Low-noise magnetic force microscopy (MFM) was realized by using a conventional high-vacuum MFM with homemade tip-cooling equipment. The noise level of the MFM at a tip temperature of 130 K was estimated at /spl mu/N/m order. High spatial resolution of 10 nm was obtained for observing high-density recording media with recording density of 1000 kfci. The improvement of resolution by tip cooling was a result of the reduction of thermodynamic noise of a cantilever and the effective reduction of tip-sample distance due to the magnetic hardening of a tip.


BACKGROUND: information about the influence of abdominal adipose tissue on the prognosis and aggressiveness of renal cell carcinoma is scarce. OBJECTIVE: to identify and quantify the relationship between abdominal adipose tissue and histopathologic characteristics of renal cell carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: data on patients with renal cell carcinoma treated with partial or radical nephrectomy were retrospectively collected. Visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue were measured on preoperative computerized tomography scans. Histopathologic (pathologic 2002 TNM classification, tumor size, nuclear grade, necrosis, and metastasis) and clinical (sex, age, body mass index) variables were assessed. Visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue were adjusted by patient height (VAT-I and SAT-I). The association between adipose tissue measurements, patient characteristics, and histopathologic variables was assessed through a correlation, comparison, and regression analysis. A survival analysis was also carried out. RESULTS: one-hundred and five patients were included. No significant relationship between visceral adipose tissue and histopathologic characteristics was found. SAT-I was a significant variable inversely related to sex, but more importantly to nuclear grade, pN+, and necrosis. There was no influence of visceral adipose tissue or subcutaneous adipose tissue on survival. CONCLUSIONS: subcutaneous adipose tissue was related to the histopathologic characteristics of renal cell carcinoma. A larger amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue predicted a low nuclear grade and a lower frequency of pN+ and necrosis. Further study to clarify the interaction between adipose tissue and renal cell carcinoma biology is required.


As compared to a large spectrum of performance optimizations, relatively less effort has been dedicated to optimize other aspects of embedded applications such as memory space requirements, power, real-time predictability, and reliability. In particular, many modern embedded systems operate under tight memory space constraints. One way of addressing this constraint is to compress executable code and data as much as possible. While researchers on code compression have studied efficient hardware and software based code compression strategies, many of these techniques do not take application behavior into account; that is, the same compression/decompression strategy is used irrespective of the application being optimized. This article presents an application-sensitive code compression strategy based on control flow graph (CFG) representation of the embedded program. The idea is to start with a memory image wherein all basic blocks of the application are compressed, and decompress only the blocks that are predicted to be needed in the near future. When the current access to a basic block is over, our approach also decides the point at which the block could be compressed. We propose and evaluate several compression and decompression strategies that try to reduce memory requirements without excessively increasing the original instruction cycle counts. Some of our strategies make use of profile data, whereas others are fully automatic. Our experimental evaluation using seven applications from the MediaBench suite and three large embedded applications reveals that the proposed code compression strategy is very successful in practice. Our results also indicate that working at a basic block granularity, as opposed to a procedure granularity, is important for maximizing memory space savings.


A near-seafloor magnetic and bathymetric survey conducted by the autonomous underwater vehicle AutoSub 6000 over intermediatetemperature, ultramafic-hosted Von Damm Vent Field (Mid-Cayman spreading center, Caribbean Sea) revealed a moderate positive magnetic anomaly, in accordance with the magnetic response of other known ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal vent fields. However, compared with low-temperature ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal activity, the magnetic signature of this intermediate-temperature site indicates a slightly stronger magnetization contrast between the hydrothermal system and its host, but it remains considerably weaker than at high-temperature ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal vent fields. This observation highlights the nonlinear increase of magnetization production with temperature, as iron partitions into weakly magnetic brucite under 200 °C, but magnetite dominates above this temperature, leading to a sudden increase in the magnetic signature of a site. Our study is consistent with recent laboratory experiments and unveils the dynamics of the serpentinization reaction, enabling fine tuning of the magnetic technique for remotely locating hydrothermal systems. In addition to refining our understanding of the magnetic behavior of hydrothermal vent fields, these new results also reveal the orientation of the fluid pathway feeding the hydrothermal site and indicate the nonvertical structure of the complex network of fissures within the host rock and its associated tectonic feature—an oceanic core complex.


Democratic governments worldwide behave hypocritically when it comes to human rights and foreign policy. The international community should hold them accountable and help them to close the gap between rhetoric and practice. As democratisation unfolded in countries such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa, it was hoped that these states would find common ground with more established democracies. While emerging and established democracies have collaborated in responding to grave human rights abuses in Myanmar, North Korea and Libya, among others, serious cleavages remain. Global South countries favour sovereignty, non-intervention and economic interests over values such as accountability for human rights abuses. States also fear inviting criticism of their own human rights records. The growth of transnational advocacy in both the North and South has amplified the impact of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), allowing them to exert more pressure on states. Advocates and researchers can do more to raise awareness and demand state action on key issues.


NANCY J. CURRIE, Ph.D. has over 24 years of experience in aviation, space operations, and human factors and safety engineering. A career Army Officer and Master Army Aviator, she has logged over 4,000 flying hours in a variety of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft. She received a bachelor's degree, with honors, in biological science from The Ohio State University in 1980, a master of science degree in safety engineering from the University of Southern California in 1985, and a doctorate in industrial engineering with an emphasis in automated systems and human factors engineering from the University of Houston in 1997. Currie joined the NASA's Johnson Space Center as a flight simulation engineer in 1987. Selected as an astronaut in 1990, she is a veteran of four space shuttle missions and has accrued 1000 hours in space. She was the Mission Specialist 2, Flight Engineer, on STS-57 in 1993; STS-70 in 1995; STS-88, the first International Space Station assembly mission in 1998; and STS-109, the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 2002. Currie has served as chief of the Astronaut Office Robotics and Payloads-Habitability branches, chief of JSC's Habitability and Human Factors Office, and Senior Technical Advisor to JSC's Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division. She has contributed to the design and development of flight hardware and software, training devices and simulators, and operational procedures for Space Shuttle and International Space Station robotic systems and assisted in the development, testing, and evaluation of human-robotic systems interfaces for advanced robotic systems. Following the Columbia tragedy in 2003, Currie was selected to lead the Space Shuttle Program Safety and Mission Assurance Office assisting with NASA's Return to Flight efforts. In early 2005 Dr. Currie retired from the U.S. Army and accepted a position with Jacobs Sverdrup as the Vice President and Deputy General Manager of the Engineering and Sciences Contract Group, supporting the JSC Engineering Directorate. KEYNOTE ADDRESS


The effect of α-Al2O3 nano-additives on anodic oxide film-forming and film performance was studied. The morphology and phase compositions of the anodic oxide films were analyzed by scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion resistance of the anodic films with nano-Al2O3 was investigated by immersion test and potentiodynamic polarization technique. The results show that anodic oxide films mainly consists of Mg, Al12Mg17, γ-Al2O3, a little of Si and α-Al2O3. The corrosion resistance property of magnesium alloy can be improved with the addition of α-Al2O3 nano-additives.


Chapter 13 investigates how through the transformation of latecomer small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies from dependent or subcontracting original equipment manufacturing (OEM) firms into independent or original brand manufacturing (OBM) firms it is possible to achieve a significant catch-up in terms of share of regional or global markets. Given that SMEs are rarely able to make such a transition, we elaborate this dynamic process by performing case studies on eight Korean SMEs. These SMEs created their own paths instead of following their forerunners. These paths are neither entirely new nor take the form of leapfrogging, but are characterized by new combinations of existing paths. We identify several risk factors, such as counterattacks and intellectual property lawsuits, that latecomer SMEs face from incumbent SMEs. In addition, we emphasize the importance of cultivating firm-specific knowledge by engaging in a continuing process of trial-and-error-type in-house experiments.


Abstract. This dataset is a comprehensive, global compilation of
published uranium–thorium (U-series) dated fossil coral records from
∼ 150 000–110 000 years ago, as well as associated
elevation measurements and sample metadata. In total, 1312 U-series
measurements from 994 unique coral colonies are included in the current
version of the dataset, all of which have been normalized and recalculated
using the same decay constant values. Of these measurements, 444 analyses
from 330 colonies are relative sea-level indicators, whereas 15 analyses
from 13 colonies are marine limiting. Two example geochemical screening
criteria have been included to assist users with identifying altered fossil
corals that display geochemical open-system behavior, and the originally
published interpretations on age quality have been preserved within the
sample metadata. Additionally, a clear distinction has been made between
coral colonies that are in primary growth position, which may be used for
relative sea-level reconstructions, and colonies that have been
transported/reworked, which cannot be used for these purposes. Future
research efforts involving fossil coral sea-level reconstructions should
emphasize an "integrated" and holistic approach that combines careful
assessment of U-series age quality with high-precision surveying techniques
and detailed facies/stratigraphic observations. This database is available
at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4309796 (Chutcharavan and
Dutton, 2020).


