ABSTRACT The 2010 Maule Chile earthquake (Mw 8.8) caused extensive structural damage to the built heritage. In particular, the poor seismic performance of a set of unreinforced masonry (URM) churches highlighted the need to implement protective and safety strategies in order to preserve these buildings which exhibit unique constructive and typological features, as a result of a combination of Chilean and European construction cultures. The peculiarity of this heritage and the high seismic hazard of Chilean territory have motivated the present study which aims to apply systematic procedures to assess the seismic vulnerability of these buildings. This article is of archival nature and presents a complete database generated from the geometrical, constructive, and structural characteristics of a representative stock of 106 churches located in central Chile, with the goal of proposing fragility curves to be used in seismic risk assessment. Considering variables related with geometrical, architectonic, and stylistic features, as well as damage levels for the 2010 Maule earthquake, this church sample is classified into three homogenous groups: colonial, neo-classic, and neo-gothic. Moreover, a preliminary qualitative assessment of the seismic capacity of these structures is provided using a survey and analysis of geometric indices for each of the three selected groups.


Biochar is a highly porous solid substance, made of different biomass by pyrolysis. Conditions of pyrolysis as well materials used in it can substantially affect biochar properties. Samples with sufficient amount of stable carbon can be added into soil to be sequestered; high sorption surface of biochar could characterize it as a soil additive, able to immobilize risk elements in soil. Soil contamination by risk elements is a serious problem needs to be solved. There are available remediation methods, using plants to remove these elements from soil. Biomass produced during remediation has limited application and biochar production could be one option. Plants for our experiments were grown on contaminated soil of Přibram area. For the experiment they were used: meadow grass, wood mixture of poplar and willows twigs and finally maize. Biomass of these plants was used to prepare biochar. The effect of the type of biomass and the final temperature of pyrolysis on specific surface area and yield of biochar was studied in our experiments. Both temperature and plant material affected properties of biochar. While the final temperature increased, the specific surface area increased and the yield of biochar decreased. The highest surface area was found at biochar from wood mixture and the lowest one from hay of grass.


The prediction of the tritium production is required for handling procedures of samples, safety&maintenance and licensing of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation
Facility (IFMIF).


BACKGROUND
Combined inhibition of vascular, platelet-derived, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways may overcome refractoriness to single agents in platinum-pretreated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
This randomized, double-blind, multicenter, phase II trial evaluated sunitinib 37.5 mg/day plus erlotinib 150 mg/day versus placebo plus erlotinib continuously in 4-week cycles. Eligible patients had histologically confirmed stage IIIB or IV NSCLC previously treated with one or two chemotherapy regimens, including one platinum-based regimen. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS) by an independent central review.

RESULTS
One hundred and thirty-two patients were randomly assigned, and the median duration of follow-up was 17.7 months. The median PFS was 2.8 versus 2.0 months for the combination versus erlotinib alone (HR 0.898, P = 0.321). The median overall survival (OS) was 8.2 versus 7.6 months (HR 1.066, P = 0.617). Objective response rates (ORRs) were 4.6% and 3.0%, respectively. Sunitinib plus erlotinib was fairly well tolerated although most treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were more frequent than with erlotinib alone: diarrhea (55% versus 33%), rash (41% versus 30%), fatigue (31% versus 25%), decreased appetite (30% versus 13%), nausea (28% versus 14%), and thrombocytopenia (13% versus 0%).

CONCLUSIONS
The addition of sunitinib to erlotinib did not significantly improve PFS in patients with advanced, platinum-pretreated NSCLC.


Knowledge sharing management is an ideal and effective strategy which has become a culture of successful organizational practice. However, most organizations including public sector fail and pay less attention in managing assets i.e. human capital skills and knowledge. Hence this study was conducted to identify the determining factors that influence the sharing of knowledge that occurs successfully among academics in higher education's institutions. This study obtained information through secondary data. Based on published data, study identifies and lists four key critical factors that lead to the survival of an organization facing challenges and risks. The effective management of knowledge has been described as a critical ingredient for organization seeking to ensure sustainable strategic competitive advantage. Therefore, creating, managing, sharing and utilizing knowledge effectively is vital for organizations to take full advantage of the value of knowledge.


 Abstract — A feeding experiment was conducted to determine the optimum dietary protein and lipid levels for juvenile fancy carp. Eight experimental diets were formulated to contain four protein levels (200, 300, 400 and 500 g kg -1 ) with two lipid levels (70 and 140 g kg -1 ). Triplicate groups of fish (initial weight, 12.1±0.2 g fish -1 ) were hand-fed the diets to apparent satiation for 8 weeks. Fish growth performance, feed utilization and feed intake were significantly ( P <0.0001) affected by dietary protein level, but not by dietary lipid level ( P >0.05). Weight gain and feed efficiency ratio tended to increase as dietary protein level increased up to 400 and 500 g kg -1 , respectively. Daily feed intake of fish decreased with increasing dietary protein level and that of fish fed diet contained 500 g kg -1 protein was significantly lower than other fish groups. The protein efficiency ratio of fish fed 400 and 500 g kg -1 protein was lower than that of fish fed 200 and 300 g kg -1 protein. Moisture, crude protein and crude lipid contents of muscle and liver were significantly affected by dietary protein, but not by dietary lipid level ( P >0.05). The increase in dietary lipid level resulted in an increase in linoleic acid in liver and muscle paralleled with a decrease in n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids content in muscle of fish. In considering these results, it was concluded that the diet containing 400 g kg -1 protein with 70 g kg -1 lipid level is optimal for growth and efficient feed utilization of juvenile fancy carp.


In this paper, we investigate packet size optimization to improve energy efficiency of cooperative Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). We present models for the packet error rate and the energy efficiency of ARQ scheme for direct as well as cooperative communication scheme. We then consider the packet size optimization for both the transmission schemes. The theoretical analysis and the numerical evaluations reveal that cooperative transmission scheme improves the energy efficiency, increases the optimal payload packet size, and extends the hop length, as compared to direct communication for all scenarios of WBANs that includes both in-body as well as on-body propagation models.


A41 Esophageal carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in the world and is a major cause of morbidity and death in the United States. Surgery has curative potential in a proportion of patients with esophageal cancer, but is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality even in specialized centers. Once recurrent most treatment goals related to these patients will be palliative in nature, and quality of life (QOL) assessment is crucial for the evaluation of health care outcome. The objective of this study was to review the different methods used in reported investigations on the physical and psychosocial correlates of palliative treatment of esophageal cancer during the last ten years. One hundred and eighty one reports searched in PubMed on palliative treatment and quality of life in esophageal cancer patients were reviewed. Four QOL instruments were identified and evaluated with respect to definitions, measurement and findings. Analysis reveals that no one instrument was ideal for assessing palliative intervention for head and neck cancer. However, the EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer), and the SF36 were the most frequently used on the published reports. Despite a growing awareness and interest in QOL of esophageal cancer patients as seen in more recent prospective studies, definitive validation of patient assessment to date has been limited in scope with both problems and promise seen in most reports. In general, palliative longitudinal studies are almost non-existent with little known about the impact or comorbidity of smoking and alcohol use upon the disease progression and correlation with QOL.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers, with over million cases and over 600,000 deaths each year in the world. It is estimated that a significant part of CRCs may have a hereditary compo-

nent, but majority of this heritability remains unexplained. Structural variants (SVs) comprise an important type of variation that, until the availability of deep-coverage whole-genome sequencing (WGS), has been hard to study in genome-wide scale. It has been suggested that a significant portion of unexplained, or "missing", heritability could be explained by structural variants. Somatic structural aberrations are known to play a role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. However, structural variation discovery is often complicated by low sequencing coverage, sequencing artifacts, repeat regions and errors of the reference genome.

To study the role of structural variation in CRC, we analyzed deep-coverage WGS data of matched tumor-normal sample pairs of 213 Finnish CRC patients and additional in-house WGS data. In these data, we identified both germline and somatic structural variants using a recent structural variant caller DELLY.

A novel algorithm was used to combine DELLY paired-end structural variant calls across normal and tumor samples to improve both sensitivity and specificity of variant detection. A total of 4,854,576 unfiltered structural events were identified, consisting of 2,912,552 deletions, 1,304,636 tandem duplications, 71,724 inversions and 565,664 interchromosomal translocations. To call high-confidence somatic events, we identified 475,902 structural events in tumors that were not present in any normal sample. Calling accuracy was further improved by annotating events by mappability and proximity to repeat regions. Our results demonstrate the applicability of integrating structural variant data across a large number of samples to obtain high-quality structural variant calls.

Citation Format: Esa Pitkanen, Tatiana Cajuso, Riku Katainen, Sofie Lundgren, Sari Tuupanen, Outi Kilpivaara, Lauri A. Aaltonen. Joint structural variant analysis of colorectal cancer whole genome sequencing data. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2176. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2176


We review the notions of (weak) Hermitian-Yang-Mills structure and approximate Hermitian-Yang-Mills structure for Higgs bundles. Then, we construct the Donaldson functional for Higgs bundles over compact K\"ahler manifolds and we present some basic properties of it. In particular, we show that its gradient flow can be written in terms of the mean curvature of the Hitchin-Simpson connection. We also study some properties of the evolution equation associated to that functional. Next, we study the problem of the existence of approximate Hermitian-Yang-Mills structure and its relation with the algebro-geometric notion of Mumford-Takemoto semistability and we show that for a Higgs bundle over a compact Riemann surface, the notion of approximate Hermitian-Yang- Mills structure is in fact the differential-geometric counterpart of the notion of semistability. Finally, using Donaldson heat flow, we show that the semistability of a Higgs bundle over a compact K\"ahler manifold (of every dimension) implies the existence of an approximate Hermitian-Yang-Mills structure. As a consequence of this we deduce that many results about Higgs bundles written in terms of approximate Hermitian-Yang-Mills structures can be translated in terms of semistability.


