In arid regions, such as those in north-western Australia, plants survive under water deficit, high temperatures, intense solar radiation and nutrient-impoverished soils. They employ various morphophysiological and biochemical adaptations including interaction with microbial symbionts. Seed from thirty-two accessions of four Nicotiana species (N. benthamiana, N. occidentalis, N. simulans, and N. umbratica) collected from wild plants from northern Australia, were grown and used to assess their responses to water stress. The original wild host plants were selected because they grow in an extremely hot environment where water supply is often unpredictable, and because they share a close genetic relationship to the international model plant N. benthamiana research accession 4 (RA-4). Under moderate water stress conditions, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight, root/shoot ratio, and relative water content of leaves was significantly affected. However, the degree to which the accessions were affected varied considerably. Some accessions of N. simulans, N. benthamiana and N. occidentalis were significantly more affected by water stress than others. There was significant inherent variation between accessions in leaf and shoot tip wilting times. Initial symptom expression (leaf wilting) was significantly delayed in two accessions of N. benthamiana and in one accession of N. umbratica. The least water stress tolerant lines, three accessions each of N. occidentalis and N. simulans exhibited advanced symptoms of water stress (shoot tip wilting) within 14-17 days of cessation of watering. This stage was significantly delayed in three accessions of N. benthamiana and two accessions each of N. occidentalis and N. simulans, which exhibited tip wilting after only 21-24 days. There were variations among the accessions of Nicotiana species on their tolerance to water stress. Plant responses to water stress could not be predicted from their phenotype under well-watered conditions.

We evaluated identity, host and tissue association, and geographical distribution of fungal endophytes isolated from above and below-ground tissues of wild plants of three indigenous Australian Nicotiana species. Isolation frequency and α-diversity were significantly higher for root endophyte assemblages than those of stem and leaf tissues. We recorded no differences in endophyte species richness or diversity as a function of sampling location, but did detect differences among different host genotypes and plant tissues. There was a significant pattern of community similarity associated with host genotypes but no consistent pattern of fungal community structuring associated with sampling location and tissue type, regardless of the community similarity measurements used.

We developed and evaluated two rapid screening methods to identify fungal endophytes that enhanced water deprivation stress tolerance in seedlings of N. benthamiana RA-4. Sixty-eight endophyte isolates taken from wild Nicotiana plants were co-cultivated with N. benthamiana RA-4 seedlings on either damp filter paper or on an agar medium before being subjected to water deprivation. The longevity of seedlings was compared under association with different fungal isolates and under the two screening methods. The filter paper method was faster and simpler than the agarbased method. Based on results, 17 isolates were selected for further testing under water deprivation conditions while growing in washed river sand in a glasshouse. Only two fungal isolates, one resembling Cladosporium cladosporioides (E-162) and a fungus not closely related to any described species (E-284), significantly enhanced seedling tolerance to moisture deprivation consistently in both in vitro and glasshouse-based tests. Although a strongly significant correlation was observed between any two screening methods, the results of the filter paper test was more strongly reflected (r = 0.757, p< 0.001) in results of the glasshouse-based test, indicating its relative suitability over the agar-based test. In another experiment, the same 17 isolates were inoculated to N. benthamiana plants growing in sand in a glasshouse under nutrient-limiting conditions to test their influence on growth promotion. Isolates resembling C. cladosporioides, Fusarium equiseti, and Thozetella sp. promoted seedling growth, evidenced by increased shoot length and higher biomass than non-inoculated control.

The two promising fungal endophytes identified from wild Nicotiana plants, E-162 (C. cladosporioides) and E-284 (an unidentified species) were inoculated to plants of N. benthamiana RA-4 to examine their metabolic response to endophyte colonisation under adequate water and water deficit conditions. We examined leaf metabolites using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) to compare levels of sugars, sugar alcohols, amino acids and other metabolites at various stages of plant growth and stress application. Ninety-three metabolites were detected in leaves, including 20 sugars, 13 sugar alcohols, 21 amino acids, 29 organic and fatty acids and ten other compounds. Endophyte colonization caused significant differential accumulation of 17-21 metabolites when the plants were grown under well-watered conditions. The presence of endophytes under water stress conditions caused differential accumulation of cytosine, diethylene glycol, galactinol, glycerol, heptadecanoate, mannose, oleic acid, proline, rhamnose, succinate, and urea. Accumulation of these metabolites suggests that fungal endophytes influence plants to accumulate certain metabolites under water-stress. Further, the two different endophytes tested caused slightly different accumulation patterns of some metabolites.

We evaluated how these two fungal endophytes as well as yellowtail flower mild mottle virus (genus Tobamovirus), influenced water stress tolerance in N. benthamiana RA-4 plants. The water stress tolerance of fungus-inoculated plants correlated with increased plant biomass, relative water content, soluble sugars, soluble proteins, proline content, increased activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase, peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase, and decreased production of reactive oxygen species and electrical conductivity in plants under water stress. In addition, we found that there was significant differential upregulation of drought-related genes in the fungus-inoculated plants subjected to water stress. Plants inoculated with the virus exhibited a similar response to those plant inoculated with the fungi in terms of increasing plant osmolytes, antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression. Although the fungus and virus infection similarly increased plant water stress tolerance by influencing plant physiology and gene expression, their presence together in the same plant did not have an additive effect, nor did they decrease water stress tolerance.

These findings suggest that both fungi and virus influence plant physiology and gene expression under water stress, and it suggests that there is potential to use endophytic fungi, and perhaps virus, to induce greater tolerance to water stress in agricultural production systems.


A method for computing the acoustic fields of arbitrarily shaped radiators is described that uses the principle of wave superposition. The superposition integral, which is shown to be equivalent to the Helmholtz integral, is based on the idea that the combined fields of an array of sources interior to a radiator can be made to reproduce a velocity prescribed on the surface of the radiator. The strengths of the sources that produce this condition can, in turn, be used to compute the corresponding surface pressures. The results of several numerical experiments are presented that demonstrate the simplicity of the method. Also, the advantages that the superposition method has over the more commonly used boundary‐element methods are discussed. These include simplicity of generating the matrix elements used in the numerical formulation and improved accuracy and speed, the latter two being due to the avoidance of uniqueness and singularity problems inherent in the boundary‐element formulation.


Introduction: Transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1) upregulates the expression of angiogenic genes including vascular endothelial growth factor. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multisystem disease characterised by organ fibrosis and widespread vasculopathy. We assessed the association of two transcriptionally active, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha gene (HIF1A) in SSc. Methods: Using a case-control study design, HIF1A SNPs (rs11549465 C/T, rs12434438 A/G) were genotyped in SSc patients (n=426) and UK controls from the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium (n=5564 and 5659). The SSc cohort was subdivided according to the presence or absence of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) (n=227 v. 199), pulmonary hypertension (PH) on echocardiography (n=17 v. 129) and autoantibody subsets; anti-topoisomerase I antibodies (n=108) and anti-centromere antibodies (n=105). Results: Genotype distribution in all groups conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There were no significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies between SSc and controls (SSc: CC:82.1%, CT:16.7%, TT:1.2% v. controls: CC:81.3%, CT:17.8%, TT:0.9% and SSc: AA:63.9%, AG:32.6%, GG:3.5% v. controls: AA:63.4%, AG:32.5%, GG:4.1%). On subgroup analysis, no significant differences were observed according to PF, autoantibodies, or in the group with available echocardiography (n=146), according to PH. Conclusion: An association was not detected between HIF1A SNPs and SSc. Due to limited power in the PH subgroup, an association with pulmonary vascular involvement cannot be excluded and requires further evaluation and longitudinal analysis.


ABSTRACT Given inconsistency across studies, it remains unclear how direct and vicarious experience with disaster shape views of police and views of local government. This study investigated the views of those with direct disaster experiences as well as exposure to terrorism news. Data were collected with a nationwide, online survey of 520 U.S. adults administered in 2017. Results indicated that having a direct experience with disaster was unrelated to views of police or local government. Those with more frequent terrorism news exposure through print news had lower opinions of police; those with more frequent exposure through national television news had more positive views. More frequent exposure to terrorism news in print and through friends or family was both associated with more trust in local government. Arrest history was a strong and consistent predictor of trust in local government, but not of views of the police.


Because of the known tendency for early redislocation following open reduction, we developed surgical methods for shortening the ligamentum teres to improve immediate postoperative stability when performing medial approach open reduction (MAOR) for the management of developmental dysplasia of the hip. Between 2004 and 2014, 32 patients with dysplasia of the hip were managed by MAOR with partial excision and plication of ligamentum teres. The patients were followed up for an average of 6.9 years. At the final follow-up, clinical outcomes achieved were categorized as excellent and good in 39 (39/40; 97.5%) hips. At the latest follow-up, 97.5% (39 hips) were classified as good or excellent on the basis of the Severin classification (Severin grade 1 or 2). In conclusion, this series of MAOR, in which ligamentum teres partial excision and plication was utilized, we found stable reduction in all hips. On the basis of these positive results, we recommend this method for children treated with MAOR. Level of evidence: Level IV: case series.


