This article is based on a larger study done by the Western Norwegian Research Institute from 2008 to 2010 for Research Council Norway [6] . The project's objective was to establish a consistent energy and emissions database for passenger and freight transport. The database includes vehicles for road, sea and air transport and also includes both conventional and alternative energy sources and fuels. Vehicle passenger transport is distributed on main travel categories. Since passenger car transport represents a considerable share of total transport environmental impact, it is very difficult to achieve a reduction in energy consumption and a mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions without a substantial contribution from passenger car transport.

This article is based on a larger study done by the Western Norwegian Research Institute from 2008 to 2010 for Research Council Norway.


In addition, we produce estimates for greenhouse gas emissions. These include include carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), hydro-and perfluorocarbons (HFCs, PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 ). The decay period for all gases is assumed to be 100 years [21] .

The decay period for all gases is assumed to be 100 years.


The term gross direct energy consumption includes the net direct energy consumption plus the energy it takes to produce this energy. Together they constitute the life cycle of the fuel. This includes all energy losses and emissions in the production, conversion and distribution of energy. We use the term primary energy to indicate that energy required for conversion of energy sources into end-use energy is taken into consideration. This type of study was initially referred to as fuel chain or energy chain analysis of transportation energy consumption [22] . Recently it has become more common to describe it as Well-to-Wheel (WtW) analysis-a sort of cradle-to-grave analysis of transportation energy consumption. For passenger cars, this is equal to the gross direct energy chain, which consists of 1. Extraction/production of the energy source; 2. Transportation of the energy source; 3. Production of the energy carrier (fuel, electricity); 4. Distribution of the energy carrier; 5. The net direct energy consumption, this is the energy applied for passenger car propulsion.

This type of study was initially referred to as fuel chain or energy chain analysis of transportation energy consumption.

Transportation of the energy source; 3.

Distribution of the energy carrier; 5.


We then proceeded to examine in detail a few attack traces which anontool did not anonymize. Most of these traces contained a remote root exploit for the Knox Arkiea Server [6] . This exploit does not connect back to any host, and thus its payload does not contain any sensitive information. We do not include any regular expressions for this kind of shellcode in our tool, since by definition it lacks any sensitive information that could expose an innocent host to attackers, and thus can be shared without any risk.

Most of these traces contained a remote root exploit for the Knox Arkiea Server.


The technical evolution in the automotive industry has been mainly regulatory-driven. Specifically, within the last decades engine emissions have been reduced significantly adopting new aftertreatment strategies [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] . To this purpose, a host of investigations has been focused on oxidation catalysts (OC), diesel particulate filters (DPF), lean NO x traps (LNT), lean NO x catalysts (LNC), and selective catalytic reductions (SCR) [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] . Nevertheless, further improvements are necessary to meet the more and more stringent exhaust regulations, to improve the energetic effectiveness of modern emission control systems and to balance costs and fuel economy benefits.

Specifically, within the last decades engine emissions have been reduced significantly adopting new aftertreatment strategies.

To this purpose, a host of investigations has been focused on oxidation catalysts (OC), diesel particulate filters (DPF), lean NO x traps (LNT), lean NO x catalysts (LNC), and selective catalytic reductions (SCR).


The DPF are very effective in reducing PM emissions. Specifically, DPF temperature should be raised at approximately 550-600 °C in order to oxidize the trapped PM at a sufficient rate. As a consequence, a fuel penalty is associated with the regeneration process (also known as desoot) that ranges from 3 to 4.5%, depending on the desoot frequency regeneration [20, 21] .

As a consequence, a fuel penalty is associated with the regeneration process (also known as desoot) that ranges from 3 to 4.5%, depending on the desoot frequency regeneration.


Nowadays, for the lean burn engine, energy efficient technologies to simultaneously remove particulate matters (PM), CO, NO x , and HC are not available, and an integration of different systems is necessary [13] [14] [15] . Furthermore, the aftertreatment systems often require supplemental fuel to assure the proper thermal level for reliable processes and, as a consequence, a non-negligible fuel penalty and a deleterious impact on engine efficiency are produced [13, 14] . As an example, high temperatures are required to regenerate diesel particulate filters, to initiate and to sustain light-off condition for oxidation catalysts and to permit the desulfurization process for lean NO x traps [14, 16] .

Nowadays, for the lean burn engine, energy efficient technologies to simultaneously remove particulate matters (PM), CO, NO x , and HC are not available, and an integration of different systems is necessary.

Furthermore, the aftertreatment systems often require supplemental fuel to assure the proper thermal level for reliable processes and, as a consequence, a non-negligible fuel penalty and a deleterious impact on engine efficiency are produced.

As an example, high temperatures are required to regenerate diesel particulate filters, to initiate and to sustain light-off condition for oxidation catalysts and to permit the desulfurization process for lean NO x traps.


The exhaust gas temperature is set equal to 200 °C while the initial solid temperature is 700 °C. This operating condition simulates the exhaust gas at low engine load after a long period of high load operation [14] . The analysis put in evidence the significant influence of time on the temperature distribution within the emission control system. The pellet packed bed system guarantees higher temperature values than the monolith one. However, the temperature differences between the two designs tend to reduce with the operating time and become negligible after 100 seconds. At this time, an increase by nearly 66 °C is registered in the rear part of both systems, due to the contribution of unburned HC oxidation. As far as the gas temperature is concerned, a similar behavior is observed. To this purpose, previous works showed that temperature differences between the solid and gas phase are low and reduce with the operating time [39, 40] .

This operating condition simulates the exhaust gas at low engine load after a long period of high load operation.

To this purpose, previous works showed that temperature differences between the solid and gas phase are low and reduce with the operating time.


Supercritical assisted atomization (SAA) is an efficient technique that has been used to produce microparticles and coprecipitates of several kinds of compounds: active molecules, proteins, and polymers [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] . Indeed, during SAA process, droplets formation takes place. These droplets contain both compounds and, usually, selecting proper carrier/drug weigh ratios; it is possible to obtain polymeric matrix in which the active compound is uniformly dispersed [21] .

Supercritical assisted atomization (SAA) is an efficient technique that has been used to produce microparticles and coprecipitates of several kinds of compounds: active molecules, proteins, and polymers.

These droplets contain both compounds and, usually, selecting proper carrier/drug weigh ratios; it is possible to obtain polymeric matrix in which the active compound is uniformly dispersed.


Due to the rod like character of the (1→3)(1→2)-β-D-Glucan strands and their unwinding observed at 13.16 pH, a helical conformation was assigned [20] . The conformation of scleroglucan is also widely accepted as a rod-like triple helix [21, 22] . However, in view of the TM-AFM images, Figure 2 , and keeping in mind the repeating units of both biopolymers, it can be concluded that the strands of (1→3)(1→2)-β-D-Glucan are more stiff than those of scleroglucan.

Due to the rod like character of the (1→3)(1→2)-β-D-Glucan strands and their unwinding observed at 13.16 pH, a helical conformation was assigned.

The conformation of scleroglucan is also widely accepted as a rod-like triple helix.


Most of behavioral experiments developed by intelligent robots in recent years require the demonstration of the task in strictly defined and controlled experimental conditions. However, to be able to handle the complexity of dynamically changing and unpredictable scenarios, as in service robotics, it is important to design robots capable to adapt to such dynamic environments. Cognitive robotics, which takes inspiration from studies on human cognition and neuroscience, can help the design of intelligent robots able to handle complex, dynamic tasks [4] .

Cognitive robotics, which takes inspiration from studies on human cognition and neuroscience, can help the design of intelligent robots able to handle complex, dynamic tasks.


While benefits in cardiovascular function and protection from I/R-damage are evident following high-intensity regular aerobic exercise, a primary consideration when prescribing exercise to populations with T1DM is the elevated risk of experiencing hypoglycemia. Exercise-mediated reductions in blood glucose concentrations differed based on the exercise modality, an observation well documented in patient populations with T1DM (Iscoe and Riddell 2011; Davey et al. 2013; Yardley et al. 2013) . In the present investigation, we observed that at week three of the exercise intervention both aerobic exercise modalities (low and high intensity) led to a significant drop in blood glucose immediately post-exercise. In contrast, resistance exercise resulted in a more gradual decline in blood glucose, which did not return to pre-exercise values until approximately 4 h post-exercise (data from 2-4 h not shown). This gradual decline in blood glucose in response to resistance exercise may be more beneficial for patients with T1DM, as it provides ample time to combat the drop in blood glucose following exercise. Precautionary measures such as carbohydrate ingestion or a decrease in insulin dosage could mitigate the reduction in blood glucose all together. Managing the immediate drop in blood glucose which occurs in response to aerobic exercise is more challenging, and as such, patients often compensate by elevating blood glucose concentrations prior to exercise through carbohydrate ingestion or insulin dosage adjustments (Tsalikian et al. 2006; Younk et al. 2011) . However, it is important to note that despite the rapid drop in blood glucose, exercising rats with T1DM failed to reach hypoglycemic blood glucose concentrations (<3.0 mmol/L) when they started with moderately elevated blood glucose concentrations. As such, maintaining blood glucose concentrations at a higher target range prior to exercise, significantly reduces the risk of hypoglycemia associated with aerobic exercise.

Exercise-mediated reductions in blood glucose concentrations differed based on the exercise modality, an observation well documented in patient populations with T1DM.

Managing the immediate drop in blood glucose which occurs in response to aerobic exercise is more challenging, and as such, patients often compensate by elevating blood glucose concentrations prior to exercise through carbohydrate ingestion or insulin dosage adjustments.


