In order to improve the safety, reliability, and life of diverse structures, the development of effective methodologies for structural health monitoring is critical. Among damage detection techniques, guided ultrasonic Lamb waves are particularly suitable for damage detection applications for plate-like and shell-like structures, such as aircraft wing-box structures, heat exchanger tubing, stiffened panels, and nuclear steam generator tubing, due to their sensitivity to damage. Computational models can play a critical role to study wave propagation for monitoring structural health and develop a technique to detect structural damage. Due to complexity of guided wave behavior, efficient and accurate computation tools are essential to study the mechanisms that account for coupling, dispersion, and interaction with damage. In this study, a numerical technique is presented for guided waves propagation in metallic structure by employing co-simulation using ABAQUS Standard module and ABAQUS Explicit module simultaneously to simulate transient wave propagation from an PZT actuator into a metallic plate. The present co-simulation analysis couples multiphysics (piezoelectric) analysis with transient dynamics (wave propagation) analysis. A numerical test is conducted using a PZT actuator for exciting planar Lamb waves and a sensor for acquiring wave signals. The signals achieved from defected and pristine models by FEA are then compared to identify and detect damage in the structure.


This study was conducted to isolate and identify fresh water fungi species from the Malaysian natural water bodies and fish farms and to examine the pathogenicity of the isolates as a confirmative identification tool for epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) outbreak in Selangor state, Malaysia. For this aim, 165 water samples and 62 infected fish collected from 12 stations were tested in which 35 and 24 samples were found to be positive for fungi contamination and/or infection, respectively. The isolates were morphologically characterized; from 59 isolates, 32 were identified as Saprolegina, 21 as Achlya and 6 as Aphanomyces species. Experimental infection was carried out by intramuscularly injection of the Aphanomyces spp. isolates to the Malaysian moonlight gourami (Trichogaster Microlepis), where no mortality and no signs of EUS were observed in the fish groups. Histopathology test also revealed no signs of damage in the skin, muscles and other tissues following infection with the isolates indicating that all the Aphanomyces isolates were non-pathogenic.


Premise Equisetum is a distinctive vascular plant genus with 15 extant species worldwide. Species identification is complicated by morphological plasticity and frequent hybridization events, leading to a disproportionately high number of misidentified specimens. These may be correctly identified by applying appropriate computer vision tools. Methods We hypothesize that aerial stem nodes can provide enough information to distinguish among Equisetum hyemale, E. laevigatum, and E . ×ferrissii, the latter being a hybrid between the other two. An object detector was trained to find nodes on a given image and to distinguish E. hyemale nodes from those of E. laevigatum. A classifier then took statistics from the detection results and classified the given image into one of the three taxa. Both detector and classifier were trained and tested on expert manually annotated images. Results In our exploratory test set of 30 images, our detector/classifier combination identified all 10 E. laevigatum images correctly, as well as nine out of 10 E. hyemale images, and eight out of 10 E. ×ferrissii images, for a 90% classification accuracy. Discussion Our results support the notion that computer vision may help with the identification of herbarium specimens once enough manual annotations become available.


BACKGROUND
Nanotechnology-based therapies are emerging as a promising new anticancer approach. Early clinical studies suggest that nanoparticle-based therapeutics can show enhanced efficacy while reducing side effects minimal, owing to targeted delivery and active intracellular uptake.

METHODS
To overcome the problems of gene and drug delivery, nanotechnology based delivery system gained interest in the last two decades. Encouraging results from Nano formulation based drug delivery systems revealed that these emerging restoratives can efficiently lead to more effective, targeted, selective and efficacious delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to the affected target cells.

RESULTS
Nanotechnology not only inhibits targeted gene products in patients with cancer, but also taught us valuable lessons regarding appropriate dosages and route of administrations. Besides, nanotechnology based therapeutics holds remarkable potential as an effective drug delivery system. We critically highlight the recent findings on nanotechnology mediated therapeutics strategies to combat hepatocellular carcinoma and discuss how nanotechnology platform can have enhanced anticancer effects compared with the parent therapeutic agents they contain.

CONCLUSION
In this review, we discussed the key challenges, recent findings and future perspective in the development of effective nanotechnology-based cancer therapeutics. The emphasis here is focused on nanotechnology-based therapies that are likely to affect clinical investigations and their implications for advancing the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.


: The possibility of using Pseudomonas free bacterial cells for integral evaluation of some phenol compounds' content in water by means of estimation of specific respiratory activity (SRA) value was shown. Amperometric system of Clark electrode was used as a transducer in conducted investigations. The conditions of performing the SRA analysis of Pseudomonas sp. B 4251 and Ps. putida sp. microbial cells were optimized. The method sensitivity is 0.2 mM for Pseudomonas sp. B 4251 and 0.5 mM for Ps. putida sp. Taking into account specificity and sensitivity of the studied method, for estimating the integral toxicity of waste water, which contains 4-nitrophenol and 2,4-dinitrophenol in more than MPC concentrations and harmful for ecosystem became possible.


Rotator cuff tears have a high prevalence in older people. This research examines the clinical outcome of the non-operative treatment of symptomatic degenerative rotator cuff tears with hyaluronic acid (HA) injections. 72 patients (43 females/29 males), with an average age of 66 years with symptomatic degenerative full- thickness rotator cuff tear, confirmed with arthro-CT, were treated with three intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections and followed on multiple observational moments during a 5-year follow-up using the SF- 36 (Short-Form Health Survey), DASH (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand), CMS (Constant Murley Score), and OSS (Oxford Shoulder Scale. 54 patients completed the 5-year follow-up questionnaire. 77% of the patients did not require additional treatment for their shoulder pathology, and 89% were treated conservatively. Only 11% of the patients included in this study needed surgery. Between subjects, the analysis revealed a significant difference in response in the DASH (p=0.015) and CMS (p=0.033) when the subscapularis muscle was involved. Intra-articular infiltrations with hyaluronic acid improve pain and shoulder function, especially if the subscapularis muscle is not involved.


An investigation was conducted to assess the potential of water-stabilized plasma (WSP) spraying for applying protective boron carbide coatings to fusion reactor components. This paper describes how test samples were produced and how coating quality was determined. The authors sprayed boron carbide powder onto steel and stainless steel substrates using different powder feeding and spraying distances, substrate preheat temperatures, and carrier gases. They also investigated methods for optimizing the plasma jet and improving coating adhesion. The boron carbide coatings were characterized based on phase composition, porosity, oxygen content, and flexural strength. Paper includes a German-language abstract.


Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is characterised by an active distension of the cerebral ventricles due to inadequate absorption of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the systemic circulation. The intracranial pressure is within normal limits, the passages between the ventricles and subarachnoid spaces are open, and there is an absence of identifiable antecedents known to reduce CSF absorption. The clinical picture is marked by gait and balance disorders, neuropsychological deficits and incontinence. The aims of this thesis were to describe the neuropsychology of patients with iNPH in comparison to healthy indiviuals (HI), to explore its relationship with other signs, to capture the neuropsychological effects of shunt treatment, but also to evaluate the neuropsychological tests that were used throughout the study, and to develop and introduce an iNPH scale for the assessment of severity and treatment outcome. In study I, 58 patients with iNPH (before surgery) and 108 HI were examined, whereas in study II, 47 patients (before and after surgery) and 159 HI were examined. These studies included overlapping series of consecutive patients undergoing investigations at the Hydrocephalus Research unit at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Studies III and IV were based on data from 142 patients included in the European multicentre study on iNPH. Patients with iNPH performed worse than HI on all of the tests included in all of the four studies. The neuropsychological deficits were strongly interrelated and the degree of impairment was associated with the severity of other signs, and aggravated by cerebrovascular risk factors. After three months of treatment (study II) and after one year of treatment (studies III and IV), patients' performance was significantly improved, yet still inferior to HI. The presence of cerebrovascular risk factors did not reduce the magnitude of change following treatment. The three tests used in studies I-IV and the measures derived from them were found to be diagnostically distinctive, expedient and capable of capturing changes following shunt treatment. Finally, in study IV, using a cut-off of >5 points on the newly developed iNPH scale, 83% of the patients were found to be improved after one year of treatment. In conclusion, iNPH is associated with neuropsychological deficits in most areas. A core battery measuring functions related to ventricle-neighboring circuitry functions is capable of separating patients from HI and able to detect changes following treatment. Following shunt treatment, neuropsychological functions are improved but not fully restored. A newly developed iNPH scale, well equipped to grade the severity of iNPH and to identify shunt responders is proposed.


We explore in this research paper the concept of avoidable mortality and how the way it is measured has evolved over time. Starting from an earlier review by Nolte and McKee (2004), we review the empirical studies which have been produced since then. Finally we appraise the empirical applications of the most recent literature. The concept of "avoidable mortality" refers, broadly speaking, to all those deaths that, given current medical knowledge and technology, could be avoided by the healthcare system through either prevention and/or treatment. It originates from the pioneering work by Rutstein, Berenberg et al. (1976) which introduced the notion of 'unnecessary untimely deaths' as a new way to measuring the quality of medical care. The most recent empirical literature shows that the notion of avoidable mortality continues to be used to establish the extent to which people are dying from amenable conditions within and/or across countries and over time, and whether socio-economic status and ethnicity are related to mortality from amenable conditions. Most studies use data taken from national death registries, with only two which link the concept of avoidable mortality to routinely collected administrative data of healthcare provision, such as hospitals. A number of criticisms are raised, with probably the most remarkable being the lack of association found between avoidable mortality and healthcare inputs. No study has actually attempted to use the concept of avoidable mortality within the original aim envisaged by Rutstein, i.e. as a quality indicator of healthcare provision. We recommend for future work in this area to focus on investigating the link between the provision of healthcare and the concept of avoidable mortality, with a particular emphasis on using routinely collected administrative data, such as hospital discharge data.


