This paper presents an integration architecture and a technical framework for moderation of e-discussions, a specific type of scenario for collaborative learning. The approach for monitoring and moderating discussions is supported at a generic level and defines interfaces to integrate diverse discussion environments smoothly into the generic framework. The usage of the developed monitoring and moderation system has been tested practically with two different stand-alone discussion environments and first empirical results of the moderation approach have been collected. We conclude with future work on the framework system and additional discussion tools to be integrated into the architecture.


A new pulse sequence for rapid imaging of free radicals is presented which combines snapshot imaging methods and conventional field-cycled proton electron double resonance imaging (FC-PEDRI). The new sequence allows the number of EPR irradiation periods to be optimized to obtain an acceptable SNR and spatial resolution of free radical distribution in the final image while reducing the RF power deposition and increasing the temporal resolution. Centric reordered phase encoding has been employed to counter the problem of rapid decay of the Overhauser-enhanced signal. A phase-correction scheme has also been used to correct problems arising from instability of the magnetic field following field-cycling. In vivo experiments were carried out using triaryl methyl free radical contrast agent, injected at a dose of 0.214 mmol kg−1 body weight in anaesthetized adult male Sprague–Dawley rats. Transaxial images through the abdomen were collected using 1, 2, 4 and 8 EPR irradiation periods. Using 4 EPR irradiation periods it was possible to generate free radical distributions of acceptable SNR and resolution. The EPR power deposition is reduced by a factor of 16 and the acquisition time is reduced by a factor of 4 compared to an acquisition using the conventional FC-PEDRI pulse sequence.


Abstract A comparative analysis of performance of Diesel engines fuelled by diesel oil, methyl ester of rapeseed oil and raw rapeseed oil was performed. The analysis of external characteristics of engines powered by various fuel types was accepted for an assessment. Engine performance rates were analysed while attention was paid to power courses, moment, unit fuel consumption and hour fuel consumption, exhaust fumes temperature and exhaust smoke. Operation effectiveness of engines was assessed when they were fed with various fuel types and optimal proportions of fuel mixtures were indicated. Environmental aspects of powering the engines with traditional fuels and crop-based fuels were analysed. The total CO2 emission in the entire process of manufacturing and combustion of fuels was accepted as a criterion. A simplified economic analysis was performed in the aspect of the underlying purpose of using crop-based fuels for propulsion of piston engines. Conclusions and recommendations that indicate directions of development concerning the analysed issue were prepared.


Solid state photovoltaic cells have been fabricated using a ruthenium dye complex as a sensitizer, and poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) as a hole transporting layer. A compact TiO2 layers with no pores has been introduced to prevent charge losses related to back reactions. The photovoltaic properties of MEH-PPV/dye coated TiO2 electrodes and MEH-PPV coated TiO2 electrodes with and without using compact TiO2 layers were investigated. The compact TiO2 layer increased the current from 0.09 mA/cm2 to 0.4 mA/cm2. Further improvement in current was achieved by inserting a dye interlayer between nanoporous TiO2 and MEH-PPV. In this case, the current increased up to 2 mA/cm2 yielding an efficiency of 0.3 %.


The Acute Abdomen Decision Making course® (AADM®) was developed by the World Society of Emergency Surgeons (WSES) members with the purpose to teach a systematic and concise method for approaching acute abdomen patient. It was first introduced in 2016. The course explains step by step the clinical reasoning to follow for immediate managing of the acute abdomen in emergency department with a safe and reliable method. We developed this original decision making model AADM following the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) philosophy in evaluating non-traumatic abdominal pain patient. The A-B-C-D-E-F management of non-traumatic acute abdominal pain is conceived by WSES to make easy and systematic the evaluation of patients in Emergency Department. AADM course teaches how to assess an acute abdomen patient's diagnosis and determine the therapeutic approach to reduce unnecessary exams and hospitalizations.


BACKGROUND
Patients with metastatic bone disease are living longer in the metastatic stage due to improvements in cancer therapy, making strategies to prevent the aggravation of bone disease and its complications, such as skeletal-related events (SREs) and pain, increasingly important.

PATIENTS AND RESULTS
In this phase 3 trial in patients with advanced cancer (excluding breast and prostate cancer) or multiple myeloma, denosumab reduced the risk of radiation to bone by 22% relative to zoledronic acid (P = 0.026), prevented worsening of pain and pain interference (2-point increase in Brief Pain Inventory score; P < 0.05 versus zoledronic acid), and reduced the frequency of a shift from no/weak opioid analgesic use to strong opioids (P < 0.05 versus zoledronic acid at months 3-5). Denosumab delayed the time to moderate-to-severe pain compared with zoledronic acid in patients with mild or no pain at the baseline (P = 0.04), supporting early treatment. Health-related quality-of-life scores were similar in both groups. The number needed to treat to avoid one SRE for denosumab was 3 patient-years versus placebo and 10 patient-years versus zoledronic acid.

CONCLUSION
The use of denosumab was associated with better prevention of the complications of metastatic bone disease secondary to solid tumors or multiple myeloma versus zoledronic acid.


We study the difference in the volatility dynamics of CBOT corn, soybeans, and oats futures prices across different delivery horizons via the smoothed Bayesian estimator of Karali, Dorfman, and Thurman (2010). We show that the futures price volatilities in these markets are affected by the inventories, time to delivery, and the crop progress period. Some of these effects vary across delivery horizons. Further, it is shown that the price volatility is higher before the harvest starts in most of the cases compared to the volatility during the planting period. These results have implications for hedging, options pricing, and the setting of margin requirements.


Power consumption is becoming a limiting factor in next generation network routers. Recent observation shows that IP lookup engines dominate the power consumption of routers. Previous work on reducing power consumption of routers mainly focused on network-, system- and hardware-level optimizations. This paper represents the first attempt on the data structure optimization for power-efficient trie-based IP lookup engines. Both non-pipelined and pipelined static random access memory (SRAM) -based architectures are studied. Given the architecture, we formulate the problem by revisiting the time-space trade-off of multi-bit tries. A dynamic programming framework is then proposed to determine the optimal strides for building tree-bitmap tries so that the worst-case power consumption of the IP lookup engine is minimized. Experiments using real-life routing tables demonstrate that careful design of the data structure can reduce the power consumption dramatically. We hope our initial work can motivate the research community to expand their scope beyond the current efforts on either the hardware- or the system- and network- levels for power-efficient Internet infrastructure.


Author(s): Johnson, Kerri N. | Advisor(s): Finnegan, Noah J | Abstract: The potential that sinuous bedrock river canyons archive information about past climatic and tectonic forcing of landscapes has intrigued geomorphologists for over 100 years, in fact they were one of the first landforms to inspire the use of landscapes to constrain geologic history. Yet because bedrock river erosion typically requires bedload impacts and abrasion, and because bedload transport is not tightly coupled with the small deviations in fluid shear stress that cause meandering in lowland alluvial rivers, it was never clear how or if the fluid dynamics understood to drive meandering in alluvial rivers could be applied to rivers confined to bedrock canyons. Without a theory for the process of active meandering in bedrock rivers, the assumption that bedrock sinuosity must be inherited from an antecedent alluvial state has remained pervasive despite evidence to the contrary. In this thesis, exploration of well constrained field examples enables me to formulate two general requirements for a bedrock river to meander: 1. bank-rock must become susceptible to fluid erosion, and 2. mass wasting of steep bedrock cut banks cannot produce persistent talus to protect the bank from continued lateral erosion. With detailed field exploration, experimentation, and mapping, laboratory rock mechanics testing, weathering experiments, topographic analysis and literature review of mineralogy, we show that where meandering in bedrock occurs, weathering of bank rock satisfies these two conditions. In the mudstone lithology of Pescadero Creek, CA, we show that slaking (fracture due to wetting and drying) of exposed bedrock along cut banks both makes this rock transportable by fluid flow, and makes colluvium easily transportable. For channels in the basaltic lavas of the Kohala Peninsula, Hawai'i chemical weathering can satisfy these same two conditions. This chemical weathering has been shown to be closely controlled by precipitation, and I show a significant decrease in channel sinuosity across the peninsula's strong orographic precipitation gradient from wet to arid regions. In both these examples, meandering is sensitive to climate. This understanding of how bedrock rivers meander provides a mechanistic foundation for climatic interpretations of sinuous bedrock river canyons (including their associated strath terraces). In addition, I demonstrate that active meandering rearranges drainage networks and has far reaching consequences for landscape evolution and sediment routing. Specifically, I show that 1) growing meander bends can capture tributaries and cause large knickpoints, and 2) meander neck cutoff events cause terraces which isolate adjoining tributaries from the active mainstem, resulting in long lasting tributary convexities, and sediment storage. These autogenic consequences of active meandering mimic tectonic and climatic transience in landscapes over timescales similar to glacial/interglacial cycles (105-106 years), and also influence sediment transport and storage, which often plays a critical role for aquatic ecosystems.


Tolkien's expressed "loathing" for Dorothy Sayers and her novels Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon is remarkable considering that Sayers is generally considered to belong to the same milieu as the Inklings. Possible reasons for this are the contrast between the orthodox Catholic Tolkien's view of male sexuality as inherently sinful, requiring "great mortification", and Sayers's frankly hedonistic approach. Another reason may be Sayers's depiction of an independent Oxford women's college getting by successfully without men, and her representation of marriage as a source of intellectual frustration for creative women.


Diffusion of Mg from Mg-ion-implanted GaN layer to metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) regrown AlGaN/GaN layers was detected and identified as a critical problem in devices which are dependent on layers implanted with Mg for its current blocking properties. Surface treatments done to etch away the Mg rich layer prior to the regrowth was not beneficial unlike in the case of the GaN doped with Mg. Remarkably, regrowth of a sub-nanometer thick (7 Å) AlN layer on top of the Mg-implanted GaN was found to be effective in arresting the Mg from diffusing out into the AlGaN/GaN layers grown on top at 1160 °C. This was verified from both secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis and electrical (capacitance–voltage) data. This result is significant because at such thickness the AlN would not impact the crystal quality of the overgrown material and serve as a viable method of achieving a current blocking structure by MOCVD growth technique.