In the River Amur, which is the native area of topmouth gudgeon, individuals have been reported to mature in their second year of life, and to reach a considerably bigger size-at-age compared to the invasive population from Šúr Pond [19; see also Table 3 ]. Larger sized individuals and later maturation was observed in topmouth gudgeon from other areas of distribution, both native and non-native (Table 3 ). The population of topmouth gudgeon that repeatedly recolonises Šúr Pond appears to be employing an altricial life-history trajectory rather than the precocial trajectory of longer established populations. Similar results were found in a recent study of two non-native populations from Northwest England [7] . In that study, Table 3 . Life history traits of topmouth gudgeon from native and non-native areas of distribution; M = males, F = females.

Similar results were found in a recent study of two non-native populations from Northwest England.

In that study, Table 3 .


Finally, we leave open the possibility of using NEAR OR or NEAR RR. In this respect, there is a debate as to which parameter, OR or RR, should be used [17] . Apparently, some authors think that preferring one to another is a matter of patient setting as well as the type of design used in the study, i.e. experimental versus observational. Therefore, we have presented the two parameters to leave open the possibility of using one over the other.

In this respect, there is a debate as to which parameter, OR or RR, should be used.


Images acquired in our daily life are prone to exhibit poor visibility under severe weather conditions like haze and fog, because light reflected from objects is partially attenuated when passing through the atmospheric particles. The removal of such unwanted weather degradation, generally known as "image defogging," has continuously attracted much attention in outdoor vision applications [1] [2] [3] . For instance, it increases local contrast of hazy image so that object tracking and surveillance devices are able to find those interesting objects promptly. Moreover, both shifted luminance and faint color are revised properly in order to promote performance of remote-sensing systems and autonomous navigation.

The removal of such unwanted weather degradation, generally known as "image defogging," has continuously attracted much attention in outdoor vision applications.


To predict future climate change impact on maize productivity, crop simulation model can be effectively used. Crop models are being used to evaluate the impact of climate change on crop production as a result of increased greenhouse gases [1] [2] . Crop models have also been used in inputs and resource management options for sustained agricultural production [3] [4] . The usefulness of the models has generated a series of programs able to simulate crop development and production by using genotypic, environmental, and management information [5] [6] . One of these support tools DSSAT that has been developed and used for more than 15 years by researchers associated with agriculture in approximately 100 countries around the world [7] . The DSSAT model consists of a set of independent programs that operate simultaneously on simulation models using information from the soil, climate, crop, and agronomic management databases [8] [9] .

Crop models are being used to evaluate the impact of climate change on crop production as a result of increased greenhouse gases.

Crop models have also been used in inputs and resource management options for sustained agricultural production.

The usefulness of the models has generated a series of programs able to simulate crop development and production by using genotypic, environmental, and management information.

One of these support tools DSSAT that has been developed and used for more than 15 years by researchers associated with agriculture in approximately 100 countries around the world.

The DSSAT model consists of a set of independent programs that operate simultaneously on simulation models using information from the soil, climate, crop, and agronomic management databases.


With the development of tactical or strategic decisions for improving agricultural productivity in Bangladesh under climate change situations, a new approach like crop models could be used. To date, there have been some efforts in evaluating or adapting some dynamic crop models in Bangladesh. However, the progress has been very slow. Since most models have been developed elsewhere in Europe and USA, their use outside their domain of development requires a great deal of data for their calibration and validation, which is not readily available or difficult to obtain. The most important aspects in evaluating crop models include determination of cultivar specific parameters or coefficients [10] . Cultivar coefficients for maize varieties in Bangladesh are not known and the common varieties used in this region are not included in the cultivar database of DSSAT [11] . There is a strong need to use this model with maize as a test crop in this region.

The most important aspects in evaluating crop models include determination of cultivar specific parameters or coefficients.

Cultivar coefficients for maize varieties in Bangladesh are not known and the common varieties used in this region are not included in the cultivar database of DSSAT.


The awareness of humidity as important element in the preventive conservation of indoor objects means it has been increasingly measured in indoor environments so as to meet standards for the heritage environment such as those laid out by Gary Thomson in his classic work The Museum Environment [1] . Standards continue to be updated e.g. the new British Standards Institution document and that of European Committee for Standardization [2] . The apparent ease of humidity measurement is illusory and there continue to be problems with accurate calibration and inter-comparison. Hygrometers have been available since the 17 th century, with important work done by Horace Benedict de Saussure on the hair hygrometer. The approach to measuring humidity from the difference between the temperature of wet and dry bulbs of thermometers benefitted from studies by Richard Assmann in the 19 th century. Although such measurements became part of regular meteorological monitoring, the data has never been as widely collected as temperature, rainfall and wind data. Hourly measurements depended on the development of modern electrical approaches to humidity determination. Problems of error in the measurements and the difficulties of making them regularly have meant that long time series have not been common. Despite this, longer term change in humidity from the perspective of heritage is important, especially so as this might shift with the climate predicted for the current century.

The awareness of humidity as important element in the preventive conservation of indoor objects means it has been increasingly measured in indoor environments so as to meet standards for the heritage environment such as those laid out by Gary Thomson in his classic work The Museum Environment.

Standards continue to be updated e.g. the new British Standards Institution document and that of European Committee for Standardization.


Radial structure analysis of BAEs has been recently carried out on AUG by 2D electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) [9, 23] . However, that work reported the radial movement of the modes caused by the evolving background plasma parameters on a longer time scale (∼ 100 ms). In contrast, the main goal of this work is to experimentally investigate the rapid changes in the radial structure of bursting EPdriven modes during the non-linear chirping phase, on a ∼ 1 ms time scale. The investigation of these modes is essential in order to understand non-linear wave-particle interaction. Due to diagnostic and data analysis complexities this task has never been accomplished before. Some modes are expected to retain their radial structure, while others would be expected to change. Even qualitative results can provide important information about the underlying physics and strengthen (or challenge) our present theoretical understanding.

Radial structure analysis of BAEs has been recently carried out on AUG by 2D electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI).


Construction projects are accepted as prestigious in many countries and the industry makes a significant contribution to the national economics [1] . For example, in developed countries, construction industry constitutes approximately 10% of the national income [2] . Besides its economic size, construction industry also provides employment with rates of 7 % and 8 % in Europe and USA, respectively [1, 3] . However, the economic contribution of construction industry is more significant in developing countries compared with developed ones [4] .

Construction projects are accepted as prestigious in many countries and the industry makes a significant contribution to the national economics.

For example, in developed countries, construction industry constitutes approximately 10% of the national income.

Besides its economic size, construction industry also provides employment with rates of 7 % and 8 % in Europe and USA, respectively.

However, the economic contribution of construction industry is more significant in developing countries compared with developed ones.


Formation of explicit memories during general anesthesia is associated with intraoperative awareness. This has been recognized since the early days of clinical anesthesia practice (Wright & Aldrete, 1987) . In one survey , more than one third of anesthesiologists ranked intraoperative awareness as a major patient-safety concern. It has been associated with morbidity such as post-traumatic stress disorder (Sandin, 2006) . Implicit memory during anesthesia has been recognized more recently. Because there is no conscious recollection of implicit memories, they can only be demonstrated by special tests. Presenting a list of spoken words (priming) under anesthesia and subsequent administration of a word-stem completion (WSC) test after emergence from anesthesia is a common method used for this purpose. In WSC, subjects are asked to complete the word stem with the first word that comes to mind. The WSC test has been demonstrated as a sensitive method of identifying implicit memory under anesthesia (Andrade & Deeprose, 2007; Deeprose, Andrade, Varma, & Edwards, 2004) .

This has been recognized since the early days of clinical anesthesia practice.

It has been associated with morbidity such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The WSC test has been demonstrated as a sensitive method of identifying implicit memory under anesthesia.


BIS is a patient monitor that quantifies the depth of the hypnotic component of general anesthesia (Bowdle, 2006) . It uses electroencephalogram recorded over the forehead and computes a number (ranging from 0 to 99) using a proprietary algorithm. This number is displayed on the monitor during an anesthetic and it can help the anesthesiologist to titrate the anesthetic agents. A BIS range of 40 to 60 has generally been accepted to represent an ideal anesthetic depth of where explicit recall is extremely unlikely (Bowdle, 2006) .

BIS is a patient monitor that quantifies the depth of the hypnotic component of general anesthesia.

A BIS range of 40 to 60 has generally been accepted to represent an ideal anesthetic depth of where explicit recall is extremely unlikely.


The accumulation of peat involves an interaction between plant production and carbon (C) losses by decay, mire fires, leaching and deposition of C into the mineral soil beneath the peat. Information concerning the influence of these factors on the average long-term rate of C accumulation is necessary when estimating the C cycle of mires and its relationship to climate change, which can be expected to have an impact on mire C fluxes. Studies on C dynamics to date have examined mainly the C cycle in deep peat deposits and have ignored C in the mineral subsoil of mires. Since about half of the mires in Finland, and perhaps an even greater percentage of mires in other boreal areas, are formed by paludification (formation of mire systems over previously forested land, grassland or even bare rock, due to climatic or autogenic processes), it is also important to understand the significance of paludification to the accumulation and storage of C in mineral subsoils beneath peat (Turunen et al., 1999) .

Since about half of the mires in Finland, and perhaps an even greater percentage of mires in other boreal areas, are formed by paludification (formation of mire systems over previously forested land, grassland or even bare rock, due to climatic or autogenic processes), it is also important to understand the significance of paludification to the accumulation and storage of C in mineral subsoils beneath peat.


