We report the biomechanics and anatomy of fruit wall peels (before and after cellulase/pectinase treatment) from two Lycopersicon esculentum cultivars (i.e., Inbred 10 and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes). Samples were tested before and after enzyme treatment in uniaxial tension to determine their rate of creep, plastic and instantaneous elastic strains, breaking stress (strength), and work of fracture. The fruit peels of both cultivars exhibited pronounced viscoelastic and strain-hardening behavior, but differed significantly in their rheological behavior and magnitudes of material properties, e.g., Inbred 10 peels crept less rapidly and accumulated more plastic strains (but less rapidly), were stiffer and stronger, and had a larger work of fracture than Sweet 100 peels. The cuticular membrane (CM) also differed; e.g., Sweet 100 CM strain-softened at forces that caused Inbred 10 to strain-harden. The mechanical behavior of peels and their CM correlated with anatomical differences. The Inbred 10 CM develops in subepidermal cell layers, whereas the Sweet 100 CM is poorly developed below the epidermis. Based on these and other observations, we posit that strain-hardening involves the realignment of CM fibrillar elements and that this phenomenon is less pronounced for Sweet 100 because fewer cell walls contribute to its CM compared to Inbred 10.


Several laboratories have been investigating the feasibility of in situ K‐Ar dating for use in future landing planetary missions. One drawback of these laboratory demonstrations is the insufficient analogy of the analyzed analog samples with expected future targets. We present the results obtained using the K‐Ar laser experiment (KArLE) on two old and K‐poor chondritic samples, Pułtusk and Hvittis, as better lunar analogs. The KArLE instrument uses laser ablation to vaporize rock samples and quantifies K content by laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Ar by quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS), and ablated mass by laser profilometry. We performed 64 laser ablations on the chondrites to measure spots with a range of K2O and Ar content and used the data to construct isochrons to determine the chondrite formation age. The KArLE isochron ages on Pułtusk and Hvittis are 5059 ± 892 Ma and 4721 ± 793 Ma, respectively, which is within the uncertainty of published reference ages, and interpreted as the age of their formation. The uncertainty (2σ) on the KArLE ages obtained in this study is better than 20% (18% for Pułtusk and 17% for Hvittis). The precision, which compares our obtained ages to the reference ages, is also better than 20% (11% for Pułtusk and 4% for Hvittis). These results are encouraging for understanding the limits of this technique to measure ancient planetary samples and for guiding future improvements to the instrument.


INTRODUCTION
Human Papilloma Virus has a strong relation to oropharyngeal mucosa and is considered to be responsible for a wide range of upper respiratory tract pathologies, like laryngeal papilloma. There's a hypothesis, that it plays a significant role in middle ear chronic inflammations and neoplasm's. MATERIAL AND METHODIC. The examination was carried on a group of 53 patients, 39 of which was suffering from granulation tissue chronic otitis media, 7-cholesteatomatous otitis media, 6--middle ear malignant neoplasm, and 1 middle and/or external ear benign neoplasm. The control group consisted of 5 patients operated on: otosclerosis--4 cases and post-traumatic tympanic membrane perforation--1 case. The material was postoperative tissue, like polyps, inflammatory granulation tissue, cholesteatoma masses and malignant neoplasm's tissue.

RESULTS
In the whole group of 53 examined cases, HPV DNA was confirmed in 22 cases (41.5%), in that group oncogenic types 16 or 18 in 12 cases (22.6%), and in 14 cases (26.4%) types 6 or 11. In a group of chronic granulomatous otitis media DNA characteristic for Papilloma was identified in 12 cases (25.6%), in it in 9 cases DNA HPV type 6 or 11 was confirmed, and in 7 cases type 16 or 18. Among cholesteatomatous chronic otitis media HPV DNA types 6 or 11 was identified in 70%. In every case of middle ear malignant neoplasm a presence of high-risk DNA Papilloma types 16 or 18 was confirmed. In any case of control group HPV DNA was detected.

CONCLUSIONS
The results has been compared with other authors examinations and it is claimed that they confirm the observation, that Human Papilloma Viruses may be a factor, that might play an important role in pathology of chronic otitis media and ear neoplasm's. It is concluded, that differences in percentages of HPV presence in chronic inflammations (70%) and ear neoplasm's may be explained by viral co-infection during bacterial c. o. m. Viral infection probably evolves carcinogenesis, which leads to a neoplastic growth.


Author(s): Karaoglu, H; Romanowicz, B | Abstract: © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. We present the results of synthetic tests that aim at evaluating the relative performance of three different definitions of misfit functionals in the context of 3-D imaging of shear wave attenuation in the earth's upper mantle at the global scale, using long-period full-waveform data. The synthetic tests are conducted with simple hypothetical upper-mantle models that contain Qμ anomalies centred at different depths and locations, with or without additional seismic velocity anomalies. To build synthetic waveform data sets, we performed simulations of 50 events in the hypothetical (target) models, using the spectral element method, filtered in the period range 60-400 s. The selected events are chosen among 273 events used in the development of radially anisotropic model SEMUCB-WM1 and recorded at 495 stations worldwide. The synthetic Z-component waveforms correspond to paths and time intervals (fundamental mode and overtone Rayleigh waves) that exist in the real waveform data set. The inversions for shear attenuation structure are carried out using a Gauss-Newton optimization scheme in which the gradient and Hessian are computed using normal mode perturbation theory. The three different misfit functionals considered are based on time domain waveform (WF) and waveform envelope (E-WF) differences, as well as spectral amplitude ratios (SA), between observed and predicted waveforms.We evaluate the performance of the three misfit functional definitions in the presence of seismic noise and unresolved S-wave velocity heterogeneity and discuss the relative importance of physical dispersion effects due to 3-D Qμ structure. We observed that the performance of WF is poorer than the other two misfit functionals in recovering attenuation structure, unless anelastic dispersion effects are taken into account in the calculation of partial derivatives. WF also turns out to be more sensitive to seismic noise than E-WF and SA. Overall, SA performs best for attenuation imaging. Our tests show that it is important to account for 3-D elastic effects (focusing) before inverting for Qμ. Additionally, we show that including high signal-to-noise ratio overtone wave packets is necessary to resolve Qμ structure at depths greater than 250 km.


Inhibitors of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) are immunosuppressants with less nephrotoxic potential than calcineurin inhibitors and antiproliferative effects, which are advantageous in the case of malignancy. However, a series of adverse events has been reported with the first-generation mTOR inhibitor sirolimus that includes hypersensitivity-like interstitial pneumonitis. To our knowledge, only one case of a pneumonitis associated with everolimus in a heart transplant patient has been reported, and it was related to elevated trough blood levels. We report herein the first case of a kidney graft recipient who developed everolimus-associated pneumonitis with normal trough blood levels that was completely reversed after drug withdrawal.


Aims/Objectives/Background Patients admitted to hospital via the emergency department (ED) need to be separated by SARS-CoV-2 infection status to prevent transmission. Using clinical criteria alone is not feasible due to the range of symptoms and asymptomatic spread. Turnaround time of laboratory PCR assays (~6–24 hrs) hinders patient movement through the hospital with pressure on side-rooms pending results and exposure risk if unsuspected cases are moved into bays. Lateral flow devices (LFD) can provide a rapid diagnosis and aid patient movement. This implementation study aimed to assess the accuracy and safety of LFDs within an ED during a high-prevalence period. Methods/Design Two rapid point-of-care tests (POCT) were introduced during December 2020: Cobas®-Liat® system (Roche Diagnostics) is a 20-minute assay comparable to laboratory PCR (in-house validation), and LFDs. Symptomatic patients with a positive LFD were cohorted on a 'red' ward. Asymptomatic patients with a negative result were allocated an 'amber' ward, pending lab PCR. Where there were discrepancies between results and symptoms; a Liat® was performed. The LFDs were validated by PCR swabs to determine true positive and false negative (FN) rates and to minimise fallout via contact tracing. The PCR cycle threshold (CT) values were recorded to evaluate the LFD sensitivity and specificity. Results were collected between December 2020-March 2021. Results/Conclusions Comparing LFD with PCR results, the sensitivity and specificity were 70.7% and 99.1%. LFD FNs had higher CT values (≥25), indicating the beginning or end of infection – unlikely infectious. One period of false positives during lower prevalence revealed a faulty batch. During the study period 90% of patients left the ED with a virological diagnosis. We conclude that POCT can aid the diagnosis of COVID-19 in the ED when combined with existing laboratory-based PCR algorithms. We demonstrate a safe and effective use of POCT in the ED which could be replicated across other centres.


In order to seek the possibility of automated detection of damaged buildings from aerial television, the characteristics of high-definition television (HDTV) images taken after the 1995 Kobe earthquake were investigated. The relationships between the degree of building damage and the color indices and edge intensity from the aerial images were examined by image processing techniques. The characteristics of building damage were defined on the basis of hue, saturation, brightness and edge intensity. Using the threshold values of these parameters, the typical areas were classified into damaged and undamaged pixels. A texture analysis was further conducted to these pixels and damaged buildings were identified. The extracted damage distribution by the proposed method agreed well with ground truth data and visual inspection of the HDTV images.