Plant potassium content (PKC) is a crucial indicator of crop potassium nutrient status and is vital in making informed fertilization decisions in the field. This study aims to enhance the accuracy of PKC estimation during key potato growth stages by using vegetation indices (VIs) and spatial structure features derived from UAV-based multispectral sensors. Specifically, the fraction of vegetation coverage (FVC), gray-level co-occurrence matrix texture, and multispectral VIs were extracted from multispectral images acquired at the potato tuber formation, tuber growth, and starch accumulation stages. Linear regression and stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate how VIs, both individually and in combination with spatial structure features, affect potato PKC estimation. The findings lead to the following conclusions: (1) Estimating potato PKC using multispectral VIs is feasible but necessitates further enhancements in accuracy. (2) Augmenting VIs with either the FVC or texture features makes potato PKC estimation more accurate than when using single VIs. (3) Finally, integrating VIs with both the FVC and texture features improves the accuracy of potato PKC estimation, resulting in notable R 2 values of 0.63, 0.84, and 0.80 for the three fertility periods, respectively, with corresponding root mean square errors of 0.44%, 0.29%, and 0.25%. Overall, these results highlight the potential of integrating canopy spectral information and spatial-structure information obtained from multispectral sensors mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring crop growth and assessing potassium nutrient status. These findings thus have significant implications for agricultural management.


The objectives of the Second Local Development Program Support Project (PROADEL-2) are to assist the Government to: (i) increase access to basic infrastructure in poor targeted communes; (ii) improve the capacity of local institutions and communities to manage the development process; and (iii) support community development through income generating activities in rural areas. Even if the rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure to be made by the project aimed at improving the welfare of the population (positive impacts), they are also sources of impacts that may affect the biophysical and human environment (negative impacts). The exact location, scale and substance of micro-projects envisioned during this phase are not yet known. Impacts on the population mainly concern income, mobility, health and infrastructure. The elements of the biophysical environment will be affected by the impacts of micro-projects include soil, vegetation, water and air. To highlight the potential environmental and social problems that may arise from PROADEL-2, the ESMF has also identified the positive and negative potential of the project categories. Though the specific intervention sites are unknown at this point, there is a risk that natural habitats could be affected as a result of project activities. The project will not intervene in sensitive natural habitats. In biophysical, adverse impacts will be evaluated in terms of erosion, vegetation destruction, sterilization and soil degradation, water pollution and soil, etc. In the social field, there may be negative impacts such as land disputes in the event of expropriation and involuntary resettlement. In the event that the Project activities require a displacement, a Resettlement Policy Framework of Populations was prepared separately from ESMF to clarify the procedures for compensation. This ESMF will then present possible mitigation of negative impacts and measures for securing positive and negative impacts. Once the actions of the Project and determined whether they are likely to cause negative impacts, it will be necessary to conduct a preliminary environmental assessment. This assessment will determine if the project requires further study of certain aspects or if so it should be a simplified analysis of impacts. It is expected that the provision of improved seeds will lead to intensification of crop production and productivity, which in turn may lead to increased use of pesticides and other agrochemicals. The project will update the existing PMP, which includes a mitigation plan and outlines the institutional arrangements for implementation and monitoring. Though the specific sites of project investments are not known at this point, there is a risk that the project might impact physical cultural resources during implementation of the various micro projects (i.e. education, health and water facilities).


Modular steel scaffolds are commonly used as supporting scaffolds in building construction. They are highly susceptible to global and local instability, and traditionally, the load carrying capacities of these scaffolds are obtained from limited full-scale tests with little rational design. Structural failure of these scaffolds occurs from time to time due to inadequate design, poor installation and over-loads on sites. Initial geometrical imperfections are considered to be very important to the structural behaviour of multi-storey modular steel scaffolds. This paper presents an extensive numerical investigation on three different approaches in analyzing and designing multi-storey modular steel scaffolds, namely, a) Notional Load Approach, b) Eigenmode Imperfection Approach, and c) Critical Load Approach. It should be noted that all these three approaches adopt different ways to allow for the presence of initial geometrical imperfections in the scaffolds when determining their load carrying capacities. Moreover, their suitability and accuracy in predicting the structural instability of typical modular steel scaffolds are presented and discussed in details.


'Hongro' and 'Gamhong' apples grown at the Gochang-si in the southern part of Korea were harvested on September in 2002 for storage study. Each cultivar was divided into two groups of maturity based on the harvested date. Immature fruits were harvested 10 days early compared to fruits having proper maturity. This study was conducted to evaluate quality the change of 'Hongro' and 'Gamhong' apples newly bred by different storage methods with PE film package and CA conditions. A typical climacteric respiration pattern was observed in new variety 'Hongro' and 'Gamhong' apples stored at room temperature. The results indicated that fresh quality of the stored fruits in CA condition was better than that in other treatments during storage. Qualities of apples were least changed at CA storage of 3% and 1% . CA storage was effective in maintaining the freshness of 'Hongro' and 'Gamhong' for 16 weeks.


We report the discovery of a nearby old halo white dwarf (WD) candidate from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). SDSS J110217.48+411315.4 has a proper motion of 1.″75 yr−1 and redder optical colors than all other known featureless (type DC) WDs. We present SDSS imaging and spectroscopy of this object, along with near-infrared photometry obtained at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). Fitting its photometry with up-to-date model atmospheres, we find that its overall spectral energy distribution is fit reasonably well with a pure-hydrogen composition and Teff ≈ 3800 K (assuming log g = 8). This temperature and gravity would place this WD at 35 pc from the Sun with a tangential velocity of 290 km s−1 and space velocities consistent with halo membership; furthermore, its combined main-sequence and WD cooling age would be ≈11 Gyr. However, if this object is a massive WD, it could be a younger object with a thick disk origin. Whatever its origin, the optical colors of this object are redder than predicted by any current pure-hydrogen, pure-helium, or mixed hydrogen–helium atmospheric model, indicating that there remain problems in our understanding of the complicated physics of the dense atmospheres of cool WDs.


IDTV (Interactive Digital TV) opens new learning opportunities for those social groups that would hardly have access to traditional forms of education. However, viewers are not usually active learners, for this reason, education through IDTV should be offered in an attractive way, so as they get engaged in the learning experience. For this to be possible, we need to introduce personalization in the t-learning field. To achieve this goal, we present, in this paper, a proposal of self-adaptive t-learning objects, which show a different behavior depending on user's characteristics. These objects are conformant to the ADL SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) standard for which we propose an extension in order to permit this type of learning objects. We expose as well an authoring tool to these objects, which hides the implementation details to the content creator.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Introduction: Although cancer is a heterogeneous disease, current chemotherapy is based on the use of anti-cancer agents that broadly affect cell proliferation. As a result of this non-specific tumor therapy there is often high toxicity and therapeutic resistance, which increases the risk of disease progression. There is thus a critical need to find novel anti-cancer compounds, however, as a result of preliminary screens often performed in 2D systems, and the use of mouse models for secondary screens, many drugs fail during full clinical trials. Replicating a complex, 3D microenvironment incorporating human cells is therefore likely to improve drug screening efficiency.

Methods: Here we have developed a system for high throughput screening of drug efficacy. Our system features 3D tumor tissues incorporating human cells co-cultured with stromal cells and connected by human microvessels in a naturally occurring 3D matrix in a PDMS microdevice. Transduced colorectal cancer cells (CRC) such as HCT116, SW480 and SW620s that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) constitutively are introduced into the device in co-culture with human endothelial colony-forming cell-derived EC (ECFC-EC) and fibroblasts. ECFC-EC or fibroblasts that express longer wavelength fluorescent proteins are also used to track both tumor cells and vasculature/fibroblast growth. The tri-culture is resuspended in fibrinogen (10 mg/ml) and mixed with thrombin before injecting into the microchambers. Cells are fed with endothelial growth media-2 and drugs are delivered through the microfluidic channels using a hydrostatic pressure gradient.

Results: A complete vascular network was formed in the chambers by 7-10 days and this carried medium into the tissue. CRC showed continuous growth, often forming spheroids. After 7-10 days of culture, cells were exposed to various FDA-approved drugs at concentrations reported for plasma levels in patients. Tumor growing in the device responded differently to most drugs compared to cells growing in 2D. We identified cytotoxic and cytostatic drug actions in the device with IC50s close to the in vivo pharmacologic plasma concentration, but higher than those obtained in parallel 2D experiments. Importantly, we also identified drugs that were active in our 3D-device but not in 2D cultures.

Conclusions: Preliminary results using our 3D microphysiological system, in which we have created a more complex microenvironment than used in 2D cultures, support an improved strategy for drug validation. In addition, future experiments will include the use of non-invasive optical imaging techniques to better understand the human 3D tumor microenvironment, including the study of different tumor behaviors, tumor metabolism and pathological angiogenesis. This proof-of-concept study validates the use of 3D microphysiological systems in place of more simplistic 2D systems.

