Until fairly recent times, human populations were characterized by worn, well-aligned dentitions. Epidemiological data show that the decrease in dental wear and the increase in malocclusion took place simultaneously with the adoption of a modern lifestyle. There is strong evidence indicating that these changes were caused by a decrease in masticatory-functional demands. As such, the epidemiological findings are not compatible with the evolutionary-genetic explanations. The recent increase in occlusal variation demonstrates the high plasticity of occlusal characteristics and suggests that humans possess a genetic makeup that is sufficient for the development of a normal occlusion, given the correct environmental circumstances. External influences can be considered as tertiary inductors of the genomic processes that are involved in the growth of the craniofacial structures and development of the occlusion. Only those facial structures that are able to react to epigenetic factors, ie, show developmental plasticity, can be influenced by orthodontic therapy. Because the plasticity of each characteristic establishes the limits of therapeutic actions, orthodontic treatment should be based on an understanding of how the genetic and epigenetic factors interact during growth and development.


ABSTRACT Han China (206 bc–ad 220) witnessed significant population growth, pronounced technological development, intensified agricultural practices and the construction of large-scale hydraulic engineering projects in the Yellow River. These processes coincided with increased frequency and intensity of major floods along the Yellow River. The interactions between flooding and social-technical developments fundamentally reshaped the politics of the Han and stimulated the formation of so-called heaven-human induction idealism. This Confucian environmental ethic gradually became a powerful orthodoxy that shaped political and economic behaviours and society's perspective on and actions towards utilizing environmental resources and transforming landscapes. Similar processes played out in Three-Kingdoms Korea (ad 300–668). The Korean case exemplifies how, as in China, this idealism was a product of the long-term interplay between state formation and the environment through the development of intensive agriculture.


Machine Learning (ML) has been widely applied to cybersecurity and is considered state-of-the-art for solving many of the open issues in that field. However, it is very difficult to evaluate how good the produced solutions are, since the challenges faced in security may not appear in other areas. One of these challenges is the concept drift, which increases the existing arms race between attackers and defenders: malicious actors can always create novel threats to overcome the defense solutions, which may not consider them in some approaches. Due to this, it is essential to know how to properly build and evaluate an ML-based security solution. In this paper, we identify, detail, and discuss the main challenges in the correct application of ML techniques to cybersecurity data. We evaluate how concept drift, evolution, delayed labels, and adversarial ML impact the existing solutions. Moreover, we address how issues related to data collection affect the quality of the results presented in the security literature, showing that new strategies are needed to improve current solutions. Finally, we present how existing solutions may fail under certain circumstances, and propose mitigations to them, presenting a novel checklist to help the development of future ML solutions for cybersecurity.


Energy use in buildings accounts for a significant part of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. New building regulations and new measures have been introduced to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. One of these measures is improved windows with a low thermal transmittance(U-factor). Still, windows use typically 25~40% of the heating and cooling energy in buildings. In order for the thermal transmittance and condensation of a window to be found, numerical simulations or experiments are needed, in accordance with various international standards. These standards differ with respect to both air cavity modeling and boundary condition treatment. In this paper, the thermal transmittance and condensation of window found from numerical simulations and experiments, are compared.


The objective of this study was to describe how the porosity of cortical bone affects ultrasound propagation (wavelength: mm scale). The bulk compression and shear velocities were determined for 40 specimens of human radius using finite‐difference computation of transient ultrasound bulk waves in axial and transverse directions. The 3D microstructure of the specimens were obtained using high‐resolution synchrotron radiation micro‐computed tomography (voxel size =10μm). The pores were filled with a nonviscous fluid and the model assumed the bone material to be elastic and transversely isotropic or isotropic. All bulk wave velocities decreased quasi‐linearly with increasing porosity, e.g., typically 28 m/s/%por for the axial compressional wave velocity. For the radial compressional wave velocity, the rate depended on the assumption on the bone material (for isotropy 56 m/s/%por and for transverse isotropy 19 m/s/%por). In case of transversely isotropic bone matrix, cortical bone tended to become more acoust...


Chlamydia trachomatis is the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted infections. C. trachomatis inorganic pyrophosphatase (CtPPase) hydrolyzes inorganic pyrophosphate during metabolism. A 2.2 Å resolution X-ray structure of CtPPase reveals shared structural features that may facilitate the repurposing of inhibitors identified for bacterial inorganic pyrophosphatases as starting points for new therapeutics.


Standard production test techniques for ADC require an ATE with an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) with a resolution at least 2 bits higher than the ADC under test resolution. This requirement is a real issue for the new high-performance ADCs. This paper proposes a test solution that relaxes this constraint. The technique allows the test of ADC harmonic distortions using only low-cost ATE. The method involves two steps. The first step, called the learning phase, consists in extracting the harmonic contributions from the AWG. These characteristics are then used during the second step, called the production test, to discriminate the harmonic distortions induced by the ADC under test from the ones created by the generator. Hardware experimentations are presented to validate the proposed approach.


A comparative study between a Dutch postcolonial novel, Een vlek op de rug (1963) by J. van de Walle and an Afrikaans post-apartheid novel, Foxtrot van die Vleiseters (1993) by Eben Venter, produces fascinating results. Despite dissimilarities, e.g. the almost thirty years that separate these two texts and the fact that the stories take place in different centuries on different continents, there is an unmistakable unity of intention that binds them together. The similarities are most clearly seen in the criticism of two discriminatory policies, namely that of colonialism and apartheid (which can also be seen as a form of colonialism) respectively. In both novels the narrator attempts to come to terms with the past and his own feelings of guilt. Both narrators write from a socio-politically advantaged position with on the one hand mixed feelings of empathy with the suppressed other and problematic identification with their own group on the other hand. This study investigates ways in which these feelings of guilt manifest and how the storyteller deals with his conflicting emotions through the therapeutic process o f telling the story. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


Purpose
Vortex grippers use tangential nozzles to form vortex flow and are able to grip a workpiece without any physical contact, thus avoiding any unintentional workpiece damage. This study aims to use experimental and theoretical methods to investigate the effects of nozzle diameter on the performance.

Design/methodology/approach
First, various suction force-distance curves were developed to analyze the effects of nozzle diameter on the maximum suction force. This study determines the tangential velocity distribution on the workpiece surface by substituting the experimental pressure distribution data into simplified Navier-Stokes equations and then used these equations to analyze the effects on the flow field. Subsequent theoretical analysis of the distribution of pressure and circumferential velocity further validated the experimental results. Next, by rearranging these relationships, the study considered the effects of nozzle diameter on the inherent vortex gripper characteristics. In addition, this study developed various suction force-energy consumption curves to analyze the effects of nozzle diameter.

Findings
The results of this study indicated that the vortex gripper's circumferential velocity and maximum suction force decrease with increasing nozzle diameter. Nozzle diameter did not significantly affect the inherent frequency of the vortex gripper-workpiece inertial system or the corresponding suspension stability of the workpiece. However, an increase in nozzle diameter did effectively increase the vortex gripper's suspension region. Finally, as the nozzle diameter increased, the energy required to achieve the same maximum suction force decreased.

Originality/value
This study's findings can enable optimization of nozzle design in emerging vortex gripper designs and facilitate informed selection among existing vortex grippers.