Aim Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) affects approximately 30% of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), especially elderly patients. As individuals with TRD are at an increased risk of committing suicide and pose a higher risk of relapse, early diagnostic biomarkers of TRD and a better understanding of the resistance mechanism are highly needed. This study aimed to determine whether serum cortisol, nesfatin-1, and pro-inflammatory cytokines can be used as biomarkers for the diagnosis of elderly patients with TRD. Methods Thirty elderly patients with TRD were selected as the TRD group. Thirty elderly patients with MDD who were effectively treated with conventional antidepressants were selected as the non-TRD group. The baseline levels of serum cortisol, nesfatin-1, and pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured and compared, and their diagnostic values were evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method for discriminating patients with TRD from those without TRD. Results Serum cortisol, C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were significantly higher in the non-TRD and TRD groups than in the control group. Moreover, serum cortisol, CRP, TNF-α, and IL-6 levels in the TRD group were significantly lower than those in the non-TRD group. Furthermore, serum nesfatin-1 levels in the non-TRD group were significantly lower than those in the control and TRD groups, while the serum IL-1β levels in the non-TRD group were significantly higher than those in the control and TRD groups. Additionally, an ROC analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.929 for the combination of nesfatin-1 and IL-1β and an AUC of 0.956 for the combination of cortisol, nesfatin-1, and IL-1β in discriminating elderly patients with TRD from those without non-TRD. Conclusion Serum cortisol, nesfatin-1, and IL-1β may be potential diagnostic biomarkers for discriminating elderly patients with TRD from those without TRD.


The far-zone spectral density of light waves scattered on a particulate medium was discussed, and the influence of characteristics of the medium on the far-zone scattered spectral density was investigated. It is shown that the normalized spectral density of the scattered field is closely related with the structural characteristics of the particles collection, including the relative size of particles and the distribution information of particles in the collection. These results may provide potential application in the reconstruction of the structure information of particulate medium.


This article proposes an illuminant estimation algorithm that estimates the spectral power distribution of an incident light source using its chromaticity determined based on the perceived illumination and highlight region. The proposed algorithm is composed of three steps. First, the illuminant chromaticity of the global incident light is estimated using a hybrid method that combines the perceived illumination and highlight region. Second, the surface spectral reflectance is then recovered from the image after decoupling the global incident illuminant for each channel. The surface spectral reflectance calculation is limited to the MAR (maximum achromatic region), which is the most achromatic and brightest region in the image, and estimated using the PCA (principal component analysis) method along with a set of given Munsell samples. Third, the closest colors are selected from a spectral database composed of reflected-lights generated by the given Munsell samples and a set of illuminants. Finally, the illuminant of the image is calculated using the average spectral distributions of the reflected-lights selected for the MAR region and its average surface reflectance. Experimental results confirmed the accuracy of the estimates produced by the proposed method for various illuminants.


The study was carried out on plants infested by the European corn borer (ECB) (Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.): fodder maize Wilga cultivar, sweet maize Candle cultivar, and sweet sorghum Sucrosorgo 506 cultivar. Observations on the types of plant damage caused by caterpillars were carried out in 2008-2010 in south-eastern Poland, in Terliczka, near Rzeszów (50°06' N; 22°05' E). Damages caused by O. nubilalis varied according to plant species and weather conditions. The greatest harmfulness of ECB caterpillars during the analyzed three-year period was recorded in sweet maize, of which from 89.5 to 93.0% of plants, and from 53.5 to 76.0% of cobs were damaged. Lower harmfulness of the European corn borer was recorded in fodder maize, of which from 58.0 to 80.2% of plants and from 29.5 to 42.2% of cobs were damaged by caterpillars. Sorghum was the least infested and damaged species by O. nubilalis, with from 3.0 to 16.2% of its plants being damaged by caterpillars. Broken stems were the most common form of damage found in the analyzed plants. The greatest damage rate was found in sweet maize (34.7 to 66.7%), followed by fodder maize (29.7 to 52.5%), and a very low damage rate was found for sorghum (0.7 to 1.5%). The type of damage to maize and sorghum plants caused by ECB caterpillars largely depended on the number of pests. The highest number of caterpillars was found on sweet maize plants, while sorghum plants were infested only by single individuals.


The allocation of limited resources such as links, servers, and agents to support as many as emergency call responses as possible while maintaining reasonable quality of service is a principal requirement in public safety networks. It is difficult to handle the highest priority emergency call responses for a congested period with a limited number of dedicated incoming links from commercial networks. Therefore, in this paper, we present the adaptive scheme based on a different call conversation time for an achieving efficient resource scheduling during a congested period without investing extra resources. The proposed adaptive scheduling approach improves accuracy of the network performance with the dynamic call holding time approach.


This study assessed the effects of hamstring prefatigue on peak torque, peak power, time to peak torque, knee angle of peak torque, and electromyography (EMG) activity of the hamstrings and quadriceps group during knee extensions at angular velocities of 60°, 180°, and 300°·s−1. Twenty Division I wrestlers performed 5 maximal knee extensions in pre-fatigued and nonfatigued conditions of the hamstring group. This study demonstrated that when the hamstrings were prefatigued, the quadriceps produced significant decreases in peak torque of 1.7% (p < 0.05), peak power of 11% (p < 0.05), and rate to peak torque of 6.4% (p < 0.01) as compared with the nonfatigued state. When the hamstrings were prefatigued, they produced a 25% greater amount of EMG activity during knee extension (p < 0.01) than when not prefatigued. There was no significant difference in quadriceps EMG activity whether the hamstring group was prefatigued or not (p > 0.05). The decrease in quadriceps peak torque during the prefatigued condition was more pronounced (p < 0.01) at an angular velocity of 60°·s−1 than at 180° or 300°·s−1. In other words, prefatiguing the antagonist appears to be most detrimental to torque output of the quadriceps in the condition that most closely replicates the speed at which "isotonic" weight training occurs (60°·s−1) and suggests a limitation to agonist-antagonist superset training.


Model GC1312S multifunction integrated optical circuit device (MIOC) used in inertial-grade interferometric fiber optics gyroscopes (IFOGs) is fabricated by annealing and proton exchange process (APE). The unique feature of the device is the incorporation of the beat detection circuit besides all the features the conventional single Y-branch multifunction integrated optical circuit devices have. The device structure, operation principle and typical characteristics, etc., are briefly presented in this paper.


The Xolapa Complex in the Acapulco-Tierra Colorada area, southern Mexico, is made up of orthogneisses and paragneisses, both affected by a variable degrees of migmatization. These rocks are intruded by several episodes of Jurassic-Oligocene, calc-alkaline granitic magmatism. Three phases of ductile deformation affected the gneisses and migmatites. D1 produced an amphibolite-facies metamorphic banding (M1) and a penetrative S1 foliation, axial planar to isoclinal, recumbent F1 folds with axes parallel to a NE to NW, gently plunging, L1 stretching lineation. D2 consists of a S2 foliation defined by hornblende, biotite and garnet, synchronous with M2 migmatization that generated leucosomes, which are generally parallel to S1. D3 is made up of asymmetric, chevron F3 folds that deform the composite S1/S2 foliation during greenschist to lower amphibolite metamorphism (M3). U-Pb SHRIMP (Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Micropobe) geochronology carried out on zircon separated from two orthogneisses yielded an Early Jurassic magmatic event (178.7 ± 1.1 Ma) and the age of migmatization (133.6 ± 0.9 Ma). Two episodes of Pb loss were also recognized, the first at 129.2 ± 0.4 Ma, and the second during the earliest Paleocene (61.4 ± 1.5 Ma); they are probably associated with two episodes of magmatism. The Early Jurassic magmatic arc may be correlated with a magmatic arc in the eastern Guerrero terrane. The Early Cretaceous migmatization is inferred to have resulted from shortening, possibly due to the accretion of an exotic block, such as the Chortis block along whose northern margin contemporaneous, high-pressure metamorphism has been recorded.


The objectives of this study were to:(1) optimise methane production of livestock manure during anaerobic digestion, focusing on the addition of mixed enzymes, thermal pre-treatment and codigestion, and (2) develop a better understanding of ammonia and sulphide inhibition during digestion of animal manure . Enzyme addition increased methane yield of manure following incubation prior to digestion. Thermal pre-treatment increased methane yield but was only energetically favourable when a surplus of thermal energy was available. Digestion of acidified manure showed sulphide inhibition but no inhibition was measured when processing solid fractions of acidified manure. Co-digestion of non-acidified manure with the solid fractions of acidified manure was found to be a promising method of increasing methane yield in terms of digester volume. Total volatile acids, isobutyric and isovaleric acid and total ammonia nitrogen were found to be useful indicators of ammonia inhibition.


Most of the layout algorithms for clustered graphs have been designed to differentiate the groups within the graph, however they do not take into account the interactions between such groups. Identifying these interactions allows to understand how the different communities exchange messages or information, and allows the social network researcher to identify key actors, social roles and paths from one community to another. These interactions are performed by actors who actually share links with different communities. Thus, dividing the set of nodes into those who interact with several communities and those who only interact with their own communities, will give some insight about how the communities interact.


Aim  This paper describes the development of novel indices of bird-habitat preference to examine bird species' use of habitats and their distributions relative to habitats. It assesses the implications for bird conservation regionally and the scope for biodiversity assessments generally.

Location  A 200 km by 400 km area of farmland with seminatural and urban areas, covering south-eastern England.

Methods  Cluster analysis was used to link birds to landscapes. Cluster centroid coordinate values were processed to derive indices of bird-habitat preference. Further developments assessed the relative values of individual habitats for birds.