One hundred and ninety-two evaluable patients were treated on a multicenter protocol for adult acute lymphoid leukemia to determine in a prospective randomized fashion if late intensification chemotherapy beginning after about six months of treatment would improve remission duration and survival. The complete remission rate was 60%. The median remission duration from beginning of maintenance was 18.7 versus 25.9 months (P = 0.36) for standard maintenance therapy and late intensification, respectively, and the median survival from randomization was 25.8 versus 28.5 months (P = 0.94) respectively. There was a suggestion that the late intensification strategy was helpful with respect to remission duration, and this trend was sustained in long-term follow-up. However, relapse proved to be common during the earlier phases of treatment; thus, insufficient numbers of patients were available at the randomization point to conclusively address the possible value of late intensification. Intensive therapy earlier in the course of treatment should be evaluated, including transplantation in selected patients.


There has been a tremendous rise in the growth of online social networks all over the world in recent times. While some networks like Twitter and Facebook have been well documented, the popular Chinese microblogging social network Sina Weibo has not been studied. In this work, we examine the key topics that trend on Sina Weibo and contrast them with our observations on Twitter. We nd that there is a vast dierence in the content shared in China, when compared to a global social network such as Twitter. In China, the trends are created almost entirely due to retweets of media content such as jokes, images and videos, whereas on Twitter, the trends tend to have more to do with current global events and news stories.


Abstract The broad concern of this paper is how the relationship between education, democracy and emancipation might be conceived. This theme is explored through examining the contribution of a Rancierian conception of emancipation and democracy to rethinking widening participation in higher education. Following Ranciere, it is argued that taking equality as a starting point in higher education, rather than as a goal to be achieved through education, disrupts a prevailing logic of education as necessarily providing a pathway to emancipation. From this view the pedagogic practices of explication and mastery, which Ranciere argues work to separate academic reason and practical reason, need no longer be understood as the only way to be academic. It is proposed that this 'redistribution of the sensible' enables higher education to be conceived in ways other than available in ongoing educational debates and enables a move beyond an assimilation–recognition binary. Instead, widening participation can be understood as a space for opening up to experience, transformation and change for both academics and students. From this view, democracy is enacted in the here and now, rather than a goal for the future, and practice can be understood as a site for change.


2 Abstract : In this paper we discuss system structures, in which mobile phones act as either active or passive devices depending on available communication between smart phones and their solar chargers. A suitable small size solar cell panel is selected that is easy to carry to any locations farther from city electric grids. Both smart phones and solar chargers design approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, which we will elaborate in more detail in our analysis. The alternative use of the solar energy as power source is helpful in outdoor emergency situations and avoids the traditional way of waiting beside an electrical sockets or outlets for charging. We discuss here a special electronic design and construction with an important merit related to controlling battery charging currents. The results from the simulation and the experiment show the design's sufficient feasibility for practical implementation.


Objectives This paper reports secular trends in diabetes in pregnancy in Victoria, Australia and examines the effect of including or excluding women with pre-existing diabetes on gestational diabetes (GDM) prevalence estimates. Design Population-based observational study. Setting All births in Victoria, Australia between 1999 and 2008 Participants 634 932 pregnancies resulting in a birth registered with the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection Outcome measures Crude and age-standardised secular trends in pre-existing diabetes and GDM prevalence; secular GDM trends by maternal birthplace; effects on GDM prevalence of including and excluding pre-existing diabetes from the denominator. Results Of the 634 932 pregnancies, 2954 (0.5%) occurred in women with pre-existing diabetes and 29 147 (4.6%) were complicated by GDM. Mean maternal age increased from 29.7 years in 1999 to 30.8 years in 2008. GDM prevalence increased in most maternal age groups. In 2008, age-standardised GDM prevalence was 31% higher than in 1999; secular increases were greater for Australian-born non-Indigenous (29% increase) than immigrant women (12.3% increase). The annual number of pregnancies in women with pre-existing diabetes almost doubled from 1999 to 2008 and prevalence increased from 0.4% to 0.6%. However, including or excluding pre-existing diabetes had little effect on GDM prevalence estimates. Conclusions Pre-existing diabetes and GDM prevalence increased in Victoria between 1999 and 2008 and rising maternal age does not fully explain these trends. These findings have important implications for preventive initiatives. Including or excluding small numbers of women with pre-existing diabetes resulted in minimal changes in GDM estimates. As pre-existing diabetes in young women increases, this methodological issue will likely become important.


We investigate whether articles in economics that are freely available on the web have a citation advantage over articles with a gated access. Our sample consists of articles from 2005 from 13 economic journals (including the top five journals). In addition to standard mean comparisons we also use a negative-binomial regression model with several covariates to control for potential selection effects and quality bias. Using citation data from three different databases (Web of Science, RePEc and Google Scholar) we show that articles that are freely available on the internet have indeed a significantly higher citation count.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CS-AKI) is associated with high mortality rates. This study aimed to determine the effects of perioperative dexmedetomidine (DEX) administration on CS-AKI in adult patients.

DESIGN
A meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis of randomized controlled trials.

SETTING
PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were searched up to March 11, 2019 for relevant articles. The study protocol was registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (registration number: CRD42019128139).

PARTICIPANTS
Adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

INTERVENTIONS
Dexmedetomidine compared with controls.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Nine randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,308 patients were included. Use of DEX significantly reduced the incidence of CS-AKI (risk ratio = 0.60, 95% confidence interval = 0.41-0.87, p = 0.008, I2 = 30%), without significant publication bias. The trial sequential analysis result suggested that there was enough evidence for this outcome. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the result. The improvement of CS-AKI was primarily significant in preoperative and/or intraoperative administration of DEX with or without postoperative continuation, patients with age ≥60 years, and studies with low risk of bias. The subgroup analysis did not show statistical differences. Dexmedetomidine use also was associated with less prolonged ventilation and lower incidences of pulmonary complications and delirium postoperatively. The level of evidence was high for the incidence of CS-AKI on the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation profile.

CONCLUSION
Perioperative DEX administration provided protective effects against CS-AKI, especially when initiated before and during surgery in elderly patients.


As of February 2017, Finns have been able to claim a partial old-age pension early at age 61 independent of their working hours or earnings. Focusing on the take-up of the partial old-age pension in Finland, this article investigates whether early pension claiming is associated with expected longevity. We assume parental longevity to signal expected longevity. We use total register data on those eligible to claim a partial pension at age 61 in 2018 or 2019 and link this data to the information on their parents' birth and death dates. To our knowledge, there exists no previous register-based study that uses parental longevity to explain pension claiming behavior. Since the longevity of the same-sex parent in particular influences subjective life expectancy, the variables of interest were the same-sex parent being alive and the age (at death) of the same-sex parent. The baseline results show a negative connection between the same-sex parent being alive and claiming. The connection disappears after controlling for gender, but the negative connection between the age (at death) of the same-sex parent and the claiming remains significant in a fully adjusted model. Known risk factors for shorter longevity, such as being male, having a lower income and wealth, also increase the likelihood of claiming. The results indicate that people take their expected longevity into account when making pension claiming decisions. This may hold critical implications for actuarial neutrality, the key assumption of the pension system design, and can lead to an unexpected increase in public pension expenditure.


The purpose of this paper is to describe the so-called fansubs, a different type of subtitling carried out by amateur translators. The first part of this study covers both the people and phases involved in the fansubbing process from beginning to end. The second section focuses on the legality and ethics of fansubs. The third part pays attention to the actual translation of fansubs and their unique features, such as the use of translator's notes or special karaoke effects. The paper concludes with a reflection on the work done by fansubbers and the possibilities opened by this mainly Internet phenomenon.


Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a very important forage crop, which forms a symbiotic relationship with nodule bacterium Sinorhizobum meliloti. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the stress tolerance of indigenous S. meliloti strains to adverse environmental conditions. Twenty rhizobial strains, isolated from different regions in Croatia, were phenotypically characterized to assess diversity amongst natural field population. The growth of the strains was studied at different pH values, temperatures, carbohydrate sources and different concentrations of NaCl. The results showed that most of the strains can grow at temperatures higher than optimal and that strains tolerate both acidic and alkaline environment. It was found that indigenous strains can tolerate extremely high concentrations of NaCl. Most strains possess the enzyme urease while only a small number of them possess the enzyme catalase. The results showed that all indigenous strains belonged to the group of fast-growing rhizobia and that they were more tolerant to the antibiotics tested in comparison to the reference S. meliloti strain. Better understanding of rhizobial response to adverse environmental conditions is of important value for improving rhizobial inoculants and efficiency of symbiotic nitrogen fixation.


Development of pregnancy results in a systemic reaction of the immunogenetic organs: the structure of both the central (thymus) and peripheral lymphoid organs (lymph nodes) undergoes certain changes, beginning from its earliest stages (preimplantation period). Unidirection of the processes in the iliac (that are regional for the uterus) and mesenteric lymph nodes is stated. The reconstruction of the node occurs according to the reaction type at tissue allotransplantation, when hypertrophy of the thymus-dependent zone comes forward. During the period of the greatest manifestations of these alterations, however (the second half of pregnancy) the migration process of lymphocytes from blood into the lymph node is significantly inhibited. This is essentially clear in the iliac lymph nodes. The reconstruction of the thymus is in general similar with phenomena of accidental involution. However, accumulation of thymocytes in the medulla demonstrates blocking of their discharge into the blood stream. The disturbed processes of recirculation of result in incompleteness of the immune response at pregnancy and, perhaps, are included into the protective mechanisms of the offspring reproduction.


