In this work, resveratol (RES) was extracted from grape seeds by subcritical water extraction method. Based on the results of single-factor experiments, the Box-Behnken (BBK) design for response surface methodology (RSM) was used to identify optimal treatment conditions. It was demonstrated that optimal values of extraction pressure, extraction time, extraction temperature, and solid/solvent ratio were 1.02 MPa, 24.89 min, 152.32 °C, and 1:15 g/mL, respectively. The RES yield reached 6.90 μg/g under the above optimized conditions. The concentration of RES in the A general definition of green chemistry is the invention, design, and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances [34] . In the case of the green extraction of natural products, the process also should reduce energy consumption and extraction time, allow for the use of alternative solvents, obtain useful co-products, and ensure a safe and high quality of product [35] . In our research, the SWE process of RES from grape seeds was consistent with the above principles. Apart from the higher extraction rate, the high added value of extraction RES by SWE was proven by the data of different methods in Table 5 . First, compared to other methods, water was used instead of organic solvent. Second, extraction time was significantly reduced. Additionally, the raw materials (grape seeds) are a by-product of grape processing; while extracting resveratrol, procyanidin was also extracted and extraction yield up to 87.12 mg/g. This method was also easy to operate. Although high temperature and high pressure operating conditions were required during subcritical water extraction, a shorter period of time meant less energy consumption, which could be further reduced by energy recovery. For example, a prototype of eco-evaporator able to recover up to 55% of the energy was developed in the south of France for steam distillation of lavender. The overall saving in thermal energy was around 80%, with no impact on the product's quality [34] . To sum up, compared to other methods, extraction RES from grape seeds by SWE has a high added value.

The concentration of RES in the A general definition of green chemistry is the invention, design, and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.

In the case of the green extraction of natural products, the process also should reduce energy consumption and extraction time, allow for the use of alternative solvents, obtain useful co-products, and ensure a safe and high quality of product.

This method was also easy to operate.

The overall saving in thermal energy was around 80%, with no impact on the product's quality.


Using Matlab programming one can create a GUI which contains controls such as menus, toolbars, buttons and sliders. This can perform any type of computation and display data as plots or as tables. Many Matlab products, such as Curve Fitting Toolbox, Signal Processing Toolbox, and control system Toolbox, include applications with custom user interface [10] [11] .

Many Matlab products, such as Curve Fitting Toolbox, Signal Processing Toolbox, and control system Toolbox, include applications with custom user interface.


In consideration of the characteristics of PSC, an organisation which strongly emphasises employee psychological health and safety will create job demands that are both motivating and conducive to health (Dollard & Bakker, 2010) . Communication systems will be in place so that risks can be prevented, identified and managed, for example, through better allocation of workload or greater opportunity for recovery. There will be strong participation and involvement of all levels of the organisation in stress prevention. This will lead to better information for continuous improvement and will render jobs less stressful. Managers who have little regard, priority, or commitment for worker well-being (as in a low PSC environment) will ignore high demand scenarios and will not supply adequate resources. If PSC is an antecedent to working conditions, then conceivably it will lead to better health and work performance via these conditions.

In consideration of the characteristics of PSC, an organisation which strongly emphasises employee psychological health and safety will create job demands that are both motivating and conducive to health.


It was well documented that increased expression of the COX-2 enzyme plays an important role in the inflammatory neurodegenerative process and LPS strongly activates microglia thereby inducing increased COX-2 expression [14] . Our present study showed that the expression of COX-2 protein was gradually suppressed by SAE extract treatment in LPS-stimulated BV-cells in a concentration dependent manner. Since SAE inhibited the increased NO production, iNOS and COX-2 expressions, the possibility remains that SAE extract might further act upon key inflammatory signaling mediators.

It was well documented that increased expression of the COX-2 enzyme plays an important role in the inflammatory neurodegenerative process and LPS strongly activates microglia thereby inducing increased COX-2 expression.


Earlier studies revealed that NF-κB activation plays an important role in regulating the expression of iNOS, COX-2 and is the key event for the induction of all major inflammatory mediators [16] . Therefore, we determined whether the inhibitory effects of the SAE extract occurred through suppression of NF-κB activation in BV-2 microglia cells. Our result showed that SAE inhibited the LPS-induced activation of NF-κB in a concentration-dependent fashion concluding that SAE might regulate NF-κB signaling pathway as a major target.

Earlier studies revealed that NF-κB activation plays an important role in regulating the expression of iNOS, COX-2 and is the key event for the induction of all major inflammatory mediators.


Brain inflammation is characterized by chronic activation of microglia which may in turn cause neuronal damage through the release of potentially cytotoxic molecules such as proinflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species [12, 13] . Therefore agents that inhibit microglial activation by suppressing the excessive release of inflammatory mediators and cytokines might be beneficial for preventing and delaying the progression of neuroinflammatory disease. It is well documented that LPSstimulated microglia produces elevated levels of NO and other pro-inflammatory mediators such as iNOS, COX-2 and TNF-α which were known to contribute to neuroinflammatory conditions [14, 15] . Our current data clearly showed that SAE attenuated LPS-induced NO production and suppressed iNOS expression.

Brain inflammation is characterized by chronic activation of microglia which may in turn cause neuronal damage through the release of potentially cytotoxic molecules such as proinflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species.

It is well documented that LPSstimulated microglia produces elevated levels of NO and other pro-inflammatory mediators such as iNOS, COX-2 and TNF-α which were known to contribute to neuroinflammatory conditions.


Double diffusive convection in porous media has constituted a pole of attraction to researchers because of its applications in varied fields such as geophysics, enhanced recovery of petroleum reservoirs, underground spreading of chemical wastes, sea bed hydrodynamics, crystal growth among others. Copious literature is available on this topic and it is well documented in the book by Nield and Bejan [1] . In the porous layer, the in-situ processing of energy resources such as coal, oil shale or geothermal energy and also packed bed reactors often involves the non-isothermal flow of fluids through porous media, called throughflow. In view of this, the effect of vertical throughflow on convective instability in a porous layer has attracted considerable interest in the recent past, but majority of the investigations have dealt with only single component system [2] [3] [4] [5] .

Copious literature is available on this topic and it is well documented in the book by Nield and Bejan.

In view of this, the effect of vertical throughflow on convective instability in a porous layer has attracted considerable interest in the recent past, but majority of the investigations have dealt with only single component system.


Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) is receiving wide interest in wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs), due to advantages such as: opportunity charging; battery volume reduction; safety; visual appeal due to removal of cord; and relieving the user from handling a bulky and heavy charging chord [1] . An IPT system consists of two coils: a primary coil placed on the surface, connected to a power supply; and a secondary coil, placed underneath the vehicle, connected to the load. Since power transfer takes place due to the mutual coupling of coils, an optimum coupling between both coils is required for an efficient power transfer. This requires the vehicle to be parked in a specific position [2, 3] . However, while parking the vehicle over the primary coil, certain misalignments could always occur. Due to misalignments, coils could deviate from the optimal coupling scenario. Moreover, the parameters of the system could vary due to reasons such as: fluctuation in supply voltage; and variation of load due to varying state of the charge of the battery pack. These issues can lead to the deviation of output voltage and current from the desired operating points.

Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) is receiving wide interest in wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs), due to advantages such as: opportunity charging; battery volume reduction; safety; visual appeal due to removal of cord; and relieving the user from handling a bulky and heavy charging chord.

This requires the vehicle to be parked in a specific position.


A suitably designed closed-loop controller is consistently needed, in order to improve tolerance to misalignments and parameter variations. Recent papers mainly present steady-state models and experiments [4, 5] . Steady-state models cannot accurately predict the dynamic behavior of a system; therefore, they cannot be used as a tool for controller and physical system design.

Recent papers mainly present steady-state models and experiments.


The general and well-known fact is that the stability of the banking system is one of the major preconditions for economic growth of every society, since the banks play a vital role in allocating capital from capital-sufficient agents to capital-deficient participants in the economic life of the society [1] . However, the structural changes that have taken place in the international financial market during the last years of the twentieth century, accompanied by deregulation and internationalization of advantages in the case of the emerging markets in the countries of Latin America. The aim of the paper is to identify a relevant econometric model in order to demonstrate the impact of crucial macro and microeconomic variables on the NPLs.

The general and well-known fact is that the stability of the banking system is one of the major preconditions for economic growth of every society, since the banks play a vital role in allocating capital from capital-sufficient agents to capital-deficient participants in the economic life of the society.


Most significant methods for the detection of fast neutrons depend on the elastic scattering of protons and the subsequent conversion of the energy of the recoil protons into a number of electrons [5] . In turn these are often converted into light in a scintillator material. This light subsequently produces an electrical signal by a CCD, or an amorphous silicon or other semiconductor screens. The cross-section for the scattering of protons is very much smaller than that for the absorption reactions 6 Li(n, ) or 10 B(n, ) used for detection in thermal neutron radiography, so the detection of neutrons is an intractable problem in fast neutron radiography.

Most significant methods for the detection of fast neutrons depend on the elastic scattering of protons and the subsequent conversion of the energy of the recoil protons into a number of electrons.


Fast neutron radiography is a potentially powerful method for non-destructive inspection and testing due to the extremely high penetration depth of fast neutrons in comparison with other radiation in most materials of industrial interest [1] . Particularly, it has great advantage for detecting voids, cracks or other defects in low-Z materials (e.g. plastics, ceramics, etc.) shielded by thick, high-Z parts [2] [3] [4] . This property of the fast neutrons which makes it unique and valuable also makes it difficult to be detected. Detection efficiency is thus the key factor, particularly with the limited flux usually produced by accelerator based neutron sources.