Results  Clustering objectively linked birds to landscapes. Maps of the clusters showed strong regional patterns associated with distinctive habitat assemblages. Derived indices related bird species directly to individual habitats and habitats to birds. Even rare species and scarce habitats showed successful linkages, often to each other. Objective corroboration strongly supported the associations of coastal, wetland, urban and woodland birds and habitats; but, it suggested that farmland birds, whose numbers have nearly halved since 1977, may prefer alternative habitats.

Main conclusions  Land cover maps from remote sensing provide an effective way to link birds to habitats and vice versa. Thus, generalized habitat maps might be used to extrapolate localized or sample-based bird observations or the results of autecological studies, helping to predict and understand bird distributions in the wider countryside. The weak links between farmland birds and farmland habitats in a region dominated by farming, suggests that reasons for the decline in farmland birds may be deep seated and thus hard to reverse. The procedures described are repeatable elsewhere and applicable more generally to evaluate landscapes and biodiversity. It is suggested that remote sensing could rarely be bettered as a means of assessing habitats, comprehensively, over wide areas, in most parts of the world.


A liveable city requires accessible transport systems to serve a diverse range of people; otherwise, citizens may find parts of the city inaccessible. Socio-economic consequences of severance are well known, however the impact of what the author names as 'vertical severance' (VS) appears less understood, owing to the relatively recent introduction of step-free underground stations. This paper explains What attitudes and issues caused VS. So What were the implications and actionable insights of VS within the context of liveability within cities, and What Next. To serve a diverse population recommendations include incorporating new design procedures, and new design ideas for existing and new stations. Furthermore, VS could become a measure that describes the how liveable a city is for people of all ages and abilities. In conclusion, a sustainable vision for People Centred Mobility in Liveable Cities requires zero VS within stations and other transport systems.


Background Research studies have identified addiction treatment staff who have higher levels of education as having more positive attitudes about evidence-based treatment practices, science-based training, and the usefulness of evidence-based practices. This study examined associations between addiction treatment staff level of education and their perceptions of 3 measures of organizational change: organizational stress, training resources and staffing resources in their treatment unit. Methods The sample included 588 clinical staff from community-based substance abuse treatment organizations who received Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funding (2003–2008) to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs). Bivariate analysis and regression modeling methods examined the relationship between staff education level (no high school education, high school education, some college, associate's degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree, doctoral degree, and other type of degree such as medical assistant, registered nurse [RN], or postdoctoral) and attitudes about organizational climate (stress), training resources, and staffing resources while controlling for staff and treatment unit characteristics. Results Multivariable models identified staff with lower levels of education as having significantly more positive attitudes about their unit's organizational capacity. These results contradict findings that addiction treatment staff with higher levels of education work in units with greater levels of organizational readiness for change. Conclusion It cannot be inferred that higher levels of education among treatment staff is necessarily associated with high levels of organizational readiness for change.


Biometry of young White Wagtails (Motacilla alba) and Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla flava) caught in the Gulf of Gdańsk region during autumn migration Biometrics of juvenile 760 White Wagtails and 714 Yellow Wagtails migrating through the Gulf of Gdańsk region in autumn were studied between 1990 and 2000. In both species distributions of wing length, body mass and indices of wing shape were unimodal, with only one exception - in the White Wagtail the wing length distribution showed two peaks caused by sexual dimorphism. The mean body mass and reserves of fat in both species were low in comparison to other stopover sites. There were significant differences in mean weight between birds caught in the morning and in the evening. The majority of birds behave as energy minimising migrants and migrate with low fat reserves in small steps.


Spatial distribution of extended defects in semipolar (11¯01)-oriented GaN layers grown on patterned (001) Si substrates with striped grooves of varying width was investigated by optical means only using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and cathodoluminescence (CL). A high density of basal and prismatic stacking faults was observed in the c− wings, and the threading dislocations in c+ wings, which appear as dark patterns in the NSOM and CL images, were found to bend toward the surface during the initial stages of growth. In the case when growing c+ front of GaN made contact with the SiO2 masking layer during growth, stacking faults were found to form also in the c+ wings. These additional stacking faults effectively blocked propagation of dislocations along the c+ direction, resulting in high quality stripes virtually free of defects. As revealed by optical means only without the need for any structural investigation, such control over the threading dislocation density using select growth geo...


Cross-laminated timber, CLT, is a rather new building material. It consists of an odd number of layers consisting of lumber boards stacked together, where each layer is rotated 90 degrees in comparison to the adjacent layers. The material is used both as a load-carrying element as well as a non-load-carrying element, such as stairs.

Today there is only one established producer of CLT in Sweden. Due to the increasing popularity of the material, there are now several other producers that have started or are starting with CLT production. For new CLT producers it is imperative to optimize their products regarding technical and economical aspects. This thesis enlightens how such an optimization can be done and acknowledging which technical aspects that are the most important while optimizing the product selection for a CLT manufacturer.

As a background to the thesis, to get a common knowledge of how CLT works, and to include the producer's view of the manufacturing process and product selection, an initial literature study was conducted, followed by interviews with the manufacturers. The optimization was mainly done using a spreadsheet where different cross sections (number of layers, layer thickness and quality) were analyzed with respect to different load scenarios. The thesis has several limitations including fire performance and exclusion of asymmetrical cross-sections.

The results show that elements consisting of 5 or 7 layers are better suited as a floor system thanks to the fact that they can manage longer spans. Regarding walls, elements consisting of 3 layers are suitable in most cases, as their capacities rapidly increase when the layer thicknesses are increased. Furthermore, the results show that several factors other than the cross-sectional structure need to be considered for the optimization to be complete. Costs are a complex factor to include in an optimization as it is difficult to derive a cost for an element without including factors that are specific for each manufacturer


The importance of self-image congruence for product selection has been established across a number of purchase contexts, but the research that has included postpurchase evaluations is limited to a few examples, including a tourist destination, jewelery, and the use of ATMs. Despite recognition of the role of self-image congruence for hotel consumption, no research has been identified that addresses the affect self-image congruence has on postpurchase evaluations. This article reports an empirical analysis of the importance of self-image congruence to the postpurchase evaluation of hotels. The results indicate that self-image congruence affects the level of customer satisfaction. The results also indicate that the impact of self-image congruence varies with purpose of trip and gender.


AAF (Aluminium alloy foam) has turned out to be a beneficiary content in the automotive sector across the globe. It has been in applications due its light weight tendency and providing high strength and energy absorbing capacity. The content of paper marks a plot on the energy absorption capability of the AAF filled circular tubes. AlSi10Mg has been produced by the melt route method. Aluminium foam filled circular tubes, mild steel (MS) thin walled hollow tubes were tested under compression loading to note the energy absorption and deformation behavior. The compression was carried out with a strain rate of 0.1/s. FESEM tests was conducted to obtain the data at micro and macro levels. The test results portray that the foam filled circular tubes shows more energy absorption than the hollow (ERW) tubes at 0.1/s strain rate. Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.


Abstract Hybrid MKNF knowledge bases have been considered one of the dominant approaches to combining open world ontology languages with closed world rule-based languages. Currently, the only known inference methods are based on the approach of guess-and-verify, while most modern SAT/ASP solvers are built under the DPLL architecture. The central impediment here is that it is not clear what constitutes a constraint propagator, a key component employed in any DPLL-based solver. In this paper, we address this problem by formulating the notion of unfounded sets for non-disjunctive hybrid MKNF knowledge bases, based on which we propose and study two new well-founded operators. We show that by employing a well-founded operator as a constraint propagator, a sound and complete DPLL search engine can be readily defined. We compare our approach with the operator based on the alternating fixpoint construction by Knorr et al. (2011. Artificial Intelligence 175, 9, 1528–1554) and show that, when applied to arbitrary partial partitions, the new well-founded operators not only propagate more truth values but also circumvent the non-converging behavior of the latter. In addition, we study the possibility of simplifying a given hybrid MKNF knowledge base by employing a well-founded operator and show that, out of the two operators proposed in this paper, the weaker one can be applied for this purpose and the stronger one cannot. These observations are useful in implementing a grounder for hybrid MKNF knowledge bases, which can be applied before the computation of MKNF models.


In the Croatian fauna the genus Chrysops is represented by the following species: Chrysops caecutiens (L., 1758), Chrysops flavipes Meigen 1804, Chrysops italicus Meigen 1804, Chrysops parallelogrammus Zeller 1842, Chrysops relictus Meigen 1820, Chrysops rufipes Meigen 1820 and Chrysops viduatus (Fabricius 1794). Only two species, Chrysops viduatus and Chrysops caecutiens, are distributed both in the inland and Mediterranean part of Croatia, mostly on wet habitats. Chrysops viduatus covers 93 fields, whereas Chrysops caecutiens covers 54 fields on the UTM net of Croatia. The species Chrysops italicus and Chrysops flavipes have been sampled in the Mediterranean part of Croatia mostly at localities with brackish water. Other species from the genus Chrysops are distributed in the inland part of Croatia with a moderate continental climate. The species Chrysops parallelogrammus is distributed only at localities in the immediate vicinity of the Drava River. Chrysops viduatus is the most abundant species within the genus Chrysops in Croatia at 50.20% of all sampled specimens. Diptera, Tabanidae, Chrysops, distribution, Croatia


We have developed a cell culture system for human luteinizing granulosa cells which supports the timely and dynamic secretion of oestrogen, progesterone and relaxin in patterns that mimic serum concentrations of these hormones during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. There was a wide variation in the amount of relaxin secreted by the cultured cells for the 69 patients studied. As relaxin production was generally maximal by day 10 of culture, comparisons were made at this time point. It was observed that most of the conceptions occurred in patients with higher relaxin secretion in vitro. All cycles with relaxin > 800 pg/ml on day 10 had a term pregnancy while only 13% of cycles with relaxin < 200 pg/ml had term pregnancies. A limited number of cycles from donor/recipient cycles did not show similar results. Steroid concentrations were not predictive of conception. These results demonstrated that in-vitro production of relaxin is predictive of implantation success in in-vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer cycles. This supports the hypothesis that relaxin may be involved in implantation and that lowered relaxin concentrations may be a partial cause of poor pregnancy rates after IVF.


