The problem of surface defects is a major quality concern in continuous casting. Although there exist methods in the literature to effectively detect surface defects, most are limited to specific defect types, and there is a paucity of research for classification of various defects. This paper presents a methodology for online detection and classification of surface defects in continuous casting using vision-based sensing technology. First, a two-stage algorithm is proposed to effectively extract potential surface defect regions from the noisy background. Then, the potential surface defects are classified into different categories using a newly developed classification method. The proposed methods are implemented and validated using data collected from a real world continuous casting process.


The invention provides a method for breaking a terminal material tape combination. The method comprises the following steps of: (1) providing a metal plate, punching and blanking to form a plurality of adjacently arrayed terminals, wherein each terminal is provided with a main body part and a pin part downwards extending from the main body part, the plurality of terminals are connected through a material tape simultaneously formed below, and the material tape and the terminals have the connection relation that the main body parts and the pin parts of all the terminals are respectively connected through a plurality of serial connection parts; (2) respectively punching the surfaces with the same height of all the serial connection parts to form a first breaking slot on each serial connection part, wherein the position of each breaking slot is lower than the pin part of each terminal; punching the connecting parts of all the main body parts and all the serial connection parts to form a second breaking slot on each serial connection part; (3) cutting the first breaking slots to separate the material tape from the terminals; and (4) cutting the second breaking slots to separate the main body parts from the serial connection parts.


Background and Aim: Every year, traumatic brain injuries lead to more than one million admissions to emergency rooms and more than 50,000 deaths, and millions of disabilities worldwide, among all ages and genders. This study aimed to examine the effects of selenium added to oral nutritional therapy on the mortality rate and length of hospital stay in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for six months. Methods and Materials/Patients: This clinical trial included 100 patients admitted to the ICU of Loghman Hakim Hospital, Tehran, Iran. These patients were then randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Standard oral solutions were administered to both groups according to recommended guidelines. Along with the standard nutritional intake, the participants in the intervention group were given 1000 μg of selenium (Selenase-Biosyn, Germany) on the first day of feeding, dissolved in 100 mL of normal saline for 30 minutes, followed by 500μg of selenium daily for 10 days. We screened patients for GCS, and APACHE-II scores, as well as cortisol levels on days 1 and 10. Results: The APACHE-II mean score on the 10th day was significantly different between the two groups, and this was also true before the intervention. In terms of mortality rates, there was no significant difference between the control group and the intervention group. Neither the control group nor the intervention group spent significantly more time in ICU. Conclusion: The effects of selenium on other variables were unclear, although mortality rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. Considering the confounding variables through regression analysis, the APACHE-II variable was negatively impacted by selenium, but taking into account the significant effect of age, a definitive conclusion cannot be made.


Yvonne Waters at the protest against logging in the Otways, "Save the Otways" rally held at Apollo Bay, 1984.
Previous Control Number: UMA/I/621
Previous Control Number: JE245-19a


Background and aims Elective foot surgery is often conducted in the day-case setting and ultrasound-guided ankle block can facilitate anaesthesia, analgesia and early discharge. However, information about patient understanding of nerve blocks and awake surgery is limited. We aimed to understand patients' expectations and experience of undergoing awake surgery under ankle block. Methods Local clinical governance team confirmed ethical approval was not required. Oral and written information was given before obtaining informed consent from 23 patients undergoing foot procedures. An experienced anaesthetist performed the ultrasound-guided ankle blocks using 0.75% ropivacaine. Demographic data was collected. Patients were telephoned 48 hours later and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results 20 patients (87%) received sedation with titrated doses of intravenous midazolam. 3 patients (13%) required intra-operative supplementation with local anaesthetic infiltration by the surgeon. No patients required conversion to general anaesthesia (GA). 21 (91%) patients were day cases. Only 5 patients (22%) reported discomfort with block insertion (see image) and intra-operative experience was positive for the majority (87%). Block duration was variable (range: end of operation to 60 hours later). Most (78%) felt pain on block regression was acceptable but 5 (22%) patients experienced difficult pain management. Patients appreciated avoiding GA: 'no nausea', 'not woozy.' Some reported pre-operative apprehension. However, all patients said they would have the same anaesthetic technique again. Abstract ESRA19-0629 Figure 1 Conclusions A predominantly positive patient experience is encouraging. Pain management on block regression can be challenging. Awake surgery remains a source of pre-operative anxiety, and we are planning further pre-operative education including consent clinics as a potential solution.


We prove an analogue of the Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence oncompact connected 3-folds that is fibered on orbifold Riemann surfaces and satisfy an integrability condition, which contains compact connected Sasakian 3-folds. We define mini-holomorphic bundles on such 3-folds and the algebraic Dirac-type singularities on mini-holomorphic bundles, and prove that there exists a special Hermitian metric (admissible BHE-metric) on a Dirac-type singular mini-holomorphic bundle if the bundle satisfies a slope stability.


This paper discusses the scattering of an electromagnetic field by a system of passive subharmonic scatterers when a monochromatic electromagnetic wave is incident on the system, using a statistical model of the signal. Experimental results are presented.


Purpose – This paper aims to examine motivations for the reporting of generally accepted accounting practice (GAAP)-adjusted earnings by New Zealand companies. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses multivariate analysis of data from New Zealand company annual reports for the period from 2004 to 2012. Findings – Evidence suggests that management of some New Zealand firms are motivated to use GAAP-adjusted earnings to provide a more favourable impression of earnings. However, across firms, these adjusted earnings provide a better predictor of future earnings and provide more value-relevant information to the market than GAAP earnings. Thus, a desire to disclose a more accurate indicator of permanent earnings appears to be a strong factor in the reporting of GAAP-adjusted earnings. Research limitations/implications – The study uses firms listed on the New Zealand share market. The number of firms examined is small, but we compensate by studying the entire population, thus avoiding sampling issues. The...


Shock is a state of circulatory impairment characterized by defective tissue perfusion resulting in abnormal cellular function and metabolism & inadequate tissue perfusion to meet tissue demands. [1] Parturition is a natural process. In majority of the cases it happens without any complications. In obstetrics the standard rule is non interference unless called for. Interfering with a normal labor unnecessarily is a starting point for many problems. However a normal labor can turn into abnormality at any point of time suddenly with no warning. Prompt recognition and management can improve maternal and fetal outcome in obstetric shock.


Normative political theory was developed in ancient Greece and provided the foundations for political research. Its role was never questioned until the rise of logical positivism and empirical social science with its claims to be truly scientific' that is, value neutral. The article starts with a short overview of this controversy and provides an analysis of the nature of normative theorizing, the structure of a normative argument and the role of normative political theory. The last section focuses on the problematic relationship between empirical and normative research. It is argued that political philosophy can be practical, but before it becomes oriented towards practical goals, it should deal with purely deductive fact-insensitive principles.


Mapping Surface Fuels Using LIDAR and Multispectral Data Fusion for Fire Behavior Modeling. (December 2006) Muge Mutlu, BAR, Cukurova University, Turkey Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Sorin C. Popescu Fires have become intense and more frequent in the United States. Improving the accuracy of mapping fuel models is essential for fuel management decisions and explicit fire behavior prediction for real-time support of suppression tactics and logistics decisions. This study has two main objectives. The first objective is to develop the use of LIght Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) remote sensing to assess fuel models in East Texas accurately and effectively. More specific goals include: (1) developing LIDAR derived products and the methodology to use them for assessing fuel models; (2) investigating the use of several techniques for data fusion of LIDAR and multispectral imagery for assessing fuel models; (3) investigating the gain in fuels mapping accuracy with LIDAR as opposed to QuickBird imagery alone; and, (4) producing spatially explicit digital fuel maps. The second objective is to model fire behavior using FARSITE (Fire Area Simulator) and to investigate differences in modeling outputs using fuel model maps, which differ in accuracy, in east Texas. Estimates of fuel models were compared with in situ data collected over 62 plots. Supervised image classification methods provided better accuracy (90.10%) with the fusion of airborne LIDAR data and QuickBird data than with QuickBird imagery alone


Few-shot learning (FSL) for human-object interaction aims at classifying samples of new unseen HOI classes with only a few labeled samples available. Although progress has been made in few-shot human-object interaction, most of the existing methods encounter two issues in handling fine-grained interactions: the inability to capture more subtle interactive clues and the inadequacy in learning from data with low inter-class variance. To tackle the first issue, we propose a hierarchical reasoning network to integrate multi-level interactive clues (from coarse to fine-grained) for strengthening HOI representations. The hierarchical relation module mainly captures and aggregates more discriminative relation information among human parts at multiple levels (including the human instance, action region, and body part levels) and objects via a unified graph and exploits a language-guided attentive fusion way to highlight informative features of each interaction level. To address the second issue, we introduce a contrastive learning mechanism to alleviate the inter-class variance. Compared with the previous ProtoNet-based methods, our model generates more discriminative representations for low inter-class variance data, since it makes full use of potential contrastive pairs in each training episode. Extensive experimental results on two standard benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed model performs favorably against state-of-the-art FS-HOI methods.


