Fluid structure interaction (FSI) is the interaction between structures and internal or external surrounding fluid. The behavior of the structure is influenced by both the flow field of the surrounding fluid and the flow field of the structure [1] . These interactions play an important role in the design of many engineering systems. Examples include bridges, aircrafts and hard disks [1] . FSI includes the influences of both the structure and the fluid. The interaction happens at the interface between the fluid domain and the structure domain.

The behavior of the structure is influenced by both the flow field of the surrounding fluid and the flow field of the structure.

Examples include bridges, aircrafts and hard disks.


FSI problems are typically very complex, hence are seldom solved analytically. Numerical simulation is usually used to solve FSI problems. However, the numerical simulation of FSI problems is complicated as it possesses problems associated with both fluid and structural simulation. In addition, the coupling of the fluid and structural interface is also challenging [2] .

In addition, the coupling of the fluid and structural interface is also challenging.


Due to the complexity of the geometry of HDD and the fact that FSI for HDD lies the nanometer scale (& hence may consider avoid remeshing due to small deformations), the strong coupling method is inefficient for solving such problems in this paper. In addition, despite recent advancements in FSI, there are still problems associated with the accuracy of the force transfers between fluid and structural domain, and the effectiveness of weak coupling approaches [4] . The high frequency vibration of the HSA also makes strong coupling unsuitable for this scenario. Hence a modified weak coupling method where the fluid and structural components are solved sequentially is used for the purpose of this FSI study.

In addition, despite recent advancements in FSI, there are still problems associated with the accuracy of the force transfers between fluid and structural domain, and the effectiveness of weak coupling approaches.


Performance analysis of invasion games has received much attention in recent years. The analysis of performance is vital in soccer if the individual/team is to be successful. For many coaches the information gained from performances will not only form the basis of weekly training programmes, but also may act as the primary source for the scheduling of seasonal plans [1] .

For many coaches the information gained from performances will not only form the basis of weekly training programmes, but also may act as the primary source for the scheduling of seasonal plans.


Over the last two decades, there has been a growing interest in match-analyses of soccer [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . Match analysis refers to the objective recording and examination of behavioral events occurring during competition. Probably the main aim of match analysis is to identify the strengths of one's team, which can then be further developed, and its weaknesses, which suggest areas for improvement. Similarly, a coach analyzing the performance of an opposition side will use the data to identify ways to counter that team´s strengths and exploit its weaknesses [1, 7] . In this respect, matchanalysis has been helpful in identifying the physiological demands of one particular event [8] .

Over the last two decades, there has been a growing interest in match-analyses of soccer.

Similarly, a coach analyzing the performance of an opposition side will use the data to identify ways to counter that team´s strengths and exploit its weaknesses.

In this respect, matchanalysis has been helpful in identifying the physiological demands of one particular event.


When comparing different positional roles, it could be demonstrated that both midfield team formations (CM, EM), probably because of their linking role in the team, covered a significantly greater distance (p < 0.01) than both defender groups, as well as the group of forwards. The CD, however, covered the shortest distance. Recent data confirm the results of the current study. The distance covered during the match appears to be related to the position on the team. In these studies, midfield players also covered a significantly greater distance per game than defenders or forwards [5, [20] [21] [22] .

In these studies, midfield players also covered a significantly greater distance per game than defenders or forwards.


The comparison of the m·min -1 covered by the players in the first and second halves did not show significant differences in opposition to previous studies [4, 15, 21] . Differences in sample sizes, differences in the level of the players and advances in the technological support for data collection may explain the differences found. Besides, the comparison of the ratio between distance covered and effective playing time shows that mean distance covered in the second half is greater than in the first half without significant difference (188.39 m·min -1 vs. 188.76 m·min -1 ). The smaller mean value of the effective playing time in the second half (27.4 ± 2.2 m vs. 26.9 ± 2.4 m) (p<0.05) may explain the shorter total distance covered by the players in the second half.

The comparison of the m·min -1 covered by the players in the first and second halves did not show significant differences in opposition to previous studies.


There is another application of this quantity, where it was originally defined [10, 11] . Wilson loops satisfy a set of equations known as the loop equations [12] . These equations are nontrivial only for intersecting loops, where cusps appear. The loop equations have been solved in zero dimensional matrix models and in two dimensional Yang-Mills. To define them properly in four dimensional theories requires understanding cusped Wilson loops and how to renormalize their divergences. Logarithmic divergences of Wilson loops (and in the case of the Maldacena-Wilson loops in N = 4 SYM, all the divergences) come from cusps, or from insertions of local operators. As explained in the following, integrability supplies the answer to this question in N = 4 SYM, where all the logarithmic divergences arising from either insertions or cusps are governed by the same spin-chain model (to be precise, a set of twisted boundary thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations (TBTBA, BTBA, or TBA in the follwoing)).

There is another application of this quantity, where it was originally defined.

Wilson loops satisfy a set of equations known as the loop equations.


This paper describes the design of a small application framework for building implementations of the Table ADT . A framework expresses a reusable design for a system as a collection of abstract classes and the way that their instances interact with one another [2] . It represents a skeleton of a system that can be customized for a particular purpose. To customize the framework, a developer provides concrete implementations of the abstract classes.

A framework expresses a reusable design for a system as a collection of abstract classes and the way that their instances interact with one another.


Nowadays, in the infrastructure field, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods are among the most widely used and have increased in popularity in recent decades. The main reason is that most NDT methods work remotely, i.e., without contact. The lack of contact allows for analysis of the performance even for structures that are difficult to access or under insecure conditions, such as structures that are at very high or low temperatures, or are unsteady. Other great advantages are that NDT methods do not damage the infrastructure under study, and avoid the lack of objectiveness and slowness of the traditional methods. Regarding those NTD methods that require contact with the analysed surface, they usually compensate for this disadvantage by adding information on the non-visible areas of the structure under study [1] .

Regarding those NTD methods that require contact with the analysed surface, they usually compensate for this disadvantage by adding information on the non-visible areas of the structure under study.


In fact, many solutions are being proposed in literature. However the resulting problems from Security Threats to Cloud Computing Models (STCCM) are even newer. Those threats compromise the CIA of the resources provided. Currently we may consider seven different threats: #1 Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Computing, #2 Insecure Interfaces and APIs, #3 Malicious Insiders, #4 Shared Technology Issues, #5 Data Loss or Leakage, #6 Account or Service Hijacking and #7 Unknown Risk Profile [3] . One of the reasons why those threats are so challenging is because in cloud computing the computational resources are the result of homogeneous data centers. This characteristic means that there is not an individual and proper management for each data center, making harder the adoption of an efficient security model that fulfills the specifications of the security policies [4] .

Currently we may consider seven different threats: #1 Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Computing, #2 Insecure Interfaces and APIs, #3 Malicious Insiders, #4 Shared Technology Issues, #5 Data Loss or Leakage, #6 Account or Service Hijacking and #7 Unknown Risk Profile.

This characteristic means that there is not an individual and proper management for each data center, making harder the adoption of an efficient security model that fulfills the specifications of the security policies.


Methods have recently been developed to batch test highrisk HPV types quickly and cheaply making cervical cancer screening with HPVa potentially feasible option in resource-limited settings in the near future [26, 27] . Similar to results found among HIV-negative women, HPV testing among HIV-positive women in this study was sensitive but less specific compared with other cervical cancer screening methods [28] . Therefore, the strength of HPV testing among HIV-positive women may be in its combined use with VIA or Pap smear. Confirming a positive VIA with HPV significantly increased the overall test effectiveness of using VIA alone. Similarly, confirming a positive HPV with Pap (HSILþ) significantly increased the overall test effectiveness of HPV alone. Combining cervical screening methods may be useful in resource-limited settings such as sub-Saharan Africa where most screening programmes at HIV clinics require donor funding to provide these services to their catchment population. For example, in order to maximize the number of HIV-positive women screened effectively with a fixed amount of funding, an HIV treatment programme could consider offering inexpensive VIA to all women enrolled in the clinic and only offer more expensive Pap smear screening to the more limited number who are VIA positive. This would be less costly to the programme than offering Pap smear to all women, and the overall test effectiveness of combining these tests, as this study demonstrates, is better than VIA alone. Although conducting a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis is beyond the scope of this manuscript, our data contribute important information to future estimates of cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening among HIV-positive women [29] [30] [31] [32] .

Methods have recently been developed to batch test highrisk HPV types quickly and cheaply making cervical cancer screening with HPVa potentially feasible option in resource-limited settings in the near future.

Similar to results found among HIV-negative women, HPV testing among HIV-positive women in this study was sensitive but less specific compared with other cervical cancer screening methods.

Although conducting a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis is beyond the scope of this manuscript, our data contribute important information to future estimates of cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening among HIV-positive women.


LES are utilized to simulate the three-dimensional (3D) flow around a circular cylinder in the vicinity of a rigid, plane wall. The simulations are made for the intermediate Re = 13100. In the North Sea, at the water depth of about 100 m, the pipelines are usually exposed to current of between 0.02 m/s and 0.5 m/s [5] . The diameter of a pipeline can vary from as much as 1.066 m (44''), through commonly used 0.76 m (30'') and 0.404 m (16'') to as small as 0.05 m (2'') [6] . The chosen Re thus covers a variety of combinations of operational conditions for subsea pipelines.

