:1 proportion. The effect of different air pressures and material combinations was investigated in terms of breaking elongation. In experiments, each type of hybrid yarn sample has been tested 20 times at the testing speed of 10mm/min. under 3 bar of yarn clamping pressure. Since breaking elongation is one of most important properties in textile fiber, it was examined closely with reference to the first breaking point of commingling-hybrid yarns. It was concluded from experiments that hybrid yarns with higher breaking elongation and higher tensile strength tend to show better force-elongation relationship. It was also known from experiments that the combination of two reinforcement filament yarns gives always much better results than a single reinforcement filament yarns in terms of elongation property. GF/AF/matrix is shown very much better elongation properties. PP and PES gives higher elongation than PEEK as a matrix material.


An automatic measuring system based on the principle of non-contact capacitive sensor for inner diameter measurement of the coaxial transmission line outer conductor (diameter:) is introduced in this paper. Through the theoretical analysis, the system also can be used to measure inner diameter of inclined holes. In this system, accuracy positioning is realized in the way that stepping motors cooperate with gratings; accuracy centering is realized by vision CCD system and X-Y accurate slide. Software VC++ is developed for the automatic measuring system. The function of accuracy centering, sensor calibration, automatic inner diameter measurement, data collection, data processing and data analysis are realized by software.


A vertical most-favored-nation (vMFN) restraint prohibits a retailer from charging more for one supplier's product than for rivals' products. For credit card services, this restraint takes the form of a no-surcharge rule: the credit card company prohibits the retailer from surcharging transactions using the company's card. This article develops a theory of vMFN restraints and applies it to credit cards. The vMFN clause harms competition among upstream suppliers, which raises price to a level even greater than the monopoly price. The vMFN clause can also be used to extract surplus from customers of products supplied competitively. Applying the theory to credit card antitrust cases, we find that the two-sided nature of the market does not mandate a new set of competition policy principles, contrary to the decision in Ohio v. American Express. Indeed, the economic literature on credit card networks as two-sided platforms rediscovers established principles of price theory.


The modulation characteristics of wafer-fused long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for multichannel microwave-band analog signal transmission were investigated within a large-signal behavioral model based on a commercial microwave electronic computer-aided design (E-CAD) tool. To enhance the fitting precision, a step-by-step extraction procedure is implemented numerically, optimizing at each step no more than five parameters. The simulation and experimental results of intermodulation distortions are in perfect agreement.


INTRODUCTION
1.1. PROBLEM STATEMENT
The number of women dying annually from pregnancy, childbirth and attendant complications are still a global concern (WHO 2015). Lack of access to quality healthcare services for pregnancy and delivery are among the reasons for high maternal mortality rates worldwide (Alvarez et al. 2009) with the situation particularly marked in many low-resource settings. For example, despite the reported increase in the proportion of skilled delivery care recorded across the world, only just over half of all deliveries in sub-Saharan Africa are attended by skilled health workers (WHS 2015). Available evidence has shown that the highest number of maternal deaths occur during the delivery and post delivery period (Khan et al. 2006), and increasing access to skilled birth attendance at delivery and provision of emergency obstetric services for women with complications are effective interventions in reducing maternal deaths (Paxton et al. 2005; Rosenfield et al. 2007). In addition, half of the maternal deaths and complications that occur during pregnancy are preventable by antenatal care programs that provide essential services to pregnant women (Abou-Zahr & Wardlaw 2003; Lincetto et al. 2006). Therefore, timely access to maternal care services, therefore, remain an important indicator for monitoring the progress of maternal outcomes including maternal mortality.
Access to maternal health services Nigeria is still marked with inequities across geographical and economic gradients (Fagbamigbe & Idemudia 2015a). Financial inaccessibility owing to inability to afford the cost of care have been established as a barrier to use of health facilities,
particularly for the poor and vulnerable women (Ekabua et al. 2011). Studies correlating utilisation of maternal health services with models of healthcare financing in low income countries found that higher proportion of government financing is associated with greater utilization of skilled birth attendants and caesarean section (Kruk et al.2007). However, out of pocket financing of the costs of facility delivery has been shown to have substantial repercussion on households including having to borrow money or sell valuable household items making families more vulnerable to impoverishment (Russell 1996; McIntyre et al. 2006). According to Alvarez et al. (2009), Maternal mortality ratios in sub-Saharan African Countries is inversely correlated with per-capita government expenditure on health and directly related to the out-of-pocket expenditure on health, the more out-of-pocket expenditure in health in a country the higher the maternal mortality rate (MMR). Over the last decade, there has been shift towards the eradication of user fees for maternal health services in low and middle income countries with studies showing marked improvement in service coverage with their removal (Ponsar et al. 2011).


Sole fed commercial pellets develop a nutritional anaemia. This study assessed the impact of dietary B12 and taurine on the haematocrit (Hct) and haemoglobin (Hb) level and mineral absorption in anaemic sole. Anaemic sole was fed one of four diets. Diets were equal regarding mineral, amino acid and macronutrient composition and formulated, according to a two by two factorial design: two B12 (0.34 vs. 1.9 mg kg dm⁻¹) and two taurine levels (3.5 vs. 7.6 mg kg dm⁻¹). The feeding level was restricted and equal for all diets. Hct and Hb levels in anaemic sole are influenced by dietary B12. A "high" level of B12 increases the Hct and Hb level. An increasing level of taurine suppresses the stimulating effect of the "high" level of B12. The applied B12 and taurine levels were unable to completely alleviate the anaemia in sole. Nevertheless, sole needs high dietary levels of B12 to alleviate anaemia. The impact of B12 and taurine on Hb and Hct was not related to a change in the absorption of iron. A "high" level of B12 positively affected the absorption of chromium and a high level of taurine negatively affected the absorption of cobalt in sole.


Abstract An m-point nonlocal boundary value problem is posed for quasi- linear differential equations of first order on the plane. Nonlocal boundary value problems are investigated using the algorithm of reducing nonlocal boundary value problems to a sequence of Riemann-Hilbert problems for a generalized analytic function. The conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a generalized solution in the space are considered.


Invertible image decolorization is a useful color compression technique to reduce the cost in multimedia systems. Invertible decolorization aims to synthesize faithful grayscales from color images, which can be fully restored to the original color version. In this paper, we propose a novel color compression method to produce invertible grayscale images using invertible neural networks (INNs). Our key idea is to separate the color information from color images, and encode the color information into a set of Gaussian distributed latent variables via INNs. By this means, we force the color information lost in grayscale generation to be independent of the input color image. Therefore, the original color version can be efficiently recovered by randomly re-sampling a new set of Gaussian distributed variables, together with the synthetic grayscale, through the reverse mapping of INNs. To effectively learn the invertible grayscale, we introduce the wavelet transformation into a UNet-like INN architecture, and further present a quantization embedding to prevent the information omission in format conversion, which improves the generalizability of the framework in real-world scenarios. Extensive experiments on three widely used benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a state-of-the-art performance in terms of both qualitative and quantitative results, which shows its superiority in multimedia communication and storage systems.


We propose a new method of computing real emission contributions to hard QCD processes. Our approach uses sector decomposition of the exclusive final-state phase space to enable extraction of all singularities of the real emission matrix elements before integration over any kinematic variable. The exact kinematics of the real emission process are preserved in all regions of phase space. Traditional approaches to extracting singularities from real emission matrix elements, such as phase space slicing and dipole subtraction, require both the determination of counterterms for double real emission amplitudes in singular kinematic limits and the integration of these contributions analytically to cancel the resulting singularities against virtual corrections. Our method addresses both of these issues. The implementation of constraints on the final-state phase space, including various jet algorithms, is simple using our approach. We illustrate our method using e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} jets at {Omicron}({alpha}{sub S}{sup 2}) as an example.


Back-propagation can be considered a nonlinear regression technique, allowing a nonlinear neural network to acquire an input/output NO) association using a limited number of samples chosen from a population of input and output patterns. A crucial problem on back-propagation is its generalization capability. A network successfully trained for given samples is not guaranteed to provide desired associations for untrained inputs as well. Concerning this problem some authors showed experi- mentally that the generalization capability could remarkably be enhanced by training the network with noise iqjected inputs. This paper mathematically explains why and how the noise injection to inputs has such an effect.


