Abstract
 Forest-management burns have been widely acknowledged as a useful land-management tool in the United States. Nevertheless, fire is inherently risky and may lead to severe damages or create smoke that affects public health. Past research has not explored the difference in policy and practice between open burns, which meet minimum legal criteria, and certified prescribed burns, which follow a higher standard of care. This study seeks to understand the distinction between legal open burns and certified prescribed burns, and, furthermore, to identify trends by type of burn in the Southeast United States. To that end, we compared statutes, regulations, incentives, and notifications of fire as a forest-management tool among nine states in the US Southeast. We found no steady time trends in number or area of burns among the states for the past decade. A nontrivial proportion of legal open burns, which tend to be smaller burns, are noncertified burns, meaning they meet minimum legal requirements, but not the higher standard required for certified prescribed burns.


Purpose

This study intends to add to the existing body of literature on the impact of a newly implemented first year seminar in the College of Law and Business. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects the course have on students in regard to three aspects: student awareness and utilization of resources, interaction patterns, as well as, general interests and attitudes toward higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology of the assessment included analysis of a survey that has been conducted by the end of Spring 2014 semester. A quasi-experimental design was implemented to measure the impact of the intervention on students' awareness and utilization of resources, interactions, general interests, and attitudes toward higher education. Through the SPSS application, the Mann Whitney U Test, and χ2 tests were used to check for significant differences while comparing the means or frequencies for both groups. For the three questions, the authors have used the 90 percent confidence level and the standard significance level p-value of 0.05 or less for statistical analysis.

Findings

The results indicated that the course had a highly significant positive impact on student attitudes and awareness of campus resources but had less significant impact on student interactions and utilization of resources. The results in this study reveal a positive impact for the first-year seminar course on student satisfaction and attitudes toward higher education as well as their awareness of campus resources. However, in terms of the course impact on student interaction, results conveyed that students who have participated in the first-year seminar course show a slightly better interaction rate with instructors, academic advisors, and close friends than those in the control group.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of this study was that the sample was small. Nonetheless, it has provided valuable insights into the understanding of the social and academic impact of first-year seminars on student engagement; through the use of comparison groups, this study increased the validity of prior research.

Practical implications

The first-year seminar course evaluated in this study demonstrated the potential to support and enhance student social and academic engagement during the first year of college. Based on the results in this study, the study team recommended some revisions to the current first-year seminar model (UNIV P100 Skills for University Success). The team proposed three models for subsequent first-year seminars at this university.

Originality/value

This study adds to the existing literature by examining the impact of a newly implemented first-year seminar course at the College of Law and Business at this university on both academic and non-academic aspects from the students' perspective. These aspects were selected as retention and GPA effects have been widely explored; therefore, the focus is on the less studied emotional and social factors associated with student success and retention. The results from this study can act as a guide for universities intending to introduce a first-year seminar course as it gives clear guidelines on design, content, and course implementation, which can be useful in enhancing general student motivation and attitudes toward academic study and higher education in general.


A Weyl semimetal with strong electron-phonon interaction can show axionic coupling in its insulator state at low temperatures, owing to the formation of a charge density wave (CDW). Such a CDW emerges in the linear chain compound Weyl semimetal Ta$_2$Se$_8$I below 263 K, resulting in the appearance of the dynamical condensed-matter axion quasiparticle. In this study, we demonstrate that the interchain coupling in Ta$_2$Se$_8$I can be varied to suppress the CDW formation with pressure, while retaining the Weyl semimetal phase at high temperatures. Above 17 GPa, the Weyl semimetal phase does not survive and we induce superconductivity, due to the amorphization of the iodine sub-lattice. Structurally, the one-dimensional Ta-Se-chains remain intact and provide a superconducting channel in one dimension. We highlight that our results show a near-complete suppression of the gap induced by the axionic charge-density wave at pressures inaccessible to previous studies. Including this CDW phase, our experiments and theoretical predictions and analysis reveal the complete topological phase diagram of Ta$_2$Se$_8$I and its relationship to the nearby superconducting state. The results demonstrate Ta$_2$Se$_8$I to be a distinctively versatile platform for exploring correlated topological states.


Nowadays, the number of people who prefer to make online purchases on e-commerce platforms is constantly increasing. Online shopping turns out to be fast and cheap but it also involves some risks. In fact, it sometimes happens that a product, once received, is smaller or bigger than expected, or does not comply with what is described on the purchase site. Typically this happens because the information provided by retailers is not detailed and, moreover, the images usually show the product on a white background without any reference nearby to understand its true dimensions. To cope with this problem, we developed CompareDimensions, a software tool that helps customers during their online purchases, by allowing them to understand the correct dimensions of the product they are about to buy. Through this tool, a customer can see the images of the product and compare it with a series of reference images known to all, such as a man, a chair, a door or a child. The experimental evaluation, conducted on Amazon, shows that the use of the proposed tool helped people to figure out the real dimensions of products, with respect to the case in which only cutout images and textual descriptions are provided. In particular, according to our experiments, people who used the tool were able to understand the real dimensions of a product with 17.5% greater accuracy than those who did not use the tool. Focusing on critical products, average accuracy increased by 24%, with an improvement of 27% and 11% for products that proved to be smaller or larger than expected. Therefore, the adoption of CompareDimensions could help customers to understand the real dimensions of the products they want to buy, and consequently reduce the likelihood of a return.


Access to a central way through catheterization of the subclavian vein is a widely used technique. Not uncommonly, the procedure is followed by infective complications among which clavicular osteomyelitis and septic sternoclavicular arthritis represent a rare eventuality. We report two cases of staphylococcic bacteremia produced after subclavian vein catheterization. Both patients presented septic sternoclavicular arthritis and osteomyelitis of the sternal manubrium. The isolated microorganisms were Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis methicillin-resistant, respectively. The clinical course under antibiotic therapy was satisfactory in both cases. Septic metastases appear to be the most likely pathogenic mechanism for the osteoarticular complications.


Translocation is an important tool for wildlife conservation and biodiversity restoration, but an inefficient one because of the unpredictability of success. Predictors of success such as habitat quality of the release site and number of individuals released have been identified, but the dynamics of successful translocations remain poorly understood. In particular, little is known about the relationship of individual post‐release movements to population establishment. In 2004, Laysan teal Anas laysanensis were reintroduced by translocating 20 wild birds from Laysan Island to Midway Atoll. Twenty‐two additional wild founders were brought the next year. We monitored the survival, reproductive success and movements of the 42 translocated individuals and their offspring for 4 years. Additionally, we monitored population size from 2004 to 2010. Unlike most translocations, we did not observe elevated post‐release mortality despite flight‐feather trimming to prevent immediate dispersal off‐island: first year survival was > 90% and survival rates until 2009 were 0.65 ± 0.08 for founding adults. Laysan teal flew between the two main islands of Midway Atoll, and offspring had significantly larger maximum movement distances than founders. We monitored 84 nests and observed a significant, negative relationship of home range size to productivity for founding females. Flightless founders did not show fidelity to their release sites, but had strong fidelity to annual home ranges after attaining flight. Although we observed a component Allee effect on mate‐finding, this did not translate into a demographic Allee effect, and generally, the high fitness of founders contributed substantially to successful population establishment. Laysan teal abundance increased linearly until 2009, but showed evidence of population regulation afterwards. The population estimate was 473 (95% confidence interval 439–508) in 2010. On the much larger main Hawaiian Islands, we expect greater post‐release movement, a stronger component Allee effect, lower survival and lower reproductive rates because of predation to preclude successful reintroductions of this species to sites without predator management.


In over-the-counter markets for assets, such as bonds and securitizations, large volumes can be split into smaller pieces and gradually sold to several final investors with the intermediation of multiple dealers. This paper proposes a model to study this process, called asset dissemination. A dealer buys several units of an asset from a customer and then sells some units to the dealer's customers and to a second dealer, who sells to the second dealer's customers and to a third dealer, and so on. The extent of dissemination is measured by the number of dealers involved and the total customer demand served. We show that asymmetric information on customer demand hinders both dimensions of dissemination. We also study how the quantity to disseminate and the dealers' funding costs impact dissemination and the prices and quantities in interdealer transactions. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.


Urbanisation and climate change are urging cities to chart novel paths towards sustainability. European cities are increasingly looking to the circular economy (CE) as one route to achieve a sustainable future. The CE concept describes how flows of resources moving through economies can be 'closed'. The aim of this article is to explore how emergent 'circular cities' are adopting CE as a strategy. We found that leadership of the agenda, building adaptable future visions, using experimental approaches (such as living labs), developing contextual knowledge about resource use, and engaging with diverse stakeholders to be important. However, we also identify that there is a lack of consensus on what a circular city constitutes and a need to untangle how a circular city might be developed in practice. The research contributes to the field by outlining emergent cases, a set of common strategies, and providing an initial conceptualisation of a circular city.


In recent years, architectural design with dynamic facade has been more widely introduced as a solution for building environmental issues. From the morphological point of view, this paper attempts to explore the performance otherness of different dynamic typologies during the optimisation of the design process. Take highrise office building in the tropical region as an example, The two common typologies of rotation and folding are compared and discussed by parameter simulation method with 36 cases in terms of scale, motion and transmittance to find the optimal trade-off between minimising energy demand for cooling and lighting and maximising daylight comfort. The results of the study show that the energy demand for cooling and lighting can be reduced by 19%24% through dynamic façade while folding typology has better performance in energy conservation in all the three orientations. For daylighting, the average daylight comfort area has an increase of 5%-14%, while the value of rotation typology is higher than folding typology. Furthermore, Motion has an influence on the daylight and energy performance except for energy demand of rotation typology. Differently, Transmittance is related to both performances except daylight of rotation typology. This study provides a performance-based approach to dynamic facade selection. A designer could make the decision not only from aesthetic considerations but also combine them to get higher performance.


