Aims to examine the role and significance of routine childhood vaccination, as defined by UK legal judgements. Methods Analysis of four legal cases over past decade involving Best Interest judgements about childhood vaccinations in relation to parental conflict. Results Two similar cases in 2003 involved mothers and estranged fathers who shared Parental Responsibility (PR) but disagreed about vaccine safety. A case in 2010 was brought by a Local Authority sharing PR during Care Proceedings where birthparents did not want their children to be vaccinated. The most recent case in 2013 involved two older children who, together with their mother, rejected MMR due to safety concerns and vegan health beliefs. Special consideration was given to the children's opinions because of their age. This involved an assessment of their competence in relation to knowledge of vaccines and infectious diseases. The judgement included significant comments about parenting in such circumstances. In all four cases, vaccination was seen to be in the Best Interest of the children on a specific basis but no wider implications for vaccine programmes could be drawn. Paediatric expert advice was obtained in three cases. Conclusions Childhood vaccination is a prophylactic intervention in well children. It is not compulsory in UK and does have rare but documented side effects. Although parents have a duty to act in the Best Interests of their children, their autonomy is repected if they choose not to vaccinate. Under ordinary circumstances, vaccination cannot be enforced if both parents are in agreement. However, courts are required to make welfare decisions if parents cannot agree. It has been argued that medical normative views favouring vaccination are seen to outweigh potential emotional and parenting factors in such cases. Parents opposed to vaccination tend to maximise the negative aspects of vaccination whilst minimising the effects of infectious diseases. In older children, an assessment of competence is needed to establish their understanding of the potential risks of both non-vaccination and vaccination. What is more difficult to assess is the emotional impact on children subjected to such intrusive parental animosity.


Designed for those aiding in the development of U-Research as MC's Quality Enhancment Plan, this guide includes information on books, articles, statistical data, and web sites dealing with information literacy (IL) and related topics.


This study laid the ground work for an environmental management system in the context of public schools in Brazil. The impact analysis of a selected school showed a population of 1924 students, 175 staff and 40 auxiliary personnel, water consumption of 3131 m3/year, energy consumption of 46.1 Mwh/year, solid waste production of 8.1 tons/year, average noise level around the premises of 65 db, total school area of 6936.5 m2, water permeable area of 2841 m2 and impermeable area of 4095.5 m2. The analysis evolved into the definition of permanent responsibilities of staff members to create and maintain the management system.


OBJECTIVES
Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is a frequent pathology, with an incidence of 29/50% in children studied for urinary tract infection (UTI) and 20% of newborns with the diagnosis of prenatal hydronephrosis. Over the years, the treatment has been the subject of many meetings, many research studies, and continues being a topic under discussion. The number of candidates for surgical treatment increased with the development of minimally invasive endoscopic techniques by subureteral injection of bulking agents. We present the results of the surgical treatment of VUR between 2001 and 2006.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective study of the endoscopic treatment of VUR by subureteral injection of Dextranomer and hyaluronic acid copolymer (Copol-Dx/AH). All children undergoing treatment between July 1st 2001 and December 30th 2006 were included in this study. Treatment was performed in children with VUR grade II or greater. All patients presenting no reflux or grade I VUR on control VCUG were considered cured; stopping antibiotic prophylaxis was proposed in these cases.

RESULTS
661 children underwent treatment, 607 endoscopic and 54 with the Cohen technique. Among children treated endoscopically, 437 where females and 170 males. VUR was bilateral in 37.7% of the cases, with grade II being the most frequent (40% in males and 57% in females). Overall success rate was 70% after first treatment, 75% after second treatment and increased to 78% after the third.

CONCLUSIONS
Subureteral injection of dextranomer and hyaluronic acid copolymer is on effective treatment in children with VUR, independently of the grade. It is a simple, safe, well tolerated procedure with low associated morbidity. Currently, it is the surgical treatment of choice in most patients with VUR.


Linear quadratic (LQ) bumpless transfer design introduced recently by Turner and Walker gives a very convenient and straightforward computational procedure for the steady-state bumpless transfer operator synthesis. It is, however, found to be incapable of providing convergence of the output of the offline controller to that of the online controller in several industrial applications, producing bumps in the plant output in the wake of controller transfer. An examination of this phenomenon reveals that the applications in question are characterized by a significant mismatch, further referred to as controller uncertainty, between the dynamics of the implemented controllers and their models used in the transfer operator computation. To address this problem, while retaining the convenience of the Turner and Walker design, a novel state/output feedback bumpless transfer topology is introduced that employs the nominal state of the offline controller and, through the use of an additional controller/model mismatch compensator, also the offline controller output. A corresponding steady-state bumpless transfer design procedure along with the supporting theory is developed for a large class of systems. The new technique is shown to be capable of eliminating the online/offline controller output tracking errors under significant controller uncertainty, while preserving fast convergence of Turner and Walker design. Due to these features, it is demonstrated to solve a long-standing problem of high-quality steady-state bumpless transfer from the industry standard low-order nonlinear multiloop PID-based controllers to the modern multiinput-multioutput (MIMO) robust controllers in the megawatt/throttle pressure control of a typical coal-fired boiler/turbine unit.


Symbiotic relationships, both parasitic and mutualistic, are ubiquitous in nature. Understanding how these symbioses evolve, from bacteria and their phages to humans and our gut microflora, is crucial in understanding how life operates. Often, symbioses consist of a slowly evolving host species with each host only interacting with its own subpopulation of symbionts. The Red Queen hypothesis describes coevolutionary relationships as constant arms races with each species rushing to evolve an advantage over the other, suggesting that faster evolution is favored. Here, we use a simple game theoretic model of host–symbiont coevolution that includes population structure to show that if the symbionts evolve much faster than the host, the equilibrium distribution is the same as it would be if it were a sequential game where the host moves first against its symbionts. For the slowly evolving host, this will prove to be advantageous in mutualisms and a handicap in antagonisms. The result follows from rapid symbiont adaptation to its host and is robust to changes in the parameters, even generalizing to continuous and multiplayer games. Our findings provide insight into a wide range of symbiotic phenomena and help to unify the field of coevolutionary theory.


Choice rules based on probability thresholds are common in several disciplines. The most well-known application of such a threshold rule is the standard of reasonable doubt. Accordingly, a rational juror prefers to convict a defendant if and only if the probability that she attaches to the defendant being guilty is above a given threshold. In this paper we prove that generically such a threshold exists if and only if the juror reasons only about two events, viz., the defendant's guilt and innocence. This result implies that threshold rules are usually inconsistent with individual rationality. Thus, if we insist on using a threshold choice rule, we will have to accept some irrational convictions (false negatives) or some irrational acquittals (false positives) or both. We subsequently characterize each probability threshold in terms of the irrationalities that it induces. Finally, we discuss the empirical implications of our theory.


Many studies have suggested that oral rinsing of a sweet carbohydrate can positively affect exercise performance by stimulating reward centers in the brain. However, few studies have been performed which compared the effects of a sweet carbohydrate with a sweet artificial sweetener. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a sweet carbohydrate rinse, an artificial sweetener rinse, and a water rinse on exercise performance. Eight college students completed a ten-minute trial ride and were able to perform significantly more work when rinsing with the carbohydrate or artificial sweetener rinses (Total work= 116.63 (20.3) kJ p=0.003, 117.04 (22.83) kJ, p=0.021, respectively) than with the water rinse (Total work= 110.81 (19.54) kJ, p=1.0). The results suggest that the sensing of a "sweet" taste positively affects exercise performance by activating a pleasure center in the brain, altering perceived effort in the individual, which allows a larger quantity of work to be completed.


Bioluminescence is a common feature in the permanent darkness of the deep-sea. In fishes, light is emitted by organs containing either photogenic cells (intrinsic photophores), which are under direct nervous control, or symbiotic luminous bacteria (symbiotic photophores), whose light is controlled by secondary means such as mechanical occlusion or physiological suppression. The intrinsic photophores of the lantern shark Etmopterus spinax were recently shown as an exception to this rule since they appear to be under hormonal control. Here, we show that hormones operate what amounts to a unique light switch, by acting on a chromatophore iris, which regulates light emission by pigment translocation. This result strongly suggests that this shark's luminescence control originates from the mechanism for physiological colour change found in shallow water sharks that also involves hormonally controlled chromatophores: the lantern shark would have turned the initial shallow water crypsis mechanism into a midwater luminous camouflage, more efficient in the deep-sea environment.


Classifying and making decisions are tasks performed by any human being in their daily lives. Learning algorithms have been widely studied as tools to aid information management, with an objective to maximize the generalization capacity. Learning algorithms can be used individually or as a committee of machines (ensembles). An ensemble uses the solutions provided by several machines, making different combinations with them to reach a final decision, such as multi-layer algorithm stacking. When combining combination methods, one arrives at a three-layered architecture, which is the focus of this article. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of adding one more layer in the stacking meta-learning algorithm in other to obtain accuracy, area under ROC and time in relation to the lower layers, under the influence of the experiment, database and level factors. It was possible to conclude that, statistically, classifiers of the extra layer presented, in a general way, better performance in terms of accuracy and area. However, time grew sharply at each top layer added.


With the rapid development of the Internet, thousands of different news reports from different channels are presented to us. So much news, particularly in the media sector, is an important question to be categorized and archived without human effort. In this study, it is aimed to be able to determine which news item belongs to large news headlines collected from news sites. For this, a two stage method is proposed, which is based on the classical Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm used in the model. With the developed two stage LDA method, comparison of the conventional LDA was made. Then, by creating a file with an arff extension from the word weights of the topics, the success of the machine learning methods in Weka was measured.


