For the purpose of determining the effect of heavy metal emissions of a great town on the lead and cadmium levels of vegetables that are of relevance to food supply, we analyzed 193 samples of vegetables from the important vegetable-growing centre of Erfurt during a 3-year period. With regard to the main wind direction and the infrastructure of the town, the samples were collected at four different areas under vegetable. Apart from a single exception, the lead and cadmium contents were inferior to the maximum tolerances provided by the regulation concerning the contents of foreign substances in foods, the metal contents of leaf vegetables being higher than those of brassicaceous plants. Vegetable samples from areas with heavier emission burdens showed somewhat higher metal contents. In contrast to this, the cadmium contents did not exhibit such differences. The highest lead and cadmium contents were found in spinach. To elucidate the effect of the washing and blanching techniques used in industrial processing, 23 spinach preserves were analyzed in addition; as expected, the heavy metal contents were reduced by these techniques. In summary, our investigations evidence that the main vegetables cauliflower, white cabbage, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, as well as lettuce and spinach (grown in the district of Erfurt) contribute but little to total food contamination if we consider the amounts consumed on an average.


Energy is one of the most important parts of wireless sensor network design. Effective estimate the residual power of sensor nodes can be used to aid select the all-round and optimal schemes for applications and router protocols design, which can notably promote the survival period of wireless sensor networks. By software based real time energy estimation to scale the power consume of nodes can conciliate the deficiency of hardware. However, because node energy loss is nonlinear, so software based real time estimation inevitably not accurate. On the contrary, hardware based method scale residual energy in terms of reliability, efficiency and accuracy are relatively better.


The ability to decode letters into language sounds is essential for reading success, and accurate identification of children at high risk for decoding impairment is critical for reducing the frequency and severity of reading impairment. We examined the utility of behavioral (standardized tests), and functional and structural neuroimaging measures taken with children at the beginning of a school year for predicting their decoding ability at the end of that school year. Specific patterns of brain activation during phonological processing and morphology, as revealed by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) of gray and white matter densities, predicted later decoding ability. Further, a model combining behavioral and neuroimaging measures predicted decoding outcome significantly better than either behavioral or neuroimaging models alone. Results were validated using cross-validation methods. These findings suggest that neuroimaging methods may be useful in enhancing the early identification of children at risk for poor decoding and reading skills.


Often user interfaces of theorem proving systems focus on assisting particularly trained and skilled users, i.e., proof experts. As a result, the systems are difficult to use for non-expert users. This paper describes a paper and pencil HCI experiment, in which (non-expert) students were asked to make suggestions for a GUI for an interactive system for mathematical proofs. They had to explain the usage of the GUI by applying it to construct a proof sketch for a given theorem. The evaluation of the experiment provides insights for the interaction design for non-expert users and the needs and wants of this user group.


Sixty-six patients with portal hypertension and esophageal varices due to liver cirrhosis were randomized to receive either 5% ethanolamine oleate (EO) or 5% EO plus 1% polidocanol (EOP) as a sclerosant for endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS). The two groups were well matched with regard to age, sex and the severity of liver disease. In no patient in the two groups was there any major complication, such as esophageal perforation or esophageal bleeding. Eradication of esophageal varices was attained with an average of 4.7 and 4.3 sessions of endoscopic injection sclerotherapy in the ethanolamine oleate and polidocanol groups, respectively. Data on one patient in the ethanolamine oleate group had to be excluded because he left the hospital after 2 sessions of endoscopic injection sclerotherapy. Esophageal ulcers occurred earlier in the polidocanol group (after an average of 2.8 weeks) than in the ethanolamine oleate group (3.8 weeks), the difference being statistically significant (P < 0.01). The rate of occurrence of esophageal stricture requiring more than 2 sessions of bougienage was significantly (P < 0.01) higher in the polidocanol group (16/33, 48%) than in the ethanolamine oleate group (4/32, 12%). This study suggests that the two sclerosants have equal efficacy for treating patients with esophageal varices. With polidocanol there was ulceration and stricture in the distal esophagus.


Without a machine, human beings cannot process the massive data volume produced by us nowadays for business analysis purposes. Being part of the critical decision-making process in the commercial sector, the usage and role of Big Data, especially those collected from social listening are getting important: how a company listen to the true voices from a group of genuine customers and avoid those misleading, fake comments generated by the robot, to enhance the efficiency on measuring competitor's performance towards their marketing return compared to the investment (MROI), is critical and more challenging.In this paper, we will discuss various analytical methodologies from the angles of business and technological viewpoint: what decision-makers want from social media, what kind of information are they looking into, how visualization provides instant insights and what kind of system design provides enough interaction to the decision-maker. We will investigate the real-world challenges and difficulties: how the data inconsistency affects the computational analysis, what kind of obstacles was facing in the existing product de-sign in the market. Finally, we will conclude the used machine learning techniques that can address the mentioned business problems, including the successful rate, accuracy and various efficiency level in the studied samples.


The advantages to using a 50/50 mixture of lidocaine and bupivacaine with respect to onset and duration of local anesthesia instead of using the solutions independently were evaluated. In a double-blind randomized experiment, 12 subjects, each volunteering both feet, were studied. One foot was injected with 1 ml of one of the following three solutions: 1% plain lidocaine, 0.25% plain bupivacaine (Marcaine ®1 ), or a 50/50 mixture of 1% lidocaine and 0.25% bupivacaine; and in the other foot, a 1-ml injection of normal saline as a blinded control. A 5.07 (10 g) Semmes-Weinstein monofilament wire was used for testing for sensory blockade, and the onset and duration of anesthesia was recorded for each subject. It was determined that there was no significant difference in the mean onset times for the three solutions, and no significant difference between the durations of anesthesia of plain lidocaine and the 50/50 mixture. Additionally, it was determined that bupivacaine had a prolonged duration of anesthesia compared with the other two solutions. The results of this preliminary study suggest that there is no clinical advantage, with respect to onset and duration of local blockade, to using a 50/50 mixture of plain lidocaine and plain bupivacaine in place of their independent use.


We apply a new and innovative approach to communicating risks associated with financial products that should support investors in making better investment decisions. In our experiments, participants are able to gain "simulated experience" by random sampling of a previously described return distribution. We find that simulated experience considerably improves participants' understanding of the underlying risk-return profile and prompts them to reconsider their investment decisions and to choose riskier financial products without regretting their higher risk-taking behavior afterwards. This method of experienced-based learning has high potential for being integrated into real-world applications and services.


The Spherical k-means algorithm proposed by (Dhillon and Modha, 2001) is a popular algorithm for clustering high dimensional datasets. Although their algorithm is simple and easy to implement, a drawback of the same is that it doesn't provide any provable guarantee on the clustering result. (Endo and Miyamoto, 2015) suggest an adaptive sampling based algorithm (Spherical k-means++) which gives near optimal results, with high probability. However, their algorithm requires k sequential passes over the entire dataset, which may not be feasible when the dataset and/or the values of k are large. In this work, we propose a Markov chain based sampling algorithm that takes only one pass over the data, and gives close to optimal clustering similar to Spherical k-means++, i.e., a faster algorithm while maintaining almost the same approximation. We present a theoretical analysis of the algorithm, and complement it with rigorous experiments on real-world datasets. Our proposed algorithm is simple and easy to implement, and can be easily adopted in practice.


Research study is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, dissemination and use of information for the purpose of improving decision making related to the identification and solution of the problem. [Maholtra (2002)] The topic of the study, namely "The Awareness of Occupational Disease among Employees" can be divided into two outcomes which is high and low awareness. The 6 scope of study is all employees which covered under SOCSO and the areas of study are the whole nation of Malaysia. Under Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, Act 514 Part 4 which explain the general duties of the employers and self employed person. Section 15 of this act legislated that the employers is responsible to provide a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. Section 16 of the same Act also stated that the employers need to enforce their safety and health policy and need to disclose information regarding any policy to all of their employees. Bases on this alone it should be safe to make an early assumption that there is a high awareness about occupational disease among employees since the enactment legislate the employers to do so. According to Lugah V et al (2010), "although the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994 have existed in Malaysia for more than ten years, awareness of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) remains relatively poor. Besides, awareness of OSH among healthcare professionals in Malaysia is very limited, and there have been only a few published research studies on OSH awareness." This study show that just how much lack of awareness happen in our country. Even among healthcare professionals itself the awareness is poor. How do you aspect other type of profession to aware about the importance of health knowledge especially work related since we spent most of our time at workplace. If even healthcare professionals itself not fully aware of the importance of its, it will be worse for others workers such as labour workers which will be hard for them to be expose with this kind of knowledge. However the reason to do this research is due to the differences in the data collected from SOCSO reported about the occupational disease occur in Malaysia. Through this research we can determine either the awareness are high or low among the employees about occupational disease and whether they know what to do if suffering from its. Only after that we can suggest any corrective action if necessary and either the current level are satisfactory.


