A vision-based smart building control system relies upon human action recognition to determine the number of occupants inside the building and their respective motion type or path. Using this information, a control system that can automatically optimise environmental conditions within the building can be designed. Furthermore, information obtained is also used to aid in other domains such as security and surveillance, interactive application with environment, and content-based video analysis. Current work relating to the recognition task is divided into two processes: human action extraction and human action classification. This paper starts by identifying the distinct difference between global and local extraction methods. The extraction methods filter out features, such as silhouette, colour, edge, motion and interest point, from images for analysing observed human actions. In terms of human action classification, two key methods known as the k-nearest neighbour approach and hidden Markov model are presented and discussed. Lastly, the paper provides a brief summary highlighting gaps and possible milestones for future work.


In this paper, we report generalization performance by a new type of efficient learning method called teacher-directed learning. In the method, information on targets or teachers is supposed to be maximized before learning. This teacher information directs input patterns to activate correct competitive units. Because connection weights on teachers are all fixed to maximize information, we have only to update a small number of connections concerning input units and competitive units. Thus, the new method is computationally efficient. However, generalization performance of the new method has not been evaluated. In this paper, we use the Iris problem and the voting attitude problem to show that generalization performance is better than conventional methods. In addition, experimental results reconfirm that we can obtain clearer internal representations.


Research Issue: Transplanted modern laws from the Western might be ill suited for China, because they are alien and reflects Western ideals and values. Looking back into China's own rich history, there appeared to be an effective indigenous system regulating governance, one that was non-legal and based on Confucian doctrines governing Chinese merchants for centuries. Therefore, it might be prudent to revisit and revive such value based, norm driven self-regulated system to regulate corporate governance in China. Research Findings/Insights: At the heart of this Confucian centered benchmark, is the notion of san gang wu chang. This system of governance is not state or rule centered, rather this is a value based, norm driven, and community enforced framework, aimed at creating social harmony. These Confucian moral values aspire to higher standards of behaviour, much greater than what laws could because it is archetype standards of a righteous person. History has shown that in China's regions like An Hui and Shan Xi merchants had voluntary observed these Confucian traditions. There was even a Chinese terminology to describe merchants that adhere to such self-regulatory standards, known as ru shang. More importantly, such self-regulatory governance measure had worked in China for centuries. Theoretical/Academic Implications: First, this study contradicts myths and misleading claims by observers like Max Weber who claimed that Confucianism had prevented China from developing capitalistic economy. Second, the analysis of san gang wu chang, as a governance and regulatory mechanism, it appears to work as a community of practice at the macro level, and on a micro level compliance is motivated by an individual's beliefs and compulsion to do so. This was more than an ideal for the reason that moral benchmarks combined with hierarchical order creates a socially binding set of obligations. Examples from An Hui and Shan Xi had offered antidotal evidence of how this Confucian centered system was reaised. Furthermore, this regime was far more complex and sophisticated than a set of moral principles. Unlike rules, it was flexible with harmony, instead of set of laws as its an end goal. Practitioner/Policy Implications: China had an indigenous set of governance code that was no less effective than contemporary Western laws and thus should look at its own rich history and culture to provide an alternative set of company laws, one that is based on Confucianism. This is not to say that Chinese or Confucian centred regulatory order is necessarily superior to Western models, rather this is intended to offer greater variety to suit different types of investors and incorporators in China. This alternative is expected to be more culturally receptive from a Chinese perspective. Critics might argue that this is unnecessary. This paper argues that the present choice of different Western models of governance are based on Judo-Christian heritage and elements of Roman civil law dating back to the Roman Empire, all of which might be culturally estranged and meaningless beyond superficial compliance for the Chinese. Yet this paper does not advocate the removal of existing Western modeled corporate laws in China, the regulation solution would most likely be the establishment of a pluralistic governance regime, one the international markets are familiar with and the other, a Confucian based Chinese framework for those who subscribe to Confucian values.


Radioactive decay of super heavy nuclei via the emission of α-particles has been studied theoretically in the preformed cluster model (PCM). The nucleus-nucleus (NN) potential is obtained by double folding the density distributions of the α-particle and the daughter nucleus with a realistic effective interaction. The M3Y effective interaction, supplemented by a zero-range pseudo-potential for exchange term, is used to calculate the NN potential. The α decay half-lives for 317 nuclei at Z = 102–120 are performed in the PCM framework with the theoretical Q values extracted from the Moller-Nix-Kratz and Liran-Marinov-Zeldes mass tables and are compared with the experimental data. The calculated results are also compared with those obtained by using Q values from the Muntian-Hofmann-Patyk-Sobiczewski and Myers–Swiatecki mass estimates.


Learning advisors provide academic literacy development support in a variety of configurations, ranging from one-on-one consultations through to large-scale lectures. Such lectures can be generic, stand-alone modules or embedded within a discipline-specific course. Pragmatic and institutional considerations suggest that a generic model of delivery often has an effective role to play; however, there are strong pedagogical arguments for adopting an embedded approach wherever possible. The practice of embedding literacy interventions within subject papers is time-consuming and often logistically challenging; therefore, in order to help learning advisors, their managers and academic staff in faculties to consider the issues, options and constraints in a systematic manner, this paper proposes a best-practice model drawing from over two decades of literature and the authors' practical experience over the same period in New Zealand and overseas. In order to elucidate the model, the paper critiques an embedded academic literacy skills programme facilitated by an interdisciplinary studies unit at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand. The programme is embedded in a core paper entitled Knowledge, Enquiry and Communication (KEC) which is a prerequisite for entry into all of the Health Science programmes. As well as describing key features which have contributed to the success of the programme, the authors identify several key factors which need to be taken into account when considering embedded academic literacy initiatives


The GO2/ethanol/water tripropellant evaporation and combustion in axisymmetric combustion chamber was numerically simulated. The different characteristics of the evaporation and combustion between dilative and traditional un-dilative entrance, and the different dilation-angles of the combustion chamber entrance are analyzed. The results indicate that the dilative entrance combustion chamber is benefit for thermal protection of the injection, and the flamelet backpedals with increase of the entrance dilation-angle. At the same time, that dilative inlet combustion chamber reduces the evaporation of the liquid component seriously. The evaporation rate decreases with the increase of the dilation-angle at first, but after the dilation-angle is bigger than a critical one, it increases.


In today's world, technology has become a vital component of our day-to-day lives; impacting everything from the pictures we take to the ways we communicate to the methods we use to safeguard important pieces of data. It should therefore come as no surprise that many cultural institutions, including galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, have been forced to adapt not only their collection policies but also their preservation methods to accommodate the ever-changing technologies and formats making their way into permanent collections. One technique that has been gaining popularity in recent years is digital forensics, a criminal science approach with a surprising correlation to the needs of cultural institutions with digital content. While digital forensics and cultural institutions share a common need for legal document authentication and controlled archival storage, the question remains: how practical are these techniques for collecting institutions outside of government archives? Is digital forensics to become accepted archival management practice, or are cultural institutions likely to continue their current practices for handling digital materials while still searching for a better solution? These questions will be explored through an analysis and comparison of BitCurator and Archivematica, common digital forensics software packages currently in use within many cultural institutions. This presentation will review personal experiences with these programs gained through a Fall 2014 internship with the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries, Special Collections. This internship was undertaken as part of the internship and research writing requirements of the Certificate in Digital Curation program offered at the Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, assessments of current literature on the topic will be evaluated in order to give a big picture image of how digital forensics might be utilized, so that cultural institution personnel can better assess the practicality of digital forensics within any given collection.


CONTEXT
Strontium ranelate reduces vertebral and nonvertebral fracture risk in postmenopausal osteoporosis.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of strontium ranelate in osteoporosis in men over 2 years (main analysis after 1 year).

DESIGN
This was an international, unbalanced (2:1), double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial (MALEO [MALE Osteoporosis]).

SETTING
This international study included 54 centers in 14 countries.

PARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS were 261 white men with primary osteoporosis.

INTERVENTION
Strontium ranelate at 2 g/d (n = 174) or placebo (n = 87) was administered.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Lumbar spine (L2-L4), femoral neck, and total hip bone mineral density (BMD), biochemical bone markers, and safety were measured.

RESULTS
Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups in the whole population (age, 72.9 ± 6.0 years; lumbar spine BMD T-score, -2.7 ± 1.0; femoral neck BMD T-score, -2.3 ± 0.7). Men who received strontium ranelate over 2 years had greater increases in lumbar spine BMD than those who received placebo (relative change from baseline to end, 9.7% ± 7.5% vs 2.0% ± 5.5%; between-group difference estimate (SE), 7.7% (0.9%); 95% confidence interval, 5.9%-9.5%; P < .001). There were also significant between-group differences in relative changes in femoral neck BMD (P < .001) and total hip BMD (P < .001). At the end of treatment, mean levels of serum cross-linked telopeptides of type I collagen, a marker of bone resorption, were increased in both the strontium ranelate group (10.7% ± 58.0%; P = .022) and the placebo group (34.9% ± 65.8%; P < .001). The corresponding mean changes of bone alkaline phosphatase, a marker of bone formation, were 6.4% ± 28.5% (P = .005) and 1.9% ± 25.4% (P = .505), respectively. After 2 years, the blood strontium level (129 ± 66 μmol/L) was similar to that in trials of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Strontium ranelate was generally well tolerated.

CONCLUSIONS
The effects of strontium ranelate on BMD in osteoporotic men were similar to those in postmenopausal osteoporotic women, supporting its use in the treatment of osteoporosis in men.


