This paper extends prior literature by analyzing the effect of technological, organizational and environmental factors on innovation ambidexterity and its influence on the performance of smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the moderating effect environmental dynamism on this relationship. Building on the Technology–Organization–Environment theory and the Knowledge-Based View, this paper develops an integrative research model, which analyzes the network of relations using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Results show that information technology (IT) capability, knowledge management (KM) capability and environmental dynamism are positively associated with innovation ambidexterity. In addition, environmental dynamism is found to strengthen the positive effect of innovation ambidexterity on firm performance. Although many studies have highlighted that being ambidextrous is more challenging for SMEs than for their larger counterparts, these findings support the idea that innovation can be developed in an ambidextrous manner within a single SME as long as the firm is capable of creating a suitable organizational context and giving a prompt response to changes in the business environment.


In this paper, we investigate the topology of a class of non-K\"ahler compact complex manifolds generalizing that of Hopf and Calabi-Eckmann manifolds. These manifolds are diffeomorphic to special systems of real quadrics in $\Bbb C^n$ which are invariant with respect to the natural action of the real torus $(\Bbb S^1)^n$ onto $\Bbb C^n$. The quotient space is a simple convex polytope. The problem reduces thus to the study of the topology of certain real algebraic sets and can be handled using combinatorial results on convex polytopes. We prove that the homology groups of these compact complex manifolds can have arbitrary amount of torsion so that their topology is extremely rich. We also resolve an associated wall-crossing problem by introducing holomorphic equivariant elementary surgeries related to some transformations of the simple convex polytope. Finally, as a nice consequence, we obtain that affine non K\"ahler compact complex manifolds can have arbitrary amount of torsion in their homology groups, contrasting with the K\"ahler situation.


Abstract Assessing how environmental change affects the probability of persistence of organisms requires an understanding of dispersal through, and occupation of, landscapes, and the associated demographic outcomes. Projections of differences in persistence probability can then be made under different scenarios of land-use and global environmental change. Rates and distances of dispersal, and demographic change and trajectories, are difficult to measure accurately, but genetic approaches can make major contributions. For two decades the field of molecular ecology has been providing useful life-history information relevant to population management, including key ecological attributes such as disease-resistance and thermal biology, mobility, dispersal and gene flow, habitat connectivity, the spatial and temporal scales of population processes, and demography. Genetic estimators of these factors could be employed to a much greater extent than they are currently. To facilitate this increased use, genetic estimates of functional connectivity (mobility and gene flow of organisms) and demography need to be integrated directly into decision-making processes. Population genetics is well suited to Bayesian approaches, with associated benefits including the ability to consider many factors, and estimation of error and parameter sensitivities. Genetic estimators based on the mobility and reproductive success of individual organisms and their key ecological traits can make unique contributions alongside other types of data into agent-based, spatially explicit modelling approaches of real landscape scenarios at the range of scales needed by managers. Virtually all the tools to do this exist. It is imperative that genetic samples be collected for contemporary and future analyses.


Post-dictatorship Argentinian art-photography is often regarded as exemplifying a contemporary rejection of the photograph as infallible index of past presence. Instead, commentators tend to view artists' photo-essays primarily as post-photographic 'testimonies' to the compensatory or fictional aspects of an incomplete or even invented memory of the authoritarian past. While acknowledging this appeal to the poetic capacity of photography, this essay nevertheless proposes that for artists and viewers alike, the credibility of the photograph as index has not simply been discarded. Indeed, a nostalgia for an archival image which can be conflated with a material trace of past experience or even with the referent itself, has continued to inform both the production and reception of such art photography. By extension, this appeal to a residual materiality in photo-essays largely devoted to the affective realm of family grief for disappeared relatives, actually allows the photo-artists to transcend the limits of a depoliticized family frame and to re-affirm the traditional link between history and photography. Consequently, Lucila Quieto's Filiación (2013), an emblematic instance of this premise, serves, both aesthetically and thematically, to orient the viewer away from empathetic familial identification towards a reading of the exhibition as an allegory of the political violence exercised in a specific historical context.


Objective To investigate whether biologic-free remission can be achieved in patients with early, active axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) who were in partial remission after 28 weeks of infliximab (IFX)+naproxen (NPX) or placebo (PBO)+NPX treatment and whether treatment with NPX was superior to no treatment to maintain disease control. Method Infliximab as First-Line Therapy in Patients with Early Active Axial Spondyloarthritis Trial (INFAST) Part 1 was a double-blind, randomised, controlled trial in biologic-naïve patients with early, active, moderate-to-severe axial SpA treated with either IFX 5 mg/kg+NPX 1000 mg/d or PBO+NPX 1000 mg/d for 28 weeks. Patients achieving Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society (ASAS) partial remission at week 28 continued to Part 2 and were randomised (1:1) to NPX or no treatment until week 52. Treatment group differences in ASAS partial remission and other efficacy variables were assessed through week 52 with Fisher exact tests. Results At week 52, similar percentages of patients in the NPX group (47.5%, 19/40) and the no-treatment group (40.0%, 16/40) maintained partial remission, p=0.65. Median duration of partial remission was 23 weeks in the NPX group and 12.6 weeks in the no-treatment group (p=0.38). Mean Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index scores were low at week 28, the start of follow-up treatment (NPX, 0.7; no treatment, 0.6), and remained low at week 52 (NPX, 1.2; no treatment, 1.7). Conclusions In axial SpA patients who reached partial remission after treatment with either IFX+NPX or NPX alone, disease activity remained low, and about half of patients remained in remission during 6 months in which NPX was continued or all treatments were stopped.


Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm that has gained more popularity in recent years. At a conceptual level, IoT refers to the interconnectivity among our everyday devices such as personal computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones, PDAs, and other hand-held embedded devices. These devices now communicate smartly to each other. The goal of the Internet of Things is to enable things to be connected anytime, anyplace, with anything and anyone ideally using any path/network and any service. Internet of Things is a new revolution of the Internet. Objects make themselves recognizable and they obtain intelligence by making or enabling context related decisions thanks to the fact that they can communicate information about themselves and they can access information that has been aggregated by other things, or they can be components of complex services. This paper surveys some of the standard and non-standard protocols that are used for network routing in IoT applications. It should be noted that we have partitioned the network layer in two sub layers: routing layer which handles the transfer the packets from source to destination, and an encapsulation layer that forms the packets. Encapsulation mechanisms will be out of scope of this paper. Six network layer routing


Use of interstitial instrumentation for therapeutic heating is often compromised by uncontrollable thermal washout caused by stochastically distributed heat sinks. The heat sinks effects may be mitigated by, among others, control of the external temperature during the heating. For these procedures temporal characterization becomes crucial. We propose transient finite-element analysis (FEA) simulations as a reliable method of modeling the temporal behavior at different external temperatures. Heating curves obtained in measurements of ultrasonic heating in a brain phantom are modeled using the simulations. On achieving good agreement between the simulation and experimental results, we proceeded with the simulation of heating in a complex head model. Heating efficacy is described in terms of extent and volume of thermal dose. The extent and the volume increased by 40% to 100% for the temperatures of 18 to 47 degC. We found that there is monotonic but nonlinear dependence between the extent and the volume of the thermal dose on external temperature


The reconstruction of the relationship between the Constitutional Court and ordinary courts is very complex as it needs to delve into 60 years of case law deriving from incidental review of legislation as well as conflicts of power born out of judicial acts. In order to do this, the essay relies on the annual reviews of the Presidents of the Court: starting with the speech of President De Nicola in the first hearing of the Court (23 April 1956) until the last press statement of President Criscuolo (12 March 2015). By comparing its original hesitations with its modern day conquests, the study attempts to disentangle key notions in the relationship between the Court and ordinary judges: the scope of justiciable acts; the notion of the a quo judge; the requirement of «non manifest groundlessness»; the limits of admissible questions; the decision-making techniques and the temporal effects of declarations of unconstitutionality; finally, the role of the court in the emergence of a supranational constitutional law. The hypothesis, which is confirmed by the findings, is that the Court and ordinary judges must collaborate within the constitutional process, whose rules must not be violated, derogated nor circumvented.


This study examined the vocal vibration pattern of fatigued voice by high speed laryngscopic imaging. A computer program, High Speed Video Processing (HSVP) program, was used to quantify the laryngscopic images using indices measuring glottal area, anterior-posterior length of the glottis and the width of the glottis. Twenty participants aged from 18 to 23 years (mean = 21.2 years, s.d. = 1.3 years) with normal voice were recruited to participate in a singing task. Vocal fatigue was induced through prolonged singing. High speed laryngscopic imaging was taken before and after the singing task. Images of /i/ phonation were analyzed using the HSVP program. Significant changes were found in the posterior glottal length ratio index and glottal length to width ratio index following vocal fatigue. It was hypothesized that vocal fatigue condition would lead to a compensatory hyperactive laryngeal adjustment. This lengthened the vocal folds anterio-posteriorly and made the glottis narrower. The high speed imaging technique using quantitative analysis has the potential for early identification of vocally fatigued voice.