In the North Sea, at the water depth of about 100 m, the pipelines are usually exposed to current of between 0.02 m/s and 0.5 m/s.

The diameter of a pipeline can vary from as much as 1.066 m (44''), through commonly used 0.76 m (30'') and 0.404 m (16'') to as small as 0.05 m (2'').


The human CNS generates complex efferent commands to muscles even during execution of relatively simple single-joint movements. This complexity is better manifested at relatively fast movements usually produced by alternating excitations of antagonistic muscle groups [1] [2] [3] . Complex patterns of EMG activity are, however, also observed in agonist muscles producing slow ramp movements [4] . During slow ramp flexion in the elbow joint against a constant load, a surface EMG (sEMG) recorded from one or two elbow flexors usually demonstrates an angledependent exponential increase, while the activity of other agonist(s) can noticeably decrease within an intermediate range of the joint angles. Such a nonmonotonic change in the EMG intensity could be mostly related to nonlinear angle-dependent changes in moment arms of the forces that are generated by elbow flexors [4, 5] . For the biceps brachii, the dependence of the moment arm on the joint angle has a bell-shaped form with an apex near 90 deg. In addition, the force developed by contracting flexors during flexion decreases in a nonlinear manner. These two nonlinearities, of the angle -moment arm and angle -generated force, interact with each other. By applying a simple mechanical model, one may predict the non-monotonic changes in the torque generated by elbow flexors during flexion movements [5] .

This complexity is better manifested at relatively fast movements usually produced by alternating excitations of antagonistic muscle groups.

Complex patterns of EMG activity are, however, also observed in agonist muscles producing slow ramp movements.

Such a nonmonotonic change in the EMG intensity could be mostly related to nonlinear angle-dependent changes in moment arms of the forces that are generated by elbow flexors.

By applying a simple mechanical model, one may predict the non-monotonic changes in the torque generated by elbow flexors during flexion movements.


In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that the activity patterns of the elbow flexor MUs during high-amplitude flexion movements are probably determined, to a considerable extent, by the bellshaped dependence of the moment arm on the joint angle. This dependence corresponds to previously described angle-dependent local decreases in the sEMG intensities [4, 12] . The position-dependent increase in the flexor efficiency for torque generation leads to the cessation of firing in some MUs along with a decrease in the rate at which these units maintain their activity. For reciprocating movements, firing of MUs can terminate within the flexion phase, and the silence period is continued during the subsequent extension movement. In contrast, the beginning and cessation of MU firing correspond to approximately equal torque levels during similar isometric contractions [1, 2] .

This dependence corresponds to previously described angle-dependent local decreases in the sEMG intensities.

In contrast, the beginning and cessation of MU firing correspond to approximately equal torque levels during similar isometric contractions.


One of the factors that help in developing an efficient data compression model is the availability of prior knowledge on the domain of the data to be compressed. In these circumstances, compression researchers can develop specialised compression techniques which perform well on a specific type of data. However, it is difficult to find a universal compression algorithm that performs well on any data type [1] . Two principles are common among compression algorithms; a) There is no algorithm that is able to compress all the files even by 1 byte; b) There are less than 1% of all files that can be compressed losslessly by 1 byte [1] . Also there is a sort of no-free lunch result for lossless compression, by which, unfortunately, no single compression algorithm is guaranteed never to increase the size of a file.

However, it is difficult to find a universal compression algorithm that performs well on any data type.

Two principles are common among compression algorithms; a) There is no algorithm that is able to compress all the files even by 1 byte; b) There are less than 1% of all files that can be compressed losslessly by 1 byte.


At the DBEL facility of the CSIR a semi-confined chamber is used to study the detonation of explosive charges in partially confined conditions [16] . The evolution of the explosive product boundary (fireball) after the detonation of 0.5 kg cylindrical composition B charge was observed together with simultaneous pressure measurements at the chamber walls [17] . In Fig. 1 below a collage of high-speed video footage is shown with images depicted 3 ms apart starting at 1 ms after the detonation of the charge. The charge was suspended from a cradle centrally in the chamber and was detonated in the downward direction.

At the DBEL facility of the CSIR a semi-confined chamber is used to study the detonation of explosive charges in partially confined conditions.

The evolution of the explosive product boundary (fireball) after the detonation of 0.5 kg cylindrical composition B charge was observed together with simultaneous pressure measurements at the chamber walls.


The use of explosives worldwide in terror campaigns has rekindled international interest in blast research. The need to protect innocent civilians and peacekeepers from such acts requires in-depth knowledge of blast effects from explosives in complex scenarios, as well as ways to prevent or mitigate damage [1] . The CSIR in South Africa has been investigating this field, mainly in an empirical way, for some time and have obtained recognition for pioneering work performed on early MRAP concepts [2] . The blast research conducted by the CSIR is aimed at advising the SANDF on matters concerning explosive blast threats and aim to characterise the effects of such threats in surrogate conditions by whatever experimental means available. In the course of such investigations, it is attempted to assimilate the current state of the art knowledge in blast science and it has been realised that significant challenges still exist in this field.

The need to protect innocent civilians and peacekeepers from such acts requires in-depth knowledge of blast effects from explosives in complex scenarios, as well as ways to prevent or mitigate damage.

The CSIR in South Africa has been investigating this field, mainly in an empirical way, for some time and have obtained recognition for pioneering work performed on early MRAP concepts.


Research into blast protection from explosive threats can essentially be divided into two domains. These are (a) understanding the propagation and loading from blast and shock waves through and in complex media and geometries, and (b) mitigation mechanisms to minimise the damage from the shock and blast loading [3] . Each of these domains is packed with multidisciplinary study fields. In the former, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computational mechanics and fluid dynamics feature heavily, while in the latter material science, structural response, fracture mechanics, computational mechanics and human response is paramount.

These are (a) understanding the propagation and loading from blast and shock waves through and in complex media and geometries, and (b) mitigation mechanisms to minimise the damage from the shock and blast loading.


The main aim of this work is to develop finite element (FE) error estimates in the case when there is uncertainty with respect to the computational domain. We consider the question of how a domain related error coincides with the finite element discretization error. We use the conforming finite element method (FEM) which is well established in the scientific computing community and allows for a rigorous analysis of the approximation error [7] .

We use the conforming finite element method (FEM) which is well established in the scientific computing community and allows for a rigorous analysis of the approximation error.


Different approaches can be used to model engine processes [2] . The fastest option in computational terms is the use of ad-hoc mathematical models based on data from measurements. It requires a substantial experimental effort and its lack of physical foundation deters extrapolations out of the tested conditions [3] . At the other end, 3D numerical models simulate physical phenomena with great accuracy and resolution at the cost of a high computational demand [4] . VEMOD combines 1D and 0D simulation to attain a compromise between accuracy and computation time. Main VEMOD submodels are physical, while some lesser submodels are based on wellstablished empirical correlations. This makes possible to trust the model results over a large operation range.

Different approaches can be used to model engine processes.

It requires a substantial experimental effort and its lack of physical foundation deters extrapolations out of the tested conditions.

At the other end, 3D numerical models simulate physical phenomena with great accuracy and resolution at the cost of a high computational demand.


A very symmetric Raman spectrum is observed for the DLC:N 1sccm coating, which is followed by that of the DLC:Ti, and the most asymmetrical Raman spectrum is observed for the DLC pure coating. A symmetric band indicates a higher percentage of sp 3 bonds in a DLC coating [29] . These results also indicate a similar manifestation of the G peak position. A second order Si Raman peak is observed at around 900 cm −1 as shown in figure 1(b) .

A symmetric band indicates a higher percentage of sp 3 bonds in a DLC coating.


After combining equations (4)- (8) work, DI water and ethylene glycol are used to measure the contact angles with the values shown in table 1 [32] . The total surface energy is then calculated by summing them. The measured contact angles and surface energies using the two liquids are presented in figures 4(a) and (b). A large polar component of about 64 dyne cm −1 is observed from the DLC:N 11sccm , followed by the DLC:N 1sccm with 38.94 dyne cm −1 . This means that the polar component increases significantly with the increase in N content in the coatings. The DLC:Ti has the smallest polar component that is about six times smaller than that of the DLC:N 11sccm coating. Figure 4 represents interesting relationships among energies and contact angles, as both water and ethylene glycol contact angles follow a similar trend for all the samples. The polar component of the surface increases energy with a decrease in contact angle but the dispersive component varies inversely with the water contact angle. However, the total surface energy follows a very similar trend to the polar component, which means that the polar component has a stronger effect on the total surface energy compared to the dispersive component.

After combining equations (4)- (8) work, DI water and ethylene glycol are used to measure the contact angles with the values shown in table 1.


Using our methodology, we were able to quantify the amount of sugar (128 mg, on average) consumed by male larvae during their development. We detected that the average male bumblebee in our experiment had to consume 29 mg of sugar per every 10 mg of its body mass during development. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the colony consumption of sugar and the colony consumption of pollen are significantly correlated variables. These relationships are definitely casespecific for our micro-colony settings and may vary in different contexts. The data are very likely affected by the fact that we fed our colonies ad libitum, which enabled a steady rate of feeding on both sugar and pollen throughout the course of experiment. However, the correlation between the consumption of sugar and the consumption of pollen is not commonplace, as suggested by field studies on mass provisioning stingless bees (Quezada-Euán et al. 2011) . It indicates that the proportion of sugar and pollen consumption can vary in time according to both the pollen and the nectar quality which are naturally available for foragers. It is not surprising that the same study also did not show any effect of the sugar amount on brood growth but that it did show a strong dependence of this variable on the amount of pollen (amount of protein). The results of that study indicate that stingless bees add more sugar to the provision, most likely as food compensation, when a limited amount of pollen supplies is accumulated.

