Automatic recording devices (ARDs) are becoming increasingly popular as a monitoring tool, especially for cryptic or nocturnal bird species. We wanted to determine the optimal time(s) of night and month(s) of the year for monitoring rūrū (a small NZ owl) using ARDs, to enable development of a robust monitoring method that maximises probability of detection. Fourteen ARDs were placed at 500 m intervals throughout a 400-ha forest block in the Eglinton Valley, Fiordland, New Zealand, and the presence of rūrū recorded monthly from August 2011 to March 2012. Data from the Department of Conservation's national Tier 1 Monitoring Programme (2011–2016), gathered from multiple locations across public conservation land (PCL), were also analysed to provide broader context. Both at the Eglinton Valley and across New Zealand PCL, rūrū calls were detected in all months surveyed and during all periods of the night. Detection probability (derived from call activity) was generally higher in the North Island and the west coast of the South Island. At the Eglinton Valley the highest call activity occurred in December, with activity in spring generally higher than in summer. On PCL, calling activity was highest in spring and early summer and lowest in late summer. Patterns in how call activity changed throughout the night varied from month to month in the Eglinton Valley. Across New Zealand, PCL (for all months), the call activity peaked approximately 1 hour after sunset then steadily declined throughout the remainder of the night. Our results and those of previous studies indicate general patterns of calling activity but with local variation. We recommend that as a general rule, detection probability can be maximised by carrying out rūrū monitoring surveys in the spring or early summer, during the first few hours after sunset. However, we also recommend an initial study of the site(s) to investigate local variations in call activity before any long-term monitoring is initiated.


Image noise modeling is a long-standing problem with many applications in computer vision. Early attempts that propose simple models, such as signal-independent additive white Gaussian noise or the heteroscedastic Gaussian noise model (a.k.a., camera noise level function) are not sufficient to learn the complex behavior of the camera sensor noise. Recently, more complex learning-based models have been proposed that yield better results in noise synthesis and downstream tasks, such as denoising. However, their dependence on supervised data (i.e., paired clean images) is a limiting factor given the challenges in producing ground-truth images. This paper proposes a framework for training a noise model and a denoiser simultaneously while relying only on pairs of noisy images rather than noisy/clean paired image data. We apply this framework to the training of the Noise Flow architecture. The noise synthesis and density estimation results show that our framework outperforms previous signal-processing-based noise models and is on par with its supervised counterpart. The trained denoiser is also shown to significantly improve upon both supervised and weakly supervised baseline denoising approaches. The results indicate that the joint training of a denoiser and a noise model yields significant improvements in the denoiser.


The article aims to decipher the traces of Antonin Artaud's (1898-1948) ideas in Gilles Deleuze's (1925–1995) philosophy of modern cinema, expressed in Cinema 2, L'Image-Temps. The paper focuses on the following questions: In what sense Deleuze's experimentation with Artaud's ideas in the chapter VII. La pensee et la cinema differs from his approach towards the ideas of the Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein? How do Artaud's reflections about the l'impouvoir de la pensee work in Deleuz's text? Has Artaud's reflection on body without organs anything to do with two possible bodies (body of poses and body of ceremonies) that Deleuze has discerned as the signs of modern cinema? The author of the article comes to the conclusion that it is possible to discern two conceptions of a body that Deleuze borrowed from Artaud: pre-schizophrenic body of poses and gestures, which constitutes the conceptual core of the theatre of cruelty, the other one – schizophrenic body without organs. The latter influenced Deleuze'ss research together with Guattari, the former – his conceptual presuppositions for philosophizing on modern cinema. The main thesis of this article is that it is not possible to neglect and not notice Artaud's influence on Deleuze's film philosophy when discussing the theorethical sources of his philosophy of modern cinema.


Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition Technologies (G.A. 267127).
The project was co-financed by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013).


Chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease that causes irreversible anatomical changes including infiltration of inflammatory cells, fibrosis and pancreatic cal-cification with destruction of the structure of the gland, leading to abdominal pain, endocrine and exocrine dysfunction. Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) prevalence in chronic pancreatitis varies between 40 and 94%. PEI is diagnosed by direct and indirect tests. Nutritional status is assessed by anthropometric indicators; laboratory tests—hemoglobin, plasma proteins (albumin, prealbumin, retinol- binding protein, transferrin), fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K; micronutrients. Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) is a fundamental part of PEI treatment. An optimal PERT could prevent serious PEI complications such as metabolic bone disease, adverse cardiovascular events, cachexia, poor quality of life and mortality. A periodic screening for PEI complications with a respect to their primary and secondary prophylaxis is mandatory. Diabetes mellitus secondary to pancreatic disease is defined as pancreatogenic diabetes or type 3c diabetes mellitus. Patients with chronic pancreatitis are at increased risk for pancreatic cancer influenced by smoking, alcohol abuse, chronic inflammation and pancreatic stellate cells over- proliferation. However, chronic pancreatitis could be further complicated with splenic vein thrombosis, pseudocysts, duodenal or biliary obstruction, pseudoaneurysm and pancreatic duct stones which might require endoscopic or surgical treatment.


BACKGROUND
For those with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, liver transplantation is considered the treatment of choice. Since 2006, the transplant programme at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC) has offered liver transplantation for selected patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. While the number of patients transplanted was small, we are unaware of any published data from Southern Africa describing outcomes in this group of liver transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to describe our experience as a case series.

METHODS
The records of all patients with HCC who underwent deceased donor liver transplantation between April 2006 and March 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. Data were extracted from transplant clinic patient files, histopathology and pathology laboratory reports and an existing database of all liver transplant recipients at WDGMC. Patient survival was calculated from the time of transplant and survival estimates were determined by the Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS
Thirty-one liver transplants were reviewed. The most common causes of underlying liver disease were infectious, mostly hepatitis B virus, and diseases of lifestyle including alcoholic/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Median age at transplant, 57 years (IQR 44-65 years), was younger than observed internationally, but consistent with reports from Africa. Male recipients predominated, in keeping with published trends. Overall, outcomes were worse than expected but for recipients who were within the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) criteria for transplantation; survival was comparable to previously published data.

CONCLUSION
Despite limitations, this is the first documented series of patients undergoing liver transplantation for HCC in South Africa and demonstrates that good results can be achieved in appropriately selected patients.


The usefulness of the cognitive behavioural model in dealing with low self-esteem has been documented in many studies. Research suggests that individuals gather information about themselves by engaging in self-evaluation processes, which in turn are significantly related to global feeling of self-worth. Domains or attributes that individuals evaluate themselves on and find as more personally important have a more profound impact on global self-esteem than less important ones. Using a cognitive behavioural framework, the present paper discusses the variety of self-evaluation processes that individuals engage in and the importance attached to the evaluated domains in regulating global self-esteem. The paper links theory with practice by identifying specific strategies and tools for use in coaching in order to help a coachee to identify, examine, challenge and modify unhelpful self-evaluative thinking with balanced and relative thinking.


A single, rapid flow-through optosensor spectrofluorometric system is proposed for the determination of diphenhydramine in different pharmaceutical preparations. This sensor was developed in conjunction with a monochannel flow-injection analysis system with fluorometric solid-phase transduction. Diphenhydramine was directly injected into a carrier stream of ethanol/water, 50% (v:v), and transitorily retained on a sorption gel Sephadex G-15 placed in the detection area into the cell. The determination was carried out without any derivatization reaction by directly measuring the intrinsic fluorescence of the analyte and using the peak height as an analytical signal. The chemical and instrumental variables were optimized, and the influence of some foreign substances that can be found in typical pharmaceutical samples containing diphenhydramine was also investigated. Diphenhydramine could be determined in the concentration ranges of 0.5 - 8 microg ml(-1) and 0.1 - 1.2 microg ml(-1) with detection limits of 0.088 and 0.019 microg ml(-1) at sampling rates of 30 and 19 h(-1) for 200 and 800 microl of the sample volume, respectively.


Adaptive management is widely applied to natural resources management (Holling 1973; Walters and Holling 1990). Adaptive management can be generally defined as an iterative decision-making process that incorporates formulation of management objectives, actions designed to address these objectives, monitoring of results, and repeated adaptation of management until desired results are achieved (Brown and MacLeod 1996; Savory and Butterfield 1999). However, adaptive management is often criticized because very few projects ever complete more than one cycle, resulting in little adaptation and little knowledge gain (Lee 1999; Walters 2007). One significant criticism is that adaptive management is often used as a justification for undertaking actions with uncertain outcomes or as a surrogate for the development of specific, measurable indicators and monitoring programs (Lee 1999; Ruhl 2007). In this paper, we argue for a more holistic and systematic approach to adaptive management. We define holistic adaptive land management (HALM) as a refinement of adaptive management that requires (1) a process-based understanding of ecosystem dynamics and ecological mechanisms, (2) a willingness and ability to identify and consider all possible management alternatives, (3) rigorous monitoring of management effects, and (4) constant adaptation of management based on monitoring data and associated observations. Thus, HALM requires both…