OBJECTIVES: Oxidative stress (OS) is an essential element in the pathogenesis of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and its transformation to adenocarcinoma (EAC). The state of OS in the proximal stomach of patients with BE and EAC is unknown. Isoprostanes are a specificmarker of OS not previously used to determineOS fromBE/EAC tissue samples. PATIENTS AND METHODS: OS was measured in 42 patients with BE (n = 9), EAC (n = 9), or both (n = 24) and 15 control patients. A STAT-8-Isoprostane EIA Kit served to identify 8-Isoprostanes (8-IP), and a Glutathione Assay Kit was used tomeasure glutathione reduced form (GSH) and glutathione oxidized form. AnOxiSelect Oxidative DNADamage ELISA Kit (8-OHdG) served to measure 8-OH-deoxyguanosine. RESULTS: The 8-IP (P = .039) and 8-OHdG (P = .008) levels were higher, and the GSH level lower (P= .031), in the proximal stomach of the study group than in that of the controls. Helicobacter pylori infection was present in 8% of the study patients. CONCLUSIONS: In the proximal stomach of BE and EAC patients, OSwas elevated and antioxidative capacity was reduced. This finding suggests that the gastroesophageal reflux causing BE also induces oxidative stress in the proximal stomach and may contribute to the development of cancer in the proximal stomach and gastric cardia. Translational Oncology (2016) 9, 336–339 Address all correspondence to: Jarmo A. Salo, MD, PhD, Prof, Department of General Thoracic and Esophageal Surgery, Helsinki University, Helsinki University Hospital, Heart and Lung Center, P.O. Box 340, 00290, Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: email@example.com Conflict of Interest: The authors state no conflicts of interest. Received 8 March 2016; Accepted 13 June 2016 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Neoplasia Press, Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1936-5233/16 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranon.2016.06.004 Introduction Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction (EAC) is a disease with a poor prognosis and rising incidence. Its most important risk factors are gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and Barrett's esophagus (BE) [1]. Long-lasting GERD causes chronic inflammation and greater accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to a state of oxidative stress (OS) [2–5]. ROS modify DNA bases, causing the production of DNA adducts that can serve as markers of DNA damage. These adducts can initiate mutagenic and carcinogenic processes by producing mispaired DNA sequences [2,6–10]. ROS levels are known to be higher in tissues with BE andEAC [10–15]. Themost commonmarker of oxidative DNA damage is 8-OH-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), which plays an essential role in the induction of spontaneous mutations [16]. Its presence inBE, BEdysplasia, andEAC tissues is significantly higher than in the normal squamous esophageal epithelium [3]. The glutathione redox system and superoxide dismutase (SOD) function as a defense mechanism against OS [17,18]. In previous studies, the GSH content and SOD contents were markedly lower in Barrett's epithelium than in normal esophageal mucosa [12,15,19,20]. 8-Iso-PGF2 (8IP), a prostaglandin-like compound produced via cyclooxygenase-independent enzymes, is considered the most sensitive and reliable marker of lipid peroxidation and an indicator of oxidative status in vivo [21,22]. Its circulating plasma levels have been associated Translational Oncology Vol. 9, No. 4, 2016 Increased Oxidative Stress in Barrett's Esophagus Kauppi et al. 337 with colon, prostate, and breast cancer [23–25], hence its association with malignant processes. To our knowledge, however, 8-Iso-PGF2 (8IP) has not been measured in BE or EAC tissue samples. Inflammation of the gastric cardia is associated not only with Helicobacter pylori infection (HPI) due to pangastritis but also with erosive esophagitis and GERD in patients without HPI [26]. The association between cardiac inflammation and EAC is unclear, and most cases are associated with BE [27–29]. Because inflammation and OS are strongly linked, in this study, we evaluated whetherOS is present and estimated the antioxidant capacity of the proximal stomach of patientswithBE andEAC. Materials and Methods Patients Our study included 57 patients (Table 1). Nine samples came from patients with only esophageal intestinal metaplasia (histologically observable goblet cells in the tubular esophagus), 9 from patients with EAC, and 24 with both. Eleven patients in EAC group had undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The control group contained 15 patients with no reflux symptoms and a healthy esophagus in the endoscopic examination. The biopsies from the control patients also revealed healthy gastric mucosa. We evaluated the study patients' records for a history of HPI. Patients in the control group were significantly younger (P = .015, independent-samples median test). The ethics committee of the Helsinki University Hospital approved the study protocol. Sample Collection We acquired samples from follow-ups with Barrett's patients and the pretreatment endoscopies of esophageal adenocarcinoma patients, or from resected specimens during surgery (11 of the EAC samples). In endoscopy, we sampled the most obvious area of pathology, including both the tumor and metaplastic mucosa, if present. Proximal gastric mucosal samples were taken 5 cm below the top of the proximal gastric folds. In the control patients, squamous epithelium samples were taken 5 cm above the gastroesophageal junction. All samples were immediately frozen and stored at −70°C and later sent for analysis. Methods Before the biochemical analyses, we homogenized the tissue specimens in ice-cold 0.1 M Tris buffer with 1 mM EDTA and 10 mM indomethacin at pH 7.4. A STAT-8-Isoprostane EIA Kit (Cayman Chemical, Ann Arbor, MI) served to identify 8-Isoprostanes, and a Glutathione Assay Kit by Cayman Chemical was used to measure reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione forms (GSSG). An OxiSelect Oxidative DNADamage ELISA Kit (8-OHdG) (Cell Biolabs, Inc., San Diego, CA) served to measure 8-OH-deoxyguanosine. Statistical Methods All statistical data are expressed as median (range). Mann-Whitney U test served to compare medians between patient groups. Significance Table 1. Patient Groups Group n Age (Year), Median (Range) Control 15 46 (20-75)


Chris H. L. Lim,*‡ BSc (Med) (Hons), BMed, MD Edwin C. Figueira,*†‡ MSc, MS (Ophthal), FRANZCO Shahriar Amjadi,‡ BSc (Hons), MBBS Minas T. Coroneo,*‡ FRACS, MD Ian C. Francis,*†‡ FRACS, PhD *Department of Ophthalmology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, †Ocular Plastics Unit, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and ‡Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia


In the years since the uprisings of the late 1960s swept the cultures of Europe and America, the emergence of a radical critique of modernity and the heralding of a corresponding transition into postmodernity have increasingly occupied the minds of many cultural critics, theologians, philosophers, and historians alike. These three decades have witnessed the development of a wide array of differing cultural, social, and conceptual possibilities: the academy, for example, has seen the growth of gender studies and inquiries dedicated to previously marginalized communities, as well as the advancement of postmodern theories of culture, action, and knowledge among practitioners of philosophy, sociology, and theology, among others. The story is by now familiar, and while cataloging these changes itself would be an interesting endeavor, suffice it here to underscore that the interests, orientations, foci, and theoretical approaches of the academy have all changed significantly at the end of the twentieth century.


In general, the Stokes-Einstein (SE) equation is well accepted for melts. In the supercooled melt a decoupling of diffusivity and viscosity around the critical temperature Tc of the mode coupling theory is observed. The authors measured simultaneously the P32 and Co57 diffusion in the supercooled melt of the Pd43Cu27Ni10P20 alloy from 573 up to 640K using the radiotracer technique. They found that P and Co have similar diffusivities and compared them to viscosity data using SE equation. This shows that the time scales of Co and P diffusions are decoupled by up to two orders of magnitude from time scales of viscous flow in the supercooled state.


This paper reviews developments in the implementation of systolic fast Fourier transform processors over two decades (early 1980s to early 2000s) and identifies positive and negative lessons learned. The modular transform processor was developed at TRW in 1983-84. It is a set of 6 large circuit boards that computes 4096 point FFTs using 22-bit floating-point arithmetic at sustained data rates of 40 MSPS. A single chip systolic FFT developed by the Mayo Foundation in 2001-02 computes 4096 point FFTs using 16-bit fixed-point arithmetic at sustained data rates of 200 MSPS. Some thoughts on the future directions of systolic FFT processor development are offered. Future systems will compute larger FFTs at higher data rates, will employ IEEE standard floating point arithmetic and will consume less power


Small‐scale buoyant outflows have the potential to impact beach contamination, nutrient exchange, productivity, larval recruitment, and carbon chemistry in the nearshore region where surface gravity waves influence momentum and energy transport. This study aims to understand the dynamics leading to the fate and structure of an idealized small‐scale outflow in the presence of surface waves using a fully coupled 3‐D hydrodynamic and spectral wave model. Wave‐current interactions significantly alter plume structure when compared to hydrodynamics‐only simulations. Wave dissipation injected into the water column as a flux of turbulent kinetic energy at the sea surface mixes the plume in the surf zone, while wave‐driven velocities reduce offshore plume propagation and enhance alongshore spreading. A series of simulations varying flow rate and offshore wave height indicate a log linear relationship between the surf zone volume‐integrated freshwater fraction and the ratio of wave to outflow momentum fluxes.


Three new species of eriophyoid mites from China's Hainan Island are described and illustrated. They are Epitrimerus danzhouicus sp. nov. on Ficus gibbosa (Moraceae), Epitrimerus dioscoreaepersimilis sp. nov. on Dioscorea persimilis (Dioscoreaceae), Tegolophus liangyuanicus sp. nov. on Litchi chinensis (Sapindaceae). All the eriophyoid mite species described here are vagrants on the undersurface of host leaves.


Strongly second order Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic models with values in separable Hilbert spaces (HGARCH, in brief) are introduced. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of these models are given. Tensor analysis for Hilbert-Schmidt operators, and conditional expectation operatorial calculus for Hilbert space valued processes appear to be appropriate for time domain analysis of such HGARCH models. A new estimation procedure to estimate parameters of HGARCH models is established, and is examined through simulation.


Gifts have scarcely been attended to in psychology or clinical psychology
literature, despite attracting considerable interest in other social science
disciplines. Only a very small quantity of empirical studies has
researched gifts given within therapeutic relationships. An interdisciplinary
approach was therefore used in this study to investigate
clinical psychologists' experiences of being offered gifts by clients within
therapeutic relationships, drawing on theoretical literature from
anthropology, sociology and psychoanalysis.
The study was situated within a critical realist epistemology and used
both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Part I was a survey of
chartered clinical psychologists, designed to map gift experiences
descriptively, whilst Part II involved group discussions to seek to
understand their meaning. Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse
both responses to the open-ended questionnaire items and the data from
group discussions. Themes arising from the thematic analysis of the
questionnaires included: Acceptance as the 'correct' response,
Potency of the gift, and Professional matters. Those arising from the
group discussions were Refusal as the 'wrong' response and Utility of
guidance and the importance of autonomy.
The vast majority of gifts reported in the research were accepted, and
acceptance was seen as a culturally 'normal' response. Gifts were
understood as indicating gratitude and many participants in the survey reported experiencing pleasure at being offered a gift. Although givers
were positioned as 'needy' and 'needing' to give, participants also drew
on a construction of the gift as a reciprocation. Finally, participants
reported using NHS guidelines, although it was emphasised that clinical
psychologists are autonomous and seek to understand a gift's meaning,
which was contrasted with 'other' professionals.