However, the correlation between the consumption of sugar and the consumption of pollen is not commonplace, as suggested by field studies on mass provisioning stingless bees.


PID is a remarkable control strategy, widely most applied and used in process industries such as crude oil and gas, chemical, petrochemical and paper, beverage, etc to manipulate and control the overall process variables. It has already been shown and tested in terms of reliability and robustness in controlling process variables ranging from pressure, p H temperature, level, flow etc. Because of having low cost, easy to preserve, as well as straightforwardness in control structure and easy to understand, these could be other factors that attracted the industries to choose PID controller. However, If the Tuning of PID controller is improper then It could lead to cyclic and slow convalescence, poor robustness and the worst case scenario will be the collapse of whole system operation [1] . This problem leads the researchers to find the best method to determine the best PID parameters gain values.

However, If the Tuning of PID controller is improper then It could lead to cyclic and slow convalescence, poor robustness and the worst case scenario will be the collapse of whole system operation.


Over the years, continuous welded rail (CWR) was usually laid on common simply supported beams or continuous beam bridge structure in China [1] [2] [3] [4] . Nevertheless, in recent years, with the continuous improvement of the bridge and CWR construction level, more and more railway bridges applied a special type of bridge structure. Among them, the more typical cases are the following three types of arch bridges (deck, half-through, and through arch bridges, referred to as DAB, HTAB, and TAB), cable-stayed steel truss bridge, and so forth. Compared with general simply supported beam and continuous beam bridge, these special forms of bridges can more effectively meet the height requirements of larger span and a smaller structure and better adapt to changes in the railway line terrain. Therefore, the special forms of bridge structures play an important role when the clearance limited or project investment increased due to the need of uplifting the elevation of railway line, especially when there are some special requirements in terms of aesthetics, art, and landscape coordination for the bridge structure, these special structures of bridges can give full play to the role that ordinary bridge is difficult to replace.

Over the years, continuous welded rail (CWR) was usually laid on common simply supported beams or continuous beam bridge structure in China.


Health care workers have an increased risk of acquiring tuberculosis (TB) as they are exposed to TB in their community as well as at their place of work [1] [2] [3] . In South Africa, workplace acquired TB is an important occupational disease among health care workers. According to the 2006 compensation fund claims, tuberculosis in health care workers, whilst generally underreported, is the third most commonly reported occupational disease in South Africa [4] . A review of the data submitted to the Compensation Commissioner by health care workers regarding hospital acquired infections from January 2007 to December 2009 in Limpopo province (i.e. one of the nine administrative divisions within the country) found that TB was the most common hospital acquired infection, with 47 (83.9 %) of the 56 reported cases of infectious diseases being TB cases [5] .

Health care workers have an increased risk of acquiring tuberculosis (TB) as they are exposed to TB in their community as well as at their place of work.

According to the 2006 compensation fund claims, tuberculosis in health care workers, whilst generally underreported, is the third most commonly reported occupational disease in South Africa.

A review of the data submitted to the Compensation Commissioner by health care workers regarding hospital acquired infections from January 2007 to December 2009 in Limpopo province (i.e. one of the nine administrative divisions within the country) found that TB was the most common hospital acquired infection, with 47 (83.9 %) of the 56 reported cases of infectious diseases being TB cases.


For each participant and each block separately, we calculated the mean reaction time on trials with a positive prime and a positive target, a positive prime and a negative target, a negative prime and a positive target, and a negative prime and a negative target. Trials on which the voice key failed to accurately register the response (2.59% of all trials) and trials on which an incorrect response was given (0.71% of the remaining trials) were discarded. We expected that overall reaction times would be longer in the condition with degraded targets than in the condition with undegraded targets. It is well known that an increase in reaction time can cause an artificial increase in difference measures. This artifact can be removed by log-transforming the mean reaction times (Chapman, Chapman, Curran, & Miller, 1994) . Below we report the results of a 2 (Target Degradation) ϫ 2 (Block) ϫ 2 (Prime Valence) ϫ 2 (Target Valence) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last three variables which was performed on the log-transformed means. Affective priming would be evidenced by a significant interaction between prime valence and target valence. We expected that reaction times would be shorter when the valence of the prime and target matched than when it was different. This effect should be more pronounced when targets are degraded than when targets are undegraded, an effect that should show up as a three-way interaction between target degradation, prime valence, and target valence. A priori analyses were also conducted on the log-transformed means in order to investigate the interaction between prime valence and target valence in the degraded and undegraded conditions separately.

This artifact can be removed by log-transforming the mean reaction times.


There is a need for a universally accepted assessment method to define the outcome after a hip fracture [1] . The most important outcome measures are mortality, residual pain, regain of mobility and regain of independence. Any assessment system must be suitable for use for all types of patients including those in institutional care and those with dementia. Because of the fragility of some patients the assessment may need to be carried out over the phone if the patient cannot attend the outpatient review and it must be easy to complete with an acceptable degree of intra-observer variation. The assessment system described here satisfied all these criteria. In addition, the linear scales used allow the patient progress to be monitored.

There is a need for a universally accepted assessment method to define the outcome after a hip fracture.


One of the most striking changes that occurred in the U.S. labor market since the late 1960s is the rising earnings inequality. Using different data sources and different methodologies, it is confirmed that the labor income in the U.S. in the 1990s is substantially dispersed than in the 1960s. Besides, attempts are made to decompose the changes in the earnings inequality into permanent differences in earnings and the volatility of earnings, because the effect of changing earnings inequality on the consumption and welfare inequality crucially depends on the nature of the earnings inequality (Attanasio, and Richard Blundell and Preston (2002) ). The literature finds that the both the persistent differences in earnings across different workers and the size of the earnings volatility increased over the period.

Besides, attempts are made to decompose the changes in the earnings inequality into permanent differences in earnings and the volatility of earnings, because the effect of changing earnings inequality on the consumption and welfare inequality crucially depends on the nature of the earnings inequality).


The Shigella controlled human infection model (CHIM) has been used since 1946 to facilitate understanding of host-pathogen interaction, assess immunologic responses and to evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic prototype vaccine candidates (Table 1) . At present the model has been successfully used in many academic institutions including, but not limited to, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Cincinnati, and Baylor University. We recently published a systematic review of the Shigella human challenge model to analyze study-specific factors and their associations with clinical outcomes [7] . As part of that review it was noticeable that no standardized definition of shigellosis had been widely adopted. Additionally, it was clear that dichotomous endpoints may not be sufficiently granular to differentiate some of the more significant manifestations observed. To that end, we sought to better characterize the disease profile of shigellosis observed in the CHIM and to develop a disease severity scoring algorithm for Shigella-attributable clinical illness, similar to what has recently been developed and applied for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli CHIM studies [15] . This scale could then be externally validated in subsequent Shigella CHIM trials with the ultimate goal being validated outcome measures for use in future clinical trials that would improve comparability of results across trials.

We recently published a systematic review of the Shigella human challenge model to analyze study-specific factors and their associations with clinical outcomes.

To that end, we sought to better characterize the disease profile of shigellosis observed in the CHIM and to develop a disease severity scoring algorithm for Shigella-attributable clinical illness, similar to what has recently been developed and applied for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli CHIM studies.


One of the reasons for this state of affairs is the complexity of the algorithms involved in the calculation of fractional derivatives. The generalization of the integrodifferential operator requires the adoption of approximations of irrational functions through series or rational fraction expansions [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] . While the main volume of contributions has focused in getting expansion schemes, the problem of a systematic optimization procedure was not yet tackled.

The generalization of the integrodifferential operator requires the adoption of approximations of irrational functions through series or rational fraction expansions.


Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze is a very branched tree belonging to the Theaceae family (Duarte & Menarim, 2006) . Although it is originated in China, Tibet and Northern India, today is widely cultivated throughout the world. In Brazil, the tea plant has been cultivated in the Ribeira Valley, State of São Paulo (Lima et al., 2009) .

Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze is a very branched tree belonging to the Theaceae family.

In Brazil, the tea plant has been cultivated in the Ribeira Valley, State of São Paulo.


The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method seems to be attractive for this purpose [1] . Over recent fifteen years, much work has been reported for extending the original FDTD method to incorporate lumped components [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . Results indicate that these extended FDTD approaches can successfully and accurately consider the electromagnetic interactions between distributed and lumped components. However, all these approaches are based on equivalent circuit models of lumped devices. Unfortunately, in the case of active devices, only the measured S-parameters of the device under certain biasing conditions are provided by most manufacturers. Generally, we arenot easy to obtain equivalent circuit of the device," replaced by " It is very difficult to obtain the equivalent circuits of practical complex active devices, especially for the three-terminal devices. Moreover, some classes of device are not even described reliably by the previous techniques. Therefore, the direct incorporation of active devices characterized by measured S-parameters into FDTD formulations is of great interest.

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method seems to be attractive for this purpose.

Over recent fifteen years, much work has been reported for extending the original FDTD method to incorporate lumped components.


Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy. In 2017, it is expected that 61,380 women will be diagnosed with the disease and 10,920 women will die in the United States [1] . The 2017 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer reports that endometrial cancer is one of only a few cancers in the United States where mortality rates are on the rise [2] . As there is no screening modality for endometrial cancer, patients are diagnosed upon presenting with symptoms, most commonly abnormal uterine bleeding and vaginal discharge [3] . The current standard for diagnostic evaluation includes an endometrial biopsy, pelvic ultrasound, or dilation and curettage, with the gold standard being hysteroscopic-guided endometrial sampling [4] . Pathological evaluation of an endometrial biopsy is an effective and accurate approach to detect endometrial cancer, with a reported detection rate of 99.6% [4] . Based on histopathological features, endometrial cancer has traditionally been classified into two subtypes-Type I and Type II. About 80% of endometrial cancers are Type I which have endometrioid histology (grade 1-2). Type I endometrial cancers tend to be estrogen receptor positive, and thus have higher exposure to circulating estrogen as a result of obesity, polycystic ovarian syndrome, nulliparity, and/ or other factors [5, 6] . Type II endometrial cancers tend to be papillary serous, clear cell, or grade 3 endometrioid cancers, are more common in older women and African Americans, are more aggressive, and have worse survival than Type I cancers [6] .

In 2017, it is expected that 61,380 women will be diagnosed with the disease and 10,920 women will die in the United States.

The 2017 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer reports that endometrial cancer is one of only a few cancers in the United States where mortality rates are on the rise.

As there is no screening modality for endometrial cancer, patients are diagnosed upon presenting with symptoms, most commonly abnormal uterine bleeding and vaginal discharge.

The current standard for diagnostic evaluation includes an endometrial biopsy, pelvic ultrasound, or dilation and curettage, with the gold standard being hysteroscopic-guided endometrial sampling.

Pathological evaluation of an endometrial biopsy is an effective and accurate approach to detect endometrial cancer, with a reported detection rate of 99.6%.

Type I endometrial cancers tend to be estrogen receptor positive, and thus have higher exposure to circulating estrogen as a result of obesity, polycystic ovarian syndrome, nulliparity, and/ or other factors.

Type II endometrial cancers tend to be papillary serous, clear cell, or grade 3 endometrioid cancers, are more common in older women and African Americans, are more aggressive, and have worse survival than Type I cancers.


Traditionally we have thought the quality of healthcare to be dependent on an individual doctor's expertise. However, modern healthcare more closely resembles complex systems, which for successful functioning rely on teams performing several interdependent actions competently at the same time. Single-step task performance with a linear input-output relationship may be accurately attributed to an individual's action, but anything more complex requires several people to perform in concert. In the complex interactions of real life, competence becomes a shared attribute and is dependent on competence of the collective [1] . In other words, 'patient care is a team sport' [2] .

In the complex interactions of real life, competence becomes a shared attribute and is dependent on competence of the collective.

In other words, 'patient care is a team sport'.


The term 'team' is a broad construct that may include anything from strategic teams, management teams, through to clinical healthcare teams. There are many definitions of what constitutes a team, but the principal features are that it is made up of two or more people, there is dynamic interaction between the individuals, there is interdependency and a common goal, there are specific member roles or functions, and it has a limited life span [3] . A team is distinguished from a group by its role differentiation, but more importantly, by its distribution of cognitive load [4] . This article will specifically address dynamic teams dealing with high-stakes situations, which typically possess the characteristics of having defined tasks, but with an unstable membership.

There are many definitions of what constitutes a team, but the principal features are that it is made up of two or more people, there is dynamic interaction between the individuals, there is interdependency and a common goal, there are specific member roles or functions, and it has a limited life span.

A team is distinguished from a group by its role differentiation, but more importantly, by its distribution of cognitive load.


Contrary to the space-time spectral analysis, diagnostics by means of normal modes analyze the mass and wind field simultaneously. On output, the energy and variability related to each mode are quantified. Furthermore, a comparison between various datasets provides an uncertainty range of equatorial wave analysis, information important for improving climate models that have significant problems in simulating tropical intraseasonal variability (Lin et al. 2006) .

Furthermore, a comparison between various datasets provides an uncertainty range of equatorial wave analysis, information important for improving climate models that have significant problems in simulating tropical intraseasonal variability.


Unfortunately, despite our reliance on alias analysis and the tremendous efforts to improve it, today's production compilers still use the most rudimentary and imprecise alias analyses. For instance, the default alias analysis in LLVM for code generation, basicaa, simply collapses all address-taken variables into one abstract location; the default alias analysis in GCC is type-based and marks all variables of compatible types aliases. These imprecise analyses may cause compilers to generate inefficient code [28, 16] .

These imprecise analyses may cause compilers to generate inefficient code.


The Hasan hypothesis is intuitively sound. The working definitions for misconceptions and alternative conceptions state that these are strongly held conceptions that are not in line with accepted scientific thought (Hasan et al. 1999; Nakhleh, 1992) . The combination of high certainty of response with incorrect answers to conceptual test items, where distractors represent known alternative conceptions, can therefore be expected to signal the presence of such alternative conceptions. However, it is clear from the results discussed above that the extension of this thinking from individual responses to the collective responses of a group of students is problematic.

The working definitions for misconceptions and alternative conceptions state that these are strongly held conceptions that are not in line with accepted scientific thought.


Software maintenance is one of the most expensive activities that consume about 50-70 percent of the development cost [1] . Therefore, it is a very important activity that requires much attention. For this reason, people have attempted to find ways to minimize maintenance costs by introducing better development methodologies that can minimize the effects of change, simplify the understanding of programs, facilitate the early detection of faults, and so forth.

Software maintenance is one of the most expensive activities that consume about 50-70 percent of the development cost.


For θ>85 • we have made use of a pseudo-spherical extension of a two-stream radiative transfer solver, PIFM (Zdunkowski et al., 1980) . This results in a significant reduction in the errors as compared against a full spherical reference model. The errors on the resulting J values are generally of the order of ±2% for the middle and upper atmosphere. These increase up to ±40% below 20 km for certain species (notably O 3 and HNO 4 ) although the magnitude of such rates at these high zenith angles is so small that the effect of such errors on the chemical tracer fields is minimal.

For θ>85 • we have made use of a pseudo-spherical extension of a two-stream radiative transfer solver, PIFM.


These investigations suggested that AE SYM could admit an all loop solution for the renormalization flow of its composite operators. The reason for this peculiar internal integrability is the strong constraint imposed by the unbroken superconformal symmetry. Also, in agreement with AdS/CFT duality, the symmetry is further enhanced at tree level to the higher spin algebra hs´¾ ¾ µ. Its multiplets obey intricate recombination rules under the interacting subalgebra psu´¾ ¾ µ [16] .

Also, in agreement with AdS/CFT duality, the symmetry is further enhanced at tree level to the higher spin algebra hs´¾ ¾ µ. Its multiplets obey intricate recombination rules under the interacting subalgebra psu´¾ ¾ µ.


From these results, we have been able to provide closed expressions for the spin dependence of ´×µ up to the four loop level and including the contributions from the dressing phase. The expressions satisfy a rather simple and new transcendentality principle extending at twist-3 the KLOV idea [27] . As an application, we have computed the large × limit of ´×µ and checked that the four loop universal cusp anomalous dimension is reproduced.

The expressions satisfy a rather simple and new transcendentality principle extending at twist-3 the KLOV idea.


The first positive results are described in the seminal paper [11] . The one loop dilatation operator is computed in a closed so´ µ sector of scalar operators. It can be identified with the Hamiltonian of an integrable lattice model. Soon, the integrable structure could be extended to the full set of psu´¾ ¾ µ operators. Also, it appeared clear that integrability could work beyond one loop, with the coupling constant being a deformation parameter for the superconformal algebra representation [12, 13, 14, 15] .

The first positive results are described in the seminal paper.

Also, it appeared clear that integrability could work beyond one loop, with the coupling constant being a deformation parameter for the superconformal algebra representation.


Although, at first, the appearance of the dressing factor is rather discouraging, AdS/CFT duality comes to rescue. The AE SYM theory has a Ë ¢Ë string counterpart which is also classically integrable (and to some extent also at the quantum level) and where an all-order strong coupling expansion for the dressing is known. This is made possible by a combination of semiclassical string calculations and string integrability considerations, like crossing symmetry [40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45] .

This is made possible by a combination of semiclassical string calculations and string integrability considerations, like crossing symmetry.


As a final comment, we remark that twist-3 operators in QCD built out of quarks and gluon fields have a well-known phenomenological relevance in polarized DIS applications [7, 67, 68] . Here, we have considered the scalar sl´¾µ sector which is not necessarily related to the more QCD-like channels. However, we believe that the ideas presented in this paper will also be useful in other twist-3 sectors, possibly exploiting supersymmetry to partially connect different channels.

As a final comment, we remark that twist-3 operators in QCD built out of quarks and gluon fields have a well-known phenomenological relevance in polarized DIS applications.


The main result of this paper is a resolution of Kleitman's conjecture for all k and n. Additionally, for each a larger than the sum of the k − 1 largest binomial coefficients, we characterise all families of a sets that contain the smallest number of k-chains among all families of this size. In the case k = 2, such characterisation was obtained by Das, Gan, and Sudakov [3] . In order to state our result formally, we need one definition. We shall say that a family A of subsets of an n-element set Ω is centred if it satisfies the following: (i) If A ∈ A and B ⊆ Ω satisfy |B| − n/2 < |A| − n/2 , then B ∈ A.