Road traffic congestion is headache major problem in urban area of both developing and developed countries. In order to reduce this problem, traffic congestion states of road networks are estimated so that congested road can be avoided. In this paper, we estimate the real time traffic congestion states of user's desired source and destination and present the estimated results in Google Map. We use Hidden Markov model (HMM) for estimating the traffic condition states of these road network using both historical and real time data. To get these traffic data we use GPS trajectories data collected from mobile phones on vehicles. We evaluate our estimating system using dataset generated by collect data from phone-equipped vehicles over a period of 4 months in Yangon.


Thomson scattering X-ray sources are compact and affordable facilities that produce short duration, high brightness X-ray pulses enabling new experimental capacities in ultra-fast science studies, and also medical and industrial applications. Such a facility has been built at the Accelerator Laboratory of Tsinghua University, and upgrade is in progress. In this paper, we present a proposed layout of the upgrade with design parameters by simulation, aiming at high X-ray pulses flux and brightness, and also enabling advanced dynamics studies and applications of the electron beam. Design and construction status of main subsystems are also presented.


Mathematical models are used to provide insights into the mechanisms and dynamics of the progression of viral infection in vivo. Untangling the dynamics between HIV and CD4 cellular populations and molecular interactions can be used to investigate the effective points of interventions in the HIV life cycle. With that in mind, we develop and analyze a stochastic model for In-Host HIV dynamics that includes combined therapeutic treatment and intracellular delay between the infection of a cell and the emission of viral particles. The unique feature is that both therapy and the intracellular delay are incorporated into the model. We show the usefulness of our stochastic approach towards modeling combined HIV treatment by obtaining probability generating function, the moment structures of the healthy CD4 cell, and the virus particles at any time t and the probability of virus clearance. Our analysis show that, when it is assumed that the drug is not completely effective, as is the case of HIV in vivo, the predicted rate of decline in plasma HIV virus concentration depends on three factors: the initial viral load before therapeutic intervention, the efficacy of therapy and the length of the intracellular delay.


A three-linked manipulator mounted on a two-wheeled mobile platform is used to weld a long curved welding path. A welding torch mounted at the end of a manipulator of the welding mobile manipulator (WMM) must be controlled for tracking a welding path with constant velocity and constant welding angle of torch. In this paper, a decentralized control method is applied to control the WMM considered as two separate subsystems such as a mobile platform and a manipulator. Two decentralized motion controllers are designed to control two subsystems of WMM, respectively. Firstly, based on a tracking error vector of the manipulator and a feedback motion of the mobile platform, a kinematic controller is designed for manipulator. Secondly, based on an another tracking error vector of the mobile platform and a feedback angular velocities of revolution joints of three-link, a sliding mode controller is designed for the mobile platform. These controllers are obtained based on the Lyapunov's function and its stability condition to ensure for the tracking error vectors to be asymptotically stable. Furthermore, simulation and experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Bio and aqueous applications of ionic liquids (IL) such as catalysis in micelles formed in aqueous IL solutions or extraction of chemicals from biologic materials rely on surface-active and self-assembly properties of ILs. Here, we discuss qualitative relations of the interfacial and bulk structuring of a water-soluble surface-active IL ([C8MIm][Cl]) on chemically controlled surfaces over a wide range of water concentrations using both force probe and X-ray scattering experiments. Our data indicate that IL structuring evolves from surfactant-like surface adsorption at low IL concentrations, to micellar bulk structure adsorption above the critical micelle concentration, to planar bilayer formation in ILs with <1 wt % of water and at high charging of the surface. Interfacial structuring is controlled by mesoscopic bulk structuring at high water concentrations. Surface chemistry and surface charges decisively steer interfacial ordering of ions if the water concentration is low and/or the surface charge is high. We also demonstrate that controlling the interfacial forces by using self-assembled monolayer chemistry allows tuning of interfacial structures. Both the ratio of the head group size to the hydrophobic tail volume as well as the surface charging trigger the bulk structure and offer a tool for predicting interfacial structures. Based on the applied techniques and analyses, a qualitative prediction of molecular layering of ILs in aqueous systems is possible.


Moving from a wide angle shot of gender theory, Basque Gender Studies focuses on the way Basque women and men live and work together in a modern society steeped in ancient culture. This book explodes the myth of Basque matriarchy and questions the extent of women's rule fixed in a mystical past. The powerful mother figure has a vital role in handing down the Basque language and culture, at home and abroad, but at the same time, women are breaking old molds and carving out new niches for themselves, sometimes coming into head-on collision with the force of tradition. The evolution of the Basque women's movement reflects the radical changes of past decades and sheds light on the present. What was it like to be a woman in Franco's times? How did the women's movement lead a sexual revolution in a Catholic country? What political voice do Basque women have now? Most importantly, are Basque women and men equal today? These and other questions will engage and absorb all those interested in the gender issues which face the Basque Country in the twenty first century.


Tetraploidy may constitute a metastable state leading to numeric and structural chromosome abnormalities that are associated with cancer. Here, we show that cultured primary p53-/- (but not wild type, WT) mouse mammary epithelial cells (MMECs) accumulate a tetraploid sub-population in vitro. This occurs spontaneously, yet can be exacerbated by the addition of microtubule inhibitors as well as of inhibitors of cytokinesis. As compared to WT cells, tetraploid p53-/- MMECs contain supernumerary centrosomes and exhibit a reduced propensity to initiate the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Moreover, tetraploid p53-/- MMECs are more resistant against anthracyclin-induced cell killing than their diploid counterparts. Altogether, these data indicate that p53 normally suppresses the generation of tetraploid cells, presumably by activating the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. In the absence of p53, tetraploid cells accumulate as a result of inhibited apoptosis, which contributes to the acquisition of chemotherapy resistance.


The paper deals with the floristic and ecological diversity of the riparian forest and scrub communities of the Sutjeska National Park in SE Bosnia and Herzegovina. Watercourses of the NP are represented by montane to submontane small rivers and creeks with fast-flowing water and frequent strong but short floods. This caused specific types of riverine forest vegetation to develop along their banks. Classification and ordination methods of numerical analysis were applied on 42 releves sampled in the field. The classification has revealed five ecologically interpretable releve groups: (1) willow scrub of Salix eleagnos and S. caprea on fertile fine grained deposits; (2) forests of Alnus glutinosa and Salix alba also on finer deposits; (3) narrow strips of Alnus glutinosa along the low banks of smaller streams; (4) narrow strips of Alnus glutinosa along the steep banks of wider streams; (5) thermo-mesophilous scrub of Salix eleagnos and Ostrya carpinifolia on gravel beds. All five groups are floristically and ecologically well distinguished. While groups 1 and 3 are similar to already described communities from Central Europe (Salicetum eleagno-purpureae and Stellario nemorum-Alnetum glutinosae, respectivelly), groups 4 and 5 most probably present, up to date, undescribed associations. Group 2 is rather floristically and ecologically heterogeneous, and as such possess transitional character (between Salicion albae and Alnion incanae alliances). Ordination revealed ecological gradient from nutrient rich (groups 1 and 2) to less nutrient rich communities (groups 4 and 5).


The grinding of Si3N4 powder using reaction bonded Si3N4 attrition, vibratory, and ball mills with Si3N4 media was examined. The rate of particle size reduction and the change in the chemical composition of the powder were determined in order to compare the grinding efficiency and the increase in impurity content resulting from mill and media wear for each technique. Attrition and vibratory milling exhibited rates of specific surface area increase that were approximately eight times that observed in ball milling. Vibratory milling introduced the greatest impurity pickup.


Phytoremediation is considered a viable and cost effective emerging
technology to clean-up trace elements. This approach has not
been fully commercialized due the existence of various concerns about it. Those
can be summarized as the uncertainty of the system behaviors at different
scenarios, such as: contaminant, contaminant concentration and the behaviors of
the physiology in the plant. Previous approaches have implemented diverse mathematical
algorithms to characterize phytoremediation systems, such as: differential
equation solution sets, statistical correlation and system dynamics approach.
Phytoremediation Dynamic Model (PDM) employed the classical plant structure to
simulate plant-soil-pollutant interaction. This model has proved its capability to
mimic phytovolatilization processes of mercury chloride, obtaining
more than 95% of correlation between the experimental data, and also provides
the capability to know the contaminant flow rate and its concentration in plant
tissue. The differential equations system which describes the model includes a
comprehensive parameter which encapsulates plant bioavailability dependence in
the contaminant-media interaction as a novel approach because this has not been
found on the literature previously. PDM has proved the ability to mimic plant
response as a function of contaminant concentration and the applicability as an
assessment tool for phytoremediation system performance.


SUMMARY Research findings from several countries suggest that academic work has become comparatively stressful, with potentially serious consequences for the workforce and the quality of higher education. This article reports the findings of a study that examined work demands, work-life balance and wellbeing in UK academic staff. Job demands and levels of psychological distress were high and working during evenings and weekends was commonplace. Most academics surveyed, however, were at least moderately satisfied with their jobs. Work-life balance was generally poor and most respondents wished for more separation between their work and home lives. Academics who reported more work-life conflict and perceived a greater discrepancy between their present and ideal levels of work-life integration tended to be less healthy, less satisfied with their jobs, and more likely to have seriously considered leaving academia. On the whole, academics that perceived more control over their work, more schedule flexibility and more support from their institutions had a better work-life balance. These factors, however, failed to moderate the relationship between work demands and perceptions of conflict between work and home.