Abstract Background Health financing and delivery reforms designed to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) need to be informed by an understanding of factors that both promote access to health care and undermine it. This study examines the level of health care utilisation in Timor-Leste and the factors that drive it. Methods Data from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of health care utilisation in 1712 households were used to develop multilevel models exploring how need and predisposing and enabling factors explain health care utilisation at both primary and secondary care facilities. Results Need was found to be the key driver in seeking both primary care and hospital services. Rural households were less likely to go to hospital (odds ratio 0.7) than urban households. The poorest quintile was also less likely to use more expensive hospital services than other socio-economic groups. Conclusions Understanding the determinants of seeking health care in Timor-Leste is of considerable policy significance, because health care is free at the point of use. Our findings indicate that the public resources for health care are subsidising the rich more than the poor. Health care reforms in Timor-Leste need to reduce the 'other' costs of health care, such as distance barriers, to address these inequities.


Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects 12.7 million people in Europe and North America (Klein et al., 1995 Klein et al. 1999). As a combination of decreasing birth rate and increasing longevity alter the demographic of the population, the impact of this disease can only increase. This places an immense burden, not only on the individuals afflicted by the condition, but on the financial resources of society as a whole. Unfortunately, treatment for AMD is still very restricted, and even our understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease is far from complete One concern in tackling the growing problem of AMD is that methods used in the assessment of the condition are limited, usually based on fundus appearance and visual acuity. The aim of this study was to develop a battery of electrophysiological tests which would be sensitive to the most subtle changes in retinal function in AMD. Such tests may aid diagnosis, provide a more sensitive measure of disease progression, and allow an early identification of phenotypic subtypes. Protocols were included for the recording of the focal rod ERG, the focal cone ERG, the S-cone ERG and the dynamic focal cone ERG, along with psychophysical tests of colour vision and dark adaptation. These tests were then applied to 31 subjects with ARM (12 with bilateral ARM, 11 with unilateral wet AMD and 8 with unilateral dry AMD), and 28 controls. In the analysis of ERG amplitudes a ratio of focal to full-field amplitude was introduced as a novel means of reducing intersubject variability in response. This was found to increase the accuracy of all tests in distinguishing between subject groups. The greatest separation between ARM and control groups was provided by the dynamic tests of visual function i.e. rod-cone break time of the dark adaptation function, and time constant of recovery of the dynamic focal cone ERG. The time to rod-cone break also showed potential in identifying subjects at increased risk of exudative retinal changes. Subjects were assigned to groups in this study on the basis of fundus appearance. However, individuals within each subject group showed a range of retinal function which belied the homogeneity of retinal signs. This raises the question of whether 'form' or 'function' should form the basis of classification and assessment of individuals with ARM and AMD.


Cloud MapReduce (CMR) is a framework for processing large data sets of batch data in cloud. The Map and Reduce phases run sequentially, one after another. This leads to: 1. Compulsory batch processing 2. No parallelization of the map and reduce phases 3. Increased delays. The current implementation is not suited for processing streaming data. We propose a novel architecture to support streaming data as input using pipelining between the Map and Reduce phases in CMR, ensuring that the output of the Map phase is made available to the Reduce phase as soon as it is produced. This 'Pipelined MapReduce' approach leads to increased parallelism between the Map and Reduce phases, thereby 1. Supporting streaming data as input 2. Reducing delays 3. Enabling the user to take 'snapshots' of the approximate output generated in a stipulated time frame. 4. Supporting cascaded MapReduce jobs. This cloud implementation is light-weight and inherently scalable.


Pneumothoraces (1%) and pleural effusions (5%) are two of the less common complications of infection with COVID-19. Following a referral for a pleural drain insertion for a pneumothorax in a patient with COVID-19, we reassessed the infection risks involved in this procedure and its aftercare. Pleural drainage tubes attached to an underwater seal drain allow expulsion of aerosol and larger droplets via the vent from the bottle into the surrounding environment, potentially leading to infection of other patients and staff.Consequently, we chose to attach an antiviral filter to the venting port of an underwater seal drain bottle to mitigate this risk. A fluorescein dye experiment was used to demonstrate the reduction in aerosol emission output from the bottle with our described technique, allowing an antiviral filter to be attached to a pleural underwater seal drainage bottle for added protection of patients and staff in the local environment.


This paper investigates factors that affect the adoption of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) among SMEs in fashion subsector in Indonesia. This study adopts Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework which consist technological factors such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability; organizational factors such as owner/manager IT knowledge, owner/manager innovativeness; and environmental factors namely competitive pressure, market turbulence, and institutional intervention. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from 204 SME owners/managers. The results show that under technological factors, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability significantly and positively influence ICT adoption. However, relative advantage and complexity have significant but negative influence on ICT adoption. Moreover, the organizational factors namely owner/manager's knowledge and innovativeness also contribute significantly to the adoption. Furthermore, among three environmental factors, competitive pressure and institutional intervention are determinants that influence ICT adoption in SMEs, whereas market turbulence shows no significant contribution toward the adoption of ICT. This study provides valuable insights for government and policy makers as well as for SMEs owner/managers to develop strategies that promote and foster the adoption of ICT. DOI :  https://doi.org/10.21632/irjbs.8.1.47-57  Keywords: ICT Adoption, TOE Framework, SME, Fashion Subsector, Indonesia


Designer proteins that incorporate solid‐binding peptides hold promise to control the nucleation, growth, morphology, and assembly of inorganic phases under mild conditions of temperature and pressure. However, protein‐aided nanofabrication remains more art than science and some materials can only be synthesized at temperatures that cause most mesophilic proteins to unfold. Using zinc oxide (ZnO) synthesis at 70°C as case study, we show here that seemingly unimportant variables, such as the carry‐over concentration of Tris buffer and the "empty" host protein scaffold can exert a significant influence on materials morphology. We also show that, once well‐controlled conditions are established, thermodynamic predictions and adsorption isotherms are powerful tools to understand how various ZnO‐binding sequence inserted within the thermostable framework of Escherichia coli thioredoxin A (TrxA) affect inorganic morphogenesis. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109:1912–1918. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the asymmetrical light reflex of the control subjects and patients with optic nerve disease and to evaluate the relationships among the relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD), visual acuity (VA), central critical fusion frequency (CFF), ganglion cell complex thickness (GCCT), and circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (cpRNFLT) using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Materials and methods: Using a pupillography device, the RAPD scores from 15 patients with unilateral optic nerve disease and 35 control subjects were compared. The diagnostic accuracy of the RAPD amplitude and latency scores was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Thereafter, we assessed the relationships among the RAPD scores, VA, central CFF, GCCT, and cpRNFLT. Results: The average RAPD amplitude score in patients with optic nerve disease was significantly higher than that of the control subjects ( P , 0.001). The average RAPD latency score in patients with optic nerve disease was significantly higher than that of the control subjects ( P = 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the RAPD amplitude score was significantly higher than that for the latency score ( P = 0.010). The correlation coefficients for the RAPD amplitude and latency scores were 0.847 ( P , 0.001) and 0.874 ( P , 0.001) for VA, - 0.868 ( P , 0.001) and - 0.896 ( P , 0.001) for central CFF, - 0.593 ( P = 0.020) and - 0.540 ( P = 0.038) for GCCT, and - 0.267 ( P = 0.337) and - 0.228 ( P = 0.413) for cpRNFLT, respectively. Conclusion: Our results suggest that pupillography is useful for detecting optic nerve disease. Optometry; Visual science; Pharmacology and drug therapy in eye diseases; Basic Sciences; Primary and Secondary eye care; Patient and Quality of


Motivated by the modeling of temperature regulation in some mediums, we consider the non-classical heat conduction equation in the domain $D=\mathbb{R}^{n-1}\times\br^{+}$ for which the internal energy supply depends on an average in the time variable of the heat flux $(y, s)\mapsto V(y,s)= u_{x}(0 , y , s)$ on the boundary $S=\partial D$. The solution to the problem is found for an integral representation depending on the heat flux on $S$ which is an additional unknown of the considered problem. We obtain that the heat flux $V$ must satisfy a Volterra integral equation of second kind in the time variable $t$ with a parameter in $\mathbb{R}^{n-1}$. Under some conditions on data, we show that a unique local solution exists, which can be extended globally in time. Finally in the one-dimensional case, we obtain the explicit solution by using the Laplace transform and the Adomian decomposition method.


The premise that unexplained fetal loss is associated with maternal intravenous glucose intolerance (IVGT) has been studied retrospectively in three pregnancy related groups. In 97 women (Group A) who had stillbirths inadequately explained by obstetrical or necropsy findings, 24 per cent had abnormal IVGT tested six weeks postpartum. In 115 women (Group B) with histories of two or more spontaneous abortions (recurrent abortion) tested late in a subsequent successful pregnancy 26 per cent were abnormal. In 465 pregnancies of women with abnormal IVGT diagnosed during pregnancy (Group C) there were 19 perinatal deaths (12 stillbirths and 7 first week deaths) (Perinatal Mortality Rate 41 per 1000). Perinatal mortality characteristics which are similar to those found in insulin dependent diabetes namely a high incidence of major fetal abnormality (37 per cent) and the occurrence of hyaline membrane disease in term infants were observed. A causal association is postulated between inadequately explained stillbirth and recurrent abortion and abnormal maternal IVGT.