Quantifying spatial and/or temporal associations in multivariate geolocated data of different types is achievable via spatial random effects in a Bayesian hierarchical model, but severe computational bottlenecks arise when spatial dependence is encoded as a latent Gaussian process (GP) in the increasingly common large scale data settings on which we focus. The scenario worsens in non-Gaussian models because the reduced analytical tractability leads to additional hurdles to computational efficiency. In this article, we introduce Bayesian models of spatially referenced data in which the likelihood or the latent process (or both) are not Gaussian. First, we exploit the advantages of spatial processes built via directed acyclic graphs, in which case the spatial nodes enter the Bayesian hierarchy and lead to posterior sampling via routine Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Second, motivated by the possible inefficiencies of popular gradient-based sampling approaches in the multivariate contexts on which we focus, we introduce the simplified manifold preconditioner adaptation (SiMPA) algorithm which uses second order information about the target but avoids expensive matrix operations. We demostrate the performance and efficiency improvements of our methods relative to alternatives in extensive synthetic and real world remote sensing and community ecology applications with large scale data at up to hundreds of thousands of spatial locations and up to tens of outcomes. Software for the proposed methods is part of R package meshed, available on CRAN.


Climate change will pose new challenges to conserving Earth's natural ecosystems, due to incremental changes in temperature and weather patterns, and to increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate events. Addressing these challenges will require pragmatic conservation actions informed by site‐specific understanding of susceptibility to climate change and capacity of societies to cope with and adapt to change. Depending on a location's environmental susceptibility and social adaptive capacity, appropriate conservation actions will require some combination of: (1) large‐scale protection of ecosystems; (2) actively transforming and adapting social‐ecological systems; (3) building the capacity of communities to cope with change; and (4) government assistance focused on de‐coupling communities from dependence on natural resources. We apply a novel analytical framework to examine conservation actions in five western Indian Ocean countries, where climate‐mediated disturbance has impacted coral reefs and where adaptive capacity differs markedly. We find that current conservation strategies do not reflect adaptive capacity and are, therefore, ill prepared for climate change. We provide a vision for conservation policies that considers social adaptive capacity that copes with complexities of climate change better than the singular emphasis on government control and the creation of no‐take areas.


Cancer is a heterogenetic disease. Although multiple hypotheses and models have been indicated, there is still no robust method to distinguish the heterogeneity of cancer. Evidence has been provided showing that cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in the origin and progression of cancer. In this opinion article, based on the theory of CSCs, we propose a novel CSC-based classification model (CSCCM) to explain the origin and progression of colorectal cancer, which would explain some confusing clinical phenomena and distinguish the heterogeneity of colorectal cancer from its origin. We further suggest that this model can presently be incorporated into the cancer progression theory.


We describe a method for determining the pseudo-first order rate constant of a chemical reaction by flow microcalorimetry operating in the flow-through mode. The impulse response of the instrument was described by a Gamma distribution and the equation of the thermogram was computed analytically. The resulting equation was fitted to the data by simulated annealing. The method was applied to an enzyme reaction following Michaelis-Menten kinetics by means of a new empirical equation relating the apparent rate constant to the kinetic parameters Vmax and Km. The method was exemplified by a kinetic study of horse serum butyrylcholinesterase.


Crystal structure prediction (CSP) of large, flexible, multi-component crystals is currently one of the most challenging computational tasks. In this work, we present a new approach to the CSP procedure, in which computationally generated crystal structures are evaluated not only on the basis of lattice energy, but also by the similarity of their theoretical NMR parameters and PXRD diffractograms with the experimental results. We employ procyanidin A-2 dihydrate as a model structure, and prove that even for such large and flexible systems with multiple possibilities of hydrogen bond formation it is possible to obtain a true crystal structure without single crystal diffraction experiments, on the condition that all three measures, i.e. lattice energy, NMR and PXRD similarity, are accounted for in an appropriate manner, so that they can guide us through a labyrinth of CSP-generated structures. The similarity of NMR parameters allows for unambiguous identification of the conformation of a molecule inside the crystal, whereas the PXRD data plainly indicates the true space group and, when combined with the crystal lattice energy, also the correct packing arrangement. Such an approach allows for faster elimination of incorrect structures, which in particular cases may be the only chance to obtain the true crystal structure within reasonable time and effort.


This paper showcases ways in which contact data can provide useful auxiliary information to study non-response and devise new strategies for statistical adjustment and fieldwork specification in cross-national surveys. We propose a typology of the processes generating contact data and discuss their implications for the utility for methodological research. We also propose criteria for the comparability of contact data in cross-national surveys. To illustrate the potential of contact data, we review existing studies of non-response in cross-national studies. The paper ends with recommendations for cross-national studies, with the aim of increasing the widespread availability and use of standardised contact data.


The work/family conflicts of poor and low-income women remain invisible in mainstream discussions about reform of working hours. "Family-friendly" reforms such as compressed work weeks, part-time jobs, reduced hours, and other alternative work schedules largely address the interests of professional women who are in a position to trade income for time. This Article suggests ways of expanding work/family discussions to address the needs of poor and low-income women who are immigrants, single parents, and involuntary part-time workers who labor in low-wage industries such as home care, clerical services, and office cleaning. The Article begins by examining gaps in the current discourse that reinforce racial and class hierarchies among women and families. It then explores the role of race, class, and citizenship in rethinking how to broaden the work/family discourse through a consideration of three cases brought by women to challenge the length or conditions of their working hours. This Article argues that to ensure that work/family policies benefit poor and low-income women, it is necessary to understand how social welfare policies, the structure of low-wage work, and immigration policies intersect to deprive low-income women of the right to make meaningful choices about paid work, unpaid work, and caregiving. The last section of the Article emphasizes the need for the work/family discourse to focus on a right of control of time as a means of challenging the unilateral control of working hours that our legal regime vests in employers. In particular, worker control of time provides a unifying framework for the common struggles that all women face as economic providers and caregivers.


The Driscoll pool is in central Duval County in southwest Texas. The surface is mantled by caliche and gravels of Recent age which makes surface geology unreliable. Sands and clays of the Reynosa or Lower Lissie formation of Pliocene age make up the surface exposures. Tests drilled in the area have penetrated Miocene, Oligocene, and as deep into the Eocene as the Cook Mountain formation. Production in the Driscoll pool is coming from the Oakville, Frio, and Fayette sands. Oil from the Fayette is 23°Be. gravity of Mirando quality. The present three wells will produce approximately 500,000 barrels of oil, or a per-acre yield of 16,500 barrels. The pool should ultimately cover 640 acres. The structure is a sand lens controlled by folding. The Government Wells, Mirando, P ttus, and Yegua sands have not been tested but should be found in the area above 4,500 feet.


OBJECTIVE: Leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava is a rare tumor, clinically silent which often remains undiagnosed for much longer. Imaging methods allow us to detect these entities. We report a single case and perform a bibliographic review. METHODS: 58-year-old woman with a 6 cm adrenal mass, which during surgery was found to be a tumor from the wall of the vena cava. We performed complete removal of the mass. Radiotherapy of the surgical area was applied within three months following surgery. RESULTS: Two years later, there is no evidence of disease recurrence. CONCLUSION: This is a rare entity, with low prevalence. Complete surgical excision is the gold standard for treatment. Local recurrence is a common finding during follow up.


The aim of this article is to describe a method for relating two compositions which
combines compositional data analysis and canonical correlation analysis (CCA),
and to examine its main statistical properties. We use additive log-ratio (alr)
transformation on both compositions and apply standard CCA to the transformed
data. We show that canonical variates are themselves log-ratios and log-contrasts.
The first pair of canonical variates can be interpreted as the log-contrast of a
composition that has the maximum correlation with a log-contrast of the other
composition. The second pair can be interpreted as the log-contrast of a
composition that has the maximum correlation with a log-contrast of the other
composition, under the restriction that they are uncorrelated with the first pair, and
so on.
Using properties from changes of basis, we prove that both canonical
correlations and canonical variates are invariant to the choice of divisors in alr
transformation. We show how to implement the analysis and interpret the results
by means of an illustration from the social sciences field using data from Kolb's
Learning Style Inventory and Boyatzis' Philosophical Orientation Questionnaire,
which distribute a fixed total score among several learning modes and
philosophical orientations


The focus of this thesis project has been on recovering lithium from its mineral ores, primarily being from spodumene. The general process for recovering lithium has been to begin with a roast to improve the dissolution rate of lithium ions. This occurs by expanding the crystal structure from an alpha to beta-spodumene form. However, this initial roast contributes a significant energy expense in processing the ore.

This project has aimed at finding an alternative, less expensive pre-treatment for recovering lithium from spodumene ores. The attempt has been to use a caustic leach within an autoclave at an elevated pressure of 40 bar and moderate temperatures of 150 to 250°C. A 0.01M acid digestion followed at temperature of 50°C for 12 hours. The obtained results were from Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and X-Ray Diffraction, which indicated a very poor extraction. The x-ray peaks did however indicate a potential change in crystal structure. Overall, the experiment remained as a work in progress with the identification of newly formed x-ray peaks still being required. Solid residue analysis has also been helpful in providing a conclusive account of the mineral elements.

There were three sections covered in this study. The first phase has involved preparing a comprehensive literature review to give a general overview of the lithium industry. The literature review is located within Appendix A. The second phase was then to develop a planned laboratory procedure, while covering an adequate risk assessment and budgetary proposal. These planning activities are within the Program of Study that is located within Appendix B. The final phase was then to apply the practical autoclave leaching experiments on mineral samples. The body of this thesis contains the laboratory report, which presents the applied procedure and the analysis of results. The main intention was to identify efficiencies, reduce costs and provide more an effective lithium recovery option, for commercial use.