We examine the ability of a target zone to stabilize exchange rates in the presence of two stylised forms of market inefficiency - stochastic bubbles and "fads". We show how the usual saddlepath phase diagram is modified in the presence of bubbles (both where fundamentals are deterministic and where they are stochastic), and how a credible policy to defend a target zone prevents the emergence of any such bubbles. In the case of fads, we suppose that the source of shocks driving the exchange rate from its long-run equilibrium level is the fluctuating sentiment of "noise traders". The presence of "smart money" in the market exerts a stabilizing influence upon the exchange rate even in the absence of a target zone. In the presence of a fully credible target zone, where the authorities can take the necessary actions to check the swings in market sentiment, we use results on regulated Brownian motion to characterise the exchange rate trajectory, and demonstrate that the stabilizing influence of "smart money" is increased.


This paper proposes a new test for a large set of zero restrictions in regression models based on a seemingly overlooked, but simple, dimension reduction technique. The procedure involves multiple parsimonious regression models where key regressors are split across simple regressions. Each parsimonious regression model has one key regressor and other regressors not associated with the null hypothesis. The test is based on the maximum of the squared parameters of the key regressors. Parsimony ensures sharper estimates and therefore improves power in small sample. We present the general theory of our test and focus on mixed frequency Granger causality as a prominent application involving many zero restrictions.


An alternative strategy for blocking the shuttling of soluble polysulfides in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries involved introducing an interlayer between the cathode and separator. However, tailoring the interlayer components, structure, and chemistry to realize efficient conversion of polysulfides into insoluble lithium sulfides remains challenging. Herein, a flexible self-standing hybrid interlayer is engineered by intertwining one-dimensional (1D) V2O5 nanowires (NWs) with graphene nanoscrolls (GNS) into a robust interconnected 3D network to be used as both an upper current collector and physical/chemical polysulfide-trapper. The highly conductive and open GNS framework provides bicontinuous transfer channels for rapid electron and ion transport across the cathode/separator interface. Meanwhile, the V2O5 NWs act as ideal redox mediators to dynamically block polysulfide dissolution and facilitate their conversion into sulfides via formation of active intermediate polythionate complexes. Therefore, these cells with 70 wt% sulfur content in the whole cathode have significantly improved performance with a long cycling life (1000 cycles), low capacity decay (0.041% per cycle), and considerable areal capacity (>4 mA h cm−2), even at a high sulfur loading of 5.5 mg cm−2. This novel interlayer design strategy has great potential for promoting the practical use of Li–S batteries.


EJN publishes research that represents the entire spectrum of the neurosciences. The content and style of the description of the statistical methods and the statistical results in the manuscripts submitted to EJN reflect the diverse customs of the many fields of neuroscientific research. Although EJN embraces these heterogeneous reporting and writing styles, we need to ensure a consistent description of statistical methods and results in our published papers. By definition, a scientific article should permit researchers to reproduce the study described in this article; to this end, an informative and complete description of statistical methods and results is an essential component of an effective scientific report. The aim of this editorial is to provide guidance for the reporting of statistical methods and results. We consulted numerous specialized sources (referenced below) as well as comprehensive guidelines such as Lang & Secic (2006). Finally, the Associate Editors of EJN were consulted. As a result, the present recommendations constitute a component of the EJN Author Guidelines. Statistical methods continue to be debated and to evolve as indicated, for example, by the ongoing discussion about mixed-effect regression models or planned comparisons as alternative approaches to traditional repeated measures ANOVAs and omnibus tests (Lavori, 1990; Gueorguieva & Krystal, 2004; Gonzalez, 2008). The present recommendations should not be viewed as a partisan stance with respect to this or other, sometimes more fundamental, discussions about the use of statistical methods and traditional null hypothesis testing (e.g. Shrout, 1997). The selection of the statistical approaches and the explanation and justification of methods remain the sole responsibilities of the authors. We expect that future 'Technical Spotlight' articles will bring some of the new developments in statistics to the readers of EJN.


VGF (non-acronymic) is a ~68 kDa neurosecretory protein, belongs to the extended granin family of proteins, initially identified as a nerve growth factor (NGF) inducible gene product, is selectively synthesised mostly in neuronal and neuroendocrine cells. Due to the presence of paired basic amino acid residues (R ? Arginine, and K ? Lysine), the VGF sequence undergoes endoproteolytic cleavage to produce several smaller peptides, released upon stimulation via the regulated secretory pathway both in vitro and in vivo. There are data suggesting that the VGF-derived peptides are the biologically active, stored in dense core vesicles and secreted in order to play a role in inter cellular communication, and responsible for the diverse range of biological functions associated with VGF. Several of these VGF-derived peptides have been characterised and are involved in energy balance, reproductive behaviour, pain modulation and mood order.
Till now, the best characterized VGF derived peptide is designated as TLQP-21. As growing data is accumulating on the several significant biological effects of TLQP-21 like energy balance, pain modulation, gastric, reproduction, stress, diabetes; identification of its receptor(s) is of particular relevance. In light of this extensive array of effects, the very limited knowledge about its molecular mechanisms of TLQP-21 is remarkable. Recently, C3AR1 and gC1qR have been reported as receptors of murine TLQP-21. However, human TLQP-21 whose sequence shows differences with respect to murine TLQP-21, exhibits at best very weak binding to these receptors, suggesting the existence of different receptors for human vs rodent TLQP-21.
Here using affinity chromatography and mass spectrometry-based protein identification, the heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein A8 (HSPA8) has been identified as a receptor of human TLQP-21. Binding of TLQP-21 to membrane associated HSPA8 in live SH-SY5Y cells was confirmed by cross-linking and FACS studies. Furthermore, molecular modeling studies show that TLQP-21 can be docked into the peptide binding pocket of HSPA8. The major task moving forward is to elucidate the signaling pathways of the ligand TLQP-21 and its receptor HSPA8. Identification of HSPA8 as a receptor of human TLQP-21 could open new approaches for diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide range of human diseases related with VGF, in particular those in which TLQP-21 has been shown to have an effect.


Natural seminal plasma was used for the expulsion of dead fetuses in 153 cases of IUFD. The natural product was sterilized, diluted with saline, and injected extra-amniotically into the intra-uterine space. The fetal expulsions in these cases were safe and were not accompanied by any complications. This is a novel method with simple procedures, low costs, and with a promising potential for further improvements and worldwide use.


The effects of maternal active and passive smoking during pregnancy on childhood central nervous system (CNS) tumours were assessed in a population-based case-control study. The mothers of 244 children aged 0-15 years with CNS tumours and 502 control mothers were interviewed about their smoking habits. All families were resident in the region of Lombardy, Italy. Risk estimates were calculated by unconditional logistic regression, adjusted for age, sex and area of residence. Active smoking by the parents before pregnancy was not associated with increased risk of CNS tumours in the children. Active smoking by the mother during early pregnancy (approximately the first 5 weeks) was associated with a slightly increased risk of the child developing a CNS tumour (odds ratio [OR] 1.5 [95% CI 1.0, 2.3]). An increased risk of CNS tumours was found in the children of non-smoking mothers exposed regularly to tobacco smoke both in early pregnancy (OR 1.8 [95% CI 1.2, 2.6]) and in late pregnancy (OR 1.7 [95% CI 1.2, 2.5]). Although this study was retrospective, the results confirm our previous findings and suggest an association between the risk of developing CNS tumours in children and regular passive smoking by the mother during pregnancy.


Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is becoming more and more important with the advance of multimedia and imaging technology. Among many retrieval features associated with CBIR, texture retrieval is one of the most difficult. This is mainly because no satisfactory quantitative definition of texture exists at this time, and also because of the complex nature of the texture itself. Another difficult problem in CBIR is query by low-quality images, which means attempts to retrieve images using a poor quality image as a query. Not many content-based retrieval systems have addressed the problem of query by low-quality images. Wavelet analysis is a relatively new and promising tool for signal and image analysis. Its time-scale representation provides both spatial and frequency information, thus giving extra information compared to other image representation schemes. This research aims to address some of the problems of query by texture and query by low quality images by exploiting all the advantages that wavelet analysis has to offer, particularly in the context of museum image collections. A novel query by low-quality images algorithm is presented as a solution to the problem of poor retrieval performance using conventional methods. In the query by texture problem, this thesis provides a comprehensive evaluation on wavelet-based texture method as well as comparison with other techniques. A novel automatic texture segmentation algorithm and an improved block oriented decomposition is proposed for use in query by texture. Finally all the proposed techniques are integrated in a content-based image retrieval application for museum image collections.


The problem of interpolating data points using a smooth function has many existing solutions. In particular, the use of piecewise polynomials (splines) has provided solutions with user controlled smoothness. In this paper we introduce a new interpolation procedure which utilizes multiple knot Hermitian splines. The technique renders the interpolating spline function using fixed point shifts and additions. In applications requiring parallel computation the use of these simpler operations implies a significant reduction in hardware complexity.