In the intraspinal organ at the level of the IV--V lumbar segments of the spinal cord, in 7 women and 8 men (30-45 years of age) certain cells have been studied electron microscopically. According to their ultrastructure, they are divided into ectogliocytes without processes, plasmic and fibrillar astrocytes, mesogliocytes, tissue basophils and cells with signs of secretion. Variability of organells of the secretory cells and their inclusions is connected with production and exocytosis of the secrete.


We examine how and why elements of organizational design depend on one another. An agent-based simulation allows us to model three design elements and two contextual variables that have rarely been analyzed jointly: a vertical hierarchy that reviews proposals from subordinates, an incentive system that rewards subordinates for departmental or firm-wide performance, the decomposition of an organization's many decisions into departments, the underlying pattern of interactions among decisions, and limits on the ability of managers to process information. Interdependencies arise among these features because of a basic, general tension. To be successful, an organization must broadly search for good sets of decisions, but it must also stabilize around good decisions once discovered. An effective organization balances search and stability. We identify sets of design elements that encourage broad search and others that promote stability. The adoption of elements that encourage broad search typically raises the marginal benefit of other elements that provide offsetting stability. Hence, the need to balance search and stability generates interdependencies among the design elements. We pay special attention to interdependencies that involve the vertical hierarchy. Our findings confirm many aspects of conventional wisdom about vertical hierarchies, but challenge or put boundary conditions on others. We place limits, for instance, on the received wisdom that firm-wide incentives and capable subordinates make top-level oversight less valuable. We also identify circumstances in which vertical hierarchies can lead to inferior long-term performance.


Abstract. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry for SAR data (PSInSAR) improves the ability of conventional InSAR time-series methods by detecting and analysing pixels where the portion of spatiotemporal decorrelations on the phase is negligible. Using dual/quad polarized SAR data provide us with an additional source of information to improve further the capability of InSAR analysis. In this paper, we present a method to enhance PSInSAR using polarimetric optimization method on multi-temporal polarimetric SAR data. The optimization process has been implemented to minimize the Amplitude dispersion Index (ADI) of pixels in SAR images over the time based on the best scattering mechanism. We evaluated the method on a dataset including 17 dual polarization SAR data (HH/VV) acquired by TerraSAR-X data from July 2013 to January 2014 over Tehran plain, Iran. The area has been affected by high rate (> 20 cm/yr.) of surface subsidence due to groundwater overexploitation. The effectiveness of the method is compared for both agricultural and urban regions affected by land subsidence. Furthermore single pole and optimized polarization results are compared together and with external observations from GPS measurements. The results reveal that using optimum scattering mechanism decreases the ADI values in urban and non-urban regions and increase the PS Candidate pixels (PSC) about three times and subsequently improves the PS density about 50% more than using single channel datasets.


More than 20 soil samples were collected from tea gardens of specialized tea towns in Guangdong, including Fenglang Town and Fengshun Town in Meizhou City, Changshan Town in Lianjiang City, Fenghuang Town in Chaozhou City. Content of 6 types of heavy metal (Cr, Cu, Pb, As, Cd, Hg) in tea garden soil was measured. On the basis of these, the safety was assessed. Results show that the comprehensive pollution index of these 6 types of heavy metal is lower than 0.7. According to Soil Pollution Grading Standard formulated by China Green Food Development Center, the soil is not polluted by heavy metal and remains at safety level. It proves that overall soil condition of specialized tea gardens in Guangdong Province is not polluted by heavy metal.


This paper aims to have a look at quantitative research as one of the types of research in education which has been done by researchers, administrators and teachers.  Three research questions are examined to see whether or not there is any correlation between classroom size, low income of the students and teacher's experience to the testing program. The finding shows that classroom size gives effects to the achievements of students (Lee, 2009, Hunn-Sunnito et al. 2001). Moreover, low income of the students also affects the student's achievement of the testing (Page, 2002). Teacher's experience as well, plays an important role to the success or failure in educational program.


This study establishes a multi-objective model for comprehensive energy system scheduling optimisation with wind farms, combined heat and power units, power to gas technology, circulating fluidised bed boilers and gas boilers. The goal is to minimise the operating costs and minimise the discharge of pollutants while meeting the constraints of the material balance of the circulating fluidised bed boiler. The improved weak robust optimisation theory is used to deal with the uncertainty of wind power, and the weak robust coefficient is introduced. By adjusting the coefficient, the optimal solution under the different tolerances of the deterioration of the objective function is obtained. The improved bacterial population chemotaxis algorithm is used to optimise the comprehensive energy system scheduling model, and a feasible solution with certain robustness is obtained. Sensitivity analysis under different risk levels is done. The simulation verifies the correctness and effectiveness of the optimised scheduling model and the improved algorithm.


In negligence regimes, tort plaintiffs traditionally bear the burden of proving the negligence of their defendants. Several European legal systems adopted rules that have reversed this traditional evidentiary rule in certain categories of torts, creating a rebuttable presumption of negligence against defendants. Under this presumption, the tortfeasor faces the burden of proving to have met the standard of due care to rebut the legally created presumption of negligence. This paper analyzes the conditions under which it might be optimal to shift evidentiary burdens, creating a presumption of negligence which the defendant must affirmatively rebut. We analyze the effects of legal presumptions on care and activity levels incentives. Our analysis reveals that a change in presumptions can increase the robustness of care incentives in the face of probatory difficulties and operates as an activity-level tax which can mitigate the activity level of the party who is not already burdened by residual liability. We suggest that the interaction between evidence and substantive tort rules is an important dimension that should inform the choice of legal presumptions.


IL-2 is one of the principal growth factors regulating the proliferation of T lymphocytes. Although two independent IL-2-binding molecules have been molecularly cloned and shown to participate in the formation of a high affinity receptor complex, their primary structures do not suggest a specific mechanism for IL-2 growth signal transduction across the cell membrane. Neither IL-2 receptor subunit contains an intrinsic kinase domain; nevertheless, tyrosine phosphorylation of various intracellular substrates is one of the first biochemical changes observed following activation of the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R). Both serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases can be co-precipitated as part of the IL-2R complex suggesting that the IL-2 signalling may involve the activation of non-covalently associated intracellular kinases. However, controversy exists as to which kinases are involved in IL-2 signal transduction; in particular, which kinase(s) mediates the first or proximal event(s) in the signalling process. Activation of the IL-2R leads to serine and threonine phosphorylation of the SRC tyrosine kinase family member, LCK, and an increase in LCK tyrosine kinase activity. Furthermore, LCK can be co-immunoprecipitated with the beta chain of the IL-2R indicating its association with the receptor complex. IL-2 has also been reported to increase FYN kinase activity and to alter its association with the 85 kDa subunit of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase thus suggesting a role for FYN in IL-2 signal transduction. However, in this report, we now demonstrate that neither LCK nor FYN are obligatory for IL-2-induced growth of HTLV-I-infected human T cells. Lack of expression of LCK or FYN in the HTLV-I-infected T cell lines was demonstrated by a combination of Northern blotting, polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and in vitro kinase activity. Despite the absence of LCK or FYN, IL-2 induced similar patterns of rapid tyrosine phosphorylation. Similar results were observed in cell lines lacking expression of the LYN, FGR, HCK, and LTK tyrosine kinases. Thus, none of these tyrosine kinases alone appears to be required for growth signalling through the IL-2R in the HTLV-I-infected T cell lines analyzed. The findings raise the possibility that an, as yet, unidentified tyrosine kinase is involved. Alternatively, this biological signalling system may exhibit remarkable redundancy whereby several different tyrosine kinases may be capable of associating with the IL-2R complex and mediating intracellular signalling.


The objective of this paper is to illustrate the benefits of an autonomous fire-fighting robot design competition as an effective tool for undergraduate education. It presents experiences at the United States Air Force Academy, USAF Academy, CO; Pennsylvania State University-Abington; and Trinity College, Hartford, CT, together with the results of the contest surveys conducted in collaboration with The Technion*Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. The primary goal of the design project is to create an autonomous mobile robot that navigates through a maze searching for a fire (simulated by a burning candle), detects the candle's flame, extinguishes the flame, and returns to a designated starting location in the maze. The fire-fighting design contest promotes interdisciplinary design and teamwork. To accomplish the stated goal, students must integrate knowledge gained from such classes as engineering design, circuits, controls, signals and systems, computer programming, mathematics, and engineering mechanics. Within the three institutions, the contest has been successfully utilized as a foundation for a wide range of educational goals. These activities include freshman design, robotics courses, K-12 outreach, senior design projects, and undergraduate research.


Current/y, the Block IIIIIA Global Positioning System (GPS) sate///tes are equipped with two rubidium frequency standards. These frequency standards were originaUy intended to serve as the back-ups to two cesium frequency standards. As the constellation ages, the Master Control Station is forced to initialize an increasing number of rubidium frequency standards. Unfortunately, the operational use of these frequency standards has not lived up to initial expectations. Although the performance of these rubidium frequency standards has met and even exceeded GP$ requirements, their reUabiUty has not. The number of unscheduled outage times and the short operational lifetimes of the rubidium frequency standards compare poorly to the track record of the cesium frequency standards. Only a small number of rubidium frequency standards have actually been made operational Of these, a large percentage have exhibited poor reliability. If this trend continues, it is unlikely that the rubidium frequency standards will help contribute to the navigation payload meeting program speciJication.