Fast neutron radiography is a potentially powerful method for non-destructive inspection and testing due to the extremely high penetration depth of fast neutrons in comparison with other radiation in most materials of industrial interest.

Particularly, it has great advantage for detecting voids, cracks or other defects in low-Z materials (e.g. plastics, ceramics, etc.) shielded by thick, high-Z parts.


In order to preserve the translation symmetry, the lattice theory is usually set up with periodic boundary conditions in all space-time directions. A side-effect of this choice of boundary conditions is the emergence of disconnected topological sectors in the continuum limit. On the lattice the sectors are not strictly separated from each other, but the relative weight in the functional integral of the gauge fields "between the sectors" decreases with a high power of the lattice spacing [1] . As a consequence, transitions from one sector to another tend to be suppressed in the simulations and may eventually become so rare that a proper sampling of the sectors would require far longer runs than are practically feasible [2] [3] [4] .

On the lattice the sectors are not strictly separated from each other, but the relative weight in the functional integral of the gauge fields "between the sectors" decreases with a high power of the lattice spacing.

As a consequence, transitions from one sector to another tend to be suppressed in the simulations and may eventually become so rare that a proper sampling of the sectors would require far longer runs than are practically feasible.


Once NBTE is diagnosed, the two primary goals should be the treatment of the underlying malignancy and systemic anticoagulation [1] . Among all forms of anticoagulation, unfractionated heparin (subcutaneous or intravenous) has been shown to be the most effective in reducing the incidence of embolic events. Low-molecularweight heparin has also been used and appears to be effective. Vitamin K antagonists such as warfarin should not be used as they seem to be ineffective in controlling the coagulopathy in NBTE [1, 5] . The reason for that remains unknown. Patients with NBTE should stay on anticoagulation indefinitely [1] .

Once NBTE is diagnosed, the two primary goals should be the treatment of the underlying malignancy and systemic anticoagulation.

Vitamin K antagonists such as warfarin should not be used as they seem to be ineffective in controlling the coagulopathy in NBTE.

The reason for that remains unknown.

Patients with NBTE should stay on anticoagulation indefinitely.


Studies have shown that diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) MRI may help differentiate cardioembolic strokes secondary to infective endocarditis from those secondary to NBTE. In an imaging study done in 2002, four patterns on DWI have been described in patients experiencing recurrent embolic strokes due to bacterial endocarditis or NBTE [7] . These patterns are the following: pattern 1, a single lesion corresponding to a solitary embolus; pattern 2, multiple closely spaced lesions in a single arterial territory; pattern 3, multiple punctuate disseminated lesions; and pattern 4, multiple small and medium or large disseminated lesions [7] . Those secondary to NBTE exhibit pattern 4, described as multiple small and medium or large disseminated lesions, whereas strokes secondary to infective endocarditis manifest as a mix of all four patterns [7] .

In an imaging study done in 2002, four patterns on DWI have been described in patients experiencing recurrent embolic strokes due to bacterial endocarditis or NBTE.

These patterns are the following: pattern 1, a single lesion corresponding to a solitary embolus; pattern 2, multiple closely spaced lesions in a single arterial territory; pattern 3, multiple punctuate disseminated lesions; and pattern 4, multiple small and medium or large disseminated lesions.

Those secondary to NBTE exhibit pattern 4, described as multiple small and medium or large disseminated lesions, whereas strokes secondary to infective endocarditis manifest as a mix of all four patterns.


Contact between the electrodes and the sensing materials is very important in determining their gas-sensing characteristics; therefore, the I-V curves of the ZnO NR and NW sensors in air were plotted, and the data are shown in Figure 6 . As the bias voltage went from −15 V to 15 V, the plots were nearly linear in the gas-sensing range, i.e., 1 V to 8 V, for both sensors, thereby indicating good Ohmic contact between the sensing materials and Pt electrodes. The Schottky contact was expected to be formed at the Pt-ZnO interface, because the work function of Pt of approximately 5.93 eV was considerably higher than that of n-type ZnO of 4.66 eV [40] . Nevertheless, the linearity of the I-V plots proved that the Schottky contact effect was negligible, at least in the gas-sensing range. This finding was possibly due to the highly defective surface of the hydrothermally grown ZnO and/or the formation of Pt-Zn alloy at the interface during the high-temperature stabilisation annealing. Therefore, the gas-sensing characteristics are mainly based on the behaviours of ZnO NRs and NWs and their junctions.

The Schottky contact was expected to be formed at the Pt-ZnO interface, because the work function of Pt of approximately 5.93 eV was considerably higher than that of n-type ZnO of 4.66 eV.


In the past decades, the rapid rise of industrialisation and urbanisation has caused severe air pollution, which primarily comes from automobile exhausts and factory emissions. This severe pollution poses a great threat to humans and all other living organisms [1] . High-performance gas sensors, particularly for the detection of toxic and explosive gases, are therefore necessary [2, 3] .

This severe pollution poses a great threat to humans and all other living organisms.

High-performance gas sensors, particularly for the detection of toxic and explosive gases, are therefore necessary.


The ferro-and ferrimagnetic nanoparticles used for implantation possessed a magnetic moment even in the absence of a magnetic field. By using the alternating magnetic field, one can change the magnetic moment direction both due to the physical rotation of magnetic nanoparticles overcoming the force of friction or viscosity of the environment, and due to the reorientation of the magnetic moment, using the energy of the magnetic field. This energy then dissipates in the heat energy [2] . Just, this energy is used to destroy cancer tissues during hyperthermia.

This energy then dissipates in the heat energy.


The dissipation of magnetic energy occurs when the magnetic nanoparticles return into equilibrium with their physical rotation overcoming the force of viscosity due to the reorientation of the magnetic moment only. This explains the existence of two, Brownian and Neel, mechanisms of dissipation of magnetic energy, respectively [3] . Among them, the Neel relaxation is more effective to heat the tumor.

This explains the existence of two, Brownian and Neel, mechanisms of dissipation of magnetic energy, respectively.


When the temperature drops below the blocking temperature T B , specific for each material and particle dimensions, the change of the magnetization direction of particles ceases to be chaotic, and the particles behave as usual coarse-grain magnets. Examples of these superparamagnetic particles are small particles of Co, Fe, Ni and some iron oxides such as magnetite, Fe 3 O 4 , etc. Because the magnetic moments of superparamagnetic particles have random orientations under the influence of thermal fluctuations of the environment, they do not have the resultant magnetic moment in the absence of an external magnetic field. In contrast to the conventional magnetic particles, they do not aggregate after removal of the external magnetic field [6] . The aggregation of magnetic particles can hamper their removal from the body after application. Therefore, the superparamagnetic particles have great advantages as agents for the treatment of cancer by hyperthermia. Such particles are readily absorbed by cancer cells 10 -100 μm in diameter. This improves significantly the effectiveness of hyperthermia when applied to cancer cells. The superparamagnetic nanoparticles can also efficiently overcome the blood-brain barrier, which is essential for the treatment of brain tumors [7] . Furthermore, the nanoparticles may be coupled with viruses (20 -450 nm), proteins (5 -50 nm) and genes (length of 10 -100 nm) [3] .

In contrast to the conventional magnetic particles, they do not aggregate after removal of the external magnetic field.

The superparamagnetic nanoparticles can also efficiently overcome the blood-brain barrier, which is essential for the treatment of brain tumors.

Furthermore, the nanoparticles may be coupled with viruses (20 -450 nm), proteins (5 -50 nm) and genes (length of 10 -100 nm).


Soil properties across forest ecotones and meadows are controlled by many factors that operate at different spatial scales. Factors such as landform, topography, temperature, and vegetation play important roles in configuring soil properties [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] . Soil temperature and moisture are two key factors directly determining many chemical and biological processes in soil, such as enzymatic degradation of biomolecule in soil, nutrient and water uptake by roots [21] [22] [23] [24] . Above all, soil moisture can control plant distribution and community composition at high altitudes across ecotones [5, 25, 26] . Hence, knowledge of spatial and temporal variability of soil properties is crucial to understanding the impact of climate change on ecosystems such as ecotones.

Factors such as landform, topography, temperature, and vegetation play important roles in configuring soil properties.

Soil temperature and moisture are two key factors directly determining many chemical and biological processes in soil, such as enzymatic degradation of biomolecule in soil, nutrient and water uptake by roots.

Above all, soil moisture can control plant distribution and community composition at high altitudes across ecotones.


The fabrication of C/C composites mainly consists of producing the fiber precursor and then densifying this with the carbon matrix. A large variety of fiber and matrix materials as well as thermal processing schemes are used to fabricate C/C composites. The high modulus fibers are generally based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) or pitch, while the matrices may be resin-based, pitch-based, or pyrolysis-based. When different combination of fiber and matrix is adopted, C/C composites have different microstructure [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] . For example, an interface generally forms between the fiber and matrix, and the fiber/matrix interface can be divided into four kinds: parallel plate structure, vertical plate structure, sheathlike structure, and isotropic structure [11] .

When different combination of fiber and matrix is adopted, C/C composites have different microstructure.

For example, an interface generally forms between the fiber and matrix, and the fiber/matrix interface can be divided into four kinds: parallel plate structure, vertical plate structure, sheathlike structure, and isotropic structure.