Cotton, wool, cotton/wool blended (80:20) and tencel fabrics were treated with low temperature oxygen plasma, enzymes (cellulase or protease), or oxygen plasma-enzyme and they were examined for dyeing and handling properties for environment friendly finishing. The appropriate conditions for cellulase treatment were enzyme concentration of 3g/l, pH of 5, and 60℃ for one hour, and for protease treatment were enzyme concentration of 4g/l, pH of 8, and 60℃ for one hour. The equilibrium uptake of a direct dye on cotton changed with plasma treatment and plasma-cellulase treatment, and the rate of dyeing slightly decreased. When wool was dyed with acid dye, the equilibrium dye uptake did not change with plasma, protease treatment nor plasma-protease treatment, however, the rate of dyeing had increased with plasma-protease treatment. From these results, it is assumed that plasma attacks the surface of the fiber, and enzyme mainly affects the inner part of the fiber. Plasma treatment did not affect mechanical properties related to the handling of fabrics. The handling test showed increased extension at maxmum load(EM), tensile energy(WT) with decreased tensile resilience(RT), and the fabrics became softer but resilience decreased slightly with enzyme treatment. The bending recidity(B), hysteresis of bending moment(2HB), and hysteresis of shear force at five degrees(2HG5) decreased, however, shear stiffness(G) increased. I knew the plasma pre-treatment made fabrics softer with lower koshi(stiffness). The handling of plasma pre-treated fabrics was better than that of enzyme-treated fabrics. When we pre-treated fabrics, the handling test showed decreased coefficient of friction(MIU), geometrical roughness(SMD), while the surface of fabrics became smoother and numeri increased. Even though compression resilience(RC) increased, fukurami(bulky property) and compressive elasticity, decreased due to the linearity of compression-thickness curve(LC) and compression energy(WC).


The two terminal complement control protein (CCP) modules of the CD46 glycoprotein mediate measles virus binding. Three‐dimensional models for these two domains were derived based on the NMR structures of two CCP modules of factor H. Both CD46 CCP modules are about 35 A long, and form a five‐stranded antiparallel /3‐barrel structure. Monte Carlo simulations, sampling the backbone torsion angles of the linker peptide and selecting possible orientations on the basis of minimal solvent‐exposed hydrophobic area, were used to predict the orientation of CCP‐I relative to CCP‐II. We tested this procedure successfully for factor H. For CD46, three clusters of structures differing in the tilt angle of the two domains were obtained. To test these models, we mutagenized the CCP modules. Four proteins, two without an oligosaccharide chain and two with mutated short amino acid segments, reached the cell surface efficiently. Only the protein without the CCP‐I oligosaccharide chain maintained binding to the viral attachment protein hemagglutinin. These results are consistent with one of our models and suggest that the viral hemagglutinin does not bind at the membrane‐distal tip of CD46, but near the concave CCP‐I‐II interface region.


The objective of this article is to analyze the
effects of forest resources on the reception of foreign direct investment in
the countries of the Congo Basin. The panel data used cover the period
1996-2018 and are extracted from the World Bank's WDI and WGI databases. The
spatial autocorrelation of FDI inflows into the Congo Basin motivates the use
of a Spatial Dynamic Durbin Model (SDM). The results of the estimation of this
model by the maximum likelihood method show that forest resources have a
significant positive effect on FDI inflows and that the spillover effects of
inflows from the neighborhood (ρ) are also positive and significant. These
results imply the need for: 1) the generalization of logging in forest concessions while encouraging
their certification and 2) the subregional harmonization of a repressive
mechanism in cases where the legal and regulatory texts regarding logging are
violated.


L1syndrome is an X‐linked disorder manifesting with congenital hydrocephalus, adducted thumbs and spasticity. There are rare cases of L1 syndrome and coincident Hirschsprung disease, with mutations in the L1CAM gene thought to underlie both. We present a novel pathogenic L1CAM variant in someone with L1 syndrome and Hirschsprung disease.


Caring for people with dementia is stressful,1 and depression occurs in 30-50% of carers.2 Few data are available, however, about the course of depression or variables associated with the length of episodes, such as age, closeness of relationship, and non-cognitive symptoms among patients. We followed up a group of carers over a year to assess the length and determinants of depression.

We recruited 124 patients with dementia as defined by DSMIIIR from consecutive referrals to psychiatric services in Birmingham (99) and a memory clinic in Bristol (25); 90% of those approached agreed to participate. One hundred and nine had informal carers, of whom 85 were followed up for one year.

Carers were interviewed initially and every month with the geriatric mental state schedule and the …


We propose an inductor-capacitor (LC) wireless passive flexible accelerometer, which eliminates the difficulty in measuring the acceleration on the surface of a bending structure. The accelerometer is composed of a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate and a planar spiral inductance coil (thickness 300 nm), made using micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology. It can be bent or folded at will, and can be attached firmly to the surface of objects with a bending structure. The principle of radio frequency wireless transmission is used to measure the acceleration signal by changing the distance between the accelerometer and the antenna. Compared with other accelerometers with a lead wire, the accelerometer can prevent the lead from falling off in the course of vibration, thereby prolonging its service life. Through establishment of an experimental platform, when the distance between the antenna and accelerometer was 5 mm, the characterization of the surface of bending structures demonstrated the sensing capabilities of the accelerometer at accelerations of 20–100 m/s2. The results indicate that the acceleration and peak-to-peak output voltage were nearly linear, with accelerometer sensitivity reaching 0.27 mV/(m·s−2). Moreover, the maximum error of the accelerometer was less than 0.037%.


As soon as the United States entered the war, it undertook major anti Nazi propaganda. The Office of War Information's Voice of America was one of the main tools of this system, and the French took part in it through its French office, the?Voix de l'Amerique?, directed by Pierre Lazareff and Lewis Galantiere. Two prestigious intellectual voices, that of the Catholic Jacques Maritain, and Paul Vignaux, the trade unionist, were particularly effective in this war of American air waves. It was not an easy job, either at the?Voix de l'Amerique? or within the OWI, torn between the defense of democratic war aims and the necessary submission to strategic imperatives. But the French programs of the Voice of America went beyond the mere exaltation of the American government's war effort. The radio that broadcast both gaullists and antigaullists formed a very composite circle embodying the continuity of French culture overseas.


Dr Robert Hinshelwood started the panel off by describing the influence of Wilfred Trotter early on in Bion's career. Trotter, who was also Ernest Jones's brother-in-law, probably influenced Bion in the direction of psychotherapy. Although Bion qualified as a doctor in 1930, Dr Hinshelwood told the audience that, prior to 1941, there is very little on record to help us assess what Bion was like as a therapist. Despite Bion's scorn for authority, Dr Hinshelwood said, he much admired Trotter's "unassuming capacity to listen," which became the basis for his later ideas on reverie and the core to his approach. While working with the War Office Selection Boards during World War II, Bion was reading Kurt Lewin and was inspired by his social field theory. In addition to his respect for maintaining an adequate level of uncertainty when listening to groups of soldiers, he picked up an appreciation for the interaction between the individual applicant for selection as an officer and the context in which he was placed. John Rickman's encouragement here and during the Northfield Experiment in 1943 was crucial in the sense of how he understood the interview process and the psychoanalytic situation in field theory terms. According to Dr Hinshelwood, for Rickman the first requirement of the analyst was to learn to accept any role the patient puts upon him. Dr Hinshelwood explained that, from Rickman's approach, a set of principles could be derived, which may be thought of as having influenced Bion, although the latter rarely spoke directly about field theory: (1) subjective introspection by the analyst; (2) reflection by the analyst on that experience; (3) the formulation of their experience in terms of the role in which the analyst feels they are cast; and (4) the roles forming a narrative content of an implicit drama in the group that both are playing out. Bion's early thinking remained present in his writing after 1965, according to Dr Hinshelwood. The quality of the introspective function of the analyst was already present at that point and would be expanded in his later work on reverie, which demanded an authentic response in the analyst. Bion at this point was trying to introduce the need for the analyst to pay attention to his own functioning – a double stance: we observe our patients and we observe ourselves observing our patient. Accordingly, said Dr Hinshelwood, "Bion's approach remained consistent between very different early and late periods of his work." Next to speak, Dr Bernet Malin stated that Bion was a "Kleinian in conflict"; creative tension between Bion's Kleinian vertex of theorized mental mechanisms, and the vertex, derived from his earlier training, of the ongoing mental functioning of groups and the personality formed a shifting figure–ground relationship between modes of observation present in some of Bion's earliest writings. Dr Malin mentioned Bion's paper, "The imaginary twin." After a two-year stalemate with a patient whose intonation was drained of emotion and who did not improve, Bion faulted the validity of his own interpretations. "Unable to track his patient's emotional states," said


Objective: To study the psychological status and the quality of life(QOL) of cancer and leukemia sufferers and explore of difference both groups.Methods: The generic quality of life inventory-74(GQOLI-74),the symptom checklist-90(SCL-90) were used to collect the information of the 38 cancer patients and 28 leukemia sufferers,and to compare with normal controls.Results: The scores of depression and somatization factors in leukemia and cancer are higher than those of controls(P0.01,0.05).The physical function,psychological function,social function of leukemia group and cancer group are lower than those in control group(P0.01,0.05).Conclusion: Depression and low-sensitivity factor of interpersonal relation exist in the cancer and leukemia patients.Cancer and leukemia patients' physical function,psychological,and society function reduce obviously.


An extension of Friedmann–Robertson–Walker models to the case of universes filled with perfect dust of multidimensional objects is investigated in this paper. It is shown that the internal space scale factor can become very small due to cosmological evolution regardless of the dimension of this space. This result is similar to those of flat [W. Kopczynski, Phys. Rev. D 36, 3589 (1987)] or vacuum [P. Turkowski and K. Maslanka, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 19, 611 (1987)] models.