Apolipoprotein E (apo E) plays an important role in lipid metabolism and its polymorphism may be a risk determinant of coronary heart disease (CHD). Since evidence suggested a gender-specific effect of apo E polymorphism, we studied the influence of gender-specific interaction of the polymorphism on CHD. From a total of 463 Greek Caucasians (314 men and 149 postmenopausal women) with angiographically documented CHD, we selected 79 women (68+/- 9 yr old) and 79 men (66+/- 9 yr old) who were matched for clinical characteristics. Apo E genotyping was performed by PCR and RFLP analysis. Biochemical parameters were also measured. The results were as follows: the E3/3 genotype occurred in 78.5% of the patients, followed by E3/4, E2/3, E2/4, and E4/4 genotypes, which occurred in 9.5%, 9.5%, 1.9%, and 0.6% of the patients, respectively. No significant differences were observed in the apo E allele or apo E genotype distributions between the matched Greek men and women with CHD. The E3/3 men patients were more frequently part of a family with a history of CHD, compared to women (p=0.035).


Generally, pile foundation is typically chosen to support heavy structures. However, the developments of expressions to determine the pile capacity is usually based on fully saturated and completely dry conditions. In fact, almost 40 percent of natural soils on the earth surface are in an unsaturated state. Thus, in this paper, an expression for pile capacity in homogeneous unsaturated sand layer is developed. The simulations using developed expression are performed and discussed. Typical results show that the pile capacity and the factor of safety are affected by matric suction. However, the influence of matric suction may be ignored for a long pile.


Here, for the first time, we present a colorimetric sensor array toward sensitive protein discrimination based on a novel strategy of diverse DNA–protein interactions with the performance of iodide-responsive Cu–Au nanoparticles (NPs). Different steric hindrance effects generated from differential interactions of DNA and proteins inhibit the accessibility of iodide to the NP surfaces, generating diverse colorimetric signals as "fingerprints" associated with each specific protein, which is subjected to linear discriminant analysis (LDA), a pluralistic statistic analysis technique for assignment of unknown samples to their suitable categories and data classification, to generate a clustering map. On the basis of the LDA analysis, eight proteins with a concentration of 20 nM in pure aqueous buffer and in real serum samples were successfully discriminated with 100% accuracy.


Given the recent movement toward standards-based education there is a heightened need for teacher competency in the area of assessment and evaluation. However, despite demands for teacher assessment literacy, there are few instances of mandatory assessment courses in preservice teacher education programmes. Further, there is generally a lack of research guiding the development of effective assessment curricula for initial teacher learning in this area. This study presents one institution's response to developing an assessment curriculum for approximately 700 preservice candidates. The paper traces the curriculum development process from its initial research to its third year of implementation. Specific attention is given to shifts in content and pedagogy over this three-year period as informed by findings from ongoing course evaluations as well as identification of the challenge facing assessment educators.


ABSTRACT Hypoxia is common in aquatic environments, and exposure to hypoxia followed by re-oxygenation is often believed to induce oxidative stress. However, there have been relatively few studies of reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis and oxidative status in fish that experience natural hypoxia–re-oxygenation cycles. We examined how exposure to acute hypoxia (2 kPa O2) and subsequent re-oxygenation (to 20 kPa O2) affects redox status, oxidative damage and anti-oxidant defenses in estuarine killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus), and whether these effects were ameliorated or potentiated by prolonged (28 days) acclimation to either constant hypoxia or intermittent cycles of nocturnal hypoxia (12 h:12 h normoxia:hypoxia). Acute hypoxia and re-oxygenation led to some modest and transient changes in redox status, increases in oxidized glutathione, depletion of scavenging capacity and oxidative damage to lipids in skeletal muscle. The liver had greater scavenging capacity, total glutathione concentrations and activities of anti-oxidant enzymes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase) than muscle, and generally experienced less variation in glutathiones and lipid peroxidation. Unexpectedly, acclimation to constant hypoxia or intermittent hypoxia led to a more oxidizing redox status (muscle and liver) and it increased oxidized glutathione (muscle). However, hypoxia-acclimated fish exhibited little to no oxidative damage (as reflected by lipid peroxidation and aconitase activity), in association with improvements in scavenging capacity and catalase activity in muscle. We conclude that hypoxia acclimation leads to adjustments in ROS homeostasis and oxidative status that do not reflect oxidative stress, but may instead be part of the suite of responses that killifish use to cope with chronic hypoxia. Summary: Hypoxia acclimation leads to pronounced changes in redox status, with no signs of oxidative damage, during hypoxia and re-oxygenation in the estuarine killifish.


Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the economy, yet there exists little well-identified research into the effects of taxes on startup activity. Using recently developed county-level data on startups, we examine the effect of states' corporate, personal and sales tax rates on new firm activity and test for cross-border spillovers in response to these policies. We find that new firm employment is negatively—and disproportionately—affected by corporate tax rates. We find little evidence of an effect of personal and sales taxes on entrepreneurial outcomes. Our results are robust to changes in the tax base and other state-level policies. JEL Codes: L26, D22, H71, H25, J23


This paper reviews what local governments in more than 50 cities are doing with regard to disaster risk reduction. It draws on the reports of their participation in the global Making Cities Resilient Campaign and its 10 "essential" components, and on interviews with city mayors or managers. These show how resilience to disasters is being conceived and addressed by local governments, especially with regard to changes in their institutional framework and engagement with communities and other stakeholders, also in mobilizing finance, undertaking multi-hazard risk assessments, upgrading informal settlements, adjusting urban planning and implementing building codes. The paper summarizes what city mayors or managers view as key milestones for building resilience, and further discusses their evaluation of the usefulness of the campaign to them. It also discusses how a local government-focused perspective on disaster risk reduction informs our understanding of resilience. This includes how development can contribute much to disaster risk reduction as well as a more tangible and operational understanding of resilience (resistance + coping capacity + recovery + adaptive capacity) that local governments can understand and act on.


In the field of economics, a vast literature has attributed the rise of global value chains to globalization-related forces such as declining costs of transportation, improvements in communications technology, and institutional and policy reforms in developing countries. Through an in-depth review of the industry transformation in the electronics industry, however, we find that an additional relatively unexplored factor is the modularization of electronics products. We analyze the mechanisms through which product modularization may lead to the rise of global value chains and discuss the implications for future research.


Measurements in the interstitial waters of pelagic red clay and carbonate ooze sediments in the central equatorial Pacific show that the dissolved oxygen content decreases with depth and levels off at nonzero values. The supply of reactive organic carbon introduced by bioturbation limits oxygen consumption at depth in the sediment. These gradients should produce diffusive fluxes across the sediment-water interface that average about 8.8 x 10–14 mole per square centimeter per second or 0.08 milliliter per square meter per hour.


This thesis is a philosophical examination of the explanatory roles of diagnoses in psychiatry. In medicine, diagnoses normally serve as causal explanations of patients' symptoms. Given that psychiatry is a discipline whose practice is shaped by medical traditions, it is often implied that its diagnoses also serve such explanatory functions. This is evident in clinical texts that portray psychiatric diagnoses as referring to diseases that cause symptoms. However, there are problems which cast doubt on whether such portrayals are justified. I address these problems and examine whether psychiatric diagnoses provide explanations of symptoms. The first problem is conceptual. In diagnostic manuals, psychiatric diagnoses are defined by their symptoms. This suggests that invoking them as explanations of the symptoms amounts to circularity. I argue that this can be resolved with an appropriate conceptual framework that captures the complex semantic values of diagnostic terms and their different uses in clinical discourse. I put forward such a framework based on two-dimensional semantics. The second problem is ontological. Empirical research suggests that diagnostic categories in psychiatry do not correspond to invariant causal types, but are associated with variable combinations of diverse causes that interact across biological, psychological, and social levels. Given this heterogeneity, I argue that psychiatric diagnoses fall short of paradigmatic cases of causal explanation, but that some can still provide other sorts of useful causal explanatory information. The original contribution of this thesis is the illumination of the conceptual relations between diagnoses and symptoms. This philosophical work is important, because it can be brought to valuable application in modifying psychiatric practice.


Background Literature documents incomplete and conflicting evidence between bacterial vaginosis and its association with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in cervicovaginal smears (CS). Aim To investigate if there is an association between bacterial vaginosis (BV) and squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) in CS. Methods A retrospective analysis of 6902 cervicovaginal cases accrued during January 2006 -December 2009 from an opportunistic screening programme was done. The cases diagnosed as unsatisfactory (n = 239), glandular cell abnormalities (n = 9) and carcinoma (n = 12) were excluded. Thus the study was based on 6642 cases. These were reviewed to identify SIL and BV. The correlation with histology was done wherever available. A diagnosis of BV was rendered if 10 clue cells per low power field and at least 5 fields showing cocco-bacteria were detected on Pap stained smears. Statistical evaluation was carried by applying Z test to determine if BV has an association to SIL in CS. Results Of the 6642 cases analysed, BV was present in 13% cases and absent in 87% cases. SIL was reported in 7% BV present group and 2% in the BV absent group (P < 0.001). The difference between the two proportions was highly significant. We also compared BV present in LSIL group with HSIL group. BV was present in 29% cases in LSIL group compared to 45% in HSIL group (P = 0.03). The difference between the two proportions was significant. Conclusion The presence of BV was significantly higher in SIL group and was associated with the severity of SIL. The presence of BV should not deter a diagnosis of SIL but trigger a meticulous search for abnormal cells.