A typical analysis of the bitumen from the Alberta oil sands is given in Table 1 . The bitumen is a very dense, black, viscous liquid with viscosity and composition varying slightly within the deposit. The "heavy" components of bitumen, known as asphaltenes and resins, Copyright t~) 1980, The Clay Minerals Society are complex mixtures of large polyaromatic hydrocarbons containing heteroatoms such as N, S, and O; polar functional groups are commonly present. Clay minerals take up organic molecules by a variety of mechanisms (Brindley, 1971; Greenland, 1965; Mortland, 1970; Theng, 1974) . The interaction between clay and bitumen is affected by the conditions and the composition of the bitumen. The object of the present paper is to describe the adsorption of bitumen extracted from Athabasca oil sands by the clay minerals most commonly found in the deposit using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (IR).

Clay minerals take up organic molecules by a variety of mechanisms.


Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage with sensory, emotional, cognitive and social components [1] . In the clinical and research settings, pain intensity is measured using patient's self-reported pain rating scales such as the visual analog scale (VAS) [2] . Unfortunately, these self-report measures only work when the subject is sufficiently alert and cooperative, and hence they lack utility in multiple situations (e.g. during drowsiness) and patient populations (e.g. patients with dementia or paralysis).

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage with sensory, emotional, cognitive and social components.

In the clinical and research settings, pain intensity is measured using patient's self-reported pain rating scales such as the visual analog scale (VAS).


Therefore, I would like to consider some problems from the viewpoint of byuon theory [7, 8] . That is a theory of "life' of special discrete objects from which the surrounding space and the world of elementary particles are formed. The intrinsic dynamics of byuons determines such fundamental phenomena as the course of time, physics of space, masses of elementary particles, rotation of planets and stars, spins of elementary particles, asf.

Therefore, I would like to consider some problems from the viewpoint of byuon theory.


A growing environmental awareness across the world has aroused interest in research and development of environmentally friendly and sustainable materials [1] [2] [3] . As the cost of non-renewable sources of material becomes more expensive, natural fibres can be a viable alternative as reinforcement for composite materials [4, 5] . The use of natural fibres for the reinforcement of polymeric composite materials has received increasing attention by both academia and industry because of their availability, lower density, much higher specific strength and not causing irritation when handled compared to conventional glass fibres [6, 7] .

A growing environmental awareness across the world has aroused interest in research and development of environmentally friendly and sustainable materials.

As the cost of non-renewable sources of material becomes more expensive, natural fibres can be a viable alternative as reinforcement for composite materials.

The use of natural fibres for the reinforcement of polymeric composite materials has received increasing attention by both academia and industry because of their availability, lower density, much higher specific strength and not causing irritation when handled compared to conventional glass fibres.


The use of composite materials in structural components has increased significantly in recent years by offering potential benefits to the aerospace, automotive and marine industry. However, composite laminates used in these various applications are susceptible to delamination, from a wide variety of sources including low velocity impact damage. Impact actions induced by flying solid objects such as runway debris, hand tools fall down on composites have attracted a great deal of research interest in the areas of crashworthiness of vehicles and impact damage assessment of composite materials. Low velocity impact damage causes delamination which can reduce the structural integrity of the composite materials significantly. An understanding the effect of damage and post impact damage due to low velocity impact is an important subject to be investigated in natural fiber reinforced composites [10, 11] . However, the impact resistance of a composite material is always difficult to determine due to other factors such as delamination at the interface, fiber breakage, matrix cracking and fiber pull out [12] [13] [14] .

An understanding the effect of damage and post impact damage due to low velocity impact is an important subject to be investigated in natural fiber reinforced composites.

However, the impact resistance of a composite material is always difficult to determine due to other factors such as delamination at the interface, fiber breakage, matrix cracking and fiber pull out.


The use of satellite data definitely needs a ground truth survey and also apparently need to conduct point survey for the assessment of biomass resources. The aboveground biomass is normally estimated using allometric equations that related to the tree data, usual diameter at breast height (DBH) and height for specific tree species and geographic location. It is necessary to develop the specific forest residual biomass regressions for each species for application to pre-existing tree dimension data. To avoid complexity associated with the mixture of tree species in the spectral data of the Landsat image, it needs to be monoculture forest. The cartography not only allows the calculation of the total amount of forest residual biomass resource but also suitable for determining technical and economic feasibility for example slope, distance to the forest tracks, area of the forest stands. There is a limitation to using remotely sensed data in the estimation of forest residual biomass are relating to; only feasible in monoculture forest and field operation has to be conducted, inaccuracies related to heterogeneity. However, despite all these limitations, the size of the scenes and cheap distribution, make remote sensing the most suitable for estimation of forest residual biomass (FRB) [80] . The below-ground biomass is larger than above-ground biomass, but it is impossible to estimate their magnitude directly with the existing remote sensing system. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) relating to the reflectance properties of active photosynthetic plant tissue in the red and near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is a very common index using the studies of agriculture and forest. Even though NDVI is well-related to the total biomass in the agricultural and forestry land but these might neglect the presence of dead plant material. The direct estimation of carbon storage in moderate to high biomass forests is a major challenge for remote sensing with the conventional optical and radar sensors for ecological applications, thus the use of LiDAR is an alternative remote sensing method that increases the accuracy of biophysical measurements. LiDAR sensors measure 3D distribution of plant canopies, therefore providing high resolution topographic maps and accurate estimates of canopy structure. Also, LiDAR sensors can estimate aboveground biomass in situations where the conventional sensors can not perform well [81] . For the suitability and optimality of site analysis, remote sensing is used to reduce the transportation cost, which is the primary concern in the new power plant planning in order to optimize allocation and supply-area consideration. Location-allocation of the plant bases on all usable biomass in the area. Two measurements, usable biomass, and efficiency can be used to compare the supply areas.

However, despite all these limitations, the size of the scenes and cheap distribution, make remote sensing the most suitable for estimation of forest residual biomass (FRB).

Also, LiDAR sensors can estimate aboveground biomass in situations where the conventional sensors can not perform well.


The citizens of most cities often face the problems of traffic congestion. Heavy traffic causes many problems, such as irregularity in the movement of vehicles, delay in performing everyday tasks, reducing the efficiency of citizens' tasks, noises, negative environmental impacts and increased stress caused by driving in high traffic density. Along with the development of cities, the growth in the number of private cars is inevitable and it causes traffic problems for city residents. In recent years, the expansion of public transit services and providing enough parking space for private cars have become the most important strategies to solve the traffic problems (Khoo et al. 2014) . Using these strategies requires proper planning and management of urban transportation network.

In recent years, the expansion of public transit services and providing enough parking space for private cars have become the most important strategies to solve the traffic problems.


Nowadays, beside the proper design of public transit network and urban bus routes, it is tried to use parkand-ride facilities to improve the performance of public transit system (Khakbaz et al. 2013) . Park-and-ride facilities are usually located on the periphery of the Central Business Districts (CBDs), and they prevent private cars from entering the CBD area. Equipping public transit system with park-and-rides and providing bus-based public transit services in park-and-rides can lead to reduced traffic congestion, higher satisfaction of private car users and extended use of public transit vehicles.

Nowadays, beside the proper design of public transit network and urban bus routes, it is tried to use parkand-ride facilities to improve the performance of public transit system.


Use of existing bus routes. The role of existing urban bus routes in designing new urban bus routes is discussable form two points of view including cost and passengers' satisfaction. Efficient use of existing urban bus routes reduces the cost of developing new routes, also, it increases the satisfaction level of passengers by keeping existing urban bus routes accessible (Bielli et al. 2002) .

Use of existing bus routes.

Efficient use of existing urban bus routes reduces the cost of developing new routes, also, it increases the satisfaction level of passengers by keeping existing urban bus routes accessible.


Minimum length of bus route. Determining the proper length of urban bus routes has a great impact on the performance of public transit systems. The shorter bus route will lead to a decrease in the cost of capital and the longer one will provide a more accessible service for passengers. Due to the impact of bus route length on the cost of capital and accessibility, some researchers have used this criterion in designing urban bus routes (Cipriani et al. 2012; Amiripour et al. 2014) .

Minimum length of bus route.

Due to the impact of bus route length on the cost of capital and accessibility, some researchers have used this criterion in designing urban bus routes.


The urban transportation network design decisions are divisible into three levels: strategic, tactical and operational (Farahani et al. 2013) . Decisions at each level are affected by those at the higher levels (Fig. 1) . For example, making decisions about traffic light-timing largely depends on how to design and build the streets.

The urban transportation network design decisions are divisible into three levels: strategic, tactical and operational.


We now explain how we build the attack taxonomy for ad-hoc routing [7] . First, routing is viewed as a process involving causally related operations from a number of nodes. Any routing process can be decomposed into a series of basic routing events. A basic event is defined as the smallest set of causally related routing operations on every node. Note that a basic event may involve delivering or receiving one or multiple network packets. A series of network operations is identified as a single normal basic event only when they are conducted in a transactional fashion specified by the protocol logic. Otherwise, they are considered an anomalous basic event.

We now explain how we build the attack taxonomy for ad-hoc routing.


Recently, as a common foundation type, composite foundation reinforcement technology has been implemented in varied engineering fields in China, such as building foundation engineering and subgrade engineering [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] . Simultaneously, CFG pile composite foundation has been applied in various foundation treatments engineering due to its virtue of wide application scope, quick construction, and low engineering cost [6] [7] [8] . In highway engineering, CFG pile composite foundation is commonly used in flexible foundation reinforcement; however, CFG pile composite foundation under flexible foundation will bear incomplete development of pile bearing capacity and insufficient bearing capacity of the composite foundation [9] [10] [11] [12] . Thus, it is important to study the mechanical behaviors of composite foundation, such as load-transferring mechanism, pile-soil load sharing ratio, and pile-soil stress ratio, which can improve the bearing capacity of composite foundation.