The present disclosure relates to a method for operating functions of a vehicle, in particular of a motor vehicle, by means of an operating element. The operating element comprises a touch-sensitive operating surface (6), wherein via the operating surface (6) a plurality of functions can be operated, and the respective functions are each assigned part regions (12, 14, 16, 18, 20) of the operating surface (6). The position of the hand (22, 30) of the operator is determined and the respective position of the respective part regions (12, 14, 16, 18, 20) is assigned relative to the position of the hand (22, 30) of the operator. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to a corresponding device (4).


Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) of the chest wall is a rare tumor with poor prognosis. A 70-year-old male was admitted to our hospital because of chest pain and an abnormal shadow on the chest X-ray. He had a right chest wall tumor of 7 cm insize. The tumor was surgically removed completely and the diagnosis of pleomorphic MFH was established pathologically. After surgery, adjuvant radio-chemotherapy was performed. The patient has been followed up for 7 year with no evidence of reccurence.


This paper presents a new analysis of RF negative resistance (RFNR) circuits, known as a negative resistance generator. For accurate equation analysis of RFNR, this study examined the effects of the gate resistance and the source parasitic capacitance of the transistor. In addition, the input admittance of the conventional equation was calculated by looking into the source-terminal of the transistor, whereas that of the proposed equation was calculated by examining the gate-terminal of the transistor. The proposed equation analysis is more accurate than that of the conventional analysis, especially for higher frequency range. This paper verify the accuracy of the proposed analysis at high frequency range using the simulation.


Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) is considered to be a human tumor antigen, and the tumor-specific immunity of IGFBP-2 has been reported in several types of cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether autoantibodies to IGFBP-2 can be used as diagnostic markers in lung cancer. The results demonstrated that serum anti-IGFBP-2 autoantibody levels were significantly elevated in lung cancer (mean, 1,633.318 ng/ml; median, 1,651.462 ng/ml; range, 342.732–4932.582 ng/ml) compared with benign lung disease (1,210.139, 1,035.900, 547.596–2,331.167 ng/ml) and normal controls (1,303.369, 1,194.800, 528.200–2140.500 ng/ml). The sensitivity and specificity of anti-IGFBP-2 autoantibodies in diagnosing lung cancer was 73.2 and 60.6%, respectively. When serum IGFBP-2 and anti-IGFBP-2 autoantibody were used together in the diagnosis of lung cancer, it can increase the discriminative power for lung cancer with a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 57.5%. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that circulating anti-IGFBP-2 autoantibodies can be used as a potential biomarker in diagnosing lung cancer.


APSR Respiratory Research Review is a unique publication providing topical, relevant and accessible information for healthcare professionals working in the area. In each edition our independent reviewers handpick some of the most important studies from key international and local journals. The Review summarises each study in an easy to read format, and provides commentary on the importance of the work and implications for clinical practice in the Asia Pacific region. Web links to the abstract or fully published papers are also provided where possible so you can make your own judgements.


Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family having tyrosine kinase activity. Overexpression of HER2 usually causes malignant transformation of cells and is responsible for the breast cancer. In this work, the virtual screening, molecular docking, quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics methods were employed to study protein–ligand interactions to be applied for drug design. The virtual screening was performed by docking among 762 chemicals derived from ZINC library to find specific inhibitors for active sites in HER2 intracellular. Among the best-ranked compounds in comparison with the crystallographic inhibitor pyrrolo [3, 2-d] pyrimidine, five compounds resulted and compound 1was further tested by molecular dynamics simulation and also quantum theory of atoms in molecules. The obtained results indicated that the interactions of compound 1 with the active site of HER2 TK are stronger than those of pyrrolo [3, 2-d] pyrimidine. Root mean square deviation, root mean square fluctuation, radius of gyration and binding free energy were calculated to check and evaluate the stability and mobility of the simulated system


There is a need for an economical and quantified technique for describing the dosage and content of psychological therapies in research studies. This need is highlighted in studies of combined pharmacotherapy and psychological therapy, since techniques for describing the classes and dosages of drugs, but not the psychotherapies, have been well worked out. A research study of maintenance treatment of depressed women undergoing combinations of drugs and casework therapy led to the development of a quantitative checklist for therapists to record, immediately following the interview, the quantity, content, and quality of the casework treatment. The form is precoded for keypunching and computer analysis. Information collected included such "dosage" issues as the numbers, place, and recipients of casework contacts; the length of contact; and numbers of missed contacts. Detailed information on the content arid quality of individual sessions included time spent on various topics, affects expressed, and quality of patient's participation. The checklist was quick and simple to complete. Reliability studies indicated that the instrument was reliable between I trained raters, except for one qualitative rating which appeared infrequently. Validity, as measured by agreement between therapist and other raters, was acceptable on most variables In pilot studies of utility, the instrument gave meaningful descriptions of the nature of therapy in 40 patients during 8 months of treatment. Two patients selected for further analysis showed contrasting profiles of topics discussed and affect expressed; these profiles were consistent with clinical impressions. This simple checklist method is restricted to relatively uncomplicated non inferential aspects of patients´ interview behavior. It nonetheless ap-Vi pears capable of generating, in an economical way, data suitable for statistical testing of hypotheses, relating content in psychotherapy to such variables as personality and social background and to outcome.


Contents: Introduction: Public Investment, Growth and Fiscal Constraints in the EU M. Florio PART I: PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND GROWTH: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 1. Budget Deficits, Public Debt and the Level of Public Investment M. Sawyer 2. Recent Advances in Public Investment, Fiscal Policy and Growth C. Del Bo 3. Public Investment under Disequilibrium: A Post Keynesian Viewpoint M.Cingolani PART II: PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND FISCAL CONDITIONS IN THE EU NEW MEMBER STATES 4. Patterns and Trends of Public Investment in the New Member States of the European Union A. Catalina 5. EU New Member Countries: Public Sector Accounts and Convergence Criteria G. Bognetti and G. Ragazzi 6. Public Investment and Growth in the EU New Member States: An Overview J. Hanousek and E. Kocenda PART III: INVESTMENT, STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND REGIONAL POLICY 7. Structural Change in New Member States (1995-2005). Shift-Share Analysis of Productivity Growth and its Determinants A. Parteka 8. Structural Funds Business Support and Employment Growth in Manufacturing: Perspectives for the New Member States L. Moretti 9. Infrastructure Investment Opportunities in the EU New Member States: The Role of Regional Policies E. Sirtori and S.Vignetti


Durum wheat has been subjected to intense cultivation due to its economic importance and it occupies second place after bread wheat in many regions. The experiment was organized in a randomized complete block design with four replications using thirteen newly improved durum wheat genotypes and one check cultivar as Dehdasht. Several traits including plant height, peduncle length, spike length, growth vigority, agronomic score, days to heading, days to physiological maturity, thousand kernel weight, test weight and grain yield were measured. Significant differences were observed for all the traits among durum wheat genotypes indicating considerable amount of variation. The estimates of the coefficient of variation were high for spike length and growth vigority. The number of days to heading ranged from 106.5 (G1 and G3) to 111.8 (G10) while G13 had the longest (146.0) and G2 (142.5) and G11 (142.3) had the shortest days to physiological maturity. The test weight ranged from 378.5 in G10 to 397.0 in G8, but the check cultivar indicated the highest thousand kernel weight (44.0 g). According to grain yield, G3 had the maximum yield (6720 kg ha-1) and G7 had the minimum yield (5047 kg ha-1). The high yielding genotypes had high values for growth vigority, spike length, peduncle length, agronomic score and thousand kernel weight. The information on the agro-morphological traits of the studied durum wheat genotypes will be helpful to plant breeders in constructing their breeding materials and implementing selection strategies.


An ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer comprising the structural unit of formula (I): wherein X represents any binding chain excluding an ether bond, each of R1 to R4 represents independently any substituent and n represents 0 to 1 wherein the ethylene content is 20 to 60 mol%, the amount of structural unit of formula (1) is 1 to 10 mol%, the degree of hydrolysis is at least 90 mol% and melt flow rate (MFR) at 210 ° C at a load of 2160 g is 0.1 to 100 g / 10 minutes.


The recent downward revision of solar abundances has serious implications not only for the Sun, but for distant stars as well. The effects of altering the mixture of elements inside a star and lowering the overall metallicity on stellar oscillation frequencies are tested on theoretical models of a CoRoT primary target star, HD 43587. It is found that although frequency separations are significantly affected by changes in the chemical makeup, it might still be difficult to distinguish between the two cases of solar abundances because of the ambiguity in the fundamental parameters, such as effective temperature, luminosity, and [Fe/H] of the target star (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


This paper presented three improved resource discovery mechanisms using loss of light.These mechanisms which not only raise the performances of resource discovery mechanisms on photonic grid but also relieve the burden of network management enable the generalized multiprotocol label switching ((GMPLS))link management protocol(LMP) to verify link connectivity and further reduce the whole time of resource discovery.The proposed mechanisms can be applied to both ring architectures and meshed topologies.The feasibility and performances of three improved mechanisms were assessed by simulations on automatically switched optical network(ASON)/GMPLS network.