Some vaccines may protect against childhood cancers GSK malaria vaccine offers long-lasting protection Cholera vaccination post-outbreak: Still beneficial Prescrire takes a close look at Wyeth's Prevnar 13 Chilean scientists develop alcoholism vaccine No association of H1N1 vaccine with Guillain-Barre New vaccine to help polio eradication H1N1 infection provides clues to universal flu vaccine


Cholestasis of the newborns under 3 months with infections pathology mostly is predetermined by intranatal infections. In infections caused by сytomegalovirus is found high of hathological process. The problem of cholestasis in infants and young children has always been a very topical and caused the greatest concern among pediatricians. It is estimated that the prevalence of neonatal liver disease reaches 1 in 2500 live births. Cholestasis is defined as a delay of bile in the biliary tract due to violation of its formation, and urinary excretion, ie pathological process in certain section of the gall current (hepatocyte faterova to the nipple). [1] In the etiology of cholestasis in young children perinatal infection plays a significant role. Perinatal infection - one of the leading causes of perinatal and child pathology and mortality. In addition, perinatal infections affect the frequency and structure of maternal morbidity and mortality. Frequency of clinically significant forms of intrauterine infection (IUI) is 0.5-1% on-time delivery, and increased to 3,5-16% in preterm labor. In studies of several authors [5,6,7,8], the proportion of IUI causes of stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates approaches 40%. According to the National Genetic Register of Kazakhstan, the proportion of congenital malformations among the causes of perinatal mortality in the Republic of Kazakhstan is 12-16%, and has a tendency to decrease. [10]


To develop the aerial inspection robot for infrastructures, we focused attention on EPM (Electric Permanent Magnet) as a device to stick to steel structures in past studies. Sticking ability to structures is one of the advantages of inspection robots. Although the flight experiment by a quad-rotor equipping the developed EMP unit was succeeded, the developed EPM was not able to generate enough magnetic attraction to inspect the structure. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of noise reduction in recorded images by sticking to structures and stopping rotors. The noise included in the images is evaluated based on PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio). And we develop an EPM system to stick to structures firmly, and evaluate it by measuring the magnetic attraction considering paint thickness of structures. In addition, flight experiment is carried out using the quad-rotor equipped with the EPM system to validate it.


The concept of ecosystem service (ES) identifies benefits that people obtain from ecosystems with contributions to human well-being. One important ES under external pressure is "flood regulation" that describes an ecosystem's capacity to reduce flood hazards.
Several related studies estimate current flood regulation ES. However, regional climate projections indicate a shift in precipitation patterns. Therefore, Climate and land use changes make it necessary to assess future supply in order to test functionality and adaptation measures. This study focuses on surface retention ES. We used two methods to show the relevance of different landscape scenarios and climate information for flood regulation ES supply: 1) hydraulic simulations with the model HEC-RAS 2) the flood retention capacity indicator suggested by the German MAES-Working group. We simulated two events: the historic flood of 2013 and future hypothetically 10% higher water levels. Furthermore, three land use change scenarios were evaluated.
The model results indicate water accumulation by vegetation. Higher water levels of future climate scenarios lead to an increase in flooded areas and higher water volumes. To evaluate flood regulation capacities, an approach solely based on 2D retention areas, such as the MAES-indicator, is not sufficient. Modelling approaches deliver the opportunity for future scenario simulations.


The Auckland region has 13 marinas with a total of 5,900 berths, representing approximately 50% of the number of marina berths in New Zealand. This paper identifies issues facing the Auckland Regional Council and marinas within the Auckland region in establishing a fair and equitable regime for charging for the occupation of coastal space. Regional councils have the ability under section 64A of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) to establish a regime of coastal occupation charges. Although this ability has existed since 1997, constraints on the implementation of a regime have inhibited regional councils from making progress. As a consequence of the difficulties in establishing a regime, the charges levied for occupying coastal space by marinas in the Auckland region are inconsistent, some paying nothing, while others pay up to $700 per berth annually. Those berth holders currently paying charges are becoming increasingly frustrated and outspoken. The paper describes the history of the marinas' establishment which has lead to these inconsistencies. It comments on the Proposed New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement with respect to its ability to provide guidance on coastal occupation charges. It then goes on to suggest that an alternative to using the RMA process to implementing a charging regime could be the use of existing sections in the Local Government Act 2002 and powers councils have to create bylaws. These issues are discussed in the context of the emerging changes to Auckland's governance and the proposed changes to simplify and streamline the RMA.


This paper aims to expand the concept of linguistic variable. The study analyzes the common conclusion forms in the evaluation project. The evaluation often makes the final conclusion by analyzing the fuzzy number and its membership function. However, the information of modified word or phrase ("largely", "preliminary" and "unclear") has got lost in analysis. The study develops the extended linguistic variable by integrating the modified and traditional linguistic variable. It is useful to understand the means of ambiguity exactly in the manufacturing processing.


are woody hemi-parasitic shrubs with branches 15–80 cm long, which grow on different host trees. Mistletoe tend to form a globular shape (Fig. 2, a) which may reach over 1 m in diameter. The foliage is dichotomously or verticillately branching, with opposite pairs of green leaves (Fig 2, c and d) which perform some photosynthesis (minimal in some species, notably


A force-plate mounting system (FPMS) which allows rapid changes in force-plate (FP) location, flexibility in FP positioning, and sufficient rigidity for support is presented. The purpose of this design was to allow adjustments to be made in FP location in order to accommodate subject foot positioning during activities such as gait. Additional considerations included rigidity of positioning and stiffness of support irrespective of FP location. The FP mounting system accommodates multiplier FPs, the number of which is limited by the size of the FPs being used and the size of the FPMS rigid base.<<ETX>>


One of the reasons behind the selection of culture as a focus theme of this issue of the JMM is that while much is known about the role of culture in organisations in general, far less is known about the specificities of its role in media firms, although many who have managed or researched in the sector have suggested that cultural influences are particularly strong (see, for example, Wolf, 1999; Graham, 1997; Wyatt, 2003).


Hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) is generally uncommon benign liver tumor with potential to become
malignant. Its prevalence has been increasing steadily secondary to wide use of oral contraceptives and due
to the increased use of imaging for a variety of unrelated reasons. Large adenomas may present with chronic
abdominal pain. As HCA become larger it is prone to rupture and hemorrhage due to central necrosis
because the vascular supply is limited to the surface of the tumor. If left untreated HCA can undergo
transformation into hepatocellular carcinoma which can be as high as in 10% of cases1 or even higher.
Surgical excision is a preferred method of treatment. Other modalities include embolization of bleeding
tumors and ablative modalities in selected cases.


Organizational safety is not only influenced by technological aspects and technical skills, but also by such factors, as regulatory and business pressures, job demands, workers' behaviours and skill. However, a need to consider Non-Technical Skills (NTS), that can contribute to a safer and more efficient task performance should be considered. A research group of the University of Bologna developed an organizational intervention named "NoTeS – Non-Technical Skills for Safety", which aims to give an effective answer to companies that want to enhance safety in their own work environment. The paper describes the four phases of this intervention. In addition, safety interventions in chemical plants are analysed. Finally, the first positive outcome of improving safety in chemical plants based on participants' reactions, behaviour and interesting perspectives is discussed.


We adapted DSC and drop tube processing techniques to investigate the solidification behavior of (Ge) and CuAl2 phases in the Al–Cu–Ge ternary alloy comparatively. For the DSC sample only undercooled to 32 K with a low cooling rate, (Ge) phase is the leading nucleating phase and then CuAl2 phase nucleates. Primary (Ge) block, (Ge+CuAl2) and (Ge+Al) pseudobinary eutectics coexist in the microstructure. In the drop tube, the more competitive nucleation and growth of (Ge) and CuAl2 phases are caused primarily by high cooling rate and then secondly by large undercooling. On condition that undercooling and cooling rate exceed critical values, simultaneous nucleation of (Ge) and CuAl2 phases from the alloy melt and subsequently their independent growth contribute to the formation of anomalous (Ge+CuAl2) pseudobinary eutectic grain. Under such condition, a small amount of ternary eutectic grain forms due to the late exclusion of Al solute.


William Clarke, reporter, has explored the link between the oil price rise to the fortunes of the burgeoning frac sand market, as well as other oilfield minerals such as barite and bentonite (p26). [...]on pp40-43 Rose Pengelly, correspondent, has outlined the shift toward artificial intelligence in mining, which saves on energy costs – a massive consideration for miners these days – which Vasili Nicoletopoulos outlines in his feature on climate change (pp37-39). Pointing to long lead times on new projects and geopolitical issues in some supplier countries, these new fertiliser producers hope to capitalize on a growing, meat-eating middle clas


The relative proximity of the recent gamma ray burst (GRB) 030329 resulted in a large gamma-ray fluence and in the brightest-ever afterglow (AG), hours after the burst, in the radio, optical and X-ray bands, permitting precise AG measurements, sensitive tests of models and an excellent occasion to investigate the association of GRBs with supernovae (SNe). The Cannonball (CB) model provides a good, simple and universal description of all AGs of GRBs of known redshift, so that it is straightforward to use it to predict what the expected SN signatures are. In the case of GRB 030329, 10 days after burst the AG should begin to reveal the lightcurve, spectrum and polarization of an underlying SN —akin to SN1998bw— which will peak in the NIR/optical band around day 15. These effects will be easily observable if indeed SN1998bw is a good " standard candle " for GRB-associated SNe and if the so far unknown extinction in the host galaxy is not too large.