Smartphones contain a large amount of highly personal data, much of it accessible to third-party applications. Much of this information is safeguarded by a permission model, which regulates access to this information. This work primarily focuses on improving the Android permission model, which is known to have notoriously large amounts of sensitive data leakage, but many of its findings can be analogously applied to other mobile operating systems. We evaluate the two currently employed Android permission models: ask at installtime and ask-on-first-use to determine if they fulfill user expectations of privacy, and find that this is not the case for either model. We analyze the different facets that comprise user expectations and recommend a better mechanism to satisfy these expectations without excess effort from the user. This mechanism incorporates the contextual nature of privacy into the permission-granting process through the use of a machine learning classifier. We contribute the most extensive instrumentation of the Android operating system targeting user behavior and related runtime states to our knowledge, spanning across nearly 40 classes in the Android platform. This instrumentation allows us to utilize user behavior and system-level features to determine context for permission requests. The data from this instrumentation is used to generate features for the classifier. We evaluate the classifier on a large labeled dataset we collect from over 200 users using our modified operating system, and recommend ways to employ such a system in the real world based on our analysis.


Chromatic induction as a function of separation and as a function of area was determined by a hue-cancellation procedure. Both functions obtained were expressed by exponential functions with similar exponential coefficients. This led to the derivation of an element-contribution function, based on a linear summation model, that could explain both the relationship between chromatic induction and separation and that between chromatic induction and area. The effects of separation and area on chromatic induction could readily be determined in terms of an element-contribution function. In addition, the induction area that is due to a blue inducing stimulus was larger than those that are due to the other inducing stimuli, suggesting that the summation area of the blue response was larger than those of the other chromatic responses.


Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), along with disability, results in changes of brain organization and structure. While sensorimotor networks of patients and healthy individuals share similar patterns, unique functional interactions have been identified in SCI networks. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have emerged as a promising technology for movement restoration and rehabilitation of SCI patients. We describe an experimental methodology to combine high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) for investigation of functional connectivity following SCI and non-invasive BCI control of robotic arms. Two BCI-naïve female subjects, a SCI patient and a healthy control subject participated in the proof-of-concept implementation. They were instructed to perform motor imagery (MI) while watching multiple movements of either arms or legs during walking, while under 128-channel EEG recording. They were, subsequently, asked to control two robotic arms (Mercury v2.0) using a commercial class EEG-BCI. They both achieved comparable performance levels of robotic control, 52.5% for the SCI patient and 56.9% for the healthy control. We performed a feasibility analysis of functional networks on the EEG-BCI recordings. Visual MI allows training on multiple imagined movements and shows promise in investigating differences in functional cortical networks associated with different motor tasks. This approach could allow the implementation of functional network-based BCIs in the future for complex movement control.


This study aims to explore the concepts of reality through Baudrillardian analysis of Ammu and Velutha, two major characters of Roy's (1997) The God of Small things. Important facts, events and their concepts of reality were taken as signs. These signs were analyzed in the light of Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, hyper-reality and the end of dialectics. The Baudrillardian analysis found that the self-image and concepts of reality of these characters is evident from the structure of the novel. These simulacra are institutionalized and nourished by the powerful ones to legitimize and perpetuate their hegemony. Ammu and Velutha's wrong conceptualization of reality through these simulacra stands for hyper-reality. Resultantly in spite of resenting and resisting against the injustices committed to them, they unwittingly kept serving the interests of their exploiters. This validates Baudrillard's idea of the end of dialectics in which there is no possibility of revolution in the society as the actions of the all opposing factions are amounting to the strengthening of the same system of exploitation. The findings conclude that for any revolution or positive change in life we must question our beliefs to see if they are simulacra and must never let simulacra set the course of our struggles. For this the development of a pragmatic mind and positive self-image is vitally important as from these sources spring the real clarity of perception and independency of actions that is so necessary for success and self-reliance in life.


Background: The role of information has not been over looked in Nigeria. Information on AIDS is disseminated through various information media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Symposia and conferences have also been organized for the purpose of creating awareness and an attempt to change public attitude.
Aim: This study was aimed at ascertaining the effect of television and radio commercials on behaviour and attitude changes towards the campaign against the spread of HIV/AIDS, using residents of Nsukka urban.
Methods: This study employed a cross sectional, household survey using interviewer administered questionnaires. A mixture of cluster and systematic random techniques were employed. Nsukka was grouped into 10 clusters based on geographical locations as established by a map designed by Nsukka Graduates Association. Six sections or clusters were randomly selected from the ten clusters using a random sampling technique. In each section, the first house in each street was identified, followed by systematic sampling of the next three houses. A total of 637 persons were met in the exercise after covering the selected clusters. All respondents were assured of confidentiality and anonymity. The survey was carried out from August to December, 2009. Data were entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 14) and descriptive analysis conducted. Responses were reported as percentages.
Results: Most of the respondents studied were youth and students. All the participants had either radio or television or both. More than 60% of respondents rated the quality of the campaign as excellent and effective. The Areas of prevention or control which the campaigns focused on (in their decreasing order) were unprotected sex, having multiple sexual partners (infidelity), abstinence, transfusion of infected blood, and sharing of sharp objects. The respondent agreed that knowing HIV/AIDS status (>70%) and stopping stigmatization (>80%) could help the campaign against spread of HIV/AIDS. Lack of government commitment, corruption, lack of sexuality education in family, peer group pressure and traditional norms and practices were rated by more than 70% of the respondents as barriers to the campaign against spread of HIV/AIDS.
Conclusion: In conclusion, television and radio commercials were found to have positive effects on behaviour and attitude of residents of Nsukka urban towards campaign against spread of HIV/AIDS.


Drum brake is a braking part which is widely used on heavy truck. The distribution and dimension of contacting pressure and contacting area between friction linings and brake drum have important influence on braking performance. Entire contact theory in this article was found based on the conditions that the outside radius of linings was equal to the inside radius of drum. The relation between the corresponding points on contact surface and the angle which lining rotated around support pin axis was calculated based on entire contact theory. The radial deformation, pressure distribution, contact area of linings and the brake performance were analyzed in the condition of entire contact theory.


Author(s): Smith, Erin Irene | Advisor(s): Richert, Rebekah A. | Abstract: Although beliefs about origins and evolutionary knowledge have been considered independent, research has suggested that both are influenced by cognitive constraints of psychological essentialism and teleology. Most research supporting these claims has been conducted with children from Western cultures; little is known about the psychological processes underpinning beliefs and knowledge about the natural world outside Western contexts or during adolescence. Claims about the universality of beliefs, knowledge, and the possible relationship between should be made after examining samples that differ in theoretically relevant ways from a typical Western sample, such as a Chinese sample in which religious explanations are rare or an adolescent sample in which brain development promotes the coordination of conflicting information. To examine how belief and knowledge are related in Western- and non-Western samples, as well as the factors that predict both independently, 238 Chinese (M = 15.85 years old, SD = .85 years; 36.6% male) and 277 American adolescents (M = 15.80 years, SD = 1.34 years; 51.6% male) were recruited from their high schools to participate. Adolescents completed a survey measuring beliefs about the origin of living and non-living exemplars, evolutionary knowledge, and variables that were likely to influence belief and knowledge such as science preference, epistemology, psychological essentialism, teleological reasoning, and religious beliefs. American adolescents were more creationist than Chinese adolescents. Chinese adolescents displayed more sophisticated evolutionary knowledge than American adolescents although overall performance was low. Finally, there was no relationship between belief and knowledge for American adolescents yet there was a small, positive relationship for Chinese adolescents such that adolescents who believed in creation also tended to demonstrate more evolutionary knowledge. Additional analyses employed mediation techniques to explain why cultural differences in creation belief and evolutionary knowledge exist. Age was unrelated to belief and to knowledge. The discussion focuses on the aspects of cultural membership that contribute to belief and evolutionary knowledge. Additional discussion highlights the role of classroom curriculum, curriculum testing, and focusing on uncovering variables and techniques that promote evolutionary learning.


Abstract. What future for tourism in the COVID-19 era? This is a question that has become part of the daily life of many tourist destinations. The pandemic has affected all economic sectors and tourism is one of the sectors most suffered. According to data from the World Tourism Organization (2021) due to the health emergency 100% of countries have introduced restrictions in the travel sector and for this reason international tourist arrivals dropping by 74% in 2020. Future projections indicate 2023 as the year when a the "regular" flow of tourists can be recorded globally. However, in the meantime, there is a need to improve this sector by implementing strategies to promote and enhance the places to motivate sustainable tourism. The insecurity of travel and of some destinations, due to the many emergency restrictions, pushes tourists to live an outdoor vacation in contact with nature and host community. Thus, the search for authentic places moves minds more consciously towards sustainable tourism practices showing a greater interest in some forms of tourism such as rural and cultural.The aim of this work is to understand how to deal with the "new" needs of the demand, bringing out the rural realities through the creation of an organized sustainable offer that revolves around existing accommodation facilities such as farmhouses. In particular, the case of Sardinia will be analyzed, an island that has long been known for its seaside tourism, but whose rural and internal areas are still not much used touristically. The study intends, after a short review of the literature on the sustainability of rural tourism, highlight the possibility to create rural tourist itineraries capable of enhancing the territory's peculiarities by combining the different landscape assets. The exemplification of the creation of these routes will be realized in GIS field through the creation of a model of accessibility to the Sardinian rural space. This model will be based on the use of isochronous curves obtained from the analysis of travel times both to move towards and from the agritourism that offer accommodation and within their landscape offer.