The literature review has targeted the world's lithium resources along with the various technologies that exist for its extraction from primary and secondary deposits. The acid leaching, alkaline, ion-exchange, pressure leaching, bioleaching and chlorination processes have been examined for processing the primary mineral ores of spodumene, lepidolite, amblygonite, petalite, zinnwaldite and clays. Brine resources; have also been explored with its extraction process techniques of adsorption, precipitation and ion exchange through solvent extraction. The secondary resource of recycling lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have then evaluated as an alternative source and explained in detail. This has involved an initial pre-treatment of the spent LIBs, acid leaching of the metals and recovery of the lithium and by-product compounds from the leach liquors. The suitable recycling processes to handle the varying compositions of available batteries have also contributed. Another secondary resource has been lithium's presence in seawater; however, this source has been ignored as an uneconomical supply due to its very low concentration. Overall, the key industrial extraction procedures were critically examined with reference to various journal articles and patents. The essential objective has been to provide a detailed description of the available lithium recovery techniques that are applied to the various reserves.

The second phase was to complete a program of study. This involved outlining the project objectives, intended materials and equipment items. The identification of potential health and safety aspects were include with major risks examined. This involved an overview of the toxicity of materials and potential hazards within the laboratory workplace and a risk assessment with control measures being completed. The intended experimental procedure was then outlined which targeted the operation of the autoclave equipment, the sulphuric acid process and the caustic treatment options. A laboratory plan was developed to optimise several testing parameters for an autoclave leach. This plan involved adjusting the leaching reagents, their concentration, the temperature, pulp density, grind size and ore variability. The remainder of the program of study then budgeted and scheduling the activities and expected outcomes. Overall, this second section was a planning procedure to determine the direction of the project.

The final phase was then to complete the practical laboratory procedures and an analysis of the obtained results. Once completed, this developed a laboratory report that is the body of this thesis article. This section introduces the reasons for the intended procedure, lists the actual materials and method applied before evaluating the results. Major changes to the laboratory plan were identified, before focusing attention on presenting and discussing the results. Overall, the planned variation of leaching conditions has been replaced. A variation of caustic leaching reagents were instead implemented at varying temperatures, with the solid residues then being treated with a secondary acid wash. The conclusion section then summarizes the results and suggests any further testing recommendations.

The literature review and program of study have been placed in Appendix A and B due to a word limitation within the body of this article. As such, the body only contains the final laboratory report.


One-dimensional (ID) model of any axisymmetric industrial quenched steel bar based
on finite element method (FEM) has been applied to investigate the influence of process
history on its material properties of seventy-five (75) cases on ten (1 0) different samples
of steel. The lowest hardness point (LHP) and the effect of the radius of any steel bar on
its temperature history and on LHP is determined. In this research hardness in specimen
points was obtained by calculating characteristic cooling time for phase transformation
(tsIs) to hardness. The model can be employed as a guideline to design cooling approach
to achieve desired microstructure and mechanical properties such as hardness. A
computer program of the model is developed, which can be used independently or
incorporated into a temperature history software named LHP-software to continuously
calculate and display temperature history of the industrial quenched steel bar and
thereby calculate LHP and to study the effect of radius on temperature history and on
LHP. Also the effect of different austenitizing temperatures and the effect of different
quenching medium are studied. This technique (LHP-software) is more effective as
compared to the conventional methods (Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers Hardness Tester,
. . .etc) because they only used haidness calculated at the surface that is higher than LHP,
which has negative consequence and can result in bending, deformation and failure of
the component, as example it was found that the hardness on the surface of alloy steel
50B46H [R=12.5rnm, 850 O C , water quenched] = 52.808, while LHP = 44.953. LHPSoftware
can be used instead of a number of real tools in steel industrial applications and
is useful in a wide range of steel industrial field. The developed sofware based on (1-D)
FEM model has been verified by comparing its hardness results with commercial finite
element software results and also validated by experimental results. The comparison
indicates its validity and reliability.


Web applications have rapid developing speed and changeable user demands, so the regression testing is much important. Since the changed demands result in different versions of Web applications, and the faults usually hiding in the adjusted contents, the regression testing must cover all the related pages. In order to carry through the regression testing quickly and effectively, we make the simplification with the method of slicing. Firstly, we analyze the possible changes in the Web applications and the influences produced by these changes, discussing in the direct-dependent and indirect-dependent way; next, we give the regression testing method based on slicing emphasized on the indirect-dependent among data, i.e., obtaining the dependent set of changed variables by forward and backward search method and generating the testing suits; conclusion remarks and future work are given at last.


This study focuses on the relationship between Jewish languages and Hebrew. It includes a short discussion of a number of topics dealt with in the research literature since the beginning of the study of these languages, with a presentation of my perspective on these issues. Due to space constraints I will deal with only eight of these topics: A. The functional division between Jewish languages and Hebrew in Jewish communities; B. The distinction between ancient and new Jewish languages; C. The special status of Aramaic; D. The Hebrew and Aramaic component in Jewish languages and its extent; E. Semantic fields where the Hebrew component is used; F. Secret languages; G. The Hebrew component's contribution to the study of Hebrew language traditions; H. Hebrew as a living language in Jewish languages.


We read with interest the article by Chadwick and Oppenheim' regarding the selective isolation of Enterococcus faecium and agree that further comparative studies of screening media are required for detection of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) from clinical and environmental sources. Furthermore, we believe that an overall strategy for the isolation ofthese increasingly prevalent nosocomial pathogens should be developed. Using cephalexin aztreonam arabinose agar (CAA),2 a medium developed for the selective isolation of E faecium, in association with a broth enrichment technique, we examined 92 swabs from 70 environmental sites and 22 rectal swabs during the investigation of a nosocomial outbreak on a renal unit. All swabs were plated directly onto CAA, and CAA containing 4 mg/l vancomycin (Eli Lilly). The swab was then placed into cephalexin aztreonam (CA) broth prepared by the addition of cephalexin and aztreonam to one litre of sterile brain heart infusion broth (Unipath). Plates were examined for E faecium, following 24 and 48 hours' incubation at 37°C in air. CA broth was subcultured onto both ofthe above media following enrichment for 24 hours. Thirty eight Efaecium strains were isolated from 92 environmental and patient samples. Ofthese, 28 (74%) were vancomycin sensitive and 10 (26%) were vancomycin resistant. When the isolation of E faecium from direct culture and broth enrichment was compared, 16 strains (42%) were isolated on direct culture, and the remaining 22 strains (58%) were isolated from broth enrichment only. Of the 10 vancomycin resistant strains, only two (20%) were isolated on direct plating. It was interesting to note that vancomycin resistant strains often required 48 hours' incubation to produce typical colonies. This delayed growth


A comparison is made of the isotopic neutron sources 252Cf and 238Pu, Be for partial-body in vivo neutron activation analysis. Depth distributions of thermal neutron fluences in a water phantom are very similar for the two sources. The peak depth occurs at 5 cm. This value is approximately 2 cm less than the values obtained with uncollimated neutrons produced in broad-beam irradiations. With respect to the fluence-to-dose ratio, the 252Cf neutrons have an advantage of approximately 1.4 over the 238Pu, Be source. The use of 252Cf offers two additional advantages for the investigator. First, it minimises the on-line fast-neutron damage in Ge(Li) semiconductor detectors. Secondly, it is subject to much less stringent transport regulations than 238Pu, Be. The latter feature takes on particular importance in view of the increasing usefulness of transportable instruments for in vivo cadmium measurements at the workplace.


Experimental evidence is presented for silicon bandgap narrowing in uniaxially strained MOSFETs subjected to both tensile and compressive stress. For both n-channel MOSFETs with n+ polysilicon gate and p-channel MOSFETs with p+ polysilicon gate, the strain-induced threshold voltage shift (ΔVth) can be explicitly approximated from the changes in silicon bandgap (ΔEg) and carrier mobility (Δμ). From the measurements of both ΔVth and Δμ associated with the strain e, a simple ΔEg model at low strain is found to exactly match a tight-binding band structure calculation, clearly indicating the presence of uniaxial strain-induced silicon bandgap narrowing, regardless of strain or carrier type.


Let F be a family of graphs and let d be large enough. For every d -regular graph G , we study the existence of a spanning F -free subgraph of G with large minimum degree. This problem is well-understood if F does not contain bipartite graphs. Here we provide asymptotically tight results for many families of bipartite graphs such as cycles or complete bipartite graphs. To prove these results, we study a locally injective analogue of the question


Background
Precordial T-wave inversion (TWI) is an important diagnostic criterion for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).

Objective
This study aimed to characterize the initial repolarization features of definite ARVC in patients who first presented with right ventricular outflow tract ventricular arrhythmia (RVOT-VA) and TWI.

Methods
Patients who presented with RVOT-VA and TWI ≥ V2 were retrospectively assessed. The initial characteristics of repolarization between patients with and without a final diagnosis of definite ARVC during follow-up were compared.

Results
TWI ≥ V2 was observed in 61 of 553 patients (mean age: 44.1 ± 14.7 years; 14 men) with RVOT-VAs. After an average follow-up time of 54.9 ± 33.7 months, 31 (50.8%) patients were classified into the definite ARVC group and 30 (49.2%) into the non-definite ARVC group. The disappearance of precordial TWI ≥ V2 was observed in eight (13.1%) patients after the elimination of RVOT-VAs. In a multivariate analysis of the initial electrocardiogram features, only fragmented QRS [odds ratio (OR): 15.45, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.61-148.26, p = 0.02] and precordial V2 TpTe interval (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.06, p = 0.02) could independently predict definite ARVC during longitudinal follow-up. An initial V2 TpTe cutoff value > 88.5 ms could predict the final diagnosis of definite ARVC, with a sensitivity and specificity of 74.2% and 78.6%, respectively.