Potential limitations of the present study are related to the databases used to retrieve articles. The databases analyzed do not represent all scientific and biomedical journals published [39] . However, this probably does not add any systematic bias in the analysis of the data, and the fact that we used four different international databases diminishes bias. Also, despite the meticulous search methodology, some articles were missed because the full address of the authors was not registered or the address was misspelled. Other limitations include the multiple citations of the subject category in the journals examined that were generally used in SCImago Journal and Country Rank. One journal with its articles might be indexed with several subject categories. However, this fact probably does not add any systematic bias to the analysis of the data because we selected the most accurate subject to the virology knowledge.

The databases analyzed do not represent all scientific and biomedical journals published.


In the past, research in computer vision was greatly influenced liy the theory of David Mair [12] . Visual processing modules in (he Marr framework operate at different levels of abstraction. Typically, then, a high level visual task, such as recognising and tracking a vehicle, is performed by an assembly of self-contained modules. However, these modules impose very little processing constraint on their predecessors and successors, and their performance is usually judged in isolation by a set of "optimal" criteria. Although this approach to computer vision has developed sophisticated algorithmic procedures for individual visual competences, it is a clumsy approach to build integrated vision systems. The computational complexity required by individual competences leads to ineffective and inefficient, performance for the high level tasks of a system.

In the past, research in computer vision was greatly influenced liy the theory of David Mair.


Directed surface analysis techniques based on the surface recovery of solder joints, that is no longer restricted to the analysis of the image itself as the detection of an object, but to use various means to obtain three-dimensional solder joint's surface data for test. Compared to the indirect detection methods, not only ambiguity of physical meaning brought by statistical model can be avoided and a more detailed quantitative analysis for the solder joint's quality can be achieved, but also for some special defect that can not be detected by indirect method, a possible solution may be found. At present, research in this area is still limited; some of the existing research is based on laser measuring technology, such as: Chun-Yue Huang of Guilin Institute of Electronic Engineering used laser triangulation to obtain solder joint's surface point cloud, and then reconstructed the solder joint's surface by the triangulation and obtained a key slice by a selected tangent Plane. Finally, shape parameters extraction carried out on key slice, including wetting angle, solder joints height and area (Chunyue Huang, 2007) . Toshifumi Hond used confocal laser technology to measure surface morphology of solder joints and then extracted features, including the morphological characteristics as well as the position relationship between the solder joints and pads (Toshifumi Hond et al., 1996) . Though these methods can obtain the solder joint's surface morphology, but it is not difficult to find that demands on the environment configuration are all very high, limit the practical application of industrial production. On the other side, system efficiency is so low that it can not meet the needs of the actual manufacturing and testing. The method proposed in this paper does not require anything almost on the system environment configuration, as long as have access to the image of the solder joints. This method is based on shape-from-shading technology. Solder joint's surface morphology can be recovered by the single gray-scale image. Because the solder joint's surface consisting with small surfaces, and existing more serious specular reflection, there will be some minor changes in different perspective, showing an unstable state. At the same time, shape-from-shading technology is not mature enough. Noise suppression and surface restoration accuracy are lower. So based on the above issues, we modified the shape-from-shading method in the hybrid reflection framework and derived and improved the corresponding calculation process.

Finally, shape parameters extraction carried out on key slice, including wetting angle, solder joints height and area.

Toshifumi Hond used confocal laser technology to measure surface morphology of solder joints and then extracted features, including the morphological characteristics as well as the position relationship between the solder joints and pads.


Brood division is common in birds and occurs in a diverse assemblage of species (McLaughlin & Montgomerie 1985) . One of the possible bene®ts of dividing broods according to paternity is that a male may be able to focus his parental care on the portion of the brood that he sired. Mixed paternity and brood division were common in yellowthroats; however, we found that broods were not divided according to parentage and males did not preferentially feed within-pair young (Table 3) . Overall, male parental care was distributed nonrandomly among young, even in broods composed entirely of within-pair or extra-pair young, suggesting that factors other than paternity in¯uence brood division.

Brood division is common in birds and occurs in a diverse assemblage of species.


The relationship between male parental care and paternity may also be in¯uenced by confounding factors such as dierences in territory or male quality (Kempenaers & Sheldon 1997) . In a high-quality territory where food is abundant and individuals may expend less energy to obtain resources, a female may be able to raise an entire brood without male parental assistance. In such a scenario, a male may provide little care if he can invest his energy in alternative activities that result in relatively greater bene®ts (Emlen & Oring 1977) . Male quality can be an additional confounding factor. A low-quality male may not be able to guard his mate eectively from intruding males seeking extra-pair copulations and, as a result, he may have low paternity. Such males may also provide little parental care because of their overall poor quality, not because they are adjusting their parental 574 eort to their paternity. The relationship between paternity and male parental care can be examined while controlling for such confounding factors by studying a species with multiple broods per season and brood division.

The relationship between male parental care and paternity may also be in¯uenced by confounding factors such as dierences in territory or male quality.

In such a scenario, a male may provide little care if he can invest his energy in alternative activities that result in relatively greater bene®ts.


Within the last years, wavelet threshold methods have been shown to be a suitable tool for denoising of functions and images. In particular, using a translation-invariant filter bank, the visual artifacts in the neighborhood of discontinuities are well supressed [6] . The basic idea of wavelet denoising methods is a suitable separation of frequencies of a given noisy signal f . Supposing that the noise corresponds to wavelet coefficients with a small amplitude, the application of a thresholding procedure to the wavelet expansion of f removes it form the signal. Compared to other approaches to This work has been supported by the German Research Foundation, grant PL 170/13-2.

In particular, using a translation-invariant filter bank, the visual artifacts in the neighborhood of discontinuities are well supressed.


To carry out a study using these Projective Methods involves three stages. Stage One is used to explore the participant's holistic experience of the site. PCP is used "to draw out aspects of place experience, activities and artifacts with which the respondents identified in a positive way" (Ward- Thompson, 1995: p. 126) . In this way, participants identify their favored characteristics within the site using a selection of photographs ( Figure  2 ). The use of photographs during PCP sessions with children has proven successful in previous applications of these projective methods (Aspinall & Ujam, 1992; Ward-Thompson, 1995) .

The use of photographs during PCP sessions with children has proven successful in previous applications of these projective methods.


Learning itself is a deep and pleasurable urge which promotes in young people a feeling of fulfillment and great happiness when engaged in challenging, non-trivial pursuits (Haidt, 2006) . For children, play is a prerequisite to enjoyable selflearning and creative problem solving. Furthermore, self-learning conducted in the outdoors is more "real" than the controlled environment of the indoor classroom. It presents the child with more opportunities for choice (because of greater novelty) and more self-discovered challenges (because of greater complexity) in which the learner needs to take responsibility for their own learning and to face the consequences of their own decision making.

Learning itself is a deep and pleasurable urge which promotes in young people a feeling of fulfillment and great happiness when engaged in challenging, non-trivial pursuits.


If individual antennas are employed for reception of each frequency of GNSS signals, it will be quite costly in addition to increased complexity of the complete system. Therefore, this necessitates the development of multi-frequency or wide frequency band antennas. The antenna for such applications should also have circularly polarized wide angle radiation pattern and a stable phase center. It is difficult to design and develop such a high performance antenna that covers all the required frequency bands of GNSS. Presently satellite navigation receivers are using various types of antennas such as helical antennas, crossed dipoles, patch antennas etc [5] [6] [7] . These antennas cover very narrow frequency bandwidth and cannot be used for GNSS based SBAS or LAAS applications. The popular printed circuit patch antennas are widely used for single, dual and triple-frequency operation for GPS system [8] [9] [10] [11] . For achieving circular polarisation and multi frequency operation from the same antenna, one has to employ complex feed networks, hybrids, pin diodes, Micro Electomechanical Switches (MEMS) or a combination of these techniques [12, 13] . These antennas are expensive, difficult to design and do not meet the complete requirement of wideband GNSS, pseudolite based navigation system and augmentation systems. So the necessity of an inexpensive wide band antenna design still exists. It has been established that if an antenna structure is characterized by ratio or angles, they show broadband performance. Antennas like equiangular spiral, Archimedean spiral, conical helix etc. come under this category [14, 15] . This concept has been implemented in this work for the design of a novel half-cardioid shaped dual arm printed antenna for covering the entire L-band for GNSS applications.

Presently satellite navigation receivers are using various types of antennas such as helical antennas, crossed dipoles, patch antennas etc.

The popular printed circuit patch antennas are widely used for single, dual and triple-frequency operation for GPS system.

For achieving circular polarisation and multi frequency operation from the same antenna, one has to employ complex feed networks, hybrids, pin diodes, Micro Electomechanical Switches (MEMS) or a combination of these techniques.

Antennas like equiangular spiral, Archimedean spiral, conical helix etc. come under this category.


In the coming years more than 60 satellites with multiple ranging signals will be available from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) consisting of the modernized American GPS (L2C and L5), updated GLONASS (L1 and L2), European Galileo (E5a, E5b, and E6) and other regional systems [2, 3] . Therefore, the future navigation receivers should be capable of working for all the GNSS frequencies. This interoperability between the GNSS systems will help in overcoming some of the shortfalls of individual navigation systems such as service guarantees, integrity monitoring, and improved service performance [4] .