The effects of ethanolic extract of Diospyros kaki (EED) on diabetic cognitive impairment were investigated in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced mouse. After HFD was fed to mouse for 16 weeks, EED was administrated to mouse for 4 weeks. EED reduced fasting blood glucose level and improved cognitive and behavioral dysfunction. EED improved serum biomarkers related to lipid and liver damage better than positive control (PC). In addition, EED ameliorated impaired cholinergic system, increased oxidative stress as well as mitochondrial dysfunction compared with HFD group. In the molecular study, EED downregulated the phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (p-JNK), which phosphorylates the serine residue of insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1pSer). Finally, various physiological compounds such as tannin-based ingredients were identified using UPLC-QTOF/MS2 . These results suggest that EED can help improve cognitive impairment caused by HFD. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Recently, cognitive impairment caused by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become a problem. T2DM, mainly derived from HFD, is characterized by hyperglycemia, which is associated with insulin resistance. In this study, EED not only improved hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, but also restored diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction in HFD-induced diabetic mice. Finally, the decrease in cholinergic and antioxidant systems related to cognitive impairment was recovered by consumption of EED via improvement of insulin signaling pathway. Therefore, this study suggests that persimmon (Diospyros kaki) containing diverse physiological compounds has potential and industrial value as a functional food material for cognitive improvement.


The TiO2 sol was prepared hydrothermally in an autoclave from aqueous TiOCl2 solutions as starting precursor. Hollow fibers were obtained when sol-gel derived TiO2 sol was treated chemically with NaOH solution and subsequently heated in autoclave under various conditions. A systematic analysis of the influence of different NaOH concentrations on the formation of nanotubes has been carried out using XRD and SEM. The phase structure of the synthesized material was determined by transmission electron microscopy and found that these materials are, infact, hollow fibers widely known as nanotubes. From the TEM images, the outer and inner diameters of the tubes were measured ca. 8 and about 4 nm, respectively, with several hundred nanometers in length.


Abstract Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl2O4) is an excellent castable refractory product due to its high temperature thermal, chemical and mechanical properties. Alumina spinel castables are produced by addition of synthetic spinel or in situ spinel formation during the firing process. In the first part of the experimental studies, alumina rich MgAl2O4 spinel castable was produced using a solid state reaction technique. Tabular alumina and sea water magnesia (<100 μm) were used as starting raw materials. In the second part of the experimental studies, commercial synthetic spinel added castables were produced. In order to compare experimental results, both parts of the experimental study involved compositions with the same proportions of MgO. α-500 hydratable alumina was used as binder. Castables were sintered at 1500 and 1600°C. Water absorption, apparent porosity, bulk density and cold crushing strength values were considered and the optimum sintering temperature, proportions of synthetic spinel and sea water magnesia were determined. The XRD patterns confirm the phase formation of MgAl2O4. Moreover, the physical properties of the castables were supported by this XRD analysis. Scanning electron microscopy investigations of the fired samples were carried out to compare the effect of synthetic spinel addition and in situ phase formation on the physical properties of the castables. The mechanism of slag penetration to two types of zero cement castables for steel ladles was examined and the penetration layer chemically analysed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis studies.


Results from previous research suggest that individuals change their preferences during negotiations (J. R. Curhan, M. A. Neale, & L. Ross, forthcoming). Consistent with dissonance and self-perception theories, negotiators enhance their valuation of offers they make. Consistent with reactance theory and rational inference, negotiators devalue offers they receive. Each of these dynamic valuation processes could be explained by informational mechanisms alone, or additionally by motivational mechanisms. The present investigation examines negotiator preference change in a context where informational mechanisms can be controlled for, and hence motivational mechanisms could be measured independently. Results of this investigation will potentially have important implications for theory and practice.


To enhance sustainability, the food system requires significant shifts in the production, processing and supply of food. Ideally, a sustainable food system should operate, not only to protect the biosphere, but also to provide nutritious, high-quality food, and to support social values, an equitable economy, and human and animal health. It should also be governed responsibly within a supportive policy environment. Implementing these shifts is a task of immense scale; but citizen participation/engagement has the potential to help make sustainability a reality through distributed learning, dynamic sensing, and knowledge generation. Technological advancements in sensing and data processing have enabled new forms of citizen participation in research. When food system research is embedded within society it can help us to understand which changes towards sustainability work and which do not. Indeed, citizen engagement in food systems research has the potential to help bring citizens on side, supporting the growth of a food culture of resilience and of sustainable practises (including dietary change). This commentary provides examples of how existing research and alternative food production systems and agroecological practises may provide possible frameworks for citizen participation in food system studies. We highlight potential future food and citizen science approaches. Widening citizen participation and encouraging the involvement of other food system actors, including those in local, national and international governance, is essential to capture the full potential of citizen science in enabling transition to a sustainable food system. For the research community citizen science offers engagement and empowerment of wider communities with science; collecting and analysing data; and creating viable solutions to food system and diet issues.


1 The subtype of α1‐adrenoceptor mediating contractions of human prostate to noradrenaline was characterized by use of a range of competitive and non‐competitive antagonists. 2 Contractions of the prostate to either noradrenaline (pD2 5.5), phenylephrine (pD2 5.1) or methoxamine (pD2 4.4) were unaltered by the presence of neuronal and extraneuronal uptake blockers. Noradrenaline was about 3 and 10 times more potent than phenylephrine and methoxamine respectively. Phenylephrine and methoxamine were partial agonists. 3 Pretreatment with the alkylating agent, chlorethylclonidine (10−4 m) shifted the noradrenaline concentration‐contraction curve about 3 fold to the right and depressed the maximum response by 31%. This shift is 100 fold less than that previously shown to be produced by chlorethylclonidine under the same conditions on α1B‐adrenoceptor‐mediated contractions. 4 Cumulative concentration‐contraction curves for noradrenaline were competitively antagonized by WB 4101 (pA2 9.0), 5‐methyl‐urapidil (pA2 8.6), phentolamine (pA2 7.6), benoxathian (pA2 8.5), spiperone (pA2 7.3), indoramin (pA2 8.2) and BMY 7378 (pA2 6.6). These values correlated best with published pKi values for their displacement of [3H]‐prazosin binding on membranes expressing cloned α1c‐adrenoceptors and poorly with values from cloned α1b‐ and α1dadrenoceptors. 5 The good correlation between the functional data on the prostate and the binding data on the expressed α1c‐subtype clone for the affinities of the competitive antagonists suggests that they are the same subtype. As the expressed α1c‐adrenoceptor clone corresponds to the α1A‐adrenoceptor expressed in tissues, contraction of the human prostate to noradrenaline is therefore mediated by an α1A‐adrenoceptor.


Globalisation has been driven by multinationals' capital and technology and produced a structural change in business networks. In this sense, one of the most important changes in industrial organisation is the transition from multinational corporations (MNCs) to global networks particularly focused on management of innovation and creative imitation. The global competitive landscapes of innovation and imitation have significantly changed the relative position of many Nation-States. The US corporations have changed their worldwide competitive position. Meanwhile the globalisation has expanded the market-space of corporations headquartered in countries with a high propensity to innovation (e.g. the Japanese companies), and has also promoted the growth of new countries, especially in the Far East (e.g. South Korea, India, Taiwan), where domestic firms have favorable conditions (especially in terms of social responsibility and low labor costs) to develop advanced skills for imitation and creative imitation.


This paper presents a ray-tube tracing method to simulate waves propagating in curved road tunnels from base stations for mobile communications. Ray tubes are traced by including multiple reflections in the curved tunnels and diffractions from wedges of the tunnel structures, together with the direct path. To verify this ray-tube tracing approach, field measurements of 900 MHz signals in two curved road tunnels from GSM base stations were performed for comparisons with the ray-tube tracing simulations. By tracing ray tubes reflected and diffracted from the curved structures of the tunnels, the effects of the curvature on wave propagations in large guiding structures can be evaluated. Good agreement between simulations and measurements has been obtained. A parametric study of the influence of the tunnel geometry and the signal frequency on the path loss is also presented by applying this ray-tube tracing method. Curved tunnels for different radii of curvature in the tunnel cross-section and horizontal plane and also lengths of the curved part are compared, together with rectangular tunnels. Simulations of the field distribution over the cross-section of the curved tunnel away from the transmitting antenna are demonstrated as well. The ray-tube tracing program can be applied to determine the deployment of the base-station antennas for improving signal coverage in tunnels, which may have curved structures


Discretizing an integral operator by a standard finite element or boundary element method typically leads to a dense matrix. Since its storage complexity grows quadratically with the number of degrees of freedom, the standard representation of the matrix as a two-dimensional array cannot be applied to large problem sizes. H2-matrix techniques use a multilevel approach to represent the dense matrix in a more efficient data-sparse format. We consider the challenging task of finding a good multilevel representation of the matrix without relying on a priori information of its contents. This paper presents a relatively simple algorithm that can use any of the popular low-rank approximation schemes (e.g., cross approximation) to find an "initial guess" and constructs a matching multilevel structure on the fly. Numerical experiments show that the resulting technique is as fast as competing methods and requires far less storage for large problem dimensions.