This is a review of Der Baader Meinhof Complex (2008). This film review is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13/iss2/9 The German film Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex depicts the founding years of the Red Army Faction (RAF), West Germany's Marxist-Leninist terrorist group. Director Uli Edel follows the early history of the RAF from the perspective of its first-generation leaders: Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin. The lives of these RAF founders are traced from their activities during the unrest of the student movements in the late 1960s to their violent deaths nearly a decade later. Edel unifies this sweeping narrative with a question inspired by historical hindsight: how is it that so many bourgeois German youth were willing to kill and die for the RAF's violent vision? At one point in the film, Horst Herold, the head of the German police force, explicitly entertains and answers this question. He says they do it because of "a myth." But Edel's portrayal of the RAF says more. It also suggests a demythologization of the RAF. This is first captured by the title's psychologizing slant: the RAF is a media-hyped 'Komplex.' This complex has little explicit reference to religion. However, viewers can draw their own connections. During the opening credits, Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" invites one to contextualize the following events in terms of the tense relationship of materialism and salvation. One could also uncover the following themes within the film: a genealogy of terrorism, sacrifice and violence, the contentious 'Christian' achievement of secularization, and the mythologization and demythologization of Marxism and the RAF. 1 Zielke: Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2009 The film demythologizes the RAF by separating its historical brutality from its mythic idealization. This is partially accomplished by the film's 'realistic,' überviolent scenes. These loud and explosive scenes are nerve-racking because they are portrayed as chaotic, excessive and impersonal. A dead body is not an honored hero, nor a life sublated to a larger vision. It is rather some thing that was once alive, but is now dead – forever. It is just a soulless, bullet-tendered slab of meat. Edel uses graphic visual effects to both unsettle and repulse the viewer. If myth calls for the heroic sacrifice of a victim, there is little room for the violence of the RAF to fulfill this task. Instead, the RAF's violence becomes the disgrace of the myth. The myth-makers degrade the myth. Violence degrades the myth because it never finally resolves the mythmaker's conflict. Rather, the myth simply functions as the perpetual legitimization for ongoing terror. Edel presents the terror of the RAF in light of the torch passed from the secular terrorisms of the Cold War-era to the rising religious terrorisms of the Middle East. The viewer is reminded that the RAF was trained for guerrilla warfare by the PLO and the PLFP in Jordan. They are also reminded that the release of RAF prisoners was demanded both in the abduction of the members of the Israeli Olympic team at Munich '72 and in the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 in '77. This historical synonymy – terrorism, both secular and religious – could displace the viewer's contemporary discomfort with religious terrorism onto their 2 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 13 [2009], Iss. 2, Art. 9 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13/iss2/9 perception of the RAF. RAF militants are less likely perceived as martyrs of conviction, but more so as insecure individuals trying 'to prove' themselves, in the worst of ways. Thus, the film's most poignant demythification of the RAF occurs through its depiction of the group's leaders. Baader is at once a repeating misogynist and an occasional liberator of feminine sexuality – as long as he can sleep with them. Meinhof is a happenstance revolutionary whose loyalty mostly stems from her fear of ridicule and imprisonment. Ensslin is Baader's girlfriend who is left out of the limelight, jealous of Meinhof's celebrity status. On this depiction, camaraderie is mostly just a pretense used to justify self-aggrandizement and back-biting esprit de corps. It seems that the 'great' RAF myth is little more than the social fallout of personal wet-dreams. Edel's film is controversial. It was attacked by RAF faithful and victims alike. Because it was written for a German audience, a working familiarity with the issues surrounding the RAF is assumed. There is little context offered for the events depicted. English viewers might want to brush up on their RAF history. Otherwise, Edel's portrayal of the RAF might seem more authoritative than provocative. 3 Zielke: Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2009


AIM To define the role of endoscopic hemostasis in treatment of gastroduodenal ulcers complicated by bleeding. MATERIAL AND METHODS The results of endoscopic hemostasis in 770 patients with peptic ulcers were analyzed. RESULTS Injection hemostasis had the highest efficacy in case of recurrent bleeding. No other method showed significant advantage in its efficiency. The efficacy of injection method was 52%, argon-plasma coagulation - 83.3%, radiowave technique - 78%, combined endoscopic method  - 96%. In case of recurrent bleeding endoscopic hemostasis is effective alternative to surgery especially in high-risk patients. Repeated endoscopic hemostasis significantly decreases mortality from 45% to 23% in case of recurrent bleeding.


The organization can fully benefit from efforts to improve quality through programs such as total quality management. Just-in-time and total quality management combine to support the successful implementation of agile manufacturing programs which, in turn, result in the organization's ability to respond rapidly and aggressively to changes in customer demand. We contend that adoption of a market orientation combined with just in time, total quality management, and agile manufacturing programs leads to organizational capabilities of relatively low cost operation, high quality product and service production, and rapid response to changes in customer needs and demand. While studies on total quality management implementation appear to focus on identifying the role of total quality management practices on organizational success, total quality management practices are still directed from within the organization. Market orientation, however, requires more external engagement and shares the same ultimate aim as total quality management implementations.


Fields of study in college and graduate school, as well as careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) continue to be chosen more frequently by men than by women, contributing to the gendered wage gap. Using data from interviews with undergraduate physics students, I challenge prevalent notions of 'critical mass,' and argue that women's hyper-visibility in male-dominated STEM fields produces identity threat - concern that their perceived inadequacies are attributed both to themselves and to women as a group. In response, women seek out 'friendlier,' less identity-threatening environments, thereby clustering together in female-dominated work spaces. Implications for future research and policy on gender in STEM fields are discussed.


Objectives: In many health systems, the costs of surgical implants are one of the largest components for surgical budgets, and economies of scale in purchasing agreements do not always provide increased value due to lack of data transparency and administrative complexity. The purpose of the study was to determine if clinician-informed, well-defined negotiation strategies informed by market-based pricing and volume data from supply chain experts within the health system could achieve lower pricing levels for spinal implants and reduce the number of vendors.
Methods: Market data based upon pricing levels for implants were reviewed from an industry implant price database, and utilized by surgeon clinicians and supply chain management (SCM) to select benchmark pricing levels for common spine implants used at our institution.
Results: Benchmark modeling to the 25th percentile among comparable institutions was used in the request for proposal (RFP) sent to all vendors. After three rounds of structured negotiation involving SCM and surgeon leaders, 20% savings over the previous year's total spend was achieved, with a total savings upward of one million dollars; 8 of 22 vendors were excluded from the system.
Conclusion: Negotiation tactics included utilizing benchmark pricing data, "economies of scale" principles, game theory principles, and strong internal communication strategies between supply chain, physician leadership, and actively practicing surgeons. These findings demonstrate that there is significant opportunity for healthcare SCM to further negotiate contracts and achieve favorable pricing on items such as spinal implants with surgeon collaboration and utilization of benchmark data.


We set out to better understand the signal transduction pathways that mediate liver tumor promotion by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxn ("dioxin"). To this end, we first employed congenic mice homozygous for either the Ahr(b1) or Ahr(d) alleles (encoding an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) with high or low binding affinity for dioxin, respectively) and demonstrated that hepatocellular tumor promotion in response to dioxin segregated with the Ahr locus. Once we had genetic evidence for the importance of AHR signaling, we then asked if tumor promotion by dioxin was influenced by "interleukin-1 (IL-1)-like" inflammatory cytokines. The importance of this question arose from our earlier observation that aspects of the acute hepatocellular toxicity of dioxin are dependent upon IL1-like cytokine signaling. To address this issue, we employed a triple knock-out (TKO) mouse model with null alleles at the loci encoding the three relevant receptors for tumor necrosis factors α and β and IL-1α and IL-1β (i.e., null alleles at the Tnfrsf1a, Tnfrsf1b, and Il-1r1 loci). The observation that TKO mice were resistant to the tumor promoting effects of dioxin in liver suggests that inflammatory cytokines play an important step in dioxin mediated liver tumor promotion in the mouse. Collectively, these data support the idea that the mechanism of dioxin acute hepatotoxicity and its activity as a promoter in a mouse two stage liver cancer model may be similar, i.e., tumor promotion by dioxin, like acute hepatotoxicity, are mediated by the linked action of two receptor systems, the AHR and the receptors for the "IL-1-like" cytokines.


Summary

1. Resilient and functional landscapes are essential for climate change adaptation. Thermodynamic theory has been applied increasingly to ecological studies to understand ecosystem resilience and integrity. Resilient ecosystems have complex structure and greater levels of biomass and functional diversity, which act to enhance the degradation of solar energy. Forests that exhibit these characteristics express thermodynamic efficiency through a greater capacitance effect that promotes cooler surface temperatures under extreme weather conditions.

2. With forest disturbance, complex structures and functional linkages are simplified, reducing the capacity of the system to degrade energy. Such changes can lead to dysfunctional ecosystem states, impaired provision of ecosystem services and a weakened resilience.

3. This study has applied indicators based on thermodynamic theory to a chronosequence of forest ecosystems in the UK, Germany and Ukraine. Surface temperatures were measured to test thermodynamic theories relating to energy degradation and temperature moderation. Grime's CSR model was applied to plant data to compare functional complexity in vegetation between stands.

4. Old-growth woodlands are shown to attenuate surface temperature more effectively than native species plantations. Consistently lower temperatures were observed in European old-growth forests with high proportions of biomass when compared to managed stands of similar species composition, suggesting a greater efficiency of energy degradation in complex forest ecosystems, particularly at higher temperatures.