This study examines the queering of Tupac Amaru in Javier Vargas Sotomayor's La Falsificación de las Túpac (The Falsification of Tupac) to discern how travestismo (transvestism) functions as a methodology and epistemology for working on and against the symbols that underwrite national identity. This essay treats falsification as a central precept of a travesti methodology by paying close attention to the role of fiction, falsity, and fabrication in the production of the hero and the nation. Roper argues that travestismo not only exposes the constructedness of its original but also functions as a tool of dissent and as a space for staging an encounter with the possible.


Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) has declined significantly (by over 50 percent) across its range due in part to a lack of both artificial and natural regeneration. A series of shortleaf pine progeny tests, established rangewide from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, offers promise for addressing some of the silviculture and restoration concerns related to this decline. Eighty-four of these shortleaf pine progeny tests were established on the Ouachita and Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. These 33-family (on average), full-sib progeny tests were produced from parent trees growing in the Mount Ida Seed Orchard. These parents originated from three geographic seed source regions in Arkansas and Oklahoma: East Ouachita, West Ouachita, and Ozark. In 2018 and 2019, we remeasured diameter at breast height (d.b.h.), tree height, and survival and recorded general tree health conditions from seven well-stocked progeny tests that were installed in the East and West Ouachita regions. We combined our measurements with those taken in the past to help determine if performance differences over time could be found among these shortleaf pine families. Our preliminary analysis indicated differences in d.b.h., height, and survival—information that should help silviculturists making decisions about which shortleaf families may prove most useful for restoration and tree improvement purposes in the region.


The Persian Gulf is a special habitat of marine sponges whose bacterial communities are under-investigated. Recently, next-generation sequencing technology has comprehensively improved the knowledge of marine sponge-associated bacteria. For the first time, this study aimed to evaluate the diversity of the Persian Gulf sponge-associated bacteria using tag pyrosequencing in Iran. In this study, 10 sponge samples from 6 different taxonomic orders were collected from the Persian Gulf using SCUBA diving. The diversity of the bacteria associated with the marine sponges was investigated using the 16S rRNA gene PCR-tagged pyrosequencing method. A total of 68,628 high-quality sequences were obtained and clustered at a 97% similarity into 724 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs), representing 17 bacterial phyla. Cyanobacteria was the most abundant phylum in the sponges, followed by Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Other phyla were detected as minor groups of bacteria. Bacterial community richness, Shannon, and Simpson indices revealed the highest diversity in sponge S11 (Dictyoceratida sp.) compared to other sponges. This study showed a diverse structure of bacterial communities associated with the Persian Gulf sponges. The dominance of Cyanobacteria may suggest an ecological importance of this phylum in the Persian Gulf sponges.


Limitation of synchronizing speed is a key feature for finite time synchronization of complex networks. We studied such limitations as coupling strength tends to infinity for networks with Lorenz oscillator as nodes under conditions that nodes were coupled in different ways. It was found that if nodes are coupled by only one state variable, coupling by second variable has the highest synchronizing speed. If nodes are coupled by two state variables, coupling by second and third variables has the highest synchronizing speed. If nodes are coupled by all three variables, the limitation of synchronizing speed will approach infinity.


Measurement apparatus intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres in Europe, must comply with the EC Directive 94/9/EC, also known as "ATEX directive". The conformity must be verified by a so called ATEX Certificate. In the frame of the EC-funded research project "Corrosion testing of tank ships", AE-field tests on board large tank ships were executed. Intrinsically safe certified AE sensors were temporarily immersed through a potentially explosive atmosphere from the tank top through manholes into the liquid contents. Ship owners and involved classification societies insisted on the availability of a system certificate confirming intrinsic safety for the used sensors and isolation barriers and also for the whole installation for protection from the risk of a lightning strike into a signal cable running over deck. For this certification process, all details of installation, such as cabling, earthing, over voltage protection, etc., have been decided, explained and examined. This paper presents some basics of explosion protection with its terminology and the new "Product Family ISAFE".


High-throughput "omics" data are becoming commonplace in biological research and can provide important translational insights, but there is a need for well-crafted userfriendly tools for integrating and analyzing these data. In this thesis, I present versions 1 and 2 of Omics Integrator, a software tool designed to take advantage of the Prize-Collecting Steiner Forest algorithm from graph theory to provide users with high-confidence biological networks informed by their omics results. I show the results of using this flexible tool in several studies of Huntington's disease (HD), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder with no cure. By leveraging Omics Integrator on omics datasets from induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived models of HD, I discovered and highlighted several pathways that are altered in these cell line models, including neurodevelopment and glycolytic metabolism, which may lead to important therapeutic targets in the disease. Finally, I compare omics data derived from three iPSC-derived models differentiated towards a striatal neuron cell type using different protocols, and show that by performing this large comparative analysis I can implicate functions and pathways common to several models of HD. Future integrative and comparative studies like these will be made easier by the Omics Integrator tool. Thesis Supervisor: Ernest Fraenkel Title: Professor of Biological Engineering


SUMMARY
Compared with other plant expression systems used for pharmaceutical protein production, alfalfa offers the advantage of very homogeneous N-glycosylation. Therefore, this plant was selected for further attempts at glycoengineering. Two main approaches were developed in order to humanize N-glycosylation in alfalfa. The first was a knock-down of two plant-specific N-glycan maturation enzymes, beta1,2-xylosyltransferase and alpha1,3-fucosyltransferases, using sense, antisense and RNA interference strategies. In a second approach, with the ultimate goal of rebuilding the whole human sialylation pathway, human beta1,4-galactosyltransferase was expressed in alfalfa in a native form or in fusion with a targeting domain from N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I, a glycosyltransferase located in the early Golgi apparatus in Nicotiana tabacum. Both knock-down and knock-in strategies strongly, but not completely, inhibited the biosynthesis of alpha1,3-fucose- and beta1,2-xylose-containing glycoepitopes in transgenic alfalfa. However, recombinant human beta1,4-galactosyltransferase activity in transgenic alfalfa completely prevented the accumulation of the Lewis a glycoepitope on complex N-glycans.


Multichannel magnetocardiography (MCG) during exercise testing has been shown to detect myocardial ischaemia in patients with coronary artery disease. Previous studies on exercise MCG have focused on one or few time intervals during the recovery period and only a fragment of the data available has been utilized. We present a method for beat-to-beat analysis and parametrization of the MCG signal. The method can be used for studying and quantifying the changes induced in the MCG by interventions. We test the method with data recorded in bicycle exercise testing in healthy volunteers and patients with coronary artery disease. Information in all cardiac cycles recorded during the recovery period of exercise MCG testing is, for the first time, utilized in the signal analysis. Exercise-induced myocardial ischaemia was detected by heart rate adjustment of change in magnetic field map orientation. In addition to the ST segment, the T wave in the MCG was also found to provide information related to myocardial ischaemia. The method of analysis efficiently utilizes the spatial and temporal properties of multichannel MCG mapping, providing a new tool for detecting and quantifying fast phenomena during interventional MCG studies. The method can also be applied to an on-line analysis of MCG data.


The mechanical behavior and ultimate bearing capacity of the circular bar-reinforced concrete filled steel tube (BRCFST) short columns under axial compression are analyzed in this paper based on the unified strength theory. Considering the restriction effect of steel tube and hoop bar on concrete, the calculation formula of bearing capacity of the column is deduced. Parametric studies are carried out to evaluate the effects of intermediate principal stresses, diameter-thickness ratio of steel tube and the stirrup ratio on the bearing capacity of the column. A good agreement is reached by comparing the results calculated by the formula with the test results. It is concluded that the unified strength theory is applicable in the theoretical analyses of the BRCFST columns.


This thesis is a critical investigation into the effectiveness of the youth participation structures created by the Irish State following the passing of the National Children's Strategy (2000). As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the State is obliged to extend citizenship rights, including the right to actively participate in the democratic process, to children and young people. Two structures are under review; the thirty-four youth councils, Comhairle na nOg, and the annual youth parliament, Dail na nOg. Objectives include understanding how these participation structures are operationalised; how issues for participation are identified and dealt with; the background and motivations of members and the level of public awareness in, and impact of, these structures on young people and their communities.
The original contribution to knowledge is the proposition of a new theoretical framework through which the question of the effectiveness of the youth participation structures which exist (in Ireland) might be approached. The philosophical orientation of the study is a commitment to the evaluative approach offered to Children's Geographies by classical pragmatism. A 'hands-on philosophy' of direct inquiry, classical pragmatism favours a practical, applied approach to the theorizing of societal issues over more absolutist abstractions. The critical inquiry presented is guided by the evaluative procedures derived from the key tenets of classical pragmatism such as the acknowledgment that while the researcher's place in inquiry is important, it is not a privileged place; ultimately evaluation must be guided by the criteria of 'what works' in practice.
A mix of qualitative methods comprising of non-participant observations and semi-structured interviews were deployed and analysed using a grounded theory approach; indeed this study wishes to consolidate the status of grounded theory as a key method for Children's Geographies. The analysis revealed practices of participation which although well-intentioned, were often unfocussed and ineffective. Application of the substantive grounded theory generated in this study would see young people and adults participating collaboratively in order that young people's voices are better heard in society.