Conclusions
Despite the high risk of ARVC in RVOT-VAs and TWI ≥ V2, "normalization" of TWI was observed after ventricular arrhythmia elimination in 13.1% of the patients. Fragmented QRS and longer V2 TpTe interval were associated with definite ARVC during longitudinal follow-up.


TiNi shape memory alloy thin sheets were produced from titanium and nickel metal sheets by a new processing consisting of repetitive roll-bonding and diffusional heat treatment. TiNi sheets after heat treatment at a relatively low temperature for a long time exhibited fairly isotropic and high shape-recoverable strain, because a near {111} B2-phase texture such as {223}<110> and {332}<113> was developed through reactive diffusion during heat treatment. In the early stage of reactive diffusion, intermetallic layers of Ti2Ni, TiNi and Ni3Ti were formed at once at the Ti/Ni interfaces of the roll-bonded laminate and then growth of a TiNi phase took place with the progress of interdiffusion. Texture of the final TiNi thin sheets, therefore, is derived from that of TiNi layers generated at the Ti/Ni interfaces, which is considered to have inherited rolling textures of Ni and Ti layers in the Ti/Ni laminate prior to reactive diffusion under orientation relationships on close-packed plane and direction between parent and product phases.


The objective of active labour market policies (providing labour market services and supporting employment) is to channel back those without a job to the labour market as soon as possible. Public work, regarded as an active instrument, is generally criticised for not substantially improving employment rate; most jobs produce low added value; participation decreases the motivation and willingness of those concerned to find a job. In addition, the programmes prove to be expensive and make people more dependent on the unemployment benefit. According to the experts one of the benefits is that in the short and medium term the programmes provide the safety of survival to the participants and can also contribute to implementing the other tasks of improvement while decreasing poverty and inequalities. Another beneficial impact is its suitability to make the disadvantaged groups more dynamic whose primary labour integration is unlikely. It is also suitable for overcoming the challenges of structural unemployment and easing the downsides of global economic crises. The public work programmes are facing similar challenges internationally and in Hungary, as well. Our paper presents the problems of public work (if it is effective enough and able to fulfil its mission) as one of the most frequently applied instruments of employment policies both theoretically and empirically, and also from an international as well as a Hungarian perspective.


Date Presented 04/05/19
 Children can display maladaptive behaviors (MB) during OT sessions. MB hinder progress to goal attainment. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a cost-effective method to mitigate MB. Children's behaviors during OT sessions with and without a therapy dog were compared using qualitative and quantitative measures. Children remained on-task longer during sessions with a dog than without a dog. Additionally, therapists described positive effects from AAT during OT sessions.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Nicole Huang
 Contributing Authors: Regina Abel, Lindsay Mouradian, Sonya Steckler


Sparse coding (SC) is a unsupervised learning scheme that has received an increasing amount of interests in recent years. However, conventional SC vectorizes the input images, which destructs the intrinsic spatial structures of the images. In this paper, we propose a novel graph regularized tensor sparse coding (GTSC) for image representation. GTSC preserves the local proximity of elementary structures in the image by adopting the newly proposed tubal-tensor representation. Simultaneously, it considers the intrinsic geometric properties by imposing graph regularization that has been successfully applied to uncover the geometric distribution for the image data. Moreover, the learned sparse representations by GTSC have better physical explanations as the key operation (i.e., circular convolution) in the tubal-tensor model preserves the shifting invariance property. Experimental results on image clustering demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.


The construction of embedded biomedical applications is an under explored topic. The status quo is for practitioners to utilize a production process which possesses no specific focus; meanwhile, the marketplace requires highly demanding characteristics from these products. The principal requirement is that most of these products need to be effectively defect free. This demands that the production process be directed towards this objective; and hence the focus of this paper is our initial attempts at designing and implementing such a process. Our new process is developed around transforming a subset of extreme programming from the world of desktop applications into a methodology for this new domain. The paper also discusses our experiences in developing test frameworks to support the domain and our objectives. Finally, the paper provides some pointers on our future plans for tackling the many unresolved issues that still exist in attempting to fully realize and support this new development process


We study the efficient computation of Nash and strong equilibria in weighted bottleneck games. In such a game different players interact on a set of resources in the way that every player chooses a subset of the resources as her strategy. The cost of a single resource depends on the total weight of players choosing it and the personal cost every player tries to minimize is the cost of the most expensive resource in her strategy, the bottleneck value. To derive efficient algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in these games, we generalize a tranformation of a bottleneck game into a special congestion game introduced by Caragiannis et al. [1]. While investigating the transformation we introduce so-called lexicographic games, in which the aim of a player is not only to minimize her bottleneck value but to lexicographically minimize the ordered vector of costs of all resources in her strategy. For the special case of network bottleneck games, i.e., the set of resources are the edges of a graph and the strategies are paths, we analyse different Greedy type methods and their limitations for extension-parallel and series-parallel graphs.


Introduction: The development of anti-RBC antibodies (alloantibodies and/or autoantibodies) can significantly complicate transfusion therapy, particularly in patients needed repeated transfusion.
Objectives: To find out the prevalence of alloantibodies and autoantibodies in repeatedly transfused patients so that serious hazards due to immune reaction may be avoided.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Department of Immunology, BIRDEM and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) during the period of July 2015 to June 2016. Total 370 patients who had received at least five units of transfusions were enrolled in this study but known patients of auto immune haemolytic anaemia, patients in whom antibody was previously detected and pregnant women were excluded from the study. Blood grouping and Direct Anti-globulin Test (DAT) were performed with cell suspension using a poly-specific Coombs reagent. In cases of a positive DAT, further investigation using specific monoclonal reagents to detect IgG or a complement (C3d) was carried out. Serum was used to detect red cell alloantibodies using standard blood bank methods. Antibody identification was performed in antibody screening positive samples using red cell Identicells.
Results: Maximum 132 (35.7%) patients were in the age group 1-10 years. The male-female ratio was 1.2:1. Among 370 total patients 290 were HHA and 80 were non-HHA. Antibody was detected in only 17(4.59%) patients. Among the Hereditary Haemolytic Anaemia (HHA) patients it was 11 (3.79%) but among the non-HHA patients it was 6(7.5%). Out of 8 auto-antibodies, 5 were anti IgG followed by 3 were anti C3d. Out of 14 alloantibodies, 4(28.6%) were anti E, 3(21.4%) were anti K and in 3(21.4%) cases specificity of alloantibody was not detected.
Conclusion: Prevalence of anti-RBC antibodies was not so uncommon in multiple transfused patients.
Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.14(1) 2018: 73-77


A simple direct synthesis method was used to synthesis SiC/SiO2 core–shell coaxial nanocables by thermal evaporation of the mixture powders of silicon monoxide and active carbon at 1300°C and condensation on Si substrate without assistance of any catalyst. The SiC core typically has diameters of 10-40 nm and is covered by a uniform layer of 2-10nm thick amorphous SiO2. A double vapor–solid growth process is proposed for the formation of this novel structures based on detailed structural characterizations. The cable nanostructures may find applications as building blocks in nanomechanical or nanoelectronic devices.


This paper investigates replacing separate taxation by consolidation and formulary apportionment in a Bottom-up Federation, when a multijurisdictional firm is mobile in various respects. The reform is decided cooperatively by all the jurisdictions or by some of them, while tax rates remain within the competence of each jurisdiction. The paper sets forth the conditions for the reform to be social welfare enhancing, while not increasing tax competition. Among them, the formula should emphasize criteria that the Multijurisdictional Enterprise cannot easily manipulate and the consolidating area should protect its capacity to levy taxes by adopting a crediting system, possibly extended to accrued capital gains, vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Policy conclusions are suggested accordingly.


The wide use of interactive whiteboard in the classroom has been a significant source of motivation in teaching and learning process, and consequently leads to better achievement. Likewise, interactive whiteboard has enormously contributed to geometry teaching in that it has created a relaxing learning environment for learners where learners can study geometry in a stress-free atmosphere. This paper aims to investigate the facilitating role of interactive whiteboard in geometry teaching. Furthermore, the study explores how interactive whiteboard motivates learners to achieve better in geometry.