5. Analysis of plant species data using Grime's CSR model indicated that old-growth forests ordinate towards competitive and stress-tolerant communities in contrast to intensively managed forests, which had a greater proportion of generalist and ruderal species. High CSR functional scores were associated with moderated temperature extremes.

6. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest an important thermodynamic basis for conservation in the context of climate change. Conservation practice and management policy, which is based on preserving ecosystem complexity and function, can aid in mitigating the effects of extreme temperatures, enhancing vital services such as climate regulation, primary production and water retention. Old-growth forests have a significant climate mitigation role alongside other recognised ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration.


The genus Artema Walckenaer, 1837 includes some of the largest pholcid spiders and is geographically largely restricted to Central Asia, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and the eastern Mediterranean. One species has previously been known from West Africa. The first known Moroccan species, A. martensi sp. n., extends the known distribution of the genus to the northwestern limit of the African continent. The species is described from two caves in the western Anti-Atlas, but it is not troglomorphic. A comparative analysis of male carapace width in 1632 pholcid species shows that A. martensi sp. n. is the largest known pholcid with respect to this character. Plots of mean carapace sizes of newly described species on periods of time (50 years, 20 years) show that the mean sizes of newly described species have been constantly decreasing.


Background: The main source of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is the sun, affecting organs such as the skin, eyes, and immune system. According to American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) reports, the amount of UVR reaching the Earth′s surface is increasing yearly and is responsible for an increase in solar radiation-related diseases. Aims: To investigate the amount of UVR reaching the Earth′s surface and understand the risk of UVR on disease among outdoor laborers in one of the central provinces of Iran. Materials and Methods: Arak city was divided into two geographic areas, and the weekly measurement of UVR was done in three locations) asphalt, grass and rooftop). To measure UVR, Hanger UV spectrometer, standard deviation (SD8-A), and SD8-B detectors were used. Amounts of UVR for a consecutive year and varying weather conditions were measured. Finally, values obtained were compared to ACGIH standards. Results: The minimum and maximum levels of UV type A radiation occurred in April 1.27 (0.724) W/m 2 and September 7.147 (4.128) W/m 2 , these figures for UV type B were in March-April 0.005 (0.003) and September 0.083 (0.077). The maximum UVR is received between 11 and 15 o′clock. Conclusions: In the central cities of Iran, the minimum and maximum UV type A and B is received in March-April and in September, respectively. Based on the results, the angular position of the sun in the sky, cloud cover, and height from ground level affected the amount of UVR received, but the geographic locations studied did not.


ABSTRACT Drawing on data from a study of the changing landscape for teachers' professional development (PD) in England, this paper addresses the provision of PD for teachers in schools serving high-poverty communities designated as 'Opportunity Areas'. Beginning with critical examination of relationships between teaching quality and social mobility, the paper reports on the analysis of organisations that won funding in the first round of the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF), offered by the UK government in 2017. The paper shows how an economistic link between teaching 'quality' and the political imperative of 'social mobility' has restricted the provision of continuing PD for teachers in public schools, narrowing the scope of training to practices that have the capacity to further disadvantage children and young people experiencing economic and social inequity. As such, the CPD provision for teachers in these areas has the potential to reproduce rather than transform existing educational opportunities.


AIM
To optimize thyroid microcarcinoma approach, through a retrospective examination of Authors' experience and literature review.

MATERIALS
Characteristics, treatment and outcomes of patients affected with thyroid microcarcinoma were examined: among 1733 patients operated on for thyroid diseases at Endocrine Surgery Unit of San Paolo Hospital in Milan, from 2001 to 2011, 104 (6.0%) resulted affected with microcarcinoma. Twenty (19.2%) had pre-operative and 84 (80.8%) post-operative diagnosis, 11 with (N+) and 93 without (N0) lymph node metastasis. Eighty-five patients underwent total thyroidectomy, 11 (N+) total thyroidectomy with lymphoadenectomy and 8 lobectomy, 2 radicalized in thyroidectomy. All patients underwent Levo-thyroxine suppressive therapy, 25 (24.0%) 131I ablation. Differences between N0 and N+ patients were researched.

RESULTS
Neither recurrences nor death at a mean follow-up of 5.6 years. Tumour was multifocal and in thyroid with no other diseases in N+, in a greater rate than in N0 patients.

DISCUSSION
Microcarcinoma generally has an indolent course, but sometimes it presents with nodal metastasis. For this reason its treatment in literature is still largely debated.

CONCLUSION
In cases of pre-operative diagnosis of microcarcinoma without lymph node metastasis, we propose total thyroidectomy; otherwise, total thyroidectomy with lymphoadenectomy. In cases of post-operative diagnosis, after a partial resection, only selected cases on the basis of patients' and tumour features require a completion total thyroidectomy. We propose Levo-thyroxine suppressive therapy to all patients, 131I ablation in cases of lymphatic metastasis and only in selected cases without metastasis, on the basis of patients' and tumour aspects (age, sex, histological variant, multifocality).


The first section of this volume presents previously unpublished and other finds from museums and collections, included on the basis of their importance in relation to Roman Siscia (Croatia). The second part of the volume encompasses recent finds from the excavations performed in 2003 at the site of St. Quirinus in Sisak (central Croatia). These Roman era finds are kept in the Municipal Museum of Sisak, the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, in the Zagreb collection of Matej Pavleti, the Sisak collection of Marko Golan, and in one anonymous numismatic collection in Zagreb. 216 finds are catalogued."


The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field of view observatory sensitive to 500 GeV–100 TeV gamma-rays and cosmic rays. It can also perform diverse indirect searches for dark matter annihilation and decay. Among the most promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter are dwarf spheroidal galaxies. These objects are expected to have few astrophysical sources of gamma-rays but high dark matter content, making them ideal candidates for an indirect dark matter detection with gamma-rays. Here we present individual limits on the annihilation cross section and decay lifetime for 15 dwarf spheroidal galaxies within the field of view, as well as their combined limit. These are the first limits on the annihilation cross section and decay lifetime using data collected with HAWC. We also present the HAWC flux upper limits of the 15 dwarf spheroidal galaxies in half-decade energy bins.


The sectoral shift hypothesis in the Netherlands cannot be easily tested for the presence of rigorous structural breaks in the data. Therefore, a Kalman Filter approach is adopted. What we find, is that the variables capturing the sectoral shift hypothesis are the most important in explaining Dutch unemployment behavior during the postwar period. This means that cyclical unemployment in the Netherlands can be viewed as a fluctuation of the natural rate of unemployment.


Dogs', guinea pigs' and hamsters' local skin reaction to the attachment and feeding of the tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus were analysed under light microscopy. The hosts were either tick-bite naive, previously infested or vaccinated with crude unfed adult tick extract. Biopsies were taken at the end of each infestation. Changes common to every host, regardless of experimental group, included presence of tick or its mouthparts embedded in a cone of cementum at the surface of the skin, epidermal hyperplasia, hyperkeratosis and acanthosis, edema and copious inflammatory cell infiltration in the dermis, underneath the tick attachment site. Dogs in all experimental groups reacted with an almost exclusive PMN neutrophil accumulation, while guinea pigs showed a predominantly mononuclear cell infiltration in every experimental group. Hamsters suffering first infestations had a mainly neutrophilic infiltration, showed a predominantly mononuclear cell infiltration in response to multiple infestations, and when previously vaccinated this host had a predominantly eosinophilic infiltration. The persistence of PMN neutrophils in dogs suggest a control of the local immune inflammatory response by the tick. The predominantly eosinophilic infiltration in previously vaccinated hamsters might indicate that different immune mechanisms were triggered by infestation and vaccination.


Text scrutinises the political writings of early XX century Polish Marxist, Kazimierz KellesKrauz in the light of contemporary theories of the political. In specific peripheral conditions and due to entanglement of different struggles in the Polish Kingdom under tsarist rule there was no longer possible to refer to any firm political ground: organic unity of nation, necessary class antagonism or laws of history. Therefore, Kelles-Krauz had to face a somehow similar situation to this conceptualised by contemporary theories of hegemonic articulation, and radical democracy, as in Laclau, Mouffe or Rancière. A realistic, "agonistic" conception of democracy emerges, seen as a constant move without end, necessary assumption and eternally unfulfilled demand, taken as rivalry for temporarily occupying necessarily empty space, or agonism canalising regressive drives in political way and mediating between particularisms. In a constant move of change Marxism is only one step, right and somehow necessary, but in any case the last; it certainly do not bring any closure of fully realised society. Although still in a crust of older structures of thinking and above all philosophical language, we can see in Kelles-Krauz merging of a new paradigm of political thinking, or kind of disclosure of ultimate brake or gap in political and social order. Therefore we can look also for the depictions of radical, necessary contingency present in constituting of society, so to say, moments of the political.


