Mid- to late gestation is characterized by tissue differentiation, maturation, organogenesis, and growth, and many mutant genes have detrimental effects during this phase of development. The outcome may be lethal before birth or may be compatible with life but result in birth defects. Some of the common causes of death during late gestation are hematopoietic defects, cardiovascular problems, and placental insufficiency. Many morphological abnormalities, lethal or not, can be investigated with gross and histological analyses or by visualization of the developing skeleton. Molecular characterization of mutant phenotypes, guided by the expression pattern of the mutant gene, can reveal disruptions in gene expression patterns of known developmental genes. Cell proliferation and cell death assays will reveal disruptions in cellular dynamics. Various modalities of 3D imaging of intact embryos can provide volumetric information about mutant phenotypes.


A comparison of the ability of mammals to localize sound revealed that among the animals examined to date, none of the rodents have been able to localize as accurately as the carnivores. Because all of these rodents are prey animals, the question arises as to whether their poor localization acuity is a phyletic trait of Rodentia or whether it is a trait common to prey species that may be under less selective pressure than predators to localize sound accurately. To answer this question, sound localization acuity was determined in a species that is both predatory and a rodent, the northern grasshopper mouse. Localization thresholds for a single 100-ms noise burst were determined for three grasshopper mice using a conditioned avoidance procedure. Their 50% discrimination threshold of 19* is larger than that of any of the previously tested carnivores and well within the range of other rodents. However, calculations of the binaural sound localization cues available to rodents (based on their head size) suggest that the grasshopper mouse may make more efficient use of the available locus cues than other rodents. Thus, although the grasshopper mouse cannot localize as accurately as carnivores, it appears to be more accurate than predicted for a nonpredatory rodent of its size.


Abstract Bleeding following cardiac surgery is a serious event with potentially life-threatening consequences. Preoperative recognition of coagulation abnormalities and detection of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) related coagulopathy could aid in the start of preventive treatment strategies that minimize perioperative blood loss. Most algorithms that analyze thromboelastometry coagulation tests in elective cardiac surgery do not include test results performed before surgery. We evaluated preoperative rotational thromboelastometry test results for their ability to predict blood loss during and after cardiac surgery. A total of 114 adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB were included in this retrospective analysis. Each patient had thromboelastometry tests done twice: preoperatively, before the induction of anesthesia and postoperatively, 10 minutes after heparin reversal with protamine after decannulation. Patients were placed into 1 of 2 groups depending on whether preoperative thromboelastometry parameters deviated from reference ranges: Group 1 [N = 29; extrinsically activated test (EXTEM) or INTEM results out of normal range] or Group 2 (N = 85; EXTEM and INTEM results within the normal range). We observed that the total amount of chest tube output was significantly greater in Group 1 than in Group 2 (700 mL vs 570 mL, P = .03). At the same time, the preoperative values of standard coagulation tests such as platelet count, aPTT, and INR did not indicate any abnormalities of coagulation. Preoperative coagulation abnormalities diagnosed with thromboelastometry can predict increased chest tube output in the early postoperative period in elective adult cardiac surgery. Monitoring of the coagulation system with thromboelastometry allows rapid diagnosis of coagulation abnormalities even before the start of the surgery. These abnormalities could not always be detected with routine coagulation tests.


This study examined the determinants of students' willingness to intervene in bullying incidents, as well as the process underlying students' defending behaviors. The participants were 24 students (12 defenders and 12 outsiders) recruited from six secondary schools in southern Taiwan. The study used semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data and a grounded theory approach to analyse the data. The results showed that bystanders in bullying situations tended to assess the perceived severity of a bullying incident, personal responsibility, affective factors, victim characteristics, relationship with the victim, and other factors before committing to an intervention. This study found four possible phases of defending behavior: a) personal assessment affects a bystander's decision to act as a defender or an outsider; b) a defender evaluates the severity of a situation and the relationship with the bully to determine strategies for defending; c) defenders who come forward to intervene are interrogated or threatened by bullies; and d) defenders then reassess whether to intervene again. The results of this study suggest that bystander intervention programs can encourage students' personal responsibility, awareness of the severity of school bullying, improvement of interpersonal relationships, and self-efficacy to raise bystanders' willingness to defend a victim.


Scientists in different geographical locations conduct real-time experiments in a virtual shared workspace. E-commerce provides an emerging market for businesses large and small. E-mail, Servers, and Enterprise Resources Planning have revolutionized businesses on every level. People from all over the globe gather in chat rooms. The Internet is here to stay and Internet technologies and applications continue to grow and evolve.The Handbook of Internet Computing presents comprehensive coverage of all technical issues related to the Internet and its applications. It addresses hot topics such as Internet architectures, content-based multimedia retrieval on the Internet, Web-based collaboration, Web search engines, digital libraries, and more. Real-life examples illustrate the concepts so that technical, non-technical and business people can quickly grasp the fundamentals.


This dissertation develops a general quantitative model of field structure for analyzing the field theoretic properties of social phenomena. I use core structural principles found in the dominant variants of field theory (Lewin, Bourdieu, Dimaggio and Powell, Martin, and Fligstein and McAdam) to outline and elaborate a broad class of models consistent with the major assertions of field theory. These models use nonparametric local regressions to estimate field effect over multidimensional social space. By using univariate and multivariate statistics, these models enable determination of the existence or nonexistence of the field, the best description for the axes of the field and the complex patterns of variation in field effects over social space.In three distinct analyses based on data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I demonstrate how the organization of consumption as whole has changed over time and how individuals at different points in social space have been affected. Using a synthetic cohort design, I show how lifecycle consumption is differentiated by age, income, and education, and how these effects interact and moderate each other. Finally, I analyze how households changed their consumption in response the Great Recession. I find that cultural change in consumption preferences are a better explanation for changes in consumption than recession-related economic shocks or drops in consumer confidence.This dissertation makes two contributions. First, it attempts to further the development of field theory by outlining and demonstrating a quantitative model of field structure. This model offers an improvement over the current state of field modeling in terms of statistical rigor and flexibility. The model I present here enables more detailed and careful analysis of field structure and transformation and is general enough to help adjudicate between competing claims of conflicting field theories. Second, this dissertation highlights the necessity of considering economic and cultural determinants of consumption in conjunction. Consumption patterns are highly contingent on the specific conditions under which individuals make consumption decisions. While income, wealth, and savings are important, age, education, and family size are equally and frequently more important for predicting variations in consumption.


The martian dynamo's strength and duration are essential for understanding Mars' habitability and deep interior dynamics. Although most northern volcanic terranes were likely emplaced after the martian dynamo ceased, recent data from the InSight mission show stronger than predicted crustal fields. Studying young volcanic martian meteorites offers a precise, complementary method to characterize the strength of the martian crustal field and examine its implications for past dynamo activity. We present the first rock and paleomagnetic study of nine mutually oriented samples from the martian Nakhlite meteorite Miller Range (MIL) 03346, which is well‐suited for paleomagnetic analysis due to its well‐known age (1,368 ± 83 Ma) and lack of significant aqueous, thermal, and shock overprinting. Rock magnetic analysis, including quantum diamond microscope imaging, showed that the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) is carried by Ti‐magnetite crystals containing µm‐scale ilmenite exsolution lamellae, which can accurately record ancient magnetic fields. Demagnetization of the NRM revealed a high coercivity magnetization interpreted to date from the age of eruption based on its intensity, unidirectionality, and a passing fusion crust baked contact test. Paleointensities of four samples reveal a 5.1 ± 1.5 µT paleofield, representing the most reliable martian paleointensity estimates to‐date and stronger than the 2 µT surface fields measured by InSight. Modeling shows that the observed fields can be explained by an older subsurface magnetized layer without a late, active dynamo and support a deeply buried, highly magnetized crust in the northern hemisphere of Mars. These results provide corroborating evidence for strong, small‐scale crustal fields on Mars.


In this study, I examine a computer-aided design software named IKEA Kitchen Planner. I argue that Kitchen Planner could be regarded as a genre attempting to respond to global users in various contexts. I analyze how the software provides its users with the needed experience from the perspective of affordance and uptake. The study focuses on three versions to Kitchen Planner: the original Swedish version and the localized U.S. version and Chinese version. By combining an autoethnographic approach with an expert walkthrough usability test, this study strives to provide a more comprehensive view of user experience in different socio-cultural contexts.


System on chips designs have evolved from fairly simple unicore, single memory designs to complex heterogeneous multicore SoC architectures consisting of a large number of IP blocks on the same silicon. To meet high computational demands posed by latest consumer electronic devices, most current systems are based on such paradigm, which represents a real revolution in many aspects in computing. The attraction of multicore processing for power reduction is compelling. By splitting a set of tasks among multiple processor cores, the operating frequency necessary for each core can be reduced, allowing to reduce the voltage on each core. Because dynamic power is proportional to the frequency and to the square of the voltage, we get a big gain, even though we may have more cores running. As more and more cores are integrated into these designs to share the ever increasing processing load, the main challenges lie in efficient memory hierarchy, scalable system interconnect, new programming paradigms, and efficient integration methodology for connecting such heterogeneous cores into a single system capable of leveraging their individual flexibility. Current design methods tend toward mixed HW/SW co-designs targeting multicore systems on-chip for specific applications. To decide on the lowest cost mix of cores, designers must iteratively map the devices functionality to a particular HW/SW partition and target architectures. In addition, to connect the heterogeneous cores, the architecture requires high performance complex communication architectures and efficient communication protocols, such as hierarchical bus, point-to-point connection, or Network-on-Chip. Software development also becomes far more complex due to the difficulties in breaking a single processing task into multiple parts that can be processed separately and then reassembled later. This reflects the fact that certain processor jobs cannot be easily parallelized to run concurrently on multiple processing cores and that load balancing between processing cores especially heterogeneous cores is very difficult.