BACKGROUND
With radiotherapy (RT) alone, the five-year overall survival (OS) rate for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) can only reach 40%, the ratio of distant metastasis (DM) is 36-40%. This meta-analysis was performed to compare the clinical efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with RT alone in the treatment of locoregionally advanced NPC.

METHODS
The related literature were retrieved and reviewed by two independent investigators from the followed electronic databases: Review manager 5.3 software (Cochrane Collaboration, London, United Kingdom) was applied for statistical analysis.

RESULTS
A total of 16 trials with 2576 patients were recruited according to the criterion. The odds ratios of 3 and 5 years OS was 0.53 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.44-0.64) and 0.58 (95% CI: 0.48-0.71), which confirmed the significant improvement of CCRT compared with RT alone (P < 0.001). CCRT also reduced the risk of locoregional control failure and DM in locoregionally advanced NPC patients.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested that CCRT was more beneficial when compared with RT alone in locoregionally advanced NPC patients. Further study is needed to perform to confirm this effect.


Objective: We tested the a priori hypothesis that older participants differ in rates of decline on cognitive outcomes compared with younger participants, and examined the potential effect of age distributions on individual clinical trial outcomes. Methods: From a meta-database of 18 studies from the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, we included a cohort of 2,793 participants for whom there were baseline demographic data and at least one postbaseline cognitive assessment on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog), Clinical Dementia Rating–Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), or Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). We used mixed-effects models (random coefficient models) to estimate change on the outcomes across 7 age groups ranging from younger than 61 years to older than 85 years after adjusting for education. Results: Significant worsening occurred in all age groups on all outcomes over time. The 4 older groups, aged 71 years and older, showed slower rates of decline on the ADAS-cog than the younger groups (p = 0.001). The older groups scored 2–3, 2–5, and 4–6 points better than the younger groups at 12, 18, and 24 months, respectively. There were similar differences across age groups for the MMSE, but not for the CDR-SB. Conclusions: The differences in change on the ADAS-cog between older and younger participants are substantially greater than differences expected between experimental drugs and placebo in current trials or differences between marketed cholinesterase inhibitors and placebo. The clinical interpretation of change on the ADAS-cog or MMSE differs depending on age. Until predictors of decline are better understood, considering effects of age on rates of change is particularly important regarding clinical practice and outcomes of trials.


The running status of various devices in engine room is very important factor for the safe running of devices in engine room or other application fields. In order to supervise the running status or performance of the many devices in engine room, an online remote devices monitoring system based on 3G network is proposed in this paper. The system could monitor the voltage, current and temperature of the various devices in engine room through the mobile surveillance terminal. The system sends the running parameter to the supervision center or mobile termination and receives the remote instructions from remote hand terminal or control centre by 3G or internet. The system could also set the alarm boundary of the voltage, current and temperature of the various devices, if the devices is running in abnormal status, the system would transfer the relevant information to the remote mobile terminal or the supervision center, as a result, the devices in engine room could be supervised or maintained with short time. The system shows the superiority in remote devices monitoring in practice.


Enzyme-based newborn screening for Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) has a high false-positive rate due to the prevalence of pseudodeficiency alleles, often resulting in unnecessary and costly follow up. The glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), dermatan sulfate (DS) and heparan sulfate (HS) are both substrates for α-l-iduronidase (IDUA). These GAGs are elevated in patients with MPS I and have been shown to be promising biomarkers for both primary and second-tier testing. Since February 2016, we have measured DS and HS in 1213 specimens submitted on infants at risk for MPS I based on newborn screening. Molecular correlation was available for 157 of the tested cases. Samples from infants with MPS I confirmed by IDUA molecular analysis all had significantly elevated levels of DS and HS compared to those with confirmed pseudodeficiency and/or heterozygosity. Analysis of our testing population and correlation with molecular results identified few discrepant outcomes and uncovered no evidence of false-negative cases. We have demonstrated that blood spot GAGs analysis accurately discriminates between patients with confirmed MPS I and false-positive cases due to pseudodeficiency or heterozygosity and increases the specificity of newborn screening for MPS I.


In this study, the effect of rake angle of a ripper plough on the draft requirement in a sandy-clay soil was investigated; the study was based on field experiments, laboratory tests and numerical simulation. Field experiments were conducted at the University of Nairobi field station in Upper Kabete, Kenya located at 1 o 15'S and 36 o 44'E at an altitude of about 1940 meters above sea level. The soil at the location is a humic Nitisol belonging to the class of sandy-clay. Field experiments featured the Factorial Completely Randomized Block design to eliminate experimental error. The plot was sub-divided into four blocks to eliminate variation due to distance and slope; the treatments were randomly assigned to the blocks and replicated four times. The numerical model was developed using the principles of the discrete element method embedded in a commercial code.  EDEM Academic™ software was applied to model the draft requirement to ripping using ripper tines of rake angles; 30, 45, 60 and 75 degrees. The model was calibrated using the results of soil physical tests that included; moisture content, bulk density, sieve analysis, shear strength, cone index and angle of repose. The integrity of the model was validated statistically using empirical data from field tests; the statistical methods utilised included; measures of central tendency, the One Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, analysis of variance, the student t-test and multi-linear regression. The validated model was applied to predict the effect of the rake angle on the draft requirement; the forces arising due to particle and boundary contact during simulation were calculated using an inbuilt contact constitutive relation and displayed using the model's inbuilt query feature. Statistical analysis indicated that the rake angle significantly influenced the value of the draft requirement in the sandy-clay soil at the 95% level of confidence. The value of the draft requirement was found to decrease from the rake angle of 30 degrees to attain a minimum value at 45degrees then increased through the rake angle of 60degrees to attain a maximum at the rake angle of 75 degrees; the rake angle of 45 degrees was thus found to give the minimum amount of the draft requirement while the rake angle of 75 degrees was found to give the maximum amount of the draft requirement.


Tiko, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, faces a tidal wave of D-E-V-E-L-O-P-M-E-N-T, which threatens to demolish ancestral ways and the human spirit. From Sione, who prefers to play cards with his secretary during work hours, to Ole Pasifikiwei, who masters the twists and turns of international funding games, all of the characters in these pages are seasoned surfers, capable of riding the biggest wave to shore. These are not stories of fatal impact so much as upbeat tales of indigenous responses to cultural and economic imperialism. Epeli Hauofa uses devices derived from oral storytelling to create a South Pacific voice that is lucid, hilarious, and compassionate in a work that has long been regarded as a milestone in Pacific literature.


Teaching and learning are the two sides of a coin. Present education in Ayurveda is mostly becoming an examination oriented not knowledge oriented. Education is not simply imparting knowledge in a particular faculty or subject or making oneself to be able for securing jobs or scoring Marks in exams, but at the same time is also training in logical thinking which helps the coming generations adjust to the ever-changing environment. It also means opening the doors of the mind, cultivation of Mind, cleansing and realization of the self. The present education system is weighed down by several reasons as a result of which the outcome is becoming self-centric. If we study our ancient education methods e found it from Buddhist period. The goal of Buddhist education is to attain wisdom and it is spiritual oriented. The chief aim of Buddhist education was all round development of child's personality. This included his physical, mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual development. Ayurveda is an ancient science of Indian origin. India has the rich heritage in the field of knowledge and education. The importance of ancient sciences Ayurveda is being recognized and appreciated at national and international levels. Adhyayan (learning) and Adhyapan (teaching) are important aspects of education system. Ancient education system in India was based on Gurukul and Guru Shishya Parampara (Teacher-Disciple Tradition) which was also followed in Ayurveda. Ayurveda and it was formally recognized by W.H.O in 1978. At present education system has been integrated with modern tools and technologies which are being incorporated in teaching and learning of Ayurveda. The present paper deals with critical review of ancient and current skills of Medical teaching and learning.


The objective of this study is to compare the evolution of the Psychology journals included in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) databases (Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)) in the last 20 years (from 1998 to 2017), which are published in Ibero-American countries and in the Netherlands under the purpose of analyzing the main differential characteristics between one group and the other. This analysis includes the characteristics of journals, in particular: publications publishing categories in which they are classified in the JCR Science and Social Science; if they are open access journals or not; the language of the publication; numbers published by year; origin of the main contributions; quartiles; deciles and the position reached within the thematic category of Psychology in which they are classified. The total number of journals reviewed published in the Netherlands was 701, of which 18.8% belonged to Quartile 1, 36.2% to Quartile 2, 27.1% to Quartile 3, and 17.9% to Quartile 4. The total number of Ibero-American journals consulted was 242, of which 3.3% belonged to Quartile 1, 14.9% to Quartile 2, 18.2% to Quartile 3, and 63.6% to Quartile 4. The results found in the present study show a clear discrepancy between Psychology journals published in Ibero-American and Dutch journals, differences that may bias their JCR position and the evolution of journals over the years. There are also differences in the number of publications, the years of permanence in the JCR, and number of thematic categories in which journals are classified, being higher in the case of Dutch Psychology journals. These results only confirm that, currently and according to the historical trajectory of the Ibero-American JCR Psychology journals, they have increased their presence in the JCR. However, there has not been an improvement in the position in terms of quartiles and position, an aspect that may be conditioned by biases related to the current scientific scenario.


