doi: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2010.00135.x The interaction between serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA)-containing neurons in the brain is a research topic that has raised the interest of many scientists working in the field of neuroscience since the first demonstration of the presence of monoamine-containing neurons in the mid 1960. The bulk of neuroanatomical data available clearly indicate that DA-containing neurons in the brain receive a prominent innervation from serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) originating in the raphe nuclei of the brainstem. Compelling electrophysiological and neurochemical data show that 5-HT can exert complex effects on the activity of midbrain DA neurons mediated by its various receptor subtypes. The main control seems to be inhibitory, this effect being more marked in the mesocorticolimbic DA system as compared to the DA nigrostriatal system. In spite of a direct effect of 5-HT by its receptors located on DA cells, 5-HT can modulate their activity indirectly, modifying γ aminobutyric (GABA)-ergic and glutamatergic input to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Although 5-HT/DA interaction in the brain has been extensively studied, much work remains to be done to clarify this issue. The recent development of subtype-selective ligands for 5-HT receptors will not only allow a detailed understanding of this interaction but also will lead to the development of new treatment strategies, appropriate for those neuropsychiatric disorders in which an alteration of the 5-HT/DA balance is supposed.


Stakeholders who seek to reward or punish businesses for their environmental programs often cannot observe these organizations' internal policies and operations. To address these informational problems, and signal their beyond-compliance environmental commitments, some businesses are participating in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs). This article examines whether business managers associate the brand value of VEPs – due to their differing program sponsors – with the perceived preferences of their critical stakeholders. Drawing on a novel data set of nearly 300 organizations, we assess business' participation in 19 government- and industry-sponsored VEPs. We find that managers who recognize the importance of stakeholder influences on their business' environmental practices are more likely to participate in a VEP but that pressures from different stakeholders are associated with variations in organizations' participation in either government- or industry-sponsored VEPs.


In this study, we compare the intended number of children in Germany, Moldova and Norway in 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a first step, we compare the intended number of children (including children born) in the newly available Generations and Gender Survey round 2 (GGS-II) and the German FReDA-GGS data. In a second step, we estimate the number of further intended children with multinomial logistic regression models. The results reveal considerable differences across the three countries. Respondents in Moldova plan to have rather large families (on average 3.3 children, including children born), whereas individuals in Norway and Germany intend to have 2.0 and 1.8 children, respectively. In the multinomial logistic regression analyses, we find differences in the association of educational level and fertility plans by gender and country. In Germany, education is positively related to the intention to have further children. This pattern is more pronounced for women than for men. Furthermore, this association is also found among Norwegian men. In Moldova, we find only weak evidence for this association. For Norwegian women, education and the intention to have further children also seem to be unrelated. While most data about the intended number of children refer to the 2000s or earlier, we contribute to the literature by providing recent insights on the intended number of children in three European countries, including Moldova, a country that is understudied in demographic research.
* This article belongs to a special issue on "Family Research and Demographic Analysis – New Insights from the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA)".


The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of neurotoxic ibotenic acid lesion of the retrochiasmatic area on the daily profile of pineal N-acetylserotonin and melatonin synthesis and on the pineal metabolic reactivity to nocturnal short-term retinal photostimulation. Groups of rats were killed 6 h after lights off either in the dark of immediately after being photostimulated for 1 or 15 min. Additionally, groups of rats were sacrificed at six different time points throughout the 24-hour lightdark cycle. The results suggested the presence of two functionally distinct territories in the retrochiasmatic area. The basal retrochiasmatic area, an area situated immediately ventral to the third ventricle, behind the suprachiasmatic nuclei and in front of the arcuate nucleus, is implicated in the nocturnal inhibitory process induced by short-term retinal photostimulation. The lateral retrochiasmatic area, which is situated immediately lateral to the anterior periventricular nucleus, below the anterior hypothalamic nucleus and in front of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, is importantly involved in the control of the peak amplitude of the daily production of N-acetylserotonin and melatonin by the pineal


There is an understood difficulty for the average American to meet the daily nutritional recommendations; but to numerous of neighborhoods across the United States, access to healthy food items is scarce (Kirkpatrick, 2012; Weill, Cooper, Hartline-Grafton, & Burke, 2011). In low-income environments, it is common to find "corner stores." Corner stores do not often carry as many items as compared to a grocery store, especially "healthy" items. Because of a biology professor's experience with soil, crops, and an abundance of produce, the department and local health department staff started a delivery system to corner store sites which offers attractive, fresh produce to neighborhoods in North Minneapolis. The purpose of this study was to explore the value of a business relationship with a local fresh produce distribution business, BrightSide Produce Distribution, from a corner store owner perspective. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight corner store owners in Northern neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The interviews explored the owners' experiences; and 10 themes were developed. The findings of this study suggest that the realities in low-income environments make offering fresh produce quite difficult. The findings also indicate a fresh produce distribution system is highly appreciated, with cost being the number one contender. While this study is exploratory in nature, it holds implications for social work practice, policy, and future research.


The conclusion of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) ninth ministerial meeting — held in Bali 3-7 December 2013 — is at one and the same time momentous, marginal, and business-as-usual. It is momentous because it marks the first multilateral agreement reached in the WTO since the organisation began operations on 1 January 1995; it is marginal because the deal reached will have only a limited impact on the global trading system; and it is business as usual because the Bali package will be of disproportionally greater value to the industrial states than to their developing and least developed counterparts. We examine what happened in Bali covering the principal issues at stake and the content of the outcome, what this means for the WTO and for the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), and why it all matters. We argue that while the Bali ministerial is significant and the agreements reached important, the conclusion of the meeting and the package agreed represents only a limited movement forward in addressing the fundamental problems and inequities of the WTO system.


A 42-year-old sexually inactive woman presented to our emergency department with worsening abdominal pain and high fever of 1 day's duration. During the previous month, she had had occasional mild lower abdominal pain, but without other symptoms. Her past medical history was unremarkable except for a myomectomy 10 years previously. Physical examination revealed diffuse abdominal tenderness with rebound. Laboratory data were notable for a leukocyte count of 42 880 per mm3 with a left shift. Pelvic sonography showed a large unilocular cystic structure in the upper pelvis measuring 9.0 × 8.0 × 6.5 cm that demonstrated internal debris and a hyperechoic thick wall (Figure 1a). Contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed a large cystic mass with a thick wall, which was posterior to and superior to the uterus (Figures 2a and c). Bilateral ovarian cysts were also noted (Figure 2b). Even in the absence of risk factors for ascending genital-tract infection, tubo-ovarian abscess was still the primary consideration based on the laboratory results and imaging findings. Antibiotic therapy was started immediately, but the patient's symptoms persisted. The following day an exploratory laparotomy revealed purulent material in the peritoneal cavity and a thick-walled pelvic mass containing purulent material. The mass was found to originate from the posterior wall of the uterus. Myomectomy could not be performed because the mass had severe adhesions. Instead, a tumor incision, marsupialization and drainage were performed. Microscopically, the mass consisted of fibrous tissue and smooth muscle cells, along with granulation tissue and chronic inflammation. No evidence of malignancy was noted. The patient had an uneventful recovery and was discharged within a week after surgery. Pelvic ultrasound 4 months after surgery showed that the size of the mass had decreased to 3 cm (Figure 1b). She remained well at the 12-month follow-up visit. Pyomyoma, or a suppurative leiomyoma, is a rare and potentially fatal complication of uterine leiomyoma. Only 21 cases have been reported since 19451–10. Most cases occur during pregnancy or after menopause, and are caused by ascending genitaltract infection. To our knowledge, this is the first case of pyomyoma described in a healthy premenopausal female and unrelated to any focus of infection. Figure 1 (a) Preoperative ultrasound image showing a large unilocular cystic structure in the upper pelvis that demonstrated internal debris and a hyperechoic thick wall. (b) Pelvic ultrasound image 4 months after surgery showed that the size of the subserosal fibroid had decreased to 3 cm. M, tumor mass; U, uterus.


Objective To better understand conjoint alcohol and tobacco use among male hospital out-patients, the purposes of this study were: (1) to assess the prevalence of conjoint use and (2) to determine the factors associated with the conjoint alcohol use and tobacco use. Methods In a cross-sectional survey, consecutive male out-patients from four district hospitals in Nakhon Pathom province in Thailand were assessed with the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), self-reported chronic conditions and health-seeking behaviour. The sample included 2208 study participants, with a mean age of 36.2 years (SD = 11.7) and an age range of 18–60 years. Results Overall, 34.5% of the male hospital out-patients were conjoint moderate or high-risk alcohol and tobacco users, and 31.1% were moderate or high-risk alcohol or tobacco users. In multivariate analysis, younger age, having primary or less education, being separated, divorced or widowed, not having diabetes and not being obese were associated with conjoint moderate or high-risk alcohol and tobacco use. Conclusion High prevalence and several risk factors of conjoint alcohol and tobacco use were found among hospital male out-patients. The findings of this study call for dual-intervention approaches for both alcohol and tobacco.