The anteroinferior glenohumeral capsule (anterior band of the inferior glenohumeral ligament (AB-IGHL), axillary pouch) limits anterior translation, particularly in positions of external rotation, and as a result is frequently injured during anterior dislocation. [1,2] A common capsular injury is permanent tissue deformation, however, the extent and effects of this injury are difficult to evaluate as the deformation cannot be seen using diagnostic imaging. In addition, clinical exams to diagnose this injury are not reliable [3] and poor patient outcome still exists following repair procedures. [4] Previous experimental models have observed increased joint mobility following permanent tissue deformation. [5] While other models have quantified the permanent deformation using nonrecoverable strain [6], no model has correlated the amount of tissue damage to altered capsule function. Understanding the relationship between the extent of tissue damage and changes in capsule function following anterior dislocation could aid surgeons in diagnosing and treating anterior instability. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to 1) quantify the nonrecoverable strain in the anteroinferior capsule resulting from an anterior dislocation and 2) evaluate capsule function (strain distribution in anteroinferior capsule, anterior translation) during a simulated clinical exam at three joint positions, in the intact and injured joint.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


This study is a work in progress that evaluates and analyzes management information systems (MIS) employment from the perspective of industry expectations and pedagogy to determine the ideal structure and level of integration between business and computer science education. This information is used to build an optimal theoretical model for MIS education. The model is then used to compare a range of existing MIS programs to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges that exist in implementing MIS education programs. As technology becomes widely integrated in today's economy, there is a demand for individuals who have skills in both business and computer applications. Pharr states "Employees who understand the interrelatedness of the various business functions should be more adept at making decisions that benefit the firm as a whole rather than a single department" (2000). This integration of functions requires individuals with a broad range of skills in both business management and information technology. This need to integrate business and technology has not been overlooked by academic institutions. Most institutions that offer undergraduate business and computer science education are offering MIS specialty options and/or joint majors in Business Administration and Computer Science. The composition and level of integration between the two disciplines varies significantly between institutions. The challenge for curriculum designers is to determine which combination of programs and pedagogy are the most effective for their institution and how to implement the desired approach. The research design for this project consists of two phases. Initially, research will be conducted using existing literature and interviews with industry representatives to determine the desired and applied knowledge and skills required by MIS specialists. The results will be used to identify the core competencies that are required for an effective MIS education program. The core competencies will then be placed on a scale that ranges from a strong computer science focus to a strong business focus. Those competencies that are located in the middle of the scale and have common characteristics between computer science and business will identify the potential areas for program integration. Concurrently, the existing literature will be examined to establish a set of criteria to measure the level of integration between education programs. The study will then use these criteria and the identified core competencies to determine if there is an optimal model for MIS education. The second phase of the study will analyze and compare the programs offered by selected academic institutions in reference to achieving the optimal model for MIS education. The findings from this phase of the research will be used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges that are likely to be encountered when implementing an optimal model for MIS education programs. The results of this research will provide a guide for curriculum designers in determining which combination of programs and pedagogy are the most effective and identify issues likely to be encountered when implementing integrated computer science and business education programs. References Pharr, S. W. (2000) "Foundational considerations for establishing an integrated business common core curriculum" Journal of Education for Business. Issue 1 Vol. 76 pp 20-24.


Abstract In a soil system variation in the concentration of any one ion as induced by external addition might bring changes in the ionic‐equilibria, diffusion rate and strength of adsorption of all the ions involved. In four Indiana soils the changes in ionic equilibria, selectivity coefficient and rate of diffusion coefficient for K, Na, Ca and Mg were investigated at 5 levels of added K. The experiments were carried out under controlled laboratory conditions by incubating soils for 3 weeks at 25C. All soils had a greater fraction of Ca and Mg on the exchange phase than in solution, whereas with K and Na the reverse occurred. Potassium adsorption isotherms for all the soils differed indicating the difference in the nature of soil materials involved. Chalmers soil with high clay content with high exchange capacity had high differential buffer value for K. In all the soils, K was adsorbed preferentially to Na at all the levels of K addition, Calcium was adsorbed preferentially to Mg on the Zanesville and T...


A new methodology for the synthesis of (hetero)arylated benzoindolizidine and benzoquinolizidine derivatives through sequential reduction of pyrrolidine- and piperidine-based aromatic enamides, and ultimate cyclization, is reported.


This paper compares generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH) and stochastic variance (SV) modelling approaches in analysing the dynamics of Japan's stock market volatility using monthly time series from January, 1984 through April, 2013. GARCH models essentially model the conditional variance of returns given past returns and observations. While SV models, have different data-generating process,with variance that is specified to follow some unobserved stochastic process. We examine estimates of GARCH models with and without breaks accounting for market crash and financial crises to assess their impact on stock market returns volatility and SV-type models. Using a variety of return transformations,we find persistence and variability in the relevant parameters of both GARCH and SV models. We observe that the volatility persistence parameter in the SV model which indicates volatility clustering is comparable with the persistence measure of GARCH models and a similarity in the trend of the estimated SV model with that of the IGARCH model. Finally, we investigate whether GARCH and SV-type models differ significantly in their ability to predict the volatility of Japan's stock index returns over horizons ranging from 1, 3, 6 to 12 months.


ABSTRACT The paper proposes a policy evaluation approach to estimate the local multiplier effect of (public) R&I expenditures in the context of regional innovation systems (RIS). Starting from input-output tables and recent improvements in local multipliers, the proposed approach tracks all economic flows generated by the initial public R&I expenditures, distinguishing direct impact and subsequent effects on the supply chain, consumption, fiscal flows and inter-regional spillovers. The main interest of this approach is the focus on the 'certain' returns occurring within a RIS, irrespective of their 'uncertain' innovative outcomes, i.e. this approach tracks the economic flows of R&I expenditures even if innovation-oriented activities should fail to provide the expected benefits for regional productivity. The case of Innoviris, the Brussels regional R&I agency, is discussed to validate this approach unpacking the economic flows in a context of strong interregional linkages showing the spatial distribution of economic returns generated by R&I-oriented public expenditures.


The environmental issues surrounding agrochemical products facing people today include serious health and ecological problems.  Scientific literacy is necessary for students to understand scientific knowledge and get ready for the future world.  Therefore, this action research aims to promote scientific literacy, in the area of plant growth by using the Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE) approach that consists of 4 steps: 1) motivation; 2) exploration; 3) brainstorming; and 4) decision making.  The participants are 35 special program students in grade 11. The PISA-like test and worksheets were used to collect data.  Content analysis and triangulation were used to indicate the development of scientific literacy.  The findings show that the students have better scientific literacy and higher competencies in explaining phenomena scientifically, evaluating and designing scientific inquiry and interpreting data and evidence scientifically.  This study suggests that student collaboration is essential to improve the scientific literacy of students.


Most Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems employ color as primary feature with texture and shape as secondary features. Very few systems exploit spatial features. None of the available systems combines all three visual features, texture, shape and location, for organization and retrieval. Moreover relatively few systems use Gabor filters in texture extraction, despite the widely acclaimed efficiency; Gabor filters are confined only in pure texture images. In this paper a simple, robust, flexible and effective image retrieval system is presented. The proposed system uses weighted combination of integrated Gabor texture features, shape features of texture regions and spatial information features of the texture regions.


We wish to express our thanks to the late Dr. ff. Creed, lately Director of Pathology, King's College Hospital, to Dr. H. A. Lucas, and to Professor H. A. Magnus, Professor of Pathology in King's College Hospital, for their assistance with the histology of these tumours. We wish to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. W. Smith, of the department of photography, King's College Hospital, who prepared the photomicrographs.


This thesis describes an implementation of a system for working temperature point conservation
 of a PCB board during needle/nail testing. The system was designed through temperature
 measurements of the surrounding air, output air and active cooling. Based on that, the system decides
 should the testing continue or take a break. Temperature measurement is accomplished with
 temperature sensors that use 1-Wire protocol, the cooling using a fan with a tachometer, and the
 controller platform is Raspberry Pi 3 B. The program is implemented on a minimal Linux platform
 and the thesis includes testing of the correct behavior of the control software. Using an experimental
 procedure, function for overheating detection was determined and the other two experiments describe
 an example of the process of setting up the system for operation – an experiment for determining
 output temperature margin in 25°C environment and the experiment for determining the
 ideal time for which the test object should be shut down in case of overheating detection.


An optical receiver for short-range optical data communication up to 40 Gb/s is presented. The optimum number of limiting amplifier (LA) stages is calculated to achieve a large gain-bandwidth product. The receiver features an electrical transimpedance gain of 91.4 dBOmega and a bandwidth of 19.2 GHz. For the free-space optical measurements (lambda=1550nm) an InGaAs/lnP photo diode (PD) and the CMOS receiver chip were placed and bonded on a test substrate. At 40 Gb/s an open eye at the output of the receiver is shown at an optical input power of -4.6 dBni. Including the transmitter non-idealities, sensitivities at 20 Gb/s and 30 Gb/s of-8.2 dBni and -7.5 dBm, respectively, at a BER = 10-12 were measured. The complete receiver consumes 56 mW from a 1.1-V supply and occupies a chip area of 230 mum x 220 mum only.