Consciousness is a concept that can be easily experimented but not easily defined. We show that the same observation applies to information, entropy and even energy. The best we can do is thus to generate and present "identity-cards" of these notions by listing their observable attributes with the help of mathematics, logics, information theory and thermodynamics. From a top-down approach starting from a view of reality based on a universal information field, emerges a ternary logical structure of consciousness that further generates, through meaning, a dualistic space-time continuum populated with an infinite number of "things". The validity of our logical structure is backed by quotations from topmost scientists and by various mappings such as famous previous models used in philosophy and science. Implications in neurosciences are also briefly discussed.


The name of Salvador Minuchin is one of the best known in the field of family counselling. Structural family therapy with which Minuchin is identified, has only been developed in the second half of the twentieth centurv. It is a body of theory and techniques which approaches the individual in his social context. It focuses on individuals within the context of the family and, in doing so. asserts that the site of pathology is the family itself. rather than a designated individual. Structural family therapy assumes that context affects inner proceses and that changes in context will produce changes in the individual. The object of therapy is therefore to effect changes in the internal organisation and communication processes of the family in therapy. Minuchin outlines the theory of structural family therapy and illustrates the techniques employed with verbatim reports of interviews with several families. The latter probably comprise the most interesting and enlightening section of the book. While he emphasises the complementarity of the family and society, sociologists might wish that he had devoted more space to this but, then, as he implies, the line must be drawn somewhere.


Fire is a complex Earth system phenomenon that fundamentally affects vegetation distributions, biogeochemical cycling, climate, and human society across most of Earth's land surface. Fire regimes are currently changing due to multiple interacting global change drivers, most notably climate change, land use, and direct human influences via ignition and suppression. It is therefore critical to better understand the drivers, patterns, and impacts of these changing fire regimes now and continuing into the future. Our review contributes to this focus issue by synthesizing results from 27 studies covering a broad range of topics. Studies are categorized into (i) Understanding contemporary fire patterns, drivers, and effects; (ii) Human influences on fire regimes; (iii) Changes in historical fire regimes; (iv) Future projections; (v) Novel techniques; and (vi) Reviews. We conclude with a discussion on progress made, major remaining research challenges, and recommended directions.


The emergence of the Internet allows millions of people to use a variety of electronic information retrieval systems, such as: digital libraries, Web search engines, online databases, and online public access catalogs. Interactive Information Retrieval in Digital Environments provides theoretical framework in understanding the nature of information retrieval, and offers implications for the design and evolution of interactive information retrieval systems. Interactive Information Retrieval in Digital Environments includes the integration of existing frameworks on user-oriented information retrieval systems across multiple disciplines; the comprehensive review of empirical studies of interactive information retrieval systems for different types of users, tasks, and subtasks; and the discussion of how to evaluate interactive information retrieval systems. Researchers, designers, teachers, scholars, and professionals will gain the foundation for new research on this subject matter, and guidance to evaluate new information retrieval systems for the general public as well as for specific user groups.


Our literature review analyzes the available studies on the effect of long- and short-term lumbo-sacral orthotic (LSO) treatment on the muscles of the back.We reviewed the existing diagnostic approaches to evaluation of muscle changes, including surface EMG, measurements of muscle strength and tolerance, and findings on muscle ultrasound study. It has been revealed that none of the available works confirmed a significant negative effect of LSO, both by shortand long-term application, or atrophic changes in the muscles. Thus, we may conclude that there are no significant data on the effect of the LSO treatment on the main parameters that are measured and reflect spinal muscles weakness and/or atrophy.


Supported rhodium carbonyls were synthesized by deposition of Rh6(CO)16 on TiO2. The samples were active for gas-phase dimethyl ether carbonylation in the presence of methyl iodide to give methyl acetate. Infrared spectra recorded under reaction conditions indicate that CO was activated on Rh sites in the form of Rh dicarbonyls, while dimethyl ether was dissociatively adsorbed on the support in the form of methoxy species bonded linearly to Ti4+ sites. The results also indicate the presence of Rh–acetyl and acetate complexes, as evidenced by the appearance of νCO bands at 1727 and 1668 cm−1 during catalysis. These surface species could be regarded as reaction intermediates. The data demonstrate the bifunctional character of metal oxide-supported Rh catalysts and suggest that the carbonylation reactions of dimethyl ether and methanol catalysed by supported Rh occur by analogous mechanisms.


Permafrost dynamics play an important role in high‐latitude peatland carbon balance and are key to understanding the future response of soil carbon stocks. Permafrost aggradation can control the magnitude of the carbon feedback in peatlands through effects on peat properties. We compiled peatland plant macrofossil records for the northern permafrost zone (515 cores from 280 sites) and classified samples by vegetation type and environmental class (fen, bog, tundra and boreal permafrost, and thawed permafrost). We examined differences in peat properties (bulk density, carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and organic matter content, and C/N ratio) and C accumulation rates among vegetation types and environmental classes. Consequences of permafrost aggradation differed between boreal and tundra biomes, including differences in vegetation composition, C/N ratios, and N content. The vegetation composition of tundra permafrost peatlands was similar to permafrost‐free fens, while boreal permafrost peatlands more closely resembled permafrost‐free bogs. Nitrogen content in boreal permafrost and thawed permafrost peatlands was significantly lower than in permafrost‐free bogs despite similar vegetation types (0.9% versus 1.5% N). Median long‐term C accumulation rates were higher in fens (23 g C m−2 yr−1) than in permafrost‐free bogs (18 g C m−2 yr−1) and were lowest in boreal permafrost peatlands (14 g C m−2 yr−1). The plant macrofossil record demonstrated transitions from fens to bogs to permafrost peatlands, bogs to fens, permafrost aggradation within fens, and permafrost thaw and reaggradation. Using data synthesis, we have identified predominant peatland successional pathways, changes in vegetation type, peat properties, and C accumulation rates associated with permafrost aggradation.


Gastro-oesophageal reflux is a physiological phenomenon and occurs in every healthy subject approximately 40 times every day. Twenty percent of the general western population experiences reflux symptoms such as heartburn, regurgitation, and retrosternal pain at least once a week. Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is a condition in which symptoms or complications are brought about by reflux of gastric contents into the oesophagus.
Ambulatory 24h pH-impedance monitoring can be performed in order to assess a relationship between reflux symptoms and reflux episodes. This measurement can be helpful in patients who fail to respond satisfactorily to proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), and in whom the diagnosis GORD is uncertain. In this thesis we have shown that an ambulatory 24h pH-impedance measurement in patients who do not respond satisfactorily to PPI therapy should preferably be performed after the cessation of PPIs. This results in the best discrimination between patients who truly have GORD and those who do not.
In addition, we describe a study into different pH-electrodes (antimony, ISFET and glass pH electrodes) that can be used to measure intra-oesophageal pH. It appears that ISFET-electrodes are not influenced by temperature and components of buffer solutions, and theoretically result in the most reliable measurements.
The analysis of impedance tracings requires expertise and is time consuming. We have shown that computer analysis can be helpful, but is less reliable than manual analysis.
GORD patients often report an increase of their reflux symptoms during stressful situations. In this thesis we assessed the influence of acute psychological stress on oesophageal acid perception and conclude that neither in healthy volunteers nor in GORD patients, acute psychological stress induced by an IQ test increased oesophageal acid perception.
Besides typical reflux symptoms GORD patients often complain of excessive belching. It is known that GORD patients swallow air more frequently than healthy subjects. We have shown that this is likely the result of the experience of reflux symptoms. In theory, swallowing may reduce the uncomfortable oesophageal sensation.
Besides normal belching (an air-escape from the stomach), we have shown that supragastric belching occurs in patients with reflux symptoms as well. This typical belching pattern has previously been shown in patients with excessive belching as primary and presenting symptom and concerns probably a behavioral disorder.
In approximately 50% of the patients with reflux symptoms supragastric belches were identified. More interestingly, 50% of these supragastric belches were related to reflux episodes, suggesting that supragastric belching elicits reflux in some cases and is the patient's response to an unpleasant esophageal sensation in others.
In this thesis we describe a group of patients who have large amount of intestinal gas on plain abdominal radiographs. We have shown, using ambulatory 24h pH-impedance monitoring, that these patients have high incidences of air swallows and gastric belches. Therefore, this study presents objective parameters confirming the existence of a phenomenon of excessive air swallowing or aerophagia using esophageal impedance monitoring.
The last chapter of this thesis concerns a study into the effect of speech therapy on the symptoms of patients with excessive supragastric belching. In more than 50% of the patients, speech therapy resulted in significant improvement of the severity of symptoms. Therefore, we conclude that speech therapy performed by a well-informed speech therapist leads to a significant symptom reduction in patients with excessive supragastric belching.