Abstract The central common feature of a number of recent technological developments (collectively referred to as Web 2.0) is collaborative production of content on an amateur basis, that is, for motives other than commercial reward. Amateur production of content generates significant external benefits that are shared by society in general. Indeed the amateur production of various types of content is probably more socially beneficial since it is typically given away free The individual and social benefits of such activity therefore justify public policy responses to the opportunity now before us.


Mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are recently characterized as a novel subset of innate-like T cells that recognize microbial metabolites as presented by the MHC-1b-related protein MR1. The significance of MAIT cells in anti-bacterial defense is well-understood but not clear in viral infections such as SIV/HIV infection. Here we studied the phenotype, distribution, and function of MAIT cells and their association with plasma viral levels during chronic SHIV infection in rhesus macaques (RM). Two groups of healthy and chronic SHIV-infected macaques were characterized for MAIT cells in blood and mucosal tissues. Similar to human, we found a significant fraction of macaque T cells co-expressing MAIT cell markers CD161 and TCRVα-7.2 that correlated directly with macaque MR1 tetramer. These cells displayed memory phenotype and expressed high levels of IL-18R, CCR6, CD28, and CD95. During chronic infection, the frequency of MAIT cells are enriched in the blood but unaltered in the rectum; both blood and rectal MAIT cells displayed higher proliferative and cytotoxic phenotype post-SHIV infection. The frequency of MAIT cells in blood and rectum correlated inversely with plasma viral RNA levels and correlated directly with total CD4 T cells. MAIT cells respond to microbial products during chronic SHIV infection and correlated positively with serum immunoreactivity to flagellin levels. Tissue distribution analysis of MAIT cells during chronic infection showed significant enrichment in the non-lymphoid tissues (lung, rectum, and liver) compared to lymphoid tissues (spleen and LN), with higher levels of tissue-resident markers CD69 and CD103. Exogenous in vitro cytokine treatments during chronic SHIV infection revealed that IL-7 is important for the proliferation of MAIT cells, but IL-12 and IL-18 are important for their cytolytic function. Overall our results demonstrated that MAIT cells are enriched in blood but unaltered in the rectum during chronic SHIV infection, which displayed proliferative and functional phenotype that inversely correlated with SHIV plasma viral RNA levels. Treatment such as combined cytokine treatments could be beneficial for enhancing functional MAIT cells during chronic HIV infection in vivo.


Southwestern Australia has a long dynamic Precambrian history of crustal fragmentation and aggregation by continental collision and accretion. This interpretation contrasts with the widely held belief that most of Australia was part of a Proterozoic supercontinent in which all tectonic, magmatic, and metamorphic activity was intracontinental. The Pilbara and Yilgarn cratons are two quite different fragments of Archean continental crust that collided to form the Capricorn orogen between 2000 and 1600 Ma. The Albany-Fraser orogen formed along the southern margin of the Yilgarn craton during another major continental collision at 1300 to 1100 Ma. Rifting removed the northeastern part of these combined cratons and orogens between 1100 and 700 Ma. Subsequent continental collision along this rifted margin formed the Paterson orogen at 700 to 600 Ma. Therefore, the assembly of this considerable part of Gondwana may not have been completed until about 600 Ma.


Iron-Core coils based electronic current transformer is often used with electrical measuring instrumnts and meters. However, the iron-core coils used as the primary current sensor have nonlinear behavior, and its magnetizing current can be considered as the main error source. Therefore, a nonlinear compensation approach for the iron-core coils based electronic current transformers is proposed in this paper. The approach depends on a linear hardware circuit and a nonlinear numeric control law. Theoretical analysis and experimental results have verified the correctness of the proposed method.


How do residential property prices respond to new highway connections? We explore the impact of reduced travelling time on house prices in four different cities along the southern coast of Norway. The four towns are located as nodes on a chain, where the town of Kristiansand is located in one end of the chain-of-towns. In 2009, a new highway was opened between Kristiansand and three other towns east of Kristiansand. The three towns are located in increasing distance from Kristiansand. The new road substantially reduced the travelling time between the four towns. We use hedonic price functions estimated on the basis of sales data for dwellings in the period before and after the opening of the new highway and examine the impact of the new road on house prices. The fact that the four towns are located as nodes on a chain along the coast, with sparsely populated rural areas inland and between the towns, makes our case particularly suitable for studying the impact of a new road.We hypothesize that the new road reduced housing prices in Kristiansand, which is the largest of the four towns, and increased housing prices in the other three towns. We find that the house prices in Kristiansand increased only 14 per cent over a four-year period, while the increase was about 25 per cent for the other towns. We examine the robustness of our results by considering alternative explanations for the house price changes. We also examine the robustness of our findings by considering the development of house prices in a different town located west of Kristiansand and not directly affected of the new highway. We conclude that a the new and improved highway lead to a substantially stronger price increase in the smaller towns benefitting from better road connection to the larger town Kristiansand.


The knowledge of the physiological aspects in the execution of the training in the bodybuilding is important to improve the training; being the lactate concentration an important marker applied in several types of exercises. Some studies have evaluated lactacidemia and training models but did not use squatting in their protocols. The aim of the study was to analyze blood lactate concentration in free squat exercise training in two training models: strength and resistance. Experimental study with a sample of five men of 24 ± 4.6 years, physically active and practicing for at least one year, with no history of orthopedic and cardiovascular problems. The tests were performed in two days, in the strength session the volunteers performed 12 sets, 6 to 12 maximal repetitions and in the resistance session 12 series, 13 to 20 maximum repetitions. In both tests the interval was 1 minute and 30 seconds between sets and 2 minutes every 4 sets. Blood lactate was collected at rest, during and after the test. No significant differences were found in the lactate concentration during and after the tests in the strength training and the resistance training. However, the lactacidemia variation between the first and last collection presented a significantly higher result in strength training. We conclude that the models of strength and resistance training, in the free squat exercise, do not present significant differences in lactate concentration during and after the tests. The total lactacidemia variation was greater in strength training.


Prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) has been implicated as an inducer of angiogenesis in human colon cancer. Here, we demonstrate that PGE(2) exposure induces the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA in HCT116 human colon carcinoma cells that is mediated by the transcriptional activator hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). PGE(2) exposure induces the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and AKT. Pharmacologic inhibition of ERK phosphorylation blocks the induction of VEGF mRNA and HIF-1alpha protein expression in response to PGE(2) stimulation. Inhibition of C-SRC tyrosine kinase activity also blocks PGE(2)-induced HIF-1alpha protein and VEGF mRNA expression without blocking ERK phosphorylation. In contrast, phosphorylation of AKT is dependent on ERK and C-SRC activity. Thus, the activity of multiple signal transduction pathways is required for the HIF-1-mediated induction of VEGF expression in colon cancer cells exposed to PGE(2).


The bioactivity and biocompatibility of a zinc phosphate luting cement (HARVARD, Richter & Hoffmann, Dental-GmbH, Berlin) which was modified by Bioglass® (PerioGlas® Synthetic Bone Graft Particulate, US Biomaterials), was evaluated in vitro with human lung fibroblasts (MRC-5), baby hamster kidney fibroblasts (BHK) and rat pulp cells (RPC) by XTT and BrdU assays. A thin Ca-P layer was grown on the surface of Bioglass®-modified zinc phosphate cement specimens after immersion in SBF for 7 days and remained constant after 16 days immersion time. The incorporation of Bioglass® powder in zinc phosphate specimens resulted in equal or increased cell attachment and activity for almost all cell lines examined without any apparent impact on mechanical or physicochemical properties of the cement, although this needs further documentation. The combination of these two methods in determining the biocompatibility of Bioglass®-modified zinc phosphate cements showed that cells not only attached well on modified specimens but were actively synthesizing DNA after 72h of incubation.


This article is an attempt to apply the Settler Colonial paradigm to the analysis of the Israeli official-Zionist historiography. This approach leads to identify the Zionist ideology as a settler colonial one and the Zionist historiography as the academic support to the Zionist project.The aim of this research is to demonstrate how the settler colonial concept of the transfer of the native population, immanent in Zionist thought, has been translated into narrative and underpinned by historiography. Moreover, I will investigate on how the official historiography has succeeded in remaining predominant over the time since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, influencing the political and social perception of the Palestinian issue all over the Western world


The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a carnivorous marsupial threatened with extinction from the emergence of Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The establishment of ex situ populations is a key management action for the species. We examined the initial survival, movement pattern, home range, and habit use of six devils from a total of 15 individuals translocated to Maria Island (south-east Tasmania). A total of 14 devils (93%) survived the initial monitoring phase within this study (122 days after translocation). The maximum and minimum distance recorded during one night was 21.73 km (range = 14.12–25.40 km) and 1.94 km (range = 0.07–7.71 km), respectively, while the average nightly distance travelled varied significantly (range = 7.24–13.07 km) between individuals. Short-term home-range size (90% kernel) varied from 936 to 3501 ha, with an average of 2180 (±836) ha for all devils. The habitat preference of devils on Maria Island shows a positive association with agricultural and urban habitats, and an avoidance of wet eucalypt forest. The home range and habitat associations may change as competitive pressures increase with population growth; however, this initial research indicates that translocation as a management action is a powerful tool for the establishment of ex situ populations, assisting in the continued conservation of this species.