Abstract. Mean winds and tides in the northern polar Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) have been studied using meteor radars located at Resolute Bay (75° N, 95° W) and Yellowknife (62.5° N, 114.3° W). The measurements for Resolute Bay span almost 12 years from July 1997 to February 2009 and the Yellowknife data cover 7 years from June 2002 to October 2008. The analysis reveals similar wind flow over both sites with a difference in magnitude. The summer zonal flow is westward at lower heights, eastward at upper heights and the winter zonal flow is eastward at all heights. The winter meridional flow is poleward and sometimes weakly equatorward, while non winter months show equatorward flow, with a strong equatorward jet during mid-summer months. The zonal and meridional winds show strong interannual variation with a dominant annual variation as well as significant latitudinal variation. Year to year variability in both zonal and meridional winds exists, with a possible solar cycle dependence. The diurnal, semidiurnal and terdiurnal tides also show large interannual variability and latitudinal variation. The diurnal amplitudes are dominated by an annual variation. The climatological monthly mean winds are compared with CIRA 86, GEWM and HWM07 and the climatological monthly mean amplitudes and phases of diurnal and semidiurnal tides are compared with GSWM00 predictions. The GEWM shows better agreement with observations than the CIRA 86 and HWM07. The GSWM00 model predictions need to be modified above 90 km. The agreements and disagreements between observations and models are discussed.


Cell polarization is a process of coordinated cellular rearrangements that prepare the cell for migration. GM1 is synthesized in the Golgi apparatus and localized in membrane microdomains that appear at the leading edge of polarized cells, but the mechanism by which GM1 accumulates asymmetrically is unknown. The Golgi apparatus itself becomes oriented toward the leading edge during cell polarization, which is thought to contribute to plasma membrane asymmetry. Using quantitative image analysis techniques, we measure the extent of polarization of the Golgi apparatus and GM1 in the plasma membrane simultaneously in individual cells subject to a wound assay. We find that GM1 polarization starts just 10 min after stimulation with growth factors, while Golgi apparatus polarization takes 30 min. Drugs that block Golgi polarization or function have no effect on GM1 polarization, and, conversely, inhibiting GM1 polarization does not affect Golgi apparatus polarization. Evaluation of Golgi apparatus and GM1 polarization in single cells reveals no correlation between the two events. Our results indicate that Golgi apparatus and GM1 polarization are controlled by distinct intracellular cascades involving the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK and the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways, respectively. Analysis of cell migration and invasion suggest that MEK/ERK activation is crucial for two dimensional migration, while PI3K activation drives three dimensional invasion, and no cumulative effect is observed from blocking both simultaneously. The independent biochemical control of GM1 polarity by PI3K and Golgi apparatus polarity by MEK/ERK may act synergistically to regulate and reinforce directional selection in cell migration.


ABSTRACT Hutt and Leeman Lagoons, in the Perth Basin, Western Australia, are shallow (< 11 m) evaporitic basins developed during the past 6,000 years as a result of ponding in a Pleistocene dune terrain. A comparative study of the Holocene-Recent marine, alluvial, and evaporitic sediments in the lagoons has defined the following stages of evaporite basin evolution: 1) Open marine embayment stage; represented by a sheet of lithoskeletal grainstone incorporating skeletal remains and seagrass leaf-sheaths. 2) Marine lagoonal stage; the accretion of coastal barrier beach and dune complexes progressively restricted open marine circulation resulting in changes in the faunal and floral assemblages and an upward fining of the marine sediment sequences. At Hurt, concurrent with barrier formation, the embayment was encroached by prograding alluvial suites due to Hurt River discharge; no similar alluvial suite is present at Leeman Lagoon. 3) Evaporitic pond stage; following the isolation of the lagoons from the sea, gypsum and mud layers developed as a result of alternating brine concentrations in the ponds. Rapid shoaling produced playas where lagoonal brines were confined below the sediment surface; locally subaerial exposure resulted in the reworking of earlier evaporites towards the lagoon centers. Subsequent winnowing of surface eolian sediments facilitated the development of a veneer of pellet intraclast grainstone which has since prograded basinward forming extensive barren zones and salt-marsh flats. 4) Contemporary pond-playa stage; sedimentation is related to distribution and interaction of hydrologic units (groundwater, seawater, and lagoonal brines). Precipitation is restricted to ephemeral halite in ponded waters and the vadose diagenetic emplacement of CaSO4 minerals in playa sediments.


Ti(C, N)-based cermet cutting tools were prepared by vacuum sintering and tested in dry machining of normalized medium carbon steel (AISI1045) at various combinations of cutting speed (Vc), feed rate (f), and depth of cut (ap). And the wear mechanism was investigated in detail using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA). Comparing to the cemented carbide YT15 and cermet TN20, the newly fabricated cermet tools exhibited better performance and higher wear resistance. For Ti(C, N)-based cermet tools, the wear mechanism was predominantly controlled by the flank wear under all cutting condition. It was found that the removal of the ceramic grain and abrasive wear were the main source of tools failure. In addition, adhesion and oxidation were also observed.


POSITION STATEMENT Emergency medical services (EMS), similar to all aspects of health care systems, can play a vital role in examining and reducing health disparities through educational, operational, and quality improvement interventions. Public health statistics and existing research highlight that patients of certain socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity are disproportionately affected with respect to morbidity and mortality for acute medical conditions and multiple disease processes, leading to health disparities and inequities. With regard to care delivery by EMS, research demonstrates that the current attributes of EMS systems may further contribute to these inequities, such as documented health disparities existing in EMS patient care management, and access along with EMS workforce composition not being representative of the communities served influencing implicit bias. EMS clinicians need to understand the definitions, historical context, and circumstances surrounding health disparities, health care inequities, and social determinants of health in order to reduce health care disparities and promote care equity. This position statement focuses on systemic racism and health disparities in EMS patient care and systems by providing multifaceted next steps and priorities to address these disparities and workforce development. NAEMSP believes that EMS systems should: Adopt a multifactorial approach to workforce diversity implemented at all levels within EMS agencies. Hire more diverse workforce by intentionally recruiting from marginalized communities Increase EMS career pathway and mentorship programs within underrepresented minorities (URM) communities and URM-predominant schools starting at a young age to promote EMS as an achievable profession. Examine policies that promote systemic racism and revise policies, procedures, and rules to promote a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment. Involve EMS clinicians in community engagement and outreach activities to promote health literacy, trustworthiness, and education. Require EMS advisory boards whose composition reflects the communities they serve and regularly audit membership to ensure inclusion. Increase knowledge and self-awareness of implicit/unconscious bias and acts of microaggression through established educational and training programs (i.e., anti- racism, upstander, and allyship) such that individuals recognize and mitigate their own biases and can act as allies. Redesign structure, content, and classroom materials within EMS clinician training programs to enhance cultural sensitivity, humility, and competency and to meet career development, career planning, and mentoring needs, particularly of URM EMS clinicians and trainees. Discuss cultural views that affect health care and medical treatment and the effects of social determinants of health on care access and outcomes during all aspects of training. Design research and quality improvement initiatives related to health disparities in EMS that are focused on racial/ethnic and gender inequities and include URM community leaders as essential stakeholders involved in all stages of research development and implementation.


Summary
Invasions can impact on parasite communities through both the introduction of exotic parasite species and effects of invading hosts on native parasite dynamics. However, our understanding of the factors that influence the invasive process and mediate impacts on native hosts and parasites is limited.
Using models of host–parasite dynamics as a framework, we explore how both the probability of spread for an exotic parasite and impacts of introduced species on native parasite dynamics depend on key parameters related to rates of encounter, transmission, mortality and recovery. We examine how invasions may interact with the diverse range of underlying biological mechanisms that can affect these rates. We specifically highlight the potential role of interactions between parasites, which has largely been ignored.
For introduced parasites, high abundance of competent hosts and vectors within native communities can greatly facilitate spread. Introduced host species can cause amplification or dilution effects for native parasite dynamics, with the direction and magnitude of the effect determined by how the invasion influences the competency and abundance or relative abundance of the host community (community capacity).
Invasions by exotic parasites and changes to endemic parasite dynamics following invasions may reflect numerical and functional processes in multihost single-parasite systems (e.g. influence of host and vector community structure on encounter rates). However, as co-infection can influence factors such as susceptibility and infection length, effects may also be mediated by within-host interactions between parasites. The ultimate effect of an invasion will depend on the community-wide summed direct and indirect impacts.
Future studies should aim to further elucidate the key processes influencing disease dynamics in multihost (and multivector) communities, thereby informing predictions of how invasive host and parasite species and changes in biodiversity will influence disease risk. Theoretical studies should incorporate host interspecific competition and relax assumptions regarding the relationship between intra- and interspecific contact rates and density. Empirical and experimental studies should not only quantify the relative importance of host (and vector) density and diversity, but also consider other community interactions such as those between parasites.