On the basis of literature data a current model is developed to estimate the deceleration of reed belt currents by reed stalks at Lake Constance. The model allows to discriminate less important hydromechanical parameters. The biological significance of the reedbelt current is discussed. Some hints for field measurements are given.


The loss of nitroglycerin (glycerol trinitrate (GTN), Perlinganit) when infused at various rates through polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubing was measured against time by continuously monitoring the GTN concentrations at the outflow of the tubing using a direct photometric method. The portion of GTN loss depends on the rate of infusion; at flow rates of 3-6 ml/h, GTN losses of up to 60% may be expected. Polyethylene (PE) tubing does not show this reduction in the outflow concentration of GTN. When GTN is infused through PVC tubing, the dosage cannot be controlled and any assessment of pharmacokinetics or absolute bioavailability becomes invalid. This effect of tubing accounts for apparent losses of bioavailability of up to 50%. Other organic nitrates like isosorbide dinitrate are shown to be absorbed into PVC in a similar way. The losses increase with larger liphophilicity of the drug.


Devices such as the Acapella ® may facilitate independent airway clearance, however, few clinical trials have investigated the efficacy of Acapella®. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Acapella® to `usual airway clearance' in adults during an acute exacerbation of bronchiectasis requiring oral antibiotic therapy. Twenty patients with bronchiectasis and an acute exacerbation requiring oral antibiotic therapy were recruited into a randomized crossover trial. Patients were allocated to one of two groups determined by concealed computer generated randomization. Group 1 (n =10): airway clearance session using Acapella® at home twice daily during oral antibiotic therapy. Group 2 (n = 10): `usual' airway clearance sessions at home during oral antibiotic therapy. Patients recorded duration of each treatment session, volume of sputum produced and perception of breathlessness. An independent assessor performed outcome measures of spirometric lung function, pulse oximetry and breathlessness at the beginning and end of the study period. The mean volume of sputum expectorated during Acapella® sessions was greater than for usual airway clearance sessions although this difference was not significant 2.61 ml (95% CI-1.62 to 6.84). Mean duration of Acapella ® sessions was greater than usual airway clearance sessions and approached significance. There were no significant between group differences in changes in lung function. This study demonstrates that the Acapella® device may offer an acceptable, user-friendly method of airway clearance in patients with bronchiectasis. Chronic Respiratory Disease 2007; 4: 67—74


In wireless sensor networks, the data transmitted from the sensor nodes are vulnerable to corruption by errors induced by noisy channels and other factors. Hence it is necessary to provide a proper error control scheme to reduce the bit error rate (BER). Due to the stringent energy constraint in sensor networks, it is vital to use energy efficient error control scheme. In this paper, we focus our study on the performance analysis of various error control codes in terms of their BER performance and power consumption on different platforms. In detail, error control codes with different constraints are implemented and simulated using VHDL. Implementation on FPGA and ASIC design is carried out and the energy consumption is measured. The error control performance of these codes is evaluated in terms of bit error rate (BER) by transmitting randomly generated data through a Gaussian channel. Based on the study and comparison of the three different error control codes, we identify that binary-BCH codes with ASIC implementation are best suitable for wireless sensor networks


Purpose: To prospectively evaluate intracorneal ring segment (ICRS) implantation on quality of life (QoL) of patients with keratoconus changes and identify factors responsible. Methods: Sixty-nine eyes of 42 keratoconus patients were implanted with the Keraring (Mediphacos, Belo Horizonte, Brazil). Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), refraction, and steep keratometry were analyzed 3 months and 1 year after surgery. All patients self-administered the National Eye Institute Refractive Error Quality of life instrument at 2 time points: after having worn best correction for at least 30 days since evaluation (mean 4 months after surgery) and 1 year after surgery. To analyze if the use of the appropriate correction at 1 year follow up had any impact on visual acuity and V-QoL, patients were divided into 2 groups: group A (appropriate correction) and B (not appropriate correction). Results: After 1 year, QoL changes related to scales 'clarity of vision', 'near vision', and 'far vision'. Keratometric values, sphere, and spherical equivalent did not differ significantly between 3 months and 1 year postoperative. Cylinder increase was statistically but not clinically significant. Binocular BCVA did not change 1 year after surgery in group A and showed a clinically significant impairment in group B. A year after surgery, 18 patients did not use correction suggested by a physician 3 months after surgery. QoL was not statistically different 1 year after surgery between group A and group B. Conclusion: Our findings show that the way keratoconic patients see is difficult to analyze using only quantitative and 1-visit metrics. They highlight the importance of patients' self perception and performing longitudinal analysis to consider neural compensation to optical changes from surgery.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the importance of sports programme implementation by sports administrators as to achieve success. This study examined the impact of administration and sports programme implementation on the achievement of Rivers State Sports Councils at the 17th National Sports Festival competition. The descriptive survey research design was employed for this study. Incidental sampling technique was used to select 260 sports men/women, coaches, organizing secretaries, management staff, and stadium attendants from Rivers State sports council, who severed as subjects for this study. An adapted self designed questionnaire made up of simple questions was used for data collection. The collected data was subjected to chi-square analysis based on the two stated hypotheses. The results of the findings showed that administration of sports has significant effect on the achievement of Rivers State Sports Council at the 17th National Sport Festival with a c2 value of 8.90. The cross tabulation of chi-square value of 9.00 obtained, showed that Rivers State sports council programme implementation at the 17th National sports festival was highly significant. Based on this two results of the findings, it was concluded that Rivers State sports council has a sound administration and excellent pattern of programme implementation. It was recommended, among other things that, qualified and adequate coaches/organizing secretaries and athletes should be recruited for training and more programme planning.

 Key words: Programme implementation, achievement, sports festivals, sports council, sports commission.


This research paper presents the issue of citizen participation at the low participation in the formulation, development, implementation and control. Public policies promote a better quality life, the solution of society`s specific problems and demands related to priorized needs. Thus, public policies must be directed to an excellent development and institutional enforcement to satisfy the needs of a constantly growing society.
This paper collected the perception of citizen participation in the Management of Public Policy in relation to the rulers and the ruled (Citizenship with the different levels of government).
This research aims to improve public participation in the formulation, development, implementation and control, at different levels of government to contribute to the quality of Public Policy Management in the Municipality of Sucre.


2D semiconductor quantum wells have been recognized as potential candidates for various quantum devices. In quantum wells, electrons and holes are spatially confined within a finite thickness and freely move in 2D space. Much effort has focused on shape control of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs), and synthesis of 2D colloidal NCs has been achieved very recently. Here, recent advances in colloidal synthesis of uniform and ultrathin 2D CdSe NCs are highlighted. Structural and optical property characterization of these quantum‐sized 2D CdSe NCs is discussed. Additionally, 2D CdSe NCs doped with Mn2+ ions for dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are presented. These 2D CdSe‐based NCs can be used as model systems for studying quantum‐well structures.


A supercapacitor electrode featured with a voltage self-stabilizing capability is demonstrated by growing indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires on Ni foam. The ITO nanowires with a single crystal structure are prepared by using magnetron sputtering technique, and they can act as an active electrode material. Charging–discharging experiments are performed under different current densities, demonstrating a good rate capability. Using properly designing top and bottom double connection circuits, part of the electrode can be used as a resistance switch. An electrode that can function as a supercapacitor and a resistance switch is fabricated. Detailed characteristics confirm that the device not only exhibits high performance as a supercapacitor but also has good characteristics of resistance switching (RS). The specific capacitance is 956 F/g at the scanning rate of 10 mV/s, and the switching ratio as a bipolar resistance switch is as high as 10^2. The stabilization time of discharging voltage is nearly doubled longer than that without any RS function, revealing the potential application of our devices, which can be used as a supercapacitor with voltage self-stabilizing.


Depletion of cyb-1, a major B-type cyclin expressed during C. elegans spermatogenesis, caused a meiotic division arrest in diakinesis-stage spermatocytes with multiple and mispositioned centrosomes. Association of SUN-1 and ZYG-12, two nuclear membrane proteins, is critical for centrosome–nuclear envelope attachment. We found that sun-1 depletion caused centrosome defects similar to those caused by cyb-1 depletion in diakinesisstage spermatocytes. In addition, Ser8 and Ser43 residues in SUN-1 were dephosphorylated in cyb-1-depleted diakinesis-stage spermatocytes. Nevertheless, dephosphorylation of these residues was not sufficient to reproduce the cyb-1-related centrosome defects. We then found that the ZYG-12::GFP signal in the nuclear envelope was significantly reduced in the cyb-1depleted diakinesis-stage spermatocytes. However, only mispositioned but not multiplied centrosomes were observed in zyg-12-mutant diakinesis-stage spermatocytes, suggesting that zyg-12 is not involved in the centrosome duplication at this stage. CYB-1 possibly serves a novel function to maintain proper positioning of centrosomes during the spermatogenesis by regulating phosphorylation of SUN-1, which is conceivably critical for the association between SUN-1 and ZYG-12. This phosphorylation of SUN-1 may be also critical to regulate centrosome duplication independent of ZYG-12. Jo ur na l o f C el l S ci en ce • A dv an ce a rt ic le


Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN)-resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the ability to interfere with phagocytosis of Escherichia coli, whereas PMN-sensitive strains of P. aeruginosa did not. When mice were infected with an ordinarily nonpathogenic strain of E. coli, addition of a PMN-resistant strain of P. aeruginosa gave a mortality considerably higher than that obtained with P. aeruginosa alone, whereas addition of a PMN-sensitive strain of P. aeruginosa gave a mortality not different from that observed with P. aeruginosa alone. This increased mortality in mixed infection with E. coli and PMN-resistant P. aeruginosa was obtained by facilitation of tissue invasion by both bacteria from the inoculum site.