The fast development of agro-biotechnologies asks for a harmonized approach in risk analysis of GMO's releases, where "risk analysis" entails the assessment, management and communication of risk. Risk assessment consists in the evaluation of the likeli- hood that a hazard occurs, associated with the presence of the receptor(s) in the receiving environment, and the determination of their potential degree of exposure to the hazard. The whole process has to be both science based and applied case by case, and it involves a very complicated procedure that needs to be transformed in an operational and standardized tool. Beginning in 2003, an expert group on behalf of the Italian Ministry of the Environment elaborated an Operating Model for the Environmental Risk As- sessment (OMERA) mainly addressed to scientists, companies, regulators, environmentalists, and also aiming to provide the stakeholders with a scientifically correct source of information. OMERA is based on a logic scheme, moving from the assumption that the occurring of a risk, associated to the release of a GMO into the environment, is strictly related to the presence of four ele- ments: a) source; b) diffusion factors; c) dispersal routes; d) receptors. It comprises two main components: a conceptual model represented as a flowchart and an electronic Questionnaire (eQ) driven by a relational database (Microsoft Office Access). The eQ includes sets of questions specifically formulated for each box of the flowchart that create a "decision tree" that can be followed from the source to all the components of the conceptual model. Completing the eQ leads to the identification of the potentially affected receptors and related potential effects. Within the framework of a LIFE+ project (MAN-GMP-ITA) a multidisciplinary group was formed to validate and improve this methodology. The questionnaire has been filled simulating the release of herbicide tolerant GT73 oilseed rape and insect resistant MON810 maize in different experimental areas. The results attested that OMERA allows the collection and comparison of experimental data in a standard way and at the same time leads to the identification of receptors, potential effects and related monitoring activities specifically for the case study. The experiences described in this paper have shown the potential area of improvement of OMERA to achieve a more functional Decision Supporting System (DSS) that would give a quantitative risk evaluation and the extension to commercial fields. As for OMERA, the DSS will be user-friendly and could be easily modified and adapted to specific situations i.e risk assessment of GM crop field trials.


OF THESIS I CAN'T BELIEVE MY INSTRUCTOR DID THAT?! MIDDLE EASTERN STUDENTS' EXPECTATIONS OF INSTURCTORS' VERBAL AND NONVERBAL IMMEDIACY BEHAVIORS This study seeks to explore an understudied population, Middle Eastern students, in the area of instructional communication. Of particular interest, the study seeks to understand how Middle Eastern students' view their Western instructors' verbal and nonverbal immediacy. The literature review establishes a conceptualization for verbal and nonverbal immediacy and the relationship between immediacy and gender, and immediacy and culture. Expectancy violations theory is used to understand the phenomena from an expectancy violations perspective and Hofstede's dimensions will be used in an instructional context to understand how Middle Eastern students' culture may influence students' expectations. This study uses a mixed method approach to create a holistic views of Middle Eastern students' expectations and expectancy violations. The survey method seeks to understand Middle Eastern students' expectation for instructor verbal and nonverbal immediacy, and email responses seeks to understand expectancy violations and cultural influence on student expectancies. The results of the study show that Middle Eastern students view verbal and nonverbal immediacy as important factors in the student-teacher relationship and cultural factors play a role in students' expectations.


In this paper, we evaluate a new design of a previously presented agile single-chip receiver front-end intended for a digital beamforming X-band smart skin array antenna. Firstly, by using a two-stage low noise amplifier in each filter section of the tunable active filter used in the front-end, a higher filter gain and selectivity as well as a lower filter noise figure can be achieved at the expense of a smaller filter tuning range. Secondly, the 1GHz-IF double balanced mixer also utilized in the front-end has been re-optimized to achieve higher image rejection and lower conversion loss. As a result of the filter and mixer RF performance improvements achieved the re-designed front-end can exhibit at least 5085dB of image rejection, up to 13dB of conversion gain, a 6.4dB minimum value noise figure and 6065dB of spurious-free dynamic range over the 7.6-8.6GHz agile receiver bandwidth, respectively.


Objective. Iron deficiency anemia is known to impair cognitive and psychomotor development. The zinc protoporphyrin/heme (ZPP/H) ratio is a simple, accurate, and sensitive laboratory screening test that detects early iron depletion before the onset of anemia. The objective of this work was to evaluate this test in a primary pediatric practice setting. Methods. The iron status of a cohort of 361 children was screened during routine examinations at a community pediatric practice. Whole blood hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit ratio, serum transferrin saturation, ferritin concentration, and the ZPP/H ratio were measured. The ZPP/H ratio then was evaluated as a single indicator of iron status by comparing it with other tests for detecting the onset of iron deficiency and for monitoring recovery after iron supplementation. Results. Significant age- and sex-related differences in the ZPP/H ratio were found. In this cohort, serum ferritin concentration and the ZPP/H ratio independently identified the same fraction of iron-deficient patients (3%–4%), and both tests were more specific than was either hemoglobin or hematocrit. A concordance of three iron status parameters changed the prediction of iron deficiency to ≤1%. Children Conclusion. The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in the typical healthy American pediatric population is low, but iron deficiency without anemia remains relatively common at some stages of development. Increase in the ZPP/H ratio is demonstrated to be a sensitive, specific, and cost-effective test for identifying preanemic iron deficiency in a community pediatric practice. anemia, nutrition, development.


ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE FACTORS FOR INCREASING ONLINE LEARNING WITHIN A SOUTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM by David Edwin Stone This bounded case study describes the readiness of a Southeastern State University System to support the growth of online learning. Structured as a case study, the view provided of the Southeastern State University System in this moment in time provides a contextually rich view of the phenomenon of change within a university system. The study answers the following questions regarding the change towards online course delivery: 1. Does the Southeastern State University System have a primarily transformational or transactional orientation? 2. What are the key change facilitating factors within the Southeastern State University System? 3. What are the key change restraining factors within the Southeastern State University System? The key change facilitating factors identified as part of the first phase of the study included: motivation to change, job/task requirements and organizational culture supportive of change. The perspectives of the administrators regarding facilitating factors differed, as did views on if the organizational culture was supportive of change. The CIO interviewed described a variation in perspectives regarding online learning based on institutional categories and missions, which was reflected in the interviews. The key change restraining factors were identified during the survey phase of the study as: change related systems, emotional impact of change and change mission and strategy. Financial incentives, both for the institutions and the individuals involved in online or blended activities was identified in the interviews. However, the CIO interviewed outlined a perspective that the funding model for collaborative programs in the university system was flawed. A perceived lack of change mission strategy was common through the interviews, with signs pointing towards improvement within the system, with a new focus on online learning as part of an initiative to have more college graduates within the state. This study provides a snapshot of the state of a university system as it adapts to the changing environment of higher education. The study describes the application of an established organizational change and development model to the study of online learning, which provides future researchers with a framework to investigate online learning at a university system level. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE FACTORS FOR INCREASING ONLINE LEARNING WITHIN A SOUTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM by David Edwin Stone


For many years it has been evident that B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) displays preferential usage of individual immunoglobulin (Ig) variable heavy chain (VH) genes. The VH1‐69 gene was the first to be reported overrepresented in a large number of CLL patients, where the VH1‐69+ CLL rearrangements showed characteristic molecular features, such as unmutated VH genes, usage of specific diversity/joining gene segments, and a longer than average complementarity determining region (CDR) 3 with certain common amino acid motifs. Also, biased usage of the VH3‐07 and VH4‐34 genes with specific rearrangement characteristics was reported in CLL. These findings led to the speculation that antigens could be involved during CLL development by triggering proliferation of B‐cells with specific B‐cell receptors (BCRs) leading to an increased risk of transforming events. Recently, we characterized a subset of CLL utilizing the VH3‐21 gene that also displayed peculiar Ig features, e.g. very short and homologous CDR3s, predominant λ expression and preferential Vλ2‐14 gene usage. This VH3‐21+ subgroup also had poor prognosis despite the fact that two‐thirds of cases carried mutated VH genes. Moreover, we and others have thereafter described further CLL subsets with very similar heavy and light chain gene rearrangement features. These latter findings of subsets expressing restricted BCRs have emphasized the hypothesis that antigens could play a role during the pathogenesis of CLL. Interestingly, recombinant antibodies produced from these restricted subsets showed similar cytoplasmatic reactivity within each group, thus suggesting recognition of a limited number of autoantigens. Further characterization of antigens is now necessary in order to understand their nature and exact role in CLL development. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Sustainability of water resources is vital especially for developing countries such as Iran which are located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where water is scarce. To balance the high demand of water for economical growth and at the same time preserve the environment for present and future generations, sustainability of water resources should be considered by monitoring and data mining. For this purpose, several quantified indices have been proposed and applied world wide recently. In this paper, the Canadian Water Sustainability Index (CWSI) proposed by PRI, has been trailed for the case of Ahwaz County, a community located in South West of Iran fed by Karun River. Required data for the composite CWSI score which is the average of five major theme-based components (i.e. resource, ecosystem health, infrastructure, human health capacity) was collected according to the PRI evaluation method. In addition to the standardized CWSI, the final index was also calculated considering weight estimation for the five components by pair-wise comparison, using Expert Choice version 2000. Results showed that application of this index as a policy tool, with some modifications in weights, was satisfactory for the educational case study and could be replicated for other communities in Iran.