Mapping land-cover/land-use (LCLU) and estimating forest biomass using satellite images is a challenge given the diversity of sensors available and the heterogeneity of forests. Copernicus program served by the Sentinel satellites family and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, both with free and open services accessible to its users, present a good approach for mapping vegetation and estimate forest biomass on a global, regional, or local scale, periodically and in a repeated way. The Sentinel-2 (S2) systematically acquires optical imagery and provides global monitoring data with high spatial resolution (10–60 m) images. Given the novelty of information on the use of S2 data, this chapter presents a review on LCLU maps and forest above-ground biomass (AGB) estimates, in addition to exploring the efficiency of using the GEE platform. The Sentinel data have great potential for studies on LCLU classification and forest biomass estimates. The GEE platform is a promising tool for executing complex workflows of satellite data processing.


Abstract Despite the extant literature on customer relationships, it is recognized that the psychological processes behind commitment and customer loyalty are still ill understood. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to assess the impact of three psychological antecedents (position involvement, volitional choice and informational complexity) on affective, calculative and normative commitment to a bank. In turn, we assess the impact of an individual difference variable (consumer relationship proneness) on these three psychological antecedents. And finally, this research project addresses the consequences of affective, calculative and normative commitment on loyalty in terms of word of mouth, purchase intention, price insensitivity and complaining. An empirical research among 439 bank customers was conducted to test our conceptual model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results reveal the pivotal role of affective commitment as an antecedent of customer loyalty. In turn, affective commitment can best be explained by position involvement. Moreover, relationship proneness seems to be most strongly related to position involvement. Managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research are provided.


Alginate is a naturally ocurring polyanion of (1→4)linked β-d-mannuronic acid (M) and its C-5 epimer α-l guluronic acid (G). The polyanion, and particularly long stretches of guluronic acids, chelates and form hydrogels in the presence of divalent cations such as Ca2+ . Chelation occur at physiological conditions and the formed hy- drogels are biocompatible and stable. These properties nominates alginate hydrogels as promising biomaterials in tissue engineering applications. Encapsulation of cells in alginate beads is easily prepared by mixing cells with high molecular weight alginate, and dripping the solution into a CaCl2 solution. When alginate comes into contact with Ca2+ ions, alginate beads are immediately formed and the cells are captured in a three dimensional alginate matrix. Once inside the alginate capsule, the cells can be transplanted into a host deficient in the particular cells. The alginate protects the cells against the immune system of the host, opening for allograf transplantation without immunosuppressiva. The pores in the alginate network are big enough to enable diffusion of waste and nutrition through the membrane, which is important for cell survival. Alginate is in itself not cell adhesive. However, alginate can be tailored into a cell adhesive biomaterial by attachement of cell adhesive peptides, such as the RGD motif found in extracellular matrix molecules such as fibronectin. Coupling of cell adhesive peptides increase cell survival in three dimensional alginate matrices. In this study, RGD-alginate is tailored with a chemoenzymatic approach that ensures RGD-coupling to non-gelling residues. This procedure starts with non-gelling man- nuronan that is chemically modified by attachement of the cell adhesive peptide GRGDYP by carbodiimide chemistry. Gelling residues are introduced to peptide coupled mannuronan by a two step epimerisation catalyzed by the epimerases AlgE4 and AlgE6. In this study, the carbodiimide chemsitry used for coupling GRGDYP to mannuro- nan is optimalised to create alginate with more than 0.2% bound peptide. The model molecules fluoresceinamine, 4-aminophenol and L-tyrosine-methyl ester are used for optimalisation, and the latter model molecule was found to give the best representation of peptide coupling to mannuronan. The carbodiimide mediated cou- pling to mannuronan is investigated by varying the pH, temperature and reactant concentrations. The degrees of coupling for each intervention is assessed by 1 H NMR and UV/vis spectroscopy. The presence of covalently bound by-products, named N-acylurea adducts, to mannuronan is assessed by 1 H NMR spectroscopy and a controlled reduction of these unwanted compounds is attempted. The results from the optimalisation indicates that coupling of Me-O-Tyr and GRGDYP to mannuro- nan is concentration-dependent, as an increase in coupling was observed when the GRGDYP and Me-O-Tyr concentrations was increased. The highest peptide incor- poration described in this study was 3.4% GRGDYP coupled to mannuronan, which is higher compared to similar studies. The optimalised carbodiimide chemistry is applied to a large scale batch of RGD- coupled alginate that is to be used for cell encapsulation of olfactory ensheating cells from neonatal rat brain. High molecular weight alginate was coupled with 0.45% GRGDYP and filtrated with active coal before cell encapsulation. The coal filtration removed a substantial amount of the unwanted N-acylurea adducts but also removed peptides, resulting in a GRGDYP coupling of 0.1% calculated from UV/vis spectroscopy, and 0.4% calculated from 1 H NMR spectroscopy. This indicates that peptides are associated with N-acylurea adducts and that active coal filtration is necessary to remove them. Encapsulation of olfactory ensheating cells to RGD-coupled alginate gave no mor- phology changes or enhanced cell viability compared to non-peptide coupled alginate. It is believed that the low enzymatic action of the AlgE6 epimerase, a low concen- tration of peptides or a combination of both, have influenced the cell viability and lack of morphology changes. Enhanced peptide incorporation can be achieved by increasing the reactant concentrations of the peptides, but this would lead to a more expensive procedure. Increased efficacy, meaning a higher peptide coupling with lower adduct formation, at lower peptide concentrations was not achieved. However, the use of sodium borohydride in combination with periodate oxidised alginates for peptide coupling should be assessed as a novel approach for increased peptide yields at lower peptide concentrations.


Although most scholars acknowledge that the media play an instrumental role in furthering or limiting the spread of populism, the exact nature of the relationship between right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) and the media remains poorly understood. This article analyzes the various ways in which the media choose to deal with RWPPs in the Benelux region (i.e., Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Using evidence from interviews with media practitioners (n = 46), the findings suggest that in the absence of a credible right-wing populist challenger, media practitioners in Luxembourg and Wallonia adhere to strict demarcation, whereas the Dutch and Flemish media have become gradually more accommodative to RWPPs. This study makes two contributions to the field. First, it systematically theorizes the different ways in which the media can approach the populist radical right. Second, it provides illustrative, comparative evidence about the rationale for why some media provide space for RWPPs while others deny it, thereby illuminating the under-researched topic of societal responses to the populist radical right.


The stage and tumor remnants after radical surgery are the most important prognostic factors in patients with ovarian cancer. Because the incidence of ovarian cancer is highest in elderly women, and mostly advanced stages occur, radical surgery is necessary in this population as well as in younger patients. Age and the surgeon's expertise are the factors that influence the quality of surgical treatment of ovarian cancer. Surgical treatment of ovarian cancer should therefore be confined to centers with the required infrastructure and expertise.


"People protect what they love" - Jacques Cousteau  It's unavoidable that the next generation will be faced with resolving our current and future environmental issues. It is suggested that children must first care about the environment before they are asked to save it, however, a more indoor childhood is forming a disconnect between child and the natural world.  Rooted in the theory that a connection to nature (i.e. our affective and experiential relationship with the natural world) influences a willingness to protect it, this thesis aims to unearth the relationships between connection to nature and environmental attitudes and behaviours of children in Aotearoa New Zealand. To do so this study will: 1) Explore the underlying dimensions of children's connection to nature, 2) Identify the factors that are related to children's connection with nature, 3) Investigate the variables that best predict children's willingness to act for the environment, 4) Investigate the variables that best predict children's household pro-environmental behaviour.  Findings from a quantitative questionnaire suggest that a child's (n = 450) connection to nature is related to a plethora of variables; most notably exhibiting a strong relationship with their willingness to act for the environment. Furthermore, children's experiences in nature best predict their household's pro-environmental behaviour. These findings contribute to past research which suggest that positive relationships with nature, partially formed from time spent in nature, relate to pro-environmental attitudes.  This study addresses gaps in Aotearoa New Zealand in regards to children's connection to nature. It will benefit local policy makers and educators who are dedicated to strengthening the child and nature bond and/or conserving Aotearoa New Zealand's natural environment.


Most state-of-the-art methods for action segmentation are based on single input modalities or naïve fusion of multiple data sources. However, effective fusion of complementary information can potentially strengthen segmentation models and make them more robust to sensor noise and more accurate with smaller training datasets. In order to improve multimodal representation learning for action segmentation, we propose to disentangle hidden features of a multi-stream segmentation model into modality-shared components, containing common information across data sources, and private components; we then use an attention bottleneck to capture long-range temporal dependencies in the data while preserving disentanglement in consecutive processing layers. Evaluation on 50salads, Breakfast and RARP45 datasets shows that our multimodal approach outperforms different data fusion baselines on both multiview and multimodal data sources, obtaining competitive or better results compared with the state-of-the-art. Our model is also more robust to additive sensor noise and can achieve performance on par with strong video baselines even with less training data.