The present taxonomic and floristic knowledges on Hieracium L. s. str. in Sicily are commented. In total, 11 taxa occur in this island, 10 of which are endemic and 1 has a wider range. For each of these taxa, biological form, phenology, distribution, ecology, chromosome number, conservation, and taxonomy are taken in consideration. A key to the taxa is also provided. Apomixis; conservation; endemism; taxonomy; vascular plants.


We thank Anderson et al for their questions regarding our report.[1][1] In brief, they failed to observe an association of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I chain–related gene A (MICA) mismatches and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The studies, however, have differences in design.


In this paper equations are set up which describe the behavior of a solid under the action of combined stresses when a steady state of creep is assumed to exist. A material is said to be in a steady state of creep if it yields with a constant speed under a given constant stress. In an ordinary creep test the steady state exists when the deformation has reached the point where the ``creep curve'' becomes a straight line. In mathematical language this can be expressed by saying that the stress is a function of the rate of strain and is independent of the amount of strain. Cases are worked out in which this stress vs. strain rate relation is a simple power function. Various types of flow including purely plastic flow and viscous flow can be discussed by changing the value of the exponent in the power function relation. Several specific examples which include the case of the thick walled cylinder with closed ends loaded by internal pressure and the case of a disk having a circular hole and loaded in its plane...


Abstract Hyperbranched polyurethane (HBPU) elastomers were synthesized from dimer fatty acid-ethylene glycol polyester diol (DFA-EG), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and glycerol (GLY) by a two-step, solvent-free process. The effect of glycerol on phase separation was studied by Fourier transforminfrared (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal and viscoelastic properties of the HBPU were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), respectively. The transparent HBPU elastomers presented a typical amorphous morphology, with a single glass transition temperature (Tg) about -25 °C. All TGA curves showed two distinct stages of degradation with the onset decomposition temperature at 275 °C. It was found that the increasing content of GLY resulted in a decrease in the thermal stability between 295 °C and 445 °C. The results for DMA revealed that HBPU crosslinked with GLY had high elasticity up to 5.12 MPa at 100 °C. The best mechanical and viscoelastic properties were achieved at the nNCO(TDI)/nOH(DFA-EG+GLY) of 0.95, with its hardness and tensile strength values of 83 A and 13.2 MPa, respectively and the storage modulus value of 32.8 MPa. In addition, the lowest water absorptivity was 0.24% when the nNCO(TDI)/nOH(DFA-EG+GLY) equalled 1.05.


Abstract Slow‐moving vehicles, including agricultural vehicles, on arterial highways can cause serious delays to other traffic as well as posing an extra safety risk. This paper elaborates on a small‐scale solution for these problems: the passing bay. It investigates the impacts of a passing bay on the total delay for other motorized vehicles, the number of passing manoeuvres and hindered vehicles, and the mean delay per hindered vehicle. The latter is also considered to be an indicator for traffic safety. The calculations are performed for two characteristic trips with a slow‐moving vehicle. The passing bay is an effective solution to reducing delays on arterial highways when two‐way hourly volumes exceed 600–1000 vehicles. The effects depend on the trip length and speed of the slow‐moving vehicle, and on the passing sight distance limitations of the road. A distance of 2–4 km between the passing bays seems an acceptable compromise between the reduction of delay for other motorized vehicles and the extra discomfort and delay for drivers of slow‐moving vehicles. This result also shows that passing bays are not effective in regions where slow‐moving vehicles mainly make trips shorter than this distance.


Astroglia support neuron by providing substrates for neuronal metabolism, glutamate clearance, and antioxidative protection. Nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2) participates in the antioxidative defense response. Also, Nrf2 signaling is recognized to activate the neurotrophic pathway to replace/protect damaged organelles. Ellagic acid (EA), an extraction component of fruits and nuts, presents many pharmacological activities such as anti‐inflammation, antioxidation, and neuroprotection. However, few studies have been focused on the neurotrophic properties of EA. Our study investigated whether EA could increase neuronal survival and the target cells. Thus, primary neuron‐enriched cultures and primary astroglia‐enriched cultures were applied to detect whether EA‐elicited neurotrophic effects were mediated by astroglia Nrf2. This study indicated that EA promoted neuronal survival. Further, astroglia Nrf2 participate in EA‐elicited neuronal survival with the following scenarios. First, EA elicited astroglia proliferation, glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) release, and Nrf2 activation. Second, after silencing astroglia Nrf2, EA‐induced astrogliosis, GDNF release, and neuronal survival disappeared. Thus, EA‐mediated astroglia Nrf2 activation is important to enhance neurotrophic effects on neurons, which might provide new insights for neurodegenerative disease.


The local structure of four amorphous organotin sulfide compounds is investigated by X‐ray absorption spectroscopy. These compounds exhibit a nonlinear optical (NLO) response upon irradiation with a continuous‐wave near‐infrared laser. Their basic structural motif is a hetero‐adamantane cluster with different organic substituent, but depending on the morphology of the compound and the choice of the organic substituent, the nature of the NLO response changes to either a second harmonic generation or the generation of a supercontinuum, potentially appearing as white light. The structural results provide an experimental evidence that the nature of the NLO properties is tied to distortions occurring at the cluster core, with almost ideal clusters in compounds that show second harmonic generation, and strongly distorted clusters in the case of compounds that generate a supercontinuum. These distortions may enable a closer proximity of the cluster cores, altering the intermolecular order, and thereby influencing the NLO response.


The study investigated the impacts of six sigma strategy in selected manufacturing firms in Nigeria. As the global economy continues to face significant challenges, there is an growing pressure on organizations to cut rate and reduce operational absconds, while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. The six sigma strategy, now a popular deployment tool in many organizations worldwide was developed as a conception by Motorola in 1980's. The study examined the challenges of the application of six sigma strategy in Nigeria. The review method was approved. Two hundred and twelve randomly selected staff of the organizations from a population of four hundred and fifty participated in the study. The instrument for data collection was erected on a likert-scale system. Based on the findings of the study, it is discovered that six sigma adds significant cost to the organization that adopt the strategy. The study also exposed that the successful application of Six Sigma largely varies on the infrastructural level of the organizations. Resultantly, the impacts of the process on quality of product and services have been handled. The study mentioned that Government should create a certain business environment in relatives to infrastructure development and guided monetary and fiscal policy. This will allow managers in the sectors to formulate and faced the global trials facing them. The study determines that the application of Six Sigma is highly advantageous to organizations that adopt it.


Acquisition of the gastrointestinal microbiota at birth may have long-term health impacts. We longitudinally characterised major microbial communities in the faeces of a cohort of infants using molecular methods. Faecal samples were prospectively obtained at several time points after birth from eighty-three infants. Real-time PCR using SYBR green and primers targeted at 16S rRNA gene sequences were used to quantify Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus acidophilus group, Bacteroides–Prevotella group, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus, Clostridium coccoides–Eubacterium rectale group, Clostridium leptum group and Staphylococcus. Microbial community abundance was expressed relative to amplification of sequences conserved universally for domain bacteria. Faecal copy number of 16S rRNA genes increased non-significantly from a mean of 4·1 × 109/g on day 1 to 1·1 × 1010/g on day 4. All microbial communities were detected from day 1 after birth. Enterobacteriaceae and lactobacilli predominated on day 1, while bifidobacteria and staphylocci increased on day 4. Bacteroides–Prevotella and C. coccoides–E. rectale increased by day 180. C. leptum was detected in half of the cohort at birth and in a slightly larger percentage by 6 months. Caesarean section was associated with delayed colonisation by several bacterial communities. Higher socio-economic status was associated with more abundant lactobacilli and Bacteroides–Prevotella at 90 and 180 d. Supplemental feeding was associated with a reduction in Enterobacteriaceae. Microbial colonisation of the gut was well established on the first day of birth, and relative abundance of microbial communities was influenced by mode of delivery, socio-economic status and supplemental feeding. These findings may have relevance to infant nutrition and growth.


By 2015 energy production, generated by human community on the ground of renewable sources, make about 10%. Black Sea is unique basin, containing significant quantity of hydrogen sulphide, which could be raw materials for hydrogen production, ecologically clean source of energy. There are considered particularities of hydrogen sulphide producing in Black Sea, its distribution at sea water thickness as well as energy and environmental issues, associated with hydrogen sulphide emitting from water of Black Sea for further processing into hydrogen.


This thesis presents a complete framework for the description of implicit surfaces and solids. We propose piecewise representations that are based on decomposition models and constructed using methods adapted to the geometry of objects. These models are general, in the sense that they can represent arbitrary shapes, and support variable precision, permitting approximations at any desirable resolution.
The contribution of our work consists of: (i) an original characterization of the implicit description of shapes, (ii) a new method for generating a smooth implicit function corresponding to a solid object, and (iii) two new piecewise representation schemes based on a multiscale decomposition of the implicit function and on an adapted simplicial decomposition of the domain of the implicit function.
We characterize the implicit model through an analysis of the implicit function. We show that the skeleton of a shape and the tubular neighborhood of its boundary are dual structures that relate an object with the space in which it is embedded.
We develop a method that allows the generation of smooth implicit functions from the characteristic function of an object. It employs multiresolution edge detection and reconstruction using dyadic wavelets.
We introduce a functional decomposition model based on B-spline scaling functions that generate nested multiscale approximating spaces. The Laplacian transform is employed to compute a pyramid in terms of these B-spline bases.
We introduce a spatial decomposition model based on adapted simplicial subdivision. Physics based deformation adapts to the boundary of the object a mesh derived from this simplicial complex.
Some of the applications of these methods include: approximate conversion between volumetric, implicit and parametric representations; surface rendering; volume visualization; and animation of implicit objects.
In summary, the relevance of this thesis is twofold: it provides a conceptual, as well as a practical scheme for piecewise shape description. The piecewise implicit representations that we have developed are effective and efficient. They capture the spatial features of objects using composite structures that are constructed from simple elements.