A completely implantable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) designed for permanent circulatory support has recently been tested in animals without the use of percutaneous leads, using transcutaneous energy transmission and wireless telemetry. The LVAD consists of a brushless DC motor and rollerscrew energy converter, a pusher plate actuated blood pump with a seamless segmented polyurethane blood sac, Bjork-Shiley Delrin disk monostrut valves, an implanted compliance chamber, an implanted electronic controller and battery, and a transcutaneous energy transmission system. The blood pump/energy converter assembly weighs 565 g and displaces 295 cc. The dynamic stroke volume is 60 ml, and the maximum output is 9 L/min. Pump output is automatically controlled to maintain full stroke volume as preload varies. Hall effect sensors for detecting rotary position of the motor are the only sensors used. Six bovine implants were performed, with durations of 84, 208, 244, 130, 70 (ongoing), and 15 (ongoing) days. Four animals used two-way telemetry, whereas the remaining two used one-way (outgoing) telemetry. These first chronic in vivo tests with the Penn State completely implanted LVAD system have demonstrated that it is a feasible solution to long-term ventricular support.


Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is the most potent and specific inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH). This compound was reported to bind the NAD site of IMPDH and mimic the binding of nicotinamide moiety of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. We linked MPA derivatives with the adenine moiety of NAD through a methylenebis(phosphonate) bridge to form novel mycophenolic adenine dinucleotides (MADs) which resemble well the intact natural cofactor. The MAD analogues differ by the length of the side chain (linker) between the aromatic ring of mycophenolic derivative and the -phosphorus atom of the adenosine bis(phosphonate) moiety. Regardless of the linker size, MADs were found to be
potent inhibitors of human IMPDH type I and type II with Ki's = 0.25-0.52 f..LM, an order of
magnitude less potent than MPA itself (Ki = 0.01-0.04 f..LM). The growth of K562 cells was inhibited by MPA (IC50 = 0.3 f..LM) and the MAD analogues (IC50 = 0.1-1.5 f..LM) with a similar
potency. Accordingly, a suppression of alloantigen-induced proliferation of human lymphocytes by the MAD analogues at concentration of 10-20 f..LM was equally effective as that observed for MPA. In contrast to MPA, MAD analogues were found to be resistant to glucuronidation in vitro. Since therapeutic potential of MPA is limited by its undesirable glucuronidation, the glucuronidation-resistant MAD analogues may be superior immunosuppressants if they are not glucuronidated in vivo.


This thesis describes the in-orbit measurements, design and simulation of error-control strategies and channel modelling for low-Earth orbiting satellites, specifically in a restrictive small satellite platform. The motivation to pursue such a direction is the quest to optimise the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication link. Until a few years ago, advanced designs for satellite communications systems had focused on conventional geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) communication technologies which are not necessarily tailored to the LEO environment. Such sub-optimal designs were accommodated by the typical application of LEO satellites remote sensing satellites normally being large satellites equipped with huge parabolic dishes. With the recent rapid development in numerous LEO satellite constellations and trend in the satellite industry towards smaller and affordable satelhtes, the prominence of satellites in LEO cannot be ignored and it has become crucial to efficiently utilise the communications link. Until now, a suitable channel model for low-Earth orbit satellites has not existed. In order to provide a viable satellite network, a proper knowledge of the dynamic characteristics of the link is essential. A UHF measurement campaign from the UoSAT -3 microsatellite in LEO was therefore undertaken and analysis of the error statistics provides unique information on the channel behaviour for a broad range of elevation angles. The thesis has investigated generative Markov models as a means of representing the observed error statistics and established that the LEO satellite channel can be accurately described by a multiple-good-state, one-error state Fritchman model, or a four-state Markov model under special circumstances which are outlined. Various error control strategies have been evaluated based on the in-orbit measured data and proposed channel models, therefore verifying the precision of the Fritchman and four-state Markov models. During the course of this work, two schemes comprising type-II hybrid-ARQ based on punctured Reed Solomon codes and byte interleaving were investigated and the tradeoffs were identified. A novel type-II + delay hybrid protocol has been proposed and has been demonstrated to provide further increases in throughput performance. The principal conclusion from this thesis is that, using the results of the measurement campaign with an in-orbit satellite, it has been possible to generate a realistic fading model for use in future planning for LEO satellite systems. Furthermore, the type-II, type-II+delay hybrid and byte interleaving techniques are shown to provide an improvement in throughput performance of the existing store-andforward communications protocol with varying tradeoffs between the techniques.


SUMMARY: Twenty-nine strains of streptococci from patients with subacute bacterial endocarditis, three type cultures of Streptococcus sanguis, and eighty strains of streptococci from the blood of persons after dental extraction were tested physiologically and serologically. Six endocarditis strains fall into Lancefield group H and four into Lancefield group D; the remaining nineteen were serologically heterogenous. Thirteen of the endocarditis strains produced a serologically reactive dextran in sucrose broth. Of these five were group H streptococci; the rest represented several serological types. Of the three dextran-producing strains of Str. sanguis examined, types I and I/II were placed in Lancefield group H, whereas type II was serologically distinct. The eighty strains from dental bacteraemias included ten which produced a dextran; five of these were group H streptococci.


Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) topographic data provide highly accurate digital terrain information, which is used widely in applications like creating flood insurance rate maps, forest and tree studies, coastal change mapping, soil and landscape classification, 3D urban modeling, river bank management, agricultural crop studies, etc. In this paper, we focus mainly on the use of LiDAR data in terrain modeling/Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generation. Technological advancements in building LiDAR sensors have enabled highly accurate and highly dense LiDAR point clouds, which have made possible high resolution modeling of terrain surfaces. However, high density data result in massive data volumes, which pose computing issues. Computational time required for dissemination, processing and storage of these data is directly proportional to the volume of the data. We describe a novel technique based on the slope map of the terrain, which addresses the challenging problem in the area of spatial data analysis, of reducing this dense LiDAR data without sacrificing its accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever landscape-driven data reduction algorithm. We also perform an empirical study, which shows that there is no significant loss in accuracy for the DEM generated from a 52% reduced LiDAR dataset generated by our algorithm, compared to the DEM generated from an original, complete LiDAR dataset. For the accuracy of our statistical analysis, we perform Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) comparing all of the grid points of the original DEM to the DEM generated by reduced data, instead of comparing a few random control points. Besides, our multi-core data reduction algorithm is highly scalable. We also describe a modified parallel Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) spatial interpolation method and show that the DEMs it generates are time-efficient and have better accuracy than the one's generated by the traditional IDW method.


The self-aggregation of inherently chiral, (l)-proline functionalised Cu and Zn porphyrin derivatives has been investigated in different aqueous organic solvent media. The results indicate that the title species form self-assembled structures expressing supramolecular chirality by the amplification of the stereochemical information stored on the l-prolinate functionality. A substantial difference of the aggregation modes, and the chiroptical features of the final supramolecular species for the two investigated complexes, is clearly imputable to the metal ions, having a different coordination ability toward solvent molecules. Detailed kinetic investigation performed by combining different spectroscopy techniques allowed the definition of the reaction mechanisms involved in these processes. The results described are of importance, for example, for the achievement of stereoselective devices and sensors.


Focus related phenomena have long been used to draw conclusions about the syntax and semantics of anaphora. I use examples in which focus is the result of information-structural considerations to argue for a semantics of reflexive anaphors. I show that a theory that treats reflexive anaphors as reflexivizing functions is empirically superior to theories that interpret them like variables. The discussion also leads to some interesting conclusions about focus theory. It is argued that the domain of application of the relevant information-structural notion should be limited to verb phrases and sentences and that the relevant economy condition should be localized accordingly.


OBJECTIVES
Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a rare vasculitis in childhood and poor information is known about its long-term outcome. Our aim was to describe the clinical features, at onset and during the disease course, of childhood-onset PAN and identify a potential correlation with persistent organ damage and worse outcome in a cohort of paediatric patients with a confirmed diagnosis of PAN.

METHODS
A retrospective collection of demographic and clinical data of 52 Caucasian children diagnosed with PAN, fulfilling the EULAR/PRES diagnostic criteria, recruited from eight paediatric rheumatologic centres and one transition unit, was performed. A statistical correlation was made between clinical involvement at onset or during the overall disease course and patients' final outcome.

RESULTS
Data from 52 patients (31 males, 21 females) were collected: their mean age at onset was 7.9 years (median 6.3) and mean follow-up period was 6.2 years (median 5.4). At the last follow-up visit, 27 patients (51.9%) were off therapy in clinical remission, 17 (32.7%) were in clinical remission while on medication, and 6 (11.6%) had a persistent or relapsing disease course. Two patients (3.8%) deceased because of severe cerebral involvement. Cranial nerve palsy during the disease course was significantly correlated with a worse prognosis (p=0.011). The presence of nephrogenic hypertension at onset and seizures during the disease course were significantly associated with the development of irreversible organ damage (p= 0.040 and 0.011, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Childhood PAN is a severe disease with substantial risk of long-term morbidities. In our cohort of patients the worst outcome was significantly correlated with renal and neurological involvement.


Double-shelled hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (HMS-Al@MS-NH2) have been successfully obtained using the shell-by-shell strategy, by which the isolated acidic (–Al) and basic (–NH2) sites were spatially incorporated in different shells. The characterization results indicate that HMS-Al@MS-NH2 possesses a hollow void and mesopores in both shells, and this favors the mass transfer of the reactants and products. As a spatially isolated acid–base bifunctional catalyst, HMS-Al@MS-NH2 proved to exhibit high catalytic performances in the one-pot deacetalization-Knoevenagel cascade reaction. Under the optimized conditions, the conversion of benzaldehyde dimethyl acetal approached ca. 100% for 2 h at 110 °C, mainly attributed to the isolated acidic and basic sites and to the hollow architecture and mesopores in the shells. Notably, the catalyst could be reused up to 4 times without obvious loss of activity and selectivity, indicating the high stability of the active acidic and basic sites in the framework. Moreover, the double-shelled hollow mesoporous silica spheres are also active and selective for the other cascade sequence of the deacetalization-Henry reaction.