Study Design: Longitudinal cohort. Objectives: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was developed to provide clinicians a reliable, valid, and practical tool to identify and quantify the anxiety and depression in medical patients. Several studies have shown that patients with chronic low back pain may have subclinical depression and impairments in mental health and that these in turn may lead to less than optimal results after lumbar spine surgery. The purpose of this study is to determine if there are associations between preoperative HADS and differences in pre- and postoperative health-related quality-of-life (HRQOLs) scores after spine surgery. Methods: From a single center, a consecutive series of patients completed the HADS, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Short Form-36 (SF-36), EuroQOL-5D (EQ-5D), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for back and leg pain. Except for HADS, the patients completed the same HRQOLs 1 year after surgery. Results: Of 308 eligible cases, 208 (68%) had follow-up data available and were included in the analysis. Patients in the HADS-Anxiety (HADS-A) Abnormal category had the worst preoperative HRQOLs but had the greatest improvement in 1-year postoperative scores. Except for VAS Leg Pain, preoperative HRQOLs were better in patients in the HADS-Depressed (HADS-D) Normal category. Patients in the HADS-D Abnormal category had statistically significantly greater improvement in 1-year postoperative EQ-5D and ODI scores when compared with the other cohorts. Conclusion: Worse HADS-A and HADS-D scores are associated with worse preoperative HRQOL scores in patients with lumbar degenerative disorders scheduled for spine surgery. However, similar improvements in HRQOLs can be expected 1 year postoperative regardless of the patients' HADS scores.


Remnant thyroid ablation after thyroidectomy with radioiodine (RAI, I-131) is considered the standard of care for low risk patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC). The choice of activity for therapy is usually empirically determined according to the tumor characteristics and the patient's age. Many guidelines recommend a range of 1.1 to 3.7 GBq (30 to 100 mCi), although the choice between the extremes of this range remains controversial. Many studies, including retrospective systematic reviews and randomized multicenter trials, have compared results from using low versus high RAI doses. Data demonstrated similar successful ablation and recurrence rates in these groups, although there are no randomized trials to evaluate long-term outcomes. Until this has been addressed, the choice between 1.1 and 3.7 GBq dose for remnant ablation must be made according to the risk of each patient to maximize the efficacy of treatment, while minimizing unnecessary radiation.


Massage is the manipulation of the body tissues by using techniques, such as rubbing, kneading, pressing, and rolling to sustain a state of health and wellness. Massage is one of the oldest and most natural healing applications in human history. Avicenna (980 - 1037) gained a very important position in the medical world with his most important work, the Canon of Medicine, known as the holy book of medicine in the Western world. Different types of massage were defined in the book. These were hard friction that braces the body, soft friction that relaxes the body, repeated friction that reduces the amount of fat in the body, moderately hard friction that improves the body, rough friction that leads the blood to the surface rapidly, gentle friction that increases blood flow in the application area, preparatory friction that prepares the body before exercise, and restorative friction that is applied after exercise which alleviates exhaustion. It may be seen that Avicenna, whose work shows influnce of Greek and Roman physicians, was heavily influenced by Hippocrates and Galen. It is seen that the massage techniques and effect mechanisms defined by Avicenna about a thousand years ago have contributed a lot to the developments in massage through the historical process.


High power boost converter has become the essential part of the distributed power system that enables energy to be fully utilized in fuel cell powered electric vehicles and stationary power systems. This paper presents analysis and design of a high-power multileg interleaved boost converter with a digital signal processor (DSP) based controller. A 20-kW converter was designed with coupled inductors to allow core-loss reduction and designed with high frequency switching to minimize the component size and eliminate the switching losses under discontinuous conducting mode operation. A dual-loop average current mode current control method implemented in DSP is employed to achieve the fast transient response. It was found through circuit analysis, simulation and experiment that the boost inductor interacted with the device parasitic capacitor and created unnecessary oscillating current whenever it reached zero current. Two high-power devices were used in both simulation and experiment to verify the analysis and design for a wide load range. Simulation and experiment results of the 20-kW boost converter under startup condition and load transient condition are also presented. Different anti-windup schemes for a typical PI-controller are evaluated. The results show that this typical controller with proper anti-windup scheme achieves better transient performance than without anti-windup scheme.


In recent years, brachial plexus injury has been attracting increasing attention, partly because of an increasing incidence arising out of higher survival rates for patients after polytrauma. Brachial plexus injury is one of the hardest and most mutilating injuries. Owing to advances in microsurgical techniques, we can achieve success in restoring motor function for these patients. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader with various microsurgical techniques, including nerve fascicle transfers and end-to-side neurorrhaphy (ETSN), which can be used for brachial plexus reconstruction based on personal experience with 1130 nerve reconstructions performed by the first author (PH) between 1993 and 2017. Another goal of brachial plexus surgery is the resolution of severe intractable pain which can develop in up to 20% of cases. Dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) thermocoagulation is a very effective method for treatment of severe neuropathic pain.


BACKGROUND
Breast cancer incidence associated with hormonal replacement therapy have been evaluated in many studies, which have found a hard to proof increment due to several particular patient factors.

AIMS
Many studies have been assessed the incidence of breast cancer in relation to the use of replacement therapy, however it is difficult to prove absolutely, every women has a different risk, influenced by genetic factors, nuliparity, late parity, menarche, menopause, use of estrogens, mastographic density and previous mammary disease.

OBJECTIVE
To identify if there is an increase in the number of cases of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with replacement therapy, with low and medium level in Mainero's classification.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Cohort study prospective, and closed in 316 women with a 0, 1 or 2 result according to the Mainero's classification. 25 were excluded, 74 with a score of 0, 193 score of 1 and 24 score of 2, we followed all the women for 60 to 90 months with replacement therapy.

RESULTS
We did not find patients with breast cancer and replacement therapy.

CONCLUSION
Mainero's classification is an easy option to evaluate and decide replacement therapy taking the oncology risk.


Accurate estimates of infection prevalence and seroprevalence are essential for evaluating and informing public health responses and vaccination coverage needed to address the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in each United States (U.S.) state. However, reliable, timely data based on representative population sampling are unavailable, and reported case and test positivity rates are highly biased. A simple data-driven Bayesian semi-empirical modeling framework was developed and used to evaluate state-level prevalence and seroprevalence of COVID-19 using daily reported cases and test positivity ratios. The model was calibrated to and validated using published state-wide seroprevalence data, and further compared against two independent data-driven mathematical models. The prevalence of undiagnosed COVID-19 infections is found to be well-approximated by a geometrically weighted average of the positivity rate and the reported case rate. Our model accurately fits state-level seroprevalence data from across the U.S. Prevalence estimates of our semi-empirical model compare favorably to those from two data-driven epidemiological models. As of December 31, 2020, we estimate nation-wide a prevalence of 1.4% [Credible Interval (CrI): 1.0%-1.9%] and a seroprevalence of 13.2% [CrI: 12.3%-14.2%], with state-level prevalence ranging from 0.2% [CrI: 0.1%-0.3%] in Hawaii to 2.8% [CrI: 1.8%-4.1%] in Tennessee, and seroprevalence from 1.5% [CrI: 1.2%-2.0%] in Vermont to 23% [CrI: 20%-28%] in New York. Cumulatively, reported cases correspond to only one third of actual infections. The use of this simple and easy-to-communicate approach to estimating COVID-19 prevalence and seroprevalence will improve the ability to make public health decisions that effectively respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


A 30-year-old woman died with massive pulmonary microvascular leukostasis immediately after cesarean hysterectomy. We postulated that this might have resulted from amniotic fluid embolization and, therefore, tested amniotic fluids as activators of granulocytes and the plasma complement system. Normal human amniotic fluid failed to aggregate granulocytes, provoke a respiratory burst, or attract the cells chemotactically. However, amniotic fluid activated complement when incubated with normal plasma. The ability to activate complement resided in lipid-rich particulate material in the fluid, and activation proceeded mainly (but probably not exclusively) via the alternative complement pathway. Amniotic fluids varied widely in their ability to activate complement, with the most potent samples derived from women with distressed pregnancies. Plasma samples from donors also varied widely in their ability to be activated by amniotic fluid, and many of the most activatable plasma samples derived from gravid women. We propose that amniotic fluid embolization can, like "shock lung" syndrome, have a leukostatic early phase, and that complement and granulocyte activation on embolization of amniotic fluid can contribute to the pulmonary collapse characteristic of that syndrome, especially when a potently activating fluid is combined with a potently activatable plasma.


Our review of the studies of clinical efficacy of the tricyclic compounds in the treatment of depression supports the general view that imipramine and amitriptyline are more effective than placebo, and that amitriptyline may even be a little more effective than imipramine. The controlled data show a reasonable consistency. Moreover, this review confirms an impression that the authors have gained from other studies that clinical ratings of general iniprovemnent and of symnpomatic changes are a good deal more useful for detection of drug-placebo differences than has often been assumed.

These heterogeneous reports give few clear criteria, however, of what kinds of depressed patients with what kinds of symptoms are particularly responsive to these drugs. An equally important unanswered question concerns the kinds of depressed patients who respond well to placebo or nonpharniacologic therapies. Imprecision or lack of general agreement on meaningful subgroups among depressions certainly hinders the interpretation of pooled data. For a condition as variable as depression, the sizes of patient samples so far studied appear woefully small. To make progress in this area, larger studies with clearly defined patient groups will be needed. More attention also will have to be given to nondrug factors, including those attendant to the administration of placebo, that influence the therapeutic outcome in depression. There is some evidence that depressed patients are affected by the attitudes of their doctors toward these drugs (285) and some evidence that the patient's expectations influence his responses to placebo (157).

Another particularly fruitful area for further research is that of followup and maintenance therapy. There is already suggestive evidence that imipramnine has unusual virtues as a maintenance therapy and that patients receiving even a short period of drug treatmnent show better adjustment a year later than do patients treated with control (158, 177, 339).