Citation Format: Agua Sobrino, Duc Phan, Steven C George, Christopher C.W Hughes. A 3D tumor tissue microphysiological system for realistic tumor microenvironment mimicry and therapeutic modeling. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5500. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5500


The present essay is part of a larger project (a book) that argues that creative literary imitation, though based on old material, can lead to an original work of art and be a reflection of contemporary realities. Its central argument is that Cecchi, in imitating characters and plot elements from Plautus, Boccaccio, and Machiavelli, managed to produce a truly original play and bring on stage a reflection of his own world. The play's amator senex Ambrogio, for instance, thinks and acts in ways reminiscent of Plautus' Lysidamus, Boccaccio's Arriguccio, and Machiavelli's Nicia and Nicomaco. Yet, he resembles none of them in particular. For the spectators, his many flaws not only distinguished him from his source counterparts, but also make him a telling satire of unnatural marriages between old men and young women. The same may be said of his adulterous wife, whose unrestraint morals set her apart from her predecessors and, at the same time, contributed to the representation of a world totally different from that of either Boccaccio or Machiavelli, the principle literary sources. In this sense, Assiuolo is not only a successful imitation, but also a true reflection of Cicero's view that comedy speaks to the spectators of their own society by imitating their lives and mirroring their costumes.


The review considers characteristic features of the crystal structure, phase relations, microstructure and physical properties of the most important classes of modern cuprate and manganite materials including high-temperature superconductors, CMR magnetic semiconductors and superionic conductors. The bibliography includes 189 references.


RbLiCrO4 crystals belong to the MLiAX4 family, where M = K, Rb, Cs, NH4-group, AX4 = BeF4, SO4, Cr04. The atomic structure of all these crystals can be regarded as a (3tridimite derivative. Phase transitions in crystals of a double rubidium and lithium chromate, RbLiCrO4 were first reported in [1]. The data obtained using differential-thermal analysis, optical polarization and powder diffraction technique, as well as measurements of birefringence and the generation of the second optical harmonics [1, 2] enabled us to establish the following sequence of structural transformations in RbLiCrO4 crystals upon heating:


Abstract:  Whilst breastfeeding has been considered to exert a preventative effect on the development of allergic disease, several recent publications have challenged this view, particularly with respect to the long‐term outcomes for asthma. There are many other beneficial effects of breastfeeding apart from the possibility of allergy prevention. The suggestion that breastfeeding may increase the development of allergic disease raises concerns about the appropriate steps to take for primary prevention of allergy. It is concluded that breastfeeding can still be recommended for the beneficial effects in reducing atopic disease in childhood in addition to the other demonstrated benefits, and that there are unresolved questions concerning the few studies that suggest the possibility of increased allergic disease in later life.


Boosting chiral nanoparticle responses Optical nanomaterials that combine chirality and magnetism are useful for magneto-optics and as chiral catalysts. Although chiral inorganic nanostructures can exhibit high circular dichroism, modulating this optical activity has usually required irreversible chemical changes. Yeom et al. synthesized paramagnetic cobalt oxide (Co3O4) nanoparticles with l- and d-cysteine surface ligands. These ligands created chiral distortions of the crystal lattices, and this anisotropy led to much stronger chiroptical activity. The circular dichroism in the ultraviolet of nanoparticle gels could be modulated with magnetic fields of ∼1.5 tesla. Science, this issue p. 309 Chiral amino acid ligands create lattice distortions that boost the chiroptical activity of cobalt oxide nanoparticles. Chiral inorganic nanostructures have high circular dichroism, but real-time control of their optical activity has so far been achieved only by irreversible chemical changes. Field modulation is a far more desirable path to chiroptical devices. We hypothesized that magnetic field modulation can be attained for chiral nanostructures with large contributions of the magnetic transition dipole moments to polarization rotation. We found that dispersions and gels of paramagnetic Co3O4 nanoparticles with chiral distortions of the crystal lattices exhibited chiroptical activity in the visible range that was 10 times as strong as that of nonparamagnetic nanoparticles of comparable size. Transparency of the nanoparticle gels to circularly polarized light beams in the ultraviolet range was reversibly modulated by magnetic fields. These phenomena were also observed for other nanoscale metal oxides with lattice distortions from imprinted amino acids and other chiral ligands. The large family of chiral ceramic nanostructures and gels can be pivotal for new technologies and knowledge at the nexus of chirality and magnetism.


Thorium is an element for possible use as nuclear fuel, because of the fertile property of Th-232, which could convert into U-233 after neutron capture and beta decays. However, thorium based fuels have not been successfully implemented, because of the high cost and the higher complexity compared with once-through uranium fuel. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on thorium for use in traditional light water reactors for improving core characteristics by: achieving a more homogenous power distribution to provide larger thermal margins, high plutonium incineration efficiency to reduce the plutonium stockpile, and improved load-following capacity.
The chosen methodology is similar to the one commonly used in the industry. The model is based on Ringhals-3 PWR, and Studsvik Scandpower Ltd. codes are used to calculate the neutronics of the nuclear fuel and the reactor cores.
The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part addresses the fertile absorber concept, which is achieved by adding small amounts of thorium in traditional uranium fuel pellets to improve the thermal margins. The benefits are a reduced need of traditional burnable absorbers, and a slower decrease of reactivity as function of burnup.
The second part describes the use of thorium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel to reduce the plutonium stockpile, since thorium barely generates any new plutonium compared with uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel. However, the thorium-plutonium mixed oxide cores alter the core behavior compared with the traditional uranium core such as stronger Doppler feedback and lower fraction of delayed neutrons, which require boron (B-10) enrichment, and increased number of control rods with improved efficiency.
The third part of the thesis is focusing on improved load-following capacity by thorium-containing fuel. Th-232 has about three times higher thermal neutron absorption cross section compared with U-238, which hardens the neutron spectrum. This leads to less sensitivity to neutron spectrum changes, lower xenon poisoning, and lower axial power fluctuations upon load changes. Therefore, thorium-containing fuel improve the load-following capacity, and could be a positive complement to intermittent power sources, such as solar or wind power.


The participatory relationship among the follicle size, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and cysteamine (antioxidant agent) contribute to the production of embryos characterized by abundance and good quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of FSH, cysteamine and follicle size on in vitro embryo production of Awassi sheep oocytes. Follicles sizes were determined into two groups: small follicles (1-2 mm) and large follicles (> 2 mm). Oocytes were matured across two increasingly shared levels of FSH and cysteamine: A (40 ng/ml + 50 μM) and B (60 ng/ml + 100 μM). Results of the bilateral interaction showed significant differences across the follicle size (large follicles group) and the maturation treatment (B medium) in the rates of fertilization (highest value: 67.51%; p= 0.02), cleavage (highest value: 65.41%; p= 0.01), 2-16 cell stage (lowest value: 2.29%; p= 0.0001), blastocyst stage (highest value: 44.82%; p= 0.04), down to morula stage arrest (lowest value: 55.17%; p= 0.04) and Type I embryos (highest value: 52.87%; p= 0.03). Likewise, matured oocytes of small follicles group (B medium) attained the highest rate of morula stage (56.60%; p= 0.03). No significant differences were observed in Type II and Type III embryos. In order to obtain high yields of good quality embryos, it is advised to add FSH and cysteamine with levels of 60 ng/ml and 100 μM respectively to maturation medium of ovine oocytes obtained from follicles with a diameter > 2 mm.


To better understand the structure–property relationships and the mechanisms of the electronic switching behavior of functional polyimides, a new series of diamines containing a pyrrole core with different side groups were designed and synthesized. Three novel, thermally stable and aromatic polyimides (Py6FPIs) containing the as-designed diamines were prepared. They were fabricated into memory devices sandwiched between an Al top electrode and an indium-tin oxide (ITO) bottom electrode by spin-coating. The polyimides exhibited high thermal stability with glass transition temperatures (Tg) around 300 °C as determined by DMA. The memory devices were found to show nonvolatile bistable write-once-read-many (WORM) memory characteristics with diverse switching threshold voltages and ON/OFF ratios, depending on the electron affinity of the pendent groups. The low-conductivity state and the high-conductivity state could be sustained under a constant bias or a refreshing voltage pulse of 1.0 V. The switching mechanism and the memory effects were finely demonstrated with the aid of molecular simulations and electronic absorption spectra of these Py6FPIs.


The channel mobility in organic field-effect transistors that have a disordered semi-conducting layer in contact with an insulating polar dielectric material is calculated from the transconductance of the modelled transistor transfer response. The modelled transfer characteristics incorporate the additional energetic disorder that is introduced into the channel region from the polar gate dielectric, together with a carrier mobility enhancement factor due to localized state occupancy under charge accumulation conditions. A proposed mobility enhancement factor is independently determined from Monte Carlo simulations of carrier hopping through partially occupied energy landscapes that are subject to a Gaussian distribution of energetic disorder. The calculated field-effect mobility is found to be reduced relative to the bulk semiconductor mobility as the amount of energetic disorder in the channel region is increased through the use of more strongly polar gate dielectrics. The field-effect mobility is additionally found to decrease as the accumulated charge is confined to the most energetically disordered region in the vicinity of the insulator–semiconductor interface at higher gate voltages. The overall gate voltage dependence of the channel mobility is suppressed, however, by the mobility enhancement factor. Support for the model is found from recently published mobility data for a series of triarylamine field-effect devices.


In this paper, the Cohen-Grossberg neural network models with variable coefficients and time-varying delays are considered. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov functional, some global exponential stability criteria for this type of Cohen-Grossberg neural network are presented. These criteria are applicable for other neural network models, such as cellular neural networks. Our results are less conservative and restrictive than previously known results and can be easily verified. And the result has considered signs of the connecting weights. Some comparisons and an example are given to demonstrate the main results.