Selective Reduction of Cold Bound Pellet – Smelting Separation – Ferroniobium Smelting Technology' is an effective enrichment and extraction process of Nb from iron tailings of Bayan Obo deposit. Theoretical basis for the thermodynamic feasibility of smelting separation process was provided aiming at the thermodynamic problems in the process by analyzing and calculating through thermodynamic diagram, isothermal equation, and the calculation model of activity for slag system of CaO–SiO2–FeO–CaF2–TiO2–La2O3–Nb2O5. The results show that the separation of iron and Nb in arc furnace by smelting separation is feasible. In smelting separation process the valence state of Nb in slag is mainly pentavalent and the activity coefficient of Nb2O5 is 0.4×10-5~5.8×10-5. The distribution ratio of Nb between slag and molten iron decreases with increasing temperature or [%C], whereas increases with increasing basicity (CaO/SiO2). The temperature should be controlled under 1450°C, the basicity (CaO/SiO2) should be elevated appropriately, and [%C] should be controlled under 3.6% at the final stage of smelting separation process.


The spirit of University is recognized ideal, faith, value and principal of behavior, which is stably and distinctively developed in the process of establishing University. Campus planning design aims to fulfill the life requirements of the user, the relation between place and human emotion, the relation between place and nature, the requirement and sense of the user of the architecture, architecture humanism must be given adequate attention during the campus planning and design. In the dissertation, the analysis both campus space problem, and the university campus spirit space, are discussed. And furthermore, the related methods are summarized as well.


ABSTRACT Using the UK as an example, students attending higher education providers (HEPs) increasingly suffer mental ill-health due to new stress factors. Relationships between stress, frequently co-occurring chronic medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and mental health are explored as the basis for proposing The BodyMind Approach® (TBMA) as an innovative intervention, addressing the body and mind experience of MUS. Excessive stress can lead to/exacerbate, mental health difficulties and/or MUS (such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue/pain for which tests and scans are normal). MUS mostly affects women, non-native speakers and young people, all high numbers at HEPs. Students resist mental health services, and half in need do not disclose or seek help. TBMA, as an evidence-based, research-informed intervention, tested in the health service, is more accessible when framed as learning to self-manage symptom distress. Policymakers might consider this intervention to help improve student mental health as part of an institution-wide approach.


Two electron-dense tracers, ferritin and lanthanum, have been administered to peripheral nerve fibres, and their uptake has been studied ultrastructurally. It was found that the perineurium was an effective barrier to ferritin in vivo, and the tracer was subsequently injected sub-perineurially. Ferritin uptake over a 120-min period was confined to occasional phagocytic vesicles in perineurial and Schwann cells, and to the nodal gap substance and paranodal periaxonal space. No uptake was observed in the myelin sheath, incisural intraperiod line gap, or in the axoplasm. Soaking fibres in ferritin in vitro resulted in a more generalized cytoplasmic and axoplasmic uptake, although the myelin sheath and Schmidt-Lanterman incisures remained devoid of the tracer. Lanthanum nitrate, included in the fixative solution, delineated the patent incisural intraperiod line gap, and outlined the external surface of the terminal loops of nodal Schwann cell cytoplasm, and the paranodal Schwann cell-axolemmal junction. Unlike ferritin, La'+ penetrated the myelin sheath, being usually confined to the intraperiod line region of the outer lamellae, where it was associated with a widening of the lamellar unit, and an apparent splitting of the intraperiod line. The results are discussed with regard to distribution of extracellular space in peripheral nerve fibres.


A novel broadband design of planar tag antenna mounted on the metallic objects for UHF RFID system is proposed. We derive a new resonant mode that is excited with frequency shifting to enhance the operating bandwidth for broadband operation by employing the shorting pins posted at the corner of the proposed tag antenna. The obtained impedance bandwidth across the operating band can reach about 112 MHz (12.5 %) for UHF band, which is from 850 to 962 MHz. Also, with unidirectional pattern, the measured reading distance is about 5.2 m as the proposed tag antenna mounted on the metallic object.


In present study, neural networks have been employed for studying the ultrasonic vibration-assisted turning (UAT) process and for predicting the machining force and workpiece's surface roughness. Extensive experiments were carried out using different values of UAT parameters such as vibration amplitude, depth of cut, feed rate and cutting speed. The tests were implemented on the basis of full factorial design of experiments for three different levels of each UAT parameter. The machining force and workpiece's surface roughness were measured as the responses of the experiments and were subsequently modeled with the aid of back propagation multilayer perceptron neural network for 1.1191 steel. The nonlinear relation existing between the aforementioned UAT parameters and the machining force and workpiec's surface roughness could effectively be modeled by the developed networks and the responses error could be kept less than ten percent. This was verified by further experiments different from those carried out for developing the network.


The purpose of this study was to collect and interpret base-line data concerning the organizational culture and climate of selected elementary and secondary schools. The sample consisted of 20 parochial schools, 10 elementary and 10 secondary, in the mideast section of the United states. The study focused on three specific questions: 1) What are the cultural values of parochial schools, 2) What is the organizational climate of parochial schools, and 3) Do the cultural values and climate characteristics of parochial elementary schools differ from those of parochial secondary schools? Nelson's (1990) Cultural Value Analysis Tool (CVAT) was used to gather organizational culture data. Hoy, Tarter and Kottkamp's revised Organization Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) was used to gather organizational climate data. Analysis of data on the 419 responses included the following: 1) One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on real and ideal means of the sixteen cultural dimensions across the elementary and secondary schools individually, 2) Oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the real means of the sixteen dimensions comparing the elementary and secondary schools, and 3) confidence intervals on the principal and teacher behavior's of the OCDQ as compared to the norm group of Hoy, Tarter, and Kottkamp. Significant differences between ideal and real means viii were found on dimensions of effort, status, and flexibility for the elementary schools (p < .05). Significant differences between the ideal and real means were found on dimensions of effort, time, quality, empathy, dominance, status, political, abstract, planning/organization, and flexibility (p < .05) for the secondary schools. The oneway analysis of variance conducted on the descriptive mean scores of the 16 dimensions of the CVAT showed no statistical difference between elementary and secondary level schools. Confidence intervals indicated that parochial elementary principals are more supportive, less restrictive, and as directive as the principals in the norm group. Parochial elementary teachers were more collegial, less disengaged, and as intimate in their behaviors as the teachers in the norm group. Confidence intervals formed from the mean scores on the OCDQ-RS indicated that parochial secondary principals were more supportive and as directive as the principals in the norm group. Parochial secondary teachers were more engaged, less frustrated, and more intimate in their behaviors as compared to the teachers in the norm group. All parochial schools had an open climate to varying degrees ranging from below average openness to very high openness. The 20 parochial schools valued the cul~ural dimensions of quality, empathy, leader, and planning/organization. ix Parochial schools valued the cultural theme of relations as the top priority, followed by the themes of work, thought, and control .


The phylogeny of Eumalacostraca (Crustacea) has remained elusive, despite over a century of morphological and more recently molecular studies. Prior to this, no large scale combined evidence analyses of all eumalacostracan orders has been carried out. Evidence from four nuclear ribosomal and mitochondrial loci (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) were combined with a newly synthesized morphological dataset to examine the utility of available data. With an aim to resolve conflict in the morphological dataset, fossils were added to the morphological dataset and their effects examined. The stratigraphic congruence of crustaceans was examined to determine the quality of existing trees. A modified protocol was developed to generate new molecular markers for the investigation of eumalacostracan phylogeny. Finally the effects of the new data on existing datasets were examined in a combined evidence approach. Significant conflict was detected between data partitions, especially between morphology and molecules. The addition of fossil data revealed the morphological dataset to be very sensitive to taxon sampling. Stratigraphic congruence was found to be poor for the five crustacean groups examined. Histone 3 and alanyl-tRNA synthetase were shown to be capable of successfully recovering relationships at the level of genus and above. Glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase failed to recover monophyletic groupings when analysed alone. Combining all molecular data produced well-supported phylogenies, but significant conflict between data partitions was identified and trees were very sensitive to taxon sampling. Rate heterogeneity and conflict between data partitions mean that the total sum of molecular and morphological evidence as presented here is currently unable to resolve a wellsupported eumalacostracan phylogeny. We recommend additional taxon sampling and further sampling of novel markers using the modified protocol developed here as well as the addition of fossil data and the exploitation of next generation sequencing technologies.