Nowadays, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are mainly used in many low loaded applications such as in machine tools, computer devices and many more. Especially the automotive industry anticipates a benefit in applying such coatings in association with the lightweight construction of mechanical parts, for instance in gear components. The ulterior motive is a global performance increase regarding environmental impact and power efficiency. In recent years, the slip-rolling resistance of DLC, a-C and ta-C thin film coatings was improved considerably. In view of the mechanical application of thin film coatings, there is still room for improvements. It was experimentally shown, that a-C and ta-C coatings can be slip-rolling resistant at room temperature in unaddivated paraffin oil up to ten million cycles under Hertzian contact pressures up to P0max = 2.9 GPa. Typically, the prime coated steel substrates were made of the hardened and tempered steels 100Cr6H and Cronidur 30. The aim of the work this to overtake these results, i.e. at higher maximum Hertzian pressures up to P0max = 4.2 GPa. Under such extreme conditions, it is necessary to choose special steels to avoid the failure of the substrate and to permit a higher load carrying capacity of the coating-substrate-system. In consideration of the increased substrate properties, two high toughness spring steels and an ultra-high toughness aerospace steel were tested on a twin disc tribometer of the Amsler type as well as on an Optimol TwinDisc test rig under mixed/boundary conditions. Different factors such as residual stresses of the substrate, influences of the lubrication, and wear behaviour were investigated. The respective results are presented here.


Mining operations in remote locations rely heavily on diesel fuel for the electricity, haulage and heating demands. Such significant diesel dependency imposes large carbon footprints to these mines. Consequently, mining companies are looking for better energy strategies to lower their carbon footprints. Renewable energies can relieve this over-reliance on fossil fuels. Yet, in spite of their many advantages, renewable systems deployment on a large scale has been very limited, mainly due to the high battery storage system. Using hydrogen for energy storage purposes due to its relatively cheaper technology can facilitate the application of renewable energies in the mining industry. Such cost-prohibitive issues prevent achieving 100% penetration rate of renewables in mining applications. This paper offers a novel integrated renewable–multi-storage (wind turbine/battery/fuel cell/thermal storage) solution with six different configurations to secure 100% off-grid mining power supply as a stand-alone system. A detailed comparison between the proposed configurations is presented with recommendations for implementation. A parametric study is also performed, identifying the effect of different parameters (i.e., wind speed, battery market price, and fuel cell market price) on economics of the system. The result of the present study reveals that standalone renewable energy deployment in mine settings is technically and economically feasible with the current market prices, depending on the average wind speed at the mine location.


Abstract Multiple studies elucidated the importance of cellular immune mechanisms for protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, recent studies showed that B lymphocytes play a role that is underestimated through various interactions with cellular immune response, forming an important aspect of host defense against M. tuberculosis bacteria. Therefore, the author hereby proposes a progressive perspective for immunology of tuberculosis, i.e., cellular immunity and humoral immunity are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The present study summarizes recent studies that support the important role of B lymphocytes in terms of M. tuberculosis infection.


Apart from the differentiation of productive capacity it brings about, industrial development also contributes to the employment and the redistribution of income among people, social classes and areas. Agricultural industries, in particular, usually located in rural areas, do not only contribute to the utilization of a significant part of agricultural production. Their expansion influences the socio-economic structure of areas. It creates jobs for the rural population, while one of the most important social impacts of their establishment has to do with their contribution to the change in mentality with regard to the role of women, who consist a large part of their employees. The future of many rural areas seems to depend on whether farming activities are combined with other side agricultural or non-agricultural activities. The important role played by agrofood industries in rural development obliges us to examine how this sector was influenced in the framework of the European Union from within the example of the fruit processing industry, which is the most internationalized branch of Greek economy. The accession of Greece to the European Union reinforced the course ofprofitable utilization of its comparative advantages, causing structural realignments and spatial reorganizations.


We have cloned the Bacteroides fragilis TAL2480 neuraminidase (NANase) structural gene, nanH, in Escherichia coli. This was accomplished by using the cloning shuttle vector pJST61 and a partial Sau3A library of TAL2480 chromosomal inserts created in E. coli. The library was mobilized into the NANase-deficient B. fragilis TM4000 derivative TC2. NANase-producing colonies were enriched by taking advantage of the inability of TC2, but not the wild-type of NANase+ revertant, to grow in vitro in fluid aspirated from the rat granuloma pouch. Plasmids pJST61-TCN1 and pJST61-TCN3, containing inserts of 9.1 and 4.5 kilobases (kb), respectively, were found in the TC2 derivatives that grew in the rat pouch medium. In B. fragilis, NANase production from the two plasmids was inducible by free N-acetylneuraminic acid or sialic acid-containing substrates, just as in the parental TAL2480 strain. However, when these plasmids were transferred back to E. coli, NANase activity was barely detectable. A 3.5-kb portion of the insert in pJST61-TCN3 was subcloned in pJST61 to give plasmid pJST61-SC3C; NANase was produced from this plasmid both in E. coli and in B. fragilis. In E. coli, NANase expression was under the control of the vector promoter lambda pR and was therefore completely abolished by the presence of a lambda prophage. In B. fragilis, NANase production was inducible by free N-acetylneuraminic acid or sialic acid-containing substrates. By using deletion analysis and Tn1000 mutagenesis, the NANase structural gene and control region that functions in B. fragilis were localized to a 1.5- to 2.0-kb region of the insert. A partial nucleotide sequence of the NANase-deficient Tn1000 insertion mutants allowed us to identify the nanH gene and deduce the amino acid sequence of a portion of the NANase protein. We identified five regions showing great similarity to the Asp boxes, -Ser-X-Asp-X-Gly-X-Thr-Trp-, of other bacterial and viral NANase proteins.


Array-based oligonucleotide synthesis technologies provide access to thousands of custom-designed sequence variants at low cost. Large-scale synthesis and high-throughput assays have become valuable experimental tools to study in detail the interplay between sequence and function. We have developed a methodology and corresponding algorithms for the design of diverse protein coding gene libraries, to exploit the potential of multiplex synthesis and help elucidate the effects of codon utilization and other factors in gene expression. Using our algorithm, we have computationally designed gene libraries with hundreds to thousands of orthogonal codon usage variants, uniformly exploring the design space of codon utilization, while demanding only a small fraction of the synthesis cost that would be required if these variants were synthesized independently.


Amid accusations of tax avoidance directed towards some of the world's largest multinationals, governments around the globe have started to act. Triggered by the 2010 US Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1504), the EU passed ambitious legislation in June 2013 on transparency. In this article I discuss those policies, along with extractive industries initiatives. I argue that transparency norms should be extended to environmental pressures. A driving force could be the vision of increasing revenues and public investments for green economies in resource rich developing countries, with global prosperity stemming from increasing resource efficiency and lowering environmental risks along international value chains. Accordingly, I develop two scenarios for the future: a "realistic" one with limited participation, weak enforcement, and cumulated ensuing risks; and an "opportunity" scenario, which involves taking opportunities for cooperation and resource efficiency. Finally, I draw conclusions and provide recommendations toward a global environmental politics with a strong transparency component.


: The importance of sustainable development and energy efficiency efforts has increased in the construction sector. Energy-saving efforts for buildings have become more important due to the global energy crisis, and energy rating systems have been developed globally for assessment of energy performance. In this study, international green building certi(cid:12)cate and energy performance certi(cid:12)cate (EPC) systems are presented. The official EPC system for buildings in Turkey is illustrated with case studies. Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings are calculated using the official national software, which is called BEP-TR. The impact of lighting on the total energy performance of residential buildings is also examined. Changes in energy performance values are discussed for various cases. As a result of this study, it was determined that residential buildings constructed before 2000 consume more energy than those constructed after 2000; they are a lower energy performance class of buildings. Use of energy-saving lamps has also had a positive impact on both lighting and total energy performance classes. This paper aims to contribute to the promotion of building energy certi(cid:12)cation systems and energy efficiency issues for the construction


The rotating platform is one of important components of the platform-based lifting picking vehicle, which guarantees that the vehicle works well in mountainous terrain. Based on a brief introduction of structural composition and function of rotating platform, the deflection mechanism of rotating platform was analyzed theoretically. By analyzing the structural composition and calculating DOF (Degrees of Freedom), the reasonableness of the scheme was verified and the kinematics equations were established. According to the stability requirements of picking vehicle and the characteristics of operating environment in mountain, the design theory for the support system of rotating platform and its performance requirements were discussed, and further the important structural parameters and design methods was studied.


This paper briefly introduces the collection and recognition of bio-medical signals, designs the method to collect FM signals. A detailed discussion on the system hardware, structure and functions is also given. Under LabWindows/CVI,the hardware and the driver do compatible, the hardware equipment work properly actively. The paper adopts multi threading technology for real-time analysis and makes use of latency time of CPU effectively, expedites program reflect speed, improves the program to perform efficiency. One threading is collecting data; the other threading is analyzing data. Using the method, it is broaden to analyze the signal in real-time. Wavelet transform to remove the main interference in the FM and by adding time-window to recognize with BP network; Finally the results of collecting signals and BP networks are discussed.8 pregnant women's signals of FM were collected successfully by using the sensor. The correctness rate of BP network recognition is about 83.3% by using the above measure.


Steam generator in a nuclear power plant is huge heat exchanger that transfers heat from reactor to make steam to drive turbine-generator. Failure of the steam generator tubes can result in the release of fission products to the secondary side. Therefore, accurate integrity assessment of the cracked steam generator tubes is of great importance for maintaining the safety of the nuclear power plant. This paper provides limit loads for circumferential through-wall cracks in steam generator tubes under combined internal pressure and bending loads. Such limit loads are developed on the basis of three dimensional finite element analyses assuming elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior. As for the crack location, both the top of the tubesheet and U-bend regions are considered. The analysis results can be directly applied to the practical integrity assessment of cracked steam generator tubes, because the comparison between experimental data and FE results shows a very good agreement.