Objective:To investigate the MR characteristics of small hepatocellular carcinoma(SHCC) with hepatic cirrhosis in the plain scan and dynamic enhanced scan,to compare with the blood supply,to raise diagnosis of SHCC.Methods:MR images of 48 SHCC with hepatic cirrhosis proved by clinic and pathology were reviewed retrospectively,which were performed using a 1.5 Tesla MRI unit with plain scan and dynamic contrast enhanced as well.Results:Of 48 SHCC with hepatic cirrhosis,slightly hypointense or hypointense was showed in 33 of 48 lesions on out phase T1WI.On T2WI,34 SHCC were slightly hyperintense or hyperintense,10 of which were slightly hyperintense or isointense on in-phase T1WI,and hypointense or isointense on out-phase T1WI.19 SHCC had pseudo capsule.The artery feeding type was 72.8%.The portal venous supplied type was 10.4%.Normal or slightly increased type was 6.3%.Double blood supplied type and poor supply type was 6.3% and 4.2% respectively.Conclusion:There are 5 patterns in dynamic enhanced MR imaging in SHCC,which indicates different blood supply,including essentially no enhancement,sustained enhancement slightly,rapid increase and rapid decrease,rapid increasing initially and decreasing slowly and slowly increasing initially and rapid decreasing,while 38(79.2%)SHCC showed obvious enhancement during arterial phase.To combine the MR characteristics,it can provide definite basis for the early diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma,differentiation may be available.


Since she began making films in 1979, Mira Nair has flaunted her ability to provoke viewers, western and non-western, into various stances of angry criticism or frank admiration or even both. Her entire filmography to date, while certainly not produced expressly with the intent to shock, characterizes Nair as a non-traditional filmmaker unafraid of controversy. Her short black-and-white film, Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979), documented Muslim men and women's reactions to her alien presence as a filmmaker in their traditional Indian community; So Far from India (1983) delineated a young man's painful acculturation process as a working-class Indian immigrant in New York with a pregnant wife back home; Children of a Desired Sex (1985) examined the use of ultrasound for the purpose of sex determination and female foeticide in India; India Cabaret (1986) sought to give voice to cabaret dancers or strippers in Bombay in a documentary fashion; Salaam Bombay! (1988), a cinema-verite style film employing actual street children, depicted the urban devastation wrought by poverty and prostitution; Mississippi Masala (1991) trod upon interracial ground, depicting the scandalous romance between an Indian woman and an African American man in the American South; The Perez Family (1995) followed Cuban refugees fleeing to Miami in search of a better life; Kama Sutra (1997) transformed India's ancient love manual into a theatrical tale about friendship, passion, and revenge. Her most recent film, My Own Country (1998; based on a book by medical doctor and author Abraham Verghese), is no less venturesome in treading new ground: here, the camera's subject is an India-born specialist in infectious diseases in the American deep and rural South who finds himself educating the underground gay community about HIV and AIDS whilst undergoing psychic transformation himself. Summing up her risk-ridden approach to film in a 1993 interview, Nair has stated her case rather directly; when asked whether filmmaking is a political tool for her, she replied:


Games assignments are increasingly popular in computer science education. This paper advocates and analyzes the inclusion of board, card, and dice games as programming assignments in introductory programming courses (CS1/2). The simple interface and strategy-based play of these types of games complement the immersive multimedia and agility-based play of video games. The implementation of board, card, and dice games typically demands less background knowledge from the instructor and offers fewer opportunities for extraneous work by the students. The paper lists 32 specific games that are suitable for teaching the major topics in CS1/2 and discusses the implementation of some of these games and their successful use as programming projects.


The invention discloses a cigarette product containing Chinese herbal medicine components and a processing method thereof, aiming at the defects that the traditional Chinese medicine theory is not used perfectly by the Chinese low harm cigarettes and real harmony of cigarette and medicine is not realized in the product in prior art so as to provide a drug cigarette and a processing method thereof. A common blended cigarette is optimized and improved in the four aspects of tobacco leaf formulation, burley casing formulation, full tobacco leaf charging formulation and added Chinese prescription, and the final drug cigarette is obtained by combing the special operation methods in the processing procedure of cigarettes when the traditional Chinese medicine is added. Compared with the prior art, the product in the invention has the advantages of performing the functions of conditioning, heath care and treatment of Chinese herbal medicine on the basis of maintaining the color, fragrance andtaste of the original cigarette, reducing or alleviating harm of smoking and improving self immunity of smokers; the product has simple operation of the processing method and easy combination with the common cigarette production technology, thus having economic technology cost and ensuring the reservation and performance of medicinal materials to the utmost.


We propose a method to study and constrain modified gravity theories for dark matter using CMB temperature anisotropies and polarization. We assume that the theories considered here have already passed the matter power-spectrum test of large-scale structure. With this requirement met, we show that a modified gravity theory can be specified by parametrizing the time evolution of its dark-matter density contrast, which is completely controlled by the dark-matter stress history. We calculate how the stress history with a given parametrization affects the CMB observables, and a qualitative discussion of the physical effects involved is supplemented with numerical examples. It is found that, in general, alternative gravity theories can be efficiently constrained by the CMB temperature and polarization spectra. There exist, however, special cases where modified gravity cannot be distinguished from the CDM model even by using both CMB and matter power spectrum observations, nor can they be efficiently restricted by other observables in perturbed cosmologies. Our results show how the stress properties of dark matter, which determine the evolutions of both density perturbations and the gravitational potential, can be effectively investigated using just the general conservation equations and without assuming any specific theoretical gravitational theory within a wide class.


The paper describes an approach to the numerical analysis of response of nuclear power plant buildings including soil-structure interaction effects. A reinforced concrete structure of an NPP reactor building under operating and seismic loadings is considered. The simulated seismic load corresponds to a maximum designed earthquake of magnitude 7 (the peak ground surface acceleration is 0.12 g). The numerical analysis was performed by the finite element method in a 3D nonlinear statement using the FEM-programs ANSYS and LS-DYNA. Review of the numerical analysis results demonstrated that the presented technique can be successfully applied to seismic design of NPP structures.


ABSTRACT When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global health crisis in early 2020, memes of populist political leaders were disseminated in abundance on social media. At first sight, these political memes satirized and exposed the hazardous actions, appearances and communicative strategies of the populist leaders in this unforeseen situation that not only unsettled existing power balances, but also standard modes of professional and personal conduct. Based on a thematic analysis of memes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 crisis, this paper finds, however, that the political memes' critical and affirmative power conflated. This challenged their potential as counter-narratives to the actions and communication of these populist leaders. We argue that this can be explained by an overlap in the communicative form of populism and memes: Political memes are a social media genre that uses incongruent humor to expose the contradictions, conflicts and hypocrisy of populist politicians. Similarly, populist politicians communicate in polarizing and personalizing rhetoric that emphasizes conflicts and the mischiefs of others on social media and beyond. This raises the broader question of how populist leaders might be criticized and their actions subjected to scrutiny in political memes without feeding into their own communicative patterns and logics, and thus unintentionally confirming their worldview and interpretations of events.


Traffic congestion is an important aspect of quality of life, mobility and accessibility in urban areas. The economic cost of congestion is in the order of billions of dollars especially for dense urban cities. Besides the congestion which relates to the magnitude of travel time, travel time variability is also studied extensively by researchers as an additional measure for transportation network efficiency. In order to enhance the efficiency of urban traffic flow in New York City, numerous policies have been discussed, including different transportation pricing schemes. Pricing schemes – particularly variable pricing – should incorporate the severity of congestion and levels of travel time variability at different times of day and areas throughout the City. However, most of the existing discussions are based on number of trips and bridge/tunnel crossings in the City, mainly because the necessary data to calculate travel time related measures have not been extensively available. This study utilizes taxis as probe vehicles collecting travel time information in the city 24/7 in the New York City urban network. Two separate taxi trip datasets were utilized to calculate the spatio-temporal travel time patterns covering all boroughs of New York City. The street and avenue travel times in Manhattan are also calculated by projecting origin and destinations onto Manhattan's grid network. The identified spatio-temporal congestion and travel time variability patterns are discussed within perspective of congestion pricing policy discussions in New York City.


The development of fixed-step higher-order variational integrators based on geometric integration methods is presented. These methods are symplectic, preserve energy in Hamiltonian conservative sys...


Purpose – The purpose of this manuscript is to analyze the fusion micro-zone generated by typical rough surfaces and investigate the factors of thermal effects on the tribological performance of surface asperities and its results verified by the experiment. Design/methodology/approach – A three-dimensional fractal rough surfaces sliding contact model has been developed, which takes into account temperature rise and distribution. The finite-element method, Green's function method, thermal conduct theory and contact mechanics are used as the solution methods. Findings – The results yield insights into the effects of the sliding velocity, thermal properties of the material, normal load and surface roughness on the temperature rise of the sliding contact surface. It allows the specification of working conductions' properties to reduce fusion. Originality/value – The model is developed and described by using the features of the contact between one flat surface and one rough surface with varied topographies. It...