The importance of reading hability has already been greatly shown throughout time and has been studied and understood through scientific research. In the case of people with low vision, reading can be the guarantee of access to education and, consequently, to citizenship. Therefore, allowing good reading ability has become the object of study of several researchers. The challenge of ensuring good reading is even greater for people with low vision, and often optical and technological aids are needed to make reading possible and fluid. Several tables, such as MNRead, Radner, Bailey-Lovie, among others, have been used to evaluate reading ability, minimum letter size for fluent reading, and maximum reading speed in words or characters per minute. These tables have been developed and calibrated according to international standards, becoming standardized and suitable for the acquisition of data that can be used in reproducible scientific research anywhere in the world. The tables have versions in several languages, and the only table standardized and translated into Brazilian Portuguese currently available is MNRead-P. We discuss here the different tables, the importance of their calibration, and their practical use. The measurements obtained with the reading tables are of great importance for planning the treatment and follow-up of individuals with low vision, since the comparisons are made from an individual parameter, between the individual's measurements, at different moments, indicating improvement or worse reading quality. The literacy of visually impaired individuals is part of the full exercise of their citizenship. Education is the lens through which the person is seen and sees society. Educating people with disabilities is in itself a form of inclusion. Therefore, assisting low vision sufferers may be a differential in their development, allowing adequate composition of the individual's identity core.


In speech analysis, the voiced-unvoiced decision is usually performed in conjunction with pitch analysis. The linking of voiced-unvoiced (V-UV) decision to pitch analysis not only results in unnecessary complexity, but makes it difficult to classify short speech segments which are less than a few pitch periods in duration. In this paper, we describe a pattern recognition approach for deciding whether a given segment of a speech signal should be classified as voiced speech, unvoiced speech, or silence, based on measurements made on the signal. In this method, five different measurements are made on the speech segment to be classified. The measured parameters are the zero-crossing rate, the speech energy, the correlation between adjacent speech samples, the first predictor coefficient from a 12-pole linear predictive coding (LPC) analysis, and the energy in the prediction error. The speech segment is assigned to a particular class based on a minimum-distance rule obtained under the assumption that the measured parameters are distributed according to the multidimensional Gaussian probability density function. The means and covariances for the Gaussian distribution are determined from manually classified speech data included in a training set. The method has been found to provide reliable classification with speech segments as short as 10 ms and has been used for both speech analysis-synthesis and recognition applications. A simple nonlinear smoothing algorithm is described to provide a smooth 3-level contour of an utterance for use in speech recognition applications. Quantitative results and several examples illustrating the performance of the method are included in the paper.


The main focus of the current study is on translation quality assurance. In studying the translation process, the present study does not confine itself to the micro-level of translating, i.e. reading, analysing, comprehending, transferring, polishing the draft translation and the like. Rather, the translation process is studied from a perspective of translation as industry; it is divided into three main phases, namely: 1. pre-translation, 2. translation and 3. post-translation. Each of these three phases of the translation process requires those involved in the whole project to take certain steps that correspond to each level's requirements with a view to ensuring the quality of the translation process that leads to the quality of the product. The translation process at its macro level is envisaged in this research as a set of constraint-motivated strategies. Dealing with the text at hand, translators encounter a set of constraints. In studying these constraints and their effects on the final shape of the translated text, constraints are divided into two types, viz. verbal constraints driven by the text itself (e.g. language-related constraints, textual constraints, cultural constraints with a micro nature, communicative constraints, pragmatic constraints, semiotic constraints and stylistic constraints) and non-verbal constraints originating from outside the text (e.g. cultural constraints with a macro level, purpose of translation, generic conventions, intended readership, power of patronage, master discourse of translation, text typological constraints, discoursal constraints, norm-imposed constraints and translator-related constraints).
It has been shown that the relationship between the constraints imposed on the translator and the strategies available is not a one-to-one relationship, but rather the strategy is sometimes a result of more than one constraint. As people are different in perceiving world reality, in their tolerance to the pressure exerted on them, in their beliefs, feelings, cultural background, ideologies, attitudes,such a selection among available strategies is subjective rather than objective, being attributable to translators' ideology, idiolect, competence, experience, skills and social and religious background.


The hexameric resorcin[4]arene capsule as a self-assembled organocatalyst promotes a series of reactions like the carbonyl–ene cyclization of (S)-citronellal preferentially to isopulegol, the water elimination from 1,1-diphenylethanol, the isomerization of α-pinene and β-pinene preferentially to limonene and minor amounts of camphene. The role of the supramolecular catalyst consists in promoting the protonation of the substrates leading to the formation of cationic intermediates that are stabilized within the cavity with consequent peculiar features in terms of acceleration and product selectivity. In all cases the catalytic activity displayed by the hexameric capsule is remarkable if compared to many other strong Brønsted or Lewis acids.


One of the major cost factors in mechanical pulp production is the electrical energy input. Much of the research in this field has therefore been devoted to an understanding of the mechanisms in the refining process and, consequently, to find ways of reducing the electrical energy consumption. Shear and compression are probably the main types of fibre deformation occurring in refiners for collapsing and fibrillating the fibres into a suitable pulp. In current refiners, the repeated mechanical action of the bars on the fibres consumes large amounts of energy in a treatment of mechanical fibres that is almost random. Fundamental studies of the deformation of wood have indicated that a combination of shearing and compression forces is highly beneficial in terms of fibre deformation with a low energy demand. Pure compression is able to permanently deform the fibre but requires a substantial amount of work, while pure shearing, although being much less energy demanding, does not lead to any permanent deformations. A more suitable application of the shear and compression forces on the wood fibres during the refining process could be a way to develop fibres at a lower energy demand. These ideas have been studied in this work trying to find new ways of saving energy in the mechanical pulping process. The first paper in this thesis discusses the way of producing wood shavings and the introduction of shear/compression deformations in these, as well as the potential benefits of using them instead of wood chips as raw material for TMP production. With the shaving process, high deformations in the wood cells were achieved by the shear and compression forces. This led to energy savings of about 25% at a given tensile index, when compared to traditional chips. The quality of the pulp produced from wood shavings was found to be better than that of the pulp produced from wood chips, when it came to strength properties (except for tear index) and optical properties at comparable energy levels. Another way of reducing energy consumption in refining involving a limited shear combined with compression forces for the mechanical treatment of both wood chips and coarse fibres was also studied. This work shows that such a kind of treatment resulted in a high degree of fibre collapse at low energy demands. The thick-walled transition fibres could even be permanently deformed. Furthermore, refining trials, utilising shear and compression pre-treated chips, showed that the strength properties, except for tear index, along with the optical properties of a TMP could be improved and the electrical energy consumed could be reduced by approx. 100 kWh/tonne, when compared to untreated chips. The results from the pilot trials described in this work could be used as a starting point for further implementation in the industry, in order to identify the most efficient way of producing mechanical pulp with a lower consumption of electrical energy.


As a result of the EU Single European Sky directives, European states adopted regional agreements on functional airspace blocks. The Agreement on the North European Functional Airspace Block (NEFAB) was signed in 2012 by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Norway. The nature of the agreement is mixed and involves civil as well as military actors. NEFAB seems to operate in practice in a hybrid mode, sometimes looking like a private international enterprise and sometimes more like a public international organisation. Does the highly technical nature of the agreement keep issues of political and legal relevance outside the range of democratic control? To what extent can such hybrid, functional, technical regimes of international cooperation affect the understandings and the exercise of sovereignty, and what is the effect of the NEFAB-regime on older legal obligations such as the demilitarisation and neutralisation regime of the Aland Islands?


Air cooled condensers are commonly used in rooftop units and residential air-conditioners to reject heat outdoors. Airborne particles in the environment, such as dust, grass, leaves, seeds, and anthropogenic agents, can foul the air side of the condensers. Therefore, it is common practice to regularly clean the air side of condensers. Seven fouled wavy fin, and two fouled spine fin condensers from residential condensing units were collected at the end of their service lives, and examined in the laboratory to study the effect of the fouling on heat transfer capacity and air-side flow resistance. A test apparatus was designed and built to investigate the flow resistance and heat transfer of these coils before and after cleaning. After testing each condenser in the fouled condition, the fouling material was collected and its mass was measured. Then, the coil was washed with water and tested again in the test apparatus. Finally, to investigate the effectiveness of commercial detergents, these coils were cleaned with a detergent and tested again. Surprisingly, the results show that the effect of washing on the heat transfer capacity of the coil is very small, and in some cases, the fouled condenser performed better before cleaning than afterward. Similarly, cleaning the coils with detergent had negligible differences compared with the effects from cleaning with water only, and in some cases, the detergent caused performance degradation in terms of flow resistance and heat transfer.


This article focuses on minimizing the energy consumption of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) disseminating information to a set of Internet of Things devices. In the considered scenario, each device wants to download a subset of files from a library of files. Considering the storage capacity of the UAVs, a framework is provided that minimizes energy consumption by optimally selecting the contributing UAVs, placing files, and planning the trajectory of each contributing UAV. In this framework, a combinatorial optimization problem is formulated, which is hard to solve directly for a practical number of devices, files, and/or UAVs. In order to tackle this challenge, we develop three solution approaches, namely, a multichromosome genetic algorithm (GA), a hybrid genetic-ant colony algorithm, and a GA with heuristic file placement. Results show that the proposed solution approaches minimize the total energy consumption and provide near-optimal solutions. Results also illustrate that the proposed framework optimizes the number of UAVs participating in the information delivery mission.