Rationale & Objective
                  During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients receiving maintenance dialysis are a highly vulnerable population due to their comorbidities and circumstances that limit physical distancing during treatment. This study sought to characterize the risk factors for and outcomes following COVID-19 infection in this population.

                  Study Design
                  Retrospective cohort study.

                  Setting & Participants
                  Maintenance dialysis patients in clinics with at least one patient with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 from February to June 2020, treated by a mid-size national dialysis provider.

                  Predictors
                  Demographics, dialysis characteristics, residence in a congregate setting, comorbid conditions, measures of frailty, and use of selected medications.

                  Outcomes
                  COVID-19 defined as having a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and all-cause mortality among those with COVID-19.

                  Analytical Approach
                  Logistic regression analyses to identify clinical characteristics associated with COVID-19and risk factors associated with mortality among patients following COVID-19.

                  Results
                  438/7948 (5.5%) maintenance dialysis patients developed COVID-19. Male sex, Black race, in-center dialysis (vs. home dialysis), treatment at an urban clinic, residence in a congregate setting, and greater comorbidity were associated with contracting COVID-19. Odds of COVID-19 was 17-fold higher for those residing in a congregate setting [OR = 17.10 (95% CI 13.51, 21.54)]. Of the 438 maintenance dialysis patients with COVID-19, 109 (24.9%) died. Older age, heart disease, and markers of frailty were associated with mortality.

                  Limitations
                  No distinction between symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 positivity, with asymptomatic screening limited by testing capacity during this initial COVID-19 surge period.

                  Conclusions
                  COVID-19 is common among patients receiving maintenance dialysis, particularly those residing in congregate settings. Among maintenance dialysis patients with COVID-19, mortality is high, exceeding 20%.


Songket motifs reflect the material artefacts that are embedded with design and memory of the Malay people. Songket is a Malay word which means to bring out or to pull a thread from a background cloth or to weave using gold and silver thread. Historically, the Malay textile art of songket in Malaysia indicates a symbol of royalty as the rulers. Since the independence from the British in 1957, the Malay, the predominant group in Malaysia, carries through the meaningful symbol of the Malay race forward. The supremacy of this race can be seen reflected in and attached to the songket motifs along with the beliefs of animism, Hindu-Buddhism and Islam. The songket motifs appear in forms derived from flora, fauna, food, nature and court related objects, a memory passed on through generations via oral traditions. All of these motifs depict the sensitivity towards elements in the daily life of the Malay people as well as life philosophy, adages, phrases and proverbs that become the guidance for the Malay in managing their life. A strong sense of belonging towards the supremacy of this race in Malaysia dignifies the identity and a superior being of the Malay race in Malaysia seen in songket. The songket motifs highlight the Malay power in a country that is now multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi religious and multi-lingual. The motifs present an issue of Malaysian identity based on the purity of the Malay race although other foreign influences had played a role in characterizing these people.


This thesis is concerned with the provision of multimedia services (involving voice, video,
text and graphics) in an office environment. The office of the future is expected to
comprise a heterogeneous collection of workstations and multimedia components (including
fileservers, voice and video codecs, document scanners, laser printers, etc) interlinked
by a high speed (digital) local area network. Every office is likely to have one or more
connections to a public Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) providing integrated
access (involving various types of traffic) to a very large number of subscribers.
This thesis considers general issues relating to the design of such an office. Particular
attention is given to the problem of the integration of media both at the network and
user levels. Much of this discussion draws on practical experience gained during the
Alvey Unison Project in which experimental multimedia offices were interconnected using
a pilot ISDN. The architecture of the Unison network is discussed with particular reference
to its suitability for the support of multimedia services.
The bulk of this thesis is devoted to a description of the design and implementation of
a number of prototype multimedia applications, and to an evaluation of their performance
over the network. The handling of slow-scan video and high resolution images have
been particular areas 01 interest.
Much emphasis is placed on the problem of control in a distributed environment, and a
model is presented for the management of control based on the use of a directory-like
service. This model also provides a mechanism for locating an office service based on
the name of the user to whom it belongs.


Background: Granulomatous lobular mastitis (GLM) is a rare disorder that can clinically mimic breast carcinoma. The recommendation for diagnosis and treatment of GLM has not yet been established. objectives: To assess a series of GLM patients, including their clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment and outcome. methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data and treatment of 17 female patients with biopsy-proven GLM. Breast tissue was obtained by a core needle biopsy (15 patients) or open biopsy (2 patients). Images were reviewed by an experienced radiologist. results: The mean age of the patients at diagnosis was 44.6 ± 12.6 years. Five patients (29%) presented with bilateral disease, and seven (41%) presented with a mass, suggesting the initial diagnosis of breast carcinoma. Treatment comprised observation alone (23%), antibiotics (58.8%) and/or corticosteroids (with or without methotrexate) (35%). At the end of the study 70.6% of the patients demonstrated complete remission. None of the patients developed any systemic (granulomatous) disease or breast carcinoma during the follow-up period (4.7 ± 3.8 years). conclusions: Core needle biopsy is mandatory for the diagnosis of GLM and the exclusion of breast carcinoma. The recommended treatment modalities are observation alone or corticosteroids; surgery should be avoided. GLM is a benign disease with a high rate of resolution and complete remission. IMAJ 2015; 17: 476–480 granulomatous mastitis, inflammatory breast disease, breast carcinoma granulomatous lobular mastitis


Inflammatory oncotaxis is the term used to describe the phenomenon whereby mechanically injured tissues are predisposed to the development of metastases. Normal tissue injury elicits an inflammatory response, and it has been found that the microenvironment created is similar to that of the tumour microenvironment. Subsequently tumours have often been described as ''wounds that do not heal''. Here we present the first reported case of inflammatory oncotaxis in a patient with cholangiocarcinoma in whom the cancer preferentially metastasized to the site of a healing fracture; the underlying mechanisms are discussed.


The Cd1-xMnxTe crystal is believed to be a good candidate to compete with Cd1-xMnxTe in the X-ray and γ-ray detector application. In this paper, Indium (In) doped Cd0.8Mn0.2Te (CdMnTe) ingots were grown by the modified Vertical Bridgman method. The as-grown crystals were characterized using Near-Infrared (NIR) transmission spectrum mapping of composition, X-ray double-crystal rocking curve measurement, I-V measurement and 241Am gamma rays radiation measurement. The Mn composition extracted from the NIR spectra at different axial and radial distances of the 30×40×2 mm3 CdMnTe wafers shown that the Mn concentration in the range of 0.19430.0008 to 0.2020.0025 mole fraction. The FWHM values of the X-ray rocking curves are of 40-80 arc sec, indicating a high crystalline perfection. The resistivity of the wafers is (2-3) ×1010Ω.cm. The CdMnTe planar detector irradiated by 241Am source shows the energy resolution of 8.5%.


In this paper we give new insights into quantitative microwave tomography with robust Huber regularizer and Gauss-Newton optimization. Firstly, we validate this approach for the first time on real electromagnetic measurements. Secondly, we extend the framework with a modified Huber function, which behaves like TV regularization. This is interesting for reconstructing piece-wise constant permittivities that appear in non-destructive testing of installations and other man-made objects.


Ensembles of predictions are critical to modern weather forecasting. However, visualizing ensembles and their means in a useful way remains challenging. Existing methods of creating ensemble means do not recognize the physical structures that humans could identify within the ensemble members; therefore, visualizations for variables such as reflectivity lose important information and are difficult for human forecasters to interpret. In response, the authors create an improved ensemble mean that retains more structural information. The authors examine and expand upon the object-based Geometry-Sensitive Ensemble Mean (GEM) defined by Li and Zhang from a meteorological perspective. The authors apply low-intensity thresholding to WRF-simulated radar reflectivity images of lake-effect snowbands, tropical cyclones, and severe thunderstorms and then process them with the GEM system. Gaussian mixture model–based signatures retain the geometric structure of these phenomena and are used to compute a Wasserstein barycenter as the centroid for the ensemble; D2 clustering is employed to examine different scenarios among the ensemble members. Three types of ensemble mean image are created from the centroid of the ensemble or cluster, which each improve upon the traditional pixel-wise average in different ways, successfully capture aspects of the ensemble members' structure, and have potential applications for future forecasting efforts. The adjusted best member is a better representative member, the Bayesian posterior mean is an improved structure-based weighted average, and the mixture density mean is an outline of the key structures in the ensemble. Each is shown to improve upon a simple arithmetic mean via quantitative comparison with observations.


Transportation planning has long focused on large scale projects using a civil engineering approach of maximizing throughput and minimizing interactions with the surrounding environment. Such efforts greatly increased the overall mobility and accessibility of individuals within and across metropolitan regions, but it is clear that in the future such enormous initiatives are unrealistic due to political, financial, spatial and social concerns. The field of transportation planning is shifting away from this old model of planning towards one where transportation systems are considered part of the overall quality of life of communities. This dissertation explores how local transportation planning is adapting to these changing dynamics of transportation planning through three essays. The first considers how cities are already planning for transportation through their general plans without strong mandates from regional governments. The second essay estimates the spatial variation in commute mode choice in order to show the complexity of travel due to geographic factors of infrastructure provision and land uses. The final essay discusses what flexible localized transportation policies look like, using cruising for parking as an example. Ultimately this research highlights a way forward for transportation planning as a quality-of-life issue, traditionally the purview of local governments.