Contrary to common perception, the number of living mammal species and the relationship of those species with one another are incompletely understood. Taxonomic revisions within mammals are frequent and are often motivated by the discovery of new species. In fact, an analysis of patterns of discovery suggests that complete alpha-taxonomic characterization of living mammals remains a far-off goal. Examination of chronological, geographical, and taxonomic trends in new species discoveries reveals interesting trends, telling biases, and priorities for further study. An average of 223 new valid species have been described per decade since the birth of modern taxonomic nomenclature in 1758, and this rate is increasing. Over 300 new mammal species are expected to be described this decade and some estimates suggest that 7,000+ living species of mammals will eventually be recognized. An analysis of 341 recently described species indicates that the great majority of them are restricted to threatened areas of high endemism—reiterating the biotic richness of these regions, but also indicating that most new species and the regions in which they occur require urgent conservation attention. That the global mammal fauna remains so incompletely characterized reflects the woeful state of knowledge of global biodiversity.


From a researcher's point of view, criteria used in developing measures of nursing care should achieve certain standards: They should be based on a conceptual framework that fits the study. They should be reliable and valid and should measure important aspects of nursing care. They should be relatively simple to obtain as well as qualifiable for reporting and comparative purposes.


Semiconductors have had a monumental impact on our society, being at the heart of every electronic device in our daily lives. Undoubtedly, they have changed the world beyond anything that could have been imagined before them. Otherwise, we would be using computers like a monster of a machine, weighing more than 30 tons and consuming several kilowatts of electrical power that when it is turned on, the lights in a few cities would be dimmed.

Among all other semiconductor materials, so-called hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have drawn a great deal of attention in the last decade due to dramatic strides in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) as photoabsorbers in solar cells. Their similarities to gold standards of crystalline silicon have carried them to be some of the most intensely researched semiconductors by producing a plethora of optoelectronic devices. However, despite their versatility, there are several hurdles, holding their further improvement back. In this thesis, intrinsic properties of this family of materials and their limitations are profoundly investigated and solutions are provided for further developments.

In the first part of this thesis, a performance difference in the current-voltage scans of solar cells, so-called anomalous hysteresis, is unveiled. This phenomenon emerges from a combination of ion migration and charge recombination at the charge transport layer-perovskite interface and hampers the device performance severely. It is found that deep trap states at the interface likely trigger charge accumulation due to the Fermi level offset of SnOx from the perovskite, which in turn leads to enhanced charge recombination, causing a higher degree of hysteresis in solar cells. It is suggested that if the band alignment between the perovskite absorber and the SnOx layer is improved, the resulting device excels due to greatly reduced hysteresis and much better performance.

Charge transport characteristics and their limiting factors are of utmost importance in photovoltaic devices in order to extract the charges efficiently. The charge carrier mobilities in CH3NH3PbI3 thin films extracted from lateral time-of-flight measurements are found to be 6 cm2/Vs, whereas similar measurements performed on a solar cell architecture, i.e. in the vertical direction, show effective mobilities that are reduced by 3 orders of magnitude. By varying the thickness of the charge extraction layers, it is revealed that the limiting factors of the charge carrier transport time in working devices are the electron and hole transport layers rather than the perovskite material itself.

In chapters 5 and 6, the versatility of perovskite semiconductors was extended by synthesizing both hybrid and all-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) with compositional engineering. It is found that exchanging cation and mixing halide ions in the perovskite structure not only altered their charge recombination rates as well as photoluminescence spectra but also the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). The implementation of mixed halide systems into lighting devices, so-called light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), revealed another major intrinsic concern of perovskites: halide segregation, forming bromide- and iodide-rich phases upon application of voltage in the devices. However, this problem was tackled by adding the salt KCF3SO3 in the active layer of LECs with mixed halide NCs. This addition not only suppresses the halide segregation by further stabilization of the perovskite lattice with potassium ions but also improves the brightness of the devices with low injection voltage.

In the last part of thesis, four-terminal perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cells were presented. In order to boost the efficiency of the CIGS bottom-cell in tandem configuration, the transparency of the top-cell is of paramount importance. Thus, wide-band perovskite top-cells with different transparent conductive oxides used for both substrates and back electrodes were investigated, revealing that the transparency of the substrate is more critical than the back electrode's transmittance to increase the performance of CIGS solar cells. Additionally, the reason of low voltage output in the top-cell is attributed to the halide segregation caused by application of voltage and illumination, where the formation of bromide- and iodide-rich phases was demonstrated by X-ray diffraction measurements. Finally, methods to improve the performance of perovskite top-cells were suggested as an outlook.


Due to increase in demand for healthy and chemical residue-free products, natural therapeutic substances are being enhanced in fish cultivation. Current study evaluates in an unprecedented way (he effect of propolis on the parasite charge of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) reared in fish cages. Six hundred male Nile tilapia (200g) conditioned in ten 1 m3 cages were used. Two treatments with five replications each were provided: TCON: control (extruded meal without propolis) and TPRO: extruded meal with 4% propolis extract. Parasite collection occurred on 0, 35, 70 and 105 days. At the same time, fillet was weighed and fish standard length measured. Temperature was kept within the comfort range for the species during the experimental period ( > 25oC). Trichodinids and Monogenoids (Dactylogyridae) were detected in the two treatments. There was no statistical difference (p > 0.05) in mean parasite intensity (total parasites/specimens with parasites) and abundance (total parasites/examined specimens) among treatments in the four evaluation periods. Lowest parasite prevalence occurred after 70 days in TPRO (26.66%). There was no statistical difference (p > 0.05) among treatments with regard to fillet weight and standard length of fish. Results show that propolis extract 4% did not significantly affect parasite load, fillet weight and standard length of Nile tilapia.


Treatment decision-making for most diseases is currently partial art and partial science. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that every patient is unique, and many symptoms and diagnoses are inherently imprecise and difficult to measure. A systematic decision-making and optimization technology capable of handling all the clinical difficulties is still unavailable despite significant efforts documented in the literature, including the use of artificial intelligence and statistical methods. One promising approach is the novel fuzzy discrete event systems whose theoretical framework was recently developed by us. We apply it to treatment planning for HIV/AIDS patients who have never received antiretroviral therapy. We show how to design such a system. We have also statistically evaluated the preliminary results produced by the system in comparison with two AIDS specialists on our team. The results indicate strong agreement between the physicians and the fuzzy discrete event system. This is the first application of fuzzy discrete event systems in the literature.


Crystal growth of 6H-SiC in two non-basal directions is reported. The two explored surfaces are the {1-103} plane, named qC-face, and the {1-10-3} plane, named qSi-face. The asgrown bulk surfaces exhibit a smooth structure with a small ridging effect originating from the miscut of the seed crystals. Layers, epitaxially grown on the chemically-mechanically polished qCface, nicely replicate the original crystal structure and show no sign of polytype mixing. Lowtemperature photoluminescence measurements collected on the epilayers exhibit near bandedge spectral characteristics indicative of good quality 6H-SiC.


We present theoretical arguments and experimental support for the idea that high- superconductivity can occur with s-wave, d-wave, or mixed-wave pairing in the context of a magnetic mechanism. The size and shape of the gap is different for different materials. The theoretical arguments are based on the t - J model as derived from the Hubbard model so that it necessarily includes three-site terms. We argue that this should be the basic minimal model for high- systems. We analyse this model starting with the dilute limit which can be solved exactly, passing then to the Cooper problem which is numerically tractable, then ending with a mean-field approach. It is found that the relative stability of s-wave and d-wave depends on the size and the shape of the Fermi surface. We identify three striking trends. First, materials with large next-nearest-neighbour hopping (such as ) are nearly pure d-wave, whereas nearest-neighbour materials (such as ) tend to be more s-wave like. Second, low hole-doping materials tend to be pure d-wave, but high hole-doping leads to s-wave. Finally, the optimum hole-doping level increases as the next-nearest-neighbour hopping increases. We examine the experimental evidence and find support for this idea that the gap function in the high-temperature superconductors is material specific.


We propose an algorithm to separate simultaneously speaking persons from each other, the "cocktail party problem", using a single microphone. Our approach involves a deep recurrent neural networks regression to a vector space that is descriptive of independent speakers. Such a vector space can embed empirically determined speaker characteristics and is optimized by distinguishing between speaker masks. We call this technique source-contrastive estimation. The methodology is inspired by negative sampling, which has seen success in natural language processing, where an embedding is learned by correlating and de-correlating a given input vector with output weights. Although the matrix determined by the output weights is dependent on a set of known speakers, we only use the input vectors during inference. Doing so will ensure that source separation is explicitly speaker-independent. Our approach is similar to recent deep neural network clustering and permutation-invariant training research; we use weighted spectral features and masks to augment individual speaker frequencies while filtering out other speakers. We avoid, however, the severe computational burden of other approaches with our technique. Furthermore, by training a vector space rather than combinations of different speakers or differences thereof, we avoid the so-called permutation problem during training. Our algorithm offers an intuitive, computationally efficient response to the cocktail party problem, and most importantly boasts better empirical performance than other current techniques.