In the case k = 2, such characterisation was obtained by Das, Gan, and Sudakov.


The purpose of investigative interviewing is to obtain evidence through correct and reliable information from suspects (Milne & Bull, 1999) . To achieve this, interview strategies usually center on the employment of active listening skills (Bull & Cherryman, 1996) . Although active listening behavior primarily aims at information gathering, it also serves a more relationship building purpose (Beune et al., 2009) . That is, by showing interest in the story of a suspect and by paying attention to him or her personally, a police officer may appear friendly and helpful. Consequently, the suspect may feel understood and comfortable (Holmberg & Christianson, 2002) . In support of this reasoning, research indeed confirms that active listening behavior is effective in stimulating both the information suspects provide and their perceived relationship with a police officer (Beune et al., 2009) .

The purpose of investigative interviewing is to obtain evidence through correct and reliable information from suspects.

To achieve this, interview strategies usually center on the employment of active listening skills.

Although active listening behavior primarily aims at information gathering, it also serves a more relationship building purpose.

Consequently, the suspect may feel understood and comfortable.

In support of this reasoning, research indeed confirms that active listening behavior is effective in stimulating both the information suspects provide and their perceived relationship with a police officer.


A video depicting a theft was shown to the participants with the instruction to imagine that they were the person committing the theft. The video was filmed from a first-person perspective to facilitate imagination and was modeled after a paradigm used in previous research (Beune et al., 2009) . In this paradigm, participants rob a biologist who asks them to fill out a food habit test. To motivate the participants in the current study, they were told that they could win an iPod depending on how "successful" (i.e., credible) they were. Success was said to be determined by an independent committee on the basis of their written responses and webcam recordings. However, in fact, all participants who completed the experiment were entered into a raffle for two iPods.

The video was filmed from a first-person perspective to facilitate imagination and was modeled after a paradigm used in previous research.


Depth-first and breadth-first model traversals share the overall recursive scheme of RAND (see Figure 1 ). They differ from RAND in recursion condition and successor selection. Both DFV and BFV maintain a queue of not yet visited edges, which plays the role of the selection of the successor node. DFV makes use of a LIFO queue, to ensure in-depth path exploration, while BFV makes use of a FIFO queue, to ensure in-breadth path exploration. The recursion condition used by RAND is replaced by a check for emptiness on the queues of nodes not yet visited: when no path remains to be explored in the LIFO/FIFO queue, DFV/BFV terminate their execution. The pseudocode of DFV and BFV is provided in our workshop paper [24] .

The pseudocode of DFV and BFV is provided in our workshop paper.


Extratropical impacts of the El NiDo-Southem Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon are now widely accepted (Glantz 1996) . In the atmosphere, ENSO has been related to temperature and precipitation anomalies, which, in extreme cases, can lead to disastrous flooding or droughts. The focus herein is to diagnose and associate changes in winter mean lower-and upper-tropospheric circulations to known ENSO-related precipitation anomalies over North America. Essential elements for the formation of extratropical precipitation include moisture, normally transported by low-level circulations, and upper-level dynamics, which modify vertical motions. Our primary objective is to identify regionally coherent changes in mean lower-and upper-tropospheric circulations and to discuss how these flow changes will impact moisture availability and dynamic lift over regions of anomalous winter precipitation. In addition, variance analysis determines which precipitation and circulation patterns are robust and evaluates the predictability of the extreme phase composites with respect to the climatology.

Extratropical impacts of the El NiDo-Southem Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon are now widely accepted.


China's construction sector is now crucial to the country's economic development, while competition has become significant and aggressive. Although China's construction market is fairly new, it is already the largest in the world in terms of development potential and profitability. China's government applies its central, provincial and local management model to regulate its construction industry. The Ministry of Construction is the main supervisor in the sector through the effective application of three major laws: construction law, contract law and tendering and bidding law. These regulations allow companies to operate as commercial entities, mainly through competitive bidding [1] .

These regulations allow companies to operate as commercial entities, mainly through competitive bidding.


Determination of the level of growth in China's construction industry has a political connotation [3] . In recent years, policy makers have repeatedly designed strategic programs to trigger growth at the central, provincial, and local levels. This research provides a theoretical framework and case study to explore the growth of China's construction industry at the provincial level.

Determination of the level of growth in China's construction industry has a political connotation.


Let τ = (T , F ) be a torsion theory. A submodule B of a module A is said to be τ-dense in A if A/B is τ-torsion (i.e. A/B ∈ T ). A submodule A of a module B is said to be τ-essential in B if it is τ-dense and essential in B. A torsion theory τ is said to be noetherian if for every ascending chain I 1 ⊆ I 2 ⊆ ... of left ideals of R with I ∞ = ∞ j=1 I j a τ-dense left ideal in R, there exists a positive integer n such that I n is τ-dense in R. A module M is said to be τ-injective if every homomorphism from a τ-dense submodule of B to M extends to a homomorphism from B to M, where B is any module. Let M be an R-module. A τ-injective envelope (or τ-injective hull) of M is a τ-injective module E which is a τ-essential extension of M [7] . Every R-module M has a τ-injective envelope and it is unique up to isomorphism [9] . We use the notation E τ (M) to stand for an τ-injective envelope of M. A τ-injective module E is said to be ∑-τ-injective if E (A) is τ-injective for any index set A; E is said to be countably ∑-τ-injective in case E (C) is τ-injective for any countable index set C. Let E and M be modules. Then E is said to be τ-M-injective if any homomorphism from a τ-dense submodule of M to E extends to a homomorphism from M to E. A module E is said to be τ-quasi-injective if E is τ-E-injective.

Let τ = (T , F ) be a torsion theory.

Let M be an R-module.

A τ-injective envelope (or τ-injective hull) of M is a τ-injective module E which is a τ-essential extension of M.

Every R-module M has a τ-injective envelope and it is unique up to isomorphism.


From this point of view, it would be very interesting to reduce the TAN content of the digestate. This TAN reduction can be achieved through biological, chemical or physical processes [12] . Biological processes, in which classical nitrification-denitrification is most often applied, are in fact removal techniques since they convert the ammonium present into nitrogen gas. Furthermore, the conditions for nitrification will also result in oxidation of the available organic carbon and thus will result in loss of biogas potential. Chemical and chemical-physical processes for ammonia removal can be rather classified as recovery techniques because they give rise to the precipitation of, e.g. struvite (MgNH 4 PO 4 ·6H 2 O) from raw digestate or its supernatant [13] . However, such recovery techniques have their drawbacks, such as high cost of chemicals and the need to strictly control the pH [14] . Another technique for ammonium recovery can be performed via a stripping and scrubbing process. Since the digestate of an anaerobic digestion has both a high temperature and a high TAN content, it is very suitable for ammonia stripping [15] . Ammonia stripping can be realized by using air, steam or biogas to separate the gaseous NH 3 from the liquid phase. The whole process depends on pH, temperature and mass transfer area. Next, the stripping gas, which is saturated with NH 3 , is brought into contact with an acid solution (usually sulphuric acid). When sulphuric acid is used to capture ammonia, an (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 solution is formed [16] . Optionally, the more expensive nitric acid can also be used to capture ammonia that will produce NH 4 NO 3 , which is however more interesting for fertilization.

This TAN reduction can be achieved through biological, chemical or physical processes.

Chemical and chemical-physical processes for ammonia removal can be rather classified as recovery techniques because they give rise to the precipitation of, e.g. struvite (MgNH 4 PO 4 ·6H 2 O) from raw digestate or its supernatant.

However, such recovery techniques have their drawbacks, such as high cost of chemicals and the need to strictly control the pH.

Since the digestate of an anaerobic digestion has both a high temperature and a high TAN content, it is very suitable for ammonia stripping.

When sulphuric acid is used to capture ammonia, an (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 solution is formed.


The anaerobic digestion of organic waste is generally considered as one of the most sustainable technologies to produce renewable energy. The biogas produced can replace conventional fuels to generate heat and power [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] . Anaerobic digestion is a natural microbial process in which microorganisms break down complex organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Although it is generally considered a two-phase process, it can be subdivided into various metabolic steps with the participation of several microbial groups, namely hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acidification and finally methanogenesis in which methane is formed [6] . The final product, biogas, is a mixture of methane (50-75%), carbon dioxide (25-50%) and other trace gases such as nitrogen (0-10%), hydrogen (0-1%), hydrogen sulphide (0-3%) and traces of oxygen [7] . Due to the presence of rigid and not readily degradable material, the digestion process proceeds sometimes slowly, which requires a long residence time (even up to 30 days) in the digester [8] . Even with these residence times, the conversion efficiency varies around 70-90%. In some cases, however, only approximately 50% of the total organic dry matter is converted into biogas, indicating that the digestate still contains a substantial amount of organic matter [8, 9] .

The biogas produced can replace conventional fuels to generate heat and power.

Although it is generally considered a two-phase process, it can be subdivided into various metabolic steps with the participation of several microbial groups, namely hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acidification and finally methanogenesis in which methane is formed.