Source apportionment of PM_(10) and PM_(2.5) samples collected in an industrial area of the Po Valley was performed by using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model and a semiempirical calculation of five macro-source contributions. Samples were collected during four monitoring periods, January-February 2011, June 2012, January-February 2012, May-June 2012, resulting in a total of 720 samples (360 for PM_(10) and 360 for PM_(2.5)). PMF variables included major elements, ions, elemental carbon and organic compounds and minor and trace elements. In order to increase the selectivity of minor and trace elements as source tracers, a chemical fractionation methodology based on the elemental solubility was employed; it was thus possible to include the extractable, the residual or both thefractions of the minor and trace elements in the database. PMF resolved six factors for PM_(10) (crustal matter, marine aerosol, industry, secondary/oil combustion, secondary nitrate/biomass burning/exhaust particles, brake/tyre wear/re-suspended road dust) and seven factors for PM_(2.5) (crustal matter, marine aerosol, industry, secondary nitrate, biomass burning, other secondary components, secondary sulphate/oil combustion). Mixing properties of the lower atmosphere were monitored by using natural radioactivity. The lack in the separation of some sources was shown to be due to their co-variation during periods of high atmospheric stability in the cold months. Seasonal variations of the source contributions were evaluated and discussed. PMF results were compared with those obtained by a semiempirical calculation method in which analytical results are grouped into five macro-sources (crustal matter, marine aerosol, secondary inorganic compounds, combustion products from vehicular emissions and organics). Although similar trends in the temporal variation of the main PM sources were obtained, the absolute magnitude of the concentrations varied in some cases, especially for crustal matter and marine aerosol sources.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of a large number of wireless nodes and are responsible for sensing, processing and monitoring environmental data. WSNs suffer of some problems such as limited processing capability, low storage capacity, limited time of testing and limited reliability. The Compressed sensing theory holds promising improvements to these parameters. Compressed Sensing shows that spars signals such as signals of WSNs can be exactly reconstructed from a small number of random linear measurements. With this in mind, we introduce a new mechanism of testing in wireless sensor network with compressed sensing theory in order to design a robust WSN with high reliability factor. This paper gives a background of compressed sensing theory, and then describes important concepts in wireless sensor networks, and finally our research combines the compressed sensing theory with wireless sensor network to introduce a new method for testing of wireless sensor networks with compressed sensing theory.


Primary hyperparathyroidism is a common condition that affects 0.3% of the general population. Primary and tertiary care specialists can encounter patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, and prompt recognition and treatment can greatly reduce morbidity and mortality from this disease. In this paper we will review the basic physiology of calcium homeostasis and then consider genetic associations as well as common etiologies and presentations of primary hyperparathyroidism. We will consider emerging trends in detection and measurement of parathyroid hormone as well as available imaging modalities for the parathyroid glands. Surgical indications and approach will be reviewed as well as medical management of primary hyperparathyroidism with bisphosphonates and calcimimetics.


The aim of this study was to compare radiological and pathological changes and test the adjunct efficacy of Sorafenib to Y90 as a bridge to transplantation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). 15 patients with 16 HCC lesions were randomized to Y90 without (Group A, n = 9) or with Sorafenib (Group B, n = 7). Size (WHO, RECIST), enhancement (EASL, mRECIST) and diffusion‐weighted imaging criteria (apparent diffusion coefficient, ADC) measurements were obtained at baseline, then at 1 and every 3 months after treatment until transplantation. Percentage necrosis in explanted tumors was correlated with imaging findings. 100%, 50%‐99% and <50% pathological necrosis was observed in 6 (67%), 1 (11%), and 2 (22%) tumors in Group A and 3 (42%), 2 (28%), and 2 (28%) in Group B, respectively (P = 0.81). While ADC (P = 0.46) did not change after treatment, WHO (P = 0.06) and RECIST (P = 0.08) response at 1 month failed to reach significance, but significant responses by EASL (P < 0.01/0.03) and mRECIST (P < 0.01/0.03) at 1 and 3 months were observed. Response was equivalent by EASL or mRECIST. No difference in response rates was observed between groups A and B at 1 and 3 months by WHO, RECIST, EASL, mRECIST or ADC measurements. Despite failing to reach significance, smaller baseline size was associated with complete pathological necrosis (CPN) (RECIST: P = 0.07; WHO: P = 0.05). However, a cut‐off size of 35 mm was predictive of CPN (P = 0.005). CPN could not be predicted by WHO (P = 0.25 and 0.62), RECIST (P = 0.35 and 0.54), EASL (P = 0.49 and 0.46), mRECIST (P = 0.49 and 0.60) or ADC (P = 0.86 and 0.93). Conclusion: The adjunct of Sorafenib did not augment radiological or pathological response to Y90 therapy for HCC. Equivalent significant reduction in enhancement at 1 and 3 months by EASL/mRECIST was noted. Neither EASL nor mRECIST could reliably predict CPN. (HEPATOLOGY 2013;58:1655–1666)


Community Action Plans have been introduced by the Directorate of Extension and Engineering as a tool for implementing the Farming Systems Research and Extension approach in the Caprivi Region of Namibia. Although Community Action Plans (CAP) is a useful tool for implementing the FSRE approach in rural communities, not all stakeholders perceive it as useful. This study was designed to ascertain the usefulness of Community Action Plans as a strategy to support a bottom up extension approach. The following respondents were selected to determine their knowledge and perception of CAP: Extension staff, Mubiza Community with CAP and Bukalo Community without CAP. Two structured questionnaires were administered to a total of 95 respondents. According to the findings the Mubiza respondents (91%) indicated that they planned their development activities using CAP while 75% of Bukalo respondents indicated they have no plans. Mubiza community are significantly more satisfied (p= < 0.0001) with support received from Agricultural Extension Technicians than Bukalo community. The study reveals that Mubiza community are involved and participate more in community development activities. The majority (92%) of Mubiza respondents indicated quite clearly that they received appropriate support from community leaders, while only 42% of Bukalo respondents indicated receiving such appropriate support. Both, Extension staff and Mubiza Community, perceived CAP as an effective tool for implementing FSRE approach and improving the livelihood of communities.


Spectral and timing properties of accretion flows on a black hole depend on their density and temperature distributions, which in turn come from the underlying dynamics. Thus, an accurate description of the flow which includes hydrodynamics and radiative transfer is a must to interpret the observational results. In the case of non-rotating black holes, a pseudo-Newtonian description of surrounding spacetime enables one to make significant progress in predicting spectral and timing properties. This formalism is lacking for spinning black holes. In this paper, we show that there exists an exact form of a "natural" potential derivable from the general relativistic (GR) radial momentum equation. Use of this potential in an otherwise Newtonian set of equations allows to describe transonic flows very accurately as is evidenced by comparing with solutions obtained from the full GR framework. We study the properties of the critical points and the centrifugal pressure supported shocks in the parameter space spanned by the specific energy and angular momentum, and compare with the results of GR hydrodynamics. We show that this potential can safely be used for the entire range of Kerr parameter −1 < a < 1 for modeling of observational results around spinning black holes. We assume the flow to be inviscid. Thus, it is non-dissipative with constant energy and angular momentum. These assumptions are valid very close to the black hole as the infall timescale is much shorter as compared to the viscous timescale.


Until fairly recently, there was some discussion over the classification of Apis laboriosa and if it was a separate species from A. dorsata. It is now well established that these species of giant honey bee are distinct. Many of the studies on A. laboriosa have been carried out in Nepal, where its distribution does not appear to overlap with that of A. dorsata, which lives at lower altitudes.


The iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) Raul-Condestable deposit is located 90 km south of Lima, Peru, and approximately 5 km from the Pacific coast. Mineralization consists mainly of replacement mantos and disseminations within permeable volcaniclastic and carbonate-rich rocks and structurally controlled veins surrounding a coeval and apparently causative intrusion of tonalitic composition emplaced in the core of a dacitic volcano. Potassic (biotite grading upward to sericite-chlorite) alteration and a poorly developed, almost sulfide-free, quartz stockwork closely border the tonalite, affecting the basaltic to dacitic Lower Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary host sequence. Ore is associated with a hydrated calc-silicate (mainly amphiboles) alteration that surrounds the biotite alteration. A hematite-chlorite (albite, epidote, calcite) alteration affects the periphery of the system. The main ore stage is characterized by two end-member mineral associations that were formed according to (1) an oxidized deposition sequence (hematite-magnetite-pyrite-chalcopyrite) occurring in and near feeder structures, and (2) a reduced deposition sequence (pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite) found in volcaniclastic rocks and veins. Early specular hematite of the oxidized sequence is transformed to magnetite ("mushketovite"). The main ore-stage mineralization is cut by minor late-stage calcite-sulfide veins. Main ore-stage sulfides have δ34S values asymmetrically distributed from 1.0 to 26.3 per mil, with a median at 6.6 per mil (n = 51). Similar values are observed for pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite. The δ34S values depend on the stratigraphic position, with deep-seated vein samples normally distributed between 1.0 and 6.3 per mil (avg about 3.5‰, n = 13) and shallower samples from 2.7 to 26.3 per mil (median around 7.5‰, n = 39). Sulfides found in late-stage calcite-sulfide veins show strongly negative δ34S values ranging between –32.7 and –22.9 per mil (n = 6), indicating a possible biogenic source. Because no rock unit is known to occur in the internal parts of the deposit that could have oxidized fluids to the point of hematite stability, the oxidized mineral sequence is best explained by magmatic brines following the SO2-H2S gas buffer at high temperature (>350°C) and fluid/rock ratio. This is supported by the close to magmatic δ34S values of sulfides from the deep parts of feeder veins. Mass-balance calculation based on sulfur isotope data suggests that at the deposit scale, the bulk of the sulfides is dominated by magmatic sulfur, with sulfides of the oxidized minerals association having a larger component of magmatic sulfur than those of the reduced mineral association. The deposition sequence from hematite to chalcopyrite reflects the cooling of the magmatic fluid and redox and pH buffering by the basaltic-andesitic volcano-sedimentary host rocks. Thus, the occurrence of magnetite pseudomorphous after early hematite (mushketovite) paragenetically followed by iron-bearing sulfides is interpreted to be direct field evidence for precipitation from oxidized magmatic brines. The same sequence has been described in many IOCG, skarn, and some porphyry copper deposits worldwide. δ34S values of sulfides ranging up to 26.3 per mil are found in what corresponded to a relatively shallow aquifer filled with evolved reduced seawater. Heavy sulfur in H2S was produced through thermochemical reduction of Aptian seawater sulfate (δ34S = 14‰) in the recharge zone, which is interpreted to correspond to the hematitechlorite (albite, epidote, calcite) alteration present at the upper flanks of the hydrothermal system, adjacent to the causative intrusion. Hematitization (through oxidation) resulted from the high fO2 of seawater and from the reduction of its sulfate to H2S by the Fe2+ contained in the rock. In the core of the system, the seawater-derived fluids reached near chemical equilibrium with their actinolitized host rock, at about 300° to 350°C, in reduced, rock-dominated conditions. Mixing of these fluids with magmatic brines, already partially or totally reduced through reaction with wall rock at medium to low magmatic fluid/rock ratio can explain the large positive δ34S scatter observed in sulfides of the reduced mineral association, at stratigraphically shallow positions.