Background: Effectiveness of cladribine tablets, an oral disease-modifying treatment (DMT) for multiple sclerosis (MS), was established in clinical trials and confirmed with real-world experience. Objectives: Use real-world data to compare treatment patterns and clinical outcomes in people with MS (pwMS) treated with cladribine tablets versus other oral DMTs. Methods: Retrospective treatment comparisons were based on data from the international MSBase registry. Eligible pwMS started treatment with cladribine, fingolimod, dimethyl fumarate, or teriflunomide tablets from 2018 to mid-2021 and were censored at treatment discontinuation/switch, death, loss to follow-up, pregnancy, or study period end. Treatment persistence was evaluated as time to discontinuation/switch; relapse outcomes included time to first relapse and annualized relapse rate (ARR). Results: Cohorts included 633 pwMS receiving cladribine tablets, 1195 receiving fingolimod, 912 receiving dimethyl fumarate, and 735 receiving teriflunomide. Individuals treated with fingolimod, dimethyl fumarate, or teriflunomide switched treatment significantly more quickly than matched cladribine tablet cohorts (adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): 4.00 (2.54–6.32), 7.04 (4.16–11.93), and 6.52 (3.79–11.22), respectively). Cladribine tablet cohorts had significantly longer time-to-treatment discontinuation, time to first relapse, and lower ARR, compared with other oral DMT cohorts. Conclusion: Cladribine tablets were associated with a significantly greater real-world treatment persistence and more favorable relapse outcomes than all oral DMT comparators.


Pain in the right in iliac fossa can be a related to organ localized within this quadrant. The most appropriate clinical diagnosis for tenderness in Mc Burney's point is acute appendicitis. An uncommon cause for pain in the right iliac fossa is endometriosis of appendix. We document a case of 45-year-old lady who presented with pain in the right iliac fossa pain and tenderness in Mc Burney's point diagnosed clinically as acute appendicitis, which was surgically removed and confirmed by histopathological examination as endometriosis of appendix. This case highlights difficulty in making preoperative diagnosis in this uncommon entity and importance of specimen sampling and histomorphology of appendix for rendering the right diagnosis. In addition, differential diagnosis of endometriosis of appendix should be considered as one of the rare possibility in women particularly when pain is related to menstrual cycle.


The anomalous properties of cold and supercooled water, such as the fact that at sufficiently low temperatures it becomes more compressible and less dense when cooled, and more fluid when compressed, have attracted the attention of physical scientists for a long time. The discovery in the 1970s that several thermodynamic and transport properties of supercooled water exhibit a pronounced temperature dependence and appear to diverge slightly below the homogeneous nucleation temperature inspired a large number of experimental and theoretical studies. Likewise, an important body of work on glassy water has been stimulated by experiments, starting in the mid-1980s and continuing to this date, which suggest that vitreous water can exist in at least two apparently distinct forms. A coherent theory of the thermodynamic and transport properties of supercooled and glassy water does not yet exist. Nevertheless, significant progress towards this goal has been made during the past 20 years. This article summarizes the known experimental facts and reviews critically theoretical and computational work aimed at interpreting the observations and providing a unified viewpoint on cold, non-crystalline, metastable states of water.


In March 1985, the failure of the Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund (the ODGF) sent shock waves reverberating through the financial world. This episode is popularly interpreted as evidence of the dangers of both private deposit insurance and continuing financial deregulation. This paper argues that policies of financial deregulation played little role in the ODGF insolvency. The failure of the ODGF was instead a failure of government regulation, rooted in inadequacies in the OGDF information and enforcement systems. The ODGF may be conceived as the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation writ small. Both agencies share many of the same structural imbalances: large unresolved losses, explicitly mispriced and underreserved services, inadequate information and monitoring systems, insufficient disciplinary powers, and a susceptibility to political pressures to forbear. Doctors perform autopsies on dead patients to improve their ability to protect living ones. This paper's autopsy of the institutional corpse of the ODGF focuses on identifying the kinds of disturbances that transform structural imbalances into a full-fledged crisis. Our research underscores the way that deceptive accounting and underfinanced insurance funds contain crisis pressures in the short run by setting the stage for more severe problems down the line. As financial markets approach more and more closely the perfect and complete markets beloved by finance theorists, the amount of time that can be bought by policies that merely defer crisis pressures is shrinking and becoming hard to use productively.


The acetylglucosaminyltransferase-like protein LARGE1 is an enzyme that is responsible for the final steps of the post-translational modifications of dystroglycan (DG), a membrane receptor that links the cytoskeleton with the extracellular matrix in the skeletal muscle and in a variety of other tissues. LARGE1 acts by adding the repeating disaccharide unit [-3Xyl-α1,3GlcAβ1-] to the extracellular portion of the DG complex (α-DG); defects in the LARGE1 gene result in an aberrant glycosylation of α-DG and consequent impairment of its binding to laminin, eventually affecting the connection between the cell and the extracellular environment. In the skeletal muscle, this leads to degeneration of the muscular tissue and muscular dystrophy. So far, a few missense mutations have been identified within the LARGE1 protein and linked to congenital muscular dystrophy, and because no structural information is available on this enzyme, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying these pathologies is still very limited. Here, we generated a 3D model structure of the two catalytic domains of LARGE1, combining different molecular modeling approaches. Furthermore, by using molecular dynamics simulations, we analyzed the effect on the structure and stability of the first catalytic domain of the pathological missense mutation S331F that gives rise to a severe form of muscle–eye–brain disease.


In this paper we investigate the physical basis and validity of a dynamical model for environmental tracer response for a groundwater‐dominated stream reach or small catchments. The dynamical model is formed by volume averaging of the local equations of saturated flow and solute transport. The approach interprets the empirical concentration‐discharge C‐Q as a pair of integrated state variables from an underlying state space (or phase space) for the hillslope or catchment response. The inputs represent episodic, seasonal, and random recharge rate and concentration time series. A closed form solution is found for constant inputs. Results are compared with numerical solutions of the governing partial differential equations, and agreement is found for a full range of initial states and levels of forcing. For pulse‐type or piecewise constant recharge events, the phase plane trajectories for C‐Q are shown to exhibit looping behavior, without the need for an assumption of hysteresis in the model. The orientation and looping direction of these solutions are shown to be controlled by the dimensionless ratio of solute residence time to hydraulic relaxation time and the relative phase lag between recharge and recharge concentration. The closed form solution is extended to the case of piecewise constant, random, input sequences resulting in a "random map" for C‐Q. An application is presented for seasonal storage and flushing of SO−4 in runoff for a small catchment in central Pennsylvania.


Abstract A continuous sequence of terrestrial sediments bracketing the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary is known only in the western interior of North America. Documentation of terrestrial faunal diversity, and patterns of survival and extinction, demonstrate that dinosaurs (i.e. non-avian dinosaurs) declined in the Late Maastrichtian and were the only major terrestrial vertebrate group, along with the pterosaurs, that became extinct at or near the K-T boundary. There was a varying degree of turnover but no mass extinction in other vertebrate groups. Both gradualist and catastrophe scenarios have been advocated as the main cause. There is much less evidence in other parts of the world that can be brought to bear on the timing and nature of dinosaur extinction. None the less, there are dinosaur remains from Maastrichtian horizons on every continent and none are recorded from overlying Paleocene strata. This supports the axiom that dinosaurs died out world-wide at the end of the Cretaceous although there is no means of determining whether the extinction pattern in western North America was a local or global phenomenon. The disruption of reproductive patterns in herbivorous dinosaurs by trace element contamination derived from an impact, volcanic activity or both events is one factor which might correlate with their global extinction.


Pollution from metal mining has led to severe environmental damage. The assessment of metals is very complex as they interact with a broad spectrum of biotic and abiotic components depending on physicochemical conditions. Worldwide, discharges from ancient mines are considered one of the major causes of point and diffuse pollution. This thesis investigated the sources and mobility of metal pollution associated with historical mining in a carboniferous upland catchment, located in the Northern Pennines in the UK. From chemical analysis and geochemical modelling I identified metal sulphates and metal carbonates as the main mineral sources of metals. I also demonstrated that metal carbonates are controlling metal mobility, while seasonality is also producing changes in flow and pH conditions, affecting metal concentrations and behaviour. By using speciation modelling, ecotoxicological assessment tools and in situ macroinvertebrate survey I highlighted the dynamics of metals occurring in neutral mine drainage; and suggested the application of environmental quality standards based on bioavailability data within a realistic context relating response of aquatic organisms to river water chemistry and metals. I also evaluated the effects of episodic rainfall on aqueous metal mobility and toxicity to address some knowledge gaps. I found that rainfall conditions did not alter the circumneutral conditions of the catchment, although metal mobility and speciation were affected by the abundance of carbonate and bicarbonate minerals derived from bedrock weathering. I showed that metal toxicity occurred at circumneutral pH, and mainly attributable to zinc. Moreover, I assessed the effects of episodic rainfall in metal toxicity and calculations revealed that short-term fluctuations of metal concentrations are not reflected in the predicted acute toxicity risk to aquatic organisms, underlining the complexity of chemical speciation especially during episodic events. Likewise, I provided a baseline for future mitigation strategies for catchments under risk of metal pollution. Finally, I stressed the importance of the public perception and community involvement in a holistic management of catchments for protecting riverine ecosystems and improving their water quality. Overall, this thesis provides the evidence that a comprehensive metal assessment requires a great understanding of processes and reactions occurring from metal sources to potential endpoint environments (e.g. water, sediments, and biota). For regulatory purposes, technical knowledge needs to be sensibly transferred to the community for achieving an effective integrated catchment management. Findings from this thesis are suitable for the assessment of streams draining spoil waste areas with similar geochemical conditions and inform future management strategies.