ABSTRACT:BACKGROUND:Viral hepatitis infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with endstagerenal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD), and its prevalence varies considerably amongdifferent areas of the world.OBJECTIVE:The aim was to investigate the prevalence of the HBV, HCV, and HIV among patients with ESRDon HD in a Hemodialysis Center in Baghdad, and to identify the factors associated with theirtransmission.PATIENTS AND METHODS:A cross-sectional study was carried out in the HD Center in Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital inBaghdad, Iraq. A total of 302 patients with ESRD on HD were enrolled in the period fromFebruary to May 2017. They were tested for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibodies for hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), and antibodies for human immunodeficiencyvirus (Anti-HIV).RESULTS:From the 302 patients; the mean age patients was 51.06± 15.15 SD years, 176 (58.27%) weremales, and 126 (41.72%) females. Four (1.3%) patients had positive HBs Ag. One (0.3%) malehad anti-HIV Ab, and 140 (46.36%) had anti-HCV-Antibodies positive. Male gender, age between41-60 years, been married, and unemployed patients scored a higher prevalence of anti-HCVpositivity. The causes of renal failure in HCV patients were; hypertension in 44 (31.4%), diabetesmellitus in 34 (24.3%), renal diseases (like UTI, AGN, Renal stones) in 21 (15%), congenitalrenal diseases in 15 (10.7%), and unknown cause in 26 (18.6%). There were highly significantdifferences in the mean number of blood transfusions and the mean HD duration between HCVand non-HCV groups. There was a significant association between HCV infection and renalfailure duration, and a history of surgery. Significant differences were also reported in the meanserum creatinine and hemoglobin levels between HCV and non-HCV groups.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:The prevalence of HBV and HIV infections were low and the prevalence of HCV was high. HCVinfection was related to the higher number of blood transfusions, longer duration of renal failure,longer duration of HD, a history of surgery, creatinine and Hemoglobin levels. The studyrecommends local guidelines emphasizing on blood safety strategies, implementation of infectioncontrol practices with regular monitoring.


Thyroid eye disease remains one of the most common orbital abnormalities encountered by ophthalmologists. While the maintenance of thyroid function remains of paramount importance to the patient's health, the appearance of the orbit, including the eyelid position and position of the globe, proptosis, remains of paramount importance to the patient. Following stabilization of the condition of the globe in the patient with thyroid eye disease, attention is then focused on the rehabilitation of the thyroid orbit. The etiology, diagnosis, and management of thyroid eye disease are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to assess the yield and usage of a radiology random peer review program in identifying potentially meaningful discrepancies in radiology reports that could serve as learning opportunities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This retrospective study was performed at a 776-bed tertiary academic hospital that renders more than 620,000 radiology reports annually. A workstation-embedded peer review system was implemented on January 1, 2014, followed by radiologist training over the next 12 weeks. From April 1, 2014, through September 30, 2017 (14 quarters), randomly selected radiologic studies were peer reviewed and scored as follows: 1, agree with original interpretation; 2, minor discrepancy, not likely clinically significant; 3, moderate discrepancy, may be clinically significant; or 4, major discrepancy, likely clinically significant. Reports scored as 3 or 4 were defined as having potentially meaningful discrepancies, and the discrepancy type was characterized. The primary outcome was the quarterly rate of potentially meaningful discrepancies. The secondary outcome was program usage rate (number of reports peer reviewed / total reports generated). Chi-square trend test assessed changes in outcomes over time.

RESULTS
Of a total of 42,891 peer reviews performed, the overall potentially meaningful discrepancy rate (or yield) was 0.5% (233/42,891). The quarterly potentially meaningful discrepancy rate decreased significantly over the study period (p < 0.0001). The quarter 14 potentially meaningful discrepancy rate (0.003) was 70% lower than the quarter 1 rate (0.011). Quarterly program usage also decreased significantly over the study period (p < 0.0001). Quarter 14 usage (0.015) was 56% lower than quarter 1 usage (0.034). Among 184 potentially meaningful discrepancy reports that could be categorized, the most common discrepancy type was error of perception (87/184).

CONCLUSION
A workstation-embedded random radiology peer review program had a very low yield in identifying learning opportunities and declining usage over time.


The paper reports the insect and mite pests recorded and documented during 1948 and 2003 from the vegetable crops (brinjal, potato, sweet potato, aroids, yams, cabbage, cauliflower, knolkhol, radish, turnip, lady's finger, tomato, cucurbits, beans, kangkong, lettuce and amaranthus) ecosystems from Bangladesh. Over 175 species of insect and mite pests have been recorded from the vegetable crops ecosystems with their common and scientific names, orders, families and pest status (key / major, minor and occasional). This testifies the great diversity of the insect and mite pests in the vegetable crops ecosystems in Bangladesh.


How can we promote reuse of code, data and services? How can we make it easier to combine on-line resources to perform specific tasks? One serious impediment is the risk of relying on software that you do not control, especially the difficulty of determining whether the software is dependable enough for the specific task at hand. We concentrate on one form of economic risk mitigation, insurance, and explore its suitability for the software domain we are interested in. After reviewing the basic principles of insurance we present some feasible directions for dealing with software related issues and raise some software engineering research challenges.


A body sensor network that consists of wearable and/or implantable biosensors has been an important front-end for collecting personal health records. It is expected that the full integration of outside-hospital personal health information and hospital electronic health records will further promote preventative health services as well as global health. However, the integration and sharing of health information is bound to bring with it security and privacy issues. With extensive development of healthcare applications, security and privacy issues are becoming increasingly important. This paper addresses the potential security risks of healthcare data in Internet-based applications and proposes a method of signal scrambling as an add-on security mechanism in the application layer for a variety of healthcare information, where a piece of tiny data is used to scramble healthcare records. The former is kept locally and the latter, along with security protection, is sent for cloud storage. The tiny data can be derived from a random number generator or even a piece of healthcare data, which makes the method more flexible. The computational complexity and security performance in terms of theoretical and experimental analysis has been investigated to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed method is applicable to all kinds of data that require extra security protection within complex networks.


This article is an attempt to analyze the changing male-female inequalities in Japan since the beginning of the current crisis. First, the male-female wage differential is put into a historical perspective, from the 1950s. Then, we review two kinds of interpretations – positive and negative – of the evolution since the beginning of the 1990s. We try to overcome this opposition by taking into account the global evolution of the labour market and of the inequalities, that is, the rising unemployment rate and a "resegmentation" of the labor market, with new cleavages. Finally, we propose a new concept for the male-female inequalities by integrating the notion of gender in the analysis of the wage labour nexus. It is helpful to understand the limits of the contemporary evolution and to make clear the issues at stake concerning the male-female equality policy.


This paper aims to synthesize findings in the Agri-food E-commerce (AE) field through a systematic literature review and propose a number of future research directions based on the gaps identified from the review. There has been a general increase in the number of publications, indicating that AE research has elicited more and more interest from scholars in different countries and across multiple disciplines. We have identified a number of themes and made sense of them by developing an integrated conceptual model, which consists of two parts: one for AE adoption at a firm level and one for AE development at a regional level. Furthermore, we recommend that more emphasis should be put on the regional development modes of AE and their impact in the developing world, as the practice is evolving rapidly in some developing countries such as China.


In this paper, I propose a reductive account of intentions which I call a gate-based reductive account. In contrast with other reductive accounts, however, the reductive basis of this account is not limited to desires, beliefs and judgments. I suggest that an intention is a complex state in which a predominant desire toward a plan is not inhibited by a gate mechanism whose function is to assess the comparison of our desires given the stakes at hand. To vindicate this account, I rely on several considerations: the similarity between epistemic feelings and the feeling of being decided that tells us that we have an intention, the necessity of postulating a gate mechanism to explain our hesitating behavior, and the tight link that exists between the realization of our actions and our desires. In agreement with non-reductivists, I nevertheless acknowledge that intentions encompass plans, although I emphasize that the planning capacity must also be dependent on our motivational life and the general evaluative mechanisms that explains our emotions.


Effectiveness of conservation measures for diminished populations depends on the mechanism producing low abundance. In queen conch, which is heavily exploited, reproductive activity is depressed where conch density is low, which may be due to the Allee effect, poor habitat quality, or delayed functional maturity. To determine the mechanism underlying impaired reproduc- tion in shallow seagrass beds, mature conch were translocated from 'source' sites with high and low ambient conch density (~1000 and ~20 conch ha -1 , respectively), and kept at high density in enclo- sures within high- and low-density 'host' sites. We monitored reproductive activity, and modelled conch population dynamics under exploitation, a reproductive Allee effect, and delayed functional maturity. In the field, conch from high-density source sites had significantly higher reproductive activity than those from low-density sites, although conch density was the same in all treatments. Thus, reduced reproductive activity at low conch density in shallow seagrass habitats is not due strictly to an Allee effect. Physiological condition of conch did not differ between treatments, regard- less of habitat quality. Conch from high-density source sites had thicker shell lips, indicating that they were older, and they displayed significantly higher reproductive activity than younger conch with thinner lips. The field, morphological, and physiological evidence is therefore consistent only with a mechanism of delayed functional maturity. In model simulations, either an Allee effect or delayed functional maturity, combined with exploitation, produced non-linear population collapses. Young adult queen conch that are not functionally mature occur at low density in shallow seagrass habitats, and are heavily exploited before reproducing. Conservation efforts must be directed at these habitats, and not only to habitats where older functionally mature adults are at high density and not susceptible to Allee effects.


Candida albicans cause opportunistic infection of the oral cavity. Probiotic has health benefits, produces organic acids as anti-C. albicans. The aim of this research was to determine the antifungal activity of commercial fermented milk products against Candida and viability of bacteria in commercial fermented milk products. The antifungal activity was determined using well diffusion method. Viability of lactic acid bacteria was done by plate count method. The results show that commercial fermented milk productshas an activity of anti-C.albicans were shown by irradical zone formed around well containing fermented dairy products. Viability of lactic acid bacteria 107-1010 CFU/mL.