Modern day corporations are not only economically and politically powerful, but they also have a significant impact on society and the environment. Due to their relevance, once solely focused on government, non-governmental organisations are increasingly engaging in private politics and making corporations the targets of their campaigns. The recent economic crisis has highlighted the role of the financial market for changing corporate actions and, as a result, shareholder activism – a campaigning tactic which is comparatively new, has rapidly grown in popularity among the third sector community. The term can be defined as the use of ownership rights to actively shape corporate policy and behaviour. The research is based on three campaign case studies which provide a detailed exploration of how UK-based NGOs use various shareholder activist strategies to realise their campaign objectives: the campaign against Vedanta Resources" operations in India, the campaign against Shell"s involvement in the Niger Delta, and the Tax Justice campaign targeting FTSE 100 companies. Based on the premise that companies should consider the interests of different stakeholders, the main aim is to explore the shareholder activist strategies used by NGOs, to determine their impact on the investor community and the targeted companies, and to examine what are the main challenges faced by campaigning organisations. The study adopts a multi-method qualitative approach encompassing participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. It draws on a wide range of literature to explain and build upon the findings – social science literature, but also social movement, pressure group and financial accounting literature. It has been discovered that shareholder activism can potentially be a very effective tactic and that NGOs" use of this strategy is on the rise – NGO share campaigns more than doubled in the period 2003-2013 compared to 1990-2002. One of the main conclusions is that NGOs are increasingly using business case arguments when engaging with companies and investors as this method enhances campaign effectiveness. Based on the case study findings, a theoretical model which attempts to explain the factors contributing to the overall impact of campaigns has been developed. The findings also have implications about the nature of corporate governance and the democratisation of business. Shareholder activism has been seen as a tool which democratises corporations through opening the door to private politics to a wider range of stakeholders such as citizens, pension savers, and voluntary organisations. In addition, the nature of a "successful" campaign has been reinvented and it has been suggested that the overall impact of an intervention should be regarded from a "delayed gratification" point of view and the symbolic outcomes of campaigns should not be discarded as irrelevant


The paper addresses the problem of exploitation of smart space's facilities for organization of the resources of the smart space into a community aimed at emergency response. A smart framework is proposed that serves to integrate services provided by the resources of the smart space in context-aware manner and to organize these resources into a community aimed at joint actions on emergency response. The resources are represented by sets of Web-services. Thus, the service-based resource community comprising Web-services representing resources that provide emergency response services is organized. To coordinate Web-service interactions a service-oriented architecture is designed. An applicability of the framework is demonstrated by an example of organization of a service-based resource community for fire response actions.


In this paper, we present a delay-locked loop (DLL) technique for performing a combined symbol and sampling clock synchronization in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In addition, we propose a symbol timing acquisition algorithm for the DLL. It is shown that by using this combined scheme, we can achieve symbol timing recovery and sampling clock adjustment simultaneously. In particular, the symbol timing estimation error variance can be decreased by several orders of magnitude compared with the common correlation methods in both the AWGN and multipath fading channels.


Ad hoc information retrieval (ad hoc IR) is a challenging task consisting of ranking text documents for bag-of-words (BOW) queries. Classic approaches based on query and document text vectors use term-weighting functions to rank the documents. Some of these methods' limitations consist of their inability to work with polysemic concepts. In addition, these methods introduce fake orthogonalities between semantically related words. To address these limitations, model-based IR approaches based on topics have been explored. Specifically, topic models based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) allow building representations of text documents in the latent space of topics, the better modeling of polysemy and avoiding the generation of orthogonal representations between related terms. We extend LDA-based IR strategies using different ensemble strategies. Model selection obeys the ensemble learning paradigm, for which we test two successful approaches widely used in supervised learning. We study Boosting and Bagging techniques for topic models, using each model as a weak IR expert. Then, we merge the ranking lists obtained from each model using a simple but effective top-k list fusion approach. We show that our proposal strengthens the results in precision and recall, outperforming classic IR models and strong baselines based on topic models.


Praise for Wrench in the System "Look to Harold Hambrose to make significant contributions to safer health care records through interface design, product design, and data visualization. Wrench in the System should be the bible for corporate executives striving to gain a competitive advantage in these trying times." Alan Siegel, Chairman and CEO, Siegel+Gale "During the short history of computing, interface design has usually been neglected, resulting in software that is cumbersome and counterintuitive. In this book, Harold Hambrose calls for design where 'help' is helpful and where clutter is eliminated. He describes a set of commonsense principles and asserts the essential place of design in superior products. Together with thought leaders like Edward Tufte, Harold Hambrose reminds us that great design can change the world." Tony Pizi, CIO, Asset Management Platform Services, Deutsche Bank "Making computer information easily available to people in their work can help organizations meet their most important goals. This book recommends adopting traditional methods and procedures of design to do so, and suggests that turning data into accessible information could be a high calling for designers now. I wish we designers were as wise as the author considers us! But we, as much as computer users in business, can learn deep lessons from his confrontation of the challenges of information design today, and his demonstration of how our own techniques can apply to meeting them." Denise Scott Brown, Principal, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and coauthor, Learning from Las Vegas


In this work, the effects of extractives removal on the performance of used varnishes were studied. The experimental samples were prepared using defect-free alder (Subcordate alnus) and ironwood (Zelkova carpinifolia) with moisture content of 12% and were coated with polyester and two-part polyurethane (urethane alkyd) varnishes. Removal of extractive materials followed Tappi Test Methods using hot water and ethanol. Variable parameters were based on the solvent type (extraction method), wood species, and varnish type. Other parameters such as moisture content, sanding process, and dimensions were kept constant. Pull-off adhesion and dynamic absorption tests were used to assess adhesion and performance of the two clear varnish coatings. Sanding process was employed prior to coating, which helped prepare surfaces virtually free of damage. In general, the extractive-free samples had better adhesion strength and wettability compared with the untreated (control) ones. Based on the results of this study, it can be pointed out that all the variable parameters, including the type of wood, varnish, and solvent, had significant effect on the adhesion of varnishes, applied on the wood surface. The difference in wettability between extracted and unextracted samples is due to blocking of the free hydroxyl groups by extractive materials. In addition, it was found that the removal of extractives had the effect of increasing the surface wettability of both species, an important consideration for the varnish coating. The highest adhesion was obtained from polyurethane varnish, applied on ironwood specimens. It seems that the diffuse-porous anatomical structure of ironwood along with its high density of 0.79 g/cm3 could be responsible for its higher adhesion strength than alder species.


A prospective double-blind trial is described in which patients were given either 1% tropicamide, 2.5% phenylephrine, a combination of the two drugs, or a placebo. Blood pressure measurements and pulse rates were determined at 5, 10 and 15 minute intervals post-instillation. No significant change in systolic or diastolic blood pressures were determined for any of the treatment groups at any of the time intervals; however, a slight but significant decrease in pulse rate was noted in some of the treatment groups. The data are analyzed according to other variables. Factors which may have influenced the findings are discussed.


Soy isoflavones are widely recognized for their potential health benefits. The increased use of traditional and new food products calls for the assessment of their stability during processing and storage. The present study examines the stability of genistein and daidzein derivatives in soy milk. Soy milk was stored at ambient and elevated temperatures, and the change in isoflavone concentration was monitored with time. Genistin loss in time showed typical first-order kinetics, with rate constants ranging from 0.437-3.871 to 61-109 days(-1) in the temperature ranges of 15-37 and 70-90 degrees C, respectively. The temperature dependence of genistin loss followed the Arrhenius relation with activation energies of 7.2 kcal/mol at ambient temperatures and 17.6 kcal/mol at elevated temperatures. At early stages of soy milk storage at 80 and 90 degrees C, the 6' '-O-acetyldaidzin concentration increased, followed by a slow decrease. The results obtained in this study can serve as a basis for estimating the shelf life of soy milk as related to its genistin content.


By the example of former COMECON pipeline builders from the GDR, Jeanette Prochnow examines the impact of generational belonging on community and network building under the conditions of social change in post-1989 Germany. Since the 1990s a vivid culture of companionship and remembrance has developed among former pipeline workers. It is kept alive by associations and interest groups claiming to represent the interests of people who were employed with the state-run pipeline project either in 1974-1978 or 1982-1993. Yet, employees of the first construction phase remain noticeably underrepresented in the community. In an attempt to explore this generational segregation, concepts of the Ethnography of Communication are combined with a network analytical perspective and Karl Mannheim's sociology of generation. The paper is guided by the hypothesis that the »speech community« of former pipeline builders corresponds to a »generational unit« to which employees from the 1970s do not belong because of varying performances responding to events in the socio-historical context.


In the usual statistical approach to spatial classification, it is assumed that each pixel belongs to precisely one of a small number of known groups. This framework is extended to include mixed-pixel data; then, only a proportion of each pixel belongs to each group. Two models based on multivariate Gaussian random fields are proposed to model this fuzzy membership process. The problems of predicting the group membership and estimating the parameters are discussed. Some simulations are presented to study the properties of this approach, and an example is given using Landsat remote-sensing data. >


This initial, exploratory study on gender bias in collaborative medical decision making examined the degree to which physicians' reliance on a team member's patient care advice differs as a function of the gender of the advice giver. In 2018, 283 anesthesiologists read a brief, online clinical vignette and were randomly assigned to receive treatment advice from 1 of 8 possible sources (physician or nurse, man or woman, experienced or inexperienced). They then indicated their treatment decision, as well as the degree to which they relied upon the advice given. The results revealed 2 patterns consistent with gender bias in participants' advice taking. First, when treatment advice was delivered by an inexperienced physician, participants reported replying significantly more on the advice of a man versus a woman, F(1,61) = 4.24, P = .04. Second, participants' reliance on the advice of the woman physician was a function of her experience, F(1,62) = 6.96, P = .01, whereas reliance on the advice of the man physician was not, F(1,60) = 0.21, P = .65. These findings suggest women physicians, relative to men, may encounter additional hurdles to performing their jobs, especially at early stages in their careers. These hurdles are rooted in psychological biases of others, rather than objective features of cases or treatment settings. Cultural stereotypes may shape physicians' information use and decision-making processes (and hinder collaboration), even in contexts that appear to have little to do with social category membership. The authors recommend institutions adopt policies and practices encouraging equal attention to advice, regardless of the source, to help ensure advice taking is a function of information quality rather than the attributes of the advice giver. Such policies and practices may help surface and implement diverse expert perspectives in collaborative medical decision making, promoting better and more effective patient care.