Circadian rhythms (~24 h) in biochemistry, physiology and behaviour are found in almost all eukaryotes and some bacteria. The elucidation of the molecular components of the 24 h circadian clock in a number of model organisms in recent years has provided an opportunity to assess the adaptive value of variation in clock genes. Laboratory experiments using artificially generated mutants reveal that the circadian period is adaptive in a 24 h world. Natural genetic variation can also be studied, and there are a number of ways in which the signature of natural selection can be detected. These include the study of geographical patterns of genetic variation, which provide a first indication that selection may be at work, and the use of sophisticated statistical neutrality tests, which examine whether the pattern of variation observed is consistent with a selective rather than a neutral (or drift) scenario. Finally, examining the probable selective agents and their differential effects on the circadian phenotype of the natural variants provides the final compelling evidence for selection. We present some examples of how these types of analyses have not only enlightened the evolutionary study of clocks, but have also contributed to a more pragmatic molecular understanding of the function of clock proteins.


Aqueous and nanoparticle-based solutions have been reported to heat when exposed to an alternating radiofrequency (RF) electric-field. Although the theoretical models have been developed to accurately model such a behavior given the solution composition as well as the geometrical constraints of the sample holder, these models have not been investigated across a wide-range of solutions where the dielectric properties differ, especially with regard to the real permittivity. In this work, we investigate the RF heating properties of non-aqueous solutions composed of ethanol, propylene glycol, and glycine betaine with and without varying amounts of NaCl and LiCl. This allowed us to modulate the real permittivity across the range 25-132, as well as the imaginary permittivity across the range 37-177. Our results are in excellent agreement with the previously developed theoretical models. We have shown that different materials generate unique RF heating curves that differ from the standard aqueous heating curves. The theoretical model previously described is robust and accounts for the RF heating behavior of materials with a variety of dielectric properties, which may provide applications in non-invasive RF cancer hyperthermia.


Surface and groundwater of the Cape Fear River basin in central and coastal North Carolina is contaminated with high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Elevated levels of PFAS have also been found in blood of fish and wildlife from the Cape Fear River, and in the blood of human populations reliant on contaminated well or surface water from the Cape Fear River basin as a source of drinking water. While the public and environmental health impacts of long-term PFAS exposures are poorly understood, elevated blood concentrations of some PFAS are linked with immunotoxicity and increased incidence of some chronic autoimmune diseases in human populations. The goal of this One Environmental Health study was to evaluate PFAS exposure and biomarkers related to immune health in populations of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), a protected and predictive sentinel species of adverse effects caused by persistent toxic pollutants. We found that serum PFAS concentrations in alligator populations from the Cape Fear River were increased compared to a reference population of alligators from the adjoining Lumber River basin. The elevated serum PFAS concentrations in the Cape Fear River alligators were associated with increased innate immune activities, and autoimmune-like phenotypes in this population. In addition to evidence of significantly higher double stranded-DNA binding autoantibodies in adult Cape Fear River alligators, our qRT-PCR analysis found remarkably high induction of Interferon-α signature genes implicated in the pathology of human autoimmune disease. We interpret the association of increased PFAS exposure with disrupted immune functions to suggest that PFAS broadly alters immune activities resulting in autoimmune-like pathology in American alligators. This work substantiates and extends evidence from experimental models and human epidemiology studies showing that some PFAS are immune toxicants.


This study explores the impact of an innovative service model on consumer emotions and purchase intentions in a sports context. A quasi-experimental design was adopted. Participants comprised two classes of sport-related consumers. A four-week intervention was conducted with a pre-test and a post-test. Data were assessed using descriptive statistics, general linear regression and hierarchical regression. The veracity of the experimental intervention was evaluated and reviewed using an objective assessment checklist. Significant relationships were found between service-led logic, consumption emotions and purchase intentions. This results suggest that sports consumers are affected by the innovative service behaviour of the service-dominant logic model. Their consumption emotions and purchase intentions were enhanced. The abstract and concrete construal of service-dominant logic can expand the visible diversity of both sport and consumer behaviours. It provides a different perspective on the consumer behaviour process, as well as the feasibility of applying an innovative service model to sport and consumer behaviours. The present findings address the deficiency in innovation services research related to sports marketing. Implications and applications are proposed.
Keywords: Consumption emotions; Purchase intentions; Social Exchange Theory; Innovative services.


The captive southern white rhinoceros (SWR) population is not currently self-sustaining due to the reproductive failure of captive-born females. Our research into this phenomenon points to chemicals produced by plants common to captive diets, such as soy and alfalfa, as possible causes. In other species these chemicals, called phytoestrogens, are well known to cause fertility issues due to their ability to disrupt normal hormone function. Here we present a brief overview of how phytoestrogens impair fertility and propose a mechanism for how they do so in SWR. In addition, we summarize our past findings that suggest developmental exposure to phytoestrogens is a probable cause of the low fertility captive-born female SWR exhibit. Moreover, we present recent evidence from our own institution that suggests changing to a low-phytoestrogen diet may promote the reproductive success of previously infertile captive-born female SWR. As a result, we strongly suggest dietary phytoestrogen levels should be reduced in order to increase fertility of SWR in managed settings.


Three dimensional (3D) SiO2 photonic crystals films were fabricated on quartz substrate by vertical deposition method. The effects of various preparation parameters on optical properties were studied by optical transmission measurements. Bragg reflection on parallel sets of (111) planes were observed in all the samples. The center wavelength of [111] photonic band gap (PBG) varied from 450 nm to 680 nm with the increasing sphere size. For a given sphere size, the (111) Bragg reflection of as-deposited sample shifted towards lower wavelengths as the sintering temperature T increased. The role of evaporation temperature on the optical properties of the film was also investigated. The PBG can be correspondingly modulated in visible region by changing various preparation parameters.


This paper describes the outcome of discussions held during the Third International BCI Meeting at a workshop to review and evaluate the current state of BCI-related hardware and software. Technical requirements and current technologies, standardization procedures and future trends are covered. The main conclusion was recognition of the need to focus technical requirements on the users' needs and the need for consistent standards in BCI research.


This thesis is a reflection of my research in max-algebra. The idea of max-algebra is replacing the conventional pairs of operations (+,x) by (max, +). It has been known for some time that max-algebraic linear systems and eigenvalue-eigenvector problem can be used to describe industrial processes in which a number of processors work interactively and possibly in stages. Solutions to such max-algebraic linear system typically correspond to start time vectors which guarantee that the processes meet given deadlines or will work in a steady regime. The aim of this thesis is to study such problems subjected to additional requirements or constraints. These include minimization and maximization of the time span of completion times or starting times. We will also consider the case of minimization and maximization of the time span when some completion times or starting times are prescribed. The problem of integrality is also studied in this thesis. This is finding completion times or starting times which consists of integer values only. Finally we consider max-algebraic permuted linear systems where we permute a given vector and decide if the permuted vector is a satisfactory completion time or starting time. For some of these problems, we developed exact and efficient methods. Some of them turn out to be hard. For these we have proposed and tested a number of heuristics.


Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the adult population and treatment of many of the patients struggling with such diseases requires surgical interventions involving replacement of diseased arteries. Although currently it is possible to replace large arteries with synthetic grafts made of materials such as polyester and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) [1], these materials may not be used as small size grafts given their thrombogenicity and propensity for intimal hyperplasia [2]. As a result, development of suitable grafts as a substitute for small size arteries (< 6mm in diameter) such as the coronary arteries remains a daunting challenge.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


This study will describe the specific difficulties which have arisen in the auto agreement itself and more recently in the changing nature of the auto industry. First, this report will describe the APTA in detail, discussing its origin and negotiation. Historical automotive trade data will be presented. Other reviews and studies of the auto pact will be examined. The report will describe current trade and economic situations to provide a context for the examination and debate of specific issues. Second, this report will analyze the changing environment of the agreement and discuss suggestions that have been offered in response to these changes. In doing so, it will assess the costs and benefits of implementing these suggestions. In particular, the possibly extensive effect of these proposals on labor, parts manufacturers, distributors, and local governments will be examined. Furthermore, discussion will focus on the significant effect of the recent recession on the auto industry. This study will present a number of options and recommendations. These recommendations will take into account the political pressures, anxieties, statutory limitations, and economic conditions of both the United States and Canada. Some suggestions will be original; others will restate points made by other authorities. The conclusion will summarize this report's recommendations.


As a result of the sub-optimal performance of recent graduates, the corporate university was created. Now, the corporate university is a central part of many learning organizations. Although firms with the largest investments in their people have proven to outperform other firms by 17% to 35% on the Standard and Poor's index, the fact is corporate universities still cost money, a lot of it. So, numerous firms have sought out to forge methods of measuring the effectiveness of corporate universities to determine the business impact and the potential need of improvement. However, determining what to measure and how to do so has proven to be a challenging task, one that many firms haven't yet tackled. For instance, one study found that 39% of organizations spend less than 1% their training budget on measurement and 94.3% of firms spend less than 5%, although measurement is crucial to improving the success of a corporate university. Thus, this paper will present a variety of the best approaches that can be used to measure the efficacy of a corporate university.


We have been able to separate optic fibers in the eye of the eel Anguilla rostrata into two distinct classes on the basis of spatial summation properties. X fibers, the first class, are like X ganglion cells in the cat: they have null positions for contrast reversal sine gratings; they respond at the modulation frequency; and many have a strong surround mechanism. X fibers, the second class, respond with an "on-off" response to local stimulation, to diffuse light modulation, to coarse drifting gratings, and to contrast reversal gratings. We have put forward a model for the receptive field of X fibers which involves two subunits, with rectification before the subunits add their signals. This model accounts for many of the quirks of X fibers.