BACKGROUND
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) controllers have the striking ability to maintain viremia at extremely low or undetectable levels without antiretroviral treatment. Even though these patients have been widely studied, information about clinical outcomes, especially concerning to non-AIDS-defining events (nADEs), is scarce. We have analyzed the frequency and rate of nADEs and their associated factors in a large multicenter HIV controller cohort.

METHODS
Data on nADEs were recorded for 320 HIV controllers within the multicenter Spanish AIDS Research Network HIV Controllers Cohort (ECRIS). Percentages and crude incidence rates (CIRs) per 100 person-years of follow-up (PYFU) were calculated for the entire follow-up period and for 2 separate periods: the period under control and the period after loss of control. These rates were compared with those for 632 noncontrollers. Demographic and immunological data collected from the controllers were included in a multivariate model to assess factors that were independently associated with nADEs in HIV controllers.

RESULTS
HIV controllers experience nADEs, albeit at lower rates than patients who do not spontaneously control the virus (1.252 [95% confidence interval {CI}, .974-1.586] per 100 PYFU and 2.481 [95% CI, 2.153-2.845] per 100 PYFU, respectively; P < .001). Hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection was the main factor associated with nADEs in all of the studied periods. Although hepatic events were the most prevalent, they represented only approximately 30% of the total events. CIRs of cardiovascular events increased in the post-loss-of-control period.

CONCLUSIONS
HCV/HIV coinfection was the main factor associated with hepatic and extrahepatic nADEs in HIV controllers. The eradication of HCV infection may ameliorate the presence of comorbidities in these patients.


The setting of this study reflects a common approach for teaching science to K-5 bilingual/multilingual learners combining science time with English-only language instruction. While programs that use both languages to teach bilingual students are more effective in preparing K-5 Latin@ students in science, instruction in science in K-5 classrooms remains largely taught in English. The paper examines how a recurring classroom routine, Community Circle time, exposes the academic and behavioral expectations of a 3rd classroom composed of bilingual/multilingual students learning science. The paper presents analysis of classroom interactions and teacher interviews connected to "science time" which is also English-only time in this school. Several types of activities and participation structures emerge from observations of Community Circle time. During this time, students talk about sharing, planning, and doing activities related to science. This study finds that, while there are productive opportunities for all students to learn a range of academic language and content knowledge during science time, a more expansive approach to language and literacy is needed for teaching and learning science.


This paper describes a study that seeks to explore the correlation between eye movements and the interpretation of geometric shapes. This study is intended to inform the development of an eye tracking interface for computational tools to support and enhance the natural interaction required in creative design. A common criticism of computational design tools is that they do not enable manipulation of designed shapes according to all perceived features. Instead the manipulations afforded are limited by formal structures of shapes. This research examines the potential for eye movement data to be used to recognise and make available for manipulation the perceived features in shapes. The objective of this study was to analyse eye movement data with the intention of recognising moments in which an interpretation of shape is made. Results suggest that fixation duration and saccade amplitude prove to be consistent indicators of shape interpretation.


The association of Upper Jurassic carbonates and evaporites in south Alabama and west Florida defines a brining upward and inward sequence that is indicative of deposition on an increasingly evaporitic marine shelf. Structural features that bound this evaporitic shelf were the Pensacola arch, the South Mississippi platform, and the State Line flexure. Paleo-drainage of the surrounding highlands also affected shelf salinities as fresh waters were funneled into the Covington and Manila Embayments. During the Late Jurassic, marine carbonates and evaporites of the Smackover and Lower Haynesville (Buckner) Formations were deposited over Middle Jurassic Norphlet clastics that accumulated in arid continental and marginal-marine environments. Initially, Smackover carbonate deposition was pervasive across the shallow shelf. Later, as a result of increasing water salinities, contemporaneous precipitation of central-shelf evaporites and basin-edge carbonates occurred. Maximum restriction of the basin and the culmination of subaqueous deposition resulted in the formation of a basin-wide lower Haynesville salt unit. The overlying upper Haynesville strata represents a shift to subaerial environments. Application of a shelf-basin evaporite model explains the spatial and temporal lithologic relationships observed within the study area. Onlap of evaporites over porous carbonates, due to brining-upward processes, suggest that large-scale stratigraphic traps exist within the Smackovermore » Formation in a sparsely explored part of the basin.« less


In this paper a controller is developed and evaluated for an uncertain nonlinear F-16/MATV aircraft model by a combination of Feedback Linearization (FBL) and Robust Model Predictive Control (RMPC). The controller is able to track commanded trajectories of the aircraft velocity VT , the angle of attack α, the side slip angle β, and the roll rate pS around the velocity vector. Uncertainties in the model are assumed on the total aerodynamic moments and the elevator effectiveness. The FBL control law linearizes the uncertain nonlinear model which allows the application of a discrete time linear RMPC algorithm. This RMPC algorithm is based on a semi-definite program subject to Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) constraints. The combination of FBL and RMPC results in a controller which robustly satisfies constraints in the whole flight-envelope. Performance of the controller is demonstrated by maneuvers at high angles of attack combined with a velocity vector roll. The improved robustness characteristics of the combined FBL-RMPC are demonstrated by simulations of the same desired maneuver in the case of an aircraft with various magnitudes of perturbed aerodynamics.


Stereotypic cell migrations in the developing brain are fundamental for the proper patterning of brain regions and formation of neural networks. In this work, we uncovered in the developing rat, a population of neurons expressing tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) that migrates posteriorly from the alar plate of the midbrain, in neurophilic interaction with axons of the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve. A fraction of this population was also shown to traverse the mid-hindbrain boundary, reaching the vicinity of the locus coeruleus (LC) in rhombomere 1 (r1). This migratory population, however, does not have a noradrenergic (NA) phenotype and, in keeping with its midbrain origin, expresses Otx2 which is down regulated upon migration into the hindbrain. The interaction with the trigeminal mesencephalic axons is necessary for the arrangement and distribution of migratory cells as these aspects are dramatically altered in whole embryo cultures upon disruption of trigeminal axon projection by interfering with DCC function. Moreover, in mouse embryos in an equivalent developmental stage, we detected a cell population that also migrates caudally within the midbrain apposed to mesencephalic trigeminal axons but that does not express TH; a fraction of this population expresses calbindin instead. Overall, our work identified TH-expressing neurons from the rat midbrain alar plate that migrate tangentially over long distances within the midbrain and into the hindbrain by means of a close interaction with trigeminal mesencephalic axons. A different migratory population in this region and also in mouse embryos revealed diversity among the cells that follow this descending migratory pathway.


The catalytic continuous vapor phase hydrogenation of levulinic acid (P = 1 atm; T = 250 °C) in the absence of external hydrogen was investigated over inorganic oxide (Al2O3, MgO and hydrotalcite) supported Ni (30 wt%) catalysts. The present protocol enables the utilization of the unavoidable co-product (i.e. formic acid) formed during the production of levulinic acid as a hydrogen source. Among the tested catalysts, the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst was an efficient catalyst for the production of γ-valerolactone through hydrogen-independent hydrogenation. A significant decrease in catalytic performance of Ni/MgO and Ni/hydrotalcite catalysts was observed during the time-on-stream; while a gradual decrease was noted in the catalytic performance of the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. The considerable decline in catalytic performance of Ni/MgO and Ni/hydrotalcite catalysts was attributed to water generation during the course of the reaction, rather than the coking of reaction intermediates (angelica lactone). Furthermore, the co-feeding of water and formic acid with levulinic acid was performed and a significant decrease was noted in the catalytic performance of Ni/MgO and Ni/hydrotalcite catalysts compared to the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. The results evidently signify the role of water in the activity of Ni/MgO and Ni/hydrotalcite catalysts, which could be ascribed to brucite–periclase transition of MgO with the water, which was formed during the hydrogenation of levulinic acid.


Self-supervised learning aims to learn image feature representations without the usage of manually annotated lbabels. It is often used as a precursor step to obtain useful initial network weights which contribute to faster convergence and superior performance of downstream tasks. While self-supervision allows one to reduce the domain gap between supervised and unsupervised learning without the usage of labels, the self-supervised objective still requires a strong inductive bias to downstream tasks for effective transfer learning. In this work, we present our material and texture based self-supervision method named MATTER (MATerial and TExture Representation Learning), which is inspired by classical material and texture methods. Material and texture can effectively describe any surface, including its tactile properties, color, and specularity. By extension, effective representation of material and texture can describe other semantic classes strongly associated with said material and texture. MATTER leverages multitemporal, spatially aligned remote sensing imagery over unchanged regions to learn invariance to illumination and viewing angle as a mechanism to achieve consistency of material and texture representation. We show that our self-supervision pre-training method allows for up to 24.22% and 6.33% performance increase in unsupervised and finetuned setups, and up to 76% faster convergence on change detection, land cover classification, and semantic segmentation tasks. Code and dataset: https://github.com/periakiva/MATTER.


Twenty‐seven oil samples from Cretaceous, Eocene and Rupelian reservoir rocks in the Alpine Foreland Basin (Austria) were analysed to evaluate the composition of diamondoid hydrocarbons using gas chromatography – triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The oils were generated from marly and shaly Oligocene source rocks buried beneath the nappes of the Alpine foldbelt to the south of the study area. Diamondoid hydrocarbons were detected in the saturated fraction of all the analysed oils. A biodegraded oil sample from a shallow reservoir in the NE part of the study area showed an enrichment in diamondoids due to the molecule's high resistance to microbial degradation. Variations in the organic matter type of the source rock facies and differences in maturity are known to influence the composition of diamondoids. However in this study, biomarker‐derived maturity parameters do not show a convincing correlation with diamondoid maturity parameters. Moreover, no cracking trend based on biomarkers and diamondoid concentrations was observed. The results indicate that the composition of diamondoids in oils from the Austrian part of the Alpine Foreland Basin is mainly controlled by heterogeneities in the Lower Oligocene source rocks, including the occurrence of a redeposited source rock succession in the western part of the study area. By contrast, EAI‐1 (the ethyladamantane index) shows a good correlation with various maturity parameters and seems to be independent of source rock facies.