The City of Tshwane is faced with a challenge to improve public transport within the city. Although the image of public transport in the City is poor, a number of events/trends are providing a window of opportunity to address the situation. These events and trends include: • Soccer World Cup 2010 • The decision to go ahead with the construction of Gautrain, with three stations within the Tshwane area • The taxi recapitalisation programme, which is expected to go ahead soon after years of delays • Increased congestion • The city densification and corridor development land use strategy that has been approved by Council. The City of Tshwane identified bus rapid transit (BRT) as one of the possible methodologies to improve the image, quality and utilisation of public transport within the city. The purpose of the paper is to report on the aspects which are being considered in the evaluation of the suitability of BRT for Tshwane. These aspects include: • Critical nodes that should be linked in a fast and effective way, including commercial nodes, the Loftus sport stadium, industrial nodes, dense residential areas and Gautrain stations. • A possible BRT network, including the phasing of the implementation thereof • Passenger volumes required to justify such a service • Appropriate infrastructure measures • Possible public transport vehicles configurations • Integration with other public transport modes. It is hoped that by opening these considerations to wider discussion, that valuable input will be received that will contribute to guide the Tshwane Council on the way to go with regard to BRT as a measure to improve public transport in Tshwane.


BACKGROUND
As an adjunct to the general and cancer-specific clinical and diagnostic examinations, comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is an integral tool that examines factors affecting the course of disease and the outcome of treatment. The principal areas of focus of the CGA include the patient's functional, physical, mental, emotional, pharmacotherapeutic, and socioeconomic status.

METHODS
We describe the role of CGA in the identification and management of frail elderly patients. The literature is reviewed to outline the components, programmatic configurations, and process of CGA. Information from systematic reviews of clinical trials of different CGA program models is summarized, and observations relating to the research agenda concerning the applicability of CGA and CGA principles to management of older cancer patients are discussed.

RESULTS
Since age itself is not predictive of outcome in an elderly cancer patient, the CGA helps to distinguish between elderly patients who should be treated with intent to cure and those who will benefit from clinical oncologic and geriatric co-management.

CONCLUSIONS
A more accurate evaluation of prognostic indicators that includes CGA parameters could lead to a higher number of older patients being included in clinical cancer trials and being treated effectively in practice. It would also identify those who would benefit from gero-oncologic CGA and ongoing management aimed at maintaining function and community living.


Ball and roller bearings are designed to meet endurance requirements basically determined according to the Standard fatigue life calculation method. This method is based on the Lundberg-Palmgren fatigue life theory as modified by reliability, material, and lubrication factors. As application load and speed requirements have increased, the Lundberg-Palmgren method has resulted in bearings of increased size, adding unnecessarily to the size and weight of mechanisms. This is a critical design situation for weight and size-sensitive components such as aircraft gas turbine engines and helicopter power transmissions. The bearing life prediction method developed by loannides and Harris recognizes the existence of a fatigue limit stress. If the stresses an operating bearing experiences do not exceed the limit stress, the bearing can achieve infinite life. In any case, the method tends to predict longer lives than the Lundberg-Palmgren method. This paper evaluates the life prediction accuracies of the Lundberg-Palmgren and loannides-Harris methods by comparing lives calculated according to these methods and to those actually experienced in 62 different applications. As a result of the investigation, the loannides-Harris method is shown to more accurately predict bearing fatigue endurance.


Exposure to electromagnetic fields and radiation causes physical and chemical changes in the body provided energy is absorbed. Guidelines to protect people are briefly reviewed and its shortcomings discussed. A health factor (HF) is proposed. Radio waves, even with high information content, are not likely to be a risk of cancer.


Humanity is facing a pressing need to decarbonize the atmosphere in order to avoid catastrophic consequences. Sugar cane holds great potential to move towards a sustainable bioenergy production, as it is one of the most efficient biomass producing plants. However, the stagnant worldwide sugarcane yield is a menace to the fulfillment of its prospected contribution. Although promises abound of reaching that goal with new productive cultivars, there is a bottleneck not yet acknowledged: a dependable resilience of the cultivars. Resilience is a key factor in any agricultural crop and the genetic constitution of conventional sugarcane clearly shows why it fails in it. In a century-old sugarcane breeding system, one drive has prevailed: despite the cultivars having high concentration of sugar, they must consist of low fiber (12 ±2%), as allegedly the mills can operate with high efficiency. To accomplish this tradeoff, the sugary ancestral Saccharum officinarum contributes with nearly 85% to the genome of the cultivars, while the fibrous and resilient ancestral S. spontaneum complements the rest. With this composition, it has met the feedstock quality imposed by the industry, but the level of resilience is prejudiced. As result, the productivity of sugarcane has levelled off worldwide and the only chance of a leap forward is to break this captive dogmatism with energy cane: a plant with a higher contribution of the genome of S. spontaneum. With this gene influx, the resultant plant has higher resilience; the higher the genome contribution of this ancestral, the higher its resilience. This new hybrid type with high fiber content can definitively upgrade the biomass agroindustry, due to both its higher resilience and heterosis for biomass productivity and other favorable characteristics, thus giving a valuable contribution to CO2 mitigation.


Abstract. A new approach for generating high-speed multispectral confocal images has been developed. The central concept is that spectra can be acquired for each pixel in a confocal spatial scan by using a fast spectrometer based on optical fiber delay lines. This approach merges fast spectroscopy with standard spatial scanning to create datacubes in real time. The spectrometer is based on a serial array of reflecting spectral elements, delay lines between these elements, and a single element detector. The spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution of the instrument is described and illustrated by multispectral images of laser-induced autofluorescence in biological tissues.


Analysis of RFLP has been employed in lymphokine genes of autoimmune and normal mice. No polymorphism could be detected in the loci containing IL-2, IL-2 receptor, IL-5, and IFN-gamma in NZB, NZW, BxSB, and MRL/lpr mice when compared with normal mice. Allelic forms were identified in the IL-1 alpha gene of BALB/c and in the IL-4 gene of NZW. The frequency of the Bam HI RFLP in the TNF-alpha gene of NZW which has been proposed to be associated with the development of autoimmune disease in (NZB x NZW)F1 mice has been analyzed in a number of different inbred strains and in wild mice. Since the same allele is inherited in most autoimmune, healthy laboratory and wild mice the TNF- alpha gene does not seem to be one of the causal agents that contributes to the development of autoimmunity in (NZB x NZW)F1 mice.


Objective : To study the usage of transrectal ultrasonography Design : Prospective, descriptive study Setting : Ultrasonography room and Surgical OPD, Srinagarind hosptial, of Medicine, Khon Kaen University Subjects : Patients who had problem of prostate gland between November 1997 and September 1998 Data collection : Protocol Measurement : Descriptive statistics, including number, means, and percentages Results : There were 34 patients.  Their age ranged from 29 to 85 years (means 59.48 years). Ultrasonography Diagnoses were the same as the clinical diagnoses in every case.  Most ultrasonography diagnoses were similar to final diagnoses, except 4 cases.  Instead of BPH, one case was prostatic abscess, two cases were prostatitis, and the last was prostatic cancer. Conclusions : Transrectal ultrasonography had high efficiency to examine the pelvic organs, esp. prostate gland. Instead of blind biopsy, trransrectal ultrasonography provided visual biopsy of prostate gland. Keywords : (1) Transrectal (2) Ultrasonography


Background: Transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects (ASD) has been accepted world-wide as an alternative to surgical closure with excellent results. This interventional, non-surgical technique plays an important role in the treatment of ASD mostly in the developing world where resources are limited. Objectives: To report the outcomes and short term follow-up of transcatheter closure of ASD over a 12-year period at our institution with limited resources. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study included all patients with the diagnosis of secundum ASD and significant shunting (Qp/Qs > 1.5:1) as well as dilated right atrium and right ventricle who had transcatheter closure at Integrated Cardiovascular Center (PJT), Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital between October 2002 and October 2014. One hundred fifty-two patients enrolled in this study were candidates for device closure. Right and left heart cardiac catheterization was performed before the procedure. All patients underwent physical examination, ECG, chest X-ray and transthoracal echocardiography (TTE) prior to device implantation. Results: A total of 152 patients with significant ASD underwent device implantation. Subjects' age ranged from 0.63 to 69.6 years, with median 9.36 years and mean 16.30 years. They consisted of 33 (21.7%) males and 119 (78.3%) females, with mean body weight of 29.9 kg (range 8 to 75; SD 18.2). The device was successfully implanted in 150 patients where the majority of cases received the Amplatzer septal occluder (147/150; 98%) and the others received the Heart Lifetech ASD occluder (3/150, 2%), whereas two other cases were not suitable for device closure and we decided for surgical closure. The mean ASD size was 19.75 (range 14 - 25) mm. During the procedure, 5 (4.9%) patients had bradycardia and 3 (2.9%) patients had supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), all of which resolved. Conclusions: In our center with limited facilities and manpower, transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect was effective and safe as an alternative treatment to surgery. The outcome and short-term follow-up revealed excellent results, but long-term follow-up is needed.


The mixture of wheat straw (WS) and polyester (PC) was liquefied in supercritical ethanol. Liquefied products produced and liquefied residue from the liquefaction under different supercritical conditions were analyzed by GC-MS, SEM and IR. GC-MS analysis of the liquefied products indicates that ethanol would decompose. And the most compounds in the liquefied product had the structure of phenol and phenol derivatives, which came from the degradation products of PC and WS. SEM analysis show that the wheat straw powder possessed larger particles with smooth surfaces while the residue from liquefaction had smaller particles with rough surfaces because of drastically degraded from the wheat straw powder surface under supercritical conditions. FT-IR analysis showed that the lignin was easily degraded during the liquefaction process, and also found to the cellulose is very difficult to liquefy for its crystalline structure.


The objective of this work was to assess the viability of sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas ) for ethanol production, as well as to estimate the energy and budget balances for the crop. Data from the agricultural and industrial production phases were evaluated. Those from the agricultural phase were estimated from a field experiment and used for comparison of sweet potato genotypes. Those from the industrial phase were estimated based on the literature on the fossil fuel energy and electricity consumed in the ethanol production process. With average yields of 35 Mg ha -1 roots and 12 Mg ha -1 dry stems, the output/input ratios were 6.64 and 1.93 for the energy and budget balances, respectively. For yields of 50 and 80 Mg ha -1 roots (17 and 27 Mg ha -1 dry stems, respectively), the indexes for energy balance were 7.16 and 7.68, respectively, and those for energy budget were 2.76 and 4.42. The obtained results confirm the great aptitude of the sweet potato crop for biofuel production.