The nature of the auxiliary system in English has drawn much attention in the past fifteen years because it involve fundamental issues in linguistic theory, such as categories and the nature of levels of representation. This article presents an analysis of the English auxiliary system within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (cf. Bresnan 1982c). By presenting explicit representations and explicit rules (syntactic and lexical), we find that an analysis incorporating a distinction between Modals and Verbs, in which auxiliaries like have and be belong to one of these categories depending on inflectional properties of particular forms, can explain all the relevant facts about auxiliaries that have appeared in the literature, Explicit analyses for 'irregular' auxiliaries like ought and used to are also provided.*


In his role with the Center for Connected Health, Dr. Kvedar launched the first physician-tophysician online consultation service in an academic setting. He is also leading important research in the use of a combination of remote-monitoring technology, sensors, and online communications and intelligence to improve patient adherence, engagement and clinical


Congenital heart defects occur in approximately eight of every 1000 live births. Ventricular septal defect occupies a large percentage of them and is the most commonly associated with chromosomal syndromes presenting multifactorial etiology. The main pathophysiologic alteration is part of the injuries that produce volume overload and left to right short-circuit. It is a model for the study of anatomical and physiological relationship in the different injuries that allow communication between the pulmonary and systemic circuits. The imperfections of the sites of origin of the interventricular septum result in different types of ventricular septal defects. The most commonly used classification is the anatomical, from Soto. Homodynamic effects after birth depend on the physiological changes of systemic and pulmonary circulation, as well as on the


Soft-Output Viterbi Algorithm (SOVA) is one type of recovery memory-less Markov Chain and is used widely to decode convolutional codes. Fundamentally, conventional SOVA is designed on the basis of Maximum A-Posteriori Probability (APP) with the assumption of normal distribution. Therefore, conventional SOVA fails miserably in the presence of symmetric alpha stable noise S\ensuremathα S which is one form of stable random processes widely accepted for impulsive noise modeling. The author studies and has improved the performance of conventional SOVA by introducing Cauchy function into path-metric calculation. Substantial performance improvement was gained from Mento Carlo Simulation for SOVA based turbo codes.


This article presents four case studies carried out in the city of Bogota - Colombia, on the reduction of emissions in private transport vehicles using Hydrogen Generators (HGE) by water electrolysis (electrolytic cells). The article proposes a possible scenario for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), as a result of the decrease in regular gasoline consumption due to the use of HGE in the case studies. The analysis focuses on the direct GHG (carbon dioxide - CO2, methane - CH4 and nitrous oxide - N2O) emitted in the combustion of gasoline engines, because they are gases of slow removal through physical, chemical and biological processes of the earth. The analyzes carried out show that the use of HGE in the case studies allows to reduce the CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2e) per car up to 25%, with an opportunity to reduce CO2e/passenger between 40% and 60%, due to the low number of people who normally move in each car.This article presents four case studies carried out in the city of Bogota - Colombia, on the reduction of emissions in private transport vehicles using Hydrogen Generators (HGE) by water electrolysis (electrolytic cells). The article proposes a possible scenario for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), as a result of the decrease in regular gasoline consumption due to the use of HGE in the case studies. The analysis focuses on the direct GHG (carbon dioxide - CO2, methane - CH4 and nitrous oxide - N2O) emitted in the combustion of gasoline engines, because they are gases of slow removal through physical, chemical and biological processes of the earth. The analyzes carried out show that the use of HGE in the case studies allows to reduce the CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2e) per car up to 25%, with an opportunity to reduce CO2e/passenger between 40% and 60%, due to the low number of people who normally move in each car.


A concern for the maintenance of traditional values and customs in the processes of modernisation within Bhutan is evident in much of Bhutan's official documentation. The fundamental importance given to the maintenance and fostering of Buddhism, its beliefs and associated institutions reflected in Bhutan's rich culture, is constantly returned to and emphasized in commentary. Thus the establishment of the Special Commission for Cultural Affairs in 1985 "is seen as a reflection of the great importance placed upon the preservation of the country's unique and distinct religious and cultural traditions and values, expressed in the customs, manners, language, dress, arts and crafts which collectively define Bhutan's national identity" (Ministry of Planning, 1996, p.193). Equally the publication of a manual on Bhutanese Etiquette (Driglam Namzhag) by the National Library of Bhutan was hopeful that it "would serve as a significant foundation in the process of cultural preservation and cultural synthesis" (Publishers Forward, National Library, 1999).


The effect of carbonaceous deposits on the performance of Pt(111) surfaces as catalysts for the hydrogenation of ethylene was tested by decoupling their preparation, which was done beforehand in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environment, from the catalytic runs, which were carried out in an enclosed "high pressure" cell. The time evolution of the gas composition during reaction was followed continuously by mass spectrometry, and the nature of the surface species was determined by in situ reflection–absorption infrared absorption spectroscopy (RAIRS). Reaction rates were seen to vary by up to approximately 40% depending on the type of molecules preadsorbed at room temperature, with the maximum activity seen with a propylidyne layer, the result of propylene adsorption. The rate with ethylidyne-covered Pt(111) is reduced by ∼20%, with butylidyne by ∼35%, and with benzyl moieties by ∼40%. These changes are reversible: the surface regains the activity expected when starting with the clean substrate after one or tw...


Perinatal intrusive thoughts, obsessions, and compulsions are often neglected or misidentified, compared to postpartum depression and anxiety. These symptoms have a unique presentation and progression during the perinatal period. Both mothers and fathers of newborns may experience intrusive thoughts particularly in the early postpartum phase. New mothers may feel guilty and ashamed about having such thoughts especially if they are related to intentions of harm to their baby. While many have intrusive thoughts alone, some mothers may develop a perinatal obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The detrimental effects of perinatal obsessions and compulsions may extend beyond the mother's quality of life and functioning, also affecting mother-infant bonding and consequently the infant's development. Clinicians need to assess these thoughts sensitively and provide multidisciplinary care that takes into account the mother, the infant and the family.


The dynamic stabilization of electrostatic flute modes by an RF electric field is studied on the basis of the relatively simple model of a smooth cylinder with artificial gravity and an ambipolar field. It is found that the electrostatic flute modes can be effectively stabilized by the RF electric field together with the hot electron ring.


Visit the tractor factory where the perfect tractor is being built.Lower the engine onto the chassis,put the cab on and the back hoe in place.But the engine doesn't work and the hoe is all askew so the tractor goes into the repair shop and then to the testing bay.And there it is at last,in a wonderful 3-D pop-up-the perfect tractor.


The study was performed in order to determine the activity of biologically active proteins that naturally occur in egg white in relation to the age of the laying hen. For the experiment 240 eggs were collected from 40 hens (20 birds of ISA Brown and 20 birds of Hy-Line). Hens were kept in individual cages and fed with standard fodder. The activity of cystatin, lysozyme, serine proteinases inhibitors (ovomucoid and ovoinhibitor) were measured in egg whites obtained from hens in 35, 40, 45 and 50 weeks of age. The results of the study showed that cystatin had the lowest activity in egg white collected from 35 weeks old hens, whereas eggs collected in 50 weeks of hen's age expressed the highest activity of cystatin. This relation was proved for both bird's crossbreeds. No significant differences in cystatin activity were observed between two experimental lines. Similar to the results obtained for cystatin, the lysozyme activity was the lowest at first time of eggs collection, and then it increased from 244 u/mg protein to 273 u/mg protein for ISA Brown and from 235 u/mg protein to 316 u/mg protein for Hy-Line. Activity of trypsin inhibitors analysed in egg white increased together with the hen's age from 35 to 45 weeks, when the activity of serine proteinases inhibitors reached the maximum point. Activity of mentioned biological components measured in eggs obtained from 50 weeks old hens was significantly lower. A similar trend was estimated for chymotrypsin inhibitor analysed in egg white. HyLine birds produced eggs with higher anti-trypsin and anti-chymotrypsin activity than ISA Brown hens. It is concluded that activities of biologically active proteins in egg white increase with increasing age of the hens to 45 weeks in case of trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors, and up to 50 weeks in case of cystatin and lysozyme.


Both environmental impact assessment (EIA) and risk assessment (RA) instituted some 50 years ago are interdisciplinary and decision-support tools and have analogies in their procedural steps. Environmental risk assessment could be employed as such or as complementary to EIA for environmental management. This study aims to examine how RA is dealt with in the EIA reports of greenfield projects. The investigation reveals that RA is treated as a standalone exercise and too inadequately in EIA studies. There is a lack of well-defined criteria and methodologies for RA in different contexts, evaluation of prediction uncertainties, residual risks, assimilating RA in EIA, regulatory framework to strengthen RA integration in EIA, objective review of RA by the competent authority, and EIA follow-up. Unambiguous terms of reference are proposed for RA in EIA under the prevailing regulation for immediate implementation. The duration and cost of preparing and reviewing EIA reports integrated with RA would increase but there would be more value addition to the EIA studies. Comprehensive EIA regulation, RA-related scoping, and institutional capacity building could help promote such integration that is crucial for assessing industrial and other anthropogenic calamities at the project development stage.


This paper explores how empirical capability approach studies assess well‐being for young and old generations in affluent countries, defined as high‐income OECD countries. After a brief overview on the theoretical capability background and empirical core decisons, the authors discuss empirical capability studies on the well‐being of children, adolescents and the elderly. The authors find that the issues of child and youth well‐being have been increasing interested by capability researchers while despite of the importance of demographic change, few researchers deal with old‐age issues. The authors conclude that for young as well as old generations, capability approach studies confirm that income assessment is not sufficient to capture well‐being for the young and the old but has to be enriched by a more comprehensive perspective on capabilities and functionings. Moreover, it is recommendable for research on elderly to adopt research methods, questions


Introduce two methods of how to judge convergence and divergence of positive term series and prove a deduction. By exemplification, it proves the application of this judgment is better than that of D' Alembert's.


This work analyzes and meditates on the importance of personal branding and reputation of teachers in higher education. The characteristics of digital culture are described, emphasizing the importance of using Web 2.0 in the professional field and, more specifically, Science 2.0, as the basic tool for teachers to spread their work to both the scientific community and society in general. The methodology applied was the Documentary Research method. In general, the literature reports that although there are scientific social networks, the teacher usually uses more general platforms such as Facebook to present content.