In this research, we show how modeling shippers' responses to congested freight transportation on an important segment of the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) inland navigation system strongly infl uences the measurement of expected economic benefi ts attributed to a range of congestion mitigation measures. We present a model of the UMR that integrates a shippers' random utility model with a discrete event simulation model of the most congested 100-mile segment of the UMR system. The random utility model recognizes that waterway shippers may opt out of using the UMR in response to increased congestion and instead utilize alternative transport modes or destinations. Incorporating the dynamic response of shippers to changing operating conditions improves existing simulation models by explicitly accounting for the preferences and values of shippers, thereby providing a consistent estimate of the direct economic benefi ts associated with measures designed to reduce congestion and improve system performance. The major contributions of our research include demonstrating the importance of using models that capture shippers' responses to congestion in freight transportation systems and illustrating a novel methodology for quantifying the direct economic benefi ts to users of measures to improve transportation on the UMR.


We study the behavior of spatially homogeneous brane-worlds close to the initial singularity in the presence of both local and nonlocal stresses. It is found that the singularity in these brane-worlds can be locally either isotropic or anisotropic. We then investigate the Weyl curvature conjecture, according to which some measure of the Weyl curvature is related to a gravitational entropy. In particular, we study the Weyl curvature conjecture on the brane with respect to the dimensionless ratio of the Weyl invariant and the Ricci square and the measure proposed by Gr{\o}n and Hervik. We also argue that the Weyl curvature conjecture should be formulated on brane
(i.e., in the four-dimensional context).


Nystagmus intensities at various gaze angles were studied both preoperatively and postoperatively, using accurate ocular motility recordings, in three cases of congenital nystagmus. In addition to shifting the nystagmus null, the surgery broadened the null region and resulted in an overall reduction in nystagmus intensity at all gaze angles. Surgical rotation also resulted in improved visual acuity in all cases. The postoperative acuity at 0 degrees was better than the preoperative acuity at both 0 degrees and the patient's preferred gaze angle (ie, the preoperative null angle). This was not only for the two patients who showed an improved preoperative acuity with their head turn but also for the patient whose preoperative acuity did not substantially improve with her preferred head turn. Eye movement recordings have made it possible to accurately determine the amount of surgery required and to predict acuity increases even when undetectable during the preoperative clinical examination.


: Dantrolene is metabolized by the hepatic MFO system to hydroxydantrolene which is conjugated with glucuronic acid or with sulfate. Dantrolene is also metabolized by nitroreductase to aminodantrolene. The aminodantrolene inhibits the hepatic MFO system. Acetylation of aminodantrolene blocks the inhibitory effects of aminodantrolene on the hepatic MFO system. Intermediates in the nitroreductase pathway form glucuronide and mercapturic acid conjugates. The mercapturic acid conjugation reaction is a detoxification mechanism for an electrophilic metabolite of dantrolene.


Liver disease is one of the major chronic disabilities around the world. It is known that global casualties are increasing because of virus C infection, alcohol consumption, or nonalcoholic circumstances. One of the main derived comorbidities of liver disease is the hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a severe neuropsychological syndrome derived from the acute or chronic liver disease. A key feature accounting for HE symptoms in cirrhotic patients is brain edema, which is triggered by hyperammonemia. In basal conditions, ammonia can be metabolized in the central nervous system (CNS) by astrocytes, which synthetize glutamine using ammonia and glutamate as substrates. In hyperammonemic conditions, astrocytes synthetize large amounts of glutamine generating a hyperosmotic condition, inducing these cells to become swollen in shape, invoking the characteristic symptom clinically manifested in patients with HE, as brain edema; this condition is regulated by water channels called aquaporins (AQPs) and by other molecules such as myoinositol. Experimental evidence suggests that some small non-coding RNAs may regulate AQPs expression both in vivo an in vitro and that some pharmacological interventions improve cognitive impairment in cirrhotic patients. It is undeniable that astrocytes and the different signaling pathways beneath its plasma membrane play a crucial role in liver disease-derived HE and represent some of the novel pharmacological targets to treat comorbidities of the liver disease.


The issue of statelessness has begun to receive attention from a legal perspective. While this work should be commended and continue this article argues that we should also remember that at its core statelessness is a human issue that deeply affects the lives of those who suffer from it. It causes and perpetuates, amongst other things, extreme poverty and human insecurity. Statelessness is still greatly under-examined and under-appreciated as a potentially significant barrier to progress in the humanitarian and development fields. This piece aims to begin to situate statelessness as an important issue within these fields. This is done by taking the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and looking at how statelessness affects the realization of each and every goal. This approach shows that by overlooking statelessness development actors and agencies could be failing to meet the needs of the world's poorest. While far from being a comprehensive analysis of all available literature on statelessness and its relationship to each goal, this article is as an exploratory piece with the aim of encouraging development actors and agencies to recognise the importance of statelessness in their current and future projects and work to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between statelessness, poverty and human insecurity.


Following recent studies demonstrating that the Peshitta to Ezekiel is largely a translation that was rendered at the level of semantic frames or the idiomatic level, the logical question to be asked from the point of view of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible is whether such a translation would be useful at all within that discipline. Traditionally, a version that is considered ideal and useful for the textual criticism of the Bible is one whose translation technique is as literal as possible. Studying some difficult texts in the light of the idiomatic approach in PE shows that PE can still provide meaningful contribution to the text-critical study of the book of Ezekiel, though not in every instance. There are instances where the process of translation in PE could have made the base text difficult to retrace. PE can therefore be used in the study of Ezekiel, with some precautions.


In the title compound, {[La2(C10H11N2O5S)6(H2O)4]·2C10H8N2·14H2O}n, the LaIII ions are in a slightly distorted bicapped trigonal prismatic geometry, and are linked by six carboxylate groups in a syn–syn bidentate bridging fashion to form a one-dimensional inorganic–organic alternating linear chain. These polymeric chains generate microchannels extending along [100], and these cavities are occupied by discrete tetradecameric water clusters, which interact with their surroundings and finally furnish the three-dimensional supramolecular network via 15 O—H⋯O, one O—H⋯S, two O—H⋯N and six N—H⋯O classical hydrogen bonds. 4,4-Bipyridine acts as an inserting component and hydrogen-bond acceptor, and it is a nonplanar molecule with a dihedral angle of 33.12 (13)° between the pyridine rings. Owing to the numerous classical hydrogen bonds, the observed weak intermolecular C—H⋯O, C—H⋯π and π–π stacking interactions can be neglected with regard to stabilizing the network.


Diesel engines' reliable and durable structures, high torque generation capabilities at low speeds, and fuel consumption efficiencies make them irreplaceable for heavy-duty vehicles in the market. However, ine ciencies in the combustion process result in the release of emissions to the environment. In addition to the restrictive international regulations for emissions, the competitive demands for more powerful engines and increasing fuel prices obligate heavy-duty engine and vehicle manufacturers to seek for solutions to reduce the emissions while meeting the performance requirements. In line with these objectives, remarkable progress has been made in modern diesel engine systems such as air handling, fuel injection, combustion, and after-treatment. However, such systems utilize quite sophisticated equipment with a large number of calibratable parameters that increases the experimentation time and effort to find the optimal operating points. Therefore, a dynamic model-based transient calibration is required for an e cient combustion optimization which obeys the emission limits, and meets the desired power and efficiency requirements. This thesis is about developing optimizationoriented high delity nonlinear dynamic models for predicting heavy-duty diesel engine torque and combustion emissions. Contributions of the thesis are: (i) A new design of experiments is proposed where air-path and fuel-path input channels are excited by chirp signals with varying frequency pro les in terms of the number and directions of the sweeps. The proposed approach is a strong alternative to the steady-state experiment based approaches to reduce the testing time considerably and improve the modeling accuracy in both steady-state and transient conditions. (ii) A nonlinear nite impulse response (NFIR) model is developed to predict indicated torque by including the estimations of friction, pumping and inertia torques in addition to the torque measured from the engine dynamometer. (iii) Two different nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) models are proposed to predict NOx emissions. In the first structure, input regressor set for the nonlinear part of the model is reduced by an orthogonal least square (OLS) algorithm to increase the robustness and decrease the sensitivity to parameter changes, and linear output feedback is employed. In the second structure, only the previous output is used as the output regressor in the model due to the stability considerations. (iv) An analysis of model sensitivities to parameter changes is conducted and an easy-tointerpret map is introduced to select the best modeling parameters with limited testing time in powertrain development. (v) Soot (particulated matter) emission is predicted using LSTM type networks which provide more accurate and smoother predictions than NARX models. Experimental results obtained from the engine dynamometer tests show the e ectiveness of the proposed models in terms of prediction accuracies in both NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) and WHTC (World Harmonized Transient Cycle) cycles


We present Pose-on-the-Go, a full-body pose estimation system that uses sensors already found in today's smartphones. This stands in contrast to prior systems, which require worn or external sensors. We achieve this result via extensive sensor fusion, leveraging a phone's front and rear cameras, the user-facing depth camera, touchscreen, and IMU. Even still, we are missing data about a user's body (e.g., angle of the elbow joint), and so we use inverse kinematics to estimate and animate probable body poses. We provide a detailed evaluation of our system, benchmarking it against a professional-grade Vicon tracking system. We conclude with a series of demonstration applications that underscore the unique potential of our approach, which could be enabled on many modern smartphones with a simple software update.