Although the U.S. has not yet accepted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,1 the Convention has attracted support from people in the U.S. with very different perspectives on U.S. foreign policy. Since adoption of the 1994 Part XI Implementation Agreement, which must be interpreted and applied together with the Law of the Sea Convention as a single instrument,2 the Convention has garnered support across a broad range of the political spectrum, including from President George W. Bush.3 It has pppsupport from both Wilsonian "idealists" who favor cooperative international endeavors and those who favor reliance on a strong U.S. military. Why have people with such diverse perspectives supported the Convention? A related question, the answer to which depends upon one's foreign policy perspective, is why should the U.S. accept the Convention now? Like any legal instrument, the Convention is a product of the historical and political forces of its time, and much has changed since the Convention was negotiated in the 1970s. The Cold War is over. Developing states now have a less socialist orientation than they did when the institutional framework governing seabed mining beyond the limits of national jurisdiction took shape in the 1970s. The current "war on terror" has led some U.S. policy makers to argue that America is justified in pursuing a wide range of unilateral international actions. The Convention either barely addresses or fails to deal with several critical oceans issues that have arisen in the past third of a century, concerning, for example, high seas fisheries conservation, the impact of global warming, underwater cultural heritage, and the exploitation of marine biotechnology resources. So why is there continuing support in the U.S. today for this complex multilateral treaty? Although the U.S. may find international law useful in addressing oceans issues, why should it now join the Convention when it could instead simply pursue bilateral, or regional, or subject-matter-specific treaties? This essay examines U.S. attitudes toward the Convention. Part I characterizes different U.S. perspectives toward foreign policy and international law, noting how these different viewpoints shape attitudes toward U.S. acceptance of the Convention. Part II then compares three concerns that U.S. Convention opponents have raised (relating to navigational freedom, U.S. participation in international institutions, and U.S. leadership in international affairs) to the perspectives associated with of one of the several different foreign policy approaches. Many followers of historically-predominant U.S. foreign policy approaches do not share the concerns of Convention opponents. However, even if the U.S. does accept the Convention, views of Convention skeptics may well influence how the U.S. interprets the instrument and interacts with other States Parties. I. THE CONVENTION AND U.S. ATTITUDES TOWARD FOREIGN POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Those who take a consequentialist approach toward international law and international relations ask whether the benefits of U.S. accession to the Convention outweigh any costs.4 They typically conclude that the balance tips decidedly toward U.S. accession. The significant substantive benefits to the U.S.-found in the Convention's provisions concerning the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the broad continental shelf, environmental protections, and increased protections for navigation-are familiar. The concern that some of these benefits, especially those concerning navigation, are not firmly established customary international law helps explain the continuing support for the Convention in the U.S. . Yet in reflecting on why the Convention continues to attract widespread support in the U.S. (and on why the U.S. has not yet accepted the Convention), the consequentialist approach is a blunt instrument. We need a more nuanced view of U.S. foreign policy perspectives. …


Creating a hash function cryptographers almost never prove the selection of algorithmic blocks, the order of blocks. The hash-function HAVAL proposed in 1992 is probably the only exception from this rule.This hash-function is constructed of blocks with specific properties such as strong independence of output bits, strong avalanche effect, 0-1 balance and others for Boolean functions, and the result hash function was proposed to be cryptographically strong. But time had shown that it is not true. The papers, proposing other popular hash-functions such as MD4, MD5, SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-2, RIPEMD, GOST 34.11-94 and others, do not contain any proof for choice of elements. The algorithms used in construction of the hash-family of MDx contain constant values, addition modulo 232, rotations and primitive Boolean functions, chosen by the author. The cryptanalytics almost had not undertaken yet any attempts to prove the choice of elements and if it is possible to change them to improve the cryptographic properties of the algorithm. The main target of this paper is an analysis of how primitive Boolean functions and rotations influence the resistance of MD5 to differential attacks.


Proton-induced X-ray emission spectroscopy (PIXE) has been performed on aerosol, soil, artificial turf, and running track samples using the 1.1-MV tandem Pelletron accelerator in the Union College Ion Beam Analysis Laboratory. PIXE analysis of the aerosol and soil samples was performed with 2.2-MeV proton beams. X-ray energy spectra were measured with a silicon drift detector and analyzed with GUPIX software to determine the elemental concentrations in the aerosol and soil samples. Of particular interest are the concentrations of airborne pollutants, such as sulfur that can contribute to acid rain and the acidification of Adirondack lakes such as Piseco Lake. PIXE analysis was also performed on artificial turf and running track samples in order to determine the possible concentrations of lead in these samples. Significant concentrations of sulfur were present in small particle sizes in the aerosol samples, which indicate that the sulfur can travel great distances and may have originated as far away as the Midwest. Trace amounts of lead were present in the artificial turf, perhaps justifying recent concerns about the safety of artificial turf.


A perennial question about derivatives trading is whether "causality," meaning price changes due to new information flowing into the market, run primarily from the underlying to the derivatives market or from the derivatives to the underlying. The typical methodology in addressing this issue is to test whether price changes in one market "Granger cause" a response in the other market. In this article, Wang brings in a new measure to explore causality between a stock and its options. He looks at whether "aggressiveness" in the placement of orders in the stock limit order book leads to aggressive trades in the options market (at prices inside the bid–ask spread but close to one end), or vice versa. It is of interest and some importance that causality is found to run in both directions. The degree of the effect is found to vary according to the time of day, the width of bid–ask spreads, and option moneyness.


: The authors propose the fabrication of activators from photopolymerizing plastic. The advantages of this method are reviewed in comparison to the classical technology for fabrication of complicated constructions from hydropolymerizing plastic: Lack of residual monomer. Simplification of technology. Significant shortening of the time necessary to obtain the ready apparatus. Easy adjustment and good adaptation. The method is recommended as a method of choice in the practical fabrication of the activator for clinical application.


Organizations expend considerable time and money in developing their leaders and helping them to lead more effectively. However traditional thinking generally yields traditional results, and these don't seem to be getting us to where we want to go. Obviously our thinking needs to change. This is where Breakthrough Thinking comes in. Breakthrough Thinking aims to reduce our efforts, and either sustain or enhance the results we get. And it achieves this by leveraging the most common currency of all human interaction—conversation. F.C.U.K. Your Way to Success is a refreshing, incisive and humorous book that will compel us to change the way we look at things. It will help us think with clarity, listen for potential, speak with intent and act with purpose. The omnipotent F.C.U.K. does away with complexity. It empowers and energizes: F. – FOCUS on the person, not the problem
 C. – CHANGE all challenges into opportunities
 U. – UNCOVER solutions by discussing options
 K. – KNOW how to break down problems; it's as important as solving them
 Using this logical, easy-to-understand and even simpler-to-implement concept, learn to master the art of MAXIMIZING RESULTS with MINIMUM EFFORT, and F.C.U.K. Your Way to Success.


Diabetes is a long life condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to function properly, or the body's cells don't react to insulin. This means that glucose stays in the blood and isn't used as fuel for energy. The present study was conducted to investigate the serum total antioxidant capacity ,serum leptin ,blood glucose and lipid profile and its association with the type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study was case control conducted 55 male with Type II diabetes and 17 male volunteers were healthy control group, blood samples collected after 14 h fasting Parameters was measured with special enzymatic kits. The present study show significant decline of serum total antioxidant capacity among diabetic cases compared with control group (p< 0.001), serum lepton was and blood glucose significantly high in type 2 diabetes patients group compared with control group (P < 0.001) . Serum cholesterol, LDL-C and triglyceride were high but no significant in type 2diabetes patients group than normal control group (P < 0.001),while serum HDL-C level was lower non-significant in type 2diabetes patients than control group. We concluded the wasSignificant decline in serum total antioxidant and significant elevations in serum leptin intype2 diabetes in comparison with normal subjects.


: In vascular smooth muscle the occurrence of several rather different receptors can be demonstrated: alpha 1/ alpha 2- and beta 1/beta 2-adrenoceptors; muscarinic (mainly M2)-cholinoceptors; dopaminergic (DA1 and DA2), angiotensin II and serotonergic receptors (5HT1 and 5HT2). Apart from this variety in receptor subtypes a distinction should be made between pre- and postsynaptic (pre- and postjunctional) receptors. The characteristics and functionality of these numerous receptor subtypes are the subject of the present survey, with an emphasis on the selective agonists and antagonists which interact with the various receptor populations. Although dopaminergic, serotonergic and angiotensin II-receptors can be demonstrated to exist in vascular smooth muscle and also in the sympathetic system which innervates the circulatory tract, their relevance with respect to the regulation and maintenance of vascular tone remains obscure. It seems clear, in any way, that the levels of the circulating agonists of these receptors, that is dopamine, angiotensin II and serotonin, are too low to cause any significant degree of receptor activation. As far as can be judged at present, vascular tone is predominantly maintained by sympathetic stimuli, via the mediation of postsynaptic alpha 1- and alpha 2-adrenoceptors, vascular beta 2-receptors being of limited importance. Muscarinic receptors of the M2-subtype should be considered as well, although their quantitative role is probably rather variable and less important than that of alpha-adrenoceptors.