Recently, as a common foundation type, composite foundation reinforcement technology has been implemented in varied engineering fields in China, such as building foundation engineering and subgrade engineering.

Simultaneously, CFG pile composite foundation has been applied in various foundation treatments engineering due to its virtue of wide application scope, quick construction, and low engineering cost.

In highway engineering, CFG pile composite foundation is commonly used in flexible foundation reinforcement; however, CFG pile composite foundation under flexible foundation will bear incomplete development of pile bearing capacity and insufficient bearing capacity of the composite foundation.


The ZnO layer produced from the optimized technique was characterized in 4-point probe Hall measurement. The ZnO layers had a sheet resistance of 1.1 x 10 4 Ω/sq which is 2 order magnitude lower than reported [6] . The donor concentration was measured to be at 1.7 x 10 18 cm -³, which is higher by 2 order of magnitude than reported [6] . Fig. 5 shows the results of thickness and uniformity measurements for the thermally grown SiO2 and the RPALD deposited ZnO. The SiO2 has an average thickness of 292 nm and uniformity of 1.21 %. The ZnO has an average thickness of 76 nm and a uniformity of 2.85 %. To give an indication of device uniformity, Fig. 6 shows IDSVDS characteristics for the same type of NWFET device measured on five different chips. The chips were derived from a single wafer and only devices with a 100 nanowires in parallel were measured. Well behaved output characteristics are obtained with transistor operation up to 40 V and above. The uniformity of the transistor characteristics was assessed by measuring the drain current at a drain voltage of 40 V with a standard percentage deviation of < 23 %. All devices across the wafer gave well behaved transistor characteristics. Fig. 7 shows typical un-passivated ZnO NWFET characteristics for devices measured in air and in dark. The device has two nanowires in parallel and a channel length of 8.6 µm. The NWFET is ntype with a donor concentration of 1.7 x 10 18 cm -3 and operates in enhancement mode with a positive threshold voltage of 6.5 V. The device was expected to be depletion mode operation because it is intrinsically n-type with high doping concentration. However, the I-V characteristics show enhancement mode behaviour. This can be due to surface charges accumulated on the surface of the ZnO nanowires.

The ZnO layers had a sheet resistance of 1.1 x 10 4 Ω/sq which is 2 order magnitude lower than reported.

The donor concentration was measured to be at 1.7 x 10 18 cm -³, which is higher by 2 order of magnitude than reported.


Although curved pipes are used in a wide range of applications, flow in curved pipes is relatively less well known than that in straight ducts. In recent years, Helical coiled tubes have been more attention because of their practical applications such as compactness, easy manufacture and high efficiency in heat and mass transfer. They are extensively used in compact heat-exchangers, heat-exchanger network, heating or cooling coils in the piping systems, intake in air-crafts, fluid amplifiers, coil steam generators, refrigerators, nuclear reactors, thermo siphons, and other heat transfer equipment involving phase change, chemical plants as well as in the food and drug industries [1] .

They are extensively used in compact heat-exchangers, heat-exchanger network, heating or cooling coils in the piping systems, intake in air-crafts, fluid amplifiers, coil steam generators, refrigerators, nuclear reactors, thermo siphons, and other heat transfer equipment involving phase change, chemical plants as well as in the food and drug industries.


These basic needs are conceptualized as innate (rather than learned) requirements in the sense that their satisfaction is a universal nutriment necessary for optimal functioning, psychological growth and well-being. These requirements are said to exist regardless of individual differences such as gender, social class, and personality traits, and regardless of whether or not individuals consciously rate the needs as being important for them (Deci and Ryan 2000; Vansteenkiste et al. 2010) . Thus, need satisfaction is said to be equally beneficial to all humans. Instead, what differs between people is the extent to which psychological needs are currently being met. SDT researchers therefore focus on environmental features that facilitate or hinder need satisfaction (Deci and Ryan 2000) .

These requirements are said to exist regardless of individual differences such as gender, social class, and personality traits, and regardless of whether or not individuals consciously rate the needs as being important for them.

SDT researchers therefore focus on environmental features that facilitate or hinder need satisfaction.


Statistical Analyses.-The proportion values for day-to-day orchard use were right-skewed, so we applied a logarithmic transformation. We approximated the log-transformed day-today orchard use data using a normal distribution with equal variances, which satisfied assumptions for a two-sample Student's t-test. We determined if day-to-day orchard use data from male and female robins could be pooled. To account for sample size differences in males (9) and females (3), we used boot-strapping techniques to select three samples from males at random, with replacement, to compare with females. We ran 1000 iterations of the sampling and t-test procedures and applied the false discovery rate approach to correct a for multiple statistical comparisons (Benjamini and Hochberg 1995) . We used a two-sample Student's t-test to evaluate differences in the day-to-day orchard use of robins and waxwings.

We ran 1000 iterations of the sampling and t-test procedures and applied the false discovery rate approach to correct a for multiple statistical comparisons.


The role of molluscs proved to be beneficial both cost-effectively as well as medicinally in the recent past (Wosu, 2003) . They are important to humans as a source of food, jewellery, tools and even pets. Molluscs play a significant role in public and veterinary health (Supian and Ikhwanuddin, 2002) . Biomphalaria glabratus caused with schistosomiasis (Richards, 1970) .

The role of molluscs proved to be beneficial both cost-effectively as well as medicinally in the recent past.

Molluscs play a significant role in public and veterinary health.

Biomphalaria glabratus caused with schistosomiasis.


Second, this research has confirmed that the main contingency factor to local or global sourcing is the product type (replenishment versus non-replenishment) (Abernathy et al., 2004; Jin, 2004; Richardson, 1996) . The market is made up of two different types of products in terms of fashion content, for which different strategies are needed. We have demonstrated that these two categories of products are not homogeneous. Only one supply chain organisation fits one category of product. Regionalisation is appropriate for replenishment products, and globalisation is appropriate for permanent, large-volume, small-value products (non-replenishment). These two categories of products are not competing against each other. Basic and replenishment products are too heterogeneous to be treated as a single category. It also allows one to understand better the dichotomy between globalisation and regionalisation. Each one is appropriate for one category of products. One is in a globalisation perspective, and the other is structurally in a regional context (replenishment products).

Second, this research has confirmed that the main contingency factor to local or global sourcing is the product type (replenishment versus non-replenishment).


In this discussion on the relationship between regionalisation and globalisation, it is useful to refer to the literature on the clothing firms in capitals like London, Paris and New York (Evans and Smith, 2004; Morokvasic et al., 1990; Rath, 2003) . It describes a supply chain organisation based on immigrant entrepreneurship and small firms that are very flexible. These garment centres have survived over the years because the clothing industry needs them for replenishment products.

In this discussion on the relationship between regionalisation and globalisation, it is useful to refer to the literature on the clothing firms in capitals like London, Paris and New York.


We implemented our model using Torch. In our experiments we use k = 13; the output of both the saliency pathway and the cone generator is a 13 × 13 spatial map. We initialize the convolutional networks in three pathways with Imagenet-CNN [15] . The cone pathway has three fully connected layers of sizes 500, 200 and 5 to generate the cone parametrization. The common part of the transformation pathway, T 2 , has one convolutional layer with a 1×1 kernel and 100 output channels, followed by one 2 × 2 max pooling layer and three fully connected layers of 200, 100 and the parameter size of the transformation. For training, we augment data by flipping x t and x s and their annotations.

We implemented our model using Torch.

We initialize the convolutional networks in three pathways with Imagenet-CNN.


Citizen reporting is a relatively new phenomenon of Internet-based interaction between governments and citizens. It is enabled by the digitalization of governmental information systems and Web 2.0 technologies (Nam 2012) . Such reporting applications allow citizens to efficiently share knowledge that is relevant to governmental services via a web-based or mobile platform by means of information and communications technology (ICT). They are predominantly used to report infrastructure issues at certain locations using geolocation technology (de Reuver et al. 2013) . Thus, in the context of smart cities, citizen reporting is of special interest because local governments require a multitude of data sources to enhance or expand their services in ''smart'' ways. Citizens who voluntarily provide information can in turn be particularly valuable sources of data since most public services are eventually geared to them and to creating public value (Bryson et al. 2014) . Therefore, it is no surprise that a number of scholars have started scrutinizing this phenomenon.

It is enabled by the digitalization of governmental information systems and Web 2.0 technologies.

They are predominantly used to report infrastructure issues at certain locations using geolocation technology.

Citizens who voluntarily provide information can in turn be particularly valuable sources of data since most public services are eventually geared to them and to creating public value.


Konishi-like operators that may be defined as classically conserved currents of the non-interacting boundary CFT [3] . These operators correspond to massive string modes and hence cannot be seen in the SUGRA approximation of IIB string theory. Another class of boundary operators with no obvious SUGRA counterpart are multi-trace gauge invariant operators of N = 4 SYM.

Konishi-like operators that may be defined as classically conserved currents of the non-interacting boundary CFT.


In this letter we approach the problem of incorporating multi-trace deformations, directly from the boundary CFT side. For non-zero sources the standard AdS/CFT correspondence may be viewed as a prescription for deforming the strongly coupled boundary CFT by single-trace operators coupled to x-dependent couplings. When the boundary effective action is evaluated at least up to quartic order in the sources, it is possible that the operators which appear in the OPE of the single-traces might contribute to the deformation of the boundary CFT. In explicit AdS/CFT examples such operators in general include a number of multi-trace operators which may be relevant, marginal or irrelevant. Only the relevant and the marginal ones survive in the UV limit. To illustrate our approach, we study here a simple example of a scalar field in AdS 5 with cubic self interaction [17] . By an appropriate reparametrization of the x-dependent couplings (sources) we arrange so that the boundary CFT is perturbed by marginal operators.