Special Works of Art (OAEs) play an extremely important role in the Brazilian socioeconomic development, being essential for the flow of roads. Therefore, such infrastructure works deserve special attention, with regard to safety, functionality and structural durability conditions. This work aims to identify some pathological manifestations in OAEs, presenting advanced monitoring techniques. The present study was based on a qualitative and quantitative approach, using as a source of bibliographical research: articles, books, manuals, monographs, dissertations, theses and technical standards. It was found that many Brazilian OAEs need some maintenance, recovery and structural reinforcement service. It was noted that monitoring methods are essential for the inspection of OAEs, being efficient in the early detection of structural anomalies.


This study aims to present the results obtained in the geometric evaluation of two RapidEye scenes, acquired in two levels of processing: 1B and 3A. To evaluate the RapidEye 1B data, the parties were considered the two scenes that make up the 3A cut. Both 1B orthorectified scenes were considering two scenarios: using only the RPCs and also using nine-point control in the field (GCPs), and the MDE SRTM, using PCI Geomatic OrthoEngine 2013. The determination of the accuracy was made using 30 evaluation points. All points (control and evaluation) were collected in the field by making use of GNSS receivers of two frequencies through static relative positioning. For the assessment of accuracy was made comparing the coordinates of the evaluation points with their counterparts in orthoimagery (either 3A or that have been generated from 1B scenes). The 3A product has CE90 = 7.76 meters and standard deviation = 2.52 meters. When considering orthoimagery derived from the data 1B with GCPs, we have CE90 = 8.04 meters and standard deviation = 2.48 meters for February 2013 scene, and CE90 = 6.28 meters and standard deviation = 2.57 meters to the scene May 2013. For orthoimagery corrected without GCPs met CE90 = 6.8 m and standard deviation = 2.38 meters for the scene, 2013 and CE90 = 7.64 meters and standard deviation = 2.76 meters for the scene February 2013. Considering the PEC (Cartographic Accuracy Standards), the values obtained allow saying that the observed accuracies are compatible with the specified product to up the scale 1: 10,000, class B (orthoimage, 2013) and class C (orthoimagery February 2013 and 3A product). Making use of statistical inferences proposed by Vieira & Genro (2013), which estimate the accuracy for the population of the errors and the trend in the data, the results were not so good: all orthoimagery (3A, February and May 2013) would accuracy compatible with the specified product to scale 1: 25,000, class B. As the approach statistical inferences is more robust than specified in the PEC, the authors believe that the geolocation of RapidEye images evaluated in this study should be considered compatible with products in scale 1: 25,000, class B. The authors emphasize, though, that only the planimetric accuracy or the geolocation was evaluated. Products must undergo assessment of thematic accuracy to have a full assessment of your application, which is in progress.


Summary form only given. The development of efficient normal-incidence multilayer reflective coatings in the 13-14 nm wavelength region has led to many new optical applications. One of the most demanding applications is extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). This lithography would use reduction imaging to print microchip features smaller than 0.1 /spl mu/m. The use of all-reflective optics (reflectivities up to 65% per surface with Mo:Si multilayer coatings) makes it possible to operate a lithographic stepper in the 13-14 nm wavelength range with the necessary throughput required by a commercial microchip manufacturers. The Lyman alpha transition in doubly ionized lithium appears to be an efficient source at 13.5 nm. The ratio of excitation energy to radiated energy for that transition is 53% and only two electrons per atom need to be removed to produce that radiating state. The optimum lithium plasma radiating at 13.5 nm has been estimated to require an electron density of 10/sup 18/-10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/ and an electron temperature of 15-20 eV. Low inductance capillary discharges of compact design have been recently shown to be capable of producing these plasma conditions, while maintaining a small source size. Experiments demonstrating the "proof of principle" of this source are described. Future directions include the construction of a lithium vapor discharge lamp operating at temperatures up to 900 /spl deg/C.


The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence is a welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarly literature on the relationship between religion and violence. Part I, 'Overview of Religious Tradition...


Background : Uterus bicornis subseptum is a deformity of the uterus such as the shape of the heart, the fundus appears to be curved inward, and has a barrier or wall inside to the uterine cavity. This abnormality occurs due to failure of the fusion of the left and right mullerian ducts. If pregnant, women who have this form of the uterus will usually experience a location abnormality, in which the fetus is often transverse or breech. However, women who have this disorder sometimes find it difficult to get pregnant so they experience infertility. In addition, there is usually a disturbance in the formation of the kidneys, but in this patient there was no abnormality in the urinary tract. In cases where the patient does not have children and a bicornu uterine abnormality is found, uterine repair is performed and it is hoped that with the uterine anatomy returning to normal, the patient can become pregnant.Objective : Discuss the management of cases of congenital abnormalities of the internal genital organs in patients with a bicornu uterus.Method : Case Report.Case : Reported a patient aged 25 years with primary infertility 4 years and a bicornu uterus. In patients, chromotubation was performed first, after chromotubation, the patient was performed metrosplasty to remove the bulkhead in the uterus and to repair the uterus. During the post-op follow-up at the hospital the patient did not show any signs of infection or acute abdomen, then the patient was discharged on day 5. The patient was advised to go to the OBGYN polyclinic regularly for further follow-up to the success of his uterine repair. Assessment can be done in several ways including transvaginal ultrasound to assess whether there is adhesions to the endometrium from the results of uterine repair, HSG, SIS or hysteroscopy can also be done in assessing the success of metroplasty in this patient.Conclusion : After metrosplasty in a patient with a bicornu uterus, further follow-up is required to determine the success of this procedure by performing a follow-up ultrasound.Keywords: Bicornu uterus, metroplasty


Japanese literature,which emerged under the influence of ancient Chinese culture,is a branch of the circle of Chinese culture.But it is different from ancient Chinese literature for its non-politics.Modern Japanese literature was influenced by European literature,where as Japanese didn't Occidentalize its literature but took it into the Japanese culture.So Japanese literature always shows its feature of non-politics.Since ancient times,Japanese literature has maintained its characteristics pursuing the perpetual beauty and seldom being related to politics.


Owing to the unnoticed introduction of a spontaneous mutation during repeated transformations of the host Origami B(DE3)-RIL with the expression plasmid pET28_Af_Exo, the description of the characterization of the enzyme starting with the 'Temperature profile' on page 1843 to 'Substrate specificity' on page 1846 is now known to refer to a variant of the enzyme, which has a substitution of Val217 to Gly. The section 'Af_Exo without disulfide bridges' refers to work done with the wild-type enzyme, however.


1. Introduction - Reflecting on purpose and topic 2. Goal - Understanding the importance of activity, task type, and quests 3. Interaction - Examining negotiation, competition, and cooperation 4. Feedback - Developing through fail states and assessment 5. Motivation - Analyzing the significance of engagement and affect 6. Context - Exploring stories, environments, and identities 7. Conclusion - Looking at the future of digital games in language learning Appendix I. Glossary Appendix II. Guide to Game Types Appendix III. Game Evaluation Guide References Subject Index


Besides providing students with the essential life skills, Life Science Course Curriculum should also provide a basis to social sciences, and science and technology courses. In this study, it is intended to reveal the prediction power of the learning level of life science course in science and technology course. According to the result of the study, grades of the third grade life science course are significant in the prediction of student's grades of the fourth grade science and technology course. Students' grades of 57% of fourth grade science and technology course can be explained with third grade life science course's grade. Likewise, student's achievement test scores of third grade life science course are significant in the prediction of student's achievement tests of the fourth grade science and technology course. %47 of fourth grade science and technology course academic achievement scores can be explained with third grade life science course achievement test scores. Also, tetrachoric correlation analysis results show that third grade Life Science Course Curriculum has shown consistency with the attainments of the fourth grade Science and Technology Course Curriculum. In other words, the results of the study present clues that the third grade life science course is helpful to prepare the students to the  fourth grade science and technology course


In a decentralised wide area surveillance system (D-WASS), the two principal objectives are to first detect the events of interest reliably, and second to track the progression of these events and maintain a globally consistent track of the object for the extent of the camera fields of view. In this paper, we discuss an implementation of a 9-camera D-WASS with non-contiguous views, and analyse the performance of the tracking and vision sub-systems both empirically and analytically. In this application, event-based change detection algorithms in image space, as well as data association and tracking algorithms in a consistent real world coordinate system are realised in a real-time environment where both physical and temporal constraints are taken into consideration. This system has been demonstrated to work satisfactorily under various operating conditions. In order to characterise the performance of the system, the vision and tracking components, as well as the dependence of the latter on the former from a systems viewpoint, are studied analytically. The results are compared with those obtained empirically from real ground-truthed data. Potential extensions and improvements to the current implementation are also discussed.