For several decades, various peptides have been under investigation to prevent ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, including cyclosporin A (CsA) and Elamipretide. Therapeutic peptides are currently gaining momentum as they have many advantages over small molecules, such as better selectivity and lower toxicity. However, their rapid degradation in the bloodstream is a major drawback that limits their clinical use, due to their low concentration at the site of action. To overcome these limitations, we have developed new bioconjugates of Elamipretide by covalent coupling with polyisoprenoid lipids, such as squalenic acid or solanesol, embedding self-assembling ability. The resulting bioconjugates were co-nanoprecipitated with CsA squalene bioconjugate to form Elamipretide decorated nanoparticles (NPs). The subsequent composite NPs were characterized with respect to mean diameter, zeta potential, and surface composition by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Cryogenic Transmission Electron Microscopy (CryoTEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry (XPS). Further, these multidrug NPs were found to have less than 20% cytotoxicity on two cardiac cell lines even at high concentrations, while maintaining an antioxidant capacity. These multidrug NPs could be considered for further investigations as an approach to target two important pathways involved in the development of cardiac I/R lesions.


Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING FLUID Jenna Lynn Luek, Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 Dissetation Directed By: Dr. Michael Gonsior Assistant Professor, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences Over the past decade, hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling has become the dominant technique for extracting shale gas in the US, and is increasingly important globally. A complex mixture of chemicals is used in hydraulic fracturing fluid to stimulate natural gas production, but federal regulations have exempted operators from reporting the specific chemicals used in any given well. Recent state-by-state regulations and voluntary disclosures have increased our understanding of these fluids, but knowing this list of chemicals going into a well is just the tip of the iceberg. Once these chemicals are injected, they mix with fluids and naturally occurring chemicals originating in the shale formation and can undergo physical, chemical, and biological transformations. In Chapter 2, I reviewed the literature to date regarding the characterization of organic compounds in injected hydraulic fracturing fluids and waste fluids returning to the surface. I identified a substantial knowledge gap in our understanding of organic compounds in these fluids, particularly non-volatile compounds, and potential transformations within the organic compound pool over the lifetime of the well. I analyzed a number of different shale gas wastewaters using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and identified halogenated organic compounds in these fluids (Ch. 3), suggesting that these compounds were transformation products. Using a time series of shale gas fluids (Ch. 4), I was able to track changes in halogenated organic compounds and find evidence for both biological and chemical transformation pathways. Hierarchical cluster analyses helped identify sulfur-containing transformation products (Ch. 4), and I then determined that sulfur-containing molecules may be useful tracers of shale gas wastewaters in the environment (Ch. 6). In Chapter 5, I used toxicological tests and photoirradiation experiments to track the fate of organic compounds in shale gas wastewaters. Using a primarily non-targeted approach, I have been able to identify a number of organic compounds that are indicative of biological and chemical transformations occurring within hydraulic fracturing fluids and wastewaters. Understanding how these fluids change within the well and during storage and disposal provides critical information for engineering the safe and effective operation of wells, wastewater treatment techniques, and environmental impacts. CHARACTERIZATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN HYDRAULIC


Object recognition has been one of the main areas of research into computer vision in the last 20-30 years. Until recently most of this research has been performed on scenes taken using static monocular, binocular or even trinocular cameras. It is believed, however, that by adding the ability to move the look point and concentrate on a region of interest a more robust and efficient method of vision can be achieved. Recent studies into the ability to provide human-like vision systems for a more active approach to vision have lead to the development of a number of robot controlled vision systems. In this thesis the development of one such system at the University of Surrey, the stereo robot head "Getafix" is described. The design, construction and development of the head and its control system have been undertaken as part of this project with the aim of improving current vision tasks, in particular, that of object recognition. In this thesis the design of the control systems, kinematics and control software of the stereo robot head will be discussed. A number of simple commissioning experiments are also shown, using the concepts of the robot control developed herein. Camera lens control and calibration is also described. A review of classical primitive based object recognition systems is given and the development of a novel generic cylindrical object recognition strategy is shown. The use of this knowledge source is demonstrated with other vision processes of colour and stereo. The work on the cylinder recognition strategy and the stereo robot head are finally combined within an active vision framework. A purposive active vision strategy is used to detect cylindrical structures, that would otherwise be undetectable by the cylindrical object detection algorithm alone.


Abstract. Antarctica is well known to be highly susceptible to atmospheric and oceanic
warming. However, due to the lack of long-term and in situ meteorological
observations, little is known about the magnitude of the warming and the
meteorological conditions in the intersection region between the Antarctic
Peninsula (AP), the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and the East Antarctic
Ice Sheet (EAIS). Here we present new stable water isotope data ( δ18O , δD , d  excess) and accumulation rates from firn cores in the Union Glacier (UG) region, located in the Ellsworth Mountains at the
northern edge of the WAIS. The firn core stable oxygen isotopes and the d  excess exhibit no statistically significant trend for the period 1980–2014, suggesting that regional changes in near-surface air temperature and
moisture source variability have been small during the last 35 years.
Backward trajectory modelling revealed the Weddell Sea sector, Coats Land
and Dronning Maud Land (DML) to be the main moisture source regions for the study site throughout
the year. We found that mean annual δ18O ( δD ) values
in the UG region are negatively correlated with sea ice concentrations (SICs) in the northern Weddell Sea but not influenced by large-scale modes of
climate variability such as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the El
Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Only mean annual d -excess values show a weak positive correlation with the SAM. On average annual snow accumulation in the UG region amounts to 0.245 m w.e. a −1 in 1980–2014 and has slightly decreased during this period. It
is only weakly related to sea ice conditions in the Weddell Sea sector and
not correlated with SAM and ENSO. We conclude that neither the rapid warming nor the large increases in snow
accumulation observed on the AP and in West Antarctica during the last
decades have extended inland to the Ellsworth Mountains. Hence, the UG
region, although located at the northern edge of the WAIS and relatively
close to the AP, exhibits rather stable climate characteristics similar to
those observed in East Antarctica.


The comprehensive treatment of wastewater in industrial parks suffers from the presence of multiple persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which reduce the activity of activated sludge and are difficult to eliminate. Characterizing and applying active bacterial degraders metabolizing multiple POPs therefore helps to reveal the mechanisms of synergistic metabolism and to improve wastewater treatment efficiency in industrial parks. To date, SIP studies have successfully investigated the biodegradation of PAHs or PCBs in real-world habitats. DNA-SIP facilitates the isolation of target microorganisms that pose environmental concerns. Here, an indigenous phenanthrene (PHE)- and biphenyl (BP)-degrading strain in wastewater, Ralstonia pickettii M1, was isolated via a cultivation-dependent method, and its role in PHE and BP degradation was confirmed by DNA-SIP. Our study provides a routine protocol for the application of DNA-SIP in the isolation of the active functional degraders from an environment. ABSTRACT To identify and obtain the indigenous degraders metabolizing phenanthrene (PHE) and biphenyl (BP) from the complex microbial community within industrial wastewater, DNA-based stable-isotope probing (DNA-SIP) and cultivation-based methods were applied in the present study. DNA-SIP results showed that two bacterial taxa (Vogesella and Alicyclobacillus) were considered the key biodegraders responsible for PHE biodegradation only, whereas Bacillus and Cupriavidus were involved in BP degradation. Vogesella and Alicyclobacillus have not been linked with PHE degradation previously. Additionally, DNA-SIP helped reveal the taxonomic identity of Ralstonia-like degraders involved in both PHE and BP degradation. To target the separation of functional Ralstonia-like degraders from the wastewater, we modified the traditional cultivation medium and culture conditions. Finally, an indigenous PHE- and BP-degrading strain, Ralstonia pickettii M1, was isolated via a cultivation-dependent method, and its role in PHE and BP degradation was confirmed by enrichment of the 16S rRNA gene and distinctive dioxygenase genes in the DNA-SIP experiment. Our study has successfully established a program for the application of DNA-SIP in the isolation of the active functional degraders from an environment. It also deepens our insight into the diversity of indigenous PHE- and BP-degrading communities. IMPORTANCE The comprehensive treatment of wastewater in industrial parks suffers from the presence of multiple persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which reduce the activity of activated sludge and are difficult to eliminate. Characterizing and applying active bacterial degraders metabolizing multiple POPs therefore helps to reveal the mechanisms of synergistic metabolism and to improve wastewater treatment efficiency in industrial parks. To date, SIP studies have successfully investigated the biodegradation of PAHs or PCBs in real-world habitats. DNA-SIP facilitates the isolation of target microorganisms that pose environmental concerns. Here, an indigenous phenanthrene (PHE)- and biphenyl (BP)-degrading strain in wastewater, Ralstonia pickettii M1, was isolated via a cultivation-dependent method, and its role in PHE and BP degradation was confirmed by DNA-SIP. Our study provides a routine protocol for the application of DNA-SIP in the isolation of the active functional degraders from an environment.