In this paper we present a heuristic way of constructing nonlinear dispersive equations that lead to soliton or soliton-type solutions. We assume only that a general knowledge of the dispersion relation of the system is known, together with some insight into the effect of nonlinearity on wave speed. We show that such knowledge is sufficient to derive most known soliton equations and thus to provide the engineer with a quick way to assess whether or not his particular system is likely to exhibit soliton behavior. Naturally, a more detailed description requires knowledge of the basic equations governing the system and special techniques to handle initial conditions. To that purpose we provide the reader with ample references which he may want to consult in order to augment the information gained by the method outlined in this paper.


A comparison of the effect of external electric field on the C–NO 2 or N–NO 2 bonds with the C–H and N–O bonds in 2,4, 6-trinitrotoluene (TNT)or hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro- s -triazine (RDX) has been carried out using the M06-2x method with the 6-311++G** and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. The result shows that for TNT the fields have a minor effect on the C–NO 2 and C–H bonds but a major effect on the N–O bonds, while in RDX the fields greatly affect the N–NO 2 bond but the N–O and C–H bonds are slightly affected. Thus, in TNT the N–O bond can be the trigger bond, and in RDX the N–NO 2 bond is always the trigger bond in electric fields. The explosive sensitivities may be reduced and the stabilities may be increased under the external electric fields in the negative direction along the C–NO 2 bond axis for TNT and in the positive direction along the N–NO 2 or N–O bond axis for RDX. The opposite trends can be suggested in the fields of the opposite directions along above bond axes. The introduction of external electric field into energetic material may be an available way to adjust explosive sensitivity. The analyses of AIM (atoms in molecules) and frequencies support the above viewpoints. The linear correlations between the field strengths and the changes of N−O/N−N bond lengths, ρ ( N−O/N−N) values, or stretching frequencies of the N−O/N−N bonds have been found.


Hierarchically organized hybrid MOF particles were developed to meet the stable luminescence requirements of lanthanide complexes for applications in biological media. Anionic terbium (Tb) complexes sensitized by tridentate pyridine-tetrazolate (pytz) ligands (i.e. Tb(pytz)3) were encapsulated in zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) nanoparticles (∼150 nm). TIF-1Zn (Zn(DMBIM)2) frameworks were then hybridized with ZIF-8 by the mediation of a hydrophobic ligand, i.e. DMBIM (5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole). A bio-inspired polymer, i.e. polydopamine, was utilized for imparting the particles with hydrophilicity and functionalization ability. An unprecedentedly high quantum yield (82.0%) and luminescence stability in PBS buffer were realized by the hierarchical structure.


Incorporation of 32P from [gamma 32P]ATP into mannan could not be detected in homogenates of cultivated skin fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis II, and accounted for only up to 10% of normal control activity in cell lysates from patients with mucolipidosis III. Parents of patients with mucolipidosis II demonstrated 60-70% of normal control activity. On high-voltage electrophoresis, the hydrolysed mannan from reactions performed with normal cells, over the pH range 5.5-7.5, yielded a radioactive band migrating with the same mobility as mannose 6-phosphate, whereas no such product could be demonstrated in fibroblasts of patients with mucolipidosis II.


We examined the relationship between personal strategies, organizational strategies, career experiences, and objective and subjective indicators of career advancement (promotion rate and job and career satisfaction) of 344 women managers of Indian five-star hotels. On the basis of literature reviewed and discussions with executive women in hospitality, it was hypothesized that the career advancement is associated with facilitators and constraints (termed as dimensions of mobility pathway), the contextual factors (age, education, marital status, managerial levels, and total service), and personal (by the individual) & organizational strategies (supported by the organization). It was posited that these factors are potentially interrelated. The structural equation modelling results revealed that the personal and organizational strategies did not mediate the relationships. Interestingly, the most debated issue of 'glass ceiling' had not impacted their job and career satisfaction. Nonetheless, the presence of organizational support systems had an impact on work outcomes, indicating that women were satisfied with job and career. Together, these findings indicated that women managers may adjust their feelings of satisfaction to reduce dissonance and remain committed to employment. The results may contribute to identify obstacles and career supports to offer directions to Indian five-star hotels interested in supporting career advancement of women managers.


This paper submits that the end of the Cold War does not constitute a pivotal moment regarding international law's neutrality towards governmental change. It challenges the historical narrative whereby the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union created a sea change in the neutrality of international law concerning forms of government. Proponents of a right to democratic governance have long argued that following the Cold War, international law is no longer agnostic in regard to the way in which a government comes into being. Against this backdrop, the paper sheds light on the limits of the mainstream Cold War narrative of democratic governance theory as advanced by Franck and Fox. It suggests that there has always been continuity in State practice that was not disrupted by 1991 and, therefore, the Cold War and post-Cold War dichotomy relies on a false ground. First, the paper questions the reasons for the common use of this simplistic dichotomy. Then, it explores pre-1991 practice and examines cases where unconstitutional changes of government have been subject to debate. Finally, it analyses post-Cold War practices and focuses on military coups. Since a blind condemnation of military coups seems to be a remote possibility due to the diversity of States' political interests in the present-day context, this paper argues that trying to anchor the emergence of democratic governance in international law to the end of the Cold War is a pragmatic and artificial construction to explain the notion of neutrality in international law.


Hintikka claimed in the 1970s that indefinites and disjunctions give rise to 'branching readings' that can only be handled by a 'game-theoretic' semantics as expressive as a logic with (a limited form of) quantification over Skolem functions. Due to empirical and methodological difficulties, the issue was left unresolved in the linguistic literature. Independently, however, it was discovered in the 1980s that, contrary to other quantifiers, indefinites may scope out of syntactic islands. We claim that branching readings and the island-escaping behaviour of indefinites are two sides of the same coin: when the latter problem is considered in full generality, a mechanism of 'functional quantification' (Winter 2004) must be postulated which is strictly more expressive than Hintikka's, and which predicts that his branching readings are indeed real, although his own solution was insufficiently general. Furthermore, we suggest that, as Hintikka had seen, disjunctions share the behaviour of indefinites, both with respect to island-escaping behaviour and (probably) branching readings. The functional analysis can thus naturally be extended to them.


Echinococcosis is an endemic zoonosis in the south of Chile, so we have the opportunity to treat many patients especially the liver location which is the most common situation of this disease. Hepatic hydatid cyst presents its own morbidity and mortality due its complications and associated with surgical procedures. Morbidity has rates between 11 and 86% and is related with previous surgical interventions, cysts complications, the necessity of perform additional procedures during surgery and the treatment of other disease locations. Mortality by otherwise has rates below 5%. But both, morbidity and mortality persist high in spite of technological advances and therapeutical improvement. The surgical treatment of hepatic hydatidosis can be divided in four phases: surgical area isolation, cysts evacuation, treatment of cyst complications (biliary tract rupture, hepatothoracic transit, etc.), and residual cavity treatment. For each one exist different alternatives. On the other hand, hydatid cyst surgery can be classified in conservative and resective procedures. In the first group we consider marsupialization, cystostomy, Knowsly or Posadas operation and cystojejunostomy. In the resective group we include pericystectomy, partial or subtotal cystectomy and the different types of hepatectomies. Finally, some other surgical procedures are under evaluation. These include the laparoscopic approach of liver echinoccosis with few studies in the field, but with hopeful results.


1. A rapid fall in plasma renin concentration occurs not only in colonectomized but also in hepatectomized dogs after binephrectomy. 2. In the anhepatic anephric dog no renin extraction can be demonstrated across lungs, splanchnic region, spleen, inferior limb and head. 3. No renin inactivation occurs in blood kept in vitro at 37°C for 3 h taken from anaesthetized dogs and from the anhepatic anephric dogs. 4. We suggest that the clearance of renin in the anhepatic anephric dog is due to extraction or inactivation of renin by tissues in general.


The liberalization of electricity markets and the transformation of electric power systems to include large amounts of variable output generation, has led to a growing interest in flexible demand and demand response. Making demand response available on the wholesale market on a large scale is a challenge. Retailers and aggregators, providing services to individual consumers as well as bringing aggregated flexibility to the wholesale market, is foreseen to play important roles in this respect. This paper presents a aggregator decision support model for demand scheduling, including demand response and purchase bid optimization for day-ahead markets. Income from providing electricity to consumers, and costs related to imbalances, rescheduling and energy not served are also considered. The model includes risk management by applying the conditional value-at-risk risk measure. The feasibility of the developed model is validated through a case study using historical data from the Swedish power system and market.


As distinct movements in contemporary spirituality, the New Age and Neopaganism share a complex relationship to the European Middle Ages. Revered for its closeness to the earth and reviled for its religious intolerance, the medieval past lends authority to Neopagan practice, provides evidence of universal truth to New Agers, and bestows a sense of enchantment to the daily lives of both groups. This essay defines the terms "medievalism," "New Age," and "Neopagan," outlines previous scholarship that connects these areas, and considers the specific and differing contours of medievalism in both contexts.


The memory CD4+ T cell response to the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) attachment (G) protein in the lungs of primed BALB/c mice undergoing challenge pulmonary RSV infection is dominated by effector T cells expressing a single Vβ-chain, Vβ14. We have used Vβ14 expression to examine the kinetics of the activation, accumulation, and acquisition of the effector activity of memory CD4+ T cells responding to pulmonary infection. This analysis revealed that proliferative expansion and effector CD4+ T cell differentiation preferentially occur in the respiratory tract following rapid activation within and egress from the lymph nodes draining the respiratory tract. These findings suggest that, in response to natural infection at a peripheral mucosal site such as the lungs, memory CD4+ T cell expansion and differentiation into activated effector T cells may occur predominantly in the peripheral site of infection rather than exclusively in the lymph nodes draining the site of infection.