These agents are reasonably safe if used with care. There is no good evidence that imipramine is significantly more dangerous than ECT. It is probably less dangerous than iproniazid if it is properly used, that is, if the dosage is watched, and its side effects are properly managed either by reduction in dosage or other corrective medication.

Ideally, to understand the mode of clinical action of any therapeutic agent requires knowledge in four areas : 1) objective criteria to identify patients with a specific clinical feature, i.e. , anemia, jaundice, depression, anxiety, etc. (this requires knowledge of the range and limits of the phemiomnena within the normal population) ; 2) knowledge of etiology on the basis of which groups of patients with a given clinical manifestation can be significantly classified in meaningful groups; 3) understanding both the pathogenesis ( i.e. , the sequences of events leading to formation of symptoms) and the pathologic physiology and psychopathology of the disease states; and 4) knowledge of the actions of a drug which clarifies how the treatment interrupts the pathogenetic sequence that results in symptom formation or alters the pathologic physiology characteristic of the disease state. This ideal is seldom realized even in the fields of medicine other than psychiatry. In studying the pharmacotherapy of depression, we are hampered by lack of knowledge in all areas. The range of depressive emotional mnanifestations in the normal population or secondary to life stresses amid medical illness—is undoubtedly wide. Quantitative criteria for determining pathologic depressive reactions are limited. Within the group of depressions, few etiologic principles have been substantiated and little agreement exists on subgroups. Consequently, differential drug responses are not clearly understood. Most significantly for understanding modes of drug actions, we have little knowledge of the altered psychophysiology of depression. it is encouraging that some promising leads are being developed (83, 281).

Nevertheless, the advent of effective psychopharmacologic treatments of depression has provided considerable impetus to basic laboratory research and clinical investigations and a number of new techniques have yielded interesting findings. Among the various hypotheses, most attemition has been focused on the relationship of imipramine's actions to effects on central adrenergic mechanisms, probably in hypothalamic and other diencephalic regions. In this respect there appears to be some convergence of data in a number of areas: potentiation of the peripheral actions of norepinephrine, alteration of the uptake and storage of amines, clinical effects on urinary excretion of catecholamine metabolites, and behavioral stimulation. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that depression is associated with a relative deficiency of catecholamines in selected subcortical regions of the brain and that some depressed patients, like animals receiving reserpine, may have released intracellularly deaminated endogenous norepinephrine to excess, so that less of this amine is available for release in active form. These results, moreover, suggest that a possible common mode of action of monoamine oxidase inhibitors and the imipramine class of antidepressant drugs may be to increase the active catecholamines, particularly norepinephrine, available for functional extracellular release (188, 277). Attractive as these hypotheses may be, it is important to recognize their limitations. There is noclear evidence of alterations of amine metabolism in depressed patients. The role of cholinergic mechanisms remains unclear as does the possible relationship to indoleanmine metabolism (1, 2, 56, 333). Conceptually, considerably more sophistication on regional brain drug effects seems to be evolving, and many widely accepted clinical concepts are undergoing reappraisal and empirical validation. Interesting research on these and related hypotheses are underway and the prospects are that many of these issues will be partially clarified within the next five years.


A very frequently applied boundary condition in problems involving modelling the dynamic behaviour of beams and panels is a simple support. This type of boundary condition is particularly used in the research area of active control of vibrations on panels. However, the practical implementation of this boundary condition in the laboratory is not at all trivial, especially when high accuracy is required. In this paper, various possible practical implementations of a simply supported panel are considered. A suitable method is selected and investigated experimentally. The results from a forced vibration test are compared with those obtained from theory in order to verify the relative accuracy of the approach. The effect of the relative distance between the panel surface and a solid boundary on the fundamental resonant response frequency is experimentally investigated, as well as changes produced by fluctuations in the laboratory temperature.


Graphs are commonly used to model the topological structure of internetworks in order to study problems ranging from routing to resource reservation. A variety of graphs are found in the literature, including fixed topologies such as rings or stars, "well-known" topologies such as the ARPAnet, and randomly generated topologies. While many researchers rely upon graphs for analytic and simulation studies, there has been little analysis of the implications of using a particular model or how the graph generation method may affect the results of such studies. Further, the selection of one generation method over another is often arbitrary, since the differences and similarities between methods are not well understood. This paper considers the problem of generating and selecting graphs that reflect the properties of real internetworks. We review generation methods in common use and also propose several new methods. We consider a set of metrics that characterize the graphs produced by a method, and we quantify similarities and differences among several generation methods with respect to these metrics. We also consider the effect of the graph model in the context of a specific problem, namely multicast routing.


ABSTRACT With the ease and automation of data collection and plummeting storage costs, organizations are faced with massive amounts of data that present two pressing challenges: technical analysis of the data themselves and communication of the analytics process and its products. Although a plethora of academic and practitioner literature have focused on the former call, the latter challenge has received less attention. Here, we present strategies that we have found effective for bolstering communication skills of both undergraduate students and masters candidates at a business school. These approaches are based on the case studies that provide ample opportunity for oral communication among students with strong backgrounds in mathematics and introductory statistics, and solid training in written communication among student populations with less homogeneous preparation. We provide detailed discussions motivated by concrete examples executed across three courses.


Studies of Ordovician micromeric fish scales from the Sandbian of North America have identified a number of scale‐based taxa potentially referable to the chondrichthyans and therefore can be among the stratigraphically oldest representatives of the clade described to date. Two of these, Tezakia hardingensis gen. et sp. nov. and Canyonlepis smithae gen. et sp. nov., are formally described herein. Tezakia gen. nov. scales are composed exclusively of tubular dentine and possess polyodontocomplex crowns with a characteristically large primordial odontode. Similar scale crown architecture has been reported only in the reputed chondrichthyan Altholepis composita (Lower Devonian of Podolia, Ukraine), and on these grounds, the two are united within the newly erected Altholepidiformes ordo nov. Multiple odontocomplexes are also a feature of Canyonlepis gen. nov. scale crowns; however, the latter do not demonstrate prominent primordial odontodes and are supported by a base composed of acellular bone. Additional data suggest that both taxa possess a combination of characteristics (areal crown growth, scale symmetry, linear odontocomplex architecture and absence of enamel, osteons, cancellous bone and hard‐tissue resorption) previously documented to occur only in chondrichthyan scales. This study contributes to a growing body of evidence that reveals the presence of diverse tissue types (bone, tubular and atubular dentine) and morphogenetic patterns (odontocomplex and non‐odontocomplex type of scale crown growth) in the dermal skeleton of putative Ordovician chondrichthyans.


BACKGROUND
Lichen sclerosus is a chronic cutaneous disorder with a predilection for the vulva. The etiology is unknown. Superpotent topical corticosteroids are the most effective treatment. Dermal atrophy, however, is a well-known complication associated with changes of lichen sclerosus superpotent topical corticosteroids. In addition, some women do not respond adequately to topical steroids. Therefore, a treatment regimen that does not rely on corticosteroids may be beneficial. As lichen sclerosus is a T-lymphocyte-mediated disorder, it has been suggested that a topical macrolide immunosuppressant, such as pimecrolimus, may be a safe and effective alternative treatment for lichen sclerosus. Since pimecrolimus does not affect collagen synthesis, it does not cause thinning of the dermis.

CASES
Four patients with biopsy-proven lichen sclerosus were treated with 1% pimecrolimus cream twice daily. At the end of 3 months of treatment, 3 of the 4 patients reported complete resolution of their symptoms of vulvar itching and burning. Two patients had repeat vulvar biopsies at the end of treatment that showed reversal of the histologic changes of lichen sclerosus.

CONCLUSION
In this small series, pimecrolimus appeared to be a safe and effective treatment of vulvar lichen sclerosus. A randomized, controlled trial comparing pimecrolimus and clobetasol propionate should be performed to determine which is the safer and more effective medication for the long-term treatment of lichen sclerosus.


The synthesis of fatty acids de novo from [2-14C]malonyl-CoA was studied in fractions from lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and pea (Pisum sativum) chloroplasts. When lettuce chloroplasts were subjected to osmotic lysis, disintegration through a Yeda press and high-speed centrifugation, essentially all of the fatty-acid-synthetic activity was found to be soluble. The distribution of the activity in various chloroplast fractions was similar to that of soluble marker enzymes such as ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase and NADP+-linked glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Marked differences were apparent in the quality of products from fatty acid synthesis de novo in the various fractions of chloroplasts. Thus soluble fractions produced predominantly stearate, whereas those containing membranes produced a greater proportion of palmitate. In pea chloroplasts, osmotic lysis released almost all of the fatty acid synthetase into the stromal fraction. In this instance, no major alterations in the products of fatty acid synthesis were observed. The fatty-acid-synthetic activity of the stromal fraction was still soluble after prolonged ultracentrifugation. The results show clearly the soluble nature of fatty acid synthesis de novo in lettuce and pea chloroplasts. Thus fatty acid synthesis measured in microsomal fractions from such plant tissues is not due to the presence of chloroplastic membranes.