In the last years an international legal framework evolved m the field of biodiversity, its protection and use. Accesses to genetic resources and mtellectual property nghts for developed commodities are fundamental for dominant actors and therefore these two aspects are central in political processes. Other aspects as nghts of mdlgenous peoples or benefit sharing have much less importance. Central institutions to regulate the highly contested issues are the Convention on Biological Diversity, the TRIPS agreement m the wro as well as the FAO which are not at all coherent in their policies. Agamst the background of regulation and critical state theory the article examines the contradictory role of the nation-state and international institutions in international biodiversity politics and examines central conflicts lines. Weaker actors try to politicise the struggle under the concept of "biopiracy" accusing dominant actors of an illegitimate appropriation of biodiversity. Fmally, some preconditions of "democratic biodiversity politics" are outlined.


This paper presents an UWB pulse transmitter design using 0.35μm CMOS process. A 7th order derivative Gaussian pulse is generated using a Phase Detector (PD), which consists of four D-Latches and a pulse shaping stage to generated 5th order pulse, and at the output a 2nd order derivative RLC using a cross inductor is added. An interesting feature of these inductors is that it consumes a small area of 140×160μm2, while the traditional square planar inductor would occupy an area of 180×180μm2. Thus, the last one needs 45% more area than the cross inductor, so this cross inductor leads to an extra reduction in Silicon area, what is one of the main purposes of this work to get a small UWB transmitter. The whole circuit has been simulated and the results had demonstrated the circuit capability to operate as a pulse generator; the simulations shows ∼70mV of pulse amplitude and 650ps of the pulse duration, dynamic energy consumption of around 2.8pJ and an average power consumption of 288μW per pulse respectively at input frequency of email@example.com power supply voltage. The complete circuit occupies a very small area of 168×234 μm2 (excluding the PADs).


This thesis provides a reflective account of the introduction of a provisional model of
transitional learning support (known as preceptorship) offered to newly qualified nurses
via an action research project. 284 nurses took part in the project over a three year period.
By a process of collaborative exploration, reflection and problem-solving, preceptor
partnerships were established in the workplace in an attempt to uncover and articulate the
learning and socialisation processes encountered at the beginning stages of a nurse's
career.
Data relating to the model's implementation was collected via eleven different methods,
the most data-rich being that of values exploration and clarification using the dialectical
technique of 'Socratic Questioning'. The data and relevant literature were then
collaboratively analysed and interpreted by co-researchers using the principles of reflective
practice. The emerging account of beginning practice in nursing was then synthesised and
'reconstructed' by the primary researcher, drawing on the theoretical and philosophical
perspectives of Social Constructionism and Human Ecology.
A practice based theory of preceptorship was developed and empirically tested through
the project, and a description and reflective evaluation of the processes involved is
provided here. Tentative recommendations are then offered for the future development of
preceptorship in the workplace.


Abstract. Detailed information on the size of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) may be useful in source identification, modeling their transport in the atmosphere to improve climate predictions, and determining how effectively or ineffectively instrumentation used for quantifying INPs in the atmosphere captures the full INP population. In this study we report immersion-mode INP number concentrations as a function of size at six ground sites in North America and one in Europe using the micro-orifice uniform-deposit impactor droplet freezing technique (MOUDI-DFT), which combines particle size-segregation by inertial impaction and a microscope-based immersion freezing apparatus. The lowest INP number concentrations were observed at Arctic and alpine locations and the highest at suburban and agricultural locations, consistent with previous studies of INP concentrations in similar environments. We found that 91 ± 9, 79 ± 17, and 63 ± 21 % of INPs had an aerodynamic diameter > 1 µm at ice activation temperatures of −15, −20, and −25 °C, respectively, when averaging over all sampling locations. In addition, 62 ± 20, 55 ± 18, and 42 ± 17 % of INPs were in the coarse mode (> 2.5 µm) at ice activation temperatures of −15, −20, and −25 °C, respectively, when averaging over all sampling locations. These results are consistent with six out of the nine studies in the literature that have focused on the size distribution of INPs in the atmosphere. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that supermicron and coarse-mode aerosol particles are a significant component of the INP population in many different ground-level environments. Further size-resolved studies of INPs as a function of altitude are required since the size distribution of INPs may be different at high altitudes due to size-dependent removal processes of atmospheric particles.


Environmental justice has increasingly become the focus of discussions across many disciplines, but it largely remains a fragmented subject in landscape architecture. This article examines conceptual frameworks and principles of environmental justice applicable to theory and practice. It asserts environmental justice as a moral obligation that is vital to the role of landscape architecture. It advances four arguments. First, a threefold conception of justice—distributive, procedural, and restorative—offers an integrated strategy for achieving social, economic, and ecological values of sustainability in landscape architecture. Second, ethical quandaries, dilemmas, paradoxes, and incompatibilities among divergent values relevant to principles of justice are examined as they apply to decision-making processes in landscape architecture. Third, the article proposes need, responsibility, and care as a convergent basis of environmental justice to support a holistic view of landscape ethics as property and natural rights. It argues that principles of environmental justice could evolve within the frameworks of democratic idealism and ecological humanism in the pragmatic context of landscape architecture. Finally, it discusses how democratic tenets of contemporary landscape architectural design can frame ethical discourses to justify design decision-making processes.


Abstract Countless people have explored a Baillie Scott garden. The most celebrated is Snowshill Manor, Gloucestershire, a property handed to the National Trust in 1951 by its owner, the architect and collector Charles Paget Wade (1883–1956). Yet, it was not until the late 1970s that the chief credit for the garden's design was given to Baillie Scott rather than to the eccentric Wade. It was then that Aidan de la Mare stumbled across a hitherto mmoticed garden plan (dated 13 February 1920) at Snowshill while rummaging through Wade's papers. As a result, the horticultural journalist Tony Venison, having already published an article in Country Life in May 1978 on Wade's singular and much admired contribution to landscaping ('An architect's garden idyll: Snowshill Manor'), found himself furnishing a piece for the same magazine entided 'Snowshill and the Baillie Scott connection' (April 1980), in which the record was set straight.


Background: Predictors for prognosis after percutaneous mitral valve Repair with MitraClip® are widely unexplored.
Methods: We analyzed our patients cohort of 150 consecutive high risk-patients, first patient provided with MitraClip® in April 2009, with Kaplan-Meier-Analysis to find out the impact of possible predictors on mortality and hospitalization because of Heart Failure. After univariate analysis significant predictors have been tested in a cox proportional hazard model for multivariate significance.
Results: Our patients had an average age of 74±9 years and a high risk for open heart surgery (log. EuroSCORE I 29±18 %, STS-Score 10.5±8,7%). 66% of the patients had a functional mitral regurgitation (MR). An acute procedural success (defined as MR≤2 at discharge) was reached in 85% of the patients. Survival rate after 30 days was 96%, after one year 79% and after two years 63%. Median Follow-Up time was 274 days. Patients report less symptoms after 12 months (MLHFQ -19.5 points; p<0.001 and 6-MWT + 67.5 meters; p=0.02)
Echocardiographic parameters showed a significant reduction of the left ventricular enddiastolic diameter (p=0.013) and enddiastolic volume (p<0.0001).
In the multivariate analysis only failure of acute procedural success (HR 2.73, p=0.005), NYHA stadium IV before clip implantation (HR 2.12, p=0.02) and STS-Score ≥12 (HR 2.07, p<0.0001) could be proofed as significant predictors of mortality.
Predictor of hospitalization due to heart failure after multivariate analysis was failure of procedural success (HR 2.69, p=0.004).
Conclusion: Our data implicate that patient selection should be performed carefully by specialized heart teams to guarantee acute procedural success. Patients with failure of acute procedural success had significant larger ventricles, mitral regurgitation grade IV, pulmonal hypertonus and did not meet the EVEREST-II-criteria.
Failure of acute procedural success was the most important predictor concerning long term outcome and must be avoided in any case. Here for the focus on rigorous screening is to emphasize especially in centres without larger experience.


The conventional 13C-urea breath test (13C-UBT) for detecting Helicobacter pylori infection was performed during fasting state and with a test meal to delay gastric emptying during the test. For the convenience of propagating this test, we assessed the availability of non-fast and without test meal in 13C-UBT for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection. One hundred and five consecutive patients who received endoscopic examination were studied. All of them received endoscopic biopsy for urease test, culture and histopathology to determine whether there was a presence of H. pylori infection. Each patient received four separate 13C-UBT under the following four testing conditions. Test I) fasting state with test meal (100 ml fresh milk), Test II) non-fast (taking usual food) but with test meal, Test III) fasting state without test meal, and Test IV) non-fast and without test meal. The excess delta 13CO2 values were calculated via the breathed samples that were collected at 15 minutes after ingestion of 13C-urea. There were 61 H. pylori positive and 44 negative patients in this study, with an excess delta 13CO2 values 3.0, 4.0, 3.5 and 4.0 as a cut-off value in the four tests respectively, according to the ROC curve. The results of test I, a conventional procedure, had a good correlation with the gold standard. The sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 95% respectively. The alternative procedures in other tests also have high sensitivity and specificity at 15-minute detecting time. The sensitivity of the tests II, III and IV at 15-minute detecting times were 98%, 98% and 100%, and the specificities of those were 95%, 98% and 95% respectively. We therefore suggest that fasting and test meal possibly be omitted when the cut-off value is 4.0 per mil in the simplified 13C-UBT (non-fast and without test meal, and detection at 15 minutes after ingestion of 13C-urea) which is a simple and available procedure for clinical diagnosis of H. pylori infection.