Eggs and larvae of an ichneumon fly, Nenteritis canescens, injected into adults of a stick insect, Carausius morosus, elicited two defence reactions. Dark material, probably melanin, was deposited on their surface; and they were invested with haemocytes which, within 24 h, formed unorganized clumps of irregular shape about them. The haemocytic reaction was less vigorous in confined spaces than in the main blood stream, and several observations support the view that the haemocytes did not flock to the parasite from a distance but accumulated by chance encounter of, at most, a small chemotactic field. The size of the clumps reached a maximum about 24 h after injection of the parasite. The melanin reaction, on the other hand, was as strong in confined spaces as in the main blood stream, and was progressive, eventually encasing the parasite in a brittle black sheath. In nymphs of 1/2, and in young nymphs of 1/20, adult weight, the two reactions were essentially the same as in adults; the melanin reaction was indistinguishable from that in the adult; the haemocytic reaction in the large nymphs was a little, and in the small nymphs was much, less massive. The deposition of melanin about the parasite was inhibited by simultaneous injection of phenylthiourea. The haemocytic reaction could not be inhibited by injections of Chinese ink, because blood cells blackened by the carbon particles they had engulfed nevertheless invested the parasite. The two reactions were elicited both by living and by dead parasites; the haemocytic reaction appeared to be elicited by clean glass rods, but the melanin reaction was not. Most Nenteritis eggs failed to hatch in Carausius although the fully developed larva could be seen moving within them, and no Nenteritis larva was observed to live longer than 48 h in this host. But larvae that had hatched in Carausius and after 24 h were transferred to the normal host, Ephestia, lived and developed. Moreover, eggs hatched normally in the blood of Carausius in hanging-drop cultures, and the larvae lived as long as 75 h. The death of this parasite in Carausius does not appear to be due either to toxic properties of the blood as a fluid, or to its unsuitability as food, but to active processes, the haemocytic and melanin reactions, that take place in the living host.


A strong association between PE and patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (15.3% overall range 0-35%) has been reported, but the prevalence in ED patients remains unknown. The contribution of traditional risk factors is likewise unclear. While Freund et al. attempted to answer to this question, we have methodologic concerns we feel require attention before emergency physicians proceed as if COVID-19 does not increase risk of PE.


Background: Physical activity has been shown to stimulate haematopoiesis in patients with anaemia due to chronic renal failure or haematological malignancies. Objective: To evaluate the effect of moderate exercise on the production of haematopoietically active factors. Methods: Ten patients (four men and six women, mean (SD) age 51 (10) years) with a haemoglobin concentration under 130 g/l (men) or 120 g/l (women) carried out five three minute exercise bouts at an intensity of 80% of the maximal heart rate, corresponding to a lactate concentration of 3 (0.5) mmol/l. Patients rested for three minutes between bouts. The concentrations of interleukin 6, stem cell factor, granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor, granulocyte colony stimulating factor, erythropoietin, and growth hormone (GH) were evaluated before and in the eight hours after exercise. Results: GH had risen significantly 15 minutes after exercise (1.1 (1.3) v 2.7 (2.8) ng/ml; p<0.05). No change in the concentration of the other cytokines and growth factors was observed in the eight hours after exercise. Conclusions: In patients with anaemia, submaximal exercise does not affect the concentration of haematopoietically active cytokines. However, it leads to an increased concentration of GH. This may be responsible for the improved haematopoiesis observed after an exercise programme in patients with chronic diseases.


This study aimed at identifying the commonly screened antibiotics during the dairy processing routine in raw-milk receiving points in plants inspected by the official services in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), from January 2014 to February 2015. Among the 36 participating industries, the most commonly screened antibiotics were beta lactams (100%) and tetracyclines (69%). The antibiotics screened at the milk receiving point were chosen because of the practicality and speed in performing the screening (67%), rather than specific knowledge on which antibiotics the milk suppliers used. (22%).


The over-representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) people in mental health services may reflect their exposure to overt and covert racism, which acts as a 'chronic stressor'. Mental health professionals can help by building positive relationships with their BME patients.


Shrinking traces and spaces combined with a rising layer count eventually enlarge density, but most fabricators merely choose to shrink via size. Vias (conductive vertical paths or holes in any substrate) were previously drilled mechanically. With the prevalence of lasers, however, the focus has turned to microvias or build-up technologies. Microvias (miniature holes smaller than 150 μm in diameter) enable connections between different layers of a PCB. But how do microvias affect substrate or integrated circuit packaging? The author believes that this innovative technology will revolutionize PCB technology-a point he demonstrates by focusing on how microvias are made and their potential impact on PCB technology. Microvias will dominate the next generation of electronic products because they provide for increased density on a smaller substrate.


【Purpose: The purpose of study was to test the effect of lower extremity muscle strengthening exercise using elastic resistance on balance on elderly women. Methods: Twenty four women who were over 65 years old were randomly assigned to either the experimental group that received the exercise programme (n=12) or to the control group (n=12) that continued normal activities except programme. Exercises included the following 7 different activities; chair squat, knee flection, extension, hip flection, extension, calf muscle raise, ankle dorsiflection. All the participants were subject to 3 tests, including One-Leg Standing Test, Functional Reaching Test, and Up & Go Test. The measurements were made before the excercise, 4 and 8 weeks after the exercise. The data were analyzed by using the two way repeated ANOVA. Results: The results were as follows; As compared with change of balance capacity between groups, a significant difference was shown in the up and go test (p .05) and FRT (p>.05). Conclusion: The lower extremity muscle strengthening exercise using elastic resistance for the elderly women had some positive effects on the balance. Therefore this intervention can be broadly applied to other elders for preventing falls.】


This article mainly focuses on modern statutes and drafts concerning civil liability for environmental harm. A first part is dedicated to an historical summary of the circumstances which gave birth to the problems concerning the various criteria for assignment of liability; in a second part the laws and the projects that are most representative and pertinent for this inquiry are examined. The article is at the same time an effort to combine the historical-comparative approach with that elaborated by the economic analysis of law.


In 2000, the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute launched an ongoing inquiry into prisoner reentry research to better understand the pathways of successful reintegration, the social and fiscal costs of current policies, and the impacts of incarceration and reentry on individuals, families, and communities. Over the past nine years, the Urban Institute's reentry research portfolio has informed a broad set of policy and practice discussions about the challenges facing former prisoners. The Institute's research includes a range of studies, from rigorous program evaluations to strategic planning partnerships with state and local jurisdictions. More information can be found at http://www.urban.org/justice.


Terahertz (THz) emission from magnetic films has recently become an important characterization tool of spintronic properties, particularly since no patterning is required. One such property of interest is the spin-current attenuation length. When separating a magnetic film from a spin-to-charge converter with a light metal, the emitted intensity reduces almost exponentially with the thickness of the spacer. However, the extracted characteristic length is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the spin diffusion length measured in equilibrium. In this work, we experimentally and theoretically demonstrate that most of the observed decay in the THz emission is of optical (THz) origin. We are able to estimate a spin current attenuation length for Cu of ∼50 nm in much closer agreement with spin diffusion length measurements. We conclude that THz emission remains a powerful characterization technique, but due to the high number of intricate conversion mechanisms, and most importantly, due to the high sensitivity to changes in the optical properties, extracting absolute numbers for spintronic phenomena remains extremely challenging.


Objectives. This study evaluated the effects of wearing the Laevo v2.56 exoskeleton (Laevo, The Netherlands) on physiological parameters related to working load and metabolic cost (MC) during a lifting task, explored the variability in exoskeleton performance among users and determined whether perceived discomfort negatively correlates with a reduction in MC. Methods. Twenty participants completed a 4-min repetitive lifting task with/without the exoskeleton. Respiratory gases, heart rate, blood lactate and ratings of perceived exertion and experienced discomfort were collected, and MC was calculated. Results. Wearing the exoskeleton significantly reduced MC and oxygen uptake during the lifting task by 4.8 and 3.8%, respectively. Workload reduction occurred in 65% of the participants. Conclusion. The Laevo v2.56 exoskeleton reduced MC and workload in a repetitive lifting task in a subject-dependent manner. Future studies should focus on identifying factors that could cause performance variability such as user–robot interaction forces.