Recent studies indicate that mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis are potential chemotherapeutic target for the treatment of esophageal cancer. Azoxystrobin (AZOX), a methoxyacrylate derived from the naturally occurring strobilurins, is a known fungicide acting as a ubiquinol oxidation (Qo) inhibitor of mitochondrial respiratory complex III. In this study, the effects of AZOX on human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma KYSE-150 cells were examined and the underlying mechanisms were investigated. AZOX exhibited inhibitory effects on the proliferation of KYSE-150 cells with inhibitory concentration 50% (IC50) of 2.42 μg/ml by 48 h treatment. Flow cytometry assessment revealed that the inhibitory effect of AZOX on KYSE-150 cell proliferation occurred with cell cycle arrest at S phase and increased cell apoptosis in time-dependent and dose-dependent manners. Cleaved poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), caspase-3 and caspase-9 were increased significantly by AZOX. It is worth noted that the Bcl-2/Bax ratios were decreased because of the down-regulated Bcl-2 and up-regulated Bax expression level. Meanwhile, the cytochrome c release was increased by AZOX in KYSE-150 cells. AZOX-induced cytochrome c expression and caspase-3 activation was significantly blocked by Bax Channel Blocker. Intragastric administration of AZOX effectively decreased the tumor size generated by subcutaneous inoculation of KYSE-150 cells in nude mice. Consistently, decreased Bcl-2 expression, increased cytochrome c and PARP level, and activated caspase-3 and caspase-9 were observed in the tumor samples. These results indicate that AZOX can effectively induce esophageal cancer cell apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis, suggesting AZOX or its derivatives may be developed as potential chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of esophageal cancer.


Dependency parsing algorithms capable of producing the types of crossing dependencies seen in natural language sentences have traditionally been orders of magnitude slower than algorithms for projective trees. For 95.8–99.8% of dependency parses in various natural language treebanks, whenever an edge is crossed, the edges that cross it all have a common vertex. The optimal dependency tree that satisfies this 1-Endpoint-Crossing property can be found with an O(n4) parsing algorithm that recursively combines forests over intervals with one exterior point. 1-Endpoint-Crossing trees also have natural connections to linguistics and another class of graphs that has been studied in NLP.


For an accurate simulation of human body behavior during crashes, computational models of muscle activation and deactivation in flexion and extension need to be developed. Several attempts have been made since the late seventies to validate various three-dimensional, lumped parameter models of the human head and neck. The behavior of these models was compared to data gathered on live volunteers at the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory. While these experiments involved live, active muscles, the models represented muscles only in the passive state. A recently developed model introduced muscle activation and deactivation for the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory data. The model utilizes several muscle pairs. Activation and deactivation timing is different for each of the muscle pairs and is based on the change in length of each muscle. Therefore, both flexors and extensors are activated during the events. To further develop the muscle activation and deactivation model, for optimum parameters in correlation with the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory data, numerical optimization techniques were utilized. In this paper, the numerical optimization process developed for dealing with such models is discussed along with some correlation results.


In this paper, we propose a novel method to extend sequence-to-sequence models to accurately process sequences much longer than the ones used during training while being sample- and resource-efficient, supported by thorough experimentation. To investigate the effectiveness of our method, we apply it to the task of correcting documents already processed with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems using sequence-to-sequence models based on characters. We test our method on nine languages of the ICDAR 2019 competition on post-OCR text correction and achieve a new state-of-the-art performance in five of them. The strategy with the best performance involves splitting the input document in character n-grams and combining their individual corrections into the final output using a voting scheme that is equivalent to an ensemble of a large number of sequence models. We further investigate how to weigh the contributions from each one of the members of this ensemble. Our code for post-OCR correction is shared at https://github.com/jarobyte91/post_ocr_correction.


The situation is all too well-known: the number of spectacular development failures in, for example, large software projects remains at an alarmingly high level. In spite of frantic ongoing efforts to come up with new methods and tools to support such tasks, there seems to be no radical improvement in sight. While the complexity of systems increases at an ever-accelerating pace, our innate human cognitive capabilities for managing such development tasks remain the same as they were in historical times.This book takes an alternative route to the development of complex systems. Technology, methods, and tools are still important, but human-centric aspects like common understanding, coordination, visualization, and reduction of complexity, are here brought to the forefront.The core of the alternative approach is the system anatomy, a means that was conceived in the early 1990s by Jack Jarkvik, one of the contributors to this book. The system anatomy is a simple but powerful image showing the dependencies among capabilities in a system, from the most basic to the "money-making" ones, thereby representing a novel way of describing what a system is. This out-of-the-ordinary image has since then been used extensively in various forms at Ericsson for managing extremely complex system development tasks.When an innovation such as the system anatomy sees the light of the day, it soon becomes evident whether or not that innovation is feasible; otherwise, it will disappear silently into the darkness of history. The anatomy concept has certainly turned out to be extremely viable. Moreover, it is quite likely that the potential of the anatomy-based approach is not nearly fully exhausted, either in practical applications, or as an object of research.The time has come to make the system anatomy innovation known to a wider audience. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provide a snapshot of where the anatomy-based approach to system development stands today, by looking backwards at the first attempts to use the anatomy, by examining current usage of the concept, and by contemplating what might lie ahead.


A layered aluminum phosphate, $I [C_2N_2 H_{10} ]$ $[Al_2] (OH)_2 H_2O(PO_4 )_2 ]H_2 O$, with Al:P ratio of 1:1 has been prepared using a novel synthetic route wherein the amine phosphate, $[C_2 N_2 H_{10}][HPO_4 ]$, was reacted with $A1^{3+}$ ions under hydrothermal conditions. I crystallizes in the triclinic space group P(-1) (No. 2); a=6.614(1), b=9.918(1), c=10.381(1) \AA, \alpha= 115.3(1), \beta =90.2(1), \gamma= $90.8(1)^o$ 8; V=615.6(2) $\AA^ 3$; Z=2, $D_{calc}$= 2.029 g $cm^{-3}$; \mu (MoK\alpha)=0.565 $ mm^{-1}$. The final R=0.07 and $wR_2$= 0.17 and S=1.15 have been obtained for 198 parameters. The layered structure of I has Al both in trigonal bi-pyramidal and octahedral coordinations and the polyhedra are so connected as to give rise to 3-membered $Al_2P$ rings and infinite Al-O(H)-Al linkages. The structure is closely related to the mineral tancoite.


Although the completion of the human genome was a landmark in genomics, the availability of a single genome did not offer the opportunity to detect most of the functional part of the genome. With the completion of the mouse genome and the subsequent release of additional mammalian and other vertebrate genomes, a large number of conserved nonprotein-coding sequences were discovered. The most surprising discovery was that the nongenic fraction of the genome that is under purifying selection is larger than the coding fraction of the genome. In this article we review some of the key discoveries in the field and discuss methodologies for the computational and functional interpretation of nongenic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Keywords:

comparative genomics;
evolution;
non-coding DNA


. the article presents the research of MGSU Corporation for testing of design solutions of the "Eastern petrochemical company" JSC oil refinery and petrochemical plants port complex using the physical modeling method. Construction of the marine terminal of the oil refinery and petrochemical plants port complex is planned to be on the Eastern shore of the Vostok Bay which is the part of Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of japan. the port area is created by means of an artificial land site. The water area of the terminal will be guarded against sea waves by a breakwater. Experiments on the study of wave propagation in the port model water area at the Eastern and Western breakwaters were performed in the laboratory wave basin in three-dimensional layout, with the aim of obtaining of data about wave heights at berthing facilities. Effectiveness of the breakwater designs was studied in two-dimensional layout in a wave flume. During the port model construction all the designed waterworks as well as the project bathymetry of the port water area were reproduced at a scale of 1:100. Analysis of the experiment results with the slope protection embodiment version demonstrates that this engineering solution is able to withstand waves of the design parameters.


In modern medicine, heavy metals are thought to be existing toxic and trace amount of metals such as lead and mercury is a regulatory concern in drug development and approval process. However, metals are an integral part of Indian traditional medicine Ayurveda and have a safe history of usage for the past 5000 years. Bhasma, which is a herbomineral preparation containing heavy metals are subjected to heat, pressure and is heated with herbal juice and this process for detoxification of metals as claimed by Ayurveda. The objective of the present investigation is to understand the physiochemical changes in metal due to Sodhana and impact on bio-molecules such as enzyme and eukaryotic cells. Bhasma is compared with nanoparticles of the same metal to study the effect of Sodhana on biocompatibility of metal nanoparticles. The basic aim of this research was to find out the ill effect of such metallic preparation (Mandur bhasma) used in Ayurvedic medicine system and their corresponding iron nanoparticles using Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and biological enzymes. For the study, initially culture Baker's yeast was prepared in the pre-sterilized yeast extract, peptone, dextrose media. Growth and morphological change in baker's yeast cell was studied in the presence of the marketed ayurvedic formulation and its corresponding metal nanoparticles. At a similar time, standard microbiological assay procedures were also performed to find out the impact of these preparations on growth and morphology of yeast cells. An enzyme blocking study using the enzymes was also performed. Results showed that the iron nanoparticles (in higher concentration) have an inhibitory effect on the growth of yeast cells in comparison to the respective formulation. At the same time, the yeast cells show aggregation behavior and damaging with the abnormal surface in case of metallic nanoparticles. Effect on enzymatic activity was also found significant. On the basis of the present study it could be concluded that metals present in the ayurvedic preparations in Sodhit form do not have any objectionable behavior but there are certain need of pharmacovigilance to follow standard protocol to establish the safety and efficacy of such Ayurvedic preparations, and before coming to any final conclusion, still number of studies will also be needed.


Background:
 The high-temperature requirement serine peptidase 2 (HtrA2) is a pro-apoptotic mitochondrial serine protease involved in caspase-dependent as well as caspase-independent programmed cell death. When HtrA2 protein is tightly associated with mitochondria (MITO), its protease activity is masked. In contrast, once the protein is released from MITO into the cytosol (CS), its protease activity is exposed. Once active HtrA2 activates caspase-3, a pro-apoptotic enzyme, by degrading the caspase-3 inhibitor XIAP (x-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein. Recent studies have shown that translocation of HtrA2 protein from the MITO to the CS occurs in mice hearts during experimental myocardial ischemic and reperfusion.

 Hypothesis:
 In this study we examined if translocation of HtrA2 from MITO to CS occurs in LV myocardium of dogs with chronic stable heart failure (HF).