Seagate designed a micro-actuator that enables fine positioning by a dual-stage servo system to increase recording density of hard disk drives (HDDs). In this paper, a degradation accelerated life test (ALT) performed at Seagate using two stressors (temperature and AC voltage) is discussed. Statistical ALT analysis techniques were used to assess the test results. Finally, the Palgrem-Miner's damage accumulation rule was employed (applied AC voltage on micro-actuator being a narrow-band random process) to predict the micro-actuator reliability. The results show that the micro-actuator designed by Seagate demonstrates very high long-term reliability. The approach presented in this paper can be universally applied for predicting device field reliability using in-house ALT data modeling and field usage profile information


The aims of this study were to examine parental views on the onset of symptoms, impact on functioning and meanings attributed to their child's bipolar disorder. Early onset bipolar disorder impacts on development and functioning across multiple domains. Psychosocial disability fluctuates in parallel with changes in affective symptoms and may significantly affect family members. This study utilized descriptive statistical data and qualitative data from parental self-reports of 85 participants in a trial of psychotherapy for young people (15–34 years) with bipolar disorder. A content analysis was conducted on the written self-reports. Most parents identified the onset of depressive symptoms in their child by early adolescence, but it was not until late adolescence, or later, that parents noted symptoms of mania. The onset of symptoms during a crucial period of development had a considerable impact on social and occupational functioning. Without prompting, the parents took the opportunity to attempt to make sense of the diagnosis by attributing its onset to childhood adversity, parenting or substance misuse. Parents often blame themselves for the development of bipolar disorder in their child. Nursing care for clients with bipolar disorder could include interventions for the family to help them understand and manage the disorder. Such interventions could include: psycho-education, communication enhancement and problem-solving skills training.


Plant canopies are strong sources of bacterial aerosols during sunny days when the leaves are dry. Bacterial concentration, upward flux, and deposition onto exposed petri plates were measured over snap beans during three growing seasons. A net upward flux of bacteria occurred only during the warm part of sunny days, not at night when leaves were wet with dew or when a thermal inversion was present. Aerosol source strength was positively correlated with wind speed. Upward fluxes were higher on days after rain than on days when the soil was dry. Other unidentified sources of variability in source strength probably exist. Canopy-level deposition, apparently due to intermediate-scale transport of bacteria in fairly concentrated clouds, can occur in the early evening.


In this letter, the effects of line compensation of an single-machine infinite-bus power system using fixed-capacitor thyristor-controlled reactor-type or SVC for transient stability enhancement are analyzed. In particular, a novel method for analysis of line compensation by an SVC is presented. The maximum power transfer, for line compensation by FACTS controllers can be written in the form=(1-k) where is the maximum power transfer for the uncompensated line and k is the degree of compensation. The analysis revealed that the effectiveness of the SVC for stability enhancement is increased if the degree of compensation of the line is increased.


There is a growing interest in producing story based game experiences that do not follow fixed scripts predefined by the author, but change the experience based on actions performed by the player during his interaction. In order to achieve this objective, previous approaches have employed a drama management component that produces a narratively pleasing arc based on an author specified aesthetic value of a story, ignoring a player's personal preference for that story path. Furthermore, previous approaches have used a simulated player model to assess their approach, ignoring real human players interacting with the story based game. This paper presents an approach that uses a case based player preference modeling component that predicts an interestingness value for a particular plot point within the story. These interestingness values are based on real human players' interactions with the story. We also present a drama manager that uses a search process (based on the expectimax algorithm) and combines the author specified aesthetic values with the player model.


Transition metal doped graphene is evaluated as drug delivery system for methotrexate (MTX) which belongs to anti-metabolic class of anticancer drugs. This study was carried out to evaluate therapeutic potentials of transition metal (TM) doped graphene as a drug delivery system for methotrexate (MTX) to treat cancer. To explore the effectiveness of TM doped graphene as a drug delivery system, its electronic, geometric and excited state properties were evaluated. The presence and nature of weak interaction forces between TM doped graphene and MTX were illustrated through non-covalent interaction (NCI) analysis. These forces are typically helpful for the easy drug offloading at the target. Frontier molecular orbital analysis exposed that charge was shifted from TM doped graphene to MTX through Co atoms present in TM doped graphene throughout excitation from HOMO to LUMO. Charge decomposition analysis (CDA) further supplemented the charge transfer from carrier to drug. It was shown that λmax for MTX-TM doped graphene complex was red shifted by 393 nm. The change in stabilization energies of natural bonding orbitals was observed through NBO analysis. The significant therapeutic potential of TM-doped graphene as a drug delivery system was confirmed during this study. And this study shall motivate the exploration of other 2D in drug delivery applications.


A woman who was five weeks pregnant ingested mifeiston with misoprostol for induction of an abortion. She developed shock 10 minutes after taking three pieces of misoprostol. By way of a series of emergency treatments, the patient improved from her critical condition and an abortion followed. We concluded that the medicine that induced the shock was misoprostol and not the others. In clinical settings where abortions are medicine-induced, it is important to monitor the patient closely after dosing in order to avoid this complication.


Article History: Received 11.09.2019 Received in revised form 27.12.2019 Accepted Available online 01.01.2020 The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of English teachers regarding the use of technology supported tools, such as; computer and internet, in foreign language education by taking into account the variables of age, gender, seniority and educational background. For this purpose, teachers were asked whether they make use of computer-aided teaching materials, if so, in which area of foreign language education they use, the differences between traditional education and computer assisted language learning, the difficulties encountered and the skills they should have. In this study, a case study pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods was used. Participants of the study consist of 11 English teachers selected by the convenience sampling model. In the study, the data were collected through a semi-structured interview form consisting of six questions. data were analyzed using descriptive analysis method. First, similar opinions were gathered around under six themes and the codes of these themes were tabulated. results of the study show that 55% of teachers use educational technology to attract students' attention to the topic and to increase efficiency, 45% of them use the computer and smart board especially to improve students' speaking and listening skills, 91% of them stated that technology–aided education makes students more willing to learn because it provides permanent learning. It was seen that 55% of the participants have internet access problem and the 64% of the participants stated that they should have basic technology usage skills.


This study was designed to contrast the effects of prolonged treatment with a thromboxane (Tx) synthase inhibitor (UK 38485 or SC 41156) and a Tx receptor antagonist (SQ 29548) on the development of angiotensin II (Ang II)-salt-induced hypertension. Ang II infusion (125 ng/min i.p. for 12 days) in rats drinking 0.15 M NaCl resulted in severe hypertension accompanied by proteinuria, reduction of urinary creatinine excretion and augmentation of urinary TxB2 excretion and TxB2 release from aortic rings and renal cortex slices. In saline-drinking rats undergoing Ang II infusion, the concomitant administration by gavage of UK 38485 (100 mg/kg/day) or SC 41156 (25 mg/kg/day) reduced serum and urinary TxB2 and TxB2 release from aortic rings and/or renal cortex slices, but it was without effect on the development of hypertension. In contrast, concomitant infusion of SQ 29548 (4.2 mg/24 hr s.c.) significantly attenuated the increase of blood pressure produced by the infusion of Ang II in saline-drinking rats. This effect of SQ 29548 may be the consequence of blockade of the actions of one or more endogenous eicosanoids that increase blood pressure by a mechanism(s) involving interaction with TxA2 receptors. This implies that pressor eicosanoids play a contributory role in the development of severe Ang II-salt hypertension.


The aim of this project is to evaluate the possibility to integrate, in terms of energy, the future Nya Studenternas IP and Uppsala University Hospital. The focus is on integration of thermal energy solutions. To cover the cooling demand a seasonal snow storage and the use of cooling machines is studied. For the heat demand a joint heat storage is investigated which is heated partly with the excess heat from cooling machines. The environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions is investigated. A conclusion drawn from the project is that the use of district heating and cooling of Nya Studenternas IP and the Uppsala University Hospital could be reduced in several ways by integrating the energy systems of the two facilities. For instance, with the support of a seasonal snow storage and cooling machines for cooling, and heat obtained from the cooling machines for heating, the emissions of CO2 could be reduced with 36% based on a Nordic electricity mixture. Out of the suggested integrated energy solutions the most efficient when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions is cooling and heating through cooling machines with a capacity of reducing the CO2 emissions of 20.6 %.


Privately Protected Areas (PPAs) are a growing trend in conservation and have been promoted by global environmental institutions such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an essential component for achieving conservation targets. PPAs are on the rise worldwide and particularly in Chile, where neoliberal reform has created new spaces in conservation management for private individuals and civil society. However, little empirical research examines their effects on local people. Drawing from critiques of the neoliberalisation of nature and the intertwining of capitalism and conservation, this research explores the case of a particular PPA in Chile, Patagonia Park; asking specifically: what are the impacts of this particular PPA on local residents? Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this research finds that the park has been detrimental to local livelihoods, disrupted systems of production, and elicited emotional responses of pain, sadness, and loss. The relation between the park and community has been characterised by a lack of information and understanding, and reveals deeply contrasting views of nature held by park administrators and local residents. We find that, in this case, the social impacts of the PPA are similar to those that have long been documented and criticised in state-run, 'fortress conservation' models. When we look closely at the history of many state-run protected areas, we see that private capital has always played a central role in conservation. This research suggests then that there may be little truly novel about PPAs in terms of both process of development, and the ways that local people experience them.


This paper examines investment decisions in an economy with two financial markets: an official market, which is subject to rationing due to an interest rate ceiling, and an unrestricted market, with a higher interest rate. In this context, the long-run equilibrium aggregate capital stock is unambiguously higher than in the absence of the interest rate ceiling, even though its relationship with the ceiling is non-monotonic. Empirical results using aggregate panel data from 52 developing countries for the period 1974–1988 provide support for the model, particularly in economies that have some access to international capital markets.