Shipping is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases, and this is leading shipbuilders and operators on a search for environmentally friendly alternative propulsion systems. Researchers at Fraunhofer have joined forces with partners to develop the HyMethShip concept, in which hydrogen is obtained from methanol. This technology does not require large hydrogen tanks to be carried on board, making it much safer. In the future, it may also prove to be an attractive solution for cruise liners.


OBJECTIVES
Cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS) comprise a spectrum of distinct, rare, autosomal dominant autoinflammatory disorders of increasing severity caused by NLRP3 gene mutations.

METHODS
We describe a 13-year-old female who presented, in the initial phase of the disease, recurrent episodes of high fever, pericarditis, arthralgia, arthritis of the knees, abdominal pain and marked increase in inflammatory markers. In the subsequent months she developed recurrent episodes of chest pain, skin rash and swelling of the subcutaneous tissue, without fever, and with spontaneous resolution.

RESULTS
Molecular analysis of the CIAS1 gene revealed the presence of the Q703K variant and also a c.1105C>A mutation in the heterozygous state, that predicts a L369M amino acid substitution. The latter variant has never been reported. The L369M mutation was predicted to significantly affect protein structure (scoring as 'dangerous' and 'deleterious') by the Variant Effect Predictor tool. Therapy with anakinra was started with rapid disappearance of clinical symptoms and normalization of CRP levels in 24 hours.

CONCLUSIONS
The rapid response to IL-1 inhibition suggests that the disease of this patient is driven by IL-1 and supports the conclusion that this novel mutation is pathogenic and may be associated with a new CAPS phenotype. The role played by the concomitant presence of the mutation Q703K remains to be clarified.


A cell surface Mr approximately 90,000 glycoprotein (gp90) was found in higher amounts on brain-colonizing than on lung-colonizing murine B16 melanoma sublines. The possible role of gp90 in determining the brain-associated metastatic properties of B16 cells was examined by purifying the glycoprotein and studying the effects of anti-gp90 on the growth, adhesion, and organ colonization properties of B16 cells. The specificity of the anti-gp90 was demonstrated in immunoprecipitation studies where a cell surface- or metabolically labeled Mr approximately 90,000 glycoprotein of pI approximately 4 was exclusively found upon two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing conditions. Immunoprecipitation analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and the lectin-binding properties of gp90 on lectin affinity columns indicated that it is a Mr approximately 180,000 disulfide-linked dimer, probably related to the transferrin receptor. B16 sublines selected for various organ colonization properties differentially expressed gp90, bound 125I-labeled transferrin, and responded differently to purified transferrin in proliferation assays in relation to their metastatic properties (B15b greater than O13 greater than F10 greater than F1). Anti-gp90 immunoglobulin G affected the growth of brain-colonizing B16-B15b more than B16-F1 cells, but had no effect on the adhesion of B16-B15b or -F1 cells to microvessel endothelial cells in vitro, and anti-gp90 immunoglobulin G F(ab')2 had little effect on the brain colonization properties of B16-B15b cells in syngeneic mice. In blocking assays, anti-gp90 inhibited the binding of 125I-labeled transferrin to B16-B15b cells in a dose-dependent manner. The results suggest that the differential growth-stimulating effects of transferrin on highly metastatic B16 melanoma cells may be due to their differential expression of a Mr approximately 90,000 glycoprotein that is related to the transferrin receptor. In organ sites, such as the brain, differential expression of a transferrin-like receptor may allow metastatic cells to respond to low concentrations of growth factors known to be present in certain organs.


The lack of interoperability between 2G standards motivated the Radio Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) to become involved in the standardisation process of personal mobile telecommunication. The efforts of the ITU-R ended with a family of six radio interfaces called International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) and two radio interfaces called IMT-Advanced that collectively constitute 3G and 4G standards respectively. This paper argues that the IMT standardisation process has created a new type of technology neutrality that is limited to the IMT standards. Moreover, it is shown that the industry and ITU-R have different perceptions on the categorisation of technologies in terms of being 2G, 3G or 4G. In addition, it is argued that there has been indirect link between the spectrum and the IMT standards. However, the ITU-R took several steps to encourage regulators to allow spectrum re-farming. This paper shows also how the ITU-R set the framework for both cooperation and competition between the different technologies proponents.


There are pluses and minuses to joint defense agreements, but the pluses might outweigh the minuses if the agreements are carefully drafted MANY situations that involve parallel proceedings also entail multiple respondents, targets or defendants. Cooperation among them can be an essential component in mounting a successful defense to parallel proceedings, but cooperation and sharing of information among parties represented by separate counsel is not without risk. Among those are lack of control over disclosure of privileged information, waiver of privileges, and disqualification of counsel when respondents assert claims against one another or become government witnesses. One way to minimize the risks and achieve cooperation is through the considered use of the joint defense privilege, embodied in a joint defense agreement. Cooperation in a joint defense effort allows respondents to pool information and coordinate strategies to defeat civil claims and to control investigations by governmental agencies. These shared efforts allow each respondent to develop a global view of the issues and to counter pressure by plaintiffs' attorneys, prosecutors and governmental agencies on individual respondents to incriminate others. An awareness of the scope of the joint defense privilege and the key components of a workable joint defense agreement will facilitate an informed discussion among counsel for respondents about the potential benefits and disadvantages of such agreements in particular cases. JOINT DEFENSE PRIVILEGE The joint defense privilege is "an extension of the attorney-client privilege" and the work product doctrine.1 It protects communications between an individual and an attorney for another when the communications are part of a joint effort to set up a common strategy. "Communications to an attorney to establish a common defense strategy are privileged even though the attorney represents a client with adverse interests."2 The joint defense rule is applicable to both civil and criminal litigation and to both plaintiffs and defendants. It represents an exception to the general rule that disclosure of information protected by the attorney-client privilege to a third party waives the privilege. The joint defense privilege does not create a new privilege. Rather, it serves to protect an existing privilege from waiver. In this manner, shared information is protected by the attorney-client privilege without the danger of waiver.3 In addition to confidential communications, attorneys' work product also is protected under the joint defense privilege.4 The joint defense privilege has been held applicable in a variety of situations. Courts broadly construe the term "co-defendants," and they have extended the joint defense privilege to civil co-defendants;5 companies individually summoned before a grand jury and who information before any indictment was returned;6 potential coparties to prospective litigation;7 plaintiffs who were pursuing separate actions in different states;8 and civil defendants who were sued in separate actions.9 The apparent justification for the rule is the belief that "persons who share a common interest in litigation should be able to communicate with their respective attorneys and with each other to more effectively prosecute or defend claims."10 The need to protect the free flow of information exists whenever multiple clients share a common interest about a legal matter. Because the joint defense privilege is an extension of the attorney-client privilege, parties seeking to benefit from it must establish all the elements of the attorney-client privilege, plus the added requirement that the communication in question involves a common legal interest. As with all privileges, the party seeking to invoke it has the burden of establishing all necessary elements. In order to establish the existence of the privilege the proponent must show that: * the communications were made in the course of a joint defense effort in prosecuting or defending actual or threatened litigation; * the communications and exchange of information were designed to further that joint effort; and * the privilege has not been waived. …


AN Englishman sees at once, with the New England landscapes about him, that he could easily make his home there—in the exhilaration of the moment he clean forgets the quota and the fact that he isn't wanted, and Al Capone, prohibition, and the slump. New England is as far from Hollywood as Old England is. Its hills are of granite and the harsher rocks. Its woods, with trees reminiscent of home, yet certainly foreign, are still savage, and the Indian place‐names remind you that the frame‐houses are recent invaders. See it under snow and the sun, when the temperature is dropping to zero though the sky is blue, and you begin to understand why so much New England poetry and thought is as delicate and austere as a flower on stoney ground. These people, for generations, have had to keep resolutely watchful and on their guard, knowing they could survive only if they could get corn enough to husband. They have some residue from the memories of their forefathers of the stockaded settlement, when the Indians were lurking in the dark swamps without. Their hope has been bleak enough in their fight against granite and snow, and the seas of the North. Enduring through long and relentless winters, when nature was arctic, they made more of any sign of spring in the heart, or in the fields, than we should. Mysticism, a sense of relationship with a purpose behind the harsh and unforgiving show of things, is natural and consolatory to lonely folk who, as Thoreau somewhere remarks, have to get through hard times, like bears, by sucking their own paws. There is nothing else. With all against them, they kept watch at the stockade, waiting for morning. What is heard in the silence of the mind, while enduring in loneliness, can be expressed only in austere images. Says Emerson: "What generous beliefs console. The brave whom Fate denies the goal! If others reach it, is content; To Heaven's high will his will is bent." Emerson was not ironic; those words occur in a tribute to his dead brother.


The chapter illustrates how misalignment of Human Resource Management System (HRMS) creates risks of reduction in organizational performance and well-being of employees. The chapter starts with the analysis of reasons and consequences for choosing particular HRMS by firms and description of criterions to differentiate between the key alternatives: high-productivity, high-commitment and high-involvement-based HRMS. Then it illustrates possible options within an additive approach, which allows reproducing wider variety of HRMS, aiming at identical for organization HR strategy. It also shows how additive approach can intensify positive sides and mitigate the drawbacks of each HRMS in accordance with the organizational health concept. The final part illustrates how to deal with the situation when the most suitable HRMS is not available due to its lower legitimacy, suggesting models with alternative options, or applying additive approach.