 Methods:
 LV tissue from 7 dogs with chronic HF produced by multiple sequential intracoronary micro-embolizations (LV ejection fraction <35%) and 7 normal (NL) dogs was used to prepare crude homogenate (HG) and to isolate MITO and CS fractions. Using primary antibodies, HtrA2 protein was determined in HG, MITO and CS fractions by Western blotting coupled with chemiluminescence. GAPDH was used as an internal loading control for both HG and CS fractions. Porin was used as an internal loading control for MITO fractions. HtrA2 band intensity was normalized to GAPDH for HG and CS and to porin for MITO.

 Results:
 GAPDH and porin protein levels were unchanged between NL and HF dogs. Compared to NL, HtrA2 protein levels in dogs with HF were unchanged in HG (0.76 ± 0.04 vs. 0.73 ± 0.08), significantly reduced in MITO (0.17 ± 0.02 vs. 0.40 ± 0.05, p<0.05) and significantly increased in CS (0.90 ± 0.07 vs. 0.36 ± 0.05, p<0.05).

 Conclusions:
 Compared to NL dogs, HtrA2 protein levels are significantly reduced in MITO but increased in cytosol fractions from LV myocardium of dogs with chronic stable HF; a maladaptations that promotes cardiomyocyte apoptosis and progressive LV dysfunction. Inhibiting the translocation of HtrA2 from MITO to CS may have therapeutic potential for the preventing progressive dysfunction of the failing heart.


Oral-facial-digital (OFD) syndromes are a heterogeneous group of inherited syndromes that have in common anomalies of the face (median cleft lip), the tongue (bifid or lobulated tongue with harmartomas), and the digits (brachydactyly, polydactyly, syndactyly). Due to more or less subtle clinical features, at least seven causally different entities can be identified: 1) OFDS I; 2) OFDS II (Mohr syndrome); 3) OFDS III; 4) OFDS with tibial anomalies (OFDS IV); 5) OFDS V (Thurston syndrome); 6) OFDS VI (Varadi syndrome); and 7) OFDS VII (Whelan syndrome). The neuro-psychiatric clinical observations and MRI findings of a 40 year old woman with a OFD syndrome are described. The observed findings (leukoaraiosis, epilepsy, major depression) in combination with a proven OFD syndrome possibly reflect a new type of OFD syndrome.


At present, the research ways of stratified air-conditioning technology mainly have two types, experimental study and numerical simulation. In this paper, a transparent Plexiglas model was designed, of which the size was supposed to be 1/50 of the real scale. PIV technology was innovatively applied into the experiment to measure the air distribution of an industrial plant. Different air supply velocities and different kinds of air supply outlets were taken into account to discuss the influence of them. Results revealed that as the jet velocity increased gradually, the airflow's stratification effect became more evident. When the aspect ratio changed from 1:2 to 1:8, the diffusion degree in vertical direction increased obviously. In comparison with the rectangular air supply outlet, the circular one had lower decay, longer jet distance and better contractibility. The experimental findings are useful for optimizing the design of air distribution in high ceiling industrial plant.


The effects of global financial crisis have been severe on banks. Many banks went bankrupt and many are in distress due to their sensitivities, stored in their balance sheets, to financial risks enlarged by the crisis. Some of banks, on the other hand, have felt the effects slightly. Recalling that total risk is sum of two parts of risk namely; volatility and sensitivity and that volatility is not under the discretion of banks, i.e. externally determined, it is assumed that the degree of banks getting affected by the global financial crisis is largely dependent on their sensitivities to risks. Banks' sensitivities to risks are assumed to be under the control of banks. Thus, in line with their risk appetite, banks can always change the structure of their balance sheet to alter their sensitivities to financial and non-financial risks. In this paper it is targeted to analyze and compare the balance sheet structure banks from 27 European countries in order to find their sensitivities to different financial risks such as credit risk and liquidity risk. It will further be analyzed how banks' balance sheet structures have been altered after the crisis. To observe the behavioral variations (if there is any) of banks getting affected by financial crisis, the analysis is widened to include different characteristics of banks such as; the country where they are operating, region where they are belong to, scale of their operations, their ownership, their type and etc.


The thermal inactivation of horseradish peroxidase was studied in sodium phosphate buffer solutions and in pure water at pH 7 in the temperature range of 70-95°C. The sodium phosphate ions concentration affected both the thermostability and the kinetic patterns and had a stabilizing effect. The gradual change observed at low concentrations made a series-type mechanism theoretically more coherent with the experimental observations than the conventionally applied two-fraction model. In water the kinetics is apparently first order at high temperatures, while the results obtained at 25°C support the occurrence of a series-type inactivation mechanism. The pH and enzyme concentration also affect the inactivation profile, supporting the conclusion that the thermal inactivation is not a monomolecular process with respect to protein concentration.


MWCNTs/Ag/TiO2NTs plates were synthesized via electrochemical reduction of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on Ag/TiO2NTs. The loading of silver nanoparticles was carried out by electroless reduction of Ag1+ onto TiO2 nanotubes previously formed by anodizing titanium. The SEM analysis revealed that MWCNTs were loaded significantly on the as-prepared Ag/TiO2NTs, where nanoparticles of Ag had grown on the walls of TiO2NTs. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized plates was evaluated by the photodegradation of Methyl Orange (MO) dye under UV light irradiation. The results indicated that the MWCNTs/Ag/TiO2NTs demonstrated improved efficiency for MO photodegradation in comparison with Ag/TiO2NTs and TiO2NTs. This is attributed to the efficient separation and transfer of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. The chemical oxygen demand of an MO dye solution as measured at specified time intervals provides a good idea about the degradation of MO.


This chapter looks at intergovernmental organisations and international regimes. As several environmental problems have transnational implications, governments have been eager to establish international institutions to address these problems collectively. In the aftermath of the landmark 1972 Stockholm Summit on the Human Environment, states created several international institutions specifically dedicated to environmental protection. Over time, and in keeping with broader trends in global politics, these institutions have begun to interact with institutions that specialize on other topics. The chapter then tracks international environmental institutions' development and impacts over time. It also considers how international environmental institutions exhibit differing levels of autonomy, before going on to look at the interactions between international institutions, in particular the dynamics of synergy and conflict between them. Finally, the chapter studies the literature on actual or planned reforms to the institutional architecture for global environmental governance.


This paper resolves a long-running debate in the economics literature – the debate over Smith's theory of money and banking – and thereby revolutionizes current understanding about the history and evolution of monetary analysis. Smith did not present either the real-bills theory or a price-specie-flow theory of banknote regulation, as generally presumed, but rather a reflux theory based upon the premise that the demand for money is fixed at a particular nominal quantity. This theory denies that an excess supply of money can ordinarily make it into the domestic nominal income stream or influence prices or employment. The essence of Smith's theory is not, as the real bills interpretation would suggest, that banknotes are elastic credit instruments that accommodate changes in demand; rather, it is that the supply of money, including banknotes, is forced to regulate itself to a fixed demand. And unlike Hume's price-specie-flow mechanism, Smith's specie-flow mechanism does not point to changes in domestic relative to world prices as the factor motivating the trades that restore monetary equilibrium.


The increasing use of engineered nanoparticles in industrial and consumer products leads to a release of the anthropogenic contaminants to the aquatic environment. To obtain a better understanding of the environmental effects of these particles, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was used to investigate the organism‐level effects and in vivo molecular responses. Toxicity of bulk‐scale (∼160 nm) and nanoscale (21 nm) titanium dioxide (TiO2) was tested under dark and light conditions, following ISO 10872. The expression of sod‐3, a mitochondrial superoxide dismutase, was quantified as an indicator for oxidative stress induced by the photocatalytically active material. Particle sizes were estimated using dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy. Although both materials agglomerated to a comparable secondary particle size of 300 nm to 1500 nm and were ingested into the intestine, only nanoscale‐TiO2 significantly inhibited reproduction (lowest‐observed‐effect‐concentration [LOEC]: 10 mg/L). Light exposure induced the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by nanoscale‐TiO2 and increased toxicity of the nanomaterial from a median effect concentration of more than 100 mg/L to 53 mg/L. No evidence was found for inner cellular photocatalytic activity of nanoscale‐TiO2. Therefore, oxidative damage of the membranes of intestinal cells is suggested as a potential mode of action. Results highlight the importance of primary particle size and environmental parameters on the toxicity of TiO2. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:2288–2296. © 2014 SETAC


We are building a reactive planning agent (REACT-P) to automate the operadon of a the communications link in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). We desire agent capable of executing plans and reactively replanning when necessary. Since the reactive planning agent must be built to interact with legacy (i.e., unmodifiable) systems, there are a number of significant challenges that must be addressed: (1) what extent and how should the legacy systems be reverse-engineered and modeled in order to support the development of a reactive planning agent? (2) Since the legacy systems were built to support human interactive control, most of the information needed for reactive planning is located in the human computer interface. How do we identify and acquire the knowledge elements needed for reactive planning? To address the fast issue we are using a scenario-based knowledge acquisition methodology and subsequently building models of the legacy systems using a simulation authoring toolkit named RIDES (Munro, 1993). The reactive planner is being built in Soar (Laird et al., 1987), which will be integrated and tested, and refmed with the RIDES-based simulator.