With the advent of wireless microsensors and other microscale applications, switching supplies fully integrated on chip or into the package are desirable and often necessary. The problem with small inductors is that they exhibit low inductance and larger equivalent series resistance (ESR); in other words, they induce larger ripples in the output and higher conduction power losses. This brief presents and verifies a current-ripple suppression technique in which a discrete 2 × 2 × 1 mm3 4.7-¿H inductor is effectively multiplied by subtracting a replica of the inductor's ac ripple current, allowing only a residual ripple to reach the output. Experimental results from a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor integrated circuit prototype demonstrate a currentand output-ripple reduction of 10.8 X and 25.8 X, respectively. The ESR power savings in the smaller inductor favorably offset the quiescent power lost in the multiplier (128 mW), outperforming its higher nonmultiplied 47-¿H counterpart at high loads (above 250 mA).


Photography business become more popular and trending among the most of people who likes photography. Photography Service System was developed to help photography companies to deliver photos and videos to their customers. The use of the system have its advantages such as easiness of accessing data and also make users share the data faster. The purpose of the system was developed to ease the daily works and can be used frequently by photography companies as a method to send photos and videos to their customers. A penetration testing was conducted in order to test the security performance by conducting four security attacks which were Denial of Service (DoS), SQL injection, Cross Site Scripting, and sniffing password. The purpose of these attacks were conducted is to testing and finding the vulnerabilities of the system because the system deals with the customers' privacy data which is the photos and the videos owned by the customers. This is crucial to secure a system where the first step taken as a prevention to introduce the system to the public, vulnerability assessments was performed to determine the weaknesses of the system. Scanning and vulnerability assessment are done using tools which is Vega Scanning Tool, Wireshark, and Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC). All results are collected and have been analyze. As a summary of the result, it shows that the system are vulnerable to DoS attack, SQL injection attack, cross site scripting and also password sniffing.


In distributed software application systems, dispatcher components which act as an intermediate layer between clients and servers are often used to solve several problems such as location transparency of servers, scalability, and load balancing. In this paper we analyze different approaches to the design and implementation of dispatcher components in a CORBA-based environment. Since our design is focused on providing a generic and portable solution, we restrict ourselves exclusively to design and implementation elements provided by the CORBA standard. We point out which alternative solutions can be derived from this set of elements and what their respective advantages and disadvantages are. As a result, we show how fully generic and portable CORBA-based dispatcher components can be developed which are completely transparent to clients and can be used for load distribution and similar services.


Objective Increasing age is strongly associated with poor nutritional status, hence approaching the risk of poor nutrition in the elderly people is important. This study aimed to identify the associated factors of body mass index (BMI) among community-living Japanese people age over 75 years. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using with a self-administered questionnaire, and 658 participants (347 men and 331 women) were analysed. Demographic, lifestyle (eg, dietary habits, physical exercise), oral status, chronic illnesses, self-rated health, and activity of daily living (ADL) were asked. BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height, and it was classi fi ed as underweight ( < 18.4), normal weight (18.5 e 24.9), or obesity ( $ 25.0). Multiple logistic regression model were applied for analysis. Results The study demonstrated that 70% of participants were normal weight, following to obesity (21.4%), and underweight (8.5%). Number of taking medicines, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipaemia, and gastroenteropathy were associated with BMI. The adjusted OR with age, gender, economic status, number of drugs being taken, and presence of associated illnesses for excellent/ good self-rated health tended to be lower among underweight participants (OR ¼ 0.40, p ¼ 0.008), whereas higher among obese participants (OR ¼ 2.53, p ¼ 0.001) than normal weight. In contrast, ADL was not associated with BMI. Compared to normal weight participants, underweight participants tended to perceive chewing problem (OR ¼ 2.47, p ¼ 0.003), and not always eat 3 meals in a day (OR ¼ 3.75, p ¼ 0.003). Conclusion The results suggested that nutritional interventions should be targeted particular to underweight latter-stage


In 2011-12 there were 2,410 reported cases of cyberbullying ("Cyberbullying 'on the rise' – ChildLine"). However in 2012-13 this figure has almost doubled to 4,507 cases. This shows that bullying is an ever growing form of victimisation in the UK. The goal of the current study was to explore the extent to which the likelihood with which a witness/bystander will intervene in a bullying incident is influenced by group size (the number of bystanders), the setting (Cyber vs. traditional bullying), and gender of the bullying victim. Using an online survey method, participants were presented with different bullying scenarios. A total of 82 students evaluated the 8 scenarios. The reports from female participants suggested that they would be more likely to intervene when witnessing cyberbullying than the male participants. No such gender difference was observed in terms of offline bullying. Higher altruism was also associated with higher likelihood of participants stepping in. Past bullying experience, group size and the gender of the victim did not influence the likelihood with which participants would intervene. Some research limitations apply. All measures were collected using self-report, which may lead to more socially desirable responding. Due to uneven group sizes, heterogeneity of variance was an issue in some analyses. Despite these issues, the research adds value to the current literature on bullying. Specifically, the present findings suggest gender differences which are specific to context (cyberbullying). Knowing about gender differences may be helpful in the development of interventions aimed at reducing cyberbullying by motivating more bystanders to intervene.


Multi-task actor-critic is a learning paradigm proposed in the literature to improve the learning efficiency of multiple actor-critics by sharing the learned policies across tasks while the reinforcement learning progresses online. However, existing multi-task actor-critic algorithms can only handle reinforcement learning tasks within the same problem domain, they may fail in cases where tasks possessing diverse state-action spaces. Taking this cue, in this paper, we embark a study on multi-task actor-critic with knowledge transfer via a share critic to enable the multi-task learning of actor-critic in heterogeneous state-action environments. Further, for efficient learning of the proposed multi-task actor-critic, a new formula for calculating the gradient of the actor network is also presented. To evaluate the performance of our approach, comprehensive empirical studies on continuous robotic tasks with different numbers of links. The experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed multi-task actor-critic algorithm.


To the technical and administrative difficulties encountered by the propagation of Jennerian vaccination among Indochinese populations since the beginning of French colonization, was opposed the will to impose a western prophylactic method. This led to some aberrations, such as attempts of compulsive mass-vaccination with an ineffective and/or unsafe product. There was also an inherent contradiction between the French medical service's proclaimed wish to apply vaccination to the entire Indochinese population and its suspicious attitude concerning the know-how of local practitioners. But the important small-pox endemicity in Indochina also made this tropical area a great ground for experience because it led to advances in vaccine production methods, e.g., from buffaloes, and even in the 'science of immunization'.


Explosion welding has produced a large number of dissimilar joints. But the explosion welding of materials of low impact toughness and brittle nature is considered to be difficult. Magnesium, with its HCP structure, has a low capacity for plastic deformation at room temperature and moreover it has a high chemical reactivity. Therefore, successful explosion welding of magnesium alloys, demands careful attention to be paid to prevent failure or formation of brittle reacted zones at the weld interface. Explosive welding of the wrought Mg-Al-Zn alloy and commercially pure aluminum is performed. The welds are analyzed through metallographic characterization and shear tests. High quality welds of the two materials possessing shear strength higher than the softer layer has been obtained.


More and more, 300mm manufacturing promotes a single wafer tool approach in FEOL cleaning. Previously, we reported an advanced surface preparation process based on dilute HF/HCl/DIW and O3/HCl/DIW chemistries coupled with megasonic activation during the ozone step only, on a 300mm single-wafer platform [1]. As throughput consideration implies shorter process time, the activation of megasons during the whole cleaning step could be of interest for very small particle removal efficiency. Nevertheless, extending megasonic activation to the entire process sequence leads to degraded results on silicon surface. Indeed, damages are created at 90 and 65nm defect inspection levels when megasonic activation is used in the presence of both HF species and on hydrophobic silicon surface. In this paper, we demonstrate that the megasonic activation (Megs) generates randomly and locally oxidized species which may be the main cause of damages in the presence of HF chemistry. Additional characterizations are performed to understand this problem (haze inspections, ATR analysis and contact angle measurements).


In the nonempirical approach based on the coherent potential approximation (CPA), we investigate the concentration dependence of the energy parameters which describe the stability of the disordered Fe–Al alloy and the phase transformation in B2 and DO3 phases. We based our calculations on the most attractive feature of CPA to be applicable to the direct calculations of the electronic structure of random or partially ordered alloys. The procedure described in our study [D. Fuks and S. Dorfman, Solid State Commun. 90, 773 (1994)] for the estimation of the parameters of the effective mixing potential is realized for different phases in the stoichiometric composition. Calculation data for different concentrations of Fe–Al alloy are used to extract the interaction parameters V(0), V(k1), and V(k2). These energy parameters are compared with the parameters treated from the diffuse X-ray scattering data. We show that the interaction parameters for Fe–Al alloys strongly depend on the concentration. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 75: 927–941, 1999


Myelinating oligodendrocytes are essential for central nervous system (CNS) formation and function. Their disruption is implicated in numerous neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. However, recent studies have indicated that oligodendrocytes may be tractable for treatment of disease. In recent years, zebrafish have become well established for the study of myelinating oligodendrocyte biology and drug discovery in vivo. Here, by automating the delivery of zebrafish larvae to a spinning disk confocal microscope, we were able to automate high-resolution imaging of myelinating oligodendrocytes in vivo. From there, we developed an image analysis pipeline that facilitated a screen of compounds with epigenetic and posttranslational targets for their effects on regulating myelinating oligodendrocyte number. This screen identified novel compounds that strongly promote myelinating oligodendrocyte formation in vivo. Our imaging platform and analysis pipeline is flexible and can be employed for highresolution imaging-based screens of broad interest using zebrafish.