Drug abuse the world over is increasingly becoming a global problem which threatens to tear the social fabric of society. The effects of drug abuse have been felt in many learning institutions, families and organizations. According to a sturdy carried out by NACADA in the year 2004, by the age of 17, more than half of all males in Nairobi slums have began to take alcohol an even an higher percent (58.0%) have began using drugs. This has led to various health problems related to drug and substance abuse e.g. Depression, social cultural problems such as increase in crime rates, dysfunctional families, personal problems e.g. low self esteem, suicide and drug related problems. The main aim of this sturdy is to understand the scope and effects of group therapy on persons with drug abuse related problems in Kibera slum. The major findings of the study were that group therapy assists persons with drug abuse related problems to; Abstain from drug, develop high self esteem, learn social skills which they apply to cope with daily life challenges instead of resulting to drugs, reduces their sense of isolation and helps them to regain a sense of self worth. The study found most of the people with drug related problems in Kibera cannot access group counseling service due to the fact there is only one rehabilitation centre situated near Kibera that offers group therapy to a limited number of clients. From the findings, the following recommendations have been suggested; That the government in collaboration with the Churches, Non Governmental Organizations and the community should set up well equipped and affordable rehabilitation centers within the informal settlements, Every county to allocate funds in the annual budget towards drug addiction preventative and curative programs and further research should be carried out to find out the factors that have led to the prevailing situation and establish the best ways to address the situation.


Significance Primary stem cells are difficult to transfect, and their viability and function are impaired by traditional transfection methods. We show that nanostraws can be used to deliver RNA to primary human hematopoietic stem cells without any detectable negative effects. Nanostraw-treated cells show no alterations in gene expression and fully retain their proliferative capacity and their potential to regenerate blood cells of different lineages in vivo. This nonperturbative transfection method can benefit functional studies and clinical applications where minimal impact on stem cell function and viability is required. Introduction of exogenous genetic material into primary stem cells is essential for studying biological function and for clinical applications. Traditional delivery methods for nucleic acids, such as electroporation, have advanced the field, but have negative effects on stem cell function and viability. We introduce nanostraw-assisted transfection as an alternative method for RNA delivery to human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Nanostraws are hollow alumina nanotubes that can be used to deliver biomolecules to living cells. We use nanostraws to target human primary HSPCs and show efficient delivery of mRNA, short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), DNA oligonucleotides, and dextrans of sizes ranging from 6 kDa to 2,000 kDa. Nanostraw-treated cells were fully functional and viable, with no impairment in their proliferative or colony-forming capacity, and showed similar long-term engraftment potential in vivo as untreated cells. Additionally, we found that gene expression of the cells was not perturbed by nanostraw treatment, while conventional electroporation changed the expression of more than 2,000 genes. Our results show that nanostraw-mediated transfection is a gentle alternative to established gene delivery methods, and uniquely suited for nonperturbative treatment of sensitive primary stem cells.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to volumetrically analyze the efficacy of root canal fillings in primary teeth using spiral computed tomography (CT).

METHODS
Root canals in 30 primary maxillary and mandibular molars were instrumented with K files to size 30, and the volumes of the canals were then measured using spiral CT. The teeth were randomly divided into 3 groups of 10 each, and 18 of the canals in each group were evaluated with spiral CT after obturation with zinc oxide eugenol paste, Metapex and Vitapex. The filled volume in each canal was mea- sured using spiral CT, and the percentage of obturated volume (POV) was calculated. The pre- and post-mean canal volume values within each group and the POV of the 3 groups were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and paired t tests.

RESULTS
Filler voids were seen in all groups, but there was a statistically significant difference (P <.001) in the calculated POV. Vitapex showed 95% POV compared to Metapex (88%) and ZOE (84%).

CONCLUSION
Voids were seen in all 3 filling materials. Vitapex showed the maximum percentage of obturated volume among the 3 groups.


Transition-metal catalysts (TMCs) effect bioorthogonal transformations that enable the generation of therapeutic agents in situ, minimizing off-target effects. The encapsulation of insoluble TMCs into polymeric nanoparticles to generate "polyzymes" has vastly expanded their applicability in biological environments by enhancing catalyst solubility and stability. However, commonly used precipitation approaches provide limited encapsulation efficiency in polyzyme fabrication and result in a low catalytic activity. Herein, we report the creation of polyzymes with increased catalyst loading and optimized turnover efficiency using flash nanoprecipitation (FNP). Polyzymes with controlled size and catalyst loading were fabricated by tuning the process conditions of FNP. The biological applicability of polyzymes was demonstrated by efficiently transforming a non-toxic prodrug into the active drug within cancer cells.


In this study, an integrated fault tolerant preview tracking control framework is proposed based on reduced-order simultaneous state and fault estimation, robust preview control and fault signal compensation. In general, this work consists of three key design parts. Firstly, the analysis and synthesis conditions of a novel reduced-order simultaneous state and fault estimator are given based on the equivalent model reconstruction and optimisation of the parametric solution. Note that such a reduced-order design method can avoid traditional output equation reduction requirement, and has a wider application scope. Secondly, the robust preview tracking control policy is constructed by integrating state-feedback, preview action, and integral operation. Relying on augmentation modelling technique, a linear quadratic preview control design problem is transformed into an equivalent augmented state-feedback control design problem. Thirdly, the fault compensation is achieved by using estimated fault to accommodate fault influence. These involved designs are performed at the H ∞ optimisation level, and thus guarantee the robust tracking performance of closed-loop systems. The effectiveness of the above conclusions is finally verified via two case studies.


In the study, we present an effective segmentation technique for multispectral image compression. This technique fully exploits the spectral and spatial correlation in the data. The original image is first divided into some proper eigen-regions according to the local terrain characteristics of the image. Then, each region image is transformed by the corresponding KL transformation function and results in an eigen-region image for further compression. Simulation tests performed on Landsat TM images have demonstrated that the proposed compression scheme is suitable for multispectral image.


We report results of a study on the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of GaAs, AlGaAs, GaSb, and GaP in pure Ar, and plasma chemistries. Etch rates of the semiconductors initially increase with ICP source power, reaching maxima around 1500 - with - 700 W ICP power, and then decrease with further increase of ICP power because of the decrease in cathode dc self-bias. Etch rates increase at fixed ICP power with rf chuck power in the range of 100 W to 450 W, while they showed little dependence on the chamber pressure (2 mTorr - 20 mTorr) in discharges. We found that the dc self-bias on the rf chuck decreased exponentially as ICP power increased, while it increased with rf chuck power and pressure in these plasma chemistries. A simple calculation of ion flux and etch yield based on dc self-bias of the plasmas on the sample chuck was used to measure typical values of etch yield. In both ICP and discharges these were close to the pure Ar sputter yield.


PurposeThe authors employ the vessels that comprise the dry bulk segment of the maritime industry and examine how market sentiment affects the herding behavior of shipping investors in a real asset market.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ a threshold regression model to examine how changes in market sentiment can affect herding behavior in oceanic dry bulk shipping.FindingsThe results show that the behavioral aspect of investing, measured through intentional and unintentional herding, contrary to the results for financial markets, is affected by sentiment on the buy side (newbuildings) but not on the sell side (scrapping). Furthermore, the authors provide evidence that when market sentiment is negative, investors tend to follow market leaders (intentional herding), while, when sentiment is positive, unintentional herding leads to common investment practices among shipping investors.Originality/valueThe results have significant implications both for academics and for practitioners since they reflect a clear distinction of the pattern of investment decisions for real assets, compared to financial assets.


Direct quotations from business leaders can provide a rich sample of language which is in common use in the world of commerce. This language used by business leaders often uses: metaphors, euphemisms, slang, obscenities and invented words. In addition the business lexicon is dynamic because new words or terms will gain popularity with businessmen whilst obsolete words will exit their common vocabulary. In addition to being a rich source of language direct quotations from business leaders can have ''real world'' consequences. For example, Gerald Ratner nearly bankrupted his company with an infamous candid comment at an Institute of Directors meeting in 1993. Currently, there is no ''direct quotations from business leaders'' resource freely available to the research community. The ''Minho Quotation Resource'' captures the business lexicon with in excess of 500,000 quotations from individuals from the business world. The quotations were captured from October 2009 and April 2011. The resource is available in a searchable Lucene index and will be available for download in May 2012


Corporate competitiveness is influenced by a number of factors. Their impact is not partial, but synergistic. It is necessary to respect the phenomenon of synergy consistently when examining which of these potential competitiveness attributes can really function as these factors. Consequently, feature selection and classification methods of statistical pattern recognition have been used for the multivariate statistical analysis of and search for competitiveness factors. The calculations conducted herein show that the Sequential Forward Floating Search method in combination with k-Nearest Neighbours classification is capable of capturing the synergistic effect of the whole set of factors, providing much better results than simple bivariate analysis methods that test only the partial effects of individual factors.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to identify in a population-based study the differences between general dentists and endodontists with regard to types of teeth treated, fees, and patient characteristics.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN
The "Florida Dental Care Study" was a prospective cohort study using a representative baseline sample of 873 dentate adults. In-person interviews and clinical examinations were conducted at baseline, 24 months, and 48 months, with 6-monthly telephone interviews between those times. Dental record information was abstracted afterward.

RESULTS
A total of 100 root canals were performed in participants during the study period. While generalists performed the majority of endodontic procedures in all teeth, the percentage of molars treated by endodontists was significantly higher than the percentage of anterior teeth and bicuspids treated by endodontists. Data on fees were available in 85 of the cases. The trend was for endodontists fees to be higher, but the difference in fees was statistically significant only for molars. There were no statistically significant differences between generalist and specialist patients with regard to income, fear of pain, and frustration from previous dental care. However, a significantly higher percentage of patients treated by endodontists had dental insurance.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the number of teeth ultimately treated in this representative sample of a dentate population was small, results do suggest that endodontists' fees were higher, they performed a higher percentage of molar root canals, and their patients were more likely to have dental insurance, as compared to general dentists who did root canals.