Exogenous leptin administration has been shown to adversely effect sperm count and sperm morphology in normal adult rats. It is however unknown if it affects sperm DNA integrity and increases apoptosis of sperm and testicular tissue cells. This study therefore investigated the effect of leptin administration on sperm count, morphology, sperm DNA integrity, sperm DNA damage, apoptosis and histone-to-protamine ratios and its prevention by melatonin in Sprague-Dawley rats. It also examined the reversal of these effects on sperm parameters for up to 56 days following cessation of leptin treatment. Seventy-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats, aged 12 weeks, were randomized into 13 groups, Group 1 rats acted as a control and were given saline. Group 2 rats were given 60 | μg/kg body weight daily of leptin for 42 days. Group 3 (leptin-melatonin-10) rats were given 60 | μg/kg /day of leptin and 10 mg of melatonin/day/kg body weight in drinking water. Group 4 (leptin-melatonin-20) rats were given 60 |μg/kg/day of leptin and 20 mg of melatonin/day/kg body weight in drinking water. Group 5 (melatonin-10) rats were given 10 mg of melatonin/day/kg body weight in drinking water. The remaining 8 groups were divided into four leptin and four saline treated control groups to examine the reversal of adverse effects of leptin. They were given intra-peritoneal (i.p.) injections of leptin daily at a dose of 60 |ug/kg body weight for 42 days. Control rats received 0.1 ml of 0.9% saline. On day 43, one group of leptin treated rats and one group of age-matched saline treated control rats were euthanized for collection of epididymal sperm. The remaining three groups together with their age-matched saline treated controls were allowed to recover further for either 21, 42 or 56 days. Sperm count, morphology, histone-to-protamine ratios, 8-OHdG, apoptosis, sperm DNA damage, and gene expression profiles using micro-array analysis of the rat testes were determined. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and post-hoc analysis and presented as mean ± SEM. Compared to the controls, sperm count was significantly lower whereas the fraction of sperm with abnormal morphology, histone-to-protamine ratios, the level of 8-OHdG, apoptotic activity and sperm DNA fragmentation were significantly higher in leptin treated rats but not in leptin-melatonin-20 rats. Micro-array analysis revealed significant up-regulation of the expression of respiratory chain enzymes, apoptosis, DNA damage genes and down-regulation of anti-oxidant enzyme genes. All these differences were still evident at days 21 and 42 but not at day 56 of recovery period. In summary, it appears that leptin administration significantly decreases sperm count and down-regulated the anti-oxidant enzyme genes. It increases the fraction of sperm with abnormal morphology, DNA damage, apoptosis, DNA fragmentation and expression of caspase-independent apoptosis genes and DNA damage marker genes. These effects are prevented by concurrent administration of melatonin at dose of 20mg/kg. It appears also these adverse effects of leptin on sperm parameters are completely reversed within 56 days posttreatment in Sprague-Dawley rats.


E R Abstract This paper examines the monetary policy transmission mechanism in four systemically important economies. The impact of monetary policy is found to be broadly comparable for China, the US, the Eurozone, and Japan. Identifying a role for the financial sector is essential to unpacking various channels through which monetary policy operates. Global factors play a significant role and their impact is strongest for China and weakest for Japan. China's impact is significant with the Eurozone displaying the most interdependence and Japan the least. Time-varying VARs suggest that contrasts in the responses to monetary policy shocks persist highlighting some of the remaining differences in the transmission mechanism. Finally, there is no apparent structural change in the estimated relationships around the time when the Fed intervened after 2008. It is conjectured that Quantitative Easing may well have prevented such a break. ABSTRACT This paper examines the monetary policy transmission mechanism in four systemically important economies. The impact of monetary policy is found to be broadly comparable for China, the US, the Eurozone, and Japan. Identifying a role for the financial sector is essential to unpacking various channels through which monetary policy operates. Global factors play a significant role and their impact is strongest for China and weakest for Japan. China's impact is significant with the Eurozone displaying the most interdependence and Japan the least. Time-varying VARs suggest that contrasts in the responses to monetary policy shocks persist highlighting some of the remaining differences in the transmission mechanism. Finally, there is no apparent structural change in the estimated relationships around the time when the Fed intervened after 2008. It is conjectured that Quantitative Easing may well have prevented such a break.


Molecular methods have been applied to analyze the expression of the Alcaligenes eutrophus poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) synthase gene (phbC). The translational initiation codon was identified by analysis of the amino acid sequence of a PHB synthase-beta-galactosidase fusion protein. This protein was purified to almost gel electrophoretic homogeneity by chromatography on DEAE-Sephacel and on aminophenyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside-Sepharose from cells of A. eutrophus which harbored a phbC'-'lacZ fusion gene. A sequence (TTGACA-18N-AACAAT), exhibiting striking homology to the Escherichia coli sigma 70 promoter consensus sequence, was identified approximately 310 bp 5' upstream from the translation initiation codon. An S1 nuclease protection assay mapped the transcription start point of phbC 6 bp downstream from this promoter. The location of the promoter was confirmed by analyzing the expression of active PHB synthase in clones of E. coli harboring 5' upstream deletions of phbC ligated to the promoter of the lacZ gene (lacZp) in a Bluescript vector. Plasmids do181 and do218, which were deleted for the first 108 or 300 bp of the phbC structural gene, respectively, conferred the ability to synthesize large amounts of different truncated PHB synthase proteins to the cells. These proteins contributed to approximately 10% of the total cellular protein as estimated from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. The modified PHB synthase encoded by plasmid do181 was still active. Clones in which the lacZp-'phbC fusion harbored the complete phbC structural gene plus the phbC ribosome binding site did not overexpress PHB synthase.


This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies become cheaper and more readily available, consumers without formal design training will begin to customise, design and manufacture their own products. Much of this activity is likely to infringe on brands' intellectual property. The research explores the feasibility of a situation in which, rather than attempting to prohibit such activity, manufacturers engage with consumers to facilitate it, thus retaining control (albeit reduced) over their brand's image and the quality of products offered.

The research begins with a literature review encompassing AM technologies and their adoption by consumers; mass customisation (MC) and the management of variation in product offering; and traditional models of industrial design (ID), including user-centred design and co-design. It finds that conventional definitions of MC and ID are unable to provide for the possibility of consumer intervention in the shape and non-modular configuration of products. Further research was then conducted in the areas of Open Design (including crowdsourcing, open sourcing and 'hardware hacking') as well as bespoke customisation, which were found to be much more accommodating of the scenario proposed. A new term, 'consumer design', is introduced and defined, together with the hypothesis that in future, the role of the industrial designer may be to design 'unfinished' products. An original classification of consumer involvement in ID is presented.

Empirical research, undertaken with consumers using an iterative design software package (Genoform), demonstrated a preference for designing within pre-determined boundaries. Action research was conducted to assess consumer-oriented 3D CAD software, and compare its capabilities with that of MC toolkits. A survey of senior designers and brand managers revealed strategies for implementing and managing a brand's product design language, and a guide was created to show the relative importance of designed features. Using these findings, a prototype toolkit was created to demonstrate how a brand might facilitate consumer interaction with the shape design of a complex consumer electronics product (in this case a mobile phone). The toolkit was tested with both consumers and experienced designers to assess its viability.

The research finds that it is possible to create a consumer-design toolkit which enables untrained users to change the form of a product, whilst maintaining brand equity and ensuring the product's functionality and manufacturability.


Lactic and propionic bacteria are actively used as feed and food biopreservatives. The industrial production of these bacteria is carried out using known standard biotechnological approaches and equipment. However, the modern requirements to the volumes of their production require the development of new technologies providing the more intensive growth of bacterial biomass. One of the possible ways to do it is the use of nonspecific stimulators of chemical or physical origin. The stimulating effect of ultrasound on live systems attracts attention of many researchers. Depending on the sonication parameters and conditions, the impact of ultrasound on cell cultures can either stimulate or suppress their life processes. The possibility of the ultrasound stimulation of the biomass accumulation process has been studied for submerged bacterial cultures of Lactococcus lactis VPKM B-2092 , Lactobacillus plantarum VPKM B-4173 , and Propionibacterium acidipropionici VPKM B-2092 . The inoculum with cell contentration of 1 · 10 8 mL -1 was sonicated at 880 kHz and energy density varied within 0.1-0.7 W/cm 3 using a specially designed cuvette, through which the cell suspension was introduced into a fermenter at a rate of 10 mL/s that provided the total sonication time equal to 100-120 seconds. As a signal source, a standard therapeutical ultrasound apparatus UZT-1.01F equipped with a sweep generator was used. For all three cultures, the ultrasound stimulation resulted in a significant increase in the optical density of culture broth comparing to the control and the corresponding increase of the cell concentration. The optimum sonication energy density for the Lactococcus lactis VPKM B-2092 , Lactobacillus plantarum VPKM B-4173 , and Propionibacterium acidipropionici VPKM B-2092 was equal to 0.5, 0.3-0.5 и 0.3 W/cm 3 , respectively. Comparing to the control, the cell count of these strains in the culture broth increased in 28.6, 9, and 16.7 times, respectively. Thus, the ultrasound stimulation of inoculum provides a significant increase in the biomass of cells producing lactic and propionic acid that, in turn, increases the economic efficiency of their industrial use. Since the mechanisms of such stimulating action of ultrasound are well-studied, and the exploitation of ultrasound generators is simple and cheap, the further development of the ultrasound stimulation approach seems to be very promising for the industrial microbiology.