Here, we report a novel double-layer structure photoanode with TiO2 nanotube (TNT) layer and TiO2 nanoparticle (TP) layer via a two-step method of electrochemical anodization and screen printing for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results indicate that DSSCs with this double-layer structure have significant advantages of large surface area, long electron lifetime, superior electron recombination restraint characteristics, and high light scattering. The layer thickness of nanotubes and nanoparticles is also investigated and finally an optimized double-layer structure with excellent performance is prepared. With such a double-layer structure photoanode, DSSC with a relative high conversion efficiency of 6.43% and a short-circuit photocurrent density of 16.40 mA·cm−2 is obtained.


The aims were to investigate the level of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital and urban wastewater and to determine the similarity of isolates obtained from wastewater and hospitalized patients. Wastewater samples were collected in September 2013 and 2014. After identification using MALDI-TOF MS, beta-lactamase production was determined by relevant phenotypic tests. Genes responsible for the production of single beta-lactamase groups and Qnr proteins were established. The epidemiological relationship of the isolates from wastewater and hospitalized patients was determined by PFGE. A total of 51 isolates of enterobacteria were obtained. Overall, 45.1% of them produced broad-spectrum beta-lactamases. Genes encoding TEM, SHV, CTX-M, CIT, DHA and EBC types of enzymes and Qnr proteins were detected. No broad-spectrum beta-lactamase production was confirmed in the urban wastewater treatment plant. The most important finding was the detection of two identical isolates of K. pneumoniae in 2013, one from a patient's urinary catheter and the other from a wastewater sample.


Background: Resin composite pre-heating is a recent innovative method that could be clinically beneficial by improving handling and marginal adaptation of the unset material paste. Aim: The aim of this study was to gather all the laboratory trials regarding resin composite pre-heating and investigate how this technique affects the material. Materials and methods: An electronic search was carried out in PubMed and Google scholar databases, covering the period from January 2003 to May 2018. Specific criteria were set in order to define the relevance of each study. Results: Eighteen articles were included. The most commonly studied variable was the degree of conversion. Five studies found it increased and two not statistically significant different. Marginal adaptation, viscosity and polymerization shrinkage were higher. Flexural strength found to be unaffected. The results varied about microhardness and polymerization shrinkage. Conclusion: Preheating has positive effect on the degree of conversion, viscosity, marginal adaptation and microhardness of composite resins. The flexural strength remains unaffected, the polymerization shrinkage is worsened, while the results for the microleakage are unclear. Further studies are need to take place in order to assess the clinical significance of composite pre-heating.


Microarray technology allows the simultaneous measurement of the
abundance of thousands of transcripts in living cells. The high-throughput
nature of microarray technology means that automatic analytical procedures
are required to handle the sheer amount of data, typically generated in a single
microarray experiment. Along these lines, this work presents a contribution to
the automatic analysis of microarray data by attempting to construct protocols
for the validation of publicly available methods for microarray.
At the experimental level, an evaluation of amplification of RNA targets prior
to hybridisation with the physical array was undertaken. This had the
important consequence of revealing the extent to which the significance of
intensity ratios between varying biological conditions may be compromised
following amplification as well as identifying the underlying cause of this
effect. On the basis of these findings, recommendations regarding the usability
of RNA amplification protocols with microarray screening were drawn in the
context of varying microarray experimental conditions.
On the data analysis side, this work has had the important outcome of
developing an automatic framework for the validation of functional analysis
methods for microarray. This is based on using a GO semantic similarity
scoring metric to assess the similarity between functional terms found enriched by functional analysis of a model dataset and those anticipated from
prior knowledge of the biological phenomenon under study. Using such
validation system, this work has shown, for the first time, that 'Catmap', an
early functional analysis method performs better than the more recent and
most popular methods of its kind. Crucially, the effectiveness of this
validation system implies that such system may be reliably adopted for
validation of newly developed functional analysis methods for microarray.


Considering uncertainty estimation of modern neural networks (NNs) is one of the most important steps towards deploying machine learning systems to meaningful real-world applications such as in medicine, finance or autonomous systems. At the moment, ensembles of different NNs constitute the state-of-the-art in both accuracy and uncertainty estimation in different tasks. However, ensembles of NNs are unpractical under real-world constraints, since their computation and memory consumption scale linearly with the size of the ensemble, which increase their latency and deployment cost. In this work, we examine a simple regularisation approach for distribution-free knowledge distillation of ensemble of machine learning models into a single NN. The aim of the regularisation is to preserve the diversity, accuracy and uncertainty estimation characteristics of the original ensemble without any intricacies, such as fine-tuning. We demonstrate the generality of the approach on combinations of toy data, SVHN/CIFAR-10, simple to complex NN architectures and different tasks.


Itk, a member of the Tec family of tyrosine kinases, plays an important role in T cell development and differentiation. Itk regulates the development of αβ T cells such that positive selection and negative selection in the thymus are defective in absence of Itk. Itk is also important in the development and homeostasis of innate-like γδ T cells in the skin. In this thesis, we focused on skin αβ T cells and investigated the role of Tec kinase family members, Itk and Txk, in αβ T cell homoeostasis in skin intraepithelial T lymphocytes. For this purpose, we characterize αβ T cell populations in Itk deficient mice compared to WT mice. We found that the total cell number and the percentage of CD4 T cells in Itk KO mice are significantly higher than those in WT mice. No significant difference was found in skin CD8 T cells. We also used mice that express human Itk or murine Txk only in T cells on the Itk background to determine whether this would rescue the difference we observe between WT and Itk KO mice. We found that T cell specific expression of both human Itk, and mouse Txk could restore the CD4 population (percentage) in Itk KO mice. We also compared WT and Itk KO mice on a Balb/c background. The data did not show significant differences in the percentage of CD4 and CD8 T cells in these mice. In addition, we used CD44 and CD122 surface marker to characterize the phenotype of CD4 and CD8 T cells in skin and found that both WT and Itk KO have high CD44 expression, resembling activated or memory T cells. Thus this suggests that Itk may play an impotent role in development and or homeostasis of skin αβ T cells.


Abstract
Authors: Nils Olsson & Sebastian Wiberg
Title: When the concern boils over. A qualitative study of teachers' views of the notification requirements/mandatory reporting in high schools.
Supervisor: Mikael Sandgren
Assessor: Elizabeth Martinell Barfoed

This paper has the aim to find out how teachers reason about the mandatory reporting law. This is interesting because it can be difficult to determine if child abuse occurs in a situation and the law says that the notification should be made immediately when the teacher suspects child abuse. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with junior highschool teachers on their thoughts before the decision to make a notification to the social services. We also asked questions on how they relate to the child, the child's family and other colleagues at the school. We have used Scott and Lyman (2013) theory of accounts and reached certain conclusions. We have been able to interpret two different approaches to the mandatory reporting law called "the rapporting teacher" and "the notifying teacher". These depict the difference in what teachers do with a suspicion of child abuse. We have also been able to draw conclusions in the flaws of cooperation between teacher colleagues can be linked with the lack of training in this area. We can also see how the parents can be a reason for the teachers to refrain from making a notification. These are some of the conclutions made in this paper.

Keywords: Mandatory reporting law, child abuse, accounts, teacher.


Dextromethorphan, a common over-the-counter cough suppressant, has potential for abuse. In the present commentary, we summarize findings to suggest extensive dextromethorphan overuse/abuse within the U.S. military community residing in Okinawa, Japan. We first compared sales of dextromethorphan-containing medications within the U.S. military community of Okinawa, Japan with sales within the U.S military community from the other nearby locations in the Pacific region. Our report revealed that dextromethorphan use is far more prevalent within the military community in Okinawa. To further substantiate the claim that dextromethorphan abuse is widespread in Okinawa's U.S. military community, a survey of medical records showed high rates of treatment provided for dextromethorphan intoxication. These findings motivated interventions established throughout the military community in Okinawa to combat dextromethorphan overuse. These stricter policy changes resulted in decreases in sales of dextromethorphan-containing medications as well as a substantial drop in hospital visits from dextromethorphan intoxication, suggesting that the interventions were largely effective and should be maintained.


Quaternary amines such as choline and carnitine are essential nutrients for humans supplied from daily food; however, quaternary amines metabolism by gut microbiota can lead to the development of various diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease. It is hypothesized that both diseases are promoted by microbial catabolism of choline and carnitine to trimethylamine (TMA).

Proteus mirabilis is a Gram-negative gut proteobacterium, which can metabolize choline anaerobically to form TMA. I demonstrated that the identified cutC gene is essential for choline degradation and subsequent TMA production in this bacterium. Using P. mirabilis as the model, I investigated the physiological role of quaternary amine metabolism from the bacterial perspective and demonstrated that P. mirabilis can rapidly uptake and degrade choline to enhance growth rate, cell yield and swarming speed under anaerobic and microaerophilic conditions. I also provide the first evidence of a novel choline-metabolizing microcompartment, which is present in both vegetative and swarming cells supplemented with choline.