In the coming years more than 60 satellites with multiple ranging signals will be available from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) consisting of the modernized American GPS (L2C and L5), updated GLONASS (L1 and L2), European Galileo (E5a, E5b, and E6) and other regional systems.

This interoperability between the GNSS systems will help in overcoming some of the shortfalls of individual navigation systems such as service guarantees, integrity monitoring, and improved service performance.


This information is provided from geostationary communication satellites (in the case of SBAS) or ground reference stations (in the case of GBAS). Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) is a GBAS and is being developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Other countries like India are expected to implement such a system in the near future. This is being aimed at providing category II and III precision approach and landing of aircraft [1] . For such high precision requirement large numbers of satellites in space having wider angular separation between them is essential.

This is being aimed at providing category II and III precision approach and landing of aircraft.


In the present study, the well-known Dempster model was used because of its frequent use in studies of jumping performance (Bobbert et al., 1986; Komi & Bosco, 1978; Lamb & Stothart, 1978; Luhtanen & Komi, 1978; Virmavirta et al., 1995) . According to the present results, researchers should take care when comparing CG data based on the Note. Individual values and mean values (±SD) are given for center of gravity (CG) heights as well as for ankle, knee, and hip angles at takeoff (t) and at landing (l). CG t and CG l are expressed relative to the CG height in upright standing.

In the present study, the well-known Dempster model was used because of its frequent use in studies of jumping performance.


A complete and accurate genome assembly is a crucial starting point for studying the connection between genome function and organismal biology. High quality genome assemblies are needed for reliable analyses of comparative genomics, functional genomics, and population genomics [1] . High-throughput short-read sequencing technologies now allow the routine generation of massive amounts of sequence data for a fraction of previous costs [2] . Despite this, however, these data are not amenable to producing highly contiguous de novo assembly and tend to result in highly fragmented assemblies due to the difficulty in assembling regions of repetitive DNA sequence [3] . Many available genome assemblies, therefore, have low contiguity and are fragmented in repetitive regions [1] . Chromosomal structures of fundamental importance to genome function such as centromeres and telomeres are also rich in repetitive DNA and often missing from genome assemblies, which hinders studies of their role in cell division and genome stability. Repetitive sequences are also often involved in generating structural variants, which are important for generating phenotypic variation, and are implicated in processes such as speciation, adaptation and disease [4] [5] [6] [7] .

High quality genome assemblies are needed for reliable analyses of comparative genomics, functional genomics, and population genomics.

High-throughput short-read sequencing technologies now allow the routine generation of massive amounts of sequence data for a fraction of previous costs.

Despite this, however, these data are not amenable to producing highly contiguous de novo assembly and tend to result in highly fragmented assemblies due to the difficulty in assembling regions of repetitive DNA sequence.

Many available genome assemblies, therefore, have low contiguity and are fragmented in repetitive regions.

Repetitive sequences are also often involved in generating structural variants, which are important for generating phenotypic variation, and are implicated in processes such as speciation, adaptation and disease.


Here we have produced a hybrid assembly (Amel_HAv3) for the Western honeybee using PacBio long-reads merged with 10x Chromium linked-reads to generate extremely long contigs. These contigs were scaffolded using a BioNano optical map, a Hi-C chromatin conformation map, and the genetic linkage map AmelMap3 [38] . This pipeline enabled us to produce a highly contiguous genome (contig N50=5.4 Mbp; scaffold N50=11.3 Mbp). In Amel_HAv3, there are on average 4.2 contigs per chromosome and two of sixteen chromosomes (4 and 15) are recovered near end-to-end as single contigs. All chromosomes are reconstructed as single scaffolds. The assembly represents a 120-fold improvement in contig-level contiguity and 14-fold scaffold-level contiguity, compared to the previous assembly Amel_4.5 (Fig 1; Table 1 ).

These contigs were scaffolded using a BioNano optical map, a Hi-C chromatin conformation map, and the genetic linkage map AmelMap3.


Our hybrid assembly contains repeat arrays associated with both proximal and distal telomeres. Although TTAGG repeats may be present beyond the AluI arrays on the short-arm telomeres, we are unable to conclusively map any TTAGGs to this end of the chromosomes and only anchor them to the distal telomeres on the long arms. Here they stretch up to 10kbp beyond the subtelomere, within the expected size range for honeybee telomeres [53] . Close to the junction between the subtelomeres and the telomeres, we recover a large number of variant motifs (Fig 6) . About 90% of the TCAGG and CTGGG variants co-occur in the higher order repeat TCAGGCTGGG, which has also been detected in previous assemblies [54] . The origin of this diversity is unclear, but their localization towards the inner telomere suggests they are older more degenerate sequences compared to the more homogenous sequence of the outer telomere.

Here they stretch up to 10kbp beyond the subtelomere, within the expected size range for honeybee telomeres.

About 90% of the TCAGG and CTGGG variants co-occur in the higher order repeat TCAGGCTGGG, which has also been detected in previous assemblies.


Asexual strains of the freshwater planarian Dugesia (Girardia) tigrina were used in the current work. Planarians were maintained in aquarium water with hardness ~ 3-5 mEq/L, rH ≈ 6.5 at 26 °C. They were fed by larvae of Diptera. In the experiment, we use planarians with length of about 10-11 mm after starving for at least 7 days. Regeneration was caused by amputation of the head of planarian at the level of the "eyes" (Tiras et al., 2015) . Size of planarians after amputation was about 8.7 mm. Decreasing of planarian size effected on neoblast population very slightly, because there is just 5-7% of neoblast in the amputated head.

They were fed by larvae of Diptera.

Regeneration was caused by amputation of the head of planarian at the level of the "eyes".


Curve 1 in Figure 1 describes chemiluminescence of water; it is presented in all derived kinetics. It is known that the source of free radicals in pure water is dissolved molecular oxygen. In pure water saturated with atmospheric air at the temperature used in the experiment (26°C) the formation of reactive oxygen species occurs (Bruskov et al., 2002; Gudkov et al., 2012) .

In pure water saturated with atmospheric air at the temperature used in the experiment (26°C) the formation of reactive oxygen species occurs.


In each step of the experiment, intact planarians or their fragments were placed in 10 ml of water inside of special polypropylene scintillation cuvettes (Beckman, USA). Chemiluminometer Biotoks 7A-2M (ANO "Engineering Center -Ecology", Russia) was used for measuring the luminescence. The device is equipped with a photomultiplier 9750QB / 1 (9750QB / 1, EMI Electronics LTD, Middlesex, UK) with a spectral sensitivity area of 380-710 nm. Measurements were carried out at a temperature of 26.0 ± 0.2 ° C and the photon-counting mode with data recording intervals of 1 second. Dependencies that were obtained were smoothed using SigmaPlot 8.0 software with "Smooth 2D Data" function. The difference between luminescence kinetics of intact planarians and the same worms after dissection was used for the analysis of the fluorescent signal caused by an amputation of planarians. The resulting difference curve was analyzed by using a program based on the method of Marquardt (Marquardt, 1963) .

The resulting difference curve was analyzed by using a program based on the method of Marquardt.


In many analysis cycles there are numerous pre-processing steps required to enable geometric domains to be more adequately meshed, Fig. 1 . Pre-processing steps may include model simplifications where manufacturing or esthetic design details which are assumed to have no simulation significance are removed [18] . The pre-processing steps tend to vary depending on analysis requirements and the stage of the design process, e.g. details that are significant for a stress analysis may be irrelevant for a modal analysis. In other circumstances different geometric decompositions may be required for analyzing different load cases for a product so that high stress areas can be accurately represented. With multiple decompositions of the same CAD model required for different analysis tasks, it is essential that bi-directional links exist between equivalent models [1] . These links are necessary to ensure that results can be exchanged between different analysis models at varying levels of fidelity. This is especially true for coupled multi-disciplinary analyses where the output from one simulation acts as the input to another e.g. thermo-mechanical analysis.

Pre-processing steps may include model simplifications where manufacturing or esthetic design details which are assumed to have no simulation significance are removed.

With multiple decompositions of the same CAD model required for different analysis tasks, it is essential that bi-directional links exist between equivalent models.


For many individuals, initiation is one of the most difficult aspects of negotiation. Since it is both a voluntary and public act in many cases, "asking" can bring on considerable angst, even if the outcome is favorable. Unfortunately, asking is generally one of the things a negotiator must do if he/she hopes to get something that is needed or desired (Wheeler, 2004) . And failing to ask not only can adversely affect the initiator, but his or her counterpart as well (e.g. the exceptional employee who chooses to pursue another job opportunity rather than ask for a raise, the company representative who chooses not to propose a joint venture, etc.). Most of us have had years of experience negotiating in a variety of personal and professional situations. Those experiences, and the lessons taken from them, are captured in the cognitive scripts stored in memory (Miles, 2010) . While the vast majority of these scripts may serve us well, some can limit our ability to ask for what we want in pursuit of otherwise highly-achievable goals. And even effective scripts are of little value if our emotions limit their accessibility (Fisher and Shapiro, 2005; Morse, 2006) .

Unfortunately, asking is generally one of the things a negotiator must do if he/she hopes to get something that is needed or desired.

Those experiences, and the lessons taken from them, are captured in the cognitive scripts stored in memory.

And even effective scripts are of little value if our emotions limit their accessibility.