There is increasing evidences that favor the prenatal
 beginning of schizophrenia. This evidences point toward intrauterine
 environmental factors that act specifically during the second
 pregnancy trimester producing an immediate damage of the brain of
 the fetus. the present available technology doesn't allow observing
 what's happening at cellular level since the human brain isn't exposed
 to an immediate analysis therein stage of the life in subjects at high
 risk of developing schizophrenia. Methods. In 1977 we began an
 immediate microscopy research of the brain of fetuses at high risk
 from schizophrenic mothers so as to finding differences at cellular
 level in reference to controls. Results. In these studies we've
 observed within the nuclei of neurons the presence of complete and
 incomplete viral particles is reacted in positive form with antibodies
 to herpes simplex hominis type I [HSV1] virus, and mitochondria
 alterations. Conclusion. The importance of those findings have
 practical applications within the prevention of the illness keeping
 in mind its direct reference to the aetiology and physiopathology of
 schizophrenia. A study of amnionic fluid cells in women in danger
 of getting a schizophrenic offspring is taken into account. Of being
 observed an equivalent alterations that those observed previously
 within the cells of the brain of the studied foetuses, it might shall
 these women in risk of getting a schizophrenia descendant, previous
 information of the results, the voluntary medical interruption of the
 pregnancy or early anti HSV1 viral treatment as preventive measure
of the later development of the illness.
 Keywords: viral infection, schizophrenia, brain


: The authors describe an assay that quantify with precision the plasmatic prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the gel formulation PGE2 endocervical in the induction of labour. We have studied 26 pregnant women without disease at the term of the pregnancy. The blood sample was collected before and 30 minutes after the labor induction in tubes with 10 mg EDTA Na2 and 5 microg of aspirin. The PGE2 was isolated by extraction and chromatography with 70-100% recovery. The concentration was evaluated by a completion assay with RIA. The PGE2 in plasma was found before and after the induction of labor with the following results: 347 +/- 51.6 and 719 +/- 128 pg/ml. The data was compared by the Student's t test for paired values (df = 50, t = 13. 22 and p < 0.0001). We can conclude that in pregnant women the concentration of PGE2 in plasma was double after the labor induction with the sensitivity in 1.25 pg/tube and the reproducibility 4.6% intraassay and 7% interassay showing that the method is sensitive, reproducible and efficient for the PGE2.


Abstract The characteristics of particle transport in three different magnetic configurations are studied from density modulation experiments in the Large Helical Device (LHD). These three configurations are represented as different magnetic axis positions (Rax) of the vacuum field. Experiments were carried out in a range of different heating powers for each configuration with almost constant density. The experimental values of particle diffusion coefficients (D) and particle convection velocities (V) are compared with neoclassical estimates. The value of D is found to be anomalously large compared to neoclassical values in both the core and edge in all configurations. At low collisionality, this anomaly tends downward. The core convection velocities are comparable with neoclassical estimates. In more-outward-shifted configurations, particle transport is enhanced. The electron temperature and electron temperature gradient are the determinate parameters for D and V, respectively, in each configuration. The effective helical ripple is one of the important parameters for particle transport in the LHD; however, other hidden parameters exist. The role of fluctuations in particle transport is investigated from turbulence measurements using a two-dimensional phase contrast interferometer. Three kinds of fluctuation having different locations, propagation direction, and peak wave number are observed. One of these, which exists in the outermost edge region and propagates in the ion diamagnetic direction in the laboratory frame, plays a possible role in edge anomalous diffusion. The amplitudes of ion diamagnetic fluctuation components are compared with the linear growth rate of the ion temperature gradient mode.


Abstract This essay introduces the concept of hemispheric regionalism as a way of understanding the expansive scales of oceanic and hemispheric perspectives. Drawing on Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, hemispheric regionalism flattens the map, and makes visible three things: (1) the different coordinates in play; (2) the importance of the sea in these relations; and (3) the vehicles that travel between different geographic regions. Genre is that vehicle; popular romance mediates the distance and differences across the sea between the US and Cuba in the long nineteenth century. In its ability to retain multiple histories on its surface, the popular romances circulating prior to the Civil War, and long before dime novels, worked to entertain and make sense of the future of US–Cuban relations. The 90-mile waterway between the coasts became the most popular site of literary experimentation in news, notices, and periodicals awash with fascination and anxiety about Cuba. Editor, publisher, and writer Maturin Murray Ballou provides unique insight into the intersection of hemispheric regionalism and the work of romance in the period. It is, ultimately, the genre's capacity to manage multiple points of time along with its broad accessibility that appealed to writers such as Ballou. Through the popular romance, Ballou skillfully negotiated the anachronism of a hemispheric South that included the US and Cuba. Finally, Ballou thrived in a booming literary marketplace making him one of the more successful editors and writers of the antebellum years.


Crushing and eating hard prey (durophagy) is mechanically demanding. The cartilage jaws of durophagous stingrays are known to be reinforced relative to non-durophagous relatives, with a thickened external cortex of mineralized blocks (tesserae), reinforcing struts inside the jaw (trabeculae), and pavement-like dentition. These strategies for skeletal strengthening against durophagy, however, are largely understood only from myliobatiform stingrays, although a hard prey diet has evolved multiple times in batoid fishes (rays, skates, guitarfishes). We perform a quantitative analysis of micro-CT data, describing jaw strengthening mechanisms in Rhina ancylostoma (Bowmouth Guitarfish) and Rhynchobatus australiae (White-spotted Wedgefish), durophagous members of the Rhinopristiformes, the sister taxon to Myliobatiformes. Both species possess trabeculae, more numerous and densely packed in Rhina, albeit simpler structurally than those in stingrays like Aetobatus and Rhinoptera. Rhina and Rhynchobatus exhibit impressively thickened jaw cortices, often involving >10 tesseral layers, most pronounced in regions where dentition is thickest, particularly in Rhynchobatus. Age series of both species illustrate that tesserae increase in size during growth, with enlarged and irregular tesserae associated with the jaws' oral surface in larger (older) individuals of both species, perhaps a feature of ageing. Unlike the flattened teeth of durophagous myliobatiform stingrays, both rhinopristiform species have oddly undulating dentitions, comprised of pebble-like teeth interlocked to form compound "meta-teeth" (large spheroidal structures involving multiple teeth). This is particularly striking in Rhina, where the upper/lower occlusal surfaces are mirrored undulations, fitting together like rounded woodworking finger-joints. Trabeculae were previously thought to have arisen twice independently in Batoidea; our results show they are more widespread among batoid groups than previously appreciated, albeit apparently absent in the phylogenetically basal Rajiformes. Comparisons with several other durophagous and non-durophagous species illustrate that batoid skeletal reinforcement architectures are modular: trabeculae can be variously oriented and are dominant in some species (e.g. Rhina, Aetobatus), whereas cortical thickening is more significant in others (e.g. Rhynchobatus), or both reinforcing features can be lacking (e.g. Raja, Urobatis). We discuss interactions and implications of character states, framing a classification scheme for exploring cartilage structure evolution in the cartilaginous fishes.


This paper presents a comprehensive virtual simulation model for CNC systems. The Virtual CNC (VRCNC) has a modular architecture and the special function. It can show movement process and the result, it can also show the effect of different movement mode, the displacement, velocity and acceleration of the process, the rationality of interpolation method and the motion control method. Additional CNC modules can easily be prototyped and integrated to the VRCNC by the user. Various application examples are presented which include building of physical dynamic control model, the prediction of the displacement, velocity and acceleration of the process, and the process of secant instead of curve. It can show closed loop drive dynamics. Detailed experimental verification is presented for each algorithm.


Wide Area Measurements using Phasor Measurement Units have become an important component of modern power system monitoring. Several applications of this technology have been reported in the literature. What is lacking at this time is an assessment of communication requirements of those applications. This paper summarizes the various applications of Wide Area Measurements that have been proposed, and then examines the communication needs of each application. These needs are categorized as data volume, tolerable end-to-end delays for successful implementation of these applications, and some consideration of communication architecture appropriate for these applications.


This paper describes recent results on the design and simulation of a flight control strategy for the micromechanical flying insect (MFI), a 10-25 mm (wingtip-to-wingtip) device capable of sustained autonomous flight. Biologically inspired by the real insect's flight maneuver, the wing kinematics are paremetrized by a small set of parameters which are sufficient to generate desired average torques to regulate its attitude. Position control was achieved through attitude control based on the linearized dynamics under small angle assumption near hovering. During its continuous flight, the controller schedules the desired wing kinematic parameters according to the inverse map based on the feedback error at the end of each wingbeat. The proposed controller was simulated with the Virtual Insect Flight Simulator, and the results show convergence of both position and orientation.


Abstract The Annamite mountains of Viet Nam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao) are an area of exceptional mammalian endemism but intensive poaching has defaunated much of the region, creating an extinction crisis for the endemic species. To make efficient use of limited conservation resources, it is imperative that conservation stakeholders obtain basic information about poorly known and threatened endemics. We present the first comprehensive information on the ecology, distribution and status of the little-known endemic Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi. We used a systematic camera-trapping design to study the species in five areas in Viet Nam and Lao. In 29,180 camera-trap-nights we recorded 152 independent events at 36 of 266 stations. We obtained an additional 143 independent detections across 12 stations from a supplementary non-systematic survey. We analysed activity patterns and social behaviour. We also used single-species occupancy models to assess factors that influence occupancy at the landscape scale. We used N-mixture models to obtain local abundance estimates in one target area. The Annamite striped rabbit was found to be nocturnal and primarily solitary. Species occupancy was best explained by a proxy for past hunting pressure, with no significant relationships to current anthropogenic or environmental factors. Local abundance was 0.57 individuals per camera-trap station for one of our sites, and estimated to be zero at the other site where hunting appears to have been more intense. Our results provide information on priority areas for targeted anti-poaching efforts and give the first conservation baseline for the species.


To enable the smaller slider-disk spacing that is required for the continual increase in data storage density, the interaction between the slider and the lubricant layer must be understood. In this paper, an interesting experimental phenomenon of sudden lubricant droplet transfer from the slider to the disk is reported and investigated. This phenomenon is different from the lubricant moguls and ripples previous researchers have identified. Is it expected that this sudden lubricant drop-off will degrade head-disk spacing and magnetic signal. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the mechanism and the driving conditions so that it can be prevented.