Managing hardware resources is important to write efficient software, which conserves energy, time, and money. Highlevel programming languages by definition abstract from the underlying machine, such that efficiency should be recouped by compiler and runtime. Our Invasive Computing project especially targets multi-application scenarios, where resources must be dynamically reallocated for optimal efficiency. Integrating hardware and software developers into the process, we developed a framework within the high-level X10 language, which enables an application to be aware of different kinds of resources and their availability. We show how applications can adapt to different architectures and dynamically exchange resources to optimize the system as a whole.


The utilization efficiency of light energy is affected by the multi-order images during the reconstruction of holograms based on liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM), which leads to the low intensity of single image. A novel method is proposed to improve the diffraction efficiency of single reconstructed image by synthesizing phase hologram and digital blazed grating. The property and principle of wave-front modulation are analyzed by use of digital blazed grating as diffractive optical element (DOE). The effect of digital blazed grating on the reconstructed image of phase hologram by use of LC-SLM is also described. Holographic optoelectronic display system based on LC-SLM is set up for phase hologram reconstruction. Theoretical analysis shows that, the intensity of single reconstructed image is increased by 1302 per cent by adding digital blazed grating with period of 2 pixels in vertical or horizontal direction, and 4297 per cent with the same period of digital blazed grating in vertical & horizontal directions. The experimental result also verifies that, by the proposed method, the energy intensity of single reconstructed image is increased and the utilization efficiency of light energy is improved.


Nowadays, huge efforts are made to modernize the air traffic management systems to cope with uncertainty, complexity and sub-optimality. An answer is to enhance the information sharing between the stakeholders. This paper introduces a framework that bridges the gap between air traffic management and air traffic control on the one hand, and bridges the gap between the ground, the approach and the en-route centers on the other hand. An original system is presented, that has three essential components: the trajectory models, the optimization process, and the monitoring process. The uncertainty of the trajectory is modeled with a Bayesian Network, where the nodes are associated to two types of random variables: the time of overflight on metering points of the airspace, and the traveling time of the routes linking these points. The resulting Bayesian Network covers the complete airspace, and Monte- Carlo simulations are done to estimate the probabilities of sector congestion and delays. On top of this trajectory model, an optimization process minimizes these probabilities by tuning the parameters of the Bayesian trajectory model related to overflight times on metering points. The last component is the monitoring process, that continuously updates the situation of the airspace, modifying the trajectories uncertainties according to actual positions of aircraft. After each update, a new optimal set of overflight times is computed, and can be communicated to the controllers as clearances for the aircraft pilots. The paper presents a formal specification of this global optimization problem, whose underlying rationale was derived with the help of air traffic controllers at Thales Air Systems.


The highly popular Sheffield New Testament Guides, reissued in a new format with an introduction by Scot McKnight illuminating their distinctive historical, literary and theological features. The highly popular Sheffield New Testament Guides are being reissued in a new format, grouped together and prefaced by leading North American scholars. This new format is designed to ensure that these authoritative introductions remain up-to-date and accessible to seminary and university students of the New Testament while offering a broader theological and literary context for their study. In this volume, Scot McKnight writes an introducton to the Synoptic Gospels as a whole, illuminating their distinctive historical and theological features and their importance within the New Testament canon.


Shibanuma et al. demonstrated that Hic-5 (hydrogen peroxide-inducible clone-5) shuttles to the nucleus in response to H2O2 and other oxidants, thereby translating changes in redox state into changes in gene expression. Hic-5, a LIM- and LD- domain-containing focal adhesion protein isolated on the basis of an increase in mRNA expression in response to H2O2 and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), has been implicated in cell growth and differentiation and has been postulated to function as an adaptor. However, recent research localizing a portion of cellular Hic-5 to the nucleus, together with identification of Hic-5 as a steroid receptor coactivator, is inconsistent with such a restricted role. The authors used immunofluorescence analysis in mammalian cell lines to demonstrate that Hic-5 accumulated in the nucleus after treatment of cells with H2O2, N-ethylmaleimide, and diethyl maleate, whereas other proteins associated with focal adhesions, including the highly homologous paxillin, did not. Mutational analysis indicated that the COOH-terminal LIM domains functioned together as an unconventional nuclear localization signal, whereas NH2-terminal amino acids associated with two LD motifs were involved in oxidant-sensitive nuclear export. Hic-5 mutants that localized to the nucleus activated a reporter for c-fos, which is transcriptionally activated by H2O2. Moreover, a Hic-2 mutant unable to bind to and activate the c-fos reporter inhibited H2O2-sensitive c-fos induction. One of the LD motifs involved in nuclear export has been implicated in interactions with focal adhesion kinase and cell spreading, leading the authors to suggest that this region integrates adhesion and oxidative signals and couples them to changes in gene expression. M. Shibanuma, J.-R. Kim-Kaneyama, K. Ishino, N. Sakamoto, T. Hishiki, K. Yamaguchi, K. Mori, J.-I. Mashimo, K. Nose, Hic-5 communicates between focal adhesions and the nucleus through oxidant-sensitive nuclear export signal. Mol. Biol. Cell 14, 1158-1171 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Trucking is a key industry in Canada with around 180 000 professional drivers. As an industry it has a disproportionately high injury claim rate, particularly for back injuries. Whole-body vibration (WBV) can contribute to the onset and development of low back disorders, and is a well-documented exposure among driving professions. A widely adopted WBV mitigation measure focuses on hydraulic and/or pneumatic passive suspension systems both in the driver's seat and underneath the vehicle cab. Passive suspension 'air-ride' seats are the current industry standard but new technologies such as the electromagnetic active vibration cancelling (EAVC) seats offer potentially substantial improvements in WBV reduction. In this paper, we evaluate and compare four commonly used truck seats (three air-ride, one EAVC) for their vibration damping characteristics and WBV exposure attenuation in on- and off-road conditions. We recruited 24 professional truck drivers who drove 280 km (mixed on-road and off-road) in ore-haul trucks under four different seating conditions. Following the ISO 2631-1 WBV standard, vibration measurements were made on the cab floor and seat pad, and 8-h average weighted vibration (A(8)) and 8-h vibration dose values (VDV(8)) were calculated, as well as the Seat Effective Amplitude Transmissibility (SEAT), and daily vibration action limits (DVALs). These measures were compared between seat types, as well as road conditions. The EAVC seat gave best performance for both A(8) (0.27 m s-2) and VDV(8) (6.6 m s-1.75). The EAVC also had the highest SEAT of the seats tested (36.2%) and the longest DVAL. However, among the three passive air-suspension seats, two showed significantly reduced A(8) (0.43 and 0.44 m s-2) and VDV(8) (9.1 and 9.3 m s-1.75) exposures relative to the third passive air-suspension seats [A(8) (0.54 m s-2) and VDV(8) (11.1 m s-1.75)]. These differences in exposures among the three passive air-suspension seats resulted in varying DVAL times, with the worst performing seat reaching the DVAL after only 6.3 h of driving. There was also a seat by road type interaction; there were performance differences between the passive air-suspension seats on-road, but not off-road. The observed reduction of the WBV exposures measured from the EAVC seat was consistent with previous results. But we showed that there can also be substantive differences among seats that are the current industry standard. These differences were more evident on-road than off-road, which suggests that more work needs to be done to understand seat performance characteristics, and in matching the correct seat technology to the driving task. We demonstrated that WBV exposures in current industry conditions may exceed health-based exposure limits; this has policy relevance because WBV exposures are linked to prevalent and costly adverse health conditions in a working population that is ageing. Increased WBV measurement collection is recommended to ensure the anticipated exposure attenuations are achieved when seats are relied upon as an engineered control against WBV.


Although Syari?ah is considered by many as the ideal form of social?as well as financial- order, it is nonetheless not immune from practical and perhaps technical problems, so to speak. With regards to the Syari?ah finance, cases on the ground show that transaction involving dispute by different parties does often occur. This dispute has nothing to do with the Syari?ah itself indeed, but with the way it is applied. Syari?ah however anticipates this dispute to happen, concerning which this paper is interested. It is concerned with discussing this anticipation and in what way does Syari?ah offer the way-out to resolve such a dispute in matters relating to financial contract. The paper argues that the ability of such system as Syari?ah to resolve problems and offer solution for disputes can be an indicator whether the system can be judged as an ideal or not. One of the techniques that the Syari?ah has offered in dealing with dispute is what it calls Musyawarah (negotiation); a technique that in fact has been regulated in the Indonesian law. This technique will also be investigated in this paper.


As it has in the past, Peruvian politics defied regional trends in the 1990s. Whereas democracy either took hold (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay) or at least survived (Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua) throughout most of Latin America, it collapsed in Peru. That collapse took place on 5 April 1992, when President Alberto Fujimori, in a military-backed autogolpe (self-coup), closed the Congress, suspended the constitution, and purged the judiciary.1 After ruling by decree for seven months, the Fujimori government held elections for a constituent assembly in November 1992; in 1993, it secured the approval, via referendum, of a new constitution. Two years later, Fujimori, who had originally been elected president in 1990, was reelected by an over-whelming margin. These developments led many observers to place Peru back in the camp of democratic (or at least "delegative democratic") regimes.2 Such a characterization is misleading, however. Although the restoration of formal constitutional rule and elections represented an important step away from full-fledged authoritarianism, it was accompanied by a systematic assault on a range of democratic institutions that has left contemporary Peru with a regime that is best described as "semidemocratic."