The pricing of today's long-term care insurance products relies on simple models where dependency is considered as a single homogeneous state. Because of aging population and rapid evolution in the field of medicine, it becomes paramount to get a clearer picture of the underlying risk. We believe it may only be achieved by taking into account several levels of dependency. A semi-Markov process is a multi-state process whose transition probabilities not only depend on the current state but also on the time spent in this state. This process has proven more flexible than the simple Markov process, and is core to numerous publications in the field of epidemiology. However its use in relation with long-term care insurance has remained mostly theoretical, mainly because of the lack of data available to insurers. The present article aims at introducing the construction process of a semi-Markov model with 4 levels of dependency. This work is based on data from the French long-term care public aid: the "Allocation Personnalisee d'Autonomie" (APA). Firstly, we introduce the parameters used to model transitions between states. We then proceed to the calibration of those parameters, using a likelihood maximization method, while taking into account the peculiarities of the APA data set. Finally, we apply this model to the pricing of a fictive long-term care insurance product, using a Monte Carlo method.


Due to the remarkable progress of deep generative models, animating images has become increasingly efficient, whereas associated results have become increasingly realistic. Current animation-approaches commonly exploit structure representation extracted from driving videos. Such structure representation is instrumental in transferring motion from driving videos to still images. However, such approaches fail in case the source image and driving video encompass large appearance variation. Moreover, the extraction of structure information requires additional modules that endow the animation-model with increased complexity. Deviating from such models, we here introduce the Latent Image Animator (LIA), a self-supervised autoencoder that evades need for structure representation. LIA is streamlined to animate images by linear navigation in the latent space. Specifically, motion in generated video is constructed by linear displacement of codes in the latent space. Towards this, we learn a set of orthogonal motion directions simultaneously, and use their linear combination, in order to represent any displacement in the latent space. Extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis suggests that our model systematically and significantly outperforms state-of-art methods on VoxCeleb, Taichi and TED-talk datasets w.r.t. generated quality.


The objectives of this study are to examine: 1) the influence of product quality, marketing communications and marketing distribution outlet or output channel on consumer trust; 2) dominant factors that influence consumer trust in Cianjur Pandanwangi rice. A descriptive verification method was conducted in order to get an idea of the four dimensions of product quality, the four dimensions of marketing communications and the three dimensions of the marketing distribution channel in building consumer trust in Cianjur Pandanwangi rice. Consumer trust is reflected in transparency, incentives and partnerships. Semantic Differential with numerical rating scale was used to measure 300 responses collected by cross sectional survey. Data processing was conducted by SEM AMOS 22. The result of analysis shows that product quality and distribution channel have significant effects on consumer trust, while marketing communication channel does not give significant influences on consumer trust. Successive dimensions of quality that have significant influences on consumer trust include the rice glutinious texture, purity, color grain of rice and aroma while the output of distribution channel influential to consumer trust includes the diversity of sales volume and easiness to get Pandanwangi rice. These conditions indicate that consumer confidence is not only built from good product quality and ease of availability but also from appropriate communication media reaching the right target. Consumers will trust Pandanwangi rice is purely from Cianjur if it is communicated clearly and transparently.Keywords: marketing mix, consumer value, cianjur pandanwangi rice


Based on 14 in-depth interviews, this paper explores the unique workplace experiences of transgender individuals in the UK employment context. The paper identifies gender identity diversity as a key blind spot in HRM and diversity management research and practice. The findings reveal the range of workplace challenges experienced by transgender employees. Major findings are that discriminatory effects are often occupation- and industry-specific; transition is a period where many transgender workers suffer due to lack of proper organisational support; and expertise deficits exist in supporting and accommodating transgender employees' needs. In unpacking these experiences, the paper demonstrates the distinctive dimensions of challenges faced by transgender employees, revealing the need for conceptually expanding how we frame diversity and diversity management. Our findings identify the necessity for an emic approach not only to researching diversity but also to devising organisational diversity strategies. The paper provides recommendations for HRM policy and practice in order to develop a more sophisticated approach to achieving inclusion.


Hydrofunctionalization of terminal double or triple bonds have become classical ligation tools for facile assembly of building blocks into larger molecules especially because comply Sharpless' prerequisite to be considered "click-chemistry" reactions. In particular the free-metal photoinduced radical thiol-ene (TEC) and thiol-yne (TYC) couplings are well-known to be atom economy, high-efficient, catalyzed only by light and completely regioselective. If both TEC and TYC have already been studied on simple substrates as linear terminal alkenes or alkynes, only few researches have been carried out about particular molecules as protein, peptides and endo-glycals. Hydrothiolation of protein, peptides and aminoacids has been studied to obtain a double different substitution of the peptidic scaffold with one carbohydrate and one marker (fluoresceine or biotine) using TYC. A new technique to synthesize S-disaccharides has been developed starting from different glycals and thio-glucose, demonstrating the efficiency of TEC on internal internal double bonds.
The successful work about hydrothiolation of different substrates has pushed us to study both hydrophosphonylation of alkenes and alkynes starting from the same conditions of TEC and TYC reactions. The different reactivity of the functionalization agent (thiol or H-phosphonate) has resulted in different conditions for the addition to double bonds, but not in a loss of efficiency o regioselectivity. On the other hand the addition on a triple bond has resulted to be ineffective and to stop at the internal double bond intermediate. A thiol-ene coupling on this intermediate, formally a vinyl phosphonate, gives equilibration to E form of the alkene without traces of hydrothiolation adducts.
It is well known that multivalent effect is a key factor in supramolecular chemistry and it governs many biological interactions, in particular in the relationship between pathogenic microorganisms and their host that involves protein–glycan recognition. The affinity of a multivalent cluster is highly dependent on the combination of the carbohydrate head with the cluster core and the spacer between them; several families of multivalent bioactive molecules have been developed by a large numbers of groups all around the world using disparate synthetic techniques. Thiol-Ene (TEC) and Thiol-Yne (TYC) couplings have been chosen as ligation tool for the synthesis of a variety of multivalent biomolecules containing carbohydrates or peptidic termini supported on different bio-inactive clusters as dendrimers and the rigid silica cube known as POSS (polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane). Both TEC and TYC are highly efficient, regioselective and atom economy reactions that, moreover, permit us to avoid purification problems due to metal catalysis or to use large excess of reagents to have a complete substitution on the central core. In fact all the reactions have been carried out with success, high yield and without by-products of any kind. Affinity toward specific target of this large library of compounds has been tested by Enzyme-Linked Lectin Assay (ELLA) and results from good to excellent have been found in all classes of compounds.


Cardiac arrest in unusual positions represents an additional challenge for anesthesiologists. This paper reports a successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation during neurosurgical procedure in which high-quality chest compressions was performed in the prone position. The aim of this report is disclose the knowledge of resuscitation maneuvers in a position other than supine. A 77-year-old female patient presented for excision of parietal-occipital meningioma in the prone position with the head fixed on a Mayfield head-holder. During the surgical procedure the sagittal sinus was disrupted. The patient presented an abrupt hemorrhagic shock leading to a cardiac arrest by hypovolemia despite vigorous volume replacement. Cardiac massage was promptly initiated in the prone position. After two minutes, there was a return of spontaneous circulation. The patient was discharged without sequelae. We concluded that high-quality chest compressions in the prone position were able to generate sufficient cardiac output.


Tephrochronological studies carried out over the past decade in the area surrounding Mexico City have yielded a wealth of new radiocarbon ages from eruptions at Popocatepetl, Nevado de Toluca, and Jocotitlan stratovolcanoes and monogenetic scoria cones in the Sierra Chichinautzin Volcanic Field. These dates allow us to constrain the frequency and types of eruptions that have affected this area during the course of the past 25,000 yr. They have important implications for archaeology as well as future hazard evaluations. Late Pleistocene and Holocene volcanic activities at the stratovolcanoes are characterized by recurrent cataclysmic Plinian eruptions of considerable magnitude. They have affected vast areas, including zones that today are occupied by large population centers at Puebla, Toluca, and Mexico City. During Holocene time, Nevado de Toluca and Jocotitlan have each experienced only one Plinian eruption, ca. 10,500 yr B.P. and 9700 yr B.P. respectively. During the same period of time, Popocatepetl had at least four such eruptions, ca. 8000, 5000, 2100, and 1100 yr B.P. Therefore, the recurrence interval for Plinian eruptions is less than 2000 yr in this region. The last two Plinian eruptions at Popocatepetl are of particular interest because they destroyed several human settlements in the Basin of Puebla. Evidence for these disasters stems from pottery shards and other artifacts covered by Plinian pumice falls, ash-flow deposits, and lahars on the plains to the east and northeast of the volcanic edifice. Several monogenetic scoria cones located within the Sierra Chichinautzin Volcanic Field at the southern margin of Mexico City were also dated by the radiocarbon method in recent years. Most previous research in this area was concentrated on Xitle scoria cone, whose lavas destroyed and buried the pre-Hispanic town of Cuicuilco ca. 1665 ± 35 yr B.P. The new dates indicate that the recurrence interval for monogenetic eruptions in the close vicinity of Mexico City is also <2000 yr. The longest lava flow associated with a scoria cone was erupted by Guespalapa and reached 24 km from its source; total areas covered by lava flows from each monogenetic eruption typically range between 30 and 80 km2, and total erupted volumes range between 0.5 and 2 km3/cone. An average eruption rate for the entire Chichinautzin was estimated at ~0.5 km3/1000 yr. These findings are of great importance for archaeological as well as volcanic hazard studies in this heavily populated region.


S cience often finds itself intertwined with politics. Sometimes that is because science has important consequences for society and thus generates strong partisan disagreement, as in the contemporary international debates over stem cells and cloning. At other times, it happens because political movements seek support from scientific arguments and recruit experts to make them. These entanglements, although not always welcome, are an inevitable consequence of the fact that science matters.