Fractional programming (FP) is an effective tool to deal with optimization of ratio, where the objective is quotient of two functions, e.g., cost/time, cost/volume, or output/input [14, 15] . It can compare objectives of different aspects directly through their original magnitudes and provide an unprejudiced measure of system efficiency. FP has widely been used in fields of resources management, finance, production and transportation [16, 17] . The primary advantage of FP is the flexibility, but it has further advantages in balancing conflicting objectives, maximizing the system marginal benefit (i.e., the marginal benefit of the resources is the gain from an increase or loss from a decrease in the consumption of that resource), comparing objectives of different aspects directly through their original magnitudes and providing an unprejudiced measure of system efficiency [18] . Moreover, FP has been proved to be a natural way of approaching both economic and environmental criteria related to the systems' sustainability. However, few studies are reported on the application of FP techniques to agricultural water resources management. In fact, fraction problems exist in agricultural water resources management systems, such as achieve maximum net benefit per unit of water quantity through effective water allocation policy, various targeted water demand associated with limited water resources. One major challenge of employing FP to agricultural water resources management systems is that FP has difficulties in handling stochastic uncertainty and reflecting the economic consequences of violating some overriding policies. Therefore, one potential approach for better accounting for uncertainty and optimizing ratio problems is to introduce TSP into the FP framework, leading to a two-stage stochastic fractional programming (TSFP) method.

Fractional programming (FP) is an effective tool to deal with optimization of ratio, where the objective is quotient of two functions, e.g., cost/time, cost/volume, or output/input.

FP has widely been used in fields of resources management, finance, production and transportation.

The primary advantage of FP is the flexibility, but it has further advantages in balancing conflicting objectives, maximizing the system marginal benefit (i.e., the marginal benefit of the resources is the gain from an increase or loss from a decrease in the consumption of that resource), comparing objectives of different aspects directly through their original magnitudes and providing an unprejudiced measure of system efficiency.


With speedy population growth and shift economic development, the constantly increasing demand for water in terms of sufficient quantities and satisfied qualities has forced researchers to draw optimal water resources management policies [1] [2] [3] . When the demand for water has reached the limits of what the natural system can provide, water shortage may become a major obstacle to social and economic development for the region. As the biggest consumer of the limited water resources, irrigated agriculture uses about 70% of the world's freshwater withdrawals, and causes salinity, drainage and environmental quality problems currently affecting many parts of the world [4] . Therefore, it is a challenge for agricultural water resources managers to maintain sustainable development under situations of increasing water demand [5] . Besides, agricultural water resources systems that are complex with uncertainties are often related to variations in the incompleteness or impreciseness of the observed information and spatial and temporal units. Consequently, the effective planning of agriculture water resources under such complexities and uncertainties is important for regional sustainable development in watershed systems.

With speedy population growth and shift economic development, the constantly increasing demand for water in terms of sufficient quantities and satisfied qualities has forced researchers to draw optimal water resources management policies.

As the biggest consumer of the limited water resources, irrigated agriculture uses about 70% of the world's freshwater withdrawals, and causes salinity, drainage and environmental quality problems currently affecting many parts of the world.

Therefore, it is a challenge for agricultural water resources managers to maintain sustainable development under situations of increasing water demand.


Water is required for a range of energy development processes. The environmental quality impacts of fossil-fuel development, e.g., petroleum, coal, and natural gas, are increasingly being factored into water-energy nexus assessments [15] . Here we focus on water use for: (a) hydroelectric and thermoelectric power generation, and (b) biofuel production (chiefly feedstock irrigation but also other life-cycle processes). Even with the technological shift from once-through cooling to evaporative cooling of thermoelectric generation, water consumption (depletion through evaporation) per unit of power generated represents an increasing demand on water resources. Additionally, irrigation is required for biofuel feedstocks (e.g., sugarcane or corn for ethanol and soy or rapeseed for biodiesel), and consumes significant amounts of water although some feedstocks are raised under rainfed conditions. In river basins with physically stressed water resources or in locations where water is allocated for other human uses (often with secure water rights) or environmental flows, energy demands for water are of growing concern [16, 17] .

The environmental quality impacts of fossil-fuel development, e.g., petroleum, coal, and natural gas, are increasingly being factored into water-energy nexus assessments.

In river basins with physically stressed water resources or in locations where water is allocated for other human uses (often with secure water rights) or environmental flows, energy demands for water are of growing concern.


Climate change and variability are now firmly linked to anthropogenic drivers via greenhouse gas emissions, in particular, carbon dioxide from a range of human activities including electricity generation and land use, the two processes we are concerned with in this paper. Policy-makers are increasingly called on to adopt and incentivize programs that mitigate CO2 while at the same time adapting to the effects of climate change [12] . In this context, the water-energy nexus plays a critical role in resource-use policy [13] . The availability and quality of water resources greatly influence energy options, and conversely, water management has an appreciable impact on CO2 emissions [14] .

Policy-makers are increasingly called on to adopt and incentivize programs that mitigate CO2 while at the same time adapting to the effects of climate change.

In this context, the water-energy nexus plays a critical role in resource-use policy.

The availability and quality of water resources greatly influence energy options, and conversely, water management has an appreciable impact on CO2 emissions.


Team externalities exist when an individual's performance cannot be completely and accurately measured. Team externalities cause all workers to share credit or blame equally, which augments the incentive to shirk (Drago and Turnbull, 1988) . A lower effort by one individual might decrease overall team output, the blame for which is shared by all team members. This, in turn, motivates other team members to decrease their level of effort.

Team externalities cause all workers to share credit or blame equally, which augments the incentive to shirk.


Problems can also occur if a conflict of interest exists, i.e., the objectives of individual workers are not the same as the objectives of the team (Groves 1973) . A relay teams can be compared to a conglomerate, considering each team member a separate unit and the coach as the central administration. In this model, the team members are linked only through the coach, and might not agree with all the decisions made for them by the coach. For example, their opinion about maximum performance or racing decisions might not be the same as that of the coach.

Problems can also occur if a conflict of interest exists, i.e., the objectives of individual workers are not the same as the objectives of the team.


The difference between a team and individual production function is that a team's production function is more than just the "summing up" of the individual team members' production functions. Instead, teams produce a combined output, where "there is a source of gain from cooperative activity involving working as a team, wherein individual cooperating inputs do not yield identifiable, separate products which can be summed to measure the total output" (Alchian and Demsetz 1972, 779) . Although in many cases the output of a team will be greater than it would from the individuals working on their own, a team also has to deal with internal issues that the individual does not. These issues can affect the performance of workers dramatically, and can have positive or negative effects on the output of the team. Positive peer effects include knowledge transfers, increased esprit de corps, and improved marginal products. Negative peer effects, which exist if the output of worker i systematically decreases the output of worker j and vice versa, include problems such as jealousy, free riding, and shirking (Falk and Ichino, 2006) .

Negative peer effects, which exist if the output of worker i systematically decreases the output of worker j and vice versa, include problems such as jealousy, free riding, and shirking.


The confidence in other team members is based on how much trust there is between the members. Trust can help a team by increasing the information available to the principal and the other team members (Jones and George, 1998) . This can give rise to better cooperation and improved performance. Teams with strong team spirit have a strong advantage in these circumstances as "shared values result in strong desire to cooperate, even at personal expense" (Jones and George, 1998) . Sports teams try to encourage a strong sense of team spirit and loyalty so that team members want to be part of the team and no one wants to shirk. Indeed, this focus on team spirit can cause managers to "over invest" in training athletes and cause "reverse shirking" (Alchian and Demsetz, 1972) .

Trust can help a team by increasing the information available to the principal and the other team members.

Teams with strong team spirit have a strong advantage in these circumstances as "shared values result in strong desire to cooperate, even at personal expense".

Indeed, this focus on team spirit can cause managers to "over invest" in training athletes and cause "reverse shirking".


Recently, the exploitation of phase change material (PCM) suspensions as heat transfer fluids has attracted wide attention, since the latent heat of the phase change could significantly improve the energy density of the fluid. In several studies, suspensions containing micro-sized PCM particles (typically 1-200 μm) have shown significant improvement in convective heat transfer performance [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] . However, the convection performance of such fluids containing nano-sized PCM particles has not been experimentally evaluated so far. The nanoscale might provide notable benefits over microscale, since suspensions containing solid nano-sized particles (nanofluids) or liquid droplets (nanoemulsions) have previously shown significantly enhanced convective heat transfer in several studies [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] 19] . In addition, the smaller scale of particles may improve the stability of the fluids.

In several studies, suspensions containing micro-sized PCM particles (typically 1-200 μm) have shown significant improvement in convective heat transfer performance.

The nanoscale might provide notable benefits over microscale, since suspensions containing solid nano-sized particles (nanofluids) or liquid droplets (nanoemulsions) have previously shown significantly enhanced convective heat transfer in several studies.


Despite of the prediction accuracy achieved by individual ML models, ensemble learning has been proposed to improve prediction accuracy by aggregating predictions of multiple base learners [11] . The ensemble is typically constructed by weighting (in the case of regression) or voting (in the case of classification) the predictions of base learners. The final resulting ensemble often achieves better predictions in comparison to any of single base learners [12] . For instance, the winners of famous real-world data analysis competitions, such as Netflix Prize and KDD Cup 2013, have chosen ensemble approaches as their prediction strategies [13] . The merits of ensemble learners have generated increasing interests to incorporate this method in research and practice. The results of a comparative evaluation of three ensemble learning methods including Bagging, Boosting and Stacking for credit scoring show the advantage of ensemble learners over base learners [14] . Three financial datasets were chosen to analyze the performance of ensemble learners for classification problem of bankruptcy prediction and it was demonstrated that ensemble learners outperform the best stand-alone method which was multi-layer perceptron neural network [15] .