To illustrate our approach, we study here a simple example of a scalar field in AdS 5 with cubic self interaction.


The aforementioned shortcomings have led to considerable dispute among EU MS, in particular regarding the data gaps and uncertainties in the ERAs. Nevertheless, the presented data were frequently considered sufficient in EFSA GMO panel opinions and the GMP declared safe with respect to potential effects on the environment. This apparent discrepancy in the perception of environmental risks can only be resolved if a common understanding of how an ERA should be performed and which scientific data should be included will be achieved. In our view, the addressed suggestions would significantly improve the quality of the ERAs of GM maize applications and hence fulfil the requirements of Directive 2001/18/EC. EFSA has recently made an important step forward in updating the guidance on ERA in collaboration with all stakeholders [61] . This updated guidance is now under scrutiny by the MS.

EFSA has recently made an important step forward in updating the guidance on ERA in collaboration with all stakeholders.


The major genetic complex contributing to skin graft rejection in inbred strains of mice is the H-2. Skin grafts between inbred animals, which differ in this complex alone, have mean survival times of less than 2 weeks. Grafts between strains which differ in minor H loci have variable courses of rejection with mean survival times of 20 or more days (Graft and Bailey 1973) . The H-2 complex has recently been subdivided, by studies of numerous recombinants, into six subregions that control different aspects of immunological reactivity. Skin graft rejection is controlled by the K, IA, and, to a lesser extent, by the D regions (Klein 1972) .

Grafts between strains which differ in minor H loci have variable courses of rejection with mean survival times of 20 or more days.

Skin graft rejection is controlled by the K, IA, and, to a lesser extent, by the D regions.


The amount of dye adsorbed by semiconductors can be studied by controlling the size of the semiconductor and modifying the morphological structure of the semiconductor [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] . The properties of the dye solution can also affect the amount of dye molecules adsorbed by semiconductors [17] . One of the solution's properties that can be easily controlled is the concentration of the solution. The dye solution concentration on the semiconductor is also important for study because of its influence in DSSC performance. In this work, the performance of DSSCs with natural chlorophyll as the sensitizer at various concentrations was studied. The performance of chlorophyll-based DSSCs was compared with the results obtained using N719-based DSSCs.

The amount of dye adsorbed by semiconductors can be studied by controlling the size of the semiconductor and modifying the morphological structure of the semiconductor.

The properties of the dye solution can also affect the amount of dye molecules adsorbed by semiconductors.


An example of a desalination pilot plant (DPP) based on wave source is currently installed on Garden Island, in the Western part of Australia. This system has been developed as a continuation of the Perth Project realized by Carnegie Wave Energy Limited. The first device is called CETO, the same name of a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology. This system uses several buoys in order to exploit the sea wave energy to pump the seawater into a RO desalination plant producing fresh water, with a production capacity of about 150 m 3 /day. Figure 3 illustrates the whole scheme [16] .

Figure 3 illustrates the whole scheme.


In recent years, the correlation between energy and water has been investigated. These natural resources (energy and water) are essential for each other, for example, energy system conversion needs water, and electrical energy is necessary for water treatment or transport. This tie is named the energy-water nexus [1] [2] [3] [4] .

This tie is named the energy-water nexus.


As regards the geothermal source, this kind of energy can be exploited according to the temperature of the local geothermal source. The underground heat is usually extracted by using heat exchangers, realized with a special alloy in order to ensure a long durability and allow heat transfer. Low temperature geothermal resources (within a 100 m depth) can be used as a heat source for desalination technologies based on thermal processes. In the case of high temperature resources, a geothermal power plant can be realized, producing the mechanical power required by pumps in RO desalination units. Furthermore, special membranes have been developed to use the geothermal brines directly for desalination, with a working temperature of about 60 °C [15] .

Furthermore, special membranes have been developed to use the geothermal brines directly for desalination, with a working temperature of about 60 °C.


The experimental site was located in semi-arid region where evapotranspiration was high and rainfall was not enough for plant water requirement in growing season. Therefore, irrigation is definitely necessary for optimum crop production. In the meantime, adequate drainage is essential to water table and salinity management in irrigated areas. Options for management are limited if it is not possible to install drainage. As it is well known, poor drainage and sustained water logging of soil is built up salt in the soil profile causing stress to crops. Eventually, almost all poorly drained or non-draining soils in arid environments will become saline (Mass, 1990; Skaggs et al., 1994; Chandra et al., 1997) .

Eventually, almost all poorly drained or non-draining soils in arid environments will become saline.


The aim of agricultural drainage systems is to increase yields and the reliability of production. The goal is to have high crop yields with the minimum investment of energy, water and other resources. Undermost arid and semi arid climate as is the case with almost all-Mediterranean countries, drainage improvement works are needed to alleviate waterlogging and salinity problems caused directly or indirectly, by irrigation practices. And more often than not, subsurface drainage systems are needed to reclaim these areas for viable agricultural production. The main cause for waterlogging and soil salinization is usually water seepage from the irrigation canals that lose a lot of water through their unlined banks and beds. Furthermore, frequent irrigation applications also tend to keep the water table close to soil surface, and this combined with normal fertilizer applications causes a slow salinization of the root zone and affects crop yields. The natural drainability of these soils, as such, cannot cope with this man-caused problem. If this phenomenon is not checked on time through the installation of interceptor drains and subsurface drainage systems, most of the farmland that was very productive at one point becomes unproductive. Then the farmers either have to change their cropping practices or, in some cases, they cannot grow any crop at all (Gupta et al., 1993) .

Then the farmers either have to change their cropping practices or, in some cases, they cannot grow any crop at all.


Group motion control is the problem of moving a group of agents in coordination. One instance of this problem is shepherding, in which the objective is to herd a group of agents (e.g., a flock of sheep, crowd of people, etc.) using one or more "shepherd" agents (e.g., shepherds, riot police, etc.). The objective of shepherding is typically to guide the group to a goal, though other variants exist (e.g., escorting or protection, in which a "parent" tries to maintain separation between their "child" and a "stranger" [27] ). A solution to the shepherding problem is typically given as a sequence of movements the shepherds can perform to guide the flock to the goal. This sequence may be the output of a high-level motion planner, the result of agent-based behaviors working independently or in coordination to achieve high-level commands, or some combination thereof.

The objective of shepherding is typically to guide the group to a goal, though other variants exist (e.g., escorting or protection, in which a "parent" tries to maintain separation between their "child" and a "stranger").


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the collections of spatially distributed autonomous inexpensive sensors with limited resources that are deployed in two or three dimensional geographic domains and cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions [1] . In WSNs, the geographic location information of sensor nodes is important for many WSN applications such as network management, monitoring, target tracking, geographic routing, etc. Although the position of a sensor can be easily acquired with an integrated Global Positioning System (GPS) module, it is extremely expensive to have GPS modules equipped on all the sensor nodes in WSNs. An alternative solution is that only a limited number of nodes called beacon nodes or anchor nodes can equip GPS modules to accurately acquire their positions [2] . The beacon nodes will then assist the positioning of other nodes without GPS modules (called unknown nodes) based on a localization algorithm.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the collections of spatially distributed autonomous inexpensive sensors with limited resources that are deployed in two or three dimensional geographic domains and cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions.

An alternative solution is that only a limited number of nodes called beacon nodes or anchor nodes can equip GPS modules to accurately acquire their positions.


Proteins are sources of bioactive peptides that are inactive and are activated during the digestive process or during food processing. Once released, peptides exert diverse physiological functions such as anti-ulcer, anticarcinogenic, antihypertensive, and antioxidant activity (Korhonen & Pihlanto, 2003) . Antioxidant activity is associated with certain peptides present in protein sequences, released after enzymatic hydrolysis. Antioxidants are compounds that can act as hydrogen donors, stabilizing free radicals that are formed naturally in cell metabolism and are responsible for many degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease (Chanput, Theerakulkait, & Nakai, 2009; Harnedy & FitzGerald, 2012) .

Once released, peptides exert diverse physiological functions such as anti-ulcer, anticarcinogenic, antihypertensive, and antioxidant activity.

Antioxidants are compounds that can act as hydrogen donors, stabilizing free radicals that are formed naturally in cell metabolism and are responsible for many degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease.


Anomaly induced charge separation effects in heavy ion collisions are currently under intense discussion [1] . There are basically two such effects called the chiral magnetic effect and the chiral vortical effect. Both effects rely essentially on the presence of an imbalance between left-handed and right-handed quarks. In many models this imbalance is described by introducing a chemical potential for the axial charge. The chiral magnetic effect describes the generation of a current in a background magnetic field and the chiral vortical effect describes the generation of a current in the presence of a vorticity field in the charged fluid.

Anomaly induced charge separation effects in heavy ion collisions are currently under intense discussion.


PSATs (Wildlife Computers Inc; Redmond, WA, USA, model MK10 PAT tags) were deployed on four adult sailfish in the coastal waters of Rio de Janeiro State, Southeast Brazil, during January and February of 2009 and between November 2010 and January 2011 (Table 1) . Deployment of pop-up tags was conducted from recreational fishing vessels using standard trolling gear with natural bait and titanium circle hooks in order to increase the chances of survival of tagged fish. Once fish were hooked and wired close to the boat, the tag was deployed. The tagging target area was a little below the base of the dorsal fin, between the interneural and neural spines (Musyl & McNaughton, 2007) . The PSAT tags were affixed by harpoon equipped with a stainless steel tag applicator tip modified to be driven ca.5-7 cm into the dorsal musculature. Prior to release, individual weights were estimated. The tags' ca.16-20 cm monofilament (120# breaking strength) tethers were constructed using stainless steel crimps (matched to the diameter of the monofilament) which terminated with surgical grade nylon tag heads augmented with flopper blades (Musyl & McNaughton, 2007) . To alleviate torque and precession of the tag head, a stainless steel swivel (Sampo, Daly city, California, USA) was placed about halfway up the length of the tether.