Occasionally though, scientists drag politics into science by the heels, rather than the other way around. That's what's happening now, as a largely European movement urges a scientific boycott to punish Israel for its recent military actions against Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Academic boycotts, of course, are not new: Many U.S. and European professors, including scientists, declined to visit institutions and colleagues in South Africa in the 1980s to protest against apartheid. Whether that was preferable to continued scientific engagement is doubtful, but the question of whether to visit a nation or to decline out of one's political convictions is plainly a matter on which an individual is free to follow his or her conscience.

But some of the practices now emerging are quite different and deserve careful attention from the scientific community. In a case recently brought to Science 's attention, an Israeli researcher asked an author of papers in two peer-reviewed journals to supply cells from a clone used in expression analyses. The author declined, citing her institution's protests against the recent Israeli military actions. It was a particularly ironic refusal, because the research being conducted by the group in Israel involves a collaboration with Palestinian scientists that is aimed quite directly at benefiting Palestinians.

The author's refusal is a clear violation of the policies in place at most journals and commonly understood in the scientific community. When authors submit a manuscript, they make a commitment to supply cells, special reagents, or other materials necessary for verification. They are not free to violate that commitment once their paper has been published. Science 's Instructions to Contributors set out the rule this way: "Any reasonable request for materials and methods necessary to verify the conclusions of the experiments reported must be honored." On occasion, we have had to encourage compliance by interceding with authors on behalf of persons requesting materials.

After the Israeli scientist was refused the clone by the author, he contacted the editors of both journals in which the paper had appeared. One didn't reply; the other contacted the publisher, Ken Plaxton at Elsevier. Plaxton replied: "We do not have, nor wish to have, any influence on personal decisions made by contributors to our journals and cannot, I am afraid, in this instance help you further." That, it seems to us, is an inadequate response.

The refusenik's rationale has two parts. First it says, in effect, that the government of Israel has committed a morally repugnant act; part two asserts that this justifies the cancellation of an obligation to the entire scientific community. The first claim would be sure to stir up vigorous debate in most places; but we don't need to get into that, because the second part is so unimpressive. Its essential claim is that one's personal political convictions trump all other commitments and values. We've heard that before, and we don't buy it.

As we have reported from time to time, a National Research Council committee is currently studying rules governing access to data and materials. At a workshop in February, the standard for sharing these received strong endorsement; indeed, it may be extended to materials requested for further work, not merely for verification. Science , believing that the consensus on this issue is firm, will continue to insist that authors have an obligation to share material—cell lines, knockout mice, reagents, etc.—with readers who request them, unless such transfers are prohibited by laws or regulations, such as those designed to deter bioterrorism. We will continue to intercede with authors who refuse: first with persuasion and then, if necessary, by imposing penalties relating to future publication.

Perhaps there are plausible excuses for failure to comply with the sharing requirement, like "We ran out," or "The dog ate my culture." But "We don't like your government" just won't do.


The soft-input soft-output (SISO) module is the basic building block for established iterative detection (ID) algorithms for a system consisting of a network of finite state machines. The problem of performing ID for systems having parametric uncertainty has received relatively little attention in the open literature. Previously proposed adaptive SISO (A-SISO) algorithms are either based on an oversimplified channel model, or have a complexity that grows exponentially with the observation length N (or the smoothing lag D). In this paper, the exact expressions for the soft metrics in the presence of parametric uncertainty modeled as a Gauss-Markov process are derived in a novel way that enables the decoupling of complexity and observation length. Starting from these expressions, a family of suboptimal (practical) algorithms is motivated, based on forward/backward adaptive processing with linear complexity in N. Previously proposed A-SISO algorithms, as well as existing adaptive hard decision algorithms are interpreted as special cases within this framework. Using a representative application-joint iterative equalization-decoding for trellis-based codes over frequency-selective channels-several design options are compared and the impact of parametric uncertainty on previously established results for ID with perfect channel state information is assessed.


Migration within Europe and between Europe and other parts of the world is a major driver of population change and has far reaching effects on land use. The theory, historical trends and actual patterns of migration were reviewed and from these an understanding of different categories of migration was developed. The pressures for land use change caused by different types of migration were developed and interpreted into a map of Europe, resolved at NUTSx level and a set of descriptions of land use change projections, examples of which are presented. The paper suggests that the implications of migration on land use change need further research and better data in order to be able to be more certain of trends. In the modern world migration will continue to be a major influence on land use and European policies which consider migration and land use as separate issues are likely to miss important connections.


We performed a spectroscopic study of the SB2 Mercury-Manganese star α And with Reticon and CCD spectra obtained at the Crimean and the Dominion Astrophysical Observatories. Our measurements particularly of the secondary's radial velocities resulted in improved orbital elements with a spectroscopic mass ratiomB/mA = 0.50± 0.03 which is in good agreement with the mass-luminosity solution for this system. Elemental abundance analyses using synthetic spectra show that the primary has elemental abundances somewhat similar to those of other HgMn stars while the cooler secondary probably is a metallic-line star. The possible variability of Hg II λ3984 is discussed.


ABSTRACT RNA sequencing has revolutionized genome-wide transcriptome analyses, and the identification of non-coding regulatory RNAs in bacteria has thus increased concurrently. Here we reveal the transcriptome map of the lactic acid bacterial paradigm Lactococcus lactis MG1363 by employing differential RNA sequencing (dRNA-seq) and a combination of manual and automated transcriptome mining. This resulted in a high-resolution genome annotation of L. lactis and the identification of 60 cis-encoded antisense RNAs (asRNAs), 186 trans-encoded putative regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) and 134 novel small ORFs. Based on the putative targets of asRNAs, a novel classification is proposed. Several transcription factor DNA binding motifs were identified in the promoter sequences of (a)sRNAs, providing insight in the interplay between lactococcal regulatory RNAs and transcription factors. The presence and lengths of 14 putative sRNAs were experimentally confirmed by differential Northern hybridization, including the abundant RNA 6S that is differentially expressed depending on the available carbon source. For another sRNA, LLMGnc_147, functional analysis revealed that it is involved in carbon uptake and metabolism. L. lactis contains 13% leaderless mRNAs (lmRNAs) that, from an analysis of overrepresentation in GO classes, seem predominantly involved in nucleotide metabolism and DNA/RNA binding. Moreover, an A-rich sequence motif immediately following the start codon was uncovered, which could provide novel insight in the translation of lmRNAs. Altogether, this first experimental genome-wide assessment of the transcriptome landscape of L. lactis and subsequent sRNA studies provide an extensive basis for the investigation of regulatory RNAs in L. lactis and related lactococcal species.


Over the past decade extensive studies of single semiconductor nanowire and nanowire array photovoltaic devices have explored the potential of these materials as platforms for a new generation of efficient and cost-effective solar cells. This feature review discusses strategies for implementation of semiconductor nanowires in solar energy applications, including advances in complex nanowire synthesis and characterization, fundamental insights from characterization of devices, utilization and control of the unique optical properties of nanowires, and new strategies for assembly and scaling of nanowires into diverse arrays that serve as a new paradigm for advanced solar cells.


Ron Barnett's (2016) Understanding the university announces that 'the university is a task without end … [and] since the university is always on the move, always moving in its spaces – economic, social, political, cultural, institutional and so on – its possibilities will always be moving on' (Barnett 2016, 9). I concur with Barnett's cogent analytical take on the contemporary university, and draws on his three-pronged analysis, namely that a university is an institution and an idea; it is an institution in the present with future possibilities; and that it embodies a set of particulars and universals. The particulars and universals want to offer, firstly, a defence of a university as a democratic institution.  Secondly, in line with Jacques Derrida's (2004) novel thoughts on a contemporary university, I make a case for a university as a responsible institution-in-becoming within an African context, thereby bringing into contestation the notion that a university can ever be 'in ruins'.


Lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) are being actively and extensively used to examine the expression of specific genes and genome-wide expression profiles, including allele specific expression assays. However, it has recently been shown that approximately 10% of human genes exhibit random patterns of monoallelic expression within single clones of LCLs. Consequently allelic imbalance studies could be significantly compromised if bulk populations of donor cells are clonal, or near clonal. Here, using X chromosome inactivation as a readout, we confirm and quantify widespread near monoclonality in two independent sets of cell lines. Consequently, we recommend where possible the use of bulk, non cell line, ex vivo cells for allele specific expression assays.


In this paper, we investigate dynamical mass generation in (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature. Many studies are carried out within the instantaneous-exchange approximation, which ignores all but the zero-frequency component of the boson propagator and fermion self-energy function. We extend these studies by taking the retardation effects into consideration. In this paper, we get the explicit frequency n and momentum p dependence of the fermion self-energy function and identify the critical temperature for different fermion flavors in the chiral limit. Also, the phase diagram for spontaneous symmetry breaking in the theory is presented in T c-N f space. The results show that the chiral condensate is just one-tenth of the scale of previous results, and the chiral symmetry is restored at a smaller critical temperature.


The situation of disadvantaged students has been a problem in the field of education for decades, -so much so that several disadvantage-compensation programs have been set up in an effort to reduce its effect. This includes the mentoring process, the primary purpose of providing support and assistance to younger individuals. The subjects of the research are the 7th grade students participating in the Let's teach for Hungary mentoring program. The questionnaire survey was conducted in the autumn of 2019 (n=585), during which I focused on the children's expectations of the mentoring program, their learning difficulties, learning motivations, and their plans for further learning. Classifying students in clusters based on their motivations, highlights the fact that the range of participants is not homogeneous this aspect. The Coronavirus epidemic has posed a significant challenge to traditional education, and the opportunities offered by personal mentoring have been pushed into the background over the past year and a half. Educators and students alike have struggled through the transition to digital education (Kristóf, 2020). Attendance mentoring was forced to continue in the form of distance mentoring. In my current research, I examine the existence of distance mentoring, the exploration of experiences, and the preparedness of the participants in the Teach for Hungary program. Data collection began in December 2021, and the query process is still ongoing. I carry out the survey using a mixed-method. I collect quantitative data among students with the help of questionnaires, which focus on the experiences, opinions and readiness of the children. In addition, I use a qualitative, interview-based research method that provides an understanding of more comprehensive experiences. I conduct interviews with educators, mentors, and mentored students. The subjects of the research are primary school students (8th grade students), mentors and teachers of a small settlement in Hajdú-Bihar county and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county (n=60 people). The research results can serve as feedback to the participants on the success of work done during distance mentoring. The results obtained can also serve as feedback for the Let's teach for Hungary program because the program can be developed in the future from interviews.