Visualization systems to monitor or to operate technical processes in industrial automation depend on dedicated runtime environments and therefore on particular platforms. On the other hand, an increasing number of different platforms are available raising the development effort significantly. The Model Driven Software Development procedure fosters sustainability of visualization solutions by separating the functional content into models and the technical realization into transformation rules. Following that method, engineering of visualization solutions is a one-time process resulting in a model. Its deployment to different platforms is achieved by automatic transformations. This paper presents the core concepts of our Domain Specific Language MOVISA, that has been designed to capture only functional contents of visualization solutions. By focussing on unique requirements of the industrial automation domain, this paper will present in detail the challenges as well as the potential of model-driven approaches concerning the sustainability of visualization solutions in industrial automation.


The present work aimed to evaluate the influence of dietary inorganic mercury or methylmercury, with or without selenate co-exposure, in order to examine dietary selenium's role in counteracting mercury species toxicity as well as the effect of the Se : Hg molar ratio in the diet and tissues of exposed crabs (Carcinus maenas). From the dissection processes, it was possible to obtain for each crab muscle from legs and thorax, hepatopancreas, gills, stomach, hindgut, heart, testis/ovary and carapace. All samples were analyzed by CV-AFS for total mercury and HR-ICP-MS for total selenium. For the crabs exposed to inorganic mercury, the accumulation was statistically confirmed (p-value < 0.05 by comparison of tissues from the exposed crabs to those from control crabs) in the hepatopancreas, muscle from thorax, gill and heart, whereas for the co-exposure to selenium, the accumulation of mercury was significant only in the heart. In contrast, when considering the methylmercury exposure, the Hg accumulation was statistically significant in the muscle from thorax and legs, hepatopancreas, gill, heart and testis/ovary. However, for the co-exposure to selenium, the Hg accumulation was only significant in the muscle from thorax, hepatopancreas and gills. Therefore, the accumulation of Hg and the Hg–Se interactions in the hepatopancreas, heart and muscle of the crabs were highly significant for the exposure to Hg species without co-exposure to Se. Thus, the dietary exposure to Se played a very important role concerning the uptake of the Hg species investigated in the present work, showing that it influences the uptake and accumulation patterns.


targeted killing (henceforth assassination) of members of Palestinian terrorist organizations was a major element in Israel's counterterrorism effort during the Palestinian uprising which started in 2000. We evaluate the effectiveness of this policy indirectly by examining Israeli stock market reactions to assassinations. Our approach relies on the assumption that the market should react positively to news of effective counterterrorism measures but negatively to news of counterproductive ones. The main result of the analysis is that the market reacts strongly to assassinations of senior members in Palestinian terrorist organizations: it declines following attempts to assassinate political leaders but rises following attempts to assassinate military ones.


The combination of distinct peptide ligation techniques to facilitate chemical protein synthesis represents one of the long-standing goals in the field. A new combination ligation method of N-to-C sequential native chemical ligation and Ser/Thr ligation (NCL-STL) is described for the first time. This method relies on the peptide salcylaldehyde S,S-propanedithioacetal (SALPDT)-ester prepared by a new 1,3-propanedithiol-mediated reaction. The peptide SALPDT-ester, which is compatible with NCL, can be fully activated by N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS)/AgNO3 in aqueous solution to afford peptide SAL-ester for use in the subsequent STL. The practicality of the combined NCL-STL method is illustrated by the synthesis of S-palmitoylated matrix-2 ion channel from Influenza A virus and S-palmitoylated interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3. This approach expands the multiple-segments peptide ligation toolkit for producing important and complex custom-made protein samples by chemical protein synthesis.


The concept or regular tenus for $n$-dimensional links is introduced. It extends the classical genus of one-dimensional llinks. Some characterization theorems of the trivial knot are given. In particular, the only genus zero $n$-dimensional knot is proved to be homeomorphic with the trivial knot. Then the regular genus of a knot is proved to be related to the one-dimensional homology of the universal abelian covering of its complement. Partial extensions for links of these results are also obtained. Some applications to low-dimensional links and a final section about connected sums of links complete the paper.


In this paper, preliminary study on path loss characterization of in-vivo communication channel at 2.45 GHz using numerical modeling is presented. One of the antennas is implanted inside the chest and the second antenna is placed on the surface of body at certain distance. The on-body antenna is rotated at different angles with respect to the inbody antenna and path loss is calculated at certain fixed distance. The body-centric path loss is compared with the free space path loss as well. Results show that there is almost 10-15 dB variation in path loss in case of in-vivo channel as compared to free space. Also a degradation in path loss and channel response with respect to the orientation angle between implanted transmitter and on-body receiver is observed, which highlights the importance of carefully considering the location of on-body receiver for optimal system performance.


The retail industry is undergoing a transformative shift, with technology playing a central role in enhancing operational efficiency and customer experiences. This abstract introduces the concept of AI-powered Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) as a key innovation that significantly improves retail operations. AI-powered ESLs, integrated with advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, offer retailers a powerful tool to optimize pricing strategies, inventory management, and customer interactions. This abstract discusses the core benefits and applications of AI-powered ESLs in the retail context, emphasizing their capacity to streamline retail operations and drive sales growth. Dynamic Pricing, Inventory Management, Enhanced Customer Experience, and Labor Efficiency Furthermore, this abstract underscores the long-term potential of AI-powered ESLs in shaping the future of retail. As retailers increasingly adopt these technologies, they are poised to revolutionize pricing, inventory management, and customer interactions, ultimately ensuring that physical stores remain a vital part of the retail landscape in an increasingly digital world.


A novel actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-mq3T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg) collected from Xianglu Mountain in Heilongjiang Province, north-east China, and characterized by using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the organism should be assigned to the genus Sphaerisporangium and that it forms a monophyletic clade with its closest relatives 'Sphaerisporangium dianthi' NEAU-CY18T (99.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and Sphaerisporangium cinnabarinum JCM 3291T (98.8 %). Morphological and chemotaxonomic properties of strain NEAU-mq3T were also consistent with the description of the genus Sphaerisporangium. The whole-cell sugars were madurose, mannose, ribose and glucose. The menaquinones were MK-9(H2), MK-9(H4), MK-9(H0) and MK-9(H6). The diagnostic diamino acid of the peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The phospholipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol mannoside, an unidentified polar lipid and an unidentified phospholipid. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C16 : 0, 10-methyl C17 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c and C17 : 1ω7c. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments and phenotypic tests were carried out between strain NEAU-mq3T and its most closely related strains, which further clarified their relatedness and demonstrated that NEAU-mq3T could be distinguished from these strains. Therefore, it is concluded that strain NEAU-mq3T represents a novel species of the genus Sphaerisporangium, for which the name Sphaerisporangium rhizosphaerae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-mq3T (=CGMCC 4.7429T=JCM 32389T).


Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is escalating globally and now the most important non-communicable disease causing serious health issues in Sri Lanka. The complications of T2DM burden individuals, their families, the economy and the health care system. However, there is limited data on the perspectives of adults about their glycaemic control behaviors in Sri Lanka. Understanding these perspectives is critical in reducing complications, improving health and well-being among adults with T2DM. Objective: To explore the perspectives among adults with T2DM regarding their glycaemic control behaviors. Methods: In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted among 17 adults with T2DM. Matrix analysis was used to analyze data Results: Our rich data resulted in two themes centering on reasons for adequate glycaemic control and barriers to glycaemic control. The reasons for good glycaemic control were: understanding the illness, sufficient family support, adequate income, a higher level of education and motivation to control. The barriers were: insufficient knowledge about the illness, low socioeconomic status, lack of family support and poor compliance to health advice. The participants believed that doing diet control, regular exercise and taking medication properly on daily, long-term basis is very challenging. Conclusions: Nurses and health care personnel need to address the barriers and reasons for glycaemic control behaviors in planning, assessment, treatment protocols and health policies to provide better diabetic care in primary health care and hospital settings. It confirms the need for culturally appropriate diabetic care and advice.


16 and 22 patients with positive ventricular late potentials (LP) recorded on signal-averaged electrocardiograms (SAECG) were treated with lidocaine 100 mg iv. or Astragalus membranaceus 24 g iv. drip for 2 weeks respectively. As a result, the SAECGs of 2 (12.5%) and 3 (13.6%) of them normalized respectively. Compared with baseline, there were no significant changes in average HFQRSD, LAS and RMS 40 after treatment of lidocaine. HFQRSD and LAS were shortened significantly 115.9 +/- 29.9 vs 125.1 +/- 29.4 ms (P < 0.001); and 44.8 +/- 15.4 vs 52.8 +/- 15.4 ms (P < 0.001), and RMS 40 was enlarged 20.0 +/- 18.6 vs 12.8 +/- 19.0 microV (P < 0.05) only after treatment of Astragalus membranaceus. It is suggested that the duration of LP was shortened.