The tagging target area was a little below the base of the dorsal fin, between the interneural and neural spines.

The tags' ca.16-20 cm monofilament (120# breaking strength) tethers were constructed using stainless steel crimps (matched to the diameter of the monofilament) which terminated with surgical grade nylon tag heads augmented with flopper blades.


More importantly, the subjects of previous research have been monochromatic objects [15] . However, most actual objects in commercial buildings are polychromatic. Energy-saving light source spectrum optimization for polychromatic objects have not yet been systematically analyzed and need to be discussed deeply.

More importantly, the subjects of previous research have been monochromatic objects.


However, the previous study tried to reduce energy consumption of the light source by simply increasing bandwidth of the spectrum [15] . An easy and effective spectrum optimization method is needed to achieve the lowest energy consumption potential (highest energy saving potential) and an acceptably small difference in perceived color when compared to standard illumination. Therefore, the problem of how to optimize the source spectrum needs to be further studied.

However, the previous study tried to reduce energy consumption of the light source by simply increasing bandwidth of the spectrum.


In this paper we report the measurements of the propagation of fluctuations in the LFI flight model focal plane after the LFI was assembled in the Thales Alenia Space laboratories in Milan (Italy). The first product of our analysis is the sampling of the dynamical thermal transfer function between the focal plane cold end and a set of points on the focal plane itself at three frequencies. We then use such measurements to validate the numerical thermal model of the focal plane, thus confirming (1) the validity of the temperature stability requirements on the Planck/LFI focal plane, which have driven the design of Planck, and (2) the validity of a number of works that have used the estimates of the model [9, 16, 10, 1] . Finally, we use the measured transfer functions to estimate the improvement in the stability of the receivers over the LFI requirements and provide an explanation of such improvements in terms of non-ideal thermal contacts.

We then use such measurements to validate the numerical thermal model of the focal plane, thus confirming (1) the validity of the temperature stability requirements on the Planck/LFI focal plane, which have driven the design of Planck, and (2) the validity of a number of works that have used the estimates of the model.


In attempts to understand how gravity fits in the Standard Model the gravitino has been an unavoidable subject since it is a superpartner of the graviton, specifically regarding supergravity analogous to electroweak theory W and Z bosons. Accordingly, the gravitino has been well-studied including for troubling Universe topics as dark matter, which has forced the issue of the superparticle mass if wishing to study gravity in the evolution of the Universe. Inflation emerged as the most popular scenario for the development of the Universe and consequently the gravitino has been tied to different inflation theories. The mass of the superpartner has usually been a primary point in the ideas related to how the gravitino can exist with inflation, even having led to disfavoring gravitino dark matter because of discussions regarding how the mass could have prevented the existence of the Universe, e.g. the gravitino problem (Weinberg, 1982) . Therefore, the gravitino became a less popular topic of study, particularly considering that evidence for supersymmetry or string theory has been nonexistent.

The mass of the superpartner has usually been a primary point in the ideas related to how the gravitino can exist with inflation, even having led to disfavoring gravitino dark matter because of discussions regarding how the mass could have prevented the existence of the Universe, e.g. the gravitino problem.


The spatial pattern of the lidar initialized ED biomass is shown in figure 5(a) . The map shows a more detailed depiction of forest biomass and the impacts of land cover and land use change on forest biomass at 90 m resolution. Eastern Maryland has high human population densities and thus a greater area of human-dominated land cover types, such as urban, cropland and grassland; whereas in the west, large areas of continuous forest remain in mountainous areas. For the entire state, the average forest aboveground biomass (AGB) density was 103.7 Mg ha −1 and total above ground carbon stock was 110.8 Tg C (100.3-125.8 Tg C). These estimates compare favorably to corresponding empirically based estimate of 105.9 Mg ha −1 (Huang et al 2015) . Figure 5( The CSPG (potential-current) was mapped in figure 5(c). As expected, the gap was greater over most of the area of Eastern Maryland, and generally lower over the Western portion of the state. This pattern was generally the result of both more intensive humaninduced land cover change, and higher values of CSP, in the East. At the state level, average CSPG was 190.2 Mg ha −1 and the total CSPG was 204.1 Tg C (table 1). Finally, the time required to reach the CSP from the current biomass (CSPTG) was mapped in figure 5(d). As expected, there is a complex pattern of CSPTG affected by both growing conditions and current and potential stocks, with Eastern Maryland having typically larger values than the West due to the higher CSPG in that area. For the entire state, the average age gap was 228 years.

These estimates compare favorably to corresponding empirically based estimate of 105.9 Mg ha −1.


Weak measurements were shown to be very useful in analyzing a variety of problems [11, 12, 13, 14] . We will focus henceforth on entanglement and nonlocality. The outline of the paper is as follows: Section 1 describes 3 experiments with entangled pre-or post-selected states: Hardy's paradox, the Cheshire Cat, and finally an EPR-Bohm experiment. Section 2 presents the analysis of "emerging correlations" within non-entangled pre-and post-selected system.

Weak measurements were shown to be very useful in analyzing a variety of problems.


The forest species A. leiocarpa, which is native to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, showed greater gains in biomass when in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The results showed that A. leiocarpa has different responses to inoculation depending on the AMF species, as also reported for other plant species (Saggin-Júnior et al., 1994; Siqueira and Saggin-Júnior, 2001; Jansa et al., 2007) . The response to the increase in P rates was linear and positive for the plants inoculated with the fungi D. heterogama and G. margarita, and linear and negative for those inoculated with Rhizophagus clarus, indicating an ecological difference between these fungi species. Moreover, A. leiocarpa had a different response to inoculation with the AMF mix, whose data fitted a positive square root model with increasing P rates and showed a significantly higher biomass increase at the lowest rates, indicating synergism between the fungi. Moreover, the fungi probably colonize the roots according to their preferential P rates, thus, better supplying the plant needs under different conditions than species applied singly (Figure 2) . The treatments consist of letters representing the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species (DH: Dentiscutata heterogama, GM: Gigaspora margarita, RC: Rhizophagus clarus, and GRD: DH+GM+RC), followed by numbers representing the P rates (0, 24, 71, 213, and 650 mg kg -1 ); the numbers without letters represent the P rates with absence of fungi; the P rate 0 represents the absolute control. Averages followed by different lowercase letters in the columns indicate significant difference between treatments by the Scott Knott test (p=0.05).

The results showed that A. leiocarpa has different responses to inoculation depending on the AMF species, as also reported for other plant species.


Note that our main objective is not to enforce a contract, but only to monitor it, that is to observe that the contract is indeed satisfied. The trace semantics presented in this paper is intended for monitoring purposes, and not to explain the language CL. Thus, from the trace semantics point of view [α & ]C is equivalent to F C (α & ), but we need such a distinction since this is not the case in CL (see CL branching semantics [13] ).

Thus, from the trace semantics point of view [α & ]C is equivalent to F C (α & ), but we need such a distinction since this is not the case in CL (see CL branching semantics).


In 2001, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which standardizes and enforces spectrum usage, has allocated 7 GHz of unlicensed bandwidth in the V-band for indoor wireless communications. This bandwidth provides high data rate transmission. The propagation of V-band indoor signals has the ability of decreasing the interference to other collocated systems, and increasing the frequency reuse factors and space efficiency [1] . Due to its high path loss, the V-band is an attractive candidate for short-distance sensors and indoor communications based on Pico-cell zone [2, 3] .

The propagation of V-band indoor signals has the ability of decreasing the interference to other collocated systems, and increasing the frequency reuse factors and space efficiency.

Due to its high path loss, the V-band is an attractive candidate for short-distance sensors and indoor communications based on Pico-cell zone.


The method of material flux analysis (MFA) applied in this study determines, describes and analyses the metabolism of an anthropogenic system (e.g. a region or industry). It investigates the fluxes of different materials through a defined space within a certain time period. The method is mainly based on a natural science approach (Baccini and Brunner, 1991; Baccini and Bader, 1996) . The data stem from a region in the Swiss Lowlands, and include all major food products that are consumed by approximately 185 000 people or 74 000 households in this region in one year, based on data provided by a regional food retailer.

The method is mainly based on a natural science approach.


The results of the status quo assessment (step 2) and a scenario calculation (step 3) are presented here. Figure 2 illustrates the material fluxes that originate from the annual sale of food products by the regional retailer. As the demand of private households has a key influence on the product range and determines the amount of products sold, it can be considered as a 'target process' (Baccini and Brunner, 1991) . The largest turnover of goods occurs in agricultural production and is mainly due to the resource demand of meat and dairy production: 800 000 tonnes of fodder are needed to produce 90 000 tonnes of milk and meat. Agricultural production is also the major consumer of water. Figure 2 shows the amount of water required to grow the crops (including rainwater). For all the processes except for the process 'food processing industry', the magnitude of the input water flux equals the magnitude of the output water flux. In 'food processing industry', however, a small amount of industry water (less than 10% of the input flux) is integrated in products (e.g. beverages).

As the demand of private households has a key influence on the product range and determines the amount of products sold, it can be considered as a 'target process'.