The neutron shielding glass is widely used in nuclear/fusion plants. To improve its temperature resistance and heat insulation, a Gadolinium (Gd)-containing laminate vacuum multiple glass is proposed by using the vacuum insulation method. A 3D finite element model validated by theoretical calculation was developed to analyse the heat transfer path and numerical simulation of the multiple glass was carried out to obtain the temperature distribution and the maximum temperatures of the organic glass in relation to dynamic working temperatures, the sealing agent width, view size, and vacuum thermal conductivity. The results show that the vacuum layer between common glasses can make the work temperature of neutron shielding glass increase. The multiple glass has good heat-shielding performance and it is expected to work in a high-temperature environment. In addition, the vacuum layer between the common glasses and the sealing agent width decay with respect to the view size and vacuum thermal conductivity show an increase in the working temperature of the neutron shielding glass. It was concluded that the order of affecting the temperatures of the organic glass follows the pattern of: view size > vacuum thermal conductivity > sealing agent width.


One of the more surprising aspects of Labour's strong performance in the UK's general election is that it came at a time when social democratic parties have experienced falling support in other countries across Europe. Davide Vittori asks whether the exceptionally poor results of parties such as the French Socialist Party in recent elections herald the end of social democracy as we know it in Europe.


This paper proposes a built-in self-test (BIST) design for MUXFXs in SRAM-based FPGAs. This approach can test both the interconnect resources and MUXFXs in the configurable logic blocks (CLBs). Because the test pattern generator (TPG) and output response analyzer (ORA)are configured by existing CLBs in FPGAs, no extra area overhead is needed for the proposed BIST structure. Open/short , stuck on/off faults in PSs, and stuck-at-0/1 faults in MUXFXs will be detected through the target fault detection/diagnosis of the proposed BIST structure.


Rolling technology is employed for the automated laser welding equipment to compensate for the clearance between the tailor-welded blanks which have different thicknesses. The thick blank is plastically deformed to the thin one by rolling. Two main parameters, namely, the depth of rolling and the position of rolling, have been discussed. The broadside displacement has been determined by theoretical calculations and ABAQUS simulations. Reasonable rolling technological parameters have been obtained, which provide good theoretical guidance for improving the speed and quality of laser welding.


Objectives To investigate whether the high rates of caesarean sections (CSs) in Brazil have impacted on the prevalence of preterm and early-term births. Design Individual-level, cross-sectional analyses of a national database. Setting All hospital births occurring in the country in 2015. Participants 2 903 716 hospital-delivered singletons in 3157 municipalities, representing >96% of the country's births. Primary and secondary outcome measures CS rates and gestational age distribution (<37, 37–38, 39–41 and 42 or more weeks' gestation). Outcomes were analysed according to maternal education, measured in years of schooling and municipal CS rates. Analyses were also adjusted for maternal age, marital status and parity. Results Prevalence of CS was 55.5%, preterm prevalence (<37 weeks' gestation) was 10.1% and early-term births (37–38 weeks of gestation) represented 29.8% of all births, ranging from 24.9% among women with <4 years of schooling to 39.8% among those with >12 years of education. The adjusted prevalence ratios of preterm and early-term birth were, respectively, 1.215 (1.174–1.257) and 1.643 (1.616–1.671) higher in municipalities with≥80% CS compared with those <30%. Conclusions Brazil faces three inter-related epidemics: a CS epidemic; an epidemic of early-term births, associated with the high CS rates; and an epidemic of preterm birth, also associated with CS but mostly linked to poverty-related risk factors. The high rates of preterm and early-term births produce an excess of newborns at higher risk of short-term morbidity and mortality, as well as long-term developmental problems. Compared with high-income countries, there is an annual excess of 354 000 preterm and early-term births in Brazil.


It is expected that an increasing proportion of the precipitation will fall as rain in alpine catchments in the future. Consequently, snow storage is expected to decrease, which, together with changes in snowmelt rates and timing, might cause reductions in spring and summer low flows. The objectives of this study were (1) to simulate the effect of changing snow storage on low flows during the warm seasons and (2) to relate drought sensitivity to the simulated snow storage changes at different elevations. The Swiss Climate Change Scenarios 2011 data set was used to derive future changes in air temperature and precipitation. A typical bucket‐type catchment model, HBV‐light, was applied to 14 mountain catchments in Switzerland to simulate streamflow and snow in the reference period and three future periods. The largest relative decrease in annual maximum SWE was simulated for elevations below 2,200 m a.s.l. (60–75% for the period 2070–2099) and the snowmelt season shifted by up to 4 weeks earlier. The relative decrease in spring and summer minimum runoff that was caused by the relative decrease in maximum SWE (i.e., elasticity), reached 40–90% in most of catchments for the reference period and decreased for the future periods. This decreasing elasticity indicated that the effect of snow on summer low flows is reduced in the future. The fraction of snowmelt runoff in summer decreased by more than 50% at the highest elevations and almost disappeared at the lowest elevations. This might have large implications on water availability during the summer.


Habitat fragmentation caused by human activities has been linked with extinctions of many species globally as pristine environments are divided into isolated patches, contributing to habitat loss and restricting gene flow. However, relatively little research has been done on the effects of fragmentation within an already urbanized landscape. Due to their high abundance and relatively large home ranges, black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) are an ideal species with which to study habitat connectivity within an urban setting. We tested the hypothesis that chickadee densities would be lower in more fragmented urban areas, using a Circuitscape model based on electric circuit theory and documented behavioural responses of chickadees to barriers in fragmented landscapes. The model simulated habitat connectivity across the small urban study area of Camrose, Alberta. This model was validated in the field using density surveys of chickadee populations in areas modelled as isolated against those modelled as connected. Due in part to the 'stepping-stone' effect of trees planted alongside roads, habitat connectivity was generally high across Camrose, with busy roads and unvegetated parks acting as major barriers. Chickadee densities were low in poorly connected areas, thus supporting the model and our hypothesis. The ability to model animal movements in urban centers is vital to inform city planning and management decisions, and to support local biodiversity.
Faculty Mentor: D.L. Patriquin


Whether Irvine Page is correct in his view that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was set up improperly at the beginning 1 and was thus unlikely ever to work well or whether Sam Thier is correct in his view that the postadolescent IOM is beginning to get it together, 2 the fact remains that as of 1988 the United States needs, and has not had, a national academy of medicine that works. In the preceding article, Dr Page summarizes the nine functions that he and Dr James Shannon believed would be central to the mission of a national academy of medicine. They included making optimal technological choices in public policy, addressing problems through collegial efforts with other organizations, providing information on complicated issues to the press and public, restoring self-respect and public trust in medicine, conveying information between the public and the profession, explaining needs of medical education and research


Stripping between hot mix asphalt layers can cause premature failure of pavements. Knowledge of the lateral location, depth and extent of stripping can affect the timing and type of pavement preservation, maintenance, or rehabilitation. Since subsurface stripping extent is important for maintaining the road network, Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) uses forensic measures such as coring to make this evaluation typically. The destructive nature and lack of coverage provided by this accepted method makes finding nondestructive methods for detecting stripping of in-situ asphalt pavements an important need for MnDOT and many other agencies in the National Road Research Alliance (NRRA). The case study presented in this paper uses a DX1821 antenna to collect data at a frequency step of 20 MHz ranging from 50 MHz to 3050 MHz with a dwell time of 7.52 µs using a GeoScope Mk IV control unit on a full-scale asphalt pavement constructed on a National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) test track with built-in stripping. Signals from the known stripped and non-stripped locations were used to evaluate statistical and energy based approaches. It is shown that a maximum energy ratio method, an approach that has been successfully applied to acoustic emission applications in the past, can improve signal clarity for stripping detection using ground penetrating radar. The results are demonstrated in the ability to enhance the stripping indicators in both traditional impulse time-history data and C-scan depth slices when applied to step-frequency ground penetrating radar data. The effectiveness of the energy ratio-based method in detecting fabricated stripping makes it a promising method for scoping pavement projects for construction activities. By identifying the presence and extent of stripping, road owners will have information that can allow them to avoid misapplication of preservation techniques that do not address the root stripping problem thus minimizing premature failures, or avoid major rehabilitation in situations where the evaluated lack of stripping suggests a preservation or less costly alternative can be applied.


The Other occupies a dominant place in modern Islamic educational reform. Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi in the nineteenth-century urged Muslim educators to look at European developments, and questioned if the current approach followed in Muslim societies was beneficial. Muhammad 'Abduh, in the twentieth century, identified one of the chief causes of decline in the influences exerted by 'the beliefs and opinions introduced into Islam by different groups like the Sufis and others'. Deobandi madrasa in the Indian subcontinent pictured themselves as the forts of Islam (islam ke qile) protecting Muslims from the corrupting influence of Westernisation. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, Isma'i' al-Faruqi framed the theory and plan of Islamisation in relation to Western social sciences, aiming to replace them with authentic, indigenous ones. It is clear that modern educational reformers have thought about reform in relation to a significant other. The West has often occupied a dominant place, but it is not the only partner through which reforms are conceptualised, planned and executed.