The general aspiration towards joining the European Union and creating the knowledge society in Serbia involve significant challenges for the Country. One of the most demanding changes that Serbian libraries will be facing consists of implementing information literacy (IL), i.e. citizens that are prepared for lifelong learning in a world that is overloaded with information of all sorts. The essential premise of this paper lies with two convictions of the authors: that, on the one hand, libraries are a natural environment for the development of information literacy, and on the other, information literacy must contribute to the citizens' quality of living. The paper will offer a general overview of the current status of IL in Serbia, the actors in the IL process, the programs, the initiatives, and, above all, what the role of libraries in this endeavor is. Кеy words: Information literacy, knowledge society, library's mission, libraries in Serbia, information literacy in Serbia


The paper examines in a critical light the approaches and theoretical grounds of certain educational projects seeking to promote "intercultural competence" in translators, both in Russia, the contributors' home country, and in Western Europe, as exemplified by a European Union project. Some textbooks as well as teaching material and recommendations are placed under scrutiny for consistency, relevance and value to the training of professional translators/interpreters, especially at postgraduate level. It is shown that some guidelines presented as an improvement on current translation teaching practices repeat or repackage ideas developed decades ago by Russian and Bulgarian translatologists. The paper argues that there is no special need for artificially implanting or isolating an "intercultural communication" module in translation teaching, as translation is itself a primary form of international and, therefore, intercultural communication, and the best practices of its teaching, at least in the leading translator/interpreter schools of Russia, have incorporated the cultural component in harmony with other essential translation competences for at least half a century.


Transport and logistics today have evolved into a high-technology industry. Distribution is no longer about moving cargo over road or via air from A to B, but is a complex process based on intelligent systems for sorting, planning, routing, and consolidation that supports faster transportation, different transportation modes, fallback scenarios in case of failures, value added services such as time sensitive deliveries and tracing of products throughout the supply chain or transport network. Many larger companies have developed solutions for delivering these services in order to meet the requirements of their customers and to offer them methods for tracing their consignments. As smaller companies cannot afford these investments, they are mainly active in the "old" point-to-point transportation market. Continuous information about the current position or status of transport goods (in the sense that the exact geographic position can be queried at any time) at a piece level is not commonly available today. Typically, this information is provided - if at all - at a vehicle or container level only. Existing tracking solutions are typically based on scanning bar codes at process or control points. In daily business, products are frequently shipped by subcontractors of the transport company. If the subcontractor does not provide a point-to-point service, tracing is no longer possible. Only in a few cases do carriers exchange tracing information, but in most cases the costs for adapting the proprietary systems to each other are prohibitive. In order to support all kinds of logistic companies the main objective of the ParcelCall project is to develop and verify an inter-modal, real-time, end-to-end, tracking and tracing (T&T) system for transport and logistics applications - operating across all borders of carriers and transportation modes. The key idea is to provide common open (and ideally standardised) interfaces among all system components on top of standardised communication protocols, e.g., TCP/IP, GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth. Low costs, easy installation and adaptation of the legacy systems operated by the carriers to the new information infrastructure were key design criteria.


The development of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an international collaboration led by NASA in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Canadian contribution to the mission is the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS). The FGS-Guider images two fields of view onto two detectors. For testing, Optical Ground Support Equipment telescopes are used to simulate the image from the Observatory's Optical Telescope Element. The FGS Engineering Test Unit (ETU) comprises 2 functioning Guider channels: one fully functional channel with a Teledyne H2RG HgCdTe 5 micron cutoff detector, and another with an H2RG multiplexer in place of a detector. This paper reports on the results of cryogenic vacuum testing of the alignment of the final ETU instrument configuration. Images at ambient (from the H2RG multiplexer) and at cryo (from detector and H2RG multiplexer) were analysed to determine best focus and FGS field of view at cryogenic temperatures. The ETU test results for best focus, tip/tilt of focal planes, field of view location and size are well matched to the budgets and predictions and meet requirements for the FGS-Guider.


A highly sensitive fiber temperature sensor based on in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) and Vernier effect was proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The MZI was fabricated by splicing a section of hollow core fiber between two pieces of multimode fiber. The temperature sensitivity obtained by extracting envelope dip shift of the superimposed spectrum reaches to 528.5 pm/°C in the range of 0 °C–100 °C, which is 17.5 times as high as that without enhanced by the Vernier effect. The experimental sensitivity amplification factor is close to the theoretical predication (18.3 times).The proposed sensitivity enhancement system employs parallel connecting to implement the Vernier effect, which possesses the advantages of easy fabrication and high flexibility.


In his perceptive review article on my The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914-1920, in the Oxford Art Journal, vol. 13, no. 2 (1990), David Craven has characterised my conception of Marxist theory on the basis of an essay I wrote in 1971. Such a reference to work from twenty years ago is problematical for any scholar who, like myself, attempts to continue working in the Marxist tradition. Just about the time when Craven's review appeared, Norbert Schneider in Germany edited a special issue of Kritische Berichte (18 [1990], no. 3), entitled 'Zwanzig Jahre danach', which contained a collection of articles by a number of German art historians who participated in the Marxist challenge to conventional art history in the Federal Republic around 1970, and who were reviewing the situation of Marxist art history twenty years later. Such a review imposed itself all the more urgently after the demise, in the fall of 1989, of the German Democratic Republic, the first German socialist state. The following English version of my contribution to the Kritische Berichte is intended as a response to David Craven's review. It has been revised and expanded, in part as a response to discussions held, in December 1990, with a number of friends in Britain, most notably Andrew Hemingway, Michael Podro, and Alex Potts.


A new antenna-synthesis method is described that allows the antenna surface geometry to be arbitrarily specified and the radiating current distributions to be computed directly from the radiation patterns, which can be quite general and have any type of polarisation: this latter process makes the synthesis procedure nonunique, but is of great practical value since phase information is not required. Illustrative examples based on rotational symmetry are given to show the effect of all the various sources of controllable error, and useful information is also extracted about the formulation of active conformal arrays of small closely spaced noninteracting radiating elements; in particular, a means of optimising a conformal beacon antenna and creating a wide bandwidth supergain system by utilising the closely spaced driven array principle is discussed.


Lua is an interpreted, cross-platform, embeddable, performant and low-footprint language. Lua's popularity is on the rise in the last couple of years. Simple design and efficient usage of resources combined with its performance make it attractive for production web applications even to big organizations such as Wikipedia, CloudFlare and GitHub. In addition to this, Lua is one of the preferred choices for programming embedded and IoT devices. This context allows to assume a large and growing Lua codebase yet to be assessed. This growing Lua codebase could be potentially driving production servers and extremely large number of devices, some perhaps with mission-critical function for example in automotive or home-automation domains. However, there is a substantial and obvious lack of static analysis tools and vulnerable code corpora for Lua as compared to other increasingly popular languages, such as PHP, Python and JavaScript. Even the state-of-the-art commercial tools that support dozens of languages and technologies actually do not support Lua static code analysis. In this paper we present the first public Static Analysis for Security Testing (SAST) tool for Lua code that is currently focused on web vulnerabilities. We show its potential with good and promising preliminary results that we obtained on simple and intentionally vulnerable Lua code samples that we synthesized for our experiments. We also present and release our synthesized corpus of intentionally vulnerable Lua code, as well as the testing setups used in our experiments in form of virtual and completely reproducible environments. We hope our work can spark additional and renewed interest in this apparently overlooked area of language security and static analysis, as well as motivate community's contribution to these open-source projects. The tool, the samples and the testing VM setups will be released and updated at http://lua.re and http://lua.rocks.


As a result of this study a discrepancy of classifiers with existing nation-wide normative documents used in the medical service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been revealed. The change to the used classifiers and propositions to new ones has been presented.


N-Glycans from major glycoproteins of pigeon egg white (ovotransferrin, ovomucoid, and ovalbumins) were enzymatically released and were reductively aminated with 2-aminopyridine, separated, and structurally characterized by mass spectrometry and a three-dimensional mapping technique using three different columns of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Takahashi, N., Nakagawa, H., Fujikawa, K., Kawamura, Y., and Tomiya, N. (1995) Anal. Biochem.226, 139–146). Twenty-five major N-glycan structures, all of them hitherto unknown, were identified as pyridylamino derivatives. Of these, 13 were neutral, 10 were monosialyl, and 2 were disialyl oligosaccharides. All N-glycans contain from one to four Galα(1,4)Galβ(1,4) sequences at the nonreducing terminal positions and are devoid of fucose residues. N-Acetylneuraminic acids were α(2,6)-linked only to β-galactose. The HPLC profiles of theN-glycans from four different glycoproteins were qualitatively very similar to each other, but not identical in the peak distributions. Monosialyl glycans were most abundant in all four glycoproteins, followed by neutral glycans. Disialyl glycans were lowest in ovotransferrin, and highest in ovomucoid. Triantennary structures with bisecting GlcNAc were predominant in ovotransferrin, and tetra-antennary (with and without bisecting GlcNAc-containing) structures were predominant in other glycoproteins. Penta-antennary structures (with a sialic acid and without bisecting GlcNAc residue) were also found in small quantities in all four glycoproteins. In contrast to the chicken egg white counterparts, which contain mostly high mannose and hybrid types, all N-glycan structures in the major pigeon egg white glycoproteins are complex type.