However, several challenges remain in this program. The high pre-treatment and early mortality rates highlight the need for intensive case finding strategies, rapid diagnosis and initiation of DR-TB treatment to reduce mortality and improve outcomes. Late referral to the clinic and advanced disease may partly explain these high rates. Studies from HIV programs have shown than even if excellent outcomes can be achieved and maintained among patients receiving antiretroviral therapy, program outcomes such as high pre-treatment mortality and pre-treatment loss-to-followup rates remain largely unreported [28, 29] . Similarly, failure to initiate therapy and default from treatment rates were high in this cohort, despite the provision of counselling and other psychosocial support. Our data suggests that default from treatment may be lower in more recent cohorts. While the MSF clinic reports very low loss-to-follow-up rates among non-MDR-TB patients on ART (,3%) it is disappointing that the overall rate was 26% for the coinfected patients on treatment. While there are known challenges related to the management of co-infection, several measures may have to be urgently taken to analyze and address this important issue. In our clinic, for example, we identified important gaps in patient support tools and interventions, including lack of adequate emotional and psychosocial support as well as limited access to mental health services. We have also noticed that patients referred to our clinic from the private sector have already been on various treatment regimens for long time periods and often experience treatment fatigue. Support from families is also reported to wane over time.

Studies from HIV programs have shown than even if excellent outcomes can be achieved and maintained among patients receiving antiretroviral therapy, program outcomes such as high pre-treatment mortality and pre-treatment loss-to-followup rates remain largely unreported.


However, the function and the impact on human health of the bioactive peptides derived from donkey milk casein is not well elucidated yet. Therefore, for the time being, it is possible only to speculate on the possible function of these peptides based on sequence similarities with the peptides derived from bovine milk [45] . Some properties of bioactive peptides derived from bovine milk casein are reported below.

Therefore, for the time being, it is possible only to speculate on the possible function of these peptides based on sequence similarities with the peptides derived from bovine milk.


The IADB.nl database Information on drug use was obtained from the IADB.nl database, which contains pharmacy-dispensing data from community pharmacies in the Netherlands. Dutch patients usually register at a single community pharmacy, so a single pharmacy provided an almost complete listing of each subject's prescribed drugs [8] . The pharmacy data included information on the name of the drug dispensed, the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification, a prescription date, the number of days the drug was prescribed, and the number of defined daily doses. The characteristics of these data were based on World Health Organization definitions [9] . Over-the-counter drugs and in-hospital prescriptions were not included. The database contains the prescriptions of a population of 500,000 individuals.

Dutch patients usually register at a single community pharmacy, so a single pharmacy provided an almost complete listing of each subject's prescribed drugs.

The characteristics of these data were based on World Health Organization definitions.


At the lowest point on the hockey stick curve the value of a commercial company undergoing BPR may be decreased by 40%. This means that an organisation worth 10 million per annum (or whatever other financial metric is being used) will be down to 6 million. This is the practical value seen and reported by BPR professionals, e.g., McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte and others, but obviously it does not represent the lowest possible value, because there is nothing to stop the company worth 10 million from going down to zero, or even minus 10 million, it is just that if the value drops below the 40% rule of thumb, then the firm will probably not survive the BPR operation (Mellor, 2011) .

This is the practical value seen and reported by BPR professionals, e.g., McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte and others, but obviously it does not represent the lowest possible value, because there is nothing to stop the company worth 10 million from going down to zero, or even minus 10 million, it is just that if the value drops below the 40% rule of thumb, then the firm will probably not survive the BPR operation.


An interesting 4D dCFT can be constructed starting from N = 4 SYM theory with gauge group U(N ) by introducing a codimension-one defect, say at x 3 = 0 [5] . The defect supports a fundamental hypermultiplet of fields which self-interact and interact with the bulk fields of N = 4 SYM theory in such away that half of the supersymmetries of N = 4 SYM theory are preserved and the complete symmetry group of the theory is OSp(4|4). A particular version of the theory, where the features of a dCFT are visible already at tree level, can be obtained by assigning three of the six scalar fields of N = 4 SYM theory a non-vanishing and space-time-dependent vacuum expectation value (vev) on one side of the defect, x 3 > 0. This dCFT has a holographic dual consisting of a D5-D3 probe-brane system where the D5 brane has geometry AdS 4 × S 2 and where a certain background gauge field has k units of magnetic flux on the S 2 [6, 7] . The latter statement is equivalent to the statement that k of the N D3 branes of the usual AdS 5 × S 5 set-up terminate on the D5 brane. The vevs of the scalars in the field theory reflect the so-called fuzzy funnel solution of the probe-brane system and result in the gauge group of N = 4 SYM theory being (broken) U(N ) on one side of the defect, x 3 > 0, and U(N − k) on the other side, x 3 < 0.

An interesting 4D dCFT can be constructed starting from N = 4 SYM theory with gauge group U(N ) by introducing a codimension-one defect, say at x 3 = 0.

This dCFT has a holographic dual consisting of a D5-D3 probe-brane system where the D5 brane has geometry AdS 4 × S 2 and where a certain background gauge field has k units of magnetic flux on the S 2.


Unpredictable electricity makes it difficult to power health centers and refrigerate medicines, greatly affecting the quality of health services available (Birol, 2007) . Energy poverty affects health outcomes at the household level as well. Without electricity, households must turn to biofuels to cook their food and provide light and warmth for their homes. Not only is the collection of biofuels costly in time and danger of injury, but the indoor burning of biofuels is one of the greatest health concerns facing the developing world (Sagar, 2005) . Indoor burning of biofuels is linked to tuberculosis, lung cancer, and respiratory infections. More people die from indoor air pollution than the use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, unsafe sex, and malaria combined (Sovacool, 2012) . These health risks are by-and-large imposed on women and children, who traditionally spend much of their day gathering fuel and burning it indoors.

Unpredictable electricity makes it difficult to power health centers and refrigerate medicines, greatly affecting the quality of health services available.

Not only is the collection of biofuels costly in time and danger of injury, but the indoor burning of biofuels is one of the greatest health concerns facing the developing world.

More people die from indoor air pollution than the use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, unsafe sex, and malaria combined.


It is evident from a system suitability test that the method developed for CEFE and TAZO combination had passed the standards of regulatory requirements. The method was found to be linear over the wide range and to be useful for bulk and pharmaceutical analyses. The method was successfully applied to bulk material and pharmaceutical formulation assay. From specificity study, it was observed that drug combination is free from excipient interaction and method is suitable for analysis of CEFE and TAZO in the presence of their degradation products or impurity. According to ICH Q2 (R1) guideline, the robustness of an analytical procedure refers to its capability to remain unaffected by small and deliberate variation in method parameters. All the 18 experimental runs suggested by the design expert software were performed in randomized order to minimize the effects of uncontrolled factors that may introduce a bias in response. Experimental results were computed using Design-Expert version 8.0.6 software [28] . From the results of robustness study it was observed that the proposed method was found to be robust when deliberate variations were made in the optimized chromatographic conditions.

Experimental results were computed using Design-Expert version 8.0.6 software.


TAZO was also successfully determined by HPLC [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] . Till date no chromatographic method is available for simultaneous estimation of CEFE and TAZO in combination. So, it was thought to develop simple RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of CEFE and TAZO in bulk as well as in pharmaceutical formulation.

TAZO was also successfully determined by HPLC.


School-based interventions can reach large populations of at-risk adolescents in a cost-effective manner as schools offer continuous and intensive contact with children during their formative years. These interventions targeting environmental determinants of overweight/obesity are sustainable and can be applied on a large scale. However, data regarding the effects of nutrition education intervention on behavioral, anthropometric and metabolic profiles of Asian Indian adolescents are not available (Brown and Summerbell, 2009) . Hence this study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a school-based low-cost nutrition and lifestyle education intervention on behavior modification and risk profile of Asian Indian adolescents (15-17 years) in metropolitan city of North India.

However, data regarding the effects of nutrition education intervention on behavioral, anthropometric and metabolic profiles of Asian Indian adolescents are not available.


In relation to teaching style, it is noteworthy that this factor is highly relevant to students' learning styles, as for optimum learning to occur, the two should be in harmony. Here, students were asked whether they prefer a sensing or an intuitive learning style (Myers & Myers, 1980) . That is, whether they prefer to practice L2 pronunciation first and receive teachers' explanations after that (this is sometimes called 'practice-to-theory') or they would prefer to receive teachers' explanations and discussions before practicing (it is sometimes referred to as 'theory-to-practice'). The large majority of participants (84.5%) indicated their preference for an intuitive learning and teaching style while only 8.45% of participants preferred a sensing learning and teaching style; 7.04% of participants did not answer the question (see Figure 3 below ). Again, this may be indicative of the level of knowledge students have about L2 pronunciation that they believe they muststart from the very beginning by receiving explanation of pronunciation before practicing it. Although this intuitive approach is a more traditional mode of teaching, it is argued that teachers "have to relate their own teaching style to that of their student teachers and teach student teachers to adapt to the learning styles of their future pupils" Tubić and Hamiloğlu (2009, p. 133 ).

Here, students were asked whether they prefer a sensing or an intuitive learning style.


In Databases framework, the same problem has been risen [8] . In fact, it is clear that, when the Time line, supposed to be continuous, is partitioned into intervals with non-null length, called granules of time, any instant is approximated with such a granule. Exactly in the same manner as any measurement is an approximation of what is measured. Two instants that are located within the same granule, inside a granularity, may be strictly ordered inside a finer granularity. Different approaches have been proposed, for dealing with that problem of precision or indeterminacy, based on fuzzy sets or possibilistic distributions [7] . Much attention has been paid about the conversion of temporal expression from one granularity to another, about an information which is supposed to be timestamped with the good granularity according to its management. But until now, no attention has been paid to the discrepancy between the time granularity expressed in the discourse and the time granularity induced by the knowledge level, that induces temporal relationships on finer granularity that are contained in the knowledge level, but not expressed in the discourse.