This article analyzes individual breakthrough technology in the World Cup with the methods of documents and materials,observation and comparative analysis,because it is not only a hot topic in the field of football but also a focus of players training.It also expounds the role of individual breakthrough technology and its methods of training.


THE following tables present detailed estimates of the foreign direct investment position in the United States on a historical-cost, or book-value, basis and estimates of the related capital and income flows; summary estimates of services transactions are also presented. These estimates can be used, for example, to see how the geographic and the industrial composition of foreign companies' investment in the United States has changed over time. These estimates supplement the estimates presented in articles in the July 2001 SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS that summarized developments in the direct investment positions at historical cost in 2000 and the revisions to the international transactions accounts. The estimates for 1997-2000 of the foreign direct investment position at yearend and the estimates of capital flows, income, and services transactions incorporate the results of BEA's 1997 benchmark survey of foreign direct investment in the United States (FDIUS); the prior benchmark survey covered 1992. The revisions to the estimates for 1998 forward also reflect the incorporation of new or revised data from BEA's quarterly surveys of transactions between U.S. affiliates and their foreign parents and annual surveys of financial


The State of Uttarakhand has about 64.79% forest cover, 14.02% under crop cultivation and remaining 21.19% is populated. With limited land under cultivation major focus is on increasing yield and sustaining it for long time. Bacteria residing in the soils, including phosphatase producing bacteria, have potential to improve crop yield and sustaining it as they make phosphates available to plants. We have focused our efforts on isolating bacteria which are high phosphatase producers and standardized optimum media and other conditions for their growth. We isolated fourteen isolates that showed high alkaline phosphatase activity. Isolate ALKP 12 demonstrated highest alkaline phosphatase activity of 600 unit/ml in media 2 (basal media). This isolate was used for further studies. Under optimized conditions of pH 9 and 37°C, alkaline phosphatase activity of this isolate could be induced to very high level using media 1 (fermentation media), ranging from 1706 unit/ml and 1900 unit/ml. Another unique feature of this isolate is that it shows surprisingly high and unusual phosphatase activity of 1002 unit/ml even at pH 4. As this isolate can utilize cost effective molasses and it can even work in both acidic as well as basic soil, it holds potential to improve growth of the plant, increase yield and sustaining it.


In this study, the moment-rotation behavior of bolted top and seat angle with double web angle connections under monotonic loading are studied. Several 3D parametric finite element models are presented where the geometrical and mechanical properties of connections are considered parameters. The effect of all component interactions, such as slippage of bolts, bolts pretension and friction forces, are modeled using gap elements. To confirm the moment–rotation relationship, numerical results are compared with test results using different data and properties of experimental work that has been done by other researchers. In addition, the results are compared with a mathematical formulation suggested by other researchers. The results of the numerical modeling show good agreement with the test results. Also, the effect of the beam length on connection behavior is studied and by analyzing models with different beam lengths, an increase in connection stiffness and moment capacity with a reduction beam length is shown. The study is further extended by investigating the effect of these flexible connections on global behavior of the moment resisting frame. For this purpose, the moment resisting frame uses this type of connection instead of a rigid connection that was designed. In this frame, all connections are modeled as joint elements with moment-rotation relationships that are derived from numerical results. To study the dynamic behavior of this type of structure, three earthquake excitations were selected and the designed frame was subjected to these records. The global behavior of this frame is compared to that behavior of the special moment resisting frame. In this comparison, the capacity and global ductility of these two types of structures are presented and discussed. Introduction Due to the Northridge earthquake, sever damage in welded moment connections of steel frames occurred; since at the time, the many alternative types of connections suggested by researcher were bolted top and seat angle connections. This type of connection is categorized as a semi-rigid connection and it does not have the brittle fracture behavior of corresponding welded connections. On the other hand, it has the advantages of deformable failure patterns, relatively large energy dissipation capacity, and relatively easy erection. Analyses and design of a semi-rigid frame needs a clear understanding of moment-rotation relative of its connections. Many studies have been preformed all over the world to estimate moment-rotation behavior of bolted top and seat angle connection. Azizinamini et al (1985) has experimentally studied the behavior of such connections under monotonic and cyclic loads, and the results of his experiments are a vital 1 Assistant Prof., Civil Engineering Dept., K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Iran. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com 2 M.Sc. Student of Earthquake Session of Civil Engineering Dept., K.N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


The use of sewage sludge is a highly promising practice for the development of sustainable agricultural systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate doses of sewage sludge composted with and without Rhizobium inoculation in leaf N content, nodule number, nodule dry weight and plant during flowering. The experiment was conducted in the greenhouse of the Department of Soil Science and Natural Resources College of Agricultural Sciences of Botucatu, using as substrate used in vessels of 30 liters a Red Yelow Latosol sandy texture with experimental design adopted was randomized blocks constituted for 10 treatments and five doses of composted sewage sludge (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 t ha-1) with or without inoculation Bradyrhizobium japonic with three replications. There was an increase in the number and dry weight of nodules and shoot dry mass of soybeans due to the increase of the dose of sludge up to a dose of 20 t ha-1 and after this dose there was a decrease of these parameters. At a dose of 10 t ha-1 sludge compost inoculated seeds showed higher for foliar concentrations of N and number of nodules compared with uninoculated seeds. At a dose of 30 t ha-1 inoculated seeds were higher compared to uninoculated in all parameters.


approved: H. B. Wagerstedt The alternate bearing cycle in the 'Barcelona* cultivar poses a major problem to the filbert industry. This study was conducted to alleviate this problem in one of two ways: by (1) increased floral initiation in the "on" year, and (2) increased cluster set in the "off" year. Growth regulators were selected on the basis of their effectiveness when applied to other alternate bearing crops. These growth regulators were then applied to 'Barcelona' trees at the times corresponding to floral initiation and cluster set in this cultivar. During April and May, trees were treated with two concentrations (15 and 50ppm) of GA to influence cluster set. The GA, applications caused a large number of clusters to abscise in the season applied, however, female flower production was quadrupled for the following season. These results suggest that when applied to filbert trees in the spring, GA may have a hormonal effect on cluster abscission. The first GA application (April 20) significantly increased catkin production, indicating that the initiation of the catkins was in progress during this month. Gibberellic acid's influence on vegetative growth was minimal, with no substantial increase in shoot length or node number observed. Increased floral initiation is suggested to be the outcome of hormonal and carbohydrate level changes rather than through any dramatic change in vegetative growth. In the year following treatment, yield increases were due to the greater number of flowers initiated rather than an increase in percent cluster set. Gibberellic acid (50ppm), TIBA (25ppm), and ethephon (500ppm) were also applied to 'Barcelona filbert trees during the floral initiation process (July-August). Hand-thinning of nut clusters was also done during the initiation process. All of these treatments, except GA , resulted in increased female flower clusters the following spring. Gibberellic acid did not affect female flower initiation, however, catkin drop was accelerated. The average number of nuts per cluster, percent set, and yield were not affected by TIBA, ethephon, or GA_ sprays in the year applied. Increased yield in the following year was attributed to the increased floral initiation brought about by the TIBA, ethephon, and hand-thinning treatments, yield was also increased by GA. through greater percent set, and it is suggested the latter may be linked to the catkin abscission. The carbohydrates that would have been utilized in catkin production may have been made available to the developing nut clusters and vegetative structures, and may account for the resulting increase in yield. Influencing Flower Initiation and Flower Cluster Set in the Barcelona Filbert with Growth Regulators by Marsha Lynn Romines A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of


Deir el-Medina has provided a wealth of administrative documents that have seldom been used for quantitative,analysis. Most of them are dated to the 20 th Dynasty (∼1187―1070 BC), a period characterized by social, economical and political troubles. A statistical analysis of fish, wood, and grain accounts demonstrated that deliveries of each of these goods showed intra-annual fluctuations that can be directly or indirectly linked to the Nile level variation. A combined diachronic study of fish, wood, and grain supplies shows that at least two phases of perennial deterioration corresponding to the record of social troubles occurred during the 20 th Dynasty. Recurrent series of abnormal Nile floods may have been at the origin of these phases.


Two piston models of a plane axisymmetric source were compared. In the fIrst of them, the constant vibration velocities of the elements were calculated as an integral mean value of the assumed vibration velocity. However, in the other, as arithmetic mean value of discrete values of vibration velocity. These models were compared for arbitrary discretization and for optimal one. For both models numerical experiments were carried out, first of all, as a function of the number of the discrete values of vibration velocity and the next as a function of nondimensional wave number. Numerical examples pointed out the parameters of such a source for which a "good" piston model may be built based on several discrete values of vibration velocity.


AbstractMany venoms demonstrate their main toxicity on systems other than blood. Despite this, many venoms also have effects on blood and blood components such as platelets. Crude venoms of snakes, scorpions and spiders have been shown to have indirect (through stimulation of coagulation or epinephrine release, e.g., Echis carinatus and Gentruroides sculpturatus venoms, respectively) and/or direct effects on platelets. For coagulation-dependent effects on platelets, thrombin- or prothrombin-like action (Agkistrodon rhodostoma or contortrix, Bothrops atrox, Crotalus species) may not affect platelets, while those acting at earlier steps may yield normal thrombin and thus activate platelets (Vipera russelli, Echis carinatus). Crude venom effects can be stimulatory (promote or cause aggregation) or inhibitory, with either predominating as a function of dose. Such variability, if observed, often indicates the presence of opposing activities in crude venom, but may also indicate biphasic activity of a single co...