Recent attempts of "regionalizing" the VAT, in order to expand fiscal autonomy margins attributed to Regions and to involve them in the hard struggle against tax evasion, strongly urge some considerations on some of the changes introduced in the Italian legal system by the 2001 constitutional reform. Particularly, two issues deserve to be investigated, so far systematically neglected, if not absolutely ignored: the first concerning the regulation of revenue taxes sharing mechanism, the second, which is included in the first issue, regarding how choosing some even criteria of territorial distribution of tax revenue. In particular, this paper focuses on this second issue, joining the recent debate about the enforcement of the art. 119 of the Constitution (fiscal federalism) with a critical analysis of the "sales splitting up method", suggested in order to best realize VAT's decentralization and to make the local civil service aware of its responsibilities.


An edge shorted axe-shaped circular antenna is studied for miniaturization. The effect of the location and number of shorting post on the resonance frequency, impedance match and radiation pattern are studied. By inserting a shorting post near the edge of circular axe- shaped patch, the antenna size (resonates at 1.36 GHz) is reduced about 72% compared to the antenna without shorting post (resonates at 2.58 GHz) and 91% compared to the conventional circular antenna (resonates at 4.6 GHz). The effects of the distance between feeding point and shorting post, the number of shorting posts and the post radius are analyzed. The results show that by putting a shorting post near the edge of the axe-shaped circular patch, the resonant frequency is lower than a post near the center. Meanwhile, the feed should be excited near the shorting post for better impedance match. The effect of increasing the number of shorting post is also studied. If the number of shorting posts is increased to 3, the resonant frequency shifts to 1.48 GHz, which is higher than that with only one shorting post. However, the design offers stable return loss and broadside radiation pattern.


The current trend within computer, and even real-time, systems is to incorporate parallel hardware, e.g., multicore processors, and parallel software. Thus, the ability to safely analyse such parallel systems, e.g., regarding the timing behaviour, becomes necessary. Static timing analysis is an approach to mathematically derive safe bounds on the execution time of a program, when executed on a given hardware platform. This paper presents an algorithm that statically analyses the timing of parallel software, with threads communicating through shared memory, using abstract interpretation. It also gives an extensive example to clarify how the algorithm works.


User detection, recognition and tracking is at the heart of Human Robot Interaction, and yet, to date, no universal robust method exists for being aware of the people in a robot surroundings. The presented work aims at importing into existing social robotics platforms different techniques, some of them classical, and other novel, for detecting, recognizing and tracking human users. These algorithms are based on a variety of sensors, mainly cameras and depth imaging devices, but also lasers and microphones. The results of these parallel algorithms are then merged so as to obtain a modular, expandable and fast architecture. This results in a local user mapping thanks to multi-modal fusion. Thanks to this user awareness architecture, user detection, recognition and tracking capabilities can be easily and quickly given to any robot by re-using the modules that match its sensors and its processing performance. The architecture provides all the relevant information about the users around the robot, that can then be used for end-user applications that adapt their behavior to the users around the robot. The variety of social robots in which the architecture has been successfully implemented includes a car-like mobile robot, an articulated flower and a humanoid assistance robot. Some modules of the architecture are very lightweight but have a low reliability, others need more CPU but the associated confidence is higher. All configurations of modules are possible, and fit the range of possible robotics hardware configurations. All the modules are independent and highly configurable, therefore no code needs to be developed for building a new configuration, the user only writes a ROS launch file. This simple text file contains all wanted modules. The architecture has been developed with modularity and speed in mind. It is based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) architecture, a de facto software standard in robotics. The different people detectors comply with a common interface called PeoplePoseList Publisher, while the people recognition algorithms comply with an interface called PeoplePoseList Matcher. The fusion of all these different modules is based on Unscented Kalman Filter techniques. Extensive benchmarks of the sub-components and of the whole architecture, using both academic datasets and data acquired in our lab, and end-user application samples demonstrate the validity and interest of all levels of the architecture.


This article explores the results of a qualitative community-based research project on the intersectional experiences of sexual minority refugees living in Canada. Undertaken between 2008 and 2010, this study examines sexual minority refugees' multifaceted experiences of migration, the refugee determination process, and settlement. Through an analysis of the interrelated themes of identity, refugeeness, and belonging, we hope to further investigate the ways in which Canadian refugee policies, social institutions, and dominant discourses contribute to the sociopolitical construction of sexual minority refugees. We conclude with an exploration of strategies for increasing protection of sexual minority refugees in Canada.


By employing an importance-performance analysis technique, this paper first compares the similarities and differences in mall attributes that are important to mall shoppers in China and Thailand. The performance of all attributes in each country are then evaluated to gain further understanding about consumers' satisfaction level toward malls' overall performance. It is found that while Thai shoppers place more importance on both functional and experiential aspects of mall attributes, Chinese shoppers place more importance on functional aspects of mall attributes alone, likely due to their differences in shopping motives. The results of this study provide useful insights for international mall managers in terms of customer retention and attraction. The results can also help mall managers to prioritize their scarce resources with higher efficiency and effectiveness to maximize customer satisfaction.


Ochrobactrum anthropi is an oxidase-positive, nonfermenting, gram-negative bacillus that is an emerging pathogen in immunocompromised patients, particularly in those with indwelling central venous catheters. Reports of clinical manifestation of O. anthropi bacteremia are rare. Herein, we report the clinical and microbiologic characteristics of O. anthropi bacteremia in 15 patients. There were eight males and seven females, whose ages ranged from 1 month to 84 years (mean, 34 years). Ten infections were community acquired. All patients had severe underlying disease and manifested primary O. anthropi bacteremia with no obvious focus. Only three patients had central venous catheters in place at the onset of bacteremia, but none of these showed evidence of catheter-related infection. The mean duration of fever was 4 days (range 0-11) and the mean white blood cell count was 13 x 10(9)/L (range 5.5-28 x 10(9)). All O. anthropi isolates tested were resistant to ampicillin, cephalothin, cefonicid, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, piperacillin, aztreonam, and ceftazidime, and all were susceptible to gentamicin, amikacin, imipenem, ceftriaxone, and cefoperazone. Most were also susceptible to cefotaxime and moxalactam. Monotherapy with an aminoglycoside or an appropriate beta-lactam (such as cefotaxime or ceftriaxone) yielded good clinical response. None of the 15 patients died directly from O. anthropi bacteremia. Our findings indicate that O. anthropi is often community acquired and can be pathogenic in critically ill or immunocompromised patients with or without indwelling catheters. Although O. anthropi can produce clinically significant infections, the organism seems to be of relatively low virulence.


Books are the cornerstone of our culture. They disseminate ideas, and preserve and transmit literature. Their contents underpin great religions, and have been responsible for wars and revolutions. They lie at the heart of education and scholarship. They have brought pleasure (and some pain) to countless millions of people for nearly three millennia. The systematic study of books and the means by which they are created and distributed began in the eighteenth century, but it is only in the last 150 years or so that it has developed into an important field of scholarship. After an intellectual transformation in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the history of books and particularly the commercial history of books is now a vibrant and widely practised area of study and research. Literary scholars, historians, and many others in the humanities and social sciences, have a keen interest in how texts have reached us, how they were created, marketed and distributed, and what impact the commercial processes of publishing had on their contents. As serious academic work on and around publishing and the printed book continues to flourish as never before, this new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, and to provide a map of the area as it has emerged and developed. It is a landmark collection of foundational and the best cutting-edge scholarship in the field and is organized in four volumes. Volume I ( Concepts and Theories: Issues in Book History ) deals with the discipline itself, its parameters, its theoretical foundations, and the issues and controversies which have helped it to develop and which are still carrying it forward. Volume II ( Publishing and the Book Trade ), meanwhile, focuses on the development of the publishing industry, the commercial heart of the book world, and the engine of its evolution. In the third volume ( Publishers and Authors ), the emphasis is on the extremities of the chain of production and distribution the authors who create books, and the readers who use them and on the complex relationships between both and the publishers. The final volume ( Printing and Book Production ) is concerned with the history of printing the most important single technological development in the whole history of the book. The materials gathered in this collection exemplify schools of thought and the development of ideas about the discipline, as well as embodying some of the key results of scholarship, to give a coherent view of its achievements and of its potential for further development. For the novice or advanced student, the collection will be particularly useful as an essential database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. And, for the more advanced scholar, it will be welcomed as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar and sometimes overlooked texts. For both, Book Publishing will be valued as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.