In this paper we describe a hands-on laboratory oriented instructional package that we have developed for data communications and networking. The package consists of a software tool, together with instructional material for a laboratory based networking curriculum. The software is based on a simulation environment that enables the student to experiment with various networking protocols, on an easy to use graphical user interface (GUI). Data message flows, packet losses, control/routing message flows, virtual circuit setups, link failures, bit errors etc., are some of the features that can be visualized in this environment. The student can also modify the networking components provided, as well as add new components using the C programming language. The instructional material consists of a set of laboratory exercises for flow and error control (HDLC), IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD protocol, the token ring protocol, interconnecting LANs via bridges, TCP congestion avoidance and control, IP fragmentation and reassembly, ATM PNNI routing and ATM policing. The laboratory exercises have facilitated the development of a networking curriculum based on both the traditional computer networking principles, as well as the new technologies in telecommunication networking. The laboratory environment has been used in the networking curriculum at the Ohio State University, and is being piloted at other universities. The entire package is freely available over the Internet.


The release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment and food chain in the UK has produced one of the most visible and enduring cultural controversies in recent times. This research explores the ways in which these debates unfolded and were mobilised in the context of one region, the southern county of Dorset, where Farm Scale Evaluations of GM crop varieties were carried out. Contrary to existing studies that focus on conceptions of the specifically 'genetic' aspect of GMOs, typically associated with feelings of 'unnaturalness', and potential health/environmental risks, I refocus on the 'modified' aspect. Modify is a synonym for change and I argue this controversy is all about contested cultural change. Understood as such this is less a problem of culture interfering with nature; but rather a problem of competing cultural networks, as alternative ways of doing and being are subjected to, what I term, cultural risk.
Ethnographic participant observation, semi-structured interviews and other qualitative methods were used to trace the ongoing construction and defence of local food networks in Dorset, a hub of social/economic activity in the construction of new food cultures and a centre of protest in the Farm Scale Evaluations. Simultaneous 'virtual' ethnography was also carried out as activist groups, historically connected to performative protest in Dorset, initiated network-building activities in response to trials of GM potatoes elsewhere in the UK. By utilising theories of cultural change and rhetoric, this research asks: what cultures are at stake here in the GM controversy? How do they identify and define themselves? Upon what resources do they depend? How do they persuade others to travel with them? Throughout I suggest that a key role is played by the rhetorical weaponry of the story, a crucial tool in both boundary-making and history-making processes within the 'serious games' of culture.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder that results in severe cognitive decline. Amyloid plaques are a principal pathology found in AD and are composed of aggregated amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides. According to the amyloid hypothesis, Abeta peptides initiate the other pathologies characteristic for AD including cognitive deficits. Immunotherapy against Abeta is a potential therapeutic for the treatment of humans with AD. While anti-Abeta immunotherapy has been shown to reduce amyloid burden in both mouse models and in humans, immunotherapy also exacerbates vascular pathologies. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), that is, the accumulation of amyloid in the cerebrovasculature, is increased with immunotherapy in humans with AD and in mouse models of amyloid deposition. CAA persists in the brains of clinical trial patients that show removal of parenchymal amyloid. Mouse model studies also show that immunotherapy results in multiple small bleeds in the brain, termed microhemorrhages. The neurovascular unit is a term used to describe the cerebrovasculature and its associated cells-astrocytes, neurons, pericytes and microglia. CAA affects brain perfusion and there is now evidence that the neurovascular unit is affected in AD when CAA is present. Understanding the type of damage to the neurovascular unit caused by CAA in AD and the underlying cause of microhemorrhage after immunotherapy is essential to the success of therapeutic vaccines as a treatment for AD.


The aim of this study was to analyse the role of family and partnership in remission from alcohol dependence in treated (n = 50) and untreated (n = 115) individuals. Standardised questionnaires to assess social support, social pressure, coping behaviour, and self-efficacy to stay remitted were used. In both media-solicited samples, social support increased from the pre- to the post-resolution period and was stated as an important resolution maintenance factor. Remitters with formal help experienced more partnership conflicts prior to remission and tended to experience more social pressure from their partner. Social support and social pressure from the family and partner were related to an increase in cognitive coping, as hypothesised, however, only in remitters without formal help, whereas an inverse relationship was found in formal help seekers. Implications for alcohol-related interventions are discussed.


With the advent of fast connectivity and cross-platform software, an older model of decoupled algorithm and visualizer can be discarded in favor of a model which permits a higher level of student interaction with the visualization. In this model, the student can stop and start the visualization, see a textual explanation of what the algorithm is doing, and be prompted to answer questions about the steps of the algorithm.


Cellular thiols are critical moieties in signal transduction, regulation of gene expression, and ultimately are determinants of specific protein activity. Whilst protein bound thiols are the critical effector molecules, low molecular weight thiols, such as glutathione, play a central role in cytoprotection through (1) direct consumption of oxidants, (2) regeneration of protein thiols and (3) export of glutathione containing mixed disulphides. The brain is particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress, as it consumes 20% of oxygen load, contains high concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids and iron in certain regions, and expresses low concentrations of enzymic antioxidants. There is substantial evidence for a role for oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disease, where excitotoxic, redox cycling and mitochondrial dysfunction have been postulated to contribute to the enhanced oxidative load. Others have suggested that loss of important trophic factors may underlie neurodegeneration. However, the two are not mutually exclusive; using cell based model systems, low molecular weight antioxidants have been shown to play an important neuroprotective role in vitro, where neurotrophic factors have been suggested to modulate glutathione levels. Glutathione levels are regulated by substrate availability, synthetic enzyme and metabolic enzyme activity, and by the presence of other antioxidants, which according to the redox potential, consume or regenerate GSH from its oxidised partner. Therefore we have investigated the hypothesis that amyloid beta neurotoxicity is mediated by reactive oxygen species, where trophic factor cytoprotection against oxidative stress is achieved through regulation of glutathione levels. Using PC12 cells as a model system, amyloid beta 25-35 caused a shift in DCF fluorescence after four hours in culture. This fluorescence shift was attenuated by both desferioxamine and NGF. After four hours, cellular glutathione levels were depleted by as much as 75%, however, 24 hours following oxidant exposure, glutathione concentration was restored to twice the concentration seen in controls. NGF prevented both the loss of viability seen after 24 hours amyloid beta treatment and also protected glutathione levels. NGF decreased the total cellular glutathione concentration but did not affect expression of GCS. In conclusion, loss of glutathione precedes cell death in PC12 cells. However, at sublethal doses the surviving fraction respond to oxidative stress by increasing glutathione levels, where this is achieved, at least in part, at the gene level through upregulation of GCS. Whilst NGF does protect against oxidative toxicity, this is not achieved through upregulation of GCS or glutathione.


In an open clinical trial, 15 patients diagnosed with DSM-IV dysthymic disorder were treated with GS-02, a herbal formulation containing extracts of four Indian herbs: Ashvatha, Kapikachu, Dhanvayasa, and Bhuriphali. Twelve patients completed the study. The medication was very well-tolerated. Among treatment completers, three (25%) patients showed no response, two (16.7%) showed partial response, and seven (58.3%) showed good response; these response rates are similar to what can be expected from an allopathic antidepressant trial. In an intent-to-treat analysis, significant improvement was observed on Hamilton depression ratings as well as on global measures. The results of this preliminary study encourage further clinical investigation of the GS-02 formulation.


There are various factors associated with success or failure of R&D projects, such as maturity of the technology, circumstances surrounding R&D systems within companies and environments for commercialization of R&D projects. For R&D projects supported by public funds in particular, it has been difficult to clarify what makes R&D projects successful, because such projects were caught in the idea that they must naturally succeed. What is really required in utilizing public funds for R&D projects, however, is ensuring the public funds should be used most effectively, by making R&D projects truly successful. To do so it is very useful to analyze past cases and identify success factors that can be easily followed. In this study, surveys and interviews were conducted for past publicly supported projects, and success factors were extracted based on the circumstances of the projects by using statistical methods. It was confirmed that the quantitative results were quite consistent with the qualitative anticipation. After streamlining the success factors, further examination of each success factor was carried out for realizing proper management of projects supported by public funds. Next, the guidelines for selection and process management for publicly supported projects while making the best use of these success factors were presented. That is, satisfying the success factors should be a requirement for public support from the start during the selection stage. However, in some cases it is desirable to adopt projects even though the success factors are not satisfied at the time of selection, when such projects are expected to provide extraordinary results in the future. In such cases, executing proper process management and leading projects in a manner that satisfies the success factors is indispensable.


The use of cytokines (interferons, interleukin-2, growth factors) is in full development, but the new drugs issued from biotechnology are costly. In order to control consumption, these products are made available only to hospital pharmacists, and they are paid by the prescribing establishments from global funds. This results in an ever growing financial burden on the hospital pharmaceutical budget. Physicians will have to conciliate 2 objectives: make the patients benefit from the new drugs, and control the expenses by using these drugs only when necessary.