China retains a bilateral and regional cooperation approach or a geopolitical strategy to secure its energy security, while it seeks to embrace global energy governance and more actively participate in global climate change negotiations. It has also been focusing on developing clean and renewable energy since early in the 21st century. China's new Belt and Road initiative contributes to a 2.0 version of its current geopolitical strategy to secure its energy supply. Although China's emphasis on energy security still corresponds to its geopolitical strategy, its weak participation in global energy governance is due to the fragmented global energy governance system that it sees as neither authoritative nor credible, as well as to the lack of willingness or impetus for its own domestic energy institutions to join the system. Taking into account the difficulties and potential of current global energy governance, this article suggests it is reasonable to seek a limited goal for coordinating regimes instead of creating coercive institutions in this field. Attainable goals in the near future should focus on promoting a transparent international market and establishing data-sharing mechanisms between governments and energy intergovernmental organizations and between producers and consumers. There should be emphasis on climate change and clean energy governance under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Group of 20 (G20) of should play an increasingly significant role in global energy governance. China, with its positive attitude and active participation in the G20 and as host of the G20 summit in 2016, should participate more actively, perhaps even playing a leading role in global energy governance under the G20 framework.


The focus of this paper is on the initial acquisition of a direct sequence (DS) spread-spectrum signal utilizing a purely parallel search strategy. A parallel search strategy is utilized because it reduces the acquisition time compared to either serial or partially parallel strategies. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to derive the optimal decision rule, based on the maximum-likelihood criterion, for frequency-selective fading channels. The performance of the conventional decision rule, optimized for additive white Gaussian noise and flat-fading channels, the optimal decision rule derived, and a suboptimal decision rule, also presented in this paper, are compared. It is shown that the optimal and suboptimal decision rules for Rayleigh-fading channels outperform the conventional decision rule. For Rician-fading channels, it is shown both that the optimal decision rule outperforms the conventional decision rule, and that the optimum decision rule for Rayleigh-fading channels, when implemented on a Rician-fading channel, yields approximately optimum performance.


Irrigation renewal schemes are taking place globally for water conservation and gains in agricultural productivity, as competition for water resources increases. The publically-funded renewal of irrigation infrastructure is a key platform of water reform in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin; it is considered by some to be a policy that contradicts market-based approaches. In this Australian study, we examine an irrigation renewal scheme in northern Victoria resulting from a large investment by the State and Federal Governments. The long historical development of infrastructure and institutions for irrigation in the region led to technological lock-in and exposure to international terms of trade and climate change. From interviews with water professionals involved in the region, three key themes were identified through an adapted grounded theory approach: (1) a lack of an appropriate platform for fostering community involvement in what was a large-scale investment of public money; (2) issues in the way that water losses and savings were calculated; and (3) contradictions in policies for water buyback and irrigation renewal that lead to some irrigators being disadvantaged. To better understand the situation, we also applied a theoretical lens based on social learning. We conclude that the framing of a water 'crisis' was used to the benefit of some irrigators in attracting large-scale investment of public funds for irrigation renewal. The proposed solution, a technologically-driven irrigation renewal scheme, was implemented at a pace that didn't match the planning horizons for many, leading many to exit from irrigated agriculture. Systemic insights for the design and implementation of irrigation renewal schemes internationally are highlighted.


Canola meals from six varieties cultivated in Egypt (Seru4 and Pactol) and Japan (Kirariboshi, Tohoku95, Oominantane and Kizakinonatane) were investigated regarding anti-nutritive compounds, namely glucosinolates, phytic acid, sinapine and total phenols. All varieties except Kirariboshi contained a high level of total glucosinolates. A profile of 12 glucosinolates in all varieties was identified; aliphatic glucosinolates, progoitrin, epiprogoitrin, gluconapin, glucobrassicanapin and glucoberin were the most abundant. Other aliphatic glucosinolates, including sinigrin and gluconapoliferin, were of low level. Indolic and aromatic glucosinolates (4-Hydroxybrassicin, Glucotropeolin, Glucobrassicin, Gluconasturtin and 4-Methoxybrassicin) were low and showed few differences among varieties.  The anti-nutritional effects are associated, to a large degree, with the content of aliphatic glucosinolates rather than indole glucosinolates, and the total aliphatic glucosinolates are present at a higher level in all varieties than total aromatic glucosinolate (including indole glucosinolate). Therefore, canola meal from all varieties could cause many anti-nutritive effects. Also it was found that Seru4, Pactol, Tohoku95, Oominantane and Kizakinonatane are high glucosinolates varieties because they contained more than 30 μmol g-1 however, only Kirariboshi was a low glucosinolate variety. The differences in the content of individual and total glucosinolates among the varieties may be attributed to genetic and environmental factors. Phytic acid was at a high level in all varieties with few differences. Oominatane contained the lowest level and Pactol contained the highest one. No remarkable differences were observed among Kirariboshi, Kizakinonatane and Tohoku. For total phenols, Tohoku contained the lowest level of total phenols while Pactol and Seru4 contained the highest level. Also, insignificant differences were observed among Kirariboshi, Oominatane and Kizakinonatane in total phenols. Sinapine was found in all varieties with significant differences among varieties. Tohoku and Oominatane contained the lowest levels of sinapine, while Seru4 contained the highest one. Insignificant differences were observed among Kirariboshi, Kizakinonatane and Pactol. Thus canola meals from all varieties must be treated to remove or reduce the aliphatic glucosinolates and other anti-nutritive compounds. Key words : Canola, glucosinolates, phytate, sinapine, phenols


This paper proposes new limited-feedback Channel State Information (CSI) calculation schemes for Zero Forcing (ZF)-precoded downlink Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) systems. It is a common understanding that the feedback quantized by the codebook limits the performance of MU-MIMO. In this paper, through a quasi-ZF or a quasi-Minimum Mean-Squared Error (MMSE) weight, the channel matrix is transferred to one of the codebook vectors, based on which, the CSI is calculated. Thus, the quantization error is minimized. Meanwhile, the selection for the codebook vector guarantees the maximizing of the estimated Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). We verify that the proposed scheme obtains accurate feedback information, and the predicted weight can be the same as the optimal linear decoder as if the receiver knew all the precoder information that is fed-forward from the BS, as long as the number of antennas for each receiver equals that for the transmitter, and equals that for the total transmit data streams. Compared to the commonly used Precoding Matrix Index (PMI) based method, which uses rank-one single user (SU)-MIMO feedback, simulation results show that the proposed schemes achieve higher sum capacities in different scenarios. Moreover, since the weight can be directly used as the decoder, the feed-forward overhead is reduced.


Agencies and cities worldwide are recognizing the need to change urban streets to not only prioritize vulnerable users such as pedestrians, but to resurrect the idea of shared public spaces. The firm Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, worked with the City of Chicago, IL, USA, and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi on the Complete Streets Chicago Design Guidelines and the Abu Dhabi Urban Street Design Manual, respectively. Both of these guidebooks place pedestrians as the first priority in the complete streets design process.


PURPOSE
To assess changes of the light increment sensitivity (LIS) of the macular area in patients with type 2 idiopathic macular telangiectasia (IMT).

METHODS
Fifty-eight eyes of 30 patients were examined in a cross-sectional study. All eyes were assigned to group A (early disease stages) or group B (late disease stages with retinal pigment clumping or vascular membranes). Investigation of visual function included visual acuity and fundus-related microperimetry.

RESULTS
Thirty-seven and 16 eyes were assigned to group A and group B, respectively. Temporal to the fovea, each eye of group B had an absolute scotoma. Topographically, the areas with reduced LIS correlated well with the angiographically hyperfluorescent areas or retinal pigmentations and showed a sharp demarcation from areas with normal LIS. However, within areas with angiographic alterations, at least some test locations exhibited preserved LIS in group B eyes; in 51% of group A eyes, none of those test locations showed abnormal LIS. Group A eyes that showed marked LIS reduction revealed common abnormalities: either hyporeflective spaces between the neurosensory retina and the retinal pigment epithelium in OCT imaging or atrophic areas, both topographically related to the scotoma. Visual acuity was correlated with foveal LIS but not with the LIS temporal to the fovea.

CONCLUSIONS
Long-standing morphologic macular alterations from type 2 IMT are associated with topographically related functional impairment. Eyes with profound parafoveal scotomas can exhibit relatively preserved visual acuity. Therefore, testing for retinal light sensitivity should be included as an additional outcome measure for future interventional studies.


IMPORTANCE
New methods are needed to quantify the change in the outer retinal structures in retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

OBJECTIVE
To implement an alternate method for tracking ellipsoid zone (EZ) changes in RP by quantifying the EZ area on en face spectral domain-optical coherence tomographic (SD-OCT) images.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Data for this observational case study were collected at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, Los Angeles, from May 1 to July 30, 2015, and included SD-OCT images of a subset of patients from the Trial of Oral Valproic Acid for Retinitis Pigmentosa. To be eligible for the en face OCT subanalysis, the preserved EZ area was required to be limited to the SD-OCT scanning field. Cases in which the EZ band extended to the margins of any B-scan or the most superior or inferior B-scan were excluded. The SD-OCT images of all included cases were imported into the manufacturer's software to generate en face images at the level of the EZ. Two certified SD-OCT graders independently delineated the boundaries of the preserved EZ on the en face images.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Comparison of the 2 masked gradings of the generated en face images of patients with RP for agreement between the graders and the validity of the method.