The aim of this study was to investigate phosphorus removal in water by using a polyampholyte obtained by the reaction of methacrylic acid, ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether and imidazole by a one step synthesis, mixed with diatomaceous earth. The material was characterized before and after phosphorus exposure using FT-IR, Raman, and solid state 31P-NMR and 13C-NMR spectroscopy concluding that the charged imidazole units were involved in the interaction between the phosphorus and the polyampholyte and that only the H2PO4− species was adsorbed. The point of zero charge value was 5.09. Concomitantly, the optimal pH for P adsorption was 5.0. As pH was increased, the polymer turned more negative, and the phosphate repulsion diminished the adsorption. In the batch experiments, the adsorption isotherms at pH values 5.0 and 7.0 were studied. The effects of different flow rates, P influent concentration and the interference of nitrate and sulfate in the breakthrough curves were studied. A shorter breakthrough time occurred at a higher flow rate. The q0 values not only increased from lower to higher influent levels but also showed a decrease in the presence of S and N as interferents demonstrating that there was a competition for the adsorption sites between those anions and the phosphate.


Objectives: We examined the prevalence and predictors of past‐year antidepressant use in a nationally representative sample of Asian Americans and non‐Latino Whites. Methods: Analyses of 12‐month antidepressant medication use were based on data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys that surveyed Asian (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and others; N=2,284) and non‐Latino White (N=6,696) household residents ages 18 years and older in the 48 contiguous United States and Hawaii. Results: Prevalence rates for 12‐month antidepressant use for Asians with major depression ranged from 8.7% among Vietnamese to 17% among Chinese respondents. Compared to non‐Latino Whites (32.4%), all Asians (10.9%) meeting criteria for 12‐month depressive and anxiety disorders, but especially Filipinos (8.8%) were less likely to report past‐year antidepressant use. Conclusions: We found disparities in past‐year antidepressant use among all the examined major Asian groups meeting criteria for 12‐month depressive and anxiety disorders. These disparities were not explained by mental health need or socioeconomic factors that enable access to care. Depression and Anxiety, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This thesis presents an environmental ethic based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Chapter One uses Heidegger's conception of 'dwelling' as the basis for a satisfying account of the 'otherness' or alterity of nature. Chapter Two draws upon Heidegger's writings on 'the dif-ference', Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy and the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead to develop a 'dialectical' conception of holism which can accommodate both the account of alterity presented in Chapter One and an account of the intrinsic value of individual beings. Chapter Three frames this conception of environmental holism in terms of ethics. It is argued that Heidegger's ideal of 'releasement' can be thought of as an essential 'function' of humans, the exercise of which promotes human flourishing. Extending this Aristotelian line of reasoning, it is shown how one can draw upon Heidegger's philosophy to articulate a form of environmental virtue ethic. Chapter Four investigates the charge that Heidegger's later thought is quietistic, a general allegation which is analysed into four interrelated specific charges: 1) the accusation that Heidegger is advocating a passive withdrawal from the world; 2) Adorno's charge in Negative Dialectics that Heidegger's philosophy is inimical to critical thought; 3) the objection that Heidegger is unable to deal adequately with either interhuman relations or the relations between humans and nonhuman animals; and 4) the charge that Heidegger's later writings cannot be brought to bear upon practical environmental issues. In answer to this last objection, case studies are presented of two environmental issues: 1) the environmental impact of tourism; and 2) the practice of environmental restoration.


Objective The study aim was to assess the effects of a multi-component communication campaign that promoted contraceptive use in Burkina Faso. Methods This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2001 involving 1421 women of reproductive age from Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. Participants during the 2001 survey were randomly selected from 54 enumeration areas that were covered during the 1999 Demographic and Health Survey. The propensity score matching (PSM) technique was the analytical method used to assess the effects of the campaign. Results More than three-quarters of the respondents reported exposure to at least one example of campaign material. Compared with no exposure, high campaign exposure is associated with an adjusted increase of 21.8 percentage points in the proportion of women currently using modern contraceptive methods. Similarly, low exposure is associated with a 7.3 percentage point increase over no exposure. The campaign is also associated with increased knowledge about contraceptives and more favourable attitudes towards family planning. Conclusions The multiple-component nature of the campaign makes it easy for many members of the target audience to hear consistent messages from a variety of sources. This is a key element responsible for the documented effectiveness of the campaign. Despite its limitations, the PSM technique is a straightforward method that should be used more often to assess the effects of communication programmes.


This article analyses Swiss migration policy and Switzerland's role as a country of asylum from 1914 to 1918. Subsequent sections discuss the change in migration patterns; how political emigrants and refugees were dealt with; the role of exile communities; the establishment of new border controls and a Federal Immigration Authority; and eventually the discourse on "Uberfremdung". This article argues that the war gave rise to new migratory patterns and a defensive outlook against foreigners in Switzerland. Furthermore, the state of war enabled the Swiss government to centralise migration control at the federal level.


The Erongo subvolcanic center in Namibia is the largest composite, bimodal complex in the Mesozoic Etendeka igneous province of Namibia. This study of 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and high spatial resolution U^Pb zircon dating demonstrates that emplacement of the various igneous units at Erongo took place within a time span equivalent to or shorter than geochronologically resolvable age differences (ca. 2 Ma), and at the peak of regional flood-basalt activity in the Etendeka^Paranaprovince. The Erongo complex comprises a series of felsic volcanic and intrusive units that overlie or intrude basaltic lavas attributed to the Etendeka Group. The stratigraphically oldest rhyodacite (Erongorus unit) yielded U^Pb zircon ages of 131.8 ; 1.1 Ma (1 c). The overlying Ombu rhyodacite was previously dated at 135.0 ; 1.6 Ma and our new ages for a resurgent intrusion of the same magma type (Ombu granodiorite) in the vent area are 132.6 ; 1.1 Ma ( 40 Ar/ 39 Ar) and 132.3 ; 1.9 Ma (U^Pb zircon) respectively. The youngest felsic magmas at Erongo are the high-silica Ekuta rhyolite and compositionally equivalent Erongo granite. These units yielded U^Pb zircon ages of 131.9 ; 2.9 and 130.3 ; 1.4 Ma, respectively. Concordant 40 Ar/ 39 Ar biotite ages from two samples of the granite average 132.2 ; 0.8 Ma. The final stage of magmatism at Erongo involved emplacement of basic alkaline plugs and dikes. Phlogopite and kaersutite from foidite plugs of this series yielded 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages of 130.8 ; 1.0 and 132.0 ; 1.0 Ma. In a regional context, these age results indicate that silicic magmatism in the largest complexes of the Damaraland (Erongo, Brandberg, Paresis, Messum) began simultaneously with the peak of flood-basalt effusion at about 132 Ma throughout the Etendeka province and ceased by about 130 Ma. The silicic magmas are hybrid, with varying contributions of crustal and mantle-derived melts, and the age constraints suggest that crustal melting was caused by a short-lived thermal pulse related to the main flood-basalt event. Basic magmatism in the Damaraland complexes continued sporadically thereafter to about 123 Ma, but lacked the power to create further crustal melting. @ 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.


Object based Petri nets are becoming increasingly popular in many fields of computer science. The possibility to model real-world objects as separate Petri nets supports the need for modular design of complex systems. So far object net approaches have been based on the presumption that the object nets' structure remains unchanged in all processes. This paper sheds some light on possible extensions of high-level Petri nets to incorporate the dynamic evolution of Petri net structures. The exposition is based on the Linear Logic encoding of Petri nets ([Bro89], [MOM89]) and coloured Petri nets ([Far98b]). It provides a basic semantics for modifying net structures which can be employed in a framework of nets within nets, i.e. situations where Petri nets (so-called token nets) themselves are used as tokens in an underlying environment net.


Abstract. A noticeable decrease in seismic noise was registered worldwide
during the lockdown measures implemented in 2020 to prevent the spread of
COVID-19. In Central America, strong lockdown measures started during March
of 2020. In this study, we used seismic stations from Costa Rica, Guatemala, El
Salvador, and Nicaragua to study the effects of these measures on seismic
records by characterizing temporal variations in the high-frequency band
(4–14 Hz) via spectral and amplitude analyses. In addition, we studied the
link between the reduction in seismic noise and the number of earthquake
detections and felt reports in Costa Rica and Guatemala. We found that
seismic stations near the capitals of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El
Salvador presented a decrease in their typical seismic noise levels, from
200 to 140, from 100 to 80, and from 120 to 80 nm, respectively. Our results
showed that the largest reduction of ∼ 50 % in seismic noise
was observed at seismic stations near main airports, busy roads, and densely
populated cities. In Nicaragua, the seismic noise levels remained constant
(∼ 40 nm), as no lockdown measures were applied. We suggest
that the decrease in seismic noise levels may have increased earthquake
detections and the number of felt reports of low-magnitude earthquakes.
However, the variations observed in several seismic parameters before and
after the lockdown are not significant enough to easily link our
observations or separate them from other contributing factors. Our results
imply that the study of seismic noise levels can be useful to verify
compliance with lockdown measures and to explore their effects on earthquake
detection and felt reports.


We have investigated the thermodynamic properties of the cubic zirconia ZrO2 using the statistical moment method in the statistical physics. The free energy, thermal lattice expansion coefficient, specific heats at the constant volume and those at the constant pressure, CV and CP , are derived in closed analytic forms in terms of the power moments of the atomic displacements. The present analytical formulas including the anharmonic effects of the lattice vibrations give the accurate values of the thermodynamic quantities, which are comparable to those of the ab initio calculations and experimental values. The calculated results are in agreement with experimental findings. The thermodynamic quantities of the cubic zirconia are predicted using two different inter-atomic potential models. The influence of dipole polarization effects on the thermodynamic properties for cubic zirconia have been studied.