"Singular Europe" is an exceptionally authoritative survey of current developments in the European Community which also looks ahead to Europe after 1992. It covers key sectors of the European economy as well as social and political prospects. The authors have been well chosen, so that the book combines the insight of experts from Europe with the advantages of a perspective from leading U.S. specialists. It provides a valuable framework for analysis of many of the issues confronting Europe after 1992." - Francis G. Jacobs, Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Communities"It is a hard task to link politics and economies in a single-country analysis and it is even more challenging to do the same for a whole continent like Europe. Professor Adams succeeds in this difficult task, through his personal knowledge and expertise and thanks to some of the best European and American scholars." --Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics, University of Bologna, former Chairman of IRI, and former Minister of Industry for Italy"As a broad-scale, up- to-date overview of European integration- where the Europeans have gotten so far, what alternative routes now stretch ahead, and what obstacles they are likely to encounter-this book is exemplary. It brings together within a single volume some of the most thoughtful and distinguished observers from both sides of the Atlantic." --Robert D. Putnam, Don K. Price Professor of Political Science and former Dean, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard UniversityContributors are William James Adams, Severin Bornstein, Bo Carlsson, Gunter Dufey, Reinhard Ellger, John H. Jackson, Alexis Jacquemin, Frederic Jenny, Stephan Leibfried, Ernst-J. Mestmacker, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Gary R. Saxonhouse, John D. Steinbruner, William Wallace, Joseph H. H. Weiler, and Susan L. Woodward.William James Adams is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Economics, University of Michigan."


Purpose The prevalence of food allergy, triggered by T-helper type 2 (Th2) cell-mediated inflammation, is increasing worldwide. Interleukin (IL)-18 plays an important role in inflammatory diseases by binding with the IL-18 receptor. IL-18/IL-18 receptor α (IL-18Rα) is a cofactor for immunoglobulin E (IgE) production and Th2 cell development. Studies have not investigated the association between the IL-18/IL-18Rα signaling pathway and food allergy. Here, we investigated the role of IL-18Rα in food allergy induction and development. Methods Wild-type (WT) and IL-18Rα-null mutant (IL-18Rα−/−) C57BL/6 mice were sensitized and challenged using ovalbumin (OVA) for food allergy induction. Food allergy symptoms, T cell-mediated immune responses, and signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)/suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) pathways were analyzed in mice. Results IL-18Rα expression was increased in WT mouse intestines after OVA treatment. Food allergy-induced IL-18Rα−/− mice showed attenuated systemic food allergic reactions, OVA-specific IgE and mouse mast cell protease-1 production, inflammatory cell infiltration, and T cell activation. Ex vivo experiments showed that cell proliferation and Th2 cytokine production were lower in IL-18Rα−/− mouse splenocytes than in WT mouse splenocytes. IL-18Rα blockade in WT splenocytes attenuated cell proliferation and Th2 cytokine production. Moreover, STAT3 phosphorylation was reduced in IL-18Rα−/− mice, and SOCS3 and SOCS1 activation were diminished in IL-18Rα−/− intestinal T cells. Conclusions IL-18Rα regulates allergic reactions and immune responses by regulating T cell responses in food allergies. Moreover, IL-18Rα is involved in the STAT/SOCS signaling pathways. Targeting IL-18Rα signaling might be a novel therapeutic strategy for food allergy.


he article deals with various reasons, encouragingenterprises of Lithuania to apply the practice of involvementof employees into enterprise management,widely applied in the countries of Western Europe.The main aim of a modern enterprise managementshould be the increase of business effectiveness in thecontext of globalization and European integration. Toachieve this aim, special attention should be paid to thefactors expressing abilities for the increase of businesseffectiveness. Among the factors the most importantplace is taken by the adequacy of enterprise managementto the situation, which is caused by increasinglyintensifying progress of science and technology as wellas formation of the information society.After Lithuania has become a member of the EU thepractice of employee involvement into enterprise managementwill have to be introduced in enterprises ofLithuania, because this is one of the requirements listedin the EU agreements and legal documents. Most ofthese documents are not legally binding (except the EUdirectives), however they oblige to accept political obligations.Knowing the diligence of Lithuanian politics inthe implementation of such obligations (especially intransferring the EU directives into the national law),one can expect quite concrete and strict requirements inthis sphere.Apart from the legal obligations, the practice ofemployee involvement as well by the market economymechanisms are encouraged. Most theories and conceptionsacknowledge the application of more effectivemanagement forms to be the most important guaranteeof modern competitiveness. Seeking to become competitivein the EU internal market, enterprises of Lithuaniawill have to adopt practice of enterprises of the WesternEuropean countries, because the old means of competitiveness,like cheap labour force, less expensive rawmaterials from the East, close neighbourhood of theEastern markets cannot assure successful business development.The analysis presented in the article shows, that involvementof employees into enterprise management is acomplex problem. It is evident that legal regulation isnot a sufficient reason for the application of this practiceon a wide scale. The limit at which the "socialization"of labour relations enhances competitiveness isnot clearly defined. At the moment Central and EastEuropean countries possess many more efficient and notemployed so far ways of enhancing competitiveness.Therefore the practice of employees' involvement commonin West European countries such as Germany, Belgium,Netherlands, Sweden, may find itself not so commonin the new EU Member states.


The world is facing an era of extreme competitiveness regarding business environments.
Actors in the Supply Chain networks do not scape to this phenomenon. Firms can no longer
compete as individuals to be profitable. To be competitive, the different players within a
Supply Chain (i.e. suppliers, manufacturers, dealers) have to share goals and objectives,
acting as one player. Supply Chains have the necessity to shift to what is known as Closed-
Loop Supply Chain, where the product life is extended even after the selling. The recovery of
these products and their further treatments (i.e. remanufacturing, repairing, etc.) play a
massive role in firms´ total revenues. In the automotive industry, companies do not seem to be
managing their reverse logistics in a proper way, and this constitutes a big problem. Reverse
logistics has to be further take into consideration, as it ensure the end-customer satisfaction, as
well as it ensure the availability of products in the aftermarket.
This thesis was performed in the Logistics Service Development department under the Volvo
Group Trucks Operations division, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Group is a global and
multinational company, considered a leading transport solution manufacturer. The firm
wanted to study how the reverse logistics were managed, which led to the following aim:
assess the reverse logistics systems that are currently being employed in the focal company
and suggest improvements. To fulfill the requirements set by the purpose, the actual practices
of the company were studied, the key factors influencing the returns were identified and
suggestions were provided. Semi-structured interviews both internal (within the company)
and external (3PL and Dealers), internal documentation, direct observations and collection of
operational data served the author to assess the purpose. The study of the current situation led
the author to identify that there was a lack of steering decisions regarding reverse flows, as
well as high returns rates and poor systems steering the returns. Five key factors were
identified to be the root of the flaws of the current situation: Communication, Dealer´s
experiences; Returns planning and policies; Lead times; and Performance measurements.
Improvements were suggested regarding these five factors: Enhance communication (e.g.
workshops with dealers); Improve Dealer´s Experience through building a new system;
Change the returns planning and policies; Improve lead times (e.g. Stabilize lead times, same
day deliveries); and Establish performance measurements (e.g. Track and Trace; KPIs). Thus,
this case study provides a replicable framework to enhance the performance of the reverse
logistics in the automotive industry.


An analysis of the electronic structure of the [Mn(II)Mn(III)(μ-OH)-(μ-piv)(2)(Me(3)tacn)(2)](ClO(4))(2) (PivOH) complex is reported. It displays features that include: (i) a ground 1/2 spin state; (ii) a small exchange (J) coupling between the two Mn ions; (iii) a mono-μ-hydroxo bridge, bis-μ-carboxylato motif; and (iv) a strongly coupled, terminally bound N ligand to the Mn(III). All of these features are observed in structural models of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC). Multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) measurements were performed on this complex, and the resultant spectra simulated using the Spin Hamiltonian formalism. The strong field dependence of the (55)Mn-ENDOR constrains the (55)Mn hyperfine tensors such that a unique solution for the electronic structure can be deduced. Large hyperfine anisotropy is required to reproduce the EPR/ENDOR spectra for both the Mn(II) and Mn(III) ions. The large effective hyperfine tensor anisotropy of the Mn(II), a d(5) ion which usually exhibits small anisotropy, is interpreted within a formalism in which the fine structure tensor of the Mn(III) ion strongly perturbs the zero-field energy levels of the Mn(II)Mn(III) complex. An estimate of the fine structure parameter (d) for the Mn(III) of -4 cm(-1) was made, by assuming the intrinsic anisotropy of the Mn(II) ion is small. The magnitude of the fine structure and intrinsic (onsite) hyperfine tensor of the Mn(III) is consistent with the known coordination environment of the Mn(III) ion as seen from its crystal structure. Broken symmetry density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed on the crystal structure geometry. DFT values for both the isotropic and the anisotropic components of the onsite (intrinsic) hyperfine tensors match those inferred from the EPR/ENDOR simulations described above, to within 5%. This study demonstrates that DFT calculations provide reliable estimates for spectroscopic observables of mixed valence Mn complexes, even in the limit where the description of a well isolated S = 1/2 ground state begins to break down.