Another important dietary source of TMA in human gut is carnitine. I used two model proteobacteria Acinetobacter baumannii and Escherichia coli in this project to investigate the role of carnitine metabolism to TMA in health and disease. A. baumannii and E. coli can use carnitine as a growth substrate to produce TMA. To better understand the role of quaternary amine metabolism in host health and disease, I used Caenorhabditis elegans model to investigate carnitine metabolism on the life span of the worm. My data suggest that malate, the degradation product of carnitine, extends the life span of C. elegans fed on A. baumannii or E. coli. Together, my study reveals that choline and carnitine metabolism as an adaptation strategy for gut proteobacteria and contributes to better understand the ecology of these TMA-forming gut bacteria in health and disease.


This qualitative research study explores the hotel franchising relationships and the psychological contract and develops a model of success factors of hotel franchising relationships. A multiple case study approach was adopted involving document analysis and semi-structured interviews with hotel franchisors and a number of their franchisees to explore how hotel franchisors and franchisees approach the issues of hotel franchise lifecycle, phases and psychological contract. This study explores the nature of the relationship between franchisor and their franchisees in each phase of the hotel franchise relationship. The findings illustrated the important aspects which the franchisor and the franchisees should follow in each phase in order to have success in their relationship. These findings led to the development an initial model of hotel franchise success factors. Additionally the findings stressed the necessity of developing policies and practices used by the psychological contract to be more helpful for the success of hotel franchise relationships. The researcher developed the final model based on the way franchisors and franchisees approach hotel franchising relationship aspects.


Presently, software systems are becoming an important module of businesses in the world. Most of the organizations are adopting Global Software Development (GSD), and it is continuously getting faster. Organizations are trying to distribute their work worldwide. However, distributed software development is not an easy task and the organizations face different challenges. Software Requirement Change Management (RCM) is one of them and it becomes more difficult in the context of the GSD. Currently, there is no framework available, which can be used for the RCM in GSD organizations. The aim of this study is to propose a framework for RCM in geographically distributed software development systems and describe the identification of the communication risks, their causes and effects during RCM in GSD systems.


The study investigates consumption of snail meat in Ibarapa Central Local Government Area of Oyo State using both descriptive statistics and OLS multiple regression techniques. Questions that were addressed by the study include: first, what is the rate of consumption of the snail meat in the study area?  Secondly, what are the determinants of amount spent on the consumption of snail meat ? For the above purpose, cross sectional data were collected from 80 households of the study area through the use of structured questionnaires and oral interview and analyzed to reveal the functional relationship between the consumption of snail meat and some socio-economic characteristics of the respondents.Results indicated that most of the respondents were female, married, between 30 and 39 years and have formal education. Also it was found that most respondents earned between N5, 000 and N9, 999 as income monthly. Quantity (number of snails) of snail meat consumed was found to be high but rate or frequency (number of times) of consumption was low (seasonally). The study found no significant relationship between gender, marital status, age, education and income and consumption level (quantity) of snail meat consumed. However, significant relationship was found between rate (frequency) of snail meat consumption and age, educational level and income.The findings also revealed that apart from income, occupation, price of substitutes and education which were the major determinants of snail meat consumption, the nutritional benefit and taste of snail meat were also important factors that determined its consumption by respondents. It was also found out that majority of snail meat eaters sourced it through traditional hunting while only few people bought it from snail rearers. It is therefore recommended that, more people (especially youths) should go into snail production, since it is easy and cheap to rear because this will not only generate employment opportunities but also ensure all year round availability of the product and thereby make it more affordable for the low income earners. Also Agricultural extension workers in the area should intensify awareness about nutritional and medicinal benefits of snail meat and the need for the people of the area to embrace its consumption. Keywords: Snail meat, Regression, Consumption


The Commonwealth's member countries share unique historical ties, as well as resilient diaspora communities with linguistic and institutional similarities. These links could facilitate co-operation and contribute to increased trade, investment and labour flows. This working paper sets out to distill these linkages and their effects from other formal and informal mechanisms that can and do promote trade in the case of Rwanda. The difference in the growth rates of Rwanda's intra- and extra-Commonwealth exports before and after its became a member in 2009 shows some evidence of an increase in intra-Commonwealth trade, but this is not always statistically significant in the case of goods. Neighbouring countries with which Rwanda entered into a trade agreement in the same year account for an important part of the observed differences in growth rates. The model controls for exogenous factors such as language, colonial history and regulatory/legal heritage, as well as unobservable country-specific factors, so any effect of Commonwealth membership comes from other sources. This gives us an opportunity to examine more closely informal mechanisms such as those pertaining to information exchange that may support the evidence presented.


To make services for mobile devices more user friendly wireless communication is a very helpful tool. Wireless communication normally requires no or very little user input, and communication over a wireless interface is therefore in many cases preferred. A trend today is for example that radio or TV shows are recorded to your mobile device during the day. When arriving your home/office the media file can be transferred or streamed to your desktop computer and/or stereo for better sound and larger screen. Normally this is done using a docking station, but this could also be done through a wireless interface. Combining wireless communication with more advanced service logic opens the possibilities for easier file sharing between mobile devices in a peer-to-peer fashion. This thesis evaluates ActorFrame as a framework for service creation in Bluetooth ad hoc networks. Through the thesis limitations in the Bluetooth protocol and mobile devices supporting the Bluetooth protocol are discovered. One of the known limitations of Bluetooth is the range limitation, since Bluetooth only is a short range protocol. To extend the range between Bluetooth enabled devices they must be able to function as mediators. For this to be possible information regarding available services on the different devices must be exchanged. This task is performed by routing protocols. The existing routing protocol in ActorFrame is evaluated, and a study of alternative wired and wireless routing protocols is also done. Besides user friendliness a service should be as cheap as possible. This way as many people as possible will use the service. The Bluetooth functionality integrated in the framework evaluated in this thesis could be utilized in a beneficial way. For example the functionality could be used in peer-to-peer kind of services mentioned above, where a media file is transferred from the mobile device to the desktop computer. Other wireless technologies could also be used for this purpose, namely GPRS or UMTS. As opposed to Bluetooth transmission, which is free, data transmission using either of these two technologies cost money to use. If ActorFrame could be used in a beneficial way depends on the performance of the Bluetooth functionality. Performance below what a certain service demands, where UMTS can offer the required performance quality, would imply that the framework could not be used in a beneficial way. To test this performance the possibilities of streaming MP3's via the Bluetooth interface using ActorFrame based devices is studied, where a prototype is designed. Through this study limitations both regarding mobile devices running applications based on the ActorFrame framework and the framework itself are discovered.


It is shown that the spectrum of dipole radiation of the charge-dyon bound system described by both the Schrodinger and Pauli equations contains direct information on the spatial parity violation in electrodynamics with magnetic charge. The corresponding matrix elements are calculated.


One female subject of 15 months of age,-at the onset of overarm-throwing behaviour, was tested on a longitudinal study of throwing development. Data were collected at the onset of throwing and monthly thereafter, producing 6 sets of data. Kinematic variables were obtained using 3-dimensional video analysis and digitization. Qualitative observations showed that both arm-dominated and sequentially linked throws, right- and left-handed throws, and homolateral and contralateral forward steps were generated in an array of inconsistent throwing. Sequentially linked throws were generally 'interrupted', whereby the child paused briefly after the Back swing to focus externally, then the child executed the propulsion. The throwing elbow remained flexed at ball release. Angles of ball release (referred to the horizontal) fluctuated from 2.17° to 28.03° for all 6 months of throwing development, and the speed of ball release varied from 2.08 m/sec. to 4.32 m/sec. Height of ball release oscillated between 91.5% and 103.3% of the child's height. Horizontal and vertical components of the velocity of the ball while in the hand differed amongst both arm-dominated and sequentially linked throws. The time of the Push up phase in arm-dominated throws varied from 0.14 sec. to 0.50 sec. In sequentially linked throws the time of the Back swing ranged from 0.18 sec. to 0.22 sec., and the Propulsion varied from 0.06 sec. to 0.14 sec. This work in identifying such variability is important, therefore, in the understanding of the motor skill of throwing.


Solid organ transplant recipients are at increased risk for numerous cutaneous conditions that fall within four categories: pre-neoplastic, neoplastic, infectious, or idiopathic. Many of these diseases can be attributed to immunosuppressive medications, including mycophenolate mofetil, cyclosporine, azathioprine, tacrolimus, or glucocorticoids. Iatrogenic lessening of the immune system places the patient at risk of malignancies, opportunistic infections, immune-mediated dermatoses, and adverse effects of medications. As the life expectancy of patients with solid organ transplants continues to increase, dermatologists and transplant physicians must stay abreast of this spectrum of dermatologic conditions, their respective prognoses, prevention, mitigation, and treatment.


Recent years, the microgrid concept built on distributed enegy generation is gaining more interest as a solution for the huge amount of consumed energy by communication network infrastructures. This paper discusses a communication system adaptively operated with renewable power generation, which controls traffic according to the generated power by renewable energy source. We particularly examine a test system we have developed and discuss the feasibility of our system.