Three previously described histochemical methods for the localization of copper were examined for applicability in the semiquantitative evaluation copper levels in human tissue. Liver tissue obtained at autopsy was stained using dimethylaminobenzylidene rhodanine, rubeanic acid, and diethyldithiocarbamate procedures. The effects of method and time of fixation, staining, incubation time, and variations in procedures were evaluated. Copper levels in tissues examined were determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Each staining method was evaluated for sensitivity, reproducibility, and linearity. The rhodanine method was found to produce the most reproducible results, and a linear relationship between microscopical evaluation of the stain and actual tissue copper levels was observed. It was concluded that the rhodanine copper method is applicable for the semi-quantitative evaluation of tissue copper and provides a satisfactory screening method for the identification of abnormal tissue copper levels.


Congestion control becomes indispensable in highly utilized consolidated networks running demanding applications. In this paper, proactive congestion management schemes for Clos networks are described and evaluated. The key idea is to move the congestion avoidance burden from the data fabric to a scheduling network, which isolates flows using per-flow request counters. The scheduling network comprises per-output arbiters that grant data packets after reserving space for them in the buffer memories in front of fabric outputs. Computer simulations show that this strategy eliminates head-of-line (HOL) blocking and its adversarial effects throughout the fabric, without having to drop packets. In particular, a simplified model describes this result as a synergy between proactive buffer reservations and fine-grained multipath routing. Two alternative designs are presented. The first one places all arbiters in a central control unit, is simpler, and has superior performance. The second is more scalable by distributing the arbiters over the switching elements of the Clos network and by routing the control messages to and from endpoint adapters via multiple paths. Computer simulations of the complete system demonstrate high throughput and low latency under any number of congested outputs. Weighted max-min fair allocation of fabric-output link bandwidth is also demonstrated. Furthermore, delay breakdowns show that the time that packets wait in fabric and resequencing buffers is minimized as a result of the reduced (and equalized across all fabric paths) in-fabric contention. Finally, the high throughput capability of the system is corroborated by a Markov chain analysis of output buffer credits.


The survey of the flora composition of an ecosystem is important in several environmental baseline studies. An ecotaxonomic assessment was carried out in Ase-Ndoni proposed Rivgas Refinery project site in other to find out the plant species of medicinal and other economic values. The investigation was carried out to establish a baseline data for imminent environmental vicissitudes and envisaged ecological vagaries as could be the case with the Rivgas Refinery Project. A simple random sampling based on standard procedure for ecological assessment was employed in this study. Results of the enumeration show seasonal variation in species frequency of occurrence. A total of 41 and 24 representative species of medicinal and other economic plants were recorded in the wet and in the dry seasons. These reflect a rich flora diversity of ethnobotanical values in the project site. Hence the envisaged event of uncontrolled and accidental hydrocarbon and effluent discharge, a preconceived knowledge of the vegetation could be helpful in the determination of the long and short term effects of such ecological problem. KEYWORDS : Environment, project area, vegetation sampling, species abundance, and medicinal / economic species.


Usability of agricultural waste chestnut shells as adsorbent for the removal of Bentazon and Metalaxyl pesticides from aqueous solutions was investigated. By using Box-Behnken experimental design, effects of pH (2.0, 3.5 and 5.0), adsorbent concentration (1, 2 and 3 g/50 ml), pesticide concentration (25, 50 and 75 mg/L) and processing time (40, 80 and 120 min) on adsorption were investigated and optimizations of the adsorption processes were performed. At the determined optimum con-ditions 85.1% Bentazon and 66.1% Metalaxyl removals were obtained. Also model equations that shows the effects of process parameters on adsorption were obtained. As a result of the analyzing the data obtained from the kinetics and equilibrium studies it was determined that the adsorption of Bentazon and Metalaxyl with chestnut shells could be represented with pseudo-second kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models. The results obtained from this study suggested that the agricultural waste chestnut shells could be used as cheap and easily accessible adsorbent for the removal of pesticides from waste wa-ters.


Neglected tropical diseases such as Chagas disease and leishmaniasis affect millions of people around the world. Both diseases affect various parts of the globe and drugs traditionally used in therapy against these diseases have limitations, especially with regard to low efficacy and high toxicity. In this context, the class of bisphosphonate-based compounds has made significant advances regarding the chemical synthesis process as well as the pharmacological properties attributed to these compounds. Among this spectrum of pharmacological activity, bisphosphonate compounds with antiparasitic activity stand out, especially in the treatment of Chagas disease and leishmaniasis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp., respectively. Some bisphosphonate compounds can inhibit the mevalonate pathway, an essential metabolic pathway, by interfering with the synthesis of ergosterol, a sterol responsible for the growth and viability of these parasites. Therefore, this review aims to present the information about the importance of these compounds as antiparasitic agents and as potential new drugs to treat Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.


The maximum entropy method (MEM) is a relatively new technique for solving underdetermined systems. It has been successfully applied in many different areas. All methods for solving underdetermined systems introduce some additional, artificial constraints. The advantage of the maximum entropy method is that it uses the most natural additional constraint: one that does not introduce any new, arbitrary and unwarranted information. One important property of entropy maximization is that it favors uniform distribution.

Network design and analysis almost always involve underdetermined systems, especially when routing policy has to be determined. The number of possible routings grows with the factorial of the number of the nodes in the network and the number of possible topologies is exponential in the number of links. The number of constraints is typically polynomial in the number of nodes in the network. That makes the network design problem a good candidate for the maximum entropy method application. It is intuitively clear that an optimal network should not have overloaded or underutilized links. The hope is that the maximum entropy constraint will give a starting topology and routing with smoothly distributed traffic that would lead to the solution that is closer to the optimal. The problem is computationally feasible and with proper identification and selection of certain parameters the method gives reasonable topology and routing.

It is possible to apply MEM if we start our analysis with totally interconnected network of n nodes. Some lines will be dropped later in the process of improving utilization or reducing the cost. To apply the maximum entropy method we have to decide what will be the variables of the system. Some combination of required traffic values can be used for that if we remember that for MEM application we do not need to start with probabilities, but an arbitrary set of numbers which can be normalized. Additional parameters are introduced which allow the control of optimization process.

Philosophical discussions about the real meaning of the maximum entropy method are interesting, but since the method was successfully applied in many areas, for any new area the most important criterion is not how well can we explain the relation between the MEM and that area, but how useful are the results we get by applying the method.


The aim of this study was to analyze different aspects of food waste in the specific context of prisons by introducing the nudging method, thanks to the collaboration of District House and Prison of Larino (Italy) involving staff and guests of the penitentiary structure, providing them with the knowledge of the topic and encouraging them to propose creative and effective solutions to prevent and reduce food waste. The study involved n. 50 participants out of total of about 200 prisoners. Data were collected using n.3 questionnaires related to the knowledge of food waste food, the second related to the origin of consumed and food waste and the third collected the participants' proposals how to reduce food waste. The results show that effects of nudging has awakened the prisoners' conscience about the social, ethical and economic importance of reducing food waste and a proactive attitude in providing proposals for the reduction of food waste. The most wasted food is bread (35%), pasta (27%) and fresh fruit (20%), provided by the administration because they are considered of inferior quality or prepared and cooked badly. The overwhelming majority (96%) of the participants showed sensitivity about the ethical and economic reasons behind the fight against food waste, making themselves available to contribute to its reduction and suggesting some initiatives. The data collected from the questionnaires related to the causes of waste indicate the need to implement actions aimed at the correct conservation of food and the promotion of good hygiene practices.


Pedestrian crossing intention prediction is crucial for the safety of pedestrians in the context of both autonomous and conventional vehicles and has attracted widespread interest recently. Various methods have been proposed to perform pedestrian crossing intention prediction, among which the skeleton-based methods have been very popular in recent years. However, most existing studies utilize manually designed features to handle skeleton data, limiting the performance of these methods. To solve this issue, we propose to predict pedestrian crossing intention based on spatial-temporal graph convolutional networks using skeleton data (ST CrossingPose). The proposed method can learn both spatial and temporal patterns from skeleton data, thus having a good feature representation ability. Extensive experiments on a public dataset demonstrate that the proposed method achieves very competitive performance in predicting crossing intention while maintaining a fast inference speed. We also analyze the effect of several factors, e.g., size of pedestrians, time to event, and occlusion, on the proposed method.