RESULTS
Of the 43 available patients with volume SD-OCT data, 45 eyes of 24 patients met the eligibility criteria and were included in this subanalysis. Every patient had 2 visits that were 1 year apart, which included a total of 90 en face OCT images that were graded. The mean (SD) absolute difference and percentage difference between the 2 independent graders for each visit were 0.08 (0.10) mm2 and 4.5% (5.9%), respectively. The EZ area determined by the 2 graders showed excellent agreement with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.996 (95% CI, 0.995-0.997; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Quantification of the preserved EZ area on en face SD-OCT images of patients with RP is a valid and reproducible method. En face SD-OCT quantification may be a useful tool for monitoring the EZ changes of patients with advanced RP and a useful outcome measurement variable in therapeutic trials.


Service has emerged as the major element of the modern world's economies, especially in the ICT industry. But the theory of service science is far behind the reality. Service science should provide theoretical basis and analysis framework for the service development. Through analyzing service science theory and current literatures, combining ICT companies' real situation and development challenge, this paper offers several suggestions for service development, and builds the general service portfolio for ICT companies. On the other hand, this application in ICT companies will facilitate service science innovation, education, research application and development.


•• I •••• THE CORN L'\DY. The story of a country teacher's work and farm arithmetic problems. By Jessie .Field. county superintendent, Page county, Ia. Chicago: A. Flanagan Company. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, 50 cents. The best country school teachers' book that has thus far been written is this "Com Lady," by Jessie Field. Of course it is wholly unlike any other that has been written, just as the school work of Miss Field is unlike any other. She has <lone what no other county superintendent has done. This is a composite book in that it has the spirit, purpose, and wisdom of 1IIiss Field in the country teacher's life. the lives and personal achievements of several individual teachers of Page county. and of many individual boys andgirls of her schools. All in all. it touches upon every vital phase of educational progress in country school and in country tife.. It is the one book thus far written that should be put ID the hands of every rural teacher in the United States. and in every Reading Circle for the co'untry teacher. By the by, when will Reading Circle committees learn that there should be choices of books offered for country teachers and city teachers, for beginners and for experienced teachers? A highly important feature of the book is a bod)' of rural arithmetic problems.


With tribasic sodium phosphate (Na3PO4) as electrolytic liquid, to adopt micro-arc oxidation (MAO) prepares titanium oxide films directly on the titanium net surface. In order to improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films prepared by micro-arc oxidation, the titanium oxide films were treated by Sulphuric acid aqueous. The structures before and after surface acid treatment were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX,and photocatalytic ability of titanium oxide coatings were evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of acid brilliant scarlet dye aqueous solution . It was found out that the titanium oxide films were mainly made of titanium and anatase. The sodium at titanium dioxide/itanium (TiO2/Ti) film surface was reduced after the Sulphuric acid treatment. The photocatalytic activity of the titanium oxide films were enhanced after Sulphuric acid treatment. When Sulphuric acidaqueous concentration is 0.1mol•L-1 and soak time is 18 hours, the TiO2/Ti films photocatalytic degradation rate increased from 15% to 31%.


This article considers the relationship between moral philosophy and constitutional theory through a detailed examination of the work of Jeremy Waldron—an unavoidable voice in contemporary constitutionalist debate. Through a rigorous, original and holistic deconstruction of his work and its philosophical implications, I argue that Waldron's engagement with core philosophy within his constitutional scholarship is wholly problematic, containing a number of ambiguities and apparent inconsistencies. These issues, I suggest, may stem from an at times rather casual treatment of the realist/anti-realist issue of core philosophy, perhaps owing something to his view that it is in fact safely irrelevant to his constitutional pursuits. In any case, this view, I argue, is misguided, and the problems which result are real: they not only create issues of theoretical consistency and clarity; they put Waldron's constitutional theory in danger. Like all good tales, I suggest there are lessons to be learned from this: one must think, and think carefully, about the philosophical background of one's work, and take care in setting this out in a clear, thorough and coherent way—the stakes are too high not to. With this in mind, this article also lays some groundwork for a path into constitutional theory firmly grounded in my own anti-realist moral scepticism.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Graduate medical education faces challenges as programs transition to the next accreditation system. Evidence supports the effectiveness of simulation for training and assessment. This study aims to describe the current use of simulation and barriers to its implementation in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship programs. METHODS: A survey was developed by consensus methods and distributed to PEM program directors via an anonymous online survey. RESULTS: Sixty-nine (95%) fellowship programs responded. Simulation-based training is provided by 97% of PEM fellowship programs; the remainder plan to within 2 years. Thirty-seven percent incorporate >20 simulation hours per year. Barriers include the following: lack of faculty time (49%) and faculty simulation experience (39%); limited support for learner attendance (35%); and lack of established curricula (32%). Of those with written simulation curricula, most focus on resuscitation (71%), procedures (63%), and teamwork/communication (38%). Thirty-seven percent use simulation to evaluate procedural competency and resuscitation management. PEM fellows use simulation to teach (77%) and have conducted simulation-based research (33%). Thirty percent participate in a fellows' "boot camp"; however, finances (27%) and availability (15%) limit attendance. Programs receive simulation funding from hospitals (47%), academic institutions (22%), and PEM revenue (17%), with 22% reporting no direct simulation funding. CONCLUSIONS: PEM fellowships have rapidly integrated simulation into their curricula over the past 5 years. Current limitations primarily involve faculty and funding, with equipment and dedicated space less significant than previously reported. Shared curricula and assessment tools, increased faculty and financial support, and regionalization could ameliorate barriers to incorporating simulation into PEM fellowships.


Children with autism have an elevated frequency of large, rare copy number variants (CNVs). However, the global load of deletions or duplications, per se, and their size, location and relationship to clinical manifestations of autism have not been documented. We examined CNV data from 516 individuals with autism or typical development from the population-based Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment (CHARGE) study. We interrogated 120 regions flanked by segmental duplications (genomic hotspots) for events >50 kbp and the entire genomic backbone for variants >300 kbp using a custom targeted DNA microarray. This analysis was complemented by a separate study of five highly dynamic hotspots associated with autism or developmental delay syndromes, using a finely tiled array platform (>1 kbp) in 142 children matched for gender and ethnicity. In both studies, a significant increase in the number of base pairs of duplication, but not deletion, was associated with autism. Significantly elevated levels of CNV load remained after the removal of rare and likely pathogenic events. Further, the entire CNV load detected with the finely tiled array was contributed by common variants. The impact of this variation was assessed by examining the correlation of clinical outcomes with CNV load. The level of personal and social skills, measured by Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, negatively correlated (Spearman's r = −0.13, P = 0.034) with the duplication CNV load for the affected children; the strongest association was found for communication (P = 0.048) and socialization (P = 0.022) scores. We propose that CNV load, predominantly increased genomic base pairs of duplication, predisposes to autism.


Abstract. The Bakken formation contains billions of barrels of oil and gas trapped in rock and shale. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing methods have allowed for extraction of these resources, leading to exponential growth of oil production in the region over the past decade. Along with this development has come an increase in associated emissions to the atmosphere. Concern about potential impacts of these emissions on federal lands in the region prompted the National Park Service to sponsor the Bakken Air Quality Study over two winters in 2013–2014. Here we provide an overview of the study and present some initial results aimed at better understanding the impact of local oil and gas emissions on regional air quality. Data from the study, along with long-term monitoring data, suggest that while power plants are still an important emissions source in the region, emissions from oil and gas activities are impacting ambient concentrations of nitrogen oxides and black carbon and may dominate recent observed trends in pollutant concentrations at some of the study sites. Measurements of volatile organic compounds also definitively show that oil and gas emissions were present in almost every air mass sampled over a period of more than 4 months.


Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) are responding to ocean–climate variability throughout the marine ecosystem of the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) where some breeding colonies have declined by 80%. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers were used to understand historical population genetic structure and gene flow given relatively recent and continuing reductions in sea ice habitats and changes in numbers of breeding adults at colonies throughout the WAP. Genetic diversity, spatial genetic structure, genetic signatures of fluctuations in population demography and gene flow were assessed in four regional Adélie penguin colonies. The analyses indicated little genetic structure overall based on bi-parentally inherited microsatellite markers (FST = -0.006–0.004). No significant variance was observed in overall haplotype frequency (mtDNA ΦST = 0.017; P= 0.112). Some comparisons with Charcot Island were significant, suggestive of female-biased philopatry. Estimates of gene flow based on a two-population coalescent model were asymmetrical from the species' regional core to its northern range. Breeding Adélie penguins of the WAP are a panmictic population and hold adequate genetic diversity and dispersal capacity to be resilient to environmental change. Received 7 February 2016, accepted 9 June 2017


List-mode processing is an efficient way of dealing with the sparse nature of PET data sets, and is the processing method of choice for time-of-flight (ToF) PET. We present a novel method of computing line projection operations required for list-mode ordered subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) for fully 3-D PET image reconstruction on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework. Our method overcomes challenges such as compute thread divergence, and exploits GPU capabilities such as shared memory and atomic operations. When applied to line projection operations for list-mode time-of-flight PET, this new GPU-CUDA reformulation is 188X faster than a single-threaded reference CPU implementation. When embedded in a multi-process environment on a GPU-equipped small cluster, a speedup of 4X was observed over the same configuration but without GPU support. Image quality is preserved with root mean squared (RMS) deviation of 0.05% between CPU and GPU-generated images, which has negligible effect in typical clinical applications.