To evaluate the performance of a social robot, both the aspects of safety and technical efficiency as well as the effectiveness of the interaction with the robot from the users' points of view need to be considered. The work described in this paper derived from the IROMEC1 project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that investigates the design and role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education contexts for children with special needs. The paper proposes a framework for the evaluation of robotic toys used as mediators for children with special needs and present its implementation with the specially designed IROMEC robot. Special attention is given to the interactions' effectiveness, considering the therapeutic and educational role that the robot can play for children with special needs in many different developmental areas.


The conjunction of art, literatureand place in this special issue provides an occasion for considering the intersection of visual art and the literary
narrative at the site of that most definitive of place-markers in the history of Canadian nationhood, the landscape painting. As characterized by the iconic, overtly nationalist works of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven in the early part of the twentieth century, Canadian placeconsists, very precisely, of landscape—no more, no less. To gaze into a painting by Thomson, Harris, Lismer, Varley, Macdonald or Jackson is to be confronted by an icy, forbidding and—crucially—silentworld. If there isany trace of humanity to be found here, it can perhaps be located only in the eerily humanoid form of a windswept tree, a stand-in for the pioneer-settler engaged in ceaseless combat with a wilderness every bit as white and hardy as he. This tree seems perpetually on the brink of succumbing to the elements that continually besiege it, and wecan be certain that, wereit tofall, it would make no sound.


First-order growth mixture model (1-GMM) has received increased attention over the past decade. It models class-specific latent growth trajectory and individual classification using composite scores computed over items of the same scale across multiple time points. By default, using composite scores assumes identical item-to-construct relationship over time (longitudinal measurement invariance; L-MI), which is not necessarily the case in research practice.

Violation of L-MI assumption has been studied using latent growth curve modeling where subjects are assumed to be sampled from one latent class. Deviation from L-MI assumption impacted the growth characteristics, thus producing invalid conclusions on the pattern of change. This study extends the prior research on the impact of L-MI violation to the situation where multiple latent classes exist. A Monte Carlo study was performed to examine how systematically varied measurement non-invariance impacted class-specific growth factor parameter recovery and classification accuracy. Five factors were systematically manipulated in studying the impact of L-MI assumption violation: directional change in non-invariant item intercepts, patterns of item loadings and item intercepts, percent of items containing a set of non-invariant item parameters, presence of time-adjacent within-item correlated measurement error, and latent class distances. Additionally, three GMMs were compared to assess their robustness against longitudinal measurement non-invariance, including 1-GMM, second order GMM with constrained measurement invariance, and second order GMM with freely estimated item factor loadings and item intercepts.

Accuracy, precision, Type I error, and power were examined on the slope factor parameter estimates. Additionally, mixture proportion and individual classification were assessed. Results show that the second order GMM with freely estimated item loadings and item intercepts was robust under various violation of L-MI and able to produce accurate estimates of slope factor parameters. Performance of the second order GMM with constrained measurement invariance on slope factor parameters recovery depended on the specific generating measurement non-invariance configuration. 1-GMM, on the other hand, was not able to recover the slope factor parameters with deviation from the L-MI assumption. With extremely unbalanced mixture proportions, class membership assignment was found not satisfactory regardless of simulated measurement non-invariance condition and analysis model.


AbstractLight water reactors in the Federal Republic of Germany are being retrofitted with venting filters for use after serious reactor accidents. Deep-bed stainless steel fiber filters remove droplets and particles as well as high-efficiency particulate air filters. The deep-bed stainless steel fiber filters consist of two layers of fleece. The fiber diameter decreases gradually from 30 to 2 µm in the direction of flow.In addition to its high removal efficiency, its resistance to extreme loads, and its high dust loading capacity, the filter is important because it completely separates droplets. Even after 130 h of spraying with fine (2- to 5-µm-diam) droplets, a maximum increase in differential pressure of only 3 mbars was measured. No penetrating water was detected on the downstream side. Even at a flow of more than twice the recommended rate, the removal efficiency only dropped from ≥99.99 to ∼99.95%.An iodine filter can also be installed in each of the venting filters. Iodine experiments were conduct...


Fluidized bed drying is currently receiving much attention as a dewatering option after the beneficiation of fine coal. Apart from concerns about safety and combustion, the operating costs can be high if very high gas or air temperatures are used. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal of moisture from fine coal by using air at a lower temperature (25°C − 40°C) within a controlled environment by lowering the relative humidity of air. It was firstly proven that fluidization has a major advantage over normal static beds when allowed to reach equilibrium. Hereafter, several parameters that influence the dewatering rate and final moisture content were tested, from which it was concluded that the relative humidity of air acts as the largest driving force for dewatering. It was, therefore, shown that this is a viable technology for the dewatering of fine coal.


Agricultural residues have been world widely accepted for oyster mushroom culture. In this study, we used wheat straw, barley straw, maize stem residue, and lawn residue as substrates coupled with wheat bran, rice bran and soybean powder as complements for the growth of Pleurotus florida and Pleurotus ostreatus as edible mushrooms. Shorter growth period and higher yield and biological efficiency were obtained for P. florida than P. ostreatus . Wheat and barley straws which contained high fiber and carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio caused the best growth period, fruiting body weight, yield and biological efficiency. Assessment of substrate and complement combinations indicated that the longest growth period was obtained from barley straw enriched with rice bran (27.00 day). However, the highest fruiting body number (36.33), fruiting body weight (31.17 g), yield (939.33 g), and biological efficiency (187.87%) belonged to wheat straw complemented by soybean powder plus rice bran. In conclusion, the highest yield and biological efficiency was achieved by implementation of composts in which high fiber substrates and high protein complements were combined. Key words: Oyster mushroom, wheat straw, barley straw, high fiber.


LiveRAC is a scalable focus+context approach for monitoring computer systems and networking data that provides user-directed data reordering and details-ondemand. LiveRAC maps alarm and metric data from network devices including servers, routers and switches into a visual metaphor called accordion drawing. In accordion drawing, users interact with the display as though it were a rubber sheet tacked down at the borders. Regions of the display can be stretched and compressed, but the fixed borders ensure the visibility of the entire information space. Compressed regions of the display aggregate the underlying data. We implement guaranteed visibility, a mechanism for ensuring the visibility of important features such as critical alarms. LiveRAC extends existing accordion drawing techniques in two ways: it can add, remove and reorder objects to the data set in logarithmic time, and provides an infrastructure for semantic zoom, a visualization technique where an optimal data representation is selected based on the screen space available to a data cell. Using a client-server approach we allow the user to query the underlying data in a context-rich, visually salient metaphor while maintaining interactive frame rates.


p27 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor which regulates progression of cells from G1 into S phase in a cell cycle. Loss of the negative regulator may contribute to oncogenesis and tumor progression. The aim of this study was to examine p27 expression in normal mucosa, primary and metastatic tumors from patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas and to analyze association of p27 with patient survival and clinicopathological variables. p27 expression was estimated by immunohistochemistry in 178 primary colorectal cancers, 34 lymph node metastases and 48 normal mucosa samples from patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Associations of p27 with patient survival, clinicopathological characteristics and expression of p53, p73 and DCC were analyzed. Loss of p27 was found in 51% of primary tumors, 68% of metastases and 56% of normal samples. The intensity of p27 staining was similar in the matched primary tumor, metastasis and normal mucosa. In patients with Dukes' B or with proximal tumors, the loss of p27 predicted poorer prognosis (p = 0.03 and p = 0.05, respectively). However, there were no significant differences in the patients with other individual Dukes' stage or distal tumors. No relationships were found between p27 and patients' gender, age, tumor location, growth pattern and expression of p53, p73 and DCC (p > 0.05). The data suggest that loss of p27 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with Dukes' B tumor or those with proximal tumor. p27 might be a useful marker to identify the more progressive tumors in these groups.


The symposium acknowledges the significance of the South Island high country and its pastoral use. Interest is focused throughout the symposium on pastoral practices, even though both the origins and the solutions to the present situation are much wider in scope. The first paper itself outlines physical, ecological, economic, technological and cultural influences at work over history and prehistory to give rise to the present situation. It notes the role of market forces, not just affecting wool prices in the traditional pastoral industry and in its renaissance in recent decades, but also affecting the demand for land for other uses and purposes. It describes role of myths and icons in the shaping of past and contemporary high country issues.


Evidence shows that participating in arts activities can increase wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to explore connections between aesthetic engagement and the wellbeing of participants on a ten weeks Arts on Prescription programme (AoP).,Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants (with mild to moderate depression, stress or anxiety). A thematic analysis was used to identify themes in the data.,The findings illustrate that the participants in the AoP programme showed increased levels of motivation, and it opened up new worlds for connection with sensory experiences such as: relief, joy and peace of mind. The themes identified were: engagement and pleasure, deep emotional experiences and expanding worlds.,Aesthetic engagement through an AoP programme has the potential to stimulate the senses, motivate personal involvement and connect individuals with parts of themselves that has been neglected through illness. The participants experienced new possibilities through aesthetic engagement; offering connections to sensory, cognitive and emotional tools that can boost wellbeing. In this way, facilitated programmes such as AoP can contribute positively to public health. However, further studies are necessary in order to explore and establish the complex connections between aesthetic engagement and wellbeing.