This paper describes a new digital corpus of rap transcriptions known as the Musical Corpus of Flow (MCFlow). MCFlow currently contains transcriptions of verses from 124 popular rap songs, performed by 86 different rappers, containing a total of 374 verses, and consisting of 5,803 measures of music. MCFlow transcriptions contain rhythmic information, encoded in musical durations, as well as prosodic information, syntactic information, and phonetic information, including the identification of rhymes. In the second part of the paper, preliminary analyses of the corpus are presented, describing the "norms" of several important features of rap deliveries. These features include speed, rhyme density, metric position of stressed syllables, metric position of rhymes, phrase length, and the metric position of phrases. Several historical trends are identified, including an increase in rhyme density and phrase variability between 1980 and 2000. In each analysis, variance between different performers is compared to variance between songs. It is found that there is generally more variability between songs than between performers.


BACKGROUND
Nearly the entire population of Japan has been vaccinated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), which causes a false-positive result in the tuberculin skin test (TST). The interferon-gamma release assay QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) is a new alternative to the TST that can be used to screen for latent tuberculosis infection and active tuberculosis, as it has no cross-reactivity with BCG.

METHODS
We constructed a Markov model to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the QFT for tuberculosis contact screening. The target population is a hypothetical cohort of 1000 immunocompetent 20-year-old individuals who have had contact with sputum-smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients. The analysis was conducted from a societal perspective over the lifetime of a contact. We compared the QFT-alone strategy with the TST followed by QFT (TST/QFT) strategy and the TST-alone strategy.

RESULTS
In a base-case analysis, the QFT-alone strategy was dominant ($US 471.54; 28.1099 quality-adjusted life-years [QALYs]), compared with the TST/QFT strategy ($US 500.55; 28.1087 QALYs) and the TST-alone strategy ($US573.98; 28.1079 QALYs). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the QFT-alone strategy was a cost saving of $US23 043.5/QALY gained compared with the TST/QFT strategy. On one-way sensitivity analysis, TST specificity and the prevalence of tuberculosis/latent tuberculosis infection affected the cost effectiveness. The probabilistic analysis showed that the QFT-alone strategy has a 95% chance of being cost effective at a threshold ratio of $US2.10/QALY gained, compared with the TST/QFT strategy.

CONCLUSION
The QFT-alone strategy is the most cost effective for tuberculosis contact screening in Japan.


Presents and discusses a variety of robotic and mechatronic system applications that deviate from traditional rehabilitation uses, augmenting or replacing lost functional abilities, to applications which use these systems as therapeutic tools serving as part of the rehabilitation, vocational therapy, and educational process. These applications will include those systems designed and developed by the Enabling Technologies Laboratory at Wayne State University, as well as other organizations. Themes are emerging from the experiences gained through these diverse applications. Robotic/mechatronic systems promote active participation by the client. They are finding applications where consistent, repeatable manipulative operations are required for extended periods of time. The roles played by therapists, teachers, and service providers change as the role of the technology changes. Service providers are freed from mundane nontherapeutic or noneducational activities, and consequently are able to focus more fully on the client and the therapeutic or educational tasks. The systems have characteristics that improve their cost/effectiveness. For example, therapists or service providers can often leverage their time and attention by accomplishing multiple objectives and/or serving multiple clients with a given therapeutic or educational task. The systems typically perform multiple functions. Therapeutic activity is generally billable, and therefore the technology represents a revenue source. Since the technology is used by a number of clients, its cost can, be amortized over this client base. Lastly, clients tend to enjoy working with the technology. Each application is different, but in general, the systems are providing clients the positive effects of competent participation in a task or activity. These applications present system uses that go beyond augmentation and replacement of lost functional abilities and, as such, are expanding the popular model, or paradigm, regarding robotic and mechatronic system applications. >


The steady-state fluorescence (SSF) technique was used to study interdiffusion of polymer chains across the particle-particle junction during film formation from hard latex particles. The latex films were prepared from pyrene (P) and naphthalene (N) labeled poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles and annealed for long time intervals above the glass transition temperature (T g ) between 170 and 220°C. A novel correction method was suggested and employed to eliminate changing of the optical density of latex films after such annealing processes. P and N fluorescence intensities solely from the energy-transfer processes were monitored versus annealing time and were used to measure the polymer chain diffusion coefficients D p and D N , which were found to be between 4.34 x 10 -4 and 7.68 x 10 -13 cm 2 /s for an annealing temperature between 170 and 220°C. Using these diffusion coefficients with the Arrhenius relation, the diffusion activation energy for the polymer backbone was found to be 28 kcal/mol.


The effect of the structure of particular group of polymeric catalysts of the oxidation process on their catalytic activity, in the model reaction of hydroquinone oxidation to p-benzoquinone with hydrogen peroxide, was investigated. Two series of terpolymers of acrylonitril (AN) and vinyl acetate (VA) crosslinked with either divinylbenzene (DVB) or trihydroxymethylpropane triacrylate (TMPA) or trihydroxymethylpropane trimethacrylate (TMPMA) (Table 2) were obtained in suspension polymerization. Dependently on the type of crosslinking monomer the products showed either the gel structure or porous one. In two-stage process the nitrile groups of terpolymer were subjected to aminolysis with hydrazine and amino groups obtained in this way were modified with thiourea in the presence of alkyl iodide (Scheme A). The supports containing aminoguanidyl, carboxyl or hydroxyl groups were obtained (Table 1 and 3) and their structures were characterized using FT-IR method. The proper catalysts were prepared via sorption of Cu(II) ions on these supports. Some parameters of these catalysts and of the catalysts prepared in one-stage aminolysis of terpolymers with guanidine carbonate or aminoguanidine carbonate were compared. They were: hydroquinone conversion degree (L H2Q ), yield of quinone (YQ) as a main product and selectivity of the catalysts calculated on this basis (Table 4 and 5, Fig. 5 and 6). The catalysts crosslinked with DVB and subjected to one-stage modification showed the highest activity and selectivity (close to 100 %). In all cases the catalysts with amino-guanidyl groups were more active than those with hydrazine groups not subjected further modification. The results obtained show that the conditions encouraging the formation of N202 complexes as well as advantageous microenvironment formed by uncomplexed functional groups determine the activity and selectivity of the catalysts investigated.


Embryogenesis in plants can commence from cells other than the fertilized egg cell. Embryogenesis initiated from somatic cells in vitro is an attractive system for studying early embryonic stages when they are accessible to experimental manipulation. Somatic embryogenesis in Arabidopsis offers the additional advantage that many zygotic embryo mutants can be studied under in vitro conditions. Two systems are available. The first employs immature zygotic embryos as starting material, yielding continuously growing embryogenic cultures in liquid medium. This is possible in at least 11 ecotypes. A second, more efficient and reproducible system, employing the primordia timing mutant (pt allelic to hpt, cop2, and amp1), was established. A significant advantage of the pt mutant is that intact seeds, germinated in 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) containing liquid medium, give rise to stable embryonic cell cultures, circumventing tedious hand dissection of immature zygotic embryos. pt zygotic embryos are first distinguishable from wild type at early heart stage by a broader embryonic shoot apical meristem (SAM). In culture, embryogenic clusters originate from the enlarged SAMs. pt somatic embryos had all characteristic embryo pattern elements seen in zygotic embryos, but with higher and more variable numbers of cells. Embryogenic cell cultures were also established from seedling, of other mutants with enlarged SAMs, such as clavata (clv). pt clv double mutants showed additive effects on SAM size and an even higher frequency of seedlings producing embryogenic cell lines. pt clv double mutant plants had very short fasciated inflorescence stems and additive effects on the number of rosette leaves. This suggests that the PT and CLV genes act in independent pathways that control SAM size. An increased population of noncommitted SAM cells may be responsible for facilitated establishment of somatic embryogenesis in Arabidopsis.


: The 30-year experience of P.A. Herzen Moscou Cancer Research Institute in the treatment of soft tissue desmoid fibromas (DF) is summarized. A comparative study of effectiveness of surgical, combined, radiation and medicamentous methods was carried out. Frequency of recurrences after surgical treatment made up 94%, after combined treatment with preoperative radiation it decreased 3-fold (27.5%), in cases of postoperative radiation it made up 53%, and after radiation therapy--15.7%. However radiation therapy may have limitations due to necessity for irradiation of large tumour masses and usage of high-dose ionized irradiation which results in development of postradiation tissue damages. Further research brought about an original chemohormonal therapy (tamoxiphen, vinblastin, methotrexate), which provides stable recovery in 81.3% of patients. Principal positions for management of DF are formulated.


Nutrition misinformation can be harmful. Within dietetics there is an acknowledgement that nutrition information should be consistent, science-based and made relevant to different segments of the population. This paper reports on a study, conducted in Scotland, which involved focus groups and interviews with consumers and health professionals to explore messages relating to a healthy diet and to starchy foods and foods high in fat or sugar in particular. The research also involved a discourse analysis of articles aimed at health professionals and consumers. Evidence based, clearly written web and print articles were not the norm. Many articles contained value-laden messages and inconsistent or unclear advice. Nutrition information was rarely contextualized for consumers to help them incorporate the advice into their daily lives. Consumers and health professionals reported feeling 'bombarded' by messages about diet, which was sometimes confusing. There is considerable scope for improving nutrition messaging in Scotland.