Despite of the prediction accuracy achieved by individual ML models, ensemble learning has been proposed to improve prediction accuracy by aggregating predictions of multiple base learners.

The final resulting ensemble often achieves better predictions in comparison to any of single base learners.

For instance, the winners of famous real-world data analysis competitions, such as Netflix Prize and KDD Cup 2013, have chosen ensemble approaches as their prediction strategies.

The results of a comparative evaluation of three ensemble learning methods including Bagging, Boosting and Stacking for credit scoring show the advantage of ensemble learners over base learners.

Three financial datasets were chosen to analyze the performance of ensemble learners for classification problem of bankruptcy prediction and it was demonstrated that ensemble learners outperform the best stand-alone method which was multi-layer perceptron neural network.


Statistical tests of dispersal/migration hypotheses using EPMA data are unusual in the literature (Secor & Rooker 2000) . Autocorrelation and small sample-size may be responsible for this trend, but mixed-model analysis can reduce these limitations. By specifying covariance structures among repeated measures that are more realistic, information contained in transects is utilized more efficiently. Additionally, the mixedmodel analysis does not require complete chronologies, because truncated otolith transects or those with gaps can be used in the analysis. In particular, we found the approach useful to detect differences in agespecific dispersal patterns.

Statistical tests of dispersal/migration hypotheses using EPMA data are unusual in the literature.


However, the SPARG process developed by Haldor Topsoe could be an interesting solution for both problems (Udengaard et al., 1992) . In this process a partial poisoning of the catalyst with H 2 S is proposed, keeping high conversions of CH 4 and CO 2 and reducing carbon formation. Another problem for the catalyst is that dry reforming is Final version published in Chemical Engineering Science, 2012, 82, 95-103 Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2012.07.012.

However, the SPARG process developed by Haldor Topsoe could be an interesting solution for both problems.


If G is locally compact and totally disconnected, then some restriction of G is a compact topological group. This is proved just as in the global case for which we refer to [7] , p. 54. This proposition will not be used in the rest of the paper.

This is proved just as in the global case for which we refer to, p. 54.


Inflammation and oxidative stress are key mechanisms in the development of vascular damage in atherosclerosis [9] . The increased vascular stiffness in patients with renal impairment, however, has also been attributed to arterial calcification, inflammation and oxidative stress [10, 11] . It is unclear if renal impairment leads to acceleration of these mechanisms in patients with atherosclerotic disease. We therefore assessed carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) as a direct marker of vascular stiffness in patients with and without CAD and studied whether mild to moderate renal impairment further increases arterial stiffness and if differences in PWV are paralleled by differences in markers of inflammation, cell adhesion and oxidative stress.

Inflammation and oxidative stress are key mechanisms in the development of vascular damage in atherosclerosis.

The increased vascular stiffness in patients with renal impairment, however, has also been attributed to arterial calcification, inflammation and oxidative stress.


In GPS kinematic positioning at the meter-level accuracy, pseudoranges are preferred to phase measurements because they are free of cycle-slips. However, we still face many challenges for pseudorange utilization particularly in urban areas due to signal degradation, blockages, outliers and lack of measurements (Kuusniemi et al. 2004) . The most important challenge in GPS navigation is how to efficiently improve the precision and reliability of real-time solution.

However, we still face many challenges for pseudorange utilization particularly in urban areas due to signal degradation, blockages, outliers and lack of measurements.


The previous version of the Planar Active Handrest was a Cartesian two-degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) human-robot cooperative interface that provided support while performing dexterous tasks over large workspaces. The PAHR provided user support from a 2-axis computer-controlled motorized x-y stage that allowed planar movements with a fixed forearm orientation. Previous studies with this device demonstrated that use of the PAHR provides increased task accuracy and user skill level compared to freehand, fixed, and passive repositionable supports (Fehlberg, Gleeson, & Provancher, 2012) . Additional studies showed that user skill level could be further improved by adding virtual fixtures to the device's controller (Fehlberg, Nisky, Doxon, & Provancher, 2014) . In the research presented herein, we endeavor to improve the PAHR device to better match human arm kinematics by adding a rotational DOF and to investigate its effect when interacting with this device.

Previous studies with this device demonstrated that use of the PAHR provides increased task accuracy and user skill level compared to freehand, fixed, and passive repositionable supports.

Additional studies showed that user skill level could be further improved by adding virtual fixtures to the device's controller.


Owing to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used to enhance the thermal stability of polymer matrices, such as polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene and poly (vinylidene fluoride), by the formation of composites [7] . In this method, CNTs were ground mechanically with polymer powders, followed by a hot-pressing. Unavoidably, parts of CNTs, if not all, will be damaged due to the shearing forces they experienced. With all of these in mind, in this study, single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were dispersed in water and attached to nylon fabric by a simple immersing-drying procedure; we then try to understand how the attached nanotubes can affect the thermal stability of nylon fabric.

Owing to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used to enhance the thermal stability of polymer matrices, such as polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene and poly (vinylidene fluoride), by the formation of composites.


The students systemically acquire an awareness of relevant text in writing to manipulate information and accomplish different purposes. Besides, situation also relates to students' confidence to conduct the real and meaningful context in writing (Swami, 2008; Ahn, 2012) . They can produce their own examples of the same genre more effectively and provide them with a concrete opportunity to acquire the conceptual and cultural frameworks in particular purposes (Ahn, 2012) . Therefore, students are able to develop all phases of writing process and make the sub-processes and skills explicitly through predicting the strategy types (Negari, 2011) .

Besides, situation also relates to students' confidence to conduct the real and meaningful context in writing.

They can produce their own examples of the same genre more effectively and provide them with a concrete opportunity to acquire the conceptual and cultural frameworks in particular purposes.

Therefore, students are able to develop all phases of writing process and make the sub-processes and skills explicitly through predicting the strategy types.


Among the many such NP forms, the most widely studied is certainly N = 1 Supersymmetry (SUSY) in four dimensions. Hints supporting the minimal supersymmetric model (MSSM), with real electroweak scale parameters, are supplied by the unification of the gauge couplings at the scale of ∼ 2 · 10 16 GeV and the proximity of this scale to the one needed for understanding the neutrino masses and leptogenesis [3] . The easy accommodation of Dark Matter in R-parity conserving SUSY models, is also encouraging.

Hints supporting the minimal supersymmetric model (MSSM), with real electroweak scale parameters, are supplied by the unification of the gauge couplings at the scale of ∼ 2 · 10 16 GeV and the proximity of this scale to the one needed for understanding the neutrino masses and leptogenesis.


The purpose of the present paper is to release such code "gamgamZZ", applying to SM and MSSM, for any set of real parameters [26] . For both models, the code calculates the independent helicity amplitudes γγ → ZZ, as well as the observable cross sections in LC γγ , for the case where the polarizations of the final ZZ-pair are summed over. The definitions of these amplitudes and observables are given in Section 2. In Section 3, we discuss the code and give some numerical examples. Section 4 contains the Conclusions.

The purpose of the present paper is to release such code "gamgamZZ", applying to SM and MSSM, for any set of real parameters.

Section 4 contains the Conclusions.


Another topological invariant that has recently been used to summarise structure in point patterns is the Euler characteristic signature function [2, 5] . The Euler characteristic is the alternating sum of the Betti numbers (for three-dimensional objects, χ = β 0 − β 1 + β 2 ). It is a topological invariant but also has measure-theoretic properties that make it more amenable to statistical analysis than the Betti numbers, but it is a less sensitive topological invariant by definition. Nevertheless, the above studies have demonstrated that the Euler characteristic signature function is sensitive to short-range, higher-order correlations in point patterns.

Another topological invariant that has recently been used to summarise structure in point patterns is the Euler characteristic signature function.


Permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs), which have high efficiency and large torque-to-volume ratio, are widely used in electric vehicles (EVs), particularly in battery-powered EVs [1] - [4] . PMSMs are classified into interior PMSMs (IPMSMs) and surface-mounted PMSMs (SPMSMs) according to the rotor structure. IPMSMs usually have better field-weakening performance and larger torque-to-current ratios than SPMSMs because of the narrower equivalent air gap and additional reluctance torque of the former [5] - [7] . Therefore, IPMSMs are more suitable for EV drive systems than SPMSMs. Despite these merits, IPMSMs have inductance parameters that change nonlinearly with different load currents, which is disadvantageous for the control [8] - [10] .

Permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs), which have high efficiency and large torque-to-volume ratio, are widely used in electric vehicles (EVs), particularly in battery-powered EVs.

IPMSMs usually have better field-weakening performance and larger torque-to-current ratios than SPMSMs because of the narrower equivalent air gap and additional reluctance torque of the former.

Despite these merits, IPMSMs have inductance parameters that change nonlinearly with different load currents, which is disadvantageous for the control.


The release rate from soybean residue was not affected by grazing intensities (Table 3) . However, this rate was faster than C decomposition rates, due to N demand for microbial growth. Fast N release, especially from soybean leaves, is attributed to the removal of the water-soluble fraction by rain and the easily-decomposable fraction by microorganisms (low C:N ratio), even when residues remain on soil surface (Padovan et al,. 2006) . Lower N release from soybean stems (higher t 1/2 ) results from higher lignin contents (11%), when compared to leaves (8%) ( Table 1) . Lignin in plant tissue disfavors decomposition and, therefore, N release (Palm & Sanchez, 1991) .