In the medical field and in biotechnology application, a new type of human scale teleoperating system that can carry out three-dimensional high-speed micromanipulation has urgently been demanded. It is our purpose to develop a new type of human scale operating system for microoperation that can manipulate a microobject In this paper, we deal with a human scale teleoperating system. In order to operate microobject in human scale, the working table and micromanipulator with multi DOF are demanded to be developed. So we propose a macro/micro mechanism for the system. Firstly, we design a precision parallel micromechanism with 6 DOF (10 /spl mu/ m Moving Range, 10nm Resolving Power), and compose the macro/micro mechanism. Then, we also did the complex control for the macro/micro mechanism. The experimental results indicate that the proposed Macro/micro mechanism can be controlled by teleoperation, and it is very useful for human scale microoperation system.


Doymaz I., Kipcak A.S., Piskin S. (2015): Microwave drying of green bean slices: drying kinetics and physical quality. Czech J. Food Sci., 33: 367–376. Several microwave power settings were applied to green beans in order to determine the effect on the drying kinetics along with the rehydration ratio and colour values. In the experiments, several microwave power settings were studied as 180, 360, 600, and 800 W. From the results, it is seen that the level of microwave power affected the drying kinetics, rehydration ratio, and colour of the beans slightly. The nine best known thin-layer drying models that were used in literature were applied to the experimental data and the results showed that Midilli et al. model best fits the experimental data for the drying kinetics of green bean slices. Effective moisture diffusivity was found to be between 1.387 × 10 –8 and 3.724 × 10 –8 m 2 /s. Using modi fied Arrhenius type equation the activation energy was found as 19.185 kW/kg. The rehydration ratio of samples dried at 800 W was higher than those of samples at other power settings. It was observed that an increase in the microwave power increased the brightness and yellowness, on the contrary, it decreased the greenness of the dried samples.


In order to inspect on wall condition inside the coke oven, an inspection device has been developed to protect a camera inside and sustains high temperature long enough so that it can be permanently-installed on the pusher ram beam. The temperature of the coking chamber during operation is about 1200 °C while the maximum tolerable temperature of a camera is less than 40 °C. The device has to function as a good thermal insulator with cooling element for the camera at the pusher head and for signal cables along the beam. In this paper, the necessary conditions of the inspective device were found out by building a three-dimensional numerical model of the device to simulate the temperature distribution inside the device with CFD commercial software.


The most significant source of environmental pollution derived from perilous wastes is the circumstantial and intentional emancipation of specific industrial wastes in cluding resistant and/or toxic pollutants to natural environments. Although, biological treatment methods have been commonly found as most effective alternatives in the removal of persistent compounds in industrial wastewaters, they require some increase for obtaining acceptable removal efficiencies, due to the presence of refractory or toxic compounds in the wastewaters. In this study, the use of surfactant of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) in the removal of persistent organic pollutants by biological treatment processes was investigated as an enhancement technique. The application of surfactants can enhance soil and groundwater remediation by increasing contaminant locomotion and solubility to ameliorate the performance of practical conventional remediation technology and by barricading the departure of contaminants to speed the rate of biodegradation of contaminants in environment. The proven effectiveness of surfactants in soil and groundwater remediation has been considered reasonable to expect that surfactants can also enhance the removal of persistent organic pollutants in wastewaters. Different concentrations of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) (1000, 1500, 2000 ppm) were tested to optimize biosurfactant-enhanced degradation of persistent pollutants in wastewaters. The results of this study demonstrate that the biodegradation of persistent organic pollutants in wastewaters is elevated by the use of biosurfactants. The principal mechanism that raises the biodegradation is the augment solvability of poorly soluble compounds in the wastewater. According to the results of this study, it can be anticipated that biosurfactant-enhanced degradation would result in faster and more complete degradation.


Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for the evaluation/selection of maintenance policy. Methodology/Approach: The paper adopts a case study approach of selecting most appropriate maintenance policy in the case of Slovenian paper mill company. Several steps of the AHP method are used in order to structure the decision-making process. Five possible alternatives are considered: failure based maintenance, preventive maintenance, total productive maintenance, reliability centered maintenance and total quality maintenance. Findings: This paper proposes a framework for maintenance policy selection based on the AHP methodology. The framework was applied to select the most appropriate maintenance policy in a paper mill company. The results suggest that total quality maintenance is the most suitable concept for a paper machine. By performing a sensitivity analysis, it was revealed that the final outcome remained stable in all cases when the weights of the main criteria were increased for 25 percent. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the literature by providing a framework for decision-making process regarding the maintenance policy selection. In addition, this paper utilizes an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart for performing a consistency test. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis also presents an important implication of this study.


The purpose of this study was to develop an accelerated wearing protocol for assessing the susceptibility of asphalt surface mixtures to polishing. This was the second phase of the study. The first phase focused on assessing the characteristics of selected carbonate aggregates available in Virginia that are normally classified as "polishing" and thus not considered suitable for use in pavements except for those roads with an average daily traffic of less than 750 vehicles per day. The selection of aggregates used in pavements is critical in producing surfaces that will continue to provide good skid resistance through a lengthy service life. The specifications of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) call for "non-polishing aggregate" for use in most surface layers. The study was aimed at making use of locally available polishing aggregates that can reduce the cost of asphalt mixtures while maintaining satisfactory wearing and skid characteristics of the pavements. The objectives of the research were (1) to evaluate the polishing/wear features of mixtures containing limestone aggregate in the laboratory using an accelerated method; (2) to compare friction properties of the laboratory-polished specimens with actual pavement friction measurements; and (3) to compare friction properties of mixtures containing carbonate rock or blends with those of mixtures with non-carbonate rocks. The study included three types of aggregates, i.e., limestone, quartzite, and granite, and blends of these aggregates. The surface mixtures studied were conventional SM-9.5 and SM-12.5 mixtures containing various percentages of limestone, limestone recycled asphalt pavement, and limestone-granite/quartzite blends. The suggested test protocol to evaluate the polishing of asphalt concrete specimens prepared in the laboratory was developed using the third-scale model mobile load simulator (MMLS3). The MMLS3 is capable of applying realistic rolling wheel contact stresses similar to those on highways from the moving traffic. The skid resistance, friction, and texture of actual pavement surfaces and laboratory-fabricated specimens were measured after different polishing intervals. Skid resistance and frictional characteristics were measured by the British pendulum tester (BPT), dynamic friction tester, and locked-wheel skid tester; the circular texture meter was used to measure surface macrotexture. Results showed that the MMLS3 can be used to simulate traffic wearing of asphalt concrete specimens of different shapes and sizes in the laboratory including core specimens removed from existing pavements and that the BPT is effective in characterizing changes in friction on specimens that are subjected to simulated trafficking via the MMLS3. Further, test specimens should have a high initial macrotexture and mixtures should have good stability so that the wearing effects are focused on the aggregates. The study recommends that the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research (VCTIR) work with Virginia Tech and VDOT's western districts to design and conduct an experiment to explore a series of carbonate / non-carbonate aggregate blends for asphalt mixtures and that the mixture gradations be designed to prevent the absence of macrotexture from impacting the ability to measure the "polish" of the coarse aggregate structure of the experimental mixtures. VCTIR should purchase tires with different tread patterns and try them on the MMLS3 to evaluate the polishing rate of specimens in more detail.


&NA; A case of non‐necrotizing granulomatous angiitis without significant glomerular pathology is described in a 61 yr‐old female. The characteristic lesion consists of periarterial inflammation comprizing a mixed population of mononuclear cells with prominent giant cell formation. There is no evidence of immunoglobulin, complement or fibrin deposition. It is concluded that this represents an unusual variant of polyarteritis nodosa which is apparently controlled by steroid therapy.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 5 Number 5 (2016) pp. 54-62 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Thyroid dysfunction (TD) represents an extrahepatic manifestation of chronic hepatitis C. This study aimed to assess TD incidence and association with disease severity, pretreatment viral load, pegylated interferon alpha 2a or 2b formulations and response to treatment in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with pegylated interferon alpha and Ribavirin. TD was prospectively evaluated in 226 euthyroid chronic hepatitis C Egyptian patients treated with pegylated interferon-alpha and Ribavirin for 48 weeks at weeks 0,4,12, 24, 36 and 48 of treatment and within 6 months after treatment using serum free thyroxine, thyroid-stimulating hormone. The disease severity and response to therapy were evaluated using METAVIR system and polymerase chain reaction test respectively. Twenty six treated patients (11.5%) developed TD (16 hypothyroidism, seven hyperthyroidism and three biphasic thyroiditis). 14 patients with TD achieved sustained viral response. 8/26 (30.8%) TD spontaneously reversed after treatment cessation and 18 cases required therapy. TD was not associated with pretreatment viral load, severity of liver fibrosis, interferon-alpha formulations or response to treatment. We conclude that Interferon-alpha and ribavirin therapy possibly induces TD in chronic hepatitis C patients. TD does not associate with pretreatment virological parameter, severity of liver disease or virological outcome. K e y w o r d s


The computation of the optical flow field from an image sequence requires the definition of constraints on the temporal change of image features. In this paper, we consider the implications of using multiple constraints in the computational schema. In the first step, it is shown that differential constraints correspond to an implicit feature tracking. Therefore, the best results (either in terms of measurement accuracy, and speed in the computation) are obtained by selecting and applying the constraints which are best "tuned" to the particular image feature under consideration. Considering also multiple image points not only allows us to obtain a (locally) better estimate of the velocity field, but also to detect erroneous measurements due to discontinuities in the velocity field. Moreover, by hypothesizing a constant acceleration motion model, also the derivatives of the optical flow are computed. Several experiments are presented from real image sequences.