The responses of an unsymmetrically laminated fiber-reinforced composite cylinder to an axial compressive load, a torsional load, and the temperature change associated with cooling from the processing temperature to the service temperature are investigated. These problems are considered axisymmetric and the response is studied in the context of linear elastic material behavior and geometrically linear kinematics. Four different laminates are studied: a general unsymmetric laminate; two unsymmetric but more conventional laminates; and a conventional quasi-isotropic symmetric laminate. The responses based on closed-form solutions for different boundary conditions are computed and studied in detail. Particular emphasis is directed at understanding the influence of elastic couplings in the laminates. The influence of coupling decreased from a large effect in the general unsymmetric laminate, to practically no effect in the quasi-isotropic laminate. For example, the torsional loading of the general unsymmetric laminate resulted in a radial displacement. The temperature change also caused a significant radial displacement to occur near the ends of the cylinder. On the other hand, the more conventional unsymmetric laminate and the quasi-isotropic cylinder did not deform radially when subjected to a torsional load. From the results obtained, it is clear the degree of elastic coupling can be controlled andmore » indeed designed into a cylinder, the degree and character of the coupling being dictated by the application.« less


Electron ionization mass spectra of some 3,4-disubstituted 1,2,4-oxadiazole-5(4H)-thiones, thiadiazol-5(4H)-ones and thiadiazole-5(4H)-thiones are reported and fragmentation pathways of their molecular ions are studied in view of metastable ion experiments and accurate mass measurements. The main fragmentation route of the compounds under investigation is retro 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition.


It is known from studies with the electron microscope that there may exist cytoplasmic connections between spermatogenic or epithelial cells (Burgos and Fawcett, '55; Fawcett and Burgos, '56 and Fawcett, Ito and Slautterback, '59) resulting from incomplete or delayed cytoplasmic partitioning following nuclear division. The significance of persistent cytoplasmic connections has been discussed by Fawcett and his collaborators. Recently lamellar systems of cytoplasmic membranes in dividing spermatogenic cells of Drosophila virilis have been studied by Ito ('60). However, he has not dealt in detail with cytoplasmic connections during meiosis in this species. This paper describes newly discovered membranous systems associated with cytoplasmic bridges at specific stages of meiosis in the rooster.


This paper extends the diagonalization method on the basis of the modal space disturbance observer (MDOB) for application to a multidegree-of-freedom (DOF) system. The aim of this method is to suppress the interference between the position and force control systems and realize a bilateral control system. The utility of the proposed method is experimentally verified by using a multi-DOF manipulator. It is confirmed that the MDOB-based decoupling method has better performance than oblique coordinate control. Conventional oblique coordinate control causes oscillation in cases where the modeling error is large and the cutoff frequency of an observer is not high enough to change the system dynamics. On the other hand, the MDOB-based decoupling method becomes unstable when the difference in mass is large.


by Donald E. Rigby* Blind and disabled Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients may work and continue to receive benefits under certain provisions of the program. For those persons the basic earned income exclusions of the program apply, l which recognize the costs associated with employment and assures that they will have a higher gross income when they work than if they do not. The law also contains special exclusions that are intended as work incentives. For example:


We model the behaviour of isolated sources of finite radius and volume flux which experience a sudden drop in buoyancy flux, generalizing the previous theory presented in Scase et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 563, 2006, p. 443). In particular, we consider the problem of the source of an established plume suddenly increasing in area to provide a much wider plume source. Our calculations predict that, while our model remains applicable, the plume never fully pinches off into individual rising thermals. We report the results of a large number of experiments, which provide an ensemble to compare to theoretical predictions. We find that provided the source conditions are weakened in such a way that the well-known entrainment assumption remains valid, the established plume is not observed to pinch off into individual thermals. Further, not only is pinch-off not observed in the ensemble of experiments, it cannot be observed in any of the individual experiments. We consider both the temporal evolution of the plume profile and a concentration of passive tracer, and show that our model predictions compare well with our experimental observations.


'The Social Psychology of Exercise and Sport' focuses on a range of selected topics and provides a comprehensive, in-depth and analytical coverage.


ABSTRACT A Finite-Volume scheme which enables to compute compressible gas-solid two- phase flows using the two-fluid approach is presented herein. The time-dependent scheme is implemented on unstructured meshes. The fractional step method is such that the maximum principle for the volumetric fraction is fulfilled. Some two-dimensional test cases including shocks and rarefaction waves within both phases are described.


This study aimed to determine the major challenges and constraints that meet the partnerships between the public and private sectors in Jordan. To conduct that, a questionnaire was distributed to the study sample which comprised, universities in structures, graduate students. Then the researcher selected a set of vital public services to discern the major challenge for each service by the respondents. The following table shows the study findings. Service The major Constraint, Challenge Pubic health Lack funds and lack of scientific research Education Lack of funs Water Lack of scientific research Communications Lack of funds Electricity Lank Scientific research. The study presents the following recommendations: 1The Jordanian universities have to play their potential role in the field of scientific researches. 2The Jordanian Government has to redesign the regulations to facilitate the


to the editor: Our interpretation of Dr. White's letter ([10][1]) is that he pretty much agrees that our findings suggest that thin-fiber muscle afferents in the human are significantly involved in the cardiovascular and ventilatory responses to rhythmic exercise ([1][2]) and one of the possible


This article examines the workings of co-determination in the German finance industry through two case studies examining the introduction of working time accounts. It is shown that the accounts posed important new challenges for employees and works councillors that represented variants of long-existing negotiations around working time issues. The problems were clear and similar in both cases, giving rise to complaints to councillors, though not to managers. Councillors' responses differed in the two companies. In one, they successfully re-negotiated the agreement under which the accounts had been introduced. In the other, they did not succeed in doing so. The differences between the two representative bodies are analysed to reflect on a theory of employee representative influence.


In discussing African Development and its attendant food security question, it is important to examine critically what sustainable development means in the African context in relation to United Nations championed sustainable development goals. Such a definition will open our horizon in an attempt to search for alternative approaches and solutions to African developmental problems with the hope to improve the lives of the local peoples. The idea here is that any new alternative approaches to development must touch the social, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, and cosmological aspects of the indigenous people. Therefore, if the current wave of UN driven theory of sustainable development issues in Africa is to be understood and applied it must address the local people's problem of hunger. It must be situated in the appropriate anthropological context that provides practical and social meaning to the African actors as the real subjects of a developmental discourse and not as passengers. The current approach of defining and operational zing sustainable development agenda from the perspective of the world capitalist economy and the associated globalization processes at the same time does not make sense to an average hungry local African. The rapid social change and transformation of indigenous societies require a different methodology to the problem of social development and existentialism. Hence the need for retheorization and re-conceptualization of the issues associated with poverty and food security like urbanization, demography trend, and agriculture, etc. It is against this background that this work examined the United Nations' sustainable development goals, African development, and the question of food security using secondary data such as books, newspapers, journals, and the internet.


Job Burnout exists popularly in college librarians,which can affect the quality and efficiency of service,and reduce the functions of library.This article initially probes into the causes of this phenomenon from the definition of Job Burnout,and proposes effective solutions in order to remove their Job Burnout and arouse their initiative


Current, very fast development of genetic engineering and protein engineering (main segments of modern biotechnology) is a good way for commercially production of proteins, which benefit biopharmaceutical, the enzyme and agricultural industries. These products augment the fields of medicine, diagnostics, food, nutrition, detergents, textiles, leather, paper, pulp, polymers and plastics. Proteins with biopharmaceutical application are mainly clinical reagents, vaccines and drugs. During the last decade, the pharmaceutical biotechnology represents the fastest growing segment in the biotechnology sector. Production of recombinant proteins for use as pharmaceuticals, is a multi-billion dollar industry. One third of the biopharmaceuticals has come from microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli and yeast. The selection of expression systems depends on the size and biochemical status of proteins. Large proteins and proteins that require glycosylation are usually expressed in a mammalian cells, fungi or the baculovirus system. Smaller proteins are produced by prokaryotic cells. There are some very useful advantages for prokaryotic recombinant expression systems: it is easy of culture, very rapid cell growth with possibility of IPTG expression induction and quite simple product purification. On the other hand, for very large proteins, for S-S rich proteins and proteins which require post-translational modifications, bacteria, usually E. coli strains are not robust system. Better are yeasts with very popular species Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris. This article presents the current application of microbes as production platforms for recombinant proteins and its genetic engineering for the use as biopharmaceuticals.. key words: bacteria, yeast, recombinant protein production (RPP), biopharmaceuticals. ∗ Autor odpowiedzialny za korespondencje. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


In this paper, we continue the work of the first author and give a new construction of the tame local Langlands correspondence for PGSp(4,F), where F is a p-adic field, that is analogous to the construction of the local Langlands correspondence for real groups.


The STAR Collaboration will complete the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) and the Muon Telescope Detector (MTD) upgrades by 2014. HFT utilizes the state-of-art active pixel detector technology, which will greatly enhance the STAR physics capabilities by measuring heavy quark yield, collectivity and correlations via the topological reconstruction of charmed hadrons over a wide momentum range. The MTD is based on the long Multi-Gap Resistive Plate Chamber detector technology designed to measure muons penetrating the bulk of other detectors and the magnet yoke. It will enable STAR to study di-muon and electron-muon correlations and enhance heavy quarkonium studies. With the addition of these upgrades, STAR is well suited to perform precise measurements of production as well as correlations of rare probes (heavy flavors, dileptons) to systematically investigate the quark-gluon plasma properties at RHIC. For Run 13 63% of the MTD has been installed and data have been taken. Prototype PXL sectors (30% coverage) have also been installed and commissioned. Anticipated physics results and current status of these upgrades is reported.