Twenty-three consecutive CT examinations in cases of chronic osteomyelitis were analyzed and compared to conventional radiologic and surgical findings and histologic examinations of samples taken specifically for the purpose. CT is the most reliable method of detecting sequesters. A detailed structural analysis of the bone in regard to old bone portions and osteomyelitic osteoneogenesis is possible, but osteonecrosis cannot be detected with certainty. Abscesses and fistulae can be demonstrated with a high degree of reliability, using contrast medium if necessary. CT influences the authors' decisions concerning planned revisional surgery in chronic osteomyelitis cases more than any other examination method. It is used in all osteomyelitis diagnoses following removal of the metal.


Virtual Reality (VR) is being increasingly explored as an adjunctive therapy for distraction from symptoms of chronic pain. However, using VR often causes cybersickness; a condition with symptoms similar to those of motion and simulator sickness. Cybersickness is commonly assessed using self-report questionnaires, such as the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), and is traditionally conducted post-exposure. It's usually safe to assume a zero baseline of cybersickness as participants are not anticipated to be exhibiting any sickness symptoms pre-exposure. However, amongst populations such as chronic pain patients, it's not unusual to experience symptoms of their condition or medication which could have a confounding influence on cybersickness symptom reporting. Therefore, in population groups where illness and medication use is common, assuming baseline is not necessarily desirable. This study aimed to investigate cybersickness baseline recordings amongst a chronic pain population, and highlights how deviations from an assumed baseline may incorrectly infer adverse effects arising from VR exposure. A repeated measures study design was used, in which twelve participants were assessed pre and post VR exposure via SSQ. Significant differences were found between actual and assumed pre-exposure baseline scores. Furthermore, we found significant differences between actual and assumed increases in cybersickness scores from baseline to post exposure. This study highlights that clinical sub-populations cannot be assumed to have a zero baseline SSQ score, and this should be taken into consideration when evaluating the usability of VR systems or interventions for participants from different demographics.


In this paper, we are particularly concerned about issues of performance to see how well workflow enactment architecture is dealing with the large amount of workcases. Almost all of the traditional workflow management systems are based upon the client-server workflow enactment architecture that reveals a certain degree of limitation on the issues, such as performance and scalability. This paper presents a performance analysis model and its mathematical estimations for analyzing the performance aspect of the clustered workflow enactment architecture. We are expecting that the estimations should be helpful in the understanding of the spectrum of possibilities for large-scale workflow architectures and systems. In especially order to comparatively study the clustered workflow enactment architecture, we also analyze the performance of the client-server workflow architectures by using the same approach. Finally, we give a comparison result of performance estimations, and strongly believe that the result is going to be very useful understanding about designing and implementing workflow management systems aiming at the very large-scale workflow applications.


Abstract : In 2003, the Defense Science Board observed: The problem is that instruments that can detect the buried UXOs also detect numerous scrap metal objects and other artifacts, which leads to an enormous amount of expensive digging. Typically 100 holes may be dug before a real UXO is unearthed! The Task Force assessment is that much of this wasteful digging can be eliminated by the use of more advanced technology instruments that exploit modern digital processing and advanced multi-mode sensors to achieve an improved level of discrimination of scrap from UXOs. Significant progress has been made in discrimination technology. To date, testing of these approaches has been primarily limited to test sites with only limited application at live sites. Acceptance of discrimination technologies requires demonstration of system capabilities at real UXO sites under real world conditions. Any attempt to declare detected anomalies to be harmless and requiring no further investigation will require demonstration to regulators of not only individual technologies, but of an entire decision making process. This characterization study was be the second phase in what is expected to be a continuing effort that will span several years.


This article describes the current state of the regulation of financial conflicts of interest in research in the United States. It notes the implications of the changing academic and private research environment and reviews recent empirical research on (1) the perceived implications of such conflicts on clinician and researcher behavior, and (2) the effect of disclosure of such conflicts to potential research participants. The article also details a number of widely publicized research "scandals" involving conflicts of interest and the effects these may have on both public support for research as well as on the quality of care that ultimately is delivered. The article then discusses current U.S. federal regulations and initiatives by institutions and professional organizations to further guide researchers and describes how conflicts of interest are typically managed by institutions. It also presents a taxonomy of researcher reactions to efforts by institutional conflict of interest committees to regulate these conflicts. It notes critiques by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) of the government's role in the current interplay between government agencies, research sponsors, and institutions in regulating conflicts. Concluding that current efforts to regulate conflicts are inadequate, the article sets forth a proposal for reform of the way conflicts of interest are managed at both the federal and institutional levels.


Does the average motorist fully understand the meaning of the various traffic controls with which he or she is confronted on the highways? A failure to understand such controls could result in a driver error with tragic results. Traffic controls are developed by professional engineers and are generally adopted nationally after test trials and usage in various parts of the country. But, often little attention is given to determining (1) is the message or directive of the traffic control device clear and easily understood by the motoriests to whom the message is directed? and (2) do the motorists quickly get the message and understand what the traffic control device means for their driving? This is a human factors study in 1978 of over 3,000 drivers' understanding of certain traffic control device driving situations (TCD's). Approximately twenty TCD's were selected to be tested in terms of comprehension by the average motorist. Roughly one-third of these TCD's were signs, one-third markings, and one-third were signals. Ultimately, sixteen TCD's were studied. A motion picture test film was made of these TCD's at various locations throughout the U.S. putting the film viewer in the driver's seat of a moving car. Several traffic engineers (State and City) cooperated by directing the study team to appropriate sites, where examples of various TCD's could be filmed. After the films were edited, an appropriate multiple choice questionnaire was devised and refined during trial showings before the final research tool was created. The research program included a 15-minute movie, an answer sheet, and special marker pens with an ink that reveals immediately to the driver whether he has chosen the correct answer or an incorrect one. At various locations throughout the U.S., many local AAA Clubs were involved in showing this film to civic and other groups, collecting the answer sheets, and forwarding them to the study team for analysis. 3,164 motorists from all areas of the country participated in the test program of driver understanding of 23 different scenes of 16 traffic control signs, signals and markings. Responses were analyzed by region of the country in which the drivers did most of their driving (East, West, and Central USA as shwon in Figure 1) and the age and sex of the drivers to determine if there were any significant differences among these groups of drivers in understanding the traffic control driving situations. (Author)


The first example is the Binomial(n, p) distribution, introduced earlier. This is the distribution of the number of Heads, Sn, in n tosses of a biased coin with probability p to be Heads. Recall that the distribution of Sn is P[Sn = k] = (n k ) pk(1− p)n−k for k ∈ {0,1, . . . ,n}. The expected value is E[Sn] = np and the variance is Var(Sn) = np(1− p). The binomial distribution frequently appears to model the number of successes in a repeated experiment.


We examine whether the proximity of the audit report date to a company's required filing deadline provides a signal of audit quality as a result of heightened deadline pressure and whether an accounting standard change (SFAS 165) in 2009 had the unintended consequence of eliminating much of the information conveyed by the proximity of those dates. Before SFAS 165, we find evidence of lower audit quality and a higher frequency of auditor resignations when the audit report is near the required filing deadline, suggesting that auditors completing procedures at or near the required filing deadline may compromise audit quality to meet the filing deadline. We also find that auditors seek to reduce the increased risk associated with audits with heightened deadline pressure by resigning from such clients. After SFAS 165, we find that a change in practice of dating the audit report had the unintended consequence of eliminating much of the information conveyed by the proximity of the audit report date to the required filing deadline. As a result, financial statement users now have less opportunity to identify auditors under heightened deadline imposed time pressure.


Mathematics is one of the core subjects in secondary school curriculum. Performance in the subject is crucial for students' admission to scientific and technological professions. However, there has been persistent poor performance in this subject particularly in Kisumu East District as revealed by the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination results for the years 2006 to 2008 with mean scores of 3.2282, 3.3691 and 4.0660 respectively. This may deny students access to the competitive professions. Factors contributing to this poor performance have not been exhaustively studied. The purpose of this study was to examine students' attitude towards mathematics across gender with specific reference to objectives, content, methods and evaluation of mathematics curriculum. The study was conducted in public secondary schools in Kisumu East District and employed correlation design in which the dependent variable was performance and independent variable was attitude. The study sample was 986 Form 4 students, representing 33% of the population. Data collection instruments were Students Questionnaire (SQ) and Mathematics Test (MT). Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the strength and direction of the relationship. The findings established that both girls and boys showed a neutral attitude towards Mathematics curriculum. Based on the results it is advisable that students' attitude be enhanced as this will translate into improved academic achievement in the subject.


This PhD-thesis analyses
the relationship between the parties' choices in the CPB Netherlands Bureau for
Economic Policy Analysis' assessments of the election manifestos and coalition
agreements over the period 1986-2017, and tries to explain this relationship.
First, the theoretical framework is set out, in which agenda-setting, political
economy and civil service influence have prominent positions, followed by a
description of the political rationality and the civil service rationality.
Then, multiple reflections are made on the history of the assessments and their
(dis)advantages for both the Dutch politicians and the civil service. Second,
the empirical analysis of the parties' choices with regard to government
expenditures, tax burdens, purchasing power and macroeconomic outcomes in
election manifestos and coalition agreements is carried out. It appears that
for the majority of parties' choices, negotiators in the formation decide in
line with their manifestos. But there are also clear deviations. In general;
government expenditures turn out higher, except the expenditures on education.
Tax burdens end up higher, but foremost for households while companies receive
tax reliefs. The purchasing power of high incomes and middle incomes falls
behind, in contrast to the purchasing power of social security beneficiaries
and low incomes which end up better.