Greek government debt has been increasing above the percentage stated in the growth and stability path from 112.9% in 2008 to 175.6% in 2013. This paper investigates the determinants of the general government debt in Greek by means of Vector Error Correction Model framework, Variance Decomposition and Generalized Impulse Response Function Analysis. The analysis showed a significant negative relationship between general government debt and government deficit, general government debt and inflation. Shocks to general government and inflation will cause general government debt to increase. Government deficit should be increased since there is gross capital formation included in its calculation which could be invested in income generating projects. The current account balance should be reduced by improving the net trade balance.


BACKGROUND
Physical activity (PA) levels are low in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), and associate with increased morbidity and mortality. Reliable tools to assess PA in CKD are scarce. We aimed to develop and validate a novel PA questionnaire for use in CKD (CKD-PAQ).

METHODS
In phase 1, a prototype questionnaire was developed based on the validated Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire (RPAQ). Structured feedback on item relevance and clarity was obtained from 40 CKD patients. In phase 2, the questionnaire was refined in 3 iterations in a total of 226 CKD patients against 7-day accelerometer and RPAQ measurements. In phase 3, the definitive CKD-PAQ was compared with RPAQ in 523 CKD patients.

RESULTS
In the final iteration of phase 2, CKD-PAQ data were compared to accelerometer-derived and RPAQ data in 60 patients. Mean daily Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) and Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) levels were similar by all methods. Intraclass correlation coefficients showed fair agreement (MET) and good (TEE) between accelerometry and both CKD-PAQ and RPAQ. Agreement between questionnaires was excellent. For mean daily MET bias was 0.035 (SD 0.312) for CKD-PAQ and 0.018 (SD 0.326) for RPAQ. For TEE bias was 91 (SD 518) for CKD-PAQ and 44 (SD 548) kcal for RPAQ. Limits of agreement were wide for both parameters, with less dispersion of CKD-PAQ values. In phase 3, agreement between questionnaires was good (MET) and excellent (TEE). Bias of CKD-PAQ-derived mean daily MET from RPAQ-derived values was 0.031 (SD 0.193) with 95% limits of agreement -0.346 to 0.409. Corresponding values for TEE were 48 (SD 325) and -588 to 685 kcal/day. CKD-PAQ appeared to improve discrimination between low activity groups.

CONCLUSIONS
CKD-PAQ performs comparably to RPAQ though is shorter, easier to complete, may better capture low level activity and improve discrimination between low-activity groups.


A three-dimensional sub-cycle relativistic electromagnetic soliton has been observed for the first time in a 3D Particle-in-Cell simulation of the propagation of an intense short laser pulse in an underdense plasma. The structure of the 3D soliton is identified. It resembles an oscillating electric dipole and has a strong charge separation and toroidal magnetic field component. We call this structure a TM-soliton (transverse magnetic). The 3D TM-soliton resembles a 2D P-soliton in the plane of electric field polarization, and a 2D S-soliton in the perpendicular plane. The core of the soliton is positively charged on average in time, and this results in its Coulomb explosion and in ion heating. Then the soliton evolves into a post-soliton, which is a slowly expanding quasi-neutral cavity in the plasma.


Recent studies from the European Commission estimate that more than 20% of global energy is consumed by pumping systems. Significant research has focused on increasing pump efficiency to lower energy consumption; however, few have looked at the energy lost in use of pressure regulating devices (PRDs). This paper proposes a novel pico-scale hydro turbine that could effectively replace PRDs and generate power while regulating pressure. The proposed hydro turbine has an outer diameter of 4″ and a total length of 5.4″. The turbine uses 14 rotating guide vanes and is attached to a generator with a variable load. To maximize power recovery and pressure control range of the turbine, a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was used for multi-objective geometry optimization. Then, to build a dynamic model for control system design, parameter identification was conducted using a Gaussian process surrogate model and stochastic search algorithms: particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm. The optimized turbine showed good agreement between simulated and experimental results and achieved a power output of 120 W, pressure drop range of 6 to 27 psi, and maximum hydraulic efficiency of 75% at the rated flow rate of 27 GPM. The optimized turbine shows the potential of pico-turbines for pressure regulation.


'Repertory grid analysis' was used as a way of constructing representations of learners conceptions of living things; and finding a common structure or understanding; this was described in previous work. 'Concept mapping' has been stated as an appropriate assessment procedure in science curricula in a number of countries. Previous relevant published work describing the benefits of 'concept mapping' as a learning, teaching, and assessing tool is large. However, the existence of a large literature is not justification in itself, and in this work we provide a critique of the current literature. Problems with 'concept mapping' are simply ignored. However, it is thought that 'repertory grid analysis' does overcome some of the recognized problems of 'concept mapping' such as: i) comparison of concept maps between students or between students and educators: in repertory grid this becomes not only possible but a reliable method - this has proven to be one of the more problematic areas in traditional 'concept mapping'; ii) quantification of concept mapping - integer scoring of whole concept maps in 'repertory grid analysis' is eliminated since the arranged structure of the graph produced holds significance for the conceptual structure. More research needs to be done in repertory grid analysis and its implications and applications in curricular research have yet to be fully explored.
Key words: concept mapping, conceptual frameworks, repertory grid analysis.


Observations of the gamma-ray sky reveal the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe. While at lower wavebands the observed emission is generally dominated by thermal processes, the gamma-ray sky provides us with a view on the non-thermal Universe. Here particles are accelerated to extreme relativistic energies by mechanisms which are still poorly understood, and nuclear reactions are synthesizing the basic constituents of our world. Cosmic accelerators and cosmic explosions are major science themes that are addressed in the gamma-ray regime. While Fermi will take the next step in surveying the high-energy (~GeV) sky, and NuSTAR will pioneer focusing observations at hard X-ray energies (to ~80 keV), there is currently no successor mission planned to ESA's INTEGRAL observatory which currently provides important new insights into the MeV sky, albeit at much more modest sensitivities. There will be clearly a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources in the 100-keV to MeV regime. Recent technological advances in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction and multilayer-coated mirror techniques have paved the way towards a gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements compared to past missions regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow the study of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.


Objectives: The main objective of this study
was to investigate the bacterial infections of urinary tract in patients with
urolithiasis. The patients were referred to and/or visiting the Urology
Department in Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Tikrit city. Methods: The present study was carried out from November 2011 until July 2012.
One hundred and sixty patients with urolithiasis were included in the present
study whose ages ranged from 12 to 70 years. Male to female ratio was almost
2:1. The control group consisted of two groups; group one consisted of 40 persons
(20 males and 20 females) who were selected randomly from Tikrit city during
the period of this study and they had no previous personal nor family history
of urolithiasis, while group two consist of 40 persons (20 males and 20 females) infected
with urinary tract infection. Urine culture was done for all the patients and
the control group. Results: Forty five percent (45/160) of
these had UTI's. Six patients revealed mixed bacterial growth. Eighty-four
percent (38/45) of patients with UTI were infected with gram negative organisms
where as only 16% (7/45) of patients were infected with gram positive organisms.
The majority of the gram negative bacteria isolated belonged to the family Enterobacteriaceae particularly E. coli as it
was isolated from 14 (31%) cases. The urease producing bacteria were isolated
from 31 cases (50%). Conclusions: UTI's in urolithiasis was more
frequent in females than males and the percentages were 28/45 and 17/45
respectively. The most effective antimicrobial agent was amikacin and the least
effective one was ampicillin, whereas ciprofloxacin, cefoxitin, levofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, nalidixic acid, chloramphenicol, amoxycillin and
gentamicin were effective at different levels.


There is currently no satisfactory account of how judges of the Supreme Court of India and High Courts in the states are appointed, transferred, impeached or employed postretirement. For a higher judiciary commanding immense public attention, enjoying wide constitutional powers of judicial review, this is a conspicuous gulf in academic literature. This thesis intends to bridge this gulf by providing such an account. Part I extracts the Constituent Assembly Debates pertaining to these four facets of judicial functioning, describes key developments over time and analyses the extant processes in operation today. On this basis it makes three arguments: first, appointments to the higher judiciary and transfer of judges between High Courts follow processes that are indefensible as a matter of constitutional law; second, impeachment operates in an excessively slow and inefficacious manner; third, the pervasiveness of post-retirement employment of judges in government-appointed positions demonstrates inadequate attention to institutional design. Most crucially, each of these four aspects gives rise to significant concerns pertaining to judicial independence, accountability or both. This is not a peculiarly Indian problem— in several countries, the values of judicial independence and accountability have been deemed to be in tension, often irreconcilably. Part II tackles this widely articulated tension by providing a conceptual framework to understand these concepts. Its main argument is that both judicial independence and accountability are necessary for 'an effective judiciary'. Whether indeed the processes governing the four selected facets of judicial functioning in India lead to an effective judiciary is assessed in Part III. Where they are found lacking, appropriate reform is suggested. Such reform is intended to ensure that the selected processes operate in a manner that is justifiable in terms of judicial independence and accountability in principle and is efficacious in practice.