Code on social security in the Southern African development community
The Code on Social Security in the Southern African Development Community (Code) was approved by the Integrated Committee of Ministers in June 2007 in Windhoek Namibia. This contribution critically examines how the Code attempts to develop sound social security systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. It pays special attention to the approach adopted by the Code in its quest to address pertinent issues such as the right to social security, social protection framework, and social risks as well as vulnerable groups and categories of persons protected. It concludes by observing that the ratification record of SADC member states of the officially current conventions in the field of social security is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, member states must be encouraged to ratify these important instruments. Secondly, preventative and (re)integrative measurers are a part and parcel of a social security system. Thus, the call by the Code for the introduction of these measures is to be welcomed. Furthermore, social security coordination is an integral part of regional integration and the free movement of labour and persons. To this end, the provisions in the Code aimed at these matters are timely. Finally, the Code is not legally binding. Nonetheless, its adoption is commendable for it is a right step towards the improvement of social security systems in the SADC region which are largely undeveloped and, in some instances, underdeveloped.


Current accelerated digitalization process of society and technological developments in all technical areas have determined the academic institutions to adapt their education system to these challenges. Numerous studies have shown evidence of increased interest to learn when digital devices are incorporated into the learning environment. Therefore, in this paper we proposed a functional model of digital platform to be used by the geodetic students. In order to improve the university education process and performance, the digital platform should include certain elements such as: study field presentation, ability to adapt to latest technological developments, attracting of private sector in educational process through different methods and standardization of evaluation process. A digital platform must provide answers to essentials questions or requirements of students. The proposed digital platform is based on two framework schemes which refer to the promotion faculty, admission and educational process content. For admission, the university should take account three candidate categories (decided on certain study field, those who want an engineering specialization and those undecided).Hence, for all three categories the digital platform should provide the certain aspects as following: perspective on labour market of chosen specialization and information regarding the study field (courses name, brief description of topics courses, competences etc.).The educational process content is addressed to the students attended to each study program and must be conceived and presented based on the professional and transversal competences set. The information on the digital platform must be organized in a logical sequence and must allow to users to get all information they needed.


1. The vascular pharmacology, physiological relevance and pathophysiological roles of the endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin-1 have been unclear. These issues were investigated, in vivo in man, using infusion of drugs into the brachial artery or dorsal hand vein, with responses measured by forearm plethysmography and the hand vein displacement technique respectively. 2. Endothelin-1 is a potent and sustained constrictor of resistance and capacitance vessels in vivo in man, acting through both subtypes (ETA and ETB) of endothelin receptors. Endothelin-1 stimulates generation of vasodilator prostaglandins, but not of nitric oxide, that act to oppose its direct constrictor actions. Venoconstriction to endothelin-1 is blocked more effectively by K(+)-channel openers than by Ca(2+)-channel antagonists, suggesting a novel cellular mechanism of action for this peptide. 3. The forearm vasculature is able to convert the precursor big endothelin-1 to the mature peptide, endothelin-1, thus demonstrating the local presence of 'endothelin-converting enzyme' in man. Local inhibition of this enzyme, or blockade of ETA receptors, causes slow-onset forearm vasodilatation, suggesting that endogenously generated endothelin-1 contributes to basal resistance vessel tone in man. 4. Venoconstriction to endothelin-1 is selectively enhanced in patients with untreated essential hypertension. Endothelin-1 also potentiates sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction, but only in hypertensive subjects. 5. Endogenous generation of endothelin-1 plays a fundamental physiological role in the maintenance of basal vascular tone. Endothlin-converting enzyme inhibitors and endothelin receptor antagonists possess novel vasodilator properties and should represent a major therapeutic advance in cardiovascular disease.


Proper temporal epigenetic regulation of gene expression is essential for cell fate determination and tissue development. However, epigenetic mechanisms involved in control of bone-specific transcriptional programs remain largely unexplored. In this study we focused on functional characterization of two epigenetic regulators – Bromodomain-containing Protein-4 (BRD4) and Ring Finger Protein 40 (RNF40) in development and maintenance of osteoblast fate. BRD4 was previously shown to control the transcription of defined subsets of genes in various cell systems. In this study we examined the role of BRD4 in promoting lineage-specific gene expression and show that BRD4 is essential for osteoblast differentiation. Genome-wide analyses show that BRD4 is recruited to the transcriptional start site of differentiation-induced genes. Unexpectedly, while promoter-proximal BRD4 occupancy correlated with gene expression, genes which displayed moderate expression and promoter-proximal BRD4 occupancy were most highly regulated during differentiation and sensitive to BRD4 inhibition. Therefore, we examined distal BRD4 occupancy and uncovered a specific co-localization of BRD4 with the transcription factors C/EBPb, TEAD1, FOSL2 and JUND at putative osteoblast-specific enhancers. These findings reveal the intricacies of lineage specification and provide new insight into the context-dependent functions of BRD4.
 RNF40 forms with RNF20 the obligate E3 complex and mediates monoubiquitination of lysine 120 of histone H2B (H2Bub1). Despite its global correlation with active gene transcription, we previously demonstrated a specific role for H2Bub1 in controlling osteoblast (OB)-specific gene expression during OB differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (Karpiuk et al., 2012, Mol Cell). To address the significance of H2Bub1 for bone development in vivo, we generated OB-specific Rnf40 conditional knockout (KO) models. Given the crucial role of RUNX2 in osteoblast lineage commitment and chondrocyte hypertrophy, the Rnf40Runx2-Cre knockout mice developed achondroplastic-like phenotype with shorter bone sizes. Surprisingly, micro computed tomography (µCT) analysis showed increased bone mineral density (BMD) in these mice, a finding that could be associated with decreased osteoclast function and hence osteopetrosis-like phenotype. Remarkably, the Rnf40Bglap-Cre KO mice displayed only osteopetrotic-like phenotype with significant increase in bone mineral density without any further alterations in bone formation and apposition rate. This suggested the importance of H2Bub1 at the earlier stages of osteoblast commitment. Strikingly, the number of osteoclasts was substantially reduced in these mice suggesting the increased BMD to be associated with reduced bone resorption. Ex vivo differentiation studies confirmed a role for Rnf40 and H2Bub1 in OB differentiation as revealed by decreased alkaline phosphotase activity/expression, mineralization and expression of Runx2 and Sp7 in KO OBs. Consistently, Rnf40-deficient OBs showed significantly reduced Rankl expression and triggered less osteoclast formation as revealed by osteoblast and osteoclast co-culture experiments. Remarkably, the reverse effect in modulating osteoblast specific H2Bub1 levels in Ubiquitin-Specific Protease 22 (Usp22)Runx2-Cre KO mice did not have any impact on bone in mice. Altogether, these data indicate significance of H2Bub1 signaling in regulating the osteoblast lineage commitment. Moreover, H2Bub1 appears to act as defining epigenetic regulator of osteoblast-osteoclast "communication" in vivo which provides a basis for future studies to investigate the potential of its regulatory pathway for the treatment of conditions such as aging-related osteoporosis.


Issue 9 of Interfaces brings together papers given at the Centre for Medieval Literature's symposium on 'Moving Forms: The Transformations and Translocations of Medieval Literature,' held in Athens in 2019. At the heart of the symposium was the exploration of the ways in which the movement of people and books across space and time were driving forces of medieval European literary and intellectual culture. Building on the practices of both comparative literature and entangled history, the symposium aimed to open up connections between literary cultures often considered to be separate. The articles published here cross the geographies and chronologies of medieval literature as they consider a range of forms, from romance to legal writing and from history-writing to animal fables, in examining texts from Georgia, Egypt, Bohemia, Scandinavia and Western Europe (with extensions across the Atlantic into the Americas). While each paper has something for the specialist, we hope that they collectively encourage reading across the full issue, inviting readers to enter into the expanded, comparative and connected, approach to medieval literatures that the symposium explored.
Cover image: Pierpaolo Curti, Bridge, 2014, tecnica mista su tela, 120 x 80 cm – Collezione privata – www.pierpaolocurti.com


Anomaly detection of time series plays an important role in reliability systems engineering. However, in practical application, there is no precisely defined boundary between normal and anomalous behaviors in different application scenarios. Therefore, different anomaly detection algorithms and processes ought to be adopted for time series in different situation. Although such strategy improve the accuracy of anomaly detection, it takes a lot of time for practitioners to configure various algorithms to millions of series, which greatly increases the development and maintenance cost of anomaly detection processes. In this paper, we propose CRATOS which is a self-adapt algorithms that extract features from time series, and then cluster series with similar features into one group. For each group we utilize evolutionary algorithm to search the best anomaly detection methods and processes. Our methods can significantly reduce the cost of development and maintenance of anomaly detection. According to experiments, our clustering methods achieves the state-of-art results. The accuracy of the anomaly detection algorithms in this paper is 85.1%.


We prove asymptotic stability of point vortex solutions to the full Euler equation in two dimensions. More precisely, we show that a small, Gevrey smooth, and compactly supported perturbation of a point vortex leads to a global solution of the Euler equation in 2D, which converges weakly as t → ∞ to a radial profile with respect to the vortex. The position of the point vortex, which is time dependent, stabilizes rapidly and becomes the center of the final, radial profile. The mechanism that leads to stabilization is mixing and inviscid damping. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.