Understanding innate immune responses in COVID-19 is important for deciphering mechanisms of host responses and interpreting disease pathogenesis. Natural killer (NK) cells are innate effector lymphocytes that respond to acute viral infections, but might also contribute to immune pathology. Here, using 28-color flow cytometry, we describe a state of strong NK cell activation across distinct subsets in peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients, a pattern mirrored in scRNA-seq signatures of lung NK cells. Unsupervised high-dimensional analysis identified distinct immunophenotypes that were linked to disease severity. Hallmarks of these immunophenotypes were high expression of perforin, NKG2C, and Ksp37, reflecting a high presence of adaptive NK cell expansions in circulation of patients with severe disease. Finally, arming of CD56bright NK cells was observed in course of COVID-19 disease states, driven by a defined protein-protein interaction network of inflammatory soluble factors. This provides a detailed map of the NK cell activation-landscape in COVID-19 disease.


Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) segmentation assumes great importance in research and clinical applications. The brain segmentation using MRI is challenging due to a significant amount of noise caused by operator performance, scanner, and the environment, which can lead to serious inaccuracies with segmentation. Evaluations of segmentation results in medical imaging are caused by the absence of a gold standard. So, the performance evaluation of these methods would be necessary.
Methods: In this paper, the performance of clustering algorithms such as Fuzzy C-Means (FCM), Hard C-Means (HCM), and Neural Gas (NG) for tumor detection is evaluated on 100 downloaded images. For this purpose, we evaluated these 3 algorithms under noise condition, convergence speed. Compared with manual segmentation by an expert radiologist, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are calculated for each segmentation methods.
Results: It can be stated, based on the results, that among the HCM and NG algorithms, the highest degree of accuracy and robustness to noise belongs to FCM. Moreover, optimum convergence rate and iteration need to gain final result using FCM algorithm.
Conclusion: All the quantitative performance analysis and visual comparisons clearly demonstrated the superiority of FCM algorithm for MRI-based tumor detection.


Aims We investigated cases of Tourette syndrome (TS) with atypical chronology in terms of age of onset. According to DSM IV-TR onset of TS is by the age of 18. Most cases have their onset earlier at ages 5–10. Peak severity of tics is usually around the ages of 11–13 so that severe cases in adulthood represent a minority. We investigated the characteristics of patients (1) with an onset of symptoms in late adolescence (2) with apparent onset in adulthood and (3) other atypical cases with an early onset of mild symptoms followed by transition to significantly more severe tics after the age of 18. Methods Review of 220 patient records collected in a joint paediatric and adult Tic Disorder clinic was performed. Cases with onset over the age of 18, or of onset from 15–18 years old, or of childhood onset with late significant exacerbation over the age of 18 were selected for comparison with the remaining majority of cases who exhibited early onset and had been seen either as paediatric or adult referrals. Phenomenology of the tics and associated comorbidities were examined. Results Six adult-onset cases were identified and had a mean age of onset of 37.3 (21–57). Four were male and 4 had tics that were considered moderate or severe. None of these cases experienced premonitory sensations in association with their tics, a feature which is integral to most people with tics. Obsessionality milder than the criteria for OCD was present in half the cases, 2 had coprolalia, and a family history of tics was present in two cases only. There were also 6 "late exacerbation" cases with a mean age of 25 years for the exacerbation and all had severe tics and coprolalia as part of their late presentation. Most of these cases had a family history of tics or obsessionality and also significant histories of difficulties at birth/delivery. These cases all had premonitory sensations as would be expected from the control cases. Only four late adolescent-onset cases were found and, given the small number, they did not have features distinguishing them from control cases. Conclusions It is suggested that adult-onset cases of a phenotype otherwise consistent with the TS phenotype may be biologically different to childhood-onset cases. We found an unusual absence of premonitory sensations in this group and also less relevant family history than expected. Adult-onset TS is documented here and previously only in small numbers. Some previous data has considered cases of a childhood-onset mild tic disorder followed by later severe exacerbation as an adult-onset category. We separated this group and found they experienced premonitory sensations as usual but all had a distinctively severe disorder with coprolalia.


Covid‐19, a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection, may present with polymorphic symptomatology and subclinical, neurological, gastrointestinal, dermatological, renal and severe acute respiratory manifestations. The diffuse alveolar damage caused by the disease presents with fibrin deposition, oedema, lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate, destruction of epithelial cells, hyaline membrane formation and occasional angiogenesis formation of microthrombi. A common radiological finding is bilateral ground glass opacity, present even in mild cases. Severe cases occur mainly among the elderly and individuals with underlying comorbidities. Here, we provide an overview of the pathophysiology of the disease associated with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, interaction of the virus with the immune system, and subsequent dysfunctional immune response, essential for progression of Covid‐19. We also discuss the role of the nervous system as a possible aggravating agent of the respiratory condition and propose a protocol for airway management based on the pathophysiological and immunological characteristics of the disease. Finally, we highlight the implications of such approaches for future therapeutic intervention.


Aim: To study the profile of infective hepatitis cases in the study village. Objective: 1. To study the time, place, and person distribution of hepatitis cases in the study village. 2. To find the source of infection in the study village. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Rethare Khurd village (15 km south of Karad, on bank of River Krishna), over a period of September 4, 2004 to December 5, 2004. Participants: All residents of Rethare Khurd village. Statistical Analysis: Proportions, attack rate, Chi-square test were performed. Results: Total 3749 individuals were surveyed and examined, of which 1920 (51.21%) were males and 1829 (48.78%) were females. Total 8 males and 17 females suffered from infective hepatitis. Blood samples collected from 10 patients for liver function test and serological investigation confirmed a hepatitis E outbreak. Maximum numbers of cases were in the age group of 15-30 years. The overall attack rate was 0.66%. The difference in attack rate of hepatitis of both the sexes was not statistically significant ( P >0.05).Only one ANC had infective hepatitis. Majority of the villagers (61.12%) defecated in the open near the intake well on the bank of River Krishna. Conclusion: This outbreak illustrates the role of the local Government in prevention and control of water borne epidemic and to strengthen the surveillance for water borne diseases in the rural area.


Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept where network functionality is virtualized and separated into multiple building blocks that may connect or be chained together to implement the required services. The main advantages consist of an increase in network flexibility and scalability. Indeed, each part of the service chain can be allocated and reallocated at runtime depending on demand. In this paper, we present and evaluate an energy-aware Game-Theory-based solution for resource allocation of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) within NFV environments. We consider each VNF as a player of the problem that competes for the physical network node capacity pool, seeking the minimization of individual cost functions. The physical network nodes dynamically adjust their processing capacity according to the incoming workload, by means of an Adaptive Rate (AR) strategy that aims at minimizing the product of energy consumption and processing delay. On the basis of the result of the nodes' AR strategy, the VNFs' resource sharing costs assume a polynomial form in the workflows, which admits a unique Nash Equilibrium (NE). We examine the effect of different (unconstrained and constrained) forms of the nodes' optimization problem on the equilibrium and compare the power consumption and delay achieved with energy-aware and non-energy-aware strategy profiles.


We analyzed 40 existing wetland rapid assessment methods that were developed for a variety of purposes, including informing regulatory decisions and local land use planning, and reviewed them for their potential to assess ecological integrity or condition. Four evaluation criteria were used. We determined if the method 1) can be used to measure condition, 2) is truly rapid, 3) includes a site visit, and 4) can be verified. This resulted in six methods being selected for evaluation relative to a conceptual model describing the core elements of a wetland assessment method, including universal indicators of soil, hydrology, and biotic communities, as well as regional indicators. An additional nine methods were kept for ideas on indicators, scoring, or regionalization. From this review, we identified five general areas that need to be addressed when adapting existing methods or developing new methods to assess condition: 1) definition of the assessment area, 2) treatment of wetland type, 3) approaches to scoring, 4) consideration of highly valued wetland types or features, and 5) procedures for validation with comprehensive ecological data. With scoring in particular, we present the advantages of a method that produces a single integrative score. Development of a rapid assessment method can assist those interested in incorporating condition assessment into their programs because they require less time in the field and less taxonomic expertise than more quantitative methods, which can lead to significant cost savings and increased sample sizes.


Renewable energy exploitation has proved its promising characteristics in sustainably securing energy needs. This work is a comprehensive assessment of the potential of renewable penetration in securing electricity needs in Palestine. Methods of assessment have been determined based on solar potential. Al-Dahriya secondary school in the south Hebron directorate of education was used as a case study, where these building have low working hours all over the year, which will increase the total income of the annual solar energy. AutoCad software simulation program was used to draw the rooftop of the school. The powerful HOMER ProR software was used for the simulation processes of the PV system and its requirements. Results showed that, the rooftop could accommodate 144 panels, with 57.16 KW. This system will produce 92,866 KWh every year, which could be an input of 5.12% of the total annual power consumption in Palestine if this system installed on every school in Palestine, which are in total 3074 schools. Due to the number of working hours and low energy consumption in schools, the payback period of the project will be 4.38 years. The income of the surplus when installing such project on all schools in Palestine will be around 43 million USD to the Palestinian Treasury every year after the payback period.