When implemented on the nanoscale, material flows driven by gradients in temperature, sometimes known as thermocapillary flows, can be exploited for various purposes, including nanopatterning, device fabrication, and purification of arrays of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Systematic experimental and theoretical studies on thermocapillary flow in thin polymer films driven by heating in individual metallic SWNT over a range of conditions and molecular weights reveal the underlying physics of this process. The findings suggest that the zero-shear viscosity is a critical parameter that dominates the dependence on substrate temperature and heating power. The experimentally validated analytical models in this study allow assessment of sensitivity to other parameters, such as the temperature coefficient of surface tension, the thermal interface conductance, and the characteristic length scale of the heated zone.


Energy savings by integrating the daylighting availability in the electric lighting management contributes to the realization of 'Green Building'. This paper provides a simulation and calculation of office building in North China with RADIANCE software on the basis of theoretical analysis, which focuses on the influence of Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR), sill height, glazing transmittance and window shape on Lighting Savings (LS). The study finds out the relationship between those window parameters and LS. The results may be reference for designers as daylighting is involved.


Abstract: Laguna La Torrecilla, Laguna de Pinones, Laguna San Jose, and Laguna del Condado, in the San Juan, Puerto Rico area, are located within a metropolitan area of more than 1 million people. Bathymetric maps made during the study, in 1973, showed that Lagunas La Torrecilla, San Jose, and del Condado have been modified by dredging and filling; whereas, Laguna de Pinones has remained in a near natural state. Laguna La Torrecilla has been dredged to a depth, in places, of about 18 metres, and Lagunas San Jose and del Condado, in places to about 11 meters. Dredging in the San Juan lagoons has been harmful, beneficial, and in a few instances has had little or no noticeable effect on the water quality. Usually, dredging in the connecting canals has been beneficial if the water entering the lagoons through the canals was of better quality than the water in the lagoon. Dredging in the mouths of lagoons has been beneficial; whereas, filling or blocking the mouths has been harmful.


In this paper accurate measurements of temperature distribution on the facet of GaN-based diode lasers are presented as well as development of the instrumentation for high-resolution thermal imaging based on thermoreflectance. It is shown that thermoreflectance can be successfully applied to provide information on heat dissipation in these devices. We demonstrate the quantitative measurements of the temperature profiles and high-resolution temperature maps on the front facet of nitride lasers and prove that thermoreflectance spectroscopy can be considered as the accurate and fast nondestructive tool for investigation of thermally induced degradation modes of GaN lasers.


The complex multiracial/multilingual situation of Malaysia poses challenges for
local professionals, such as speech and language therapists, who work with
children. The present cross-sectional study investigated ethnic Chinese children's
simultaneous phonological acquisition of English, Mandarin and Malay, which
are the three major local languages for the Malaysian Chinese population. The
aims were to provide preliminary normative data on phonological acquisition for
this population, as well as to investigate processes underlying multilingual
phonological acquisition. Sixty-four pre-school children aged between 2;06-4;05
were recruited. A single-word naming test, a word consistency production subtest
and an intonation imitation sub-test were devised for each of the three
languages. Particular attention was paid to the characteristics of the local adult
speech varieties as the benchmark for assessing and analyzing the children's
responses on the tests. This sociolinguistic dimension has often been neglected in
previous research with similar populations, where non-local, e.g. "standard" adult
varieties have been taken to be the language model for the children being studied.
The children's phonological acquisition was analysed in term of consonants,
vowels, syllable structures, word production consistency, intonation and tones
(Mandarin only). Overall, significant developmental trends were evident for all
three languages. Most phonological components under study were acquired by
4;00-4;05. Similar phonological milestones were achieved as those reported in the
literature for monolingual and bilingual peers acquiring the same languages,
though some qualitative and quantitative differences were observed. Overall, the
patterns of phonological development that were identified reflect the interaction
of common cross-linguistic tendencies with the specific characteristics of the
three ambient languages. As well as having clinical implications, the present
findings contribute to the development of theory and models for multilingual
phonological acquisition. The reliability and validity of the test battery indicate
that it will prove a valuable tool for speech and language therapy practice and for
future research.


In this study a complete survey of all WJAE articles was conducted. The 158 titles that have appeared in the WJAE as of December 1981 are categorized by institutional category, authorship affiliation, and subject category. These results are compared to similar studies concerning the SJAE and AJAE. Our findings indicate that the WJAE has a broad range of contributors and is not dominated by any one institution, author, or group of authors. We feel that these and other interesting results are of general interest to all WJAE readers.


The creation and modification of landscape patterns through interactions among people and the environment is a defining focus in the discipline of geography. Here, we contribute to that tradition by placing 500 years of red pine (Pinus resinosa) tree-ring data in the context of archaeological, ethnographic, and paleoecological records to describe patterns of Anishinaabeg land use and fire occurrence in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) of northern Minnesota. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that stories of people, fire, and red pine are tightly interwoven in the BWCAW. We suggest that preferential use and maintenance of specific sites with fire by Border Lakes Anishinaabeg before 1900 led to the xerification of forest communities that produced conditions more desirable to people in a rugged near-boreal landscape. Today, after a century of fire absence, these sites represent fading ecological legacies that are still sought by wilderness users for their recreational values and perceived wilderness character. Ironically, protections granted by the 1964 Wilderness Act are resulting in a decline of the red pine forests once used to help justify establishment of the BWCAW. An opportunity exists for wilderness managers, users, and advocacy groups to reassess the need for active management and the strategic return of frequent fire to the aging pine forests of the BWCAW. Engaging descendent communities of the Border Lakes Anishinaabeg in these efforts could help move beyond conventional approaches to wilderness management and restore the reciprocal relationship between people, fire, and red pine in the BWCAW and beyond.


Eucalyptus nitens (Deane et Maiden) Maiden is a significant plantation species in temperate regions of the world, with breeding occurring in Australia, Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand. We reviewed published genetic parameters from over 100 field trials and calculated average values for key growth, wood property, tree architecture, and fitness traits. Parameter estimates from control-pollinated progeny trials were rare. However, numerous parameter estimates were available from open-pollinated progeny trials for several traits, such as diameter and wood basic density, suggesting that for this mating type our average parameter estimates are likely to be robust. In open-pollinated trials, average heritabilities for growth traits (e.g., h2op= 0.26 for diameter) were generally lower than those for wood property traits (e.g., h2op = 0.51 for basic density). However, this trend was reversed in average additive genetic coefficients of variation (e.g., CVa=13.3% for diameter and 4.5% for basic density). Inter-age genetic correlations for stem diameter ranged from 0.68 to 1.00 but were not available for important wood property traits (e.g., cellulose content and pulp yield). For most traits, inter-site genetic correlations were, on average, positive and strong (e.g., rg =0.70 for diameter) but some weak individual estimates were observed. The average genetic correlation between diameter and basic density was –0.27. Few estimates of genetic correlations for pulp yield (or cellulose content) with diameter and basic density were available. Estimates of genetic parameters for solidwood traits were also uncommon in the literature.


The avirulence gene avrPph3 from Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola was tested for its ability to convert virulent P. syringae pv. tomato strain DC3000 to avirulence on Arabidopsis. In F2 plants from a cross between resistant and susceptible ecotypes, the ratio of resistant to susceptible plants was approximately 3:1, indicating that resistance to DC3000(avrPph3) is determined by a single dominant locus, which we have designated RPS5. RPS5 was mapped to chromosome 1, between restriction fragment length polymorphism markers m241 and g3786.


This report is based on many years of working experience in the field of health promotion and sexual education of girls. The hypothetically assumed relation between the subjective feeling of well-being and pubertal influences is reflected in figures. The results reveal strong irritations regarding bodily, affective and social factors which the girls have to cope with. High acceptance is documented for discussions about health and sexuality with a medical expert. Rubella vaccination is recommended as a starting point for activities of the Public Health Service in preventive work with girls in schools.