We propose a magnetic mechanism for the collimated explosion of massive stars relevant for long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), X-ray flashes (XRFs), and asymmetric core collapse supernovae. In particular, we apply Lynden-Bell's magnetic tower scenario to the interior of a massive rotating star after the core has collapsed to form a collapsar with a black hole accretion disk or a millisecond magnetar as the central engine. Of key importance, the toroidal magnetic field, continuously generated by differential rotation of the central engine, drives a rapid expansion, which becomes vertically collimated after lateral force balance with the surrounding gas pressure is reached. The collimation naturally occurs because hoop stress concentrates magnetic field toward the rotation axis and inhibits lateral expansion without affecting vertical expansion. This leads to the growth of a self-collimated magnetic structure that Lynden-Bell termed a "magnetic tower." When embedded in a massive star, the supersonic expansion of the tower drives a strong bow shock, behind which an overpressured cocoon of shocked stellar material forms, as observed in hydrodynamic simulations of collapsar jets. The cocoon confines the tower by supplying collimating pressure support. Because the tower consists of closed field lines starting and ending on the central engine, mixing of baryons from the cocoon into the tower is suppressed. The channel cleared by the growing tower is thus plausibly free of baryons and allows the escape of magnetic energy from the central engine through the star. While propagating down the stellar density gradient, the expansion of the tower accelerates and becomes relativistic. Eventually, fast collisionless reconnection becomes possible, with the resulting dissipation of magnetic energy into accelerated particles being responsible for GRB prompt emission.


Objective: Respiratory support for stabilizing very preterm infants at birth varies between centers. We retrospectively compared two strategies that involved either increasing continuous positive airway pressures (CPAP), or increasing oxygen supplementation. Methods: Matched-pairs of infants (<28 weeks of gestation) were born either at the Leiden University Medical Center [low-pressure: CPAP 5–8 cmH2O and/or positive pressure ventilation (PPV) and fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) 0.3–1.0; n = 27], or at the University Hospital of Cologne (high-pressure: CPAP 12–35 cmH2O, no PPV and FiO2 0.3–0.4; n = 27). Respiratory support was initiated non-invasively via facemask at both units. Infants (n = 54) were matched between centers for gestational age and birth weight, to compare physiological and short-term clinical outcomes. Results: In the low-pressure group, 20/27 (74%) infants received 1–2 sustained inflations (20, 25 cm H2O) and 22/27 (81%) received PPV (1:19–3:01 min) using pressures of 25–27 cm H2O. Within 3 min of birth [median (IQR)], mean airway pressures [12 (6–15) vs. 19 (16–23) cmH2O, p < 0.001] and FiO2 [0.30 (0.28–0.31) vs. 0.22 (0.21–0.30), p < 0.001] were different in low- vs. high-pressure groups, respectively. SpO2 and heart rates were similar. After 3 min, higher FiO2 levels [0.62 (0.35–0.98) vs. 0.28 (0.22–0.38), p = 0.005] produced higher SpO2 levels [77 (50–92) vs. 53 (42–69)%, p < 0.001] in the low-pressure group, but SpO2/FiO2 and heart rates were similar. While intubation rates during admission were significantly different (70 vs. 30%, p = 0.013), pneumothorax rates (4 vs. 19%, p = 0.125) and the occurrence of spontaneous intestinal perforations (0 vs. 15%, p = 0.125) were similar between groups. Conclusion: Infants (<28 weeks) can be supported non-invasively at birth with either higher or lower pressures and while higher-pressure support may require less oxygen, it does not eliminate the need for oxygen supplementation. Future studies need to examine the effect of high pressures and pressure titration in the delivery room.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key regulator of cellular and whole-body energy homeostasis, which acts to redress energy imbalance via stimulation of catabolic processes and inhibition of anabolic processes. Activation of AMPK in adipocytes has multiple beneficial effects including suppression of lipogenesis, adipogenesis and pro-inflammatory signalling, modulation of thermogenesis and adiponectin secretion. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) surrounds most blood vessels and also secretes factors which are reported to improve vascular reactivity under physiological conditions. In contrast, under pathophysiological conditions such as obesity, PVAT secretes factors that promote cardiovascular disease (CVD), such that dysfunctional PVAT may provide a direct mechanistic link between obesity, type 2 diabetes and increased risk of CVD. Targeting dysfunctional adipose/PVAT may therefore provide new therapeutic strategies to limit the development of obesity-related CVD. Recent work in our laboratory has demonstrated that the anti-contractile effect of PVAT on endothelium-denuded aortic rings was lost when PVAT was derived from mice lacking AMPKα1. Furthermore, this was associated with reduced adiponectin release from PVAT and phenocopied by an adiponectin receptor blocking peptide. Those previous studies also demonstrated that adiponectin phenocopied the effect of normal PVAT, yet the molecular mechanism by which PVAT and adiponectin regulate VSMC contraction/relaxation signalling and the role of AMPK in this context has not been investigated previously. The studies described in this thesis sought to determine the profile of AMPK isoform distribution in 3T3 L1 adipocytes, primary adipocytes and adipose tissue, and how this alters during adipogenesis. Additionally, the molecular mechanisms by which secreted factors from PVAT regulate contraction/relaxation signalling in human aortic VSMCs (HAoVSMCs) was investigated.
AMPKα1 and β2 were the principal AMPKα and β isoforms in adipocytes in terms of the contribution to total cellular AMPK activity. Moreover, there was a shift from complexes containing β1 to those containing β2 during adipogenesis. AMPK complexes containing α1 and β2 contributed ~85% of total cellular AMPK activity in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, rodent adipocytes and human subcutaneous adipose tissue. Downregulation of AMPKβ2 but not AMPKβ1 with siRNA inhibited lipid accumulation, adiponectin production and secretion during adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Furthermore a small molecule, MT47-100, selectively inhibited AMPK complexes containing β2 but not β1, inhibited lipid accumulation, adiponectin production and secretion during 3T3-L1 adipogenesis. Mechanistically, MT47-100 inhibited troglitazone-stimulated upregulation of PPARγ and C/EBPα. Conditioned medium (CM) from PVAT of wild type (WT) mice inhibited U46619- stimulated phosphorylation of myosin light chain (MLC) and cofilin, inhibited actin polymerisation in HAoVSMCs, whereas (CM) from PVAT of AMPKα1 knockout (KO) mice stimulated MLC and cofilin phosphorylation in addition to actin polymerisation, mimicking the contractile effect of U46619. CM from WT PVAT but not KO PVAT activated AMPK in HAoVSMCs. CM from KO PVAT but not WT PVAT may cause VSMC Ca2+ sensitisation but did not differentially alter HAoVSMC Ca2+ levels since CM from both genotypes inhibited U46619-stimulated intracellular Ca2+ levels. Globular adiponectin inhibited U46619-stimulated aortic ring contraction. In HAoVSMCs, adiponectin inhibited U46619-stimulated MLC phosphorylation at the sites regulated by MLC kinase (MLCK) and Rho kinase (ROCK), in addition to inhibition of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1) phosphorylation, and ROCK activity, whilst tending to inhibit cofilin phosphorylation and F-actin formation. These data suggest that globular adiponectin phenocopies many of the actions of CM from PVAT of WT mice.

In conclusion, these data demonstrate that AMPK has an important role in maintaining adipocyte function. In particular, the shift from AMPK complexes containing β1 to complexes containing β2 may be important for adipogenesis, and AMPKα1 plays an essential role in maintaining the anticontractile effect of PVAT likely, at least in part, through maintaining adiponectin secretion. Furthermore, adiponectin has direct actions on vascular smooth muscle to inhibit contractile signalling pathways.


The purpose of this is to refocus programs back to the basic objectives of systems engineering execution and capturing key domain knowledge during the time when organizations are adopting new processes, procedures, or technology. While change is necessary, the discipline of the systems engineering and development process (requirements, design, implementation, test, delivery, product feedback, and sustainment) can be adversely impacted in the predicament of checking the updated process and/or procedure compliance box. Simplified approaches will be provided to better manage products and teams including discussion of web and database tools. These approaches provide the ability to better understand and manage products in an age of, sometimes, overwhelming circumstances. This identifies simplified solutions, improvement suggestions, and work flow diagrams with key entry points (framework) for new and legacy programs that include: appointment of improvement focals; maximum use of web portals (one-stop shopping); maximum focus on information that is "need to know," and is provided in a simple, database-driven manner (project domain knowledge management); minimum focus on information that is "nice to know" but is provided for career advancement; common sense entry points for existing programs by utilizing data obtained from quick assessments and Peer Reviews including standard meeting agendas, intergroup coordination meetings, and common status report templates.


AIM
To constructed a three-dimensional (3D) model for the 3C like (3CL) proteinase of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and to design inhibitors of the 3CL proteinase based on the 3D model.

METHODS
Bioinformatics analyses were performed to search the homologous proteins of the SARS-CoV 3CL proteinase from the GenBank and PDB database. A 3D model of the proteinase was constructed by using homology modeling technique. Targeting to the 3D model and its X-ray crystal structure of the main proteinase (Mpro) of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), virtual screening was performed employing molecular docking method to identify possible 3CL proteinase inhibitors from small molecular databases.

RESULTS
Sequence alignment indicated that the SARS-CoV 3CL proteinase was extremely homologous to TGEV Mpro, especially the substrate-binding pocket (active site). Accordingly, a 3D model for the SARS-CoV 3CL proteinase was constructed based on the crystal structure of TGEV Mpro. The 3D model adopts a similar fold of the TGEV Mpro, its structure and binding pocket feature are almost as same as that of TGEV Mpro. The tested virtual screening indicated that 73 available proteinase inhibitors in the MDDR database might dock into both the binding pockets of the TGEV Mpro and the SARS-CoV 3CL proteinase.

CONCLUSIONS
Either the 3D model of the SARS-CoV 3CL proteinase or the X-ray crystal structure of the TGEV Mpro may be used as a starting point for design anti-SARS drugs. Screening the known proteinase inhibitors may be an appreciated shortcut to discover anti-SARS drugs.