The literature on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) college students focuses primarily on their experiences after they get acquainted at their college or university. The purpose of this study was to assess motivations to attend college among LGBTQ college students, and to find any connections between their identity development and those motivations. Qualitative data from 9 participants was collected and coded. Results show that LGBTQ students who come from unaccepting environments or families are more likely to express motivations such as leaving their home, self-exploration, or branching out. This provides information for higher education professionals who seek to create more inclusive, welcoming environments in college.


Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) at various levels (global, regional national, local and corporate) are being developed by and in countries around the world. We assess here the SDI developments in three African countries, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa, using the SDI models developed by the Commission on Geoinformation Infrastructures and Standards of the International Cartographic Association (ICA), focusing on the stakeholders and their roles: the Policy Maker, Producer, Provider, Broker, Value-Added Reseller (VAR) and End User. SDI development in all three countries has involved a variety of stakeholders and has taken a long time, waxing and waning depending on the availability of funding and the commitment of the stakeholders, particularly the Policy Makers. This research on the similarities and differences of the SDI stakeholders in Ghana, Namibia and South Africa improves the understanding of SDI development and we hope that the results can help other countries with their own SDI developments. Based on our work, we make recommendations for refining the ICA's stakeholder typology.


In this study, the authors investigate the problem of source localisation based on the time difference of arrival (TDOA) in a group of sensors. Aiming to minimise the squared range-difference errors, the problem leads to a quadratically constrained quadratic programme. It is well known that this approach results in a non-convex optimisation problem. By proposing a relaxation technique, they show that the optimisation problem would be transformed to a convex one which can be solved by semi-definite programming (SDP) and Lagrange multiplier methods. Moreover, these methods offer the exact solution of the original problem and the affirmation of its uniqueness. In contrast to other complicated state-of-the-art SDP algorithms presented in the TDOA localisation literature, the authors methods are derived in a few straightforward reformulations and insightful steps; thus, there are no confusing and unjustifiable changes in the main optimisation problem. Furthermore, complexity analysis and a new approach for performance analysis, which show the merit of their methods, are introduced. Simulations and numerical results demonstrate that the positioning estimators resulted from the proposed algorithms outperform existing SDP-based methods presented so far.


Childhood accidents in Dar es Salaam are among the ten top causes of morbidity. After eradication of protein energy malnutrition and infectious disease, accidents will be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality as it has occurred in developed countries. Accidents were the fifth cause of admission into paediatric wards totalling 589 cases out of 12,375 admissions. Of the accident cases, 37% were due to poisoning; 27% to trauma; 24% to burns; 7% to foreign bodies and 6% to other causes. Lack of parental care, low socio-economic status and large families were among important causal factors. There is need to create awareness of hazards of accidents to prevent these unnecessary accidents of childhood. Language: en


Abstract The waste generation from old rubber tires has been increasing and causing environmental degradation with the escalation of vehicles number especially in the cities. Bitumen is extensively used in flexible pavement construction and as its manufacturing industries were still growing, the cost has not been much affordable. This study aimed at evaluating the possibility of a partial replacement of ordinary bitumen by tire rubber waste, with the purpose to reduce not only the amount of rubber wastes dispersed in the nature, but also the material cost, while keeping or improving the bitumen product performance. The study used rubber waste powder as partial replacement to ordinary bitumen by 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of its weight and, with adequate samples, properties of the bitumen product were investigated, after checking the standard quality of used bitumen 60/70 grade. It was established that more adequate results were achieved at 5% of replacement, which showed the penetration value of 61.66 tenths mm, the softening point value of 52.750C, and the viscosity of 134 sec. Regarding the cost estimation of this new bitumen, a cost reduction of around 5.3% was realized. Therefore, the use of rubber waste powder would contribute not only to the reduction of the quantity of respective waste in the environment, but also influence on the material affordability. The use of other grades of bitumen than 60/70, as well as the strength and durability performance may be a good scope for further studies.


In the twenty-fi rst century, the countryside has been characterized by advances in the production of commodities on a large scale based on a large estate model, production highly adapted to the technical and technological packages of the Green Revolution, and the use of a small, at all times wage earning, workforce. Another characteristic that has expanded in recent times has been that of the presence of large corporations – of seeds and inputs – in controlling the direct production of farm products, and often, subsequently, going on to market them. This production model, which is highly encouraged by Latin American States, has resulted in the imposition of an increasingly less diverse model of food production, characterized by the imposition of the capitalist logic of the pursuit of profi t at any cost, and the privatization of seeds, land and water (Vivas, 2009), which ultimately ends up resulting in an increasingly defi ned process of genetic erosion (Porto Gonçalves, 2006). The imposition of this model eventually resulted in a crisis for many peasants, from which another production model emerged based on the production and dissemination of native seeds, the diversifi cation of varieties made from agro-ecological farming practices, and direct commercialization by means of agro-ecological fairs or solidarity purchase groups. Two opposing models are to be considered here, which have highly differing results on the countryside and the perspectives they hold on the future are quite different from each other; these are the models to be analyzed in the present article.


Adenosine (β,γ-imido)triphosphate (AMP-PNP) and guanosine (β,γ-imido)triphosphate (GMP-PNP) are analogs of ATP and GTP with non-hydrolyzable γ-phosphates. Although both AMP-PNP and GMP-PNP were used in place of ATP and GTP by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase to transcribe vaccinia virus DNA, only GMP-PNP was used by the transcriptase present within vaccinia virus cores. AMP-PNP specifically prevented initiation of transcription, since RNA initiated in the presence of ATP, GTP, and CTP was subsequently elongated by incubating the washed cores in the presence of AMP-PNP, GTP, CTP, and UTP. The RNA formed in this manner, however, was (i) several times longer than normal transcripts, indicating a defect in chain termination and/or cleavage of nascent RNA, (ii) was not polyadenylylated (although free polyadenylic acid formed), and (iii) was not extruded from the virus cores. Nearest neighbor analysis demonstrated that AMP-PNP was incorporated adjacent to all four nucleotides, and hybridization to restriction endonuclease fragments of vaccinia virus DNA indicated that the high-molecular-weight RNA was transcribed from representative fractions of the entire genome. The possibility of a block in processing rather than or in addition to a block in chain termination was suggested by the cleavage of the high-molecular-weight RNA within the core after replacement of AMP-PNP with ATP. Cleavage of purified high-molecular-weight RNA by a soluble endoribonuclease extracted from vaccinia virus cores, however, was not dependent upon ATP, nor was it inhibited by AMP-PNP. The latter results suggest that AMP-PNP blocks a step preceding cleavage.


Nanoparticles have been used for engineering composite materials to improve the intrinsic properties and/or add functionalities to pristine polymers. The majority of the studies have focused on the incorporation of spherical nanoparticles within the composite fibers. Herein, we incorporate anisotropic branched-shaped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles into fibrous scaffolds fabricated by electrospinning. The addition of the branched particles resulted in their protrusion from fibers, mimicking the architecture of a rose stem. We demonstrated that the encapsulation of different-shape particles significantly influences the physicochemical and biological activities of the resultant composite scaffolds. In particular, the branched nanoparticles induced heterogeneous crystallization of the polymeric matrix and enhance the ultimate mechanical strain and strength. Moreover, the three-dimensional (3D) nature of the branched ZnO nanoparticles enhanced adhesion properties of the composite scaffolds to the tissues. In addition, the rose stem-like constructs offered excellent antibacterial activity, while supporting the growth of eukaryote cells.


The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established in April 2008 with the objective of improving market efficiency by better linking smallholder farmers to markets, encouraging reliable trading relationships and increasing market information. In December 2008 it became mandatory to trade all coffee through the ECX. This paper examines whether Ethiopian coffee prices have become more integrated to world prices after the implementation of the ECX. We follow a multivariate GARCH approach to evaluate the degree of correlation and volatility transmission across international, auction and producer price returns. We focus on the five major Ethiopian coffee varieties using monthly data for the period 1992 through 2013. The estimation results indicate that not all coffee regions have necessarily become more connected to world markets, at least not in the first five years after the implementation of the mandatory regulation. We also do not find a higher integration across regional coffee prices


a b s t r a c t We present the optical tomography of the probability density of microcavity polaritons, confined in three dimensions by cylindricaltrapsofvarioussizes.Collectingthephotoluminescence emitted by the quasimodes under continuous nonresonant laser excitation, we reconstruct a three dimensional mapping of the photoluminescence, from which we can extract the spatial distribution of the confined states at any energy. We discuss the impact of the confinement shape and size on the probability densitypatterns. '2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.


There is an increasing demand for fully digital, high speed Random Number Generators because of their speed compatibility and uncomplicated integration to digital platforms. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first ASIC implementation of Random Number Generator based on ring oscillators. Prototypes have been designed and fabricated by using HHNEC's 0.25 /xm eFlash process with a supply voltage of 2.5V. The circuit occupies 0.043 mm2 and dissipates minimum 0.011 W of power. IC design level experiences, measurements, analyses of measurements and statistical test results are also demonstrated. Instead of resilient function which decreases the throughput, we propose to use only a simple Von Neumann corrector, thus 4 times faster throughput can be obtained in comparison with the previous design in which resilient function is employed. We achieved fullfilled test results from NIST 800–22 test suit after Von Neuman corrector with 16.5 Mbps throughput which is the highest data rate to date with fullfiled test results. The results were repeatable numerous times.