This is one of the first studies to perform whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a large collection of Staphylococcus aureus isolates, both methicillin resistant and susceptible, collected from horses. A large proportion of the isolates carry leucocidin PQ (LukPQ), making this one of the first reports of such carriage in the United States. ABSTRACT While Staphylococcus aureus is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in equids (horses, donkeys, and mules), few studies have performed whole-genome sequencing to fully categorize large collections of equine isolates. Such sequencing allows for a comprehensive analysis of the genetic lineage and relationships of isolates, as well as the virulence genes present in each, which can be important for understanding the epidemiology of strains and their range of infections. Seventy-two clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates from equids were collected at the Texas A&M University Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital between 2007 and 2017. Whole-genome sequencing was performed to characterize the isolates according to sequence typing, biofilm association, antimicrobial resistance, and toxin gene carriage. Of the 72 isolates, 19% were methicillin resistant, of which the majority belonged to clonal complex 8. Eighteen distinct sequence types (STs) were represented, with the most common being ST1, ST133, ST8, and ST97. Most isolates had weak or negative overall biofilm production. Toxin and antimicrobial resistance gene carriage was varied; of note, this study revealed that a large proportion of North American equine isolates carry the leucocidin PQ toxin (66% of isolates). One isolate (17-021) carried genes imparting lincosamide and high-level mupirocin resistance, a combination not previously reported in equine-derived S. aureus isolates. IMPORTANCE This is one of the first studies to perform whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a large collection of Staphylococcus aureus isolates, both methicillin resistant and susceptible, collected from horses. A large proportion of the isolates carry leucocidin PQ (LukPQ), making this one of the first reports of such carriage in the United States. The presence of lincosamide and high-level mupirocin resistance in a methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) isolate highlights the importance of MSSA as a reservoir of important antimicrobial resistance genes. As microbial resistance genes on mobile genetic elements can pass between S. aureus strains and livestock-associated strains can be transferred to humans, these findings have important public health implications.


Recent court cases have considered, but not conclusively addressed, whether individual contracts lead to loss of union membership. This paper examines this question, analysing relevant data from surveys, case studies and the courts. It concludes that shifts from collective bargaining to individual contracts will induce employees to leave a union, and that the magnitude of the effect varies.


Models for composition–structure relationships are useful in both the lab and industry, yet few exist for perovskites-containing extrinsic defects or cation ordering. In this work, an empirical model is used to predict the existence of A-site cation ordering. Specifically, four compositions in the Na(1−3x)/2La(1+x)/2TiO3 system (x = 0.0, 0.0533, 0.1733 and 0.225) were synthesized using a conventional solid-state mixed-oxide method. The structure of the x = 0 end-member (Na0.5La0.5TiO3) has been reported in various space groups, but always with a random distribution of Na+ and La3+ on the A site; however, empirical modeling suggests that it is not only ordered but also that a small volume increase accompanies the ordering process. While no evidence of long-range A-site ordering is observed in this composition via X-ray or neutron diffraction, electron-diffraction data indicate short-range ordering of Na+ and La3+ ions, with the degree of cation ordering decreasing (but the scale of ordered domains and degree of vacancy ordering generally increasing) with increasing x. First-principles calculations via density functional theory support both conclusions that short-range ordering in Na0.5La0.5TiO3 is stable and that it results in a volume increase with respect to the disordered analog. A similar analysis has been conducted for the Li(1−3x)/2La(1+x)/2TiO3 and Na(1−3x)/2La(1+x)/2(Mg0.5W0.5)O3 solid solutions. These systems provide additional validation of the accuracy and versatility of the empirical modeling method used.


Echinococcosis is highly endemic in northwestern China. In order to improve sero-testing in support of community screening and for hospital use, a dot immunogold filtration assay (DIGFA) for rapid serodiagnosis of human CE and AE was developed. DIGFA incorporated four antigen preparations: crude E. granulosus cyst fluid, crude extract of E. granulosus protoscoleces, E.granulosus native antige and a metacestode extract (Em2) from E. multilocularis. The overall sensitivity of DIGFA in a hospital diagnostic setting using archived sera was 80.7% for human CE (n=857 samples) and 92.9% for human AE (n=42 samples). In endemic communities (Qinghe, Hobukersaier, Wenquan, Xinyuan County and Bayanbulak Pasture in Xinjiang; Xiji County in Ningxia; Ganzi County in Sichuan; Dangxiong and Dingqing County in Tibet AR) in northwest China screened for echinococcosis, the sensitivity of DIGFA ranged from 71.8% to 90.7% in comparison to abdominal ultrasound as the gold standard; specificity for CE using AgB was 94.6% and for AE using Em2 was 97.1%. This simple eye-read rapid test was judged useful for both clinical diagnostic supports, as well as in conjunction with ultrasound for mass screening in endemic CE and AE areas. An immunochromatographic assay (ICA) test for rapid E.granulosus antigen detection showed AgB detection in human cyst fluid biopsy samples had a sensitivity of 93.6%. Application of ICA for rapid coproantigen detection in dog faeces, indicated a test sensitivity and specificity generally lower (66.7%) than for coproELISA (72.2%) after 20 days post infection (dpi). A faecal sample time-course from experimental E.granulosus in dogs (n=9) indicated ICA coproantigen detection by 16 dpi and coproDNA detection by 20dpi. Epidemiological results also showed the overall ultrasound prevalence of human echinococcosis was 3.28% (615/18766), with cystic echinococcosis (CE) 2.73% (513/18766) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) 0.54% (102/18766) respectively. Meanwhile the DIGFA serological positive rate was 22.4% (2388/10684), females had a relative higher seropositive rate (p<0.05). Relative risk factors for human CE were dog and livestock ownership, occupation as herdsman, ethnic groups as Mongolian and Kazakh. Another risk factor for seropositive might be involved with the gender as a female. This research has implications for further development of rapid tests in support of human and canine echinococcosis diagnosis and for surveillance of transmission in China and elsewhere.


Abstract: The focus of this article is how Theory Driven Evaluation (TDE) and two of its central tenets—program theory and implementation theory—can be simultaneously used to inform and assist programmatic decision-making. The article argues there is a paucity of evaluation literature demonstrating how program theory can be beneficial to the design and interpretation of implementation theory. A case example is used to illustrate the importance of program theory in developing and interpreting implementation theory.


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Abstract Pain is known to interrupt attentional performance. Such interference effects seem to occur preferentially for tasks that are complex and/or difficult. However, few studies have directly manipulated memory load in the context of pain interference to test this view. Therefore, this study examines the effect of experimental manipulations of both memory load and pain on 3 tasks previously found to be sensitive to pain interference. Three experiments were conducted. A different task was examined in each experiment, each comprising of a high- and low-cognitive load versions of the task. Experiment 1 comprised an attention span (n-back) task, experiment 2 an attention switching task, and experiment 3 a divided attention task. Each task was conducted under painful and nonpainful conditions. Within the pain condition, an experimental thermal pain induction protocol was administered at the same time participants completed the task. The load manipulations were successful in all experiments. Pain-related interference occurred under the high-load condition but only for the attention span task. No effect of pain was found on either the attentional switching or divided attention task. These results suggest that while cognitive load may influence the interruptive effect of pain on attention, this effect may be selective. Because pain affected the high-load version of the n-back task but did not interrupt performance on attentional switching or dual-task paradigms, this means that our findings did not completely support our hypotheses. Future research should explore further the parameters and conditions under which pain-related interference occurs.


report To evaluate the tolerance of the cirrhotic liver to extended warm ischaemia, 47 patients with cirrhosis who underwent liver resection over a 4-year period were studied retrospectively. Three groups of patients were identified. In group I (14 patients) liver resection was performed under conditions of portal triad occlusion ranging from 50 to 75 (mean 57.1) min. Group 2 (12 patients) was treated with portal occlusion for a period ranging from 30 to 42 (mean 33.1) min. Group 3 comprised 21 patients who underwent hepatectomy using conventional techniques. Mean blood loss was significantly reduced by portal triad occlusion (819 ml in group I , 523 ml in group 2 ) compared with the conventional technique (1652 ml in group 3 ) (P < 0.05, group 1 versus group 3; P < 0.01, group 2 versus group 3). Hospital death occurred in three of the 21 patients in group 3 but in no patient who underwent portal triad occlusion. The morbidity rate was lower in the two occlusion groups uour of 26 patients) than in group 3 (six of 21). Bilirubin metabolism was substantially better after surgery in the occlusion groups (P < 0.05, groups 1 and 2 versus group 3 at day 14). Although the serum levels of transaminases were signijicantly raised until day 3 in patients undergoing long-term occlusion, the cirrhotic liver withstood the ischaemia-reperfusion insult, as assessed by changes in hepatic microcirculation, lipid peroxidation and the morphology of hepatic sinusoids. It is concluded that prolonged ischaemia during liver resection can be sustained inpatients with cirrhosis and without high-risk


This paper addresses the problem of scaling interconnects to nanometric dimensions in future very-large-scale integration applications. Traditional copper interconnects are compared to innovative interconnects made by bundles of metallic carbon nanotubes. A new model is presented to describe the propagation of electric signals along carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles, in the framework of the classical transmission line theory. A possible implementation of a future scaled microstrip based on CNT bundle is analyzed and compared to a conventional microstrip.