BACKGROUND
In primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) significant therapeutic effects of glucocorticoids have not been documented. The most important clinical problem in patients with these diseases is fatigue, which is occasionally invalidating. Abnormalities in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis have been suggested as a cause of fatigue. Most effects of glucocorticoids are mediated by the glucocorticoid receptor (hGR alpha). Recently a causative role for a splicing variant of the glucocorticoid receptor (hGR beta) has been proposed in glucocorticoid resistance in asthma and ulcerative colitis, whereas another splicing variant (hGR P) might be associated with glucocorticoid-resistant haematological malignancies. The aims of the present pilot study were to assess abnormalities in glucocorticoid receptor expression and to relate these abnormalities to the development of fatigue and to disease activity and severity in autoimmune cholestatic liver disease.

METHODS
Five fatigued and five nonfatigued patients with PBC or PSC were included, and the results were compared with healthy controls.

RESULTS
The expression of hGR P was not different from controls, but hGR beta mRNA was significantly increased (p=0.02) and hGR alpha mRNA decreased (p=0.015). There were no significant differences between fatigued and nonfatigued patients. A significant negative correlation between the serum activity of alkaline phosphatase and hGR alpha and hGR P mRNA was found.

CONCLUSION
Although there was no relation with fatigue, abnormalities in hGR expression appear to occur in patients with these diseases, and may play a role in its pathophysiology and the poor response to glucocorticoid treatment.


Abstract Research funders spend considerable efforts collecting information on the outcomes of the research they fund. To help funders track publication output associated with their funding, Crossref initiated FundRef in 2013, enabling publishers to register funding information using persistent identifiers. However, it is hard to assess the coverage of funder metadata because it is unknown how many articles are the result of funded research and should therefore include funder metadata. In this paper we looked at 5,004 publications reported by researchers to be the result of funding by a specific funding agency: the Dutch Research Council NWO. Only 67% of these articles contain funding information in Crossref, with a subset acknowledging NWO as funder name and/or Funder IDs linked to NWO (53% and 45%, respectively). Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Dimensions are all able to infer additional funding information from funding statements in the full text of the articles. Funding information in Lens largely corresponds to that in Crossref, with some additional funding information likely taken from PubMed. We observe interesting differences between publishers in the coverage and completeness of funding metadata in Crossref compared to proprietary databases, highlighting the potential to increase the quality of open metadata on funding.


Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is currently the most common cause of cancer-related death throughout the world and is a challenging management problem for clinicians. Despite recent advances in screening modalities and treatment methods, there is still an expected increase in mortality in both developed and developing countries (1,2). The overall survival rate for all patients diagnosed with NSCLC is approximately 15% (2,3), which has not changed despite improvements in imaging techniques and introduction of new chemotherapeutic agents. Among NSCLC, the most common histology is adenocarcinoma (ADC), which accounts for approximately 50% of cases (3,4). In developed countries it is detected at an early-stage only in 25% of cases. The outcome of early-stage lung ADC depends on tumor size, which is currently the primary prognostic factor for disease management.


CONTEXT
Biallelic mutations in the GHRH receptor (GHRHR) gene (GHRHR) are a frequent cause of isolated GH deficiency (IGHD). Although heterozygous carriers of these mutations appear normal, we hypothesized that heterozygosity for a GHRHR mutation might be associated with a subclinical phenotype.

METHODS
We studied members of a large Brazilian kindred with IGHD (Itabaianinha cohort) caused by a homozygous null GHRHR mutation. We compared 76 adult subjects (age, 25-75 yr) heterozygous for the mutation (WT/MT) with 77 sex-matched controls from the same population who are homozygous for the wild-type GHRHR allele (WT/WT).

RESULTS
We found no difference in adult height and sd score for serum IGF-I between the two groups. Body weight, body mass index, skin folds, waist and hip circumferences, and lean mass were all reduced in WT/MT subjects. Percentage fat mass and waist/hip ratio were similar in the two groups. Fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance were lower in WT/MT. The other biochemical parameters [total and fractionated cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoprotein (a), and C-reactive protein] were not different between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Heterozygosity for a null GHRHR mutation is not associated with reduction in adult stature or in serum IGF-I but is associated with changes in body composition and possibly an increase in insulin sensitivity. These effects do not seem to be modulated by changes in circulating IGF-I.


Reinforcement learning (RL) is concerned with the identiication of optimal controls in Markov Decision Processes (MDP) where no explicit model of the transition probabilities is available. Many existing approaches to RL | including \temporal-diierence learning" | employ simulation-based approximations of the value function for this purpose 1], 2]. This proceeding frequently leads to numerical instabilities of the resulting learning algorithm, especially if the function approximators used are parametric such as linear combinations of basis functions or neural networks. In this work, we propose an alternative class of RL algorithms which always produces stable estimates of the value function. In detail, we use \lo-cal averaging" methods to construct an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) algorithm. Nearest-neighbor regression, grid-based approximations, and trees can all be used as the basis of this approximation. We provide a thorough theoretical analysis of this approach and we demonstrate that ADP converges to a unique approximation in continuous-state average-cost MDPs. In addition, we prove that our method is consistent in the sense that an optimal approximate strategy is identiied asymptotically. With regard to a practical implementation, we suggest a reduction of ADP to standard dynamic programming in an artiicial nite-state MDP and we discuss methods to extend this algorithm to allow for online operation.


We sequenced a 173-kb region of mouse chromosome 10, telomeric to the Ifng locus, and compared it with the human homologous sequence located on chromosome 12q15 using various sequence analysis programs. This region has a low density of genes: one gene was detected in the mouse and the human sequences and a second gene was detected only in the human sequence. The mouse gene and its human orthologue, which are expressed in the immune system at a low level, produce a noncoding mRNA. Nonexpressed sequences show a higher degree of conservation than exons in this genomic region. At least three of these conserved sequences are also conserved in a third mammalian species (sheep or cow).


In live video communication, the quality of the video that is encoded on a mobile device is more often than not constrained by the available computational resources. We address this problem by allowing the encoder to "outsource" the encoding complexity to the decoder through the use of feedback, under a sum-rate constraint comprising the weighted sum of the forward and feedback rates. Analysis of such a complexity-outsourced framework using an analytically tractable video model reveals that the feedback rate should be optimally adapted to the video motion characteristics. Application of our framework to real-world video sequences reveals the efficacy of our proposed architecture, with experimental results validating that substantial gains in PSNR are achievable over state-of-the-art fast-search algorithms at a comparable level of complexity. These gains are significant even for mobile live video communication applications over the Internet.


Reductive chemistries have widely been used to functionalize single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). However, the reactivity of negatively charged SWCNTs (NC-SWCNTs), prepared by different reductive chemistries, to the same electrophilic reagent has not been evaluated. Here in, the first example of the reactivity comparison of two different NC-SWCNTs towards 3-nitrophthalic anhydride is presented, and two novel functionalized SWCNTs are synthesized and characterized. The NC-SWCNTs, that are denoted as [(nBu―SWCNTn)-•Lin+] and [SWCNTn-•Lin+], are prepared via n-butyl lithium and lithium naphthalenide addition, respectively, and are reacted by 3-nitrophthalic anhydride under dry conditions. The resulting functionalized SWCNTs are characterized by Raman, UV-vis-NIR, TGA-MS, XPS, and TEM. The reactivity of [(nBu―SWCNTn)-•Lin+] towards electrophilic 3-nitrophthalic anhydride is found to be higher than [SWCNTn-•Lin+]. This is probably due to the high nucleophilic character of [(nBu―SWCNTn)-•Lin+] which bears lone pair electrons and electron-donating butyl groups


Abstract Living alongside predators can entail substantial costs both in terms of livelihoods and personal safety. Negative interactions with predators can lead to negative attitudes and behavioural intentions such as retaliatory or pre-emptive killing. As a result, conservation strategies are increasingly adopting human–wildlife coexistence approaches aimed at minimizing the costs associated with living with predators by providing direct or indirect benefits. This is done in the hope that people will foster positive attitudes and behavioural intentions towards predators. However, people's attitudes and their behavioural intentions are not necessarily linked, and both need to be understood for conservation actions to be effective. We conducted 747 semi-structured interviews with community members in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, to determine which factors influenced people's attitudes and behavioural intentions towards predators and whether the two were linked. Most interviewees (57.52%) had a positive attitude towards predators as measured by their assertion that people, livestock and predators should coexist. Their attitude was dependent on benefits, occupation, conservancy membership and perceived community ownership of predators, but was not influenced by the costs of livestock depredation. Most respondents who were members of a conservancy had positive attitudes towards predators but this differed by conservancy, suggesting that, in addition to benefits, conservation politics could influence attitudes. In total, 10.3% of respondents said that they would kill a predator if it killed their livestock. This behavioural intention was only influenced by the respondent's attitude. Understanding the factors that influence attitudes and behavioural intentions will aid future management and coexistence strategies.