Amylin is a polypeptide that is cosecreted with insulin from the β cells of the pancreas. Therefore, in states of diabetes in which the β-cell mass is largely depleted or dysfunctional, insulin and amylin secretion are also lost or dysregulated.While the soluble monomeric form of amylin acts as a hormone that alters physiological responses related to feeding and acts as a specific growth factor, there has been renewed interest in the less-soluble oligomeric and insoluble polymeric forms of human (also monkey and cat) amylin that may contribute to the establishment of a pathophysiological pathway to overt diabetes. With this discovery has grown the hope of minimizing, with appropriate therapy, these toxic forms to preserve the functional β-cell mass. Human β cells may also be more vulnerable to these forms and one risk factor, a higher fat diet, may promote toxic forms. The generation and utilities of transgenic rodent models, which express enhanced levels of human amylin, have been accompanied by strategies that may lead to the reduction of toxic forms and associated risk factors.The successful definition and faithful expression of the physiological receptors (and complexes) for amylin that may differ for each target organ is an important development in the field of amylin research generally. Besides the heuristic value for the understanding of the molecular biology of receptors, the opportunity to screen and identify nonpeptide analogues that bind the physiological receptors has important implications for biomedicine and clinical practice in relation to treatments for diabetic complications, bone diseases, and eating disorders. In particular, in their capacities to mimic the effects of amylin as a growth factor, amylin analogues may prove useful in the stimulation of β-cell mass (in conjunction with other factors), reduce the activity of the osteoclast population, and stimulate the regeneration of proximal tubules following toxic insult (and thus avoid the development of renal insufficiency).


The Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, is one of eight continental United States (CONUS) Army installations where lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions are stored and where destruction of agents and munitions is proposed under the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP). The chemical agent inventory at PBA consists of approximately 12%, by weight, of the total US stockpile. The destruction of the stockpile is necessary to eliminate the risk to the public from continued storage and to dispose of obsolete and leaking munitions. In 1988 the US Army issued a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (FPEIS) for the CSDP that identified on-site disposal of agents and munitions as the environmentally preferred alternative (i.e., the alternative with the least potential to cause significant adverse impacts). The purpose of this report is to examine the proposed implementation of on-site disposal at PBA in light of more recent and more detailed data than those on which the FPEIS is based. New population data were used to compute fatalities using the same computation methods and values for all other parameters as in the FPEIS. Results indicate that all alternatives are indistinguishable when the potential health impacts to the PBA community aremore » considered. However, risks from on-site disposal are in all cases equal to or less than risks from other alternatives. Furthermore, no unique resources with the potential to prevent or delay implementation of on-site disposal at PBA have been identified.« less


This is the classic study of the history and continuing philosophical valuesof the law of nature. D'Entreves discerned three distinct sources that havecontributed to the development of natural law: Roman law teachings, Christian beliefs regarding law, and egalitarian and revolutionary theoriesof the Enlightenment. Now regarded as a classic work, Natural Law has exercised considerable infl uence over the course of Anglo-American legal theory in the past forty years. The statements of Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Senate confi rmation hearings show that the law of nature still holds powerful appeal in defining judicial rules.


The processing of language may derive, in part, from the ability to make sense of others' actions or gestures. Therefore, in order to understand the emergence of cognitive structures supporting language, an understanding is required of the basic aspects of semantic expectations related to goal-directed actions early in development. These expectations can act as a scaffold for later language development, with implications for vocabulary development and language comprehension. The relations of action and language have, however, not been fully and systematically explored - especially in terms of semantics. The aim of this thesis is to build knowledge in how language derives from understanding the content of action. The emphasis has been placed on semantics, with examinations utilising multiple approaches. We designed three targeted studies that looked at different aspects of age in order to index how we think language and action will interact at those time points. In order to shed light on to specific cognitive processes and organizational changes of brain activity in relation to semantics, we made use of a combination of neurophysiological methods, primarily event-related brain potentials (ERP's) and event-related oscillations (ERO's). In this context, semantic processing represents a specific application of a more general process namely that of identifying whenever something we perceive matches the predictions we have or not, based on context. For the capacity to distinguish perceived mismatches, one needs to be able to translate perceived information into meaningful concepts that are built on past and individual experiences. Neural activation that is related to semantics could be reflected in different areas across the brain via different mechanisms. In Chapter 1, the literature on infant language development, action understanding, and possible links between the two cognitive domains is reviewed and linked to semantics. Further, the objectives of this thesis are described. In Chapter 2, the semantic processing of actions at 9 months and how this processing ability may be linked to language proficiency at 9 and 18 months was investigated. In Chapter 3, the semantic representation of newly acquired words in 10-11-month-olds was measured. In Chapter 4, 2-year-olds modulation of motor systems was examined before and after the acquisition of new actions, verbs and sounds. The results of these experiments show that semantics is interwoven in action processing and in language. The implications of the results for understanding action processing in development and its relation to language are considered in Chapter 5.


Software developers often submit questions to technical Q&A sites like Stack Overflow (SO) to resolve their code-level problems. Usually, they include example code segments with their questions to explain the programming issues. When users of SO attempt to answer the questions, they prefer to reproduce the issues reported in questions using the given code segments. However, such code segments could not always reproduce the issues due to several unmet challenges (e.g., too short code segment) that might prevent questions from receiving appropriate and prompt solutions. A previous study produced a catalog of potential challenges that hinder the reproducibility of issues reported at SO questions. However, it is unknown how the practitioners (i.e., developers) perceive the challenge catalog. Understanding the developers' perspective is inevitable to introduce interactive tool support that promotes reproducibility. We thus attempt to understand developers' perspectives by surveying 53 users of SO. In particular, we attempt to – (1) see developers' viewpoints on the agreement to those challenges, (2) find the potential impact of those challenges, (3) see how developers address them, and (4) determine and prioritize tool support needs. Survey results show that about 90% of participants agree to the already exposed challenges. However, they report some additional challenges (e.g., error log missing) that might prevent reproducibility. According to the participants, too short code segment and absence of required Class/Interface/Method from code segments severely prevent reproducibility, followed by missing important part of code. To promote reproducibility, participants strongly recommend introducing tool support that interacts with question submitters with suggestions for improving the code segments if the given code segments fail to reproduce the issues.


Cardiac hypertrophy is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The hypertrophic process is mediated, in part, by small G proteins of the Rho family. We hypothesized that statins, inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, inhibit cardiac hypertrophy by blocking Rho isoprenylation. We treated neonatal rat cardiac myocytes with angiotensin II (AngII) with and without simvastatin (Sim) and found that Sim decreased AngII-induced protein content, [3H] leucine uptake, and atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) promoter activity. These effects were associated with decreases in cell size, membrane Rho activity, superoxide anion (O2*-) production, and intracellular oxidation, and were reversed with L-mevalonate or geranylgeranylpyrophosphate, but not with farnesylpyrophosphate or cholesterol. Treatments with the Rho inhibitor C3 exotoxin and with cell-permeable superoxide dismutase also decreased AngII-induced O2*- production and myocyte hypertrophy. Overexpression of the dominant-negative Rho mutant N17Rac1 completely inhibited AngII-induced intracellular oxidation and ANF promoter activity, while N19RhoA partially inhibited it, and N17Cdc42 had no effect. Indeed, Sim inhibited cardiac hypertrophy and decreased myocardial Rac1 activity and O2*- production in rats treated with AngII infusion or subjected to transaortic constriction. These findings suggest that statins prevent the development of cardiac hypertrophy through an antioxidant mechanism involving inhibition of Rac1.


This is a project proposal report of the WXES3181 subject and a project report of the WXES3182 subject, taken by the final year student of Faculty of Computer Science
and Information Technology (FSKTM). It is a delineation of intended project describing the proposed idea supported by a literature survey, its plan and· design.
The system to be developed by the author is a web-based system intends to manage and store the information of the society in the University Malaya, besides providing society information such as society and activity list on the Internet. The software knowledge used to develop the system covers the Microsoft Visual Interdev6, ASP2.0, SQL Server Database7.0, Internet Information Server5.0 and so on. The main user of the system is the HEP's staff that responsible to the society information management. The system enables the FSKTM management level to keep track the society information and its activities. Since this system will display information through Internet, its information will be viewed by all of the students and
then they will gain the benefit from it. The on-line's user who need that information also get advantages from the system. The current system used to manage the society information is carried on manually and most information is documented in paper. The current system faces a
problem that the effectiveness of keeping track the society information and the smoothness of retrieving information is not satisfied enough. Pursuing the trend of moving forward to the office automation and paperless era, the computerization of the society information management will enable the process carried out in a more smoothly, effectively, efficiently and economically way. Hopefully the system will contribute to the achievement of the E-Faculty and E-University.


Kidney injuries and renal dysfunctions are one of the most important clinical problems, and tissue engineering could be a valuable method for solving it. The objective of this study was to investigate the synergistic effect of renal cell line-conditioned medium and Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers on renal differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In the current study, after stem cells isolation and characterization, PCL nanofibrous scaffold was fabricated using electrospinning methods and characterized morphologically, mechanically, and for biocompatibility. The renal differentiation of seeded MSCs on the surface of PCL nanofibers with and without human renal tubular cell lines-conditioned medium was investigated by evaluation of eight important renal-related genes expression by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunocytochemistry. Fabricated nanofibrous scaffolds were good in all characterized items. Almost highest expression of all genes was detected in stem cells seeded on PCL under conditioned media in comparison with the stem cells seeded on PCL, tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) under renal induction medium, and TCPS under conditioned medium. According to the results, PCL nanofibers in contribution with conditioned medium can provide the optimal conditions for renal differentiation of MSCs and could be a promising candidate for renal tissue engineering application.