Identification of disease-specific biomarkers is important to address early diagnosis and management of disease. Aberrant post-translational modifications (PTM) of proteins such as O-glycosylations (O-PTMs) are emerging as triggers of autoantibodies that can serve as sensitive biomarkers. Here we have developed a random glycopeptide bead library screening platform for detection of autoantibodies and other binding proteins. Libraries were build on biocompatible PEGA beads including a safety-catch C-terminal amide linker (SCAL) that allowed mild cleavage conditions (I(2)/NaBH(4) and TFA) for release of glycopeptides and sequence determination by ESI-Orbitrap-MS(n). As proof-of-principle, tumor -specific glycopeptide reporter epitopes were built-in into the libraries and were detected by tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies and autoantibodies from cancer patients. Sequenced and identified glycopeptides were resynthesized at the preparative scale by automated parallel peptide synthesis and printed on microarrays for validation and broader analysis with larger sets of sera. We further showed that chemical synthesis of the monosaccharide O-glycopeptide library (Tn-glycoform) could be diversified to other tumor glycoforms by on-bead enzymatic glycosylation reactions with recombinant glycosyltransferases. Hence, we have developed a high-throughput flexible platform for rapid discovery of O-glycopeptide biomarkers and the method has applicability in other types of assays such as lectin/antibody/enzyme specificity studies as well as investigation of other PTMs.


Background: Painful or healthy condition is an interaction between three aspects, namely biological, psychological, and social. The prevalence of AMI (Acute Myocardial Infarction) patients is increasing every year, and is a major health problem right now. AMI causes discomfort and decline in body function that affects physical and psycho spiritual and social phenomena, which can affect the quality of life. This study aims to study the effect of quality of life of acute myocardial infarction patients with cardiac phase rehabilitation at IPI Kediri Baptist Hospital.
Method: This research uses Quantitative method with Quasi Experimental research design with Posttest Design. The sample was taken by using quota sampling technique with the number of samples 40 Respondents divided into 2 ie control group 20 and group treatment 20. Data collection with cardiac rehabilitation training and questionnaire MacNew QLMI previously tested the validity and reliability. Analysis of this research data using Independent Test Samples T-test.
Result: The result of statistical test using Independent Test Sample T-Test with 5% significant level obtained t-count value equal to 8.28 with sig (p) = 0,000. There was a significant difference (p <0.05) of patient's quality of life with Acute Miocardial Infarction in the intervention and control group after performing phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation.
Conclusions: Patients AMI who performed phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation had better quality of life compared to those who did not perform cardiac phase rehabilitation.


PolyJet printing process is one of the additive manufacturing methods to print parts with high dimensional accuracy. To date, dimensional accuracies of such process have been investigated by a number of studies. This review will summarize those studies, and identify current trends. With respect to methods of measurements used in the reported studies, it is noted that no special preference is given to use of any method. In addition, the effects of four control variables of PolyJet process: part orientation, layer thickness, surface finish type and materials, on dimensional accuracy are noted based on the results of reported studies. There is consistency in results in studies considering control variables of layer thickness, surface finish type and materials. However, the results are inconsistent in studies considering part orientation.


A novel statistical method is proposed in this paper to overcome abrupt motion for robust visual tracking. Existing tracking methods that are based on the small motion assumption are vulnerable to abrupt motion, which may be induced by various factors, such as the unexpected dynamics changes of the target, frame dropping and camera motion, etc. Although with computational benefits, methods based on hierarchical search is inadequate to this problem because the propagation of the searching error may end up with bad estimates in fine scales. Since different scales contain different salient image features, we propose a new formulation in which searching and matching will be done collaboratively in different scales. The theoretical foundation of this new approach is based on dynamic Markov networks, where the bi-directional propagation of the belief of the target's posteriors on different scales reveals the collaboration among them. A nonparametric sequential belief propagation algorithm for the dynamic Markov network is developed by implementing the collaboration of a set of particle filters. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method to cope with various types of abrupt motions.


BACKGROUND
Root cause analysis is a method to examine causes of unintended events. PRISMA (Prevention and Recovery Information System for Monitoring and Analysis: is a root cause analysis tool. With PRISMA, events are described in causal trees and root causes are subsequently classified with the Eindhoven Classification Model (ECM). It is important that root cause analysis tools are reliable, because they form the basis for patient safety interventions.

OBJECTIVES
Determining the inter-rater reliability of descriptions, number and classifications of root causes.

DESIGN
Totally, 300 unintended event reports were sampled from a database of 2028 events in 30 hospital units. The reports were previously analysed using PRISMA by experienced analysts and were re-analysed to compare descriptions and number of root causes (n = 150) and to determine the inter-rater reliability of classifications (n = 150).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Percentage agreement and Cohen's kappa (kappa).

RESULTS
Agreement between descriptions of root causes was satisfactory: 54% agreement, 17% partial agreement and 29% no agreement. Inter-rater reliability of number of root causes was moderate (kappa = 0.46). Inter-rater reliability of classifying root causes with the ECM was substantial from highest category level (kappa = 0.71) to lowest subcategory level (kappa = 0.63). Most discrepancies occurred in classifying external causes.

CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that causal tree analysis with PRISMA is reliable. Analysts formulated similar root causes and agreed considerably on classifications, but showed variation in number of root causes. More training on disclosure of all relevant root causes is recommended as well as adjustment of the model by combining all external causes into one category.


The relationship between the structure and Mo species in mesoporous molybdena–alumina catalysts and their catalytic performance for isobutane dehydrogenation has been investigated in detail. Characterization by XRD, HAADF-STEM, EDX, FT-IR, and N2 physisorption illustrated that ordered mesoporous catalysts (OM-Al, MoAl(F), and MoAl(C)) possessed an amorphous alumina phase and non-ordered mesoporous catalysts (M-Al and MoAl) exhibited a γ-Al2O3 phase. Mo species were highly dispersed over all the catalysts because Mo surface densities were about 1.0 Mo nm−2. Moreover, XPS and ICP-OES showed that Mo species were uniformly distributed over MoAl(F) with the Mo species confined in the ordered mesoporous structure. Higher dehydrogenation stability and a lower coke formation rate, albeit lower catalytic conversion, was obtained over MoAl(F) in comparison with those of MoAl(C) and MoAl on account of its stronger metal–support interaction, as shown by H2-TPR technique. The catalyst with a γ-Al2O3 phase exhibited stronger acidity and higher activity than the corresponding catalyst with an amorphous phase. The acidity of the catalysts was greatly enhanced by the addition of Mo species, according to the NH3-TPD characterization. However, not all the acid sites were active sites for dehydrogenation activity. The moderately and strongly acidic sites and the Mo species, including Mo6+ and lower valence Mo species, probably contributed to the dehydrogenation reactivity. Moreover, deactivation of the catalysts was mainly due to coke formation over the spent catalysts.


A technique for neural network time series prediction using radial basis functions, where the input data contain a significant proportion of missing points, is developed. This technique is intended to model the data while simultaneously providing a means of minimizing the impact upon the model of the missing points that are typical of geophysical time series. The two issues are inextricably entwined because missing data points have a significant impact upon the performance of data-derived models in terms of prediction availability and accuracy. The core of the technique is a nonlinear interpolation scheme that assigns values to gaps in the input time series. Each missing point is interpolated such that the error introduced into any specific predictive function is minimized. This interpolative technique has a general application in any instance where the effects of interpolation upon a given analysis process need to be minimized or a complete time series needs to be constructed from incomplete data. The technique has been applied to the prediction of ƒ0F2 from Slough, United Kingdom. The resultant model prediction root-mean-square (RMS) error is shown to be 2.3% better than using recurrence interpolation (in terms of overall model accuracy rather than relative to each other), 3.8% better than using persistence interpolation, and 34.3% better than not using any interpolation. Utilizing the interpolation algorithm lowers the RMS error by 26% when incomplete data, in addition to complete data, are used as an input to both the interpolated and the uninterpolated models.


A combination of northward underthrusting of the African plate and serpentinite diapirism resulted in progressive uplift of Cyprus during the Quaternary. The uplift was associated with the development of succession of alluvial fans and marine terraces. Marine terraces in coastal southern Cyprus are developed at 350–360 m, 110–100 m, 60–50 m, 11–8 m and 2–3 m above present sea-level. The terraces display sequences of regressive, deltaic, carbonate and siliciclastic sub-littoral, to littoral and sub-aerial type. Alluvial fans of the Fanglomerate Group crop out on the northern flanks of the Troodos Massif, forming extensive, dissected, peneplaned terraces. Later uplift resulted in the formation of channel fans and river terraces. Proximal sheetflood conglomerates pass distally into channelized braid-plain environments. On the southern margin of the Troodos Massif the Fanglomerate Group comprises braided, channelized and floodplain sequences, which pass laterally into littoral facies. Provenence studies indicate that uplift and resulting erosion of Cyprus was centred on the Troodos Massif (Mount Olympus). Radiometric dates indicate that uplift was rapid in the early and mid-Pleistocene. In the late Pleistocene—Holocene, eustatic sea-level changes and anthropogenic effects dominated, while the rate of uplift was reduced, with local submergence of southern coastal areas.