Results of two-dimensional flexural modeling of the northern Bighorn and northern Green River basins in the Wyoming foreland province suggest that these basins formed as flexures in response to loading by basin-margin uplifts and basin sedimentary sequences. The northern Bighorn Basin subsided due to loading by the Beartooth uplift along its western margin. The northern Green River Basin developed as a result of concurrent loading by the Wyoming thrust belt to the west and the Wind River uplift to the east. Tectonic loading from basement-involved uplifts played a major role in subsidence and sedimentation, as evidenced by isopach patterns within each basin. Lithospheric flexural rigidities of 1021 to 1022 newton metres (N·m) can adequately explain subsidence in both basins.


Telemedicine, defined as practicing medicine at a distance, has grown in popularity over the past ten years, as advances in consumer technology have permitted its expansion. Dermatology is a field that especially lends itself to this method of care, as many common dermatological diagnoses can be made upon visual inspection. With social distancing becoming the new standard in this age of COVID-19, telemedicine emerges as a key tool in continuing patient care without interruption. In this pilot study, we examine the reliability of acne vulgaris diagnostic assessments made via patient-taken photos compared to in-office assessments in patients between the ages of 16 and 23 with mild to moderate acne. Fourteen patient encounters were clinically examined for three outcomes: inflammatory lesions, noninflammatory acne lesions, and facial nodules. On the same day patient outcomes were counted and recorded in-person, patients were instructed to photograph their faces. These images were reviewed 8–12 weeks later by investigators for the same assessment. Initial findings suggest strong concordance between in-person and digital diagnosis, with a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.96 across all lesion and nodule scores. These data support further research on the expansion and implementation of telemedicine for dermatology. J Drugs Dermatol. 20(4):432-435. doi:10.36849/JDD.5688.


Discussions of global environmental governance seem to have gotten nowhere in the last thirty years despite environmental problems that continue to grow in scope and magnitude. Here, the role of sustainable development in that failure is examined, particularly the constructively ambiguous nature of the paradigm. It is suggested that an emphasis on the shifting, contextualized and relative term ―needs‖ in the definition of sustainable development has led to paralysis at the international level in addressing environmental problems, particularly climate change. Contradictions that emerge when sustainable development is formalized in economic models as weak and strong sustainability are discussed. Finally, promising future pathways for environmental actions are explored.


Asset-backed-securities (ABS) in Colombia have grown significantly in the last five years, both in the amount issued in the market and in outstanding value. This article analyzes the main rating criteria that Investor Services uses in the rating of ABS issues and the lessons we have learned from our experience. In Latin America, as in other emerging markets, the first stage of structured finance has involved cross-border financings in foreign currencies, mainly U.S. dollars, that mitigate direct sovereign risk by extracting debt service payments from export receivables generating future flows of foreign currency. The second stage of structured finance involves securitization of existing assets in local currencies in the domestic capital markets. This second form is the focus of this article because it is most relevant for financings rated by BRC. The article summarizes the most important structured finance cases rated by BRC, discusses four successful transactions, and offers some lessons learned from BRC's experience with structured finance ratings.


BACKGROUND: Autologous transfusion of intraoperative cell salvage blood may be a potential method to decrease the need for allogeneic packed red blood cell transfusions after cesarean delivery, although there are limited data on the benefits of this method. This study evaluated the implementation of targeted intraoperative cell salvage during cesarean delivery in women at increased risk for hemorrhage at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Ningbo, China. METHODS: All women who underwent cesarean delivery >28 weeks of gestation were included in the study. The period before intraoperative cell collection (October 1, 2010, to August 31, 2012, n = 11,322) was compared with the postimplementation period (September 1, 2012, to June 30, 2015, n = 17,456) using an interrupted time series analysis. In the postimplementation period, women suspected to be at increased risk of the need for a blood transfusion (1604, 9.2%) underwent intraoperative cell salvage collection. The primary outcomes were the monthly rate of allogeneic packed red blood cell use and the incidence of clinical manifestation of acute blood transfusion reactions. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation) estimated monthly allogeneic packed blood cell transfusion rate at the end of the 57-month study was 2.2% ± 0.7% with the implementation compared with 2.7% ± 0.9% without, difference −0.5%, 95% CI, −1.4% to 0.3%; P = .22. The mean number of allogeneic units transfused per patient was 4.1 ± 0.4 units with implementation and 3.9 ± 0.9 units without, difference 0.2, 95% CI, −1.7 to 1.1 units; P = .69. Intraoperative cell salvage blood was reinfused in 757 (47%) and wasted in 847 (53%) cases. The monthly intraoperative allogeneic packed red blood cells use rate was lower after implementation (difference −0.7%, 95% CI, −0.1% to −1.4%; P = .03); however, the monthly postpartum allogeneic packed red blood cell use rate was unchanged (difference −0.2%, 95% CI, −0.4% to 0.7%; P = .56). The clinical manifestation of acute blood transfusion reactions rate was unchanged (difference −2%, 99% CI, −9% to 5%; P = .55) between the periods. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that targeted intraoperative cell salvage in women undergoing cesarean delivery was associated with less allogeneic blood exposure in the operating room, but not in the postoperative period. Intraoperative cell salvage in targeted cesarean deliveries was not associated with a lesser allogeneic red blood cell exposure over the hospital admission period. The lack of adverse events associated with intraoperative cell salvage supports the safety of intraoperative cell salvage in cesarean delivery.


In this study, the steady-state groundwater model in the study area, Can Tho city, a capital of Mekong Delta, was developed. To construct the numerical groundwater model for the Can Tho city, the concept and model boundary were set by hydrological data (model layers), digital elevation map (drainage and surface) and Mekong Delta region groundwater model results (groundwater head boundary). Investigation and compilation of data for the model input such as aquifer properties, hydraulic parameters and meteorological data were conducted and initially assigned to the model for a grid cell. The calibrated model successfully simulated groundwater heads comparing with observation heads at 14 monitoring wells. Simulation of spatial groundwater heads distribution of the aquifer includes groundwater pumping stations for domestic and industry was conducted as expected from the conceptual model. Its results clarified groundwater drawdown areas in the city. Impact zones of groundwater pumping are also addressed and known as vulnerable zones to land subsidence. Finally, to understand the effects of projected increased demands on groundwater for water supply, the model was used to predict the groundwater decline based on the trend of increased pumping until 2035. The formation process of cones of depression under current and increased pumping operation was also modeled in 3D to evaluate the impacts of dense distribution of pumping wells on groundwater resources in the Can Tho city.


- Databases are build with the fixed number of fields and records. Uncertain database contains a different number of fields and records. Clustering techniques are used to group up the relevant records based on the similarity values. The similarity measures are designed to estimate the relationship between the transactions with fixed attributes. The uncertain data similarity is estimated using similarity measures with some modifications. Clustering on uncertain data is one of the essential tasks in mining uncertain data. The existing methods extend traditional partitioning clustering methods like k-means and density-based clustering methods like DBSCAN to uncertain data. Such methods cannot handle uncertain objects. Probability distributions are essential characteristics of uncertain objects have not been considered in measuring similarity between uncertain objects. The customer purchase transaction data is analyzed using uncertain data clustering scheme. The density based clustering mechanism is used for the uncertain data clustering process. This model produces results with minimum accuracy levels. The clustering technique is improved with distribution based similarity model for uncertain data. The nearest neighbor search technique is applied on the distribution based data environment. The system is designed using java as a front end and oracle as a back end.