A study was designed to provide an initial context for framing the most pressing questions in the teaching of literature. To do this, thP teaching of English in the high school classrooms of teachers whose departments were considered excellent by other professionals in education was examined. The issues that emerged in the programs with reputations for excellence should help to define how well current theory and practice in the teaching of literature work, as well as areas that may need further development. The study involved 17 schools in diverse communities throughout the United States. In addition to monitoring classes at each school, the observers interviewed teachers, librarians, and department heads, and collected completed questionnaires from each of these groups. Results suggest that the. emphasis on literature instruction has remained relatively constant since tJ'e middle 1960s in programs with reputations for excellence in English. Fifty-two percent of the class time observed was devoted to literature. The emphasis on writing instruction has increased, with instruction now focused on literature 75% of the time. The data gathered serve to highlight a series of important issues that arise in schools where the teachers and the department as a whole have given careful thought and attention to what and how they teach. Four issues which emerged represent the growing edges of current theory and practice; they concern the need to: (1) provide institutional support for literature programs; (2) revitalize literature instruction for nonacademic students; (3) reconcile approaches to literature with approaches to writing; and (4) develop a theory of learning/teaching literature that will guide the rethinking of high school instruction. (Twenty-two tables of data are included.) (MG) The Teaching of Literature in Programs with Reputations for Excellence in Eng liPh


During the 10 days commencing April 29, 2013, the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory received the first 4 of many submissions from swine farms experiencing explosive epidemics of diarrhea and vomiting affecting all ages, with 90–95% mortality in suckling pigs. Histology revealed severe atrophy of villi in all segments of the small intestines with occasional villus-epithelial syncytial cells, but testing for rotaviruses and Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (Alphacoronavirus 1) were negative. Negative-staining electron microscopy of feces revealed coronavirus-like particles and a pan-coronavirus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) designed to amplify a conserved region of the polymerase gene for all members in the family Coronaviridae produced expected 251-bp amplicons. Subsequent sequencing and analysis revealed 99.6–100% identity among the PCR amplicons from the 4 farms and 97–99% identity to the corresponding portion of the polymerase gene of Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) strains, with the highest identity (99%) to strains from China in 2012. Findings were corroborated at National Veterinary Services Laboratories using 2 nested S-gene and 1 nested N-gene PCR tests where the sequenced amplicons also had the highest identity with 2012 China strains. Whole genome sequence for the virus from 2 farms in 2 different states using next-generation sequencing technique was compared to PEDV sequences available in GenBank. The 2013 U.S. PEDV had 96.6–99.5% identity with all known PEDV strains and the highest identity (>99.0%) to some of the 2011–2012 Chinese strains. The nearly simultaneous outbreaks of disease, and high degree of homology (99.6–100%) between the PEDV strains from the 4 unrelated farms, suggests a common source of virus.


Background: Langerin is a receptor in the immune system that binds sugars on pathogens. Results: The effects of genetic variations that cause changes in the sugar-binding site of human langerin have been investigated. Conclusion: Two common, linked, variations in the gene for human langerin change sugar specificity of langerin. Significance: Individuals with variant forms of langerin may have altered susceptibility to pathogenic microorganisms. Langerin, a C-type lectin on Langerhans cells, mediates carbohydrate-dependent uptake of pathogens in the first step of antigen presentation to the adaptive immune system. Langerin binds a diverse range of carbohydrates including high mannose structures, fucosylated blood group antigens, and glycans with terminal 6-sulfated galactose. Mutagenesis and quantitative binding assays indicate that salt bridges between the sulfate group and two lysine residues compensate for the nonoptimal binding of galactose at the primary Ca2+ site. A commonly occurring single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in human langerin results in change of one of these lysine residues, Lys-313, to isoleucine. Glycan array screening reveals that this amino acid change abolishes binding to oligosaccharides with terminal 6SO4-Gal and enhances binding to oligosaccharides with terminal GlcNAc residues. Structural analysis shows that enhanced binding to GlcNAc may result from Ile-313 packing against the N-acetyl group. The K313I polymorphism is tightly linked to another SNP that results in the change N288D, which reduces affinity for glycan ligands by destabilizing the Ca2+-binding site. Langerin with Asp-288 and Ile-313 shows no binding to 6SO4-Gal-terminated glycans and increased binding to GlcNAc-terminated structures, but overall decreased binding to glycans. Altered langerin function in individuals with the linked N288D and K313I polymorphisms may affect susceptibility to infection by microorganisms.


ABSTRACT Currently, elements of ship procurement such as stores, lubricants, manning and various regulatory obligations represent a considerable amount of daily running costs. Specifically, ship provision decision-making consists of many uncertainties and a wide number of decision parameters due to the regional price and product quality differences. The primary objective of this study is to establish a decision support system for provision decision-making process. In order to achieve this, a policy management algorithm framework integrating the Delphi Technique (DT) and the Hesitant Fuzzy Set (HFS) approach was established. In the Delphi process, a survey was distributed to a group of experts from regional shipping companies. The overall consensus revealed that ship location, company policy, and inventory of products could be determined as the main decision-criteria consisting of various attributes which are expressed with linguistic terms. In order to transform linguistics terms to numerical values, the HFS was applied. This integrated methodological framework was also applied to selected case studies of two ships. It was found that it would be possible to reduce daily provision cost per crew from $10.36 to $8.24 and from $16.16 to $11.64, and to save, respectively, $19717.45 and $7404.45 within 453 and 470 days for given ships.


This study evaluates the nutrient content and sensory attributes of soymilk fortified with carrot powder. Carrots, soybeans, sugar and flavourings were bought from local retailers in Ogige main market, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. The fresh carrots were washed, scrapped, trimmed, sliced, sundried, grinded, packaged and stored in a labeled polythene bag. The soybean seeds were sorted, cleaned, washed, soaked for 18 h, drained and blanched for 25 min at 89°C. The blanched beans were pulverized with hot water; the paste formed was diluted with water at 1:5 and then sieved to get the soymilk. The soymilk was cooked for 23 min at 87°C. Flavor agents and sugar were added and 20 g each of carrot powder was added to 500 and 600 ml of soymilk, respectively. The proximate composition, vitamin and mineral contents of the samples were determined using standard methods. Sensory attributes were also evaluated. The result reveals that the proximate composition, vitamin and mineral contents of the fortified soymilk (CS2 and CS3) were higher than the plain soymilk (CS1). Sensory evaluation of soymilk indicated that Sample CS1 was preferred to CS3, while CS2 was least preferred. Carrot powder addition to soymilk improved its micronutrients content.

 Key words: Chemical, sensory, evaluation, soymilk, carrot powder, fortified.


Octopodoidea are a highly versatile and diverse group of marine predators comprising > 200 species today; however, their diversity and ecology in deep time are virtually unknown. Because these soft-bodied cephalopods have a low preservation potential, only a single body fossil species has been documented. Unlike other modern cephalopods, octopodoids leave behind a characteristic drill hole on their molluscan and crustacean prey. These traces provide a means to track their presence and behaviour in deep time. Although severely understudied, some of such holes have been documented from the Eocene–Pleistocene fossil record. We document the oldest recognized drill holes attributed to octopodoids, found in lucinid bivalves from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of South Dakota, USA. These observations demonstrate that the drilling habit of these animals evolved early in the evolutionary history of Octopodoidea, ~25 Myr earlier than was previously known. The drilled lucinids lived in cold methane seeps in the Western Interior Seaway. These predation traces have never been found in fossil seeps previously, thus adding a new predator to the food web of cold seeps. Finally, our results provide direct evidence that Octopodoidea were an integral component of the rise of shell-destroying predators during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution.


Hydrocarbon fuels have been used as a cooling media in aircraft jet engines for many years. However, advanced aircraft engines are reaching a practical heat transfer limit beyond which the sensible heat transfer provided by fuels is no longer adequate. One solution is to use an endothermic fuel that absorbs heat through chemical reactions. A two-dimensional computational model is developed to calculate the heat and mass transport associated with a flowing fuel using a unique global chemical kinetics model. Most past models do not account for changes in the chemical composition of a flowing fuel and also do not adequately predict flow properties in the supercritical regime. The two-dimensional computational model presented calculates the changing flow properties of a supercritical reacting fuel by use of experimentally derived proportional product distributions. The calculations are validated by measured experimental data obtained from a flow reactor in which n-decane and n-dodecane are mildly cracked. It is believed that these simulations will assist the fundamental understanding of high-temperature fuel flow experiments.


The increasing bandwidth demand in data-centers requires wireline transceivers supporting >50Gb/s/lane data-rates with low power consumption. Because link utilization in data-centers is <10% for 99% of the links [1] a promising way to reduce power consumption is fine-grained power gating, where the link is powered off during idle time. For rapid on/off functionality to be efficient with short data bursts, the link needs to wake up within a few ns, which is challenging at high speeds. Burst mode operation was previously demonstrated at 25Gb/s with 18.5ns lock-time [2] without power cycling.


We document individual willingness to fight climate change and its behavioral determinants in a large representative sample of US adults. Willingness to fight climate change – as measured through an incentivized donation decision – is highly heterogeneous across the population. Individual beliefs about social norms, economic preferences such as patience and altruism, as well as universal moral values positively predict climate preferences. Moreover, we document systematic misperceptions of prevalent social norms. Respondents vastly underestimate the prevalence of climate- friendly behaviors and norms among their fellow citizens. Providing respondents with correct information causally raises individual willingness to fight climate change as well as individual support for climate policies. The effects are strongest for individuals who are skeptical about the existence and threat of global warming.


It is known that hypothyroidism delays puberty in mammals. Interaction between the hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) and hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes may be important processes in delayed puberty. Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) is a newly discovered hypothalamic neuropeptide that inhibits gonadotropin synthesis and release in quail. It now appears that GnIH is conserved across various mammals and primates, including humans, and inhibits reproduction. We have further demonstrated that GnIH is involved in pubertal delay induced by thyroid dysfunction in female mice. Hypothyroidism delays pubertal onset with the increase in hypothalamic GnIH expression and the decrease in circulating gonadotropin and estradiol levels. Thyroid status regulates GnIH expression by epigenetic modification of the GnIH promoter region. Furthermore, knockout of GnIH gene abolishes the effect of hypothyroidism on delayed pubertal onset. Accordingly, it is considered that GnIH is a mediator of pubertal disorder induced by thyroid dysfunction. This is a novel function of GnIH that interacts between the HPT-HPG axes in pubertal onset delay. This mini-review summarizes the structure, expression, and function of GnIH and highlights the action of GnIH in pubertal disorder induced by thyroid dysfunction.