Nuclear medicine imaging detectors are commonly multiplexed to reduce the number of readout channels. Because the underlying detector signals have a sparse representation, sparse recovery methods such as compressed sensing may be used to develop new multiplexing schemes. Random methods may be used to create sensing matrices that satisfy the restricted isometry property. However, the restricted isometry property provides little guidance for developing multiplexing networks with good signal-to-noise recovery capability. In this work, we describe compressed sensing using a maximum likelihood framework and develop a new method for constructing multiplexing (sensing) matrices that can recover signals more accurately in a mean square error sense compared to sensing matrices constructed by random construction methods. Signals can then be recovered by maximum likelihood estimation constrained to the support recovered by either greedy ℓ0 iterative algorithms or ℓ1-norm minimization techniques. We show that this new method for constructing and decoding sensing matrices recovers signals with 4%-110% higher SNR than random Gaussian sensing matrices, up to 100% higher SNR than partial DCT sensing matrices 50%-2400% higher SNR than cross-strip multiplexing, and 22%-210% higher SNR than Anger multiplexing for photoelectric events.


Part of a larger project involving the design and implementation of a first-time curriculum framework for early childhood care and learning in New Brunswick, this paper highlights the stories of Canadian early childhood educators working in home-based daycares. In particular, a common theme of "sense of place" is discussed in relation to four portraits that are presented in this article: (1) Home as Survival, (2) Transition to Home, (3) Home as Transition, and (4) Coming Home. Through each portrait, the role of life changes and transitioning towards new beginnings is discussed, along with possibilities and constraints for ongoing discussion and reflection.


A large brain can offer several cognitive advantages. However, brain tissue has an especially high metabolic rate. Thus, evolving an enlarged brain requires either a decrease in other energetic requirements, or an increase in overall energy consumption. Previous studies have found conflicting evidence for these hypotheses, leaving the metabolic costs and constraints in the evolution of increased encephalization unclear. Mormyrid electric fishes have extreme encephalization comparable to that of primates. Here, we show that brain size varies widely among mormyrid species, and that there is little evidence for a trade-off with organ size, but instead a correlation between brain size and resting oxygen consumption rate. Additionally, we show that increased brain size correlates with decreased hypoxia tolerance. Our data thus provide a non-mammalian example of extreme encephalization that is accommodated by an increase in overall energy consumption. Previous studies have found energetic trade-offs with variation in brain size in taxa that have not experienced extreme encephalization comparable with that of primates and mormyrids. Therefore, we suggest that energetic trade-offs can only explain the evolution of moderate increases in brain size, and that the energetic requirements of extreme encephalization may necessitate increased overall energy investment.


Aims: To facilitate allicin generation in-situ from pure diastereomers of alliin by enzymatic reaction
of alliinase and assess its anti-cancerous/anti-bacterial activities.
Study Design: Chemical synthesis and in-vitro assay of anti-cancerous/anti-bacterial activities.
Place and Duration of Study: Protein Research Laboratory, Research Resources Center,
University of Illinois at Chicago, between February 2014 and February 2015.
Methodology: Cancer cell viability assay MTT assay, bacterial plate-diffusion growth inhibition
assay, and flow cytometry cell cycle analysis have been used to demonstrate the anticancerous/anti-pathogen
activities of the in-situ allicin. Diastereomers of alliin are produced by
H2O2 oxidation of deoxyalliin, which is prepared by mixing L-cysteine and allyl bromide. Deoxyalliin
and diastereomers of alliin are purified to high purity with repeated fractional crystallization. In addition, fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc) protected alliin and alliin methyl ester are synthesized
and purified with RP-HPLC to test the importance of amino and carboxyl groups of alliin in alliinase
enzymatic reaction. Alliinase is produced by a simple and effective method from an aqueous garlic
extract
Results: Results from spectrophotometric alliinase activity assay indicate that (+)-L-alliin is more
reactive toward alliinase than (-)-L-alliin, and both amino and carboxyl groups of the cysteine
portion of alliin are critical in alliinase enzymatic reaction. Results from cancer cell viability assay
MTT assay, bacterial plate-diffusion growth inhibition, and flow cytometry cell cycle analysis confirm
that the in-situ allicin is as active as allicin purified from aqueous garlic extract or allicin synthesized
chemically in a dose-dependent manner.
Conclusion: We describe here facile pathways to synthesize diastereomerically pure alliins and
isolate allinase. The in-situ allicin conversed from alliin by allinase is very active. The data obtained
here provide useful information on the design of the in-situ allicin strategy.


Virtual organization is an important form of the cooperation between enterprises. Information technology is the technological base of the efficient and orderly operation of the virtual organization. This article, through the analysis of the demand in information system platform of horizontal integration, vertical integration and other different operation processes of virtual organizations, puts forward the structure of the information platform constituted by application service layer, support security layer and communication network layer, and does deep analysis of the composition content of different layers.


Matrices are exceptionally useful in various fields of study as they provide a convenient framework to organize and manipulate data in a structured manner. However, modern matrices can involve billions of elements, making their storage and processing quite demanding in terms of computational resources and memory usage. Although prohibitively large, such matrices are often approximately low rank. We propose an algorithm that exploits this structure to obtain a low rank decomposition of any matrix $\mathbf{A}$ as $\mathbf{A} \approx \mathbf{L}\mathbf{R}$, where $\mathbf{L}$ and $\mathbf{R}$ are the low rank factors. The total number of elements in $\mathbf{L}$ and $\mathbf{R}$ can be significantly less than that in $\mathbf{A}$. Furthermore, the entries of $\mathbf{L}$ and $\mathbf{R}$ are quantized to low precision formats $--$ compressing $\mathbf{A}$ by giving us a low rank and low precision factorization. Our algorithm first computes an approximate basis of the range space of $\mathbf{A}$ by randomly sketching its columns, followed by a quantization of the vectors constituting this basis. It then computes approximate projections of the columns of $\mathbf{A}$ onto this quantized basis. We derive upper bounds on the approximation error of our algorithm, and analyze the impact of target rank and quantization bit-budget. The tradeoff between compression ratio and approximation accuracy allows for flexibility in choosing these parameters based on specific application requirements. We empirically demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithm in image compression, nearest neighbor classification of image and text embeddings, and compressing the layers of LlaMa-$7$b. Our results illustrate that we can achieve compression ratios as aggressive as one bit per matrix coordinate, all while surpassing or maintaining the performance of traditional compression techniques.


Student instruction is often segregated into specific subjects, giving the impression that different areas of study are largely unrelated. Teaching in "silos" inhibits the formation of connections among subjects. An academic curriculum that integrates DNA barcoding can expose students to a wide variety of scientific concepts, technical skills, problem solving, and fieldwork. In an approach that emphasizes conceptual interconnections, students are instructed in methods of caddisfly collection, specimen vouchering, DNA extraction, PCR amplification and sequencing of the COI barcode fragment, data curation in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD), and phylogenetic analysis. Accompanying development of these technical skills are learning objectives which include recognizing that DNA comes from real organisms and consists of molecules that are a physical part of those organisms, rather than being an obtuse symbolic abstraction. Students learn to logically pull together concepts from multiple scientific fields, use them in a practical setting, and experience science more broadly as a unified and interconnected discipline.


There is an established link between congenital heart disease and acquired brain injury, which relates to the dependence of the nervous system on a consistent and responsive supply of oxygen and glucose. The advances in the field of infant cardiac surgery have presented new and different challenges to the arena of child neurology. This review provides an overview of the mechanisms of neurologic injury and cerebral hemodynamics and metabolism during cardiac surgery. This review discusses current and future strategies for the management of children with congenital heart disease.


Saturn's rings are not only a beautiful and enduring symbol of space, but astronomers' best local laboratory for studying phenomena in thin cosmic disks like those where planets formed. All the giant planets have ring systems. Saturn's are the biggest and brightest. Saturn's rings are made of innumerable icy particles, ranging from the size of dust to that of football stadiums. Galileo discovered Saturn's rings with his newly invented telescope, but they were not explained until Huygens described them as thin, flat disks surrounding the planet. In the space age, rings were found around the other giant planets in our solar system. Rings have been seen around asteroids and likely exist around exoplanets. Many of the ring structures seen are created by gravity from Saturn's moons. Rings show both ongoing aggregation and disaggregation. After decades of study from space and by theoretical analysis, some puzzles still remain unexplained. There is evidence for youthful rings from Cassini results, but no good theory to explain their recent origin. A future Saturn Ring Observer mission would be able to determine the direct connections between the individual ring physical properties and the origin and evolution of larger structures.


This present study has shown that residues of dithiocarbamate fungicides persisted on/in soils and garlic bulbs on garlic growing areas of Sembcilun, Lombok island, Indonesia. The technique of analysis used was USEAP-Method S 15, based on evolution of carbon disulfide which was measured as a xanthate. The study indicated that the dithiocarbamate residues mainly persisted on soil surface (0-1 cm); ranging froml.82 to 4.82 mg/ kg dry matter and only a low concentration was found at a depth of 1-10 cm. The analysis of garlic bulbs revealed that all sampled garlic bulbs were contaminated with dithiocarbamate residues, with concentrations ranging from 8.95 to 31.26 mg/kg dry matter. Some localities showed consistently higher concentration than other localities. However, the residues tended to decrease exponentially, and within 21 days of harvesting were 0.78 and 1.73 mg/kg dry matter. This study also proved that the 'xanthate technique' was precise and reproducible for analysing dithiocarbamates from soil and garlic bulbs, even though garlic bulbs contain an unknown compound producing carbon disulfide in a relative low concentration (0.17+0.01 mg/ kg dry matter).