In Databases framework, the same problem has been risen.

Different approaches have been proposed, for dealing with that problem of precision or indeterminacy, based on fuzzy sets or possibilistic distributions.


Previous observational studies (Table 1 ) have all reported power-law FSDs, but with widely varying exponents. Modeling studies (Section 4.3) have examined simulated FSDs (Zhang et al., 2015 (Zhang et al., , 2016 Horvat and Tziperman, 2017) . The purpose of the present work is to review the construction of power-law FSDs (Sections 2 and 3) and to compare the results of previous studies (Section 4) in order to assess their level of agreement or disagreement, given their sampling of the sea-ice cover at different locations, times, and resolutions. We conclude with recommended steps for analyzing floe size data, and a summary of the possible reasons for the wide variability in the power-law exponents of the FSDs seen in previous studies (Section 5).

Modeling studies (Section 4.3) have examined simulated FSDs.


Smoothing techniques are often evaluated on their ability to predict unseen n-grams. In our experiments we only focused on smoothing observed cooccurrences of context vectors. Hence, the previous evaluations of smoothing techniques may not always be consistent with our findings. This is for example the case for the additive smoothing technique. The latter which is described as a poor estimator in statistical NLP, turns out to perform well when associated with the Log-Jac parameters. This is because we did not consider unseen cooccurences which are over estimated by the Add-one smoothing. Obviously, we can imagine that adding one to all unobserved cooccurrences would not make sense and would certainly degrade the results. Except the add-one smoothing, none of the other algorithms reached good results when associated to the Log-Jac configuration. This is certainly related to the properties of the log-likelihood association measure. Additive smoothing has been used to address the problem of rare words aligning to too many words (Moore, 2004) . At each iteration of the standard Expectation-Maximization (EM) procedure all the translation probability estimates are smoothed by adding virtual counts to uniform probability distribution over all target words. Here also additive smoothing has shown interesting results. According to these findings, we can consider the additive smoothing as an appropriate technique for our task.

Additive smoothing has been used to address the problem of rare words aligning to too many words.


Fibre fineness, length and strength are the most important processing properties and determine the quality and suitability of flax fibres as a textile raw material for yarn and fabric manufacturing. Harvesting of flax at different maturities provides a diversity of products. Flax that is harvested too early -(green) -produces very fine but weak fibres. On the other hand, in (over-mature flax, the stems) are strong but brittle and produce too high a proportion of undesirable short fibres (Mushtaq et al., 1984) . When the flax is yellow, the fibres are long and supple, and therefore ideal for further processing. Therefore, the finest fibres are obtained by harvesting the crop following a full flowering with the stem and leaves green or at medium fibre fineness when half to a third of the seed bolls are yellow and brown with fully developed seeds (Muir and Westcott, 2003) .

On the other hand, in (over-mature flax, the stems) are strong but brittle and produce too high a proportion of undesirable short fibres.

Therefore, the finest fibres are obtained by harvesting the crop following a full flowering with the stem and leaves green or at medium fibre fineness when half to a third of the seed bolls are yellow and brown with fully developed seeds.


As it can be observed from Figs. 2 and 3, replacing the main combustion air with the oxy-fuel mixture with the same oxygen concentration at 21 vol% caused a significant drop of all temperatures along the reactor and freeboard, with no steady temperature being reached even after one hour of continuous feeding under the same conditions (the arrows in Fig. 3 indicate continuous drop of temperatures). Due to this constant drop in temperatures the steady biomass combustion could no longer be sustained within the reactor and CO and O 2 concentrations increased abruptly, meanwhile NOx concentration showed a sharp decline (Fig. 2) . The main reason for the observed temperature decreases is due to the higher specific heat of CO 2 compared with that of nitrogen. It is also mentioned in the literature that CO 2 plays a significant role in reducing the fuel burning rates by limiting the concentration of O and H radicals during oxy-fuel combustion [26] . In order to continue the experiment, the oxygen concentration in the oxy-fuel oxidant gas was increased before the main combustion temperature decreased to about 500-600°C. By increasing the O 2 concentration from 21 vol% to 25 vol% in the oxy-fuel oxidant gas, a significant increase in the freeboard temperatures (T5-T7) was noticed for all of the tested fuels, as a consequence of both the increase of the O 2 concentration (which resulted in a higher oxidation rate of the fuel) and the reduction of the CO 2 flow rate, almost matching those temperature values achieved with air combustion and only the temperature values at the beginning of the freeboard (T4) slightly lower than those observed during air combustion (between 30 and 65°C lower) (Figs. 2 and 3) . However, the main bed temperatures (T2 and T3) remained quite low Fig. 2 . The temperature profiles, and gas concentrations at the outlet of the combustor during miscanthus pellets combustion under air and oxy-fuel conditions.

It is also mentioned in the literature that CO 2 plays a significant role in reducing the fuel burning rates by limiting the concentration of O and H radicals during oxy-fuel combustion.


Among all the available combustion technologies, fluidized bed combustion (FBC) is often considered as the best choice for the combustion and/or co-combustion of biomass, waste and other low quality solid fuels due to its fuel flexibility, long residence times, and uniform combustion temperatures. The characteristics of FBC also offers several advantages for its application in oxy-fuel systems [10] . Firstly, the difficulty of flue gas recirculation for temperature control in pulverized fuel (PF) applications could be reduced in circulating fluidized bed (CFB) by means of the bed material recirculation, since the specific heat of the solids is much higher than that of the recycled flue gas. Secondly, lower NOx emissions and better sulphur removal are possible. Finally, it is easier to retrofit a fluidized bed boiler from air to oxy-fuel combustion as there will be no need for a new burner.

The characteristics of FBC also offers several advantages for its application in oxy-fuel systems.


There is one new ingredient that comes in, however, when the boundary algebras are nonlinear (N > 2). It is that the geometrical actions should not be formulated in terms of orbits of the coadjoint representation, since the phase space does not provide a linear representation, but rather in terms of the more general concept of symplectic leaves [65, 66] . The generators of the asymptotic symmetry algebra form a Poisson manifold, with a Poisson bracket that is degenerate if one focuses only on a single boundary algebra without including the global radial Wilson lines. The symplectic leaves of this Poisson manifold have a well-defined symplectic structure, which is the one that enters in the action. A similar phenomenon appears when including higher spins gauge fields, the asymptotic symmetry algebras of which are the non-linear Walgebras [67, 68] .

It is that the geometrical actions should not be formulated in terms of orbits of the coadjoint representation, since the phase space does not provide a linear representation, but rather in terms of the more general concept of symplectic leaves.

A similar phenomenon appears when including higher spins gauge fields, the asymptotic symmetry algebras of which are the non-linear Walgebras.


Self-managing pain among PWUD evidently poses high risk for morbidity and mortality such as injection-related harms (e.g., infection, HIV/HCV transmission) or overdose, especially given recent concerns related to fentanyl contamination in the illicit drug market [31, 32] . In the present study, PWUD described their experiences with self-medicating after being unable to obtain pain medication from health providers. This phenomenon has previously been described in other literature. One study found that 97% of people who inject drugs reported self-managing pain via injecting heroin (52%) or obtaining diverted or illicitly manufactured pain medication from street-based drug markets (65%) [33] . Additionally, 66% of people who inject drugs reported they had been denied pain medication, often for reasons such as perceived drug-seeking (44%), clinic policies restricting narcotic prescribing (26%), or being told that methadone is sufficient for pain (18%), as echoed in the present findings [34] . Furthermore, denial of pain medication significantly predicted in-hospital illicit drug use [35] .

Self-managing pain among PWUD evidently poses high risk for morbidity and mortality such as injection-related harms (e.g., infection, HIV/HCV transmission) or overdose, especially given recent concerns related to fentanyl contamination in the illicit drug market.

One study found that 97% of people who inject drugs reported self-managing pain via injecting heroin (52%) or obtaining diverted or illicitly manufactured pain medication from street-based drug markets (65%).

Additionally, 66% of people who inject drugs reported they had been denied pain medication, often for reasons such as perceived drug-seeking (44%), clinic policies restricting narcotic prescribing (26%), or being told that methadone is sufficient for pain (18%), as echoed in the present findings.

Furthermore, denial of pain medication significantly predicted in-hospital illicit drug use.


For the LSC to attain commercial success, it is necessary they be tested in real-world environments, at realistic sizes. With this in mind, we constructed two large scale LSC-based panels in a noise barrier configuration and installed them outdoors alongside a major roadway in the Netherlands and monitored their performance for a little over one year. We have previously reported on several aspects of the LSC noise barrier (the SONOB project) performance. In our first work, we focused on the effect of variation in solar position with respect to the surface plane of the barrier for both North/South and East/West facing barrier panels, and noted the self-shading seen by the frame of the device as we tracked performance during the span of a single day [13] . The second work considered the effect of application of graffiti and street art on the surface of the barrier, and the impact it had on performance of the individual cell strips attached to the edges of the device [14] .

In our first work, we focused on the effect of variation in solar position with respect to the surface plane of the barrier for both North/South and East/West facing barrier panels, and noted the self-shading seen by the frame of the device as we tracked performance during the span of a single day.

The second work considered the effect of application of graffiti and street art on the surface of the barrier, and the impact it had on performance of the individual cell strips attached to the edges of the device.