Fast N release, especially from soybean leaves, is attributed to the removal of the water-soluble fraction by rain and the easily-decomposable fraction by microorganisms (low C:N ratio), even when residues remain on soil surface.

Lignin in plant tissue disfavors decomposition and, therefore, N release.


This study analyses the impact that the SCP implemented by Chile's Technical Cooperation Services (Servicio de Cooperacioń Técnica, SERCOTEC) has had in Chile. This program offers a non-reimbursable cash subsidy that is intended to support the take-off of young SMEs that have a growth potential. The SCP has been declared to be a government program supporting the development of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, meaning entrepreneurship that stems from a desire for independence, from wanting to increase income or from the existence of a business opportunity not previously envisaged (Blanchflower and Oswald, 1998) . In other words, this SCP is not designed to support necessity-driven entrepreneurship, defined as entrepreneurship stemming from unemployment (Graham, 2005) .

The SCP has been declared to be a government program supporting the development of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, meaning entrepreneurship that stems from a desire for independence, from wanting to increase income or from the existence of a business opportunity not previously envisaged.

In other words, this SCP is not designed to support necessity-driven entrepreneurship, defined as entrepreneurship stemming from unemployment.


Geographic information systems (GIS) are a standard tool for assisting foresters with mapping and spatial analysis aspects of their jobs. The ability to think geographically and spatially is an important skill for foresters. A recent analysis showed that over 70% of entry-level forestry job advertisements indicated that basic knowledge, experience, or proficiency with mapping technology, or the ability to read and follow maps, were basic job requirements [1] . Given that the need to use and manage spatial information in forest management is paramount, university forestry departments have embraced offering spatial information technology courses to keep pace with the needs of the profession [2] . Wing and Sessions found that of the ten forestry programs they surveyed, eight required a course in either GIS or remote sensing for completion of an undergraduate degree. It is therefore generally assumed today that bachelor's degree graduates of university-level forestry programs have completed a course involving the use of GIS, since many employers expect recent graduates to have experience or knowledge of the technology. However, as computer hardware and software change, responsibilities and expectations of professionals using GIS may also change [3] .

A recent analysis showed that over 70% of entry-level forestry job advertisements indicated that basic knowledge, experience, or proficiency with mapping technology, or the ability to read and follow maps, were basic job requirements.

Given that the need to use and manage spatial information in forest management is paramount, university forestry departments have embraced offering spatial information technology courses to keep pace with the needs of the profession.

However, as computer hardware and software change, responsibilities and expectations of professionals using GIS may also change.


Point pattern analysis of fully mapped plant locations using tree-trunk position has been demonstrated to be a useful approach to explore spatial plant dynamics (Getzin and Wiegand, 2007) . The random mortality hypothesis can be used to detect competition, if individuals in a community are equal in death probability, the second-order characteristics of the spatial patterns would remain unchanged (Getzin et al., 2006) . Opposite to this hypothesis, elevated death rates among neighbouring trees are expected due to competition.

Point pattern analysis of fully mapped plant locations using tree-trunk position has been demonstrated to be a useful approach to explore spatial plant dynamics.

The random mortality hypothesis can be used to detect competition, if individuals in a community are equal in death probability, the second-order characteristics of the spatial patterns would remain unchanged.


In addition, in low quality sites competition processes are expected to be less important and therefore continuous recruitment is expected. In better quality sites, where competition with other species is more important, recruitment is expected to be characterized by small scale gaps and differentiated cohorts (Veblen et al., 2004) . Thus, upper and lower tree strata in the high quality site should exhibit greater age differentiation than in the low quality site.

In better quality sites, where competition with other species is more important, recruitment is expected to be characterized by small scale gaps and differentiated cohorts.


It has been shown that, for constant stimuli, certain types of correlation can increase the amount of information transmitted by a population of neurons coding a feature variable [1, 12] . Here, we use a homogeneous pool of neurons to look at the non-zero frequency correlations. We show that anticorrelations, produced by inhibitory connections, can lower the noise level in a certain frequency band and hence improve signal transmission [5, 8] .

It has been shown that, for constant stimuli, certain types of correlation can increase the amount of information transmitted by a population of neurons coding a feature variable.

We show that anticorrelations, produced by inhibitory connections, can lower the noise level in a certain frequency band and hence improve signal transmission.


After comparing three AtCYCDs in Arabidopsis and four NtCYCDs in tobacco, it was found that PmCYCD1;1 and PmCYCD1;2 both have one potential PEST region at the N-terminus, which is similar to the predicted results of NtCYCD1;1 and NtCYCD3;1 (Table S5 ). In addition, PmCYCD1;2 also has a potential PEST region at the C-terminus, which is similar in Arabidopsis. AtCYCD1;1, AtCYCD2;1, and AtCYCD3;1 also have one PEST region at the C-terminus (Table S5 ). There are various types of protein post-translational modifications, such as methylation, acetylation, bio-tinylation, glycosylation, and phosphorylation. Among these modifications, phosphorylation and glycosylation may result in an increase in protein molecular weight. O-Glycosylation and N-glycosylation of the PmCYCD protein were separately predicted, using glycosylation prediction software NetOGlyc 4.0 Server and NetNGlyc 1.0 Server. The results showed that all PmCYCD proteins contained O-glycosylation sites (T or S), and 7 of 12 PmCYCDs contained N-glycosylation sites (N in NLS) ( Figure 3 and Table S4 ). The molecular weight of PmCYCDs may change significantly in the natural state in plants, which may be due to the increase in the quantity or length of carbohydrate chains during the glycosylation process. Previous studies showed that the PtFLA6 gene in poplar was modified by glycosylation, leading to a significant increase in the molecular weight [59] .

Previous studies showed that the PtFLA6 gene in poplar was modified by glycosylation, leading to a significant increase in the molecular weight.


Prunus mume is a woody plant that has high ornamental and economic value and is widely distributed and used in landscape architecture in Asia. P. mume has acquired favorable ornamental characteristics, including colorful corollas, pleasant fragrance, and various types of flowers and architecture (including upright type, weeping type, and tortuous type). To date, very few genes related to architectural traits (i.e., tortuous trait) have been reported in woody plants. CYCDs, that are closely related to cell division and proliferation, were newly found to regulate the stem development and plant architecture of woody plants [23] [24] [25] . In this study, we identified 12 CYCDs from the P. mume genome and performed detailed structure, evolutionary, and expression pattern analyses in different organs, as well as analyzing different responses to hormones and sucrose. Our study provides a basis for further study of the cyclin gene family and reserves candidate genes for ornamental plant breeding for architectural characteristics.

CYCDs, that are closely related to cell division and proliferation, were newly found to regulate the stem development and plant architecture of woody plants.


The organs of higher plants are constantly evolving throughout their life cycle, and this process relies on the flexible control of cell division and cell proliferation. In the model plant Arabidopsis, there are 32 cyclin genes that can regulate the cell cycle, including 10 A-type, 11 B-type, 10 D-type, and 1 H-type [47] . Each cyclin gene exhibits a specific expression pattern in the cell cycle. In general, A-type cyclins (CYCAs) not only control the progression of S-M phase, but also regulate the transformation of G2/M phase and the progression of M phase with CYCBs [48, 49] . CYCDs are expressed continuously in the cell cycle to control G1/S transition and cell proliferation in response to corresponding external signals, including plant hormones and carbon sources [8, 15] . In this study, 12 PmCYCD genes in P. mume were identified and named in the light of homologs in A. thaliana. The results of the ML phylogenetic tree illustrated that six subgroups of PmCYCDs were similar to those in A. thaliana and O. sativa. Each subgroup of CYCD was composed of at least one gene: 2 in CYCD1 subgroup, 2 in CYCD2/CYCD4 subgroup, 3 in CYCD3 subgroup, 2 in CYCD5 subgroup, 2 in CYCD6 subgroup and 1 in CYCD7 subgroup ( Figure 1 and Table S2 ).

In the model plant Arabidopsis, there are 32 cyclin genes that can regulate the cell cycle, including 10 A-type, 11 B-type, 10 D-type, and 1 H-type.

In general, A-type cyclins (CYCAs) not only control the progression of S-M phase, but also regulate the transformation of G2/M phase and the progression of M phase with CYCBs.

CYCDs are expressed continuously in the cell cycle to control G1/S transition and cell proliferation in response to corresponding external signals, including plant hormones and carbon sources.


Despite the importance of technological innovation capabilities, the previous studies have not paid much attention to the importance of its assessment criteria and the cause and effect relationships among criteria. In these areas, technological innovation capabilities are regarded not only as one of the enterprises' solutions but as the method of effective measurement under the multi-dimensions of criteria (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000) . Therefore, it is worth more attention. This study used the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to acquire the structure of the MCDM problems. The weights of each criterion from the structure are obtained by utilizing the Analytical Network Process (ANP).

In these areas, technological innovation capabilities are regarded not only as one of the enterprises' solutions but as the method of effective measurement under the multi-dimensions of criteria.

Therefore, it is worth more attention.


Among the major technology innovation evaluation techniques, MCDM-based decision analysis approaches have been widely adopted. MCDM-based technology innovation evaluation framework for selecting the most suitable emerging technology and explore opportunities. The framework can be used in selecting technology for enhancing innovation competencies at enterprises. Then, the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) will be used for configuring the structure of the decision framework. DEMATEL was first developed by American scientists in a Science and Human Affairs Program in the early 1970s (Gabus & Fontela, 1973) .

DEMATEL was first developed by American scientists in a Science and Human Affairs Program in the early 1970s.