Due to the advancement in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs), the data collection from one-hop stationary sensor nodes using a path-constrained mobile sink has become one of the challenging issues. Toward the throughput improvement, we propose a general framework for network throughput maximization (NTM) problem by optimizing practically feasible parameters. For each proposed scenario, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model is introduced for the problem formulation. Due to the NP-Hardness of the MILP models, we design two efficient algorithms namely as ODSAA and ODAA for two practically implementable scenarios. Having a preknowledge about the deployed location of nodes, the proposed algorithms run centrally by sink and find the sub-optimal solutions within a reasonable computation time. Furthermore, under the uniform distribution of energy harvesting, we find out two threshold points on, respectively, energy harvesting mean and battery capacity of nodes after which the network throughput reaches a stable point. Finally, simulations are conducted on a different set of node deployments, which the results confirm that the proposed algorithms significantly improve the data throughput collected by sink and also the theoretical thresholds provide a confidence interval of 90 percent.


Rapid growth in IT sector poses unprecedented challenges to HR practices in organizations, which are primarily driven by constant pressure to recruit suitable candidates, meet the expectations of the new entrants and to reduce attrition. Some of the typical HR challenges faced by the rapid growth sectors are the expanding job demands that impact the structure and culture of the organization, the large recruitment of the new entrants and systematized induction training demands. In this dissertation, the focus is on understanding the socialization tactics of the new entrants in IT sector in terms of their role orientation, adjustment, organizational culture, self-efficacy and the overall satisfaction.

Organizational Socialization of new employees has always been a critical process for most of the organizations. Over the years multiple aspects of socialization have been studied and the research on socialization has viewed it from multiple perspectives. Initially it was viewed as the process through which organizations acculturate the new entrants. However much of the recent research view it as a learning process in which the entrant's role is much more important and organizations can only manage that process. The importance of socialization in organization needs to be overemphasized, as it is one of the essential components of building and maintaining organizational culture.

The aspect of understanding organization culture is not a very new phenomenon but in most of the Indian organizations this study has not got momentum. Self-efficacy refers to one's personal belief regarding how capable one is in controlling events and situations in one's life, such as performing or completing specific tasks and behaviours. Socialization research has been conducted in several contexts. However, the context of IT sector has mostly been neglected. In the context of India there hasn't been much study. The lack of research this context coupled with contextual features of IT sector, which indicate greater new entrant's self-efficacy with respect to their socialization tactics, has been the prime motive for this study.

From such an interactionist perspective, it is necessary to investigate how both individual and organizational factors combine to influence (1) newcomers' subsequent adjustments to organizations (2) their role behaviours and (3) moderating effects of self-efficacy. The purpose of this study is to address these issues. The dependent variable is newcomers' adjustment which is measured in terms of role outcomes such as role orientation, role conflict, role ambiguity and personal outcomes such as commitment to organization, intention to quit and job satisfaction. Independent variable is socialization tactics (collective vs. individual; formal vs. informal; investiture vs. divestiture; sequential vs. random; serial vs. disjunctive and fixed vs. variable). The moderating variables are demographic components such as gender, age, qualification, marital status, zone from where respondent has completed highest education, work-experience duration, number of past job experiences newcomers have and their future career choices. This study viewed socialization from an interactionist perspective and has investigated the link between socialization tactics and new entrant's satisfaction.

This study generated responses from newcomers having not more than 18 months of work- experience in a particular organization. The research includes responses from IT sector in Bangalore. A detailed standardized Questionnaire was adapted to be used as an instrumentation tool. The questionnaire was completed by 306 respondents using convenient sampling technique. The statistical techniques adopted are Cronbach's alpha reliability test, Descriptives (means and standard deviations), Percentile Quartile, Bivariate Correlations and ANOVA. Seven hypotheses were tested and analyzed.

Innovative role orientation has a significant correlation with sequential random, serial disjunctive and fixed variable. A high score on orientation indicates an innovative role orientation in which a new entrant attempts to alter procedures for performing a role, the purpose of role itself, or both. There is significant influence of sequential random tactic followed by formal informal on the role orientation of the employees. In previous studies it was observed that invidualised tactics was positively correlated to innovative role orientation. But in current study the researcher found that institutionalized tactics were positively correlated to innovative role orientation. There is no significant influence of organizational culture on the satisfaction of the newcomers'.

The detailed findings, conclusions, and suggestions for further research have been discussed.

Key Words: Organizational culture, Newcomers' socialization tactics and Self-Efficacy


Human resource development and training programmes are the key factors in enhancing productivity and quality in various sectors by improving fitness and skill power of their stakeholders. Keeping this in view, Central Tasar Research and Training Institute (CTR&TI), Ranchi has taken up the task of designing and organizing various ample training programmes for effective human resource development and training in tasar culture. During 2010-11and 2011-12, a number of training programmes were organized at CTR&TI and a total 87 and 98 batches 1801and 1626 beneficiaries respectively were imparted training on various aspects of tasar culture. The training programmes included Structured Course i.e., Post-Graduate Diploma in Sericulture PGDS (NM) for graduates and various short-term Certificate Courses for extension officials and farmers. To assess the quality, effectiveness and impact of training programmes, a systematic analysis was made on the basis of various parameters such as the extent of facilities provided, training efficiency, overall management and coordination of the programme and other indices calculated based on preand post-training data collected from the trainees. The results indicated that the trainees of PGDS (NM) course had very good opinion about course content, evaluation system, course coordination and duration. However, they opined for some improvement in faculty performance to make their teaching more interesting and effective by using modern audio-visual aids. The data reveled that higher level of improvement in knowledge level of all the trainee groups, ranging from 55.4 to 99.4 during 2010-11and 56.7 to 91.6% during 2011-12. The improvement in knowledge level in tasar culture technology led to increase the rate of technology adoption by the farmers. The technology adoption rate was higher in case of tasar silkworm seed production (56.4 51.7%) followed by silkworm rearing (25.4 25.1%); whereas it was lowest in case of tasar host plant maintenance (19.6-25.3%).


2014 is a significant year for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in England, as it is the 20th anniversary of the creation of their role, which was established in the first Special Education Needs (SEN) Code of Practice (DfE, 1994). This stated that all mainstream schools must have a person responsible for coordinating services around children with SEN and helping teachers develop and implement appropriate provision for them. Since 1994, the SENCO role in the UK has changed as various policies continually redefined SEN provision (DfES, 2001; DCSF, 2004).
A similar role exists in some other European countries such as Sweden and Ireland (Lindqvist, 2013; O'Gorman and Drudy, 2010), whilst in other European countries, such as Italy, an introduction of the SENCO role is currently under discussion (Devecchi et al., 2012). This research is particularly relevant in a European context in view of the present European moves towards inclusion for children with SEN, also the call for teachers to be more proactive in addressing social inclusion and tackling underachievement and early school leaving (EADSNE 2012).
Moreover, the issue is timely now that the intended legislation in England, 'The Children and Families Bill' (DfE, 2013a) lays out landmark reforms to SEN provision, which are further underpinned by a new SEN Code of Practice (DfE, 2013b). Both legislative articles are expected to receive Royal Assent in Spring 2014, and be implemented in schools from September 2014. One major implication for the role of the SENCO will be the introduction of a family-centred system in which the collaboration of Support Services across Education, Health and Care will be required to support the early identification and assessment of children with SEN from birth to 25 years. (DfE, 2013c) This research project is therefore constructed within the past, present and future of SEN initiatives in England at a time of major overhaul of the principal guidance for the inclusion for children with SEN in mainstream schools.
This paper draws upon my doctoral research data gathered through questionnaires and interviews relating to the impact that SENCOs have on teachers' capacity to address SEN in their classrooms. Since SENCOs are central to supporting children's inclusion and achievement, the research centres around three specific research questions:
Are SENCOs able to motivate teachers to take the initiative in addressing the needs of children with SEN in their classrooms?
Do SENCOs enhance teachers' abilities to become effective teachers of children with SEN?
How is the impact of SENCOs currently assessed within primary schools?
SENCOs have been documented as 'agents of change' in relation to schools' visions and values, and as primary advocates for the needs and rights of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools (Morewood, 2011). As opposed to the more tacit roles that SENCOs initially undertook around the early 1990s, the SENCOs' current role is evolving into one that is more empowered, not only at the senior management level, but one that has a greater degree of recognition by teachers and other members of school staff. (Tissot, 2013)
The theoretical framework of the project is that of interpretivism, since I "...(begun) with individuals and set out to understand their interpretations of the world around them... (and) particular situations." (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2011, p. 18). I also believe that through an interpretivist approach, I acknowledged the various 'relative-ness' of diverse elements and social issues that impact upon my research findings. As Robson (2002, p. 24) maintains, "what (people) actually do, has to be interpreted in the light of (their) underlying ideas, meanings and motivations."

Method

The study applied a mixed method approach (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). The project consisted of two phases. The first involved a survey of a purposive sample of 223 primary school SENCOs from the UK 'National Award for SEN Coordination' Course, a mandatory professional development for all new to role SENCOs and those who had been working in their respective schools in the SENCO role for less than 12 months prior to September 2009 (DCSF, 2009). The questionnaire, to which 42 SENCOs responded, gained a deeper insight into SENCOs' perceptions of their roles in relation to teachers, and formed a basis for in-depth interview questions. The second phase consisted of semi-structured interviews of 18 SENCOs and 18 teachers, and with headteachers, in addition to document scrutiny of school SEN policies and other related documentation. The selection of the research cohort therefore, occurred as a result of 'convenience' and 'purposive' sampling (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2011) as it took into account not only my ability to gain access the participants, but also the fact that these SENCOs possess the particular characteristics required for the purposes of this research, i.e., they were currently working in the SENCO role. The triangulation of data (Bell, 2005), aimed at ensuring the verification and validity of data (Silverman, 2010) was accomplished through a three-pronged methodological approach including questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and document scrutiny. The research was conducted in accordance with an Ethical Code which was informed by the British Educational Research Association guidelines (BERA, 2004). All participation was voluntary. Informed and written consent was obtained from all participants in the study, who were informed of the aims and nature of the research through a written Information Sheet, and of the Ethical Code, which was also explained to them verbally.