The final product, biogas, is a mixture of methane (50-75%), carbon dioxide (25-50%) and other trace gases such as nitrogen (0-10%), hydrogen (0-1%), hydrogen sulphide (0-3%) and traces of oxygen.

Due to the presence of rigid and not readily degradable material, the digestion process proceeds sometimes slowly, which requires a long residence time (even up to 30 days) in the digester.

In some cases, however, only approximately 50% of the total organic dry matter is converted into biogas, indicating that the digestate still contains a substantial amount of organic matter.


The biogas sector in Flanders (Belgium) is currently under pressure due to the reduction of governmental grants and the recent decrease in electricity prices. Intervention in the digestion process leading to a higher biogas production efficiency is one of the primary measures to reduce costs, to further expand the sector and thus to stimulate green energy production by means of biogas. There are two main technical reasons for the limited conversion efficiency that needs to be addressed: (1) the limited conversion of organic material into biogas due to the presence of hardly biodegradable material and (2) the inhibition of the digestion process due to the presence of an increased concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen in the digester, as organically bound nitrogen is released as ammonium during anaerobic digestion. High concentrations (1.7-6.7 g L −1 ) of total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) inhibit or are even toxic for methanogen bacteria which can cause a decrease in biogas production [10, 11] .

High concentrations (1.7-6.7 g L −1 ) of total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) inhibit or are even toxic for methanogen bacteria which can cause a decrease in biogas production.


Tubers infected with M. phaseolina were collected from the fresh produce market in Pretoria and sclerotia were not visible on tuber surfaces. It is common practice by farmers to remove most of these propagules from the tuber surface during the rotary barrel brush washing process to improve skin shine (Peters and Wiltshire 2006) . Sclerotia on potato tubers have always been associated with black scurf of Rhizoctonia solani (Fiers et al. 2010; Muzhinji et al. 2015) . The sclerotia produced by virulent strains of M. phaseolina can be confused with those of R. solani. The confusion may result in serious disease management implications where growers implement wrong control strategies due to wrong diagnosis.

It is common practice by farmers to remove most of these propagules from the tuber surface during the rotary barrel brush washing process to improve skin shine.

Sclerotia on potato tubers have always been associated with black scurf of Rhizoctonia solani.


The buffer material, as one of the most important components in the engineered barrier system (EBS), is the last line of defense between waste container and host rock, and will be subjected to high temperature due to heat emitted by the waste and hydration by water coming from the adjacent rocks (Gens et al., 2010) . The buffer material is designed to stabilize the repository excavation damaged zone (EDZ) during tunneling in conjunction of the coupled thermo-hydromechano-chemical (THMC) conditions, and to provide low permeability and long-term retardation of contaminant movement (Wang, 2010) . A bentonite-based material is often proposed or considered as a possible buffer material for the isolation of the HLW. To guarantee the long-term safety of the engineered barrier, it is necessary to understand the coupled THMC behaviors of bentonite under simulative geological disposal conditions, and subsequently to reveal the property changes of the bentonite over a long period of time.

The buffer material, as one of the most important components in the engineered barrier system (EBS), is the last line of defense between waste container and host rock, and will be subjected to high temperature due to heat emitted by the waste and hydration by water coming from the adjacent rocks.

The buffer material is designed to stabilize the repository excavation damaged zone (EDZ) during tunneling in conjunction of the coupled thermo-hydromechano-chemical (THMC) conditions, and to provide low permeability and long-term retardation of contaminant movement.


Using the event study method, our dependent variable is the abnormal returns generated on the day of an announcement. Event studies assess the reaction of the financial markets to announcements of new information by a firm in terms of a rise or fall in share price over and above the normal expected behavior of that share. Underpinning the event study methodology is the semi-efficient market hypothesis, which argues that all publicly available information that offers insight into the present and future performance of a share is promptly digested by the market (Fama, 1991) . Returns in excess of market performance should not persist beyond the short term required to assimilate the new information (typically a day).

Underpinning the event study methodology is the semi-efficient market hypothesis, which argues that all publicly available information that offers insight into the present and future performance of a share is promptly digested by the market.


We go further than testing for a general bias against exploration; we also look for a bias against smaller firms undertaking such work. Some argue that small firms are not suited to undertake risky R&D requiring substantial knowledge and financial resources. The lack of scale and scope in smaller firms may cause them to be less efficient than larger firms in the drug R&D process . However, small firms may have a comparative advantage in early stage R&D because they are nimble and flexible (Powell, 1998) .

However, small firms may have a comparative advantage in early stage R&D because they are nimble and flexible.


How does a manager decide which customer will generate the most contribution to fixed costs, and subsequently most positively impact profits? Strategies need to be multi-faceted as different demand periods have different demand patterns. For example, in major European cities the month of August is quiet, with few trade fairs, and consequently leisure customers have a wide variety of choice of where to stay, making the competitive arena extremely tough. In cases like these price becomes the tool to attract business to generate at least a contribution to fixed costs (Guilding et al, 2005) . The customer that is most valuable in this case would be where the highest net rate is achieved (rate less commission, booking fees etc.), where the least hotel resources are utilized, where the spend on extras is highest and where the bill is settled in cash. Alternatively in trade fair periods, the best customer may be the customer that is paying a high rate, has booked directly, requires few hotel services or amenities, does not have breakfast (although included in the rate) recycles the towels and leaves the room in a tidy state.

In cases like these price becomes the tool to attract business to generate at least a contribution to fixed costs.


We followed the patients for one year, by means of telephone calls every third month. Time periods of three months seems to be a reasonable time for recollection of falls in such a population and has been used in other studies [14] . Also, telephone calls every third month has showed to have good agreement when compared to falls calendars [32] . It should be pointed out that none of the included patients had any obvious communicative impairment.

Time periods of three months seems to be a reasonable time for recollection of falls in such a population and has been used in other studies.

Also, telephone calls every third month has showed to have good agreement when compared to falls calendars.


In section 4 we consider backgrounds with line bundles [13, 24, 30, 39, [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] . In this case the Bianchi identity is satisfied by Abelian Yang-Mills fluxes on internal K3 two-cycles. The fluxes are characterized by their group theoretical embedding inside the Cartan subalgebra of E 8 × E 8 and the localization inside the second cohomology lattice of K3. Using a vanishing theorem we show that the resulting effective action is consistent with 6D supergravity in that the scalar potential descends from a D-term. We determine the couplings of the matter fields in terms of K3-moduli dependent integrals. The Abelian factors of the gauge bundle are also part of the unbroken gauge group and the fluxes affect the effective action in two ways. First of all, the scalars descending from the heterotic B-field get affinely gauged under the Abelian factors. Due to the Stückelberg mechanism this is equivalent to the Abelian gauge bosons becoming massive. Second of all, in the scalar potential the (selfdual components of the) fluxes appear as FayetIliopoulos D-terms, leading to a stabilization of s subset of the K3 moduli. Together, for every independent gauge flux a vector multiplet and a hypermultiplet gain a non-zero mass, consistent with the 6D anomaly constraint.

In section 4 we consider backgrounds with line bundles.


Chemomi tea factory (CTF) was established in 1950's and produces several tea grades for the export market. Since then, the factory has expanded its production over the years to meet the demand in export and now produces 6,600 tonnes per annum [1] . This has led to doubling in water usage during the factory cleaning procedures, hence large volumes of effluent wastewater are discharged per day (from 10 m 3 to 20 m 3 ). At the present the biological wastewater treatment facility is unable to remove colour from the tea effluent and this has been a major issue in the whole tea industry, i.e. not only the Chemomi tea factory in Kenya.

Since then, the factory has expanded its production over the years to meet the demand in export and now produces 6,600 tonnes per annum.


CYP2C9 polymorphisms give rise to inter-individual and interethnic variability in the metabolism and disposition of several therapeutic agents. CYP2C9 polymorphisms may cause differences in the clinical response to these drugs. CYP2C9 various forms include CYP2C9*1 (wild type) and two well-characterized SNPs, an arginine-tocysteine change at codon 144 (Arg144Cys, CYP2C9*2), and isoleucine-to-leucine change at codon 359 (Ile359-Leu, CYP2C9*3). CYP2C9*4 (an isoleucine-to-threonine change at codon 359 and CYP2C9*5 (an aspartic acid-toglutamic acid change at codon 360) as well as other polymorphisms have been also reported in different populations. Patients who have variant alleles of CYP2C9 require, for example, reduced maintenance doses of warfarin compared to those having wild type-alleles [12] . The *2/*2 homozygous variant leads to a reduction of approximately 12% of CYP2C9 activity and the *3/*3 homozygous variant has < 5% of wild type CYP2C9 activity [13] . The *2 and *3 alleles, have been associated with an increased risk of warfarin over anticoagulation and bleeding events [14] . Alternate genotypes composed of 1 or more low-activity alleles also may account for the difficult-to control anticoagulation status in some patients [15] . The accumulated evidence suggests that the CYP2C9 genotype has been used to develop warfarindosing algorithms to avoid the morbidity associated with over anticoagulation [10] . Earlier studies have indicated differences in CYP2C9 enzyme activity may exist not only between the major races but also among different Caucasians populations. Consequently, further studies on different Caucasian ethnic groups are needed to provide relevant genotypic data for each population. To our knowledge, this is the first study that reports different CYP2C9*2,*3,*4, and *5 genotypes in the Lebanese population (White Caucasians). Frequencies of CYP2C9 genotype polymorphisms resulted very high, showing a higher frequency of CYP 2C9 homozygous extensive metabolisers (*1/*1) compared to other Caucasians i.e., Southern Europe (Table  3) . Additionally, CYP2C9*5 allele frequency was not found among the Lebanese study sample.