This study presents field and modelling data of how dense seawater plumes move into a shallow coastal freshwater aquifer, following a storm flooding. The locations of the seawater plumes appear to be controlled by topographical depressions where seawater ponds were observed after the flooding. The rapid development and sinking of the seawater plumes in the aquifer was monitored by pore water electrical conductivity measurements in a 120 m transect of about 100 piezometers and by drive-point continuous vertical resistivity logs (el-logs). Large parts of the plumes reached the bottom of the aquifer 10 mbs in less than 30 days, but the plume migration caused by the unstable density distribution was found to be highly variable. The variable density code SUTRA was used for numerical modelling the flow of seawater down into the aquifer. The model captures the overall trends of the plume development and migration velocity observed in the field. However, even after introducing measured medium scale heterogeneity in the model, it could not adequately describe the complex details in the seawater distribution. This variability is believed to be caused by the geological heterogeneity and much of the variability appears to be on a small scale (~ cm), finer than the sampling scale of this study. The vastly different chemical composition of the seawater compared to the fresh groundwater triggered several geochemical reactions in the affected part of the aquifer. The high seawater sulfate content shifted the dominating redox-process from methanogenesis to sulfate reduction. The results of this field and modelling study highlight the complexity of how an aquifer, subject to seawater flooding, is contaminated by seawater. In turn, the results give insight into the vulnerability of coastal freshwater aquifers to catastrophic flooding events and to future sea-level rise. The study also indicates how other groundwater contaminants in dense fluids released at the surface may spread in the aquifer, and, points to the possible use of density driven flow as a novel method for introducing reactants for the remediation of contaminated sites.


The paper focuses on various kinds of urban field recordings produced during research and artistic practices which apply auditory immersion in the qualitative analysis of places. Showing why and how urban field recordings might be used in locally guided placemaking practices, I propose to consider them as a sensitive resource of urban cultural heritage. A reflection on the sensitive quality of urban field recordings — a quality which stems from their susceptibility to the workings of time and their capability to transfer local affects — is realized in four parts. Part one posits the question of the relationship between urban sound and place, showing perspectives which arise from an application of listening in the qualitative analysis of places. Part two studies aspects of using, archiving, and sharing of field recordings produced within research, artistic and museum projects, accentuating the need to connect institutionally based practices with the promotion of audible culture in the pro-cess of establishing the notion of field recordings as a medium of urban heritage transmission. Part three proposes a shift from an interpretive to a performative approach in grasping the ontological status of urban field recordings, discussing them as samples of a place which are capable of transmitting local affects. Finally, part four recalls the idea of acousmatics to reflect upon the role of metadata in the reception of urban field recordings, which safeguards them from losing their cultural legibility. I argue that the lack of accompanying commentaries, which blurs the relation of recording with the place of sound sampling, does not erase the affective influence of the sound source transmitted by the sound sample. Such an observation leads to the conclusion that urban field recordings elude their framing in a single definition of heritage.


The Third Edition of Understanding and Managing Vision Deficits is the go-to resource that will enable occupational therapists to develop a comprehensive understanding of vision, appreciate the various effects vision problems can have on the practice of occupational therapy, and to more effectively manage patients with vision disorders. Understanding and Managing Vision Deficits: A Guide for Occupational Therapists, Third Edition is a unique collaboration from occupational therapists, optometrists, and low vision rehabilitation specialists. Dr. Mitchell Scheiman presents a unique Three Component Model of Vision that includes: Visual integrity: Includes visual acuity (clarity), the optics of the eye, and eye health Visual efficiency skills: Includes focusing, eye teaming, and eye movements Visual information processing skills: Includes the ability to analyze, interpret and respond to visual information A major emphasis of the new edition is on management of eye movement, visual information processing, visual field, and low vision problems. Therapy suggestions have been expanded and the use of computer software has been incorporated into the therapy.


The main goal of this thesis was to explore commonly (C14:0, C15:0, C17:0 and Trans-C16:1(n-7)) and less commonly (Trans-C18:1(n-7) and Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)) investigated fatty acid biomarkers for dairy and dairy fat intake in the general population. We therefore developed a new method, with which we would be able to measure all potential biomarkers. We also explored whether the association between dairy fat biomarkers and dairy fat intake was independent of fish fat intake, since it has been suggested that C15:0 and C17:0 might also be biomarkers for fish intake. It appeared that C14:0, C15:0, C17:0, trans-C16:1(n-7), trans-C18:1(n-7) and CLA are useful biomarkers of dairy fat intake for the general population. Moreover, we found that a combination of commonly and less commonly fatty acids was the best predictor for dairy fat intake. Associations of dairy biomarkers with dairy fat intake were independent of fish fat. C15:0, trans-C18:1(n-7) and CLA were found to be inversely associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Literature shows that the marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid are also inversely related to cardiovasclular risk factors. This thesis shows that this is might also be true in a renal transplant recipients. In contrast, in this population, the plant-derived omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid may be associated with an increased risk of mortality.


Because constant light causes persistent estrus in the rat, that animal provides a suitable experimental model for studying the pathogenesis of polycystic ovary disease. We studied the scanning and transmission electron microscopic features of the rat polycystic ovary along with changes in serum estradiol and progesterone concentrations to further elucidate the mechanism of chronic anovulation during persistent estrus. The surface epithelium of the polycystic ovary showed no ovulatory stigmas and contained focal areas of degenerating and proliferating cells. The tunica albuginea was conspicuous, with many fibrils, collagenous materials and fibroblastlike cells adjoining the theca externa layer. The cytoplasm of theca interna cells contained numerous lipid vacuoles and images of extracted cholesterol crystals. The granulosa cells were atrophic and lacked the prominent Golgi apparatus typically found in granulosa cells of proestrous ovaries in cycling rats. With an increasing duration of constant light and chronic anovulation, the mean serum estradiol concentration in persistent-estrus rats was significantly higher and the mean serum progesterone concentration significantly lower than in age-matched controls. Alterations in estradiol-progesterone metabolism in the ovaries may be important etiologic factors in the pathogenesis of chronic anovulation found in polycystic ovary disease in rats.


Design thinking (DT) offers a potent way to create breakthrough products due to its ability to find unarticulated needs and solve problems. For a long time, design thinking was considered the creative activity whose aim was to determine aesthetic features of objects, however; many authors suggest that design thinking can provide significant value to product development and management. However, a critical issue of adopting design thinking in business organisations is that it is difficult to explain the contribution made by DT in the new product development(NPD)process. In practical terms, there is little guidance on how to correlate relevant product development dimensions (such as cost and time) to DT-related activities. This effort is complex because design thinking is only one of several factors that contribute to new product success. To uncover that gap, we aim to develop a framework that identifies the benefits of using design thinking for team collaboration regarding relevant product development process dimensions. Towards our aim, we conducted ten in-depth interviews with design thinking professionals from the Stanford University School of Design Thinking (D. School -Stanford) in the USA in order to identify dimensions that could be used to understand where design thinking adds value to the NPD process. We propose that understanding how design thinking contributes to the NPD process could offer managers the opportunity to uncover gaps in the strategy implemented. Additionally, the framework presented in this study could be used to compare different performance results when developing new products. Our contribution consists of offering the first conceptual model to map out the impact of using design thinking to promote team collaboration on relevant product performance dimensions. This research extends our knowledge of how to analyse the impact of team collaboration on firm's performance. Our findings shed new light on the complexity of adopting design thinking as an innovation strategy in business organisations. This study can lead to valuable insights into how having a design thinking strategy can support competitive advantage in organisations.


Entanglement of quantum systems is a key aspect to understanding the dynamics and behavior of mixed systems (density matrix) as bipartite quantum bits (qubits). Thus we need to have a reliable and accurate way to measure the entanglement degree of the system, i.e., how it evolves, so that raises several approaches to meet these demands. A quantifiable measure widely used is the "entanglement of formation" of a mixed state, defined as the minimum number required of "singlets" to create a set of pure states that represents the density matrix of the system. In this paper we consider a system of two semiconductor quantum dots embedded in its own cavity and coupled to the internal mode field of cavity type Jaynes-Cummings. The entanglement between the two quantum dots is investigated, and we show analytically that entanglement has very interesting, effects such as time evolution including the effect called sudden death.


Abstract Objective Gastrin elevation secondary to proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy is well documented. Recent studies have demonstrated a sex-related difference where females on PPIs have significantly higher baseline gastrin levels than males. The aim of the study was to analyse the pharmacokinetics of esomeprazole and short-term effect on serum gastrin levels and evaluate potential sex-related difference. Materials and methods Healthy volunteers received 40 mg of esomeprazole daily for five days. After the 1st and 5th dose blood samples for fasting gastrin and pharmacokinetic analysis were collected at scheduled time-points for eight hours. Esomeprazole was analysed by liquid chromatography and gastrin concentrations were measured using radioimmunoassay. Results A total of 30 volunteers were enrolled. Females had higher median baseline gastrin (pM) than males 12 (IQR 10–15) vs. 7 (IQR 4–11) (p = .03). In the study cohort, median gastrin levels rose from 10 (IQR 6–14) to 15 (IQR 13–20) (p = .0002). The serum levels for esomeprazole increased by an average of 299.8 ng/mL (p < .001) from day 1 to day 5. Comparison of the esomeprazole pharmacokinetic parameters between males and females revealed no significant sex-related differences. No significant correlation was found between the AUC and the gastrin level on day 5 (p = .15). Conclusions In healthy volunteers, serum gastrin increased significantly after a four-day PPI-therapy. There was also a significant increase in serum esomeprazole from day 1 to day 5. The increase in gastrin and esomeprazole concentration was not related to sex and no significant sex-related difference was found in terms of pharmacokinetic parameters. European Clinical Trial Database (2015-002230-41).