In the present study, we propose an alternative method to increase the short-circuit current density in the top cell, based on the manipulation of the incident spectrum before its absorption by the solar cell; the idea is to substitute PV glass encapsulation materials with a thin layer of polymer material PMMA doped with optically active components. It has been shown in previous works that this approach results in performance improvement on some single junctions (CdTe, mc-Si, c-Si, GaAs, and CIGS) [5] [6] [7] . Besides, it reduces the cost and weight of the final PV module.

It has been shown in previous works that this approach results in performance improvement on some single junctions (CdTe, mc-Si, c-Si, GaAs, and CIGS).


Multijunction solar cells can increase the efficiency of the cell by introducing another semiconductor able to reduce losses in high energy photons. There are three approaches, monolithic cells, mechanically stacked cells, and spatialconfiguration approaches [1] . The monolithic solar cells present an elegant approach in reducing the number of processing steps by using a single substrate, but it requires two main conditions: first, the thin layers of epitaxial semiconductors must have closer lattice constant parameters, and second, we must have an adequate current matching between subcells. However, in this series connection, the subcell with the lowest photocurrent, limits the current generated by the full device structure [1, 2] . To fulfill the second criterion, we must adjust the top cell thickness because it presents lower short-circuit current density compared with the bottom cell of the tandem structure. Generally, we adjust short-circuit current density by adjusting the thickness of the top cell's base layer [2] .

There are three approaches, monolithic cells, mechanically stacked cells, and spatialconfiguration approaches.

However, in this series connection, the subcell with the lowest photocurrent, limits the current generated by the full device structure.

Generally, we adjust short-circuit current density by adjusting the thickness of the top cell's base layer.


Results indicate that applying word and subword LSA to TextTiling can improve the story segmentation performance on Chinese BN except unigram LSA that degrades the performance a little bit compared with those corresponding TextTiling approaches without LSA. Bigram-LSA-based TextTiling exhibits superior performance. Character-bigram-LSA achieves the best F1-measure of 0.6598 with relative improvement of 17.4% over the conventional word-based TextTiling (on the character sequence of word) and 6.5% over our previous syllable-bigram-based TextTiling. The failure of uigram LSA is probably because of the small vocabulary of unigram singletons (2957 for characters and 395 for syllables in our corpus). The 'meanings' (LSA feature vectors) of characters/syllables might be too close due to the small vocabulary. The success of bigram LSA mainly owes to the fact that the most frequently used words in Chinese are bi-character and the probability of long sequences with correctly recognized characters is smaller than two character units. This also explains why trigram and 4-gram TextTing perform the worst. We also observe an interesting result that trigram-LSA-based and 4-gram-LSA-based TextTiling significantly outperform trigram and 4-gram TextTiling (without LSA). Their performances are even comparable to word-LSA-based TextTiling. This may be explained by the 'noise-removal' merits of LSA [9] . The inter-similarity matrices for tri-gram and 4-gram in LSA are large sparse ones. A small dimensional LSA space removes a lot of noises and tends to be an appropriate approximation of a large sparse matrix.

This may be explained by the 'noise-removal' merits of LSA.


Since the trauma in our experiments was localized to the dorsal right part of the rats' skulls, we hypothesized the emergence of the rat-equivalent of human affective disorders which can affect "cognitive" performances. For example, fear sensitization or anxiety can occur as a consequence of recurrent temporal lobe seizures [7, 8] . The numbers of neurons initiating these overt seizures may be minute compared to the total population of neurons. The resulting sensory-limbic hyperconnection results in heightened emotional reactivity to neutral stimuli [9] . Previous studies have demonstrated that rats display marked fear sensitization after kindling of the amygdala [8] .

For example, fear sensitization or anxiety can occur as a consequence of recurrent temporal lobe seizures.

The resulting sensory-limbic hyperconnection results in heightened emotional reactivity to neutral stimuli.

Previous studies have demonstrated that rats display marked fear sensitization after kindling of the amygdala.


Security in particular has never been properly handled by any of these projects before. The only currently existing simulator that offers the possibility to evaluate security solutions designed for distributed systems is G3S (Grid Security Services Simulator) [6] . It was developed so as to support various authentication mechanisms including X.509 certificates or Kerberos tickets and includes mechanisms for disseminating security threats, for evaluating various access control policies, etc. The simulator is based on the simulation model found in GridSim. We too support all the mechanisms found in G3S and some others. In addition we offer the possibility of evaluating security in a more general context, considering the entire context of distributed systems, with its specific characteristics.

The only currently existing simulator that offers the possibility to evaluate security solutions designed for distributed systems is G3S (Grid Security Services Simulator).


Aluminum in water is present dissolved salt, colloidal, or insoluble compounds. It constitutes strong complex ions with organic materials sulfate and fluoride [30] . When there is an excess of it, water has a discoloring property and gives turbid bluish image [13] . Aluminum could not be found in Bulakbaşı stream.

It constitutes strong complex ions with organic materials sulfate and fluoride.

When there is an excess of it, water has a discoloring property and gives turbid bluish image.


Water is an indispensible substance to be utilized for the survival of all biological organisms. Moreover, water is an essential requirement of human life and activities associated with industry, agriculture, fisheries, and others, and it is considered one of the most delicate parts of the environment [1] . For centuries, people have chosen to settle in areas which have been rich in water and eked out their living nearby water resources where they can use from plenty of water, or in which aquatic resources can easily and abundantly be obtained. However, the perturbations in the hydrodynamics in the earth's ecosystems and the population increases have imposed strains and stresses on water resources over time in these areas and necessitated water bodies to be constructed in order to have an adequate utilization and management of water resources. Furthermore, the amount of water in the world is limited, and it is a known fact that water can never be replaced with any other element in nature. The required quantity and quality of water resources in any given region are limited. Various factors are believed to contribute to a degradation and slump in water resources. For aquatic ecosystems, pollution is on of the most important problems nowadays; therefore, aquatic resources must be protected very well [2] .

Moreover, water is an essential requirement of human life and activities associated with industry, agriculture, fisheries, and others, and it is considered one of the most delicate parts of the environment.

For aquatic ecosystems, pollution is on of the most important problems nowadays; therefore, aquatic resources must be protected very well.


In meeting the energy needs, and of all natural resources, streams are considered to provide cheap, clean, and continuous supplies for biological species. It is therefore imperative to establish an appropriate regulatory system for the management and utilization of water resources. The potential of herbal production, flora, and fauna in any given area is proportionate to the potential of water resources to be utilized there. Facilities established for transportation, tourism, and recreation activities in any region also depend upon a healthy and effective management of water resources. It would therefore be of paramount significance for human beings eking out their livings in the local and natural environment to have an effective management of the water resources and protect the ecosystems of biological species in any given region on earth. In the biological richness of valuable fish stocks, there can be found numerous favors and utilities for humanity. In order to take due advantages and benefits from the rivers in the most effective way, their natural potential, physical wealth should be protected to ensure continuity and sustainability of their ecosystems; due examinations and analyses to be conducted about their chemical and biological properties are also of great value in order to have adequate utilization and management of these resources [3] . However, in recent years, decreases in the amount of potable water have prompted authorities to have much more effective management and control; it has become indispensable for them to take due measures [4] .

In order to take due advantages and benefits from the rivers in the most effective way, their natural potential, physical wealth should be protected to ensure continuity and sustainability of their ecosystems; due examinations and analyses to be conducted about their chemical and biological properties are also of great value in order to have adequate utilization and management of these resources.

However, in recent years, decreases in the amount of potable water have prompted authorities to have much more effective management and control; it has become indispensable for them to take due measures.


Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a colorless, sweet-smelling gas that has been widely used in dental, emergency, and anesthetic practices. The first use of N 2 O as an anesthetic agent was reported on December 1844 by Dr. Horace Wells, an American dentist who demonstrated insensitivity to pain from a dental extraction after N 2 O inhalation [1] . Before proposing the use of N 2 O as an anesthetic agent, Dr. Wells had attended a demonstration by Gardner Quincy Colton regarding the use of N 2 O as an exhilarating or laughing gas [2] . Joseph Priestley, a British scientist, reported the discovery of N 2 O in 1772, and since that time the inhalation of this gas as part of the public entertainment had become commonplace [3] . Owing to its physical and chemical properties N 2 O is also used in the food industry as a mixing, foaming, and propellant for the preparation of whipping cream.

The first use of N 2 O as an anesthetic agent was reported on December 1844 by Dr. Horace Wells, an American dentist who demonstrated insensitivity to pain from a dental extraction after N 2 O inhalation.

Before proposing the use of N 2 O as an anesthetic agent, Dr. Wells had attended a demonstration by Gardner Quincy Colton regarding the use of N 2 O as an exhilarating or laughing gas.

Joseph Priestley, a British scientist, reported the discovery of N 2 O in 1772, and since that time the inhalation of this gas as part of the public entertainment had become commonplace.


Composite laminates offer alternative material design solutions in terms of specific strength and stiffness allowing important weight savings. They also offer significant freedom to the designer by allowing, optimizing the strength and stiffness of a component or structure for a particular application. Furthermore, thermoplastic resins present increased interest due to their economic and mechanical advantages, such as easy fabrication, unlimited shelf life, intrinsic recyclability, high toughness and increased moisture resistance [1] .

Furthermore, thermoplastic resins present increased interest due to their economic and mechanical advantages, such as easy fabrication, unlimited shelf life, intrinsic recyclability, high toughness and increased moisture resistance.