Patients who have variant alleles of CYP2C9 require, for example, reduced maintenance doses of warfarin compared to those having wild type-alleles.

The *2/*2 homozygous variant leads to a reduction of approximately 12% of CYP2C9 activity and the *3/*3 homozygous variant has < 5% of wild type CYP2C9 activity.

The *2 and *3 alleles, have been associated with an increased risk of warfarin over anticoagulation and bleeding events.

Alternate genotypes composed of 1 or more low-activity alleles also may account for the difficult-to control anticoagulation status in some patients.

The accumulated evidence suggests that the CYP2C9 genotype has been used to develop warfarindosing algorithms to avoid the morbidity associated with over anticoagulation.


The establishment of continuous flow bioreactors usually starts in batch mode, and it is to note that successful transition and reliable, long-term operation is highly influenced by the start-up strategy applied [12] [13] [14] . However, up to the authors' best knowledge, there is no recent review paper comprehensively surveying start-up experiences in continuous hydrogen producing bioreactors. Hence, in this work, the experiences gained and lessons learned from batch to continuous shifts are reviewed and suggestions are given to achieve proper continuous operation.

The establishment of continuous flow bioreactors usually starts in batch mode, and it is to note that successful transition and reliable, long-term operation is highly influenced by the start-up strategy applied.


The study is based on the three surveys of relevant legislation available through WHO reports [27, 28, 41] . By combining these data, the legal situation in 90 countries and territories in all parts of the world could be studied. These countries/territories represent a great variety in terms of social, cultural, historical, political, economic, demographic, epidemiologic and health care aspects.

The study is based on the three surveys of relevant legislation available through WHO reports.


One previously raised hypothesis was that compulsory commitment would decrease in countries that emphasize political rights and civil liberties [12, 17] . This study shows that civil liberties and political rights were not significantly related to CCC (of any type). Most countries that are rated high on these scales seem to hold on to their legislation on compulsory commitment.

One previously raised hypothesis was that compulsory commitment would decrease in countries that emphasize political rights and civil liberties.


Both positions described by Durkheim, i.e. repression vs restitution, are illustrated with regard to the international handling of substance misuse [1] . Although there has been a growing international consensus to criminalize misuse of drugs and more intensive efforts are being made to combine forces against drug trafficking, WHO has favoured looking at individual misusers as sick and recommended that their problems should primarily be handled within national health and welfare services rather than under criminal justice. The tension between repression vs restitution is perhaps best illustrated in the involuntary care of misusers.

Both positions described by Durkheim, i.e. repression vs restitution, are illustrated with regard to the international handling of substance misuse.


The WHO recommendations to member states in the last 40 years have been for persons dependent on alcohol and/or other drugs to be recognized as sick; that treatment for dependence on alcohol and other drugs should, as far as possible, be integrated with other health and welfare services; and that treatment and rehabilitation should, if necessary, be ensured by civil commitment of alcohol-or drug-dependent persons to medical authorities, which should provide direction and supervision of the care from initial diagnosis to rehabilitation. Although WHO recommends voluntary treatment as preferable to mandated treatment, the latter is also seen as an acceptable option to secure treatment when such is needed. WHO states that compulsory commitment should "be governed by the same principles which apply to the overall health care system: human dignity, equity, solidarity, targeted on health, focused on quality" [41] . In line with this, WHO has since 1967 recommended that the framing of legislation on compulsory care should not be under criminal law but under civil commitment law (social or mental health laws). The study shows that this recommendation has not yet been fulfilled.

WHO states that compulsory commitment should "be governed by the same principles which apply to the overall health care system: human dignity, equity, solidarity, targeted on health, focused on quality".


From these short glimpses of the CCC history, one may get the impression that alcohol or drug related epidemics seem to fuel demands for compulsory care legislation that is then abolished or softened during more libertarian periods, but again called for in times of new epidemic outbreaks. However, other factors may be just as or more important for this process, such as demographics, or welfare ambitions and the resources of the society to implement them. Treatmentif professional -is expensive and alcoholics or addicts who do not request and sometimes reject treatment is less likely to get priority when a society is short of resources and has to feed a large population outside the labour force, e.g. with large populations under-aged, or retired, or disabled. Even in a fairly rich country like Sweden, the economic crises during the 1990s struck hard against the treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts, including compulsory care [22] .

Even in a fairly rich country like Sweden, the economic crises during the 1990s struck hard against the treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts, including compulsory care.


In the last decade, many hemostatic agents have been proposed to facilitate hemostasis in severe bleeding [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] . The ideal hemostatic agent would be easy to use, highly effective, biocompatible, durable and inexpensive. One of the most attractive hemostatic agents is Quikclot, which had been used for many years by the U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for stabilizing life-threatening injuries [8] [9] [10] . There are still other inorganic hemostatics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as clay-based hemostatic Woundstat, which also show high survival in lethal extremity arterial hemorrhage [11] . However, significant endothelial and transmural damage was observed in wound treated vessels with thrombi and embedded Woundstat residues [12] . The U.S. Army halted the use of Woundstat powder designed for bleeding control only months after approving it. There are no such concerns for zeolite-based granular materials, such as Quikclot, which is one of the most popular hemostatic agents on the market. Quikclot can be externally applied directly to any wound in the field, by individuals with minimal medical training, to improve survival and reduce the complications of early blood loss.

In the last decade, many hemostatic agents have been proposed to facilitate hemostasis in severe bleeding.

One of the most attractive hemostatic agents is Quikclot, which had been used for many years by the U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for stabilizing life-threatening injuries.

There are still other inorganic hemostatics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as clay-based hemostatic Woundstat, which also show high survival in lethal extremity arterial hemorrhage.

However, significant endothelial and transmural damage was observed in wound treated vessels with thrombi and embedded Woundstat residues.


The results suggest that agility is not simply one of speed abilities. Besides simple reaction speed, acceleration, deceleration accompanied by the change of direction of movement, it comprises also perceptual components determined by complex reaction to unexpected, changeable stimuli occurring during a sport game. Training to develop speed and ability would therefore appear to demand a high degree of neuromuscular specificity. Perceptual components that underpin speed and agility must also be accounted for when developing these qualities, which include also anticipation and decision-making. These constraints will be specific to the sport and playing position. Exhibition of both speed and agility in team sports occurs in response to game situations. It follows that perception-action coupling and decisionmaking are critical elements in terms of developing the ability to express speed and agility capabilities under match conditions. When developing speed and agility, coaches should apply one of the two possible approaches: one approach involves relatively closed skill practice of movement mechanics, often using specialised commercially available equipment such as ladders, mini-hurdles and resistance belts, others advocate a more open skill approach in which agility movements are conducted in a training environment that is less structured and thereby closer to match conditions (Bloomfield et al., 2007) .

When developing speed and agility, coaches should apply one of the two possible approaches: one approach involves relatively closed skill practice of movement mechanics, often using specialised commercially available equipment such as ladders, mini-hurdles and resistance belts, others advocate a more open skill approach in which agility movements are conducted in a training environment that is less structured and thereby closer to match conditions.


In team sports two concepts of agility development are known (Bloomfield et al., 2007) . The first one represents training of movement mechanics, where relatively closed skills are employed. Specialized commercially available tools (coordination ladders, mini-obstacles etc.) are frequently used in the training of agility. However, this concept does not include the important component of decision-making and complex reaction. The other concept represents agility development with relatively open skills, where fast changes of direction of movement are executed in training conditions, which are not structured so much and therefore are similar to the match conditions. This implies that agility development in sport games is very important for the optimization of sport preparation of players. Coaches in training should focus on the training means carried out in the development of the speed-strength potential in anaerobic regime, where adaptation begins also as a result of these means executed in maximal as well as submaximal zone of intensity of loading.

In team sports two concepts of agility development are known.


The complexity of efficient energy resource use in urban planning of a developing nation requires an innovative approach to optimize utilization of renewable energy resources and technologies especially in the context of countries unique profiles. Many developed country integrate energy in urban development policies, at least in principle. The European Commission, for example, recognizes the importance of integrated planning within the broader agenda of sustainable urban development [13] . Similarly, the participation of developing countries is also a need to undertake green energy initiatives in order to reduce long-term CO 2 emissions without compromising economic prosperity and environmental sustainability [14, 15] . Many developing countries, like Bangladesh, currently set their priority on green growth trends with a focus on urban energy adaptation to climate change [16, 17] .

The European Commission, for example, recognizes the importance of integrated planning within the broader agenda of sustainable urban development.

Similarly, the participation of developing countries is also a need to undertake green energy initiatives in order to reduce long-term CO 2 emissions without compromising economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.

Many developing countries, like Bangladesh, currently set their priority on green growth trends with a focus on urban energy adaptation to climate change.