Rain-wind induced vibration (RWIV) is a violent oscillation that appears on cable stayed bridge under rainy weather. Many researchers agree that the rivulets (specially the upper one) play an important role during the vibration. In present work, the upper rivulet's effect is focused. A circular cylinder with an arches attachment on its surface is modeled to take the place of cable- rivulets system section in RWIV. Using finite volume method (FVM), 3D Flow past the cylinder-arch model is simulated for subcritical Reynolds Number (Re, ≈6.8×104). Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method is drawn in as a closure of turbulence model. The attachment locating at different positions are calculated. The results show many differences between cylinder-arch model and bare circular cylinder, including force coefficients change dramatically and velocity distributions in wake zone vary remarkably. Responses of cylinder-arch system driven by aerodynamic forces are also studied. Fourth order Runge-Kutta Method is introduced to solve second order ODEs that describe the vibration of cylinder model. The first four modal response are calculated and then added to analyze cable oscillating properties.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this meta-analysis is to study the impact of varicocele repair in the largest cohort of infertile males with clinical varicocele by including all available studies, with no language restrictions, comparing intra-person conventional semen parameters before and after the repair of varicoceles.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The meta-analysis was performed according to PRISMA-P and MOOSE guidelines. A systematic search was performed in Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases. Eligible studies were selected according to the PICOS model (Population: infertile male patients with clinical varicocele; Intervention: varicocele repair; Comparison: intra-person before-after varicocele repair; Outcome: conventional semen parameters; Study type: randomized controlled trials [RCTs], observational and case-control studies).

RESULTS
Out of 1,632 screened abstracts, 351 articles (23 RCTs, 292 observational, and 36 case-control studies) were included in the quantitative analysis. The before-and-after analysis showed significant improvements in all semen parameters after varicocele repair (except sperm vitality); semen volume: standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.203, 95% CI: 0.129-0.278; p<0.001; I²=83.62%, Egger's p=0.3329; sperm concentration: SMD 1.590, 95% CI: 1.474-1.706; p<0.001; I²=97.86%, Egger's p<0.0001; total sperm count: SMD 1.824, 95% CI: 1.526-2.121; p<0.001; I²=97.88%, Egger's p=0.0063; total motile sperm count: SMD 1.643, 95% CI: 1.318-1.968; p<0.001; I²=98.65%, Egger's p=0.0003; progressive sperm motility: SMD 1.845, 95% CI: 1.537%-2.153%; p<0.001; I²=98.97%, Egger's p<0.0001; total sperm motility: SMD 1.613, 95% CI 1.467%-1.759%; p<0.001; l2=97.98%, Egger's p<0.001; sperm morphology: SMD 1.066, 95% CI 0.992%-1.211%; p<0.001; I²=97.87%, Egger's p=0.1864.

CONCLUSIONS
The current meta-analysis is the largest to date using paired analysis on varicocele patients. In the current meta-analysis, almost all conventional semen parameters improved significantly following varicocele repair in infertile patients with clinical varicocele.


Purpose: Implement a confidential and low cost method to identify employees with undiagnosed diabetes. Methods:Blood samples from fasting plasma glucose measurements obtained by a third party vendor from the annual employee health risk assessment data were re-run at a cut-point of 117 mg/dL or greater to obtain a hemoglobin A1c (A1c) value. Individual letters were sent from the third party vendor to employees with a HbA1c value of 5.7% or greater informing them of an employee diabetes management program. Results: 1611 of 3044 (53%) employees participated in the annual health risk assessment; 87 employees demonstrated a fasting plasma glucose >117 mg/dL; 27 employees had a A1c of 5.7-6.3%; and 16 employees had an A1c > 6.5%; 9 employees volunteered to participant in the diabetes management program. The employer spent a total of $783 to find 16 employees with undiagnosed diabetes and 27 employees with undiagnosed pre-diabetes. Conclusion: The process used by this employer maintained confidentiality and was considered a low cost means of finding employees with undiagnosed diabetes.


Current methods for text-to-video retrieval (T2VR) are trained and tested on video-captioning oriented datasets such as MSVD, MSR-VTT and VATEX. A key property of these datasets is that videos are assumed to be temporally pre-trimmed with short duration, whilst the provided captions well describe the gist of the video content. Consequently, for a given paired video and caption, the video is supposed to be fully relevant to the caption. In reality, however, as queries are not known a priori, pre-trimmed video clips may not contain sufficient content to fully meet the query. This suggests a gap between the literature and the real world. To fill the gap, we propose in this paper a novel T2VR subtask termed Partially Relevant Video Retrieval (PRVR). An untrimmed video is considered to be partially relevant w.r.t. a given textual query if it contains a moment relevant to the query. PRVR aims to retrieve such partially relevant videos from a large collection of untrimmed videos. PRVR differs from single video moment retrieval and video corpus moment retrieval, as the latter two are to retrieve moments rather than untrimmed videos. We formulate PRVR as a multiple instance learning (MIL) problem, where a video is simultaneously viewed as a bag of video clips and a bag of video frames. Clips and frames represent video content at different time scales. We propose a Multi-Scale Similarity Learning (MS-SL) network that jointly learns clip-scale and frame-scale similarities for PRVR. Extensive experiments on three datasets (TVR, ActivityNet Captions, and Charades-STA) demonstrate the viability of the proposed method. We also show that our method can be used for improving video corpus moment retrieval.


In this paper, a new prediction model named RBNN-GM(1,1) (Radial Basis Neural Network-Grey Model) model was constructed and used for the analysis of building subsidence prediction for the Palms Together Dagoba in Famen Temple in Shaanxi Province in China. The constructed model can make full use of the advantages of few samples and little information predicting in Grey Theory and swift and self-learning in RBNN. The prediction results show that the combined model is more effective than the common grey model. The proposed combined model for building subsidence prediction may offer scientific rationale for estimating whether the building transmutation exceeds the criterion and provide reference for taking the corresponding safety measures.


OBJECTIVES
This study examines whether health-related selection out of shift work is likely to bias the association between shift work and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

METHODS
Survey data on doctor-diagnosed CVD (myocardial infarction, angina, or hypertension) and risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol concentration, obesity, and diabetes) were collected in 2000-2002 for a cohort of 7037 female nurses (5038 shift workers, 1999 day workers) in 21 Finnish hospitals. The follow-up in 2004 determined those who had left their workplace or changed from shift work to day work.

RESULTS
Among the shift workers, the age-adjusted odds for leaving the organization was 1.83 (95% CI 1.01-3.32) times higher for those with prevalent diabetes and 2.21 (95% CI 1.12-4.39) times higher for those with three to four risk factors than for their counterparts with no diabetes or risk factors. The associations between CVD risk factors and leaving the organization were similar for the day workers. The prevalent CVD and risk factors did not predict a change to day work among the shift workers who remained in the organization during the entire follow-up period.

CONCLUSIONS
Employees with several risk factors are more likely to leave an organization regardless of the type of work schedule. Health-related selection out of shift work is an unlikely source of major bias in research on shift work and CVD.


Abstract. We carry out a combined analysis of the short- and long-period seismic signals generated by the devastating Oso-Steelhead landslide that occurred on 22 March 2014. The seismic records show that the Oso-Steelhead landslide was not a single slope failure, but a succession of multiple failures distinguished by two major collapses that occurred approximately 3 min apart. The first generated long-period surface waves that were recorded at several proximal stations. We invert these long-period signals for the forces acting at the source, and obtain estimates of the first failure runout and kinematics, as well as its mass after calibration against the mass-centre displacement estimated from remote-sensing imagery. Short-period analysis of both events suggests that the source dynamics of the second event is more complex than the first. No distinct long-period surface waves were recorded for the second failure, which prevents inversion for its source parameters. However, by comparing the seismic energy of the short-period waves generated by both events we are able to estimate the volume of the second. Our analysis suggests that the volume of the second failure is about 15–30% of the total landslide volume, giving a total volume mobilized by the two events between 7 × 106 and 10 × 106 m3, in agreement with estimates from ground observations and lidar mapping.


The final step of ethylene biosynthesis in plants is catalyzed by the enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) oxidase (ACCO). In addition to ACC, Fe(II), O2, CO2, and ascorbate are required for in vitro enzyme activity. Direct evidence for the role of the Fe(II) center in the recombinant avocado ACCO has now been obtained through formation of enzyme.(substrate or cofactor).NO complexes. These NO adducts convert the normally EPR-silent ACCO complexes into EPR-active species with structural properties similar to those of the corresponding O2 complexes. It is shown here that the ternary Fe(II)ACCO.ACC.NO complex is readily formed, but no Fe(II)ACCO.ascorbate.NO complex could be observed, suggesting that ascorbate and NO are mutually exclusive in the active site. The binding modes of ACC and the structural analog alanine specifically labeled with 15N or 17O were examined by using Q-band electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR). The data indicate that these molecules bind directly to the iron through both the alpha-amino and alpha-carboxylate groups. These observations are inconsistent with the currently favored mechanism for ACCO, in which it is proposed that both ascorbate and O2 bind to the iron as a step in O2 activation. We propose a different mechanism in which the iron serves instead to simultaneously bind ACC and O2, thereby fixing their relative orientations and promoting electron transfer between them to initiate catalysis.