In the present study, the bacterium Achromobacter xylosoxidans was isolated from tannery effluent sludge sample in Dindugal, Tamil Nadu, India and screened for its bio-control efficacy against selected plant pathogens viz., Alternaria solani, Curvularia lunata and Fusarium  oxysporum under in vitro.  It was observed that maximum percent inhibition of mycelial growth of C. lunata (95%), followed by A. solani (85%) and F. oxysporum (80%).   An attempt was also made for testing its plant growth promoting traits such as production of Indole acetic acid (IAA), phosphate solubilization efficacy, Hydrogen cyanide (HCN), ammonia and catalase production.  Significant amount of plant growth promoting traits were noticed. Further studies on mechanism of bio-control against plant pathogens and plant growth promoting activities of Achromobacter xylosoxidans need to be conformed under in-vivo condition.


Kick Tolerance is an important factor in the industry, that allows drilling engineers to establish several parameters in the development phase of a well, such as casing depths, open hole lengths, etc. It can also be considered a valuable safety factor to prevent well control problems. Several different definitions and calculation approaches were found for this term, and when you have something as dynamic and fast-paced as it is the oil & gas industry it is an important issue, since this lack of standardization leads to confusion and miscommunication. In chapter 3 and 4 the current calculation method, industry approach and knowledge of the term is quickly reviewed. Different kick tolerance software was analyzed in order to outline assumptions, compare results and calculation methodologies. Two main groups were distinguished: VBA macros for Microsoft Excel and standalone applications. The software presented in this work is developed in an attempt to overcome the main difficulties and disadvantages found during the initial analysis of the previously mentioned programs. Well: "Thesis work", analyzed in chapter 5, presents real data from an exploration well that, when planned, was expected to be an easy to accomplish task by the drilling crew, not at all troublesome. In the original analysis, pre-development, an extremely high kick tolerance was found (≈90bbl or ≈15 m3), and drilling and casing designs were made accordingly. Operations for the 8.5" section where estimated to last 5 – 8 days with a specific budget. Several small kicks were presented during the drilling operations, and about 100m before TD was reached, a gas kick occurred, even though the original analysis showed a high margin before trouble was supposed to be encounter, once killing operations started, it became clear that control was not going to be easily regained, ultimately leading to the abandonment well. Many different reasons could have led to this much trouble, i.e. using data from nearby wells without later updating this information with the real data found for this specific well, not taking into consideration all the factors involved on the calculation, etc. This would have helped readjust different parameters before the incident happened, with high probabilities of a different, and more positive, outcome.


In order to map suitable areas for weather modification in East Africa Community (EAC), investigations were performed to determine spatio-temporal variability and relationship of aerosol, clouds and precipitation during March- April-May (MAM) and October-November-December (OND). Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Hybrid Single- Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) and Multivariate Regression Analysis (MRA) were used. Identification of near homogeneous zones of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Fine Mode Fraction (FMF), Cloud Top and 3B42 Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) yielded 13 (14), 20 (18), 11 (10) and 16 (17) significant Principal Components (PCs) for MAM (OND) with explained variance greater than 57%. Aerosols and clouds had positive relationship with precipitation in areas with strong factor loadings. MRA indicated independence of variables used and normality in the model residuals. Backward trajectory analysis indicated differences in origins of transported particles in the atmosphere with strong vertical mixing inlands with mixed aerosols resulting due to mountain blocking systems accounted for enhanced rainfall. Enhanced rainfall was attributed to highly varied AOD and unaffected FMF in the atmosphere. Locations east and west EAC with mean temperatures greater than -10°C were unsuitable for cloud seeding while central EAC region along the great rift-valley and coastal Tanzania exhibited optimal temperatures suitable for cloud seeding. Successful precipitation enhancement will increase available fresh water sources and thus alleviate existing and projected water stress.


In the overlapping global emergencies of the pandemic, climate change and geopolitical confrontations, supply shocks have become frequent and inflation has returned. This raises the question how sector-specific shocks are related to overall price stability. This paper simulates price shocks in an input-output model to identify sectors which present systemic vulnerabilities for monetary stability in the US. We call these prices systemically significant. We find that in our simulations the pre-pandemic average price volatilities and the price shocks in the COVID-19 and Ukraine war inflation yield an almost identical set of systemically significant prices. The sectors with systemically significant prices fall into three groups: energy, basic production inputs other than energy, basic necessities, and commercial and financial infrastructure. Specifically, they are "Petroleum and coal products", "Oil and gas extraction", "Utilities", "Chemical products", "Farms", "Food and beverage and tobacco products", "Housing", and "Wholesale trade". We argue that in times of overlapping emergencies, economic stabilization needs to go beyond monetary policy and requires institutions and policies that can target these systemically significant sectors. JEL Codes: C67, E31, E61


Many Indian Business Schools and higher educational institutions have realized the importance of social media and the interactions in the social media platforms for branding their institution. Higher education institutions, specifically Indian Business Schools (B Schools) have been using the social media as a platform to connect to the prospective students, employers and alumni. With growing competition it has become imperative for Indian B Schools to use social media and communicate with all stake holders. For many Indian B Schools updating and maintaining the social media channels has become one of the most important digital marketing activity. Statista Research reveals the India takes the first place with 300 million users on Facebook and in the second position with 210 million Facebook users is the United States of America. Hence Indian B schools use Facebook as one of their important social media platform to build their identity and also to connect and communicate with prospective aspirants. In this paper the authors have taken posts from Facebook of renowned Indian B Schools. The format used and the topic of the posts have been taken from the Facebook pages of top 100 Indian B Schools. The B school were selected by considering National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) developed by Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India-India Rankings 2018 under Management category. The total posts that have been taken for the study is 19612. All the posts that were posted on the Facebook from May 2018 to January 2019 were included. The authors have analyzed the content to find the topics and format that increases the engagement and those that do not. This paper provides some strategies on how Indian B Schools can run their social media campaigns, with specific reference to Facebook posts, to better market their offering and also to increase organic reach of the posts.


We use simple models (the Ising model in one and two dimensions, and the spherical model in arbitrary dimension) to put to the test some recent ideas on the slow dynamics of nonequilibrium systems. In this review the focus is on the temporal evolution of two-time quantities and on the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, with special emphasis given to nonequilibrium critical dynamics.


Serum neurofilament light (sNfL) is a promising marker of outcome after cardiac arrest, but its kinetics are unclear. We prospectively measured sNfL concentrations in 62 patients at 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days after cardiac arrest. Survivors and non-survivors had similar sNfL at admission (14.2 [8.6-21.9] vs. 22.5 [14.2-46.9] pg/mL) but largely different at 24 h (16.4 [10.2-293] vs. 464.3 [151.8-1658.2], respectively). The AUC for sNfL concentrations predicting death was above 0.95 from Day 1 to 10 (highest on Day 3). Late sNfL measurements may exert prognostic value, especially when early samples are unavailable or prognosis remains unclear.


This paper is the briefing document that informs part of a NAIRTL funded project's consultation exercise. The Integrating Research, Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Setting: Developing a FETAC level 6 Certificate in political issues and community action for the immigrant community project will design and develop the curriculum for a UCC accredited Certificate (FETAC level 6) to be offered to the immigrant community from the greater Munster area. This paper will draw on national and international examples of good practise in curriculum design for non-traditional university students. It is also envisaged that it will act as a discussion document for consultations with the relevant community groups, state agencies and curriculum specialists whose active engagement and input forms a key part of the project.This paper proposes to investigate the use of two teaching strategies - service learning and enquiry or problem based learning (PBL) as part of the curriculum development process. A key aspect of the proposed curriculum will be voter education. Students of UCC's MBS Government and MA Politics will train immigrant students in this area, thus, providing them (the MBS/MA class) with the opportunity to gather relevant experience in the fields of citizenship training and community empowerment. PBL which has its origins in the work of Sweller and Cooper (1985 and 1987) on cognitive load theory will drive a research led curriculum which will develop the research skills of the students. As the curriculum is being designed, it will be piloted in an existing non-FETAC accredited certificate class – the Certificates in Political Issues and Community Action.


This chapter presents the modeling procedure, numerical application, and experimental validation of uncertain quantification techniques applied to flexible rotor systems. The uncertainty modeling is based both on the stochastic and fuzzy approaches. The stochastic approach creates a representative model for the flexible rotor system by using the stochastic finite element method. In this case, the uncertain parameters of the rotating machine are characterized by homogeneous Gaussian random fields expressed in a spectral form by using the Karhunen-Loève (KL) expansion. The fuzzy approach uses the fuzzy finite element method, which is based on the α -level optimization. A comparative study regarding the numerical and experimental results obtained from a flexible rotor test rig is analyzed for the stochastic and fuzzy approaches.