We propose a framework based on a parametric quadratic programming (QP) technique to solve the support vector machine (SVM) training problem. This framework, can be specialized to obtain two SVM optimization methods. The first solves the fixed bias problem, while the second starts with an optimal solution for a fixed bias problem and adjusts the bias until the optimal value is found. The later method can be applied in conjunction with any other existing technique which obtains a fixed bias solution. Moreover, the second method can also be used independently to solve the complete SVM training problem. A combination of these two methods is more flexible than each individual method and, among other things, produces an incremental algorithm which exactly solve the 1-Norm Soft, Margin SVM optimization problem. Applying Selective Sampling techniques may further boost convergence.


The control over bacterial diseases requires the development of novel antibacterial agents. The use of antibacterial nanomedicines is one of the strategies to tackle antibiotic resistance. The study was designed to assess the antimicrobial activity of cerium oxide (CeO2 ) nanoparticles (NP) of two different sizes (CeO2 NP1 [1-2 nm] and CeO2 NP2 [10-12 nm]) and their cytotoxicity towards eukaryotic cells. The antimicrobial activity, effects of nanoparticles on DNA cleavage, microbial cell viability, and biofilm formation inhibition were analyzed. The impact of cerium oxide nanoparticles on eryptosis of erythrocytes was estimated using annexin V staining by flow cytometry. The newly synthesized CeO2 NP1 and CeO2 NP2 displayed moderate antimicrobial activities. CeO2 NP1 and CeO2 NP2 exhibited single-strand DNA cleavage ability. CeO2 NPs were found to show 100% microbial cell viability inhibition at a concentration of 500 mg/L. In addition, CeO2 NP1 and CeO2 NP2 inhibited the biofilm formation of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Larger cerium oxide nanoparticles were found to be less toxic against erythrocytes compared with the smaller ones. CeO2 nanoparticles demonstrate moderate antimicrobial activity and low cytotoxicity towards erythrocytes, which make them promising antibacterial agents.


Dear Editor,
The current Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first identified around the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China and was declared a global pandemic by WHO a few months after, in March 2020. Since then, the Coronavirus caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is of great concern to human life, affecting around 24.8 million people worldwide and causing 5.3 million lives to succumb to it as of 15th December'2021. (1) Even though vaccines against the virus have readily been made available to the population, with new strains of the virus coming to light every few months, the end still seems bleak. As part of the body's innate mechanism, antibodies develop against a pathogen after one's been exposed to it. Antibodies also make up a considerable composition of breast milk that provide immune protection to the neonates against diseases such as gastrointestinal tract infections, respiratory infections and middle ear infections. (2)
COVID-19 targets individuals of all age groups, however in neonates the positivity ratio is considerably lower. While vertical transmission of COVID-19 has been a topic of much debate, there has been no definitive evidence to prove the phenomenon. (3) Currently studies state that there is no concrete proof confirming the association of COVID-19 and its spread via breast milk. (3)
In a recent study by Rebecca Powell, strong associations were made between antibodies present in breast milk and COVID-19. After taking and assessing donated milk samples of eight COVID-19 recovered and seven COVID-19 suspected lactating females, it was found that milk from all COVID-19 recovered individuals showed notable SARS-CoV-2 specific IgA reactivity, suggesting that breast milk may contain immunoglobulins protective against the novel Coronavirus. (4) In another study, it was found that a woman who tested positive for COVID-19 had discoverable IgG and IgA in breast milk. Her newborn infant tested negative for the Virus at birth but showed an elevated IgG in serum (5), re-establishing our prior argument about the presence of COVID-19 antibodies in breast milk.
Though, yet not fully researched, this discovery could possibly be a revolutionary step towards formulating a preventive measure to the Virus, thus helping eradicate the pandemic. The severity of neonatal complications arising with the malady may be drastically reduced. A more scientific research and thorough analysis to this finding is required to prove a causal relationship between the disease and antibodies present in breast milk.


Tissue acid-base changes during maturation were studied by making complete acid-base comparisons among 8-day-old, 25-day-old, and adult rats. Micromethods were used to obtain individual values for blood pH and for CO2 content of plasma, brain, and skeletal muscle. The results showed that the CO2 content of both brain and muscle are high in 8-day-old animals but decrease to adult levels in the 25-day-old rat. Plasma total CO2 does not change during maturation. Fractionation of muscle total CO2 into extra- and intracellular components indicated that muscle cell pH is elevated in 8-day-old animals because intracellular bicarbonate levels are markedly greater than those observed in older animals. It was concluded that changes in tissue CO2 content during growth are due to a marked decrease in intracellular bicarbonate concentrations. Although the partition of brain total CO2 was not feasible due to uncertainties in extracellular space measurements, the results indicated that during maturation brain cell acid-base parameters undergo changes similar to those observed in skeletal muscle.


Background This study explored the relationship between the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level in patients with or without diabetes mellitus and future risks of cardiovascular disease and death. Methods Based on a national representative cohort, a total of 5277 participants (7% with diabetes) were selected from Taiwan's Triple High Survey in 2002. The comorbidities, medication usages, and outcomes of cardiovascular disease and death, were extracted from the Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database and National Death Registry. Results After a median follow-up of 9.7 years, participants with diabetes had higher incidence of new onset cardiovascular disease (17.9 versus 3.16 cases per 1000 person-years) and death (20.1 versus 4.96 cases per 1000 person-years) than those without diabetes (all P < 0.001). Diabetes showed increased risk of all-cause death after adjusting for all confounders (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 2.29, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.52-3.45). Every 1% increment of HbA1c was positively associated with the risk of total cardiovascular disease (HR: 1.2, 95% CI: 1.08-1.34) and the risk of death (HR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.03-1.26) for all participants. As compared to the reference group with HbA1c below 5.5%, participants with HbA1c levels ≥7.5% had significantly elevated future risks of total cardiovascular disease (HR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.01-3.26) and all-cause death (HR: 2.45, 95% CI: 1.45-4.14). Conclusions/Interpretation Elevated HbA1C levels were associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease and death, the suboptimal glycemic control with HbA1c level over 7.5% (58.5 mmol/mol) was strongly associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death.


In this paper we describe an implementation of Hash based Apriori. We analyze, theoretically and experimentally, the principal data structure of our solution. This data structure is the main factor in the efficiency of our implementation. We propose an effective hash-based algorithm for the candidate set generation. Explicitly, the number of candidate 2-itemsets generated by the proposed algorithm is, in orders of magnitude, smaller than that by previous methods, thus resolving the performance bottleneck. Our approach scans the database once utilizing an enhanced version of priori algorithm.Note that the generation of smaller candidate sets enables us to effectively trim the transaction database size at a much earlier stage of the iterations, thereby reducing the computational cost for later iterations significantly


Palatal groove is a rare morphological defect of upper incisors, frequently associated with localized destruction of periodontal tissue with endodontic complications. In this study, a sample of 1,081 male, young adult subjects, aged 20 to 22, palatal grooving was recorded in 11 (1.01%) subjects, affecting 15 incisors. Among 634 adult subjects, aged 35 to 50, with periodontal disease, palatal groove was found in 5 (0.79%) incisors. Second incisors were more frequently (75%) associated with this anomaly. In the young adults, the mean probing pocket depth in the groove region and around other teeth of the intercanine area was 3.8 mm and 1.2 mm, respectively. In the group of periodontal patients, the mean probing pocket depth was significantly greater at the site of palatal groove (8.8 mm vs. 4.0 mm).


We evaluate two financial incentives to encourage nonindustrial forest landowners to undertake activities that mitigate fire losses: sharing of fire suppression costs by the landowner and sharing of fuel reduction costs by the government. First and second best outcomes are identified and compared to assess the effectiveness of these incentives in reducing social losses and fire suppression costs, under various assumptions about landowner behavior and information. We find that while cost sharing of fire suppression by the landowner invariably reduces social losses, this is not always true for government cost sharing of landowner fuel reduction. However, cost sharing of fuel reduction can yield larger reductions in social losses when fire risk is high. Both policies tend to induce larger reductions in both social losses and fire suppression costs when landowners engage in fuel reduction. We find that improving a landowner's information about fire risk and fuel reduction can yield substantial reductions in social losses. (JEL Q23, Q54)


Text detection in images or videos is an important step to achieve multimedia content retrieval. In this paper, an efficient algorithm which can automatically detect, localize and extract horizontally aligned text in images (and digital videos) with complex backgrounds is presented. The proposed approach is based on the application of a color reduction technique, a method for edge detection, and the localization of text regions using projection profile analyses and geometrical properties. The output of the algorithm are text boxes with a simplified background, ready to be fed into an OCR engine for subsequent character recognition. Our proposal is robust with respect to different font sizes, font colors, languages and background complexities. The performance of the approach is demonstrated by presenting promising experimental results for a set of images taken from different types of video sequences.