Despite several studies had used fixed amount of internal standard to achieve accurate quantitation of different analytes by using MALDI-TOF MS, this is the first time the extent of signal reduction from fixed amount of internal standard is reported. Based on the results of this study, the cause for the unexpected decrease on the internal standard signals could not be explained by the choice of internal standard, any defect associated with the desorption/ionization of the internal standard, and the detection of the internal standard ion. A possible explanation for the reduction of internal standard signals could be some of its molecular ions are discharged as a result of encountering ions with the opposite charge, and/or colliding with a conductive surface within the MALDI ion source [28] . Nevertheless, it is important to realize the unexpected signal reduction represents a limitation on using quantitative MALDI-TOF MS to monitor the changes on the concentrations of two different compounds in a chemical or biological system, especially when their corresponding signals were directly compared. This limitation, however, is not applicable when one of the two compounds of interests is at a constant level and the ratio of the two corresponding signals is used to monitor the changes on the other compound.

A possible explanation for the reduction of internal standard signals could be some of its molecular ions are discharged as a result of encountering ions with the opposite charge, and/or colliding with a conductive surface within the MALDI ion source.


A brief outline of the paper is as follows. We construct a realistic 5D model in Section 2, and show that it can predict a radion mass far below 10 GeV in Section 3. We calculate the coupling of the radion to standard model particles in Section 4. Special attention is given to the coupling to massless gauge bosons, and we review how this coupling is actually model dependent [14] . This model dependence can drastically modify the light radion search limits. The couplings to photons and gluons are important since they can lead to large nucleon couplings [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] . Readers only interested in the phenomenological aspects can skip directly to section 5 where we discuss the experimental constraints on very light radions, particularly from astrophysical observations. We close out by presenting some brief conclusions and give a summary plot of the open window in section 6. We also provide a brief review of 5D theories with bulk gauge bosons in Appendix A, and provide examples of benchmark 5D models with parameter values consistent with a very light radion in Appendix B.

Special attention is given to the coupling to massless gauge bosons, and we review how this coupling is actually model dependent.

The couplings to photons and gluons are important since they can lead to large nucleon couplings.


The MapReduce model of computation has been formalized and studied in recent work by Karloff, Suri and Vassilvitskii [39] . This work introduces a new complexity class that captures the power of the model and relates it to known models of parallel computation, including PRAMs and NC circuits. The authors also present new MapReduce algorithms for frequency counts, undirected s-t connectivity and for computing the minimum spanning tree of a dense graph.

The MapReduce model of computation has been formalized and studied in recent work by Karloff, Suri and Vassilvitskii.


In centralized WSN, data from the sensor nodes are transmitted to a single central location, which processes information and combines and provides information acquisition for endusers (i.e., customers) [7] . Due to the high data availability and massive network size, processing of data on a single location might be inefficient, congested, and undertaking a high risk at single entity failure. In the distributed networks, the sensor nodes can retrieve, process, and provide data for other entities and end-users. Figure 1 provides an overview of the distributed IoT approach, which allows the communication among the edge devices, end-users, and IoT server cloud.

In centralized WSN, data from the sensor nodes are transmitted to a single central location, which processes information and combines and provides information acquisition for endusers (i.e., customers).


A stepwise LDA was then used to identify the variables with the highest capability to discriminate the cultivars used in this work. As a result, eleven variables were selected as the most discriminant predictors for sample classification (BE_100SW, BE_E, Be_Le, BE_MY, BE_PL, BE_SL, BE_Wi, CL_L, JU_TA, LE_PLCMVL and SH_I_L). According to PCA analysis, these variables obtained their highest loadings in the first 5 retained PCs, and they represent diverse shoot, leaf, cluster, berry and juice traits ( Table 1) , suggesting that the different plant organs evaluated in this work harbor independent information of our set of cultivars for their successful discrimination. In fact, the discriminant model was able to classify correctly 100% of samples in their original cultivar class in both direct and leave-one-out cross-validation approaches (data not shown), confirming the high discriminant capability of these variables. Considering PCA and stepwise-LDA results, a reduced set of variables was then selected to evaluate their clustering capability (Table 1) . For their selection, only the 11 variables identified by the stepwise-LDA approach were considered, and only one variable per PC were selected. If two (or more) variables were found to be linked to the same PC, the variable that was first selected by the stepwise-LDA analysis was prioritized. As a result, the variables SH_I_L (representing PC-1), BE_E (PC-2), Be_Wi (PC-3), BE_100SW (PC-4) and JU_TA (PC-5) were finally selected. These variables not only represent different and independent variance segments, but also highly appreciated traits for table grape consumers and growers, including berry size, shape and seediness (BE_100SW, BE_E and Be_Wi), grape composition (JU_TA) and plant vigor (SH_I_L) (Dragincic et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2017; Zhou et al. 2015) . In fact, these are key parameters usually considered in table grape breeding programs for the development of new premium varieties (Wei et al. 2002) .

These variables not only represent different and independent variance segments, but also highly appreciated traits for table grape consumers and growers, including berry size, shape and seediness (BE_100SW, BE_E and Be_Wi), grape composition (JU_TA) and plant vigor (SH_I_L).

In fact, these are key parameters usually considered in table grape breeding programs for the development of new premium varieties.


In an Internet of Things scenario, assets would have a permanent connection to the internet themselves, rather than through a hub in the transportation vehicle. This allows the owner of the assets to be independent of the transporter. While this connection can in theory be a cellular data connection, in practice the energy requirements for such connections limit its applicability only to assets that are large enough to carry additional batteries for this connection. Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) propose to reduce the energy requirement of the mobile data connection, albeit at reduced data rates [7] .

Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) propose to reduce the energy requirement of the mobile data connection, albeit at reduced data rates.


The fitted model indicates underweight is significantly associated with stunting (P-value< 0.001). It also shows underweight and wasting are significantly interrelated (Pvalue< 0.001). These two findings are in line with previous studies conducted by Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky [13, 14] . In addition, this result is agreed on the fact that underweight is a composite measure of stunting and wasting [20, 21] . The fitted model indicates stunting and wasting are not interrelated (P-value = 0.999). This findings is consistent with studies done by Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky [13, 14] . Furthermore, the fitted model reveals there is no a three way interaction among stunting, wasting and underweight (P-value = 1.000). This finding is also coincides with the findings of Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky [13, 14] . The lack of three way interaction indicates that stunting, wasting and underweight have statistically valid multidimensional nature.

These two findings are in line with previous studies conducted by Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky.

In addition, this result is agreed on the fact that underweight is a composite measure of stunting and wasting.

This findings is consistent with studies done by Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky.

This finding is also coincides with the findings of Ngwira, Gupta and Borkotoky.


Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) has set ambitious goal to reduce CO 2 emission by 50% in 2050 as compared to the level of 1990. CO 2 capture technology is important for meeting the target. Post-combustion CO 2 capture with chemical absorption is the most matured CO 2 capture technology. As such, it is considered a low-risk technology and a promising near-term option for large-scale CO 2 capture (MacDowell et al., 2010) .

As such, it is considered a low-risk technology and a promising near-term option for large-scale CO 2 capture.


Increasing intake of dietary antioxidant may help to maintain an adequate antioxidant status and, therefore, the normal physiological functions of a living system. Some functional foods, vegetables, fruits, whole-grain cereals, wine and infusions are good sources of exogenous antioxidants (Ignat, Volf, & Popa, 2011) . These foodstuff and beverages include in its composition exogenous antioxidants such as vitamins (A, E and C), phenolic compounds (gallic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid and sinapic acid), flavonoids (quercetin and rutin), minerals (selenium and zinc) or proteins (transferrin, ceruloplasmin and albumin).

Some functional foods, vegetables, fruits, whole-grain cereals, wine and infusions are good sources of exogenous antioxidants.


Given the strength of the association between the segmentation variable and alcohol use, it is clearly important to also involve adolescents themselves in interventions. This is backed up by findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing the effects of a parent intervention, an adolescent intervention and a combined intervention [38] . Only the combined intervention showed a significant effect on the reduction of weekly and heavy weekly drinking.

This is backed up by findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing the effects of a parent intervention, an adolescent intervention and a combined intervention.


In the last few decades interest has turned from the conventional petrol based polymers to biodegradable polymers. This attention is due to the fact that some of these biodegradable polymers can be biobased while the conventional plastics are petrol based. Furthermore, the degradation feature of these biodegradable polymers also carries great advantage in contrast with the low recycled ratio of the mass plastics like polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP). Besides these advantages the products made from biodegradable polymers can be fit in the natural recycling processes [1] [2] [3] [4] . Among the bio-based products, most of the research has been made on starch. Starch is a renewable feedstock, which can be found all over the world in significant amounts in agricultural plants like maize, wheat, potato, rice, pea, etc. Based on the experience in the food processing industry, thermoplastic starch (TPS) was developed by disrupting starch granules with the help of heat and shearing action [5] [6] [7] [8] . TPS can be further processed with slightly modified equipment like ordinary plastics, however, its drawbacks like low mechanical properties, quick ageing feature, and low water resistant properties made it only adequate for blends mostly in combination with another biodegradable polymer [9] [10] [11] [12] . Nowadays the TPS/PCL (polycaprolactone) blend is mostly used for disposable shopping bags.

Besides these advantages the products made from biodegradable polymers can be fit in the natural recycling processes.

Based on the experience in the food processing industry, thermoplastic starch (TPS) was developed by disrupting starch granules with the help of heat and shearing action.

TPS can be further processed with slightly modified equipment like ordinary plastics, however, its drawbacks like low mechanical properties, quick ageing feature, and low water resistant properties made it only adequate for blends mostly in combination with another biodegradable polymer.