OBJECT
Although a cerebrospinal fluid shunt procedure is one of the most frequently performed operations in pediatric neurosurgery, the infection rate due to the procedure is not low. The authors have hypothesized that the key to reducing surgical shunt infections is to reduce bacteria from the operating field and wound. This hypothesis has been tested in a prospective nonrandomized controlled study at the authors' department.

METHODS
Beginning in August 2006, during shunt procedures the authors began routinely irrigating the operating field and wound with amikacin containing saline, using a jet of fluid from a syringe. Prior to this new routine no irrigation techniques were used, providing an adequate control group for comparing the effect of the irrigation technique. Data obtained in all patients undergoing shunt insertions or revisions for hydrocephalus performed between October 1, 2003, and November 30, 2007, were reviewed.

RESULTS
A total of 101 shunt procedures were performed in 63 patients (34 females and 29 males) during the study period. The mean age of all patients was 48.2 +/- 61.8 months. A total of 61 shunt procedures were performed before August 2006, and 40 were performed after August 2006. There was no statistical difference between the ages of patients in the 2 groups (p = 0.64). Eight total infections occurred during the 90 days of the postoperative period (7.9% overall infection rate). All 8 infections occurred before implementation of the irrigation technique (13.1% infection rate), but no infections were noted after beginning use of the irrigation procedure (0% infection rate). There was a statistically significant difference in the infection rate between the 2 groups (p = 0.021).

CONCLUSIONS
Use of an irrigation strategy aimed at reducing bacteria from the operating field and wound can be considered an effective procedure for preventing shunt infection.


Using the data products of the Chandra Galaxy Atlas (Kim et al.), we have investigated the radial profiles of the hot gas temperature in 60 early-type galaxies (ETGs). Considering the characteristic temperature and radius of the peak, dip, and break (when scaled by the gas temperature and virial radius of each galaxy), we propose a universal temperature profile of the hot halo in ETGs. In this scheme, the hot gas temperature peaks at RMAX = 35 ± 25 kpc (or ∼0.04 RVIR) and declines both inward and outward. The temperature dips (or breaks) at RMIN (or RBREAK) = 3–5 kpc (or ∼0.006 RVIR). The mean slope between RMIN (RBREAK) and RMAX is 0.3 ± 0.1. Allowing for selection effects and observational limits, we find that the universal temperature profile can describe the temperature profiles of 72 per cent (possibly up to 82 per cent) of our ETG sample. The remaining ETGs (18 per cent) with irregular or monotonically declining profiles do not fit the universal profile and require another explanation. The temperature gradient inside RMIN (RBREAK) varies widely, indicating different degrees of additional heating at small radii. Investigating the nature of the hot core (HC with a negative gradient inside RMIN), we find that HC is most clearly visible in small galaxies. Searching for potential clues associated with stellar, active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, and gravitational heating, we find that HC may be related to recent star formation. But we see no clear evidence that AGN feedback and gravitational heating play any significant role for HC.


This paper presents the design of an in-pipe climbing robot that operates using a novel 'Three-output open differential'(3-OOD) mechanism to traverse complex networks of pipes. Conventional wheeled/tracked in-pipe climbing robots are prone to slip and drag while traversing in pipe bends. The 3-OOD mechanism helps in achieving the novel result of eliminating slip and drag in the robot tracks during motion. The proposed differential realizes the functional abilities of the traditional two-output differential, which is achieved the first time for a differential with three outputs. The 3-OOD mechanism mechanically modulates the track speeds of the robot based on the forces exerted on each track inside the pipe network, by eliminating the need for any active control. The simulation of the robot traversing in the pipe network in different orientations and in pipe-bends without slip shows the proposed design's effectiveness.


We propose a framework to robust stochastic optimization model for disaster management planning; in particular, we address making integrated decisions about the distribution of relief supplies and evacuation operations. Our decision-making approach recommends the best relief distribution centers to use as storage locations and determines their optimal inventory levels. The model also incorporates the priorities for the evacuation of particular communities, as well as specific disaster scenarios with estimates of the transportation needs and demand for aid. Our model attempts to minimize the sum of the expected value and the variance of the total cost of the relief chain. We present a case study that uses a flood hazard map and determines the distribution of aid for a flood emergency in Thailand.


COVID-19 has killed more than 7.55 million individuals around the world and taken 4.887 million lives around the world. When the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed on March 11, 2020 a global epidemic and pandemic, opinion from multinational businesses are seriously impacted and the view is largely pessimistic. The disease has created tremendous confusion for exports and imports not just in China but also in the region. The real estate business in India aren't exempt. Also, as India's embargo duration extends two months and no specific rules are in effect to restart foreign flights, merchants may not be able to visit China anytime soon. This would impact the price of the steel and other products used in the building sector in India. However, if all constraints are lifted entirely, the challenge of sourcing raw materials implies that building activities will decline over the coming months for existing real estate ventures. Amid increasing building costs and speculation over the relocation of workers from their towns to big cities after closing, land prices are likely to bounce back due to sellers' emotional loss and the fear they are selling to certain resale market owners. The introduction of new ventures is supposed to be delayed until the holiday of October, so it is doubtful that they can add sufficiently to raise the average sales price in each region. COVID-19 outbreak sometimes makes us feel that this situation is quite favorable for those who are eagerly waiting to buy a new property in Faridabad Region. Although experts of the market are saying that it is early to anticipate the extent of crash or correction in real estate prices. But we can even be greatly benefited if there is a price decline of 10%. If property rental is concerned, it can be said that the NCR region has yet not seen any observable change. A market survey suggests that the average rentals in established micro markets of Faridabad remained the same or have even seen a 1-4 percent increase in Q1 2020 as against the corresponding period in 2019. Faridabad is also no exception. In this article we investigate the impact of Covid-19 on house prices in the developed town of Faridabad and the purchasing or rent of cheap items in the same region. Key Word:COVID-19 outbreak, Faridabad, Rental property, Owning a House,Property Rates & Price Trends


The worldwide rise in heatwave frequency poses a threat to plant survival and productivity. Determining the new marker phenotypes that show reproducible response to heat stress and contribute to heat stress tolerance is becoming a priority. In this study, we describe a protocol focusing on the daily changes in plant morphology and photosynthetic performance after exposure to heat stress using an automated non-invasive phenotyping system. Heat stress exposure resulted in an acute reduction of quantum yield of photosystem II and increased leaf angle. In the longer term, exposure to heat also affected plant growth and morphology. By tracking the recovery period of WT and mutants impaired in thermotolerance (hsp101), we observed that the difference in maximum quantum yield, quenching, rosette size, and morphology. By examining the correlation across the traits throughout time, we observed that early changes in photochemical quenching corresponded with the rosette size at later stages, which suggests the contribution of quenching to overall heat tolerance. We also determined that 6h of heat stress provides the most informative insight in plant responses to heat, as it shows a clear separation between treated and non-treated plants as well as WT and hsp101. Our work streamlines future discoveries by providing an experimental protocol, data analysis pipeline and new phenotypes that could be used as targets in thermotolerance screenings.


Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites observe range and azimuth geometric accuracies at the low centimeter level. The accuracy of geolocation is driven by several aspects, e.g. orbit determination, SAR image processing, or atmospheric error correction. Our paper concentrates on the Sentinel-1 mission and the compensation of the platform motion effects in the geolocation, which were found to limit the best possible geolocation capabilities of Sentinel-1. The key to advance the geolocation results is the rigorous compensation of the bistatic effect in azimuth, and the correction of the Doppler-induced shifts in range. First results for Sentinel-1 at the Australian reflector array consisting of 40 Corner Reflector (CR) show consistent improvement in the geolocation $(1\sigma)$ to 6 cm in range and 28 cm in azimuth for both spacecrafts when using the Interferometric Wide swath (IW) product.


The adsorption at silica from dilute emulsion systems was studied within situellipsometry. In particular, the effects of electrostatic interactions on the adsorption rate and the adsorbed layer structure and formation were investigated by varying the emulsion droplet and surface charge, as well as the electrostatic screening, accomplished by varying pH and the excess electrolyte concentration. Electrostatic interactions were found to markedly affect the adsorption rate, but not the adsorbed layer structure or the mechanism for the adsorbed layer formation. For all cases investigated, the adsorbed layer thickness corresponds to emulsion droplets or multilamellar liposomes, and the adsorbed layer formation proceeds through attachment of emulsion droplets and/or multilamellar liposomes at the surface without extensive droplet spreading or liposome collapse. When the droplets and the surface are similarly charged, the adsorption is facilitated by increasing the electrostatic screening or by decreasing the emulsion droplet and surface charge, accomplished by increasing the excess electrolyte concentration and decreasing pH, respectively. When the droplets and the surface are oppositely charged, the adsorption rate is much higher than that observed when the droplets and the surface are similarly charged, although the adsorbed layer structure and the mechanism for the adsorbed layer formation are similar. Qualitatively, these effects may be understood by considering only electrostatic and van der Waals interactions.