This study investigates the development and application of a simple method to calculate annual and seasonal PM2.5 and PM10 background concentrations in small cities and rural areas. The Low Pollution Sectors and Conditions (LPSC) method is based on existing measured long-term data sets and is designed for locations where particulate matter (PM) monitors are only influenced by local anthropogenic emission sources from particular wind sectors. The LPSC method combines the analysis of measured hourly meteorological data, PM concentrations, and geographical emission source distributions. PM background levels emerge from measured data for specific wind conditions, where air parcel trajectories measured at a monitoring station are assumed to have passed over geographic sectors with negligible local emissions. Seasonal and annual background levels were estimated for two monitoring stations in Prince George, Canada, and the method was also applied to four other small cities (Burns Lake, Houston, Quesnel, Smithers) in northern British Columbia. The analysis showed reasonable background concentrations for both monitoring stations in Prince George, whereas annual PM10 background concentrations at two of the other locations and PM2.5 background concentrations at one other location were implausibly high. For those locations where the LPSC method was successful, annual background levels ranged between 1.8 ± 0.1 µg/m3 and 2.5 ± 0.1 µg/m3 for PM2.5 and between 6.3 ± 0.3 µg/m3 and 8.5 ± 0.3 µg/m3 for PM10. Precipitation effects and patterns of seasonal variability in the estimated background concentrations were detectable for all locations where the method was successful. Overall the method was dependent on the configuration of local geography and sources with respect to the monitoring location, and may fail at some locations and under some conditions. Where applicable, the LPSC method can provide a fast and cost-efficient way to estimate background PM concentrations for small cities in sparsely populated regions like northern British Columbia. Implications: In rural areas like northern British Columbia, particulate matter (PM) monitoring stations are usually located close to emission sources and residential areas in order to assess the PM impact on human health. Thus there is a lack of accurate PM background concentration data that represent PM ambient concentrations in the absence of local emissions. The background calculation method developed in this study uses observed meteorological data as well as local source emission locations and provides annual, seasonal and precipitation-related PM background concentrations that are comparable to literature values for four out of six monitoring stations.


The prevalence of hypertension is about twofold higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic subjects. Hypertension aggravates the progression of diabetic complications, especially diabetic nephropathy. However, the mechanisms for the development of hypertension in diabetes have not been elucidated. We hypothesized that enhanced constrictive responsiveness of renal afferent arterioles (Af-Art) to angiotensin II (ANG II) mediated by ANG II type 1 (AT1) receptors contributes to the development of hypertension in diabetes. In response to an acute bolus intravenous injection of ANG II, alloxan-induced diabetic mice exhibited a higher mean arterial pressure (MAP) (119.1 ± 3.8 vs. 106.2 ± 3.5 mmHg) and a lower renal blood flow (0.25 ± 0.07 vs. 0.52 ± 0.14 ml/min) compared with nondiabetic mice. In response to chronic ANG II infusion, the MAP measured with telemetry increased by 55.8 ± 6.5 mmHg in diabetic mice, but only by 32.3 ± 3.8 mmHg in nondiabetic mice. The mRNA level of AT1 receptor increased by ~10-fold in isolated Af-Art of diabetic mice compared with nondiabetic mice, whereas ANG II type 2 (AT2) receptor expression did not change. The ANG II dose-response curve of the Af-Art was significantly enhanced in diabetic mice. Moreover, the AT1 receptor antagonist, losartan, blocked the ANG II-induced vasoconstriction in both diabetic mice and nondiabetic mice. In conclusion, we found enhanced expression of the AT1 receptor and exaggerated response to ANG II of the Af-Art in diabetes, which may contribute to the increased prevalence of hypertension in diabetes.


Setting prices ending in nines is a common feature of many markets for consumer products. This prevalence has been explained either by a specific image of such price points or by the exploitation of rational inattention on the part of the consumers who want to economize on the cost of information processing. We use data from an Austrian price comparison site and find a remarkable prevalence of such price setting. Prices ending with nine are also sticky: price-setters change them with a significantly lower probability; rivals underbid these prices more seldom if they represent the cheapest price on the market, and we observe higher price jumps by price leaders for these price points. Finally, we explore the impact of these price points on the consumers' demand.


In today's globalising conditions, tourism is marketed as a combined product because the demand for tourism increases as the product differs. It is very difficult for tourism destinations, which emerge as a result of the combination of attractiveness, accessibility, tourism businesses, activity and image elements, to survive because tourism destination stakeholders have different goals and objectives. Therefore, there is a need for an effective destination management in which management functions (planning, organising, coordination, commanding (leading) and control) will be employed. Together with the destination management, stakeholders with different goals and objectives are expected to operate in line with a common goal. The clustering of tourism businesses, one of the stakeholders of the tourism destination, plays a very important role in the emergence of destination management. In addition, this situation causes businesses to act not only in line with their own interests but also in the interests of the destination. While avoiding activities that would endanger the existence of the destination with the unions they establish, they cause local administrations and fund managers to act in line with the infrastructure, superstructure and development opportunities needed. In addition to this, while ensuring the use and protection of social capital in that region, it also enables the development of intellectual capital. On the other hand, it causes the opening of new main and auxiliary enterprises and plays an active role in increasing the welfare level of the region. Therefore, clustering is very important in successful destination management.


The aim of this work is the synthesis of new 10-hydroxydecahydroacridine-1,8-dione derivative, determination of the structure and to study the possibility of using this compound as an indicator of acid-base titration. Environmentally friendly synthesis of 10-hydroxy-3,3,6,6-tetramethyl-9-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphe-nyl)-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10-decahydroacridin-1,8-dion has been developed by one pot interaction of dimedone, hydroxylamine and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic aldehyde in water-alcohol or water solution using citric acid or sodium dodecyl sulfate as catalysts, respectively. Purification of the synthesized compound was carried out by crystallization from ethanol. The obtained compound was characterised by 1 H NMR , 13 C NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopies. This substance in water-alcohol solution shows intense violet light absorption. Addition alkali induces red shift of absorption maximum to the blue region. UV irradiation of solution of this substance in alcohol induces two-band fluorescence in the visible region. One band disappears upon addition of a base in solution. The structure of the obtained compound was confirmed by high resolution massspectrometry analysis. In the mass-spectrum of 10-hydroxy-3,3,6,6-tetramethyl-9-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphe-nyl)-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10-decahydroacridin-1,8-dion observed [M+1] + ion peak. The base peak corresponds to tricyclic fragment due to the elimination aromatic cycle from molecular ion. This substance is colorless in acidic and neutral and pink in base solutions. The acid dissociation constant of this compound in a water-alcohol solution was determined by the UV-Vis spectroscopic technique. It was shown that the obtained compound can be used as an indicator for the titration of strong acids and bases.


In this study, we investigate a new synthetic route, termed the solution plasma process, for the synthesis of colloidal copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) in the presence of an amide and acid capping agent. Gelatin and ascorbic acid were selected as the capping agents to protect the particles against coalescence and oxidation side reaction. Using a high voltage power supply, CuNPs were rapidly formed by 1 min after the discharge. The size and shape of the CuNPs were dependent on the discharge time and were clearly influenced by the effect of the capping agents under two characteristics of the discharge medium (pH and temperature). With a long discharge time, the CuNP size tended to decrease with the formation of anisotropic particle morphologies: spherical, cubic, hexagonal, triangular and rod-like shapes. The decrease in CuNP size as a function of discharge time could be explained by the dissolution of CuNPs in a lower pH solution. After 5 min discharge the capping agent evidently allowed the protection of the synthesized CuNPs against oxidation with the presence of anisotropic CuNP shapes. It is demonstrated that the CuNP shape could be tuned from spherical to anisotropic shapes without the undesirable oxidation by adjusting the discharge time of the solution plasma. These advantages are valuable for material engineering to design the properties of Cu-based nanoparticles for the desired applications.


With the dramatic increase in the quantity of organic wastes, economic and environmentally friendly technologies are urgently required for reducing the volume of sludge and remediating its harmful impacts. In this study, drying experiments were performed on sludge through fry-drying technology and the characteristics of the resulting fuels were investigated to identify proper methods for treating sewage sludge, wastewater sludge, swine excreta, and food waste and converting them into fuels. The four types of organic wastes were fry-dried, and the best drying conditions were found to be 140 °C for 8 min for sewage sludge and 150 °C for 10 min for wastewater sludge, swine excreta, and food waste. The water contents of sewage sludge, wastewater sludge, swine excreta, and food waste were 2.40 wt%, 2.70 wt%, 2.90 wt% and 5.82 wt%, respectively. Based on the results of fuel ratio, C/H ratio, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis on the four types of fry-dried solid refuse fuels, mixing the waste fuels with a certain proportion of coal for incineration in order to control the early ignition and rapid incineration rate was found to be effective.


Limited research has been undertaken into the geographical structure of familism within urban areas in recent decades despite significant changes in the nature of family living arrangements. A major element in this hiatus has been the lack of a viable methodology other than the factorial ecology and grouping procedures. These permitted the development of multiple place-to-theory studies in social geography, establishing familism as one of the three basic dimensions of social space, but did not facilitate place-to-place or temporal studies. In the current data-rich environment, an alternative methodology needs to be developed for comparative studies, both temporal and spatial, where measurements of change and differences can be advanced. Without it social geographers will not be able to undertake many measurement tasks and provide spatial projections of change. In this paper we provide the basis of such a methodology, centred on the objectification of social space by utilising census data, where measurements on single-attribute and multiattribute objects are obtained. As a base study it takes the seven categories of living arrangements designated in the Australian census and derives the familism objects for Sydney. A model of five family-type objects for Sydney is developed. Four distinct types of familism objects account for 93.65% of Sydney's area. The fifth is a collection of forty-one heterogeneous objects. These and other associated measurements can subsequently be compared over time, and between places, thereby facilitating detailed place-to-place and temporal studies in social geography.


Recently declassified records reveal new information and confirm old assumptions about Canadian intelligence activities in Vietnam during the 1950s and 1960s. These records are now available online at Canada Declassified. This research note describes the new evidence and considers its implications for existing historiography regarding Canada and the International Commission for Supervision and Control and Canadian policy towards the American war in Vietnam. It suggests new opportunities for research on Canadian intelligence activities during the Cold War. More broadly, the note responds to the discussion in the Canadian Historical Review's December 2015 issue (volume 96, number 4) regarding the future study of Canada's diplomatic history and international action by suggesting that Canadian intelligence activities should be considered by scholars crafting narratives of Canadian international history.