Throughout the greatest part of our evolutionary history, we were living in small and isolated tribal communities (1). Such a set-up ensured better survival in harsh environments and created distinctive genetic structure of groups that maintained sufficient level of isolation from one another. The traces of such events are clearly visible even today. For example, we are able to discern genetic origin of individuals from small villages that have maintained their genetic distinctiveness due to geographical isolation (2).


Summary.  Background: Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) occurs frequently in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery, but there is a lack of knowledge regarding long‐term sequelae of DVT after different types of surgical procedures. Objective: To describe the long‐term effect of symptomatic (SDVT) and asymptomatic (ADVT) deep venous thrombosis on venous function and subsequent incidence of post‐thrombotic syndrome (PTS) in patients who have undergone surgery for Achilles tendon rupture. Patients/methods: This observational follow‐up study includes 83 patients with postoperative DVT, examined after a mean of 7 years. There were two series of patients: 45 with SDVT and 38 with ADVT. In both series, more than 90% of the DVTs were limited to calf veins. Follow‐up examinations comprised color duplex ultrasonography (CDU), strain‐gauge plethysmography (SGP), clinical examination including scoring for venous disease and questionnaires for quality of life (QOL). Results: A mild degree of PTS was found in 11% of the patients: 13% in SDVT and 8% in ADVT patients. The rate of recurrent ipsilateral DVT was 2%. Deep venous reflux was more common in patients with SDVT than in ADVT patients (84% vs. 55%, P < 0.01). Only a few patients had plethysmograpically abnormal findings without difference between the two groups. Conclusion: DVT after surgery for Achilles tendon rupture consists mainly of distal DVTs and are associated with a low risk for PTS. Deep venous reflux was more common in SDVT than in ADVT patients, probably as an effect of larger DVTs in the former group.


Objective To explore the relationship between several factors and preoperative lymph node metastasis of esophageal earcinoma.Methods A single and multivariate unconditional logistic regression model was employed to analyze the high risk factors of preoperative lymph nodes metastasis of esophageal carcinoma proved by operation and pathology.Results Single and multivariate factors analysis showed that preoperative lymph nodes metastasis associated with the size,shape,crowd of the lymph nodes,T staging of the tumor,the relative position between the tumor and the lymph nodes.But sex,age,the course of the disease and the size of the tumor were not related with the lymph nodes metastasis.Conclusion The preoperative lymph node metastasis of esophageal carcinoma was the most important independent factors for the size,shape,crowd of the lymph nodes,T staging of the tumor,the relative position between the tumor and the lymph nodes.They may be useful for CT to diagnosis the lymph node metastasis preoperative.


This article follows the movement training the basic rule,the characteristic which the union direction detection runs,rests on athlete's special details,implements the pointed training,to the time raises the directional athlete athletics level.Confirms the pointed training effect through the training practice,thus the rich Orienteering training method and the method,for raise the universities Orienteering level,provides the training theory and the practice basis.


Aim: The present study was carried out to analyse morbidity and mortality rate in cattle in village areas of Pune division in the Maharashtra state. Materials and Methods: The data of total 1538 cattle were collected from 421 cattle owners by stratified two-stage random sampling design and analysed statistically by SAS 9.3 software for evaluation of Chi-square analysis. Result: Overall morbidity and mortality rates in cattle were 22.24% & 4.42%, respectively. Reproductive (7.09%) and digestive (5.14%) diseases were major causes of morbidity in the study area. Adult cattle showed high (28.97%) morbidity due to reproductive problems which are major challenges under village conditions in study area. Digestive (1.43%) and nutritional (0.85%) diseases were major causes of mortality of cattle. Chi-square analysis revealed that the morbidity was significantly (p<0.01) related with age groups while mortality was significantly (p<0.01) related with age and sex. Highest mortality rate (16.81%) were observed among calves and male were at higher (17.86%) mortality risk than that of female. Conclusion: Morbidity and mortality studies provide an important tool for determining the health status and guidelines for managemental practices, which will ultimately help in increasing the milk production and improve the economic status of livestock owners.


One-third octave band background noise and reverberation time measurements were conducted in the Exterior Effect Room (EER) at the NASA Langley Research Center. The related overall acoustic absorption of the room was calculated. The acoustic field in the room was characterized. Reverberation time measurements were performed using the integrated impulse response method. The results were compared with independent measurements using the interrupted noise reverberation time method and different instrumentation. Reasonable agreement was obtained between the reverberation times of the two methods.


In this article, we first discuss inversion methods of the Abel-type integral transforms. It is well known that the support theorem of the Radon transform does not hold unless the function decreases rapidly at infinity. We prove that this support theorem holds for L1 functions if they are radial. The inversion methods of the Abel-type integrals play an important role to prove the support theorem for the radial functions. We also prove inversion formulae of the exterior problems for the Radon transform of the radial functions.


The Louisiana Strategic Highway Safety Plan is to reach the goal of Destination Zero Death on Louisiana roadways. This tall order calls for implementing all feasible crash countermeasures. A great number of crash countermeasures have been identified by various representative documents; however, crash countermeasures unique to Louisiana have not been thoroughly evaluated before. After reviewing and documenting crash countermeasures as well as their crash modification factors (CMF), the research team developed two CMFs that are unique in Louisiana. The first CMF is for converting four-lane urban undivided roadway to five-lane roadway. Undivided multilane roadways have consistently exhibited low safety performance, particularly in urban or suburban areas where roadside development is relatively intense. Although the five-lane roadway is no longer an acceptable roadway type for new construction in Louisiana, the impressive crash reductions on several urban roadway segments clearly demonstrate it as a feasible solution under financial constrained conditions. Based on the statistical analysis with six years of crash data (three years before and three years after excluding the project implementation year), the CMFs for all roadways are estimated to be less than 0.6 with a standard deviation less than 0.07. The second CMF developed is for raised pavement markers and striping. Raised pavement markers (RPM) are intended as safety devices on roadways. Intuitively convinced by its safety benefits, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has been using RPM for many years on all freeways in the state. This project evaluates the safety benefit of RPM along with pavement striping on freeways with nine years of data. The analysis results from three analysis methods indicate that RPM has significant benefit in reducing nighttime crashes on rural freeways and there are no safety benefits on urban freeways.


Finally, starting from the possibility to admit a distinction in the access and supply of goods and services on the ground of sex, the thesis analyses the possibility to interpret the "Goods and Services Directive" in the light of the Antisubordination principle, given that the differential pricing of services, sex segregation of services utilized by both men and women, single-sex provision of services, are justified on the ground of reasons of decency, safety, counteracting stereotypes and to break down gender roles.


Solid organ transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage cardiac, pulmonary or liver disease. This form of surgical treatment has enjoyed increasing success, with better early and late survival for lung, liver and cardiac transplantation, while renal transplantation is both cost effective and improves the quality of life for the recipient receiving dialysis. The main limiting factor for this successful procedure is the shortage of suitable donor organs, resulting in longer waiting list for patients with a substantial risk of mortality before transplantation (Keegan M.T. 2009). The majority of organs come from patients who suffered an acute neurologic injury, such as traumatic brain injury or cerebrovascular accidents, including spontaneous intracerebral bleeding and thrombosis that progresses to brainstem death. Unfortunately, not all brainstem dead patients become potential organ donors and organ are ultimately harvested from only 15-20% of individuals who satisfy organ donor criteria (Mascia et al 2010). Many reasons contribute to the paucity of donor organs, such as the sub-optimal critical care management of potential organ donors, lack of consent, logistical problems and the use of strict donor criteria (Mascia et al 2006). In the present chapter we will discuss neuroendocrine alterations which occur in acute brain injured patients evolving to brain death. Since most of the data available has been collected in acute neurological patients with varying impairment of the conscious state, we will first summarize the pathophysiology, clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment of endocrine abnormalities in severe brain injury patients and then we will focus on the consequences of neuroendocrine alterations in brain dead subjects. These abnormalities contribute to the hemodynamic and metabolic instability of the potential organ donors and may affect organs availability for transplantation. In severe acute brain injury patients evolving to brain death, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal insufficiency occurs in 30-50% (Behan et al 2008; Corneli et al 2007) of patients and a high prevalence of neuroendocrine deficiency is present in brain dead patients (Howlett et al 1989; Salim et al 2006). These endocrine alterations lead to metabolic abnormalities and hemodynamic instability with deleterious effects on these potential organ donors (Ullah et al 2006). Adequate organ donor management is therefore mandatory to prevent, reduce or reverse these alterations and to maintain the functional integrity of potentially transplantable organs. Since all donors are treated in intensive care units an optimal clinical management would be an integral component of intensive care medicine education and


We present efficient locking mechanisms for hierarchical data structures. Several applications work on an abstract hierarchy of objects, and a parallel execution on this hierarchy necessitates synchronization across workers operating on different parts of the hierarchy. Existing synchronization mechanisms are too coarse, too inefficient, or too ad hoc, resulting in reduced or unpredictable amount of concurrency. We propose a new locking approach based on the structural properties of the underlying hierarchy. We show that the developed techniques are efficient even when the hierarchy is an arbitrary graph. Theoretically, we present our approach as a locking-cost-minimizing instance of a generic algebraic model of synchronization for hierarchies. Using STMBench7, we illustrate considerable reduction in the locking cost, resulting in an average throughput improvement of 42%.