Moran, KA, Clarke, M, Reilley, F, Wallace, ES, Brabazon, D, and Marshall, B. Does Endurance Fatigue Increase the risk of injury when performing drop jumps? J Strength Cond Res 23(5): 1448-1455, 2009-Although from an athletic performance perspective it may be beneficial to undertake drop jump training when fatigued (principle of "specificity" of training), such endurance fatigue may expose the body to a greater risk of injury if it causes an increase in peak impact accelerations. This study aimed to determine if endurance fatigue resulted in an increase in tibial peak impact acceleration and an associated change in knee kinematics when completing plyometric drop jumps. Fifteen females performed drop jumps from 3 heights (15, 30, and 45 cm) when fatigued and nonfatigued. Treadmill running was used to induce endurance fatigue. The following variables were assessed: tibial peak impact acceleration, knee angle at initial ground contact, maximum angle of flexion, range of flexion, and peak knee angular velocity. Fatigue resulted in significantly greater (p < 0.05) tibial peak impact acceleration and knee flexion peak angular velocity in drop jumps from 15 and 30 cm, but not from 45 cm. Fatigue had no effect on any of the knee angles assessed. The neuromuscular system was affected negatively by endurance fatigue at 15 and 30 cm, indicating that coaches should be aware of a potential increased risk of injury in performing drop jumps when fatigued. Because from the greater drop height of 45 cm the neuromuscular system had a reduced capacity to attenuate the impact accelerations per se, whether nonfatigued or fatigued, this would suggest that this height may have been too great for the athletes examined.


The aim of this paper is to provide an overview for the research that has been done so far in signcryption area. The paper also presents the extensions for the signcryption scheme and discusses the security in signcryption and the practical application of signcryption in real life. Because the elliptic curve cryptography became the newest and most efficient method for public key cryptography, it is included in this paper the implementation of signcryption scheme for elliptic curves. The main contribution to this paper represents the implementation of the signcryption algorithm with the examples provided.


PURPOSE
U.S. national wideband absorbance (WBA) data for 17,446 ears included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for 2015-2016 and 2017-2020 were analyzed to develop and apply normative reference intervals (RIs).

METHOD
Analyses used distribution-free medians and cumulative distribution functions (CDFs). Notable differences between medians were defined as those with non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals, and differences between CDFs were evaluated using Cohen's h effect size. Strict inclusion criteria identified "healthy ears" with 1,240 ears meeting all the inclusion criteria for the reference group. RIs, WBA values corresponding to the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles for the reference group, were established. The established RIs were then applied to the full unscreened data set to determine the prevalence of WBA values outside the RIs.

RESULTS
WBA RIs were established for all 6- to 19-year-olds and for 20- to 69-year-olds separated into three groups: females, males, and non-Hispanic Asians. The differences among the CDFs underlying these RIs corresponded to small effect sizes. When a single RI, 0.40 < average WBA < 0.75, was applied to the full data set, about 6%-13% of ears fell outside the derived RIs. Logistic regression analyses found abnormal tympanometric results to be responsible for the extreme WBA values among the general population. Abnormal tympanometric results increased the odds of having WBA values outside the RI by ≥ 300%.

CONCLUSIONS
U.S. population data for healthy ears were used to establish RIs for WBA of about 0.40-0.75. About 6%-13% of Americans, 6-80+ years of age, had WBA values outside these RI limits.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24185745.


We define a generalized strategy eliminability criterion for bimatrix games that considers whether a given strategy is eliminable relative to given dominator & eliminee subsets of the players' strategies. We show that this definition spans a spectrum of eliminability criteria from strict dominance (when the sets are as small as possible) to Nash equilibrium (when the sets are as large as possible). We show that checking whether a strategy is eliminable according to this criterion is coNP-complete (both when all the sets are as large as possible and when the dominator sets each have size 1). We then give an alternative definition of the eliminability criterion and show that it is equivalent using the Minimax Theorem. We show how this alternative definition can be translated into a mixed integer program of polynomial size with a number of (binary) integer variables equal to the sum of the sizes of the eliminee sets, implying that checking whether a strategy is eliminable according to the criterion can be done in polynomial time, given that the eliminee sets are small. Finally, we study using the criterion for iterated elimination of strategies.


Introduction Nanotechnology expresses great potential as enabling technology but there are still uncertainties about the health risks for workers potentially exposed to nano-objects and their agglomerates and aggregates (NOAA). Different methodological approaches to measure airborne NOAA in the workplace have been proposed. This study finalised a systematic review on this theme with the aim to identify techniques of exposure measurement to be recommended even in contexts with low resources, such as Low- and Middle- Income (LMI) countries. Materials and methods We collected scientific papers reporting techniques of NOAA exposure measurements in the workplace and we summarised the data for each eligible technique according to PRISMA guidelines; then we rated the quality of evidence following an adapted GRADE approach. Results We found 69 eligible studies to be included in qualitative synthesis: the majority of studies reported a moderate quality and only 2 studies demonstrated the use of a high quality exposure measurement technique. The review demonstrates that a basic exposure measurement, i.e. evidence for the presence or absence of NOAA in the workplace air, can be achieved with moderate (40 techniques) to high quality (2 techniques); 13 of these techniques are defined as comprehensive, since they allow also the quantification of NOAA in the workplace. Conclusions This systematic review allowed identifying criteria for a reliable measurement of exposure to NOAA to be recommended in LMI countries. The findings of the study defined a list of requirements that must be fulfilled by an effective measurement technique (either basic or comprehensive), and highlighted the main weaknesses that need to be tackled for an effective affordability evaluation.


In this paper, we propose an architecture based on software-defined networking (SDN) for wireless sensor networks. Ideas of how to design and make use of the flexibility that SDN offers are presented. We discuss how SDN principles can lead to the use of commodity hardware in a wider range of WSN deployments and then tailor the software only to meet the requirements of the specific deployments and their applications. A few examples are introduced that demonstrate how the architecture can be used for networking, in-network processing, and performance predictions.


Quantitative Structure−Property Relationship (QSPR) models for prediction of various thermodynamic properties of simple organic compounds have been developed. A number of new descriptors are proposed and used alongside with descriptors available within the Codessa program. An important feature in this work has been to include the most probable molecular conformers in the model development and thus account for the conformational flexibility of the molecules. The models cover the properties boiling points, melting points, enthalpies of vaporization, enthalpies of fusion, and liquid densities for alkanes, alcohols, diols, ethers, and oxyalcohols, including cyclic alkanes and alcohols. Several good models, having good predictability, have been developed. To enhance the applicability of the QSPR models, simpler expressions for each descriptor have also been developed. This allows for the prediction of the physical properties by knowledge of the molecular constitution only.


Filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and geochemical parameters of sediments at the Makran accretionary wedge in the northeastern Arabian Sea off Pakistan were studied. The upper continental slope between 350 and 850 m water depth, which is in the center of the oxygen-minimum zone, is characterized by numerous sites of small-scale seeps of methane- and sulfide-charged porewater. White bacterial mats with diameters <1 m were discovered at the surface of these sites using a photo-TV sled. Seep sediments, as well as non-seep sediments, in the vicinity were characterized by the occurrence of the bacterium Thioploca in near-surface layers between 0 and 13 cm depth. Thioploca bundles were up to 20 mm in length and contained up to 20 filaments of varying diameters, between 3 and 75 µm. Up to 169 ind. cm-2 were counted. Maximum numbers occurred in the top 9 cm of sediment, which contained very low concentrations of soluble sulfide (<0.2 µM) and high amounts of elemental sulfur (up to 10 µmol cm-3). Moderate sulfate reduction activity (between 20 and 190 nmol cm-3 d-1) was detected in the top 10 cm of these sediments, resulting in a gradual downcore decrease of sulfate concentrations. CO2 fixation rates had distinct maxima at the sediment surface and declined to background values below 5 cm depth. The nutritional implications of the distinct morphology of Thioploca and of the geochemical setting are discussed and compared to other sites containing Thioploca communities.


A quasi-self-complementary antenna (QSCA) for band-notched ultrawideband (UWB) application free from interference with existing wireless local area network (WLAN) systems is proposed. The designed band-notched UWB operation can be obtained by choosing the size of the parasitic arc-shaped strip opposite to the quarter-circular patch. The proposed antenna has advantages of low cost, easy design and compact size. Details of the proposed design and experimental results of the constructed antennas are presented.


There has been much debate in the columns of newspapers as to how we should understand the sharing economy, but as yet, much of the debate is largely superficial, garnering little attention in terms of rigorous academic analysis. In this paper, I argue that the rise of the capital-extractive sharing economy model employed by companies like Uber and Airbnb cannot be understood outside of the political-economic context from which it emerges. Drawing on the work of Marxist scholars like David Harvey, I analyze such models through the lens of primitive accumulation, positioning their development as positive evidence of Harvey's theory that capitalism seeks to colonize new spheres of social life in order to offload the tensions of its own internal conflicts; in this case, labour market insecurity. Further, I argue that the rise of the capital-extractive sharing economy should be recognized as constituting a further entrenchment of the global neoliberal project, particularly as it stands to affect union organizing, force deregulation in favour of free market fundamentals, and further deepen the labour market insecurity from which it rises in the first place.


One of the factors that increase the effectiveness of the pharmacotherapy used in patients abusing various types of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) is the proper functioning of the liver. However, the articles published to date on NPS hepatotoxicity only address non-specific hepatic parameters. The aim of this manuscript was to review three advanced markers of hepatotoxicity in psychiatry, namely, osteopontin (OPN), high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) and glutathione dehydrogenase (GDH, GLDH), and, on this basis, to identify recommendations that should be included in future studies in patients abusing NPSs. This will make it possible to determine whether NPSs do indeed have a hepatotoxic effect or whether other factors, such as additional substances taken or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, are responsible. NPS abusers are at particular risk of HCV infection, and for this reason, it is all the more important to determine what factors actually show a hepatotoxic effect in them.