Laboratory experiments have been performed to evaluate the effects of pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and mineral surface area on the rate of oxidation of pyrrhotite in seawater. Experiments employed to determine these effects utilized temperature-controlled circulation baths, Teflon reaction vessels, synthetic seawater, and pure, hand-sorted natural pyrrhotite crystals. Both batch and flow-through reactor methods were used and reaction products were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The rate law takes the following form:Rsp (Fe(1-x)S) = k (MH+)a(MO2(aq))bwhere R is the specific oxidation rate of pyrrhotite (moles/L sec), k is the rate constant (a function of temperature and surface area), and a and b are reaction orders for reactant concentrations (M), determined experimentally. The isolation method was used to obtain the reaction order of each reactant on the basis of initial rates. The rate law for the oxidation of pyrrhotite in seawater derived in this study is:Rsp(Fe(1-x)S) = -5.38 x 10-8 (MH+)0.08±0.03 (MO2(aq))0.30±0.07The value for k is averaged from runs at 22.0oC, which was used at the primary run temperature for convenience. Values for k from all runs are in Appendix A. Data from batch reactor experiments indicated positive influences of oxidant concentration, surface area, temperature, and [H+] on the initial rate. Pyrrhotite oxidizes significantly faster than chalcopyrite, providing an upper limit to the anthropogenic and natural inorganic weathering rates of seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits. Inorganic rates are most relevant to rapid seafloor mining timespans (minutes to days), within which significant bacterial colonization of freshly ground sulfide mineral surfaces is not likely to occur (e.g., McBeth et al., 2011). In the future, microbial studies will be needed in order to quantify the catalyzing or inhibitory effects of bacteria on natural, in situ seafloor pyrrhotite oxidation using this study as a baseline.


The present study investigated whether fatty acid compositions of testes are affected by the obese condition and dietary n-3 long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) intake. Male lean and obese Zucker rats were fed a 15 % (w/w, total diet) fat diet containing either 0 or 5·0 % (w/w, total fatty acids) n-3 LCFA for 8 weeks. Reproductive organ weights, sperm morphology and fatty acid composition of phosphatidylcholine (PC), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) of testes were analysed. The obese rats had significantly (P < 0·0001) smaller epididymides and seminal vesicles, larger prostates and abundant underdeveloped testes compared with lean rats. Diet treatment did not affect the sex organ weights. The effect of genotype on fatty acid composition was minor in PC and PE except for DHA (22 : 6n-3). The n-3 LCFA diet significantly (P < 0·0001) elevated 22 : 6n-3 and reduced arachidonic acid (20 : 4n-6) and DPA (22 : 5n-6) in testicular PC and PE of lean and obese rats compared with the control diet. The acylation of dietary n-3 LCFA into 22 : 6n-3 was 2-fold higher in obese rat testes than in lean rats fed the same diet. Underdeveloped testes had 70 % less 22 : 5n-6 in PC and PE than normal-size testes. Results indicate that testicular fatty acid composition is sensitive to dietary fat modulations and especially obese rats responded more to dietary n-3 LCFA than their lean counterparts. The selective reduction in 22 : 5n-6 in underdeveloped testes indicates that 22 : 5n-6 is important in male reproduction in rats and requires further study to define the role of elongation and desaturation in testicular development.


Teaching academic language has recently become a separate focus from teaching subject content for schoolaged children, but it is rarely considered with preschoolers and kindergartners. The critical importance of fostering academic language before children enter elementary school has recently been posited and supported by various strands of research, and the term academic talk has been used to capture the fact that early exposure to and use of this register is in the oral modality only. There is a pressing need for an early focus on this register for children with language impairments, given that their language weaknesses often foreshadow academic difficulties. In this article, an integrative framework of academic talk developed by van Kleeck is used to discuss concrete ways in which professionals can foster the social-interactive and cognitive features of academic talk among young prereading children. A focus on these social-interactive and cognitive features, which provide a coherent and accessible conceptual framework for the interventionist, automatically recruits the many specific linguistic features that have been found to be characteristic of academic language. Previous research has directly or indirectly shown that preschool and kindergarten children's exposure individually to each of these features is associated with future academic success. However, this previous research has not provided a construct for considering the full constellation of features that combine to create the academic talk register. This article provides ideas for approaching these features individually at first, but then posits the need to gradually combine a focus on more and more features simultaneously to more completely reflect the nature of the academic talk register.


Monotonicity is a key qualitative prediction of a wide array of economic models derived via robust comparative statics. It is therefore important to design effective and practical econometric methods for testing this prediction in empirical analysis. This article develops a general nonparametric framework for testing monotonicity of a regression function. Using this framework, a broad class of new tests is introduced, which gives an empirical researcher a lot of flexibility to incorporate ex ante information she might have. The article also develops new methods for simulating critical values, which are based on the combination of a bootstrap procedure and new selection algorithms. These methods yield tests that have correct asymptotic size and are asymptotically nonconservative. It is also shown how to obtain an adaptive and rate optimal test that has the best attainable rate of uniform consistency against models whose regression function has Lipschitz-continuous first-order derivatives and that automatically adapts to the unknown smoothness of the regression function. Simulations show that the power of the new tests in many cases significantly exceeds that of some prior tests, e.g., that of Ghosal, Sen, and Van der Vaart (2000).


In this paper the problem of fault detection in easily testable programmable logic arrays (PLA's) is discussed. The easily testable PLA's will be designed by adding extra logic. These augmented PLA's have the following features: 1) for a PLA with n inputs and m columns (product terms), there exists a "universal" test set such that the test patterns and responses do not depend on the function of the PLA, but depend only on the size of the PLA (the values n and m); 2) the number of tests is of order n + m. For the augmented PLA's, universal test sets to detect faults in PLA's are presented. The types of faults considered here are single and multiple stuck faults and crosspoint faults in PLA's. Fault location and repair of PLA's are also considered.


Soil respiration (Rs) is the largest flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) next to photosynthesis in terrestrial ecosystems. With the absorption of atmospheric methane (CH4), upland soils become a large CO2 source and CH4 sink. These soil carbon (C) fluxes are key factors in the mitigation and adaption of future climate change. The Asian region spans an extensive area from the northern boreal to tropical regions in Southeast Asia. As this region is characterised by highly diverse ecosystems, it is expected to experience the strong impact of ecosystem responses to global climate change. For the past two decades, researchers in the AsiaFlux community have meaningfully contributed to improve the current understanding of soil C dynamics, response of soil C fluxes to disturbances and climate change, and regional and global estimation based on model analysis. This review focuses on five important aspects: 1) the historical methodology for soil C flux measurement; 2) responses of soil C flux components to environmental factors; 3) soil C fluxes in typical ecosystems in Asia; 4) the influence of disturbance and climate change on soil C fluxes; and 5) model analysis and the estimation of soil C fluxes in research largely focused in Asia.


A fault-tolerant adjustable speed drive (ASD) topology is introduced in this paper. A conventional ASD topology is modified to address: 1) drive vulnerability to semiconductor device faults; 2) input voltage sags; 3) motor vulnerability to effects of long leads; and 4) minimization of common-mode (CM) voltage applied to the motor terminals. These objectives are attained by inclusion of an auxiliary IGBT inverter leg, three auxiliary diodes, and isolation-reconfiguration circuit. The design and operation of the proposed topology modifications are described for different modes: 1) fault mode, 2) active CM suppression mode, and 3) auxiliary sag compensation (ASC) mode. In case of fault and sag, the isolation and hardware reconfiguration are performed in a controlled manner using triacs/antiparallel thyristors. In normal operation, the auxiliary leg is controlled to actively suppress CM voltage. For inverter IGBT failures (short circuit and open circuit), the auxiliary leg is used as a redundant leg. During voltage sags, the auxiliary leg, along with auxiliary diodes, is operated as a boost converter. A current-shaping control strategy is proposed for the ASC mode. A detailed analysis of CM performance of the proposed topology is provided, and a new figure of merit, CM distortion ratio (CMDR), is introduced to compare the attenuation of CM voltage with that of a conventional ASD topology. The output filter design procedure is outlined. A design example is presented for an 80 kW ASD system, and simulation results validate the proposed auxiliary leg based fault-tolerant scheme. Experimental results from a scaled prototype rated at 1 hp are discussed in this paper.


The development of a user friendly computerized methodology for the design and analysis of liquid propellant rocket engine combustion chambers is described. An overview of the methodology, consisting of a computer program containing an appropriate modular assembly of existing industry wide performance and combustion stability models, is presented. These models are linked with an interactive front end processor enabling the user to define the performance and stability traits of an existing design (point analysis) or to create the essential design features of a combustor to meet specific performance goals and combustion stability (point design). Plans for demonstration and verification of this methodology are also presented. These plans include the creation of combustor designs using the methodology, together with predictions of the performance and combustion stability for each design. A verification test program of 26 hot fire tests with up to four designs created using this methodology is described. This testing is planned using LOX/RP-1 propellants with a thrust level of approx. 220,000 N (50,000 lbf).


Problem In Latin America the country more violently is El Salvador possesses clandestine cemeteries where victims of Homicides are buried, and his vulnerability before the natural disasters that they provoke fade of land stopping buried victims, the techniques used by the institutions in charge of the forensic research and of rescue, they are old-fashioned. Target To show the efficiency in the merger of different disciplines applying them to the forensic research and his implementation to improve the recovery of buried victims. Methods I compile information of cases realised by the author of the new techniques of victims' recovery buried of homicides and natural disasters, tried in the programme excel. Results In the period of 2010 and 2011 there recovered 205 victims buried in 43 clandestine cemeteries of seven departments, were 110 men, 75 women and 20 children, the reason of death was 60 dismembered, 67 stabbed, 25 beheaded ones, 28 hanged persons, 20 for firearm, and five buried alive, 450 physical evidences and 18 victims Of three fade in two departments. Conclusions It was a success to fuse the archaeology and forensic anthropology, the architecture, the sculpture and the criminology, Since in 2 years there recovered 505 victims who were eliminated and 18 of fade, one recommends to implement these techniques to the institutions in charge of the forensic researches of the state, and to create a database of missing persons and DNA of the mothers of these.