Context: The problem of teaching research skills to masters students. In particular, improving their literature reviews, assessing them and providing good feedback.

Objectives: To introduce systematic reviews and evidence-based software engineering (EBSE) guidance into our teaching, provide an experience report and empirical data, and investigate the results.

Methods: A systematic review requirement was introduced into the students' assessed work. The format of the assessment brief (also provided in this paper) was influenced by previous research on EBSE work with students. Qualitative and quantitative data was generated, and statistical analysis investigated the students' performance across the different elements of the systematic review.

Results: Most students could do a systematic review and more useful feedback could be given. The assessment brief deviated from the normal EBSE guidelines in order to address previous difficulties. This modification was successful. Differences were found in student marks for different elements of the systematic reviews, with a large effect size for differing scores between 'search' and 'criteria', and 'search' and 'evaluation'.

Conclusions: Introducing systematic reviews and EBSE guidance can improve students' literature handing skills and support improved feedback. The EBSE guidance should be modified for students and novice researchers to incorporate the process of developing a well-defined research question. Further work should investigate the differing performance across different elements of the systematic review.


STRUCTURED ABSTRACT Purpose - Illustrating a practical method for supporting the design of quality inspections in short run and single unit manufacturing processes. Design/methodology/approach - Processes are decomposed into a number of steps, which are potentially critical to defect generation. Several parameters concerning effectiveness and cost of the inspections are identified and aggregated into a probabilistic model for representing the process propensity to produce defects. Two indicators related to the effectiveness and cost of inspections are defined and tested through a case study concerning a short run manufacturing process in the automotive industry. Findings - The combined use of the proposed indicators allows to support the selection of the more appropriate inspection procedures, in a simple and practical way. Research limitations/implications - The above indicators and probabilistic model rely on the following simplifying assumptions: (i) possible occurrence of a single defect typology in each step, and (ii) absence of correlation between the parameters related to different steps. Future research will focus on developing more general probabilistic models and identifying practical methods to estimate the relevant parameters. Practical implications - The proposed model and indicators may be applied to a variety of industrial contexts, related to short run and single unit productions. Originality/value - The proposed model and indicators allow to identify the more effective and affordable inspection procedures for short run and single unit productions. Their quantitative connotation represents an important novelty with respect to the classical qualitative approaches. Also, the proposed model and indicators take account of possible inspection errors


This comment describes the barriers to preventive servicing for securitized residential loans and assesses the importance of loan modifications, given the recent increases in default and foreclosure rates for subprime loans. Several hurdles slow or reduce such modifications, even those that help borrowers and investors alike. For example, self-interest may reduce servicers' willingness to modify loans rapidly.In addition, underlying securitization agreements may impede servicers' ability and discretion in this area. Further, tax laws that govern a common securitization entity may limit modifications, as may accounting standards. Finally, "tranche warfare," the sometimes contradictory fiduciary duties servicers have toward investors holding different tranches of securitized pools, may decrease their ability or their willingness to modify loans.This comment concludes that barriers to effective loan modifications should be reduced or eliminated where feasible, but that the securitization of subprime loans creates risks for borrowers.


This dissertation argues that Plato makes a crucial and still-pertinent distinction, in the Laws, between genuine responsibility and political responsibility, and that that distinction can only emerge from a close engagement with the characters crafted by him. I propose, and defend in detail, that the character of Megillos, in Plato's Laws, can be seen on close consideration to lean profoundly toward the philosophic life, despite and because of the image of the typical or even particularly obtuse citizen that he deliberately presents himself as. How he comports himself, and why, is an indication in the Laws of genuine responsibility as a way of life that requires neither political recognition nor political reward. That Megillos shares this way of life with the Athenian Stranger – often taken to be the philosophical character in the Laws – is, I show, key to Plato's teaching on taking responsibility for the laws. Conversely the character of Kleinias – the Cretan statesman in the Laws – reveals a disposition that is far more dependent on such recognition and reward than the character himself realizes, a character whose very belief in his own independent responsibility disguises, to himself, his deep reliance on and affinities with the people he considers his inferiors. I first bring these understandings of the Laws' characters to an examination of the general conflicts between the demands of necessity as they impose themselves on the Stranger and Megillos, and as they appear to Kleinias in the form of moral and political righteousness. Following this, I closely consider Plato's teaching on natural and conventional right as it emerges in the controversial discussion of sexuality, and particularly homosexuality, in Book 8 of the Laws. That discussion comes into a profoundly different light when the ramifications of character are brought to bear upon it, than it does when taken as a simple statement of Plato's "beliefs". The strange image of animal desire and self-control is presented most forcefully there by the Stranger to Kleinias as a seeming standard of natural right, and seems to present homosexuality (and all extramarital liaisons) as "against nature". Upon closer consideration, however, that image turns out to be at odds not only with "the nature of beasts" that it presents as its foundation, and not only with the very human psychology to which it seems intended to appeal (through a sense of honor), but also – indeed especially – with the philosophical "Socratic" eros that the Stranger and Megillos (though not Kleinias) agree is the highest human eros, and which is even presented as the most desirable eros politically. The Stranger's hesitancy or refusal to speak of his image as simply true emerges as a pregnant hesitancy, as a deliberate and successful attempt to speak separately with Megillos about the severe limits of human voluntariness even as he urges Kleinias to celebrate voluntariness as a capacity that only the dishonorable would fail to exercise. In having that conversation, the Stranger and Megillos do responsibility, and responsibly leave intact Kleinias' (and the city's) own image of political responsibility as genuine.


Code reuse is fundamental to the development of open-source software (OSS). Therefore, understanding how and why it occurs is important. To date, researchers have examined code reuse in OSS largely from the perspective of leaders. We show why followers must be considered as well. "Followers" are people who have had previous contacts with an individual from another project and who continue to associate with him or her. We consider two types of followers: developers (those directly involved in software development) and observers (those indirectly involved in it). We conduct a series of empirical investigations by using a longitudinal dataset of OSS projects hosted in GitHub, along with a survey and qualitative data. We find that followership can affect code reuse, but the effect depends on the nature of the follower (developer or observer). Overall, our study suggests that followership is important for code reuse in OSS because it enables participants to learn, and learning promotes code reuse.


What do you get when a lawyer, a modeller, an economist, a social scientist and an ecologist talk about the ocean? Besides an interesting conversation, it is likely there will be some consideration of how to solve many of the problems facing marine ecosystems around the world. That is precisely what the MSEAS 2016 symposium on understanding marine socio-ecological systems aimed to do. From 30 May to 3 June in Brest, France, the symposium gathered over 230 participants from around the world and from multiple disciplines to discuss the challenge of explicitly considering the human component in producing synoptic assessments of marine social-ecological systems. The symposium fostered dynamic debates on the inter-disciplinary collaborations needed to support management of ongoing and anticipated growth in multiple ocean uses, with particular consideration of the triple bottom line of ecological, economic and social sustainability. Building on the illustrations produced by a professional cartoonist during the meeting, this graphic novel summarizes the key challenges ahead in understanding marine socio-ecological systems and draws a path for future research endeavours in this domain.


With the the emergence of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), modern computing is now transforming from residing only in the cyber domain to the cyber-physical domain. I focus on one important aspect of this transformation, namely shortcomings of traditional security measures. Security research over the last couple of decades focused on protecting data in regard to identities or similar static attributes. However, in the physical world, data rely more on physical relationships, hence requires CPS to verify identities together with relative physical context to provide security guarantees. To enable such verification, it requires the devices to prove unique relative physical context only available to the intended devices. In this work, I study how varying levels of constraints on physical boundary of co-located devices determine the relative physical context. Specifically, I explore different application scenarios with varying levels of constraints – including smart-home, semi-autonomous vehicles, and in-vehicle environments – and analyze how different constraints affect binding identities to physical relationships, ultimately enabling IoT devices to perform such verification. Furthermore, I also demonstrate that sensing may pose risks for CPS by presenting an attack on personal privacy in a smart home environment.


Geothermal environments are among the most difficult conditions for cements to survive. Normally accepted for high-temperature oil wells silica-modified Portland-based cement formulations are not durable in hostile geothermal environments failing to provide good zonal isolation and metal casing corrosion-protection. High-temperature well cement compositions based on calcium-aluminate cements have been designed to seal such wells. Two types of calcium-aluminate cement are of particular interest for geothermal applications. One is–chemical type, calcium-aluminate-phosphate cement (CaP) already used in the field and the other, alkali-activated calcium-aluminate type (thermal shock resistant cement, (TSRC), has been recently developed. The CaP cements were designed as CO2-resistant cements for use in mildly acidic (pH ~ 5.0) CO2-rich downhole environments. TSRC was formulated to withstand dry-heat – cold water cycles of more than 500°C. This chapter includes information and discussions of cement forming mechanisms, cements mechanical properties, resistance to mild and strong acids, cementcarbon steel bonding and self-recovery of mechanical strength and fractures closure after imposed damage. Performance of common high-temperature OPC-based composites is discussed for comparison.