This paper investigates the interactions between the following four labor market variables: unemployment rates for college graduates and for high-school graduates, the education wage premium, and the level of college participation. First, it develops an equilibrium search and matching model of the labor market where education is endogenously determined, the labor market is segmented by education levels, and there is an imperfect correlation between skill and education in the labor force. Second, calibrated versions of the model are used to study quantitatively the change in the above labor market variables from 1970 to 1990 in the U.S. A skill-biased change in technology and a shift in the general unemployment conditions are jointly measured to match the observed change in two of those variables. These two shocks are also able to cause much of the observed changes in the other two variables. These findings rest critically on the joint determination of education decisions, and wages and unemployment. ∗We thank two referees and the editor, V. Ŕıos-Rull, for comments which have led to substantial improvements. Early versions of this paper have been presented at the SED Annual Meeting 2001 in Stockholm, the Third Toulouse Seminar on Macroeconomics September 2001, the University of Exeter, the University of Southampton, the ESPE 2003 annual conference in New York, and the 28th Simposio de Análisis Económico in Sevilla. Thanks go to the audiences in these places. Cuadras-Morató acknowledges financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnoloǵıa under project SEC 2001-0674. †Corresponding author: Department of Economics, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. Email: email@example.com.


It is a kind of high efficiency and energy saving new method to prepare high purity magnesium oxide (MgO) with magnesium carbonate tri-hydrate (MgCO3·3H2O) as intermediate. Our research group had already designed orthogonal experimental and got the optimal process conditions of MgCO3·3H2O. The operating parameters such as temperature, pH and reaction time had been further optimized in this paper. Intermediate MgCO3·3H2O with high aspect ratio and good settling performance was synthesized at the optimal temperature 40-50°C,the optimal pH 8.8-9.0, the optimal reaction time70min, the optimal condition also applied to brine system.


Universal email authentication is impossible with existing authentication schemes, namely DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF), primarily because at a minimum this would require the ongoing participation of every domain administrator in the world. Consequently a vast quantity of current email is unauthenticated, thus empowering spammers. This paper describes two unique methods employing digital signatures to automatically authenticate every computer involved in sending an email. The first method will authenticate the mail transfer agent (MTA) used to forward an email, while the second method will authenticate the personal computer that originated the email. Universal authentication occurring redundantly at both the MTA and the personal computer is achievable because these two methods do not require the participation of email users or administrations.
 The first method, MTA Authentication, will authenticate every MTA listed in an email header regardless of forwarding or the use of a dynamic IP address. This is made possible by having MTA software sign all outgoing email with an autonomously generated private key that is unique to that server. The distribution of the corresponding public key (an issue that plagues all other public key schemes) will require no human intervention as each mail server will automatically provide its public key to any computer in the world that queries it.
 The second method, Personal Computer Authentication, will authenticate the personal computer used to send an email. The email client will sign all email by using a public key -- the entire world can potentially use the same universally known public key. These digital signatures will encrypt not only the message hash but also a secret ID number that is unique to the personal computer. Receiving email systems will submit this encrypted digital signature to a single global database that will use the private key to decrypt the hash and the secret ID number. A reputation report corresponding to the secret ID number (but not the secret ID number itself) will be sent back to the receiving mail system. Personal computers will transparently acquire these secret ID numbers in a way that is resilient to botnets. Web browsers will employ a similar mechanism to authenticate personal computers used for webmail and other online transactions; one benefit of this will be that CAPTCHA can be eliminated.
 Universal authentication via these methods is easily achievable as it requires only a onetime software update by the relatively miniscule number of developers of the MTA programs, email clients, and web browsers that are in common use.


e15607Background: Secreted mucins form the physical barrier which play an important role dor maintaining gut homeostasis, while transmembrane mucins contribute to the protective mucous gel. Dysregu...


Fluorinated hydrocarbon refrigerants have especially in Europe been drawn into the focus of the public debate concerning the background of reducing greenhouse active substances. This debate concentrates mainly on the GWP (Global Warming Potential) properties of the substances. To step forward from a material based discussion to a useful dialogue about substances in their respective applications, a broad investigation of the relevant systems has to be carried out. This examination should consider the whole life cycle of the application and should refer to ecological as well as to economical aspects. A possible approach to attain this goal is the concept of eco-efficiency. Within this study, the eco-efficiency of 6 different concepts of supermarket refrigeration has been examined and compared. The used refrigerants are R-134a, R-404A, R-717 and R-744. The data used for the survey are based on a broad knowledge of the advisory board from refrigerant-, component- and controls-manufacturers, plant constructors and supermarket operators and supplemented by real facility data. The results of the investigation illustrate that the main drivers for ecological and economical performance are the energy consumption of the refrigeration unit and the loss of refrigerants during operation. The study is able to identify the most eco-efficient refrigeration system and also shows optimization potentials through the investigated facilities. This paper summarizes the results of the project and shows different variations especially with respect to the optimization potentials.


Among a very interesting collection of fossil plants, now
in the Royal Society's Museum, I have discovered a new
species of Eucalyptus. This collection contains numerous
impressions of leaves belonging to the genera Laurus, Cinnamomum,
Fagus, Magnolia, and others more difficult to
determine. The general character of these remains (at one
time carefully numbered) as well as the species Cinnamomum
polymorphoides, McCoy indicate that they probably belong
to the same horizon as the lower zone of the Launceston
Tertiary Basin.


A spectral finite element method (SFEM) is developed to analyze guided ultrasonic waves in a delaminated composite beam excited and received by a pair of surface-bonded piezoelectric wafers. The displacements of the composite beam and the piezoelectric wafer are represented by Timoshenko beam and Euler Bernoulli theory respectively. The linear piezoelectricity is used to model the electrical-mechanical coupling between the piezoelectric wafer and the beam. The coupled governing equations and the boundary conditions in time domain are obtained by using the Hamilton's principle, and then the SFEM are formulated by transforming the coupled governing equations into frequency domain via the discrete Fourier transform. The guided waves are analyzed while the interaction of waves with delamination is also discussed. The elements needed in SFEM is far fewer than those for finite element method (FEM), which result in a much faster solution speed in this study. The high accuracy of the present SFEM is verified by comparing with the finite element results.


Abstract : It was determined that shot peening has a significant beneficial effect on the fatigue properties of damaged bare and damaged plated 4340 steel (260 ksi), particularly upon the fatigue life at stresses above the fatigue limit. It was further established that short peening is more beneficial in recovery of mild damage than it is in the recovery of severe damage. There are indications that shot peening of steel damaged to an extremely severe degree has a further deleterious effect on the fatigue properties of the damaged steel.


The MLD model can be created by HYSDEL toolbox automatically. It provides great convenience for the MLD research. But the number of binary variables, auxiliary continuous variables and inequality constraints in the MLD model cannot satisfy our requirements. In this paper, we proposed three steps optimization to optimize the model parameters. It can effectively reduce the amount of binary variables, auxiliary continuous variables and inequality constraints in that MLD model established by HYSDEL. The proposed algorithm was illustrated in saturation characteristic function and promising results were achieved.


The primary intent of this research is to explore the claim that transportation benefits can be derived from neo-traditional neighborhood design. Conventional transportation planning models are used as tools to evaluate the performance differences of two hypothetical street networks designed to replicate a neo-traditional and a conventional suburban community. Relative transportation benefits are measured in terms of vehicle-miles travelled (VMT), average trip lengths, and congestion on links and at intersections. This comparison provides an assessment of how well the two networks in question deal with trips generated by the activities which they serve. All aspects of the modelled communities are held constant except for the actual configuration of the networks. This type of evaluation can indicate, for example, whether the same level of activity (defined by the land uses within the community) creates greater congestion on one type of network, or if trip lengths on one network are generally longer. The ultimate goal is to determine if one network type, because of the nature of its design, can result in a more efficient transportation system.


Based on the foundmental princrples of runoff agriculture,soil and water conservation,following harness and the water balance and regularity of precipitation runoff in slope land,this paper deals with the execellent designing techniques,comprehensive benefits to the rainfall and fertilizer harvest terrace in hilly land of Yan Liao.


The psychoanalytic term of transference not only describes an ongoing event between analyst and client in therapeutic processes but points to a formative phenomenon in all human relationships. Those transmissions have great influence on intergenerational relations in a good or bad sense. Freud called this kind of transmission an emotional heritage. The questions which are raised concern the differences between generations and what connects them together as well as the role of conscious and unconscious transmissions in this process. First the mechanisms of unconscious transmissions of experiences from the parents to their children are described. Afterwards the effects of the unwilling transmission of (extreme) traumata or involvements into guilt to victims' or perpetrators' offspring are discussed.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of a total understanding of the manufacture, before approaching any structural intervention.Design/methodology/approach – The adopted methodology consists of a non‐invasive kind of structural retrofit, in accordance with the history of the manufacture and, at the same time, giving effective respect to seismic solicitations.Findings – The results are very important for demonstration purposes, and they may be taken as examples in many similar problems.Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this research principally consists in the old datation of the study case, because it could be approached more easily with the help of modern concepts.Practical implications – Many applications can be carried out from the study case: first, the respectful approach to the cultural heritage, in the sense of knowledge and understanding of the "art rule" belonging to the ancient constructors.Social implications – The paper has implications for the saf...


This study evaluates the nonlinear relationship between gender inequality and tourism receipts using a standard quantile regression approach and advances the results with an asymmetric application. Gender inequality is a pervasive and complex phenomenon rooted in the socio-economic culture of many countries. The reasons for inequality have country-specific situations, and to gain a broader understanding, countries were grouped by their income levels to explore the relationships for different groups. The study concludes that not all countries stimulate overall gender inequality through tourism. The study results show that in all but the 10th quantile, tourism had a negative and significant relationship with gender inequality providing support for the notion that tourism helps narrow the gender gap. The exceptions were found only at the 10th quantile indicates that low-income countries with low levels of tourism development could not derive the benefits of tourism's potential in reducing gender inequality.