OF DISSERTATION ORGANOMETALLIC HETEROCYCLES AND ACENE-QUINONE COMPLEXES OF RUTHENIUM, IRON AND MANGANESE A variety of organometallic-fused heterocycles and acene quinones were prepared and characterized. This work was divided into three parts: first, the synthesis of 5,5-fused heterocyclic complexes of tricarbonylmanganese and (1',2',3',4',5'-pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium; second, the synthesis of 1,2-diacylcyclopentadienyl p-cymene complexes of ruthenium(II); and third, synthesis of cyclopentadienyl-fused polyacenequinone complexes of ruthenium, iron and manganese. The first examples of the convenient, versatile and symmetric cyclopentadienyl-fused heterocycle complexes of (1',2',3',4',5'pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium(II) and tricarbonylmanganese(I) were synthesized starting from (1,2-dicarbophenoxycyclopentadienyl)sodium. The sodium salt was transmetalated using [MnBr(CO)5] and 1/4 [Ru(μ3-Cl)(Cp*)]4 to give [Mn(CO)3{η-C5H3(CO2Ph)2-1,2}] and [Ru{η-C5H3(CO2Ph)2-1,2}(Cp*)]. The diester complexes were saponified under basic conditions to obtain the corresponding dicarboxylic acids. The dicarboxylic acids were used to synthesize unique cyclopentadienylmetal complexes including diacyl chlorides, anhydrides, thioanhydrides and p-tolyl imides of ruthenium and manganese. Similarly, a series of 1,2-diacylcyclopentadienyl-p-cymene cationic complexes of ruthenium were synthesized using thallium salt of 2-acyl-6hydroxyfulvene and [Ru(η-p-cymene)(μ-Cl)Cl]2 in a 2:1 ratio with an intension of converting them into heterocycle-fused cationic sandwich complexes. However, our attempts of ring closing on 1,4-diketons with sulfur or selenium were unsuccessful. A methodology involving the synthesis of metallocene-fused quinone complexes was employed starting from pentamethylruthenocene-1,2dicarboxylic acids. The diacyl chloride was prepared in situ from the dicarboxylic acids and used for Friedel-Crafts acylation. We observed single-step roomtemperature diacylation of aromatics, including benzene, o-xylene, toluene, 1,4dimethoxybenzene and ferrocene with pentamethylruthenocene-1,2-diacyl chloride to obtain the corresponding quinone complexes. Similarly, we synthesized mononuclear and binuclear γ-quinones by aldol condensation of 1,2diformylcyclopentadienylmetal complexes with cyclohexane-1,4-dione or 1,4dihydroxyarenes. The third methodology involves the Friedel-Crafts acylation of ferrocene with 2-carbomethoxyaroyl chlorides followed by saponification, carbonyl reduction, and ring closing by second Friedel-Crafts acylation to give Ferrocenecapped anthrone-like tricyclic and tetracyclic ketones. The oxidation of the ketones gave [3,4-c]-fused α-quinone complexes of iron. The oxidative and reductive coupling, enolization and C-alkylation of the anthrone complex were studied. Solvolysis of α-carbinol gave α-ferrocenylcarbenium salt, which underwent dimerization on treatment with non-nucleophilic base. We were successful to trap the in situ generated trimethylsilyl enol ether of ferroceneanthrone using dienophiles like N-phenylmaleimide or dimethylacetylenedicarboxylate under Diels-Alder conditions.


FPGA based custom computing machine applications have grown tremendously. Reconfigurable FPGAs incur very less reconfiguration times and also have the ability to reconfigure partially. They provide avenues to reuse the hardware resources at runtime, thus decreasing the hardware costs. In this paper, we present algorithms for temporal partitioning of applications into small size segments (under the area constraints), and scheduling of segments to ensure proper execution by satisfying the data dependencies among the segments. Our investigation concentrates on applications that are also directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). We have implemented the algorithms and have produced mappings of real applications on reconfigurable hardware.


In China, major community e-commerce websites are focusing on increasing customer bases by converting members in their virtual communities into online buyers, which is one of the important ways of monetizing social traffic. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, this paper proposes and empirically tests a model of trust in virtual communities. We will collect data through online questionnaire surveys with users of Little Red Book, followed by structural equation modeling to analyze the influence mechanism of community e-commerce platform characteristics on consumers' trust. The expected results will show the full mediation effects of interactivity and presence in the relationship between the quality of user-generated content (UGC) and the influence of key opinion leader (KOL) in virtual communities and trust. And consumers' identity trust, cognitive trust as well as emotional trust will all significantly promote their actual purchases. This paper fills the research gap of trust mechanism on community e-commerce platforms. It also guides the community e-commerce platforms to encourage users to generate more high-quality content and promote major brands to cooperate with KOLs to accelerate the monetization of social traffic in virtual communities.


The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) plays critical roles in maintaining fluid and electrolyte homeostasis and is located in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN). We previously found that Nedd4-2 C2 knockout (KO) mice showed salt-sensitive hypertension with paradoxically enhanced ENaC gene expression in ASDN under high oral salt intake. Eplerenone (EPL), a selective aldosterone blocker, is a promising therapeutic option for resistant or/and salt-sensitive hypertension. We examined the effect of EPL on Nedd4-2 C2 KO mice with respect to blood pressure, metabolic parameters, and molecular level changes in ASDN under high oral salt intake. We found that EPL failed to reduce blood pressure in KO mice with high oral salt intake and upregulated ENaC expression in ASDN. Thus, salt-sensitive hypertension in Nedd4-2 C2 KO was EPL-resistant. Gene expression analyses of laser-captured specimens in ASDN suggested the presence of non-aldosterone-dependent activation of ENaC transcription in ASDN of Nedd4-2 C2 KO mice, which was abolished by amiloride treatment. Our results from Nedd4-2 C2 KO mice suggest that enhanced ENaC gene expression is critically involved in salt-sensitive hypertension under certain conditions of specific enzyme isoforms for their ubiquitination.


A membrane occupies the plane z = 0 in a Cartesian coordinate system and is surrounded by a compressible fluid of wave speed c. The system is activated by a time–harmonic sound wave and the membrane is free to undergo transverse vibrations in response to the fluid loading, except for a small circular disc region (x2 + y2 < a2, z = 0) that is constrained to have zero displacement. This might represent the effect of a rivet or of a thin circular strut perpendicular to the plane of the membrane. By allowing for the incident and reflected waves for an infinite plane with no constraints, the problem is readily reduced to that in which there is no incident field, but with vibrations induced by a given time-harmonic normal velocity on the disc region. An asymptotic solution is sought in the small disc limit ε = ka → 0, where k = ω/c is the acoustic wave number and ω is the radian frequency. The inner and outer expansions are shown to involve gauge functions that are not simply powers of ε but which have the form εn (τ – lnε)−m, where τ is a constant.


Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) were used for a study of silver interaction with the (3×3) and ° × 30 ) 3 3 ( R surface phases of clean 4H-SiC(0001). The development of the surface structure and morphology after room temperature (RT) deposition and annealing was investigated. On the (3×3) phase silver forms small clusters leaving the initial reconstruction intact. At high coverages three-dimensional (3D) growth (Vollmer-Weber mode) was found. For the ° × 30 ) 3 3 ( R phase the initial structure seems more disturbed upon Ag deposition and thermally induced diffusion. Yet, no new surface phase develops. In both cases Ag can be removed from the surface by annealing, but Ag appears to be more stable on the ° × 30 ) 3 3 ( R phase according to AES.


Glycopeptides have been recommended as therapy for endocarditis. MICs and MBCs of vancomycin and teicoplanin were compared for 100 isolates from patients with proven bacterial endocarditis. MICs were generally lower for teicoplanin and tolerance to both agents was common. Almost all isolates of enterococci were tolerant to both glycopeptides. Among the streptococci, 78% were tolerant to teicoplanin and 57% to vancomycin. Similar findings were demonstrated for staphylococci. Although isolates appear sensitive to glycopeptides, bactericidal activity cannot always be predicted. If a glycopeptide is indicated for treatment of endocarditis, combination therapy with a suitable aminoglycoside should be considered unless MBC testing can be performed.


We compared the thermoregulatory abilities of two insectivorous bat species, Tadarida teniotis (mean body mass 32 g) and Otonycteris hemprichii (mean body mass 25 g), that are of different phylogenetic origins and zoogeographic distributions but are sympatric in the Negev Desert. At night, both were normothermic. By day, both were torpid when exposed to ambient temperatures (Ta) below 25°C, with concomitant adjustments in metabolic rate (MR). Otonycteris hemprichii entered torpor at higher Ta than T. teniotis, and, when torpid, their body temperatures (Tb) were 1°–2°C and 5°–8°C above Ta, respectively; MR was correspondingly reduced. At night, the lower critical temperature of T. teniotis was 31.5°C, and that of O. hemprichii was 33°C. Mean nocturnal thermoneutral MR of T. teniotis was 37% greater than that of O. hemprichii. At high Ta, evaporative water loss (EWL) increased markedly in both species, but it was significantly higher in T. teniotis above 38°C. In both species, the dry heat transfer coefficient (thermal conductance) followed the expected pattern for small mammals, by day and by night. Total EWL was notably low in normothermic and torpid animals of both species, much lower than values reported for other bats, indicating efficient water conservation mechanisms in the study species. Comparing thermoregulatory abilities suggests that O. hemprichii is better adapted to hot, arid environments than T. teniotis, which may explain its wider desert distribution. By both standard and phylogenetically informed ANCOVA, we found no differences in basal metabolic rate (BMR) between desert and nondesert species of insectivorous bats, substantiating previous studies suggesting that low BMR is a characteristic common to insectivorous bats in general.