Seventy one niger germplasm were evaluated to explore the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence for yield and its contributing traits during kharif 2015-16 using Mahalanobis's D2 Statistics. The data were recorded on eleven important yield attributing traits from the germplasms raised in randomized complete block design (RCBD) under three replications. Highly significant differences existed among the genotypes tested for all the traits. Cluster analysis revealed wide range of diversity in the genotypes grouped in eleven clusters. Out of eleven, Cluster II was the largest among all clusters followed by cluster I, cluster IX, cluster X, cluster VII, cluster XI and cluster IV. Cluster III, V, VI and VIII were monotypic. The highest intra cluster distance was recorded by cluster X followed by cluster IX, cluster XI, cluster IV, cluster VII, cluster II and Cluster I. The highest inter cluster distance was observed between the clusters VII and XI followed by clusters IV and XI and clusters VI and VII. The characters like seed yield per plant, 1000 seed weight and number of capitula per plant exhibited major contribution towards the genetic divergence. These traits should be considered as more important and due consideration to any breeding program. On the basis of inter and intra-cluster distance coupled with cluster means of different traits, the genotypes classified in clusters IX, IV, XI, VII, II, VI and V were found to be superior and may be utilized in breeding programmes.


The increasing miniaturization and complexity of component packages have created a substantial need for quality, flexibility and economy in surface mount devices (SMD) assembly. According to these trends, manufacturing systems have to fulfil high demands concerning productivity and accuracy. To preserve placement preciseness time consuming inspection systems and mapping methods are currently used. The influence of thermal machine behavior and the dynamics on the accuracy is still insufficiently investigated. The aim of this paper is to accomplish decisive contribution for future development and optimization of automatic placement machines, in order to fulfil special demands and to achieve high productivity concurrently with the high accuracy.


The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) method was used to detect the antiperoxyradical ability of organoselenium compounds: selenophene and its derivative, 2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1-selenophene-3-carbonitrile (ATSe); while as a comparison, the sulfur-containing analogue of selenophene—thiophene and its derivative—2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1-thiophene-3-carbonitrile (ATS)—was selected. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and squarewave voltammetry (SWV) methods were used to determine the redox characteristics of organoselenium and organosulfur compounds. The antiradical activity and capacity of the studied compounds were also measured by using stable radical 2,2ʹ-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Detected anodic peaks of the oxidation of selenophene, thiophene and their derivatives in CV, DPV and SWV in the interval of −1200 ÷ (+1600) mV potentials in regard to the Ag/Ag+ medium of acetonitrile prove the presence of antiperoxyradical activity in regard to oxidizers, i.e., peroxyradicals. The chemical mechanism of the antiperoxyradical ability of selenophene, thiophene and their organic derivatives is proposed.


Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are a novel class of materials having unique characteristics formed of two or more constituent phases with a continuously variable composition. The introduction of these materials to the sandwich structures creates more potentials to the structural applications with the ability of tailoring the material properties as well as the possibility of avoiding the delamination and stress concentration in conventional sandwich structures. With the rapid development of technology, it is now common to use FGMs in micro/nanoelectromechanical systems, e.g. thin films, sensors, actuators and other devices. At these scales, the use of experimentation to understand the structural behaviours is difficult and highly time-consuming, whilst the molecular modelling is computationally very expensive for the scales that are popular to structural engineers. Therefore, higher-order continuum theories, which were developed from the classical continua, become very popular in modelling micro/nano-scale structures. Based on one of these higher-order continuum theories namely the modified couple stress theory, this thesis aims to develop the analytical methods, i.e. Navier and state space based solutions, to analyse the static, free vibration and buckling behaviours of FG and FG-sandwich beams and plates. The governing equations and appropriate boundary conditions are developed for these structural behaviours of beams and plates at both micro and macro- scales using the variational principle. Numerical results are computed using MATLAB and verified with the published results to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the developed theoretical formulation. The numerical applications include:
 the free vibration and buckling behaviours of FG and FG sandwich macrobeams under arbitrary boundary conditions and mechanical/thermal loads,
 the static, free vibration and buckling behaviours of simply supported FG microbeams, and the free vibration behaviour of bidirectional FG microbeams under arbitrary boundary conditions,
 the static, free vibration and buckling behaviours of simply supported FG-sandwich microplates under mechanical/thermal loads,
 the static, free vibration and buckling behaviours of FG-sandwich microplates with two opposite simply supported edges and various boundary conditions for other edges.

The outcomes from this thesis emphasize the need of including couple stress in analyzing the structural behaviours of FG beams and plates at microscales. Some of them are presented at the first time and can be used as the benchmark results for numerical methods. These analytical methods can also be combined with other strong form methods to analyse various types of complex structures.


In this paper we investigate trading with optimal mean reverting portfolios subject to cardinality constraints. First, we identify the parameters of the underlying VAR(1) model of asset prices and then the quantities of the corresponding Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process are estimated by pattern matching techniques. Portfolio optimization is performed according to two approaches: (i) maximizing the predictability by solving the generalized eigenvalue problem or (ii) maximizing the mean return. The optimization itself is carried out by stochastic search algorithms and Feed Forward Neural Networks (FFNNs). The presented solutions satisfy the cardinality constraint thus providing sparse portfolios to minimize the transaction costs and to maximize interpretability of the results. The performance has been tested on historical data (SWAP rates, SP 500, and FOREX). The proposed trading algorithms have achieved 29.57% yearly return on average, on the examined data sets. The algorithms prove to be suitable for high frequency, intraday trading as they can handle financial data up to the arrival rate of every second


Alloy B is relatively new precipitation hardening superalloy. It´s applications are in the hot sections of the aero engines, rocket nozzles, gas turbines and in the chemical and petro-leum applications. The alloy is characterized by keeping high strength at elevated tempera-tures and high creep resistance. It´s excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resis-tance are due to the balanced amount of the coherent γ' matrix, combined with other alloy-ing elements and carbides.There are three types of carbides which can be found in nickel-based superalloys: MC, M23C6 and M6C. Primary MC carbides act as source of carbon for the secondary carbides, which precipitate at the grain boundaries. They can have strengthening effect by hindering the movement of dislocations.In this work both simulation and experimental analysis are conducted in order to investi-gate the behaviour of the secondary carbides. JMatPro simulation is used to predict the behaviour of the material. Heat treatments are conducted at soak temperatures ranging from 920 °C to 1130 °C, with steps of 30 °C, and dwell times of 0.5, 1, 2 and 24 hours. Experimental methods included analysis at LOM, SEM, EDS, manual point counting and hardness tests.Main results show chromium rich M23C6 carbides are stable at lower temperature compared to molybdenum rich M6C. Both appear as fine and discrete particles at the grain boundaries at 1070 °C. This morphology is believed to be beneficial for the mechanical properties of the alloy. The volume fraction varies between 0.6 and 1.3%. Hardness values are relevant in the range of 920-1010 °C. Above this range there is sudden drop of the hardness


Two pathologic conditions, reticular cell hyperplasia and amyloidosis, were studied in a strain of mice selectively bred for low leukocyte counts (LLC). At the age of 3 to 6 months, 70% of the mice developed reticular cell hyperplasia in the inguinea lymph nodes, and at 11 to 18 months, about 100% of them developed amyloidosis in the spleen and in the kidney, liver, and adrenal glands. Immunofluorescence was revealed in the glomeruli, interstitium of the tubules, and the amyloid skeleton of the papilla when the kidney sections were incubated with fluorescein-labeled antimouse immunoglobulins. Both intracellular and extracellular amyloid fibrils were found in the liver, spleen, and kidney sections by electron microscopy. Distended rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) cisternae and hypertrophy of RER with or without the simultaneous presence of amyloid fibrils in the reticular cells of the spleen and Kupffer cells of the liver were observed. In this light, we believe that the pathologic conditions are manifestations of immunologic events that are characteristic of the LLC mice with immune deficiency or abnormality in the immune system. We conclude that the origin of amyloid protein is at the RER. We discuss processes of amyloid fibril formation and some genetic aspects of amyloid development.


Shear strength degradation in plastic hinge region occurring due to the shear strength by concrete mechanism, Vc, decreases with an increase in the curvature ductility under cyclic loading. Before cracking occurs, the contribution of the transverse reinforcement to the shear resistance is insignificant and the whole shear force is resisted by the concrete mechanism. The stress development in the transverse reinforcement is initiated after the occurrence of cracking in the concrete. Thereafter, the failure mechanism will be controlled by the amount of transverse reinforcement (Vc = 0), thus making shear strength provided by the transverse reinforcement, Vs increases. To reduce the requirement of Vs and maintain Vc, a new alternative system was developed for the beam in flexural plastic hinge zone by embedding a steel truss. An experimental study presented herein focused on the shear strength behaviour of steel truss embedded in flexural plastic hinge zone of a reinforced concrete beam subjected to reversed cyclic loading. One beam was constructed and tested in this study, with significant diagonal cracking along the shear span and flexural plastic hinge zone, referred to as the shear-flexure failure, appearing in the tested specimen. Observation from the experiment indicated that the application of steel truss embedded in flexural plastic hinge zone of a reinforced concrete beam has a positive effect to increase the shear strength of the tested beam, compared with that without steel truss. The test result revealed that the shear-flexure failure dominant occured close to support face as well as plastic hinge area. The observation showed that the presence of Behaviour of Steel Truss 134 steel truss in flexural plastic hinge zone can adequately inhibit the change of brittle shear failure, thus making the system promising for seismic resistant structures.