In this paper, we develop an indoor localization device which embeds localization information into indoor light-emitting-diodes (LED) lighting systems. The key idea of our device is the use of the newly proposed "bit stuffing method". Through the use of stuff bits, our device is able to measure signal strengths even in transient states, which prohibits interference between lighting signals. The stuff bits also scatter the parts of the signal where the LED is turned on, thus provides quality indoor lighting. Additionally, for the indoor localization system based on RSSI and TDM to be practical, we propose methods for the control of LED lamps and compensation of received signals. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated through experiments with a low-cost implementation including an indoor navigation task.


The presence of microcalcification clusters in mammograms contributes evidence for the diagnosis of early stages of breast cancer. Computer aided diagnosis (CAD) can be used as a useful tool for improving the accuracy of the diagnosis process, and for helping the radiologists with film interpretation. In this paper, digitized mammograms are decomposed using filter banks at several levels in the transform space. Global nonlinear operator was applied on decomposed detail subband images using multiscale adaptive gain method to enhance the images. Skewness & kurtosis were applied as detection method of the previous modification image with a specific size of region of interest (ROI). The DCT co-efficient taken as spectral features for classification of positive and negative region of interest. A three layered BPN employed as a classifier to evaluate classification efficiency. Distinction between microcalcification clusters (nodular components) and normal tissues such as blood vessels and mammary ducts (linear components) made using the eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix. Bayes discriminant function was employed for distinguishing among abnormal ROIs with a microcalcification cluster and two different types of normal ROIs without a microcalcification cluster. An integrated approach of using a filterbank, DCT and Bayesian classifier has shown to have the potential to detect microcalcification clusters with a clinically acceptable sensitivity and low false positives. The detection performance was evaluated by using 40 mammograms and showed 99% accuracy.


ABSTRACT: The high corporate tax rate and the complexity of the U.S. tax code provide U.S. multinationals with the incentives and opportunities to shift income to foreign low-tax jurisdictions. In theory, U.S. corporations are taxed at the statutory rate of 35 percent on their worldwide income, but income earned by an active Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) is usually not taxed until it is repatriated to the parent company in the U.S. As a result, trillions of dollars in cash and investments sit in offshore companies, awaiting a repatriation tax holiday. Much of these earnings are held by technology companies. The case looks at Microsoft Corporation, a company with $60.8 billion in unrepatriated earnings as of 2012. The case considers tax havens, nonrepatriation of earnings, cost-sharing arrangements, and transfer pricing and is intended to expose students to the subtleties and complexities of corporate tax strategies. Although the case is set in 2012, the goal of the case is to demonstrate to the stu...


For every $n\in\mathbb{N}$ and $k\geqslant2$, it is known that every $k$-edge-colouring of the complete graph on $n$ vertices contains a monochromatic connected component of order at least $\frac{n}{k-1}$. For $k\geqslant3$, it is known that the complete graph can be replaced by a graph $G$ with $\delta(G)\geqslant(1-\varepsilon_k)n$ for some constant $\varepsilon_k$. In this paper, we show that the maximum possible value of $\varepsilon_3$ is $\frac16$. This disproves a conjecture of Gyárfas and Sárközy.


Ciclesonide is delivered as a small-particle inhaled corticosteroid and improves lung function and airway hyperresponsiveness. The objective of the present study was to assess whether ciclesonide can specifically improve small airway function in asthma. A total of 16 mild-to-moderate asthma patients (seven males; median (range) age 39 (19–56) yrs and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 89 (62–120)% predicted) were randomised to 5 weeks' treatment with placebo or 320 μg ciclesonide once daily. The following small airway parameters were assessed: mean forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of forced vital capacity (FVC), percentage fall in FVC at provocative dose of adenosine-5′-monophosphate and of methacholine (MCh) causing a 20% fall in FEV1, expiratory lung volume on computed tomography (CT) scan after MCh challenge, single-breath nitrogen closing volume and alveolar exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). Seven subjects received placebo and nine received ciclesonide. Both alveolar eNO and CT measurements of expiratory lung volume after MCh challenge decreased significantly with ciclesonide (median (range) decrease 4.4 (54.8–1.4) ppb and 59 (1,569– -117) mL, respectively), and compared with placebo (-0.4 (7.3– -3.4) ppb and -121 (20– -236) mL respectively). Ciclesonide did not significantly improve other small airways parameters. Inflammation and patency of small airways, reflected by alveolar exhaled nitric oxide and air trapping on computed tomography scan, both improve with ciclesonide even in this small number of patients. This indicates that ciclesonide exerts anti-inflammatory effects on small airways.


The wrought nickel-based superalloy has been the indispensable material for aviation manufacturing industry, but it is also one of extremely difficult-to-cut materials. Now many researches were focused on the machinability of wrought nickel-based superalloy, and many useful and favorable results can be collected. But most of these researches studied on single kind of wrought nickel-based superalloy, the general and integrated study is absent. In this paper, six typical wrought nickel-based superalloys (GH80A, GH738, GH3030, GH3044, GH4033 and GH4169) were studied. By means of studies on tool wear rate, cutting forces, cutting vibration and tool wear mechanism, the comprehensive comparison of the machinability of wrought nickel-based superalloys was showed. The influences of major elements on the machinability were investigated. The machinability of the six kinds of wrought nickel-based superalloys queues from easiness to difficulty as follows: GH3030, GH3044, GH4033 and GH80A, GH4169, GH738. Finally the comprehensive comparisons of tool failure modes and wear mechanism of these wrought nickel-based superalloys were also presented. Experiment results are comprehensive and have great practical significance to the high efficient machining of wrought superalloys.


Background : Platelet plays an important role in the hemostatic system. The hyper-activation of platelet may lead to the development of thrombotic event in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Aerobic exercise is well known to reduce CVD risk and can reduce the platelet activation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the continuous and intermittent training programs on platelet activation. Methods : There were 24 healthy sedentary males mean aged 21.75 ± 3.73 years old participating in this study. They were divided into three groups, which are control group (n = 9), continuous group (n = 7) and intermittent group (n = 8). Continuous training group cycled at 60% VO 2 max for 45 minutes. For the intermittent training group, participants cycled at the 45% VO 2 max and had a rest before the second session at 75% VO 2 max, and the sessions were repeated twice. The exercise was performed non-stop until 45 minutes. Both exercise training groups performed the exercise three times per week for 12 weeks. Platelet activation was measured via detection of the P-selectin and glycoprotein IIb-IIIa using flow cytometry by indirect immunoflourescence. Results : This study showed that, intermittent type of training showed a significant difference of the gated percentage of CD62p and PAC-1 activation. There was also a significant difference of PAC-1 after training between two groups. Conclusions : As a conclusion, intermittent group pronounced more beneficial effects on platelet activation, whereas continuous group provided the beneficial changes on platelet activation. J Hematol. 2014;3(3):72-75 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jh163w


We propose Slim Graph: the first programming model and framework for practical lossy graph compression that facilitates high-performance approximate graph processing, storage, and analytics. Slim Graph enables the developer to express numerous compression schemes using small and programmable compression kernels that can access and modify local parts of input graphs. Such kernels are executed in parallel by the underlying engine, isolating developers from complexities of parallel programming. Our kernels implement novel graph compression schemes that preserve numerous graph properties, for example connected components, minimum spanning trees, or graph spectra. Finally, Slim Graph uses statistical divergences and other metrics to analyze the accuracy of lossy graph compression. We illustrate both theoretically and empirically that Slim Graph accelerates numerous graph algorithms, reduces storage used by graph datasets, and ensures high accuracy of results. Slim Graph may become the common ground for developing, executing, and analyzing emerging lossy graph compression schemes.


This is a resource that provides a listing of studies that have been reviewed that may be of use to policy makers who are supporting academics who are using technology in their learning and teaching activities. The studies have been examined in relation to an evidence-based approach as reported in the studies. A framework has been used to report the studies and interpret variations between them. The resources are listed by media types to help orient readers.


Extracting heat energy from geothermal reservoirs essentially relies on circulating cold fluid within fractured hot rocks. The intrinsic anisotropic permeability in the reservoir directly affects the path of flow and the associated thermal drawdown from cooling procedure. Consequently, each individual component including thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical field needs to be considered, to evaluate the influence of permeability anisotropy on the thermal production and evolution of rock properties. In this work, the fully implicit coupled simulator TFReact was successfully implemented to generate results prototypical of an enhanced geothermal system. Anisotropic permeability values were generated from the variation of fracture spacing at three orthogonal principal directions, with identical initial fracture aperture. Five case scenarios of permeability anisotropy were simulated to evaluate the influence of anisotropic thermal drawdown in triggering permeability evolution. Analysis of the propagation of the thermal front from injector to producer indicated that low anisotropic permeability values will lead to late cold water breakthrough at producer, slower migration rate and wider sweep area than high anisotropic permeability values. Isotropic permeability scenario showed a lower thermal gradient profile, comparing against the scenarios of anisotropic permeability. The anisotropic value of 0.01 produced the highest power output, while isotropic permeability generated the least power output. Induced thermal stress resulted an unloading response by reducing compressive normal stress in sub-horizontal direction, and thereby increase fracture aperture in sub-horizontal direction. Invariably, the induced thermal expansion stress increased the compressive stress and reduced fracture aperture and permeability. After the same timing of injection-production cycle, the highest anisotropic permeability scenario resulted a factor of 2.5 increment in evolving fracture permeability, while lowest anisotropic permeability scenario lead to a factor of 0.35 decrease in changing fracture permeability. The generated thermal output suggested the most favorable strategy in maximizing thermal sweep across the reservoir, by prompting thermal transfer normal to direction of injector-producer.