Since cast parts are used by the mankind -and the casting method should be one of the oldest metal forming technologies- the foundrymen struggle with various kind of difficulties. The most elementary ones are thermal problems during pouring. The basic condition, filling the mould before the metal solidifies to get the whole required shape, underlies primarily the thinnest wall within the casting and the thermal conditions. The empiric, experience-based knowledge was for a long time the single clue at the practical work with castings. Chvorinov, in German-speaking publications also written as Chworinoff, summarized and through his theoretical as well as experimental work complemented the knowledge of his time concerning the estimation of solidification development in sand-casted steel parts. His theory –expressed with the certainly best known formula in this speciality- was later expanded, modified and adapted to new scientific informations, although in a different way regarding the German-speaking respectively Anglo-Saxon technical literature. Nowadays, in time of more correct predictions supported through modern tools, estimation formulas are still very useful, acting as a preliminary stage of the design and development. Numerical simulation, in effect the efficient instrument for the subsequent steps of the processing, can also help to make the basic approximations more accurate, but it has his own possible traps as well.


The refurbishment project escalates as a sustainable building commodity that can be obtained to a marketable price and accordingly the reasons for the decision to initiate a refurbishment project are seen as a basis of demand. Refurbishment project becomes financially interesting whereas it increases the performance and value of the property. Early refurbishment or a short refurbishment cycle indicates that the built environment does not offer expected satisfaction to many building owners. Thus, refurbishment provides competition to all pleasure generating commodities. The reuse or recycle of building stock for refurbishment purposes is largely required as to make use and improve the existing resources. Lack of control by the Local Authorities has resulted unknown statistical data in refurbishment project. Enhancing the building refurbishment into a wider approach is a greater indeed which enable to provide well organize control and planning of refurbishment work. This study was aimed in providing a better understanding on the refurbishment projectis process implemented in the Malaysianis construction industry. This study was mainly provided results and findings of an interview which was conducted to identify the current practice of the government and non government organization in dealing with the process of refurbishment project. This study argued that their practice may be less effective and suggestion to the best practice in carrying the refurbishment process was compared with Standard Refurbishment Practice (SPR), a model practiced in United Kingdom. It also highlighted the problem related to the refurbishment process conducted throughout the case study which was further analysed from the organizations. This study concluded with the recommendation on the proposed refurbishment process in fulfilling the requirement among all.


Since the 1990s, Indigenous groups in Taiwan have been increasingly engaged in retrieving and reviving cultural practices that are considered 'traditional' and markers of Indigenous identities. This article takes such recent and ongoing revival of cultural practices and connected material culture amongst Taiwanese Indigenous groups as the departure point to argue that the idea of a 'contemporary Indigenous heritage' is constructed (notably by Indigenous artists and artisans) through the conflation of 'tradition', 'value', 'authenticity' and 'indigeneity', as well as creativity and innovation. In the article, I endeavour to explain this process. To this end, I identify and illustrate a set of strategies and discourses through which Indigenous artists and artisans in Taiwan construct their work as both 'Indigenous' and 'heritage'. I suggest that such strategies and discourses revolve around the following: (i) materiality, (ii) visual display and performance, (iii) Indigenous cultural research and (iv) knowledge transmission. Building on the Taiwanese case study, this article furthers scholarly enquiries into the making of heritage by generating an enhanced understanding of the role of artists and artisans in the creation, renewal, authentication and transmission of 'Indigenous heritage'.


Organic optoelectronics is an emerging field that exploits the unique properties of conjugated organic materials to develop new applications that require a combination of performance, low cost, light weight, and processability. For instance, disposable or wearable electronics, light-emitting diodes, smart tags, sensors, and solar cells all fall into this active area of research. Single crystals of conjugated organic molecules are, undoubtedly, the materials with the highest degree of order and purity among the variety of different forms of organic semiconductors. Electronic devices comprising these materials, such as single-crystal transistors and photoconductors developed during the last decade, are by far the best performers in terms of the fundamental parameters such as charge-carrier mobility, exciton diffusivity, concentration of defects, and operational stability. Extremely low density of defects and the resultant remarkable electrical characteristics of some of the organic single-crystal devices allow experimental access to the intrinsic charge transport properties not dominated by charge scattering and trapping. This enables basic studies of the physics of organic semiconductors, including examining the intrinsic structure-property relationship, thus providing a test bed for charge and energy transport theories. The goal of this issue of MRS Bulletin is to provide a broad overview of the state of the art of the field of organic semiconductor single-crystal materials, devices, and theory.


The ADA's recent release of the Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes recommends including technology-based methods for the delivery of effective diabetes self-management education and support. Self-management of diabetes involves meal planning, taking medications, blood glucose monitoring, physical activity, coordinating care, and others. The program developed by Pack Health addresses all of the tasks above and more through a structured 12-week program, evidence-based tools, and a non-prescriptive Health Advisor. The program has over 60 proactive outbound touchpoints that originate from the Health Advisor (via text messages, emails, and/or phone calls). The Pack Health program collects and utilizes patient-reported outcomes (PROs) along with clinical measures, self-reported by patients. All data is used for coaching sessions and evaluation purposes. This study examines the impact of Digital Health Coaching on a national diabetes population (n=198) and an African American sub-population (n=57) enrolled in the South (AL, GA, FL, MS) upon completion of the initial 12-weeks of engagement. The DDS is a 17-item scale that captures four critical dimensions of distress: emotional burden, regimen distress, interpersonal distress and physical distress. DDS score benchmarks are established at little to no diabetes distress ( National Diabetes Population: Baseline: 3.0; Post: 2.2; Improvement: 0.8 African Americans in the South: Baseline: 3.0; Post: 2.1; Improvement: 0.9 The data above emphasizes that digital coaching program can have a significant impact on Diabetes Distress for a general population and African American population in the South. Disclosure M. Allison: None. U. Srivastava: None. S.B. Burton: None. M. Rasulnia: None. D. Patel: None.


Background: Global warming causes severe heat conditions. Heat stress contributes to higher morbidity of heatstroke in human and mortality in livestock. To protect them from heat stress, thermotolerance mechanisms were widely studied, and some studies suggest relationship between heat shock proteins (HSPs) and thermotolerance. HSPs were not induced by only heat shock but also some stimulations including bioactive compounds from plants. Zingiber zerumbet is a perennial herb found in many tropical countries, including Thailand. The rhizome of Zingiber zerumbet contains zerumbone that is a bioactive compound to induce HSPs expression in animal cells. Objective: To prevent higher morbidity of heatstroke in human and mortality in livestock by the heat stress, we investigated the effect of zerumbone, the extract of Zingiber zerumbet Smith , on thermotolerance, using a cell line and mice. Methods: The murine liver hepatoma cell line, Hepa1c1c7 cells, were incubated in medium supplemented with extract from rhizome of Zingiber zerumbet Simith containing zerumbone, and then the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP) 40, 70 and 90 were investigated by western blotting. Furthermore, we established the evaluation system of thermotolerance using mice, and studied the effect of the extract on the growth rate of mice under the heat shock treatment. Briefly, 4 weeks old C57BL6 mice were fed that with the extract (or vehicle) for a week before the first heat shock treatment (38 °C for an hour). Before and after five days heat treatment, body weights were measured. The protein expressions of heat shock proteins in liver were measured by western blotting using HSPs antibodies. Results: The extract of Zingiber zerumbet rhizome, equivalent to 50 μM zerumbone, significantly increased the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP40, HSP70, HSP90). The growth rate of the mice under the heat treatment were lower than control. The feeding with the extract containing 25 ppm zerumbone have significantly attenuated the decline of the growth rate led by the heat treatment, whereas there was little effect on mouse growth rate grown under normal conditions. The protein expression of HSP70 in the liver of zerumbone-fed mice was upregulated compared with control mice, equivalent to heat treatment without zerumbone. On the other hand, both treatments of zerumbone and heat resulted in highest HSP70 expression among four groups. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that oral administration of the extract of Zingiber zerumbet Smith led to the attenuation of decline of growth rate induced by heat treatment. HSP70 expression in murine liver was enhanced by either feeding the extract or heat treatment. More interestingly, HSP70 expression was further enhanced by both treatments of zerumbone and heat. These results suggested that zerumbone may contribute to thermotolerance via, at least, HSP70 expression. Keywords: Zingiber zerumbet , thermotolerance, heat shock protein


Quantum information processing with continuous variables is a paradigm that has attracted a growing interest over the past years, partly as a consequence of the prospects for high-rate quantum communication systems based on standard optical telecommunication components. In this overview article, we introduce the concept of quantum continuous variables in optics and then turn to the fundamental impossibility of cloning continuous-variable light states, a result that lies at the heart of quantum key distribution. Then we present state-of-the-art quantum key distribution systems relying on continuous variables, focusing mainly on the protocols using Gaussian-modulated coherent light states and emphasizing the current experimental demonstration of these systems. Finally, we briefly review recent security proofs of these cryptographic protocols.