Self-perceptions influence global self-esteem and intrinsic motivation for achievement behavior (e.g., physical activity). Physical activity is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Participation in physical activity is preventive against obesity and positively influences mental health (e.g., global self-esteem). Although the importance is widely accepted, many children in Western society do not meet daily recommendations for physical activity. We investigated associations between physical activity, self-perceptions about physical activity (i.e., perceived athletic competence), and global self-esteem in children from kindergarten to grade 4 to provide vital information for intervention programs to enhance physical activity and, in turn, enhance global self-esteem. The results showed that physical activity, perceived athletic competence, and global self-esteem remained stable between kindergarten and grade 4. Global self-esteem was the same in boys and girls, while boys reported higher levels of perceived athletic competence and were more physically active than girls. The development of global self-esteem was significantly associated with perceived athletic competence and physical activity in girls, but not in boys. However, children need more than a just a positive evaluation of their own (general) athletic competence to be motivated to participate in daily activities. Also, how they value a task is argued to influence participation in daily activities. We therefore examined the development of, and associations between, self-perceptions and task values of fine motor competence, ball competence, and gross motor competence in the same group of elementary school children. Self-perceptions of fine motor competence and gross motor competence declined over time, while self-perceptions of ball competence remained stable. Girls perceived their fine motor competence higher than boys, while boys perceived their ball competence higher. Self-perceptions of gross motor competence were the same in boys and girls. Task values remained stable over time. Boys valued their ball competence higher than girls, but boys and girls valued their fine motor competence and gross motor competence equally. Children with motor problems perceived and valued their motor competence the same as typically developing children. If children experience problems in (learning) motor problems that significantly interfere with daily life and/or academic behavior, they can be diagnosed with (possible) developmental coordination disorder ((p)DCD). Children with (p)DCD are less physically active and have lower levels of perceived athletic competence than typically developing children. We investigated if training a group of pediatric physical therapists in providing specific, (mainly) positive, goal-specific, progress feedback would affect motor performance, self-perceptions, and physical activity in children with (p)DCD. Children were assessed at baseline, after 12 treatment sessions (trial end-point), and at 3-month follow-up.There were no differences between the intervention and the care-as-usual group on any of the outcome measures. In general, children improved their motor performance and increased their perceived athletic competence, global self-esteem, and perceived motor competence after 12 treatment sessions. This improvement was maintained at 3-month follow-up. Motor task values and physical activity remained unchanged for all children. However, we found large intra-group variability with regard to perceived athletic competence in children with (p)DCD. This large intra-group variability was also present in children who were clinically diagnosed as having DCD.


Genomic studies of parallel (or convergent) evolution often compare multiple populations diverged into two ecologically different habitats to search for loci repeatedly involved in adaptation. Because the shared ancestor of these populations is generally unavailable, the source of the alleles at adaptation loci, and the direction in which their frequencies were shifted during evolution, remain elusive. To shed light on these issues, we here use multiple populations of threespine stickleback fish adapted to two different types of derived freshwater habitats—basic and acidic lakes on the island of North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland—and the present‐day proxy of their marine ancestor. In a first step, we combine genome‐wide pooled sequencing and targeted individual‐level sequencing to demonstrate that ecological and phenotypic parallelism in basic‐acidic divergence is reflected by genomic parallelism in dozens of genome regions. Exploiting data from the ancestor, we next show that the acidic populations, residing in ecologically more extreme derived habitats, have adapted by accumulating alleles rare in the ancestor, whereas the basic populations have retained alleles common in the ancestor. Genomic responses to selection are thus predictable from the ecological difference of each derived habitat type from the ancestral one. This asymmetric sorting of standing genetic variation at loci important to basic‐acidic divergence has further resulted in more numerous selective sweeps in the acidic populations. Finally, our data suggest that the maintenance in marine fish of standing variation important to adaptive basic‐acidic differentiation does not require extensive hybridization between the marine and freshwater populations. Overall, our study reveals striking genome‐wide determinism in both the loci involved in parallel divergence, and in the direction in which alleles at these loci have been selected.


Towards the effort of reducing pollutant emissions, especially nitrogen oxides, and
smoke, from diesel engine direct injection (DI), engineers have proposed various
solutions; one of these solutions is the use of alternative gaseous fuel. Using alternative
gasses fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), hydrogen (H2), etc., for the modified
diesel engine are receiving more interest from many scientists due to many reasons
including the national concerns of the liquid fuels limited resources, the environment
advantage and the needs to use a reliable, durable, and efficient engine. However,
diesel-H2 and diesel-LPG dual fuel engine produced many of the unwanted effects
such as rapid burning rate, increase diffusivity, and high emission levels. Therefore,
researchers started focusing on tri-fuel engines. Hence, LPG addition to the diesel-H2
operation has the ability to make hydrogen combustion smoother and stable which can
prevent imperfect combustion, such as the sharp increase of peak in-cylinder pressure
and temperature also lowers the combustion temperature of hydrogen in order to
repress Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emission. As a result, better performance engine can
be obtained when H2 is added with LPG to make a secondary fuel for diesel dual fuel
engine.
In the present study, the usage of ANSYS design modular was chosen to create the
entire computational domain of the engine and for Computational Fluid Dynamic
(CFD) the FLUENT approach was used for Ricardo Hydra diesel engine, a single
cylinder engine that operates using the direct injection method. A two-dimensional
CFD code was used in the study in order to examine the emissions and combustion
characteristics of a diesel engine, diesel-LPG, diesel-H2 under dual-fuel, and diesel-
LPG-H2 under tri-fuel operations, with different air-fuel ratios (λ) such as 1.2, 1.6, 2,
and 2.4. In addition, in order to choose the best reduction towards the emission,
evaluate the best manner of fuel gasses under dual and tri-fuel conditions was
conducted. Moreover, torque (20.18 Nm), intake temperature (298 K), and engine
speed (2000 rpm) were taken constantly to an atmospheric condition. The effects of a number of the cells on the expected result were utilized in order to analyze the most
accurate one. The simulation data of in-cylinder pressure and verification of Nitrogen
Oxides (NOx) emission appears to achieve a good agreement with data from previous
work. The results obvious the successfully established a CFD simulation was obtained
for predicting the emissions and combustion characteristics on the diesel, dual, and
tri-fuel engine operations. Knowledge of utilizing the dual and tri-fuel in modify diesel
engine and understanding the acceptable values of the mixture to give the best results.
The addition of gasses fuels increases the peak temperature under all values of excess
air. However, the addition of gaseous fuel only increased the in-cylinder pressure for
excess air values of 1.2, 1.6, and 2. On the other hand, at 2.4 excess air, the peak
pressure increased through the increase of the limit value of H2, such as 60L-40H and
50L-50H, when added to LPG. A decrease is then observed with diesel-H2 modes.
This might be a result of the low amount of fuels in the air when compared to other
similar cases and lean burn operation engine. At dual fuel operations, adding H2
decreases CO and CO2 emissions when compared with the emission from LPG.
Conversely, diesel-LPG-H2 tri-fuel operations lowered the CO emission when
compared to diesel-LPG. It also lowered Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emission when
compared to the diesel-H2 operation for all excess air. In order to lower CO/CO2
emissions, high H2 fraction is proposed in LPG (50L-50H). On the other hand, lower
H2 fraction in LPG (90L-10H) can lower the uncontrolled combustion of hydrogen
combustion and restrict the increase of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emission.


Mobile phones have become affordable and ubiquitous. However, in most parts of the developing world, the data connections on these are either not present, or are of very low bandwidth and erratic and expensive for a large segment of the population. We suggest that we use voice connections to deliver educational content in such scenarios – we call this a Mobi-MOOC. Essentially, in MobiMOOCs, when a user calls up a number (can be toll free), an Interactive Voice Response System takes over and guides the user through learning objects. The system uses Speech Recognition to help the user interact with the system. We developed courses on Basic Crop Production Practices for Farmers and Gardeners and found them to be very effective. In this paper, we present the concept of Mobi-MOOC, the technologies and processes involved, and also the results of our Mobi-MOOCs. Not every subject can be taught in this format. In this paper, we will discuss the pedagogical issues related to designing courses for a Mobi-MOOC, like the duration of a lecture, and navigational issues etc.


The renal lesions characteristic of tuberous sclerosis are angiomyolipoma and cysts, with the former considered to be more common. Other renal tumors are rarely associated with tuberous sclerosis. Here we present a tuberous sclerosis patient with a renal leiomyoma which was detected incidentally during the investigation of fever of unknown origin.


Most riparian trees are phreatophytic, water table‐dependent plants which broadly differ in their tolerance to drought and permanent flooding. In semi‐arid settings, as water is limiting, inundations may be regarded as inputs rather than stresses for the survival of phreatophytes. In this study, the mortality rates and abundances of Populus alba, P. nigra, Salix alba and local Tamarix spp. were examined in 43 plots with different hydrologic conditions distributed across the floodplain of a large semi‐arid and Mediterranean river, the Ebro River (Spain). The objectives were to determine hydrologic thresholds for the maintenance of declining populations of those species, while providing novel information on their phreatophytic nature, and to examine shifts in the species composition along hydrologic gradients. All species exhibited significant relationships between mortality rates and hydrologic variables (deepest water table—WT, flood duration—FD and flood frequency—FF). S. alba was found to be the species with lowest tolerance to drier conditions (hydrologic thresholds for maintaining a mortality rate <50%: WT > −1.22 m; FD: out of observation range; FF > 5.4 events y−1), followed by P. nigra (WT > −2.18 m; FD > 11.1%; FF > 3.8 events y−1), Tamarix spp. (WT > −2.96 m; FD > 3.7%; FF > 2.5 events y−1) and P. alba (WT > −3.45 m; FD > 1.7%; FF > 2.0 events y−1). Only a significant reduction in S. alba relative abundance was observed as conditions got drier. The results provided quantitative information useful to guide management plans for the protection of Mediterranean phreatophytic tree species from further degradation and suggested that eventual natural or regulation‐induced droughts and groundwater declines would accelerate the loss of all phreatophytic species, especially S. alba. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The corrosion of mild steel in simulated seawater containing various concentrations of hydrazine, phenylhydrazine and 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine has been studied by polarization technique. These compounds inhibit corrosion effectively even in trace concentration. The degree of corrosion inhibition is a function of temperature, concentration and nature of the inhibitor. The corrosion current density, percentage inhibitor efficiency and thermodynamic parameters for the surface adsorption of, inhibitors were calculated for the inhibition process. The IR spectra of the film formed on the corroding surface indicated the formation of complex between the inhibitor molecule and the mild steel. The inhibitors appeared to function through a general adsorption mode following the Frumkin adsorption isotherm. The thermodynamic parameters of adsorption showed a strong interaction of these inhibitor molecules with the mild steel surface. The results revealed that these compounds act as mixed inhibitors for mild steel in simulated seawater.