Franciscanas are the most endangered dolphins in the Southwestern Atlantic. Due to their coastal and estuarine habits, franciscanas suffer from extensive fisheries bycatch, as well as from habitat loss and degradation. Four Franciscana Management Areas (FMA), proposed based on biology, demography, morphology and genetic data, were incorporated into management planning and in the delineation of research efforts. We re-evaluated that proposal through the analysis of control region sequences from franciscanas throughout their distribution range (N = 162), including novel sequences from the northern limit of the species and two other previously unsampled localities in Brazil. A deep evolutionary break was observed between franciscanas from the northern and southern portions of the species distribution, indicating that they must be managed as two Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESU). Furthermore, additional FMAs should be recognised to accommodate the genetic differentiation found in each ESU. These results have immediate consequences for the conservation and management of this endangered species.


BACKGROUND
Although 5-year clinical data exist for different zirconia implants, no analysis has yet been performed focusing on how the surface topography of the implant affects clinical parameters.

PURPOSE
To analyze the influence of zirconia implant topography on first bone implant contact (fBIC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In a prospective two-center cohort investigation 63 zirconia implants were evaluated at implant placement, prosthetic delivery, 1, 3, and 5 years. The distance (DIB) between implant shoulder and fBIC was measured at each time point in periapical radiographs at mesial and distal sites. Two-way ANOVA/Bonferroni was used to analyze the effects of time and center (α < 0.05).

RESULTS
Between the centers, the mean DIB varied significantly at implant placement (Freiburg [FR]: 1.4 ± 0.6 mm; Zurich [ZH]: 0.8 ± 0.5 mm). Thereafter, no statistically significant difference in DIB was observed, neither between centers nor between time points (prosthetic delivery: FR: 1.9 ± 0.6 mm, ZH: 1.7 ± 0.8 mm; 1 year: FR: 1.8 ± 0.6 mm, ZH: 1.6 ± 0.8 mm; 3 years: FR: 1.9 ± 0.8 mm, ZH: 1.7 ± 0.8 mm; 5 years: FR: 1.9 ± 0.8 mm, ZH 1.8 ± 0.6 mm). The overall mean DIB at prosthetic delivery to 5 years of both centers (1.8 ± 0.7 mm) is located within the transition zone between the smooth neck and the moderately rough intraosseous part (1.6-2.0 mm from the implant shoulder). However, individual DIB values are ranging from 0.1 to 4.2 mm overlapping the transition zone.

CONCLUSIONS
The standard deviation of the DIB indicates that the fBIC establishes on moderately rough and smooth surfaces. Consequently, soft tissue adapts to both topographies as well.


Automatic prediction of the execution time of programs for a given architecture is crucial, both for performance analysis in general and for compiler designers in particular. In this paper, we present CATREEN, a recurrent neural network able to predict the steady-state execution time of each basic block in a program. Contrarily to other models, CATREEN can take into account the execution context formed by the previously executed basic blocks which allows accounting for the processor micro-architecture without explicit modeling of micro-architectural elements (caches, pipelines, branch predictors, etc.). The evaluations conducted with synthetic programs and real ones (programs from Mibench and Polybench) show that CATREEN can provide accurate prediction for execution time with 11.4% and 16.5% error on average, respectively and that we got an improvement of 18% and 27.6% respectively when comparing our tool estimations to the state-of-the-art LSTM-based model.


AIM
To evaluate a combination of the effects of non-drug measures and rozuvastatin on the lipid spectrum and blood pressure (BP) in patients with treated arterial hypertension (AH) concurrent with dyslipidemia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The multicenter open-labeled prospective program included 299 patients from 19 cities and towns of Russia. Two hundred and eighty-eight patients completed phase 1 of the program; out of them 279 patients (149 males and 130 females) aged 58-80 years (56.7 +/- 8.7 years) with a mean AH history of 10.3 +/- 8.4 years. Phase 1 of the program involved 3 visits and it was over 12 weeks after rozuvastatin therapy. Phase 2 (including a visit 12 weeks following the termination of Phase 1) is being continued.

RESULTS
Rozuvastatin therapy resulted in a reduction in the levels of total cholesterol (TC) by 2.5 +/- 0.8 mmol/l (p < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 2.2 +/- 0.8 mmol/l (p < 0.001), triglycerides (TG) by 0.8 +/- 0.9 mmol/l (p < 0.001), and atherogenicity index (AI) by 2.8 +/- 1.4 (p < 0.001) and an increase in the content of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol by 0.2 +/- 0.2 mmol/l (p < 0.001), which produced the target levels of LDL cholesterol in 61% of the patients, HDL cholesterol in 70%, and TG in 73%. During unaltered antihypertensive therapy there were also decreases in body mass by 1.5 +/- 2.8 mmol/l (p < 0.001), body mass index by 0.5 +/- 1.0 kg/ m2 (p < 0.001), waist circumference by 1.0 +/- 3.2 cm (p < 0.001), and BP by 72 +/- 14.2/4.1 +/- 8.6 mm Hg (p < 0.001). There was an increase in the activity of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, and creatine phosphokinase; however, this was clinically significant in none patients.

CONCLUSION
Rozuvastatin significantly lowers the levels of TC, LDL cholesterol, TG, and AI and elevates the concentration of HDL cholesterol. In the majority (83%) of the patients, rozuvastatin used in a dose of 10 mg/day was sufficient to normalize the lipid profile, which makes it possible to recommend that rozuvastatin therapy should be started from this dose.


AbstractBecause air cooled small engines have very low compression ratio and fixed ignition timing, and work on slightly rich mixtures, their specific fuel consumption and emission values are very high. In this study, some modifications were made to improve performance and to reduce emissions in a small engine. The compression ratio of this engine was raised from 5 : 1 to 10 : 1, the ignition system was powered and the ignition timing was converted to be variable. The modified engine was operated with lean mixtures at high compression ratio. The test results showed that the power of the modified engine was higher than that of the standard engine by ∼32%. At the same time, the specific fuel consumption and the HC emissions were reduced by ∼36 and 31% respectively. According to these results, it can be said that there is the potential of performance improvement and emission reduction in the small engines without using any fuel injection system and exhaust control system which increase cost of engine.


The following facts seem to emerge concerning the nature and clinical correlations of various factors in the infantile spastic hemiplegic population.
 A. The mean age for this series at the time of first examination was 6.5 years; means are consistent between large groupings where comparisons were made.
 B. There were more right than left spastic hemiplegics (5:4).
 C. Spastic hemiplegia occurred more often in males than in females (5:4).
 D. The Negro subjects were distributed fairly randomly through the present spastic hemiplegic population; the nonsignificant differences in distribution which occurred were thought to be related to geographical and socio-economic factors and not to race, per se.
 E. The incidence of postnatally acquired cases was approximately ⅓ of the spastic hemiplegic series as compared to 1/10 of the total cerebral palsied population.
 F. The incidence of convulsions in this series was significantly higher than that reported for the general population, for all types of brain injury, for mixed spastic groups, and for most other series of spastic hemiplegics.
 G. Congenital and postnatally acquired cases, convulsive and non-convulsive cases, and males and females were all distributed randomly between the left and right spastic hemiplegics of this series.
 H. Congenital and postnatally acquired cases, as well as convulsive and non-convulsive cases, were distributed at random between the males and females of this series.
 I. The postnatally acquired cases of spastic hemiplegia showed a significantly greater incidence of convulsions than the congenital group.


For the first time, the discrimination of different chiral forms of 1:1 complexes with hydrogen peroxide and methyl hydroperoxide have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and Moller–Plesset type 2 (MP2) methods at varied basis set levels from 6-31+G(d,p) to 6-31++G(2d,2p). Three pairs of chiral enantiomers were considered. The optimized geometric parameters, interaction energies, and chirodiastatic energies for various isomers at different levels are estimated. To take into account the water solvation effect, the polarized continuum model (PCM) method has been used to evaluate the ΔGsolv. The gas phase results show that the heterochiral six-membered ring complex (structure I) and homochiral five-membered ring complexes (structures IV and V) are preferred configurations for the three pairs of chiral enantiomers. The solvation effect on six-membered ring complexes (structures I and II) shows nonsignificant changes in the configurations preferred, but on five-membered ring complexes, the homo-/heterochiral preference is found to be inverse in the polar solvent. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2006


Multistage blood pressure screening rules are often used to select subjects for clinical trials. Multiple blood pressure readings are taken over successive visits, and the subject must meet eligibility criteria at each visit. In this paper, the authors present methods which depend on the distribution of the subject's underlying blood pressure values (the predictive value approach) or, alternatively, the subject's observed mean over all screening visits (the empirical predictive value approach) given the observed mean after one or more visits. The authors apply these methods to data from Phase I of the Trials of Hypertension Prevention, which attempts to identify subjects with mean diastolic blood pressures in the range 80-89 mmHg over three screening visits. The estimated efficiency of these rules is evaluated in terms of the number of clinic screening visits needed per eligible subject. Relative to reexamining all subjects at each visit (no screening), these approaches can reduce the number of visits required by 27%. This is in contrast to the standard rule in which a subject must have an observed mean diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg on each of three consecutive visits, which requires twice as many clinic visits per eligible subject as not screening. Thus, the approach presented is useful in identifying eligible subjects for clinical trials in an efficient manner.