ABSTRACT A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the nature of Escherichia coli O157:H7 colonization of feedlot cattle over the final 100 to 110 days of finishing. Rectal fecal grab samples were collected from an initial sample population of 788 steers every 20 to 22 days and microbiologically analyzed to detect E. coli O157:H7. The identities of presumptive colonies were confirmed using a multiplex PCR assay that screened for gene fragments unique to E. coli O157:H7 (rfbE and fliCh7) and other key virulence genes (eae, stx1, and stx2). Animals were classified as having persistent shedding (PS), transient shedding (TS), or nonshedding (NS) status if they consecutively shed the same E. coli O157:H7 genotype (based on the multiplex PCR profile), exhibited variable E. coli O157 shedding, or never shed morphologically typical E. coli O157, respectively. Overall, 1.0% and 1.4% of steers were classified as PS and NS animals, respectively. Characterization of 132 E. coli O157:H7 isolates from PS and TS animals by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing yielded 32 unique PFGE types. One predominant PFGE type accounted for 53% of all isolates characterized and persisted in cattle throughout the study. Isolates belonging to this predominant and persistent PFGE type demonstrated an enhanced (P < 0.0001) ability to adhere to Caco-2 human intestinal epithelial cells compared to isolates belonging to less common PFGE types but exhibited equal virulence expression. Interestingly, the attachment efficacy decreased as the genetic divergence from the predominant and persistent subtype increased. Our data support the hypothesis that certain E. coli O157:H7 strains persist in feedlot cattle, which may be partially explained by an enhanced ability to colonize the intestinal epithelium.


The communication protocol IEEE 802.15.4 is becoming pervasive for low power and low data rate wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applications, including control and automation. Nevertheless, there is not yet any adequate study about control systems networked by this protocol. In this paper, the stability of IEEE 802.15.4 networked control systems (NCSs) is addressed. While in recent works fundamental results are developed for networks that are abstracted only in terms of packet loss and time delays, here the constraints imposed by the protocol to the feedback channel and the network energy consumption are explicitly considered. A general analysis for linear systems with parameter uncertainty and external bounded disturbances with control loops closed over IEEE 802.15.4 networks is proposed. To reduce the number of transmissions and thus save energy, a self-triggered control strategy is used. A sufficient stability condition is given as function of both the protocol and control parameters. A decentralized algorithm to adapt jointly the self-triggered control and the protocol parameters is proposed. It is concluded that stability is not always guaranteed unless protocol parameters are appropriately tuned, and that event-triggered control strategies may be difficult to use with the current version of IEEE 802.15.4.


There exists a critical mass in research related to adaptive protection approaches that address some of the shortcomings of conventional protection functions. This is in response to concerns in the reliability of conventional protection which manifested itself in some severe disturbances in more recent years. Despite the fact that adaptive protection offers a compelling technical solution to some of these performance problems, the industry has not widely adopted adaptive protection approaches as a de facto policy for future protection scheme implementations. This is attributed to the difficulties associated with the testing of such schemes where no significant work has been reported yet. Furthermore, the benefits vs. the risks associated with such a protection strategy are not well understood. This is coupled with the conservatism towards radical changes in the way the power system is operated. As such the work reported in this thesis complements the existing body of research in order to address some of the major technical and institutional challenges associated with adopting adaptive protection schemes for future networks, especially those networks that exhibit flexibility in operation to deal with uncertainty in generation and to maximise asset utilisation. These are network characteristics that adaptive protection approaches are seen to be an effective enabler of. This thesis focuses on formal structural and behavioural modelling of adaptive protection schemes as means to effectively validate their functional operation and verify their performance. Novel contributions have been made in formalising a user requirements driven architecture for these schemes. Furthermore, significant contributions have been made to conducting formal algorithm verification that complements inherently limited standard protection scheme validation techniques. The thesis makes thorough use of a proposed adaptive distance protection scheme for circuits with quadrature booster transformers to communicate the challenges, lessons learned and contributions in designing, implementing and testing adaptive protection schemes.


We investigated two main components of infant declarative pointing, reference and attitude, in two experiments with a total of 106 preverbal infants at 1;0. When an experimenter (E) responded to the declarative pointing of these infants by attending to an incorrect referent (with positive attitude), infants repeated pointing within trials to redirect E's attention, showing an understanding of E's reference and active message repair. In contrast, when E identified infants' referent correctly but displayed a disinterested attitude, infants did not repeat pointing within trials and pointed overall in fewer trials, showing an understanding of E's unenthusiastic attitude about the referent. When E attended to infants' intended referent AND shared interest in it, infants were most satisfied, showing no message repair within trials and pointing overall in more trials. These results suggest that by twelve months of age infant declarative pointing is a full communicative act aimed at sharing with others both attention to a referent and a specific attitude about that referent.


In order to clarify the effects of hydrogen on the fatigue characteristics of an austenitic stainless steel, bending fatigue tests were conducted in air, in a hydrogen gas and in a nitrogen gas. Main results obtained are as follows. Effects of hydrogen gas environment are not clearly seen on the strain range - fatigue life diagram, because there are opposite effects to crack propagation and to crack initiation; accelerates crack propagation, but retards crack initiation. Striation spacing or in-situ observation confirms the acceleration. The retardation seems to be attributed to the absence of oxygen or water vapor in the hydrogen gas.


In verbal communication, interpersonal function manifests interaction between speaker and listener, whereas in visual communication it manifests interaction between the represented participant and the viewer. This qualitative research analyses interpersonal functions in visual communication. The study employs Kress and Leeuwen's social semiotics framework based on Hallidain Metafunctions in Systemic Functional Linguistics. The purpose of the study is to apply social semiotic framework and find out the power of represented participant and viewer's power, imaginary social relationship and social distance between the represented participant and the viewer, during the interpersonal visual communication. The study will be highly effective in the field of visual communication, advertisers and in the visual pedagogy. The research found that the direct eye connection induces the viewer to take a long look at commodity or product being offered. The frontal angle reflects the total involvement of subject with the viewer and it will get a number of viewers for purchases. The background of the visual advertisement must be depicted with highly statured and accented colors to grab the attention of the viewers. It is also found that medium shot taken on the represented subject will be more effective for the advertisers.


The melting curve of B2-NiAl alloy under pressure has been investigated using molecular dynamics technique and the embedded atom method (EAM) potential. The melting temperatures were determined with two approaches, the one-phase and the two-phase methods. The first one simulates a homogeneous melting, while the second one involves a heterogeneous melting of materials. Both approaches reduce the superheating effectively and their results are close to each other at the applied pressures. By fitting the well-known Simon equation to our melting data, we yielded the melting curves for NiAl: 1783(1 + P/9.801)0.298 (one-phase approach), 1850(1 + P/12.806)0.357 (two-phase approach). The good agreement of the resulting equation of states and the zero-pressure melting point (calc., 1850 ± 25 K, exp., 1911 K) with experiment proved the correctness of these results. These melting data complemented the absence of experimental high-pressure melting of NiAl. To check the transferability of this EAM potential, we have also predicted the melting curves of pure nickel and pure aluminum. Results show the calculated melting point of Nickel agrees well with experiment at zero pressure, while the melting point of aluminum is slightly higher than experiment.


In 1987, the lipid work-up forms now an integral part of a rational policy of prevention of often dramatic and unfortunately often fatal clinical accidents of atherosclerosis, especially coronary atherosclerosis coronary atherosclerosis where an extremely high mortality, around 60,000 par year, requires that all prevention efforts be mobilized, as everything seems to indicate that it will be quickly rewarding and will substantially reduce this main scourge of mortality and morbidity in this country. It is desirable that every french person, in a relatively near future, with the new simplified techniques of cholesterol and triglycerides controls, be aware of his/her cholesterol level when prevention is effective: i.e. at a relatively early age, if possible around the age of 30, before the warnings of common atherosclerosis in the fifth or sixth decade. If the lipid work-up is normal, limited in a known patient without any personal or familial risk factor, to a simple dosage of fasting blood cholesterol and triglycerides, and costing merely 45 French Francs, it is not necessary to repeat that test in these patients, except every 5 years approximately. The cost to the national community is extremely low. On the contrary, in all cases where the first dosage indicate abnormalities, or are found in a family with major cardio-vascular risk in several of its members, or in case of familial hyperlipidemia, this work-up must be improved, associated with the dosage of HDL cholesterol by the precipitation technique enabling to recover the computed dosage of LWDL cholesterol, and the dosage of apoprotein B, currently rather well standardized and if possible, in the near future, the dosage of apoprotein Al.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)