This paper describes a learning organization model to support the pedagogy of problem-based learning (PBL) as an approach to conduct teaching in the author's undergraduate curriculum development. Specifically, an organizational scenario is described to support the PBL method of course delivery, through an action research report on some of the progress involved in setting up a Centre for PBL Research in the author's affiliated Faculty. This Centre, designed to be operationalized through a virtual organizing effort, could be considered as an important effort in information systems (IS) design which encourages individual organizational units within the university, to provide suitable electronic services towards the realization of a virtual university.


The desire for high bandwidth multi-media reach content and the exponential growth of Internet traffic has led to the penetration of optical technologies into the access segment in the form of Fibre-To-The-x (FFT-x) topologies. Due to its cost effectiveness and low energy consumption, most FFT-x models have been based on Passive Optical Networks (PONs) where the employment of in-line active components has been discouraged. Next generation optical access networks are required to provide higher bandwidth-distance product and support wireless services in a cost effective manner.
Through experimental and simulation work, this thesis examines the use of multicarrier modulation formats such as Orthogonal Frequency Division multiplexing (OFDM) and
Filter Bank Multi Carrier (FBMC) as mans of helping to meet the bandwidth-distance requirements set for next generation optical access networks. OFDM and FBMC both
exhibit high spectral efficiency and a tolerance to chromatic dispersion making them excellent candidates for use in next generation optical access networks.
In order to promote cost efficiency these systems are also studied in conjunction with Direct Modulation of novel laser devices and direct detection. In this work, the accommodation of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in hybrid wired/wireless optical access networks is also demonstrated using spectral notching either by deactivation of subcarriers in OFDM or line-coding techniques in OOK based wired services. The use of FBMC and OFDM is also studied in light of uplink transmission in optical access networks without the employment of spectral guard bands that is commonly used for the reduction of Multiple Access Interference (MAI).


ABSTRACT Injection of the LP-BM5 murine leukemia virus into mice causes murine AIDS, a disease characterized by many dysfunctions of immunocompetent cells. To establish whether the disease is characterized by glutathione imbalance, reduced glutathione (GSH) and cysteine were quantified in different organs. A marked redox imbalance, consisting of GSH and/or cysteine depletion, was found in the lymphoid organs, such as the spleen and lymph nodes. Moreover, a significant decrease in cysteine and GSH levels in the pancreas and brain, respectively, was measured at 5 weeks postinfection. The Th2 immune response was predominant at all times investigated, as revealed by the expression of Th1/Th2 cytokines. Furthermore, investigation of the activation status of peritoneal macrophages showed that the expression of genetic markers of alternative activation, namely, Fizz1, Ym1, and Arginase1, was induced. Conversely, expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, a marker of classical activation of macrophages, was detected only when Th1 cytokines were expressed at high levels. In vitro studies revealed that during the very early phases of infection, GSH depletion and the downregulation of interleukin-12 (IL-12) p40 mRNA were correlated with the dose of LP-BM5 used to infect the macrophages. Treatment of LP-BM5-infected mice with N-(N-acetyl-l-cysteinyl)-S-acetylcysteamine (I-152), an N-acetyl-cysteine supplier, restored GSH/cysteine levels in the organs, reduced the expression of alternatively activated macrophage markers, and increased the level of gamma interferon production, while it decreased the levels of Th2 cytokines, such as IL-4 and IL-5. Our findings thus establish a link between GSH deficiency and Th1/Th2 disequilibrium in LP-BM5 infection and indicate that I-152 can be used to restore the GSH level and a balanced Th1/Th2 response in infected mice. IMPORTANCE The first report of an association between Th2 polarization and alteration of the redox state in LP-BM5 infection is presented. Moreover, it provides evidence that LP-BM5 infection causes a decrease in the thiol content of peritoneal macrophages, which can influence IL-12 production. The restoration of GSH levels by GSH-replenishing molecules can represent a new therapeutic avenue to fight this retroviral infection, as it reestablishes the Th1/Th2 balance. Immunotherapy based on the use of pro-GSH molecules would permit LP-BM5 infection and probably all those viral infections characterized by GSH deficiency and a Th1/Th2 imbalance to be more effectively combated.


Lung opacities on CT scans, such as ground-glass opacities (GGOs) and consolidation, can manifest with various conditions, including lung cancers, pulmonary edema and COVID-19. Presentation of these non-specific findings can vary from isolated focal to diffuse opacities in all lobes. Moreover, disease distributions and progressions vary across disease types and patients. This unpredictability can challenge one's ability to accurately quantify and compare the percentage of infected lung within and across patients. Despite the promise of AI models for image segmentation, the inconsistency of lung opacities, and limited access to large annotated datasets affect generalization performance of models to the cohort of lung diseases. In this paper, we developed a single-stage system to jointly localize the lung and opacifications in CT scans using a diverse real-world dataset with sparse annotations. A multi-class Dense U-Net model was designed to segment the lungs and two classes of opacity regions (GGOs and consolidations) in CT images. The model was trained on 4075 slices from 495 sparsely annotated CT studies and evaluated on 18625 slices from 103 densely annotated studies (37 positive). A comparative analysis of different training data subsets and loss functions was performed to determine optimal model design. Performance was evaluated by comparing manual and automated lung opacity percentages via Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The optimal model achieved a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.99. These findings suggest the potential of developing an accurate method to localize lung opacification, unspecific to a particular disease


In existing models of direct democratic institutions, the median voter benefits, but representative politicians are harmed since their policy choices can be overridden. This is a puzzle, since representative politicians were instrumental in creating these institutions. I build a model of direct democracy that explains why a representative might benefit from tying his or her own hands in this way. The key features are (1) that voters are uncertain about their representative's preferences; (2) that direct and representative elections are complementary ways for voters to control outcomes. The model shows that some politicians benefit from the introduction of direct democracy, since they are more likely to survive representative elections: direct democracy credibly prevents politicians from realising extreme outcomes. Historical evidence from the introduction of the initiative, referendum and recall in America broadly supports the theory, which also explains two empirical results that have puzzled scholars: legislators are trusted less, but reelected more, in US states with direct democracy. I conclude by discussing the potential for incomplete information and signaling models to improve our understanding of institutional change more generally.


BACKGROUND
Propolis collected by honeybees from various plant sources is a resinous hive product possessing a broad spectrum of biologic activities. Propolis has been used extensively in the diet to improve health and prevent disease. The purpose of this study was to analyze the morphometric and histopathologic changes associated with experimental periodontitis in rats in response to the systemic administration of propolis.

METHODS
Forty Wistar rats were divided into four experimental groups: non-ligated (NL; N = 10); ligature only (LO; N = 10); and systemic administration of ligature and propolis (100 mg/kg body weight per day [Pro100; N = 10] or 200 mg/kg body weight per day [Pro200; N = 10]). Silk ligatures were placed at the gingival margin of the lower first molars in both mandibular quadrants. The study duration was 11 days, and the animals were sacrificed at the end of this period. Changes in alveolar bone levels were clinically measured, and tissues were histopathologically examined to assess the differences among the study groups.

RESULTS
At the end of 11 days, alveolar bone loss was significantly higher in the LO group compared to the NL, Pro100, and Pro200 groups (P <0.05). Osteoclast numbers in the LO group were significantly higher than those of the NL, Pro100, and Pro200 groups (P <0.05). Both dosages of propolis significantly reduced the periodontitis-related bone loss, but the differences between the two propolis groups were not statistically significant (P >0.05).

CONCLUSION
The findings of this study provide morphologic and histologic evidence that propolis, when administered systemically, prevents alveolar bone loss in the rat model.


This paper provides an analysis of how the New Zealand tax system may be affecting residential property markets. Like most OECD countries, New Zealand does not tax the imputed rent or capital gains from owner-occupied housing. Unlike most OECD countries, since 1989 New Zealand has taxed income placed in retirement savings funds on an income basis, rather than an expenditure basis. The result is likely to be the most distortionary tax policy towards housing in the OECD. Since 1989, these tax distortions have provided incentives that should have lead to significant increases in house prices and the average size of new dwellings, should have reduced owner-occupier rates, and should have led to a worsening of the overseas net asset position. The tax settings are likely to be regressive, and are not intergenerationally neutral, as they impose significant costs on current and future generations of young New Zealanders (and new migrants). Since it does not appear to be politically palatable to tax capital gains or imputed rent, to reduce the distortionary consequences of the tax system on housing markets New Zealand may wish to reconsider how it taxes retirement savings accounts by adopting the standard OECD approach.


The effect of nano‐Ni catalyst post‐synthetic Zr‐modification on hydrogenation reaction of 6‐methyl‐5‐hepten‐2‐one was investigated in a fixed bed continuous‐flow micro‐reactor to produce fine chemicals. The catalytic performance revealed that Zr‐doping achieved by surface organometallic chemistry approach modifies the natural aptitude of nickel to hydrogenate C=C bond, since the addition of small quantities of zirconium significantly increased the amount of unsaturated and saturated alcohols formed in 6‐methyl‐5‐hepten‐2‐one hydrogenation. Quantum chemical calculations revealed a stronger interaction between Zr←O=C that promotes the formation of C=C semihydrogenation product and enhances the probability of complete hydrogenation. The on‐the‐fly strategy presented herein enables for rapid optimization and understanding of catalytic processes.