Background: Intense competition among siblings may favour sexual reproduction because phenotypic diversity is higher among sexual siblings than asexual siblings. However, previous theoretical studies concluded that competition among sibs is ineffective at promoting sexual reproduction. Question: What are the conditions required for sib-competition to favour sexual reproduction? Search method: Mathematical and numerical analyses of the model. We identify the mechanisms that reduce the advantage of sex. Key assumptions: Sexual reproduction generates phenotypic diversity among siblings, whereas asexual reproduction doubles the reproductive rate. The virtual habitat consists of many patches, each with different environmental conditions. Only one individual – the most adapted – survives in each patch. Conclusions: A greater number of environmental factors and variation of the fitness achieved by adapted phenotypes favour sexual reproduction. Intense sibling competition is likely to be an important process for maintaining sex.


This paper outlines the development of an electronically steerable receive-only antenna array realized within a project funded by the European Space Agency: the NATALIA project. The antenna has been designed for the reception of mobile satellite services in Ku-band and targets the European high-end automotive market. The design of the prototype is based on an innovative polarization agile phased array concept, the antenna is highly compact in size, has a cost-effective buildup, and shows excellent RF-performance.


The present study aimed to investigate the association between breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) expression and drug resistance in colon cancer, with the specific aim of elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of vincristine (VCR) resistance in tumor cells. The HCT-8 human colon cancer cell line was used to establish the VCR‐resistant HCT‐8/V line by gradually increasing the concentration of VCR during cell culture. The relative mRNA and protein expression levels of BRCA1 in these colon cancer cell lines was assessed by reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis and western blotting, respectively. Resistance to VCR was established in the HCT-8/V colon cancer cells, and RT‐qPCR and western blot analysis revealed the expression of BRCA1 to be significantly higher in the VCR‐resistant cells compared with their drug‐sensitive counterparts (P<0.05). The decreased BRCA1 expression in these VCR‐resistant cells may be associated with the drug resistance frequently observed in colon cancer.


Mechanical analysis is carried out to the deformation of workpiece when turning slender shafts in the normal and reversed direction under two different conditions of clamping. Mathematical models are set up for the calculation of bending deformation resulting from cutting forces in conditions of normal and reversed turning. An example is given to show that bending deformation and the resulting machining error in conditions of reversed turning is much less than that in normal turning. The result has been verified by experiments. The mechanical model and numerical analysis can be used in the processing design of slender shaft turning.


In the process of sports training, the effectively capture of data parameters for technical motion can get more scientific analysis process for the standard of technical motion, so that people can carry out the problems in a more comprehensive reflection and provide powerful data support for the athletes and coaches. In this paper, the research and the discussion part mainly explore software of lower computer based on motion capture system and have a discussion on its components and its important role, and combine the human body model analysis with system modeling studies on human body structure to make the data parameter that get in the process of motion capture maintain a high level of accuracy. The next part is to effectively determine the position of the sensor by model establishment, which makes the accuracy of the motion data parameter, can be effectively improved. Finally, it is the corresponding research and exploration for the error analysis and algorithm to make the causes of error more clear and make an effective summary of specific method for eliminating the error. This makes the process of motion data parameters capture more reasonable, at the same time guarantees the sports training process together with the normative of athletesÂÂ' technical movements continuously improve. This is the main idea of the paper through the process of study and discussion, while its purpose can also get fully reflected, and effectively provide a solid theoretical and practical foundation for further in-depth research.


A promising direction for recovering the lost information in low-resolution headshot images is utilizing a set of high-resolution exemplars from the same identity. Complementary images in the reference set can improve the generated headshot quality across many different views and poses. However, it is challenging to make the best use of multiple exemplars: the quality and alignment of each exemplar cannot be guaranteed. Using low-quality and mismatched images as references will impair the output results. To overcome these issues, we propose the Headshot Image Super-Resolution with Multiple Exemplars network (HIME) method. Compared with previous methods, our network can effectively handle the misalignment between the input and the reference without requiring facial priors and learn the aggregated reference set representation in an end-to-end manner. Furthermore, to reconstruct more detailed facial features, we propose a correlation loss that provides a rich representation of the local texture in a controllable spatial range. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework not only has significantly fewer computation cost than recent exemplar-guided methods but also achieves better qualitative and quantitative performance.


Processing moving object trajectories arises in many application domains and has been addressed by practitioners in the spatiotemporal database and Geographical Information System communities. In this work, we focus on a trajectory similarity search, the distance threshold query, which finds all trajectories within a given distance d of a search trajectory over a time interval. We demonstrate the performance of a multithreaded implementation which features the use of an R-tree index and which has high parallel efficiency (78%-90%). We introduce a GPGPU implementation which avoids the use of index-trees, and instead features a GPU-friendly indexing method. We compare the performance of the multithreaded and GPU implementations, and show that a speedup can be obtained using the latter. We propose two classes of algorithms, SetSplit and GreedySetSplit, to create efficient query batches that reduce memory pressure and computational cost on the GPU. However, we find that using fixed-size batches is sufficiently efficient in practice. We develop an empirical performance model for our GPGPU implementation that can be used to predict the response time of the distance threshold query. This model can be used to pick a good query batch size.


The Village of the Year in the Czech Republic is a national competition held since 1995, announced annually by the Ministry of Regional Development. Its aim is to promote the "restoration" and "development" of the Czech countryside through communal projects carried out by villagers themselves. Each year hundreds of Czech and Moravian villages enter the competition. Being focused on the countryside, the notion of rurality is one of the competition's defining features. But what kind of rurality is it? What are its constituents? How it is performed in the village competition projects? And what are the sources of the forms it takes? Our analysis of media representations by village competitors (web sites, video presentations, etc.), alongside materials provided for competitors by the Ministry and other participating organizations (competition rules, official documents, etc.) and various media representations of the competition (television reports, etc.), reveals how the discourses involved operate and how they create a certain "ideal" village that is to be seen as a model to be followed. We argue that the several discourses of rurality interwoven in the representations of villages within the competition (those of experts/academics, public/media, villagers, and policymakers) form an interdiscourse of "poprurality", which is a rurality deterritorialized, enriched with shared global (pop-cultural) elements, and re-territorialized again, to then float freely in public (especially virtual) space.


We show how a weak force f enables intruder motion through dense granular materials subject to external mechanical excitations, in the present case, stepwise shearing. A force acts on a Teflon disk in a two-dimensional system of photoelastic disks. This force is much smaller than the smallest force needed to move the disk without any external excitation. In a cycle, the material plus intruder are sheared quasistatically from γ=0 to γ_{max}, and then backwards to γ=0. During various cycle phases, fragile and jammed states form. Net intruder motion δ occurs during fragile periods generated by shear reversals. δ per cycle, e.g., the quasistatic rate c, is constant, linearly dependent on γ_{max} and f. It vanishes as c∝(ϕ_{c}-ϕ)^{a}, with a≃3 and ϕ_{c}≃ϕ_{J}, reflecting the stiffening of granular systems under shear [J. Ren, J. A. Dijksman, and R. P. Behringer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 018302 (2013)]PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.110.018302 as ϕ→ϕ_{J}. The intruder motion induces large-scale grain circulation. In the intruder frame, this motion is a granular analog to fluid flow past a cylinder, where f is the drag force exerted by the flow.


Using the multi-body simulation software SIMPACK as platform, a whole CHANGHE mini-car model was built. A fuzzy controller was adopted based on MATLAB/SIMULINK software to control the full car model. Pulse input running test simulation was carried out under co-simulation of SIMAT. The results showed that compared to passive suspension, with the speed 40km/h, the body vertical acceleration, body pitch angular velocity, standard deviation and peak were respectively decreased by 10.76%, 18.03% and 20.48%, 12.13%. The semi-active suspension system with fuzzy controller had better performance than passive suspension, reduced vibration effectively and improved automotive ride comfort.


Since radio waves and alternating current (ac) signals are vital to all radar functions, any introduction to radar logically begins with them. Indeed, many radar concepts which at first glance may appear quite difficult are simple when viewed in the light of a rudimentary knowledge of radio waves and ac signals. In this chapter we will consider the nature of radio waves and their fundamental qualities.


Cavitation in centrifugal pumps damages pump components, reduces delivery performance and
consumes additional energy. This paper presents a novel non-invasive method based on capacitance
measurement techniques for detecting and diagnosing cavitation in a centrifugal pump. Two cylindrical metal plates placed on the external wall of non-conductive pipe in the discharge line constitute the two electrodes of the capacitive sensor. The electrode plates and the pipe wall can be modeled electrically using a RLC circuit. The frequency shift of the circuit at resonance due to dielectric changes of different air to water ratios is measured to quantify the level of cavitation. Test results have shown that the frequency shifts can be as high as 200kHz with only a small amount of bubbles induced in the flow. The frequency shifts exhibit a nonlinear increasing behavior but give a good indication of the onset of cavitation and different levels of cavitation activity.