Expected Outcomes

Data illustrate that SENCOs have a complex role, impacting upon teachers' practices by utilising a wide range of skills, knowledge and expertise across different contexts and social interactions. This is influenced by whether or not they are members of their School Leadership Teams. Further, SENCOs' time management is a constant concern in balancing competing priorities and demands, which include liaising with and arranging external support and keeping up to date with upcoming legislative changes which impact the documentary requirements of the role. For instance, the development of a 'Local Offer' of Services, both by the school as well as the Local Authority and Health Services, which details services that are locally available for SEN children, both with or without a statutory declaration of Special Needs. (DfE, 2013c) There is evidence that the degree to which SENCOs have a positive impact on teachers' inclusive skills varies, as the SENCO-teacher dynamic is influenced by: • Mutually-convenient meetings on a regular basis • Teacher openness to change • Target setting and IEPs • Evidence of tried interventions • Empowerment of teachers by SENCOs through training • Decision-making by SENCOs and dissemination of information • Approachability (formal and informal channels of communication) It is intended that research outcomes will inform the nature of support mechanisms for SENCOs, teachers and headteachers, through the identification of factors that influence their own motivation, professional- and self-development, as well as that of their colleagues. Furthermore, a broader European audience can consider how the key findings are being manifest in a pan-European context, with reference to their own educational settings. Research outcomes can aid the development of specific competencies needed to develop optimal inclusive settings in accordance with the priority of 'Raising Achievement for all Learners' as set out in the Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020) Framework at a European level (CEU, 2009; EADSNE, 2012).


A novel scheme for three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) generation systems is presented in this paper. The scheme is based on two insulated strings of PV panels, each one feeding the dc bus of a standard two-level three-phase voltage-source inverter (VSI). The inverters are connected to the grid by a three-phase transformer having open-end windings on the inverter side. The resulting conversion structure performs as a multilevel power active filter (equivalent to a three-level inverter), doubling the power capability of a single VSI with given voltage and current ratings. The multilevel voltage waveforms are generated by an improved space-vector-modulation algorithm, suitable for the implementation in industrial digital signal processors. An original control method has been introduced to regulate the dc-link voltages of each VSI, according to the voltage reference given by a single maximum power point tracking controller. The proposed regulation system has been verified by numerical simulations and experimental tests with reference to different operating conditions.


Lakes and reservoirs are standing surface water bodies that provide several environmental services and anthropic uses. As driving forces, climate conditions, sediment loads and pollutants influence the hydrodynamic behaviour of lakes, affecting the thermal stratification and mixing regime patterns that play expressive roles in the water quality condition. Therefore, the analysis of climate change scenarios allows the planning and implementation of preventive and mitigative actions. Mathematical modelling can simulate the thermal regime of lakes and reservoirs, considering different boundary conditions. Three-dimensions models are often used to better assess the changes on these environments, however, the extensive set of information required, along with its elevated processing parameters, can determine the selection of simpler models for long periods simulations, provided that the results accuracy remains appropriated. This paper intends to evaluate the differences and similarities between a one-dimension (GLM) and a three-dimensions (DELFT3D) transport models, used to assess the impacts of different climate scenarios on the thermal regime of a small lake. The case study was conducted on the Hedberg Dam, located about 90 km from Sao Paulo city, Brazil. It is a 0,2 km²-4.5m depth pond, built in the beginnings of the 19th century. Its hydrological catchment area is partially protected, with some sparse urban occupations. Both models used morphology characteristics, atmospheric variables and flow as input data. The calibration and validation were performed using water thermal profiles from high-frequency sensor data, observed from 2016 to 2018. Two climate change scenarios, optimistic and pessimistic, based on Eta Regional Climate Model, were simulated considering changes in radiation, air temperature, wind, precipitation and flow. Both results indicate changes in the thermal profiles regime, with increasing occurrence of mixing events and variations on the stratification patterns. However, differences can be noted in the water balance and in the thermal profiles results.


In 3G cellular systems, WCDMA air interface will be used. A transmission bandwidth of 5 MHz will enable the use of Rake receivers, which can capture more multipath energy. This work investigates the effect of number of Rake fingers and relative power levels of multipath components on system performance. Data from radio channel propagation measurements in UMTS bands in Manchester city center were used to obtain multipath statistics. Four channel profiles were selected to be used in simulations for performance analysis of a 3G system that employed a Rake receiver with 1-5 fingers. The simulations were performed for spreading factors of 16, 32 and 64. Results showed that the optimal number for fingers depends on channel profile


A frequency independent log periodic acoustic device is utilized for the transmission or reception of underwater sound. A key element of the device is a particularly shaped plate or diaphragm, called a filter plate, made of stainless steel or other material having suitable acoustic properties. The filter plate on being placed in front of any plane wave receiving or transmitting transducer acts automatically to make the beamwidth of the diffraction pattern of the combined device constant, regardless of frequency. This is achieved by automatically making the effective aperture diameter of the filter plate-transducer combination a constant multiple of the acoustic wavelength of the sound in the underwater medium. When used in conjunction with a scannable transducer such as an acoustic lens and the retina device the filter plate produces a directional, scannable, substantially constant beamwidth diffraction pattern for radiation or reception of underwater acoustic signals. The thickness of the plate at both its center and outer operative diameter are determined by the wavelengths of the respective highest and lowest frequencies to be utilized.


This article deals with the relations between perhaps Sweden's most influential publicist during the Cold War, the professor of political science and editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter 1946–1959, Herbert Tingsten, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), a CIA-sponsored organisation gathering the elite of the world's non-communist leftist intellectuals, Congress for Cultural Freedom and its Swedish sub-branch called 'Svenska kommittén för kulturens frihet' (SKfKF). Tingsten was a professor of political science at University of Stockholm from 1935 to 1946 and then editor-in-chief of Sweden's largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1946 to 1959. It argues that parts of Tingsten's work both as an opinion maker and as a scholar was part of a symbiotic relationship with the CCF and the SKfKF. Tingsten was the foremost propagator for the 'end of ideology' thesis in Sweden and the article argues that this campaign was inspired by the CCF's advancement of this idea in the 1950s and 1960s. Tingsten was personally acquainted with several CCF intellectuals and he visited several of the CCF's conferences. The article also makes the case that Tingsten helped the CCF and the SKfKF's causes and furthered their agendas in a number of ways during his time as editor-in-chief of DN. For example, Tingsten allowed the SKfKF to use DN as a platform for presenting its ideas and programmes to a broader public. The article thus shows how the CCF network of intellectuals influenced opinion making in non-aligned Sweden.


This study was influenced by research into the impact of the UK National Year of Reading in 2008 using the Generic Social Outcome Framework from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. In 2012 a National Year of Reading was held in Australia which offered another opportunity to investigate the nature of impact. While formal evaluation processes were put into place at the national level, our study was a small-scale qualitative research project which considered the evaluation of impact related to National Year of Reading activities at one urban public library service. Data collected included focus group interviews with library staff, as well as desk data from the library service. The findings suggest that it is necessary to give due consideration to impact measures and collection of appropriate data at the planning stages in order to evaluate impact effectively. Measuring impact is much more difficult but ultimately more worthwhile than that of measuring output. The evaluation of impact is an important tool in strategic planning and advocacy and new ways of measurement need to be incorporated into planning and management.


In this paper, the state estimation problem for a class of mismatched uncertain time-delay systems is addressed. The estimation uses observer-based control techniques. The mismatched uncertain time-delay systems investigated in this study include mismatched parameter uncertainties in the state matrix and in the delayed state matrix. First, based on a new lemma with appropriately choosing Lyapunov functional, new results for stabilization of mismatched uncertain time-delay systems are provided on the basis of a linear matrix inequality (LMI) framework and the asymptotic convergence properties for the estimation error is ensured. Second, the control and observer gains are given from single LMI feasible solution which can overcome the drawback of the bilinear matrix inequalities approach often reported in the literature. Finally, a numerical example is used to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.


Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process has lower surface roughness quality, precision and it takes longer to fabricate compared to the conventional manufacturing operations and some additive manufacturing technologies. In order to overcome these issues, a rotary extruder head with a nozzle having a rectangular orifice has been utilized in this work. A new tool path planning for a rectangular nozzle is designed to increase the efficiency of the extrusion process by this nozzle. As a result, finer features (such as outer surfaces, edges, corners, etc.) can be 3D-printed with greater accuracy, and inner regions can be extruded in less time. The design algorithms for outer shells, inner regions, and infill paths are presented here to show the procedure of the tool path planning and examined for different test cases. Some modifications in the case of concave curves as the outer shells are also offered. Moreover, these test cases have been fabricated in our hybrid manufacturing system named HYBRO, which has five axes plus milling and rotary extruder heads to demonstrate this new strategy. The results demonstrate the smallest and the largest bead widths obtained with the same rectangular nozzle.